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ANNA OF LENKENSTEIN + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +EPISODES OF THE REVOLT AND THE WAR + +COUNT KARL LENKENSTEIN--THE STORY OF THE GUIDASCARPI--THE VICTORY OF THE +VOLUNTEERS + +The smoke of a pistol-shot thinned away while there was yet silence. + +"It is a saving of six charges of Austrian ammunition," said Pericles. + +Vittoria stared at the scene, losing faith in her eyesight. She could in +fact see no distinct thing beyond what appeared as an illuminated copper +medallion, held at a great distance from her, with a dead man and a +towering female figure stamped on it. + +The events following were like a rush of water on her senses. There was +fighting up the street of the village, and a struggle in the space where +Rinaldo had fallen; successive yellowish shots under the rising +moonlight, cries from Italian lips, quick words of command from German in +Italian, and one sturdy bull's roar of a voice that called across the +tumult to the Austro-Italian soldiery, "Venite fratelli!--come, brothers, +come under our banner!" She heard "Rinaldo!" called. + +This was a second attack of the volunteers for the rescue of their +captured comrades. They fought more desperately than on the hill outside +the village: they fought with steel. Shot enfiladed them; yet they bore +forward in a scattered body up to that spot where Rinaldo lay, shouting +for him. There they turned,--they fled. + +Then there was a perfect stillness, succeeding the strife as quickly, +Vittoria thought, as a breath yielded succeeds a breath taken. + +She accused the heavens of injustice. + +Pericles, prostrate on the floor, moaned that he was wounded. She said, +"Bleed to death!" + +"It is my soul, it is my soul is wounded for you, Sandra." + +"Dreadful craven man!" she muttered. + +"When my soul is shaking for your safety, Sandra Belloni!" Pericles +turned his ear up. "For myself--not; it is for you, for you." + +Assured of the cessation of arms by delicious silence he jumped to his +feet. + +"Ah! brutes to fight. It is 'immonde;' it is unnatural!" + +He tapped his finger on the walls for marks of shot, and discovered a +shot-hole in the wood-work, that had passed an arm's length above her +head, into which he thrust his finger in an intense speculative +meditation, shifting eyes from it to her, and throwing them aloft. + +He was summoned to the presence of Count Karl, with whom he found Captain +Weisspriess, Wilfrid, and officers of jagers and the Italian battalion. +Barto Rizzo's wife was in a corner of the room. Weisspriess met him with +a very civil greeting, and introduced him to Count Karl, who begged him +to thank Vittoria for the aid she had afforded to General Schoneck's +emissary in crossing the Piedmontese lines. He spoke in Italian. He +agreed to conduct Pericles to a point on the route of his march, where +Pericles and his precious prima donna--"our very good friend," he said, +jovially--could escape the risk of unpleasant mishaps, and arrive at +Trent and cities of peace by easy stages. He was marching for the +neighbourhood of Vicenza. + +A little before dawn Vittoria came down to the carriage. Count Karl +stood at the door to hand her in. He was young and handsome, with a soft +flowing blonde moustache and pleasant eyes, a contrast to his brother +Count Lenkenstein. He repeated his thanks to her, which Pericles had not +delivered; he informed her that she was by no means a prisoner, and was +simply under the guardianship of friends--"though perhaps, signorina, you +will not esteem this gentleman to be one of your friends." He pointed to +Weisspriess. The officer bowed, but kept aloof. Vittoria perceived a +singular change in him: he had become pale and sedate. "Poor fellow! he +has had his dose," Count Karl said. "He is, I beg to assure you, one of +your most vehement admirers." + +A piece of her property that flushed her with recollections, yet made her +grateful, was presently handed to her, though not in her old enemy's +presence, by a soldier. It was the silver-hilted dagger, Carlo's +precious gift, of which Weisspriess had taken possession in the mountain- +pass over the vale of Meran, when he fought the duel with Angelo. +Whether intended as a peace-offering, or as a simple restitution, it +helped Vittoria to believe that Weisspriess was no longer the man he had +been. + +The march was ready, but Barto Rizzo's wife refused to move a foot. The +officers consulted. She, was brought before them. The soldiers swore +with jesting oaths that she had been carefully searched for weapons, and +only wanted a whipping. "She must have it," said Weisspriess. Vittoria +entreated that she might have a place beside her in the carriage. "It is +more than I would have asked of you; but if you are not afraid of her," +said Count Karl, with an apologetic shrug. + +Her heart beat fast when she found herself alone with the terrible woman. + +Till then she had never seen a tragic face. Compared with this tawny +colourlessness, this evil brow, this shut mouth, Laura, even on the +battle-field, looked harmless. It was like the face of a dead savage. +The eyeballs were full on Vittoria, as if they dashed at an obstacle, not +embraced an image. In proportion as they seemed to widen about her, +Vittoria shrank. The whole woman was blood to her gaze. + +When she was capable of speaking, she said entreatingly: + +"I knew his brother." + +Not a sign of life was given in reply. + +Companionship with this ghost of broad daylight made the flattering +Tyrolese feathers at both windows a welcome sight. + +Precautions had been taken to bind the woman's arms. Vittoria offered to +loosen the cords, but she dared not touch her without a mark of assent. + +"I know Angelo Guidascarpi, Rinaldo's brother," she spoke again. + +The woman's nostrils bent inward, as when the breath we draw is keen as a +sword to the heart. Vittoria was compelled to look away from her. + +At the mid-day halt Count Karl deigned to justify to her his intended +execution of Rinaldo--the accomplice in the slaying of his brother Count +Paula. He was evidently eager to obtain her good opinion of the Austrian +military. "But for this miserable spirit of hatred against us," he said, +"I should have espoused an Italian lady;" and he asked, "Why not? For +that matter, in all but blood we Lenkensteins are half Italian, except +when Italy menaces the empire. Can you blame us for then drawing the +sword in earnest?" + +He proffered his version of the death of Count Paul. She kept her own +silent in her bosom. + +Clelia Guidascarpi, according to his statement, had first been slain by +her brothers. Vittoria believed that Clelia had voluntarily submitted to +death and died by her own hand. She was betrothed to an Italian nobleman +of Bologna, the friend of the brothers. They had arranged the marriage; +she accepted the betrothal. "She loved my brother, poor thing!" said +Count Karl. "She concealed it, and naturally. How could she take a +couple of wolves into her confidence? If she had told the pair of +ruffians that she was plighted to an Austrian, they would have quieted +her at an earlier period. A woman! a girl--signorina! The intolerable +cowardice amazes me. It amazes me that you or anyone can uphold the +character of such brutes. And when she was dead they lured my brother to +the house and slew him; fell upon him with daggers, stretched him at the +foot of her coffin, and then--what then?--ran! ran for their lives. One +has gone to his account. We shall come across the other. He is among +that volunteer party which attacked us yesterday. The body was carried +off by them; it is sufficient testimony that Angelo Guidascarpi is in the +neighbourhood. I should be hunting him now but that I am under orders to +march South-east." + +The story, as Vittoria knew it, had a different, though yet a dreadful, +colour. + +"I could have hanged Rinaldo," Count Karl said further. "I suppose the +rascals feared I should use my right, and that is why they sent their mad +baggage of a woman to spare any damage to the family pride. If I had +been a man to enjoy vengeance, the rope would have swung for him. In +spite of provocation, I shall simply shoot the other; I pledge my word to +it. They shall be paid in coin. I demand no interest." + +Weisspriess prudently avoided her. Wilfrid held aloof. She sat in +garden shade till the bugle sounded. Tyrolese and Italian soldiers were +gibing at her haggard companion when she entered the carriage. Fronting +this dumb creature once more, Vittoria thought of the story of the +brothers. She felt herself reading it from the very page. The woman +looked that evil star incarnate which Laura said they were born under. + +This is in brief the story of the Guidascarpi. + +They were the offspring of a Bolognese noble house, neither wealthy nor +poor. In her early womanhood, Clelia was left to the care of her +brothers. She declined the guardianship of Countess Ammiani because of +her love for them; and the three, with their passion of hatred to the +Austrians inherited from father and mother, schemed in concert to throw +off the Austrian yoke. Clelia had soft features of no great mark; by her +colouring she was beautiful, being dark along the eyebrows, with dark +eyes, and a surpassing richness of Venetian hair. Bologna and Venice +were married in her aspect. Her brothers conceived her to possess such +force of mind that they held no secrets from her. They did not know that +the heart of their sister was struggling with an image of Power when she +uttered hatred of it. She was in truth a woman of a soft heart, with a +most impressionable imagination. + +There were many suitors for the hand of Clelia Guidascarpi, though her +dowry was not the portion of a fat estate. Her old nurse counselled the +brothers that they should consent to her taking a husband. They +fulfilled this duty as one that must be done, and she became sorrowfully +the betrothed of a nobleman of Bologna; from which hour she had no +cheerfulness. The brothers quitted Bologna for Venice, where there was +the bed of a conspiracy. On their return they were shaken by rumours of +their sister's misconduct. An Austrian name was allied to hers in busy +mouths. A lady, their distant relative, whose fame was light, had +withdrawn her from the silent house, and made display of her. Since she +had seen more than an Italian girl should see, the brothers proposed to +the nobleman her betrothed to break the treaty; but he was of a mind to +hurry on the marriage, and recollecting now that she was but a woman, the +brothers fixed a day for her espousals, tenderly, without reproach. She +had the choice of taking the vows or surrendering her hand. Her old +nurse prayed for the day of her espousals to come with a quicker step. + +One night she surprised Count Paul Lenkenstein at Clelia's window. +Rinaldo was in the garden below. He moved to the shadow of a cypress, +and was seen moving by the old nurse. The lover took the single kiss he +had come for, was led through the chamber, and passed unchallenged into +the street. Clelia sat between locked doors and darkened windows, +feeling colder to the brothers she had been reared with than to all other +men upon the earth. They sent for her after a lapse of hours. Her old +nurse was kneeling at their feet. Rinaldo asked for the name of her +lover. She answered with it. Angelo said, "It will be better for you to +die: but if you cannot do so easy a thing as that, prepare widow's +garments." They forced her to write three words to Count Paul, calling +him to her window at midnight. Rinaldo fetched a priest: Angelo laid out +two swords. An hour before the midnight, Clelia's old nurse raised the +house with her cries. Clelia was stretched dead in her chamber. The +brothers kissed her in turn, and sat, one at her head, one at her feet. +At midnight her lover stood among them. He was gravely saluted, and +bidden to look upon the dead body. Angelo said to him, "Had she lived +you should have wedded her hand. She is gone of her own free choice, and +one of us follows her." With the sweat of anguish on his forehead, Count +Paul drew sword. The window was barred; six male domestics of the +household held high lights in the chamber; the priest knelt beside one +corpse, awaiting the other. + +Vittoria's imagination could not go beyond that scene, but she looked out +on the brother of the slain youth with great pity, and with a strange +curiosity. The example given by Clelia of the possible love of an +Italian girl for the white uniform, set her thinking whether so monstrous +a fact could ever be doubled in this world. "Could it happen to me?" +she asked herself, and smiled, as she half-fashioned the words on her +lips, "It is a pretty uniform." + +Her reverie was broken by a hiss of "Traitress!" from the woman opposite. + +She coloured guiltily, tried to speak, and sat trembling. A divination +of intense hatred had perhaps read the thought within her breast: or it +was a mere outburst of hate. The woman's face was like the wearing away +of smoke from a spot whence shot has issued. Vittoria walked for the +remainder of the day. That fearful companion oppressed her. She felt +that one who followed armies should be cast in such a frame, and now +desired with all her heart to render full obedience to Carlo, and abide +in Brescia, or even in Milan--a city she thought of shyly. + +The march was hurried to the slopes of the Vicentino, for enemies were +thick in this district. Pericles refused to quit the soldiers, though +Count Karl used persuasion. The young nobleman said to Vittoria, "Be on +your guard when you meet my sister Anna. I tell you, we can be as +revengeful as any of you: but you will exonerate me. I do my duty; I +seek to do no more." + +At an inn that they reached toward evening she saw the innkeeper shoot a +little ball of paper at an Italian corporal, who put his foot on it and +picked it up. The soldier subsequently passed through the ranks of his +comrades, gathering winks and grins. They were to have rested at the +inn, but Count Karl was warned by scouts, which was sufficient to make +Pericles cling to him in avoidance of the volunteers, of whom mainly he +was in terror. He looked ague-stricken. He would not listen to her, or +to reason in any shape. "I am on the sea--shall I trust a boat? I stick +to a ship," he said. The soldiers marched till midnight. It was +arranged that the carriage should strike off for Schio at dawn. The +soldiers bivouacked on the slope of one of the low undulations falling to +the Vicentino plain. Vittoria spread her cloak, and lay under bare sky, +not suffering the woman to be ejected from the carriage. Hitherto Luigi +had avoided her. Under pretence of doubling Count Karl's cloak as a +pillow for her head, he whispered, "If the signorina hears shots let her +lie on the ground flat as a sheet." The peacefulness surrounding her +precluded alarm. There was brilliant moonlight, and the host of stars, +all dim; and first they beckoned her up to come away from trouble, and +then, through long gazing, she had the fancy that they bent and swam +about her, making her feel that she lay in the hollows of a warm hushed +sea. She wished for her lover. + +Men and officers were lying at a stone's-throw distant. The Tyrolese had +lit a fire for cooking purposes, by which four of them stood, and, +lifting hands, sang one of their mountain songs, that seemed to her to +spring like clear water into air, and fall wavering as a feather falls, +or the light about a stone in water. It lulled her to a half-sleep, +during which she fancied hearing a broad imitation of a cat's-call from +the mountains, that was answered out of the camp, and a talk of officers +arose in connection with the response, and subsided. The carriage was in +the shadows of the fire. In a little while Luigi and the driver began +putting the horses to, and she saw Count Karl and Weisspriess go up to +Luigi, who declared loudly that it was time. The woman inside was +aroused. Weisspriess helped to drag her out. Luigi kept making much +noise, and apologized for it by saying that he desired to awaken his +master, who was stretched in a secure circle among the Tyrolese. +Presently Vittoria beheld the woman's arms thrown out free; the next +minute they were around the body of Weisspriess, and a shrewd cry issued +from Count Karl. Shots rang from the outposts; the Tyrolese sprang to +arms; "Sandra!" was shouted by Pericles; and once more she heard the +'Venite fratelli!' of the bull's voice, and a stream of volunteers dashed +at the Tyrolese with sword and dagger and bayonet. The Austro-Italians +stood in a crescent line--the ominous form of incipient military +insubordination. Their officers stormed at them, and called for Count +Karl and for Weisspriess. The latter replied like a man stifling, but +Count Karl's voice was silent. + +"Weisspriess! here, to me!" the captain sang out in Italian. + +"Ammiani! here, to me!" was replied. + +Vittoria struck her hands together in electrical gladness at her lover's +voice and name. It rang most cheerfully. Her home was in the conflict +where her lover fought, and she muttered with ecstasy, "We have met! we +have met!" The sound of the keen steel, so exciting to dream of, +paralyzed her nerves in a way that powder, more terrible for a woman's +imagination, would not have done, and she could only feebly advance. It +was a spacious moonlight, but the moonlight appeared to have got of a +brassy hue to her eyes, though the sparkle of the steel was white; and +she felt too, and wondered at it, that the cries and the noise went to +her throat, as if threatening to choke her. Very soon she found herself +standing there, watching for the issue of the strife, almost as dead as a +weight in scales, incapable of clear vision. + +Matched against the Tyrolese alone, the volunteers had an equal fight in +point of numbers, and the advantage of possessing a leader; for Count +Karl was down, and Weisspriess was still entangled in the woman's arms. +When at last Wilfrid got him free, the unsupported Tyrolese were giving +ground before Carlo Ammiani and his followers. These fought with stern +fury, keeping close up to their enemy, rarely shouting. They presented +something like the line of a classic bow, with its arrow-head; while the +Tyrolese were huddled in groups, and clubbed at them, and fell back for +space, and ultimately crashed upon their betraying brothers in arms, +swinging rifles and flying. The Austro-Italians rang out a Viva for +Italy, and let them fly: they were swept from the scene. + +Vittoria heard her lover addressing his followers. Then he and Angelo +stood over Count Karl, whom she had forgotten. Angelo ran up to her, but +gave place the moment Carlo came; and Carlo drew her by the hand swiftly +to an obscure bend of the rolling ground, and stuck his sword in the +earth, and there put his arms round her and held her fast. + +"Obey me now," were his first words. + +"Yes," she answered. + +He was harsh of eye and tongue, not like the gentle youth she had been +torn from at the door of La Scala. + +"Return; make your way to Brescia. My mother is in Brescia. Milan is +hateful. I throw myself into Vicenza. Can I trust you to obey?" + +"Carlo, what evil have you heard of me?" + +"I listen to no tales." + +"Let me follow you to Vicenza and be your handmaid, my beloved." + +"Say that you obey." + +"I have said it." + +He seemed to shut her in his heart, so closely was she enfolded. + +"Since La Scala," she murmured; and he bent his lips to her ear, +whispering, "Not one thought of another woman! and never till I die." + +"And I only of you, Carlo, and for you, my lover, my lover!" + +"You love me absolutely?" + +"I belong to you." + +"I could be a coward and pray for life to live to hear you say it." + +"I feel I breathe another life when you are away from me." + +"You belong to me; you are my own?" + +"You take my voice, beloved." + +"And when I claim you, I am to have you?" + +"Am I not in your hands?" + +"The very instant I make my claim you will say yes?" + +"I shall not have strength for more than to nod." + +Carlo shuddered at the delicious image of her weakness. + +"My Sandra! Vittoria, my soul! my bride!" + +"O my Carlo! Do you go to Vicenza? And did you know I was among these +people?" + +"You will hear everything from little Leone Rufo, who is wounded and +accompanies you to Brescia. Speak of nothing. Speak my name, and look +at me. I deserve two minutes of blessedness." + +"Ah! my dearest, if I am sweet to you, you might have many!" + +"No; they begin to hum a reproach at me already, for I must be marching. +Vicenza will soon bubble on a fire, I suspect. Comfort my mother; she +wants a young heart at her elbow. If she is alone, she feeds on every +rumour; other women scatter in emotions what poisons her. And when my +bride is with her, I am between them." + +"Yes, Carlo, I will go," said Vittoria, seeing her duty at last through +tenderness. + +Carlo sprang from her side to meet Angelo, with whom he exchanged some +quick words. The bugle was sounding, and Barto Rizzo audible. Luigi +came to, her, ruefully announcing that the volunteers had sacked the +carriage behaved worse than the Austrians; and that his padrone, the +signor Antonio-Pericles, was off like a gossamer. Angelo induced her to +remain on the spot where she stood till the carriage was seen on the +Schio road, when he led her to it, saying that Carlo had serious work to +do. Count Karl Lenkenstein was lying in the carriage, supported by +Wilfrid and by young Leone Rufo, who sat laughing, with one eye under a +cross-bandage and an arm slung in a handkerchief. Vittoria desired to +wait that she might see her lover once more; but Angelo entreated her +that she should depart, too earnestly to leave her in doubt of there +being good reason for it and for her lover's absence. He pointed to +Wilfrid: "Barto Rizzo captured this man; Carlo has released him. Take +him with you to attend on his superior officer." She drew Angelo's +observation to the first morning colours over the peaks. He looked up, +and she knew that he remembered that morning of their flight from the +inn. Perhaps he then had the image of his brother in his mind, for the +colours seemed to be plucking at his heart, and he said, "I have lost +him." + +"God help you, my friend!" said Vittoria, her throat choking. + +Angelo pointed at the insensible nobleman: "These live. I do not grudge +him his breath or his chances; but why should these men take so much +killing? Weisspriess has risen, as though I struck the blow of a babe. +But we one shot does for us! Nevertheless, signorina," Angelo smiled +firmly, "I complain of nothing while we march forward." + +He kissed his hand to her, and turned back to his troop. The carriage +was soon under the shadows of the mountains. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +EPISODES OF THE REVOLT AND THE WAR + +THE DEEDS OF BARTO RIZZO--THE MEETING AT ROVEREDO + +At Schio there was no medical attendance to be obtained for Count Karl, +and he begged so piteously to be taken on to Roveredo, that, on his +promising to give Leone Rufo a pass, Vittoria decided to work her way +round to Brescia by the Alpine route. She supposed Pericles to have gone +off among the Tyrolese, and wished in her heart that Wilfrid had gone +likewise, for he continued to wear that look of sad stupefaction which +was the harshest reproach to her. Leone was unconquerably gay in spite +of his wounds. He narrated the doings of the volunteers, with proud +eulogies of Carlo Ammiani's gallant leadership; but the devices of Barto +Rizzo appeared to have struck his imagination most. "He is positively a +cat--a great cat," Leone said. "He can run a day; he can fast a week; he +can climb a house; he can drop from a crag; and he never lets go his +hold. If he says a thing to his wife, she goes true as a bullet to the +mark. The two make a complete piece of artillery. We are all for Barto, +though our captain Carlo is often enraged with him. But there's no +getting on without him. We have found that." + +Rinaldo and Angelo Guidascarpi and Barto Rizzo had done many daring +feats. They had first, heading about a couple of dozen out of a force +of sixty, endeavoured to surprise the fortress Rocca d'Anfo in Lake Idro +--an insane enterprise that touched on success, and would have been an +achievement had all the men who followed them been made of the same +desperate stuff. Beaten off, they escaped up the Val di Ledro, and +secretly entered Trent, where they hoped to spread revolt, but the +Austrian commandant knew what a quantity of dry wood was in the city, and +stamped his heel on sparks. A revolt was prepared notwithstanding the +proclamation of imprisonment and death. Barto undertook to lead a troop +against the Buon Consiglio barracks, while Angelo and Rinaldo cleared the +ramparts. It chanced, whether from treachery or extra-vigilance was +unknown, that the troops paid domiciliary visits an hour before the +intended outbreak, and the three were left to accomplish their task +alone. They remained in the city several days, hunted from house to +house, and finally they were brought to bay at night on the roof of a +palace where the Lenkenstein ladies were residing. Barto took his dagger +between his teeth and dropped to the balcony of Lena's chamber. The +brothers soon after found the rooftrap opened to them, and Lena and Anna +conducted them to the postern-door. There Angelo asked whom they had to +thank. The terrified ladies gave their name; upon hearing which, Rinaldo +turned and said that he would pay for a charitable deed to the extent of +his power, and would not meanly allow them to befriend persons who were +to continue strangers to them. He gave the name of Guidascarpi, and +relieved his brother, as well as himself, of a load of obligation, for +the ladies raised wild screams on the instant. In falling from the walls +to the road, Rinaldo hurt his foot. Barto lifted him on his back, and +journeyed with him so till at the appointed place he met his wife, who +dressed the foot, and led them out of the line of pursuit, herself +bending under the beloved load. Her adoration of Rinaldo was deep as a +mother's, pure as a virgin's, fiery as a saint's. Leone Rufo dwelt on it +the more fervidly from seeing Vittoria's expression of astonishment. The +woman led them to a cave in the rocks, where she had stored provision and +sat two days expecting the signal from Trent. They saw numerous bands of +soldiers set out along the valleys--merry men whom it was Barto's +pleasure to beguile by shouts, as a relief for his parched weariness upon +the baking rock. Accident made it an indiscretion. A glass was levelled +at them by a mounted officer, and they had quickly to be moving. Angelo +knew the voice of Weisspriess in the word of command to the soldiers, and +the call to him to surrender. Weisspriess followed them across the +mountain track, keeping at their heels, though they doubled and adopted +all possible contrivances to shake him off. He was joined by Count Karl +Lenkenstein on the day when Carlo Ammiani encountered them, with the rear +of Colonel Corte's band marching for Vicenza. In the collision between +the Austrians and the volunteers, Rinaldo was taken fighting upon his +knee-cap. Leone cursed the disabled foot which had carried the hero in +action, to cast him at the mercy of his enemies; but recollection of that +sight of Rinaldo fighting far ahead and alone, half-down-like a scuttled +ship, stood like a flower in the lad's memory. The volunteers devoted +themselves to liberate or avenge him. It was then that Barto Rizzo sent +his wife upon her mission. Leone assured Vittoria that Angelo was aware +of its nature, and approved it--hoped that the same might be done for +himself. He shook his head when she asked if Count Ammiani approved it +likewise. + +"Signorina, Count Ammiani has a grudge against Barto, though he can't +help making use of him. Our captain Carlo is too much of a mere soldier. +He would have allowed Rinaldo to be strung up, and Barto does not owe him +obedience in those things." + +"But why did this Barto Rizzo employ a woman's hand?" + +"The woman was capable. No man could have got permission to move freely +among the rascal Austrians, even in the character of a deserter. She +did, and she saved him from the shame of execution. And besides, it was +her punishment. You are astonished? Barto Rizzo punishes royally. He +never forgives, and he never persecutes; he waits for his opportunity. +That woman disobeyed him once--once only; but once was enough. It +occurred in Milan, I believe. She released an Austrian, or did something +--I don't know the story exactly--and Barto said to her, 'Now you can +wash out your crime and send your boy to heaven unspotted, with one +blow.' I saw her set out to do it. She was all teeth and eyes, like a +frightened horse; she walked like a Muse in a garden." + +Vittoria discovered that her presence among the Austrians had been known +to Carlo. Leone alluded slightly to Barto Rizzo's confirmed suspicion of +her, saying that it was his weakness to be suspicious of women. The +volunteers, however, were all in her favour, and had jeered at Barto on +his declaring that she might, in proof of her willingness to serve the +cause, have used her voice for the purpose of subjugating the wavering +Austro-Italians, who wanted as much coaxing as women. Count Karl had +been struck to earth by Barto Rizzo. "Not with his boasted neatness, I +imagine," Leone said. In fact, the dagger had grazed an ivory portrait +of a fair Italian head wreathed with violets in Count Karl's breast. + +Vittoria recognized the features of Violetta d'Isorella as the original +of the portrait. + +They arrived at Roveredo late in the evening. The wounded man again +entreated Vittoria to remain by him till a messenger should bring one of +his sisters from Trent. "See," she said to Leone, "how I give grounds +for suspicion of me; I nurse an enemy." + +"Here is a case where Barto is distinctly to blame," the lad replied. +"The poor fellow must want nursing, for he can't smoke." + +Anna von Lenkenstein came from Trent to her brother's summons. Vittoria +was by his bedside, and the sufferer had fallen asleep with his head upon +her arm. Anna looked upon this scene with more hateful amazement than +her dull eyelids could express. She beckoned imperiously for her to come +away, but Vittoria would not allow him to be disturbed, and Anna sat and +faced her. The sleep was long. The eyes of the two women met from time +to time, and Vittoria thought that Barto Rizzo's wife, though more +terrible, was pleasanter to behold, and less brutal, than Anna. The +moment her brother stirred, Anna repeated her imperious gesture, +murmuring, "Away! out of my sight!" With great delicacy of touch she +drew the arm from the pillow and thrust it back, and then motioning in an +undisguised horror, said, "Go." Vittoria rose to go. + +"Is it my Lena?" came from Karl's faint lips. + +"It is your Anna." + +"I should have known," he moaned. + +Vittoria left them. + +Some hours later, Countess Lena appeared, bringing a Trentino doctor. +She said when she beheld Vittoria, "Are you our evil genius, then?" +Vittoria felt that she must necessarily wear that aspect to them. + +Still greater was Lena's amazement when she looked on Wilfrid. She +passed him without a sign. + +Vittoria had to submit to an interview with both sisters before her +departure. Apart from her distress on their behalf, they had always +seemed as very weak, flippant young women to her, and she could have +smiled in her heart when Anna pointed to a day of retribution in the +future. + +"I shall not seek to have you assassinated," Anna said; "do not suppose +that I mean the knife or the pistol. But your day will come, and I can +wait for it. You murdered my brother Paul: you have tried to murder my +brother Karl. I wish you to leave this place convinced of one thing:-- +you shall be repaid for it." + +There was no direct allusion either to Weisspriess or to Wilfrid. + +Lena spoke of the army. "You think our cause is ruined because we have +insurrection on all sides of us: you do not know our army. We can fight +the Hungarians with one hand, and you Italians with the other--with a +little finger. On what spot have we given way? We have to weep, it is +true; but tears do not testify to defeat; and already I am inclined to +pity those fools who have taken part against us. Some have experienced +the fruits of their folly." + +This was the nearest approach to a hint at Wilfrid's misconduct. + +Lena handed Leone's pass to Vittoria, and drawing out a little pocket +almanac, said, "You proceed to Milan, I presume. I do not love your +society; mademoiselle Belloni or Campa: yet I do not mind making an +appointment--the doctor says a month will set my brother on his feet +again,--I will make an appointment to meet you in Milan or Como, or +anywhere in your present territories, during the month of August. That +affords time for a short siege and two pitched battles." + +She appeared to be expecting a retort. + +Vittoria replied, "I could beg one thing on my knees of you, Countess +Lena." + +"And that is--?" Lena threw her head up superbly. + +"Pardon my old friend the service he did me through friendship." + +The sisters interchanged looks. Lena flushed angrily. + +Anna said, "The person to whom yon allude is here." + +"He is attending on your brother." + +"Did he help this last assassin to escape, perchance?" + +Vittoria sickened at the cruel irony, and felt that she had perhaps done +ill in beginning to plead for Wilfrid. + +"He is here; let him speak for himself: but listen to him, Countess +Lena." + +"A dishonourable man had better be dumb," interposed Anna. + +"Ah! it is I who have offended you." + +"Is that his excuse?" + +Vittoria kept her eyes on the fiercer sister, who now declined to speak. + +"I will not excuse my own deeds; perhaps I cannot. We Italians are in a +hurricane; I cannot reflect. It may be that I do not act more thinkingly +than a wild beast." + +"You have spoken it," Anna exclaimed. + +"Countess Lena, he fights in your ranks as a common soldier. He +encounters more than a common soldier's risks." + +"The man is brave,--we knew that," said Anna. + +"He is more than brave, he is devoted. He fights against us, without +hope of reward from you. Have I utterly ruined him?" + +"I imagine that you may regard it as a fact that you have utterly ruined +him," said Anna, moving to break up the parting interview. Lena turned +to follow her. + +"Ladies, if it is I who have hardened your hearts, I am more guilty than +I thought." Vittoria said no more. She knew that she had been speaking +badly, or ineffectually, by a haunting flatness of sound, as of an +unstrung instrument, in her ears: she was herself unstrung and +dispirited, while the recollection of Anna's voice was like a sombre +conquering monotony on a low chord, with which she felt insufficient to +compete. + +Leone was waiting in the carriage to drive to the ferry across the Adige. +There was news in Roveredo of the king's advance upon Rivoli; and Leone +sat trying to lift and straighten out his wounded arm, with grimaces of +laughter at the pain of the effort, which resolutely refused to +acknowledge him to be an able combatant. At the carriage-door Wilfrid +bowed once over Vittoria's hand. + +"You see that," Anna remarked to her sister. + +"I should have despised him if he had acted indifference," replied Lena. + +She would have suspected him--that was what her heart meant; the artful +show of indifference had deceived her once. The anger within her drew +its springs much more fully from his refusal to respond to her affection, +when she had in a fit of feminine weakness abased herself before him on +the night of the Milanese revolt, than from the recollection of their +days together in Meran. She had nothing of her sister's unforgivingness. +And she was besides keenly curious to discover the nature of the charm +Vittoria threw on him, and not on him solely. Vittoria left Wilfrid to +better chances than she supposed. "Continue fighting with your army," +she said, when they parted. The deeper shade which traversed his +features told her that, if she pleased, her sway might still be active; +but she had no emotion to spare for sentimental regrets. She asked +herself whether a woman who has cast her lot in scenes of strife does not +lose much of her womanhood and something of her truth; and while her +imagination remained depressed, her answer was sad. In that mood she +pitied Wilfrid with a reckless sense of her inability to repay him for +the harm she had done him. The tragedies written in fresh blood all +about her, together with that ever-present image of the fate of Italy +hanging in the balance, drew her away from personal reflections. She +felt as one in a war-chariot, who has not time to cast more than a glance +on the fallen. At the place where the ferry is, she was rejoiced by +hearing positive news of the proximity of the Royal army. There were +none to tell her that Charles Albert had here made his worst move by +leaving Vicenza to the operations of the enemy, that he might become +master of a point worthless when Vicenza fell into the enemy's hands. +The old Austrian Field-Marshal had eluded him at Mantua on that very +night when Vittoria had seen his troops in motion. The daring Austrian +flank-march on Vicenza, behind the fortresses of the Quadrilateral, was +the capital stroke of the campaign. But the presence of a Piedmontese +vanguard at Rivoli flushed the Adige with confidence, and Vittoria went +on her way sharing the people's delight. She reached Brescia to hear +that Vicenza had fallen. The city was like a landscape smitten black by +the thunder-cloud. Vittoria found Countess Ammiani at her husband's +tomb, stiff, colourless, lifeless as a monument attached to the tomb. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +CLOSE OF THE LOMBARD CAMPAIGN--VITTORIA'S PERPLEXITY + +The fall of Vicenza turned a tide that had overflowed its barriers with +force enough to roll it to the Adriatic. From that day it was as if a +violent wind blew East over Lombardy; flood and wind breaking here and +there a tree, bowing everything before them. City, fortress, and battle- +field resisted as the eddy whirls. Venice kept her brave colours +streaming aloft in a mighty grasp despite the storm, but between Venice +and Milan there was this unutterable devastation,--so sudden a change, +so complete a reversal of the shield, that the Lombards were at first +incredulous even in their agony, and set their faces against it as at a +monstrous eclipse, as though the heavens were taking false oath of its +being night when it was day. From Vicenza and Rivoli, to Sommacampagna, +and across Monte Godio to Custozza, to Volta on the right of the Mincio, +up to the gates of Milan, the line of fire travelled, with a fantastic +overbearing swiftness that, upon the map, looks like the zig-zag elbowing +of a field-rocket. Vicenza fell on the 11th of June; the Austrians +entered Milan on the 6th of August. Within that short time the Lombards +were struck to the dust. + +Countess Ammiani quitted Brescia for Bergamo before the worst had +happened; when nothing but the king's retreat upon the Lombard capital, +after the good fight at Volta, was known. According to the king's +proclamation the Piedmontese army was to defend Milan, and hope was not +dead. Vittoria succeeded in repressing all useless signs of grief in the +presence of the venerable lady, who herself showed none, but simply +recommended her accepted daughter to pray daily. "I can neither confess +nor pray," Vittoria said to the priest, a comfortable, irritable +ecclesiastic, long attached to the family, and little able to deal with +this rebel before Providence, that would not let her swollen spirit be +bled. Yet she admitted to him that the countess possessed resources +which she could find nowhere; and she saw the full beauty of such +inimitable grave endurance. Vittoria's foolish trick of thinking for +herself made her believe, nevertheless, that the countess suffered more +than she betrayed, was less consoled than her spiritual comforter +imagined. She continued obstinate and unrepentant, saying, "If my +punishment is to come, it will at least bring experience with it, and I +shall know why I am punished. The misery now is that I do not know, and +do not see, the justice of the sentence." + +Countess Ammiani thought better of her case than the priest did; or she +was more indulgent, or half indifferent. This girl was Carlo's choice; +--a strange choice, but the times were strange, and the girl was robust. +The channels of her own and her husband's house were drying on all sides; +the house wanted resuscitating. There was promise that the girl would +bear children of strong blood. Countess Ammiani would not for one moment +have allowed the spiritual welfare of the children to hang in dubitation, +awaiting their experience of life; but a certain satisfaction was shown +in her faint smile when her confessor lamented over Vittoria's proud +stony state of moral revolt. She said to her accepted daughter, "I shall +expect you to be prepared to espouse my son as soon as I have him by my +side;" nor did Vittoria's silent bowing of her face assure her that +strict obedience was implied. Precise words--"I will," and "I will not +fail"--were exacted. The countess showed some emotion after Vittoria had +spoken. "Now, may God end this war quickly, if it is to go against us," +she exclaimed, trembling in her chair visibly a half-minute, with dropped +eyelids and lips moving. + +Carlo had sent word that he would join his mother as early as he was +disengaged from active service, and meantime requested her to proceed to +a villa on Lago Maggiore. Vittoria obtained permission from the countess +to order the route of the carriage through Milan, where she wished to +take up her mother and her maid Giacinta. For other reasons she would +have avoided the city. The thought of entering it was painful with the +shrewdest pain. Dante's profoundly human line seemed branded on the +forehead of Milan. + +The morning was dark when they drove through the streets of Bergamo. +Passing one of the open places, Vittoria beheld a great concourse of +volunteer youth and citizens, all of them listening to the voice of one +who stood a few steps above them holding a banner. She gave an outcry of +bitter joy. It was the Chief. On one side of him was Agostino, in the +midst of memorable heads that were unknown to her. The countess refused +to stay, though Vittoria strained her hands together in extreme entreaty +that she might for a few moments hear what the others were hearing. +"I speak for my son, and I forbid it," Countess Ammiani said. Vittoria +fell back and closed her eyes to cherish the vision. All those faces +raised to the one speaker under the dark sky were beautiful. He had +breathed some new glory of hope in them, making them shine beneath the +overcast heavens, as when the sun breaks from an evening cloud and +flushes the stems of a company of pine-trees. + +Along the road to Milan she kept imagining his utterance until her heart +rose with music. A delicious stream of music, thin as poor tears, passed +through her frame, like a life reviving. She reached Milan in a mood to +bear the idea of temporary defeat. Music had forsaken her so long that +celestial reassurance seemed to return with it. + +Her mother was at Zotti's, very querulous, but determined not to leave +the house and the few people she knew. She had, as she told her +daughter, fretted so much on her account that she hardly knew whether she +was glad to see her. Tea, of course, she had given up all thoughts of; +but now coffee was rising, and the boasted sweet bread of Lombardy was +something to look at! She trusted that Emilia would soon think of +singing no more, and letting people rest: she might sing when she wanted +money. A letter recently received from Mr. Pericles said that Italy was +her child's ruin, and she hoped Emilia was ready to do as he advised, +and hurry to England, where singing did not upset people, and people +lived like real Christians, not----Vittoria flapped her hand, and would +not hear of the unchristian crimes of the South. As regarded the +expected defence of Milan, the little woman said, that if it brought on a +bombardment, she would call it unpardonable wickedness, and only hoped +that her daughter would repent. + +Zotti stood by, interpreting the English to himself by tones. "The +amiable donnina is not of our persuasion," he observed. "She remains +dissatisfied with patriotic Milan. I have exhibited to her my dabs of +bread through all the processes of making and baking. It is in vain. +She rejects analogy. She is wilful as a principessina: 'Tis so! 'tis not +so! 'tis my will! be silent, thou! Signora, I have been treated in that +way by your excellent mother." + +"Zotti has not been paid for three weeks, and he certainly has not +mentioned it or looked it, I will say, Emilia." + +"Zotti has had something to think of during the last three weeks," said +Vittoria, touching him kindly on the arm. + +The confectioner lifted his fingers and his big brown eyes after them, +expressive of the unutterable thoughts. He informed her that he had laid +in a stock of flour, in the expectation that Carlo Alberto would defend +the city: The Milanese were ready to aid him, though some, as Zotti +confessed, had ceased to effervesce; and a great number who were +perfectly ready to fight regarded his tardy appeal to Italian patriotism +very coldly. Zotti set out in person to discover Giacinta. The girl +could hardly fetch her breath when she saw her mistress. She was in +Laura's service, and said that Laura had brought a wounded Englishman +from the field of Custozza. Vittoria hurried to Laura, with whom she +found Merthyr, blue-white as a corpse, having been shot through the body. +His sister was in one of the Lombard hamlets, unaware of his fall; Beppo +had been sent to her. + +They noticed one another's embrowned complexions, but embraced silently. +"Twice widowed!" Laura said when they sat together. Laura hushed all +speaking of the war or allusion to a single incident of the miserable +campaign, beyond the bare recital of Vittoria's adventures; yet when +Vicenza by chance was mentioned, she burst out: "They are not cities, +they are living shrieks. They have been made impious for ever. Burn +them to ashes, that they may not breathe foul upon heaven! "She had +clung to the skirts of the army as far as the field of Custozza. "He," +she said, pointing to the room where Merthyr lay,--"he groans less than +the others I have nursed. Generally, when they looked at me, they +appeared obliged to recollect that it was not I who had hurt them. Poor +souls! some ended in great torment. 'I think of them as the happiest; +for pain is a cloak that wraps you about, and I remember one middle-aged +man who died softly at Custozza, and said, 'Beaten!' To take that +thought as your travelling companion into the gulf, must be worse than +dying of agony; at least, I think so." + +Vittoria was too well used to Laura's way of meeting disaster to expect +from her other than this ironical fortitude, in which the fortitude +leaned so much upon the irony. What really astonished her was the +conception Laura had taken of the might of Austria. Laura did not +directly speak of it, but shadowed it in allusive hints, much as if she +had in her mind the image of an iron roller going over a field of flowers +--hateful, imminent, irresistible. She felt as a leaf that has been +flying before the gale. + +Merthyr's wound was severe: Vittoria could not leave him. Her resolution +to stay in Milan brought her into collision with Countess Ammiani, when +the countess reminded her of her promise, sedately informing her that she +was no longer her own mistress, and had a primary duty to fulfil. She +offered to wait three days, or until the safety of the wounded man was +medically certified to. It was incomprehensible to her that Vittoria +should reject her terms; and though it was true that she would not have +listened to a reason, she was indignant at not hearing one given in +mitigation of the offence. She set out alone on her journey, deeply +hurt. The reason was a feminine sentiment, and Vittoria was naturally +unable to speak it. She shrank with pathetic horror from the thought of +Merthyr's rising from his couch to find her a married woman, and desired +most earnestly that her marriage should be witnessed by him. Young women +will know how to reconcile the opposition of the sentiment. Had Merthyr +been only slightly wounded, and sound enough to seem to be able to bear +a bitter shock, she would not have allowed her personal feelings to cause +chagrin to the noble lady. The sight of her dear steadfast friend +prostrate in the cause of Italy, and who, if he lived to rise again, +might not have his natural strength to bear the thought of her loss with +his old brave firmness, made it impossible for her to act decisively in +one direct line of conduct. + +Countess Ammiani wrote brief letters from Luino and Pallanza on Lago +Maggiore. She said that Carlo was in the Como mountains; he would expect +to find his bride, and would accuse his mother; "but his mother will be +spared those reproaches," she added, "if the last shot fired kills, as it +generally does, the bravest and the dearest." + +"If it should!"--the thought rose on a quick breath in Vittoria's bosom, +and the sentiment which held her away dispersed like a feeble smoke, and +showed her another view of her features. She wept with longing for love +and dependence. She was sick of personal freedom, tired of the exercise +of her will, only too eager to give herself to her beloved. The +blessedness of marriage, of peace and dependence, came on her imagination +like a soft breeze from a hidden garden, like sleep. But this very +longing created the resistance to it in the depths of her soul. 'There +was a light as of reviving life, or of pain comforted, when it was she +who was sitting by Merthyr's side, and when at times she saw the hopeless +effort of his hand to reach to hers, or during the long still hours she +laid her head on his pillow, and knew that he breathed gratefully. The +sweetness of helping him, and of making his breathing pleasant to him, +closed much of the world which lay beyond her windows to her thoughts, +and surprised her with an unknown emotion, so strange to her that when it +first swept up her veins she had the fancy of her having been touched by +a supernatural hand, and heard a flying accord of instruments. She was +praying before she knew what prayer was. A crucifix hung over Merthyr's +head. She had looked on it many times, and looked on it still, without +seeing more than the old sorrow. In the night it was dim. She found +herself trying to read the features of the thorn-crowned Head in the +solitary night. She and it were alone with a life that was faint above +the engulphing darkness. She prayed for the life, and trembled, and shed +tears, and would have checked them; they seemed to be bearing away her +little remaining strength. The tears streamed. No answer was given to +her question, "Why do I weep?" She wept when Merthyr had passed the +danger, as she had wept when the hours went by, with shrouded visages; +and though she felt the difference m the springs of her tears, she +thought them but a simple form of weakness showing shade and light. + +These tears were a vanward wave of the sea to follow; the rising of her +voice to heaven was no more than a twitter of the earliest dawn before +the coming of her soul's outcry. + +"I have had a weeping fit," she thought, and resolved to remember it +tenderly, as being associated with her friend's recovery, and a singular +masterful power absolutely to look on the Austrians marching up the +streets of Milan, and not to feel the surging hatred, or the nerveless +despair, which she had supposed must be her alternatives. + +It is a mean image to say that the entry of the Austrians into the +reconquered city was like a river of oil permeating a lake of vinegar, +but it presents the fact in every sense. They demanded nothing more than +submission, and placed a gentle foot upon the fallen enemy; and wherever +they appeared they were isolated. The deepest wrath of the city was, +nevertheless, not directed against them, but against Carlo Alberto, who +had pledged his honour to defend it, and had forsaken it. Vittoria +committed a public indiscretion on the day when the king left Milan to +its fate: word whereof was conveyed to Carlo Ammiani, and he wrote to +her. + +"It is right that I should tell you what I have heard," the letter said. +"I have heard that my bride drove up to the crowned traitor, after he had +unmasked himself, and when he was quitting the Greppi palace, and that +she kissed his hand before the people--poor bleeding people of Milan! +This is what I hear in the Val d'Intelvi:--that she despised the misery +and just anger of the people, and, by virtue of her name and mine, +obtained a way for him. How can she have acted so as to give a colour to +this infamous scandal? True or false, it does not affect my love for +her. Still, my dearest, what shall I say? You keep me divided in two +halves. My heart is out of me; and if I had a will, I think I should be +harsh with you. You are absent from my mother at a time when we are +about to strike another blow. Go to her. It is kindness; it is charity: +I do not say duty. I remember that I did write harshly to you from +Brescia. Then our march was so clear in view that a little thing ruffled +me. Was it a little thing? But to applaud the Traitor now! To uphold +him who has spilt our blood only to hand the country over to the old +gaolers! He lent us his army like a Jew, for huge interest. Can you not +read him? If not, cease, I implore you, to think at all for yourself. + +"Is this a lover's letter? I know that my beloved will see the love in +it. To me your acts are fair and good as the chronicle of a saint. I +find you creating suspicion--almost justifying it in others, and putting +your name in the mouth of a madman who denounces you. I shall not speak +more of him. Remember that my faith in you is unchangeable, and I pray +you to have the same in me. + +"I sent you a greeting from the Chief. He marched in the ranks from +Bergamo. I saw him on the line of march strip off his coat to shelter a +young lad from the heavy rain. He is not discouraged; none are who have +been near him. + +"Angelo is here, and so is our Agostino; and I assure you he loads and +fires a carbine much more deliberately than he composes a sonnet. I am +afraid that your adored Antonio-Pericles fared badly among our fellows, +but I could gather no particulars. + +"Oh! the bright two minutes when I held you right in my heart. That +spot on the Vicentino is alone unclouded. If I live I will have that bit +of ground. I will make a temple of it. I could reach it blindfolded." + +A townsman of Milan brought this letter to Vittoria. She despatched +Luigi with her reply, which met the charge in a straightforward +affirmative. + +"I was driving to Zotti's by the Greppi palace, when I saw the king come +forth, and the people hooted him. I stood up, and petitioned to kiss his +hand. The people knew me. They did not hoot any more for some time. + +"So that you have heard the truth, and you must judge me by it. I cannot +even add that I am sorry, though I strive to wish that I had not been +present. I might wish it really, if I did not feel it to be a cowardly +wish. + +"Oh, my Carlo! my lover! my husband! you would not have me go against my +nature? I have seen the king upon the battle-field. He has deigned to +speak to me of Italy and our freedom. I have seen him facing our enemy; +and to see him hooted by the people, and in misfortune and with sad eyes! +--he looked sad and nothing else--and besides, I am sure I know the king. +I mean that I understand him. I am half ashamed to write so boldly, even +to you. I say to myself you should know me, at least; and if I am guilty +of a piece of vanity, you should know that also. Carlo Alberto is quite +unlike other men. He worships success as, much; but they are not, as he +is, so much bettered by adversity. Indeed I do not believe that he has +exact intentions of any sort, or ever had the intention to betray us, or +has done so in reality, that is, meaningly, of his own will. Count +Medole and his party did, as you know, offer Lombardy to him; and Venice +gave herself--brave, noble Venice! Oh! if we two were there--Venice has +England's sea-spirit. But, did we not flatter the king? And ask +yourself, my Carlo, could a king move in such an enterprise as a common +person? Ought we not to be in union with Sardinia? How can we be if we +reject her king? Is it not the only positive army that, we can look to-- +I mean regular army? Should we not; make some excuses for one who is not +in our position? + +"I feel that I push my questions like waves that fall and cannot get +beyond--they crave so for answers agreeing to them. This should make me +doubt myself, perhaps; but they crowd again, and seem so conclusive until +I have written them down. I am unworthy to struggle with your intellect; +but I say to myself, how unworthy of you I should be if I did not use my +own, such as it is! The poor king; had to conclude an armistice to save +his little kingdom. Perhaps we ought to think of that sternly. My heart +is; filled with pity. + +"It cannot but be right that you should know the worst; of me. I call +you my husband, and tremble to be permitted to lean my head on your bosom +for hours, my sweet lover! And yet my cowardice, if I had let the king +go by without a reverential greeting from me, in his adversity, would +have rendered me insufferable to myself. You are hearing me, and I am +compelled to say, that rather than behave so basely I would forfeit your +love, and be widowed till death should offer us for God to join us. Does +your face change to me? + +"Dearest, and I say it when the thought of you sets me almost swooning. +I find my hands clasped, and I am muttering I know not what, and I am +blushing. The ground seems to rock; I can barely breathe; my heart is +like a bird caught in the hands of a cruel boy: it will not rest. I fear +everything. I hear a whisper, 'Delay not an instant!' and it is like a +furnace; 'Hasten to him! Speed!' and I seem to totter forward and drop-- +I think I have lost you--I am like one dead. + +"I remain here to nurse our dear friend Merthyr. For that reason I am +absent from your mother. It is her desire that we should be married. + +"Soon, soon, my own soul! + +"I seem to be hanging on a tree for you, swayed by such a teazing wind. + +"Oh, soon! or I feel that I shall hate any vestige of will that I have +in this head of mine. Not in the heart--it is not there! + +"And sometimes I am burning to sing. The voice leaps to my lips; it is +quite like a thing that lives apart--my prisoner. + +"It is true, Laura is here with Merthyr. + +"Could you come at once?--not here, but to Pallanza? We shall both make +our mother happy. This she wishes, this she lives for, this consoles +her--and oh, this gives me peace! Yes, Merthyr is recovering! I can +leave him without the dread I had; and Laura confesses to the feminine +sentiment, if her funny jealousy of a rival nurse is really simply +feminine. She will be glad of our resolve, I am sure. And then you will +order all my actions; and I shall be certain that they are such as I +would proudly call mine; and I shall be shut away from the world. Yes; +let it be so! Addio. I reserve all sweet names for you. Addio. In +Pallanza:--no not Pallanza--Paradise! + +"Hush! and do not smile at me:--it was not my will, I discover, but my +want of will, that distracted me. + +"See my last signature of--not Vittoria; for I may sign that again and +still be Emilia Alessandra Ammiani. + + "SANDRA BELLONI" + +The letter was sealed; Luigi bore it away, and a brief letter to Countess +Ammiani, in Pallanza, as well. + +Vittoria was relieved of her anxiety concerning Merthyr by the arrival of +Georgiana, who had been compelled to make her way round by Piacenza and +Turin, where she had left Gambier, with Beppo in attendance on him. +Georgiana at once assumed all the duties of head-nurse, and the more +resolutely because of her brother's evident moral weakness in sighing for +the hand of a fickle girl to smooth his pillow. "When he is stronger you +can sit beside him a little," she said to Vittoria, who surrendered her +post without a struggle, and rarely saw him, though Laura told her that +his frequent exclamation was her name, accompanied by a soft look at his +sister--"which would have stirred my heart like poor old Milan last +March," Laura added, with a lift of her shoulders. + +Georgiana's icy manner appeared infinitely strange to Vittoria when she +heard from Merthyr that his sister had become engaged to Captain Gambier. + +"Nothing softens these women," said Laura, putting Georgiana in a class. + +"I wish you could try the effect of your winning Merthyr," Vittoria +suggested. + +"I remember that when I went to my husband, I likewise wanted every woman +of my acquaintance to be married." Laura sighed deeply. "What is this +poor withered body of mine now? It feels like an old volcano, cindery, +with fire somewhere:--a charming bride! My dear, if I live till my +children make me a grandmother, I shall look on the love of men and women +as a toy that I have played with. A new husband? I must be dragged +through the Circles of Dante before I can conceive it, and then I should +loathe the stranger." + +News came that the volunteers were crushed. It was time for Vittoria to +start for Pallanza, and she thought of her leave-taking; a final leave- +taking, in one sense, to the friends who had cared too much for her. +Laura delicately drew Georgiana aside in the sick-room, which she would +not quit, and alluded to the necessity for Vittoria's departure without +stating exactly wherefore: but Georgiana was a Welshwoman. Partly to +show her accurate power of guessing, and chiefly that she might reprove +Laura's insulting whisper, which outraged and irritated her as much as if +"Oh! your poor brother!" had been exclaimed, she made display of +Merthyr's manly coldness by saying aloud, "You mean, that she is going to +her marriage." Laura turned her face to Merthyr. He had striven to rise +on his elbow, and had dropped flat in his helplessness. Big tears were +rolling down his cheeks. His articulation failed him, beyond a +reiterated "No, no," pitiful to hear, and he broke into childish sobs. +Georgiana hurried Laura from the room. By-and-by the doctor was promptly +summoned, and it was Georgiana herself, miserably humbled, who obtained +Vittoria's sworn consent to keep the life in Merthyr by lingering yet +awhile. + +Meantime Luigi brought a letter from Pallanza in Carlo's handwriting. +This was the burden of it: + +"I am here, and you are absent. Hasten!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +A FRESH ENTANGLEMENT + +The Lenkenstein ladies returned to Milan proudly in the path of the army +which they had followed along the city walls on the black March midnight. +The ladies of the Austrian aristocracy generally had to be exiles from +Vienna, and were glad to flock together even in an alien city. Anna and +Lena were aware of Vittoria's residence in Milan, through the interchange +of visits between the Countess of Lenkenstein and her sister Signora +Piaveni. They heard also of Vittoria's prospective and approaching +marriage to Count Ammiani. The Duchess of Graatli, who had forborne a +visit to her unhappy friends, lest her Austrian face should wound their +sensitiveness, was in company with the Lenkensteins one day, when Irma di +Karski called on them. Irma had come from Lago Maggiore, where she had +left her patron, as she was pleased to term Antonio-Pericles. She was +full of chatter of that most worthy man's deplorable experiences of +Vittoria's behaviour to him during the war, and of many things besides. +According to her account, Vittoria had enticed him from place to place +with promises that the next day, and the next day, and the day after, she +would be ready to keep her engagement to go to London, and at last she +had given him the slip and left him to be plucked like a pullet by a +horde of volunteer banditti, out of whose hands Antonio-Pericles-"one of +our richest millionaires in Europe, certainly our richest amateur," said +Irma--escaped in fit outward condition for the garden of Eden. + +Count Karl was lying on the sofa, and went into endless invalid's +laughter at the picture presented by Irma of the 'wild man' wanderings +of poor infatuated Pericles, which was exaggerated, though not +intentionally, for Irma repeated the words and gestures of Pericles in +the recital of his tribulations. Being of a somewhat similar physical +organization, she did it very laughably. Irma declared that Pericles was +cured of his infatuation. He had got to Turin, intending to quit Italy +for ever, when--"he met me," said Irma modestly. + +"And heard that the war was at an end," Count Karl added. + +"And he has taken the superb Villa Ricciardi, on Lago Maggiore, where he +will have a troupe of singers, and perform operas, in which I believe I +may possibly act as prima donna. The truth is, I would do anything to +prevent him from leaving the country." + +But Irma had more to say; with "I bear no malice," she commenced it. The +story she had heard was that Count Ammiani, after plighting himself to a +certain signorina, known as Vittoria Campa, had received tidings that she +was one of those persons who bring discredit on Irma's profession. +"Gifted by nature, I can acknowledge," said Irma; "but devoured by vanity +--a perfect slave to the appetite for praise; ready to forfeit anything +for flattery! Poor signor Antonio-Pericles!--he knows her." And now +Count Ammiani, persuaded to reason by his mother, had given her up. +There was nothing more positive, for Irma had seen him in the society of +Countess Violetta d'Isorella. + +Anna and Lena glanced at their brother Karl. + +"I should not allude to what is not notorious," Irma pursued. "They are +always together. My dear Antonio-Pericles is most amusing in his +expressions of delight at it. For my part, though she served me an evil +turn once,--you will hardly believe, ladies, that in her jealousy of me +she was guilty of the most shameful machinations to get me out of the way +on the night of the first performance of Camilla,--but, for my part, I +bear no malice. The creature is an inveterate rebel, and I dislike her +for that, I do confess." + +"The signorina Vittoria Campa is my particular and very dear friend," +said the duchess. + +"She is not the less an inveterate rebel," said Anna. + +Count Karl gave a long-drawn sigh. "Alas, that she should have brought +discredit on Fraulein di Karski's profession!" + +The duchess hurried straightway to Laura, with whom was Count +Serabiglione, reviewing the present posture of affairs from the +condescending altitudes of one that has foretold it. Laura and Amalia +embraced and went apart. During their absence Vittoria came down to the +count and listened to a familiar illustration of his theory of the +relations which should exist between Italy and Austria, derived from the +friendship of those two women. + +"What I wish you to see, signorina, is that such an alliance is possible; +and, if we supply the brains, as we do, is by no means likely to be +degrading. These bears are absolutely on their knees to us for good +fellowship. You have influence, you have amazing wit, you have +unparalleled beauty, and, let me say it with the utmost sadness, you have +now had experience. Why will you not recognize facts? Italian unity! +I have exposed the fatuity--who listens? Italian freedom! I do not +attempt to reason with my daughter. She is pricked by an envenomed fly +of Satan. Yet, behold her and the duchess! It is the very union I +preach; and I am, I declare to you, signorina, in great danger. I feel +it, but I persist. I am in danger" (Count Serabiglione bowed his head +low) "of the transcendent sin of scorn of my species." + +The little nobleman swayed deploringly in his chair. "Nothing is so +perilous for a soul's salvation as that. The one sane among madmen! +The one whose reason is left to him among thousands who have forsaken it! +I beg you to realize the idea. The Emperor, as I am given to understand, +is about to make public admission of my services. I shall be all the +more hated. Yet it is a considerable gain. I do not deny that I esteem +it as a promotion for my services. I shall not be the first martyr in +this world, signorina." + +Count Serabiglione produced a martyr's smile. + +"The profits of my expected posts will be," he was saying, with a +reckoning eye cast upward into his cranium for accuracy, when Laura +returned, and Vittoria ran out to the duchess. Amalia repeated Irma's +tattle. A curious little twitching of the brows at Violetta d'Isorella's +name marked the reception of it. + +"She is most lovely," Vittoria said. + +"And absolutely reckless." + +"She is an old friend of Count Ammiani's." + +"And you have an old friend here. But the old friend of a young woman-- +I need not say further than that it is different." + +The duchess used the privilege of her affection, and urged Vittoria not +to trifle with her lover's impatience. + +Admitted to the chamber where Merthyr lay, she was enabled to make +allowance for her irresolution. The face of the wounded man was like a +lake-water taking light from Vittoria's presence. + +"This may go on for weeks," she said to Laura. + +Three days later, Vittoria received an order from the Government to quit +the city within a prescribed number of hours, and her brain was racked to +discover why Laura appeared so little indignant at the barbarous act of +despotism. Laura undertook to break the bad news to Merthyr. The +parting was as quiet and cheerful as, in the opposite degree, Vittoria +had thought it would be melancholy and regretful. "What a Government!" +Merthyr said, and told her to let him hear of any changes. "All changes +that please my friends please me." + +Vittoria kissed his forehead with one grateful murmur of farewell to the +bravest heart she had ever known. The going to her happiness seemed more +like going to something fatal until she reached the Lago Maggiore. There +she saw September beauty, and felt as if the splendour encircling her +were her bridal decoration. But no bridegroom stood to greet her on the +terrace-steps between the potted orange and citron-trees. Countess +Ammiani extended kind hands to her at arms' length. + +"You have come," she said. "I hope that it is not too late." + +Vittoria was a week without sight of her lover: nor did Countess Ammiani +attempt to explain her words, or speak of other than common daily things. +In body and soul Vittoria had taken a chill. The silent blame resting on +her in this house called up her pride, so that she would not ask any +questions; and when Carlo came, she wanted warmth to melt her. Their +meeting was that of two passionless creatures. Carlo kissed her loyally, +and courteously inquired after her health and the health of friends in +Milan, and then he rallied his mother. Agostino had arrived with him, +and the old man, being in one of his soft moods, unvexed by his conceits, +Vittoria had some comfort from him of a dull kind. She heard Carlo +telling his mother that he must go in the morning. Agostino replied to +her quick look at him, "I stay;" and it seemed like a little saved from +the wreck, for she knew that she could speak to Agostino as she could not +to the countess. When his mother prepared to retire, Carlo walked over +to his bride, and repeated rapidly and brightly his inquiries after +friends in Milan. She, with a pure response to his natural-unnatural +manner, spoke of Merthyr Powys chiefly: to which he said several times, +"Dear fellow!" and added, "I shall always love Englishmen for his sake." + +This gave her one throb. "I could not leave him, Carlo." + +"Certainly not, certainly not," said Carlo. "I should have been happy to +wait on him myself. I was busy; I am still. I dare say you have guessed +that I have a new journal in my head: the Pallanza Iris is to be the name +of it;--to be printed in three colours, to advocate three principles, in +three styles. The Legitimists, the Moderates, and the Republicans are to +proclaim themselves in its columns in prose, poetry, and hotch-potch. +Once an editor, always an editor. The authorities suspect that something +of the sort is about to be planted, so I can only make occasional visits +here:--therefore, as you will believe,"--Carlo let his voice fall--"I +have good reason to hate them still. They may cease to persecute me +soon." + +He insisted upon lighting his mother to her room. Vittoria and Agostino +sat talking of the Chief and the minor events of the war--of Luciano, +Marco, Giulio, and Ugo Corte--till the conviction fastened on them that +Carlo would not return, when Agostino stood up and said, yawning wearily, +"I'll talk further to you, my child, tomorrow." + +She begged that it might be now. + +"No; to-morrow," said he. + +"Now, now!" she reiterated, and brought down a reproof from his fore- +finger. + +"The poetic definition of 'now' is that it is a small boat, my daughter, +in which the female heart is constantly pushing out to sea and sinking. +'To-morrow' is an island in the deeps, where grain grows. When I land +you there, I will talk to you." + +She knew that he went to join Carlo after he had quitted her. + +Agostino was true to his promise next day. He brought her nearer to what +she had to face, though he did not help her vision much. Carlo had gone +before sunrise. + +They sat on the terrace above the lake, screened from the sunlight by +thick myrtle bushes. Agostino smoked his loosely-rolled cigarettes, and +Vittoria sipped chocolate and looked upward to the summit of Motterone, +with many thoughts and images in her mind. + +He commenced by giving her a love-message from Carlo. "Hold fast to it +that he means it: conduct is never a straight index where the heart's +involved," said the chuckling old man; "or it is not in times like ours. +You have been in the wrong, and your having a good excuse will not help +you before the deciding fates. Woman that you are! did you not think +that because we were beaten we were going to rest for a very long while, +and that your Carlo of yesterday was going to be your Carlo of to-day?" + +Vittoria tacitly confessed to it. + +"Ay," he pursued, "when you wrote to him in the Val d'Intelvi, you +supposed you had only to say, 'I am ready,' which was then the case. You +made your summer and left the fruits to hang, and now you are astounded +that seasons pass and fruits drop. You should have come to this place, +if but for a pair of days, and so have fixed one matter in the chapter. +This is how the chapter has run on. I see I talk to a stunned head; you +are thinking that Carlo's love for you can't have changed: and it has +not, but occasion has gone and times have changed. Now listen. The +countess desired the marriage. Carlo could not go to you in Milan with +the sword in his hand. Therefore you had to come to him. He waited for +you, perhaps for his own preposterous lover's sake as much as to make his +mother's heart easy. If she loses him she loses everything, unless he +leaves a wife to her care and the hope that her House will not be +extinct, which is possibly not much more the weakness of old aristocracy +than of human nature. + +"Meantime, his brothers in arms had broken up and entered Piedmont, and +he remained waiting for you still. You are thinking that he had not +waited a month. But if four months finished Lombardy, less than one +month is quite sufficient to do the same for us little beings. He met +the Countess d'Isorella here. You have to thank her for seeing him at +all, so don't wrinkle your forehead yet. Luciano Romara is drilling his +men in Piedmont; Angelo Guidascarpi has gone there. Carlo was +considering it his duty to join Luciano, when he met this lady, and she +has apparently succeeded in altering his plans. Luciano and his band +will go to Rome. Carlo fancies that another blow will be struck for +Lombardy. This lady should know; the point is, whether she can be +trusted. She persists in declaring that Carlo's duty is to remain, and-- +I cannot tell how, for I am as a child among women--she has persuaded him +of her sincerity. Favour me now with your clearest understanding, and +deliver it from feminine sensations of any description for just two +minutes." + +Agostino threw away the end of a cigarette and looked for firmness in +Vittoria's eyes. + +"This Countess d'Isorella is opposed to Carlo's marriage at present. She +says that she is betraying the king's secrets, and has no reliance on a +woman. As a woman you will pardon her, for it is the language of your +sex. You are also denounced by Barto Rizzo, a madman--he went mad as +fire, and had to be chained at Varese. In some way or other Countess +d'Isorella got possession of him; she has managed to subdue him. A +sword-cut he received once in Verona has undoubtedly affected his brain, +or caused it to be affected under strong excitement. He is at her villa, +and she says--perhaps with some truth--that Carlo would in several ways +lose his influence by his immediate marriage with you. The reason must +have weight; otherwise he would fulfil his mother's principal request, +and be at the bidding of his own desire. There; I hope I have spoken +plainly." + +Agostino puffed a sigh of relief at the conclusion of his task. + +Vittoria had been too strenuously engaged in defending the steadiness of +her own eyes to notice the shadow of an assumption of frankness in his. + +She said that she understood. + +She got away to her room like an insect carrying a load thrice its own +size. All that she could really gather from Agostino's words was, that +she felt herself rocking in a tower, and that Violetta d'Isorella was +beautiful. She had striven hard to listen to him with her wits alone, +and her sensations subsequently revenged themselves in this fashion. The +tower rocked and struck a bell that she discovered to be her betraying +voice uttering cries of pain. She was for hours incapable of meeting +Agostino again. His delicate intuition took the harshness off the +meeting. He led her even to examine her state of mind, and to discern +the fancies from the feelings by which she was agitated. He said +shrewdly and bluntly, "You can master pain, but not doubt. If you show a +sign of unhappiness, remember that I shall know you doubt both what I +have told you, and Carlo as well." + +Vittoria fenced: "But is there such a thing as happiness?" + +"I should imagine so," said Agostino, touching her cheek, "and +slipperiness likewise. There's patience at any rate; only you must dig +for it. You arrive at nothing, but the eternal digging constitutes the +object gained. I recollect when I was a raw lad, full of ambition, in +love, and without a franc in my pockets, one night in Paris, I found +myself looking up at a street lamp; there was a moth in it. He couldn't +get out, so he had very little to trouble his conscience. I think he was +near happiness: he ought to have been happy. My luck was not so good, or +you wouldn't see me still alive, my dear." + +Vittoria sighed for a plainer speaker. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +ON LAGO MAGGIORE + +Carlo's hours were passed chiefly across the lake, in the Piedmontese +valleys. When at Pallanza he was restless, and he shunned the two or +three minutes of privacy with his betrothed which the rigorous Italian +laws besetting courtship might have allowed him to take. He had +perpetually the look of a man starting from wine. It was evident that +he and Countess d'Isorella continued to hold close communication, for she +came regularly to the villa to meet him. On these occasions Countess +Ammiani accorded her one ceremonious interview, and straightway locked +herself in her room. Violetta's grace of ease and vivacity soared too +high to be subject to any hostile judgement of her character. She seemed +to rely entirely on the force of her beauty, and to care little for those +who did not acknowledge it. She accepted public compliments quite +royally, nor was Agostino backward in offering them. "And you have a +voice, you know," he sometimes said aside to Vittoria; but she had +forgotten how easily she could swallow great praise of her voice; she had +almost forgotten her voice. Her delight was to hang her head above +inverted mountains in the lake, and dream that she was just something +better than the poorest of human creatures. She could not avoid putting +her mind in competition with this brilliant woman's, and feeling +eclipsed; and her weakness became pitiable. But Countess d'Isorella +mentioned once that Pericles was at the Villa Ricciardi, projecting +magnificent operatic entertainments. The reviving of a passion to sing +possessed Vittoria like a thirst for freedom, and instantly confused all +the reflected images within her, as the fury of a sudden wind from the +high Alps scourges the glassy surface of the lake. She begged Countess +Ammiani's permission that she might propose to Pericles to sing in his +private operatic company, in any part, at the shortest notice. + +"You wish to leave me?" said the countess, and resolutely conceived it. + +Speaking to her son on this subject, she thought it necessary to make +some excuse for a singer's instinct, who really did not live save on the +stage. It amused Carlo; he knew when his mother was really angry with +persons she tried to shield from the anger of others; and her not seeing +the wrong on his side in his behaviour to his betrothed was laughable. +Nevertheless she had divined the case more correctly than he: the lover +was hurt. After what he had endured, he supposed, with all his +forgiveness, that he had an illimitable claim upon his bride's patience. +He told his another to speak to her openly. + +"Why not you, my Carlo?" said the countess. + +"Because, mother, if I speak to her, I shall end by throwing out my arms +and calling for the priest." + +"I would clap hands to that." + +"We will see; it may be soon or late, but it can't be now." + +"How much am I to tell her, Carlo?" + +"Enough to keep her from fretting." + +The countess then asked herself how much she knew. Her habit of +receiving her son's word and will as supreme kept her ignorant of +anything beyond the outline of his plans; and being told to speak openly +of them to another, she discovered that her acquiescing imagination +supplied the chief part of her knowledge. She was ashamed also to have +it thought, even by Carlo, that she had not gathered every detail of his +occupation, so that she could not argue against him, and had to submit to +see her dearest wishes lightly swept aside. + +"I beg you to tell me what you think of Countess d'Isorella; not the +afterthought," she said to Vittoria. + +"She is beautiful, dear Countess Ammiani." + +"Call me mother now and then. Yes; she is beautiful. She has a bad +name." + +"Envy must have given it, I think." + +"Of course she provokes envy. But I say that her name is bad, as envy +could not make it. She is a woman who goes on missions, and carries a +husband into society like a passport. You have only thought of her +beauty?" + +"I can see nothing else," said Vittoria, whose torture at the sight of +the beauty was appeased by her disingenuous pleading on its behalf. + +"In my time Beauty was a sinner," the countess resumed. "My confessor +has filled my ears with warnings that it is a net to the soul, a weapon +for devils. May the saints of Paradise make bare the beauty of this +woman. She has persuaded Carlo that she is serving the country. You +have let him lie here alone in a fruitless bed, silly girl. He stayed +for you while his comrades called him to Vercelli, where they are +assembled. The man whom he salutes as his Chief gave him word to go +there. They are bound for Rome. Ah me! Rome is a great name, but +Lombardy is Carlo's natal home, and Lombardy bleeds. You were absent-- +how long you were absent! If you could know the heaviness of those days +of his waiting for you. And it was I who kept him here! I must have +omitted a prayer, for he would have been at Vercelli now with Luciano and +Emilio, and you might have gone to him; but he met this woman, who has +convinced him that Piedmont will make a Winter march, and that his +marriage must be delayed." The countess raised her face and drooped her +hands from the wrists, exclaiming, "If I have lately omitted one prayer, +enlighten me, blessed heaven! I am blind; I cannot see for my son; I am +quite blind. I do not love the woman; therefore I doubt myself. You, my +daughter, tell me your thought of her, tell me what you think. Young +eyes observe; young heads are sometimes shrewd in guessing." + +Vittoria said, after a pause, "I will believe her to be true, if she +supports the king." It was hardly truthful speaking on her part. + +"How can Carlo have been persuaded!" the countess sighed. + +"By me?" Victoria asked herself, and for a moment she was exulting. + +She spoke from that emotion when it had ceased to animate her. + +"Carlo was angry with the king. He echoed Agostino, but Agostino does +not sting as he did, and Carlo cannot avoid seeing what the king has +sacrificed. Perhaps the Countess d'Isorella has shown him promises of +fresh aid in the king's handwriting. Suffering has made Carlo Alberto +one with the Republicans, if he had other ambitions once. And Carlo +dedicates his blood to Lombardy: he does rightly. Dear countess--my +mother! I have made him wait for me; I will be patient in waiting for +him. I know that Countess d'Isorella is intimate with the king. There +is a man named Barto Rizzo, who thinks me a guilty traitress, and she is +making use of this man. That must be her reason for prohibiting the +marriage. She cannot be false if she is capable of uniting extreme +revolutionary agents and the king in one plot, I think; I do not know." +Vittoria concluded her perfect expression of confidence with this atoning +doubtfulness. + +Countess Ammiani obtained her consent that she would not quit her side. + +After Violetta had gone, Carlo, though he shunned secret interviews, +addressed his betrothed as one who was not strange to his occupation and +the trial his heart was undergoing. She could not doubt that she was +beloved, in spite of the colourlessness and tonelessness of a love that +appealed to her intellect. He showed her a letter he had received from +Laura, laughing at its abuse of Countess d'Isorella, and the sarcasms +levelled at himself. + +In this letter Laura said that she was engaged in something besides +nursing. + +Carlo pointed his finger to the sentence, and remarked, "I must have your +promise--a word from you is enough--that you will not meddle with any +intrigue." + +Vittoria gave the promise, half trusting it to bring the lost bloom of +their love to him; but he received it as a plain matter of necessity. +Certain of his love, she wondered painfully that it should continue so +barren of music. + +"Why am I to pledge myself that I will be useless?" she asked. "You +mean, my Carlo, that I am to sit still, and watch, and wait." + +He answered, "I will tell you this much: I can be struck vitally through +you. In the game I am playing, I am able to defend myself. If you enter +it, distraction begins. Stay with my mother." + +"Am I to know nothing?" + +"Everything--in good time." + +"I might--might I not help you, my Carlo?" + +"Yes; and nobly too. And I show you the way." + +Agostino and Carlo made an expedition to Turin. Before he went, Carlo +took her in his arms. + +"Is it coming?" she said, shutting her eyelids like a child expecting +the report of firearms. + +He pressed his lips to the closed eyes. "Not yet; but are you growing +timid?" + +His voice seemed to reprove her. + +She could have told him that keeping her in the dark among unknown +terrors ruined her courage; but the minutes were too precious, his touch +too sweet. In eyes and hands he had become her lover again. The +blissful minutes rolled away like waves that keep the sunshine out at +sea. + +Her solitude in the villa was beguiled by the arrival of the score of an +operatic scena, entitled "HAGAR," by Rocco Ricci, which she fancied that +either Carlo or her dear old master had sent, and she devoured it. She +thought it written expressly for her. With HAGAR she communed during the +long hours, and sang herself on to the verge of an imagined desert beyond +the mountain-shadowed lake and the last view of her beloved Motterone. +Hagar's face of tears in the Brerawas known to her; and Hagar in her +'Addio' gave the living voice to that dumb one. Vittoria revelled in the +delicious vocal misery. She expanded with the sorrow of poor Hagar, +whose tears refreshed her, and parted her from her recent narrowing self- +consciousness. The great green mountain fronted her like a living +presence. Motterone supplied the place of the robust and venerable +patriarch, whom she reproached, and worshipped, but with a fathomless +burdensome sense of cruel injustice, deeper than the tears or the voice +which spoke of it: a feeling of subjected love that was like a mother's +giving suck to a detested child. Countess Ammiani saw the abrupt +alteration of her step and look with a dim surprise. "What do you +conceal from me?" she asked, and supplied the answer by charitably +attributing it to news that the signora Piaveni was coming. + +When Laura came, the countess thanked her, saying, "I am a wretched +companion for this boiling head." + +Laura soon proved to her that she had been the best, for after very few +hours Vittoria was looking like the Hagar on the canvas. + +A woman such as Violetta d'Isorella was of the sort from which Laura +shrank with all her feminine power of loathing; but she spoke of her with +some effort at personal tolerance until she heard of Violetta's +stipulation for the deferring of Carlo's marriage, and contrived to guess +that Carlo was reserved and unfamiliar with his betrothed. Then she +cried out, "Fool that he is! Is it ever possible to come to the end of +the folly of men? She has inflamed his vanity. She met him when you +were holding him waiting, and no doubt she commenced with lamentations +over the country, followed by a sigh, a fixed look, a cheerful air, and +the assurance to him that she knew it--uttered as if through the keyhole +of the royal cabinet--she knew that Sardinia would break the Salasco +armistice in a mouth:--if only, if the king could be sure of support from +the youth of Lombardy." + +"Do you suspect the unhappy king?" Vittoria interposed. + +"Grasp your colours tight," said Laura, nodding sarcastic approbation of +such fidelity, and smiling slightly. "There has been no mention of the +king. Countess d'Isorella is a spy and a tool of the Jesuits, taking pay +from all parties--Austria as well, I would swear. Their object is to +paralyze the march on Rome, and she has won Carlo for them. I am told +that Barto Rizzo is another of her conquests. Thus she has a madman and +a fool, and what may not be done with a madman and a fool? However, I +have set a watch on her. She must have inflamed Carlo's vanity. He has +it, just as they all have. There's trickery: I would rather behold the +boy charging at the head of a column than putting faith in this base +creature. She must have simulated well," Laura went on talking to +herself. + +"What trickery?" said Vittoria. + +"He was in love with the woman when he was a lad," Laura replied, and +pertinently to Vittoria's feelings. This threw the moist shade across +her features. + +Beppo in Turin and Luigi on the lake were the watch set on Countess +d'Isorella; they were useless except to fortify Laura's suspicions. The +Duchess of Graatli wrote mere gossip from Milan. She mentioned that Anna +of Lenkenstein had visited with her the tomb of her brother Count Paul at +Bologna, and had returned in double mourning; and that Madame Sedley-- +"the sister of our poor ruined Pierson"--had obtained grace, for herself +at least, from Anna, by casting herself at Anna's feet,--and that they +were now friends. + +Vittoria felt ashamed of Adela. + +When Carlo returned, the signora attacked him boldly with all her +weapons; reproached him; said, "Would my husband have treated me in such +a manner?" Carlo twisted his moustache and stroked his young beard for +patience. They passed from room to balcony and terrace, and Laura +brought him back into company without cessation of her fire of questions +and sarcasms, saying, "No, no; we will speak of these things publicly." +She appealed alternately to Agostino, Vittoria, and Countess Ammiani for +support, and as she certainly spoke sense, Carlo was reduced to gloom and +silence. Laura then paused. "Surely you have punished your bride +enough?" she said; and more softly, "Brother of my Giacomo! you are +under an evil spell." + +Carlo started up in anger. Bending to Vittoria, he offered her his hand +to lead her out, They went together. + +"A good sign," said the countess. + +"A bad sign!" Laura sighed. "If he had taken me out for explanation! +But tell me, my Agostino, are you the woman's dupe?" + +"I have been," Agostino admitted frankly. + +"You did really put faith in her?" + +"She condescends to be so excessively charming." + +"You could not advance a better reason." + +"It is one of our best; perhaps our very best, where your sex is +concerned, signora." + +"You are her dupe no more?" + +"No more. Oh, dear no!" + +"You understand her now, do you?" + +"For the very reason, signora, that I have been her dupe. That is, I am +beginning to understand her. I am not yet in possession of the key." + +"Not yet in possession!" said Laura contemptuously; "but, never mind. +Now for Carlo." + +"Now for Carlo. He declares that he never has been deceived by her." + +"He is perilously vain," sighed the signora. + +"Seriously"--Agostino drew out the length of his beard--"I do not suppose +that he has been--boys, you know, are so acute. He fancies he can make +her of service, and he shows some skill." + +"The skill of a fish to get into the net!" + +"My dearest signora, you do not allow for the times. I remember"-- +Agostino peered upward through his eyelashes in a way that he had-- +"I remember seeing in a meadow a gossamer running away with a spider- +thread. It was against all calculation. But, observe: there were +exterior agencies at work: a stout wind blew. The ordinary reckoning is +based on calms. Without the operation of disturbing elements, the +spider-thread would have gently detained the gossamer." + +"Is that meant for my son?" Countess Ammiani asked slowly, with +incredulous emphasis. + +Agostino and Laura, laughing in their hearts at the mother's mysterious +veneration for Carlo, had to explain that 'gossamer' was a poetic, +generic term, to embrace the lighter qualities of masculine youth. + +A woman's figure passed swiftly by the window, which led Laura to suppose +that the couple outside had parted. She ran forth, calling to one of +them, but they came hand in hand, declaring that they had seen neither +woman nor man. "And I am happy," Vittoria whispered. She looked happy, +pale though she was. + +"It is only my dreadful longing for rest which makes me pale," she said +to Laura, when they were alone. "Carlo has proved to me that he is wiser +than I am." + +"A proof that you love Carlo, perhaps," Laura rejoined. + +"Dearest, he speaks more gently of the king." + +"It may be cunning, or it may be carelessness." + +"Will nothing satisfy you, wilful sceptic? He is quite alive to the +Countess d'Isorella's character. He told me how she dazzled him once." + +"Not how she has entangled him now?" + +"It is not true. He told me what I should like to dream over without +talking any more to anybody. Ah, what a delight! to have known him, as +you did, when he was a boy. Can one who knew him then mean harm to him? +I am not capable of imagining it. No; he will not abandon poor broken +Lombardy, and he is right; and it is my duty to sit and wait. No shadow +shall come between us. He has said it, and I have said it. We have but +one thing to fear, which is contemptible to fear; so I am at peace." + +"Love-sick," was Laura's mental comment. Yet when Carlo explained his +position to her next day, she was milder in her condemnation of him, and +even admitted that a man must be guided by such brains as he possesses. +He had conceived that his mother had a right to claim one month from him +at the close of the war; he said this reddening. Laura nodded. He +confessed that he was irritated when he met the Countess d'Isorella, with +whom, to his astonishment, he found Barto Rizzo. She had picked him up, +weak from a paroxysm, on the high-road to Milan. "And she tamed the +brute," said Carlo, in admiration of her ability; "she saw that he was +plot-mad, and she set him at work on a stupendous plot; agents running +nowhere, and scribblings concentring in her work-basket. You smile at +me, as if I were a similar patient, signora. But I am my own agent. +I have personally seen all my men in Turin and elsewhere. Violetta has +not one grain of love for her country; but she can be made to serve it. +As for me, I have gone too far to think of turning aside and drilling +with Luciano. He may yet be diverted from Rome, to strike another blow +for Lombardy. The Chief, I know, has some religious sentiment about +Rome. So might I have; it is the Head of Italy. Let us raise the body +first. And we have been beaten here. Great Gods! we will have another +fight for it on the same spot, and quickly. Besides, I cannot face +Luciano and tell him why I was away from him in the dark hour. How can I +tell him that I was lingering to bear a bride to the altar? while he and +the rest--poor fellows! Hard enough to have to mention it to you, +signora!" + +She understood his boyish sense of shame. Making smooth allowances for a +feeling natural to his youth and the circumstances, she said, "I am your +sister, for you were my husband's brother in arms, Carlo. We two speak +heart to heart: I sometimes fancy you have that voice: you hurt me with +it more than you know; gladden me too! My Carlo, I wish to hear why +Countess d'Isorella objects to your marriage." + +"She does not object." + +"An answer that begins by quibbling is not propitious. She opposes it." + +"For this reason: you have not forgotten the bronze butterfly?" + +"I see more clearly," said Laura, with a start. + +"There appears to be no cure for the brute's mad suspicion of her," Carlo +pursued: "and he is powerful among the Milanese. If my darling takes my +name, he can damage much of my influence, and--you know what there is to +be dreaded from a fanatic." + +Laura nodded, as if in full agreement with him, and said, after +meditating a minute, "What sort of a lover is this!" + +She added a little laugh to the singular interjection. + +"Yes, I have also thought of a secret marriage," said Carlo, stung by her +penetrating instinct so that he was enabled to read the meaning in her +mind. + +"The best way, when you are afflicted by a dilemma of such a character, +my Carlo," the signora looked at him, "is to take a chess-table and make +your moves on it. 'King--my duty;' 'Queen--my passion;' 'Bishop--my +social obligation;' 'Knight--my what-you-will and my round-the-corner +wishes.' Then, if you find that queen may be gratified without +endangering king, and so forth, why, you may follow your inclinations; +and if not, not. My Carlo, you are either enviably cool, or you are an +enviable hypocrite." + +"The matter is not quite so easily settled as that," said Carlo. + +On the whole, though against her preconception, Laura thought him an +honest lover, aud not the player of a double game. She saw that Vittoria +should have been with him in the critical hour of defeat, when his +passions were down, and heaven knows what weakness of our common manhood, +that was partly pride, partly love-craving, made his nature waxen to +every impression; a season, as Laura knew, when the mistress of a loyal +lover should not withhold herself from him. A nature tender like +Carlo's, and he bearing an enamoured heart, could not, as Luciano Romara +had done, pass instantly from defeat to drill. And vain as Carlo was +(the vanity being most intricate and subtle, like a nervous fluid), he +was very open to the belief that he could diplomatize as well as fight, +and lead a movement yet better than follow it. Even so the signora tried +to read his case. + +They were all, excepting Countess Ammiani ("who will never, I fear, do me +this honour," Violetta wrote, and the countess said, "Never," and quoted +a proverb), about to pass three or four days at the villa of Countess +d'Isorella. Before they set out, Vittoria received a portentous envelope +containing a long scroll, that was headed "YOUR CRIMES," and detailing a +lest of her offences against the country, from the revelation of the plot +in her first letter to Wilfrid, to services rendered to the enemy during +the war, up to the departure of Charles Albert out of forsaken Milan. + +"B. R." was the undisguised signature at the end of the scroll. + +Things of this description restored her old war-spirit to Vittoria. She +handed the scroll to Laura; Laura, in great alarm, passed it on to Carlo. +He sent for Angelo Guidascarpi in haste, for Carlo read it as an ante- +dated justificatory document to some mischievous design, and he desired +that hands as sure as his own, and yet more vigilant eyes, should keep +watch over his betrothed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +VIOLETTA D'ISORELLA + +The villa inhabited by Countess d'Isorella was on the water's edge, +within clear view of the projecting Villa Ricciardi, in that darkly- +wooded region of the lake which leads up to the Italian-Swiss canton. + +Violetta received here an envoy from Anna of Lenkenstein, direct out of +Milan: an English lady, calling herself Mrs. Sedley, and a particular +friend of Countess Anna. At the first glance Violetta saw that her +visitor had the pretension to match her arts against her own; so, to +sound her thoroughly, she offered her the hospitalities of the villa +for a day or more. The invitation was accepted. Much to Violetta's +astonishment, the lady betrayed no anxiety to state the exact terms of +her mission: she appeared, on the contrary, to have an unbounded +satisfaction in the society of her hostess, and prattled of herself and +Antonio-Pericles, and her old affection for Vittoria, with the wiliest +simplicity, only requiring to be assured at times that she spoke +intelligible Italian and exquisite French. Violetta supposed her to feel +that she commanded the situation. Patient study of this woman revealed +to Violetta the amazing fact that she was dealing with a born bourgeoise, +who, not devoid of petty acuteness, was unaffectedly enjoying her noble +small-talk, and the prospect of a footing in Italian high society. +Violetta smiled at the comedy she had been playing in, scarcely +reproaching herself for not having imagined it. She proceeded to the +point of business without further delay. + +Adela Sedley had nothing but a verbal message to deliver. The Countess +Anna of Lenkenstein offered, on her word of honour as a noblewoman, to +make over the quarter of her estate and patrimony to the Countess +d'Isorella, if the latter should succeed in thwarting--something. + +Forced to speak plainly, Adela confessed she thought she knew the nature +of that something. + +To preclude its being named, Violetta then diverged from the subject. + +"We will go round to your friend the signor Antonio-Pericles at Villa +Ricciardi," she said. "You will see that he treats me familiarly, but +he is not a lover of mine. I suspect your 'something' has something to +do with the Jesuits." + +Adela Sedley replied to the penultimate sentence: "It would not surprise +me, indeed, to hear of any number of adorers." + +"I have the usual retinue, possibly," said Violetta. + +"Dear countess, I could be one of them myself!" Adela burst out with +tentative boldness. + +"Then, kiss me." + +And behold, they interchanged that unsweet feminine performance. + +Adela's lips were unlocked by it. + +"How many would envy me, dear Countess d'Isorella!" + +She really conceived that she was driving into Violetta's heart by the +great high-road of feminine vanity. Violetta permitted her to think as +she liked. + +"Your countrywomen, madame, do not make large allowances for beauty, +I hear." + +"None at all. But they are so stiff! so frigid! I know one, a Miss +Ford, now in Italy, who would not let me have a male friend, and a +character, in conjunction." + +"You are acquainted with Count Karl Lenkenstein?" + +Adela blushingly acknowledged it. + +"The whisper goes that I was once admired by him," said Violetta. + +"And by Count Ammiani." + +"By count? by milord? by prince? by king?" + +"By all who have good taste." + +"Was it jealousy, then, that made Countess Anna hate me?" + +"She could not--or she cannot now." + +"Because I have not taken possession of her brother." + +"I could not--may I say it?--I could not understand his infatuation until +Countess Anna showed me the portrait of Italy's most beautiful living +woman. She told me to look at the last of the Borgia family." + +Violetta laughed out clear music. "And now you see her?" + +"She said that it had saved her brother's life. It has a star and a +scratch on the left cheek from a dagger. He wore it on his heart, and an +assassin struck him there: a true romance. Countess Anna said to me that +it had saved one brother, and that it should help to avenge the other. +She has not spoken to me of Jesuits." + +"Nothing at all of the Jesuits?" said Violetta carelessly. "Perhaps she +wishes to use my endeavours to get the Salaseo armistice prolonged, and +tempts me, knowing I am a prodigal. Austria is victorious, you know, but +she wants peace. Is that the case? I do not press you to answer." + +Adela replied hesitatingly: "Are you aware, countess, whether there is +any truth in the report that Countess Lena has a passion for Count +Ammiani?" + +"Ah, then," said Violetta, "Countess Lena's sister would naturally wish +to prevent his contemplated marriage! We may have read the riddle at +last. Are you discreet? If you are, you will let it be known that I had +the honour of becoming intimate with you in Turin--say, at the Court. We +shall meet frequently there during winter, I trust, if you care to make a +comparison of the Italian with the Austrian and the English nobility." + +An eloquent "Oh!" escaped from Adela's bosom. She had certainly not +expected to win her way with this estimable Italian titled lady thus +rapidly. Violetta had managed her so well that she was no longer sure +whether she did know the exact nature of her mission, the words of which +she had faithfully transmitted as having been alone confided to her. It +was with chagrin that she saw Pericles put his fore-finger on a salient +dimple of the countess's cheek when he welcomed them. He puffed and blew +like one working simultaneously at bugle and big drum on hearing an +allusion to Victoria. The mention of the name of that abominable +traitress was interdicted at Villa Ricciardi, he said; she had dragged +him at two armies' tails to find his right senses at last: Pericles was +cured of his passion for her at last. He had been mad, but he was cured +--and so forth, in the old strain. His preparations for a private +operatic performance diverted him from these fierce incriminations, and +he tripped busily from spot to spot, conducting the ladies over the +tumbled lower floors of the spacious villa, and calling their admiration +on the desolation of the scene. Then they went up to the maestro's room. +Pericles became deeply considerate for the master's privacy. "He is my +slave; the man has ruined himself for la Vittoria; but I respect the +impersonation of art," he said under his breath to the ladies as they +stood at the door; "hark! "The piano was touched, and the voice of Irma +di Karski broke out in a shrill crescendo. Rocco Ricci within gave +tongue to the vehement damnatory dance of Pericles outside. Rocco struck +his piano again encouragingly for a second attempt, but Irma was sobbing. +She was heard to say: "This is the fifteenth time you have pulled me down +in one morning. You hate me; you do; you hate me." Rocco ran his +fingers across the keys, and again struck the octave for Irma. Pericles +wiped his forehead, when, impenitent and unteachable, she took the notes +in the manner of a cock. He thumped at the door violently and entered. + +"Excellent! horrid! brava! abominable! beautiful! My Irma, you have +reached the skies. You ascend like a firework, and crown yourself at the +top. No more to-day; but descend at your leisure, my dear, and we will +try to mount again by-and-by, and not so fast, if you please. Ha! your +voice is a racehorse. You will learn to ride him with temper and +judgement, and you will go. Not so, my Rocco? Irma, you want repose, my +dear. One thing I guarantee to you--you will please the public. It is a +minor thing that you should please me." + +Countess d'Isorella led Irma away, and had to bear with many fits of +weeping, and to assent to the force of all the charges of vindictive +conspiracy and inveterate malice with which the jealous creature assailed +Vittoria's name. The countess then claimed her ear for half-a-minute. + +"Have you had any news of Countess Anna lately?" + +Irma had not; she admitted it despondently. "There is such a vile +conspiracy against me in Italy--and Italy is a poor singer's fame--that +I should be tempted to do anything. And I detest la Vittoria. She has +such a hold on this Antonio-Pericles, I don't see how I can hurt her, +unless I meet her and fly at her throat." + +"You naturally detest her," said the countess. "Repeat Countess Anna's +proposal to you." + +"It was insulting--she offered me money." + +"That you should persuade me to assist you in preventing la Vittoria's +marriage to Count Ammiani?" + +"Dear lady, you know I did not try to persuade you." + +"You knew that you would not succeed, my Irma. But Count Ammiani will +not marry her; so you will have a right to claim some reward. I do not +think that la Vittoria is quite idle. Look out for yourself, my child. +If you take to plotting, remember it is a game of two." + +"If she thwarts me in one single step, I will let loose that madman on +her," said Irma, trembling. + +"You mean the signor Antonio-Pericles?" + +"No; I mean that furious man I saw at your villa, dear countess." + +"Ah! Barto Rizzo. A very furious man. He bellowed when he heard her +name, I remember. You must not do it. But, for Count Ammiani's sake, +I desire to see his marriage postponed, at least." + +"Where is she?" Irma inquired. + +The countess shrugged. "Even though I knew, I could not prudently tell +you in your present excited state." + +She went to Pericles for a loan of money. Pericles remarked that there +was not much of it in Turin. "But, countess, you whirl the gold-pieces +like dust from your wheels; and a spy, my good soul, a lovely secret +emissary, she will be getting underpaid if she allows herself to want +money. There is your beauty; it is ripe, but it is fresh, and it is +extraordinary. Yes; there is your beauty." Before she could obtain a +promise of the money, Violetta had to submit to be stripped to her +character, which was hard; but on the other hand, Pericles exacted no +interest on his money, and it was not often that he exacted a return of +it in coin. Under these circumstances, ladies in need of money can find +it in their hearts to pardon mere brutality of phrase. Pericles promised +to send it to the countess on one condition; which condition he +cancelled, saying dejectedly, "I do not care to know where she is. I +will not know." + +"She has the score of Hagar, wherever she is," said Violetta, "and when +she hears that you have done the scene without her aid, you will have +stuck a dagger in her bosom." + +"Not," Pericles cried in despair, "not if she should hear Irma's Hagar! +To the desert with Irma. It is the place for a crab-apple. Bravo, +Abraham! you were wise." + +Pericles added that Montini was hourly expected, and that there was to be +a rehearsal in the evening. + +When she had driven home, Violetta found Barto Rizzo's accusatory paper +laid on her writing-desk. She gathered the contents in a careless +glance, and walked into the garden alone, to look for Carlo. + +He was leaning on the balustrade of the terrace, near the water-gate, +looking into the deep clear lake-water. Violetta placed herself beside +him without a greeting. + +"You are watching fish for coolness, my Carlo?" + +"Yes," he said, and did not turn to her face. + +"You were very angry when you arrived?" + +She waited for his reply. + +"Why do you not speak, Carlino?" + +"I am watching fish for coolness," he said. + +"Meantime," said Violetta, "I am scorched." + +He looked up, and led her to an arch of shade, where he sat quite silent. + +"Can anything be more vexing than this?" she was reduced to exclaim. + +"Ah!" said he, "you would like the catalogue to be written out for you in +a big bold hand, possibly, with a terrific initials at the end of the +page." + +"Carlo, you have done worse than that. When I saw you first here, what +crimes did you not accuse me of? what names did you not scatter on my +head? and what things did I not, confess to? I bore the unkindness, for +you were beaten, and you wanted a victim. And, my dear friend, +considering that I am after all a woman, my forbearance has subsequently +been still greater." + +"How?" he asked. Her half-pathetic candour melted him. + +"You must, have a lively memory for the uses of forgetfulness, Carlo, +When you had scourged me well, you thought it proper to raise me up and +give me comfort. I was wicked for serving the king, and therefore the +country, as a spy; but I was to persevere, and cancel my iniquities by +betraying those whom I served to you. That was your instructive precept. +Have I done it or not? Answer, too have I done it for any payment beyond +your approbation? I persuaded you to hope for Lombardy, and without any +vaunting of my own patriotism. You have seen and spoken to the men I +directed you to visit. If their heads master yours, I shall be +reprobated for it, I know surely; but I am confident as yet that you can +match them. In another month I expect to see the king over the Ticino +once more, and Carlo in Brescia with his comrades. You try to penetrate +my eyes. That's foolish; I can make them glass. Read me by what I say +and what I do. I do not entreat you to trust me; I merely beg that you +will trust your own judgement of me by what I have helped you to do +hitherto. You and I, my dear boy, have had some trifling together. Admit +that another woman would have refused to surrender you as I did when your +unruly Vittoria was at last induced to come to you from Milan. Or, +another woman would have had her revenge on discovering that she had been +a puppet of soft eyes and a lover's quarrel with his mistress. Instead +of which, I let you go. I am opposed to the marriage, it's true; and you +know why." + +Carlo had listened to Violetta, measuring the false and the true in this +recapitulation of her conduct with cool accuracy until she alluded to +their personal relations. Thereat his brows darkened. + +"We had I some trifling together," he said, musingly. + +"Is it going to be denied in these sweeter days?" Violetta reddened. + +"The phrase is elastic. Suppose my bride were to hear it?" + +"It was addressed to your ears, Carlo." + +"It cuts two ways. Will you tell me when it was that I last had the +happiness of saluting you, lip to lip?" + +"In Brescia--before I had espoused an imbecile--two nights before my +marriage--near the fountain of the Greek girl with a pitcher." + +Pride and anger nerved the reply. It was uttered in a rapid low breath. +Coming altogether unexpectedly, it created an intense momentary revulsion +of his feelings by conjuring up his boyish love in a scene more living +than the sunlight. + +He lifted her hand to his mouth. He was Italian enough, though a lover, +to feel that she deserved more. She had reddened deliciously, and +therewith hung a dewy rosy moisture on her underlids. Raising her eyes, +she looked like a cut orange to a thirsty lip. He kissed her, saying, +"Pardon." + +"Keep it secret, you mean?" she retorted. "Yes, I pardon that wish of +yours. I can pardon much to my beauty." + +She stood up as majestically as she had spoken. + +"You know, my Violetta, that I am madly in love." + +"I have learnt it." + +"You know it:--what else would . . ? If I were not lost in love, could +I see you as I do and let Brescia be the final chapter?" + +Violetta sighed. "I should have preferred its being so rather than this +superfluous additional line to announce an end, like a foolish staff on +the edge of a cliff. You thought that you were saluting a leper, or a +saint?" + +"Neither. If ever we can talk together again, as we have done," Carlo +said gloomily, "I will tell you what I think of myself." + +"No, but Richelieu might have behaved . . . . Ah! perhaps not quite +in the same way," she corrected her flowing apology for him. "But then, +he was a Frenchman. He could be flighty without losing his head. Dear +Italian Carlo! Yes, in the teeth of Barto Rizzo, and for the sake of the +country, marry her at once. It will be the best thing for you; really +the best. You want to know from me the whereabout of Barto Rizzo. He +may be in the mountain over Stresa, or in Milan. He also has thrown off +my yoke, such as it was! I do assure you, Carlo, I have no command over +him: but, mind, I half doat on the wretch. No man made me desperately in +love with myself before he saw me, when I stopped his raving in the +middle of the road with one look of my face. There was foam on his beard +and round his eyes; the poor wretch took out his handkerchief, and he +sobbed. I don't know how many luckless creatures he had killed on his +way; but when I took him into my carriage--king, emperor, orator on +stilts, minister of police not one has flattered me as he did, by just +gazing at me. Beauty can do as much as music, my Carlo." + +Carlo thanked heaven that Violetta had no passion in her nature. She had +none: merely a leaning toward evil, a light sense of shame, a desire for +money, and in her heart a contempt for the principles she did not +possess, but which, apart from the intervention of other influences, +could occasionally sway her actions. Friendship, or rather the shadowy +recovery of a past attachment that had been more than friendship, +inclined her now and then to serve a master who failed distinctly to +represent her interests; and when she met Carlo after the close of the +war, she had really set to work in hearty kindliness to rescue him from +what she termed "shipwreck with that disastrous Republican crew." He had +obtained greater ascendency over her than she liked; yet she would have +forgiven it, as well as her consequent slight deviation from direct +allegiance to her masters in various cities, but for Carlo's commanding +personal coolness. She who had tamed a madman by her beauty, was +outraged, and not unnaturally, by the indifference of a former lover. + +Later in the day, Laura and Vittoria, with Agostino, reached the villa; +and Adela put her lips to Vittoria's ear, whispering: "Naughty! when are +you to lose your liberty to turn men's heads?" and then she heaved a +sigh with Wilfrid's name. She had formed the acquaintance of Countess +d'Isorella in Turin, she said, and satisfactorily repeated her lesson, +but with a blush. She was little more than a shade to Vittoria, who +wondered what she had to live for. After the early evening dinner, when +sunlight and the colours of the sun were beyond the western mountains, +they pushed out on the lake. A moon was overhead, seeming to drop lower +on them as she filled with light. + +Agostino and Vittoria fell upon their theme of discord, as usual--the +King of Sardinia. + +"We near the vesper hour, my daughter," said Agostino; "you would provoke +me to argumentation in heaven itself. I am for peace. I remember +looking down on two cats with arched backs in the solitary arena of the +Verona amphitheatre. We men, my Carlo, will not, in the decay of time, +so conduct ourselves." + +Vittoria looked on Laura and thought of the cannon-sounding hours, whose +echoes rolled over their slaughtered hope. The sun fell, the moon shone, +and the sun would rise again, but Italy lay face to earth. They had seen +her together before the enemy. That recollection was a joy that stood, +though the winds beat at it, and the torrents. She loved her friend's +worn eyelids and softly-shut mouth; the after-glow of battle seemed on +them; the silence of the field of carnage under heaven;--and the patient +turning of Laura's eyes this way and that to speakers upon common things, +covered the despair of her heart as with a soldier's cloak. + +Laura met the tender study of Vittoria's look, and smiled. + +They neared the Villa Ricciardi, and heard singing. The villa was +lighted profusely, so that it made a little mock-sunset on the lake. + +"Irma!" said Vittoria, astonished at the ring of a well-known voice that +shot up in firework fashion, as Pericles had said of it. Incredulous, +she listened till she was sure; and then glanced hurried questions at all +eyes. Violetta laughed, saying, "You have the score of Rocco Ricci's +Hagar." + +The boat drew under the blazing windows, and half guessing, half hearing, +Vittoria understood that Pericles was giving an entertainment here, and +had abjured her. She was not insensible to the slight. This feeling, +joined to her long unsatisfied craving to sing, led her to be intolerant +of Irma's style, and visibly vexed her. + +Violetta whispered: "He declares that your voice is cracked: show him! +Burst out with the 'Addio' of Hagar. May she not, Carlo? Don't you +permit the poor soul to sing? She cannot contain herself." + +Carlo, Adela, Agostino, and Violetta prompted her, and, catching a pause +in the villa, she sang the opening notes of Hagar's 'Addio' with her old +glorious fulness of tone and perfect utterance. + +The first who called her name was Rocco Ricci, but Pericles was the first +to rush out and hang over the boat. "Witch! traitress! infernal ghost! +heart of ice!" and in English "humbug!" and in French "coquin!":--these +were a few of the titles he poured on her. Rocco Ricci and Montini +kissed hands to her, begging her to come to them. She was very willing +outwardly, and in her heart most eager; but Carlo bade the rowers push +off. Then it was pitiful to hear the shout of abject supplication from +Pericles. He implored Count Ammiani's pardon, Vittoria's pardon, for +telling her what she was; and as the boat drew farther away, he offered +her sums of money to enter the villa and sing the score of Hagar. He +offered to bear the blame of her bad behaviour to him, said he would +forget it and stamp it out; that he would pay for the provisioning of a +regiment of volunteers for a whole month; that he would present her +marriage trousseau to her--yes, and let her marry. "Sandra! my dear! my +dear!" he cried, and stretched over the parapet speechless, like a puppet +slain. + +So strongly did she comprehend the sincerity of his passion for her voice +that she could or would see nothing extravagant in this demonstration, +which excited unrestrained laughter in every key from her companions in +the boat. When the boat was about a hundred yards from the shore, and in +full moonlight, she sang the great "Addio" of Hagar. At the close of it, +she had to feel for her lover's hand blindly. No one spoke, either at +the Villa Ricciardi, or about her. Her voice possessed the mountain- +shadowed lake. + +The rowers pulled lustily home through chill air. + +Luigi and Beppo were at the villa, both charged with news from Milan. +Beppo claiming the right to speak first, which Luigi granted with a +magnificent sweep of his hand, related that Captain Weisspriess, of the +garrison, had wounded Count Medole in a duel severely. He brought a +letter to Vittoria from Merthyr, in which Merthyr urged her to prevent +Count Ammiani's visiting Milan for any purpose whatever, and said that he +was coming to be present at, her marriage. She was reading this while +Luigi delivered his burden; which was, that in a subsequent duel, the +slaughtering captain had killed little Leone Rufo, the gay and gallant +boy, Carlo's comrade, and her friend. + +Luigi laughed scornfully at his rival, and had edged away--out of sight +before he could be asked who had sent him. Beppo ignominiously confessed +that he had not heard of this second duel. At midnight he was on +horseback, bound for Milan, with a challenge to the captain from Carlo, +who had a jealous fear that Luciano at Vercelli might have outstripped +him. Carlo requested the captain to guarantee him an hour's immunity in +the city on a stated day, or to name any spot on the borders of Piedmont +for the meeting. The challenge was sent with Countess Ammiani's +approbation and Laura's. Vittoria submitted. + +That done, Carlo gave up his heart to his bride. A fight in prospect was +the hope of wholesome work after his late indecision and double play. +They laughed at themselves, accused hotly, and humbly excused themselves, +praying for mutual pardon. + +She had behaved badly in disobeying his mandate from Brescia. + +Yes, but had he not been over-imperious? + +True; still she should have remembered her promise in the Vicentino. + +She did indeed; but how could she quit her wounded friend Merthyr? + +Perhaps not: then, why had she sent word to him from Milan that she would +be at Pallanza? + +This question knocked at a sealed chamber. She was silent, and Carlo had +to brood over something as well. He gave her hints of his foolish pique, +his wrath and bitter baffled desire for her when, coming to Pallanza, he +came to an empty house. But he could not help her to see, for he did not +himself feel, that he had been spurred by silly passions, pique, and +wrath, to plunge instantly into new political intrigue; and that some of +his worst faults had become mixed up with his devotion to his country. +Had he taken Violetta for an ally in all purity of heart? The kiss he +had laid on the woman's sweet lips had shaken his absolute belief in +that. He tried to set his brain travelling backward, in order to +contemplate accurately the point of his original weakness. It being +almost too severe a task for any young head, Carlo deemed it sufficient +that he should say--and this he felt--that he was unworthy of his +beloved. + +Could Vittoria listen to such stuff? She might have kissed him to stop +the flow of it, but kissings were rare between them; so rare, that when +they had put mouth to mouth, a little quivering spire of flame, dim at +the base, stood to mark the spot in their memories. She moved her hand, +as to throw aside such talk. Unfretful in blood, chaste and keen, she at +least knew the foolishness of the common form of lovers' trifling when +there is a burning love to keep under, and Carlo saw that she did, and +adored her for this highest proof of the passion of her love. + +"In three days you will be mine, if I do not hear from Milan? within +five, if I do?" he said. + +Vittoria gave him the whole beauty of her face a divine minute, and bowed +it assenting. Carlo then led her to his mother, before whom he embraced +her for the comfort of his mother's heart. They decided that there +should be no whisper of the marriage until the couple were one. Vittoria +obtained the countess's permission to write for Merthyr to attend her at +the altar. She had seen Weisspriess fall in combat, and she had perfect +faith in her lover's right hand. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +ANNA OF LENKENSTEIN + +Captain Weisspriess replied to Carlo Ammiani promptly, naming Camerlata +by Como, as the place where he would meet him. + +He stated at the end of some temperate formal lines, that he had given +Count Ammiani the preference over half-a-dozen competitors for the honour +of measuring swords with him; but that his adversary must not expect him +to be always ready to instruct the young gentlemen of the Lombardo- +Venetian province in the arts of fence; and therefore he begged to +observe, that his encounter with Count Ammiani would be the last occasion +upon which he should hold himself bound to accept a challenge from Count +Ammiani's countrymen. + +It was quite possible, the captain said, drawing a familiar illustration +from the gaming-table, to break the stoutest Bank in the world by a +perpetual multiplication of your bets, and he was modest enough to +remember that he was but one man against some thousands, to contend with +all of whom would be exhausting. + +Consequently the captain desired Count Ammiani to proclaim to his +countrymen that the series of challenges must terminate; and he requested +him to advertize the same in a Milanese, a Turin, and a Neapolitan +journal. + +"I am not a butcher," he concluded. "The task you inflict upon me is +scarcely bearable. Call it by what name you will, it is having ten shots +to one, which was generally considered an equivalent to murder. My sword +is due to you, Count Ammiani; and, as I know you to be an honourable +nobleman, I would rather you were fighting in Venice, though your cause +is hopeless, than standing up to match yourself against me. Let me add, +that I deeply respect the lady who is engaged to be united to you, and +would not willingly cross steel either with her lover or her husband. I +shall be at Camerlata at the time appointed. If I do not find you there, +I shall understand that you have done me the honour to take my humble +advice, and have gone where your courage may at least appear to have done +better service. I shall sheathe my sword and say no more about it." + +All of this, save the concluding paragraph, was written under the eyes of +Countess Anna of Lenkenstein. + +He carried it to his quarters, where he appended the as he deemed it-- +conciliatory passage: after which he handed it to Beppo, in a square of +the barracks, with a buon'mano that Beppo received bowing, and tossed to +an old decorated regimental dog of many wounds and a veteran's gravity. +For this offence a Styrian grenadier seized him by the shoulders, lifting +him off his feet and swinging him easily, while the dog arose from his +contemplation of the coin and swayed an expectant tail. The Styrian had +dashed Beppo to earth before Weisspriess could interpose, and the dog had +got him by the throat. In the struggle Beppo tore off the dog's medal +for distinguished conduct on the field of battle. He restored it as soon +as he was free, and won unanimous plaudits from officers and soldiers for +his kindly thoughtfulness and the pretty manner with which he dropped on +one knee, and assuaged the growls, and attached the medal to the old +dog's neck. Weisspriess walked away. Beppo then challenged his Styrian +to fight. The case was laid before a couple of sergeants, who shook +their heads on hearing his condition to be that of a serving-man, the +Styrian was ready to waive considerations of superiority; but the "judge" +pronounced their veto. A soldier in the Imperial Royal service, though +he was merely a private in the ranks, could not accept a challenge from +civilians below the rank of notary, secretary, hotel- or inn-keeper, and +suchlike: servants and tradesmen he must seek to punish in some other +way; and they also had their appeal to his commanding officer. So went +the decision of the military tribunal: until the Styrian, having +contrived to make Beppo understand, by the agency of a single Italian +verb, that he wanted a blow, Beppo spun about and delivered a stinging +smack on the Styrian's cheek; which altered the view of the case, for, +under peculiar circumstances--supposing that he did not choose to cut him +down--a soldier might condescend to challenge his civilian inferiors: +"in our regiment," said the sergeants, meaning that they had relaxed the +stringency of their laws. + +Beppo met his Styrian outside the city walls, and laid him flat. He +declined to fight a second; but it was represented to him, by the aid of +an interpreter, that the officers of the garrison were subjected to +successive challenges, and that the first trial of his skill might have +been nothing finer than luck; and besides, his adversary had a right to +call a champion. "We all do it," the soldiers assured him. "Now your +blood's up you're ready for a dozen of us;" which was less true of a +constitution that was quicker in expending its heat. He stood out +against a young fellow almost as limber as himself, much taller, and +longer in the reach, by whom he was quickly disabled with cuts on thigh +and head. Seeing this easy victory over him, the soldiers, previously +quite civil, cursed him for having got the better of their fallen +comrade, and went off discussing how be had done the trick, leaving him +to lie there. A peasant carried him to a small suburban inn, where he +remained several days oppressed horribly by a sense that he had forgotten +something. When he recollected what it was, he entrusted the captain's +letter to his landlady;--a good woman, but she chanced to have a scamp +of a husband, who snatched it from her and took it to his market. Beppo +supposed the letter to be on its Way to Pallauza, when it was in General +Schoneck's official desk; and soon after the breath of a scandalous +rumour began to circulate. + +Captain Weisspriess had gone down to Camerlata, accompanied by a Colonel +Volpo, of an Austro-Italian regiment, and by Lieutenant Jenna. At +Camerlata a spectacled officer, Major Nagen, joined them. Weisspriess +was the less pleased with his company on hearing that he had come to +witness the meeting, in obedience to an express command of a person who +was interested in it. Jenna was the captain's friend: Volpo was +seconding him for the purpose of getting Count Ammiani to listen to +reason from the mouth of a countryman. There could be no doubt in the +captain's mind that this Major Nagen was Countess Anna's spy as well as +his rival, and he tried to be rid of him; but in addition to the +shortness of sight which was Nagen's plea for pushing his thin +transparent nose into every corner, he enjoyed at will an intermittent +deafness, and could hear anything without knowing of it. Brother +officers said of Major Nagen that he was occasionally equally senseless +in the nose, which had been tweaked without disturbing the repose of his +features. He waited half-an-hour on the ground after the appointed time, +and then hurried to Milan. Weisspriess waited an hour. Satisfied that +Count Ammiani was not coming, he exacted from Volpo and from Jenna their +word of honour as Austrian officers that they would forbear-to cast any +slur on the courage of his adversary, and would be so discreet on the +subject as to imply that the duel was a drawn affair. They pledged +themselves accordingly. "There's Nagen, it's true," said Weisspriess, as +a man will say and feel that he has done his best to prevent a thing +inevitable. + +Milan, and some of the journals of Milan, soon had Carlo Ammiani's name +up for challenging Weisspriess and failing to keep his appointment. It +grew to be discussed as a tremendous event. The captain received fifteen +challenges within two days; among these a second one from Luciano Romara, +whom he was beginning to have a strong desire to encounter. He repressed +it, as quondam drunkards fight off the whisper of their lips for liquor. +"No more blood," was his constant inward cry. He wanted peace; but as he +also wanted Countess Anna of Lenkenstein and her estates, it may possibly +be remarked of him that what he wanted he did not want to pay for. + +At this period Wilfrid had resumed the Austrian uniform as a common +soldier in the ranks of the Kinsky regiment. General Schoneck had +obtained the privilege for him from the Marshal, General Pierson refusing +to lift a finger on his behalf. Nevertheless the uncle was not sorry to +hear the tale of his nephew's exploits during the campaign, or of the +eccentric intrepidity of the white umbrella; and both to please him, and +to intercede for Wilfrid, the tatter's old comrades recited his deeds as +a part of the treasured familiar history of the army in its late arduous +struggle. + +General Pierson was chiefly anxious to know whether Countess Lena would +be willing to give her hand to Wilfrid in the event of his restoration to +his antecedent position in the army. He found her extremely excited +about Carlo Ammiani, her old playmate, and once her dear friend. She +would not speak of Wilfrid at all. To appease the chivalrous little +woman, General Pierson hinted that his nephew, being under the protection +of General Schoneck, might get some intelligence from that officer. Lena +pretended to reject the notion of her coming into communication with +Wilfrid for any earthly purpose. She said to herself, however, that her +object was pre-eminently unselfish; and as the General pointedly refused +to serve her in a matter that concerned an Italian nobleman, she sent +directions to Wilfrid to go before General Schoeneck the moment he was +off duty, and ask his assistance, in her name, to elucidate the mystery +of Count Ammiani's behaviour. The answer was a transmission of Captain +Weisspriess's letter to Carlo. Lena caused the fact of this letter +having missed its way to be circulated in the journals, and then she +carried it triumphantly to her sister, saying: + +"There! I knew these reports were abase calumny." + +"Reports, to what effect?" said Anna. + +"That Carlo Ammiani had slunk from a combat with your duellist." + +"Oh! I knew that myself," Anna remarked. + +"You were the loudest in proclaiming it." + +"Because I intend to ruin him." + +"Carlo Ammiani? What has he done to you?" + +Anna's eyes had fallen on the additional lines of the letter which she +had not dictated. She frowned and exclaimed: + +"What is this? Does the man play me false? Read those lines, Lena, and +tell me, does the man mean to fight in earnest who can dare to write +them? He advises Ammiani to go to Venice. It's treason, if it is not +cowardice. And see here--he has the audacity to say that he deeply +respects the lady Ammiani is going to marry. Is Ammiani going to marry +her? I think not." + +Anna dashed the letter to the floor. + +"But I will make use of what's within my reach," she said, picking it up. + +"Carlo Ammiani will marry her, I presume," said Lena. + +"Not before he has met Captain Weisspriess, who, by the way, has obtained +his majority. And, Lena, my dear, write to inform him that we wish to +offer him our congratulations. He will be a General officer in good +time." + +"Perhaps you forget that Count Ammiani is a perfect swordsman, Anna." + +"Weisspriess remembers it for me, perhaps;--is that your idea, Lena?" + +"He might do so profitably. You have thrown him on two swords." + +"Merely to provoke the third. He is invincible. If he were not, where +would his use be?" + +"Oh, how I loathe revenge!" cried Lena. + +"You cannot love!" her sister retorted. "That woman calling herself +Vittoria Campa shall suffer. She has injured and defied me. How was it +that she behaved to us at Meran? She is mixed up with assassins; she is +insolent--a dark-minded slut; and she catches stupid men. My brother, my +country, and this weak Weisspriess, as I saw him lying in the Ultenthal, +cry out against her. I have no sleep. I am not revengeful. Say it, say +it, all of you! but I am not. I am not unforgiving. I worship justice, +and a black deed haunts me. Let the wicked be contrite and washed in +tears, and I think I can pardon them. But I will have them on their +knees. I hate that woman Vittoria more than I hate Angelo Guidascarpi. +Look, Lena. If both were begging for life to me, I would send him to the +gallows and her to her bedchamber; and all because I worship justice, and +believe it to be the weapon of the good and pious. You have a baby's +heart; so has Karl. He declines to second Weisspriess; he will have +nothing to do with duelling; he would behold his sisters mocked in the +streets and pass on. He talks of Paul's death like a priest. Priests +are worthy men; a great resource! Give me a priests lap when I need it. +Shall I be condemned to go to the priest and leave that woman singing? +If I did, I might well say the world's a snare, a sham, a pitfall, a +horror! It's what I don't think in any degree. It's what you think, +though. Yes, whenever you are vexed you think it. So do the priests, +and so do all who will not exert themselves to chastise. I, on the +contrary, know that the world is not made up of nonsense. Write to +Weisspriess immediately; I must have him here in an hour." + +Weisspriess, on visiting the ladies to receive their congratulations, +was unprepared for the sight of his letter to Carlo Ammiani, which Anna +thrust before him after he had saluted her, bidding him read it aloud. +He perused it in silence. He was beginning to be afraid of his mistress. + +"I called you Austria once, for you were always ready," Anna said, and +withdrew from him, that the sung of her words might take effect. + +"God knows, I have endeavoured to earn the title in my humble way," +Weisspriess appealed to Lena. + +"Yes, Major Weisspriess, you have," she said. "Be Austria still, and +forbear toward these people as much as you can. To beat them is enough, +in my mind. I am rejoiced that you have not met Count Ammiani, for if +you had, two friends of mine, equally dear and equally skilful, would +have held their lives at one another's mercy." + +"Equally!" said Weisspriess, and pulled out the length of his moustache. + +"Equally courageous," Lena corrected herself. "I never distrusted Count +Ammiani's courage, nor could distrust yours." + +"Equally dear!" Weisspriess tried to direct a concentrated gaze on her. + +Lena evaded an answer by speaking of the rumour of Count Ammiani's +marriage. + +Weisspriess was thinking with all the sagacious penetration of the +military mind, that perhaps this sister was trying to tell him that she +would be willing to usurp the piece of the other in his affections; and +if so, why should she not? + +"I may cherish the idea that I am dear to you, Countess Lena?" + +"When you are formally betrothed to my sister, you will know you are very +dear to me, Major Weisspriess." + +"But," said he, perceiving his error, "how many persons am I to call out +before she will consent to a formal betrothal?" + +Lena was half smiling at the little tentative bit of sentiment she had so +easily turned aside. Her advice to him was to refuse to fight, seeing +that he had done sufficient for glory and his good name. + +He mentioned Major Nagen as a rival. + +Upon this she said: "Hear me one minute. I was in my sister's bed-room +on the first night when she knew of your lying wounded in the Ultenthal. +She told you just now that she called you Austria. She adores our +Austria in you. The thought that you had been vanquished seemed like our +Austria vanquished, and she is so strong for Austria that it is really +out of her power to fancy you as defeated without suspecting foul play. +So when she makes you fight, she thinks you safe. Many are to go down +because you have gone down. Do you not see? And now, Major Weisspriess, +I need not expose my sister to you any more, I hope, or depreciate Major +Nagen for your satisfaction." + +Weisspriess had no other interview with Anna for several days. She +shunned him openly. Her carriage moved off when he advanced to meet her +at the parade, or review of arms; and she did not scruple to speak in +public with Major Nagen, in the manner of those who have begun to speak +together in private. The offender received his punishment gracefully, +as men will who have been taught that it flatters them. He refused every +challenge. From Carlo Ammiani there came not a word. + +It would have been a deadly lull to any fiery temperament engaged in +plotting to destroy a victim, but Anna had the patience of hatred--that +absolute malignity which can measure its exultation rather by the +gathering of its power to harm than by striking. She could lay it aside, +or sink it to the bottom of her emotions, at will, when circumstances +appeared against it. And she could do this without fretful regrets, +without looking to the future. The spirit of her hatred extracted its +own nourishment from things, like an organized creature. When foiled she +became passive, and she enjoyed--forced herself compliantly to enjoy--her +redoubled energy of hatred voluptuously, if ever a turn in events made +wreck of her scheming. She hated Vittoria for many reasons, all of them +vague within her bosom because the source of them was indefinite and lay +in the fact of her having come into collision with an opposing nature, +whose rivalry was no visible rivalry, whose triumph was an ignorance of +scorn--a woman who attracted all men, who scattered injuries with +insolent artlessness, who never appealed to forgiveness, and was a low- +born woman daring to be proud. By repute Anna was implacable, but she +had, and knew she had, the capacity for magnanimity of a certain kind; +and her knowledge of the existence of this unsuspected fund within her +justified in some degree her reckless efforts to pull her enemy down on +her knees. It seemed doubly right that she should force Vittoria to +penitence, as being good for the woman, and an end that exonerated her +own private sins committed to effect it. + +Yet she did not look clearly forward to the day of Vittoria's imploring +for mercy. She had too many vexations to endure: she was an insufficient +schemer, and was too frequently thwarted to enjoy that ulterior prospect. +Her only servile instruments were Major Nagen, and Irma, who came to her +from the Villa Ricciardi, hot to do her rival any deadly injury; but +though willing to attempt much, these were apparently able to perform +little more than the menial work of vengeance. Major Nagen wrote in the +name of Weisspriess to Count Ammiani, appointing a second meeting at +Como, and stating that he would be at the villa of the Duchess of Graatli +there. Weisspriess was unsuspectingly taken down to the place by Anna +and Lena. There was a gathering of such guests as the duchess alone +among her countrywomen could assemble, under the patronage of the +conciliatory Government, and the duchess projected to give a series of +brilliant entertainments in the saloons of the Union, as she named her +house-roof. Count Serabiglione arrived, as did numerous Moderates and +priest-party men, Milanese garrison officers and others. Laura Piaveni +travelled with Countess d'Isorella and the happy Adela Sedley, from Lago +Maggiore. + +Laura came, as she cruelly told her friend, for the purpose of making +Victoria's excuses to the duchess. "Why can she not come herself?" +Amalia persisted in asking, and began to be afflicted with womanly +curiosity. Laura would do nothing but shrug and smile, and repeat her +message. A little after sunset, when the saloons were lighted, +Weisspriess, sitting by his Countess Anna's side, had a slip of paper +placed in his hands by one of the domestics. He quitted his post +frowning with astonishment, and muttered once, "My appointment!" Laura +noticed that Anna's heavy eyelids lifted to shoot an expressive glance at +Violetta d'Isorella. She said: "Can that have been anything hostile, do +you suppose?" and glanced slyly at her friend. + +"No, no," said Amalia; "the misunderstanding is explained, and Major +Weisspriess is just as ready as Count Ammiani to listen to reason. +Besides, Count Ammiani is not so unfriendly but that if he came so near +he would come up to me, surely." + +Laura brought Amalia's observation to bear upon Anna and Violetta by +turning pointedly from one to the other as she said: "As for reason, +perhaps you have chosen the word. If Count Ammiani attended an +appointment this time, he would be unreasonable." + +A startled "Why?"--leaped from Anna's lips. She reddened at her +impulsive clumsiness. + +Laura raised her shoulders slightly: "Do you not know?" The expression of +her face reproved Violetta, as for remissness in transmitting secret +intelligence. "You can answer why, countess," she addressed the latter, +eager to exercise her native love of conflict with this doubtfully- +faithful countrywoman;--the Austrian could feel that she had beaten her +on the essential point, and afford to give her any number of dialectical +victories. + +"I really cannot answer why," Violetta said; "unless Count Ammiani is, +as I venture to hope, better employed." + +"But the answer is charming and perfect," said Laura. + +"Enigmatical answers are declared to be so when they come from us women," +the duchess remarked; "but then, I fancy, women must not be the hearers, +or they will confess that they are just as much bewildered and irritated +as I am. Do speak out, my dearest. How is he better employed?" + +Laura passed her eyes around the group of ladies. "If any hero of yours +had won the woman he loves, he would be right in thinking it folly to be +bound by the invitation to fight, or feast, or what you will, within a +space of three months or so; do you not agree with me?" + +The different emotions on many visages made the scene curious. + +"Count Ammiani has married her!" exclaimed the duchess. + +"My old friend Carlo is really married!" said Lena. + +Anna stared at Violetta. + +The duchess, recovering from her wonder, confirmed the news by saying +that she now knew why M. Powys had left Milan in haste, three or four +days previously, as she was aware that the bride had always wished him +to be present at the ceremony of her marriage. + +"Signora, may I ask you, were you present?" Violetta addressed Laura. + +"I will answer most honestly that I was not," said Laura. + +"The marriage was a secret one; perhaps?" + +"Even for friends, you see." + +"Necessarily, no doubt," Lena said, with an idea of easing her sister's +stupefaction by a sarcasm foreign to her sentiments. + +Adela Sedley, later in exactly comprehending what had been spoken, +glanced about for some one who would not be unsympathetic to her +exclamation, and suddenly beheld her brother entering the room with +Weisspriess. "Wilfrid! Wilfrid! do you know she is married?" + +"So they tell me," Wilfrid replied, while making his bow to the duchess. +He was much broken in appearance, but wore his usual collected manner. +Who had told him of the marriage? A person downstairs, he said; not +Count Ammiani; not signor Balderini; no one whom he saw present, no one +whom he knew. + +"A very mysterious person," said the duchess. + +"Then it's true after all," cried Laura. "I did but guess it." She +assured Violetta that she had only guessed it. + +"Does Major Weisspriess know it to be true?" The question came from +Anna. + +Weisspriess coolly verified it, on the faith of a common servant's +communication. + +The ladies could see that some fresh piece of mystery lay between him and +Wilfrid. + +"With whom have you had an interview, and what have you heard?" asked +Lena, vexed by Wilfrid's pallid cheeks. + +Both men stammered and protested, out of conceit, and were as foolish as +men are when pushed to play at mutual concealment. + +The duchess's chasseur, Jacob Baumwalder Feckelwitz, stepped up to his +mistress and whispered discreetly. She gazed straight at Laura. After +hesitation she shook her head, and the chasseur retired. Amalia then +came to the rescue of the unhappy military wits that were standing a +cross-fire of sturdy interrogation. + +"Do you not perceive what it is?" she said to Anna. "Major Weisspriess +meets Private Pierson at the door of my house, and forgets that he is +well-born and my guest. I may be revolutionary, but I declare that in +plain clothes Private Pierson is the equal of Major Weisspriess. If +bravery made men equals, who would be Herr Pierson's superior? Ire has +done me the honour, at a sacrifice of his pride, I am sure, to come here +and meet his sister, and rejoice me with his society. Major Weisspriess, +if I understand the case correctly, you are greatly to blame." + +"I beg to assert," Weisspriess was saying as the duchess turned her +shoulder on him. + +"There is really no foundation," Wilfrid began, with similar simplicity. + +"What will sharpen the wits of these soldiers!" the duchess murmured +dolefully to Laura. + +"But Major Weisspriess was called out of his room by a message--was that +from Private Pierson?" said Anna. + +"Assuredly; I should presume so," the duchess answered for them. + +"Ay; undoubtedly," Weisspriess supported her. + +"Then," Laura smiled encouragement to Wilfrid, "you know nothing of Count +Ammiani's marriage after all?" + +Wilfrid launched his reply on a sharp repression of his breath, "Nothing +whatever." + +"And the common servant's communication was not made to you?" Anna +interrogated Weisspriess. + +"I simply followed in the track of Pierson," said that officer, masking +his retreat from the position with a duck of his head and a smile, tooth +on lip. + +"How could you ever suppose, child, that a common servant would be sent +to deliver such tidings? and to Major Weisspriess!" the duchess +interposed. + +This broke up the Court of inquiry. + +Weisspriess shortly after took his leave, on the plea that he wished to +prove his friendliness by accompanying Private Pierson, who had to be on +duty early next day in Milan. Amalia had seen him breaking from Anna in +extreme irritation, and he had only to pledge his word that he was really +bound for Milan to satisfy her. "I believe you to be at heart humane," +she said meaningly. + +"Duchess, you may be sure that I would not kill an enemy save on the +point of my sword," he answered her. + +"You are a gallant man," said Amalia, and pride was in her face as she +looked on him. + +She willingly consented to Wilfrid's sudden departure, as it was evident +that some shot had hit him hard. + +On turning to Laura, the duchess beheld an aspect of such shrewd disgust +that she was provoked to exclaim: "What on earth is the matter now?" + +Laura would favour her with no explanation until they were alone in the +duchess's boudoir, when she said that to call Weisspriess a gallant man +was an instance of unblushing adulation of brutal strength: "Gallant for +slaying a boy? Gallant because he has force of wrist?" + +"Yes; gallant;--an honour to his countrymen: and an example to some of +yours," Amalia rejoined. + +"See," cried Laura, "to what a degeneracy your excess of national +sentiment reduces you!" + +While she was flowing on, the duchess leaned a hand across her shoulder, +and smiling kindly, said she would not allow her to utter words that she +would have to eat. "You saw my chasseur step up to me this evening, my +Laura? Well, not to torment you, he wished to sound an alarm cry after +Angelo Guidascarpi. I believe my conjecture is correct, that Angelo +Guidascarpi was seen by Major Weisspriess below, and allowed to pass +free. Have you no remark to make?" + +"None," said Laura. + +"You cannot admit that he behaved like a gallant man?" Laura sighed +deeply. "Perhaps it was well for you to encourage him!" + +The mystery of Angelo's interview with Weisspriess was cleared the next +night, when in the midst of a ball-room's din, Aennchen, Amalia's +favourite maid, brought a letter to Laura from Countess Ammiani. These +were the contents: + +"DEAREST SIGNORA, + +"You now learn a new and blessed thing. God make the marriage fruitful! +I have daughter as well as son. Our Carlo still hesitated, for hearing +of the disgraceful rumours in Milan, he fancied a duty lay there for him +to do. Another menace came to my daughter from the madman Barto Rizzo. +God can use madmen to bring about the heavenly designs. We decided that +Carlo's name should cover her. My son was like a man who has awakened +up. M. Powys was our good genius. He told her that he had promised you +to bring it about. He, and Angelo, and myself, were the witnesses. So +much before heaven! I crossed the lake with them to Stress. I was her +tirewoman, with Giacinta, to whom I will give a husband for the tears of +joy she dropped upon the bed. Blessed be it! I placed my daughter in my +Carlo's arms. Both kissed their mother at parting. + +"This is something fixed. I had great fears during the war. You do not +yet know what it is to have a sonless son in peril. Terror and remorse +haunted me for having sent the last Ammiani out to those fields, +unattached to posterity. + +"An envelope from Milan arrived on the morning of his nuptials. It was +intercepted by me. The German made a second appointment at Como. Angelo +undertook to assist me in saving my son's honour. So my Carlo had +nothing to disturb his day. Pray with me, Laura Piaveni, that the day +and the night of it may prove fresh springs of a river that shall pass +our name through the happier mornings of Italy! I commend you to God, my +dear, and am your friend, + + "MARCCELLINA, COUNTESS AMMIANI. + +"P.S. Countess Alessandra will be my daughter's name." + +The letter was read and re-read before the sweeter burden it contained +would allow Laura to understand that Countess Ammiani had violated a seal +and kept a second hostile appointment hidden from her son. + +"Amalia, you detest me," she said, when they had left the guests for a +short space, and the duchess had perused the letter, "but acknowledge +Angelo Guidascarpi's devotion. He came here in the midst of you Germans, +at the risk of his life, to offer battle for his cousin." + +The duchess, however, had much more to say for the magnanimity of Major +Weisspriess, who, if he saw him, had spared him; she compelled Laura to +confess that Weisspriess must have behaved with some nobleness, which +Laura did, humming and I 'brumming,' and hinting at the experience he had +gained of Angelo's skill. Her naughtiness provoked first, and then +affected Amalia; in this mood the duchess had the habit of putting on a +grand air of pitying sadness. Laura knew it well, and never could make +head against it. She wavered, as a stray floating thing detached from an +eddy whirls and passes on the flood. Close on Amalia's bosom she sobbed +out: "Yes; you Austrians have good qualities some: many! but you choose +to think us mean because we can't readily admit them when we are under +your heels. Just see me; what a crumb feeds me! I am crying with +delight at a marriage!" + +The duchess clasped her fondly. + +"It's not often one gets you so humble, my Laura." + +"I am crying with delight at a marriage! Amalia, look at me: you would +suppose it a mighty triumph. A marriage! two little lovers lying cheek +to cheek! and me blessing heaven for its goodness! and there may be dead +men unburied still on the accursed Custozza hill-top!" + +Amalia let her weep. The soft affection which the duchess bore to her +was informed with a slight touch of envy of a complexion that could be +torn with tears one minute, and the next be fit to show in public. No +other thing made her regard her friend as a southern--that is, a foreign- +woman. + +"Be patient," Laura said. + +"Cry; you need not be restrained," said Amalia. + +"You sighed." + +"No!" + +"A sort of sigh. My fit's over. Carlo's marriage is too surprising and +delicious. I shall be laughing presently. I hinted at his marriage-- +I thought it among the list of possible things, no more--to see if that +crystal pool, called Violetta d'Isorella, could be discoloured by +stirring. Did you watch her face? I don't know what she wanted with +Carlo, for she's cold as poison--a female trifler; one of those women +whom I, and I have a chaste body, despise as worse than wantons; but she +certainly did not want him to be married. It seems like a victory-- +though we're beaten. You have beaten us, my dear!" + +"My darling! it is your husband kisses you," said Amalia, kissing Laura's +forehead from a full heart. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +But is there such a thing as happiness +Conduct is never a straight index where the heart's involved +Deep as a mother's, pure as a virgin's, fiery as a saint's +Foolish trick of thinking for herself +Fortitude leaned so much upon the irony +Grand air of pitying sadness +Ironical fortitude +Longing for love and dependence +Love of men and women as a toy that I have played with +Pain is a cloak that wraps you about +She was sick of personal freedom +Watch, and wait +Went into endless invalid's laughter +Why should these men take so much killing? +You can master pain, but not doubt + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Vittoria, v7 +by George Meredith + diff --git a/4441.zip b/4441.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0cade37 --- /dev/null +++ b/4441.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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