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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf 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. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1146f85 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #66374 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66374) diff --git a/old/66374-0.txt b/old/66374-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 3ea307e..0000000 --- a/old/66374-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,12324 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Charterhouse of Parma Volume 1 (of 2), -by Stendhal - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Charterhouse of Parma Volume 1 (of 2) - -Author: Stendhal - -Translator: Charles Kenneth Scott-Moncrieff - -Contributor: Honoré de Balzac - -Release Date: September 25, 2021 [eBook #66374] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Laura Natal Rodrigues - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA VOLUME 1 -(OF 2) *** - -MARIE-HENRI BEYLE - -[DE STENDHAL] - - - - -THE CHARTERHOUSE -OF PARMA - - - - - -_Translated from the French by_ - -C. K. SCOTT MONCRIEFF - - - - -VOLUME ONE - - - - -BONI & LIVERIGHT - -NEW YORK MCMXXV - - - - -CONTENTS -A STUDY OF M. BEYLE by Honoré De Balzac -BEYLE'S REPLY TO BALZAC -_TO THE READER_ -CHAPTER ONE -CHAPTER TWO -CHAPTER THREE -CHAPTER FOUR -CHAPTER FIVE -CHAPTER SIX -CHAPTER SEVEN -CHAPTER EIGHT -CHAPTER NINE -CHAPTER TEN -CHAPTER ELEVEN -CHAPTER TWELVE -CHAPTER THIRTEEN - - - - -TRANSLATOR'S DEDICATION - -TO MADAME C---- R---- - - -In whom alone survives the spirit of the Sanseverina, to resist tyranny, -to unmask intrigue, to encourage ambition, this story of her -countrywoman is, in the language of her adopted country, dedicated by - - -C. K. S. M. - -Pisa, December, 1924. - - - - -A STUDY OF M. BEYLE - -By Honoré De Balzac - - -In our day, literature quite evidently presents three aspects; and, so -far from being a symptom of decadence, this triplicity, to use an -expression coined by M. Cousin in his dislike of the word trinity, seems -to me a natural enough effect of the abundance of literary talent: it is -a tribute to the nineteenth century, which does not offer one sole and -invariable form, like the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which -were more or less obedient to the tyranny of a man or of a system. - -These three forms, aspects or systems, by whichever name you choose to -call them, exist in nature and correspond to general sympathies which -were bound to declare themselves at a time when literature has seen, -through the spread of knowledge, the number of its appreciators increase -and the practice of reading advance with unparalleled progress. - -In all generations and among all peoples there are minds that are -elegiac, meditative, contemplative, minds that attach themselves more -especially to the great imagery, the vast spectacles of nature, and -transpose these into themselves. Hence a whole school to which I should -give the name: the _Literature of Imagery_, to which belong lyrical -writing, the epic and everything that springs from that way of looking -at things. - -There are, on the other hand, other active souls who like rapidity, -movement, conciseness, sudden shocks, action, drama, who avoid -discussion, who have little fondness for meditation, and take pleasure -in results. From these, another whole system from which springs what I -should call, in contrast to the former system, the _Literature of -Ideas_. - -Finally, certain complete beings, certain _bifrontal_ intelligences -embrace everything, choose both lyricism and action, drama and ode, in -the belief that perfection requires a view of things as a whole. This -school, which may be called _Literary Eclecticism_, demands a -representation of the world as it is: imagery and ideas, the idea in the -image or the image in the idea, movement and meditation. Walter Scott -has entirely satisfied these eclectic natures. - -Which party predominates, I do not know. I should not like anyone to -infer from this natural distinction forced consequences. Thus, I do not -mean to say that such and such a poet of the school of imagery is devoid -of ideas, or that some other poet of the school of ideas cannot invent -fine images. These three formulas apply only to the general impression -left by the poets' work, to the mould into which the writer casts his -thought, to the natural tendency of his mind. Every image corresponds to -an idea, or, more precisely, to a _sentiment_ which is a collection of -ideas, and the idea does not always end in an image. The idea demands an -effort in its development which does not come readily to every mind. -Also the image is essentially popular, it is readily understood. Suppose -that M. Hugo's _Notre-Dame de Paris_ were to appear simultaneously with -_Manon Lescaut_, _Notre-Dame_ would seize hold of the masses far more -promptly than Manon, and would seem to have outrivalled it in the eyes -of those who kneel before the _Vox populi_. - -And yet, whatever be the kind from which a work proceeds, it will dwell -in the human memory only by obeying the laws of the ideal and those of -form. In literature, imagery and idea correspond nearly enough to what -in painting we call design and colour. Rubens and Raphael are two great -painters; but he would be strangely mistaken who thought that Raphael -was not a colourist; and those who would refuse to Rubens the title of -draughtsman may go and kneel before the painting with which the -illustrious Fleming has adorned the Church of the Jesuits at Genoa, as -an act of homage to design. - -M. Beyle, better known by the pseudonym Stendhal, is, in my opinion, one -of the most eminent masters of the _Literature of Ideas_, a school to -which belong MM. Alfred de Musset, Mérimée, Léon Gozlan, Béranger, -Delavigne, Gustave Planche, Madame de Girardin, Alphonse Karr and -Charles Nodier. Henry Monnier belongs to it by the truth of his -proverbs, which are often lacking in a root-idea, but which are -nevertheless full of that naturalness and that accurate observation -which are characteristic of the school. - -This school, to which we already owe much fine work, recommends itself -by its abundance of facts, by the sobriety of its imagery, by -conciseness, by clarity, by the _petite phrase_ of Voltaire, by a way of -relating a story which the eighteenth century possessed, and, above all, -by a sense of comedy. M. Beyle and M. Mérimée, despite their profound -seriousness, have something ironical and sly in the manner in which they -state their facts. With them the comedy is kept in reserve. It is the -spark in the flint. - -M. Victor Hugo's is undoubtedly the most eminent talent in the -_Literature of Imagery_. M. Lamartine belongs to this school, which M. -de Chateaubriand held over the baptismal font, and the philosophy of -which was created by M. Ballanche. _Obermann_ is another. MM. Auguste -Barbier, Théophile Gautier, Sainte-Beuve are others, as are a number of -feeble imitators. In some of the authors whom I have just named, the -sentiment prevails sometimes over the image, as in M. de Sénancour and -M. Sainte-Beuve. By his poetry rather than by his prose, M. de Vigny is -seen to belong to this great school. All these poets have little sense -of comedy, they know nothing of dialogue, with the exception of M. -Gautier, who has a keen sense of it. M. Hugo's dialogue is too much his -own speech, he does not transform himself sufficiently, he puts himself -into his character, instead of becoming that character. But this school -has, like the other, produced some fine work. It is remarkable for the -poetic fulness of its language, for the wealth of its imagery, for the -closeness of its union with nature; the other school is human, and this -one divine in the sense that it tends to raise itself by feeling towards -the very heart of creation. It prefers nature to man. The French -language is indebted to it for a strong dose of poetry which was -necessary, for it has developed the poetic feeling long resisted by the -_positivism_--pardon the word--of our language, and the dryness stamped -on it by the writers of the eighteenth century. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, -Bernardin de Saint-Pierre were the instigators of this revolution, which -I regard as fortunate. - -The secret of the struggle between the Classics and the Romantics lies -entirely in this quite natural disparity of minds. For two centuries -past, the _Literature of Ideas_ has held exclusive sway, and so the -heirs of the eighteenth century naturally mistook the only system of -literature that they knew for the whole of literature. Let us not blame -them, these defenders of the classic! The Literature of Ideas, full of -facts, closely knit, is part of the genius of France. The _Profession de -foi du vicaire savoyard_, _Candide_, the _Dialogue de Sylla et -d'Eucrate_, the _Considérations sur les causes de la Grandeur et de la -Décadence des Romains_, the _Provinciales_, _Manon Lescaut_, _Gil -Blas_, are more in the French spirit than the works of the Literature of -Imagery. But we owe to this latter the poetry of which the two previous -centuries had not even a suspicion, if we set aside La Fontaine, André -Chénier and Racine. The Literature of Imagery is in its cradle, and -already includes a number of men whose genius is incontestable; but, -when I see how many the other school includes, I believe it to be at the -height rather than in the decline of its dominance over our beautiful -tongue. The struggle ended, one may say that the Romantics have not -invented new methods, that in the theatre, for instance, those who -complain of want of action have made ample use of the _tirade_ and the -soliloquy, and that we have not, so far, either heard the keen and -compact dialogue of Beaumarchais, nor seen again the comedy of Molière, -which will always be based upon reason and ideas. Comedy is the enemy of -meditation and imagery. M. Hugo has gained enormously in this contest. -But men of wide reading remember the war waged on M. de Chateaubriand, -during the Empire; it was fully as savage, and ended sooner because M. -de Chateaubriand stood alone, without the _stipante caterva_ of M. Hugo, -without the antagonism of the press, without the support furnished to -the Romantics by the men of genius of England and Germany, better known -and better appreciated. - -As for the third school, which partakes of each of the other two, it has -less chance than they of exciting the masses, who have little taste for -the _mezzo termine_, for composite things, and see in eclecticism an -arrangement that runs counter to their passions in so far as it calms -them. France likes to find war in everything. In time of peace, she is -still fighting. Nevertheless, Walter Scott, Madame de Staël, Cooper, -George Sand seem to me to have distinct genius. As for myself, I take my -stand under the banner of literary eclecticism for the following reason: -I do not believe the portrayal of modern society to be possible by the -severe method of the literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth -centuries. The introduction of the dramatic element, of the image, the -picture, of description, of dialogue, seems to me indispensable in -modern literature. Let us confess frankly that _Gil Blas_ is wearisome -as form: in the piling up of events and ideas there is something -sterile. The idea, personified in a character, shews a finer -intelligence. Plato cast his psychological ethics in the form of -dialogue. - -_La Chartreuse de Parme_ is of our period and, up to the present, to my -mind, is the masterpiece of the Literature of Ideas, while M. Beyle has -made concessions in it to the two other schools, which are admissible by -fair minds and satisfactory to both camps. - -If I have so long delayed, in spite of its importance, in speaking of -this book, you must understand that it was difficult for me to acquire a -sort of impartiality. Even now I am not certain that I can retain it, so -extraordinary, after a third, leisurely and thoughtful reading, do I -find this work. - -I can imagine all the mockery which my admiration for it will provoke. -There will be an outcry, of course, at my infatuation, when I am simply -still filled with enthusiasm after the point at which enthusiasm should -have died. Men of imagination, it will be said, conceive as promptly as -they forget their affection for certain works of which the common herd -arrogantly and ironically protest that they can understand nothing. -Simple-minded, or even intelligent persons who with their proud gaze -sweep the surface of things, will say that I amuse myself with paradox, -that I have, like M. Sainte-Beuve, my _chers inconnus_. I am incapable -of compromise with the truth, that is all. - -M. Beyle has written a book in which sublimity glows from chapter after -chapter. He has produced, at an age when men rarely find monumental -subjects and after having written a score of extremely intelligent -volumes, a work which can be appreciated only by minds and men that are -truly superior. In short, he has written _The Prince up to date_, the -novel that Machiavelli would write if he were living banished from Italy -in the nineteenth century. - -And so the chief obstacle to the renown which M. Beyle deserves lies in -the fact that _La Chartreuse de Parme_ can find readers fitted to enjoy -it only among diplomats, ministers, observers, the leaders of society, -the most distinguished artists; in a word, among the twelve or fifteen -hundred persons who are at the head of things in Europe. Do not be -surprised, therefore, if, in the ten months since this surprising work -was published, there has not been a single journalist who has either -read, or understood, or studied it, who has announced, analysed and -praised it, who has even alluded to it. I, who, I think, have some -understanding of the matter, I have read it for the third time in the -last few days: I have found the book finer even than before, and have -felt in my heart the kind of happiness that comes from the opportunity -of doing a good action. - -Is it not doing a good action to try to do justice to a man of immense -talent, who will appear to have genius only in the eyes of a few -privileged beings and whom the transcendency of his ideas deprives of -that immediate but fleeting popularity which the courtiers of the public -seek and which great souls despise? If the mediocre knew that they had a -chance of raising themselves to the level of the sublime by -understanding them, _La Chartreuse de Parme_ would have as many readers -as _Clarissa Harlowe_ had on its first appearance. - -There are in admiration that is made legitimate by conscience ineffable -delights. Therefore all that I am going to say here I address to the -pure and noble hearts which, in spite of certain pessimistic -declamations, exist in every country, like undiscovered pleiads, among -the families of minds devoted to the worship of art. Has not humanity, -from generation to generation, has it not here below its constellations -of souls, its heaven, its angels, to use the favourite expression of the -great Swedish prophet, Swedenborg, a chosen people for whom true artists -work and whose judgments make them ready to accept privation, the -insolence of upstarts and the indifference of governments? - -You will pardon me, I hope, what malevolent persons will call -_longueurs_. In the first place, I am firmly convinced, the analysis of -so curious and so interesting a work as this will give more pleasure to -the most fastidious reader than he would derive from the unpublished -novel whose place it fills. Besides, any other critic would require at -least three articles of the length of this, if he sought to give an -adequate explanation of this novel, which often contains a whole book in -a single page, and which cannot be explained save by a man to whom the -North of Italy is fairly familiar. Finally, let me assure you that, with -the help of M. Beyle, I am going to try to make myself instructive -enough to be read with pleasure to the end. - -A sister of the Marchese del Dongo, named Gina, the abbreviation of -Angelina, whose early character, as a young girl, would have a certain -similarity, could an Italian woman ever resemble a Frenchwoman, to the -character of Madame de Lignolle in _Faublas_, marries at Milan, against -the will of her brother, who wishes to marry her to an old man, noble, -rich and Milanese, a certain Conte Pietranera, poor and without a penny. - -The Conte and Contessa support the French party, and are the ornament of -the Court of Prince Eugène. We are in the days of the Kingdom of Italy, -when the story begins. - -The Marchese del Dongo, a Milanese attached to Austria and her spy, -spends fourteen years waiting for the fall of the Emperor Napoleon. -Moreover, this Marchese, the brother of Gina Pietranera, does not live -at Milan: he occupies his castle of Grianta, on the Lake of Como: he -there brings up his elder son in the love of Austria and on sound -principles; but he has a younger son, named Fabrizio, to whom Signora -Pietranera is passionately devoted: Fabrizio is a cadet of the family; -like her, he will be left without a penny in the world. Who is not -familiar with the fondness of noble hearts for the disinherited? Also, -she wishes to make something of him. Then, fortunately, Fabrizio is a -charming boy; she obtains leave to put him to school at Milan, where, -playing truant, she makes him see something of the viceregal court. - -Napoleon falls for the first time. While he is on the Island of Elba, in -the course of the reaction at Milan, which the Austrians have -reoccupied, an insult offered to the Armies of Italy in the presence of -Pietranera, who takes it up, is the cause of his death: he is killed in -a duel. - -A lover of the Contessa refuses to avenge her husband, Gina humiliates -him by one of those acts of vengeance, magnificent south of the Alps, -which would be thought stupid in Paris. This is her revenge: - -Although she despises, in _petto_, this lover who has been adoring her -at a distance and without reward for the last six years, she pays -certain attentions to the wretch, and, when he is in a paroxysm of -suspense, writes to him: - - -"Will you act for once like a man of spirit? Please to imagine that you -have never known me. I am, with a touch of contempt, your servant, - -GINA PIETRANERA." - - -Then, to increase still further the desperation of this rich man, with -his income of two hundred thousand lire, she _ginginates_ (_ginginare_ -is a Milanese verb meaning everything that passes at a distance between -a pair of lovers before they have spoken; the verb has its noun: one is -a _gingino_. It is the first stage in love). Well, she ginginates for a -moment with a fool whom she soon abandons; then she retires, with a -pension of fifteen hundred francs, to a third floor apartment where all -Milan of the day comes to see her and admires her. - -Her brother, the Marchese, invites her to return to the ancestral castle -on the Lake of Como. She goes there, to see once more and to protect her -charming nephew, Fabrizio, to comfort her sister-in-law and to plan her -own future amid the sublime scenery of the Lake of Como, her native soil -and the native soil of this nephew whom she has made her son: she has no -children. Fabrizio, who loves Napoleon, learns of his landing from the -Gulf of Juan and wishes to go to serve the sovereign of his uncle -Pietranera. His mother, who, the wife of a rich Marchese with an income -of five hundred thousand lire, has not a penny to call her own, his aunt -Gina, who has nothing, give him their diamonds: Fabrizio is in their -eyes a hero. - -The inspired volunteer crosses Switzerland, arrives in Paris, takes part -in the battle of Waterloo, then returns to Italy, where, for having -dabbled in the conspiracy of 1815 against the peace of Europe, he is -disowned by his father and the Austrian government place him on their -index. For him, to return to Milan would be to enter the Spielberg. From -this point Fabrizio, in trouble, persecuted for his heroism, this -sublime boy becomes everything in the world to Gina. - -The Contessa returns to Milan, she obtains a promise from Bubna and from -the men of character whom Austria at this period has put in authority -there, not to persecute Fabrizio, whom, following the advice of an -extremely shrewd Canon, she keeps in concealment at Novara. Meanwhile, -with all these things happening, no money. But Gina is of a sublime -beauty, she is the type of that Lombard beauty (_bellezza folgorante_) -which can be realised only at Milan and in the Scala when you see -assembled there the thousand beautiful women of Lombardy. The events of -this troubled life have developed in her the most magnificent Italian -character: she has intellect, shrewdness, the Italian grace, the most -charming conversation, an astonishing command of herself; in short, the -Contessa is at one and the same time Madame de Montespan, Catherine de' -Medici, Catherine II, too, if you like: the most audacious political -genius and the most consummate feminine genius, hidden beneath a -marvellous beauty. Having watched over her nephew, despite the hatred of -the elder brother who is jealous of him, despite the hatred and -indifference of the father, having snatched him from these perils, -having been one of the queens of the court of the Viceroy Eugène, and -then nothing; all these crises have enriched her natural forces, -exercised her faculties and awakened the instincts numbed in the depths -of her being by her early prosperity, by a marriage the joys of which -have been rare, owing to the continual absence of Napoleon's devoted -servant. Everyone sees or can divine in her the thousand treasures of -passion, the resources and the refulgence of the most perfect feminine -heart. - -The old Canon, whom she has seduced, sends Fabrizio to Novara, a small -town in Piedmont, under the tutelage of a parish priest. This priest -puts a step to the inquiries of the police by his description of -Fabrizio: "a younger son who feels wronged because he is not the -eldest." When Gina, who had dreamed of Fabrizio's becoming aide-de-camp -to Napoleon, sees Napoleon banished to St. Helena, she realises that -Fabrizio, his name inscribed in the black book of the Milanese police, -is lost to her for ever. - -During the uncertainties which prevailed throughout Europe at the time -of the battle of Waterloo, Gina has made the acquaintance of Conte Mosca -della Rovere, the Minister of the famous Prince of Parma, -Ranuccio-Ernesto IV. - -Let us pause at this point. - -Certainly, after having read the book, it is impossible not to -recognise, in Conte Mosca, the most remarkable portrait that anyone -could ever make of Prince Metternich, but of a Metternich transported -from the great Chancellory of the Austrian Empire to the modest State of -Parma. The State of Parma and Ernesto IV seem to me similarly to be the -Duke of Modena and his Duchy. M. Beyle says of Ernesto IV that he is one -of the richest Princes in Europe: the wealth of the Duke of Modena is -famous. In seeking to avoid personalities the author has expended more -ingenuity than Walter Scott required to construct the plot of -Kenilworth. Indeed, these two similarities are vague enough, outwardly, -to be denied, and so real inwardly that the well-informed reader cannot -be mistaken. M. Beyle has so exalted the sublime character of the Prime -Minister of the State of Parma that it is doubtful whether Prince -Metternich be so great a man as Mosca, although the heart of that -celebrated statesman does offer, to those who know his life well, one or -two examples of passions of a compass at least equal to that of Mosca's. -It is not slandering the Austrian Minister to believe him capable of all -the secret greatnesses of Mosca. As for what Mosca is throughout the -book, as for the conduct of the man whom Gina regards as the greatest -diplomat in Italy, it took genius to create the incidents, the events -and the innumerable and recurring plots in the midst of which this -immense character unfolds. All that M. de Metternich has done during his -long career is not more extraordinary than what you see done by Mosca. -When one comes to think that the author has invented it all, ravelled -all the plot and then unravelled it, as things do ravel and unravel -themselves at a court, the most daring mind, a mind to which the -conception of ideas is a familiar process, is left dazed, stupefied -before so huge a task. As for myself, I suspect some literary -Aladdin's-lamp. To have dared to put on the stage a man of the genius -and force of M. de Choiseul, Potemkin, M. de Metternich, to create him, -to justify the creation by the actions of the creature himself, to make -him move in an environment which is appropriate to him and in which his -faculties have full play, is the work not of a man but of a fairy, a -wizard. Bear in mind that the most skilfully complicated plots of Walter -Scott do not arrive at the admirable simplicity which prevails in the -recital of these events, so numerous, so _thickly foliaged_, to borrow -the famous expression of Diderot. - -Here is the portrait of Mosca. We are in 1816, remember. - -"He might have been forty or forty-five: he had strongly marked -features, with no trace of self-importance, and a simple and -light-hearted manner which told in his favour; he would have looked very -well indeed, if a whim on the part of his Prince had not obliged him to -wear powder on his hair as a proof of his soundness in politics." - -And so the powder which M. de Metternich wears, and which softens a face -already so gentle, is justified in Mosca by the will of his master. In -spite of the prodigious efforts of M. Beyle, who, on page after page, -naturalises in this State marvellous inventions to deceive his reader -and blunt the point of his allusions, the mind is at Modena and will on -no account consent to remain at Parma. Whoever has seen, known, met M. -de Metternich, thinks that he hears him speaking through the mouth of -Mosca, lends Mosca his voice and clothes him in his manners. Although, -in the book, Ernesto IV dies, and the Duke of Modena is still living, -one is often reminded of that Prince _so notorious for his severities_, -_which the Liberals of Milan called cruelties_. Such are the expressions -used by the author in speaking of the Prince of Parma. - -In these two portraits, begun with a satirical intention, there is, -however, nothing that can wound, nothing that reeks of vengeance. -Although M. Beyle has no cause to thank M. de Metternich, who refused -him his _exequatur_ for the Trieste Consulate, and although the Duke of -Modena has never been able to look with pleasure on the author of _Rome, -Naples et Florence_, of the _Promenades en Rome_, and of certain other -works, these two figures are portrayed with great taste and the utmost -propriety. - -This is what, no doubt, occurred during the actual work of these two -creations. Carried away by the enthusiasm necessary to him who handles -clay and scalpel, the brush and colours, the pen and the treasures of -man's moral nature, M. Beyle, who had started out to depict a little -court in Italy and a diplomat, ended with the type PRINCE and the type -PRIME MINISTER. The resemblance, began with the fantasy of a satirical -mind, ceased where the genius of the arts appeared to the artist. - -This convention of masks once admitted, the reader, keenly interested, -accepts the admirable Italian scene which the author paints, the town -and all the buildings necessary to his story, which, in many places, has -the magical quality of an Oriental tale. - -This long parenthesis was indispensable. Let us continue. - -Mosca is smitten with love, but with a love immense, eternal, boundless, -for Gina, absolutely like M. de Metternich and his Leykam. He lets her, -at the risk of compromising himself, have the latest diplomatic news -before anyone else. The presence at Milan of this Minister of the State -of Parma is perfectly accounted for later on. - -To give you an idea of this famous Italian love, I must relate to you a -distinctly curious incident. On their departure, in 1799, the Austrians -saw as they left Milan, on the Bastion, a certain Contessa B----nini who -was driving with a Canon, both heedless of revolutions and war: they -were in love. The Bastion is a magnificent avenue which starts from the -Eastern Gate (Porta Renza) and corresponds to the Champs-Elysées in -Paris, with this slight difference that on the left extends the Duomo, -"that mountain of gold transmuted into marble," as Francis II, who had a -gift of expression, called it; and on the right the snowy fringe, the -sublime chasms of the Alps. On their return in 1814 the first thing the -Austrians saw was the Contessa and the Canon, sitting in the same -carriage and saying, perhaps, the same things, at the same point on the -Bastion. I have seen, in that city, a young man who became ill if he -went more than a certain number of streets away from the house of his -mistress. When a woman gives an Italian sensations, he never leaves her. - -"In spite of his frivolous air and his polished manners. Mosca," says M. -Beyle, "was not blessed with a soul of the French type; he could not -_forget_ the things that annoyed him. When there was a thorn in his -pillow, he would blunt it by repeated stabbings of his throbbing limbs." -This superior man guesses the superior mind of the Contessa, he falls in -love with her to the point of behaving like a schoolboy. - -"After all," the Minister said to himself, "old age is only being -incapable of indulging in these delicious timidities." - -The Contessa one evening remarks the fine, benevolent gaze of Mosca. -(The gaze with which M. de Metternich would deceive the Deity.) - -"At Parma," she says to him, "if you were to look like that, you would -give them the hope that they might escape hanging." - -In the end the diplomat, having realised how essential this woman is to -his happiness, and after three months of inward struggle, arrives with -three different plans, devised to secure his happiness, and makes her -agree to the wisest of them. - -In Mosca's eyes, Fabrizio is a child: the excessive interest which the -Contessa takes in her nephew seems to him one of those elective -maternities which, until love comes to reign there, beguile the hearts -of noble-hearted women. - -Mosca, unfortunately, is married. Accordingly he brings to Milan the -Duca Sanseverina-Taxis. Let me, in this analysis, introduce a few -quotations which will give you examples of the vivid, free, sometimes -faulty style of M. Beyle, and will enable me to make myself be read with -pleasure. - -The Duca is a handsome little old man of sixty-eight, dapple-grey, very -polished, very neat, immensely rich, but not quite as noble as he ought -to have been. Apart from this, the Duca is by no means an absolute -idiot, says the Conte: "he gets his clothes and wigs from Paris. He is -not the sort of man who would do anything _deliberately_ mean, he -seriously believes that honour consists in having a Grand Cordon, and he -is ashamed of his riches. He wants an Embassy. Marry him, he will give -you a hundred thousand scudi, a magnificent jointure, his _palazzo_ and -the most superb existence in Parma. On these conditions, I make the -Prince appoint him Ambassador, he will have his Grand Cordon, and he -will start the day after his marriage; you become Duchessa Sanseverina, -and we live happily. Everything is settled with the Duca, who will be -made the happiest man in the world by our arrangement: he will never -shew his face again in Parma. If this life does not appeal to you, I -have four hundred thousand francs, I hand in my resignation and we go -and live at Naples." - -"Do you know that what you and your Duca are proposing is highly -immoral?" says the Contessa. - -"No more immoral than what is done at every court," the Minister -answers. "Absolute Power has this advantage, that it justifies -everything. Every year we shall be afraid of a 1798, and everything that -can reduce that fear will be supremely moral. You shall hear the -speeches I make on the subject at my receptions. The Prince has -consented, and you will have a brother in the Duca, who has not dared to -hope for such a marriage, which saves his face; he thinks himself ruined -because he lent twenty-five napoleons to the great Ferrante Palla, a -Republican, a poet and something of a genius, whom we have sentenced to -death, fortunately in his absence." - -Gina accepts. We next see her Duchessa Sanseverina-Taxis, astonishing -the court of Parma by her affability, by the noble serenity of her mind. -Her house is the most attractive in the town, she reigns there, she is -the glory of this little court. - -The portrait of Ernesto IV, his reception of the Duchessa, her -introduction to each member in turn of the Reigning House, all these -details are marvels of wit, depth, succinctness. Never have the hearts -of Princes, Ministers, courtiers and women been so depicted. The reader -will find it hard to lay the book down. - -When the Duchessa's nephew fled from Austrian persecution and was on his -way from the Lake of Como to Novara under the protection of his -confessor and the parish priest, he met Fabio Conti, General of the -Armies of the State of Parma, one of the most curious figures of this -court and of the book, a general who thinks of nothing but whether His -Highness's soldiers ought to have seven buttons on their uniform or -nine; but this comic general possesses an entrancing daughter, Clelia -Conti. Fabrizio and Clelia, both trying to escape from the police, have -exchanged a few words. Clelia is the most beautiful creature in Parma. -As soon as the Prince sees the effect produced in his court by the -Sanseverina, he thinks of counter-balancing that beauty by bringing -Clelia to light. A great difficulty! Girls are not received at court: he -therefore has her created a Canoness. - -The Prince has of course a mistress. One of his weaknesses is to ape -Louis XIV. So, to be in the picture, he has provided himself with a La -Vallière, one Contessa Balbi, who dips her fingers into every -money-bag, and is not forgotten when any government contract is made. -Ernesto IV would be in despair if the Balbi were not slightly grasping: -the scandalous fortune of his mistress is a sign of royal power. He is -lucky, the Contessa is a miser! - -"She received me," the Duchessa tells Mosca, "as though she expected me -to give her a _buona mancia_ (a tip)." - -But, to the great grief of Ernesto IV, the Contessa, who has no brains, -cannot be compared for a moment to the Duchessa; this humiliates him, a -first source of irritation. His mistress is thirty, and a model of -Italian _leggiadria_. - -She had still the finest eyes in the world and the most graceful little -hands;[1] but her skin was netted with countless fine little wrinkles -which made her look like a young grandmother. As she was obliged to -smile at everything the Prince said, and sought to make him think, by -this ironical smile, that she understood him, Conte Mosca used to say -that these suppressed yawns had in course of time produced her wrinkles. - -The Duchessa parries the first blow aimed at her by His Highness by -making a friend of Clelia, who, fortunately, is an innocent creature. -From motives of policy, the Prince allows to exist at Parma a sort of -Party, called Liberal (God knows what sort of Liberals!). A Liberal is a -man who has the great men of Italy, Dante, Machiavelli, Petrarch, Leo X -painted welcoming Monti on a ceiling. This passes as an epigram against -the power which has no longer any great men. This Liberal Party has as -its chief a Marchesa Raversi, an ugly and mischievous woman, as -irritating as an Opposition. Fabio Conti, the General, belongs to this -Party. The Prince, who hangs agitators, has his reasons for allowing a -Liberal Party. - -Ernesto IV rejoices in a Laubardemont, his Fiscal General or Chief -Justice, named Rassi. This Rassi, full of natural intelligence, is one -of the most horribly comic or comically horrible personages that can be -imagined: he laughs and has people hanged, he makes a game of his -justice. He is necessary, indispensable to the Prince. Rassi is a blend -of Fouché, Fouquier-Tinville, Merlin, Triboulet and Scapin. You call -the Prince a _tyrant_: he says that this is conspiracy and he hangs you. -He has already hanged two Liberals. Since this execution, notorious -throughout Italy, the Prince, who is brave when on the field of battle -and has led armies, the Prince, though a man of spirit, lives in fear. -This Rassi becomes something terrible, he attains to gigantic -proportions while still remaining grotesque: he embodies all the justice -of this little State. - -And now for the inevitable effects at court of the Duchessa's triumphs. -The Conte and the Duchessa, that pair of eagles caged in this tiny -capital, soon begin to offend the Prince. In the first place the -Duchessa is sincerely attached to the Conte, the Conte is more in love -every day, and this happiness irritates a bored Prince. Mosca's talents -are indispensable to the Cabinet of Parma. Ranuccio-Ernesto and his -Minister are attached to one another like the Siamese twins. Indeed, -they have between them contrived the impossible plan ("impossible" is a -rhetorical precaution on M. Beyle's part) of making a single State of -Northern Italy. Beneath his mask of absolutism, the Prince is intriguing -to become the Sovereign of this Constitutional Kingdom. He is dying of -envy to ape Louis XVIII, to give a Charter and Two Chamber government to -Northern Italy. He regards himself as a great politician, he has his -ambition: he redeems in his own eyes his subordinate position by this -plan with which Mosca is fully acquainted; he has control of his -treasury! The more need he has of Mosca and the more he recognises his -Minister's talent, the more reasons there are in the depths of this -princely heart for an unconfessed jealousy. Life at court is boring, at -the _palazzo_ Sanseverina it is amusing. What means remain to him of -demonstrating his power to himself? The chance of tormenting his -Minister. And he torments him cruelly! The Prince tries first of all, in -a friendly way, to secure the Duchessa as his mistress, she refuses; -there are blows to self-esteem the elements of which may easily be -guessed from this brief analysis. Presently, the Prince reaches the -stage of wishing to attack his Minister through the Duchessa, and he -then seeks out ways of making her suffer. - -All this part of the novel is of a remarkable literary solidity. This -painting has the magnitude of a canvas fifty feet by thirty, and at the -same time the manner, the execution is Dutch in its minuteness. We come -to the drama, and to a drama the most complete, the most gripping, the -strangest, the truest, the most profoundly explored in the human heart -that has ever been invented, but one that has existed, undoubtedly, at -many periods, and will reappear at courts where it will be enacted -again, as Louis XIII and Richelieu, as Francis II and Prince Metternich, -as Louis XV, the du Barry and M. de Choiseul have enacted it in the -past. - -The prospect which, in this new setting, has most attracted the Duchessa -is that of the possibility of making a career for her hero, for this -child of her heart, for Fabrizio her nephew. Fabrizio will owe his -fortune to the genius of Mosca. The love which she has conceived for the -child she continues to feel for the youth. I may tell you now, -beforehand, that this love is to become later on, at first without -Gina's knowledge, then consciously, a passion that will reach the -sublime. Nevertheless she will always be the wife of the great diplomat, -to whom she will never have committed any other act of infidelity than -that of the passionate impulses of her heart towards this young idol; -she will not deceive this man of genius, she will always make him happy -and proud; she will make him aware of her least emotions, he will endure -the most horrible rages of jealousy, and will never have any grounds for -complaint. The Duchessa will be frank, artless, sublime, resigned, -moving as a play of Shakespeare, beautiful as poetry, and the most -severe reader will have no fault to find. I doubt if any poet has ever -solved such a problem with as much felicity as has M. Beyle in this bold -work. The Duchessa is one of those magnificent statues which make us at -once admire the art that created them and inveigh against Nature which -is so sparing of such models. Gina, when you have read the book, will -remain before your eyes like a sublime statue: it will be neither the -Venus de Milo, nor the Venus de' Medici; it will be Diana with the -voluptuousness of Venus, with the suavity of Raphael's Virgins, and the -movement of Italian passion. Above all, there is nothing French in the -Duchessa. Yes, the Frenchman who has modelled, chiselled, wrought this -marble, has left nothing on it of his native soil. _Corinne_, you must -realise, is a miserable sketch compared with this living, ravishing -creature. You will find her great, intellectual, passionate, always true -to life, and yet the author has carefully concealed her sensual aspect. -There is not in the work a single word that can make one think of the -pleasures of love or can inspire them. Although the Duchessa, Mosca, -Fabrizio, the Prince and his son, Clelia, although the book and its -characters are, in their different ways, passion with all its furies; -although it is Italy as it is, with its shrewdness, its dissimulation, -its cunning, its coolness, its tenacity, its higher policy in every -connexion. _La Chartreuse de Parme_ is more chaste than the most -puritanical of the novels of Walter Scott. To make a noble, majestic, -almost irreproachable character of a duchess who makes a Mosca happy, -and keeps nothing from him, is not that a masterpiece of fiction? The -_Phèdre_ of Racine, that sublime creation of the French stage, which -Jansenism did not venture to condemn, is not so beautiful, nor so -complete, nor so animated. - -Well, at the moment when everything is smiling on the Duchessa, when she -is amusing herself with this court life where a sudden storm is always -to be feared, when she is most tenderly attached to the Conte, who, -literally, is mad with happiness; when he has the patent and receives -the honours of Prime Minister _which come very near to those paid to the -Sovereign himself_, she says to him one day: - -"And Fabrizio?" - -The Conte then offers to obtain for her, from Austria, a pardon for this -dear nephew. - -"But, if he is somewhat superior to the young men who ride their English -thoroughbreds about the streets of Milan, what a life, at eighteen, to -be doing nothing with no prospect of ever having anything to do! If," -says Mosca, "heaven had endowed him with a real passion, were it only -for angling, I should respect it; but what is he to do at Milan, even -after he has obtained his pardon?" - -"I should like him to be an officer," says the Duchessa. - -"Would you advise a Sovereign," says Mosca, "to entrust a post which, at -a given date, may be of some importance, to a young man who has shown -enthusiasm, who, from Como, has gone to join Napoleon at Waterloo? A del -Dongo cannot be a merchant, nor a barrister, nor a doctor. You will cry -out in protest, but you will come in the end to agree with me. If -Fabrizio wishes it, he can quickly become Archbishop of Parma, one of -the highest dignities in Italy, and from that Cardinal. We have had at -Parma three del Dongo Archbishops, the Cardinal who wrote a book in -sixteen-something, Fabrizio in 1700 and Ascanio in 1750. Only, shall I -remain Minister long enough? That is the sole objection." - -After two months spent in discussion, the Duchessa, defeated on every -point by the Conte's observations, and rendered desperate by the -precarious position of a younger son of a Milanese family, utters one -day this profound Italian saying to her friend: - -"Prove to me again that every other career is impossible for Fabrizio." - -The Conte proves it. - -The Duchessa, susceptible to the thought of fame, sees no other way of -salvation, here below, for her dear Fabrizio, than the Church and its -high dignities, for the future of Italy lies in Rome, and nowhere else. -To anyone who has studied Italy carefully, it is clear that the unity of -government in that country, that its nationality will never be -re-established save by the hand of a Sixtus V. The Pope alone has the -power to stir and to reconstitute Italy. And so we see with what pains -the Austrian court has watched, for the last thirty years, the elections -of Popes, what aged imbeciles she has allowed to don the Triple Crown. -"Perish Catholicism sooner than my domination!" seems to be her guiding -motto. Miserly Austria would spend a million to prevent the election of -a Pope with French ideas. And then, if some fine Italian genius employed -sufficient dissimulation to put on the white cassock, he might die like -Ganganelli. There perhaps is to be found the secret of the refusals of -the Court of Rome, which has not chosen to accept the invigorating -potion, the elixir offered to it by men of fine ecclesiastical genius -from France: Borgia would not have failed to make them take their seat -among his devoted Cardinals. The author of the Bull _In coena Domini_ -would have understood the great Gallican idea, Catholic Democracy, he -would have adapted it to the circumstances. M. de Lamennais, that fallen -angel, would not then, in his Breton obstinacy, have abandoned the -Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church. - -So the Duchessa adopts this plan of the Conte. In this great woman there -is, as in great politicians, a moment of uncertainty, of hesitation -before a plan; but she never goes back upon her resolutions. The -Duchessa is always right in wishing what she has wished. Her -persistency, that strong quality of her imperious character, imparts an -element of terror to all the scenes of this fertile drama. - -Nothing could be more clever than the initiation of Fabrizio into his -future destiny. The lovers display to Fabrizio the chances of his life. -Fabrizio, a boy of astonishing intelligence, grasps everything at once -and has a vision of the tiara. The Conte does not pretend to make a -priest of him of the sort one sees everywhere in Italy. Fabrizio is a -great gentleman, he can remain perfectly ignorant if it seems good to -him, and will none the less become Archbishop. Fabrizio refuses to lead -the life of the caffè, he has a horror of poverty, and realises that he -cannot be a soldier. When he speaks of going and becoming an American -citizen (we are in 1817), he has explained to him the dulness of life in -America, without smartness, without music, without love affairs, without -war, the cult of the god Dollar, and the respect due to artisans, to the -masses who by their votes decide everything. Fabrizio has a horror of -_mobocracy_. - -At the voice of the great diplomat, who shows him life as it really is, -the young man's illusions take flight. He had not understood what is -incomprehensible to young people, the "_Surtout pas de zèle_!" of M. de -Talleyrand. - -"Remember," Mosca says to him, "that a proclamation, a caprice of the -heart flings the enthusiast into the bosom of the party opposed to his -own future sympathies." - -What a phrase![2] - -The instructions given by the Minister to the neophyte who is to return -to Parma only as a _Monsignore_, in violet stockings, and whom he sends -to Naples to complete his studies with letters of recommendation to the -Archbishop there, one of his clever friends; these instructions, given -in the Duchessa's drawing-room, during a game of cards, are admirable. A -single quotation will show you the fineness of the perceptions, the -science of life which the author gives to this great character. - -"Believe or not, as you choose, what they teach you, _but never raise -any objection_. Imagine that they are teaching you the rules of the game -of whist; would you raise any objection to the rules of whist? And once -you knew and had adopted those rules, would you not wish to win? Do not -fall into the vulgar habit of speaking with horror of Voltaire, Diderot, -Raynal and all those harebrained Frenchmen who have brought us that -foolish government by Two Chambers. Speak of them with a calm irony, -they are people who have long since been refuted. You will be forgiven a -little amorous intrigue, if it is done in the proper way, but they would -take note of your objections: age stifles intrigue but encourages doubt. -Believe everything, do not yield to the temptation to shine; be morose: -discerning eyes will see your cleverness in yours and it will be time -enough to be witty when you are an Archbishop!" - -The astonishing and fine superiority of Mosca is never lacking, either -in action or in speech; it makes this book one as profound, from page to -page, as the _Maxims_ of La Rochefoucauld. And observe that their -passion leads the Conte and Duchessa to make mistakes, they are obliged -to bring their talent into play to atone for them. To another man who -had consulted him, the Conte would have explained the misfortunes that -would await him at Parma after the death of Ernesto IV. But his passion -has made him completely blind to his own interests. Talent alone can -make you discover this poignant touch of comedy for yourself. Great -politicians are nothing more, after all, than equilibrists who, if they -do not take care, see their finest edifice come crashing to the ground. -Richelieu was only saved from his peril, on the Day of the Dupes, by the -broth of the Queen Mother, who refused to go to Saint-Germain without -having taken the _lait de poule_ which preserved her complexion. The -Duchessa and Mosca live by a perpetual expenditure of all their -faculties; and so the reader who follows the spectacle of their life is -kept in a trance, through chapter after chapter, so well are the -difficulties of this existence set before him, so cleverly are they -explained. Finally, let us note well, these crises, these terrible -scenes are woven into the substance of the book: the flowers are not -stitched on, they are of the same substance as the rest. - -"We must keep our love secret," the Duchessa says sadly to her lover, on -the day on which she has guessed that his struggle with the Prince has -begun. - -When, to outact his acting, she lets Ernesto IV gather that she is only -moderately in love with the Conte, she gives him a day of happiness; but -the Prince is shrewd, he sees sooner or later that he has been tricked. -And his disappointment adds violence to the storm brought about by her -ill-wishers. - -This great work could not have been conceived or executed save by a man -of fifty, in the full vigour of his age and in the maturity of all his -talents. One sees perfection in every detail. The character of the -Prince is drawn by the hand of a master, and is, as I have told you, -_The Prince_. One conceives him admirably, as a man and as sovereign. -This man might be at the head of the Russian Empire, he would be capable -of ruling it, he would be great; but the man would remain what he is, -liable to vanity, to jealousy, to passion. In the seventeenth-century, -at Versailles, he would be Louis XIV and would avenge himself on the -Duchessa, as did Louis XIV on Fouquet. Criticism can find no fault in -the greatest or in the smallest character; they are all what they ought -to be. There is life and especially the life of courts, not drawn in -caricature, as Hoffmann has tried to draw it, but seriously and -ironically. Finally, this book explains to you admirably all that Louis -XIII's _camarilla_ made Richelieu suffer. This work applied to vast -interests like those of the cabinet of Louis XIV, of Pitt's cabinet, of -Napoleon's cabinet or of the Russian cabinet, would have been impossible -owing to the prolixities and explanations which so many veiled interests -would have required; whereas you get a comprehensive view of the State -of Parma; and Parma enables you to understand, _mutato nomine_, the -intrigues of the most exalted court. Things were like this tinder the -Borgia Pope, at the court of Tiberius, at the court of Philip II: they -must be like this also at the court of Peking! - -Let us enter into the terrible Italian drama which has been slowly and -logically preparing itself in a charming manner. I spare you the details -of the court and its original figures; the Princess who thinks it her -duty to be unhappy, because the Prince has his Pompadour; the Heir -Apparent who is kept caged; the Princess Isotta, the Chamberlain, the -Minister of the Interior, the Governor of the Citadel, Fabio Conti. One -cannot afford to take the least thing lightly. If, like the Duchessa, -Fabrizio and Mosca, you accept the court of Parma, you play your game of -whist and your interests are at stake. When the Prime Minister thinks -that he has fallen from power, he says quite seriously: - -"When our guests have gone, we can decide on a way of barricading -ourselves for the night; the best plan would be to set off while they're -dancing for your place at Sacca, by the Po, from where in twenty minutes -one can get into Austria." - -Indeed the Duchessa, the Minister, every Parmesan subject is liable to -end his days in the citadel. - -When the Prince confesses his desires to the Duchessa and she in reply -asks him: - -"How should we ever lode Mosca in the face again, that man of genius and -heart?" - -"I have thought of that," says the Prince: "we should never look him in -the face again! The citadel waits." - -The Sanseverina does not fail to repeat this saying to Mosca, who puts -his affairs in order. - -Four years elapse. - -The Minister, who has not allowed Fabrizio to come to Parma during these -four years, permits him to reappear there when the Pope has created him -Monsignore, a kind of dignity which entitles him to wear violet -stockings. Fabrizio has nobly answered the expectations of his political -master. At Naples he has had mistresses, he has had the passion for -archeology, he has sold his horses to make excavations, he has behaved -well, he has aroused no jealousy, he may become Pope. What delights him -most about his return to Parma is the thought of being delivered from -the attentions of the charming Duchessa d'A----. His governor, who has -made him an educated man, receives a Cross and a pension. Fabrizio's -first appearance at Parma, his arrival, his various presentations at -court, form the highest comedy of manners, character and intrigue that -one can read anywhere. At more than one point, the better class of -reader will lay down this book on his table to say to himself: - -"Heavens! How good this is, how exquisitely arranged, how deep!" - -He will meditate upon words like the following, for instance, upon which -Princes ought to meditate well for their own good: _People with brains -who are born on the throne or at the foot of it soon lose all fineness -of touch; they proscribe, in their immediate circle, freedom of -conversation which seems to them coarseness, they refuse to look at -anything but masks and pretend to judge the beauty of complexions; the -amusing part of it is that they imagine their touch to be of the -finest_. - -Here begin the Duchessa's ingenuous passion for Fabrizio, and Mosca's -torments. Fabrizio is a diamond that has lost nothing by being polished. -Gina, who had sent him to Naples a devil-may-care young rough-rider, -whose horsewhip seemed to be an inherent part of his person, sees him -now with a noble and confident bearing before strangers, and in private -the same fire of youth. - -"This nephew," Mosca tells his mistress, "is made to adorn all the -exalted posts." But the great diplomat, attentive at first to Fabrizio, -turns to look at the Duchessa and notices _a curious look in her eyes_. -"I am in my fifties," he reflects. - -The Duchessa is so happy that she does not give the Conte a thought. -This profound effect, made on Mosca by a single glance, is irremediable. - -When Ranuccio-Ernesto IV guesses that the aunt loves the nephew a little -more warmly than the laws of consanguinity permit, which at Parma is -incest, he is at the pinnacle of happiness. He writes his Minister an -anonymous letter on the subject. When he is sure that Mosca has read it, -he sends for him, without giving him time to call first on the Duchessa, -and keeps him on the rack throughout a conversation full of princely -friendliness and hypocrisy. Certainly the pangs of love causing a fine -heart to bleed always make an effective scene; but this heart is -Italian, this is the heart of a man of genius, and I know nothing that -grips me so as the chapter on Mosca's jealousy. - -Fabrizio does not love his aunt; he adores her as an aunt, she inspires -no longing in him as a woman; nevertheless, in their Conversations, a -gesture, a word may make youth break out, the least thing may then make -his aunt leave Parma, because riches, honours are nothing to her who, -once already, before the eyes of all Milan, has managed to live on a -third floor, with an income of fifteen hundred francs. The future -Archbishop sees an abyss open before him. The Prince is as happy as a -king, while waiting for a catastrophe to destroy the private happiness -of his dear Minister. Mosca, the great Mosca, weeps like a child. The -prudence of this dear Fabrizio, who understands Mosca and understands -his aunt, prevents any disaster. The Monsignore makes himself fall in -love with a little Marietta, an actress of the lowest grade, a columbine -who has her harlequin, a certain Giletti, formerly one of Napoleon's -dragoons, and a fencing master, a man horrible in mind and body, who -devours Marietta, beats her, steals her blue shawls and all her -earnings. - -Mosca breathes again. The Prince is uneasy, his prey is escaping, he -could hold the Sanseverina by her nephew, and now the nephew turns out a -profound politician! In spite of Marietta, the Duchessa's passion is so -artless, her familiarities are so dangerous, that Fabrizio, to restore -tranquillity, proposes to the Conte, who also is an antiquarian and is -engaged on excavations, to go down to the country and superintend the -work. The Minister adores Fabrizio. The company which includes Marietta, -her _mammaccia_--a figure drawn in four pages with an astounding truth -and depth of character--and Giletti, the whole motley crew, leave Parma. -This trio, Giletti, the _mammaccia_ and Marietta come along the road -while Fabrizio is shooting. There follows an encounter between the -dragoon, who seeks, in an access of Italian vanity, to kill the -_black-frock_, and Fabrizio, who is amazed at seeing Marietta on the -road. This accidental duel becomes serious when Fabrizio sees that -Giletti, who has only one eye, is trying to disfigure him: he kills him. -Giletti was plainly the aggressor, the workmen engaged on the -excavations saw everything, Fabrizio realises all the capital that the -Raversi faction and the Liberals will make out of this ridiculous -adventure against himself, the Ministers, his aunt; he takes flight, he -crosses the Po. Thanks to the clever assistance of Lodovico, an old -servant of the Sanseverina household, a fellow who writes sonnets, he -finds shelter and reaches Bologna, where he sees Marietta again. -Lodovico becomes fanatically attached to Fabrizio. This retired coachman -is one of the most complete of the figures of the second magnitude. -Fabrizio's flight, the scenery by the Po, the descriptions of famous -places through which the young prelate passes, his adventures during his -exile from Parma, his correspondence with the Archbishop, another -character admirably drawn, the smallest details are of a literary -execution that bears the hall-mark of genius. And all is so Italian as -to make one take the coach and fly to Italy, there to seek this drama -and this poetry. The reader becomes Fabrizio. - -During this absence, Fabrizio goes to revisit his native scenes, the -Lake of Como and the paternal castle, despite the dangers of his -position with regard to Austria, at that time very strict. We are in -1821, a time when a passport was not to be treated lightly. The prelate -recognised as Fabrizio del Dongo may be sent to the Spielberg. In this -part of the book the author completes the portrait of a fine head, that -of a Priore Blanès, a simple village curate, who adores Fabrizio and -cultivates the study of judicial astrology. This portrait is done so -seriously, there shines from it so great a faith in the occult sciences, -that the satire of which those sciences--to which we shall return and -which do not rest, as has been supposed, upon false foundations--might -naturally be the object dies away on the lips of the incredulous. I do -not know what the author's opinion may be, but he justifies that of the -Priore Blanès. Priore Blanès is a character who is true in Italy. The -truth of him can be felt, just as one can tell whether one of Titian's -heads is the portrait of a Venetian gentleman or a fancy. - -The Prince orders the preparation of the case against Fabrizio, and in -this task the genius of Rassi is revealed. The Fiscal General sends the -witnesses for the defence out of the country, purchases evidence for the -prosecution, and, as he impudently informs the Prince, produces out of -this foolish affair--the death inflicted on a Giletti by a del Dongo, in -self-defence, by a del Dongo who had received the first blow!--a -sentence of detention for twenty years in the fortress. The Prince would -have liked a death sentence, in order to exercise clemency and so -humiliate the Sanseverina. - -"But," says Rassi, "I have done better than that, I have broken his -neck, his career is barred to him for ever. The Vatican can do nothing -more for a murderer." - -So the Prince holds the Sanseverina in his clutches at last! Ah! It is -then that the Duchessa becomes superb, that the court of Parma is -agitated, that the lights go up on the drama, which assumes gigantic -proportions. One of the finest scenes in modern fiction is, certainly, -that in which the Sanseverina comes to pay her farewell to the Sovereign -and presents him with an ultimatum. The scene of Elizabeth, Amy and -Leicester in _Kenilworth_ is no greater, more dramatic nor more -terrible. The tiger is braved in his den: the serpent is caught, in vain -does he writhe his coils and beg for pity, the woman crushes him. Gina -desires, dictates, obtains from the Prince a rescript annulling the -proceedings. She does not seek a pardon, the Prince will state that the -proceedings are unjust and shall have no consequences in the future, -which is an absurd thing to expect of an absolute Sovereign. This -absurdity she demands, she obtains it. Mosca is magnificent in this -scene where the lovers are alternately saved, lost, in peril for a -gesture, a word, a glance! - -In every walk of life, artists have an invincible self-respect, a sense -of their art, a professional conscience which is ineradicable from the -man. One does not corrupt, one never succeeds in buying this conscience. -The actor who wishes most harm to his theatre or to an author will never -play a part badly. The chemist, called in to look for arsenic in a body, -will find it if there is any there. The writer, the painter, are always -faithful to their genius, even at the foot of the scaffold. This does -not exist in woman. The universe is the stepping-stone of her passion. -And so woman is greater and finer than man in this respect. Woman is -passion; man is action. If this were not so, man would not adore woman. -And so it is in the social circle of the court, which gives the greatest -flight to her passion, that woman sheds her most brilliant radiance. Her -finest stage is the world of Absolute Power. That is why there are no -longer any women in France. Now Conte Mosca suppresses, from a trace of -ministerial self-respect, in the Prince's rescript, the words on which -the Duchessa depends. The Prince imagines that his Minister considers -him before the Sanseverina, and casts a glance at him which the reader -intercepts. Mosca, like a true statesman, will not countersign a stupid -thing, that is all: the Prince is mistaken. In the intoxication of her -triumph, rejoicing that she has saved Fabrizio, the Duchessa, who trusts -in Mosca, does not peruse the rescript. She was thought to be ruined, -she had made all preparations for her departure in the face of Parma, -she returns from the court having effected a revolution. Mosca was -thought to be in disgrace. Fabrizio's sentence was taken as an insult by -the Prince to the Duchessa and Minister. Not at all, the Raversi is -banished. The Prince laughs, he is holding his vengeance in reserve: -this woman who has humiliated him, he is going to make die of grief. - -The Marchesa Raversi, instead of composing Ovidian _Tristia_, like -everyone who is banished from a court where he or she handled the reins -of power, sets to work. She guesses what has happened in the Prince's -cabinet, she extracts his secrets from Rassi, who allows her to do so; -he is aware of the Prince's intentions. The Marchesa has some letters -written by the Duchessa, she sends her lover to the galleys at Genoa to -get a letter forged from the Duchessa to Fabrizio, telling him of her -triumph, and appointing a meeting at her country house. Sacca, close to -the Po, a delicious spot where the Duchessa always spends the summer. -Poor Fabrizio hastens there, he is caught, they put handcuffs on him, he -is shut up in the citadel, and while they are shutting him up, he -recognises the daughter of the governor, Fabio Conti, the lovely and -sublime Clelia, for whom he is to feel that eternal love that gives no -respite. - -Fabrizio del Dongo, her nephew, he whom she adores, in the most -honourable fashion, in the citadel! . . . Imagine the Duchessa's -feelings! She learns of Mosca's mistake. She will not see Mosca again. -There is only Fabrizio now in the world! Once inside that terrible -fortress, he may die there, die there by poison! - -This is the Prince's system: a fortnight of terror, a fortnight of hope. -And he will handle this fiery steed, this proud soul, this Sanseverina -whose triumphs and happiness, though necessary to the brilliance of his -court, were insulting to his inner man. Played on in this way, the -Sanseverina will become thin, old and ugly: he will knead her like -dough. - -This terrible duel in which the Duchessa has inflicted the first wound, -piercing her adversary to the heart but without killing him, in which -she will receive for the next year a fresh wound daily, is the most -powerful thing that the genius of the modern novel has invented. - -Let us turn now to Fabrizio in prison, and so come to my analysis of -that chapter, which is one of the diamonds on this crown. - -The episode of the robbers in Lewis's _Monk_, his _Anaconda_, which is -his best book, the interest of the last volumes by Mrs. Radcliffe, the -thrilling vicissitudes in the Red Indian romances of Cooper, all the -extraordinary things I know in the narratives of travels and prisoners, -none of these can compare with the confinement of Fabrizio in the -fortress of Parma, three hundred and something feet above the ground. -This terrifying abode is a Vaucluse: he makes love there to Clelia, he -is happy there, he displays the ingenuity of prisoners, and he prefers -his prison to the most enchanting spot that the world has to offer. The -Bay of Naples is beautiful only through the eyes of Lamartine's Elvire; -but, in the eyes of a Clelia, in the trills of her voice, there are -whole universes. The author depicts, as he knows how to depict, by -little incidents which have the eloquence of Shakespearean action, the -progress of the love between these two fair creatures, amid the dangers -of an imminent death by poison. This part of the book will be read with -halting breath, straining throat, avid eyes by all those readers who -have imagination, or simply hearts. Everything in it is perfect, rapid, -real, without any improbability or strain. There you find passion in all -its glory, its rendings, its hopes, its melancholies, its returns, its -abatements, its inspirations, the only ones that equal those of genius. -Nothing has been forgotten. You will read there an encyclopædia of all -the resources of the prisoner; his marvellous languages for which he -makes use of nature, the means by which he gives life to a song and -meaning to a sound. Read in prison, this book is capable of killing a -prisoner, or of making him tunnel through his walls. - -While Fabrizio is inspiring love and feeling it, during the most -engrossing scenes of the drama inside the prison, there is, you must -understand, a fight to the death going on outside the fortress. The -Prince, the governor, Rassi, attempt to poison him. Fabrizio's death is -determined upon at a moment when the Prince's vanity is mortally -wounded. The charming Clelia, the most delicious figure you could see in -a dream, then reveals the extent of her love by helping Fabrizio to -escape, although his rescuers have nearly killed her father, the -General. - -At this crisis in the book, we understand all the incidents that have -gone before. Without those adventures in which we have seen the people, -in which we have watched them acting, nothing would be intelligible, -everything would seem false and impossible. - -Let us return to the Duchessa. The courtiers, the Raversi party triumph -in the griefs of this noble woman. Her calm is killing the Prince, and -no one can explain it to him. Mosca himself does not understand it. -Here, we see that Mosca, great as he is, is inferior to this woman who, -at this moment, seems to you to be the genius of Italy. Profound is her -dissimulation, bold are her plans. As for her revenge, it will be -complete. The Prince has been too greatly offended, she sees him -implacable: between them, the duel is to the death; but the Duchessa's -vengeance would be impotent, imperfect, if she allowed Ranuccio-Ernesto -IV to take Fabrizio from her by poison. Fabrizio must be set at liberty. -This attempt seems literally impossible to every reader, so carefully -has tyranny taken its precautions, so deeply has it involved the -governor, Fabio Conti, whose honour is at stake if he does not guard his -prisoners. - -There is in this man something of Hudson Lowe, but of a Hudson Lowe -magnified to the tenth degree; he is Italian, and wishes to avenge the -Raversi for the disgrace that the Duchessa has brought on her. Gina -fears nothing. This is why: - -"The lover thinks more often of penetrating to his mistress's chamber -than the husband of guarding his wife; the prisoner thinks more often of -escaping than the gaoler of shutting his door; therefore, in spite of -the obstacles in their way, the lover and the prisoner must succeed in -the end." - -She will help him! Oh, what a fine painting of this Italian in despair, -who cannot flee from this abhorrent court! "Come," she says to herself, -"_forward, unhappy woman_" (we weep as we read this great feminine -utterance), "do your duty, pretend to forget Fabrizio!" "_Forget him_!" -the word saves her: she has not been able to shed a tear until this -word. Then the Duchessa conspires, she conspires with the Prime -Minister, whom she has ostensibly banished in disgrace, but who would -set Parma on fire and deluge it with blood for her, who would kill -everyone, the Prince even. This true lover realises that he is in the -wrong, he is the most wretched of men. Alas! What a feeble excuse! He -did not believe his master to be so false, so cowardly, so cruel. And so -he admits that his mistress is entitled to be implacable. He finds it -natural that Fabrizio should be, at this moment, everything in the world -to her, he has that weakness of great men for their mistresses which -leads them to understand even the infidelity which may mean their death. -The enamoured veteran is sublime! He says but one word to himself, in -the scene when Gina has made him come to her for their rupture. A single -night has ravaged the Duchessa. - -"Great God!" exclaims Mosca to himself, "she looks all her forty years -to-day!" - -What a book is this in which one finds these cries of passion, these -profound diplomatic sayings, and on every page. Note this as well: you -will not meet in this book those extra flourishes, so aptly named -_tartines_. No, the characters act, reflect, feel, and always the drama -sweeps on. Never does the poet, a dramatist in his ideas, stoop in his -path to pick the smallest flower, everything has the rapidity of a -dithyramb. - -Let us proceed! The Duchessa is ravishing in her admissions to Mosca, -and sublime in her despair. Finding her so changed, he supposes her to -be ill, and wishes to send for Razori, the leading doctor in Parma and -in Italy. - -"Is that the counsel of a traitor or of a friend?" she asks. "You wish -to convey to a stranger the measure of my despair!" - -"I am lost," thinks the Conte, "she no longer includes me even among the -common men of honour." - -"Bear in mind," the Duchessa tells him with the most imperious air, -"that I am not distressed by the capture of Fabrizio, that I have not -the least shadow of a desire to go away, that I am full of respect for -the Prince. As for yourself: I intend to have the entire control of my -own behaviour, I wish to part from you as an old and good friend. -Consider that I have reached sixty, the young woman is dead. With -Fabrizio in prison, I am incapable of love. Finally, I should be the -unhappiest woman in the world were I to compromise your future. If you -see me making a show of having a young lover, do not let yourself be -distressed by that. I can swear to you, by Fabrizio's future happiness, -that I have never been guilty of the slightest infidelity towards you, -and that in five whole years . . . that is a long time!" she says, -trying to smile. "I swear to you that I have never either planned or -wished such a thing. Now you understand that, leave me." - -The Conte goes, he spends two days and two nights in thought. - -"Great heavens!" he at length exclaims, "the Duchessa never said a word -to me about an escape; can she have been wanting in sincerity for once -in her life, and is the motive of her quarrel only a desire that I -should betray the Prince? No sooner said than done." - -Did I not tell you that this book was a masterpiece, and can you not see -it for yourself, merely from this rough analysis? - -The Minister, after this discovery, treads the ground as if he were a -boy of fifteen, takes a new lease of life. He is going to seduce Rassi -from the Prince, and make him his own creature. - -"Rassi," he says to himself, "is paid by his master to carry out the -sentences that disgrace us throughout Europe, but he will not refuse to -let himself be paid by me to betray his master's secrets. He has a -mistress and a confessor. The mistress is of so low an order that the -market woman would know the whole story by to-morrow morning." - -He goes to say his prayers at the cathedral and to find the Archbishop. - -"What sort of man is Dugnani, the Vicar of San Paolo?" he asks him. - -"A small mind with great ambition, few scruples and extreme poverty; for -we too have our vices!" says the Archbishop, raising his eyes to heaven. - -The Minister cannot help laughing at the analytical depth reached by -true piety combined with honesty. He sends for the priest and says to -him only: - -"You direct the conscience of my friend the Fiscal General; are you sure -he has nothing to tell me?" - -The Conte is prepared to stake everything: there is only one thing that -he wishes to know, the moment at which Fabrizio will be in danger of -death, and he does not propose to interfere with the Duchessa's plans. -His interview with Rassi is a capital scene. This is how the Conte -begins, adopting the tone of the most lofty impertinence: - -"What, sir, you carry off from Bologna a conspirator who is under my -protection; more than that, you propose to cut off his head, and you say -nothing to me about it. Do you know the name of my successor? Is it -General Conti or yourself?" - -The Minister and Fiscal agree upon a plan which allows them to retain -their respective positions. I must leave to you the pleasure of reading -the admirable details of this continuous web in which the author drives -a hundred characters abreast without being more embarrassed than a -skilful coachman is by the reins of a ten-horse coach. Everything is in -its place, there is not the slightest confusion. You see everything, the -town and the court. The drama is amazing in its skill, its execution, -its clearness. The air plays over the picture, not a character is -superfluous. Lodovico, who on many occasions has proved that he is an -honest Figaro, is the Duchessa's right arm. He plays a fine part, he -will be well rewarded. - -The time has now come to speak to you of one of the subordinate -characters who is shown in colossal proportions, and to whom frequent -reference is made in the book, namely Ferrante Palla, a Liberal doctor -under sentence of death who is wandering through Italy, where he -performs his task of propaganda. - -Ferrante Palla is a great poet, like Silvio Pellico, but he is what -Pellico is not, a Radical Republican. Let us not concern ourselves with -the faith of this man. He has faith, he is the Saint Paul of the -Republic, a martyr of Young Italy, he is a sublime work of art like the -_Saint Bartholomew_ at Milan, like Foyatier's _Spartacus_, like Marius -pondering over the ruins of Carthage. Everything that he does, -everything that he says is sublime. He has the conviction, the grandeur, -the passion of the believer. However high you may place, in execution, -in conception, in reality, the Prince, the Minister, the Duchessa, -Ferrante Palla, this superb statue, set in a corner of the picture, -commands your gaze, compels your admiration. In spite of your opinions, -constitutional, monarchical or religious, he subjugates you. Greater -than his own misfortunes, preaching Italy from the hollow shelter of his -caves, without bread for his mistress and their five children; -committing highway robbery to maintain them, and keeping a note of the -sums stolen and the persons robbed so as to restore to them this forced -loan to the Republic when he shall have the power to do so; stealing -moreover in order to print his pamphlets entitled: _The necessity for a -budget in Italy_! Ferrante Palla is the type of a family of minds to be -found in Italy, sincere but misguided, full of talent but ignorant of -the fatal results of their doctrine. Send them with plenty of gold to -France and to the United States, as Ministers of Absolute Princes! -Instead of persecuting them, let them acquire enlightenment, these true -men, full of great and exquisite qualities. They will say like Alfieri -in 1793: "Little men, at work, reconcile me to the great." - -I praise with all the more enthusiasm this creation of Ferrante Palla, -having caressed the same figure myself. If I have the trifling advantage -over M. Beyle of priority, I am inferior to him in execution. I have -perceived this inward drama, so great, so powerful, of the stern and -conscientious Republican in love with a Duchess who holds to Absolute -Power. My Michel Chrestien, in love with the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, -could not stand out with the relief of Ferrante Palla, a lover after the -style of Petrarch of the Duchessa Sanseverina. Italy and its customs, -Italy and its scenery, the perils, the starvation of Ferrante Palla are -far more attractive than the meagre details of Parisian civilisation. -Although Michel Chrestien dies at Saint-Merry and Ferrante Palla escapes -to the United States after his crimes, Italian passion is far superior -to French passion, and the events of this episode add to their Apennine -savour an interest with which it is useless to compete. In a period when -everything is levelled more easily under the uniform of the National -Guard and the _Bourgeois_ law than under the steel triangle of the -Republic, literature is essentially lacking, in France, in those great -obstacles between lovers which used to be the source of fresh beauties, -of new situations, and which made subjects dramatic. And so it was -difficult for the serious paradox of the passion of a Radical for a -great lady to escape trained pens. - -In no book, unless it be _Old Mortality_, is there to be found a figure -of an energy comparable to that which M. Beyle has given to Ferrante -Palla, whose name exercises a sort of compulsion over the imagination. -Between Balfour of Burley and Ferrante Palla, I have no hesitation, I -choose Ferrante Palla; the design is the same; but Walter Scott, great -colourist as he may be, has not the thrilling, warm colour, as of -Titian, which M. Beyle has spread over his character. Ferrante Palla is -a whole poem in himself, a poem superior to Lord Byron's _Corsair_. "Ah! -That is how people love!" is what all M. Beyle's feminine readers will -say to themselves on reading this sublime and most reprehensible -episode. - -Ferrante Palla has the most impenetrable of retreats in the -neighbourhood of Sacca. He has often seen the Duchessa, he has fallen -passionately in love with her. The Duchessa has met him, has been moved. -Ferrante Palla has told her everything, as though in the presence of -God. He knows that the Duchessa loves Mosca, his own love therefore is -hopeless. There is something touching in the Italian grace with which -the Duchessa lets him give himself the pleasure of kissing the white -hands of a woman with blue blood. He has not clasped a white hand for -seven years, and this poet adores beautiful white hands. His mistress, -whom he no longer loves, does the heavy work, makes clothes for the -children, and he cannot desert a woman who will not leave him, -notwithstanding the most appalling poverty. These obligations of an -honest man become apparent. The Duchessa has compassion for everything, -like a true Madonna. She has offered him his pardon! Ah, but Ferrante -Palla has, like Carl Sand, his own little sentences to enforce; he has -his preaching, his journeyings to rekindle the zeal of Young Italy. - -"All those scoundrels, who do so much harm to the people, would live for -long years," he says, "and whose fault would that be? What would my -father say when I meet him in heaven!" - -She then proposes to provide for the needs of the woman and her -children, and give him an undiscoverable hiding-place in the _palazzo_ -Sanseverina. - -The _palazzo_ Sanseverina includes an immense reservoir, built in the -middle ages with a view to prolonged sieges, and capable of supplying -the town with water for a year. Part of the _palazzo_ is built over this -immense structure. The dapple-grey Duca spent the night after their -marriage in telling his wife the secret of the reservoir and of its -hiding-place. An enormous stone which moves on a pivot will let all the -water escape and flood the streets of Parma. In one of the thick walls -of the reservoir there is a chamber without light and without much air, -which no one would ever suspect; you would have to pull down the -reservoir to find it. - -Ferrante Palla accepts the hiding-place for evil days, and refuses the -Duchessa's money; he has made a vow never to have more than a hundred -francs on him. At the moment when she offers him her sequins, he has -money; but he lets himself go so far as to accept one sequin. - -"I take this sequin, because I love you," he says; "but I am on the -wrong side of my hundred by five francs, and, if they were to hang me -this minute, I should feel remorse." - -"He does really love," the Duchessa says to herself. - -Is not that the simplicity of Italy, taken from life? Molière, writing -a novel to describe this people, the only one except the Arabs that has -preserved its reverence for vows, could do nothing finer. - -Ferrante Palla becomes the Duchessa's other arm in her conspiracy, and -is a terrible weapon, his energy makes one shudder! Here is the scene -that occurs one evening in the _palazzo_ Sanseverina. The lion of the -people has emerged from his retreat. He enters for the first time rooms -ablaze with regal splendour. He finds there his mistress, his idol, the -idol whom he has set above Young Italy, above the Republic and the -welfare of humanity; he sees her distressed, tears in her eyes! The -Prince has snatched from her him whom she loves best in the world, he -has basely deceived her, and this _tyrant_ holds the sword of Damocles -over the beloved head. - -"What is happening here," says this sublime Republican Don Quixote, "is -an injustice of which the Tribune of the People ought to take note. On -the other hand, as a private citizen, I can give the Signora Duchessa -Sanseverina nothing but my life, and I lay it at her feet. The creature -you see at your feet is not a puppet of the court, he is a man.--She has -wept in my presence," he says to himself, "she is less unhappy." - -"Think of the risk you are running," says the Duchessa. - -"The Tribune will answer you: 'What is life when the voice of duty -speaks?' The man will say to you: 'Here is a body of iron and a heart -that fears nothing in the world but your displeasure.'" - -"If you speak to me of your feelings," says the Duchessa, "I shall not -see you again." - -Ferrante Palla departs sadly. - -Am I mistaken? Are they not as fine as Corneille, these dialogues? And, -remember, such passages abound, they are all, after their kind, at the -same high level. Struck by the beauty of this character, the Duchessa -prepares a written document providing for the future of Ferrante's -mistress and his five children, without saying anything to him, for she -is afraid that he may let himself be killed on learning that his -dependents have had this provision made for them. - -Finally, on the day when the whole of Parma is discussing the probable -death of Fabrizio, the Tribune braves every danger. He enters the -_palazzo_ at night, he arrives disguised as a Capuchin in the Duchessa's -presence; he finds her drowned in tears and voiceless: she greets him -with her hand and points to a chair. Palla prostrates himself, prays to -God, so divine does her beauty seem to him, and breaks off his prayer to -say: - -"Once again _he_ offers his life." - -"Think of what you are saying!" cries the Duchessa with that haggard eye -which shews more clearly than sobs that anger is mastering affection. - -"He offers his life to place all obstacle in the way of Fabrizio's fate -or to avenge it." - -"If I were to accept!" she says, gazing at him. - -She sees the joy of martyrdom flash in Palla's eye. She rises, goes to -look for the deed of gift prepared a month back, for Ferrante's mistress -and children. - -"Read this!" - -He reads it and falls on his knees, he sobs, he almost dies of joy. - -"Give me back the paper," says the Duchessa. - -She burns it over a candle. - -"My name," she tells him, "must not appear. If you are taken and -executed, if you are weak, I may be also, and Fabrizio would be in -danger. I wish you to sacrifice yourself." - -"I will perform the task faithfully, punctually and prudently." - -"If I am discovered and convicted," the Duchessa goes on proudly, "I -do not wish to be accused of having corrupted you. Do not put him to -death until I give the signal. That signal will be the flooding of the -streets of Parma, of which you are bound to hear." - -Ferrante, delighted by the Duchessa's tone of authority, takes his -leave. When he has gone, the Duchessa calls him back. - -"Ferrante, sublime man!" - -He returns. - -"And your children?" - -"Bah! You will provide for them." - -"Look, here are my diamonds." - -And she gives him a little olive-wood box. - -"They are worth fifty thousand francs." - -"Oh! Signora!" says Ferrante with a start of horror, "I may perhaps not -see you again. Take them, it is my wish." - -Ferrante leaves her. The door closes behind him, the Duchessa again -calls him back. He sees her standing there, he comes back uneasily. The -great Sanseverina throws herself into his arms. Ferrante is on the point -of fainting. She allows him to kiss her, frees herself from his embrace -when he threatens to become disrespectful, and shews him the door. - -She remains standing for some time and says to herself. - -"That is the one man who has understood me; Fabrizio would be like that -if he could only know me." - -I cannot lay too much stress on the merit of this scene. M. Beyle is not -in the least a preacher. He does not urge you on to regicide, he gives -you a fact, states it as it occurred. No one, not even a Republican, -feels the desire to kill a tyrant on reading it. It is the play of -private passions, that is all. It is a question of a duel which requires -extraordinary, but equally matched arms. The Duchessa makes use of Palla -to poison the Prince as the Prince makes use of one of Fabrizio's -enemies to poison Fabrizio. One can avenge oneself on a king, Coriolanus -avenged himself well on his country, Beaumarchais and Mirabeau avenged -themselves well on their period which despised them. This is not moral, -but the author has told you of it, and washes his hands of it as Tacitus -washes his of the crimes of Tiberius. "I am inclined to believe," he -says, "that the immoral delight in taking revenge which one finds in -Italy springs from the strength of imagination of that race; other races -do not forgive, they forget." Thus the moralist explains this energetic -people among whom we find so many inventors, who have the richest, the -finest imagination, with its accompanying drawbacks. This reflexion is -more profound than it appears at a first reading, it explains the -rhetorical stupidities which weigh down the Italians, the only race that -is comparable to the French, a race superior to the Russians or the -English, whose genius has the feminine fibre, that delicacy, that -majesty which make it in many respects superior to all other races. From -this point the Duchessa regains her advantage over the Prince. Hitherto, -she was weak and tricked in this great duel; Mosca, prompted by his -courtier's spirit, had been acting as second to the Prince. Now that her -revenge is assured, Gina feels her strength. Each step that her thoughts -take gives her happiness, she can play her part. The Tribune's courage -heightens hers. Lodovico is electrified by her. These three -conspirators, on whom Mosca shuts his eyes, while leaving his police -free to act against them if they notice anything, arrive at the most -extraordinary result. - -The Minister has been the dupe of his mistress, he fully believed -himself to be in disgrace, as he deserved. If he had not been thoroughly -taken in, he could never have played the part of a forlorn lover, for -happiness admits of no concealment. That fire of the heart has its -smoke. But, after the fascination of Ferrante by the Duchessa, her joy -enlightens the Minister, he at last guesses her purpose, without knowing -how far she has gone. - -Fabrizio's escape borders on the miraculous. It has required so much -physical strength and such an exercise of intelligence, that the dear -boy is on the point of death: the scent of his aunt's clothing and -handkerchief revives him. This slight detail, which is not forgotten -among a thousand other incidents, will delight those who are in love: it -is placed, as might be placed in a finale a melody which recalls the -sweetest elements of the life of love. All precautions have been -carefully taken, there is no indiscretion: Conte Mosca, who is present -in person at the expedition with more than two dozen spies, does not -receive a single report of it as Minister. - -"Now I'm committing high treason," he says to himself, blind with joy. - -Everyone has understood his orders without a word said, and escapes in -his own way. The business finished, each head has to think of and for -itself. Lodovico is the courier, he crosses the Po. Ah! When Fabrizio is -out of the reach of his crowned assassin, the Duchessa, who until then -had been crouching like a jaguar, coiled like a serpent hidden in the -undergrowth, flat as one of Cooper's Indians in the mud, supple as a -slave and feline as a deceitful woman, rises to her full height: the -panther shews her claws, the serpent is going to sting, the Indian to -utter his yell of triumph, she leaps for joy, she is mad. Lodovico, who -knows nothing of Ferrante Palla, who says of him in the common phrase: -"He is a poor man persecuted because of Napoleon!" Lodovico is afraid -that his mistress is going out of her mind. She gives him the small -property of Ricciarda. He trembles on receiving this regal gift. What -has he done to deserve it? "Conspire, and for Monsignore, why that is a -pleasure." - -It is then, the author tells us, that the Duchessa allows herself to -commit an act not only horrible in the eyes of morality, but fatal to -the tranquillity of her life. We suppose, of course, that in this hour -of bliss, she will forgive the Prince. No. - -"If you wish to acquire the property, you must do two things," she tells -Lodovico, "and without exposing yourself. You must go back at once -across the Po, illuminate my house at Sacca in such a way as to make -people think it is on fire. I have prepared everything for this -festivity, in case we succeeded. There are lamps and oil in the cellars. -Here is a line to my agent. Let the whole population of Sacca drink -themselves drunk, empty all my barrels and all my bottles. By the -Madonna! If I find one full bottle, one barrel with two fingers of wine -left in it, you lose Ricciarda! When that is done, return to Parma and -let the water out of the reservoir. Wine for my dear people at Sacca, -water for the town of Parma!" - -This makes one shudder. It is the Italian spirit, which M. Hugo has -perfectly reproduced when he makes Lucrezia Borgia say: "You have given -me a ball at Venice, I offer you in return a supper at Ferrara." The two -speeches are equivalent. Lodovico sees in this nothing more than a -magnificent insolence and an exquisite joke. He repeats: "Wine for the -people of Sacca, water for the people of Parma!" Lodovico returns after -having carried out the Duchessa's orders, establishes her at Belgirate, -and takes Fabrizio, who has still the Austrian police to fear, to -Locarno, in Switzerland. - -Fabrizio's escape, the illumination of Sacca throw the State of Parma -into utter confusion. Little attention is paid to the flooding of the -town. A similar event occurred at the time of the French invasion. A -horrible punishment awaits the Duchessa. She sees Fabrizio dying of love -for Clelia, resentful of being First Grand Vicar to the Archbishop and -so unable to marry his beloved. - -In the arms of his aunt and on Lake Maggiore, he dreams of his dear -prison. What then are the sufferings of this woman who has ordered a -crime, who has so to speak brought down the moon from the sky by taking -this beloved boy out of prison, and who sees him so artless and simple, -thinking of other things, refusing to perceive anything, and not -allowing himself to succumb to what he had so wisely fled from in the -company of his Gina, his mother, his sister, his aunt, his friend who -longed to be something more than a friend to him, all this torture is -unspeakable; but, in the book, it is felt, it is seen. We are pained by -Fabrizio's desertion of the Sanseverina, although we are conscious that -the gratification of her love would be criminal. Fabrizio is not even -grateful. The ex-prisoner, like a Minister in retirement who dreams of -coalitions which will restore him to power, thinks only of his prison; -he sends for pictures of Parma, that city abhorrent to his aunt; he puts -one of the fortress in his bedroom. Finally, he writes a letter of -apology to General Conti for having escaped, so as to be able to say to -Clelia that he finds no happiness in liberty without her, and you can -imagine what effect this letter (it is taken as a masterpiece of -ecclesiastical irony) produces on the General: he swears that he will be -avenged. The Duchessa, terrified and brought back to a sense of -self-preservation by the futility of her revenge, takes a boatman from -each of the villages on Lake Maggiore; she makes them row her out to the -middle of the lake; then she tells them that a search may be made for -Fabrizio, who served under Napoleon at Waterloo, and bids them keep a -sharp watch; she makes herself loved, and obeyed; she pays well, and so -has a spy in every village; she gives each of them permission to enter -her room at any hour, even at night when she is asleep. One evening, at -Locarno, during a party, she hears of the death of the Prince of Parma. -She looks at Fabrizio. - -"I have done this for him; I would have done things a thousand times -worse," she says to herself, "and look at him there, silent, -indifferent, dreaming about another!" - -At this thought she faints. This fainting-fit may be her ruin. The -company gathers round her, Fabrizio thinks of Clelia: she sees him, she -shudders, she finds herself surrounded by all these curious people, an -archpriest, the local authorities, and so forth. She recovers the calm -of a great lady, and says: - -"He was a great Prince, who was vilely slandered; it is an immense loss -for us.--Ah!" she says to herself, when she is alone, "it is now that I -have to pay for the transports of happiness and childish joy that I felt -in my _palazzo_ at Parma when I welcomed Fabrizio there on his return -from Naples. If I had said a word, all would have been over, I should -have left Mosca. Once he was with me, Clelia would never have meant -anything to Fabrizio. Clelia wins, she is twenty. I am almost twice her -age. I must die! _A woman of forty is no longer anything save for the -men who have loved her in her youth_!" - -It is for this reflexion, profound in its shrewdness, suggested by grief -and almost entirely true, that I quote this passage. The Duchessa's -soliloquy is interrupted by a noise outside, at midnight. - -"Good," she says, "they are coming to arrest me; so much the better, it -will occupy my mind, fighting them for my head." - -It is nothing of the sort. Conte Mosca has sent her their most faithful -courier to inform her, before the rest of Europe, of recent events at -Parma, and of the details of the death of Ranuccio-Ernesto IV: there has -been a revolution, the Tribune Ferrante Palla has been on the verge of -triumph, he has spent the fifty thousand francs, the price of the -diamonds, on the cause of his dear Republic instead of giving them to -his children; the rising has been suppressed by Mosca, who served under -Napoleon in Spain, and who has displayed the courage of a soldier and -the coolness of a statesman; he has saved Rassi, which he will bitterly -repent; finally, he gives details of the accession to the throne of -Ranuccio-Ernesto V, a young prince who is enamoured of Signora -Sanseverina. The Duchessa is free to return. The Princess Dowager, who -adores her for reasons which the reader knows and has gathered from the -intrigues of the court at the time when the Duchessa reigned there, -writes her a charming letter, creates her Duchessa in her own right, and -Grand Mistress. It would not, however, be prudent for Fabrizio to return -at present, the sentence must be quashed by a retrial of the case. - -The Duchessa conceals Fabrizio at Sacca, and returns to Parma -triumphant. Thus the subject revives of its own accord without effort, -without monotony. There is not the slightest resemblance between the -early favour enjoyed by the innocent Sanseverina, under Ranuccio-Ernesto -IV, and the favour enjoyed by the Duchessa who has had him poisoned, -under Ranuccio-Ernesto V. The young twenty-year-old Prince is madly in -love with her, the peril incurred by the criminal is balanced by the -boundless power enjoyed by the Dowager's Grand Mistress. This Louis XIII -on a small scale finds his Richelieu in Mosca. The great Minister, -during the riots, carried away by a lingering trace of zeal, of -enthusiasm, has called him a boy. The word has remained in the Prince's -heart, it has hurt him. Mosca is useful to him; but the Prince, who is -only twenty years old in politics, is fifty in self-esteem. Rassi is -working in secret, he searches among the people and through all Italy, -and learns that Ferrante Palla, who is as poor as Job, has sold nine or -ten diamonds at Genoa. During the underground burrowings of the Fiscal -General joy reigns at court. The Prince, a shy young man like all shy -young men, attacks the woman of forty, grows frenzied in his pursuit of -her; it is true that Gina, more beautiful than ever, does not look more -than thirty, she is happy, she is making Mosca thoroughly happy, -Fabrizio is saved, he is to be tried again, acquitted, and will be, when -his sentence is quashed. Coadjutor to the Archbishop, who is -seventy-eight years old, with the right of eventual succession. - -Clelia alone causes the Duchessa any misgivings. As for the Prince, she -is amused by him. They act plays at court (those _commedie dell' arte_ -in which each character invents the dialogue as he goes on, the outline -of the plot being posted up in the wings--a sort of glorified charade). -The Prince takes the lovers' parts, and Gina is always the leading lady. -Literally, the Grand Mistress is dancing upon a volcano. This part of -the work is charming. In the very middle of one of these plays, this is -what happens. Rassi has said to the Prince: "Does Your Highness choose -to pay a hundred thousand francs to find out the exact manner of His -august father's death?" He has had the hundred thousand francs, because -the Prince is a boy. Rassi has tried to corrupt the Duchessa's head -maid, this maid has told Mosca everything. Mosca has told her to let -herself be corrupted. Rassi requires one thing only, to have the -Duchessa's diamonds examined by two jewellers. Mosca posts counter-spies -and learns that one of these inquisitive jewellers is Rassi's brother. -Mosca appears, between the acts of the play, to warn the Duchessa, whom -he finds in the highest spirits. - -"I have very little time," she says to Mosca, "but let us go into the -guard-room." - -There she says with a laugh to her friend the Minister: - -"You always scold me when I tell you unnecessary secrets; very well, it -was I who called Ernesto V to the throne; it was a case of avenging -Fabrizio, whom I loved far more than I love him to-day, though always -quite innocently. You will scarcely believe in my innocence, but that -does not matter, since you love me in spite of my crimes! Very well, -there is one crime in my life: Ferrante Palla had my diamonds. I did -worse, I let myself be kissed by him so that he should poison the man -who wished to poison our Fabrizio. Where is the harm?" - -"And you tell me this in the guard-room?" says the Conte, _slightly -taken aback_! - -This last expression is charming. - -"It is because I am in a hurry," she says, "Rassi is on the track: but I -have never spoken of insurrection, I abhor Jacobins. Think it over, and -give me your advice after the play." - -"I will give it you now," replies Mosca without hesitation. "You will -buttonhole the Prince behind the scenes, make him lose his head, but -without doing anything dishonourable, you understand." - -The Duchessa is called to go on the stage, and returns behind the -scenes. - -Ferrante Palla's farewell to his idol is one of the finest things in -this book, where there are so many fine things; but we come now to the -capital scene, to the scene which crowns the work, to the burning of the -papers in the case drawn up by Rassi, which the Grand Mistress obtains -from Ranuccio-Ernesto V and the Princess Dowager, a terrible scene, in -which she is now lost, now saved, at the whim of the mother and son who -feel themselves overpowered by the force of character of this sort of -Princesse des Ursins. This scene occupies only eight pages, but it is -without parallel in the art of literature. There is nothing analogous to -which it can be compared, it is unique. I say nothing of it, it is -sufficient to draw attention to it. The Duchessa triumphs, she destroys -the proofs and even carries away one of the documents for Mosca, who -takes note of the names of some of the witnesses and cries: "It was high -time, they were getting warm!" Rassi is in despair: the Prince has given -orders for a retrial of Fabrizio's case. Fabrizio, instead of making -himself a prisoner, as Mosca wishes, in the town prison, which is under -the Prime Minister's orders, returns at once to his beloved citadel, -where the General, who thought that his honour had been tarnished by the -escape, rigorously confines him with the intention of getting rid of -him. Mosca would have answered for him, with his life, in the town -prison; but in the citadel Fabrizio is helpless. - -This news comes as a bolt from the blue to the Duchessa: she remains -speechless and unhearing. Fabrizio's love for Clelia bringing him back -to the place where death lies in wait for him and where the girl will -give him a moment's happiness for which he must pay with his life--the -thought of this crushes her, and Fabrizio's imminent danger is the last -straw. - -This danger exists already, it is not created to fit the scene, it is -the result of the passions aroused by Fabrizio during his former -imprisonment, by his escape, by the fury of Rassi who has been forced to -sign the order for a fresh trial. And so, even in the most minute -details, the author loyally obeys the laws of the poetry of the novel. -This exact observation of the rules, whether it come from the -calculation, meditation, and natural deduction of a well chosen, well -developed and fruitful subject, or from the instinct peculiar to talent, -produces this powerful and permanent interest which we find in great, in -fine works of art. - -Mosca, in despair, makes the Duchessa understand the impossibility of -getting a young Prince to believe that a prisoner can be poisoned in his -State, and offers to get rid of Rassi. - -"But," he tells her, "you know how squeamish I am about that sort of -thing. Sometimes, at the end of the day, I still think of those two -spies whom I had shot in Spain." - -"Rassi owes his life, then," replies the Duchessa, "to the fact that I -care more for you than for Fabrizio; I do not wish to poison the -evenings of the old age which we shall have to spend together." - -The Duchessa hastens to the fortress, and is there convinced of -Fabrizio's peril; she goes to the Prince. The Prince is a boy who, as -the Minister has foreseen, does not understand the danger that can -threaten an innocent person in his State Prison. He declines to -dishonour himself, to pass judgment on his own justice. Finally, in view -of the imminence of the peril (the poison has been given), the Duchessa -wrests from him the order to set Fabrizio at liberty in exchange for a -promise to yield to this young Prince's desires. This scene has an -originality of its own after that of the burning of the papers. At that -time, Gina's only thought was for herself, now it is for Fabrizio. -Fabrizio once acquitted and appointed Coadjutor to the Archbishop with -the right of eventual succession, which is tantamount to being made -Archbishop, the Duchessa finds a way to elude the consequences of her -promise by one of those dilemmas which women who are not in love can -always find with a maddening coolness. She is to the end the woman of -great character whose career started as you have read. There follows a -change in the Ministry. Mosca leaves Parma with his wife, for the -Duchessa and he, both widowed, have now married. But nothing goes well, -and at the end of a year the Prince recalls Conte and Contessa Mosca. -Fabrizio is Archbishop and in high favour. - -There follows the love of Clelia and Archbishop Fabrizio, which ends in -the death of Clelia, in that of a beloved child, and in the resignation -and withdrawal of the Archbishop, who dies, doubtless after a long -expiation, in the Charterhouse of Parma. - -I explain this ending to you in a few words, since, in spite of -beautiful details, it is sketched rather than finished. If the author -had had to develop the romance of the end like that of the beginning, it -would have been difficult to know where to stop. Is there not a whole -drama in the love of a celibate priest? So there is a whole drama in the -love of the Coadjutor and Clelia. Book upon book! - -Had M. Beyle some woman in his mind when he drew his Sanseverina? I -fancy so. For this statue, as for the Prince and the Prime Minister, -there must necessarily have been some model. Is she at Milan? Is she at -Rome, at Naples, at Florence? I cannot say. Although I am quite -convinced that there do exist women like the Sanseverina, though in very -small numbers, and that I know some myself, I believe also that the -author has perhaps enlarged the model and has completely idealised her. -In spite of this labour, which removes all similarity, one may find in -the Princesse B---- certain traits of the Sanseverina. Is she not -Milanese? Has she not passed through good and adverse fortune? Is she -not shrewd and witty? - -You know now the framework of this immense edifice, and I have taken you -round it. My hasty analysis, bold, believe me, for it requires boldness -to undertake to give you an idea of a novel constructed out of incidents -as closely compressed as are those of _La Chartreuse de Parme_; my -analysis, dry as it may be, has outlined the masses for you, and you can -judge whether my praise is exaggerated. But it is difficult to enumerate -to you in detail the fine and delicate sculptures that enrich this solid -structure, to stop before the statuettes, the paintings, the landscapes, -the bas-reliefs which decorate it. This is what happened to me. At the -first reading, which took me quite by surprise, I found faults in the -book. On my reading it again, the _longueurs_ vanished, I saw the -necessity for the detail which, at first, had seemed ta me too long or -too diffuse. To give you a good account of it, I ran through the book -once more. Captivated then by the execution, I spent more time than I -had intended in the contemplation of this fine book, and everything -struck me as most harmonious, connected naturally or by artifice but -concordantly. - -Here, however, are the errors which I pick out, not so much from the -point of view of art as in view of the sacrifices which every author -must learn to make to the majority. - -If I found confusion on first reading the bode, my impression will be -that of the public, and therefore evidently this book is lacking in -method. M. Beyle has indeed disposed the events as they happened, or as -they ought to have happened; but he has committed, in his arrangement of -the facts, a mistake which many authors commit, by taking a subject true -in nature which is not true in art. When he sees a landscape, a great -painter takes care not to copy it slavishly, he has to give us not so -much its letter as its spirit. So, in his simple, artless and unstudied -manner of telling his story, M. Beyle has run the risk of appearing -confused. Merit which requires to be studied is in danger of remaining -unperceived. And so I could wish, in the interest of the book, that the -author had begun with his magnificent sketch of the battle of Waterloo, -that he had reduced everything which precedes it to some account given -by Fabrizio or about Fabrizio while he is lying in the village in -Flanders where he arrives wounded. Certainly, the work would gain in -lightness. The del Dongo father and son, the details about Milan, all -these things are not part of the book: the drama is at Parma, the -principal characters are the Prince and his son. Mosca, Rassi, the -Duchessa, Ferrante Palla, Lodovico, Clelia, her father, the Raversi, -Giletti, Marietta. Skilled advisers or friends endowed with simple -common sense might have procured the development of certain portions -which the author has not supposed to be as interesting as they are, and -would have called for the excision of several details, superfluous in -spite of their fineness. For instance, the work would lose nothing if -the Priore Blanès were to disappear entirely. - -I will go farther, and will make no compromise, in favour of this fine -work, over the true principles of art. The law which governs everything -is that of unity in composition; whether you place this unity in the -central idea or in the plan of the book, without it there can be only -confusion. So, in spite of its title, the work is ended when Conte and -Contessa Mosca return to Parma and Fabrizio is Archbishop. The great -comedy of the court is finished. It is so well finished, and the author -has so clearly felt this, that it is in this place that he sets his -Moral, as our forerunners used to do at the end of their fables. - -"One can conclude with this moral," he says: "the man who comes to a -court risks his happiness, if he is happy; and in any case makes his -future depend upon the intrigues of a chambermaid. - -"On the other hand, in America, in the Republic, one has to waste one's -whole time paying serious court to the shopkeepers in the street and -becoming as stupid as themselves; and there, there is no Opera." - -If, beneath the Roman purple and with a mitre on his head, Fabrizio -loves Clelia, become Marchesa Crescenzi, and if you were telling us -about it, you would then wish to make the life of this young man the -subject of your book. But if you wished to describe the whole of -Fabrizio's life, you ought, being a man of such sagacity, to call your -book Fabrizio, or the Italian in the Nineteenth Century. In launching -himself upon such a career, Fabrizio ought not to have found himself -outshone by figures so typical, so poetical as are those of the two -Princes, the Sanseverina, Mosca, Ferrante Palla. Fabrizio ought to have -represented the young Italian of to-day. In making this young man the -principal figure of the drama, the author was under an obligation to -give him a large mind, to endow him with a feeling which would make him -superior to the men of genius who surround him, and which he lacks. -Feeling, in short, is equivalent to talent. _To feel_ is the rival of -_to understand as to act_ is the opposite of _to think_. The friend of a -man of genius can raise himself to his level by affection, by -understanding. In matters of the heart, an inferior man may prevail over -the greatest artist. There lies the justification of those women who -fall in love with imbeciles. So, in a drama, one of the most ingenious -resources of the artist is (in the case in which we suppose M. Beyle to -be) to make a hero superior by his feeling when he cannot by genius -compete with the people among whom he is placed. In this respect, -Fabrizio's part requires recasting. The genius of Catholicism ought to -urge him with its divine hand towards the _Charterhouse of Parma_, and -that genius ought from time to time to overwhelm him with the tidings of -heavenly grace. But then the Priore Blanès could not perform this part, -for it is impossible to cultivate judicial astrology and to be a saint -according to the Church. The book ought therefore to be either shorter -or longer. - -Possibly the slowness of the beginning, possibly that ending which -begins a new book and in which the subject is abruptly strangled, will -damage its success, possibly they have already damaged it. M. Beyle has -moreover allowed himself certain repetitions, perceptible only to those -who know his earlier books; but such readers themselves are necessarily -connoisseurs, and so fastidious. M. Beyle, keeping in mind that great -principle: "Unlucky in love, as in the arts, who says too much!" ought -not to repeat himself, he, always concise and leaving much to be -guessed. In spite of his sphinx-like habit, he is less enigmatic here -than in his other works, and his true friends will congratulate him on -this. - -The portraits are brief. A few words are enough for M. Beyle, who paints -his characters both by action and by dialogue; he does not weary one -with descriptions, he hastens to the drama and arrives at it by a word, -by a thought. His landscapes, traced with a somewhat dry touch which, -however, is suited to the country, are lightly done. He takes his stand -by a tree, on the spot where he happens to be; he shews you the lines of -the Alps which on all sides enclose the scene of action, and the -landscape is complete. The book is particularly valuable to travellers -who have strolled by the Lake of Como, over the Brianza, who have passed -under the outermost bastions of the Alps and crossed the plains of -Lombardy. The spirit of those scenes is finely revealed, their beauty is -well felt. One can see them. - -The weak part of this book is the style, in so far as the arrangement of -the words goes, for the thought, which is eminently French, sustains the -sentences. The mistakes that M. Beyle makes are purely grammatical; he -is careless, incorrect, after the manner of seventeenth-century writers. -The quotations I have made shew what sort of faults he lets himself -commit. In one place, a discord of tenses between verbs, sometimes the -absence of a verb; here, again, sequences of _c'est_, of _ce que_, of -_que_, which weary the reader, and have the effect on his mind of a -journey in a badly hung carriage over a French road. These quite glaring -faults indicate a scamping of work. But, if the French language is a -varnish spread over thought, we ought to be as indulgent towards those -in whom it covers fine paintings as we are severe to those who shew -nothing but the varnish. If, in M. Beyle, this varnish is a little -yellow in places and inclined to scale off in others, he does at least -let us see a sequence of thoughts which are derived from one another -according to the laws of logic. His long sentence is ill constructed, -his short sentence lacks polish. He writes more or less in the style of -Diderot, who was not a writer; but the conception is great and strong; -the thought is original, and often well rendered. This system is not one -to be imitated. It would be too dangerous to allow authors to imagine -themselves to be profound thinkers. - -M. Beyle is saved by the deep feeling that animates his thought. All -those to whom Italy is dear, who have studied or understood her, will -read _La Chartreuse de Parme_ with delight. The spirit, the genius, the -customs, the soul of that beautiful country live in this long drama that -is always engaging, in this vast fresco so well painted, so strongly -coloured, which moves the heart profoundly and satisfies the most -difficult, the most exacting mind. The Sanseverina is the Italian woman, -a figure as happily portrayed as Carlo Dolci's famous head of _Poetry_, -Allori's _Judith_, or Guercino's _Sibyl_ in the Manfredini gallery. In -Mosca he paints the man of genius in politics at grips with love. It is -indeed love without speech (the speeches are the weak point in -_Clarisse_), active love, always true to its own type, love stronger -than the call of duty, love, such as women dream of, such as gives an -additional interest to the least things in life. Fabrizio is quite the -young Italian of to-day at grips with the distinctly clumsy despotism -which suppresses the imagination of that fine country; but, as I have -said above, the dominant thought or the feeling which urges him to lay -aside his dignities and to end his life in a Charterhouse needs -development. This book is admirably expressive of love as it is felt in -the South. Obviously, the North does not love in this way. All these -characters have a heat, a fever of the blood, a vivacity of hand, a -rapidity of mind which is not to be found in the English nor in the -Germans nor in the Russians, who arrive at the same results only by -processes of revery, by the reasonings of a smitten heart, by the slow -rising of their sap. M. Beyle has in this respect given this book the -profound meaning, the feeling which guarantees the survival of a -literary conception. But unfortunately it is almost a secret doctrine, -which requires laborious study. _La Chartreuse de Parme_ is placed at -such a height, it requires in the reader so perfect a knowledge of the -court, the place, the people that I am by no means astonished at the -absolute silence with which such a book has been greeted. That is the -lot that awaits all books in which there is nothing vulgar. The secret -ballot in which vote one by one and slowly the superior minds who make -the name of such works, is not counted until long afterwards. Besides, -M. Beyle is not a courtier, he has the most profound horror of the -press. From largeness of character or from the sensitiveness of his -self-esteem, as soon as his book appears, he takes flight, leaves Paris, -travels two hundred and fifty leagues in order not to hear it spoken of. -He demands no articles, he does not haunt the footsteps of the -reviewers. He has behaved thus after the publication of each of his -books. I admire this pride of character or this sensitiveness of -self-esteem. Excuses there may be for mendicity, there can be none for -that quest for praise and articles on which modern authors go begging. -It is the mendicity, the pauperism of the mind. There are no great works -of art that have fallen into oblivion. The lies, the complacencies of -the pen cannot give life to a worthless book. - -After the courage to criticise comes the courage to praise. Certainly it -is time someone did justice to M. Beyle's merit. Our age owes him much: -was it not he who first revealed to us Rossini, the finest genius in -music? He has pleaded constantly for that glory which France had not the -intelligence to make her own. Let us in turn plead for the writer who -knows Italy best, who avenges her for the calumnies of her conquerors, -who has so well explained her spirit and her genius. - -I had met M. Beyle twice in society, in twelve years, before the day -when I took the liberty of congratulating him on _La Chartreuse de -Parme_ on meeting him in the Boulevard des Italiens. On each occasion, -his conversation has fully maintained the opinion I had formed of him -from his works. He tells stories with the spirit and grace which M. -Charles Nodier and M. de Latouche possess in a high degree. Indeed he -recalls the latter gentleman by the irresistible charm of his speech, -although his physique--for he is extremely stout--seems at first sight -to preclude refinement, elegance of manners; but he instantly disproves -this suspicion, like Dr. Koreff, the friend of Hoffmann. He has a fine -forehead, a keen and piercing eye, a sardonic mouth; in short, he has -altogether the physiognomy of his talent. He retains in conversation -that enigmatic turn, that eccentricity which leads him never to sign the -already illustrious name of Beyle, to call himself one day Cotonnet, -another Frédéric. He is, I am told, the nephew of the famous and -industrious Daru, one of the strong arms of Napoleon. M. Beyle was -naturally in the Emperor's service; 1815 tore him, necessarily, from his -career, he passed from Berlin to Milan, and it is to the contrast -between the life of the North and that of the South, which impressed -him, that we are indebted for this writer. M. Beyle is one of the -superior men of our time. It is difficult to explain how this observer -of the first order, this profound diplomat who, whether in his writings -or in his speech, has furnished so many proofs of the loftiness of his -ideas and the extent of his practical knowledge should find himself -nothing more than Consul at Civita-vecchia. No one could be better -qualified to represent France at Rome. M. Mérimée knew M. Beyle -early and takes after him; but the master is more elegant and has more -ease. M. Beyle's works are many in number and are remarkable for -fineness of observation and for the abundance of their ideas. Almost all -of them deal with Italy. He was the first to give us exact information -about the terrible case of the Cenci; but he has not sufficiently -explained the causes of the execution, which was independent of the -trial, and due to factional clamour, to the demands of avarice. His book -_De l'amour_ is superior to M. de Sénancour's, he shews affinity to the -great doctrines of Cabanis and the School of Paris; but he fails by the -lack of method which, as I have already said, spoils _La Chartreuse de -Parme_. He has ventured, in this treatise, upon the word -_crystallisation_ to explain the phenomenon of the birth of this -sentiment, a word which has been taken as a joke, but will survive on -account of its profound accuracy. M. Beyle has been writing since 1817. -He began with a certain show of Liberalism; but I doubt whether this -great calculator can have let himself be taken in by the stupidities of -Dual Chamber government. _La Chartreuse de Parme_ has an underlying bias -which is certainly not against Monarchy. He finds fault with what he -admires, he is a Frenchman. - -M. de Chateaubriand said, in a preface to the eleventh edition of -_Atala_, that his book in no way resembled the previous editions, so -thoroughly had he revised it. M. le Comte de Maistre admits having -rewritten _Le Lépreux de la vallée d'Aoste_ seventeen times. I hope -that M. Beyle also will set to work going over, polishing _La Chartreuse -de Parme_, and will stamp it with the imprint of perfection, the emblem -of irreproachable beauty which MM. de Chateaubriand and de Maistre have -given to their precious books. - - -[Footnote 1: So Balzac, reading _les petites mains les plus gracieuses_. -Stendhal's words are _les petites mines_, and he makes the lady a -Marchesa. Balzac's quotations are not, as a rule, textually accurate, -but his analysis of the story is admirable. - -C. K. S. M.] - -[Footnote 2: What a phrase, indeed. But it is the Duchessa, not Mosca, -who gives this advice to Fabrizio, at Piacenza, and it is the party -"opposite to the one he has served all his life" that he is to be flung -into. - -C. K. S. M.] - - -This article opened the third and concluding number of Balzac's _Revue -Parisienne_, dated September 25, 1840. Each of the earlier numbers had -opened with a story, viz.; _Z. Marcas_ and _Les Fantaisies de Claudine_ -(_Un Prince de la Bohème_) afterwards embodied in the _Comédie -Humaine_. This _Etude sur M. Beyle_ will be found in _Œuvres complètes -de H. de Balzac--XXIII--Œuvres diverses--septième partie--Essais -historiques et politiques_--Paris, Michel Lévy Frères, Editeurs, &c., -873, pages 687 to 738. It is also reprinted in Lévy's 1853 edition of -_La Chartreuse de Parme_. - - - - -BEYLE'S REPLY TO BALZAC - - -On receiving the _Revue Parisienne_, Beyle at once wrote to Balzac the -letter a translation of which follows. This letter he seems to have -entrusted to his friend Romain Colomb, afterwards his literary executor, -in whose hands it still remained six months later. As published by -Colomb, the letter includes the text actually addressed to Balzac and -the draft here appended to it, and it so figures in _Stendhal: Œuvres -Posthumes: Correspondance Inédite précédée d'une Introduction par -Prosper Mérimée de l'Académie Française_: Vol. II, pp. 293-299 -(Calmann-Lévy). The correct text was established by M. Paul Arbelet in -the _Revue d'Histoire Littéraire de la France_, Oct.-Dec., 1917, pp. -548 sqq. _La véritable lettre de Stendhal_, and reprinted by MM. G. -Grès & Cie. in their edition of _La Chartreuse de Parme_ (1922). - - -Civita-vecchia, 30th October, 1840. - -Last night, Sir, I received a great surprise. No one, I think, has ever -been so well treated in a Review, and by the best judge of the subject. -You have taken pity on an orphan left wandering in the street. I have -made a fitting response to this kindness, I read the review last night, -and this morning I have cut down to four or five pages the fifty-four -opening pages[3] of the work which you have introduced to the world. - -The confection of literature would have disgusted me with all pleasure -in writing; I have dismissed all rejoicings over the printed page, to a -time twenty or thirty years hence. Some literary rag-picker may make the -discovery of the works whose merit you so strangely exaggerate. - -Your illusion goes a long way, _Phèdre_, for instance. I may admit to -you that I was shocked, I who am quite well-disposed towards the author. - -Since you have taken the trouble to read this novel three times, I shall -have a number of questions to ask you at our next meeting on the -boulevard. - -1. Am I allowed to call Fabrizio _our_ hero? It was a question of not -repeating the name Fabrizio too often. - -2. Ought I to suppress the episode of _Fausta_, which has turned out -unduly long? Fabrizio seizes the opportunity that is offered him to shew -to the Duchessa that he is not susceptible to _love_. - -3. The fifty-four opening pages seem to me a graceful introduction. I -did indeed feel some misgivings when correcting the proofs, but I -thought of those boring first half-volumes of Walter Scott, and of the -endless preamble to the divine _Princesse de Clèves_. - -I abhor an involved style, and I must admit to you that many pages of -the _Chartreuse_ were printed from my original dictation. As children -say: I shall not return to it again. I think, however, that since the -destruction of the court, in 1792, the part played by form becomes more -exiguous daily. Were M. Villemain, whom I cite as the most distinguished -of our Academicians, to translate the _Chartreuse_ into French, he would -require three volumes to express what I have given in two. The majority -of scoundrels being emphatic and eloquent, people will take a dislike to -the declamatory tone. At seventeen I came near to fighting a duel over -the "indeterminate crest of the forests" of M. de Chateaubriand, who -numbered many admirers in the 6th Dragoons. I have never read _La -Chaumière indienne_, I cannot abide M. de Maistre. - -My Homer is the _Memoirs_ of Marshal Gouvion Saint-Cyr. Montesquieu and -Fénelon's _Dialogues_ strike me as well written. Except for Madame de -Mortsauf and her companions, I have read nothing of what has been -printed in the last thirty years. I read Ariosto, whose stories I love. -The Duchessa is copied from Correggio. I see the future history of -French literature in the history of painting. We have reached the stage -of the pupils of Pietro da Cortona, who worked rapidly and strained all -his expressions, like Madame Cottin who makes the hewn stones of the -Borromean Islands walk. After this novel, I have no . . .[4] While -composing the Chartreuse, to acquire the tone, I used to read every -morning two or three pages of the _Code Civil_. - -Permit a coarse expression: I do not wish to b---- the heart of the -reader. This, poor reader lets ambitious phrases pass, such as "the wind -that uproots the waves," but they come back to him after the moment of -emotion. I wish on the other hand that, if the reader thinks of Conte -Mosca, he shall find nothing to cut down. - -4. I am going to introduce, in the _foyer_ of the Opera, Bassi and -Riscara, sent to Paris as spies after Waterloo by Ranuccio-Ernesto IV. -Fabrizio returning from Amiens will be struck by their Italian -appearance and clipped Milanese, which these watchers imagine to be -understood by no one. Everyone tells me that I must announce my -characters. I shall greatly reduce the good Priore Blanès. I thought -that the story needed characters who do nothing, and only touch the -heart of the reader and dispel the air of romance. - -You are going to think me a monster of pride. What, your inward sense -will say, this creature, not content with what I have done for him, a -thing without parallel in this century, still wishes to be praised for -his style! - -I see but one rule: _to be clear_. If I am not clear, all my world -crumbles to nothing. I wish to speak of what is occurring in the heart -of Mosca, of the Duchessa, of Clelia. It is a country into which hardly -penetrates the gaze of the newly rich, such as the Latinist Master of -the Mint, M. le Comte Roy, M. Laffitte, etc., etc., etc., the gaze of -the grocer, the worthy paterfamilias, etc., etc. - -If, to the obscurity of the matter, I add the obscurities of style of M. -Villemain, of Madame Sand, etc. (supposing me to have the rare privilege -of being able to write like those _choregi_ of good style), if I add to -the difficulty of the subject the obscurities of this vaunted style, no -one in the world will understand the struggle between the Duchessa and -Ernesto IV. The style of M. de Chateaubriand and M. de Villemain seems -to me to say: 1. a number of pleasant little things, but things not -worth saying (like the style of Ausonius, Claudian, etc.); 2. a number -of little _insincerities_, pleasant to listen to. These great -Academicians would have seen the public go mad over their writings, had -they been given to the world in 1780; their chance of greatness depended -upon the old _régime_. - -In proportion as the semi-intelligent become more numerous, the part -played by form decreases. If the _Chartreuse_ were translated into -French by Madame Sand, she would make it a success, but, in order to -express what there is in my two volumes, she would need three or four. -Weigh this excuse. - -The semi-intelligent puts above everything else the verse of Racine, for -he can understand what is meant by an unfinished line; but every day his -verse becomes a less important factor in Racine's merit. The public, as -it grows more numerous, less sheeplike, requires a greater quantity of -_little actual facts_, as to a passion, a situation in real life, etc. -How often do we find Voltaire, Racine, etc., all of them in fact except -Corneille, obliged to _cap_ their lines for the sake of the rhyme; well, -these capping lines occupy the place that should properly be filled by -little actual facts. - -In fifty years' time M. Bignan, and the Bignans who write in prose will -have so wearied their public with productions that are elegant and -devoid of any other merit, that the semi-intelligent will be in great -difficulties; their vanity requiring them always to speak of literature -and to make a pretence of thought, what will become of them when they -can no longer attach themselves to form? They will end by making their -god of Voltaire. Wit lasts no more than two centuries; in 1978, Voltaire -will be Voiture; but _Le Père Goriot_ will still be _Le Père Goriot_. -Perhaps the semi-intelligent will be so distressed at no longer having -their beloved rules to admire that it is highly possible that they will -grow disgusted with literature and take to religion. All political -rascals having a declamatory and eloquent tone, people will have grown -sick of this in 1880. Then perhaps they will read the _Chartreuse_. - - -[The following passage occurs among the Beyle manuscripts at Grenoble, -and was added to the printed text of the letter by Colomb. It appears -rather to be alternative to some of the preceding paragraphs.] - - -The part played by _form_ becomes more exiguous daily. Take Hume; -imagine a History of France from 1780 to 1840, written with Hume's sound -sense; it would be read, even if it were written in patois; it[5] is -written like the _Code Civil_. I am going to correct the style of the -_Chartreuse_, since it hurts you, but I shall find it most difficult. I -do not admire the style now in fashion, I have no patience with it. I -see Claudians, Senecas, Ausoniuses. I have been told for the last year -that one ought now and then to relax the reader's attention by -describing scenery, dresses. These things have bored me so in other -writers! I shall try. - -As for immediate success, of which I should never have thought but for -the _Revue Parisienne_, it is quite fifteen years since I said to -myself: I should become a candidate for the Academy if I won the hand of -Mademoiselle Bertin, who would have my praises sung three times weekly. -When society is no longer tainted with common upstarts, valuing above -everything else nobility, just because they are ignoble, it will no -longer be on its knees before the press of the aristocracy. Before 1793 -good company was the true judge of books, now it is haunted by the fear -of another 1793, it is frightened, it is no longer a judge. Look at the -catalogue which a little bookseller near Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin (Rue du -Bac, about No. 110) supplies to the nobility, his neighbours. It is the -argument that has most convinced me of the impossibility of pleasing -these timid creatures, stupefied by idleness. - -I have not in the least copied M. de Metternich, whom I have not seen -since 1810, at Saint-Cloud, when he wore a bracelet of the hair of -Caroline Murat, who was such a beauty then. I feel no regret for all -that is destined not to happen. I am a fatalist, and hide from it. I -imagine that I shall perhaps have a little success about 1860 or '80. -Then there will be very little said of M. de Metternich, and even less -of the petty Prince. Who was Prime Minister of England in the time of -Malherbe? If I have not the misfortune to hit upon a Cromwell, I am sure -of a nonentity. - -Death makes us change places with these people. They can do anything -with our bodies during their lives, but, at the moment of death, -oblivion enwraps them for ever. Who will speak of M. de Villèle, of M. -de Martignac, in a hundred years' time? M. de Talleyrand himself will be -preserved only by his _Memoirs_, if he has left good ones, while _Le -Roman comique_ is to-day what _Le Père Goriot_ will be in 1980. It is -Scarron who makes known the name of the Rothschild of his day, M. de -Montauron, who was also, to the extent of fifty louis, the protector of -Corneille. - -You have well felt, Sir, with the tact of a man who has acted, that the -_Chartreuse_ could not deal with a great State, such as France, Spain, -Vienna, on account of the administrative detail. I was left with the -petty Princes of Germany and Italy. - -But the Germans are so much on their knees before a riband, they are -such fools! I spent several years among them, and have forgotten their -language, out of contempt for them. You can easily see that my -characters could not be Germans. If you follow this idea, you will find -that I have been led by the hand to an extinct dynasty, to a Farnese, -the least obscure of these _extinct_ personages, on account of the -Generals, his grandsires. - -I take a character well-known to myself, I leave him the habits he has -contracted in the art of going out every morning in pursuit of pleasure, -then I give him more intelligence. I have never seen Signora di -Belgiojoso. Rassi was a German; I have talked to him hundreds of times. -I picked up the Prince while staying at Saint-Cloud in 1810 and 1811. - -Ouf! I hope that you will have read this treatise three times. You say, -Sir, that you do not know English: you have in Paris the _bourgeois_ -style of Walter Scott in the heavy prose of M. Delécluze, editor of the -_Débats_, and author of a _Mademoiselle de Liron_ which has something -in it. Walter Scott's prose is inelegant and above all pretentious. One -sees a dwarf who is determined not to lose an inch of his stature. - -This astounding article, such as no writer has ever received from -another, I have read, I now make bold to confess to you, with shouts of -laughter, whenever I came to an encomium that was at all strong, and I -met them at every turn. I could see the expression on the faces of my -friends as they read it. - -For instance the Minister d'Argout, being then Auditor to the Council of -State, was my equal and, moreover, what is known as a friend; 1830 -comes, he is a Minister, his clerks, whom I do not know, think that -there are at least thirty artists. . . . - - -[Footnote 3: _i.e._, Chapters I and II. - -C. K. S. M.] - -[Footnote 4: This sentence is left unfinished at the foot of a page, the -next page beginning with "While composing," etc.] - -[Footnote 5: This seems to refer to the _Chartreuse_. - -C. K. S. M.] - - - - -_THE WORKS OF STENDHAL_ - - - - -I - - - - -THE CHARTERHOUSE -OF PARMA - - - - -VOLUME ONE - - - - -_TO THE READER_ - - -It was in the winter of 1830 and three hundred leagues from Paris that -this tale was written; thus it contains no allusion to the events of -1839. - -Many years before 1830, at the time when our Armies were overrunning -Europe, chance put me in possession of a billeting order on the house of -a Canon: this was at Padua, a charming town in Italy; my stay being -prolonged, we became friends. - -Passing through Padua again towards the end of 1830, I hastened to the -house of the good Canon: he himself was dead, that I knew, but I wished -to see once again the room in which we had passed so many pleasant -evenings, evenings on which I had often looked back since. I found there -the Canon's nephew and his wife who welcomed me like an old friend. -Several people came in, and we did not break up until a very late hour; -the nephew sent out to the Caffè Pedrocchi for an excellent _zabaione_. -What more than anything kept us up was the story of the Duchessa -Sanseverina, to which someone made an allusion, and which the nephew was -good enough to relate from beginning to end, in my honour. - -"In the place to which I am going," I told my friends, "I am not likely -to find evenings like this, and, to while away the long hours of -darkness, I shall make a novel out of your story." - -"In that case," said the nephew, "let me give you my uncle's journal, -which, under the heading Parma, mentions several of the intrigues of -that court, in the days when the Duchessa's word was law there; but, -have a care! this story is anything but moral, and now that you pride -yourselves in France on your gospel purity, it may win you the -reputation of an _assassin_." - -I publish this tale without any alteration from the manuscript of 1830, -a course which may have two drawbacks: - -The first for the reader: the characters being Italians will perhaps -interest him less, hearts in that country differing considerably from -hearts in France: the Italians are sincere, honest folk and, not taking -offence, say what is in their minds; it is only when the mood seizes -them that they shew any vanity; which then becomes passion, and goes by -the name of _puntiglio_. Lastly, poverty is not, with them, a subject -for ridicule. - -The second drawback concerns the author. - -I confess that I have been so bold as to leave my characters with their -natural asperities; but, on the other hand--this I proclaim aloud--I -heap the most moral censure upon many of their actions. To what purpose -should I give them the exalted morality and other graces of French -characters, who love money above all things, and sin scarcely ever from -motives of hatred or love? The Italians in this tale are almost the -opposite. Besides, it seems to me that, whenever one takes a stride of -two hundred leagues from South to North, the change of scene that occurs -is tantamount to a fresh tale. The Canon's charming niece had known and -indeed had been greatly devoted to the Duchessa Sanseverina, and begs me -to alter nothing in her adventures, which are reprehensible. - - -23rd January, 1839. - - - - -THE CHARTERHOUSE -OF PARMA - - - - -CHAPTER ONE - - -On the 15th of May, 1796, General Bonaparte made his entry into Milan at -the head of that young army which had shortly before crossed the Bridge -of Lodi and taught the world that after all these centuries Cæsar and -Alexander had a successor. The miracles of gallantry and genius of which -Italy was a witness in the space of a few months aroused a slumbering -people; only a week before the arrival of the French, the Milanese still -regarded them as a mere rabble of brigands, accustomed invariably to -flee before the troops of His Imperial and Royal Majesty; so much at -least was reported to them three times weekly by a little news-sheet no -bigger than one's hand, and printed on soiled paper. - -In the Middle Ages the Republicans of Lombardy had given proof of a -valour equal to that of the French, and deserved to see their city rased -to the ground by the German Emperors. Since they had become _loyal -subjects_, their great occupation was the printing of sonnets upon -handkerchiefs of rose-coloured taffeta whenever the marriage occurred of -a young lady belonging to some rich or noble family. Two or three years -after that great event in her life, the young lady in question used to -engage a devoted admirer: sometimes the name of the _cicisbeo_ chosen by -the husband's family occupied an honourable place in the marriage -contract. It was a far cry from these effeminate ways to the profound -emotions aroused by the unexpected arrival of the French army. Presently -there sprang up a new and passionate way of life. A whole people -discovered, on the 15th of May, 1796, that everything which until then -it had respected was supremely ridiculous, if not actually hateful. The -departure of the last Austrian regiment marked the collapse of the old -ideas: to risk one's life became the fashion. People saw that in order -to be really happy after centuries of cloying sensations, it was -necessary to love one's country with a real love and to seek out heroic -actions. They had been plunged in the darkest night by the continuation -of the jealous despotism of Charles V and Philip II; they overturned -these monarchs' statues and immediately found themselves flooded with -daylight. For the last half-century, as the _Encyclopædia_ and Voltaire -gained ground in France, the monks had been dinning into the ears of the -good people of Milan that to learn to read, or for that matter to learn -anything at all was a great waste of labour, and that by paying one's -exact tithe to one's parish priest and faithfully reporting to him all -one's little misdeeds, one was practically certain of having a good -place in Paradise. To complete the debilitation of this people once so -formidable and so rational, Austria had sold them, on easy terms, the -privilege of not having to furnish any recruits to her army. - - - - -_MILAN IN 1796_ - - -In 1796, the Milanese army was composed of four and twenty rapscallions -dressed in scarlet, who guarded the town with the assistance of four -magnificent regiments of Hungarian Grenadiers. Freedom of morals was -extreme, but passion very rare; otherwise, apart from the inconvenience -of having to repeat everything to one's parish priest, on pain of ruin -even in this world, the good people of Milan were still subjected to -certain little monarchical interferences which could not fail to be -vexatious. For instance, the Archduke, who resided at Milan and governed -in the name of the Emperor, his cousin, had had the lucrative idea of -trading in corn. In consequence, an order prohibiting the peasants from -selling their grain until His Highness had filled his granaries. - -In May, 1796, three days after the entry of the French, a young painter -in miniature, slightly mad, named Gros, afterwards famous, who had come -with the army, overhearing in the great Caffè dei Servi (which was then -in fashion) an account of the exploits of the Archduke, who moreover was -extremely stout, picked up the list of ices which was printed on a sheet -of coarse yellow paper. On the back of this he drew the fat Archduke; a -French soldier was stabbing him with his bayonet in the stomach, and -instead of blood there gushed out an incredible quantity of corn. What -we call a lampoon or caricature was unknown in this land of crafty -despotism. The drawing, left by Gros on the table of the Caffè dei -Servi, seemed a miracle fallen from heaven; it was engraved and printed -during the night, and next day twenty thousand copies of it were sold. - -The same day, there were posted up notices of a forced loan of six -millions, levied to supply the needs of the French army which, having -just won six battles and conquered a score of provinces, wanted nothing -now but shoes, breeches, jackets and caps. - -The mass of prosperity and pleasure which burst into Lombardy in the -wake of these French ragamuffins was so great that only the priests and -a few nobles were conscious of the burden of this levy of six millions, -shortly to be followed by a number of others. These French soldiers -laughed and sang all day long; they were all under twenty-five years of -age, and their Commander in Chief, who had reached twenty-seven, was -reckoned the oldest man in his army. This gaiety, this youthfulness, -this irresponsibility furnished a jocular reply to the furious -preachings of the monks, who, for six months, had been announcing from -the pulpit that the French were monsters, obliged, upon pain of death, -to burn down everything and to cut off everyone's head. With this -object, each of their regiments marched with a guillotine at its head. - -In the country districts one saw at the cottage doors the French soldier -engaged in dandling the housewife's baby in his arms, and almost every -evening some drummer, scraping a fiddle, would improvise a ball. Our -country dances proving a great deal too skilful and complicated for the -soldiers, who for that matter barely knew them themselves, to be able to -teach them to the women of the country, it was the latter who shewed the -young Frenchmen the _Monferrina_, _Salterello_ and other Italian dances. - -The officers had been lodged, as far as possible, with the wealthy -inhabitants; they had every need of comfort. A certain lieutenant, for -instance, named Robert, received a billeting order on the _palazzo_ of -the Marchesa del Dongo. This officer, a young conscript not -over-burdened with scruples, possessed as his whole worldly wealth, when -he entered this _palazzo_, a scudo of six francs which he had received -at Piacenza. After the crossing of the Bridge of Lodi he had taken from -a fine Austrian officer, killed by a ball, a magnificent pair of nankeen -pantaloons, quite new, and never did any garment come more opportunely. -His officer's epaulettes were of wool, and the cloth of his tunic was -stitched to the lining of the sleeves so that its scraps might hold -together; but there was something even more distressing; the soles of -his shoes were made out of pieces of soldiers' caps, likewise picked up -on the field of battle, somewhere beyond the Bridge of Lodi. These -makeshift soles were tied on over his shoes with pieces of string which -were plainly visible, so that when the majordomo appeared at the door -of Lieutenant Robert's room bringing him an invitation to dine with the -Signora Marchesa, the officer was thrown into the utmost confusion. He -and his orderly spent the two hours that divided him from this fatal -dinner in trying to patch up the tunic a little and in dyeing black, -with ink, those wretched strings round his shoes. At last the dread -moment arrived. "Never in my life did I feel more ill at ease," -Lieutenant Robert told me; "the ladies expected that I would terrify -them, and I was trembling far more than they were. I looked down at my -shoes and did not know how to walk gracefully. The Marchesa del Dongo," -he went on, "was then in the full bloom of her beauty: you have seen her -for yourself, with those lovely eyes of an angelic sweetness, and the -dusky gold of her hair which made such a perfect frame for the oval of -that charming face. I had in my room a _Herodias_ by Leonardo da Vinci, -which might have been her portrait. Mercifully, I was so overcome by her -supernatural beauty that I forgot all about my clothes. For the last two -years I had been seeing nothing that was not ugly and wretched, in the -mountains behind Genoa: I ventured to say a few words to her to express -my delight. - -"But I had too much sense to waste any time upon compliments. As I was -turning my phrases I saw, in a dining-room built entirely of marble, a -dozen flunkeys and footmen dressed in what seemed to me then the height -of magnificence. Just imagine, the rascals had not only good shoes on -their feet, but silver buckles as well. I could see them all, out of the -corner of my eye, staring stupidly at my coat and perhaps at my shoes -also, which cut me to the heart. I could have frightened all these -fellows with a word; but how was I to put them in their place without -running the risk of offending the ladies? For the Marchesa, to fortify -her own courage a little, as she has told me a hundred times since, had -sent to fetch from the convent where she was still at school Gina del -Dongo, her husband's sister, who was afterwards that charming Contessa -Pietranera: no one, in prosperity, surpassed her in gaiety and sweetness -of temper, just as no one surpassed her in courage and serenity of soul -when fortune turned against her. - -"Gina, who at that time might have been thirteen but looked more like -eighteen, a lively, downright girl, as you know, was in such fear of -bursting out laughing at the sight of my costume that she dared not eat; -the Marchesa, on the other hand, loaded me with constrained civilities; -she could see quite well the movements of impatience in my eyes. In a -word, I cut a sorry figure, I chewed the bread of scorn, a thing which -is said to be impossible for a Frenchman. At length, a heaven-sent idea -shone in my mind: I set to work to tell the ladies of my poverty and of -what we had suffered for the last two years in the mountains behind -Genoa where we were kept by idiotic old Generals. There, I told them, we -were paid in _assignats_ which were not legal tender in the country, and -given three ounces of bread daily. I had not been speaking for two -minutes before there were tears in the good Marchesa's eyes, and Gina -had grown serious. - -"'What, Lieutenant,' she broke in, 'three ounces of bread!' - -"'Yes, Signorina; but to make up for that the issue ran short three days -in the week, and as the peasants on whom we were billeted were even -worse off than ourselves, we used to hand on some of our bread to them.' - -"On leaving the table, I offered the Marchesa my arm as far as the door -of the drawing-room, then hurried back and gave the servant who had -waited upon me at dinner that solitary scudo of six francs upon the -spending of which I had built so many castles in the air. - -"A week later," Robert went on, "when it was satisfactorily established -that the French were not guillotining anyone, the Marchese del Dongo -returned from his castle of Grianta on the Lake of Como, to which he had -gallantly retired on the approach of the army, abandoning to the -fortunes of war his young and beautiful wife and his sister. The hatred -that this Marchese felt for us was equal to his fear, that is to say -immeasurable: his fat face, pale and pious, was an amusing spectacle -when he was being polite to me. On the day after his return to Milan, I -received three ells of cloth and two hundred francs out of the levy of -six millions; I renewed my wardrobe, and became cavalier to the ladies, -for the season of balls was beginning." - -Lieutenant Robert's story was more or less that of all the French -troops; instead of laughing at the wretched plight of these poor -soldiers, people were sorry for them and came to love them. - -This period of unlooked-for happiness and wild excitement lasted but two -short years; the frenzy had been so excessive and so general that it -would be impossible for me to give any idea of it, were it not for this -historical and profound reflexion: these people had been living in a -state of boredom for the last hundred years. - -The thirst for pleasure natural in southern countries had prevailed in -former times at the court of the Visconti and Sforza, those famous Dukes -of Milan. But from the year 1524, when the Spaniards conquered the -Milanese, and conquered them as taciturn, suspicious, arrogant masters, -always in dread of revolt, gaiety had fled. The subject race, adopting -the manners of their masters, thought more of avenging the least insult -by a dagger-blow than of enjoying the fleeting hour. - -This frenzied joy, this gaiety, this thirst for pleasure, this tendency -to forget every sad or even reasonable feeling were carried to such a -pitch, between the 15th of May, 1796, when the French entered Milan, and -April, 1799, when they were driven out again after the battle of -Cassano, that instances have been cited of old millionaire merchants, -old money-lenders, old scriveners who, during this interval, quite -forgot to pull long faces and to amass money. - -At the most it would have been possible to point to a few families -belonging to the higher ranks of the nobility, who had retired to their -palaces in the country, as though in a sullen revolt against the -prevailing high spirits and the expansion of every heart. It is true -that these noble and wealthy families had been given a distressing -prominence in the allocation of the forced loans exacted for the French -army. - -The Marchese del Dongo, irritated by the spectacle of so much gaiety, -had been one of the first to return to his magnificent castle of -Grianta, on the farther side of Como, whither his ladies took with them -Lieutenant Robert. This castle, standing in a position which is perhaps -unique in the world, on a plateau one hundred and fifty feet above that -sublime lake, a great part of which it commands, had been originally a -fortress. The del Dongo family had constructed it in the fifteenth -century, as was everywhere attested by marble tablets charged with their -arms; one could still see the drawbridges and deep moats, though the -latter, it must be admitted, had been drained of their water; but with -its walls eighty feet in height and six in thickness, this castle was -safe from assault, and it was for this reason that it was dear to the -timorous Marchese. Surrounded by some twenty-five or thirty retainers -whom he supposed to be devoted to his person, presumably because he -never opened his mouth except to curse them, he was less tormented by -fear than at Milan. - -This fear was not altogether groundless: he was in most active -correspondence with a spy posted by Austria on the Swiss frontier three -leagues from Grianta, to contrive the escape of the prisoners taken on -the field of battle; conduct which might have been viewed in a serious -light by the French Generals. - -The Marchese had left his young wife at Milan; she looked after the -affairs of the family there, and was responsible for providing the sums -levied on the _casa del Dongo_ (as they say in Italy); she sought to -have these reduced, which obliged her to visit those of the nobility who -had accepted public office, and even some highly influential persons who -were not of noble birth. A great event now occurred in this family. The -Marchese had arranged the marriage of his young sister Gina with a -personage of great wealth and the very highest birth; but he powdered -his hair; in virtue of which, Gina received him with shouts of laughter, -and presently took the rash step of marrying the Conte Pietranera. He -was, it is true, a very fine gentleman, of the most personable -appearance, but ruined for generations past in estate, and to complete -the disgrace of the match, a fervent supporter of the new ideas. -Pietranera was a sub-lieutenant in the Italian Legion; this was the last -straw for the Marchese. - -After these two years of folly and happiness, the Directory in Paris, -giving itself the airs of a sovereign firmly enthroned, began to shew a -mortal hatred of everything that was not commonplace. The incompetent -Generals whom it imposed on the Army of Italy lost a succession of -battles in those same plains of Verona, which had witnessed two years -before the prodigies of Arcole and Lonato. The Austrians again drew near -to Milan; Lieutenant Robert, who had been promoted to the command of a -battalion and had been wounded at the battle of Cassano, came to lodge -for the last time in the house of his friend the Marchesa del Dongo. -Their parting was a sad one; Robert set forth with Conte Pietranera who -followed the French in their retirement on Novi. The young Contessa, to -whom her brother refused to pay her marriage portion, followed the army, -riding in a cart. - -Then began that period of reaction and a return to the old ideas, which -the Milanese call _i tredici mesi_ (the thirteen months), because as it -turned out their destiny willed that this return to stupidity should -endure for thirteen months only, until Marengo. Everyone who was old, -bigoted, morose, reappeared at the head of affairs, and resumed the -leadership of society; presently the people who had remained faithful to -the sound doctrines published a report in the villages that Napoleon had -been hanged by the Mamelukes in Egypt, as he so richly deserved. - -Among these men who had retired to sulk on their estates and came back -now athirst for vengeance, the Marchese del Dongo distinguished himself -by his rabidity; the extravagance of his sentiments carried him -naturally to the head of his party. These gentlemen, quite worthy people -when they were not in a state of panic, but who were always trembling, -succeeded in getting round the Austrian General: a good enough man at -heart, he let himself be persuaded that severity was the best policy, -and ordered the arrest of one hundred and fifty patriots: quite the best -men to be found in Italy at the time. - -They were speedily deported to the Bocche di Cattaro, and, flung into -subterranean caves, the moisture, and above all the want of bread did -prompt justice to each and all of these rascals. - -The Marchese del Dongo had an exalted position, and, as he combined with -a host of other fine qualities a sordid avarice, he would boast publicly -that he never sent a scudo to his sister, the Contessa Pietranera: still -madly in love, she refused to leave her husband, and was starving by his -side in France. The good Marchesa was in despair; finally she managed to -abstract a few small diamonds from her jewel case, which her husband -took from her every evening to stow away under his bed, in an iron -coffer: the Marchesa had brought him a dowry of 800,000 francs, and -received 80 francs monthly for her personal expenses. During the -thirteen months in which the French were absent from Milan, this most -timid of women found various pretexts and never went out of mourning. - -We must confess that, following the example of many grave authors, we -have begun the history of our hero a year before his birth. This -essential personage is none other than Fabrizio Valserra, Marchesino del -Dongo, as the style is at Milan.[6] He had taken the trouble to be born -just when the French were driven out, and found himself, by the accident -of birth, the second son of that Marchese del Dongo who was so great a -gentleman, and with whose fat, pasty face, false smile and unbounded -hatred for the new ideas the reader is already acquainted. The whole of -the family fortune was already settled upon the elder son, Ascanio del -Dongo, the worthy image of his father. He was eight years old and -Fabrizio two when all of a sudden that General Bonaparte, whom everyone -of good family understood to have been hanged long ago, came down from -the Mont Saint-Bernard. He entered Milan: that moment is still unique in -history; imagine a whole populace madly in love. A few days later, -Napoleon won the battle of Marengo. The rest needs no telling. The -frenzy of the Milanese reached its climax; but this time it was mingled -with ideas of vengeance: these good people had been taught to hate. -Presently they saw arrive in their midst all that remained of the -patriots deported to the Bocche di Cattaro; their return was celebrated -with a national _festa_. Their pale faces, their great startled eyes, -their shrunken limbs were in strange contrast to the joy that broke out -on every side. Their arrival was the signal for departure for the -families most deeply compromised. The Marchese del Dongo was one of the -first to flee to his castle of Grianta. The heads of the great families -were filled with hatred and fear; but their wives, their daughters, -remembered the joys of the former French occupation, and thought with -regret of Milan and those gay balls, which, immediately after Marengo, -were organised afresh at the _casa Tanzi_. A few days after the victory, -the French General responsible for maintaining order in Lombardy -discovered that all the farmers on the noblemen's estates, all the old -wives in the villages, so far from still thinking of this astonishing -victory at Marengo, which had altered the destinies of Italy and -recaptured thirteen fortified positions in a single day, had their minds -occupied only by a prophecy of San Giovita, the principal Patron Saint -of Brescia. According to this inspired utterance, the prosperity of -France and of Napoleon was to cease just thirteen weeks after Marengo. -What does to some extent excuse the Marchese del Dongo and all the -nobles sulking on their estates is that literally and without any -affectation they believed in the prophecy. Not one of these gentlemen -had read as many as four volumes in his life; quite openly they were -making their preparations to return to Milan at the end of the thirteen -weeks; but time, as it went on, recorded fresh successes for the cause -of France. Returning to Paris, Napoleon, by wise decrees, saved the -country from revolution at home as he had saved it from its foreign -enemies at Marengo. Then the Lombard nobles, in the safe shelter of -their castles, discovered that at first they had misinterpreted the -prophecy of the holy patron of Brescia; it was a question not of -thirteen weeks, but of thirteen months. The thirteen months went by, and -the prosperity of France seemed to increase daily. - -We pass lightly over ten years of progress and happiness, from 1800 to -1810. Fabrizio spent the first part of this decade at the castle of -Grianta, giving and receiving an abundance of fisticuffs among the -little _contadini_ of the village, and learning nothing, not even how to -read. Later on, he was sent to the Jesuit College at Milan. The -Marchese, his father, insisted on his being shewn the Latin tongue, not -on any account in the works of those ancient writers who are always -talking about Republics, but in a magnificent volume adorned with more -than a hundred engravings, a masterpiece of seventeenth-century art; -this was the Lathi genealogy of the Valserra, Marchesi del Dongo, -published in 1650 by Fabrizio del Dongo, Archbishop of Parma. The -fortunes of the Valserra being pre-eminently military, the engravings -represented any number of battles, and everywhere one saw some hero of -the name dealing mighty blows with his sword. This book greatly -delighted the young Fabrizio. His mother, who adored him, obtained -permission, from time to time, to pay him a visit at Milan; but as her -husband never offered her any money for these journeys, it was her -sister-in-law, the charming Contessa Pietranera, who lent her what she -required. After the return of the French, the Contessa had become one of -the most brilliant ladies at the court of Prince Eugène, the Viceroy of -Italy. - -When Fabrizio had made his First Communion, she obtained leave from the -Marchese, still in voluntary exile, to invite him out, now and again, -from his college. She found him unusual, thoughtful, very serious, but a -nice-looking boy and not at all out of place in the drawing-room of a -lady of fashion; otherwise, as ignorant as one could wish, and barely -able to write. The Contessa, who carried her impulsive character into -everything, promised her protection to the head of the establishment -provided that her nephew Fabrizio made astounding progress and carried -off a number of prizes at the end of the year. So that he should be in a -position to deserve them, she used to send for him every Saturday -evening, and often did not restore him to his masters until the -following Wednesday or Thursday. The Jesuits, although tenderly -cherished by the Prince Viceroy, were expelled from Italy by the laws of -the Kingdom, and the Superior of the College, an able man, was conscious -of all that might be made out of his relations with a woman all-powerful -at court. He never thought of complaining of the absences of Fabrizio, -who, more ignorant than ever, at the end of the year was awarded five -first prizes. This being so, the Contessa, escorted by her husband, now -the General commanding one of the Divisions of the Guard, and by five or -six of the most important personages at the viceregal court, came to -attend the prize-giving at the Jesuit College. The Superior was -complimented by his chiefs. - -The Contessa took her nephew with her to all those brilliant festivities -which marked the too brief reign of the sociable Prince Eugène. She had -on her own authority created him an officer of hussars, and Fabrizio, -now twelve years old, wore that uniform. One day the Contessa, enchanted -by his handsome figure, besought the Prince to give him a post as page, -a request which implied that the del Dongo family was coming round. Next -day she had need of all her credit to secure the Viceroy's kind consent -not to remember this request, which lacked only the consent of the -prospective page's father, and this consent would have been emphatically -refused. After this act of folly, which made the sullen Marchese -shudder, he found an excuse to recall young Fabrizio to Grianta. The -Contessa had a supreme contempt for her brother, she regarded him as a -melancholy fool, and one who would be troublesome if ever it lay in his -power. But she was madly fond of Fabrizio, and, after ten years of -silence, wrote to the Marchese reclaiming her nephew; her letter was -left unanswered. - -On his return to this formidable palace, built by the most bellicose of -his ancestors, Fabrizio knew nothing in the world except how to drill -and how to sit on a horse. Conte Pietranera, as fond of the boy as was -his wife, used often to put him on a horse and take him with him on -parade. - -On reaching the castle of Grianta, Fabrizio, his eyes still red with the -tears that he had shed on leaving his aunt's fine rooms, found only the -passionate caresses of his mother and sisters. The Marchese was closeted -in his study with his elder son, the Marchesino Ascanio; there they -composed letters in cipher which had the honour to be forwarded to -Vienna; father and son appeared in public only at meal-times. The -Marchese used ostentatiously to repeat that he was teaching his natural -successor to keep, by double entry, the accounts of the produce of each -of his estates. As a matter of fact, the Marchese was too jealous of his -own power ever to speak of these matters to a son, the necessary -inheritor of all these entailed properties. He employed him to cipher -despatches of fifteen or twenty pages which two or three times weekly he -had conveyed into Switzerland, where they were put on the road for -Vienna. The Marchese claimed to inform his rightful Sovereign of the -internal condition of the Kingdom of Italy, of which he himself knew -nothing, and his letters were invariably most successful, for the -following reason. The Marchese would have a count taken on the high -road, by some trusted agent, of the number of men in a certain French or -Italian regiment that was changing its station, and in reporting the -fact to the court of Vienna would take care to reduce by at least a -quarter the number of the troops on the march. These letters, in other -respects absurd, had the merit of contradicting others of greater -accuracy, and gave pleasure. And so, a short time before Fabrizio's -arrival at the castle, the Marchese had received the star of a famous -order: it was the fifth to adorn his Chamberlain's coat. As a matter of -fact, he suffered from the chagrin of not daring to sport this garment -outside his study; but he never allowed himself to dictate a despatch -without first putting on the gold-laced coat, studded with all his -orders. He would have felt himself to be wanting in respect had he acted -otherwise. - -The Marchesa was amazed by her son's graces. But she had kept up the -habit of writing two or three times every year to General Comte d'A----, -which was the title now borne by Lieutenant Robert. The Marchesa had a -horror of lying to the people to whom she was attached; she examined her -son and was appalled by his ignorance. - -"If he appears to me to have learned little," she said to herself, "to -me who know nothing, Robert, who is so clever, would find that his -education had been entirely neglected; and in these days one must have -merit." Another peculiarity, which astonished her almost as much, was -that Fabrizio had taken seriously all the religious teaching that had -been instilled into him by the Jesuits. Although very pious herself, the -fanaticism of this child made her shudder; "If the Marchese has the -sense to discover this way of influencing him, he will take my son's -affection from me." She wept copiously, and her passion for Fabrizio was -thereby increased. - -Life in this castle, peopled by thirty or forty servants, was extremely -dull; accordingly Fabrizio spent all his days in pursuit of game or -exploring the lake in a boat. Soon he was on intimate terms with the -coachmen and grooms; these were all hot supporters of the French, and -laughed openly at the pious valets, attached to the person of the -Marchese or to that of his elder son. The great theme for wit at the -expense of these solemn personages was that, in imitation of their -masters, they powdered their heads. - - -[Footnote 6: By the local custom, borrowed from Germany, this title is -given to every son of a Marchese; _Contino_ to the son of a Conte, -_Contessina_ to the daughter of a Conte, etc.] - - - - -CHAPTER TWO - - -. . . _Alors que Vesper vient embrunir nos - yeux, -Tout épris d'avenir, je contemple les cieux, -En qui Dieu nous escrit, par notes non obscures. -Les sorts et les destins de toutes créatures. -Car lui, du fond des deux regardant un - humain. -Parfois mû de pitié, lui montre le chemin; -Par les astres du ciel qui sont ses caractères, -Les choses nous prédit et bonnes et contraires; -Mais les hommes chargés de terre et de trépas, -Méprisent tel écrit, et ne le lisent pas._ - - RONSARD. - - -The Marchese professed a vigorous hatred of enlightenment: "It is -ideas," he used to say, "that have ruined Italy"; he did not know quite -how to reconcile this holy horror of instruction with his desire to see -his son Fabrizio perfect the education so brilliantly begun with the -Jesuits. In order to incur the least possible risk, he charged the good -Priore Blanès, parish priest of Grianta, with the task of continuing -Fabrizio's Latin studies. For this it was necessary that the priest -should himself know that language; whereas it was to him an object of -scorn; his knowledge in the matter being confined to the recitation, by -heart, of the prayers in his missal, the meaning of which he could -interpret more or less to his flock. But this priest was nevertheless -highly respected and indeed feared throughout the district; he had -always said that it was by no means in thirteen weeks, nor even in -thirteen months that they would see the fulfilment of the famous -prophecy of San Giovita, the patron saint of Brescia. He added, when he -was speaking to friends whom he could trust, that this number _thirteen_ -was to be interpreted in a fashion which would astonish many people, if -it were permitted to say all that one knew (1813). - - - -_PRIORE BLANÈS_ - - -The fact was that the Priore Blanès, a man whose honesty and virtue -were primitive, and a man of parts as well, spent all his nights up in -his belfry; he was mad on astrology. After using up all his days in -calculating the conjunctions and positions of the stars, he would devote -the greater part of his nights to following their course in the sky. -Such was his poverty, he had no other instrument than a long telescope -with pasteboard tubes. One may imagine the contempt that was felt for -the study of languages by a man who spent his time discovering the -precise dates of the fall of empires and the revolutions that change the -face of the world. "What more do I know about a horse," he asked -Fabrizio, "when I am told that in Latin it is called _equus_?" - -The _contadini_ looked upon Priore Blanès with awe as a great magician: -for his part, by dint of the fear that his nightly stations in the -belfry inspired, he restrained them from stealing. His clerical brethren -in the surrounding parishes, intensely jealous of his influence, -detested him; the Marchese del Dongo merely despised him, because he -reasoned too much for a man of such humble station. Fabrizio adored him: -to gratify him he sometimes spent whole evenings in doing enormous sums -of addition or multiplication. Then he would go up to the belfry: this -was a great favour and one that Priore Blanès had never granted to -anyone; but he liked the boy for his simplicity. "If you do not turn out -a hypocrite," he would say to him, "you will perhaps be a man." - -Two or three times in a year, Fabrizio, intrepid and passionate in his -pleasures, came within an inch of drowning himself in the lake. He was -the leader of all the great expeditions made by the young _contadini_ of -Grianta and Cadenabbia. These boys had procured a number of little keys, -and on very dark nights would try to open the padlocks of the chains -that fastened the boats to some big stone or to a tree growing by the -water's edge. It should be explained that on the Lake of Como the -fishermen in the pursuit of their calling put out night-lines at a great -distance from the shore. The upper end of the line is attached to a -plank kept afloat by a cork keel, and a supple hazel twig, fastened to -this plank, supports a little bell which rings whenever a fish, caught -on the line, gives a tug to the float. - -The great object of these nocturnal expeditions, of which Fabrizio was -commander in chief, was to go out and visit the night-lines before the -fishermen had heard the warning note of the little bells. They used to -choose stormy weather, and for these hazardous exploits would embark in -the early morning, an hour before dawn. As they climbed into the boat, -these boys imagined themselves to be plunging into the greatest dangers; -this was the finer aspect of their behaviour; and, following the example -of their fathers, would devoutly repeat a _Hail, Mary_. Now it -frequently happened that at the moment of starting, and immediately -after the _Hail, Mary_, Fabrizio was struck by a foreboding. This was -the fruit which he had gathered from the astronomical studies of his -friend Priore Blanès, in whose predictions he had no faith whatsoever. -According to his youthful imagination, this foreboding announced to him -infallibly the success or failure of the expedition; and, as he had a -stronger will than any of his companions, in course of time the whole -band had so formed the habit of having forebodings that if, at the -moment of embarking, one of them caught sight of a priest on the shore, -or if someone saw a crow fly past on his left, they would hasten to -replace the padlock on the chain of the boat, and each would go off to -his bed. Thus Priore Blanès had not imparted his somewhat difficult -science to Fabrizio; but, unconsciously, had infected him with an -unbounded confidence in the signs by which the future can be foretold. - - - - -_MILAN_ - - -The Marchese felt that any accident to his ciphered correspondence might -put him at the mercy of his sister; and so every year, at the feast of -Sant'Angela, which was Contessa Pietranera's name-day, Fabrizio was -given leave to go and spend a week at Milan. He lived through the year -looking hopefully forward or sadly back to this week. On this great -occasion, to carry out this politic mission, the Marchese handed over to -his son four scudi, and, in accordance with his custom, gave nothing to -his wife, who took the boy. But one of the cooks, six lackeys and a -coachman with a pair of horses, started for Como the day before, and -every day at Milan the Marchesa found a carriage at her disposal and a -dinner of twelve covers. - -The sullen sort of life that was led by the Marchese del Dongo was -certainly by no means entertaining, but it had this advantage that it -permanently enriched the families who were kind enough to sacrifice -themselves to it. The Marchese, who had an income of more than two -hundred thousand lire, did not spend a quarter of that sum; he was -living on hope. Throughout the thirteen years from 1800 to 1813, he -constantly and firmly believed that Napoleon would be overthrown within -six months. One may judge of his rapture when, at the beginning of 1813, -he learned of the disasters of the Beresima! The taking of Paris and the -fall of Napoleon almost made him lose his head; he then allowed himself -to make the most outrageous remarks to his wife and sister. Finally, -after fourteen years of waiting, he had that unspeakable joy of seeing -the Austrian troops re-enter Milan. In obedience to orders issued from -Vienna, the Austrian General received the Marchese del Dongo with a -consideration akin to respect; they hastened to offer him one of the -highest posts in the government; and he accepted it as the payment of a -debt. His elder son obtained a lieutenancy in one of the smartest -regiments of the Monarchy, but the younger repeatedly declined to accept -a cadetship which was offered him. This triumph, in which the Marchese -exulted with a rare insolence, lasted but a few months, and was followed -by a humiliating reverse. Never had he had any talent for business, and -fourteen years spent in the country among his footmen, his lawyer and -his doctor, added to the crustiness of old age which had overtaken him, -had left him totally incapable of conducting business in any form. Now -it is not possible, in an Austrian country, to keep an important place -without having the kind of talent that is required by the slow and -complicated, but highly reasonable administration of that venerable -Monarchy. The blunders made by the Marchese del Dongo scandalised the -staff of his office, and even obstructed the course of public business. -His ultra-monarchist utterances irritated the populace which the -authorities sought to lull into a heedless slumber. One fine day he -learned that His Majesty had been graciously pleased to accept the -resignation which he had submitted of his post in the administration, -and at the same time conferred on him the place of _Second Grand -Majordomo Major_ of the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom. The Marchese was -furious at the atrocious injustice of which he had been made a victim; -he printed an open letter to a friend, he who so inveighed against the -liberty of the press. Finally, he wrote to the Emperor that his -Ministers were playing him false, and were no better than Jacobins. -These things accomplished, he went sadly back to his castle of Grianta. -He had one consolation. After the fall of Napoleon, certain powerful -personages at Milan planned an assault in the streets on Conte Prina, a -former Minister of the King of Italy, and a man of the highest merit. -Conte Pietranera risked his own life to save that of the Minister, who -was killed by blows from umbrellas after five hours of agony. A priest, -the Marchese del Dongo's confessor, could have saved Prina by opening -the wicket of the church of San Giovanni, in front of which the -unfortunate Minister was dragged, and indeed left for a moment in the -gutter, in the middle of the street; but he refused with derision to -open his wicket, and, six months afterwards, the Marchese was happily -able to secure for him a fine advancement. - - - - -_PRINA_ - - -He execrated Conte Pietranera, his brother-in-law, who, not having an -income of 50 louis, had the audacity to be quite content, made a point -of showing himself loyal to what he had loved all his life, and had the -insolence to preach that spirit of justice without regard for persons, -which the Marchese called an infamous piece of Jacobinism. The Conte had -refused to take service in Austria; this refusal was remembered against -him, and, a few months after the death of Prina, the same persons who -had hired the assassins contrived that General Pietranera should be -flung into prison. Whereupon the Contessa, his wife, procured a passport -and sent for post-horses to go to Vienna to tell the Emperor the truth. -Prina's assassins took fright, and one of them, a cousin of Signora -Pietranera, came to her at midnight, an hour before she was to start for -Vienna, with the order for her husband's release. Next day, the Austrian -General sent for Conte Pietranera, received him with every possible mark -of distinction, and assured him that his pension as a retired officer -would be issued to him without delay and on the most liberal scale. The -gallant General Bubna, a man of sound judgment and warm heart, seemed -quite ashamed of the assassination of Prina and the Conte's -imprisonment. - -After this brief storm, allayed by the Contessa's firmness of character, -the couple lived, for better or worse, on the retired pay for which, -thanks to General Bubna's recommendation, they were not long kept -waiting. - -Fortunately, it so happened that, for the last five or six years, the -Contessa had been on the most friendly terms with a very rich young man, -who was also an intimate friend of the Conte, and never failed to place -at their disposal the finest team of English horses to be seen in Milan -at the time, his box in the theatre _alla Scala_ and his villa in the -country. But the Conte had a sense of his own valour, he was full of -generous impulses, he was easily carried away, and at such times allowed -himself to make imprudent speeches. One day when he was out shooting -with some young men, one of them, who had served under other flags than -his, began to belittle the courage of the soldiers of the Cisalpine -Republic. The Conte struck him, a fight at once followed, and the Conte, -who was without support, among all these young men, was killed. This -species of duel gave rise to a great deal of talk, and the persons who -had been engaged in it took the precaution of going for a tour in -Switzerland. - -That absurd form of courage which is called resignation, the courage of -a fool who allows himself to be hanged without a word of protest, was -not at all in keeping with the Contessa's character. Furious at the -death of her husband, she would have liked Limercati, the rich young -man, her intimate friend, to be seized also by the desire to travel in -Switzerland, and there to shoot or otherwise assault the murderer of -Conte Pietranera. - - - - -_MILAN_ - - -Limercati thought this plan the last word in absurdity, and the Contessa -discovered that in herself contempt for him had killed her affection. -She multiplied her attentions to Limercati; she sought to rekindle his -love, and then to leave him stranded and so make him desperate. To -render this plan of vengeance intelligible to French readers, I should -explain that at Milan, in a land widely remote from our own, people are -still made desperate by love. The Contessa, who, in her widow's weeds, -easily eclipsed any of her rivals, flirted with all the young men of -rank and fashion, and one of these, Conte N----, who, from the first, -had said that he felt Limercati's good qualities to be rather heavy, -rather starched for so spirited a woman, fell madly in love with her. -She wrote to Limercati: - - -"Will you for once act like a man of spirit? Please to consider -that you have never known me. - -"I am, with a trace of contempt perhaps, your most humble servant, - -"GINA PIETRANERA." - - -After reading this missive, Limercati set off for one of his country -seats, his love rose to a climax, he became quite mad and spoke of -blowing out his brains, an unheard-of thing in countries where hell is -believed in. Within twenty-four hours of his arrival in the country, he -had written to the Contessa offering her his hand and his rent-roll of -200,000 francs. She sent him back his letter, with its seal unbroken, by -Conte N----'s groom. Whereupon Limercati spent three years on his -estates, returning every other month to Milan, but without ever having -the courage to remain there, and boring all his friends with his -passionate love for the Contessa and his detailed accounts of the -favours she had formerly bestowed on him. At first, he used to add that -with Conte N---- she was ruining herself, and that such a connexion was -degrading to her. - -The fact of the matter was that the Contessa had no sort of love for -Conte N----, and she told him as much when she had made quite sure of -Limercati's despair. The Conte, who was no novice, besought her upon no -account to divulge the sad truth which she had confided to him. "If you -will be so extremely indulgent," he added, "as to continue to receive me -with all the outward distinctions accorded to a reigning lover, I may -perhaps be able to find a suitable position." - -After this heroic declaration the Contessa declined to avail herself any -longer either of Conte N----'s horses or of his box. But for the last -fifteen years she had been accustomed to the most fashionable style of -living; she had now to solve that difficult, or rather impossible -problem: how to live in Milan on a pension of 1,500 francs. She left her -_palazzo_, took a pair of rooms on a fifth floor, dismissed all her -servants, including even her own maid whose place she filled with a poor -old woman to do the housework. This sacrifice was as a matter of fact -less heroic and less painful than it appears to us; at Milan poverty is -not a thing to laugh at, and therefore does not present itself to -trembling souls as the worst of evils. After some months of this noble -poverty, besieged by incessant letters from Limercati, and indeed from -Conte N---- who also wished to marry her, it came to pass that the -Marchese del Dongo, miserly as a rule to the last degree, bethought -himself that his enemies might find a cause for triumph in his sister's -plight. What! A del Dongo reduced to living upon the pension which the -court of Vienna, of which he had so many grounds for complaint, grants -to the widows of its Generals! - -He wrote to inform her that an apartment and an allowance worthy of his -sister awaited her at the castle of Grianta. The Contessa's volatile -mind embraced with enthusiasm the idea of this new mode of life; it was -twenty years since she had lived in that venerable castle that rose -majestically from among its old chestnuts planted in the days of the -Sforza. "There," she told herself, "I shall find repose, and, at my age, -is not that in itself happiness?" (Having reached one-and-thirty, she -imagined that the time had come for her to retire.) "On that sublime -lake by which I was born, there awaits me at last a happy and peaceful -existence." - - - - -_THE LAKE_ - - -I cannot say whether she was mistaken, but one thing certain is that -this passionate soul, which had just refused so lightly the offer of two -vast fortunes, brought happiness to the castle of Grianta. Her two -nieces were wild with joy. "You have renewed the dear days of my youth," -the Marchesa told her, as she took her in her arms; "before you came, I -was a hundred." The Contessa set out to revisit, with Fabrizio, all -those enchanting spots in the neighbourhood of Grianta, which travellers -have made so famous: the Villa Melzi on the other shore of the lake, -opposite the castle, and commanding a fine view of it; higher up, the -sacred wood of the Sfrondata, and the bold promontory which divides the -two arms of the lake, that of Como, so voluptuous, and the other which -runs towards Lecco, grimly severe: sublime and charming views which the -most famous site in the world, the Bay of Naples, may equal, but does -not surpass. It was with ecstasy that the Contessa recaptured the -memories of her earliest childhood and compared them with her present -sensations. "The Lake of Como," she said to herself, "is not surrounded, -like the Lake of Geneva, by wide tracts of land enclosed and cultivated -according to the most approved methods, which suggest money and -speculation. Here, on every side, I see hills of irregular height -covered with clumps of trees that have grown there at random, which the -hand of man has never yet spoiled and forced to _yield a return_. -Standing among these admirably shaped hills which run down to the lake -at such curious angles, I can preserve all the illusions of Tasso's and -Ariosto's descriptions. All is noble and tender, everything speaks of -love, nothing recalls the ugliness of civilisation. The villages halfway -up their sides are hidden in tall trees, and above the tree-tops rises -the charming architecture of their picturesque belfries. If some little -field fifty yards across comes here and there to interrupt the clumps of -chestnuts and wild cherries, the satisfied eye sees growing on it plants -more vigorous and happier than elsewhere. Beyond these hills, the crests -of which offer one hermitages in all of which one would like to dwell, -the astonished eye perceives the peaks of the Alps, always covered in -snow, and their stern austerity recalls to one so much of the sorrows of -life as is necessary to enhance one's immediate pleasure. The -imagination is touched by the distant sound of the bell of some little -village hidden among the trees: these sounds borne across the waters -which soften their tone, assume a tinge of gentle melancholy and -resignation, and seem to be saying to man: 'Life is fleeting: do not -therefore show yourself so obdurate towards the happiness that is -offered you, make haste to enjoy it.'" The language of these enchanting -spots, which have not their like in the world, restored to the Contessa -the heart of a girl of sixteen. She could not conceive how she could -have spent all these years without revisiting the lake. "Is it then to -the threshold of old age," she asked herself, "that our happiness takes -flight?" She bought a boat which Fabrizio, the Marchesa and she -decorated with their own hands, having no money to spend on anything, in -the midst of this most luxurious establishment; since his disgrace the -Marchese del Dongo had doubled his aristocratic state. For example, in -order to reclaim ten yards of land from the lake, near the famous plane -avenue, in the direction of Cadenabbia, he had an embankment built the -estimate for which ran to 80,000 francs. At the end of this embankment -there rose, from the plans of the famous Marchese Cagnola, a chapel -built entirely of huge blocks of granite, and in this chapel Marchesi, -the sculptor then in fashion at Milan, built him a tomb on which a -number of bas-reliefs were intended to represent the gallant deeds of -his ancestors. - -Fabrizio's elder brother, the Marchesino Ascanio, sought to join the -ladies in their excursions; but his aunt flung water over his powdered -hair, and found some fresh dart every day with which to puncture his -solemnity. At length he delivered from the sight of his fat, pasty face -the merry troop who did not venture to laugh in his presence. They -supposed him to be the spy of the Marchese his father, and care had to -be taken in handling that stern despot, always in a furious temper since -his enforced retirement. - -Ascanio swore to be avenged on Fabrizio. - -There was a storm in which they were all in danger; although they were -infinitely short of money, they paid the two boatmen generously not to -say anything to the Marchese, who already was showing great ill humour -at their taking his two daughters with them. They encountered a second -storm; the storms on this lake are terrible and unexpected: gusts of -wind sweep out suddenly from the two mountain gorges which run down into -it on opposite sides and join battle on the water. The Contessa wished -to land in the midst of the hurricane and pealing thunder; she insisted -that, if she were to climb to a rock that stood up by itself in the -middle of the lake and was the size of a small room, she would enjoy a -curious spectacle; she would see herself assailed on all sides by raging -waves; but in jumping out of the boat she fell into the water. Fabrizio -dived in after her to save her, and both were carried away for some -distance. No doubt it is not a pleasant thing to feel oneself drowning; -but the spirit of boredom, taken by surprise, was banished from the -feudal castle. The Contessa conceived a passionate enthusiasm for the -primitive nature of the Priore Blanès and for his astrology. The little -money that remained to her after the purchase of the boat had been spent -on buying a spy-glass, and almost every evening, with her nieces and -Fabrizio, she would take her stand on the platform of one of the gothic -towers of the castle. Fabrizio was the learned one of the party, and -they spent many hours there very pleasantly, out of reach of the spies. - -It must be admitted that there were days on which the Contessa did not -utter a word to anyone; she would be seen strolling under the tall -chestnuts lost in sombre meditations; she was too clever a woman not to -feel at times the tedium of having no one with whom to exchange ideas. -But next day she would be laughing as before: it was the lamentations of -her sister-in-law, the Marchesa, that produced these sombre impressions -on a mind naturally so active. - -"Are we to spend all the youth that is left to us in this gloomy -castle?" the Marchesa used to exclaim. - -Before the Contessa came, she had not had the courage even to feel these -regrets. - -Such was their life during the winter of 1814 and 1815. On two -occasions, in spite of her poverty, the Contessa went to spend a few -days at Milan; she was anxious to see a sublime ballet by Vigano, given -at the Scala, and the Marchese raised no objections to his wife's -accompanying her sister-in-law. They went to draw the arrears of the -little pension, and it was the penniless widow of the Cisalpine General -who lent a few sequins to the millionaire Marchesa del Dongo. These -parties were delightful; they invited old friends to dinner, and -consoled themselves by laughing at everything, just like children. This -Italian gaiety, full of surprise and brio, made them forget the -atmosphere of sombre gloom which the stern faces of the Marchese and his -elder son spread around them at Grianta. Fabrizio, though barely -sixteen, represented the head of the house admirably. - - - - -_DEPARTURE_ - - -On the 7th of March, 1815, the ladies had been back for two days after a -charming little excursion to Milan; they were strolling under the fine -avenue of plane trees, then recently extended to the very edge of the -lake. A boat appeared, coming from the direction of Como, and made -strange signals. One of the Marchese's agents leaped out upon the bank: -Napoleon had just landed from the Gulf of Juan. Europe was kind enough -to be surprised at this event, which did not at all surprise the -Marchese del Dongo; he wrote his Sovereign a letter full of the most -cordial effusion; he offered him his talents and several millions of -money, and informed him once again that his Ministers were Jacobins and -in league with the ringleaders in Paris. - -On the 8th of March, at six o'clock in the morning, the Marchese, -wearing all his orders, was making his elder son dictate to him the -draft of a third political despatch; he was solemnly occupied in -transcribing this in his fine and careful hand, upon paper that bore the -Sovereign's effigy as a watermark. At the same moment, Fabrizio was -knocking at Contessa Pietranera's door. - -"I am off," he informed her, "I am going to join the Emperor who is also -King of Italy; he was such a good friend to your husband! I shall travel -through Switzerland. Last night, at Menaggio, my friend Vasi, the dealer -in barometers, gave me his passport; now you must give me a few -napoleons, for I have only a couple on me; but if necessary I shall go -on foot." - -The Contessa wept with joy and grief. "Great Heavens! What can have put -that idea into your head?" she cried, seizing Fabrizio's hands in her -own. - -She rose and went to fetch from the linen-cupboard, where it was -carefully hidden, a little purse embroidered with pearls; it was all -that she possessed in the world. - -"Take it," she said to Fabrizio; "but, in heaven's name, do not let -yourself be killed. What will your poor mother and I have left, if you -are taken from us? As for Napoleon's succeeding, that, my poor boy, is -impossible; our gentlemen will certainly manage to destroy him. Did you -not hear, a week ago, at Milan the story of the twenty-three plots to -assassinate him, all so carefully planned, from which it was only by a -miracle that he escaped? And at that time he was all-powerful. And you -have seen that it is not the will to destroy him that is lacking in our -enemies; France ceased to count after he left it." - -It was in a tone of the keenest emotion that the Contessa spoke to -Fabrizio of the fate in store for Napoleon. "In allowing you to go to -join him, I am sacrificing to him the dearest thing I have in the -world," she said. Fabrizio's eyes grew moist, he shed tears as he -embraced the Contessa, but his determination to be off was never for a -moment shaken. He explained with effusion to this beloved friend all the -reasons that had led to his decision, reasons which we take the liberty -of finding highly attractive. - -"Yesterday evening, it wanted seven minutes to six, we were strolling, -you remember, by the shore of the lake along the plane avenue, below the -Casa Sommariva, and we were facing the south. It was there that I first -noticed, in the distance, the boat that was coming from Como, bearing -such great tidings. As I looked at this boat without thinking of the -Emperor, and only envying the lot of those who are free to travel, -suddenly I felt myself seized by a profound emotion. The boat touched -ground, the agent said something in a low tone to my father, who changed -colour, and took us aside to announce the _terrible news_. I turned -towards the lake with no other object but to hide the tears of joy that -were flooding my eyes. Suddenly, at an immense height in the sky and on -my right hand side, I saw an eagle, the bird of Napoleon; he flew -majestically past making for Switzerland, and consequently for Paris. -'And I too,' I said to myself at that moment, 'will fly across -Switzerland with the speed of an eagle, and will go to offer that great -man a very little thing, but the only thing, after all, that I have to -offer him, the support of my feeble arm. He wished to give us a country, -and he loved my uncle.' At that instant, while I was gazing at the -eagle, in some strange way my tears ceased to flow; and the proof that -this idea came from above is that at the same moment, without any -discussion, I made up my mind to go, and saw how the journey might be -made. In the twinkling of an eye all the sorrows that, as you know, are -poisoning my life, especially on Sundays, seemed to be swept away by a -breath from heaven. I saw that mighty figure of Italy raise herself from -the mire in which the Germans keep her plunged;[7] she stretched out her -mangled arms still half loaded with chains towards her King and -Liberator. 'And I,' I said to myself, 'a son as yet unknown to fame of -that unhappy Mother, I shall go forth to die or to conquer with that man -marked out by destiny, who sought to cleanse us from the scorn that is -heaped upon us by even the most enslaved and the vilest among the -inhabitants of Europe.' - -"You know," he added in a low tone drawing nearer to the Contessa, and -fastening upon her a pair of eyes from which fire darted, "you know that -young chestnut which my mother, in the winter in which I was born, -planted with her own hands beside the big spring in our forest, two -leagues from here; before doing anything else I wanted to visit it. 'The -spring is not far advanced,' I said to myself, 'very well, if my tree is -in leaf, that shall be a sign for me. I also must emerge from the state -of torpor in which I am languishing in this cold and dreary castle.' Do -you not feel that these old blackened walls, the symbols now as they -were once the instruments of despotism, are a perfect image of the -dreariness of winter? They are to me what winter is to my tree. - -"Would you believe it, Gina? Yesterday evening at half past seven I came -to my chestnut; it had leaves, pretty little leaves that were quite big -already! I kissed them, carefully so as not to hurt them. I turned the -soil reverently round the dear tree. At once filled with a fresh -enthusiasm, I crossed the mountain; I came to Menaggio: I needed a -passport to enter Switzerland. The time had flown, it was already one -o'clock in the morning when I found myself at Vasi's door. I thought -that I should have to knock for a long time to arouse him, but he was -sitting up with three of his friends. At the first word I uttered: 'You -are going to join Napoleon' he cried; and he fell on my neck. The others -too embraced me with rapture. 'Why am I married?' I heard one of them -say." - -Signora Pietranera had grown pensive. She felt that she must offer a few -objections. If Fabrizio had had the slightest experience of life, he -would have seen quite well that the Contessa herself did not believe in -the sound reasons which she hastened to urge on him. But, failing -experience, he had resolution; he did not condescend even to hear what -those reasons were. The Contessa presently came down to making him -promise that at least he would inform his mother of his intention. - -"She will tell my sisters, and those women will betray me without -knowing it!" cried Fabrizio with a sort of heroic grandeur. - -"You should speak more respectfully," said the Contessa, smiling through -her tears, "of the sex that will make your fortune; for you will never -appeal to men, you have too much fire for prosaic souls." - -The Marchesa dissolved in tears on learning her son's strange plan; she -could not feel its heroism, and did everything in her power to keep him -at home. When she was convinced that nothing in the world, except the -walls of a prison, could prevent him from starting, she handed over to -him the little money that she possessed; then she remembered that she -had also, the day before, received nine or ten small diamonds, worth -perhaps ten thousand francs, which the Marchese had entrusted to her to -take to Milan to be set. Fabrizio's sisters came into their mother's -room while the Contessa was sewing these diamonds into our hero's -travelling coat; he handed the poor women back their humble napoleons. -His sisters were so enthusiastic over his plan, they kissed him with so -clamorous a joy that he took in his hand the diamonds that had still to -be concealed and was for starting off there and then. - -"You will betray me without knowing it," he said to his sisters. "Since -I have all this money, there is no need to take clothes; one can get -them anywhere." He embraced these dear ones and set off at once without -even going back to his own room. He walked so fast, afraid of being -followed by men on horseback, that before night he had entered Lugano. -He was now, thank heaven, in a Swiss town, and had no longer any fear of -being waylaid on the lonely road by constables in his father's pay. From -this haven, he wrote him a fine letter, a boyish weakness which gave -strength and substance to the Marchese's anger. Fabrizio took the post, -crossed the Saint-Gothard; his progress was rapid, and he entered France -by Pontarlier. The Emperor was in Paris. There Fabrizio's troubles -began; he had started out with the firm intention of speaking to the -Emperor: it had never occurred to him that this might be a difficult -matter. At Milan, ten times daily he used to see Prince Eugène, and -could have spoken to him had he wished. In Paris, every morning he went -to the courtyard of the Tuileries to watch the reviews held by Napoleon; -but never was he able to come near the Emperor. Our hero imagined all -the French to be profoundly disturbed, as he himself was, by the extreme -peril in which their country lay. At table in the hotel in which he was -staying, he made no mystery about his plans; he found several young men -with charming manners, even more enthusiastic than himself, who, in a -very few days, did not fail to rob him of all the money that he -possessed. Fortunately, out of pure modesty, he had said nothing of the -diamonds given him by his mother. On the morning when, after an orgy -overnight, he found that he had been decidedly robbed, he bought a fine -pair of horses, engaged as servant an old soldier, one of the dealer's -grooms, and, filled with contempt for the young men of Paris with their -fine speeches, set out to join the army. He knew nothing except that it -was concentrated near Maubeuge. No sooner had he reached the frontier -than he felt that it would be absurd for him to stay in a house, -toasting himself before a good fire, when there were soldiers in bivouac -outside. In spite of the remonstrances of his servant, who was not -lacking in common sense, he rashly made his way to the bivouacs on the -extreme frontier, on the road into Belgium. No sooner had he reached the -first battalion that was resting by the side of the road than the -soldiers began to stare at the sight of this young civilian in whose -appearance there was nothing that suggested uniform. Night was falling, -a cold wind blew. Fabrizio went up to a fire and offered to pay for -hospitality. The soldiers looked at one another amazed more than -anything at the idea of payment, and willingly made room for him by the -fire. His servant constructed a shelter for him. But, an hour later, the -_adjudant_ of the regiment happening to pass near the bivouac, the -soldiers went to report to him the arrival of this stranger speaking bad -French. The _adjudant_ questioned Fabrizio, who spoke to him of his -enthusiasm for the Emperor in an accent which aroused grave suspicion; -whereupon this under-officer requested our hero to go with him to the -Colonel, whose headquarters were in a neighbouring farm. Fabrizio's -servant came up with the two horses. The sight of them seemed to make so -forcible an impression upon the _adjudant_ that immediately he changed -his mind and began to interrogate the servant also. The latter, an old -soldier, guessing his questioner's plan of campaign from the first, -spoke of the powerful protection which his master enjoyed, adding that -certainly they would not _bone_ his fine horses. At once a soldier called -by the _adjudant_ put his hand on the servant's collar; another soldier -took charge of the horses, and, with an air of severity, the _adjudant_ -ordered Fabrizio to follow him and not to answer back. - - - - -_THE BIVOUAC_ - - -After making him cover a good league on foot, in the darkness rendered -apparently more intense by the fires of the bivouacs which lighted the -horizon on every side, the adjutant handed Fabrizio over to an officer -of _gendarmerie_ who, with a grave air, asked for his papers. Fabrizio -showed his passport, which described him as a dealer in barometers -travelling with his wares. - -"What fools they are!" cried the officer; "this really is too much." - -He put a number of questions to our hero who spoke of the Emperor and of -Liberty in terms of the keenest enthusiasm; whereupon the officer of -_gendarmerie_ went off in peals of laughter. - -"Gad! You're no good at telling a tale!" he cried. "It is a bit too much -of a good thing their daring to send us young mugs like you!" And -despite all the protestations of Fabrizio, who was dying to explain that -he was not really a dealer in barometers, the officer sent him to the -prison of B----, a small town in the neighbourhood where our hero -arrived at about three o'clock in the morning, beside himself with rage -and half dead with exhaustion. - -Fabrizio, astonished at first, then furious, understanding absolutely -nothing of what was happening to him, spent thirty-three long days in -this wretched prison; he wrote letter after letter to the town -commandant, and it was the gaoler's wife, a handsome Fleming of -six-and-thirty, who undertook to deliver them. But as she had no wish to -see so nice-looking a boy shot, and as moreover he paid well, she put -all these letters without fail in the fire. Late in the evening, she -would deign to come in and listen to the prisoner's complaints; she had -told her husband that the young greenhorn had money, after which the -prudent gaoler allowed her a free hand. She availed herself of this -licence and received several gold napoleons in return, for the -_adjudant_ had taken only the horses, and the officer of _gendarmerie_ -had confiscated nothing at all. One afternoon in the month of June, -Fabrizio heard a violent cannonade at some distance. So they were -fighting at last! His heart leaped with impatience. He heard also a -great deal of noise in the town; as a matter of fact a big movement of -troops was being effected; three divisions were passing through B----. -When, about eleven o'clock, the gaoler's wife came in to share his -griefs, Fabrizio was even more friendly than usual; then, seizing hold -of her hands: - -"Get me out of here, I swear on my honour to return to prison as soon as -they have stopped fighting." - -"Stuff and nonsense! Have you the _quibus_?" He seemed worried; he did -not understand the word _quibus_. The gaoler's wife, noticing his -dismay, decided that he must be in low water, and instead of talking in -gold napoleons as she had intended talked now only in francs. - - - - -_WAR_ - - -"Listen," she said to him, "if you can put down a hundred francs, I will -place a double napoleon on each eye of the corporal who comes to change -the guard during the night. He won't be able to see you breaking out of -prison, and if his regiment is to march to-morrow he will accept." - -The bargain was soon struck. The gaoler's wife even consented to hide -Fabrizio in her own room, from which he could more easily make his -escape in the morning. - -Next day, before dawn, the woman who was quite moved said to Fabrizio: - -"My dear boy, you are still far too young for that dirty trade; take my -advice, don't go back to it." - -"What!" stammered Fabrizio, "is it a crime then to wish to defend one's -country?" - -"Enough said. Always remember that I saved your life; your case was -clear, you would have been shot. But don't say a word to anyone, or you -will lose my husband and me our job; and whatever you do, don't go about -repeating that silly tale about being a gentleman from Milan disguised -as a dealer in barometers, it's too stupid. Listen to me now, I'm going -to give you the uniform of a hussar who died the other day in the -prison; open your mouth as little as you possibly can; but if a serjeant -or an officer asks you questions so that you have to answer, say that -you've been lying ill in the house of a peasant who took you in out of -charity when you were shivering with fever in a ditch by the roadside. -If that does not satisfy them, you can add that you are going back to -your regiment. They may perhaps arrest you because of your accent; then -say that you were born in Piedmont, that you're a conscript who was left -in France last year, and all that sort of thing." - -For the first time, after thirty-three days of blind fury, Fabrizio -grasped the clue to all that had happened. They took him for a spy. He -argued with the gaoler's wife, who, that morning, was most affectionate; -and finally, while armed with a needle she was taking in the hussar's -uniform to fit him, he told his whole story in so many words to the -astonished woman. For an instant she believed him; he had so innocent an -air, and looked so nice dressed as a hussar. - -"Since you have such a desire to fight," she said to him at length half -convinced, "what you ought to have done as soon as you reached Paris was -to enlist in a regiment. If you had paid for a serjeant's drink, the -whole thing would have been settled." The gaoler's wife added much good -advice for the future, and finally, at the first streak of dawn, let -Fabrizio out of the house, after making him swear a hundred times over -that he would never mention her name, whatever happened. As soon as -Fabrizio had left the little town, marching boldly with the hussar's -sabre under his arm, he was seized by a scruple. "Here I am," he said to -himself, "with the clothes and the marching orders of a hussar who died -in prison, where he was sent, they say, for stealing a cow and some -silver plate! I have, so to speak, inherited his identity . . . and -without wishing it or expecting it in any way! Beware of prison! The -omen is clear, I shall have much to suffer from prisons!" - -Not an hour had passed since Fabrizio's parting from his benefactress -when the rain began to fall with such violence that the new hussar was -barely able to get along, hampered by a pair of heavy boots which had -not been made for him. Meeting a peasant mounted upon a sorry horse, he -bought the animal, explaining by signs what he wanted; the gaoler's wife -had recommended him to speak as little as possible, in view of his -accent. - -That day the army, which had just won the battle of Ligny, was marching -straight on Brussels. It was the eve of the battle of Waterloo. Towards -midday, the rain still continuing to fall in torrents, Fabrizio heard -the sound of the guns; this joy made him completely oblivious of the -fearful moments of despair in which so unjust an imprisonment had -plunged him. He rode on until late at night, and, as he was beginning to -have a little common sense, went to seek shelter in a peasant's house a -long way from the road. This peasant wept and pretended that everything -had been taken from him; Fabrizio gave him a crown, and he found some -barley. "My horse is no beauty," Fabrizio said to himself, "but that -makes no difference, he may easily take the fancy of some _adjudant_," -and he went to lie down in the stable by its side. An hour before dawn -Fabrizio was on the road, and, by copious endearments, succeeded in -making his horse trot. About five o'clock, he heard the cannonade: it -was the preliminaries of Waterloo. - - -[Footnote 7: The speaker is carried away by passion; he is rendering -in prose some lines of the famous Monti.] - - - - -CHAPTER THREE - - -Fabrizio soon came upon some _vivandières_, and the extreme gratitude -that he felt for the gaoler's wife of B---- impelled him to address -them; he asked one of them where he would find the 4th Hussar Regiment, -to which he belonged. - -"You would do just as well not to be in such a hurry, young soldier," -said the _cantinière_, touched by Fabrizio's pallor and glowing eyes. -"Your wrist is not strong enough yet for the sabre-thrusts they'll be -giving to-day. If you had a musket, I don't say, maybe you could let off -your round as well as any of them." - -This advice displeased Fabrizio; but however much he urged on his horse, -he could go no faster than the _cantinière_ in her cart. Every now and -then the sound of the guns seemed to come nearer and prevented them from -hearing each other speak, for Fabrizio was so beside himself with -enthusiasm and delight that he had renewed the conversation. Every word -uttered by the _cantinière_ intensified his happiness by making him -understand it. With the exception of his real name and his escape from -prison, he ended by confiding everything to this woman who seemed such a -good soul. She was greatly surprised and understood nothing at all of -what this handsome young soldier was telling her. - -"I see what it is," she exclaimed at length with an air of triumph. -"You're a young gentleman who has fallen in love with the wife of some -captain in the 4th Hussars. Your mistress will have made you a present -of the uniform you're wearing, and you're going after her. As sure as -God's in heaven, you've never been a soldier; but, like the brave boy -you are, seeing your regiment's under fire, you want to be there too, -and not let them think you a chicken." - - - - -_WAR_ - - -Fabrizio agreed with everything; it was his only way of procuring good -advice. "I know nothing of the ways of these French people," he said to -himself, "and if I am not guided by someone I shall find myself being -put in prison again, and they'll steal my horse." - -"First of all, my boy," said the _cantinière_, who was becoming more -and more of a friend to him, "confess that you're not one-and-twenty: at -the very most you might be seventeen." - -This was the truth, and Fabrizio admitted as much with good grace. - -"Then, you aren't even a conscript; it's simply because of Madame's -pretty face that you're going to get your bones broken. Plague it, she -can't be particular. If you've still got some of the _yellow-boys_ she -sent you, you must first of all buy yourself another horse; look how -your screw pricks up his ears when the guns sound at all near; that's a -peasant's horse, and will be the death of you as soon as you reach the -line. That white smoke you see over there above the hedge, that's the -infantry firing, my boy. So prepare for a fine fright when you hear the -bullets whistling over you. You'll do as well to eat a bit while there's -still time." - -Fabrizio followed this advice and, presenting a napoleon to the -_vivandière_, asked her to accept payment. - -"It makes one weep to see him!" cried the woman; "the poor child doesn't -even know how to spend his money! It would be no more than you deserve -if I pocketed your napoleon and put Cocotte into a trot; damned if your -screw could catch me up. What would you do, stupid, if you saw me go -off? Bear in mind, when the _brute_ growls, never to show your gold. -Here," she went on, "here's 18 francs, 50 centimes, and your breakfast -costs you 30 sous. Now, we shall soon have some horses for sale. If the -beast is a small one, you'll give ten francs, and, in any case, never -more than twenty, not if it was the horse of the Four Sons of Aymon." - -The meal finished, the _vivandière_, who was still haranguing, was -interrupted by a woman who had come across the fields and passed them on -the road. - -"Hallo there, hi!" this woman shouted. "Hallo, Margot! Your 6th Light -are over there on the right." - -"I must leave you, my boy," said the _vivandière_ to our hero; "but -really and truly I pity you; I've taken quite a fancy to you, upon my -word I have. You don't know a thing about anything, you're going to get -a wipe in the eye, as sure as God's in heaven! Come along to the 6th -Light with me." - -"I quite understand that I know nothing," Fabrizio told her, "but I want -to fight, and I'm determined to go over there towards that white smoke." - -"Look how your horse is twitching his ears! As soon as he gets over -there, even if he's no strength left, he'll take the bit in his teeth -and start galloping, and heaven only knows where he'll land you. Will -you listen to me now? As soon as you get to the troops, pick up a musket -and a cartridge-pouch, get down among the men and copy what you see them -do, exactly the same: But, good heavens, I'll bet you don't even know -how to open a cartridge." - -Fabrizio, stung to the quick, admitted nevertheless to his new friend -that she had guessed aright. - -"Poor boy! He'll be killed straight away; sure as God! It won't take -long. You've got to come with me, absolutely," went on the _cantinière_ -in a tone of authority. - -"But I want to fight." - -"You shall fight too; why, the 6th Light are famous fighters, and -there's fighting enough to-day for everyone." - -"But shall we come soon to the regiment?" - -"In a quarter of an hour at the most." - -"With this honest woman's recommendation," Fabrizio told himself, "my -ignorance of everything won't make them take me for a spy, and I shall -have a chance of fighting." At this moment the noise of the guns -redoubled, each explosion coming straight on top of the last. "It's like -a Rosary," said Fabrizio. - -"We're beginning to hear the infantry fire now," said the _vivandière_, -whipping up her little horse, which seemed quite excited by the firing. - -The _cantinière_ turned to the right and took a side road that ran -through the fields; there was a foot of mud in it; the little cart -seemed about to be stuck fast: Fabrizio pushed the wheel. His horse fell -twice; presently the road, though with less water on it, was nothing -more than a bridle path through the grass. Fabrizio had not gone five -hundred yards when his nag stopped short: it was a corpse, lying across -the path, which terrified horse and rider alike. - -Fabrizio's face, pale enough by nature, assumed a markedly green tinge; -the _cantinière_, after looking at the dead man, said, as though speaking -to herself: "That's not one of our Division." Then, raising her eyes to -our hero, she burst out laughing. - -"Aha, my boy! There's a titbit for you!" Fabrizio sat frozen. What -struck him most of all was the dirtiness of the feet of this corpse -which had already been stripped of its shoes and left with nothing but -an old pair of trousers all clotted with blood. - -"Come nearer," the _cantinière_ ordered him, "get off your horse, -you'll have to get accustomed to them; look," she cried, "he's stopped -one in the head." - -A bullet, entering on one side of the nose, had gone out at the opposite -temple, and disfigured the corpse in a hideous fashion. It lay with one -eye still open. - -"Get off your horse then, lad," said the _cantinière_, "and give him a -shake of the hand to see if he'll return it." - -Without hesitation, although ready to yield up his soul with disgust, -Fabrizio flung himself from his horse and took the hand of the corpse -which he shook vigorously; then he stood still as though paralysed. He -felt that he had not the strength to mount again. What horrified him -more than anything was that open eye. - -"The _vivandière_ will think me a coward," he said to himself bitterly. -But he felt the impossibility of making any movement; he would have -fallen. It was a frightful moment; Fabrizio was on the point of being -physically sick. The _vivandière_ noticed this, jumped lightly down -from her little carriage, and held out to him, without saying a word, a -glass of brandy which he swallowed at a gulp; he was able to mount his -screw, and continued on his way without speaking. The _vivandière_ -looked at him now and again from the corner of her eye. - -"You shall fight to-morrow, my boy," she said at length; "to-day you're -going to stop with me. You can see now that you've got to learn the -business before you can become a soldier." - -"On the contrary, I want to start fighting at once," exclaimed our hero -with a sombre air which seemed to the _vivandière_ to augur well. The -noise of the guns grew twice as loud and seemed to be coming nearer. The -explosions began to form a continuous bass; there was no interval -between one and the next, and above this running bass, which suggested -the roar of a torrent in the distance, they could make out quite plainly -the rattle of musketry. - -At this point the road dived down into a clump, of trees. The -_vivandière_ saw three or four soldiers of our army who were coming -towards her as fast as their legs would carry them; she jumped nimbly -down from her cart and ran into cover fifteen or twenty paces from the -road. She hid herself in a hole which had been left where a big tree had -recently been uprooted. "Now," thought Fabrizio, "we shall see whether I -am a coward!" He stopped by the side of the little cart which the woman -had abandoned, and drew his sabre. The soldiers paid no attention to him -and passed at a run along the wood, to the left of the road. - -"They're ours," said the _vivandière_ calmly, as she came back, quite -breathless, to her little cart. . . . "If your horse was capable of -galloping, I should say: push ahead as far as the end of the wood, and -see if there's anyone on the plain." Fabrizio did not wait to be told -twice, he tore off a branch from a poplar, stripped it and started to -lash his horse with all his might; the animal broke into a gallop for a -moment, then fell back into its regular slow trot. The _vivandière_ had -put her horse into a gallop. "Stop, will you, stop!" she called after -Fabrizio. Presently both were clear of the wood. Coming to the edge of -the plain, they heard a terrifying din, guns and muskets thundered on -every side, right, left, behind them. And as the clump of trees from -which they emerged grew on a mound rising nine or ten feet above the -plain, they could see fairly well a corner of the battle; but still -there was no one to be seen in the meadow beyond the wood. This meadow -was bordered, half a mile away, by a long row of willows, very bushy; -above the willows appeared a white smoke which now and again rose -eddying into the sky. - -"If I only knew where the regiment was," said the _cantinière_, in some -embarrassment. "It won't do to go straight ahead over this big field. By -the way," she said to Fabrizio, "if you see one of the enemy, stick him -with the point of your sabre, don't play about with the blade." - -At this moment, the _cantinière_ caught sight of the four soldiers whom -we mentioned a little way back; they were coming out of the wood on to -the plain to the left of the road. One of them was on horseback. - -"There you are," she said to Fabrizio. "Hallo there!" she called to the -mounted man, "come over here and have a glass of brandy." The soldiers -approached. - -"Where are the 6th Light?" she shouted. - -"Over there, five minutes away, across that canal that runs along by the -willows; why, Colonel Macon has just been killed." - -"Will you take five francs for your horse, you?" - -"Five francs! That's not a bad one, _ma_! An officer's horse I can sell -in ten minutes for five napoleons." - -"Give me one of your napoleons," said the _vivandière_ to Fabrizio. -Then going up to the mounted soldier: "Get off, quickly," she said to -him, "here's your napoleon." - -The soldier dismounted, Fabrizio sprang gaily on to the saddle, the -_vivandière_ unstrapped the little portmanteau which was on his old -horse. - -"Come and help me, all of you!" she said to the soldiers, "is that the -way you leave a lady to do the work?" - -But no sooner had the captured horse felt the weight of the portmanteau -than he began to rear, and Fabrizio, who was an excellent horseman, had -to use all his strength to hold him. - -"A good sign!" said the _vivandière_, "the gentleman is not accustomed -to being tickled by portmanteaus." - -"A general's horse," cried the man who had sold it, "a horse that's -worth ten napoleons if it's worth a liard." - -"Here are twenty francs," said Fabrizio, who could not contain himself -for joy at feeling between his legs a horse that could really move. - -At that moment a shot struck the line of willows, through which it -passed obliquely, and Fabrizio had the curious spectacle of all those -little branches flying this way and that as though mown down by a stroke -of the scythe. - -"Look, there's the _brute_ advancing," the soldier said to him as he -took the twenty francs. It was now about two o'clock. - -Fabrizio was still under the spell of this strange spectacle when a -party of generals, followed by a score of hussars, passed at a gallop -across one corner of the huge field on the edge of which he had halted: -his horse neighed, reared several times in succession, then began -violently tugging the bridle that was holding him. "All right, then," -Fabrizio said to himself. - -The horse, left to his own devices, dashed off hell for leather to join -the escort that was following the generals. Fabrizio counted four -gold-laced hats. A quarter of an hour later, from a few words said by -one hussar to the next, Fabrizio gathered that one of these generals was -the famous Marshal Ney. His happiness knew no bounds; only he had no way -of telling which of the four generals was Marshal Ney; he would have -given everything in the world to know, but he remembered that he had -been told not to speak. The escort halted, having to cross a wide ditch -left full of water by the rain overnight; it was fringed with tall trees -and formed the left hand boundary of the field at the entrance to which -Fabrizio had bought the horse. Almost all the hussars had dismounted; -the bank of the ditch was steep and very slippery and the water lay -quite three or four feet below the level of the field. Fabrizio, -distracted with joy, was thinking more of Marshal Ney and of glory than -of his horse, which, being highly excited, jumped into the canal, thus -splashing the water up to a considerable height. One of the generals was -soaked to the skin by the sheet of water, and cried with an oath: "Damn -the f---- brute!" Fabrizio felt deeply hurt by this insult. "Can I ask -him to apologise?" he wondered. Meanwhile, to prove that he was not so -clumsy after all, he set his horse to climb the opposite bank of the -ditch; but it rose straight up and was five or six feet high. He had to -abandon the attempt; then he rode up stream, his horse being up to its -head in water, and at last found a sort of drinking-place. By this -gentle slope he was easily able to reach the field on the other side of -the canal. He was the first man of the escort to appear there; he -started to trot proudly down the bank; below him, in the canal, the -hussars were splashing about, somewhat embarrassed by their position, -for in many places the water was five feet deep. Two or three horses -took fright and began to swim, making an appalling mess. A serjeant -noticed the manœuvre that this youngster, who looked so very unlike a -soldier, had just carried out. - -"Up here! There is a watering-place on the left!" he shouted, and in -time they all crossed. - -On reaching the farther bank, Fabrizio had found the generals there by -themselves; the noise of the guns seemed to him to have doubled; and it -was all he could do to hear the general whom he had given such a good -soaking and who now shouted in his ear: - -"Where did you get that horse?" - -Fabrizio was so much upset that he answered in Italian: - -"_L'ho comprato poco fa._ (I bought it just now.)" - -"What's that you say?" cried the general. - -But the din at that moment became so terrific that Fabrizio could not -answer him. We must admit that our hero was very little of a hero at -that moment. However, fear came to him only as a secondary -consideration; he was principally shocked by the noise, which hurt his -ears. The escort broke into a gallop; they crossed a large batch of -tilled land which lay beyond the canal. And this field was strewn with -dead. - -"Red-coats! red-coats!" the hussars of the escort exclaimed joyfully, -and at first Fabrizio did not understand; then he noticed that as a -matter of fact almost all these bodies wore red uniforms. One detail -made him shudder with horror; he observed that many of these unfortunate -red-coats were still alive; they were calling out, evidently asking for -help, and no one stopped to give it them. Our hero, being most humane, -took every possible care that his horse should not tread upon any of the -red-coats. The escort halted; Fabrizio, who was not paying sufficient -attention to his military duty, galloped on, his eyes fixed on a wounded -wretch in front of him. - -"Will you halt, you young fool!" the serjeant shouted after him. -Fabrizio discovered that he was twenty paces on the generals' right -front, and precisely in the direction in which they were gazing through -their glasses. As he came back to take his place behind the other -hussars, who had halted a few paces in rear of them, he noticed the -biggest of these generals who was speaking to his neighbour, a general -also, in a tone of authority and almost of reprimand; he was swearing. -Fabrizio could not contain his curiosity; and, in spite of the warning -not to speak, given him by his friend the gaoler's wife, he composed a -short sentence in good French, quite correct, and said to his neighbour: - -"Who is that general who is chewing up the one next to him?" - -"Gad, it's the Marshal!" - -"What Marshal?" - -"Marshal Ney, you fool! I say, where have you been serving?" - -Fabrizio, although highly susceptible, had no thought of resenting this -insult; he was studying, lost in childish admiration, the famous Prince -de la Moskowa, the "Bravest of the Brave." - -Suddenly they all moved off at full gallop. A few minutes later Fabrizio -saw, twenty paces ahead of him, a ploughed field the surface of which -was moving in a singular fashion. The furrows were full of water and the -soil, very damp, which formed the ridges between these furrows kept -flying off in little black lumps three or four feet into the air. -Fabrizio noticed as he passed this curious effect; then his thoughts -turned to dreaming of the Marshal and his glory. He heard a sharp cry -close to him; two hussars fell struck by shot; and, when he looked back -at them, they were already twenty paces behind the escort. What seemed -to him horrible was a horse streaming with blood that was struggling on -the ploughed land, its hooves caught in its own entrails; it was trying -to follow the others: its blood ran down into the mire. - -"Ah! So I am under fire at last!" he said to himself. "I have seen shots -fired!" he repeated with a sense of satisfaction. "Now I am a real -soldier." At that moment, the escort began to go hell for leather, and -our hero realised that it was shot from the guns that was making the -earth fly up all round him. He looked vainly in the direction from which -the balls were coming, he saw the white smoke of the battery at an -enormous distance, and, in the thick of the steady and continuous rumble -produced by the artillery fire, he seemed to hear shots discharged much -closer at hand: he could not understand in the least what was happening. - -At that moment, the generals and their escort dropped into a little road -filled with water which ran five feet below the level of the fields. - -The Marshal halted and looked again through his glasses. Fabrizio, this -time, could examine him at his leisure. He found him to be very fair, -with a big red face. "We don't have any faces like that in Italy," he -said to himself. "With my pale cheeks and chestnut hair, I shall never -look like that," he added despondently. To him these words implied: "I -shall never be a hero." He looked at the hussars; with a solitary -exception, all of them had yellow moustaches. If Fabrizio was studying -the hussars of the escort, they were all studying him as well. Their -stare made him blush, and, to get rid of his embarrassment, he turned -his head towards the enemy. They consisted of widely extended lines of -men in red, but, what greatly surprised him, these men seemed to be -quite minute. Their long files, which were regiments or divisions, -appeared no taller than hedges. A line of red cavalry were trotting in -the direction of the sunken road along which the Marshal and his escort -had begun to move at a walk, splashing through the mud. The smoke made -it impossible to distinguish anything in the direction in which they -were advancing; now and then one saw men moving at a gallop against this -background of white smoke. - -Suddenly, from the direction of the enemy, Fabrizio saw four men -approaching hell for leather. "Ah! We are attacked," he said to himself; -then he saw two of these men speak to the Marshal. One of the generals -on the latter's staff set off at a gallop towards the enemy, followed by -two hussars of the escort and by the four men who had just come up. -After a little canal which they all crossed, Fabrizio found himself -riding beside a serjeant who seemed a good-natured fellow. "I must speak -to this one," he said to himself, "then perhaps they'll stop staring at -me." He thought for a long time. - -"Sir, this is the first time that I have been present at a battle," he -said at length to the serjeant. "But is this a real battle?" - -"Something like. But who are you?" - -"I am the brother of a captain's wife." - -"And what is he called, your captain?" - -Our hero was terribly embarrassed; he had never anticipated this -question. Fortunately, the Marshal and his escort broke into a gallop. -"What French name shall I say?" he wondered. At last he remembered the -name of the innkeeper with whom he had lodged in Paris; he brought his -horse up to the serjeant's, and shouted to him at the top of his voice: - -"Captain Meunier!" The other, not hearing properly in the roar of the -guns, replied: "Oh, Captain Teulier? Well, he's been killed." -"Splendid," thought Fabrizio. "Captain Teulier; I must look sad." - -"Good God!" he cried; and assumed a piteous mien. They had left the -sunken road and were crossing a small meadow, they were going hell for -leather, shots were coming over again, the Marshal headed for a division -of cavalry. The escort found themselves surrounded by dead and wounded -men; but this sight had already ceased to make any impression on our -hero; he had other things to think of. - -While the escort was halted, he caught sight of the little cart of a -_cantinière_, and his affection for this honourable corps sweeping -aside every other consideration, set off at a gallop to join her. - -"Stay where you are, curse you," the serjeant shouted after him. - -"What can he do to me here?" thought Fabrizio, and he continued to -gallop towards the _cantinière_. When he put spurs to his horse, he had -had some hope that it might be his good _cantinière_ of the morning; -the horse and the little cart bore a strong resemblance, but their owner -was quite different, and our hero thought her appearance most -forbidding. As he came up to her, Fabrizio heard her say: "And he was -such a fine looking man, too!" A very ugly sight awaited the new -recruit; they were sawing off a cuirassier's leg at the thigh, a -handsome young fellow of five feet ten. Fabrizio shut his eyes and drank -four glasses of brandy straight off. - -"How you do go for it, you boozer!" cried the _cantinière_. The brandy -gave him an idea: "I must buy the goodwill of my comrades, the hussars -of the escort." - -"Give me the rest of the bottle," he said to the _vivandière_. - -"What do you mean," was her answer, "what's left there costs ten francs, -on a day like this." - -As he rejoined the escort at a gallop: - -"Ah! You're bringing us a drop of drink," cried the serjeant. "That was -why you deserted, was it? Hand it over." - -The bottle went round, the last man to take it flung it in the air after -drinking. "Thank you, chum!" he cried to Fabrizio. All eyes were -fastened on him kindly. This friendly gaze lifted a hundredweight from -Fabrizio's heart; it was one of those hearts of too delicate tissue -which require the friendship of those around it. So at last he had -ceased to be looked at askance by his comrades; there was a bond between -them! Fabrizio breathed a deep sigh of relief, then in a bold voice said -to the serjeant: - -"And if Captain Teulier has been killed, where shall I find my sister?" -He fancied himself a little Machiavelli to be saying Teulier so -naturally instead of Meunier. - -"That's what you'll find out to-night," was the serjeant's reply. - -The escort moved on again and made for some divisions of infantry. -Fabrizio felt quite drunk; he had taken too much brandy, he was rolling -slightly in his saddle: he remembered most opportunely a favourite -saying of his mother's coachman: "When you've been lifting your elbow, -look straight between your horse's ears, and do what the man next you -does." The Marshal stopped for some time beside a number of cavalry -units which he ordered to charge; but for an hour or two our hero was -barely conscious of what was going on round about him. He was feeling -extremely tired, and when his horse galloped he fell back on the saddle -like a lump of lead. - -Suddenly the serjeant called out to his men: "Don't you see the Emperor, -curse you!" Whereupon the escort shouted: "_Vive l'Empereur_!" at the -top of their voices. It may be imagined that our hero stared till his -eyes started out of his head, but all he saw was some generals -galloping, also followed by an escort. The long floating plumes of -horsehair which the dragoons of the bodyguard wore on their helmets -prevented him from distinguishing their faces. "So I have missed seeing -the Emperor on a field of battle, all because of those cursed glasses of -brandy!" This reflexion brought him back to his senses. - -They went down into a road filled with water, the horses wished to -drink. - -"So that was the Emperor who went past then?" he asked the man next to -him. - -"Why, surely, the one with no braid on his coat. How is it you didn't -see him?" his comrade answered kindly. Fabrizio felt a strong desire to -gallop after the Emperor's escort and embody himself in it. What a joy -to go really to war in the train of that hero! It was for that he -had come to France. "I am quite at liberty to do it," he said to -himself, "for after all I have no other reason for being where I am but -the will of my horse, which started galloping after these generals." - -What made Fabrizio decide to stay where he was was that the hussars, his -new comrades, seemed so friendly towards him; he began to imagine -himself the intimate friend of all the troopers with whom he had been -galloping for the last few hours. He saw arise between them and himself -that noble friendship of the heroes of Tasso and Ariosto. If he were to -attach himself to the Emperor's escort, there would be fresh -acquaintances to be made, perhaps they would look at him askance, for -these other horsemen were dragoons, and he was wearing the hussar -uniform like all the rest that were following the Marshal. The way in -which they now looked at him set our hero on a pinnacle of happiness; he -would have done anything in the world for his comrades; his mind and -soul were in the clouds. Everything seemed to have assumed a new aspect -now that he was among friends; he was dying to ask them various -questions. "But I am still a little drunk," he said to himself, "I must -bear in mind what the gaoler's wife told me." He noticed on leaving the -sunken road that the escort was no longer with Marshal Ney; the general -whom they were following was tall and thin, with a dry face and an -awe-inspiring eye. - -This general was none other than Comte d'A----, the Lieutenant Robert of -the 15th of May, 1796. How delighted he would have been to meet Fabrizio -del Dongo! - -It was already some time since Fabrizio had noticed the earth flying off -in black crumbs on being struck by shot; they came in rear of a regiment -of cuirassiers, he could hear distinctly the rattle of the grapeshot -against their breastplates, and saw several men fall. - -The sun was now very low and had begun to set when the escort, emerging -from a sunken road, mounted a little bank three or four feet high to -enter a ploughed field. Fabrizio heard an odd little sound quite close -to him: he turned his head, four men had fallen with their horses; the -general himself had been unseated, but picked himself up, covered in -blood. Fabrizio looked at the hussars who were lying on the ground: -three of them were still making convulsive movements, the fourth cried: -"Pull me out!" The serjeant and two or three men had dismounted to -assist the general who, leaning upon his aide-de-camp, was attempting to -walk a few steps; he was trying to get away from his horse, which lay on -the ground struggling and kicking out madly. - -The serjeant came up to Fabrizio. At that moment our hero heard a voice -say behind him and quite close to his ear: "This is the only one that -can still gallop." He felt himself seized by the feet; they were taken -out of the stirrups at the same time as someone caught him underneath -the arms; he was lifted over his horse's tail and then allowed to slip -to the ground, where he landed sitting. - -The aide-de-camp took Fabrizio's horse by the bridle; the general, with -the help of the serjeant, mounted and rode off at a gallop; he was -quickly followed by the six men who were left of the escort. Fabrizio -rose up in a fury, and began to run after them shouting: "_Ladri! -Ladri_! (Thieves! Thieves!)" It was an amusing experience to run after -horse-stealers across a battlefield. - -The escort and the general, Comte d'A----, disappeared presently behind -a row of willows. Fabrizio, blind with rage, also arrived at this line -of willows; he found himself brought to a halt by a canal of -considerable depth which he crossed. Then, on reaching the other side, -he began swearing again as he saw once more, but far away in the -distance, the general and his escort vanishing among the trees. -"Thieves! Thieves!" he cried, in French this time. In desperation, not -so much at the loss of his horse as at the treachery to himself, he let -himself sink down on the side of the ditch, tired out and dying of -hunger. If his fine horse had been taken from him by the enemy, he would -have thought no more about it; but to see himself betrayed and robbed by -that serjeant whom he liked so much and by those hussars whom he -regarded as brothers! That was what broke his heart. He could find no -consolation for so great an infamy, and, leaning his back against a -willow, began to shed hot tears. He abandoned one by one all those -beautiful dreams of a chivalrous and sublime friendship, like that of -the heroes of the _Gerusalemme Liberata_. To see death come to one was -nothing, surrounded by heroic and tender hearts, by noble friends who -clasp one by the hand as one yields one's dying breath! But to retain -one's enthusiasm surrounded by a pack of vile scoundrels! Like all angry -men Fabrizio exaggerated. After a quarter of an hour of this melting -mood, he noticed that the guns were beginning to range on the row of -trees in the shade of which he sat meditating. He rose and tried to find -his bearings. He scanned those fields bounded by a wide canal and the -row of pollard willows: he thought he knew where he was. He saw a body -of infantry crossing the ditch and marching over the fields, a quarter -of a league in front of him. "I was just falling asleep," he said to -himself; "I must see that I'm not taken prisoner." And he put his best -foot foremost. As he advanced, his mind was set at rest; he recognized -the uniforms, the regiments by which he had been afraid of being cut off -were French. He made a right incline so as to join them. - -After the moral anguish of having been so shamefully betrayed and -robbed, there came another which, at every moment, made itself felt more -keenly; he was dying of hunger. It was therefore with infinite joy that -after having walked, or rather run for ten minutes, he saw that the -column of infantry, which also had been moving very rapidly, was halting -to take up a position. A few minutes later, he was among the nearest of -the soldiers. - -"Friends, could you sell me a mouthful of bread?" - -"I say, here's a fellow who thinks we're bakers!" - -This harsh utterance and the general guffaw that followed it had a -crushing effect on Fabrizio. So war was no longer that noble and -universal uplifting of souls athirst for glory which he had imagined it -to be from Napoleon's proclamations! He sat down, or rather let himself -fall on the grass; he turned very pale. The soldier who had spoken to -him, and who had stopped ten paces off to clean the lock of his musket -with his handkerchief, came nearer and flung him a lump of bread; then, -seeing that he did not pick it up, broke off a piece which he put in our -hero's mouth. Fabrizio opened his eyes, and ate the bread without having -the strength to speak. When at length he looked round for the soldier to -pay him, he found himself alone; the men nearest to him were a hundred -yards off and were marching. Mechanically he rose and followed them. He -entered a wood; he was dropping with exhaustion, and already had begun -to look round for a comfortable resting-place; but what was his delight -on recognising first of all the horse, then the cart, and finally the -_cantinière_ of that morning! She ran to him and was frightened by his -appearance. - -"Still going, my boy," she said to him; "you're wounded then? And -where's your fine horse?" So saying she led him towards the cart, upon -which she made him climb, supporting him under the arms. No sooner was -he in the cart than our hero, utterly worn out, fell fast asleep. - - - - -CHAPTER FOUR - - -Nothing could awaken him, neither the muskets fired close to the cart -nor the trot of the horse which the _cantinière_ was flogging with all -her might. The regiment, attacked unexpectedly by swarms of Prussian -cavalry, after imagining all day that they were winning the battle, was -beating a retreat or rather fleeing in the direction of France. - -The colonel, a handsome young man, well turned out, who had succeeded -Macon, was sabred; the battalion commander who took his place, an old -man with white hair, ordered the regiment to halt. "Damn you," he cried -to his men, "in the days of the Republic we waited till we were forced -by the enemy before running away. Defend every inch of ground, and get -yourselves killed!" he shouted, and swore at them. "It is the soil of -the Fatherland that these Prussians want to invade now!" - -The little cart halted; Fabrizio awoke with a start. The sun had set -some time back; he was quite astonished to see that it was almost night. -The troops were running in all directions in a confusion which greatly -surprised our hero; they looked shame-faced, he thought. - -"What is happening?" he asked the _cantinière_. - -"Nothing at all. Only that we're in the soup, my boy; it's the Prussian -cavalry mowing us down, that's all. The idiot of a general thought at -first they were our men. Come, quick, help me to mend Cocotte's trace: -it's broken." - -Several shots were fired ten yards off. Our hero, cool and composed, -said to himself: "But really, I haven't fought at all, the whole day; I -have only escorted a general.--I must go and fight," he said to the -_cantinière_. - -"Keep calm, you shall fight, and more than you want! We're done for. - -"Aubry, my lad," she called out to a passing corporal, "keep an eye on -the little cart now and then." - -"Are you going to fight?" Fabrizio asked Aubry. - -"Oh, no, I'm putting my pumps on to go to a dance!" - -"I shall follow you." - -"I tell you, he's all right, the little hussar," cried the -_cantinière_. "The young gentleman has a stout heart." Corporal Aubry -marched on without saying a word. Eight or nine soldiers ran up and -joined him; he led them behind a big oak surrounded by brambles. On -reaching it he posted them along the edge of the wood, still without -uttering a word, on a widely extended front, each man being at least ten -paces from the next. - -"Now then, you men," said the corporal, opening his mouth for the first -time, "don't fire till I give the order: remember you've only got three -rounds each." - -"Why, what is happening?" Fabrizio wondered. At length, when he found -himself alone with the corporal, he said to him: "I have no musket." - -"Will you hold your tongue? Go forward there: fifty paces in front of -the wood you'll find one of the poor fellows of the Regiment who've been -sabred; you will take his cartridge-pouch and his musket. Don't strip a -wounded man, though; take the pouch and musket from one who's properly -dead, and hurry up or you'll be shot in the bade by our fellows." -Fabrizio set off at a run and returned the next minute with a musket and -a pouch. - -"Load your musket and stick yourself behind this tree, and whatever you -do don't fire till you get the order from me. . . . Great God in -heaven!" the corporal broke off, "he doesn't even know how to load!" He -helped Fabrizio to do this while going on with his instructions. "If one -of the enemy's cavalry gallops at you to cut you down, dodge round your -tree and don't fire till he's within three paces: wait till your -bayonet's practically touching his uniform. - - - - -_WAR_ - - -"Throw that great sabre away," cried the corporal. "Good God, do you -want it to trip you up? Fine sort of soldiers they're sending us these -days!" As he spoke he himself took hold of the sabre which he flung -angrily away. - -"You there, wipe the flint of your musket with your handkerchief. Have -you never fired a musket?" - -"I am a hunter." - -"Thank God for that!" went on the corporal with a loud sigh. "Whatever -you do, don't fire till I give the order." And he moved away. - -Fabrizio was supremely happy. "Now I'm going to do some real fighting," -he said to himself, "and kill one of the enemy. This morning they were -sending cannonballs over, and I did nothing but expose myself and risk -getting killed; that's a fool's game." He gazed all round him with -extreme curiosity. Presently he heard seven or eight shots fired quite -close at hand. But receiving no order to fire he stood quietly behind -his tree. It was almost night; he felt he was in a _look-out_, -bear-shootings on the mountain of Tramezzina, above Grianta. A hunter's -idea came to him: he took a cartridge from his pouch and removed the -ball. "If I see him," he said, "it won't do to miss him," and he slipped -this second ball into the barrel of his musket. He heard shots fired -close to his tree; at the same moment he saw a horseman in blue pass in -front of him at a gallop, going from right to left. "It is more than -three paces," he said to himself, "but at that range I am certain of my -mark." He kept the trooper carefully sighted with his musket and finally -pressed the trigger: the trooper fell with his horse. Our hero imagined -he was stalking game: he ran joyfully out to collect his bag. He was -actually touching the man, who appeared to him to be dying, when, with -incredible speed, two Prussian troopers charged down on him to sabre -him. Fabrizio dashed back as fast as he could go to the wood; to gain -speed he flung his musket away. The Prussian troopers were not more than -three paces from him when he reached another plantation of young oaks, -as thick as his arm and quite upright, which fringed the wood. These -little oaks delayed the horsemen for a moment, but they passed them and -continued their pursuit of Fabrizio along a clearing. Once again they -were just overtaking him when he slipped in among seven or eight big -trees. At that moment his face was almost scorched by the flame of five -or six musket shots fired from in front of him. He ducked his head; when -he raised it again he found himself face to face with the corporal. - -"Did you kill your man?" Corporal Aubry asked him. - -"Yes; but I've lost my musket." - -"It's not muskets we're short of. You're not a bad b----; though you do -look as green as a cabbage you've won the day all right, and these men -here have just missed the two who were chasing you and coming straight -at them. I didn't see them myself. What we've got to do now is to get -away at the double; the Regiment must be half a mile off, and there's a -bit of a field to cross, too, where we may find ourselves surrounded." - -As he spoke, the corporal marched off at a brisk pace at the head of his -ten men. Two hundred yards farther on, as they entered the little field -he had mentioned, they came upon a wounded general who was being carried -by his aide-de-camp and an orderly. - -"Give me four of your men," he said to the corporal in a faint voice, -"I've got to be carried to the ambulance; my leg is shattered." - -"Go and f---- yourself!" replied the corporal, "you and all your -generals. You've all of you betrayed the Emperor to-day." - -"What," said the general, furious, "you dispute my orders. Do you know -that I am General Comte B----, commanding your Division," and so on. He -waxed rhetorical. The aide-de-camp flung himself on the men. The -corporal gave him a thrust in the arm with his bayonet, then made off -with his party at the double. "I wish they were all in your boat," he -repeated with an oath; "I'd shatter their arms and legs for them. A pack -of puppies! All of them bought by the Bourbons, to betray the Emperor!" -Fabrizio listened with a thrill of horror to this frightful accusation. - -About ten o'clock that night the little party overtook their regiment on -the outskirts of a large village which divided the road into several -very narrow streets; but Fabrizio noticed that Corporal Aubry avoided -speaking to any of the officers. "We can't get on," he called to his -men. All these streets were blocked with infantry, cavalry, and, worst -of all, by the limbers and wagons of the artillery. The corporal tried -three of these streets in turn; after advancing twenty yards he was -obliged to halt. Everyone was swearing and losing his temper. - -"Some traitor in command here, too!" cried the corporal: "if the enemy -has the sense to surround the village, we shall all be caught like rats -in a trap. Follow me, you." Fabrizio looked round; there were only six -men left with the corporal. Through a big gate which stood open they -came into a huge courtyard; from this courtyard they passed into a -stable, the back door of which let them into a garden. They lost their -way for a moment and wandered blindly about. But finally, going through -a hedge, they found themselves in a huge field of buckwheat. In less -than half an hour, guided by the shouts and confused noises, they had -regained the high road on the other side of the village. The ditches on -either side of this road were filled with muskets that had been thrown -away; Fabrizio selected one: but the road, although very broad, was so -blocked with stragglers and transport that in the next half-hour the -corporal and Fabrizio had not advanced more than five hundred yards at -the most; they were told that this road led to Charleroi. As the village -clock struck eleven: - -"Let us cut across the fields again," said the corporal. The little -party was reduced now to three men, the corporal and Fabrizio. When they -had gone a quarter of a league from the high road: "I'm done," said one -of the soldiers. - -"Me, too!" said another. - -"That's good news! We're all in the same boat," said the corporal; "but -do what I tell you and you'll get through all right." His eye fell on -five or six trees marking the line of a little ditch in the middle of an -immense cornfield. "Make for the trees!" he told his men; "lie down," he -added when they had reached the trees, "and not a sound, remember. But -before you go to sleep, who's got any bread?" - -"I have," said one of the men. - -"Give it here," said the corporal in a tone of authority. He divided the -bread into five pieces and took the smallest himself. - -"A quarter of an hour before dawn," he said as he ate it, "you'll have -the enemy's cavalry on your backs. You've got to see you're not sabred. -A man by himself is done for with cavalry after him on these big plains, -but five can get away; keep in close touch with me, don't fire till -they're at close range, and to-morrow evening I'll undertake to get you -to Charleroi." The corporal roused his men an hour before daybreak and -made them recharge their muskets. The noise on the high road still -continued; it had gone on all night: it was like the sound of a torrent -heard from a long way off. - -"They're like a flock of sheep running away," said Fabrizio with a -guileless air to the corporal. - -"Will you shut your mouth, you young fool!" said the corporal, greatly -indignant. And the three soldiers who with Fabrizio composed his whole -force scowled angrily at our hero as though he had uttered blasphemy. He -had insulted the nation. - -"That is where their strength lies!" thought our hero. "I noticed it -before with the Viceroy at Milan; they are not running away, oh, no! -With these Frenchmen you must never speak the truth if it shocks their -vanity. But as for their savage scowls, they don't trouble me, and I -must let them understand as much." They kept on their way, always at an -interval of five hundred yards from the torrent of fugitives that -covered the high road. A league farther on, the corporal and his party -crossed a road running into the high road in which a number of soldiers -were lying. Fabrizio purchased a fairly good horse which cost him forty -francs, and among all the sabres that had been thrown down everywhere -made a careful choice of one that was long and straight. "Since I'm told -I've got to stick them," he thought, "this is the best." Thus equipped, -he put his horse into a gallop and soon overtook the corporal who had -gone on ahead. He sat up in his stirrups, took hold with his left hand -of the scabbard of his straight sabre, and said to the four Frenchmen: - -"Those people going along the high road look like a flock of sheep . . . -they are running like frightened sheep. . . ." - -In spite of his dwelling upon the word _sheep_, his companions had -completely forgotten that it had annoyed them an hour earlier. Here we -see one of the contrasts between the Italian character and the French; -the Frenchman is no doubt the happier of the two; he glides lightly over -the events of life and bears no malice afterwards. - -We shall not attempt to conceal the fact that Fabrizio was highly -pleased with himself after using the word _sheep_. They marched on, -talking about nothing in particular. After covering two leagues more, -the corporal, still greatly astonished to see no sign of the enemy's -cavalry, said to Fabrizio: - -"You are our cavalry; gallop over to that farm on the little hill; ask -the farmer if he will _sell_ us breakfast: mind you tell him there are -only five of us. If he hesitates, put down five francs of your money in -advance; but don't be frightened, we'll take the dollar back from him -after we've eaten." - -Fabrizio looked at the corporal; he saw in his face an imperturbable -gravity and really an air of moral superiority; he obeyed. Everything -fell out as the commander in chief had anticipated; only, Fabrizio -insisted on their not taking back by force the five francs he had given -to the farmer. - -"The money is mine," he said to his friends; "I'm not paying for you, -I'm paying for the oats he's given my horse." - -Fabrizio's French accent was so bad that his companions thought they -detected in his words a note of superiority; they were keenly annoyed, -and from that moment a duel began to take shape in their minds for the -end of the day. They found him very different from themselves, which -shocked them; Fabrizio, on the contrary, was beginning to feel a warm -friendship towards them. - -They had marched without saying a word for a couple of hours when the -corporal, looking across at the high road, exclaimed in a transport of -joy: "There's the Regiment!" They were soon on the road; but, alas, -round the eagle were mustered not more than two hundred men. Fabrizio's -eye soon caught sight of the _vivandière_: she was going on foot, her -eyes were red and every now and again she burst into tears. Fabrizio -looked in vain for the little cart and Cocotte. - -"Stripped, ruined, robbed!" cried the _vivandière_, in answer to our -hero's, inquiring glance. He, without a word, got down from his horse, -took hold of the bridle and said to the _vivandière_: "Mount!" She did -not have to be told twice. - -"Shorten the stirrups for me," was her only remark. - -As soon as she was comfortably in the saddle she began to tell Fabrizio -all the disasters of the night. After a narrative of endless length but -eagerly drunk in by our hero who, to tell the truth, understood nothing -at all of what she said but had a tender feeling for the _vivandière_, -she went on: - -"And to think that they were Frenchmen who robbed me, beat me, destroyed -me. . . ." - -"What! It wasn't the enemy?" said Fabrizio with an air of innocence -which made his grave, pale face look charming. - -"What a fool you are, you poor boy!" said the _vivandière_, smiling -through her tears; "but you're very nice, for all that." - -"And such as he is, he brought down his Prussian properly," said -Corporal Aubry, who, in the general confusion round them, happened to be -on the other side of the horse on which the _cantinière_ was sitting. -"But he's proud," the corporal went on. . . . Fabrizio made an impulsive -movement. "And what's your name?" asked the corporal; "for if there's a -report going in I should like to mention you." - -"I'm called Vasi," replied Fabrizio, with a curious expression on his -face. "Boulot, I mean," he added, quickly correcting himself. - -Boulot was the name of the late possessor of the marching orders which -the gaoler's wife at B-had given him; on his way from B---- he had -studied them carefully, for he was beginning to think a little and was -no longer so easily surprised. In addition to the marching orders of -Trooper Boulot, he had stowed away in a safe place the precious Italian -passport according to which he was entitled to the noble appellation of -Vasi, dealer in barometers. When the corporal had charged him with being -proud, it had been on the tip of his tongue to retort: "I proud! I, -Fabrizio Volterra, Marchesino del Dongo, who consent to go by the name -of a Vasi, dealer in barometers!" - -While he was making these reflexions and saying to himself: "I must not -forget that I am called Boulot, or look-out for the prison fate -threatens me with," the corporal and the _cantinière_ had been -exchanging a few words with regard to him. - -"Don't say I'm inquisitive," said the _cantinière_, ceasing to address -him in the second person singular, "it's for your good I ask you these -questions. Who are you, now, really?" - -Fabrizio did not reply at first. He was considering that never again -would he find more devoted friends to ask for advice, and he was in -urgent need of advice from someone. "We are coming into a fortified -place, the governor will want to know who I am, and ware prison if I let -him see by my answers that I know nobody in the 4th Hussar Regiment -whose uniform I am wearing!" In his capacity as an Austrian subject, -Fabrizio knew all about the importance to be attached to a passport. -Various members of his family, although noble and devout, although -supporters of the winning side, had been in trouble a score of times -over their passports; he was therefore not in the least put out by the -question which the _cantinière_ had addressed to him. But as, before -answering, he had to think of the French words which would express his -meaning most clearly, the _cantinière_, pricked by a keen curiosity, -added, to induce him to speak: "Corporal Aubry and I are going to give -you some good advice." - -"I have no doubt you are," replied Fabrizio. "My name is Vasi and I come -from Genoa; my sister, who is famous for her beauty, is married to a -captain. As I am only seventeen, she made me come to her to let me see -something of France, and form my character a little; not finding her in -Paris, and knowing that she was with this army, I came on here. I've -searched for her everywhere and haven't found her. The soldiers, who -were puzzled by my accent, had me arrested. I had money then, I gave -some to the _gendarme_, who let me have some marching orders and a -uniform, and said to me: 'Get away with you, and swear you'll never -mention my name.' - -"What was he called?" asked the _cantinière_. - -"I've given my word," said Fabrizio. - -"He's right," put in the corporal, "the _gendarme_ is a sweep, but our -friend ought not to give his name. And what is the other one called, -this captain, your sister's husband? If we knew his name, we could try -to find him." - -"Teulier, Captain in the 4th Hussars," replied our hero. - -"And so," said the corporal, with a certain subtlety, "from your foreign -accent the soldiers took you for a spy?" - -"That's the abominable word!" cried Fabrizio, his eyes blazing. "I who -love the Emperor so and the French people! And it was that insult that -annoyed me more than anything." - -"There's no insult about it; that's where you're wrong; the soldiers' -mistake was quite natural," replied Corporal Aubry gravely. - -And he went on to explain in the most pedantic manner that in the army -one must belong to some corps and wear a uniform, failing which it was -quite simple that people should take one for a spy. "The enemy sends us -any number of them; everybody's a traitor in this war." The scales fell -from Fabrizio's eyes; he realised for the first time that he had been in -the wrong in everything that had happened to him during the last two -months. - -"But make the boy tell us the whole story," said the _cantinière_, her -curiosity more and more excited. Fabrizio obeyed. When he had finished: - -"It comes to this," said the _cantinière_, speaking in a serious tone -to the corporal, "this child is not a soldier at all; we're going to -have a bloody war now that we've been beaten and betrayed. Why should he -go and get his bones broken free, gratis and for nothing?" - -"Especially," put in the corporal, "as he doesn't even know how to load -his musket, neither by numbers, nor in his own time. It was I put in the -shot that brought down the Prussian." - -"Besides, he lets everyone see the colour of his money," added the -_cantinière_; "he will be robbed of all he has as soon as he hasn't got -us to look after him." - -"The first cavalry non-com he comes across," said the corporal, "will -take it from him to pay for his drink, and perhaps they'll enlist him -for the enemy; they're all traitors. The first man he meets will order -him to follow, and he'll follow him; he would do better to join our -Regiment." - -"No, please, if you don't mind, corporal!" Fabrizio exclaimed with -animation; "I am more comfortable on a horse. And, besides, I don't know -how to load a musket, and you have seen that I can manage a horse." - -Fabrizio was extremely proud of this little speech. We need not report -the long discussion that followed between the corporal and the -_cantinière_ as to his future destiny. Fabrizio noticed that in -discussing him these people repeated three or four times all the -circumstances of his story: the soldiers' suspicions, the _gendarme_ -selling him marching orders and a uniform, the accident by which, the -day before, he had found himself forming part of the Marshal's escort, -the glimpse of the Emperor as he galloped past, the horse that had been -_scoffed_ from him, and so on indefinitely. - -With feminine curiosity the _cantinière_ kept harking back incessantly -to the way in which he had been dispossessed of the good horse which she -had made him buy. - -"You felt yourself seized by the feet, they lifted you gently over your -horse's tail, and sat you down on the ground!" "Why repeat so often," -Fabrizio said to himself, "what all three of us know perfectly well?" He -had not yet discovered that this is how, in France, the lower orders -proceed in quest of ideas. - -"How much money have you?" the _cantinière_ asked him suddenly. -Fabrizio had no hesitation in answering. He was sure of the nobility of -the woman's nature; that is the fine side of France. - -"Altogether, I may have got left thirty napoleons in gold, and eight or -nine five-franc pieces." - -"In that case, you have a clear field!" exclaimed the _cantinière_. -"Get right away from this rout of an army; clear out, take the first -road with ruts on it that you come to on the right; keep your horse -moving and your back to the army. At the first opportunity, buy some -civilian clothes. When you've gone nine or ten leagues and there are no -more soldiers in sight, take the mail-coach, and go and rest for a week -and eat beefsteaks in some nice town. Never let anyone know that you've -been in the army, or the police will take you up as a deserter; and, -nice as you are, my boy, you're not quite clever enough yet to stand up -to the police. As soon as you've got civilian clothes on your back, tear -up your marching orders into a thousand pieces and go back to your real -name: say that you're Vasi. And where ought he to say he comes from?" -she asked the corporal. - -"From Cambrai on the Scheldt: it's a good town and quite small, if you -know what I mean. There's a cathedral there, and Fénelon." - -"That's right," said the _cantinière_. "Never let on to anyone that -you've been in battle, don't breathe a word about B----, or the -_gendarme_ who sold you the marching orders. When you're ready to go -back to Paris, make first for Versailles, and pass the Paris barrier -from that side in a leisurely way, on foot, as if you were taking a -stroll. Sew up your napoleons inside your breeches, and remember, when -you have to pay for anything, shew only the exact sum that you want to -spend. What makes me sad is that they'll take you and rob you and strip -you of everything you have. And whatever will you do without money, you -that don't know how to look after yourself . . ." and so on. - -The good woman went on talking for some time still; the corporal -indicated his support by nodding his head, not being able to get a word -in himself. Suddenly the crowd that was packing the road first of all -doubled its pace, then, in the twinkling of an eye, crossed the little -ditch that bounded the road on the left and fled helter-skelter across -country. Cries of "The Cossacks! The Cossacks!" rose from every side. - -"Take back your horse!" the _cantinière_ shouted. - -"God forbid!" said Fabrizio. "Gallop! Away with you! I give him to you. -Do you want something to buy another cart with? Half of what I have is -yours." - -"Take back your horse, I tell you!" cried the _cantinière_ angrily; and -she prepared to dismount. Fabrizio drew his sabre. "Hold on tight!" he -shouted to her, and gave two or three strokes with the flat of his sabre -to the horse, which broke into a gallop and followed the fugitives. - -Our hero stood looking at the road; a moment ago, two or three thousand -people had been jostling along it, packed together like peasants at the -tail of a procession. After the shout of: "Cossacks!" he saw not a soul -on it; the fugitives had cast away shakoes, muskets, sabres, everything. -Fabrizio, quite bewildered, climbed up into a field on the right of the -road and twenty or thirty feet above it; he scanned the line of the road -in both directions, and the plain, but saw no trace of the Cossacks. -"Funny people, these French!" he said to himself. "Since I have got to -go to the right," he thought, "I may as well start off at once; it is -possible that these people have a reason for running away that I don't -know." He picked up a musket, saw that it was charged, shook up the -powder in the priming, cleaned the flint, then chose a cartridge-pouch -that was well filled and looked round him again in all directions; he -was absolutely alone in the middle of this plain which just now had been -so crowded with people. In the far distance he could see the fugitives -who were beginning to disappear behind the trees, and were still -running. "That's a very odd thing," he said to himself, and remembering -the tactics employed by the corporal the night before, he went and sat -down in the middle of a field of corn. He did not go farther because he -was anxious to see again his good friends the _cantinière_ and Corporal -Aubry. - -In this cornfield, he made the discovery that he had no more than -eighteen napoleons, instead of thirty as he had supposed; but he still -had some small diamonds which he had stowed away in the lining of the -hussar's boots, before dawn, in the gaoler's wife's room at B----. He -concealed his napoleons as best he could, pondering deeply the while on -the sudden disappearance of the others. "Is that a bad omen for me?" he -asked himself. What distressed him most was that he had not asked -Corporal Aubry the question: "Have I really taken part in a battle?" It -seemed to him that he had, and his happiness would have known no bounds -could he have been certain of this. - -"But even if I have," he said to himself, "I took part in it bearing the -name of a prisoner, I had a prisoner's marching orders in my pocket, -and, worse still, his coat on my back! That is the fatal threat to my -future: what would the Priore Blanès say to it? And that wretched -Boulot died in prison. It is all of the most sinister augury; fate will -lead me to prison." Fabrizio would have given anything in the world to -know whether Trooper Boulot had really been guilty; when he searched his -memory, he seemed to recollect that the gaoler's wife had told him that -the hussar had been taken up not only for the theft of silver plate but -also for stealing a cow from a peasant and nearly beating the peasant to -death: Fabrizio had no doubt that he himself would be sent to prison -some day for a crime which would bear some relation to that of Trooper -Boulot. He thought of his friend the _parroco_ Blanès: what would he -not have given for an opportunity of consulting him! Then he remembered -that he had not written to his aunt since leaving Paris. "Poor Gina!" he -said to himself. And tears stood in his eyes, when suddenly he heard a -slight sound quite close to him: a soldier was feeding three horses on -the standing corn; he had taken the bits out of their mouths and they -seemed half dead with hunger; he was holding them by the snaffle. -Fabrizio got up like a partridge; the soldier seemed frightened. Our -hero noticed this, and yielded to the pleasure of playing the hussar for -a moment. - -"One of those horses belongs to me, f---- you, but I don't mind giving -you five francs for the trouble you've taken in bringing it here." - -"What are you playing at?" said the soldier. Fabrizio took aim at him -from a distance of six paces. - -"Let go the horse, or I'll blow your head off." - -The soldier had his musket slung on his back; he reached over his -shoulder to seize it. - -"If you move an inch, you're a dead man!" cried Fabrizio, rushing upon -him. - -"All right, give me the five francs and take one of the horses," said -the embarrassed soldier, after casting a rueful glance at the high road, -on which there was absolutely no one to be seen. Fabrizio, keeping his -musket raised in his left hand, with the right flung him three five -franc pieces. - -"Dismount, or you're a dead man. Bridle the black, and go farther off -with the other two. . . . If you move, I fire." - -The soldier looked savage but obeyed. Fabrizio went up to the horse and -passed the rein over his left arm, without losing sight of the soldier, -who was moving slowly away; when our hero saw that he had gone fifty -paces, he jumped nimbly on to the horse. He had barely mounted and was -feeling with his foot for the off stirrup when he heard a bullet whistle -past close to his head; it was the soldier who had fired at him. -Fabrizio, beside himself with rage, started galloping after the soldier -who ran off as fast as his legs could carry him, and presently Fabrizio -saw him mount one of his two horses and gallop away. "Good, he's out of -range now," he said to himself. The horse he had just bought was a -magnificent animal, but seemed half starved. Fabrizio returned to the -high road, where there was still not a living soul; he crossed it and -put his horse into a trot to reach a little fold in the ground on the -left, where he hoped to find the _cantinière_; but when he was at the -top of the little rise he could see nothing save, more than a league -away, a few scattered troops. "It is written that I shall not see her -again," he said to himself with a sigh, "the good, brave woman!" He came -to a farm which he had seen in the distance on the right of the road. -Without dismounting, and after paying for it in advance, he made the -farmer produce some oats for his poor horse, which was so famished that -it began to gnaw the manger. An hour later, Fabrizio was trotting along -the high road, still in the hope of meeting the _cantinière_, or at any -rate Corporal Aubry. Moving all the time and keeping a look-out all -round him, he came to a marshy river crossed by a fairly narrow wooden -bridge. Between him and the bridge, on the right of the road, was a -solitary house bearing the sign of the White Horse. "There I shall get -some dinner," thought Fabrizio. A cavalry officer with his arm in a -sling was guarding the approach to the bridge; he was on horseback and -looked very melancholy; ten paces away from him, three dismounted -troopers were filling their pipes. - -"There are some people," Fabrizio said to himself, "who look to me very -much as though they would like to buy my horse for even less than he -cost me." The wounded officer and the three men on foot watched him -approach and seemed to be waiting for him. "It would be better not to -cross by this bridge, but to follow the river bank to the right; that -was the way the _cantinière_ advised me to take to get clear of -difficulties. . . . Yes," thought our hero, "but if I take to my heels -now, to-morrow I shall be thoroughly ashamed of myself; besides, my -horse has good legs, the officer's is probably tired; if he tries to -make me dismount I shall gallop." Reasoning thus with himself, Fabrizio -pulled up his horse and moved forward at the slowest possible pace. - -"Advance, you, hussar!" the officer called to him with an air of -authority. - -Fabrizio went on a few paces and then halted. - -"Do you want to take my horse?" he shouted. - -"Not in the least; advance." - -Fabrizio examined the officer; he had a white moustache, and looked the -best fellow in the world; the handkerchief that held up his left arm was -drenched with blood, and his right hand also was bound up in a piece of -bloodstained linen. "It is the men on foot who are going to snatch my -bridle," thought Fabrizio; but, on looking at them from nearer, he saw -that they too were wounded. - -"On your honour as a soldier," said the officer, who wore the epaulettes -of a colonel, "stay here on picket, and tell all the dragoons, chasseurs -and hussars that you see that Colonel Le Baron is in the inn over there, -and that I order them to come and report to me." The old colonel had the -air of a man broken by suffering; with his first words he had made a -conquest of our hero, who replied with great good sense: - -"I am very young, sir, to make them listen to me; I ought to have a -written order from you." - -"He is right," said the colonel, studying him closely; "make out the -order, La Rose, you've got the use of your right hand." - -Without saying a word, La Rose took from his pocket a little parchment -book, wrote a few lines, and, tearing out a leaf, handed it to Fabrizio; -the colonel repeated the order to him, adding that after two hours on -duty he would be relieved, as was right and proper, by one of the three -wounded troopers he had with him. So saying he went into the inn with -his men. Fabrizio watched them go and sat without moving at the end of -his wooden bridge, so deeply impressed had he been by the sombre, silent -grief of these three persons. "One would think they were under a spell," -he said to himself. At length he unfolded the paper and read the order, -which ran as follows: - -"Colonel Le Baron, 6th Dragoons, Commanding the 2nd Brigade of the 1st -Cavalry Division of the XIV Corps, orders all cavalrymen, dragoons, -chasseurs and hussars, on no account to cross the bridge, and to report -to him at the White Horse Inn, by the bridge, which is his headquarters. - -"Headquarters, by the bridge of La Sainte, June 19, 1815. - - "For Colonel Le Baron, wounded in the right arm, - and by his orders, - - "LA ROSE, _Serjeant_." - -Fabrizio had been on guard at the bridge for barely half an hour when he -saw six chasseurs approaching him mounted, and three on foot; he -communicated the colonel's order to them. "We're coming back," said four -of the mounted men, and crossed the bridge at a fast trot. Fabrizio then -spoke to the other two. During the discussion, which grew heated, the -three men on foot crossed the bridge. Finally, one of the two mounted -troopers who had stayed behind asked to see the order again, and carried -it off, with: - -"I am taking it to the others, who will come back without fail; wait for -them here." And off he went at a gallop; his companion followed him. All -this had happened in the twinkling of an eye. - -Fabrizio was furious, and called to one of the wounded soldiers, who -appeared at a window of the White Horse. This soldier, on whose arm -Fabrizio saw the stripes of a cavalry serjeant, came down and shouted to -him: "Draw your sabre, man, you're on picket." Fabrizio obeyed, then -said: "They've carried off the order." - -"They're out of hand after yesterday's affair," replied the other in a -melancholy tone. "I'll let you have one of my pistols; if they force -past you again, fire it in the air; I shall come, or the colonel himself -will appear." - -Fabrizio had not failed to observe the serjeant's start of surprise on -hearing of the theft of the order. He realised that it was a personal -insult to himself, and promised himself that he would not allow such a -trick to be played on him again. - -Armed with the serjeant's horse-pistol, Fabrizio had proudly resumed his -guard when he saw coming towards him seven hussars, mounted. He had -taken up a position that barred the bridge; he read them the colonel's -order, which seemed greatly to annoy them; the most venturesome of them -tried to pass. Fabrizio, following the wise counsel of his friend the -_vivandière_, who, the morning before, had told him that he must thrust -and not slash, lowered the point of his long, straight sabre and made as -though to stab with it the man who was trying to pass him. - -"Oh, so he wants to kill us, the baby!" cried the hussars, "as if we -hadn't been killed quite enough yesterday!" They all drew their sabres -at once and fell on Fabrizio: he gave himself up for dead; but he -thought of the serjeant's surprise, and was not anxious to earn his -contempt again. Drawing back on to his bridge, he tried to reach them -with his sabre-point. He looked so absurd when he tried to wield this -huge, straight heavy-dragoon sabre, a great deal too heavy for him, that -the hussars soon saw with what sort of soldier they had to deal; they -then endeavoured not to wound him but to slash his clothing. In this way -Fabrizio received three or four slight sabre-cuts on his arms. For his -own part, still faithful to the _cantinière's_ precept, he kept -thrusting the point of his sabre at them with all his might. As ill luck -would have it, one of these thrusts wounded a hussar in the hand: highly -indignant at being touched by so raw a recruit, he replied with a -downward thrust which caught Fabrizio in the upper part of the thigh. -What made this blow effective was that our hero's horse, so far from -avoiding the fray, seemed to take pleasure in it and to be flinging -himself on the assailants. These, seeing Fabrizio's blood streaming -along his right arm, were afraid that they might have carried the game -too far, and, pushing him against the left hand parapet of the bridge, -crossed at a gallop. As soon as Fabrizio had a moment to himself he -fired his pistol in the air to warn the colonel. - -Four mounted hussars and two on foot, of the same regiment as the -others, were coming towards the bridge and were still two hundred yards -away from it when the pistol went off. They had been paying close -attention to what was happening on the bridge, and, imagining that -Fabrizio had fired at their comrades, the four mounted men galloped upon -him with raised sabres: it was a regular cavalry charge. Colonel Le -Baron, summoned by the pistol-shot, opened the door of the inn and -rushed on to the bridge just as the galloping hussars reached it, and -himself gave them the order to halt. - -"There's no colonel here now!" cried one of them, and pressed on his -horse. The colonel in exasperation broke off the reprimand he was giving -them, and with his wounded right hand seized the rein of this horse on -the off side. - -"Halt! You bad soldier," he said to the hussar; "I know you, you're in -Captain Henriot's squadron." - -"Very well, then! The captain can give me the order himself! Captain -Henriot was killed yesterday," he added with a snigger, "and you can go -and f---- yourself!" - -So saying, he tried to force a passage, and pushed the old colonel who -fell in a sitting position on the roadway of the bridge. Fabrizio, who -was a couple of yards farther along upon the bridge, but facing the inn, -pressed his horse, and, while the breast-piece of the assailant's -harness threw down the old colonel who never let go the off rein, -Fabrizio, indignant, bore down upon the hussar with a driving thrust. -Fortunately the hussar's horse, feeling itself pulled towards the ground -by the rein which the colonel still held, made a movement sideways, with -the result that the long blade of Fabrizio's heavy-cavalry sabre slid -along the hussar's jacket, and the whole length of it passed beneath his -eyes. Furious, the hussar turned round and, using all his strength, -dealt Fabrizio a blow which cut his sleeve and went deep into his arm: -our hero fell. - -One of the dismounted hussars, seeing the two defenders of the bridge on -the ground, seized the opportunity, jumped on to Fabrizio's horse and -tried to make off with it by starting at a gallop across the bridge. - -The serjeant, as he hurried from the inn, had seen his colonel fall, and -supposed him to be seriously wounded. He ran after Fabrizio's horse and -plunged the point of his sabre into the thief's entrails; he fell. The -hussars, seeing no one now on the bridge but the serjeant, who was on -foot, crossed at a gallop and rapidly disappeared. The one on foot -bolted into the fields. - -The serjeant came up to the wounded men. Fabrizio was already on his -feet; he was not in great pain, but was bleeding profusely. The colonel -got up more slowly; he was quite stunned by his fall, but had received -no injury. "I feel nothing," he said to the serjeant, "except the old -wound in my hand." - -The hussar whom the serjeant had wounded was dying. - -"The devil take him!" exclaimed the colonel. "But," he said to the -serjeant and the two troopers who came running out, "look after this -young man whose life I have risked, most improperly. I shall stay on the -bridge myself and try to stop these madmen. Take the young man to the -inn and tie up his arm. Use one of my shirts." - - - - -CHAPTER FIVE - - -The whole of this adventure had not lasted a minute. Fabrizio's wounds -were nothing; they tied up his arm with bandages torn from the colonel's -shirt. They wanted to make up a bed for him upstairs in the inn. - -"But while I am tucked up here on the first floor," said Fabrizio to the -serjeant, "my horse, who is down in the stable, will get bored with -being left alone and will go off with another master." - -"Not bad for a conscript!" said the serjeant. And they deposited -Fabrizio on a litter of clean straw in the same stall as his horse. - -Then, as he was feeling very weak, the serjeant brought him a bowl of -mulled wine and talked to him for a little. Several compliments included -in this conversation carried our hero to the seventh heaven. - -Fabrizio did not wake until dawn on the following day; the horses were -neighing continuously and making a frightful din; the stable was filled -with smoke. At first Fabrizio could make nothing of all this noise, and -did not even know where he was: finally, half-stifled by the smoke, it -occurred to him that the house was on fire; in the twinkling of an eye -he was out of the stable and in the saddle. He raised his head; smoke -was belching violently from the two windows over the stable; and the -roof was covered by a black smoke which rose curling into the air. A -hundred fugitives had arrived during the night at the White Horse; they -were all shouting and swearing. The five or six whom Fabrizio could see -close at hand seemed to him to be completely drunk; one of them tried to -stop him and called out to him: "Where are you taking my horse?" - - - - -_WAR_ - - -When Fabrizio had gone a quarter of a league, he turned his head. There -was no one following him; the building was in flames. Fabrizio caught -sight of the bridge; he remembered his wound, and felt his arm -compressed by bandages and very hot. "And the old colonel, what has -become of him? He gave his shirt to tie up my arm." Our hero was this -morning the coolest man in the world; the amount of blood he had shed -had liberated him from all the romantic element in his character. - -"To the right!" he said to himself, "and no time to lose." He began -quietly following the course of the river which, after passing under the -bridge, ran to the right of the road. He remembered the good -_cantinière's_ advice. "What friendship!" he said to himself, "what an -open nature!" - -After riding for an hour he felt very weak. "Oho! Am I going to faint?" -he wondered. "If I faint, someone will steal my horse, and my clothes, -perhaps, and my money and jewels with them." He had no longer the -strength to hold the reins, and was trying to keep his balance in the -saddle when a peasant who was digging in a field by the side of the high -road noticed his pallor and came up to offer him a glass of beer and -some bread. - -"When I saw you look so pale, I thought you must be one of the wounded -from the great battle," the peasant told him. Never did help come more -opportunely. As Fabrizio was munching the piece of bread his eyes began -to hurt him when he looked straight ahead. When he felt a little better -he thanked the man. "And where am I?" he asked. The peasant told him -that three quarters of a league farther on he would come to the township -of Zonders, where he would be very well looked after. Fabrizio reached -the town, not knowing quite what he was doing and thinking only at every -step of not falling off his horse. He saw a big door standing open; he -entered. It was the Woolcomb Inn. At once there ran out to him the good -lady of the house, an enormous woman; she called for help in a voice -that throbbed with pity. Two girls came and helped Fabrizio to dismount; -no sooner had his feet touched the ground than he fainted completely. A -surgeon was fetched, who bled him. For the rest of that day and the days -that followed Fabrizio scarcely knew what was being done to him; he -slept almost without interruption. - -The sabre wound in his thigh threatened to form a serious abscess. When -his mind was clear again, he asked them to look after his horse, and -kept on repeating that he would pay them well, which shocked the good -hostess and her daughters. For a fortnight he was admirably looked after -and he was beginning to be himself again when he noticed one evening -that his hostesses seemed greatly upset. Presently a German officer came -into his room: in answering his questions they used a language which -Fabrizio did not understand, but he could see that they were speaking -about him; he pretended to be asleep. A little later, when he thought -that the officer must have gone, he called his hostesses. - -"That officer came to put my name on a list, and make me a prisoner, -didn't he?" The landlady assented with tears in her eyes. - -"Very well, there is money in my dolman!" he cried, sitting up in bed; -"buy me some civilian clothes and to-night I shall go away on my horse. -You have already saved my life once by taking me in just as I was going -to drop down dead in the street; save it again by giving me the means of -going back to my mother." - -At this point the landlady's daughters began to dissolve in tears; they -trembled for Fabrizio; and, as they barely understood French, they came -to his bedside to question him. They talked with their mother in -Flemish; but at every moment pitying eyes were turned on our hero; he -thought he could make out that his escape might compromise them -seriously, but that they would gladly incur the risk. A Jew in the town -supplied a complete outfit, but when he brought it to the inn about ten -o'clock that night, the girls saw, on comparing it with Fabrizio's -dolman, that it would require an endless amount of alteration. At once -they set to work; there was no time to lose. Fabrizio showed them where -several napoleons were hidden in his uniform, and begged his hostesses -to stitch them into the new garments. With these had come a fine pair of -new boots. Fabrizio had no hesitation in asking these kind girls to slit -open the hussar's boots at the place which he shewed them, and they hid -the little diamonds in the lining of the new pair. - -One curious result of his loss of blood and the weakness that followed -from it was that Fabrizio had almost completely forgotten his French; he -used Italian to address his hostesses, who themselves spoke a Flemish -dialect, so that their conversation had to be conducted almost entirely -in signs. When the girls, who for that matter were entirely -disinterested, saw the diamonds, their enthusiasm for Fabrizio knew no -bounds; they imagined him to be a prince in disguise. Aniken, the -younger and less sophisticated, kissed him without ceremony. Fabrizio, -for his part, found them charming, and towards midnight, when the -surgeon had allowed him a little wine in view of the journey he had to -take, he felt almost inclined not to go. "Where could I be better off -than here?" he asked himself. However, about two o'clock in the morning, -he rose and dressed. As he was leaving the room, his good hostess -informed him that his horse had been taken by the officer who had come -to search the house that afternoon. - -"Ah! The swine!" cried Fabrizio with an oath, "robbing a wounded man!" -He was not enough of a philosopher, this young Italian, to bear in mind -the price at which he himself had acquired the horse. - -Aniken told him with tears that they had hired a horse for him. She -would have liked him not to go. Their farewells were tender. Two big -lads, cousins of the good landlady, helped Fabrizio into the saddle: -during the journey they supported him on his horse, while a third, who -walked a few hundred yards in advance of the little convoy, searched the -roads for any suspicious patrol. After going for a couple of hours, they -stopped at the house of a cousin of the landlady of the Woolcomb. In -spite of anything that Fabrizio might say, the young men who accompanied -him refused absolutely to leave him; they claimed that they knew better -than anyone the hidden paths through the woods. - -"But to-morrow morning, when my flight becomes known, and they don't see -you anywhere in the town, your absence will make things awkward for -you," said Fabrizio. - -They proceeded on their way. Fortunately, when day broke at last, the -plain was covered by a thick fog. About eight o'clock in the morning -they came in sight of a little town. One of the young men went on ahead -to see if the post-horses there had been stolen. The postmaster had had -time to make them vanish and to raise a team of wretched screws with -which he had filled his stables. Grooms were sent to find a pair of -horses in the marshes where they were hidden, and three hours later -Fabrizio climbed into a little cabriolet which was quite dilapidated but -had harnessed to it a pair of good post-horses. He had regained his -strength. The moment of parting with the young men, his hostess's -cousins, was pathetic in the extreme; on no account, whatever friendly -pretext Fabrizio might find, would they consent to take any money. - -"In your condition, sir, you need it more than we do," was the -invariable reply of these worthy young fellows. Finally they set off -with letters in which Fabrizio, somewhat emboldened by the agitation of -the journey, had tried to convey to his hostesses all that he felt for -them. Fabrizio wrote with tears in his eyes, and there was certainly -love in the letter addressed to little Aniken. - -In the rest of the journey there was nothing out of the common. He -reached Amiens in great pain from the cut he had received in his thigh; -it had not occurred to the country doctor to lance the wound, and in -spite of the bleedings an abscess had formed. During the fortnight that -Fabrizio spent in the inn at Amiens, kept by an obsequious and -avaricious family, the Allies were invading France, and Fabrizio became -another man, so many and profound were his reflexions on the things that -had happened to him. He had remained a child upon one point only: what -he had seen, was it a battle; and, if so, was that battle Waterloo? For -the first time in his life he found pleasure in reading; he was always -hoping to find in the newspapers, or in the published accounts of the -battle, some description which would enable him to identify the ground -he had covered with Marshal Ney's escort, and afterwards with the other -general. During his stay at Amiens he wrote almost every day to his good -friends at the Woolcomb. As soon as his wound was healed, he came to -Paris. He found at his former hotel a score of letters from his mother -and aunt, who implored him to return home as soon as possible. The last -letter from Contessa Pietranera had a certain enigmatic tone which made -him extremely uneasy; this letter destroyed all his tender fancies. His -was a character to which a single word was enough to make him readily -anticipate the greatest misfortunes; his imagination then stepped in and -depicted these misfortunes to him with the most horrible details. - -"Take care never to sign the letters you write to tell us what you are -doing," the Contessa warned him. "On your return you must on no account -come straight to the Lake of Como. Stop at Lugano, on Swiss soil." He -was to arrive in this little town under the name of Cavi; he would find -at the principal inn the Contessa's footman, who would tell him what to -do. His aunt ended her letter as follows: "Take every possible -precaution to keep your mad escapade secret, and above all do not carry -on you any printed or written document; in Switzerland you will be -surrounded by the friends of Santa Margherita.[8] If I have enough -money," the Contessa told him, "I shall send someone to Geneva, to the -Hôtel des Balances, and you shall have particulars which I cannot put -in writing but which you ought to know before coming here. But, in -heaven's name, not a day longer in Paris; you will be recognised there -by our spies." Fabrizio's imagination set to work to construct the -wildest hypotheses, and he was incapable of any other pleasure save that -of trying to guess what the strange information could be that his aunt -had to give him. Twice on his passage through France he was arrested, -but managed to get away; he was indebted, for these unpleasantnesses, to -his Italian passport and to that strange description of him as a dealer -in barometers, which hardly seemed to tally with his youthful face and -the arm which he carried in a sling. - -Finally, at Geneva, he found a man in the Contessa's service, who gave -him a message from her to the effect that he, Fabrizio, had been -reported to the police at Milan as having gone abroad to convey to -Napoleon certain proposals drafted by a vast conspiracy organised in the -former Kingdom of Italy. If this had not been the object of his journey, -the report went on, why should he have gone under an assumed name? His -mother was endeavouring to establish the truth, as follows: - -1st, that he had never gone beyond Switzerland. - -2ndly, that he had left the castle suddenly after a quarrel with his -elder brother. - -On hearing this story Fabrizio felt a thrill of pride. "I am supposed to -have been a sort of ambassador to Napoleon," he said to himself; "I -should have had the honour of speaking to that great man: would to God I -had!" He recalled that his ancestor seven generations back, a grandson -of him who came to Milan in the train of the Sforza, had had the honour -of having his head cut off by the Duke's enemies, who surprised him as -he was on his way to Switzerland to convey certain proposals to the Free -Cantons and to raise troops there. He saw in his mind's eye the print -that illustrated this exploit in the genealogy of the family. Fabrizio, -questioning the servant, found him shocked by a detail which finally he -allowed to escape him, despite the express order, several times repeated -to him by the Contessa, not to reveal it. It was Ascanio, his elder -brother, who had reported him to the Milan police. This cruel news -almost drove our hero out of his mind. From Geneva, in order to go to -Italy, one must pass through Lausanne; he insisted on setting off at -once on foot, and thus covering ten or twelve leagues, although the mail -from Geneva to Lausanne was starting in two hours' time. Before leaving -Geneva he picked a quarrel in one of the melancholy cafés of the place -with a young man who, he said, stared at him in a singular fashion. -Which was perfectly true: the young Genevan, phlegmatic, rational and -interested only in money, thought him mad; Fabrizio on coming in had -glared furiously in all directions, then had upset the cup of coffee -that was brought to him over his breeches. In this quarrel Fabrizio's -first movement was quite of the sixteenth century: instead of proposing -a duel to the young Genevan, he drew his dagger and rushed upon him to -stab him with it. In this moment of passion, Fabrizio forgot everything -he had ever learned of the laws of honour and reverted to instinct, or, -more properly speaking, to the memories of his earliest childhood. - -The confidential agent whom he found at Lugano increased his fury by -furnishing him with fresh details. As Fabrizio was beloved at Grianta, -no one there had mentioned his name, and, but for his brother's kind -intervention, everyone would have pretended to believe that he was at -Milan, and the attention of the police in that city would not have been -drawn to his absence. - -"I expect the _doganieri_ have a description of you," his aunt's envoy -hinted, "and if we keep to the main road, when you come to the frontier -of the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, you will be arrested." - -Fabrizio and his party were familiar with every footpath over the -mountain that divides Lugano from the Lake of Como; they disguised -themselves as hunters, that is to say as poachers, and as they were -three in number and had a fairly resolute bearing, the _doganieri_ whom -they passed gave them a greeting and nothing more. Fabrizio arranged -things so as not to arrive at the castle until nearly midnight; at that -hour his father and all the powdered footmen had long been in bed. He -climbed down without difficulty into the deep moat and entered the -castle by the window of a cellar: it was there that his mother and aunt -were waiting for him; presently his sisters came running in. Transports -of affection alternated with tears for some time, and they had scarcely -begun to talk reasonably when the first light of dawn came to warn these -people who thought themselves so unfortunate that time was flying. - - - - -_THE CONSTABLES_ - - -"I hope your brother won't have any suspicion of your being here," -Signora Pietranera said to him; "I have scarcely spoken to him since -that fine escapade of his, and his vanity has done me the honour of -taking offence. This evening, at supper, I condescended to say a few -words to him; I had to find some excuse to hide my frantic joy, which -might have made him suspicious. Then, when I noticed that he was quite -proud of this sham reconciliation, I took advantage of his happiness to -make him drink a great deal too much, and I am certain he will never -have thought of taking any steps to carry on his profession of spying." - -"We shall have to hide our hussar in your room," said the Marchesa, "he -can't leave at once; we haven't sufficient command of ourselves at -present to make plans, and we shall have to think out the best way of -putting those terrible Milan police off the track." - -This plan was adopted; but the Marchese and his elder son noticed, next -day, that the Marchesa was constantly in her sister-in-law's room. We -shall not stop to depict the transports of affection and joy which -continued, all that day, to convulse these happy creatures. Italian -hearts are, far more than ours in France, tormented by the suspicions -and wild ideas which a burning imagination presents to them, but on the -other hand their joys are far more intense and more lasting. On the day -in question the Contessa and Marchesa were literally out of their minds; -Fabrizio was obliged to begin all his stories over again; finally they -decided to go away and conceal their general joy at Milan, so difficult -did it appear to be to keep it hidden any longer from the scrutiny of -the Marchese and his son Ascanio. - -They took the ordinary boat of the household to go to Como; to have -acted otherwise would have aroused endless suspicions. But on arriving -at the harbour of Como the Marchesa remembered that she had left behind -at Grianta papers of the greatest importance: she hastened to send the -boatmen back for them, and so these men could give no account of how the -two ladies were spending their time at Como. No sooner had they arrived -in the town than they selected haphazard one of the carriages that ply -for hire near that tall mediæval tower which rises above the Milan -gate. They started off at once, without giving the coachman time to -speak to anyone. A quarter of a league from the town they found a young -sportsman of their acquaintance who, out of courtesy to them as they had -no man with them, kindly consented to act as their escort as far as the -gates of Milan, whither he was bound for the shooting. All went well, -and the ladies were conversing in the most joyous way with the young -traveller when, at a bend which the road makes to pass the charming hill -and wood of San Giovanni, three constables in plain clothes sprang at -the horses' heads. "Ah! My husband has betrayed us," cried the Marchesa, -and fainted away. A serjeant who had remained a little way behind came -staggering up to the carriage and said, in a voice that reeked of the -_trattoria_: - -"I am sorry, sir, but I must do my duty and arrest you, General Fabio -Conti." - -Fabrizio thought that the serjeant was making a joke at his expense when -he addressed him as "General." "You shall pay for this!" he said to -himself. He examined the men in plain clothes and watched for a -favourable moment to jump down from the carriage and dash across the -fields. - -The Contessa smiled--a smile of despair, I fancy--then said to the -serjeant: - -"But, my dear serjeant, is it this boy of sixteen that you take for -General Conti?" - -"Aren't you the General's daughter?" asked the serjeant. - -"Look at my father," said the Contessa, pointing to Fabrizio. The -constables went into fits of laughter. - -"Show me your passports and don't argue the point," said the serjeant, -stung by the general mirth. - -"These ladies never take passports to go to Milan," said the coachman -with a calm and philosophical air: "they are coming from their castle of -Grianta. This lady is the Signora Contessa Pietranera; the other is the -Signora Marchesa del Dongo." - -The serjeant, completely disconcerted, went forward to the horses' heads -and there took counsel with his men. The conference had lasted for fully -five minutes when the Contessa asked if the gentlemen would kindly allow -the carriage to be moved forward a few yards and stopped in the shade; -the heat was overpowering, though it was only eleven o'clock in the -morning. Fabrizio, who was looking out most attentively in all -directions, seeking a way of escape, saw coming out of a little path -through the fields and on to the high road a girl of fourteen or -fifteen, who was crying timidly into her handkerchief. She came forward -walking between two constables in uniform, and, three paces behind her, -also between constables, stalked a tall, lean man who assumed an air of -dignity, like a Prefect following a procession. - -"Where did you find them?" asked the serjeant, for the moment completely -drunk. - -"Running away across the fields, with not a sign of a passport about -them." - -The serjeant appeared to lose his head altogether; he had before him -five prisoners, instead of the two that he was expected to have. He went -a little way off, leaving only one man to guard the male prisoner who -put on the air of majesty, and another to keep the horses from moving. - -"Wait," said the Contessa to Fabrizio, who had already jumped out of the -carriage. "Everything will be settled in a minute." - -They heard a constable exclaim: "What does it matter! If they have no -passports, they're fair game whoever they are." The serjeant seemed not -quite so certain; the name of Contessa Pietranera made him a little -uneasy: he had known the general, and had not heard of his death. "The -General is not the man to let it pass, if I arrest his wife without good -reason," he said to himself. - -During this deliberation, which was prolonged, the Contessa had entered -into conversation with the girl, who was standing on the road, and in -the dust by the side of the carriage; she had been struck by her beauty. - -"The sun will be bad for you, Signorina. This gallant soldier," she went -on, addressing the constable who was posted at the horses' heads, "will -surely allow you to get into the carriage." - -Fabrizio, who was wandering round the vehicle, came up to help the girl -to get in. Her foot was already on the step, her arm supported by -Fabrizio, when the imposing man, who was six yards behind the carriage, -called out in a voice magnified by the desire to preserve his dignity: - -"Stay in the road; don't get into a carriage that does not belong to -you!" - -Fabrizio had not heard this order; the girl, instead of climbing into -the carriage, tried to get down again, and, as Fabrizio continued to -hold her up, fell into his arms. He smiled; she blushed a deep crimson; -they stood for a moment looking at one another after the girl had -disengaged herself from his arms. - -"She would be a charming prison companion," Fabrizio said to himself. -"What profound thought lies behind that brow! She would know how to -love." - -The serjeant came up to them with an air of authority: "Which of these -ladies is named Clelia Conti?" - -"I am," said the girl. - -"And I," cried the elderly man, "am General Fabio Conti, Chamberlain to -H.S.H. the Prince of Parma; I consider it most irregular that a man in -my position should be hunted down like a thief." - -"The day before yesterday, when you embarked at the harbour of Como, did -you not tell the police inspector who asked for your passport to go -away? Very well, his orders to-day are that you are not to go away." - -"I had already pushed off my boat, I was in a hurry, there was a storm -threatening, a man not in uniform shouted to me from the quay to put -back into harbour, I told him my name and went on." - -"And this morning you escaped from Como." - -"A man like myself does not take a passport when he goes from Milan to -visit the lake. This morning, at Como, I was told that I should be -arrested at the gate. I left the town on foot with my daughter; I hoped -to find on the road some carriage that would take me to Milan, where the -first thing I shall do will certainly be to call on the General -Commanding the Province and lodge a complaint." - -A heavy weight seemed to have been lifted from the serjeant's mind. - -"Very well, General, you are under arrest and I shall take you to Milan. -And you, who are you?" he said to Fabrizio. - -"My son," replied the Contessa; "Ascanio, son of the Divisional General -Pietranera." - -"Without a passport, Signora Contessa?" said the serjeant, in a much -gentler tone. - -"At his age, he has never had one; he never travels alone, he is always -with me." - -During this colloquy General Conti was standing more and more on his -dignity with the constables. - -"Not so much talk," said one of them; "you are under arrest, that's -enough!" - -"You will be glad to hear," said the serjeant, "that we allow you to -hire a horse from some _contadino_; otherwise, never mind all the dust -and the heat and the Chamberlain of Parma, you would have to put your -best foot foremost to keep pace with our horses." - -The General began to swear. - -"Will you kindly be quiet!" the constable repeated. "Where is your -general's uniform? Anybody can come along and say he's a general." - -The General grew more and more angry. Meanwhile things were looking much -brighter in the carriage. - -The Contessa kept the constables running about as if they had been her -servants. She had given a scudo to one of them to go and fetch wine, -and, what was better still, cold water from a cottage that was visible -two hundred yards away. She had found time to calm Fabrizio, who was -determined, at all costs, to make a dash for the wood that covered the -hill. "I have a good brace of pistols," he said. She obtained the -infuriated General's permission for his daughter to get into the -carriage. On this occasion the General, who loved to talk about himself -and his family, told the ladies that his daughter was only twelve years -old, having been born in 1803, on the 27th of October, but that, such -was her intelligence, everyone took her to be fourteen or fifteen. - -"A thoroughly common man," the Contessa's eyes signalled to the -Marchesa. Thanks to the Contessa, everything was settled, after a -colloquy that lasted an hour. A constable, who discovered that he had -some business to do in the neighbouring village, lent his horse to -General Conti, after the Contessa had said to him: "You shall have ten -francs." The serjeant went off by himself with the General; the other -constables stayed behind under a tree, accompanied by four huge bottles -of wine, almost small demi-johns, which the one who had been sent to the -cottage had brought back, with the help of a _contadino_, Clelia Conti -was authorised by the proud Chamberlain to accept, for the return -journey to Milan, a seat in the ladies' carriage, and no one dreamed of -arresting the son of the gallant General Pietranera. After the first few -minutes had been devoted to an exchange of courtesies and to remarks on -the little incident that had just occurred, Clelia Conti observed the -note of enthusiasm with which so beautiful a lady as the Contessa spoke -to Fabrizio; certainly, she was not his mother. The girl's attention was -caught most of all by repeated allusions to something heroic, bold, -dangerous to the last degree, which he had recently done; but for all -her cleverness little Clelia could not discover what this was. - - - - -_THE POLICE_ - - -She gazed with astonishment at this young hero whose eyes seemed to be -blazing still with all the fire of action. For his part, he was somewhat -embarrassed by the remarkable beauty of this girl of twelve, and her -steady gaze made him blush. - -A league outside Milan Fabrizio announced that he was going to see his -uncle, and took leave of the ladies. - -"If I ever get out of my difficulties," he said to Clelia, "I shall pay -a visit to the beautiful pictures at Parma, and then will you deign to -remember the name: Fabrizio del Dongo?" - -"Good!" said the Contessa, "that is how you keep your identity secret. -Signorina, deign to remember that this scapegrace is my son, and is -called Pietranera, and not del Dongo." - -That evening, at a late hour, Fabrizio entered Milan by the Porta Renza, -which leads to a fashionable gathering-place. The dispatch of their two -servants to Switzerland had exhausted the very modest savings of the -Marchesa and her sister-in-law; fortunately, Fabrizio had still some -napoleons left, and one of the diamonds, which they decided to sell. - -The ladies were highly popular, and knew everyone in the town. The most -important personages in the Austrian and religious party went to speak -on behalf of Fabrizio to Barone Binder, the Chief of Police. These -gentlemen could not conceive, they said, how anyone could take seriously -the escapade of a boy of sixteen who left the paternal roof after a -dispute with an elder brother. - -"My business is to take everything seriously," replied Barone Binder -gently; a wise and solemn man, he was then engaged in forming the Milan -police, and had undertaken to prevent a revolution like that of 1746, -which drove the Austrians from Genoa. This Milan police, since rendered -so famous by the adventures of Silvio Pellico and M. Andryane, was not -exactly cruel; it carried out, reasonably and without pity, harsh laws. -The Emperor Francis II wished these overbold Italian imaginations to be -struck by terror. - -"Give me, day by day," repeated Barone Binder to Fabrizio's protectors, -"a _certified_ account of what the young Marchesino del Dongo has been -doing; let us follow him from the moment of his departure on the 8th of -March to his arrival last night in this city, where he is hidden in one -of the rooms of his mother's apartment, and I am prepared to treat him -as the most well-disposed and most frolicsome young man in town. If you -cannot furnish me with the young man's itinerary during all the days -following his departure from Grianta, however exalted his birth may be, -however great the respect I owe to the friends of his family, obviously -it is my duty to order his arrest. Am I not bound to keep him in prison -until he has furnished me with proofs that he did not go to convey a -message to Napoleon from such disaffected persons as may exist in -Lombardy among the subjects of His Imperial and Royal Majesty? Note -farther, gentlemen, that if young del Dongo succeeds in justifying -himself on this point, he will still be liable to be charged with having -gone abroad without a passport properly issued to himself, and also with -assuming a false name and deliberately making use of a passport issued -to a common workman, that is to say to a person of a class greatly -inferior to that to which he himself belongs." - -This declaration, cruelly reasonable, was accompanied by all the marks -of deference and respect which the Chief of Police owed to the high -position of the Marchesa del Dongo and of the important personages who -were intervening on her behalf. - -The Marchesa was in despair when Barone Binder's reply was communicated -to her. - -"Fabrizio will be arrested," she sobbed, "and once he is in prison, God -knows when he will get out! His father will disown him!" - -Signora Pietranera and her sister-in-law took counsel with two or three -intimate friends, and, in spite of anything these might say, the -Marchesa was absolutely determined to send her son away that very night. - -"But you can see quite well," the Contessa pointed out to her, "that -Barone Binder knows that your son is here; he is not a bad man." - -"No; but he is anxious to please the Emperor Francis." - -"But, if he thought it would lead to his promotion to put Fabrizio in -prison, the boy would be there now; it is showing an insulting defiance -of the Barone to send him away." - -"But his admission to us that he knows where Fabrizio is, is as much as -to say: 'Send him away!' No, I shan't feel alive until I can no longer -say to myself: 'In a quarter of an hour my son may be within prison -walls.' Whatever Barone Binder's ambition may be," the Marchesa went on, -"he thinks it useful to his personal standing in this country to make -certain concessions to oblige a man of my husband's rank, and I see a -proof of this in the singular frankness with which he admits that he -knows where to lay hands on my son. Besides, the Barone has been so kind -as to let us know the two offences with which Fabrizio is charged, at -the instigation of his unworthy brother; he explains that each of these -offences means prison: is not that as much as to say that if we prefer -exile it is for us to choose?" - -"If you choose exile," the Contessa kept on repeating, "we shall never -set eyes on him again as long as we live." Fabrizio, who was present at -the whole conversation, with an old friend of the Marchesa, now a -counsellor on the tribunal set up by Austria, was strongly inclined to -take the key of the street and go; and, as a matter of fact, that same -evening he left the _palazzo_, hidden in the carriage that was taking -his mother and aunt to the Scala theatre. The coachman, whom they -distrusted, went as usual to wait in an _osteria_, and while the -footmen, on whom they could rely, were looking after the horses, -Fabrizio, disguised as a _contadino_, slipped out of the carriage and -escaped from the town. Next morning he crossed the frontier with equal -ease, and a few hours later had established himself on a property which -his mother owned in Piedmont, near Novara, to be precise, at Romagnano, -where Bayard was killed. - -It may be imagined how much attention the ladies, on reaching their box -in the Scala, paid to the performance. They had gone there solely to be -able to consult certain of their friends who belonged to the Liberal -party and whose appearance at the _palazzo_ del Dongo might have been -misconstrued by the police. In the box it was decided to make a fresh -appeal to Barone Binder. There was no question of offering a sum of -money to this magistrate who was a perfectly honest man; moreover, the -ladies were extremely poor; they had forced Fabrizio to take with him -all the money that remained from the sale of the diamond. - - - - -_THE CANON_ - - -It was of the utmost importance that they should be kept constantly -informed of the Barone's latest decisions. The Contessa's friends -reminded her of a certain Canon Borda, a most charming young man who at -one time had tried to make advances to her, in a somewhat violent -manner; finding himself unsuccessful he had reported her friendship for -Limercati to General Pietranera, whereupon he had been dismissed from -the house as a rascal. Now, at present this Canon was in the habit of -going every evening to play _tarocchi_ with Baronessa Binder, and was -naturally the intimate friend of her husband. The Contessa made up her -mind to take the horribly unpleasant step of going to see this Canon; -and the following morning, at an early hour, before he had left the -house, she sent in her name. - -When the Canon's one and only servant announced: "Contessa Pietranera," -his master was so overcome as to be incapable of speech; he made no -attempt to repair the disorder of a very scanty attire. - -"Shew her in, and leave us," he said in faint accents. The Contessa -entered the room; Borda fell on his knees. - -"It is in this position that an unhappy madman ought to receive your -orders," he said to the Contessa who that morning, in a plain costume -that was almost a disguise, was irresistibly attractive. Her intense -grief at Fabrizio's exile, the violence that she was doing to her own -feelings in coming to the house of a man who had behaved treacherously -towards her, all combined to give an incredible brilliance to her eyes. - -"It is in this position that I wish to receive your orders," cried the -Canon, "for it is obvious that you have some service to ask of me, -otherwise you would not have honoured with your presence the poor -dwelling of an unhappy madman; once before, carried away by love and -jealousy, he behaved towards you like a scoundrel, as soon as he saw -that he could not win your favour." - -These words were sincere, and all the more handsome in that the Canon -now enjoyed a position of great power; the Contessa was moved to tears -by them; humiliation and fear had frozen her spirit; now in a moment -affection and a gleam of hope took their place. From a most unhappy -state she passed in a flash almost to happiness. - -"Kiss my hand," she said, as she held it out to the Canon, "and rise." -(She used the second person singular, which in Italy, it must be -remembered, indicates a sincere and open friendship just as much as a -more tender sentiment.) "I have come to ask your favour for my nephew -Fabrizio. This is the whole truth of the story without the slightest -concealment, as one tells it to an old friend. At the age of sixteen and -a half he has done an intensely stupid thing. We were at the castle of -Grianta on the Lake of Como. One evening at seven o'clock we learned by -a boat from Como of the Emperor's landing on the shore of the Gulf of -Juan. Next morning Fabrizio went off to France, after borrowing the -passport of one of his plebeian friends, a dealer in barometers, named -Vasi. As he does not exactly resemble a dealer in barometers, he had -hardly gone ten leagues into France when he was arrested on sight; his -outbursts of enthusiasm in bad French seemed suspicious. After a -time he escaped and managed to reach Geneva; we sent to meet him -at Lugano. . . ." - -"That is to say, Geneva," put in the Canon with a smile. - -The Contessa finished her story. - -"I will do everything for you that is humanly possible," replied the -Canon effusively; "I place myself entirely at your disposal. I will even -do imprudent things," he added. "Tell me, what am I to do as soon as -this poor parlour is deprived of this heavenly apparition which marks an -epoch in the history of my life?" - -"You must go to Barone Binder and tell him that you have loved Fabrizio -ever since he was born, that you saw him in his cradle when you used to -come to our house, and that accordingly, in the name of the friendship -he has shown for you, you beg him to employ all his spies to discover -whether, before his departure for Switzerland, Fabrizio was in any sort -of communication whatsoever with any of the Liberals whom he has under -supervision. If the Barone's information is of any value, he is bound to -see that there is nothing more in this than a piece of boyish folly. You -know that I used to have, in my beautiful apartment in the _palazzo_ -Dugnani, prints of the battles won by Napoleon: it was by spelling out -the legends engraved beneath them that my nephew learned to read. When -he was five years old, my poor husband used to explain these battles to -him; we put my husband's helmet on his head, the boy strutted about -trailing his big sabre. Very well, one fine day he learns that my -husband's god, the Emperor, has returned to France, he starts out to -join him, like a fool, but does not succeed in reaching him. Ask your -Barone with what penalty he proposes to punish this moment of folly?" - -"I was forgetting one thing," said the Canon, "you shall see that I am -not altogether unworthy of the pardon that you grant me. Here," he said, -looking on the table among his papers, "here is the accusation by that -infamous _collo-torto_" (that is, hypocrite), "see, signed Ascanio -Valserra del Dongo, which gave rise to the whole trouble; I found it -yesterday at the police headquarters, and went to the Scala in the hope -of finding someone who was in the habit of going to your box, through -whom I might be able to communicate it to you. A copy of this document -reached Vienna long ago. There is the enemy that we have to fight." The -Canon read the accusation through with the Contessa, and it was agreed -that in the course of the day he would let her have a copy by the hand -of some trustworthy person. It was with joy in her heart that the -Contessa returned to the _palazzo_ del Dongo. - -"No one could possibly be more of a gentleman than that reformed rake," -she told the Marchesa. "This evening at the Scala, at a quarter to -eleven by the theatre clock, we are to send everyone away from our box, -put out the candles, and shut our door, and at eleven the Canon himself -will come and tell us what he has managed to do. We decided that this -would be the least compromising course for him." - -This Canon was a man of spirit; he was careful to keep the appointment; -he shewed when he came a complete good nature and an unreserved openness -of heart such as are scarcely to be found except in countries where -vanity does not predominate over every other sentiment. His denunciation -of the Contessa to her husband, General Pietranera, was one of the great -sorrows of his life, and he had now found a means of getting rid of that -remorse. - -That morning, when the Contessa had left his room, "So she's in love -with her nephew, is she," he had said to himself bitterly, for he was by -no means cured. "With her pride, to have come to me! . . . After that -poor Pietranera died, she repulsed with horror my offers of service, -though they were most polite and admirably presented by Colonel Scotti, -her old lover. The beautiful Pietranera reduced to living on fifteen -hundred francs!" the Canon went on, striding vigorously up and down the -room. "And then to go and live in the castle of Grianta, with an -abominable _seccatore_ like that Marchese del Dongo! . . . I can see it -all now! After all, that young Fabrizio is full of charm, tall, well -built, always with a smile on his face . . . and, better still, a -deliciously voluptuous expression in his eye . . . a Correggio face," -the Canon added bitterly. - -"The difference in age . . . not too great . . . Fabrizio born after the -French came, about '98, I fancy; the Contessa might be twenty-seven or -twenty-eight: no one could be better looking, more adorable. In this -country rich in beauties, she defeats them all, the Marini, the -Gherardi, the Ruga, the Aresi, the Pietragrua, she is far and away above -any of them. They were living happily together, hidden away by that -beautiful Lake of Como, when the young man took it into his head to join -Napoleon. . . . There are still souls in Italy! In spite of everything! -Dear country! No," went on this heart inflamed by jealousy, "impossible -to explain in any other way her resigning herself to vegetating in the -country, with the disgusting spectacle, day after day, at every meal, of -that horrible face of the Marchese del Dongo, as well as that -unspeakable pasty physiognomy of the Marchesino Ascanio, who is going to -be worse than his father! Well, I shall serve her faithfully. At least I -shall have the pleasure of seeing her otherwise than through an -opera-glass." - -Canon Borda explained the whole case very clearly to the ladies. At -heart, Binder was as well-disposed as they could wish; he was delighted -that Fabrizio should have taken the key of the street before any orders -could arrive from Vienna; for Barone Binder had no power to make any -decision, he awaited orders in this case as in every other. He sent -every day to Vienna an exact copy of all the information that reached -him; then he waited. - -It was necessary that, in his exile at Romagnano, Fabrizio - -(1) Should hear mass daily without fail, take as his confessor a man of -spirit, devoted to the cause of the Monarchy, and should confess to him, -at the tribunal of penitence, only the most irreproachable sentiments. - -(2) Should consort with no one who bore any reputation for intelligence, -and, were the need to arise, must speak of rebellion with horror as a -thing that no circumstances could justify. - -(3) Must never let himself be seen in the _caffè_, must never read any -newspaper other than the official _Gazette_ of Turin and Milan; in -general he should shew a distaste for reading, and never open any book -printed later than 1720, with the possible exception of the novels of -Walter Scott. - -(4) "Finally" (the Canon added with a touch of malice), "it is most -important that he should pay court openly to one of the pretty women of -the district, of the noble class, of course; this will shew that he has -not the dark and dissatisfied mind of an embryo conspirator." - -Before going to bed, the Contessa and the Marchesa each wrote Fabrizio -an endless letter, in which they explained to him with a charming -anxiety all the advice that had been given them by Borda. - - - - -_THE POLICE_ - - -Fabrizio had no wish to be a conspirator: he loved Napoleon, and, in his -capacity as a young noble, believed that he had been created to be -happier than his neighbour, and thought the middle classes absurd. Never -had he opened a book since leaving school, where he had read only texts -arranged by the Jesuits. He established himself at some distance from -Romagnano, in a magnificent _palazzo_, one of the masterpieces of the -famous architect Sanmicheli; but for thirty years it had been -uninhabited, so that the rain came into every room and not one of the -windows would shut. He took possession of the agent's horses, which he -rode without ceremony at all hours of the day; he never spoke, and he -thought about things. The recommendation to take a mistress from an -_ultra_ family appealed to him, and he obeyed it to the letter. He chose -as his confessor a young priest given to intrigue who wished to become a -bishop (like the confessor of the Spielberg[9]); but he went three -leagues on foot and wrapped himself in a mystery which he imagined to be -impenetrable, in order to read the _Constitutionnel_, which he thought -sublime. "It is as fine as Alfieri and Dante!" he used often to exclaim. -Fabrizio had this in common with the young men of France, that he was -far more seriously taken up with his horse and his newspaper than with -his politically _sound_ mistress. But there was no room as yet for -_imitation of others_ in this simple and sturdy nature, and he made no -friends in the society of the large country town of Romagnano; his -simplicity passed as arrogance: no one knew what to make of his -character. "_He is a younger son who feels himself wronged because he is -not the eldest_" was the _parroco's_ comment. - - -[Footnote 8: Silvio Pellico has given this name a European notoriety: -it is that of the street in Milan in which the police headquarters -and prisons are situated.] - -[Footnote 9: See the curious Memoirs of M. Andryane, as entertaining -as a novel, and as lasting as Tacitus.] - - - - -CHAPTER SIX - - -Let us admit frankly that Canon Borda's jealousy was not altogether -unfounded: on his return from France, Fabrizio appeared to the eyes of -Contessa Pietranera like a handsome stranger whom she had known well in -days gone by. If he had spoken to her of love she would have loved him; -had she not already conceived, for his conduct and his person, a -passionate and, one might say, unbounded admiration? But Fabrizio -embraced her with such an effusion of innocent gratitude and -good-fellowship that she would have been horrified with herself had she -sought for any other sentiment in this almost filial friendship. "After -all," she said to herself, "some of my friends who knew me six years -ago, at Prince Eugène's court, may still find me good-looking and even -young, but for him I am a respectable woman--and, if the truth must be -told without any regard for my vanity, a woman of a certain age." The -Contessa was under an illusion as to the period of life at which she had -arrived, but it was not the illusion of common women. "Besides, at his -age," she went on, "boys are apt to exaggerate the ravages of time. A -man with more experience of life . . ." - -The Contessa, who was pacing the floor of her drawing-room, stopped -before a mirror, then smiled. It must be explained that, some months -since, the heart of Signora Pietranera had been attacked in a serious -fashion, and by a singular personage. Shortly after Fabrizio's departure -for France, the Contessa who, without altogether admitting it to -herself, was already beginning to take a great interest in him, had -fallen into a profound melancholy. All her occupations seemed to her to -lack pleasure, and, if one may use the word, savour; she told herself -that Napoleon, wishing to secure the attachment of his Italian peoples, -would take Fabrizio as his aide-de-camp. "He is lost to me!" she -exclaimed, weeping, "I shall never see him again; he will write to me, -but what shall I be to him in ten years' time?" - - - - -_MELANCHOLY_ - - -It was in this frame of mind that she made an expedition to Milan; she -hoped to find there some more immediate news of Napoleon, and, for all -she knew, incidentally news of Fabrizio. Without admitting it to -herself, this active soul was beginning to be very weary of the -monotonous life she was leading in the country. "It is a postponement of -death," she said to herself, "it is not life." Every day to see those -powdered heads, her brother, her nephew Ascanio, their footmen! What -would her excursions on the lake be without Fabrizio? Her sole -consolation was based on the ties of friendship that bound her to the -Marchesa. But for some time now this intimacy with Fabrizio's mother, a -woman older than herself and with no hope left in life, had begun to be -less attractive to her. - -Such was the singular position in which Signora Pietranera was placed: -with Fabrizio away, she had little hope for the future. Her heart was in -need of consolation and novelty. On arriving in Milan she conceived a -passion for the fashionable opera; she would go and shut herself up -alone for hours on end, at the Scala, in the box of her old friend -General Scotti. The men whom she tried to meet in order to obtain news -of Napoleon and his army seemed to her vulgar and coarse. Going home, -she would improvise on her piano until three o'clock in the morning. One -evening, at the Scala, in the box of one of her friends to which she had -gone in search of news from France, she made the acquaintance of Conte -Mosca, a Minister from Parma; he was an agreeable man who spoke of -France and Napoleon in a way that gave her fresh reasons for hope or -fear. She returned to the same box the following evening; this -intelligent man reappeared and throughout the whole performance she -talked to him with enjoyment. Since Fabrizio's departure she had not -found any evening so lively. This man who amused her, Conte Mosca della -Rovere Sorezana, was at that time Minister of Police and Finance to that -famous Prince of Parma, Ernesto IV, so notorious for his severities, -which the Liberals of Milan called cruelties. Mosca might have been -forty or forty-five; he had strongly marked features, with no trace of -self-importance, and a simple and light-hearted manner which was greatly -in his favour; he would have looked very well indeed, if a whim on the -part of his Prince had not obliged him to wear powder on his hair as a -proof of his soundness in politics. As people have little fear of -wounding one another's vanity, they quickly arrive in Italy at a tone of -intimacy, and make personal observations. The antidote to this practice -is not to see the other person again if one's feelings have been hurt. - -"Tell me, Conte, why do you powder your hair?" Signora Pietranera asked -him at their third meeting. "Powder! A man like you, attractive, still -young, who fought on our side in Spain!" - -"Because, in the said Spain, I stole nothing, and one must live. I was -athirst for glory; a flattering word from the French General, Gouvion -Saint-Cyr, who commanded us, was everything to me then. When Napoleon -fell, it so happened that while I was eating up my patrimony in his -service, my father, a man of imagination, who pictured me as a general -already, had been building me a _palazzo_ at Parma. In 1813 I found that -my whole worldly wealth consisted of a huge _palazzo_, half-finished, -and a pension." - - - - -_A MINISTER_ - - -"A pension: 3,500 francs, like my husband's?" - -"Conte Pietranera commanded a Division. My pension, as a humble squadron -commander, has never been more than 800 francs, and even that has been -paid to me only since I became Minister of Finance." - -As there was nobody else in the box but the lady of extremely liberal -views to whom it belonged, the conversation continued with the same -frankness. Conte Mosca, when questioned, spoke of his life at Parma. "In -Spain, under General Saint-Cyr, I faced the enemy's fire to win a cross -and a little glory besides, now I dress myself up like an actor in a -farce to win a great social position and a few thousand francs a year. -Once I had started on this sort of political chessboard, stung by the -insolence of my superiors, I determined to occupy one of the foremost -posts; I have reached it. But the happiest days of my life will always -be those which, now and again, I manage to spend at Milan; here, it -seems to me, there still survives the spirit of your Army of Italy." - -The frankness, the _disinvoltura_ with which this Minister of so dreaded -a Prince spoke pricked the Contessa's curiosity; from his title she had -expected to find a pedant filled with self-importance; what she saw was -a man who was ashamed of the gravity of his position. Mosca had promised -to let her have all the news from France that he could collect; this was -a grave indiscretion at Milan, during the month that preceded Waterloo; -the question for Italy at that time was to be or not to be; everyone at -Milan was in a fever, a fever of hope or fear. Amid this universal -disturbance, the Contessa started to make inquiries about a man who -spoke thus lightly of so coveted a position, and one which, moreover, -was his sole means of livelihood. - -Certain curious information of an interesting oddity was reported to -Signora Pietranera. "Conte Mosca della Rovere Sorezana," she was told, -"is on the point of becoming Prime Minister and declared favourite of -Ranuccio-Ernesto IV, the absolute sovereign of Parma and one of the -wealthiest Princes in Europe to boot. The Conte would already have -attained to this exalted position if he had cared to shew a more solemn -face: they say that the Prince often lectures him on this failing. - -"'What do my manners matter to Your Highness,' he answers boldly, 'so -long as I conduct his affairs?' - -"This favourite's bed of roses," her informant went on, "is not without -its thorns. He has to please a Sovereign, a man of sense and -intelligence, no doubt, but a man who, since his accession to an -absolute throne, seems to have lost his head altogether and shews, for -instance, suspicions worthy of an old woman. - -"Ernesto IV is courageous only in war. On the field of battle he has -been seen a score of times leading a column to the attack like a gallant -general; but after the death of his father Ernesto III, on his return to -his States, where, unfortunately for him, he possesses unlimited power, -he set to work to inveigh in the most senseless fashion against Liberals -and liberty. Presently he began to imagine that he was hated; finally, -in a moment of ill temper, he had two Liberals hanged, who may or may -not have been guilty, acting on the advice of a wretch called Rassi, a -sort of Minister of Justice. - -"From that fatal moment the Prince's life changed; we find him tormented -by the strangest suspicions. He is not fifty, and fear has so reduced -him, if one may use the expression, that whenever he speaks of Jacobins, -and the plans of the Central Committee in Paris, his face becomes like -that of an old man of eighty; he relapses into the fantastic fears of -childhood. His favourite Rassi, the Fiscal General (or Chief Justice), -has no influence except through his master's fear; and whenever he is -alarmed for his own position, he makes haste to discover some fresh -conspiracy of the blackest and most fantastic order. Thirty rash fellows -have banded themselves together to read a number of the -_Constitutionnel_, Rassi declares them to be conspirators, and sends -them off to prison in that famous Citadel of Parma, the terror of the -whole of Lombardy. As it rises to a great height, a hundred and eighty -feet, people say, it is visible from a long way off in the middle of -that immense plain; and the physical outlines of the prison, of which -horrible things are reported, makes it the queen, governing by fear, of -the whole of that plain, which extends from Milan to Bologna." - -"Would you believe," said another traveller to the Contessa, "that at -night, on the third floor of his palace, guarded by eighty sentinels who -every quarter of an hour cry aloud a whole sentence, Ernesto IV trembles -in his room. All the doors fastened with ten bolts, and the adjoining -rooms, above as well as below him, packed with soldiers, he is afraid of -the Jacobins. If a plank creaks in the floor, he snatches up his pistols -and imagines there is a Liberal hiding under his bed. At once all the -bells in the castle are set ringing, and an aide-de-camp goes to awaken -Conte Mosca. On reaching the castle, the Minister of Police takes good -care not to deny the existence of any conspiracy; on the contrary, alone -with the Prince, and armed to the teeth, he inspects every corner of the -rooms, looks under the beds, and, in a word, gives himself up to a whole -heap of ridiculous actions worthy of an old woman. All these precautions -would have seemed highly degrading to the Prince himself in the happy -days when he used to go to war and had never killed anyone except in -open combat. As he is a man of infinite spirit, he is ashamed of these -precautions; they seem to him ridiculous, even at the moment when he is -giving way to them, and the source of Conte Mosca's enormous reputation -is that he devotes all his skill to arranging that the Prince shall -never have occasion to blush in his presence. It is he, Mosca, who, in -his capacity as Minister of Police, insists upon looking under the -furniture, and, so people say in Parma, even in the cases in which the -musicians keep their double-basses. It is the Prince who objects to this -and teases his Minister over his excessive punctiliousness. 'It is a -challenge,' Conte Mosca replies; 'think of the satirical sonnets the -Jacobins would shower on us if we allowed you to be killed. It is not -only your life that we are defending, it is our honour.' But it appears -that the Prince is only half taken in by this, for if anyone in the town -should take it into his head to remark that they have passed a sleepless -night at the castle, the Grand Fiscal Rassi sends the impertinent fellow -to the citadel, and once in that lofty abode, and in the _fresh air_, as -they say at Parma, it is a miracle if anyone remembers the prisoner's -existence. It is because he is a soldier, and in Spain got away a score -of times, pistol in hand, from a tight corner, that the Prince prefers -Conte Mosca to Rassi, who is a great deal more flexible and baser. Those -unfortunate prisoners in the citadel are kept in the most rigorously -secret confinement, and all sorts of stories are told about them. The -Liberals assert that (and this, they say, is one of Rassi's ideas) the -gaolers and confessors are under orders to assure them, about once a -month, that one of them is being led out to die. That day the prisoners -have permission to climb to the platform of the huge tower, one hundred -and eighty feet high, and from there they see a procession file along -the plain with some spy who plays the part of a poor devil going to his -death." - -These stories and a score of others of the same nature and of no less -authenticity keenly interested Signora Pietranera: on the following day -she asked Conte Mosca, whom she rallied briskly, for details. She found -him amusing, and maintained to him that at heart he was a monster -without knowing it. One day as he went back to his inn the Conte said to -himself: "Not only is this Contessa Pietranera a charming woman; but -when I spend the evening in her box I manage to forget certain things at -Parma the memory of which cuts me to the heart."--This Minister, in -spite of his frivolous air and his polished manners, was not blessed -with a soul of the French type; he could not _forget_ the things that -annoyed him. When there was a thorn in his pillow, he was obliged to -break it off and to blunt its point by repeated stabbings of his -throbbing limbs. (I must apologise for the last two sentences, which are -translated from the Italian.) On the morrow of this discovery, the Conte -found that, notwithstanding the business that had summoned him to Milan, -the day spun itself out to an enormous length; he could not stay in one -place, he wore out his carriage-horses. About six o'clock he mounted his -saddle-horse to ride to the _Corso_; he had some hope of meeting Signora -Pietranera there; seeing no sign of her, he remembered that at eight -o'clock the Scala Theatre opened; he entered it, and did not see ten -persons in that immense auditorium. He felt somewhat ashamed of himself -for being there. "Is it possible," he asked himself, "that at forty-five -and past I am committing follies at which a sub-lieutenant would blush? -Fortunately nobody suspects them." He fled, and tried to pass the time -by strolling up and down the attractive streets that surround the Scala. -They are lined with _caffè_ which at that hour are filled to overflowing -with people. Outside each of these _caffè_ crowds of curious idlers -perched on chairs in the middle of the street sip ices and criticise the -passers-by. The Conte was a passer-by of importance; at once he had the -pleasure of being recognised and addressed. Three or four importunate -persons of the kind that one cannot easily shake off seized this -opportunity to obtain an audience of so powerful a Minister. Two of them -handed him petitions; the third was content with pouring out a stream of -long-winded advice as to his political conduct. - -"One does not sleep," he said to himself, "when one has such a brain; -one ought not to walk about when one is so powerful." He returned to the -theatre, where it occurred to him that he might take a box in the third -tier; from there his gaze could plunge, unnoticed by anyone, into the -box in the second tier in which he hoped to see the Contessa arrive. Two -full hours of waiting did not seem any too long to this lover; certain -of not being seen he abandoned himself joyfully to the full extent of -his folly. "Old age," he said to himself, "is not that, more than -anything else, the time when one is no longer capable of these delicious -puerilities?" - -Finally the Contessa appeared. Armed with his glasses, he studied her -with rapture: "Young, brilliant, light as a bird," he said to himself, -"she is not twenty-five. Her beauty is the least of her charms: where -else could one find that soul always sincere, which never acts _with -prudence_, which abandons itself entirely to the impression of the -moment, which asks only to be carried away towards some new goal? I can -understand Conte Nani's foolish behaviour." - -The Conte supplied himself with excellent reasons for behaving -foolishly, so long as he was thinking only of capturing the happiness -which he saw before his eyes. He did not find any quite so satisfactory -when he came to consider his age and the anxieties, sometimes of the -saddest nature, that burdened his life. "A man of ability, whose spirit -has been destroyed by fear, gives me a sumptuous life and plenty of -money to be his Minister; but were he to dismiss me to-morrow, I should -be left old and poor, that is to say everything that the world despises -most; there's a fine partner to offer the Contessa!" These thoughts were -too dark, he came back to Signora Pietranera; he could not tire of -gazing at her, and, to be able to think of her better, did not go down -to her box. "Her only reason for taking Nani, they tell me, was to put -that imbecile Limercati in his place when he could not be prevailed upon -to run a sword, or to hire someone else to stick a dagger into her -husband's murderer. I would fight for her twenty times over!" cried the -Conte in a transport of enthusiasm. Every moment he consulted the -theatre clock which, with illuminated figures upon a black background, -warned the audience every five minutes of the approach of the hour at -which it was permissible for them to visit a friend's box. The Conte -said to himself: "I cannot spend more than half an hour at the most in -the box, seeing that I have known her so short a time; if I stay longer, -I shall attract attention, and, thanks to my age and even more to this -accursed powder on my hair, I shall have all the bewitching allurements -of a Cassandra." But a sudden thought made up his mind once and for all. -"If she were to leave that box to pay someone else a visit, I should be -well rewarded for the avarice with which I am hoarding up this -pleasure." He rose to go down to the box in which he could see the -Contessa; all at once he found that he had lost almost all his desire to -present himself to her. - -"Ah! this is really charming," he exclaimed with a smile at his own -expense, and coming to a halt on the staircase; "an impulse of genuine -shyness! It must be at least five and twenty years since an adventure of -this sort last came my way." - -He entered the box, almost with an effort to control himself; and, -making the most, like a man of spirit, of the condition in which he -found himself, made no attempt to appear at ease, or to display his wit -by plunging into some entertaining story; he had the courage to be shy, -he employed his wits in letting his disturbance be apparent without -making himself ridiculous. "If she should take it amiss," he said to -himself, "I am lost for ever. What! Shy, with my hair covered with -powder, hair which, without the disguise of the powder, would be visibly -grey! But, after all, it is a fact; it cannot therefore be absurd unless -I exaggerate it or make a boast of it." The Contessa had spent so many -weary hours at the castle of Grianta, facing the powdered heads of her -brother and nephew, and of various politically _sound_ bores of the -neighbourhood, that it never occurred to her to give a thought to her -new adorer's style in hairdressing. - -The Contessa's mind having this protection against the impulse to laugh -on his entry, she paid attention only to the news from France which -Mosca always had for her in detail, on coming to her box; no doubt he -used to invent it. As she discussed this news with him, she noticed this -evening the expression in his eyes, which was good and kindly. - -"I can imagine," she said to him, "that at Parma, among your slaves, you -will not wear that friendly expression; it would ruin everything and -give them some hope of not being hanged!" - -The entire absence of any sense of self-importance in a man who passed -as the first diplomat in Italy, seemed strange to the Contessa; she even -found a certain charm in it. Moreover, as he talked well and with -warmth, she was not at all displeased that he should have thought fit to -take upon himself for one evening, without ulterior consequences, the -part of squire of dames. - -It was a great step forward, and highly dangerous; fortunately for the -Minister, who, at Parma, never met a cruel fair, the Contessa had -arrived from Grianta only a few days before: her mind was still stiff -with the boredom of a country life. She had almost forgotten how to make -fun; and all those things that appertain to a light and elegant way of -living had assumed in her eyes as it were a tint of novelty which made -them sacred; she was in no mood to laugh at anyone, even a lover of -forty-five, and shy. A week later, the Conte's temerity might have met -with a very different sort of welcome. - -At the Scala, it is not usual to prolong for more than twenty minutes or -so these little visits to one's friends' boxes; the Conte spent the -whole evening in the box in which he had been so fortunate as to meet -Signora Pietranera. "She is a woman," he said to himself, "who revives -in me all the follies of my youth!" But he was well aware of the danger. -"Will my position as an all-powerful Bashaw in a place forty leagues -away induce her to pardon me this stupid behaviour? I get so bored at -Parma!" Meanwhile, every quarter of an hour, he registered a mental vow -to get up and go. - -"I must explain to you, Signora," he said to the Contessa with a laugh, -"that at Parma I am bored to death, and I ought to be allowed to drink -my fill of pleasure when the cup comes my way. So, without involving you -in anything and simply for this evening, permit me to play the part of -lover in your company. Alas, in a few days I shall be far away from this -box which makes me forget every care and indeed, you will say, every -convention." - -A week after this monstrous visit to the Contessa's box, and after a -series of minor incidents the narration of which here would perhaps seem -tedious, Conte Mosca was absolutely mad with love, and the Contessa had -already begun to think that his age need offer no objection if the -suitor proved attractive in other ways. They had reached this stage when -Mosca was recalled by a courier from Parma. One would have said that his -Prince was afraid to be left alone. The Contessa returned to Grianta; -her imagination no longer serving to adorn that lovely spot, it appeared -to her a desert. "Should I be attached to this man?" she asked herself. -Mosca wrote to her, and had not to play a part; absence had relieved him -of the source of all his anxious thoughts; his letters were amusing, -and, by a little piece of eccentricity which was not taken amiss, to -escape the comments of the Marchese del Dongo, who did not like having -to pay for the carriage of letters, he used to send couriers who would -post his at Como or Lecco or Varese or some other of those charming -little places on the shores of the lake. This was done with the idea -that the courier might be employed to take back her replies. The move -was successful. - -Soon the days when the couriers came were events in the Contessa's life; -these couriers brought her flowers, fruit, little presents of no value, -which amused her, however, and her sister-in-law as well. Her memory of -the Conte was blended with her idea of his great power; the Contessa had -become curious to know everything that people said of him; the Liberals -themselves paid a tribute to his talents. - -The principal source of the Conte's reputation for evil was that he -passed as the head of the _Ultra_ Party at the Court of Parma, while the -Liberal Party had at its head an intriguing woman capable of anything, -even of succeeding, the Marchesa Raversi, who was immensely rich. The -Prince made a great point of not discouraging that one of the two -Parties which happened not to be in power; he knew quite well that he -himself would always be the master, even with a Ministry formed in -Signora Raversi's drawing-room. Endless details of these intrigues were -reported at Grianta. The bodily absence of Mosca, whom everyone -described as a Minister of supreme talent and a man of action, made it -possible not to think any more of his powdered head, a symbol of -everything that is dull and sad; it was a detail of no consequence, one -of the obligations of the court at which, moreover, he was playing so -distinguished a part. "It is a ridiculous thing, a court," said the -Contessa to the Marchesa, "but it is amusing; it is a game that it is -interesting to play, but one must agree to the rules. Who ever thought -of protesting against the absurdity of the rules of piquet? And yet, -once you are accustomed to the rules, it is delightful to beat your -adversary with _repique_ and _capot_." - - - - -_MILAN_ - - -The Contessa often thought about the writer of these entertaining -letters; the days on which she received them were delightful to her; she -would take her boat and go to read them in one of the charming spots by -the lake, the Pliniana, Belan, the wood of the Sfrondata. These letters -seemed to console her to some extent for Fabrizio's absence. She could -not, at all events, refuse to allow the Conte to be deeply in love; a -month had not passed before she was thinking of him with tender -affection. For his part, Conte Mosca was almost sincere when he offered -to hand in his resignation, to leave the Ministry and to come and spend -the rest of his life with her at Milan or elsewhere. "I have 400,000 -francs," he added, "which will always bring us in an income of -15,000."--"A box at the play again, horses, everything," thought the -Contessa; they were pleasant dreams. The sublime beauty of the different -views of the Lake of Como began to charm her once more. She went down to -dream by its shores of this return to a brilliant and distinctive life, -which, most unexpectedly, seemed to be coming within the bounds of -possibility. She saw herself on the Corso, at Milan, happy and gay as in -the days of the Viceroy: "Youth, or at any rate a life of action would -begin again for me." - -Sometimes her ardent imagination concealed things from her, but never -did she have those deliberate illusions which cowardice induces. She was -above all things a woman who was honest with herself. "If I am a little -too old to be doing foolish things," she said to herself, "envy, which -creates illusions as love does, may poison my stay in Milan for me. -After my husband's death, my noble poverty was a success, as was my -refusal of two vast fortunes. My poor little Conte Mosca had not a -twentieth part of the opulence that was cast at my feet by those two -worms, Limercati and Nani. The meagre widow's pension which I had to -struggle to obtain, the dismissal of my servants, which made some -sensation, the little fifth floor room which brought a score of -carriages to the door, all went to form at the time a striking -spectacle. But I shall have unpleasant moments, however skilfully I may -handle things, if, never possessing any fortune beyond my widow's -pension, I go back to live at Milan on the snug little middle-class -comfort which we can secure with the 15,000 lire that Mosca will have -left after he retires. One strong objection, out of which envy will -forge a terrible weapon, is that the Conte, although separated long ago -from his wife, is still a married man. This separation is known at -Parma, but at Milan it will come as news, and they will put it down to -me. So, my dear Scala, my divine Lake of Como, adieu! adieu!" - -In spite of all these forebodings, if the Contessa had had the smallest -income of her own she would have accepted Mosca's offer to resign his -office. She regarded herself as a middle-aged woman, and the idea of the -court alarmed her; but what will appear in the highest degree improbable -on this side of the Alps is that the Conte would have handed in that -resignation gladly. So, at least, he managed to make his friend believe. -In all his letters he implored, with an ever increasing frenzy, a second -interview at Milan; it was granted him. "To swear that I feel an insane -passion for you," the Contessa said to him one day at Milan, "would be a -lie; I should be only too glad to love to-day at thirty odd as I used to -love at two-and-twenty! But I have seen so many things decay that I had -imagined to be eternal! I have the most tender regard for you, I place -an unbounded confidence in you, and of all the men I know, you are the -one I like best." The Contessa believed herself to be perfectly sincere; -and yet, in the final clause, this declaration embodied a tiny -falsehood. Fabrizio, perhaps, had he chosen, might have triumphed over -every rival in her heart. But Fabrizio was nothing more than a boy in -Conte Mosca's eyes: he himself reached Milan three days after the young -hothead's departure for Novara, and he hastened to intercede on his -behalf with Barone Binder. The Conte considered that his exile was now -irrevocable. - - - - -_A RECENT CREATION_ - - -He had not come to Milan alone; he had in his carriage the Duca -Sanseverina-Taxis, a handsome little old man of sixty-eight, -dapple-grey, very polished, very neat, immensely rich but not quite as -noble as he ought to have been. It was his grandfather, only, who had -amassed millions from the office of Farmer General of the Revenues of -the State of Parma. His father had had himself made Ambassador of the -Prince of Parma to the Court of ----, by advancing the following -argument: "Your Highness allots 30,000 francs to his Representative at -the Court of ----, where he cuts an extremely modest figure. Should Your -Highness deign to appoint me to the post, I will accept 6,000 francs as -salary. My expenditure at the Court of ---- will never fall below -100,000 francs a year, and my agent will pay over 20,000 francs every -year to the Treasurer for Foreign Affairs at Parma. With that sum they -can attach to me whatever Secretary of Embassy they choose, and I shall -shew no curiosity to inquire into diplomatic secrets, if there are any. -My object is to shed lustre on my house, which is still a new one, and -to give it the distinction of having filled one of the great public -offices." - -The present Duca, this Ambassador's son and heir, had made the stupid -mistake of coming out as a Semi-Liberal, and for the last two years had -been in despair. In Napoleon's time, he had lost two or three millions -owing to his obstinacy in remaining abroad, and even now, after the -re-establishment of order in Europe, he had not managed to secure a -certain Grand Cordon which adorned the portrait of his father. The want -of this Cordon was killing him by inches. - -At the degree of intimacy which in Italy follows love, there was no -longer any obstacle in the nature of vanity between the lovers. It was -therefore with the most perfect simplicity that Mosca said to the woman -he adored: - -"I have two or three plans of conduct to offer you, all pretty well -thought out; I have been thinking of nothing else for the last three -months. - -"First: I hand in my resignation, and we retire to a quiet life at Milan -or Florence or Naples or wherever you please. We have an income of -15,000 francs, apart from the Prince's generosity, which will continue -for some time, more or less. - -"Secondly: You condescend to come to the place in which I have some -authority; you buy a property, Sacca, for example, a charming house in -the middle of a forest, commanding the valley of the Po; you can have -the contract signed within a week from now. The Prince then attaches you -to his court. But here I can see an immense objection. You will be well -received at court; no one would think of refusing, with me there; -besides, the Princess imagines she is unhappy, and I have recently -rendered her certain services with an eye to your future. But I must -remind you of one paramount objection: the Prince is a bigoted -churchman, and, as you already know, ill luck will have it that I am a -married man. From which will arise a million minor unpleasantnesses. You -are a widow; it is a fine title which would have to be exchanged for -another, and this brings me to my third proposal. - - - - -_THE DUCA SANSEVERINA_ - - -"One might find a new husband who would not be a nuisance. But first of -all he would have to be considerably advanced in years, for why should -you deny me the hope of some day succeeding him? Very well, I have made -this curious arrangement with the Duca Sanseverina-Taxis, who, of -course, does not know the name of his future Duchessa. He knows only -that she will make him an Ambassador and will procure him the Grand -Cordon which his father had and the lack of which makes him the most -unhappy of mortals. Apart from this, the Duca is by no means an absolute -idiot; he gets his clothes and wigs from Paris. He is not in the least -the sort of man who would do anything _deliberately_ mean, he seriously -believes that honour consists in his having a Cordon, and he is ashamed -of his riches. He came to me a year ago proposing to found a hospital, -in order to get this Cordon; I laughed at him then, but he did not by -any means laugh at me when I made him a proposal of marriage; my first -condition was, you can understand, that he must never set foot again in -Parma." - -"But do you know that what you are proposing is highly immoral?" said -the Contessa. - -"No more immoral than everything else that is done at our court and a -score of others. Absolute Power has this advantage, that it sanctifies -everything in the eyes of the public: what harm can there be in a thing -that nobody notices? Our policy for the next twenty years is going to -consist in fear of the Jacobins--and such fear, too! Every year, we -shall fancy ourselves on the eve of '93. You will hear, I hope, the fine -speeches I make on the subject at my receptions! They are beautiful! -Everything that can in any way reduce this fear will be _supremely -moral_ in the eyes of the nobles and the bigots. And you see, at Parma, -everyone who is not either a noble or a bigot is in prison, or is -packing up to go there; you may be quite sure that this marriage will -not be thought odd among us until the day on which I am disgraced. This -arrangement involves no dishonesty towards anyone; that is the essential -thing, it seems to me. The Prince, on whose favour we are trading, has -placed only one condition on his consent, which is that the future -Duchessa shall be of noble birth. Last year my office, all told, brought -me in 107,000 francs; my total income would therefore be 122,000; I -invested 20,000 at Lyons. Very well, choose for yourself; either, a life -of luxury based on our having 122,000 francs to spend, which, at Parma, -go as far as at least 400,000 at Milan, but with this marriage which -will give you the name of a passable man on whom you will never set eyes -after you leave the altar; or else the simple middle-class existence on -15,000 francs at Florence or Naples, for I am of your opinion, you have -been too much admired at Milan; we should be persecuted here by envy, -which might perhaps succeed in souring our tempers. Our grand life at -Parma will, I hope, have some touches of novelty, even in your eyes -which have seen the court of Prince Eugène; you would be wise to try it -before shutting the door on it for ever. Do not think that I am -seeking to influence your opinion. As for me, my mind is quite made up: -I would rather live on a fourth floor with you than continue that grand -life by myself." - - - - -_A MATCH_ - - -The possibility of this strange marriage was debated by the loving -couple every day. The Contessa saw the Duca Sanseverina-Taxis at the -Scala Ball, and thought him highly presentable. In one of their final -conversations, Mosca summed up his proposals in the following words: "We -must take some decisive action if we wish to spend the rest of our lives -in an enjoyable fashion and not grow old before our time. The Prince has -given his approval; Sanseverina is a person who might easily be worse; -he possesses the finest _palazzo_ in Parma, and a boundless fortune; he -is sixty-eight, and has an insane passion for the Grand Cordon; but -there is one great stain on his character: he once paid 10,000 francs -for a bust of Napoleon by Canova. His second sin, which will be the -death of him if you do not come to his rescue, is that he lent 25 -napoleons to Ferrante Palla, a lunatic of our country but also something -of a genius, whom we have since sentenced to death, fortunately in his -absence. This Ferrante has written a couple of hundred lines in his time -which are like nothing in the world; I will repeat them to you, they are -as fine as Dante. The Prince then sends Sanseverina to the Court of -----, he marries you on the day of his departure, and in the second year -of his stay abroad, which he calls an Embassy, he receives the Grand -Cordon of the ----, without which he cannot live. You will have in him a -brother who will give you no trouble at all; he signs all the papers I -require in advance, and besides you will see nothing of him, or as -little as you choose. He asks for nothing better than never to shew his -face at Parma, where his grandfather the tax-gatherer and his own -profession of Liberalism stand in his way. Rassi, our hangman, makes out -that the Duca was a secret subscriber to the _Constitutionnel_ through -Ferrante Palla the poet, and this slander was for a long time a serious -obstacle in the way of the Prince's consent." - -Why should the historian who follows faithfully all the most trivial -details of the story that has been told him be held responsible? Is it -his fault if his characters, led astray by passions which he, -unfortunately for himself, in no way shares, descend to conduct that is -profoundly immoral? It is true that things of this sort are no longer -done in a country where the sole passion that has outlived all the rest -is that for money, as an excuse for vanity. - -Three months after the events we have just related, the Duchessa -Sanseverina-Taxis astonished the court of Parma by her easy affability -and the noble serenity of her mind; her house was beyond comparison the -most attractive in the town. This was what Conte Mosca had promised his -master. Ranuccio-Ernesto IV, the Reigning Prince, and the Princess his -Consort, to whom she was presented by two of the greatest ladies in the -land, gave her a most marked welcome. The Duchessa was curious to see -this Prince, master of the destiny of the man she loved, she was anxious -to please him, and in this was more than successful. She found a man of -tall stature but inclined to stoutness; his hair, his moustache, his -enormous whiskers were of a fine gold, according to his courtiers; -elsewhere they had provoked, by their faded tint, the ignoble word -_flaxen_. From the middle of a plump face there projected to no distance -at all a tiny nose that was almost feminine. But the Duchessa observed -that, in order to notice all these points of ugliness, one had first to -attempt to catalogue the Prince's features separately. Taken as a whole, -he had the air of a man of sense and of firm character. His carriage, -his way of holding himself were by no means devoid of majesty, but often -he sought to impress the person he was addressing; at such times he grew -embarrassed himself, and fell into an almost continuous swaying motion -from one leg to the other. For the rest, Ernesto IV had a piercing and -commanding gaze; his gestures with his arms had nobility, and his speech -was at once measured and concise. - -Mosca had warned the Duchessa that the Prince had, in the large cabinet -in which he gave audiences, a full length portrait of Louis XIV, and a -very fine table by Scagliola of Florence. She found the imitation -striking; evidently he sought to copy the gaze and the noble utterance -of Louis XIV, and he leaned upon the Scagliola table so as to give -himself the pose of Joseph II. He sat down as soon as he had uttered his -greeting to the Duchessa, to give her an opportunity to make use of the -_tabouret_ befitting her rank. At this court, duchesses, princesses, and -the wives of Grandees of Spain alone have the right to sit; other women -wait until the Prince or Princess invites them; and, to mark the -difference in rank, these August Personages always take care to allow a -short interval to elapse before inviting the ladies who are not -duchesses to be seated. The Duchessa found that at certain moments the -imitation of Louis XIV was a little too strongly marked in the Prince; -for instance, in his way of smiling good-naturedly and throwing back his -head. - - - - -_THE COURT OF PARMA_ - - -Ernesto IV wore an evening coat in the latest fashion, that had come -from Paris; every month he had sent to him from that city, which he -abhorred, an evening coat, a frock coat, and a hat. But by an odd blend -of costume, on the day on which the Duchessa was received he had put on -red breeches, silk stockings and very close-fitting shoes, models for -which might be found in the portraits of Joseph II. - -He received Signora Sanseverina graciously; the things he said to her -were shrewd and witty; but she saw quite plainly that there was no -superfluity of warmth in his reception of her.--"Do you know why?" said -Conte Mosca on her return from the audience, "it is because Milan is a -larger and finer city than Parma. He was afraid, had he given you the -welcome that I expected and he himself had led me to hope, of seeming -like a provincial in ecstasies before the charms of a beautiful lady who -has come down from the capital. No doubt, too, he is still upset by a -detail which I hardly dare mention to you; the Prince sees at his court -no woman who can vie with you in _beauty_. Yesterday evening, when he -retired to bed, that was his sole topic of conversation with Pernice, -his principal valet, who is good enough to confide in me. I foresee a -little revolution in etiquette; my chief enemy at this court is a fool -who goes by the name of General Fabio Conti. Just imagine a creature who -has been on active service for perhaps one day in his life, and sets out -from that to copy the bearing of Frederick the Great. In addition to -which, he aims also at copying the noble affability of General La -Fayette, and that because he is the leader, here, of the Liberal Party -(God knows what sort of Liberals!)." - -"I know your Fabio Conti," said the Duchessa; "I had a good view of him -once near Como; he was quarrelling with the police." She related the -little adventure which the reader may perhaps remember. - -"You will learn one day, Signora, if your mind ever succeeds in -penetrating the intricacies of our etiquette, that young ladies do not -appear at court here until after their marriage. At the same time, the -Prince has, for the superiority of his city of Parma over all others, a -patriotism so ardent that I would wager that he will find some way of -having little Clelia Conti, our La Fayette's daughter, presented to him. -She is charming, upon my soul she is; and was still reckoned, a week -ago, the best-looking person in the States of the Prince. - -"I do not know," the Conte went on, "whether the horrors that the -enemies of our Sovereign have disseminated against him, have reached the -castle of Grianta; they make him out a monster, an ogre. The truth is -that Ernesto IV was full of dear little virtues, and one may add that, -had he been invulnerable like Achilles, he would have continued to be -the model of a potentate. But in a moment of boredom and anger, and also -a little in imitation of Louis XIV cutting off the head of some hero or -other of the Fronde, who was discovered living in peaceful solitude on a -plot of land near Versailles, fifty years after the Fronde, one fine day -Ernesto IV had two Liberals hanged. It seems that these rash fellows -used to meet on fixed days to speak evil of the Prince and address -ardent prayers to heaven that the plague might visit Parma and deliver -them from the tyrant. The word _tyrant_ was proved. Rassi called this -conspiracy; he had them sentenced to death, and the execution of one of -them, Conte L----, was atrocious. All this happened before my time. -Since that fatal hour," the Conte went on, lowering his voice, "the -Prince has been subject to fits of panic _unworthy of a man_, but these -are the sole source of the favour that I enjoy. But for this royal fear, -mine would be a kind of merit too abrupt, too harsh for this court, -where idiocy runs rampant. Would you believe that the Prince looks under -the beds in his room before going to sleep, and spends a million, which -at Parma is the equivalent of four millions at Milan, to have a good -police force; and you see before you, Signora Duchessa, the Chief of -that terrible Police. By the police, that is to say by fear, I have -become Minister of War and Finance; and as the Minister of the Interior -is my nominal chief, in so far as he has the police under his -jurisdiction, I have had that portfolio given to Conte Zurla-Contarini, -an imbecile who is a glutton for work and gives himself the pleasure of -writing eighty letters a day. I received one only this morning on which -Conte Zurla-Contarini has had the satisfaction of writing with his own -hand the number 20,715." - -The Duchessa Sanseverina was presented to the melancholy Princess of -Parma, Clara-Paolina, who, because her husband had a mistress (quite an -attractive woman, the Marchesa Balbi), imagined herself to be the most -unhappy person in the universe, a belief which had made her perhaps the -most trying. The Duchessa found a very tall and very thin woman, who was -not thirty-six and appeared fifty. A symmetrical and noble face might -have passed as beautiful, though somewhat spoiled by the large round -eyes which could barely see, if the Princess had not herself abandoned -every attempt at beauty. She received the Duchessa with a shyness so -marked that certain courtiers, enemies of Conte Mosca, ventured to say -that the Princess looked like the woman who was being presented and the -Duchessa like the sovereign. The Duchessa, surprised and almost -disconcerted, could find no language that would put her in a place -inferior to that which the Princess assumed for herself. To restore some -self-possession to this poor Princess, who at heart was not wanting in -intelligence, the Duchessa could think of nothing better than to begin, -and keep going, a long dissertation on botany. The Princess was really -learned in this science; she had some very fine hothouses with -quantities of tropical plants. The Duchessa, while seeking simply for a -way out of a difficult position, made a lifelong conquest of Princess -Clara-Paolina, who, from the shy and speechless creature that she had -been at the beginning of the audience, found herself towards the end so -much at her ease, that, in defiance of all the rules of etiquette, this -first audience lasted for no less than an hour and a quarter. Next day, -the Duchessa sent out to purchase some exotic plants, and posed as a -great lover of botany. - -The Princess spent all her time with the venerable Father Landriani, -Archbishop of Parma, a man of learning, a man of intelligence even, and -a perfectly honest man, but one who presented a singular spectacle when -he was seated in his chair of crimson velvet (it was the privilege of -his office) opposite the armchair of the Princess, surrounded by her -maids of honour and her two ladies _of company_. The old prelate, with his -flowing white locks, was even more timid, were such a thing possible, -than the Princess; they saw one another every day, and every audience -began with a silence that lasted fully a quarter of an hour. To such a -state had they come that the Contessa Alvizi, one of the ladies of -company, had become a sort of favourite, because she possessed the art -of encouraging them to talk and so breaking the silence. - -To end the series of presentations, the Duchessa was admitted to the -presence of H.S.H. the Crown Prince, a personage of taller stature than -his father and more timid than his mother. He was learned in mineralogy, -and was sixteen years old. He blushed excessively on seeing the Duchessa -come in, and was so put off his balance that he could not think of a -word to say to that beautiful lady. He was a fine-looking young man, and -spent his life in the woods, hammer in hand. At the moment when the -Duchessa rose to bring this silent audience to an end: - -"My God! Signora, how pretty you are!" exclaimed the Crown Prince; a -remark which was not considered to be in too bad taste by the lady -presented. - -The Marchesa Balbi, a young woman of five-and-twenty, might still have -passed for the most perfect type of _leggiadria italiana_, two or three -years before the arrival of the Duchessa Sanseverina at Parma. As it -was, she had still the finest eyes in the world and the most charming -airs, but, viewed close at hand, her skin was netted with countless fine -little wrinkles which made the Marchesa look like a young grandmother. -Seen from a certain distance, in the theatre for instance, in her box, -she was still a beauty, and the people in the pit thought that the -Prince shewed excellent taste. He spent every evening with the Marchesa -Balbi, but often without opening his lips, and the boredom she saw on -the Prince's face had made this poor woman decline into an extraordinary -thinness. She laid claim to an unlimited subtlety, and was always -smiling a bitter smile; she had the prettiest teeth in the world, and in -season and out, having little or no sense, would attempt by an ironical -smile to give some hidden meaning to her words. Conte Mosca said that it -was these continual smiles, while inwardly she was yawning, that gave -her all her wrinkles. The Balbi had a finger in every pie, and the State -never made a contract for 1,000 francs without there being some little -_ricordo_ (this was the polite expression at Parma) for the Marchesa. -Common report would have it that she had invested six millions in -England, but her fortune, which indeed was of recent origin, did not in -reality amount to 1,500,000 francs. It was to be out of reach of her -stratagems, and to have her dependent upon himself, that Conte Mosca had -made himself Minister of Finance. The Marchesa's sole passion was fear -disguised in sordid avarice: "_I shall die on straw_!" she used -occasionally to say to the Prince, who was shocked by such a remark. The -Duchessa noticed that the ante-room, resplendent with gilding, of the -Balbi's _palazzo_, was lighted by a single candle which guttered on a -priceless marble table, and that the doors of her drawing-room were -blackened by the footmen's fingers. - -"She received me," the Duchessa told her lover, "as though she expected -me to offer her a gratuity of 50 francs." - -The course of the Duchessa's successes was slightly interrupted by the -reception given her by the shrewdest woman of the court, the celebrated -Marchesa Raversi, a consummate intriguer who had established herself at -the head of the party opposed to that of Conte Mosca. She was anxious to -overthrow him, all the more so in the last few months, since she was the -niece of the Duca Sanseverina, and was afraid of seeing her prospects -impaired by the charms of his new Duchessa. "The Raversi is by no means -a woman to be ignored," the Conte told his mistress; "I regard her as so -far capable of sticking at nothing that I separated from my wife solely -because she insisted on taking as her lover Cavaliere Bentivoglio, a -friend of the Raversi." This lady, a tall virago with very dark hair, -remarkable for the diamonds which she wore all day, and the rouge with -which she covered her cheeks, had declared herself in advance the -Duchessa's enemy, and when she received her in her own house made it her -business to open hostilities. The Duca Sanseverina, in the letters he -wrote from ----, appeared so delighted with his Embassy, and above all, -with the prospect of the Grand Cordon, that his family were afraid of -his leaving part of his fortune to his wife, whom he loaded with little -presents. The Raversi, although definitely ugly, had for a lover Conte -Baldi, the handsomest man at court; generally speaking, she was -successful in all her undertakings. - -The Duchessa lived in the greatest style imaginable. The _palazzo_ -Sanseverina had always been one of the most magnificent in the city of -Parma, and the Duca, to celebrate the occasion of his Embassy and his -future Grand Cordon, was spending enormous sums upon its decoration; the -Duchessa directed the work in person. - -The Conte had guessed aright; a few days after the presentation of the -Duchessa, young Clelia Conti came to court; she had been made a -Canoness. In order to parry the blow which this favour might be thought -to have struck at the Conte's influence, the Duchessa gave a party, on -the pretext of throwing open the new garden of her _palazzo_, and by the -exercise of her most charming manners made Clelia, whom she called her -young friend of the Lake of Como, the queen of the evening. Her monogram -was displayed, as though by accident, upon the principal transparencies. -The young Clelia, although slightly pensive, was pleasant in the way in -which she spoke of the little adventure by the Lake, and of her warm -gratitude. She was said to be deeply religious and very fond of -solitude. "I would wager," said the Conte, "that she has enough sense to -be ashamed of her father." The Duchessa made a friend of this girl; she -felt attracted towards her, she did not wish to appear jealous, and -included her in all her pleasure parties; after all, her plan was to -seek to diminish all the enmities of which the Conte was the object. - -Everything smiled on the Duchessa; she was amused by this court -existence where a sudden storm is always to be feared; she felt as -though she were beginning life over again. She was tenderly attached to -the Conte, who was literally mad with happiness. This pleasing situation -had bred in him an absolute impassivity towards everything in which only -his professional interests were concerned. And so, barely two months -after the Duchessa's arrival, he obtained the patent and honours of -Prime Minister, honours which come very near to those paid to the -Sovereign himself. The Conte had complete control of his master's will; -they had a proof of this at Parma by which everyone was impressed. - -To the southeast, and within ten minutes of the town rises that famous -citadel so renowned throughout Italy, the main tower of which stands one -hundred and eighty feet high and is visible from so far. This tower, -constructed on the model of Hadrian's Tomb, at Rome, by the Farnese, -grandsons of Paul III, in the first half of the sixteenth century, is so -large in diameter that on the platform in which it ends it has been -possible to build a _palazzo_ for the governor of the citadel and a new -prison called the Farnese tower. This prison, erected in honour of the -eldest son of Ranuccio-Ernesto II, who had become the accepted lover of -his stepmother, is regarded as a fine and singular monument throughout -the country. The Duchessa was curious to see it; on the day of her visit -the heat was overpowering in Parma, and up there, in that lofty -position, she found fresh air, which so delighted her that she stayed -for several hours. The officials made a point of throwing open to her -the rooms of the Farnese tower. - -The Duchessa met on the platform of the great tower a poor Liberal -prisoner who had come to enjoy the half-hour's outing that was allowed -him every third day. On her return to Parma, not having yet acquired the -discretion necessary in an absolute court, she spoke of this man, who -had told her the whole history of his life. The Marchesa Raversi's -party seized hold of these utterances of the Duchessa and repeated them -broadcast, greatly hoping that they would shock the Prince. Indeed, -Ernesto IV was in the habit of repeating that the essential thing was to -impress the imagination. "_Perpetual_ is a big word," he used to say, -"and more terrible in Italy than elsewhere": accordingly, never in his -life had he granted a pardon. A week after her visit to the fortress the -Duchessa received a letter commuting a sentence, signed by the Prince -and by his Minister, with a blank left for the name. The prisoner whose -name she chose to write in this space would obtain the restoration of -his property, with permission to spend the rest of his days in America. -The Duchessa wrote the name of the man who had talked to her. -Unfortunately this man turned out to be half a rogue, a weak-kneed -creature; it was on the strength of his confessions that the famous -Ferrante Palla had been sentenced to death. - -The unprecedented nature of this pardon set the seal upon Signora -Sanseverina's position. Conte Mosca was wild with delight; it was a -great day in his life and one that had a decisive influence on -Fabrizio's destiny. He, meanwhile, was still at Romagnano, near Novara, -going to confession, hunting, reading nothing, and paying court to a -lady of noble birth, as was laid down in his instructions. The Duchessa -was still a trifle shocked by this last essential. Another sign which -boded no good to the Conte was that, while she would speak to him with -the utmost frankness about everyone else, and would think aloud in his -presence, she never mentioned Fabrizio to him without first carefully -choosing her words. - -"If you like," the Conte said to her one day, "I will write to that -charming brother you have on the Lake of Como, and I will soon force -that Marchese del Dongo, if I and my friends in a certain quarter apply -a little pressure, to ask for the pardon of your dear Fabrizio. If it be -true, as I have not the least doubt that it is, that Fabrizio is -somewhat superior to the young fellows who ride their English -thoroughbreds about the streets of Milan, what a life, at eighteen, to -be doing nothing with no prospect of ever having anything to do! If -heaven had endowed him with a real passion for anything in the world, -were it only for angling, I should respect it; but what is he to do at -Milan, even after he has obtained his pardon? He will get on a horse, -which he will have had sent to him from England, at a certain hour of -the day; at another, idleness will take him to his mistress, for whom he -will care less than he will for his horse. . . . But, if you say the -word, I will try to procure this sort of life for your nephew." - -"I should like him to be an officer," said the Duchessa. - -"Would you recommend a Sovereign to entrust a post which, at a given -date, may be of some importance to a young man who, in the first place, -is liable to enthusiasm, and, secondly, has shewn enthusiasm for -Napoleon to the extent of going to join him at Waterloo? Just think -where we should all be if Napoleon had won at Waterloo! We should have -no Liberals to be afraid of, it is true, but the Sovereigns of ancient -Houses would be able to keep their thrones only by marrying the -daughters of his Marshals. And so military life for Fabrizio would be -the life of a squirrel in a revolving cage: plenty of movement with no -progress. He would have the annoyance of seeing himself cut out by all -sorts of plebeian devotion. The essential quality in a young man of the -present day, that is to say for the next fifty years perhaps, so long as -we remain in a state of fear and religion has not been re-established, -is not to be liable to enthusiasm and not to shew any spirit. - -"I have thought of one thing, but one that will begin by making you cry -out in protest, and will give me infinite trouble for many a day to -come: it is an act of folly which I am ready to commit for you. But tell -me, if you can, what folly would I not commit to win a smile?" - -"Well?" said the Duchessa. - -"Well, we have had as Archbishops of Parma three members of your family: -Ascanio del Dongo who wrote a book in sixteen-something, Fabrizio in -1699, and another Ascanio in 1740. If Fabrizio cares to enter the -prelacy, and to make himself conspicuous for virtues of the highest -order, I can make him a Bishop somewhere, and then Archbishop here, -provided that my influence lasts. The real objection is this: shall I -remain Minister for long enough to carry out this fine plan, which will -require several years? The Prince may die, he may have the bad taste to -dismiss me. But, after all, it is the only way open to me of securing -for Fabrizio something that is worthy of you." - -They discussed the matter at length: the idea was highly repugnant to -the Duchessa. - -"Prove to me again," she said to the Conte, "that every other career is -impossible for Fabrizio." The Conte proved it. - -"You regret," he added, "the brilliant uniform; but as to that, I do not -know what to do." - -After a month in which the Duchessa had asked to be allowed to think -things over, she yielded with a sigh to the sage views of the Minister. -"Either ride stiffly upon an English horse through the streets of some -big town," repeated the Conte, "or adopt a calling that is not -unbefitting his birth; I can see no middle course. Unfortunately, a -gentleman cannot become either a doctor or a barrister, and this age is -made for barristers. - -"Always bear in mind, Signora," the Conte went on, "that you are giving -your nephew, on the streets of Milan, the lot enjoyed by the young men -of his age who pass for the most fortunate. His pardon once procured, -you will give him fifteen, twenty, thirty thousand francs; the amount -does not matter; neither you nor I make any pretence of saving money." - -The Duchessa was susceptible to the idea of fame; she did not wish -Fabrizio to be simply a young man living on an allowance; she reverted -to her lover's plan. - -"Observe," the Conte said to her, "that I do not pretend to turn -Fabrizio into an exemplary priest, like so many that you see. No, he is -a great gentleman, first and foremost; he can remain perfectly ignorant -if it seems good to him, and will none the less become Bishop and -Archbishop, if the Prince continues to regard me as a useful person. - -"If your orders deign to transform my proposal into an immutable -decree," the Conte went on, "our _protégé_ must on no account be seen -in Parma living with modest means. His subsequent promotion will cause a -scandal if people have seen him here as an ordinary priest; he ought not -to appear in Parma until he has his _violet stockings_[10] and a -suitable establishment. Then everyone will assume that your nephew is -destined to be a Bishop, and nobody will be shocked. - -"If you will take my advice, you will send Fabrizio to take his theology -and spend three years at Naples. During the vacations of the -Ecclesiastical Academy he can go if he likes to visit Paris and London, -but he must never shew his face in Parma." This sentence made the -Duchessa shudder. - -She sent a courier to her nephew, asking him to meet her at Piacenza. -Need it be said that this courier was the bearer of all the means of -obtaining money and all the necessary passports? - -Arriving first at Piacenza, Fabrizio hastened to meet the Duchessa, and -embraced her with transports of joy which made her dissolve in tears. -She was glad that the Conte was not present; since they had fallen in -love, it was the first time that she had experienced this sensation. - -Fabrizio was profoundly touched, and then distressed by the plans which -the Duchessa had made for him; his hope had always been that, his affair -at Waterloo settled, he might end by becoming a soldier. One thing -struck the Duchessa, and still further increased the romantic opinion -that she had formed of her nephew; he refused absolutely to lead a -_caffè_-haunting existence in one of the big towns of Italy. - -"Can't you see yourself on the _Corso_ of Florence or Naples," said the -Duchessa, "with thoroughbred English horses? For the evenings a -carriage, a charming apartment," and so forth. She dwelt with exquisite -relish on the details of this vulgar happiness, which she saw Fabrizio -thrust from him with disdain. "He is a hero," she thought. - -"And after ten years of this agreeable life, what shall I have done?" -said Fabrizio; "what shall I be? A young man _of a certain age_, who -will have to move out of the way of the first good-looking boy who makes -his appearance in society, also mounted upon an English horse." - -Fabrizio at first utterly rejected the idea of the Church. He spoke of -going to New York, of becoming an American citizen and a soldier of the -Republic. - -"What a mistake you are making! You won't have any war, and you'll fall -back into the _caffè_ life, only without smartness, without music, -without love affairs," replied the Duchessa. "Believe me, for you just -as much as for myself, it would be a wretched existence there in -America." She explained to him the cult of the god _Dollar_, and the -respect that had to be shewn to the artisans in the street who by their -votes decided everything. They came back to the idea of the Church. - -"Before you fly into a passion," the Duchessa said to him, "just try to -understand what the Conte is asking you to do; there is no question -whatever of your being a poor priest of more or less exemplary and -virtuous life, like Priore Blanès. Remember the example of your uncles, -the Archbishops of Parma; read over again the accounts of their lives in -the supplement to the Genealogy. First and foremost, a man with a name -like yours has to be a great gentleman, noble, generous, an upholder of -justice, destined from the first to find himself at the head of his -order . . . and in the whole of his life doing only one dishonourable -thing, and that a very useful one." - -"So all my illusions are shattered," said Fabrizio, heaving a deep sigh; -"it is a cruel sacrifice! I admit, I had not taken into account this -horror of enthusiasm and spirit, even when wielded to their advantage, -which from now onwards is going to prevail amongst absolute monarchs." - - - - -_ITALIAN PRUDENCE_ - - -"Remember that a proclamation, a caprice of the heart flings the -enthusiast into the bosom of the opposite party to the one he has served -all his life!" - -"I an enthusiast!" repeated Fabrizio; "a strange accusation! I cannot -manage even to be in love!" - -"What!" exclaimed the Duchessa. - -"When I have the honour to pay my court to a beauty, even if she is of -good birth and sound religious principles, I cannot think about her -except when I see her." - -This avowal made a strange impression upon the Duchessa. - -"I ask for a month," Fabrizio went on, "in which to take leave of -Signora C----, of Novara, and, what will be more difficult still, of all -the castles I have been building in the air all my life. I shall write -to my mother, who will be so good as to come and see me at Belgirate, on -the Piedmontese shore of Lake Maggiore, and, in thirty-one days from -now, I shall be in Parma incognito." - -"No, whatever you do!" cried the Duchessa. She did not wish Conte Mosca -to see her talking to Fabrizio. - -The same pair met again at Piacenza. The Duchessa this time was highly -agitated: a storm had broken at court; the Marchesa Raversi's party was -on the eve of a triumph; it was on the cards that Conte Mosca might be -replaced by General Fabio Conti, the leader of what was called at Parma -the _Liberal Party_. Omitting only the name of the rival who was growing -in the Prince's favour, the Duchessa told Fabrizio everything. She -discussed afresh the chances of his future career, even with the -prospect of his losing the all-powerful influence of the Conte. - -"I am going to spend three years in the Ecclesiastical Academy at -Naples," exclaimed Fabrizio; "but since I must be before all things a -young gentleman, and you do not oblige me to lead the life of a virtuous -seminarist, the prospect of this stay at Naples does not frighten me in -the least; the life there will be in every way as pleasant as life at -Romagnano; the best society of the neighbourhood was beginning to class -me as a Jacobin. In my exile I have discovered that I know nothing, not -even Latin, not even how to spell. I had planned to begin my education -over again at Novara; I shall willingly study theology at Naples; it is -a complicated science." The Duchessa was overjoyed. "If we are driven -out of Parma," she told him, "we shall come and visit you at Naples. But -since you agree, until further orders, to try for the violet stockings, -the Conte, who knows the Italy of to-day through and through, has given -me an idea to suggest to you. Believe or not, as you choose, what they -teach you, _but never raise any objection_. Imagine that they are teaching -you the rules of the game of whist; would you raise any objection to the -rules of whist? I have told the Conte that you do believe, and he is -delighted to hear it; it is useful in this world and in the next. But, -if you believe, do not fall into the vulgar habit of speaking with -horror of Voltaire, Diderot, Raynal and all those harebrained Frenchmen -who paved the way to the Dual Chamber. Their names should not be allowed -to pass your lips, but if you must mention them, speak of these -gentlemen with a calm irony: they are people who have long since been -refuted and whose attacks are no longer of any consequence. Believe -blindly everything that they tell you at the Academy. Bear in mind that -there are people who will make a careful note of your slightest -objections; they will forgive you a little amorous intrigue if it is -done in the proper way, but not a doubt: age stifles intrigue but -encourages doubt. Act on this principle at the tribunal of penitence. -You shall have a letter of recommendation to a Bishop who is factotum to -the Cardinal Archbishop of Naples: to him alone you should admit your -escapade in France and your presence on the 18th of June in the -neighbourhood of Waterloo. Even then, cut it as short as possible, -confess it only so that they cannot reproach you with having kept it -secret. You were so young at the time! - - - - -_THE COURT_ - - -"The second idea which the Conte sends you is this: if there should -occur to you a brilliant argument, a triumphant retort that will change -the course of the conversation, do not give in to the temptation to -shine; remain silent: people of any discernment will see your cleverness -in your eyes. It will be time enough to be witty when you are a Bishop." - -Fabrizio began his life at Naples with an unpretentious carriage and -four servants, good Milanese, whom his aunt had sent him. After a year -of study, no one said of him that he was a man of parts: people looked -upon him as a great nobleman, of a studious bent, extremely generous, -but something of a libertine. - -That year, amusing enough for Fabrizio, was terrible for the Duchessa. -The Conte was three or four times within an inch of ruin; the Prince, -more timorous than ever, because he was ill that year, believed that by -dismissing him he could free himself from the odium of the executions -carried out before the Conte had entered his service. Rassi was the -cherished favourite who must at all costs be retained. The Conte's -perils won him the passionate attachment of the Duchessa; she gave no -more thought to Fabrizio. To lend colour to their possible retirement, -it appeared that the air of Parma, which was indeed a trifle damp as it -is everywhere in Lombardy, did not at all agree with her. Finally, after -intervals of disgrace which went so far as to make the Conte, though -Prime Minister, spend sometimes twenty whole days without seeing his -master privately, Mosca won; he secured the appointment of General Fabio -Conti, the so-called Liberal, as governor of the citadel in which were -imprisoned the Liberals condemned by Rassi. "If Conti shows any leniency -towards his prisoners," Mosca observed to his lady, "he will be -disgraced as a Jacobin whose political theories have made him forget his -duty as a general; if he shows himself stern and pitiless, and that, to -my mind, is the direction in which he will tend, he ceases to be the -leader of his own party and alienates all the families that have a -relative in the citadel. This poor man has learned how to assume an air -of awed respect on the approach of the Prince; if necessary, he changes -his clothes four times a day; he can discuss a question of etiquette, -but his is not a head capable of following the difficult path by which -alone he can save himself from destruction; and in any case, I am -there." - -The day after the appointment of General Fabio Conti, which brought the -ministerial crisis to an end, it was announced that Parma was to have an -ultra-monarchist newspaper. - -"What feuds the paper will create!" said the Duchessa. - -"This paper, the idea of which is perhaps my masterpiece," replied the -Conte with a smile, "I shall gradually and quite against my will allow -to pass into the hands of the ultra-rabid section. I have attached some -good salaries to the editorial posts. People are coming from all -quarters to beg for employment on it; the excitement will help us -through the next month or two, and people will forget the danger I have -been in. Those seriously minded gentlemen P---- and D---- are already on -the list." - -"But this paper will be quite revoltingly absurd." - -"I am reckoning on that," replied the Conte. "The Prince will read it -every morning and admire the doctrines taught by myself as its founder. -As to the details, he will approve or be shocked; of the hours which he -devotes every day to work, two will be taken up in this way. The paper -will get itself into trouble, but when the serious complaints begin to -come in, in eight or ten months' time, it will be entirely in the hands -of the ultra-rabids. It will be this party, which is annoying me, that -will have to answer; as for me, I shall raise objections to the paper; -but after all I greatly prefer a hundred absurdities to one hanging. Who -remembers an absurdity two years after the publication of the official -gazette! It is better than having the sons and family of the hanged man -vowing a hatred which will last as long as I shall and may perhaps -shorten my life." - -The Duchessa, always passionately interested in something, always -active, never idle, had more spirit than the whole court of Parma put -together; but she lacked the patience and impassivity necessary for -success in intrigue. However, she had managed to follow with passionate -excitement the interests of the various groups, she was beginning even -to establish a certain personal reputation with the Prince. -Clara-Paolina, the Princess Consort, surrounded with honours but a -prisoner to the most antiquated etiquette, looked upon herself as the -unhappiest of women. The Duchessa Sanseverina paid her various -attentions and tried to prove to her that she was by no means so unhappy -as she supposed. It should be explained that the Prince saw his wife -only at dinner: this meal lasted for thirty minutes, and the Prince -would spend whole weeks without saying a word to Clara-Paolina. Signora -Sanseverina attempted to change all this; she amused the Prince, all the -more as she had managed to retain her independence intact. Had she -wished to do so, she could not have succeeded in never hurting any of -the fools who swarmed about this court. It was this utter inadaptability -on her part that led to her being execrated by the common run of -courtiers, all Conti or Marchesi, with an average income of 5,000 lire. -She realised this disadvantage after the first few days, and devoted -herself exclusively to pleasing the Sovereign and his Consort, the -latter of whom was in absolute control of the Crown Prince. The Duchessa -knew how to amuse the Sovereign, and profited by the extreme attention -he paid to her lightest word to put in some shrewd thrusts at the -courtiers who hated her. After the foolish actions that Rassi had made -him commit, and for foolishness that sheds blood there is no reparation, -the Prince was sometimes afraid and was often bored, which had brought -him to a state of morbid envy; he felt that he was deriving little -amusement from life, and grew sombre when he saw other people amused; -the sight of happiness made him furious. "We must keep our love secret," -she told her admirer, and gave the Prince to understand that she was -only very moderately attached to the Conte, who for that matter was so -thoroughly deserving of esteem. - -This discovery had given His Highness a happy day. From time to time, -the Duchessa let fall a few words about the plan she had in her mind of -taking a few months' holiday every year, to be spent in seeing Italy, -which she did not know at all; she would visit Naples, Florence, Rome. -Now nothing in the world was more capable of distressing the Prince than -an apparent desertion of this sort; it was one of his most pronounced -weaknesses, any action that might be interpreted as showing contempt for -his capital city pierced him to the heart. He felt that he had no way of -holding Signora Sanseverina, and Signora Sanseverina was by far the most -brilliant woman in Parma. A thing without parallel in the lazy Italian -character, people used to drive in from the surrounding country to -attend her _Thursdays_; they were regular festivals; almost every week -the Duchessa had something new and sensational to present. The Prince -was dying to see one of these Thursdays for himself; but how was it to -be managed? Go to the house of a private citizen! That was a thing that -neither his father nor he had ever done in their lives! - -There came a certain Thursday of cold wind and rain; all through the -evening the Prince heard carriages rattling over the pavement of the -piazza outside the Palace, on their way to Signora Sanseverina's. He -moved petulantly in his chair: other people were amusing themselves, and -he, their sovereign Prince, their absolute master, who ought to find -more amusement than anyone in the world, he was tasting the fruit of -boredom! He rang for his aide-de-camp: he was obliged to wait until a -dozen trustworthy men had been posted in the street that led from the -Royal Palace to the _palazzo_ Sanseverina. Finally, after an hour that -seemed to the Prince an age, during which he had been minded a score of -times to brave the assassins' daggers and to go boldly out without any -precaution, he appeared in the first of Signora Sanseverina's -drawing-rooms. A thunderbolt might have fallen upon the carpet and not -produced so much surprise. In the twinkling of an eye, and as the Prince -advanced through them, these gay and noisy rooms were hushed to a -stupefied silence; every eye, fixed on the Prince, was strained with -attention. The courtiers appeared disconcerted; the Duchessa alone -shewed no sign of surprise. When finally her guests had recovered -sufficient strength to speak, the great preoccupation of all present was -to decide the important question: had the Duchessa been warned of this -visit, or had she like everyone else been taken by surprise? - -The Prince was amused, and the reader may now judge of the utterly -impulsive character of the Duchessa, and of the boundless power which -vague ideas of departure, adroitly disseminated, had enabled her to -assume. - -As she went to the door with the Prince, who was making her the -prettiest speeches, an odd idea came to her which she ventured to put -into words quite simply, and as though it were the most natural thing in -the world. - -"If Your Serene Highness would address to the Princess three or four of -these charming utterances which he lavishes on me, he could be far more -certain of giving me pleasure than by telling me that I am pretty. I -mean that I would not for anything in the world have the Princess look -with an unfriendly eye on the signal mark of his favour with which His -Highness has honoured me this evening." - -The Prince looked fixedly at her and replied in a dry tone: - -"I was under the impression that I was my own master and could go where -I pleased." - -The Duchessa blushed. - -"I wished only," she explained, instantly recovering herself, "not to -expose His Highness to the risk of a bootless errand, for this Thursday -will be the last; I am going for a few days to Bologna or Florence." - -When she reappeared in the rooms, everyone imagined her to be at the -height of favour, whereas she had just taken a risk upon which, in the -memory of man, no one had ever ventured. She made a sign to the Conte, -who rose from the whist-table and followed her into a little room that -was lighted but empty. - -"You have done a very bold thing," he informed her; "I should not have -advised it myself, but when hearts are really inflamed," he added with a -smile, "happiness enhances love, and if you leave to-morrow morning, I -shall follow you to-morrow night. I shall be detained here only by that -burden of a Ministry of Finance which I was stupid enough to take on my -shoulders; but in four hours of hard work, one can hand over a good many -accounts. Let us go back, dear friend, and play at ministerial fatuity -with all freedom and without reserve; it may be the last performance -that we shall give in this town. If he thinks he is being defied, the -man is capable of anything; he will call it _making an example_. When -these people have gone, we can decide on a way of barricading you for -to-night; the best plan perhaps would be to set off without delay for -your house at Sacca, by the Po, which has the advantage of being within -half an hour of Austrian territory." - -For the Duchessa's love and self-esteem this was an exquisite moment; -she looked at the Conte, and her eyes brimmed with tears. So powerful a -Minister, surrounded by this swarm of courtiers who loaded him with -homage equal to that which they paid to the Prince himself, to leave -everything for her sake, and with such unconcern! - -When she returned to the drawing-room she was beside herself with joy. -Everyone bowed down before her. - -"How prosperity has changed the Duchessa!" was murmured everywhere by -the courtiers, "one would hardly recognise her. So that Roman spirit, so -superior to everything in the world, does after all, deign to appreciate -the extraordinary favour that has just been conferred upon her by the -Sovereign!" - -Towards the end of the evening the Conte came to her: "I must tell you -the latest news." Immediately the people who happened to be standing -near the Duchessa withdrew. - -"The Prince, on his return to the Palace," the Conte went on, "had -himself announced at the door of his wife's room. Imagine the surprise! -'I have come to tell you,' he said to her, 'about a really most -delightful evening I have spent at the Sanseverina's. It was she who -asked me to give you a full description of the way in which she has -decorated that grimy old _palazzo_.' Then the Prince took a seat and -went into a description of each of your rooms in turn. - -"He spent more than twenty-five minutes with his wife, who was in tears -of joy; for all her intelligence, she could not think of anything to -keep the conversation going in the light tone which His Highness was -pleased to impart to it." - -This Prince was by no means a wicked man, whatever the Liberals of Italy -might say of him. As a matter of fact, he had cast a good number of them -into prison, but that was from fear, and he used to repeat now and then, -as though to console himself for certain unpleasant memories: "It is -better to kill the devil than to let the devil kill you." The day after -the party we have been describing, he was supremely happy; he had done -two good actions: he had gone to the _Thursday_, and he had talked to -his wife. At dinner, he addressed her again; in a word, this _Thursday_ -at Signora Sanseverina's brought about a domestic revolution with which -the whole of Parma rang; the Raversi was in consternation, and the -Duchessa doubly delighted: she had contrived to be of use to her lover, -and had found him more in love with her than ever. - -"All this owing to a thoroughly rash idea which came into my mind!" she -said to the Conte. "I should be more free, no doubt, in Rome or Naples, -but should I find so fascinating a game to play there? No, indeed, my -dear Conte, and you provide me with all my joy in life." - - -[Footnote 10: In Italy, young men with influence or brains become -_Monsignori_ and _prelati_, which does not mean bishop; they then wear -violet stockings. A man need not take any vows to become _Monsignore_; -he can discard his violet stockings and marry.] - - - - -CHAPTER SEVEN - - -It is with trifling details of court life as insignificant as those -related in the last chapter that we should have to fill up the history -of the next four years. Every spring the Marchesa came with her -daughters to spend a couple of months at the _palazzo_ Sanseverina or on -the property of Sacca, by the bank of the Po; there they spent some very -pleasant hours and used to talk of Fabrizio, but the Conte would never -allow him to pay a single visit to Parma. The Duchessa and the Minister -had indeed to make amends for certain acts of folly, but on the whole -Fabrizio followed soberly enough the line of conduct that had been laid -down for him: that of a great nobleman who is studying theology and does -not rely entirely on his virtues to bring him advancement. At Naples, he -had acquired a keen interest in the study of antiquity, he made -excavations; this new passion had almost taken the place of his passion -for horses. He had sold his English thoroughbreds in order to continue -his excavations at Miseno, where he had turned up a bust of Tiberius as -a young man which had been classed among the finest relics of antiquity. -The discovery of this bust was almost the keenest pleasure that had come -to him at Naples. He had too lofty a nature to seek to copy the other -young men he saw, to wish for example to play with any degree of -seriousness the part of lover. Of course he never lacked mistresses, but -these were of no consequence to him, and, in spite of his years, one -might say of him that he still knew nothing of love: he was all the more -loved on that account. Nothing prevented him from behaving with the most -perfect coolness, for to him a young and pretty woman was always -equivalent to any other young and pretty woman; only the latest comer -seemed to him the most exciting. One of the most generally admired -ladies in Naples had done all sorts of foolish things in his honour -during the last year of his stay there, which at first had amused him, -and had ended by boring him to tears, so much so that one of the joys of -his departure was the prospect of being delivered from the attentions of -the charming Duchessa d'A----. It was in 1821 that, having -satisfactorily passed all his examinations, his director of studies, or -governor, received a Cross and a gratuity, and he himself started out to -see at length that city of Parma of which he had often dreamed. He was -_Monsignore_, and he had four horses drawing his carriage; at the stage -before Parma he took only two, and on entering the town made them stop -outside the church of San Giovanni. There was to be found the costly -tomb of Archbishop Ascanio del Dongo, his great-granduncle, the author -of the Latin genealogy. He prayed beside the tomb, then went on foot to -the _palazzo_ of the Duchessa, who did not expect him until several days -later. There was a large crowd in her drawing-room; presently they were -left alone. - -"Well, are you satisfied with me?" he asked her as he flung himself into -her arms; "thanks to you, I have spent four quite happy years at Naples, -instead of eating my head off at Novara with my mistress authorised by -the police." - - - - -_THE COURT_ - - -The Duchessa could not get over her astonishment; she would not have -known him had she seen him go by in the street; she discovered him to -be, what as a matter of fact he was, one of the best-looking men in -Italy; his physiognomy in particular was charming. She had sent him to -Naples a devil-may-care young rough-rider; the horsewhip he invariably -carried at that time had seemed an inherent part of his person: now he -had the noblest and most measured bearing before strangers, while in -private conversation she found that he had retained all the ardour of -his boyhood. This was a diamond that had lost nothing by being polished. -Fabrizio had not been in the room an hour when Conte Mosca appeared; he -arrived a little too soon. The young man spoke to him with so apt a -choice of terms of the Cross of Parma that had been conferred on his -governor, and expressed his lively gratitude for certain other benefits -of which he did not venture to speak in so open a fashion, with so -perfect a restraint, that at the first glance the Minister formed an -excellent impression of him. "This nephew," he murmured to the Duchessa, -"is made to adorn all the exalted posts to which you will raise him in -due course." So far, all had gone wonderfully well, but when the -Minister, thoroughly satisfied with Fabrizio, and paying attention so -far only to his actions and gestures, turned to the Duchessa, he noticed -a curious look in her eyes. "This young man is making a strange -impression here," he said to himself. This reflexion was bitter; the -Conte had reached the _fifties_, a cruel word of which perhaps only a -man desperately in love can feel the full force. He was a thoroughly -good man, thoroughly deserving to be loved, apart from his severities as -a Minister. But in his eyes that cruel word _fifties_ threw a dark cloud -over his whole life and might well have made him cruel on his own -account. In the five years since he had persuaded the Duchessa to settle -at Parma, she had often aroused his jealousy, especially at first, but -never had she given him any real grounds for complaint. He believed -indeed, and rightly, that it was with the object of making herself more -certain of his heart that the Duchessa had had recourse to those -apparent bestowals of her favour upon various young _beaux_ of the -court. He was sure, for instance, that she had rejected the offers of -the Prince, who, indeed, on that occasion, had made a significant -utterance. - -"But if I were to accept Your Highness's offer," the Duchessa had said -to him with a smile, "how should I ever dare to look the Conte in the -face afterwards?" - -"I should be almost as much out of countenance as you. The dear Conte! -My friend! But there is a very easy way out of that difficulty, and I -have thought of it: the Conte would be put in the citadel for the rest -of his days." - -At the moment of Fabrizio's arrival, the Duchessa was so beside herself -with joy that she never even thought of the ideas which the look in her -eyes might put into the Conte's head. The effect was profound and the -suspicions it aroused irremediable. - -Fabrizio was received by the Prince two hours after his arrival; the -Duchessa, foreseeing the good effect which this impromptu audience would -have on the public, had been begging for it for the last two months; -this favour put Fabrizio beyond all rivalry from the first; the pretext -for it had been that he would only be passing through Parma on his way -to visit his mother in Piedmont. At the moment when a charming little -note from the Duchessa arrived to inform the Prince that Fabrizio -awaited his orders, the Prince was feeling bored. "I shall see," he said -to himself, "a saintly little simpleton, a mean or a sly face." The Town -Commandant had already reported the newcomer's first visit to the tomb -of his archiépiscopal uncle. The Prince saw enter the room a tall young -man whom, but for his violet stockings, he would have taken for some -young officer. - -This little surprise dispelled his boredom: "Here is a fellow," he said -to himself, "for whom they will be asking me heaven knows what favours, -everything that I have to bestow. He is just come, he probably feels -nervous: I shall give him a little dose of Jacobin politics; we shall -see how he replies." - - - - -_A FIRST AUDIENCE_ - - -After the first gracious words on the Prince's part: - -"Well, _Monsignore_," he said to Fabrizio, "and the people of Naples, are -they happy? Is the King loved?" - -"Serene Highness," Fabrizio replied without a moment's hesitation, "I -used to admire, when they passed me in the street, the excellent bearing -of the troops of the various regiments of His Majesty the King; the -better classes are respectful towards their masters, as they ought to -be; but I must confess that, all my life, I have never allowed the lower -orders to speak to me about anything but the work for which I am paying -them." - -"Plague!" said the Prince, "what a _slyboots_! This is a well-trained -bird, I recognise the Sanseverina touch." Becoming interested, the -Prince employed great skill in leading Fabrizio on to discuss this -scabrous topic. The young man, animated by the danger he was in, was so -fortunate as to hit upon some admirable rejoinders: "It is almost -insolence to boast of one's love for one's King," he said; "it is blind -obedience that one owes to him." At the sight of so much prudence the -Prince almost lost his temper: "Here, it seems, is a man of parts come -among us from Naples, and I don't like _that breed_; a man of parts may -follow the highest principles and even be quite sincere; all the same on -one side or the other he is always first cousin to Voltaire and -Rousseau." - -This Prince felt himself almost defied by such correctness of manner and -such unassailable rejoinders coming from a youth fresh from college; -what he had expected never occurred; in an instant he assumed a tone of -good-fellowship and, reverting in a few words to the basic principles of -society and government, repeated, adapting them to the matter in hand, -certain phrases of Fénelon which he had been made to learn by heart in -his boyhood for use in public audiences. - -"These principles surprise you, young man," he said to Fabrizio (he had -called him _Monsignore_ at the beginning of the audience, and intended -to give him his _Monsignore_ again in dismissing him, but in the course -of the conversation he felt it to be more adroit, better suited to -moving turns of speech, to address him in an informal and friendly -style). "These principles surprise you, young man. I admit that they -bear little resemblance to the _bread and butter absolutism_" (this was -the expression in use) "which you can read every day in my official -newspaper. . . . But, great heavens, what is the good of my quoting that -to you? Those writers in my newspaper must be quite unknown to you." - -"I beg Your Serene Highness's pardon; not only do I read the Parma -newspaper, which seems to me to be very well written, but I hold, -moreover, with it, that everything that has been done since the death of -Louis XIV, in 1715, has been at once criminal and foolish. Man's chief -interest in life is his own salvation, there can be no two ways of -looking at it, and that is a happiness that lasts for eternity. The -words _Liberty_, _Justice_, the _Good of the Greatest Number_, are -infamous and criminal: they form in people's minds the habits of -discussion and want of confidence. A Chamber of Deputies votes _no -confidence_ in what these people call _the Ministry_. This fatal habit -of _want of confidence_ once contracted, human weakness applies it to -everything, man loses confidence in the Bible, the Orders of the Church, -Tradition and everything else; from that moment he is lost. Even upon -the assumption--which is abominably false, and criminal even to -suggest--that this want of confidence in the authority of the Princes by -God _established_ were to secure one's happiness during the twenty or -thirty years of life which any of us may expect to enjoy, what is half a -century, or a whole century even, compared with an eternity of torment?" -And so on. - -One could see, from the way in which Fabrizio spoke, that he was seeking -to arrange his ideas so that they should be grasped as quickly as -possible by his listener; it was clear that he was not simply repeating -a lesson. - -Presently the Prince lost interest in his contest with this young man -whose simple and serious manner had begun to irritate him. - -"Good-bye, _Monsignore_," he said to him abruptly, "I can see that they -provide an excellent education at the Ecclesiastical Academy of Naples, -and it is quite simple when these good precepts fall upon so -distinguished a mind, one secures brilliant results. Good-bye." And he -turned his back on him. - -"I have quite failed to please this animal," thought Fabrizio. - -"And now, it remains to be seen," said the Prince as soon as he was once -more alone, "whether this fine youngman is capable of passion for -anything; in that case, he would be complete. . . . Could anyone repeat -with more spirit the lessons he has learned from his aunt? I felt I -could hear her speaking; should we have a revolution here, it would be -she that would edit the _Monitore_, as the Sanfelice did at Naples! But -the Sanfelice, in spite of her twenty-five summers and her beauty, got a -bit of a hanging all the same! A warning to women with brains." In -supposing Fabrizio to be his aunt's pupil, the Prince was mistaken: -people with brains who are born on the throne or at the foot of it soon -lose all fineness of touch; they proscribe, in their immediate circle, -freedom of conversation which seems to them coarseness; they refuse to -look at anything but masks and pretend to judge the beauty of -complexions; the amusing part of it is that they imagine their touch to -be of the finest. In this case, for instance, Fabrizio believed -practically everything that we have heard him say; it is true that he -did not think twice in a month of these great principles. He had keen -appetites, he had brains, but he had faith. - -The desire for liberty, the fashion and cult of the _greatest good of -the greatest number_, after which the nineteenth century has run mad, -were nothing in his eyes but a heresy which, like other heresies, would -pass away, though not until it had destroyed many souls, as the plague -while it reigns unchecked in a country destroys many bodies. And in -spite of all this Fabrizio read the French, newspapers with keen -enjoyment, even taking rash steps to procure them. - -Fabrizio having returned quite flustered from his audience at the -Palace, and having told his aunt of the various attacks launched at him -by the Prince: - -"You ought," she told him, "to go at once to see Father Landriani, our -excellent Archbishop; go there on foot; climb the staircase quietly, -make as little noise as possible in the ante-rooms; if you are kept -waiting, so much the better, a thousand times better! In a word, be -_apostolic_!" - -"I understand," said Fabrizio, "our man is a Tartuffe." - -"Not the least bit in the world, he is virtue incarnate." - -"Even after the way he behaved," said Fabrizio in some bewilderment, -"when Conte Palanza was executed?" - - - - -_THE ARCHBISHOP_ - - -"Yes, my friend, after the way he behaved: the father of our Archbishop -was a clerk in the Ministry of Finance, a man of humble position, and -that explains everything. Monsignor Landriani is a man of keen, -extensive and deep intelligence; he is sincere, he loves virtue; I am -convinced that if an Emperor Decius were to reappear in the world he -would undergo martyrdom like Polyeuctes in the opera they played last -week. So much for the good side of the medal, now for the reverse: as -soon as he enters the Sovereign's, or even the Prime Minister's -presence, he is dazzled by the sight of such greatness, he becomes -confused, he begins to blush; it is physically impossible for him to say -no. This accounts for the things he has done, things which have won him -that cruel reputation throughout Italy; but what is not generally known -is that, when public opinion had succeeded in enlightening him as to the -trial of Conte Palanza, he set himself the penance of living upon bread -and water for thirteen weeks, the same number of weeks as there are -letters in the name _Davide Palanza_. We have at this court a rascal of -infinite cleverness named _Rassi_, a Chief Justice or Fiscal General, -who at the time of Conte Palanza's death, cast a spell over Father -Landriani. During his thirteen weeks' penance, Conte Mosca, from pity -and also a little out of malice, used to ask him to dinner once and even -twice a week: the good Archbishop, in deference to his host, ate like -everyone else; he would have thought it rebellious and Jacobinical to -make a public display of his penance for an action that had the -Sovereign's approval. But we knew that, for each dinner at which his -duty as a loyal subject had obliged him to eat like everyone else, he -set himself a penance of two days more of bread and water. - -"Monsignor Landriani, a man of superior intellect, a scholar of the -first order, has only one weakness: _he likes to be loved_: therefore, -grow affectionate as you look at him, and, on your third visit, shew -your love for him outright. That, added to your birth, will make him -adore you at once. Show no sign of surprise if he accompanies you to the -head of the staircase, assume an air of being accustomed to such -manners: he is a man who was born on his knees before the nobility. For -the rest, be simple, apostolic, no cleverness, no brilliance, no prompt -repartee; if you do not startle him at all, he will be delighted with -you; do not forget that it must be on his own initiative that he makes -you his Grand Vicar. The Conte and I will be surprised and even annoyed -at so rapid an advancement; that is essential in dealing with the -Sovereign." - -Fabrizio hastened to the Archbishop's Palace: by a singular piece of -good fortune, the worthy prelate's footman, who was slightly deaf, did -not catch the name _del Dongo_; he announced a young priest named -Fabrizio; the Archbishop happened to be closeted with a parish priest of -by no means exemplary morals, for whom he had sent in order to scold -him. He was in the act of delivering a reprimand, a most painful thing -for him, and did not wish to be distressed by it longer than was -necessary; accordingly he kept waiting for three quarters of an hour the -great-nephew of the Archbishop Ascanio del Dongo. - -How are we to depict his apologies and despair when, after having -conducted the priest to the farthest ante-room, and on asking, as he -returned, the man who was waiting _what he could do to serve him_, he -caught sight of the violet stockings and heard the name Fabrizio del -Dongo? This accident seemed to our hero so fortunate that on this first -visit he ventured to kiss the saintly prelate's hand, in a transport of -affection. He was obliged to hear the Archbishop repeat in a tone of -despair: "A del Dongo kept waiting in my ante-room!" The old man felt -obliged, by way of apology, to relate to him the whole story of the -parish priest, his misdeeds, his replies to the charges, and so forth. - -"Is it really possible," Fabrizio asked himself as he made his way back -to the _palazzo_ Sanseverina, "that this is the man who hurried on the -execution of that poor Conte Palanza?" - -"What is Your Excellency's impression?" Conte Mosca, inquired with a -smile, as he saw him enter the Duchessa's drawing-room. (The Conte would -not allow Fabrizio to address him as Excellency.) - -"I have fallen from the clouds; I know nothing at all about human -nature: I would have wagered, had I not known his name, that man -could not bear to see a chicken bleed." - -"And you would have won your wager," replied the Conte; "but when he is -with the Prince, or merely with myself, he cannot say no. To be quite -honest, in order for me to create my full effect, I have to slip the -yellow riband of my Grand Cordon over my coat; in plain evening dress he -would contradict me, and so I always put on a uniform to receive him. It -is not for us to destroy the prestige of power, the French newspapers -are demolishing it quite fast enough; it is doubtful whether the _mania -of respect_ will last out our time, and you, my dear nephew, will -outlive respect altogether. You will be simply a fellow-man!" - -Fabrizio delighted greatly in the Conte's society; he was the first -superior person who had condescended to talk to him frankly, without -make-believe; moreover they had a taste in common, that for antiquities -and excavations. The Conte, for his part, was flattered by the extreme -attention with which the young man listened to him; but there was one -paramount objection: Fabrizio occupied a set of rooms in the _palazzo_ -Sanseverina, spent his whole time with the Duchessa, let it be seen in -all innocence that this intimacy constituted his happiness in life, and -Fabrizio had eyes and a complexion of a freshness that drove the older -man to despair. - -For a long time past Ranuccio-Ernesto IV, who rarely encountered a cruel -fair, had felt it to be an affront that the Duchessa's virtue, which was -well known at court, had not made an exception in his favour. As we have -seen, the mind and the presence of mind of Fabrizio had shocked him at -their first encounter. He took amiss the extreme friendship which -Fabrizio and his aunt heedlessly displayed in public; he gave ear with -the closest attention to the remarks of his courtiers, which were -endless. The arrival of this young man and the unprecedented audience -which he had obtained provided the court with news and a sensation for -the next month; which gave the Prince an idea. - -He had in his guard a private soldier who carried his wine in the most -admirable way; this man spent his time in the _trattorie_, and reported -the spirit of the troops directly to his Sovereign. Carlone lacked -education, otherwise he would long since have obtained promotion. Well, -his duty was to be in the Palace every day when the strokes of twelve -sounded on the great clock. The Prince went in person a little before -noon to arrange in a certain way the shutters of a _mezzanino_ -communicating with the room in which His Highness dressed. He returned -to this _mezzanino_ shortly after twelve had struck, and there found the -soldier; the Prince had in his pocket writing materials and a sheet of -paper; he dictated to the soldier the following letter: - -"Your Excellency has great intelligence, doubtless, and it is thanks to -his profound sagacity that we see this State so well governed. But, my -dear Conte, such great success never comes unaccompanied by a little -envy, and I am seriously afraid that people will be laughing a little at -your expense if your sagacity does not discern that a certain handsome -young man has had the good fortune to inspire, unintentionally it may -be, a passion of the most singular order. This happy mortal is, they -say, only twenty-three years old, and, dear Conte, what complicates the -question is that you and I are considerably more than twice that age. In -the evening, at a certain distance, the Conte is charming, -scintillating, a wit, as attractive as possible; but in the morning, in -an intimate scene, all things considered, the newcomer has perhaps -greater attractions. Well, we poor women, we make a great point of this -youthful freshness, especially when we have ourselves passed thirty. Is -there not some talk already of settling this charming youth at our -court, in some fine post? And if so, who is the person who speaks of it -most frequently to Your Excellency?" - - - - -_A LETTER_ - - -The Prince took the letter and gave the soldier two scudi. - -"This is in addition to your pay," he said in a grim tone. "Not a single -word of this to anyone, or you will find yourself in the dampest dungeon -in the citadel." The Prince had in his desk a collection of envelopes -bearing the addresses of most of the persons at his court, in the -handwriting of this same soldier who was understood to be illiterate, -and never even wrote out his own police reports: the Prince picked out -the one he required. - -A few hours later, Conte Mosca received a letter by post; the hour of -its delivery had been calculated, and just as the postman, who had been -seen going in with a small envelope in his hand, came out of the -ministerial palace, Mosca was summoned to His Highness. Never had the -favourite appeared to be in the grip of a blacker melancholy: to enjoy -this at his leisure, the Prince called out to him, as he saw him come -in: - -"I want to amuse myself by talking casually to my friend and not working -with my Minister. I have a maddening headache this evening, and all -sorts of gloomy thoughts keep coming into my mind." - -I need hardly mention the abominable ill-humour which agitated the Prime -Minister, Conte Mosca della Rovere, when at length he was permitted to -take leave of his august master. Ranuccio-Ernesto IV was a past-master -in the art of torturing a heart, and it would not be unfair at this -point to make the comparison of the tiger which loves to play with its -victim. - -The Conte made his coachman drive him home at a gallop; he called out as -he crossed the threshold that not a living soul was to be allowed -upstairs, sent word to the _auditor_ on duty that he might take himself -off (the knowledge that there was a human being within earshot was -hateful to him), and hastened to shut himself up in the great picture -gallery. There at length he could give full vent to his fury; there he -spent an hour without lights, wandering about the room like a man out of -his mind. He sought to impose silence on his heart, to concentrate all -the force of his attention upon deliberating what action he ought to -take. Plunged in an anguish that would have moved to pity his most -implacable enemy, he said to himself: "The man I abhor is living in the -Duchessa's house; he spends every hour of the day with her. Ought I to -try to make one of her women speak? Nothing could be more dangerous; she -is so good to them; she pays them well; she is adored by them (and by -whom, great God, is she not adored?)! The question is," he continued, -raging: "Ought I to let her detect the jealousy that is devouring me, or -not to speak of it? - -"If I remain silent, she will make no attempt to keep anything from me. -I know Gina, she is a woman who acts always on the first impulse; her -conduct is incalculable, even by herself; if she tries to plan out a -course in advance, she goes all wrong; invariably, when it is time for -action, a new idea comes into her head which she follows rapturously as -though it were the most wonderful thing in the world, and upsets -everything. - -"If I make no mention of my suffering, nothing will be kept back from -me, and I shall see all that goes on. . . . - - - - -_NIGHT THOUGHTS_ - - -"Yes, but by speaking I bring about a change of circumstances: I make -her reflect; I give her fair warning of all the horrible things that may -happen. . . . Perhaps she will send him away" (the Conte breathed a sigh -of relief), "then I shall practically have won; even allowing her to be -a little out of temper for the moment, I shall soothe her . . . and a -little ill-temper, what could be more natural? . . . she has loved him -like a son for fifteen years. There lies all my hope: _like a son_ . . . -but she had ceased to see him after his dash to Waterloo; now, on his -return from Naples, especially for her, he is a different man. _A -different man!_" he repeated with fury, "and that man is charming; he -has, apart from everything else, that simple and tender air and that -smiling eye which hold out such a promise of happiness! And those -eyes--the Duchessa cannot be accustomed to see eyes like those at this -court! . . . Our substitute for them is a gloomy or sardonic stare. I -myself, pursued everywhere by official business, governing only by my -influence over a man who would like to turn me to ridicule, what a look -there must often be in mine! Ah! whatever pains I may take to conceal -it, it is in my eyes that age will always shew. My gaiety, does it not -always border upon irony? . . . I will go farther, I must be sincere -with myself; does not my gaiety allow a glimpse to be caught, as of -something quite close to it, of absolute power . . . and -irresponsibility? Do I not sometimes say to myself, especially when -people irritate me: 'I can do what I like!' and indeed go on to say what -is foolish: 'I ought to be happier than other men, since I possess what -others have not, sovereign power in three things out of four . . .?' -Very well, let us be just! The habit of thinking thus must affect my -smile, must give me a selfish, satisfied air. And, how charming his -smile is! It breathes the easy happiness of extreme youth, and engenders -it." - -Unfortunately for the Conte, the weather that evening was hot, stifling, -with the threat of a storm in the air; the sort of weather, in short, -that in those parts carries people to extremes. How am I to find space -for all the arguments, all the ways of looking at what was happening to -him which, for three mortal hours on end, kept this impassioned man in -torment? At length the side of prudence prevailed, solely as a result of -this reflexion: "I am in all probability mad; when I think I am -reasoning, I am not, I am simply turning about in search of a less -painful position, I pass by without seeing it some decisive argument. -Since I am blinded by excessive grief, let us obey the rule, approved by -every sensible man, which is called _Prudence_. - -"Besides, once I have uttered the fatal word _jealousy_, my course is -traced for me for ever. If on the contrary I say nothing to-day, I can -speak to-morrow, I remain master of the situation." The crisis was too -acute; the Conte would have gone mad had it continued. He was comforted -for a few moments, his attention came to rest on the anonymous letter. -From whose hand could it have come? There followed then a search for -possible names, and a personal judgment of each, which created a -diversion. In the end, the Conte remembered a gleam of malice that had -darted from the eyes of the Sovereign, when it had occurred to him to -say, towards the end of the audience: "Yes, dear friend, let us be -agreed on this point: the pleasures and cares of the most amply rewarded -ambition, even of unbounded power, are as nothing compared with the -intimate happiness that is afforded by relations of affection and love. -I am a man first, and a Prince afterwards, and, when I have the good -fortune to be in love, my mistress speaks to the man and not to the -Prince." The Conte compared that moment of malicious joy with the phrase -in the letter; "It is thanks to your profound sagacity that we see this -State so well governed." "Those are the Prince's words!" he exclaimed, -"in a courtier they would be a gratuitous piece of imprudence; the -letter comes from His Highness." - -This problem solved, the faint joy caused by the pleasure of guessing -the solution was soon effaced by the cruel spectre of the charming -graces of Fabrizio, which returned afresh. It was like an enormous -weight that fell back on the heart of the unhappy man. "What does it -matter from whom the anonymous letter comes?" he cried with fury, "does -the fact that it discloses to me exist any the less? This caprice may -alter my whole life," he said, as though to excuse himself for being so -mad. "At the first moment, if she cares for him in a certain way, she -will set off with him for Belgirate, for Switzerland, for the ends of -the earth. She is rich, and besides, even if she had to live on a few -louis a year, what would that matter to her? Did she not admit to me, -not a week ago, that her _palazzo_, so well arranged, so magnificent, -bored her? Novelty is essential to so youthful a spirit! And with what -simplicity does this new form of happiness offer itself! She will be -carried away before she has begun to think of the danger, before she has -begun to think of being sorry for me! And yet I am so wretched!" cried -the Conte, bursting into tears. - -He had sworn to himself that he would not go to the Duchessa's that -evening; never had his eyes thirsted so to gaze on her. At midnight he -presented himself at her door; he found her alone with her nephew; at -ten o'clock she had sent all her guests away and had closed her door. - -At the sight of the tender intimacy that prevailed between these two -creatures, and of the Duchessa's artless joy, a frightful difficulty -arose before the eyes of the Conte, and one that was quite unforeseen. -He had never thought of it during his long deliberation in the picture -gallery: how was he to conceal his jealousy? - -Not knowing what pretext to adopt, he pretended that he had found the -Prince that evening excessively ill-disposed towards him, contradicting -all his assertions, and so forth. He had the distress of seeing the -Duchessa barely listen to him, and pay no attention to these details -which, forty-eight hours earlier, would have plunged her in an endless -stream of discussion. The Conte looked at Fabrizio: never had that -handsome Lombard face appeared to him so simple and so noble! Fabrizio -paid more attention than the Duchessa to the difficulties which he was -relating. - -"Really," he said to himself, "that head combines extreme good-nature -with the expression of a certain artless and tender joy which is -irresistible. It seems to be saying: 'Love and the happiness it brings -are the only serious things in this world.' And yet, when one comes to -some detail which requires thought, the light wakes in his eyes and -surprises one, and one is left dumbfoundered. - -"Everything is simple in his eyes, because everything is seen from -above. Great God! how is one to fight against an enemy like this? And -after all, what is life without Gina's love? With what rapture she seems -to be listening to the charming sallies of that mind, which is so boyish -and must, to a woman, seem without a counterpart in the world!" - -An atrocious thought gripped the Conte like a sudden cramp. "Shall I -stab him here, before her face, and then kill myself?" - -He took a turn through the room, his legs barely supporting him, but his -hand convulsively gripping the hilt of his dagger. Neither of the others -paid any attention to what he might be doing. He announced that he was -going to give an order to his servant; they did not even hear him; the -Duchessa was laughing tenderly at something Fabrizio had just said to -her. The Conte went up to a lamp in the outer room, and looked to see -whether the point of his dagger was well sharpened. "One must behave -graciously, and with perfect manners to this young man," he said to -himself as he returned to the other room and went up to them. - -He became quite mad; it seemed to him that, as they leaned their heads -together, they were kissing each other, there, before his eyes. "That is -impossible in my presence," he told himself; "my wits have gone astray. -I must calm myself; if I behave rudely, the Duchessa is quite capable, -simply out of injured vanity, of following him to Belgirate; and there, -or on the way there, a chance word may be spoken which will give a name -to what they now feel for one another; and after that, in a moment, all -the consequences. - - - - -_CECCHINA_ - - -"Solitude will render that word decisive, and besides, once the Duchessa -has left my side, what is to become of me? And if, after overcoming -endless difficulties on the Prince's part, I go and shew my old and -anxious face at Belgirate, what part shall I play before these people -both mad with happiness? - -"Here even what else am I than the _terzo incomodo_?" (That beautiful -Italian language is simply made for love: _Terzo incomodo_, a third -person when two are company.) What misery for a man of spirit to feel -that he is playing that execrable part, and not to be able to muster the -strength to get up and leave the room! - -The Conte was on the point of breaking out, or at least of betraying his -anguish by the discomposure of his features. When in one of his circuits -of the room he found himself near the door, he took his flight, calling -out, in a genial, intimate tone: "Good-bye, you two!-- One must avoid -bloodshed," he said to himself. - -The day following this horrible evening, after a night spent half in -compiling a detailed sum of Fabrizio's advantages, half in the frightful -transports of the most cruel jealousy, it occurred to the Conte that he -might send for a young servant of his own; this man was keeping company -with a girl named Cecchina, one of the Duchessa's personal maids, and -her favourite. As good luck would have it, this young man was very sober -in his habits, indeed miserly, and was anxious to find a place as porter -in one of the public _institutions_ of Parma. The Conte ordered the man to -fetch Cecchina, his mistress, instantly. The man obeyed, and an hour -later the Conte appeared suddenly in the room where the girl was waiting -with her lover. The Conte frightened them both by the amount of gold -that he gave them, then he addressed these few words to the trembling -Cecchina, looking her straight in the face: - -"Is the Duchessa in love with Monsignore?" - -"No," said the girl, gaining courage to speak after a moment's silence. -. . . "No, _not yet_, but he often kisses the Signora's hands, laughing, -it is true, but with real feeling." - -This evidence was completed by a hundred answers to as many furious -questions from the Conte; his uneasy passion made the poor couple earn -in full measure the money that he had flung them: he ended by believing -what they told him, and was less unhappy. "If the Duchessa ever has the -slightest suspicion of what we have been saying," he told Cecchina, "I -shall send your lover to spend twenty years in the fortress, and when -you see him again his hair will be quite white." - -Some days elapsed, during which Fabrizio in turn lost all his gaiety. - -"I assure you," he said to the Duchessa, "that Conte Mosca feels an -antipathy for me." - -"So much the worse for His Excellency," she replied with a trace of -temper. - -This was by no means the true cause of the uneasiness which had made -Fabrizio's gaiety vanish. "The position in which chance has placed me is -not tenable," he told himself. "I am quite sure that she will never say -anything, she would be as much horrified by a too significant word as by -an incestuous act. But if, one evening, after a rash and foolish day, -she should come to examine her conscience, if she believes that I may -have guessed the feeling that she seems to have formed for me, what part -should I then play in her eyes? Nothing more nor less than the _casto -Giuseppe_!" (An Italian expression alluding to the ridiculous part -played by Joseph with the wife of the eunuch Potiphar.) - - - - -_UNCERTAINTIES_ - - -"Should I give her to understand by a fine burst of confidence that I am -not capable of serious affection? I have not the necessary strength of -mind to announce such a fact so that it shall not be as like as two peas -to a gross impertinence. The sole resource left to me is a great passion -left behind at Naples; in that case, I should return there for -twenty-four hours: such a course is wise, but is it really worth the -trouble? There remains a minor affair with some one of humble rank at -Parma, which might annoy her; but anything is preferable to the -appalling position of a man who will not see the truth. This course may, -it is true, prejudice my future; I should have, by the exercise of -prudence and the purchase of discretion, to minimise the danger." What -was so cruel an element among all these thoughts was that really -Fabrizio loved the Duchessa far above anyone else in the world. "I must -be very clumsy," he told himself angrily, "to have such misgivings as to -my ability to persuade her of what is so glaringly true!" Lacking the -skill to extricate himself from this position, he grew sombre and sad. -"What would become of me, Great God, if I quarrelled with the one person -in the world for whom I feel a passionate attachment?" From another -point of view, Fabrizio could not bring himself to spoil so delicious a -happiness by an indiscreet word. His position abounded so in charm! The -intimate friendship of so beautiful and attractive a woman was so -pleasant! Under the most commonplace relations of life, her protection -gave him so agreeable a position at this court, the great intrigues of -which, thanks to her who explained them to him, were as amusing as a -play! "But at any moment I may be awakened by a thunderbolt," he said to -himself. "These gay, these tender evenings, passed almost in privacy -with so thrilling a woman, if they lead to something better, she will -expect to find in me a lover; she will call on me for frenzied raptures, -for acts of folly, and I shall never have anything more to offer her -than friendship, of the warmest kind, but without love; nature has not -endowed me with that sort of sublime folly. What reproaches have I not -had to bear on that account! I can still hear the Duchessa d'A---- -speaking, and I used to laugh at the Duchessa! She will think that I am -wanting in love for her, whereas it is love that is wanting in me; never -will she make herself understand me. Often after some story about the -court, told by her with that grace, that abandonment which she alone in -the world possesses, and which is a necessary part of my education -besides, I kiss her hand and sometimes her cheek. What is to happen if -that hand presses mine in a certain fashion?" - -Fabrizio put in an appearance every day in the most respectable and -least amusing drawing-rooms in Parma. Guided by the able advice of the -Duchessa, he paid a sagacious court to the two Princes, father and son, -to the Princess Clara-Paolina and Monsignore the Archbishop. He met with -successes, but these did not in the least console him for his mortal -fear of falling out with the Duchessa. - - - - -CHAPTER EIGHT - - -So, less than a month after his arrival at court, Fabrizio had tasted -all the sorrows of a courtier, and the intimate friendship which -constituted the happiness of his life was poisoned. One evening, -tormented by these thoughts, he left that drawing-room of the Duchessa -in which he had too much of the air of a reigning lover; wandering at -random through the town, he came opposite the theatre, in which he saw -lights; he went in. It was a gratuitous imprudence in a man of his cloth -and one that he had indeed vowed that he would avoid in Parma, which, -after all, is only a small town of forty thousand inhabitants. It is -true that after the first few days he had got rid of his official -costume; in the evenings, when he was not going into the very highest -society, he used simply to dress in black like a layman in mourning. - -At the theatre he took a box on the third tier, so as not to be noticed; -the play was Goldoni's _La Locanderia_. He examined the architecture of -the building, scarcely did he turn his eyes to the stage. But the -crowded audience kept bursting into laughter at every moment; Fabrizio -gave a glance at the young actress who was playing the part of the -landlady, and found her amusing. He looked at her more closely; she -seemed to him quite attractive, and, above all, perfectly natural; she -was a simple-minded young girl who was the first to laugh at the witty -lines Goldoni had put into her mouth, lines which she appeared to be -quite surprised to be uttering. He asked what her name was, and was -told: "Marietta Valserra." - -"Ah!" he thought; "she has taken my name; that is odd." In spite of his -intentions he did not leave the theatre until the end of the piece. The -following evening he returned; three days later he knew Marietta -Valserra's address. - -On the evening of the day on which, with a certain amount of trouble, he -had procured this address, he noticed that the Conte was looking at him -in the most friendly way. The poor jealous lover, who had all the -trouble in the world in keeping within the bounds of prudence, had set -spies on the young man's track, and this theatrical escapade pleased -him. How are we to depict the Conte's joy when, on the day following -that on which he had managed to bring himself to look amicably at -Fabrizio, he learned that the latter, in the partial disguise, it must -be admitted, of a long blue frock-coat, had climbed to the wretched -apartment which Marietta Valserra occupied on the fourth floor of an old -house behind the theatre? His joy was doubled when he heard that -Fabrizio had presented himself under a false name, and had had the -honour to arouse the jealousy of a scapegrace named Giletti, who in town -played Third Servant, and in the villages danced on the tight rope. This -noble lover of Marietta cursed Fabrizio most volubly and expressed a -desire to kill him. - - - - -_THE PHANTOM HARLEQUIN_ - - -Opera companies are formed by an _impresario_ who engages in different -places the artists whom he can afford to pay or has found unemployed, -and the company collected at random remains together for one season or -two at most. It is not so with _comedy companies_; while passing from -town to town and changing their address every two or three months, they -nevertheless form a family of which all the members love or loathe one -another. There are in these companies united couples whom the _beaux_ of -the towns in which the actors appear find it sometimes exceedingly -difficult to sunder. This is precisely what happened to our hero. Little -Marietta liked him well enough, but was horribly afraid of Giletti, who -claimed to be her sole lord and master and kept a close watch over her. -He protested everywhere that he would kill the _Monsignore_, for he had -followed Fabrizio, and had succeeded in discovering his name. This -Giletti was quite the ugliest creature imaginable and the least fitted -to be a lover: tall out of all proportion, he was horribly thin, -strongly pitted by smallpox, and inclined to squint. In addition, being -endowed with all the graces of his profession, he was continually coming -into the wings where his fellow-actors were assembled, turning -cartwheels on his feet and hands or practising some other pretty trick. -He triumphed in those parts in which the actor has to appear with his -face whitened with flour and to give or receive a countless number of -blows with a cudgel. This worthy rival of Fabrizio drew a monthly salary -of 32 francs, and thought himself extremely well off. - -Conte Mosca felt himself drawn up from the gate of the tomb when his -watchers gave him the full authority for all these details. His kindly -nature reappeared; he seemed more gay and better company than ever in -the Duchessa's drawing-room, and took good care to say nothing to her of -the little adventure which had restored him to life. He even took steps -to ensure that she should be informed of everything that occurred with -the greatest possible delay. Finally he had the courage to listen to the -voice of reason, which had been crying to him in vain for the last month -that, whenever a lover's lustre begins to fade, it is time for that -lover to travel. - -Urgent business summoned him to Bologna, and twice a day cabinet -messengers brought him not so much the official papers of his -departments as the latest news of the love affairs of little Marietta, -the rage of the terrible Giletti and the enterprises of Fabrizio. - -One of the Conte's agents asked several times for _Arlecchino fantasma e -pasticcio_, one of Giletti's triumphs (he emerges from the pie at the -moment when his rival Brighella is sticking the knife into it, and gives -him a drubbing); this was an excuse for making him earn 100 francs. -Giletti, who was riddled with debts, took care not to speak of this -windfall, but became astonishing in his arrogance. - -Fabrizio's whim changed to a wounded pride (at his age, his anxieties -had already reduced him to the state of having whims!). Vanity led him -to the theatre; the little girl acted in the most sprightly fashion and -amused him; on leaving the theatre, he was in love for an hour. The -Conte returned to Parma on receiving the news that Fabrizio was in real -danger; Giletti, who had served as a trooper in that fine regiment the -Dragoni Napoleone, spoke seriously of killing him, and was making -arrangements for a subsequent flight to Romagna. If the reader is very -young, he will be scandalised by our admiration for this fine mark of -virtue. It was, however, no slight act of heroism on the part of Conte -Mosca, his return from Bologna; for, after all, frequently in the -morning he presented a worn appearance, and Fabrizio was always so -fresh, so serene! Who would ever have dreamed of reproaching him with -the death of Fabrizio, occurring in his absence and from so stupid a -cause? But his was one of those rare spirits which make an everlasting -remorse out of a generous action which they might have done and did not -do; besides, he could not bear the thought of seeing the Duchessa look -sad, and by any fault of his. - -He found her, on his arrival, taciturn and gloomy. This is what had -occurred: the little lady's maid, Cecchina, tormented by remorse and -estimating the importance of her crime by the immensity of the sum that -she had received for committing it, had fallen ill. One evening the -Duchessa, who was devoted to her, went up to her room. The girl could -not hold out against this mark of kindness; she dissolved in tears, was -for handing over to her mistress all that she still possessed of the -money she had received, and finally had the courage to confess to her -the questions asked by the Conte and her own replies to them. The -Duchessa ran to the lamp which she blew out, then said to little -Cecchina that she forgave her, but on condition that she never uttered a -word about this strange episode to anyone in the world. "The poor -Conte," she added in a careless tone, "is afraid of being laughed at; -all men are like that." - - - - -_REMORSE_ - - -The Duchessa hastened downstairs to her own apartments. No sooner had -she shut the door of her bedroom than she burst into tears; there seemed -to her something horrible in the idea of her making love to Fabrizio -whom she had seen brought into the world; and yet what else could her -behaviour imply? - -This had been the primary cause of the black melancholy in which the -Conte found her plunged; on his arrival she suffered fits of impatience -with him, and almost with Fabrizio; she would have liked never to set -eyes on either of them again; she was contemptuous of the part, -ridiculous in her eyes, which Fabrizio was playing with the little -Marietta; for the Conte had told her everything, like a true lover, -incapable of keeping a secret. She could not grow used to this disaster; -her idol had a fault; finally, in a moment of frank friendship, she -asked the Conte's advice; this was for him a delicious instant, and a -fine reward for the honourable impulse which had made him return to -Parma. - -"What could be more simple?" said the Conte, smiling. "Young men want to -have every woman they see, and next day they do not give her a thought. -Ought he not to be going to Belgirate, to see the Marchesa del Dongo? -Very well, let him go. During his absence, I shall request the company -of comedians to take their talents elsewhere, I shall pay their -travelling expenses; but presently we shall see him in love with the -first pretty woman that may happen to come his way: it is in the nature -of things, and I should not care to see him act otherwise. . . . If -necessary, get the Marchesa to write to him." - -This suggestion, offered with the air of a complete indifference, came -as a ray of light to the Duchessa; she was frightened of Giletti. That -evening, the Conte announced, as though by chance, that one of his -couriers, on his way to Vienna, would be passing through Milan; three -days later Fabrizio received a letter from his mother. He seemed greatly -annoyed at not having yet been able, thanks to Giletti's jealousy, to -profit by the excellent intentions, assurance of which little Marietta -had conveyed to him through a _mammaccia_, an old woman who acted as her -mother. - -Fabrizio found his mother and one of his sisters at Belgirate, a large -village in Piedmont, on the right shore of Lake Maggiore; the left shore -belongs to the Milanese, and consequently to Austria. This lake, -parallel to the Lake of Como, and also running from north to south, is -situated some ten leagues farther to the west. The mountain air, the -majestic and tranquil aspect of this superb lake which recalled to him -that other on the shores of which he had spent his childhood, all helped -to transform into a tender melancholy Fabrizio's grief, which was akin -to anger. It was with an infinite tenderness that the memory of the -Duchessa now presented itself to him; he felt that in separation he was -acquiring for her that love which he had never felt for any woman; -nothing would have been more painful to him than to be separated from -her for ever, and, he being in this frame of mind, if the Duchessa had -deigned to have recourse to the slightest coquetry, she could have -conquered this heart by--for instance--presenting it with a rival. But, -far from taking any so decisive a step, it was not without the keenest -self-reproach that she found her thoughts constantly following in the -young traveller's footsteps. She reproached herself for what she still -called a fancy, as though it had been something horrible; she redoubled -her forethought for and attention to the Conte, who, captivated by such -a display of charm, paid no heed to the sane voice of reason which was -prescribing a second visit to Bologna. - - - - -_LAKE MAGGIORE_ - - -The Marchesa del Dongo, busy with preparations for the wedding of her -elder daughter, whom she was marrying to a Milanese Duca, could give -only three days to her beloved son; never had she found in him so tender -an affection. Through the cloud of melancholy that was more and more -closely enwrapping Fabrizio's heart, an odd and indeed ridiculous idea -had presented itself, and he had suddenly decided to adopt it. Dare we -say that he wished to consult Priore Blanès? That excellent old man was -totally incapable of understanding the sorrows of a heart torn asunder -by boyish passions more or less equal in strength; besides, it would -have taken a week to make him gather even a faint impression of all the -conflicting interests that Fabrizio had to consider at Parma; but in the -thought of consulting him Fabrizio recaptured the freshness of his -sensations at the age of sixteen. Will it be believed? It was not simply -as to a man full of wisdom, to an old and devoted friend, that Fabrizio -wished to speak to him; the object of this expedition, and the feelings -that agitated our hero during the fifty hours that it lasted are so -absurd that doubtless, in the interests of our narrative, it would have -been better to suppress them. I am afraid that Fabrizio's credulity may -make him forfeit the sympathy of the reader; but after all thus it was; -why flatter him more than another? I have not flattered Conte Mosca, nor -the Prince. - -Fabrizio, then, since the whole truth must be told, Fabrizio escorted -his mother as far as the port of Laveno, on the left shore of Lake -Maggiore, the Austrian shore, where she landed about eight o'clock in -the evening. (The lake is regarded as neutral territory, and no passport -is required of those who do not set foot on shore.) But scarcely had -night fallen when he had himself ferried to this same Austrian shore, -and landed in a little wood which juts out into the water. He had hired -a _sediola_, a sort of rustic and fast-moving tilbury, by means of which -he was able, at a distance of five hundred yards, to keep up with his -mother's carriage; he was disguised as a servant of the _casa_ del Dongo, -and none of the many police or customs officials ever thought of asking -him for his passport. A quarter of a league before Como, where the -Marchesa and her daughter were to stop for the night, he took a path to -the left which, making a circuit of the village of Vico, afterwards -joined a little road recently made along the extreme edge of the lake. -It was midnight, and Fabrizio could count upon not meeting any of the -police. The trees of the various thickets into which the little road -kept continually diving traced the black outline of their foliage -against a sky bright with stars but veiled by a slight mist. Water and -sky were of a profound tranquillity. Fabrizio's soul could not resist -this sublime beauty; he stopped, then sat down on a rock which ran out -into the lake, forming almost a little promontory. The universal silence -was disturbed only, at regular intervals, by the faint ripple of the -lake as it lapped on the shore. Fabrizio had an Italian heart; I crave -the reader's pardon for him: this defect, which will render him less -attractive, consisted mainly in this: he had no vanity, save by fits and -starts, and the mere sight of sublime beauty melted him to a tender mood -and took from his sorrows their hard and bitter edge. Seated on his -isolated rock, having no longer any need to be on his guard against the -police, protected by the profound night and the vast silence, gentle -tears moistened his eyes, and he found there, with little or no effort, -the happiest moments that he had tasted for many a day. - - - - -_A NIGHT SCENE_ - - -He resolved never to tell the Duchessa any falsehood, and it was because -he loved her to adoration at that moment that he vowed to himself never -to say to her _that he loved her_; never would he utter in her hearing -the word love, since the passion which bears that name was a stranger to -his heart. In the enthusiasm of generosity and virtue which formed his -happiness at that moment, he made the resolution to tell her, at the -first opportunity, everything: his heart had never known love. Once this -courageous plan had been definitely adopted, he felt himself delivered -of an enormous burden. "She will perhaps have something to say to me -about Marietta; very well, I shall never see my little Marietta again," -he assured himself blithely. - -The overpowering heat which had prevailed throughout the day was -beginning to be tempered by the morning breeze. Already dawn was -outlining in a faint white glimmer the Alpine peaks that rise to the -north and east of Lake Como. Their massive shapes, bleached by their -covering of snow, even in the month of June, stand out against the -pellucid azure of a sky which at those immense altitudes is always pure. -A spur of the Alps stretching southwards into smiling Italy separates -the sloping shores of Lake Como from those of the Lake of Garda. -Fabrizio followed with his eye all the branches of these sublime -mountains, the dawn as it grew brighter came to mark the valleys that -divide them, gilding the faint mist which rose from the gorges beneath. - -Some minutes since Fabrizio had taken the road again; he passed the hill -that forms the peninsula of Durini, and at length there met his gaze -that _campanile_ of the village of Grianta in which he had so often made -observations of the stars with Priore Blanès. "What bounds were there -to my ignorance in those days? I could not understand," he reminded -himself, "even the ridiculous Latin of those treatises on astrology -which my master used to pore over, and I think I respected them chiefly -because, understanding only a few words here and there, my imagination -stepped in to give them a meaning, and the most romantic sense -imaginable." - -Gradually his thoughts entered another channel. "May not there be -something genuine in this science? Why should it be different from the -rest? A certain number of imbeciles and quick-witted persons agree among -themselves that they know (shall we say) _Mexican_; they impose -themselves with this qualification upon society which respects them and -governments which pay them. Favours are showered upon them precisely -because they have no real intelligence, and authority need not fear -their raising the populace and creating an atmosphere of rant by the aid -of generous sentiments! For instance, Father Bari, to whom Ernesto IV -has just awarded a pension of 4,000 francs and the Cross of his Order -for having restored nineteen lines of a Greek dithyramb! - -"But, Great God, have I indeed the right to find such things ridiculous? -Is it for me to complain," he asked himself, suddenly, stopping short in -the road, "has not that same Cross just been given to my governor at -Naples?" Fabrizio was conscious of a feeling of intense disgust; the -fine enthusiasm for virtue which had just been making his heart beat -high changed into the vile pleasure of having a good share in the spoils -of a robbery. "After all," he said to himself at length, with the -lustreless eyes of a man who is dissatisfied with himself, "since my -birth gives me the right to profit by these abuses, it would be a signal -piece of folly on my part not to take my share, but I must never let -myself denounce them in public." This reasoning was by no means unsound; -but Fabrizio had fallen a long way from that elevation of sublime -happiness to which he had found himself transported an hour earlier. The -thought of privilege had withered that plant, always so delicate, which -we name happiness. - - - - -_PRIVILEGE_ - - -"If we are not to believe in astrology," he went on, seeking to calm -himself; "if this science is, like three quarters of the sciences that -are not mathematical, a collection of enthusiastic simpletons and adroit -hypocrites paid by the masters they serve, how does it come about that -I think so often and with emotion of this fatal circumstance: I did make -my escape from the prison at B----, but in the uniform and with the -marching orders of a soldier who had been flung into prison with good -cause?" - -Fabrizio's reasoning could never succeed in penetrating farther; he went -a hundred ways round the difficulty without managing to surmount it. He -was too young still; in his moments of leisure, his mind devoted itself -with rapture to enjoying the sensations produced by the romantic -circumstances with which his imagination was always ready to supply him. -He was far from employing his time in studying with patience the actual -details of things in order to discover their causes. Reality still -seemed to him flat and muddy; I can understand a person's not caring to -look at it, but then he ought not to argue about it. Above all, he ought -not to fashion objections out of the scattered fragments of his -ignorance. - -Thus it was that, though not lacking in brains, Fabrizio could not -manage to see that his half-belief in omens was for him a religion, a -profound impression received at his entering upon life. To think of this -belief was to feel, it was a happiness. And he set himself resolutely to -discover how this could be a _proved_, a real science, in the same -category as geometry, for example. He searched his memory strenuously -for all the instances in which omens observed by him had not been -followed by the auspicious or inauspicious events which they seemed to -herald. But all this time, while he believed himself to be following a -line of reasoning and marching towards the truth, his attention kept -coming joyfully to rest on the memory of the occasions on which the -foreboding had been amply followed by the happy or unhappy accident -which it had seemed to him to predict, and his heart was filled with -respect and melted; and he would have felt an invincible repugnance for -the person who denied the value of omens, especially if in doing so he -had had recourse to irony. - -Fabrizio walked on without noticing the distance he was covering, and -had reached this point in his vain reasonings when, raising his head, he -saw the wall of his father's garden. This wall, which supported a fine -terrace, rose to a height of more than forty feet above the road, on its -right. A cornice of wrought stone along the highest part, next to the -balustrade, gave it a monumental air. "It is not bad," Fabrizio said to -himself dispassionately, "it is good architecture, a little in the Roman -style"; he applied to it his recently acquired knowledge of antiquities. -Then he turned his head away in disgust; his father's severities, and -especially the denunciation of himself by his brother Ascanio on his -return from his wanderings in France, came back to his mind. - -"That unnatural denunciation was the origin of my present existence; I -may detest, I may despise it; when all is said and done, it has altered -my destiny. What would have become of me once I had been packed off to -Novara, and my presence barely tolerated in the house of my father's -agent, if my aunt had not made love to a powerful Minister? If the said -aunt had happened to possess merely a dry, conventional heart instead of -that tender and passionate heart which loves me with a sort of -enthusiasm that astonishes me? Where should I be now if the Duchessa had -had the heart of her brother the Marchese del Dongo?" - - - - -_PRIORE BLANÈS_ - - -Oppressed by these cruel memories, Fabrizio began now to walk with an -uncertain step; he came to the edge of the moat immediately opposite the -magnificent façade of the castle. Scarcely did he cast a glance at that -great building, blackened by time. The noble language of architecture -left him unmoved, the memory of his brother and father stopped his heart -to every sensation of beauty, he was attentive only to the necessity of -keeping on his guard in the presence of hypocritical and dangerous -enemies. He looked for an instant, but with a marked disgust, at the -little window of the bedroom which he had occupied until 1815 on the -third storey. His father's character had robbed of all charm the memory -of his early childhood. "I have not set foot in it," he thought, "since -the 7th of March, at eight o'clock in the evening. I left it to go and -get the passport from Vasi, and next morning my fear of spies made me -hasten my departure. When I passed through again after my visit to -France, I had not time to go upstairs, even to look at my prints again, -and that thanks to my brother's denouncing me." - -Fabrizio turned away his head in horror. "Priore Blanès is eighty-three -at the very least," he said sorrowfully to himself; "he hardly ever -comes to the castle now, from what my sister tells me; the infirmities -of old age have had their effect on him. That heart, once so strong and -noble, is frozen by age. Heaven knows how long it is since he last went -up to his _campanile_! I shall hide myself in the cellar, under the vats -or under the wine-press, until he is awake; I shall not go in and -disturb the good old man in his sleep; probably he will have forgotten -my face, even; six years mean a great deal at his age! I shall find only -the tomb of a friend! And it is really childish of me," he added, "to -have come here to provoke the disgust that the sight of my father's -castle gives me." - -Fabrizio now came to the little _piazza_ in front of the church; it was -with an astonishment bordering on delirium that he saw, on the second -stage of the ancient _campanile_, the long and narrow window lighted by -the little lantern of Priore Blanès. The Priore was in the habit of -leaving it there, when he climbed to the cage of planks which formed his -observatory, so that the light should not prevent him from reading the -face of his planisphere. This chart of the heavens was stretched over a -great jar of terra-cotta which had originally belonged to one of the -orange trees at the castle. In the opening, at the bottom of the jar, -burned the tiniest of lamps, the smoke of which was carried away from -the jar through a little tin pipe, and the shadow of the pipe indicated -the north on the chart. All these memories of things so simple in -themselves deluged Fabrizio's heart with emotions and filled him with -happiness. - -Almost without thinking, he put his hands to his lips and gave the -little, short, low whistle which had formerly been the signal for his -admission. At once he heard several tugs given to the cord which, from -the observatory above, opened the latch of the _campanile_ door. He dashed -headlong up the staircase, moved to a transport of excitement; he found -the Priore in his wooden armchair in his accustomed place; his eye was -fixed on the little glass of a mural quadrant. With his left hand the -Priore made a sign to Fabrizio not to interrupt him in his observation; -a moment later, he wrote down a figure upon a playing card, then, -turning round in his chair, opened his arms to our hero who flung -himself into them, dissolved in tears. Priore Blanès was his true -father. - -"I expected you," said Blanès, after the first warm words of affection. -Was the Priore speaking in his character as a diviner, or, indeed, as he -often thought of Fabrizio, had some astrological sign, by pure chance, -announced to him the young man's return? - -"This means that my death is at hand," said Priore Blanès. - -"What!" cried Fabrizio, quite overcome. - -"Yes," the Priore went on in a serious but by no means sad tone: "five -months and a half, or six months and a half after I have seen you again, -my life having found its full complement of happiness will be -extinguished - - - Come face al mancar dell'alimento" - - -(as the little lamp is when its oil runs dry). "Before the supreme -moment, I shall probably pass a month or two without speaking, after -which I shall be received into Our Father's Bosom; provided always that -He finds that I have performed my duty in the post in which He has -placed me as a sentinel. - -"But you, you are worn out with exhaustion, your emotion makes you ready -for sleep. Since I began to expect you, I have hidden a loaf of bread -and a bottle of brandy for you in the great chest which holds my -instruments. Give yourself that sustenance, and try to collect enough -strength to listen to me for a few moments longer. It lies in my power -to tell you a number of things before night shall have given place -altogether to-day; at present I see them a great deal more distinctly -than perhaps I shall see them to-morrow. For, my child, we are at all -times frail vessels, and we must always take that frailty into account. -To-morrow, it may be, the old man, the earthly man in me will be -occupied with preparations for my death, and to-morrow evening at nine -o'clock, you will have to leave me." - -Fabrizio having obeyed him in silence, as was his custom: - -"Then, it is true," the old man went on, "that when you tried to see -Waterloo you found nothing at first but a prison?" - -"Yes, Father," replied Fabrizio in amazement. - -"Well, that was a rare piece of good fortune, for, warned by my voice, -your soul can prepare itself for another prison, far different in its -austerity, far more terrible! Probably you will escape from it only by a -crime; but, thanks be to heaven, that crime will not have been committed -by you. Never fall into crime, however violently you may be tempted; I -seem to see that it will be a question of killing an innocent man, who, -without knowing it, usurps your rights; if you resist the violent -temptation which will seem to be justified by the laws of honour, your -life will be most happy in the eyes of men . . . and reasonably happy in -the eyes of the sage," he added after a moment's reflexion; "you will -die like me, my son, sitting upon a wooden seat, far from all luxury and -having seen the hollowness of luxury, and like me not having to reproach -yourself with any grave sin. - -"And now, the discussion of your future state is at an end between us, I -could add nothing of any importance. It is in vain that I have tried to -see how long this imprisonment is to last; is it to be for six months, a -year, ten years? I have been able to discover nothing; apparently I have -made some error, and heaven has wished to punish me by the distress of -this uncertainty. I have seen only that after your prison, but I do not -know whether it is to be at the actual moment of your leaving it, there -will be what I call a crime; but, fortunately, I believe I can be sure -that it will not be committed by you. If you are weak enough to involve -yourself in this crime, all the rest of my calculations becomes simply -one long error. Then you will not die with peace in your soul, on a -wooden seat and clad in white." As he said these words, Priore Blanès -attempted to rise; it was then that Fabrizio noticed the ravages of -time; it took him nearly a minute to get upon his feet and to turn -towards Fabrizio. Our hero allowed him to do this, standing motionless -and silent. The Priore flung himself into his arms again and again; he -embraced him with extreme affection. After which he went on, with all -the gaiety of the old days: "Try to make a place for yourself among all -my instruments where you can sleep with some comfort; take my furs; you -will find several of great value which the Duchessa Sanseverina sent me -four years ago. She asked me for a forecast of your fate, which I took -care not to give her, while keeping her furs and her fine quadrant. -Every announcement of the future is a breach of the rule, and contains -this danger, that it may alter the event, in which case the whole -science falls to the ground, like a child's card-castle; and besides, -there were things that it was hard to say to that Duchessa who is always -so charming. But let me warn you, do not be startled in your sleep by -the bells, which will make a terrible din in your ear when the men come -to ring for the seven o'clock mass; later on, in the stage below, they -will set the big _campanone_ going, which shakes all my instruments. -To-day is the feast of San Giovita, Martyr and Soldier. As you know, the -little village of Grianta has the same patron as the great city of -Brescia, which, by the way, led to a most amusing mistake on the part of -my illustrious master, Giacomo Marini of Ravenna. More than once he -announced to me that I should have quite a fine career in the church; he -believed that I was to be the curate of the magnificent church of San -Giovita, at Brescia; I have been the curate of a little village of seven -hundred and fifty chimneys! But all has been for the best. I have seen, -and not ten years ago, that if I had been curate at Brescia, my destiny -would have been to be cast into prison on a hill in Moravia, the -Spielberg. To-morrow I shall bring you all manner of delicacies pilfered -from the great dinner which I am giving to all the clergy of the -district who are coming to sing at my high mass. I shall leave them down -below, but do not make any attempt to see me, do not come down to take -possession of the good things until you have heard me go out again. You -must not see me again _by daylight_, and as the sun sets to-morrow at -twenty-seven minutes past seven, I shall not come up to embrace you -until about eight, and it is necessary that you depart while the hours -are still numbered by nine, that is to say before the clock has struck -ten. Take care that you are not seen in the windows of the _campanile_: -the police have your description, and they are to some extent under the -orders of your brother, who is a famous tyrant. The Marchese del Dongo -is growing feeble," added Blanès with a sorrowful air, "and if he were -to see you again, perhaps he would let something pass to you, from hand -to hand. But such benefits, tainted with deceit, do not become a man -like yourself, whose strength will lie one day in his conscience. The -Marchese abhors his son Ascanio, and it is on that son that the five or -six millions that he possesses will devolve. That is justice. You, at -his death, will have a pension of 4,000 francs, and fifty ells of black -cloth for your servants' mourning." - - - - -CHAPTER NINE - - -Fabrizio's soul was exalted by the old man's speech, by his own keen -attention to it, and by his extreme exhaustion. He had great difficulty -in getting to sleep, and his slumber was disturbed by dreams, presages -perhaps of the future; in the morning, at ten o'clock, he was awakened -by the whole belfry's beginning to shake; an alarming noise seemed to -come from outside. He rose in bewilderment and at first imagined that -the end of the world had come; then he thought that he was in prison; it -took him some time to recognise the sound of the big bell, which forty -peasants were setting in motion in honour of the great San Giovita; ten -would have been enough. - -Fabrizio looked for a convenient place from which to see without being -seen; he discovered that from this great height his gaze swept the -gardens, and even the inner courtyard of his father's castle. He had -forgotten this. The idea of that father arriving at the ultimate bourne -of life altered all his feelings. He could even make out the sparrows -that were hopping in search of crumbs upon the wide balcony of the -dining-room. "They are the descendants of the ones I used to tame long -ago," he said to himself. This balcony, like every balcony in the -mansion, was decorated with a large number of orange trees in -earthenware tubs, of different sizes: this sight melted his heart; the -view of that inner courtyard thus decorated, with its sharply defined -shadows outlined by a radiant sun, was truly majestic. - -The thought of his father's failing health came back to his mind. "But -it is really singular," he said to himself, "my father is only -thirty-five years older than I am; thirty-five and twenty-three make -only fifty-eight!" His eyes, fixed on the windows of the bedroom of that -stern man who had never loved him, filled with tears. He shivered, and a -sudden chill ran through his veins when he thought he saw his father -crossing a terrace planted with orange trees which was on a level with -his room; but it was only one of the servants. Close underneath the -_campanile_ a number of girls dressed in white and split up into -different bands were occupied in tracing patterns with red, blue and -yellow flowers on the pavement of the streets through which the -procession was to pass. But there was a spectacle which spoke with a -more living voice to Fabrizio's soul: from the _campanile_ his gaze shot -down to the two branches of the lake, at a distance of several leagues, -and this sublime view soon made him forget all the others; it awakened -in him the most lofty sentiments. All the memories of his childhood came -crowding to besiege his mind; and this day which he spent imprisoned in -a belfry was perhaps one of the happiest days of his life. - -Happiness carried him to an exaltation of mind quite foreign to his -nature; he considered the incidents of life, he, still so young, as if -already he had arrived at its farthest goal. "I must admit that, since I -came to Parma," he said to himself at length after several hours of -delicious musings, "I have known no tranquil and perfect joy such as I -used to find at Naples in galloping over the roads of Vomero or pacing -the shores of Miseno. All the complicated interests of that nasty little -court have made me nasty also. . . . I even believe that it would be a -sorry happiness for me to humiliate my enemies if I had any; but I have -no enemy. . . . Stop a moment!" he suddenly interjected, "I have got an -enemy, Giletti. . . . And here is a curious thing," he said to himself, -"the pleasure that I should feel in seeing such an ugly fellow go to all -the devils in hell has survived the very slight fancy that I had for -little Marietta. . . . She does not come within a mile of the Duchessa -d'A----, to whom I was obliged to make love at Naples, after I had told -her that I was in love with her. Good God, how bored I have been during -the long assignations which that fair Duchessa used to accord me; never -anything like that in the tumble-down bedroom, serving as a kitchen as -well, in which little Marietta received me twice, and for two minutes on -each occasion. - - - - -_THE CAMPANILE_ - - -"Oh, good God, what on earth can those people have to eat? They make one -pity them! . . . I ought to have settled on her and the _mammaccia_ a -pension of three beefsteaks, payable daily. . . . Little Marietta," he -went on, "used to distract me from the evil thoughts which the proximity -of that court put in my mind. - -"I should perhaps have done well to adopt the _caffè_ life, as the -Duchessa said; she seemed to incline in that direction, and she has far -more intelligence than I. Thanks to her generosity, or indeed merely -with that pension of 4,000 francs and that fund of 40,000 invested at -Lyons, which my mother intends for me, I should always have a horse and -a few scudi to spend on digging and collecting a cabinet. Since it -appears that I am not to know the taste of love, there will always be -those other interests to be my great sources of happiness; I should -like, before I die, to go back to visit the battlefield of Waterloo and -try to identify the meadow where I was so neatly lifted from my horse -and left sitting on the ground. That pilgrimage accomplished, I should -return constantly to this sublime lake; nothing else as beautiful is to -be seen in the world, for my heart at least. Why go so far afield in -search of happiness? It is there, beneath my eyes! - -"Ah," said Fabrizio to himself, "there is this objection: the police -drive me away from the Lake of Como, but I am younger than the people -who are setting those police on my track. Here," he added with a smile, -"I should certainly not find a Duchessa d'A----, but I should find one -of those little girls down there who are strewing flowers on the -pavement, and, to tell the truth, I should care for her just as much. -Hypocrisy freezes me, even in love, and our great ladies aim at effects -that are too sublime. Napoleon has given them new ideas as to conduct -and constancy. - -"The devil!" he suddenly exclaimed, drawing back his head from the -window, as though he had been afraid of being recognised despite the -screen of the enormous wooden shutter which protected the bells from -rain, "here comes a troop of police in full dress." And indeed, ten -policemen, of whom four were non-commissioned officers, had come into -sight at the top of the village street. The serjeant distributed them at -intervals of a hundred yards along the course which the procession was -to take. "Everyone knows me here; if they see me, I shall make but one -bound from the shores of the Lake of Como to the Spielberg, where they -will fasten to each of my legs a chain weighing a hundred and ten -pounds: and what a grief for the Duchessa!" - -It took Fabrizio two or three minutes to realise that, for one thing, he -was stationed at a height of more than eighty feet, that the place in -which he stood was comparatively dark, that the eyes of the people who -might be looking up at him were blinded by a dazzling sun, in addition -to which they were walking about, their eyes wide open, in streets all -the houses of which had just been whitewashed with lime, in honour of -the _festa_ of San Giovita. Despite all these clear and obvious reasons, -Fabrizio's Italian nature would not have been in a state, from that -moment, to enjoy any pleasure in the spectacle, had he not interposed -between himself and the policemen a strip of old cloth which he nailed -to the frame of the window, piercing a couple of holes in it for his -eyes. - -The bells had been making the air throb for ten minutes, the procession -was coming out of the church, the _mortaretti_ started to bang. Fabrizio -turned his head and recognised that little terrace, adorned with a -parapet and overlooking the lake, where so often, when he was a boy, he -had risked his life to watch the _mortaretti_ go off between his legs, -with the result that on the mornings of public holidays his mother liked -to see him by her side. - -It should be explained that the _mortaretti_ (or little mortars) are -nothing else than gun-barrels which are sawn through so as to leave them -only four inches long; that is why the peasants greedily collect all the -gun-barrels which, since 1796, European policy has been sowing broadcast -over the plains of Lombardy. Once they have been reduced to a length of -four inches, these little guns are loaded to the muzzle, they are -planted in the ground in a vertical position, and a train of powder is -laid from one to the next; they are drawn up in three lines like a -battalion, and to the number of two or three hundred, in some suitable -emplacement near the route along which the procession is to pass. When -the Blessed Sacrament approaches, a match is put to the train of powder, -and then begins a running fire of sharp explosions, utterly irregular -and quite ridiculous; the women are wild with joy. Nothing is so gay as -the sound of these _mortaretti_, heard at a distance on the lake, and -softened by the rocking of the water; this curious sound, which had so -often been the delight of his boyhood, banished the somewhat too solemn -thoughts by which our hero was being besieged; he went to find the -Priore's big astronomical telescope, and recognised the majority of the -men and women who were following the procession. A number of charming -little girls, whom Fabrizio had last seen at the age of eleven or -twelve, were now superb women in the full flower of the most vigorous -youth; they made our hero's courage revive, and to speak to them he -would readily have braved the police. - -After the procession had passed and had re-entered the church by a side -door which was out of Fabrizio's sight, the heat soon became intense -even up in the belfry; the inhabitants returned to their homes, and a -great silence fell upon the village. Several boats took on board loads -of _contadini_ returning to Bellagio, Menaggio and other villages -situated on the lake; Fabrizio could distinguish the sound of each -stroke of the oars: so simple a detail as this sent him into an ecstasy; -his present joy was composed of all the unhappiness, all the irritation -that he found in the complicated life of a court. How happy he would -have been at this moment to be sailing for a league over that beautiful -lake which looked so calm and reflected so clearly the depth of the sky -above! He heard the door at the foot of the _campanile_ opened: it was -the Priore's old servant who brought in a great hamper, and he had all -the difficulty in the world in restraining himself from speaking to her. -"She is almost as fond of me as her master," he said to himself, "and -besides, I am leaving to-night at nine o'clock; would she not keep the -oath of secrecy I should make her swear, if only for a few hours? But," -Fabrizio reminded himself, "I should be vexing my friend! I might get -him into trouble with the police!" and he let Ghita go without speaking -to her. He made an excellent dinner, then settled himself down to sleep -for a few minutes; he did not awake until half-past eight in the -evening; the Priore Blanès was shaking him by the arm, it was dark. - -Blanès was extremely tired, and looked fifty years older than the night -before. He said nothing more about serious matters, sitting in his -wooden armchair. "Embrace me," he said to Fabrizio. He clasped him again -and again in his arms. "Death," he said at last, "which is coming to put -an end to this long life, will have nothing about it so painful as this -separation. I have a purse which I shall leave in Ghita's custody, with -orders to draw on it for her own needs, but to hand over to you what is -left, should you ever come to ask for it. I know her; after those -instructions, she is capable, from economy on your behalf, of not buying -meat four times in the year, if you do not give her quite definite -orders. You may yourself be reduced to penury, and the obol of your aged -friend will be of service to you. Expect nothing from your brother but -atrocious behaviour, and try to earn money by some work which will make -you useful to society. I foresee strange storms; perhaps, in fifty years' -time, the world will have no more room for idlers! Your mother and -aunt may fail you, your sisters will have to obey their husbands. . . . -Away with you, away with you, fly!" exclaimed Blanès urgently; he -had just heard a little sound in the clock which warned him that ten was -about to strike, and he would not even allow Fabrizio to give him a -farewell embrace. - -"Hurry, hurry!" he cried to him; "it will take you at least a minute to -get down the stair; take care not to fall, that would be a terrible -omen." Fabrizio dashed down the staircase and emerging on to the -_piazza_ began to run. He had scarcely arrived opposite his father's -castle when the bell sounded ten times; each stroke reverberated in his -bosom, where it left a singular sense of disturbance. He stopped to -think, or rather to give himself up to the passionate feelings inspired -in him by the contemplation of that majestic edifice which he had judged -so coldly the night before. He was recalled from his musings by the -sound of footsteps; he looked up and found himself surrounded by four -constables. He had a brace of excellent pistols, the priming of which he -had renewed while he dined; the slight sound that he made in cocking -them attracted the attention of one of the constables, and he was within -an inch of being arrested. He saw the danger he ran, and decided to fire -the first shot; he would be justified in doing so, for this was the sole -method open to him of resisting four well armed men. Fortunately, the -constables, who were going round to clear the _osterie_, had not shown -themselves altogether irresponsive to the hospitality that they had -received in several of those sociable resorts; they did not make up -their minds quickly enough to do their duty. Fabrizio took to his heels -and ran. The constables went a few yards, running also, and shouting -"Stop! Stop!" then everything relapsed into silence. After every three -hundred yards Fabrizio halted to recover his breath. "The sound of my -pistols nearly made me get caught; this is just the sort of thing that -would make the Duchessa tell me, should it ever be granted me to see her -lovely eyes again, that my mind finds pleasure in contemplating what is -going to happen in ten years' time, and forgets to look-out for what is -actually happening beneath my nose." - -Fabrizio shuddered at the thought of the danger he had just escaped; he -increased his pace, and presently found himself impelled to run, which -was not over-prudent, as it attracted the attention of several -_contadini_ who were going back to their homes. He could not bring -himself to stop until he had reached the mountain, more than a league -from Grianta, and even when he had stopped, he broke into a cold sweat -at the thought of the Spielberg. - -"There's a fine fright!" he said aloud: on hearing the sound of this -word, he was almost tempted to feel ashamed. "But does not my aunt tell -me that the thing I most need is to learn to make allowances for myself? -I am always comparing myself with a model of perfection, which cannot -exist. Very well, I forgive myself my fright, for, from another point of -view, I was quite prepared to defend my liberty, and certainly all four -of them would not have remained on their feet to carry me off to prison. -What I am doing at this moment," he went on, "is not military; instead -of retiring rapidly, after having attained my object, and perhaps given -the alarm to my enemies, I am amusing myself with a fancy more -ridiculous perhaps than all the good Priore's predictions." - - - - -_THE CHESTNUT TREE_ - - -For indeed, instead of retiring along the shortest line, and gaining the -shore of Lake Maggiore, where his boat was awaiting him, he made an -enormous circuit to go and visit _his tree_. The reader may perhaps -remember the love that Fabrizio bore for a chestnut tree planted by his -mother twenty-three years earlier. "It would be quite worthy of my -brother," he said to himself, "to have had the tree cut down; but those -creatures are incapable of delicate shades of feeling; he will never -have thought of it. And besides, that would not be a bad augury," he -added with firmness. Two hours later he was shocked by what he saw; -mischief-makers or a storm had broken one of the main branches of the -young tree, which hung down withered; Fabrizio cut it off reverently, -using his dagger, and smoothed the cut carefully, so that the rain -should not get inside the trunk. Then, although time was highly precious -to him, for day was about to break, he spent a good hour in turning the -soil round his dear tree. All these acts of folly accomplished, he went -rapidly on his way towards Lake Maggiore. All things considered, he was -not at all sad; the tree was coming on well, was more vigorous than -ever, and in five years had almost doubled in height. The branch was -only an accident of no consequence; once it had been cut off, it did no -more harm to the tree, which indeed would grow all the better if its -spread began higher from the ground. - -Fabrizio had not gone a league when a dazzling band of white indicated -to the east the peaks of the Resegon di Lee, a mountain famous -throughout the district. The road which he was following became thronged -with _contadini_; but, instead of adopting military tactics, Fabrizio -let himself be melted by the sublime or touching aspect of these forests -in the neighbourhood of Lake Como. They are perhaps the finest in the -world; I do not mean to say those that bring in most new money, as the -Swiss would say, but those that speak most eloquently to the soul. To -listen to this language in the position in which Fabrizio found himself, -an object for the attentions of the gentlemen of the Lombardo-Venetian -police, was really childish. "I am half a league from the frontier," he -reminded himself at length, "I am going to meet _doganieri_ and -constables making their morning rounds: this coat of fine cloth will -look suspicious, they will ask me for my passport; now that passport is -inscribed at full length with my name, which is marked down for prison; -so here I am under the regrettable necessity of committing a murder. If, -as is usual, the police are going about in pairs, I cannot wait quietly -to fire until one of them tries to take me by the collar; he has only to -clutch me for a moment while he falls, and off I go to the Spielberg." -Fabrizio, horrified most of all by the necessity of firing first, -possibly on an old soldier who had served under his uncle, Conte -Pietranera, ran to hide himself in the hollow trunk of an enormous -chestnut; he was renewing the priming of his pistols, when he heard a -man coming towards him through the wood, singing very well a delicious -air from _Mercadante_, which was popular at that time in Lombardy. - - - - -_THE FOREST_ - - -"There is a good omen for me," he said to himself. This air, to which he -listened religiously, took from him the little spark of anger which was -finding its way into his reasonings. He scrutinised the high road -carefully, in both directions, and saw no one: "The singer must be -coming along some side road," he said to himself. Almost at that moment, -he saw a footman, very neatly dressed in the English style and mounted -on a hack, who was coming towards him at a walk, leading a fine -thoroughbred, which however was perhaps a little too thin. - -"Ah! If I reasoned like Conte Mosca," thought Fabrizio, "when he assures -me that the risks a man runs are always the measure of his rights over -his neighbours, I should blow out this servant's brains with a -pistol-shot, and, once I was mounted on the thin horse, I should laugh -aloud at all the police in the world. As soon as I was safely in Parma, -I should send money to the man, or to his widow . . . but it would be a -horrible thing to do!" - - - - -CHAPTER TEN - - -Moralising thus, Fabrizio sprang down on to the high road which runs -from Lombardy into Switzerland: at this point, it is fully four or five -feet below the level of the forest. "If my man takes fright," he said to -himself, "he will go off at a gallop, and I shall be stranded here -looking the picture of a fool." At this moment he found himself only ten -yards from the footman, who had stopped singing: Fabrizio could see in -his eyes that he was frightened, he was perhaps going to turn his -horses. Still without having come to any decision, Fabrizio made a -bound, and seized the thin horse by the bridle. - -"My friend," he said to the footman, "I am not an ordinary thief, for I -am going to begin by giving you twenty francs, but I am obliged to -borrow your horse; I shall be killed if I don't get away pretty quickly. -I have the four Riva brothers on my heels, those great hunters whom you -probably know; they caught me just now in their sister's bedroom, I -jumped out of the window, and here I am. They dashed out into the forest -with their dogs and guns. I hid myself in that big hollow chestnut -because I saw one of them cross the road; their dogs will track me down. -I am going to mount your horse and gallop a league beyond Como; I am -going to Milan to throw myself at the Viceroy's feet. I shall leave your -horse at the post-house with two napoleons for yourself, if you consent -with good grace. If you offer the slightest resistance, I shall kill you -with these pistols you see here. If, after I have gone, you set the -police on my track, my cousin, the gallant Conte Alari, Equerry to the -Emperor, will take good care to break your bones for you." - - - - -_THE HORSE_ - - -Fabrizio invented the substance of this speech as he went on, uttering -it in a wholly pacific tone. - -"As far as that goes," he went on with a laugh, "my name is no secret; I -am the Marchesino Ascanio del Dongo, my castle is quite close to here, -at Grianta. Damn you!" he cried, raising his voice, "will you let go the -horse!" The servant, stupefied, never breathed a word. Fabrizio -transferred the pistol to his left hand, seized the bridle which the -other dropped, sprang into the saddle, and made off at a canter. When he -had gone three hundred yards, it occurred to him that he had forgotten -to give the man the twenty francs he had promised him; he stopped; there -was still no one upon the road but the footman, who was following him at -a gallop; he signalled to him with his handkerchief to come on, and when -he judged him to be fifty yards off, flung a handful of small change on -to the road and went on again. From a distance he looked and saw the -footman gathering up the money. "There is a truly reasonable man," -Fabrizio said to himself with a laugh, "not an unnecessary word." He -proceeded rapidly southwards, halted, towards midday, at a lonely house, -and took the road again a few hours later. At two o'clock in the morning -he was on the shore of Lake Maggiore; he soon caught sight of his boat -which was tacking to and fro; at the agreed signal, it made for the -shore. He could see no _contadino_ to whom to hand over the horse, so he -gave the noble animal its liberty, and three hours later was at -Belgirate. There, finding himself on friendly soil, he took a little -rest; he was exceedingly joyful, everything had proved a complete -success. Dare we indicate the true causes of his joy? His tree showed a -superb growth, and his soul had been refreshed by the deep affection -which he had found in the arms of Priore Blanès. "Does he really -believe," he asked himself, "in all the predictions he has made me? Or -was he, since my brother has given me the reputation of a Jacobin, a man -without law or honour, sticking at nothing, was he seeking simply to -bind me not to yield to the temptation to break the head of some animal -who may have done me a bad turn?" Two days later, Fabrizio was at Parma, -where he greatly amused the Duchessa and the Conte, when he related to -them, with the utmost exactitude, which he always observed, the whole -story of his travels. - -On his arrival, Fabrizio found the porter and all the servants of the -_palazzo_ Sanseverina wearing the tokens of the deepest mourning. - -"Whom have we lost?" he inquired of the Duchessa. - -"That excellent man whom people called my husband has just died at -Baden. He has left me this _palazzo_, that had been arranged beforehand, -but as a sign of good-fellowship he has added a legacy of 300,000 -francs, which embarrasses me greatly; I have no desire to surrender it -to his niece, the Marchesa Raversi, who plays the most damnable tricks -on me every day. You are interested in art, you must find me some good -sculptor; I shall erect a tomb to the Duca which will cost 300,000 -francs." The Conte began telling anecdotes about the Raversi. - -"I have tried to win her by kindness, but all in vain," said the -Duchessa. "As for the Duca's nephews, I have made them all colonels or -generals. In return for which, not a month passes without their sending -me some abominable anonymous letter; I have been obliged to engage a -secretary simply to read letters of that sort." - -"And these anonymous letters are their mildest offence," the Conte -joined in; "they make a regular business of inventing infamous -accusations. A score of times I could have brought the whole gang before -the courts, and Your Excellency may imagine," he went on, addressing -Fabrizio, "whether my good judges would have convicted them." - - - - -_HONEST JUDGES_ - - -"Ah, well, that is what spoils it all for me," replied Fabrizio with a -simplicity which was quite refreshing at court; "I should prefer to see -them sentenced by magistrates judging according to their conscience." - -"You would oblige me greatly, since you are travelling with a view to -gaining instruction, if you would give me the addresses of such -magistrates; I shall write to them before I go to bed." - -"If I were Minister, this absence of judges who were honest men would -wound my self-respect." - -"But it seems to me," said the Conte, "that Your Excellency, who is so -fond of the French, and did indeed once lend them the aid of his -invincible arm, is forgetting for the moment one of their great maxims: -'It is better to kill the devil than to let the devil kill you.' I -should like to see how you would govern these burning souls, who read -every day the _History of the Revolution in France_, with judges who -would acquit the people whom I accuse. They would reach the point of not -convicting the most obviously guilty scoundrels, and would fancy -themselves Brutuses. But I should like to pick a crow with you; does not -your delicate soul feel a touch of remorse at the thought of that fine -(though perhaps a little too thin) horse which you have just abandoned -on the shore of Lake Maggiore?" - -"I fully intend," said Fabrizio, with the utmost seriousness, "to send -whatever is necessary to the owner of the horse to recompense him for -the cost of advertising and any other expenses which he may be made to -incur by the _contadini_ who may have found it; I shall study the Milan -newspaper most carefully to find the announcement of a missing horse; I -know the description of that one very well." - -"He is truly _primitive_," said the Conte to the Duchessa. "And where -would Your Excellency be now," he went on with a smile, "if, while he -was galloping away hell for leather on this borrowed horse, it had taken -it into its head to make a false step? You would be in the Spielberg, my -dear young nephew, and all my authority would barely have managed to -secure the reduction by thirty pounds of the weight of the chain -attached to each of your legs. You would have had some ten years to -spend in that pleasure-resort; perhaps your legs would have become -swollen and gangrened, then they would have cut them clean off." - -"Oh, for pity's sake, don't go any farther with so sad a romance!" cried -the Duchessa, with tears in her eyes. "Here he is back again. . . ." - -"And I am more delighted than you, you may well believe," replied the -Minister with great seriousness, "but after all why did not this cruel -boy come to me for a passport in a suitable name, since he was anxious -to penetrate into Lombardy? On the first news of his arrest, I should -have set off for Milan, and the friends I have in those parts would have -obligingly shut their eyes and pretended to believe that their police -had arrested a subject of the Prince of Parma. The story of your -adventures is charming, amusing, I readily agree," the Conte went on, -adopting a less sinister tone; "your rush from the wood on to the high -road quite thrills me; but, between ourselves, since this servant held -your life in his hands, you had the right to take his. We are about to -arrange a brilliant future for Your Excellency; at least, the Signora -here orders me to do so, and I do not believe that my greatest enemies -can accuse me of having ever disobeyed her commands. What a bitter grief -for her and for myself if, in this sort of steeplechase which you appear -to have been riding on this thin horse, he had made a false step! It -would almost have been better," the Conte added, "if the horse had -broken your neck for you." - - - - -_GALEAZZO, DUKE OF MILAN_ - - -"You are very tragic this evening, my friend," said the Duchessa, quite -overcome. - -"That is because we are surrounded by tragic events," replied the Conte, -also with emotion; "we are not in France, where everything ends in song, -or in imprisonment for a year or two, and really it is wrong of me to -speak of all this to you in a jocular tone. Well, now, my young nephew, -just suppose that I find a chance to make you a Bishop, for really I -cannot begin with the Archbishopric of Parma, as is desired, most -reasonably, by the Signora Duchessa here present; in that Bishopric, -where you will be far removed from our sage counsels, just tell us -roughly what your policy will be?" - -"To kill the devil rather than let him kill me, in the admirable words -of my friends the French," replied Fabrizio with blazing eyes; "to keep, -by every means in my power, including pistols, the position you will -have secured for me. I have read in the del Dongo genealogy the story of -that ancestor of ours who built the castle of Grianta. Towards the end -of his life, his good friend Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, sent him to visit -a fortress on our lake; they were afraid of another invasion by the -Swiss. 'I must just write a few civil words to the governor,' the Duke -of Milan said to him as he was sending him off. He wrote and handed our -ancestor a note of a couple of lines; then he asked for it back to seal -it. 'It will be more polite,' the Prince explained. Vespasiano del Dongo -started off, but, as he was sailing over the lake, an old Greek tale -came into his mind, for he was a man of learning; he opened his liege -lord's letter and found inside an order addressed to the governor of the -castle to put him to death as soon as he should arrive. The Sforza, too -much intent on the trick he was playing our ancestor, had left a space -between the end of the letter and his signature; Vespasiano del Dongo -wrote in this space an order proclaiming himself Governor General of all -the castles on the lake, and tore off the original letter. Arriving at -the fort, where his authority was duly acknowledged, he flung the -commandant down a well, declared war on the Sforza, and after a few -years exchanged his fortress for those vast estates which have made the -fortune of every branch of our family, and one day will bring in to me, -personally, an income of four thousand lire." - -"You talk like an academician," exclaimed the Conte, laughing; "that was -a bold stroke with a vengeance; but it is only once in ten years that -one has a chance to do anything so sensational. A creature who is half -an idiot, but who keeps a sharp look-out, and acts prudently all his -life, often enjoys the pleasure of triumphing over men of imagination. -It was by a foolish error of imagination that Napoleon was led to -surrender to the prudent _John Bull_, instead of seeking to conquer -America. John Bull, in his counting-house, had a hearty laugh at his -letter in which he quotes Themistocles. In all ages, the base Sancho -Panza triumphs, you will find, in the long run, over the sublime Don -Quixote. If you are willing to agree to do nothing extraordinary, I have -no doubt that you will be a highly respected, if not a highly -respectable Bishop. In any case, what I said just now holds good: Your -Excellency acted with great levity in the affair of the horse; he was -within a finger's breadth of perpetual imprisonment." - - - - -_A CONQUEST_ - - -This statement made Fabrizio shudder. He remained plunged in a profound -astonishment. "Was that," he wondered, "the prison with which I am -threatened? Is that the crime which I was not to commit?" The -predictions of Blanès, which as prophecies he utterly derided, assumed -in his eyes all the importance of authentic forecasts. - -"Why, what is the matter with you?" the Duchessa asked him, in surprise; -"the Conte has plunged you in a sea of dark thoughts." - -"I am illuminated by a new truth, and, instead of revolting against it, -my mind adopts it. It is true, I passed very near to an endless -imprisonment! But that footman looked so nice in his English jacket! It -would have been such a pity to kill him!" - -The Minister was enchanted with his little air of wisdom. - -"He is excellent in every respect," he said, with his eyes on the -Duchessa. "I may tell you, my friend, that you have made a conquest, and -one that is perhaps the most desirable of all." - -"Ah!" thought Fabrizio, "now for some joke about little Marietta." He -was mistaken; the Conte went on to say: - -"Your _Gospel_ simplicity has won the heart of our venerable Archbishop, -Father Landriani. One of these days we are going to make a Grand Vicar -of you, and the charming part of the whole joke is that the three -existing Grand Vicars, all most deserving men, workers, two of whom, I -fancy, were Grand Vicars before you were born, will demand, in a finely -worded letter addressed to their Archbishop, that you shall rank first -among them. These gentlemen base their plea in the first place upon your -virtues, and also upon the fact that you are the great-nephew of the -famous Archbishop Ascanio del Dongo. When I learned the respect that -they felt for your virtues, I immediately made the senior Vicar -General's nephew a captain; he had been a lieutenant ever since the -siege of Tarragona by Marshal Suchet." - -"Go right away now, dressed as you are, and pay a friendly visit to your -Archbishop!" exclaimed the Duchessa. "Tell him about your sister's -wedding; when he hears that she is to be a Duchessa, he will think you -more apostolic than ever. But, remember, you know nothing of what the -Conte has just told you about your future promotion." - -Fabrizio hastened to the archiépiscopal palace; there he shewed himself -simple and modest, a tone which he assumed only too easily; whereas it -required an effort for him to play the great gentleman. As he listened -to the somewhat prolix stories of Monsignor Landriani, he was saying to -himself: "Ought I to have fired my pistol at the footman who was leading -the thin horse?" His reason said to him: "Yes," but his heart could not -accustom itself to the bleeding image of the handsome young man, falling -from his horse, all disfigured. - -"That prison in which I should have been swallowed up, if the horse had -stumbled, was that the prison with which I was threatened by all those -forecasts?" - -This question was of the utmost importance to him, and the Archbishop -was gratified by his air of profound attention. - - - - -CHAPTER ELEVEN - - -On leaving the Archbishop's Palace, Fabrizio hastened to see little -Marietta; he could hear from the street the loud voice of Giletti who -had sent out for wine and was regaling himself with his friends the -prompter and the candle-snuffers. The _mammaccia_, who played the part -of mother, came alone in answer to his signal. - -"A lot has happened since you were here," she cried; "two or three of -our actors are accused of having celebrated the great Napoleon's _festa_ -with an orgy, and our poor company, which they say is Jacobin, has been -ordered to leave the States of Parma, and _evviva Napoleone_! But the -Minister has had a finger in that pie, they say. One thing certain is -that Giletti has got money, I don't know how much, but I've seen him -with a fistful of scudi. Marietta has had five scudi from our manager to -pay for the journey to Mantua and Venice, and I have had one. She is -still in love with you, but Giletti frightens her; three days ago, at -the last performance we gave, he absolutely wanted to kill her; he dealt -her two proper blows, and, what was abominable of him, tore her blue -shawl. If you would care to give her a blue shawl, you would be a very -good boy, and we can say that we won it in a lottery. The drum-major of -the _carabinieri_ is giving an assault-at-arms to-morrow, you will find -the hour posted up at all the street-corners. Come and see us; if he has -gone to the assault, and we have any reason to hope that he will stay -away for some time, I shall be at the window, and I shall give you a -signal to come up. Try to bring us something really nice, and Marietta -will be madly in love with you." - -As he made his way down the winding staircase of this foul rookery, -Fabrizio was filled with compunction. "I have not altered in the least," -he said to himself; "all the fine resolutions I made on the shore of our -lake, when I looked at life with so philosophic an eye, have gone to the -winds. My mind has lost its normal balance; the whole thing was a dream, -and vanishes before the stern reality. Now would be the time for action," -he told himself as he entered the _palazzo_ Sanseverina about eleven -o'clock that evening. But it was in vain that he sought in his heart for -the courage to speak with that sublime sincerity which had seemed to him -so easy, the night he spent by the shore of the Lake of Como. "I am -going to vex the person whom I love best in the world; if I speak, I -shall simply seem to be jesting in the worst of taste; I am not worth -anything, really, except in certain moments of exaltation. - -"The Conte has behaved admirably towards me," he said to the Duchessa, -after he had given her an account of his visit to the Archbishop's -Palace; "I appreciate his conduct all the more, in that I think I am -right in saying that personally I have made only a very moderate -impression on him: my behaviour towards him ought therefore to be -strictly correct. He has his excavations at Sanguigna, about which he is -still madly keen, if one is to judge, that is, by his expedition the day -before yesterday: he went twelve leagues at a gallop in order to spend a -couple of hours with his workmen. If they find fragments of statues in -the ancient temple, the foundations of which he has just laid bare, he -is afraid of their being stolen; I should like to propose to him that I -should go and spend a night or two at Sanguigna. To-morrow, about five, -I have to see the Archbishop again; I can start in the evening and take -advantage of the cool night air for the journey." - - - - -_SANGUIGNA_ - - -The Duchessa did not at first reply. - -"One would think you were seeking excuses for staying away from me," she -said to him at length with extreme affection: "No sooner do you come -back from Belgirate than you find a reason for going off again." - -"Here is a fine opportunity for speaking," thought Fabrizio. "But by the -lake I was a trifle mad; I did not realise, in my enthusiasm for -sincerity, that my compliment ended in an impertinence. It was a -question of saying: 'I love you with the most devoted friendship, etc., -etc., but my heart is not susceptible to love.' Is not that as much as -to say: 'I see that you are in love with me: but take care, I cannot pay -you back in the same coin.' If it is love that she feels, the Duchessa -may be annoyed at its being guessed, and she will be revolted by my -impudence if all that she feels for me is friendship pure and -simple . . . and that is one of the offences people never forgive." - -While he weighed these important thoughts in his mind, Fabrizio, quite -unconsciously, was pacing up and down the drawing-room with the grave -air, full of dignity, of a man who sees disaster staring him in the -face. - -The Duchessa gazed at him with admiration; this was no longer the child -she had seen come into the world, this was no longer the nephew always -ready to obey her; this was a serious man, a man whom it would be -delicious to make fall in love with her. She rose from the ottoman on -which she was sitting, and, flinging herself into his arms in a -transport of emotion: - -"So you want to run away from me?" she asked him. - -"No," he replied with the air of a Roman Emperor, "but I want to act -wisely." - -This speech was capable of several interpretations; Fabrizio did not -feel that he had the courage to go any farther and to run the risk of -wounding this adorable woman. He was too young, too susceptible to -sudden emotion; his brain could not supply him with any elegant turn of -speech to give expression to what he wished to say. By a natural -transport, and in defiance of all reason, he took this charming woman in -his arms and smothered her in kisses. At that moment the Conte's -carriage could be heard coming into the courtyard, and almost -immediately the Conte himself entered the room; he seemed greatly moved. - -"You inspire very singular passions," he said to Fabrizio, who stood -still, almost dumbfoundered by this remark. - -"The Archbishop had this evening the audience which His Serene Highness -grants him every Thursday; the Prince has just been telling me that the -Archbishop, who seemed greatly troubled, began with a set speech, -learned by heart, and extremely clever, of which at first the Prince -could understand nothing at all. Landriani ended by declaring that it -was important for the Church in Parma that _Monsignor_ Fabrizio del Dongo -should be appointed his First Vicar General, and, in addition, as soon -as he should have completed his twenty-fourth year, his Coadjutor _with -eventual succession_. - -"The last clause alarmed me, I must admit," said the Conte: "it is going -a little too fast, and I was afraid of an outburst from the Prince; but -he looked at me with a smile, and said to me in French: 'Ce sont là de -vos coups, monsieur!' - - - - -_THE AUDIENCE_ - - -"'I can take my oath, before God and before Your Highness,' I exclaimed -with all the unction possible, 'that I knew absolutely nothing about the -words _eventual succession_.' Then I told him the truth, what in fact we -were discussing together here a few hours ago; I added, impulsively, -that, so far as the future was concerned, I should regard myself as most -bounteously rewarded with His Highness's favour if he would deign to -allow me a minor Bishopric to begin with. The Prince must have believed -me, for he thought fit to be gracious; he said to me with the greatest -possible simplicity: 'This is an official matter between the Archbishop -and myself; you do not come into it at all; the worthy man delivered me -a kind of report, of great length and tedious to a degree, at the end of -which he came to an official proposal; I answered him very coldly that -the person in question was extremely young, and, moreover, a very recent -arrival at my court, that I should almost be giving the impression that -I was honouring a bill of exchange drawn upon me by the Emperor, in -giving the prospect of so high a dignity to the son of one of the -principal officers of his Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom. The Archbishop -protested that no recommendation of that sort had been made. That was a -pretty stupid thing to say to _me_. I was surprised to hear it come from a -man of his experience; but he always loses his head when he speaks to -me, and this evening he was more troubled than ever, which gave me the -idea that he was passionately anxious to secure the appointment. I told -him that I knew better than he that there had been no recommendation -from any high quarter in favour of this del Dongo, that nobody at my -court denied his capacity, that they did not speak at all too badly of -his morals, but that I was afraid of his being liable to enthusiasm, and -that I had made it a rule never to promote to considerable positions -fools of that sort, with whom a Prince can never be sure of anything. -Then,' His Highness went on, 'I had to submit to a fresh tirade almost -as long as the first; the Archbishop sang me the praises of the -enthusiasm of the _Casa di Dio_. Clumsy fellow, I said to myself, you -are going astray, you are endangering an appointment which was almost -confirmed; you ought to have cut your speech short and thanked me -effusively. Not a bit of it; he continued his homily with a ridiculous -intrepidity; I had to think of a reply which would not be too -unfavourable to young del Dongo; I found one, and by no means a bad one, -as you shall judge for yourself. Monsignore, I said to him, Pius VII was -a great Pope and a great saint: among all the Sovereigns, he alone dared -to say _No_ to the tyrant who saw Europe at his feet: very well, he was -liable to enthusiasm, which led him, when he was Bishop of Imola, to -write that famous Pastoral of the _Citizen-Cardinal_ Chiaramonti, in -support of the Cisalpine Republic. - -"'My poor Archbishop was left stupefied, and, to complete his -stupefaction, I said to him with a very serious air: Good-bye, -Monsignore, I shall take twenty-four hours to consider your proposal. -The poor man added various supplications, by no means well expressed and -distinctly inopportune after the word _Good-bye_ had been uttered by me. -Now, Conte Mosca della Rovere, I charge you to inform the Duchessa that -I have no wish to delay for twenty-four hours a decision which may be -agreeable to her; sit down there and write the Archbishop the letter of -approval which will bring the whole matter to an end.' I wrote the -letter, he signed it, and said to me: 'Take it, immediately, to the -Duchessa.' Here, Signora, is the letter, and it is this that has given -me an excuse for taking the pleasure of seeing you again this evening." - -The Duchessa read the letter with rapture. While the Conte was telling -his long story, Fabrizio had had time to collect himself: he shewed no -sign of astonishment at the incident, he took the whole thing like a -true nobleman who naturally has always supposed himself entitled to -these extraordinary advancements, these strokes of fortune which would -unhinge a plebeian mind; he spoke of his gratitude, but in polished -terms, and ended by saying to the Conte: - - - - -_TITULAR AND COADJUTOR_ - - -"A good courtier ought to flatter the ruling passion; yesterday you -expressed the fear that your workmen at Sanguigna might steal any -fragments of ancient sculpture they brought to light; I am extremely -fond of excavation, myself; with your kind permission, I will go to -superintend the workmen. To-morrow evening, after suitably expressing my -thanks at the Palace and to the Archbishop, I shall start for -Sanguigna." - -"But can you guess," the Duchessa asked the Conte, "what can have given -rise to this sudden passion on our good Archbishop's part for Fabrizio?" - -"I have no need to guess; the Grand Vicar whose nephew I made a captain -said to me yesterday: 'Father Landriani starts from this absolute -principle, that the titular is superior to the coadjutor, and is beside -himself with joy at the prospect of having a del Dongo under his orders, -and of having done him a service.' Everything that can draw attention to -Fabrizio's noble birth adds to his secret happiness: that he should have -a man like that as his aide-de-camp! In the second place, Monsignor -Fabrizio has taken his fancy, he does not feel in the least shy before -him; finally, he has been nourishing for the last ten years a very -vigorous hatred of the Bishop of Piacenza, who openly boasts of his -claim to succeed him in the see of Parma, and is moreover the son of a -miller. It is with a view to this eventual succession that the Bishop of -Piacenza has formed very close relations with the Marchesa Raversi, and -now their intimacy is making the Archbishop tremble for the success of -his favourite scheme, to have a del Dongo on his staff and to give him -orders." - -Two days after this, at an early hour in the morning, Fabrizio was -directing the work of excavation at Sanguigna, opposite Colorno (which -is the Versailles of the Princes of Parma); these excavations extended -over the plain close to the high road which runs from Parma to the bridge -of Casalmaggiore, the first town on Austrian territory. The workmen were -intersecting the plain with a long trench, eight feet deep and as narrow -as possible: they were engaged in seeking, along the old Roman Way, for -the ruins of a second temple which, according to local reports, had -still been in existence in the middle ages. Despite the Prince's orders, -many of the _contadini_ looked with misgivings on these long ditches -running across their property. Whatever one might say to them, they -imagined that a search was being made for treasure, and Fabrizio's -presence was especially desirable with a view to preventing any little -unrest. He was by no means bored, he followed the work with keen -interest; from time to time they turned up some medal, and he saw to it -that the workmen did not have time to arrange among themselves to make -off with it. - -The day was fine, the time about six o'clock in the morning: he had -borrowed an old gun, single-barrelled; he shot several larks; one of -them, wounded, was falling upon the high road. Fabrizio, as he went -after it, caught sight, in the distance, of a carriage that was coming -from Parma and making for the frontier at Casalmaggiore. He had just -reloaded his gun when, the carriage which was extremely dilapidated -coming towards him at a snail's pace, he recognised little Marietta; she -had, on either side of her, the big bully Giletti and the old woman whom -she passed off as her mother. - -Giletti imagined that Fabrizio had posted himself there in the middle of -the road, and with a gun in his hand, to insult him, and perhaps even to -carry off his little Marietta. Like a man of valour, he jumped down from -the carriage; he had in his left hand a large and very rusty pistol, and -held in his right a sheathed sword, which he used when the limitations -of the company obliged them to cast him for the part of some Marchese. - - - - -_GILETTI_ - - -"Ha! Brigand!" he shouted, "I am very glad to find you here, a league -from the frontier; I'll settle your account for you, right away; you're -not protected here by your violet stockings." - -Fabrizio was engaged in smiling at little Marietta, and barely heeding -the jealous shouts of Giletti, when suddenly he saw within three feet of -his chest the muzzle of the rusty pistol; he was just in time to aim a -blow at it, using his gun as a club: the pistol went off, but did not -hit anyone. - -"Stop, will you, you ----," cried Giletti to the _vetturino_; at the -same time he was quick enough to spring to the muzzle of his adversary's -gun and to hold it so that it pointed away from his body; Fabrizio and -he pulled at the gun, each with his whole strength. Giletti, who was a -great deal the more vigorous of the two, placing one hand in front of -the other, kept creeping forward towards the lock, and was on the point -of snatching away the gun when Fabrizio, to prevent him from making use -of it, fired. He had indeed seen, first, that the muzzle of the gun was -more than three inches above Giletti's shoulder: still, the detonation -occurred close to the man's ear. He was somewhat startled at first, but -at once recovered himself: - -"Oh, so you want to blow my head off, you scum! Just let me settle your -reckoning." Giletti flung away the scabbard of his Marchese's sword, and -fell upon Fabrizio with admirable swiftness. Our hero had no weapon, and -gave himself up for lost. - -He made for the carriage, which had stopped some ten yards beyond -Giletti; he passed to the left of it, and, grasping the spring of the -carriage in his hand, made a quick turn which brought him level with the -door on the right hand side, which stood open. Giletti, who had started -off on his long legs and had not thought of checking himself by catching -hold of the spring, went on for several paces in the same direction -before he could stop. As Fabrizio passed by the open door, he heard -Marietta whisper to him: - -"Take care of yourself; he will kill you. Here!" - -As he spoke, Fabrizio saw fall from the door a sort of big hunting -knife, he stooped to pick it up, but as he did so was wounded in the -shoulder by a blow from Giletti's sword. Fabrizio, on rising to his -feet, found himself within six inches of Giletti, who struck him a -furious blow in the face with the hilt of his sword; this blow was -delivered with so much force that it completely took away Fabrizio's -senses. At that moment, he was on the point of being killed. Fortunately -for him, Giletti was still too near to be able to give him a thrust with -the point. Fabrizio, when he came to himself, took to flight, and ran as -fast as his legs would carry him; as he ran, he flung away the sheath of -the hunting knife, and then, turning smartly round, found himself three -paces ahead of Giletti, who was in pursuit. Giletti rushed on, Fabrizio -struck at him with the point of his knife; Giletti was in time to beat -up the knife a little with his sword, but he received the point of the -blade full in the left cheek. He passed close by Fabrizio who felt his -thigh pierced: it was Giletti's knife, which he had found time to open. -Fabrizio sprang to the right; he turned round, and at last the two -adversaries found themselves at a proper fighting distance. - -Giletti swore like a lost soul: "Ah! I shall slit your throat for you, -you rascally priest," he kept on repeating every moment. Fabrizio was -quite out of breath and could not speak: the blow on his face from the -sword-hilt was causing him a great deal of pain, and his nose was -bleeding abundantly. He parried a number of strokes with his hunting -knife, and made a number of passes without knowing quite what he was -doing. He had a vague feeling that he was at a public display. This idea -had been suggested to him by the presence of the workmen, who, to the -number of twenty-five or thirty, formed a circle round the combatants, -but at a most respectful distance; for at every moment they saw them -start to run, and spring upon one another. - - - - -_A DUEL_ - - -The fight seemed to be slackening a little; the strokes no longer -followed one another with the same rapidity, when Fabrizio said to -himself: "To judge by the pain which I feel in my face, he must have -disfigured me." In a spasm of rage at this idea, he leaped upon his -enemy with the point of his hunting knife forwards. This point entered -Giletti's chest on the right side and passed out near his left shoulder; -at the same moment Giletti's sword passed right to the hilt through the -upper part of Fabrizio's arm, but the blade glided under the skin and -the wound was not serious. - -Giletti had fallen; as Fabrizio advanced towards him, looking down at -his left hand which was clasping a knife, that hand opened mechanically -and let the weapon slip to the ground. - -"The rascal is dead," said Fabrizio to himself. He looked at Giletti's -face: blood was pouring from his mouth. Fabrizio ran to the carriage. - -"Have you a mirror?" he cried to Marietta. Marietta stared at him, -deadly pale, and made no answer. The old woman with great coolness -opened a green workbag and handed Fabrizio a little mirror with a -handle, no bigger than his hand. Fabrizio as he looked at himself felt -his face carefully: "My eyes are all right," he said to himself, "that -is something, at any rate." He examined his teeth; they were not broken -at all. "Then how is it that I am in such pain?" he asked himself, -half-aloud. - -The old woman answered him: - -"It is because the top of your cheek has been crushed between the hilt -of Giletti's sword and the bone we keep there. Your cheek is horribly -swollen and blue: put leeches on it instantly, and it will be all -right." - -"Ah! Leeches, instantly!" said Fabrizio with a laugh, and recovered all -his coolness. He saw that the workmen had gathered round Giletti, and -were gazing at him, without venturing to touch him. - -"Look after that man there!" he called to them; "take his coat off." He -was going to say more, but, on raising his eyes, saw five or six men at -a distance of three hundred yards on the high road, who were advancing -on foot and at a measured pace towards the scene of action. - -"They are police," he thought, "and, as there has been a man killed, -they will arrest me, and I shall have the honour of making a solemn -entry into the city of Parma. What a story for the Raversi's friends at -court who detest my aunt!" - -Immediately, with the rapidity of a flash of lightning, he flung to the -open-mouthed workmen all the money that he had in his pockets and leaped -into the carriage. - -"Stop the police from pursuing me!" he cried to his men, "and your -fortunes are all made; tell them that I am innocent, that this man -_attacked me and wanted to kill me_." - -"And you," he said to the _vetturino_, "make your horses gallop; you shall -have four golden napoleons if you cross the Po before these people -behind can overtake me." - -"Right you are," said the man; "but there's nothing to be afraid of: -those men back there are on foot, and my little horses have only to trot -to leave them properly in the lurch." So saying, he put the animals into -a gallop. - - - - -_PRECAUTIONS_ - - -Our hero was shocked to hear the word "afraid" used by the driver: the -fact being that really he had been extremely afraid after the blow from -the sword-hilt which had struck him in the face. - -"We may run into people on horseback coming towards us," said the -prudent _vetturino_, thinking of the four napoleons, "and the men who -are following us may call out to them to stop us. . . ." Which meant, in -other words: "Reload your weapons." - -"Oh, how brave you are, my little Abate!" cried Marietta as she embraced -Fabrizio. The old woman was looking out through the window of the -carriage; presently she drew in her head. - -"No one is following you, sir," she said to Fabrizio with great -coolness; "and there is no one on the road in front of you. You know how -particular the officials of the Austrian police are: if they see you -arrive like this at a gallop, along the embankment by the Po, they will -arrest you, no doubt about it." - -Fabrizio looked out of the window. - -"Trot," he said to the driver. "What passport have you?" he asked the -old woman. - -"Three, instead of one," she replied, "and they cost us four francs -apiece; a dreadful thing, isn't it, for poor dramatic artists who are -kept travelling all the year round! Here is the passport of Signor -Giletti, dramatic artist: that will be you; here are our two passports, -Marietta's and mine. But Giletti had all our money in his pocket; what -is to become of us?" - -"What had he?" Fabrizio asked. - -"Forty good scudi of five francs," said the old woman. - -"You mean six, and some small change," said Marietta with a smile: "I -won't have my little Abate cheated." - -"Isn't it only natural, sir," replied the old woman with great coolness, -"that I should try to tap you for thirty-four scudi? What are -thirty-four scudi to you, and we--we have lost our protector. Who is -there now to find us lodgings, to beat down prices with the _vetturini_ -when we are on the road, and to put the fear of God into everyone? -Giletti was not beautiful, but he was most useful; and if the little -girl there hadn't been a fool, and fallen in love with you from the -first, Giletti would never have noticed anything, and you would have -given us good money. I can assure you that we are very poor." - -Fabrizio was touched; he took out his purse and gave several napoleons -to the old woman. - -"You see," he said to her, "I have only fifteen left, so it is no use -your trying to pull my leg any more." - -Little Marietta flung her arms round his neck, and the old woman kissed -his hands. The carriage was moving all this time at a slow trot. When -they saw in the distance the yellow barriers striped with black which -indicated the beginning of Austrian territory, the old woman said to -Fabrizio: - -"You would do best to cross the frontier on foot with Giletti's passport -in your pocket; as for us, we shall stop for a minute, on the excuse of -making ourselves tidy. And besides, the _dogana_ will want to look at -our things. If you will take my advice, you will go through -Casalmaggiore at a careless stroll; even go into the _caffè_ and drink -a glass of brandy, once you are past the village, put your best foot -foremost. The police are as sharp as the devil in an Austrian country; -they will pretty soon know there has been a man killed; you are -travelling with a passport which is not yours, that is more than enough -to get you two years in prison. Make for the Po on your right after you -leave the town, hire a boat and get away to Ravenna or Ferrara; get -clear of the Austrian States as quickly as ever you can. With a couple -of louis you should be able to buy another passport from some -_doganiere_; it would be fatal to use this one; don't forget that you -have killed the man." - - - - -_FEAR_ - - -As he approached, on foot, the bridge of boats at Casalmaggiore, -Fabrizio carefully reread Giletti's passport. Our hero was in great -fear, he recalled vividly all that Conte Mosca had said to him about the -danger involved in his entering Austrian territory; well, two hundred -yards ahead of him he saw the terrible bridge which was about to give -him access to that country, the capital of which, in his eyes, was the -Spielberg. But what else was he to do? The Duchy of Modena, which -marches with the State of Parma on the South, returned its fugitives in -compliance with a special convention, the frontier of the State which -extends over the mountains in the direction of Genoa was too far off; -his misadventure would be known at Parma long before he could reach -those mountains; there remained therefore nothing but the Austrian -States on the left bank of the Po. Before there was time to write to the -Austrian authorities asking them to arrest him, thirty-six hours, or -even two days must elapse. All these considerations duly weighed, -Fabrizio set a light with his cigar to his own passport; it was better -for him, on Austrian soil, to be a vagabond than to be Fabrizio del -Dongo, and it was possible that they might search him. - -Quite apart from the very natural repugnance which he felt towards -entrusting his life to the passport of the unfortunate Giletti, this -document presented material difficulties. Fabrizio's height was, at the -most, five feet five inches, and not five feet ten inches as was stated -on the passport. He was not quite twenty-four, and looked younger. -Giletti had been thirty-nine. We must confess that our hero paced for a -good half-hour along a flood-barrier of the Po near the bridge of boats -before making up his mind to go down on to it. "What should I advise -anyone else to do in my place?" he asked himself finally. "Obviously, to -cross: there is danger in remaining in the State of Parma; a constable -may be sent in pursuit of the man who has killed another man, even in -self-defence." Fabrizio went through his pocket, tore up all his papers, -and kept literally nothing but his handkerchief and his cigar-case; it -was important for him to curtail the examination which he would have to -undergo. He thought of a terrible objection which might be raised, and -to which he could find no satisfactory answer: he was going to say that -his name was Giletti, and all his linen was marked F. D. - -As we have seen, Fabrizio was one of those unfortunates who are -tormented by their imagination; it is a characteristic fault of men of -intelligence in Italy. A French soldier of equal or even inferior -courage would have gone straight to the bridge and have crossed it -without more ado, without thinking beforehand of any possible -difficulties; but also he would have carried with him all his coolness, -and Fabrizio was far from feeling cool when, at the end of the bridge, a -little man, dressed in grey, said to him: "Go into the police office and -shew your passport." - -This office had dirty walls studded with nails from which hung the pipes -and the soiled hats of the officials. The big deal table behind which -they were installed was spotted all over with stains of ink and wine; -two or three fat registers bound in raw hide bore stains of all colours, -and the margins of the pages were black with finger-marks. On top of the -registers which were piled one on another lay three magnificent wreaths -of laurel which had done duty a couple of days before for one of the -Emperor's festivals. - - - - -_THE PASSPORT_ - - -Fabrizio was impressed by all these details; they gave him a tightening -of the heart; this was the price he must pay for the magnificent luxury, -so cool and clean, that caught the eye in his charming rooms in the -_palazzo_ Sanseverina. He was obliged to enter this dirty office and to -appear there as an inferior; he was about to undergo an examination. - -The official who stretched out a yellow hand to take his passport was -small and dark. He wore a brass pin in his necktie. "This is an -ill-tempered fellow," thought Fabrizio. The gentleman seemed excessively -surprised as he read the passport, and his perusal of it lasted fully -five minutes. - -"You have met with an accident," he said to the stranger, looking at his -cheek. - -"The _vetturino_ flung us out over the embankment." - -Then the silence was resumed, and the official cast sour glances at the -traveller. - -"I see it now," Fabrizio said to himself, "he is going to inform me that -he is sorry to have bad news to give me, and that I am under arrest." -All sorts of wild ideas surged simultaneously into our hero's brain, -which at this moment was not very logical. For instance, he thought of -escaping by a door in the office which stood open. "I get rid of my -coat, I jump into the Po, and no doubt I shall be able to swim across -it. Anything is better than the Spielberg." The police official was -staring fixedly at him, while he calculated the chances of success of -this dash for safety; they furnished two interesting types of the human -countenance. The presence of danger gives a touch of genius to the -reasoning man, places him, so to speak, above his own level: in the -imaginative man it inspires romances, bold, it is true, but frequently -absurd. - -You ought to have seen the indignant air of our hero under the searching -eye of this police official, adorned with his brass jewelry. "If I were -to kill him," thought Fabrizio, "I should be convicted of murder and -sentenced to twenty years in the galleys, or to death, which is a great -deal less terrible than the Spielberg with a chain weighing a hundred -and twenty pounds on each foot and nothing but eight ounces of bread to -live on; and that lasts for twenty years; so that I should not get out -until I was forty-four." Fabrizio's logic overlooked the fact that, as -he had burned his own passport, there was nothing to indicate to the -police official that he was the rebel, Fabrizio del Dongo. - -Our hero was sufficiently alarmed, as we have seen; he would have been a -great deal more so could he have read the thoughts that were disturbing -the official's mind. This man was a friend of Giletti; one may judge of -his surprise when he saw his friend's passport in the hands of a -stranger; his first impulse was to have that stranger arrested, then he -reflected that Giletti might easily have sold his passport to this fine -young man who apparently had just been doing something disgraceful at -Parma. "If I arrest him," he said to himself, "Giletti will get into -trouble; they will at once discover that he has sold his passport; on -the other hand, what will my chiefs say if it is proved that I, a friend -of Giletti, put a _visa_ on his passport when it was carried by someone -else." The official got up with a yawn and said to Fabrizio: "Wait a -minute, sir"; then, adopting a professional formula, added: "A -difficulty has arisen." On which Fabrizio murmured: "What is going to -arise is my escape." - -As a matter of fact, the official went out of the office, leaving the -door open; and the passport was left lying on the deal table. "The -danger is obvious," thought Fabrizio; "I shall take my passport and walk -slowly back across the bridge; I shall tell the constable, if he -questions me, that I forgot to have my passport examined by the -commissary of police in the last village in the State of Parma." -Fabrizio had already taken the passport in his hand when, to his -unspeakable astonishment, he heard the clerk with the brass jewelry say: - -"Upon my soul, I can't do any more work; the heat is stifling; I am -going to the _caffè_ to have half a glass. Go into the office when you -have finished your pipe, there's a passport to be stamped; the party is -in there." - -Fabrizio, who was stealing out on tiptoe, found himself face to face -with a handsome young man who was saying to himself, or rather humming: -"Well, let us see this passport; I'll put my scrawl on it." - -"Where does the gentleman wish to go?" - -"To Mantua, Venice and Ferrara." - -"Ferrara it is," said the official, whistling; he took up a die, stamped -the _visa_ in blue ink on the passport, rapidly wrote in the words: -"Mantua, Venice and Ferrara," in the space left blank by the stamp, then -waved his hand several times in the air, signed, and dipped his pen in -the ink to make his flourish, which he executed slowly and with infinite -pains. Fabrizio followed every movement of his pen; the clerk studied -his flourish with satisfaction, adding five or six finishing touches, -then handed the passport back to Fabrizio, saying in a careless tone: "A -good journey, sir!" - -Fabrizio made off at a pace the alacrity of which he was endeavouring to -conceal, when he felt himself caught by the left arm: instinctively his -hand went to the hilt of his dagger, and if he had not observed that he -was surrounded by houses he might perhaps have done something rash. The -man who was touching his left arm, seeing that he appeared quite -startled, said by way of apology: - -"But I called the gentleman three times, and got no answer; has the -gentleman anything to declare before the customs?" - -"I have nothing on me but my handkerchief; I am going to a place quite -near here, to shoot with one of my family." - -He would have been greatly embarrassed had he been asked to name this -relative. What with the great heat and his various emotions, Fabrizio -was as wet as if he had fallen into the Po. "I am not lacking in courage -to face actors, but clerks with brass jewelry send me out of my mind; I -shall make a humorous sonnet out of that to amuse the Duchessa." - -Entering Casalmaggiore, Fabrizio at once turned to the right along a -mean street which leads down to the Po. "I am in great need," he said to -himself, "of the succour of Bacchus and Ceres," and he entered a shop -outside which there hung a grey clout fastened to a stick; on the clout -was inscribed the word _Trattoria_. A meagre piece of bed-linen -supported on two slender wooden hoops and hanging down to within three -feet of the ground sheltered the doorway of the _Trattoria_ from the -vertical rays of the sun. There, a half-undressed and extremely pretty -woman received our hero with respect, which gave him the keenest -pleasure; he hastened to inform her that he was dying of hunger. While -the woman was preparing his breakfast, there entered a man of about -thirty; he had given no greeting on coming in; suddenly he rose from the -bench on which he had flung himself down with a familiar air, and said -to Fabrizio: "_Eccellenza, la riverisco_! (Excellency, your servant!)" -Fabrizio was in the highest spirits at the moment, and, instead of -forming sinister plans, replied with a laugh: "And how the devil do you -know my Excellency?" - - - - -_THE TRATTORIA_ - - -"What! Doesn't Your Excellency remember Lodovico, one of the Signora -Duchessa Sanseverina's coachmen? At Sacca, the place in the country -where we used to go every year, I always took fever; I asked the Signora -for a pension, and retired from service. Now I am rich; instead of the -pension of twelve scudi a year, which was the most I was entitled to -expect, the Signora told me that, to give me the leisure to compose -sonnets, for I am a poet in the _lingua volgare_, she would allow me -twenty-four scudi and the Signor Conte told me that if ever I was in -difficulties I had only to come and tell him. I have had the honour to -drive Monsignore for a stage, when he went to make his retreat, like a -good Christian, in the Certosa of Velleja." - -Fabrizio studied the man's face and began to recognise him. He had been -one of the smartest coachmen in the Sanseverina establishment; now that -he was what he called rich his entire clothing consisted of a coarse -shirt, in holes, and a pair of cloth breeches, dyed black at some time -in the past, which barely came down to his knees; a pair of shoes and a -villainous hat completed his equipment. In addition to this, he had not -shaved for a fortnight. As he ate his omelette Fabrizio engaged in -conversation with him, absolutely as between equals; he thought he -detected that Lodovico was in love with their hostess. He finished his -meal rapidly, then said in a low voice to Lodovico: "I want a word with -you." - -"Your Excellency can speak openly before her, she is a really good -woman," said Lodovico with a tender air. - -"Very well, my friends," said Fabrizio without hesitation, "I am in -trouble, and have need of your help. First of all, there is nothing -political about my case; I have simply and solely killed a man who -wanted to murder me because I spoke to his mistress." - -"Poor young man!" said the landlady. - -"Your Excellency can count on me!" cried the coachman, his eyes ablaze -with the most passionate devotion; "where does His Excellency wish to -go?" - -"To Ferrara. I have a passport, but I should prefer not to speak to the -police, who may have received information of what has happened." - -"When did you despatch this fellow?" - -"This morning, at six o'clock." - -"Your Excellency has no blood on his clothes, has he?" asked the -landlady. - -"I was thinking of that," put in the coachman, "and besides, the cloth -of that coat is too fine; you don't see many like that in the country -round here, it would make people stare at us; I shall go and buy some -clothes from the Jew. Your Excellency is about my figure, only thinner." - -"For pity's sake, don't go on calling me Excellency, it may attract -attention." - -"Very good, Excellency," replied the coachman, as he left the tavern. - -"Here, here," Fabrizio called after him, "and what about the money! Come -back!" - -"What do you mean--money!" said the landlady; "he has sixty-seven scudi -which are entirely at your service. I myself," she went on, lowering her -voice, "have forty scudi which I offer you with the best will in the -world; one doesn't always have money on one when these accidents -happen." - -On account of the heat, Fabrizio had taken off his coat on entering the -_Trattoria_. - -"You have a waistcoat on you which might land us in trouble if anyone -came in: that fine _English cloth_ would attract attention." She gave our -fugitive a stuff waistcoat, dyed black, which belonged to her husband. A -tall young man came into the tavern by an inner door; he was dressed -with a certain style. - - - - -_THE LANDLADY_ - - -"This is my husband," said the landlady. "Pietro-Antonio," she said to -her husband, "this gentleman is a friend of Lodovico; he met with an -accident this morning, across the river, and he wants to get away to -Ferrara." - -"Oh, we'll get him there," said the husband with an air of great -gentility; "we have Carlo-Giuseppe's boat." - -Owing to another weakness in our hero which we shall confess as -naturally as we have related his fear in the police office at the end of -the bridge, there were tears in his eyes; he was profoundly moved by the -perfect devotion which he found among these _contadini_; he thought also -of this characteristic generosity of his aunt; he would have liked to be -able to make these people's fortune. Lodovico returned, carrying a -packet. - -"So that's finished," the husband said to him in a friendly tone. - -"It's not that," replied Lodovico in evident alarm, "people are -beginning to talk about you, they noticed that you hesitated before -turning down our _vicolo_ and leaving the big street, like a man who was -trying to hide." - -"Go up quick to the bedroom," said the husband. - -This room, which was very large and fine, had grey cloth instead of -glass in its two windows; it contained four beds, each six feet wide and -five feet high. - -"Be quick! Be quick!" said Lodovico, "there is a swaggering fool of a -constable who has just been posted here and began trying to make love to -the pretty lady downstairs; and I've told him that when he goes -travelling about the country he may find himself stopping a bullet. If -the dog hears any mention of Your Excellency, he'll want to do us a bad -turn, he will try to arrest you here, so as to get Teodolinda's -_Trattoria_ a bad name. - -"What's this?" Lodovico went on, seeing Fabrizio's shirt all stained -with blood and his wounds bandaged with handkerchiefs, "so the _porco_ -shewed fight, did he? That's a hundred times more than you need to get -yourself arrested, and I haven't bought you any shirt." Without ceremony -he opened the husband's wardrobe and gave one of his shirts to Fabrizio, -who was soon attired like a prosperous countryman. Lodovico took down a -net that was hanging on the wall, placed Fabrizio's clothes in the -basket in which the fish are put, went downstairs at a run and hastened -out of the house by a back door; Fabrizio followed him. - -"Teodolinda," he called out as he passed by the bar, "hide what I've -left upstairs, we are going to wait among the willows, and you, -Pietro-Antonio, send us a boat quickly, we'll pay well for it." - -Lodovico led Fabrizio across more than a score of ditches. There were -planks, very long and very elastic, which served as bridges across the -wider of these ditches; Lodovico took up these planks after crossing by -them. On coming to the last canal he took up the plank with haste. "Now -we can stop and breathe," he said; "that dog of a constable will have to -go two leagues and more to reach Your Excellency. Why, you're quite -pale," he said to Fabrizio; "I haven't forgotten the little bottle of -brandy." - -"It comes in most useful; the wound in my thigh is beginning to hurt me; -and besides, I was in a fine fright in the police office by the bridge." - -"I can well believe it," said Lodovico; "with a shirt covered in blood, -as yours was, I can't conceive how you ever even dared to set foot in -such a place. As for your wounds, I know what to do; I am going to put -you in a cool place where you can sleep for an hour; the boat will come -for us there, if there is any way of getting a boat; if not, when you -have rested a little, we shall go on two short leagues, and I shall take -you to a mill where I shall take a boat myself. Your Excellency knows -far more than I do: the Signora will be in despair when she hears of the -accident; they will tell her that you are mortally wounded, perhaps even -that you killed the other man by foul play. The Marchesa Raversi will -not fail to circulate all the evil reports that can hurt the Signora. -Your Excellency might write." - - - - -_THE PO_ - - -"And how should I get the letter delivered?" - -"The boys at the mill where we are going earn twelve soldi a day; in a -day and a half they can be at Parma, say four francs for the journey, -two francs for the wear and tear of their shoe-leather: if the errand -was being done for a poor man like me, that would be six francs; as it -is in the service of a Signore, I shall give them twelve." - -When they had reached the resting-place in a clump of alders and -willows, very leafy and very cool, Lodovico went to a house more than an -hour's journey away in search of ink and paper. "Great heavens, how -comfortable I am here," cried Fabrizio. "Fortune, farewell! I shall -never be an Archbishop!" - -On his return, Lodovico found him fast asleep and did not like to arouse -him. The boat did not arrive until the sun had almost set; as soon as -Lodovico saw it appear in the distance he called Fabrizio, who wrote a -couple of letters. - -"Your Excellency knows far more than I do," said Lodovico with a -troubled air, "and I am very much afraid of displeasing him seriously, -whatever he may say, if I add a certain remark." - -"I am not such a fool as you think me," replied Fabrizio, "and, whatever -you may say, you will always be in my eyes a faithful servant of my -aunt, and a man who has done everything in the world to get me out of a -very awkward scrape." - -Many more protestations still were required before Lodovico could be -prevailed upon to speak, and when, at last he had made up his mind, he -began with a preamble which lasted for quite five minutes. Fabrizio grew -impatient, then said to himself: "After all, whose fault is it? It is -due to our vanity, which this man has very well observed from his seat -on the box." Lodovico's devotion at last impelled him to run the risk of -speaking plainly. - -"What would not the Marchesa Raversi give to the messenger you are going -to send to Parma to have these two letters? They are in your -handwriting, and consequently furnish legal evidence against you. Your -Excellency will take me for an inquisitive and indiscreet fellow; in the -second place, he will perhaps feel ashamed of setting before the eyes of -the Signora Duchessa the wretched handwriting of a coachman like myself; -but after all, the thought of your safety opens my mouth, although you -may think me impertinent. Could not Your Excellency dictate those two -letters to me? Then I am the only person compromised, and that very -little; I can say, at a pinch, that you appeared to me in the middle of -a field with an inkhorn in one hand and a pistol in the other, and that -you ordered me to write." - -"Give me your hand, my dear Lodovico," cried Fabrizio, "and to prove to -you that I wish to have no secret from a friend like yourself, copy -these two letters just as they are." Lodovico fully appreciated this -mark of confidence, and was extremely grateful for it, but after writing -a few lines, as he saw the boat coming rapidly downstream: - -"The letters will be finished sooner," he said to Fabrizio, "if Your -Excellency will take the trouble to dictate them to me." The letters -written, Fabrizio wrote an A and a B on the closing lines, and on a -little scrap of paper which he afterwards crumpled up, put in French: -"_Croyez A et B_." The messenger would be told to hide this scrap of -paper in his clothing. - -The boat having come within hailing distance, Lodovico called to the -boatmen by names which were not theirs; they made no reply, and put into -the bank a thousand yards lower down, looking all round them to make -sure that they had not been seen by some _doganiere_. - -"I am at your orders," said Lodovico to Fabrizio; "would you like me to -take these letters myself to Parma? Or would you prefer me to accompany -you to Ferrara?" - -"To accompany me to Ferrara is a service which I was hardly daring to -ask of you. I shall have to land, and try to enter the town without -shewing my passport. I may tell you that I feel the greatest repugnance -towards travelling under the name of Giletti, and I can think of no one -but yourself who would be able to buy me another passport." - -"Why didn't you speak at Casalmaggiore? I know a spy there who would -have sold me an excellent passport, and not dear, for forty or fifty -francs." - -One of the two boatmen, whose home was on the right bank of the Po, and -who consequently had no need of a foreign passport to go to Parma, -undertook to deliver the letters. Lodovico, who knew how to handle the -oars, set to work to propel the boat with the other man. - -"We shall find on the lower reaches of the Po," he said, "several armed -vessels belonging to the police, and I shall manage to avoid them." Ten -times at least they were obliged to hide among little islets flush with -the water, covered with willows. Three times they set foot on shore in -order to let the boat drift past the police vessels empty. Lodovico took -advantage of these long intervals of leisure to recite to Fabrizio -several of his sonnets. The sentiments were true enough, but were so to -speak blunted by his expression of them, and were not worth the trouble -of putting them on paper; the curious thing was that this ex-coachman -had passions and points of view that were vivid and picturesque; he -became cold and commonplace as soon as he began to write. "It is the -opposite of what we see in society," thought Fabrizio; "people know -nowadays how to express everything gracefully, but their hearts have -nothing to say." He realised that the greatest pleasure he could give to -this faithful servant would be to correct the mistakes in spelling in -his sonnets. - -"They laugh at me when I lend them my copy-book," said Lodovico; "but if -Your Excellency would deign to dictate to me the spelling of the words -letter by letter, the envious fellows wouldn't have anything left to -say: spelling doesn't make genius." It was not until the third night of -his journey that Fabrizio was able to land in complete safety in a -thicket of alders, a league above Pontelagoscuro. All the next day he -remained hidden in a hempfield, while Lodovico went ahead to Ferrara; he -there took some humble lodgings in the house of a poor Jew, who at once -realised that there was money to be earned if one knew how to keep one's -mouth shut. That evening, as the light began to fail, Fabrizio entered -Ferrara riding upon a pony; he had every need of this support, for he -had been touched by the sun on the river; the knife-wound that he had in -his thigh, and the sword-thrust that Giletti had given him in the -shoulder, at the beginning of their duel, were inflamed and had brought -on a fever. - - - - -CHAPTER TWELVE - - -The Jew, the owner of the house, had procured a discreet surgeon, who, -realising in his turn that there was money in the case, informed -Lodovico that his _conscience_ obliged him to make his report to the -police on the injuries of the young man whom he, Lodovico, called his -brother. - -"The law is clear on the subject," he added; "it is evident that your -brother cannot possibly have injured himself, as he says, by falling -from a ladder while he was holding an open knife in his hand." - -Lodovico replied coldly to this honest surgeon that, if he should decide -to yield to the inspirations of his conscience, he, Lodovico, would have -the honour, before leaving Ferrara, of falling upon him in precisely the -same way, with an open knife in his hand. When he reported this incident -to Fabrizio, the latter blamed him strongly, but there was not a moment -to be lost; they must fly. Lodovico told the Jew that he wished to try -the effect of a little fresh air on his brother; he went to fetch a -carriage, and our friends left the house never to return. The reader is -no doubt finding these accounts of all the manœuvres that the absence -of a passport renders necessary extremely wearisome; this sort of -anxiety does not exist in France; but in Italy, and especially in the -neighbourhood of the Po, people talk about passports all day long. Once -they had left Ferrara without hindrance, as though they were taking a -drive, Lodovico sent the carriage back, then re-entered the town by -another gate and returned to pick up Fabrizio with a _sediola_ which he -had hired to take them a dozen leagues. Coming near Bologna, our friends -had themselves taken through the fields to the road which leads from -Florence to Bologna; they spent the night in the most wretched inn they -could find, and on the following day, Fabrizio feeling strong enough to -walk a little, they entered Bologna like ordinary pedestrians. They had -burned Giletti's passport; the comedian's death must by now be common -knowledge, and there was less danger in being arrested as people without -passports than as bearing the passport of a man who had been killed. - -Lodovico knew at Bologna two or three servants in great houses; it was -decided that he should go to them and find out how the land lay. He -explained to them that, while he was on his way from Florence, -travelling with his younger brother, the latter, wanting to sleep, had -let him come on by himself an hour before sunrise. He was to have joined -him in the village where he, Lodovico, would stop to escape the midday -heat. But Lodovico, seeing no sign of his brother, had decided to -retrace his steps; he had found his brother injured by a blow from a -stone and with several knife-wounds, and, in addition, robbed by some -men who had picked a quarrel with him. This brother was a good-looking -boy, knew how to groom and drive horses, read and write, and was anxious -to find a place with some good family. Lodovico reserved for use on a -future occasion the detail that, when Fabrizio was on the ground, the -robbers had fled, taking with them the little bag in which the brothers -had put their linen and their passports. - -On arriving in Bologna, Fabrizio, feeling extremely tired and not -venturing, without a passport, to shew his face at an inn, had gone into -the huge church of San Petronio. He found there a delicious coolness; -presently he felt quite revived. "Ungrateful wretch that I am," he said -to himself suddenly, "I go into a church, simply to sit down, as it -might be in a _caffè_!" He threw himself on his knees and thanked God -effusively for the evident protection with which he had been surrounded -ever since he had had the misfortune to kill Giletti. The danger which -still made him shudder had been that of his being recognised in the -police office at Casalmaggiore. "How," he asked himself, "did that -clerk, whose eyes were so full of suspicion, who read my passport -through at least three times, fail to notice that I am not five feet ten -inches tall, that I am not thirty-eight years old, and that I am not -strongly pitted by small-pox? What thanks I owe to Thee, O my God! And I -have actually refrained until this moment from casting the nonentity -that I am at Thy feet. My pride has chosen to believe that it was to a -vain human prudence that I owed the good fortune of escaping the -Spielberg, which was already opening to engulf me." - - - - -_SAN PETRONIO_ - - -Fabrizio spent more than an hour in this state of extreme emotion, in -the presence of the immense bounty of God. Lodovico approached, without -his hearing him, and took his stand opposite him. Fabrizio, who had -buried his face in his hands, raised his head, and his faithful servant -could see the tears streaming down his cheeks. - -"Come back in an hour," Fabrizio ordered him, somewhat harshly. - -Lodovico forgave this tone in view of the speaker's piety. Fabrizio -repeated several times the Seven Penitential Psalms, which he knew by -heart; he stopped for a long time at the verses which had a bearing on -his situation at the moment. - -Fabrizio asked pardon of God for many things, but what is really -remarkable is that it never entered his head to number among his faults -the plan of becoming Archbishop simply because Conte Mosca was Prime -Minister and felt that office and all the importance it implied to be -suitable for the Duchessa's nephew. He had desired it without passion, -it is true, but still he had thought of it, exactly as one might think -of being made a Minister or a General. It had never entered his thoughts -that his conscience might be concerned in this project of the Duchessa. -This is a remarkable characteristic of the religion which he owed to the -instruction given him by the Jesuits of Milan. That religion _deprives -one of the courage to think of unfamiliar things_, and especially -forbids _personal examination_, as the most enormous of sins; it is a -step towards Protestantism. To find out of what sins one is guilty, one -must question one's priest, or read the list of sins, as it is to be -found printed in the books entitled, _Preparation for the Sacrament of -Penance_. Fabrizio knew by heart the list of sins, rendered into the -Latin tongue, which he had learned at the Ecclesiastical Academy of -Naples. So, when going through that list, on coming to the article, -_Murder_, he had most forcibly accused himself before God of having -killed a man, but in defence of his own life. He had passed rapidly, and -without paying them the slightest attention, over the various articles -relating to the sin of _Simony_ (the procuring of ecclesiastical -dignities with money). If anyone had suggested to him that he should pay -a hundred louis to become First Grand Vicar of the Archbishop of Parma, -he would have rejected such an idea with horror; but, albeit he was not -wanting in intelligence, nor above all in logic, it never once occurred -to his mind that the employment on his behalf of Conte Mosca's influence -was a form of Simony. This is where the Jesuitical education triumphs: -it forms the habit of not paying attention to things that are clearer -than daylight. A Frenchman, brought up among conflicting personal -interests and in the prevailing irony of Paris might, without being -deliberately unfair, have accused Fabrizio of hypocrisy at the very -moment when our hero was opening his soul to God with the utmost -sincerity and the most profound emotion. - -Fabrizio did not leave the church until he had prepared the confession -which he proposed to make next day. He found Lodovico sitting on the -steps of the vast stone peristyle which rises above the great piazza -opposite the front of San Petronio. As after a storm the air becomes -more pure, so now Fabrizio's soul was tranquil and happy and so to speak -refreshed. - -"I feel quite well now, I hardly notice my wounds," he said to Lodovico -as he approached him; "but first of all I have to apologise to you; I -answered you crossly when you came and spoke to me in the church; I was -examining my conscience. Well, how are things going?" - -"Excellently: I have taken lodgings, to tell the truth not at all worthy -of Your Excellency, with the wife of one of my friends, who is a very -pretty woman and, better still, on the best of terms with one of the -heads of the police. To-morrow I shall go to declare how our passports -came to be stolen; my declaration will be taken in good part; but I -shall pay the carriage of the letter which the police will write to -Casalmaggiore, to find out whether there exists in that _comune_ a -certain San Micheli, Lodovico, who has a brother, named Fabrizio, in -service with the Signora Duchessa Sanseverina at Parma. All is settled, -_siamo a cavallo_." (An Italian proverb meaning: "We are saved.") - -Fabrizio had suddenly assumed a most serious air: he begged Lodovico to -wait a moment, almost ran back into the church, and when barely past the -door flung himself down on his knees; he humbly kissed the stone slabs -of the floor. "It is a miracle, Lord," he cried with tears in his eyes: -"when Thou sawest my soul disposed to return to the path of duty, Thou -hast saved me. Great God! It is possible that one day I may be killed in -some quarrel; in the hour of my death remember the state in which my -soul is now." It was with transports of the keenest joy that Fabrizio -recited afresh the Seven Penitential Psalms. Before leaving the building -he went up to an old woman who was seated before a great Madonna and by -the side of an iron triangle rising vertically from a stand of the same -metal. The sides of this triangle bristled with a large number of spikes -intended to support the little candles which the piety of the faithful -keeps burning before the famous Madonna of Cimabue. Seven candles only -were lighted when Fabrizio approached the stand; he registered this fact -in his memory, with the intention of meditating upon it later on when he -had more leisure. - -"What do the candles cost?" he asked the woman. - -"Two bajocchi each." - -As a matter of fact they were scarcely thicker than quills and were not -a foot in length. - -"How many candles can still go on your triangle?" - -"Sixty-three, since there are seven alight." - -"Ah!" thought Fabrizio, "sixty-three and seven make seventy; that also -is to be borne in mind." He paid for the candles, placed the first seven -in position himself, and lighted them, then fell on his knees to make -his oblation, and said to the old woman as he rose: - -"It is _for grace received_. - -"I am dying of hunger," he said to Lodovico as he joined him outside. - -"Don't let us go to an _osteria_, let us go to our lodgings; the woman -of the house will go out and buy you everything you want for your meal; -she will rob you of a score of soldi, and will be all the more attached -to the newcomer in consequence." - -"All this means simply that I shall have to go on dying of hunger for a -good hour longer," said Fabrizio, laughing with the serenity of a child: -and he entered an _osteria_ close to San Petronio. To his extreme -surprise, he saw at a table near the one at which he had taken his seat, -Peppe, his aunt's first footman, the same who on a former occasion had -come to meet him at Geneva. Fabrizio made a sign to him to say nothing; -then, having made a hasty meal, a smile of happiness hovering over his -lips, he rose; Peppe followed him, and, for the third time, our hero -entered the church of San Petronio. Out of discretion, Lodovico remained -outside, strolling in the _piazza_. - -"Oh, Lord, Monsignore! How are your wounds? The Signora Duchessa is -terribly upset: for a whole day she thought you were dead, and had been -left lying on some island in the Po; I must go and send off a messenger -to her this very instant. I have been looking for you for the last six -days; I spent three at Ferrara, searching all the inns." - -"Have you a passport for me?" - -"I have three different ones: one with Your Excellency's names and -titles, a second with your name only, and the other in a false name, -Giuseppe Bossi; each passport is made out in duplicate, according to -whether Your Excellency prefers to have come from Florence or from -Modena. You have only to go for a turn outside the town. The Signor -Conte would be glad if you would lodge at the Albergo del Pellegrino; -the landlord is a friend of his." - -Fabrizio, with the air of a casual visitor, advanced along the right -aisle of the church to the place where his candles were burning; he -fastened his eyes on Cimabue's Madonna, then said to Peppe as he fell on -his knees: "I must just give thanks for a moment." Peppe followed his -example. When they left the church, Peppe noticed that Fabrizio gave a -twenty-franc piece to the first pauper who asked him for alms: this -mendicant uttered cries of gratitude which drew into the wake of the -charitable stranger the swarms of paupers of every kind who generally -adorn the Piazza San Petronio. All of them were anxious to have a share -in the napoleon. The women, despairing of making their way through the -crowd that surrounded him, flung themselves on Fabrizio, shouting to him -to know whether it was not the fact that he had intended to give his -napoleon to be divided among all the _poveri del buon Dio_. Peppe, -brandishing his gold-headed cane, ordered them to leave His Excellency -alone. - -"Oh! Excellency!" all the women proceeded to cry in still more piercing -accents, "give another gold napoleon for the poor women!" Fabrizio -increased his pace, the women followed him, screaming, and a number of -male paupers, running in from every street, created a sort of tumult. -All this crowd, horribly dirty and energetic, cried out: "_Eccellenza_!" -Fabrizio had great difficulty in escaping from the rabble; the scene -brought his imagination back to earth. "I have got only what I deserve," -he said to himself; "I have rubbed shoulders with the mob." - -Two women followed him as far as the Porta Saragozza, by which he left -the town: Peppe stopped them by threatening them seriously with his cane -and flinging them some small change; Fabrizio climbed the charming hill -of San Michele in Bosco, made a partial circuit of the town outside the -walls, took a path which brought him in five hundred yards to the -Florence road, then re-entered Bologna and gravely handed to the police -official a passport in which his description was given in the fullest -detail. This passport gave him the name of Giuseppe Bossi, student of -theology. Fabrizio noticed a little spot of red ink dropped, as though -by accident, at the foot of the sheet, near the right hand corner. A -couple of hours later he had a spy on his heels, on account of the title -of _Eccellenza_ which his companion had given him in front of the -beggars of San Petronio, although his passport bore none of the titles -which give a man the right to make his servants address him as -Excellency. - - - - -_THE INQUIRY_ - - -Fabrizio saw the spy and made light of him; he gave no more thought -either to passports or to police, and amused himself with everything, -like a boy. Peppe, who had orders to stay beside him, seeing that he was -more than satisfied with Lodovico, preferred to go back in person to -convey these good tidings to the Duchessa. Fabrizio wrote two very long -letters to his dear friends; then it occurred to him to write a third to -the venerable Archbishop Landriani. This letter produced a marvellous -effect; it contained a very exact account of the affair with Giletti. -The good Archbishop, deeply moved, did not fail to go and read this -letter to the Prince, who was quite ready to listen to it, being -somewhat curious to know what line this young Monsignore took to excuse -so shocking a murder. Thanks to the many friends of the Marchesa -Raversi, the Prince, as well as the whole city of Parma, believed that -Fabrizio had procured the assistance of twenty or thirty peasants to -overpower a bad actor who had had the insolence to challenge him for the -favours of little Marietta. In despotic courts, the first skilful -intriguer controls the _Truth_, as the fashion controls it in Paris. - -"But, what in the devil's name!" exclaimed the Prince to the Archbishop; -"one gets things of that sort done for one by somebody else; but to do -them oneself is not the custom; besides, one doesn't kill a comedian -like Giletti, one buys him." - -Fabrizio had not the slightest suspicion of what was going on at Parma. -As a matter of fact, the question there was whether the death of this -comedian, who in his lifetime had earned a monthly salary of thirty-two -francs, was not going to bring about the fall of the Ultra Ministry, and -of its leader, Conte Mosca. - -On learning of the death of Giletti, the Prince, stung by the -independent airs which the Duchessa was giving herself, had ordered the -Fiscal General Rassi to treat the whole case as though the person -charged were a Liberal. Fabrizio, for his part, thought that a man of -his rank was superior to the laws; he did not take into account that in -countries where bearers of great names are never punished, intrigue can -do anything, even against them. He often spoke to Lodovico of his -perfect innocence, which would very soon be proclaimed; his great -argument being that he was not guilty. Whereupon Lodovico said to him: -"I cannot conceive how Your Excellency, who has so much intelligence and -education, can take the trouble to say all that before me who am his -devoted servant; Your Excellency adopts too many precautions; that sort -of thing is all right to say in public, or before a court." "This man -believes me to be a murderer, and loves me none the less for it," -thought Fabrizio, falling from the clouds. - -Three days after Peppe's departure, he was greatly astonished to receive -an enormous letter, sealed with a plait of silk, as in the days of Louis -XIV, and addressed _a Sua Eccellenza reverendissima monsignor Fabrizio -del Dongo, primo gran vicario della diocesi di Parma, canonico_, etc. - -"Why, am I still all that?" he asked himself with a laugh. Archbishop -Landriani's letter was a masterpiece of logic and lucidity; it filled -nevertheless nineteen large pages, and gave an extremely good account of -all that had occurred in Parma on the occasion of the death of Giletti. - -"A French army commanded by Marshal Ney, and marching upon the town, -would not have had a greater effect," the good Archbishop informed him; -"with the exception of the Duchessa and myself, my dearly beloved son, -everyone believes that you gave yourself the pleasure of killing the -histrion Giletti. Had this misfortune befallen you, it is one of those -things which one hushes up with two hundred louis and six months' -absence abroad; but the Marchesa Raversi is seeking to overthrow Conte -Mosca with the help of this incident. It is not at all with the dreadful -sin of murder that the public blames you, it is solely with the -_clumsiness_, or rather the insolence of not having condescended to have -recourse to a _bulo_" (a sort of hired assassin). "I give you a summary -here in clear terms of the things that I hear said all around me, for -since this ever deplorable misfortune, I go every day to three of the -principal houses in the town to have an opportunity of justifying you. -And never have I felt that I was making a more blessed use of the scanty -eloquence with which heaven has deigned to endow me." - - - - -_THE ARCHBISHOP_ - - -The scales fell from Fabrizio's eyes; the Duchessa's many letters, -filled with transports of affection, never condescended to tell him -anything. The Duchessa swore to him that she would leave Parma for ever, -unless presently he returned there in triumph. "The Conte will do for -you," she wrote to him in the letter that accompanied the Archbishop's, -"everything that is humanly possible. As for myself, you have changed my -character with this fine escapade of yours; I am now as great a miser as -the banker Tombone; I have dismissed all my workmen, I have done more, I -have dictated to the Conte the inventory of my fortune, which turns out -to be far less considerable than I supposed. After the death of the -excellent Conte Pietranera, whom, by the way, you would have done far -better to avenge, instead of exposing your life to a creature of -Giletti's sort, I was left with an income of twelve hundred francs and -five thousand francs of debts; I remember, among other things, that I -had two and a half dozen white satin slippers coming from Paris and not -a single pair of shoes to wear in the street. I have almost made up my -mind to take the three hundred thousand francs which the Duca has left -me, the whole of which I intended to use in erecting a magnificent tomb -to him. Besides, it is the Marchesa Raversi who is your principal enemy, -that is to say mine; if you find life dull by yourself at Bologna, you -have only to say the word, I shall come and join you. Here are four more -bills of exchange," and so on. - -The Duchessa said not a word to Fabrizio of the opinion that was held in -Parma of his affair, she wished above all things to comfort him, and in -any event the death of a ridiculous creature like Giletti did not seem -to her the sort of thing that could be seriously charged against a del -Dongo. "How many Gilettis have not our ancestors sent into the other -world," she said to the Conte, "without anyone's ever taking it into his -head to reproach them with it?" - -Fabrizio, taken completely by surprise, and getting for the first time a -glimpse of the true state of things, set himself down to study the -Archbishop's letter. Unfortunately the Archbishop himself believed him -to be better informed than he actually was. Fabrizio gathered that the -principal cause of the Marchesa Raversi's triumph lay in the fact that -it was impossible to find any eye-witnesses of the fatal combat. The -footman who had been the first to bring the news to Parma had been at -the village inn at Sanguigna when the fight occurred; little Marietta -and the old woman who acted as her mother had vanished, and the Marchesa -had bought the _vetturino_ who drove the carriage, and who had now made -an abominable deposition. "Although the proceedings are enveloped in the -most profound mystery," wrote the Archbishop in his Ciceronian style, -"and directed by the Fiscal General, Rassi, of whom Christian charity -alone can restrain me from speaking evil, but who has made his fortune -by harrying his wretched prisoners as the greyhound harries the hare; -although this Rassi, I say, whose turpitude and venality your -imagination would be powerless to exaggerate, has been appointed to take -charge of the case by an angry Prince, I have been able to read the -three depositions of the _vetturino_. By a signal piece of good fortune, -the wretch contradicts himself. And I shall add, since I am addressing -my Grand Vicar, him who, after myself, is to have the charge of this -Diocese, that I have sent for the curate of the parish in which this -straying sinner resides. I shall tell you, my dearly beloved son, but -under the seal of the confessional, that this curate already knows, -through the wife of the _vetturino_, the number of scudi that he has -received from the Marchesa Raversi; I shall not venture to say that the -Marchesa insisted upon his slandering you, but that is probable. The -scudi were transmitted to him through a wretched priest who performs -functions of a base order in the Marchesa's household, and whom I have -been obliged to banish from the altar for the second time. I shall not -weary you with an account of various other actions which you might -expect from me, and which, moreover, enter into my duty. A Canon, your -colleague at the Cathedral, who is a little too prone at times to -remember the influence conferred upon him by the wealth of his family, -to which, by divine permission, he is now the sole heir, having allowed -himself to say in the house of Conte Zurla, the Minister of the -Interior, that he regarded this _bagattella_ (he referred to the killing -of the unfortunate Giletti) as proved against you, I summoned him to -appear before me, and there, in the presence of my three other Vicars -General, of my Chaplain and of two curates who happened to be in the -waiting-room, I requested him to communicate to us his brethren the -elements of the complete conviction which he professed to have acquired -against one of his colleagues at the Cathedral; the unhappy man was able -to articulate only the most inconclusive arguments; every voice was -raised against him, and, although I did not think it my duty to add more -than a very few words, he burst into tears and made us the witnesses of -his full confession of his complete error, upon which I promised him -secrecy in my name and in the names of the persons who had been present -at the discussion, always on the condition that he would devote all his -zeal to correcting the false impressions that might have been created by -the language employed by him during the previous fortnight. - -"I shall not repeat to you, my dear son, what you must long have known, -namely that of the thirty-four _contadini_ employed on the excavations -undertaken by Conte Mosca, whom the Raversi pretends to have been paid -by you to assist you in a crime, thirty-two were at the bottom of their -trench, wholly taken up with their work, when you armed yourself with -the hunting knife and employed it to defend your life against the man -who had attacked you thus unawares. Two of their number, who were -outside the trench, shouted to the others: 'They are murdering -Monsignore!' This cry alone reveals your innocence in all its whiteness. -Very well, the Fiscal General Rassi maintains that these two men have -disappeared; furthermore, they have found eight of the men who were at -the bottom of the trench; at their first examination, six declared that -they had heard the cry: 'They are murdering Monsignore!' I know, through -indirect channels, that at their fifth examination, which was held -yesterday evening, five declared that they could not remember distinctly -whether they had heard the cry themselves or whether it had been -reported to them by their comrades. Orders have been given that I am to -be informed of the place of residence of these excavators, and their -parish priests will make them understand that they are damning -themselves if, in order to gain a few soldi, they allow themselves to -alter the truth." - -The good Archbishop went into endless details, as may be judged by those -we have extracted from his letter. Then he added, using the Latin -tongue: - -"This affair is nothing less than an attempt to bring about a change of -government. If you are sentenced, it can be only to the galleys or to -death, in which case I should intervene by declaring from my -Archepiscopal Throne that I know you to be innocent, that you simply -and solely defended your life against a brigand, and that finally I have -forbidden you to return to Parma for so long as your enemies shall be -triumphant there; I propose even to stigmatise, as he deserves, the -Fiscal General; the hatred felt for that man is as common as esteem for -his character is rare. But finally, on the eve of the day on which this -Fiscal is to pronounce so unjust a sentence, the Duchessa Sanseverina -will leave the town, and perhaps even the States of Parma: in that -event, no doubt is felt that the Conte will hand in his resignation. -Then, very probably, General Fabio Conti will come into office and the -Marchesa Raversi will be triumphant. The great mistake in your case is -that no skilled person has been appointed to take charge of the -procedure necessary to bring your innocence into the light of day, and -to foil the attempts that have been made to suborn witnesses. The Conte -believes that he is playing this part; but he is too great a gentleman -to stoop to certain details; besides, in his capacity as Minister of -Police, he was obliged to issue, at the first moment, the most severe -orders against you. Lastly, dare I say it, our Sovereign Lord believes -you to be guilty, or at least feigns that belief, and has introduced a -certain bitterness into the affair." (The words corresponding to "our -Sovereign Lord" and "feigns that belief" were in Greek, and Fabrizio -felt infinitely obliged to the Archbishop for having had the courage to -write them. With a pen-knife he cut this line out of the letter, and -destroyed it on the spot.) - -Fabrizio broke off a score of times while reading this letter; he was -carried away by transports of the liveliest gratitude: he replied at -once in a letter of eight pages. Often he was obliged to raise his head -so that his tears should not fall on the paper. Next day, as he was -sealing this letter, he felt that it was too worldly in tone. "I shall -write it in Latin," he said to himself, "that will make it appear more -seemly to the worthy Archbishop." But, while he was seeking to construct -fine Latin phrases of great length, in the true Ciceronian style, he -remembered that one day the Archbishop, in speaking to him of Napoleon, -had made a point of calling him Buonaparte; at that instant there -vanished all the emotion that, on the previous day, had moved him to -tears. "O King of Italy!" he exclaimed, "that loyalty which so many -others swore to thee in thy lifetime, I shall preserve for thee after -thy death. He is fond of me, no doubt, but because I am a del Dongo and -he a son of the people." So that his fine letter in Italian might not be -wasted, Fabrizio made a few necessary alterations in it, and addressed -it to Conte Mosca. - -That same day, Fabrizio met in the street little Marietta; she flushed -with joy and made a sign to him to follow her without speaking. She made -swiftly for a deserted archway; there, she pulled forward the black lace -shawl which, following the local custom, covered her head, so that she -could not be recognised; then turning round quickly: - -"How is it," she said to Fabrizio, "that you are walking freely in the -street like this?" Fabrizio told her his story. - - - - -_MARIETTA_ - - -"Good God! You were at Ferrara! And there was I looking for everywhere -in the place! You must know that I quarrelled with the old woman, -because she wanted to take me to Venice, where I knew quite well that -you would never go, because you are on the Austrian black list. I sold -my gold necklace to come to Bologna, I had a presentiment that I should -have the happiness of meeting you here; the old woman arrived two days -after me. And so I shan't ask you to come and see us, she would go on -making those dreadful demands for money which make me so ashamed. We -have lived very comfortably since the fatal day you remember, and -haven't spent a quarter of what you gave us. I would rather not come and -see you at the Albergo del Pellegrino, it would be a _pubblicità_. Try -to find a little room in a quiet street, and at the Ave Maria" -(nightfall) "I shall be here, under this same archway." So saying, she -took to her heels. - - - - -CHAPTER THIRTEEN - - -All serious thoughts were forgotten on the unexpected appearance of this -charming person. Fabrizio settled himself to live at Bologna in a joy -and security that were profound. This artless tendency to take delight -in everything that entered into his life shewed through in the letters -which he wrote to the Duchessa; to such an extent that she began to take -offence. Fabrizio paid little attention; he wrote, however, in abridged -symbols on the face of his watch: "When I write to the D., must never -say _When I was prelate, when I was in the Church_: that annoys her." He -had bought a pair of ponies with which he was greatly pleased: he used -to harness them to a hired carriage whenever little Marietta wished to -pay a visit to any of the enchanting spots in the neighbourhood of -Bologna; almost every evening he drove her to the _Cascata del Reno_. On -their way back, he would call on the friendly Crescentini, who regarded -himself as to some extent Marietta's father. - -"Upon my soul, if this is the _caffè_ life which seemed to me so -ridiculous for a man of any worth, I did wrong to reject it," Fabrizio -said to himself. He forgot that he never went near a _caffè_ except to -read the _Constitutionnel_, and that, since he was a complete stranger -to everyone in Bologna, the gratification of vanity did not enter at all -into his present happiness. When he was not with little Marietta, he was -to be seen at the Observatory, where he was taking a course in -astronomy; the Professor had formed a great affection for him, and -Fabrizio used to lend him his ponies on Sundays, to cut a figure with -his wife on the _Corso della Montagnola_. - - - - -_THE MAMMACCIA_ - - -He loathed the idea of harming any living creature, however undeserving -that creature might be. Marietta was resolutely opposed to his seeing -the old woman, but one day, when she was at church, he went up to visit -the _Mammaccia_, who flushed with anger when she saw him enter the room. -"This is a case where one plays the del Dongo," he said to himself. - -"How much does Marietta earn in a month when she is working?" he cried, -with the air with which a self-respecting young man, in Paris, enters -the balcony at the Bouffes. - -"Fifty scudi." - -"You are lying, as usual; tell the truth, or, by God, you shall not have -a centesimo!" - -"Very well, she was getting twenty-two scudi in our company at Parma, -when we had the bad luck to meet you; I was getting twelve scudi, and we -used to give Giletti, our protector, a third of what each of us earned. -Out of which, every month almost, Giletti would make Marietta a present; -the present might be worth a couple of scudi." - -"You're lying still; you never had more than four scudi. But if you are -good to Marietta, I will engage you as though I were an _impresario_; -every month you shall have twelve scudi for yourself and twenty-two for -her; but if I see her with red eyes, I make you bankrupt." - -"You're very stiff and proud; very well, your fine generosity will be -the ruin of us," replied the old woman in a furious tone; "we lose our -_avviamento_" (our connexion). "When we have the enormous misfortune to -be deprived of Your Excellency's protection, we shall no longer be known -in any of the companies, they will all be filled up; we shall not find -any engagement, and, all through you, we shall starve to death." - -"Go to the devil," said Fabrizio as he left the room. - -"I shall not go to the devil, you impious wretch! But I will go straight -away to the police office, where they shall learn from me that you are a -Monsignore who has flung his cassock to the winds, and that you are no -more Giuseppe Bossi than I am." Fabrizio had already gone some way down -the stairs. He returned. - -"In the first place, the police know better than you what my real name -may be; but if you take it into your head to denounce me, if you do -anything so infamous," he said to her with great seriousness, "Lodovico, -shall talk to you, and it is not six slashes with the knife that your -old carcass shall get, but two dozen, and you will be six months in -hospital, and no tobacco." - -The old woman turned pale, and dashed at Fabrizio's hand, which she -tried to kiss. - -"I accept with gratitude the provision that you are making for Marietta -and me. You look so good that I took you for a fool; and, you bear in -mind, others besides myself may make the same error; I advise you always -to adopt a more noblemanly air." Then she added with an admirable -impudence: "You will reflect upon this good advice, and, as the winter -is not far off, you will make Marietta and me a present of two good -jackets of that fine English stuff which they sell at the big shop in -the Piazza San Petronio." - -The love of the pretty Marietta offered Fabrizio all the charms of the -most delightful friendship, which set him dreaming of the happiness of -the same order which he might have been finding in the Duchessa's -company. - -"But is it not a very pleasant thing," he asked himself at times, "that -I am not susceptible to that exclusive and passionate preoccupation -which they call love? Among the intimacies into which chance has brought -me at Novara or at Naples, have I ever met a woman whose company, even -in the first few days, was to my mind preferable to riding a good horse -that I did not know? What they call love," he went on, "can that be just -another lie? I feel myself in love, no doubt, as I feel a good appetite -at six o'clock! Can it be out of this slightly vulgar propensity that -those liars have fashioned the love of Othello, the love of Tancred? Or -am I indeed to suppose that I am constructed differently from other men? -That my soul should be lacking in one passion, why should that be? It -would be a singular destiny!" - - - - -_THE DUCHESSA_ - - -At Naples, especially in the latter part of his time there, Fabrizio had -met women who, proud of their rank, their beauty and the position held -in society by the adorers whom they had sacrificed to him, had attempted -to lead him. On discovering their intention, Fabrizio had broken with -them in the most summary and open fashion. "Well," he said to himself, -"if I ever allow myself to be carried away by the pleasure, which no -doubt is extremely keen, of being on friendly terms with that charming -woman who is known as the Duchessa Sanseverina, I shall be exactly like -that stupid Frenchman who killed the goose that was laying the golden -eggs. It is to the Duchessa that I owe the sole happiness which has ever -come to me from sentiments of affection: my friendship for her is my -life, and besides, without her, what am I? A poor exile reduced to -living from hand to mouth in a tumble-down country house outside Novara. -I remember how, during the heavy autumn rains, I used to be obliged, at -night, for fear of accidents, to fix up an umbrella over the tester of -my bed. I rode the agent's horses, which he was good enough to allow out -of respect for my blue blood (for my influence, that is), but he was -beginning to find my stay there a trifle long; my father had made me an -allowance of twelve hundred francs, and thought himself damned for -having given bread to a Jacobin. My poor mother and sisters let -themselves go without new clothes to keep me in a position to make a few -little presents to my mistresses. This way of being generous pierced me -to the heart. And besides, people were beginning to suspect my poverty, -and the young noblemen of the district would have been feeling sorry for -me next. Sooner or later some prig would have let me see his contempt -for a poor Jacobin whose plans had come to grief, for in those people's -eyes I was nothing more than that. I should have given or received some -doughty thrust with a sword which would have carried me off to the -fortress of Fenestrelle, or else I should have been obliged to take -refuge again in Switzerland, still on my allowance of twelve hundred -francs. I have the good fortune to be indebted to the Duchessa for the -absence of all these evils; besides, it is she who feels for me the -transports of affection which I ought to be feeling for her. - -"Instead of that ridiculous, pettifogging existence which would have -made me a sad dog, a fool, for the last four years I have been living in -a big town, and have an excellent carriage, which things have preserved -me from feelings of envy and all the base sentiments of a provincial -life. This too indulgent aunt is always scolding me because I do not -draw enough money from the banker. Do I wish to ruin for all time so -admirable a position? Do I wish to lose the one friend that I have in -the world? All I need do is to utter a _falsehood_; all I need do is to -say to a charming woman, a woman who is perhaps without a counterpart in -the world, and for whom I feel the most passionate friendship: '_I love -you_,' I who do not know what it is to love amorously. She would spend -the day finding fault with me for the absence of these transports which -are unknown to me. Marietta, on the other hand, who does not see into my -heart, and takes a caress for a transport of the soul, thinks me madly -in love and looks upon herself as the most fortunate of women. - -"As a matter of fact, the only slight acquaintance I have ever had with -that tender obsession which is called, I believe, _love_, was with that -young Aniken in the inn at Zonders, near the Belgian frontier." - - - - -_FAUSTA_ - - -It is with regret that we have to record here one of Fabrizio's worst -actions; in the midst of this tranquil life, a wretched _pique_ of -vanity took possession of this heart rebellious to love and led it far -astray. Simultaneously with himself there happened to be at Bologna the -famous Fausta F----, unquestionably one of the finest singers of the day -and perhaps the most capricious woman that was ever seen. The excellent -poet Burati, of Venice, had composed the famous satirical sonnet about -her, which at that time was to be heard on the lips alike of princes and -of the meanest street Arabs: - - -"To wish and not to wish, to adore and on the same day to detest, to -find contentment only in inconstancy, to scorn what the world worships, -while the world worships it: Fausta has these defects and many more. -Look not therefore upon that serpent. If thou seest her, imprudent man, -thou forgettest her caprices. Hast thou the happiness to hear her voice, -thou dost forget thyself, and love makes of thee, in a moment, what -Circe in days of yore made of the companions of Ulysses." - - -For the moment, this miracle of beauty had come under the spell of the -enormous whiskers and haughty insolence of the young Conte M-----, to -such an extent as not to be revolted by his abominable jealousy. -Fabrizio saw this Conte in the streets of Bologna and was shocked by the -air of superiority with which he took up the pavement and deigned to -display his graces to the public. This young man was extremely rich, -imagined that everything was permitted him, and, as his _prepotenze_ had -brought him threats of punishment, never appeared in public save with -the escort of nine or ten _buli_ (a sort of cut-throat) clad in his -livery, whom he had brought from his estates in the environs of Brescia. -Fabrizio's eye had met once or twice that of this terrible Conte, when -chance led him to hear Fausta sing. He was astonished by the angelic -sweetness of her voice: he had never imagined anything like it; he was -indebted to it for sensations of supreme happiness, which made a -pleasing contrast to the _placidity_ of his life at the time. Could this -at last be love? he asked himself. Thoroughly curious to taste that -sentiment, and amused moreover by the thought of braving Conte M----, -whose expression was more terrifying than that of any drum-major, our -hero let himself fall into the childish habit of passing a great deal -too often in front of the _palazzo_ Tanari, which Conte M---- had taken -for Fausta. - -One day, as night was beginning to fall, Fabrizio, seeking to catch -Fausta's eye, was greeted by peals of laughter of the most pointed kind -proceeding from the Conte's _buli_, who were assembled by the door of -the _palazzo_ Tanari. He hastened home, armed himself well, and again -passed before the _palazzo_. Fausta, concealed behind her shutters, was -awaiting his return, and gave him due credit for it. M----, jealous of -the whole world, became specially jealous of Signor Giuseppe Bossi, and -indulged in ridiculous utterances; whereupon every morning our hero had -delivered at his door a letter which contained only these words: - -"Signor Giuseppe Bossi destroys troublesome insects and is staying at -the Pellegrino, Via Larga, No. 79." - -Conte M----, accustomed to the respect which was everywhere assured him -by his enormous fortune, his blue blood and the physical courage of his -thirty servants, declined altogether to understand the language of this -little missive. - -Fabrizio wrote others of the sort to Fausta; M---- posted spies round -this rival, who perhaps was not unattractive; first of all, he learned -his true name, and later that, for the present, he could not shew his -face at Parma. A few days after this, Conte M----, his _buli_, his -magnificent horses and Fausta set off together for Parma. - -Fabrizio, becoming excited, followed them next day. In vain did the good -Lodovico utter pathetic remonstrances: Fabrizio turned a deaf ear, and -Lodovico, who was himself extremely brave, admired him for it; besides, -this removal brought him nearer to the pretty mistress he had left at -Casalmaggiore. Through Lodovico's efforts, nine or ten old soldiers of -Napoleon's regiments re-enlisted under Signor Giuseppe Bossi, in the -capacity of servants. "Provided," Fabrizio told himself, when committing -the folly of going after Fausta, "that I have no communication either -with the Minister of Police, Conte Mosca, or with the Duchessa, I expose -only myself to risk. I shall explain later on to my aunt that I was -going in search of love, that beautiful thing which I have never -encountered. The fact is that I think of Fausta even when I am not -looking at her. But is it the memory of her voice that I love, or her -person?" Having ceased to think of an ecclesiastical career, Fabrizio -had grown a pair of moustaches and whiskers almost as terrible as those -of Conte M----, and these disguised him to some extent. He set up his -headquarters not at Parma--that would have been too imprudent--but in a -neighbouring village, in the woods, on the road to Sacca, where his aunt -had her country house. Following Lodovico's advice, he gave himself out -in this village as the valet of a great English nobleman of original -tastes, who spent a hundred thousand francs a year on providing himself -with the pleasures of the chase, and would arrive shortly from the Lake -of Como, where he was detained by the trout-fishing. Fortunately for -him, the charming little _palazzo_ which Conte M---- had taken for the -fair Fausta was situated at the southern extremity of the city of Parma, -precisely on the road to Sacca, and Fausta's windows looked out over the -fine avenues of tall trees which extend beneath the high tower of the -citadel. Fabrizio was completely unknown in this little frequented -quarter; he did not fail to have Conte M---- followed, and one day when -that gentleman had just emerged from the admirable singer's door, he had -the audacity to appear in the street in broad daylight; it must be -admitted that he was mounted upon an excellent horse, and well armed. A -party of musicians, of the sort that frequent the streets in Italy and -are sometimes excellent, came and planted their viols under Fausta's -window; after playing a prelude they sang, and quite well too, a cantata -composed in her honour. Fausta came to the window and had no difficulty -in distinguishing a young man of extremely polite manners, who, stopping -his horse in the middle of the street, bowed to her first of all, then -began to direct at her a gaze that could have but one meaning. In spite -of the exaggeratedly English costume adopted by Fabrizio, she soon -recognised the author of the passionate letters that had brought about -her departure from Bologna. "That is a curious creature," she said to -herself; "it seems to me that I am going to fall in love with him. I -have a hundred louis in hand, I can quite well give that terrible Conte -M---- the slip; if it comes to that, he has no spirit, he never does -anything unexpected, and is only slightly amusing because of the -bloodthirsty appearance of his escort." - -On the following day Fabrizio, having learned that every morning at -eleven o'clock Fausta went to hear mass in the centre of the town, in -that same church of San Giovanni which contained the tomb of his -great-uncle, Archbishop Ascanio del Dongo, made bold to follow her -there. To tell the truth, Lodovico had procured him a fine English wig -with hair of the most becoming red. Inspired by the colour of his wig, -which was that of the flames that were devouring his heart, he composed -a sonnet which Fausta thought charming; an unseen hand had taken care to -place it upon her piano. This little war lasted for quite a week; but -Fabrizio found that, in spite of the steps he was taking in every -direction, he was making no real progress; Fausta refused to see him. He -strained the effect of singularity; she admitted afterwards that she was -afraid of him. Fabrizio was kept going now only by a faint hope of -coming to feel what is known as _love_, but frequently he felt bored. - -"Let us leave this place, Signore," Lodovico used to urge him; "you are -not in the least in love: I can see that you have the most desperate -coolness and commonsense. Besides, you are making no headway; if only -for shame, let us clear out." Fabrizio was ready to go at the first -moment of ill-humour, when he heard that Fausta was to sing at the -Duchessa Sanseverina's. "Perhaps that sublime voice will succeed in -softening my heart," he said to himself; and he actually ventured to -penetrate in disguise into that _palazzo_ where he was known to every -eye. We may imagine the Duchessa's emotion, when right at the end of the -concert, she noticed a man in the full livery of a _chasseur_, standing -by the door of the big drawing-room: that pose reminded her of someone. -She went to look for Conte Mosca, who only then informed her of the -signal and truly incredible folly of Fabrizio. He took it extremely -well. This love for another than the Duchessa pleased him greatly; the -Conte, a perfect _galantuomo_, apart from politics, acted upon the maxim -that he could himself find happiness only so long as the Duchessa was -happy. "I shall save him from himself," he said to his mistress; "judge -of our enemies' joy if he were arrested in this _palazzo_! Also I have -more than a hundred men with me here, and that is why I made them ask -you for the keys of the great reservoir. He gives out that he is madly -in love with Fausta, and up to the present has failed to get her away -from Conte M----, who lets the foolish woman live the life of a queen." -The Duchessa's features betrayed the keenest grief; so Fabrizio was -nothing more than a libertine, utterly incapable of any tender and -serious feeling. "And not to come and see us! That is what I shall never -be able to forgive him!" she said at length; "and I writing to him every -day to Bologna!" - -"I greatly admire his restraint," replied the Conte; "he does not wish -to compromise us by his escapade, and it will be amusing to hear him -tell us about it." - -Fausta was too great a fool to be able to keep quiet about what was on -her mind; the day after the concert, every melody in which her eyes had -addressed to that tall young man dressed as a _chasseur_, she spoke to -Conte M---- of an unknown admirer. "Where do you see him?" asked the -Conte in a fury. "In the streets, in church," replied Fausta, at a loss -for words. At once she sought to atone for her imprudence, or at least -to eliminate from it anything that could suggest Fabrizio: she dashed -into an endless description of a tall young man with red hair; he had -blue eyes; no doubt he was some Englishman, very rich and very awkward, -or some prince. At this word Conte M----, who did not shine in the -accuracy of his perceptions, conceived the idea, deliciously flattering -to his vanity, that this rival was none other than the Crown Prince of -Parma. This poor melancholy young man, guarded by five or six governors, -under-governors, preceptors, etc., etc., who never allowed him out of -doors until they had first held council together, used to cast strange -glances at all the passable women whom he was permitted to approach. At -the Duchessa's concert, his rank had placed him in front of all the rest -of the audience in an isolated armchair within three yards of the fair -Fausta, and his stare had been supremely shocking to Conte M----. This -hallucination of an exquisite vanity, that he had a Prince for a rival, -greatly amused Fausta, who took delight in confirming it with a hundred -details artlessly supplied. - -"Your race," she asked the Conte, "is surely as old as that of the -Farnese, to which this young man belongs?" - -"What do you mean? As old? I have no bastardy in my family, thank -you."[11] - -As luck would have it, Conte M---- never had an opportunity of studying -this pretended rival at his leisure, which confirmed him in the -flattering idea of his having a Prince for antagonist. The fact was that -whenever the interests of his enterprise did not summon Fabrizio to -Parma, he remained in the woods round Sacca and on the bank of the Po. -Conte M---- was indeed more proud, but was also more prudent since he -had imagined himself to be on the way to disputing the heart of Fausta -with a Prince; he begged her very seriously to observe the greatest -restraint in all her doings. After flinging himself on his knees like a -jealous and impassioned lover, he declared to her in so many words that -his honour was involved in her not being made the dupe of the young -Prince. - -"Excuse me, I should not be his dupe if I cared for him; I must say, I -have never yet seen a Prince at my feet." - -"If you yield," he went on with a haughty stare, "I may not perhaps be -able to avenge myself on the Prince but I will, most assuredly, be -avenged"; and he went out, slamming the doors behind him. Had Fabrizio -presented himself at that moment, he would have won his cause. - -"If you value your life," her lover said to her that evening as he bade -her good night after the performance, "see that it never comes to my -ears that the young Prince has been inside your house. I can do nothing -to him, curse him, but do not make me remember that I can do everything -to you!" - -"Ah, my little Fabrizio," cried Fausta, "if I only knew where to find -you!" - -Wounded vanity may carry a young man far who is rich and from his cradle -has always been surrounded by flatterers. The very genuine passion that -Conte M---- felt for Fausta revived with furious intensity; it was in no -way checked by the dangerous prospect of his coming into conflict with -the only son of the Sovereign in whose dominions he happened to be -staying; at the same time he had not the courage to try to see this -Prince, or at least to have him followed. Not being able to attack him -in any other way, M---- dared to consider making him ridiculous. "I -shall be banished for ever from the States of Parma," he said to -himself; "Pshaw! What does that matter?" Had he sought to reconnoitre -the enemy's position, he would have learned that the poor young Prince -never went out of doors without being followed by three or four old men, -tiresome guardians of etiquette, and that the one pleasure of his choice -that was permitted him in the world was mineralogy. By day, as by night, -the little _palazzo_ occupied by Fausta, to which the best society of -Parma went in crowds, was surrounded by watchers; M---- knew, hour by -hour, what she was doing, and, more important still, what others were -doing round about her. There is this to be said in praise of the -precautions taken by her jealous lover: this eminently capricious woman -had at first no idea of the multiplication of his vigilance. The reports -of all his agents informed Conte M---- that a very young man, wearing a -wig of red hair, appeared very often beneath Fausta's windows, but -always in a different disguise. "Evidently, it is the young Prince," -thought M---- "otherwise, why the disguise? And, by gad, a man like me -is not made to give way to him. But for the usurpations of the Venetian -Republic, I should be a Sovereign Prince myself." - -On the feast of Santo Stefano, the reports of the spies took on a more -sombre hue; they seemed to indicate that Fausta was beginning to respond -to the stranger's advances. "I can go away this instant, and take the -woman with me!" M---- said to himself; "but no! At Bologna I fled from -del Dongo; here I should be fleeing before a Prince. But what could the -young man say? He might think that he had succeeded in making me afraid. -And, by God, I come of as good a family as he." M----- was furious, but, -to crown his misery, he made a particular point of not letting himself -appear in the eyes of Fausta, whom he knew to be of a mocking spirit, in -the ridiculous character of a jealous lover. On Santo Stefano's day, -then, after having spent an hour with her and been welcomed by her with -an ardour which seemed to him the height of insincerity, he left her, -shortly before eleven o'clock, getting ready to go and hear mass in the -church of San Giovanni. Conte M---- returned home, put on the shabby -black coat of a young student of theology, and hastened to San Giovanni; -he chose a place behind one of the tombs that adorn the third chapel on -the right; he could see everything that went on in the church beneath -the arm of a cardinal who is represented as kneeling upon his tomb; this -statue kept the light from the back of the chapel and gave him -sufficient concealment. Presently he saw Fausta arrive, more beautiful -than ever. She was in full array, and a score of admirers, drawn from -the highest ranks of society, furnished her with an escort. Joyous -smiles broke from her eyes and lips. "It is evident," thought the -jealous wretch, "that she counts upon meeting here the man she loves, -whom for a long time, perhaps, thanks to me, she has been prevented from -seeing." Suddenly, the keen look of happiness in her eyes seemed to -double in intensity; "My rival is here," muttered M----, and the fury of -his outraged vanity knew no bounds. "What sort of figure do I cut here, -serving as pendant to a young Prince in disguise?" But despite every -effort on his part, he could never succeed in identifying this rival, -for whom his famished gaze kept seeking in every direction. - -All through the service Fausta, after letting her eyes wander over the -whole church, would end by bringing her gaze to rest, charged with love -and happiness, on the dim corner in which M---- was concealed. In an -impassioned heart, love is liable to exaggerate the slightest shades of -meaning, it draws from them the most ridiculous conclusions; did not -poor M---- end by persuading himself that Fausta had seen him, that, -having in spite of his efforts perceived his deadly jealousy, she wished -to reproach him with it and at the same time to console him for it with -these tender glances? - -The tomb of the cardinal, behind which M---- had taken his post of -observation, was raised four or five feet above the marble floor of San -Giovanni. The fashionable mass ending about one o'clock, the majority of -the faithful left the church, and Fausta dismissed the _beaux_ of the -town, on a pretext of devotion; as she remained kneeling on her chair, -her eyes, which had grown more tender and more brilliant, were fixed on -M----; since there were now only a few people left in the building, she -no longer put her eyes to the trouble of ranging over the whole of it -before coming joyfully to rest on the cardinal's statue. "What -delicacy!" thought Conte M----, imagining that he was the object of her -gaze. At length Fausta rose and quickly left the church after first -making some odd movements with her hands. - -M----, blind with love and almost entirely relieved of his mad jealousy, -had left his post to fly to his mistress's _palazzo_ and thank her a -thousand, thousand times, when, as he passed in front of the cardinal's -tomb, he noticed a young man all in black: this funereal being had -remained until then on his knees, close against the epitaph on the tomb, -in such a position that the eyes of the jealous lover, in their search -for him, must pass over his head and miss him altogether. - -This young man rose, moved briskly away, and was immediately surrounded -by seven or eight persons, somewhat clumsy in their gait, of a singular -appearance, who seemed to belong to him. M----- hurried after him, but, -without any marked sign of obstruction, was stopped in the narrow -passage formed by the wooden drum of the door, by these clumsy men who -were protecting his rival; and when finally, at the tail of their -procession, he reached the street, he was in time only to see someone -shut the door of a carriage of humble aspect, which, by an odd contrast, -was drawn by a pair of excellent horses, and in a moment had passed out -of sight. - -He returned home panting with fury; presently there arrived his -watchers, who reported impassively that that morning the mysterious -lover, disguised as a priest, had been kneeling in an attitude of great -devotion against a tomb which stood in the entrance of a dark chapel in -the church of San Giovanni. Fausta had remained in the church until it -was almost empty, and had then rapidly exchanged certain signs with the -stranger; with her hands she had seemed to be making a series of -crosses. M---- hastened to the faithless one's house; for the first time -she could not conceal her uneasiness; she told him, with the artless -mendacity of a passionate woman that, as usual, she had gone to San -Giovanni, but that she had seen no sign there of that man who was -persecuting her. On hearing these words, M----, beside himself with -rage, railed at her as at the vilest of creatures, told her everything -that he had seen himself, and, the boldness of her lies increasing with -the force of his accusations, took his dagger and flung himself upon -her. With great coolness Fausta said to him: - -"Very well, everything you complain of is the absolute truth, but I have -tried to keep it from you so that you should not go rushing desperately -into mad plans of vengeance which may ruin us both; for, let me tell you -once for all, as far as I can make out, the man who is persecuting me -with his attentions is one who is accustomed not to meet with any -opposition to his wishes, in this country at any rate." Having very -skilfully reminded M---- that, after all, he had no legal authority over -her, Fausta ended by saying that probably she would not go again to the -church of San Giovanni. M---- was desperately in love; a trace of -coquetry had perhaps combined itself with prudence in the young woman's -heart; he felt himself disarmed. He thought of leaving Parma; the young -Prince, however powerful he might be, could not follow him, or if he did -follow him would cease to be anything more than his equal. But pride -represented to him afresh that this departure must inevitably have the -appearance of a flight, and Conte M---- forbade himself to think of it. - -"He has no suspicion that my little Fabrizio is here," the singer said -to herself, delighted, "and now we can make a fool of him in the most -priceless fashion!" - -Fabrizio had no inkling of his good fortune; finding next day that the -singer's windows were carefully shuttered, and not seeing her anywhere, -he began to feel that the joke was lasting rather too long. He felt some -remorse. "In what sort of position am I putting that poor Conte Mosca, -and he the Minister of Police! They will think he is my accomplice, I -shall have come to this place to ruin his career! But if I abandon a -project I have been following for so long, what will the Duchessa say -when I tell her of my essays in love?" - -One evening when, on the point of giving up everything, he was -moralising thus to himself, as he strolled under the tall trees which -divided Fausta's _palazzo_ from the citadel, he observed that he was -being followed by a spy of diminutive stature; in vain did he attempt to -shake him off by turning down various streets, this microscopic being -seemed always to cling to his heels. Growing impatient, he dashed into a -lonely street running along the bank of the Parma, where his men were -ambushed; on a signal from him they leaped out upon the poor little spy, -who flung himself at their feet; it was Bettina, Fausta's maid; after -three days of boredom and seclusion, disguised as a man to escape the -dagger of Conte M----, of whom her mistress and she were in great dread, -she had undertaken to come out and tell Fabrizio to see someone loved -him passionately and was burning to see him, but that the said person -could not appear any more in the church of San Giovanni. "The time has -come," Fabrizio said to himself, "hurrah for persistence!" - -The little maid was exceedingly pretty, a fact which took Fabrizio's -mind from his moralisings. She told him that the avenue and all the -streets through which he had passed that evening were being jealously -watched, though quite unobtrusively, by M----'s spies. They had taken -rooms on the ground floors or on the first storeys of the houses; hidden -behind the shutters and keeping absolutely silent, they observed -everything that went on in the apparently quite deserted street, and -heard all that was said. - -"If those spies had recognised my voice," said little Bettina, "I should -have been stabbed without mercy as soon as I got back to the house, and -my poor mistress with me, perhaps." - -This terror rendered her charming in Fabrizio's eyes. - -"Conte M----," she went on, "is furious, and the Signora knows that he -will stick at nothing. . . . She told me to say to you that she would -like to be a hundred leagues away from here with you." - -Then she gave an account of the scene on St. Stephen's day, and of the -fury of M----, who had missed none of the glances and signs of affection -which Fausta, madly in love that day with Fabrizio, had directed towards -him. The Conte had drawn his dagger, had seized Fausta by the hair, and, -but for her presence of mind, she must have perished. - -Fabrizio made the pretty Bettina come up to a little apartment which he -had near there. He told her that he came from Turin, and was the son of -an important personage who happened at that moment to be in Parma, which -meant that he had to be most careful in his movements. Bettina replied -with a smile that he was a far grander gentleman than he chose to -appear. It took our hero some little time to realise that the charming -girl took him for no less a personage than the Crown Prince himself. -Fausta was beginning to be frightened, and to love Fabrizio; she had -taken the precaution of not mentioning his name to her maid, but of -speaking to her always of the Prince. Finally Fabrizio admitted to the -pretty girl that she had guessed aright: "But if my name gets out," he -added, "in spite of the great passion of which I have furnished your -mistress with so many proofs, I shall be obliged to cease to see her, -and at once my father's Ministers, those rascally jokers whom I shall -bring down from their high places some day, will not fail to send her an -order to quit the country which up to now she has been adorning with her -presence." - -Towards morning, Fabrizio arranged with the little lady's maid a number -of plans by which he might gain admission to Fausta's house. He summoned -Lodovico and another of his retainers, a man of great cunning, who came -to an understanding with Bettina while he himself wrote the most -extravagant letter to Fausta; the situation allowed all the -exaggerations of tragedy, and Fabrizio did not miss the opportunity. It -was not until day was breaking that he parted from the little lady's -maid, whom he left highly satisfied with the ways of the young Prince. - -It had been repeated a hundred times over that, Fausta having now come -to an understanding with her lover, the latter was no longer to pass to -and fro beneath the windows of the little _palazzo_ except when he could -be admitted there, and that then a signal would be given. But Fabrizio, -in love with Bettina, and believing himself to have come almost to the -point with Fausta, could not confine himself to his village two leagues -outside Parma. The following evening, about midnight, he came on -horseback and with a good escort to sing under Fausta's windows an air -then in fashion, the words of which he altered. "Is not this the way in -which our friends the lovers behave?" he asked himself. - -Now that Fausta had shewn a desire to meet him, all this pursuit seemed -to Fabrizio very tedious. "No, I am not really in love in the least," he -assured himself as he sang (none too well) beneath the windows of the -little _palazzo_; "Bettina seems to me a hundred times preferable to -Fausta, and it is by her that I should like to be received at this -moment." Fabrizio, distinctly bored, was returning to his village when, -five hundred yards from Fausta's _palazzo_, fifteen or twenty men flung -themselves upon him; four of them seized his horse by the bridle, two -others took hold of his arms. Lodovico and Fabrizio's _bravi_ were -attacked, but managed to escape; they fired several shots with their -pistols. All this was the affair of an instant: fifty lighted torches -appeared in the street in the twinkling of an eye, as though by magic. -All these men were well armed. Fabrizio had jumped down from his horse -in spite of the men who were holding him; he tried to clear a space -round him; he even wounded one of the men who was gripping his arms in -hands like a pair of vices; but he was greatly surprised to hear this -man say to him, in the most respectful tone: - -"Your Highness will give me a good pension for this wound, which will be -better for me than falling into the crime of high treason by drawing my -sword against my Prince." - -"So this is the punishment I get for my folly," thought Fabrizio; "I -shall have damned myself for a sin which did not seem to me in the least -attractive." - -Scarcely had this little attempt at a battle finished, when a number of -lackeys in full livery appeared with a sedan-chair gilded and painted in -an odd fashion. It was one of those grotesque chairs used by masked -revellers at carnival time. Six men, with daggers in their hands, -requested His Highness to get into it, telling him that the cold night -air might be injurious to his voice: they affected the most reverential -forms, the title "Prince" being every moment repeated and almost -shouted. The procession began to move on. Fabrizio counted in the street -more than fifty men carrying lighted torches. It might be about one -o'clock in the morning; all the populace was gazing out of the windows, -the whole thing went off with a certain gravity. "I was afraid of -dagger-thrusts on Conte M----'s part," Fabrizio said to himself; "he -contents himself with making a fool of me; I had not suspected him of -such good taste. But does he really think that he has the Prince to deal -with? If he knows that I am only Fabrizio, ware the dirk!" - -These fifty men carrying torches and the twenty armed men, after -stopping for a long interval under Fausta's windows, proceeded to parade -before the finest _palazzi_ in the town. A pair of _maggiordomi_ posted -one on either side of the sedan-chair, asked His Highness from time to -time whether he had any order to give them. Fabrizio took care not to -lose his head; by the light which the torches cast he saw that Lodovico -and his men were following the procession as closely as possible. -Fabrizio said to himself: "Lodovico has only nine or ten men, and dares -not attack." From the interior of his sedan-chair he could see quite -plainly that the men responsible for carrying out this practical joke -were armed to the teeth. He made a show of talking and laughing with the -_maggiordomi_ who were looking after him. After more than two hours of -this triumphal march, he saw that they were about to pass the end of the -street in which the _palazzo_ Sanseverina stood. - -As they turned the corner, he quickly opened the door in the front of -the chair, jumped out over one of the carrying poles, felled with a blow -from his dagger one of the flunkeys who thrust a torch into his face; he -received a stab in the shoulder from a dirk; a second flunkey singed his -beard with his lighted torch, and finally Fabrizio reached Lodovico to -whom he shouted: "Kill! Kill everyone carrying a torch!" Lodovico used -his sword, and delivered Fabrizio from two men who had started in -pursuit of him. He arrived, running, at the door of the _palazzo_ -Sanseverina; out of curiosity the porter had opened the little door, -three feet high, that was cut in the big door, and was gazing in -bewilderment at this great mass of torches. Fabrizio sprang inside and -shut this miniature door behind him; he ran to the garden and escaped by -a gate which opened on to an unfrequented street. An hour later, he was -out of the town; at daybreak he crossed the frontier of the States of -Modena, and was safe. That evening he entered Bologna. "Here is a fine -expedition," he said to himself; "I never even managed to speak to my -charmer." He made haste to write letters of apology to the Conte and the -Duchessa, prudent letters which, while describing all that was going on -in his heart, could not give away any information to an enemy. "I was in -love with love," he said to the Duchessa, "I have done everything in the -world to acquire knowledge of it; but it appears that nature has refused -me a heart to love, and to be melancholy; I cannot raise myself above -the level of vulgar pleasure," and so forth. - -It would be impossible to give any idea of the stir that this escapade -caused in Parma. The mystery of it excited curiosity: innumerable people -had seen the torches and the sedan-chair. But who was the man they were -carrying away, to whom every mark of respect was paid? No one of note -was missing from the town next day. - -The humble folk who lived in the street from which the prisoner had made -his escape did indeed say that they had seen a corpse; but in daylight, -when they ventured out of their houses, they found no other traces of -the fray than quantities of blood spilled on the pavement. More than -twenty thousand sightseers came to visit the street that day. Italian -towns are accustomed to singular spectacles, but the _why_ and the -_wherefore_ of these are always known. What shocked Parma about this -occurrence was that even a month afterwards, when people had ceased to -speak of nothing but the torchlight procession, nobody, thanks to the -prudence of Conte Mosca, had been able to guess the name of the rival -who had sought to carry off Fausta, from Conte M----. This jealous and -vindictive lover had taken flight at the beginning of the parade. By the -Conte's order. Fausta was sent to the citadel. The Duchessa laughed -heartily over a little act of injustice which the Conte was obliged to -commit to put a stop to the curiosity of the Prince, who otherwise might -have succeeded in hitting upon the name of Fabrizio. - -There was to be seen at Parma a scholar, arrived there from the North to -write a History of the Middle Ages; he was in search of manuscripts in -the libraries, and the Conte had given him every possible facility. But -this scholar, who was still quite young, shewed a violent temper; he -believed, for one thing, that everybody in Parma was trying to make a -fool of him. It was true that the boys in the streets sometimes followed -him on account of an immense shock of bright red hair which he displayed -with pride. This scholar imagined that at his inn they were asking -exaggerated prices for everything, and he never paid for the smallest -trifle without first looking up its price in the _Travels_ of a certain -Mrs. Starke, a book which has gone into its twentieth edition because it -indicates to the prudent Englishman the price of a turkey, an apple, a -glass of milk, and so forth. - -The scholar with the fiery crest, on the evening of the very day on -which Fabrizio made this forced excursion, flew into a rage at his inn, -and drew from his pocket a brace of small pistols to avenge himself on -the _cameriere_ who demanded two soldi for an indifferent peach. He was -arrested, for to carry pocket pistols is a serious crime! - -As this irascible scholar was long and lean, the Conte conceived the -idea, next morning, of making him pass in the Prince's eyes as the rash -fellow who, having tried to steal away Fausta from Conte M----, had -afterwards been hoaxed. The carrying of pocket pistols is punishable at -Parma with three years in the galleys; but this punishment is never -enforced. After a fortnight in prison, during which time the scholar had -seen no one but a lawyer who had put in him a terrible fright by his -account of the atrocious laws aimed by the pusillanimity of those in -power against the bearers of hidden arms, another lawyer visited the -prison and told him of the expedition inflicted by Conte M---- on a -rival who had not yet been identified. "The police do not wish to admit -to the Prince that they have not been able to find out who this rival -is. Confess that you were seeking to find favour with Fausta; that fifty -brigands carried you off while you were singing beneath her window; that -for an hour they took you about the town in a sedan-chair without saying -anything to you that was not perfectly proper. There is nothing -humiliating about this confession, you are asked to say only one word. -As soon as, by saying it, you have relieved the police from their -difficulty, you will be put into a post-chaise and driven to the -frontier, where they will bid you good-bye." - -The scholar held out for a month; two or three times the Prince was on -the point of having him brought to the Ministry of the Interior, and of -being present in person at his examination. But at last he gave no more -thought to the matter when the scholar, losing patience, decided to -confess everything, and was conveyed to the frontier. The Prince -remained convinced that Conte M----'s rival had a forest of red hair. - -Three days after the escapade, while Fabrizio, who was in hiding at -Bologna, was planning with the faithful Lodovico the best way to catch -Conte M----, he learned that he too was hiding in a village in the -mountains on the road to Florence. The Conte had only two or three of -his _buli_ with him; next day, just as he was coming home from his ride, -he was seized by eight men in masks who gave him to understand that they -were _sbirri_ from Parma. They conducted him, after bandaging his eyes, -to an inn two leagues farther up the mountains, where he found himself -treated with the utmost possible respect, and an abundant supper -awaiting him. He was served with the best wines of Italy and Spain. - -"Am I a State prisoner then?" asked the Conte. - -"Nothing of the sort," the masked Lodovico answered him, most politely. -"You have given offence to a private citizen by taking upon yourself to -have him carried about in a sedan-chair; to-morrow morning he wishes to -fight a duel with you. If you kill him, you will find a pair of good -horses, money, and relays prepared for you along the road to Genoa." - -"What is the name of this fire-eater?" asked the Conte with irritation. - -"He is called _Bombace_. You will have the choice of weapons and good -seconds, thoroughly loyal, but it is essential that one of you die!" - -"Why, it is murder, then!" said the Conte; growing frightened. - -"Please God, no! It is simply a duel to the death with the young man -whom you have had carried about the streets of Parma in the middle of -the night, and whose honour would be tarnished if you remained alive. -One or other of you is superfluous on this earth, therefore try to kill -him; you shall have swords, pistols, sabres, all the weapons that can be -procured at a few hours' notice, for we have to make haste; the police -at Bologna are most diligent, as you perhaps know, and they must on no -account interfere with this duel which is necessary to the honour of the -young man whom you have made to look foolish." - -"But if this young man is a Prince. . . ." - -"He is a private citizen like yourself, and indeed a great deal less -wealthy than you, but he wishes to fight to the death, and he will force -you to fight, I warn you." - -"Nothing in the world frightens me!" cried M----. - -"That is just what your adversary most passionately desires," replied -Lodovico. "To-morrow, at dawn, prepare to defend your life; it will be -attacked by a man who has good reason to be extremely angry, and will -not let you off lightly; I repeat that you will have the choice of -weapons; and remember to make your will." - -Next morning, about six o'clock, breakfast was brought to Conte M----, a -door was then opened in the room in which he was confined, and he was -made to step into the courtyard of a country inn; this courtyard was -surrounded by hedges and walls of a certain height, and its doors had -been carefully closed. - -In a corner, upon a table which the Conte was requested to approach, he -found several bottles of wine and brandy, two pistols, two swords, two -sabres, paper and ink; a score of _contadini_ stood in the windows of -the inn which overlooked the courtyard. The Conte implored their pity. -"They want to murder me," he cried, "save my life!" - -"You deceive yourself, or you wish to deceive others," called out -Fabrizio, who was at the opposite corner of the courtyard, beside a table -strewn with weapons. He was in his shirtsleeves, and his face was -concealed by one of those wire masks which one finds in fencing-rooms. - -"I require you," Fabrizio went on, "to put on the wire mask which is -lying beside you, then to advance towards me with a sword or with -pistols; as you were told yesterday evening, you have the choice of -weapons." - -Conte M---- raised endless difficulties, and seemed most reluctant to -fight; Fabrizio, for his part, was afraid of the arrival of the police, -although they were in the mountains quite five leagues from Bologna. He -ended by hurling at his rival the most atrocious insults; at last he had -the good fortune to enrage Conte M----, who seized a sword and advanced -upon him. The fight began quietly enough. - -After a few minutes, it was interrupted by a great tumult. Our hero had -been quite aware that he was involving himself in an action which, for -the rest of his life, might be a subject of reproach or at least of -slanderous imputations. He had sent Lodovico into the country to procure -witnesses. Lodovico gave money to some strangers who were working in a -neighbouring wood; they ran to the inn shouting, thinking that the game -was to kill an enemy of the man who had paid them. When they reached the -inn, Lodovico asked them to keep their eyes open and to notice whether -either of the two young men who were fighting acted treacherously and -took an unfair advantage over the other. - -The fight, which had been interrupted for the time being by the cries of -murder uttered by the _contadini_, was slow in beginning again. Fabrizio -offered fresh insults to the fatuity of the Conte. "Signor Conte," he -shouted to him, "when one is insolent, one ought to be brave also. I -feel that the conditions are hard on you; you prefer to pay people who -are brave." The Conte, once more stung to action, began to shout to him -that he had for years frequented the fencing-school of the famous -Battistini at Naples, and that he was going to punish his insolence. -Conte M----'s anger having at length reappeared, he fought with a -certain determination, which did not however prevent Fabrizio from -giving him a very pretty thrust in the chest with his sword, which kept -him in bed for several months. Lodovico, while giving first aid to the -wounded man, whispered in his ear: "If you report this duel to the -police, I will have you stabbed in your bed." - -Fabrizio withdrew to Florence; as he had remained in hiding at Bologna, -it was only at Florence that he received all the Duchessa's letters of -reproach; she could not forgive his having come to her concert and made -no attempt to speak to her. Fabrizio was delighted by Conte Mosca's -letters; they breathed a sincere friendship and the most noble -sentiments. He gathered that the Conte had written to Bologna, in such a -way as to clear him of any suspicion which might attach to him as a -result of the duel. The police behaved with perfect justice: they -reported that two strangers, of whom one only, the wounded man, was -known to them (namely Conte M----), had fought with swords, in front of -more than thirty _contadini_, among whom there had arrived towards the -end of the fight the curate of the village, who had made vain efforts to -separate the combatants. As the name of Giuseppe Bossi had never been -mentioned, less than two months afterwards Fabrizio returned to Bologna, -more convinced than ever that his destiny condemned him never to know -the noble and intellectual side of love. So much he gave himself the -pleasure of explaining at great length to the Duchessa; he was -thoroughly tired of his solitary life and now felt a passionate desire -to return to those charming evenings which he used to pass with the -Conte and his aunt. Since then he had never tasted the delights of good -society. - -"I am so bored with the thought of the love which I sought to give -myself, and of Fausta," he wrote to the Duchessa, "that now, even if her -fancy were still to favour me, I would not go twenty leagues to hold her -to her promise; so have no fear, as you tell me you have, of my going to -Paris, where I see that she has now made her appearance and has created -a _furore_. I would travel all the leagues in the world to spend an -evening with you and with that Conte who is so good to his friends." - - -[Footnote 11: Pier-Luigi, the first sovereign of the Farnese family, so -renowned for his virtues, was, as is generally known, a natural son of -His Holiness Pope Paul III.] - - - - -END OF VOLUME I - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA VOLUME 1 -(OF 2) *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Charterhouse of Parma Volume 1 (of 2)</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Stendhal</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Translator: Charles Kenneth Scott-Moncrieff</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Contributor: Honoré de Balzac</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: September 25, 2021 [eBook #66374]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Laura Natal Rodrigues</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA VOLUME 1 (OF 2) ***</div> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> -<img src="images/charterhouse01_cover.jpg" width="500" alt="" /> -</div> - - -<h2>MARIE-HENRI BEYLE</h2> - -<h2>[DE STENDHAL]</h2> - - - - -<h1>THE CHARTERHOUSE<br /> -OF PARMA</h1> - - - - - -<h5><i>Translated from the French by</i></h5> - -<h4>C. K. SCOTT MONCRIEFF</h4> - - - - -<h4>VOLUME ONE</h4> - - - - -<h5>BONI & LIVERIGHT</h5> - -<h5>NEW YORK MCMXXV</h5> - - -<hr class="r5" /> - -<p><br /></p> - - -<h4><i>The Works of Stendhal</i></h4> - - - - -<h4>I</h4> - - - -<h3>THE CHARTERHOUSE<br /> -OF PARMA</h3> - - - - -<h4>VOLUME ONE</h4> - - -<hr class="r5" /> - -<h4>CONTENTS</h4> -<p class="nind"><a href="#A_STUDY_OF_M_BEYLE">A STUDY OF M. BEYLE by<br /> -Honoré De Balzac</a><br /> -<a href="#BEYLES_REPLY_TO_BALZAC">BEYLE'S REPLY TO BALZAC</a><br /> -<a href="#TO_THE_READER"><i>TO THE READER</i></a><br /> -<a href="#CHAPTER_ONE">CHAPTER ONE</a><br /> -<a href="#CHAPTER_TWO">CHAPTER TWO</a><br /> -<a href="#CHAPTER_THREE">CHAPTER THREE</a><br /> -<a href="#CHAPTER_FOUR">CHAPTER FOUR</a><br /> -<a href="#CHAPTER_FIVE">CHAPTER FIVE</a><br /> -<a href="#CHAPTER_SIX">CHAPTER SIX</a><br /> -<a href="#CHAPTER_SEVEN">CHAPTER SEVEN</a><br /> -<a href="#CHAPTER_EIGHT">CHAPTER EIGHT</a><br /> -<a href="#CHAPTER_NINE">CHAPTER NINE</a><br /> -<a href="#CHAPTER_TEN">CHAPTER TEN</a><br /> -<a href="#CHAPTER_ELEVEN">CHAPTER ELEVEN</a><br /> -<a href="#CHAPTER_TWELVE">CHAPTER TWELVE</a><br /> -<a href="#CHAPTER_THIRTEEN">CHAPTER THIRTEEN</a></p> - - -<hr class="r5" /> - -<p><br /></p> - -<h4>TRANSLATOR'S DEDICATION</h4> - -<p> -TO MADAME C—— R—— -</p> - -<p>In whom alone survives the spirit of the Sanseverina, to resist tyranny, -to unmask intrigue, to encourage ambition, this story of her -countrywoman is, in the language of her adopted country, dedicated by</p> - - -<p style="margin-left: 60%;">C. K. S. M.</p> - -<p>Pisa, December, 1924.</p> - - -<hr class="r5" /> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h4><a id="A_STUDY_OF_M_BEYLE">A STUDY OF M. BEYLE<br /> -<br /> -By Honoré De Balzac</a></h4> - -<p> -In our day, literature quite evidently presents three aspects; and, so -far from being a symptom of decadence, this triplicity, to use an -expression coined by M. Cousin in his dislike of the word trinity, seems -to me a natural enough effect of the abundance of literary talent: it is -a tribute to the nineteenth century, which does not offer one sole and -invariable form, like the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which -were more or less obedient to the tyranny of a man or of a system. -</p> - -<p> -These three forms, aspects or systems, by whichever name you choose to -call them, exist in nature and correspond to general sympathies which -were bound to declare themselves at a time when literature has seen, -through the spread of knowledge, the number of its appreciators increase -and the practice of reading advance with unparalleled progress. -</p> - -<p> -In all generations and among all peoples there are minds that are -elegiac, meditative, contemplative, minds that attach themselves more -especially to the great imagery, the vast spectacles of nature, and -transpose these into themselves. Hence a whole school to which I should -give the name: the <i>Literature of Imagery</i>, to which belong lyrical -writing, the epic and everything that springs from that way of looking -at things. -</p> - -<p> -There are, on the other hand, other active souls who like rapidity, -movement, conciseness, sudden shocks, action, drama, who avoid -discussion, who have little fondness for meditation, and take pleasure -in results. From these, another whole system from which springs what I -should call, in contrast to the former system, the <i>Literature of -Ideas</i>. -</p> - -<p> -Finally, certain complete beings, certain <i>bifrontal</i> intelligences -embrace everything, choose both lyricism and action, drama and ode, in -the belief that perfection requires a view of things as a whole. This -school, which may be called <i>Literary Eclecticism</i>, demands a -representation of the world as it is: imagery and ideas, the idea in the -image or the image in the idea, movement and meditation. Walter Scott -has entirely satisfied these eclectic natures. -</p> - -<p> -Which party predominates, I do not know. I should not like anyone to -infer from this natural distinction forced consequences. Thus, I do not -mean to say that such and such a poet of the school of imagery is devoid -of ideas, or that some other poet of the school of ideas cannot invent -fine images. These three formulas apply only to the general impression -left by the poets' work, to the mould into which the writer casts his -thought, to the natural tendency of his mind. Every image corresponds to -an idea, or, more precisely, to a <i>sentiment</i> which is a collection -of ideas, and the idea does not always end in an image. The idea demands -an effort in its development which does not come readily to every mind. -Also the image is essentially popular, it is readily understood. Suppose -that M. Hugo's <i>Notre-Dame de Paris</i> were to appear simultaneously -with <i>Manon Lescaut</i>, <i>Notre-Dame</i> would seize hold of the -masses far more promptly than Manon, and would seem to have outrivalled -it in the eyes of those who kneel before the <i>Vox populi</i>. -</p> - -<p> -And yet, whatever be the kind from which a work proceeds, it will dwell -in the human memory only by obeying the laws of the ideal and those of -form. In literature, imagery and idea correspond nearly enough to what -in painting we call design and colour. Rubens and Raphael are two great -painters; but he would be strangely mistaken who thought that Raphael -was not a colourist; and those who would refuse to Rubens the title of -draughtsman may go and kneel before the painting with which the -illustrious Fleming has adorned the Church of the Jesuits at Genoa, as -an act of homage to design. -</p> - -<p> -M. Beyle, better known by the pseudonym Stendhal, is, in my opinion, one -of the most eminent masters of the <i>Literature of Ideas</i>, a school to -which belong MM. Alfred de Musset, Mérimée, Léon Gozlan, Béranger, -Delavigne, Gustave Planche, Madame de Girardin, Alphonse Karr and -Charles Nodier. Henry Monnier belongs to it by the truth of his -proverbs, which are often lacking in a root-idea, but which are -nevertheless full of that naturalness and that accurate observation -which are characteristic of the school. -</p> - -<p> -This school, to which we already owe much fine work, recommends itself -by its abundance of facts, by the sobriety of its imagery, by conciseness, -by clarity, by the <i>petite phrase</i> of Voltaire, by a way of -relating a story which the eighteenth century possessed, and, above all, -by a sense of comedy. M. Beyle and M. Mérimée, despite their profound -seriousness, have something ironical and sly in the manner in which they -state their facts. With them the comedy is kept in reserve. It is the -spark in the flint. -</p> - -<p> -M. Victor Hugo's is undoubtedly the most eminent talent in the -<i>Literature of Imagery</i>. M. Lamartine belongs to this school, which M. -de Chateaubriand held over the baptismal font, and the philosophy of -which was created by M. Ballanche. <i>Obermann</i> is another. MM. Auguste -Barbier, Théophile Gautier, Sainte-Beuve are others, as are a number of -feeble imitators. In some of the authors whom I have just named, the -sentiment prevails sometimes over the image, as in M. de Sénancour and -M. Sainte-Beuve. By his poetry rather than by his prose, M. de Vigny is -seen to belong to this great school. All these poets have little sense -of comedy, they know nothing of dialogue, with the exception of M. -Gautier, who has a keen sense of it. M. Hugo's dialogue is too much his -own speech, he does not transform himself sufficiently, he puts himself -into his character, instead of becoming that character. But this school -has, like the other, produced some fine work. It is remarkable for the -poetic fulness of its language, for the wealth of its imagery, for the -closeness of its union with nature; the other school is human, and this -one divine in the sense that it tends to raise itself by feeling towards -the very heart of creation. It prefers nature to man. The French -language is indebted to it for a strong dose of poetry which was -necessary, for it has developed the poetic feeling long resisted by the -<i>positivism</i>—pardon the word—of our language, and the -dryness stamped on it by the writers of the eighteenth century. -Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre were the instigators of -this revolution, which I regard as fortunate. -</p> - -<p> -The secret of the struggle between the Classics and the Romantics lies -entirely in this quite natural disparity of minds. For two centuries -past, the <i>Literature of Ideas</i> has held exclusive sway, and so the -heirs of the eighteenth century naturally mistook the only system of -literature that they knew for the whole of literature. Let us not blame -them, these defenders of the classic! The Literature of Ideas, full of -facts, closely knit, is part of the genius of France. The <i>Profession -de foi du vicaire savoyard</i>, <i>Candide</i>, the <i>Dialogue de Sylla -et d'Eucrate</i>, the <i>Considérations sur les causes de la Grandeur -et de la Décadence des Romains</i>, the <i>Provinciales</i>, <i>Manon -Lescaut</i>, <i>Gil Blas</i>, are more in the French spirit than the -works of the Literature of Imagery. But we owe to this latter the poetry -of which the two previous centuries had not even a suspicion, if we set -aside La Fontaine, André Chénier and Racine. The Literature of Imagery -is in its cradle, and already includes a number of men whose genius is -incontestable; but, when I see how many the other school includes, I -believe it to be at the height rather than in the decline of its -dominance over our beautiful tongue. The struggle ended, one may say -that the Romantics have not invented new methods, that in the theatre, -for instance, those who complain of want of action have made ample use -of the <i>tirade</i> and the soliloquy, and that we have not, so far, -either heard the keen and compact dialogue of Beaumarchais, nor seen -again the comedy of Molière, which will always be based upon reason and -ideas. Comedy is the enemy of meditation and imagery. M. Hugo has gained -enormously in this contest. But men of wide reading remember the war -waged on M. de Chateaubriand, during the Empire; it was fully as savage, -and ended sooner because M. de Chateaubriand stood alone, without the -<i>stipante caterva</i> of M. Hugo, without the antagonism of the press, -without the support furnished to the Romantics by the men of genius of -England and Germany, better known and better appreciated. -</p> - -<p> -As for the third school, which partakes of each of the other two, it has -less chance than they of exciting the masses, who have little taste for -the <i>mezzo termine</i>, for composite things, and see in eclecticism an -arrangement that runs counter to their passions in so far as it calms -them. France likes to find war in everything. In time of peace, she is -still fighting. Nevertheless, Walter Scott, Madame de Staël, Cooper, -George Sand seem to me to have distinct genius. As for myself, I take my -stand under the banner of literary eclecticism for the following reason: -I do not believe the portrayal of modern society to be possible by the -severe method of the literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth -centuries. The introduction of the dramatic element, of the image, the -picture, of description, of dialogue, seems to me indispensable in -modern literature. Let us confess frankly that <i>Gil Blas</i> is wearisome -as form: in the piling up of events and ideas there is something -sterile. The idea, personified in a character, shews a finer -intelligence. Plato cast his psychological ethics in the form of -dialogue. -</p> - -<p> -<i>La Chartreuse de Parme</i> is of our period and, up to the present, -to my mind, is the masterpiece of the Literature of Ideas, while M. -Beyle has made concessions in it to the two other schools, which are -admissible by fair minds and satisfactory to both camps. -</p> - -<p> -If I have so long delayed, in spite of its importance, in speaking of -this book, you must understand that it was difficult for me to acquire a -sort of impartiality. Even now I am not certain that I can retain it, so -extraordinary, after a third, leisurely and thoughtful reading, do I -find this work. -</p> - -<p> -I can imagine all the mockery which my admiration for it will provoke. -There will be an outcry, of course, at my infatuation, when I am simply -still filled with enthusiasm after the point at which enthusiasm should -have died. Men of imagination, it will be said, conceive as promptly as -they forget their affection for certain works of which the common herd -arrogantly and ironically protest that they can understand nothing. -Simple-minded, or even intelligent persons who with their proud gaze -sweep the surface of things, will say that I amuse myself with paradox, -that I have, like M. Sainte-Beuve, my <i>chers inconnus</i>. I am incapable -of compromise with the truth, that is all. -</p> - -<p> -M. Beyle has written a book in which sublimity glows from chapter after -chapter. He has produced, at an age when men rarely find monumental -subjects and after having written a score of extremely intelligent -volumes, a work which can be appreciated only by minds and men that are -truly superior. In short, he has written <i>The Prince up to date</i>, the -novel that Machiavelli would write if he were living banished from Italy -in the nineteenth century. -</p> - -<p> -And so the chief obstacle to the renown which M. Beyle deserves lies in -the fact that <i>La Chartreuse de Parme</i> can find readers fitted to -enjoy it only among diplomats, ministers, observers, the leaders of -society, the most distinguished artists; in a word, among the twelve or -fifteen hundred persons who are at the head of things in Europe. Do not -be surprised, therefore, if, in the ten months since this surprising -work was published, there has not been a single journalist who has -either read, or understood, or studied it, who has announced, analysed -and praised it, who has even alluded to it. I, who, I think, have some -understanding of the matter, I have read it for the third time in the -last few days: I have found the book finer even than before, and have -felt in my heart the kind of happiness that comes from the opportunity -of doing a good action. -</p> - -<p> -Is it not doing a good action to try to do justice to a man of immense -talent, who will appear to have genius only in the eyes of a few -privileged beings and whom the transcendency of his ideas deprives of -that immediate but fleeting popularity which the courtiers of the public -seek and which great souls despise? If the mediocre knew that they had a -chance of raising themselves to the level of the sublime by -understanding them, <i>La Chartreuse de Parme</i> would have as many -readers as <i>Clarissa Harlowe</i> had on its first appearance. -</p> - -<p> -There are in admiration that is made legitimate by conscience ineffable -delights. Therefore all that I am going to say here I address to the -pure and noble hearts which, in spite of certain pessimistic -declamations, exist in every country, like undiscovered pleiads, among -the families of minds devoted to the worship of art. Has not humanity, -from generation to generation, has it not here below its constellations -of souls, its heaven, its angels, to use the favourite expression of the -great Swedish prophet, Swedenborg, a chosen people for whom true artists -work and whose judgments make them ready to accept privation, the -insolence of upstarts and the indifference of governments? -</p> - -<p> -You will pardon me, I hope, what malevolent persons will call -<i>longueurs</i>. In the first place, I am firmly convinced, the analysis -of so curious and so interesting a work as this will give more pleasure to -the most fastidious reader than he would derive from the unpublished -novel whose place it fills. Besides, any other critic would require at -least three articles of the length of this, if he sought to give an -adequate explanation of this novel, which often contains a whole book in -a single page, and which cannot be explained save by a man to whom the -North of Italy is fairly familiar. Finally, let me assure you that, with -the help of M. Beyle, I am going to try to make myself instructive -enough to be read with pleasure to the end. -</p> - -<p> -A sister of the Marchese del Dongo, named Gina, the abbreviation of -Angelina, whose early character, as a young girl, would have a certain -similarity, could an Italian woman ever resemble a Frenchwoman, to the -character of Madame de Lignolle in <i>Faublas</i>, marries at Milan, -against the will of her brother, who wishes to marry her to an old man, -noble, rich and Milanese, a certain Conte Pietranera, poor and without a -penny. -</p> - -<p> -The Conte and Contessa support the French party, and are the ornament of -the Court of Prince Eugène. We are in the days of the Kingdom of Italy, -when the story begins. -</p> - -<p> -The Marchese del Dongo, a Milanese attached to Austria and her spy, -spends fourteen years waiting for the fall of the Emperor Napoleon. -Moreover, this Marchese, the brother of Gina Pietranera, does not live -at Milan: he occupies his castle of Grianta, on the Lake of Como: he -there brings up his elder son in the love of Austria and on sound -principles; but he has a younger son, named Fabrizio, to whom Signora -Pietranera is passionately devoted: Fabrizio is a cadet of the family; -like her, he will be left without a penny in the world. Who is not -familiar with the fondness of noble hearts for the disinherited? Also, -she wishes to make something of him. Then, fortunately, Fabrizio is a -charming boy; she obtains leave to put him to school at Milan, where, -playing truant, she makes him see something of the viceregal court. -</p> - -<p> -Napoleon falls for the first time. While he is on the Island of Elba, in -the course of the reaction at Milan, which the Austrians have -reoccupied, an insult offered to the Armies of Italy in the presence of -Pietranera, who takes it up, is the cause of his death: he is killed in -a duel. -</p> - -<p> -A lover of the Contessa refuses to avenge her husband, Gina humiliates -him by one of those acts of vengeance, magnificent south of the Alps, -which would be thought stupid in Paris. This is her revenge: -</p> - -<p> -Although she despises, in <i>petto</i>, this lover who has been adoring her -at a distance and without reward for the last six years, she pays -certain attentions to the wretch, and, when he is in a paroxysm of -suspense, writes to him: -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -"Will you act for once like a man of spirit? Please to imagine that you -have never known me. I am, with a touch of contempt, your servant, -</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 60%;">GINA PIETRANERA."</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -Then, to increase still further the desperation of this rich man, with -his income of two hundred thousand lire, she <i>ginginates</i> -(<i>ginginare</i> is a Milanese verb meaning everything that passes at a -distance between a pair of lovers before they have spoken; the verb has -its noun: one is a <i>gingino</i>. It is the first stage in love). Well, -she ginginates for a moment with a fool whom she soon abandons; then she -retires, with a pension of fifteen hundred francs, to a third floor -apartment where all Milan of the day comes to see her and admires her. -</p> - -<p> -Her brother, the Marchese, invites her to return to the ancestral castle -on the Lake of Como. She goes there, to see once more and to protect her -charming nephew, Fabrizio, to comfort her sister-in-law and to plan her -own future amid the sublime scenery of the Lake of Como, her native soil -and the native soil of this nephew whom she has made her son: she has no -children. Fabrizio, who loves Napoleon, learns of his landing from the -Gulf of Juan and wishes to go to serve the sovereign of his uncle -Pietranera. His mother, who, the wife of a rich Marchese with an income -of five hundred thousand lire, has not a penny to call her own, his aunt -Gina, who has nothing, give him their diamonds: Fabrizio is in their -eyes a hero. -</p> - -<p> -The inspired volunteer crosses Switzerland, arrives in Paris, takes part -in the battle of Waterloo, then returns to Italy, where, for having -dabbled in the conspiracy of 1815 against the peace of Europe, he is -disowned by his father and the Austrian government place him on their -index. For him, to return to Milan would be to enter the Spielberg. From -this point Fabrizio, in trouble, persecuted for his heroism, this -sublime boy becomes everything in the world to Gina. -</p> - -<p> -The Contessa returns to Milan, she obtains a promise from Bubna and from -the men of character whom Austria at this period has put in authority -there, not to persecute Fabrizio, whom, following the advice of an -extremely shrewd Canon, she keeps in concealment at Novara. Meanwhile, -with all these things happening, no money. But Gina is of a sublime -beauty, she is the type of that Lombard beauty (<i>bellezza folgorante</i>) -which can be realised only at Milan and in the Scala when you see -assembled there the thousand beautiful women of Lombardy. The events of -this troubled life have developed in her the most magnificent Italian -character: she has intellect, shrewdness, the Italian grace, the most -charming conversation, an astonishing command of herself; in short, the -Contessa is at one and the same time Madame de Montespan, Catherine de' -Medici, Catherine II, too, if you like: the most audacious political -genius and the most consummate feminine genius, hidden beneath a -marvellous beauty. Having watched over her nephew, despite the hatred of -the elder brother who is jealous of him, despite the hatred and -indifference of the father, having snatched him from these perils, -having been one of the queens of the court of the Viceroy Eugène, and -then nothing; all these crises have enriched her natural forces, -exercised her faculties and awakened the instincts numbed in the depths -of her being by her early prosperity, by a marriage the joys of which -have been rare, owing to the continual absence of Napoleon's devoted -servant. Everyone sees or can divine in her the thousand treasures of -passion, the resources and the refulgence of the most perfect feminine -heart. -</p> - -<p> -The old Canon, whom she has seduced, sends Fabrizio to Novara, a small -town in Piedmont, under the tutelage of a parish priest. This priest -puts a step to the inquiries of the police by his description of -Fabrizio: "a younger son who feels wronged because he is not the -eldest." When Gina, who had dreamed of Fabrizio's becoming aide-de-camp -to Napoleon, sees Napoleon banished to St. Helena, she realises that -Fabrizio, his name inscribed in the black book of the Milanese police, -is lost to her for ever. -</p> - -<p> -During the uncertainties which prevailed throughout Europe at the time -of the battle of Waterloo, Gina has made the acquaintance of Conte Mosca -della Rovere, the Minister of the famous Prince of Parma, -Ranuccio-Ernesto IV. -</p> - -<p> -Let us pause at this point. -</p> - -<p> -Certainly, after having read the book, it is impossible not to -recognise, in Conte Mosca, the most remarkable portrait that anyone -could ever make of Prince Metternich, but of a Metternich transported -from the great Chancellory of the Austrian Empire to the modest State of -Parma. The State of Parma and Ernesto IV seem to me similarly to be the -Duke of Modena and his Duchy. M. Beyle says of Ernesto IV that he is one -of the richest Princes in Europe: the wealth of the Duke of Modena is -famous. In seeking to avoid personalities the author has expended more -ingenuity than Walter Scott required to construct the plot of -Kenilworth. Indeed, these two similarities are vague enough, outwardly, -to be denied, and so real inwardly that the well-informed reader cannot -be mistaken. M. Beyle has so exalted the sublime character of the Prime -Minister of the State of Parma that it is doubtful whether Prince -Metternich be so great a man as Mosca, although the heart of that -celebrated statesman does offer, to those who know his life well, one or -two examples of passions of a compass at least equal to that of Mosca's. -It is not slandering the Austrian Minister to believe him capable of all -the secret greatnesses of Mosca. As for what Mosca is throughout the -book, as for the conduct of the man whom Gina regards as the greatest -diplomat in Italy, it took genius to create the incidents, the events -and the innumerable and recurring plots in the midst of which this -immense character unfolds. All that M. de Metternich has done during his -long career is not more extraordinary than what you see done by Mosca. -When one comes to think that the author has invented it all, ravelled -all the plot and then unravelled it, as things do ravel and unravel -themselves at a court, the most daring mind, a mind to which the -conception of ideas is a familiar process, is left dazed, stupefied -before so huge a task. As for myself, I suspect some literary -Aladdin's-lamp. To have dared to put on the stage a man of the genius -and force of M. de Choiseul, Potemkin, M. de Metternich, to create him, -to justify the creation by the actions of the creature himself, to make -him move in an environment which is appropriate to him and in which his -faculties have full play, is the work not of a man but of a fairy, a -wizard. Bear in mind that the most skilfully complicated plots of Walter -Scott do not arrive at the admirable simplicity which prevails in the -recital of these events, so numerous, so <i>thickly foliaged</i>, to borrow -the famous expression of Diderot. -</p> - -<p> -Here is the portrait of Mosca. We are in 1816, remember. -</p> - -<p> -"He might have been forty or forty-five: he had strongly marked -features, with no trace of self-importance, and a simple and -light-hearted manner which told in his favour; he would have looked very -well indeed, if a whim on the part of his Prince had not obliged him to -wear powder on his hair as a proof of his soundness in politics." -</p> - -<p> -And so the powder which M. de Metternich wears, and which softens a face -already so gentle, is justified in Mosca by the will of his master. In -spite of the prodigious efforts of M. Beyle, who, on page after page, -naturalises in this State marvellous inventions to deceive his reader -and blunt the point of his allusions, the mind is at Modena and will on -no account consent to remain at Parma. Whoever has seen, known, met M. -de Metternich, thinks that he hears him speaking through the mouth of -Mosca, lends Mosca his voice and clothes him in his manners. Although, -in the book, Ernesto IV dies, and the Duke of Modena is still living, -one is often reminded of that Prince <i>so notorious for his -severities</i>, <i>which the Liberals of Milan called cruelties</i>. -Such are the expressions used by the author in speaking of the Prince of -Parma. -</p> - -<p> -In these two portraits, begun with a satirical intention, there is, -however, nothing that can wound, nothing that reeks of vengeance. -Although M. Beyle has no cause to thank M. de Metternich, who refused -him his <i>exequatur</i> for the Trieste Consulate, and although the -Duke of Modena has never been able to look with pleasure on the author -of <i>Rome, Naples et Florence</i>, of the <i>Promenades en Rome</i>, -and of certain other works, these two figures are portrayed with great -taste and the utmost propriety. -</p> - -<p> -This is what, no doubt, occurred during the actual work of these two -creations. Carried away by the enthusiasm necessary to him who handles -clay and scalpel, the brush and colours, the pen and the treasures of -man's moral nature, M. Beyle, who had started out to depict a little -court in Italy and a diplomat, ended with the type PRINCE and the type -PRIME MINISTER. The resemblance, began with the fantasy of a satirical -mind, ceased where the genius of the arts appeared to the artist. -</p> - -<p> -This convention of masks once admitted, the reader, keenly interested, -accepts the admirable Italian scene which the author paints, the town -and all the buildings necessary to his story, which, in many places, has -the magical quality of an Oriental tale. -</p> - -<p> -This long parenthesis was indispensable. Let us continue. -</p> - -<p> -Mosca is smitten with love, but with a love immense, eternal, boundless, -for Gina, absolutely like M. de Metternich and his Leykam. He lets her, -at the risk of compromising himself, have the latest diplomatic news -before anyone else. The presence at Milan of this Minister of the State -of Parma is perfectly accounted for later on. -</p> - -<p> -To give you an idea of this famous Italian love, I must relate to you a -distinctly curious incident. On their departure, in 1799, the Austrians -saw as they left Milan, on the Bastion, a certain Contessa -B——nini who was driving with a Canon, both heedless of -revolutions and war: they were in love. The Bastion is a magnificent -avenue which starts from the Eastern Gate (Porta Renza) and corresponds -to the Champs-Elysées in Paris, with this slight difference that on the -left extends the Duomo, "that mountain of gold transmuted into marble," -as Francis II, who had a gift of expression, called it; and on the right -the snowy fringe, the sublime chasms of the Alps. On their return in -1814 the first thing the Austrians saw was the Contessa and the Canon, -sitting in the same carriage and saying, perhaps, the same things, at -the same point on the Bastion. I have seen, in that city, a young man -who became ill if he went more than a certain number of streets away -from the house of his mistress. When a woman gives an Italian -sensations, he never leaves her. -</p> - -<p> -"In spite of his frivolous air and his polished manners. Mosca," says M. -Beyle, "was not blessed with a soul of the French type; he could not -<i>forget</i> the things that annoyed him. When there was a thorn in his -pillow, he would blunt it by repeated stabbings of his throbbing limbs." -This superior man guesses the superior mind of the Contessa, he falls in -love with her to the point of behaving like a schoolboy. -</p> - -<p> -"After all," the Minister said to himself, "old age is only being -incapable of indulging in these delicious timidities." -</p> - -<p> -The Contessa one evening remarks the fine, benevolent gaze of Mosca. -(The gaze with which M. de Metternich would deceive the Deity.) -</p> - -<p> -"At Parma," she says to him, "if you were to look like that, you would -give them the hope that they might escape hanging." -</p> - -<p> -In the end the diplomat, having realised how essential this woman is to -his happiness, and after three months of inward struggle, arrives with -three different plans, devised to secure his happiness, and makes her -agree to the wisest of them. -</p> - -<p> -In Mosca's eyes, Fabrizio is a child: the excessive interest which the -Contessa takes in her nephew seems to him one of those elective -maternities which, until love comes to reign there, beguile the hearts -of noble-hearted women. -</p> - -<p> -Mosca, unfortunately, is married. Accordingly he brings to Milan the -Duca Sanseverina-Taxis. Let me, in this analysis, introduce a few -quotations which will give you examples of the vivid, free, sometimes -faulty style of M. Beyle, and will enable me to make myself be read with -pleasure. -</p> - -<p> -The Duca is a handsome little old man of sixty-eight, dapple-grey, very -polished, very neat, immensely rich, but not quite as noble as he ought -to have been. Apart from this, the Duca is by no means an absolute -idiot, says the Conte: "he gets his clothes and wigs from Paris. He is -not the sort of man who would do anything <i>deliberately</i> mean, he -seriously believes that honour consists in having a Grand Cordon, and he -is ashamed of his riches. He wants an Embassy. Marry him, he will give -you a hundred thousand scudi, a magnificent jointure, his <i>palazzo</i> -and the most superb existence in Parma. On these conditions, I make the -Prince appoint him Ambassador, he will have his Grand Cordon, and he -will start the day after his marriage; you become Duchessa Sanseverina, -and we live happily. Everything is settled with the Duca, who will be -made the happiest man in the world by our arrangement: he will never -shew his face again in Parma. If this life does not appeal to you, I -have four hundred thousand francs, I hand in my resignation and we go -and live at Naples." -</p> - -<p> -"Do you know that what you and your Duca are proposing is highly -immoral?" says the Contessa. -</p> - -<p> -"No more immoral than what is done at every court," the Minister -answers. "Absolute Power has this advantage, that it justifies -everything. Every year we shall be afraid of a 1798, and everything that -can reduce that fear will be supremely moral. You shall hear the -speeches I make on the subject at my receptions. The Prince has -consented, and you will have a brother in the Duca, who has not dared to -hope for such a marriage, which saves his face; he thinks himself ruined -because he lent twenty-five napoleons to the great Ferrante Palla, a -Republican, a poet and something of a genius, whom we have sentenced to -death, fortunately in his absence." -</p> - -<p> -Gina accepts. We next see her Duchessa Sanseverina-Taxis, astonishing -the court of Parma by her affability, by the noble serenity of her mind. -Her house is the most attractive in the town, she reigns there, she is -the glory of this little court. -</p> - -<p> -The portrait of Ernesto IV, his reception of the Duchessa, her -introduction to each member in turn of the Reigning House, all these -details are marvels of wit, depth, succinctness. Never have the hearts -of Princes, Ministers, courtiers and women been so depicted. The reader -will find it hard to lay the book down. -</p> - -<p> -When the Duchessa's nephew fled from Austrian persecution and was on his -way from the Lake of Como to Novara under the protection of his -confessor and the parish priest, he met Fabio Conti, General of the -Armies of the State of Parma, one of the most curious figures of this -court and of the book, a general who thinks of nothing but whether His -Highness's soldiers ought to have seven buttons on their uniform or -nine; but this comic general possesses an entrancing daughter, Clelia -Conti. Fabrizio and Clelia, both trying to escape from the police, have -exchanged a few words. Clelia is the most beautiful creature in Parma. -As soon as the Prince sees the effect produced in his court by the -Sanseverina, he thinks of counter-balancing that beauty by bringing -Clelia to light. A great difficulty! Girls are not received at court: he -therefore has her created a Canoness. -</p> - -<p> -The Prince has of course a mistress. One of his weaknesses is to ape -Louis XIV. So, to be in the picture, he has provided himself with a La -Vallière, one Contessa Balbi, who dips her fingers into every -money-bag, and is not forgotten when any government contract is made. -Ernesto IV would be in despair if the Balbi were not slightly grasping: -the scandalous fortune of his mistress is a sign of royal power. He is -lucky, the Contessa is a miser! -</p> - -<p> -"She received me," the Duchessa tells Mosca, "as though she expected me -to give her a <i>buona mancia</i> (a tip)." -</p> - -<p> -But, to the great grief of Ernesto IV, the Contessa, who has no brains, -cannot be compared for a moment to the Duchessa; this humiliates him, a -first source of irritation. His mistress is thirty, and a model of -Italian <i>leggiadria</i>. -</p> - -<p> -She had still the finest eyes in the world and the most graceful little -hands;<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> but her skin was netted with countless fine little wrinkles -which made her look like a young grandmother. As she was obliged to -smile at everything the Prince said, and sought to make him think, by -this ironical smile, that she understood him, Conte Mosca used to say -that these suppressed yawns had in course of time produced her wrinkles. -</p> - -<p> -The Duchessa parries the first blow aimed at her by His Highness by -making a friend of Clelia, who, fortunately, is an innocent creature. -From motives of policy, the Prince allows to exist at Parma a sort of -Party, called Liberal (God knows what sort of Liberals!). A Liberal is a -man who has the great men of Italy, Dante, Machiavelli, Petrarch, Leo X -painted welcoming Monti on a ceiling. This passes as an epigram against -the power which has no longer any great men. This Liberal Party has as -its chief a Marchesa Raversi, an ugly and mischievous woman, as -irritating as an Opposition. Fabio Conti, the General, belongs to this -Party. The Prince, who hangs agitators, has his reasons for allowing a -Liberal Party. -</p> - -<p> -Ernesto IV rejoices in a Laubardemont, his Fiscal General or Chief -Justice, named Rassi. This Rassi, full of natural intelligence, is one -of the most horribly comic or comically horrible personages that can be -imagined: he laughs and has people hanged, he makes a game of his -justice. He is necessary, indispensable to the Prince. Rassi is a blend -of Fouché, Fouquier-Tinville, Merlin, Triboulet and Scapin. You call the -Prince a <i>tyrant</i>: he says that this is conspiracy and he hangs you. -He has already hanged two Liberals. Since this execution, notorious -throughout Italy, the Prince, who is brave when on the field of battle -and has led armies, the Prince, though a man of spirit, lives in fear. -This Rassi becomes something terrible, he attains to gigantic -proportions while still remaining grotesque: he embodies all the justice -of this little State. -</p> - -<p> -And now for the inevitable effects at court of the Duchessa's triumphs. -The Conte and the Duchessa, that pair of eagles caged in this tiny -capital, soon begin to offend the Prince. In the first place the -Duchessa is sincerely attached to the Conte, the Conte is more in love -every day, and this happiness irritates a bored Prince. Mosca's talents -are indispensable to the Cabinet of Parma. Ranuccio-Ernesto and his -Minister are attached to one another like the Siamese twins. Indeed, -they have between them contrived the impossible plan ("impossible" is a -rhetorical precaution on M. Beyle's part) of making a single State of -Northern Italy. Beneath his mask of absolutism, the Prince is intriguing -to become the Sovereign of this Constitutional Kingdom. He is dying of -envy to ape Louis XVIII, to give a Charter and Two Chamber government to -Northern Italy. He regards himself as a great politician, he has his -ambition: he redeems in his own eyes his subordinate position by this -plan with which Mosca is fully acquainted; he has control of his -treasury! The more need he has of Mosca and the more he recognises his -Minister's talent, the more reasons there are in the depths of this -princely heart for an unconfessed jealousy. Life at court is boring, at -the <i>palazzo</i> Sanseverina it is amusing. What means remain to him of -demonstrating his power to himself? The chance of tormenting his -Minister. And he torments him cruelly! The Prince tries first of all, in -a friendly way, to secure the Duchessa as his mistress, she refuses; -there are blows to self-esteem the elements of which may easily be -guessed from this brief analysis. Presently, the Prince reaches the -stage of wishing to attack his Minister through the Duchessa, and he -then seeks out ways of making her suffer. -</p> - -<p> -All this part of the novel is of a remarkable literary solidity. This -painting has the magnitude of a canvas fifty feet by thirty, and at the -same time the manner, the execution is Dutch in its minuteness. We come -to the drama, and to a drama the most complete, the most gripping, the -strangest, the truest, the most profoundly explored in the human heart -that has ever been invented, but one that has existed, undoubtedly, at -many periods, and will reappear at courts where it will be enacted -again, as Louis XIII and Richelieu, as Francis II and Prince Metternich, -as Louis XV, the du Barry and M. de Choiseul have enacted it in the -past. -</p> - -<p> -The prospect which, in this new setting, has most attracted the Duchessa -is that of the possibility of making a career for her hero, for this -child of her heart, for Fabrizio her nephew. Fabrizio will owe his -fortune to the genius of Mosca. The love which she has conceived for the -child she continues to feel for the youth. I may tell you now, -beforehand, that this love is to become later on, at first without -Gina's knowledge, then consciously, a passion that will reach the -sublime. Nevertheless she will always be the wife of the great diplomat, -to whom she will never have committed any other act of infidelity than -that of the passionate impulses of her heart towards this young idol; -she will not deceive this man of genius, she will always make him happy -and proud; she will make him aware of her least emotions, he will endure -the most horrible rages of jealousy, and will never have any grounds for -complaint. The Duchessa will be frank, artless, sublime, resigned, -moving as a play of Shakespeare, beautiful as poetry, and the most -severe reader will have no fault to find. I doubt if any poet has ever -solved such a problem with as much felicity as has M. Beyle in this bold -work. The Duchessa is one of those magnificent statues which make us at -once admire the art that created them and inveigh against Nature which -is so sparing of such models. Gina, when you have read the book, will -remain before your eyes like a sublime statue: it will be neither the -Venus de Milo, nor the Venus de' Medici; it will be Diana with the -voluptuousness of Venus, with the suavity of Raphael's Virgins, and the -movement of Italian passion. Above all, there is nothing French in the -Duchessa. Yes, the Frenchman who has modelled, chiselled, wrought this -marble, has left nothing on it of his native soil. <i>Corinne</i>, you must -realise, is a miserable sketch compared with this living, ravishing -creature. You will find her great, intellectual, passionate, always true -to life, and yet the author has carefully concealed her sensual aspect. -There is not in the work a single word that can make one think of the -pleasures of love or can inspire them. Although the Duchessa, Mosca, -Fabrizio, the Prince and his son, Clelia, although the book and its -characters are, in their different ways, passion with all its furies; -although it is Italy as it is, with its shrewdness, its dissimulation, -its cunning, its coolness, its tenacity, its higher policy in every -connexion. <i>La Chartreuse de Parme</i> is more chaste than the most -puritanical of the novels of Walter Scott. To make a noble, majestic, -almost irreproachable character of a duchess who makes a Mosca happy, -and keeps nothing from him, is not that a masterpiece of fiction? The -<i>Phèdre</i> of Racine, that sublime creation of the French stage, which -Jansenism did not venture to condemn, is not so beautiful, nor so -complete, nor so animated. -</p> - -<p> -Well, at the moment when everything is smiling on the Duchessa, when she -is amusing herself with this court life where a sudden storm is always -to be feared, when she is most tenderly attached to the Conte, who, -literally, is mad with happiness; when he has the patent and receives -the honours of Prime Minister <i>which come very near to those paid to the -Sovereign himself</i>, she says to him one day: -</p> - -<p> -"And Fabrizio?" -</p> - -<p> -The Conte then offers to obtain for her, from Austria, a pardon for this -dear nephew. -</p> - -<p> -"But, if he is somewhat superior to the young men who ride their English -thoroughbreds about the streets of Milan, what a life, at eighteen, to -be doing nothing with no prospect of ever having anything to do! If," -says Mosca, "heaven had endowed him with a real passion, were it only -for angling, I should respect it; but what is he to do at Milan, even -after he has obtained his pardon?" -</p> - -<p> -"I should like him to be an officer," says the Duchessa. -</p> - -<p> -"Would you advise a Sovereign," says Mosca, "to entrust a post which, at -a given date, may be of some importance, to a young man who has shown -enthusiasm, who, from Como, has gone to join Napoleon at Waterloo? A del -Dongo cannot be a merchant, nor a barrister, nor a doctor. You will cry -out in protest, but you will come in the end to agree with me. If -Fabrizio wishes it, he can quickly become Archbishop of Parma, one of -the highest dignities in Italy, and from that Cardinal. We have had at -Parma three del Dongo Archbishops, the Cardinal who wrote a book in -sixteen-something, Fabrizio in 1700 and Ascanio in 1750. Only, shall I -remain Minister long enough? That is the sole objection." -</p> - -<p> -After two months spent in discussion, the Duchessa, defeated on every -point by the Conte's observations, and rendered desperate by the -precarious position of a younger son of a Milanese family, utters one -day this profound Italian saying to her friend: -</p> - -<p> -"Prove to me again that every other career is impossible for Fabrizio." -</p> - -<p> -The Conte proves it. -</p> - -<p> -The Duchessa, susceptible to the thought of fame, sees no other way of -salvation, here below, for her dear Fabrizio, than the Church and its -high dignities, for the future of Italy lies in Rome, and nowhere else. -To anyone who has studied Italy carefully, it is clear that the unity of -government in that country, that its nationality will never be -re-established save by the hand of a Sixtus V. The Pope alone has the -power to stir and to reconstitute Italy. And so we see with what pains -the Austrian court has watched, for the last thirty years, the elections -of Popes, what aged imbeciles she has allowed to don the Triple Crown. -"Perish Catholicism sooner than my domination!" seems to be her guiding -motto. Miserly Austria would spend a million to prevent the election of -a Pope with French ideas. And then, if some fine Italian genius employed -sufficient dissimulation to put on the white cassock, he might die like -Ganganelli. There perhaps is to be found the secret of the refusals of -the Court of Rome, which has not chosen to accept the invigorating -potion, the elixir offered to it by men of fine ecclesiastical genius -from France: Borgia would not have failed to make them take their seat -among his devoted Cardinals. The author of the Bull <i>In coena Domini</i> -would have understood the great Gallican idea, Catholic Democracy, he -would have adapted it to the circumstances. M. de Lamennais, that fallen -angel, would not then, in his Breton obstinacy, have abandoned the -Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church. -</p> - -<p> -So the Duchessa adopts this plan of the Conte. In this great woman there -is, as in great politicians, a moment of uncertainty, of hesitation -before a plan; but she never goes back upon her resolutions. The -Duchessa is always right in wishing what she has wished. Her -persistency, that strong quality of her imperious character, imparts an -element of terror to all the scenes of this fertile drama. -</p> - -<p> -Nothing could be more clever than the initiation of Fabrizio into his -future destiny. The lovers display to Fabrizio the chances of his life. -Fabrizio, a boy of astonishing intelligence, grasps everything at once -and has a vision of the tiara. The Conte does not pretend to make a -priest of him of the sort one sees everywhere in Italy. Fabrizio is a -great gentleman, he can remain perfectly ignorant if it seems good to -him, and will none the less become Archbishop. Fabrizio refuses to lead -the life of the caffè, he has a horror of poverty, and realises that he -cannot be a soldier. When he speaks of going and becoming an American -citizen (we are in 1817), he has explained to him the dulness of life in -America, without smartness, without music, without love affairs, without -war, the cult of the god Dollar, and the respect due to artisans, to the -masses who by their votes decide everything. Fabrizio has a horror of -<i>mobocracy</i>. -</p> - -<p> -At the voice of the great diplomat, who shows him life as it really is, -the young man's illusions take flight. He had not understood what is -incomprehensible to young people, the "<i>Surtout pas de zèle</i>!" of M. -de Talleyrand. -</p> - -<p> -"Remember," Mosca says to him, "that a proclamation, a caprice of the -heart flings the enthusiast into the bosom of the party opposed to his -own future sympathies." -</p> - -<p> -What a phrase!<a name="FNanchor_2_1" id="FNanchor_2_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_1" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> -</p> - -<p> -The instructions given by the Minister to the neophyte who is to return -to Parma only as a <i>Monsignore</i>, in violet stockings, and whom he -sends to Naples to complete his studies with letters of recommendation -to the Archbishop there, one of his clever friends; these instructions, -given in the Duchessa's drawing-room, during a game of cards, are -admirable. A single quotation will show you the fineness of the -perceptions, the science of life which the author gives to this great -character. -</p> - -<p> -"Believe or not, as you choose, what they teach you, <i>but never raise -any objection</i>. Imagine that they are teaching you the rules of the game -of whist; would you raise any objection to the rules of whist? And once -you knew and had adopted those rules, would you not wish to win? Do not -fall into the vulgar habit of speaking with horror of Voltaire, Diderot, -Raynal and all those harebrained Frenchmen who have brought us that -foolish government by Two Chambers. Speak of them with a calm irony, -they are people who have long since been refuted. You will be forgiven a -little amorous intrigue, if it is done in the proper way, but they would -take note of your objections: age stifles intrigue but encourages doubt. -Believe everything, do not yield to the temptation to shine; be morose: -discerning eyes will see your cleverness in yours and it will be time -enough to be witty when you are an Archbishop!" -</p> - -<p> -The astonishing and fine superiority of Mosca is never lacking, either -in action or in speech; it makes this book one as profound, from page to -page, as the <i>Maxims</i> of La Rochefoucauld. And observe that their -passion leads the Conte and Duchessa to make mistakes, they are obliged -to bring their talent into play to atone for them. To another man who -had consulted him, the Conte would have explained the misfortunes that -would await him at Parma after the death of Ernesto IV. But his passion -has made him completely blind to his own interests. Talent alone can -make you discover this poignant touch of comedy for yourself. Great -politicians are nothing more, after all, than equilibrists who, if they -do not take care, see their finest edifice come crashing to the ground. -Richelieu was only saved from his peril, on the Day of the Dupes, by the -broth of the Queen Mother, who refused to go to Saint-Germain without -having taken the <i>lait de poule</i> which preserved her complexion. The -Duchessa and Mosca live by a perpetual expenditure of all their -faculties; and so the reader who follows the spectacle of their life is -kept in a trance, through chapter after chapter, so well are the -difficulties of this existence set before him, so cleverly are they -explained. Finally, let us note well, these crises, these terrible -scenes are woven into the substance of the book: the flowers are not -stitched on, they are of the same substance as the rest. -</p> - -<p> -"We must keep our love secret," the Duchessa says sadly to her lover, on -the day on which she has guessed that his struggle with the Prince has -begun. -</p> - -<p> -When, to outact his acting, she lets Ernesto IV gather that she is only -moderately in love with the Conte, she gives him a day of happiness; but -the Prince is shrewd, he sees sooner or later that he has been tricked. -And his disappointment adds violence to the storm brought about by her -ill-wishers. -</p> - -<p> -This great work could not have been conceived or executed save by a man -of fifty, in the full vigour of his age and in the maturity of all his -talents. One sees perfection in every detail. The character of the -Prince is drawn by the hand of a master, and is, as I have told you, -<i>The Prince</i>. One conceives him admirably, as a man and as sovereign. -This man might be at the head of the Russian Empire, he would be capable -of ruling it, he would be great; but the man would remain what he is, -liable to vanity, to jealousy, to passion. In the seventeenth-century, -at Versailles, he would be Louis XIV and would avenge himself on the -Duchessa, as did Louis XIV on Fouquet. Criticism can find no fault in -the greatest or in the smallest character; they are all what they ought -to be. There is life and especially the life of courts, not drawn in -caricature, as Hoffmann has tried to draw it, but seriously and -ironically. Finally, this book explains to you admirably all that Louis -XIII's <i>camarilla</i> made Richelieu suffer. This work applied to vast -interests like those of the cabinet of Louis XIV, of Pitt's cabinet, of -Napoleon's cabinet or of the Russian cabinet, would have been impossible -owing to the prolixities and explanations which so many veiled interests -would have required; whereas you get a comprehensive view of the State -of Parma; and Parma enables you to understand, <i>mutato nomine</i>, the -intrigues of the most exalted court. Things were like this tinder the -Borgia Pope, at the court of Tiberius, at the court of Philip II: they -must be like this also at the court of Peking! -</p> - -<p> -Let us enter into the terrible Italian drama which has been slowly and -logically preparing itself in a charming manner. I spare you the details -of the court and its original figures; the Princess who thinks it her -duty to be unhappy, because the Prince has his Pompadour; the Heir -Apparent who is kept caged; the Princess Isotta, the Chamberlain, the -Minister of the Interior, the Governor of the Citadel, Fabio Conti. One -cannot afford to take the least thing lightly. If, like the Duchessa, -Fabrizio and Mosca, you accept the court of Parma, you play your game of -whist and your interests are at stake. When the Prime Minister thinks -that he has fallen from power, he says quite seriously: -</p> - -<p> -"When our guests have gone, we can decide on a way of barricading -ourselves for the night; the best plan would be to set off while they're -dancing for your place at Sacca, by the Po, from where in twenty minutes -one can get into Austria." -</p> - -<p> -Indeed the Duchessa, the Minister, every Parmesan subject is liable to -end his days in the citadel. -</p> - -<p> -When the Prince confesses his desires to the Duchessa and she in reply -asks him: -</p> - -<p> -"How should we ever lode Mosca in the face again, that man of genius and -heart?" -</p> - -<p> -"I have thought of that," says the Prince: "we should never look him in -the face again! The citadel waits." -</p> - -<p> -The Sanseverina does not fail to repeat this saying to Mosca, who puts -his affairs in order. -</p> - -<p> -Four years elapse. -</p> - -<p> -The Minister, who has not allowed Fabrizio to come to Parma during these -four years, permits him to reappear there when the Pope has created him -Monsignore, a kind of dignity which entitles him to wear violet -stockings. Fabrizio has nobly answered the expectations of his political -master. At Naples he has had mistresses, he has had the passion for -archeology, he has sold his horses to make excavations, he has behaved -well, he has aroused no jealousy, he may become Pope. What delights him -most about his return to Parma is the thought of being delivered from the -attentions of the charming Duchessa d'A——. His governor, who -has made him an educated man, receives a Cross and a pension. Fabrizio's -first appearance at Parma, his arrival, his various presentations at -court, form the highest comedy of manners, character and intrigue that -one can read anywhere. At more than one point, the better class of -reader will lay down this book on his table to say to himself: -</p> - -<p> -"Heavens! How good this is, how exquisitely arranged, how deep!" -</p> - -<p> -He will meditate upon words like the following, for instance, upon which -Princes ought to meditate well for their own good: <i>People with brains -who are born on the throne or at the foot of it soon lose all fineness -of touch; they proscribe, in their immediate circle, freedom of -conversation which seems to them coarseness, they refuse to look at -anything but masks and pretend to judge the beauty of complexions; the -amusing part of it is that they imagine their touch to be of the -finest</i>. -</p> - -<p> -Here begin the Duchessa's ingenuous passion for Fabrizio, and Mosca's -torments. Fabrizio is a diamond that has lost nothing by being polished. -Gina, who had sent him to Naples a devil-may-care young rough-rider, -whose horsewhip seemed to be an inherent part of his person, sees him -now with a noble and confident bearing before strangers, and in private -the same fire of youth. -</p> - -<p> -"This nephew," Mosca tells his mistress, "is made to adorn all the -exalted posts." But the great diplomat, attentive at first to Fabrizio, -turns to look at the Duchessa and notices <i>a curious look in her -eyes</i>. "I am in my fifties," he reflects. -</p> - -<p> -The Duchessa is so happy that she does not give the Conte a thought. -This profound effect, made on Mosca by a single glance, is irremediable. -</p> - -<p> -When Ranuccio-Ernesto IV guesses that the aunt loves the nephew a little -more warmly than the laws of consanguinity permit, which at Parma is -incest, he is at the pinnacle of happiness. He writes his Minister an -anonymous letter on the subject. When he is sure that Mosca has read it, -he sends for him, without giving him time to call first on the Duchessa, -and keeps him on the rack throughout a conversation full of princely -friendliness and hypocrisy. Certainly the pangs of love causing a fine -heart to bleed always make an effective scene; but this heart is -Italian, this is the heart of a man of genius, and I know nothing that -grips me so as the chapter on Mosca's jealousy. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio does not love his aunt; he adores her as an aunt, she inspires -no longing in him as a woman; nevertheless, in their Conversations, a -gesture, a word may make youth break out, the least thing may then make -his aunt leave Parma, because riches, honours are nothing to her who, -once already, before the eyes of all Milan, has managed to live on a -third floor, with an income of fifteen hundred francs. The future -Archbishop sees an abyss open before him. The Prince is as happy as a -king, while waiting for a catastrophe to destroy the private happiness -of his dear Minister. Mosca, the great Mosca, weeps like a child. The -prudence of this dear Fabrizio, who understands Mosca and understands -his aunt, prevents any disaster. The Monsignore makes himself fall in -love with a little Marietta, an actress of the lowest grade, a columbine -who has her harlequin, a certain Giletti, formerly one of Napoleon's -dragoons, and a fencing master, a man horrible in mind and body, who -devours Marietta, beats her, steals her blue shawls and all her -earnings. -</p> - -<p> -Mosca breathes again. The Prince is uneasy, his prey is escaping, he -could hold the Sanseverina by her nephew, and now the nephew turns out a -profound politician! In spite of Marietta, the Duchessa's passion is so -artless, her familiarities are so dangerous, that Fabrizio, to restore -tranquillity, proposes to the Conte, who also is an antiquarian and is -engaged on excavations, to go down to the country and superintend the -work. The Minister adores Fabrizio. The company which includes Marietta, -her <i>mammaccia</i>—a figure drawn in four pages with an -astounding truth and depth of character—and Giletti, the whole -motley crew, leave Parma. This trio, Giletti, the <i>mammaccia</i> and -Marietta come along the road while Fabrizio is shooting. There follows -an encounter between the dragoon, who seeks, in an access of Italian -vanity, to kill the <i>black-frock</i>, and Fabrizio, who is amazed at -seeing Marietta on the road. This accidental duel becomes serious when -Fabrizio sees that Giletti, who has only one eye, is trying to disfigure -him: he kills him. Giletti was plainly the aggressor, the workmen -engaged on the excavations saw everything, Fabrizio realises all the -capital that the Raversi faction and the Liberals will make out of this -ridiculous adventure against himself, the Ministers, his aunt; he takes -flight, he crosses the Po. Thanks to the clever assistance of Lodovico, -an old servant of the Sanseverina household, a fellow who writes -sonnets, he finds shelter and reaches Bologna, where he sees Marietta -again. Lodovico becomes fanatically attached to Fabrizio. This retired -coachman is one of the most complete of the figures of the second -magnitude. Fabrizio's flight, the scenery by the Po, the descriptions of -famous places through which the young prelate passes, his adventures -during his exile from Parma, his correspondence with the Archbishop, -another character admirably drawn, the smallest details are of a -literary execution that bears the hall-mark of genius. And all is so -Italian as to make one take the coach and fly to Italy, there to seek -this drama and this poetry. The reader becomes Fabrizio. -</p> - -<p> -During this absence, Fabrizio goes to revisit his native scenes, the -Lake of Como and the paternal castle, despite the dangers of his -position with regard to Austria, at that time very strict. We are in -1821, a time when a passport was not to be treated lightly. The prelate -recognised as Fabrizio del Dongo may be sent to the Spielberg. In this -part of the book the author completes the portrait of a fine head, that -of a Priore Blanès, a simple village curate, who adores Fabrizio and -cultivates the study of judicial astrology. This portrait is done so -seriously, there shines from it so great a faith in the occult sciences, -that the satire of which those sciences—to which we shall return and -which do not rest, as has been supposed, upon false foundations—might -naturally be the object dies away on the lips of the incredulous. I do -not know what the author's opinion may be, but he justifies that of the -Priore Blanès. Priore Blanès is a character who is true in Italy. The -truth of him can be felt, just as one can tell whether one of Titian's -heads is the portrait of a Venetian gentleman or a fancy. -</p> - -<p> -The Prince orders the preparation of the case against Fabrizio, and in -this task the genius of Rassi is revealed. The Fiscal General sends the -witnesses for the defence out of the country, purchases evidence for the -prosecution, and, as he impudently informs the Prince, produces out of -this foolish affair—the death inflicted on a Giletti by a del Dongo, -in self-defence, by a del Dongo who had received the first blow!—a -sentence of detention for twenty years in the fortress. The Prince would -have liked a death sentence, in order to exercise clemency and so -humiliate the Sanseverina. -</p> - -<p> -"But," says Rassi, "I have done better than that, I have broken his -neck, his career is barred to him for ever. The Vatican can do nothing -more for a murderer." -</p> - -<p> -So the Prince holds the Sanseverina in his clutches at last! Ah! It is -then that the Duchessa becomes superb, that the court of Parma is -agitated, that the lights go up on the drama, which assumes gigantic -proportions. One of the finest scenes in modern fiction is, certainly, -that in which the Sanseverina comes to pay her farewell to the Sovereign -and presents him with an ultimatum. The scene of Elizabeth, Amy and -Leicester in <i>Kenilworth</i> is no greater, more dramatic nor more -terrible. The tiger is braved in his den: the serpent is caught, in vain -does he writhe his coils and beg for pity, the woman crushes him. Gina -desires, dictates, obtains from the Prince a rescript annulling the -proceedings. She does not seek a pardon, the Prince will state that the -proceedings are unjust and shall have no consequences in the future, -which is an absurd thing to expect of an absolute Sovereign. This -absurdity she demands, she obtains it. Mosca is magnificent in this -scene where the lovers are alternately saved, lost, in peril for a -gesture, a word, a glance! -</p> - -<p> -In every walk of life, artists have an invincible self-respect, a sense -of their art, a professional conscience which is ineradicable from the -man. One does not corrupt, one never succeeds in buying this conscience. -The actor who wishes most harm to his theatre or to an author will never -play a part badly. The chemist, called in to look for arsenic in a body, -will find it if there is any there. The writer, the painter, are always -faithful to their genius, even at the foot of the scaffold. This does -not exist in woman. The universe is the stepping-stone of her passion. -And so woman is greater and finer than man in this respect. Woman is -passion; man is action. If this were not so, man would not adore woman. -And so it is in the social circle of the court, which gives the greatest -flight to her passion, that woman sheds her most brilliant radiance. Her -finest stage is the world of Absolute Power. That is why there are no -longer any women in France. Now Conte Mosca suppresses, from a trace of -ministerial self-respect, in the Prince's rescript, the words on which -the Duchessa depends. The Prince imagines that his Minister considers -him before the Sanseverina, and casts a glance at him which the reader -intercepts. Mosca, like a true statesman, will not countersign a stupid -thing, that is all: the Prince is mistaken. In the intoxication of her -triumph, rejoicing that she has saved Fabrizio, the Duchessa, who trusts -in Mosca, does not peruse the rescript. She was thought to be ruined, -she had made all preparations for her departure in the face of Parma, -she returns from the court having effected a revolution. Mosca was -thought to be in disgrace. Fabrizio's sentence was taken as an insult by -the Prince to the Duchessa and Minister. Not at all, the Raversi is -banished. The Prince laughs, he is holding his vengeance in reserve: -this woman who has humiliated him, he is going to make die of grief. -</p> - -<p> -The Marchesa Raversi, instead of composing Ovidian <i>Tristia</i>, like -everyone who is banished from a court where he or she handled the reins -of power, sets to work. She guesses what has happened in the Prince's -cabinet, she extracts his secrets from Rassi, who allows her to do so; -he is aware of the Prince's intentions. The Marchesa has some letters -written by the Duchessa, she sends her lover to the galleys at Genoa to -get a letter forged from the Duchessa to Fabrizio, telling him of her -triumph, and appointing a meeting at her country house. Sacca, close to -the Po, a delicious spot where the Duchessa always spends the summer. -Poor Fabrizio hastens there, he is caught, they put handcuffs on him, he -is shut up in the citadel, and while they are shutting him up, he -recognises the daughter of the governor, Fabio Conti, the lovely and -sublime Clelia, for whom he is to feel that eternal love that gives no -respite. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio del Dongo, her nephew, he whom she adores, in the most -honourable fashion, in the citadel! . . . Imagine the Duchessa's -feelings! She learns of Mosca's mistake. She will not see Mosca again. -There is only Fabrizio now in the world! Once inside that terrible -fortress, he may die there, die there by poison! -</p> - -<p> -This is the Prince's system: a fortnight of terror, a fortnight of hope. -And he will handle this fiery steed, this proud soul, this Sanseverina -whose triumphs and happiness, though necessary to the brilliance of his -court, were insulting to his inner man. Played on in this way, the -Sanseverina will become thin, old and ugly: he will knead her like -dough. -</p> - -<p> -This terrible duel in which the Duchessa has inflicted the first wound, -piercing her adversary to the heart but without killing him, in which -she will receive for the next year a fresh wound daily, is the most -powerful thing that the genius of the modern novel has invented. -</p> - -<p> -Let us turn now to Fabrizio in prison, and so come to my analysis of -that chapter, which is one of the diamonds on this crown. -</p> - -<p> -The episode of the robbers in Lewis's <i>Monk</i>, his <i>Anaconda</i>, -which is his best book, the interest of the last volumes by Mrs. -Radcliffe, the thrilling vicissitudes in the Red Indian romances of -Cooper, all the extraordinary things I know in the narratives of travels -and prisoners, none of these can compare with the confinement of -Fabrizio in the fortress of Parma, three hundred and something feet -above the ground. This terrifying abode is a Vaucluse: he makes love -there to Clelia, he is happy there, he displays the ingenuity of -prisoners, and he prefers his prison to the most enchanting spot that -the world has to offer. The Bay of Naples is beautiful only through the -eyes of Lamartine's Elvire; but, in the eyes of a Clelia, in the trills -of her voice, there are whole universes. The author depicts, as he knows -how to depict, by little incidents which have the eloquence of -Shakespearean action, the progress of the love between these two fair -creatures, amid the dangers of an imminent death by poison. This part of -the book will be read with halting breath, straining throat, avid eyes -by all those readers who have imagination, or simply hearts. Everything -in it is perfect, rapid, real, without any improbability or strain. -There you find passion in all its glory, its rendings, its hopes, its -melancholies, its returns, its abatements, its inspirations, the only -ones that equal those of genius. Nothing has been forgotten. You will -read there an encyclopædia of all the resources of the prisoner; his -marvellous languages for which he makes use of nature, the means by -which he gives life to a song and meaning to a sound. Read in prison, -this book is capable of killing a prisoner, or of making him tunnel -through his walls. -</p> - -<p> -While Fabrizio is inspiring love and feeling it, during the most -engrossing scenes of the drama inside the prison, there is, you must -understand, a fight to the death going on outside the fortress. The -Prince, the governor, Rassi, attempt to poison him. Fabrizio's death is -determined upon at a moment when the Prince's vanity is mortally -wounded. The charming Clelia, the most delicious figure you could see in -a dream, then reveals the extent of her love by helping Fabrizio to -escape, although his rescuers have nearly killed her father, the -General. -</p> - -<p> -At this crisis in the book, we understand all the incidents that have -gone before. Without those adventures in which we have seen the people, -in which we have watched them acting, nothing would be intelligible, -everything would seem false and impossible. -</p> - -<p> -Let us return to the Duchessa. The courtiers, the Raversi party triumph -in the griefs of this noble woman. Her calm is killing the Prince, and -no one can explain it to him. Mosca himself does not understand it. -Here, we see that Mosca, great as he is, is inferior to this woman who, -at this moment, seems to you to be the genius of Italy. Profound is her -dissimulation, bold are her plans. As for her revenge, it will be -complete. The Prince has been too greatly offended, she sees him -implacable: between them, the duel is to the death; but the Duchessa's -vengeance would be impotent, imperfect, if she allowed Ranuccio-Ernesto -IV to take Fabrizio from her by poison. Fabrizio must be set at liberty. -This attempt seems literally impossible to every reader, so carefully -has tyranny taken its precautions, so deeply has it involved the -governor, Fabio Conti, whose honour is at stake if he does not guard his -prisoners. -</p> - -<p> -There is in this man something of Hudson Lowe, but of a Hudson Lowe -magnified to the tenth degree; he is Italian, and wishes to avenge the -Raversi for the disgrace that the Duchessa has brought on her. Gina -fears nothing. This is why: -</p> - -<p> -"The lover thinks more often of penetrating to his mistress's chamber -than the husband of guarding his wife; the prisoner thinks more often of -escaping than the gaoler of shutting his door; therefore, in spite of -the obstacles in their way, the lover and the prisoner must succeed in -the end." -</p> - -<p> -She will help him! Oh, what a fine painting of this Italian in despair, -who cannot flee from this abhorrent court! "Come," she says to herself, -"<i>forward, unhappy woman</i>" (we weep as we read this great feminine -utterance), "do your duty, pretend to forget Fabrizio!" "<i>Forget -him</i>!" the word saves her: she has not been able to shed a tear until -this word. Then the Duchessa conspires, she conspires with the Prime -Minister, whom she has ostensibly banished in disgrace, but who would -set Parma on fire and deluge it with blood for her, who would kill -everyone, the Prince even. This true lover realises that he is in the -wrong, he is the most wretched of men. Alas! What a feeble excuse! He -did not believe his master to be so false, so cowardly, so cruel. And so -he admits that his mistress is entitled to be implacable. He finds it -natural that Fabrizio should be, at this moment, everything in the world -to her, he has that weakness of great men for their mistresses which -leads them to understand even the infidelity which may mean their death. -The enamoured veteran is sublime! He says but one word to himself, in -the scene when Gina has made him come to her for their rupture. A single -night has ravaged the Duchessa. -</p> - -<p> -"Great God!" exclaims Mosca to himself, "she looks all her forty years -to-day!" -</p> - -<p> -What a book is this in which one finds these cries of passion, these -profound diplomatic sayings, and on every page. Note this as well: you -will not meet in this book those extra flourishes, so aptly named -<i>tartines</i>. No, the characters act, reflect, feel, and always the -drama sweeps on. Never does the poet, a dramatist in his ideas, stoop in -his path to pick the smallest flower, everything has the rapidity of a -dithyramb. -</p> - -<p> -Let us proceed! The Duchessa is ravishing in her admissions to Mosca, -and sublime in her despair. Finding her so changed, he supposes her to -be ill, and wishes to send for Razori, the leading doctor in Parma and -in Italy. -</p> - -<p> -"Is that the counsel of a traitor or of a friend?" she asks. "You wish -to convey to a stranger the measure of my despair!" -</p> - -<p> -"I am lost," thinks the Conte, "she no longer includes me even among the -common men of honour." -</p> - -<p> -"Bear in mind," the Duchessa tells him with the most imperious air, -"that I am not distressed by the capture of Fabrizio, that I have not -the least shadow of a desire to go away, that I am full of respect for -the Prince. As for yourself: I intend to have the entire control of my -own behaviour, I wish to part from you as an old and good friend. -Consider that I have reached sixty, the young woman is dead. With -Fabrizio in prison, I am incapable of love. Finally, I should be the -unhappiest woman in the world were I to compromise your future. If you -see me making a show of having a young lover, do not let yourself be -distressed by that. I can swear to you, by Fabrizio's future happiness, -that I have never been guilty of the slightest infidelity towards you, -and that in five whole years . . . that is a long time!" she says, -trying to smile. "I swear to you that I have never either planned or -wished such a thing. Now you understand that, leave me." -</p> - -<p> -The Conte goes, he spends two days and two nights in thought. -</p> - -<p> -"Great heavens!" he at length exclaims, "the Duchessa never said a word -to me about an escape; can she have been wanting in sincerity for once -in her life, and is the motive of her quarrel only a desire that I -should betray the Prince? No sooner said than done." -</p> - -<p> -Did I not tell you that this book was a masterpiece, and can you not see -it for yourself, merely from this rough analysis? -</p> - -<p> -The Minister, after this discovery, treads the ground as if he were a -boy of fifteen, takes a new lease of life. He is going to seduce Rassi -from the Prince, and make him his own creature. -</p> - -<p> -"Rassi," he says to himself, "is paid by his master to carry out the -sentences that disgrace us throughout Europe, but he will not refuse to -let himself be paid by me to betray his master's secrets. He has a -mistress and a confessor. The mistress is of so low an order that the -market woman would know the whole story by to-morrow morning." -</p> - -<p> -He goes to say his prayers at the cathedral and to find the Archbishop. -</p> - -<p> -"What sort of man is Dugnani, the Vicar of San Paolo?" he asks him. -</p> - -<p> -"A small mind with great ambition, few scruples and extreme poverty; for -we too have our vices!" says the Archbishop, raising his eyes to heaven. -</p> - -<p> -The Minister cannot help laughing at the analytical depth reached by -true piety combined with honesty. He sends for the priest and says to -him only: -</p> - -<p> -"You direct the conscience of my friend the Fiscal General; are you sure -he has nothing to tell me?" -</p> - -<p> -The Conte is prepared to stake everything: there is only one thing that -he wishes to know, the moment at which Fabrizio will be in danger of -death, and he does not propose to interfere with the Duchessa's plans. -His interview with Rassi is a capital scene. This is how the Conte -begins, adopting the tone of the most lofty impertinence: -</p> - -<p> -"What, sir, you carry off from Bologna a conspirator who is under my -protection; more than that, you propose to cut off his head, and you say -nothing to me about it. Do you know the name of my successor? Is it -General Conti or yourself?" -</p> - -<p> -The Minister and Fiscal agree upon a plan which allows them to retain -their respective positions. I must leave to you the pleasure of reading -the admirable details of this continuous web in which the author drives -a hundred characters abreast without being more embarrassed than a -skilful coachman is by the reins of a ten-horse coach. Everything is in -its place, there is not the slightest confusion. You see everything, the -town and the court. The drama is amazing in its skill, its execution, -its clearness. The air plays over the picture, not a character is -superfluous. Lodovico, who on many occasions has proved that he is an -honest Figaro, is the Duchessa's right arm. He plays a fine part, he -will be well rewarded. -</p> - -<p> -The time has now come to speak to you of one of the subordinate -characters who is shown in colossal proportions, and to whom frequent -reference is made in the book, namely Ferrante Palla, a Liberal doctor -under sentence of death who is wandering through Italy, where he -performs his task of propaganda. -</p> - -<p> -Ferrante Palla is a great poet, like Silvio Pellico, but he is what -Pellico is not, a Radical Republican. Let us not concern ourselves with -the faith of this man. He has faith, he is the Saint Paul of the -Republic, a martyr of Young Italy, he is a sublime work of art like the -<i>Saint Bartholomew</i> at Milan, like Foyatier's <i>Spartacus</i>, like -Marius pondering over the ruins of Carthage. Everything that he does, -everything that he says is sublime. He has the conviction, the grandeur, -the passion of the believer. However high you may place, in execution, -in conception, in reality, the Prince, the Minister, the Duchessa, -Ferrante Palla, this superb statue, set in a corner of the picture, -commands your gaze, compels your admiration. In spite of your opinions, -constitutional, monarchical or religious, he subjugates you. Greater -than his own misfortunes, preaching Italy from the hollow shelter of his -caves, without bread for his mistress and their five children; -committing highway robbery to maintain them, and keeping a note of the -sums stolen and the persons robbed so as to restore to them this forced -loan to the Republic when he shall have the power to do so; stealing -moreover in order to print his pamphlets entitled: <i>The necessity for a -budget in Italy</i>! Ferrante Palla is the type of a family of minds to be -found in Italy, sincere but misguided, full of talent but ignorant of -the fatal results of their doctrine. Send them with plenty of gold to -France and to the United States, as Ministers of Absolute Princes! -Instead of persecuting them, let them acquire enlightenment, these true -men, full of great and exquisite qualities. They will say like Alfieri -in 1793: "Little men, at work, reconcile me to the great." -</p> - -<p> -I praise with all the more enthusiasm this creation of Ferrante Palla, -having caressed the same figure myself. If I have the trifling advantage -over M. Beyle of priority, I am inferior to him in execution. I have -perceived this inward drama, so great, so powerful, of the stern and -conscientious Republican in love with a Duchess who holds to Absolute -Power. My Michel Chrestien, in love with the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, -could not stand out with the relief of Ferrante Palla, a lover after the -style of Petrarch of the Duchessa Sanseverina. Italy and its customs, -Italy and its scenery, the perils, the starvation of Ferrante Palla are -far more attractive than the meagre details of Parisian civilisation. -Although Michel Chrestien dies at Saint-Merry and Ferrante Palla escapes -to the United States after his crimes, Italian passion is far superior -to French passion, and the events of this episode add to their Apennine -savour an interest with which it is useless to compete. In a period when -everything is levelled more easily under the uniform of the National -Guard and the <i>Bourgeois</i> law than under the steel triangle of the -Republic, literature is essentially lacking, in France, in those great -obstacles between lovers which used to be the source of fresh beauties, -of new situations, and which made subjects dramatic. And so it was -difficult for the serious paradox of the passion of a Radical for a -great lady to escape trained pens. -</p> - -<p> -In no book, unless it be <i>Old Mortality</i>, is there to be found a -figure of an energy comparable to that which M. Beyle has given to -Ferrante Palla, whose name exercises a sort of compulsion over the -imagination. Between Balfour of Burley and Ferrante Palla, I have no -hesitation, I choose Ferrante Palla; the design is the same; but Walter -Scott, great colourist as he may be, has not the thrilling, warm colour, -as of Titian, which M. Beyle has spread over his character. Ferrante -Palla is a whole poem in himself, a poem superior to Lord Byron's -<i>Corsair</i>. "Ah! That is how people love!" is what all M. Beyle's -feminine readers will say to themselves on reading this sublime and most -reprehensible episode. -</p> - -<p> -Ferrante Palla has the most impenetrable of retreats in the -neighbourhood of Sacca. He has often seen the Duchessa, he has fallen -passionately in love with her. The Duchessa has met him, has been moved. -Ferrante Palla has told her everything, as though in the presence of -God. He knows that the Duchessa loves Mosca, his own love therefore is -hopeless. There is something touching in the Italian grace with which -the Duchessa lets him give himself the pleasure of kissing the white -hands of a woman with blue blood. He has not clasped a white hand for -seven years, and this poet adores beautiful white hands. His mistress, -whom he no longer loves, does the heavy work, makes clothes for the -children, and he cannot desert a woman who will not leave him, -notwithstanding the most appalling poverty. These obligations of an -honest man become apparent. The Duchessa has compassion for everything, -like a true Madonna. She has offered him his pardon! Ah, but Ferrante -Palla has, like Carl Sand, his own little sentences to enforce; he has -his preaching, his journeyings to rekindle the zeal of Young Italy. -</p> - -<p> -"All those scoundrels, who do so much harm to the people, would live for -long years," he says, "and whose fault would that be? What would my -father say when I meet him in heaven!" -</p> - -<p> -She then proposes to provide for the needs of the woman and her -children, and give him an undiscoverable hiding-place in the <i>palazzo</i> -Sanseverina. -</p> - -<p> -The <i>palazzo</i> Sanseverina includes an immense reservoir, built in the -middle ages with a view to prolonged sieges, and capable of supplying -the town with water for a year. Part of the <i>palazzo</i> is built over -this immense structure. The dapple-grey Duca spent the night after their -marriage in telling his wife the secret of the reservoir and of its -hiding-place. An enormous stone which moves on a pivot will let all the -water escape and flood the streets of Parma. In one of the thick walls -of the reservoir there is a chamber without light and without much air, -which no one would ever suspect; you would have to pull down the -reservoir to find it. -</p> - -<p> -Ferrante Palla accepts the hiding-place for evil days, and refuses the -Duchessa's money; he has made a vow never to have more than a hundred -francs on him. At the moment when she offers him her sequins, he has -money; but he lets himself go so far as to accept one sequin. -</p> - -<p> -"I take this sequin, because I love you," he says; "but I am on the -wrong side of my hundred by five francs, and, if they were to hang me -this minute, I should feel remorse." -</p> - -<p> -"He does really love," the Duchessa says to herself. -</p> - -<p> -Is not that the simplicity of Italy, taken from life? Molière, writing -a novel to describe this people, the only one except the Arabs that has -preserved its reverence for vows, could do nothing finer. -</p> - -<p> -Ferrante Palla becomes the Duchessa's other arm in her conspiracy, and -is a terrible weapon, his energy makes one shudder! Here is the scene -that occurs one evening in the <i>palazzo</i> Sanseverina. The lion of the -people has emerged from his retreat. He enters for the first time rooms -ablaze with regal splendour. He finds there his mistress, his idol, the -idol whom he has set above Young Italy, above the Republic and the -welfare of humanity; he sees her distressed, tears in her eyes! The -Prince has snatched from her him whom she loves best in the world, he -has basely deceived her, and this <i>tyrant</i> holds the sword of Damocles -over the beloved head. -</p> - -<p> -"What is happening here," says this sublime Republican Don Quixote, "is -an injustice of which the Tribune of the People ought to take note. On -the other hand, as a private citizen, I can give the Signora Duchessa -Sanseverina nothing but my life, and I lay it at her feet. The creature -you see at your feet is not a puppet of the court, he is a man.—She -has wept in my presence," he says to himself, "she is less unhappy." -</p> - -<p> -"Think of the risk you are running," says the Duchessa. -</p> - -<p> -"The Tribune will answer you: 'What is life when the voice of duty -speaks?' The man will say to you: 'Here is a body of iron and a heart -that fears nothing in the world but your displeasure.'" -</p> - -<p> -"If you speak to me of your feelings," says the Duchessa, "I shall not -see you again." -</p> - -<p> -Ferrante Palla departs sadly. -</p> - -<p> -Am I mistaken? Are they not as fine as Corneille, these dialogues? And, -remember, such passages abound, they are all, after their kind, at the -same high level. Struck by the beauty of this character, the Duchessa -prepares a written document providing for the future of Ferrante's -mistress and his five children, without saying anything to him, for she -is afraid that he may let himself be killed on learning that his -dependents have had this provision made for them. -</p> - -<p> -Finally, on the day when the whole of Parma is discussing the probable -death of Fabrizio, the Tribune braves every danger. He enters the -<i>palazzo</i> at night, he arrives disguised as a Capuchin in the -Duchessa's presence; he finds her drowned in tears and voiceless: she -greets him with her hand and points to a chair. Palla prostrates -himself, prays to God, so divine does her beauty seem to him, and breaks -off his prayer to say: -</p> - -<p> -"Once again <i>he</i> offers his life." -</p> - -<p> -"Think of what you are saying!" cries the Duchessa with that haggard eye -which shews more clearly than sobs that anger is mastering affection. -</p> - -<p> -"He offers his life to place all obstacle in the way of Fabrizio's fate -or to avenge it." -</p> - -<p> -"If I were to accept!" she says, gazing at him. -</p> - -<p> -She sees the joy of martyrdom flash in Palla's eye. She rises, goes to -look for the deed of gift prepared a month back, for Ferrante's mistress -and children. -</p> - -<p> -"Read this!" -</p> - -<p> -He reads it and falls on his knees, he sobs, he almost dies of joy. -</p> - -<p> -"Give me back the paper," says the Duchessa. -</p> - -<p> -She burns it over a candle. -</p> - -<p> -"My name," she tells him, "must not appear. If you are taken and -executed, if you are weak, I may be also, and Fabrizio would be in -danger. I wish you to sacrifice yourself." -</p> - -<p> -"I will perform the task faithfully, punctually and prudently." -</p> - -<p> -"If I am discovered and convicted," the Duchessa goes on proudly, "I -do not wish to be accused of having corrupted you. Do not put him to -death until I give the signal. That signal will be the flooding of the -streets of Parma, of which you are bound to hear." -</p> - -<p> -Ferrante, delighted by the Duchessa's tone of authority, takes his -leave. When he has gone, the Duchessa calls him back. -</p> - -<p> -"Ferrante, sublime man!" -</p> - -<p> -He returns. -</p> - -<p> -"And your children?" -</p> - -<p> -"Bah! You will provide for them." -</p> - -<p> -"Look, here are my diamonds." -</p> - -<p> -And she gives him a little olive-wood box. -</p> - -<p> -"They are worth fifty thousand francs." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh! Signora!" says Ferrante with a start of horror, "I may perhaps not -see you again. Take them, it is my wish." -</p> - -<p> -Ferrante leaves her. The door closes behind him, the Duchessa again -calls him back. He sees her standing there, he comes back uneasily. The -great Sanseverina throws herself into his arms. Ferrante is on the point -of fainting. She allows him to kiss her, frees herself from his embrace -when he threatens to become disrespectful, and shews him the door. -</p> - -<p> -She remains standing for some time and says to herself. -</p> - -<p> -"That is the one man who has understood me; Fabrizio would be like that -if he could only know me." -</p> - -<p> -I cannot lay too much stress on the merit of this scene. M. Beyle is not -in the least a preacher. He does not urge you on to regicide, he gives -you a fact, states it as it occurred. No one, not even a Republican, -feels the desire to kill a tyrant on reading it. It is the play of -private passions, that is all. It is a question of a duel which requires -extraordinary, but equally matched arms. The Duchessa makes use of Palla -to poison the Prince as the Prince makes use of one of Fabrizio's -enemies to poison Fabrizio. One can avenge oneself on a king, Coriolanus -avenged himself well on his country, Beaumarchais and Mirabeau avenged -themselves well on their period which despised them. This is not moral, -but the author has told you of it, and washes his hands of it as Tacitus -washes his of the crimes of Tiberius. "I am inclined to believe," he -says, "that the immoral delight in taking revenge which one finds in -Italy springs from the strength of imagination of that race; other races -do not forgive, they forget." Thus the moralist explains this energetic -people among whom we find so many inventors, who have the richest, the -finest imagination, with its accompanying drawbacks. This reflexion is -more profound than it appears at a first reading, it explains the -rhetorical stupidities which weigh down the Italians, the only race that -is comparable to the French, a race superior to the Russians or the -English, whose genius has the feminine fibre, that delicacy, that -majesty which make it in many respects superior to all other races. From -this point the Duchessa regains her advantage over the Prince. Hitherto, -she was weak and tricked in this great duel; Mosca, prompted by his -courtier's spirit, had been acting as second to the Prince. Now that her -revenge is assured, Gina feels her strength. Each step that her thoughts -take gives her happiness, she can play her part. The Tribune's courage -heightens hers. Lodovico is electrified by her. These three -conspirators, on whom Mosca shuts his eyes, while leaving his police -free to act against them if they notice anything, arrive at the most -extraordinary result. -</p> - -<p> -The Minister has been the dupe of his mistress, he fully believed -himself to be in disgrace, as he deserved. If he had not been thoroughly -taken in, he could never have played the part of a forlorn lover, for -happiness admits of no concealment. That fire of the heart has its -smoke. But, after the fascination of Ferrante by the Duchessa, her joy -enlightens the Minister, he at last guesses her purpose, without knowing -how far she has gone. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio's escape borders on the miraculous. It has required so much -physical strength and such an exercise of intelligence, that the dear -boy is on the point of death: the scent of his aunt's clothing and -handkerchief revives him. This slight detail, which is not forgotten -among a thousand other incidents, will delight those who are in love: it -is placed, as might be placed in a finale a melody which recalls the -sweetest elements of the life of love. All precautions have been -carefully taken, there is no indiscretion: Conte Mosca, who is present -in person at the expedition with more than two dozen spies, does not -receive a single report of it as Minister. -</p> - -<p> -"Now I'm committing high treason," he says to himself, blind with joy. -</p> - -<p> -Everyone has understood his orders without a word said, and escapes in -his own way. The business finished, each head has to think of and for -itself. Lodovico is the courier, he crosses the Po. Ah! When Fabrizio is -out of the reach of his crowned assassin, the Duchessa, who until then -had been crouching like a jaguar, coiled like a serpent hidden in the -undergrowth, flat as one of Cooper's Indians in the mud, supple as a -slave and feline as a deceitful woman, rises to her full height: the -panther shews her claws, the serpent is going to sting, the Indian to -utter his yell of triumph, she leaps for joy, she is mad. Lodovico, who -knows nothing of Ferrante Palla, who says of him in the common phrase: -"He is a poor man persecuted because of Napoleon!" Lodovico is afraid -that his mistress is going out of her mind. She gives him the small -property of Ricciarda. He trembles on receiving this regal gift. What -has he done to deserve it? "Conspire, and for Monsignore, why that is a -pleasure." -</p> - -<p> -It is then, the author tells us, that the Duchessa allows herself to -commit an act not only horrible in the eyes of morality, but fatal to -the tranquillity of her life. We suppose, of course, that in this hour -of bliss, she will forgive the Prince. No. -</p> - -<p> -"If you wish to acquire the property, you must do two things," she tells -Lodovico, "and without exposing yourself. You must go back at once -across the Po, illuminate my house at Sacca in such a way as to make -people think it is on fire. I have prepared everything for this -festivity, in case we succeeded. There are lamps and oil in the cellars. -Here is a line to my agent. Let the whole population of Sacca drink -themselves drunk, empty all my barrels and all my bottles. By the -Madonna! If I find one full bottle, one barrel with two fingers of wine -left in it, you lose Ricciarda! When that is done, return to Parma and -let the water out of the reservoir. Wine for my dear people at Sacca, -water for the town of Parma!" -</p> - -<p> -This makes one shudder. It is the Italian spirit, which M. Hugo has -perfectly reproduced when he makes Lucrezia Borgia say: "You have given -me a ball at Venice, I offer you in return a supper at Ferrara." The two -speeches are equivalent. Lodovico sees in this nothing more than a -magnificent insolence and an exquisite joke. He repeats: "Wine for the -people of Sacca, water for the people of Parma!" Lodovico returns after -having carried out the Duchessa's orders, establishes her at Belgirate, -and takes Fabrizio, who has still the Austrian police to fear, to -Locarno, in Switzerland. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio's escape, the illumination of Sacca throw the State of Parma -into utter confusion. Little attention is paid to the flooding of the -town. A similar event occurred at the time of the French invasion. A -horrible punishment awaits the Duchessa. She sees Fabrizio dying of love -for Clelia, resentful of being First Grand Vicar to the Archbishop and -so unable to marry his beloved. -</p> - -<p> -In the arms of his aunt and on Lake Maggiore, he dreams of his dear -prison. What then are the sufferings of this woman who has ordered a -crime, who has so to speak brought down the moon from the sky by taking -this beloved boy out of prison, and who sees him so artless and simple, -thinking of other things, refusing to perceive anything, and not -allowing himself to succumb to what he had so wisely fled from in the -company of his Gina, his mother, his sister, his aunt, his friend who -longed to be something more than a friend to him, all this torture is -unspeakable; but, in the book, it is felt, it is seen. We are pained by -Fabrizio's desertion of the Sanseverina, although we are conscious that -the gratification of her love would be criminal. Fabrizio is not even -grateful. The ex-prisoner, like a Minister in retirement who dreams of -coalitions which will restore him to power, thinks only of his prison; -he sends for pictures of Parma, that city abhorrent to his aunt; he puts -one of the fortress in his bedroom. Finally, he writes a letter of -apology to General Conti for having escaped, so as to be able to say to -Clelia that he finds no happiness in liberty without her, and you can -imagine what effect this letter (it is taken as a masterpiece of -ecclesiastical irony) produces on the General: he swears that he will be -avenged. The Duchessa, terrified and brought back to a sense of -self-preservation by the futility of her revenge, takes a boatman from -each of the villages on Lake Maggiore; she makes them row her out to the -middle of the lake; then she tells them that a search may be made for -Fabrizio, who served under Napoleon at Waterloo, and bids them keep a -sharp watch; she makes herself loved, and obeyed; she pays well, and so -has a spy in every village; she gives each of them permission to enter -her room at any hour, even at night when she is asleep. One evening, at -Locarno, during a party, she hears of the death of the Prince of Parma. -She looks at Fabrizio. -</p> - -<p> -"I have done this for him; I would have done things a thousand times -worse," she says to herself, "and look at him there, silent, -indifferent, dreaming about another!" -</p> - -<p> -At this thought she faints. This fainting-fit may be her ruin. The -company gathers round her, Fabrizio thinks of Clelia: she sees him, she -shudders, she finds herself surrounded by all these curious people, an -archpriest, the local authorities, and so forth. She recovers the calm -of a great lady, and says: -</p> - -<p> -"He was a great Prince, who was vilely slandered; it is an immense loss -for us.—Ah!" she says to herself, when she is alone, "it is now that -I have to pay for the transports of happiness and childish joy that I felt -in my <i>palazzo</i> at Parma when I welcomed Fabrizio there on his return -from Naples. If I had said a word, all would have been over, I should -have left Mosca. Once he was with me, Clelia would never have meant -anything to Fabrizio. Clelia wins, she is twenty. I am almost twice her -age. I must die! <i>A woman of forty is no longer anything save for the -men who have loved her in her youth</i>!" -</p> - -<p> -It is for this reflexion, profound in its shrewdness, suggested by grief -and almost entirely true, that I quote this passage. The Duchessa's -soliloquy is interrupted by a noise outside, at midnight. -</p> - -<p> -"Good," she says, "they are coming to arrest me; so much the better, it -will occupy my mind, fighting them for my head." -</p> - -<p> -It is nothing of the sort. Conte Mosca has sent her their most faithful -courier to inform her, before the rest of Europe, of recent events at -Parma, and of the details of the death of Ranuccio-Ernesto IV: there has -been a revolution, the Tribune Ferrante Palla has been on the verge of -triumph, he has spent the fifty thousand francs, the price of the -diamonds, on the cause of his dear Republic instead of giving them to -his children; the rising has been suppressed by Mosca, who served under -Napoleon in Spain, and who has displayed the courage of a soldier and -the coolness of a statesman; he has saved Rassi, which he will bitterly -repent; finally, he gives details of the accession to the throne of -Ranuccio-Ernesto V, a young prince who is enamoured of Signora -Sanseverina. The Duchessa is free to return. The Princess Dowager, who -adores her for reasons which the reader knows and has gathered from the -intrigues of the court at the time when the Duchessa reigned there, -writes her a charming letter, creates her Duchessa in her own right, and -Grand Mistress. It would not, however, be prudent for Fabrizio to return -at present, the sentence must be quashed by a retrial of the case. -</p> - -<p> -The Duchessa conceals Fabrizio at Sacca, and returns to Parma -triumphant. Thus the subject revives of its own accord without effort, -without monotony. There is not the slightest resemblance between the -early favour enjoyed by the innocent Sanseverina, under Ranuccio-Ernesto -IV, and the favour enjoyed by the Duchessa who has had him poisoned, -under Ranuccio-Ernesto V. The young twenty-year-old Prince is madly in -love with her, the peril incurred by the criminal is balanced by the -boundless power enjoyed by the Dowager's Grand Mistress. This Louis XIII -on a small scale finds his Richelieu in Mosca. The great Minister, -during the riots, carried away by a lingering trace of zeal, of -enthusiasm, has called him a boy. The word has remained in the Prince's -heart, it has hurt him. Mosca is useful to him; but the Prince, who is -only twenty years old in politics, is fifty in self-esteem. Rassi is -working in secret, he searches among the people and through all Italy, -and learns that Ferrante Palla, who is as poor as Job, has sold nine or -ten diamonds at Genoa. During the underground burrowings of the Fiscal -General joy reigns at court. The Prince, a shy young man like all shy -young men, attacks the woman of forty, grows frenzied in his pursuit of -her; it is true that Gina, more beautiful than ever, does not look more -than thirty, she is happy, she is making Mosca thoroughly happy, -Fabrizio is saved, he is to be tried again, acquitted, and will be, when -his sentence is quashed. Coadjutor to the Archbishop, who is -seventy-eight years old, with the right of eventual succession. -</p> - -<p> -Clelia alone causes the Duchessa any misgivings. As for the Prince, she -is amused by him. They act plays at court (those <i>commedie dell' -arte</i> in which each character invents the dialogue as he goes on, the -outline of the plot being posted up in the wings—a sort of -glorified charade). The Prince takes the lovers' parts, and Gina is -always the leading lady. Literally, the Grand Mistress is dancing upon a -volcano. This part of the work is charming. In the very middle of one of -these plays, this is what happens. Rassi has said to the Prince: "Does -Your Highness choose to pay a hundred thousand francs to find out the -exact manner of His august father's death?" He has had the hundred -thousand francs, because the Prince is a boy. Rassi has tried to corrupt -the Duchessa's head maid, this maid has told Mosca everything. Mosca has -told her to let herself be corrupted. Rassi requires one thing only, to -have the Duchessa's diamonds examined by two jewellers. Mosca posts -counter-spies and learns that one of these inquisitive jewellers is -Rassi's brother. Mosca appears, between the acts of the play, to warn -the Duchessa, whom he finds in the highest spirits. -</p> - -<p> -"I have very little time," she says to Mosca, "but let us go into the -guard-room." -</p> - -<p> -There she says with a laugh to her friend the Minister: -</p> - -<p> -"You always scold me when I tell you unnecessary secrets; very well, it -was I who called Ernesto V to the throne; it was a case of avenging -Fabrizio, whom I loved far more than I love him to-day, though always -quite innocently. You will scarcely believe in my innocence, but that -does not matter, since you love me in spite of my crimes! Very well, -there is one crime in my life: Ferrante Palla had my diamonds. I did -worse, I let myself be kissed by him so that he should poison the man -who wished to poison our Fabrizio. Where is the harm?" -</p> - -<p> -"And you tell me this in the guard-room?" says the Conte, <i>slightly -taken aback</i>! -</p> - -<p> -This last expression is charming. -</p> - -<p> -"It is because I am in a hurry," she says, "Rassi is on the track: but I -have never spoken of insurrection, I abhor Jacobins. Think it over, and -give me your advice after the play." -</p> - -<p> -"I will give it you now," replies Mosca without hesitation. "You will -buttonhole the Prince behind the scenes, make him lose his head, but -without doing anything dishonourable, you understand." -</p> - -<p> -The Duchessa is called to go on the stage, and returns behind the -scenes. -</p> - -<p> -Ferrante Palla's farewell to his idol is one of the finest things in -this book, where there are so many fine things; but we come now to the -capital scene, to the scene which crowns the work, to the burning of the -papers in the case drawn up by Rassi, which the Grand Mistress obtains -from Ranuccio-Ernesto V and the Princess Dowager, a terrible scene, in -which she is now lost, now saved, at the whim of the mother and son who -feel themselves overpowered by the force of character of this sort of -Princesse des Ursins. This scene occupies only eight pages, but it is -without parallel in the art of literature. There is nothing analogous to -which it can be compared, it is unique. I say nothing of it, it is -sufficient to draw attention to it. The Duchessa triumphs, she destroys -the proofs and even carries away one of the documents for Mosca, who -takes note of the names of some of the witnesses and cries: "It was high -time, they were getting warm!" Rassi is in despair: the Prince has given -orders for a retrial of Fabrizio's case. Fabrizio, instead of making -himself a prisoner, as Mosca wishes, in the town prison, which is under -the Prime Minister's orders, returns at once to his beloved citadel, -where the General, who thought that his honour had been tarnished by the -escape, rigorously confines him with the intention of getting rid of -him. Mosca would have answered for him, with his life, in the town -prison; but in the citadel Fabrizio is helpless. -</p> - -<p> -This news comes as a bolt from the blue to the Duchessa: she remains -speechless and unhearing. Fabrizio's love for Clelia bringing him back -to the place where death lies in wait for him and where the girl will -give him a moment's happiness for which he must pay with his life—the -thought of this crushes her, and Fabrizio's imminent danger is the last -straw. -</p> - -<p> -This danger exists already, it is not created to fit the scene, it is -the result of the passions aroused by Fabrizio during his former -imprisonment, by his escape, by the fury of Rassi who has been forced to -sign the order for a fresh trial. And so, even in the most minute -details, the author loyally obeys the laws of the poetry of the novel. -This exact observation of the rules, whether it come from the -calculation, meditation, and natural deduction of a well chosen, well -developed and fruitful subject, or from the instinct peculiar to talent, -produces this powerful and permanent interest which we find in great, in -fine works of art. -</p> - -<p> -Mosca, in despair, makes the Duchessa understand the impossibility of -getting a young Prince to believe that a prisoner can be poisoned in his -State, and offers to get rid of Rassi. -</p> - -<p> -"But," he tells her, "you know how squeamish I am about that sort of -thing. Sometimes, at the end of the day, I still think of those two -spies whom I had shot in Spain." -</p> - -<p> -"Rassi owes his life, then," replies the Duchessa, "to the fact that I -care more for you than for Fabrizio; I do not wish to poison the -evenings of the old age which we shall have to spend together." -</p> - -<p> -The Duchessa hastens to the fortress, and is there convinced of -Fabrizio's peril; she goes to the Prince. The Prince is a boy who, as -the Minister has foreseen, does not understand the danger that can -threaten an innocent person in his State Prison. He declines to -dishonour himself, to pass judgment on his own justice. Finally, in view -of the imminence of the peril (the poison has been given), the Duchessa -wrests from him the order to set Fabrizio at liberty in exchange for a -promise to yield to this young Prince's desires. This scene has an -originality of its own after that of the burning of the papers. At that -time, Gina's only thought was for herself, now it is for Fabrizio. -Fabrizio once acquitted and appointed Coadjutor to the Archbishop with -the right of eventual succession, which is tantamount to being made -Archbishop, the Duchessa finds a way to elude the consequences of her -promise by one of those dilemmas which women who are not in love can -always find with a maddening coolness. She is to the end the woman of -great character whose career started as you have read. There follows a -change in the Ministry. Mosca leaves Parma with his wife, for the -Duchessa and he, both widowed, have now married. But nothing goes well, -and at the end of a year the Prince recalls Conte and Contessa Mosca. -Fabrizio is Archbishop and in high favour. -</p> - -<p> -There follows the love of Clelia and Archbishop Fabrizio, which ends in -the death of Clelia, in that of a beloved child, and in the resignation -and withdrawal of the Archbishop, who dies, doubtless after a long -expiation, in the Charterhouse of Parma. -</p> - -<p> -I explain this ending to you in a few words, since, in spite of -beautiful details, it is sketched rather than finished. If the author -had had to develop the romance of the end like that of the beginning, it -would have been difficult to know where to stop. Is there not a whole -drama in the love of a celibate priest? So there is a whole drama in the -love of the Coadjutor and Clelia. Book upon book! -</p> - -<p> -Had M. Beyle some woman in his mind when he drew his Sanseverina? I -fancy so. For this statue, as for the Prince and the Prime Minister, -there must necessarily have been some model. Is she at Milan? Is she at -Rome, at Naples, at Florence? I cannot say. Although I am quite -convinced that there do exist women like the Sanseverina, though in very -small numbers, and that I know some myself, I believe also that the -author has perhaps enlarged the model and has completely idealised her. -In spite of this labour, which removes all similarity, one may find in -the Princesse B—— certain traits of the Sanseverina. Is she not -Milanese? Has she not passed through good and adverse fortune? Is she -not shrewd and witty? -</p> - -<p> -You know now the framework of this immense edifice, and I have taken you -round it. My hasty analysis, bold, believe me, for it requires boldness -to undertake to give you an idea of a novel constructed out of incidents -as closely compressed as are those of <i>La Chartreuse de Parme</i>; my -analysis, dry as it may be, has outlined the masses for you, and you can -judge whether my praise is exaggerated. But it is difficult to enumerate -to you in detail the fine and delicate sculptures that enrich this solid -structure, to stop before the statuettes, the paintings, the landscapes, -the bas-reliefs which decorate it. This is what happened to me. At the -first reading, which took me quite by surprise, I found faults in the -book. On my reading it again, the <i>longueurs</i> vanished, I saw the -necessity for the detail which, at first, had seemed ta me too long or -too diffuse. To give you a good account of it, I ran through the book -once more. Captivated then by the execution, I spent more time than I -had intended in the contemplation of this fine book, and everything -struck me as most harmonious, connected naturally or by artifice but -concordantly. -</p> - -<p> -Here, however, are the errors which I pick out, not so much from the -point of view of art as in view of the sacrifices which every author -must learn to make to the majority. -</p> - -<p> -If I found confusion on first reading the bode, my impression will be -that of the public, and therefore evidently this book is lacking in -method. M. Beyle has indeed disposed the events as they happened, or as -they ought to have happened; but he has committed, in his arrangement of -the facts, a mistake which many authors commit, by taking a subject true -in nature which is not true in art. When he sees a landscape, a great -painter takes care not to copy it slavishly, he has to give us not so -much its letter as its spirit. So, in his simple, artless and unstudied -manner of telling his story, M. Beyle has run the risk of appearing -confused. Merit which requires to be studied is in danger of remaining -unperceived. And so I could wish, in the interest of the book, that the -author had begun with his magnificent sketch of the battle of Waterloo, -that he had reduced everything which precedes it to some account given -by Fabrizio or about Fabrizio while he is lying in the village in -Flanders where he arrives wounded. Certainly, the work would gain in -lightness. The del Dongo father and son, the details about Milan, all -these things are not part of the book: the drama is at Parma, the -principal characters are the Prince and his son. Mosca, Rassi, the -Duchessa, Ferrante Palla, Lodovico, Clelia, her father, the Raversi, -Giletti, Marietta. Skilled advisers or friends endowed with simple -common sense might have procured the development of certain portions -which the author has not supposed to be as interesting as they are, and -would have called for the excision of several details, superfluous in -spite of their fineness. For instance, the work would lose nothing if -the Priore Blanès were to disappear entirely. -</p> - -<p> -I will go farther, and will make no compromise, in favour of this fine -work, over the true principles of art. The law which governs everything -is that of unity in composition; whether you place this unity in the -central idea or in the plan of the book, without it there can be only -confusion. So, in spite of its title, the work is ended when Conte and -Contessa Mosca return to Parma and Fabrizio is Archbishop. The great -comedy of the court is finished. It is so well finished, and the author -has so clearly felt this, that it is in this place that he sets his -Moral, as our forerunners used to do at the end of their fables. -</p> - -<p> -"One can conclude with this moral," he says: "the man who comes to a -court risks his happiness, if he is happy; and in any case makes his -future depend upon the intrigues of a chambermaid. -</p> - -<p> -"On the other hand, in America, in the Republic, one has to waste one's -whole time paying serious court to the shopkeepers in the street and -becoming as stupid as themselves; and there, there is no Opera." -</p> - -<p> -If, beneath the Roman purple and with a mitre on his head, Fabrizio -loves Clelia, become Marchesa Crescenzi, and if you were telling us -about it, you would then wish to make the life of this young man the -subject of your book. But if you wished to describe the whole of -Fabrizio's life, you ought, being a man of such sagacity, to call your -book Fabrizio, or the Italian in the Nineteenth Century. In launching -himself upon such a career, Fabrizio ought not to have found himself -outshone by figures so typical, so poetical as are those of the two -Princes, the Sanseverina, Mosca, Ferrante Palla. Fabrizio ought to have -represented the young Italian of to-day. In making this young man the -principal figure of the drama, the author was under an obligation to -give him a large mind, to endow him with a feeling which would make him -superior to the men of genius who surround him, and which he lacks. -Feeling, in short, is equivalent to talent. <i>To feel</i> is the rival of -<i>to understand as to act</i> is the opposite of <i>to think</i>. The -friend of a man of genius can raise himself to his level by affection, by -understanding. In matters of the heart, an inferior man may prevail over -the greatest artist. There lies the justification of those women who -fall in love with imbeciles. So, in a drama, one of the most ingenious -resources of the artist is (in the case in which we suppose M. Beyle to -be) to make a hero superior by his feeling when he cannot by genius -compete with the people among whom he is placed. In this respect, -Fabrizio's part requires recasting. The genius of Catholicism ought to -urge him with its divine hand towards the <i>Charterhouse of Parma</i>, and -that genius ought from time to time to overwhelm him with the tidings of -heavenly grace. But then the Priore Blanès could not perform this part, -for it is impossible to cultivate judicial astrology and to be a saint -according to the Church. The book ought therefore to be either shorter -or longer. -</p> - -<p> -Possibly the slowness of the beginning, possibly that ending which -begins a new book and in which the subject is abruptly strangled, will -damage its success, possibly they have already damaged it. M. Beyle has -moreover allowed himself certain repetitions, perceptible only to those -who know his earlier books; but such readers themselves are necessarily -connoisseurs, and so fastidious. M. Beyle, keeping in mind that great -principle: "Unlucky in love, as in the arts, who says too much!" ought -not to repeat himself, he, always concise and leaving much to be -guessed. In spite of his sphinx-like habit, he is less enigmatic here -than in his other works, and his true friends will congratulate him on -this. -</p> - -<p> -The portraits are brief. A few words are enough for M. Beyle, who paints -his characters both by action and by dialogue; he does not weary one -with descriptions, he hastens to the drama and arrives at it by a word, -by a thought. His landscapes, traced with a somewhat dry touch which, -however, is suited to the country, are lightly done. He takes his stand -by a tree, on the spot where he happens to be; he shews you the lines of -the Alps which on all sides enclose the scene of action, and the -landscape is complete. The book is particularly valuable to travellers -who have strolled by the Lake of Como, over the Brianza, who have passed -under the outermost bastions of the Alps and crossed the plains of -Lombardy. The spirit of those scenes is finely revealed, their beauty is -well felt. One can see them. -</p> - -<p> -The weak part of this book is the style, in so far as the arrangement of -the words goes, for the thought, which is eminently French, sustains the -sentences. The mistakes that M. Beyle makes are purely grammatical; he -is careless, incorrect, after the manner of seventeenth-century writers. -The quotations I have made shew what sort of faults he lets himself -commit. In one place, a discord of tenses between verbs, sometimes the -absence of a verb; here, again, sequences of <i>c'est</i>, of <i>ce -que</i>, of <i>que</i>, which weary the reader, and have the effect on -his mind of a journey in a badly hung carriage over a French road. These -quite glaring faults indicate a scamping of work. But, if the French -language is a varnish spread over thought, we ought to be as indulgent -towards those in whom it covers fine paintings as we are severe to those -who shew nothing but the varnish. If, in M. Beyle, this varnish is a -little yellow in places and inclined to scale off in others, he does at -least let us see a sequence of thoughts which are derived from one -another according to the laws of logic. His long sentence is ill -constructed, his short sentence lacks polish. He writes more or less in -the style of Diderot, who was not a writer; but the conception is great -and strong; the thought is original, and often well rendered. This -system is not one to be imitated. It would be too dangerous to allow -authors to imagine themselves to be profound thinkers. -</p> - -<p> -M. Beyle is saved by the deep feeling that animates his thought. All -those to whom Italy is dear, who have studied or understood her, will -read <i>La Chartreuse de Parme</i> with delight. The spirit, the genius, -the customs, the soul of that beautiful country live in this long drama -that is always engaging, in this vast fresco so well painted, so -strongly coloured, which moves the heart profoundly and satisfies the -most difficult, the most exacting mind. The Sanseverina is the Italian -woman, a figure as happily portrayed as Carlo Dolci's famous head of -<i>Poetry</i>, Allori's <i>Judith</i>, or Guercino's <i>Sibyl</i> in the -Manfredini gallery. In Mosca he paints the man of genius in politics at -grips with love. It is indeed love without speech (the speeches are the -weak point in <i>Clarisse</i>), active love, always true to its own -type, love stronger than the call of duty, love, such as women dream of, -such as gives an additional interest to the least things in life. -Fabrizio is quite the young Italian of to-day at grips with the -distinctly clumsy despotism which suppresses the imagination of that -fine country; but, as I have said above, the dominant thought or the -feeling which urges him to lay aside his dignities and to end his life -in a Charterhouse needs development. This book is admirably expressive -of love as it is felt in the South. Obviously, the North does not love -in this way. All these characters have a heat, a fever of the blood, a -vivacity of hand, a rapidity of mind which is not to be found in the -English nor in the Germans nor in the Russians, who arrive at the same -results only by processes of revery, by the reasonings of a smitten -heart, by the slow rising of their sap. M. Beyle has in this respect -given this book the profound meaning, the feeling which guarantees the -survival of a literary conception. But unfortunately it is almost a -secret doctrine, which requires laborious study. <i>La Chartreuse de -Parme</i> is placed at such a height, it requires in the reader so -perfect a knowledge of the court, the place, the people that I am by no -means astonished at the absolute silence with which such a book has been -greeted. That is the lot that awaits all books in which there is nothing -vulgar. The secret ballot in which vote one by one and slowly the -superior minds who make the name of such works, is not counted until -long afterwards. Besides, M. Beyle is not a courtier, he has the most -profound horror of the press. From largeness of character or from the -sensitiveness of his self-esteem, as soon as his book appears, he takes -flight, leaves Paris, travels two hundred and fifty leagues in order not -to hear it spoken of. He demands no articles, he does not haunt the -footsteps of the reviewers. He has behaved thus after the publication of -each of his books. I admire this pride of character or this -sensitiveness of self-esteem. Excuses there may be for mendicity, there -can be none for that quest for praise and articles on which modern -authors go begging. It is the mendicity, the pauperism of the mind. -There are no great works of art that have fallen into oblivion. The -lies, the complacencies of the pen cannot give life to a worthless book. -</p> - -<p> -After the courage to criticise comes the courage to praise. Certainly it -is time someone did justice to M. Beyle's merit. Our age owes him much: -was it not he who first revealed to us Rossini, the finest genius in -music? He has pleaded constantly for that glory which France had not the -intelligence to make her own. Let us in turn plead for the writer who -knows Italy best, who avenges her for the calumnies of her conquerors, -who has so well explained her spirit and her genius. -</p> - -<p> -I had met M. Beyle twice in society, in twelve years, before the day -when I took the liberty of congratulating him on <i>La Chartreuse de -Parme</i> on meeting him in the Boulevard des Italiens. On each -occasion, his conversation has fully maintained the opinion I had formed -of him from his works. He tells stories with the spirit and grace which -M. Charles Nodier and M. de Latouche possess in a high degree. Indeed he -recalls the latter gentleman by the irresistible charm of his speech, -although his physique—for he is extremely stout—seems at -first sight to preclude refinement, elegance of manners; but he -instantly disproves this suspicion, like Dr. Koreff, the friend of -Hoffmann. He has a fine forehead, a keen and piercing eye, a sardonic -mouth; in short, he has altogether the physiognomy of his talent. He -retains in conversation that enigmatic turn, that eccentricity which -leads him never to sign the already illustrious name of Beyle, to call -himself one day Cotonnet, another Frédéric. He is, I am told, the -nephew of the famous and industrious Daru, one of the strong arms of -Napoleon. M. Beyle was naturally in the Emperor's service; 1815 tore -him, necessarily, from his career, he passed from Berlin to Milan, and -it is to the contrast between the life of the North and that of the -South, which impressed him, that we are indebted for this writer. M. -Beyle is one of the superior men of our time. It is difficult to explain -how this observer of the first order, this profound diplomat who, -whether in his writings or in his speech, has furnished so many proofs -of the loftiness of his ideas and the extent of his practical knowledge -should find himself nothing more than Consul at Civita-vecchia. No one -could be better qualified to represent France at Rome. M. Mérimée knew -M. Beyle early and takes after him; but the master is more elegant and -has more ease. M. Beyle's works are many in number and are remarkable -for fineness of observation and for the abundance of their ideas. Almost -all of them deal with Italy. He was the first to give us exact -information about the terrible case of the Cenci; but he has not -sufficiently explained the causes of the execution, which was -independent of the trial, and due to factional clamour, to the demands -of avarice. His book <i>De l'amour</i> is superior to M. de -Sénancour's, he shews affinity to the great doctrines of Cabanis and -the School of Paris; but he fails by the lack of method which, as I have -already said, spoils <i>La Chartreuse de Parme</i>. He has ventured, in -this treatise, upon the word <i>crystallisation</i> to explain the -phenomenon of the birth of this sentiment, a word which has been taken -as a joke, but will survive on account of its profound accuracy. M. -Beyle has been writing since 1817. He began with a certain show of -Liberalism; but I doubt whether this great calculator can have let -himself be taken in by the stupidities of Dual Chamber government. <i>La -Chartreuse de Parme</i> has an underlying bias which is certainly not -against Monarchy. He finds fault with what he admires, he is a -Frenchman. -</p> - -<p> -M. de Chateaubriand said, in a preface to the eleventh edition of -<i>Atala</i>, that his book in no way resembled the previous editions, so -thoroughly had he revised it. M. le Comte de Maistre admits having -rewritten <i>Le Lépreux de la vallée d'Aoste</i> seventeen times. I hope -that M. Beyle also will set to work going over, polishing <i>La Chartreuse -de Parme</i>, and will stamp it with the imprint of perfection, the emblem -of irreproachable beauty which MM. de Chateaubriand and de Maistre have -given to their precious books. -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="nind"><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a>So Balzac, reading <i>les petites mains les plus gracieuses</i>. -Stendhal's words are <i>les petites mines</i>, and he makes the lady a -Marchesa. Balzac's quotations are not, as a rule, textually accurate, -but his analysis of the story is admirable. </p> - -<p class="nind">C. K. S. M.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="nind"><a name="Footnote_2_1" id="Footnote_2_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_1"><span class="label">[2]</span></a>What a phrase, indeed. But it is the Duchessa, not Mosca, -who gives this advice to Fabrizio, at Piacenza, and it is the party -"opposite to the one he has served all his life" that he is to be flung -into.</p> - -<p class="nind">C. K. S. M.</p></div> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -This article opened the third and concluding number of Balzac's <i>Revue -Parisienne</i>, dated September 25, 1840. Each of the earlier numbers -had opened with a story, viz.; <i>Z. Marcas</i> and <i>Les Fantaisies de -Claudine</i> (<i>Un Prince de la Bohème</i>) afterwards embodied in the -<i>Comédie Humaine</i>. This <i>Etude sur M. Beyle</i> will be found in -<i>Œuvres complètes de H. de Balzac—XXIII—Œuvres -diverses—septième partie—Essais historiques et -politiques</i>—Paris, Michel Lévy Frères, Editeurs, &c., -873, pages 687 to 738. It is also reprinted in Lévy's 1853 edition of -<i>La Chartreuse de Parme</i>. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h4><a id="BEYLES_REPLY_TO_BALZAC">BEYLE'S REPLY TO BALZAC</a></h4> - -<p> -On receiving the <i>Revue Parisienne</i>, Beyle at once wrote to Balzac the -letter a translation of which follows. This letter he seems to have -entrusted to his friend Romain Colomb, afterwards his literary executor, -in whose hands it still remained six months later. As published by -Colomb, the letter includes the text actually addressed to Balzac and -the draft here appended to it, and it so figures in <i>Stendhal: Œuvres -Posthumes: Correspondance Inédite précédée d'une Introduction par -Prosper Mérimée de l'Académie Française</i>: Vol. II, pp. 293-299 -(Calmann-Lévy). The correct text was established by M. Paul Arbelet in -the <i>Revue d'Histoire Littéraire de la France</i>, Oct.-Dec., 1917, pp. -548 sqq. <i>La véritable lettre de Stendhal</i>, and reprinted by MM. G. -Grès & Cie. in their edition of <i>La Chartreuse de Parme</i> (1922). -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p style="margin-left: 50%;">Civita-vecchia, 30th October, 1840.</p> - -<p> -Last night, Sir, I received a great surprise. No one, I think, has ever -been so well treated in a Review, and by the best judge of the subject. -You have taken pity on an orphan left wandering in the street. I have -made a fitting response to this kindness, I read the review last night, -and this morning I have cut down to four or five pages the fifty-four -opening pages<a name="FNanchor_3_1" id="FNanchor_3_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_1" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> of the work which you have introduced to the world. -</p> - -<p> -The confection of literature would have disgusted me with all pleasure -in writing; I have dismissed all rejoicings over the printed page, to a -time twenty or thirty years hence. Some literary rag-picker may make the -discovery of the works whose merit you so strangely exaggerate. -</p> - -<p> -Your illusion goes a long way, <i>Phèdre</i>, for instance. I may admit to -you that I was shocked, I who am quite well-disposed towards the author. -</p> - -<p> -Since you have taken the trouble to read this novel three times, I shall -have a number of questions to ask you at our next meeting on the -boulevard. -</p> - -<p> -1. Am I allowed to call Fabrizio <i>our</i> hero? It was a question of not -repeating the name Fabrizio too often. -</p> - -<p> -2. Ought I to suppress the episode of <i>Fausta</i>, which has turned out -unduly long? Fabrizio seizes the opportunity that is offered him to shew -to the Duchessa that he is not susceptible to <i>love</i>. -</p> - -<p> -3. The fifty-four opening pages seem to me a graceful introduction. I -did indeed feel some misgivings when correcting the proofs, but I -thought of those boring first half-volumes of Walter Scott, and of the -endless preamble to the divine <i>Princesse de Clèves</i>. -</p> - -<p> -I abhor an involved style, and I must admit to you that many pages of -the <i>Chartreuse</i> were printed from my original dictation. As -children say: I shall not return to it again. I think, however, that -since the destruction of the court, in 1792, the part played by form -becomes more exiguous daily. Were M. Villemain, whom I cite as the most -distinguished of our Academicians, to translate the <i>Chartreuse</i> -into French, he would require three volumes to express what I have given -in two. The majority of scoundrels being emphatic and eloquent, people -will take a dislike to the declamatory tone. At seventeen I came near to -fighting a duel over the "indeterminate crest of the forests" of M. de -Chateaubriand, who numbered many admirers in the 6th Dragoons. I have -never read <i>La Chaumière indienne</i>, I cannot abide M. de Maistre. -</p> - -<p> -My Homer is the <i>Memoirs</i> of Marshal Gouvion Saint-Cyr. Montesquieu -and Fénelon's <i>Dialogues</i> strike me as well written. Except for Madame -de Mortsauf and her companions, I have read nothing of what has been -printed in the last thirty years. I read Ariosto, whose stories I love. -The Duchessa is copied from Correggio. I see the future history of -French literature in the history of painting. We have reached the stage -of the pupils of Pietro da Cortona, who worked rapidly and strained all -his expressions, like Madame Cottin who makes the hewn stones of the -Borromean Islands walk. After this novel, I have no . . .<a name="FNanchor_4_1" id="FNanchor_4_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_1" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> While -composing the Chartreuse, to acquire the tone, I used to read every -morning two or three pages of the <i>Code Civil</i>. -</p> - -<p> -Permit a coarse expression: I do not wish to b—— the heart -of the reader. This, poor reader lets ambitious phrases pass, such as -"the wind that uproots the waves," but they come back to him after the -moment of emotion. I wish on the other hand that, if the reader thinks -of Conte Mosca, he shall find nothing to cut down. -</p> - -<p> -4. I am going to introduce, in the <i>foyer</i> of the Opera, Bassi and -Riscara, sent to Paris as spies after Waterloo by Ranuccio-Ernesto IV. -Fabrizio returning from Amiens will be struck by their Italian -appearance and clipped Milanese, which these watchers imagine to be -understood by no one. Everyone tells me that I must announce my -characters. I shall greatly reduce the good Priore Blanès. I thought -that the story needed characters who do nothing, and only touch the -heart of the reader and dispel the air of romance. -</p> - -<p> -You are going to think me a monster of pride. What, your inward sense -will say, this creature, not content with what I have done for him, a -thing without parallel in this century, still wishes to be praised for -his style! -</p> - -<p> -I see but one rule: <i>to be clear</i>. If I am not clear, all my world -crumbles to nothing. I wish to speak of what is occurring in the heart -of Mosca, of the Duchessa, of Clelia. It is a country into which hardly -penetrates the gaze of the newly rich, such as the Latinist Master of -the Mint, M. le Comte Roy, M. Laffitte, etc., etc., etc., the gaze of -the grocer, the worthy paterfamilias, etc., etc. -</p> - -<p> -If, to the obscurity of the matter, I add the obscurities of style of M. -Villemain, of Madame Sand, etc. (supposing me to have the rare privilege -of being able to write like those <i>choregi</i> of good style), if I add -to the difficulty of the subject the obscurities of this vaunted style, no -one in the world will understand the struggle between the Duchessa and -Ernesto IV. The style of M. de Chateaubriand and M. de Villemain seems -to me to say: 1. a number of pleasant little things, but things not -worth saying (like the style of Ausonius, Claudian, etc.); 2. a number -of little <i>insincerities</i>, pleasant to listen to. These great -Academicians would have seen the public go mad over their writings, had -they been given to the world in 1780; their chance of greatness depended -upon the old <i>régime</i>. -</p> - -<p> -In proportion as the semi-intelligent become more numerous, the part -played by form decreases. If the <i>Chartreuse</i> were translated into -French by Madame Sand, she would make it a success, but, in order to -express what there is in my two volumes, she would need three or four. -Weigh this excuse. -</p> - -<p> -The semi-intelligent puts above everything else the verse of Racine, for -he can understand what is meant by an unfinished line; but every day his -verse becomes a less important factor in Racine's merit. The public, as -it grows more numerous, less sheeplike, requires a greater quantity of -<i>little actual facts</i>, as to a passion, a situation in real life, -etc. How often do we find Voltaire, Racine, etc., all of them in fact -except Corneille, obliged to <i>cap</i> their lines for the sake of the -rhyme; well, these capping lines occupy the place that should properly -be filled by little actual facts. -</p> - -<p> -In fifty years' time M. Bignan, and the Bignans who write in prose will -have so wearied their public with productions that are elegant and -devoid of any other merit, that the semi-intelligent will be in great -difficulties; their vanity requiring them always to speak of literature -and to make a pretence of thought, what will become of them when they -can no longer attach themselves to form? They will end by making their -god of Voltaire. Wit lasts no more than two centuries; in 1978, Voltaire -will be Voiture; but <i>Le Père Goriot</i> will still be <i>Le Père -Goriot</i>. Perhaps the semi-intelligent will be so distressed at no -longer having their beloved rules to admire that it is highly possible -that they will grow disgusted with literature and take to religion. All -political rascals having a declamatory and eloquent tone, people will -have grown sick of this in 1880. Then perhaps they will read the -<i>Chartreuse</i>. -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -[The following passage occurs among the Beyle manuscripts at Grenoble, -and was added to the printed text of the letter by Colomb. It appears -rather to be alternative to some of the preceding paragraphs.] -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -The part played by <i>form</i> becomes more exiguous daily. Take Hume; -imagine a History of France from 1780 to 1840, written with Hume's sound -sense; it would be read, even if it were written in patois; it<a name="FNanchor_5_1" id="FNanchor_5_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_1" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> is -written like the <i>Code Civil</i>. I am going to correct the style of the -<i>Chartreuse</i>, since it hurts you, but I shall find it most difficult. -I do not admire the style now in fashion, I have no patience with it. I -see Claudians, Senecas, Ausoniuses. I have been told for the last year -that one ought now and then to relax the reader's attention by -describing scenery, dresses. These things have bored me so in other -writers! I shall try. -</p> - -<p> -As for immediate success, of which I should never have thought but for -the <i>Revue Parisienne</i>, it is quite fifteen years since I said to -myself: I should become a candidate for the Academy if I won the hand of -Mademoiselle Bertin, who would have my praises sung three times weekly. -When society is no longer tainted with common upstarts, valuing above -everything else nobility, just because they are ignoble, it will no -longer be on its knees before the press of the aristocracy. Before 1793 -good company was the true judge of books, now it is haunted by the fear -of another 1793, it is frightened, it is no longer a judge. Look at the -catalogue which a little bookseller near Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin (Rue du -Bac, about No. 110) supplies to the nobility, his neighbours. It is the -argument that has most convinced me of the impossibility of pleasing -these timid creatures, stupefied by idleness. -</p> - -<p> -I have not in the least copied M. de Metternich, whom I have not seen -since 1810, at Saint-Cloud, when he wore a bracelet of the hair of -Caroline Murat, who was such a beauty then. I feel no regret for all -that is destined not to happen. I am a fatalist, and hide from it. I -imagine that I shall perhaps have a little success about 1860 or '80. -Then there will be very little said of M. de Metternich, and even less -of the petty Prince. Who was Prime Minister of England in the time of -Malherbe? If I have not the misfortune to hit upon a Cromwell, I am sure -of a nonentity. -</p> - -<p> -Death makes us change places with these people. They can do anything -with our bodies during their lives, but, at the moment of death, -oblivion enwraps them for ever. Who will speak of M. de Villèle, of M. -de Martignac, in a hundred years' time? M. de Talleyrand himself will be -preserved only by his <i>Memoirs</i>, if he has left good ones, while <i>Le -Roman comique</i> is to-day what <i>Le Père Goriot</i> will be in 1980. It -is Scarron who makes known the name of the Rothschild of his day, M. de -Montauron, who was also, to the extent of fifty louis, the protector of -Corneille. -</p> - -<p> -You have well felt, Sir, with the tact of a man who has acted, that the -<i>Chartreuse</i> could not deal with a great State, such as France, -Spain, Vienna, on account of the administrative detail. I was left with -the petty Princes of Germany and Italy. -</p> - -<p> -But the Germans are so much on their knees before a riband, they are -such fools! I spent several years among them, and have forgotten their -language, out of contempt for them. You can easily see that my -characters could not be Germans. If you follow this idea, you will find -that I have been led by the hand to an extinct dynasty, to a Farnese, -the least obscure of these <i>extinct</i> personages, on account of the -Generals, his grandsires. -</p> - -<p> -I take a character well-known to myself, I leave him the habits he has -contracted in the art of going out every morning in pursuit of pleasure, -then I give him more intelligence. I have never seen Signora di -Belgiojoso. Rassi was a German; I have talked to him hundreds of times. -I picked up the Prince while staying at Saint-Cloud in 1810 and 1811. -</p> - -<p> -Ouf! I hope that you will have read this treatise three times. You say, -Sir, that you do not know English: you have in Paris the <i>bourgeois</i> -style of Walter Scott in the heavy prose of M. Delécluze, editor of the -<i>Débats</i>, and author of a <i>Mademoiselle de Liron</i> which has -something in it. Walter Scott's prose is inelegant and above all -pretentious. One sees a dwarf who is determined not to lose an inch of -his stature. -</p> - -<p> -This astounding article, such as no writer has ever received from -another, I have read, I now make bold to confess to you, with shouts of -laughter, whenever I came to an encomium that was at all strong, and I -met them at every turn. I could see the expression on the faces of my -friends as they read it. -</p> - -<p> -For instance the Minister d'Argout, being then Auditor to the Council of -State, was my equal and, moreover, what is known as a friend; 1830 -comes, he is a Minister, his clerks, whom I do not know, think that -there are at least thirty artists. . . . -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="nind"><a name="Footnote_3_1" id="Footnote_3_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_1"><span class="label">[3]</span></a><i>i.e.</i>, Chapters I and II.</p> - -<p class="nind">C. K. S. M.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="nind"><a name="Footnote_4_1" id="Footnote_4_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_1"><span class="label">[4]</span></a>This sentence is left unfinished at the foot of a page, the -next page beginning with "While composing," etc.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="nind"><a name="Footnote_5_1" id="Footnote_5_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_1"><span class="label">[5]</span></a>This seems to refer to the <i>Chartreuse</i>.</p> - -<p class="nind">C. K. S. M.</p></div> - -<p><br /></p> - -<hr class="r5" /> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h4><i>The Works of Stendhal</i></h4> - - - - -<h4>I</h4> - - - -<h3>THE CHARTERHOUSE<br /> -OF PARMA</h3> - - - - -<h4>VOLUME ONE</h4> - - -<hr class="r5" /> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h4><a id="TO_THE_READER"><i>TO THE READER</i></a></h4> - -<p> -It was in the winter of 1830 and three hundred leagues from Paris that -this tale was written; thus it contains no allusion to the events of -1839. -</p> - -<p> -Many years before 1830, at the time when our Armies were overrunning -Europe, chance put me in possession of a billeting order on the house of -a Canon: this was at Padua, a charming town in Italy; my stay being -prolonged, we became friends. -</p> - -<p> -Passing through Padua again towards the end of 1830, I hastened to the -house of the good Canon: he himself was dead, that I knew, but I wished -to see once again the room in which we had passed so many pleasant -evenings, evenings on which I had often looked back since. I found there -the Canon's nephew and his wife who welcomed me like an old friend. -Several people came in, and we did not break up until a very late hour; -the nephew sent out to the Caffè Pedrocchi for an excellent -<i>zabaione</i>. What more than anything kept us up was the story of the -Duchessa Sanseverina, to which someone made an allusion, and which the -nephew was good enough to relate from beginning to end, in my honour. -</p> - -<p> -"In the place to which I am going," I told my friends, "I am not likely -to find evenings like this, and, to while away the long hours of -darkness, I shall make a novel out of your story." -</p> - -<p> -"In that case," said the nephew, "let me give you my uncle's journal, -which, under the heading Parma, mentions several of the intrigues of -that court, in the days when the Duchessa's word was law there; but, -have a care! this story is anything but moral, and now that you pride -yourselves in France on your gospel purity, it may win you the -reputation of an <i>assassin</i>." -</p> - -<p> -I publish this tale without any alteration from the manuscript of 1830, -a course which may have two drawbacks: -</p> - -<p> -The first for the reader: the characters being Italians will perhaps -interest him less, hearts in that country differing considerably from -hearts in France: the Italians are sincere, honest folk and, not taking -offence, say what is in their minds; it is only when the mood seizes -them that they shew any vanity; which then becomes passion, and goes by -the name of <i>puntiglio</i>. Lastly, poverty is not, with them, a subject -for ridicule. -</p> - -<p> -The second drawback concerns the author. -</p> - -<p> -I confess that I have been so bold as to leave my characters with their -natural asperities; but, on the other hand—this I proclaim -aloud—I heap the most moral censure upon many of their actions. To -what purpose should I give them the exalted morality and other graces of -French characters, who love money above all things, and sin scarcely -ever from motives of hatred or love? The Italians in this tale are -almost the opposite. Besides, it seems to me that, whenever one takes a -stride of two hundred leagues from South to North, the change of scene -that occurs is tantamount to a fresh tale. The Canon's charming niece -had known and indeed had been greatly devoted to the Duchessa -Sanseverina, and begs me to alter nothing in her adventures, which are -reprehensible. -</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 60%;">23rd January, 1839.</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h4>THE CHARTERHOUSE<br /> -OF PARMA</h4> - - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h4><a id="CHAPTER_ONE">CHAPTER ONE</a></h4> - -<p> -On the 15th of May, 1796, General Bonaparte made his entry into Milan at -the head of that young army which had shortly before crossed the Bridge -of Lodi and taught the world that after all these centuries Cæsar and -Alexander had a successor. The miracles of gallantry and genius of which -Italy was a witness in the space of a few months aroused a slumbering -people; only a week before the arrival of the French, the Milanese still -regarded them as a mere rabble of brigands, accustomed invariably to -flee before the troops of His Imperial and Royal Majesty; so much at -least was reported to them three times weekly by a little news-sheet no -bigger than one's hand, and printed on soiled paper. -</p> - -<p> -In the Middle Ages the Republicans of Lombardy had given proof of a -valour equal to that of the French, and deserved to see their city rased -to the ground by the German Emperors. Since they had become <i>loyal -subjects</i>, their great occupation was the printing of sonnets upon -handkerchiefs of rose-coloured taffeta whenever the marriage occurred of -a young lady belonging to some rich or noble family. Two or three years -after that great event in her life, the young lady in question used to -engage a devoted admirer: sometimes the name of the <i>cicisbeo</i> -chosen by the husband's family occupied an honourable place in the -marriage contract. It was a far cry from these effeminate ways to the -profound emotions aroused by the unexpected arrival of the French army. -Presently there sprang up a new and passionate way of life. A whole -people discovered, on the 15th of May, 1796, that everything which until -then it had respected was supremely ridiculous, if not actually hateful. -The departure of the last Austrian regiment marked the collapse of the -old ideas: to risk one's life became the fashion. People saw that in -order to be really happy after centuries of cloying sensations, it was -necessary to love one's country with a real love and to seek out heroic -actions. They had been plunged in the darkest night by the continuation -of the jealous despotism of Charles V and Philip II; they overturned -these monarchs' statues and immediately found themselves flooded with -daylight. For the last half-century, as the <i>Encyclopædia</i> and -Voltaire gained ground in France, the monks had been dinning into the -ears of the good people of Milan that to learn to read, or for that -matter to learn anything at all was a great waste of labour, and that by -paying one's exact tithe to one's parish priest and faithfully reporting -to him all one's little misdeeds, one was practically certain of having -a good place in Paradise. To complete the debilitation of this people -once so formidable and so rational, Austria had sold them, on easy -terms, the privilege of not having to furnish any recruits to her army. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>MILAN IN 1796</i></h5> - -<p> -In 1796, the Milanese army was composed of four and twenty rapscallions -dressed in scarlet, who guarded the town with the assistance of four -magnificent regiments of Hungarian Grenadiers. Freedom of morals was -extreme, but passion very rare; otherwise, apart from the inconvenience -of having to repeat everything to one's parish priest, on pain of ruin -even in this world, the good people of Milan were still subjected to -certain little monarchical interferences which could not fail to be -vexatious. For instance, the Archduke, who resided at Milan and governed -in the name of the Emperor, his cousin, had had the lucrative idea of -trading in corn. In consequence, an order prohibiting the peasants from -selling their grain until His Highness had filled his granaries. -</p> - -<p> -In May, 1796, three days after the entry of the French, a young painter -in miniature, slightly mad, named Gros, afterwards famous, who had come -with the army, overhearing in the great Caffè dei Servi (which was then -in fashion) an account of the exploits of the Archduke, who moreover was -extremely stout, picked up the list of ices which was printed on a sheet -of coarse yellow paper. On the back of this he drew the fat Archduke; a -French soldier was stabbing him with his bayonet in the stomach, and -instead of blood there gushed out an incredible quantity of corn. What -we call a lampoon or caricature was unknown in this land of crafty -despotism. The drawing, left by Gros on the table of the Caffè dei -Servi, seemed a miracle fallen from heaven; it was engraved and printed -during the night, and next day twenty thousand copies of it were sold. -</p> - -<p> -The same day, there were posted up notices of a forced loan of six -millions, levied to supply the needs of the French army which, having -just won six battles and conquered a score of provinces, wanted nothing -now but shoes, breeches, jackets and caps. -</p> - -<p> -The mass of prosperity and pleasure which burst into Lombardy in the -wake of these French ragamuffins was so great that only the priests and -a few nobles were conscious of the burden of this levy of six millions, -shortly to be followed by a number of others. These French soldiers -laughed and sang all day long; they were all under twenty-five years of -age, and their Commander in Chief, who had reached twenty-seven, was -reckoned the oldest man in his army. This gaiety, this youthfulness, -this irresponsibility furnished a jocular reply to the furious -preachings of the monks, who, for six months, had been announcing from -the pulpit that the French were monsters, obliged, upon pain of death, -to burn down everything and to cut off everyone's head. With this -object, each of their regiments marched with a guillotine at its head. -</p> - -<p> -In the country districts one saw at the cottage doors the French soldier -engaged in dandling the housewife's baby in his arms, and almost every -evening some drummer, scraping a fiddle, would improvise a ball. Our -country dances proving a great deal too skilful and complicated for the -soldiers, who for that matter barely knew them themselves, to be able to -teach them to the women of the country, it was the latter who shewed the -young Frenchmen the <i>Monferrina</i>, <i>Salterello</i> and other Italian -dances. -</p> - -<p> -The officers had been lodged, as far as possible, with the wealthy -inhabitants; they had every need of comfort. A certain lieutenant, for -instance, named Robert, received a billeting order on the <i>palazzo</i> -of the Marchesa del Dongo. This officer, a young conscript not -over-burdened with scruples, possessed as his whole worldly wealth, when -he entered this <i>palazzo</i>, a scudo of six francs which he had -received at Piacenza. After the crossing of the Bridge of Lodi he had -taken from a fine Austrian officer, killed by a ball, a magnificent pair -of nankeen pantaloons, quite new, and never did any garment come more -opportunely. His officer's epaulettes were of wool, and the cloth of his -tunic was stitched to the lining of the sleeves so that its scraps might -hold together; but there was something even more distressing; the soles -of his shoes were made out of pieces of soldiers' caps, likewise picked -up on the field of battle, somewhere beyond the Bridge of Lodi. These -makeshift soles were tied on over his shoes with pieces of string which -were plainly visible, so that when the majordomo appeared at the door of -Lieutenant Robert's room bringing him an invitation to dine with the -Signora Marchesa, the officer was thrown into the utmost confusion. He -and his orderly spent the two hours that divided him from this fatal -dinner in trying to patch up the tunic a little and in dyeing black, -with ink, those wretched strings round his shoes. At last the dread -moment arrived. "Never in my life did I feel more ill at ease," -Lieutenant Robert told me; "the ladies expected that I would terrify -them, and I was trembling far more than they were. I looked down at my -shoes and did not know how to walk gracefully. The Marchesa del Dongo," -he went on, "was then in the full bloom of her beauty: you have seen her -for yourself, with those lovely eyes of an angelic sweetness, and the -dusky gold of her hair which made such a perfect frame for the oval of -that charming face. I had in my room a <i>Herodias</i> by Leonardo da -Vinci, which might have been her portrait. Mercifully, I was so overcome -by her supernatural beauty that I forgot all about my clothes. For the -last two years I had been seeing nothing that was not ugly and wretched, -in the mountains behind Genoa: I ventured to say a few words to her to -express my delight. -</p> - -<p> -"But I had too much sense to waste any time upon compliments. As I was -turning my phrases I saw, in a dining-room built entirely of marble, a -dozen flunkeys and footmen dressed in what seemed to me then the height -of magnificence. Just imagine, the rascals had not only good shoes on -their feet, but silver buckles as well. I could see them all, out of the -corner of my eye, staring stupidly at my coat and perhaps at my shoes -also, which cut me to the heart. I could have frightened all these -fellows with a word; but how was I to put them in their place without -running the risk of offending the ladies? For the Marchesa, to fortify -her own courage a little, as she has told me a hundred times since, had -sent to fetch from the convent where she was still at school Gina del -Dongo, her husband's sister, who was afterwards that charming Contessa -Pietranera: no one, in prosperity, surpassed her in gaiety and sweetness -of temper, just as no one surpassed her in courage and serenity of soul -when fortune turned against her. -</p> - -<p> -"Gina, who at that time might have been thirteen but looked more like -eighteen, a lively, downright girl, as you know, was in such fear of -bursting out laughing at the sight of my costume that she dared not eat; -the Marchesa, on the other hand, loaded me with constrained civilities; -she could see quite well the movements of impatience in my eyes. In a -word, I cut a sorry figure, I chewed the bread of scorn, a thing which -is said to be impossible for a Frenchman. At length, a heaven-sent idea -shone in my mind: I set to work to tell the ladies of my poverty and of -what we had suffered for the last two years in the mountains behind -Genoa where we were kept by idiotic old Generals. There, I told them, we -were paid in <i>assignats</i> which were not legal tender in the country, -and given three ounces of bread daily. I had not been speaking for two -minutes before there were tears in the good Marchesa's eyes, and Gina -had grown serious. -</p> - -<p> -"'What, Lieutenant,' she broke in, 'three ounces of bread!' -</p> - -<p> -"'Yes, Signorina; but to make up for that the issue ran short three days -in the week, and as the peasants on whom we were billeted were even -worse off than ourselves, we used to hand on some of our bread to them.' -</p> - -<p> -"On leaving the table, I offered the Marchesa my arm as far as the door -of the drawing-room, then hurried back and gave the servant who had -waited upon me at dinner that solitary scudo of six francs upon the -spending of which I had built so many castles in the air. -</p> - -<p> -"A week later," Robert went on, "when it was satisfactorily established -that the French were not guillotining anyone, the Marchese del Dongo -returned from his castle of Grianta on the Lake of Como, to which he had -gallantly retired on the approach of the army, abandoning to the -fortunes of war his young and beautiful wife and his sister. The hatred -that this Marchese felt for us was equal to his fear, that is to say -immeasurable: his fat face, pale and pious, was an amusing spectacle -when he was being polite to me. On the day after his return to Milan, I -received three ells of cloth and two hundred francs out of the levy of -six millions; I renewed my wardrobe, and became cavalier to the ladies, -for the season of balls was beginning." -</p> - -<p> -Lieutenant Robert's story was more or less that of all the French -troops; instead of laughing at the wretched plight of these poor -soldiers, people were sorry for them and came to love them. -</p> - -<p> -This period of unlooked-for happiness and wild excitement lasted but two -short years; the frenzy had been so excessive and so general that it -would be impossible for me to give any idea of it, were it not for this -historical and profound reflexion: these people had been living in a -state of boredom for the last hundred years. -</p> - -<p> -The thirst for pleasure natural in southern countries had prevailed in -former times at the court of the Visconti and Sforza, those famous Dukes -of Milan. But from the year 1524, when the Spaniards conquered the -Milanese, and conquered them as taciturn, suspicious, arrogant masters, -always in dread of revolt, gaiety had fled. The subject race, adopting -the manners of their masters, thought more of avenging the least insult -by a dagger-blow than of enjoying the fleeting hour. -</p> - -<p> -This frenzied joy, this gaiety, this thirst for pleasure, this tendency -to forget every sad or even reasonable feeling were carried to such a -pitch, between the 15th of May, 1796, when the French entered Milan, and -April, 1799, when they were driven out again after the battle of -Cassano, that instances have been cited of old millionaire merchants, -old money-lenders, old scriveners who, during this interval, quite -forgot to pull long faces and to amass money. -</p> - -<p> -At the most it would have been possible to point to a few families -belonging to the higher ranks of the nobility, who had retired to their -palaces in the country, as though in a sullen revolt against the -prevailing high spirits and the expansion of every heart. It is true -that these noble and wealthy families had been given a distressing -prominence in the allocation of the forced loans exacted for the French -army. -</p> - -<p> -The Marchese del Dongo, irritated by the spectacle of so much gaiety, -had been one of the first to return to his magnificent castle of -Grianta, on the farther side of Como, whither his ladies took with them -Lieutenant Robert. This castle, standing in a position which is perhaps -unique in the world, on a plateau one hundred and fifty feet above that -sublime lake, a great part of which it commands, had been originally a -fortress. The del Dongo family had constructed it in the fifteenth -century, as was everywhere attested by marble tablets charged with their -arms; one could still see the drawbridges and deep moats, though the -latter, it must be admitted, had been drained of their water; but with -its walls eighty feet in height and six in thickness, this castle was -safe from assault, and it was for this reason that it was dear to the -timorous Marchese. Surrounded by some twenty-five or thirty retainers -whom he supposed to be devoted to his person, presumably because he -never opened his mouth except to curse them, he was less tormented by -fear than at Milan. -</p> - -<p> -This fear was not altogether groundless: he was in most active -correspondence with a spy posted by Austria on the Swiss frontier three -leagues from Grianta, to contrive the escape of the prisoners taken on -the field of battle; conduct which might have been viewed in a serious -light by the French Generals. -</p> - -<p> -The Marchese had left his young wife at Milan; she looked after the -affairs of the family there, and was responsible for providing the sums -levied on the <i>casa del Dongo</i> (as they say in Italy); she sought to -have these reduced, which obliged her to visit those of the nobility who -had accepted public office, and even some highly influential persons who -were not of noble birth. A great event now occurred in this family. The -Marchese had arranged the marriage of his young sister Gina with a -personage of great wealth and the very highest birth; but he powdered -his hair; in virtue of which, Gina received him with shouts of laughter, -and presently took the rash step of marrying the Conte Pietranera. He -was, it is true, a very fine gentleman, of the most personable -appearance, but ruined for generations past in estate, and to complete -the disgrace of the match, a fervent supporter of the new ideas. -Pietranera was a sub-lieutenant in the Italian Legion; this was the last -straw for the Marchese. -</p> - -<p> -After these two years of folly and happiness, the Directory in Paris, -giving itself the airs of a sovereign firmly enthroned, began to shew a -mortal hatred of everything that was not commonplace. The incompetent -Generals whom it imposed on the Army of Italy lost a succession of -battles in those same plains of Verona, which had witnessed two years -before the prodigies of Arcole and Lonato. The Austrians again drew near -to Milan; Lieutenant Robert, who had been promoted to the command of a -battalion and had been wounded at the battle of Cassano, came to lodge -for the last time in the house of his friend the Marchesa del Dongo. -Their parting was a sad one; Robert set forth with Conte Pietranera who -followed the French in their retirement on Novi. The young Contessa, to -whom her brother refused to pay her marriage portion, followed the army, -riding in a cart. -</p> - -<p> -Then began that period of reaction and a return to the old ideas, which -the Milanese call <i>i tredici mesi</i> (the thirteen months), because as -it turned out their destiny willed that this return to stupidity should -endure for thirteen months only, until Marengo. Everyone who was old, -bigoted, morose, reappeared at the head of affairs, and resumed the -leadership of society; presently the people who had remained faithful to -the sound doctrines published a report in the villages that Napoleon had -been hanged by the Mamelukes in Egypt, as he so richly deserved. -</p> - -<p> -Among these men who had retired to sulk on their estates and came back -now athirst for vengeance, the Marchese del Dongo distinguished himself -by his rabidity; the extravagance of his sentiments carried him -naturally to the head of his party. These gentlemen, quite worthy people -when they were not in a state of panic, but who were always trembling, -succeeded in getting round the Austrian General: a good enough man at -heart, he let himself be persuaded that severity was the best policy, -and ordered the arrest of one hundred and fifty patriots: quite the best -men to be found in Italy at the time. -</p> - -<p> -They were speedily deported to the Bocche di Cattaro, and, flung into -subterranean caves, the moisture, and above all the want of bread did -prompt justice to each and all of these rascals. -</p> - -<p> -The Marchese del Dongo had an exalted position, and, as he combined with -a host of other fine qualities a sordid avarice, he would boast publicly -that he never sent a scudo to his sister, the Contessa Pietranera: still -madly in love, she refused to leave her husband, and was starving by his -side in France. The good Marchesa was in despair; finally she managed to -abstract a few small diamonds from her jewel case, which her husband -took from her every evening to stow away under his bed, in an iron -coffer: the Marchesa had brought him a dowry of 800,000 francs, and -received 80 francs monthly for her personal expenses. During the -thirteen months in which the French were absent from Milan, this most -timid of women found various pretexts and never went out of mourning. -</p> - -<p> -We must confess that, following the example of many grave authors, we -have begun the history of our hero a year before his birth. This -essential personage is none other than Fabrizio Valserra, Marchesino del -Dongo, as the style is at Milan.<a name="FNanchor_6_1" id="FNanchor_6_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_1" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> He had taken the trouble to be born -just when the French were driven out, and found himself, by the accident -of birth, the second son of that Marchese del Dongo who was so great a -gentleman, and with whose fat, pasty face, false smile and unbounded -hatred for the new ideas the reader is already acquainted. The whole of -the family fortune was already settled upon the elder son, Ascanio del -Dongo, the worthy image of his father. He was eight years old and -Fabrizio two when all of a sudden that General Bonaparte, whom everyone -of good family understood to have been hanged long ago, came down from -the Mont Saint-Bernard. He entered Milan: that moment is still unique in -history; imagine a whole populace madly in love. A few days later, -Napoleon won the battle of Marengo. The rest needs no telling. The -frenzy of the Milanese reached its climax; but this time it was mingled -with ideas of vengeance: these good people had been taught to hate. -Presently they saw arrive in their midst all that remained of the -patriots deported to the Bocche di Cattaro; their return was celebrated -with a national <i>festa</i>. Their pale faces, their great startled eyes, -their shrunken limbs were in strange contrast to the joy that broke out -on every side. Their arrival was the signal for departure for the -families most deeply compromised. The Marchese del Dongo was one of the -first to flee to his castle of Grianta. The heads of the great families -were filled with hatred and fear; but their wives, their daughters, -remembered the joys of the former French occupation, and thought with -regret of Milan and those gay balls, which, immediately after Marengo, were -organised afresh at the <i>casa Tanzi</i>. A few days after the victory, -the French General responsible for maintaining order in Lombardy -discovered that all the farmers on the noblemen's estates, all the old -wives in the villages, so far from still thinking of this astonishing -victory at Marengo, which had altered the destinies of Italy and -recaptured thirteen fortified positions in a single day, had their minds -occupied only by a prophecy of San Giovita, the principal Patron Saint -of Brescia. According to this inspired utterance, the prosperity of -France and of Napoleon was to cease just thirteen weeks after Marengo. -What does to some extent excuse the Marchese del Dongo and all the -nobles sulking on their estates is that literally and without any -affectation they believed in the prophecy. Not one of these gentlemen -had read as many as four volumes in his life; quite openly they were -making their preparations to return to Milan at the end of the thirteen -weeks; but time, as it went on, recorded fresh successes for the cause -of France. Returning to Paris, Napoleon, by wise decrees, saved the -country from revolution at home as he had saved it from its foreign -enemies at Marengo. Then the Lombard nobles, in the safe shelter of -their castles, discovered that at first they had misinterpreted the -prophecy of the holy patron of Brescia; it was a question not of -thirteen weeks, but of thirteen months. The thirteen months went by, and -the prosperity of France seemed to increase daily. -</p> - -<p> -We pass lightly over ten years of progress and happiness, from 1800 to -1810. Fabrizio spent the first part of this decade at the castle of -Grianta, giving and receiving an abundance of fisticuffs among the little -<i>contadini</i> of the village, and learning nothing, not even how to -read. Later on, he was sent to the Jesuit College at Milan. The -Marchese, his father, insisted on his being shewn the Latin tongue, not -on any account in the works of those ancient writers who are always -talking about Republics, but in a magnificent volume adorned with more -than a hundred engravings, a masterpiece of seventeenth-century art; -this was the Lathi genealogy of the Valserra, Marchesi del Dongo, -published in 1650 by Fabrizio del Dongo, Archbishop of Parma. The -fortunes of the Valserra being pre-eminently military, the engravings -represented any number of battles, and everywhere one saw some hero of -the name dealing mighty blows with his sword. This book greatly -delighted the young Fabrizio. His mother, who adored him, obtained -permission, from time to time, to pay him a visit at Milan; but as her -husband never offered her any money for these journeys, it was her -sister-in-law, the charming Contessa Pietranera, who lent her what she -required. After the return of the French, the Contessa had become one of -the most brilliant ladies at the court of Prince Eugène, the Viceroy of -Italy. -</p> - -<p> -When Fabrizio had made his First Communion, she obtained leave from the -Marchese, still in voluntary exile, to invite him out, now and again, -from his college. She found him unusual, thoughtful, very serious, but a -nice-looking boy and not at all out of place in the drawing-room of a -lady of fashion; otherwise, as ignorant as one could wish, and barely -able to write. The Contessa, who carried her impulsive character into -everything, promised her protection to the head of the establishment -provided that her nephew Fabrizio made astounding progress and carried -off a number of prizes at the end of the year. So that he should be in a -position to deserve them, she used to send for him every Saturday -evening, and often did not restore him to his masters until the -following Wednesday or Thursday. The Jesuits, although tenderly -cherished by the Prince Viceroy, were expelled from Italy by the laws of -the Kingdom, and the Superior of the College, an able man, was conscious -of all that might be made out of his relations with a woman all-powerful -at court. He never thought of complaining of the absences of Fabrizio, -who, more ignorant than ever, at the end of the year was awarded five -first prizes. This being so, the Contessa, escorted by her husband, now -the General commanding one of the Divisions of the Guard, and by five or -six of the most important personages at the viceregal court, came to -attend the prize-giving at the Jesuit College. The Superior was -complimented by his chiefs. -</p> - -<p> -The Contessa took her nephew with her to all those brilliant festivities -which marked the too brief reign of the sociable Prince Eugène. She had -on her own authority created him an officer of hussars, and Fabrizio, -now twelve years old, wore that uniform. One day the Contessa, enchanted -by his handsome figure, besought the Prince to give him a post as page, -a request which implied that the del Dongo family was coming round. Next -day she had need of all her credit to secure the Viceroy's kind consent -not to remember this request, which lacked only the consent of the -prospective page's father, and this consent would have been emphatically -refused. After this act of folly, which made the sullen Marchese -shudder, he found an excuse to recall young Fabrizio to Grianta. The -Contessa had a supreme contempt for her brother, she regarded him as a -melancholy fool, and one who would be troublesome if ever it lay in his -power. But she was madly fond of Fabrizio, and, after ten years of -silence, wrote to the Marchese reclaiming her nephew; her letter was -left unanswered. -</p> - -<p> -On his return to this formidable palace, built by the most bellicose of -his ancestors, Fabrizio knew nothing in the world except how to drill -and how to sit on a horse. Conte Pietranera, as fond of the boy as was -his wife, used often to put him on a horse and take him with him on -parade. -</p> - -<p> -On reaching the castle of Grianta, Fabrizio, his eyes still red with the -tears that he had shed on leaving his aunt's fine rooms, found only the -passionate caresses of his mother and sisters. The Marchese was closeted -in his study with his elder son, the Marchesino Ascanio; there they -composed letters in cipher which had the honour to be forwarded to -Vienna; father and son appeared in public only at meal-times. The -Marchese used ostentatiously to repeat that he was teaching his natural -successor to keep, by double entry, the accounts of the produce of each -of his estates. As a matter of fact, the Marchese was too jealous of his -own power ever to speak of these matters to a son, the necessary -inheritor of all these entailed properties. He employed him to cipher -despatches of fifteen or twenty pages which two or three times weekly he -had conveyed into Switzerland, where they were put on the road for -Vienna. The Marchese claimed to inform his rightful Sovereign of the -internal condition of the Kingdom of Italy, of which he himself knew -nothing, and his letters were invariably most successful, for the -following reason. The Marchese would have a count taken on the high -road, by some trusted agent, of the number of men in a certain French or -Italian regiment that was changing its station, and in reporting the -fact to the court of Vienna would take care to reduce by at least a -quarter the number of the troops on the march. These letters, in other -respects absurd, had the merit of contradicting others of greater -accuracy, and gave pleasure. And so, a short time before Fabrizio's -arrival at the castle, the Marchese had received the star of a famous -order: it was the fifth to adorn his Chamberlain's coat. As a matter of -fact, he suffered from the chagrin of not daring to sport this garment -outside his study; but he never allowed himself to dictate a despatch -without first putting on the gold-laced coat, studded with all his -orders. He would have felt himself to be wanting in respect had he acted -otherwise. -</p> - -<p> -The Marchesa was amazed by her son's graces. But she had kept up the -habit of writing two or three times every year to General Comte -d'A——, which was the title now borne by Lieutenant Robert. -The Marchesa had a horror of lying to the people to whom she was -attached; she examined her son and was appalled by his ignorance. -</p> - -<p> -"If he appears to me to have learned little," she said to herself, "to -me who know nothing, Robert, who is so clever, would find that his -education had been entirely neglected; and in these days one must have -merit." Another peculiarity, which astonished her almost as much, was -that Fabrizio had taken seriously all the religious teaching that had -been instilled into him by the Jesuits. Although very pious herself, the -fanaticism of this child made her shudder; "If the Marchese has the -sense to discover this way of influencing him, he will take my son's -affection from me." She wept copiously, and her passion for Fabrizio was -thereby increased. -</p> - -<p> -Life in this castle, peopled by thirty or forty servants, was extremely -dull; accordingly Fabrizio spent all his days in pursuit of game or -exploring the lake in a boat. Soon he was on intimate terms with the -coachmen and grooms; these were all hot supporters of the French, and -laughed openly at the pious valets, attached to the person of the -Marchese or to that of his elder son. The great theme for wit at the -expense of these solemn personages was that, in imitation of their -masters, they powdered their heads. -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="nind"><a name="Footnote_6_1" id="Footnote_6_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_1"><span class="label">[6]</span></a>By the local custom, borrowed from Germany, this title is -given to every son of a Marchese; <i>Contino</i> to the son of a Conte, -<i>Contessina</i> to the daughter of a Conte, etc.</p></div> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h4><a id="CHAPTER_TWO">CHAPTER TWO</a></h4> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">. . . <i>Alors que Vesper vient embrunir nos</i></span><br /> -<span class="i2"><i>yeux,</i></span><br /> -<span class="i0"><i>Tout épris d'avenir, je contemple les cieux,</i></span><br /> -<span class="i0"><i>En qui Dieu nous escrit, par notes non obscures.</i></span><br /> -<span class="i0"><i>Les sorts et les destins de toutes créatures.</i></span><br /> -<span class="i0"><i>Car lui, du fond des deux regardant un</i></span><br /> -<span class="i2"><i>humain.</i></span><br /> -<span class="i0"><i>Parfois mû de pitié, lui montre le chemin;</i></span><br /> -<span class="i0"><i>Par les astres du ciel qui sont ses caractères,</i></span><br /> -<span class="i0"><i>Les choses nous prédit et bonnes et contraires;</i></span><br /> -<span class="i0"><i>Mais les hommes chargés de terre et de trépas,</i></span><br /> -<span class="i0"><i>Méprisent tel écrit, et ne le lisent pas.</i></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i28">RONSARD.</span> -</div></div></div> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -The Marchese professed a vigorous hatred of enlightenment: "It is -ideas," he used to say, "that have ruined Italy"; he did not know quite -how to reconcile this holy horror of instruction with his desire to see -his son Fabrizio perfect the education so brilliantly begun with the -Jesuits. In order to incur the least possible risk, he charged the good -Priore Blanès, parish priest of Grianta, with the task of continuing -Fabrizio's Latin studies. For this it was necessary that the priest -should himself know that language; whereas it was to him an object of -scorn; his knowledge in the matter being confined to the recitation, by -heart, of the prayers in his missal, the meaning of which he could -interpret more or less to his flock. But this priest was nevertheless -highly respected and indeed feared throughout the district; he had -always said that it was by no means in thirteen weeks, nor even in -thirteen months that they would see the fulfilment of the famous -prophecy of San Giovita, the patron saint of Brescia. He added, when he -was speaking to friends whom he could trust, that this number -<i>thirteen</i> was to be interpreted in a fashion which would astonish -many people, if it were permitted to say all that one knew (1813). -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>PRIORE BLANÈS</i></h5> - -<p> -The fact was that the Priore Blanès, a man whose honesty and virtue -were primitive, and a man of parts as well, spent all his nights up in -his belfry; he was mad on astrology. After using up all his days in -calculating the conjunctions and positions of the stars, he would devote -the greater part of his nights to following their course in the sky. -Such was his poverty, he had no other instrument than a long telescope -with pasteboard tubes. One may imagine the contempt that was felt for -the study of languages by a man who spent his time discovering the -precise dates of the fall of empires and the revolutions that change the -face of the world. "What more do I know about a horse," he asked -Fabrizio, "when I am told that in Latin it is called <i>equus</i>?" -</p> - -<p> -The <i>contadini</i> looked upon Priore Blanès with awe as a great -magician: for his part, by dint of the fear that his nightly stations in -the belfry inspired, he restrained them from stealing. His clerical -brethren in the surrounding parishes, intensely jealous of his -influence, detested him; the Marchese del Dongo merely despised him, -because he reasoned too much for a man of such humble station. Fabrizio -adored him: to gratify him he sometimes spent whole evenings in doing -enormous sums of addition or multiplication. Then he would go up to the -belfry: this was a great favour and one that Priore Blanès had never -granted to anyone; but he liked the boy for his simplicity. "If you do -not turn out a hypocrite," he would say to him, "you will perhaps be a -man." -</p> - -<p> -Two or three times in a year, Fabrizio, intrepid and passionate in his -pleasures, came within an inch of drowning himself in the lake. He was -the leader of all the great expeditions made by the young <i>contadini</i> -of Grianta and Cadenabbia. These boys had procured a number of little keys, -and on very dark nights would try to open the padlocks of the chains -that fastened the boats to some big stone or to a tree growing by the -water's edge. It should be explained that on the Lake of Como the -fishermen in the pursuit of their calling put out night-lines at a great -distance from the shore. The upper end of the line is attached to a -plank kept afloat by a cork keel, and a supple hazel twig, fastened to -this plank, supports a little bell which rings whenever a fish, caught -on the line, gives a tug to the float. -</p> - -<p> -The great object of these nocturnal expeditions, of which Fabrizio was -commander in chief, was to go out and visit the night-lines before the -fishermen had heard the warning note of the little bells. They used to -choose stormy weather, and for these hazardous exploits would embark in -the early morning, an hour before dawn. As they climbed into the boat, -these boys imagined themselves to be plunging into the greatest dangers; -this was the finer aspect of their behaviour; and, following the example -of their fathers, would devoutly repeat a <i>Hail, Mary</i>. Now it -frequently happened that at the moment of starting, and immediately -after the <i>Hail, Mary</i>, Fabrizio was struck by a foreboding. This was -the fruit which he had gathered from the astronomical studies of his -friend Priore Blanès, in whose predictions he had no faith whatsoever. -According to his youthful imagination, this foreboding announced to him -infallibly the success or failure of the expedition; and, as he had a -stronger will than any of his companions, in course of time the whole -band had so formed the habit of having forebodings that if, at the -moment of embarking, one of them caught sight of a priest on the shore, -or if someone saw a crow fly past on his left, they would hasten to -replace the padlock on the chain of the boat, and each would go off to -his bed. Thus Priore Blanès had not imparted his somewhat difficult -science to Fabrizio; but, unconsciously, had infected him with an -unbounded confidence in the signs by which the future can be foretold. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>MILAN</i></h5> - -<p> -The Marchese felt that any accident to his ciphered correspondence might -put him at the mercy of his sister; and so every year, at the feast of -Sant'Angela, which was Contessa Pietranera's name-day, Fabrizio was -given leave to go and spend a week at Milan. He lived through the year -looking hopefully forward or sadly back to this week. On this great -occasion, to carry out this politic mission, the Marchese handed over to -his son four scudi, and, in accordance with his custom, gave nothing to -his wife, who took the boy. But one of the cooks, six lackeys and a -coachman with a pair of horses, started for Como the day before, and -every day at Milan the Marchesa found a carriage at her disposal and a -dinner of twelve covers. -</p> - -<p> -The sullen sort of life that was led by the Marchese del Dongo was -certainly by no means entertaining, but it had this advantage that it -permanently enriched the families who were kind enough to sacrifice -themselves to it. The Marchese, who had an income of more than two -hundred thousand lire, did not spend a quarter of that sum; he was -living on hope. Throughout the thirteen years from 1800 to 1813, he -constantly and firmly believed that Napoleon would be overthrown within -six months. One may judge of his rapture when, at the beginning of 1813, -he learned of the disasters of the Beresima! The taking of Paris and the -fall of Napoleon almost made him lose his head; he then allowed himself -to make the most outrageous remarks to his wife and sister. Finally, -after fourteen years of waiting, he had that unspeakable joy of seeing -the Austrian troops re-enter Milan. In obedience to orders issued from -Vienna, the Austrian General received the Marchese del Dongo with a -consideration akin to respect; they hastened to offer him one of the -highest posts in the government; and he accepted it as the payment of a -debt. His elder son obtained a lieutenancy in one of the smartest -regiments of the Monarchy, but the younger repeatedly declined to accept -a cadetship which was offered him. This triumph, in which the Marchese -exulted with a rare insolence, lasted but a few months, and was followed -by a humiliating reverse. Never had he had any talent for business, and -fourteen years spent in the country among his footmen, his lawyer and -his doctor, added to the crustiness of old age which had overtaken him, -had left him totally incapable of conducting business in any form. Now -it is not possible, in an Austrian country, to keep an important place -without having the kind of talent that is required by the slow and -complicated, but highly reasonable administration of that venerable -Monarchy. The blunders made by the Marchese del Dongo scandalised the -staff of his office, and even obstructed the course of public business. -His ultra-monarchist utterances irritated the populace which the -authorities sought to lull into a heedless slumber. One fine day he -learned that His Majesty had been graciously pleased to accept the -resignation which he had submitted of his post in the administration, -and at the same time conferred on him the place of <i>Second Grand -Majordomo Major</i> of the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom. The Marchese was -furious at the atrocious injustice of which he had been made a victim; -he printed an open letter to a friend, he who so inveighed against the -liberty of the press. Finally, he wrote to the Emperor that his -Ministers were playing him false, and were no better than Jacobins. -These things accomplished, he went sadly back to his castle of Grianta. -He had one consolation. After the fall of Napoleon, certain powerful -personages at Milan planned an assault in the streets on Conte Prina, a -former Minister of the King of Italy, and a man of the highest merit. -Conte Pietranera risked his own life to save that of the Minister, who -was killed by blows from umbrellas after five hours of agony. A priest, -the Marchese del Dongo's confessor, could have saved Prina by opening -the wicket of the church of San Giovanni, in front of which the -unfortunate Minister was dragged, and indeed left for a moment in the -gutter, in the middle of the street; but he refused with derision to -open his wicket, and, six months afterwards, the Marchese was happily -able to secure for him a fine advancement. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>PRINA</i></h5> - -<p> -He execrated Conte Pietranera, his brother-in-law, who, not having an -income of 50 louis, had the audacity to be quite content, made a point -of showing himself loyal to what he had loved all his life, and had the -insolence to preach that spirit of justice without regard for persons, -which the Marchese called an infamous piece of Jacobinism. The Conte had -refused to take service in Austria; this refusal was remembered against -him, and, a few months after the death of Prina, the same persons who -had hired the assassins contrived that General Pietranera should be -flung into prison. Whereupon the Contessa, his wife, procured a passport -and sent for post-horses to go to Vienna to tell the Emperor the truth. -Prina's assassins took fright, and one of them, a cousin of Signora -Pietranera, came to her at midnight, an hour before she was to start for -Vienna, with the order for her husband's release. Next day, the Austrian -General sent for Conte Pietranera, received him with every possible mark -of distinction, and assured him that his pension as a retired officer -would be issued to him without delay and on the most liberal scale. The -gallant General Bubna, a man of sound judgment and warm heart, seemed -quite ashamed of the assassination of Prina and the Conte's -imprisonment. -</p> - -<p> -After this brief storm, allayed by the Contessa's firmness of character, -the couple lived, for better or worse, on the retired pay for which, -thanks to General Bubna's recommendation, they were not long kept -waiting. -</p> - -<p> -Fortunately, it so happened that, for the last five or six years, the -Contessa had been on the most friendly terms with a very rich young man, -who was also an intimate friend of the Conte, and never failed to place -at their disposal the finest team of English horses to be seen in Milan -at the time, his box in the theatre <i>alla Scala</i> and his villa in the -country. But the Conte had a sense of his own valour, he was full of -generous impulses, he was easily carried away, and at such times allowed -himself to make imprudent speeches. One day when he was out shooting -with some young men, one of them, who had served under other flags than -his, began to belittle the courage of the soldiers of the Cisalpine -Republic. The Conte struck him, a fight at once followed, and the Conte, -who was without support, among all these young men, was killed. This -species of duel gave rise to a great deal of talk, and the persons who -had been engaged in it took the precaution of going for a tour in -Switzerland. -</p> - -<p> -That absurd form of courage which is called resignation, the courage of -a fool who allows himself to be hanged without a word of protest, was -not at all in keeping with the Contessa's character. Furious at the -death of her husband, she would have liked Limercati, the rich young -man, her intimate friend, to be seized also by the desire to travel in -Switzerland, and there to shoot or otherwise assault the murderer of -Conte Pietranera. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>MILAN</i></h5> - -<p> -Limercati thought this plan the last word in absurdity, and the Contessa -discovered that in herself contempt for him had killed her affection. -She multiplied her attentions to Limercati; she sought to rekindle his -love, and then to leave him stranded and so make him desperate. To -render this plan of vengeance intelligible to French readers, I should -explain that at Milan, in a land widely remote from our own, people are -still made desperate by love. The Contessa, who, in her widow's weeds, -easily eclipsed any of her rivals, flirted with all the young men of rank -and fashion, and one of these, Conte N——, who, from the first, -had said that he felt Limercati's good qualities to be rather heavy, -rather starched for so spirited a woman, fell madly in love with her. -She wrote to Limercati: -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -"Will you for once act like a man of spirit? Please to consider -that you have never known me. -</p> - -<p> -"I am, with a trace of contempt perhaps, your most humble servant, -</p> - -<p style="margin-left: 60%;">"GINA PIETRANERA."</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<p> -After reading this missive, Limercati set off for one of his country -seats, his love rose to a climax, he became quite mad and spoke of -blowing out his brains, an unheard-of thing in countries where hell is -believed in. Within twenty-four hours of his arrival in the country, he -had written to the Contessa offering her his hand and his rent-roll of -200,000 francs. She sent him back his letter, with its seal unbroken, by -Conte N——'s groom. Whereupon Limercati spent three years on his -estates, returning every other month to Milan, but without ever having -the courage to remain there, and boring all his friends with his -passionate love for the Contessa and his detailed accounts of the -favours she had formerly bestowed on him. At first, he used to add that -with Conte N—— she was ruining herself, and that such a -connexion was degrading to her. -</p> - -<p> -The fact of the matter was that the Contessa had no sort of love for Conte -N——, and she told him as much when she had made quite sure of -Limercati's despair. The Conte, who was no novice, besought her upon no -account to divulge the sad truth which she had confided to him. "If you -will be so extremely indulgent," he added, "as to continue to receive me -with all the outward distinctions accorded to a reigning lover, I may -perhaps be able to find a suitable position." -</p> - -<p> -After this heroic declaration the Contessa declined to avail herself any -longer either of Conte N——'s horses or of his box. But for the -last fifteen years she had been accustomed to the most fashionable style of -living; she had now to solve that difficult, or rather impossible -problem: how to live in Milan on a pension of 1,500 francs. She left her -<i>palazzo</i>, took a pair of rooms on a fifth floor, dismissed all her -servants, including even her own maid whose place she filled with a poor -old woman to do the housework. This sacrifice was as a matter of fact -less heroic and less painful than it appears to us; at Milan poverty is -not a thing to laugh at, and therefore does not present itself to -trembling souls as the worst of evils. After some months of this noble -poverty, besieged by incessant letters from Limercati, and indeed from -Conte N—— who also wished to marry her, it came to pass that -the Marchese del Dongo, miserly as a rule to the last degree, bethought -himself that his enemies might find a cause for triumph in his sister's -plight. What! A del Dongo reduced to living upon the pension which the -court of Vienna, of which he had so many grounds for complaint, grants -to the widows of its Generals! -</p> - -<p> -He wrote to inform her that an apartment and an allowance worthy of his -sister awaited her at the castle of Grianta. The Contessa's volatile -mind embraced with enthusiasm the idea of this new mode of life; it was -twenty years since she had lived in that venerable castle that rose -majestically from among its old chestnuts planted in the days of the -Sforza. "There," she told herself, "I shall find repose, and, at my age, -is not that in itself happiness?" (Having reached one-and-thirty, she -imagined that the time had come for her to retire.) "On that sublime -lake by which I was born, there awaits me at last a happy and peaceful -existence." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE LAKE</i></h5> - -<p> -I cannot say whether she was mistaken, but one thing certain is that -this passionate soul, which had just refused so lightly the offer of two -vast fortunes, brought happiness to the castle of Grianta. Her two -nieces were wild with joy. "You have renewed the dear days of my youth," -the Marchesa told her, as she took her in her arms; "before you came, I -was a hundred." The Contessa set out to revisit, with Fabrizio, all -those enchanting spots in the neighbourhood of Grianta, which travellers -have made so famous: the Villa Melzi on the other shore of the lake, -opposite the castle, and commanding a fine view of it; higher up, the -sacred wood of the Sfrondata, and the bold promontory which divides the -two arms of the lake, that of Como, so voluptuous, and the other which -runs towards Lecco, grimly severe: sublime and charming views which the -most famous site in the world, the Bay of Naples, may equal, but does -not surpass. It was with ecstasy that the Contessa recaptured the -memories of her earliest childhood and compared them with her present -sensations. "The Lake of Como," she said to herself, "is not surrounded, -like the Lake of Geneva, by wide tracts of land enclosed and cultivated -according to the most approved methods, which suggest money and -speculation. Here, on every side, I see hills of irregular height -covered with clumps of trees that have grown there at random, which the -hand of man has never yet spoiled and forced to <i>yield a return</i>. -Standing among these admirably shaped hills which run down to the lake -at such curious angles, I can preserve all the illusions of Tasso's and -Ariosto's descriptions. All is noble and tender, everything speaks of -love, nothing recalls the ugliness of civilisation. The villages halfway -up their sides are hidden in tall trees, and above the tree-tops rises -the charming architecture of their picturesque belfries. If some little -field fifty yards across comes here and there to interrupt the clumps of -chestnuts and wild cherries, the satisfied eye sees growing on it plants -more vigorous and happier than elsewhere. Beyond these hills, the crests -of which offer one hermitages in all of which one would like to dwell, -the astonished eye perceives the peaks of the Alps, always covered in -snow, and their stern austerity recalls to one so much of the sorrows of -life as is necessary to enhance one's immediate pleasure. The -imagination is touched by the distant sound of the bell of some little -village hidden among the trees: these sounds borne across the waters -which soften their tone, assume a tinge of gentle melancholy and -resignation, and seem to be saying to man: 'Life is fleeting: do not -therefore show yourself so obdurate towards the happiness that is -offered you, make haste to enjoy it.'" The language of these enchanting -spots, which have not their like in the world, restored to the Contessa -the heart of a girl of sixteen. She could not conceive how she could -have spent all these years without revisiting the lake. "Is it then to -the threshold of old age," she asked herself, "that our happiness takes -flight?" She bought a boat which Fabrizio, the Marchesa and she -decorated with their own hands, having no money to spend on anything, in -the midst of this most luxurious establishment; since his disgrace the -Marchese del Dongo had doubled his aristocratic state. For example, in -order to reclaim ten yards of land from the lake, near the famous plane -avenue, in the direction of Cadenabbia, he had an embankment built the -estimate for which ran to 80,000 francs. At the end of this embankment -there rose, from the plans of the famous Marchese Cagnola, a chapel -built entirely of huge blocks of granite, and in this chapel Marchesi, -the sculptor then in fashion at Milan, built him a tomb on which a -number of bas-reliefs were intended to represent the gallant deeds of -his ancestors. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio's elder brother, the Marchesino Ascanio, sought to join the -ladies in their excursions; but his aunt flung water over his powdered -hair, and found some fresh dart every day with which to puncture his -solemnity. At length he delivered from the sight of his fat, pasty face -the merry troop who did not venture to laugh in his presence. They -supposed him to be the spy of the Marchese his father, and care had to -be taken in handling that stern despot, always in a furious temper since -his enforced retirement. -</p> - -<p> -Ascanio swore to be avenged on Fabrizio. -</p> - -<p> -There was a storm in which they were all in danger; although they were -infinitely short of money, they paid the two boatmen generously not to -say anything to the Marchese, who already was showing great ill humour -at their taking his two daughters with them. They encountered a second -storm; the storms on this lake are terrible and unexpected: gusts of -wind sweep out suddenly from the two mountain gorges which run down into -it on opposite sides and join battle on the water. The Contessa wished -to land in the midst of the hurricane and pealing thunder; she insisted -that, if she were to climb to a rock that stood up by itself in the -middle of the lake and was the size of a small room, she would enjoy a -curious spectacle; she would see herself assailed on all sides by raging -waves; but in jumping out of the boat she fell into the water. Fabrizio -dived in after her to save her, and both were carried away for some -distance. No doubt it is not a pleasant thing to feel oneself drowning; -but the spirit of boredom, taken by surprise, was banished from the -feudal castle. The Contessa conceived a passionate enthusiasm for the -primitive nature of the Priore Blanès and for his astrology. The little -money that remained to her after the purchase of the boat had been spent -on buying a spy-glass, and almost every evening, with her nieces and -Fabrizio, she would take her stand on the platform of one of the gothic -towers of the castle. Fabrizio was the learned one of the party, and -they spent many hours there very pleasantly, out of reach of the spies. -</p> - -<p> -It must be admitted that there were days on which the Contessa did not -utter a word to anyone; she would be seen strolling under the tall -chestnuts lost in sombre meditations; she was too clever a woman not to -feel at times the tedium of having no one with whom to exchange ideas. -But next day she would be laughing as before: it was the lamentations of -her sister-in-law, the Marchesa, that produced these sombre impressions -on a mind naturally so active. -</p> - -<p> -"Are we to spend all the youth that is left to us in this gloomy -castle?" the Marchesa used to exclaim. -</p> - -<p> -Before the Contessa came, she had not had the courage even to feel these -regrets. -</p> - -<p> -Such was their life during the winter of 1814 and 1815. On two -occasions, in spite of her poverty, the Contessa went to spend a few -days at Milan; she was anxious to see a sublime ballet by Vigano, given -at the Scala, and the Marchese raised no objections to his wife's -accompanying her sister-in-law. They went to draw the arrears of the -little pension, and it was the penniless widow of the Cisalpine General -who lent a few sequins to the millionaire Marchesa del Dongo. These -parties were delightful; they invited old friends to dinner, and -consoled themselves by laughing at everything, just like children. This -Italian gaiety, full of surprise and brio, made them forget the -atmosphere of sombre gloom which the stern faces of the Marchese and his -elder son spread around them at Grianta. Fabrizio, though barely -sixteen, represented the head of the house admirably. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>DEPARTURE</i></h5> - -<p> -On the 7th of March, 1815, the ladies had been back for two days after a -charming little excursion to Milan; they were strolling under the fine -avenue of plane trees, then recently extended to the very edge of the -lake. A boat appeared, coming from the direction of Como, and made -strange signals. One of the Marchese's agents leaped out upon the bank: -Napoleon had just landed from the Gulf of Juan. Europe was kind enough -to be surprised at this event, which did not at all surprise the -Marchese del Dongo; he wrote his Sovereign a letter full of the most -cordial effusion; he offered him his talents and several millions of -money, and informed him once again that his Ministers were Jacobins and -in league with the ringleaders in Paris. -</p> - -<p> -On the 8th of March, at six o'clock in the morning, the Marchese, -wearing all his orders, was making his elder son dictate to him the -draft of a third political despatch; he was solemnly occupied in -transcribing this in his fine and careful hand, upon paper that bore the -Sovereign's effigy as a watermark. At the same moment, Fabrizio was -knocking at Contessa Pietranera's door. -</p> - -<p> -"I am off," he informed her, "I am going to join the Emperor who is also -King of Italy; he was such a good friend to your husband! I shall travel -through Switzerland. Last night, at Menaggio, my friend Vasi, the dealer -in barometers, gave me his passport; now you must give me a few -napoleons, for I have only a couple on me; but if necessary I shall go -on foot." -</p> - -<p> -The Contessa wept with joy and grief. "Great Heavens! What can have put -that idea into your head?" she cried, seizing Fabrizio's hands in her -own. -</p> - -<p> -She rose and went to fetch from the linen-cupboard, where it was -carefully hidden, a little purse embroidered with pearls; it was all -that she possessed in the world. -</p> - -<p> -"Take it," she said to Fabrizio; "but, in heaven's name, do not let -yourself be killed. What will your poor mother and I have left, if you -are taken from us? As for Napoleon's succeeding, that, my poor boy, is -impossible; our gentlemen will certainly manage to destroy him. Did you -not hear, a week ago, at Milan the story of the twenty-three plots to -assassinate him, all so carefully planned, from which it was only by a -miracle that he escaped? And at that time he was all-powerful. And you -have seen that it is not the will to destroy him that is lacking in our -enemies; France ceased to count after he left it." -</p> - -<p> -It was in a tone of the keenest emotion that the Contessa spoke to -Fabrizio of the fate in store for Napoleon. "In allowing you to go to -join him, I am sacrificing to him the dearest thing I have in the -world," she said. Fabrizio's eyes grew moist, he shed tears as he -embraced the Contessa, but his determination to be off was never for a -moment shaken. He explained with effusion to this beloved friend all the -reasons that had led to his decision, reasons which we take the liberty -of finding highly attractive. -</p> - -<p> -"Yesterday evening, it wanted seven minutes to six, we were strolling, -you remember, by the shore of the lake along the plane avenue, below the -Casa Sommariva, and we were facing the south. It was there that I first -noticed, in the distance, the boat that was coming from Como, bearing -such great tidings. As I looked at this boat without thinking of the -Emperor, and only envying the lot of those who are free to travel, -suddenly I felt myself seized by a profound emotion. The boat touched -ground, the agent said something in a low tone to my father, who changed -colour, and took us aside to announce the <i>terrible news</i>. I turned -towards the lake with no other object but to hide the tears of joy that -were flooding my eyes. Suddenly, at an immense height in the sky and on -my right hand side, I saw an eagle, the bird of Napoleon; he flew -majestically past making for Switzerland, and consequently for Paris. -'And I too,' I said to myself at that moment, 'will fly across -Switzerland with the speed of an eagle, and will go to offer that great -man a very little thing, but the only thing, after all, that I have to -offer him, the support of my feeble arm. He wished to give us a country, -and he loved my uncle.' At that instant, while I was gazing at the -eagle, in some strange way my tears ceased to flow; and the proof that -this idea came from above is that at the same moment, without any -discussion, I made up my mind to go, and saw how the journey might be -made. In the twinkling of an eye all the sorrows that, as you know, are -poisoning my life, especially on Sundays, seemed to be swept away by a -breath from heaven. I saw that mighty figure of Italy raise herself from -the mire in which the Germans keep her plunged;<a name="FNanchor_7_1" id="FNanchor_7_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_1" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> she stretched out her -mangled arms still half loaded with chains towards her King and -Liberator. 'And I,' I said to myself, 'a son as yet unknown to fame of -that unhappy Mother, I shall go forth to die or to conquer with that man -marked out by destiny, who sought to cleanse us from the scorn that is -heaped upon us by even the most enslaved and the vilest among the -inhabitants of Europe.' -</p> - -<p> -"You know," he added in a low tone drawing nearer to the Contessa, and -fastening upon her a pair of eyes from which fire darted, "you know that -young chestnut which my mother, in the winter in which I was born, -planted with her own hands beside the big spring in our forest, two -leagues from here; before doing anything else I wanted to visit it. 'The -spring is not far advanced,' I said to myself, 'very well, if my tree is -in leaf, that shall be a sign for me. I also must emerge from the state -of torpor in which I am languishing in this cold and dreary castle.' Do -you not feel that these old blackened walls, the symbols now as they -were once the instruments of despotism, are a perfect image of the -dreariness of winter? They are to me what winter is to my tree. -</p> - -<p> -"Would you believe it, Gina? Yesterday evening at half past seven I came -to my chestnut; it had leaves, pretty little leaves that were quite big -already! I kissed them, carefully so as not to hurt them. I turned the -soil reverently round the dear tree. At once filled with a fresh -enthusiasm, I crossed the mountain; I came to Menaggio: I needed a -passport to enter Switzerland. The time had flown, it was already one -o'clock in the morning when I found myself at Vasi's door. I thought -that I should have to knock for a long time to arouse him, but he was -sitting up with three of his friends. At the first word I uttered: 'You -are going to join Napoleon' he cried; and he fell on my neck. The others -too embraced me with rapture. 'Why am I married?' I heard one of them -say." -</p> - -<p> -Signora Pietranera had grown pensive. She felt that she must offer a few -objections. If Fabrizio had had the slightest experience of life, he -would have seen quite well that the Contessa herself did not believe in -the sound reasons which she hastened to urge on him. But, failing -experience, he had resolution; he did not condescend even to hear what -those reasons were. The Contessa presently came down to making him -promise that at least he would inform his mother of his intention. -</p> - -<p> -"She will tell my sisters, and those women will betray me without -knowing it!" cried Fabrizio with a sort of heroic grandeur. -</p> - -<p> -"You should speak more respectfully," said the Contessa, smiling through -her tears, "of the sex that will make your fortune; for you will never -appeal to men, you have too much fire for prosaic souls." -</p> - -<p> -The Marchesa dissolved in tears on learning her son's strange plan; she -could not feel its heroism, and did everything in her power to keep him -at home. When she was convinced that nothing in the world, except the -walls of a prison, could prevent him from starting, she handed over to -him the little money that she possessed; then she remembered that she -had also, the day before, received nine or ten small diamonds, worth -perhaps ten thousand francs, which the Marchese had entrusted to her to -take to Milan to be set. Fabrizio's sisters came into their mother's -room while the Contessa was sewing these diamonds into our hero's -travelling coat; he handed the poor women back their humble napoleons. -His sisters were so enthusiastic over his plan, they kissed him with so -clamorous a joy that he took in his hand the diamonds that had still to -be concealed and was for starting off there and then. -</p> - -<p> -"You will betray me without knowing it," he said to his sisters. "Since -I have all this money, there is no need to take clothes; one can get -them anywhere." He embraced these dear ones and set off at once without -even going back to his own room. He walked so fast, afraid of being -followed by men on horseback, that before night he had entered Lugano. -He was now, thank heaven, in a Swiss town, and had no longer any fear of -being waylaid on the lonely road by constables in his father's pay. From -this haven, he wrote him a fine letter, a boyish weakness which gave -strength and substance to the Marchese's anger. Fabrizio took the post, -crossed the Saint-Gothard; his progress was rapid, and he entered France -by Pontarlier. The Emperor was in Paris. There Fabrizio's troubles -began; he had started out with the firm intention of speaking to the -Emperor: it had never occurred to him that this might be a difficult -matter. At Milan, ten times daily he used to see Prince Eugène, and -could have spoken to him had he wished. In Paris, every morning he went -to the courtyard of the Tuileries to watch the reviews held by Napoleon; -but never was he able to come near the Emperor. Our hero imagined all -the French to be profoundly disturbed, as he himself was, by the extreme -peril in which their country lay. At table in the hotel in which he was -staying, he made no mystery about his plans; he found several young men -with charming manners, even more enthusiastic than himself, who, in a -very few days, did not fail to rob him of all the money that he -possessed. Fortunately, out of pure modesty, he had said nothing of the -diamonds given him by his mother. On the morning when, after an orgy -overnight, he found that he had been decidedly robbed, he bought a fine -pair of horses, engaged as servant an old soldier, one of the dealer's -grooms, and, filled with contempt for the young men of Paris with their -fine speeches, set out to join the army. He knew nothing except that it -was concentrated near Maubeuge. No sooner had he reached the frontier -than he felt that it would be absurd for him to stay in a house, -toasting himself before a good fire, when there were soldiers in bivouac -outside. In spite of the remonstrances of his servant, who was not -lacking in common sense, he rashly made his way to the bivouacs on the -extreme frontier, on the road into Belgium. No sooner had he reached the -first battalion that was resting by the side of the road than the -soldiers began to stare at the sight of this young civilian in whose -appearance there was nothing that suggested uniform. Night was falling, -a cold wind blew. Fabrizio went up to a fire and offered to pay for -hospitality. The soldiers looked at one another amazed more than -anything at the idea of payment, and willingly made room for him by the -fire. His servant constructed a shelter for him. But, an hour later, the -<i>adjudant</i> of the regiment happening to pass near the bivouac, the -soldiers went to report to him the arrival of this stranger speaking bad -French. The <i>adjudant</i> questioned Fabrizio, who spoke to him of his -enthusiasm for the Emperor in an accent which aroused grave suspicion; -whereupon this under-officer requested our hero to go with him to the -Colonel, whose headquarters were in a neighbouring farm. Fabrizio's -servant came up with the two horses. The sight of them seemed to make so -forcible an impression upon the <i>adjudant</i> that immediately he changed -his mind and began to interrogate the servant also. The latter, an old -soldier, guessing his questioner's plan of campaign from the first, -spoke of the powerful protection which his master enjoyed, adding that -certainly they would not <i>bone</i> his fine horses. At once a soldier -called by the <i>adjudant</i> put his hand on the servant's collar; -another soldier took charge of the horses, and, with an air of severity, -the <i>adjudant</i> ordered Fabrizio to follow him and not to answer -back. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE BIVOUAC</i></h5> - -<p> -After making him cover a good league on foot, in the darkness rendered -apparently more intense by the fires of the bivouacs which lighted the -horizon on every side, the adjutant handed Fabrizio over to an officer -of <i>gendarmerie</i> who, with a grave air, asked for his papers. -Fabrizio showed his passport, which described him as a dealer in -barometers travelling with his wares. -</p> - -<p> -"What fools they are!" cried the officer; "this really is too much." -</p> - -<p> -He put a number of questions to our hero who spoke of the Emperor and of -Liberty in terms of the keenest enthusiasm; whereupon the officer of -<i>gendarmerie</i> went off in peals of laughter. -</p> - -<p> -"Gad! You're no good at telling a tale!" he cried. "It is a bit too much -of a good thing their daring to send us young mugs like you!" And -despite all the protestations of Fabrizio, who was dying to explain that -he was not really a dealer in barometers, the officer sent him to the -prison of B——, a small town in the neighbourhood where our hero -arrived at about three o'clock in the morning, beside himself with rage -and half dead with exhaustion. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio, astonished at first, then furious, understanding absolutely -nothing of what was happening to him, spent thirty-three long days in -this wretched prison; he wrote letter after letter to the town -commandant, and it was the gaoler's wife, a handsome Fleming of -six-and-thirty, who undertook to deliver them. But as she had no wish to -see so nice-looking a boy shot, and as moreover he paid well, she put -all these letters without fail in the fire. Late in the evening, she -would deign to come in and listen to the prisoner's complaints; she had -told her husband that the young greenhorn had money, after which the -prudent gaoler allowed her a free hand. She availed herself of this -licence and received several gold napoleons in return, for the -<i>adjudant</i> had taken only the horses, and the officer of -<i>gendarmerie</i> had confiscated nothing at all. One afternoon in the -month of June, Fabrizio heard a violent cannonade at some distance. So -they were fighting at last! His heart leaped with impatience. He heard -also a great deal of noise in the town; as a matter of fact a big -movement of troops was being effected; three divisions were passing -through B——. When, about eleven o'clock, the gaoler's wife -came in to share his griefs, Fabrizio was even more friendly than usual; -then, seizing hold of her hands: -</p> - -<p> -"Get me out of here, I swear on my honour to return to prison as soon as -they have stopped fighting." -</p> - -<p> -"Stuff and nonsense! Have you the <i>quibus</i>?" He seemed worried; he did -not understand the word <i>quibus</i>. The gaoler's wife, noticing his -dismay, decided that he must be in low water, and instead of talking in -gold napoleons as she had intended talked now only in francs. - -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>WAR</i></h5> - -<p> -"Listen," she said to him, "if you can put down a hundred francs, I will -place a double napoleon on each eye of the corporal who comes to change -the guard during the night. He won't be able to see you breaking out of -prison, and if his regiment is to march to-morrow he will accept." -</p> - -<p> -The bargain was soon struck. The gaoler's wife even consented to hide -Fabrizio in her own room, from which he could more easily make his -escape in the morning. -</p> - -<p> -Next day, before dawn, the woman who was quite moved said to Fabrizio: -</p> - -<p> -"My dear boy, you are still far too young for that dirty trade; take my -advice, don't go back to it." -</p> - -<p> -"What!" stammered Fabrizio, "is it a crime then to wish to defend one's -country?" -</p> - -<p> -"Enough said. Always remember that I saved your life; your case was -clear, you would have been shot. But don't say a word to anyone, or you -will lose my husband and me our job; and whatever you do, don't go about -repeating that silly tale about being a gentleman from Milan disguised -as a dealer in barometers, it's too stupid. Listen to me now, I'm going -to give you the uniform of a hussar who died the other day in the -prison; open your mouth as little as you possibly can; but if a serjeant -or an officer asks you questions so that you have to answer, say that -you've been lying ill in the house of a peasant who took you in out of -charity when you were shivering with fever in a ditch by the roadside. -If that does not satisfy them, you can add that you are going back to -your regiment. They may perhaps arrest you because of your accent; then -say that you were born in Piedmont, that you're a conscript who was left -in France last year, and all that sort of thing." -</p> - -<p> -For the first time, after thirty-three days of blind fury, Fabrizio -grasped the clue to all that had happened. They took him for a spy. He -argued with the gaoler's wife, who, that morning, was most affectionate; -and finally, while armed with a needle she was taking in the hussar's -uniform to fit him, he told his whole story in so many words to the -astonished woman. For an instant she believed him; he had so innocent an -air, and looked so nice dressed as a hussar. -</p> - -<p> -"Since you have such a desire to fight," she said to him at length half -convinced, "what you ought to have done as soon as you reached Paris was -to enlist in a regiment. If you had paid for a serjeant's drink, the -whole thing would have been settled." The gaoler's wife added much good -advice for the future, and finally, at the first streak of dawn, let -Fabrizio out of the house, after making him swear a hundred times over -that he would never mention her name, whatever happened. As soon as -Fabrizio had left the little town, marching boldly with the hussar's -sabre under his arm, he was seized by a scruple. "Here I am," he said to -himself, "with the clothes and the marching orders of a hussar who died -in prison, where he was sent, they say, for stealing a cow and some -silver plate! I have, so to speak, inherited his identity . . . and -without wishing it or expecting it in any way! Beware of prison! The -omen is clear, I shall have much to suffer from prisons!" -</p> - -<p> -Not an hour had passed since Fabrizio's parting from his benefactress -when the rain began to fall with such violence that the new hussar was -barely able to get along, hampered by a pair of heavy boots which had -not been made for him. Meeting a peasant mounted upon a sorry horse, he -bought the animal, explaining by signs what he wanted; the gaoler's wife -had recommended him to speak as little as possible, in view of his -accent. -</p> - -<p> -That day the army, which had just won the battle of Ligny, was marching -straight on Brussels. It was the eve of the battle of Waterloo. Towards -midday, the rain still continuing to fall in torrents, Fabrizio heard -the sound of the guns; this joy made him completely oblivious of the -fearful moments of despair in which so unjust an imprisonment had -plunged him. He rode on until late at night, and, as he was beginning to -have a little common sense, went to seek shelter in a peasant's house a -long way from the road. This peasant wept and pretended that everything -had been taken from him; Fabrizio gave him a crown, and he found some -barley. "My horse is no beauty," Fabrizio said to himself, "but that makes -no difference, he may easily take the fancy of some <i>adjudant</i>," -and he went to lie down in the stable by its side. An hour before dawn -Fabrizio was on the road, and, by copious endearments, succeeded in -making his horse trot. About five o'clock, he heard the cannonade: it -was the preliminaries of Waterloo. -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="nind"><a name="Footnote_7_1" id="Footnote_7_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_1"><span class="label">[7]</span></a>The speaker is carried away by passion; he is rendering -in prose some lines of the famous Monti.</p></div> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h4><a id="CHAPTER_THREE">CHAPTER THREE</a></h4> - -<p> -Fabrizio soon came upon some <i>vivandières</i>, and the extreme gratitude -that he felt for the gaoler's wife of B—— impelled him to -address them; he asked one of them where he would find the 4th Hussar -Regiment, to which he belonged. -</p> - -<p> -"You would do just as well not to be in such a hurry, young soldier," -said the <i>cantinière</i>, touched by Fabrizio's pallor and glowing eyes. -"Your wrist is not strong enough yet for the sabre-thrusts they'll be -giving to-day. If you had a musket, I don't say, maybe you could let off -your round as well as any of them." -</p> - -<p> -This advice displeased Fabrizio; but however much he urged on his horse, -he could go no faster than the <i>cantinière</i> in her cart. Every now and -then the sound of the guns seemed to come nearer and prevented them from -hearing each other speak, for Fabrizio was so beside himself with -enthusiasm and delight that he had renewed the conversation. Every word -uttered by the <i>cantinière</i> intensified his happiness by making him -understand it. With the exception of his real name and his escape from -prison, he ended by confiding everything to this woman who seemed such a -good soul. She was greatly surprised and understood nothing at all of -what this handsome young soldier was telling her. -</p> - -<p> -"I see what it is," she exclaimed at length with an air of triumph. -"You're a young gentleman who has fallen in love with the wife of some -captain in the 4th Hussars. Your mistress will have made you a present -of the uniform you're wearing, and you're going after her. As sure as -God's in heaven, you've never been a soldier; but, like the brave boy -you are, seeing your regiment's under fire, you want to be there too, -and not let them think you a chicken." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>WAR</i></h5> - -<p> -Fabrizio agreed with everything; it was his only way of procuring good -advice. "I know nothing of the ways of these French people," he said to -himself, "and if I am not guided by someone I shall find myself being -put in prison again, and they'll steal my horse." -</p> - -<p> -"First of all, my boy," said the <i>cantinière</i>, who was becoming more -and more of a friend to him, "confess that you're not one-and-twenty: at -the very most you might be seventeen." -</p> - -<p> -This was the truth, and Fabrizio admitted as much with good grace. -</p> - -<p> -"Then, you aren't even a conscript; it's simply because of Madame's -pretty face that you're going to get your bones broken. Plague it, she -can't be particular. If you've still got some of the <i>yellow-boys</i> she -sent you, you must first of all buy yourself another horse; look how -your screw pricks up his ears when the guns sound at all near; that's a -peasant's horse, and will be the death of you as soon as you reach the -line. That white smoke you see over there above the hedge, that's the -infantry firing, my boy. So prepare for a fine fright when you hear the -bullets whistling over you. You'll do as well to eat a bit while there's -still time." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio followed this advice and, presenting a napoleon to the -<i>vivandière</i>, asked her to accept payment. -</p> - -<p> -"It makes one weep to see him!" cried the woman; "the poor child doesn't -even know how to spend his money! It would be no more than you deserve -if I pocketed your napoleon and put Cocotte into a trot; damned if your -screw could catch me up. What would you do, stupid, if you saw me go -off? Bear in mind, when the <i>brute</i> growls, never to show your gold. -Here," she went on, "here's 18 francs, 50 centimes, and your breakfast -costs you 30 sous. Now, we shall soon have some horses for sale. If the -beast is a small one, you'll give ten francs, and, in any case, never -more than twenty, not if it was the horse of the Four Sons of Aymon." -</p> - -<p> -The meal finished, the <i>vivandière</i>, who was still haranguing, was -interrupted by a woman who had come across the fields and passed them on -the road. -</p> - -<p> -"Hallo there, hi!" this woman shouted. "Hallo, Margot! Your 6th Light -are over there on the right." -</p> - -<p> -"I must leave you, my boy," said the <i>vivandière</i> to our hero; "but -really and truly I pity you; I've taken quite a fancy to you, upon my -word I have. You don't know a thing about anything, you're going to get -a wipe in the eye, as sure as God's in heaven! Come along to the 6th -Light with me." -</p> - -<p> -"I quite understand that I know nothing," Fabrizio told her, "but I want -to fight, and I'm determined to go over there towards that white smoke." -</p> - -<p> -"Look how your horse is twitching his ears! As soon as he gets over -there, even if he's no strength left, he'll take the bit in his teeth -and start galloping, and heaven only knows where he'll land you. Will -you listen to me now? As soon as you get to the troops, pick up a musket -and a cartridge-pouch, get down among the men and copy what you see them -do, exactly the same: But, good heavens, I'll bet you don't even know -how to open a cartridge." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio, stung to the quick, admitted nevertheless to his new friend -that she had guessed aright. -</p> - -<p> -"Poor boy! He'll be killed straight away; sure as God! It won't -take long. You've got to come with me, absolutely," went on the -<i>cantinière</i> in a tone of authority. -</p> - -<p> -"But I want to fight." -</p> - -<p> -"You shall fight too; why, the 6th Light are famous fighters, and -there's fighting enough to-day for everyone." -</p> - -<p> -"But shall we come soon to the regiment?" -</p> - -<p> -"In a quarter of an hour at the most." -</p> - -<p> -"With this honest woman's recommendation," Fabrizio told himself, "my -ignorance of everything won't make them take me for a spy, and I shall -have a chance of fighting." At this moment the noise of the guns -redoubled, each explosion coming straight on top of the last. "It's like -a Rosary," said Fabrizio. -</p> - -<p> -"We're beginning to hear the infantry fire now," said the -<i>vivandière</i>, whipping up her little horse, which seemed quite -excited by the firing. -</p> - -<p> -The <i>cantinière</i> turned to the right and took a side road that ran -through the fields; there was a foot of mud in it; the little cart -seemed about to be stuck fast: Fabrizio pushed the wheel. His horse fell -twice; presently the road, though with less water on it, was nothing -more than a bridle path through the grass. Fabrizio had not gone five -hundred yards when his nag stopped short: it was a corpse, lying across -the path, which terrified horse and rider alike. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio's face, pale enough by nature, assumed a markedly green tinge; -the <i>cantinière</i>, after looking at the dead man, said, as though -speaking to herself: "That's not one of our Division." Then, raising her -eyes to our hero, she burst out laughing. -</p> - -<p> -"Aha, my boy! There's a titbit for you!" Fabrizio sat frozen. What -struck him most of all was the dirtiness of the feet of this corpse -which had already been stripped of its shoes and left with nothing but -an old pair of trousers all clotted with blood. -</p> - -<p> -"Come nearer," the <i>cantinière</i> ordered him, "get off your horse, -you'll have to get accustomed to them; look," she cried, "he's stopped -one in the head." -</p> - -<p> -A bullet, entering on one side of the nose, had gone out at the opposite -temple, and disfigured the corpse in a hideous fashion. It lay with one -eye still open. -</p> - -<p> -"Get off your horse then, lad," said the <i>cantinière</i>, "and give him -a shake of the hand to see if he'll return it." -</p> - -<p> -Without hesitation, although ready to yield up his soul with disgust, -Fabrizio flung himself from his horse and took the hand of the corpse -which he shook vigorously; then he stood still as though paralysed. He -felt that he had not the strength to mount again. What horrified him -more than anything was that open eye. -</p> - -<p> -"The <i>vivandière</i> will think me a coward," he said to himself -bitterly. But he felt the impossibility of making any movement; he would -have fallen. It was a frightful moment; Fabrizio was on the point of -being physically sick. The <i>vivandière</i> noticed this, jumped -lightly down from her little carriage, and held out to him, without -saying a word, a glass of brandy which he swallowed at a gulp; he was -able to mount his screw, and continued on his way without speaking. The -<i>vivandière</i> looked at him now and again from the corner of her -eye. -</p> - -<p> -"You shall fight to-morrow, my boy," she said at length; "to-day you're -going to stop with me. You can see now that you've got to learn the -business before you can become a soldier." -</p> - -<p> -"On the contrary, I want to start fighting at once," exclaimed our hero -with a sombre air which seemed to the <i>vivandière</i> to augur well. The -noise of the guns grew twice as loud and seemed to be coming nearer. The -explosions began to form a continuous bass; there was no interval -between one and the next, and above this running bass, which suggested -the roar of a torrent in the distance, they could make out quite plainly -the rattle of musketry. -</p> - -<p> -At this point the road dived down into a clump, of trees. The -<i>vivandière</i> saw three or four soldiers of our army who were coming -towards her as fast as their legs would carry them; she jumped nimbly -down from her cart and ran into cover fifteen or twenty paces from the -road. She hid herself in a hole which had been left where a big tree had -recently been uprooted. "Now," thought Fabrizio, "we shall see whether I -am a coward!" He stopped by the side of the little cart which the woman -had abandoned, and drew his sabre. The soldiers paid no attention to him -and passed at a run along the wood, to the left of the road. -</p> - -<p> -"They're ours," said the <i>vivandière</i> calmly, as she came back, quite -breathless, to her little cart. . . . "If your horse was capable of -galloping, I should say: push ahead as far as the end of the wood, and -see if there's anyone on the plain." Fabrizio did not wait to be told -twice, he tore off a branch from a poplar, stripped it and started to -lash his horse with all his might; the animal broke into a gallop for a -moment, then fell back into its regular slow trot. The <i>vivandière</i> -had put her horse into a gallop. "Stop, will you, stop!" she called after -Fabrizio. Presently both were clear of the wood. Coming to the edge of -the plain, they heard a terrifying din, guns and muskets thundered on -every side, right, left, behind them. And as the clump of trees from -which they emerged grew on a mound rising nine or ten feet above the -plain, they could see fairly well a corner of the battle; but still -there was no one to be seen in the meadow beyond the wood. This meadow -was bordered, half a mile away, by a long row of willows, very bushy; -above the willows appeared a white smoke which now and again rose -eddying into the sky. -</p> - -<p> -"If I only knew where the regiment was," said the <i>cantinière</i>, in -some embarrassment. "It won't do to go straight ahead over this big field. -By the way," she said to Fabrizio, "if you see one of the enemy, stick him -with the point of your sabre, don't play about with the blade." -</p> - -<p> -At this moment, the <i>cantinière</i> caught sight of the four soldiers -whom we mentioned a little way back; they were coming out of the wood on -to the plain to the left of the road. One of them was on horseback. -</p> - -<p> -"There you are," she said to Fabrizio. "Hallo there!" she called to the -mounted man, "come over here and have a glass of brandy." The soldiers -approached. -</p> - -<p> -"Where are the 6th Light?" she shouted. -</p> - -<p> -"Over there, five minutes away, across that canal that runs along by the -willows; why, Colonel Macon has just been killed." -</p> - -<p> -"Will you take five francs for your horse, you?" -</p> - -<p> -"Five francs! That's not a bad one, <i>ma</i>! An officer's horse I can -sell in ten minutes for five napoleons." -</p> - -<p> -"Give me one of your napoleons," said the <i>vivandière</i> to Fabrizio. -Then going up to the mounted soldier: "Get off, quickly," she said to -him, "here's your napoleon." -</p> - -<p> -The soldier dismounted, Fabrizio sprang gaily on to the saddle, the -<i>vivandière</i> unstrapped the little portmanteau which was on his old -horse. -</p> - -<p> -"Come and help me, all of you!" she said to the soldiers, "is that the -way you leave a lady to do the work?" -</p> - -<p> -But no sooner had the captured horse felt the weight of the portmanteau -than he began to rear, and Fabrizio, who was an excellent horseman, had -to use all his strength to hold him. -</p> - -<p> -"A good sign!" said the <i>vivandière</i>, "the gentleman is not -accustomed to being tickled by portmanteaus." -</p> - -<p> -"A general's horse," cried the man who had sold it, "a horse that's -worth ten napoleons if it's worth a liard." -</p> - -<p> -"Here are twenty francs," said Fabrizio, who could not contain himself -for joy at feeling between his legs a horse that could really move. -</p> - -<p> -At that moment a shot struck the line of willows, through which it -passed obliquely, and Fabrizio had the curious spectacle of all those -little branches flying this way and that as though mown down by a stroke -of the scythe. -</p> - -<p> -"Look, there's the <i>brute</i> advancing," the soldier said to him as he -took the twenty francs. It was now about two o'clock. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio was still under the spell of this strange spectacle when a -party of generals, followed by a score of hussars, passed at a gallop -across one corner of the huge field on the edge of which he had halted: -his horse neighed, reared several times in succession, then began -violently tugging the bridle that was holding him. "All right, then," -Fabrizio said to himself. -</p> - -<p> -The horse, left to his own devices, dashed off hell for leather to join -the escort that was following the generals. Fabrizio counted four -gold-laced hats. A quarter of an hour later, from a few words said by -one hussar to the next, Fabrizio gathered that one of these generals was -the famous Marshal Ney. His happiness knew no bounds; only he had no way -of telling which of the four generals was Marshal Ney; he would have -given everything in the world to know, but he remembered that he had -been told not to speak. The escort halted, having to cross a wide ditch -left full of water by the rain overnight; it was fringed with tall trees -and formed the left hand boundary of the field at the entrance to which -Fabrizio had bought the horse. Almost all the hussars had dismounted; -the bank of the ditch was steep and very slippery and the water lay -quite three or four feet below the level of the field. Fabrizio, -distracted with joy, was thinking more of Marshal Ney and of glory than -of his horse, which, being highly excited, jumped into the canal, thus -splashing the water up to a considerable height. One of the generals was -soaked to the skin by the sheet of water, and cried with an oath: "Damn -the f—— brute!" Fabrizio felt deeply hurt by this insult. "Can -I ask him to apologise?" he wondered. Meanwhile, to prove that he was not -so clumsy after all, he set his horse to climb the opposite bank of the -ditch; but it rose straight up and was five or six feet high. He had to -abandon the attempt; then he rode up stream, his horse being up to its -head in water, and at last found a sort of drinking-place. By this -gentle slope he was easily able to reach the field on the other side of -the canal. He was the first man of the escort to appear there; he -started to trot proudly down the bank; below him, in the canal, the -hussars were splashing about, somewhat embarrassed by their position, -for in many places the water was five feet deep. Two or three horses -took fright and began to swim, making an appalling mess. A serjeant -noticed the manœuvre that this youngster, who looked so very unlike a -soldier, had just carried out. -</p> - -<p> -"Up here! There is a watering-place on the left!" he shouted, and in -time they all crossed. -</p> - -<p> -On reaching the farther bank, Fabrizio had found the generals there by -themselves; the noise of the guns seemed to him to have doubled; and it -was all he could do to hear the general whom he had given such a good -soaking and who now shouted in his ear: -</p> - -<p> -"Where did you get that horse?" -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio was so much upset that he answered in Italian: -</p> - -<p> -"<i>L'ho comprato poco fa.</i> (I bought it just now.)" -</p> - -<p> -"What's that you say?" cried the general. -</p> - -<p> -But the din at that moment became so terrific that Fabrizio could not -answer him. We must admit that our hero was very little of a hero at -that moment. However, fear came to him only as a secondary -consideration; he was principally shocked by the noise, which hurt his -ears. The escort broke into a gallop; they crossed a large batch of -tilled land which lay beyond the canal. And this field was strewn with -dead. -</p> - -<p> -"Red-coats! red-coats!" the hussars of the escort exclaimed joyfully, -and at first Fabrizio did not understand; then he noticed that as a -matter of fact almost all these bodies wore red uniforms. One detail -made him shudder with horror; he observed that many of these unfortunate -red-coats were still alive; they were calling out, evidently asking for -help, and no one stopped to give it them. Our hero, being most humane, -took every possible care that his horse should not tread upon any of the -red-coats. The escort halted; Fabrizio, who was not paying sufficient -attention to his military duty, galloped on, his eyes fixed on a wounded -wretch in front of him. -</p> - -<p> -"Will you halt, you young fool!" the serjeant shouted after him. -Fabrizio discovered that he was twenty paces on the generals' right -front, and precisely in the direction in which they were gazing through -their glasses. As he came back to take his place behind the other -hussars, who had halted a few paces in rear of them, he noticed the -biggest of these generals who was speaking to his neighbour, a general -also, in a tone of authority and almost of reprimand; he was swearing. -Fabrizio could not contain his curiosity; and, in spite of the warning -not to speak, given him by his friend the gaoler's wife, he composed a -short sentence in good French, quite correct, and said to his neighbour: -</p> - -<p> -"Who is that general who is chewing up the one next to him?" -</p> - -<p> -"Gad, it's the Marshal!" -</p> - -<p> -"What Marshal?" -</p> - -<p> -"Marshal Ney, you fool! I say, where have you been serving?" -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio, although highly susceptible, had no thought of resenting this -insult; he was studying, lost in childish admiration, the famous Prince -de la Moskowa, the "Bravest of the Brave." -</p> - -<p> -Suddenly they all moved off at full gallop. A few minutes later Fabrizio -saw, twenty paces ahead of him, a ploughed field the surface of which -was moving in a singular fashion. The furrows were full of water and the -soil, very damp, which formed the ridges between these furrows kept -flying off in little black lumps three or four feet into the air. -Fabrizio noticed as he passed this curious effect; then his thoughts -turned to dreaming of the Marshal and his glory. He heard a sharp cry -close to him; two hussars fell struck by shot; and, when he looked back -at them, they were already twenty paces behind the escort. What seemed -to him horrible was a horse streaming with blood that was struggling on -the ploughed land, its hooves caught in its own entrails; it was trying -to follow the others: its blood ran down into the mire. -</p> - -<p> -"Ah! So I am under fire at last!" he said to himself. "I have seen shots -fired!" he repeated with a sense of satisfaction. "Now I am a real -soldier." At that moment, the escort began to go hell for leather, and -our hero realised that it was shot from the guns that was making the -earth fly up all round him. He looked vainly in the direction from which -the balls were coming, he saw the white smoke of the battery at an -enormous distance, and, in the thick of the steady and continuous rumble -produced by the artillery fire, he seemed to hear shots discharged much -closer at hand: he could not understand in the least what was happening. -</p> - -<p> -At that moment, the generals and their escort dropped into a little road -filled with water which ran five feet below the level of the fields. -</p> - -<p> -The Marshal halted and looked again through his glasses. Fabrizio, this -time, could examine him at his leisure. He found him to be very fair, -with a big red face. "We don't have any faces like that in Italy," he -said to himself. "With my pale cheeks and chestnut hair, I shall never -look like that," he added despondently. To him these words implied: "I -shall never be a hero." He looked at the hussars; with a solitary -exception, all of them had yellow moustaches. If Fabrizio was studying -the hussars of the escort, they were all studying him as well. Their -stare made him blush, and, to get rid of his embarrassment, he turned -his head towards the enemy. They consisted of widely extended lines of -men in red, but, what greatly surprised him, these men seemed to be -quite minute. Their long files, which were regiments or divisions, -appeared no taller than hedges. A line of red cavalry were trotting in -the direction of the sunken road along which the Marshal and his escort -had begun to move at a walk, splashing through the mud. The smoke made -it impossible to distinguish anything in the direction in which they -were advancing; now and then one saw men moving at a gallop against this -background of white smoke. -</p> - -<p> -Suddenly, from the direction of the enemy, Fabrizio saw four men -approaching hell for leather. "Ah! We are attacked," he said to himself; -then he saw two of these men speak to the Marshal. One of the generals -on the latter's staff set off at a gallop towards the enemy, followed by -two hussars of the escort and by the four men who had just come up. -After a little canal which they all crossed, Fabrizio found himself -riding beside a serjeant who seemed a good-natured fellow. "I must speak -to this one," he said to himself, "then perhaps they'll stop staring at -me." He thought for a long time. -</p> - -<p> -"Sir, this is the first time that I have been present at a battle," he -said at length to the serjeant. "But is this a real battle?" -</p> - -<p> -"Something like. But who are you?" -</p> - -<p> -"I am the brother of a captain's wife." -</p> - -<p> -"And what is he called, your captain?" -</p> - -<p> -Our hero was terribly embarrassed; he had never anticipated this -question. Fortunately, the Marshal and his escort broke into a gallop. -"What French name shall I say?" he wondered. At last he remembered the -name of the innkeeper with whom he had lodged in Paris; he brought his -horse up to the serjeant's, and shouted to him at the top of his voice: -</p> - -<p> -"Captain Meunier!" The other, not hearing properly in the roar of the -guns, replied: "Oh, Captain Teulier? Well, he's been killed." -"Splendid," thought Fabrizio. "Captain Teulier; I must look sad." -</p> - -<p> -"Good God!" he cried; and assumed a piteous mien. They had left the -sunken road and were crossing a small meadow, they were going hell for -leather, shots were coming over again, the Marshal headed for a division -of cavalry. The escort found themselves surrounded by dead and wounded -men; but this sight had already ceased to make any impression on our -hero; he had other things to think of. -</p> - -<p> -While the escort was halted, he caught sight of the little cart of a -<i>cantinière</i>, and his affection for this honourable corps sweeping -aside every other consideration, set off at a gallop to join her. -</p> - -<p> -"Stay where you are, curse you," the serjeant shouted after him. -</p> - -<p> -"What can he do to me here?" thought Fabrizio, and he continued to gallop -towards the <i>cantinière</i>. When he put spurs to his horse, he had -had some hope that it might be his good <i>cantinière</i> of the morning; -the horse and the little cart bore a strong resemblance, but their owner -was quite different, and our hero thought her appearance most -forbidding. As he came up to her, Fabrizio heard her say: "And he was -such a fine looking man, too!" A very ugly sight awaited the new -recruit; they were sawing off a cuirassier's leg at the thigh, a -handsome young fellow of five feet ten. Fabrizio shut his eyes and drank -four glasses of brandy straight off. -</p> - -<p> -"How you do go for it, you boozer!" cried the <i>cantinière</i>. The -brandy gave him an idea: "I must buy the goodwill of my comrades, the -hussars of the escort." -</p> - -<p> -"Give me the rest of the bottle," he said to the <i>vivandière</i>. -</p> - -<p> -"What do you mean," was her answer, "what's left there costs ten francs, -on a day like this." -</p> - -<p> -As he rejoined the escort at a gallop: -</p> - -<p> -"Ah! You're bringing us a drop of drink," cried the serjeant. "That was -why you deserted, was it? Hand it over." -</p> - -<p> -The bottle went round, the last man to take it flung it in the air after -drinking. "Thank you, chum!" he cried to Fabrizio. All eyes were -fastened on him kindly. This friendly gaze lifted a hundredweight from -Fabrizio's heart; it was one of those hearts of too delicate tissue -which require the friendship of those around it. So at last he had -ceased to be looked at askance by his comrades; there was a bond between -them! Fabrizio breathed a deep sigh of relief, then in a bold voice said -to the serjeant: -</p> - -<p> -"And if Captain Teulier has been killed, where shall I find my sister?" -He fancied himself a little Machiavelli to be saying Teulier so -naturally instead of Meunier. -</p> - -<p> -"That's what you'll find out to-night," was the serjeant's reply. -</p> - -<p> -The escort moved on again and made for some divisions of infantry. -Fabrizio felt quite drunk; he had taken too much brandy, he was rolling -slightly in his saddle: he remembered most opportunely a favourite -saying of his mother's coachman: "When you've been lifting your elbow, -look straight between your horse's ears, and do what the man next you -does." The Marshal stopped for some time beside a number of cavalry -units which he ordered to charge; but for an hour or two our hero was -barely conscious of what was going on round about him. He was feeling -extremely tired, and when his horse galloped he fell back on the saddle -like a lump of lead. -</p> - -<p> -Suddenly the serjeant called out to his men: "Don't you see the Emperor, -curse you!" Whereupon the escort shouted: "<i>Vive l'Empereur</i>!" at the -top of their voices. It may be imagined that our hero stared till his -eyes started out of his head, but all he saw was some generals -galloping, also followed by an escort. The long floating plumes of -horsehair which the dragoons of the bodyguard wore on their helmets -prevented him from distinguishing their faces. "So I have missed seeing -the Emperor on a field of battle, all because of those cursed glasses of -brandy!" This reflexion brought him back to his senses. -</p> - -<p> -They went down into a road filled with water, the horses wished to -drink. -</p> - -<p> -"So that was the Emperor who went past then?" he asked the man next to -him. -</p> - -<p> -"Why, surely, the one with no braid on his coat. How is it you didn't -see him?" his comrade answered kindly. Fabrizio felt a strong desire to -gallop after the Emperor's escort and embody himself in it. What a joy -to go really to war in the train of that hero! It was for that he -had come to France. "I am quite at liberty to do it," he said to -himself, "for after all I have no other reason for being where I am but -the will of my horse, which started galloping after these generals." -</p> - -<p> -What made Fabrizio decide to stay where he was was that the hussars, his -new comrades, seemed so friendly towards him; he began to imagine -himself the intimate friend of all the troopers with whom he had been -galloping for the last few hours. He saw arise between them and himself -that noble friendship of the heroes of Tasso and Ariosto. If he were to -attach himself to the Emperor's escort, there would be fresh -acquaintances to be made, perhaps they would look at him askance, for -these other horsemen were dragoons, and he was wearing the hussar -uniform like all the rest that were following the Marshal. The way in -which they now looked at him set our hero on a pinnacle of happiness; he -would have done anything in the world for his comrades; his mind and -soul were in the clouds. Everything seemed to have assumed a new aspect -now that he was among friends; he was dying to ask them various -questions. "But I am still a little drunk," he said to himself, "I must -bear in mind what the gaoler's wife told me." He noticed on leaving the -sunken road that the escort was no longer with Marshal Ney; the general -whom they were following was tall and thin, with a dry face and an -awe-inspiring eye. -</p> - -<p> -This general was none other than Comte d'A——, the Lieutenant -Robert of the 15th of May, 1796. How delighted he would have been to meet -Fabrizio del Dongo! -</p> - -<p> -It was already some time since Fabrizio had noticed the earth flying off -in black crumbs on being struck by shot; they came in rear of a regiment -of cuirassiers, he could hear distinctly the rattle of the grapeshot -against their breastplates, and saw several men fall. -</p> - -<p> -The sun was now very low and had begun to set when the escort, emerging -from a sunken road, mounted a little bank three or four feet high to -enter a ploughed field. Fabrizio heard an odd little sound quite close -to him: he turned his head, four men had fallen with their horses; the -general himself had been unseated, but picked himself up, covered in -blood. Fabrizio looked at the hussars who were lying on the ground: -three of them were still making convulsive movements, the fourth cried: -"Pull me out!" The serjeant and two or three men had dismounted to -assist the general who, leaning upon his aide-de-camp, was attempting to -walk a few steps; he was trying to get away from his horse, which lay on -the ground struggling and kicking out madly. -</p> - -<p> -The serjeant came up to Fabrizio. At that moment our hero heard a voice -say behind him and quite close to his ear: "This is the only one that -can still gallop." He felt himself seized by the feet; they were taken -out of the stirrups at the same time as someone caught him underneath -the arms; he was lifted over his horse's tail and then allowed to slip -to the ground, where he landed sitting. -</p> - -<p> -The aide-de-camp took Fabrizio's horse by the bridle; the general, with -the help of the serjeant, mounted and rode off at a gallop; he was -quickly followed by the six men who were left of the escort. Fabrizio -rose up in a fury, and began to run after them shouting: "<i>Ladri! -Ladri</i>! (Thieves! Thieves!)" It was an amusing experience to run after -horse-stealers across a battlefield. -</p> - -<p> -The escort and the general, Comte d'A——, disappeared presently -behind a row of willows. Fabrizio, blind with rage, also arrived at this -line of willows; he found himself brought to a halt by a canal of -considerable depth which he crossed. Then, on reaching the other side, -he began swearing again as he saw once more, but far away in the -distance, the general and his escort vanishing among the trees. -"Thieves! Thieves!" he cried, in French this time. In desperation, not -so much at the loss of his horse as at the treachery to himself, he let -himself sink down on the side of the ditch, tired out and dying of -hunger. If his fine horse had been taken from him by the enemy, he would -have thought no more about it; but to see himself betrayed and robbed by -that serjeant whom he liked so much and by those hussars whom he -regarded as brothers! That was what broke his heart. He could find no -consolation for so great an infamy, and, leaning his back against a -willow, began to shed hot tears. He abandoned one by one all those -beautiful dreams of a chivalrous and sublime friendship, like that of -the heroes of the <i>Gerusalemme Liberata</i>. To see death come to one was -nothing, surrounded by heroic and tender hearts, by noble friends who -clasp one by the hand as one yields one's dying breath! But to retain -one's enthusiasm surrounded by a pack of vile scoundrels! Like all angry -men Fabrizio exaggerated. After a quarter of an hour of this melting -mood, he noticed that the guns were beginning to range on the row of -trees in the shade of which he sat meditating. He rose and tried to find -his bearings. He scanned those fields bounded by a wide canal and the -row of pollard willows: he thought he knew where he was. He saw a body -of infantry crossing the ditch and marching over the fields, a quarter -of a league in front of him. "I was just falling asleep," he said to -himself; "I must see that I'm not taken prisoner." And he put his best -foot foremost. As he advanced, his mind was set at rest; he recognized -the uniforms, the regiments by which he had been afraid of being cut off -were French. He made a right incline so as to join them. -</p> - -<p> -After the moral anguish of having been so shamefully betrayed and -robbed, there came another which, at every moment, made itself felt more -keenly; he was dying of hunger. It was therefore with infinite joy that -after having walked, or rather run for ten minutes, he saw that the -column of infantry, which also had been moving very rapidly, was halting -to take up a position. A few minutes later, he was among the nearest of -the soldiers. -</p> - -<p> -"Friends, could you sell me a mouthful of bread?" -</p> - -<p> -"I say, here's a fellow who thinks we're bakers!" -</p> - -<p> -This harsh utterance and the general guffaw that followed it had a -crushing effect on Fabrizio. So war was no longer that noble and -universal uplifting of souls athirst for glory which he had imagined it -to be from Napoleon's proclamations! He sat down, or rather let himself -fall on the grass; he turned very pale. The soldier who had spoken to -him, and who had stopped ten paces off to clean the lock of his musket -with his handkerchief, came nearer and flung him a lump of bread; then, -seeing that he did not pick it up, broke off a piece which he put in our -hero's mouth. Fabrizio opened his eyes, and ate the bread without having -the strength to speak. When at length he looked round for the soldier to -pay him, he found himself alone; the men nearest to him were a hundred -yards off and were marching. Mechanically he rose and followed them. He -entered a wood; he was dropping with exhaustion, and already had begun -to look round for a comfortable resting-place; but what was his delight -on recognising first of all the horse, then the cart, and finally the -<i>cantinière</i> of that morning! She ran to him and was frightened by his -appearance. -</p> - -<p> -"Still going, my boy," she said to him; "you're wounded then? And -where's your fine horse?" So saying she led him towards the cart, upon -which she made him climb, supporting him under the arms. No sooner was -he in the cart than our hero, utterly worn out, fell fast asleep. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h4><a id="CHAPTER_FOUR">CHAPTER FOUR</a></h4> - -<p> -Nothing could awaken him, neither the muskets fired close to the cart -nor the trot of the horse which the <i>cantinière</i> was flogging with all -her might. The regiment, attacked unexpectedly by swarms of Prussian -cavalry, after imagining all day that they were winning the battle, was -beating a retreat or rather fleeing in the direction of France. -</p> - -<p> -The colonel, a handsome young man, well turned out, who had succeeded -Macon, was sabred; the battalion commander who took his place, an old -man with white hair, ordered the regiment to halt. "Damn you," he cried -to his men, "in the days of the Republic we waited till we were forced -by the enemy before running away. Defend every inch of ground, and get -yourselves killed!" he shouted, and swore at them. "It is the soil of -the Fatherland that these Prussians want to invade now!" -</p> - -<p> -The little cart halted; Fabrizio awoke with a start. The sun had set -some time back; he was quite astonished to see that it was almost night. -The troops were running in all directions in a confusion which greatly -surprised our hero; they looked shame-faced, he thought. -</p> - -<p> -"What is happening?" he asked the <i>cantinière</i>. -</p> - -<p> -"Nothing at all. Only that we're in the soup, my boy; it's the Prussian -cavalry mowing us down, that's all. The idiot of a general thought at -first they were our men. Come, quick, help me to mend Cocotte's trace: -it's broken." -</p> - -<p> -Several shots were fired ten yards off. Our hero, cool and composed, -said to himself: "But really, I haven't fought at all, the whole day; I -have only escorted a general.—I must go and fight," he said to the -<i>cantinière</i>. -</p> - -<p> -"Keep calm, you shall fight, and more than you want! We're done for. -</p> - -<p> -"Aubry, my lad," she called out to a passing corporal, "keep an eye on -the little cart now and then." -</p> - -<p> -"Are you going to fight?" Fabrizio asked Aubry. -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, no, I'm putting my pumps on to go to a dance!" -</p> - -<p> -"I shall follow you." -</p> - -<p> -"I tell you, he's all right, the little hussar," cried the -<i>cantinière</i>. "The young gentleman has a stout heart." Corporal Aubry -marched on without saying a word. Eight or nine soldiers ran up and -joined him; he led them behind a big oak surrounded by brambles. On -reaching it he posted them along the edge of the wood, still without -uttering a word, on a widely extended front, each man being at least ten -paces from the next. -</p> - -<p> -"Now then, you men," said the corporal, opening his mouth for the first -time, "don't fire till I give the order: remember you've only got three -rounds each." -</p> - -<p> -"Why, what is happening?" Fabrizio wondered. At length, when he found -himself alone with the corporal, he said to him: "I have no musket." -</p> - -<p> -"Will you hold your tongue? Go forward there: fifty paces in front of -the wood you'll find one of the poor fellows of the Regiment who've been -sabred; you will take his cartridge-pouch and his musket. Don't strip a -wounded man, though; take the pouch and musket from one who's properly -dead, and hurry up or you'll be shot in the bade by our fellows." -Fabrizio set off at a run and returned the next minute with a musket and -a pouch. -</p> - -<p> -"Load your musket and stick yourself behind this tree, and whatever you -do don't fire till you get the order from me. . . . Great God in -heaven!" the corporal broke off, "he doesn't even know how to load!" He -helped Fabrizio to do this while going on with his instructions. "If one -of the enemy's cavalry gallops at you to cut you down, dodge round your -tree and don't fire till he's within three paces: wait till your -bayonet's practically touching his uniform. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>WAR</i></h5> - -<p> -"Throw that great sabre away," cried the corporal. "Good God, do you -want it to trip you up? Fine sort of soldiers they're sending us these -days!" As he spoke he himself took hold of the sabre which he flung -angrily away. -</p> - -<p> -"You there, wipe the flint of your musket with your handkerchief. Have -you never fired a musket?" -</p> - -<p> -"I am a hunter." -</p> - -<p> -"Thank God for that!" went on the corporal with a loud sigh. "Whatever -you do, don't fire till I give the order." And he moved away. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio was supremely happy. "Now I'm going to do some real fighting," -he said to himself, "and kill one of the enemy. This morning they were -sending cannonballs over, and I did nothing but expose myself and risk -getting killed; that's a fool's game." He gazed all round him with -extreme curiosity. Presently he heard seven or eight shots fired quite -close at hand. But receiving no order to fire he stood quietly behind -his tree. It was almost night; he felt he was in a <i>look-out</i>, -bear-shootings on the mountain of Tramezzina, above Grianta. A hunter's -idea came to him: he took a cartridge from his pouch and removed the -ball. "If I see him," he said, "it won't do to miss him," and he slipped -this second ball into the barrel of his musket. He heard shots fired -close to his tree; at the same moment he saw a horseman in blue pass in -front of him at a gallop, going from right to left. "It is more than -three paces," he said to himself, "but at that range I am certain of my -mark." He kept the trooper carefully sighted with his musket and finally -pressed the trigger: the trooper fell with his horse. Our hero imagined -he was stalking game: he ran joyfully out to collect his bag. He was -actually touching the man, who appeared to him to be dying, when, with -incredible speed, two Prussian troopers charged down on him to sabre -him. Fabrizio dashed back as fast as he could go to the wood; to gain -speed he flung his musket away. The Prussian troopers were not more than -three paces from him when he reached another plantation of young oaks, -as thick as his arm and quite upright, which fringed the wood. These -little oaks delayed the horsemen for a moment, but they passed them and -continued their pursuit of Fabrizio along a clearing. Once again they -were just overtaking him when he slipped in among seven or eight big -trees. At that moment his face was almost scorched by the flame of five -or six musket shots fired from in front of him. He ducked his head; when -he raised it again he found himself face to face with the corporal. -</p> - -<p> -"Did you kill your man?" Corporal Aubry asked him. -</p> - -<p> -"Yes; but I've lost my musket." -</p> - -<p> -"It's not muskets we're short of. You're not a bad b——; though -you do look as green as a cabbage you've won the day all right, and these -men here have just missed the two who were chasing you and coming straight -at them. I didn't see them myself. What we've got to do now is to get -away at the double; the Regiment must be half a mile off, and there's a -bit of a field to cross, too, where we may find ourselves surrounded." -</p> - -<p> -As he spoke, the corporal marched off at a brisk pace at the head of his -ten men. Two hundred yards farther on, as they entered the little field -he had mentioned, they came upon a wounded general who was being carried -by his aide-de-camp and an orderly. -</p> - -<p> -"Give me four of your men," he said to the corporal in a faint voice, -"I've got to be carried to the ambulance; my leg is shattered." -</p> - -<p> -"Go and f—— yourself!" replied the corporal, "you and all your -generals. You've all of you betrayed the Emperor to-day." -</p> - -<p> -"What," said the general, furious, "you dispute my orders. Do you know -that I am General Comte B——, commanding your Division," and so -on. He waxed rhetorical. The aide-de-camp flung himself on the men. The -corporal gave him a thrust in the arm with his bayonet, then made off -with his party at the double. "I wish they were all in your boat," he -repeated with an oath; "I'd shatter their arms and legs for them. A pack -of puppies! All of them bought by the Bourbons, to betray the Emperor!" -Fabrizio listened with a thrill of horror to this frightful accusation. -</p> - -<p> -About ten o'clock that night the little party overtook their regiment on -the outskirts of a large village which divided the road into several -very narrow streets; but Fabrizio noticed that Corporal Aubry avoided -speaking to any of the officers. "We can't get on," he called to his -men. All these streets were blocked with infantry, cavalry, and, worst -of all, by the limbers and wagons of the artillery. The corporal tried -three of these streets in turn; after advancing twenty yards he was -obliged to halt. Everyone was swearing and losing his temper. -</p> - -<p> -"Some traitor in command here, too!" cried the corporal: "if the enemy -has the sense to surround the village, we shall all be caught like rats -in a trap. Follow me, you." Fabrizio looked round; there were only six -men left with the corporal. Through a big gate which stood open they -came into a huge courtyard; from this courtyard they passed into a -stable, the back door of which let them into a garden. They lost their -way for a moment and wandered blindly about. But finally, going through -a hedge, they found themselves in a huge field of buckwheat. In less -than half an hour, guided by the shouts and confused noises, they had -regained the high road on the other side of the village. The ditches on -either side of this road were filled with muskets that had been thrown -away; Fabrizio selected one: but the road, although very broad, was so -blocked with stragglers and transport that in the next half-hour the -corporal and Fabrizio had not advanced more than five hundred yards at -the most; they were told that this road led to Charleroi. As the village -clock struck eleven: -</p> - -<p> -"Let us cut across the fields again," said the corporal. The little -party was reduced now to three men, the corporal and Fabrizio. When they -had gone a quarter of a league from the high road: "I'm done," said one -of the soldiers. -</p> - -<p> -"Me, too!" said another. -</p> - -<p> -"That's good news! We're all in the same boat," said the corporal; "but -do what I tell you and you'll get through all right." His eye fell on -five or six trees marking the line of a little ditch in the middle of an -immense cornfield. "Make for the trees!" he told his men; "lie down," he -added when they had reached the trees, "and not a sound, remember. But -before you go to sleep, who's got any bread?" -</p> - -<p> -"I have," said one of the men. -</p> - -<p> -"Give it here," said the corporal in a tone of authority. He divided the -bread into five pieces and took the smallest himself. -</p> - -<p> -"A quarter of an hour before dawn," he said as he ate it, "you'll have -the enemy's cavalry on your backs. You've got to see you're not sabred. -A man by himself is done for with cavalry after him on these big plains, -but five can get away; keep in close touch with me, don't fire till -they're at close range, and to-morrow evening I'll undertake to get you -to Charleroi." The corporal roused his men an hour before daybreak and -made them recharge their muskets. The noise on the high road still -continued; it had gone on all night: it was like the sound of a torrent -heard from a long way off. -</p> - -<p> -"They're like a flock of sheep running away," said Fabrizio with a -guileless air to the corporal. -</p> - -<p> -"Will you shut your mouth, you young fool!" said the corporal, greatly -indignant. And the three soldiers who with Fabrizio composed his whole -force scowled angrily at our hero as though he had uttered blasphemy. He -had insulted the nation. -</p> - -<p> -"That is where their strength lies!" thought our hero. "I noticed it -before with the Viceroy at Milan; they are not running away, oh, no! -With these Frenchmen you must never speak the truth if it shocks their -vanity. But as for their savage scowls, they don't trouble me, and I -must let them understand as much." They kept on their way, always at an -interval of five hundred yards from the torrent of fugitives that -covered the high road. A league farther on, the corporal and his party -crossed a road running into the high road in which a number of soldiers -were lying. Fabrizio purchased a fairly good horse which cost him forty -francs, and among all the sabres that had been thrown down everywhere -made a careful choice of one that was long and straight. "Since I'm told -I've got to stick them," he thought, "this is the best." Thus equipped, -he put his horse into a gallop and soon overtook the corporal who had -gone on ahead. He sat up in his stirrups, took hold with his left hand -of the scabbard of his straight sabre, and said to the four Frenchmen: -</p> - -<p> -"Those people going along the high road look like a flock of sheep . . . -they are running like frightened sheep. . . ." -</p> - -<p> -In spite of his dwelling upon the word <i>sheep</i>, his companions had -completely forgotten that it had annoyed them an hour earlier. Here we -see one of the contrasts between the Italian character and the French; -the Frenchman is no doubt the happier of the two; he glides lightly over -the events of life and bears no malice afterwards. -</p> - -<p> -We shall not attempt to conceal the fact that Fabrizio was highly -pleased with himself after using the word <i>sheep</i>. They marched on, -talking about nothing in particular. After covering two leagues more, -the corporal, still greatly astonished to see no sign of the enemy's -cavalry, said to Fabrizio: -</p> - -<p> -"You are our cavalry; gallop over to that farm on the little hill; ask -the farmer if he will <i>sell</i> us breakfast: mind you tell him there are -only five of us. If he hesitates, put down five francs of your money in -advance; but don't be frightened, we'll take the dollar back from him -after we've eaten." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio looked at the corporal; he saw in his face an imperturbable -gravity and really an air of moral superiority; he obeyed. Everything -fell out as the commander in chief had anticipated; only, Fabrizio -insisted on their not taking back by force the five francs he had given -to the farmer. -</p> - -<p> -"The money is mine," he said to his friends; "I'm not paying for you, -I'm paying for the oats he's given my horse." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio's French accent was so bad that his companions thought they -detected in his words a note of superiority; they were keenly annoyed, -and from that moment a duel began to take shape in their minds for the -end of the day. They found him very different from themselves, which -shocked them; Fabrizio, on the contrary, was beginning to feel a warm -friendship towards them. -</p> - -<p> -They had marched without saying a word for a couple of hours when the -corporal, looking across at the high road, exclaimed in a transport of -joy: "There's the Regiment!" They were soon on the road; but, alas, -round the eagle were mustered not more than two hundred men. Fabrizio's -eye soon caught sight of the <i>vivandière</i>: she was going on foot, her -eyes were red and every now and again she burst into tears. Fabrizio -looked in vain for the little cart and Cocotte. -</p> - -<p> -"Stripped, ruined, robbed!" cried the <i>vivandière</i>, in answer to our -hero's, inquiring glance. He, without a word, got down from his horse, -took hold of the bridle and said to the <i>vivandière</i>: "Mount!" She did -not have to be told twice. -</p> - -<p> -"Shorten the stirrups for me," was her only remark. -</p> - -<p> -As soon as she was comfortably in the saddle she began to tell Fabrizio -all the disasters of the night. After a narrative of endless length but -eagerly drunk in by our hero who, to tell the truth, understood nothing -at all of what she said but had a tender feeling for the -<i>vivandière</i>, she went on: -</p> - -<p> -"And to think that they were Frenchmen who robbed me, beat me, destroyed -me. . . ." -</p> - -<p> -"What! It wasn't the enemy?" said Fabrizio with an air of innocence -which made his grave, pale face look charming. -</p> - -<p> -"What a fool you are, you poor boy!" said the <i>vivandière</i>, smiling -through her tears; "but you're very nice, for all that." -</p> - -<p> -"And such as he is, he brought down his Prussian properly," said -Corporal Aubry, who, in the general confusion round them, happened to be -on the other side of the horse on which the <i>cantinière</i> was sitting. -"But he's proud," the corporal went on. . . . Fabrizio made an impulsive -movement. "And what's your name?" asked the corporal; "for if there's a -report going in I should like to mention you." -</p> - -<p> -"I'm called Vasi," replied Fabrizio, with a curious expression on his -face. "Boulot, I mean," he added, quickly correcting himself. -</p> - -<p> -Boulot was the name of the late possessor of the marching orders which the -gaoler's wife at B-had given him; on his way from B—— he had -studied them carefully, for he was beginning to think a little and was -no longer so easily surprised. In addition to the marching orders of -Trooper Boulot, he had stowed away in a safe place the precious Italian -passport according to which he was entitled to the noble appellation of -Vasi, dealer in barometers. When the corporal had charged him with being -proud, it had been on the tip of his tongue to retort: "I proud! I, -Fabrizio Volterra, Marchesino del Dongo, who consent to go by the name -of a Vasi, dealer in barometers!" -</p> - -<p> -While he was making these reflexions and saying to himself: "I must not -forget that I am called Boulot, or look-out for the prison fate -threatens me with," the corporal and the <i>cantinière</i> had been -exchanging a few words with regard to him. -</p> - -<p> -"Don't say I'm inquisitive," said the <i>cantinière</i>, ceasing to -address him in the second person singular, "it's for your good I ask you -these questions. Who are you, now, really?" -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio did not reply at first. He was considering that never again -would he find more devoted friends to ask for advice, and he was in -urgent need of advice from someone. "We are coming into a fortified -place, the governor will want to know who I am, and ware prison if I let -him see by my answers that I know nobody in the 4th Hussar Regiment -whose uniform I am wearing!" In his capacity as an Austrian subject, -Fabrizio knew all about the importance to be attached to a passport. -Various members of his family, although noble and devout, although -supporters of the winning side, had been in trouble a score of times -over their passports; he was therefore not in the least put out by the -question which the <i>cantinière</i> had addressed to him. But as, before -answering, he had to think of the French words which would express his -meaning most clearly, the <i>cantinière</i>, pricked by a keen curiosity, -added, to induce him to speak: "Corporal Aubry and I are going to give -you some good advice." -</p> - -<p> -"I have no doubt you are," replied Fabrizio. "My name is Vasi and I come -from Genoa; my sister, who is famous for her beauty, is married to a -captain. As I am only seventeen, she made me come to her to let me see -something of France, and form my character a little; not finding her in -Paris, and knowing that she was with this army, I came on here. I've -searched for her everywhere and haven't found her. The soldiers, who -were puzzled by my accent, had me arrested. I had money then, I gave -some to the <i>gendarme</i>, who let me have some marching orders and a -uniform, and said to me: 'Get away with you, and swear you'll never -mention my name.' -</p> - -<p> -"What was he called?" asked the <i>cantinière</i>. -</p> - -<p> -"I've given my word," said Fabrizio. -</p> - -<p> -"He's right," put in the corporal, "the <i>gendarme</i> is a sweep, but our -friend ought not to give his name. And what is the other one called, -this captain, your sister's husband? If we knew his name, we could try -to find him." -</p> - -<p> -"Teulier, Captain in the 4th Hussars," replied our hero. -</p> - -<p> -"And so," said the corporal, with a certain subtlety, "from your foreign -accent the soldiers took you for a spy?" -</p> - -<p> -"That's the abominable word!" cried Fabrizio, his eyes blazing. "I who -love the Emperor so and the French people! And it was that insult that -annoyed me more than anything." -</p> - -<p> -"There's no insult about it; that's where you're wrong; the soldiers' -mistake was quite natural," replied Corporal Aubry gravely. -</p> - -<p> -And he went on to explain in the most pedantic manner that in the army -one must belong to some corps and wear a uniform, failing which it was -quite simple that people should take one for a spy. "The enemy sends us -any number of them; everybody's a traitor in this war." The scales fell -from Fabrizio's eyes; he realised for the first time that he had been in -the wrong in everything that had happened to him during the last two -months. -</p> - -<p> -"But make the boy tell us the whole story," said the <i>cantinière</i>, her -curiosity more and more excited. Fabrizio obeyed. When he had finished: -</p> - -<p> -"It comes to this," said the <i>cantinière</i>, speaking in a serious tone -to the corporal, "this child is not a soldier at all; we're going to -have a bloody war now that we've been beaten and betrayed. Why should he -go and get his bones broken free, gratis and for nothing?" -</p> - -<p> -"Especially," put in the corporal, "as he doesn't even know how to load -his musket, neither by numbers, nor in his own time. It was I put in the -shot that brought down the Prussian." -</p> - -<p> -"Besides, he lets everyone see the colour of his money," added the -<i>cantinière</i>; "he will be robbed of all he has as soon as he hasn't -got us to look after him." -</p> - -<p> -"The first cavalry non-com he comes across," said the corporal, "will -take it from him to pay for his drink, and perhaps they'll enlist him -for the enemy; they're all traitors. The first man he meets will order -him to follow, and he'll follow him; he would do better to join our -Regiment." -</p> - -<p> -"No, please, if you don't mind, corporal!" Fabrizio exclaimed with -animation; "I am more comfortable on a horse. And, besides, I don't know -how to load a musket, and you have seen that I can manage a horse." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio was extremely proud of this little speech. We need not report -the long discussion that followed between the corporal and the -<i>cantinière</i> as to his future destiny. Fabrizio noticed that in -discussing him these people repeated three or four times all the -circumstances of his story: the soldiers' suspicions, the <i>gendarme</i> -selling him marching orders and a uniform, the accident by which, the -day before, he had found himself forming part of the Marshal's escort, -the glimpse of the Emperor as he galloped past, the horse that had been -<i>scoffed</i> from him, and so on indefinitely. -</p> - -<p> -With feminine curiosity the <i>cantinière</i> kept harking back incessantly -to the way in which he had been dispossessed of the good horse which she -had made him buy. -</p> - -<p> -"You felt yourself seized by the feet, they lifted you gently over your -horse's tail, and sat you down on the ground!" "Why repeat so often," -Fabrizio said to himself, "what all three of us know perfectly well?" He -had not yet discovered that this is how, in France, the lower orders -proceed in quest of ideas. -</p> - -<p> -"How much money have you?" the <i>cantinière</i> asked him suddenly. -Fabrizio had no hesitation in answering. He was sure of the nobility of -the woman's nature; that is the fine side of France. -</p> - -<p> -"Altogether, I may have got left thirty napoleons in gold, and eight or -nine five-franc pieces." -</p> - -<p> -"In that case, you have a clear field!" exclaimed the <i>cantinière</i>. -"Get right away from this rout of an army; clear out, take the first -road with ruts on it that you come to on the right; keep your horse -moving and your back to the army. At the first opportunity, buy some -civilian clothes. When you've gone nine or ten leagues and there are no -more soldiers in sight, take the mail-coach, and go and rest for a week -and eat beefsteaks in some nice town. Never let anyone know that you've -been in the army, or the police will take you up as a deserter; and, -nice as you are, my boy, you're not quite clever enough yet to stand up -to the police. As soon as you've got civilian clothes on your back, tear -up your marching orders into a thousand pieces and go back to your real -name: say that you're Vasi. And where ought he to say he comes from?" -she asked the corporal. -</p> - -<p> -"From Cambrai on the Scheldt: it's a good town and quite small, if you -know what I mean. There's a cathedral there, and Fénelon." -</p> - -<p> -"That's right," said the <i>cantinière</i>. "Never let on to anyone that -you've been in battle, don't breathe a word about B——, or the -<i>gendarme</i> who sold you the marching orders. When you're ready to go -back to Paris, make first for Versailles, and pass the Paris barrier -from that side in a leisurely way, on foot, as if you were taking a -stroll. Sew up your napoleons inside your breeches, and remember, when -you have to pay for anything, shew only the exact sum that you want to -spend. What makes me sad is that they'll take you and rob you and strip -you of everything you have. And whatever will you do without money, you -that don't know how to look after yourself . . ." and so on. -</p> - -<p> -The good woman went on talking for some time still; the corporal -indicated his support by nodding his head, not being able to get a word -in himself. Suddenly the crowd that was packing the road first of all -doubled its pace, then, in the twinkling of an eye, crossed the little -ditch that bounded the road on the left and fled helter-skelter across -country. Cries of "The Cossacks! The Cossacks!" rose from every side. -</p> - -<p> -"Take back your horse!" the <i>cantinière</i> shouted. -</p> - -<p> -"God forbid!" said Fabrizio. "Gallop! Away with you! I give him to you. -Do you want something to buy another cart with? Half of what I have is -yours." -</p> - -<p> -"Take back your horse, I tell you!" cried the <i>cantinière</i> angrily; -and she prepared to dismount. Fabrizio drew his sabre. "Hold on tight!" he -shouted to her, and gave two or three strokes with the flat of his sabre -to the horse, which broke into a gallop and followed the fugitives. -</p> - -<p> -Our hero stood looking at the road; a moment ago, two or three thousand -people had been jostling along it, packed together like peasants at the -tail of a procession. After the shout of: "Cossacks!" he saw not a soul -on it; the fugitives had cast away shakoes, muskets, sabres, everything. -Fabrizio, quite bewildered, climbed up into a field on the right of the -road and twenty or thirty feet above it; he scanned the line of the road -in both directions, and the plain, but saw no trace of the Cossacks. -"Funny people, these French!" he said to himself. "Since I have got to -go to the right," he thought, "I may as well start off at once; it is -possible that these people have a reason for running away that I don't -know." He picked up a musket, saw that it was charged, shook up the -powder in the priming, cleaned the flint, then chose a cartridge-pouch -that was well filled and looked round him again in all directions; he -was absolutely alone in the middle of this plain which just now had been -so crowded with people. In the far distance he could see the fugitives -who were beginning to disappear behind the trees, and were still -running. "That's a very odd thing," he said to himself, and remembering -the tactics employed by the corporal the night before, he went and sat -down in the middle of a field of corn. He did not go farther because he -was anxious to see again his good friends the <i>cantinière</i> and -Corporal Aubry. -</p> - -<p> -In this cornfield, he made the discovery that he had no more than -eighteen napoleons, instead of thirty as he had supposed; but he still -had some small diamonds which he had stowed away in the lining of the -hussar's boots, before dawn, in the gaoler's wife's room at -B——. He concealed his napoleons as best he could, pondering -deeply the while on the sudden disappearance of the others. "Is that a -bad omen for me?" he asked himself. What distressed him most was that he -had not asked Corporal Aubry the question: "Have I really taken part in -a battle?" It seemed to him that he had, and his happiness would have -known no bounds could he have been certain of this. -</p> - -<p> -"But even if I have," he said to himself, "I took part in it bearing the -name of a prisoner, I had a prisoner's marching orders in my pocket, -and, worse still, his coat on my back! That is the fatal threat to my -future: what would the Priore Blanès say to it? And that wretched -Boulot died in prison. It is all of the most sinister augury; fate will -lead me to prison." Fabrizio would have given anything in the world to -know whether Trooper Boulot had really been guilty; when he searched his -memory, he seemed to recollect that the gaoler's wife had told him that -the hussar had been taken up not only for the theft of silver plate but -also for stealing a cow from a peasant and nearly beating the peasant to -death: Fabrizio had no doubt that he himself would be sent to prison -some day for a crime which would bear some relation to that of Trooper -Boulot. He thought of his friend the <i>parroco</i> Blanès: what would he -not have given for an opportunity of consulting him! Then he remembered -that he had not written to his aunt since leaving Paris. "Poor Gina!" he -said to himself. And tears stood in his eyes, when suddenly he heard a -slight sound quite close to him: a soldier was feeding three horses on -the standing corn; he had taken the bits out of their mouths and they -seemed half dead with hunger; he was holding them by the snaffle. -Fabrizio got up like a partridge; the soldier seemed frightened. Our -hero noticed this, and yielded to the pleasure of playing the hussar for -a moment. -</p> - -<p> -"One of those horses belongs to me, f—— you, but I don't mind -giving you five francs for the trouble you've taken in bringing it here." -</p> - -<p> -"What are you playing at?" said the soldier. Fabrizio took aim at him -from a distance of six paces. -</p> - -<p> -"Let go the horse, or I'll blow your head off." -</p> - -<p> -The soldier had his musket slung on his back; he reached over his -shoulder to seize it. -</p> - -<p> -"If you move an inch, you're a dead man!" cried Fabrizio, rushing upon -him. -</p> - -<p> -"All right, give me the five francs and take one of the horses," said -the embarrassed soldier, after casting a rueful glance at the high road, -on which there was absolutely no one to be seen. Fabrizio, keeping his -musket raised in his left hand, with the right flung him three five -franc pieces. -</p> - -<p> -"Dismount, or you're a dead man. Bridle the black, and go farther off -with the other two. . . . If you move, I fire." -</p> - -<p> -The soldier looked savage but obeyed. Fabrizio went up to the horse and -passed the rein over his left arm, without losing sight of the soldier, -who was moving slowly away; when our hero saw that he had gone fifty -paces, he jumped nimbly on to the horse. He had barely mounted and was -feeling with his foot for the off stirrup when he heard a bullet whistle -past close to his head; it was the soldier who had fired at him. -Fabrizio, beside himself with rage, started galloping after the soldier -who ran off as fast as his legs could carry him, and presently Fabrizio -saw him mount one of his two horses and gallop away. "Good, he's out of -range now," he said to himself. The horse he had just bought was a -magnificent animal, but seemed half starved. Fabrizio returned to the -high road, where there was still not a living soul; he crossed it and -put his horse into a trot to reach a little fold in the ground on the -left, where he hoped to find the <i>cantinière</i>; but when he was at the -top of the little rise he could see nothing save, more than a league -away, a few scattered troops. "It is written that I shall not see her -again," he said to himself with a sigh, "the good, brave woman!" He came -to a farm which he had seen in the distance on the right of the road. -Without dismounting, and after paying for it in advance, he made the -farmer produce some oats for his poor horse, which was so famished that -it began to gnaw the manger. An hour later, Fabrizio was trotting along -the high road, still in the hope of meeting the <i>cantinière</i>, or at -any rate Corporal Aubry. Moving all the time and keeping a look-out all -round him, he came to a marshy river crossed by a fairly narrow wooden -bridge. Between him and the bridge, on the right of the road, was a -solitary house bearing the sign of the White Horse. "There I shall get -some dinner," thought Fabrizio. A cavalry officer with his arm in a -sling was guarding the approach to the bridge; he was on horseback and -looked very melancholy; ten paces away from him, three dismounted -troopers were filling their pipes. -</p> - -<p> -"There are some people," Fabrizio said to himself, "who look to me very -much as though they would like to buy my horse for even less than he -cost me." The wounded officer and the three men on foot watched him -approach and seemed to be waiting for him. "It would be better not to -cross by this bridge, but to follow the river bank to the right; that -was the way the <i>cantinière</i> advised me to take to get clear of -difficulties. . . . Yes," thought our hero, "but if I take to my heels -now, to-morrow I shall be thoroughly ashamed of myself; besides, my -horse has good legs, the officer's is probably tired; if he tries to -make me dismount I shall gallop." Reasoning thus with himself, Fabrizio -pulled up his horse and moved forward at the slowest possible pace. -</p> - -<p> -"Advance, you, hussar!" the officer called to him with an air of -authority. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio went on a few paces and then halted. -</p> - -<p> -"Do you want to take my horse?" he shouted. -</p> - -<p> -"Not in the least; advance." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio examined the officer; he had a white moustache, and looked the -best fellow in the world; the handkerchief that held up his left arm was -drenched with blood, and his right hand also was bound up in a piece of -bloodstained linen. "It is the men on foot who are going to snatch my -bridle," thought Fabrizio; but, on looking at them from nearer, he saw -that they too were wounded. -</p> - -<p> -"On your honour as a soldier," said the officer, who wore the epaulettes -of a colonel, "stay here on picket, and tell all the dragoons, chasseurs -and hussars that you see that Colonel Le Baron is in the inn over there, -and that I order them to come and report to me." The old colonel had the -air of a man broken by suffering; with his first words he had made a -conquest of our hero, who replied with great good sense: -</p> - -<p> -"I am very young, sir, to make them listen to me; I ought to have a -written order from you." -</p> - -<p> -"He is right," said the colonel, studying him closely; "make out the -order, La Rose, you've got the use of your right hand." -</p> - -<p> -Without saying a word, La Rose took from his pocket a little parchment -book, wrote a few lines, and, tearing out a leaf, handed it to Fabrizio; -the colonel repeated the order to him, adding that after two hours on -duty he would be relieved, as was right and proper, by one of the three -wounded troopers he had with him. So saying he went into the inn with -his men. Fabrizio watched them go and sat without moving at the end of -his wooden bridge, so deeply impressed had he been by the sombre, silent -grief of these three persons. "One would think they were under a spell," -he said to himself. At length he unfolded the paper and read the order, -which ran as follows: -</p> - -<blockquote><p> -"Colonel Le Baron, 6th Dragoons, Commanding the 2nd Brigade of the 1st -Cavalry Division of the XIV Corps, orders all cavalrymen, dragoons, -chasseurs and hussars, on no account to cross the bridge, and to report -to him at the White Horse Inn, by the bridge, which is his headquarters. -</p> - -<p> -"Headquarters, by the bridge of La Sainte, June 19, 1815. -</p> - -<p><span style="margin-left: 5em;"> "For Colonel Le Baron, wounded in the right arm,</span><br /> -<span style="margin-left: 7em;">and by his orders,</span></p> - -<p style="margin-left: 60%;">"LA ROSE, <i>Serjeant</i>."</p> -</blockquote> - -<p> -Fabrizio had been on guard at the bridge for barely half an hour when he -saw six chasseurs approaching him mounted, and three on foot; he -communicated the colonel's order to them. "We're coming back," said four -of the mounted men, and crossed the bridge at a fast trot. Fabrizio then -spoke to the other two. During the discussion, which grew heated, the -three men on foot crossed the bridge. Finally, one of the two mounted -troopers who had stayed behind asked to see the order again, and carried -it off, with: -</p> - -<p> -"I am taking it to the others, who will come back without fail; wait for -them here." And off he went at a gallop; his companion followed him. All -this had happened in the twinkling of an eye. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio was furious, and called to one of the wounded soldiers, who -appeared at a window of the White Horse. This soldier, on whose arm -Fabrizio saw the stripes of a cavalry serjeant, came down and shouted to -him: "Draw your sabre, man, you're on picket." Fabrizio obeyed, then -said: "They've carried off the order." -</p> - -<p> -"They're out of hand after yesterday's affair," replied the other in a -melancholy tone. "I'll let you have one of my pistols; if they force -past you again, fire it in the air; I shall come, or the colonel himself -will appear." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio had not failed to observe the serjeant's start of surprise on -hearing of the theft of the order. He realised that it was a personal -insult to himself, and promised himself that he would not allow such a -trick to be played on him again. -</p> - -<p> -Armed with the serjeant's horse-pistol, Fabrizio had proudly resumed his -guard when he saw coming towards him seven hussars, mounted. He had -taken up a position that barred the bridge; he read them the colonel's -order, which seemed greatly to annoy them; the most venturesome of them -tried to pass. Fabrizio, following the wise counsel of his friend the -<i>vivandière</i>, who, the morning before, had told him that he must -thrust and not slash, lowered the point of his long, straight sabre and -made as though to stab with it the man who was trying to pass him. -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, so he wants to kill us, the baby!" cried the hussars, "as if we -hadn't been killed quite enough yesterday!" They all drew their sabres -at once and fell on Fabrizio: he gave himself up for dead; but he -thought of the serjeant's surprise, and was not anxious to earn his -contempt again. Drawing back on to his bridge, he tried to reach them -with his sabre-point. He looked so absurd when he tried to wield this -huge, straight heavy-dragoon sabre, a great deal too heavy for him, that -the hussars soon saw with what sort of soldier they had to deal; they -then endeavoured not to wound him but to slash his clothing. In this way -Fabrizio received three or four slight sabre-cuts on his arms. For his -own part, still faithful to the <i>cantinière's</i> precept, he kept -thrusting the point of his sabre at them with all his might. As ill luck -would have it, one of these thrusts wounded a hussar in the hand: highly -indignant at being touched by so raw a recruit, he replied with a -downward thrust which caught Fabrizio in the upper part of the thigh. -What made this blow effective was that our hero's horse, so far from -avoiding the fray, seemed to take pleasure in it and to be flinging -himself on the assailants. These, seeing Fabrizio's blood streaming -along his right arm, were afraid that they might have carried the game -too far, and, pushing him against the left hand parapet of the bridge, -crossed at a gallop. As soon as Fabrizio had a moment to himself he -fired his pistol in the air to warn the colonel. -</p> - -<p> -Four mounted hussars and two on foot, of the same regiment as the -others, were coming towards the bridge and were still two hundred yards -away from it when the pistol went off. They had been paying close -attention to what was happening on the bridge, and, imagining that -Fabrizio had fired at their comrades, the four mounted men galloped upon -him with raised sabres: it was a regular cavalry charge. Colonel Le -Baron, summoned by the pistol-shot, opened the door of the inn and -rushed on to the bridge just as the galloping hussars reached it, and -himself gave them the order to halt. -</p> - -<p> -"There's no colonel here now!" cried one of them, and pressed on his -horse. The colonel in exasperation broke off the reprimand he was giving -them, and with his wounded right hand seized the rein of this horse on -the off side. -</p> - -<p> -"Halt! You bad soldier," he said to the hussar; "I know you, you're in -Captain Henriot's squadron." -</p> - -<p> -"Very well, then! The captain can give me the order himself! Captain -Henriot was killed yesterday," he added with a snigger, "and you can go -and f—— yourself!" -</p> - -<p> -So saying, he tried to force a passage, and pushed the old colonel who -fell in a sitting position on the roadway of the bridge. Fabrizio, who -was a couple of yards farther along upon the bridge, but facing the inn, -pressed his horse, and, while the breast-piece of the assailant's -harness threw down the old colonel who never let go the off rein, -Fabrizio, indignant, bore down upon the hussar with a driving thrust. -Fortunately the hussar's horse, feeling itself pulled towards the ground -by the rein which the colonel still held, made a movement sideways, with -the result that the long blade of Fabrizio's heavy-cavalry sabre slid -along the hussar's jacket, and the whole length of it passed beneath his -eyes. Furious, the hussar turned round and, using all his strength, -dealt Fabrizio a blow which cut his sleeve and went deep into his arm: -our hero fell. -</p> - -<p> -One of the dismounted hussars, seeing the two defenders of the bridge on -the ground, seized the opportunity, jumped on to Fabrizio's horse and -tried to make off with it by starting at a gallop across the bridge. -</p> - -<p> -The serjeant, as he hurried from the inn, had seen his colonel fall, and -supposed him to be seriously wounded. He ran after Fabrizio's horse and -plunged the point of his sabre into the thief's entrails; he fell. The -hussars, seeing no one now on the bridge but the serjeant, who was on -foot, crossed at a gallop and rapidly disappeared. The one on foot -bolted into the fields. -</p> - -<p> -The serjeant came up to the wounded men. Fabrizio was already on his -feet; he was not in great pain, but was bleeding profusely. The colonel -got up more slowly; he was quite stunned by his fall, but had received -no injury. "I feel nothing," he said to the serjeant, "except the old -wound in my hand." -</p> - -<p> -The hussar whom the serjeant had wounded was dying. -</p> - -<p> -"The devil take him!" exclaimed the colonel. "But," he said to the -serjeant and the two troopers who came running out, "look after this -young man whose life I have risked, most improperly. I shall stay on the -bridge myself and try to stop these madmen. Take the young man to the -inn and tie up his arm. Use one of my shirts." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h4><a id="CHAPTER_FIVE">CHAPTER FIVE</a></h4> - -<p> -The whole of this adventure had not lasted a minute. Fabrizio's wounds -were nothing; they tied up his arm with bandages torn from the colonel's -shirt. They wanted to make up a bed for him upstairs in the inn. -</p> - -<p> -"But while I am tucked up here on the first floor," said Fabrizio to the -serjeant, "my horse, who is down in the stable, will get bored with -being left alone and will go off with another master." -</p> - -<p> -"Not bad for a conscript!" said the serjeant. And they deposited -Fabrizio on a litter of clean straw in the same stall as his horse. -</p> - -<p> -Then, as he was feeling very weak, the serjeant brought him a bowl of -mulled wine and talked to him for a little. Several compliments included -in this conversation carried our hero to the seventh heaven. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio did not wake until dawn on the following day; the horses were -neighing continuously and making a frightful din; the stable was filled -with smoke. At first Fabrizio could make nothing of all this noise, and -did not even know where he was: finally, half-stifled by the smoke, it -occurred to him that the house was on fire; in the twinkling of an eye -he was out of the stable and in the saddle. He raised his head; smoke -was belching violently from the two windows over the stable; and the -roof was covered by a black smoke which rose curling into the air. A -hundred fugitives had arrived during the night at the White Horse; they -were all shouting and swearing. The five or six whom Fabrizio could see -close at hand seemed to him to be completely drunk; one of them tried to -stop him and called out to him: "Where are you taking my horse?" -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>WAR</i></h5> - -<p> -When Fabrizio had gone a quarter of a league, he turned his head. There -was no one following him; the building was in flames. Fabrizio caught -sight of the bridge; he remembered his wound, and felt his arm -compressed by bandages and very hot. "And the old colonel, what has -become of him? He gave his shirt to tie up my arm." Our hero was this -morning the coolest man in the world; the amount of blood he had shed -had liberated him from all the romantic element in his character. -</p> - -<p> -"To the right!" he said to himself, "and no time to lose." He began -quietly following the course of the river which, after passing under the -bridge, ran to the right of the road. He remembered the good -<i>cantinière's</i> advice. "What friendship!" he said to himself, "what an -open nature!" -</p> - -<p> -After riding for an hour he felt very weak. "Oho! Am I going to faint?" -he wondered. "If I faint, someone will steal my horse, and my clothes, -perhaps, and my money and jewels with them." He had no longer the -strength to hold the reins, and was trying to keep his balance in the -saddle when a peasant who was digging in a field by the side of the high -road noticed his pallor and came up to offer him a glass of beer and -some bread. -</p> - -<p> -"When I saw you look so pale, I thought you must be one of the wounded -from the great battle," the peasant told him. Never did help come more -opportunely. As Fabrizio was munching the piece of bread his eyes began -to hurt him when he looked straight ahead. When he felt a little better -he thanked the man. "And where am I?" he asked. The peasant told him -that three quarters of a league farther on he would come to the township -of Zonders, where he would be very well looked after. Fabrizio reached -the town, not knowing quite what he was doing and thinking only at every -step of not falling off his horse. He saw a big door standing open; he -entered. It was the Woolcomb Inn. At once there ran out to him the good -lady of the house, an enormous woman; she called for help in a voice -that throbbed with pity. Two girls came and helped Fabrizio to dismount; -no sooner had his feet touched the ground than he fainted completely. A -surgeon was fetched, who bled him. For the rest of that day and the days -that followed Fabrizio scarcely knew what was being done to him; he -slept almost without interruption. -</p> - -<p> -The sabre wound in his thigh threatened to form a serious abscess. When -his mind was clear again, he asked them to look after his horse, and -kept on repeating that he would pay them well, which shocked the good -hostess and her daughters. For a fortnight he was admirably looked after -and he was beginning to be himself again when he noticed one evening -that his hostesses seemed greatly upset. Presently a German officer came -into his room: in answering his questions they used a language which -Fabrizio did not understand, but he could see that they were speaking -about him; he pretended to be asleep. A little later, when he thought -that the officer must have gone, he called his hostesses. -</p> - -<p> -"That officer came to put my name on a list, and make me a prisoner, -didn't he?" The landlady assented with tears in her eyes. -</p> - -<p> -"Very well, there is money in my dolman!" he cried, sitting up in bed; -"buy me some civilian clothes and to-night I shall go away on my horse. -You have already saved my life once by taking me in just as I was going -to drop down dead in the street; save it again by giving me the means of -going back to my mother." -</p> - -<p> -At this point the landlady's daughters began to dissolve in tears; they -trembled for Fabrizio; and, as they barely understood French, they came -to his bedside to question him. They talked with their mother in -Flemish; but at every moment pitying eyes were turned on our hero; he -thought he could make out that his escape might compromise them -seriously, but that they would gladly incur the risk. A Jew in the town -supplied a complete outfit, but when he brought it to the inn about ten -o'clock that night, the girls saw, on comparing it with Fabrizio's -dolman, that it would require an endless amount of alteration. At once -they set to work; there was no time to lose. Fabrizio showed them where -several napoleons were hidden in his uniform, and begged his hostesses -to stitch them into the new garments. With these had come a fine pair of -new boots. Fabrizio had no hesitation in asking these kind girls to slit -open the hussar's boots at the place which he shewed them, and they hid -the little diamonds in the lining of the new pair. -</p> - -<p> -One curious result of his loss of blood and the weakness that followed -from it was that Fabrizio had almost completely forgotten his French; he -used Italian to address his hostesses, who themselves spoke a Flemish -dialect, so that their conversation had to be conducted almost entirely -in signs. When the girls, who for that matter were entirely -disinterested, saw the diamonds, their enthusiasm for Fabrizio knew no -bounds; they imagined him to be a prince in disguise. Aniken, the -younger and less sophisticated, kissed him without ceremony. Fabrizio, -for his part, found them charming, and towards midnight, when the -surgeon had allowed him a little wine in view of the journey he had to -take, he felt almost inclined not to go. "Where could I be better off -than here?" he asked himself. However, about two o'clock in the morning, -he rose and dressed. As he was leaving the room, his good hostess -informed him that his horse had been taken by the officer who had come -to search the house that afternoon. -</p> - -<p> -"Ah! The swine!" cried Fabrizio with an oath, "robbing a wounded man!" -He was not enough of a philosopher, this young Italian, to bear in mind -the price at which he himself had acquired the horse. -</p> - -<p> -Aniken told him with tears that they had hired a horse for him. She -would have liked him not to go. Their farewells were tender. Two big -lads, cousins of the good landlady, helped Fabrizio into the saddle: -during the journey they supported him on his horse, while a third, who -walked a few hundred yards in advance of the little convoy, searched the -roads for any suspicious patrol. After going for a couple of hours, they -stopped at the house of a cousin of the landlady of the Woolcomb. In -spite of anything that Fabrizio might say, the young men who accompanied -him refused absolutely to leave him; they claimed that they knew better -than anyone the hidden paths through the woods. -</p> - -<p> -"But to-morrow morning, when my flight becomes known, and they don't see -you anywhere in the town, your absence will make things awkward for -you," said Fabrizio. -</p> - -<p> -They proceeded on their way. Fortunately, when day broke at last, the -plain was covered by a thick fog. About eight o'clock in the morning -they came in sight of a little town. One of the young men went on ahead -to see if the post-horses there had been stolen. The postmaster had had -time to make them vanish and to raise a team of wretched screws with -which he had filled his stables. Grooms were sent to find a pair of -horses in the marshes where they were hidden, and three hours later -Fabrizio climbed into a little cabriolet which was quite dilapidated but -had harnessed to it a pair of good post-horses. He had regained his -strength. The moment of parting with the young men, his hostess's -cousins, was pathetic in the extreme; on no account, whatever friendly -pretext Fabrizio might find, would they consent to take any money. -</p> - -<p> -"In your condition, sir, you need it more than we do," was the -invariable reply of these worthy young fellows. Finally they set off -with letters in which Fabrizio, somewhat emboldened by the agitation of -the journey, had tried to convey to his hostesses all that he felt for -them. Fabrizio wrote with tears in his eyes, and there was certainly -love in the letter addressed to little Aniken. -</p> - -<p> -In the rest of the journey there was nothing out of the common. He -reached Amiens in great pain from the cut he had received in his thigh; -it had not occurred to the country doctor to lance the wound, and in -spite of the bleedings an abscess had formed. During the fortnight that -Fabrizio spent in the inn at Amiens, kept by an obsequious and -avaricious family, the Allies were invading France, and Fabrizio became -another man, so many and profound were his reflexions on the things that -had happened to him. He had remained a child upon one point only: what -he had seen, was it a battle; and, if so, was that battle Waterloo? For -the first time in his life he found pleasure in reading; he was always -hoping to find in the newspapers, or in the published accounts of the -battle, some description which would enable him to identify the ground -he had covered with Marshal Ney's escort, and afterwards with the other -general. During his stay at Amiens he wrote almost every day to his good -friends at the Woolcomb. As soon as his wound was healed, he came to -Paris. He found at his former hotel a score of letters from his mother -and aunt, who implored him to return home as soon as possible. The last -letter from Contessa Pietranera had a certain enigmatic tone which made -him extremely uneasy; this letter destroyed all his tender fancies. His -was a character to which a single word was enough to make him readily -anticipate the greatest misfortunes; his imagination then stepped in and -depicted these misfortunes to him with the most horrible details. -</p> - -<p> -"Take care never to sign the letters you write to tell us what you are -doing," the Contessa warned him. "On your return you must on no account -come straight to the Lake of Como. Stop at Lugano, on Swiss soil." He -was to arrive in this little town under the name of Cavi; he would find -at the principal inn the Contessa's footman, who would tell him what to -do. His aunt ended her letter as follows: "Take every possible -precaution to keep your mad escapade secret, and above all do not carry -on you any printed or written document; in Switzerland you will be -surrounded by the friends of Santa Margherita.<a name="FNanchor_8_1" id="FNanchor_8_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_1" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> If I have enough -money," the Contessa told him, "I shall send someone to Geneva, to the -Hôtel des Balances, and you shall have particulars which I cannot put -in writing but which you ought to know before coming here. But, in -heaven's name, not a day longer in Paris; you will be recognised there -by our spies." Fabrizio's imagination set to work to construct the -wildest hypotheses, and he was incapable of any other pleasure save that -of trying to guess what the strange information could be that his aunt -had to give him. Twice on his passage through France he was arrested, -but managed to get away; he was indebted, for these unpleasantnesses, to -his Italian passport and to that strange description of him as a dealer -in barometers, which hardly seemed to tally with his youthful face and -the arm which he carried in a sling. -</p> - -<p> -Finally, at Geneva, he found a man in the Contessa's service, who gave -him a message from her to the effect that he, Fabrizio, had been -reported to the police at Milan as having gone abroad to convey to -Napoleon certain proposals drafted by a vast conspiracy organised in the -former Kingdom of Italy. If this had not been the object of his journey, -the report went on, why should he have gone under an assumed name? His -mother was endeavouring to establish the truth, as follows: -</p> - -<p> -1st, that he had never gone beyond Switzerland. -</p> - -<p> -2ndly, that he had left the castle suddenly after a quarrel with his -elder brother. -</p> - -<p> -On hearing this story Fabrizio felt a thrill of pride. "I am supposed to -have been a sort of ambassador to Napoleon," he said to himself; "I -should have had the honour of speaking to that great man: would to God I -had!" He recalled that his ancestor seven generations back, a grandson -of him who came to Milan in the train of the Sforza, had had the honour -of having his head cut off by the Duke's enemies, who surprised him as -he was on his way to Switzerland to convey certain proposals to the Free -Cantons and to raise troops there. He saw in his mind's eye the print -that illustrated this exploit in the genealogy of the family. Fabrizio, -questioning the servant, found him shocked by a detail which finally he -allowed to escape him, despite the express order, several times repeated -to him by the Contessa, not to reveal it. It was Ascanio, his elder -brother, who had reported him to the Milan police. This cruel news -almost drove our hero out of his mind. From Geneva, in order to go to -Italy, one must pass through Lausanne; he insisted on setting off at -once on foot, and thus covering ten or twelve leagues, although the mail -from Geneva to Lausanne was starting in two hours' time. Before leaving -Geneva he picked a quarrel in one of the melancholy cafés of the place -with a young man who, he said, stared at him in a singular fashion. -Which was perfectly true: the young Genevan, phlegmatic, rational and -interested only in money, thought him mad; Fabrizio on coming in had -glared furiously in all directions, then had upset the cup of coffee -that was brought to him over his breeches. In this quarrel Fabrizio's -first movement was quite of the sixteenth century: instead of proposing -a duel to the young Genevan, he drew his dagger and rushed upon him to -stab him with it. In this moment of passion, Fabrizio forgot everything -he had ever learned of the laws of honour and reverted to instinct, or, -more properly speaking, to the memories of his earliest childhood. -</p> - -<p> -The confidential agent whom he found at Lugano increased his fury by -furnishing him with fresh details. As Fabrizio was beloved at Grianta, -no one there had mentioned his name, and, but for his brother's kind -intervention, everyone would have pretended to believe that he was at -Milan, and the attention of the police in that city would not have been -drawn to his absence. -</p> - -<p> -"I expect the <i>doganieri</i> have a description of you," his aunt's envoy -hinted, "and if we keep to the main road, when you come to the frontier -of the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, you will be arrested." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio and his party were familiar with every footpath over the -mountain that divides Lugano from the Lake of Como; they disguised -themselves as hunters, that is to say as poachers, and as they were three -in number and had a fairly resolute bearing, the <i>doganieri</i> whom -they passed gave them a greeting and nothing more. Fabrizio arranged -things so as not to arrive at the castle until nearly midnight; at that -hour his father and all the powdered footmen had long been in bed. He -climbed down without difficulty into the deep moat and entered the -castle by the window of a cellar: it was there that his mother and aunt -were waiting for him; presently his sisters came running in. Transports -of affection alternated with tears for some time, and they had scarcely -begun to talk reasonably when the first light of dawn came to warn these -people who thought themselves so unfortunate that time was flying. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE CONSTABLES</i></h5> - -<p> -"I hope your brother won't have any suspicion of your being here," -Signora Pietranera said to him; "I have scarcely spoken to him since -that fine escapade of his, and his vanity has done me the honour of -taking offence. This evening, at supper, I condescended to say a few -words to him; I had to find some excuse to hide my frantic joy, which -might have made him suspicious. Then, when I noticed that he was quite -proud of this sham reconciliation, I took advantage of his happiness to -make him drink a great deal too much, and I am certain he will never -have thought of taking any steps to carry on his profession of spying." -</p> - -<p> -"We shall have to hide our hussar in your room," said the Marchesa, "he -can't leave at once; we haven't sufficient command of ourselves at -present to make plans, and we shall have to think out the best way of -putting those terrible Milan police off the track." -</p> - -<p> -This plan was adopted; but the Marchese and his elder son noticed, next -day, that the Marchesa was constantly in her sister-in-law's room. We -shall not stop to depict the transports of affection and joy which -continued, all that day, to convulse these happy creatures. Italian -hearts are, far more than ours in France, tormented by the suspicions -and wild ideas which a burning imagination presents to them, but on the -other hand their joys are far more intense and more lasting. On the day -in question the Contessa and Marchesa were literally out of their minds; -Fabrizio was obliged to begin all his stories over again; finally they -decided to go away and conceal their general joy at Milan, so difficult -did it appear to be to keep it hidden any longer from the scrutiny of -the Marchese and his son Ascanio. -</p> - -<p> -They took the ordinary boat of the household to go to Como; to have -acted otherwise would have aroused endless suspicions. But on arriving -at the harbour of Como the Marchesa remembered that she had left behind -at Grianta papers of the greatest importance: she hastened to send the -boatmen back for them, and so these men could give no account of how the -two ladies were spending their time at Como. No sooner had they arrived -in the town than they selected haphazard one of the carriages that ply -for hire near that tall mediæval tower which rises above the Milan -gate. They started off at once, without giving the coachman time to -speak to anyone. A quarter of a league from the town they found a young -sportsman of their acquaintance who, out of courtesy to them as they had -no man with them, kindly consented to act as their escort as far as the -gates of Milan, whither he was bound for the shooting. All went well, -and the ladies were conversing in the most joyous way with the young -traveller when, at a bend which the road makes to pass the charming hill -and wood of San Giovanni, three constables in plain clothes sprang at -the horses' heads. "Ah! My husband has betrayed us," cried the Marchesa, -and fainted away. A serjeant who had remained a little way behind came -staggering up to the carriage and said, in a voice that reeked of the -<i>trattoria</i>: -</p> - -<p> -"I am sorry, sir, but I must do my duty and arrest you, General Fabio -Conti." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio thought that the serjeant was making a joke at his expense when -he addressed him as "General." "You shall pay for this!" he said to -himself. He examined the men in plain clothes and watched for a -favourable moment to jump down from the carriage and dash across the -fields. -</p> - -<p> -The Contessa smiled—a smile of despair, I fancy—then said to -the serjeant: -</p> - -<p> -"But, my dear serjeant, is it this boy of sixteen that you take for -General Conti?" -</p> - -<p> -"Aren't you the General's daughter?" asked the serjeant. -</p> - -<p> -"Look at my father," said the Contessa, pointing to Fabrizio. The -constables went into fits of laughter. -</p> - -<p> -"Show me your passports and don't argue the point," said the serjeant, -stung by the general mirth. -</p> - -<p> -"These ladies never take passports to go to Milan," said the coachman -with a calm and philosophical air: "they are coming from their castle of -Grianta. This lady is the Signora Contessa Pietranera; the other is the -Signora Marchesa del Dongo." -</p> - -<p> -The serjeant, completely disconcerted, went forward to the horses' heads -and there took counsel with his men. The conference had lasted for fully -five minutes when the Contessa asked if the gentlemen would kindly allow -the carriage to be moved forward a few yards and stopped in the shade; -the heat was overpowering, though it was only eleven o'clock in the -morning. Fabrizio, who was looking out most attentively in all -directions, seeking a way of escape, saw coming out of a little path -through the fields and on to the high road a girl of fourteen or -fifteen, who was crying timidly into her handkerchief. She came forward -walking between two constables in uniform, and, three paces behind her, -also between constables, stalked a tall, lean man who assumed an air of -dignity, like a Prefect following a procession. -</p> - -<p> -"Where did you find them?" asked the serjeant, for the moment completely -drunk. -</p> - -<p> -"Running away across the fields, with not a sign of a passport about -them." -</p> - -<p> -The serjeant appeared to lose his head altogether; he had before him -five prisoners, instead of the two that he was expected to have. He went -a little way off, leaving only one man to guard the male prisoner who -put on the air of majesty, and another to keep the horses from moving. -</p> - -<p> -"Wait," said the Contessa to Fabrizio, who had already jumped out of the -carriage. "Everything will be settled in a minute." -</p> - -<p> -They heard a constable exclaim: "What does it matter! If they have no -passports, they're fair game whoever they are." The serjeant seemed not -quite so certain; the name of Contessa Pietranera made him a little -uneasy: he had known the general, and had not heard of his death. "The -General is not the man to let it pass, if I arrest his wife without good -reason," he said to himself. -</p> - -<p> -During this deliberation, which was prolonged, the Contessa had entered -into conversation with the girl, who was standing on the road, and in -the dust by the side of the carriage; she had been struck by her beauty. -</p> - -<p> -"The sun will be bad for you, Signorina. This gallant soldier," she went -on, addressing the constable who was posted at the horses' heads, "will -surely allow you to get into the carriage." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio, who was wandering round the vehicle, came up to help the girl -to get in. Her foot was already on the step, her arm supported by -Fabrizio, when the imposing man, who was six yards behind the carriage, -called out in a voice magnified by the desire to preserve his dignity: -</p> - -<p> -"Stay in the road; don't get into a carriage that does not belong to -you!" -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio had not heard this order; the girl, instead of climbing into -the carriage, tried to get down again, and, as Fabrizio continued to -hold her up, fell into his arms. He smiled; she blushed a deep crimson; -they stood for a moment looking at one another after the girl had -disengaged herself from his arms. -</p> - -<p> -"She would be a charming prison companion," Fabrizio said to himself. -"What profound thought lies behind that brow! She would know how to -love." -</p> - -<p> -The serjeant came up to them with an air of authority: "Which of these -ladies is named Clelia Conti?" -</p> - -<p> -"I am," said the girl. -</p> - -<p> -"And I," cried the elderly man, "am General Fabio Conti, Chamberlain to -H.S.H. the Prince of Parma; I consider it most irregular that a man in -my position should be hunted down like a thief." -</p> - -<p> -"The day before yesterday, when you embarked at the harbour of Como, did -you not tell the police inspector who asked for your passport to go -away? Very well, his orders to-day are that you are not to go away." -</p> - -<p> -"I had already pushed off my boat, I was in a hurry, there was a storm -threatening, a man not in uniform shouted to me from the quay to put -back into harbour, I told him my name and went on." -</p> - -<p> -"And this morning you escaped from Como." -</p> - -<p> -"A man like myself does not take a passport when he goes from Milan to -visit the lake. This morning, at Como, I was told that I should be -arrested at the gate. I left the town on foot with my daughter; I hoped -to find on the road some carriage that would take me to Milan, where the -first thing I shall do will certainly be to call on the General -Commanding the Province and lodge a complaint." -</p> - -<p> -A heavy weight seemed to have been lifted from the serjeant's mind. -</p> - -<p> -"Very well, General, you are under arrest and I shall take you to Milan. -And you, who are you?" he said to Fabrizio. -</p> - -<p> -"My son," replied the Contessa; "Ascanio, son of the Divisional General -Pietranera." -</p> - -<p> -"Without a passport, Signora Contessa?" said the serjeant, in a much -gentler tone. -</p> - -<p> -"At his age, he has never had one; he never travels alone, he is always -with me." -</p> - -<p> -During this colloquy General Conti was standing more and more on his -dignity with the constables. -</p> - -<p> -"Not so much talk," said one of them; "you are under arrest, that's -enough!" -</p> - -<p> -"You will be glad to hear," said the serjeant, "that we allow you to hire -a horse from some <i>contadino</i>; otherwise, never mind all the dust -and the heat and the Chamberlain of Parma, you would have to put your -best foot foremost to keep pace with our horses." -</p> - -<p> -The General began to swear. -</p> - -<p> -"Will you kindly be quiet!" the constable repeated. "Where is your -general's uniform? Anybody can come along and say he's a general." -</p> - -<p> -The General grew more and more angry. Meanwhile things were looking much -brighter in the carriage. -</p> - -<p> -The Contessa kept the constables running about as if they had been her -servants. She had given a scudo to one of them to go and fetch wine, -and, what was better still, cold water from a cottage that was visible -two hundred yards away. She had found time to calm Fabrizio, who was -determined, at all costs, to make a dash for the wood that covered the -hill. "I have a good brace of pistols," he said. She obtained the -infuriated General's permission for his daughter to get into the -carriage. On this occasion the General, who loved to talk about himself -and his family, told the ladies that his daughter was only twelve years -old, having been born in 1803, on the 27th of October, but that, such -was her intelligence, everyone took her to be fourteen or fifteen. -</p> - -<p> -"A thoroughly common man," the Contessa's eyes signalled to the -Marchesa. Thanks to the Contessa, everything was settled, after a -colloquy that lasted an hour. A constable, who discovered that he had -some business to do in the neighbouring village, lent his horse to -General Conti, after the Contessa had said to him: "You shall have ten -francs." The serjeant went off by himself with the General; the other -constables stayed behind under a tree, accompanied by four huge bottles -of wine, almost small demi-johns, which the one who had been sent to the -cottage had brought back, with the help of a <i>contadino</i>, Clelia Conti -was authorised by the proud Chamberlain to accept, for the return -journey to Milan, a seat in the ladies' carriage, and no one dreamed of -arresting the son of the gallant General Pietranera. After the first few -minutes had been devoted to an exchange of courtesies and to remarks on -the little incident that had just occurred, Clelia Conti observed the -note of enthusiasm with which so beautiful a lady as the Contessa spoke -to Fabrizio; certainly, she was not his mother. The girl's attention was -caught most of all by repeated allusions to something heroic, bold, -dangerous to the last degree, which he had recently done; but for all -her cleverness little Clelia could not discover what this was. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE POLICE</i></h5> - -<p> -She gazed with astonishment at this young hero whose eyes seemed to be -blazing still with all the fire of action. For his part, he was somewhat -embarrassed by the remarkable beauty of this girl of twelve, and her -steady gaze made him blush. -</p> - -<p> -A league outside Milan Fabrizio announced that he was going to see his -uncle, and took leave of the ladies. -</p> - -<p> -"If I ever get out of my difficulties," he said to Clelia, "I shall pay -a visit to the beautiful pictures at Parma, and then will you deign to -remember the name: Fabrizio del Dongo?" -</p> - -<p> -"Good!" said the Contessa, "that is how you keep your identity secret. -Signorina, deign to remember that this scapegrace is my son, and is -called Pietranera, and not del Dongo." -</p> - -<p> -That evening, at a late hour, Fabrizio entered Milan by the Porta Renza, -which leads to a fashionable gathering-place. The dispatch of their two -servants to Switzerland had exhausted the very modest savings of the -Marchesa and her sister-in-law; fortunately, Fabrizio had still some -napoleons left, and one of the diamonds, which they decided to sell. -</p> - -<p> -The ladies were highly popular, and knew everyone in the town. The most -important personages in the Austrian and religious party went to speak -on behalf of Fabrizio to Barone Binder, the Chief of Police. These -gentlemen could not conceive, they said, how anyone could take seriously -the escapade of a boy of sixteen who left the paternal roof after a -dispute with an elder brother. -</p> - -<p> -"My business is to take everything seriously," replied Barone Binder -gently; a wise and solemn man, he was then engaged in forming the Milan -police, and had undertaken to prevent a revolution like that of 1746, -which drove the Austrians from Genoa. This Milan police, since rendered -so famous by the adventures of Silvio Pellico and M. Andryane, was not -exactly cruel; it carried out, reasonably and without pity, harsh laws. -The Emperor Francis II wished these overbold Italian imaginations to be -struck by terror. -</p> - -<p> -"Give me, day by day," repeated Barone Binder to Fabrizio's protectors, -"a <i>certified</i> account of what the young Marchesino del Dongo has been -doing; let us follow him from the moment of his departure on the 8th of -March to his arrival last night in this city, where he is hidden in one -of the rooms of his mother's apartment, and I am prepared to treat him -as the most well-disposed and most frolicsome young man in town. If you -cannot furnish me with the young man's itinerary during all the days -following his departure from Grianta, however exalted his birth may be, -however great the respect I owe to the friends of his family, obviously -it is my duty to order his arrest. Am I not bound to keep him in prison -until he has furnished me with proofs that he did not go to convey a -message to Napoleon from such disaffected persons as may exist in -Lombardy among the subjects of His Imperial and Royal Majesty? Note -farther, gentlemen, that if young del Dongo succeeds in justifying -himself on this point, he will still be liable to be charged with having -gone abroad without a passport properly issued to himself, and also with -assuming a false name and deliberately making use of a passport issued -to a common workman, that is to say to a person of a class greatly -inferior to that to which he himself belongs." -</p> - -<p> -This declaration, cruelly reasonable, was accompanied by all the marks -of deference and respect which the Chief of Police owed to the high -position of the Marchesa del Dongo and of the important personages who -were intervening on her behalf. -</p> - -<p> -The Marchesa was in despair when Barone Binder's reply was communicated -to her. -</p> - -<p> -"Fabrizio will be arrested," she sobbed, "and once he is in prison, God -knows when he will get out! His father will disown him!" -</p> - -<p> -Signora Pietranera and her sister-in-law took counsel with two or three -intimate friends, and, in spite of anything these might say, the -Marchesa was absolutely determined to send her son away that very night. -</p> - -<p> -"But you can see quite well," the Contessa pointed out to her, "that -Barone Binder knows that your son is here; he is not a bad man." -</p> - -<p> -"No; but he is anxious to please the Emperor Francis." -</p> - -<p> -"But, if he thought it would lead to his promotion to put Fabrizio in -prison, the boy would be there now; it is showing an insulting defiance -of the Barone to send him away." -</p> - -<p> -"But his admission to us that he knows where Fabrizio is, is as much as -to say: 'Send him away!' No, I shan't feel alive until I can no longer -say to myself: 'In a quarter of an hour my son may be within prison -walls.' Whatever Barone Binder's ambition may be," the Marchesa went on, -"he thinks it useful to his personal standing in this country to make -certain concessions to oblige a man of my husband's rank, and I see a -proof of this in the singular frankness with which he admits that he -knows where to lay hands on my son. Besides, the Barone has been so kind -as to let us know the two offences with which Fabrizio is charged, at -the instigation of his unworthy brother; he explains that each of these -offences means prison: is not that as much as to say that if we prefer -exile it is for us to choose?" -</p> - -<p> -"If you choose exile," the Contessa kept on repeating, "we shall never -set eyes on him again as long as we live." Fabrizio, who was present at -the whole conversation, with an old friend of the Marchesa, now a -counsellor on the tribunal set up by Austria, was strongly inclined to -take the key of the street and go; and, as a matter of fact, that same -evening he left the <i>palazzo</i>, hidden in the carriage that was taking -his mother and aunt to the Scala theatre. The coachman, whom they -distrusted, went as usual to wait in an <i>osteria</i>, and while the -footmen, on whom they could rely, were looking after the horses, -Fabrizio, disguised as a <i>contadino</i>, slipped out of the carriage and -escaped from the town. Next morning he crossed the frontier with equal -ease, and a few hours later had established himself on a property which -his mother owned in Piedmont, near Novara, to be precise, at Romagnano, -where Bayard was killed. -</p> - -<p> -It may be imagined how much attention the ladies, on reaching their box -in the Scala, paid to the performance. They had gone there solely to be -able to consult certain of their friends who belonged to the Liberal -party and whose appearance at the <i>palazzo</i> del Dongo might have been -misconstrued by the police. In the box it was decided to make a fresh -appeal to Barone Binder. There was no question of offering a sum of -money to this magistrate who was a perfectly honest man; moreover, the -ladies were extremely poor; they had forced Fabrizio to take with him -all the money that remained from the sale of the diamond. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE CANON</i></h5> - -<p> -It was of the utmost importance that they should be kept constantly -informed of the Barone's latest decisions. The Contessa's friends -reminded her of a certain Canon Borda, a most charming young man who at -one time had tried to make advances to her, in a somewhat violent -manner; finding himself unsuccessful he had reported her friendship for -Limercati to General Pietranera, whereupon he had been dismissed from -the house as a rascal. Now, at present this Canon was in the habit of -going every evening to play <i>tarocchi</i> with Baronessa Binder, and was -naturally the intimate friend of her husband. The Contessa made up her -mind to take the horribly unpleasant step of going to see this Canon; -and the following morning, at an early hour, before he had left the -house, she sent in her name. -</p> - -<p> -When the Canon's one and only servant announced: "Contessa Pietranera," -his master was so overcome as to be incapable of speech; he made no -attempt to repair the disorder of a very scanty attire. -</p> - -<p> -"Shew her in, and leave us," he said in faint accents. The Contessa -entered the room; Borda fell on his knees. -</p> - -<p> -"It is in this position that an unhappy madman ought to receive your -orders," he said to the Contessa who that morning, in a plain costume -that was almost a disguise, was irresistibly attractive. Her intense -grief at Fabrizio's exile, the violence that she was doing to her own -feelings in coming to the house of a man who had behaved treacherously -towards her, all combined to give an incredible brilliance to her eyes. -</p> - -<p> -"It is in this position that I wish to receive your orders," cried the -Canon, "for it is obvious that you have some service to ask of me, -otherwise you would not have honoured with your presence the poor -dwelling of an unhappy madman; once before, carried away by love and -jealousy, he behaved towards you like a scoundrel, as soon as he saw -that he could not win your favour." -</p> - -<p> -These words were sincere, and all the more handsome in that the Canon -now enjoyed a position of great power; the Contessa was moved to tears -by them; humiliation and fear had frozen her spirit; now in a moment -affection and a gleam of hope took their place. From a most unhappy -state she passed in a flash almost to happiness. -</p> - -<p> -"Kiss my hand," she said, as she held it out to the Canon, "and rise." -(She used the second person singular, which in Italy, it must be -remembered, indicates a sincere and open friendship just as much as a -more tender sentiment.) "I have come to ask your favour for my nephew -Fabrizio. This is the whole truth of the story without the slightest -concealment, as one tells it to an old friend. At the age of sixteen and -a half he has done an intensely stupid thing. We were at the castle of -Grianta on the Lake of Como. One evening at seven o'clock we learned by -a boat from Como of the Emperor's landing on the shore of the Gulf of -Juan. Next morning Fabrizio went off to France, after borrowing the -passport of one of his plebeian friends, a dealer in barometers, named -Vasi. As he does not exactly resemble a dealer in barometers, he had -hardly gone ten leagues into France when he was arrested on sight; his -outbursts of enthusiasm in bad French seemed suspicious. After a -time he escaped and managed to reach Geneva; we sent to meet him -at Lugano. . . ." -</p> - -<p> -"That is to say, Geneva," put in the Canon with a smile. -</p> - -<p> -The Contessa finished her story. -</p> - -<p> -"I will do everything for you that is humanly possible," replied the -Canon effusively; "I place myself entirely at your disposal. I will even -do imprudent things," he added. "Tell me, what am I to do as soon as -this poor parlour is deprived of this heavenly apparition which marks an -epoch in the history of my life?" -</p> - -<p> -"You must go to Barone Binder and tell him that you have loved Fabrizio -ever since he was born, that you saw him in his cradle when you used to -come to our house, and that accordingly, in the name of the friendship -he has shown for you, you beg him to employ all his spies to discover -whether, before his departure for Switzerland, Fabrizio was in any sort -of communication whatsoever with any of the Liberals whom he has under -supervision. If the Barone's information is of any value, he is bound to -see that there is nothing more in this than a piece of boyish folly. You -know that I used to have, in my beautiful apartment in the <i>palazzo</i> -Dugnani, prints of the battles won by Napoleon: it was by spelling out -the legends engraved beneath them that my nephew learned to read. When -he was five years old, my poor husband used to explain these battles to -him; we put my husband's helmet on his head, the boy strutted about -trailing his big sabre. Very well, one fine day he learns that my -husband's god, the Emperor, has returned to France, he starts out to -join him, like a fool, but does not succeed in reaching him. Ask your -Barone with what penalty he proposes to punish this moment of folly?" -</p> - -<p> -"I was forgetting one thing," said the Canon, "you shall see that I am -not altogether unworthy of the pardon that you grant me. Here," he said, -looking on the table among his papers, "here is the accusation by that -infamous <i>collo-torto</i>" (that is, hypocrite), "see, signed Ascanio -Valserra del Dongo, which gave rise to the whole trouble; I found it -yesterday at the police headquarters, and went to the Scala in the hope -of finding someone who was in the habit of going to your box, through -whom I might be able to communicate it to you. A copy of this document -reached Vienna long ago. There is the enemy that we have to fight." The -Canon read the accusation through with the Contessa, and it was agreed -that in the course of the day he would let her have a copy by the hand -of some trustworthy person. It was with joy in her heart that the -Contessa returned to the <i>palazzo</i> del Dongo. -</p> - -<p> -"No one could possibly be more of a gentleman than that reformed rake," -she told the Marchesa. "This evening at the Scala, at a quarter to -eleven by the theatre clock, we are to send everyone away from our box, -put out the candles, and shut our door, and at eleven the Canon himself -will come and tell us what he has managed to do. We decided that this -would be the least compromising course for him." -</p> - -<p> -This Canon was a man of spirit; he was careful to keep the appointment; -he shewed when he came a complete good nature and an unreserved openness -of heart such as are scarcely to be found except in countries where -vanity does not predominate over every other sentiment. His denunciation -of the Contessa to her husband, General Pietranera, was one of the great -sorrows of his life, and he had now found a means of getting rid of that -remorse. -</p> - -<p> -That morning, when the Contessa had left his room, "So she's in love -with her nephew, is she," he had said to himself bitterly, for he was by -no means cured. "With her pride, to have come to me! . . . After that -poor Pietranera died, she repulsed with horror my offers of service, -though they were most polite and admirably presented by Colonel Scotti, -her old lover. The beautiful Pietranera reduced to living on fifteen -hundred francs!" the Canon went on, striding vigorously up and down the -room. "And then to go and live in the castle of Grianta, with an -abominable <i>seccatore</i> like that Marchese del Dongo! . . . I can see -it all now! After all, that young Fabrizio is full of charm, tall, well -built, always with a smile on his face . . . and, better still, a -deliciously voluptuous expression in his eye . . . a Correggio face," -the Canon added bitterly. -</p> - -<p> -"The difference in age . . . not too great . . . Fabrizio born after the -French came, about '98, I fancy; the Contessa might be twenty-seven or -twenty-eight: no one could be better looking, more adorable. In this -country rich in beauties, she defeats them all, the Marini, the -Gherardi, the Ruga, the Aresi, the Pietragrua, she is far and away above -any of them. They were living happily together, hidden away by that -beautiful Lake of Como, when the young man took it into his head to join -Napoleon. . . . There are still souls in Italy! In spite of everything! -Dear country! No," went on this heart inflamed by jealousy, "impossible -to explain in any other way her resigning herself to vegetating in the -country, with the disgusting spectacle, day after day, at every meal, of -that horrible face of the Marchese del Dongo, as well as that -unspeakable pasty physiognomy of the Marchesino Ascanio, who is going to -be worse than his father! Well, I shall serve her faithfully. At least I -shall have the pleasure of seeing her otherwise than through an -opera-glass." -</p> - -<p> -Canon Borda explained the whole case very clearly to the ladies. At -heart, Binder was as well-disposed as they could wish; he was delighted -that Fabrizio should have taken the key of the street before any orders -could arrive from Vienna; for Barone Binder had no power to make any -decision, he awaited orders in this case as in every other. He sent -every day to Vienna an exact copy of all the information that reached -him; then he waited. -</p> - -<p> -It was necessary that, in his exile at Romagnano, Fabrizio -</p> - -<p> -(1) Should hear mass daily without fail, take as his confessor a man of -spirit, devoted to the cause of the Monarchy, and should confess to him, -at the tribunal of penitence, only the most irreproachable sentiments. -</p> - -<p> -(2) Should consort with no one who bore any reputation for intelligence, -and, were the need to arise, must speak of rebellion with horror as a -thing that no circumstances could justify. -</p> - -<p> -(3) Must never let himself be seen in the <i>caffè</i>, must never read any -newspaper other than the official <i>Gazette</i> of Turin and Milan; in -general he should shew a distaste for reading, and never open any book -printed later than 1720, with the possible exception of the novels of -Walter Scott. -</p> - -<p> -(4) "Finally" (the Canon added with a touch of malice), "it is most -important that he should pay court openly to one of the pretty women of -the district, of the noble class, of course; this will shew that he has -not the dark and dissatisfied mind of an embryo conspirator." -</p> - -<p> -Before going to bed, the Contessa and the Marchesa each wrote Fabrizio -an endless letter, in which they explained to him with a charming -anxiety all the advice that had been given them by Borda. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE POLICE</i></h5> - -<p> -Fabrizio had no wish to be a conspirator: he loved Napoleon, and, in his -capacity as a young noble, believed that he had been created to be -happier than his neighbour, and thought the middle classes absurd. Never -had he opened a book since leaving school, where he had read only texts -arranged by the Jesuits. He established himself at some distance from -Romagnano, in a magnificent <i>palazzo</i>, one of the masterpieces of the -famous architect Sanmicheli; but for thirty years it had been -uninhabited, so that the rain came into every room and not one of the -windows would shut. He took possession of the agent's horses, which he -rode without ceremony at all hours of the day; he never spoke, and he -thought about things. The recommendation to take a mistress from an -<i>ultra</i> family appealed to him, and he obeyed it to the letter. He -chose as his confessor a young priest given to intrigue who wished to -become a bishop (like the confessor of the Spielberg<a name="FNanchor_9_1" id="FNanchor_9_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_1" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>); but he went three -leagues on foot and wrapped himself in a mystery which he imagined to be -impenetrable, in order to read the <i>Constitutionnel</i>, which he thought -sublime. "It is as fine as Alfieri and Dante!" he used often to exclaim. -Fabrizio had this in common with the young men of France, that he was -far more seriously taken up with his horse and his newspaper than with -his politically <i>sound</i> mistress. But there was no room as yet for -<i>imitation of others</i> in this simple and sturdy nature, and he made no -friends in the society of the large country town of Romagnano; his -simplicity passed as arrogance: no one knew what to make of his -character. "<i>He is a younger son who feels himself wronged because he is -not the eldest</i>" was the <i>parroco's</i> comment. -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="nind"><a name="Footnote_8_1" id="Footnote_8_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_1"><span class="label">[8]</span></a>Silvio Pellico has given this name a European notoriety: -it is that of the street in Milan in which the police headquarters -and prisons are situated.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="nind"><a name="Footnote_9_1" id="Footnote_9_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_1"><span class="label">[9]</span></a>See the curious Memoirs of M. Andryane, as entertaining -as a novel, and as lasting as Tacitus.</p></div> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h4><a id="CHAPTER_SIX">CHAPTER SIX</a></h4> - -<p> -Let us admit frankly that Canon Borda's jealousy was not altogether -unfounded: on his return from France, Fabrizio appeared to the eyes of -Contessa Pietranera like a handsome stranger whom she had known well in -days gone by. If he had spoken to her of love she would have loved him; -had she not already conceived, for his conduct and his person, a -passionate and, one might say, unbounded admiration? But Fabrizio -embraced her with such an effusion of innocent gratitude and -good-fellowship that she would have been horrified with herself had she -sought for any other sentiment in this almost filial friendship. "After -all," she said to herself, "some of my friends who knew me six years -ago, at Prince Eugène's court, may still find me good-looking and even -young, but for him I am a respectable woman—and, if the truth must be -told without any regard for my vanity, a woman of a certain age." The -Contessa was under an illusion as to the period of life at which she had -arrived, but it was not the illusion of common women. "Besides, at his -age," she went on, "boys are apt to exaggerate the ravages of time. A -man with more experience of life . . ." -</p> - -<p> -The Contessa, who was pacing the floor of her drawing-room, stopped -before a mirror, then smiled. It must be explained that, some months -since, the heart of Signora Pietranera had been attacked in a serious -fashion, and by a singular personage. Shortly after Fabrizio's departure -for France, the Contessa who, without altogether admitting it to -herself, was already beginning to take a great interest in him, had -fallen into a profound melancholy. All her occupations seemed to her to -lack pleasure, and, if one may use the word, savour; she told herself -that Napoleon, wishing to secure the attachment of his Italian peoples, -would take Fabrizio as his aide-de-camp. "He is lost to me!" she -exclaimed, weeping, "I shall never see him again; he will write to me, -but what shall I be to him in ten years' time?" -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>MELANCHOLY</i></h5> - -<p> -It was in this frame of mind that she made an expedition to Milan; she -hoped to find there some more immediate news of Napoleon, and, for all -she knew, incidentally news of Fabrizio. Without admitting it to -herself, this active soul was beginning to be very weary of the -monotonous life she was leading in the country. "It is a postponement of -death," she said to herself, "it is not life." Every day to see those -powdered heads, her brother, her nephew Ascanio, their footmen! What -would her excursions on the lake be without Fabrizio? Her sole -consolation was based on the ties of friendship that bound her to the -Marchesa. But for some time now this intimacy with Fabrizio's mother, a -woman older than herself and with no hope left in life, had begun to be -less attractive to her. -</p> - -<p> -Such was the singular position in which Signora Pietranera was placed: -with Fabrizio away, she had little hope for the future. Her heart was in -need of consolation and novelty. On arriving in Milan she conceived a -passion for the fashionable opera; she would go and shut herself up -alone for hours on end, at the Scala, in the box of her old friend -General Scotti. The men whom she tried to meet in order to obtain news -of Napoleon and his army seemed to her vulgar and coarse. Going home, -she would improvise on her piano until three o'clock in the morning. One -evening, at the Scala, in the box of one of her friends to which she had -gone in search of news from France, she made the acquaintance of Conte -Mosca, a Minister from Parma; he was an agreeable man who spoke of -France and Napoleon in a way that gave her fresh reasons for hope or -fear. She returned to the same box the following evening; this -intelligent man reappeared and throughout the whole performance she -talked to him with enjoyment. Since Fabrizio's departure she had not -found any evening so lively. This man who amused her, Conte Mosca della -Rovere Sorezana, was at that time Minister of Police and Finance to that -famous Prince of Parma, Ernesto IV, so notorious for his severities, -which the Liberals of Milan called cruelties. Mosca might have been -forty or forty-five; he had strongly marked features, with no trace of -self-importance, and a simple and light-hearted manner which was greatly -in his favour; he would have looked very well indeed, if a whim on the -part of his Prince had not obliged him to wear powder on his hair as a -proof of his soundness in politics. As people have little fear of -wounding one another's vanity, they quickly arrive in Italy at a tone of -intimacy, and make personal observations. The antidote to this practice -is not to see the other person again if one's feelings have been hurt. -</p> - -<p> -"Tell me, Conte, why do you powder your hair?" Signora Pietranera asked -him at their third meeting. "Powder! A man like you, attractive, still -young, who fought on our side in Spain!" -</p> - -<p> -"Because, in the said Spain, I stole nothing, and one must live. I was -athirst for glory; a flattering word from the French General, Gouvion -Saint-Cyr, who commanded us, was everything to me then. When Napoleon -fell, it so happened that while I was eating up my patrimony in his -service, my father, a man of imagination, who pictured me as a general -already, had been building me a <i>palazzo</i> at Parma. In 1813 I found -that my whole worldly wealth consisted of a huge <i>palazzo</i>, -half-finished, and a pension." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>A MINISTER</i></h5> - -<p> -"A pension: 3,500 francs, like my husband's?" -</p> - -<p> -"Conte Pietranera commanded a Division. My pension, as a humble squadron -commander, has never been more than 800 francs, and even that has been -paid to me only since I became Minister of Finance." -</p> - -<p> -As there was nobody else in the box but the lady of extremely liberal -views to whom it belonged, the conversation continued with the same -frankness. Conte Mosca, when questioned, spoke of his life at Parma. "In -Spain, under General Saint-Cyr, I faced the enemy's fire to win a cross -and a little glory besides, now I dress myself up like an actor in a -farce to win a great social position and a few thousand francs a year. -Once I had started on this sort of political chessboard, stung by the -insolence of my superiors, I determined to occupy one of the foremost -posts; I have reached it. But the happiest days of my life will always -be those which, now and again, I manage to spend at Milan; here, it -seems to me, there still survives the spirit of your Army of Italy." -</p> - -<p> -The frankness, the <i>disinvoltura</i> with which this Minister of so -dreaded a Prince spoke pricked the Contessa's curiosity; from his title -she had expected to find a pedant filled with self-importance; what she -saw was a man who was ashamed of the gravity of his position. Mosca had -promised to let her have all the news from France that he could collect; -this was a grave indiscretion at Milan, during the month that preceded -Waterloo; the question for Italy at that time was to be or not to be; -everyone at Milan was in a fever, a fever of hope or fear. Amid this -universal disturbance, the Contessa started to make inquiries about a -man who spoke thus lightly of so coveted a position, and one which, -moreover, was his sole means of livelihood. -</p> - -<p> -Certain curious information of an interesting oddity was reported to -Signora Pietranera. "Conte Mosca della Rovere Sorezana," she was told, -"is on the point of becoming Prime Minister and declared favourite of -Ranuccio-Ernesto IV, the absolute sovereign of Parma and one of the -wealthiest Princes in Europe to boot. The Conte would already have -attained to this exalted position if he had cared to shew a more solemn -face: they say that the Prince often lectures him on this failing. -</p> - -<p> -"'What do my manners matter to Your Highness,' he answers boldly, 'so -long as I conduct his affairs?' -</p> - -<p> -"This favourite's bed of roses," her informant went on, "is not without -its thorns. He has to please a Sovereign, a man of sense and -intelligence, no doubt, but a man who, since his accession to an -absolute throne, seems to have lost his head altogether and shews, for -instance, suspicions worthy of an old woman. -</p> - -<p> -"Ernesto IV is courageous only in war. On the field of battle he has -been seen a score of times leading a column to the attack like a gallant -general; but after the death of his father Ernesto III, on his return to -his States, where, unfortunately for him, he possesses unlimited power, -he set to work to inveigh in the most senseless fashion against Liberals -and liberty. Presently he began to imagine that he was hated; finally, -in a moment of ill temper, he had two Liberals hanged, who may or may -not have been guilty, acting on the advice of a wretch called Rassi, a -sort of Minister of Justice. -</p> - -<p> -"From that fatal moment the Prince's life changed; we find him tormented -by the strangest suspicions. He is not fifty, and fear has so reduced -him, if one may use the expression, that whenever he speaks of Jacobins, -and the plans of the Central Committee in Paris, his face becomes like -that of an old man of eighty; he relapses into the fantastic fears of -childhood. His favourite Rassi, the Fiscal General (or Chief Justice), -has no influence except through his master's fear; and whenever he is -alarmed for his own position, he makes haste to discover some fresh -conspiracy of the blackest and most fantastic order. Thirty rash fellows -have banded themselves together to read a number of the -<i>Constitutionnel</i>, Rassi declares them to be conspirators, and sends -them off to prison in that famous Citadel of Parma, the terror of the -whole of Lombardy. As it rises to a great height, a hundred and eighty -feet, people say, it is visible from a long way off in the middle of -that immense plain; and the physical outlines of the prison, of which -horrible things are reported, makes it the queen, governing by fear, of -the whole of that plain, which extends from Milan to Bologna." -</p> - -<p> -"Would you believe," said another traveller to the Contessa, "that at -night, on the third floor of his palace, guarded by eighty sentinels who -every quarter of an hour cry aloud a whole sentence, Ernesto IV trembles -in his room. All the doors fastened with ten bolts, and the adjoining -rooms, above as well as below him, packed with soldiers, he is afraid of -the Jacobins. If a plank creaks in the floor, he snatches up his pistols -and imagines there is a Liberal hiding under his bed. At once all the -bells in the castle are set ringing, and an aide-de-camp goes to awaken -Conte Mosca. On reaching the castle, the Minister of Police takes good -care not to deny the existence of any conspiracy; on the contrary, alone -with the Prince, and armed to the teeth, he inspects every corner of the -rooms, looks under the beds, and, in a word, gives himself up to a whole -heap of ridiculous actions worthy of an old woman. All these precautions -would have seemed highly degrading to the Prince himself in the happy -days when he used to go to war and had never killed anyone except in -open combat. As he is a man of infinite spirit, he is ashamed of these -precautions; they seem to him ridiculous, even at the moment when he is -giving way to them, and the source of Conte Mosca's enormous reputation -is that he devotes all his skill to arranging that the Prince shall -never have occasion to blush in his presence. It is he, Mosca, who, in -his capacity as Minister of Police, insists upon looking under the -furniture, and, so people say in Parma, even in the cases in which the -musicians keep their double-basses. It is the Prince who objects to this -and teases his Minister over his excessive punctiliousness. 'It is a -challenge,' Conte Mosca replies; 'think of the satirical sonnets the -Jacobins would shower on us if we allowed you to be killed. It is not -only your life that we are defending, it is our honour.' But it appears -that the Prince is only half taken in by this, for if anyone in the town -should take it into his head to remark that they have passed a sleepless -night at the castle, the Grand Fiscal Rassi sends the impertinent fellow -to the citadel, and once in that lofty abode, and in the <i>fresh air</i>, -as they say at Parma, it is a miracle if anyone remembers the prisoner's -existence. It is because he is a soldier, and in Spain got away a score -of times, pistol in hand, from a tight corner, that the Prince prefers -Conte Mosca to Rassi, who is a great deal more flexible and baser. Those -unfortunate prisoners in the citadel are kept in the most rigorously -secret confinement, and all sorts of stories are told about them. The -Liberals assert that (and this, they say, is one of Rassi's ideas) the -gaolers and confessors are under orders to assure them, about once a -month, that one of them is being led out to die. That day the prisoners -have permission to climb to the platform of the huge tower, one hundred -and eighty feet high, and from there they see a procession file along -the plain with some spy who plays the part of a poor devil going to his -death." -</p> - -<p> -These stories and a score of others of the same nature and of no less -authenticity keenly interested Signora Pietranera: on the following day -she asked Conte Mosca, whom she rallied briskly, for details. She found -him amusing, and maintained to him that at heart he was a monster -without knowing it. One day as he went back to his inn the Conte said to -himself: "Not only is this Contessa Pietranera a charming woman; but -when I spend the evening in her box I manage to forget certain things at -Parma the memory of which cuts me to the heart."—This Minister, in -spite of his frivolous air and his polished manners, was not blessed -with a soul of the French type; he could not <i>forget</i> the things that -annoyed him. When there was a thorn in his pillow, he was obliged to -break it off and to blunt its point by repeated stabbings of his -throbbing limbs. (I must apologise for the last two sentences, which are -translated from the Italian.) On the morrow of this discovery, the Conte -found that, notwithstanding the business that had summoned him to Milan, -the day spun itself out to an enormous length; he could not stay in one -place, he wore out his carriage-horses. About six o'clock he mounted his -saddle-horse to ride to the <i>Corso</i>; he had some hope of meeting -Signora Pietranera there; seeing no sign of her, he remembered that at -eight o'clock the Scala Theatre opened; he entered it, and did not see ten -persons in that immense auditorium. He felt somewhat ashamed of himself -for being there. "Is it possible," he asked himself, "that at forty-five -and past I am committing follies at which a sub-lieutenant would blush? -Fortunately nobody suspects them." He fled, and tried to pass the time -by strolling up and down the attractive streets that surround the Scala. -They are lined with <i>caffè</i> which at that hour are filled to -overflowing with people. Outside each of these <i>caffè</i> crowds of -curious idlers perched on chairs in the middle of the street sip ices -and criticise the passers-by. The Conte was a passer-by of importance; -at once he had the pleasure of being recognised and addressed. Three or -four importunate persons of the kind that one cannot easily shake off -seized this opportunity to obtain an audience of so powerful a Minister. -Two of them handed him petitions; the third was content with pouring out -a stream of long-winded advice as to his political conduct. -</p> - -<p> -"One does not sleep," he said to himself, "when one has such a brain; -one ought not to walk about when one is so powerful." He returned to the -theatre, where it occurred to him that he might take a box in the third -tier; from there his gaze could plunge, unnoticed by anyone, into the -box in the second tier in which he hoped to see the Contessa arrive. Two -full hours of waiting did not seem any too long to this lover; certain -of not being seen he abandoned himself joyfully to the full extent of -his folly. "Old age," he said to himself, "is not that, more than -anything else, the time when one is no longer capable of these delicious -puerilities?" -</p> - -<p> -Finally the Contessa appeared. Armed with his glasses, he studied her -with rapture: "Young, brilliant, light as a bird," he said to himself, -"she is not twenty-five. Her beauty is the least of her charms: where -else could one find that soul always sincere, which never acts <i>with -prudence</i>, which abandons itself entirely to the impression of the -moment, which asks only to be carried away towards some new goal? I can -understand Conte Nani's foolish behaviour." -</p> - -<p> -The Conte supplied himself with excellent reasons for behaving -foolishly, so long as he was thinking only of capturing the happiness -which he saw before his eyes. He did not find any quite so satisfactory -when he came to consider his age and the anxieties, sometimes of the -saddest nature, that burdened his life. "A man of ability, whose spirit -has been destroyed by fear, gives me a sumptuous life and plenty of -money to be his Minister; but were he to dismiss me to-morrow, I should -be left old and poor, that is to say everything that the world despises -most; there's a fine partner to offer the Contessa!" These thoughts were -too dark, he came back to Signora Pietranera; he could not tire of -gazing at her, and, to be able to think of her better, did not go down -to her box. "Her only reason for taking Nani, they tell me, was to put -that imbecile Limercati in his place when he could not be prevailed upon -to run a sword, or to hire someone else to stick a dagger into her -husband's murderer. I would fight for her twenty times over!" cried the -Conte in a transport of enthusiasm. Every moment he consulted the -theatre clock which, with illuminated figures upon a black background, -warned the audience every five minutes of the approach of the hour at -which it was permissible for them to visit a friend's box. The Conte -said to himself: "I cannot spend more than half an hour at the most in -the box, seeing that I have known her so short a time; if I stay longer, -I shall attract attention, and, thanks to my age and even more to this -accursed powder on my hair, I shall have all the bewitching allurements -of a Cassandra." But a sudden thought made up his mind once and for all. -"If she were to leave that box to pay someone else a visit, I should be -well rewarded for the avarice with which I am hoarding up this -pleasure." He rose to go down to the box in which he could see the -Contessa; all at once he found that he had lost almost all his desire to -present himself to her. -</p> - -<p> -"Ah! this is really charming," he exclaimed with a smile at his own -expense, and coming to a halt on the staircase; "an impulse of genuine -shyness! It must be at least five and twenty years since an adventure of -this sort last came my way." -</p> - -<p> -He entered the box, almost with an effort to control himself; and, -making the most, like a man of spirit, of the condition in which he -found himself, made no attempt to appear at ease, or to display his wit -by plunging into some entertaining story; he had the courage to be shy, -he employed his wits in letting his disturbance be apparent without -making himself ridiculous. "If she should take it amiss," he said to -himself, "I am lost for ever. What! Shy, with my hair covered with -powder, hair which, without the disguise of the powder, would be visibly -grey! But, after all, it is a fact; it cannot therefore be absurd unless -I exaggerate it or make a boast of it." The Contessa had spent so many -weary hours at the castle of Grianta, facing the powdered heads of her -brother and nephew, and of various politically <i>sound</i> bores of the -neighbourhood, that it never occurred to her to give a thought to her -new adorer's style in hairdressing. -</p> - -<p> -The Contessa's mind having this protection against the impulse to laugh -on his entry, she paid attention only to the news from France which -Mosca always had for her in detail, on coming to her box; no doubt he -used to invent it. As she discussed this news with him, she noticed this -evening the expression in his eyes, which was good and kindly. -</p> - -<p> -"I can imagine," she said to him, "that at Parma, among your slaves, you -will not wear that friendly expression; it would ruin everything and -give them some hope of not being hanged!" -</p> - -<p> -The entire absence of any sense of self-importance in a man who passed -as the first diplomat in Italy, seemed strange to the Contessa; she even -found a certain charm in it. Moreover, as he talked well and with -warmth, she was not at all displeased that he should have thought fit to -take upon himself for one evening, without ulterior consequences, the -part of squire of dames. -</p> - -<p> -It was a great step forward, and highly dangerous; fortunately for the -Minister, who, at Parma, never met a cruel fair, the Contessa had -arrived from Grianta only a few days before: her mind was still stiff -with the boredom of a country life. She had almost forgotten how to make -fun; and all those things that appertain to a light and elegant way of -living had assumed in her eyes as it were a tint of novelty which made -them sacred; she was in no mood to laugh at anyone, even a lover of -forty-five, and shy. A week later, the Conte's temerity might have met -with a very different sort of welcome. -</p> - -<p> -At the Scala, it is not usual to prolong for more than twenty minutes or -so these little visits to one's friends' boxes; the Conte spent the -whole evening in the box in which he had been so fortunate as to meet -Signora Pietranera. "She is a woman," he said to himself, "who revives -in me all the follies of my youth!" But he was well aware of the danger. -"Will my position as an all-powerful Bashaw in a place forty leagues -away induce her to pardon me this stupid behaviour? I get so bored at -Parma!" Meanwhile, every quarter of an hour, he registered a mental vow -to get up and go. -</p> - -<p> -"I must explain to you, Signora," he said to the Contessa with a laugh, -"that at Parma I am bored to death, and I ought to be allowed to drink -my fill of pleasure when the cup comes my way. So, without involving you -in anything and simply for this evening, permit me to play the part of -lover in your company. Alas, in a few days I shall be far away from this -box which makes me forget every care and indeed, you will say, every -convention." -</p> - -<p> -A week after this monstrous visit to the Contessa's box, and after a -series of minor incidents the narration of which here would perhaps seem -tedious, Conte Mosca was absolutely mad with love, and the Contessa had -already begun to think that his age need offer no objection if the -suitor proved attractive in other ways. They had reached this stage when -Mosca was recalled by a courier from Parma. One would have said that his -Prince was afraid to be left alone. The Contessa returned to Grianta; -her imagination no longer serving to adorn that lovely spot, it appeared -to her a desert. "Should I be attached to this man?" she asked herself. -Mosca wrote to her, and had not to play a part; absence had relieved him -of the source of all his anxious thoughts; his letters were amusing, -and, by a little piece of eccentricity which was not taken amiss, to -escape the comments of the Marchese del Dongo, who did not like having -to pay for the carriage of letters, he used to send couriers who would -post his at Como or Lecco or Varese or some other of those charming -little places on the shores of the lake. This was done with the idea -that the courier might be employed to take back her replies. The move -was successful. -</p> - -<p> -Soon the days when the couriers came were events in the Contessa's life; -these couriers brought her flowers, fruit, little presents of no value, -which amused her, however, and her sister-in-law as well. Her memory of -the Conte was blended with her idea of his great power; the Contessa had -become curious to know everything that people said of him; the Liberals -themselves paid a tribute to his talents. -</p> - -<p> -The principal source of the Conte's reputation for evil was that he passed -as the head of the <i>Ultra</i> Party at the Court of Parma, while the -Liberal Party had at its head an intriguing woman capable of anything, -even of succeeding, the Marchesa Raversi, who was immensely rich. The -Prince made a great point of not discouraging that one of the two -Parties which happened not to be in power; he knew quite well that he -himself would always be the master, even with a Ministry formed in -Signora Raversi's drawing-room. Endless details of these intrigues were -reported at Grianta. The bodily absence of Mosca, whom everyone -described as a Minister of supreme talent and a man of action, made it -possible not to think any more of his powdered head, a symbol of -everything that is dull and sad; it was a detail of no consequence, one -of the obligations of the court at which, moreover, he was playing so -distinguished a part. "It is a ridiculous thing, a court," said the -Contessa to the Marchesa, "but it is amusing; it is a game that it is -interesting to play, but one must agree to the rules. Who ever thought -of protesting against the absurdity of the rules of piquet? And yet, -once you are accustomed to the rules, it is delightful to beat your -adversary with <i>repique</i> and <i>capot</i>." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>MILAN</i></h5> - -<p> -The Contessa often thought about the writer of these entertaining -letters; the days on which she received them were delightful to her; she -would take her boat and go to read them in one of the charming spots by -the lake, the Pliniana, Belan, the wood of the Sfrondata. These letters -seemed to console her to some extent for Fabrizio's absence. She could -not, at all events, refuse to allow the Conte to be deeply in love; a -month had not passed before she was thinking of him with tender -affection. For his part, Conte Mosca was almost sincere when he offered -to hand in his resignation, to leave the Ministry and to come and spend -the rest of his life with her at Milan or elsewhere. "I have 400,000 -francs," he added, "which will always bring us in an income of -15,000."—"A box at the play again, horses, everything," thought the -Contessa; they were pleasant dreams. The sublime beauty of the different -views of the Lake of Como began to charm her once more. She went down to -dream by its shores of this return to a brilliant and distinctive life, -which, most unexpectedly, seemed to be coming within the bounds of -possibility. She saw herself on the Corso, at Milan, happy and gay as in -the days of the Viceroy: "Youth, or at any rate a life of action would -begin again for me." -</p> - -<p> -Sometimes her ardent imagination concealed things from her, but never -did she have those deliberate illusions which cowardice induces. She was -above all things a woman who was honest with herself. "If I am a little -too old to be doing foolish things," she said to herself, "envy, which -creates illusions as love does, may poison my stay in Milan for me. -After my husband's death, my noble poverty was a success, as was my -refusal of two vast fortunes. My poor little Conte Mosca had not a -twentieth part of the opulence that was cast at my feet by those two -worms, Limercati and Nani. The meagre widow's pension which I had to -struggle to obtain, the dismissal of my servants, which made some -sensation, the little fifth floor room which brought a score of -carriages to the door, all went to form at the time a striking -spectacle. But I shall have unpleasant moments, however skilfully I may -handle things, if, never possessing any fortune beyond my widow's -pension, I go back to live at Milan on the snug little middle-class -comfort which we can secure with the 15,000 lire that Mosca will have -left after he retires. One strong objection, out of which envy will -forge a terrible weapon, is that the Conte, although separated long ago -from his wife, is still a married man. This separation is known at -Parma, but at Milan it will come as news, and they will put it down to -me. So, my dear Scala, my divine Lake of Como, adieu! adieu!" -</p> - -<p> -In spite of all these forebodings, if the Contessa had had the smallest -income of her own she would have accepted Mosca's offer to resign his -office. She regarded herself as a middle-aged woman, and the idea of the -court alarmed her; but what will appear in the highest degree improbable -on this side of the Alps is that the Conte would have handed in that -resignation gladly. So, at least, he managed to make his friend believe. -In all his letters he implored, with an ever increasing frenzy, a second -interview at Milan; it was granted him. "To swear that I feel an insane -passion for you," the Contessa said to him one day at Milan, "would be a -lie; I should be only too glad to love to-day at thirty odd as I used to -love at two-and-twenty! But I have seen so many things decay that I had -imagined to be eternal! I have the most tender regard for you, I place -an unbounded confidence in you, and of all the men I know, you are the -one I like best." The Contessa believed herself to be perfectly sincere; -and yet, in the final clause, this declaration embodied a tiny -falsehood. Fabrizio, perhaps, had he chosen, might have triumphed over -every rival in her heart. But Fabrizio was nothing more than a boy in -Conte Mosca's eyes: he himself reached Milan three days after the young -hothead's departure for Novara, and he hastened to intercede on his -behalf with Barone Binder. The Conte considered that his exile was now -irrevocable. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>A RECENT CREATION</i></h5> - -<p> -He had not come to Milan alone; he had in his carriage the Duca -Sanseverina-Taxis, a handsome little old man of sixty-eight, -dapple-grey, very polished, very neat, immensely rich but not quite as -noble as he ought to have been. It was his grandfather, only, who had -amassed millions from the office of Farmer General of the Revenues of -the State of Parma. His father had had himself made Ambassador of the -Prince of Parma to the Court of ——, by advancing the following -argument: "Your Highness allots 30,000 francs to his Representative at the -Court of ——, where he cuts an extremely modest figure. Should -Your Highness deign to appoint me to the post, I will accept 6,000 francs -as salary. My expenditure at the Court of —— will never fall -below 100,000 francs a year, and my agent will pay over 20,000 francs every -year to the Treasurer for Foreign Affairs at Parma. With that sum they -can attach to me whatever Secretary of Embassy they choose, and I shall -shew no curiosity to inquire into diplomatic secrets, if there are any. -My object is to shed lustre on my house, which is still a new one, and -to give it the distinction of having filled one of the great public -offices." -</p> - -<p> -The present Duca, this Ambassador's son and heir, had made the stupid -mistake of coming out as a Semi-Liberal, and for the last two years had -been in despair. In Napoleon's time, he had lost two or three millions -owing to his obstinacy in remaining abroad, and even now, after the -re-establishment of order in Europe, he had not managed to secure a -certain Grand Cordon which adorned the portrait of his father. The want -of this Cordon was killing him by inches. -</p> - -<p> -At the degree of intimacy which in Italy follows love, there was no -longer any obstacle in the nature of vanity between the lovers. It was -therefore with the most perfect simplicity that Mosca said to the woman -he adored: -</p> - -<p> -"I have two or three plans of conduct to offer you, all pretty well -thought out; I have been thinking of nothing else for the last three -months. -</p> - -<p> -"First: I hand in my resignation, and we retire to a quiet life at Milan -or Florence or Naples or wherever you please. We have an income of -15,000 francs, apart from the Prince's generosity, which will continue -for some time, more or less. -</p> - -<p> -"Secondly: You condescend to come to the place in which I have some -authority; you buy a property, Sacca, for example, a charming house in -the middle of a forest, commanding the valley of the Po; you can have -the contract signed within a week from now. The Prince then attaches you -to his court. But here I can see an immense objection. You will be well -received at court; no one would think of refusing, with me there; -besides, the Princess imagines she is unhappy, and I have recently -rendered her certain services with an eye to your future. But I must -remind you of one paramount objection: the Prince is a bigoted -churchman, and, as you already know, ill luck will have it that I am a -married man. From which will arise a million minor unpleasantnesses. You -are a widow; it is a fine title which would have to be exchanged for -another, and this brings me to my third proposal. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE DUCA SANSEVERINA</i></h5> - -<p> -"One might find a new husband who would not be a nuisance. But first of -all he would have to be considerably advanced in years, for why should -you deny me the hope of some day succeeding him? Very well, I have made -this curious arrangement with the Duca Sanseverina-Taxis, who, of -course, does not know the name of his future Duchessa. He knows only -that she will make him an Ambassador and will procure him the Grand -Cordon which his father had and the lack of which makes him the most -unhappy of mortals. Apart from this, the Duca is by no means an absolute -idiot; he gets his clothes and wigs from Paris. He is not in the least the -sort of man who would do anything <i>deliberately</i> mean, he seriously -believes that honour consists in his having a Cordon, and he is ashamed -of his riches. He came to me a year ago proposing to found a hospital, -in order to get this Cordon; I laughed at him then, but he did not by -any means laugh at me when I made him a proposal of marriage; my first -condition was, you can understand, that he must never set foot again in -Parma." -</p> - -<p> -"But do you know that what you are proposing is highly immoral?" said -the Contessa. -</p> - -<p> -"No more immoral than everything else that is done at our court and a -score of others. Absolute Power has this advantage, that it sanctifies -everything in the eyes of the public: what harm can there be in a thing -that nobody notices? Our policy for the next twenty years is going to -consist in fear of the Jacobins—and such fear, too! Every year, we -shall fancy ourselves on the eve of '93. You will hear, I hope, the fine -speeches I make on the subject at my receptions! They are beautiful! -Everything that can in any way reduce this fear will be <i>supremely -moral</i> in the eyes of the nobles and the bigots. And you see, at Parma, -everyone who is not either a noble or a bigot is in prison, or is -packing up to go there; you may be quite sure that this marriage will -not be thought odd among us until the day on which I am disgraced. This -arrangement involves no dishonesty towards anyone; that is the essential -thing, it seems to me. The Prince, on whose favour we are trading, has -placed only one condition on his consent, which is that the future -Duchessa shall be of noble birth. Last year my office, all told, brought -me in 107,000 francs; my total income would therefore be 122,000; I -invested 20,000 at Lyons. Very well, choose for yourself; either, a life -of luxury based on our having 122,000 francs to spend, which, at Parma, -go as far as at least 400,000 at Milan, but with this marriage which -will give you the name of a passable man on whom you will never set eyes -after you leave the altar; or else the simple middle-class existence on -15,000 francs at Florence or Naples, for I am of your opinion, you have -been too much admired at Milan; we should be persecuted here by envy, -which might perhaps succeed in souring our tempers. Our grand life at -Parma will, I hope, have some touches of novelty, even in your eyes -which have seen the court of Prince Eugène; you would be wise to try it -before shutting the door on it for ever. Do not think that I am -seeking to influence your opinion. As for me, my mind is quite made up: -I would rather live on a fourth floor with you than continue that grand -life by myself." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>A MATCH</i></h5> - -<p> -The possibility of this strange marriage was debated by the loving -couple every day. The Contessa saw the Duca Sanseverina-Taxis at the -Scala Ball, and thought him highly presentable. In one of their final -conversations, Mosca summed up his proposals in the following words: "We -must take some decisive action if we wish to spend the rest of our lives -in an enjoyable fashion and not grow old before our time. The Prince has -given his approval; Sanseverina is a person who might easily be worse; -he possesses the finest <i>palazzo</i> in Parma, and a boundless -fortune; he is sixty-eight, and has an insane passion for the Grand -Cordon; but there is one great stain on his character: he once paid -10,000 francs for a bust of Napoleon by Canova. His second sin, which -will be the death of him if you do not come to his rescue, is that he -lent 25 napoleons to Ferrante Palla, a lunatic of our country but also -something of a genius, whom we have since sentenced to death, -fortunately in his absence. This Ferrante has written a couple of -hundred lines in his time which are like nothing in the world; I will -repeat them to you, they are as fine as Dante. The Prince then sends -Sanseverina to the Court of ——, he marries you on the day of -his departure, and in the second year of his stay abroad, which he calls -an Embassy, he receives the Grand Cordon of the ——, without -which he cannot live. You will have in him a brother who will give you -no trouble at all; he signs all the papers I require in advance, and -besides you will see nothing of him, or as little as you choose. He asks -for nothing better than never to shew his face at Parma, where his -grandfather the tax-gatherer and his own profession of Liberalism stand -in his way. Rassi, our hangman, makes out that the Duca was a secret -subscriber to the <i>Constitutionnel</i> through Ferrante Palla the -poet, and this slander was for a long time a serious obstacle in the way -of the Prince's consent." -</p> - -<p> -Why should the historian who follows faithfully all the most trivial -details of the story that has been told him be held responsible? Is it -his fault if his characters, led astray by passions which he, -unfortunately for himself, in no way shares, descend to conduct that is -profoundly immoral? It is true that things of this sort are no longer -done in a country where the sole passion that has outlived all the rest -is that for money, as an excuse for vanity. -</p> - -<p> -Three months after the events we have just related, the Duchessa -Sanseverina-Taxis astonished the court of Parma by her easy affability -and the noble serenity of her mind; her house was beyond comparison the -most attractive in the town. This was what Conte Mosca had promised his -master. Ranuccio-Ernesto IV, the Reigning Prince, and the Princess his -Consort, to whom she was presented by two of the greatest ladies in the -land, gave her a most marked welcome. The Duchessa was curious to see -this Prince, master of the destiny of the man she loved, she was anxious -to please him, and in this was more than successful. She found a man of -tall stature but inclined to stoutness; his hair, his moustache, his -enormous whiskers were of a fine gold, according to his courtiers; -elsewhere they had provoked, by their faded tint, the ignoble word -<i>flaxen</i>. From the middle of a plump face there projected to no -distance at all a tiny nose that was almost feminine. But the Duchessa -observed that, in order to notice all these points of ugliness, one had -first to attempt to catalogue the Prince's features separately. Taken as -a whole, he had the air of a man of sense and of firm character. His -carriage, his way of holding himself were by no means devoid of majesty, -but often he sought to impress the person he was addressing; at such -times he grew embarrassed himself, and fell into an almost continuous -swaying motion from one leg to the other. For the rest, Ernesto IV had a -piercing and commanding gaze; his gestures with his arms had nobility, -and his speech was at once measured and concise. -</p> - -<p> -Mosca had warned the Duchessa that the Prince had, in the large cabinet -in which he gave audiences, a full length portrait of Louis XIV, and a -very fine table by Scagliola of Florence. She found the imitation -striking; evidently he sought to copy the gaze and the noble utterance -of Louis XIV, and he leaned upon the Scagliola table so as to give -himself the pose of Joseph II. He sat down as soon as he had uttered his -greeting to the Duchessa, to give her an opportunity to make use of the -<i>tabouret</i> befitting her rank. At this court, duchesses, princesses, -and the wives of Grandees of Spain alone have the right to sit; other women -wait until the Prince or Princess invites them; and, to mark the -difference in rank, these August Personages always take care to allow a -short interval to elapse before inviting the ladies who are not -duchesses to be seated. The Duchessa found that at certain moments the -imitation of Louis XIV was a little too strongly marked in the Prince; -for instance, in his way of smiling good-naturedly and throwing back his -head. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE COURT OF PARMA</i></h5> - -<p> -Ernesto IV wore an evening coat in the latest fashion, that had come -from Paris; every month he had sent to him from that city, which he -abhorred, an evening coat, a frock coat, and a hat. But by an odd blend -of costume, on the day on which the Duchessa was received he had put on -red breeches, silk stockings and very close-fitting shoes, models for -which might be found in the portraits of Joseph II. -</p> - -<p> -He received Signora Sanseverina graciously; the things he said to her -were shrewd and witty; but she saw quite plainly that there was no -superfluity of warmth in his reception of her.—"Do you know why?" -said Conte Mosca on her return from the audience, "it is because Milan is a -larger and finer city than Parma. He was afraid, had he given you the -welcome that I expected and he himself had led me to hope, of seeming -like a provincial in ecstasies before the charms of a beautiful lady who -has come down from the capital. No doubt, too, he is still upset by a -detail which I hardly dare mention to you; the Prince sees at his court -no woman who can vie with you in <i>beauty</i>. Yesterday evening, when he -retired to bed, that was his sole topic of conversation with Pernice, -his principal valet, who is good enough to confide in me. I foresee a -little revolution in etiquette; my chief enemy at this court is a fool -who goes by the name of General Fabio Conti. Just imagine a creature who -has been on active service for perhaps one day in his life, and sets out -from that to copy the bearing of Frederick the Great. In addition to -which, he aims also at copying the noble affability of General La -Fayette, and that because he is the leader, here, of the Liberal Party -(God knows what sort of Liberals!)." -</p> - -<p> -"I know your Fabio Conti," said the Duchessa; "I had a good view of him -once near Como; he was quarrelling with the police." She related the -little adventure which the reader may perhaps remember. -</p> - -<p> -"You will learn one day, Signora, if your mind ever succeeds in -penetrating the intricacies of our etiquette, that young ladies do not -appear at court here until after their marriage. At the same time, the -Prince has, for the superiority of his city of Parma over all others, a -patriotism so ardent that I would wager that he will find some way of -having little Clelia Conti, our La Fayette's daughter, presented to him. -She is charming, upon my soul she is; and was still reckoned, a week -ago, the best-looking person in the States of the Prince. -</p> - -<p> -"I do not know," the Conte went on, "whether the horrors that the -enemies of our Sovereign have disseminated against him, have reached the -castle of Grianta; they make him out a monster, an ogre. The truth is -that Ernesto IV was full of dear little virtues, and one may add that, -had he been invulnerable like Achilles, he would have continued to be -the model of a potentate. But in a moment of boredom and anger, and also -a little in imitation of Louis XIV cutting off the head of some hero or -other of the Fronde, who was discovered living in peaceful solitude on a -plot of land near Versailles, fifty years after the Fronde, one fine day -Ernesto IV had two Liberals hanged. It seems that these rash fellows -used to meet on fixed days to speak evil of the Prince and address -ardent prayers to heaven that the plague might visit Parma and deliver -them from the tyrant. The word <i>tyrant</i> was proved. Rassi called -this conspiracy; he had them sentenced to death, and the execution of -one of them, Conte L——, was atrocious. All this happened -before my time. Since that fatal hour," the Conte went on, lowering his -voice, "the Prince has been subject to fits of panic <i>unworthy of a -man</i>, but these are the sole source of the favour that I enjoy. But -for this royal fear, mine would be a kind of merit too abrupt, too harsh -for this court, where idiocy runs rampant. Would you believe that the -Prince looks under the beds in his room before going to sleep, and -spends a million, which at Parma is the equivalent of four millions at -Milan, to have a good police force; and you see before you, Signora -Duchessa, the Chief of that terrible Police. By the police, that is to -say by fear, I have become Minister of War and Finance; and as the -Minister of the Interior is my nominal chief, in so far as he has the -police under his jurisdiction, I have had that portfolio given to Conte -Zurla-Contarini, an imbecile who is a glutton for work and gives himself -the pleasure of writing eighty letters a day. I received one only this -morning on which Conte Zurla-Contarini has had the satisfaction of -writing with his own hand the number 20,715." -</p> - -<p> -The Duchessa Sanseverina was presented to the melancholy Princess of -Parma, Clara-Paolina, who, because her husband had a mistress (quite an -attractive woman, the Marchesa Balbi), imagined herself to be the most -unhappy person in the universe, a belief which had made her perhaps the -most trying. The Duchessa found a very tall and very thin woman, who was -not thirty-six and appeared fifty. A symmetrical and noble face might -have passed as beautiful, though somewhat spoiled by the large round -eyes which could barely see, if the Princess had not herself abandoned -every attempt at beauty. She received the Duchessa with a shyness so -marked that certain courtiers, enemies of Conte Mosca, ventured to say -that the Princess looked like the woman who was being presented and the -Duchessa like the sovereign. The Duchessa, surprised and almost -disconcerted, could find no language that would put her in a place -inferior to that which the Princess assumed for herself. To restore some -self-possession to this poor Princess, who at heart was not wanting in -intelligence, the Duchessa could think of nothing better than to begin, -and keep going, a long dissertation on botany. The Princess was really -learned in this science; she had some very fine hothouses with -quantities of tropical plants. The Duchessa, while seeking simply for a -way out of a difficult position, made a lifelong conquest of Princess -Clara-Paolina, who, from the shy and speechless creature that she had -been at the beginning of the audience, found herself towards the end so -much at her ease, that, in defiance of all the rules of etiquette, this -first audience lasted for no less than an hour and a quarter. Next day, -the Duchessa sent out to purchase some exotic plants, and posed as a -great lover of botany. -</p> - -<p> -The Princess spent all her time with the venerable Father Landriani, -Archbishop of Parma, a man of learning, a man of intelligence even, and -a perfectly honest man, but one who presented a singular spectacle when -he was seated in his chair of crimson velvet (it was the privilege of -his office) opposite the armchair of the Princess, surrounded by her maids -of honour and her two ladies <i>of company</i>. The old prelate, with his -flowing white locks, was even more timid, were such a thing possible, -than the Princess; they saw one another every day, and every audience -began with a silence that lasted fully a quarter of an hour. To such a -state had they come that the Contessa Alvizi, one of the ladies of -company, had become a sort of favourite, because she possessed the art -of encouraging them to talk and so breaking the silence. -</p> - -<p> -To end the series of presentations, the Duchessa was admitted to the -presence of H.S.H. the Crown Prince, a personage of taller stature than -his father and more timid than his mother. He was learned in mineralogy, -and was sixteen years old. He blushed excessively on seeing the Duchessa -come in, and was so put off his balance that he could not think of a -word to say to that beautiful lady. He was a fine-looking young man, and -spent his life in the woods, hammer in hand. At the moment when the -Duchessa rose to bring this silent audience to an end: -</p> - -<p> -"My God! Signora, how pretty you are!" exclaimed the Crown Prince; a -remark which was not considered to be in too bad taste by the lady -presented. -</p> - -<p> -The Marchesa Balbi, a young woman of five-and-twenty, might still have -passed for the most perfect type of <i>leggiadria italiana</i>, two or -three years before the arrival of the Duchessa Sanseverina at Parma. As it -was, she had still the finest eyes in the world and the most charming -airs, but, viewed close at hand, her skin was netted with countless fine -little wrinkles which made the Marchesa look like a young grandmother. -Seen from a certain distance, in the theatre for instance, in her box, -she was still a beauty, and the people in the pit thought that the -Prince shewed excellent taste. He spent every evening with the Marchesa -Balbi, but often without opening his lips, and the boredom she saw on -the Prince's face had made this poor woman decline into an extraordinary -thinness. She laid claim to an unlimited subtlety, and was always -smiling a bitter smile; she had the prettiest teeth in the world, and in -season and out, having little or no sense, would attempt by an ironical -smile to give some hidden meaning to her words. Conte Mosca said that it -was these continual smiles, while inwardly she was yawning, that gave -her all her wrinkles. The Balbi had a finger in every pie, and the State -never made a contract for 1,000 francs without there being some little -<i>ricordo</i> (this was the polite expression at Parma) for the Marchesa. -Common report would have it that she had invested six millions in -England, but her fortune, which indeed was of recent origin, did not in -reality amount to 1,500,000 francs. It was to be out of reach of her -stratagems, and to have her dependent upon himself, that Conte Mosca had -made himself Minister of Finance. The Marchesa's sole passion was fear -disguised in sordid avarice: "<i>I shall die on straw</i>!" she used -occasionally to say to the Prince, who was shocked by such a remark. The -Duchessa noticed that the ante-room, resplendent with gilding, of the -Balbi's <i>palazzo</i>, was lighted by a single candle which guttered on a -priceless marble table, and that the doors of her drawing-room were -blackened by the footmen's fingers. -</p> - -<p> -"She received me," the Duchessa told her lover, "as though she expected -me to offer her a gratuity of 50 francs." -</p> - -<p> -The course of the Duchessa's successes was slightly interrupted by the -reception given her by the shrewdest woman of the court, the celebrated -Marchesa Raversi, a consummate intriguer who had established herself at -the head of the party opposed to that of Conte Mosca. She was anxious to -overthrow him, all the more so in the last few months, since she was the -niece of the Duca Sanseverina, and was afraid of seeing her prospects -impaired by the charms of his new Duchessa. "The Raversi is by no means -a woman to be ignored," the Conte told his mistress; "I regard her as so -far capable of sticking at nothing that I separated from my wife solely -because she insisted on taking as her lover Cavaliere Bentivoglio, a -friend of the Raversi." This lady, a tall virago with very dark hair, -remarkable for the diamonds which she wore all day, and the rouge with -which she covered her cheeks, had declared herself in advance the -Duchessa's enemy, and when she received her in her own house made it her -business to open hostilities. The Duca Sanseverina, in the letters he wrote -from ——, appeared so delighted with his Embassy, and above all, -with the prospect of the Grand Cordon, that his family were afraid of -his leaving part of his fortune to his wife, whom he loaded with little -presents. The Raversi, although definitely ugly, had for a lover Conte -Baldi, the handsomest man at court; generally speaking, she was -successful in all her undertakings. -</p> - -<p> -The Duchessa lived in the greatest style imaginable. The <i>palazzo</i> -Sanseverina had always been one of the most magnificent in the city of -Parma, and the Duca, to celebrate the occasion of his Embassy and his -future Grand Cordon, was spending enormous sums upon its decoration; the -Duchessa directed the work in person. -</p> - -<p> -The Conte had guessed aright; a few days after the presentation of the -Duchessa, young Clelia Conti came to court; she had been made a -Canoness. In order to parry the blow which this favour might be thought -to have struck at the Conte's influence, the Duchessa gave a party, on the -pretext of throwing open the new garden of her <i>palazzo</i>, and by the -exercise of her most charming manners made Clelia, whom she called her -young friend of the Lake of Como, the queen of the evening. Her monogram -was displayed, as though by accident, upon the principal transparencies. -The young Clelia, although slightly pensive, was pleasant in the way in -which she spoke of the little adventure by the Lake, and of her warm -gratitude. She was said to be deeply religious and very fond of -solitude. "I would wager," said the Conte, "that she has enough sense to -be ashamed of her father." The Duchessa made a friend of this girl; she -felt attracted towards her, she did not wish to appear jealous, and -included her in all her pleasure parties; after all, her plan was to -seek to diminish all the enmities of which the Conte was the object. -</p> - -<p> -Everything smiled on the Duchessa; she was amused by this court -existence where a sudden storm is always to be feared; she felt as -though she were beginning life over again. She was tenderly attached to -the Conte, who was literally mad with happiness. This pleasing situation -had bred in him an absolute impassivity towards everything in which only -his professional interests were concerned. And so, barely two months -after the Duchessa's arrival, he obtained the patent and honours of -Prime Minister, honours which come very near to those paid to the -Sovereign himself. The Conte had complete control of his master's will; -they had a proof of this at Parma by which everyone was impressed. -</p> - -<p> -To the southeast, and within ten minutes of the town rises that famous -citadel so renowned throughout Italy, the main tower of which stands one -hundred and eighty feet high and is visible from so far. This tower, -constructed on the model of Hadrian's Tomb, at Rome, by the Farnese, -grandsons of Paul III, in the first half of the sixteenth century, is so -large in diameter that on the platform in which it ends it has been -possible to build a <i>palazzo</i> for the governor of the citadel and a -new prison called the Farnese tower. This prison, erected in honour of the -eldest son of Ranuccio-Ernesto II, who had become the accepted lover of -his stepmother, is regarded as a fine and singular monument throughout -the country. The Duchessa was curious to see it; on the day of her visit -the heat was overpowering in Parma, and up there, in that lofty -position, she found fresh air, which so delighted her that she stayed -for several hours. The officials made a point of throwing open to her -the rooms of the Farnese tower. -</p> - -<p> -The Duchessa met on the platform of the great tower a poor Liberal -prisoner who had come to enjoy the half-hour's outing that was allowed -him every third day. On her return to Parma, not having yet acquired the -discretion necessary in an absolute court, she spoke of this man, who -had told her the whole history of his life. The Marchesa Raversi's -party seized hold of these utterances of the Duchessa and repeated them -broadcast, greatly hoping that they would shock the Prince. Indeed, -Ernesto IV was in the habit of repeating that the essential thing was to -impress the imagination. "<i>Perpetual</i> is a big word," he used to say, -"and more terrible in Italy than elsewhere": accordingly, never in his -life had he granted a pardon. A week after her visit to the fortress the -Duchessa received a letter commuting a sentence, signed by the Prince -and by his Minister, with a blank left for the name. The prisoner whose -name she chose to write in this space would obtain the restoration of -his property, with permission to spend the rest of his days in America. -The Duchessa wrote the name of the man who had talked to her. -Unfortunately this man turned out to be half a rogue, a weak-kneed -creature; it was on the strength of his confessions that the famous -Ferrante Palla had been sentenced to death. -</p> - -<p> -The unprecedented nature of this pardon set the seal upon Signora -Sanseverina's position. Conte Mosca was wild with delight; it was a -great day in his life and one that had a decisive influence on -Fabrizio's destiny. He, meanwhile, was still at Romagnano, near Novara, -going to confession, hunting, reading nothing, and paying court to a -lady of noble birth, as was laid down in his instructions. The Duchessa -was still a trifle shocked by this last essential. Another sign which -boded no good to the Conte was that, while she would speak to him with -the utmost frankness about everyone else, and would think aloud in his -presence, she never mentioned Fabrizio to him without first carefully -choosing her words. -</p> - -<p> -"If you like," the Conte said to her one day, "I will write to that -charming brother you have on the Lake of Como, and I will soon force -that Marchese del Dongo, if I and my friends in a certain quarter apply -a little pressure, to ask for the pardon of your dear Fabrizio. If it be -true, as I have not the least doubt that it is, that Fabrizio is -somewhat superior to the young fellows who ride their English -thoroughbreds about the streets of Milan, what a life, at eighteen, to -be doing nothing with no prospect of ever having anything to do! If -heaven had endowed him with a real passion for anything in the world, -were it only for angling, I should respect it; but what is he to do at -Milan, even after he has obtained his pardon? He will get on a horse, -which he will have had sent to him from England, at a certain hour of -the day; at another, idleness will take him to his mistress, for whom he -will care less than he will for his horse. . . . But, if you say the -word, I will try to procure this sort of life for your nephew." -</p> - -<p> -"I should like him to be an officer," said the Duchessa. -</p> - -<p> -"Would you recommend a Sovereign to entrust a post which, at a given -date, may be of some importance to a young man who, in the first place, -is liable to enthusiasm, and, secondly, has shewn enthusiasm for -Napoleon to the extent of going to join him at Waterloo? Just think -where we should all be if Napoleon had won at Waterloo! We should have -no Liberals to be afraid of, it is true, but the Sovereigns of ancient -Houses would be able to keep their thrones only by marrying the -daughters of his Marshals. And so military life for Fabrizio would be -the life of a squirrel in a revolving cage: plenty of movement with no -progress. He would have the annoyance of seeing himself cut out by all -sorts of plebeian devotion. The essential quality in a young man of the -present day, that is to say for the next fifty years perhaps, so long as -we remain in a state of fear and religion has not been re-established, -is not to be liable to enthusiasm and not to shew any spirit. -</p> - -<p> -"I have thought of one thing, but one that will begin by making you cry -out in protest, and will give me infinite trouble for many a day to -come: it is an act of folly which I am ready to commit for you. But tell -me, if you can, what folly would I not commit to win a smile?" -</p> - -<p> -"Well?" said the Duchessa. -</p> - -<p> -"Well, we have had as Archbishops of Parma three members of your family: -Ascanio del Dongo who wrote a book in sixteen-something, Fabrizio in -1699, and another Ascanio in 1740. If Fabrizio cares to enter the -prelacy, and to make himself conspicuous for virtues of the highest -order, I can make him a Bishop somewhere, and then Archbishop here, -provided that my influence lasts. The real objection is this: shall I -remain Minister for long enough to carry out this fine plan, which will -require several years? The Prince may die, he may have the bad taste to -dismiss me. But, after all, it is the only way open to me of securing -for Fabrizio something that is worthy of you." -</p> - -<p> -They discussed the matter at length: the idea was highly repugnant to -the Duchessa. -</p> - -<p> -"Prove to me again," she said to the Conte, "that every other career is -impossible for Fabrizio." The Conte proved it. -</p> - -<p> -"You regret," he added, "the brilliant uniform; but as to that, I do not -know what to do." -</p> - -<p> -After a month in which the Duchessa had asked to be allowed to think -things over, she yielded with a sigh to the sage views of the Minister. -"Either ride stiffly upon an English horse through the streets of some -big town," repeated the Conte, "or adopt a calling that is not -unbefitting his birth; I can see no middle course. Unfortunately, a -gentleman cannot become either a doctor or a barrister, and this age is -made for barristers. -</p> - -<p> -"Always bear in mind, Signora," the Conte went on, "that you are giving -your nephew, on the streets of Milan, the lot enjoyed by the young men -of his age who pass for the most fortunate. His pardon once procured, -you will give him fifteen, twenty, thirty thousand francs; the amount -does not matter; neither you nor I make any pretence of saving money." -</p> - -<p> -The Duchessa was susceptible to the idea of fame; she did not wish -Fabrizio to be simply a young man living on an allowance; she reverted -to her lover's plan. -</p> - -<p> -"Observe," the Conte said to her, "that I do not pretend to turn -Fabrizio into an exemplary priest, like so many that you see. No, he is -a great gentleman, first and foremost; he can remain perfectly ignorant -if it seems good to him, and will none the less become Bishop and -Archbishop, if the Prince continues to regard me as a useful person. -</p> - -<p> -"If your orders deign to transform my proposal into an immutable -decree," the Conte went on, "our <i>protégé</i> must on no account be seen -in Parma living with modest means. His subsequent promotion will cause a -scandal if people have seen him here as an ordinary priest; he ought not -to appear in Parma until he has his <i>violet stockings</i><a name="FNanchor_10_1" id="FNanchor_10_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_1" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> and a -suitable establishment. Then everyone will assume that your nephew is -destined to be a Bishop, and nobody will be shocked. -</p> - -<p> -"If you will take my advice, you will send Fabrizio to take his theology -and spend three years at Naples. During the vacations of the -Ecclesiastical Academy he can go if he likes to visit Paris and London, -but he must never shew his face in Parma." This sentence made the -Duchessa shudder. -</p> - -<p> -She sent a courier to her nephew, asking him to meet her at Piacenza. -Need it be said that this courier was the bearer of all the means of -obtaining money and all the necessary passports? -</p> - -<p> -Arriving first at Piacenza, Fabrizio hastened to meet the Duchessa, and -embraced her with transports of joy which made her dissolve in tears. -She was glad that the Conte was not present; since they had fallen in -love, it was the first time that she had experienced this sensation. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio was profoundly touched, and then distressed by the plans which -the Duchessa had made for him; his hope had always been that, his affair -at Waterloo settled, he might end by becoming a soldier. One thing -struck the Duchessa, and still further increased the romantic opinion -that she had formed of her nephew; he refused absolutely to lead a -<i>caffè</i>-haunting existence in one of the big towns of Italy. -</p> - -<p> -"Can't you see yourself on the <i>Corso</i> of Florence or Naples," said -the Duchessa, "with thoroughbred English horses? For the evenings a -carriage, a charming apartment," and so forth. She dwelt with exquisite -relish on the details of this vulgar happiness, which she saw Fabrizio -thrust from him with disdain. "He is a hero," she thought. -</p> - -<p> -"And after ten years of this agreeable life, what shall I have done?" -said Fabrizio; "what shall I be? A young man <i>of a certain age</i>, who -will have to move out of the way of the first good-looking boy who makes -his appearance in society, also mounted upon an English horse." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio at first utterly rejected the idea of the Church. He spoke of -going to New York, of becoming an American citizen and a soldier of the -Republic. -</p> - -<p> -"What a mistake you are making! You won't have any war, and you'll fall -back into the <i>caffè</i> life, only without smartness, without music, -without love affairs," replied the Duchessa. "Believe me, for you just -as much as for myself, it would be a wretched existence there in -America." She explained to him the cult of the god <i>Dollar</i>, and the -respect that had to be shewn to the artisans in the street who by their -votes decided everything. They came back to the idea of the Church. -</p> - -<p> -"Before you fly into a passion," the Duchessa said to him, "just try to -understand what the Conte is asking you to do; there is no question -whatever of your being a poor priest of more or less exemplary and -virtuous life, like Priore Blanès. Remember the example of your uncles, -the Archbishops of Parma; read over again the accounts of their lives in -the supplement to the Genealogy. First and foremost, a man with a name -like yours has to be a great gentleman, noble, generous, an upholder of -justice, destined from the first to find himself at the head of his -order . . . and in the whole of his life doing only one dishonourable -thing, and that a very useful one." -</p> - -<p> -"So all my illusions are shattered," said Fabrizio, heaving a deep sigh; -"it is a cruel sacrifice! I admit, I had not taken into account this -horror of enthusiasm and spirit, even when wielded to their advantage, -which from now onwards is going to prevail amongst absolute monarchs." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>ITALIAN PRUDENCE</i></h5> - -<p> -"Remember that a proclamation, a caprice of the heart flings the -enthusiast into the bosom of the opposite party to the one he has served -all his life!" -</p> - -<p> -"I an enthusiast!" repeated Fabrizio; "a strange accusation! I cannot -manage even to be in love!" -</p> - -<p> -"What!" exclaimed the Duchessa. -</p> - -<p> -"When I have the honour to pay my court to a beauty, even if she is of -good birth and sound religious principles, I cannot think about her -except when I see her." -</p> - -<p> -This avowal made a strange impression upon the Duchessa. -</p> - -<p> -"I ask for a month," Fabrizio went on, "in which to take leave of -Signora C——, of Novara, and, what will be more difficult still, -of all the castles I have been building in the air all my life. I shall -write to my mother, who will be so good as to come and see me at Belgirate, -on the Piedmontese shore of Lake Maggiore, and, in thirty-one days from -now, I shall be in Parma incognito." -</p> - -<p> -"No, whatever you do!" cried the Duchessa. She did not wish Conte Mosca -to see her talking to Fabrizio. -</p> - -<p> -The same pair met again at Piacenza. The Duchessa this time was highly -agitated: a storm had broken at court; the Marchesa Raversi's party was -on the eve of a triumph; it was on the cards that Conte Mosca might be -replaced by General Fabio Conti, the leader of what was called at Parma -the <i>Liberal Party</i>. Omitting only the name of the rival who was -growing in the Prince's favour, the Duchessa told Fabrizio everything. She -discussed afresh the chances of his future career, even with the -prospect of his losing the all-powerful influence of the Conte. -</p> - -<p> -"I am going to spend three years in the Ecclesiastical Academy at -Naples," exclaimed Fabrizio; "but since I must be before all things a -young gentleman, and you do not oblige me to lead the life of a virtuous -seminarist, the prospect of this stay at Naples does not frighten me in -the least; the life there will be in every way as pleasant as life at -Romagnano; the best society of the neighbourhood was beginning to class -me as a Jacobin. In my exile I have discovered that I know nothing, not -even Latin, not even how to spell. I had planned to begin my education -over again at Novara; I shall willingly study theology at Naples; it is -a complicated science." The Duchessa was overjoyed. "If we are driven -out of Parma," she told him, "we shall come and visit you at Naples. But -since you agree, until further orders, to try for the violet stockings, -the Conte, who knows the Italy of to-day through and through, has given -me an idea to suggest to you. Believe or not, as you choose, what they -teach you, <i>but never raise any objection</i>. Imagine that they are -teaching you the rules of the game of whist; would you raise any objection -to the rules of whist? I have told the Conte that you do believe, and he is -delighted to hear it; it is useful in this world and in the next. But, -if you believe, do not fall into the vulgar habit of speaking with -horror of Voltaire, Diderot, Raynal and all those harebrained Frenchmen -who paved the way to the Dual Chamber. Their names should not be allowed -to pass your lips, but if you must mention them, speak of these -gentlemen with a calm irony: they are people who have long since been -refuted and whose attacks are no longer of any consequence. Believe -blindly everything that they tell you at the Academy. Bear in mind that -there are people who will make a careful note of your slightest -objections; they will forgive you a little amorous intrigue if it is -done in the proper way, but not a doubt: age stifles intrigue but -encourages doubt. Act on this principle at the tribunal of penitence. -You shall have a letter of recommendation to a Bishop who is factotum to -the Cardinal Archbishop of Naples: to him alone you should admit your -escapade in France and your presence on the 18th of June in the -neighbourhood of Waterloo. Even then, cut it as short as possible, -confess it only so that they cannot reproach you with having kept it -secret. You were so young at the time! -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE COURT</i></h5> - -<p> -"The second idea which the Conte sends you is this: if there should -occur to you a brilliant argument, a triumphant retort that will change -the course of the conversation, do not give in to the temptation to -shine; remain silent: people of any discernment will see your cleverness -in your eyes. It will be time enough to be witty when you are a Bishop." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio began his life at Naples with an unpretentious carriage and -four servants, good Milanese, whom his aunt had sent him. After a year -of study, no one said of him that he was a man of parts: people looked -upon him as a great nobleman, of a studious bent, extremely generous, -but something of a libertine. -</p> - -<p> -That year, amusing enough for Fabrizio, was terrible for the Duchessa. -The Conte was three or four times within an inch of ruin; the Prince, -more timorous than ever, because he was ill that year, believed that by -dismissing him he could free himself from the odium of the executions -carried out before the Conte had entered his service. Rassi was the -cherished favourite who must at all costs be retained. The Conte's -perils won him the passionate attachment of the Duchessa; she gave no -more thought to Fabrizio. To lend colour to their possible retirement, -it appeared that the air of Parma, which was indeed a trifle damp as it -is everywhere in Lombardy, did not at all agree with her. Finally, after -intervals of disgrace which went so far as to make the Conte, though -Prime Minister, spend sometimes twenty whole days without seeing his -master privately, Mosca won; he secured the appointment of General Fabio -Conti, the so-called Liberal, as governor of the citadel in which were -imprisoned the Liberals condemned by Rassi. "If Conti shows any leniency -towards his prisoners," Mosca observed to his lady, "he will be -disgraced as a Jacobin whose political theories have made him forget his -duty as a general; if he shows himself stern and pitiless, and that, to -my mind, is the direction in which he will tend, he ceases to be the -leader of his own party and alienates all the families that have a -relative in the citadel. This poor man has learned how to assume an air -of awed respect on the approach of the Prince; if necessary, he changes -his clothes four times a day; he can discuss a question of etiquette, -but his is not a head capable of following the difficult path by which -alone he can save himself from destruction; and in any case, I am -there." -</p> - -<p> -The day after the appointment of General Fabio Conti, which brought the -ministerial crisis to an end, it was announced that Parma was to have an -ultra-monarchist newspaper. -</p> - -<p> -"What feuds the paper will create!" said the Duchessa. -</p> - -<p> -"This paper, the idea of which is perhaps my masterpiece," replied the -Conte with a smile, "I shall gradually and quite against my will allow -to pass into the hands of the ultra-rabid section. I have attached some -good salaries to the editorial posts. People are coming from all -quarters to beg for employment on it; the excitement will help us -through the next month or two, and people will forget the danger I have -been in. Those seriously minded gentlemen P—— and -D—— are already on the list." -</p> - -<p> -"But this paper will be quite revoltingly absurd." -</p> - -<p> -"I am reckoning on that," replied the Conte. "The Prince will read it -every morning and admire the doctrines taught by myself as its founder. -As to the details, he will approve or be shocked; of the hours which he -devotes every day to work, two will be taken up in this way. The paper -will get itself into trouble, but when the serious complaints begin to -come in, in eight or ten months' time, it will be entirely in the hands -of the ultra-rabids. It will be this party, which is annoying me, that -will have to answer; as for me, I shall raise objections to the paper; -but after all I greatly prefer a hundred absurdities to one hanging. Who -remembers an absurdity two years after the publication of the official -gazette! It is better than having the sons and family of the hanged man -vowing a hatred which will last as long as I shall and may perhaps -shorten my life." -</p> - -<p> -The Duchessa, always passionately interested in something, always -active, never idle, had more spirit than the whole court of Parma put -together; but she lacked the patience and impassivity necessary for -success in intrigue. However, she had managed to follow with passionate -excitement the interests of the various groups, she was beginning even -to establish a certain personal reputation with the Prince. -Clara-Paolina, the Princess Consort, surrounded with honours but a -prisoner to the most antiquated etiquette, looked upon herself as the -unhappiest of women. The Duchessa Sanseverina paid her various -attentions and tried to prove to her that she was by no means so unhappy -as she supposed. It should be explained that the Prince saw his wife -only at dinner: this meal lasted for thirty minutes, and the Prince -would spend whole weeks without saying a word to Clara-Paolina. Signora -Sanseverina attempted to change all this; she amused the Prince, all the -more as she had managed to retain her independence intact. Had she -wished to do so, she could not have succeeded in never hurting any of -the fools who swarmed about this court. It was this utter inadaptability -on her part that led to her being execrated by the common run of -courtiers, all Conti or Marchesi, with an average income of 5,000 lire. -She realised this disadvantage after the first few days, and devoted -herself exclusively to pleasing the Sovereign and his Consort, the -latter of whom was in absolute control of the Crown Prince. The Duchessa -knew how to amuse the Sovereign, and profited by the extreme attention -he paid to her lightest word to put in some shrewd thrusts at the -courtiers who hated her. After the foolish actions that Rassi had made -him commit, and for foolishness that sheds blood there is no reparation, -the Prince was sometimes afraid and was often bored, which had brought -him to a state of morbid envy; he felt that he was deriving little -amusement from life, and grew sombre when he saw other people amused; -the sight of happiness made him furious. "We must keep our love secret," -she told her admirer, and gave the Prince to understand that she was -only very moderately attached to the Conte, who for that matter was so -thoroughly deserving of esteem. -</p> - -<p> -This discovery had given His Highness a happy day. From time to time, -the Duchessa let fall a few words about the plan she had in her mind of -taking a few months' holiday every year, to be spent in seeing Italy, -which she did not know at all; she would visit Naples, Florence, Rome. -Now nothing in the world was more capable of distressing the Prince than -an apparent desertion of this sort; it was one of his most pronounced -weaknesses, any action that might be interpreted as showing contempt for -his capital city pierced him to the heart. He felt that he had no way of -holding Signora Sanseverina, and Signora Sanseverina was by far the most -brilliant woman in Parma. A thing without parallel in the lazy Italian -character, people used to drive in from the surrounding country to -attend her <i>Thursdays</i>; they were regular festivals; almost every week -the Duchessa had something new and sensational to present. The Prince -was dying to see one of these Thursdays for himself; but how was it to -be managed? Go to the house of a private citizen! That was a thing that -neither his father nor he had ever done in their lives! -</p> - -<p> -There came a certain Thursday of cold wind and rain; all through the -evening the Prince heard carriages rattling over the pavement of the -piazza outside the Palace, on their way to Signora Sanseverina's. He -moved petulantly in his chair: other people were amusing themselves, and -he, their sovereign Prince, their absolute master, who ought to find -more amusement than anyone in the world, he was tasting the fruit of -boredom! He rang for his aide-de-camp: he was obliged to wait until a -dozen trustworthy men had been posted in the street that led from the -Royal Palace to the <i>palazzo</i> Sanseverina. Finally, after an hour that -seemed to the Prince an age, during which he had been minded a score of -times to brave the assassins' daggers and to go boldly out without any -precaution, he appeared in the first of Signora Sanseverina's -drawing-rooms. A thunderbolt might have fallen upon the carpet and not -produced so much surprise. In the twinkling of an eye, and as the Prince -advanced through them, these gay and noisy rooms were hushed to a -stupefied silence; every eye, fixed on the Prince, was strained with -attention. The courtiers appeared disconcerted; the Duchessa alone -shewed no sign of surprise. When finally her guests had recovered -sufficient strength to speak, the great preoccupation of all present was -to decide the important question: had the Duchessa been warned of this -visit, or had she like everyone else been taken by surprise? -</p> - -<p> -The Prince was amused, and the reader may now judge of the utterly -impulsive character of the Duchessa, and of the boundless power which -vague ideas of departure, adroitly disseminated, had enabled her to -assume. -</p> - -<p> -As she went to the door with the Prince, who was making her the -prettiest speeches, an odd idea came to her which she ventured to put -into words quite simply, and as though it were the most natural thing in -the world. -</p> - -<p> -"If Your Serene Highness would address to the Princess three or four of -these charming utterances which he lavishes on me, he could be far more -certain of giving me pleasure than by telling me that I am pretty. I -mean that I would not for anything in the world have the Princess look -with an unfriendly eye on the signal mark of his favour with which His -Highness has honoured me this evening." -</p> - -<p> -The Prince looked fixedly at her and replied in a dry tone: -</p> - -<p> -"I was under the impression that I was my own master and could go where -I pleased." -</p> - -<p> -The Duchessa blushed. -</p> - -<p> -"I wished only," she explained, instantly recovering herself, "not to -expose His Highness to the risk of a bootless errand, for this Thursday -will be the last; I am going for a few days to Bologna or Florence." -</p> - -<p> -When she reappeared in the rooms, everyone imagined her to be at the -height of favour, whereas she had just taken a risk upon which, in the -memory of man, no one had ever ventured. She made a sign to the Conte, -who rose from the whist-table and followed her into a little room that -was lighted but empty. -</p> - -<p> -"You have done a very bold thing," he informed her; "I should not have -advised it myself, but when hearts are really inflamed," he added with a -smile, "happiness enhances love, and if you leave to-morrow morning, I -shall follow you to-morrow night. I shall be detained here only by that -burden of a Ministry of Finance which I was stupid enough to take on my -shoulders; but in four hours of hard work, one can hand over a good many -accounts. Let us go back, dear friend, and play at ministerial fatuity -with all freedom and without reserve; it may be the last performance -that we shall give in this town. If he thinks he is being defied, the -man is capable of anything; he will call it <i>making an example</i>. When -these people have gone, we can decide on a way of barricading you for -to-night; the best plan perhaps would be to set off without delay for -your house at Sacca, by the Po, which has the advantage of being within -half an hour of Austrian territory." -</p> - -<p> -For the Duchessa's love and self-esteem this was an exquisite moment; -she looked at the Conte, and her eyes brimmed with tears. So powerful a -Minister, surrounded by this swarm of courtiers who loaded him with -homage equal to that which they paid to the Prince himself, to leave -everything for her sake, and with such unconcern! -</p> - -<p> -When she returned to the drawing-room she was beside herself with joy. -Everyone bowed down before her. -</p> - -<p> -"How prosperity has changed the Duchessa!" was murmured everywhere by -the courtiers, "one would hardly recognise her. So that Roman spirit, so -superior to everything in the world, does after all, deign to appreciate -the extraordinary favour that has just been conferred upon her by the -Sovereign!" -</p> - -<p> -Towards the end of the evening the Conte came to her: "I must tell you -the latest news." Immediately the people who happened to be standing -near the Duchessa withdrew. -</p> - -<p> -"The Prince, on his return to the Palace," the Conte went on, "had -himself announced at the door of his wife's room. Imagine the surprise! -'I have come to tell you,' he said to her, 'about a really most -delightful evening I have spent at the Sanseverina's. It was she who -asked me to give you a full description of the way in which she has -decorated that grimy old <i>palazzo</i>.' Then the Prince took a seat and -went into a description of each of your rooms in turn. -</p> - -<p> -"He spent more than twenty-five minutes with his wife, who was in tears -of joy; for all her intelligence, she could not think of anything to -keep the conversation going in the light tone which His Highness was -pleased to impart to it." -</p> - -<p> -This Prince was by no means a wicked man, whatever the Liberals of Italy -might say of him. As a matter of fact, he had cast a good number of them -into prison, but that was from fear, and he used to repeat now and then, -as though to console himself for certain unpleasant memories: "It is -better to kill the devil than to let the devil kill you." The day after -the party we have been describing, he was supremely happy; he had done -two good actions: he had gone to the <i>Thursday</i>, and he had talked -to his wife. At dinner, he addressed her again; in a word, this -<i>Thursday</i> at Signora Sanseverina's brought about a domestic -revolution with which the whole of Parma rang; the Raversi was in -consternation, and the Duchessa doubly delighted: she had contrived to -be of use to her lover, and had found him more in love with her than -ever. -</p> - -<p> -"All this owing to a thoroughly rash idea which came into my mind!" she -said to the Conte. "I should be more free, no doubt, in Rome or Naples, -but should I find so fascinating a game to play there? No, indeed, my -dear Conte, and you provide me with all my joy in life." -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="nind"><a name="Footnote_10_1" id="Footnote_10_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_1"><span class="label">[10]</span></a>In Italy, young men with influence or brains become -<i>Monsignori</i> and <i>prelati</i>, which does not mean bishop; they then wear -violet stockings. A man need not take any vows to become <i>Monsignore</i>; -he can discard his violet stockings and marry.</p></div> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h4><a id="CHAPTER_SEVEN">CHAPTER SEVEN</a></h4> - -<p> -It is with trifling details of court life as insignificant as those -related in the last chapter that we should have to fill up the history -of the next four years. Every spring the Marchesa came with her daughters -to spend a couple of months at the <i>palazzo</i> Sanseverina or on -the property of Sacca, by the bank of the Po; there they spent some very -pleasant hours and used to talk of Fabrizio, but the Conte would never -allow him to pay a single visit to Parma. The Duchessa and the Minister -had indeed to make amends for certain acts of folly, but on the whole -Fabrizio followed soberly enough the line of conduct that had been laid -down for him: that of a great nobleman who is studying theology and does -not rely entirely on his virtues to bring him advancement. At Naples, he -had acquired a keen interest in the study of antiquity, he made -excavations; this new passion had almost taken the place of his passion -for horses. He had sold his English thoroughbreds in order to continue -his excavations at Miseno, where he had turned up a bust of Tiberius as -a young man which had been classed among the finest relics of antiquity. -The discovery of this bust was almost the keenest pleasure that had come -to him at Naples. He had too lofty a nature to seek to copy the other -young men he saw, to wish for example to play with any degree of -seriousness the part of lover. Of course he never lacked mistresses, but -these were of no consequence to him, and, in spite of his years, one -might say of him that he still knew nothing of love: he was all the more -loved on that account. Nothing prevented him from behaving with the most -perfect coolness, for to him a young and pretty woman was always -equivalent to any other young and pretty woman; only the latest comer -seemed to him the most exciting. One of the most generally admired -ladies in Naples had done all sorts of foolish things in his honour -during the last year of his stay there, which at first had amused him, -and had ended by boring him to tears, so much so that one of the joys of -his departure was the prospect of being delivered from the attentions of -the charming Duchessa d'A——. It was in 1821 that, having -satisfactorily passed all his examinations, his director of studies, or -governor, received a Cross and a gratuity, and he himself started out to -see at length that city of Parma of which he had often dreamed. He was -<i>Monsignore</i>, and he had four horses drawing his carriage; at the -stage before Parma he took only two, and on entering the town made them -stop outside the church of San Giovanni. There was to be found the costly -tomb of Archbishop Ascanio del Dongo, his great-granduncle, the author -of the Latin genealogy. He prayed beside the tomb, then went on foot to -the <i>palazzo</i> of the Duchessa, who did not expect him until several -days later. There was a large crowd in her drawing-room; presently they -were left alone. -</p> - -<p> -"Well, are you satisfied with me?" he asked her as he flung himself into -her arms; "thanks to you, I have spent four quite happy years at Naples, -instead of eating my head off at Novara with my mistress authorised by -the police." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE COURT</i></h5> - -<p> -The Duchessa could not get over her astonishment; she would not have -known him had she seen him go by in the street; she discovered him to -be, what as a matter of fact he was, one of the best-looking men in -Italy; his physiognomy in particular was charming. She had sent him to -Naples a devil-may-care young rough-rider; the horsewhip he invariably -carried at that time had seemed an inherent part of his person: now he -had the noblest and most measured bearing before strangers, while in -private conversation she found that he had retained all the ardour of -his boyhood. This was a diamond that had lost nothing by being polished. -Fabrizio had not been in the room an hour when Conte Mosca appeared; he -arrived a little too soon. The young man spoke to him with so apt a -choice of terms of the Cross of Parma that had been conferred on his -governor, and expressed his lively gratitude for certain other benefits -of which he did not venture to speak in so open a fashion, with so -perfect a restraint, that at the first glance the Minister formed an -excellent impression of him. "This nephew," he murmured to the Duchessa, -"is made to adorn all the exalted posts to which you will raise him in -due course." So far, all had gone wonderfully well, but when the -Minister, thoroughly satisfied with Fabrizio, and paying attention so -far only to his actions and gestures, turned to the Duchessa, he noticed -a curious look in her eyes. "This young man is making a strange -impression here," he said to himself. This reflexion was bitter; the -Conte had reached the <i>fifties</i>, a cruel word of which perhaps only a -man desperately in love can feel the full force. He was a thoroughly -good man, thoroughly deserving to be loved, apart from his severities as -a Minister. But in his eyes that cruel word <i>fifties</i> threw a dark -cloud over his whole life and might well have made him cruel on his own -account. In the five years since he had persuaded the Duchessa to settle -at Parma, she had often aroused his jealousy, especially at first, but -never had she given him any real grounds for complaint. He believed -indeed, and rightly, that it was with the object of making herself more -certain of his heart that the Duchessa had had recourse to those -apparent bestowals of her favour upon various young <i>beaux</i> of the -court. He was sure, for instance, that she had rejected the offers of -the Prince, who, indeed, on that occasion, had made a significant -utterance. -</p> - -<p> -"But if I were to accept Your Highness's offer," the Duchessa had said -to him with a smile, "how should I ever dare to look the Conte in the -face afterwards?" -</p> - -<p> -"I should be almost as much out of countenance as you. The dear Conte! -My friend! But there is a very easy way out of that difficulty, and I -have thought of it: the Conte would be put in the citadel for the rest -of his days." -</p> - -<p> -At the moment of Fabrizio's arrival, the Duchessa was so beside herself -with joy that she never even thought of the ideas which the look in her -eyes might put into the Conte's head. The effect was profound and the -suspicions it aroused irremediable. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio was received by the Prince two hours after his arrival; the -Duchessa, foreseeing the good effect which this impromptu audience would -have on the public, had been begging for it for the last two months; -this favour put Fabrizio beyond all rivalry from the first; the pretext -for it had been that he would only be passing through Parma on his way -to visit his mother in Piedmont. At the moment when a charming little -note from the Duchessa arrived to inform the Prince that Fabrizio -awaited his orders, the Prince was feeling bored. "I shall see," he said -to himself, "a saintly little simpleton, a mean or a sly face." The Town -Commandant had already reported the newcomer's first visit to the tomb -of his archiépiscopal uncle. The Prince saw enter the room a tall young -man whom, but for his violet stockings, he would have taken for some -young officer. -</p> - -<p> -This little surprise dispelled his boredom: "Here is a fellow," he said -to himself, "for whom they will be asking me heaven knows what favours, -everything that I have to bestow. He is just come, he probably feels -nervous: I shall give him a little dose of Jacobin politics; we shall -see how he replies." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>A FIRST AUDIENCE</i></h5> - -<p> -After the first gracious words on the Prince's part: -</p> - -<p> -"Well, <i>Monsignore</i>," he said to Fabrizio, "and the people of Naples, -are they happy? Is the King loved?" -</p> - -<p> -"Serene Highness," Fabrizio replied without a moment's hesitation, "I -used to admire, when they passed me in the street, the excellent bearing -of the troops of the various regiments of His Majesty the King; the -better classes are respectful towards their masters, as they ought to -be; but I must confess that, all my life, I have never allowed the lower -orders to speak to me about anything but the work for which I am paying -them." -</p> - -<p> -"Plague!" said the Prince, "what a <i>slyboots</i>! This is a well-trained -bird, I recognise the Sanseverina touch." Becoming interested, the -Prince employed great skill in leading Fabrizio on to discuss this -scabrous topic. The young man, animated by the danger he was in, was so -fortunate as to hit upon some admirable rejoinders: "It is almost -insolence to boast of one's love for one's King," he said; "it is blind -obedience that one owes to him." At the sight of so much prudence the -Prince almost lost his temper: "Here, it seems, is a man of parts come -among us from Naples, and I don't like <i>that breed</i>; a man of parts -may follow the highest principles and even be quite sincere; all the same -on one side or the other he is always first cousin to Voltaire and -Rousseau." -</p> - -<p> -This Prince felt himself almost defied by such correctness of manner and -such unassailable rejoinders coming from a youth fresh from college; -what he had expected never occurred; in an instant he assumed a tone of -good-fellowship and, reverting in a few words to the basic principles of -society and government, repeated, adapting them to the matter in hand, -certain phrases of Fénelon which he had been made to learn by heart in -his boyhood for use in public audiences. -</p> - -<p> -"These principles surprise you, young man," he said to Fabrizio (he had -called him <i>Monsignore</i> at the beginning of the audience, and -intended to give him his <i>Monsignore</i> again in dismissing him, but -in the course of the conversation he felt it to be more adroit, better -suited to moving turns of speech, to address him in an informal and -friendly style). "These principles surprise you, young man. I admit that -they bear little resemblance to the <i>bread and butter absolutism</i>" -(this was the expression in use) "which you can read every day in my -official newspaper. . . . But, great heavens, what is the good of my -quoting that to you? Those writers in my newspaper must be quite unknown -to you." -</p> - -<p> -"I beg Your Serene Highness's pardon; not only do I read the Parma -newspaper, which seems to me to be very well written, but I hold, -moreover, with it, that everything that has been done since the death of -Louis XIV, in 1715, has been at once criminal and foolish. Man's chief -interest in life is his own salvation, there can be no two ways of -looking at it, and that is a happiness that lasts for eternity. The -words <i>Liberty</i>, <i>Justice</i>, the <i>Good of the Greatest -Number</i>, are infamous and criminal: they form in people's minds the -habits of discussion and want of confidence. A Chamber of Deputies votes -<i>no confidence</i> in what these people call <i>the Ministry</i>. This -fatal habit of <i>want of confidence</i> once contracted, human weakness -applies it to everything, man loses confidence in the Bible, the Orders -of the Church, Tradition and everything else; from that moment he is -lost. Even upon the assumption—which is abominably false, and -criminal even to suggest—that this want of confidence in the -authority of the Princes by God <i>established</i> were to secure one's -happiness during the twenty or thirty years of life which any of us may -expect to enjoy, what is half a century, or a whole century even, -compared with an eternity of torment?" And so on. -</p> - -<p> -One could see, from the way in which Fabrizio spoke, that he was seeking -to arrange his ideas so that they should be grasped as quickly as -possible by his listener; it was clear that he was not simply repeating -a lesson. -</p> - -<p> -Presently the Prince lost interest in his contest with this young man -whose simple and serious manner had begun to irritate him. -</p> - -<p> -"Good-bye, <i>Monsignore</i>," he said to him abruptly, "I can see that -they provide an excellent education at the Ecclesiastical Academy of -Naples, and it is quite simple when these good precepts fall upon so -distinguished a mind, one secures brilliant results. Good-bye." And he -turned his back on him. -</p> - -<p> -"I have quite failed to please this animal," thought Fabrizio. -</p> - -<p> -"And now, it remains to be seen," said the Prince as soon as he was once -more alone, "whether this fine youngman is capable of passion for -anything; in that case, he would be complete. . . . Could anyone repeat -with more spirit the lessons he has learned from his aunt? I felt I -could hear her speaking; should we have a revolution here, it would be she -that would edit the <i>Monitore</i>, as the Sanfelice did at Naples! But -the Sanfelice, in spite of her twenty-five summers and her beauty, got a -bit of a hanging all the same! A warning to women with brains." In -supposing Fabrizio to be his aunt's pupil, the Prince was mistaken: -people with brains who are born on the throne or at the foot of it soon -lose all fineness of touch; they proscribe, in their immediate circle, -freedom of conversation which seems to them coarseness; they refuse to -look at anything but masks and pretend to judge the beauty of -complexions; the amusing part of it is that they imagine their touch to -be of the finest. In this case, for instance, Fabrizio believed -practically everything that we have heard him say; it is true that he -did not think twice in a month of these great principles. He had keen -appetites, he had brains, but he had faith. -</p> - -<p> -The desire for liberty, the fashion and cult of the <i>greatest good of -the greatest number</i>, after which the nineteenth century has run mad, -were nothing in his eyes but a heresy which, like other heresies, would -pass away, though not until it had destroyed many souls, as the plague -while it reigns unchecked in a country destroys many bodies. And in -spite of all this Fabrizio read the French, newspapers with keen -enjoyment, even taking rash steps to procure them. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio having returned quite flustered from his audience at the -Palace, and having told his aunt of the various attacks launched at him -by the Prince: -</p> - -<p> -"You ought," she told him, "to go at once to see Father Landriani, our -excellent Archbishop; go there on foot; climb the staircase quietly, -make as little noise as possible in the ante-rooms; if you are kept -waiting, so much the better, a thousand times better! In a word, be -<i>apostolic</i>!" -</p> - -<p> -"I understand," said Fabrizio, "our man is a Tartuffe." -</p> - -<p> -"Not the least bit in the world, he is virtue incarnate." -</p> - -<p> -"Even after the way he behaved," said Fabrizio in some bewilderment, -"when Conte Palanza was executed?" -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE ARCHBISHOP</i></h5> - -<p> -"Yes, my friend, after the way he behaved: the father of our Archbishop -was a clerk in the Ministry of Finance, a man of humble position, and -that explains everything. Monsignor Landriani is a man of keen, -extensive and deep intelligence; he is sincere, he loves virtue; I am -convinced that if an Emperor Decius were to reappear in the world he -would undergo martyrdom like Polyeuctes in the opera they played last -week. So much for the good side of the medal, now for the reverse: as -soon as he enters the Sovereign's, or even the Prime Minister's -presence, he is dazzled by the sight of such greatness, he becomes -confused, he begins to blush; it is physically impossible for him to say -no. This accounts for the things he has done, things which have won him -that cruel reputation throughout Italy; but what is not generally known -is that, when public opinion had succeeded in enlightening him as to the -trial of Conte Palanza, he set himself the penance of living upon bread -and water for thirteen weeks, the same number of weeks as there are letters -in the name <i>Davide Palanza</i>. We have at this court a rascal of -infinite cleverness named <i>Rassi</i>, a Chief Justice or Fiscal General, -who at the time of Conte Palanza's death, cast a spell over Father -Landriani. During his thirteen weeks' penance, Conte Mosca, from pity -and also a little out of malice, used to ask him to dinner once and even -twice a week: the good Archbishop, in deference to his host, ate like -everyone else; he would have thought it rebellious and Jacobinical to -make a public display of his penance for an action that had the -Sovereign's approval. But we knew that, for each dinner at which his -duty as a loyal subject had obliged him to eat like everyone else, he -set himself a penance of two days more of bread and water. -</p> - -<p> -"Monsignor Landriani, a man of superior intellect, a scholar of the -first order, has only one weakness: <i>he likes to be loved</i>: therefore, -grow affectionate as you look at him, and, on your third visit, shew -your love for him outright. That, added to your birth, will make him -adore you at once. Show no sign of surprise if he accompanies you to the -head of the staircase, assume an air of being accustomed to such -manners: he is a man who was born on his knees before the nobility. For -the rest, be simple, apostolic, no cleverness, no brilliance, no prompt -repartee; if you do not startle him at all, he will be delighted with -you; do not forget that it must be on his own initiative that he makes -you his Grand Vicar. The Conte and I will be surprised and even annoyed -at so rapid an advancement; that is essential in dealing with the -Sovereign." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio hastened to the Archbishop's Palace: by a singular piece of -good fortune, the worthy prelate's footman, who was slightly deaf, did -not catch the name <i>del Dongo</i>; he announced a young priest named -Fabrizio; the Archbishop happened to be closeted with a parish priest of -by no means exemplary morals, for whom he had sent in order to scold -him. He was in the act of delivering a reprimand, a most painful thing -for him, and did not wish to be distressed by it longer than was -necessary; accordingly he kept waiting for three quarters of an hour the -great-nephew of the Archbishop Ascanio del Dongo. -</p> - -<p> -How are we to depict his apologies and despair when, after having -conducted the priest to the farthest ante-room, and on asking, as he -returned, the man who was waiting <i>what he could do to serve him</i>, he -caught sight of the violet stockings and heard the name Fabrizio del -Dongo? This accident seemed to our hero so fortunate that on this first -visit he ventured to kiss the saintly prelate's hand, in a transport of -affection. He was obliged to hear the Archbishop repeat in a tone of -despair: "A del Dongo kept waiting in my ante-room!" The old man felt -obliged, by way of apology, to relate to him the whole story of the -parish priest, his misdeeds, his replies to the charges, and so forth. -</p> - -<p> -"Is it really possible," Fabrizio asked himself as he made his way back -to the <i>palazzo</i> Sanseverina, "that this is the man who hurried on the -execution of that poor Conte Palanza?" -</p> - -<p> -"What is Your Excellency's impression?" Conte Mosca, inquired with a -smile, as he saw him enter the Duchessa's drawing-room. (The Conte would -not allow Fabrizio to address him as Excellency.) -</p> - -<p> -"I have fallen from the clouds; I know nothing at all about human -nature: I would have wagered, had I not known his name, that man -could not bear to see a chicken bleed." -</p> - -<p> -"And you would have won your wager," replied the Conte; "but when he is -with the Prince, or merely with myself, he cannot say no. To be quite -honest, in order for me to create my full effect, I have to slip the -yellow riband of my Grand Cordon over my coat; in plain evening dress he -would contradict me, and so I always put on a uniform to receive him. It -is not for us to destroy the prestige of power, the French newspapers -are demolishing it quite fast enough; it is doubtful whether the <i>mania -of respect</i> will last out our time, and you, my dear nephew, will -outlive respect altogether. You will be simply a fellow-man!" -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio delighted greatly in the Conte's society; he was the first -superior person who had condescended to talk to him frankly, without -make-believe; moreover they had a taste in common, that for antiquities -and excavations. The Conte, for his part, was flattered by the extreme -attention with which the young man listened to him; but there was one -paramount objection: Fabrizio occupied a set of rooms in the -<i>palazzo</i> Sanseverina, spent his whole time with the Duchessa, let -it be seen in all innocence that this intimacy constituted his happiness -in life, and Fabrizio had eyes and a complexion of a freshness that -drove the older man to despair. -</p> - -<p> -For a long time past Ranuccio-Ernesto IV, who rarely encountered a cruel -fair, had felt it to be an affront that the Duchessa's virtue, which was -well known at court, had not made an exception in his favour. As we have -seen, the mind and the presence of mind of Fabrizio had shocked him at -their first encounter. He took amiss the extreme friendship which -Fabrizio and his aunt heedlessly displayed in public; he gave ear with -the closest attention to the remarks of his courtiers, which were -endless. The arrival of this young man and the unprecedented audience -which he had obtained provided the court with news and a sensation for -the next month; which gave the Prince an idea. -</p> - -<p> -He had in his guard a private soldier who carried his wine in the most -admirable way; this man spent his time in the <i>trattorie</i>, and -reported the spirit of the troops directly to his Sovereign. Carlone -lacked education, otherwise he would long since have obtained promotion. -Well, his duty was to be in the Palace every day when the strokes of -twelve sounded on the great clock. The Prince went in person a -little before noon to arrange in a certain way the shutters of a -<i>mezzanino</i> communicating with the room in which His Highness -dressed. He returned to this <i>mezzanino</i> shortly after twelve had -struck, and there found the soldier; the Prince had in his pocket -writing materials and a sheet of paper; he dictated to the soldier the -following letter: -</p> - -<p> -"Your Excellency has great intelligence, doubtless, and it is thanks to -his profound sagacity that we see this State so well governed. But, my -dear Conte, such great success never comes unaccompanied by a little -envy, and I am seriously afraid that people will be laughing a little at -your expense if your sagacity does not discern that a certain handsome -young man has had the good fortune to inspire, unintentionally it may -be, a passion of the most singular order. This happy mortal is, they -say, only twenty-three years old, and, dear Conte, what complicates the -question is that you and I are considerably more than twice that age. In -the evening, at a certain distance, the Conte is charming, -scintillating, a wit, as attractive as possible; but in the morning, in -an intimate scene, all things considered, the newcomer has perhaps -greater attractions. Well, we poor women, we make a great point of this -youthful freshness, especially when we have ourselves passed thirty. Is -there not some talk already of settling this charming youth at our -court, in some fine post? And if so, who is the person who speaks of it -most frequently to Your Excellency?" -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>A LETTER</i></h5> - -<p> -The Prince took the letter and gave the soldier two scudi. -</p> - -<p> -"This is in addition to your pay," he said in a grim tone. "Not a single -word of this to anyone, or you will find yourself in the dampest dungeon -in the citadel." The Prince had in his desk a collection of envelopes -bearing the addresses of most of the persons at his court, in the -handwriting of this same soldier who was understood to be illiterate, -and never even wrote out his own police reports: the Prince picked out -the one he required. -</p> - -<p> -A few hours later, Conte Mosca received a letter by post; the hour of -its delivery had been calculated, and just as the postman, who had been -seen going in with a small envelope in his hand, came out of the -ministerial palace, Mosca was summoned to His Highness. Never had the -favourite appeared to be in the grip of a blacker melancholy: to enjoy -this at his leisure, the Prince called out to him, as he saw him come -in: -</p> - -<p> -"I want to amuse myself by talking casually to my friend and not working -with my Minister. I have a maddening headache this evening, and all -sorts of gloomy thoughts keep coming into my mind." -</p> - -<p> -I need hardly mention the abominable ill-humour which agitated the Prime -Minister, Conte Mosca della Rovere, when at length he was permitted to -take leave of his august master. Ranuccio-Ernesto IV was a past-master -in the art of torturing a heart, and it would not be unfair at this -point to make the comparison of the tiger which loves to play with its -victim. -</p> - -<p> -The Conte made his coachman drive him home at a gallop; he called out as -he crossed the threshold that not a living soul was to be allowed upstairs, -sent word to the <i>auditor</i> on duty that he might take himself -off (the knowledge that there was a human being within earshot was -hateful to him), and hastened to shut himself up in the great picture -gallery. There at length he could give full vent to his fury; there he -spent an hour without lights, wandering about the room like a man out of -his mind. He sought to impose silence on his heart, to concentrate all -the force of his attention upon deliberating what action he ought to -take. Plunged in an anguish that would have moved to pity his most -implacable enemy, he said to himself: "The man I abhor is living in the -Duchessa's house; he spends every hour of the day with her. Ought I to -try to make one of her women speak? Nothing could be more dangerous; she -is so good to them; she pays them well; she is adored by them (and by -whom, great God, is she not adored?)! The question is," he continued, -raging: "Ought I to let her detect the jealousy that is devouring me, or -not to speak of it? -</p> - -<p> -"If I remain silent, she will make no attempt to keep anything from me. -I know Gina, she is a woman who acts always on the first impulse; her -conduct is incalculable, even by herself; if she tries to plan out a -course in advance, she goes all wrong; invariably, when it is time for -action, a new idea comes into her head which she follows rapturously as -though it were the most wonderful thing in the world, and upsets -everything. -</p> - -<p> -"If I make no mention of my suffering, nothing will be kept back from -me, and I shall see all that goes on. . . . -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>NIGHT THOUGHTS</i></h5> - -<p> -"Yes, but by speaking I bring about a change of circumstances: I make -her reflect; I give her fair warning of all the horrible things that may -happen. . . . Perhaps she will send him away" (the Conte breathed a sigh -of relief), "then I shall practically have won; even allowing her to be -a little out of temper for the moment, I shall soothe her . . . and a -little ill-temper, what could be more natural? . . . she has loved him -like a son for fifteen years. There lies all my hope: <i>like a -son</i> . . . but she had ceased to see him after his dash to Waterloo; -now, on his return from Naples, especially for her, he is a different -man. <i>A different man!</i>" he repeated with fury, "and that man is -charming; he has, apart from everything else, that simple and tender air -and that smiling eye which hold out such a promise of happiness! And -those eyes—the Duchessa cannot be accustomed to see eyes like those -at this court! . . . Our substitute for them is a gloomy or sardonic -stare. I myself, pursued everywhere by official business, governing only -by my influence over a man who would like to turn me to ridicule, what a -look there must often be in mine! Ah! whatever pains I may take to conceal -it, it is in my eyes that age will always shew. My gaiety, does it not -always border upon irony? . . . I will go farther, I must be sincere -with myself; does not my gaiety allow a glimpse to be caught, as of -something quite close to it, of absolute power . . . and -irresponsibility? Do I not sometimes say to myself, especially when -people irritate me: 'I can do what I like!' and indeed go on to say what -is foolish: 'I ought to be happier than other men, since I possess what -others have not, sovereign power in three things out of four . . .?' -Very well, let us be just! The habit of thinking thus must affect my -smile, must give me a selfish, satisfied air. And, how charming his -smile is! It breathes the easy happiness of extreme youth, and engenders -it." -</p> - -<p> -Unfortunately for the Conte, the weather that evening was hot, stifling, -with the threat of a storm in the air; the sort of weather, in short, -that in those parts carries people to extremes. How am I to find space -for all the arguments, all the ways of looking at what was happening to -him which, for three mortal hours on end, kept this impassioned man in -torment? At length the side of prudence prevailed, solely as a result of -this reflexion: "I am in all probability mad; when I think I am -reasoning, I am not, I am simply turning about in search of a less -painful position, I pass by without seeing it some decisive argument. -Since I am blinded by excessive grief, let us obey the rule, approved by -every sensible man, which is called <i>Prudence</i>. -</p> - -<p> -"Besides, once I have uttered the fatal word <i>jealousy</i>, my course is -traced for me for ever. If on the contrary I say nothing to-day, I can -speak to-morrow, I remain master of the situation." The crisis was too -acute; the Conte would have gone mad had it continued. He was comforted -for a few moments, his attention came to rest on the anonymous letter. -From whose hand could it have come? There followed then a search for -possible names, and a personal judgment of each, which created a -diversion. In the end, the Conte remembered a gleam of malice that had -darted from the eyes of the Sovereign, when it had occurred to him to -say, towards the end of the audience: "Yes, dear friend, let us be -agreed on this point: the pleasures and cares of the most amply rewarded -ambition, even of unbounded power, are as nothing compared with the -intimate happiness that is afforded by relations of affection and love. -I am a man first, and a Prince afterwards, and, when I have the good -fortune to be in love, my mistress speaks to the man and not to the -Prince." The Conte compared that moment of malicious joy with the phrase -in the letter; "It is thanks to your profound sagacity that we see this -State so well governed." "Those are the Prince's words!" he exclaimed, -"in a courtier they would be a gratuitous piece of imprudence; the -letter comes from His Highness." -</p> - -<p> -This problem solved, the faint joy caused by the pleasure of guessing -the solution was soon effaced by the cruel spectre of the charming -graces of Fabrizio, which returned afresh. It was like an enormous -weight that fell back on the heart of the unhappy man. "What does it -matter from whom the anonymous letter comes?" he cried with fury, "does -the fact that it discloses to me exist any the less? This caprice may -alter my whole life," he said, as though to excuse himself for being so -mad. "At the first moment, if she cares for him in a certain way, she -will set off with him for Belgirate, for Switzerland, for the ends of -the earth. She is rich, and besides, even if she had to live on a few -louis a year, what would that matter to her? Did she not admit to me, -not a week ago, that her <i>palazzo</i>, so well arranged, so magnificent, -bored her? Novelty is essential to so youthful a spirit! And with what -simplicity does this new form of happiness offer itself! She will be -carried away before she has begun to think of the danger, before she has -begun to think of being sorry for me! And yet I am so wretched!" cried -the Conte, bursting into tears. -</p> - -<p> -He had sworn to himself that he would not go to the Duchessa's that -evening; never had his eyes thirsted so to gaze on her. At midnight he -presented himself at her door; he found her alone with her nephew; at -ten o'clock she had sent all her guests away and had closed her door. -</p> - -<p> -At the sight of the tender intimacy that prevailed between these two -creatures, and of the Duchessa's artless joy, a frightful difficulty -arose before the eyes of the Conte, and one that was quite unforeseen. -He had never thought of it during his long deliberation in the picture -gallery: how was he to conceal his jealousy? -</p> - -<p> -Not knowing what pretext to adopt, he pretended that he had found the -Prince that evening excessively ill-disposed towards him, contradicting -all his assertions, and so forth. He had the distress of seeing the -Duchessa barely listen to him, and pay no attention to these details -which, forty-eight hours earlier, would have plunged her in an endless -stream of discussion. The Conte looked at Fabrizio: never had that -handsome Lombard face appeared to him so simple and so noble! Fabrizio -paid more attention than the Duchessa to the difficulties which he was -relating. -</p> - -<p> -"Really," he said to himself, "that head combines extreme good-nature -with the expression of a certain artless and tender joy which is -irresistible. It seems to be saying: 'Love and the happiness it brings -are the only serious things in this world.' And yet, when one comes to -some detail which requires thought, the light wakes in his eyes and -surprises one, and one is left dumbfoundered. -</p> - -<p> -"Everything is simple in his eyes, because everything is seen from -above. Great God! how is one to fight against an enemy like this? And -after all, what is life without Gina's love? With what rapture she seems -to be listening to the charming sallies of that mind, which is so boyish -and must, to a woman, seem without a counterpart in the world!" -</p> - -<p> -An atrocious thought gripped the Conte like a sudden cramp. "Shall I -stab him here, before her face, and then kill myself?" -</p> - -<p> -He took a turn through the room, his legs barely supporting him, but his -hand convulsively gripping the hilt of his dagger. Neither of the others -paid any attention to what he might be doing. He announced that he was -going to give an order to his servant; they did not even hear him; the -Duchessa was laughing tenderly at something Fabrizio had just said to -her. The Conte went up to a lamp in the outer room, and looked to see -whether the point of his dagger was well sharpened. "One must behave -graciously, and with perfect manners to this young man," he said to -himself as he returned to the other room and went up to them. -</p> - -<p> -He became quite mad; it seemed to him that, as they leaned their heads -together, they were kissing each other, there, before his eyes. "That is -impossible in my presence," he told himself; "my wits have gone astray. -I must calm myself; if I behave rudely, the Duchessa is quite capable, -simply out of injured vanity, of following him to Belgirate; and there, -or on the way there, a chance word may be spoken which will give a name -to what they now feel for one another; and after that, in a moment, all -the consequences. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>CECCHINA</i></h5> - -<p> -"Solitude will render that word decisive, and besides, once the Duchessa -has left my side, what is to become of me? And if, after overcoming -endless difficulties on the Prince's part, I go and shew my old and -anxious face at Belgirate, what part shall I play before these people -both mad with happiness? -</p> - -<p> -"Here even what else am I than the <i>terzo incomodo</i>?" (That beautiful -Italian language is simply made for love: <i>Terzo incomodo</i>, a third -person when two are company.) What misery for a man of spirit to feel -that he is playing that execrable part, and not to be able to muster the -strength to get up and leave the room! -</p> - -<p> -The Conte was on the point of breaking out, or at least of betraying his -anguish by the discomposure of his features. When in one of his circuits -of the room he found himself near the door, he took his flight, calling -out, in a genial, intimate tone: "Good-bye, you two!— One must avoid -bloodshed," he said to himself. -</p> - -<p> -The day following this horrible evening, after a night spent half in -compiling a detailed sum of Fabrizio's advantages, half in the frightful -transports of the most cruel jealousy, it occurred to the Conte that he -might send for a young servant of his own; this man was keeping company -with a girl named Cecchina, one of the Duchessa's personal maids, and -her favourite. As good luck would have it, this young man was very sober -in his habits, indeed miserly, and was anxious to find a place as porter -in one of the public <i>institutions</i> of Parma. The Conte ordered the -man to fetch Cecchina, his mistress, instantly. The man obeyed, and an hour -later the Conte appeared suddenly in the room where the girl was waiting -with her lover. The Conte frightened them both by the amount of gold -that he gave them, then he addressed these few words to the trembling -Cecchina, looking her straight in the face: -</p> - -<p> -"Is the Duchessa in love with Monsignore?" -</p> - -<p> -"No," said the girl, gaining courage to speak after a moment's silence. -. . . "No, <i>not yet</i>, but he often kisses the Signora's hands, -laughing, it is true, but with real feeling." -</p> - -<p> -This evidence was completed by a hundred answers to as many furious -questions from the Conte; his uneasy passion made the poor couple earn -in full measure the money that he had flung them: he ended by believing -what they told him, and was less unhappy. "If the Duchessa ever has the -slightest suspicion of what we have been saying," he told Cecchina, "I -shall send your lover to spend twenty years in the fortress, and when -you see him again his hair will be quite white." -</p> - -<p> -Some days elapsed, during which Fabrizio in turn lost all his gaiety. -</p> - -<p> -"I assure you," he said to the Duchessa, "that Conte Mosca feels an -antipathy for me." -</p> - -<p> -"So much the worse for His Excellency," she replied with a trace of -temper. -</p> - -<p> -This was by no means the true cause of the uneasiness which had made -Fabrizio's gaiety vanish. "The position in which chance has placed me is -not tenable," he told himself. "I am quite sure that she will never say -anything, she would be as much horrified by a too significant word as by -an incestuous act. But if, one evening, after a rash and foolish day, -she should come to examine her conscience, if she believes that I may -have guessed the feeling that she seems to have formed for me, what part -should I then play in her eyes? Nothing more nor less than the <i>casto -Giuseppe</i>!" (An Italian expression alluding to the ridiculous part -played by Joseph with the wife of the eunuch Potiphar.) -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>UNCERTAINTIES</i></h5> - -<p> -"Should I give her to understand by a fine burst of confidence that I am -not capable of serious affection? I have not the necessary strength of -mind to announce such a fact so that it shall not be as like as two peas -to a gross impertinence. The sole resource left to me is a great passion -left behind at Naples; in that case, I should return there for -twenty-four hours: such a course is wise, but is it really worth the -trouble? There remains a minor affair with some one of humble rank at -Parma, which might annoy her; but anything is preferable to the -appalling position of a man who will not see the truth. This course may, -it is true, prejudice my future; I should have, by the exercise of -prudence and the purchase of discretion, to minimise the danger." What -was so cruel an element among all these thoughts was that really -Fabrizio loved the Duchessa far above anyone else in the world. "I must -be very clumsy," he told himself angrily, "to have such misgivings as to -my ability to persuade her of what is so glaringly true!" Lacking the -skill to extricate himself from this position, he grew sombre and sad. -"What would become of me, Great God, if I quarrelled with the one person -in the world for whom I feel a passionate attachment?" From another -point of view, Fabrizio could not bring himself to spoil so delicious a -happiness by an indiscreet word. His position abounded so in charm! The -intimate friendship of so beautiful and attractive a woman was so -pleasant! Under the most commonplace relations of life, her protection -gave him so agreeable a position at this court, the great intrigues of -which, thanks to her who explained them to him, were as amusing as a -play! "But at any moment I may be awakened by a thunderbolt," he said to -himself. "These gay, these tender evenings, passed almost in privacy -with so thrilling a woman, if they lead to something better, she will -expect to find in me a lover; she will call on me for frenzied raptures, -for acts of folly, and I shall never have anything more to offer her -than friendship, of the warmest kind, but without love; nature has not -endowed me with that sort of sublime folly. What reproaches have I not -had to bear on that account! I can still hear the Duchessa -d'A—— speaking, and I used to laugh at the Duchessa! She -will think that I am wanting in love for her, whereas it is love that is -wanting in me; never will she make herself understand me. Often after -some story about the court, told by her with that grace, that -abandonment which she alone in the world possesses, and which is a -necessary part of my education besides, I kiss her hand and sometimes -her cheek. What is to happen if that hand presses mine in a certain -fashion?" -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio put in an appearance every day in the most respectable and -least amusing drawing-rooms in Parma. Guided by the able advice of the -Duchessa, he paid a sagacious court to the two Princes, father and son, -to the Princess Clara-Paolina and Monsignore the Archbishop. He met with -successes, but these did not in the least console him for his mortal -fear of falling out with the Duchessa. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h4><a id="CHAPTER_EIGHT">CHAPTER EIGHT</a></h4> - -<p> -So, less than a month after his arrival at court, Fabrizio had tasted -all the sorrows of a courtier, and the intimate friendship which -constituted the happiness of his life was poisoned. One evening, -tormented by these thoughts, he left that drawing-room of the Duchessa -in which he had too much of the air of a reigning lover; wandering at -random through the town, he came opposite the theatre, in which he saw -lights; he went in. It was a gratuitous imprudence in a man of his cloth -and one that he had indeed vowed that he would avoid in Parma, which, -after all, is only a small town of forty thousand inhabitants. It is -true that after the first few days he had got rid of his official -costume; in the evenings, when he was not going into the very highest -society, he used simply to dress in black like a layman in mourning. -</p> - -<p> -At the theatre he took a box on the third tier, so as not to be noticed; -the play was Goldoni's <i>La Locanderia</i>. He examined the architecture -of the building, scarcely did he turn his eyes to the stage. But the -crowded audience kept bursting into laughter at every moment; Fabrizio -gave a glance at the young actress who was playing the part of the -landlady, and found her amusing. He looked at her more closely; she -seemed to him quite attractive, and, above all, perfectly natural; she -was a simple-minded young girl who was the first to laugh at the witty -lines Goldoni had put into her mouth, lines which she appeared to be -quite surprised to be uttering. He asked what her name was, and was -told: "Marietta Valserra." -</p> - -<p> -"Ah!" he thought; "she has taken my name; that is odd." In spite of his -intentions he did not leave the theatre until the end of the piece. The -following evening he returned; three days later he knew Marietta -Valserra's address. -</p> - -<p> -On the evening of the day on which, with a certain amount of trouble, he -had procured this address, he noticed that the Conte was looking at him -in the most friendly way. The poor jealous lover, who had all the -trouble in the world in keeping within the bounds of prudence, had set -spies on the young man's track, and this theatrical escapade pleased -him. How are we to depict the Conte's joy when, on the day following -that on which he had managed to bring himself to look amicably at -Fabrizio, he learned that the latter, in the partial disguise, it must -be admitted, of a long blue frock-coat, had climbed to the wretched -apartment which Marietta Valserra occupied on the fourth floor of an old -house behind the theatre? His joy was doubled when he heard that -Fabrizio had presented himself under a false name, and had had the -honour to arouse the jealousy of a scapegrace named Giletti, who in town -played Third Servant, and in the villages danced on the tight rope. This -noble lover of Marietta cursed Fabrizio most volubly and expressed a -desire to kill him. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE PHANTOM HARLEQUIN</i></h5> - -<p> -Opera companies are formed by an <i>impresario</i> who engages in -different places the artists whom he can afford to pay or has found -unemployed, and the company collected at random remains together for one -season or two at most. It is not so with <i>comedy companies</i>; while -passing from town to town and changing their address every two or three -months, they nevertheless form a family of which all the members love or -loathe one another. There are in these companies united couples whom the -<i>beaux</i> of the towns in which the actors appear find it sometimes -exceedingly difficult to sunder. This is precisely what happened to our -hero. Little Marietta liked him well enough, but was horribly afraid of -Giletti, who claimed to be her sole lord and master and kept a close -watch over her. He protested everywhere that he would kill the -<i>Monsignore</i>, for he had followed Fabrizio, and had succeeded in -discovering his name. This Giletti was quite the ugliest creature -imaginable and the least fitted to be a lover: tall out of all -proportion, he was horribly thin, strongly pitted by smallpox, and -inclined to squint. In addition, being endowed with all the graces of -his profession, he was continually coming into the wings where his -fellow-actors were assembled, turning cartwheels on his feet and hands -or practising some other pretty trick. He triumphed in those parts in -which the actor has to appear with his face whitened with flour and to -give or receive a countless number of blows with a cudgel. This worthy -rival of Fabrizio drew a monthly salary of 32 francs, and thought -himself extremely well off. -</p> - -<p> -Conte Mosca felt himself drawn up from the gate of the tomb when his -watchers gave him the full authority for all these details. His kindly -nature reappeared; he seemed more gay and better company than ever in -the Duchessa's drawing-room, and took good care to say nothing to her of -the little adventure which had restored him to life. He even took steps -to ensure that she should be informed of everything that occurred with -the greatest possible delay. Finally he had the courage to listen to the -voice of reason, which had been crying to him in vain for the last month -that, whenever a lover's lustre begins to fade, it is time for that -lover to travel. -</p> - -<p> -Urgent business summoned him to Bologna, and twice a day cabinet -messengers brought him not so much the official papers of his -departments as the latest news of the love affairs of little Marietta, -the rage of the terrible Giletti and the enterprises of Fabrizio. -</p> - -<p> -One of the Conte's agents asked several times for <i>Arlecchino fantasma e -pasticcio</i>, one of Giletti's triumphs (he emerges from the pie at the -moment when his rival Brighella is sticking the knife into it, and gives -him a drubbing); this was an excuse for making him earn 100 francs. -Giletti, who was riddled with debts, took care not to speak of this -windfall, but became astonishing in his arrogance. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio's whim changed to a wounded pride (at his age, his anxieties -had already reduced him to the state of having whims!). Vanity led him -to the theatre; the little girl acted in the most sprightly fashion and -amused him; on leaving the theatre, he was in love for an hour. The -Conte returned to Parma on receiving the news that Fabrizio was in real -danger; Giletti, who had served as a trooper in that fine regiment the -Dragoni Napoleone, spoke seriously of killing him, and was making -arrangements for a subsequent flight to Romagna. If the reader is very -young, he will be scandalised by our admiration for this fine mark of -virtue. It was, however, no slight act of heroism on the part of Conte -Mosca, his return from Bologna; for, after all, frequently in the -morning he presented a worn appearance, and Fabrizio was always so -fresh, so serene! Who would ever have dreamed of reproaching him with -the death of Fabrizio, occurring in his absence and from so stupid a -cause? But his was one of those rare spirits which make an everlasting -remorse out of a generous action which they might have done and did not -do; besides, he could not bear the thought of seeing the Duchessa look -sad, and by any fault of his. -</p> - -<p> -He found her, on his arrival, taciturn and gloomy. This is what had -occurred: the little lady's maid, Cecchina, tormented by remorse and -estimating the importance of her crime by the immensity of the sum that -she had received for committing it, had fallen ill. One evening the -Duchessa, who was devoted to her, went up to her room. The girl could -not hold out against this mark of kindness; she dissolved in tears, was -for handing over to her mistress all that she still possessed of the -money she had received, and finally had the courage to confess to her -the questions asked by the Conte and her own replies to them. The -Duchessa ran to the lamp which she blew out, then said to little -Cecchina that she forgave her, but on condition that she never uttered a -word about this strange episode to anyone in the world. "The poor -Conte," she added in a careless tone, "is afraid of being laughed at; -all men are like that." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>REMORSE</i></h5> - -<p> -The Duchessa hastened downstairs to her own apartments. No sooner had -she shut the door of her bedroom than she burst into tears; there seemed -to her something horrible in the idea of her making love to Fabrizio -whom she had seen brought into the world; and yet what else could her -behaviour imply? -</p> - -<p> -This had been the primary cause of the black melancholy in which the -Conte found her plunged; on his arrival she suffered fits of impatience -with him, and almost with Fabrizio; she would have liked never to set -eyes on either of them again; she was contemptuous of the part, -ridiculous in her eyes, which Fabrizio was playing with the little -Marietta; for the Conte had told her everything, like a true lover, -incapable of keeping a secret. She could not grow used to this disaster; -her idol had a fault; finally, in a moment of frank friendship, she -asked the Conte's advice; this was for him a delicious instant, and a -fine reward for the honourable impulse which had made him return to -Parma. -</p> - -<p> -"What could be more simple?" said the Conte, smiling. "Young men want to -have every woman they see, and next day they do not give her a thought. -Ought he not to be going to Belgirate, to see the Marchesa del Dongo? -Very well, let him go. During his absence, I shall request the company -of comedians to take their talents elsewhere, I shall pay their -travelling expenses; but presently we shall see him in love with the -first pretty woman that may happen to come his way: it is in the nature -of things, and I should not care to see him act otherwise. . . . If -necessary, get the Marchesa to write to him." -</p> - -<p> -This suggestion, offered with the air of a complete indifference, came -as a ray of light to the Duchessa; she was frightened of Giletti. That -evening, the Conte announced, as though by chance, that one of his -couriers, on his way to Vienna, would be passing through Milan; three -days later Fabrizio received a letter from his mother. He seemed greatly -annoyed at not having yet been able, thanks to Giletti's jealousy, to -profit by the excellent intentions, assurance of which little Marietta -had conveyed to him through a <i>mammaccia</i>, an old woman who acted as -her mother. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio found his mother and one of his sisters at Belgirate, a large -village in Piedmont, on the right shore of Lake Maggiore; the left shore -belongs to the Milanese, and consequently to Austria. This lake, -parallel to the Lake of Como, and also running from north to south, is -situated some ten leagues farther to the west. The mountain air, the -majestic and tranquil aspect of this superb lake which recalled to him -that other on the shores of which he had spent his childhood, all helped -to transform into a tender melancholy Fabrizio's grief, which was akin -to anger. It was with an infinite tenderness that the memory of the -Duchessa now presented itself to him; he felt that in separation he was -acquiring for her that love which he had never felt for any woman; -nothing would have been more painful to him than to be separated from -her for ever, and, he being in this frame of mind, if the Duchessa had -deigned to have recourse to the slightest coquetry, she could have -conquered this heart by—for instance—presenting it with a -rival. But, far from taking any so decisive a step, it was not without the -keenest self-reproach that she found her thoughts constantly following in -the young traveller's footsteps. She reproached herself for what she still -called a fancy, as though it had been something horrible; she redoubled -her forethought for and attention to the Conte, who, captivated by such -a display of charm, paid no heed to the sane voice of reason which was -prescribing a second visit to Bologna. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>LAKE MAGGIORE</i></h5> - -<p> -The Marchesa del Dongo, busy with preparations for the wedding of her -elder daughter, whom she was marrying to a Milanese Duca, could give -only three days to her beloved son; never had she found in him so tender -an affection. Through the cloud of melancholy that was more and more -closely enwrapping Fabrizio's heart, an odd and indeed ridiculous idea -had presented itself, and he had suddenly decided to adopt it. Dare we -say that he wished to consult Priore Blanès? That excellent old man was -totally incapable of understanding the sorrows of a heart torn asunder -by boyish passions more or less equal in strength; besides, it would -have taken a week to make him gather even a faint impression of all the -conflicting interests that Fabrizio had to consider at Parma; but in the -thought of consulting him Fabrizio recaptured the freshness of his -sensations at the age of sixteen. Will it be believed? It was not simply -as to a man full of wisdom, to an old and devoted friend, that Fabrizio -wished to speak to him; the object of this expedition, and the feelings -that agitated our hero during the fifty hours that it lasted are so -absurd that doubtless, in the interests of our narrative, it would have -been better to suppress them. I am afraid that Fabrizio's credulity may -make him forfeit the sympathy of the reader; but after all thus it was; -why flatter him more than another? I have not flattered Conte Mosca, nor -the Prince. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio, then, since the whole truth must be told, Fabrizio escorted -his mother as far as the port of Laveno, on the left shore of Lake -Maggiore, the Austrian shore, where she landed about eight o'clock in -the evening. (The lake is regarded as neutral territory, and no passport -is required of those who do not set foot on shore.) But scarcely had -night fallen when he had himself ferried to this same Austrian shore, -and landed in a little wood which juts out into the water. He had hired -a <i>sediola</i>, a sort of rustic and fast-moving tilbury, by means of -which he was able, at a distance of five hundred yards, to keep up with -his mother's carriage; he was disguised as a servant of the <i>casa</i> -del Dongo, and none of the many police or customs officials ever thought -of asking him for his passport. A quarter of a league before Como, where -the Marchesa and her daughter were to stop for the night, he took a path -to the left which, making a circuit of the village of Vico, afterwards -joined a little road recently made along the extreme edge of the lake. -It was midnight, and Fabrizio could count upon not meeting any of the -police. The trees of the various thickets into which the little road -kept continually diving traced the black outline of their foliage -against a sky bright with stars but veiled by a slight mist. Water and -sky were of a profound tranquillity. Fabrizio's soul could not resist -this sublime beauty; he stopped, then sat down on a rock which ran out -into the lake, forming almost a little promontory. The universal silence -was disturbed only, at regular intervals, by the faint ripple of the -lake as it lapped on the shore. Fabrizio had an Italian heart; I crave -the reader's pardon for him: this defect, which will render him less -attractive, consisted mainly in this: he had no vanity, save by fits and -starts, and the mere sight of sublime beauty melted him to a tender mood -and took from his sorrows their hard and bitter edge. Seated on his -isolated rock, having no longer any need to be on his guard against the -police, protected by the profound night and the vast silence, gentle -tears moistened his eyes, and he found there, with little or no effort, -the happiest moments that he had tasted for many a day. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>A NIGHT SCENE</i></h5> - -<p> -He resolved never to tell the Duchessa any falsehood, and it was because -he loved her to adoration at that moment that he vowed to himself never -to say to her <i>that he loved her</i>; never would he utter in her hearing -the word love, since the passion which bears that name was a stranger to -his heart. In the enthusiasm of generosity and virtue which formed his -happiness at that moment, he made the resolution to tell her, at the -first opportunity, everything: his heart had never known love. Once this -courageous plan had been definitely adopted, he felt himself delivered -of an enormous burden. "She will perhaps have something to say to me -about Marietta; very well, I shall never see my little Marietta again," -he assured himself blithely. -</p> - -<p> -The overpowering heat which had prevailed throughout the day was -beginning to be tempered by the morning breeze. Already dawn was -outlining in a faint white glimmer the Alpine peaks that rise to the -north and east of Lake Como. Their massive shapes, bleached by their -covering of snow, even in the month of June, stand out against the -pellucid azure of a sky which at those immense altitudes is always pure. -A spur of the Alps stretching southwards into smiling Italy separates -the sloping shores of Lake Como from those of the Lake of Garda. -Fabrizio followed with his eye all the branches of these sublime -mountains, the dawn as it grew brighter came to mark the valleys that -divide them, gilding the faint mist which rose from the gorges beneath. -</p> - -<p> -Some minutes since Fabrizio had taken the road again; he passed the hill -that forms the peninsula of Durini, and at length there met his gaze that -<i>campanile</i> of the village of Grianta in which he had so often made -observations of the stars with Priore Blanès. "What bounds were there -to my ignorance in those days? I could not understand," he reminded -himself, "even the ridiculous Latin of those treatises on astrology -which my master used to pore over, and I think I respected them chiefly -because, understanding only a few words here and there, my imagination -stepped in to give them a meaning, and the most romantic sense -imaginable." -</p> - -<p> -Gradually his thoughts entered another channel. "May not there be -something genuine in this science? Why should it be different from the -rest? A certain number of imbeciles and quick-witted persons agree among -themselves that they know (shall we say) <i>Mexican</i>; they impose -themselves with this qualification upon society which respects them and -governments which pay them. Favours are showered upon them precisely -because they have no real intelligence, and authority need not fear -their raising the populace and creating an atmosphere of rant by the aid -of generous sentiments! For instance, Father Bari, to whom Ernesto IV -has just awarded a pension of 4,000 francs and the Cross of his Order -for having restored nineteen lines of a Greek dithyramb! -</p> - -<p> -"But, Great God, have I indeed the right to find such things ridiculous? -Is it for me to complain," he asked himself, suddenly, stopping short in -the road, "has not that same Cross just been given to my governor at -Naples?" Fabrizio was conscious of a feeling of intense disgust; the -fine enthusiasm for virtue which had just been making his heart beat -high changed into the vile pleasure of having a good share in the spoils -of a robbery. "After all," he said to himself at length, with the -lustreless eyes of a man who is dissatisfied with himself, "since my -birth gives me the right to profit by these abuses, it would be a signal -piece of folly on my part not to take my share, but I must never let -myself denounce them in public." This reasoning was by no means unsound; -but Fabrizio had fallen a long way from that elevation of sublime -happiness to which he had found himself transported an hour earlier. The -thought of privilege had withered that plant, always so delicate, which -we name happiness. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>PRIVILEGE</i></h5> - -<p> -"If we are not to believe in astrology," he went on, seeking to calm -himself; "if this science is, like three quarters of the sciences that -are not mathematical, a collection of enthusiastic simpletons and adroit -hypocrites paid by the masters they serve, how does it come about that -I think so often and with emotion of this fatal circumstance: I did make -my escape from the prison at B——, but in the uniform and with -the marching orders of a soldier who had been flung into prison with good -cause?" -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio's reasoning could never succeed in penetrating farther; he went -a hundred ways round the difficulty without managing to surmount it. He -was too young still; in his moments of leisure, his mind devoted itself -with rapture to enjoying the sensations produced by the romantic -circumstances with which his imagination was always ready to supply him. -He was far from employing his time in studying with patience the actual -details of things in order to discover their causes. Reality still -seemed to him flat and muddy; I can understand a person's not caring to -look at it, but then he ought not to argue about it. Above all, he ought -not to fashion objections out of the scattered fragments of his -ignorance. -</p> - -<p> -Thus it was that, though not lacking in brains, Fabrizio could not -manage to see that his half-belief in omens was for him a religion, a -profound impression received at his entering upon life. To think of this -belief was to feel, it was a happiness. And he set himself resolutely to -discover how this could be a <i>proved</i>, a real science, in the same -category as geometry, for example. He searched his memory strenuously -for all the instances in which omens observed by him had not been -followed by the auspicious or inauspicious events which they seemed to -herald. But all this time, while he believed himself to be following a -line of reasoning and marching towards the truth, his attention kept -coming joyfully to rest on the memory of the occasions on which the -foreboding had been amply followed by the happy or unhappy accident -which it had seemed to him to predict, and his heart was filled with -respect and melted; and he would have felt an invincible repugnance for -the person who denied the value of omens, especially if in doing so he -had had recourse to irony. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio walked on without noticing the distance he was covering, and -had reached this point in his vain reasonings when, raising his head, he -saw the wall of his father's garden. This wall, which supported a fine -terrace, rose to a height of more than forty feet above the road, on its -right. A cornice of wrought stone along the highest part, next to the -balustrade, gave it a monumental air. "It is not bad," Fabrizio said to -himself dispassionately, "it is good architecture, a little in the Roman -style"; he applied to it his recently acquired knowledge of antiquities. -Then he turned his head away in disgust; his father's severities, and -especially the denunciation of himself by his brother Ascanio on his -return from his wanderings in France, came back to his mind. -</p> - -<p> -"That unnatural denunciation was the origin of my present existence; I -may detest, I may despise it; when all is said and done, it has altered -my destiny. What would have become of me once I had been packed off to -Novara, and my presence barely tolerated in the house of my father's -agent, if my aunt had not made love to a powerful Minister? If the said -aunt had happened to possess merely a dry, conventional heart instead of -that tender and passionate heart which loves me with a sort of -enthusiasm that astonishes me? Where should I be now if the Duchessa had -had the heart of her brother the Marchese del Dongo?" -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>PRIORE BLANÈS</i></h5> - -<p> -Oppressed by these cruel memories, Fabrizio began now to walk with an -uncertain step; he came to the edge of the moat immediately opposite the -magnificent façade of the castle. Scarcely did he cast a glance at that -great building, blackened by time. The noble language of architecture -left him unmoved, the memory of his brother and father stopped his heart -to every sensation of beauty, he was attentive only to the necessity of -keeping on his guard in the presence of hypocritical and dangerous -enemies. He looked for an instant, but with a marked disgust, at the -little window of the bedroom which he had occupied until 1815 on the -third storey. His father's character had robbed of all charm the memory -of his early childhood. "I have not set foot in it," he thought, "since -the 7th of March, at eight o'clock in the evening. I left it to go and -get the passport from Vasi, and next morning my fear of spies made me -hasten my departure. When I passed through again after my visit to -France, I had not time to go upstairs, even to look at my prints again, -and that thanks to my brother's denouncing me." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio turned away his head in horror. "Priore Blanès is eighty-three -at the very least," he said sorrowfully to himself; "he hardly ever -comes to the castle now, from what my sister tells me; the infirmities -of old age have had their effect on him. That heart, once so strong and -noble, is frozen by age. Heaven knows how long it is since he last went -up to his <i>campanile</i>! I shall hide myself in the cellar, under the -vats or under the wine-press, until he is awake; I shall not go in and -disturb the good old man in his sleep; probably he will have forgotten -my face, even; six years mean a great deal at his age! I shall find only -the tomb of a friend! And it is really childish of me," he added, "to -have come here to provoke the disgust that the sight of my father's -castle gives me." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio now came to the little <i>piazza</i> in front of the church; it -was with an astonishment bordering on delirium that he saw, on the second -stage of the ancient <i>campanile</i>, the long and narrow window lighted -by the little lantern of Priore Blanès. The Priore was in the habit of -leaving it there, when he climbed to the cage of planks which formed his -observatory, so that the light should not prevent him from reading the -face of his planisphere. This chart of the heavens was stretched over a -great jar of terra-cotta which had originally belonged to one of the -orange trees at the castle. In the opening, at the bottom of the jar, -burned the tiniest of lamps, the smoke of which was carried away from -the jar through a little tin pipe, and the shadow of the pipe indicated -the north on the chart. All these memories of things so simple in -themselves deluged Fabrizio's heart with emotions and filled him with -happiness. -</p> - -<p> -Almost without thinking, he put his hands to his lips and gave the -little, short, low whistle which had formerly been the signal for his -admission. At once he heard several tugs given to the cord which, from the -observatory above, opened the latch of the <i>campanile</i> door. He dashed -headlong up the staircase, moved to a transport of excitement; he found -the Priore in his wooden armchair in his accustomed place; his eye was -fixed on the little glass of a mural quadrant. With his left hand the -Priore made a sign to Fabrizio not to interrupt him in his observation; -a moment later, he wrote down a figure upon a playing card, then, -turning round in his chair, opened his arms to our hero who flung -himself into them, dissolved in tears. Priore Blanès was his true -father. -</p> - -<p> -"I expected you," said Blanès, after the first warm words of affection. -Was the Priore speaking in his character as a diviner, or, indeed, as he -often thought of Fabrizio, had some astrological sign, by pure chance, -announced to him the young man's return? -</p> - -<p> -"This means that my death is at hand," said Priore Blanès. -</p> - -<p> -"What!" cried Fabrizio, quite overcome. -</p> - -<p> -"Yes," the Priore went on in a serious but by no means sad tone: "five -months and a half, or six months and a half after I have seen you again, -my life having found its full complement of happiness will be -extinguished -</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i2">Come face al mancar dell'alimento"</span> -</div></div> - -<p> -(as the little lamp is when its oil runs dry). "Before the supreme -moment, I shall probably pass a month or two without speaking, after -which I shall be received into Our Father's Bosom; provided always that -He finds that I have performed my duty in the post in which He has -placed me as a sentinel. -</p> - -<p> -"But you, you are worn out with exhaustion, your emotion makes you ready -for sleep. Since I began to expect you, I have hidden a loaf of bread -and a bottle of brandy for you in the great chest which holds my -instruments. Give yourself that sustenance, and try to collect enough -strength to listen to me for a few moments longer. It lies in my power -to tell you a number of things before night shall have given place -altogether to-day; at present I see them a great deal more distinctly -than perhaps I shall see them to-morrow. For, my child, we are at all -times frail vessels, and we must always take that frailty into account. -To-morrow, it may be, the old man, the earthly man in me will be -occupied with preparations for my death, and to-morrow evening at nine -o'clock, you will have to leave me." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio having obeyed him in silence, as was his custom: -</p> - -<p> -"Then, it is true," the old man went on, "that when you tried to see -Waterloo you found nothing at first but a prison?" -</p> - -<p> -"Yes, Father," replied Fabrizio in amazement. -</p> - -<p> -"Well, that was a rare piece of good fortune, for, warned by my voice, -your soul can prepare itself for another prison, far different in its -austerity, far more terrible! Probably you will escape from it only by a -crime; but, thanks be to heaven, that crime will not have been committed -by you. Never fall into crime, however violently you may be tempted; I -seem to see that it will be a question of killing an innocent man, who, -without knowing it, usurps your rights; if you resist the violent -temptation which will seem to be justified by the laws of honour, your -life will be most happy in the eyes of men . . . and reasonably happy in -the eyes of the sage," he added after a moment's reflexion; "you will -die like me, my son, sitting upon a wooden seat, far from all luxury and -having seen the hollowness of luxury, and like me not having to reproach -yourself with any grave sin. -</p> - -<p> -"And now, the discussion of your future state is at an end between us, I -could add nothing of any importance. It is in vain that I have tried to -see how long this imprisonment is to last; is it to be for six months, a -year, ten years? I have been able to discover nothing; apparently I have -made some error, and heaven has wished to punish me by the distress of -this uncertainty. I have seen only that after your prison, but I do not -know whether it is to be at the actual moment of your leaving it, there -will be what I call a crime; but, fortunately, I believe I can be sure -that it will not be committed by you. If you are weak enough to involve -yourself in this crime, all the rest of my calculations becomes simply -one long error. Then you will not die with peace in your soul, on a -wooden seat and clad in white." As he said these words, Priore Blanès -attempted to rise; it was then that Fabrizio noticed the ravages of -time; it took him nearly a minute to get upon his feet and to turn -towards Fabrizio. Our hero allowed him to do this, standing motionless -and silent. The Priore flung himself into his arms again and again; he -embraced him with extreme affection. After which he went on, with all -the gaiety of the old days: "Try to make a place for yourself among all -my instruments where you can sleep with some comfort; take my furs; you -will find several of great value which the Duchessa Sanseverina sent me -four years ago. She asked me for a forecast of your fate, which I took -care not to give her, while keeping her furs and her fine quadrant. -Every announcement of the future is a breach of the rule, and contains -this danger, that it may alter the event, in which case the whole -science falls to the ground, like a child's card-castle; and besides, -there were things that it was hard to say to that Duchessa who is always -so charming. But let me warn you, do not be startled in your sleep by -the bells, which will make a terrible din in your ear when the men come -to ring for the seven o'clock mass; later on, in the stage below, they -will set the big <i>campanone</i> going, which shakes all my -instruments. To-day is the feast of San Giovita, Martyr and Soldier. As -you know, the little village of Grianta has the same patron as the great -city of Brescia, which, by the way, led to a most amusing mistake on the -part of my illustrious master, Giacomo Marini of Ravenna. More than once -he announced to me that I should have quite a fine career in the church; -he believed that I was to be the curate of the magnificent church of San -Giovita, at Brescia; I have been the curate of a little village of seven -hundred and fifty chimneys! But all has been for the best. I have seen, -and not ten years ago, that if I had been curate at Brescia, my destiny -would have been to be cast into prison on a hill in Moravia, the -Spielberg. To-morrow I shall bring you all manner of delicacies pilfered -from the great dinner which I am giving to all the clergy of the -district who are coming to sing at my high mass. I shall leave them down -below, but do not make any attempt to see me, do not come down to take -possession of the good things until you have heard me go out again. You -must not see me again <i>by daylight</i>, and as the sun sets to-morrow -at twenty-seven minutes past seven, I shall not come up to embrace you -until about eight, and it is necessary that you depart while the hours -are still numbered by nine, that is to say before the clock has struck -ten. Take care that you are not seen in the windows of the -<i>campanile</i>: the police have your description, and they are to some -extent under the orders of your brother, who is a famous tyrant. The -Marchese del Dongo is growing feeble," added Blanès with a sorrowful -air, "and if he were to see you again, perhaps he would let something -pass to you, from hand to hand. But such benefits, tainted with deceit, -do not become a man like yourself, whose strength will lie one day in -his conscience. The Marchese abhors his son Ascanio, and it is on that -son that the five or six millions that he possesses will devolve. That -is justice. You, at his death, will have a pension of 4,000 francs, and -fifty ells of black cloth for your servants' mourning." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h4><a id="CHAPTER_NINE">CHAPTER NINE</a></h4> - -<p> -Fabrizio's soul was exalted by the old man's speech, by his own keen -attention to it, and by his extreme exhaustion. He had great difficulty -in getting to sleep, and his slumber was disturbed by dreams, presages -perhaps of the future; in the morning, at ten o'clock, he was awakened -by the whole belfry's beginning to shake; an alarming noise seemed to -come from outside. He rose in bewilderment and at first imagined that -the end of the world had come; then he thought that he was in prison; it -took him some time to recognise the sound of the big bell, which forty -peasants were setting in motion in honour of the great San Giovita; ten -would have been enough. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio looked for a convenient place from which to see without being -seen; he discovered that from this great height his gaze swept the -gardens, and even the inner courtyard of his father's castle. He had -forgotten this. The idea of that father arriving at the ultimate bourne -of life altered all his feelings. He could even make out the sparrows -that were hopping in search of crumbs upon the wide balcony of the -dining-room. "They are the descendants of the ones I used to tame long -ago," he said to himself. This balcony, like every balcony in the -mansion, was decorated with a large number of orange trees in -earthenware tubs, of different sizes: this sight melted his heart; the -view of that inner courtyard thus decorated, with its sharply defined -shadows outlined by a radiant sun, was truly majestic. -</p> - -<p> -The thought of his father's failing health came back to his mind. "But -it is really singular," he said to himself, "my father is only -thirty-five years older than I am; thirty-five and twenty-three make -only fifty-eight!" His eyes, fixed on the windows of the bedroom of that -stern man who had never loved him, filled with tears. He shivered, and a -sudden chill ran through his veins when he thought he saw his father -crossing a terrace planted with orange trees which was on a level with -his room; but it was only one of the servants. Close underneath the -<i>campanile</i> a number of girls dressed in white and split up into -different bands were occupied in tracing patterns with red, blue and -yellow flowers on the pavement of the streets through which the -procession was to pass. But there was a spectacle which spoke with a more -living voice to Fabrizio's soul: from the <i>campanile</i> his gaze shot -down to the two branches of the lake, at a distance of several leagues, -and this sublime view soon made him forget all the others; it awakened -in him the most lofty sentiments. All the memories of his childhood came -crowding to besiege his mind; and this day which he spent imprisoned in -a belfry was perhaps one of the happiest days of his life. -</p> - -<p> -Happiness carried him to an exaltation of mind quite foreign to his -nature; he considered the incidents of life, he, still so young, as if -already he had arrived at its farthest goal. "I must admit that, since I -came to Parma," he said to himself at length after several hours of -delicious musings, "I have known no tranquil and perfect joy such as I -used to find at Naples in galloping over the roads of Vomero or pacing -the shores of Miseno. All the complicated interests of that nasty little -court have made me nasty also. . . . I even believe that it would be a -sorry happiness for me to humiliate my enemies if I had any; but I have -no enemy. . . . Stop a moment!" he suddenly interjected, "I have got an -enemy, Giletti. . . . And here is a curious thing," he said to himself, -"the pleasure that I should feel in seeing such an ugly fellow go to all -the devils in hell has survived the very slight fancy that I had for -little Marietta. . . . She does not come within a mile of the Duchessa -d'A——, to whom I was obliged to make love at Naples, after I -had told her that I was in love with her. Good God, how bored I have been -during the long assignations which that fair Duchessa used to accord me; -never anything like that in the tumble-down bedroom, serving as a kitchen -as well, in which little Marietta received me twice, and for two minutes -on each occasion. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE CAMPANILE</i></h5> - -<p> -"Oh, good God, what on earth can those people have to eat? They make one -pity them! . . . I ought to have settled on her and the <i>mammaccia</i> a -pension of three beefsteaks, payable daily. . . . Little Marietta," he -went on, "used to distract me from the evil thoughts which the proximity -of that court put in my mind. -</p> - -<p> -"I should perhaps have done well to adopt the <i>caffè</i> life, as the -Duchessa said; she seemed to incline in that direction, and she has far -more intelligence than I. Thanks to her generosity, or indeed merely -with that pension of 4,000 francs and that fund of 40,000 invested at -Lyons, which my mother intends for me, I should always have a horse and -a few scudi to spend on digging and collecting a cabinet. Since it -appears that I am not to know the taste of love, there will always be -those other interests to be my great sources of happiness; I should -like, before I die, to go back to visit the battlefield of Waterloo and -try to identify the meadow where I was so neatly lifted from my horse -and left sitting on the ground. That pilgrimage accomplished, I should -return constantly to this sublime lake; nothing else as beautiful is to -be seen in the world, for my heart at least. Why go so far afield in -search of happiness? It is there, beneath my eyes! -</p> - -<p> -"Ah," said Fabrizio to himself, "there is this objection: the police -drive me away from the Lake of Como, but I am younger than the people -who are setting those police on my track. Here," he added with a smile, -"I should certainly not find a Duchessa d'A——, but I should -find one of those little girls down there who are strewing flowers on the -pavement, and, to tell the truth, I should care for her just as much. -Hypocrisy freezes me, even in love, and our great ladies aim at effects -that are too sublime. Napoleon has given them new ideas as to conduct -and constancy. -</p> - -<p> -"The devil!" he suddenly exclaimed, drawing back his head from the -window, as though he had been afraid of being recognised despite the -screen of the enormous wooden shutter which protected the bells from -rain, "here comes a troop of police in full dress." And indeed, ten -policemen, of whom four were non-commissioned officers, had come into -sight at the top of the village street. The serjeant distributed them at -intervals of a hundred yards along the course which the procession was -to take. "Everyone knows me here; if they see me, I shall make but one -bound from the shores of the Lake of Como to the Spielberg, where they -will fasten to each of my legs a chain weighing a hundred and ten -pounds: and what a grief for the Duchessa!" -</p> - -<p> -It took Fabrizio two or three minutes to realise that, for one thing, he -was stationed at a height of more than eighty feet, that the place in -which he stood was comparatively dark, that the eyes of the people who -might be looking up at him were blinded by a dazzling sun, in addition -to which they were walking about, their eyes wide open, in streets all -the houses of which had just been whitewashed with lime, in honour of the -<i>festa</i> of San Giovita. Despite all these clear and obvious reasons, -Fabrizio's Italian nature would not have been in a state, from that -moment, to enjoy any pleasure in the spectacle, had he not interposed -between himself and the policemen a strip of old cloth which he nailed -to the frame of the window, piercing a couple of holes in it for his -eyes. -</p> - -<p> -The bells had been making the air throb for ten minutes, the procession -was coming out of the church, the <i>mortaretti</i> started to bang. -Fabrizio turned his head and recognised that little terrace, adorned -with a parapet and overlooking the lake, where so often, when he was a -boy, he had risked his life to watch the <i>mortaretti</i> go off -between his legs, with the result that on the mornings of public -holidays his mother liked to see him by her side. -</p> - -<p> -It should be explained that the <i>mortaretti</i> (or little mortars) are -nothing else than gun-barrels which are sawn through so as to leave them -only four inches long; that is why the peasants greedily collect all the -gun-barrels which, since 1796, European policy has been sowing broadcast -over the plains of Lombardy. Once they have been reduced to a length of -four inches, these little guns are loaded to the muzzle, they are -planted in the ground in a vertical position, and a train of powder is -laid from one to the next; they are drawn up in three lines like a -battalion, and to the number of two or three hundred, in some suitable -emplacement near the route along which the procession is to pass. When -the Blessed Sacrament approaches, a match is put to the train of powder, -and then begins a running fire of sharp explosions, utterly irregular -and quite ridiculous; the women are wild with joy. Nothing is so gay as -the sound of these <i>mortaretti</i>, heard at a distance on the lake, and -softened by the rocking of the water; this curious sound, which had so -often been the delight of his boyhood, banished the somewhat too solemn -thoughts by which our hero was being besieged; he went to find the -Priore's big astronomical telescope, and recognised the majority of the -men and women who were following the procession. A number of charming -little girls, whom Fabrizio had last seen at the age of eleven or -twelve, were now superb women in the full flower of the most vigorous -youth; they made our hero's courage revive, and to speak to them he -would readily have braved the police. -</p> - -<p> -After the procession had passed and had re-entered the church by a side -door which was out of Fabrizio's sight, the heat soon became intense -even up in the belfry; the inhabitants returned to their homes, and a -great silence fell upon the village. Several boats took on board loads -of <i>contadini</i> returning to Bellagio, Menaggio and other villages -situated on the lake; Fabrizio could distinguish the sound of each -stroke of the oars: so simple a detail as this sent him into an ecstasy; -his present joy was composed of all the unhappiness, all the irritation -that he found in the complicated life of a court. How happy he would -have been at this moment to be sailing for a league over that beautiful -lake which looked so calm and reflected so clearly the depth of the sky -above! He heard the door at the foot of the <i>campanile</i> opened: it -was the Priore's old servant who brought in a great hamper, and he had -all the difficulty in the world in restraining himself from speaking to -her. "She is almost as fond of me as her master," he said to himself, -"and besides, I am leaving to-night at nine o'clock; would she not keep -the oath of secrecy I should make her swear, if only for a few hours? -But," Fabrizio reminded himself, "I should be vexing my friend! I might -get him into trouble with the police!" and he let Ghita go without -speaking to her. He made an excellent dinner, then settled himself down -to sleep for a few minutes; he did not awake until half-past eight in -the evening; the Priore Blanès was shaking him by the arm, it was dark. -</p> - -<p> -Blanès was extremely tired, and looked fifty years older than the night -before. He said nothing more about serious matters, sitting in his -wooden armchair. "Embrace me," he said to Fabrizio. He clasped him again -and again in his arms. "Death," he said at last, "which is coming to put -an end to this long life, will have nothing about it so painful as this -separation. I have a purse which I shall leave in Ghita's custody, with -orders to draw on it for her own needs, but to hand over to you what is -left, should you ever come to ask for it. I know her; after those -instructions, she is capable, from economy on your behalf, of not buying -meat four times in the year, if you do not give her quite definite -orders. You may yourself be reduced to penury, and the obol of your aged -friend will be of service to you. Expect nothing from your brother but -atrocious behaviour, and try to earn money by some work which will make -you useful to society. I foresee strange storms; perhaps, in fifty years' -time, the world will have no more room for idlers! Your mother and -aunt may fail you, your sisters will have to obey their husbands. . . . -Away with you, away with you, fly!" exclaimed Blanès urgently; he -had just heard a little sound in the clock which warned him that ten was -about to strike, and he would not even allow Fabrizio to give him a -farewell embrace. -</p> - -<p> -"Hurry, hurry!" he cried to him; "it will take you at least a minute to -get down the stair; take care not to fall, that would be a terrible -omen." Fabrizio dashed down the staircase and emerging on to the -<i>piazza</i> began to run. He had scarcely arrived opposite his father's -castle when the bell sounded ten times; each stroke reverberated in his -bosom, where it left a singular sense of disturbance. He stopped to -think, or rather to give himself up to the passionate feelings inspired -in him by the contemplation of that majestic edifice which he had judged -so coldly the night before. He was recalled from his musings by the -sound of footsteps; he looked up and found himself surrounded by four -constables. He had a brace of excellent pistols, the priming of which he -had renewed while he dined; the slight sound that he made in cocking -them attracted the attention of one of the constables, and he was within -an inch of being arrested. He saw the danger he ran, and decided to fire -the first shot; he would be justified in doing so, for this was the sole -method open to him of resisting four well armed men. Fortunately, the -constables, who were going round to clear the <i>osterie</i>, had not -shown themselves altogether irresponsive to the hospitality that they had -received in several of those sociable resorts; they did not make up -their minds quickly enough to do their duty. Fabrizio took to his heels -and ran. The constables went a few yards, running also, and shouting -"Stop! Stop!" then everything relapsed into silence. After every three -hundred yards Fabrizio halted to recover his breath. "The sound of my -pistols nearly made me get caught; this is just the sort of thing that -would make the Duchessa tell me, should it ever be granted me to see her -lovely eyes again, that my mind finds pleasure in contemplating what is -going to happen in ten years' time, and forgets to look-out for what is -actually happening beneath my nose." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio shuddered at the thought of the danger he had just escaped; he -increased his pace, and presently found himself impelled to run, which -was not over-prudent, as it attracted the attention of several -<i>contadini</i> who were going back to their homes. He could not bring -himself to stop until he had reached the mountain, more than a league -from Grianta, and even when he had stopped, he broke into a cold sweat -at the thought of the Spielberg. -</p> - -<p> -"There's a fine fright!" he said aloud: on hearing the sound of this -word, he was almost tempted to feel ashamed. "But does not my aunt tell -me that the thing I most need is to learn to make allowances for myself? -I am always comparing myself with a model of perfection, which cannot -exist. Very well, I forgive myself my fright, for, from another point of -view, I was quite prepared to defend my liberty, and certainly all four -of them would not have remained on their feet to carry me off to prison. -What I am doing at this moment," he went on, "is not military; instead -of retiring rapidly, after having attained my object, and perhaps given -the alarm to my enemies, I am amusing myself with a fancy more -ridiculous perhaps than all the good Priore's predictions." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE CHESTNUT TREE</i></h5> - -<p> -For indeed, instead of retiring along the shortest line, and gaining the -shore of Lake Maggiore, where his boat was awaiting him, he made an -enormous circuit to go and visit <i>his tree</i>. The reader may perhaps -remember the love that Fabrizio bore for a chestnut tree planted by his -mother twenty-three years earlier. "It would be quite worthy of my -brother," he said to himself, "to have had the tree cut down; but those -creatures are incapable of delicate shades of feeling; he will never -have thought of it. And besides, that would not be a bad augury," he -added with firmness. Two hours later he was shocked by what he saw; -mischief-makers or a storm had broken one of the main branches of the -young tree, which hung down withered; Fabrizio cut it off reverently, -using his dagger, and smoothed the cut carefully, so that the rain -should not get inside the trunk. Then, although time was highly precious -to him, for day was about to break, he spent a good hour in turning the -soil round his dear tree. All these acts of folly accomplished, he went -rapidly on his way towards Lake Maggiore. All things considered, he was -not at all sad; the tree was coming on well, was more vigorous than -ever, and in five years had almost doubled in height. The branch was -only an accident of no consequence; once it had been cut off, it did no -more harm to the tree, which indeed would grow all the better if its -spread began higher from the ground. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio had not gone a league when a dazzling band of white indicated -to the east the peaks of the Resegon di Lee, a mountain famous -throughout the district. The road which he was following became thronged -with <i>contadini</i>; but, instead of adopting military tactics, Fabrizio -let himself be melted by the sublime or touching aspect of these forests -in the neighbourhood of Lake Como. They are perhaps the finest in the -world; I do not mean to say those that bring in most new money, as the -Swiss would say, but those that speak most eloquently to the soul. To -listen to this language in the position in which Fabrizio found himself, -an object for the attentions of the gentlemen of the Lombardo-Venetian -police, was really childish. "I am half a league from the frontier," he -reminded himself at length, "I am going to meet <i>doganieri</i> and -constables making their morning rounds: this coat of fine cloth will -look suspicious, they will ask me for my passport; now that passport is -inscribed at full length with my name, which is marked down for prison; -so here I am under the regrettable necessity of committing a murder. If, -as is usual, the police are going about in pairs, I cannot wait quietly -to fire until one of them tries to take me by the collar; he has only to -clutch me for a moment while he falls, and off I go to the Spielberg." -Fabrizio, horrified most of all by the necessity of firing first, -possibly on an old soldier who had served under his uncle, Conte -Pietranera, ran to hide himself in the hollow trunk of an enormous -chestnut; he was renewing the priming of his pistols, when he heard a -man coming towards him through the wood, singing very well a delicious -air from <i>Mercadante</i>, which was popular at that time in Lombardy. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE FOREST</i></h5> - -<p> -"There is a good omen for me," he said to himself. This air, to which he -listened religiously, took from him the little spark of anger which was -finding its way into his reasonings. He scrutinised the high road -carefully, in both directions, and saw no one: "The singer must be -coming along some side road," he said to himself. Almost at that moment, -he saw a footman, very neatly dressed in the English style and mounted -on a hack, who was coming towards him at a walk, leading a fine -thoroughbred, which however was perhaps a little too thin. -</p> - -<p> -"Ah! If I reasoned like Conte Mosca," thought Fabrizio, "when he assures -me that the risks a man runs are always the measure of his rights over -his neighbours, I should blow out this servant's brains with a -pistol-shot, and, once I was mounted on the thin horse, I should laugh -aloud at all the police in the world. As soon as I was safely in Parma, -I should send money to the man, or to his widow . . . but it would be a -horrible thing to do!" -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h4><a id="CHAPTER_TEN">CHAPTER TEN</a></h4> - -<p> -Moralising thus, Fabrizio sprang down on to the high road which runs -from Lombardy into Switzerland: at this point, it is fully four or five -feet below the level of the forest. "If my man takes fright," he said to -himself, "he will go off at a gallop, and I shall be stranded here -looking the picture of a fool." At this moment he found himself only ten -yards from the footman, who had stopped singing: Fabrizio could see in -his eyes that he was frightened, he was perhaps going to turn his -horses. Still without having come to any decision, Fabrizio made a -bound, and seized the thin horse by the bridle. -</p> - -<p> -"My friend," he said to the footman, "I am not an ordinary thief, for I -am going to begin by giving you twenty francs, but I am obliged to -borrow your horse; I shall be killed if I don't get away pretty quickly. -I have the four Riva brothers on my heels, those great hunters whom you -probably know; they caught me just now in their sister's bedroom, I -jumped out of the window, and here I am. They dashed out into the forest -with their dogs and guns. I hid myself in that big hollow chestnut -because I saw one of them cross the road; their dogs will track me down. -I am going to mount your horse and gallop a league beyond Como; I am -going to Milan to throw myself at the Viceroy's feet. I shall leave your -horse at the post-house with two napoleons for yourself, if you consent -with good grace. If you offer the slightest resistance, I shall kill you -with these pistols you see here. If, after I have gone, you set the -police on my track, my cousin, the gallant Conte Alari, Equerry to the -Emperor, will take good care to break your bones for you." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE HORSE</i></h5> - -<p> -Fabrizio invented the substance of this speech as he went on, uttering -it in a wholly pacific tone. -</p> - -<p> -"As far as that goes," he went on with a laugh, "my name is no secret; I -am the Marchesino Ascanio del Dongo, my castle is quite close to here, -at Grianta. Damn you!" he cried, raising his voice, "will you let go the -horse!" The servant, stupefied, never breathed a word. Fabrizio -transferred the pistol to his left hand, seized the bridle which the -other dropped, sprang into the saddle, and made off at a canter. When he -had gone three hundred yards, it occurred to him that he had forgotten -to give the man the twenty francs he had promised him; he stopped; there -was still no one upon the road but the footman, who was following him at -a gallop; he signalled to him with his handkerchief to come on, and when -he judged him to be fifty yards off, flung a handful of small change on -to the road and went on again. From a distance he looked and saw the -footman gathering up the money. "There is a truly reasonable man," -Fabrizio said to himself with a laugh, "not an unnecessary word." He -proceeded rapidly southwards, halted, towards midday, at a lonely house, -and took the road again a few hours later. At two o'clock in the morning -he was on the shore of Lake Maggiore; he soon caught sight of his boat -which was tacking to and fro; at the agreed signal, it made for the shore. -He could see no <i>contadino</i> to whom to hand over the horse, so he -gave the noble animal its liberty, and three hours later was at -Belgirate. There, finding himself on friendly soil, he took a little -rest; he was exceedingly joyful, everything had proved a complete -success. Dare we indicate the true causes of his joy? His tree showed a -superb growth, and his soul had been refreshed by the deep affection -which he had found in the arms of Priore Blanès. "Does he really -believe," he asked himself, "in all the predictions he has made me? Or -was he, since my brother has given me the reputation of a Jacobin, a man -without law or honour, sticking at nothing, was he seeking simply to -bind me not to yield to the temptation to break the head of some animal -who may have done me a bad turn?" Two days later, Fabrizio was at Parma, -where he greatly amused the Duchessa and the Conte, when he related to -them, with the utmost exactitude, which he always observed, the whole -story of his travels. -</p> - -<p> -On his arrival, Fabrizio found the porter and all the servants of the -<i>palazzo</i> Sanseverina wearing the tokens of the deepest mourning. -</p> - -<p> -"Whom have we lost?" he inquired of the Duchessa. -</p> - -<p> -"That excellent man whom people called my husband has just died at Baden. -He has left me this <i>palazzo</i>, that had been arranged beforehand, -but as a sign of good-fellowship he has added a legacy of 300,000 -francs, which embarrasses me greatly; I have no desire to surrender it -to his niece, the Marchesa Raversi, who plays the most damnable tricks -on me every day. You are interested in art, you must find me some good -sculptor; I shall erect a tomb to the Duca which will cost 300,000 -francs." The Conte began telling anecdotes about the Raversi. -</p> - -<p> -"I have tried to win her by kindness, but all in vain," said the -Duchessa. "As for the Duca's nephews, I have made them all colonels or -generals. In return for which, not a month passes without their sending -me some abominable anonymous letter; I have been obliged to engage a -secretary simply to read letters of that sort." -</p> - -<p> -"And these anonymous letters are their mildest offence," the Conte -joined in; "they make a regular business of inventing infamous -accusations. A score of times I could have brought the whole gang before -the courts, and Your Excellency may imagine," he went on, addressing -Fabrizio, "whether my good judges would have convicted them." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>HONEST JUDGES</i></h5> - -<p> -"Ah, well, that is what spoils it all for me," replied Fabrizio with a -simplicity which was quite refreshing at court; "I should prefer to see -them sentenced by magistrates judging according to their conscience." -</p> - -<p> -"You would oblige me greatly, since you are travelling with a view to -gaining instruction, if you would give me the addresses of such -magistrates; I shall write to them before I go to bed." -</p> - -<p> -"If I were Minister, this absence of judges who were honest men would -wound my self-respect." -</p> - -<p> -"But it seems to me," said the Conte, "that Your Excellency, who is so -fond of the French, and did indeed once lend them the aid of his -invincible arm, is forgetting for the moment one of their great maxims: -'It is better to kill the devil than to let the devil kill you.' I -should like to see how you would govern these burning souls, who read -every day the <i>History of the Revolution in France</i>, with judges who -would acquit the people whom I accuse. They would reach the point of not -convicting the most obviously guilty scoundrels, and would fancy -themselves Brutuses. But I should like to pick a crow with you; does not -your delicate soul feel a touch of remorse at the thought of that fine -(though perhaps a little too thin) horse which you have just abandoned -on the shore of Lake Maggiore?" -</p> - -<p> -"I fully intend," said Fabrizio, with the utmost seriousness, "to send -whatever is necessary to the owner of the horse to recompense him for -the cost of advertising and any other expenses which he may be made to -incur by the <i>contadini</i> who may have found it; I shall study the -Milan newspaper most carefully to find the announcement of a missing -horse; I know the description of that one very well." -</p> - -<p> -"He is truly <i>primitive</i>," said the Conte to the Duchessa. "And where -would Your Excellency be now," he went on with a smile, "if, while he -was galloping away hell for leather on this borrowed horse, it had taken -it into its head to make a false step? You would be in the Spielberg, my -dear young nephew, and all my authority would barely have managed to -secure the reduction by thirty pounds of the weight of the chain -attached to each of your legs. You would have had some ten years to -spend in that pleasure-resort; perhaps your legs would have become -swollen and gangrened, then they would have cut them clean off." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, for pity's sake, don't go any farther with so sad a romance!" cried -the Duchessa, with tears in her eyes. "Here he is back again. . . ." -</p> - -<p> -"And I am more delighted than you, you may well believe," replied the -Minister with great seriousness, "but after all why did not this cruel -boy come to me for a passport in a suitable name, since he was anxious -to penetrate into Lombardy? On the first news of his arrest, I should -have set off for Milan, and the friends I have in those parts would have -obligingly shut their eyes and pretended to believe that their police -had arrested a subject of the Prince of Parma. The story of your -adventures is charming, amusing, I readily agree," the Conte went on, -adopting a less sinister tone; "your rush from the wood on to the high -road quite thrills me; but, between ourselves, since this servant held -your life in his hands, you had the right to take his. We are about to -arrange a brilliant future for Your Excellency; at least, the Signora -here orders me to do so, and I do not believe that my greatest enemies -can accuse me of having ever disobeyed her commands. What a bitter grief -for her and for myself if, in this sort of steeplechase which you appear -to have been riding on this thin horse, he had made a false step! It -would almost have been better," the Conte added, "if the horse had -broken your neck for you." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>GALEAZZO, DUKE OF MILAN</i></h5> - -<p> -"You are very tragic this evening, my friend," said the Duchessa, quite -overcome. -</p> - -<p> -"That is because we are surrounded by tragic events," replied the Conte, -also with emotion; "we are not in France, where everything ends in song, -or in imprisonment for a year or two, and really it is wrong of me to -speak of all this to you in a jocular tone. Well, now, my young nephew, -just suppose that I find a chance to make you a Bishop, for really I -cannot begin with the Archbishopric of Parma, as is desired, most -reasonably, by the Signora Duchessa here present; in that Bishopric, -where you will be far removed from our sage counsels, just tell us -roughly what your policy will be?" -</p> - -<p> -"To kill the devil rather than let him kill me, in the admirable words -of my friends the French," replied Fabrizio with blazing eyes; "to keep, -by every means in my power, including pistols, the position you will -have secured for me. I have read in the del Dongo genealogy the story of -that ancestor of ours who built the castle of Grianta. Towards the end -of his life, his good friend Galeazzo, Duke of Milan, sent him to visit -a fortress on our lake; they were afraid of another invasion by the -Swiss. 'I must just write a few civil words to the governor,' the Duke -of Milan said to him as he was sending him off. He wrote and handed our -ancestor a note of a couple of lines; then he asked for it back to seal -it. 'It will be more polite,' the Prince explained. Vespasiano del Dongo -started off, but, as he was sailing over the lake, an old Greek tale -came into his mind, for he was a man of learning; he opened his liege -lord's letter and found inside an order addressed to the governor of the -castle to put him to death as soon as he should arrive. The Sforza, too -much intent on the trick he was playing our ancestor, had left a space -between the end of the letter and his signature; Vespasiano del Dongo -wrote in this space an order proclaiming himself Governor General of all -the castles on the lake, and tore off the original letter. Arriving at -the fort, where his authority was duly acknowledged, he flung the -commandant down a well, declared war on the Sforza, and after a few -years exchanged his fortress for those vast estates which have made the -fortune of every branch of our family, and one day will bring in to me, -personally, an income of four thousand lire." -</p> - -<p> -"You talk like an academician," exclaimed the Conte, laughing; "that was -a bold stroke with a vengeance; but it is only once in ten years that -one has a chance to do anything so sensational. A creature who is half -an idiot, but who keeps a sharp look-out, and acts prudently all his -life, often enjoys the pleasure of triumphing over men of imagination. -It was by a foolish error of imagination that Napoleon was led to -surrender to the prudent <i>John Bull</i>, instead of seeking to conquer -America. John Bull, in his counting-house, had a hearty laugh at his -letter in which he quotes Themistocles. In all ages, the base Sancho -Panza triumphs, you will find, in the long run, over the sublime Don -Quixote. If you are willing to agree to do nothing extraordinary, I have -no doubt that you will be a highly respected, if not a highly -respectable Bishop. In any case, what I said just now holds good: Your -Excellency acted with great levity in the affair of the horse; he was -within a finger's breadth of perpetual imprisonment." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>A CONQUEST</i></h5> - -<p> -This statement made Fabrizio shudder. He remained plunged in a profound -astonishment. "Was that," he wondered, "the prison with which I am -threatened? Is that the crime which I was not to commit?" The -predictions of Blanès, which as prophecies he utterly derided, assumed -in his eyes all the importance of authentic forecasts. -</p> - -<p> -"Why, what is the matter with you?" the Duchessa asked him, in surprise; -"the Conte has plunged you in a sea of dark thoughts." -</p> - -<p> -"I am illuminated by a new truth, and, instead of revolting against it, -my mind adopts it. It is true, I passed very near to an endless -imprisonment! But that footman looked so nice in his English jacket! It -would have been such a pity to kill him!" -</p> - -<p> -The Minister was enchanted with his little air of wisdom. -</p> - -<p> -"He is excellent in every respect," he said, with his eyes on the -Duchessa. "I may tell you, my friend, that you have made a conquest, and -one that is perhaps the most desirable of all." -</p> - -<p> -"Ah!" thought Fabrizio, "now for some joke about little Marietta." He -was mistaken; the Conte went on to say: -</p> - -<p> -"Your <i>Gospel</i> simplicity has won the heart of our venerable -Archbishop, Father Landriani. One of these days we are going to make a -Grand Vicar of you, and the charming part of the whole joke is that the -three existing Grand Vicars, all most deserving men, workers, two of whom, -I fancy, were Grand Vicars before you were born, will demand, in a finely -worded letter addressed to their Archbishop, that you shall rank first -among them. These gentlemen base their plea in the first place upon your -virtues, and also upon the fact that you are the great-nephew of the -famous Archbishop Ascanio del Dongo. When I learned the respect that -they felt for your virtues, I immediately made the senior Vicar -General's nephew a captain; he had been a lieutenant ever since the -siege of Tarragona by Marshal Suchet." -</p> - -<p> -"Go right away now, dressed as you are, and pay a friendly visit to your -Archbishop!" exclaimed the Duchessa. "Tell him about your sister's -wedding; when he hears that she is to be a Duchessa, he will think you -more apostolic than ever. But, remember, you know nothing of what the -Conte has just told you about your future promotion." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio hastened to the archiépiscopal palace; there he shewed himself -simple and modest, a tone which he assumed only too easily; whereas it -required an effort for him to play the great gentleman. As he listened -to the somewhat prolix stories of Monsignor Landriani, he was saying to -himself: "Ought I to have fired my pistol at the footman who was leading -the thin horse?" His reason said to him: "Yes," but his heart could not -accustom itself to the bleeding image of the handsome young man, falling -from his horse, all disfigured. -</p> - -<p> -"That prison in which I should have been swallowed up, if the horse had -stumbled, was that the prison with which I was threatened by all those -forecasts?" -</p> - -<p> -This question was of the utmost importance to him, and the Archbishop -was gratified by his air of profound attention. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h4><a id="CHAPTER_ELEVEN">CHAPTER ELEVEN</a></h4> - -<p> -On leaving the Archbishop's Palace, Fabrizio hastened to see little -Marietta; he could hear from the street the loud voice of Giletti who -had sent out for wine and was regaling himself with his friends the -prompter and the candle-snuffers. The <i>mammaccia</i>, who played the -part of mother, came alone in answer to his signal. -</p> - -<p> -"A lot has happened since you were here," she cried; "two or three of -our actors are accused of having celebrated the great Napoleon's -<i>festa</i> with an orgy, and our poor company, which they say is -Jacobin, has been ordered to leave the States of Parma, and <i>evviva -Napoleone</i>! But the Minister has had a finger in that pie, they say. -One thing certain is that Giletti has got money, I don't know how much, -but I've seen him with a fistful of scudi. Marietta has had five scudi -from our manager to pay for the journey to Mantua and Venice, and I have -had one. She is still in love with you, but Giletti frightens her; three -days ago, at the last performance we gave, he absolutely wanted to kill -her; he dealt her two proper blows, and, what was abominable of him, -tore her blue shawl. If you would care to give her a blue shawl, you -would be a very good boy, and we can say that we won it in a lottery. -The drum-major of the <i>carabinieri</i> is giving an assault-at-arms -to-morrow, you will find the hour posted up at all the street-corners. -Come and see us; if he has gone to the assault, and we have any reason -to hope that he will stay away for some time, I shall be at the window, -and I shall give you a signal to come up. Try to bring us something -really nice, and Marietta will be madly in love with you." -</p> - -<p> -As he made his way down the winding staircase of this foul rookery, -Fabrizio was filled with compunction. "I have not altered in the least," -he said to himself; "all the fine resolutions I made on the shore of our -lake, when I looked at life with so philosophic an eye, have gone to the -winds. My mind has lost its normal balance; the whole thing was a dream, -and vanishes before the stern reality. Now would be the time for action," -he told himself as he entered the <i>palazzo</i> Sanseverina about eleven -o'clock that evening. But it was in vain that he sought in his heart for -the courage to speak with that sublime sincerity which had seemed to him -so easy, the night he spent by the shore of the Lake of Como. "I am -going to vex the person whom I love best in the world; if I speak, I -shall simply seem to be jesting in the worst of taste; I am not worth -anything, really, except in certain moments of exaltation. -</p> - -<p> -"The Conte has behaved admirably towards me," he said to the Duchessa, -after he had given her an account of his visit to the Archbishop's -Palace; "I appreciate his conduct all the more, in that I think I am -right in saying that personally I have made only a very moderate -impression on him: my behaviour towards him ought therefore to be -strictly correct. He has his excavations at Sanguigna, about which he is -still madly keen, if one is to judge, that is, by his expedition the day -before yesterday: he went twelve leagues at a gallop in order to spend a -couple of hours with his workmen. If they find fragments of statues in -the ancient temple, the foundations of which he has just laid bare, he -is afraid of their being stolen; I should like to propose to him that I -should go and spend a night or two at Sanguigna. To-morrow, about five, -I have to see the Archbishop again; I can start in the evening and take -advantage of the cool night air for the journey." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>SANGUIGNA</i></h5> - -<p> -The Duchessa did not at first reply. -</p> - -<p> -"One would think you were seeking excuses for staying away from me," she -said to him at length with extreme affection: "No sooner do you come -back from Belgirate than you find a reason for going off again." -</p> - -<p> -"Here is a fine opportunity for speaking," thought Fabrizio. "But by the -lake I was a trifle mad; I did not realise, in my enthusiasm for -sincerity, that my compliment ended in an impertinence. It was a -question of saying: 'I love you with the most devoted friendship, etc., -etc., but my heart is not susceptible to love.' Is not that as much as -to say: 'I see that you are in love with me: but take care, I cannot pay -you back in the same coin.' If it is love that she feels, the Duchessa -may be annoyed at its being guessed, and she will be revolted by my -impudence if all that she feels for me is friendship pure and -simple . . . and that is one of the offences people never forgive." -</p> - -<p> -While he weighed these important thoughts in his mind, Fabrizio, quite -unconsciously, was pacing up and down the drawing-room with the grave -air, full of dignity, of a man who sees disaster staring him in the -face. -</p> - -<p> -The Duchessa gazed at him with admiration; this was no longer the child -she had seen come into the world, this was no longer the nephew always -ready to obey her; this was a serious man, a man whom it would be -delicious to make fall in love with her. She rose from the ottoman on -which she was sitting, and, flinging herself into his arms in a -transport of emotion: -</p> - -<p> -"So you want to run away from me?" she asked him. -</p> - -<p> -"No," he replied with the air of a Roman Emperor, "but I want to act -wisely." -</p> - -<p> -This speech was capable of several interpretations; Fabrizio did not -feel that he had the courage to go any farther and to run the risk of -wounding this adorable woman. He was too young, too susceptible to -sudden emotion; his brain could not supply him with any elegant turn of -speech to give expression to what he wished to say. By a natural -transport, and in defiance of all reason, he took this charming woman in -his arms and smothered her in kisses. At that moment the Conte's -carriage could be heard coming into the courtyard, and almost -immediately the Conte himself entered the room; he seemed greatly moved. -</p> - -<p> -"You inspire very singular passions," he said to Fabrizio, who stood -still, almost dumbfoundered by this remark. -</p> - -<p> -"The Archbishop had this evening the audience which His Serene Highness -grants him every Thursday; the Prince has just been telling me that the -Archbishop, who seemed greatly troubled, began with a set speech, -learned by heart, and extremely clever, of which at first the Prince -could understand nothing at all. Landriani ended by declaring that it was -important for the Church in Parma that <i>Monsignor</i> Fabrizio del Dongo -should be appointed his First Vicar General, and, in addition, as soon -as he should have completed his twenty-fourth year, his Coadjutor <i>with -eventual succession</i>. -</p> - -<p> -"The last clause alarmed me, I must admit," said the Conte: "it is going -a little too fast, and I was afraid of an outburst from the Prince; but -he looked at me with a smile, and said to me in French: 'Ce sont là de -vos coups, monsieur!' -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE AUDIENCE</i></h5> - -<p> -"'I can take my oath, before God and before Your Highness,' I exclaimed -with all the unction possible, 'that I knew absolutely nothing about the -words <i>eventual succession</i>.' Then I told him the truth, what in -fact we were discussing together here a few hours ago; I added, -impulsively, that, so far as the future was concerned, I should regard -myself as most bounteously rewarded with His Highness's favour if he -would deign to allow me a minor Bishopric to begin with. The Prince must -have believed me, for he thought fit to be gracious; he said to me with -the greatest possible simplicity: 'This is an official matter between -the Archbishop and myself; you do not come into it at all; the worthy -man delivered me a kind of report, of great length and tedious to a -degree, at the end of which he came to an official proposal; I answered -him very coldly that the person in question was extremely young, and, -moreover, a very recent arrival at my court, that I should almost be -giving the impression that I was honouring a bill of exchange drawn upon -me by the Emperor, in giving the prospect of so high a dignity to the -son of one of the principal officers of his Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom. -The Archbishop protested that no recommendation of that sort had been -made. That was a pretty stupid thing to say to <i>me</i>. I was -surprised to hear it come from a man of his experience; but he always -loses his head when he speaks to me, and this evening he was more -troubled than ever, which gave me the idea that he was passionately -anxious to secure the appointment. I told him that I knew better than he -that there had been no recommendation from any high quarter in favour of -this del Dongo, that nobody at my court denied his capacity, that they -did not speak at all too badly of his morals, but that I was afraid of -his being liable to enthusiasm, and that I had made it a rule never to -promote to considerable positions fools of that sort, with whom a Prince -can never be sure of anything. Then,' His Highness went on, 'I had to -submit to a fresh tirade almost as long as the first; the Archbishop -sang me the praises of the enthusiasm of the <i>Casa di Dio</i>. Clumsy -fellow, I said to myself, you are going astray, you are endangering an -appointment which was almost confirmed; you ought to have cut your -speech short and thanked me effusively. Not a bit of it; he continued -his homily with a ridiculous intrepidity; I had to think of a reply -which would not be too unfavourable to young del Dongo; I found one, and -by no means a bad one, as you shall judge for yourself. Monsignore, I -said to him, Pius VII was a great Pope and a great saint: among all the -Sovereigns, he alone dared to say <i>No</i> to the tyrant who saw Europe -at his feet: very well, he was liable to enthusiasm, which led him, when -he was Bishop of Imola, to write that famous Pastoral of the -<i>Citizen-Cardinal</i> Chiaramonti, in support of the Cisalpine -Republic. -</p> - -<p> -"'My poor Archbishop was left stupefied, and, to complete his -stupefaction, I said to him with a very serious air: Good-bye, -Monsignore, I shall take twenty-four hours to consider your proposal. -The poor man added various supplications, by no means well expressed and -distinctly inopportune after the word <i>Good-bye</i> had been uttered by -me. Now, Conte Mosca della Rovere, I charge you to inform the Duchessa -that I have no wish to delay for twenty-four hours a decision which may be -agreeable to her; sit down there and write the Archbishop the letter of -approval which will bring the whole matter to an end.' I wrote the -letter, he signed it, and said to me: 'Take it, immediately, to the -Duchessa.' Here, Signora, is the letter, and it is this that has given -me an excuse for taking the pleasure of seeing you again this evening." -</p> - -<p> -The Duchessa read the letter with rapture. While the Conte was telling -his long story, Fabrizio had had time to collect himself: he shewed no -sign of astonishment at the incident, he took the whole thing like a -true nobleman who naturally has always supposed himself entitled to -these extraordinary advancements, these strokes of fortune which would -unhinge a plebeian mind; he spoke of his gratitude, but in polished -terms, and ended by saying to the Conte: -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>TITULAR AND COADJUTOR</i></h5> - -<p> -"A good courtier ought to flatter the ruling passion; yesterday you -expressed the fear that your workmen at Sanguigna might steal any -fragments of ancient sculpture they brought to light; I am extremely -fond of excavation, myself; with your kind permission, I will go to -superintend the workmen. To-morrow evening, after suitably expressing my -thanks at the Palace and to the Archbishop, I shall start for -Sanguigna." -</p> - -<p> -"But can you guess," the Duchessa asked the Conte, "what can have given -rise to this sudden passion on our good Archbishop's part for Fabrizio?" -</p> - -<p> -"I have no need to guess; the Grand Vicar whose nephew I made a captain -said to me yesterday: 'Father Landriani starts from this absolute -principle, that the titular is superior to the coadjutor, and is beside -himself with joy at the prospect of having a del Dongo under his orders, -and of having done him a service.' Everything that can draw attention to -Fabrizio's noble birth adds to his secret happiness: that he should have -a man like that as his aide-de-camp! In the second place, Monsignor -Fabrizio has taken his fancy, he does not feel in the least shy before -him; finally, he has been nourishing for the last ten years a very -vigorous hatred of the Bishop of Piacenza, who openly boasts of his -claim to succeed him in the see of Parma, and is moreover the son of a -miller. It is with a view to this eventual succession that the Bishop of -Piacenza has formed very close relations with the Marchesa Raversi, and -now their intimacy is making the Archbishop tremble for the success of -his favourite scheme, to have a del Dongo on his staff and to give him -orders." -</p> - -<p> -Two days after this, at an early hour in the morning, Fabrizio was -directing the work of excavation at Sanguigna, opposite Colorno (which -is the Versailles of the Princes of Parma); these excavations extended -over the plain close to the high road which runs from Parma to the bridge -of Casalmaggiore, the first town on Austrian territory. The workmen were -intersecting the plain with a long trench, eight feet deep and as narrow -as possible: they were engaged in seeking, along the old Roman Way, for -the ruins of a second temple which, according to local reports, had -still been in existence in the middle ages. Despite the Prince's orders, -many of the <i>contadini</i> looked with misgivings on these long ditches -running across their property. Whatever one might say to them, they -imagined that a search was being made for treasure, and Fabrizio's -presence was especially desirable with a view to preventing any little -unrest. He was by no means bored, he followed the work with keen -interest; from time to time they turned up some medal, and he saw to it -that the workmen did not have time to arrange among themselves to make -off with it. -</p> - -<p> -The day was fine, the time about six o'clock in the morning: he had -borrowed an old gun, single-barrelled; he shot several larks; one of -them, wounded, was falling upon the high road. Fabrizio, as he went -after it, caught sight, in the distance, of a carriage that was coming -from Parma and making for the frontier at Casalmaggiore. He had just -reloaded his gun when, the carriage which was extremely dilapidated -coming towards him at a snail's pace, he recognised little Marietta; she -had, on either side of her, the big bully Giletti and the old woman whom -she passed off as her mother. -</p> - -<p> -Giletti imagined that Fabrizio had posted himself there in the middle of -the road, and with a gun in his hand, to insult him, and perhaps even to -carry off his little Marietta. Like a man of valour, he jumped down from -the carriage; he had in his left hand a large and very rusty pistol, and -held in his right a sheathed sword, which he used when the limitations -of the company obliged them to cast him for the part of some Marchese. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>GILETTI</i></h5> - -<p> -"Ha! Brigand!" he shouted, "I am very glad to find you here, a league -from the frontier; I'll settle your account for you, right away; you're -not protected here by your violet stockings." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio was engaged in smiling at little Marietta, and barely heeding -the jealous shouts of Giletti, when suddenly he saw within three feet of -his chest the muzzle of the rusty pistol; he was just in time to aim a -blow at it, using his gun as a club: the pistol went off, but did not -hit anyone. -</p> - -<p> -"Stop, will you, you ——," cried Giletti to the -<i>vetturino</i>; at the same time he was quick enough to spring to the -muzzle of his adversary's gun and to hold it so that it pointed away -from his body; Fabrizio and he pulled at the gun, each with his whole -strength. Giletti, who was a great deal the more vigorous of the two, -placing one hand in front of the other, kept creeping forward towards -the lock, and was on the point of snatching away the gun when Fabrizio, -to prevent him from making use of it, fired. He had indeed seen, first, -that the muzzle of the gun was more than three inches above Giletti's -shoulder: still, the detonation occurred close to the man's ear. He was -somewhat startled at first, but at once recovered himself: -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, so you want to blow my head off, you scum! Just let me settle your -reckoning." Giletti flung away the scabbard of his Marchese's sword, and -fell upon Fabrizio with admirable swiftness. Our hero had no weapon, and -gave himself up for lost. -</p> - -<p> -He made for the carriage, which had stopped some ten yards beyond -Giletti; he passed to the left of it, and, grasping the spring of the -carriage in his hand, made a quick turn which brought him level with the -door on the right hand side, which stood open. Giletti, who had started -off on his long legs and had not thought of checking himself by catching -hold of the spring, went on for several paces in the same direction -before he could stop. As Fabrizio passed by the open door, he heard -Marietta whisper to him: -</p> - -<p> -"Take care of yourself; he will kill you. Here!" -</p> - -<p> -As he spoke, Fabrizio saw fall from the door a sort of big hunting -knife, he stooped to pick it up, but as he did so was wounded in the -shoulder by a blow from Giletti's sword. Fabrizio, on rising to his -feet, found himself within six inches of Giletti, who struck him a -furious blow in the face with the hilt of his sword; this blow was -delivered with so much force that it completely took away Fabrizio's -senses. At that moment, he was on the point of being killed. Fortunately -for him, Giletti was still too near to be able to give him a thrust with -the point. Fabrizio, when he came to himself, took to flight, and ran as -fast as his legs would carry him; as he ran, he flung away the sheath of -the hunting knife, and then, turning smartly round, found himself three -paces ahead of Giletti, who was in pursuit. Giletti rushed on, Fabrizio -struck at him with the point of his knife; Giletti was in time to beat -up the knife a little with his sword, but he received the point of the -blade full in the left cheek. He passed close by Fabrizio who felt his -thigh pierced: it was Giletti's knife, which he had found time to open. -Fabrizio sprang to the right; he turned round, and at last the two -adversaries found themselves at a proper fighting distance. -</p> - -<p> -Giletti swore like a lost soul: "Ah! I shall slit your throat for you, -you rascally priest," he kept on repeating every moment. Fabrizio was -quite out of breath and could not speak: the blow on his face from the -sword-hilt was causing him a great deal of pain, and his nose was -bleeding abundantly. He parried a number of strokes with his hunting -knife, and made a number of passes without knowing quite what he was -doing. He had a vague feeling that he was at a public display. This idea -had been suggested to him by the presence of the workmen, who, to the -number of twenty-five or thirty, formed a circle round the combatants, -but at a most respectful distance; for at every moment they saw them -start to run, and spring upon one another. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>A DUEL</i></h5> - -<p> -The fight seemed to be slackening a little; the strokes no longer -followed one another with the same rapidity, when Fabrizio said to -himself: "To judge by the pain which I feel in my face, he must have -disfigured me." In a spasm of rage at this idea, he leaped upon his -enemy with the point of his hunting knife forwards. This point entered -Giletti's chest on the right side and passed out near his left shoulder; -at the same moment Giletti's sword passed right to the hilt through the -upper part of Fabrizio's arm, but the blade glided under the skin and -the wound was not serious. -</p> - -<p> -Giletti had fallen; as Fabrizio advanced towards him, looking down at -his left hand which was clasping a knife, that hand opened mechanically -and let the weapon slip to the ground. -</p> - -<p> -"The rascal is dead," said Fabrizio to himself. He looked at Giletti's -face: blood was pouring from his mouth. Fabrizio ran to the carriage. -</p> - -<p> -"Have you a mirror?" he cried to Marietta. Marietta stared at him, -deadly pale, and made no answer. The old woman with great coolness -opened a green workbag and handed Fabrizio a little mirror with a -handle, no bigger than his hand. Fabrizio as he looked at himself felt -his face carefully: "My eyes are all right," he said to himself, "that -is something, at any rate." He examined his teeth; they were not broken -at all. "Then how is it that I am in such pain?" he asked himself, -half-aloud. -</p> - -<p> -The old woman answered him: -</p> - -<p> -"It is because the top of your cheek has been crushed between the hilt -of Giletti's sword and the bone we keep there. Your cheek is horribly -swollen and blue: put leeches on it instantly, and it will be all -right." -</p> - -<p> -"Ah! Leeches, instantly!" said Fabrizio with a laugh, and recovered all -his coolness. He saw that the workmen had gathered round Giletti, and -were gazing at him, without venturing to touch him. -</p> - -<p> -"Look after that man there!" he called to them; "take his coat off." He -was going to say more, but, on raising his eyes, saw five or six men at -a distance of three hundred yards on the high road, who were advancing -on foot and at a measured pace towards the scene of action. -</p> - -<p> -"They are police," he thought, "and, as there has been a man killed, -they will arrest me, and I shall have the honour of making a solemn -entry into the city of Parma. What a story for the Raversi's friends at -court who detest my aunt!" -</p> - -<p> -Immediately, with the rapidity of a flash of lightning, he flung to the -open-mouthed workmen all the money that he had in his pockets and leaped -into the carriage. -</p> - -<p> -"Stop the police from pursuing me!" he cried to his men, "and your -fortunes are all made; tell them that I am innocent, that this man -<i>attacked me and wanted to kill me</i>." -</p> - -<p> -"And you," he said to the <i>vetturino</i>, "make your horses gallop; you -shall have four golden napoleons if you cross the Po before these people -behind can overtake me." -</p> - -<p> -"Right you are," said the man; "but there's nothing to be afraid of: -those men back there are on foot, and my little horses have only to trot -to leave them properly in the lurch." So saying, he put the animals into -a gallop. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>PRECAUTIONS</i></h5> - -<p> -Our hero was shocked to hear the word "afraid" used by the driver: the -fact being that really he had been extremely afraid after the blow from -the sword-hilt which had struck him in the face. -</p> - -<p> -"We may run into people on horseback coming towards us," said the -prudent <i>vetturino</i>, thinking of the four napoleons, "and the men who -are following us may call out to them to stop us. . . ." Which meant, in -other words: "Reload your weapons." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, how brave you are, my little Abate!" cried Marietta as she embraced -Fabrizio. The old woman was looking out through the window of the -carriage; presently she drew in her head. -</p> - -<p> -"No one is following you, sir," she said to Fabrizio with great -coolness; "and there is no one on the road in front of you. You know how -particular the officials of the Austrian police are: if they see you -arrive like this at a gallop, along the embankment by the Po, they will -arrest you, no doubt about it." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio looked out of the window. -</p> - -<p> -"Trot," he said to the driver. "What passport have you?" he asked the -old woman. -</p> - -<p> -"Three, instead of one," she replied, "and they cost us four francs -apiece; a dreadful thing, isn't it, for poor dramatic artists who are -kept travelling all the year round! Here is the passport of Signor -Giletti, dramatic artist: that will be you; here are our two passports, -Marietta's and mine. But Giletti had all our money in his pocket; what -is to become of us?" -</p> - -<p> -"What had he?" Fabrizio asked. -</p> - -<p> -"Forty good scudi of five francs," said the old woman. -</p> - -<p> -"You mean six, and some small change," said Marietta with a smile: "I -won't have my little Abate cheated." -</p> - -<p> -"Isn't it only natural, sir," replied the old woman with great coolness, -"that I should try to tap you for thirty-four scudi? What are -thirty-four scudi to you, and we—we have lost our protector. Who -is there now to find us lodgings, to beat down prices with the -<i>vetturini</i> when we are on the road, and to put the fear of God -into everyone? Giletti was not beautiful, but he was most useful; and if -the little girl there hadn't been a fool, and fallen in love with you -from the first, Giletti would never have noticed anything, and you would -have given us good money. I can assure you that we are very poor." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio was touched; he took out his purse and gave several napoleons -to the old woman. -</p> - -<p> -"You see," he said to her, "I have only fifteen left, so it is no use -your trying to pull my leg any more." -</p> - -<p> -Little Marietta flung her arms round his neck, and the old woman kissed -his hands. The carriage was moving all this time at a slow trot. When -they saw in the distance the yellow barriers striped with black which -indicated the beginning of Austrian territory, the old woman said to -Fabrizio: -</p> - -<p> -"You would do best to cross the frontier on foot with Giletti's passport -in your pocket; as for us, we shall stop for a minute, on the excuse of -making ourselves tidy. And besides, the <i>dogana</i> will want to look at -our things. If you will take my advice, you will go through Casalmaggiore -at a careless stroll; even go into the <i>caffè</i> and drink -a glass of brandy, once you are past the village, put your best foot -foremost. The police are as sharp as the devil in an Austrian country; -they will pretty soon know there has been a man killed; you are -travelling with a passport which is not yours, that is more than enough -to get you two years in prison. Make for the Po on your right after you -leave the town, hire a boat and get away to Ravenna or Ferrara; get -clear of the Austrian States as quickly as ever you can. With a couple -of louis you should be able to buy another passport from some -<i>doganiere</i>; it would be fatal to use this one; don't forget that you -have killed the man." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>FEAR</i></h5> - -<p> -As he approached, on foot, the bridge of boats at Casalmaggiore, -Fabrizio carefully reread Giletti's passport. Our hero was in great -fear, he recalled vividly all that Conte Mosca had said to him about the -danger involved in his entering Austrian territory; well, two hundred -yards ahead of him he saw the terrible bridge which was about to give -him access to that country, the capital of which, in his eyes, was the -Spielberg. But what else was he to do? The Duchy of Modena, which -marches with the State of Parma on the South, returned its fugitives in -compliance with a special convention, the frontier of the State which -extends over the mountains in the direction of Genoa was too far off; -his misadventure would be known at Parma long before he could reach -those mountains; there remained therefore nothing but the Austrian -States on the left bank of the Po. Before there was time to write to the -Austrian authorities asking them to arrest him, thirty-six hours, or -even two days must elapse. All these considerations duly weighed, -Fabrizio set a light with his cigar to his own passport; it was better -for him, on Austrian soil, to be a vagabond than to be Fabrizio del -Dongo, and it was possible that they might search him. -</p> - -<p> -Quite apart from the very natural repugnance which he felt towards -entrusting his life to the passport of the unfortunate Giletti, this -document presented material difficulties. Fabrizio's height was, at the -most, five feet five inches, and not five feet ten inches as was stated -on the passport. He was not quite twenty-four, and looked younger. -Giletti had been thirty-nine. We must confess that our hero paced for a -good half-hour along a flood-barrier of the Po near the bridge of boats -before making up his mind to go down on to it. "What should I advise -anyone else to do in my place?" he asked himself finally. "Obviously, to -cross: there is danger in remaining in the State of Parma; a constable -may be sent in pursuit of the man who has killed another man, even in -self-defence." Fabrizio went through his pocket, tore up all his papers, -and kept literally nothing but his handkerchief and his cigar-case; it -was important for him to curtail the examination which he would have to -undergo. He thought of a terrible objection which might be raised, and -to which he could find no satisfactory answer: he was going to say that -his name was Giletti, and all his linen was marked F. D. -</p> - -<p> -As we have seen, Fabrizio was one of those unfortunates who are -tormented by their imagination; it is a characteristic fault of men of -intelligence in Italy. A French soldier of equal or even inferior -courage would have gone straight to the bridge and have crossed it -without more ado, without thinking beforehand of any possible -difficulties; but also he would have carried with him all his coolness, -and Fabrizio was far from feeling cool when, at the end of the bridge, a -little man, dressed in grey, said to him: "Go into the police office and -shew your passport." -</p> - -<p> -This office had dirty walls studded with nails from which hung the pipes -and the soiled hats of the officials. The big deal table behind which -they were installed was spotted all over with stains of ink and wine; -two or three fat registers bound in raw hide bore stains of all colours, -and the margins of the pages were black with finger-marks. On top of the -registers which were piled one on another lay three magnificent wreaths -of laurel which had done duty a couple of days before for one of the -Emperor's festivals. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE PASSPORT</i></h5> - -<p> -Fabrizio was impressed by all these details; they gave him a tightening -of the heart; this was the price he must pay for the magnificent luxury, -so cool and clean, that caught the eye in his charming rooms in the -<i>palazzo</i> Sanseverina. He was obliged to enter this dirty office and -to appear there as an inferior; he was about to undergo an examination. -</p> - -<p> -The official who stretched out a yellow hand to take his passport was -small and dark. He wore a brass pin in his necktie. "This is an -ill-tempered fellow," thought Fabrizio. The gentleman seemed excessively -surprised as he read the passport, and his perusal of it lasted fully -five minutes. -</p> - -<p> -"You have met with an accident," he said to the stranger, looking at his -cheek. -</p> - -<p> -"The <i>vetturino</i> flung us out over the embankment." -</p> - -<p> -Then the silence was resumed, and the official cast sour glances at the -traveller. -</p> - -<p> -"I see it now," Fabrizio said to himself, "he is going to inform me that -he is sorry to have bad news to give me, and that I am under arrest." -All sorts of wild ideas surged simultaneously into our hero's brain, -which at this moment was not very logical. For instance, he thought of -escaping by a door in the office which stood open. "I get rid of my -coat, I jump into the Po, and no doubt I shall be able to swim across -it. Anything is better than the Spielberg." The police official was -staring fixedly at him, while he calculated the chances of success of -this dash for safety; they furnished two interesting types of the human -countenance. The presence of danger gives a touch of genius to the -reasoning man, places him, so to speak, above his own level: in the -imaginative man it inspires romances, bold, it is true, but frequently -absurd. -</p> - -<p> -You ought to have seen the indignant air of our hero under the searching -eye of this police official, adorned with his brass jewelry. "If I were -to kill him," thought Fabrizio, "I should be convicted of murder and -sentenced to twenty years in the galleys, or to death, which is a great -deal less terrible than the Spielberg with a chain weighing a hundred -and twenty pounds on each foot and nothing but eight ounces of bread to -live on; and that lasts for twenty years; so that I should not get out -until I was forty-four." Fabrizio's logic overlooked the fact that, as -he had burned his own passport, there was nothing to indicate to the -police official that he was the rebel, Fabrizio del Dongo. -</p> - -<p> -Our hero was sufficiently alarmed, as we have seen; he would have been a -great deal more so could he have read the thoughts that were disturbing -the official's mind. This man was a friend of Giletti; one may judge of -his surprise when he saw his friend's passport in the hands of a -stranger; his first impulse was to have that stranger arrested, then he -reflected that Giletti might easily have sold his passport to this fine -young man who apparently had just been doing something disgraceful at -Parma. "If I arrest him," he said to himself, "Giletti will get into -trouble; they will at once discover that he has sold his passport; on the -other hand, what will my chiefs say if it is proved that I, a friend of -Giletti, put a <i>visa</i> on his passport when it was carried by someone -else." The official got up with a yawn and said to Fabrizio: "Wait a -minute, sir"; then, adopting a professional formula, added: "A -difficulty has arisen." On which Fabrizio murmured: "What is going to -arise is my escape." -</p> - -<p> -As a matter of fact, the official went out of the office, leaving the -door open; and the passport was left lying on the deal table. "The -danger is obvious," thought Fabrizio; "I shall take my passport and walk -slowly back across the bridge; I shall tell the constable, if he -questions me, that I forgot to have my passport examined by the -commissary of police in the last village in the State of Parma." -Fabrizio had already taken the passport in his hand when, to his -unspeakable astonishment, he heard the clerk with the brass jewelry say: -</p> - -<p> -"Upon my soul, I can't do any more work; the heat is stifling; I am going -to the <i>caffè</i> to have half a glass. Go into the office when you -have finished your pipe, there's a passport to be stamped; the party is -in there." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio, who was stealing out on tiptoe, found himself face to face -with a handsome young man who was saying to himself, or rather humming: -"Well, let us see this passport; I'll put my scrawl on it." -</p> - -<p> -"Where does the gentleman wish to go?" -</p> - -<p> -"To Mantua, Venice and Ferrara." -</p> - -<p> -"Ferrara it is," said the official, whistling; he took up a die, stamped -the <i>visa</i> in blue ink on the passport, rapidly wrote in the words: -"Mantua, Venice and Ferrara," in the space left blank by the stamp, then -waved his hand several times in the air, signed, and dipped his pen in -the ink to make his flourish, which he executed slowly and with infinite -pains. Fabrizio followed every movement of his pen; the clerk studied -his flourish with satisfaction, adding five or six finishing touches, -then handed the passport back to Fabrizio, saying in a careless tone: "A -good journey, sir!" -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio made off at a pace the alacrity of which he was endeavouring to -conceal, when he felt himself caught by the left arm: instinctively his -hand went to the hilt of his dagger, and if he had not observed that he -was surrounded by houses he might perhaps have done something rash. The -man who was touching his left arm, seeing that he appeared quite -startled, said by way of apology: -</p> - -<p> -"But I called the gentleman three times, and got no answer; has the -gentleman anything to declare before the customs?" -</p> - -<p> -"I have nothing on me but my handkerchief; I am going to a place quite -near here, to shoot with one of my family." -</p> - -<p> -He would have been greatly embarrassed had he been asked to name this -relative. What with the great heat and his various emotions, Fabrizio -was as wet as if he had fallen into the Po. "I am not lacking in courage -to face actors, but clerks with brass jewelry send me out of my mind; I -shall make a humorous sonnet out of that to amuse the Duchessa." -</p> - -<p> -Entering Casalmaggiore, Fabrizio at once turned to the right along a -mean street which leads down to the Po. "I am in great need," he said to -himself, "of the succour of Bacchus and Ceres," and he entered a shop -outside which there hung a grey clout fastened to a stick; on the clout -was inscribed the word <i>Trattoria</i>. A meagre piece of bed-linen -supported on two slender wooden hoops and hanging down to within three -feet of the ground sheltered the doorway of the <i>Trattoria</i> from the -vertical rays of the sun. There, a half-undressed and extremely pretty -woman received our hero with respect, which gave him the keenest -pleasure; he hastened to inform her that he was dying of hunger. While -the woman was preparing his breakfast, there entered a man of about -thirty; he had given no greeting on coming in; suddenly he rose from the -bench on which he had flung himself down with a familiar air, and said to -Fabrizio: "<i>Eccellenza, la riverisco</i>! (Excellency, your servant!)" -Fabrizio was in the highest spirits at the moment, and, instead of -forming sinister plans, replied with a laugh: "And how the devil do you -know my Excellency?" -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE TRATTORIA</i></h5> - -<p> -"What! Doesn't Your Excellency remember Lodovico, one of the Signora -Duchessa Sanseverina's coachmen? At Sacca, the place in the country -where we used to go every year, I always took fever; I asked the Signora -for a pension, and retired from service. Now I am rich; instead of the -pension of twelve scudi a year, which was the most I was entitled to -expect, the Signora told me that, to give me the leisure to compose -sonnets, for I am a poet in the <i>lingua volgare</i>, she would allow me -twenty-four scudi and the Signor Conte told me that if ever I was in -difficulties I had only to come and tell him. I have had the honour to -drive Monsignore for a stage, when he went to make his retreat, like a -good Christian, in the Certosa of Velleja." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio studied the man's face and began to recognise him. He had been -one of the smartest coachmen in the Sanseverina establishment; now that -he was what he called rich his entire clothing consisted of a coarse -shirt, in holes, and a pair of cloth breeches, dyed black at some time -in the past, which barely came down to his knees; a pair of shoes and a -villainous hat completed his equipment. In addition to this, he had not -shaved for a fortnight. As he ate his omelette Fabrizio engaged in -conversation with him, absolutely as between equals; he thought he -detected that Lodovico was in love with their hostess. He finished his -meal rapidly, then said in a low voice to Lodovico: "I want a word with -you." -</p> - -<p> -"Your Excellency can speak openly before her, she is a really good -woman," said Lodovico with a tender air. -</p> - -<p> -"Very well, my friends," said Fabrizio without hesitation, "I am in -trouble, and have need of your help. First of all, there is nothing -political about my case; I have simply and solely killed a man who -wanted to murder me because I spoke to his mistress." -</p> - -<p> -"Poor young man!" said the landlady. -</p> - -<p> -"Your Excellency can count on me!" cried the coachman, his eyes ablaze -with the most passionate devotion; "where does His Excellency wish to -go?" -</p> - -<p> -"To Ferrara. I have a passport, but I should prefer not to speak to the -police, who may have received information of what has happened." -</p> - -<p> -"When did you despatch this fellow?" -</p> - -<p> -"This morning, at six o'clock." -</p> - -<p> -"Your Excellency has no blood on his clothes, has he?" asked the -landlady. -</p> - -<p> -"I was thinking of that," put in the coachman, "and besides, the cloth -of that coat is too fine; you don't see many like that in the country -round here, it would make people stare at us; I shall go and buy some -clothes from the Jew. Your Excellency is about my figure, only thinner." -</p> - -<p> -"For pity's sake, don't go on calling me Excellency, it may attract -attention." -</p> - -<p> -"Very good, Excellency," replied the coachman, as he left the tavern. -</p> - -<p> -"Here, here," Fabrizio called after him, "and what about the money! Come -back!" -</p> - -<p> -"What do you mean—money!" said the landlady; "he has sixty-seven -scudi which are entirely at your service. I myself," she went on, -lowering her voice, "have forty scudi which I offer you with the best -will in the world; one doesn't always have money on one when these -accidents happen." -</p> - -<p> -On account of the heat, Fabrizio had taken off his coat on entering the -<i>Trattoria</i>. -</p> - -<p> -"You have a waistcoat on you which might land us in trouble if anyone -came in: that fine <i>English cloth</i> would attract attention." She gave -our fugitive a stuff waistcoat, dyed black, which belonged to her husband. -A tall young man came into the tavern by an inner door; he was dressed -with a certain style. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE LANDLADY</i></h5> - -<p> -"This is my husband," said the landlady. "Pietro-Antonio," she said to -her husband, "this gentleman is a friend of Lodovico; he met with an -accident this morning, across the river, and he wants to get away to -Ferrara." -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, we'll get him there," said the husband with an air of great -gentility; "we have Carlo-Giuseppe's boat." -</p> - -<p> -Owing to another weakness in our hero which we shall confess as -naturally as we have related his fear in the police office at the end of -the bridge, there were tears in his eyes; he was profoundly moved by the -perfect devotion which he found among these <i>contadini</i>; he thought -also of this characteristic generosity of his aunt; he would have liked -to be able to make these people's fortune. Lodovico returned, carrying a -packet. -</p> - -<p> -"So that's finished," the husband said to him in a friendly tone. -</p> - -<p> -"It's not that," replied Lodovico in evident alarm, "people are -beginning to talk about you, they noticed that you hesitated before -turning down our <i>vicolo</i> and leaving the big street, like a man who -was trying to hide." -</p> - -<p> -"Go up quick to the bedroom," said the husband. -</p> - -<p> -This room, which was very large and fine, had grey cloth instead of -glass in its two windows; it contained four beds, each six feet wide and -five feet high. -</p> - -<p> -"Be quick! Be quick!" said Lodovico, "there is a swaggering fool of a -constable who has just been posted here and began trying to make love to -the pretty lady downstairs; and I've told him that when he goes -travelling about the country he may find himself stopping a bullet. If -the dog hears any mention of Your Excellency, he'll want to do us a bad -turn, he will try to arrest you here, so as to get Teodolinda's -<i>Trattoria</i> a bad name. -</p> - -<p> -"What's this?" Lodovico went on, seeing Fabrizio's shirt all stained with -blood and his wounds bandaged with handkerchiefs, "so the <i>porco</i> -shewed fight, did he? That's a hundred times more than you need to get -yourself arrested, and I haven't bought you any shirt." Without ceremony -he opened the husband's wardrobe and gave one of his shirts to Fabrizio, -who was soon attired like a prosperous countryman. Lodovico took down a -net that was hanging on the wall, placed Fabrizio's clothes in the -basket in which the fish are put, went downstairs at a run and hastened -out of the house by a back door; Fabrizio followed him. -</p> - -<p> -"Teodolinda," he called out as he passed by the bar, "hide what I've -left upstairs, we are going to wait among the willows, and you, -Pietro-Antonio, send us a boat quickly, we'll pay well for it." -</p> - -<p> -Lodovico led Fabrizio across more than a score of ditches. There were -planks, very long and very elastic, which served as bridges across the -wider of these ditches; Lodovico took up these planks after crossing by -them. On coming to the last canal he took up the plank with haste. "Now -we can stop and breathe," he said; "that dog of a constable will have to -go two leagues and more to reach Your Excellency. Why, you're quite -pale," he said to Fabrizio; "I haven't forgotten the little bottle of -brandy." -</p> - -<p> -"It comes in most useful; the wound in my thigh is beginning to hurt me; -and besides, I was in a fine fright in the police office by the bridge." -</p> - -<p> -"I can well believe it," said Lodovico; "with a shirt covered in blood, -as yours was, I can't conceive how you ever even dared to set foot in -such a place. As for your wounds, I know what to do; I am going to put -you in a cool place where you can sleep for an hour; the boat will come -for us there, if there is any way of getting a boat; if not, when you -have rested a little, we shall go on two short leagues, and I shall take -you to a mill where I shall take a boat myself. Your Excellency knows -far more than I do: the Signora will be in despair when she hears of the -accident; they will tell her that you are mortally wounded, perhaps even -that you killed the other man by foul play. The Marchesa Raversi will -not fail to circulate all the evil reports that can hurt the Signora. -Your Excellency might write." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE PO</i></h5> - -<p> -"And how should I get the letter delivered?" -</p> - -<p> -"The boys at the mill where we are going earn twelve soldi a day; in a -day and a half they can be at Parma, say four francs for the journey, -two francs for the wear and tear of their shoe-leather: if the errand -was being done for a poor man like me, that would be six francs; as it -is in the service of a Signore, I shall give them twelve." -</p> - -<p> -When they had reached the resting-place in a clump of alders and -willows, very leafy and very cool, Lodovico went to a house more than an -hour's journey away in search of ink and paper. "Great heavens, how -comfortable I am here," cried Fabrizio. "Fortune, farewell! I shall -never be an Archbishop!" -</p> - -<p> -On his return, Lodovico found him fast asleep and did not like to arouse -him. The boat did not arrive until the sun had almost set; as soon as -Lodovico saw it appear in the distance he called Fabrizio, who wrote a -couple of letters. -</p> - -<p> -"Your Excellency knows far more than I do," said Lodovico with a -troubled air, "and I am very much afraid of displeasing him seriously, -whatever he may say, if I add a certain remark." -</p> - -<p> -"I am not such a fool as you think me," replied Fabrizio, "and, whatever -you may say, you will always be in my eyes a faithful servant of my -aunt, and a man who has done everything in the world to get me out of a -very awkward scrape." -</p> - -<p> -Many more protestations still were required before Lodovico could be -prevailed upon to speak, and when, at last he had made up his mind, he -began with a preamble which lasted for quite five minutes. Fabrizio grew -impatient, then said to himself: "After all, whose fault is it? It is -due to our vanity, which this man has very well observed from his seat -on the box." Lodovico's devotion at last impelled him to run the risk of -speaking plainly. -</p> - -<p> -"What would not the Marchesa Raversi give to the messenger you are going -to send to Parma to have these two letters? They are in your -handwriting, and consequently furnish legal evidence against you. Your -Excellency will take me for an inquisitive and indiscreet fellow; in the -second place, he will perhaps feel ashamed of setting before the eyes of -the Signora Duchessa the wretched handwriting of a coachman like myself; -but after all, the thought of your safety opens my mouth, although you -may think me impertinent. Could not Your Excellency dictate those two -letters to me? Then I am the only person compromised, and that very -little; I can say, at a pinch, that you appeared to me in the middle of -a field with an inkhorn in one hand and a pistol in the other, and that -you ordered me to write." -</p> - -<p> -"Give me your hand, my dear Lodovico," cried Fabrizio, "and to prove to -you that I wish to have no secret from a friend like yourself, copy -these two letters just as they are." Lodovico fully appreciated this -mark of confidence, and was extremely grateful for it, but after writing -a few lines, as he saw the boat coming rapidly downstream: -</p> - -<p> -"The letters will be finished sooner," he said to Fabrizio, "if Your -Excellency will take the trouble to dictate them to me." The letters -written, Fabrizio wrote an A and a B on the closing lines, and on a -little scrap of paper which he afterwards crumpled up, put in French: -"<i>Croyez A et B</i>." The messenger would be told to hide this scrap of -paper in his clothing. -</p> - -<p> -The boat having come within hailing distance, Lodovico called to the -boatmen by names which were not theirs; they made no reply, and put into -the bank a thousand yards lower down, looking all round them to make -sure that they had not been seen by some <i>doganiere</i>. -</p> - -<p> -"I am at your orders," said Lodovico to Fabrizio; "would you like me to -take these letters myself to Parma? Or would you prefer me to accompany -you to Ferrara?" -</p> - -<p> -"To accompany me to Ferrara is a service which I was hardly daring to -ask of you. I shall have to land, and try to enter the town without -shewing my passport. I may tell you that I feel the greatest repugnance -towards travelling under the name of Giletti, and I can think of no one -but yourself who would be able to buy me another passport." -</p> - -<p> -"Why didn't you speak at Casalmaggiore? I know a spy there who would -have sold me an excellent passport, and not dear, for forty or fifty -francs." -</p> - -<p> -One of the two boatmen, whose home was on the right bank of the Po, and -who consequently had no need of a foreign passport to go to Parma, -undertook to deliver the letters. Lodovico, who knew how to handle the -oars, set to work to propel the boat with the other man. -</p> - -<p> -"We shall find on the lower reaches of the Po," he said, "several armed -vessels belonging to the police, and I shall manage to avoid them." Ten -times at least they were obliged to hide among little islets flush with -the water, covered with willows. Three times they set foot on shore in -order to let the boat drift past the police vessels empty. Lodovico took -advantage of these long intervals of leisure to recite to Fabrizio -several of his sonnets. The sentiments were true enough, but were so to -speak blunted by his expression of them, and were not worth the trouble -of putting them on paper; the curious thing was that this ex-coachman -had passions and points of view that were vivid and picturesque; he -became cold and commonplace as soon as he began to write. "It is the -opposite of what we see in society," thought Fabrizio; "people know -nowadays how to express everything gracefully, but their hearts have -nothing to say." He realised that the greatest pleasure he could give to -this faithful servant would be to correct the mistakes in spelling in -his sonnets. -</p> - -<p> -"They laugh at me when I lend them my copy-book," said Lodovico; "but if -Your Excellency would deign to dictate to me the spelling of the words -letter by letter, the envious fellows wouldn't have anything left to -say: spelling doesn't make genius." It was not until the third night of -his journey that Fabrizio was able to land in complete safety in a -thicket of alders, a league above Pontelagoscuro. All the next day he -remained hidden in a hempfield, while Lodovico went ahead to Ferrara; he -there took some humble lodgings in the house of a poor Jew, who at once -realised that there was money to be earned if one knew how to keep one's -mouth shut. That evening, as the light began to fail, Fabrizio entered -Ferrara riding upon a pony; he had every need of this support, for he -had been touched by the sun on the river; the knife-wound that he had in -his thigh, and the sword-thrust that Giletti had given him in the -shoulder, at the beginning of their duel, were inflamed and had brought -on a fever. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h4><a id="CHAPTER_TWELVE">CHAPTER TWELVE</a></h4> - -<p> -The Jew, the owner of the house, had procured a discreet surgeon, who, -realising in his turn that there was money in the case, informed -Lodovico that his <i>conscience</i> obliged him to make his report to the -police on the injuries of the young man whom he, Lodovico, called his -brother. -</p> - -<p> -"The law is clear on the subject," he added; "it is evident that your -brother cannot possibly have injured himself, as he says, by falling -from a ladder while he was holding an open knife in his hand." -</p> - -<p> -Lodovico replied coldly to this honest surgeon that, if he should decide -to yield to the inspirations of his conscience, he, Lodovico, would have -the honour, before leaving Ferrara, of falling upon him in precisely the -same way, with an open knife in his hand. When he reported this incident -to Fabrizio, the latter blamed him strongly, but there was not a moment -to be lost; they must fly. Lodovico told the Jew that he wished to try -the effect of a little fresh air on his brother; he went to fetch a -carriage, and our friends left the house never to return. The reader is -no doubt finding these accounts of all the manœuvres that the absence -of a passport renders necessary extremely wearisome; this sort of -anxiety does not exist in France; but in Italy, and especially in the -neighbourhood of the Po, people talk about passports all day long. Once -they had left Ferrara without hindrance, as though they were taking a -drive, Lodovico sent the carriage back, then re-entered the town by -another gate and returned to pick up Fabrizio with a <i>sediola</i> which -he had hired to take them a dozen leagues. Coming near Bologna, our -friends had themselves taken through the fields to the road which leads -from Florence to Bologna; they spent the night in the most wretched inn -they could find, and on the following day, Fabrizio feeling strong enough -to walk a little, they entered Bologna like ordinary pedestrians. They had -burned Giletti's passport; the comedian's death must by now be common -knowledge, and there was less danger in being arrested as people without -passports than as bearing the passport of a man who had been killed. -</p> - -<p> -Lodovico knew at Bologna two or three servants in great houses; it was -decided that he should go to them and find out how the land lay. He -explained to them that, while he was on his way from Florence, -travelling with his younger brother, the latter, wanting to sleep, had -let him come on by himself an hour before sunrise. He was to have joined -him in the village where he, Lodovico, would stop to escape the midday -heat. But Lodovico, seeing no sign of his brother, had decided to -retrace his steps; he had found his brother injured by a blow from a -stone and with several knife-wounds, and, in addition, robbed by some -men who had picked a quarrel with him. This brother was a good-looking -boy, knew how to groom and drive horses, read and write, and was anxious -to find a place with some good family. Lodovico reserved for use on a -future occasion the detail that, when Fabrizio was on the ground, the -robbers had fled, taking with them the little bag in which the brothers -had put their linen and their passports. -</p> - -<p> -On arriving in Bologna, Fabrizio, feeling extremely tired and not -venturing, without a passport, to shew his face at an inn, had gone into -the huge church of San Petronio. He found there a delicious coolness; -presently he felt quite revived. "Ungrateful wretch that I am," he said -to himself suddenly, "I go into a church, simply to sit down, as it -might be in a <i>caffè</i>!" He threw himself on his knees and thanked God -effusively for the evident protection with which he had been surrounded -ever since he had had the misfortune to kill Giletti. The danger which -still made him shudder had been that of his being recognised in the -police office at Casalmaggiore. "How," he asked himself, "did that -clerk, whose eyes were so full of suspicion, who read my passport -through at least three times, fail to notice that I am not five feet ten -inches tall, that I am not thirty-eight years old, and that I am not -strongly pitted by small-pox? What thanks I owe to Thee, O my God! And I -have actually refrained until this moment from casting the nonentity -that I am at Thy feet. My pride has chosen to believe that it was to a -vain human prudence that I owed the good fortune of escaping the -Spielberg, which was already opening to engulf me." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>SAN PETRONIO</i></h5> - -<p> -Fabrizio spent more than an hour in this state of extreme emotion, in -the presence of the immense bounty of God. Lodovico approached, without -his hearing him, and took his stand opposite him. Fabrizio, who had -buried his face in his hands, raised his head, and his faithful servant -could see the tears streaming down his cheeks. -</p> - -<p> -"Come back in an hour," Fabrizio ordered him, somewhat harshly. -</p> - -<p> -Lodovico forgave this tone in view of the speaker's piety. Fabrizio -repeated several times the Seven Penitential Psalms, which he knew by -heart; he stopped for a long time at the verses which had a bearing on -his situation at the moment. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio asked pardon of God for many things, but what is really -remarkable is that it never entered his head to number among his faults -the plan of becoming Archbishop simply because Conte Mosca was Prime -Minister and felt that office and all the importance it implied to be -suitable for the Duchessa's nephew. He had desired it without passion, -it is true, but still he had thought of it, exactly as one might think -of being made a Minister or a General. It had never entered his thoughts -that his conscience might be concerned in this project of the Duchessa. -This is a remarkable characteristic of the religion which he owed to the -instruction given him by the Jesuits of Milan. That religion <i>deprives -one of the courage to think of unfamiliar things</i>, and especially -forbids <i>personal examination</i>, as the most enormous of sins; it is a -step towards Protestantism. To find out of what sins one is guilty, one -must question one's priest, or read the list of sins, as it is to be -found printed in the books entitled, <i>Preparation for the Sacrament of -Penance</i>. Fabrizio knew by heart the list of sins, rendered into the -Latin tongue, which he had learned at the Ecclesiastical Academy of -Naples. So, when going through that list, on coming to the article, -<i>Murder</i>, he had most forcibly accused himself before God of having -killed a man, but in defence of his own life. He had passed rapidly, and -without paying them the slightest attention, over the various articles -relating to the sin of <i>Simony</i> (the procuring of ecclesiastical -dignities with money). If anyone had suggested to him that he should pay -a hundred louis to become First Grand Vicar of the Archbishop of Parma, -he would have rejected such an idea with horror; but, albeit he was not -wanting in intelligence, nor above all in logic, it never once occurred -to his mind that the employment on his behalf of Conte Mosca's influence -was a form of Simony. This is where the Jesuitical education triumphs: -it forms the habit of not paying attention to things that are clearer -than daylight. A Frenchman, brought up among conflicting personal -interests and in the prevailing irony of Paris might, without being -deliberately unfair, have accused Fabrizio of hypocrisy at the very -moment when our hero was opening his soul to God with the utmost -sincerity and the most profound emotion. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio did not leave the church until he had prepared the confession -which he proposed to make next day. He found Lodovico sitting on the -steps of the vast stone peristyle which rises above the great piazza -opposite the front of San Petronio. As after a storm the air becomes -more pure, so now Fabrizio's soul was tranquil and happy and so to speak -refreshed. -</p> - -<p> -"I feel quite well now, I hardly notice my wounds," he said to Lodovico -as he approached him; "but first of all I have to apologise to you; I -answered you crossly when you came and spoke to me in the church; I was -examining my conscience. Well, how are things going?" -</p> - -<p> -"Excellently: I have taken lodgings, to tell the truth not at all worthy -of Your Excellency, with the wife of one of my friends, who is a very -pretty woman and, better still, on the best of terms with one of the -heads of the police. To-morrow I shall go to declare how our passports -came to be stolen; my declaration will be taken in good part; but I -shall pay the carriage of the letter which the police will write to -Casalmaggiore, to find out whether there exists in that <i>comune</i> a -certain San Micheli, Lodovico, who has a brother, named Fabrizio, in -service with the Signora Duchessa Sanseverina at Parma. All is settled, -<i>siamo a cavallo</i>." (An Italian proverb meaning: "We are saved.") -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio had suddenly assumed a most serious air: he begged Lodovico to -wait a moment, almost ran back into the church, and when barely past the -door flung himself down on his knees; he humbly kissed the stone slabs -of the floor. "It is a miracle, Lord," he cried with tears in his eyes: -"when Thou sawest my soul disposed to return to the path of duty, Thou -hast saved me. Great God! It is possible that one day I may be killed in -some quarrel; in the hour of my death remember the state in which my -soul is now." It was with transports of the keenest joy that Fabrizio -recited afresh the Seven Penitential Psalms. Before leaving the building -he went up to an old woman who was seated before a great Madonna and by -the side of an iron triangle rising vertically from a stand of the same -metal. The sides of this triangle bristled with a large number of spikes -intended to support the little candles which the piety of the faithful -keeps burning before the famous Madonna of Cimabue. Seven candles only -were lighted when Fabrizio approached the stand; he registered this fact -in his memory, with the intention of meditating upon it later on when he -had more leisure. -</p> - -<p> -"What do the candles cost?" he asked the woman. -</p> - -<p> -"Two bajocchi each." -</p> - -<p> -As a matter of fact they were scarcely thicker than quills and were not -a foot in length. -</p> - -<p> -"How many candles can still go on your triangle?" -</p> - -<p> -"Sixty-three, since there are seven alight." -</p> - -<p> -"Ah!" thought Fabrizio, "sixty-three and seven make seventy; that also -is to be borne in mind." He paid for the candles, placed the first seven -in position himself, and lighted them, then fell on his knees to make -his oblation, and said to the old woman as he rose: -</p> - -<p> -"It is <i>for grace received</i>. -</p> - -<p> -"I am dying of hunger," he said to Lodovico as he joined him outside. -</p> - -<p> -"Don't let us go to an <i>osteria</i>, let us go to our lodgings; the -woman of the house will go out and buy you everything you want for your -meal; she will rob you of a score of soldi, and will be all the more -attached to the newcomer in consequence." -</p> - -<p> -"All this means simply that I shall have to go on dying of hunger for a -good hour longer," said Fabrizio, laughing with the serenity of a child: -and he entered an <i>osteria</i> close to San Petronio. To his extreme -surprise, he saw at a table near the one at which he had taken his seat, -Peppe, his aunt's first footman, the same who on a former occasion had -come to meet him at Geneva. Fabrizio made a sign to him to say nothing; -then, having made a hasty meal, a smile of happiness hovering over his -lips, he rose; Peppe followed him, and, for the third time, our hero -entered the church of San Petronio. Out of discretion, Lodovico remained -outside, strolling in the <i>piazza</i>. -</p> - -<p> -"Oh, Lord, Monsignore! How are your wounds? The Signora Duchessa is -terribly upset: for a whole day she thought you were dead, and had been -left lying on some island in the Po; I must go and send off a messenger -to her this very instant. I have been looking for you for the last six -days; I spent three at Ferrara, searching all the inns." -</p> - -<p> -"Have you a passport for me?" -</p> - -<p> -"I have three different ones: one with Your Excellency's names and -titles, a second with your name only, and the other in a false name, -Giuseppe Bossi; each passport is made out in duplicate, according to -whether Your Excellency prefers to have come from Florence or from -Modena. You have only to go for a turn outside the town. The Signor -Conte would be glad if you would lodge at the Albergo del Pellegrino; -the landlord is a friend of his." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio, with the air of a casual visitor, advanced along the right -aisle of the church to the place where his candles were burning; he -fastened his eyes on Cimabue's Madonna, then said to Peppe as he fell on -his knees: "I must just give thanks for a moment." Peppe followed his -example. When they left the church, Peppe noticed that Fabrizio gave a -twenty-franc piece to the first pauper who asked him for alms: this -mendicant uttered cries of gratitude which drew into the wake of the -charitable stranger the swarms of paupers of every kind who generally -adorn the Piazza San Petronio. All of them were anxious to have a share -in the napoleon. The women, despairing of making their way through the -crowd that surrounded him, flung themselves on Fabrizio, shouting to him -to know whether it was not the fact that he had intended to give his -napoleon to be divided among all the <i>poveri del buon Dio</i>. Peppe, -brandishing his gold-headed cane, ordered them to leave His Excellency -alone. -</p> - -<p> -"Oh! Excellency!" all the women proceeded to cry in still more piercing -accents, "give another gold napoleon for the poor women!" Fabrizio -increased his pace, the women followed him, screaming, and a number of -male paupers, running in from every street, created a sort of -tumult. All this crowd, horribly dirty and energetic, cried out: -"<i>Eccellenza</i>!" Fabrizio had great difficulty in escaping from the -rabble; the scene brought his imagination back to earth. "I have got -only what I deserve," he said to himself; "I have rubbed shoulders with -the mob." -</p> - -<p> -Two women followed him as far as the Porta Saragozza, by which he left -the town: Peppe stopped them by threatening them seriously with his cane -and flinging them some small change; Fabrizio climbed the charming hill -of San Michele in Bosco, made a partial circuit of the town outside the -walls, took a path which brought him in five hundred yards to the -Florence road, then re-entered Bologna and gravely handed to the police -official a passport in which his description was given in the fullest -detail. This passport gave him the name of Giuseppe Bossi, student of -theology. Fabrizio noticed a little spot of red ink dropped, as though -by accident, at the foot of the sheet, near the right hand corner. A -couple of hours later he had a spy on his heels, on account of the title -of <i>Eccellenza</i> which his companion had given him in front of the -beggars of San Petronio, although his passport bore none of the titles -which give a man the right to make his servants address him as -Excellency. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE INQUIRY</i></h5> - -<p> -Fabrizio saw the spy and made light of him; he gave no more thought -either to passports or to police, and amused himself with everything, -like a boy. Peppe, who had orders to stay beside him, seeing that he was -more than satisfied with Lodovico, preferred to go back in person to -convey these good tidings to the Duchessa. Fabrizio wrote two very long -letters to his dear friends; then it occurred to him to write a third to -the venerable Archbishop Landriani. This letter produced a marvellous -effect; it contained a very exact account of the affair with Giletti. -The good Archbishop, deeply moved, did not fail to go and read this -letter to the Prince, who was quite ready to listen to it, being -somewhat curious to know what line this young Monsignore took to excuse -so shocking a murder. Thanks to the many friends of the Marchesa -Raversi, the Prince, as well as the whole city of Parma, believed that -Fabrizio had procured the assistance of twenty or thirty peasants to -overpower a bad actor who had had the insolence to challenge him for the -favours of little Marietta. In despotic courts, the first skilful -intriguer controls the <i>Truth</i>, as the fashion controls it in Paris. -</p> - -<p> -"But, what in the devil's name!" exclaimed the Prince to the Archbishop; -"one gets things of that sort done for one by somebody else; but to do -them oneself is not the custom; besides, one doesn't kill a comedian -like Giletti, one buys him." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio had not the slightest suspicion of what was going on at Parma. -As a matter of fact, the question there was whether the death of this -comedian, who in his lifetime had earned a monthly salary of thirty-two -francs, was not going to bring about the fall of the Ultra Ministry, and -of its leader, Conte Mosca. -</p> - -<p> -On learning of the death of Giletti, the Prince, stung by the -independent airs which the Duchessa was giving herself, had ordered the -Fiscal General Rassi to treat the whole case as though the person -charged were a Liberal. Fabrizio, for his part, thought that a man of -his rank was superior to the laws; he did not take into account that in -countries where bearers of great names are never punished, intrigue can -do anything, even against them. He often spoke to Lodovico of his -perfect innocence, which would very soon be proclaimed; his great -argument being that he was not guilty. Whereupon Lodovico said to him: -"I cannot conceive how Your Excellency, who has so much intelligence and -education, can take the trouble to say all that before me who am his -devoted servant; Your Excellency adopts too many precautions; that sort -of thing is all right to say in public, or before a court." "This man -believes me to be a murderer, and loves me none the less for it," -thought Fabrizio, falling from the clouds. -</p> - -<p> -Three days after Peppe's departure, he was greatly astonished to receive -an enormous letter, sealed with a plait of silk, as in the days of Louis -XIV, and addressed <i>a Sua Eccellenza reverendissima monsignor Fabrizio -del Dongo, primo gran vicario della diocesi di Parma, canonico</i>, etc. -</p> - -<p> -"Why, am I still all that?" he asked himself with a laugh. Archbishop -Landriani's letter was a masterpiece of logic and lucidity; it filled -nevertheless nineteen large pages, and gave an extremely good account of -all that had occurred in Parma on the occasion of the death of Giletti. -</p> - -<p> -"A French army commanded by Marshal Ney, and marching upon the town, -would not have had a greater effect," the good Archbishop informed him; -"with the exception of the Duchessa and myself, my dearly beloved son, -everyone believes that you gave yourself the pleasure of killing the -histrion Giletti. Had this misfortune befallen you, it is one of those -things which one hushes up with two hundred louis and six months' -absence abroad; but the Marchesa Raversi is seeking to overthrow Conte -Mosca with the help of this incident. It is not at all with the dreadful -sin of murder that the public blames you, it is solely with the -<i>clumsiness</i>, or rather the insolence of not having condescended to -have recourse to a <i>bulo</i>" (a sort of hired assassin). "I give you a -summary here in clear terms of the things that I hear said all around me, -for since this ever deplorable misfortune, I go every day to three of the -principal houses in the town to have an opportunity of justifying you. -And never have I felt that I was making a more blessed use of the scanty -eloquence with which heaven has deigned to endow me." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE ARCHBISHOP</i></h5> - -<p> -The scales fell from Fabrizio's eyes; the Duchessa's many letters, -filled with transports of affection, never condescended to tell him -anything. The Duchessa swore to him that she would leave Parma for ever, -unless presently he returned there in triumph. "The Conte will do for -you," she wrote to him in the letter that accompanied the Archbishop's, -"everything that is humanly possible. As for myself, you have changed my -character with this fine escapade of yours; I am now as great a miser as -the banker Tombone; I have dismissed all my workmen, I have done more, I -have dictated to the Conte the inventory of my fortune, which turns out -to be far less considerable than I supposed. After the death of the -excellent Conte Pietranera, whom, by the way, you would have done far -better to avenge, instead of exposing your life to a creature of -Giletti's sort, I was left with an income of twelve hundred francs and -five thousand francs of debts; I remember, among other things, that I -had two and a half dozen white satin slippers coming from Paris and not -a single pair of shoes to wear in the street. I have almost made up my -mind to take the three hundred thousand francs which the Duca has left -me, the whole of which I intended to use in erecting a magnificent tomb -to him. Besides, it is the Marchesa Raversi who is your principal enemy, -that is to say mine; if you find life dull by yourself at Bologna, you -have only to say the word, I shall come and join you. Here are four more -bills of exchange," and so on. -</p> - -<p> -The Duchessa said not a word to Fabrizio of the opinion that was held in -Parma of his affair, she wished above all things to comfort him, and in -any event the death of a ridiculous creature like Giletti did not seem -to her the sort of thing that could be seriously charged against a del -Dongo. "How many Gilettis have not our ancestors sent into the other -world," she said to the Conte, "without anyone's ever taking it into his -head to reproach them with it?" -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio, taken completely by surprise, and getting for the first time a -glimpse of the true state of things, set himself down to study the -Archbishop's letter. Unfortunately the Archbishop himself believed him -to be better informed than he actually was. Fabrizio gathered that the -principal cause of the Marchesa Raversi's triumph lay in the fact that -it was impossible to find any eye-witnesses of the fatal combat. The -footman who had been the first to bring the news to Parma had been at -the village inn at Sanguigna when the fight occurred; little Marietta -and the old woman who acted as her mother had vanished, and the Marchesa -had bought the <i>vetturino</i> who drove the carriage, and who had now -made an abominable deposition. "Although the proceedings are enveloped in -the most profound mystery," wrote the Archbishop in his Ciceronian style, -"and directed by the Fiscal General, Rassi, of whom Christian charity -alone can restrain me from speaking evil, but who has made his fortune -by harrying his wretched prisoners as the greyhound harries the hare; -although this Rassi, I say, whose turpitude and venality your -imagination would be powerless to exaggerate, has been appointed to take -charge of the case by an angry Prince, I have been able to read the three -depositions of the <i>vetturino</i>. By a signal piece of good fortune, -the wretch contradicts himself. And I shall add, since I am addressing -my Grand Vicar, him who, after myself, is to have the charge of this -Diocese, that I have sent for the curate of the parish in which this -straying sinner resides. I shall tell you, my dearly beloved son, but -under the seal of the confessional, that this curate already knows, -through the wife of the <i>vetturino</i>, the number of scudi that he has -received from the Marchesa Raversi; I shall not venture to say that the -Marchesa insisted upon his slandering you, but that is probable. The -scudi were transmitted to him through a wretched priest who performs -functions of a base order in the Marchesa's household, and whom I have -been obliged to banish from the altar for the second time. I shall not -weary you with an account of various other actions which you might -expect from me, and which, moreover, enter into my duty. A Canon, your -colleague at the Cathedral, who is a little too prone at times to -remember the influence conferred upon him by the wealth of his family, -to which, by divine permission, he is now the sole heir, having allowed -himself to say in the house of Conte Zurla, the Minister of the Interior, -that he regarded this <i>bagattella</i> (he referred to the killing -of the unfortunate Giletti) as proved against you, I summoned him to -appear before me, and there, in the presence of my three other Vicars -General, of my Chaplain and of two curates who happened to be in the -waiting-room, I requested him to communicate to us his brethren the -elements of the complete conviction which he professed to have acquired -against one of his colleagues at the Cathedral; the unhappy man was able -to articulate only the most inconclusive arguments; every voice was -raised against him, and, although I did not think it my duty to add more -than a very few words, he burst into tears and made us the witnesses of -his full confession of his complete error, upon which I promised him -secrecy in my name and in the names of the persons who had been present -at the discussion, always on the condition that he would devote all his -zeal to correcting the false impressions that might have been created by -the language employed by him during the previous fortnight. -</p> - -<p> -"I shall not repeat to you, my dear son, what you must long have known, -namely that of the thirty-four <i>contadini</i> employed on the excavations -undertaken by Conte Mosca, whom the Raversi pretends to have been paid -by you to assist you in a crime, thirty-two were at the bottom of their -trench, wholly taken up with their work, when you armed yourself with -the hunting knife and employed it to defend your life against the man -who had attacked you thus unawares. Two of their number, who were -outside the trench, shouted to the others: 'They are murdering -Monsignore!' This cry alone reveals your innocence in all its whiteness. -Very well, the Fiscal General Rassi maintains that these two men have -disappeared; furthermore, they have found eight of the men who were at -the bottom of the trench; at their first examination, six declared that -they had heard the cry: 'They are murdering Monsignore!' I know, through -indirect channels, that at their fifth examination, which was held -yesterday evening, five declared that they could not remember distinctly -whether they had heard the cry themselves or whether it had been -reported to them by their comrades. Orders have been given that I am to -be informed of the place of residence of these excavators, and their -parish priests will make them understand that they are damning -themselves if, in order to gain a few soldi, they allow themselves to -alter the truth." -</p> - -<p> -The good Archbishop went into endless details, as may be judged by those -we have extracted from his letter. Then he added, using the Latin -tongue: -</p> - -<p> -"This affair is nothing less than an attempt to bring about a change of -government. If you are sentenced, it can be only to the galleys or to -death, in which case I should intervene by declaring from my -Archepiscopal Throne that I know you to be innocent, that you simply -and solely defended your life against a brigand, and that finally I have -forbidden you to return to Parma for so long as your enemies shall be -triumphant there; I propose even to stigmatise, as he deserves, the -Fiscal General; the hatred felt for that man is as common as esteem for -his character is rare. But finally, on the eve of the day on which this -Fiscal is to pronounce so unjust a sentence, the Duchessa Sanseverina -will leave the town, and perhaps even the States of Parma: in that -event, no doubt is felt that the Conte will hand in his resignation. -Then, very probably, General Fabio Conti will come into office and the -Marchesa Raversi will be triumphant. The great mistake in your case is -that no skilled person has been appointed to take charge of the -procedure necessary to bring your innocence into the light of day, and -to foil the attempts that have been made to suborn witnesses. The Conte -believes that he is playing this part; but he is too great a gentleman -to stoop to certain details; besides, in his capacity as Minister of -Police, he was obliged to issue, at the first moment, the most severe -orders against you. Lastly, dare I say it, our Sovereign Lord believes -you to be guilty, or at least feigns that belief, and has introduced a -certain bitterness into the affair." (The words corresponding to "our -Sovereign Lord" and "feigns that belief" were in Greek, and Fabrizio -felt infinitely obliged to the Archbishop for having had the courage to -write them. With a pen-knife he cut this line out of the letter, and -destroyed it on the spot.) -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio broke off a score of times while reading this letter; he was -carried away by transports of the liveliest gratitude: he replied at -once in a letter of eight pages. Often he was obliged to raise his head -so that his tears should not fall on the paper. Next day, as he was -sealing this letter, he felt that it was too worldly in tone. "I shall -write it in Latin," he said to himself, "that will make it appear more -seemly to the worthy Archbishop." But, while he was seeking to construct -fine Latin phrases of great length, in the true Ciceronian style, he -remembered that one day the Archbishop, in speaking to him of Napoleon, -had made a point of calling him Buonaparte; at that instant there -vanished all the emotion that, on the previous day, had moved him to -tears. "O King of Italy!" he exclaimed, "that loyalty which so many -others swore to thee in thy lifetime, I shall preserve for thee after -thy death. He is fond of me, no doubt, but because I am a del Dongo and -he a son of the people." So that his fine letter in Italian might not be -wasted, Fabrizio made a few necessary alterations in it, and addressed -it to Conte Mosca. -</p> - -<p> -That same day, Fabrizio met in the street little Marietta; she flushed -with joy and made a sign to him to follow her without speaking. She made -swiftly for a deserted archway; there, she pulled forward the black lace -shawl which, following the local custom, covered her head, so that she -could not be recognised; then turning round quickly: -</p> - -<p> -"How is it," she said to Fabrizio, "that you are walking freely in the -street like this?" Fabrizio told her his story. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>MARIETTA</i></h5> - -<p> -"Good God! You were at Ferrara! And there was I looking for everywhere -in the place! You must know that I quarrelled with the old woman, -because she wanted to take me to Venice, where I knew quite well that -you would never go, because you are on the Austrian black list. I sold -my gold necklace to come to Bologna, I had a presentiment that I should -have the happiness of meeting you here; the old woman arrived two days -after me. And so I shan't ask you to come and see us, she would go on -making those dreadful demands for money which make me so ashamed. We -have lived very comfortably since the fatal day you remember, and -haven't spent a quarter of what you gave us. I would rather not come and -see you at the Albergo del Pellegrino, it would be a <i>pubblicità</i>. -Try to find a little room in a quiet street, and at the Ave Maria" -(nightfall) "I shall be here, under this same archway." So saying, she -took to her heels. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h4><a id="CHAPTER_THIRTEEN">CHAPTER THIRTEEN</a></h4> - -<p> -All serious thoughts were forgotten on the unexpected appearance of this -charming person. Fabrizio settled himself to live at Bologna in a joy -and security that were profound. This artless tendency to take delight -in everything that entered into his life shewed through in the letters -which he wrote to the Duchessa; to such an extent that she began to take -offence. Fabrizio paid little attention; he wrote, however, in abridged -symbols on the face of his watch: "When I write to the D., must never say -<i>When I was prelate, when I was in the Church</i>: that annoys her." He -had bought a pair of ponies with which he was greatly pleased: he used -to harness them to a hired carriage whenever little Marietta wished to -pay a visit to any of the enchanting spots in the neighbourhood of -Bologna; almost every evening he drove her to the <i>Cascata del Reno</i>. -On their way back, he would call on the friendly Crescentini, who regarded -himself as to some extent Marietta's father. -</p> - -<p> -"Upon my soul, if this is the <i>caffè</i> life which seemed to me so -ridiculous for a man of any worth, I did wrong to reject it," Fabrizio -said to himself. He forgot that he never went near a <i>caffè</i> -except to read the <i>Constitutionnel</i>, and that, since he was a -complete stranger to everyone in Bologna, the gratification of vanity -did not enter at all into his present happiness. When he was not with -little Marietta, he was to be seen at the Observatory, where he was -taking a course in astronomy; the Professor had formed a great affection -for him, and Fabrizio used to lend him his ponies on Sundays, to cut a -figure with his wife on the <i>Corso della Montagnola</i>. -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE MAMMACCIA</i></h5> - -<p> -He loathed the idea of harming any living creature, however undeserving -that creature might be. Marietta was resolutely opposed to his seeing -the old woman, but one day, when she was at church, he went up to visit -the <i>Mammaccia</i>, who flushed with anger when she saw him enter the -room. "This is a case where one plays the del Dongo," he said to himself. -</p> - -<p> -"How much does Marietta earn in a month when she is working?" he cried, -with the air with which a self-respecting young man, in Paris, enters -the balcony at the Bouffes. -</p> - -<p> -"Fifty scudi." -</p> - -<p> -"You are lying, as usual; tell the truth, or, by God, you shall not have -a centesimo!" -</p> - -<p> -"Very well, she was getting twenty-two scudi in our company at Parma, -when we had the bad luck to meet you; I was getting twelve scudi, and we -used to give Giletti, our protector, a third of what each of us earned. -Out of which, every month almost, Giletti would make Marietta a present; -the present might be worth a couple of scudi." -</p> - -<p> -"You're lying still; you never had more than four scudi. But if you are -good to Marietta, I will engage you as though I were an <i>impresario</i>; -every month you shall have twelve scudi for yourself and twenty-two for -her; but if I see her with red eyes, I make you bankrupt." -</p> - -<p> -"You're very stiff and proud; very well, your fine generosity will be -the ruin of us," replied the old woman in a furious tone; "we lose our -<i>avviamento</i>" (our connexion). "When we have the enormous misfortune -to be deprived of Your Excellency's protection, we shall no longer be -known in any of the companies, they will all be filled up; we shall not -find any engagement, and, all through you, we shall starve to death." -</p> - -<p> -"Go to the devil," said Fabrizio as he left the room. -</p> - -<p> -"I shall not go to the devil, you impious wretch! But I will go straight -away to the police office, where they shall learn from me that you are a -Monsignore who has flung his cassock to the winds, and that you are no -more Giuseppe Bossi than I am." Fabrizio had already gone some way down -the stairs. He returned. -</p> - -<p> -"In the first place, the police know better than you what my real name -may be; but if you take it into your head to denounce me, if you do -anything so infamous," he said to her with great seriousness, "Lodovico, -shall talk to you, and it is not six slashes with the knife that your -old carcass shall get, but two dozen, and you will be six months in -hospital, and no tobacco." -</p> - -<p> -The old woman turned pale, and dashed at Fabrizio's hand, which she -tried to kiss. -</p> - -<p> -"I accept with gratitude the provision that you are making for Marietta -and me. You look so good that I took you for a fool; and, you bear in -mind, others besides myself may make the same error; I advise you always -to adopt a more noblemanly air." Then she added with an admirable -impudence: "You will reflect upon this good advice, and, as the winter -is not far off, you will make Marietta and me a present of two good -jackets of that fine English stuff which they sell at the big shop in -the Piazza San Petronio." -</p> - -<p> -The love of the pretty Marietta offered Fabrizio all the charms of the -most delightful friendship, which set him dreaming of the happiness of -the same order which he might have been finding in the Duchessa's -company. -</p> - -<p> -"But is it not a very pleasant thing," he asked himself at times, "that -I am not susceptible to that exclusive and passionate preoccupation -which they call love? Among the intimacies into which chance has brought -me at Novara or at Naples, have I ever met a woman whose company, even -in the first few days, was to my mind preferable to riding a good horse -that I did not know? What they call love," he went on, "can that be just -another lie? I feel myself in love, no doubt, as I feel a good appetite -at six o'clock! Can it be out of this slightly vulgar propensity that -those liars have fashioned the love of Othello, the love of Tancred? Or -am I indeed to suppose that I am constructed differently from other men? -That my soul should be lacking in one passion, why should that be? It -would be a singular destiny!" -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>THE DUCHESSA</i></h5> - -<p> -At Naples, especially in the latter part of his time there, Fabrizio had -met women who, proud of their rank, their beauty and the position held -in society by the adorers whom they had sacrificed to him, had attempted -to lead him. On discovering their intention, Fabrizio had broken with -them in the most summary and open fashion. "Well," he said to himself, -"if I ever allow myself to be carried away by the pleasure, which no -doubt is extremely keen, of being on friendly terms with that charming -woman who is known as the Duchessa Sanseverina, I shall be exactly like -that stupid Frenchman who killed the goose that was laying the golden -eggs. It is to the Duchessa that I owe the sole happiness which has ever -come to me from sentiments of affection: my friendship for her is my -life, and besides, without her, what am I? A poor exile reduced to -living from hand to mouth in a tumble-down country house outside Novara. -I remember how, during the heavy autumn rains, I used to be obliged, at -night, for fear of accidents, to fix up an umbrella over the tester of -my bed. I rode the agent's horses, which he was good enough to allow out -of respect for my blue blood (for my influence, that is), but he was -beginning to find my stay there a trifle long; my father had made me an -allowance of twelve hundred francs, and thought himself damned for -having given bread to a Jacobin. My poor mother and sisters let -themselves go without new clothes to keep me in a position to make a few -little presents to my mistresses. This way of being generous pierced me -to the heart. And besides, people were beginning to suspect my poverty, -and the young noblemen of the district would have been feeling sorry for -me next. Sooner or later some prig would have let me see his contempt -for a poor Jacobin whose plans had come to grief, for in those people's -eyes I was nothing more than that. I should have given or received some -doughty thrust with a sword which would have carried me off to the -fortress of Fenestrelle, or else I should have been obliged to take -refuge again in Switzerland, still on my allowance of twelve hundred -francs. I have the good fortune to be indebted to the Duchessa for the -absence of all these evils; besides, it is she who feels for me the -transports of affection which I ought to be feeling for her. -</p> - -<p> -"Instead of that ridiculous, pettifogging existence which would have -made me a sad dog, a fool, for the last four years I have been living in -a big town, and have an excellent carriage, which things have preserved -me from feelings of envy and all the base sentiments of a provincial -life. This too indulgent aunt is always scolding me because I do not -draw enough money from the banker. Do I wish to ruin for all time so -admirable a position? Do I wish to lose the one friend that I have in the -world? All I need do is to utter a <i>falsehood</i>; all I need do is to -say to a charming woman, a woman who is perhaps without a counterpart in -the world, and for whom I feel the most passionate friendship: '<i>I love -you</i>,' I who do not know what it is to love amorously. She would spend -the day finding fault with me for the absence of these transports which -are unknown to me. Marietta, on the other hand, who does not see into my -heart, and takes a caress for a transport of the soul, thinks me madly -in love and looks upon herself as the most fortunate of women. -</p> - -<p> -"As a matter of fact, the only slight acquaintance I have ever had with -that tender obsession which is called, I believe, <i>love</i>, was with -that young Aniken in the inn at Zonders, near the Belgian frontier." -</p> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h5><i>FAUSTA</i></h5> - -<p> -It is with regret that we have to record here one of Fabrizio's worst -actions; in the midst of this tranquil life, a wretched <i>pique</i> of -vanity took possession of this heart rebellious to love and led it far -astray. Simultaneously with himself there happened to be at Bologna the -famous Fausta F——, unquestionably one of the finest singers of -the day and perhaps the most capricious woman that was ever seen. The -excellent poet Burati, of Venice, had composed the famous satirical sonnet -about her, which at that time was to be heard on the lips alike of princes -and of the meanest street Arabs: -</p> - -<blockquote><p> -"To wish and not to wish, to adore and on the same day to detest, to -find contentment only in inconstancy, to scorn what the world worships, -while the world worships it: Fausta has these defects and many more. -Look not therefore upon that serpent. If thou seest her, imprudent man, -thou forgettest her caprices. Hast thou the happiness to hear her voice, -thou dost forget thyself, and love makes of thee, in a moment, what -Circe in days of yore made of the companions of Ulysses." -</p></blockquote> - -<p> -For the moment, this miracle of beauty had come under the spell of the -enormous whiskers and haughty insolence of the young Conte -M——-, to such an extent as not to be revolted by his -abominable jealousy. Fabrizio saw this Conte in the streets of Bologna -and was shocked by the air of superiority with which he took up the -pavement and deigned to display his graces to the public. This young man -was extremely rich, imagined that everything was permitted him, and, as -his <i>prepotenze</i> had brought him threats of punishment, never -appeared in public save with the escort of nine or ten <i>buli</i> (a -sort of cut-throat) clad in his livery, whom he had brought from his -estates in the environs of Brescia. Fabrizio's eye had met once or twice -that of this terrible Conte, when chance led him to hear Fausta sing. He -was astonished by the angelic sweetness of her voice: he had never -imagined anything like it; he was indebted to it for sensations of -supreme happiness, which made a pleasing contrast to the -<i>placidity</i> of his life at the time. Could this at last be love? he -asked himself. Thoroughly curious to taste that sentiment, and amused -moreover by the thought of braving Conte M——, whose -expression was more terrifying than that of any drum-major, our hero let -himself fall into the childish habit of passing a great deal too often -in front of the <i>palazzo</i> Tanari, which Conte M—— had -taken for Fausta. -</p> - -<p> -One day, as night was beginning to fall, Fabrizio, seeking to catch -Fausta's eye, was greeted by peals of laughter of the most pointed kind -proceeding from the Conte's <i>buli</i>, who were assembled by the door -of the <i>palazzo</i> Tanari. He hastened home, armed himself well, and -again passed before the <i>palazzo</i>. Fausta, concealed behind her -shutters, was awaiting his return, and gave him due credit for it. -M——, jealous of the whole world, became specially jealous of -Signor Giuseppe Bossi, and indulged in ridiculous utterances; whereupon -every morning our hero had delivered at his door a letter which -contained only these words: -</p> - -<p> -"Signor Giuseppe Bossi destroys troublesome insects and is staying at -the Pellegrino, Via Larga, No. 79." -</p> - -<p> -Conte M——, accustomed to the respect which was everywhere -assured him by his enormous fortune, his blue blood and the physical -courage of his thirty servants, declined altogether to understand the -language of this little missive. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio wrote others of the sort to Fausta; M—— posted -spies round this rival, who perhaps was not unattractive; first of all, -he learned his true name, and later that, for the present, he could not -shew his face at Parma. A few days after this, Conte M——, -his <i>buli</i>, his magnificent horses and Fausta set off together for -Parma. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio, becoming excited, followed them next day. In vain did the good -Lodovico utter pathetic remonstrances: Fabrizio turned a deaf ear, and -Lodovico, who was himself extremely brave, admired him for it; besides, -this removal brought him nearer to the pretty mistress he had left at -Casalmaggiore. Through Lodovico's efforts, nine or ten old soldiers of -Napoleon's regiments re-enlisted under Signor Giuseppe Bossi, in the -capacity of servants. "Provided," Fabrizio told himself, when committing -the folly of going after Fausta, "that I have no communication either -with the Minister of Police, Conte Mosca, or with the Duchessa, I expose -only myself to risk. I shall explain later on to my aunt that I was -going in search of love, that beautiful thing which I have never -encountered. The fact is that I think of Fausta even when I am not -looking at her. But is it the memory of her voice that I love, or her -person?" Having ceased to think of an ecclesiastical career, Fabrizio -had grown a pair of moustaches and whiskers almost as terrible as those -of Conte M——, and these disguised him to some extent. He set -up his headquarters not at Parma—that would have been too -imprudent—but in a neighbouring village, in the woods, on the road -to Sacca, where his aunt had her country house. Following Lodovico's -advice, he gave himself out in this village as the valet of a great -English nobleman of original tastes, who spent a hundred thousand francs -a year on providing himself with the pleasures of the chase, and would -arrive shortly from the Lake of Como, where he was detained by the -trout-fishing. Fortunately for him, the charming little <i>palazzo</i> -which Conte M—— had taken for the fair Fausta was situated -at the southern extremity of the city of Parma, precisely on the road to -Sacca, and Fausta's windows looked out over the fine avenues of tall -trees which extend beneath the high tower of the citadel. Fabrizio was -completely unknown in this little frequented quarter; he did not fail to -have Conte M—— followed, and one day when that gentleman had -just emerged from the admirable singer's door, he had the audacity to -appear in the street in broad daylight; it must be admitted that he was -mounted upon an excellent horse, and well armed. A party of musicians, -of the sort that frequent the streets in Italy and are sometimes -excellent, came and planted their viols under Fausta's window; after -playing a prelude they sang, and quite well too, a cantata composed in -her honour. Fausta came to the window and had no difficulty in -distinguishing a young man of extremely polite manners, who, stopping -his horse in the middle of the street, bowed to her first of all, then -began to direct at her a gaze that could have but one meaning. In spite -of the exaggeratedly English costume adopted by Fabrizio, she soon -recognised the author of the passionate letters that had brought about -her departure from Bologna. "That is a curious creature," she said to -herself; "it seems to me that I am going to fall in love with him. I -have a hundred louis in hand, I can quite well give that terrible Conte -M—— the slip; if it comes to that, he has no spirit, he -never does anything unexpected, and is only slightly amusing because of -the bloodthirsty appearance of his escort." -</p> - -<p> -On the following day Fabrizio, having learned that every morning at -eleven o'clock Fausta went to hear mass in the centre of the town, in -that same church of San Giovanni which contained the tomb of his -great-uncle, Archbishop Ascanio del Dongo, made bold to follow her -there. To tell the truth, Lodovico had procured him a fine English wig -with hair of the most becoming red. Inspired by the colour of his wig, -which was that of the flames that were devouring his heart, he composed -a sonnet which Fausta thought charming; an unseen hand had taken care to -place it upon her piano. This little war lasted for quite a week; but -Fabrizio found that, in spite of the steps he was taking in every -direction, he was making no real progress; Fausta refused to see him. He -strained the effect of singularity; she admitted afterwards that she was -afraid of him. Fabrizio was kept going now only by a faint hope of -coming to feel what is known as <i>love</i>, but frequently he felt bored. -</p> - -<p> -"Let us leave this place, Signore," Lodovico used to urge him; "you are -not in the least in love: I can see that you have the most desperate -coolness and commonsense. Besides, you are making no headway; if only -for shame, let us clear out." Fabrizio was ready to go at the first -moment of ill-humour, when he heard that Fausta was to sing at the -Duchessa Sanseverina's. "Perhaps that sublime voice will succeed in -softening my heart," he said to himself; and he actually ventured to -penetrate in disguise into that <i>palazzo</i> where he was known to -every eye. We may imagine the Duchessa's emotion, when right at the end -of the concert, she noticed a man in the full livery of a -<i>chasseur</i>, standing by the door of the big drawing-room: that pose -reminded her of someone. She went to look for Conte Mosca, who only then -informed her of the signal and truly incredible folly of Fabrizio. He -took it extremely well. This love for another than the Duchessa pleased -him greatly; the Conte, a perfect <i>galantuomo</i>, apart from -politics, acted upon the maxim that he could himself find happiness only -so long as the Duchessa was happy. "I shall save him from himself," he -said to his mistress; "judge of our enemies' joy if he were arrested in -this <i>palazzo</i>! Also I have more than a hundred men with me here, -and that is why I made them ask you for the keys of the great reservoir. -He gives out that he is madly in love with Fausta, and up to the present -has failed to get her away from Conte M——, who lets the -foolish woman live the life of a queen." The Duchessa's features -betrayed the keenest grief; so Fabrizio was nothing more than a -libertine, utterly incapable of any tender and serious feeling. "And not -to come and see us! That is what I shall never be able to forgive him!" -she said at length; "and I writing to him every day to Bologna!" -</p> - -<p> -"I greatly admire his restraint," replied the Conte; "he does not wish -to compromise us by his escapade, and it will be amusing to hear him -tell us about it." -</p> - -<p> -Fausta was too great a fool to be able to keep quiet about what was on -her mind; the day after the concert, every melody in which her eyes had -addressed to that tall young man dressed as a <i>chasseur</i>, she spoke -to Conte M—— of an unknown admirer. "Where do you see him?" -asked the Conte in a fury. "In the streets, in church," replied Fausta, -at a loss for words. At once she sought to atone for her imprudence, or -at least to eliminate from it anything that could suggest Fabrizio: she -dashed into an endless description of a tall young man with red hair; he -had blue eyes; no doubt he was some Englishman, very rich and very -awkward, or some prince. At this word Conte M——, who did not -shine in the accuracy of his perceptions, conceived the idea, -deliciously flattering to his vanity, that this rival was none other -than the Crown Prince of Parma. This poor melancholy young man, guarded -by five or six governors, under-governors, preceptors, etc., etc., who -never allowed him out of doors until they had first held council -together, used to cast strange glances at all the passable women whom he -was permitted to approach. At the Duchessa's concert, his rank had -placed him in front of all the rest of the audience in an isolated -armchair within three yards of the fair Fausta, and his stare had been -supremely shocking to Conte M——. This hallucination of an -exquisite vanity, that he had a Prince for a rival, greatly amused -Fausta, who took delight in confirming it with a hundred details -artlessly supplied. -</p> - -<p> -"Your race," she asked the Conte, "is surely as old as that of the -Farnese, to which this young man belongs?" -</p> - -<p> -"What do you mean? As old? I have no bastardy in my family, thank -you."<a name="FNanchor_11_1" id="FNanchor_11_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_1" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> -</p> - -<p> -As luck would have it, Conte M—— never had an opportunity of -studying this pretended rival at his leisure, which confirmed him in the -flattering idea of his having a Prince for antagonist. The fact was that -whenever the interests of his enterprise did not summon Fabrizio to -Parma, he remained in the woods round Sacca and on the bank of the Po. -Conte M—— was indeed more proud, but was also more prudent -since he had imagined himself to be on the way to disputing the heart of -Fausta with a Prince; he begged her very seriously to observe the greatest -restraint in all her doings. After flinging himself on his knees like a -jealous and impassioned lover, he declared to her in so many words that -his honour was involved in her not being made the dupe of the young -Prince. -</p> - -<p> -"Excuse me, I should not be his dupe if I cared for him; I must say, I -have never yet seen a Prince at my feet." -</p> - -<p> -"If you yield," he went on with a haughty stare, "I may not perhaps be -able to avenge myself on the Prince but I will, most assuredly, be -avenged"; and he went out, slamming the doors behind him. Had Fabrizio -presented himself at that moment, he would have won his cause. -</p> - -<p> -"If you value your life," her lover said to her that evening as he bade -her good night after the performance, "see that it never comes to my -ears that the young Prince has been inside your house. I can do nothing -to him, curse him, but do not make me remember that I can do everything -to you!" -</p> - -<p> -"Ah, my little Fabrizio," cried Fausta, "if I only knew where to find -you!" -</p> - -<p> -Wounded vanity may carry a young man far who is rich and from his cradle -has always been surrounded by flatterers. The very genuine passion that -Conte M—— felt for Fausta revived with furious intensity; it -was in no way checked by the dangerous prospect of his coming into -conflict with the only son of the Sovereign in whose dominions he -happened to be staying; at the same time he had not the courage to try -to see this Prince, or at least to have him followed. Not being able to -attack him in any other way, M—— dared to consider making -him ridiculous. "I shall be banished for ever from the States of Parma," -he said to himself; "Pshaw! What does that matter?" Had he sought to -reconnoitre the enemy's position, he would have learned that the poor -young Prince never went out of doors without being followed by three or -four old men, tiresome guardians of etiquette, and that the one pleasure -of his choice that was permitted him in the world was mineralogy. By -day, as by night, the little <i>palazzo</i> occupied by Fausta, to which -the best society of Parma went in crowds, was surrounded by watchers; -M—— knew, hour by hour, what she was doing, and, more -important still, what others were doing round about her. There is this -to be said in praise of the precautions taken by her jealous lover: this -eminently capricious woman had at first no idea of the multiplication of -his vigilance. The reports of all his agents informed Conte -M—— that a very young man, wearing a wig of red hair, -appeared very often beneath Fausta's windows, but always in a different -disguise. "Evidently, it is the young Prince," thought M—— -"otherwise, why the disguise? And, by gad, a man like me is not made to -give way to him. But for the usurpations of the Venetian Republic, I -should be a Sovereign Prince myself." -</p> - -<p> -On the feast of Santo Stefano, the reports of the spies took on a more -sombre hue; they seemed to indicate that Fausta was beginning to respond -to the stranger's advances. "I can go away this instant, and take the -woman with me!" M—— said to himself; "but no! At Bologna I -fled from del Dongo; here I should be fleeing before a Prince. But what -could the young man say? He might think that he had succeeded in making -me afraid. And, by God, I come of as good a family as he." -M——- was furious, but, to crown his misery, he made a -particular point of not letting himself appear in the eyes of Fausta, -whom he knew to be of a mocking spirit, in the ridiculous character of a -jealous lover. On Santo Stefano's day, then, after having spent an hour -with her and been welcomed by her with an ardour which seemed to him the -height of insincerity, he left her, shortly before eleven o'clock, -getting ready to go and hear mass in the church of San Giovanni. Conte -M—— returned home, put on the shabby black coat of a young -student of theology, and hastened to San Giovanni; he chose a place -behind one of the tombs that adorn the third chapel on the right; he -could see everything that went on in the church beneath the arm of a -cardinal who is represented as kneeling upon his tomb; this statue kept -the light from the back of the chapel and gave him sufficient -concealment. Presently he saw Fausta arrive, more beautiful than ever. -She was in full array, and a score of admirers, drawn from the highest -ranks of society, furnished her with an escort. Joyous smiles broke from -her eyes and lips. "It is evident," thought the jealous wretch, "that -she counts upon meeting here the man she loves, whom for a long time, -perhaps, thanks to me, she has been prevented from seeing." Suddenly, -the keen look of happiness in her eyes seemed to double in intensity; -"My rival is here," muttered M——, and the fury of his -outraged vanity knew no bounds. "What sort of figure do I cut here, -serving as pendant to a young Prince in disguise?" But despite every -effort on his part, he could never succeed in identifying this rival, -for whom his famished gaze kept seeking in every direction. -</p> - -<p> -All through the service Fausta, after letting her eyes wander over the -whole church, would end by bringing her gaze to rest, charged with love -and happiness, on the dim corner in which M—— was concealed. -In an impassioned heart, love is liable to exaggerate the slightest -shades of meaning, it draws from them the most ridiculous conclusions; -did not poor M—— end by persuading himself that Fausta had -seen him, that, having in spite of his efforts perceived his deadly -jealousy, she wished to reproach him with it and at the same time to -console him for it with these tender glances? -</p> - -<p> -The tomb of the cardinal, behind which M—— had taken his -post of observation, was raised four or five feet above the marble floor -of San Giovanni. The fashionable mass ending about one o'clock, the -majority of the faithful left the church, and Fausta dismissed the -<i>beaux</i> of the town, on a pretext of devotion; as she remained -kneeling on her chair, her eyes, which had grown more tender and more -brilliant, were fixed on M——; since there were now only a -few people left in the building, she no longer put her eyes to the -trouble of ranging over the whole of it before coming joyfully to rest -on the cardinal's statue. "What delicacy!" thought Conte -M——, imagining that he was the object of her gaze. At length -Fausta rose and quickly left the church after first making some odd -movements with her hands. -</p> - -<p> -M——, blind with love and almost entirely relieved of his mad -jealousy, had left his post to fly to his mistress's <i>palazzo</i> and -thank her a thousand, thousand times, when, as he passed in front of the -cardinal's tomb, he noticed a young man all in black: this funereal -being had remained until then on his knees, close against the epitaph on -the tomb, in such a position that the eyes of the jealous lover, in -their search for him, must pass over his head and miss him altogether. -</p> - -<p> -This young man rose, moved briskly away, and was immediately surrounded -by seven or eight persons, somewhat clumsy in their gait, of a singular -appearance, who seemed to belong to him. M——- hurried after -him, but, without any marked sign of obstruction, was stopped in the -narrow passage formed by the wooden drum of the door, by these clumsy -men who were protecting his rival; and when finally, at the tail of -their procession, he reached the street, he was in time only to see -someone shut the door of a carriage of humble aspect, which, by an odd -contrast, was drawn by a pair of excellent horses, and in a moment had -passed out of sight. -</p> - -<p> -He returned home panting with fury; presently there arrived his -watchers, who reported impassively that that morning the mysterious -lover, disguised as a priest, had been kneeling in an attitude of great -devotion against a tomb which stood in the entrance of a dark chapel in -the church of San Giovanni. Fausta had remained in the church until it -was almost empty, and had then rapidly exchanged certain signs with the -stranger; with her hands she had seemed to be making a series of -crosses. M—— hastened to the faithless one's house; for the -first time she could not conceal her uneasiness; she told him, with the -artless mendacity of a passionate woman that, as usual, she had gone to -San Giovanni, but that she had seen no sign there of that man who was -persecuting her. On hearing these words, M——, beside himself -with rage, railed at her as at the vilest of creatures, told her -everything that he had seen himself, and, the boldness of her lies -increasing with the force of his accusations, took his dagger and flung -himself upon her. With great coolness Fausta said to him: -</p> - -<p> -"Very well, everything you complain of is the absolute truth, but I have -tried to keep it from you so that you should not go rushing desperately -into mad plans of vengeance which may ruin us both; for, let me tell you -once for all, as far as I can make out, the man who is persecuting me -with his attentions is one who is accustomed not to meet with any -opposition to his wishes, in this country at any rate." Having very -skilfully reminded M—— that, after all, he had no legal -authority over her, Fausta ended by saying that probably she would not -go again to the church of San Giovanni. M—— was desperately -in love; a trace of coquetry had perhaps combined itself with prudence -in the young woman's heart; he felt himself disarmed. He thought of -leaving Parma; the young Prince, however powerful he might be, could not -follow him, or if he did follow him would cease to be anything more than -his equal. But pride represented to him afresh that this departure must -inevitably have the appearance of a flight, and Conte M—— -forbade himself to think of it. -</p> - -<p> -"He has no suspicion that my little Fabrizio is here," the singer said -to herself, delighted, "and now we can make a fool of him in the most -priceless fashion!" -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio had no inkling of his good fortune; finding next day that the -singer's windows were carefully shuttered, and not seeing her anywhere, -he began to feel that the joke was lasting rather too long. He felt some -remorse. "In what sort of position am I putting that poor Conte Mosca, -and he the Minister of Police! They will think he is my accomplice, I -shall have come to this place to ruin his career! But if I abandon a -project I have been following for so long, what will the Duchessa say -when I tell her of my essays in love?" -</p> - -<p> -One evening when, on the point of giving up everything, he was -moralising thus to himself, as he strolled under the tall trees which -divided Fausta's <i>palazzo</i> from the citadel, he observed that he was -being followed by a spy of diminutive stature; in vain did he attempt to -shake him off by turning down various streets, this microscopic being -seemed always to cling to his heels. Growing impatient, he dashed into a -lonely street running along the bank of the Parma, where his men were -ambushed; on a signal from him they leaped out upon the poor little spy, -who flung himself at their feet; it was Bettina, Fausta's maid; after -three days of boredom and seclusion, disguised as a man to escape the -dagger of Conte M——, of whom her mistress and she were in -great dread, she had undertaken to come out and tell Fabrizio to see -someone loved him passionately and was burning to see him, but that the -said person could not appear any more in the church of San Giovanni. "The -time has come," Fabrizio said to himself, "hurrah for persistence!" -</p> - -<p> -The little maid was exceedingly pretty, a fact which took Fabrizio's -mind from his moralisings. She told him that the avenue and all the -streets through which he had passed that evening were being jealously -watched, though quite unobtrusively, by M——'s spies. They had -taken rooms on the ground floors or on the first storeys of the houses; -hidden behind the shutters and keeping absolutely silent, they observed -everything that went on in the apparently quite deserted street, and -heard all that was said. -</p> - -<p> -"If those spies had recognised my voice," said little Bettina, "I should -have been stabbed without mercy as soon as I got back to the house, and -my poor mistress with me, perhaps." -</p> - -<p> -This terror rendered her charming in Fabrizio's eyes. -</p> - -<p> -"Conte M——," she went on, "is furious, and the Signora knows -that he will stick at nothing. . . . She told me to say to you that she -would like to be a hundred leagues away from here with you." -</p> - -<p> -Then she gave an account of the scene on St. Stephen's day, and of the -fury of M——, who had missed none of the glances and signs of -affection which Fausta, madly in love that day with Fabrizio, had -directed towards him. The Conte had drawn his dagger, had seized Fausta -by the hair, and, but for her presence of mind, she must have perished. -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio made the pretty Bettina come up to a little apartment which he -had near there. He told her that he came from Turin, and was the son of -an important personage who happened at that moment to be in Parma, which -meant that he had to be most careful in his movements. Bettina replied -with a smile that he was a far grander gentleman than he chose to -appear. It took our hero some little time to realise that the charming -girl took him for no less a personage than the Crown Prince himself. -Fausta was beginning to be frightened, and to love Fabrizio; she had -taken the precaution of not mentioning his name to her maid, but of -speaking to her always of the Prince. Finally Fabrizio admitted to the -pretty girl that she had guessed aright: "But if my name gets out," he -added, "in spite of the great passion of which I have furnished your -mistress with so many proofs, I shall be obliged to cease to see her, -and at once my father's Ministers, those rascally jokers whom I shall -bring down from their high places some day, will not fail to send her an -order to quit the country which up to now she has been adorning with her -presence." -</p> - -<p> -Towards morning, Fabrizio arranged with the little lady's maid a number -of plans by which he might gain admission to Fausta's house. He summoned -Lodovico and another of his retainers, a man of great cunning, who came -to an understanding with Bettina while he himself wrote the most -extravagant letter to Fausta; the situation allowed all the -exaggerations of tragedy, and Fabrizio did not miss the opportunity. It -was not until day was breaking that he parted from the little lady's -maid, whom he left highly satisfied with the ways of the young Prince. -</p> - -<p> -It had been repeated a hundred times over that, Fausta having now come -to an understanding with her lover, the latter was no longer to pass to -and fro beneath the windows of the little <i>palazzo</i> except when he -could be admitted there, and that then a signal would be given. But -Fabrizio, in love with Bettina, and believing himself to have come -almost to the point with Fausta, could not confine himself to his -village two leagues outside Parma. The following evening, about -midnight, he came on horseback and with a good escort to sing under -Fausta's windows an air then in fashion, the words of which he altered. -"Is not this the way in which our friends the lovers behave?" he asked -himself. -</p> - -<p> -Now that Fausta had shewn a desire to meet him, all this pursuit seemed -to Fabrizio very tedious. "No, I am not really in love in the least," he -assured himself as he sang (none too well) beneath the windows of the -little <i>palazzo</i>; "Bettina seems to me a hundred times preferable -to Fausta, and it is by her that I should like to be received at this -moment." Fabrizio, distinctly bored, was returning to his village when, -five hundred yards from Fausta's <i>palazzo</i>, fifteen or twenty men -flung themselves upon him; four of them seized his horse by the bridle, -two others took hold of his arms. Lodovico and Fabrizio's <i>bravi</i> -were attacked, but managed to escape; they fired several shots with -their pistols. All this was the affair of an instant: fifty lighted -torches appeared in the street in the twinkling of an eye, as though by -magic. All these men were well armed. Fabrizio had jumped down from his -horse in spite of the men who were holding him; he tried to clear a -space round him; he even wounded one of the men who was gripping his -arms in hands like a pair of vices; but he was greatly surprised to hear -this man say to him, in the most respectful tone: -</p> - -<p> -"Your Highness will give me a good pension for this wound, which will be -better for me than falling into the crime of high treason by drawing my -sword against my Prince." -</p> - -<p> -"So this is the punishment I get for my folly," thought Fabrizio; "I -shall have damned myself for a sin which did not seem to me in the least -attractive." -</p> - -<p> -Scarcely had this little attempt at a battle finished, when a number of -lackeys in full livery appeared with a sedan-chair gilded and painted in -an odd fashion. It was one of those grotesque chairs used by masked -revellers at carnival time. Six men, with daggers in their hands, -requested His Highness to get into it, telling him that the cold night -air might be injurious to his voice: they affected the most reverential -forms, the title "Prince" being every moment repeated and almost -shouted. The procession began to move on. Fabrizio counted in the street -more than fifty men carrying lighted torches. It might be about one -o'clock in the morning; all the populace was gazing out of the windows, -the whole thing went off with a certain gravity. "I was afraid of -dagger-thrusts on Conte M——'s part," Fabrizio said to himself; -"he contents himself with making a fool of me; I had not suspected him of -such good taste. But does he really think that he has the Prince to deal -with? If he knows that I am only Fabrizio, ware the dirk!" -</p> - -<p> -These fifty men carrying torches and the twenty armed men, after -stopping for a long interval under Fausta's windows, proceeded to parade -before the finest <i>palazzi</i> in the town. A pair of -<i>maggiordomi</i> posted one on either side of the sedan-chair, asked -His Highness from time to time whether he had any order to give them. -Fabrizio took care not to lose his head; by the light which the torches -cast he saw that Lodovico and his men were following the procession as -closely as possible. Fabrizio said to himself: "Lodovico has only nine -or ten men, and dares not attack." From the interior of his sedan-chair -he could see quite plainly that the men responsible for carrying out -this practical joke were armed to the teeth. He made a show of talking -and laughing with the <i>maggiordomi</i> who were looking after him. -After more than two hours of this triumphal march, he saw that they were -about to pass the end of the street in which the <i>palazzo</i> -Sanseverina stood. -</p> - -<p> -As they turned the corner, he quickly opened the door in the front of -the chair, jumped out over one of the carrying poles, felled with a blow -from his dagger one of the flunkeys who thrust a torch into his face; he -received a stab in the shoulder from a dirk; a second flunkey singed his -beard with his lighted torch, and finally Fabrizio reached Lodovico to -whom he shouted: "Kill! Kill everyone carrying a torch!" Lodovico used -his sword, and delivered Fabrizio from two men who had started in -pursuit of him. He arrived, running, at the door of the <i>palazzo</i> -Sanseverina; out of curiosity the porter had opened the little door, -three feet high, that was cut in the big door, and was gazing in -bewilderment at this great mass of torches. Fabrizio sprang inside and -shut this miniature door behind him; he ran to the garden and escaped by -a gate which opened on to an unfrequented street. An hour later, he was -out of the town; at daybreak he crossed the frontier of the States of -Modena, and was safe. That evening he entered Bologna. "Here is a fine -expedition," he said to himself; "I never even managed to speak to my -charmer." He made haste to write letters of apology to the Conte and the -Duchessa, prudent letters which, while describing all that was going on -in his heart, could not give away any information to an enemy. "I was in -love with love," he said to the Duchessa, "I have done everything in the -world to acquire knowledge of it; but it appears that nature has refused -me a heart to love, and to be melancholy; I cannot raise myself above -the level of vulgar pleasure," and so forth. -</p> - -<p> -It would be impossible to give any idea of the stir that this escapade -caused in Parma. The mystery of it excited curiosity: innumerable people -had seen the torches and the sedan-chair. But who was the man they were -carrying away, to whom every mark of respect was paid? No one of note -was missing from the town next day. -</p> - -<p> -The humble folk who lived in the street from which the prisoner had made -his escape did indeed say that they had seen a corpse; but in daylight, -when they ventured out of their houses, they found no other traces of -the fray than quantities of blood spilled on the pavement. More than -twenty thousand sightseers came to visit the street that day. Italian -towns are accustomed to singular spectacles, but the <i>why</i> and the -<i>wherefore</i> of these are always known. What shocked Parma about this -occurrence was that even a month afterwards, when people had ceased to -speak of nothing but the torchlight procession, nobody, thanks to the -prudence of Conte Mosca, had been able to guess the name of the rival who -had sought to carry off Fausta, from Conte M——. This jealous -and vindictive lover had taken flight at the beginning of the parade. By -the Conte's order. Fausta was sent to the citadel. The Duchessa laughed -heartily over a little act of injustice which the Conte was obliged to -commit to put a stop to the curiosity of the Prince, who otherwise might -have succeeded in hitting upon the name of Fabrizio. -</p> - -<p> -There was to be seen at Parma a scholar, arrived there from the North to -write a History of the Middle Ages; he was in search of manuscripts in -the libraries, and the Conte had given him every possible facility. But -this scholar, who was still quite young, shewed a violent temper; he -believed, for one thing, that everybody in Parma was trying to make a -fool of him. It was true that the boys in the streets sometimes followed -him on account of an immense shock of bright red hair which he displayed -with pride. This scholar imagined that at his inn they were asking -exaggerated prices for everything, and he never paid for the smallest -trifle without first looking up its price in the <i>Travels</i> of a -certain Mrs. Starke, a book which has gone into its twentieth edition -because it indicates to the prudent Englishman the price of a turkey, an -apple, a glass of milk, and so forth. -</p> - -<p> -The scholar with the fiery crest, on the evening of the very day on -which Fabrizio made this forced excursion, flew into a rage at his inn, -and drew from his pocket a brace of small pistols to avenge himself on -the <i>cameriere</i> who demanded two soldi for an indifferent peach. He -was arrested, for to carry pocket pistols is a serious crime! -</p> - -<p> -As this irascible scholar was long and lean, the Conte conceived the -idea, next morning, of making him pass in the Prince's eyes as the rash -fellow who, having tried to steal away Fausta from Conte -M——, had afterwards been hoaxed. The carrying of pocket -pistols is punishable at Parma with three years in the galleys; but this -punishment is never enforced. After a fortnight in prison, during which -time the scholar had seen no one but a lawyer who had put in him a -terrible fright by his account of the atrocious laws aimed by the -pusillanimity of those in power against the bearers of hidden arms, -another lawyer visited the prison and told him of the expedition -inflicted by Conte M—— on a rival who had not yet been -identified. "The police do not wish to admit to the Prince that they -have not been able to find out who this rival is. Confess that you were -seeking to find favour with Fausta; that fifty brigands carried you off -while you were singing beneath her window; that for an hour they took -you about the town in a sedan-chair without saying anything to you that -was not perfectly proper. There is nothing humiliating about this -confession, you are asked to say only one word. As soon as, by saying -it, you have relieved the police from their difficulty, you will be put -into a post-chaise and driven to the frontier, where they will bid you -good-bye." -</p> - -<p> -The scholar held out for a month; two or three times the Prince was on -the point of having him brought to the Ministry of the Interior, and of -being present in person at his examination. But at last he gave no more -thought to the matter when the scholar, losing patience, decided to -confess everything, and was conveyed to the frontier. The Prince -remained convinced that Conte M——'s rival had a forest of red -hair. -</p> - -<p> -Three days after the escapade, while Fabrizio, who was in hiding at -Bologna, was planning with the faithful Lodovico the best way to catch -Conte M——, he learned that he too was hiding in a village in -the mountains on the road to Florence. The Conte had only two or three -of his <i>buli</i> with him; next day, just as he was coming home from -his ride, he was seized by eight men in masks who gave him to understand -that they were <i>sbirri</i> from Parma. They conducted him, after -bandaging his eyes, to an inn two leagues farther up the mountains, -where he found himself treated with the utmost possible respect, and an -abundant supper awaiting him. He was served with the best wines of Italy -and Spain. -</p> - -<p> -"Am I a State prisoner then?" asked the Conte. -</p> - -<p> -"Nothing of the sort," the masked Lodovico answered him, most politely. -"You have given offence to a private citizen by taking upon yourself to -have him carried about in a sedan-chair; to-morrow morning he wishes to -fight a duel with you. If you kill him, you will find a pair of good -horses, money, and relays prepared for you along the road to Genoa." -</p> - -<p> -"What is the name of this fire-eater?" asked the Conte with irritation. -</p> - -<p> -"He is called <i>Bombace</i>. You will have the choice of weapons and good -seconds, thoroughly loyal, but it is essential that one of you die!" -</p> - -<p> -"Why, it is murder, then!" said the Conte; growing frightened. -</p> - -<p> -"Please God, no! It is simply a duel to the death with the young man -whom you have had carried about the streets of Parma in the middle of -the night, and whose honour would be tarnished if you remained alive. -One or other of you is superfluous on this earth, therefore try to kill -him; you shall have swords, pistols, sabres, all the weapons that can be -procured at a few hours' notice, for we have to make haste; the police -at Bologna are most diligent, as you perhaps know, and they must on no -account interfere with this duel which is necessary to the honour of the -young man whom you have made to look foolish." -</p> - -<p> -"But if this young man is a Prince. . . ." -</p> - -<p> -"He is a private citizen like yourself, and indeed a great deal less -wealthy than you, but he wishes to fight to the death, and he will force -you to fight, I warn you." -</p> - -<p> -"Nothing in the world frightens me!" cried M——. -</p> - -<p> -"That is just what your adversary most passionately desires," replied -Lodovico. "To-morrow, at dawn, prepare to defend your life; it will be -attacked by a man who has good reason to be extremely angry, and will -not let you off lightly; I repeat that you will have the choice of -weapons; and remember to make your will." -</p> - -<p> -Next morning, about six o'clock, breakfast was brought to Conte -M——, a door was then opened in the room in which he was -confined, and he was made to step into the courtyard of a country inn; -this courtyard was surrounded by hedges and walls of a certain height, -and its doors had been carefully closed. -</p> - -<p> -In a corner, upon a table which the Conte was requested to approach, he -found several bottles of wine and brandy, two pistols, two swords, two -sabres, paper and ink; a score of <i>contadini</i> stood in the windows of -the inn which overlooked the courtyard. The Conte implored their pity. -"They want to murder me," he cried, "save my life!" -</p> - -<p> -"You deceive yourself, or you wish to deceive others," called out -Fabrizio, who was at the opposite corner of the courtyard, beside a table -strewn with weapons. He was in his shirtsleeves, and his face was -concealed by one of those wire masks which one finds in fencing-rooms. -</p> - -<p> -"I require you," Fabrizio went on, "to put on the wire mask which is -lying beside you, then to advance towards me with a sword or with -pistols; as you were told yesterday evening, you have the choice of -weapons." -</p> - -<p> -Conte M—— raised endless difficulties, and seemed most -reluctant to fight; Fabrizio, for his part, was afraid of the arrival of -the police, although they were in the mountains quite five leagues from -Bologna. He ended by hurling at his rival the most atrocious insults; at -last he had the good fortune to enrage Conte M——, who seized -a sword and advanced upon him. The fight began quietly enough. -</p> - -<p> -After a few minutes, it was interrupted by a great tumult. Our hero had -been quite aware that he was involving himself in an action which, for -the rest of his life, might be a subject of reproach or at least of -slanderous imputations. He had sent Lodovico into the country to procure -witnesses. Lodovico gave money to some strangers who were working in a -neighbouring wood; they ran to the inn shouting, thinking that the game -was to kill an enemy of the man who had paid them. When they reached the -inn, Lodovico asked them to keep their eyes open and to notice whether -either of the two young men who were fighting acted treacherously and -took an unfair advantage over the other. -</p> - -<p> -The fight, which had been interrupted for the time being by the cries of -murder uttered by the <i>contadini</i>, was slow in beginning again. -Fabrizio offered fresh insults to the fatuity of the Conte. "Signor -Conte," he shouted to him, "when one is insolent, one ought to be brave -also. I feel that the conditions are hard on you; you prefer to pay -people who are brave." The Conte, once more stung to action, began to -shout to him that he had for years frequented the fencing-school of the -famous Battistini at Naples, and that he was going to punish his -insolence. Conte M——'s anger having at length reappeared, he -fought with a certain determination, which did not however prevent -Fabrizio from giving him a very pretty thrust in the chest with his -sword, which kept him in bed for several months. Lodovico, while giving -first aid to the wounded man, whispered in his ear: "If you report this -duel to the police, I will have you stabbed in your bed." -</p> - -<p> -Fabrizio withdrew to Florence; as he had remained in hiding at Bologna, -it was only at Florence that he received all the Duchessa's letters of -reproach; she could not forgive his having come to her concert and made -no attempt to speak to her. Fabrizio was delighted by Conte Mosca's -letters; they breathed a sincere friendship and the most noble -sentiments. He gathered that the Conte had written to Bologna, in such a -way as to clear him of any suspicion which might attach to him as a -result of the duel. The police behaved with perfect justice: they -reported that two strangers, of whom one only, the wounded man, was known -to them (namely Conte M——), had fought with swords, in front of -more than thirty <i>contadini</i>, among whom there had arrived towards the -end of the fight the curate of the village, who had made vain efforts to -separate the combatants. As the name of Giuseppe Bossi had never been -mentioned, less than two months afterwards Fabrizio returned to Bologna, -more convinced than ever that his destiny condemned him never to know -the noble and intellectual side of love. So much he gave himself the -pleasure of explaining at great length to the Duchessa; he was -thoroughly tired of his solitary life and now felt a passionate desire -to return to those charming evenings which he used to pass with the -Conte and his aunt. Since then he had never tasted the delights of good -society. -</p> - -<p> -"I am so bored with the thought of the love which I sought to give -myself, and of Fausta," he wrote to the Duchessa, "that now, even if her -fancy were still to favour me, I would not go twenty leagues to hold her -to her promise; so have no fear, as you tell me you have, of my going to -Paris, where I see that she has now made her appearance and has created -a <i>furore</i>. I would travel all the leagues in the world to spend an -evening with you and with that Conte who is so good to his friends." -</p> - -<p><br /></p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p class="nind"><a name="Footnote_11_1" id="Footnote_11_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_1"><span class="label">[11]</span></a>Pier-Luigi, the first sovereign of the Farnese family, so -renowned for his virtues, was, as is generally known, a natural son of -His Holiness Pope Paul III.</p></div> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<h4>END OF VOLUME I</h4> - -<p><br /><br /><br /></p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA VOLUME 1 (OF 2) ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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