Valperga

0537

0537f

Valperga

VALPERGA:

OR, THE

LIFE AND ADVENTURES

OF

CASTRUCCIO,

PRINCE OF LUCCA.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "FRANKENSTEIN."

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR G. AND W. B. WHITTAKER,
AVE-MARIA-LANE.

1823.




CONTENTS

PREFACE

CHAPTER I
_Birth of Castruccio.--His family exiled from
Lucca when he is eleven years of age._

CHAPTER II
_Castruccio visits Florence.--Characters of Euthanasia
dei Adimari and her father.--The
father of Castruccio dies._

CHAPTER III
_Francis Guinigi, the military Peasant.--Castruccio
resides with him one Year._

CHAPTER IV
_Castruccio in England._

CHAPTER V
_Castruccio in Flanders and France--Alberto
Scoto--Benedetto Pepi._

CHAPTER VI
_Castruccio in Italy--Susa--Creed of Benedetto._

CHAPTER VII
_Milan.--Court of the Emperor Henry.--Arrigo
Guinigi.--Sack of Cremona.--Benedetto
Pepi._

CHAPTER VIII
_Death of the Emperor.--Uguccione, tyrant of
Pisa, restores Castruccio at Lucca.--Euthanasia._

CHAPTER IX
_Castle of Valperga described--Friendship
and Love._

CHAPTER X
_Euthanasia's Narrative._

CHAPTER XI
_Capture of Monte Catini.--Castruccio treacherously
made prisoner by Ranieri, Governor
of Lucca.--Delivered, and proclaimed
Consul._

CHAPTER XII
_Peace between Lucca and Florence.--Bindo._

CHAPTER XIII
_Euthanasia holds a Court._

CHAPTER XIV
_Euthanasia's Court continued.--Pepi arrives._




PREFACE


The accounts of the Life of Castruccio known in England, are generally
taken from Macchiavelli's romance concerning this chief. The reader may
find a detail of his real adventures in Sismondi's delightful
publication, _Histoire des Republiques Italiennes de l'Age Moyen_. In
addition to this work, I have consulted Tegrino's Life of Castruccio,
and Giovanni Villani's Florentine Annals.


The following is a translation from the article respecting
him in Moreri.

"Castruccio Castracani, one of the most celebrated captains of his time,
lived in the fourteenth century. He was of the family of the
Antelminelli of Lucca; and, having at a very early age borne arms in
favour of the Ghibelines, he was exiled by the Guelphs. He served not
long after in the armies of Philip king of France, who made war on the
Flemings. In the sequel he repassed the Alps; and, having joined
Uguccione Faggiuola, chief of the Ghibelines of Tuscany, he reduced
Lucca, Pistoia, and several other towns. He became the ally of the
emperor Louis of Bavaria, against pope John XXII, Robert king of Naples,
and the Florentines. Louis of Bavaria gave him the investiture of Lucca
under the denomination of Duke, together with the title of Senator of
Rome. Nothing seemed able to oppose his courage and good fortune, when
he was taken off by a premature death in 1330, in the forty-seventh year
of his age."

The dates here given are somewhat different from those adopted in the
following narrative.




VALPERGA




CHAPTER I


_Birth of Castruccio.--His family exiled from
Lucca when he is eleven years of age._


The other nations of Europe were yet immersed in barbarism, when Italy,
where the light of civilization had never been wholly eclipsed, began to
emerge from the darkness of the ruin of the Western Empire, and to catch
from the East the returning rays of literature and science. At the
beginning of the fourteenth century Dante had already given a permanent
form to the language which was the offspring of this revolution; he was
personally engaged in those political struggles, in which the elements
of the good and evil that have since assumed a more permanent form were
contending; his disappointment and exile gave him leisure to meditate,
and produced his _Divina Comedia_.

Lombardy and Tuscany, the most civilized districts of Italy, exhibited
astonishing specimens of human genius; but at the same time they were
torn to pieces by domestic faction, and almost destroyed by the fury of
civil wars. The antient quarrels of the Guelphs and the Ghibelines were
started with renovated zeal, under the new distinctions of _Bianchi_ and
_Neri_[1]. The Ghibelines and the _Bianchi_ were the friends of the
emperor, asserting the supremacy and universality of his sway over all
other dominion, ecclesiastical or civil: the Guelphs and the _Neri_ were
the partizans of liberty. Florence was at the head of the Guelphs, and
employed, as they were employed by it in their turn, the Papal power as
a pretext and an instrument.

The distinctions of _Bianchi_ and _Neri_ took their rise in Pistoia, a
town of some moment between Florence and Lucca. The _Neri_ being
expelled from Pistoia, the exiles fixed their residence in Lucca; where
they so fortified and augmented their party, as to be able in the year
1301 to expel the _Bianchi_, among whom was Castruccio Castracani dei
Antelminelli.

The family of the Antelminelli was one of the most distinguished in
Lucca. They had followed the emperors in their Italian wars, and had
received in recompense titles and reward. The father of Castruccio was
the chief of his house; he had been a follower of the unfortunate
Manfred, king of Naples, and his party feelings as a Ghibeline derived
new fervour from the adoration with which he regarded his noble master.
Manfred was the natural son of the last emperor of the house of Swabia;
before the age of twenty he had performed the most brilliant exploits,
and undergone the most romantic vicissitudes, in all of which the father
of Castruccio had been his faithful page and companion. The unrelenting
animosity with which the successive Popes pursued his royal master, gave
rise in his bosom to a hatred, that was heightened by the contempt with
which he regarded their cowardly and artful policy.

When therefore the quarrels of the Guelphs and Ghibelines were revived
in Lucca under the names of _Bianchi_ and _Neri_, Ruggieri dei
Antelminelli was the chief opponent and principal victim of the
machinations of the Papal party. Castruccio was then only eleven years
of age; but his young imagination was deeply impressed by the scenes
that passed around him. When the citizens of Lucca had assembled on the
appointed day to choose their _Podestà_, or principal magistrate, the
two parties dividing on the Piazza glared defiance at each other: the
Guelphs had the majority in numbers; but the Ghibelines wishing, like
Brennus, to throw the sword into the ascending scale, assailed the
stronger party with arms in their hands. They were repulsed; and, flying
before their enemies, the Guelphs remained in possession of the field,
where, under the guidance of their chiefs, they voted the perpetual
banishment of the Ghibelines; and the summons was read by a herald,
which commanded all the districts of Lucca to range themselves the next
morning under their respective banners, that they might attack and expel
by force those of the contrary party who should refuse to obey the
decree.

Ruggieri returned from the Piazza of the Podestà, accompanied by
several of his principal friends. His wife, Madonna Dianora, was
anxiously waiting his return; while the young Castruccio stood at the
casement, and, divining by his mother's countenance the cause of her
inquietude, looked eagerly down the street that he might watch the
approach of his father: he clapped his hands with joy, as he exclaimed,
"They come!" Ruggieri entered; his wife observed him inquiringly and
tenderly, but forbore to speak; yet her cheek became pale, when she
heard her husband issue orders, that the palace should be barricadoed,
and none permitted to enter, except those who brought the word which
shewed that they belonged to the same party.

"Are we in danger?"--asked Madonna Dianora in a low voice of one of
their most intimate friends. Her husband overheard her, and replied:
"Keep up your courage, my best girl; trust me, as you have ever trusted.
I would that I dared send you to a place of safety, but it were not well
that you traversed the streets of Lucca; so you must share my fortunes,
Dianora."

"Have I not ever shared them?" replied his wife. His friends had retired
to an adjoining hall, and she continued;--"There can be no dearer fate
to me than to live or perish with you, Ruggieri; but cannot we save our
son?"

Castruccio was sitting at the feet of his parents, and gazing on them
with his soft, yet bright eyes. He had looked at his mother as she
spoke; now he turned eagerly towards his father while he listened to his
reply:--"We have been driven from the Piazza of the Podestà, and we can
no longer entertain any hope of overcoming our enemies. The mildest fate
that we may expect is confiscation and banishment; if they decree our
death, the stones of this palace alone divide us from our fate. And
Castruccio,--could any of our friends convey him hence, I should feel
redoubled courage--but it is too much to risk."

"Father," said the boy, "I am only a child, and can do no good; but I
pray you do not send me away from you: indeed, dear, dearest mother, I
will not leave you."

The trampling of horses was heard in the streets: Ruggieri started up;
one of his friends entered:--"It is the guard going to the gates," said
he; "the assembly of the people is broken up."

"And what is decreed?"

"No one ventures near to inquire out that; but courage, my noble lord."

"That word to me, Ricciardo?--but it is well; my wife and child make a
very woman of me."

"_Ave Maria_ is now ringing," replied his companion; "soon night will
set in, and, if you will trust me, I will endeavour to convey Madonna
Dianora to some place of concealment."

"Many thanks, my good Ricciardo," answered the lady; "my safest post is
at the side of Ruggieri. But our boy----save him, and a mother's
blessing, her warm, heartfelt thanks, all the treasure that I can give,
shall be yours! You know Valperga?"

"Yes, the castle of Valperga. Is the Countess there now?"

"She is,--and she is our friend; if my Castruccio were once within the
walls of that castle, I were happy."

While Madonna Dianora conversed thus with Ricciardo, Ruggieri held a
consultation with his friends. The comfortable daylight had faded away,
and night brought danger and double fear along with it. The companions
of Ruggieri sat in the banqueting hall of his palace, debating their
future conduct: they spoke in whispers, for they feared that a louder
tone might overpower any sound in the streets; and they listened to
every footfall, as if it were the tread of their coming destiny.
Ricciardo joined them; and Madonna Dianora was left alone with her son:
they were silent. Dianora wept, and held the hand of her child; while he
tried to comfort her, and to show that fortitude he had often heard his
father praise; but his little bosom swelled in despite of his mastery,
until, the big tears rolling down his cheeks, he threw himself into his
mother's arms, and sobbed aloud. At this moment some one knocked
violently at the palace-gate. The assembled Ghibelines started up, and
drew their swords as they rushed towards the staircase; and they stood
in fearful silence, while they listened to the answers which the
stranger gave to him who guarded the door.

Ruggieri had embraced his wife he feared for the last time. She did not
then weep; her high wrought feelings were fixed on one object alone, the
safety of her child.--"If you escape," she cried, "Valperga is your
refuge; you well know the road that leads to it."

The boy did not answer for a while; and then he whispered, while he
clung round her neck,--"You, dear mother, shall shew it to me."

The voice of the man who had disturbed them by his knocking, had
reassured the imprisoned Ghibelines, and he was admitted. It was Marco,
the servant of Messer Antonio dei Adimari. A Florentine by birth, and a
Guelph, Antonio had retired from his native city while it continued
under the jurisdiction of the opposite party, and had lived at the
castle of Valperga, of which his wife was Countess and Castellana. He
was bound to Ruggieri by the strongest ties of private friendship; and
he now exerted himself to save his friend. Marco brought intelligence of
the decree of the assembly of the people. "Our lives are then in
safety,"--cried Dianora, with a wild look of joy,--"and all the rest is
as the seared leaves of autumn; they fall off lightly, and make no
noise."

"The night wears apace," said Marco, "and before sunrise you must
depart; will you accompany me to Valperga?"

"Not so," replied Ruggieri; "we may be beggars, but we will not burthen
our friends. Thank your lord for his many kindnesses towards me. I leave
it to him to save what he can for me from the ruins of my fortune. If
his interest stand high enough with our rulers, intreat him to exert it
to preserve the unoffending walls of this palace: it was the dwelling of
my forefathers, my inheritance; I lived here during my boyish days; and
once its hall was graced by the presence of Manfred. My boy may one day
return; and I would not that he should find the palace of his father a
ruin. We cannot remain near Lucca, but shall retire to some town which
adheres to our party, and there wait for better days."

Dianora made speedy preparations for their departure; the horses were
brought to the door; and the stars were fading in the light of dawn, as
the cavalcade proceeded through the high and narrow streets of Lucca.
Their progress was unimpeded at the gates; Ruggieri felt a load taken
from his heart, when he found himself, with his wife and child, safe in
the open country. Yet the feeling of joy was repressed by the
remembrance, that life was all that remained to them, and that poverty
and obscurity were to be the hard-visaged nurses of their declining
years, the harsh tutors of the young and aspiring Castruccio.

The exiles pursued their way slowly to Florence.

Florence was then in a frightful state of civil discord. The Ghibelines
had the preponderance; but not a day passed without brawls and
bloodshed. Our exiles found many of their townsmen on the same road, on
the same sad errand of seeking protection from a foreign state. Little
Castruccio saw many of his dearest friends among them; and his young
heart, moved by their tears and complaints, became inflamed with rage
and desire of vengeance. It was by scenes such as these, that party
spirit was generated, and became so strong in Italy. Children, while
they were yet too young to feel their own disgrace, saw the misery of
their parents, and took early vows of implacable hatred against their
persecutors: these were remembered in after times; the wounds were never
seared, but the fresh blood ever streaming kept alive the feelings of
passion and anger which had given rise to the first blow.

When they arrived at Florence, they were welcomed with kindness by the
chiefs of the _Bianchi_ of that city. Charles of Valois had just sent
ambassadors to the government, to offer his mediation in composing their
differences; and on that very day the party of Ghibelines who composed
the council assembled to deliberate on this insidious proposition. It
may be easily supposed therefore, that, entirely taken up with their own
affairs, they could not bestow the attention they would otherwise have
done on the Lucchese exiles. On the following day Ruggieri left
Florence.

The exiles proceeded to Ancona. This was the native town of the Lady
Dianora; and they were received with hospitality by her relations. But
it was a heavy change for Ruggieri, to pass from the active life of the
chief of a party, to the unmarked situation of an individual, who had no
interest in the government under which he lived, and who had exchanged
the distinctions of rank and wealth for that barren respect which an
unblamed old age might claim. Ruggieri had been a man of undaunted
courage; and this virtue, being no longer called into action, assumed
the appearance of patience and fortitude. His dearest pleasure was the
unceasing attention he paid to the education of his son. Castruccio was
an apt and sprightly boy, bold in action, careless of consequences, and
governed only by his affection for his parents. Ruggieri encouraged his
adventurous disposition; and although he often sympathized in the fears
of his anxious wife, when Castruccio would venture out to sea on a windy
day in a little fair-weather skiff, or when he saw him, without bridle
or saddle, mount a horse, and, heading a band of his companions, ride
off to the woods, yet he never permitted himself to express these fears,
or check the daring of his son.

So Castruccio grew up active; light and graceful of limb, trusting that
by his own powers he should always escape. Yet the boy was not without
prudence; he seemed to perceive instinctively the limits of possibility,
and would often repress the fool-hardiness of his companions, and shew
his superior judgement and patience in surmounting the same difficulties
by slower and safer means. Ruggieri disciplined him betimes in all the
duties of a knight and a soldier; he wielded a lance adapted to his
size, shot with bow and arrows, and the necessary studies to which he
applied, became, on account of their active nature, the source of
inexhaustible amusement to him. Accompanied by a troop of lads, they
would feign some court surrounded by an old wall, or some ruined tower,
to be Troy Town, or any other famous city of antient days, and then with
mimic _balestri_, and slings and arrows, and lances, they attacked, and
defended, and practised those lessons in tactics which their preceptors
inculcated at an early age.

During the first year of their banishment his mother died; her weak
frame was destroyed by hardship and disappointment. She recommended her
son to his father in terms of tender love; and then closed her eyes in
peace. This circumstance for a considerable time unhinged the young mind
of Castruccio, and interrupted his studies. His father, who loved her
tenderly, and who had found in her a friend to whom he could confide
those regrets which pride forbade him to impart to any other hearer, now
lamented her with excessive grief.

He did not dare check the silent tear that started into the eye of
Castruccio, when, returning from his exercises with his companions, he
was no longer embraced by his mother; he felt that his own sentiments
would refute the lesson he wished to impress.

Ruggieri was consoled for all his past misfortunes by the promising
talents and disposition of his son, and parental tenderness, the
strongest of all passions, but often the most unfortunate, was to him
the sunbeam, solitary, but bright, which enlightened his years of exile
and infirmity.

Yet at the moment that he most enjoyed this blessing, his security was
suddenly disturbed. One morning Castruccio disappeared; and the
following perplexing note addressed to his father, was the only trace
that he left of his intentions:--

"Pardon me, dearest father; I will return in a very few days; I am quite
safe, therefore do not disquiet yourself on my account. Do not be very
angry with me; for, although I am indignant at my own weakness, I cannot
resist! Be well assured that in less than a fortnight your unworthy son
will be at your feet.

"CASTRUCCIO."


This was the year 1304, when Castruccio was fourteen years of age.
Ruggieri hoped and trusted that he was safe, and that he would fulfil
his promise and soon return; but he waited with inexpressible anxiety.
The cause of Castruccio's flight was curious, shewing at once the
manners of the age and country in which they lived, and the imagination
and disposition of the boy.


[Footnote 1: Black and White.]




CHAPTER II


_Castruccio visits Florence.--Characters of Euthanasia
dei Adimari and her father.--The
father of Castruccio dies._


A traveller had arrived at Ancona from Florence, and had diffused the
intelligence that a strange and tremendous spectacle would be exhibited
there on the first of May of that year. It had been proclaimed in the
streets of the city, by a herald sent by the inhabitants of the quarter
of San Frediano, that all who wished to have news from the other world,
should repair on the first of May to the bridge of Carraia or to the
quay of the Arno. And he added, that he believed that preparations were
made to exhibit Hell, such as it had been described in a poem now
writing by Dante Alighieri, a part of which had been read, and had given
rise to the undertaking.

This account raised the curiosity, and fired the imagination of
Castruccio. The idea darted into his head that he would see this
wonderful exhibition; and no sooner had he conceived the possibility of
doing so, than his determination was fixed. He dared not ask his
father's permission, for he knew that he should be refused; and, like
many others, he imagined that it was better to go, not having mentioned
his design, than to break a positive command. He felt remorse at leaving
his father; but curiosity was the stronger passion, and he was overcome:
he left a billet for Ruggieri; and, during the silence of a moonlight
night, he mounted his steed, and left Ancona. While proceeding through
the streets of the town, he several times repented, and thought that he
would return; but no sooner had he passed the walls, than he seemed to
feel the joy of liberty descending on him; and he rode on with wild
delight, while the mountains and their forests slept under the yellow
moon, and the murmur of the placid ocean was the only sound that he
heard, except the trampling of his own horse's hoofs.

Riding hard, and changing his horse on the road, he arrived in five days
at Florence. He experienced a peculiar sensation of pleasure, as he
descended from the mountains into Tuscany. Alone on the bare Apennines,
over which the fierce wind swept, he felt free; there was no one near
him to control his motions, to order him to stay or go; but his own will
guided his progress, swift or slow, as the various thoughts that arose
in his mind impelled him. He felt as if the air that quickly glided over
him, was a part of his own nature, and bore his soul along with it;
impulses of affection mingled with these inexplicable sensations; his
thoughts wandered to his native town; he suffered his imagination to
dwell upon the period when he might be recalled from exile, and to
luxuriate in dreams of power and distinction.

At length he arrived at the fair city of Florence. It was the first of
May, and he hastened from his inn to the scene of action. As he
approached, he observed the streets almost blocked up by the multitudes
that poured to the same spot; and, not being acquainted with the town,
he found that he had better follow the multitude, than seek a way of his
own. Driven along by the crowd, he at length came in sight of the Arno.
It was covered by boats, on which scaffoldings were erected, hung with
black cloth, whose accumulated drapery lent life to the flames, which
the glare of day would otherwise have eclipsed. In the midst of these
flames moved legions of ghastly and distorted shapes, some with horns of
fire, and hoofs, and horrible wings; others the naked representatives of
the souls in torment; mimic shrieks burst on the air, screams and
demoniac laughter. The infernal drama was acted to the life; and the
terrible effect of such a scene was enhanced, by the circumstance of its
being no more than an actual representation of what then existed in the
imagination of the spectators, endued with the vivid colours of a faith
inconceivable in these lethargic days.

Castruccio felt a chill of horror run through his frame; the scene
before him appeared for a moment as a reality, rather than a
representation; the Arno seemed a yawning gulph, where the earth had
opened to display the mysteries of the infernal world; when suddenly a
tremendous crash stamped with tenfold horror the terrific mockery. The
bridge of Carraia, on which a countless multitude stood, one above the
other, looking on the river, fell. Castruccio saw its props loosening,
and the curved arch shake, and with a sudden shriek he stretched out his
arms, as if he could save those who stood on it. It fell in with a
report that was reverberated from the houses that lined the Arno; and
even, to the hills which close the valley, it rebellowed along the sky,
accompanied by fearful screams, and voices that called on the names of
those whom they were never more to behold. The confusion was beyond
description terrible; some flying, others pressing towards the banks of
the river to help the sufferers; all, as himself, seized with a
superstitious dread, which rebuked them for having mimicked the dreadful
mysteries of their religion, and which burst forth in clamorous
exclamations and wild horror. The heroism of Castruccio failed; he
seized with eagerness the opportunity of an opening in the crowd; and,
getting into a by street, ran with what speed he could, while his knees
still shook beneath him, from the spot he in the morning as eagerly
sought. The sound of the shrieks began to die away on his ear before he
slackened his speed.

The first idea that struck him, as he recovered his breath, was--"I am
escaped from Hell!"--And seeing a church open, he with an instinctive
impulse entered its doors. He felt as if he fled from the powers of
evil; and, if he needed protection, where should he seek it with more
confidence, than in the temple where the good God of the universe was
worshipped? It was indeed as a change from Hell to Heaven, to have
escaped from the jostling of the crowd, the dreadful spectacle of
mimicked torments, the unearthly crash that bellowed like thunder along
the sky, and the shrieks of the dying--to the silence of the empty
church, the faint smell of incense, and the few quiet lights that burned
on the high altar. Castruccio was seized with a feeling of awe as he
walked up the aisle; and conscience, alive at that moment, reproached
him bitterly for having quitted his father. When the idea struck
him--"If I had been on that bridge,"--he could no longer resist his
emotions; tears ran fast down his cheeks, and he sobbed aloud.

A man, whom he had not perceived before kneeling in a niche beside the
altar, arose on hearing the voice of grief, and drew near the boy. "Why
do you weep?"--he said. Castruccio, who had not heard his approach,
looked up with surprise; for it was the voice of Marco, the servant of
his father's friend, Messer Antonio dei Adimari. Marco instantly
recognised him; for who that had once seen, could ever forget his dark
eyes, shaded by long, pointed lashes, his sun-bright hair, and his
countenance that beamed with sweet frankness and persuasion? The boy
threw himself into the arms of his humble, but affectionate friend, and
wept there for some time. When he had become more calm, his story was
told in a few words. Marco was not inclined to find fault with an
adventurous spirit, and soon consoled him.--"You are safe,"--he said;
"so there is no harm done. Come, this is rather a fortunate event than
otherwise; my lord and lady are in Florence; you shall stay a night with
them; and to-morrow morning we will send you home to your anxious
father."

The eyes of Castruccio sparkled with hope.--"Euthanasia is here?"

"She is."

"Quick then, dear Marco, let us go.--How fortunate it was that I came to
Florence!"

The life of Messer Antonio dei Adimari had been spent in the military
and civil service of his country; he had often been _Priore_; and now,
that age and blindness had caused him to withdraw from the offices of
the state, his counsels were sought and acted upon by his successors. He
had married the only daughter of the Count of Valperga, a feudal chief
who possessed large estates in the territory of Lucca. His castle was
situated among the Apennines north of Lucca, and his estates consisted
of a few scattered villages, raised on the peaks of mountains, and
rendered almost inaccessible by nature as well as art.

By the death of her father the wife of Adimari became Countess and
Castellana of the district; and the duties which this government imposed
upon her, often caused the removal of her whole family from Florence to
the castle of Valperga. It was during these visits that Adimari renewed
a friendship that had before subsisted between him and Ruggieri dei
Antelminelli. Messer Antonio was a Guelph, and had fought against
Manfred under the banners of the Pope: it happened during one campaign
that Ruggieri fell wounded and a prisoner into his hands; he attended
him with humanity; and, when he perceived that no care could restore him
if separated from his prince, and that he languished to attend at the
side of Manfred, he set him free; and this was the commencement of a
friendship, which improved by mutual good offices, and more than all by
the esteem that they bore one to the other, had long allied the two
houses, though of different parties, in the strictest amity.

Adimari continued in the service of his country, until his infirmities
permitted him to withdraw from these active and harassing duties, and,
giving up the idea of parties and wars, to apply himself exclusively to
literature. The spirit of learning, after a long sleep, that seemed to
be annihilation, awoke, and shook her wings over her favoured Italy.
Inestimable treasures of learning then existed in various monasteries,
of the value of which their inhabitants were at length aware; and even
laymen began to partake of that curiosity, which made Petrarch but a few
years after travel round Europe to collect manuscripts, and to preserve
those wonderful writings, now mutilated, but which would otherwise have
been entirely lost.

Antonio dei Adimari enjoyed repose in the bosom of his family, his
solitude cheered by the converse which he held with the sages of Rome in
ages long past. His family consisted of his wife, two boys, and a girl
only two years younger than Castruccio. He and Euthanasia had been
educated together almost from their cradle. They had wandered hand in
hand among the wild mountains and chesnut woods that surrounded her
mother's castle. Their studies, their amusements, were in common; and it
was a terrible blow to each when they were separated by the exile of the
Antelminelli. Euthanasia, whose soul was a deep well of love, felt most,
and her glistening eyes and infantine complaints told for many months,
even years after, that she still remembered, and would never forget, the
playmate of her childhood.

At the period of this separation Adimari was threatened by a misfortune,
the worst that could befall a man of study and learning--blindness. The
disease gained ground, and in a year he saw nothing of this fair world
but an universal and impenetrable blank. In this dreadful state
Euthanasia was his only consolation. Unable to attend to the education
of his boys, he sent them to the court of Naples, to which he had before
adhered, and in which he possessed many valued friends; and his girl
alone remained to cheer him with her prattle; for the countess, his
wife, a woman of high birth and party, did not sympathize in his
sedentary occupations.--"I will not leave you," said Euthanasia to him
one day, when he bade her go and amuse herself,--"I am most pleased
while talking with you. You cannot read now, or occupy yourself with
those old parchments in which you used to delight. But tell me, dear
father, could you not teach me to read them to you? You know I can read
very well, and I am never so well pleased as when I can get some of the
troubadour songs, or some old chronicle, to puzzle over. These to be
sure are written in another language; but I am not totally unacquainted
with it; and, if you would have a little patience with me, I think I
should be able to understand these difficult authors."

The disabled student did not disdain so affectionate an offer. Every one
in those days was acquainted with a rude and barbarous Latin, the
knowledge of which Euthanasia now exchanged for the polished language of
Cicero and Virgil. A priest of a neighbouring chapel was her tutor; and
the desire of pleasing her father made her indefatigable in her
exertions. The first difficulties being conquered, she passed whole days
over these dusky manuscripts, reading to the old man, who found double
pleasure in the antient poets, as he heard their verses pronounced by
his beloved Euthanasia. The effect of this education on her mind was
advantageous and memorable; she did not acquire that narrow idea of the
present times, as if they and the world were the same, which
characterizes the unlearned; she saw and marked the revolutions that had
been, and the present seemed to her only a point of rest, from which
time was to renew his flight, scattering change as he went; and, if her
voice or act could mingle aught of good in these changes, this it was to
which her imagination most ardently aspired. She was deeply penetrated
by the acts and thoughts of those men, who despised the spirit of party,
and grasped the universe in their hopes of virtue and independence.

Liberty had never been more devotedly worshipped than in the republic of
Florence: the Guelphs boasted that their attachment to the cause of
freedom might rival what history records of the glorious days of
antiquity. Adimari had allied himself to this party, because he thought
he saw in the designs and principles of its leaders the germ of future
independence for Italy. He had ever been a fervent advocate for the
freedom of his fellow citizens: but he caught the spirit with double
fervour from the Roman writers; and often, not seeing the little fairy
form that sat at his feet, he forgot the age of his companion, and
talked in high strains of that ennobling spirit which he felt in his
inmost heart. Euthanasia heard and understood; her soul, adapted for the
reception of all good, drained the cup of eloquent feeling that her
father poured out before her, and her eyes shone with the deep emotion.
Her young thoughts darted into futurity, to the hope of freedom for
Italy, of revived learning and the reign of peace for all the world:
wild dreams, that still awake the minds of men to high song and glorious
action.

Such was the education of the friend of Castruccio, while he learned all
chivalrous accomplishments under the tuition of his noble father at
Ancona; and now, after three years absence, they met at Florence,
neither having by forgetfulness wronged the friendship they had vowed in
infancy.

When Marco led his young friend to the palace of Adimari, he found his
master and the countess receiving the visits of some of the Guelph
party; and he knew that this was no time or place to introduce the young
Ghibeline. But, as they passed along the great hall, a sylph-like form
came from a room opposite, appearing as a star from behind a cloud.--"I
bring your exiled friend," said Marco; "Castruccio dei Antelminelli is
come to visit you."

"Castruccio in Florence!" cried Euthanasia; and she embraced him with
sisterly affection, "But how, dear friend, do you venture within these
walls?--is your father here?--but this is no place to ask all the
questions that I must hear resolved before you go. Come into this room;
none but my father will enter here; and now you shall tell me all that
has passed since you quitted Lucca."

Castruccio gazed on Euthanasia: he could, he thought, feed for life on
her sweet looks, in which deep sensibility and lively thought were
pictured, and a judgement and reason beyond her years. Her eyes seemed
to read his soul, while they glistened with pleasure; he wished to hear
her speak, but she insisted that his tale should be first told, of how
he had lived at Ancona, and how he had ventured to Florence. She gently
reproached him for having left his father; and then said,--"But I must
not play the hypocrite; I am glad you are come; for it gives me more
pleasure than I can express, to see you again. But I hear my father's
step; I must go and lead him, and tell him of the stranger-visitor he
has got."

Castruccio enjoyed the most heartfelt pleasure, as he sat between
Euthanasia and her father. Their manners towards him were affectionate,
and their conversation best calculated to fill an exile's bosom with
hope and joy. He was told by them, that if they now parted, he must look
forward to the moment when he and his father should be recalled with
honour to their country. Adimari could not see the bright eyes and
ardent mien of the boy; but he heard with pleasure the detail of his
occupations at Ancona, and easily perceived that his young mind slept
not on the present, dreamless of the future. He encouraged his
aspirations to honour, and exhorted him to be faithful to the lessons of
his father.

The charmed hours flew past, and the following morning they were to
separate. This consideration, as evening came on, threw more solemnity
into their looks and talk. Castruccio became pensive, and gazed on his
friend, as a treasure that he was about to lose, perhaps for ever.
Euthanasia was silent; her eyes were bent to earth; and the varying
colour of her cheeks shewed that she was revolving some thought in her
mind, to which she knew not how to give utterance. At length she raised
her eyes, and said:--"We part to-morrow, Castruccio, as we have before
parted,--for many years I fear. But there are two kinds of separation.
One, during which we suffer time to obliterate the past, as we should if
death, that parting to which no meeting succeeds, or a meeting in which
all private ties are superseded, had been the cause of the separation.
But there is another; when we cherish the memory of the absent, and act
for them as if they were with us; when to remember is a paramount duty.
This is alone practicable between friends, when each in his meditations
is sure that the other thinks also of him: then, methinks to reflect on
the words and looks of a friend, is as if one absolutely saw him. Let
this be our separation. We are both familiar with the ideas of virtue
and self-sacrifice; let friendship be joined to these, to make all
sacrifice light, and virtue more delightful. We are very young; we know
not what misfortunes are in store for us; what losses, perhaps what
calumnies, or even dishonour, may in after times taint our names. In
calumny it is to the friends of our youth that we must turn; for they
alone can know how pure the heart is, with which they were acquainted at
the time when disguise could have no existence. They, if they are true,
dare not leave us without consolation. Castruccio, I know that you will
never dishonour yourself: and, remember, if in any hard struggle you
want a friend who will console you by sympathy and confidence, and help
you as far as her power will permit, I will always be that friend to
you."

Euthanasia was yet a child, when she made this promise. But she saw
Castruccio, the friend of her infancy, a youth of high birth and nobly
bred, an outcast and an exile; she had heard and read how few friends
the unfortunate find, and generosity prompted those sentiments, to which
the frankness of her nature caused her to give utterance. She felt that
Castruccio had a deep affection for her, and she hoped, that a promise
thus voluntary and solemn; would be a consolation to him during
adversity. He felt the kindness of her motive, and replied
earnestly:--"I am an exile, and can do no good to you who are
prosperous; mine must be barren thanks. Yet not the less will I fulfil
my promise, if our fortunes change, of being your friend, your knight,
your rock, on whom you may build your hope and trust in every
misfortune."

The next morning, accompanied by Marco, Castruccio quitted Florence. In
his mind there was a mixture of grief at having left, and joy at having
once more seen, Euthanasia. Every word that she had said, and every look
of her lovely eyes, were treasured in his soul--to be a consolation and
support in trouble, and an incentive to noble endeavour. Adimari had
taken an affectionate leave of him, telling him, that, as far as a poor
blind man could, he would promote his interests, and seize the first
opportunity, if such should offer, of procuring a repeal for his exile.
There was a kindness and distinction in the manner of his aged friend,
that touched the heart of the boy; and in after times he thought he
perceived a hidden meaning in his last words, which he interpreted in a
manner that gave a sober steadiness to what he would otherwise have
considered as another airy bubble of the enchantress Hope. "Remember,"
said the venerable Florentine, "that I approve of, and love you; and if
you become that which your talents and dawning virtues promise, you may
in future be my elect favourite. Now, farewell; and do not forget me or
mine!"

Thus cheered, thus buoyed up by hopes of future good fortune and
advancement, which had before been too deeply mingled with fear,
Castruccio returned with a light heart to his father, his soul more than
ever bent upon improvement and the accomplishment of noble deeds. And
now, forgiven by his anxious parent for the grief he had occasioned him,
his days wore away, as they were wont, in delightful tasks.

Time passed on, while our young esquire was preparing himself for his
future career; strengthening his mind by study, and his body by toil.
His step assumed the firmness of one who does not fear, and who, with
his eye fixed on one point, will not be daunted by the shadows that flit
between him and his desired sun. His eyes, before beaming with frankness
and engaging sweetness, now sparkled with a profounder meaning. He
entered his seventeenth year, and he was pondering upon the fit
beginning to his life, and hoping that his father would not oppose his
fervent desire to quit what he thought a lifeless solitude; when, as a
young bather, peeping from a rock, is pushed into the sea, and forced to
exert the powers of which he was before only dreaming, so chance threw
Castruccio from his quiet nook into the wide sea of care, to sink or
swim, as fate or his own good strength might aid him.

His father died. A malignant fever, brought by some trading vessels from
the Levant, raged in the town of Ancona, and Ruggieri was one of its
earliest victims. As soon as he was attacked, he knew he must die, and
he gazed upon his boy with deep tenderness and care. To be cast so young
on life, with a mind burning with ardour, and adorned with every
grace--the fair graces of youth, so easily and so irretrievably
tarnished! He had commanded him not to come near him during his illness,
which was exceedingly contagious: but finding that Castruccio waited on
him by stealth, he felt that it was in vain to oppose; and, only
intreating him to use every imaginable precaution, they spent the last
hours of Ruggieri's life together. The fever was too violent to permit
any regular conversation; but the dying father exhorted him to remember
his former lessons, and lay them to his heart. "I have written a
letter," said he, "which you will deliver to Francesco de Guinigi. He
was one of my dearest friends, and of high birth and fortune, in Lucca;
but now, like me, he is an exile, and has taken refuge at the town of
Este in Lombardy. If he still preserves in adversity that generosity
which before so highly distinguished him, you will less feel the loss of
your father. Go to him, my Castruccio, and be guided by his advice: he
will direct you how you can most usefully employ your time while an
outcast from your country. Listen to him with the same deference that
you have always shown to me, for he is one of the few wise men who exist
in this world, whose vanity and nothingness open upon me the more, now
that I am about to quit it."

From time to time Ruggieri renewed his affectionate exhortations. His
parental tenderness did not desert him in his last moments; and he died
making a sign that in Heaven they should again meet. Castruccio was
overwhelmed by grief at his loss. But grief was soon silenced by pain:
he had inhaled the pestilential air from the dying breath of his father,
and was speedily like him stretched on the bed of sickness. Yet not like
him had he any tender nurse, to watch his fever, and administer to his
wants: every one fled from the chance of death; and it was only the
excellent constitution of the boy that enabled him to recover.

In a month after his father's death, himself in appearance more dead
than alive, he crawled out from his apartment to breathe the enlivening
air of the sea. A wind swept over it, and chilled his frame, while the
dusky sky filled him with despondency. But this was a transient feeling:
day by day he gained strength, and with strength and health returned the
buoyant spirits of youth. The first lively feeling that he experienced,
was an ardent desire to remove from Ancona. During his illness he had
bitterly felt the absence of many whom he considered dear and firm
friends. When he was able to enquire for those whom he had inwardly
reproached as false, he found that they were dead. The pestilence had
visited them, and felled them to the ground, while he, bruised and half
broken, raised his head when the deadly visitation was over. These
disappointments and losses pressed on his soul; and he experienced that
feeling which deceives us at every age, that by change of place, he
could exchange his unhappy sensations for those of a more genial nature.
The rainy season had begun; but he would not delay his departure; so,
taking an agonizing farewell of the graves of his friends, and of those
of his beloved parents whom he could never see more, he left Ancona.

The beauty of the mountains and the picturesque views for a while
beguiled his thoughts. He passed through the country where Asdrubal, the
brother of Hannibal, was defeated and slain on the mountain which still
bears his name. A river runs at the base; and it was clothed by trees
now yellow and red, tinged thus by the winds of autumn, except where a
cluster of ilexes gave life to the scenery. As he advanced, the rains
poured down, and the hills, now more distant, were hid in mist; while
towards the east the gloomy Adriatic filled the air with its restless
murmurs. Castruccio had passed swiftly through this country before, when
he went to the _Festa d'Inferno_ at Florence. It was then adorned by the
fresh spring; the sunbeams illuminated the various folds of the
mountains, and the light waves coursed one another, dancing under the
dazzling light. Castruccio remembered this; and he gazed sullenly on the
sky obscured by a thick woof of black clouds, and reproached that with
changing, as his fortune changed. Yet, reflecting on the chances that
had occurred during his last journey, his imagination wandered to
Euthanasia, and paused there, resting with delight on her beloved image.

He passed through many towns, among which he had no friends, and sought
for none. Yet, if he had desired protection, several of these were ruled
by Ghibeline lords, who would have welcomed him with hospitality. Rimini
was then governed by the husband of Francesca, whose hapless fate is
immortalized by Dante. She was dead; but the country people, with a
mixture of pity and religious horror, still spoke of her as the
loveliest creature that had ever dwelt on earth, yet for whose lost
soul, condemned to eternal pains, they dared not even pray.

Castruccio journeyed slowly on. He was weak and unable to endure
continued exercise. Yet his mind recovered by degrees its wonted
strength; and imagination, ever at work, pictured his future life,
brilliant with glowing love, transcendant with glory and success. Thus,
in solitude, while no censuring eye could check the exuberant vanity, he
would throw his arms to the north, the south, the east, and the west,
crying,--"There--there--there, and there, shall my fame reach!"--and
then, in gay defiance, casting his eager glance towards heaven:--"and
even there, if man may climb the slippery sides of the arched palace of
eternal fame, there also will I be recorded."

He was yet a boy in his seventeenth year when he said this. His desires
were afterwards to a considerable extent fulfilled: would he not have
been happier, if they had failed, and he, in blameless obscurity, had
sunk with the millions that compose the nations of the earth, into the
vast ocean of oblivion? The sequel of his history must solve the riddle.




CHAPTER III


_Francis Guinigi, the military Peasant.--Castruccio
resides with him one Year._


Castruccio passed through Bologna, Ferrara and Rovigo, to arrive at
Este. It was not the most favourable period for a visit to Lombardy. The
beauty of that country consists in its exquisite vegetation: its fields
of waving corn, planted with rows of trees to which vines are festooned,
form prospects, ever varying in their combinations, that delight and
refresh the eye; but autumn had nearly stript the landscape, and the low
lands were overflowed by the inundation of various rivers. Castruccio's
mind, fixed on the imagination of future events, found no amusement in
the wintry scene; but he saw with delight the mountains that were the
bourn of his journey, become more and more distinct. Este is situated
nearly at the foot of the Euganean hills, on a declivity overlooked by
an extensive and picturesque castle, beyond which is a convent; the
hills rise from behind, from whose heights you discover the vast plain
of Lombardy, bounded to the west by the far Apennines of Bologna, and to
the east by the sea and the towers of Venice.

Castruccio ascended the hill immediately above the town, to seek for the
habitation of Guinigi. The autumnal wind swept over it, scattering the
fallen leaves of the chesnut wood; and the swift clouds, driven over the
boundless plain, gave it the appearance, as their shadows came and went,
of a heaving sea of dusky waters. Castruccio found Guinigi sitting at
the door of his house; it was a low-roofed cottage, that seemed more fit
for the habitation of a peasant, than of a man bred in camps and
palaces. Guinigi himself was about forty years of age: the hardships of
war had thinned the locks on his temples before their time, and drawn a
few lines in his face, beaming as it was with benevolence. The sparkling
intelligence of his eye was tempered by gentleness and wisdom; and the
stately mien of the soldier had yielded somewhat to his late rustic
occupations; for, since his exile he had turned his sword to a
ploughshare, and he dwelt with much complacency on the change.

As Castruccio first saw him, he was gazing with the most heartfelt and
benevolent pleasure on his boy, a child of seven years of age, who was
busy with the peasants, drawing off wine from the vats; for it was just
the time when the vintage was finished, and the last labours were
bestowed on the crushed grapes. The youth paused: but for the air of
dignity that was visible beneath his rustic dress, he could not have
believed that this was his father's friend; his father, who in exile
never forgot that he was a soldier and a knight. He gave the letter;
and, when Guinigi had read it, he embraced the orphan son of his old
comrade, and welcomed him with a cordiality that warmed the heart of
Castruccio. The name of a stranger soon struck the ear of Arrigo, his
little son, who came with joy to greet him, bearing a large basket of
grapes and figs. Guinigi was much amused by the evident astonishment
with which his guest regarded the appearance of the house and its
master, and said:--"You come to the dwelling of a peasant who eats the
bread his own hands have sown; this is a new scene for you, but you will
not find it uninstructive. To my eyes, which do not now glance with the
same fire as yours, the sight of the bounties of nature, and of the
harmless peasants who cultivate the earth, is far more delightful than
an army of knights hasting in brilliant array to deluge the fields with
blood, and to destroy the beneficial hopes of the husbandman. But these
are new doctrines to you; and you perhaps will never, like me, in the
deep sincerity of your heart, prefer this lowly cottage to yonder
majestic castle."

To say the truth, Castruccio was greatly disappointed. As he had
ascended from the town, and saw a gay banner waving from the keep of the
castle, as he heard the clash of armour, and beheld the sun-beams
glitter on the arms of the centinel, he hoped that he should find his
future protector a favourite with the happy chief. He would, he felt,
have accosted him with more respect, if he had found him a monk in the
neighbouring monastery, than a contented farmer, a peasant whose narrow
views soared not beyond the wine-vat and the ox's stall.

These were the first feelings that occurred to Castruccio; but he soon
found that he was introduced to a new world in the society of Guinigi; a
world with whose spring of action he could not sympathize, yet which he
could not contemn. It was characterized by a simple yet sublime
morality, which resting on natural bases, admitted no factitious
colouring. Guinigi thought only of the duty of man to man, laying aside
the distinctions of society, and with lovely humility recognized the
affinity of the meanest peasant to his own noble mind. Exercising the
most exalted virtues, he also cultivated a taste and imagination that
dignified what the vulgar would term ignoble, as the common clouds of
day become fields of purple and gold, painted by the sun at eve. His
fancy only paused, when he would force it to adorn with beauty vice,
death, and misery, when disguised by a kingly robe, by the trappings of
a victorious army, or the false halo of glory spread over the smoking
ruins of a ravaged town. Then his heart sickened, and the banners of
triumph or the song of victory could not drive from his recollection the
varieties of death, and the groans of torture that occasion such
exultation to the privileged murderers of the earth.

When Guinigi and Castruccio became intimate, the youth would reason with
him, and endeavour to prove, that in the present distracted state of
mankind, it was better that one man should get the upper hand, to rule
the rest. "Yes," said Guinigi, "let one man, if it be forbidden to more
than one, get the upper hand in wisdom, and let him teach the rest:
teach them the valuable arts of peace and love."

Guinigi was a strange enthusiast. Men, like Alexander and other
conquerors, have indulged the hope of subduing the world, and spreading
by their triumphs refinement into its barbarous recesses. Guinigi hoped,
how futilely! to lay a foundation-stone for the temple of peace among
the Euganean hills. He had an overflowing affection of soul that could
not confine itself to the person of his son, or the aggrandizement of
his country, or be spiritualized into a metaphysical adoration of ideal
beauty. It bestowed itself on his fellow-creatures; and to see them
happy, warmed his heart with a pleasure experienced by few. This man,
his imaginative flights, his glowing benevolence and his humble
occupations, were an enigma that Castruccio could never solve. But,
while he neither sympathized with nor understood him, he quickly loved
him with the warmest affection.

Castruccio wished to speak to him of his future destination; Guinigi
said, "Your father has recommended you to my counsels, and you must
allow me to become acquainted with you, before I can give you advice.
You are very young; and we need not hurry. Grant me six months; we will
not be idle. We will ramble about the country: winter is the peasant's
leisure time, so I am quite at your service. We shall be much together,
and will discuss many subjects; and by degrees I shall understand the
foundations on which you are to build your future life."

They travelled to Padua, to lovely Venice, raising its head from the
waves of ocean; they rambled about the coast for days together, having
no other end than to enjoy the beauties of nature. Then, coming nearer
home, they climbed the Euganean hills, and penetrated their recesses.
Guinigi had an ultimate object in view; he wished to impress on the mind
of his pupil a love of peace, and a taste for rural pleasures. One day
they were on the summit of Monte Selice, a conical hill between Este and
Padua, and Guinigi pointed to the country around.--"What a Paradise is
this!" he said. "Now it is bare; but in the summer, when the corn waves
among the trees, and the ripening grapes shade the roads; when on every
side you see happy peasants leading the beautiful oxen to their light
work, and the sun, and the air, and the earth are each labouring to
produce for man all that is necessary for his support, and the ground is
covered with vegetation, and the air quickened into life, it is a spot,
on which the Creator of the world might pause, and be pleased with his
work. How different was this some years ago! You have heard of Ezzelino
the tyrant of Padua, under whose auspices the rivers ran blood, and the
unfortunate peasant found his harvests reaped by the sword of the
invading soldier! Look at those peasants on yonder road, conducting
their cattle crowned with flowers: habited in their holiday best, and
moving in solemn procession; their oxen are going to be blest by St.
Antonio, to ward from them the evils of the ensuing seasons. A few years
ago, instead of peasants, soldiers marched along that road: their close
ranks shewed their excellent discipline; their instruments filled the
air with triumphant sounds; the knights pricked their steeds forward,
who arching their proud necks, seemed to exult in their destination.
What were they about to do? to burn a town, to murder the old, and the
helpless, the women, and the children; to destroy the dwellings of
peace; so that, when they left their cruel work, the miserable wretches
who survived had nothing to shelter them but the bare, black walls,
where before their neat cottages had stood."

Castruccio listened impatiently, and cried:--"Yet who would not rather
be a knight, than one of those peasants, whose minds are as grovelling
as their occupations?"

"That would not I," replied Guinigi fervently; "how must the human mind
be distorted, which can delight in that which is ill, in preference to
the cultivation of the earth, and the contemplation of its loveliness!
What a strange mistake is it, that a peasant's life is incompatible with
intellectual improvement! Alas! poor wretches; they are too hard-worked
now to learn much, and their toil, uncheered by the applause of their
fellow-creatures, appears a degradation; yet, when I would picture
happiness upon earth, my imagination conjures up the family of a dweller
among the fields, whose property is secure, and whose time is passed
between labour and intellectual pleasures. Such now is my fate. The
evening of my life steals gently on; and I have no regrets for the past,
no wish for the future, but to continue as I am."

"Yes," cried Castruccio, "You have passed through life, and know what it
is; but I would rather, while alive, enter my tomb, than live unknown
and unheard of. Is it not fame that makes men gods? Do not urge me to
pass my days in indolence; I must act, to be happy,--to be any thing. My
father did not wish me to become a farmer and a vinedresser; but to
tread in his steps, and go beyond them, and that is my purpose, which I
would die to attain."

A year passed while Castruccio still lived under the low roof of
Guinigi. He found that it was no vain boast, that this noble ate the
bread that he had sown: for he saw him hold the plough, trim his vines,
and enter into all the labours of the husbandman. There is something
picturesque in the toil of an Italian peasant. It is not, as in more
northern climates, where cold, and wet, and care are endured, to be
scantily repaid; and their unceasing anxiety is often terminated by the
destruction of their crops through the severity of their climate.
Guinigi and his fellow-labourers rose with the sun, which, ascending
from the ocean, illumined the wide plain with its slant beams. The most
beautiful vegetation luxuriated around them: the strips of land were
planted with Indian corn, wheat and beans; they were divided, in some
places by row of olives, in others by elms or Lombardy poplars, to which
the vines clung. The hedges were of myrtle, whose aromatic perfume
weighed upon the sluggish air of noon, as the labourers reposed,
sleeping under the trees, lulled by the rippling of the brooks that
watered their grounds. In the evening they ate their meal under the open
sky; the birds were asleep, but the ground was alive with innumerable
glowworms, and the air with the lightning-like fire-flies, small,
humming crickets, and heavy beetles: the west had quickly lost its
splendour, but in the fading beams of subset sailed the boat-like moon,
while Venus, as another satellite to earth, beamed just above the
crescent hardly brighter than itself, and the outline of the rugged
Apennines was marked darkly below.

Their harvests were plenteous and frequent. The moving of the grass was
quickly followed in June by the reaping, and the well-trodden threshing
floor, such as Virgil describes it, received the grain; then came the
harvest of the Indian corn; and last the glorious vintage, when the
beautiful dove-coloured oxen of Lombardy could hardly drag the creaking
wains laden with the fruit.

Castruccio attended Guinigi in his labours; and Guinigi, resting on his
spade, would moralize on all around him, and win the ardent imagination
of the youth to follow his flights. All in the country bore for him the
immediate stamp of divine and eternal beauty; he knew every flower of
the field, and could describe their various habits, and what insects
best loved to suck their nectar. He knew the form and the life of every
little being of that peopled region, where the sun seems to quicken
every atom into life; and that which was insignificant to common eyes,
appeared to him to be invested with strange attributes and uncommon
loveliness.

Again Guinigi sat, Castruccio beside him, at the door of his cot,
watching the evening work of the labourers, as the wine was drawn off
from the last vat. Arrigo, now a year older, was helping them:
Castruccio said--"Instead of six months I have given you twelve, and I
have not mentioned my future destiny; indeed we have been employed so
pleasantly during the summer, that I almost forgot it. But I cannot live
another year among these hills; you know not what bitterness I feel at
heart, when I hear the clash of arms from that castle, I, who am wearing
away an ignoble youth."

Guinigi smiled, and replied, "I have reflected for you, and I have dived
into your secret thoughts, although you have not spoken. To-morrow we
will make a journey; and you shall soon be introduced to a man who will
bring you into that life whose promise of glory is so attractive to you.
So bid farewell to these hills; you will not see them again for many
years."

This hope stole sleep from the eyes of Castruccio that night. His
imagination, which had lately rested on sickles, and wains, and vines,
and the simple philosophy of Guinigi, now again fled to its wonted
track, and entered upon what he conceived to be a more glorious world.
Fleecy clouds hid the full moon, and the world was invested by a faint
light that gradually opened into day. Castruccio saw the horses led
saddled to the door, and he hastened to join Guinigi. Before he departed
he kissed affectionately the sleeping Arrigo, and said: "I fear those
fair eyes will be dimmed with tears, when he hears that I am not to
return. Sweet boy! I love you as a brother, and hope some future day to
shew that love in something more than words."

Guinigi smiled at the aspiring spirit of Castruccio; he smiled to
perceive that, still wanting protection, still a boy, his thoughts
always dwelt on the power which he would one day acquire, and the
protection he would then afford to others.

They rode silently along the well known road that led to Padua: after
resting their horses at this town, they continued their way to Venice.
Who knows not Venice? its streets paved with the eternal ocean, its
beautiful domes and majestic palaces? It is not now as it was when
Castruccio visited it; now the degenerate inhabitants go "crouching and
crab-like through their sapping streets:" then they were at the height
of their glory, just before the aristocratical government was fixed, and
the people were struggling for what they lost--liberty.

Guinigi and his young companion were silent during their long ride.
Guinigi was on the eve of seeing the friends of his warlike youth; and
perhaps his memory recalled those scenes. Castruccio dreamed of
futurity; and the uncertainty of his destiny only gave more scope to his
imagination, as he figured the glorious part which he flattered himself
he was about to act on the great theatre. At length they arrived on the
shore of the Laguna, and entered the gondola which was to convey them to
the city. Guinigi then addressed the youth:--"You trust your fate to me;
and I must explain to you the plan that I have formed concerning you,
that you may judge whether I merit the entire confidence you shew
yourself inclined to repose in me. You know, my dear Castruccio, that
poor Italy is distracted by civil brawls, and how little honour one who
is exiled as you are from his native town, can acquire, to whatever
party he may adhere. His most arduous exertions may be sacrificed to
political intrigue, and assuredly he will be repaid with ingratitude
alone, whatever power he serves. In addition, a disgraceful political
craft now reigns in the palaces of the Italian princes, which renders
them ill schools for a youth, who, while he may, ought to preserve the
innocence and sincerity of which the world will but too quickly deprive
him. You would inevitably be disgusted by the narrow views, the
treachery, and beggarly fraud, that dwell in the hearts, and influence
the actions of our proudest nobles.

"You must therefore begin your knightly career out of Italy. The honours
that you will obtain from a foreign sovereign, will ennoble you in the
eyes of your countrymen, and will enable you, when you return, to judge
impartially of the state of your country, and to choose, without being
influenced by narrow party-feeling, the course you will pursue. It is
with this view that I am going to introduce you to an old friend of
mine, an Englishman, who is about to return to his native soil. I knew
him many years ago, when he accompanied Charles of Anjou to Italy. A
long time has elapsed since sir Ethelbert Atawel returned to England;
but, upon the event of a new king's succession to the throne, he was
chosen, as a person well acquainted with the customs of the holy court,
to be the chief of an embassy to the Pope. Having discharged his
mission, he has crossed the Alps to take a last farewell of his Italian
friends, before he proceeds to assume a distinguished part in his own
country. I shall consign you, my young friend, to the guidance of this
noble gentleman. We have now been separated for nearly twenty years; but
our attachment did not arise from casual intercourse alone; we esteemed
one another, we bound ourselves one to the other by vows; and, although
at this distance of time, life has much changed its appearance to both
of us, yet I swear I would keep to the letter all that I vowed to him,
and I believe that he will do the same by me.

"Another motive influences me in sending you to England. You have a rich
relation there named Alderigo, who requested Atawel to enquire for the
various branches of the exiled Antelminelli, and in particular for your
father. It may well appear from the earnestness of his enquiries, that,
if you go to England, you will find yourself neither friendless nor
poor. I am an exile like you, and like you I am destitute of all
resources, and am saved from embarrassment only by those labours in
which I fortunately take a pride. I know that it would not be agreeable
to you to be dependent on the favour of Atawel; but you are differently
circumstanced with regard to your relation; and I believe him to have
both the power and the will to serve you."

The gondola entered Canale Grande, and rested at the steps of a noble
palace. Castruccio had no time to comment upon the relation of Guinigi;
but followed him silently through the stately apartments, hung with silk
and tapestry, and paved with marble, into the banquetting hall, where
the owner of the palace sat surrounded by the aristocracy of Venice. The
childish mind of Castruccio shrunk into itself, when he saw the satined
and gold-laced state of these nobles, and then glanced his eye on the
dignified form of his companion clothed in the mean habiliments of an
Italian peasant: but his shame was turned to pride and astonishment,
when he found this homely-looking man received with reverence, and
embraced with affection, by this lordly assembly. The most cordial
salutes echoed from the ends of the hall, as they all pressed round to
welcome their old friend and counsellor, to whose wisdom and calm
courage many of them owed the most important obligations. There was a
sweetness in the smile of Guinigi, that elevated him in appearance above
other men, a sensibility beaming in his eye which added grace to his
quick and expressive motions, and a gentleness that tempered the
frankness of his manners. He introduced Castruccio to the nobles. The
youth was beautiful to a wonder, and experienced a flattering reception
from the friends of his protector.

"I shall remain but a few days in Venice," said Guinigi to his host;
"but I will visit you again before I retire to my farm; at present you
must tell me where I can find your English visitor, sir Ethelbert
Atawel, for my business is with him."

A man now arose, and advanced from a retired part of the room; his
person formed a strange contrast to the sun-burnt faces and black eyes
of the Italians who were around him. He had the round Saxon features,
moulded with uncommon delicacy; his light hair slightly shaded his fair
temples; and his slender person denoted elegance rather than power; his
countenance bore the expression of much thought, of thoughts moulded by
an enquiring, yet a gentle mind. He advanced towards Guinigi; his lips
were almost convulsed; a tear stole into his eye, as he grasped his
hand, and said: "You do not forget me?"

Guinigi replied with trembling emphasis, "Never!"--the hearts of the
friends were full, they took leave of the company, and descended to the
gondola, that without spectators they might express their remembered
affection.




CHAPTER IV


_Castruccio in England._


Castruccio spent several days with his friend at Venice. Guinigi and
Atawel were constantly together, and Castruccio was thrown to a great
degree into the society of the Venetian nobles. Having been for a year
the constant companion of Guinigi, the contrast between him and these
men struck him forcibly. The mind of the philosophical exile was fraught
with a natural wisdom, a freedom from prejudice, and a boldness of
thought, that suited the enthusiasm, while it corrected the narrow views
of Castruccio. But these nobles were full of party spirit, and a never
resting desire, to aggrandize first themselves, and secondly their
native town, in opposition to the rest of the world. They were to
themselves the centre of the universe, and men and nations rose and set
only for them. As Galileo was persecuted for saying that the earth moved
attendant on the sun, thus demonstrating the relative insignificance of
our globe; so they would have pursued with excessive hatred any one who
should have pointed out to them their true station in relation to their
fellow-creatures. They were in no danger of hearing such disagreeable
truths from Guinigi: he was content not to be deceived himself by the
false shadows thrown from society; but with that amenity which was his
characteristic, he adapted his counsels to the ideas of others, and
allowed those whom he could not hope to new mould, to sleep in their
pleasant dreams.

Castruccio was presented to the doge, and partook of all the brilliant
amusements of Venice. But at length the time arrived, when he was to
depart with sir Ethelbert Atawel, and Guinigi to return to his farm
among the hills. It was a sorrowful event for Atawel and Castruccio to
separate from this kind and valued friend. Before he departed, Guinigi
talked long with Castruccio, and vehemently urged him, when he should
arrive in England, that he would put himself entirely under the guidance
of Atawel. "You will be," he said, "in a strange country, with unknown
manners and customs; so that without a guide you would find it difficult
to steer a right course among them. My dear Castruccio, God only knows
what your future fortunes will be; but your father intrusted you to my
care, and I feel the most earnest anxiety that you should enter life
under good auspices, and enjoy, at least with untarnished pleasure, the
years of youthful hope. Be towards Atawel as you ever have been to me;
the natural ingenuousness of your character will discover to you the
medium, which combines the graceful submission of youth, with that
independence that is the dearest birthright of man. Atawel is gentle and
unassuming; you must seek his counsels; for his best wisdom will be
bestowed upon you, when you shew a desire to consult it."

They separated: Atawel and Castruccio departed with a few attendants
towards Milan on their road to England.

Castruccio now found himself with a companion, different from him to
whom he had just bade an affectionate farewell. Atawel was more a man of
the world than Guinigi; nor did he possess his genius and surpassing
excellence. Entering into the common road of life, he was
notwithstanding able to regulate his conduct by just principles, and to
recommend himself by a sound judgement and a steady courage; but he was
unable to strike into new paths, and become an adventurer in life and
morals as Guinigi had been. He had great sensibility and warm
affections; and various misfortunes in life had turned a constitutional
gravity into melancholy. Yet he unveiled his spirit for a while from the
clouds that obscured it, and entered with interest into the views and
expectations of Castruccio.

They conversed together concerning his cousin Alderigo, who was a rich
merchant in London, and who by his respectability and talents had
acquired influence even among the nobles of England. Alderigo had been
known and loved by Edward I: for in those days kings did not disdain to
seek friends among those classes of society from which ordinary
etiquette would have excluded them. The merchant however had withdrawn
from all communication with the court, since the accession of Edward of
Caernarvon; for the childish amusements of this monarch ill accorded
with the dispositions of one who had been the friend of his manly
father. When the barons of England remonstrated with Edward, and
insisted on the exile of Piers Gavaston, Alderigo had however come
forward to persuade the king to this necessary concession.

Atawel also was an enemy of Gavaston; and, as he sketched the political
state of England to his young companion, he painted with indignation the
change from the spirited counsels of the late sovereign, to the puerile
amusements and weak inaction of his son. He described Gavaston as a man
expert in feats of bodily activity, but destitute of judgement and manly
enterprise. He said that he was vain-glorious, rapacious, and profuse.
Insolent to his superiors and equals, tyrannical to his inferiors, he
deigned to use the arts of courtesy to the king alone: even the queen
failed in obtaining from him the respect due to her sex and dignity. He
had been raised to rank and wealth by the royal favour; but he conducted
himself with an arrogance, that would not have been tolerated in the
first noble of the land. He was not content to overcome his adversary in
the field of honour; but he endeavoured to add to his shame by sarcasm
and ridicule. The barons exerted their utmost power for his destruction;
Edward yielded to force; but on the first favourable opportunity he
recalled his friend, who, untaught by adversity, again irritated his
rivals to that hostility in which he was sure to be worsted.

The animated picture which Atawel drew of the discontent and turbulence
of the English barons, although it would have excited terror in these
quiet times, delighted Castruccio, as affording a hope of having now
found a fitting stage on which he might commence his active career. The
loss of Scotland to England, and the inaction of the king and his
favourite, easily induced him to sympathize in the indignation of
Atawel; and he readily believed, that the insolence of the upstart and
unworthy Gavaston demanded and justified the most rigorous measures to
ensure his expulsion from the kingdom.

Castruccio was now eighteen years of age. His converse with Guinigi had
indued him with a manliness of thought and a firmness of judgement
beyond his years; at the same time that the vivacity of his temper often
made him appear rash, and the gaiety of his disposition led him to seek
with ardour the common diversions of his age. He was bred as a young
esquire in all those accomplishments which were deemed essential to a
gentleman, and was expert in feats of horsemanship and arms, in the
dance, and in other exercises peculiar to his country. His countenance,
which was uncommonly beautiful, expressed frankness, benevolence and
confidence; when animated, his eyes shone with fire; when silent, there
was a deep seriousness in his expression, that commanded attention,
combined at the same time with a modesty and grace which prepossessed
every one in his favour. His slight, but active form never moved without
displaying some new elegance of person; and his voice, whose modulated
accents stole on the ear like sweetest music, forced the hearer to love
him; his laugh, like that of a child, heartfelt and joyous, was entirely
distinct from the sneer of contempt, or the arrogance of superiority. He
had read little; but he had conversed with those who had studied deeply,
so that his conversation and manners were imbued with that refinement
and superior sweetness, which are peculiar to those who unite the
cultivation of the mind to exterior accomplishments. Gay, ambitious and
beloved, there was little pride, and no insolence in his nature: nor
could he endure either to be the object of arrogance, or to perceive it
exercised over others.

Such was Castruccio, when in the beginning of the year 1309 he landed on
the English shores. Gavaston had just been expelled by a confederacy of
the nobles, who for a while had assumed the royal power into their own
hands. But, instead of having been poorly exiled according to the wish
of the barons, his royal master had invested him with the Lieutenancy of
Ireland, where he signalized himself by his victories over the rebels.
Edward however could not be happy in the absence of his favourite, but,
melancholy and irresolute, watched for a fitting opportunity, when the
hatred of his nobles should in some degree be softened, to recall him.

Alderigo received his young cousin with the warmest affection, and
shewed every disposition to aid by his wealth and influence, in placing
him in such a situation as might gratify his ambition. Atawel introduced
him at court; and, if the haughty barons of England viewed with a
supercilious smile the youthful beauty and accomplishments of the
stranger, Edward was pleased to behold one, who by his foreign air, and
the refinement of his manners, recalled the memory of his exiled
favourite. He distinguished Castruccio among the crowd; and the youth,
dazzled perhaps by royal favour, easily altered his prepossessions in
favour of the barons, into love and pity for their oppressed sovereign.
At balls and tournaments Castruccio shone among the throng. He was yet
too youthful to enter into manual contests with the English lords; but
the management of his horse, his graceful person, his skill in the
dance, and other light games endeared him to Edward, who was incapable
of sympathizing in the ruder exercises in which his barons were so
jealous of their pre-eminence.

Atawel and Alderigo viewed the favour which Castruccio enjoyed with the
king, with fearful eyes: they dreaded the jealousy of the nobles; but
happily this passion was not excited on the present occasion. On the
contrary they were rather pleased, that the king should be amused by the
company of one, whose youth and precarious situation withheld him from
entering into the lists of rivalry with them. The Italian Castruccio,
dependent on the bounty of a merchant of his own country, no conqueror
at the tournament, neither thwarting, nor understanding their several
plans of aggrandisement, was past over with a scornful smile, which the
youth, regarding himself as a sufferer in common with their injured
king, did not receive as a degradation. But deeper feelings of sympathy
now gave him other sentiments.

Edward's favourite recreation was the game of tennis; in which, it being
common in Italy under the name of _la Palla_, Castruccio excelled. One
day after having amused themselves at this exercise in one of the royal
gardens, Edward feeling fatigued gave up the game, and leaning on
Castruccio's arm, strolled with him down one of the shady allies. And
here for the first time he opened his heart to his new friend: he
described Gavaston as the most amiable and the most accomplished knight
of the times: he dwelt with touching earnestness on his own attachment
to him, and his forced separation; tears started into his eyes as he
spoke of the desolate state of his heart, deprived of the company of his
first, his only and his dearest friend; and his cheeks glowed with
indignation, as he mentioned the arrogance of his nobles, and the state
of slavery to which he was reduced.

Castruccio was deeply moved; and the natural feeling of pity, with which
he was inspired at the spectacle of the slavery of one, who it was
presumed had a divine right to command, was augmented by the idea that
he had been found a worthy deposit for the overflowings of the royal
sorrows. He offered his services with earnestness, and Edward gladly
accepted his proffers. "Yes, my dear friend," he cried, "the
accomplishment of my fondest wishes shall devolve upon you. You shall be
my saviour; the saviour of my honour, and the cause of the only
happiness I can enjoy on earth, the return of my beloved Piers."

Edward then disclosed to Castruccio the various expedients he had used,
to pacify his nobles, and to obtain the re-establishment of his friend.
He acknowledged that he had just received from the Pope a dispensation
of Gavaston's oath never again to set foot in England; and a faithful
messenger was only necessary, to carry this intelligence to his friend,
and bid him instantly return; so that the barons, taken unawares, should
not have time to plot new disturbances, before the king should be able
to defy their worst, secure of the life and the society of his
favourite. "That task shall devolve on you, my dear Castruccio," said
he; "and I shall be indebted to you for the happiness of again embracing
him to whom I have bound myself by the ties of an eternal friendship.
Frame a plausible excuse for quitting England, and hasten to Dublin,
where Piers impatiently waits a messenger from me; that you may not be
exposed to the slightest risk from the suspicion of the nobles, I will
give you no letter: but this ring, as was agreed upon between myself and
my friend, will obtain for its bearer his full confidence and
friendship."

Castruccio took leave of the monarch, and hastened to the house of
Alderigo, full of pride, hope, and joy. He had now indeed entered upon
life, and as he hoped, with the best auspices: he had become the chosen
confident of a king, and his secret messenger; he readily believed that
prudence, and prudence should not fail him, would cause his rise to the
highest dignities. His feelings were not entirely selfish; for he deeply
pitied Edward, and was sincerely happy in serving him: but to pity and
serve a king, was a state of being full of pleasure. In accordance with
the prudent plan he had marked out for himself, he remained at the house
of his kinsman during several days, secluded from his courtly friends,
and absenting himself entirely from the palace. On occasion of the
arrival of a few letters from France, he informed Atawel and Alderigo,
that it was absolutely necessary for him to undertake a journey to that
country. As he alleged the most frivolous causes as the motive of this
determination, his friends easily perceived that he was endeavouring to
mislead them by a false pretext. The Italian, after having in vain
endeavoured to win his confidence, contented himself with recommending
prudence and caution: Atawel spoke more seriously, and bade the youth
beware, before he mixed with the intrigues of a foreign court, in which
if he were once detected, he had neither friends nor connections to
extricate him from the rage of his powerful adversaries. And then again
he intreated Castruccio to consider the justice of the cause in the
service of which he enlisted himself, and what would be the probable
consequences, if through his means Edward were to establish a
correspondence with his favourite. The young man listened with seeming
deference, but allowed no word to escape him, that might countenance the
idea that his journey was influenced by any except private
considerations.

He departed from London, as if on his way to France; then suddenly
changing his route, he traversed the kingdom, and crossing from Bristol
to Cork, hastened to Dublin, and carried to Gavaston the welcome command
of the king to return immediately to England; the ring that he bore from
Edward, was an immediate passport to the friendship of the illustrious
exile.

Piers Gavaston was still in the flower of his age. If he were not
handsome, yet the expression of his features was manly and interesting;
he was graceful in person, and strong of muscle, though agile of limb:
he was courteous in general society, though a certain haughtiness was
diffused over his whole manner, which forbade any more familiar feeling
than that of admiration. Among his friends this air of superiority
yielded to the most winning kindness and affability of demeanour, which,
being ever a mark of distinguished affection, did not fail to bind them
to him by an additional tie of gratitude. He spoke several languages
with great fluency; he rivalled the most graceful knights of France, and
far surpassed the English in all chivalrous accomplishments. The
consciousness of power with which his dexterity inspired him, generated
an independence and frankness of action, which would have rendered him
amiable to all, had it not been tainted by vanity and presumption. He
was magnificent in his attire, fond of parade, and proud of his dazzling
fortunes, all heavy sins among his English enemies. He paid great
attention, and made much shew of love to Castruccio, whom if princely
affability had before moved, the gracious treatment of Gavaston made a
complete conquest of him.

They returned together to England. Edward had arrived at Chester, that
he might behold his friend a few days the sooner; and he flew to his
arms with the affectionate transports with which a child might welcome
the return of its absent mother.

A strict friendship was established between Gavaston and Castruccio.
Piers had not learned moderation from adversity; his wealth and luxury
were increased, and with these his vanity and insufferable presumption.
Atawel in vain endeavoured to win Castruccio from his society; but, if
the deportment of Gavaston was arrogant towards the English lords, it
was so much the more affable and insinuating towards Castruccio. The
king also loved the Italian; and, not examining the merits of the case,
he allowed himself to be entirely led away by the personal attachment
that he bore to Edward and Piers.

Gavaston had wealth and rank; and, although he was considered an
upstart, yet the possession of these gave him a consequence in the eyes
of the nobles, of which Castruccio was wholly divested. They looked on
the latter as one may regard a stinging insect, whose insignificance is
not to compound for his annoyance. They endured the insolence of
Gavaston with the sullenness of men who look into the future for
revenge; but they bore the far slighter pain which Castruccio inflicted
upon them, with the impatience one feels at an injury, however slight,
for which we are by no means prepared. And, if Castruccio himself
manifested few symptoms of insolence, yet he was supported by that of
Gavaston; and they felt that, though for the present they could not
injure the favourite personally, yet they might wound him through his
Italian friend. This latter also was not unfrequently provoked beyond
his usual courtesy by the pride and taunts of his enemies; and, if ever
he dared reply, or when Gavaston replied for him, the nobles felt a rage
they could ill smother at what they deemed so despicable an offender.
The indications of mischief which had before slightly manifested
themselves, broke out one day with a violence that suddenly terminated
Castruccio's visit to England.

He accompanied the king, who went with a train of the first nobility on
a hawking party, to Chelsea. The exercise excited Castruccio's blood,
and inspired him with an exaltation of spirits which might have
exhausted itself in gaiety alone, had not a quarrel, that arose between
him and one of the nobles, urged him to a fury he could ill control. The
contention began concerning the comparative flight of their birds; and,
healed as they were by personal animosity, it became loud and bitter.
Edward in vain endeavoured to appease them; but when, seconded by his
friends, the English nobleman established his triumph in the contest,
Castruccio replied by a sarcasm which so irritated his antagonist, that
no longer restraining his indignation, he darted forward, and struck
Castruccio. The fiery youth, crying in Italian, "By blood, and not by
words, are blows to be avenged!"--drew his stiletto, and plunged it into
the bosom of his adversary. A hundred swords immediately flashed in the
air; Edward threw himself before his friend to protect him: Gavaston,
Atawel and others who loved him, hastily withdrew him from the crowd,
made him mount his horse, and without a moment's delay they rode to the
river's side below the Tower, where they fortunately found a vessel on
the point of sailing for Holland. Without waiting to see his other
friends, without going to the house of Alderigo for money or equipment,
they hurried him on board the vessel, which immediately got under weigh,
and dropt down with a favourable wind towards the Nore.

The barons, burning with revenge, had sent archers to the house of
Alderigo, who, not finding Castruccio, seized upon his kinsman, and
threw him into prison. A law then existed in England, that if a
foreigner killed a native and escaped, those with whom he resided became
amenable for the murder. Alderigo was therefore in the most imminent
peril; but Edward, as the last act of friendship that he could bestow
upon Castruccio, saved the life and fortune of his kinsman. And thus,
after a year's residence in this island, did the youth bring to a
disastrous conclusion all the hopes and expectations which had led him
thither.




CHAPTER V


_Castruccio in Flanders and France--Alberto
Scoto--Benedetto Pepi._


After a favourable navigation of a few hours Castruccio arrived at
Ostend. He landed destitute of friends, and even of the equipage of a
gentleman. What Castruccio felt during the voyage can hardly be
described. Anger, grief and shame kept his spirits in a perpetual
fluctuation, which, painful as it was, was far preferable to the
extinction of hope, and the sense of utter desertion upon his landing in
Flanders. The world was indeed before him: he had been torn with
frightful suddenness from the affections he had cultivated for a year,
from ease, luxury and the friendship of a powerful monarch, and
consigned to utter destitution. He did not even possess the lance and
horse, with which knights-errant of old won kingdoms for themselves. Nor
did he think without remorse of the blood with which his hands were for
the first time stained; he had received a blow, and blood alone could
expiate this injury: in France or England a duel in regular and courtly
form would have terminated the quarrel; but in Italy the secret stiletto
was the weapon of revenge, and the murder of one was avenged by the
assassination of another, until the list of expiatory murders ran high,
and were carefully counted by each party, each justifying his own, and
blaming those of his adversary. Yet, although the mind of Castruccio was
tinctured by the morality of his country, he was too young and too new
not to feel a natural horror at having been the cause of the death of a
fellow creature. Seated on a rock amidst the wide sands left by the
retiring sea, listening to the melancholy roar of the tide, he shed
bitter tears of repentance and conscious guilt. One idea alone calmed
him, that his adversary might not have died--and then what was he? His
rashness and folly had thrown him from a high station of prosperity and
happiness, to being the solitary, helpless creature that he then was.

The sun sunk in a turbid sky. "Ah! how unlike dear Italy," sighed
Castruccio; "how different from the clear heavens and orange-tinted
sunsets of my native soil!"

He spoke in Italian, and a man who stood near unperceived by him,
repeated the word so dear to exiles, the name of the country of his
birth:--"_Italia_." Castruccio looked up, and the man continued: "Italy
is also my native country. And who are you, my friend, who, alone and a
stranger, mourn for the delights of that paradise of the earth?"

"I am a Lucchese," replied Castruccio; "I am the cousin of Alderigo, the
rich merchant in England."

"The name of an Italian," said the other, "is a sufficient passport to
my poor hospitality; but, as the relation of my excellent friend, Messer
Alderigo, it greatly delights me to offer you all the little service
that I am capable of giving. Come with me to my house; you will recall
perhaps some not unpleasing associations in the society of an Italian
family, who, during a long absence, have never forgotten the olive
groves of Italy, and never ceased to desire to return to them."

Castruccio accepted this friendly invitation with joy. He found his host
a rich merchant of Ostend, living in the Italian style, and surrounded
by a family, whose language and persons transported him to the plains of
Lombardy, or the vallies of his native Tuscany.

During the conversation of the evening his host mentioned the wars that
were then carrying on between the French king and the Flemings, and that
Alberto Scoto commanded under the banners of the former with a troop of
Italians. This account struck Castruccio with a hope, that he should now
find some remedy for his misfortunes. Being obliged to enter on a new
career, and his inclination leading him to war, he thought that this
opportunity of serving under a fellow-countryman was too favourable a
circumstance to be neglected. He made many enquiries concerning this
troop and its illustrious chief. Alberto Scoto had once possessed a wide
dominion in Lombardy; he had expelled the Visconti from Milan, and had
been constituted tyrant or lord of the most flourishing Lombard states.
When by the joint force of revolt and treason he was driven from his
power, he had not lost his reputation as a successful general, and
Philip le Bel, king of France, eagerly accepted his offered services. In
former times he had been considered as belonging to the Guelph faction;
but he had changed before he quitted Italy; and, now an exile, the
distinction of party was entirely lost to him.

Castruccio had never yet made a campaign; and his eager spirit led him
to regard with disdain the sloth in which he had hitherto passed his
life. From the moment that he had landed in France he had resolved to
commence a military career; and he believed that he should find no
better school than that of Alberto Scoto, where he would be disciplined
in the modes of his own country, and learn under so experienced a
general, the tactics of those armies which he hoped one day to command.

On the following morning he discoursed concerning these ideas with his
host, who easily entered into his designs, and promised to provide him
with such an introduction to Scoto as would at least command his
attention. His plans were quickly arranged.

The merchant took a kind leave of his young compatriot, and gave him a
well filled purse at parting: "You shall repay me," said he smiling,
"out of your first spoils: or, if these fall short of my expectations,
Messer Alderigo will not suffer a friend of his to lose through his
kindness to a kinsman."

Castruccio traversed in safety the plains of Flanders, and arrived at
the French camp, which was pitched near Douai. He penetrated with some
difficulty into the tent of Scoto: but that experienced general soon
perceived in the mien of the youthful stranger a soldier's deportment
and air of independence, that prepossessed him at once in his favour.
After having read the letter of Castruccio's host, he addressed the
youth with kindness. "Our countryman," said he, "informs me that you are
the chief of the noble family of the Antelminelli, a name so well known
in Italy, as to be itself a sufficient introduction to a native of that
country. You desire to serve under me, and I feel myself honoured by
your selection; my troop must be a gainer by the acquisition of so noble
a volunteer."

The manners of Scoto were courtly; and in his conversation with the
youth his keen judgement quickly discovered the qualifications of
Castruccio. They dined together; and afterwards, having equipped him in
a becoming dress, he presented him to the French king, from whom he
experienced a favourable reception. Castruccio did not fail speedily to
inform Alderigo of his situation, who immediately remitted him a sum of
money amply sufficient for his present supply.

Castruccio had now exchanged the idle gaieties of the English court for
the active labours of a camp; and on the following day he entered on his
military duties. Scoto presented him with a suit of armour, selecting
one of the most costly that he possessed. There was a small iron scull
cap which fitted the head, and was worn under the helmet. The casque
itself was of highly polished iron inlaid with gold in beautiful
devices, and the mailed collar for his neck was plated with the same
precious metal. The breast-plate was finely carved, and fastened over
the shoulders to the back plate, which was laboured with less delicacy.
The greaves which sheathed his legs, were beautifully inlaid, and shone
with gold; his sword was of the finest temper, and the scabbard, richly
adorned, hung at his side from an embroidered scarf; a shield and a good
lance completed his equipment. Arms of less costly manufacture were
chosen for his horse, which, selected from the stud of Scoto, was
strong, heavy and spirited.

The next day the camp was in motion. It were needless to detail the
events of this campaign: several battles were fought, and some towns
taken. The French who had hitherto been losers, regained their ground;
and in every action the troop of Scoto distinguished itself, and among
his troop Castruccio was pre-eminent in bravery, enterprise and success.
Scoto perceived, and warmly applauded his courage and conduct: the fame
of his actions was spread through the army, and his first campaign
crowned him with that reputation to which he had long aspired. King
Philip himself had witnessed his achievements; he beheld him as he led a
troop to the onset, and turned in favour of France the dubious fortune
of a hard-fought day. The King proved his gratitude by bestowing on him
such praises and rewards as filled Castruccio with triumph and delight.

Scoto was quartered during the winter at one of the Flemish towns, and
Castruccio was invited to partake of the gaieties of the Parisian court.
He obeyed the summons, and spent some weeks in the enjoyment of all
those amusements which the palace of Philip afforded. His beauty and
grace attracted the notice of the ladies; and his fame in arms caused
him to be distinguished by the French nobility.

Towards the close of the winter he returned to the camp of Scoto, in
whose esteem he held a very high place. This general delighted in
imparting his experience to so attentive a listener, and in endeavouring
to form the genius of one who he foresaw would rise to the highest rank
among the lords of Italy. Castruccio was admitted at all hours to his
tent; they rode together; and, under the precepts of one well
experienced in the politics of Italy, Castruccio began to understand and
meditate the part he should act, when he returned to that country. Yet
Scoto's was an evil school; and, if his pupil gained from him a true
insight into Italian politics, he at the same time learned the use of
those arts which then so much disgraced that people. The _Punica fides_
had been transferred across the Mediterranean; and every kind of wile
and artifice was practised in the Italian palaces, which ever received
from the court of the Popes, as from a well of poison, courtiers and
crafty politicians, who never permitted the art to fail for want of
instructors. Scoto had been more successful than any other in the
exercise of this policy, and he now initiated Castruccio in the secrets
of the craft. Hitherto his mind had been innocence, and all his thoughts
were honour. Frankness played on his lips; ingenuousness nestled in his
heart; shame was ever ready to check him on the brink of folly; and the
tenderness of his nature seemed to render it impossible for him to
perpetrate a deed of harshness or inhumanity. The court of England had
infused some laxity into his moral creed; but at least he had not
learned there hypocrisy, and the wily arts of a hoary politician. Still
the strait path of honour and a single mind had ever engaged his choice.
But nineteen is a dangerous age; and ill betides the youth who confides
himself to a crafty instructor. If Castruccio listened at first with an
inattentive ear to the counsels of Scoto, yet their frequent repetition,
and the wax-like docility of his mind, quickly gave them power over him.

"You, my dear Castruccio," said Scoto, "will soon return to your native
country, where your talents and valour will open for you a brilliant
career. A soldier, if he join wisdom of counsel to soldiership, must for
a while succeed in Italy; and if he be prudent, he need not fall as I
did. A chief in Italy ought to pay strict attention to the discipline
and equipment of his followers, and to the spreading the terror of his
name among his enemies. This must be his first step; and without that
the foundations of his power are as sand; for to have many cities
subject to his command is as nothing in the hour of danger, since if he
control them not with iron, gold will ever find its way into the
councils of the citizens; and woe and defeat are to that chief, who
reigns only by the choice of the people; a choice more fickle and
deceitful than the famed faithlessness of woman.

"But, having once formed an army, disciplined it, and shewn its temper
by success, then is the time to change the arts of war for those of
counsel, and to work your way as the mole, shewing no sign of your path,
until your triumphant power comes forth where it is least expected. Nor
be lavish of gold; for that is power while you possess it, weakness when
surrendered into the hands of another. But alliances, marriages, nominal
honours and promises are the fit allurements to be used among our
countrymen. By one or other of these means, of such motley materials are
Italian confederacies composed, one single chieftain may ever introduce
dissention and treason into the enemy's camp. It was thus that I fell;
for I did not trust to my own strength, but to that of my allies.

"There are two classes of men in Italy, which indeed often cut like a
two-edged sword, and turn upon their master, yet which with proper
management are of infinite use in the accomplishment of secret treaties,
and the carrying on of correspondence in the very heart of the enemy's
councils: these are the priests, and the _Uomini di Corte_[2]. The
priests are the least trust-worthy and the most expensive: yet sometimes
I have seen them stand by their employer, if he yielded them much
respect and apparent submission, and betray him who has paid them well,
yet who had neglected the arts of flattery. In their youth men are often
led to trust to their actions and their sword; but every day is another
page of experience, to shew us that men are governed by words alone,
words light as air, yet which have often been found capable of
overturning empires: witness the triumphs of the Popes, who dissipated
the armies of their enemies, and despoiled them of rank, possessions and
life, by excommunications, and anathemas--words. But, in discovering
this infinite power in words, let it make you prudent in their use; be
not chary in their quantity, but look well to their quality. But to
return to our instruments,--priests, and _Uomini di Corte_.

"These latter are poor dogs, often faithful, easily satisfied, and who
can penetrate every where, see every thing, hear every thing, and if you
acquire but the art of getting their knowledge from them, they become of
infinite utility; this is done by many words, much good humour, and a
little gold. When Della Torre and I chased Matteo Visconti from Milan,
that chief retired to live on bread and onions in his miserable castle
of St. Columban among the Euganean hills. All at once Della Torre began
to suspect, that Matteo had received money from Germany, and was
secretly collecting arms and men at his castle. So he sent for a _Uomo
di Corte_, a famous fellow in those days, one Marco Lombardi, who had in
former times prophesied to count Ugolino his future misfortunes, and
said to him; 'Now, my brave Marco, if you would gain a palfrey and a
gold-embroidered robe, I have an easy task, which accomplished they
shall both be yours. Go, as if on your own pleasure, to the castle where
Matteo Visconti now lives; spy well if there be gleam of arms or
appearance of soldiers; and, when you take leave of the chief, ask him
in a buffoonish manner to answer you two questions: let those questions
be, first, how he likes his present state, and if he be not poorly off;
and secondly, when he hopes to return to Milan.'

"Marco readily undertook the task, and visited the castle of St.
Columban, where he found Visconti ill dressed, ill fed, and worse
attended; for there were about him only a few wrinkled and crippled
followers, who not being able to gain more in the wars, and too lazy for
work, came to starve themselves under his roof. His good lady was worse
off, not having a handmaid to wait upon her, and, as I have heard, there
was but one capuchin between her and her husband, which they wore by
turns. Marco made but a short stay in the castle, for he got nothing to
eat; but, as he took his leave of Visconti, he intreated the chief to
help him to gain a palfrey and a silken robe. 'Willingly,' replied
Visconti, 'if I am able; but think not to get them from me, for I have
them not.'

"'Noble count,' said Marco, 'answer me two questions, and I shall
receive these gifts in pay for your answers.'

"And then he put the two demands, as Della Torre had instructed him.
Visconti, who was discerning and cunning, replied: 'Truly I find my
present situation suited to me, since I suit myself to it; tell this to
your master, Messer Guido Della Torre, who sent you; and tell him also,
that when his crimes out number mine, then it is God's will that I
return to Milan.'

"Della Torre, relieved from his fears, since he undoubtedly feared
German gold more than the due punishment for his sins, rewarded Marco as
he had promised."

Such were the lessons of Scoto; and the reader will easily forgive me,
if I repeat them not so often, or dilate on them so much as the chief
himself did. Castruccio listened with curiosity, half angry, half
convinced; and in those days the seeds of craft were sown, that,
flourishing afterwards, contributed to his advancement to power and
glory. As winter drew to a close, Scoto said to him: "I could have
wished, my young friend, that you fought under my banners another
campaign, and that I might still enjoy the advantage of your society and
valour; but fortune orders it otherwise, and you must away to Italy.
Henry of Luxemburgh, now emperor of Germany, has begun to advance
towards that country, where he will collect the wrecks of the Ghibeline
party, and endeavour to re-establish them. You are a Ghibeline of a high
and faithful family, and must not omit this opportunity for your
advancement. Return to Italy; join the emperor; and I doubt not that
through his means you will be restored to your wealth and rights in
Lucca. Go, Castruccio; you are formed for action and command: do not
forget my lessons. Here or in England they might be useless, but in
Italy they are necessary to your success. I doubt not of the high
fortune that awaits you; and it will warm my old blood, if I think, that
I, an exile, and a soldier of fortune, fighting under colours not my
own, shall have contributed to the advancement of so lofty a spirit as
yours."

Castruccio followed the advice of Scoto; he took an affectionate leave
of him, and again received the courteous thanks of the French monarch.
He was loaded with many costly presents; and his sword, of the finest
temper, the hilt and sheath richly embossed and inlaid with jewels, was
presented to him by the hands of the queen. He consigned these gifts,
and the spoil by which he was enriched, into the hands of an Italian
merchant, to be conveyed by his means into Italy; he travelled himself
on horseback, accompanied by a servant, and a mule which bore his
armour.

Journeying at this leisurely rate, he arrived after an interval of some
weeks, at the south-eastern extremity of France. He approached the
beautiful Alps, the boundaries of his native country: their white domes
and peaks pierced the serene atmosphere; and silence, the deep silence
of an Alpine winter, reigned among their ravines. As he advanced into
their solitudes, he lost all traces of the footsteps of man, and almost
of animals:--an eagle would sometimes cross a ravine, or a chamois was
seen hanging on the nearly perpendicular rock. The giant pines were
weighed down by a huge canopy of snow; and the silent torrents and
frozen waterfalls were covered, and almost hid, by the uniform mass. The
paths of the vallies, and the ascent of the mountains, ever difficult,
were almost impassable; perpetual showers of snow hid every track, and a
few straggling poles alone guided the traveller in his dangerous
journey. The vulture leaving his nest in the rock, screamed above,
seeming to tell the rash adventurer who dared disturb his haunts, that
his torn limbs were the tribute due to him, the monarch of that region.
Sometimes even, the road was strewed with the members of the venturous
chamois, whose sure foot had failed among the snows; and the approach of
Castruccio scared the birds of prey from their repast on his half-frozen
limbs. One pass was particularly dangerous: the road was cut in the side
of a precipitous mountain: below, the stream which had cleared its way
in the very depth of the valley, was hidden by the overhanging of the
precipice: above, the mountain side, almost vulture-baffling, black,
except where the snow had found a resting-place in its clefts, towered
so high that the head became dizzy, when the traveller would have gazed
on the walled-in heavens. The path was narrow; and being entirely
exposed to the south, the snows that covered it had been slightly
melted, and again frozen, so that they had become slippery and
dangerous. Castruccio dismounted from his horse; and turning his eyes
from the depth below, he led him slowly on, until the widening of the
road, and the appearance of a few pines diminished the terror of the
surrounding objects.

Then, finding the road less dangerous, he remounted, and was proceeding
cautiously along the edge of the precipice, when he heard a voice behind
him as calling for help. Hastily dismounting, and tying the animal to a
jutting point of the rock, he returned to that chasm, which he had just
passed with such tremendous difficulty. There he saw a mule standing
quietly by the road side; but, on the steep face of the precipice a few
feet below, he perceived a man clinging to the pointed inequalities of
the mountain, with such energy that his whole force and being seemed to
live in the grasp, and his voice failed as he again endeavoured to cry
for help. Castruccio's servant had lingered far behind, so that he was
obliged alone to attempt the fearful task of drawing the sufferer from
his appalling situation. He unbound his sash, and, tying one end to the
girth of the mule's saddle, and taking the other in his hand, he threw
it down to the man below. By these means, with infinite difficulty, he
succeeded in hoisting up the poor wretch, who, white and wrinkled with
fear, stood almost as entranced, when he found himself safe from the
frightful death he had feared. Castruccio soothed him with a gentle
voice, and told him that now the worst part of the journey was over, and
that they were about to descend by an easier path to the plain of Italy;
"where," he said, "you will find a paradise that will cure all your
evils."

The man looked at him with a mixture of wonder, and what might have been
construed into contempt, had his muscles, made rigid with cold and fear,
yielded to the feeling of his mind. He replied drily, "I am an Italian."
And Castruccio smiled to perceive, that these words were considered as a
sufficient refutation to his assertion of the boasted charms of Italy.

After resting until the unfortunate traveller had recovered health and
life, they proceeded along the mountain, saying little, for the path was
too dangerous to admit of conversation. Yet, when Castruccio dared take
his eyes from the track of his horse's feet, he could not help examining
curiously the companion fortune had given him. He was a man by whose dry
and wrinkled face you might guess him to be nearly sixty years of age;
and yet, by the agility and more youthful appearance of his person, he
could not be more than forty. His eyes were small, black and sparkling;
his nose pointed and turned up; his lips were as a line in his face,
uncurved and unmarked except by three deep wrinkles at each corner: his
eyebrows were elevated as in vanity; and yet a flat high forehead
denoted a good understanding. His figure was tall and lank, yet
muscular, and was clothed with a mixture of poverty and rank, which it
amused Castruccio to observe. He wore gilt spurs as a knight, and,
carefully folded on his saddle before him, was a rich mantle edged with
deep gold lace; he was clad in a close, strait dress of threadbare
cloth, with a kind of narrow trowsers made of common undressed sheep
skin, which fastened with many knots and intersections round his legs;
he had a large capuchin cloak wrapped about him, made of coarse flannel,
such as was called _sclavina_, because it was manufactured in Sclavonia,
and was worn at that time by the poorest class of Italians. On his feet
he wore great coarse boots of undressed sheep skin, that furnished a
singular contrast to the golden spurs attached to them; his head was
covered only by a scull-cap of iron mail sewed to cloth, which was
called in those times a _majata_.

The sun descended as they pursued their journey, when, perceiving a
house not far distant, Castruccio's companion drew in his mule, and
pointing to it, asked if they should not remain there for the night?
"Nay," replied Castruccio, "the moon will be up in half an hour, and
being but just past its full, we may, I think, proceed safely."

"Do not trust to the moon," said his companion; "its shadows are deep
and fearful, and its light not less dangerous; sometimes a beam cast
from among trees across the road, will look like a running stream, and
its black shades may conceal the most frightful dangers. I dare not
proceed by moonlight, and am unwilling to part company with you on this
dreadful road. I beg you to consent to pass the night at that house."

"I readily agree, if that be indeed a house, and not an unroofed
sheep-cot; for I hardly expect to find in these regions a bed softer
than the rock, or a roof which will shelter me better than the moonlight
sky."

The cottage was shut up, and its inhabitants asleep; but, called up by
the shrill voice of the elder traveller, a man rolled himself out from
his bed of dried leaves and sheep skins, and opened the door. Welcoming
the travellers, he quickly blew up the decaying ashes of a fire in the
middle of the only room of the cottage, and it threw a light on the bare
walls of this disconsolate apartment; the smoke rose and filled the
upper part of the room, while a small portion only escaped through a
round hole in the roof. A large bed, or rather dormitory of dried leaves
and the stalks of Indian corn, was strewed along one side of the room,
on which many both men and women lay, peeping out on the travellers from
under their sheep skin coverings: there was no furniture, except a rude
bench, and a ruder table; the bare walls were black and falling down,
while the sky peeped through many cracks in the roof. The room was so
filled with the stench of garlick and smoke, that Castruccio, hastily
retreating to the door, asked his companion whether he would not prefer
proceeding on his journey. The latter appeared better accustomed to the
sight and smell of such miserable cabins, and he used his utmost
eloquence to persuade Castruccio that the shelter of the cottage was
preferable to the pure and keen air of heaven; but finding the latter
resolute in his determination not to enter, he told him, that having
warmed for a few minutes his half frozen fingers, and tasted the
wine of the cottage, he would proceed with him down the mountain.

The companion of Castruccio had not exaggerated the extreme danger of
the road by moonlight. The frightened horses often refused to proceed,
or to penetrate the murky depths which the mountain shadows cast around
them, even blackening the snow. They rode on slowly and cautiously; and
the following morning found themselves little advanced in the descent.
It was near noon before they reached Susa, when, having passed the
dangers of the journey, the elder traveller, recovering his voice and
recollection, rode up to Castruccio, and asked him where he intended to
rest after the toil he had undergone. Castruccio replied, that he hoped
to find an inn in the town, and, if not, he should apply to some
monastery, where he doubted not he should be provided with food and
shelter for the following day and night.

"Sir," said his companion, "I am not a stranger in Susa, and have in
particular one good old friend, Messer Tadeo della Ventura, well known
to the Florentines and other Italians who pass over this mountain for
the purposes of merchandize: this worthy man will receive me as an old
friend and guest; and, as you both generously and bravely saved my life,
I can do no less than offer to introduce you to the soft couches and
good wines of Messer Tadeo."

"Nor will I refuse your offer; for soft couches will be welcome to my
aching bones, and good wine a pleasant cordial to my wearied spirits:
therefore, sir knight, I thank you heartily for your courtesy."


[Footnote 2: _Uomini di Corte_, or "men of court:" story-tellers,
minstrels, actors, or buffoons, who frequented the feasts and courts
held by the Italian noblemen, and contributed no small part to the
amusement of those times. They are frequently spoken of by Boccaccio.]




CHAPTER VI


_Castruccio in Italy--Susa--Creed of Benedetto._


Messer Tadeo received his old friend with respect and friendship; and,
courteously welcoming Castruccio, he led them into a large hall, where
the sight of a repast already set out seemed to diffuse joy over the
countenances of both travellers. The hall was richly hung with scarlet
cloth, and the tables and seats covered with tapestry; at the upper end
of the room was a chimney and a fire, near which taking his seat, Messer
Tadeo invited the new comers to join several other friends of his, who
arranged themselves round the table.

When the long ceremony of dinner was finished, and the servants were
busy in removing the tables, Messer Tadeo proposed to the newly arrived
guests to conduct them to a bed-chamber, where they might repose after
the fatigues of the journey. They both gladly accepted this offer; and
in a deep and refreshing sleep Castruccio forgot his curiosity
concerning who or what his companion might be, and the latter recovered
from the trembling fear of danger, which had haunted him since his
escape of the preceding day.

When Castruccio arose at about six o'clock in the evening, he joined
Messer Tadeo, who was sitting with the other traveller in the great
hall. The rest of the company had departed; and these two were in
earnest conversation, which they changed when Castruccio entered.

After some time, holding up his finger, and drawing down still longer
the long wrinkles of his cheeks, the fellow-traveller of Castruccio, in
a mysterious manner, pronounced the word which had been given to the
soldiers of Alberto Scoto, that they might distinguish one another
during the darkness of night, or the confusion of battle; Castruccio,
hearing this, easily divined that he had a fellow soldier, and a friend
of his chief, in his strange travelling companion; so smiling, he
uttered the countersign, and the other, turning on him, as if the ghost
of one whom he had known many years before had risen before him, hastily
enquired, "You served then in his troop?"

"Yes," replied Castruccio, "I had the honour of serving under the noble
knight, Messer Alberto Scoto; and, in having rendered you a service, I
am still more happy to find that I saved one who has fought under the
same banners with myself."

"Is your name a secret?"

"I am of a noble Lucchese family, now exiled and wandering; my name is
Castruccio Castracani dei Antelminelli."

The elder traveller suddenly arose, and, embracing Castruccio warmly,
bestowed on him a brotherly kiss, and then turning to Tadeo, said: "This
morning I introduced to you a stranger whose merit with me was that of
having saved my life at the imminent risk of his own; now I introduce to
you a gallant soldier, whose name has been spread through France, as
that of the bravest warrior and the ablest commander that fought in the
Low Countries: the Sieur Castruccio is a name which even the children in
France lisp with gratitude, and the Flemings tremble to hear."

Many compliments passed; and then the traveller said: "This pleasant
discovery has made friends of three who were before strangers; nor will
I conceal from you, Messer Castruccio, that my name is Benedetto Pepi, a
Cremonese, now returning to my own country, after having gained laurels
and knight-hood under the banners of Messer Scoto. You, my dear
companion, say that you are an exile; but great changes are now taking
place in Italy, and, knowing who you are, we may well admit you to the
confidential conversation that I and Messer Tadeo were holding when you
entered, concerning all that has passed since the arrival of the emperor
Henry in Italy."

Saying this, Benedetto made a slight sign to his friend, which
Castruccio easily guessed to be an admonition to be discreet in his
disclosures. Tadeo replied to this sign by a nod, and said:

"Two Florentine usurers who had come through Milan, dined yesterday at
my house; they had witnessed the entrance of the emperor into that city.
The lord of Milan, Guido della Torre, was obliged to discharge his
soldiers, and unarmed, at the head of an unarmed multitude, went out to
meet the emperor, who had the Visconti in his train, and all the
Ghibelines, the old enemies of the Torre family. These are now
reinstated in their possessions; yet Henry still pretends to
impartiality, and in his march has restored all the exiles to their
various towns, whether they be Guelphs or Ghibelines."

"I wonder," said Pepi, "how long he will keep on the mask; few men are
impartial, an emperor never: to one curious in state affairs it were a
fine occasion, to conjecture what will be the issue and crown of these
pretensions."

"Why," asked Castruccio, "should not they be as they appear? Cannot the
emperor be animated by a generous policy, and wish to reconcile all
parties by a just and fair proceeding?"

"Impossible!" cried Pepi with energy; "an emperor just! a prince
impartial! Do not thrones rest upon dissentions and quarrels? And must
there not be weakness in the people to create power in the prince? I
prophesy; and as a discreet man I prophesy seldom, yet I now securely
foretell, that Henry will set all Italy by the ears, to reap the fruits
of their dissentions. He procures the recall of all the exiles--I admire
his policy, worthy of being studied and understood by all who would
reign. Can Ghibelines and Guelphs live within the walls of the same
town? No more than one vessel can contain fire and water. No; the cities
of Italy will be filled with brawls, and her rivers run blood, by means
of this conjunction. If he had meant to establish peace in Italy, he
would have assassinated all of one party, to secure the lives of the
other; but to unite them, is to destroy both, and under the mask of
friendship to get into his own hands all that each has possessed."

Pepi uttered this harangue with an energy and a vivacity that startled
Castruccio; his black eyes sparkled, his brows became elevated, and
drawing down the perpendicular wrinkles of his cheeks, and contracting
the horizontal ones of his forehead, he looked round with an air of
triumph on his companions.

"You say true, Messer Benedetto," said Tadeo, groaning at the dismal
prognostications of his friend; "and I greatly fear lest this pretended
justice prove the watchword for war and bloodshed. Yet now all wears the
appearance of peace and brotherhood. The lords of Langusco, Pavìa,
Vercelli, Novara and Lodi have resigned their tyrannies and given up the
keys of their respective towns to Henry, and Imperial Vicars are every
where established. Guido della Torre, the proudest and most powerful
tyrant of Lombardy, has submitted; and the court of the emperor at Milan
is crowded by the lords of the towns in the east of Italy, and the
ambassadors of the free states of the south."

"Has Florence submitted?" asked Castruccio.

"No;--that town and its league holds out; Sienna, Lucca and Bologna.
Yet, when the emperor marches south, we shall see these proud
republicans bow their stiff knees."

"Never!" cried Pepi; "Bologna, Lucca and Sienna may submit; but Florence
never will; they are stiff-kneed, stiff-necked, and hate the name of
emperor and master more than Pope Urban hated the house of Suabia. These
republicans, whom from my soul I detest, have turned out the Ghibelines,
and are now fighting with the nobles, and asserting the superiority of
the vulgar, till every petty artizan of its meanest lane fancies himself
as great a prince as the emperor Henry himself. Besides, when all else
fails, they will buy him off: these Florentines squander their golden
florins, and pay thousands to purchase what would be a dear bargain even
as a gift. Their watch-word is that echo of fools, and laughing stock of
the wise,--Liberty. Surely the father of lies invented that bait, that
trap, at which the multitude catch, as a mouse at a bit of cheese: well
would it be for the world, if they found the same end; and, as the
nibbling mouse pulls down the iron on his head, they, as if they had one
neck, were lopped off, as they seized their prize:--but Florence
flourishes!"

Pepi ended his speech with a deep groan, and continued lost in thought;
while Tadeo and Castruccio discussed the chances that might arise from
the new order of things established in Italy; and Castruccio owned his
intention of joining the train of the emperor, and his hopes of being by
his means re-instated in his paternal estates. The evening wore away
during these discussions, and they retired early to rest. The next
morning Castruccio and Pepi took leave of Tadeo, and departed together
on the road to Milan.

For some time they rode along silently. Castruccio was overcome by a
variety of feelings on again visiting Italian earth. Although, being
winter, the landscape was stript bare, and its vineyards and corn-fields
alike appeared waste, yet Castruccio thought that no country could vie
with this in beauty, unless it were the plain of Lucca, such as he
remembered it, the last time he beheld it, then a child, standing on the
summit of his father's palace,--girded by hills, and the many-towered
city set as its heart in the midst. He longed for a companion to whom he
could pour out his full heart; for his overflowing feelings had for a
time swept away the many lessons of Alberto Scoto. He forgot ambition,
and the dreams of princely magnificence which he had cherished for many
months. He forgot Milan, the emperor, the Guelphs and Ghibelines, and
seemed to bury himself, as a bee in the fragrant circle of a rose, in
the softest and most humane emotions; till, half recovering, he blushed
to find his eyes dim, and his cheek stained by the pure tears of his
deep and unadulterated feeling. Turning hastily round, he was glad to
observe his companion somewhat behind him, and he reined in his horse
that he might approach. Pepi rode up with his measured pace; and it
would have been a curious study to remark the contrasted countenances of
the travellers: Castruccio, glorious in beauty; his deep eyes suffused
with tears, and his lips breathing passion and delight, was more
opposite than light to dark, to the hard lines of Pepi's face, which
were unmoved as he glanced his small bright eyes from side to side,
while no other sign shewed that he felt or thought; his mouth shut
close, his person stiff and strait, his knees pressing his mule's
flanks, and his ungainly horsemanship easily betraying the secret, that
his feats in arms must have been performed on foot.

At length tired of silence, and willing to speak although to so
unsympathizing a being, Castruccio asked: "Messer Benedetto, you seemed
last night to groan under the weight of your hatred of the Florentines.
Now I have good reason to hate them, since by their means my party was
exiled, and Lucca ranks among the Guelphic cities of Tuscany. But you
are of Cremona, a town separated from Florence by many mountains and
rivers; whence therefore arises your abhorrence of this republic?"

Pepi fixed his little piercing eyes upon Castruccio, as if to read into
his heart, and discover the secret motive of this question; but the
frank and noble beauty of his fellow-traveller was such, that it even
had an effect on this man's rigid soul; and, as he gazed on him, the
hard lines of his face seemed to melt away, and he replied at first with
gentleness; until, carried away by his subject, he poured forth the
torrent of his hatred with a warmth, strange to observe in one, who in
calmer moments appeared more as a man made of wood or leather, than of
flesh and blood:

"My good friend, you say true, I hate the Florentines; yet I may well
find it difficult to tell the cause; for neither have they wounded me,
nor stolen my purse, nor done me any other great injury of the like
nature; but I am a Ghibeline, and therefore I hate them. And who would
not hate a people, that despise the emperor, and all lawful authority;
that have as it were dug up the buried form of Liberty, which died when
Milan fell under the Visconti; who force their very nobles to become
vulgar, and counts of the palace, and counts of the empire, to inscribe
their names as weavers and furriers; who go about the world enriching
themselves by a wicked usury, and return and squander the money in
purchasing licence for themselves? Is not their town filled with brawls,
and are not their streets strewed with the ruins of the palaces of the
noble Ghibelines? Do they not one day undo the acts of the day before,
and ever introduce more and more licence? Now create every two months a
set of magistrates, who take all power out of the hands of the rich, and
now a captain of the people, who protects and raises the vile multitude,
till every lord must cap to his shoe-maker? The example is what I abhor;
are not Lucca, Bologna and Sienna free? and the contagion spreads over
Lombardy. Oh! to every saint in heaven would I put up my prayer; to the
devil himself would I give my thanks (but that so good a work could
never have been done by his means), if, as was once proposed, the town
of Florence had been razed, its streets sown with salt, and its
inhabitants scattered like Jews and Sclavonians about the world. Curse
thee, curse thee, Farinata, that through thy means this was not done!"

"A disinterested love of the Imperial power causes these emotions? In
truth you are the warmest Ghibeline I ever knew."

"My friend, the world, trust me, will never go well, until the rich
rule, and the vulgar sink to their right station as slaves of the soil.
You will readily allow that war is the scourge of the world; now in free
towns war has a better harvest, than where proper and legitimate
authority is established. During war neither our persons, nor our lands,
nor our houses are in safety; we may be wounded in brawls, our lands
laid waste, our houses and all our possessions despoiled. Now my plan is
easy, simple, and practicable: if you are at all read in history, you
must know, that the fortunes of the nobles of antient Rome consisted in
many hundreds of slaves, whom they brought up to various trades and
arts, and then let them out to work, or permitted them to keep shops and
make money, which the masters received, paying them a small sum for
their necessary support. Such is the order, which, if I were a prince, I
would establish, and every town, such as Florence, where all is noise
and talk, should be reduced to silence and peace; about two thousand
rich men should possess all the rest of the inhabitants, who, like
sheep, would flock to their folds, and receive their pittances with
thankfulness and humility."

"But if, instead of sheep, they were to be wolves, and turn rebels to
their masters? Methinks their numbers would panic-strike their two
thousand drivers."

"Nay, then we would display our whips, and drive the flock to market.
Slaves rebel! we would starve them into decent submission."

Castruccio could not help being amused by the strange policy and earnest
manners of the Italian lawgiver, and replied: "But, Messer Benedetto, I
dispute your first proposition, and assert that there is as much war and
bloodshed under kings, as in republics. You who have fought in Flanders,
and I who have also visited England, know this to be true; yet in France
and England the people do not mingle with the quarrels of the nobles; so
I think you must mend your constitution, and reduce your two thousand
slave-drivers of Florence to a single one; yet I am afraid that, if
there were only one in each town of Italy; or even if there were only
two in the whole world, they would contrive to create war and
bloodshed."

"That," replied Pepi, with a groan, "is the great fault that I find in
the constitution of the world. If the rich would only know their own
interests, we might chain the monster and again bury Liberty. But they
are all fools; if the rich would agree, if the few princes that there
need exist in the world, would league in amity, instead of quarrelling,
such a state as that of Florence would not subsist a year. But, if
reason had a trump as loud as that which will awaken us at the last day,
the clash of arms of these senseless people would drown it. Now, if
instead of quarrelling, the Pope and Frederic Barbarossa had made a
league, all Italy would now be on its knees before this Henry of
Luxembourgh. And one day this may be; mark my words; tyranny is a
healthy tree, it strikes a deep root, and each year its branches grow
larger and larger, and its shade spreads wider and wider. While liberty
is a word, a breath, an air; it will dissipate, and Florence become as
slavish as it is now rebellious; did not Rome fall?"

"I am little acquainted with the history of antient times," said
Castruccio gaily; "but, since the world began, I can easily imagine that
states have risen and fallen; we are blind with regard to futurity, and
methinks it is foolish to build for a longer term than a man's life.
Kingdoms are as fragile as a porcelain vessel tossed by the ocean; nay,
so very weak are they, that even the stars, those small, silly points of
light, are said to rule them; and often, when they are at their highest
glory, God sends his scourges, pest or earthquake, to sink them for
ever; let us work for ourselves alone; we may be obscure or famous,
grovelling as the worm, or lofty as the kingly eagle, according as our
desires sink or mount."

Discoursing thus they arrived at Turin, and were again entertained by a
merchant, the friend of Pepi. Here they found a numerous company, who
all discoursed with warmth concerning the political state of Italy, and
poured forth the most extravagant praises of the emperor Henry. He had
passed two months in Piedmont, reconciling factions, hearing complaints,
and destroying the vexatious tyrannies of its petty lords. Pepi, not
considering this a fit occasion to poison these sanguine hopes by his
prophecies, sat in silence with elevated brows and pressed lips, turning
his sharp eyes from one speaker to another, as if by their means to
drink in all the intelligence the politicians were able to afford.

The next morning Pepi and Castruccio parted; whether this was caused by
the necessities or the prudence of the former cannot be determined. He
alleged that his business called him to Alessandria in his way to
Cremona, and the road of Castruccio lay directly for Milan. On parting
Pepi made a speech, expressive of his gratitude, and the return he was
willing to render for the benefit he had received; which was a welcome
to his house and board, whenever his preserver should pass through
Cremona. "Yet," he added, "if you have any other friends in that town,
you may be will prefer them to me. I have, as I related yesterday,
suffered many losses, and am endeavouring to repair them by an
œconomical mode of life; I have no rich wines or soft couches, and can
neither afford to burn wax lights, nor to eat delicate food. I have a
good tower to my house; and, now that I am a knight, I shall have a good
horse in my stable; and that is all I have to boast. You seem to have no
taste for coarse fare or hard beds; and therefore my dwelling would in
no manner be agreeable to you."

Castruccio thanked him, and carelessly replied, that, as a soldier, he
had been accustomed to hardship and privation, nor would the poverty of
Pepi's dwelling render it less worthy in his eyes; and they coldly took
leave of one another, Pepi trotting gravely on the road towards
Alessandria, his head full of plans which he kept carefully locked up in
his own brain, and his hard lined face, faithful to his commands, giving
no indications of what was passing in his soul.

Castruccio rode on gaily towards Milan; the cheerless wintry sky and the
cold air could not tame his buoyant spirits or his hopes. He panted for
action, for distinction, and for power; yet he no longer desired these
things as a boy, unknowing of the road which led to them. During the
interval which he had spent in England and France, he had studied human
nature with the observant eye of genius; and, all careless as he
appeared to be, he had learned how to please the multitude, how to
flatter the foibles of the noble, and thus to gain the hearts of men and
to rule them. Under Alberto Scoto he had revolved with care the
political state of Italy, such as that commander had pictured it to him;
his plans of lordship and conquest were already formed; he had only the
first step to make, to proceed afterwards with a swift pace to the goal
for which he panted.




CHAPTER VII


_Milan.--Court of the Emperor Henry.--Arrigo
Guinigi.--Sack of Cremona.--Benedetto
Pepi._


After several days travelling, he arrived at Milan; and his first care
was to hasten to the palace of Matteo Visconti. This chief was gone to
the meeting of the senate, deliberating with the nobles of Milan on the
sum of money which should be voted for the use of the emperor.
Castruccio was therefore introduced to his son, Galeazzo, who was then
in the hall of the palace, surrounded by all the young Ghibeline
nobility of Milan. It was a scene of gaiety and splendour. The young
nobles were preparing to attend on the emperor in a royal hunt. They
were attired with the utmost magnificence, with full dresses of
embroidered silk, cloth, or velvet, and cloaks of precious furs; some
were accoutred in short gowns with trowsers tied in the same manner as
that of Pepi, but made of fine linen and embossed silks; their collars
were ornamented with strings of pearl. Their hair, parted equally on the
forehead, was curled and fell down as far as the shoulders; they wore
different kinds of caps, some flat and adorned with plumes of feathers,
others high and pointed, and the lower part twisted round with pearls
fastened with a rich broach; most of them held a falcon on his fist, or
caressed a favourite hound, or vaunted the prowess of a noble steed.
There were many ladies in company who seemed to vie with their male
companions in luxury of dress. Their gowns were made of the same costly
stuffs, and ornamented with greater profusion of precious stones; their
wide sleeves which fell almost to the ground were edged with pearls,
while underneath, a small sleeve of the finest silk fitted tight to the
arm; the borders of their dresses were richly embroidered with pearls or
golden beads; they wore their veils adorned with the same richness, and
small capuchins of oriental fur bordered with fringes of gold and
pearls; and their girdles were studded with the most splendid stones.

Castruccio paused, half dazzled by the scene. In the ruder courts of
London or Paris he had never seen so much splendour and luxury: he cast
an involuntary glance on his own habiliments, which although rich were
soiled by travelling, and in their best days could not have vied with
the meanest dress worn by these nobles. He quickly however recovered his
self-possession; and his name, whose sound had passed the Alps, and been
repeated with enthusiasm by many of the followers of the emperor who had
served with him in the Low Countries, caused this brilliant assembly to
receive him with flattering distinction. They crowded round him, and
courteously invited him to partake of their amusements; while his
handsome person won the smiles of the ladies who were present. Galeazzo
Visconti received him with that kindness and cordiality which was then
in fashion among the Italians; and he, as the most courteous cavalier of
the country, was well versed in all the politeness of the age.
Castruccio was provided with a beautiful horse, and a mantle of rich fur
befitting the cold season, and made one of the gay and splendid band as
they rode towards the palace of the emperor; here they were joined by
the sovereign himself, the empress, and the noble Germans of his
retinue. Riding through the streets of Milan, they quitted the city at
the eastern gate, and dividing into various parties; spread themselves
abroad in search of game. The Germans followed the dogs through the open
country, chasing down foxes and hares; while the Italians, who were
dressed for gala, and would not risk their fine silks among the brambles
and impediments of the fields, were content with unmuffling their
falcons when they saw game aloft, and making bets on the superior speed
of their several birds.

During the first part of the ride Galeazzo observed Castruccio, who
appeared to be too much wrapped up in his own thoughts to attend to the
discourse of the gay throng around him. He loitered behind, that he
might indulge in his reveries; and Galeazzo, who had separated himself
from the rest, now rode up to him; and they entered into a conversation
together, which at length turned into a discussion of the plans and
wishes of Castruccio. They were both men of caution and prudence; yet,
being young, they were susceptible of impressions to which men lose
their sensibility as they advance in years. They were mutually pleased
with each other; and a single glance, a single word, sufficed to make
each understand the other, and to unite them in the bonds of friendship.

Castruccio asked what it was believed that the designs of the emperor
were; and Galeazzo replied: "You would hardly guess what anxious hearts,
throbbing with distrust and fear, are concealed under the apparent
gaiety of these hunters. We Milanese are full of dissentions and
ambition; and I, as a chief among them, have my head well loaded with
care and doubt, while I follow this joyous train with my falcon on my
fist. In a few days the game will be up; and we shall see what power the
Visconti or the Della Torre will have over Lombardy. At present wait.
The emperor is expecting supplies of money, and we are voting them for
him with apparent zeal: you, as a politician, must well know that money
is the great mover of all change in a state. I prophesy change; but you
as a stranger, must stand aloof, and be guided by circumstances. In the
mean time make friends; attach yourself to the emperor and to the lords
of Lombardy, many of whom are extremely powerful; and rest assured, that
whether he be successful or not, he will not quit Italy without
endeavouring to change the politics of the Tuscan republics. Now let us
join our friends; to-morrow I will talk further with you; and, if we have
recourse to arms, I need not say how proud I should be in having my
party distinguished by the acquisition of Castruccio dei Antelminelli."

They then mingled with the rest of the company; and Galeazzo introduced
his new friend to the Ghibeline lords of Lombardy. He here saw for the
first time the magnificent Cane della Scala, lord of Verona, and the
generous Guido della Polenta, lord of Ravenna, and father of the unhappy
Francesca of Rimini. These nobles had assembled at Milan, to be present
at the coronation of the emperor, which had taken place a few weeks
before; all wore the appearance of gaiety and good humour; the empress
headed the band, accompanied by a beautiful youth who bore a bow in his
hand; and Cane della Scala was beside her, descanting on the merits of
his falcon. Castruccio was struck by the countenance of the youth who
rode near the empress. He was dressed with a profusion of magnificence;
at his back he wore a gilt quiver studded with gems, and a scarf
embroidered with pearls was thrown over one shoulder, and tied under the
other arm; in every way he was accoutred as might become the favourite
page of an empress. Yet Castruccio thought that he remembered those
light blue eyes; and his sweet yet serious smile filled his own with
tears of tender recollection. He eagerly asked Galeazzo who and what he
was: his friend replied; "He is the squire of Can' Grande, and he is
called; Arrigo I do not know what other name he bears; the empress
wishes to attach him to her suite; but the youth would prefer bearing
arms under his munificent patron, to the situation of the effeminate
page of a queen's anti-chamber."

"That cannot surprize me," said Castruccio; "for his infancy was spent
in the labour of the fields, and in listening to the lessons of his
godlike father; he must therefore be ill prepared to enter into the
intrigues and follies of a court. If he have not forgotten his childish
affection for me, I shall win him from them both; and, if indeed his
father be dead, it shall be my pride and boast to be the protector of
his Arrigo."

As they re-entered the gates of the town, the trains of the emperor and
empress joined; and, Arrigo falling back among the nobles, Castruccio
rode up to him. For some time he gazed on him, and heard the gentle
tones of his youthful voice; he dared not speak; his heart was full; and
to his eyes dimmed by emotion, he fancied that the revered form of
Guinigi stood beside his son, smiled on Castruccio, and pointed to the
boy. At length, recovering himself, he came abreast with the horse of
Arrigo, and whispered, "Does the son of Guinigi forget me? does he
forget the farm among the Euganean hills?"

Arrigo started; his countenance became radiant with joy; and he
exclaimed, "My own Castruccio!"

They rode away from the company, and entered the town by more lonely
streets. Castruccio saw by the looks of his young friend, that his worst
fears were true, and that Guinigi was dead; and Arrigo easily read in
Castruccio's face that he was thinking of his father. At length he said:
"My brother, if so you will permit me to call you, a year has now passed
since I was left an orphan; ten months ago I quitted my happy life among
the hills, to dwell with a patron, who is indeed munificent and kind to
me; but who is not as my father. It appears to me a vision that such a
being ever existed; he was so great, so angelically wise and good; and I
now float down the stream with the rest, an esquire, an attendant; I
pass my life without enjoyment, and look forward to the future without
pleasure; but if, my brother, you would grant me one request, a brighter
sun would shine upon me."

"Dearest Arrigo, my dear, dear brother, I read in your earnest looks all
that you would say; be assured we shall never part again! We will sally
forth soldiers of fortune; and the same star shall ascend and descend
for both."

"Enough, leave the rest to me; be it my task to contrive my departure
from Can' della Scala; inform me of your motions, and fear not but that
I shall be at your side."

That same evening a magnificent feast was given at the palace of the
emperor; and Castruccio was introduced to this prince by Galeazzo. The
lords of Lombardy regarded him with a favourable eye; for they knew that
he could not hurt their interests north of the Apennines, and they hoped
that by his means the Ghibeline faction might revive and triumph in
Tuscany.

Castruccio spent almost the whole evening in conversation with Arrigo.
For the youth would not absent himself from him, but recalled with
earnest affection all the circumstances of their former intercourse; and
related with tears the death of Guinigi; a death, calm as his most
innocent life. One afternoon, during the heats of summer, he sat under
a cypress with his son, and entered into an anxious detail of what would
be the prospects and probable fate of the young Arrigo, when he, his
father and protector, should be no more. The boy, struck with a
melancholy foreboding, intreated him not to dwell on a period, which was
far distant, and which, when it approached, would bring to him nothing
but despair. Guinigi however told him that he would not be overruled in
this, and with earnest affection talked for hours on the subject with a
wisdom and goodness that appeared more than human. "Alas," said Arrigo,
"even as he spoke, I thought I saw his eyes beam with a heavenly light,
and the torrent of impressive words that he poured forth, were uttered
with a voice deep and tender, filling the air as it were with a harmony
sweeter than any earthly music. I listened, till I became almost as a
statue with attention; and as he either exhorted to virtue, or described
the evils of my country, or marked forth the glorious or peaceful path
that I might pursue, I felt my countenance change, as I have seen a
cloud vary as it passes before the moon, now, as it advances, beaming in
a silver light, and then again fading into darkness. At length he
dismissed me, saying that he wished to sleep, and I saw him stretch
himself under the cypress, gazing on the sky, whose dazzling light was
softened by the dark foliage through which it passed; and he slept never
to wake again.

"Oh! what I then suffered, when our friends crowded round, and the
mourning women came, and the mummery of the funeral went on! But all
that is passed; and now I should again feel the elasticity of youth, but
that I was, until you returned, friendless in the world."

They talked thus, while the company around them were amusing themselves,
with dances and song; the feast broke up late; and it broke up only to
be renewed with greater zeal the following and the following day. Yet,
while all appeared so calm, the storm which the politicians
prognosticated, broke out, and the quiet of these festive meetings was
disturbed by the revolt of Milan against the Germans. And now Castruccio
was witness for the first time to the popular commotions of his country:
armed knights galloped through the streets crying, "_Libertà!_ Death to
the Germans!" And a multitude of the people, who were enraged at the new
taxes imposed upon them, joined in the cry. But the revolt thus quickly
excited, was as quickly appeased. The Visconti after some hesitation
ranged themselves under the emperor; and Della Torre and his partizans
were obliged to fly; their houses were razed, their goods confiscated,
and themselves declared traitors.

But the effects of the Milanese revolt were not so easily removed. The
various Guelph towns of Lombardy, Crema, Cremona, Brescia, Lodi, and
Como, set up the standard of revolt against the emperor; and, spring
having now advanced, Henry began his campaign with the attempt to reduce
these towns. Castruccio had received from him permission to raise a
troop of volunteers, to serve under his command in the Imperial army,
and his fame collected a brave band, whose discipline and valour were
the admiration of the other generals.

Crema and Lodi submitted to the emperor on his advance, and reaped from
their unseasonable resistance an increase of those vexations which had
caused their revolt. Henry marched against Cremona, which at first made
shew of resistance; but, when the Guelphs, hopeless of success, escaped
from the town, the Ghibelines surrendered to the emperor; who,
unmollified by their submission, punished his own innocent partizans,
sending them to cruel prisons, razing the walls and fortifications of
the town, and delivering over the property and persons of the
unprotected citizens into the hands of the brutal Germans who composed
the greater part of his army.

Castruccio entered Cremona at the head of his little troop, and beheld
with dismay the cruel effects of the conquest of the emperor over this
city. Most of the German soldiers were busy in destroying the
fortifications; or in compelling the peasants and citizens to raze the
walls of their town. Other parties were ranging about the streets,
entering the palaces, whose rich furniture they destroyed, by feasting,
and tearing down from the walls all that had the appearance of gold or
silver. The cellars were broken open; and, after inebriating themselves
with the choice wines of Italy, the unruly, but armed bands were in a
better mood for oppressing the defenceless people. Some of these poor
wretches fled to the open country; others locked themselves up in their
houses, and, throwing what they possessed from the windows, strove to
save their persons from the brutality of their conquerors. Many of the
noble females took refuge in the meanest cottages, and disguised
themselves in poor clothing, till, frightened by the eager glances, or
brutal address of the soldiers, they escaped to the country, and
remained exposed to hunger and cold among the woods that surrounded the
town. Others, with their hair dishevelled, their dresses in disorder,
careless of the eyes which gazed on them, followed their husbands and
fathers to their frightful prisons, some in mute despair, many wringing
their hands, and crying aloud for mercy. As night came on, the soldiery,
tired of rapine, went to rest in the beds from which the proprietors
were remorselessly banished: silence prevailed; a dreadful silence,
broken sometimes by the shriek of an injured female, or the brutal
shouts of some of the men, who passed the night in going from palace to
palace, calling up the inhabitants, demanding food and wine, and on the
slightest shew of resistance hurrying their victims to prison, or
binding them in their own houses with every aggravation of insult.

Castruccio divided his little band, and sent his men to the protection
of several of the palaces, while he and Arrigo rode all night about the
town; and, having the watchword of the emperor, they succeeded in
rescuing some poor wretches from the brutality of the insolent soldiers.
Several days followed, bringing with them a repetition of the same
scenes; and the hardest heart might have been struck with compassion, to
see the misery painted on the faces of many, whose former lives had been
a continual dream of pleasure; young mothers weeping over their
unfortunate offspring, whose fathers lay rotting or starving in prison;
children crying for bread, sitting on the steps of their paternal
palaces, within which the military rioted in plenty; childless parents,
mourning their murdered babes; orphans, helpless, dying, whose parents
could no longer soothe or relieve them. Castruccio, though a soldier,
wept; but Arrigo, who had never before witnessed the miseries of war,
became almost frenzied with the excess of his compassion and
indignation; he poured forth curses loud and bitter, while his eyes
streamed tears, and his voice, broken and sharp, was insufficient to
convey his passionate abhorrence. Castruccio was at length obliged to
use violence to draw him from this scene of misery; and, after soothing
him by every argument he could use, and by the most powerful of all,
that Henry would be soon obliged to withdraw his soldiers from Cremona
to serve him at the siege of Brescia, he dispatched the youth with a
letter to Galeazzo Visconti.

Returning to the town, Castruccio saw a figure pass along at the end of
the street, which reminded him of one whom he had almost
forgotten--Benedetto Pepi. "Alas! poor fellow," said Castruccio to
himself, "you will find the pillage of the Germans a tremendous evil.
Well; as I restored your life once, I will now try, if I am not too
late, to save the remnant of your property."

He enquired of a passenger for the house of Benedetto Pepi. "If you mean
Benedetto the Rich, if any can now be called rich in this miserable
city," replied the man, "I will conduct you to his house."

"My Pepi ought rather, I think, to be called the poor; lead me however
to Benedetto the Rich; and if he be a tall, gaunt figure with a
wrinkled, leathern face, he is the man for whom I enquire."

Castruccio was conducted to a palace in the highest and most commanding
part of the town, built of large blocks of stone, and apparently firm
and solid enough to bear a siege. The windows were few, small, grated
and sunk deep in the wall; it had a high tower, whose port-holes shewed
that it was of uncommon strength and thickness; a parapet built with
turrets surrounded it at the top, and in every respect the mansion
resembled more a castle, than a palace. The entrance was dark; and, by
the number of grooves, it appeared as if there had been many doors; but
they were all removed, and the entrance free. Castruccio advanced: there
were two large halls on the ground-floor, on each side of the
entrance-court; both were filled with German soldiers; they were high,
dark, bare rooms, more like the apartments of a prison than a palace. In
one of them a number of beds were laid on the paved floor; in the other
there was a large fire in the middle, at which various persons were
employed in the offices of cookery, and near this, a table was spread
out with immense quantities of food, haunches of boiled beef, and black
bread; two boys stood at either end of the table, each holding a large
flaring torch; and the soldiers with riotous exclamations were choosing
their seats on the benches that were placed around. Castruccio paused,
unable to discern whether Pepi were among this strange company. At
length he observed him standing in one corner filling large jugs from a
barrel of wine: he accosted him with a voice of condolence; and Pepi
looked up with his little bright eyes, and a face rather expressive of
joy than sorrow. After he had recognized his guest, he left his wine
barrel, and invited him into another room, for they could hardly
distinguish each other's voices amidst the shouts and tumult of the rude
feasters. They ascended the steep narrow stairs; and, Castruccio
complaining of want of light, Pepi said: "Let us go to the top of my
tower; the sun has been set about ten minutes, and, although dark every
where else, it will be light there. If you will wait a short time I will
get the key."

Pepi descended the stairs; and from a small port-hole Castruccio saw him
cross the court, and then in a few minutes return with cautious and
observant steps. When he came near Castruccio, he said: "Those German
ruffians are now eating and drinking, and will not mark us; yet let us
tread lightly, for I have admitted none of them to my tower, nor is it
my intention to do so. It is a place of strength; and the little I have
in the world is preserved here, which little in spite of the emperor and
his devils I will preserve."

Although the tower had appeared large without, yet its walls were so
thick that there was only room left within for a small circular
staircase; at the top of this Pepi undrew the bolts, pushed up a
trap-door, and they ascended to the platform on the outside. The sky was
darkening; but the west was tinged with a deep orange colour, and the
wide and dusky plain of Lombardy lay far extended all around:
immediately below was the town of Cremona, which to them appeared as
silent and peaceful as if the inhabitants were in the enjoyment of
perfect security. They continued some minutes gazing silently,
Castruccio on the wide extent of scenery before him, Pepi on the thick
walls of his tower. At length the former said; "An evil star pursues
you, Messer Benedetto, and I am afraid that you were born in the descent
of some evil constellation."

"Doubtless," replied Pepi: yet there was an indescribable expression in
his countenance and manner, that startled his companion; his eyes
sparkled, and the lines of his face, as plainly as such things could
speak, spoke joy and exultation. His voice however was drawn out into
accents of grief, and he ended his reply by a groan.

"Your palace is wasted by these ruffians."

"Nay, there is nothing to waste; the walls are too thick to be hurt, and
I removed every thing else before they came."

"They consume your food."

"I have none to consume. I am a poor, lone man, and had no food in the
house for them. They bring their rapine here; I send my squire for wood,
wherever he can collect it; I make a fire, and they dress their food;
and that is all that they get by me."

"Have you lost no friend or relation in the war?"

"There is no one whom I love; I have met with undutifulness and
ingratitude, but no kindness or friendship; so I should not have
mourned, if my relations had fallen; but they are all safe."

"Then it would appear, that you have lost nothing by the havock of these
Germans, and that you are still Benedetto the Rich."

Pepi had answered the previous questions of Castruccio with vivacity,
and an expression of triumph and vanity, which he in vain strove to
conceal; his brows were elevated, a smile lurked in the corners of his
strait lips, and he even rubbed his hands. But, when Castruccio spoke
these last words, his face fell, his mouth was drawn down, his arms sunk
close to his sides, and, glancing at his mean clothing, he replied: "I
am always poor, always unfortunate; and, Messer Castruccio, you do me
great injustice and injury by supposing that I have any wealth. I have a
well built palace, and a strong tower; but I can neither eat the stones,
nor clothe myself with the plaster; and, God knows, my possessions are
now reduced to fifty small acres; how therefore can I be rich?"

"At least, if you are poor," replied Castruccio, "your unfortunate
townsmen share your misfortunes. Their habitations are pillaged; those
that escape the ravage of the emperor, are driven out, starving and
miserable, from the only dwellings, be they palaces or cottages, which
they possess."

The countenance of Pepi again lighted up, his eyes sparkled, and, he
said; "Aye, aye, many are fallen; but not so low--not so low: they have
still lands, they are not quite destitute, and the dead have heirs----"

"Yes, indeed, heirs to famine and indignity; unhappy orphans! far more
miserable than if they had died with those who gave them birth."

"Nay, I pity them from my soul; but I also have suffered losses. The
first party of Germans that broke into the town, seized upon my horse,
and my squire's gelding: I must buy others when our enemies are gone, to
keep up the honour of my knighthood. But, enough of this. You, Messer
Castruccio, have a troop of Italians, horsemen, I believe, under your
command: what do you intend to do with them? Do you stay in Lombardy, or
follow the emperor south?"

"Events are now my masters; soon I hope to rule them, but at present I
shall be guided by accident, and cannot therefore answer your question."

Pepi paused a few moments, and at length said, half to himself; "No;
this is not the time; events are as yet unripe; this siege has done
much, but I must still delay;----well, Messer Castruccio, at present I
will not reveal some circumstances, which, when we began this
conversation, I had thought to confide to your discretion. Sometime,
perhaps when you least expect it, we shall meet again; and if Benedetto
of Cremona be not exactly what he seems, keep the secret until then, and
I shall rest your obliged servant. Now, farewel. You came to offer your
services to save my palace; I am a prudent man, and ordered my affairs
so, that it ran no risk; yet I am indebted to you for this, and for your
other generous act in my behalf; a time may come when we shall know one
another better. Again farewel."

This speech was delivered with a grave and mysterious mien, and a face
that signified careful thought and important expectations. When he had
ended, Pepi opened the trap-door, and he and Castruccio descended slowly
down the now benighted staircase into the court of the palace: here they
again interchanged salutations, and parted. Pepi joined his boisterous
guests, and Castruccio rode towards the camp of the emperor. He mused as
he went upon what the words of his strange acquaintance might portend;
his curiosity was for a time excited by them; but change of place and
the bustle of action made him soon forget the existence of Benedetto the
Rich, of Cremona.




CHAPTER VIII


_Death of the Emperor.--Uguccione, tyrant of
Pisa, restores Castruccio at Lucca.--Euthanasia._


Quitting Cremona, Henry engaged himself in the siege of Brescia, which
made a gallant resistance, and yielded only on honourable conditions, in
the month of September. Castruccio served under the emperor during this
siege; but his nature was shocked by the want of faith and cruelty of
this monarch, who punished his enemies by the most frightful tortures,
and treated his friends as if they had been his enemies. Castruccio
therefore resolved to separate himself from the Imperial army; and, when
Henry quitted Lombardy for Genoa, he remained with his friend, Galeazzo
Visconti.

The petty wars of Lombardy could only interest those engaged in them;
and all eyes were turned towards the emperor during his journey to
Genoa, his unsuccessful negotiations with Florence, his voyage to Pisa,
his journey to Rome; where, the Vatican being in the hands of the
contrary party, he was crowned in the Lateran. And then, his army
diminished by sickness, and himself chagrined by the slow progress of
his arms, he returned to Tuscany, made an unsuccessful attack upon
Florence, and retired to the neighbourhood of Sienna, where he died on
the eighteenth of August 1313; leaving Italy nearly in the same
situation with regard to the preponderance of the Guelph party, but more
heated and violent in their factious sentiments, as when he entered it
two years before.

During this long contest Florence was the head and heart of the
resistance made against the emperor. Their detestation of the Imperial
power, and their fears of the restoration of their banished Ghibelines,
excited them to exert their utmost faculties, in gaining allies, and in
the defence of their own town. The death of Henry was to them a
bloodless victory; and they hoped that a speedy change in the politics
of Italy would establish the universal ascendancy of the Guelphic party.

Pisa had always been constant to the Ghibelines, and friendly to the
emperor; by his death they found themselves thrown almost without
defence into the hands of the Florentines, their enemies; and they
therefore gladly acceded to the moderate terms offered to them by the
king of Naples and his ally, Florence, for the establishment of peace in
Tuscany. If this treaty had been fulfilled, the hopes of the Ghibelines
would have been crushed for ever, nor would Castruccio ever have
returned to his country; the scenes of blood and misery which followed
would have been spared; and Florence, raising its benign influence over
the other Tuscan states, would have been the peace-maker of Italy.
Events took a different turn. To understand this it is necessary to look
back.

Immediately on the death of Henry, the Pisans, fearful of a sudden
incursion of the Florentines, for which they might be unprepared, had
engaged in their service a _condottiere_, Uguccione della Faggiuola, who
with his troop of a thousand Germans, took on him the guard of their
city. War was the trade of Uguccione; he therefore looked with dismay on
the projected peace, and resolved to disturb it. The populace of the
Italian towns, ranged under party names, and ever obedient to the
watchword and signals of their party, were easily moved to fall on the
contrary faction. The Pisan people were Ghibelines; and, while the more
moderate among them had advanced far in the negociating of a peace,
Uguccione caused live eagles, the ensigns of the Ghibelines, to be
carried through the streets; and the cry of, "Treason from the Guelphs!"
was the rallying word of fury to the populace. The magistrates in vain
endeavoured to assert their authority; their partizans were dispersed,
their captains taken prisoners and put to death, and Uguccione declared
general of the war against the Florentines. This active chieftain lost
no time in his operations; he marched against the Lucchese, the allies
of Florence, ravaged their country, brought them to terms, and made
peace with them on condition of their recalling their Ghibeline exiles.

The three years which these events occupied were spent by Castruccio in
Lombardy. He made each year a campaign under one or another of the
Ghibeline lords of that territory, and passed the winter at Milan. He
formed a sincere and lasting friendship with Galeazzo Visconti: but,
although this amity contributed to his advancement, his character
suffered by the congeniality of sentiment which he acquired with this
chief. As they rode, hunted, or fought together, often employed in
mutual good-offices one for the other, their affection became stronger;
and it was as disinterested and generous as it was firm. Galeazzo
sincerely loved Castruccio, and opened to him the dearest secrets of his
heart; but these secrets were such as to initiate the latter in the
artful policy and unprincipled motives of the Milanese lord, and to make
him regard treachery and cruelty as venial faults. He had no saving
passion, which by its purity and exalted nature, although it permitted
him to forgive, would make him avoid the faults of Galeazzo. Ambition
was the ruling feeling of his soul; an ambition for power, conquest and
renown, and not for virtue, and that fame, which as the phœnix, cannot
live at the same period as its parent, but springs from his ashes with
the strong pinions of immortal being.

It was this aspiring disposition which strongly recommended him to
Galeazzo. For it was not with him the wild desire for what he had
neither qualities nor capacity to obtain; it was combined with
transcendant talents, an energy of action and a clearness of judgement,
which greatly surpassed that of his companions. Castruccio was fond of
power; yet he was neither arrogant nor tyrannical; words of kindness and
winning smiles he bestowed at will on all around. He appeared to fit
himself for each scene in which he was to take a part; in the camp he
was energetic, valorous, and swift of action; in council he was as
prudent and cautious as a grey-haired minister of state; at balls, or
during a hunting party, he recommended himself by grace, agility, wit,
and a courtesy whose sweetness was untarnished by vanity or presumption.
His beauty took a more manly cast; and somewhat of pride, and more of
self-confidence, and much of sensibility, were seen in his upturned lip;
his eyes, dark as a raven's wing, were full of fire and imagination; his
open forehead was shaded by the hyacinthine curls of his
chesnut-coloured hair. His face expressed extreme frankness, a frankness
that did not exist in his mind; for his practices among the wily chiefs
of Lombardy had robbed him of all ingenuousness of soul, although the
traces of that which he once possessed had not faded from his
countenance. Amidst all the luxury of Lombardy he was abstemious, nor
spent in personal magnificence the money which he rather applied to the
equipment of his troop. At length the patient improvement which he had
bestowed upon his powers, and his perseverance in preparing for
advancement, obtained their due reward; and he among the other Lucchese
exiles returned to his native city.

But Castruccio was ill content to return as is were by the endurance of
the opposite party; on the contrary he wished to raise his faction to
that supremacy which would invest him with dominion as its chief. He
therefore carried on a treaty with Uguccione's army, requiring their
assistance for the overthrow of the Guelphs of Lucca, and for placing
him in authority over his native town; while the tyrant of Pisa should
in return gain a faithful ally, and one more step should be taken
towards the final establishment of the Ghibeline ascendancy.

After arranging this scheme, Castruccio and his companions passed the
defile of the Serchio; and, advancing towards Lucca, assumed a warlike
appearance, and endeavoured to force the gate of San Frediano; the
Guelphs opposed him, and a battle ensued. In the mean time Uguccione
arrived in another direction, and, not finding free entrance at any of
the gates, began to batter the wall. The Guelphs, defeated by the
Ghibelines, were in no condition to resist; the Ghibelines, headed by
Castruccio, considered Uguccione as their ally, and thought not of
impeding his operations; indeed they were fully employed in resisting
their adversaries, who, though worsted, would not yield. The breach was
effected, Uguccione entered triumphantly, and, treating Lucca as a
conquered town, delivered it over to be sacked by his troops; while he
himself made a rich booty of the treasure of the Pope which had been
preserved in the church of San Frediano; Lucca having been selected as
the safest deposit for such a treasure.

Uguccione thought no more of his promises to Castruccio, and both
parties in Lucca were oppressed alike, by one who believed that the best
security for a governor was the cutting off the tallest flowers in the
field. The prompt exertions of Castruccio alone saved his native city
from utter ruin. He collected his partizans, formed them into a troop,
and ranging them under the banners of Uguccione, accepted a command in
this chief's army; thus quieting the invaders' fears of a resistance
which would have been rash and vain, but having at the same time ready
at Castruccio's smallest signal a well armed and disciplined troop,
nominally in the service of the tyrant, but really devoted by affection
and military oaths to the cause of their immediate commander. Nor did he
again betray the confidence of his fellow citizens; but, entering into
Uguccione's counsels, and assuming a tone of power which this chieftain
could not resist, Castruccio at the same time opposed a boundary to his
arrogance and cruelty.

But, although his first imprudence in inviting Uguccione to the
possession of Lucca was pardoned by his countrymen, in consideration of
the reparation that he earnestly desired to make, it was looked upon
with far different eyes by states who, hating the Pisan Tyrant, and too
distant to be acquainted with all the palliating circumstances, regarded
Castruccio as a traitor. The news of the entrance of the Ghibeline
exiles into Lucca, and the capture of that town by Uguccione, quickly
reached his Florentine adversaries, and excited grief and rage in all
the hearers. The name of Castruccio as the betrayer of his country was
repeated with indignation and hatred.

There was one gentle heart in Florence which felt deep pain, when it
heard the name of Antelminelli coupled with an opprobrious epithet.
Euthanasia dei Adimari had not forgotten her vow made many years before;
she had treasured in her memory the recollection of her young
playfellow, and often, when travellers from Lombardy mentioned the name
of Castruccio, her fair cheek was suffused by the eloquent blood.

Euthanasia had long been an orphan; her father had died, and by his
death was cut the dearest tie she had to earth. While he lived, she had
confined herself almost entirely to his room, and serving as eyes to his
blinded sense, she was as faithful to his wants as his own orbs had been
before their light was quenched. After his death she mingled more with
the distinguished youth of Florence, and joined in that society, which,
if we may judge from the indications that Dante gives in his prose
works, and from the tender and exquisite poetry of Petrarch, was as
refined, delicate and cultivated, as the best society amidst the boasted
politeness of the present day. Yet among the youth of Florence
Euthanasia was as a lily, that overlooks the less illustrious yet
beautiful flowers Of a garden. Her beauty, her accomplishments, and the
gift of flowing yet mild eloquence that she possessed, the glowing
brilliancy of her ardent yet tempered imagination, made her the leader
of the little band to which she belonged. It is said, that as Dante
sighed for Beatrice, so several of the distinguished youths of Florence
fed on the graceful motions and sweet words of this celestial girl, who,
walking among them, passionless, yet full of enthusiasm, seemed as a
link to bind their earthly thoughts to heaven. Often with her mother's
permission Euthanasia retired for months to the castle of Valperga; and
alone among the wild Apennines she studied and worshipped nature, while
the bright sun warmed the valleys, and threw its beams over the
mountains, or when the silver boat of the moon, which displayed in the
clear air its heavy lading, sunk swiftly in the west, and numberless
stars witnessed her departure. Then again, quitting the eternal,
ever-succeeding pages of nature's volume, she pored over the works she
had before read with her father, or the later written poetry of Dante,
and incorporated the thoughts of the sublimest geniuses with her own,
while the creative fire in her heart and brain formed new combinations
to delight and occupy her.

Her young friends hailed with heartfelt joy her return from her
seclusion; she joined in all their amusements; who could sing the
_canzones_ of those times, or relate a pathetic tale, like Euthanasia?
Besides she was so prudent, so wise, and so kind, that her assistance
was perpetually claimed and afforded in every little misfortune or
difficulty of her friends.

But the age of thoughtlessness and fearless enjoyment passed away, and
Euthanasia advanced to womanhood. At this period a succession of events
deprived her of her mother and her two brothers, so that she remained
sole heiress of the possessions of her family. Independent and powerful,
she was as a queen in Valperga and the surrounding villages; at Florence
she was considered one of its first citizens; and, if power, wealth and
respect could have satisfied her, she must have been happy. She had wept
bitterly the death of her relations; she grieved for the loss of her
brothers, and felt only pain at being advanced to their place. Yet her
mind acquired new dignity, and the virtues of her heart new fervour,
from the entire independence of her situation, and the opportunities she
possessed of doing good. There was none to gainsay her actions, except
the rigid censorship of her own reason, and the opinion of her
fellow-citizens, to whose love and esteem she aspired. Most of her time
was now spent among her dependents at Valperga; the villages under her
jurisdiction became prosperous; and the peasantry were proud that their
countess preferred her residence among them to the gaieties of Florence.
In the winter she visited her friends of that town; and many a noble,
who hoped to rival Dante Alighieri or Guido Cavalcanti, sang of the
miraculous change of seasons that had been operated on his city;--that
their summers were dreary, bare, and deserted, while the soul of
loveliness dwelt among them during the formerly dull months of winter.

It is said that during this period she had never loved; she admired the
illustrious and energetic spirits of Florence, and she bestowed her
affections on several whose virtue and talents claimed by right that
meed; but she had never loved. It appears wonderful, that one so
sensitive of heart and imagination should have attained her
twenty-second year without having experienced the tyranny of that
passion; but, if it be true, how tremendous must be the force of that
power, which could finally break down the barriers piled by reason and
accustomed coldness, and deluge her soul with the sweet waters of
earthly love?

She had just entered her twenty-second year, when Castruccio in 1314
returned to Lucca; when under his auspices, the greatest enemy of
Florence became master of the neighbour city; when war was declared
between the two states, and Castruccio was in arms against the
Florentines. The summer was now far advanced; and she hastened to her
solitude at Valperga. She was hurt at heart; one of her dearest dreams,
the excellence of Castruccio, was overthrown; and she wished for a while
to shut out from her thoughts all memory of the world, which appeared to
bring tumult and discord to trouble her tranquillity. She was unable to
do this: she was too well known, and too much loved, not to be sought by
those with whom she was acquainted; and she was startled to hear from
all sides eulogiums of the talents and soldiership of Castruccio, those
of the Ghibelines mingled with hope, those of the Guelphs with fear.

Is there not a principle in the human mind that foresees the change
about to occur to it? Is there not a feeling which would warn the soul
of peril, were it not at the same time a sure prophecy that that peril
is not to be avoided? So felt Euthanasia: and during her evening
meditations she often enquired from her own heart, why the name of
Castruccio made her cheeks glow; and why praise or dispraise of him
seemed to electrify her frame: why a nameless inquietude pervaded her
thoughts, before so calm: why, tenderly as she dwelt on the recollection
of her infant playmate, she dreaded so much now to see him? And then,
strange to say, being thus agitated and fearful, she saw him; and a calm
more still than the serene depths of a windless heaven, redescended on
her soul, and wrapt it in security and joy.

It was not until October, while Euthanasia still lingered at Valperga,
that Castruccio took up his abode in Lucca. He returned thither, covered
with glory, but highly discontented with Uguccione who feared him, and,
while he shewed him outward honour, took every occasion to thwart his
desires, and to deprive him of all power and voice in his council. But
Castruccio was at the head of a large party, who could ill brook the
rude arrogance of Uguccione, and the unmasked presumption of his sons.
This party augmented every day; it was watched, insulted, and harassed;
but all the Ghibeline youth of Lucca made it their boast to attend the
person, and partake the counsels of Castruccio.

The winter months were spent in apparent idleness, but in reality in
deep plotting on the part of Castruccio. Uguccione was at Pisa, and his
son, Francesco, could ill understand the wiles of the pupil of Alberto
Scoto. He saw his frank countenance, and watched his gay demeanour; but
the conclusion of his observations was, that although Castruccio was
careless of danger, and ambitious of glory, he was too fond of pleasure,
and of too ingenuous a disposition, to enter into any deep scheme, or to
form even the wish of usurping the power of the state.

Castruccio stood on the tower of the Antelminelli palace; young Arrigo
Guinigi was at his side; he was surrounded by half a dozen of his most
intimate associates, and after having for a while discussed their plans
of political conduct, they remained silent. Castruccio was separated
from the rest of the group; the tower of Antelminelli overlooked the
town of Lucca, and being raised far above its narrow, dark streets,
appeared, together with the numerous towers of the city, as forming a
separate and more agreeable town for the nobles over the heads of the
meaner inhabitants. The valley was stretched around the city; its field
bare of vegetation, and spotted with black patches of leafless woods;
and the view was terminated by the hills, crowned with snow, and their
sides clothed with the dark verdure of the ilex, while from among their
folds peeped the white walls of villages and castles.

Castruccio fixed his eye on one of these castles. The forgotten scenes
of his youth thronged into his memory, and oppressed him with their
numbers and life; the low voice of his mother sounded in his ears; the
venerable form of Adimari stood before him, and it seemed to him as if
the slender fingers of the infant Euthanasia pressed his hand. He turned
suddenly round, and asked: "Doe she still live there?"--pointing to the
castle.

"Who? The countess of Valperga?"

"Aye, and her daughter Euthanasia?" Many years had elapsed since he had
pronounced that name; he felt his whole frame thrill to its musical
sound.

"The present countess," replied Vanni Mordecastelli, "is young and
unmarried"--

"And her name is Euthanasia," continued count Ludovico de' Fondi; "she
is the daughter of Messer Antonio dei Adimari, who while he lived was
one of the leaders of the Guelph party at Florence; and through her
mother she possesses the castle and villages of Valperga."

"Aye," cried a youth, "and they say that Ranieri della Fagginola
pretends to Her hand. It is not well, that the credulity of a woman, who
will listen to the first fine speeches that are addressed to her, should
cause so strong a hold as the castle of Valperga to pass into the hands
of that insufferable nest of traitors."

"You are ignorant of whom you talk," said the aged Fondi, "when you
speak thus lightly of the young countess of Valperga. She is a lady of
great prudence, beauty, and learning; and, although for years she has
been sought by the first nobles of Italy, she glories in her
independence and solitude. She mingles little with the citizens of this
town; her friends reside at Florence, where she often passes many
months, associating with its first families."

"Is she as beautiful, as she is said to be?" asked young Arrigo Guinigi.

"Indeed she is lovely to a miracle; but her manners almost make you
forget her beauty; they are so winning and graceful. Unfortunately she
does not belong to our party, but is as strongly attached to the Pope's
as the countess Matilda of old."

"Aye, these women are so easily cajoled by priests."

"Nay, Moncello, you will still be in the wrong, if you apply common
rules to the conduct of the countess Euthanasia. She is attached to the
cause of the freedom of Florence, and not to the power of her Popes.
When I visited her on her return to her castle, I found her full of
grief at the renewal of the war between these states. She earnestly
asked me whether I saw any prospect of peace; 'For,' said she, 'I am
more attached to concord and the alliance of parties, than to any of the
factions which distract our poor Italy.'"----

The conversation then turned on other subjects. Castruccio had listened
silently to the praise which the old count Fondi had bestowed on the
friend of his childhood; and presently after, taking Arrigo aside, he
said: "My young friend, you must go on an embassy for me."

"To the end of the world, if you desire it, my dear lord"--

"Nay, this is a shorter journey. You must ride to-morrow morning to the
castle of Valperga, and ask permission of the countess that I may visit
her. Our families, though of opposite interests, were much allied; and I
ought to have sought this interview before."

On the following day Castruccio waited anxiously for the return of
Arrigo. He arrived a little before noon. "I have seen her," he cried;
"and, after having seen her, I wonder at the torpor of these Lucchese
that they do not all emigrate from their town, to go and surround her
castle, and gaze on her all day long. I seem only to live since I have
seen her; she is so lovely, so enchantingly kind and gentle. I have
heard you say, my good brother, that you never met with a woman whom you
could enshrine in your inmost heart, and thus pay worship to the exalted
spirit of loveliness, which you had vainly sought, and never found. Go
to Valperga, and, gazing on Euthanasia, you will tremblingly unread your
heresy."

"To horse then, my dear Arrigo. Does she consent to receive me?"

"Yes, she desires to see you; and with the most ingenuous sweetness, she
bade me tell you the pleasure it would give her, to renew her
acquaintance with one whom she has not forgotten during a long
separation."




CHAPTER IX


_Castle of Valperga described--Friendship
and Love._


"This is a well known road to me," thought Castruccio, as he rode across
the plain of Lucca towards the hills of the Baths; "there is still that
mountain, that as a craggy and mighty wall surmounts and bounds the
other Apennines; the lower peaks are still congregated round it,
attracting and arresting the clouds that pause on their summits, and
then slowly roll off. What a splendid garb of snow these old mountains
have thrown over themselves, to shield them from the _tramontano_[3],
that buffets them all the winter long, while their black sides appear
almost as the shadows of a marble statue. Looking at these hills, it
seems to me as if I had suddenly a recollection of a previous existence,
such a crowd of ideas rush upon me, the birth of my early years, long
dead, now revived. There on that hill stands the old sheep-cot, in which
I once took refuge during a storm; there is the castle of the Fondi,
near which grow the largest ilexes of these hills; and in that recess of
the mountain is the holy spring, near which on summer mornings
Euthanasia and I have often gathered flowers, and placed leaves for
boats, seeing them swallowed up and again cast forth in the whirl of
that strange pool; I wonder if that tall cypress still throws its shade
upon the water; methinks it would well please me, to sit as of yore,
Euthanasia by my side, on its moss-covered roots."

Castruccio's heart was much softened, as he successively recognized
objects, which he had forgotten for so many years, and with which he had
been most intimately acquainted. The peculiar form of the branches of a
tree, the winding of an often-trod mountain-path, the murmurs of small
streams, their banks bedecked with dwarf shrubs; things which would have
appeared uncharacterized to one who viewed them for the first time; bore
for him some distinguishing mark, some peculiar shape, which awoke
within him memories that had been long laid asleep.

The road that led from Lucca to Valperga struck directly across the
plain to the foot of the rock on which the castle was built. This rock
overhung the road, casting a deep shade; and projected, forming a
precipice on three sides; the northern side, at the foot of which the
Secchio flowed, was disjoined from the mountain by a ravine, and a
torrent struggled in the depth, among loose stones, and the gnarled and
naked roots of trees that shaded the side of the cleft. Castruccio began
to ascend the path which led to the portal of the castle, that was cut
in the precipitous side of this recess, and was bordered by hedges of
stunted myrtles overtopped by chesnut trees; the foliage of these had
fallen; and their spoils, yellow, and brown, and red, were strewed on
the shining leaves of the myrtle underwood. The path was steep,
serpentine and narrow; so that Castruccio, who now looked on nature with
a soldier's eye, remarked what an excellent defence Valperga might make,
if that were the only access to it: the torrent roared below, keeping
the air for ever awake; for that commoner babbles more and louder among
huge mountains, and solitudes which may never be still, than among the
haunts of men; but all sounds are melodious there; none harsh and
obtrusive.

At the summit of the path was a drawbridge that connected it with the
almost isolated platform of rock on which the castle stood:--the
building nearly covered this space, leaving room only for a small plot
of ground, which overlooked the plain, and was guarded by a barbican;
and on which a few trees, dark ilexes, and light acacias, mingled their
contrasted foliage. Behind the castle the mountain rose, barren and
nearly perpendicular; and, when you looked up, the dark and
weather-stained precipice towered above, while the blue sky seemed to
rest upon it. The castle itself was a large and picturesque building,
turreted, and gracefully shaded by trees. Castruccio entered the gate on
the side of the drawbridge, and passed between the main building and the
barbican which guarded the pass; so coming round to the front of the
castle, which opened on the grassy plot; here he was met by several
servants, and conducted to the apartment of Euthanasia. The counts of
Valperga had been rich; and the castle was more magnificent than those
rocky strong holds usually were. The great banqueting hall was painted
with various figures, which, though rude, and defective in shade and
perspective, were regarded with admiration in those days. A large
fireplace, now illumined by a blazing fire, gave an air of cheerfulness
to the hall; several serving-men, and two large and beautiful dogs, were
cowering round the fire, as a cold January blast rushed through the
opposite door, through which Castruccio passed into an inner, open court
of the castle.

This court was surrounded by gothic cloisters on all sides except one,
where the huge mountain formed the barrier: high, near the summit of the
rock, grew a few cypresses; and, as you gazed upwards at them, they
seemed to pierce the sky with their dark and motionless spires. On one
side of this court was a handsome staircase built of the marble of
Carrara, and by this he ascended into the audience chamber. It was then,
being winter, hung with scarlet cloth; the ceiling was painted; and the
bright marble pavement reflected in dim colours the Venus and her Cupids
depicted above. A small tripod of white marble curiously carved, stood
in the middle of the room, supporting a bronze censer in which incense
was burning; several antique vases and tripods adorned the room; the
tables were of the finest stones, or of glass mosaic; and the seats or
couches were covered with scarlet cloth inwoven with gold. Within this
was Euthanasia's own apartment; it was hung with blue silk, and the
pavement was of mosaic; the couches were richly embroidered, and a small
table of _verde antique_ stood in the middle of the room. In the
recesses were several stands for books, writing materials, etc.; and in
the embrasures of the windows were bronze stands, on which were placed
finely embossed gold vases, filled with such flowers as the season
afforded. But, amidst all this luxury, the richest ornament of the room
was the lovely possessor herself.

Castruccio and Euthanasia met; after many years of absence, they gazed
on each other with curiosity and interest. Euthanasia had awaited his
arrival with unwonted anxiety: she could not explain to herself the
agitation that she felt at the idea of meeting him; but, when she saw
him, beautiful as a god, power and love dwelling on every feature of his
countenance, and in every motion of his graceful form, the unquiet
beatings of her heart ceased, and she became calm and happy. And was she
not also beautiful? Her form was light, and every limb was shaped
according to those rules by which the exquisite statues of the antients
have been modelled. A quantity of golden hair fell round her neck, and,
unless it had been confined by a veil that was wreathed round her head,
it would almost have touched the ground; her eyes were blue; a blue that
seemed to have drunk-in the depths of an Italian sky, and to reflect
from their orbs the pure and unfathomable brilliance, which strikes the
sight as darkness, of a Roman heaven; but these beauteous eyes were
fringed by long, pointed lashes, which softened their fire, and added to
their sweetness: the very soul of open-hearted Charity dwelt on her
brow, and her lips expressed the softest sensibility; there was in her
countenance, beyond all of kind and good that you could there discover,
an expression that seemed to require ages to read and understand; a
wisdom exalted by enthusiasm, a wildness tempered by self-command, that
filled every look and every motion with eternal change. She was dressed
according to the custom of the times, yet her dress was rather plain,
being neither ornamented with gold nor jewels; a silk vest of blue
reached from her neck to her feet, girded at the waist by a small
embroidered band; the wide and, hanging sleeves were embroidered at the
edge, and fell far over her hands, except when, thrown back, they
discovered her rosy-tipt fingers and taper wrist.

They met then and often again; and the difference of their political
parties only drew them closer. Euthanasia perceived that Castruccio
intended to work some change in the state of her country; and she
earnestly wished,--not to draw him over to her party,--but to shew how
futile that distinction and enmity were, if one love of peace and good
animated all hearts. She wished also to read his mind, to know if the
love of liberty lived there. Euthanasia had this foible, if indeed it
might be called one in her, to love the very shadow of freedom with
unbounded enthusiasm. She was bred a Guelph among the leaders of that
party at Florence, a party whose watchword was liberty; her rank itself
would have forced her to take part in the contentions of the times; but
she was no narrow partizan; her father, and the studies she had followed
under him, had taught her higher lessons; and the history of the Roman
republic had increased her love of freedom, while it had annihilated in
her mind all interest in petty intrigue. Castruccio was a staunch
Ghibeline, and his soul was set on the advancement of that party; he did
not sympathize with Euthanasia, but he appeared to do so, for he loved
her, and listened, his eyes shining with pleasure, while she spoke in
silver tones, and all appeared wise and good that came from her lips.
Often her gentle eloquence would for a while carry him along with it,
and he would talk of republics, and the energy and virtue that every
citizen acquires, when each, acting under the censure of each, yet
possesses power; and men, not as children obedient to the mere word of
command, discuss and regulate their own interests. Her admiration for
the character of several of the Florentine chiefs gave interest to her
details respecting the changes that had occurred there during the last
years, and to the many anecdotes that she dwelt upon as demonstrating
the power and grandeur of her beloved Florence.

Nor were their conversations only political. Euthanasia's mind was
stored with sweet lore; she loved poetry, and sang or repeated the
verses of Guido or Dante; and, as she made excursions among the woods,
or joined in hunting-parties with Castruccio and her other friends, her
conversation appeared one strain of poetry. Castruccio related his
adventures, and Euthanasia was never weary of listening to the details
of the English and French courts and manners; two systems of society, so
widely opposite to each other, and both so different from the scenes to
which she had been accustomed. Their love for one another, and their
confidence increased: the winter months passed on, and the first days of
spring, bringing with them green leaves and soft air, found them vowed
friends, each believing to be knit to the other for life with the
strongest ties of enduring love.

Euthanasia said that she loved for the first time, and a falsehood had
never stained her purest soul; a well of intensest and overflowing
passion was opened in her heart; every feeling was softened, every
emotion modulated by this change: she was penetrated with love; and,
admiration and esteem forming but a part of this, she made a god of him
she loved, believing every virtue and every talent to live in his soul.
Thus, unrestrained by any latent fear or ungenerous suspicion, she gave
up her heart to him, and was for a while happy. They passed much time
together; and every day each made a discovery of some new excellence,
some till then unobserved accomplishment.

Her feelings were indeed entirely changed by the birth of this new and
powerful sentiment. Hitherto she had been in a great degree alone in the
world; finding none who entirely sympathized with her, she had poured
out the treasure of her heart to the ear of silence alone. She was happy
among the gaieties of Florence; the wit and imagination of the people
formed an agreeable variety to her life; but there was a mutable and
changeful spirit among them, that did not invite her confidence. Her
eyes had often been lighted up, and her spirit awakened in conversation,
where wit sharpens wit, and the ideas of one mind seem to cause the
birth of the children of another. But, when tenderness softened her
heart, and the sublime feeling of universal love penetrated her, she
found no voice that replied so well to hers as the gentle singing of the
pines under the air of noon, and the soft murmurs of the breeze that
scattered her hair and freshened her cheek, and the dashing of the
waters that has no beginning or end.

It was not thus now; the words and looks of Castruccio replied to her,
and she felt happier than she had ever been. There was no doubt, no
sorrow; all was security and calm; and her heart softened, until tears
sprang forth under the weight of unmitigated pleasure. She was frank,
generous and fearless; therefore she instantly believed and trusted;
while the master-passions which ever ruled her life were not forgotten,
but, mingling with and heightened by love, glowed with greater energy.
They passed several months in the enjoyment of this intercourse; they
hoped, they felt, that their destinies were intertwined never to be
separated; and their union was only deferred until Castruccio should
free his country. The summer advancing would soon give the signal for
separation. On one of these days, one of the last before their parting,
Euthanasia related to Castruccio the few events of her peaceful life
which had occurred since their separation ten years before. The tale was
short, but it was one that deeply interested the listener.


[Footnote 3: The _Tramontano_ is the north wind; the _Scirocco_ the
south-west and the _Libeccio_ the south-east.]




CHAPTER X


_Euthanasia's Narrative._


"It is strange for one to speak, who never before has uttered the
sentiments of her heart. With my eyes I have spoken to the starry skies
and the green earth; and with smiles that could not express my emotion I
have conversed with the soft airs of summer, the murmur of streams, and
the chequered shades of our divine woods: but never before have I
awakened sympathy in a human countenance with words that unlock the
treasure of my heart.

"I have lived a solitary hermitess, and have become an enthusiast for
all beauty. Being alone, I have not feared to give the reins to my
feelings; I have lived happily within the universe of my own mind, and
have often given reality to that which others call a dream. I have had
few hopes, and few fears; but every passing sentiment has been an event;
and I have marked the birth of a new idea with the joy that others
derive from what they call change and fortune. What is the world, except
that which we feel? Love, and hope, and delight, or sorrow and tears;
these are our lives, our realities, to which we give the names of power,
possession, misfortune, and death.

"You smile at my strange words. I now feel livelier emotions arise; and,
as is my custom, I try to define and understand them. Love, when
nurtured by sympathy, is a stronger feeling, than those breathless
emotions which arise from the contemplation of what is commonly called
inanimate nature, and of the wondrous and eternal changes of the
universe; and, feeling as I do, that if I give it place in my heart, it
must bear my whole being away with it, as the tempest bears the rack
along the sky, wonder not, dear friend, that I have paused, and even
shuddered, when I thought that an unknown power was about to dwell in my
soul, which might make it blind to its former delights, and deaf to the
deep voice of that nature, whose child and nursling I call myself. But
now I doubt no more; I am yours, Castruccio; be my fortune tearful or
smiling, it shall be one that will bring with it human sympathy, and I
resign that savage liberty of which I was ere while jealous.

"You have asked me to relate the events of my life; I may say that it is
a blank, if you would not hear the history of many a strange idea, many
an exalted feeling, and reverie of wondrous change. You left me at
Florence the favourite daughter of a father I adored: I was ever near
him reading and conversing with him; and if I have put order in my day
dreams, and culled the fruit of virtue and some slight wisdom from my
meditations, it is to his lessons that I owe this good. It is he who
taught me to fathom my sensations, and discipline my mind; to understand
what my feelings were, and whether they arose from a good or evil
source. He taught me to look on my own faults fearlessly; humbly as a
weak being--yet not with mock humility, but with a modest, yet firm
courage, that led me to know what indeed I might become. He explained to
me the lessons of our divine master; which our priests corrupt to
satisfy the most groveling desires; and he taught me to seek in
self-approbation, and in a repentance, which was that of virtuous
action, and not of weeping, for the absolution of which they make a
revenue.

"Do I speak with vanity? I hope that you do not so far mistake me. I
have been a solitary being; and, conversing with my own heart, I have
been so accustomed to use the frank language of a knowledge drawn from
fixed principles, and to weigh my actions and thoughts in those scales
which my reason and my religion afforded me, that my words may sound
vain; when they are only true. I do not think then that I could speak
with vanity; for I was enumerating the benefits that I received from my
father. I read with him the literature of ancient Rome; and my whole
soul was filled with the beauty of action, and the poetic sentiment of
these writers. At first I complained that no men lived now, who bore
affinity to these far shining beacons of the earth: but my father
convinced me, that the world was shaking off her barbaric lethargy, and
that Florence, in her struggle for freedom, had awakened the noblest
energies of the human mind. Once, when we attended a court in Lombardy,
a minstrel sang some of the Cantos of Dante's _Divina Comedia_, and I
can never forget the enthusiastic joy I experienced, in finding that I
was the contemporary of its illustrious author.

"I endeavour to mark in this little history of myself the use of the
various feelings that rule all my actions; and I must date my enthusiasm
for the liberties of my country, and the political welfare of Italy,
from the repetition of these Cantos of Dante's poem. The Romans, whose
writings I adored, were free; a Greek who once visited us, had related
to us what treasures of poetry and wisdom existed in his language, and
these were the productions of freemen: the mental history of the rest of
the world who are slaves, was a blank, and thus I was irresistibly
forced to connect wisdom and liberty together; and, as I worshipped
wisdom as the pure emanation of the Deity, the divine light of the
world, so did I adore liberty as its parent, its sister, the half of its
being. Florence was free, and Dante was a Florentine; none but a freeman
could have poured forth the poetry and eloquence to which I listened:
what though he were banished from his native city, and had espoused a
party that seemed to support tyranny; the essence of freedom is that
clash and struggle which awaken the energies of our nature, and that
operation of the elements of our mind, which as it were gives us the
force and power that hinder us from degenerating, as they say all things
earthly do when not regenerated by change.

"What is man without wisdom? And what would not this world become, if
every man might learn from its institutions the true principles of life,
and become as the few which have as yet shone as stars amidst the night
of ages? If time had not shaken the light of poetry and of genius from
his wings, all the past would be dark and trackless: now we have a
track--the glorious foot-marks of the children of liberty; let us
imitate them, and like them we may serve as marks in the desart, to
attract future passengers to the fountains of life. Already we have
begun to do so; and Dante is the pledge of a glorious race, which tells
us that, in clinging to the freedom which gave birth to his genius, we
may awake the fallen hopes of the world. These sentiments, nurtured and
directed by my father, have caused the growth of an enthusiasm in my
soul, which can only die when I die.

"I was at this time but sixteen; and at that age, unless I had been
guided by the lessons of my father, my meditations would have been
sufficiently fruitless. But he, whether he taught me to consider the
world and the community of man, or to study the little universe of my
own mind, was wisdom's self, pouring out accents that commanded
attention and obedience. At first I believed, that my heart was good,
and that by following its dictates I should not do wrong; I was proud,
and loved not to constrain my will, though I myself were the mistress;
but he told me, that either my judgement or passions must rule me, and
that my future happiness and usefulness depended on the choice I made
between these two laws. I learned from him to look upon events as being
of consequence only through the feelings which they excited, and to
believe that content of mind, love, and benevolent feeling ought to be
the elements of our existence; while those accidents of fortune or fame,
which to the majority make up the sum of their existence, were as the
dust of the balance.

"Well; these were the lessons of my father, a honey of wisdom on which I
fed until I attained my eighteenth year; and then he died. What I felt,
my grief and despair, I will not relate; few sorrows surpass that of a
child, who loses a beloved parent before she has formed new ties which
have weakened the first and the most religious.

"Do you remember my mother? She was a lady with a kind heart, and a
humanity and equanimity of temper few could surpass. She was a Guelph, a
violent partizan, and, heart and soul, was taken up with treaties of
peace, acquisitions in war, the conduct of allies, and the fortune of
her enemies: while she talked to you, you would have thought that the
whole globe of the earth was merely an appendage to the county of
Valperga. She was acquainted with all the magistrates of Florence, the
probabilities of elections, the state of the troops, the receipt of
imposts, and every circumstance of the republic. She was interested in
the most lively manner in the fall of Corso Donati[4], the war with
Pistoia, the taking of that town, and the deaths and elections of the
various Popes. She was present at every court held by the Guelph lords
of Lombardy; and her poor subjects were sometimes rather hardly taxed,
that we might appear with suitable dignity on these occasions. The
marriage of her children was her next care; but she could never come to
a decisive resolve as to which alliance would be the most advantageous
to her family, and at the same time most promote the cause of the
Guelphs in Italy.

"When my father died, she sent for my eldest brother from Naples; and
for several months her mind was occupied by his accession, and the
dignity that the houses of Adimari and Valperga would acquire by having
a young warrior at their head, instead of a woman and a blind
philosopher. My brother was a soldier, a brave man, full of ambition and
party spirit; and a new field was opened to my mother's politics by him,
when he detailed the intrigues of the Neapolitan court; she was for ever
occupied in sending messengers, receiving dispatches, calculating
imposts, and all the pygmy acts of a petty state.

"When I was nineteen years of age, we heard that my younger brother had
fallen ill at Rome, and desired to see some one of his family. My uncle,
the abbot of St. Maurice, was on the point of going to Rome; and I
obtained my mother's leave to accompany him. Oh, what long draughts of
joy I drank in on that journey! I did not think that my brother's
illness was dangerous, and indeed considered that circumstance more as
the pretext, than the object of my journey; so I fearlessly gave myself
up to the enthusiasm that deluged my soul. Expression lags, as then my
own spirit flagged, beneath the influence of these thoughts: it was to
Rome I journied, to see the vestiges of the mistress of the world,
within whose walls all I could conceive of great, and good, and wise,
had breathed and acted: I should draw in the sacred air which had
vivified the heroes of Rome; their shades would surround me; and the
very stones that I should tread were marked by their footsteps. Can you
conceive what I felt? You have not studied the histories of ancient
times, and perhaps know not the life that breathes in them; a soul of
beauty and wisdom which had penetrated my heart of hearts. When I
descended the hills of the Abruzzi, and first saw the Tiber rolling its
tranquil waters glistening under the morning sun; I wept;--why did not
Cato live?--why was I not going to see her consuls, her heroes, and her
poets? Alas! I was about to approach the shadow of Rome, the inanimate
corse, the broken image of what was once great beyond all power of
speech to express. My enthusiasm again changed; and I felt a kind of
sacred horror run through my veins. Thou, oh! Tiber, ever rollest, ever
and for ever the same! yet are not thy waters those which flowed here
when the Scipios and the Fabii lived on thy shores; the grass and the
herbage which adorn thy banks have many thousand times been renewed
since it was pressed on by their feet; all is changed, even thou art not
the same!

"It was night when we entered Rome; I dared hardly breathe; the stars
shone bright in the deep azure of heaven; and with their twinkling beams
illuminated the dark towers which were black and silent, seeming like
animated beings asleep. A procession of monks passed by chaunting in a
sweet and solemn tone, in that language which once awoke the pauses of
this Roman air with words of fire. Methought they sang their city's
_requiem;_ methought I was following to their last narrow home all that
had existed of great and good in this god-inhabited city.

"I remained in Rome three months; when I arrived, my brother was
considerably better, and we entertained every hope of his recovery. I
spent my life among the ruins of Rome; and I felt, as I was told that I
appeared to be, rather a wandering shade of the ancient times, than a
modern Italian. In my wild enthusiasm I called on the shadows of the
departed to converse with me, and to prophesy the fortunes of awakening
Italy. I can never forget one evening that I visited the Pantheon by
moonlight: the soft beams of the planet streamed through its open roof,
and its tall pillars glimmered around. It seemed as if the spirit of
beauty descended on my soul, as I sat there in mute extacy; never had I
before so felt the universal graspings of my own mind, or the sure
tokens of other spiritual existences, as at that moment. Oh! could I
even now pour forth in words the sentiments of love, and virtue, and
divinest wisdom, that then burst in upon my soul, in a rich
torrent----such as was the light of the moon to the dark temple in which
I stood--the whole world would stand and listen: but fainter than the
moon-beams and more evanescent are those deep thoughts; my eyes glisten,
my cheeks glow, but words are denied me. I feel as it were my own soul
at work within me, and surely, if I could disclose its secret
operations, and lay bare the vitals of my being, in that moment, which
would be one of overwhelming extacy--in that moment I should die.

"Well; to return to the events that sealed my residence in Rome, and by
shedding the softness of affectionate sorrow over my feelings, added to
their deep holiness. The last month of my residence there, I was a
constant attendant on the sick bed of my dying brother: he did not
suffer pain; his illness was lethargic; and I watched with breathless
anxiety the change from life to death. Sometimes, when the _Ave Maria_
had sounded, and the heats of the day had subsided, I stole out into the
air to refresh my wearied spirits. There is no sky so blue as that of
Rome; it is deep, penetrating, and dazzling: but at this hour it had
faded, and its soft airs, that made wild and thrilling music among the
solitudes of its hills and ruins, cooled my fevered cheeks, and soothed
me in spite of sorrow. I then enjoyed grief; I may now say so, although
I then felt anguish alone; truly I wept, and bitterly over the illness
of my brother: but, when the soul is active, it brings a certain
consolation along with it: I was never so much alive as then, when my
wanderings, which seldom exceeded one or at most two hours, seemed to be
lengthened into days and weeks. I loved to wander by the banks of the
Tiber, which were solitary, and, if the scirocco blew, to mark the
clouds as they sped over St. Peter's and the many towers of Rome:
sometimes I walked on the Quirinal or Pincian mounts which overlook the
city, and gazed, until my soul was elevated by poetic transport.
Beautiful city, thy towers were illuminated by the orange tints of the
fast-departing sunset, and the ghosts of lovely memories floated with
the night breeze, among thy ruins; I became calm; amidst a dead race,
and an extinguished empire, what individual sorrow would dare raise its
voice? subdued, trembling, and overcome, I crept back to the sick bed of
my brother.

"He died; and I left this city of my soul. I know not whether I shall
ever again breathe its air; but its memory is a burning cloud of sunset
in the deep azure of the sky: it is that passage in my life since my
father's death, on which my intellectual eye rests with emotion,
pleasurable now, although I then endured poignant sorrow.

"The passenger that carried the intelligence of my younger brother's
death to my mother, was crossed on the road by one who came to inform me
that the eldest also was no more. He was killed in an assault on
Pistoia. Thus death quickly mowed down the ranks of our family; and at
last I have become a solitary scion of the stock.

"I returned home by very slow journies, and in my way was detained a
fortnight at Perugia. When I arrived, I was met by my mother at our
palace in Florence; she burst into tears as she folded me in her arms,
and wept for some time, lamenting with bitter grief her sad losses. I
mingled my tears with hers, and alas! I soon shed them alone; doubly an
orphan through her death, I mourned over the last of my family. So many
losses, following swift one upon the other, astounded me; and I passed
many months, as one who had wandered from the true path, and had no
guide to set her right. I retreated to my castle, and the solitude
frightened me; I returned to Florence; but the gaieties of that city
only told me more plainly that I was alone, since I sympathized with
none there. But time has healed these wounds, leaving only a tinge of
melancholy in my character which had not belonged to it till now."


[Footnote 4: Dante: _Purgatorio_, Canto XXIV.]




CHAPTER XI


_Capture of Monte Catini.--Castruccio treacherously
made prisoner by Ranieri, Governor
of Lucca.--Delivered, and proclaimed
Consul._


The winter passed away, and with the summer the toils of the soldier
began. Castruccio left Lucca, and joined the army of Uguccione against
the Florentines. He took leave of his lady; yet she neither tied the
scarf around him, nor bade him go and prosper. Florence was her native
town; and love of their country was a characteristic of all Florentines.
There was in that city an energy of spirit, which panting to expand
itself, sought for new emotions, or exalted those that were before felt,
until each sentiment became a passion. The Florentines were patriots;
there was not one among them, who would not have sacrificed wealth,
life, and happiness, to the prosperity of his native city. Euthanasia
was brought up in the midst of public discussions and of expressions of
public feeling; the army of the Florentines contained her best friends,
the companions of her youth, all among men whom she had esteemed and
loved; how then could she bid her lover, go, and prosper, when he went
to destroy them? She would have been still more unhappy, could she have
anticipated the event of the campaign.

Uguccione engaged himself in the siege of the castle of Monte Catini;
and the Florentines, after having made every exertion to assemble and
discipline their troops, advanced against him with a larger army than
they had ever before brought into the field. Nor were the preparations
of Uguccione inferior in vigour; he assembled all his allies, and
awaited with confidence the arrival of the enemy. During this interval
however, the chief fell ill, and was obliged to retire from the camp:
the nominal command of the army devolved on his eldest son Francesco;
but all looked up to Castruccio as their real leader. The Florentines
advanced full of hope; and the Lucchese awaited them with steady
courage. The battle was long and bloody; in the beginning of the combat
Francesco was killed, and Castruccio perceived the soldiers make a
sudden halt, when they saw their general fall: instantly feeling that
the command devolved upon him, he galloped to the front of the lines, he
threw off his casque that he might be distinguished, and, bidding the
trumpets sound, he led his troops to a fresh assault. His army was drawn
out on the plain, and every eye was turned upwards towards the castle,
which, situated on the height of a steep hill, was the goal they must
win. Castruccio had seen service in France; but with far different
feelings did he now engage in battle. He was surrounded by his friends;
he saw those he loved advance with a steady eye to the danger towards
which he led them; he looked up, and saw above the high seated castle
that he must storm; be saw the closely set ranks of the enemy; he beheld
all this with one glance, one feeling quicker than a look, and the
trumpets sounded while he waved his sword; his spirits were exhilarated,
his heart swelled,--tears--tears of high and uncontrolable emotion,
filled his eyes, as he dashed through the ranks of the enemy, and cried,
"Victory, or death!" None dared disobey his voice. His dark brown hair,
on which the sun shone, might be distinguished amidst a forest of
hostile javelins. He was wounded; but he refused to retire; and fixing
his eye on the castle walls--he cried, "There is our home!" All gave way
before his fury; that part of the Florentine army which had been drawn
out on the plain, was dispersed and fled--the rest retreated towards the
castle; when he saw them retreat, when he first perceived that they gave
ground before him, his triumph and extacy rose almost to frenzy; the
mountain was steep, he threw himself from his horse, his troop followed
his example; he called on them by the names of father and brother to
follow his steps. "Go on!" they cried, "go on!" And they broke through
all the impediments placed to impede their ascent, and were seen in
close array, winding up the steep path towards the castle.

The victory was due to him alone; he, ever foremost, scaled the height,
and first displayed the Ghibeline banner from the walls of the castle of
Monte Catini; while, his cheek pale with pain, and his limbs trembling
from loss of blood, it seemed almost as if his own death would seal the
bloody conquest. The Florentines sustained irreparable loss; their
general, the son of the king of Naples, several of his relations, and
many members of the noblest families in Florence, fell. The loss is
compared by the Florentine historians to the defeat of Cannæ; and many
years elapsed before Florence could fill up the gap among her citizens
made by the havoc of that day.

Such was the news that blanched poor Euthanasia's cheek. She had spent
the period that had elapsed since the departure of Castruccio, in utter
solitude. Her anxiety, and the combat of feelings which she experienced,
destroyed all her peace: she dared not give her prayers to either side;
or if, following the accustomed bent of her inclinations, she wished
success to her townsmen, the idea of Castruccio defeated, perhaps
killed, turned all her thoughts to double bitterness. Yet, when the
Florentines were indeed defeated, when messenger after messenger brought
intelligence from her terror-stricken friends of the sad losses they had
sustained, when the name of Castruccio as the slayer was repeated with
fear and curses by those whom she tenderly loved; then indeed the
current of her feelings returned with violence to its accustomed
channel, and, bitterly reproaching herself for having dared to hesitate
in a cause where her country was concerned, she knelt down, and solemnly
and deliberately made a vow, sanctifying it by an appeal to all that she
held sacred in heaven and upon earth,--she made a deep and tremendous
vow, never to ally herself to the enemy of Florence: and then, somewhat
calmed in soul, though ever sorrowing, she waited for the return of
Castruccio to Lucca, so to learn if he could clear himself, or if indeed
he were that enemy to Florence against whom her vow was made.

If the overthrow and massacre of the Florentines had moved her soul to
its very depths, her horror was tempered with tenderness, when she heard
that Castruccio had been brought back wounded to Lucca. The glory of
this victory was attributed to him alone; and this glory, which appeared
a shame to Euthanasia, excited in her feelings of confusion and sorrow.
Now for the first time she felt the struggle in her soul, of inclination
warring with duty; for the first time she feared that she ought not to
love Castruccio; she thought of retreating to Florence, and of shutting
him out from her sight, if possible from her thoughts; yet, as she
meditated this, she thought she heard the soft tones of his melodious
voice sounding in her ears, and she sank into grief and tears.

This painful struggle ceased not, until she saw him again; and then, as
before, all pain and doubt vanished. His cheek was pale from the
consequences of his wound, and his person, having thus lost its usual
decision of mien, was more interesting; but his eyes shone, and they
beamed unutterable love upon her. Truly did he look a hero; for power
sat on his brow, and victory seemed to have made itself a home among the
smiles of his lips. "Triumph, my sweet girl," he said; "all my laurels
are spoils for you. Nay, turn not away as if you disdained them; they
are the assurances of the peace that you desire. Do not doubt me; do not
for a moment suffer a cloud of suspicion to darken your animated
countenance. This sword has made me master of peace and war; and need I
say, that my wise and gentle Euthanasia shall direct my counsels, her
love and honour being the aim and purpose of my life?"

Upon such words could aught but pardon and reconciliation attend?

Castruccio's wound was slight, and soon healed. But he was now more than
ever immersed in his political plans: throwing off the mask, he appeared
openly as the leader of a party against Uguccione; his palace was for
ever open, and crowded with friends and followers; and, when he rode
through the streets, he was attended by a band of the first nobles in
Lucca. To his other talents Castruccio joined a vein of raillery and
bitter irony, which, when he chose to exert it, seemed to enter into and
wither the soul of its object. His scoffs and mockery of the Faggiuola
family were repeated through Lucca; and the person against whom they
were particularly directed, the governor whom Uguccione had appointed,
was a man formed to feel in every nerve the agony of derision.

Francesco having been killed at the battle of Monte Catini, Uguccione
had set his son Ranieri over the Lucchese. Ranieri was only
two-and-twenty years of age; but his straight black hair fell over a
forehead prematurely wrinkled; without the courage of his father, he
possessed all his cunning and ambition, as much cruelty, and even more
deceit. He had long been a pretender to the hand of the countess of
Valperga,--with no hope except that with which his own vanity inspired
him: yet, when he perceived that Castruccio was his favoured rival, he
felt as if he had been robbed of his inheritance; and the beauty,
talents, and glory of his adversary made him taste to the dregs the cup
of envy. The consciousness of power alone for a while restrained the
manifestation of his feelings. He soothed himself with the idea that
Castruccio's life was in his hands; yet a lurking doubt prevented him
from putting forth his strength; he glared on his enemy, as a tiger who
crouches within reach of his prey; but he dared not spring. He would
gladly have got rid of his rival by private assassination; but
Castruccio was too cautious, and ever went too well attended, to afford
an opportunity for such a measure. Rivalry in love was however but a
small part of the cause of the hate with which Ranieri was filled; for
Castruccio no longer disguised his abhorrence of the cruelty of
Uguccione, or his contempt for the cowardly and artful policy of his
son; and a man far less cunning than Ranieri might easily perceive that
he laboured day and night for the overthrow of the Faggiuola family.

An accidental scuffle brought these feelings into action; it were idle
to attempt to discover the cause of a quarrel, at a period when civil
broils were so common, not only among the Italians; but when the
capitals of the French and English monarchs were often stained with
blood on the most trivial occasions. This affray arose between the
dependents of Ranieri and of count Fondi; Castruccio and his companions
joined in it; and it ended in the rout and flight of Faggiuola's men,
one of whom was killed. Ranieri seized this opportunity to send to his
father with greater effect an account of the haughty conduct and
machinations of Castruccio. The truth had been sufficient to awaken the
suspicions of a man, whose rule it was never to permit an enemy to live;
but the colouring that Ranieri gave to the affair, made it appear as if
open war had been declared between the parties at Lucca. Uguccione had
bathed his hands that very winter in the best blood of Pisa; and he
considered one life more as a small sacrifice towards the completion of
his security. His advice therefore was to act cautiously, but swiftly,
and that the next messenger might bring intelligence of the death of his
adversary.

This direction filled Ranieri with unwonted joy; it smoothed the
wrinkles of his brow, and lighted up his eyes with ferocity: he would
willingly have led forth his troops, and seized Castruccio in the midst
of his partizans; but his deceitful disposition suggested to him a
quieter, and as he imagined, a surer mode of proceeding. The enemies met
at church; they disposed themselves on opposite sides of the aisle,--the
followers of Castruccio viewed their opponents with a careless smile of
contempt, which was returned by a sullen scowl; while Ranieri manifested
an alternation of gaiety and uneasiness, which his art could not
entirely conceal. High mass being over, Castruccio was about to retire,
when Ranieri, quitting his attendants, walked across the aisle; seeing
his movement, the followers of Antelminelli crowded about him; but he
bade them fall back, and with a haughty step, and a smile of conscious
superiority, he also advanced towards his enemy; they met midway, and
the two parties, their hands on their swords, watched every motion of
their respective chiefs during this unexpected parley. Had not Ranieri's
character for artifice been impressed on every mind, his appearance
might now have lulled suspicion;--he smiled, and spoke with a loud,
careless voice; and what was hidden under this friendly outside seemed
rather timidity, than enmity: Castruccio fixed his eagle-eye upon him;
but fear appeared to be the only feeling which lurked behind the
frankness that Ranieri wished to assume: nor did he shrink from the
examination; he spoke:

"Messer Castruccio, methinks you are much a stranger to my councils and
board. Do you suppose that my father forgets your services in his cause,
or that he does not pray for an opportunity of shewing his gratitude?
Evil reports, I own, have gone abroad to your disadvantage, and your
absence from my palace might give some colour to these; but I am not a
suspicious man, and trust the actions of my friends which speak in their
favour, more readily than the hearsay which traduces them. If any ill
blood exists between us, and I am the cause of it, I freely ask your
pardon for any offence I may have given you, and request, as the seal of
our reconciliation, that you would honour with your presence a poor
banquet I am to give to-night to the nobility of Lucca.

Castruccio was somewhat astounded by this speech, which was concluded by
the offer of his hand from the speaker. Castruccio drew back, and
replied; "My poor services, my lord, were offered to my country; from
her I hope for gratitude, from your father I neither deserve nor expect
this meed. It were as well perhaps not to attempt to mix jarring
elements; but, since you offer hospitality, I will freely accept it;
for, whatever cause of alienation may exist between us, you are a knight
and a soldier, and I do not fear deceit."

Castruccio withdrew; and the certainty of revenge alone could have
quelled the deadly anger of Ranieri at the haughty and supercilious
treatment that he had received.

Before the hour for the banquet had arrived, Castruccio rode to the
castle of Valperga, and related the occurrence to Euthanasia. She
listened attentively, and then said: "There is some deep plot in this; I
know Neri della Faggiuola; he is at once cowardly, artful, and cruel. Be
on your guard; I would intreat you not to go to this feast, but that,
going with your followers, I do not see what danger you can incur; but
doubt not, that this, or any other friendly overture that may follow; is
only a snare in which it is expected that you will entangle yourself."

"Fear not, dear girl; I am open-hearted with my friends;--but I have
been a soldier of fortune; and at such a school I may well have learned
to detect wiles more deep, and politicians more cunning than Ranieri.
Let him beware; this moon which has just bent her bow among the clouds
of sunset, will not be two weeks old, when you may see this deep schemer
take his solitary way to Pisa, glad to escape from the vengeance that he
so well merits."

Castruccio attended the feast of Ranieri, accompanied by count Fondi and
Arrigo Guinigi. He had expected to find the rest of his friends and
partizans assembled there, since they had all received invitations: but
Ranieri had acted with the utmost caution; and, a very short time before
the hour fixed for the banquet, he had sent messages to the friends of
Castruccio, and under various pretexts, had, unknown one to the other,
employed them on different affairs which he pretended to be of the
greatest urgency. When therefore Castruccio entered the banquetting
hall, he found only the officers of the German troop attached to the
Faggiuola faction, some old men who had retired from public affairs, and
a few Guelph families who Ranieri supposed would remain neuter on the
present occasion. Castruccio observed this, and felt that all was not
right; yet not for a moment did the expression of his physiognomy
change, or his frank demeanour betray any sign of suspicion. It was not
then the custom, as in the more barbarous society of France and England,
to attend peaceful meetings as if armed for mortal combat; and
Castruccio was unarmed, except with a small dagger, which as a matter of
caution he concealed about his person.

The repast was sumptuous; course succeeded course; and the most delicate
sweetmeats and richest wines invited the guests to a prolongation of
their pleasures. Castruccio was both from habit and principle
abstemious, and the quiet of the banquet was first interrupted by a
sarcasm of Ranieri, as he pointed to the quantity of water which his
guest mingled with his wine. The latter replied; and his irony was the
more keen from the reputation of cowardice and luxury which his enemy
bore. Ranieri grew pale; and, filling his own cup with pure wine, he
presented it to Castruccio, saying; "Nay, Messere, before you depart,
dishonour not my pledge, but drink this cup of generous Cyprus, to the
overthrow of the enemies of Faggiuola."

These words were the signal agreed upon with his soldiers; they suddenly
entered, surrounded the other guests, and throwing themselves upon
Castruccio, endeavoured to secure him. Twice he threw them off: and once
he had nearly drawn his stiletto from his bosom; but he was overpowered
and manacled with heavy chains--yet, standing thus impotent, his
eagle-glance seemed to wither the soul of Ranieri, who, unable to give
voice to the irony with which he had intended to load his victim, gave
orders that he should be carried to prison.

Ranieri then addressed his guests, telling them, that the riotous
behaviour of Castruccio the preceding week, and the murder of one of his
servants, were the just causes of his imprisonment. He bade them not
fear any danger to their own persons, unless they should rashly attempt
to disturb the due course of justice. Arrigo, with all the warmth of
youth, would have replied with bitter reproaches; but count Fondi,
making him a signal of silence, and deigning only to cast on Ranieri a
smile of contempt, retreated with the youth from the violated board.
Ranieri invited his guests to continue their festivity, but in vain:
they were silent and confounded; one by one the Italians withdrew, and
Ranieri was left only with his officers who were chiefly Germans, and
the remainder of the evening was spent in that intemperate enjoyment of
the bottle, which the Italians held in wonder and contempt. Ranieri did
not wish to drown the voice of his conscience, for that was his servant,
and not his monitor; but his coward spirit failed, when he reflected on
his critical situation, and the number and resoluteness of Castruccio's
friends: wine inspired him with boldness; and a riotous night succeeded
and crowned a misspent day.

No feelings could be in more perfect contrast one to the other, than
those with which the jailer and his prisoner hailed the morning of the
ensuing day. Castruccio had slept soundly on the pavement of his
dungeon; and, though his limbs were weighed down by chains, his spirit
was light and tranquil; he trusted to his friends, and he trusted to the
intimate persuasion he felt, that his star was not to stoop before that
of the cowardly and treacherous Ranieri. Looking at the clouds as they
passed swiftly across the sun borne along by an irresistible wind, he
chaunted a troubadour song of victory.

Ranieri awoke with those feelings of listless depression that succeed to
drunkenness; the idea that Castruccio was his prisoner struck him with
affright; and now, repenting that he had taken so decided a measure, he
sent for his favourite attendant, and bade him go and reconnoitre the
town, and endeavour to discover the opinions and temper of the citizens.
During the absence of this man he was several times on the point of
sending an order for the instantaneous death of his prisoner; but his
heart failed him: he felt that he might be disobeyed, and that the
mandate of death might be the signal for the deliverance of Castruccio.
Thus he waited, irresolutely, but impatiently, till circumstances should
decide the course he was to pursue.

The report of his messenger was ill calculated to allay his
apprehensions. Knots of citizens stood in the streets and market-place,
who, with serious mien and angry fervour, talked over the occurrence of
the preceding evening. Some friend of Castruccio was at the head of each
of these, who incited the people to action, and, ridiculing the
cowardice, and reprobating the treachery and cruelty of Ranieri,
awakened in every heart love and reverence for Castruccio, by the well
deserved praises that he bestowed upon him. The word Liberty seemed to
be creeping among them and warming every soul, while it struck a blight
upon the sensations of Ranieri: he dared not act, but sent a messenger
to his father at Pisa, recounting what he had done, and desiring his
assistance in the accomplishment of his revenge.

A few weeks before, Uguccione had caused Bonconti and his son, two Pisan
nobles, much loved and esteemed in that town, to be put to death: he had
before committed flagrant injustices and legal murders in that city, and
to these the people had submitted: but Bonconti was a man of
understanding and courage; the Pisans had looked up to him as the
instrument of their deliverance from the tyrant; by his death this task
seemed to devolve into their own hands, and their sullen looks and
whispered discontents shewed plainly that they were about to right
themselves. Uguccione sat unsteadily on his seat of power; and his
uneasiness, as is often the case in minds untamed by humanity, begot in
him a hasty courage, and fierce rashness, that resolved not to yield to
any obstacle; he was a stag at bay, and the Pisans stood about him
watching some weak side on which they might commence their attack.

At this moment the messenger of Ranieri arrived, relating the seizure of
Castruccio, and the fears of the governor. "Fool!" cried Uguccione,
"does he not know that the members walk not without the head?"

So, without giving one moment to reflection, he hastily called his
faithful troop together, consisting of about four hundred men, and,
leaving Pisa, hastened at full gallop towards Lucca. The Pisans dared
not trust their good fortune, when they saw their enemy and his
adherents voluntarily desert their post, and deliver a bloodless victory
into their hands; before Uguccione had reached the summit of Monte San
Giuliano, which is, as Dante says, the


_Perchè i Pisan veder Lucca non ponno,_


the cry of liberty, and death to the tyrant, arose in the town; the
multitude assailed the house of Uguccione; some of his household fell;
the rest fled; and the crowd, now somewhat appeased, assembled to
constitute as their chief, a man of understanding and valor, who might
bring under discipline the furious passions of the injured Pisans.

Uguccione found Lucca in open revolt: he entered the town, and at the
head of his troop endeavoured to charge the mutinous multitude. It was
vain; firm barriers thrown across the streets impeded the horses, and
the tyrant was obliged to parley with the heads of the revolters. They
demanded Castruccio; and he was brought forth chained, and delivered to
them; his fetters were knocked off, and, mounting a charger brought by
one of his friends, his manacles carried as a trophy before him, he was
led in triumph to his palace. The people almost worshipped him as he
passed, and the air rang with acclamations in his favour; a crowd of his
adherents, well armed, clustered about him, proud of their victory, and
proud of the chief whom they had delivered. His chains were affixed to
the tower of his palace, in commemoration of this sudden change of
fortune. Uguccione fled:--he did not wait to be expelled by the furious
populace; the news reached him of the revolt of Pisa, and it struck him
with a panic; he was accompanied by Ranieri; and, quitting Lucca by the
northern gate, they hastened across the mountains to Lombardy, and in
one day fell from the rank of powerful chieftains, to be soldiers of
fortune at the hire of the first prince who might require their
services.

Castruccio and his adherents assembled in his palace to deliberate on
the government they should choose; the multitude assembled round, and
demanded to behold their beloved chief.--Castruccio shewed himself at
the balcony, and was saluted with one cry, as Lord of Lucca, and captain
of the war against the Florentines: his friends joined in the
acclamation; but Castruccio, who never allowed a momentary enthusiasm to
obliterate the plan of conduct that he had marked out for himself, made
a sign for silence, which was obeyed. He then addressed the people, and,
thanking them for their love and services, declared that he could not
alone support the government of his town, and, after many modest
observations, requested a companion in the weighty task. The people
acceded to his wishes, and the Cavaliere Pagano Quartezzano was named as
the sharer of his dignities and power under the appellation of consul.




CHAPTER XII


_Peace between Lucca and Florence.--Bindo._


The ill news had travelled fast; and Euthanasia knew of the imprisonment
of Castruccio the same evening that it had taken place. Well acquainted
with the cruel policy of the Faggiuola family and in particular with the
dastard ferocity of Ranieri, her fears were wound up to an agonizing
height: more unhappy than the prisoner himself, she slept not, nor did
she seek sleep; but her thoughts were bent on the consideration of
whether she were able in any manner to assist her friend. She resolved
at least to employ all the influence her possessions and connexions gave
her, to arrest the hand of the murderer.

Early in the morning young Guinigi arrived at the castle. If Arrigo
admired Castruccio, he adored Euthanasia; her sex and beauty might well
have a powerful effect on his youthful heart, and her simplicity and
purity were more calculated to influence his inexperienced but active
understanding, than the more studied courtesies of Castruccio. Her pale
cheek and heavy eyes indicated the anxious thoughts that beset her; and
Arrigo hastened to tranquillize them. "Fear not," he said, "he shall
not, he cannot die. His friends watch over him; and Ranieri has by this
time learned, that he is more a prisoner among the guards in his palace,
than Castruccio chained in his dungeon."

He then detailed the plans of the Ghibeline party for the deliverance of
their chief; and, having somewhat calmed the uneasiness of the countess,
he returned with haste to his post at Lucca.

Euthanasia passed an anxious day. She was alone; if one may be called
alone, whose thoughts descended not to the calm of solitary meditation,
but were actively engaged in the imagination of events passing but a few
miles distant. It was a warm April day, but sunless: for the Libeccio
had veiled the blue heavens with clouds which seemed to press down the
atmosphere, that unmoved by any breeze appeared even by its weight to
encumber the flowers, and to destroy all elasticity either in vegetable
or animal life. Poor Euthanasia walked restlessly on the plot of ground
before the gate of her castle; and her languid eyes, bent towards Lucca,
were able to discern objects afar off, sharpened as their sight was by
love and fear. In the afternoon she saw a band of soldiers ride along
the road beneath the rock on which her castle was built, directing their
course towards the northern mountains. She thought that she could
distinguish the uncouth figure of Uguccione in the tallest among the
horsemen who led the troop; while in the rear she felt sure that she
beheld the form of Ranieri.

Her heart was now relieved from many of its fears; and she watched with
greater calmness the fading hues of sunset, and the moon, now but a day
older than when Castruccio had foretold the overthrow of the tyrant. She
had a favourite retreat near a spring that issued from the rock behind
her castle. The mountain was almost perpendicular from which it gushed;
but a rude flight of steps had been cut, by which she ascended to it
through a postern. The spring rose from a rift above, and fell first on
a narrow rocky platform about seventy steps above the castle. Euthanasia
had caused a basin to be scooped here for the reception of the water,
and had covered it with a light portico, supported by fluted columns of
the Etruscan order made of the finest marble; a few mossy seats
surrounded the fountain. The rock shaded her as she sat, on whose stony
face grew nothing but heath, and such shrubs as seem to find nutriment
and growth in stone itself; but the top was crowned by ilex trees and
stunted myrtle underwood. Thither she now retired, and watched the
coming night; when suddenly she thought she heard a rustling above her,
and a small bunch of myrtle fell on her lap; she looked up; and, gazing
earnestly, perceived Castruccio, with one hand grasping a myrtle shrub,
leaning from the summit of the precipice.

"Euthanasia!--Victory!" he cried.

"Victory and security!" she repeated with a deep sigh of joy.

"And glory, and all the blessings of Heaven!" he replied. She answered,
but he was far above, and could scarcely hear the words she spoke; he
threw another sprig of myrtle, and said, "To-morrow!" and retreated. She
continued to look upwards to the spot where he had leaned; the rustling
of the leaves was still--the myrtles that had bent as he leaned upon
them, slowly upraised themselves--yet still she thought that she heard
his voice, until the murmuring of the near stream recalled her to
herself, and told her how moveless every thing else was.

And now Euthanasia was happy--too happy; and fast-falling and many tears
alone relieved her full heart. She was happy in the assurance of the
safety and triumph of her friend; but it was his love that touched her
heart, and made her thrill with delight. What sweeter meed is there in
life, than the approbation and sincere friendship of those whom we
approve and admire? But to be loved by such a one; to feel the deep
sympathy of united affections, the delicious consciousness of being
loved by one whom all the world approves, by one who fully justifies his
claim to the world's esteem by an oblivion of self, and heroic sacrifice
of personal felicity for the public cause, touches a chord--opens a
spring of feeling which those have never known, whose hearts have not
been warmed by public feeling, or who have not entered with interest
into the hopes and fears of a band struggling for liberty. The human
soul disdains all restraint, and ever seeks to mingle with nature
itself, or with kindred minds; to hope and fear for oneself alone often
narrows the heart and understanding; but if we are animated by these
feelings in unison with a multitude, bound by the same desires and the
same perils, such participation of triumph or sorrow exalts and
beautifies every emotion.

Yet triumph is a feeling which oppresses the human heart; and that
strangely fashioned instrument seems more adapted for suffering than
enjoyment; it is rather a passive, than an active principle; abundant
joy fills it with melancholy, but it can extract pleasure from the
depths of despair. Euthanasia was overpowered; and she felt, in that
moment of satisfaction to her hopes, an agitation and unquiet repining,
which, though it were indeed only the rebellion of the heart against
peace, seemed to her in after times as the foreboding of the unlooked
for catastrophe to so much happiness.

The following evening Castruccio again visited her, and restored her to
calm. He sat at her feet, and fixing on her his dark eyes, related the
circumstances of his imprisonment and liberation. "Did you not wonder,"
said he, "at your eagle's visit yesternight? I would indeed that I had
been one, so that I could have cast myself at your feet, instead of the
silly myrtle that I threw! Yester evening, after the business of the
day, I went to the castle of Mordecastelli, which is on this same
mountain, not far from the Fairy's Fountain and the cypress, under which
as children we often sat--which we visited a few weeks ago, clambering
to it from the valley. When I left his castle, I passed by that spot;
and, pausing there, I thought that perhaps I could not only attain the
summit of the rock that overlooks your fountain, but in some way get
down to the alcove itself, and thus surprize your retreat. I was
disappointed; the precipice is too high above;--but as I looked down, I
caught a glance of your robe, and was repaid for my toil, in being able
to communicate to you the news of my success. And now, dearest girl, be
happy, and smile contentedly on me; for now that I have overcome my
domestic enemies, and have supreme power in this hive of ours, you shall
direct me, and there shall be the peace that you love, and the concord
you so much desire between us and the proud republicans, your friends."

Euthanasia smiled, and said, "Well may it please one so nearly useless
as I am, that I can save the lives of some of my fellow-citizens. Do you
not know, dearest Castruccio, that when you draw your sword against the
Florentines, it is always wetted with the blood of my best friends? Love
you indeed I always must; but I know, for I have studied my own heart,
that it would not unite itself to yours, if, instead of these thoughts
of peace and concord, you were to scheme war and conquest."

"You measure your love in nice scales," replied Castruccio,
reproachfully; "surely, if it were as deep as mine, it would be ruled
alone by its own laws, and not by outward circumstances."

Euthanasia answered earnestly, "So can it not be with me; I have been
bred in a city distracted by domestic faction, and which, when it
obtains a moment of peace in its own bosom, loses the flower of its
children in petty wars. A hatred and fear of war is therefore a strong
and ruling passion in my heart; but other feelings mingle with these in
my zeal for your concord with my fellow-townsmen. Florence is my native
city; its citizens are bound to me by the ties of consanguinity and
friendship: the families of the Pazzi, the Donati, the Spini, and other
noble or plebeian Florentines, against whom you fight when you war with
them, each contains individuals whom I love and honour. I should be a
traitor to the best feelings of human nature, and a rebel to my country,
if I allied myself to its enemy: think you that I who have joined in the
social meetings of the Florentines, who as a child was caressed by them,
and as a woman loved, who have been present at their marriages, and have
mourned among them at their funerals,--when my own beloved father was
attended to his grave by these men whom you call your enemies, and my
own bitter sorrows assuaged by the sympathy of their daughters,--think
you, that thus linked by every social tie, having prayed, and rejoiced,
and wept with them, that I could say to you, 'Go, prosper!' when you
should go to destroy them? Dearest Castruccio, if, united to you, such
an event were to ensue, in that moment I must die, or live a death in
life."

Castruccio replied only by fresh assurances of his earnest desire for
peace, and kissed from the brow of Euthanasia the cloud that for a
moment had gathered there.

It had been a strange task to unveil the heart of Antelminelli, and to
disentangle the contradictory feelings that influenced him at that
moment. There can be no doubt that he never forgot his designs for the
aggrandizement of his native city; and he had seen too much of courts,
and felt too strongly his own superiority to the men about him, to allow
us to suppose that he entertained the idea of establishing a free
republic there, and submitting his actions and intentions to be
controled by the people. It had long been his earnest desire to raise
and reinstate the fallen Ghibeline party in Tuscany; and this was not to
be accomplished except by the humiliation of the Florentines: yet at
this time his whole policy was employed in concluding a peace with
them,--a peace, which was ratified the following April, and preserved
for three years. These three years it is true were not spent in
inactivity, but in the reduction of the surrounding country, and,
latterly, in preparation for the successful war he afterwards carried on
against Florence. Are therefore his protestations to Euthanasia to be
considered as wholly deceitful? His frank countenance and unembarrassed
voice forbade that idea for a moment to cross her imagination: we may
perhaps form this conclusion;--that he now found it for his interest to
conclude a peace with Florence; and he made the sincerity of his present
purpose lend its colour to his assurances for the future.

A whole year was spent in the arrangement of the treaty. Euthanasia
passed all that time at her castle; and her content was again disturbed
by the successes of Castruccio; who in treating for peace did not fail
to make it more desirable to his enemies, by seizing every opportunity
to defeat their forces, and lay waste their country; nor did the
knowledge of the pain which these operations caused his friend, in any
degree check his activity. Euthanasia loved Castruccio; but her
judgement was penetrating, and she was so accustomed to meditate on the
events and feelings of each day, that, during this time, she in part
penetrated the character of her lover. He was formed for victory and
daring, rather than for magnanimity: he was swift of design and steady
in execution; bold, valiant, yet gentle of manner; his wit was keen; his
penetration into the dispositions of men instantaneous; and he possessed
also, as by instinct, the faculty of adapting himself to every
character, and of acquiring the love of all around him: men always love
those who lead them successfully through danger. He was temperate in his
habits; and in his mien, though the exterior were ardent and even rash,
there might be perceived underneath a reserve of caution, a presence of
mind, which never permitted him to be carried beyond the dictates of
prudence, and an eagle-eye which caused him swiftly to distinguish
danger from impracticability. He trod the most perilous activities, but
his foot was sure like that of the chamois; and he could discern from
afar where the path was broken, and would check himself in the most
headlong course. All this was well; but, underneath a frankness of
behaviour, and an apparent nobleness of nature, there was the craft of a
grey-haired courtier, and even at times the cruelty of a falling tyrant.
Euthanasia saw not all this; but at times a glance, a tone seemed to
open a mine of undiscovered evil in his character, that made her shudder
in the very depths of her nature: yet this sensation would pass away,
and she, prompt to forget evil in others, thought no more of it.

This year might be called the happiest of her life; yet it was that
which first schooled her to the pain and anguish which were afterwards
her portion. The flower of love can never exist without its thorns. She
loved, and was beloved:--her eyes beamed with a quicker fire; and her
whole soul, perfectly alive, seemed to feel with a vividness and truth
she had never before experienced. Nature was invested for her with new
appearances; and there was a beauty, a soul, in the breeze of evening,
the starry sky, and uprising sun, which filled her with emotions she had
never before so vividly felt. Love seemed to have made her heart its
chosen temple; and he linked all its beatings to that universal beauty
which is his mother and his nurse.

There are feelings, which overpower the human soul, and often render it
morbid and weak, if virtuous action does not give dignity to reverie.
Euthanasia had many occupations, and among them the glorious and
delightful one of rendering her numerous dependents happy. The cottages
and villages over which she presided, were filled by a contented
peasantry, who adored their countess, and knew her power only by the
benefits she conferred on them. Castruccio often accompanied her in her
visits to these; and he, accustomed as he was to count men as the
numerals of a military arithmetic, even he was touched by her care for
the sick, her many ways of displaying her judgement and abounding
benevolence towards her people. Yet sometimes he laughed at the
difference between her practice and her theory, and asked the youthful
sovereign, why she did not erect her states into a republic?

She smiled; but then, collecting herself, answered seriously; "When I
first inherited my mother's power, I gave much consideration to this
very question; not of forming a separate republic of my poor villages,
but of incorporating them, as many nobles have done, and as doubtless
the lords of Valperga will one day be obliged to do, with some
neighbouring and more powerful republic. My inclinations led me to join
myself to Florence; but the distance of that city, and the immediate
vicinity of Lucca, shewed me the impracticability of that project.
Valperga must one day fall into the hands of the Lucchese; but, if I had
at any time made an alliance with them, I should have destroyed the
present happiness of my people; there would have been war instead of
peace, instead of concord and plenty, party agitations and heavy taxes.
This, my friend, must be my excuse for my tyranny; but, when the
alliance between you and the Florentines can be sure, when Lucca is as
peaceful and happy as Valperga, believe me, I will no longer arrogate a
power to which I ought not to have a pretension."

Castruccio smiled; he hardly believed the simple sincerity of
Euthanasia; he understood well and judged with sagacity the balancing
objections in a question of interest; but the principle of decision was
always with him, that which would most conduce to the fulfilment of his
projects, seldom that of the good or evil which affected others. Yet
this was veiled even to his own mind, by a habit of gentleness and
forbearance, which even in this age of the world, often fills the place,
and assumes the form of virtue.

And now Euthanasia was busy in preparing for a court, which she had
determined to hold, when peace should be ratified between the contending
powers of Tuscany; and Castruccio found her employed in the, for her,
unwonted toils, of the arrangement of silks, jewels, and tapestry. She
said: "You know that the dependents of Valperga are lightly taxed; and
the little money that enters my coffers is chiefly expended in the
succour of their own necessities: yet of that little I have reserved a
sum for periods of sickness, scarcity, or any more agreeable occasion
that may call for it. A part of this will be expended on the present
solemnity. Nor do I think that I hurt my good people by such an
extravagance: their joy on this occasion will be far greater than mine;
their pride and love of pleasure will be gratified; for in arranging the
amusements of my court the country people will have a full share; and,
if _we_ engage the attention of Borsiere, Guarino and other
distinguished _Uomini di Corte,_ the buffoons, jugglers, and dancers,
will spread glee among the villagers."

The castle was fuller than usual of dependents and workmen, and its
cloister-like silence was exchanged for the noise of the hammer, and the
voices of Italians, ever louder than need is. Euthanasia witnessed their
eagerness with pleasure; and her undisguised sympathy in their feelings
made her adored by her servants and dependents. She had now about her
several of the daughters of her richer subjects, who assisted in the
arrangement of her castle: and there were gathered in the hall men who
had grown grey on her estate, who remembered the dreadful battle of
Monte Aperto, the fall of Manfred, and the death of the last unfortunate
descendant of Frederic Barbarossa. These recounted the feats and dangers
of their youth to their descendants, until, so strange are the feelings
of our nature, war, peril and ruin seemed joys to be coveted, not perils
to be eschewed.

Among the attendants who most constantly waited on her person, was a man
who, from his diminutive stature, and strange dress, might have been
taken for the buffoon or dwarf so common at the courts of princes in
those days, had not the melancholy of his looks forbidden that
supposition. Yet he had some of the privileges of the licensed fool; for
he mingled in the conversation of his superiors, and his remarks,
generally pithy, were sometimes bitter and satirical: yet indeed they
were more commonly characterized by a wild and imaginative originality,
than by wit; and, if they sometimes made others laugh, he never smiled.
The playful and witty disposition of Castruccio would often make him
enter into conversation with, and reply to, and try to draw out this
strange being, who was no less uncommon in his person than in his mind.
He was of that race of which there are a few native specimens in Italy,
generally called Albinois; his complexion was of a milky fairness, his
hair white, and his long white eyelashes hardly shaded his light red
eyes: he was brief of stature, and as slender as he was short; the
softness of his features, and the roundness and flexibility of his
limbs, manifested his want of strength; his mild, but almost meaningless
physiognomy betrayed the want of judgment, courage, and all the more
manly virtues. His mind seemed to approach the feebler spark of animal
life, had it not been redeemed by an imagination of which he hardly
appeared conscious himself, but which raised him above many of the
brutal and rough peasants who despised him. Sometimes Castruccio laughed
at Euthanasia for keeping this strange creature about her, but she
defended herself, saying:

"Indeed, my lord, you must shew no disrespect towards this servant of
mine, and truly you will be little inclined to do so, when I have summed
up all his good qualities. First, he has by heart, ready to quote on any
suitable occasion, every prophecy that has been made since the time of
Adam, and knows all the vulgar expositions of the sacred texts. Then he
is an adept in the knowledge of sacred trees, fountains, and stones, the
flight of birds, lucky and unlucky days; he has an extensive
acquaintance with witches, astrologers, sorcerers, and _tempestarii_[5],
he knows every peculiar ceremony for remarkable days, how to celebrate
the calends of January, those of August, and the _Vindemie Nolane_; none
of our cattle are blest by St. Anthony until he has bound on their
crowns; the ceremonies attendant on the Nativity, Easter, and other
feasts, are all conducted under his guidance. He interprets all the
dreams of the castle, and foretells the point of time when to begin any
enterprise; he has a wonderful assortment of holy legends and strange
relics; such as a lock of Adam's hair, a little of the sawdust from
Noah's saw-pit when he clove the planks for the ark, a brick of the
tower of Babel, and a tooth of St. Theresa; he has presented many of
these to the priest of San Martino, and the people go and adore these
shreds and patches of religion with the veneration that its divine
morality alone demands. Although of a feminine and un-muscular form, he
is healthy; he is silent to a miracle; and among my noisy household he
alone flits about unheard, so much so that I have been assured that
grass yields not beneath his feet, and that he has no shadow; but you
can yourself ascertain that fact. I believe him to be faithful, yet I
think him to be attached to none, except the wild beings whom his
imagination invests with supernatural powers. But he is an excellent
guide for me in my various wanderings, since, as if he had a clue of
thread, he can find his unerring way amid the most pathless desarts and
forests. With all these wonderful acquirements he is generally disliked;
he is said to be the son of a witch, and to have a natural propensity to
evil; yet I have never heard of any ill act of his doing; although in
truth some strange events have taken place with regard to him, that look
as if he had communion with the spirits of air.

"I have said that he is attached to no one among us, yet I may be wrong.
If he is always near my person, it is because he seizes every moment,
when he is permitted to enter, to creep near me. Once, when I left him
here during a visit to Florence, be pined for some time, till every one
believed that he was about to die; and then taking a sudden resolution,
like a dog following the scent of his master, he departed on foot, and
in less than twenty-four hours, arrived half dead with fatigue at my
palace at Florence.

"I have another motive for being attached to him: he was a favourite of
my father. He found him when a child, in a village not far from
Florence, half starved, and ill treated by the country people; for he
could not work, and, being an orphan, was destitute of every resource;
the idea of his unholy parentage and his strange appearance, rendering
the country-people even malignantly inclined towards him. He loved my
father, and almost sunk to the grave with sorrow when he died; nor at
that time would he leave the room where I was, or if obliged to go, he
crept near the door crouching like a dog for the moment of admittance."

This being was now very busy amidst the preparations for the court;
preparations which engaged all the hands and all the heads of Valperga.
While the countess made provision for the entertainment of her guests,
her dependents practised the games and exercises with which they should
amuse the nobles: all was bustle and animation, but all was joy and good
humour. Castruccio and Euthanasia became dearer to each other, as he
perceived the pleasure he was able to bestow upon her by a compliance
with her wishes; and she felt gratitude for the delight she enjoyed,
towards him whom she fondly looked upon as its cause.


[Footnote 5: Persons supposed to have the power of commanding
the elements.]




CHAPTER XIII


_Euthanasia holds a Court._


As the day approached on which Euthanasia was to hold her court, her
castle became thronged with the nobility, wealth, and beauty of Tuscany
and Lombardy. She had wished indeed to make this a public union of the
two parties which distracted Italy; but she was so noted a Guelph that
few Ghibelines appeared, although some were attracted by the name of
Castruccio, to come under his escort, and in his company. First arrived
her uncle, the lord Radolfo di Casaregi; he was an old man, but he loved
to encircle his bare temples with an iron helmet, and to try his well
used sword against the unfleshed blades of the sons of his companions in
arms in days gone by. Then came the marquess Marcello Malespino of
Valdimagra, his wife, and three lovely daughters; they were accompanied
by three brothers of the Bondelmonti family of Florence: these claimed
affinity to the house of Adimari, and when by the laws of her country
Euthanasia was obliged to choose a guardian for her maiden state, she
had selected the eldest, count Bondelmonte de' Bondelmonti to be her
_Mondualdo_; this relationship had given rise to a sincere friendship,
which, although the difference of age was inconsiderable, and the same
reverence and obedience could never be felt or exercised, yet in some
sort was to Euthanasia in the stead of her dead parents. There arrived
soon after the chief members of the Pazzi, Donati, Visdomini,
Gianfigliazi, and other Guelph families of Florence; there was Alberti
count of Capraia, and all the numerous troop that claimed relationship
to him; and many others, both Bianchi and Neri, both Guelph and
Ghibeline, whose names it would be needless to detail.

Then arrived a multitude of _Uomini di Corte_; story-tellers,
_improvisatori_, musicians, singers, actors, rope-dancers, jugglers and
buffoons. The most distinguished among the first class was William
Borsiere[6]; a man of courteous yet frank manners, nice wit and keen
penetration: he was about forty years of age; but he had lost none of
the jovial temper of youth, and his generous and even noble disposition
made him more respected than men of his class usually were. There was
Bergamino, a man more caustic than Borsiere, but whose insinuating
address obtained pardon for his biting words; no one knew better than
Bergamino to cure the wounds his tongue had made. There was Andreuccio,
whose satirical mood and rough manners frequently drew upon him the
anger of the nobles on whose favour he depended; and he was so often
dismissed, disgraced and unrewarded, from the courts, where his
companions were loaded with presents, that, from his mean and sometimes
ragged appearance, and his snarling habits, he went by the name of the
_Cane Mendicante_. He wished to rival Borsiere and Bergamino who were
staunch friends, and endeavoured to make up for his lack of the more
delicate kind of wit by caustic sayings and contemptuous remarks. There
was Ildone, a foolish, smiling fellow, but who sang sorrowful airs with
so sweet and touching a voice, that, if you shut your eyes, you might
have imagined that St. Cecilia herself had descended to entrance the
world with heavenly melody.

Guarino, the _Improvisatore_, closed the list of the distinguished
_Uomini di Corte_. He was sought in every court in Lombardy for his
entertaining qualities: his tales displayed the fire of genius, and the
delicate observations of a lover of nature. But he was eaten up by
vanity and envy; he hated all those who were admired, from the princely
beauty who attracted all regards, down to the lowest buffoon at court.
If he were sought by the great, so much the more was he avoided by his
equals and inferiors; to the first he tricked himself out with a
flattering tongue, a mean and servile address, and gross adulation; for
the second he expressed hatred and contempt; and he tyrannized over the
last with a hand of iron. But all three classes might equally dread his
malignant calumnies, and hatred of all that was good. He spared no art,
no wit, no falsehood, to detract from merit, however exalted or lowly;
and so full was he of wiles, that he was seldom detected in his serpent
craft. He had been a Ghibeline, and at one time was imprisoned by the
Dominican inquisitors as a heretic; but now he surpassed all the
Italians in superstition and credulity; his friends said that he was
truly pious, his enemies that he was the most deceitful of hypocrites:
but the trait that sealed his character, was his intolerance and violent
persecution of his former heretical associates. Those who were most
indulgent said, that he had been first actuated by fear, and was now a
sincere convert; he himself pretended to attribute his conversion to a
miracle, and of such consequence was he in his own eyes, that he almost
affirmed that a saint from heaven had informed him, that the redemption
of mankind had been undertaken by the Almighty Saviour for his benefit
alone.

Many others followed and joined these; but they were a nameless
multitude, distinguished only for vulgar talents; some trying to raise a
laugh by folly, others by pert wit; many by manual jests upon each
other, in which innumerable were the blows given and received: they were
a strange set, and whether they were handsome or ugly, old or young,
agile or slow, expert or awkward, they turned even their defects to
account, and with a never-ceasing grin, thronged around the nobles,
forming a contrast to the dignified deportment and rich dresses of the
latter, by their supple and serpentine motions, strange gait, and motley
habiliments; some being ragged from lack of wit, others from detected
roguery, all regarding with the eagerness of starved curs the riches of
the castle, and the generosity of its mistress.

The court opened on the first of May; it was to last four days; and, on
the evening before, surrounded by her guests, Euthanasia issued forth
the laws for their amusements on the occasion: "The first day," said
she, "we will give to hunting and hawking; the country is well stocked
with game, and each guest has surely his falcon on his fist. I will
instal Antelminelli, the _liberatore_ of Lucca, king for that day; for
he has been in foreign countries, and has studied these amusements under
the best masters of the age; and I doubt not is well able to direct our
exertions, and secure us plentiful sport.

"The second day we will give up to our friends, the _Uomini di Corte_:
they shall do their best to please us, and to deserve the rewards in
store for them; certainly none will censure my choice, when I name
William Borsiere king of that day. Let him direct the exertions of the
rest, so that their tales, their songs, and their feats may succeed one
another in agreeable variety.

"On the third day the lists shall be set, and the knights will tilt for
the honour of their ladies' beauty; the conqueror shall receive as the
reward of his prowess the liberty of choosing the queen for the
following day, who will direct the sports of the ladies, and close with
their games the gaieties of my court."

A shout of applause followed the enunciation of these laws; and it was
declared by all, that no better could be devised for the promotion of
amusement among their joyful assembly.

On the first of May the sun arose in cloudless splendour. The steeds
richly caparisoned were led from the stable; the ladies were mounted on
gentle palfreys, and were followed by the esquires, holding the hawks,
or with the dogs in leash; others sounding the awakening horn, while the
air resounded with voices which called the idlers from their rooms, and
said that the hunter deserved no game, who was not with the first
a-field to brush the morning dew from the grass. Euthanasia headed a
chosen band supreme in beauty; her soft and enthusiastic eyes now
sparkled with joy, which the fair expanse of her smooth brow shewed to
be yet uninvaded by the fang of a bitter sorrow; a smile hovered on her
beautiful lips, like Love playing among the leaves of a rose; her golden
hair shone under the sunbeams, and clustered round her neck white as
marble, and, like that enriched by many a wandering vein, eclipsing the
jewels of her dress; her motions, free as the winds, and graceful as an
antelope of the south, appeared more than human in their loveliness;
and, when she awoke the air with her silver voice, silence seemed on the
watch to drink in the sound.

And now away!----They rode down the steep on which the castle stood, to
a chesnut wood, and thence along a plain covered with brushwood: all was
alive and gay; the huntsmen called to their dogs;--the knights reined in
their restless steeds;--and the ladies with animated gestures, laughing
looks, and upturned eyes, watched the flight of their birds, and betted
upon their speed.

When noon approached, they became heated and tired, and looked around
for a shady spot where they might repose. Castruccio rode forward, and
said:--"I should ill deserve the honour of being king of this day, if I
suffered my fair subjects to wander as in a desart without refreshment
or repose--follow me!"

They entered a chesnut wood; and, after riding about half a mile, they
came to a small plot of ground, encircled by trees, and protected from
the heat by canopies which ware fastened to the boughs: a magnificent
repast was prepared in this retreat; a profusion of wines glittered in
glass vessels; the tables were piled with every delicate sweetmeat, as
well as with the more substantial fare of flesh and fowl.

The esquires having fastened their falcons to the branches of the trees,
and covered their eyes with the hood, seized the large carving knives,
and began their ministry; while the joyous band seated themselves on the
cushions that had been provided for their accommodation.

After the repast was ended, they reposed under this delicious shade,
watching the changeful shadows of the trees, and listening to the songs
of the birds--"How delightful it would be," cried Calista di Malespino,
"if Ildone or Guarino were here, whose songs rival the sweetest birds!"

"To-morrow these men will display their talents," said Castruccio;
"to-day we must amuse ourselves." Then clapping his hands, several
servants brought forward musical instruments, such as were then in
fashion, unlike in form those now used, but which in sound and
construction might be compared to the lute, the harp, the guitar, and
the flute. Many of the company had sweet voices; some who came from
Genoa, sang the romances of the Provençal minstrels; the Florentines
sang the canzones of Dante, or chosen passages from the Teroretto of his
master, Ser Brunetto Latini, or indeed stanzas of their own composing,
for the Florentines were an ingenious race, and few among the nobles had
passed the boundary between youth and age, without having indited more
than one sonnet to his mistress's eyebrow: the inhabitants of each
separate town had a favourite poet, whose verses they now rehearsed.

Thus the time passed, till the sun descended, and the lengthening
shadows told them that the heat was gone, and the light of day well nigh
spent; when they mounted their horses, and rode towards the castle along
the skirts of the chesnut wood. The high Apennines were still white with
snow; and, as evening came on, a refreshing breeze blew across the
plain, and sang among the branches of the trees,--at a distance was
heard the murmuring of the Serchio, as it travelled along in its
unwearied course; the air was perfumed by a thousand scents, for the
grass was mowing, and bathed the element in sweetness. From out one
copse a nightingale poured forth its melodious notes, singing as it were
to one lone star that peered through the glowing sunset; Arrigo taking
his flute drew a responsive strain which the sweet bird strove to
imitate, while the cavalcade passed silently along. Darkness closed
around, and the first fire-flies of summer issued from their deep green
bowers among the bushes, and darted forth their gentle, ineffectual
flame, skimming over the fields, which, as a phosphoric sea, or as a
green heaven of evershifting planets, now was dark, and again thickly
studded by these stars. The glow-worm on the ground slowly trailed his
steady light; a few bats flew from the rocks; and the regular moan of
the Agiolo wheeled about the trees, and spoke of fine days to come. As
the home-ward hunters ascended the mountain, the breeze died away, and a
breathless stillness pervaded the atmosphere; Euthanasia rode near
Castruccio; her sweet countenance bespoke a deeper joy than mere gaiety,
and her wild eyes shone with her emotion. She had thrown her capuchin
over her head; and her face, fair as the moon encircled by the night,
shone from beneath the sable cowl, while her golden locks twined
themselves round her neck: Castruccio gazed on her, and would have given
worlds to have embraced her, and to print on her glowing cheek a kiss of
love; he dared not,--but his heart swelled with joy, when she turned to
him with an affectionate smile, and he whispered his heart--"She is
mine."

The second day William Borsiere was prepared to amuse the guests by his
own and his companions' talents. His task was more difficult to perform
than that of Castruccio, for his materials were not so easy to be
controled as hawks and hounds. Guarino was mortally offended by the
choice of Euthanasia with regard to the king of the day, and declared
that he had a cold, and could not sing. Nothing but his intolerable
vanity vanquished his sullenness; for, when he found that, upon his
refusal, Borsiere passed him by, and that his ill humour would only
punish himself by consigning him to obscurity, he consented to be
numbered among the recruits of the day. Andreuccio was less tractable,
for he was less vain; and it was sheer avarice that caused his anger,
when he imagined that Borsiere would be the best paid of the company; he
absolutely refused to perform his part in story-telling, but reserved
his wit for endeavours to turn to ridicule the amusements and exertions
of his favoured rival.

In the morning at break of day, each fair lady was awakened by a song,
bidding her arise and eclipse the sun; and, as he awoke, and gave life
to the flowers and fruits of the earth, so must she spread her benign
influence over the hearts of men. The guests assembled in the hall of
the castle, which was hung with festoons of evergreens and flowers; and,
as they sat, an invisible concert was played, and, between the pauses of
the music, a strain of rich melody broke upon the air, that by its
unrivalled sweetness betrayed that the singer was Ildone, who, thus
concealed, could wrap the soul in Elysium, while his presence must have
destroyed the enchantment.

After the music, they were conducted to a small amphitheatre,
constructed on the little green platform before the castle, where they
were amused by the tricks of the jugglers, sleight of hand, fire-eating,
rope-dancing, and every prank that has been known from the shores of the
Ganges to those of the Thames, from the most distant periods, even down
to our own times. After these had displayed their arts, a number of the
peasantry of Valperga presented themselves to run at the ring. Three
pieces of cloth, and two of silk, the prizes for the various games,
streamed from the props that supported the amphitheatre. Two poles were
erected, and a string was attached to these, on which were strung three
rings. A peasant on horseback, with his lance in rest, galloped past in
a line parallel to the string, endeavouring to catch the three rings on
the point of his lance; the first, second and third failed,--the fourth
was more successful; he caught the three rings, and bore off the piece
of scarlet-cloth as his prize. A wrestling match succeeded, a foot-race,
and then a horse-race; the prizes were distributed by Borsiere; and
then, it being noon, the company adjourned to their mid-day meal.

It were needless to enumerate the dainties that made their appearance;
Borsiere resolved that the feast neither of the preceding, nor of the
two following days, should exceed his; and, having been often regaled at
the tables of the most luxurious princes of Europe, he now displayed the
skill that he had there acquired, in the directions he gave to the ruder
cooks of Euthanasia. When every one had satisfied his appetite, the
conversation flagged, and the eyes of the ladies wandered round in
search of new amusement. Borsiere appeared at the head of his party;
Bergamino, Guarino, Ildone and a score others of less fame came forward;
while Andreuccio edged in sideways, neither choosing to join, nor be
left out, of the company. Advancing in a courteous manner, Borsiere
intreated the company to follow him: they all rose, each lady attended
by her cavalier. Borsiere had been bred at courts, and knew how to
marshal them with the science of a seneschal; as they quitted the hall,
they, as by magic, fell each into his proper place, and every noble dame
felt that neither could she have preceded the person before her, nor
would she have gone behind the one who followed her. Thus, in courtly
guise, they proceeded through several passages of the castle, till they
quitted it by a small postern; the rocky face of the mountain rose, as I
have already said, immediately behind the castle, and almost overhung
the battlements; but this postern opened on the little winding staircase
I have before mentioned, that, cut in the rock, enabled them to scale
the precipice; they ascended therefore, and before they could feel
fatigued, they came to a small platform of turf-covered rock, which
Borsiere had prepared for their accommodation, The fountain, that gushed
from a cleft, trickled down with a gentle murmur, and filled the basin
prepared to receive it with its clear and sparkling liquid. This
fountain had, like many other springs of those mountains, peculiar
qualities: in summer it was icy cold, and in winter it became warmer and
warmer as the temperature of the air decreased, until on the frosty
mornings of December it smoked in its passage down the rock. To preserve
the waters of this basin from the rains, Euthanasia had, as already
mentioned, built an alcove over it, supported by small columns; this was
a favourite retreat of our young mountain-nymph; and Borsiere had
adorned it for the occasion with a master's hand. The boughs of the
trees were bent down, and fastened to the rock, or to the roof of the
alcove, and then, being interlaced with other boughs, formed a web on
which he wove a sky of flowers, which shut out the sun's rays, and,
agitated by the gentlest airs, cast forth the most delicate scents: the
artificer of the bower had despoiled an hundred gardens to decorate only
the floor of the platform, forming a thousand antic devices with the
petals of various flowers. Anemones, narcissi, daffodils, hyacinths,
lilies of the valley, and the earliest roses, had all lent their hues,
making a brief mosaic of these lovely and fragile materials; and the
white columns of the alcove shone in the midst of this splendid shew in
elegant simplicity. Seats were placed round in a semicircle for the
company; from hence they could behold the whole country; the platform
was so high, that it surmounted the battlements of the castle, and they
viewed the entire plain of Lucca, its defiles and woody hills, and the
clear Serchio that loitered on its way across it. An exclamation of
delight burst from all lips, as they entered this flowery paradise,
where every gay colour of nature was heaped about in rich and lovely
profusion, while the deep green of the ilex trees, the soft and fan-like
foliage of the acacia, mingled with the shining foliage of the laurel,
bay and myrtle, relieved the eye from any glare of colours. The joyous
company sat down; and Borsiere, coming forward, announced, that he and
his companions were ready to present the assembly with their songs and
tales; Euthanasia accepted the offer in the name of her guests; and
Guarino first shewed himself: that he should be the first to attract the
attention of the noble guests had been the bribe which won him to forget
his hoarseness, and, having entered upon his task, there was no doubt
that his vanity would induce him to exert his utmost powers to surpass
his companions.

He sang extempore verses on the event of the late war with Florence,
changing his notes, from the hurry of battle, to the wailing for the
dead, and then to the song of triumph, whose thrilling melody
transported the hearers with admiration. Then, leaving this high theme,
he described himself as Dante descending to hell; but, as he had
ventured thither without a guide, rude Charon had refused him a passage,
and he only saw the wandering ghosts of those recently dead, and some
few who bewailed their unburied bones, as they flitted about the dreary
coast. Here he found Manfred, who, addressing him, told him that he was
now paying, and hereafter would more painfully pay, the deadly penalty
for his many crimes--"Well did they for me, and benignly," he cried,
"who cast my bones from their unhallowed sepulchre; for now I wander
here untormented; but, when the cycle of an hundred years is fulfilled,
and I pass that dark river, fire and torture await me, dire punishment
for my resistance to the Holy Father." And then continuing, he sent a
message to his friends on earth, bidding them repent; and Guarino
introduced into this the bitter gall of his sharp and cruel satire
against his enemies. He ended; and small applause followed, for he had
offended many who were present by his strictures, and few could
sympathize in the deep malignity of his anathemas.

He was followed by the story-tellers, who repeated various anecdotes and
tales which they had collected in their rambles; they seldom invented a
new story; but an old one well told, or some real occurrence dressed up
with romantic ornaments, formed the subjects of their narratives.


[Footnote 6: See Boccaccio: _Giornata_ I. _Novella_ 8.]




CHAPTER XIV


_Euthanasia's Court continued.--Pepi arrives._


Castruccio had not joined the amusements of the day; for he had returned
to Lucca, and assembled his council to deliberate on some knotty
question in the Lucchese policy. Having dispatched this weighty affair,
he mounted his horse, and turned his head the accustomed road to the
castle of Valperga. As he quitted the gate of the town, he heard a voice
behind calling him; and, reining in his horse, he saw approach at a
tremendously high trot, Benedetto the Rich of Cremona. Although at some
distance he instantly recognized his old fellow-traveller, by his
uncouth dress which was still unchanged, his high shoulders, strait back
and bent in knees. Pepi, approaching with a humble salutation, said that
he had affairs of importance to communicate to the noble consul of
Lucca, and intreated him to give him audience.

"Willingly," said Castruccio: "I am going to ride to yonder castle; do
you accompany me; we will discourse on the way; and when there you will
find hospitality as well as I."

"You must check your steed then," said Pepi, "for mine will hardly
gallop after the hard day's journey he has had."

They rode on together, and Pepi seemed oppressed by a weighty secret,
which he longed, yet did not know how, to disclose. He praised the
fortifications of Lucca, the fertility of its plain, and its mountains,
those inexpensive barriers against the incursions of enemies; and then
he paused,--coughed,--scolded his horse,--and sunk into silence.

"And now," asked Castruccio, "what is this affair of importance
concerning which you would speak to me?"

"Ah! _Messer lo Console_, it is a matter of such consequence that I
hardly know how to disclose it; and methinks you are in too merry a mood
to listen with requisite attention, so for the present I will waive the
subject."

"As you please; but, when we arrive at yonder castle, we shall find
little opportunity to talk of business; for amusement and gaiety are
there the order of the day."

"Gaiety!--Well; it perhaps will do my heart good to see merry faces once
again; I have seen few of them since you were on the donjon of my
palace. Cremona has not yet recovered its cruel siege and storm; many of
its palaces still lie in their ashes; and many good and fertile acres
have been sold at a low rate, to trim the despoiled apartments in the
guise they once were. Yet the Guelphs have again attained the upper hand
there; my townsmen are proud and rebellious, and have not acquired
through their misfortunes the humility of poverty, which sits better on
a subject than the insolence of prosperity. Were I a prince, all my
subjects should be poor; it makes them obedient towards their master,
and daring towards their foes, on whose spoils they depend for riches.
Yet, alas! so obstinate is man in his wickedness, that, as we see in
Cremona, famine, fire and slaughter cannot tame their factious spirits."

"Ah! Messer Benedetto, you are ever the same; you have neither changed
your dress nor opinions since I saw you last; ever immersed in
politics."

"Indeed, my good lord, I am fuller of those than ever, and that of
necessity; as, when you hear what I have to say, you will perceive. Ah!
the Cremonese are still proud, though they ought to be humble; yet a
small power might now easily overcome them, for they are thinking more
how to replant their burnt vineyards, than to resist their lawful
prince. Sovereigns make war in a strangely expensive way, when they
collect armies and man fleets against a country: a dozen bold fellows
with fire-brands, when all the town is asleep in their beds, will do as
well to the full, as an hundred thousand armed men by broad day-light: a
well timed burning of harvests is a better chastiser of rebels, than an
army headed by all the sovereigns of Europe. I was ever an admirer of
the Hebrew warrior who sent foxes with torches to their tails among the
enemy's corn; these are sleights of war that are much neglected, but
which are of inestimable benefit."

"Messer Benedetto, I listen with admiration to your wisdom; but trust
the word of a friend, and do not talk thus openly in yonder castle; or
if you cannot rein your tongue now, turn your horse's head towards
Lucca. They are Guelphs up here."

"Strange company for me to enter; for in Cremona I never cap to a
Guelph, whoever he may be; but if you, my lord, are safe, surely so am
I, and trust Benedetto Pepi for discretion. You are I believe my friend,
and a Ghibeline; and, being now lord of this noble country, you can well
judge of the truth of my remarks. As it is I am glad to enter the
company of Guelphs, and glad to find that you are well with them; for it
is always expedient to have a spy in the enemy's camp."

If Castruccio had not fully understood the eccentric mood of his
companion, he might have been offended at this speech; and even now he
felt his cheek flush at the name of spy being thus as it were applied to
him; but he replied laughing; "Aye, Messer Benedetto, there will be fine
sport for you; the lady of the castle is holding a court, and to-morrow
we have a tournament; will you not enter the lists against these
priest-ridden knights?"

"Not the less powerful for being priest-ridden; not the less powerful if
they were priests themselves; as I well know to my misfortune, having
been beaten almost to death by a young canon who was my enemy; and that
took place many years ago, when I was younger, and more active than I am
now. But I was revenged; aye, Benedetto Pepi was never yet injured in a
hair of his head, but the heart's anguish of his enemy paid for it."

Pepi looked at his companion with the elevated brows of triumph and
vanity, while his sharp eyes spoke, not ferocity, but successful
cunning. Castruccio regarded him with a glance of distrust, which he did
not observe, but continued:--"This young rascal had been forced into the
priestly dress, but had not yet made vows, when he resolved to supplant
me with a rich, young heiress whom I intended to marry. I was well off
in the world, with a good estate, and a noble palace, so the father gave
his consent, and all went on prosperously; till this roguish priest laid
a plot for my destruction. He waylaid me on the wedding day, as I was
conducting the bride to my own house; she loved him, and left me; aye,
at the first whistle of this brave dame-hunter I felt her snatch her
hand from mine, and saw her throw herself into his arms. I resisted,
more as an angry, than a wise man, for they were armed, and I
defenceless: so, as I told you, the villain beat me, till I was carried
home nearly dead from the blows I received. During my recovery, as I lay
there in my bed, my bones aching with the bruises I had received, I
formed my plan of revenge, which I carried on, till he and she, and his
kin and her kin, knelt to me for mercy; but I did not bend, and was most
gloriously revenged. And now where is he? a grey-haired wretch; old
before his time, rotting in the dungeons of the Inquisition. She has
long been dead; of grief, they say,--at least she never enjoyed a moment
with her paramour."

Castruccio started, as he heard the devilish confession of his
companion. He did not reply; but he no longer felt that careless
amusement which he had formerly done, in his conversation and uncouth
manners; but watched him warily as if he had been an old and wrinkled
serpent, whose fangs had fallen to decay, but whose venom still lurked
in his toothless gums.

Pepi rode on, unconscious of the emotions he had excited; he imagined
that he had just recited the finest passage of his life. For this old
craftsman was folly impregnated with the Italian policy, which has
stained the history of her lords and princes with the foul blots of
fraud and cruelty: he did not admire the conqueror of a nation (although
that were almost an object of adoration to him), so much as he
worshipped the contriver of frauds, the base intriguer, who, not by the
open combat of power and passion, but by dastardly and underhand means,
brings his enemy on his knees before him.

When they arrived at the castle, they were conducted to the fountain of
the rock, and Castruccio introduced Pepi to the company. The Cremonese
bowed to the fair countess; and then darted his quick glances around, to
discover if he knew any of the company; many he had seen before, and he
could not help muttering as he seated himself--"Guelphs to the core! a
pretty nest of hornets this!"

The company in the mean time were examining with curious eyes the garb
and manners of their visitor. His dress was more shabby than that of the
poorest of the jugglers; for he had not brought his gold-fringed cloak
with him on this occasion; and, but for the introduction of Castruccio,
and the gold spurs which he wore, he would have hazarded the disgrace of
being dismissed to the company of the valets of the castle. Pepi
observed their contempt, and addressed them as follows.

"For you, noble lords and ladies, who with upturned lips sneer at my
homely garb, listen to my story, and do not despise my words, because
they are those of a Ghibeline. You shine in silk, and jewels, and costly
furs; I am clothed in sheep-skin and sclavina, and perhaps my capuchin
may have a hole in its well worn texture; but look at my golden spurs; I
am a knight, and have a palace, and a tower, and a good horse, as an
Italian nobleman should have. Now listen, and then tell me whether I am
right or wrong, in not throwing away the produce of my fields in
trinkets and trumpery.

"I dare say that you all know, that there was once an emperor of the
West, called Charlemagne. He was a great conqueror, and during his life
lorded it nobly over all Europe, even from the tepid waters of the
Mediterranean to the frozen Baltic sea; Italy did not murmur against his
sway, and Germany was obliged to submit to the force of his arms. It was
a glorious thing to see this great prince ride out among his followers,
clothed, as I may be, in common skins, and greater than the meanest
soldier in his camp only through his superior prowess and wisdom. But
the nobles of his court were such as the nobles have continued to be to
this day; and the money they should have kept for the maintenance of
their followers, and the furniture and works of war, they expended upon
dress and foppery.

"One day Charlemagne was at the town of Fugolano, clothed as I have said
in a well worn vest of fox's fur, and his only jewel the well-tempered
blade of his trusty sword. The courtiers gathered round this royal
eagle, and he was indignant at heart to view their tawdry attire: they
had just come from Pavia, which place, then as now, the Venetians made
the mart for all the rich merchandize they brought from the East. They
were dressed with every extravagance of luxury; they wore tippets of the
feathers of Phœnician birds, lined with silk; robes of rich brocade,
trimmed with the feathers of the back and neck of peacocks. Their
flowing cloaks of fur were made of the skins of a thousand minute
animals, brought from the wilds of Tartary, and in their caps they had
jewels and feathers of extraordinary price. Thus they jutted up and down
before their master, fancying that he would admire them, he who loved a
well hacked helmet, boots bespattered with riding after fugitive
enemies, a blood-stained sword, and a spirited war horse, more than ten
armies of such fair-weather birds. 'Come, my brave comrades,' cried the
emperor, 'we have no battle and no siege to amuse us; and the gloomy day
with its drizzling rain makes the quiet of my palace irksome to me;
mount your steeds and let us away to the chase.'

"It had been a fine sight, to see the courtiers, as they gave a last
pitying glance to their gay dresses, and bestrode their horses to follow
their master. He led the way; no ditch or hedge or thick cover of
copse-wood, could obstruct his path; his noble steed surmounted all, and
every bramble had rich spoils from his companions: silk, fur, and
feathers strewed the ground, and hung on the thorns by the roadside;
what escaped the dangers of land, was shipwrecked by water, for the rain
wetted them to the skin, and the materials of their clothes, in losing
their gloss, had lost all their value.

"When they returned, they bitterly complained among themselves for the
losses they had sustained: the emperor was advised of their murmurs, and
sent to command their attendance. They obeyed, and approached his throne
in a guise much unlike the gay figure they had exhibited in the morning;
their feathers broken, their jewels lost, their silk torn, and their
furs, which had been wet, and afterwards dried by the fire, were shrunk,
disfigured and spoiled. 'Oh, most foolish mortals!' cried Charlemage,
'how are these furs precious or useful? Mine cost only a few pence;
yours cost not only silver, but many pounds of gold!'"

Pepi ended his most apposite tale by a laugh of triumph; and it might
easily be perceived that some of the young nobles were by no means
pleased with the uncouth manners of their teacher. But the sun had now
set, and the bell of the _Ave Maria_ rung from the chapel of Valperga;
so the company descended the rock, and joined in the devotions of the
priest, who celebrated vespers, attended by all the more humble guests
of the castle.

In the evening several mimes were represented under the direction of
Borsiere. No nation can excel the Italians in the expression of passion
by the language of gesture alone, or in the talent of extemporarily
giving words to a series of action which they intend to represent; even
in those ruder times they were able to draw tears from the audience, or
shake them with convulsions of laughter. The actors now at the castle,
first performed the touching story of Palamon and Arcite, and afterwards
the favourite tale of the loves of Troilus and Cressida, and told with
animated action the story of the ill repaid constancy of the worthy
knight of Troy, and the black treachery of the faithless Cressida; so
that few eyes were undimmed with tears, when this unhappy knight, who
had sought death in vain, but who survived his country and his friends,
was supposed to stand beside the half choked cistern of a once often
visited fountain among the ruins and burnt palaces of Troy, and to
behold Cressida, in a mean garb, and deformed by disease, bearing a
heavy pitcher on her head, come to draw water from the spring; and every
bosom thrilled at the bitter grief of Troilus, and the humble repentance
and heart-felt self-reproaches of his once wanton mistress, as, calling
for pardon, she died. To relieve the company from their painful
sympathy, the mimes came forward to act the antic pantomimes of the day:
these were neither very decent nor very clever; a miller and a priest
were over-reached in their love, and were left shivering in the snow
during a winter-night, while two young students of Bologna, whom the
other worthies had combined to trick, enjoyed that for which in their
dreary condition they ardently pined. Night had now run half its course;
and the company retired, after bestowing the praises well due to
Borsiere's successful exertions.

The next morning before daylight Castruccio heard some one enter his
apartment. It was Pepi, who approached his bed, and said: "My lord, I
come to take my leave of you. After what passed last night, you may well
believe that the young countess would rather not count me among her
guests. I am about to return to Cremona, but would first ask you,
whether you would not prefer that a staunch friend of yours should be
lord of that town, than that it should remain in the hands of the
people, who have become Guelphs and traitors, body and soul?"

Castruccio's thoughts instantly fixed on Galeazzo Visconti, or Cane
della Scala, as the promised lord of Cremona; and he replied eagerly:
"Messer Benedetto, you would do me an inestimable benefit, if by any
means, either in your power, or with which you are acquainted, you could
place the government of your town in the hands of one of my friends."

"And are you prepared to assist in such an undertaking?"

"Now I cannot; but I have promised to be in Lombardy at the end of the
month of July. In August I will visit you at Cremona; and, if you will
disclose to me the contrivers and instruments of this change,--"

"Now I can tell you nothing. Come to me on the fifteenth of August,
alone, or with but one attendant; but come not with the shew of a
prince; on that day, at five o'clock in the evening, you will meet a
person on the bridge of the rivulet you cross about half a mile from
Cremona; say to him the word, Lucca, and he will conduct you to my
palace by an obscure way, and then I will disclose every thing to you.
As you may not be able to command your time to a day, I will wait for
you one month, until the fifteenth of September; then if you do not
appear, the enterprise must proceed by other means. During this interval
promise me inviolable secrecy."

"What, may I not tell----?"

"No living soul must hear of this--If you impart that with which I have
intrusted you, my plan must instantly fail. I trust to your discretion."

"It is well, Messer Benedetto," replied Castruccio, recalling to mind
the impressions of the preceding evening, and gazing on his companion
with distrust: "I do not clearly understand your plans, and cannot
promise to assist in them; but I assure you of my secrecy, and that you
shall see me before the fifteenth of September."

"I am satisfied; farewel. The stars are disappearing, and I would reach
your town before sunrise."

Pepi departed with a brow of care; while every heart in the castle of
Valperga was light, and every countenance expressed gaiety. This was the
third day of the court, the day for which a tournament had been
proclaimed. But it would be tedious to dilate on the remainder of these
ceremonies, and from what has been related a judgement may be formed of
those which were yet to come.

The summer months passed on, and the time approached when Castruccio had
promised Galeazzo Visconti to meet him at Rovigo. Euthanasia desired
during the autumn to revisit her native city, from which she had been
long absent. They agreed to journey thither together; and on
Castruccio's return from Lombardy their long delayed marriage was to
take place.




END OF VOLUME I.


VALPERGA:

OR, THE
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
OF
CASTRUCCIO,
PRINCE OF LUCCA.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "FRANKENSTEIN."

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR G. AND W. B. WHITTAKER,
AVE-MARIA-LANE.

1823.

PRINTED BY RICHARD TAYLOR,
SHOE-LANE, LONDON.




CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
_Conference of Castruccio and Galeazzo Visconti--of
Castruccio and the Bishop of Ferrara._

CHAPTER II
_Parentage of Beatrice.--She is arrested by
the Inquisition._

CHAPTER III
_Judgement of God.--Revolution of Ferrara._

CHAPTER IV
_Fall of Beatrice._

CHAPTER V
_Visit to Pepi at Cremona._

CHAPTER VI
_Galeazzo Visconti at Florence.--Castruccio and
Euthanasia meet at Valperga: Doubts and
Reserve._

CHAPTER VII
_Castruccio exiles three hundred Families from
Lucca--Visits at Valperga--His Character
further developed._

CHAPTER VIII
_Beatrice, disguised as a Pilgrim, visits Valperga.--Castruccio
relates her Story._

CHAPTER IX
_Castruccio plots the Assassination of Robert
King of Naples.--Made Prince of Lucca.--Declares
War against Florence.--Plot
for a Revolution in Lucca defeated.--Castruccio
summons Valperga._

CHAPTER X
_Castruccio reconnoitres for a Surprise.--Embassy
of Tripalda._

CHAPTER XI
_Valperga taken._

CHAPTER XII
_Euthanasia at Lucca._




VALPERGA




CHAPTER I


_Conference of Castruccio and Galeazzo Visconti--of
Castruccio and the Bishop of Ferrara._


When Castruccio and Euthanasia arrived at Florence, they found the
citizens celebrating a festival: the bells were ringing; the country
people were flocking into the town; and the youths of both sexes, of the
highest rank, and richly dressed, were parading the streets, covered
with wreaths of flowers, and singing the poems of Dante, or his friend
Guido, to the accompaniment of many instruments. Castruccio said: "I
must ask you, fair Euthanasia, who are so learned in Florentine customs,
to inform me of the meaning of this gaiety."

"Indeed, I am entirely ignorant. I know that during peace joyful
meetings take place every May, among the young nobility; but this seems
a general festivity. Let us ask that grave gentleman in the black
capuchin, if he knows the reason of a merriment, which at least has not
communicated itself to his face."

The man, on being asked, replied: "You must be but lately arrived, not
to have heard of the cause of our rejoicings; the Florentines, Madonna,
are celebrating the occurrence of a most favourable omen with which God
and St. John have blest our city. Yesterday one of the lionesses kept at
the expence of the republic, brought forth five whelps."

"And is this the momentous occasion of so much serious amusement?" asked
Castruccio, laughing.

"My lord," said the man, "you are a stranger in this town; or you would
not find cause for laughter in this event. The Florentines keep a number
of lions, as the signs and symbols of their strength; and God and St.
John have plainly manifested on many occasions, that the prosperity of
Florence, and the welfare of the lions are bound together. Three of the
finest and largest died on the eve of the fatal battle of Monte Catini."

"So these wise republicans, whom you, dear Euthanasia, so much vaunt,
believe in these childish omens. I would wager my best charger, that
their records are full of the influence of stars, and the appearance of
comets!"

"And I do not at all know that you would lose: indeed their noblest
citizens have a great faith in astrology and portents. If you speak of a
scarcity, they will tell of a meteor; if you say that the king of France
has lost a battle, they will assure you that the whole kingdom has
become, by the will of God and St. John, weaker and more miserable, ever
since Philippe le Bel seized upon the Florentine usurers. We love to
find a cause for every event, believing that, if we can fit but one link
to another, we are on the high road for discovering the last secrets of
nature. You smile at the celebration of the birth of these lion's
whelps; yet I own that it pleases me; how innocent, yet how active, must
the imagination of that people be, who can find cause for universal joy
in such an event!

"It is this same imagination more usefully and capaciously employed,
that makes them decree the building of the most extensive and beautiful
building of modern times. The men who have conceived the idea, and
contributed their money towards the erection of the Duomo, will never
see its completion; but their posterity will, and, if they be not
degenerate, will glory in the noble spirit of their ancestors. Many
years ago, when the Florentines warred with the Siennese, they took by
storm a tower of great strength, which commanded a most important pass.
They destroyed the tower; and, when half demolished, they filled it up
with earth, and planted there an olive tree, which still flourishes, an
emblem of the peace which would follow their conquests."

Castruccio staid only a few days at Florence; and, recommending himself
to the constancy and love of Euthanasia, he took an affectionate leave
of her, and hastened on his journey to Rovigo, where he had promised to
join Galeazzo Visconti.

Galeazzo, having now succeeded to his father in the tyranny of Milan,
was the most powerful chief of Lombardy. He was about thirty-five years
of age: he had all the characteristics of an Italian face, arched brows,
black eyes, an aquiline nose, and a figure where there was some strength
and little grace. He had a great portion of talent, quickness in the
combination of plans, yet not sufficient patience to watch their
progress, or perseverance to carry them through. He was crafty,
ambitious, and vain; yet, where his own interests were not concerned, he
was good-natured, and on all occasions exceeded even the Italians in the
courtesy of his demeanour. He had seen much of the world, and suffered
many misfortunes; this gave him a pliancy of disposition, as well as of
manner, which made him appear more kind-hearted than he really was; for
in truth he never for a moment lost sight of his own interest; and, if
he sometimes wandered from the path which led to its attainment, want of
judgement, and not of inclination, caused the error.

He wished to attach Castruccio to his party and designs. He saw in him
the head of the Ghibeline faction in Tuscany, and the tamer of his
Florentine enemies. He felt that his own situation was precarious; but,
if he could gain Castruccio for his ally, he hoped to awe his enemies.
More than all, he desired the destruction of the Guelph strong-hold,
Florence; and Castruccio was to become its destroyer. He heard of his
peace with that city with dismay; he trusted it could not last; but the
very name of it blasted his hopes. He wished to see the consul, and to
win him to the plan which he had conceived would conduct to the full
ascendancy of the Ghibelines; and, circumstances leading him to Rovigo,
he had intreated Castruccio to visit him there, making the intended
restoration of Ferrara to the marquess of Este the pretence of this
request.

The friends met with every demonstration of regard. Galeazzo watched
with care every word, by which Castruccio might reveal his intentions,
before he would venture to communicate his own wishes. Their first topic
of conversation was the immediate business before them, the restoration
of the marquess Obizzo to the sovereignty of Ferrara. "This town," said
Galeazzo, "which so long obeyed the Este family, is now in the hands of
the Guelphs, and the vicar of the Pope, with a couple of hundred Gascon
soldiers for a garrison, keeps possession of it. The people, fleeced by
the excellent policy of the Roman court, whose first, second, and third
maxim is to fill its own coffers, eagerly desire the restoration of
their rightful prince. We have often thought of besieging the town; but
that would be a long and expensive business, and even its success would
be doubtful; for, if the Ghibelines raised their war-cry, all the Guelph
foxes would unearth themselves and have at them, and you know that our
lands are much overstocked by this vermin. Stratagem is a surer and a
far easier mode of warfare, and not half so bloody as the regular way;
we have so many friends within the walls, that I doubt not we should
succeed, if a proper communication were established between us. The
bishop, who, though a churchman, is our sure friend, sent us a message
some days ago, which, although mystically worded, seemed to say that he
would betray the town into our hands, if we would commission one of our
chiefs to treat with him; for he refused to disclose his project to an
underling. Now, you, my good friend, must undertake this task; we are
all of us too well known to get admission into the city; but a slight
disguise will take you safely past their guards, and I doubt neither of
the bishop Marsilio's power or inclination."

Castruccio acceded to his friend's request; and in the evening he was
introduced to the marquess of Este, who received him with deference and
distinction.

The next morning, when he and Galeazzo rode out together, Galeazzo said:
"I am sure, my dear Castruccio, I can never shew myself sufficiently
grateful for your kindness in quitting Lucca at my request, and
wandering away from your government, which I ardently hope will not
suffer from your absence. But I feel less remorse, since the truce you
have concluded with Florence must afford you some leisure."

"Not a truce, but a better thing; I have concluded a peace."

"Aye, a truce, or a peace; it is the same thing; either will be
sufficiently short-lived."

"Are you then so deep-read in the counsels of the enemy, that you know
how and when this peace will change to war?"

"I am deep-read in nothing, my friend, but the politics and changes of
Italy; and I have suffered by them enough, and mixed with them
sufficiently, to foresee their issue a long way off. Fire and water will
make as kindly coalition as Guelph and Ghibeline, Bianchi and Neri.
Their interests are at war, and therefore so must they be. But why do I
say this to you, who have every prospect of being Imperial Vicar in
Tuscany; and think you that peace is the pilot to that haven?"

"My dear Galeazzo, let us understand one another; I am a Ghibeline,
faithful to my party and the emperor; and, if I thought there were a
fair chance of suppressing the Neri, by the Holy Face of Lucca[1], I
would make a crusade against them, such as has not been seen in the
world since the days of Saladin. Let the emperor come to Italy, and
something may be done; but why carry on a petty warfare, which destroys
the country, and starves the peasant, while it hardly takes a florin
from the coffers of the Florentine merchants, or advances us one inch
nearer the goal we desire to reach?"

"And is this the end of the dreams of triumph and dominion with which
you entered Lucca three years ago? And now that you have the government
of that town of oranges and lemons, the mighty aim of your life is
accomplished, and you are ready to sleep upon your acquisition, calling
yourself a great man?"

"In truth there is little time or place to sleep at Lucca. Do you think
that I shall be idle, while a dozen rebel castles hold out against me
which must be subdued? Let me conquer them first; let me see no enemy
for many miles round; and then we will talk of Florence."

"Nay, my friend, you must leave nothing to the decision of
circumstances; a wise man foresees and provides for all. Florence must
one day be yours; and you, prince of Tuscany, of Italy, if you will,
will give laws to us all. Do not start; among so many prophecies as we
have of Merlin and the rest, I venture to make one more; and, like most
others, let its announcement contribute to its completion. My dear
Castruccio, this is no child's play; for men are both our die and our
stake: put forth your hand, and you must win. In Lombardy the Ghibelines
flourish; but, except Pisa, and your Lucca, the Guelphs domineer
throughout Tuscany. But this must not continue; the Popes are out of
Italy, and Rome, become a mere resort of robbers, is a blank in our
account. Naples and Florence are our only enemies; the emperor must
conquer one, and you the other. Let all your efforts tend to that; you
talk of rebel castles near Lucca,--aye, subdue those first, that without
dread you may hunt down the Florentines; let your will be as a wind to
drive all before it: at first, it will pause, collecting its force in
the horizon; and then it breaks forth sweeping every thing along with
it: Florence must fall before it--I swear it shall; but give me your
hand, your faith, Castruccio, and swear that you also will have it so."

"Nay, by the Virgin! I will not be backward in doing my part to tame the
cubs of this wild lioness: if Florence ever can be mine, she shall, and
may God's will and your prophecy be fulfilled."

"That is well.--At present you are at peace with them; but it must be a
peace to crush, and not to invigorate them. You are freshly entered into
your lordship, your authority is new, perhaps unstable; but form your
troops, be a prince among your own people, and then fall upon these
enemies of all princes. Oh! believe me, give up this old fashioned name
of consul; it is tainted by the idea of that which I abhor--a
commonwealth: make yourself a prince, and then so pure and ardent a
hatred of Florence will arise in your mind, that you will not need my
spurring to ride them to their destruction. The contagion of liberty is
dangerous;--the Ghibelines must fall in Lucca, if the Guelphs be not
destroyed in Florence. Think you, if your people are allowed free
intercourse with this republic, that the plague of liberty will not
spread to your state? For no quarantine will eradicate that spot, if
once it has entered the soul: plots, rebellions will be formed against
you; Florence, the watchword, the rallying point for all. Choose; for
that choice alone is left you, to quell that city, or depart once more
to exile."

These were the lessons with which Galeazzo awakened the latent flame in
the soul of Castruccio; a flame, covered, but not extinguished, and
which now burned more fiercely than ever. He swore the destruction of
the Guelphs, and interminable war to Florence; and his blood flowed more
freely, his eyes shone brighter, his soul was elevated to joy, when he
thought that one day he might be the master of that proud city.

In the mean time the marquess of Este occupied their attention; and
Castruccio prepared for this embassy to the bishop of Ferrara. He took
no papers with him that might be dangerous, if discovered; but, habiting
himself like a merchant from Ancona, and taking such documents as might
enable him to support this character, he left Rovigo for Ferrara, which
was about twenty miles distant, and entering that town at ten o'clock in
the morning he hastened, unquestioned by any, to the episcopal palace.
The bishop was an old man of the most benign physiognomy, and a sweet,
mild tone of voice; he was tall, and upright in figure, with an air of
dignity and benevolence, that won, yet awed every one; his temples were
slightly shaded by his silver locks, and his white beard, reaching to
his girdle, increased the dignity of his appearance. Castruccio, who by
his intercourse with the world had learned always to honour age,
approached him with respect, and disclosed to him his rank and mission.
The bishop replied:

"My noble lord, the marquess has done that which I have long desired, in
sending to me one to whom I may intrust the important secret, which I do
not doubt will be the means of his re-establishment in his government.
This evening my friends will assemble at my palace; with their counsel
all shall be arranged, the means disclosed to you by which I propose to
deliver Ferrara into the hands of its rightful prince, and the day fixed
for the commencement of the enterprize."

The bishop and Castruccio continued together the whole day, both
mutually delighted with each other; and, as is often the case where
sympathy of opinion and feeling exists, they became as intimate in a few
hours, as in other circumstances an intercourse of years would have
effected. Castruccio had a great taste for theological knowledge, and
the bishop, as a man of the world, was delighted with the conversation
and remarks of one who had passed through so many scenes, and visited so
many nations. Confidence quickly arose between them; so well did each
seem to understand the feelings and character of the other. The bishop
was a Ghibeline; but his motives were pure: his indignation at the
corruptions of the Papal court, and his disapprobation of the faction
and brawls which appeared to him inseparable from a republic, attached
him strongly to the Imperial party, and to those lords who, reigning
peacefully over a people who loved them, seemed to him to ensure the
quiet of Italy.

In the evening the partizans of the marquess of Este assembled at the
episcopal palace to deliberate on their projects. Castruccio was
introduced among them, and received with cordiality and respect by all.
The assembly consisted of nearly the whole nobility of Ferrara, chiefly
indeed Ghibelines, but there were even some Guelphs, disgusted by the
introduction of foreign troops, and the haughtiness and tyranny of their
governors. The government however was formidable; they possessed the
gates, and the fortress; their armed guard was numerous and faithful;
and the restoration of Obizzo could be achieved by stratagem alone.

In one corner of the vast apartment in which the assembly sat, were two
women. One was old, and dressed in the fashion of an age gone by: she
was in black as a widow; her vest was close and strait, trimmed with
beads, and made of black cloth; a black veil covered her head, and her
capuchin thrown aside discovered the years and wrinkles of the venerable
wearer. It was impossible to judge of the age, and hardly of the sex, of
the figure that sat beside her; for her capuchin was wrapped closely
round her form, and the hood drawn over her face, as she sat silently,
turned away from the company, in the darkest part of the room.

The bishop at length addressed Castruccio: "My lord," said he, "you now
possess the details of our plan, and may perceive the sincerity of our
intention, and the eagerness of our desire to receive again our rightful
prince: it alone remains to shew you the secret entrance of which I
spoke, and to fix the day for our attempt."

The old lady, who had been hitherto silent, now turned quickly round,
and said: "My brother, Beatrice ought to name the fortunate day on which
we may undertake this work. Speak, my child, and may the holy Virgin
inspire your words!"

As she spoke, she threw back the hood of her young companion; and
Castruccio gazed on her exquisite and almost divine beauty. Her deep
black eyes, half concealed by their heavy lids, her curved lips, and
face formed in a perfect oval, the rising colour that glowed in her
cheeks which, though her complexion was pure and delicate, were tinged
by the suns of Italy, formed a picture such as Guido has since imagined,
when he painted a Virgin or an Ariadne, or which he copied from the life
when he painted the unfortunate Beatrice Cenci. Her jet hair fell in
waving luxuriance on her neck and shoulders below her waist; and a small
silver plate was bound by a white riband on her forehead. Castruccio
could only gaze for a moment on this lovely being; for, turning a
supplicating look on her aged friend, she again drew the hood over her
face, speaking in so low a tone, that he could not distinguish the words
she uttered; the elder lady acted as interpreter, and said: "Beatrice
intreats you not to fix the day until to-morrow, and then she hopes, by
the grace of God and the Virgin, to name such a one as will bring your
enterprize to an happy issue."

Castruccio turned quickly round to see what effect these words would
produce upon the bishop; he thought that he saw a slight smile of
derision hover on the old man's lip; but he replied: "Be it so; my lord
Castruccio, you will accompany my sister, Madonna Marchesana, to her
palace; she will disclose to you the secret entrance, and acquaint you
with the means by which you may find it, when you return with the
marquess Obizzo and his troops."

The assembly broke up; and Castruccio followed Madonna Marchesana and
her beautiful companion. His horse was brought to the door; they mounted
their white palfreys, and attended by several esquires and pages
carrying torches, arrived at a magnificent palace close to the eastern
gate of Ferrara. When they had entered, Madonna Marchesana dismissed her
servants, and led Castruccio into a room, hung with tapestry, and
furnished with the rich and heavy furniture of the age. She lifted up
the hangings; and, while Castruccio supported them, she pushed back a
pannel in the wainscot, and discovered a long, dark gallery; then,
taking up a torch that lay within, and lighting it at a lamp which hung
from the ceiling of the room, she presented it to Beatrice, saying: "Do
you, my child, light us, and lead us the way, that success may attend
our steps."

A small snow white hand and taper wrist were put out from beneath the
capuchin; and Beatrice silently took the torch, and led the way, along
the gallery, down several flights of stairs, and then along numerous
vaults and corridors, until they arrived at what appeared the end of
these subterraneous passages. "You, my lord," said the lady Marchesana,
"must help me." She pointed to a large stone, which Castruccio rolled
away, and discovered behind it a small, low door. The lady drew back the
bolts, and bade Beatrice hide the light, which she did, placing it
within a kind of recess in the passage that seemed formed for the
purpose of receiving it; the lady then opened the door; and Castruccio,
creeping out, found himself in an open country, covered with bushes, and
surrounded by marshy land, at some distance from the strong
fortifications of the town. Castruccio smiled: "Ferrara is ours!" he
cried; and the old lady with a countenance expressive of the greatest
delight, said: "I intreat you, my lord, to lay my respectful submission
and zealous fidelity at the feet of the marquess Obizzo; tell him the
joy and triumph that I feel, in being the humble instrument of restoring
him to his sovereignty and inheritance. When you mention the name of the
viscountess di Malvezzi he may distrust my professions; since the
viscount, my late husband, was his bitter and determined enemy. But he
is no more; and I have been brought to a true knowledge of the will of
God by this divine girl, this _Ancilla Dei_, as she is truly called, who
is sent upon earth for the instruction and example of suffering
humanity."

Castruccio listened with astonishment; while the gifted damsel stood,
her face covered by her cowl, and her arms crossed over her breast: the
eyes of the old lady beamed with joy and pride. "I do not entirely
fulfil my commission," she continued, "until I have taught you how you
may again discover this place. Do you see those straggling sallows that
skirt that stagnant drain, and which, although they appear to be without
order, are the clue by which you will be guided thither? Four miles
distant from Ferrara, on the right-hand side of the road, you will find
a mulberry tree, a poplar, and a cypress, growing close together; strike
from the road at that point, and follow the line of sallows, however
they may lead, until you come to that where the line ends. You must then
mark the drains of the marsh, remembering to follow only those which are
bordered by dwarf myrtles, and which at every turn have a cross carved
in a low stone on their banks; that line will lead you hither; and you
will stop at that cross of wood which you see half buried in the tall
grass and bulrushes, until this door is opened for your entrance."

The viscountess di Malvezzi repeated her instructions a second time in
the same distinct manner; and, finding that Castruccio fully apprehended
them, she led the way back to her subterranean passages; and with quick
steps they regained the tapestried apartment. Beatrice remained a moment
behind to extinguish the torch; and, when she re-appeared, she had
thrown off her capuchin, and shone in the light of her divine beauty.
Her dress was of the finest white woollen; and in fashion it partook of
the usual dress of the age, and of the drapery of the antient statues:
it was confined at her waist by a silken girdle, and fell about her
figure in thick and rich folds; a golden cross glittered upon her bosom,
on which lay also the glossy ringlets of her hair; on the silver plate
bound to her forehead Castruccio could distinguish the words, _Ancilla
Dei_. Her black eyes beamed as with inspiration, and the wide sleeves of
her vest discovered her white and veined arm, which she threw up in
eager gesticulation as she spoke:

"Mother, I promised that to-morrow I would name the day for my
sovereign's enterprize; I feel the spirit coming fast upon me; let this
noble gentleman inform your revered brother, that to-morrow in the
church of St. Anna I shall speak to my countrymen, and in the midst of
the people of Ferrara tell in veiled words the moment of their
deliverance."

With a light step Beatrice glided out of the room, and the viscountess,
not regarding the surprize of Castruccio, said to him: "Fail not, my
lord, to convey the message of my Beatrice to the bishop. God has been
gracious to us, in bestowing on us his visible assistance through this
sacred maiden, who by her more than human beauty, the excellence of her
dispositions, and, above all, by her wisdom beyond that of woman, and
her prophecies which have ever been fulfilled, demonstrates, even to the
unbeliever and the Gentile, that she is inspired by the grace and favour
of the blessed Virgin."


[Footnote 1: A portrait of Christ, said to have been painted
by Nicodemus.]




CHAPTER II


_Parentage of Beatrice.--She is arrested by
the Inquisition._


Thus dismissed, Castruccio returned, burning with curiosity and
admiration, to the bishop. He delivered the message with which he had
been intrusted, and then eagerly asked who this enchanting Beatrice
really was, and if it were true that she was an angel descended upon
earth for the benefit and salvation of man. The bishop smiled.

"My lord," he replied, "so much have you won my confidence and esteem,
that I am willing to satisfy your curiosity on this subject also. But
you must recollect, that neither my sister, nor even the lovely girl
herself, knows what I shall now reveal, and that I shall tell it you
under the most solemn vow of secrecy."

Castruccio readily promised discretion and silence, and the bishop then
related the following particulars.

"Have you never heard of a heretic and most dangerous impostor, of the
name of Wilhelmina of Bohemia[2]? This woman appeared first in Italy in
the year 1289: she took up her residence at Milan, with a female
companion, called Magfreda. Outwardly professing the Catholic religion,
and conforming in the strictest manner to its rules, she secretly formed
a sect, founded on the absurd and damnable belief, that she was the Holy
Ghost incarnate upon earth for the salvation of the female sex. She gave
out that she was the daughter of Constance, queen of Bohemia; that, as
the angel Gabriel had descended to announce the divine conception to the
blessed Virgin, so the angel Raphael announced to her mother the
incarnation of the Holy Spirit in favour of the female sex; and that she
was born twelve months after this heavenly annunciation. Her tenets were
intended entirely to supersede those of our beloved Lord Jesus, and her
friend Magfreda was to be papess, and to succeed to all the power and
privileges of the Roman pontiff. Wilhelmina died in the year 1302 in the
odour of sanctity, and was buried in the church of St. Peter at Milan:
she had led so holy a life, and kept her heresy so profound a secret,
except from her own sect, that she was followed as a saint, and even
priests and dignitaries wrote homilies in praise of her piety, her
abstinence, and modesty.

"I was at Milan two years after, when the Dominican inquisitors first
discovered this lurking pestilence; and the terror and abomination of
the discovery filled the town with horror. Magfreda, and her principal
follower, Andrea Saramita, were led to prison; the other disciples who
threw themselves on the mercy of the priests, being commanded to perform
several pilgrimages, and give large alms to the church, were absolved. I
had just then become a _Padre_, and filled the confessor's chair: I was
young, full of zeal, eloquent in the cause of truth, and tainted by an
enthusiastic bigotry against heretics and schismatics. I preached with
animation against this new heresy; it appeared to me so impious, so
absurd, so terrifically wicked, that I was touched by an holy impulse as
I declaimed against its followers. Having thus distinguished myself, the
father inquisitors intreated me to use my fervid arguments to persuade
the obstinate Magfreda to recant. They had exhausted every reason, and
had had recourse even to torture, to convert this woman from her
damnable impieties; but she with haughty insolence declared that she was
in readiness to perish in the flames, but that her last breath should be
spent in the praise of her divine mistress, and an exhortation to her
tormentors to repent and believe.

"I was filled with worldly vanity, and fancied that my learned
sentences, my anathemas, and eloquent exorcisms could not fail of their
desired effect, and that by the aid of God and truth I should be covered
with the glory of success in this holy warfare. Thus secure, I entered
the dungeon of the heretic: it was a low, damp vault, where she had been
confined for several weeks without even straw for her bed. She was
kneeling in one corner, praying fervently, and for a moment I stopped to
contemplate a heretic, a monster I had never before seen. She was an
aged, respectable woman, in the dress of a nun, and with an appearance
of sanctity and modesty that astounded me. When she perceived me, she
rose, and said with a faint smile: 'Is my condemnation passed? or is a
new scene of torture prepared?'

"'Daughter,' I replied, 'I come indeed to torture, not your body, but
your mind; to torture it with a knowledge of itself; to hold a mirror
before it, wherein you will contemplate its blots and deformities, of
which by the grace of the Virgin you may repent and be purified.'

"'Father, you are the master, I a slave, and I am willing to listen. But
your benevolent countenance, so different from those to which I have
been long accustomed, fills me with such confidence, that I dare hope
for your indulgence, when I intreat you to spare yourself a useless
labour, and to leave in peace the last hours of my life. I know that I
must die; and God and She know how willing I am to expire for Her
justification, even in pain and burning: but my spirit is worn, my
patience, which I have cherished with determined zeal, as the sacred
flame of my religion and the life of my heart, now begins to wane; do
not bring on my soul the sins of anger and intolerance;--leave me to
prayer, to repentance, and to my hopes of again seeing my beloved
mistress, there where there is no sorrow.'

"She spoke with dignity and mildness, so that I felt my spirit subdued;
and, although almost angry at the stubbornness of her impiety, I
followed her example in speaking with gentleness. Our conversation was
long; and the more it continued, the more my animation in the cause of
truth, and zeal for the conversion of the heretic, increased. For her
manner was so sweet and winning, her words so soft yet firm, that it lay
like a sin on my heart that I could not save her from eternal
condemnation.

"'You did not know Her,' she cried, 'you never saw my Wilhelmina. Ask
those who have seen her, even the vulgar, whose eyes are horn, and whose
hearts are stone, whether they were not moved to love and charity, when
she passed like an angel among them. She was more beautiful than aught
human could be; more gentle, modest and pious than any woman ever was,
though she were a saint. Then her words possessed a persuasion that
could not be resisted, and her eyes a fire, that betrayed even to the
unknowing that the Holy Spirit lived within her.

"'Father, you know not what you ask, when you desire me to leave my
faith in her Divinity. I have felt my soul prostrate itself before her;
the very blood that vivifies my heart has cried to me, so that, if I had
been deaf, I must have heard, that she was more than human. In my dreams
I have seen her arrayed in divine light; and even now the sacred
radiance that announces her presence fills my dungeon, and bids me for
her sake submit with patience to all that ye, her enemies, can inflict.'

"I repeat to you the mad words of Magfreda, that you may judge of the
excess of insanity that possessed this unfortunate woman. I combated
with the evil spirit within her for eight hours, but in vain; at length
I was retiring in despair, when she called me back. I returned with a
look of hope, and saw that she was weeping violently and bitterly. As I
approached, she seized my hand, and kissed it, and pressed it to her
heart, and continued pouring forth, as it were, a fountain of tears. I
believed that she was now touched by true repentance, and began to thank
divine mercy, when she waved her hand impatiently, beckoning me to be
silent. By degrees she calmed her tears; but she was still agitated by
passion, as she said: "'Kneel, father, kneel, I intreat you, and by the
cross you wear swear secrecy. Alas! if I die, another must perish with
me, one whom I have vowed to protect, one whom I love far,--far beyond
my own life.'

"She paused, endeavouring to overcome the tears, that, in spite of
herself, she shed: I comforted her, and pronounced the desired oath,
when she became calmer. 'Father, you are good, benign and charitable;
and I do believe that She has manifested Her will in sending you to me
in my distress; you, who are so unlike the wolves and harpies that have
of late beset me. There is a child--Her child:--but, father, before I
reveal further, promise me, swear to me, that she shall be educated in
my faith and not in yours.'

"I was indignant at this proposal, and said angrily: 'Woman, think you
that I will sacrifice the soul of an infant to your monstrous unbelief
and vicious obstinacy? I am a servant of the Lord Jesus, and, believe
me, I will never discredit my holy calling.'

"'Must it be so?' she cried; 'yet grant me a few moments to resolve.'

"She knelt down, and prayed fervently for a long time; and then arose
with a smiling aspect, saying: 'Father, you wish to convert me; methinks
at this moment I could convert you, if indeed faith did not come from
God, and not from the human will. She has revealed Her will to me, and
by Her command I now confide to you the treasure of my soul.

"'Two years before the death of Wilhelmina, she had a child. I cannot
tell you who was the father of this child; for, although I believed that
her conception partook of the divinity, she never confirmed my faith, or
said aught against it: but with her heavenly smile bade me wait until
the hour of knowledge should arrive. I alone knew of the birth of this
infant; and it has ever been under my care: it was brought up in a
cottage five miles hence by a good woman, who knew not to whom it
belonged; and I visited it daily, gazing with wonder on its beauty and
intelligence.

"'After its birth Wilhelmina never saw it. She always refused to visit
the cottage, or to have it brought to her, but would sit for hours, and
listen to my descriptions and praises. I have ever believed that this
separation, whatever was its cause, shortened the life of my divine
mistress; for she pined, and wept, and faded like a flower unwatered by
the dews of heaven. The last words she uttered, were to recommend her
infant to my care. I have fulfilled my task, and now, by her command,
deliver up my charge to you.

"'A year ago the nurse of the child died; and I took her secretly to my
own home, and tended her, and preserved her as her mother had commanded.
No love can equal mine for the divinity, her mother: it is a burning
affection, an adoration, which no words can express:--I shall never see
her more, until we meet in heaven, but I submit with patience to the
will of God.

"'When I heard that Andrea Saramita and our other disciples were taken,
I was transported with terror for the fate of this infant. I expected
every moment to hear the steps of the blood-hounds on the stairs, to
seize me, and discover this flower of paradise, which I cherished thus
secretly. When suddenly a thought, an inspiration, came over me, and I
cried aloud, Better are the wild beast of the forest, and the tempests
of heaven, even when they shake us most; better are plague and famine,
than man hunting after prey! So I took the infant in my arms, a small
purse of gold, and a bag of such provisions as I had in the house; and,
it being already dark, I hastened from Milan to the forest that skirts
the road to Como: I walked fast, and in two hours arrived at my goal. I
knew that one afflicted with leprosy[3] lived in the depth of the
forest, a miserable wretch, who with his wooden spoon and platter,
collected alms at the road side. Thither I went fearlessly;--mistake me
not; this man is not my disciple, he had never seen me before; but I
knew not whether the blood-hunters were acquainted with the existence of
the divine child, this I knew, that they would not dare seek her in a
leper's dwelling. I dreaded not the contagion; _for is not her mother
above all the saints in heaven?_

"'I wandered long among the tangled paths of the wood, ere I could
discover his hut; the babe slept, cherished near my heart, which bled
with anguish. To me in all the world there existed but this little
creature; the earth seemed to reel under me; yet still I felt her warm
breath upon my bosom, and heard the regular heaving of her gentle
breast. At length I found the cavern of the leper: it was half-built in
the earthy hill against which it rested, and half of the boughs of trees
plastered with mud, which was hardened in the sun; black, dilapidated,
and filthy, it was worse than a manger for the reception of my poor
innocent.

"'The wretched possessor of this sty slept on his miserable straw as I
entered. I roused him, put gold into his hand, and, placing food before
him, I said--Protect this child, and God will reward you. Feed it, wash
it, and above all keep it from the sight of man: deliver it not except
to one who may come to ask for it in the name of the Holy Wilhelmina. In
one month I hope to return for it, and will reward you as you have
obeyed my charge.--I then, with a heart bursting with agony, embraced
the daughter of my Wilhelmina for the last time: I blest her, and tore
myself away.

"'I have now been five weeks imprisoned, and I dread lest the leper
should have thrust her from his abode. Will you not, father, preserve
and love this child?'

"The discourse of Magfreda moved me strangely. I felt a wonder, a pity,
an excess of commiseration, I could not express: but kissing the cross I
wore, I said: 'Listen to me, unhappy woman, while I swear never to
desert this innocent; and may God so help me, as I keep my faith!'

"Magfreda poured forth warm and joyful thanks; then, with a heavy heart,
I recommended her to the mercy of God, and left her dungeon.

"As soon as I could tear myself from the questions and childish
curiosity of the inquisitors, I hastened to the place that Magfreda had
indicated. In the tumult of my soul, I only thought of the danger of the
lovely babe in the hands of this outcast of man and nature. I was
possessed with a passionate sense of pity, which I cannot now explain,
but for which I do not reproach myself; at length, about four miles from
the town, I heard the sound of the beggar as he struck his platter with
his spoon in token of his wants, and I turned aside from the road to
seek him. At that moment the spirit of God almost deserted me, and I was
overcome by fear--the fear of disease, and a nameless horror at the
expectation of meeting one whom all wholesome life had deserted: but I
made the sign of the cross, and approached. The wretch was seated under
a tree eating some crusts of bread; miserable, filthy, deformed, his
matted hair hung over his eyes and his ragged beard half concealed the
lower part of his visage; yet there was to be seen a savage eye, and an
appearance of brutal ferocity, that almost staggered me. I made a sign
that he should not approach, and he dropped on his knees, and began to
gabble _pater-nosters_, so that the word that God himself had spoken
seemed the jargon of the devil. I stopt at some distance from him:
'Bring me,' I cried, 'to the child who was confided to you in the name
of Wilhelmina of Bohemia.'

"The wretch, who had almost forgotten human speech, jumped up, and led
the way among the tangled underwood, along savage paths, overgrown with
rank herbage, and bestrewn with stones, till we came to his miserable
hut,--a low, dark, squalid den, which I dared not enter; 'Bring me the
child,'--I cried.

"Oh; it was a woful sight, and one which to death I shall remember, to
see this child, this morning star of beauty and exceeding brightness,
with eyes shining with joy, rosy lips melted into the softest smiles,
her glossy hair strewn upon her lovely neck, her whole form glowing with
the roseate hues of life, led by the leper from his hut; his body wrapt
in a ragged blanket, his grizzly hair stretched stiffly out, and his
person and face loathsome beyond words to describe. The lovely angel
took her hand from his, and coming up to me, said: 'Take me to mamma;
lead me from this ugly place to mother.'

"This was Beatrice; and need I say how much I have ever loved this
hapless girl, and cherished her, and tried to save her from the fate to
which her destiny has hurried her?

"I returned to Milan, and found that in the morning, while I had been
absent, Magfreda had been burnt, and her ashes scattered to the winds,
so that I had become this poor babe's only guardian. I placed her under
the care of a pensioner of the church in the neighbourhood of Milan; and
when I was promoted to the see of Ferrara, I brought her with me, and
intreated my sister to receive her, and cherish her as her own. The
lovely little being won all hearts, and Marchesana soon became attached
to her with maternal fondness. She was educated in the Holy Catholic
faith; and I hoped that, untainted by her mother's errors, she would
lead an unblamed and peaceful life, unmarked and unknown; God has
ordered it otherwise.

"Beatrice was always an extraordinary child. When only six and seven
years of age, she would sit alone for hours, silently contemplating;
and, when I asked her of what she thought, she would weep, and
passionately desire me not to ask her. As she grew older, her
imagination developed; she would sing extempore hymns with wild, sweet
melody, and she seemed to dwell with all her soul on the mysteries of
our religion; she then became communicative, and told me how for hours
she meditated upon the works of nature, and the goodness of God, till
she was filled with a sentiment that overwhelmed and oppressed her, so
that she could only weep and sigh. She intreated me to unfold to her all
I knew, and to teach her to read in the sacred book of our religion.

"I was fearful that her ignorance and enthusiasm might lead her astray,
since, in her accounts of her meditations, she often said things of God
and the angels that were heretical; and I hoped that a knowledge of the
truth would calm her mind, and lead her to a saner devotion. But my
labours had a contrary effect; the more she heard, and the more she
read, the more she gave herself up to contemplation and solitude, and to
what I cannot help considering the wild dreams of her imagination. It
seemed to me as if her mother's soul had descended into her; but that,
regulated by the true faith, she had escaped the damnable heresies of
that unhappy woman. She delighted to read, and pretended to explain the
prophecies of the sacred writings, and the modern ones of Merlin, the
abbot Joachim and Methodius: beside these studies, she grew wonderfully
familiar with all vulgar superstitions, holy trees and fountains, lucky
and unlucky days, and all the silly beliefs that jugglers and impostors
encourage for their own profit. At length she began to prophesy; some of
her prophecies were interpreted as true, and since that time her fame
has been spread through Ferrara. Her followers are numerous; and my poor
sister is the first of her disciples: Beatrice herself is wrapt up in
the belief of her own exalted nature, and really thinks herself the
_Ancilla Dei_, the chosen vessel into which God has poured a portion of
his spirit: she preaches, she prophesies, she sings extempore hymns, and
entirely fulfilling the part of _Donna Estatica_[4], she passes many
hours of each day in solitary meditation, or rather in dreams, to which
her active imagination gives a reality and life which confirm her in her
mistakes.

"Thus, my lord, I have revealed the birth of this extraordinary girl,
which is unknown to every one else. Why I have done this I can hardly
tell; for I have done it without premeditation or foresight. But I am
glad that you know the truth; for you seem humane and generous; and I
wish to secure another protector for my poor Beatrice, if I were to die,
and she fell into any misfortune or disgrace."

Castruccio and the good bishop passed almost the whole night in
conversation concerning this wonderful creature; and, when the consul
retired to rest, he could not sleep, while the beauty of Beatrice was
present to his eyes, and her strange birth and fortunes to his memory.
In the morning he went to the church of St. Anna: mass was performed,
but he looked in vain for the prophetess;--yet, when the service was
finished, and the people assembled in the porch of the church, she
appeared among them with her aged protectress at her side. She wore her
capuchin of light blue silk, but her cowl was thrown back, and her eyes,
black as the darkness which succeeds a midnight flash of lightning, full
and soft as the shy antelope's, gleamed with prophetic fire.

She spoke; her words flowed with rich and persuasive eloquence, and her
energetic but graceful action added force to her expressions. She
reproached the people for lukewarm faith, careless selfishness, and a
want of fervour in the just cause, that stamped them as the slaves of
foreigners and tyrants. Her discourse was long and continued, with the
same flow of words and unabated fervour: her musical voice filled the
air; and the deep silence and attention of her numerous auditors added
to the solemnity of the scene. Every eye was fixed on her,--every
countenance changed as hers changed; they wept, they smiled, and at last
became transported by her promises of the good that was suddenly to
arise, and of the joy that would then await the constant of
heart;--when, as this enthusiasm was at its height, some Dominican
inquisitors came forward, surrounded her, and declared her their
prisoner. Until that moment Castruccio had observed her only,--her
flashing eyes and animated manner; the smiles and then the tears, that,
as the sunshine and clouds of an April day, succeeded each other on the
heaven of her countenance. But, when the inquisitors surrounded her, her
voice was silent, and the mute deference of the multitude was no more.
All became clamour and confusion; screams, vociferation, ejaculations
and curses burst from every tongue;--they declared that the prophetess,
the _Ancilla Dei_ should not be torn from them,--she was no heretic,--of
what crime had she been guilty?--The inquisitors had with them a guard
of Gascon soldiers, and this inflamed the multitude still more; it was
plain that her adherence to the party of the marquess Obizzo, and the
prophecy of his restoration were her only crimes. The noise of her
arrest spread through the town, and all Ferrara flocked to the church of
St. Anna; the crowd, transported with rage, seemed prepared to rescue
the prisoner, who, silent and resigned, stood as one unconcerned in the
animated scene. The people armed themselves with stones, sticks, knives,
and axes; the inquisitors sent for a reinforcement of Gascon troops, and
every thing appeared to menace violence, and bloodshed, when one of the
priests attempted to take the hand of Beatrice as if to lead her away;
she looked at him with a steady glance, and he drew back, while she made
a sign as if about to speak, and the multitude hushed themselves to
silence, and were as still, as when a busy swarm of bees, buzzing and
flying about, all at once drop to silence, clinging round their queen,
who is the mistress of their motions.

She said, "I appeal to the bishop."

"Yes, to the bishop,--to the good bishop; he is just,--take her to
him,--he shall decide the cause."

The inquisitors were prepared to resist this appeal: but the will of the
people became a torrent not to be stemmed by them, and it hurried them
away. They led the prophetess to the episcopal palace, surrounded by the
Gascon soldiery, and followed by an immense multitude, which rent the
sky with the cries of their anger and despair.

The bishop received the appeal with deep sorrow. Beatrice stood before
him, her arms crossed on her breast, her eyes cast down; but on her
face, although the gentlest modesty was depicted, there was no trace of
fear; she looked intrepid, yet as if she relied not on her own strength,
but on that of another. The inquisitors accused her of being an
impostor, a misleader of the people, a dangerous and wicked enthusiast,
whom the penitence and solitude of a cloister must cure of her
extravagant dreams. They talked long and loud, uninterrupted either by
the judge or the prisoner, although the lady Marchesana who stood near
could not always restrain her indignation.

At length they were silent; and Beatrice spoke: "You call me an
impostor,--prove it! I shrink from no trial, I fear no danger or
torture,--I appeal to the _Judgement of God_,--on that I rest the truth
or falsehood of my mission."

She looked around her with her flashing eyes and glowing cheeks; she was
all loveliness, all softness; yet there was a spirit within her, which
elevated her above, although it mingled with the feminine delicacy of
her mind and manners, and which inspired all who saw her with reverence
and tenderness. But a small part of the multitude had found their way
into the hall of the bishop's palace; but these could no longer contain
themselves; the _Judgement of God_ was a thing suited to their vulgar
imaginations, as a strange and tremendous mystery, that excited their
awe, their pity, and their admiration: they cried, "God can alone judge
of this! let the trial be made!" and their screams overpowered every
other sound. The inquisitors joined in the clamour, whether to consent
or dissent it was impossible to distinguish; at length the scene became
calmer, and the bishop interposed his mild voice, but vainly,--the
inquisitors repeated the words, impostor! heretic! madwoman! and
Beatrice disdainfully refused all composition. It was finally agreed,
that she should be confined for that night in the convent of St. Anna,
and on the following morning, under the auspices of the monks of the
adjoining monastery, should undergo the _Judgement of God_, to be
pronounced guilty or innocent as that should declare.

Both the inquisitors and Beatrice retired in security and triumph,
followed by the multitude, who were careless of the dismay but too
plainly painted on the faces of the prophetess's friends. The lady
Marchesana was in dreadful agitation, fluctuating between her faith in
the supernatural powers of Beatrice, and her dread lest the trial should
bring ruin upon her: she wept, she laughed, she was in a state
approaching to madness; until her brother, bidding her confide in God,
soothed her to resignation and some degree of confidence. She then
retired to pray, leaving the bishop and Castruccio overwhelmed with
pity, horror, and indignation.

Then the old man for the first time gave vent to his sorrow:--"Ill-fated
victim! headstrong, foolish girl! what are thy prophecies now? thy
inspirations and divine aid? alas! alas! the hand of God is upon thee,
born in an evil day of a guilty and impious mother! His wrath wraps thee
as a cloud, and thou art consumed beneath it;--my love is as bitter
ashes,--my hopes are extinct;--oh, that I had died before this day!"

Castruccio was at first too much confounded to offer consolation; but,
when he spoke, and bade his friend not despair, the bishop replied: "My
lord, she has won my whole soul, and all my affections; why this is, I
know not;--is she not beautiful? and she is as good as she is beautiful.
She calls me father, and loves me with the tenderness of a child; day
and night I have offered up my prayers to God, not to visit on her the
sins of her mother;--for her sake I have fasted and prayed,--but all is
vain, and she must perish."

"Not so, father; say not that so lovely a being shall perish under the
fangs of these cruel hell-hounds. Do not, I earnestly intreat you,
despair: flight! flight is her only safety; father, you have authority,
and must save her. I will take charge of her, when she has quitted the
walls of the convent, and I will place her in safe and honourable
guardianship. Let her fly,--by the sun in heaven she shall escape!"

The bishop remained silent for some time; the same ardent blood did not
warm his veins, which boiled in those of Castruccio: he saw all the
difficulties; he feared for the success of their scheme; but he resolved
to make the attempt. "You are right," said he; "flight is her only
safety: yet it will be rather a rape, than a flight; for willingly she
will never consent to desert the high character she has chosen to
assume. Did you not mark her triumph, when the Judgement of God was
agreed upon Mad, wild girl!--Let me consider our plan, and weigh our
powers. The abbess is a Guelph; but the abbot of the visiting monastery
is a Ghibeline; besides the edicts of the church pronounce against these
temptations of God's justice. I will exert myself; and she may be
saved."

When night closed in, these two anxious friends, alone and wrapt up from
observation, hastened to the monastery. Castruccio remained in the
parlour; and the prelate entered the interior of the convent. He
remained two hours; while Castruccio, full of anxiety, continued alone
in the parlour, which looked on an interior court with no object to call
off his attention, in silent and anxious expectation. He thought of the
beauty of the prophetess, her animation and numberless graces, until he
almost believed in the divinity of her mission: but he shuddered with
horror, when he reflected upon her danger, that her ivory feet should
press the burning iron, that, if she fell, she would fall on the hot
metal, and expire in misery, while the priests, the accursed,
self-constituted distributors of God's justice, would sing hymns of
triumph over her untimely and miserable fate;--he felt tears gather in
his eyes, and he would have devoted himself for her safety. At length
the bishop reappeared, and they silently returned to the palace.

"Well! where is she?" were the first words of Castruccio.

"Safe I hope, I trust that I shall not be deceived. I endeavoured to
move the abbot to let her escape; I would have gone to the abbess, whose
consent I must have obtained, and have used all the influence my station
would have given me with her; but the abbot stopped me;--he assured me
that he would take care that no harm befel the devoted victim; he begged
me not to ask an explanation;--that he and his monks had the charge of
the preparation for the Judgement, and that much was in their power;
again and again he assured me that she should receive no injury.

"I do not like this:--she must be protected by falsehood and perjury, a
lying and blasphemous mockery of the name of God. The abbot, who was a
servant of the Popes at Avignon, laughs at my scruples; and I am obliged
to yield. She will be saved, and God, I hope, will pardon our human
weaknesses. Let the sin lie on the souls of those blood-hounds, who
would pursue to destruction the loveliest creature that breathes upon
earth."


[Footnote 2: See Muratori, _Antichristà Italiane_, No. 60.]

[Footnote 3: This disease was then common in Italy. The person affected
with it, was accustomed to retire and dwell in a cave in a forest, from
whence he resorted to the road-side, and with beating a wooden spoon
upon a platter, demanded alms of travellers, which, when they were
retired to a convenient distance, he came and took from a stone upon
which it was to be deposited.]

[Footnote 4: These inspired women first appeared in Italy after the
twelfth century, and have continued even until our own days. After
giving an account of their pretensions, Muratori gravely observes, "We
may piously believe that some were distinguished by supernatural gifts,
and admitted to the secrets of heaven; but we may justly suspect that
the source of many of their revelations, was their ardent imagination,
filled with ideas of religion and piety."]




CHAPTER III


_Judgement of God.--Revolution of Ferrara._


The old man was gloomy and depressed; he retired early to prayer.
Castruccio had not slept the preceding night, and he felt his eyes
weighed down, although in mind he was agitated and restless; he slept
some hours, starting from feverish dreams, in which Euthanasia and poor
Beatrice, alike in danger, alike weeping and imploring his aid, filled
him with agony. He was awaked before day-break by the bishop's servant;
he repaired to the bed-chamber of the prelate, who was sitting on a
couch, with haggard looks, and eyes red and inflamed with watching.

"My dear lord," cried the bishop, "I pray you pardon me that I disturb
your rest; I cannot sleep. In two hours this ceremony--this mockery
begins. I shall not be there; it becomes not my character to be present
at such temptations of God's justice: this is my excuse. But I could not
go; I should die if I were to behold Beatrice bound and suffering. Yet,
do you go, and come quickly back to tell me of her success;--go, and
see, if the abbot keeps his word, and if ever I shall behold my child
again."

Castruccio endeavoured to console his unhappy friend; but the strong
affection and fears of the good man would listen to no comfort. "Let her
be saved," he said, "and I am content; but this doubt, this pause of
horrid expectation, is more than I can bear; I love her more than father
ever loved a child, and she was mine by every tie;--I feel my very
life-strings crack, sometimes I am apprehensive I shall die in the agony
of doubt; go, go, my dearest lord, go and return quickly, if you love
me!"

The bell of the church now began to toll, and announced that the monks
were occupied in the prayers that were to precede the ceremony;
Castruccio hurried to the scene. It was to take place in a large square
of Ferrara, under the walls of the garden of the convent of St. Anna,
and before the gates of the monastery to the care of whose monks the
Judgement was intrusted. As Castruccio approached, he found every avenue
choked up by the multitude, and the house-tops covered with
people,--even on towers, whence the square could only appear a confused
speck, the people crowded in eager expectation. He joined a few nobles
who were admitted through the garden of the monastery; as he passed the
sacred precincts, he saw the chapel filled with the brothers, who were
praying, while high mass was performed to sanctify their proceedings,
and the eucharist was distributed as a pledge of their truth.

The square presented a busy, but awful scene; the houses, the windows of
the monastery, the walls of the convent, were covered by people; some
clinging to the posts, and to the walls; fixing their feet upon small
protuberances of stone, they hung there, as if they stood on air. A
large part of the square had been railed off in a semicircle round the
door of the monastery, and outside this the people were admitted, while
it was guarded on the inside by Gascon soldiers, that with drawn swords
kept in awe the eager spectators, whose fury of hope and fear approached
madness: their voices it is true were still, for the solemn tolling of
the bell struck them with awe, and hushed them, as the roar of the lion
in the forest silences the timid herd; but their bodies and muscles were
in perpetual motion; some foamed at the mouth, and others gazed with
outstretched necks, and eyes starting from their sockets.

Within this inclosure one part was assigned for the Dominican brothers,
who, in their black habits and red crosses, at an early hour occupied
their seats, which were raised one above another in the form of a small
amphitheatre; another part was assigned to some of the nobles of both
sexes, the spectators of this piteous scene. Within this inclosure was
another small one, close to the gate of the monastery; it had two
corresponding entrances, near one of which a large cross was erected,
and near the other a white standard with the words _Agnus Dei_
embroidered on it. This inclosure was at first empty, except that in one
corner a pile of wood was heaped.

Half an hour passed in tremendous expectation: Castruccio felt sick with
dread; the heavy and monotonous tolling of the bell struck on his soul,
his head ached, his heart sunk within him. At length the gates of the
monastery were thrown open, and a number of monks came forward in
procession, carrying lights, and chaunting hymns. They saluted the
cross, and then ranged themselves round the outside of the inner
inclosure; after a pause of few moments, another party came out with
Beatrice in the midst of them; she was wrapt in her capuchin, the cowl
drawn over her face; the crowd spoke not as she appeared, but a sound,
as of the hollow north-wind among the mighty trees of a sea-like forest,
rose from among them; an awful, deep and nameless breath, a sigh of many
hearts; she was led to the cross, and knelt down silently before it,
while the brothers continued to chaunt alternately the staves of a
melancholy hymn.

Then came forth a third party of monks; they bore ploughshares and
torches, mattocks and other instruments, that again spread a groan of
horror through the multitude. The pyre was lighted; the shares thrown in
among the blazing wood; while other monks threw up the soil of the
inclosure with their mattocks, forming six furrows, two feet distant one
from the other. At length the bell, which had been silent for a few
minutes, began again to toll, in signal for the ceremony to begin. At
the command of the monks Beatrice arose, and threw off her capuchin; she
was drest in a short vest of black stuff, fastened at the waist with a
girdle of rope; it was without sleeves, and her fairest arms were
crossed on her breast; her black and silken hair was scattered on her
shoulders; her feet, whiter than monumental marble, were bare. She did
not notice the crowd about her, but prayed fervently: her cheek was
pale, but her eyes beamed; and in her face and person there was an
indescribable mixture of timidity, with a firm reliance on the aid of a
superior power. One of the monks bound her arms, and tied a scarf over
her eyes: the shares, white with their excessive heat, were drawn from
the fire with large tongs, and the monks crowded round, and fixed them
in the furrows; the earth seemed to smoke with the heat as they were
laid down.

Then the barrier of the entrance to the inclosure was thrown down; the
monks quitted it at the opposite end, and one of them with a loud voice,
recommending Beatrice to the justice of God, bade her advance. Every
heart beat fast; Castruccio overcome by uncontrolable pity, would have
darted forward to save her, but some one held him back; and in a moment,
before the second beating of his heart, before he again drew breath,
horror was converted to joy and wonder. Beatrice, her eyes covered, her
arms bound, her feet bare, passed over the burning shares with a quick
light step, and reaching the opposite barrier, fell on her knees,
uttering an exclamation of thanksgiving to God. These were the first
words she had spoken: they were followed by a long and deafening shout
of triumph from the multitude, which now manifested its joy as wildly,
as before they had painfully restrained their pity and indignation. They
were no longer to be contained by the palings of the inclosures; all was
broken through and destroyed; the inquisitors had slunk away; and the
Gascon troops galloped off from the ground.

Immediately on the completion of her task, Beatrice had been unbound,
and her capuchin was thrown over her; the noble ladies who were present
crowded round her; she was silent and collected; her colour indeed was
heightened by her internal agitation, and her limbs trembled with the
exertion of her fortitude; but she commanded her countenance and
spirits, and at least wore the appearance of serenity. She received the
congratulations and respectful salutation of her friends with
affectionate cordiality; while the air resounded with the triumphant _Te
Deum_ of the monks, and the people pressed around, awed, but joyful.
They endeavoured to touch the garment of the newly declared saint;
mothers brought her their sick children; the unhappy intreated for her
prayers; and, however bashful and unwilling, she was obliged to bestow
her blessing on all around. Suddenly a procession of nuns came forth
from the garden-gate of the convent; covered with their long veils, and
singing their hymns, they surrounded Beatrice, and led her, attended by
the other ladies in company, to their cloisters, where her maternal
friend the viscountess Marchesana waited to clasp her in her arms.

Castruccio had already returned to the bishop; yet he came not so
quickly, but that the news of the success of his Beatrice, passing from
mouth to mouth, had reached him. His first emotions were joy, gratitude,
and wonder; but these subsided; and the good old man kneeled humiliated,
trembling and penitent, when he considered that God's name had been
called on in vain, that his consecrated servants were perjured, and that
falsehood was firmly established, on foundations where truth alone ought
to rest. He listened to the account of Castruccio with interrupted
exclamations and tears; and when it was ended he exclaimed, "This is the
most miserable--the happiest day of my life!"

In the evening the palace of the prelate was crowded by his friends,
who, knowing the interest he took in Beatrice, came to congratulate him
on her victory, and to express their delight that God had thought their
town worthy of this manifestation of his grace. The bishop, joyful, but
full of shame, listened in silence to their conjectures, exclamations,
and long relations of the morning's scene; his heart was glad, but he
was angry with himself for feeling pleasure at the triumph of falsehood;
and, although a smile played on his lips, a blush spread itself over his
aged cheeks.

The viscountess Malvezzi, radiant with delight, and the lovely Beatrice
blushing under her newly acquired honours, now entered; the nobles
pressed round the prophetess, kissing her hand, and the hem of her
garment; while she, modest, half abashed, yet believing in her right to
the reverence of her friends, smiled upon all. Castruccio was not among
the last of her worshippers; she had never appeared so beautiful; her
eyes, sparkling with the light of triumph, were yet half hid by their
heavy lids, her cheeks glowing, her graceful person, clothed in her
modest garb of white woollen, moved with gestures ever new and
beautiful:--she seemed another being from her he had before seen, as
inspired, as ethereal, but more lovely.

After the crowd of visitors had retired, a few of the intimate friends
who formed the council of the bishop remained; the lady Marchesana
invited them immediately to adopt some plan for the entrance of their
prince into the city; she continued: "I speak but the words of my child,
when I say this; pardon me, saintly Beatrice, that I call you thus. It
is sweet to me to fancy that you are my daughter, although I am much
unworthy of such a child, and you are the offspring of heaven alone."

Beatrice kissed the hand of her excellent friend with respect and
gratitude; the bishop was much troubled at his sister's expression; the
remembrancer of her heretic mother, and his prison-scene with Magfreda,
was full in his recollection, and he looked up to heaven, as if to ask
God to pardon him, and to avert the punishment of deceit from the
guileless Beatrice.

One of the nobles present asked the sacred maiden, to name the day when
the prince should enter the town. She said in a gentle voice: "My lords,
the hour of victory is at hand: the Popes, in despite of their duty,
have deserted their sacred city, have relinquished their lawful rule,
and would now establish tyranny among us,--it will not be. Four days
hence, on the evening of Monday, we shall receive our sovereign, and on
the following morning his banner will be unfurled on the battlements of
this city."

"On Monday," cried a noble, "my heart misgives me; methinks it is an
Ægyptian day; has no one a calendar?"

"It is an Ægyptian day," exclaimed Beatrice, with vivacity; "but the
adverse aspect of the stars falls on our adversaries; for us there is
joy and victory."

"Monday is an early day," said Castruccio; "but as the holy Beatrice
commands, so shall it be. And, my honoured lord, I shall leave you at
day-break to-morrow. I shall not see you again, divine prophetess, until
I come with your prince, to assert his right. I pray you therefore to
bless my arms, and cause, that I may be doubly valiant, approved by one
whom heaven has sent us."

Castruccio kneeled to the beautiful girl; he looked up at her with his
ardent eyes, his passion-formed lips, and countenance of frank and noble
beauty; she blushing placed her hand on his raven hair, and said, "May
God bless and prosper thee and thy cause!"--Then, beckoning her aged
friend, she silently saluted the company, and withdrew, abashed,
confused, but her heart beating with a new and strange sense of
pleasure.

The plan for the entrance of the marquess was now arranged. On the night
of the fourth of August he was to pass Lago Scuro, and halt with his
troops, at the path which led to the secret entrance to the Malvezzi
palace. The marquess, Castruccio, and a small party were to enter the
house of the viscountess; and Galeazzo to lead the greater part of the
remainder to the gates of the town by day-break the following morning; a
part was to remain as a _corps de reserve_, if the small escort of the
marquess should prove insufficient to force the opening of the gates,
and the entrance of Galeazzo. In that case this more numerous troop was
to enter the city through the house of the viscountess, and bring the
necessary succour to their prince.

The assembly then broke up; and Castruccio, wearied by the events of the
day, fatigued with want of rest, his spirits sinking after their
relaxation from the powerful excitements they had sustained, retired
early to repose. He took an affectionate leave of the good old prelate,
who charged him with many messages of fidelity and attachment to his
prince.

The dawn of day beheld Castruccio on the road to Rovigo. The wide plain
of Lombardy awoke to life under the rising sun. It was a serene morning;
the cloudy mists that settled on the horizon, received the roseate
glories of the rising sun, and the soft clouds of gold and pink that
awaited his appearance in the east, would have pictured forth to a
Grecian eye the chariot of Aurora, or the golden gates which the Hours
threw back as Phœbus entered upon his diurnal path.

And does the beauteous prophetess seek her tower to behold the glories
of the morn? Beatrice is on the _donjon_ of the palace; and it is true
that her eyes are directed towards the rising sun; but there is a casque
which flashes under its first beams, a horseman who gallops away from
Ferrara, whose form her eyes strain to behold, even when he appears only
as a black spot in the distance. She leans her cheek upon her hand, and,
lost in meditation, she, most unfortunate, mistakes for the inspirations
of Heaven the wild reveries of youth and love: but still her heart was
hidden even from herself by a veil she did not even wish to throw aside.
She felt gently agitated, but happy; a kind of Elysian happiness, that
trembled at change, and wished only for a secure eternity of what it
was.

Castruccio was hailed with joy by his friends at Rovigo; and, when the
intelligence he brought was heard, every voice was busy in
congratulation, every hand in preparation. The knights assisted the
squires in furbishing their arms, and securing the various joints and
fastenings of their heavy armour, in looking that the trusty blade of
the sword was well fixed in the pummel, in selecting the stoutest
lances, and in attending to all the other equipments of war; while the
fair hands of the ladies prepared the scarfs, which, tied over the
hearts of their knights, would preserve them from every wound. No
thought of danger and death,--this was to be rather a tournament,
wherein with blunted lances they tilted for a sovereignty; and the idea
of the Pope, and of their priest-ridden opponents and their foreign
guards excited derision alone.

The sun set on the fourth day, and the troops of the marquess Obizzo to
the number of four hundred were drawn out before the gates of Rovigo.
The expedition was ordered as it had been arranged; and in the depth of
night the viscountess, opening the low door of her secret entrance,
found the marquess, Castruccio, and their followers, waiting in silence
round the short half-buried cross on the marshy moor. A few whispered
words of recognition having been spoken, she led them along her
galleries, and up the staircase to the inhabited rooms of the palace,
lifting up the tapestry of the first apartment; Castruccio did not again
know the old, neglected chamber with its decaying furniture. It was hung
with silk, festooned with flowers, and lighted by a hundred wax lights;
a table was spread with wines, and fruits, and sweetmeats, and other
more substantial refreshments; several couches also were placed round
the room for the convenience of those who wished to repose.

The viscountess with courtly grace welcomed the marquess to her palace.
"My lord," she said, "for a few hours you must be imprisoned in this
apartment; I have endeavoured to decorate your poor dungeon to the best
of my power, and indeed shall ever hold this room honoured, since it
affords refuge and protection to my sovereign."

The old lady received the marquess's heartfelt thanks, and then retired
satisfied, to recount to Beatrice the arrival of her guests, and the
whispered enquiry of Castruccio concerning the health of the prophetess.
But, although she had gilt their cage, the hours passed heavily to the
imprisoned chiefs; they watched the stars as they still burned brightly
in the sky, and almost uttered a cry of joy when they first perceived
them, one by one, fading in the morning light. At length the steps of
men were heard about the streets; and the horses which the bishop had
provided for the troop came to the door of the palace. The trampling of
these horses as they were led to their destination, attracted a small
crowd along with them; and, when the strange knights mounted them, and
advanced in slow procession along the streets, the crowd increased, and
the name of the marquess was whispered, while every one gazed in wonder.
At length, when the troop had reached the principal street of Ferrara,
they put their horses to the gallop, and raising the Ghibeline war-cry,
rode through the town calling on the people to join them, and invoking
downfal to the foreign tyrants: a band of citizens, who had been already
prepared, obeyed the summons, and they were followed by others, who
espoused the party of the prince in their hearts, and joyfully aided his
restoration.

The trampling of the steeds, the clash of arms, as the knights struck
their shields with their spears, the war-cry of the troops, and the
_vivas_ of the crowd, awoke the papal governor, who called out the
Gascon soldiery. But it was too late; the marquess reached the gate of
the town, put the sentinels to flight, and admitted Galeazzo into the
city: then, joined by all the nobility of Ferrara, he rode towards the
palace of the governor. The Gascons were drawn up in the great square of
the town, but they were unable to withstand the first onset of Obizzo's
party; they fled, and shut themselves up in Castel Tealdo, the fortress
of the town, where they were at least safe from sudden attack. The
marquess drew his troops around, and threw up his works to prevent their
egress; and, leaving to his principal captain the care of the siege,
returned to his palace to receive the congratulations of his delighted
subjects.

Now joy was the order of the day; the Italians, who had been intrusted
with the charge of some of the gates of the town, brought the keys to
the feet of their sovereign; the others were broken open; every
magistrate brought in his resignation, and many of them petitions for
mercy; and lying traitors, who assured him that their faith had never
been broken, crowded to the presence-chamber. His throne was erected in
the great square, covered with the richest cloth, and surmounted by a
magnificent canopy; the troops were marshalled before him, the standards
brought and lowered to his feet. A deputation of the noblest counts and
knights of Ferrara were sent to convoy the caroccio[5] to the throne of
the prince. They went to the cathedral; and the monks led it forth,
adorned with its splendid trappings and standards, the gold cross and
white flag of the Popes waving above all. They yoked to it four
beautiful dove coloured oxen, on whom they cast rich trappings of
scarlet cloth; and then, to the sound of trumpets, surrounded by the
knights, and followed by a procession of priests singing a _Te Deum_, it
was drawn to the square before the throne of Obizzo; then with a
triumphant flourish, the standard of the Pope was lowered, and that of
the house of Este raised to its ancient eminence. Festivities of every
kind followed this joyful event, triumphant festivities, untarnished
with blood; for few of the subjects of the marquess were hostile to his
return, and these either went into voluntary exile, or joined the
refugees in Castel Tealdo.


[Footnote 5: The Caroccio was introduced after the tenth century. It was
a large car, painted red, adorned with numerous standards, the spoils of
vanquished enemies, and surmounted by the banner of the _commune_ to
which it belonged. It made a considerable figure in the wars of Frederic
Barbarossa. Its loss was an indelible disgrace, and its capture the
greatest of triumphs.]




CHAPTER IV


_Fall of Beatrice._


Castruccio was no inactive partaker in this busy scene. But, after the
combat was finished, and he perceived that Obizzo was engaged in acts of
peaceful sovereignty alone, he hastened to the palace of the bishop; for
he was painfully surprised in not seeing him among the nobles who waited
on the prince. The old man was ill: he had been dreadfully agitated by
the scenes of the preceding days, and his health for a while sunk under
it. Castruccio was introduced into his chamber, where he lay peacefully
sleeping on a magnificent couch, his adopted child, the lovely Beatrice,
watching before him, who, when she beheld Castruccio, blushed deeply,
while, in spite of every effort, a smile of delight spread itself over
her expressive countenance.

"He is not very ill," she said in a low voice, in answer to Castruccio's
enquiries; "the fever has left him entirely; he is weak, but recovering.
He sleeps sweetly now: look at him; at his reverend grey hairs strewn
over his naked temples; look at his eyes, sunken with age, yet, when
open, beaming with benevolence and affection: look what a gentle smile
there is upon his pale lips; there he sleeps, affection, benevolence,
matchless virtue, and excelling wisdom, all cradled by the baby Sleep;
I have been contemplating him for more than an hour; he draws his breath
as regularly as a sleeping infant who has sucked its fill, and his heart
heaves slowly, but calmly. It is a heavenly sight to look on the repose
of this good old man; it calms wild passion, and sheds the fresh dew of
healthful meditation over the strange reveries of youth."

She spoke in a whisper; but her countenance was all animation. The old
man moved; and, pressing her finger on her lips, she paused. "Beatrice,
my child," he said, "I have slept long and soundly, and feel quite well.
Who is that stranger? does he bring news from the marquess? Aye, I
remember this is the day,--I am strangely confused; I recollect now that
I heard of his success before I slept."

"Father, it is my lord Castruccio, who, after having reinstated our
prince in his sovereignty, visits your sick chamber."

Castruccio remained several hours conversing with the bishop; he gave
him an account of the action of the morning, and Beatrice listened with
her whole soul in her eyes; yet, attentive as she was to the narration,
she watched with sweet earnestness her sick friend, turning her looks
from him to the animated face of Castruccio; and again, as she crept
near her adoptive father, she adjusted some pillow, or performed some
little office that marked her earnest observation.

"How beautiful she is!" thought Castruccio, "and what will become of
her?" he fixed his eyes on the silver plate on her forehead. "Yes, she
is the _Ancilla Dei_, a maiden vowed to God and chastity; yet her eyes
seem penetrated with love; the changeful and blooming colours of her
face, her form, which is all that imagination can conceive of perfect,
appear not like those of a cloistered nun. Ah! Beatrice, if you would be
sacred to your God, you ought to hide your surpassing loveliness with
thick veils, behind treble grates. But she is a prophetess; something
more than human;--a character unapproachable even in thought."

Thus Castruccio tried to disentangle his perplexed thoughts, still
looking on the maiden, who, suddenly raising her eyes, and meeting his
which were fixed on her silver plate, blushed even till the tips of her
fingers became a rosy red; and then, complaining in an hesitating voice,
that the plate hurt her brow, she untied it; while her silken hair, no
longer confined, fell on her neck.

Thus many hours passed, and when at length the prophetess retired, it
was to feverish meditation, and thoughts burning with passion, rendered
still more dangerous from her belief in the divine nature of all that
suggested itself to her mind. She prayed to the Virgin to inspire her;
and, again giving herself up to reverie, she wove a subtle web, whose
materials she believed heavenly, but which were indeed stolen from the
glowing wings of love. Kneeling, her eyes raised to heaven, she felt the
same commotion in her soul, which she had felt before, and had
recognised as divine inspiration; she felt the same uncontrolable
transport and burst of imaginative vision, which she believed to flow
immediately from the invisible ray of heaven-derived prophecy. She felt
her soul, as it were, fade away, and incorporate itself with another and
a diviner spirit, which whispered truth and knowledge to her mind, and
then slowly receding, left her human nature, agitated, joyful, and
exhausted;--these were her dreams,--alas! to her they were realities.

The following morning she again met Castruccio in the chamber of the
bishop. She now looked upon him fearlessly; and, if the virgin modesty
of her nature had not withheld her, her words would have been as frank
as she innocently believed them to be inspired. But, although she was
silent, her looks told that she was changed. Her manner the day before
had been soft, concentrated, and retiring; now she was unconstrained;
her eyes sparkled, and a joyous expression dwelt in every feature. Her
manner towards her guardian was endearing, nor was the affectionate
modulation of her voice different when she addressed his guest:
Castruccio started to hear it. It reminded him of the accents of
Euthanasia, whom for a while he had forgotten; and, looking at Beatrice,
he thought, "How lovely she is, and yet how unlike!"

Several days passed thus; Beatrice became embarrassed; it seemed as if
she wished to speak to Castruccio, and yet dared not: when she
approached, she blushed, and again drew back, and would again seek him,
but again vainly. She had framed the mode of her address, conned and
reconned the words she should say; but, when an opportunity occurred to
utter them, her voice failed her, the memory of what she was about to
utter deserted her, and it was not until the approach of a third person
took from her the possibility of speaking, that speech again returned,
and the lost occasion was uselessly lamented. At night she sought the
counsels of heaven, and gave herself up to her accustomed extasies; they
always told her the same things, until to her bewildered and untamed
mind it seemed as if the spirit that had power over her, reprimanded her
hesitation, her little trust in the promises of heaven, and her
reluctance to follow the path it pointed out.

"Surely, oh! most certainly," she thought, "thus I am commanded by the
Power who has so often revealed his will to me. Can I penetrate his
hidden designs? can I do more than execute his decrees? did I not feel
thus, when with prophetic transport I foretold distant events that
surely came to pass? when I foresaw yet afar off the death of Lorenzo,
that lovely child blooming in health, when every one called me a false
prophet? And yet he died. And now, the marquess's return? nay, am I not
approved by heaven? did I not escape from the malice of my enemies
through its miraculous interposition? Oh! I will no longer scan with
presumptuous argument, purposes that are ruled by mightier hands than
mine; I will resign myself to the guidance of what has ever conducted me
aright, and which now points out the path to happiness."

The next morning, her cheeks flushed, her eyes weighed down, trembling
and abashed, she sought Castruccio. It is impossible that there should
not have been much tenderness in his manner towards this lovely girl;
her history, her strange and romantic contemplations and impulses, and
the great intimacy which had arisen between them, were sufficient for
this. He regarded her also as a nun; and this made him feel less
restraint in the manner of his address, since he feared not to be
misconstrued; while at the same time it gave an elevation and unusual
tone to his ideas concerning her, that made him watch her every motion
with interest. She now approached; and he said playfully; "Where is thy
mark, prophetess? art thou no longer the _Maiden of God?_ For some days
thou hast cast aside the hallowed diadem."

"I still have it," she replied; "but I have dismissed it from my brow; I
will give it you; come, my lord, this evening at midnight to the secret
entrance of the viscountess's palace." Saying these words, she fled to
hide her burning blushes in solitude, and again to feel the intoxicating
delusions that led her on to destruction.

Castruccio came. If it were in human virtue to resist the invitation of
this angelic girl, his was not the mind, strictly disciplined to right,
self-examining and jealous of its own integrity that should thus weigh
its actions, and move only as approved by conscience. He was frank and
noble in his manner; his nature was generous; and, though there lurked
in his heart the germ of an evil-bearing tree, it was as yet undeveloped
and inanimated; and, in obeying the summons of Beatrice, he passively
gave himself up to the strong excitements of curiosity and wonder.

He went again and again. When the silent night was spread over every
thing, and the walls of the town stood black and confused amidst the
overshadowing trees, whose waving foliage was diversified by no gleam of
light, but all was formless as the undistinguishable air; or if a star
were dimly seen, it just glistened on the waters of the marsh, and then
swiftly the heavy web of clouds hid both star and water; when the watch
dogs were mute, unawakened by the moon, and the wind that blew across
the plain alone told to the ear the place of the trees; when the bats
and the owls were lulled by the exceeding darkness; it was on such
nights as these, that Castruccio sought the secret entrance of the
viscountess's palace, and was received by the beautiful Beatrice,
enshrined in an atmosphere of love and joy.

She was a strange riddle to him. Without vow, without even that slight
shew of distrust which is the child of confidence itself; without
seeking the responsive professions of eternal love, she surrendered
herself to his arms. And, when the first maiden bashfulness had passed
away, all was deep tenderness and ardent love. Yet there was a dignity
and a trusting affection in her most unguarded moments, that staggered
him: a broken expression would sometimes fall from her lips, that seemed
to say that she believed him indissolubly hers, which made him start, as
if he feared that he had acted with perfidy; yet he had never solicited,
never promised,--what could she mean? What was she? He loved her as he
would have loved any thing that was surpassingly beautiful; and, when
these expressions, that intimated somewhat of enduring and unchangeable
in their intercourse, intruded themselves, they pained and irritated
him: he turned to the recollection of Euthanasia, his pure, his
high-minded, and troth-plight bride;--she seemed as if wronged by such
an idea; and yet he hardly dared think her purer than poor Beatrice,
whose soul, though given up to love, was imbued in its very grain and
texture with delicate affections and honourable feelings; all that makes
the soul and living spark of virtue. If she had not resisted the
impulses of her soul, it was not that she wanted the power; but that,
deluded by the web of deceit that had so long wound itself about her,
she believed them, not only lawful, but inspired by the special
interposition of heaven.

Poor Beatrice! She had inherited from her mother the most ardent
imagination that ever animated a human soul. Its images were as vivid as
reality, and were so overpowering, that they appeared to her, when she
compared them to the calm sensations of others, as something superhuman;
and she followed that as a guide, which she ought to have bound with
fetters, and to have curbed and crushed by every effort of reason.
Unhappy prophetess! the superstitions of her times had obtained credit
for, and indeed given birth to her pretensions, and the compassion and
humanity of her fellow creatures had stamped them with the
truth-attesting seal of a miracle. There is so much life in love!
Beatrice was hardly seventeen, and she loved for the first time; and all
the exquisite pleasures of that passion were consecrated to her, by a
mysteriousness and delusive sanctity that gave them tenfold zest. It is
said, that in love we idolize the object; and, placing him apart and
selecting him from his fellows, look on him as superior in nature to all
others. We do so; but, even as we idolize the object of our affections,
do we idolize ourselves: if we separate him from his fellow mortals, so
do we separate ourselves, and, glorying in belonging to him alone, feel
lifted above all other sensations, all other joys and griefs, to one
hallowed circle from which all but his idea is banished; we walk as if a
mist or some more potent charm divided us from all but him; a sanctified
victim which none but the priest set apart for that office could touch
and not pollute, enshrined in a cloud of glory, made glorious through
beauties not our own. Thus we all feel during the entrancing dream of
love; and Beatrice, the ardent, affectionate Beatrice, felt this with
multiplied power: and, believing that none had ever felt so before, she
thought that heaven itself had interfered to produce so true a paradise.
If her childish dreams had been full of fire, how much more vivid and
overpowering was the awakening of her soul when she first loved! It
seemed as if some new and wondrous spirit had descended, alive,
breathing and panting, into her colder heart, and gave it a new impulse,
a new existence. Ever the dupe of her undisciplined thoughts, she
cherished her reveries, believing that heavenly and intellectual, which
was indebted for its force to earthly mixtures; and she resigned herself
entire to her visionary joys, until she finally awoke to truth, fallen,
and for ever lost.

In the mean time peace was entirely restored to Ferrara: on the
fifteenth of August Castel Tealdo surrendered, and the Pope's governor,
with his foreign guard, quitted the territories of the marquess of Este.
Galeazzo Visconti returned to Milan, but still Castruccio lingered: he
wished to go; he found himself out of place as a dangling courtier in
the train of Obizzo; but how could he leave Beatrice? What did she
expect or wish? The passionate tenderness that she evinced, could not be
an ephemeral spark of worthless love; and how often did the _We,_ she
used in talking of futurity, make him pause when he wished to speak of
their separation! She seemed happy; her words flowed in rich abundance,
and were adorned with various imagery and with delicate thoughts,
shewing that her soul, at rest from fear, wandered as it was wont amidst
the wilds of her imagination. He found her untaught, undisciplined, but
so sincere, so utterly forgetful of self, so trusting, that he dared not
speak that, which each day shewed more clearly would be as a dagger to
her heart. A thousand times he cursed himself for having mistaken her,
and imagining, inspired as she believed herself to be, that her actions
and feelings had not been dictated by the loftiest impulses. But the
time arrived, when he was obliged to undeceive her; and the hand, that
tore away the ties her trusting heart had bound round itself, at the
same time tore away the veil which had for her invested all nature, and
shewed her life as it was--naked and appalling.

They sat in her apartment at the Malvezzi palace; she radiant,
beautiful, and happy; and, twining her lovely arms around Castruccio,
she said: "The moon will set late to-morrow-night, and you must not
venture here; and indeed for several nights it will spread too glaring a
beam. But tell me, are you become a citizen of Ferrara? They averred
that you were the head of a noble city; but I see they must have been
mistaken, or the poor city must totter strangely, so headless as your
absence must make it. How is this, my only friend? Are you not
Antelminelli? Are we not to go to Lucca?"

Castruccio could not stand the questioning of her soft yet earnest eyes;
he withdrew himself from her arms, and taking her hands in his, kissed
them silently. "How is my noble lord?" she repeated, "have you had ill
news? are you again banished? that cannot be, or methinks my heart would
have told me the secret. Yet, if you are, be not unhappy:--your own
Beatrice, with prophetic words, and signs from heaven that lead the
multitude, will conduct you to greater glory and greater power than you
before possessed. My gentle love, you have talked less about yourself,
and about your hopes and desires, than I should have wished:--Do not
think me a foolish woman, tied to an embroidery frame, or that my heart
would not beat high at the news of your success, or that with my whole
soul I should not enter into your plans, and tell you how the stars
looked upon your intents. In truth my mind pants for fitting exertion;
and, in being joined to thee, dearest love, I thought that I had found
the goal for which heaven had destined me. Nay, look not away from me; I
do not reproach thee; I know that, in finding thee, in being bound to
thy fate, mine is fulfilled; and I am happy. Now speak--tell me what has
disturbed thy thoughts."

"Sweetest Beatrice, I have nothing to tell; yet I have for many days
wished to speak; for in truth I must return to Lucca."

The quick sensations of Beatrice could not be deceived. The words of
Castruccio were too plain; she looked at him, as if she would read the
secret in his soul,--she did read it:--his downcast eyes, confused air,
and the words he stammered out in explanation, told her every thing. The
blood rushed to her face, her neck, her hands; and then as suddenly
receding, left even her lips pale. She withdrew her arms from the soft
caress she had bestowed; playfully she had bound his head with her own
hair and the silken strings entangled with his; she tore her tresses
impatiently to disengage herself from him; then, trembling, white, and
chilled, she sat down, and said not a word. Castruccio looked on with
fear; he attempted consolation.

"I shall visit thee again, my own Beatrice; for a time we must
part;--the viscountess--the good bishop--you cannot leave them,--fear
not but that we shall meet again."

"We shall meet again!" she exclaimed with a passionate voice; "Never!"

Her tone, full of agitation and grief, sunk into the soul of Castruccio.
He took her hand; it was lifeless; he would have kissed her; but she
drew back coldly and sadly. His words had not been those of the heart;
he had hesitated and paused: but now compassion, and the memory of what
she had been, awoke his powers, and he said warmly, and with a voice
whose modulations seemed tuned by love: "You mistake me, Beatrice;
indeed you do. I love you;--who could help loving one so true, so
gentle, and so trusting?--we part for a while;--this is necessary. Does
not your character require it? the part you act in the world? every
consideration of honour and delicacy:--Do you think that I can ever
forget you? does not your own heart tell you, that your love, your
caresses, your sweet eyes, and gentle words, have woven a net which must
keep me for ever? You will remain here, and I shall go; but a few suns,
a few moons, and we shall meet again, and the joy of that moment will
make you forget our transient separation."

How cold were these words to the burning heart of the prophetess; she,
who thought that Heaven had singled out Castruccio to unite him to her,
who thought that the Holy Spirit had revealed himself to bless their
union, that, by the mingled strength of his manly qualities, and her
divine attributes, some great work might be fulfilled on earth; who saw
all as God's command, and done by his special interposition; to find
this heavenly tissue swept away, beaten down, and destroyed! It was to
his fortunes, good or bad, that she had bound herself, to share his
glory or soothe his griefs; and not to be the mistress of the passing
hour, the distaff of the spinning Hercules. It was her heart, her whole
soul she had given; her understanding, her prophetic powers, all the
little universe that with her ardent spirit she grasped and possessed,
she had surrendered, fully, and without reserve; but alas! the most
worthless part alone had been accepted, and the rest cast as dust upon
the winds. How in this moment did she long to be a winged soul, that her
person heedlessly given, given only as a part of that to the whole of
which he had an indefeasible right, and which was now despised, might
melt away from the view of the despiser, and be seen no more! The words
of her lover brought despair, not comfort; she shook her head in
silence; Castruccio spoke again and again; but many words are dangerous
where there is much to conceal, and every syllable he uttered laid bare
some new forgery of her imagination, and shewed her more and more
clearly the harsh reality. She was astounded, and drank in his words
eagerly, though she answered not; she was impatient when he was silent,
for she longed to know the worst; yet she dared not direct the course of
his explanations by a single enquiry: she was as a mother, who reads the
death-warrant of her child on the physician's brow, yet blindly trusting
that she decyphers ill, will not destroy the last hope by a question.
Even so she listened to the assurances of Castruccio, each word being a
fresh assurance of her misery, yet not stamping the last damning seal on
her despair.

At length grey dawn appeared; she was silent, motionless and wan; she
marked it not; but he did; and rising hastily he cried, "I must go, or
you are lost; farewel, Beatrice!"

Now she awoke, her eyes glared, her lovely features became even
distorted by the strength of her agony,--she started up--"Not yet, not
yet--one word more! Do you--love another?"

Her tone was that of command;--her flashing eyes demanded the truth, and
seemed as if they would by their excessive force strike the falsehood
dead, if he dared utter it: he was subdued, impelled to reply:--

"I do."

"Her name?"

"Euthanasia."

"Enough, I will remember that name in my prayers. Now, go! seek not to
come again; the entrance will be closed; do not endeavour to see me at
the house of the bishop; I shall fly you as a basilisk, and, if I see
you, your eyes will kill me. Remember these are my words; they are as
true, as that I am all a lie. It will kill me; but I swear by all my
hopes never to see you more. Oh, never, never!"

She again sank down pale and lifeless, pressing her hands upon her eyes,
as if the more speedily to fulfil her vow. Castruccio dared stay no
longer, he fled as the dæmon might have fled from the bitter sorrows of
despoiled Paradise; he left her aghast, overthrown, annihilated.

He quitted Ferrara that day. He was miserable: careless of the road, he
sought solitude alone. Before night he was among the wild forests of the
Apennines,--and there he paused; he was surrounded by the dark
pine-forests that sung above him, covered by a night which was cloudy
and unquiet, for the swift wind drove the rack along the sky, and
moaned, and howled; while the lightnings of a distant storm, faint, but
frequent, displayed the savage spot on which he rested. He threw himself
from his horse, and abandoned himself to sorrow: it stung him to
reflect, that he was the cause of sharpest pain to one who loved him;
and the excuses he fondly leaned upon before his explanation, broke as a
reed under the wild force of Beatrice's despair. He had heard her story,
he knew her delusions, and ought not to have acted towards her, as to a
fellow-being who walked in the same light as himself, and saw objects
dressed in the same colours: a false sun made every thing deceptive for
her eyes,--and he knew it.

Yet what could he now do? Go again to Beatrice? Wherefore? What could he
say? but one word--"forget me!" And that was already said. His early
vows, his deepest and his lasting hopes, were bound up in Euthanasia:
she depended on him alone; she had no father, no relation, none to love
but him. She had told him that she gave up her soul to him, and had
intreated him not to cast aside the gift. Beatrice had never demanded
his faith, his promise, his full and entire heart; but she believed that
she had them, and the loss sustained by her was irretrievable.

Yet she would soon forget him: thus he reasoned; hers was one of those
minds ever tossed like the ocean by the tempest of passion; yet, like
the ocean, let the winds abate, and it subsides, and quickly again
becomes smiling. She had many friends; she was loved, nay, adored, by
all who surrounded her: utter hopelessness of ever seeing him again
would cause her to forget him; her old ideas, her old habits would
return, and she would be happy. His interference alone could harm her;
but she, the spoiled child of the world, would weep out her grief on
some fond and friendly bosom, and then again laugh and play as she was
wont.

He spent the following day and night among these forests; until the
tempest of his soul was calmed, and his thoughts, before entangled and
matted by vanity and error, now flowed loose, borne on by repentance, as
the clinging weeds of a dried-up brook are spread free and distinct by
the re-appearance of the clear stream. He no longer felt the withering
look of Beatrice haunt even his dreams; it appeared to him that he had
paid the mulct of remorse and error; the impression of her enchantments
and of her sorrows wore off; and he returned with renewed tenderness to
Euthanasia, whom he had wronged; and, in the knowledge that he had
shamed her pure lessons, he felt a true and wholesome sorrow, which was
itself virtue. Yet he dared not go back to her; he dared not meet her
clear, calm eye; and he felt that his cheek would burn with shame under
her innocent gaze. He suddenly remembered his engagement to visit Pepi,
the old Ghibeline politician, who, without honesty or humanity, snuffed
up the air of self-conceit, and who, thus inflated, believed himself
entitled to cover others with the venom of sarcasm and contempt.

"Yes, old fox!" he cried, "I will unearth you, and see if there is aught
in your kennel worth the labour. Methinks you would give out as if gold
were under the dirt, or that power and wisdom lurked beneath your
sheep-skin and wrinkles; but believe me, my good friend, we Italians,
however base our politics may be, are not yet low enough to feed from a
trough with you for the driver."

The recollection of something so low and contemptible as Benedetto of
Cremona, relieved Castruccio from a load of dissatisfaction and remorse.
Comparing Pepi with himself, not directly, but by inference of infinite
contempt, he felt that he could again unabashed raise his eyes. This was
not well; far better was the blush of humiliation which covered him in
comparing his soiled purposes and strayed heart to something high and
pure, than the ignoble heavings of self-consequence in matching himself
with such a blotted specimen of humanity as Pepi. So, as we are wont,
when we return from the solitude of self-examination to the company of
fellow-sinners, he twisted up again the disentangled tresses of his
frank and sincere thoughts into the million-knotted ties of the world's
customs and saintly-looking falsehoods; and, leaving the woods of the
Apennines, something wiser in self-knowledge, and but little improved in
generous virtue, and the government of his passions, he put spurs to his
horse, and turned his steps towards Cremona.




CHAPTER V


_Visit to Pepi at Cremona._


It was on the evening of the tenth of September that Castruccio arrived
at the bridge which Pepi had indicated. No one was there, except an old
woman spinning with a distaff, who from her age and wrinkles might have
served for a model of the eternal Fates; for her leathern and dry, brown
skin, did not seem formed of the same frail materials as the lily cheek
of a high-bred dame. She looked full at Castruccio; so that he laughing
asked her, whether she would tell him his fortune.

"Aye," replied the beldame, "though no witch, it is easy for me to tell
you what you are about to find. Say the word you were bid repeat here,
and I will conduct you where you desire to go."

"Lucca."

"Enough; follow me. He of whom you wot, will be glad that you come
alone."

She led him out of the high road, by numberless lanes through which his
horse could hardly break his way, among the entangled bushes of the
hedges. The woman trudged on before, spinning as she went, and screaming
out a few notes of a song, returning to them again and again with a
monotonous kind of yell, as loud as it was discordant. At length they
arrived at a mean suburb of Cremona; and, traversing a number of dirty
alleys and dark streets, they came to one bounded on one side by the
high, black, stone wall of a palace. The old woman knocked at a small,
low door in this wall, made strong with iron clamps, and which, when
cautiously opened, appeared not less in thickness than the wall of the
palace itself. It was Pepi's muscular, but withered hand, that turned
the massy key, and forced back the bolts of three successive doors that
guarded this entrance. After having admitted Castruccio (the old woman
being left behind with the horse, to lead him to the front gate of the
palace), he closed the doors with care; and then, it being quite dark
within the passage, he uncovered a small lamp, and led the way through
the gallery, up a narrow staircase, which opened by a secret door on the
great and dreary hall of the palace. This vast apartment was hardly
light, although at the further end a torch, stuck against the wall,
flared with a black and smoky flame.

"Welcome again, noble Castruccio, to my palace," said Pepi: "I have
waited anxiously for your arrival, for all my hopes appear now to depend
upon you. At present, since you appear wet and cold, come to the further
hall, where we shall find fire and food: and pardon, I intreat you, my
homely fare, for it is by œconomy and privation that I have become that
which I am."

The manners of Pepi were unusually inflated and triumphant; and
Castruccio wondered what new scene a being, whom he considered as half a
buffoon, and half a madman, intended to act. A large fire blazed in the
middle of the second hall, and a pot hung over it containing the supper
of the family: Pepi took Castruccio's cloak, and spread it carefully on
the high back of a chair; and then he pushed a low bench close to the
fire, and the two friends (if so they might be called) sat down. There
was no torch or lamp in the room; but the flame of the burning wood cast
a broad glare on Benedetto's face, which Castruccio observed with
curiosity; his brows were elevated, his sharp eyes almost emitted sparks
of fire, his mouth was drawn down and compressed with a mixed expression
of cunning and pride; he threw another log on the blazing hearth, and
then began to speak:--

"My lord Castruccio, I think it were well that we should instantly enter
on our business, since, when we have agreed upon our terms, no time must
be lost in our proceeding. My proposition last May, was, as you may
remember, to restore this town to the Ghibelines; and this is in my
power. Cane, the lord of Verona, is I know about to approach with an
army to besiege it, and it rests with me whether he shall succeed or
not. If he do not agree to my terms, he must fail, as I may well say
that the keys of this town rest with me. It is true, that when I spoke
to you in May, I did not know that Can' Grande would attempt the town,
and in that case I should have needed no more aid from you than your
mere interposition: but in affairs of importance a mediator's is not a
humble task; and I hope that you will not disdain to act a friendly part
towards me."

Pepi paused with an inquisitive look; and Castruccio, assuring him of
his amicable dispositions, intreated him to continue his explanation,
and to name what he called his terms. Benedetto continued: "My terms are
these, and truly they may easily be fulfilled; of course Cane only
wishes to take the town out of the hands of the Guelphs, and to place it
in trust with some sure Ghibeline; now let him make me lord of Cremona,
and I will engage, first to put the town into his hands, and afterwards
on receiving the investiture, to aid him with men during war, and pay
him a tribute in time of peace. If he agree to this, let him only lead
his troops to the gate of the town, and it shall be his without costing
him one drop of blood."

Castruccio listened with uncontrolable astonishment. He looked at the
wrinkled and hardly human face of the speaker, his uncouth gait and
manners, and could scarcely restrain his contempt; he remembered Pepi's
want of every principle and his boasted cruelty; and disgust overcame
every other feeling; but, considering that it was as well to understand
the whole of the man's drift, after a moment's pause he replied: "And
where are the keys of the town which you say are in your possession?"

"Would you see them?" cried Pepi, starting up with a grin of triumph;
"follow me, and you shall behold them."

He called his old woman, and, taking the lamp from her hand, he bade her
prepare the supper; and then with quick steps he conducted Castruccio
from the apartment: they crossed the court into the second hall, and he
opened the door of the secret staircase. After Pepi had again carefully
closed it, he opened another door on the staircase, which Castruccio had
not before observed, and which was indeed entirely concealed in the
dirty plaster of the wall. "Even she," said Pepi, pointing towards the
hall, "even my old witch, does not know of this opening."

After closing it, he led the way through a dark gallery, to another long
and narrow flight of stairs, which seemed to lead to the vaults
underneath the castle. Castruccio paused before he began to descend, so
deeply was he impressed with the villainy of his companion; but,
remembering that they were man to man, and that he was young and strong,
and his companion old and weak, and that he was armed with a sword,
while Pepi had not even a knife at his girdle, he followed his conductor
down the stairs. Flight after flight succeeded, until he thought they
would never end; at length they came to another long gallery, windowless
and damp, which by its close air indicated that it was below the surface
of the ground, and then to various dreary and mildewed vaults in one of
which stood two large chests.

"There," cried Pepi, "are the keys of the town."

"Where?" asked Castruccio, impatiently, "I see them not."

Pepi turned to him with a grin of joy; and, taking two keys from his
bosom, he knelt down, and exerting his strength, turned them in their
locks, and threw back the lids of the chests, first one, and then the
other: they were filled with parchments.

"I do not understand this mummery; how can these musty parchments be the
keys of your town?"

Pepi rubbed his hands with triumphant glee; he almost capered with
delight; unable to stand still, he walked up and down the vault, crying,
"They are not musty! they are parchments of this age! they are signed,
they are sealed;--read them! read them!"

Castruccio took up one, and found it to be a bond obliging the signer to
pay the sum of twenty thousand crowns on a certain day, in return for
certain monies lent, or to forfeit the sum of thirty thousand, secured
on the lands of a noble count of Cremona.

"They are usurious bonds," said Castruccio, throwing it down angrily.

"They are," replied Pepi, picking up the deed, and folding it carefully;
"said I not well that I had the keys of the town? Every noble owes me a
part, many the best part, of his estate. Many bonds are forfeited; and
the mulct hangs over the signer by a single thread. There is count
Grimaldi, whose bond was due the very day after his castle was plundered
and burned, and his lands laid waste by the Germans; he owes me more
than he can ever pay, though his last acre with his patent of nobility
went with it, and he after with his brats, to beg at the doors of the
Guelphs, his friends. There is the marquess Malvoglio who bought the
life of his only son, a rank traitor, from the emperor by the sums which
I lent him, which have never been repaid. This box is full of the bonds
made before the siege of Cremona; it was concealed above in my tower
when you last visited me; and this is full of those made since that
time; you see the harvest the good emperor brought me. When the Germans
quitted the town, my halls were filled with the beggarly Guelph
nobility--'Messer Benedetto, my wife has not a garment to cover her!
Messer Benedetto, my palace is in ruins! Messer Benedetto, my beds are
destroyed, my walls are bare of furniture!'--'Oh! Messer Benedetto,
without your aid my children must starve!'

"'Aye, my friends,' said I, 'I will help you most willingly; here are
parchments to sign, and gold to spend!--For in the interim I had called
in my debts from various other towns, and had two chests of gold ready
for the gaping hounds; some read the bonds, and complained of the
conditions; the greater number signed without reading them; none have
been paid; now they are all mine, body and soul; aye, with these bonds,
the devil himself might buy them."

"And this is the trade by which you have become rich, and to support
which you have sold your paternal estate?"

"Ah! Messer Castruccio," replied Pepi, his countenance falling; "not
only have I sold every acre, but I have starved myself, exposed myself
by my beggarly garb to the jeers and mocks of every buffoon and idiot,
who had been weaned but a year from his mother's milk: a knight in
sheep-skin was an irresistible subject for ridicule; I have been patient
and humble, and by my submissive mien have lulled my debtors into
security, till the day of payment passed; then I have come upon them,
received no payment, but got fresh bonds, and then with renewed
hypocrisy, blinded them again till I have drawn their very souls from
their bodies;--and they and theirs are mine. Why, Cane is himself my
debtor, here is his bond for ten thousand florins of gold, which I will
burn with my own hands, when by his exertions I am made lord of
Cremona."

Castruccio, who had steadily curbed his contempt, now, overcome by
indignation, burst forth like thunder on his host: "Thou vile Jew," he
exclaimed, "utter not those words again! Thou, lord of Cremona! A
usurer, a bloodsucker!--Why all the moisture squeezed from thy miserable
carcase would not buy one drop of the noble heart's tide of your
debtors.--And these parchments! Thinkest thou men are formed of straw to
be bound with paper chains? Have they not arms? have they not swords?
Tremble, foolish wretch! Be what thou art,--a sycophant.--No, thou art
not human; but in these filthy vaults thou hast swollen, as a vile toad
or rank mushroom; and then, because thou canst poison men, thou wouldst
lord it over them! Now, thou base-minded fellow, be advised to cast off
these presumptuous thoughts, or with my armed heel I will crush thee in
the dust!"

Pepi was pale with rage; and, with a malignant, distorted smile, which
his quivering lips could hardly frame, he said, "Fair words, my lord of
Lucca; remember this is my palace, these vaults are mine, and of these
passages I alone have the key, know alone of their existence."

"Slave! do you threaten?"

Castruccio had scarcely uttered these words, when he perceived Pepi
gliding behind him; with eyes that flashed fire, he darted round, and
transfixed by their gaze the wretched traitor; as he cast up his arm
with the passionate gesture of indignation and command, Pepi grew pale
with terror; it seemed to him, as if he already felt the menaced
vengance of his youthful enemy; his sharp eyes became glazed, his knees
trembled, his joints relaxed, and the dagger that he had already drawn
from his bosom fell from his nerveless hand. All had passed so silently,
that the fall of the weapon seemed to strike like thunder on the
pavement, and it re-echoed along the vaults. Castruccio smiled with a
feeling too lofty even to admit contempt; it was the smile of power
alone.--Pepi fell upon his knees; when, suddenly perceiving that
Castruccio glanced his eye from the lamp to the parchments, and then to
the lamp again, the fear of losing his precious documents overcame every
other feeling, and he tried, prostrate as he was, to dart past his foe,
and blow out the light; Castruccio waved his hand to keep him off and
the miserable traitor again shrunk back, and fell upon the ground in an
agony of impotent rage and terror.

Castruccio now spoke in a restrained and firm tone: "Fear not; I came
hither as a friend; and, though you have broken your faith with me, yet
will I not mine with you:--I promised not to betray your secret, and I
will not. But remember; if by these or any other means you attempt to
oppress your townsmen, I will raise such a nest of hornets about you,
that then, as now, you may intreat my mercy. Now give me the keys of
your vaults and passages; and then up, and shew me the way from this
infernal den."

Trembling and aghast, his strait lips white with fear, Pepi gathered
himself from the pavement; with unwilling hand he gave up the keys of
his vault, cast one lingering glance on his treasure, and then, followed
by Castruccio, who held the lamp, he quitted his den with a hesitating
and unequal gait; for his late terror made him halt, and even his coward
fear lest Castruccio should yet stab him in the back as they ascended
the stairs. The doors were unlocked and thrown open; for no time was
allowed, as in descending, for the careful drawing of bolts and turning
of locks in their progress. Castruccio was eager to leave the
pestilential air of the place, and to bid farewel to his treacherous and
loathsome host. They at length arrived at the head of the staircase; and
Pepi would have opened the door that led to the hall.

"Down, villain!" cried Castruccio, "let me go the shortest way from your
devilish abode."

"But your cloak; you left your cloak in the further hall."

"It is my legacy to thee, old fox;--it will serve to wrap your crazed
limbs, and to remind you of my promises when you descend again to your
tomb."

Pepi went down stairs, and opened the several doors of his palace; and
Castruccio hastened past him, feeling new life as he breathed the fresh
air of the open street. His enemy, now seeing him on the other side of
the gates, threw off his terrors, and collecting all his malice from his
heart to his miserable physiognomy, he said: "My lord Castruccio, might
I say one word to you?"

"No, not one syllable: remember this night, and so farewel."

"Yet not farewel without my curse; and that I will spit after thee, if
thou hadst the speed of an eagle."

The impotent wretch grinned and stamped with rage, when he saw his enemy
pass on unheeding, and quickly disappear. Yet anger was not a passion
that could long hold possession of the heart of Benedetto; he remembered
that his dear chests were safe; and, although he still shuddered at
their imminent peril, yet he satisfied himself with the deep contempt he
felt towards his foe, who had allowed him, while thus in his power, to
escape unhurt.

As he ascended the stairs he gazed on the lamp, and with a ghastly
smile, said: "Thou wert the instrument he purposed to use, and I will
tread thee to dust. His time will come, and his heart's blood and his
soul's agony shall repay me for my wrongs; and so will I wind my snares,
that he himself shall proclaim me lord of Cremona."

In a journey that Castruccio made to Lombardy some years after, he
enquired concerning his old enemy; and, hearing that he was dead, he
listened with curiosity to the relation of the last scenes of
Benedetto's life. Ten days after their interview (in the September of
the year 1317), Cane della Scala approached Cremona to besiege it; but,
after passing some weeks before the walls, the rains, and the ravages
which had been effected in the territory of his allies, the Modenese,
obliged him to withdraw. Whether Pepi were terrified by the warning of
Castruccio, or feared a similar reception to his propositions from Can'
Grande, cannot be known: but it is certain that he made no effort to
enter into a treaty with him at that time.

In the month of March of the following year Cane received a visit from
the ambitious usurer at his palace in Verona. Pepi had grown wise by
experience, and in this interview managed his treaty with great skill.
He bought for the occasion a vest of scarlet silk and boots of Tartarian
fur; fastening on his gilt spurs, throwing his gold fringed cloak over
his shoulders, and putting on his head a conical cap of the newest
fashion, encircled with a golden band, he mounted a good horse; and,
thus caparisoned, he appeared, in his own and in his old woman's eyes,
as accomplished and noble a knight as by the stroke of a sword it were
possible to dub; nor did he, in his conference with Cane, mention what
his means were by which he intended to betray the city, but merely
boasted of his power of admitting the army of the lord of Verona, if it
should appear before the gates, and named, as the condition of this
service, his being instituted its lord in vassalage to Cane, if his
Ghibeline townsmen should agree to receive him as their chief. The
veteran commander easily acceded to these stipulations; and, the time
and other circumstances being agreed upon, Pepi returned to Cremona to
prepare for his future government.

His great art consisted in attacking all the nobles for their debts at
the same time; and these were so numerous, and of so considerable an
amount, that it created much confusion in a town which had been
enfeebled by perpetual wars. The nobles, as Castruccio had predicted,
reflected that they had arms in their hands, and that their debts being
all due to one man, they could by his death easily free their shoulders
from a heavy burthen. It was then that Pepi began to disclose to each
separately his readiness to destroy their bonds, if through their means
he was admitted to be lord of Cremona. The Ghibelines objected the
strong opposition they should meet with from the Guelphs; to these he
confided the hopes he entertained of aid from Cane della Scala. The
Guelphs, now much enfeebled, appeared more tractable, since he
endeavoured to persuade them that it would be wholly in his power to
prevent the Ghibelines from exiling them; and he promised to act as a
moderator between the parties. He was listened to, and many promised him
their assistance, each in his heart despising the usurer, but believing
that each by his single vote would be of no service to raise him to the
sovereignty, and that by fair words they should discharge their heavy
debts.

Pepi had so managed, that he had got the keys of one of the gates into
possession; he admitted the troops of the lord of Verona; but he found
that after all he did not possess the influence he had hoped over the
minds of his townsmen. When the Ghibeline war-cry was raised, all the
Guelphs of the city, distrusting either the promises or the power of
their creditor, assembled in arms; and a tumult ensued, which ended in
the defeat of the popular party, and the triumphant entrance of Cane
into the town.

Pepi fell in that tumult: whether by a chance-blow, or by the resolved
dagger of one of his debtors, cannot be ascertained. But his dead body
was discovered among the slain; and, so great was the enmity of his
townsmen against him, that, although Cane and his troops had already
entered the city, the whole population rushed in fury towards his
palace, and in a few hours the massy walls, the high tower, and all the
boasted possessions of Pepi were, as himself, a loathsome and useless
ruin. The hidden and unknown vaults were undisturbed; and the paper
wealth of the usurer lay buried there, to rot in peace among the mildews
and damps of those miserable dungeons.




CHAPTER VI


_Galeazzo Visconti at Florence.--Castruccio and
Euthanasia meet at Valperga: Doubts and
Reserve._


Immediately after the restoration of the marquess of Este to the
government of Ferrara, Galeazzo Visconti returned to Milan; and thence,
after a short delay, he made a journey to Florence. The apparent motive
of this visit was to accompany a younger brother, who had been long
betrothed to a Florentine lady; and the period had now arrived for the
celebration of their marriage. But he had other secret views: he had
heard of the engagement of Castruccio to the countess of Valperga; and,
this name being famous as belonging to a Guelph family, he thought that
he had now discovered the cause of the peace concluded by Castruccio
with Florence, and he resolved to ascertain the motives and plans of his
friend; and if the countess were really the jealous Guelph fame gave her
out to be, he determined to spare neither artifice nor falsehood to
disturb their union.

The destined bride of young Azzo Visconti was a near relation of
Euthanasia. The family of Adimari to which she belonged, although
originally Guelphs, had been united to the party of the _Bianchi_, and
had been expelled with them; with the exception of that branch which
adhered to the _Neri_, of which the father of Euthanasia was the chief.
But the children of several of these exiles continued with those of
their relations who remained in Florence; and Fiammetta dei Adimari,
although the daughter of an exile of the faction of the _Bianchi_, had
continued to reside in Florence under the protection of an aunt. Her
father had made himself famous in the wars of Lombardy; and it was there
that the union between her and Azzo Visconti had been projected.

When the youth came with Galeazzo to celebrate the marriage, Fiammetta
removed to the palace of Euthanasia, it being from her abode, as the
head of the family, that the bride ought to be taken, when her husband
should come to demand her. Galeazzo calculated on the frequent occasions
of meeting that this circumstance would afford, to commence the plot he
had formed on the mind of Euthanasia.

These illustrious visitors were received with honours by the magistrates
of Florence: a palace was assigned for their abode, and several nobles
were commissioned to shew them all that was curious in the city.
Florence was then one of the finest towns in Italy; yet certainly its
beauty must have been far inferior to that which it boasts at present.
Its chief ornaments were palaces of massy stone, surmounted by high
towers, each able to sustain a siege: some specimens of this
architecture, the Palazzo Strozzi, and the Palazzo Pitti, now a ducal
residence, exist to this day. They are grand and imposing; but the
sombre air which they give to the streets, was better suited to those
warlike and manly times, than to the taste of the present age, when the
Italian heaven shines on few who would defend their own home, though its
strength were that of an impregnable fortress. The Cathedral, or Duomo,
afterwards the pride of Florence, was then just commenced; but the
extent of its area, and the solidity of its foundations, justified the
high tone of the public decree for its erection, which declared that it
should surpass in beauty every other building then existing in Italy,
and be the wonder of the modern world. Among other curiosities, Galeazzo
was conducted to the dens of the numerous lions and lionesses kept at
the expence of the republic: there were nearly an hundred of these
animals, that lived sumptuously, maintained by the superstition of the
Florentines, who believed their welfare to be symbolical of that of the
state.

In their visits to these wonders of Florence the Visconti were
accompanied by many of the young nobles of both sexes, and Euthanasia
and Fiammetta were among the number. Galeazzo, from the moment of his
arrival, had directed his entire attention to the unravelling the
character of Euthanasia, and from all that he heard and saw, became
convinced that she was the cause of the fluctuations of Castruccio's
mind, and that their union must be prevented; otherwise he would never
proceed against the Guelphs with the vigorous hostility which was
necessary to their suppression. At first Galeazzo kept apart from
Euthanasia; he was unwilling to enter into conversation with her, until,
finding out the secret chords of her mind, he might play upon them with
a master's hand.

They visited among the other curiosities of Florence the tomb of the
family of the Soldanieri. This vast receptacle for the dead was built
under ground, and received but small light from a grated window which
opened into one of the cloisters of the church: it was the custom of
this family to coffin their dead in brazen statues, apparently armed
_cap-à-pié_; and these statues were mounted on brazen figures of
horses, so that the population of the cemetery resembled a party of
armed knights ready for action. The tomb was viewed by the light of
innumerable torches; and there was a grim solemnity in the appearance of
this troop of bronze horses, each carrying the brazen statue which
imitated the living form and mien of the corpse therein coffined, that
might well strike the spectator with awe; each voice was hushed as they
gazed, and the younger part of the assembly hastened to quit a place
which damped all their hilarity. The lights disappeared with them; and
for a while Euthanasia lingered behind almost in the dark; for the
solitary torch that remained, could hardly do more than make darkness
visible; and the sunbeam which had strayed from its right path into the
abode of the dead, tinged with its light a few of the casques of the
knights, who, though their eyes and brain were within the case, neither
saw nor felt the ray. Such a sight must have impressed any one with
melancholy; all was still;--Euthanasia, apparently surrounded by an
armed band on horseback, for the twilight gave life to the figures, yet
felt about her the silence of death; her own step, her own breath, were
noisy intruders in the cavern:--nor did her mute companions rest in an
enchanted sleep--they were dead,--decay was at work among their frames,
and the chill of mortality exhaling from the brass, made the vault as
cold as it was silent.

She left the tomb with slow steps; and, at the foot of the stairs by
which she would mount to daylight, Galeazzo was waiting to conduct her.
Her companions were already far distant; their voices even had died
away; and, as she traversed the cloisters, she appeared little inclined
to break the silence between herself and her companion. At length
Galeazzo spoke; and, after a few trivial remarks on the scene which they
had visited, he said:

"I have long sought the opportunity now afforded me, Madonna Euthanasia,
to introduce myself more particularly to your notice. As the friend of
Castruccio, I hope to find myself already recommended to some portion of
your kindness and regard."

Euthanasia replied with courtesy to this speech; and Galeazzo continued:
"Being at the head of the Ghibelines of Lombardy, it is not wonderful
that an intimacy should subsist between Castruccio and myself;--for our
interests are the same; and, if by his alliance I hope to extend my
dominion in the north of Italy, I trust that my name as his friend and
ally, will aid him in his future designs even on this town itself."

"His designs on this town!" repeated Euthanasia.

"Aye; for in truth he encourages the hope, whether it be wild or
practicable I hardly know, of overthrowing this nest of republicans, and
making himself prince or imperial vicar of Tuscany. But why should I
talk of his plans to you, Madonna, who must know them far better than I?
Besides, it may be dangerous to speak here, even in whispers, of such
things; who knows if some Guelph may not overhear me?"

"Indeed, my lord," replied Euthanasia, with a faint smile, "you divine
like an astrologer; for truly I overhear you, and I am a Guelph."

"A Guelph!" repeated Galeazzo, with well feigned astonishment;--"Are you
not an Adimari? Madonna Euthanasia dei Adimari?"

"I am also countess of Valperga; and that name will perhaps unravel the
enigma. Yes, my lord, I am a Guelph and a Florentine; it cannot
therefore be pleasing to me, to hear that Castruccio has formed such
designs upon my native town. Yet I thought that I knew him well; and, if
you had not seen him since our separation, I should believe that your
information was founded on some mistake. As it is--tell me, if you be
not bound to secrecy, what you know of his plans."

"Madonna, Castruccio honours me with the title of his friend, and
secresy and faith are the bonds of friendship. When I spoke so
unguardedly of his designs, I thought I spoke to one who knew them far
better than myself: if I have unawares betrayed the concealed counsels
of Antelminelli, I do most bitterly repent me; and do you graciously
remit to me my fault, by laying no stress on my foolish words."

Euthanasia was silent; her mind was too much disturbed to know
immediately what part to take. She had believed in Castruccio's promises
of peace; and the foundations of her very life seemed to give way, when
his faith appeared tainted with falsehood. She knew him to be ambitious;
and suddenly the thought struck her, that Galeazzo alluded only to his
romantic conception of future union among the Italian states, into which
she also had entered, and which might easily be mistaken for schemes of
war and conquest. Upon this belief she renewed the conversation, and
told her companion that he must have mistaken the meaning of Castruccio;
that it was that chief's wish, as it was of all patriotic Italians, to
unite the factions that caused so much bloodshed and misery to their
country; but that war was not the measure he intended to adopt to bring
about a pacific termination.

It was now Galeazzo's turn to be silent; he looked down, and answered in
monosyllables, and seemed to wish to make Euthanasia believe, that she
might have divined well the plans of Castruccio, though he could not
himself believe they were of so peaceful a nature. Euthanasia continued
to talk; for she seemed to gather faith in what she desired from her own
words. Galeazzo remained silent, and replied with downcast eyes to her
appealing words and looks;--at length, after a pause, he appeared to
make a struggle to throw off the embarassment of his demeanour; and
looking up, "Madonna," said he, "let me intreat you to mention this
subject no more. If I thought that your conjectures were right, I would
frankly say so; but I do not;--each word that you utter makes me believe
that Antelminelli conceals his true designs from you; and, since he has
chosen me as the depositary of his secret, I should be a traitor to
friendship and honour, if I disclosed it. You will see him soon, and
then you can unravel the mystery; in the mean time, I pray you rest
content with my assurance, that Castruccio meditates nothing unworthy
his name and glory."

These few words destroyed the peace of Euthanasia. She became sorrowful
and disturbed; her countenance, betraying the secret of her heart, no
longer displayed that calm and softness which were before its
characteristics; the brightness of her eyes, if it was not quenched,
only shone forth at intervals, and she mingled most unwillingly in the
festivities of the nuptial ceremony. Galeazzo watched her carefully; he
perceived the effect his words had had on her; and he determined to
follow them up by a system of conduct, which should leave no doubt in
her mind as to the truth of his assertions. Instead of avoiding
Euthanasia, he now sought her society on all occasions, and often talked
to her of Castruccio, whom he always mentioned in a style of excessive
praise; yet with this he contrived to mix words, hints, or looks, which
seemed to say that he followed other counsels, and devised other schemes
than those of which she was aware; meanwhile all this was done in so
light a manner, touched on so cursorily, and then dismissed, that, as
she listened, the clue of truth slipt from her, and she felt as if lost
in a pathless wilderness.

The preparations for the marriage were sumptuous. Every day large
parties assembled at the palace of Euthanasia; and, when the day
declined, song and dance passed away the hours of darkness. The day at
length arrived, when Fiammetta should first be led to church, and thence
to the palace where her husband resided. Early in the morning she and
her noble friends of her own sex prepared for the ceremony, by attiring
themselves in the most magnificent manner. Gold and jewels sparkled on
their robes, and their dark hair twisted with pearls, hung in tresses on
their shoulders; married ladies only were admitted to the nuptial
procession and feasts; and Euthanasia alone, as an independent
chieftainess and sovereign, claimed an exemption from this rule.

This day, so gay in appearance, and full of joyous demonstrations,
Euthanasia had passed more sadly, than if she had spent it in silence
and solitude, where she would not have been obliged to hide the sorrow
she felt at her heart. In the evening Galeazzo informed her, that a
courier, coming from Ferrara, had brought a letter to him from
Castruccio; and he appeared with difficulty to yield to her intreaties
to shew it to her. It contained merely excuses for his delay at Ferrara,
and mentioned his speedy return:--"Yet," added he, "I shall not meet you
in the cave of the Lioness[6], for you will surely be gone before my
return. Were it not for a pearl which the wild animal guards for me, I
would never enter her den but as her enchainer. But no more of this: you
know my plans; and, if the viper and the eagle unite in firm accord,
surely both her heel and her head may receive a deadly wound."

The meaning of these words was too plain; the viper was the crest of the
Visconti, the eagle of the Antelminelli, and union between them was to
destroy fair Florence, her native city. Euthanasia felt sick at heart;
she gave back the letter in silence, and looked as a lily bent by the
wind, which bows itself in patience and suffering to the storm. She
remembered her vow not to unite herself to the enemy of Florence; and
she resolved to abide by it. Her residence of these few weeks in her
native town had endeared its inhabitants to her; she had renewed her
early friendships; she was again among them, one of them;--and could she
unite herself to a man who would bring havoc upon her best friends? She
dreaded the reproachful voice of her conscience; and, in her well
regulated mind, the fear of self-condemnation would have been sufficient
to deter her from incurring such a penalty: but all the feelings of her
heart here interposed; her youthful friendships; her daily habits of
intercourse and mutual kindness. The favourite companion of her younger
days was now married to the chief of one the citizen-bands of Florence,
who would be exposed foremost to the swords of Castruccio's soldiers;
the dearest friend of her father would lead his troop also against them.
Her marriage with him, on condition of being a party in his victories
over the Florentines, and rejoicing in the death of those she loved,
would be as if she united herself to the rack, and bound herself for
life, body and soul, to the ever renewing pangs of some tyrant-invented
torture. It could not be: her resolution was made; and the energy of her
soul qualified her to complete the sacrifice.

The following day Galeazzo and his brother returned with Fiammetta to
Milan. They took a kind leave of Euthanasia; and the last words of
Galeazzo were, "Forget, Madonna, all that I may have said to pain you;
let not Castruccio find that I have done him an ill office in your
favour; and be assured that my sorrow will be most poignant, if you find
that I have infused _erroneous_ ideas into your mind as to his plans and
wishes."

Shortly after their departure, news arrived that Castruccio would return
to Florence in two days. Euthanasia heard this with trembling;--but a
short time before she had earnestly desired to see him, that she might
clear up all her suspicions, and that certainty of good or evil might
decide her fate;--now she feared the death that might suddenly come to
all her hopes; and she felt as if but to gain a day, or a few hours, of
doubt and expectation, were to gain so much of life: to insure this she
took the hasty resolution of quitting Florence, and returning to her
castle before the arrival of her suitor. Accordingly, attended by her
domestics alone, after having taken a sudden leave of her friends, she
departed.

How different was her present journey from that undertaken with
Castruccio but a few months before! She was then happy and confiding;
but now anxious doubt pervaded her, and fears that would not sleep. She
had resolved, if the ambition of Castruccio could not content itself
except with the destruction of the liberties of Florence, that she would
never be his; but this resolution gave her no calm; the seal neither of
life nor death was placed on her hopes: and she strove to expect good;
while the fear of evil flushed her cheek, and filled her eyes with
unshed tears. The year was on its decline; the myrtle flowers had faded
from the mountains, and the chesnut-woods were tinged with brown and
yellow; the peasants were busy among the vines; and the trellised
arbours they had formed, and the sweet shades of green among which the
purple grapes hung, were now pulled down, defaced and trodden upon: the
swallows were collecting for their flight, and the chill mornings and
evenings announced the near approach of hoary winter. The sluggish
scirocco blotted the sky with clouds, and weighed upon the spirits,
making them dull and heavy as itself.

Euthanasia saw all this with the observant eye of grief, which refers
all things to itself, and forms omens for its own immortality from
combinations more unsubstantial than the Sybilline leaves. The autumnal
rains threatened nigh at hand; and the year had been much curtailed of
those sweet days which follow the hot Italian summer, when the hunter
feels his bow injured by the heavy dews of night, but when the noonday
sun shines with tempered heat, and sets leaving the downcast eyelids of
night heavy with tears for his departure; when we feel that summer is
gone, and winter is coming, but the fresh-looking evergreens, the
stately cypress, the fruit-burthened olive, and the dark ilex, tell us
that nature is not merely a fair-weather friend. Our sorrowing traveller
compared the quick advance of winter that she now witnessed, with its
long delay of the preceding year, and sighed.

She arrived at her castle on the first of October; and the moment she
had arrived, the storm, which for many days had been collecting from the
south the force of autumnal rains and thunders, broke over her head. The
white lightning sped in forked chains around the sky, and without pause
or interval, deluged the midnight heaven with light, which shewed to
her, as she stood at the window of her apartment, the colours of the
trees, and even of the few flowers which had survived to witness the
advent of the storm. The thunder broke in tremendous and continued
peals, and the rain awoke in a moment the dried up sources of the
mountain torrents; yet their liquid career was not heard amidst the
tumult: for, if the thunder paused, the echoes prolonged the sound, and
all nature seemed labouring with the commotion. Euthanasia watched the
progress of the tempest; and her ear, filled with its almost deafening
noise, could not distinguish the sounds, which at other times would have
been audible, of horses' hoofs as they ascended the rock of Valperga, or
the clang at the castle-gate, or the letting down of the draw-bridge;
the first sound alien to the storm that visited her sense, was her own
name pronounced in a well known and soft voice:

"Euthanasia!"

"Castruccio! you here?"

"Yes, it is I,--Castruccio;--yet I will instantly depart, if you
command. I have followed fast upon your steps;--but why are you here?
Why did you not remain at Florence?"

For nearly two years Euthanasia had cherished, unblamed by herself, the
most fervent love for Castruccio. The union had been delayed; but the
sentiment continued as a deep and clear stream, or rather like a pure
lake, which in its calmness reflects more vividly and enduringly the
rock that hangs eternally above it, than does the tempest-shaken water.
They had been separated nearly three months; and, now that she saw and
heard him again, her first impulse was, clasped in his arms, to seal
with one caress a joyous forgiveness; but she checked herself.
Confounded by his sudden appearance, and distracted by the many feelings
that pressed upon her, she wept:--she wept long and silently; while her
lover stood near her without speaking, looking at her by the glare of
the continued lightnings, as they flashed in fast succesion, and made
day in the chamber.

After a long pause, he spoke with less impetuosity: "Why did you not
remain at Florence?"

She looked up at him, and her voice quivered, as she replied: "I cannot
tell you now; I am confused, and words refuse themselves to me: my heart
is full, and I am most unhappy,--to-morrow I will explain all."

"Now or never;--Euthanasia, you must not trifle with me,--are you mine?"

"If you are your own."

"What does this mean?" cried Castruccio, starting. "Of what then do you
accuse me? You speak in riddles: understand, I intreat you, a plain
speech, and answer me with frankness. I love you; I have long loved you;
and you alone have so long delayed the union which God knows how much I
desire. Now you have brought it to a crisis:--Will you be mine?"

It is difficult to answer the language of passion with that of reason:
besides Euthanasia was not herself passionless, and there was a feeling
in her heart that pleaded more strongly in Castruccio's favour than all
his arguments. She felt subdued; yet she was angry with herself for
this, and remained a long time silent, endeavouring to collect herself.
At length she replied:

"Why do you press me to answer you now? or rather, consult your own
heart, and that will answer for me. You have known mine long.--I love
you;--but I have other duties besides those which I owe to you, and
those shall be fulfilled. My father's lessons must not be forgotten,
when the first occasion arrives for putting them in practice; nor must I
be wanting to that sense of duty, which until now has been the rule of
my life. I am a Florentine; Florence is my native country; nor will I be
a traitor to it."

"Well,--and what do you conclude from this?"

"Are you not the enemy of Florence? Are you not contriving war and
chains for its happy and free state? You turn away impatiently;
to-morrow I will see you again, and you will then have reflected on my
words: my fate depends on your true and frank reply to my question. Now
leave me; I am worn out and fatigued, and to-night I cannot support the
struggle into which you would lead me. To-morrow I shall see you;
farewel; the storm has now passed, and the rain has quite ceased. Good
night!"

"You leave me thus; and thus you reward me for suspense, jealousy and
despair. Good night, Euthanasia. You sacrifice me to a bubble, to the
shadow of a bubble,--be it so! Great God! that you should be influenced
by such a chimæra! Well, you decide; and I shall expect your award with
what patience I may. Again, good night."

He left her to doubt, suspense and grief. But her high mind bore her
through all; and, having marked for herself the line of duty which she
believed she ought to pursue, the natural enthusiasm of her character
aided her to struggle with the misery which her sensibility inflicted
upon her. Castruccio himself came to her aid; and the events which
followed fast on the scene of this night, served to strengthen her
resolution, and, if they did not make the sacrifice more easy, they
rendered its necessity more palpable.


[Footnote 6: Florence.]




CHAPTER VII


_Castruccio exiles three hundred Families from
Lucca--Visits at Valperga--His Character
further developed._


During his absence Castruccio had reduced in his own mind his various
political plans to a system. He no longer varied either in the end which
he desired to attain, or the means by which he resolved to accomplish
it. He thought coolly on the obstacles in his way; and he resolved to
remove them. His end was the conquest of Tuscany; his means, the
enslaving of his native town; and, with the true disposition of a
conqueror and an usurper, he began to count heads to be removed, and
hands to be used, in the furtherance of his designs. He had no sooner
returned to Florence, than messengers brought him intelligence of a
plot, which would speedily break out in Lucca to deprive him of his
government; and this information, joined to the departure of Euthanasia,
determined him instantly to return to the Lucchese territory.

He was no longer the same as when he had quitted it; he returned full of
thought,--with a bent brow, a cruel eye, and a heart not to be moved
from its purpose by weakness or humanity. The change might appear
sudden, yet it had been slow;--it is the last drop that overflows the
brimming cup,--and so with him the ambition, light-heartedness, and
pride which he had long been nourishing, now having made for itself a
form, "a habitation and a name," first manifested itself in its true
colours to the eyes of man. Ambition, and the fixed desire to rule,
smothered in his mind the voice of his better reason; and the path of
tyranny was smoothed, by his steady resolve to obtain the power, which
under one form or other it had been the object of his life to seek.

The morning after his return to Lucca he reviewed his troops: they were
devoted to him, and by their means he intended to secure his power. He
assembled the senate, and surrounded the palace of government with his
soldiers; he took his seat at its head, with the countenance of one who
knows, and can punish his enemies. He addressed the assembly in few
words, saying, that it was by their power he had been raised to the
government, and that it now behoved them to support him in its exercise.
"I know," he cried, "I have many enemies here,--but let any one of them
step forth, and say the ill that I have done to the republic;--I who
have fought its battles, secured its prosperity, and raised it from the
being the servant of proud Florence to be its rival. What, will none of
you come forward to denounce me, now that I appear, face to face, to
answer your accusations? Randolfo Obizzi, I call upon you, who would
despoil me of the power this senate conferred upon me;--and you, Aldino,
who have plotted even my death;--can ye whisper as traitors, and cannot
ye speak as men? Away!--the moment of mercy is short:--three hours hence
the gates of Lucca will be shut, and whoever among you or your partizans
are found within its walls, will pay the forfeit of his life for his
temerity."

The senate would now have broken up; but, when Castruccio saw that his
enemies had all departed, he called on the rest to stay, and aid him on
this momentous occasion. The decree for banishing the conspirators was
then formally passed, and another for demolishing three hundred towers
of so many palaces, which were as strong holds and fortressess within
the town. The senate was then dismissed,--the troops paraded the
streets, and before night-fall three hundred families, despoiled of
their possessions, and banished their native town, passed through its
gates in mournful procession. The soldiers were employed in demolishing
the towers; and the ruins were carried to the eastern quarter of the
city, to be used in the erection of a new wall. Castruccio, now master
of Lucca, and triumphant over his enemies, felt that he had taken the
first step in the accomplishment of his plans.

Euthanasia had remained in her castle in anxious expectation of a visit
or a message from Castruccio;--neither came: but late in the afternoon
Teresa Obizzi, one of her dearest friends, was announced to her.

"Why so mournful, dear Teresa?" asked her friend. "What has happened?
Are you also unfortunate?"

"I hardly know what has happened, or where I am," replied Teresa.
"Methinks the thunder of heaven has fallen among us; all the Obizzi
family is banished Lucca, and not these alone, but the Bernardi, the
Filippini, the Alviani, and many more, are exiled, and their possessions
confiscated."

"Why, how is this? What new change has occurred in Lucca?"

"Nothing new, dear countess. In truth I believe there was a plot against
Antelminelli, and that some of the Obizzi were concerned in it. But
Castruccio examines nothing; and, including us all in one general
sentence, has wrapt us like a whirlwind, and carries us, God alone knows
whither. And my poor father! I threw myself at the consul's feet; yes,
I, the wife of the proud Galeotto Obizzi, and prayed that my poor father
might be allowed to remain."

"And he refused?"

"He said, 'You have heard the sentence; he best knows whether he be
implicated in it; I have sworn by God and St. Martin that this nest of
Guelphs and _Neri_ shall be rooted out of Lucca, and that the will of
the senate shall be obeyed. Let him look to it; for after three hours
the life of a partizan of the Obizzi will be held no dearer than the
earth on which I tread.'"

"Castruccio said this? Did he answer you thus, Teresa?"

"He did, dear Euthanasia; but I must away; I came to bid you farewel,--a
long farewel; my father and my husband wait for me; pray God to pity
us;--farewel!"

"Not so, Teresa. This castle is not his, and may afford an asylum to his
victims. Come here; repose here awhile at least. Bring your father, your
babes; come and teach me what sorrow is, and learn from me to bear it
with fortitude."

As the evening advanced, others of her friends arrived, and confirmed
all that Euthanasia had before heard. She was confounded, and unable to
believe that it was indeed Castruccio who had caused these evils. Whence
arose this sudden change in his character? Yet, was it sudden? or, was
there indeed any change? She remembered words and looks, before
forgotten, which told her that what now took place was the offspring of
deep thought and a prepared scheme. Yet again, unable to believe the
full extent of the evil that she heard, she sent to Lucca to intreat
Arrigo Guinigi to hasten to her. Arrigo was with Castruccio when the
message came.

"Go, my dear boy," said the latter; "her woman's heart trembles perhaps
at this day's work. Shew her the necessity of it; and make her think as
little unkindly of me as you can. Notwithstanding her coldness and
perplexing ideas about duty, I love her, and must not have her be my
enemy. If she would be content with any thing except the peace with
Florence for her _morgincap_, all my power and possessions were at her
feet[7]."

Arrigo went to Valperga: Euthanasia saw him alone; and, pale and almost
breathless, she asked what had caused this change, and whether he knew
what the schemes of Castruccio were?

"Indeed, Madonna," replied Arrigo, "I do not; I believe that he aims
only at the security of his own state; and many of those he has exiled
had plotted against his government."

"It is possible; tyrants ever have enemies; but it were as well to raze
the city, as to banish all her citizens. There cannot be less than a
thousand souls included in his edict; women and infants, torn from all
the comforts, all the necessaries of daily life, cast upon the world to
weep and call down curses on him. What does he mean?"

"He suspects all whom he has banished, and has strong secret reasons for
his conduct; of that, Euthanasia, you may be sure. When I asked him why
he banished so many of his fellow-citizens, he replied laughing,
'Because this city is not big enough for them and me.' And then he told
me seriously, that his life was alone preserved by the vigorous measures
of this morning."

"Be it so; I wish I could believe him; I do indeed trust that there is
nothing wanton in his severity; yet methinks he had better have banished
himself, than so many families, who now go as beggars through the world.
He also was banished once; they say that princes learn from adversity; I
believe it; they learn a cunning in cruelty the prosperous can never
know."

"Nay, dear countess, speak not so hardly of him. Castruccio was born to
rule; he is noble-minded, but firm of resolution; and can you blame him
for securing a life on which the welfare of Lucca, perhaps of Italy,
depends?"

Euthanasia did not reply; she knew, although from the gentleness of her
nature she had never participated in it, that there was then in Italy a
spirit of cruelty, a carelessness for the life and pain of others, which
rendered it less wonderful that Castruccio should have adopted a mode of
conduct similar to that of most of his contemporaries. It is strange,
that man, born to suffering, and often writhing beneath it, should
wantonly inflict pain on his fellows; but however cruel an individual
may be, no one is so remorseless as a ruler; for he loses even within
himself the idea of his own individuality, and fancies that, in
pampering his inclinations, and revenging his injuries, he is supporting
the state; the state, a fiction, which sacrifices that which constitutes
it, to the support of its mere name. Euthanasia knew that she ought not
to apply the same rule of conduct to a prince, as to a private
individual; yet that Castruccio should have tainted himself with the
common vices of his tribe, was a shock, that unsettled the whole frame
of her mind; it unveiled at once the idol that had dwelt in the shrine
of her heart, shewed the falseness of his apotheosis, and forced her to
use her faculties to dislodge him from the seat he had usurped.

A few days after, Castruccio came himself to the castle of Valperga. He
came at a time when many other visitors were there, and among them
several whom he knew to be his secret enemies. He took no notice of
this; but, with the frankness of manner for which he was remarkable, he
entered into conversation with them, and treating them as on a perfect
equality with himself, he soon softened the angry mood with which they
had at first regarded him. All political discussion was avoided; and the
conversation turned on one of those domestic tragedies which were then
too common among the petty courts of Italy, where each little lord
possessing supreme power, and unrestrained by principle, was ever ready
to wash supposed dishonour from his name in the blood of those who had
caused the stigma. The one at present under discussion was of peculiar
horror, and was the more singular, since nature had vindicated her
violated laws on their infringer, and he who boasted of his morality in
indulging his passionate revenge, was now pursued by remorse and
madness, and the ghosts of his victims hunting him through the world,
gave him no rest or hope. One of the company, a Milanese, said, that it
was impossible that remorse could have caused the madness of Messer
Francesco; since in revenging the injury his wife had done him, he only
followed the example set him by hundreds of his countrymen; and if he
had gone beyond them in cruelty, it merely proved that his love, and his
sense of honour transcended theirs.

Castruccio replied; "Far be it from me to plead for those childish
notions, which would take the sword out of the hand of princes, and make
them bind men of iron with chains of straw. But it does surprize me,
that any man should dare so to idolize himself, as to sacrifice human
victims at the shrine of his pride, jealousy or revenge. Francesco was a
monster, when he tortured and murdered his wife; he is now a man, and
feels the fitting remorse for so foul a deed. Man may force his nature,
and commit deeds of horror; but we are all human beings, all the
children of one common mother, who will not suffer that one should
agonize the other, without suffering in his turn a part of the anguish
he has inflicted[8]."

After a time the other visitors departed; and Euthanasia was left alone
with Castruccio. For a while they were silent; the changeful colours of
her cheek might shew, that love had not forgotten its accustomed course,
but rushed in a warm flood to her heart, and then ebbed, commanded by a
power hardly less strong than that which bids the ocean pause; the power
of virtue in a well formed human heart. Castruccio watched her; but, in
the returning calmness of her eye, and in her unhesitating voice when
she did speak, he read all of female softness, but none of female
weakness.

"Will you pardon me," she said, at length, "if I speak frankly to you;
and not take in ill part the expression of those reflections to which
your late words have given rise?"

Castruccio smiled, and replied, "Madonna, I know already what you are
about to say; but you are mistaken in your conclusions. I said that no
man could with impunity sacrifice the lives of his fellow-creatures to
his own private passions; but you must not torture my meaning; the head
of a state is no longer a private man, and he would act with shameful
imbecility, if he submitted to his enemies because he dared not punish
them."

Euthanasia replied to this, and drew a lively picture of the sufferings
of the exiles; but Castruccio answered laughing, "You speak to one wiser
on that subject than yourself. Have not I been an exile? and do you
think that I forget our mournful procession, when we poor Ghibelines
left Lucca nearly twenty years ago? And do you think that the _Neri_
would have reigned, if they had not turned us out; and how should I
reign, if I permitted this horde of Guelphs to sit here, and plot in my
citadel? Their very number is an argument against them instead of being
one in their favour. But let us leave this discussion, my too
compassionate Euthanasia, and for a moment cast our thoughts on our own
situation. There must be some end put to the riddle, some crown to a
work, which seems as if it were to have no conclusion. I will be frank
with you; I am neither going to turn hermit, and, laying down my
sceptre, to take up with a crucifix: nor like your friends, the holy
fathers of the church, am I going to war with money and falsehood,
instead of with my sword. I am lord of Lucca, and shall continue so as
long as God permits me. I am at the head of the Ghibelines in Tuscany,
and my design is that the Ghibelines should put down their old enemies;
and, seeing a fair prospect of success, I shall neither spare words nor
blows against those who would oppose me in this undertaking. You are a
Guelph; but surely, my dear girl, you will not sacrifice your happiness
to a name, or allow party-spirit to get the better of all the more noble
feelings of your nature."

Euthanasia listened with attention, and answered in mild sadness; "It
does not appear to me, Castruccio, that I sacrifice any thing noble in
my nature, when I refuse to unite myself to the enemy of my country. As
a Ghibeline you know that I loved you; and it is not words alone that
cause my change; fight the Florentines with words only, and I am still
yours. But more than I love Florence, or myself, or you, Castruccio, do
I love peace; and my heart bleeds to think that the cessation of
bloodshed and devastation which our poor distracted country now enjoys,
is to be of short duration. Have you not lived in a country suffering
from war? Have you not seen the peasants driven from their happy
cottages, their vines torn up, their crops destroyed, often a poor child
lost, or haplessly wounded, whose every drop of blood is of more worth
than the power of the Cæsars? And then to behold the tears and despair
of these poor creatures, and to find men who would still inflict
them,--and for what? The bubble is yours, Castruccio.--What would you
have? Honour, fame, dominion? What are these if peace do not purchase
them, but contempt, infamy and despotism! Oh! rule your own heart;
enthrone reason there, make virtue the high priest of your divinity; let
the love of your fellow-creatures be your palace to dwell in, and their
praises your delicate food and costly raiment; and, as all sovereigns
have dungeons, so do you have them, in which your pride, ambition, and,
forgive the word, your cruelty, may be enchained; and then the
purple-clad emperors of Constantinople may envy your state and power.

"Why do you cause this cruel combat? or, why would you increase the
struggle in my heart? As the enemy of Florence I will never be yours; as
the deliberate murderer of the playmates of my infancy, of the friends
of my youth, of those to whom I am allied by every tie of relationship
and hospitality that binds mankind, as such, I will never be yours. Here
then is the crown of the work; the sea in which the deep and constant
stream of my affections loses itself,--your ambition. Let these be the
last words of contest between us: but if, instead of all that I honour
and love in the world, you choose a mean desire of power and selfish
aggrandizement, still listen to me. You are about to enter on a new
track, yet one on which the course of thousands of those that have gone
before you is to be seen: do not follow these; do not be sanguinary like
them;--the Italians of the present day have all a remorseless cruelty in
them, which will stain the pages of their history with the foulest
blots; let yours be free from these!

"Pardon me that I speak to you in this strain. From this moment we are
disjoined; whatever our portions may be, we take them separately. Such
is the sentence you pronounce upon us."

Castruccio was moved by the fervour of Euthanasia; he tried to alter her
determination, to argue her from the point of difference between them,
but in vain; he moved her to tears. She wept, but did not reply: her
purpose was fixed, but her heart was weak; she loved for the first and
only time; and she knew that she sacrificed every hope and joy in life,
if she sacrificed Castruccio. But she was firm, and they parted; a
parting that caused every nerve in Euthanasia's frame to thrill with
agony.

She tried to still these feelings, to forget that she loved; but tears,
abundant tears, alone eased the agony of her heart, when she thought,
that the soft dreams she had nourished for two years were vain, gossamer
that the sun of reality dissipated. Sometimes she schooled herself as
being too precise and over-wise, to sacrifice all her hopes to the
principles she had set up. But then the remembrance of the grief she had
endured during the last war with Florence, and the worse struggles she
would feel, if she dared unite herself to an enemy, if, by binding her
fate to his, she might neither pray for the cause of her husband, nor
for that of her beloved country; when to wish well to Castruccio would
be to desire the success of tyranny and usurpation; and to have given
her vows to the Florentines in their necessary defence, was to wish the
overthrow of the companion of her life--the idea of these struggles gave
her courage to persevere; and she hoped, that the approbation of her own
heart, and that of her dearest and most valued friends, would in some
degree repay her for her sufferings. She thought of her father and his
lessons; and her heart again swelled with the desire of the approbation
of the good, with the warm and ardent love of right which ever burned
within her soul. Hers had been a natural and a lawful passion; she could
not live, believing that she did wrong; and the high independence and
graceful pride of her nature would never permit her, to stoop beneath
the mark she had assigned as the object of her emulation.

Yet when, in the silence of night and of solitude, she consulted her own
heart, she found that love had quenched there every other feeling, and
not to love was to her to die. She looked on the quiet earth, where the
trees slept in the windless air, and the only sound was the voice of an
owl, whose shriek now and then with monotonous and unpleasing sound
awoke the silence, and gave a melancholy life to what else were dead;
she looked up to the sky where the eternal lamps of heaven were burning;
all was unchanged there; but for her all was different. It was on a
night, in an Italian autumn, that she sat under her acacia tree by the
basin of the fountain of the rock. To look on the hues of sunset, to see
the softened tints of the olive woods, the purple tinge of the distant
mountains, whose outline was softly, yet distinctly marked in the orange
sky; to feel the western breeze steal across her cheek, like words of
love from one most dear; to see the first star of evening penetrate from
out the glowing western firmament, and whisper the secret of distant
worlds to us in our narrow prison; to behold the heaven-pointing cypress
with unbent spire sleep in the stirless air; these were sights and
feelings which softened and exalted her thoughts; she felt as if she
were a part of the great whole; she felt bound in amity to all; doubly,
immeasurably loving those dear to her, feeling an humanizing charity
even to the evil. A sweet scent coming from the lemon-flowers, which
mingled with the gummy odour of the cypress trees, added to the
enchantment. Suddenly,--list! what is that? Music was heard, and sweeter
than all other instruments, the human voice in chorus singing a national
song, half hymn, half warlike; Euthanasia wept; like a child she
wept,--but there was none near to whom she could tell the complicated
sensations that overpowered her: to speak to those we love in such
moments, exhilarates the spirits; else the deep feeling preys on the
heart itself. She became sad, and looked up to the many-starred sky; her
soul uttered silently the bitter complaint of its own misery.

"Must I then forget to love? Oh! sooner shall that restless lamp, which
walketh up the heavens, and then descendeth, and abideth no where, Oh!
sooner shall that forget its path which it hath ever traced, since God
first marked it out, than I forget to love! The air still surrounds the
earth, filling the recesses of the mountains, and even penetrating into
their caverns; the sun shines through the day, and the cloudless heavens
of night are starred with the air's fire-bearing children; and am not I
as unchanged and unchangeable as nature's own, everlasting works? What
is it then that startles every nerve, not as the sound of thunder or of
whirlwind, but as the still, small voice, that clings to me, and will
not be made silent, telling me that all is changed from that which it
once was?

"I loved! God and my own heart know how truly, how tenderly! How I dwelt
on his idea, his image, his virtues, with unblamed affection: how it was
my glory, my silent boast, when in solitude my eyes swam in tears, and
my cheek glowed, to reflect that I loved him, who transcended his kind
in wisdom and excellence! Is this a dream? Oh! then all is a dream; and
the earth, and the fabric of the adamantine sky are as the gossamer that
may not endure! Yet, oh, ye stars, ye shine! And I live. Pulse, and
breath, and thought, and all is changed; I must no longer love,--so let
me suffer the living death of forgetfulness.

"Surely my heart is not cold, for I feel deep agony; and yet I live. I
have read of those who have pined and died, when the sweet food of love
was denied to them; were their sensations quicker, deeper, more
all-penetrating than mine? Their anguish greater? I know not; nor do I
know, if God hath given this frame a greater capacity for endurance than
I could desire. Yet, methinks, I still love, and that is why I live. A
dark, blank, rayless, motionless night is before me, a heavy,
overwhelming annihilation is above me, when for a moment I imagine that
hope is not for me. But for an instant does that idea live within me,
yet does it come oftener and stay longer that it was wont. The knowledge
that I have nought to expect but death, must become a part of my mind.
When a dear friend dies, what painful throes does one undergo, before we
are persuaded to know that he is no more! So now that hope dies; it is a
lesson hard for my heart to learn; but it will learn it; and that which
is now reality, will be as a dream; what is now a part of me will be but
a recollection, a shadow thrown upon life, from which I at length shall
emerge. And what is the state of being that shall follow?

"Yet will I arouse all the pride and all the nobility of my nature; I
will not sink beneath this trial; the great and good of past ages have
left their lessons for me to meditate, and I will be no indocile pupil;
the honey of the cup is exhausted, but all is not gall that remains."

The winter passed on thus: Euthanasia feared Castruccio as the enemy of
_Florence_; but she avoided Florence as _his_ enemy. Disappointed in her
dearest hopes, her very heart destroyed, she hated society, and felt
solace in the contemplation of nature alone; that solace which the mind
gathers, in communing with its sorrows, and, having lost every other
resource, clings as to a friend, to the feelings of woe with which it is
penetrated.

The winter was chill; the mountains were covered with snow; yet, when
the sun gleamed on them, the Serchio, taking life from his smiles, sped
down in his course, roaring and howling, as if, pursued by innumerable
and overflowing streams, he hurried to find repose in his home among the
waters of the boundless ocean. The air was filled with his turmoil; and
winter, asleep among the icy crags of the mountains, feared a sound,
which he had not power to silence, and which was the dirge that tolled
out his passing hour: the cold northern wind swept along the plain of
Lucca, and moaned as a repulsed beggar about the walls of Euthanasia's
castle. Within those walls, late the scene of content and joy, sat the
disconsolate mistress, a prey to all those sad, and sometimes wild
reveries, which utter hopelessness had made her companions. Duty, and
the associations of her early youth, had breathed in her ear the
terrible command to love no more; but her soul rebelled, and often she
thought that, in so mad a world, duty was but a watch-word for fools,
and that she might unblamed taste of the only happiness she should ever
enjoy.

But, in one who had so long submitted her very thoughts to the control
of conscience, such ideas found brief habitation; and her accustomed
feelings returned to press her into the narrow circle, whence for her
all peace was excluded. Duty, patriotism, and high religious morality,
were the watch-dogs which drove her scattered thoughts, like wandering
sheep, into their fold: alas! the wolf nestled in the pen itself. If for
a moment her will paused, and love, breaking every bank she had
carefully built up to regulate her mind's course, burst in at once, and
carried away in its untameable course reason, conscience, and even
memory, Castruccio himself came to repair the breach, and to restrain
the current; some castle burnt, some town taken by assault, some friend
or enemy remorselessly banished, filled her with shame and anger, that
she should love a tyrant; a slave to his own passions, the avenger of
those of others. Castruccio was ever at war; peace subsisted between him
and Florence; but the siege of Genoa by the Ghibelines of Lombardy, gave
him occasion to turn his arms on that side; and, his march extending
from Lucca to beyond the Magra, he deluged the country in blood, and
obtained that which he desired, dominion and fame.

It were curious to mark the changes that now operated in his character.
Every success made him extend his views to something beyond; and every
obstacle surmounted, made him still more impatient of those that
presented themselves in succession. He became all in all to himself; his
creed seemed to contain no article but the end and aim of his ambition;
and that he swore before heaven to attain. Accustomed to see men die in
battle for his cause, he became callous to blood, and felt no more
whether it flowed for his security on a scaffold, or in the field of
honour; and every new act of cruelty hardened his heart for those to
come.

And yet all good feelings were not dead within him. An increased ardour
in friendship seemed to have taken the place of innocence and general
benevolence: virtue, as it were seeking to build her nest in his heart,
and thrust out of her ancient one, taking up with the resting-place
whose entrance still was free. Bravery and fortitude were to him
habitual feelings: but, although he were kind and bounteous to his
friends, so that he was loved with ardour, and served with fidelity,
there was no magnanimity, and little generosity in his character. His
moderate habits, abstemiousness, and contempt of luxury, often gave him
the appearance of self-sacrifice; for he bestowed on others what they
greatly valued, but what he himself contemned. But, when it came to the
sacrifice of his own inclinations, his boundless ambition, and love of
sway, then no obstacle either of nature or art could stop him; neither
compassion which makes angels of men, nor love which softens the hearts
of the gods themselves, had over him the slightest power,--he fixed his
whole soul on the point he would attain, and he never either lost sight
of it, or paused in his efforts to arrive there.

It were difficult to tell what his sensations were with regard to
Euthanasia; he had loved her, tenderly, passionately; and he considered
her refusal of his offers as a caprice to be surmounted. Sometimes he
was deeply grieved, sometimes angry; yet he ever loved her, and believed
that she would relent. Sometimes he thought of poor Beatrice, her form,
beaming with beauty, and alive with the spirit of the sybil; or again,
pale, struck to the heart as a poor deer in the forest, and sinking
beneath the wound:--he then felt that he would give the world to assuage
her sorrows. On returning through Bologna, he had sent to Ferrara, and
heard that she was alive, that no change in her situation had taken
place; and, satisfied with this, he sought no further. Ambition had
become the ruling passion of his soul, and all bent beneath its sway, as
a field of reeds before the wind: love himself had brief power in his
mind; and, although this passion sometimes caused him pain, and the
sickness of disappointed hope, yet this was short, and yielded to the
first impulse that occurred, which hurried him along to new designs and
new conquests.

Once indeed he had loved, and he had drank life and joy from the eyes of
Euthanasia. His journey to Lombardy, his connexion with Beatrice,
although indeed he loved her little, yet was sufficient to weaken the
bonds that confined him; and love was with him, ever after, the second
feeling in his heart, the servant and thrall of his ambition.

His military exploits were now bounded to the entire reduction of the
territory around Lucca; Sarzana, Pontremoli, Fucecchio,
Fosedenovo,--castles even beyond the Magra, Valdinera, Aquabuona, La
Valle, fortified villages among the Apennines, which had hitherto been
under the jurisdiction of the lords of Lombardy, now submitted to the
Lucchese consul. During the winter he was for some time confined by the
floods to the town of Lucca itself, where he employed himself in
establishing a vigorous system of police, in discovering and punishing
his enemies, and in the design and foundation of public edifices. He was
beloved by the nobles of his own party, and by the common people, whose
taxes he lightened, and whom he relieved in a great measure from the
tyranny of their superiors; he was beloved even by the clergy, for,
although an enemy to the temporal usurpations of the Popes, he valued
the learning, and respected the persons of the priests. He was hated by
all the rich not immediately connected with his person and faction, for
they were deprived of power; despised by his followers, and watched by
himself, they could find no asylum from the suspicion and severity of a
tyrant who felt himself insecure on his seat of power.


[Footnote 7: The _morgincap_ was a boon granted by the husband to the
wife the morning after the nuptials. It consisted generally of a gift of
part of his possessions, sometimes of the half, often of a quarter of
his property. Laws were made in some states to restrain this excessive
generosity, but the custom of the _morgincap_ continued a long time in
Florence.]

[Footnote 8: The story here alluded to, is told by Bandello, and is
related with that air of truth which this writer delights to give to his
narrations.]




CHAPTER VIII


_Beatrice, disguised as a Pilgrim, visits Valperga.--Castruccio
relates her Story._


Spring advanced, and the mountains looked forth from beneath the snow:
the chesnuts began to assume their light and fanlike foliage; the dark
ilex and cork trees which crowned the hills, threw off their burthen of
snow; and the olives now in flower starred the mountain paths with their
small fallen blossoms; the heath perfumed the air; the melancholy voice
of the cuckoo issued from the depths of the forests; the swallows
returned from their pilgrimage; and in soft moonlight evenings the
nightingales answered one another from the copses; the vines with
freshest green hung over the springing corn; and various flowers adorned
the banks of each running stream. Euthanasia beheld the advance of
summer with careless eyes: her heart was full of one thought, of one
image; and all she saw, whether it were the snow-clad mountains of
winter, or the green and flowery fields of spring, was referred by her
to one feeling, one only remembrance. She determined to think no more of
Castruccio; but every day, every moment of every day, was as a broken
mirror, a multiplied reflection of his form alone.

They had often met during the winter in the palaces of the Lucchese
nobles, and sometimes at her own castle; he was ever gentle and
deferential to her, and sometimes endeavoured to renew the courtship
that had formerly subsisted between them. Euthanasia had not strength of
purpose sufficient to avoid these meetings; but each of them was as the
life-blood taken from her heart, and left her in a state of despair and
grief that preyed like fever upon her vitals. To see him, to hear him,
and yet not to be his, was as if to make her food of poison; it might
assuage the pangs of hunger, but it destroyed the principle of life. She
became pale, sleepless, the shadow of what she had been; her friends
perceived the change, and knew the cause; and they endeavoured to
persuade her to go to Florence, or to take some journey, which might
occupy her mind, and break the chain that now bound her to sorrow. She
felt that she ought to comply with their suggestions; but even _her_
spirit, strong and self-sustaining as it had been, sank beneath the
influence of love, and she had no power to fly, though to remain were
death. Tears and grief were her daily portion; yet she took it
patiently, as that to which she was doomed, and hardly prayed to have
the bitter cup removed.

A circumstance that occurred just at this crisis, when she seemed to
stand on the sharp edge which divides life from death, saved her from
destruction, and led her back to taste for a few more years the food of
sorrow and disappointment which was doled out to her.

The summer solstice had passed, and Castruccio had been absent during
several months, carrying his conquests along the shore beyond the Magra,
while every day brought the news of some fresh success he had obtained.
This was the season of pilgrimages to Monte San Pelegrino, a wild and
high Apennine in the neighbourhood of Valperga. It is said, that a king
of Scotland, resigning his crown to his son, and exiling himself from
his country, finished his days in penitence and prayer on this mountain.
In Italy every unknown pilgrim was a king or prince: but this was a
strange tradition; and it would seem as if the royal penitent,
disdaining the gladsome plains of Italy, sought for the image of his
native country on this naked peak among the heaped masses of the
Apennines.

His memory was there canonized, and many indulgences were the reward of
three successive visits to his rocky tomb; every year numberless
pilgrims flocked, and still continue to flock thither. Straining up the
rugged paths of the mountain, careless of the burning sun, they walk on,
shadowed by their broad pilgrim's hats, repeating their _pater-nosters_,
and thus, by the toil of the body, buy indulgence for the soul's
idleness. Many on their return visited the castle of Valperga, and
partook its hospitality. One party had just withdrawn, as the _Ave
Maria_ sounded from the vale below; and they chaunted the evening hymn,
as they wound down the steep. Euthanasia listened from her tower, and
heard the last song of the sleepy cicala among the olive woods, and the
buz of the numerous night insects, that filled the air with their slight
but continual noise. It was the evening of a burning day; and the breeze
that slightly waved the grass, and bended the ripe corn with its quick
steps, was as a refreshing bath to the animals who panted under the
stagnant air of the day. Amid the buzzing of the crickets and dragon
flies, the agiolo's monotonous and regular cry told of clear skies and
sunny weather; the flowers were bending beneath the dew, and her acacia,
now in bloom, crowning its fan-like foliage with a roseate crest, sent
forth a sweet scent. A few of the latest fire-flies darted here and
there, with bright green light; but it was July, and their season was
well nigh past. Towards the sea, on the horizon, a faint lightning
shewed the over-heated state of the atmosphere, and killed by its
brightness the last glories of the orange sunset; the mountains were
losing their various tints in darkness; and their vast amphitheatre
looked like a ponderous unformed wall, closing in Lucca, whose lights
glimmered afar off.

Euthanasia was awaked from the reverie, half painful, half pleasing,
that engaged her as she sat at her window; for she was too true a child
of nature, not to feel her sorrows alleviated by the sight of what is
beautiful in the visible world;--she was roused, I say, by her servant
who told her that a female pilgrim was at the gate, and desired to see
the lady of the castle. "Receive her," said Euthanasia, "and let her be
led to the bath, I will see her when she is refreshed."

"She will not enter," replied the servant, "but desires earnestly, she
says, to see you: she absolutely refuses to enter the castle."

Euthanasia descended to the gate; her quick light steps trod the
pavement of the hall, her long golden tresses waved upon the wind, and
her blue eyes seemed to have drunk in the azure of departed day, they
were in colour so deep, so clear. The pilgrim stood at the door leaning
on her staff, a large hat covered her head, and was pulled down over her
brows, and her coarse cloak fell in undistinguishing folds round her
slim form; but Euthanasia, accustomed to see the peasantry alone resort
to this mountain, was struck by the small white hand that held the
staff, and the delicately moulded and snowy feet which, shod in the
rudest sandals, seemed little used to labour or fatigue.

"I intreat you," she said, "to come into the castle to rest yourself;
the _Ave Maria_ is passed, and your toils for the day are ended; you
will find a bath, food and rest; will you not enter?" Euthanasia held
forth her hand.

"Lady, I must not. I intreat you only to bestow your alms on a pilgrim
going to Rome, but who has turned aside to perform a vow among these
mountains."

"Most willingly; but I also have made a vow, which is, not to suffer a
tired pilgrim to pass my gates without rest and food. Where can you go
to-night? Lucca is six long miles off; you are weak and very weary:
come; I ask you for alms; they are your prayers which must be told on
the soft cushions of a pleasant bed amid your dreams this night. Come
in; the heavy dews that fall from the clear sky after this burning day
may hurt you: this is a dangerous hour in the plain; can you not be
persuaded?"

Euthanasia saw quick drops fall from the flashing and black eyes of the
poor pilgrim: she raised them to heaven, saying, "Thy will be done! I am
now all humbleness."

As she threw up her head Euthanasia looked on her countenance; it was
beautiful, but sunburnt and wild; her finely carved eyes, her lips
curved in the line of beauty, her pointed and dimpled chin still beamed
loveliness, and her voice was low and silver-toned. She entered the
castle, but would go no further than the outer hall. The eloquence of
Euthanasia was wasted; and she was obliged to order cushions and food to
be brought to the hall: they then sat down; the pilgrim took off her
hat, and her black and silken ringlets fell around her face; she parted
them with her small fingers, and then sat downcast and silent.

Euthanasia placed fruit, sweetmeats and wine before her; "Eat," she
said, "you are greatly fatigued."

The poor pilgrim tried; but her lips refused the fruit she would have
tasted. She felt that she should weep; and, angry at her own weakness,
she drank a little wine, which somewhat revived her; and then, sitting
thus, overcome, bent and sorrowing, beside the clear loveliness of
Euthanasia, these two ladies entered into conversation, soft and
consoling on one part, on the other hesitating and interrupted. At first
the pilgrim gazed for a moment on the golden hair and bluest eyes of
Euthanasia, her heavenly smile, and clear brow; and then she said: "You
are the lady of this castle? You are named Euthanasia?"

"Most true: and might I in return ask you who you are, who wander alone
and unhappy? Believe me I should think myself very fortunate, if you
would permit me to know your grief, and to undertake the task of
consoling you. If you mourn for your faults, does not a moment of real
repentance annihilate them all? Come, I will be your confessor; and
impose on you the light penances of cheerfulness and hope. Do you mourn
your friends? poor girl! weep not; that is a sorrow time alone can cure:
but time can cure it, if with a patient heart you yield yourself to new
affections and feelings of kindness. Sweet, hush the storm that agitates
you: if you pray, let not your words be drops of agony, but as the
morning dew of faith and hope. You are silent; you are angry that I
speak; so truly do I prize the soft peace that was for years the inmate
of my own heart, that I would bestow it on others with as earnest a
labour, as for myself I would try to recal it to the nest from which it
has fled."

"How! and are you not happy?" The eyes of the pilgrim glanced a sudden
fire, that was again quenched by her downcast lids.

"I have had my share of tranquillity. For five-and-twenty years few
sorrows, and those appeaseable by natural and quickly dried tears,
visited me; now my cares rise thick, while, trust me, with eager
endeavour, I try to dissipate them. But you are young, very young; you
have quaffed the gall, and will now come to the honey of your cup.
Wherefore are you bound for Rome?"

"It were a long tale to tell, lady, and one I would not willingly
disclose. Yet, methinks, you should be happy; your eyes are mild, and
made for peace. I thought,--I heard,--that a thousand blessed
circumstances conduced to render you fortunate beyond all others."

"Circumstances change as fast as the fleeting clouds of an autumnal sky.
If happiness depends upon occasion, how unstable is it! We can alone
call that ours which lives in our own bosoms. Yet those feelings also
are bound to mutability; and, as the priests have doubtless long since
taught you, there is no joy that endures upon earth."

"How is this! He is not dead!--he must be--" The pilgrim suddenly
stopped, her cheek burning with blushes.

"Who dead? What do you mean?"

"Your father, your brother, any one you love. But, lady, I will intrude
no longer; the dews are fallen, and I find the air of the castle close
and suffocating. I long for the free air."

"You will not sleep here?"

"I must not; do not ask me again; you pain me much; I must pursue my
journey!"

The pilgrim gathered up her raven locks, and put on her hat; then,
leaning on her staff, she held forth her little hand, and said in a
smothered voice, so low that the tone hardly struck the air, "Your alms,
lady."

Euthanasia took out gold; the pilgrim smiled sadly, saying, "My vow
prevents my receiving more than three soldi; let that sum be the limit
of your generous aid."

Euthanasia found something so inexplicable, reserved, and almost
haughty, in the manner of her guest, that she felt checked, and ill
disposed to press her often rejected services; she gave the small sum
asked, saying, "You are penurious in your courtesies; this will hardly
buy for me one _pater-noster_."

"It will buy the treasure of my heart in prayers for your welfare;
prayers, which I once thought all powerful, may be as well worth perhaps
as those of the beggar whom we fee on the road-side. Farewel!"

The pilgrim spoke earnestly and sweetly; and then drawing her cloak
about her, she left the castle, winding slowly down the steep. After she
had awhile departed, Euthanasia sent a servant to the nunnery of St.
Ursula, which was on the road the pilgrim was to follow, with a loaded
basket of fruits, wine and other food, and a message to the nuns to
watch for and receive the unhappy stranger. All passed as she desired.
The pilgrim entered the convent; and, after praying in the chapel, and
silently partaking a frugal meal of fruit and bread, she went to rest in
her lowly cell. The next morning the abbess had intended to question
her, and to win her to some comfort; but, before the dawn of day, the
pilgrim had left the convent; and, with slow steps and a sorrowing
heart, pursued her way towards Rome.

This occurrence had greatly struck Euthanasia. She felt, that there was
something uncommon in the visit of the stranger, and that, although
unknown to her, there must be some link between them, which she vainly
strove to discover. It happened, that, about a fortnight after, she was
at the Fondi palace in Lucca, where Castruccio was in company; and she
related this incident, dwelling on the beauty of the pilgrim, her
graceful manners, and deep sorrow. When she described her form and
countenance, Castruccio, struck by some sudden recollection, advanced
towards Euthanasia, and began to question her earnestly as to the very
words and looks of the stranger; then, checking himself, he drew back,
and entered into conversation with another person. When however
Euthanasia rose to depart, he approached, and said in a low tone: "I am
afraid that I can solve the riddle of this unfortunate girl; permit me
to see you alone to-morrow; I must know every thing that passed."

Euthanasia assented, and waited with impatience for the visit.

He came; and at his request she related minutely all that had happened.
Castruccio listened earnestly; and, when he heard what had been her last
words, he cried, "It must be she! It is the poor Beatrice!"

"Beatrice!--Who is Beatrice?"

Castruccio endeavoured to evade the question, and afterwards to answer
it by the relation of a few slight circumstances; but Euthanasia, struck
by his manner, questioned him so seriously, that he ended by relating
the whole story. Euthanasia was deeply moved; and earnest pity succeeded
to her first astonishment; astonishment for her powers and strange
errors, and then compassion for her sorrows and mighty fall. Castruccio,
led on by the memory of her enchantments, spoke with ardour, scarcely
knowing to whom he spoke; and, when he ended, Euthanasia cried, "She
must be followed, brought back, consoled; her misery is great; but there
is a cure for it."

She then concerted with Castruccio the plan for tracing her steps, and
inducing her to return. Messengers were sent on the road to Rome, who
were promised high rewards if they succeeded in finding her; others were
sent to Ferrara to learn if her friends there had any knowledge of her
course. These researches occupied several weeks; but they were
fruitless: the messengers from Ferrara brought word, that she had left
that city early in the preceding spring in a pilgrimage to Rome, and
that she had never since been heard of. The lady Marchesana,
inconsolable for her departure, had since died; and the good bishop
Marsilio, who had not returned from France, where he had been made a
cardinal, was at too great a distance to understand the circumstances of
her departure, or to act upon them. Nor were the tidings brought from
Rome more satisfactory; she was traced from Lucca to Pisa, Florence,
Arezzo, Perugia, Foligno, Spoletto, and even to Terni; but there all
trace was lost. It appeared certain that she had never arrived in Rome;
none of the priests had heard of her; every church and convent was
examined; but no trace of her could be found. Every exertion was vain:
it appeared as if she had sunk into the bowels of the earth.

During the period occupied by these researches, a great change had taken
place in the mind of Euthanasia. Before, though her atmosphere had been
torn by storms, and blackened by the heaviest clouds, her love had ever
borne her on towards one point with resistless force; and it seemed as
if, body and soul, she would in the end be its victim. Now the tide
ebbed, and left her, as a poor wretch upon one point of rock, when the
rising ocean suddenly subsides, and restores him unexpectedly to life.
She had loved Castruccio; and, as is ever the case with pure and exalted
minds, she had separated the object of her love from all other beings,
and, investing him with a glory, he was no longer to her as one among
the common herd, nor ever for a moment could she confound him and class
him with his fellow men. It is this feeling that is the essence and life
of love, and that, still subsisting even after esteem and sympathy had
been destroyed, had caused the excessive grief in which she had been
plunged. She had separated herself from the rest as his chosen one; she
had been selected from the whole world for him to love, and therefore
was there a mighty barrier between her and all things else; no sentiment
could pass through her mind unmingled with his image, no thought that
did not bear his stamp to distinguish it from all other thoughts; as the
moon in heaven shines bright, because the sun illumines her with his
rays, so did she proceed on her high path in serene majesty, protected
through her love for him from all meaner cares or joys; her very person
was sacred, since she had dedicated herself to him; but, the god
undeified, the honours of the priestess fell to the dust. The story of
Beatrice dissolved the charm; she looked on him now in the common light
of day; the illusion and exaltation of love was dispelled for ever: and,
although disappointment, and the bitterness of destroyed hope, robbed
her of every sensation of enjoyment, it was no longer that mad despair,
that clinging to the very sword that cut her, which before had tainted
her cheek with the hues of death. Her old feelings of duty, benevolence,
and friendship returned; all was not now, as before, referred to love
alone; the trees, the streams, the mountains, and the stars, no longer
told one never-varying tale of disappointed passion: before, they had
oppressed her heart by reminding her, through every change and every
form, of what she had once seen in joy; and they lay as so heavy and sad
a burthen on her soul, that she would exclaim as a modern poet has since
done:


Thou, thrush, that singest loud, and loud, and free,
Into yon row of willows flit,
Upon that alder sit,
Or sing another song, or choose another tree!
Roll back, sweet rill, back to thy mountain bounds,
And there for ever be thy waters chained!
For thou dost haunt the air with sounds
That cannot be sustained.

* * * *

Be any thing, sweet rill, but that which thou art now


But now these feverish emotions ceased. Sorrow sat on her downcast eye,
restrained her light step, and slept in the unmoved dimples of her fair
cheek; but the wildness of grief had died, the fountain of selfish tears
flowed no more, and she was restored from death to life. She considered
Castruccio as bound to Beatrice; bound by the deep love and anguish of
the fallen prophetess, by all her virtues, even by her faults; bound by
his falsehood to her who was then his betrothed, and whom he carelessly
wronged, and thus proved how little capable he was of participating in
her own exalted feelings. She believed that he would be far happier in
the passionate and unquestioning love of this enthusiast, than with her,
who had lived too long to be satisfied alone with the affection of him
she loved, but required in him a conformity of tastes to those she had
herself cultivated, which in Castruccio was entirely wanting. She felt
half glad, half sorry, for the change she was aware had been operated in
her heart; for the misery that she before endured was not without its
momentary intervals, which busy love filled with dreams and hopes, that
caused a wild transport, which, although it destroyed her, was still
joy, still delight. But now there was no change; one steady hopeless
blank was before her; the very energies of her mind were palsied; her
imagination furled its wings, and the owlet, reason, was the only
dweller that found sustenance and a being in her benighted soul.




CHAPTER IX


_Castruccio plots the Assassination of Robert
King of Naples.--Made Prince of Lucca.--Declares
War against Florence.--Plot
for a Revolution in Lucca defeated.--Castruccio
summons Valperga._


The ambitious designs of Castruccio were each day ripening. The whole
Ghibeline force in Italy was now turned to the siege of Genoa, which was
defended by Robert, king of Naples, at the head of the Guelphs.
Castruccio had never actually joined the besieging army. But he had
taken advantage of the war, which prevented the Genoese from defending
their castles on the sea-coast, to surprise many of them, and to spread
his conquests far beyond the Lucchese territory; and he was ever
attentive to the slightest incident that might contribute to the
exaltation of the Ghibelines. He aided his Lombard friends, by annoying
the enemy as much as was in his power, and did not hesitate in using the
most nefarious arts to injure and destroy them. He now fully subscribed
to all the articles of Pepi's political creed, and thought fraud and
secret murder fair play, when it thinned the ranks of the enemy.

Robert, king of Naples, was at the head of the Guelph army at Genoa. The
siege had now lasted with various fortune for two years; and every
summer the king visited this city to conduct the enterprizes of the
campaign. Castruccio, urged by Galeazzo Visconti, and by his own belief
in the expediency of the scheme, conspired to destroy the king: a
foolish plan in many ways; for a legitimate king, like a vine, never
dies; and when you throw earth over the old root, a new sprout ever
springs up from the parent stock.

The king of Naples had fitted out a fleet to go and attack the king of
Sicily, who was a protector of the Ghibelines. Castruccio sent two
desperate, but faithful fellows, to set fire to the ship in which the
king himself sailed. The men got admittance on board the royal galley,
which, swifter than the rest, sped on through the waves, while the rest
of the fleet hung like a cloud on the far horizon. At night the smell of
fire was perceived in the vessel, and a small flame issued from one of
the windows: the affright and confusion were terrible, when they found
that they were burning thus on the desert sea, while the other vessels
were too distant to afford them aid. All hands were at work to
extinguish the flames; and it was then that the hired incendiaries were
perceived, as they tried to fire another part of the ship. It was found
that they were provided with floats of cork, by which they hoped to
preserve themselves in the water, until by some accident they might be
rescued.

The fire was seen by the galley, in which the eldest son of king Robert
was embarked, and which bore down to his relief. The youthful prince, in
an agony of terror, lent his own hand to the oar that they might arrive
more speedily. The whole crew was saved; and the criminals were reserved
for torture and death.

The news of this detestable plot was spread through all Italy, nor was
it much blamed. It was then that Euthanasia, the living spirit of
goodness and honour, amidst the anguish that the unworthiness of
Castruccio occasioned her, felt a just triumph, that she had overcome
her inclinations, and was not the bride of a suborner and a murderer.
Even now, remembering that it was known that she once loved
Antelminelli, she was penetrated with shame, and her cheeks burned with
blushes when she heard the tale. But, careless of an infamy which he
shared with many of his countrymen, and sorry only that his design had
not succeeded, Castruccio did not attempt to conceal the part he had
taken in the plot, and loudly declared that all his enemies might expect
the same measure as king Robert, while in return he permitted them to
try the like arts against him.

In the mean time he prosecuted the war with redoubled vigour. In the
winter of the year 1320, the Ghibelines reinforced their armies before
Genoa, and called upon their allies for their utmost assistance; and
Castruccio among the rest was to advance to their aid with all his
forces. But the Guelphs were not idle: Florence had sent soldiers every
campaign to reinforce the Genoese, and entered with spirit into all the
enterprizes undertaken against the imperial party; although a wish to
preserve their territory free from the horrors of war, and to repair by
a long peace the injury done to their vines and olive woods, had caused
them to preserve a shew of peace with Lucca.

Castruccio considered all his present successes as preliminaries only to
his grand undertaking; and, having now reduced not only the territory of
Lucca, but many castles and strong holds, which before had either been
independent, or had paid tribute to Genoa, or to the lords of Lombardy,
he planned a more vigorous system of warfare for the ensuing campaign.
His first step was to increase his security and power in Lucca itself.

Having grown proud upon his recent successes, he began to disdain the
name of consul, which he had hitherto borne. He assembled the senate;
and, at the instance of his friends, who had been tutored for the
purpose, this assembly bestowed upon him the government of Lucca for
life, with the title of prince. He afterwards caused this grant to be
confirmed by an assembly of the people; his warlike achievements, joined
to the moderate expenditure of his government, had made him a great
favourite with the inferior classes of the community, and they cordially
entered into the projects of his ambition. Soon after, through the
mediation of his friend Galeazzo Visconti, he obtained from Frederic,
king of the Romans, the dignity of Imperial Vicar in Tuscany.

All this passed during the winter; and in the spring he assembled his
troops, intent upon some new design. He had now been at peace with
Florence for the space of three years, although, fighting under opposite
banners, the spirit of enmity had always subsisted between him and them.
Now, without declaring war, or in any way advising them of their peril,
he suddenly made an incursion into their territory, burning and wasting
their land as far as Empoli, taking several castles, and carrying off an
immense booty; he then retreated back to Lucca.

This violation of every law of nations filled the Florentines at first
with affright, and afterwards with indignation. They had sent their best
troops to Genoa; and they found themselves attacked without warning or
time for preparation. When the Lucchese retreated, anger and complaint
succeeded. Castruccio replied to the reproaches of the Florentines by a
declaration of war, and then immediately marched with his forces to join
the besieging army before Genoa.

When the Florentines found that they could obtain no redress, they
turned their thoughts to revenge. They raised what fresh troops they
could among the citizens; and wishing to assist their small army by
other measures which were then rife in the Italian system of warfare,
they endeavoured to foment a conspiracy among the Lucchese for the
overthrow of their prince's government. Castruccio received in one day
letters from Giovanni da Castiglione, the general who commanded the few
troops which he had left to guard his own principality, to inform him,
that the Florentines had entered the Val di Nievole, burning and
spoiling every thing before them; and from Vanni Mordecastelli, his
civil lieutenant at Lucca, with information of a plot for the
destruction of his power which was brewing in that city. Castruccio
immediately left the Lombard army, and returned with his troops to
disconcert these designs.

Of the castles which were situated within a circuit of many miles round
Lucca, all were subject to Castruccio, except the castle of Valperga and
its dependencies. He had often solicited Euthanasia to place her
lordship under the protection of his government; and she had uniformly
refused. The castle of Valperga was situated on a rock, among the
mountains that bound the pass through which the Serchio flows, and
commanded the northern entrance to the Lucchese territory. It was a
place of great strength, and in the hands of an enemy might afford an
easy entrance for an hostile army into the plain of Lucca itself. The
Florentines, trusting to the affection which the countess bore their
city, sent ambassadors to her to intreat her to engage in an alliance
with them against Castruccio, and to admit a party of Florentine
soldiers into her castle; but she rejected their proposals, and
positively refused to enter into any league injurious to the existing
government of Lucca. The ambassadors had been selected from among her
intimate friends; and her _Monualdo_, Bondelmonti, was at the head of
them: they were not therefore intimidated by one repulse, but reiterated
their arguments, founded upon her own interest, and the service she
would render to her native town, in vain. She felt that the liberty in
which she had been permitted to remain, while, one after another, all
the castles around her had been reduced, could only have arisen from the
friendship and forbearance of the prince; and she judged that it would
be a sort of treason in her, to take advantage of his moderation to
introduce devastation into his country; at the same time she promised,
that no threats or intreaties should induce her to ally herself with, or
submit to, the enemy of Florence.

The ambassadors, who had been bred in the Italian school of politics of
that age, little understood, and by no means approved her scruples; they
found her however invincible to their arguments, and were obliged to
give up all expectation of her assistance. But they made the hope of
overcoming her objections the pretext for their protracted stay in her
castle; for they had other designs in view. The vicinity of Valperga to
Lucca, and the intercourse which took place between it and that town,
gave them an opportunity of becoming acquainted with several of the
discontented nobles, the remnants of the faction of the _Neri_, who had
been permitted to remain. Euthanasia, being a Guelph, had of course much
intercourse with the few of that party who were to be found in Lucca;
and from the conversation of these men the Florentine ambassadors
conceived the hope of weaving some plot which would produce the downfal
of Castruccio. And they believed, that in one of them they had found a
successor to his dignity, and a chief who would prove as faithful to the
papal party, as Castruccio had been to the imperial.

Among those of the faction of the _Neri_ who had remained in Lucca, was
a branch of the family of Guinigi, and one of the youths of this house
had married Lauretta dei Adimari, a cousin of Euthanasia. This connexion
had caused great intimacy between the families; and Leodino de' Guinigi,
the husband of Lauretta, was a young man of talent, spirit and ambition.
Being refused a command in the army of Castruccio, he was however forced
to expend his love of action and his desire of distinction, in hunting,
hawking and tournaments. He was a man of large fortune, and greatly
respected and loved in Lucca; for his manners were courteous, and his
disposition generous, so that every one blamed the prince for neglecting
a person of so much merit on account of his party. Every year however
added to the discontent of Leodino; and he used frequently at the castle
of his cousin Euthanasia, to bemoan his fate, and declare how he longed
for a change which should draw him from idleness and obscurity. Lauretta
was a beautiful and amiable girl; but, party feelings ran so high in
Lucca, that she was shunned as a Guelph and a Florentine, and therefore
she also entered eagerly into the complaints of her husband; while the
fear of the confiscation of his property withheld Leodino from serving
under some leader of his own party. Euthanasia esteemed him highly; his
mind was greatly cultivated; and the similarity of their tastes and
pursuits had given rise to a sincere affection and sympathy between
them. The Florentine ambassadors saw Leodino and his wife at the castle
of Valperga; they easily penetrated his character and wishes; and
Bondelmonti undertook to work on him to co-operate with them in their
design. Leodino required little instigation, and immediately set to work
in Lucca to gain partizans: every thing promised well. All this had been
carefully concealed from Euthanasia; who was too sincere of disposition
to suspect fraud in others. But their plot was now ripe; and the
ambassadors were on the eve of returning to Florence to lead their
troops to the attack; when the conspiracy was betrayed to Mordecastelli,
and Castruccio suddenly appeared in Lucca.

Bondelmonti and his associates instantly quitted Valperga; and several
of the conspirators, struck with affright, fled from Lucca; but Leodino,
trusting to the secrecy with which he had enveloped his name, resolved
to brave all danger and to remain. This imprudence caused his
destruction; and, the morning after the return of Castruccio, he and six
more of his intimate associates were arrested, and thrown into prison.
Lauretta fled in despair to the castle of Valperga; she threw herself
into the arms of Euthanasia, confessed the plot that had been carried on
with Bondelmonti, and intreated her intercession with the prince to save
the life of Leodino. Euthanasia felt her indignation rise, on
discovering that her hospitality had been abused, and her friendship
employed as the pretence which veiled a conspiracy. But, when the
weeping Lauretta urged the danger of Leodino, all her anger was changed
into compassion and anxiety; and she ordered the horses to be brought to
the gate, that she might hasten to Lucca. "I am afraid, my poor cousin,"
said she, "if the prince be not of himself inclined to mercy, that my
intreaties will have little effect: but be assured that I will spare no
prayers to gain the life of Leodino. His life! indeed that is far too
precious to be lightly sacrificed; I feel a confidence within me, which
assures me that he will be saved; fear nothing, therefore; I will bring
him back with me when I return."

She had covered her head with her veil, and folded her capuchin round
her; when an attendant announced the arrival of Castruccio himself at
the castle. This unexpected news made her turn pale; and again the
blood, flowing from her heart, dyed her cheeks and even her fingers with
pink; she hardly knew what caused her agitation; but she trembled, her
eyes filled with tears, her voice faultered;--Castruccio entered.

He was no longer her lover, scarcely her friend; no joy sparkled in the
eyes of either at this meeting after a separation of months; she had
loved him passionately, and still dwelt with tenderness on the memory of
what he had been; but she saw no likeness between the friend of her
youth, beaming with love, joy and hope, and the prince who now stood
before her; his brow was bent, his curved lips expressed disdain, his
attitude and gesture were haughty and almost repulsive. Euthanasia was
not to be daunted by this shew of superiority; she instantly recovered
her presence of mind, and advanced towards him with calm dignity,
saying, "My lord, I was about to visit you, when I find that you prevent
me by honouring my castle with your presence; I was coming as a
suppliant for the life of a dear friend."

"Countess, perhaps my errand is of more serious import,--at least to
yourself: and, since it may include an answer to your supplication, I
intreat you to hear me before we enter on any other subject."

Euthanasia bowed assent, and Castruccio continued.

"Madonna, you may remember that I have often in friendly terms intreated
you to place yourself under the protection of my government at Lucca;
you have ever refused me, and I indulgently acceded to your refusal. I
have subdued all the castles around, several stronger than this, but I
have left you to enjoy the independence you prized. I did this, trusting
to your promise, that, although you were not my ally, you would not
become my enemy, and that, in whatever war I might engage myself, you
would preserve a strict neutrality. On my return from Genoa, forced to
this hasty measure by the intimation of a plot being formed against me,
I find that you are at the head of my enemies, and that, in violation of
your faith, if you have not declared war, you have acted a more
injurious part, in fomenting a conspiracy, and giving traitors those
opportunities for maturing their plans, which, unless you had done this,
they could never have dreamed of."

Euthanasia replied earnestly; "My lord, your mistake would be
pardonable, had you not known me long enough to be assured that I am
incapable of acting the part you attribute to me. But, although you have
forgotten that treason and artifice are as foreign to my nature as
darkness to that of the sun, you will at least believe me, when I give
you my solemn assurance, that until this morning I knew nothing of the
conspiracy entered into against you. And now"----

"But how can this be? Did not Bondelmonti and his associates reside in
this castle for two months?"

"They did; they came to urge me to enter into the Florentine war against
you, which I refused."

"And was it necessary to hesitate during two months for your answer? or,
did it not rather enter into your plans, that they should remain as
spies and plotters for my destruction? but enough of this"----

"Enough, and far too much, my lord. You doubt my faith, and disbelieve
my word: these are outrages which I did not expect to receive from you,
but to which I must submit. And now permit me to speak to you on the
subject of my intended visit."

"Pardon me, but you may remember that we agreed I should be the first
heard; and I have not yet mentioned why I intrude myself into your
castle. I am at war with Florence; you are not; and you believe yourself
permitted, not only to hold correspondence with my enemies, but also to
afford them an opportunity through your means to carry on plots with my
traitorous subjects. This may have been done very innocently on your
part; but I cannot permit a repetition of the same mime, or of any
other, which, though differing in words, shall be the same in spirit. If
you have not taken advantage of my forbearance, you have at least shewn
yourself incapable of sustaining the trust I reposed in you. But,
Euthanasia, if you are indeed innocent, I am unmannerly in being thus
stern with you; and, since you deny that you entered into this plot, and
I would fain believe you, it is with repugnance that I enter upon the
subject of my visit. You must surrender your castle to me; prudence no
longer permits me to suffer you to enjoy independence; and, however
painful the alternative, you must submit to become my ally."

"It were of little moment to enter into a treaty with me," said
Euthanasia, with a bitter smile: "since, if I am capable of treason, I
may be more dangerous as an ally than an enemy."

"Not so; for the first article of our alliance must be the razing of
this castle; in exchange you shall have a site afforded you in the plain
for the erection of a palace, nor shall you incur any loss in fortune or
revenue; but you must descend to the rank of a private individual, and
this castle, and your power in this country, must be resigned into my
hands."

"My lord, I am afraid that we shall not agree on the first article of
our intended treaty. I will persevere in the neutrality I promised, and
endeavour to be more prudent than I was in this last unfortunate affair.
But I cannot surrender my castle, or permit the seat of my ancestors to
be razed to the ground. And now allow me to speak of what is nearer to
my heart. Leodino de' Guinigi has conspired against you, you have
discovered his plot, and have thrown him into prison. I know that you
consider his life a forfeit to your laws; but I intreat you to spare
him: if neither the generosity of your character, nor the impotence of
your enemy will incline you to mercy, I intreat you by our antient
friendship. His wife, Lauretta dei Adimari, is my cousin, and my friend;
Leodino, although your enemy, is a man distinguished by every virtue,
brave, generous and wise. If you would obtain a faithful and
trust-worthy friend, pardon him, confide in him; and his gratitude will
be to you as a guard an hundred strong: if you have not sufficient
magnanimity to trust your enemy, banish him; but for my sake spare his
life."

Castruccio appeared somewhat moved by her earnestness, but he
replied;--"It cannot be; I am sorry to refuse you, but the example would
be too dangerous. Put aside this from your thoughts, and let me in treat
you to consider what I have just said. You answer me slightly; but be
assured that I have not mentioned this alternative of war or peace
between us, until my purpose was fixed: reflect seriously on the evils
that resistance may bring upon you, and send me your answer to-morrow."

"To-morrow, or to-day, it is the same. But you, Castruccio, reflect upon
the misery you cause, if you refuse to spare my unfortunate friend."

"Do not torment yourself or me any more on the subject of Leodino; your
intercession is fruitless; he is already dead; I gave orders for his
immediate execution before I left Lucca.--But why are you so pale?--What
agitates you?"

Euthanasia could not speak; the horror that she felt on hearing the
violent death of one she loved announced so coldly by his murderer,
overcame her: she struggled violently not to faint; but, when Castruccio
drew near to support her, he found her hand cold and lifeless; and her
trembling limbs alone shewed that she still felt: her lips were pale;
she stood as if changed to stone:--

"Euthanasia, speak!"

"Speak! What should I say? Leave me! You touch me, and your hands are
covered with blood, your garments are dripping with gore; come not near
me!--Oh! God, have pity on me, that I should know this misery! Leave me;
you are not a man; your heart is stone; your very features betray the
icy blood which fills your veins. Oh, Leodino!"

And then she wept, and her features relaxed from the rigid horror they
had expressed into softness and grief. After she had wept awhile, and
thus calmed her agitation, she said: "My lord, this is the last time
that we shall ever meet. You may attack my castle, if you will; you may
tear it down, and leave not a stone to shew where it stood; but I will
never voluntarily submit to a tyrant and a murderer. My answer is
brief;--Do your worst: it cannot be so bad as that which you have
already done! You have destroyed every hope of my life; you have done
worse, far worse, than my words can express; do not exasperate me, or
let me exasperate you, by a longer stay: I can never forgive the death
of Leodino; farewel!--we are enemies; do your worst against me."

She left him, unable to retain any longer even the patience to behold
him. But she had no leisure afforded her to indulge her grief or
indignation. Lauretta had heard of the death of her husband; and her
despair, and the convulsions it occasioned, entirely engrossed
Euthanasia's attention, so that she forgot her own feelings and
situation; nor did she recur to the threats of Castruccio, until they
were recalled to her recollection by other proceedings on his part.

He did not doubt in his own mind, that, when pushed to extremity, the
countess would surrender her castle. When he first heard that it had
been selected by the conspirators as their rendezvous, he believed that
she had had a principal share in the plot; but now, when assured of her
innocence (for it was impossible not to believe her words, so clearly
were truth and courageous sincerity painted on her noble countenance),
he did not for that relent in his purpose of depriving her of the
independence that she possessed, in the midst of a territory subject to
himself. Like many of his predecessors and successors in usurpation,
Castruccio had a method in his tyranny; and he never proceeded to any
act of violence, without first consulting with his council, and
obtaining their sanction to his measures. On his return from the castle
of Valperga, he called together this friendly assembly, and represented
to them the evil he incurred by permitting so violent a Guelph as the
countess Euthanasia, to preserve her power, and erect her standard, in
the very heart of his principality. His council replied to his
representations with one voice, that the castle must be reduced.

The following morning Castruccio bade Arrigo di Guinigi carry a message
to Euthanasia. Arrigo had always been a favourite with the countess; and
Castruccio thought that it would be more delicate and forbearing, to
send one so young and unpresuming as the bearer of his most displeasing
message. Euthanasia received the youth with kindness; they talked on
various subjects; but she carefully refrained from mentioning
Castruccio's name, or alluding to the late transactions at Lucca; and it
was long before Arrigo could summon courage to introduce the topic
himself; at length he said:

"Madonna, I bear a message to you from the prince."

Euthanasia changed colour when he was alluded to; he, whom she now
feared, as formerly she had dwelt on his idea with love. She replied
hastily; "What is Antelminelli's pleasure with me? Speak quickly, that
there may soon be an end of a subject, which I cannot even think upon
without agitation."

"Yet I must intreat your patience, for my message is neither short nor
unimportant; and you must pardon me that I am its bearer: you know by
what ties I am bound to Castruccio; and if I now obey him, do not,
dearest countess, condemn me too harshly. He intreats you to remember
what he said when he visited you two days ago; he has since discussed
the affair in council; and it is agreed that you can no longer be
permitted to retain your independence. You know that the prince is
all-powerful here; his army is well disciplined and formidable; his
commands every where submitted to unquestioned. Look at every castle and
village for miles around; they acknowledge his law; you cannot dream
therefore of resisting; and, if you refuse to submit, it is because you
believe that he will not proceed to extremities with you. My dear
Euthanasia, this is a grievous task for me, and one which no earthly
power but Castruccio could have persuaded me to undertake; pardon me, if
I appear unmannerly when I repeat his words.

"He says, that he does not forget the friendship that once subsisted
between you, and that he deeply regrets that your coldness and violence
caused a division between you; but this is a question of state, and not
a private altercation; and he would be unworthy of the trust reposed in
him, if he permitted his individual inclinations to interfere with his
duty towards the public. He is commanded by the ruling powers of his
country, to compel the submission of the castle and rock of Valperga;
and he is resolved to obey them: he intreats you to spare both yourself
and him the unhappiness you will inflict on him, and the blood that must
be shed, if you resist. It would be absurd to attempt to defend yourself
alone: to give your cause the least chance of success you must call in
foreign aid; and, by bringing the Florentines into the heart of this
valley, you not only introduce war and destruction into the abodes of
peace, but you act a treasonable part (forgive me if I repeat his word),
in taking advantage of the power which you hold through his indulgence,
to endeavour to bring ruin upon him. But, whatever you determine upon,
whether to hold out with your own small forces, or to call strangers to
your assistance, he is resolved to spare no exertion, and to be stopped
by no obstacle, until he has reduced into his own hands Valperga and all
its dependencies; at the same time that you, so far from being a loser,
except in nominal advantages, shall be fully compensated for your
present possessions."

Euthanasia listened attentively, although sometimes disdain hovered on
her lips, and at times her eyes flashed fire at the words she heard. She
paused a moment to collect her thoughts, and then she replied: "My dear
Arrigo, I pardon most freely all the part you take in these unfortunate
circumstances; I would that the prince had not so far degraded himself,
as to veil his tyranny with hypocrisy and falsehood; his is the power,
and not the senate's; to him I reply; and, casting away all the vain
pretexts with which he would hide, perhaps to himself, his injustice and
lawless ambition, I reply with plain words to his artful speech; and I
beg that without any alteration you faithfully deliver my message to
him.

"I will never willingly surrender my power into his hands: I hold it for
the good of my people, who are happy under my government, and towards
whom I shall ever perform my duty. I look upon him as a lawless tyrant,
whom every one ought to resist to the utmost of their power; nor will I
through cowardice give way to injustice. I may be exasperated beyond
prudence; but right is on my side: I have preserved the articles of my
alliance with him, and I will hold them still; but, if he attack me, I
shall defend myself, and shall hold myself justified in accepting the
assistance of my friends. If I had not that right, if indeed I had
pledged myself to submit whenever he should call upon me to resign my
birthright, what an absurd mockery is it to talk of his moderation
towards me! I acknowledge that he might long ago have attempted, as now
he threatens, to reduce this castle to a frightful ruin; but then I
should have resisted as I shall now; resisted with my own forces, and
those of my allies. Valperga stands on a barren rock, and the few
villages that own its law are poor and unprotected; but this castle is
as dear to me as all his dominion is to him; I inherited it from my
ancestors; and if I wished to despoil myself of power, it would be to
make my people free, and not to force them to enter the muster-roll of a
usurper and a tyrant.

"My dear Arrigo, do not endeavour to persuade me to alter my purpose;
for it is fixed. I am not young nor old enough to be scared by threats,
nor happy enough to buy life on any terms Castruccio may choose to
offer. I am willing to lose it in a just cause; and such I conceive to
be the preservation of my inheritance."

Arrigo was too raw and inexperienced to contend in words with
Euthanasia; he was overcome by her enthusiasm, which, although serious
and apparently quiet, was as a stream that runs deep and waveless, but
whose course is swifter and stronger than that which wastes its force in
foam and noise.




CHAPTER X


_Castruccio reconnoitres for a Surprise.--Embassy
of Tripalda._


Arrigo returned sorrowfully to Lucca. He found Castruccio playing at
chess with Mordecastelli; while a priest, Battista Tripalda, sat
observing the game, and spoiling it by his interference.

"Nay, Vanni, I shall check-mate you next move," said Castruccio; "think
again if you cannot escape, and make better play. Well, Arrigo, is peace
or war the word you bring?"

"You must choose that, my lord; the countess wishes for peace, but she
will not submit."

"Not submit!" cried Tripalda, stalking with his tall, upright figure
into the middle of the room. "The woman is mad! I see that there is
something wrong in this, that I must set right."

"Aye," said Mordecastelli; "as you set my game right for me, and made me
lose two knights and a castle."

"I wish he could persuade Euthanasia to lose a castle, and then all
would go well. Are there no hopes, Arrigo? tell me what she said."

Arrigo repeated her message, endeavouring to soften her expressions; but
Castruccio was too experienced in the management of the human mind, not
to draw from the youth the very words she had uttered.

"A murderer and a tyrant! pretty words applied to me, because I put a
traitor to death, who otherwise would have placed my head on a
Florentine pike. To what extremities am I driven! I would give the world
not to go to open war about her miserable castle: yet have it I must,
and that quickly, before she can send for her Florentine friends. What a
spirit she has! I do not blame her; but, by St. Martin, I must tame it!
Vanni, send for Castiglione; I must give him instructions for the
conduct of the siege: I will have nothing to do with it personally; so
to-morrow I shall away to keep the Florentines in check, if not to beat
them."

"My lord," said Tripalda, drawing himself up before Castruccio with an
air of the utmost self-consequence, "you have often found me of use in
occasions of this sort; and I intreat you to authorize me to go and
expostulate with the countess; I doubt not that I shall bring you a
favourable answer: she must hear reason, and from no one is she so
likely to hear it as from myself."

"You little know her disposition, friend Tripalda; but the most hopeless
effort is worth making, before I declare war, and take her possessions
by force. Go therefore to-morrow morning early; in the mean time I will
give Castiglione my instructions; that, if your persuasions are vain, he
may commence the attack the following day."

Tripalda then retired to meditate the speech by which he should persuade
Euthanasia to yield; while Castruccio, desperate of any composition,
gave his full directions for the conduct of the siege.

"If I were not in the secret of the place," said he to Castiglione, "I
might well believe the castle of Valperga to be impregnable, except by
famine; and that would be a tedious proceeding; but I know of other
means which will give you entrance before nightfall. Lead a detachment
of your most useless soldiers to the pathway which conducts to the main
entrance of the castle; that of course will be well guarded; and, if the
defence is directed with common judgement, the disadvantages under which
the assailants must labour would render the attempt almost insane. But,
as I said, let your more useless troops be employed there; they will
keep the besieged in play; while you will conduct a chosen band to sure
victory. You remember the fountain of the rock, beside which we were
feasted, when the countess held her court, and where she sustained the
mockery of a siege; to be conquered in play, as she now will be in
earnest. You remember the narrow path that leads from the fountain to
the postern, a gate, which, though strong, may easily be cut through by
active arms and good hatchets. I know a path which leads from this
valley to the fountain; it is long, difficult, and almost impracticable;
but I have scaled it, and so may you and your followers. To-night before
the moon rises, and it rises late, we will ride to the spot, and when
you are in possession of this secret, the castle is at your mercy."

It was now the beginning of the month of October; the summer, which had
been particularly sultry, had swiftly declined; already the gales which
attend upon the equinox swept through the woods, and the trees, who know


His voice, and suddenly grow grey with fear,
And tremble and despoil themselves,


had already begun to obey the command of their ruler: the delicate
chesnut woods, which last dare encounter the blasts of spring, whose
tender leaves do not expand until they may become a shelter to the
swallow, and which first hear the voice of the tyrant Libeccio, as he
comes all conquering from the west, had already changed their hues, and
shone yellow and red, amidst the sea-green foliage of the olives, the
darker but light boughs of the cork trees, and the deep and heavy masses
of ilexes and pines. The evening was hot; for the Libeccio, although it
shuts out the sun with clouds, yet brings a close and heavy air, that
warms, while it oppresses.

When evening came, Castruccio and his companion addressed themselves for
their expedition. They muffled themselves in their capuchins, and,
leaving the town of Lucca, crossed the plain, riding swiftly and
silently along. Who can descend into the heart of man, and know what the
prince felt, as he conducted Castiglione to the secret path, discovered
by his love, now used to injure and subdue her whom he had loved? The
white walls of the castle, half concealed by the cork and ilex trees
which grew on the platform before it, stood quietly and silent; and she
who dwelt within, whose heart now beat fast with fear and wretchedness,
was the lovely and beloved Euthanasia, whose sweet and soft eyes, which
shone as violets beneath a load of snow, had formerly beamed unutterable
love on him, and whose gentle and modulated voice had once pronounced
words of tenderness, which, though changed, he could never forget,--it
was she, the beautiful, who had lived on earth as the enshrined statue
of a divinity, adorning all places where she appeared, and adored by all
who saw her; it was she, whose castle he was about to take and raze, it
was against her that he now warred with a fixed resolution to conquer.
Castruccio thought on all this; he called to mind her altered mien, and
the coldness which had changed her heart from a fountain of burning love
to an icy spring: and this awakened a feeling which he would fain have
believed to be indignation. "Shall this false girl," he muttered, "enjoy
this triumph over me? And shall the love which she despises, save her
from the fate to which her own coldness and imprudence consign her? Let
her yield; and she will find the Castruccio whom she calumniates,
neither a tyrant nor a monster; but, if she resist, on her be the
burthen of the misery that must follow."

Yet still, as officious conscience brought forward excuses for her, and
called on him again and again to beware, he rode along side Castiglione,
and entered into conversation. "To-morrow at this hour," he said, "you
and your troop must come along this road, and hide yourselves in the
forest which we are about to enter. When morning is up, do not long
delay to scale the mountain, and enter the castle, for the sooner you
take it, the less blood will be shed: order the battle so, that the
troops you leave for the false attack may be fully engaged with the
besieged before you enter; and then, coming behind the garrison, you can
drive them down the mountain among their enemies, so that they may all
be taken prisoners, at small expence either of their lives or ours."

They now dismounted; and, leaving their horses to their servants, began
to ascend the acclivity. They moved cautiously along; and, if there had
been any to listen to their footsteps, the sound was drowned by the
singing of the pines, which moaned beneath the wind. Following the path
of a torrent, and holding by the jutting points of rock, or the bare and
tangled roots of the trees that overhung them, they proceeded slowly up
the face of the mountain. Then turning to the right, they penetrated a
complete wilderness of forest ground, where the undergrowth of the giant
trees, and the fern and brambles, covered every path, so that Castruccio
had need of all his sagacity to distinguish the slight peculiarities of
scene that guided him. They awoke the hare from her form; and the
pheasants, looking down from the branches of the trees, flew away with a
sharp cry, and the whiz of their heavy wings, as their solitude was
disturbed.

Their progress was difficult and slow; but, after their toil had
continued nearly two hours, Castruccio exclaimed, "Yes, I see that I am
right!" and he paused a moment beside a spring, near which grew a
solitary, but gigantic cypress, that seemed, as you looked up, to attain
to the bright star which shone right above it, and towards which its
moveless spire pointed; "I am right; I know this place well; mark it,
Castiglione; and now our journey is almost ended."

It was here, that in their childish days Castruccio and Euthanasia often
played; their names were carved on the rough bark of the cypress, and
here, in memory of their infantine friendship, they had since met, to
renew the vows they had formerly made, vows now broken, scattered to the
winds, more worthless than the fallen leaves of autumn on which he then
trod. The way to the rock which overlooked the fountain was now short,
but more difficult than ever; and both hands and feet were necessary to
conquer the ascent. At length they came to a pinnacle, which, higher
than the castle, overlooked the whole plain; and immediately under was
the alcove which sheltered Euthanasia's fountain.

"I see no path which may lead to the fountain, my lord," said
Castiglione.

"There is none," replied the prince, "nor did I ever get into the castle
this way; but I have observed the place, and doubt not of the
practicability of my plan."

Castruccio drew from under his cloak a rope, and fastened it to the
shattered stump of a lightning-blasted tree; by the help of this rope,
and a stick shod with iron which he carried in his hand, he contrived
with the aid of Castiglione to reach a projecting ledge in the rock
about two feet wide, which ran round the precipice about ten feet from
its base; the fountain flowed from a crevice in this ledge, and steps
were hewn out of the rock, leading from the source to the basin.
Castruccio pointed out these circumstances to his companion, and made it
fully apparent that, with a little boldness and caution, they might
arrive by the means he had pointed out at the path which led to the
postern of the castle. A few questions asked by Castiglione, which the
prince answered with accuracy and minuteness, sufficed to clear all the
doubts which the former had entertained, and to explain the whole of his
proceeding.

As they returned, however, Castiglione said suddenly, "My lord, you
understand this path so much better than I, why will you not undertake
the attack?"

"I thank you," replied Castruccio, with a bitter smile; "but this
business falls to your share; I must away to keep off the aid the
countess expects from the Florentines."

They descended slowly; the moon had risen, which would have discovered
their path to them, but that she was hid behind so thick a woof of dark
and lightning-bearing clouds, that her presence sufficed only to dispel
the pitchy blackness, in which, but for her, they had been enveloped.
Every now and then the growling of distant but heavy thunder shook the
air, and was answered by the screeching of the owl, and the screams of
the birds whom it awoke from their sleep among the trees. The two
adventurers soon reached the valley; and, mounting their horses, crossed
the plain at full gallop; and the strong Libeccio against which they
drove, cutting the air with difficulty, warmed the spirits, and somewhat
dissipated the melancholy, which, in spite of all his efforts, oppressed
Castruccio. He arrived much fatigued at his journey's end; and, whatever
might be the revolutions in his feelings, or the remorse which stung him
when he reflected on the work for which he prepared, throwing himself on
his couch, deep sleep quickly overcame all; nor did he awake, until an
attendant came to announce to him, that the day was advanced, that the
troops had long quitted Lucca, and that his principal officers, waited
only for him to join them in their march towards the Florentine camp.
Castruccio then shook off sleep; and, having examined well that his
esquire had omitted no piece of his armour which another horse bore, and
having visited his charger which was to be led unbacked to the field, he
mounted a black palfrey; and, merely saying to Castiglione, as he passed
him in the palace court, "You understand all,"--he joined his officers,
and they rode off on the road to Florence.

As they quitted the town, they met Tripalda, who, accosting the prince,
told him, that he was now going to Valperga, and that he did not doubt
that his arguments would induce the countess to surrender. Castruccio
shook his head in disbelief, and, hastily wishing him good-success, put
spurs to his horse, apparently impatient to quit every thing that
reminded him of the odious task he had left his friends to perform.

Battista Tripalda, the ambassador of Castruccio on this occasion, was a
canon of the cathedral of St. Ambrose at Perugia. By this time the
colleges of canons, who had before lived in common like monks, had been
dissolved, and each member was permitted to live privately, receiving
his share of the yearly income which was before employed as a common
stock. But the canons had offices to perform in the church, which
obliged them to reside in the town, in which the cathedral to which they
belonged was situated; Tripalda had however been long absent from his
duties, nor did his bishop ever enquire after him, or require him to
return. He had appeared at Lucca about a year before this time, unknown
and unrecommended; but he had intruded himself into the palaces of the
nobles, and been well received: his eccentric manners made them pardon
his opinions, and the subtleties of his mind forced them to forgive his
uncouth and arrogant demeanour. Yet, although received by all, he was
liked by none, for there was a mystery about him that no one could
divine; and we seldom like what we do not comprehend. He was an
unbelieving priest, yet was permitted to exercise the clerical
functions; he was a man who cried out against the simony and wickedness
of the Roman religion, yet he was tolerated by all its members; he was
equally severe against tyrants and lords, yet he was received at every
court in Italy. He was an earnest panegyrizer of republics and
democracies; yet he was satisfied with no existing form of government,
because none was sufficiently free: he contended that each man ought to
be his own king and judge; yet he pretended to morality, and to be a
strict censor of manners and luxury. He had a deep insight into artful
and artificial character, and a kind of instinctive prudence in
extricating himself from the most embarrassing circumstances; so that
his penetration almost gave him the appearance of a tamperer in the
forbidden arts, which however he held in supreme contempt.

He was equally well received by the opposite factions, allying himself
with neither, but condemning both. When he first appeared at Lucca, he
was humble and mild, pretending to nothing but uncorrupted and
uncorruptible virtue, desiring none of the goods of fortune, except that
which she could not withhold from him, namely, the esteem and friendship
of all good men. But this was merely the prelude to what was to follow.
He was as those dwarfs we read of in fairy tales, who at first appear
small and impotent, but who on further acquaintance assume the form of
tremendous giants; so, when he became familiar with his new friends, he
cast off his modest disguise, and appeared vain, presumptuous and
insolent, delivering his opinions as oracles, violent when opposed in
argument, contemptuous even when agreed with: there was besides
something buffoonish in his manner, which he occasionally endeavoured to
pass off for wit and imagination, and at other times, served him as a
cloak for deep designs and dangerous opinions. The Guelphs declared that
they believed him to be a Ghibeline spy; the Ghibelines, that he was
under pay from the Pope; many said, that he tampered with both parties,
and betrayed both. Worse stories had been whispered concerning him, but
they were believed by few; it was said that the flagrant wickedness of
his actions had caused him to be banished from Perugia; but this was
disproved at once, for if so, why was he not deprived of his emoluments
in the church?

The first conjecture concerning him was that he was a spy; but, however
that might be, he escaped detection, and contrived to maintain his
confidence with the chiefs of the opposite factions, and among these was
Euthanasia. She admired his talents, believed him to be honest, and
refused to listen to the accusations advanced against him, since the
manner in which they were brought forward stamped them with the show of
unfounded calumnies. She was sometimes irritated by his impertinence,
and shocked at his want of delicacy; but she had heard that early
misfortunes had deranged his understanding, and she pitied and forgave
him. Indeed she had known him a very short time; and he had not yet
thrown off his mask of humility and virtue, which he ever wore on his
first appearance on a new scene.

Euthanasia waited with impatience to hear the result of her message to
Castruccio. She could not believe that he would put his threats in
execution; but, in case of the worst, she resolved to oppose his
pretensions, and to use every means to preserve her independence. She
had sent, the same night of her interview with Arrigo, to intreat the
Florentine general to dispatch a brigade for her defence, and to request
the assistance of an able officer in sustaining the siege she might
encounter. She called together the few militia of her villages. She
visited the works of the castle, and gave orders for the immediate
demolition of all roads and bridges on the first advance of the enemy;
and then, overcome by the sense of wretchedness which clung to her in
spite of the exalted state of her mind, she shrunk to solitude, and
tried to seek in the recesses of her own soul for the long-studied
lessons of courage and fortitude.

She believed herself justified, nay called upon to oppose the
encroachments of the prince of Lucca; she felt roused to resistance by
his menaces, and the implied accusation of treachery with which he had
endeavoured to brand her. Her innocence made her proud, her spirit of
independence, bold; she had ever refused to submit to his usurpations;
her castle had often been the asylum for his victims, and herself the
aider of the persecuted. "I may fall," she thought; "but I will not
stoop. I may become his victim; but I will never be his slave. I refused
to yield to him when I loved him, if he did not dismiss his ambitious
designs. Love, which is the ruling principle of my mind, whose power I
now feel in every nerve, in every beating of my heart, I would not
submit my conscience to the control of love; and shall fear rule me?"

She said this, and at the same moment Tripalda was announced. He
advanced towards Euthanasia with a serious and important look, yet at
the same time with an endeavour to appear courteous, if not humble. He
kissed her hand, and having gravely asked after her health, he soon
began to speak on the object of his visit, and to endeavour to persuade
her that all resistance to the will of the prince was useless, and that
in timely submission was the only hope left for her preservation.
Euthanasia felt her cheeks glow as he spoke, and once her eyes seemed to
flash lightning, when the word _Mercy_ escaped from the orator, who
talked on, appearing to observe little of what she felt, but to be
wholly engrossed in the winding up of his periods. "Madonna," said he,
"the prince has a true and sincere friendship for you, and he is
infinitely grieved at the idea of being at open hostility with you; but
he must obey the will of the senate and the council, and you must
ultimately submit to the forces sent against you. Listen then to one
older than yourself, who has lived longer in the world, and has grown
wise by experience: never, being, weak, contend with the strong; for it
is far more politic to yield at first upon conditions, than, falling
after combat, to receive the law from the conqueror."

"I am afraid, _Messer Canonico_," replied Euthanasia, calmly, but
somewhat haughtily, "that our opinions agree too little, to allow you to
be a fitting arbiter between me and the prince of Lucca. This castle,
and the power annexed to it, belonged to my ancestors; and when I
received it from my mother's hands, I vowed to exercise and preserve it
for the good of my people----"

"And is it for the good of your people to expose them to the desolation
of war, when you might conclude a satisfactory peace?"

"Messer Battista, I listened patiently while you spoke; and it boots
little to continue this discussion, if you will not also attend to me.
I will be very brief: Castruccio formed an alliance with me, and, as the
condition of my independence, I promised not to join his enemies. I have
preserved my part of the agreement; and, if he wishes to break his, I
have friends and allies, who will not permit that my situation should be
so hopeless as you imagine. It is the height of injustice to say that I
bring war into this territory; since every prayer and every wish of my
heart is for peace; but, if attacked, I will defend myself, and my right
must become both my sword and shield."

"You speak proudly, but foolishly, countess Euthanasia; for right was
never yet sword or shield to any one. It is well to talk in this manner
to women and children, and thus to keep the world in some degree of
order. You are a woman, it is true; but your rank and power have placed
you in a situation to know the truth of things; and, if you have not yet
learned the futility of the lessons of the priests, whose sole end to
all their speeches is to find a way, shorter or longer, into your purse;
learn it from me, who am both willing and able to teach you."

"I shall make a sorry pupil, I am afraid; but, if you please, I will
alter my phraseology, that my meaning may be more clear. I expect the
aid of the Florentines; and I depend upon the courage with which the
hatred of a usurper will inspire my soldiers, who love me, and will, I
doubt not, defend me to the last drop of their blood: if my right cannot
help me, my resolution shall. The prince of Lucca has called me, perhaps
he believes me to be, a traitor; I am none to him, nor will I be to the
party to which I belong. I promised my allies not to submit; and my word
is sacred. Messer Battista, I doubt not that the motives which urged
your visit, were honest, perhaps friendly; but cease to vex yourself and
me with fruitless altercation."

"I do not intend altercation, Madonna; but I wished to expostulate with
you, and to shew you the pit into which you seem obstinately resolved to
fall. I know that the wisdom of all ages tells us, that women will have
their will; I had hoped to find you superior to the foibles of your sex;
and my mistake becomes my crime: for in truth you are as headstrong as a
girl of fifteen, who hopes to cover her head with the nuptial veil. But
I have set my heart on carrying this point with you, and will not be
discouraged by a woman's eloquence or obstinacy."

"This is going too far," said Euthanasia, half angrily; "you imagine
perhaps that I am already the slave of your lord, that you no longer
preserve the respect which even then would be due to me. My mind is too
full both of grief and anxiety, to string sentences together in answer
to your arguments; but my purpose is firm, and you cannot shake it. If
you come from the lord Castruccio himself, my answer is ever the same. I
am at peace with him; but, if he attacks me, I know how to defend
myself."

Any man but Tripalda might have been awed by the dignity of Euthanasia,
and the restrained indignation, that glistened in her eyes, and flushed
her cheek. She rose to bid the priest farewel, and her serious manner
made him pause for an instant in his address; but his accustomed
impudence quickly overcame the momentary shame, and he said, "I came to
speak reason to the deaf, and to shew danger to the blind; but the deaf
man says, I hear better than you, and the sound of arms and trumpets is
yet far off;--and the blind man cries, Avaunt! I see my path better than
you: meanwhile the one falls into the hands of the enemy, and the other
tumbles into the pit round which I would have led him. You will repent
too late, that you did not follow my counsel; and then who will medicine
your wounds?"

"The God who inflicted them upon me. I fear not!"

Tripalda returned to Lucca. Castruccio had left the town; and
Castiglione, hearing the result of the priest's embassy, instantly
prepared for the attack. Heralds were sent in due form to demand the
surrender of the castle; and, when refused, war was immediately
declared.

In the mean time the Florentine army had advanced into the Lucchese
territory; but, when they heard of the march of Castruccio, they fell
back to Fucecchio, and pitched their tents on the banks of the river
Guisciana. Castruccio came up to them with his troops; but, being on
opposite sides of the river, and not caring to cross it in face of the
enemy, both armies remained observing each other's motions, each
preparing to attack the other on the first shew of fear or retreat. The
Florentine general had received the message of Euthanasia, but he found
it difficult to comply with her wishes; for any troops sent to her aid
must pass the Guisciana, and that was too well guarded to permit of any
but a general passage and attack. He communicated her situation to the
Florentine government, which sent her a small troop with Bondelmonti at
its head, who, making the circuit of Bologna and the Modenese mountains,
arrived on the eve of the attack, having with infinite difficulty
surmounted the fortified passages of the mountains; so that many of his
followers being made prisoners, and others left behind, he made his
appearance at Valperga with not more than fifty men.




CHAPTER XI


_Valperga taken._


After the departure of Tripalda, Euthanasia remained long on the
battlements of her castle, watching the men who were employed in
repairing and erecting some outworks for its defence. Every now and then
she heard a murmuring near her, a slight noise, and then a voice which
said--"Aye, that will do; this helmet is still too large, I must find
some way to cut it round the edges."

Looking up, she saw at a small window of one of the projecting towers
the Albinois, who appeared furbishing and repairing arms. "Are we so
straitened for men," she said, "that you are obliged to turn armourer,
my poor Bindo?"

"Not an armourer, but a soldier, lady; to-morrow I gird on my sword for
your defence."

"You, and a sword! Nay, that is impossible; you must not expose yourself
to danger, where you can do no good."

"Countess, have firm hope; I have learned from the stars, that to-morrow
is a fortunate day for us. I have visited the holy fountain; and,
sprinkling its waters three times around, I have called on its saints to
aid us: to-morrow is named as a lucky day for us, and I will be among
your defenders."

He spoke earnestly; and so highly wrought were the feelings of
Euthanasia, that, although at another time she might have smiled, she
could now with difficulty repress her tears. "If you would defend me,"
she replied, "wait then near me; I will not indeed have you risk your
life to no end."

"Why, Madonna," said Bindo, "should you care more for my life, than for
those of the brave fellows who will to-morrow die for you? We shall
succeed; but death will be among us; and to-morrow many a child will
lose its father, and many a wife her husband, fighting for this heap of
stones which can feel neither defeat nor triumph. I will be among them;
fear not, St. Martin has declared for us."

There are moments in our lives, when the chance-word of a madman or a
fool is sufficient to cause our misery; and such was the present state
of Euthanasia's mind. She hastily retreated to solitude, and in earnest
thought tried to overcome the effect of the conscience-stricken wound
which the Albinois had inflicted. We are distrustful of ourselves; so
little do we depend upon our human reason, that on the eve of any
action, even the most praise-worthy, it will sometimes assume another
semblance, and that will appear selfish wilfulness, or at best a
distorted freak of the imagination, which, when we first contemplated
it, seemed the highest effort of human virtue. It had appeared to
Euthanasia her first duty to resist the incroachments of Castruccio, and
to preserve the independence of her subjects. Now again she paused, and
thought that all the shows this world presents were dearly bought at the
price of one drop of human blood. She doubted the purity of her own
motives; she doubted the justification which even now she was called
upon to make at the tribunal of her conscience, and hereafter before
that of her God; she stop, and shivered on the brink of her purpose, as
a mighty fragment of rock will pause shaking at the edge of a precipice,
and then fall to the darkness that must receive it.

"The earth is a wide sea," she cried, "and we its passing bubbles; it is
a changeful heaven, and we its smallest and swiftest driven vapours; all
changes, all passes--nothing is stable, nothing for one moment the same.
But, if it be so, oh my God! if in Eternity all the years that man has
numbered on this green earth be but a point, and we but the minutest
speck in the great whole, why is the present moment every thing to us?
Why do our minds, grasping all, feel as if eternity and immeasurable
space were kernelled up in one instantaneous sensation? We look back to
times past, and we mass them together, and say in such a year such and
such events took place, such wars occupied that year, and during the
next there was peace. Yet each year was then divided into weeks, days,
minutes, and slow-moving seconds, during which there were human minds to
note and distinguish them, as now. We think of a small motion of the
dial as of an eternity; yet ages have past, and they are but hours; the
present moment will soon be only a memory, an unseen atom in the night
of by-gone time. A hundred years hence, and young and old we shall all
be gathered to the dust, and I shall no longer feel the coil that is at
work in my heart, or any longer struggle within the inextricable bonds
of fate. I know this; but yet this moment, this point of time, during
which the sun makes but one round amidst the many millions it has made,
and the many millions it will make, this moment is all to me. Most
willingly, nay, most earnestly, do I pray that I may die this night, and
that all contention may cease with the beatings of my heart. Yet, if I
live, shall I submit? Is all that we prize but a shadow? Are tyranny,
and cruelty, and liberty, and virtue only names? Or, are they not rather
the misery or joy, that makes our hearts the abode of storms, or as a
smiling, flower-covered isle? Oh! I will no longer question my purpose,
or waver where necessity ought to inspire me with courage. One heart is
too weak to contain so overwhelming a contention."

While her melancholy thoughts thus wandered, and she seemed to range in
idea through the whole universe, yet no where found repose, it was
announced to her that Bondelmonti and his soldiers had arrived, and that
the chief desired to see her. There was something in the name of
Bondelmonti that struck a favourable chord in her heart; he had been her
father's friend; he was her guardian, and, although she had sometimes
run counter to his advice, yet she always felt most happy when his
opinion coincided with hers. His presence thus announced seemed to
cancel half her care; she collected all the courage she possessed, and
that was a mighty store, and descended, even smiling, to the hall; her
cares and regrets were leashed like dogs by the huntsmen, but they
neither bayed nor yelled, but cowered in silence. Bondelmonti was struck
by the serenity of her aspect; and his countenance changed from the
doubt it had before expressed, to a frank and gallant address.

"Madonna," said he, "the work we undertake is difficult; Castruccio
keeps our army in check, and guards the passes; and the fifty men that I
bring you, is all out of three hundred that could pass the Serchio. Have
good heart however, your castle walls are strong and will resist all the
stones with which their _battifolle_[9] can batter it, if indeed they
can scale the rock, which we must make as impracticable as we can. But
this is not fitting work for you, fair countess; do you retire to rest;
I would indeed that we could place you in safety in Florence out of all
danger, where you would not be able to hear the clash of arms that
to-morrow will resound in this castle. But I know that you have courage;
and I now see all the calm fortitude of your father shine in your clear
eyes; you are a good girl, Euthanasia, a good and a wise girl, and be
assured that every drop of blood that warms my heart, every faculty of
my body or my mind, are devoted to your cause."

Euthanasia thanked him in the warm language her feeling heart dictated,
and he continued; "I should have much to say to you, much encouragement
from your friends and messages of praise and affection; but my time is
short: believe then in one word, that all your Florentine friends love,
approve and admire you; and if you fall, which this good sword forbid,
we shall at least have this consolation, that our long absent Euthanasia
will reappear among us. But now to the works of war; I will apply to
your seneschal to know what food you have in the castle, and what
possibilities there are of increasing your stock; and your principal
officers shall shew me your works of defence, that I may concert with
them the plan for to-morrow's combat."

Euthanasia however undertook this task herself: she was too much
agitated, not to find some relief in the shew of composure which she
preserved with Bondelmonti, and in the exertion of explaining and
pointing out the various modes of defence which she had adopted, in
addition to those with which nature had furnished her habitation. The
castle was built, as I have before said, on the projecting platform of a
precipitous mountain: the wall of the edifice itself was thick and
strong; and but a small way removed from it was a lower wall, built with
corner towers and battlements, which at once defended the main building,
and sheltered the besieged, who could shower stones and arrows on the
assailants from the port-holes, and be in no danger of retaliation.
Before the gate of the castle was a green plot, about fifteen paces
across, planted with a few cork and ilex trees, and surrounded by a
barbican or low wall built on the edge of the precipice, which, high,
bare, and inaccessible, hung over the plain below. Between the wall and
the barbican, a path ran round one side of the castle, which was
terminated by massy gates and a portcullis; and it was there that,
crossing the chasm which insulated the castle, by means of a drawbridge,
you found the path that conducted to the plain. This path was defended
by various works; palisades, wooden towers to shelter archers, and more
by nature herself, for the rock and the trees were all so many asylums
whence the defenders could uninjured prevent the approach of an enemy.

"This is all excellent," said Bondelmonti; "it is impossible that all
the armies of Italy could force this pass, though it were defended only
by a handful. But, Madonna, is there no other entrance to your castle?
Is there no postern with a path up or down the mountain, whose secret
your enemies may learn, and thus attack you unawares?"

"None; the only postern is that which opens on a path conducting to a
small fountain about a hundred paces up the acclivity; but there it
stops, and the rock rising precipitously behind forbids approach."

"It is well. I will now review your soldiers, appoint their various
posts, and see that mine are refreshed; then, cousin, having tasted your
wine, I will go to rest, that I may awake betimes to-morrow. I am
resolved that all shall go well; Castruccio will be defeated; and you
shall ever be, as you deserve, the castellana of Valperga."

The tables were spread in the great hall of the castle, and heaped with
wine and food. After Euthanasia had seen every want of her guests
supplied, she retired to her own room at the eastern angle of the
castle, one window of which overlooked the whole plain of Lucca; and she
sat near this window, unable to rest or sleep, in that breathless and
feverish state, in which we expect a coming, but uncertain danger.

The veil of night was at length withdrawn; first Euthanasia saw the
stars wax faint, and then the western sky caught a crimson tinge from
the opposing sun. It was long ere he climbed the eastern hill; but his
rays fell upon the opposite mountains, and the windows of the castle of
Valperga shone dazzlingly bright. A _reveillée_ was sounded in the
court below, and roused the young countess from her waking dreams, to
the reality that yawned as a gulph before her. First, she composed her
dress, and bound the wandering locks of her hair round her head; then
for a moment she stood, her hands folded on her bosom, her eyes cast up
to heaven. At first her countenance expressed pain: but it changed; her
pale cheek began to glow, her brow became clear from the cloud that had
dimmed it, her eyes grew brighter, and her whole form gained dignity and
firmness. "I do my duty," she thought, "and in that dear belief do I
place my strength; I do my duty towards myself, towards my peasants,
towards Castruccio, from whose hands I detain only the power of doing
greater ill; God is my help, and I fear not."

Thinking and feeling thus, she descended to the hall of the castle; most
of the soldiers had gone to their posts; but Bondelmonti, and some of
those of higher rank in her party and household, were waiting her
appearance. She entered not gaily, but serenely; and her beauty, the
courage painted on her face, and her thrilling tone as she bade them
good morrow, inspired them with a simultaneous emotion, which they
almost expressed, and midway checked their voices. Bondelmonti kissed
her hand; "Farewel, my friends," she said; "you risk your lives for me,
and the sacrifice of mine were a poor recompense; my honour, my every
hope rests upon your swords; they are wielded by those who love me, and
I do not fear the result."

Bondelmonti addressed himself to the combat, ordered the men to their
posts, and took his own station on the drawbridge of the castle. The
winding path which led to the foot of the mountain, was lined with
archers and slingers, who were hid behind the projecting rocks or trees,
or within small wooden towers, erected for the purpose. A chosen band
armed with long spears was stationed in firm array at the most
precipitous part of the path, who, drawn up in close rank, and advancing
their arms, formed an outwork of iron spikes, impossible to be passed or
driven back. The foremost in the combat were the dependents of
Euthanasia; they were full of that loud, but undisciplined courage which
anger and fear inspire; Bindo was among them, and he harangued them,
saying, that every sign in the heavens, and every power of air, was
propitious to their mistress; at other times they had derided his
superstition; but now it acted as another incentive to their
indignation, and supporter for their courage.

In the mean time Euthanasia had retired to the apartment of Lauretta.
This unfortunate lady had remained in the castle since the death of her
husband; and such was the agony of grief she endured, that Euthanasia
had not communicated to her the threats of Castruccio, and the
approaching siege. The noise of arms, and the sound of many voices
alarmed her; and she wildly asked the cause. Her friend related to her
the events of the few last days, and endeavoured to calm her; Lauretta
listened in fear; she had suffered so much by the like contentions, that
every thing presented itself to her in the gloomiest point of view.
Grasping the countess's hand, she intreated her to submit; "You know not
what a siege is," she cried; "my father's castle was stormed, and
therefore I well know. Even if Castruccio were at the head of his
troops, he would in vain endeavour to restrain their fury; a triumphant
soldier is worse than the buffalo of the forest, and no humanity can
check his thirst for blood and outrage; they will conquer, and neither
God nor man can save us."

Euthanasia tried to soothe her; but in vain. She wept bitterly, and
prayed so earnestly that the countess would spare them both the utter
misery they would endure, that Euthanasia was for a moment startled by
her adjurations; but then, recalling her thoughts, she replied with
gentle firmness, and bade her lay aside her fears which were unfounded,
for there was nothing to dread save an easy imprisonment, if they should
be overcome.

And now, as they were talking thus, a messenger came from Bondelmonti.
"The general desires you to have good heart," he said; "the troops of
the enemy advance; and, if we may judge by their appearance, they are
few, and even those few the refuse of the prince's army."

Euthanasia listened incredulously; for she knew that however doubtful
the decision of the combat might be, the contention must be fierce. Soon
the war-cry arose from without the castle, and was echoed from the walls
and mountains; when it ceased, it was answered by the Ghibeline cry from
the assailants. But this only proved the truth of Bondelmonti's
assertion, that they were few, and of no note; for the shout was not
that exhilarating sound, that echoes the soul's triumph, and, borne
along the line, raises responsive ardour in every breast; it was loud,
but soon died away.

Wearied by the childish remonstrances of Lauretta, Euthanasia descended
to the platform of the castle, and leaned over the barbican; but she
could see nothing, though her ears were stunned by the cries, and clash
of arms, that rose from the valley. Returning to the inner court, she
met some men who were bearing the wounded from the field, and bringing
them for succour to the castle; for a moment her heart sunk within her,
for a moment she was pierced with grief, as she thought--"This is my
work!" But she recovered herself--"It must all be endured," said she; "I
have undertaken a part, and will not faint on the threshold. Spirit of
my father, aid me!"

Beds had been prepared in a large apartment of the castle, and
Euthanasia mingled with the women who ministered to the wounded; she
bound them with her own hands, cheered them with her voice, and
endeavoured, by supporting their minds, to alleviate the sense of bodily
pain. The men, who saw her flitting like an angel about them, aiding and
ministering to their wants, felt all the love and gratitude that such
unwonted, but gracious kindness might inspire. "Fear not, lady," they
said; "we are even more numerous than those who attack us; already they
are tired, and out of breath; fear not, the day is ours."

A messenger also came from Bondelmonti, to say, that the imprudence of
an under-officer had caused the few to fall who had fallen, but that her
troops were now all sheltered, and, that without the loss of a man they
would either destroy all the assailants, or drive them down the steep;
and this assertion appeared confirmed, since no more wounded were
brought in. Thus reassured, Euthanasia left the hall, and ascended to
her own apartment; her spirit was lightened of much of its burthen; the
first barrier had been passed; and she feared not, she would not fear,
the rest.

As she thought this, a sudden scream echoed through the castle; for a
moment she was transfixed; the scream was repeated, louder and nearer,
and she hastened to the window that overlooked the outer court. Thence
she saw a party of soldiers in the Lucchese uniform issue from the gate,
and run round the castle towards the drawbridge; as they came out in
file she thought their numbers would never end, and she recognized
several of the officers as those of the highest rank in Castruccio's
army; the last at length disappeared, and she looked around for an
explanation. The castle was silent; she stood alone in the room; and
even the echo of footsteps reached her not: she paused a moment; and
then, weary of further doubt, she hastened to the room of Lauretta, and
found it full of soldiers,--the enemy's soldiers; while the poor girl,
pale and trembling, sat bewildered and silent. Euthanasia entered from a
small door, leading from a private staircase: her first words were
addressed to her friend; "Fear not," she cried; "we are betrayed; but
fear not."

The soldiers, seeing her appear, had sent for their chief officer, who
came forward, saying, "The castle is ours; and, Madonna, it were well
that you ordered your people to yield; for further resistance would be
useless, and could only cause more bloodshed: we are commanded by our
general to act with the greatest moderation."

"It is enough," replied Euthanasia, quietly; "the commander will judge
of the necessity of submission: but see, you frighten this lady, who is
ill and delicate. I beseech you to leave this room awhile; if I find
that indeed no further resistance can be made, I shall soon be prepared
to obey what orders you may bring."

"Madonna, we withdraw as you desire: but permit me to add, that it is
the general's orders that we escort you to Lucca this evening: until
then we shall not intrude upon you."

The soldiers quitted the room; and Euthanasia, leaving Lauretta with her
servant, retired to her own apartment. Here she found several of her
attendants, who told with many tears that there was no longer any hope;
that the enemy, entering at the postern, had attacked her soldiers from
behind, and driven them down the mountain, and that the party left in
the castle having raised the drawbridge, were now in undisturbed
possession. Euthanasia heard all this with an unaltered mien, and, when
the melancholy tale was finished, she bade them leave her, and go to the
commanding officer of the troop to receive orders for their further
proceeding, but not to return to her, until she should command their
attendance.


[Footnote 9: _Battifolle_, or _balestri_, machines for casting
stones.]




CHAPTER XII


_Euthanasia at Lucca._


The castle bell tolled the _Ave Maria_ for the last time, answering the
belfries of the various convents in the vale below. "There is my knell!"
cried Euthanasia. At first she thought that it would please her, in
quitting for ever the abode of her ancestors, to array herself in
mourning garments; but then the simplicity of her mind made her
instinctively shun any thing that had the appearance of affectation; so
she covered her head with a white veil, folded her capuchin about her,
and returned to the chamber of Lauretta to prepare for her removal.
Castiglione sent thither to desire admittance; when he came, he felt
awed by the deportment of Euthanasia, who received him with that slight
tinge of pride mingled with her accustomed dignity, which adversity
naturally bestows on the good. He announced that the escort had arrived
to convey them to Lucca; Euthanasia bowed her head in acquiescence; and,
supporting Lauretta, with an unfaltering step she left for the last time
the castle of her ancestors; she supported her friend with one hand, and
with the other folded her veil close to her face, that no rudely curious
eye might read in its expression the sorrow that she felt in her heart.
"My grief is my own," she thought; "the only treasure that remains to
me; and I will hoard it with more jealousy from the sight and knowledge
of others, than a miser does his gold."

She walked unhesitating through the hall, long the seat of her purest
happiness. Her infant feet had trodden its pavement in unreproved
gaiety; and she thought for a moment that she saw the venerable form of
her father seated in his accustomed place. But she proudly shook the
softening emotion from her, and looked with a tearless eye upon the
hearth, round which the soldiers of her enemy stood, profaning its
sacredness by their presence. The inner court of the castle was filled
by a number of women and children, the wives of the peasantry who
depended on her, who, as they saw her advance, raised one cry of grief;
she started, and said in a smothered voice, "Could I not have been
spared this?"

"Impossible," replied Castiglione, who overheard her; "nothing but the
most brutal force could have prevented them."

"Enough," said Euthanasia; "I am satisfied."

The women clung about her, kissing her hands, her garments, and throwing
themselves on their knees with all the violent gesticulation of
Italians. They tore their hair, and called on heaven to save and bless
their mistress, and to avenge her wrongs;--"God bless you, good people!"
cried their countess; "may you never be reminded of my loss by any
misfortune that may befal yourselves!"

And, disengaging herself from their grasp, she walked on, while they
followed crying and bewailing. She crossed the drawbridge, which was
guarded at each end by soldiers; ere she put her foot on the opposite
rock, Euthanasia paused for one moment; it seemed to her that all was
irretrievably lost, when once she had passed the barrier which this
bridge placed between her past and future life; she glanced back once
more at the castle, and looked up to the window of her apartment; she
had expected to find it desert and blank; but it was filled with
soldiers, who stood looking from it on her departure; she sighed deeply,
and then with quicker steps hastened down the mountain.

The idea that this path had been the scene of the morning's combat
affrighted her; and she dared not look round, fearing that she might see
some lifeless victim among the bushes and rocks on the road-side: and so
it might easily have been; for, when Castiglione had ordered the road to
be cleared of the dead, many had been cast behind the projections of
rock, or under the low wood, in their haste; and, as they passed, the
vulture arose from among the grass, scared from his prey, and told too
truly that he feasted upon limbs which that same morning had been
endowed with life. The very path on which she trod was slippery with
blood; and she felt as if she walked through one of the circles of
hell's torments[10], until she reached the foot of the rock.

Lauretta was placed in a litter; Euthanasia mounted her horse; and they
prepared to depart: but the women again raising a cry, threw themselves
about the horse, seizing the reins, and vowing that she should not leave
them. "God bless you!" cried the poor countess, who, although filled
with her own grief, yet sympathized with these good people; "but now go;
you may harm yourselves with your new master; you can do no good to me."

The soldiers interfered; and, opening the path before Euthanasia, she
gave the reins to her horse, and rode with speed out of the hearing of
the cry, which her people again sent up, when they saw that she had
indeed left them. She had outridden the rest of her party; and, finding
herself alone, she drew up her palfrey to wait their arrival. She looked
upon the castle, no longer hers; a few quick drops fell; she dried them
again; and, seeing her escort approach, she turned her horse's head,
and, without a word, proceeded slowly on her way to Lucca.

The city-gates were shut; but, on the word being given by her escort,
they were thrown open, and she entered the dark and narrow streets of
the town. "My prison!" thought Euthanasia. Here the company divided:
Lauretta, at her own request, was conveyed to the house of the mother of
Leodino; and Euthanasia was led to the palace prepared for her
reception. She took no notice of the streets through which she passed,
and cared little whether they conducted her to a palace or a prison;
indeed during the latter part of her ride, her strength both of mind and
body so much forsook her, that she could hardly keep her seat on her
horse, but rode like a veiled statue of despair.

Euthanasia was led to her chamber; her attendants came to her, but she
dismissed them all; and, her mind confused, her spirits and strength
quite exhausted by long watching during several of the preceding nights,
and by the exciting circumstances of the day, she threw herself dressed
as she was on a couch, and, kindly nature coming to her aid, sank
instantaneously into a heavy and dreamless sleep.

Day was far advanced, before she again awoke, and looked forth on the
light, with a sentiment, as if the slight refreshment of spirit and
strength she had received, were but a mockery of the sad weight that
oppressed her heart. She lifted her heavy head, like a water lily whose
cup is filled by a thunder shower: but, presently recalling her
scattered faculties, she sat for some time in deep meditation,
endeavouring to philosophize herself out of the unhappiness that she
felt. The palace to which she had been conducted, was a large and
magnificent one, near the outskirts of the town: it had belonged to one
of the victims of Castruccio's despotism, and had the desolate and
woe-begone appearance of a mansion which has lost its master. From the
chamber where she sat, she looked upon the garden; a square plot of
ground surrounded by four high walls, which had been planted in the
Italian taste, but which now ran wild; the small flower-beds were
overgrown with weeds, and the grass, a rude commoner, had thrust itself
into the untrod paths; the stone-pedestals for the lemon-pots were green
with moss and lichens; and here and there the wind-borne seed of some
delicate plant had sown a lovely flower in the midst of the moist,
coarse herbage which could ill claim its fellowship. A few cypress and
box trees, which had been cut into shape, now mocked the gardener's
knife with the unpruned growth of three years; and ivy darkened the
walls side by side with the orange trees, whose golden apples shone
amidst the dark foliage. A few lizards had crept from beneath the stones
to bask in the rays of the autumnal sun; and the frogs croaked in a
reservoir or cistern, which had once played as a fountain, but which was
now choked with weeds and dirt. Such was the desolate scene which
arrested the eyes of Euthanasia, as she looked from her window. "The
image of my fortunes;" she thought, and turned away, while a tear flowed
down her cheek.

Her servant now entered; and, while she arranged her dress, the woman
related the catastrophe of the siege. When the soldiers of Castruccio
had appeared behind her defenders coming down from the castle, they
threw themselves first on those who guarded the bridge, and took
Bondelmonti and the principal Florentines prisoners: but the dependents
of the countess, transported with fury, and elevated by the promises
which Bindo had held out of success, rushed out of their hiding-places,
and charging those at the foot of the rock, drove them with desperate
courage down the mountain path, unmindful of the enemies who pressed
upon their rear. The battle was bloody; many fell on each side; the
small troop of Valpergans were destroyed almost to a man, falling
voluntary sacrifices for their mistress's preservation. A few were taken
prisoners, and among them Bindo, who almost miraculously had escaped
unwounded. But, if he were not wounded in body, his mind was almost
frenzied with rage and disappointment, when he saw the Lucchese flag
wave from the donjon of the castle; he tried to break from those who
held him, and, weak as he appeared to be, he exerted such desperate
strength, using both hands, feet, and teeth, that the soldiers found it
necessary to bind him.--As they fastened the cords, Castiglione came up:
he remembered the Albinois; and, asking why it was that he was used so
roughly, he ordered them to set him free. As soon as his bonds were
loosened, without speaking or looking round, he darted off; and, running
across the country as swiftly as a deer from the hounds, was quickly out
of sight.

Euthanasia wept when she heard of the blood that had been spilt for her;
and self-reproach, who is ever ready to thrust in his sharp sting, if he
find that mailed conscience has one weak part, now tormented her that
she had not yielded, before one human life had been lost in so unhappy a
cause. "Do not evil that good may come," thought she. "Are not those the
words of the Teacher? I have done infinite evil, in spilling that blood
whose each precious drop was of more worth than the jewels of a kingly
crown; but my evil has borne its fitting fruit; its root in death, its
produce poison."

In the course of the day, Arrigo Guinigi came to visit her. He came with
a message from Castruccio, who intreated her to remain quietly in the
palace provided for her, until he should return to Lucca, which would be
in a few days, when he would learn from her own lips what her wishes
were with regard to her future life. Arrigo said all this with downcast
eyes and a heaving breast, hardly daring to speak, and much less raise
his eyes upon the countess; who replied that she would obey; that she
had much rather not see the prince; but that if he commanded it, she was
ready to submit. "You see me, my dear Arrigo, a prisoner, despoiled of
my possessions, a slave to your lord's will. Yet I hope and trust, that
these events would not have created the deep sorrow with which I feel
that my soul is filled, did not bitter sentiments of lost affections,
disappointed expectations, and utter hopelessness, fill up the measure
of my infelicity. My good youth, we are born to misery; so our priests
tell us, and there is more sooth in that lesson, than in early youth we
are willing to believe; yet fortitude is the virtue with which my father
endeavoured principally to imbue me, and I would fain not disgrace his
counsels; but indeed a poisoned barb has entered my heart, and I cannot
draw it out."

Arrigo endeavoured to comfort her.--"Your state is far from hopeless;
the prince has promised, and intends to keep his promise, that your
revenues shall not be injured by the loss of your castle. At Florence
you will be surrounded by friends, and every luxury and pleasure of
life; and there you may again be happy."

Autumn was now far advanced, and the rains came on. The Florentine and
Lucchese armies, which had remained looking at each other from opposite
sides of the river, were now further divided by the overflowing of its
waters; so each retreated to their several towns, and the campaign of
that year ended. Castruccio returned to Lucca. His first concern was a
long and private conversation with Castiglione; and immediately after he
dispatched Arrigo to prepare Euthanasia for a conference.

Poor girl! her heart beat, and the blood mounted to her before pale
cheeks, when she heard that she was to see him whom she had loved, and
to whose memory, as of what had been, she clung with tenacious
affection. It was a cruel task for her to behold his form, graceful as
it had been when she gazed on it in happier days, and his countenance,
which, but that more pride were mingled in the expression, was as
gloriously beautiful, as when it beamed love upon her; and more than
all, to hear his voice, whose soft and mellow cadences had wrapt her
soul in Elysium, now to be heard as the voice of an alien. But
indignation mingled itself with these feelings, and enabled her to
support the coming trial with greater courage; so, calling up all of
pride with which her delicacy might arm her, and all of fortitude which
her philosophy had taught, she awaited with patience the expected
moment.

She sat on a low sopha; her dress was dark; the vest, formed of purple
silk, and fastened at her waist by a silken cord, fell in large folds to
her feet; a cloak of sables hung on her shoulder; and her golden hair,
partly clustered on her neck, and partly confined by a ribbon, covered
with its ringlets her fair brow. When she heard the step of Castruccio
approaching, she became pale; her very lips lost their colour; and her
serious eyes, shorn of their beams, were as the deep azure of midnight,
where the stars shine not. He entered. When he had seen her last, he had
been haughty and imperious; but now his manner was all softness,
gentleness and humility; so that, when he spoke, in spite of the high
nobility of her spirit, her eyes were weighed down by the unshed tears.

"Countess," he said, "pardon me, if my intrusion upon you appear
ungenerous; but persons, that, like myself, are occupied in the affairs
of government, are apt to leave too much to underlings, who never do or
say that which it were exactly right to have said or done. Your future
peace is too dear to me, to permit me to hear from any but yourself what
are your wishes and your expectations."

He paused, waiting for an answer, and fixed on her his soft and full
eyes, which seemed to read her soul, while a gentle smile of compassion
and love played on his lips. After collecting her thoughts, she raised
her eyes to reply, and met those of her former lover, whose expression
seemed fraught with all that affection he had once vowed to her. She was
unable to speak; but then, angry at her own weakness, she rallied her
spirits, and replied,--"I have but one favour to intreat, which is your
permission to remove instantly to Florence."

"Your wishes in this respect, Madonna, are commands; yet I could have
desired that you would consent to stay awhile in Lucca. I know the
judgement that you have formed of me; you look on me as a wild beast
ravenous for blood, as a lawless monster, despoiled of all the feelings
of humanity. I could have desired that you would stay awhile, to find
and to avow your injustice; I could wish you to stay, until the deep
respect, and if you will permit the word, the love I feel for you,
should make such impression on your heart, that you would allow me to
assuage those sorrows of which I have unhappily been the cause."

"My lord, do not speak thus to me," replied Euthanasia, with a voice
which at first trembled, but which gained firmness as she continued; "We
are divided; there is an eternal barrier between us now, sealed by the
blood of those miserable people who fell for me. I cannot, I do not love
you; and, if a most frivolous and reprehensible weakness could make me
listen now, the ghosts of the slain would arise to divide us. My lord, I
cannot reason with you, I can hardly speak; the blood of the
slaughtered, the tears of the survivors, the scathed ruins of my castle,
are all answers, louder than words, to your present offers. If these
have been your acts of courtship, pardon me if I say, that I had rather
woo the lion in his den to be my husband, than become the bride of a
conqueror. But this is useless cavilling, painful to both of us; it
awakens in me the indignation I would fain repress; and it may kindle
resentment in your heart, which is already too apt to be inflamed with
that sentiment. You came, you say, to learn my wishes; you have now
heard them; let us part; we part in that peace every Christian believer
owes to his brother; I forgive you from my inmost heart; do not you hate
me; and thus farewel."

"You forgive me, Euthanasia? Is then your soul so pure? me, who indeed
have grievously wronged you; and, however necessary my actions have
been, yet have they been destructive to you. But, if indeed you forgive
me, and part in Christian amity, allow me once more to take your hand,
that I may know that it is not a mere form of words, but that you
express a feeling of the heart."

Euthanasia held out her hand, which he took in both his, and holding it
thus, he said: "Hear me, my loved girl; you whom alone in the world I
have ever loved. You despise, repulse, and almost hate me; and yet, God
knows, I still cherish you as tenderly, as when we told each other's
love-tale first in yonder unhappy castle. I do not ask you to love me,
you cannot;--but you are still young, very young, Euthanasia; and
fortune yet may have many changes in store for you. Remember, that,
through them all, I am your friend; and if ever in any misery you want a
protector, one to save and preserve you, Castruccio, the neglected,
mistaken, but most faithful Castruccio, will ever be ready to use his
arm and his power in your service. Now, Euthanasia, farewel."

"Oh God!" cried the unhappy girl, moved to her inmost heart, "could you
not have spared me this? leave me; farewel for ever!"

He kissed her hand, and left her; while she, her delicate frame yielding
under the many emotions she experienced, sank almost lifeless on the
couch. She had suffered much, and borne up through all. But this last
interview overcame her: her health, which had been weakened by watching,
and agitation, and tears, now entirely gave way. A fever
followed,--delirium, and utter deprivation of strength. The disease
seemed to feed on her very vitals; and death already tainted her cheek
with his fingers. But youth, and a constitution, nourished and
strengthened among mountains, and healthful exertions of body and mind,
saved her; and, after a confinement of several months, she again crept
forth, to see the sun of spring smile on his children, who laughingly
welcomed his genial beams.

Where during this time was the prophetess of Ferrara?


[Footnote 10: See Dante.]




END OF VOLUME II.

VALPERGA:

OR, THE
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
OF
CASTRUCCIO,
PRINCE OF LUCCA.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "FRANKENSTEIN."

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR G. AND W. B. WHITTAKER,
AVE-MARIA-LANE.

1823




CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
_The Witch of the Forest._

CHAPTER II
_Beatrice in the Inquisition at Lucca.--Freed
by Castruccio, at the Intercession of Euthanasia._

CHAPTER III
_Beatrice, her Creed, and her Love._

CHAPTER IV
_Beatrice's Narrative._

CHAPTER V
_Beatrice resolves to take the Veil.--Euthanasia
visits Florence._

CHAPTER VI
_Beatrice meets Tripalda--is led by Bindo to
the Witch's Cave._

CHAPTER VII
_Euthanasia returns.--Beatrice meets the witch,
and encounters Castruccio and Tripalda.--Dies._

CHAPTER VIII
_Castruccio's Progress in Arms.--He brings
Devastation to the Gates of Florence.--A
Conspiracy formed against him._

CHAPTER IX
_Euthanasia joins the Conspiracy.--Tripalda
a Member._

CHAPTER X
_Euthanasia removes to Lucca.--Conference
with Tripalda.--Tripalda turns Informer._

CHAPTER XI
_Euthanasia in Prison._

CHAPTER XII
_Euthanasia sails for Sicily, and is lost._

CONCLUSION




VALPERGA




CHAPTER I


_The Witch of the Forest._


When Bindo had been released by the command of Castiglione from the
hands of the Lucchese soldiers, he fled across the country; and,
possessed with horror and despair at the issue of all his predictions,
hastened to the only human being to whom he ever spoke his real
sentiments, or in whom he placed any confidence.

To the north of Lucca, where the mountains rise highest, and the country
is most wild, there was, at the period those people lived concerning
whom I write, an immense ilex wood, which covered the Apennines, and was
lost to sight in the grey distance, and among the folds and declivities
of the hills. In this forest there lived a witch; she inhabited a
cottage built partly of the trunks of trees, partly of stones, and
partly was inclosed by the side of the mountain against which it leaned.
This hut was very old; that part of it which was built of stone was
covered with moss, lichens and wall-flowers, whose beauty and scent
appeared alien to the gloom around; but, amidst desolation and horror,
Nature loves to place the lovely and excellent, that man, viewing the
scene, may not forget that she, the Mother, dwells every where. The
trees were covered with ivy, many of them hollow and decaying, while
around them the new sprouts arose, and refreshed the eye with an
appearance of youth. On a stone near the cabin door sat the witch; she
was very old; none knew how old: men, verging on decrepitude, remembered
their childish fears of her; and they all agreed that formerly she
appeared more aged and decrepid than now. She was bent nearly double;
there was no flesh on her bones; and the brown and wrinkled skin hung
loosely about her cheeks and arms. She was short, thin and small; her
hair was perfectly white, and her red eyes, the only part about her that
appeared to have life, glared within their sunken sockets; her voice was
cracked and shrill.

"Well, son," said she, when she saw Bindo arrive, "What news? Are thine,
or my predictions most true?"

Bindo threw himself on the ground, and tore his hair with rage, but he
answered not a word.

"You would not believe my words," continued she, with a malicious laugh;
"but the stars are not truer to their course, than I to fate; tomorrow
not one stone will lie upon another of the castle of Valperga."

"This must not be," cried Bindo, starting up furiously; "it shall not
be! Are you not a witch? and if you have sold your soul to the devil,
will he not obey your will?"

"I sold my soul to the devil!" she replied in a tone, which bordered on
a scream; "I tell thee, thou wert happy, if thy soul were as certain to
be saved as mine. I rule the spirits, and do not serve them; what can
angels do more? But one thing I cannot do; I cannot impede the star of
Castruccio: that must rise."

"Aye,--you are all alike;--you can lame cattle, strangle fowls, and milk
cows; but, when power is wanted, you are as weak as this straw. Come, if
you are a witch, act as one."

"What would you that I should do? I can cover the sky with clouds; I can
conjure rain and thunder from the blue empyrean; the Serchio will obey
me; the winds from the north and the south know my call; the mines of
the earth are subject to me, I can call the dead from their graves, and
command the spirits of air to obey me. The fortunes of men are known to
me; but man himself is not to be ruled, unless he consent to obey.
Castruccio is set above men; his star is highest in the sky, and the
aspect of the vast heaven favours him; I can do nothing with him."

"Then farewel; and may the curses of hell cling to you, and blight you!
I want no conjuror's tricks,--but man shall do for me what the devil
cannot."

"Stay, son," cried the witch; "now you say right; now you are
reasonable. Though the star of Castruccio be high, it will fall at last,
burst and fall like a dead stick upon the ground. Be it for us to hasten
this moment; man may help you, and be that your task; watch all that
happens, and tell me all; let no act or word escape your notice; and
something will happen which I may wind to my purpose. We have both vowed
to pursue the prince of Lucca to the death. There are no means now; but
some will arise, and we shall triumph. Keep in mind one thing; do not
let your mistress depart. I know that she desires to go to Florence; she
must remain at Lucca, until the destined time be fulfilled; be it your
task to keep her."

"I do not like these slow measures," replied the Albinois sullenly;
"and, methinks, his waxen image at the fire, or his heart stuck full of
pins, might soon rid the earth of him; surely if curses might kill a
man, he were dead; tell me in truth is he not a fiend? Is he not one of
the spirits of the damned housed in flesh to torment us?"

"Seek not to enquire into the mysteries of our art. You tell your
wishes; I direct their accomplishment;--obey--you can do no more. When
death, the mower, is in the field, few plants are tough enough to turn
the edge of his scythe: yet Castruccio is one of these few; and patience
and prudence alone can effect his fall. Watch every thing; report all to
me; and beware that the countess leaves not Lucca; our power is gone,
when she goes."

Such was the scene that immediately followed the destruction of the
castle of Valperga. Bindo had hitherto loved his mistress, with an
affection whose energy had never been called into action; but he loved
her, as the lioness in the desert loves her whelps, who day by day feeds
them in peace, but, when aroused by the hunters, will defend them to the
last drop of her blood. He loved her, as we all love, and know not how
fervently, until events awake our love to the expression of its energy.
He had seldom thought upon Castruccio; when he came frequently to
Valperga, and he saw his mistress happy in his visits, then these visits
also made the Albinois joyful; yet he sympathized too little in the
course of daily life, to disapprove of him when he came no more: but,
when he sought to injure the sole being whom Bindo loved and reverenced,
then a hidden spring suddenly burst forth in the Albinois' mind; and
hate, till then unknown, arose, and filled every conduit of his heart,
and, mingling its gall with the waters of love, became the first
feeling, the prime mover in his soul.

He had long associated with this witch. He felt his defects in bodily
prowess; perhaps also he felt the weakness of his reason; and therefore
he sought for powers of art, which might overcome strength, and powers
of mind, which were denied to the majority of the human species. Bindo
was a very favourable subject for the witch to act upon; she deceived
him easily, and through his means spread far the fame of her
incantations. What made these women pretend to powers they did not
possess, incur the greatest perils for the sake of being believed to be
what they were not, without any apparent advantage accruing to
themselves from this belief? I believe we may find the answer in our own
hearts: the love of power is inherent in human nature; and, in evil
natures, to be feared is a kind of power. The witch of the Lucchese
forest was much feared; and no one contributed to the spread of this
feeling more than Bindo.

She had no interest to preserve Euthanasia, or to destroy Castruccio;
but she must feign these feelings in order to preserve her power over
the Albinois. She resolved however not to be drawn into any action which
might attract the hatred of the prince; for she knew him indeed to be a
man out of her sphere, a man who went to mass, and told his beads as the
church directed him, and who would have no hesitation in consigning to
what he would call, condign punishment, all such as dealt with evil
spirits, infernal drugs, and diabolical craft.

Bindo saw nothing of the motives which actuated her; and he really
believed that the star of Castruccio had the ascendant: so after the
first ebullitions of despair were calmed, he waited, with the patience
of cherished hate, for the events which the witch told him might in the
course of time bring about the sequel he so much desired.

He had made calculations, and cast lots upon the fate of Valperga, whose
results were contrary to the enunciations of the witch. These had proved
false; and, when time had calmed his feelings, this disappointment
itself made him cling more readily to the distant, but as he hoped,
surer promises of the witch, and build upon her words the certain
expectation of the overthrow of Castruccio, and the restoration of
Valperga in more than its original splendour. He returned to Euthanasia,
and watched by her sick chamber, as the savage mother of a wild brood
tends upon her expiring young; the fear of losing her by this sickness,
at once exasperated him against the man whom he believed to be the cause
of the mischief, and by the mightiness of his fear filled him with that
calm which is the consummation of wretchedness. He neither ate nor
slept; his existence appeared a miracle. But his mistress recovered; and
his exhausted frame was now as much shaken with joy, as before with
grief; yet, pale, emaciated, trembling as it were on the edge of life,
but still living, he survived all these changes.

The summer advanced; and still Euthanasia remained at Lucca. A number of
slight circumstances caused this: her health was yet weak; and her pale
cheek and beamless eye shewed that life hardly sat firm upon his throne
within her frame; they were menaced with a peculiarly hot season, and it
was scarcely judged right that she should expose herself to the
excessive heat of a Florentine summer. Lauretta also, her cousin,
promised to accompany her, if she would delay her journey until autumn;
so she consented to remain, although in truth she felt Lucca to be to
her as a narrow prison, and cherished the hope of finding healthful
feelings, and some slight return of happiness, at Florence. Yet the
joyless state which was now her portion, was one reason why she cared
not to change; it bred within her an indolence of feeling, that loved to
feed upon old cares, rather than upon new hopes. A sense of duty, rather
than any other sentiment, made her wish to remove; she believed, that
she owed it to herself to revive from the kind of moral death she had
endured, and to begin as it were a fresh life with new expectations. But
we are all such creatures of habit, that we cling rather to sorrows
which have been our companions of old, than to a new-sprung race of
pleasures, whose very names perhaps are unknown to us.

Euthanasia loved to sit in the desolate garden of her palace, and to
moralize in her own mind, when she saw a tender rose embraced and choked
by evil weeds that grew in strength about it; or sometimes to visit the
tower of her palace, and to look towards the rock where the castle of
Valperga had once stood, now a heap of ruins. Could she endure to look
upon the formless mass which had before constituted her shelter and
home? where had stood the hall within whose atmosphere she had grown to
womanhood; where she had experienced all the joys that her imagination
and heart (storehouses of countless treasure) could bestow? Yet that was
all gone, and she must begin life anew: she prayed for her father's
spirit to inspire her with courage; but her mind was too subtle and
delicate in its feelings, to forget its antient attachments. There are
some souls, bright and precious, which, like gold and silver, may be
subdued by the fiery trial, and yield to new moulds; but there are
others, pure and solid as the diamond, which may be shivered to pieces,
yet in every fragment retain their indelible characteristics.

"I can never change," she thought, "never become other than I am. And
yet I am told that this obstinate sorrow is weakness, and that the wise
and good, like strong plants, shoot up with fresh vigour, when cut down
even to the root. It may be so; and so it may perhaps be with me: but as
yet I feel all dead, except pain, and that dwells for ever within me.
Alas! life, and the little it contains, is not worth the misery I
endure; its best joys are fleeting shadows; its griefs ought to be the
same; and those are true philosophers, who trample on both, and seek in
the grave for a wisdom and happiness, which life cannot bring us.

"Why was I born to feel sorrow? Why do I not die, that pain may expire
with me? And yet I now speak as a presumptuous caviller, unread in the
lessons of the wise, and who vainly blunders over and misquotes their
best learning. Life has more in it than we think; it is all that we
have, all that we know.

"Life is all our knowledge, and our highest praise is to have lived
well. If we had never lived, we should know nothing of earth, or sky, or
God, or man, or delight, or sorrow. When our Creator bestowed on us this
gift, he gave us that which is beyond all words precious; for without it
our apparent forms would have been a blind atom in the mass, our souls
would never have been. We live; and we learn all that is good, and see
all that is beautiful; our will is called into action, our minds expand
like flowers, till, overworn, they fade; if we did not live, we should
know nothing of all this; and if we do not live well, we reap sorrow
alone.

"What do we know of heroes and sages, but that they lived? Let us not
spurn therefore this sum and summit of our knowledge, but, cherishing
it, make it so appear that we value, and in some degree deserve, the
gift of life, and the many wonders that accompany it."

Euthanasia suffered much during the summer months; and all that she
heard of Castruccio turned the fount of wholesome tears to drops of
agony. He had in truth become a tyrant. He did not slay his thousands
like Ezzelin of Padua; but he had received the graft of vain-glory into
his soul, and he now bore the fruits. He put to death remorselessly
those whom he suspected, and would even use torture, either to discover
other victims, or to satisfy his desire of revenge. Several
circumstances of this kind happened during this summer, which made
Euthanasia more miserable than words or tears could express. If she saw
his enemies, they uttered deep curses on his cruelty; if she saw those
who had formerly been his friends, their talk was filled with bitter
sarcasms on his ingratitude, and careless coldness of heart. That heart
had once been the garden of virtue, where all good qualities sprung up
and flourished, like odorous and delicately painted flowers; but now
ambition had become its gardener, and the weed-overgrown inclosure of
Euthanasia's palace was but a slight symbol of all of cruel and
treacherous that sprung up there, which allowed no rose to blow, and hid
the blooms of the jessamine in the coarse and broad leaves of worthless
brambles. Sometimes she thanked Providence that she had not become the
wife of this man: but it was a bitter thankfulness. She had not been
wedded to him by the church's rites; but her soul, her thoughts, her
fate, had been married to his; she tried to loosen the chain that bound
them eternally together, and felt that the effort was fruitless: if he
were evil, she must weep; if his light-hearted selfishness allowed no
room for remorse in his own breast, humiliation and sorrow was doubly
her portion, and this was her destiny for ever.

His military exploits of this year rather consisted in the slow laying
of foundation-stones, than were distinguished by any peculiar glory. The
Florentine army retreated in trepidation before him; he took several
castles, made several new alliances, and consolidated more and more the
power which he hoped one day to put to a mighty purpose. Desire of
dominion and lordship was the only passion that now had much power in
his soul; he had forgotten Euthanasia; or if he remembered her, he
called her a peevish girl, and wasted no further thought upon her.

The summer had been tremendously hot; and all the fields were parched,
and the earth baked and cracked from the long drouth. These were all
signs of a wet autumn; and hardly had Euthanasia determined on her
journey to Florence, before it was stopped by tremendous rains and
tempests, that deluged the earth, and disturbed the sky. The lightning
became as a shaft in the hands of an experienced warrior; so true it
seemed to its aim, and destroying so many with its subtle fire: and the
thunder, reverberating along the hills, sent up to heaven the shout,
which proclaimed the triumph and desolation of its precursor. Then came
the rain; and the earth gladly received these tokens of heaven's love,
which blessed her with fertility. The torrents roared down the hills;
and the rivers, no longer restrained within their banks, rose, and
deluged the plain, filling even the streets of Lucca with water.

Bindo looked on all this labour of the elements with a mind hovering
between pleasure and fear. He believed that the witch of the forest had
caused this inundation, to impede the journey of the countess; but,
thinking thus, he trembled at the power she possessed, and at the
strange company of unseen spirits, which thus, unknown to mortals,
interfere with their destinies. The devil, he knew, was called prince of
the air; but there is a wide difference between our belief of an
hearsay, and the _proof_ which he now thought was presented to him. When
he repaired at the mysterious hour of midnight to a running stream, and
saw, as the witch uttered her incantations, and lashed the waters with
her rod,--that a tempestuous wind arose from the south, and the dark
clouds among which the lightnings played, advanced over their heads, and
then the rain in quick big drops, accompanied by hail, fell on the
earth;--when he saw this, his limbs trembled, his heart beat quick with
fear; he dared not cross himself, nor mutter a _pater-noster_; and, if
love and hate had not possessed him so entirely, he would never have
ventured again to witness the magical powers of his friend.

A cold and early winter followed the flood, and froze the waters before
they retreated from the inundated fields. For many years so terrible a
season had not been known in Italy and, in the Lucchese states
particularly, it occasioned a great loss of fruit-trees and vines. The
mountains were covered with snow; the torrents were arrested in their
course by the subtle nets which winter cast over them; it was a strange
sight for an Italian to see. "And this," thought Euthanasia, "is what
the Trans-alpines mean, when they talk of the fearful cold of winter.
Oh! indeed, no hunter is like him, when he comes down from the north,
bringing frost, his bride, along with him; he hunts the leaves from the
trees, and destroys the animals which inhabit the earth, even in their
holds and fastnesses. He casts bonds upon the rivers and streams; and
even the 'sapless foliage of the ocean,' and the mighty monsters and
numberless spawn that rove through its wastes, are all subdued by his
fierce and resistless ravages."

Thus she thought, as she saw the country late so beautiful, the Earth,
lovely as a young mother nursing her only care, now as wild and forlorn
as that mother if she be ruthlessly bereft of her infant. The fields
were hardened by frost; and the flood lay moveless and white over the
plain; the hills were covered with snow. It was a grievous change from
the smiles of summer; but it did not last long; and thaw quickly
reversed the scene. The earth was again alive; and the rivers and floods
again filled the air with sound. Euthanasia resolved to wait only until
the season should be somewhat more advanced, to make her long delayed
journey to Florence.




CHAPTER II


_Beatrice in the Inquisition at Lucca.--Freed
by Castruccio, at the Intercession of Euthanasia._


While Euthanasia yet remained at Lucca in this uncertain manner, a
circumstance occurred which caused her to suspend the preparations for
her journey. Late one night (it was nearly twelve o'clock), the visit of
a stranger was announced; a man, they said, so wrapt up in his capuchin,
that his physiognomy could not be distinguished. Why did Euthanasia's
heart beat fast, and the colour desert her warm lips? What could she
hope or fear? The man was admitted, and one glance sufficed to satisfy
her curiosity, and to quiet her trembling expectation. He was one of the
meaner class; and, when he threw back his cloak, Euthanasia perceived
that he was an entire stranger to her; but there was a kindness, a rough
sensibility in his face, that pleased her, and she gently enquired what
he had to say to her.

"Noble countess, I come on a work of charity, which would ruin me for
ever if my superiors were to discover it. I am the jailor of the
Lucchese prison; and this morning the Dominican inquisitors put under my
custody a Paterin woman[1], whom it would move any soul but theirs to
behold. She has touched me with the greatest pity by her tears and
heart-breaking intreaties: she denies her heresy, and says that you can
prove her faith; but she must see you first; and I, at peril of all that
I am worth, am come to conduct you to her dungeon, for I can admit you
only by night. Surely you will come; poor thing, she is very young and
fearful, and is now lying on the floor of her prison panting with terror
and expectation."

"Unfortunate creature! Did she tell you her name?"

"She says that you do not know it; but she intreats you to remember a
pilgrim girl, whom you once received at your castle, and whom you
pitied; a sun-burnt, way-worn creature who said that she was on the way
to Rome."

"I do not recollect; but if she is unhappy, and desires to see me, it is
enough, I follow you."

Euthanasia wrapt her capuchin around her, and followed the man through
the dark, wet streets of Lucca: the thaw had not yet completed its work;
the snow was deep and miry under their feet; while the melting
collections of several days dripped, or rather streamed from the
house-roofs on their heads: the Libeccio blew a warm, cloud-bringing
wind, that made the night so black, that they could not avoid the
standing pools that interspersed the streets. At length they arrived at
the prison; the jailor entered by a small, low door which he carefully
closed after them, and then struck a light. He led Euthanasia through
the bare and mildewed vaults, sometimes unlocking a massy gate, drawing
back the harsh bolts which grated with rust and damp; sometimes they
emerged into a passage open to the sky, but narrow, with tall black
walls about it, which dropt their melted snow with a continual and
sullen splash upon the pavement: small, glassless, grated windows looked
into these strait passages; these were the holes that admitted light
into the dungeons. At length they ascended a small, broken, staircase of
wood; and, opening a door at the head of it, and consigning his lamp to
the countess, the jailor said: "She is here; comfort her; in two hours I
shall come to conduct you back."

Euthanasia entered the prison-chamber, awe-stricken and trembling; for
the good ever feel humiliated at the sight of misfortune in others: the
poor prisoner was seated crouched in a corner; she looked wildly towards
the door; and, seeing Euthanasia, she leaped up, and, throwing herself
at her feet, clinging to her knees, and clasping them with convulsive
strength, she cried, "Save me! You alone on earth can save me."

Poor Euthanasia was moved to tears; she raised the sufferer, and, taking
her in her arms, tried to soothe her: the prisoner only sobbed, leaning
her head upon Euthanasia's hand: "Fear not, you shall be saved; poor
sufferer, calm yourself; speak, what would you with me? fear not, no
harm shall reach you; I will be your friend."

"Will you indeed--indeed--be my friend? and go to him, and bid him save
me? He alone can do it."

"Who? Speak calmly, dearest; pause awhile; reassure yourself, and then
speak. Look, you are safe in my arms; I clasp them round you, do not
fear!"

The prisoner sunk in Euthanasia's embrace: she was chilled,
icy-cold;--and she lay panting, as a bleeding fawn who gazes on its
death's wound. The warmth of Euthanasia's arms somewhat restored her;
and she said, dividing the entangled strings of her hair with her thin
fingers; "You do not remember me, nor would he; I am as unlike what I
was when he saw me, as is the yellow, fallen leaf to the bright-green
foliage of May. You do not remember me?"

"Yes, now it flashes on my memory; are you then indeed----" Euthanasia
paused; the name of Beatrice hovered on her lips, but a feeling of
delicacy prevented her from speaking it: she continued; "Yes, I
recollect the pilgrim, your refusal to remain at Valperga, and the deep
interest I took in your sorrows."

"You were very, very kind; are you not so now? Will you not go to him,
and ask him to order my release?"

"To whom am I to go? and from whom do I come?" asked Euthanasia,
half-smiling; for, notwithstanding the prisoner recalled to her memory a
scene, which made it appear that she was certainly Beatrice; yet so long
had all trace of her been lost, that she wished for some confirmation
from her own lips.

"Alas!" replied the unhappy girl, "I would not have him know, if I could
help it. Do you think that, if you were to tell him that a poor girl,
who five years ago had just attained her seventeenth year, who was then
happy, loving and adored,--who is now pursued for heresy--falsely--or if
you will--truly; one very unfortunate, who earnestly implores him as he
loves his own soul, to save her; do you not think he would compassionate
me?"

"Who? you speak in riddles."

"In riddles! Are you not Euthanasia? You must know whom I mean; why,
Antelminelli,--Castruccio."

The prisoner hid her face with her hands. She blushed deeply, and her
fast-falling tears trickled through her fingers; Euthanasia blushed
also, a tremulous hectic, that quickly vanished, while her companion's
cheeks still burned.

"Yes, I will go to him, or to any one on earth to save you.--Yet
methinks I had better go to the father-inquisitors; I am known to them,
and I think I could as easily move them as the prince; he is
careless----"

"Oh! no--no; you must go to him: he knew me once, and surely would
compassionate me. Try him first with the echo of my complaints, and a
relation of my tears; surely his eyes, which can look into the soul,
would then be dimmed: would they not?"

Euthanasia thought of Leodino; and she was about to reply, that
warriors, politicians, and ambitious princes, such as Castruccio, were
accustomed to regard with contempt woes like hers. But she hesitated;
she would not rob him, whom she had once loved, of the smallest mite of
another's praise, however undeserved; besides, she felt that the name of
Beatrice alone would move him to compassion, perhaps to remorse. She was
therefore silent; and the prisoner continued, with a voice of trembling
earnestness, "Try every argument first; but, if he is obdurate, then
tell him that he once knew me,--that now my fortunes are changed,--he
will guess the cause: yet perhaps he will think wrong, for _that_ is not
the cause. Tell him I am one Beatrice;--he saw me some years ago at the
house of the good bishop of Ferrara."

The poor fallen prophetess now burst into a passion of weeping; she
wrung her hands, and tore her hair, while her companion looked on her,
unable to restrain her tears. Castruccio had described his Beatrice, so
bright, so ethereal in her loveliness, that it moved Euthanasia's inmost
soul to see what a change a very few years had made. Perceiving the
blushes and shame of the lost girl, she concealed her knowledge of her
tale, and answered only by endeavouring to soothe her, and to assure her
of her safety.

"Am I safe? I tell you that I fear, oh! how much I fear! I am very
young; I was once happy; but, since that, I have suffered beyond human
utterance; yet I dread death; and, more than all, do I fear pain. They
call me a heretic; aye," (and her dark eyes beamed fiercely) "I am one;
I do not belong to their maudlin creed; I feel my wrongs, and I dare
curse----But, hush, not so loud.--You pardon me, do you not? Alas! if
you turn against me, they seize on me, tear me, burn me!"

The two hours had swiftly passed, while Beatrice thus wept with
alternate passion. The jailor came to reconduct Euthanasia; but Beatrice
clung to her, clasping her neck, and intwining her fingers in her long
thick hair. "No! no! You must not go!" she cried; "I shall die, if I am
again left alone. Oh! before you came, I sometimes felt as if I did not
know where I was, and madness seemed about to fall on me: you are good,
consolatory, kind; you must not leave me."

"Then I cannot see the prince; I cannot intercede for your liberation."

"But that is many hours hence, and the comfortable day-light will be
come; now it is quite dark; hark to the splashing water, and the howling
of the Libeccio; I had forgotten all that; and now they come upon me
with ten-fold horror; do not leave me!"

Euthanasia could hardly distinguish the suppliant's features by the
light of the jailor's small lamp; but she saw her eyes bright with
tears, and felt her bosom throb against her own; again she strove to
console her; reason was thrown away;--when the jailor urged his, her
own, every one's safety--she shook her head.

"I thought you were kind; but you are not: my cheeks are pale with fear;
put up your lamp to them that you may see. She can go early, the moment
day dawns,--indeed she shall go then, but now she must not."

Euthanasia tore herself away; though her heart was pierced by the wild
shriek of Beatrice, as she threw herself on the floor. The jailor led
her through the melancholy passages of the prison, and then along the
wet streets, until she reached her home: and she retired to meditate
during the remaining hours of night on the words she should employ in
her representations to Castruccio the following morning.

The expectation of this meeting flushed her cheeks, and made her deep
eyes beam, while every limb trembled. She had not seen him so long that
his assumed power, his tyrannies, and mean politics, were lost in her
recollection; she felt as if she should again see him honest,
passion-breathing, and beautiful, as when they took sweet counsel
together at Valperga. Valperga! that was now a black and hideous ruin,
and he the author of its destruction. But she thought, "This is a
dream;--I shall see him, and it will vanish; there is a coil wound round
me of sorrow and distrust, which will snap beneath his smile, and free
me,--I shall see him!

"Why do I think of myself? I go to free this poor girl, whom he has
wronged, and to whom he belongs far more than to me; this unhappy
Beatrice, who sheds tears of agony in her dungeon. I am nothing; I go as
nothing; would that he should not recognize me! I go a suppliant for
another, and I must tame my looks: they are not proud; but I must teach
them humility; I must school my heart not to speak, not to think of
itself--I go for her; and, having obtained my request, I will come away,
forgetful that I am any thing."

Day dawned; day, cold, wet, and cloudy, but ever cheerful to one weighed
down by the sense of darkness and inaction: day did not dawn this dreary
winter morning, until seven o'clock, and the period had arrived when it
was fitting that Euthanasia should seek Castruccio. She threw a veil
over her shining hair, while she hid her form in a rich cloak of sables;
then she stole out alone; for she could not endure that any one should
know of this strange visit. When, she arrived at the _Palazzo del
Governo_, her rich attire and distinguished mien won her easy entrance,
and she penetrated to the cabinet of the prince.

Her heart beat audibly; she had entered with rapid, though light steps;
now she paused; and, as it were gathering up the straggling feelings of
her mind, she endeavoured to bind them in a firm knot; she resolved to
calm herself, to still the convulsive motion of her lips, to remember
nothing but Beatrice. She entered; Antelminelli was alone; he was at a
table reading a paper, and a smile of light derision played upon his
features; he raised on her his dark, piercing eyes, and seeing a lady
before him, he rose; in a moment Euthanasia was self-possessed and
resolved; and casting back her cloak, and throwing aside her veil, her
eyes lifted up, yet not fixed on him, she began in her silver voice to
say, "My lord, I come----"

But he was too much thunderstruck to listen; his cheeks glowed with
pleasure; all the anger and indifference he had nourished vanished in
her presence, and he broke forth in a torrent of wonder and thanks.

She waved her hand,--"Do not thank me, but listen; for I come on a
message, an errand of charity; and if you can, hear me, and forget who
it is that speaks."

He smiled, and replied: "Certainly it were easy not to see the sun when
it shines: but, whatever your errand may be, speak it not yet;--if you
come to make a request, I shall grant it instantly, and then you will
go; but pause awhile first, that I may look on you; it is a whole year
since I saw you last; you are changed, you are paler,--your eyes--but
you turn away from me, as if you were angry."

"I am not angry--but I am nothing.--There is a heretic, at least a girl
accused of heresy, confined in your prisons, whom I wish you to free,
and, for the love of Heaven, not by the shortest delay to add another
moment of sorrow to her heap: she has suffered much."

"A heretic! that is beyond my jurisdiction; I do not meddle with
religion."

"Yes, you do;--you see priests every day: but I intreat you not to
oblige me to argue with you; listen to me a few moments, and I shall say
no more. She is very unfortunate, and fears death and pain with a horror
that almost deprives her of reason; she is young; and it is piteous to
see one scarcely more than twenty years of age, under the fangs of these
bloodhounds; she was once happy; alas! pity her, since she feels to the
very centre of her heart the change from joy to grief."

"Yet no harm will happen to her, at most a few months' imprisonment: if
she dread death and pain, she will of course recant and be freed; what
will she suffer for so short a time?"

"Fear; the worst of evils, far worse than death. I would fain persuade
you to throw aside this hard-heartedness, which is not natural to you;
moments are years, if they are lengthened out by pain; every minute that
she lives in her dungeon is to her a living death of agony; but I will
tell you her name,--at her request I wished to conceal it: but that will
win you, if you are not already won by the sweet hope of saving one who
suffers torments you can never know."

"Euthanasia, do not look so gloomily; I am not thinking of your heretic;
I hesitate, that I may keep you here: you have your will; I will never
refuse a request of yours."

A smile of fleeting disdain passed over her countenance. "Nay, when you
know who she is, you may grant my prayer for her own sake. I come from
Beatrice, the daughter of Wilhelmina of Bohemia."

If the ghost of the poor prophetess had suddenly arisen, it could not
have astounded Castruccio more, than to hear her name thus spoken by
Euthanasia, coupled with the appellations of heretic and prisoner. The
tide of his life ebbed; and, when it flowed again, he thought of the
celestial Beatrice, her light step, her almost glorious presence; and
the memory of her pale cheek and white lips when he last saw her,
thrilled his heart. Years had passed since then; what had she suffered?
What was she? A heretic? Alas! she was the daughter of Wilhelmina, the
nursling of Magfreda, the ward of a leper, the adopted child of the good
bishop of Ferrara.

Euthanasia saw the great confluence of passions, which agitated
Castruccio, and made him alternately pale and red; she was silent, her
quiet eyes beaming upon him in compassion; for a long time his heart
could not find a voice, but at length he spoke,--"Hasten! hasten! free
her, take her to you! Euthanasia, you are the angel itself of charity;
you know all her sad story--all that relates to me; calm her, console
her, make her herself again,--poor, poor Beatrice!"

"Farewell then; I go,--send one of your officers with the order; I will
hasten to her, as quickly as you can wish."

"Yet pause, stay one moment; shall I never see you again? You have cast
me off utterly; yet, I pray you, be happy. Why should you be pale and
sorrowful? you have other friends; must all that love me, mourn? Surely
I am not a devil, that all I touch must wither. Beware! tear the veil
from your heart; read, read its inmost secrets, the eternal words
imprinted in its core; you do not despise me, you love me,--be mine."

The pale cheek of Euthanasia was flushed, her eyes flashed
fire,--"Never! tie myself to tyranny, to slavery, to war, to deceit, to
hate? I tell thee I am as free as air. But I am hurried far beyond the
bounds I prescribed for myself, and now not a word more."

"Yes, one word more; not of yourself, wild enthusiast, but of Beatrice.
I destroyed her; not that I knew what I did; but heedlessly, foolishly,
destroyed her; do you then repair my work; I would give half my soul
that she should be as when I first saw her. You have heard a part of her
story, and you will now perhaps learn those sufferings which she has
endured since we parted; it is doubtless a strange and miserable tale;
but do you be the ministering angel of mercy and love to her."

Sorrow and even humiliation were marked on Castruccio's countenance;
Euthanasia looked at it, almost for the first time since she had
entered; she sighed softly, and said nearly in a whisper, "Alas! that
you should no longer be what you once were!"

Pride now returned and swelled every feature of Castruccio; "Enough,
enough: whatever wine of life I drain, I mingled it myself. Euthanasia,
if we never meet again, remember, I am content; can you be more?"

Euthanasia said not a word; she vanished, her bright presence was gone;
and Castruccio, to whom, as to the fallen arch-angel, that line might be
applied,


Vaunting aloud, though rack'd with deep despair,


tearless, his lips pressed together, sat recalling to mind her words and
looks, until, remembering his boast, he looked up with angry defiance;
and, shaking from his heart the dew of tenderness, he plunged amidst the
crowd where he commanded, where his very eye was obeyed.

Euthanasia hastened to the prison, where the kind-hearted jailor led her
with a face of joyful triumph to the dungeon of Beatrice; the poor thing
was sleeping, the traces of tears were on her cheeks (for like a child
she had cried herself to sleep), and several times she started uneasily.
Euthanasia made a sign to the jailor to be silent, and knelt down beside
her, looking at her countenance, once so gloriously beautiful; the
exquisite carving of her well shaped eyelids, her oval face, and pointed
chin still shewed signs of what she had been; the rest was lost. Her
complexion was sun-burnt, her hands very thin and yellow, and care had
already marked her sunken cheeks and brow with many lines; her jet black
hair was mingled with grey; her long tresses had been cut, and now
reached only to her neck; while, strait and thin, they were the shadow
merely of what they had been; her face, her whole person was emaciated,
worn and faded. She awoke and beheld the eyes of Euthanasia, like heaven
itself, clear and deep, gazing on her.--"Arise, poor sufferer, you are
free!"

Beatrice looked wildly; then, starting up, she clapped her hands in a
transport of joy, she threw herself at the feet of her deliverer, she
embraced the jailor, she was frantic. "Free! free!" for some time she
could repeat no other word. At length she said, "Pardon me; yesterday I
was rude and selfish; I tormented and reproached you, who are all
kindness. And you, excellent man, you will forgive me, will you not?
What was it that I feared? Now that I am going to leave my dungeon,
methinks it is a good cell enough, and I could stay here always well
content; it is somewhat dark and cold, but one can wrap oneself up, and
shut one's eyes, and fancy one's self under the sun of heaven."

She continued prattling, and would have said much more, but that
Euthanasia with gentle force drew her from the dungeon, out of the
gloomy prison; and they hastened to her palace, where Beatrice was
quickly refreshed by a bath and food. But, when the first joy of
liberation was passed, she sunk to melancholy: she would not speak, but
sat listlessly, and her tears fell in silence. Euthanasia tried to
comfort her; but many days passed, during which she continued sullen and
untractable.

In the mean time Euthanasia received several billets from Castruccio,
with earnest enquiries concerning the welfare of this poor girl. "God
knows," he wrote, "what has happened to this unfortunate being since we
parted. My heart is agonized, not only for what she suffers, but for
what she may have suffered. She is now, they say, a heretic, a Paterin,
one who believes in the ascendancy of the evil spirit in the world; poor
insane girl! Euthanasia, for her soul's sake, and for mine which must
answer for hers, reason with her, and convert her; be to her as an
affectionate sister, an angel of peace and pardon. I leave the guidance
of her future destiny to your judgement: but do not lose sight of her.
What do I ask of you? And what right have I to bring upon you the
burthen of my faults? But you are good, and will forgive me."


[Footnote 1: These heretics were long a principal subject of hostility
to the Inquisition; and in 1290 a particular community was erected at
Florence by San Pietro di Verona, for the express purpose of their
extermination.]




CHAPTER III


_Beatrice, her Creed, and her Love._


Euthanasia was meditating on this letter, when Beatrice entered, and sat
down beside her. She took her hand, and kissed it, and then said, "How
can you forgive my ingratitude? I am self-willed, sullen, and humorous;
alas! sometimes the memory of the evils I have suffered presses on me,
and I forget all my duties. Duties! until I knew you I had none; for
five years my life has been one scene of despair: you cannot tell what a
fall mine was."

"Forget, I do intreat you, poor sufferer, all your past unhappiness;
forget every thing that you once were."

"Aye, you say right; I must forget every thing, or to be what I am must
torture me to despair. Poor, misled, foolish, insensate Beatrice! I can
accuse myself alone for my many ills; myself, and that power who sits on
high, and scatters evil like dew upon the earth, a killing, blighting
honey dew."

"Hush! my poor girl, do not talk thus; indeed I must not have you utter
these sentiments."

"Oh! let me speak: before all others I must hide my bursting feelings,
deep, deep. Yet for one moment let me curse!"

Beatrice arose; she pointed to heaven; she stood in the same attitude,
as when she had prophesied to the people of Ferrara under the portico of
the church of St. Anna; but how changed! Her form thin; her face
care-worn; her love-formed lips withered; her hands and arms, then so
round and fair, now wrinkled and faded; her eyes were not the same; they
had lost that softness which, mingling with their fire, was as something
wonderful in brilliancy and beauty; they now, like the sun from beneath
a thunder cloud, glared fiercely from under her dark and scattered hair
that shaded her brow: but even now, as in those times, she spoke with
tumultuous eloquence:

"Euthanasia, you are much deceived; you either worship a useless shadow,
or a fiend in the clothing of a god. Listen to me, while I announce to
you the eternal and victorious influence of evil, which circulates like
air about us, clinging to our flesh like a poisonous garment, eating
into us, and destroying us. Are you blind, that you see it not? Are you
deaf, that you hear no groans? Are you insensible, that you feel no
misery? Open your eyes, and you will behold all of which I speak,
standing in hideous array before you. Look around. Is there not war,
violation of treaties, and hard-hearted cruelty? Look at the societies
of men; are not our fellow creatures tormented one by the other in an
endless circle of pain? Some shut up in iron cages, starved and
destroyed; cities float in blood, and the hopes of the husbandman are
manured by his own mangled limbs: remember the times of our fathers, the
extirpation of the Albigenses;--the cruelties of Ezzelin, when troops of
the blind, and the lame, and the mutilated, the scum of his prisons,
inundated the Italian states. Remember the destruction of the templars.
Did you never glance in thought into the tower of famine of Ugolino; or
into the hearts of the armies of exiles, that each day the warring
citizens banish from their homes? Did you never reflect on the guilty
policy of the Popes, those ministers of the reigning king of heaven?
Remember the Sicilian vespers; the death of the innocent Conradin; the
myriads whose bones are now bleached beneath the sun of Asia: they went
in honour of His name, and thus He rewards them.

"Then reflect upon domestic life, on the strife, hatred and
uncharitableness, that, as sharp spears, pierce one's bosom at every
turn; think of jealousy, midnight murders, envy, want of faith, calumny,
ingratitude, cruelty, and all which man in his daily sport inflicts upon
man. Think upon disease, plague, famine, leprosy, fever, and all the
aching pains our limbs suffer withal; visit in thought the hospital, the
lazar house; Oh! surely God's hand is the chastening hand of a father,
that thus torments his children! His children? his eternal enemies!
look, I am one! He created the seeds of disease, maremma, thirst, want;
he created man,--that most wretched of slaves; oh! know you not what a
wretch man is? and what a store house of infinite pain is this
much-vaunted human soul? Look into your own heart; or, if that be too
peaceful, gaze on mine; I will tear it open for your inspection. There
is remorse, hatred, grief--overwhelming, mighty, and eternal misery. God
created me: am I the work of a beneficent being? Oh, what spirit mingled
in my wretched frame love, hope, energy, confidence,--to find
indifference, to be blasted to despair, to be as weak as the fallen
leaf, to be betrayed by all! Now I am changed,--I hate;--my energy is
spent in curses, and if I trust, it is to be the more deeply wounded.

"Did not the power you worship create the passions of man; his desires
which outleap possibility, and bring ruin upon his head? Did he not
implant the seeds of ambition, revenge and hate? Did he not create love,
the tempter: he who keeps the key of that mansion whose motto must ever
be


Lasciate ogni speranza voi che intrate.


And the imagination, that masterpiece of his malice; that spreads honey
on the cup that you may drink poison; that strews roses over thorns,
thorns sharp and big as spears; that semblance of beauty which beckons
you to the desart; that apple of gold with the heart of ashes; that foul
image, with the veil of excellence; that mist of the maremma, glowing
with roseate hues beneath the sun, that creates it, and beautifies it,
to destroy you; that diadem of nettles; that spear, broken in the heart!
He, the damned and triumphant one, sat meditating many thousand years
for the conclusion, the consummation, the final crown, the seal of all
misery, which he might set on man's brain and heart to doom him to
endless torment; and he created the Imagination. And then we are told
the fault is ours; good and evil are sown in our hearts, and ours is the
tillage, ours the harvest; and can this justify an omnipotent deity that
he permits one particle of pain to subsist in his world? Oh, never.

"I tell thee what; there is not an atom of life in this all-peopled
world that does not suffer pain; we destroy animals;--look at your own
dress, which a myriad of living creatures wove and then died; those
sables,--a thousand hearts once beat beneath those skins, quenched in
the agonies of death to furnish forth that cloak. Yet why not? While
they lived, those miserable hearts beat under the influence of fear,
cold and famine. Oh! better to die, than to suffer! The whale in the
great ocean destroys nations of fish, but thousands live on him and
torment him. Destruction is the watchword of the world; the death by
which it lives, the despair by which it hopes: oh, surely a good being
created all this!

"Let me tell you, that you do ill to ally yourself to the triumphant
spirit of evil, leaving the worship of the good, who is fallen and
depressed, yet who still lives. He wanders about the world a proscribed
and helpless thing, hooted from the palaces of kings, excommunicated
from churches; sometimes he wanders into the heart of man, and makes his
bosom glow with love and virtue; but so surely as he enters, misfortune,
bound to him by his enemy, as a corpse to a living body, enters with
him; the wretch who has received his influence, becomes poor, helpless
and deserted; happy if he be not burnt at the stake, whipt with iron,
torn with red-hot pincers.

"The Spirit of Evil chose a nation for his own; the Spirit of Good tried
to redeem that nation from its gulph of vice and misery; and was cruelly
destroyed by it; and now, as the masterpiece of the enemy, they are
adored together; and he the beneficent, kind and suffering, is made the
mediator to pull down curses upon us.

"How quick and secure are the deeds of the evil spirit; how slow and
uncertain those of the good! I remember once a good and learned friend
of mine telling me that the country about Athens was adorned by the most
exquisite works man had ever produced; marble temples traced with divine
sculpture, statues transcending human beauty; the art of man had been
exhausted to embellish it, the lives of hundreds of men had been wasted
to accomplish it, the genius of the wisest had been employed in its
execution; ages had passed, while slowly, year by year, these wonders
had been collected; some were almost falling through exceeding age,
while others shone in their first infancy. Well:--a king, Philip of
Macedon, destroyed all these in three days, burnt them, razed them,
annihilated them. This is the proportionate energy of good and evil; the
produce of ages is the harvest of a moment; a man may spend years in
curbing his passions, in acquiring wisdom, in becoming an angel in
excellence; the brutality of a fellow creature, or the chance of war,
may fell him in an instant; and all his knowledge and virtues become
blank, as a moonless, starless night.

"Euthanasia, my heart aches, and my spirits flag: I was a poor, simple
girl; but I have suffered much; and endurance, and bitter experience
have let me into the truth of things; the deceitful veil which is cast
over this world, is powerless to hide its deformity from me. I see the
cruel heart, which lurks beneath the beautiful skin of the pard; I see
the blight of autumn in the green leaves of spring, the wrinkles of age
in the face of youth, rust on the burnished iron, storm in the very
breast of calm, sorrow in the heart of joy; all beauty wraps deformity,
as the fruit the kernel; Time opens the shell, the seed is poison."

The eyes of Beatrice shot forth sparks of fire as she poured out this
anathema against the creation; her cheeks were fevered with a hectic
glow; her voice, sharp and broken, which was sometimes raised almost to
a shriek, and sometimes lowered to a whisper, fell on the brain of
Euthanasia like a rain of alternate fire and ice; she shrunk and
trembled beneath the flood of terror that inundated and confounded her
understanding: but the eloquent prophetess of Evil ceased at last, and,
pale and exhausted, she sank down; clasping Euthanasia in her arms, she
hid her face on her knees, and sobbed, and wept: "Forgive me, if I have
said that which appears to you blasphemy; I will unveil my heart to you,
tell you my sufferings, and surely you will then curse with me the
author of my being."

Euthanasia spoke consolation alone; she bade her weep no more; that she
need no longer fear or hate; that she might again love, hope and trust;
and that she as a tender sister would sympathize with and support her.
The undisciplined mind of poor Beatrice was as a flower that droops
beneath the storm; but, on the first gleam of sunshine, raises again its
head, even though the hail-stones and the wind might have broken and
tarnished its leaves and its tints. She looked up, and smiled; "I will
do all that you tell me; I will be docile, good and affectionate;--I
will be obedient to your smallest sign, kindest, dearest Euthanasia.
Trust me, you shall make me a Catholic again, if you will love me
unceasingly for one whole year, and in the mean time I do not die. I am
very teachable, very, very tractable; but I have suffered greatly, as
one day you will know; for I will tell you every thing. Now, good bye; I
am very tired, and I think I shall sleep."

"Sleep then, poor creature; here is a couch ready for you; I will watch
near you; and may your dreams be pleasant."

"Give me your hand then; I will hold it while I rest; how small, and
white, and soft it is! Look at mine, it is yellow and dry; once it was
like yours; I think it was rather smaller, but never so well shaped; the
tips of my fingers and my nails were never dyed by so roseate a tint as
this, nor was the palm so silken soft. You are very beautiful, and very
good, dear Euthanasia; I hope you are, and will be happy."

Euthanasia kissed the forehead of this child of imagination and misery;
and soon she slept, forgetful of all her sufferings. Euthanasia felt
deeply interested in her; she felt that they were bound together, by
their love for one who loved only himself; she thought over her wild
denunciations; and, strange to say, she felt doubly warmed with
admiration of the creation, and gratitude towards God, at the moment
that Beatrice had painted its defects. She thought of the beauty of the
world and the wondrous nature of man, until her mind was raised to an
enthusiastic sentiment of happiness and praise. "And you also shall curb
your wild thoughts," whispered Euthanasia, as she looked at the sleeping
girl; "I will endeavour to teach you the lessons of true religion; and,
in reducing the wandering thoughts of one so lovely and so good, I shall
be in part fulfilling my task on the earth."

For several days after this conversation Beatrice became peaceful and
mild, saying little, and appearing complacent, almost content; she
attended mass, told her beads, and talked of going to confession.
Euthanasia was astounded; she was herself so steady in her principles,
so firm in opinion and action, slow to change, but resolute having
changed, that she was at a loss to understand the variable feelings and
swift mutations of the poor, untaught Beatrice.

"Confess!" she repeated; "you promised that I should convert you in a
year; but you have already forsaken your Paterin opinions!"

"No, indeed, I have not; but it is of so little consequence; I would
please you, dearest, by seeming what I am not; not that I am sure that I
am not what you desire. You know, if God is good, he will forgive my
errors: if he is evil, I care not to please him; so I shall endeavour to
please the virtuous and kind of this world, and you are one of those, my
best friend. Besides, now I think of it, this world seems too beautiful
to have been created by an evil spirit; he would have made us all toads,
the trees and flowers all mushrooms, and the rocks and mountains would
have been huge, formless polypi. Yet there is evil; but I will not
trouble myself more about it; you shall form my creed; and, as a lisping
infant, with clasped hands, I will repeat my prayers after you."

"Why so, dearest Beatrice? Why will you not recal the creeds of your
childhood, as your adoptive parents taught them you? I cannot school you
better than they."

"My childhood!" cried the prophetess; her eyes becoming dark and stormy,
"what to become again a dupe, a maniac? to fall again, as I have fallen?
Cease, cease, in mercy cease, to talk of my childhood; days of error,
vanity and paradise! My lessons must all be new; all retold in words
signifying other ideas than what they signified during my mad, brief
dream of youth. Then faith was not a shadow: it was what these eyes saw;
I clutched hope, and found it certainty; I heard the angels of heaven,
and saw the souls of the departed; can I ever see them again?"

"Sweetest and most unfortunate, drive away memory, and take hope to you.
Youth is indeed a dream; and, if I spent it not in your extacies, yet
believe me I was not then as I am now. I am older than you, and know
life better; I have passed the fearful change from dream to reality, and
am now calm. I have known all your throes; sometimes indeed they now
visit me; but I quench them, cast them aside, tread on them;--so may
you."

"Never! never!" replied Beatrice: "I was born for wretchedness. When the
fates twined my destiny, they mingled three threads; the first was green
hope, the second purple joy, the third black despair; but the two first
were very short, and soon came to an end; a dreary line of black alone
remains. Yet I would forget all that; and for many days I have been as
calm as a bird that broods, rocked on her tree by a gentle wind; full of
a quiet, sleepy life. Should this state continue longer, I might become
what you wish me to be; but I find my soul awakening, and I fear a
relapse; I fear the return of tears and endless groans. Oh! let me wrap
myself round you, my better angel, hope of my life; pour your balmy
words upon me; lay your cool, healthful cheek near my burning one, let
our pulses beat responsive! Oh! that once I could become less feverish,
less wild; less like a dark and crimsoned thunder-cloud, driven away,
away, through the unknown wildernesses of sky."

Euthanasia was glad to hear her suffering friend talk, however wildly;
for she observed that, when she had exhausted herself in speech, she
became calmer and happier; while, if she brooded silently over her
cares, she became almost insane through grief. Occasionally she sought
consolation in music; there was something magical in her voice, and in
the tones she could draw from the organ or the harp: in her days of
glory it had been said, that she was taught to sing by angelic
instructors; and now those remembered melodies remained, sole relics of
her faded honours. The recollection of this sometimes disturbed her; and
she would suddenly break off her song, and peevishly exclaim, that
music, like the rest of the world's masks, contained the soul of
bitterness within its form of beauty.

"Not so, dear girl," said Euthanasia; "Euterpe has ever been so dear a
friend of mine, that I cannot permit you to calumniate her unjustly;
there is to me an unalloyed pleasure in music. Some blessed spirit,
compassionate of man's estate, and loving him, sent it, to teach him
that he is other than what he seems: it comes, like a voice from a far
world, to tell you that there are depths of intense emotion veiled in
the blue empyrean, and the windows of heaven are opened by music alone.
It chastens and lulls our extacies; and, if it awakens grief, it also
soothes it. But more than to the happy or the sorrowful, music is an
inestimable gift to those who forget all sublimer emotions in the
pursuits of daily life. I listen to the talk of men; I play with my
embroidery-frame; I enter into society: suddenly high song awakens me,
and I leave all this tedious routine far, far distant; I listen, till
all the world is changed, and the beautiful earth becomes more
beautiful. Evening and all its soft delights, morning and all its
refreshing loveliness;--noonday, when the busy soul rests, like the sun
in its diurnal course, and then gathering new strength, descends; all
these, when thought upon, bring pleasure; but music is far more
delicious than these. Never do I feel happier and better, than when I
have heard sweet music; my thoughts often sleep like young children
nestled in their cradles, until music awakens them, and they open their
starry eyes. I may be mistaken; but music seems to me to reveal to us
some of the profoundest secrets of the universe; and the spirit, freed
from prison by its charms, can then soar, and gaze with eagle eyes on
the eternal sun of this all-beauteous world."

Beatrice smiled.--Since her days of happiness had ended, Euthanasia's
enthusiasm had become more concentrated, more concealed; but Beatrice
again awoke her to words, and these two ladies, bound by the sweet ties
of gratitude and pity, found in each other's converse some balm for
their misfortunes. Circumstances had thus made friends of those whom
nature seemed to separate: they were much unlike; but the wild looks of
Beatrice sometimes reflected the soft light of Euthanasia's eyes; and
Euthanasia found her heart, which was sinking to apathy, awake again, as
she listened to Beatrice. And, though we may be unhappy, we can never be
perfectly wretched, while the mind is active; it is inaction alone that
constitutes true wretchedness.

In the mean time her own journey to Florence was put off indefinitely.
She was too much interested in the fate of Beatrice, and already loved
her too well, to desert her; the poor prophetess appeared little capable
of the journey, since the most trifling circumstance would awaken her
wildest fancies, and fever and convulsions followed. Once indeed
Euthanasia had mentioned her wish to go thither; Beatrice looked at her
with flashing eyes, and cried, "Did you not promise never to desert me?
Are you faithless also?"

"But would you not accompany me?"

"Do you see that river that flows near Lucca?" exclaimed Beatrice. "I
fancy that it has flowed through the self-same banks these many thousand
years; and sooner will it desert them, than I this town. See you that
cypress, that grows towering above all its neighbour trees in that
convent-garden, I am as firm to this soil as that; I will never leave
this place but by force, and then I die."

She said these words in her wildest manner; and they were followed by
such an annihilation of strength, and such symptoms of fever, that
Euthanasia did not again dare mention her removal to Florence. She also
suffered less by her continued stay at Lucca; for the feelings of her
heart were so completely absorbed in pity and love for Beatrice, that
the painful ideas of many years' growth seemed rooted out by a new and
mightier power. She was so little selfish, that she could easily forget
her own sorrows, deep as they were, in her sympathy for the unhappy
prophetess, who had suffered evils tremendous and irremediable.

Castruccio often sent to learn of the welfare of this poor girl, and
Euthanasia answered his enquiries with exactness. She did this; for she
thought that perhaps the future destiny of Beatrice was in his hands,
and that he might engraft life and even happiness on the blighted plant.

One day Beatrice went out. It was the first time she had quitted the
palace; and Euthanasia was vexed and anxious. After an absence of some
hours she returned; she was clothed in a great coarse cloak that
entirely disguised her; she put it off; and, trembling, blushing,
panting, she threw herself into the arms of her protectress.

"I have seen him! I have seen him!"

"Calm yourself, poor fluttering bird; you have seen him: well, well, he
is changed, much altered; why do you weep?"

"Aye, he is changed; but he is far more beautiful than ever he was. Oh,
Euthanasia, how radiant, how divine he is! His eyes, which, like the
eagle's, could outgaze the sun, yet melt in the sweetest love, as a
cloud, shining, yet soft; his brow, manly and expansive, on which his
raven curls rest; his upturned lips, where pride, and joy, and love, and
wisdom, and triumph live, small spirits, ready to obey his smallest
will; and his head, cinctured by a slight diadem, looks carved out by
the intensest knowledge of beauty! How graceful his slightest motion!
and his voice,--his voice is here,----"

Beatrice put her hand upon her heart; her eyes were filled with tears;
and the whole expression of her face was softened and humanized.
Suddenly she stopped; she dried her eyes; and, fixing them on
Euthanasia, she took her two hands in hers, and looked on her, as if she
would read her soul. "Beautiful creature," she said, "once he told me
that he loved you. Did he not? does he not? Why are you separated? do
you not love him?"

"I did; once I did truly; but he has cast off that which was my love;
and, like a flower plucked from the stalk, it has withered--as you see
it."

"Aye, that is strange. What did he cast off?"

"Why will you make me speak? He cast off humanity, honesty, honourable
feeling, all that I prize."

"Forms, forms,--mere forms, my mistaken Euthanasia. _He_ remained, and
was not that every thing? Methinks, it would please me, that my lover
should cast off all humanity, and be a reprobate, and an outcast of his
species. Oh! then how deeply and tenderly I should love him; soiled with
crimes, his hands dripping blood, I would shade him as the flowering
shrub invests the ruin; I would cover him with a spotless veil;--my
intensity of love would annihilate his wickedness;--every one would hate
him;--but, if all adored him, it would not come near the sum of my
single affection. I should be every thing to him, life, and hope; he
would die in his remorse; but he would live again and again in the light
of my love; I would invest him as a silvery mist, so that none should
see how evil he was; I would pour out before him large draughts of love,
that he should become drunk with it, until he grew good and kind. So you
deserted this glorious being, and he has felt the pangs of unrequited
affection, the helpless throes of love cast as water upon the sand of
the desert? Oh, indeed I pity him!"

"Believe me," cried Euthanasia, "he has other affections. Glory and
conquest are his mistresses, and he is a successful lover; already he
has deluged our vallies in blood, and turned our habitations into black
and formless ruins; he has torn down the banners of the Florentines, and
planted his own upon the towers of noble cities; I believe him to be
happy."

"Thank God for that; I would pour out my blood, drop by drop, to make
him happy. But he is not married, and you have deserted him; I love him;
he has loved me; is it impossible--? Oh! foolish, hateful wretch that I
am, what do I say? No creature was ever so utterly undone!"

Beatrice covered her face with her hands; her struggles were violent;
she shrunk from Euthanasia's consoling embrace; and at length, quite
overcome, she sank in convulsions on the pavement of the hall. Her
paroxysm was long and fearful; it was succeeded by a heavy lethargic
sleep; during the first part of which she was feverish and uneasy; but,
after some hours, her cheeks became pale, her pulse beat slower, and her
breath was drawn regularly.

Euthanasia watched beside her alone: when she found that she was
sleeping quietly and deeply, she retired from her bedside; and, sitting
at some distance, she tried to school herself on the bitter feelings
that had oppressed her since the morning. Euthanasia was so
self-examining, that she never allowed a night to elapse without
recalling her feelings and actions of the past day; she endeavoured to
be simply just to herself, and her soul had so long been accustomed to
this discipline, that it easily laid open its dearest secrets.
Misfortune had not dulled her sense of right and wrong; her
understanding was still clear, though tinged by the same lofty
enthusiasm which had ever been her characteristic. She now searched her
soul to find what were the feelings which still remained to her
concerning Castruccio; she hardly knew whether it was hate or love.
Hate! could she hate one, to whom once she had delivered up all her
thoughts, as to the tribunal of her God, whom she had loved as one to
whom she was willing to unite herself for ever? And could she love one,
who had deceived her in her dearest hopes, who had lulled her on the
brink of a precipice, to plunge her with greater force to eternal
unhappiness? She felt neither hatred, nor revenge, nor contempt colder
than either; she felt grief alone, and that sentiment was deeply
engraven on her soul.




CHAPTER IV


_Beatrice's Narrative._


She was awakened from this reverie by the voice of Beatrice, who called
to her to come near. "I am quite recovered," she said, "though weak; I
have been very ill to-day, and I am frightened to think of the violence
of my sensations. But sit near me, beloved friend; it is now night, and
you will hear no sound but my feeble voice; while I fulfil my promise of
relating to you my wretched history."

"Mine own Beatrice, do not now vex yourself with these recollections;
you must seek calm and peace alone; let memory go to its grave."

"Nay, you must know all," replied Beatrice, peevishly; "why do you balk
me? indeed I do best when I follow my own smallest inclinations; for,
when I try to combat them, I am again ill, as I was this morning. Sit
beside me; I will make room for you on my couch; give me your hand, but
turn away your soft eyes; and now I will tell you every thing.

"You know that I loved Castruccio; how much I need hardly tell: I loved
him beyond human love, for I thought heaven itself had interfered to
unite us. I thought----alas! it is with aching pain that I recollect my
wild dreams,--that we two were chosen from the rest of the world, gifted
with celestial faculties. It appeared to me to be a dispensation of
Providence, that I should have met him at the full height of my glory,
when I was burning with triumph and joy. I do not think, my own
Euthanasia, that you can ever have experienced the vigour and fire of my
sensations. Victory in an almost desperate struggle, success in art,
love itself, are earthly feelings, subject to change and death; but,
when these three most exquisite sensations are bestowed by the visible
intervention of heaven, thus giving security to the unstable, and
eternity to what is fleeting, such an event fills the over-brimming cup,
intoxicates the brain, and renders her who feels them more than mortal.

"Victory and glory I had, and an assurance of divine inspiration; the
fame of what I was, was spread among the people of my country; then love
came, and flattered, and softened, and overcame me. Well, that I will
pass over: to conceive that all I felt was human, common, and now faded,
disgusts me, and makes me look back with horror to my lost paradise.
Castruccio left me; and I sat I cannot tell how long, white, immoveable,
and intranced; hours, I believe days, passed; I cannot tell, for in
truth I think I was mad. Yet I was silent; not a word, not a tear, not a
sound escaped me, until some one mentioned the name of Castruccio before
me, and then I wept. I did not rave or weep aloud; I crept about like a
shadow, brooding over my own thoughts, and trying to divine the mystery
of my destiny.

"At length I went to my good father, the bishop; I knelt down before
him: 'Rise, dear child,' he said; 'how pale you are! what has quenched
the fire of your brilliant eyes?'

"'Father, holy father,' I replied, 'I will not rise till you answer me
one question.'--My looks were haggard with want of rest; my tangled
locks fell on my neck; my glazed eyes could scarcely distinguish any
object.

"'My blessed Beatrice,' said the good old man, 'you are much unlike
yourself: but speak; I know that you can ask nothing that I can refuse
to tell.'

"'Tell me then, by your hopes of heaven,' I cried, 'whether fraud was
used in the _Judgement of God_ that I underwent, or how I escaped the
fearful burning of the hot shares.'

"Tears started in my father's eyes; he rose, and embraced me, and,
lifting me up, said with passion,--'Thank God! my prayers are fulfilled.
Beatrice, you shall not be deceived, you will no longer deceive
yourself; and do not be unhappy, but joy that the deceit is removed from
you, and that you may return from your wild and feverish extacies to a
true and real piety.'

"'This is all well,' I replied calmly; 'but tell me truly how it
happened.'

"'That I cannot, my child, for I was myself kept in the dark; I only
know that fraud was most certainly practised for your deliverance. My
child, we have all of us much erred; you less than any; for you have
been deceived, led away by your feelings and imagination to believe
yourself that which you are not.'

"I will not repeat to you all that the bishop said; it was severe, but
kind. First he shewed me, how I had deceived myself, and nourished
extacies and transports of the soul which were in no way allied to
holiness; and then he told me how I must repair my faults by deep
humility, prayer, and a steady faith in that alone which others taught,
not what I myself imagined. I listened silently; but I heard every word;
I was very docile; I believed all he said; and although my soul bled
with its agony, I accused none, none but myself. At first I thought that
I would tell my countrymen of their deception. But, unsupported by my
supernatural powers, I now shrunk from all display; no veil, no wall
could conceal me sufficiently; for it could not hide me from myself. My
very powers of speech deserted me, and I could not articulate a
syllable; I listened, my eyes bent on the earth, my cheek pale; I
listened until I almost became marble. At length the good old man
ceased; and, with many words of affectionate comfort, he bade me go and
make firm peace with my own heart, and that then he hoped to teach me a
calm road to happiness. Happiness! surely I must have been stone; for I
neither frowned in despite, nor laughed in derision, when that term was
applied to any thing that I could hereafter feel. I kissed his hand, and
withdrew.

"Did you ever feel true humility? a prostration of soul, that accuses
itself alone, and asks pardon of a superior power with entire penitence,
and a confiding desertion of all self-merit, a persuasion intimate and
heartfelt of one's own unworthiness? That was what I felt; I had been
vain, proud, presumptuous; now I fell to utter poverty of spirit; yet it
was not poverty, for there was a richness in my penitence, which
reminded me of the sacred text, that says 'Oh, that my head were water,
and mine eyes a fountain of tears!'

"Then succeeded to this mental humiliation, a desire to mortify and
punish myself for my temerity and mistakes. I was possessed by a spirit
of martyrdom. Sometimes I thought that I would again undergo the
_Judgement of God_ fairly and justly: but now I shrunk from public
exhibition; besides, the good bishop had strongly reprobated these
temptations of God's justice. At other times I thought that I would
confess all to my excellent father; and this perhaps is what I ought to
have done; what would really have caused me to regain a part of the calm
that I had lost; but I could not; womanly shame forbade me; death would
have been a far preferable alternative. At length an idea struck me,
that seemed to my overstrained feelings to transcend all other
penitence; a wretchedness and anguish that might well redeem my
exceeding sins.

"Think you that, while I thus humbled myself, I forgot Castruccio?
Never! the love I bore him clung around me, festered on my soul, and
kept me ever alive to pain. Love him! I adored him; to whisper his name
only in solitude, where none could hear my voice but my own most
attentive ear, thrilled me with transport. I tried to banish him my
thoughts; he recurred in my dreams, which I could not control. I saw him
there, beautiful as his real self, and my heart was burnt by my emotion.
Well; it was on this excess of love that I built my penitence, which was
to go as a pilgrim and ask alms of you. Euthanasia! I only knew your
name; the very idea of seeing you made me shiver. I was three months
before I could steel my heart to this resolve. I saw none; I spoke to
none; I was occupied by my meditations alone, and those were deep and
undermining as the ocean.

"Well; as I have said, I dwelt long and deeply upon my plan, until every
moment seemed a crime, that went by before I put it in execution. The
long winter passed thus; my poor mother, the lady Marchesana, watched
me, as a child might watch a favourite bird fluttering in the agonies of
death. She saw that some mysterious and painful feeling oppressed me,
that I no longer appeared in public, that I shunned the worship of my
admirers, that the spirit of prophecy was dead within me; but I was
silent, and reserved; and her reverence for me (Good angels! her
reverence for me!) prevented any enquiries. In the spring the bishop
Marsilio was promoted to another see, and he was obliged to go to
Avignon to receive the investiture. Excellent and beloved old man! he
blessed me, and kissed me, and with words of affectionate advice
departed. I have never seen him more.

"When he was gone, the labour of my departure was lightened; and in
gentle and hesitating words I told my best and loved mother that I had
vowed a pilgrimage to Rome: she wished to accompany me. Those were
heart-breaking scenes, my Euthanasia, when I left all my friends, all
who loved me, and whom I had ever loved: I knew that I should never see
them again. How did I know this? In truth, after having performed my vow
with regard to you, I intended to visit the sepulchres at Rome; and I
might then have returned. I was no prophetess; and yet I felt that mine
was not a simple pilgrimage, but an eternal separation from all former
associations, from every one I had ever known. Thus, hopeless of future
good, I deserted all that yet rendered life in any degree sufferable: I
did this to satisfy my sense of duty, to do homage to the divinity by
some atonement for his violated laws: I did this; and henceforward I was
to be an outcast, a poor lonely shrub on a bleak heath, a single reed in
a vast and overflowing river.

"I had known too much luxury in my youth; every one loved me, and tended
on me; I had seen about me eyes beaming with affection, smiles all my
own, words of deep interest and respect, that had become to me a second
nature. I departed alone at four in the morning from Ferrara by the
secret entrance of the viscountess's palace, on a clear and lovely day
in the spring. I was dressed as the meanest pilgrim, and I carefully hid
my white hands and fair cheeks, which might have betrayed my way of life
during the past; except indeed when I was alone,--then I loved to throw
off my cloak, to bare my arms, my face, my neck to the scorching
sun-beams, that I might the sooner destroy a delicacy I despised: the
work was quickly done; a few hours exposure to the sun of noon burnt up
my skin, and made it red and common.

"The first day was one of unmixed pain; the sun parched my frame; my
feet were blistered, my limbs ached; I walked all day, until bodily
fatigue lulled my mental anguish, for I was unhappy beyond all words.
Alone, deserted by God and man, I had lost my firm support, my belief in
my own powers; I had lost my friends; and I found, that the vain,
self-sufficing, cloud-inhabiting Beatrice was in truth a poor dependent
creature, whose heart sunk, when in the evening she came to a clear
brook running through a little wood, and she found no cup to drink, and
no dainties to satisfy her appetite. I dragged my weary limbs three
miles further, to an hospital for pilgrims, and repined over my coarse
fare and coarser bed:--I, the ethereal prophetess, who fancied that I
could feed upon air and beautiful thoughts, who had regarded my body but
as a servant to my will, to hunger and thirst only as I bade it.

"Alone! alone! I travelled on day after day, in short, but wearisome
journeys, and I felt the pain of utter and forced solitude; the burning
sun shone, and the dews fell at evening, but there was no breeze, no
coolness to refresh me; the nights were close, and my limbs, dried with
the scorching of the day, and stiff with walking, burned all night as if
a furnace had glowed within them. Were these slight evils? Alas! I was a
spoiled child, and I felt every pain as an agony.

"I fell ill; I caught cold one evening, when just after sunset I threw
myself down to rest under a tree, and the unwholesome dew fell upon me.
I got a low fever, which for a long time I did not understand, feeling
one day well, and the next feverish, cold, and languid. Some attendant
nuns at an hospital found out my disorder, and nursed me; I was confined
for six weeks; and, when I issued forth, little of the fire of my eyes,
or of the beauty the lady Marchesana used to dwell upon, out-lived this
attack.--I was yellow, meagre,----a shadow of what I had been.

"My journey to your castle was very long. I crossed the Apennines during
the summer, and passing through Florence I arrived at Pistoia in the
beginning of June. But now my heart again failed; I heard of your name,
your prosperity, your beauty, the respect and adoration you every where
excited: it was a double penance to humble myself before so excelling a
rival. If you had been worthless, a self-contenting pride would have
eased my wounds, but to do homage to my equal--oh! to one far my
superior,--was a new lesson to my stubborn soul. I remained nearly three
months at Pistoia, very unhappy, hesitating,--cast about, as a boat that
for ever shifts its sail, but can never find the right wind to lead it
into port.

"I visited you in September; do you remember my coming? do you remember
my hesitating gait, and low and trembling voice? I was giddy--sick--I
thought that death was upon me, for that nothing but that great change
could cause such an annihilation of my powers, such an utter sinking of
my spirit. A cold dew stood upon my forehead, my eyes were glazed and
sightless, my limbs trembled as with convulsions. Castruccio loved you!
Castruccio! it is long since I have mentioned his name: during this
weary journey never did his loved image for a moment quit its temple,
its fane, its only home, that it still and for ever fills. Love him! it
was madness; yet I did;--yet I do;--put your hand upon my heart,--does
it not beat fast?"

Euthanasia kissed poor Beatrice's forehead; and, after a short pause,
she continued:

"My penance was completed, yet I did not triumph; an unconquerable
sadness hung over me; miserable dreams haunted my sleep; and their
recollected images strayed among my day-thoughts, as thin and grim
ghosts, frightening and astounding me. Once,--I can never forget,--I had
been oppressed for several days by an overpowering and black melancholy,
for which I could in no manner account; it was not regret or grief; it
was a sinking, an annihilation of all my mental powers in which I was a
passive sufferer, as if the shadow of some mightier spirit was cast over
to darken and depress me. I was haunted as by a prophecy, or rather a
sense of evil, which I could neither define nor understand. Three
evenings after, as I sat beside a quiet spring that lulled me almost to
insensibility, the cause of my mournful reveries suddenly flashed across
me; it stalked on my recollection, as a terrific and gigantic shadow,
and made me almost die with terror. The memory of a dream flashed across
me. Again and again I have dreamed this dream, and always on the eve of
some great misfortune. It is my genius, my dæmon. What was it? there
was something said, something done, a scene pourtrayed. Listen
attentively, I intreat; there was a wide plain flooded by the waters of
an overflowing river, the road was dry, being on the side of a hill
above the level of the plain, and I kept along the path which declined,
wondering if I should come to an insurmountable obstacle; at a distance
before me they were driving a flock of sheep; on my left, on the side of
the hill, there was a ruined circuit of wall, which inclosed the
dilapidated houses of a deserted town; at some distance a dreary, large,
ruinous house, half like a castle, yet without a tower, dilapidated, and
overgrown with moss, was dimly seen, islanded by the flood on which it
cast a night-black shade; the scirocco blew, and covered the sky with
fleecy clouds; and the mists in the distance hovered low over the plain;
a bat above me wheeled around. Then something happened, what I cannot
now tell, terrific it most certainly was; Euthanasia, there is something
in this strange world, that we none of us understand.

"Euthanasia, I came to that scene; if I live, I did! I saw it all as I
had before seen it in the slumbers of the night. Great God, what am I? I
am frailer than the first autumnal leaf that falls; I am overpowered."

She paused sobbing with passion; a clinging horror fell upon Euthanasia;
they were for a long time silent, and then Beatrice in a low subdued
voice continued:

"I had returned to Florence; I had passed through Arezzo; I had left
Thrasymene to the north; I had passed through Perugia, Foligno, and
Terni, and was descending towards the plain surrounding Rome; the Tiber
had overflowed, the whole of the low country was under water; but I
proceeded, descending the mountains, until, having passed Narni, I came
to the lowest hill which bounds the Campagna di Roma; the scirocco blew;
the mists were on the hills, and half concealed the head of lone
Soracte; the white waters, cold and dreary, were spread far, waste and
shelterless; on my left was a high dark wall surrounding a ruined
town--I looked,--some way beyond I saw on the road a flock of sheep
almost lost in the distance,--my brain was troubled, I grew dizzy and
sick--when my glazed eyes caught a glance of an old, large, dilapidated
house islanded in the flood,--the dream flashed across my memory; I
uttered a wild shriek, and fell lifeless on the road.

"I again awoke, but all was changed: I was lying on a couch, in a vast
apartment, whose loose tapestries waved and sighed in the wind;--near me
were two boys holding torches which flared, and their black smoke was
driven across my eyes; an old woman was chafing my temples.--I turned my
head from the light of the torches, and then I first saw my wicked and
powerful enemy: he leaned against the wall, observing me; his eyes had a
kind of fascination in them, and, unknowing what I did, hardly conscious
that he was a human creature, (indeed for a time it appeared to me only
a continuation of my dream,) I gazed on his face, which became
illuminated by a proud triumphant, fiendlike smile.--I felt sick at
heart, and relapsed into a painful swoon.

"Well: I promised to be brief, and I go on dwelling on the particulars
of my tale, until your fair cheek is blanched still whiter by fear. But
I have said enough, nor will I tell that which would chill your warm
blood with horror. I remained three years in this house; and what I saw,
and what I endured, is a tale for the unhallowed ears of infidels, or
for those who have lost humanity in the sight of blood, and not for so
tender a heart as yours. It has changed me, much changed me, to have
been witness of these scenes; I entered young, I came out grey, old and
withered; I went in innocent; and, if innocence consist in ignorance, I
am now guilty of the knowledge of crime, which it would seem that fiends
alone could contrive.

"What was he, who was the author and mechanist of these crimes? he bore
a human name; they say that his lineage was human; yet could he be a
man? During the day he was absent; at night he returned, and his roofs
rung with the sounds of festivity, mingled with shrieks and
imprecations. It was the carnival of devils, when we miserable victims
were dragged out to----

"Enough! enough! Euthanasia, do you wonder that I, who have been the
slave of incarnate Evil, should have become a Paterin?

"That time has passed as a dream. Often my faculties were exerted to the
utmost; my energies alive, at work, combating;--but I struggled against
victory, and was ever vanquished. I have seen the quiet stars shine, and
the shadow of the grated window of the hall lie upon the
moon-enlightened pavement, and it crawled along silently as I had
observed it in childhood, so that truly I inhabited the same world as
you,--yet how different! Animal life was the same; the household dog
knew, and was at last obedient to my voice; the cat slumbered in the
sun;--what was the influence that hung alone over the mind of man,
rendering it cruel, hard and fiendlike?

"And who was the author of these ills? There was something about him
that might be called beautiful; but it was the beauty of the tiger, of
lightning, of the cataract that destroys. Obedience waited on his
slightest motion; for he made none, that did not command; his followers
worshipped him, but it was as a savage might worship the god of evil.
His slaves dared not murmur;--his eyes beamed with irresistible fire,
his smile was as death. I hated him; and I alone among his many victims
was not quelled to submission. I cursed him--I poured forth eloquent and
tumultuous maledictions on his head, until I changed his detested love
into less dreadful, less injurious hate. Yet then I did not escape; his
boiling and hideous passions, turned to revenge, now endeavoured to
wreak themselves in my misery. These limbs, my Euthanasia, have been
wrenched in tortures; cold, famine and thirst have kept like
blood-hounds a perpetual watch upon my wearied life; yet I still live to
remember and to curse.

"But, though life survived these rending struggles, my reason sank
beneath them!--I became mad. Oh! dearest friend, may you never know what
I suffered, when I perceived the shadow of a false vision overpower me,
and my sickening throes, when the bars of my dungeon, its low roof, and
black thick air, would, as it were, peer upon me with a stifling sense
of reality amidst my insane transports. I struggled to recall my reason,
and to preserve it; I wept, I prayed;--but I was again lost; and the
fire that dwelt in my brain gave unnatural light to every object. But I
must speak of that no more; methinks I again feel, what it is madness
only to recollect.

"I told you that I remained for three years in this infernal house. You
can easily imagine how slowly the days and nights succeeded one to
another, each adding to my age, each adding one misery more to my list.
Still I was the slave of him, who was a man in form alone, and of his
companions, who, if they did not equal him in malice, yet were more
vile, more treacherous, than he. At length the Pope's party besieged the
castle. The many crimes of its possessor had drawn on him the hatred of
the country round; and the moment that a leader appeared, the whole
peasantry flocked as to a crusade to destroy their oppressor. He was
destroyed. I saw him die, calm, courageous and unrepenting. I stood
alone near his couch of blood-stained cloaks thrown in a heap upon the
floor, on which when he staggered into the room he had fallen; he asked
me for a cup of water; I raised his head, and gave him to drink; he
said--'I feel new strength, I shall be better soon.' And, saying those
words, he died.

"I was now free. I arose from the floor on which I knelt; and dividing
from my eyes my hair dabbled in his blood, I cut off with his dagger the
long and dripping locks, and threw them on his body. I disguised me in
the clothes of one of his pages, and hid myself, until by the submission
of his followers the outlet from my prison should be free. As I said
before, it was more a vast palace than a castle, being without towers or
battlements; but it was fortified by numberless ditches and other
obstacles, apparently small, yet which, defended by slingers and
archers, became almost impregnable. But when the chief died, these were
deserted; and the partners of his rapine and his feasts filled the air
with their savage lamentations. The fortress was taken; and I escaped to
the mountains, the wild, wild mountains,--I sought them as a home after
my long and painful imprisonment.

"I was now free. The ilex trees shaded me; the waters murmured beside
me; the sweet winds passed over my cheeks. I felt new life. I was no
longer a haggard prisoner, the despairing victim of others' crimes, the
inhabitant of the dark and blood-stained walls of a house, which hedged
me in on all sides, and interrupted the free course of my health even in
sleep. I was again Beatrice; I again felt the long absent sensations of
joy: it was paradise to me, to see the stars of heaven, unimpeded by the
grates of my dungeon-windows, to walk, to rest, to think, to speak,
uninterrupted and unheard. I became delirious with joy; I embraced the
rough trunks of the old trees, as if they were my sisters in freedom and
delight;--I took up in my hand the sparkling waters of the stream, and
scattered them to the winds;--I threw myself on the earth, I kissed the
rocks, I raved with tumultuous pleasure. Free! free! I can run, until my
strength fails; I can rest on a mossy bank, until my strength returns; I
hear the waving of the branches; I see the flight of the birds; I can
lie on the grassy floor of my mother-earth so long unvisited; and I can
call nature my own again. It was autumn, and the underwood of the forest
had strewn the ground with its withered leaves; the arbutus-berries,
chesnuts, and other fruits satisfied my appetite. I felt no want, no
fatigue; the common shapes of this world seemed arrayed in unusual
loveliness, to welcome and feast me on my new-found liberty.

"I wandered many days, and penetrated into the wild country of the
Abruzzi. But I was again lost: I know not what deprived me of reason
thus, when I most needed it. Whether it were the joy, or the sudden
change, attendant on a too intense sensation of freedom, which made me
feel as if I interpenetrated all nature, alive and boundless. I have
recollections, as if sometimes I saw the woods, the green earth, and
blue sky, and heard the roaring of a mighty waterfal which splashed me
with its cold waters: but there is a blank, as of a deep, lethargic
sleep; and many weeks passed before I awoke again, and entered upon the
reality of life.

"I found myself in a cavern lying on the ground. It was night; and a
solitary lamp burned, fastened to the wall of the cave; the
half-extinguished ashes of a fire glimmered in a recess; and a few
utensils that appeared to have been intended for the preparing food,
seemed to mark this as a human habitation. It was dry, and furnished
with a few benches and a table, on which lay bread and fruits. I felt as
if I had become the inhabitant of the dwelling of a spirit; and, with a
strange, half-painful, half-pleasurable feeling, I raised an apple to my
lips, that by its fragrance and taste I might assure myself that it was
earthly. Then again I looked around for some fellow-creature. I found a
narrow passage from my cave, which led to an inner apartment much
smaller and very low; on the ground, on a bed of leaves lay an old man:
his grey hairs were thinly strewn on his venerable temples, his beard
white, flowing and soft, fell to his girdle; he smiled even in his sleep
a gentle smile of benevolence. I knelt down beside him; methought it was
my excellent father, the lord Marsilio; but that there were greater
traces of thought and care upon the fallen cheeks and wrinkled brow of
this old man.

"He awoke: 'My poor girl,' he said, 'what would you?'

"'I wish to know where I am, and what I do here?'

"My words convinced my good protector, that the kindly sleep into which
his medicines had thrown me, had restored my reason; and, it being now
day-break, he arose, and opened the door of his cave. It was dug under
the side of a mountain, covered by ivy, wild vines, and other parasites,
and shaded by ilex trees; it opened on the edge of a small grassy
platform, with a steep wall of rock behind, and a precipice before: the
mountain in which it was scooped, was one of many that inclosed a rugged
valley; and, from one spot on the platform, I could distinguish a mass
of waters falling with a tremendous crash, which were afterwards hidden
by the inequalities of the mountain, and then were seen, a turbid and
swift river, at the bottom of the valley. The lower sides of the
mountain were covered with olive woods, whose seagreen colour contrasted
with the dark ilex, and the fresh-budding leaves of a few chesnuts. I
felt cold, and the mountain had just begun to be tipped by the rising
sun; it seemed as if no path led to or from the platform, and that we
were shut out from the whole world, suspended on the side of a rocky
mountain.

"This cavern had been an hospital for me during the long winter months.
The old man had found me straying wildly among the forests, complaining
of the heavy chains that bound me, and the wrongs and imprisonment that
I suffered. He, poor wretch, was an outcast of his species, a heretic, a
Paterin, who hid himself in the woods from the fury of the priests who
would have destroyed him. He led me to his cave; he tended me as the
kindest father; he restored me to reason, and even then did not desert
me. He lived here quite alone; no one was intrusted with the secret of
his retreat; at night, muffled up and disguised, he often went to seek
for food, and again hastened back to peace and solitude.

"I partook his solitude for many months: at sunrise we quitted our
dwelling, and enjoyed the fresh air, and the view of the sky and the
hills, until the sight of the first countryman in the vale below warned
us to retire. On moonlight nights we sat there; and, while she, lady of
the night, moved slowly above us, and the stars twinkled around, we
talked, and, in our conversations of faith, goodness and power, his
doctrines unveiled to me, what had before been obscure, and from him I
learned that creed which you hold in detestation, but which, believe me,
has much to be said in its behalf.

"Look, dear Euthanasia, daylight has made dim the glimmer of your lamp,
and bids me remember how often I have forgotten my promise to be brief
in my relation; it is now almost finished. I soon greatly loved my kind
guardian; he was the gentlest and most amiable of mortals, wise as a
Grecian sage, fearless and independent. He died in torture: the
bloodhounds hunted him from his den; they bound his aged limbs; they
dragged him to the stake. He died without dread, I would fain believe
almost without pain. Could these things be, oh, my preserver, best and
most excellent of men? It were well befitting, that thou shouldst die
thus, and that I lived, and still live.

"It were tedious to relate how all this passed; how I wept and prayed;
how I escaped, and, half maddened by this misery, cursed the creation
and its cruel laws. The rest is all uninteresting; I was returning from
the task of carrying the last legacy of this old man to his daughter at
Genoa, when I was seized in this town by the Inquisitors, and cast into
prison,----you know the rest.

"And now, dearest friend, leave me. Having related the events of my past
life, it makes me look on towards the future; it is not enough to rise
every day, and then lie down to sleep; I would look on what I may become
with firmness; I know that no creature in the whole world is so
miserable as I; but I have not yet drained the cup of life; something
still remains to be done.

"Yet one word, my Euthanasia, of Him who is the law of my life; and yet
I dare not say what I thought of saying. You write to him about me
sometimes; do you not? You may still; I would not check you in this. In
truth he is the master of my fate; and it were well that he knew all
that relates to me."

Poor Beatrice then wept bitterly; but she waved her hand in sign that
she would be left alone; and Euthanasia retired. She had not slept the
whole night, but she felt no inclination to rest. The last words of
Beatrice seemed to imply that she wished that Castruccio should know her
story; so she sat down, and wrote an abstract of it, while her eyes
often filled with tears, as she related the wondrous miseries of the
ill-fated prophetess.




CHAPTER V


_Beatrice resolves to take the Veil.--Euthanasia
visits Florence._


On the following day Beatrice seemed far more calm. Euthanasia had
feared, that the reviving the memory of past sorrows, might awaken the
frenzy from which she had before suffered; but it was not so. She had
pined for confidence; her heart was too big to close up in secrecy all
the mighty store of unhappiness to which it was conscious; but, having
now communicated the particulars to another, she felt somewhat relieved.
She and Euthanasia walked up and down the overgrown paths of the
palace-garden; and, as Beatrice held her friend's hand, after a silence
of a few minutes she said:

"I do not like to pry into the secrets of my own heart; and yet I am
ever impelled to do it. I was about to compare it to this unweeded
garden; but here all is still; and the progress of life, be it beautiful
or evil, goes on in peace: in my soul all jars,--one thought strikes
against another, and produces most vile discord. Sometimes for a moment
this ceases; and would that that state of peace would endure for ever:
but, crash!--comes in the stroke of a mightier hand, which destroys all
harmony and melody, alas! that may be found in your gentler heart; in
mine all recollection of it even is extinct."

"I will tell you how this is, my sweet Beatrice," replied Euthanasia,
playfully. "I will tell you what the human mind is; and you shall learn
to regulate its various powers. The human soul, dear girl, is a vast
cave, in which many powers sit and live. First, Consciousness is as a
centinel at the entrance; and near him wait Joy and Sorrow, Love and
Hate, and all the quick sensations that through his means gain entrance
into our hearts.

"In the vestibule of this cavern, still illumined by the light of day,
sit Memory with banded eyes, grave Judgement bearing her scales, and
Reason in a lawyer's gown. Hope and Fear dwell there, hand in hand, twin
sisters; the first (the elder by some brief moments, of ruddy
complexion, firm step, eyes eagerly looking forward, and lips apart in
earnest expectation,) would often hurry on to take her seat beside Joy;
if she were not held back by Fear, the younger born; who, pale and
trembling, would as often fly, if Hope held not her hand, and supported
her; her eyes are ever turned back to appeal to Memory, and you may see
her heart beat through her dun robe. Religion dwells there also, and
Charity, or sometimes in their place, their counterfeits or opposites,
Hypocrisy, Avarice and Cruelty.

"Within, excluded from the light of day, Conscience sits, who can see
indeed, as an owl, in the dark. His temples are circled by a diadem of
thorns, and in his hand he bears a whip; yet his garb is kingly, and his
countenance, though severe, majestical.

"But beyond all this there is an inner cave, difficult of access, rude,
strange, and dangerous. Few visit this, and it is often barren and
empty; but sometimes (like caverns that we read of, which are discovered
in the bosoms of the mountains, and exist in beauty, unknown and
neglected) this last recess is decorated with the strongest and most
wondrous devices;--stalactites of surpassing beauty, stores of
unimagined wealth, and silver sounds, which the dropping water makes, or
the circulation of the air, felt among the delicate crystals. But here
also find abode owls, and bats, and vipers, and scorpions, and other
deadly reptiles. This recess receives no light from outward day; nor has
Conscience any authority here. Sometimes it is lighted by an inborn
light; and then the birds of night retreat, and the reptiles creep not
from their holes. But, if this light do not exist, oh! then let those
beware who would explore this cave. It is hence that bad men receive
those excuses for their crimes, which take the whip from the hand of
Conscience, and blunt his sharp crown; it is hence that the daring
heretic learns strange secrets. This is the habitation of the madman,
when all the powers desert the vestibule, and he, finding no light,
makes darkling, fantastic combinations, and lives among them. From
thence there is a short path to hell, and the evil spirits pass and
repass unreproved, devising their temptations.

"But it is here also that Poetry and Imagination live; it is here that
Heroism, and Self-sacrifice, and the highest virtues dwell, and here
they find a lore far better than all the lessons of the world; and here
dwells the sweet reward of all our toil, Content of Mind, who crowned
with roses, and bearing a flower-wreathed sceptre, rules, instead of
Conscience, those admitted to her happy dominion."

Euthanasia talked thus, trying to give birth in the mind of Beatrice to
calmer ideas; but it was in vain; the poor girl listened, and when her
friend had finished, she raised her eyes heavy with tears. "Talk no more
in this strain," she said; "every word you utter tells me only too
plainly what a lost wretch I am. No content of mind exists for me, no
beauty of thought, or poetry; and, if imagination live, it is as a
tyrant, armed with fire, and venomed darts, to drive me to despair."

A torrent of tears followed these words; and no caresses or consolation
could soothe her.

Soon after, Euthanasia received an answer from Castruccio to the letter
in which she had sketched Beatrice's unhappy story. He lamented the
misfortunes, which through his means had overwhelmed the poor
prophetess. "I know," he continued, "of no refuge or shelter for her, if
it be not in your protecting affection. If she were as when I knew her,
her own feelings might suggest a cloister, as the last resource for one
so outraged and so miserable as she is. But she is a Paterin; and, until
she be reclaimed from this detestable heresy, she is shut out from the
consolations of our religion."

"And he writes thus coldly of this ruined temple, which was once all
that is fair and beautiful! Ah! I wonder not," thought Euthanasia, "that
he cast away my affections, since he can spare no deeper sympathy for
Beatrice. She does not interfere with his ambition or his designs; it is
therefore hardness of heart alone which dictates his chilling councils."

At this moment Beatrice entered. To see that beautiful creature only
(for beautiful she still was in spite of calamity and madness), was to
behold all that can be imagined of soft and lovely in woman, soft and
lovely, yet wild, so that, while you gazed with delight, you feared. Her
low brow, though its fairness were tarnished by the sun, still gleamed
beneath her raven-black hair; her eyes, which had reassumed some of
their ancient gentleness, slept as it were beneath their heavy lids. Her
angry look, which was lightning, her smile, which was as paradise, all
elevated her above her fellow creatures; she seemed like the incarnation
of some strange planetary spirit, that, robed in flesh, felt uneasy in
its bonds, and longed to be away on the wings of its own will.

She spoke with trepidation: "Do not blush, my friend, or endeavour to
conceal that paper; I know what it is; and, if you care for my peace of
mind, if you love me, if the welfare of my almost lost soul be dear to
you, let me see that writing."

"There is no consolation for you in it," replied Euthanasia, sadly.

"Nay, of that I alone can judge; look, I kneel to you, Euthanasia; and
do you deny me? I intreat you to give me that paper."

"My own Beatrice, do not torture me thus: if I do not shew it you--Never
mind: here it is; read it, and know what Castruccio is."

Beatrice read it with a peaceful air; and then, folding it up, said
composedly;--"I see no ill in this; and his will shall be done. It is a
strange coincidence, that I had already decided on what he advises; and
I trust he will be glad to find that the wandering prophetess again
seeks her antient path of religion and peace. I must explain these
things to you, my Euthanasia. I know that you wish to remove to
Florence: I can never leave this town. I shall never see him again, hear
him speak, or be any thing to him; but to live within the same walls, to
breathe the air of heaven which perhaps has hovered near him, this is a
joy which I will never, never forego. My resolution is fixed: but you
perish here; and would find loving and cherished friends there, where he
can never come. I would not detain you; I have chosen the mode of my
future destiny, and planned it all. The convent nearest to his palace is
one of nuns dedicated to San Michele. I have already sent for the
confessor of that convent; through him I shall make my peace with the
church; and, when he believes me sufficiently pure to become an
inhabitant of those sainted walls, I shall enter myself as a novice, and
afterwards become a nun of that order. I intreat you, dearest, to stay
only till my vows are made, when, wholly dedicated to heaven, I shall
feel less an earthly separation."

She spoke in a hurried, faltering voice, and closed her speech in tears;
she threw herself into Euthanasia's arms, and they both wept.--"Oh! no,
unhappy, but dear, dear Beatrice, indeed you shall not leave me. I can
be of little use now in the world to myself or others: but to cheer you,
to teach you, as well as my poor skill will permit, the softest path to
heaven, these shall be my tasks; you shall never leave me."

Beatrice disengaged herself from the arms of Euthanasia; and, casting up
her eyes, with that look of inspiration which seemed to seek and find
converse with the powers above, she said: "I thank you from the depth of
my heart, and may God bless you as you deserve, divine Euthanasia; but I
am fixed. Alas! my mind is as the waters, now lashed into waves by the
winds of circumstance, now coldly dark under a lowering heaven, but
never smiled upon by the life-giving sun. And this perishable frame is
to my soul as a weak, tempest-beaten promontory, against which the
Libeccio impels the undermining sea. I shall soon perish: but let my
death be that of the holy; and that can alone be in the solitude of a
cloister: that is the consummation of my fate. Oppose me no more: has
not he pronounced? And I will obey his word, as if he were my king, my
lord, my----Speak not; contradict me not; you see what a fragile being
I am."

And now this Beatrice, this Paterin, who had so lately with heartfelt
hatred told the tale of all the miseries that are suffered under the
sun, and cursed the author of them, became as docile to the voice of the
priest, as a seven-years-old child. The confessor for whom she had sent,
found it no difficult task to turn her mind to the reception of his
tenets; and prayer and penitence became again for her the law of the
day. She never went out; she remained secluded in Euthanasia's palace;
and, with her beads in her hand, her wild eyes turned heavenwards, she
sought for peace, and she found at least a respite from some of the
dreadful feelings that had hitherto tormented her.

In the mean time "the mother of the months" had many times waned, and
again refilled her horn; and summer, and its treasure of blue skies,
odorous flowers, merry insects, and sweet-voiced birds, again bade the
world be happy. The peasant prepared the threshing floor, choosing a
sunny spot which he carefully cleared of grass and weeds, and pouring
water on it, beat it, till it was as hard as a barn-floor in the north.
The ploughs, whose rough workmanship Virgil describes, lay useless
beside the tilth, now filled with the rising corn: the primroses had
faded; but one began to scent the myrtle on the mountains; the
innumerable fireflies, loving the green wheat, made a second heaven of
twinkling stars upon a verdant floor, or, darting among the olive
copses, formed a fairy scene of the sweet Italian night; the soft-eyed
oxen reposed in their stalls; and the flowers of the chesnuts and olives
had given place to the young, half-formed fruit. This is the season that
man has ever chosen for the destruction of his fellow-creatures, to make
the brooks run blood, the air, filled with the carolling of happy birds,
to echo also to the groans and shrieks of the dying, and the blue and
serene heaven to become tainted with the dew which the unburied corpse
exhales; winter were Bellona's fitting mate; but, no; she hangs about
the neck of summer, who would fain shake her off, as might well be
expected for so quarrelsome a bride.

Castruccio now possessed the whole territory of Lucca and several other
circumjacent provinces, in peace and obedience. But his eyes were always
turned towards Florence; and his most ardent wish was to humble, if not
possess himself of, that city. He made another step towards it during
the summer. The abbot of Pacciana got by popular favour entire power in
Pistoia; he used this in behalf of Castruccio, turning out the
Florentine ambassadors, and giving up to the prince of Lucca many of the
strong-holds and towers of the Pistoian territory. Castruccio was
possessed of the fortresses placed on the mountain which overlooked the
town, where he hovered, like a hawk over his prey, ready to pounce,
delaying only for the destined minute.

During this summer also he conceived some hopes of taking Pisa. The head
of the government there, who reigned entirely through the affections of
the people, suddenly offended his masters; he was decapitated; and the
various parties in the town, running to arms, entered into a bloody
warfare. At this moment Castruccio appeared with his army on the hill of
St. Giuliano: this sight pacified the combatants; they elected a new
lord, and turned their powers towards resisting the common enemy.
Castruccio retreated to Lucca; but he was so moved by the overthrow of
the Pisan chief, that, resolving to trust no more, as he had hitherto
done, to the affections of his people, he erected in the same year a
strong fortress within the walls of his city, which he called Agosta. He
spared no expence or labour in it; and it was considered by all as the
most magnificent work of those days: it was situated in that part of the
town which looks towards Pisa, surrounded by a strong and high wall, and
fortified by thirty towers. The inhabitants of a whole quarter were
turned out of their dwellings, to make room for this new symbol of
tyranny; and here he, his family, and followers, lived in proud
security.

Towards the end of the month of June, Euthanasia, who had hitherto been
occupied in attending to the sorrows of Beatrice, received information,
that one of her most valued Florentine friends was dangerously ill, and
earnestly desired her attendance. She mentioned this to her guest; and
Beatrice, ever variable, was then in a docile mood. She had long
listened with deep and earnest faith to the lessons of Padre Lanfranco,
the confessor of the convent to which she was about to retire. It would
seem that this old man humoured warily and wisely her disturbed
understanding; for she appeared at peace with herself and others: if she
now wept, she did not accuse, as she had before done, Him who had
created the fountain of her tears.

"Go, kind friend," said she to Euthanasia; "go; but return again.
Remember, I claim your companionship, until I take the veil,--then you
are free. Methinks, I should like to be left now in utter solitude, I
could commune more intensely with the hopes and heavenly gifts that I
entertain. Go; blessed spirit of Good, guardian Angel of poor Beatrice,
poor in all but gratitude,--you shall not see your work marred on your
return; you will still find me the good, obedient child, which I have
been, now, I think, for more than a month."

Euthanasia left her with pain, and with a mournful presentiment; but, as
all wore the aspect of peace, she thought herself bound to obey the
voice of friendship, and to see, perhaps for the last time, one who had
been the friend and companion of her early youth; and she departed for
Florence. There were for her too many associations allied to the Val di
Nievole, to permit her to choose that route. Besides Castruccio's army
occupied the passes, and she feared to meet him. She accordingly went
round by Pisa. Nothing could be more beautiful than the country; the low
Pisan hills covered with chesnut and olive woods, interspersed with
darker patches of pine and cork (while, among all, the cypresses raised
their tapering spires), and, crowned by castles and towers, bounded in a
plain of unparalleled fertility. The corn was cutting, and the song of
the reapers kept time as it were with the noisy cicale in the olive
trees, and the chirping birds. Peace, for the first time for several
years, sat brooding with outspread wings over the land; and underneath
their blessed shade sprung joy and plenty.

Euthanasia arrived at Florence. She found her friend recovered; but all
her acquaintance, who had eagerly expected her arrival, were much
disappointed when they heard that it was her intention to return to
Lucca. She however both loved and pitied Beatrice too much, to be
wanting in any of the duties of friendship towards her. After a month's
residence in her natal and beloved city, she again departed from
Florence. In the mean time what had become of the ill-fated prophetess?




CHAPTER VI


_Beatrice meets Tripalda--is led by Bindo to
the Witch's Cave._


The Albinois Bindo had been greatly struck by the appearance of
Beatrice. There was a wildness in her countenance and gestures that
excited his curiosity; and he seemed to feel instinctively that she had
about her the marks of one who dealt with unembodied spirits. He had
ventured to speak to his mistress concerning her; but he learnt nothing
except that Ferrara was her native town. With this slight information he
visited his friend, the witch, and they canvassed the subject together.

"Her eye sees beyond this world," said Bindo; "if you were to look on
her, you would find a companion in your art. I have discovered that
there is a mysterious connexion between her and the prince: he liberated
her when she was imprisoned by the Dominican fathers, as a Paterin, they
say, but I suspect that it was for magic."

"At any rate," replied the witch, "there is a mystery in this that I
will clear up. I will go to Ferrara, and learn who and what she is.
Expect me back in less than a month; in the mean time watch her; watch
every word and action; something may come of this."

The witch went to Ferrara. She traversed the hills, and went by unknown
paths, and across the untrodden mountains, guided either by her former
experience, or by the arch fiend himself; for it required almost
supernatural knowledge to trace her way among the heaped and confused
range of the Apennines. She walked at night, and rested during the day,
and saw the sun many times rise and set among the wild forests that
covered the hills. At Ferrara she learnt what she desired: Beatrice, the
_Ancilla Dei_, the prophetess, was not forgotten; even her connexion
with Castruccio had been guessed at; and some even dared assert, that
she had never quitted Lucca, or the palace of the prince, during her
pretended pilgrimage to Rome. The witch returned, joyful to think that
she had now obtained an instrument for some of her projects.

What were her projects? They had not that settled aim and undeviating
course which one object might inspire. Her desire was malice; and her
present hope, to impress upon Bindo some notion of the powers to which
she pretended. She had been young once; and her nature, never mild, had
been turned to ferocity by wrongs which had been received so long ago,
that the authors of them were all dead, and she, the victim, alone
survived. Calumny had blasted her name; her dearest affections had been
blighted; her children torn from her; and she remained to execrate and
to avenge.

Her evil propensities had long exhausted themselves in acts of petty
mischief among the peasantry; but her connexion with Bindo gave her
hopes of a wider scope for wickedness. To injure Castruccio, or to
benefit Euthanasia, was alike indifferent to her. She saw and understood
more of the human heart than Bindo did: she knew, that Euthanasia had
once loved the prince; and injury to him she hoped would carry a double
sting. She was old, perhaps about to die; and she thought that there
would be a pleasure in expiring amidst the groans of the victims of her
malice.

In these days, when the passions, if they are not milder, are more
restrained, and assume a more conventional appearance, it will be
doubted if such fiendish love of mischief ever existed; but that it did,
all tradition and history prove. It was believed, that the witch loved
evil as her daily bread, and that she had sold her soul to the devil to
do ill alone; _she_ knew how powerless she was; but she desired to fill
in every part the character attributed to her.

As she returned over the Apennines, she planned her future conduct; she
thought she saw one mighty ruin envelop three master-spirits of the
human kind, plotted by her alone. It was a dangerous experiment. "But I
must die," she cried; "and what death will be sweeter, even if it be in
the midst of flames, if so many share the torments with me? And thou,
puny abortion, who darest with trembling hands meddle in work beyond
thee, thou also shalt taste the poison so long withheld! A canker cling
to you all! I have long sought for labour suited to my genius; and now I
have found it."

It was on the day previous to the departure of Euthanasia for Florence,
that the witch returned: she met Bindo with a ghastly smile. "All," she
cried, "is as you wish; the star of Castruccio will be extinguished
behind the murky cloud which this same Beatrice will raise. Bring her to
me; in time you shall know all: but be wary; the countess must be blind
and deaf to our machinations."

Euthanasia had departed, leaving Beatrice far calmer than she had before
been since her release from prison. But no feelings were more
fluctuating than those of the poor prophetess. The day after she had
parted from her protectress, Padre Lanfranco had been called upon urgent
business to Sienna; and she was left without a guide to the workings of
her own mind. She could not stand this; the consolations of Euthanasia,
and the exhortations of the priest were alike forgotten; and Beatrice,
turned out, as it were, without shelter, fell into repinings and
despair.

She had ardently desired to see Castruccio; but her confessor had
commanded her to avoid all occasions of meeting him, if she wished to
fit herself for the holy life to which she said she felt herself called.
Beatrice was easily led; but she had no command over herself; and, the
moment she was left to her own guidance, she was hurried away by the
slightest impression.

Castruccio had just returned from Pistoia on the news of the
insurrection of Pisa; and it was said that he would again quit Lucca on
the following morning. "Now or never," thought Beatrice, "I may have my
will unreproved; if this day escape, I am again surrounded, enchained;
I might see him, hear his voice; oh! that I had courage to make the
attempt! Yet I fear that this may be the suggestion of some evil spirit;
I must not, dare not see him."

She wept and prayed; but in vain. In her days of extatic reverie she had
sanctified and obeyed every impulse as of divine origin; and now she
could not withstand the impressions she felt. She wrapped a coarse
capuchin around her, and sallied forth, with trembling steps, and eyes
gleaming with tears, to go and gaze on the form of him for whom she had
sacrificed her all. Hardly had she proceeded two paces from Euthanasia's
palace-gate, before a form--a man--passed before her, and with a loud
shriek she fell senseless on the pavement. She was brought back to the
house, and carefully nursed; but several days elapsed, while, still
possessed with fever, she raved of the most tremendous and appalling
scenes and actions, which she fancied were taking place around her. The
man whom she had seen was Tripalda; and from what she said in her
delirium, it might be gathered, that he had been an actor in the
frightful wrongs she had endured during her strange imprisonment in the
Campagna di Roma. She was attended on with kindness, and she recovered;
and such was the effect of her delirium, that she persuaded herself that
what had so terrified her, was a mere vision conjured up by her
imagination. She thought that the vivid image of this partner of her
enemy's crimes, thus coming across her while she was on the point of
disobeying her confessor's injunction, was a warning and punishment from
heaven.

Euthanasia was away, and Beatrice dared not speak to any: she brooded in
her own mind over the appearance, mysterious as she thought it, of this
man; until her fancy was so high wrought, that she feared her very
shadow on the wall; and the echo of her own steps as she trod the marble
pavement of her chamber, made her tremble with terror; the scenes she
had witnessed, the horrors that she had endured in that unhallowed
asylum of crime, presented themselves to her in their most vivid
colours; she remembered all, saw all; and the deep anguish she felt was
no longer mitigated by converse with her friend.

"Oh, cruel, unkind Euthanasia!" she cried, "why did you leave me? My
only hope, my only trust was in you; and you desert me. Alas! alas! I am
a broken reed, and none will support me; the winds blow, and I am
prostrated to the ground; and, if I rise again, I am bruised, almost
annihilated.

"Oh! that I could die! and yet I fear death. Oh! thou, who wert my
teacher and saviour, thou who expiredst smiling amidst flames, would
that thou wert here to teach me to die! What do I in this fair garden of
the world? I am a weed, a noxious insect; would that some superior power
would root me out utterly, or some giant-foot tread me to dust! Yet I
ask for what I do not wish. Was he a good God that moulded all the
agonizing contradictions of this frail heart?

"Yet hush, presumptuous spirit! recall no more those lessons, which I
hoped had been forgotten. Father! God! behold the most miserable and
weakest of thy creatures; teach me to die; and then kill me!"

She sat in the neglected garden of the palace, on one of the pedestals
which had been placed as a stand for the pots containing lemon-trees;
she leaned her head upon her hand, while the tears trickled down
unheeded. It had been her delight, ever since her arrival at Lucca, to
rove in this wild garden; and sometimes, when the sun had been long set,
and the sound of the _Ave Maria_ had died away, she would sit there,
and, fixing her eyes on the brightest star of the heavens, would sing
the remembered melodies of her childhood. Nothing recalls past feeling
so strongly as the notes of once-loved music; the memory was almost too
much for her; and her eyes streamed tears, as she sang the sweetest lay
that mortal ear had ever heard. Euthanasia had listened, she loved to
listen, to her wild airs; and, as Beatrice saw her own deep emotions
reflected in the beaming eyes of her friend, she felt soothed. But she
was now alone; she felt the solitude; she felt, that she sang, and that
none heeded her song: but, as the violet breathes as sweet an odour on
the indifferent air, as when the loveliest creature in the world bends
over it to inhale its fragrance; so did Beatrice now sing in solitude,
while, her heart warmed, her imagination expanded, and she felt a
transport which was pleasure, although a sea of black despair was its
near boundary.

As she sang, Bindo came near her unperceived. He had never addressed her
before; and she had never observed him: she was one of those persons,
who feel their own life and identity so much, that they seem to have no
spare feeling and sense for the uninteresting events and persons that
pass around them. He now spoke in a loud voice, arousing her from her
deep reverie:

"Awake, prophetess; it is not well that you should sleep; the spirits of
the air have work for you; all Tuscany feels your super-human presence."

Beatrice started, and gazed with surprize on the being who thus
addressed her: his dwarfish stature, his white hair and eyelashes, his
pale and wrinkled face, and his light reddish eyes gave him a strange
appearance; he looked indeed like one of the spirits whose existence he
asserted; and she shuddered as she beheld him.

"I come," continued Bindo, "from one, whose eye can see the forms that
pass, to me viewless, through the air; from one, who has thunder and
tempest like dogs in a leash, and who can wind and unwind the will of
man, as the simple girl spins thread from her distaff. I bear a message
to you."

"Of whom do you speak? I do not understand you."

"You will understand her words; for between the gifted there are signs,
which none else know, but which bind them fast together."

"Are you one of those?" asked the wondering girl.

"I am not," replied Bindo; "you know that I am not, though I did not
tell you. Are you not Beatrice, the prophetess of Ferrara? But my words
are weak. There is one who lives in a cavern not far off, who was
called, when young, Fior di Ligi, and now she calls herself Fior di
Mandragola; she rules the spirits who live about us, and is powerful
over the seasons, and over the misfortunes and sorrows of life. She bade
me tell you to awake; this night I will lead you to her; and she will by
her incantations take off the veil which spirits of darkness have thrown
over you."

"You talk of nothing; who are you?"

"I am a servant of the countess of Valperga; nothing more; a poor,
ignorant, despised dwarf, a blight, a stunt: but I am more powerful in
my weakness, than they with their giant limbs and strong muscles;--at
least I have that strength, as long as I am obedient to her of whom I
spoke. These are the words she bade me say to you,--'There is a cloud
over you which words of power can dispel; you are that which you seemed,
and not that which you believe';--come to the cavern of Fior di
Mandragola; and she will restore you to that height, from which the
ignorance of others, and your own want of faith have precipitated you."

"And who is Fior di Mandragola?"

"A witch,--a woman with grey hair and decrepid limbs; she is clothed in
rags, and feeds upon acorns and wood-nuts; but she is greater than any
queen. If she were to command, this blue sky would be covered with
clouds, the Serchio would overflow, and the plain of Lucca heave with
earthquake; she makes men fear they know not what; for by her command
spirits tug them by the hair, and they shiver with dread. One only she
cannot command; one will, one fortune, one power cannot be controled by
her; but your star surmounts his.--So, come, that you may know how to
rule him."

"Whom?"

"The prince of Lucca."

"Away! you know not what you say."

"I obey; speak not of this to the countess; I will be at your
chamber-window by midnight."

Bindo retreated, leaving Beatrice startled and trembling. She did not
rely on his wild creed; but she felt as if it might be true. She had
once believed in the command of man over supernatural agency; and she
had thrown aside that creed, when she lost her faith in her own powers.
She ran rapidly in her thoughts over all that had occurred to her of
this nature, her extacies, her delirious and joyous aspirations,--they
were more dead and cold, than the white ashes of a long-extinguished
fire;--but other events had occurred, and she had felt inexplicable
emotions which seemed to link her to other existences. She remembered
her dream; and, covering her eyes with her hands, she endeavoured to
recal what words and forms had been revealed to her on that
occasion----vainly; the attempt served only more to shake a reason
already tottering. It awoke her however from her unbelief; and she again
felt those deep and inquisitive thoughts, that had for many years been
the life of her being. She resolved to visit Fior di Mandragola; she
knew not why, but curiosity was mingled with the desire of change and
freedom; she thought that it would be delightful to visit at midnight
the witch's cave, guided by the strange Albinois. Beatrice was left
alone to her own reflections for the whole evening; they were ever
dreadful, except when the vivacity of her imagination mingled rainbows
with the tempest.

Night came; and, wrapping a capuchin around her, she mounted the horse
that Bindo had brought, and followed him across the country, towards the
mountains which divide the Lucchese from the Modenese territory; the
dark forests extended into the valley, contrasting their black shadows
with the dun hues of the low country; the stars shone keenly above. They
rode swiftly; but the way was long; and it was two o'clock before they
arrived at the witch's cave. It was a dreary habitation: and now, as the
shades of night fell upon it, it appeared more desolate than ever; the
pines made a sorrowful singing above it; the earth around was herbless;
and a few pine cones lay about, mingled with the grey rock that here and
there peeped above the soil.

The witch sat at the door of the hovel. She was a strange being: her
person was short, almost deformed, shrivelled and dried up, but agile
and swift of motion; her brown and leathern face was drawn into a
thousand lines; and the flesh of her cheeks, thus deformed, seemed
hardly human; her hands were large, bony, and thin; she was unlike every
other animal, but also was she unlike humanity, and seemed to form a
species apart, which might well inspire the country people with awe.
When she saw Beatrice, she arose, and advanced towards her, saying,
"What do you here, child of a sleeping power? Come you here to teach, or
to learn the secrets of our art?"

"I come at your own request," replied Beatrice, haughtily; "if you have
nothing to say to me, I return."

"I have much to say to you," said Mandragola; "for I would awaken a
spirit from lethargy, that can command us all. You are the mistress of
those, of whom I am the slave; will it, and a thousand spirits wait your
bidding; look, like subdued hounds they now crouch at your feet, knowing
that you are their superior. It is my glory to _obey_ them,--how far do
_you_ transcend me!"

"You talk in riddles, good mother; I see no spirits, I feel no power."

"And if you did, would you be here? Here, at the cavern of a poor witch,
who, spelling her incantations, and doing such penance as would make
your young blood freeze but to hear it, just earns a power hardly
gained, quickly to be resigned. But you could ride the winds, command
the vegetation of the earth, and have all mankind your slaves. I ask you
whether you did not once feel that strength? For a moment you were
eclipsed; but the influence of the evil planet is well nigh gone, and
you may now rule all,--will you accept this dominion?"

"Your words appear idle to me; give them proof, and I will listen."

"Consult your own heart, prophetess; and that will teach you far more
than I can. Does it not contain strange secrets known only to yourself?
Have you never owned a power, which dwelt within you, and you felt your
own mind distinct from it, as if it were more wise than you; so wise
that you confessed, but could not comprehend its wisdom? Has it not
revealed to you that, which without its aid you never could have known?
Have you not seen this other self?"

"Stop, wonderful woman, if you would not madden me," screamed the poor
terrified Beatrice. "That is the key, the unbreakable link of my
existence; that dream must either place me above humanity, or destroy
me."

"You own this power?" cried the witch triumphantly.

"Send away the Albinois, and I will tell you all. [At the beck of the
witch Bindo withdrew.] Yet I gasp for breath, and fear possesses me.
What do you tell me of power? I feel that I am ruled; and, when this
dream comes over me, as it now does, I am no longer myself. I dreamed of
a flood, of a waste of white, still waters, of mountains, of a real
scene which I had never beheld. There was a vast, black house standing
in the midst of the water; a concourse of dark shapes hovered about me;
and suddenly I was transported into a boat which was to convey me to
that mansion. Strange! another boat like to mine moved beside us; its
prow was carved in the same manner; its rowers, the same in number, the
same in habiliment, struck the water with their oars at the same time
with ours; a woman sate near the stern, aghast and wild as I;--but their
boat cut the waves without sound, their oars splashed not the waters as
they struck them, and, though the boats were alike black, yet not like
mine did this other cast a black shadow on the water. We landed
together; I could not walk for fear; I was carried into a large room,
and left alone; I leaned against the hangings, and there advanced to
meet me another form. It was myself; I knew it; it stood before me,
melancholy and silent; the very air about it was still. I can tell no
more;--a few minutes ago I remembered nothing of all this; a few
moments, and I distinctly remembered the words it spoke; they have now
faded. Yes; there is something mysterious in my nature, which I cannot
fathom."

Beatrice shivered; her face was deadly pale, and her eyes were glazed by
fear. The witch had now tuned her instrument, and she proceeded to play
on it with a master's hand.

"Heavenly girl," she said, "I acknowledge myself your slave. Command me
and my powers, as you will; they will do all you bid them;--but that is
little. There are other spirits, which belong not to the elements, but
to the mind and fortunes of man, over which I have no sway, but which
are attendant upon you. Fear not! The revelations you have received are
almost too tremendous for your weak human frame; but gather strength;
for your body and your spirit may master all the kings of the earth.
That other self, which at one time lives within you, and anon wanders at
will over the boundless universe, is a pure and immediate emanation of
the divinity, and, as such, commands all creatures, be they earthly or
ethereal. As yet you have seen it only in a dream; have faith, and the
consciousness of its presence will visit your waking reveries."

Beatrice sighed deeply, and said: "I was in hope that my part was done,
and that I should die without more agitation and fear; but I am marked,
and cannot combat with my destiny. Strange as is the tale which I have
just related, I cannot believe what you say: and, though doubtless there
are other existences, of which we know nothing, yet I do not believe
that we can have communication with, and far less power over them. I
would fain preserve the little reason I have still left me; and that
tells me that what you say is false."

"But if I can prove it to be true?"

"How?"

"Ask what you will! Would you see the cloudless sky become black and
tempestuous? Would you hear the roaring of the overflowing waters, or
see the animals of the forest congregate at my feet? Or, would you exert
your own power? Would you draw towards you by your powerful
incantations, one whom you wish to see, and who must obey your call? If
you speak, all must obey; the prince himself, the victorious Castruccio,
could not resist you."

The burning cheeks, and flashing eyes of the prophetess, shewed the
agitation that this proposal excited in her heart. Poor girl! she still
loved; that wound still festered, ever unhealed. She would have risked
her soul, to gain a moment's power over Castruccio. She paused; and then
said, "In three days I will tell you what I wish, and what I will do."

"In the mean time swear never to reveal this visit, this cavern, or my
name: swear by yourself."

"A foolish vow,--by myself I swear."

"Enough; you dare not break that oath."

The witch retreated into her cave; and Bindo came forward to conduct
Beatrice home. She was faint and tired; and day dawned before they
arrived at the palace of Euthanasia.

The three following days were days of doubt and trepidation for the
unfortunate Beatrice. At one moment she utterly discredited the
pretensions of Mandragola; but then her imagination, that evil pilot for
her, suggested, _Yet, if it should be so!_ and then she would picture
forth the scenes she desired, until she gasped with expectation. At
last, she thought,--"There will be no harm in the experiment; if her
promises are vain, no injury will result;--if true--To be sure I know
they are not; but something will happen, and at least I will try.

"I know that Euthanasia, and more than she, Padre Lanfranco, would tell
me, that, if true, this woman deals with the devil, and that I, who have
lately saved my soul from his grasp, should beware of trusting myself
within his reach. All this is well to children and old women; but I have
already tempted the powers above me too far to flinch now. Am I not, was
I not, a Paterin? Euthanasia, who has never wandered from the straight
line of her duty, and Lanfranco, who has learned his morality in a
cloister, cannot know what it most becomes an excommunicated wretch like
me to do.

"Yet I am very ungrateful and wicked, when I say this; ungrateful to
their prayers, wicked in transgressing the laws which God has
promulgated.

"What does this woman say? that I shall see him, that he will obey my
voice, and that, not by magic art, but by that innate power, which, by
the order of the universe, one spirit possesses over another:--that I
shall see him, as I have seen him!--Oh, saints of heaven, suffer me not
to be tempted thus! But no,--the heavenly powers deign not to interfere;
they know my weakness, my incapacity to resist,--but, like most careless
guardians, they permit that to approach which must overcome me. I am
resolved; she shall guide me; if nothing come (as most surely nothing
will come), it imports not. And, if I am destined for one moment more in
this most wretched life to taste of joy, others may (but I will not)
dash the intoxicating draught away."

She thought thus, and spoke thus to her secret mind; but every hour her
resolution fluctuated, and remorse, hope, and dread possessed her by
turns. She feared to be alone; but the presence of an indifferent person
made her nerves tremble with the restraint she was obliged to keep upon
herself. There seemed some link of confidence between her and Bindo; and
she called for him to dispel the appalling sensations with which
solitude inspired her. He came; and his conversation only tended to
increase her chaos of conflicting thoughts. He related the wonderful
exploits of Mandragola; how he had seen her call lightning and cloud
from the south, and how at her bidding the soft western wind would
suddenly arise, and dispel the wondrous tempests she had brewed; how the
planet of night obeyed her, and that, once during the full moon, this
planet had suddenly deserted the sky, but that, while the heavens were
blank and rayless, its image continued to lie placidly in the stream
near which they stood. He related the strange effects she had produced
upon the minds of men, forcing them most unwillingly to do her pleasure;
at other times depriving them of their senses, so that for many hours
they wandered about like madmen, until at her command their faculties
were restored to them.

Beatrice listened, half in disdain, half in fear; her conclusion still
was,--"The experiment is worth trying; if her words be false, there is
no harm done; if true"--and then her imagination pictured forth
happiness that never should be hers.




CHAPTER VII


_Euthanasia returns.--Beatrice meets the witch,
and encounters Castruccio and Tripalda.--Dies._


On the third night she returned to the witch. "You need not speak," said
Mandragola, "I know your thoughts; you hardly believe my words, yet you
are determined to make the trial. It is well; I should be surer of
success, if you had implicit faith in my powers and your own; but it is
enough. What do you wish to effect?"

"First, mother, I must know what I can do."

"Your power is almost illimitable; but that of which I spoke, and that
power which you prize most, is the power which you possess over the
prince of Lucca. Do you wish to see him? Do you wish in solitude, with
none but me near, to see him come, to hear him renew his antient vows?"

"He never made vows to me," cried Beatrice angrily; "he was bound to me,
I thought, by stronger ties than mortal oaths; that is past for ever;
but, except the salvation of my soul, I would sacrifice every thing to
see him once again, divested of the ceremonial of power, listening to
what will never be told, consoling her who can never be consoled."

"That is easy work," said the witch, with alacrity; "but first swear,
swear by all that you hold sacred in the world, by your life, by his,
that you will never disclose this conversation, or what I shall now
reveal to you, or hint in any manner the work we shall undertake."

Beatrice shivered; she could no longer stand, she sunk to the ground:
the witch went into the hut, and brought her a bowl of water; Beatrice
put it to her lips; then suddenly withdrawing it, she cried,--"You have
given me a poisonous drug, either to kill me, or undermine my
understanding;--dare you thus trifle with me?"

The witch took the bowl from her hand, and drank the liquid it
contained: "Take shame for your mistrust," she said; "this was pure
water from the spring; and, except that the charmed moon-beams sleep on
it, even when you see not the moon in the sky, it does not differ from
the waters of any other fountain. Now speak; do you swear secrecy?"

Again the prophetess paused. But curiosity and hope hurried her beyond
discretion; and with folded hands placed between the dry and skinny
palms of the witch, she pronounced the vow that was dictated.

Mandragola then said: "This satisfies me. The moon is now on the wane:
when she fills again, I will send Bindo to inform you what is to be
done. Fear not, but that all will be well."

Beatrice returned to Lucca. Her glazed eyes and pale cheeks told that
the spirit which animated her now found nor rest nor hope. She dreaded
to look forward to the fearful trial she was about to make; and yet she
could think of nothing else. Her rosary was thrown aside; her prayers
were forgotten; and love again reassumed his throne in her heart. Her
reason was disturbed by doubt and fear; and she often sat whole hours,
her eye fixed upon the earth, her parted lips pale, her hands closed
with convulsive strength, as she tried to reason herself into disbelief
concerning the promises and assertions of Mandragola. It was too much
for her weak frame; if the witch had been near her to mark the wasting
of her faculties, she might have wound her plot so as to inspire her
with some courage: but no one was near except Bindo; and he by his
tales, and his own fears and belief, only increased the combat of
feelings to which the prophetess was a prey.

Euthanasia returned from Florence. She was much disappointed, much
grieved, to find her friend far worse both in body and mind, than when
she left her. More than all wildness of words and manner, she feared her
silence and reserve, so very unlike her latest disposition. If the
convent, or her future plans were named, she listened calmly, but did
not reply; no intreaties could persuade her to give words to that which
preyed upon her mind. She would weep; and then, flying from the
affectionate reproaches of her protectress, she would shut herself up to
grieve alone, or far more dangerously to dream of the return of love and
joy. Euthanasia reasoned, persuaded, intreated, but vainly: accustomed
to the caprices of this unfortunate girl, she saw nothing in what now
occurred, that appeared to arise from any external impulse; and she
hoped that indulgence and kindness would in time restore her to her
former calm. She reproached herself for having left her; and she
resolved that, unless indeed Beatrice took the veil, which now seemed
doubtful, she would never again separate herself from her. She loved her
tenderly, and pitied her so truly, that she was willing to sacrifice all
her own hopes of future peace to soothe and restore her to some degree
of happiness.

Her endeavours were useless. The melancholy of poor Beatrice was
undissipated by the slightest gleam of tranquillity: for five days she
had not spoken, and had hardly touched any food. Euthanasia tried in
vain to console her, and, hopeless of good, sought to excite any passion
that might rouse her from her mute reveries; she spoke not, but wandered
restlessly from room to room, or among the wild paths of the garden; and
thence she would have escaped into the open country, but that her weak
limbs sunk beneath her. One night Euthanasia slept, when Beatrice
suddenly entered the room; and, twining herself round her neck, and
wrapping the long and thick hair of her friend around her brows----

"Save me!" she cried, "save me from madness, which, as a fiend, pursues
and haunts me. I endeavour to fly him; but still he hovers near: is
there no escape? Oh! if God be good, surely he will redeem my soul from
this curse. I would fain preserve my reason; my lips are bloodless, and
my hair quite grey; I am a skeleton without flesh or form; I am to what
lives, like the waning moon at noonday, which floats up as a vapour, and
the blue air seems to penetrate its pale and sickly form. Happiness,
beauty, love have passed away; but I would fain preserve that without
which I am as a poor hunted beast, whose sole repose is on the spear of
the huntsman. Breathe on me, Euthanasia, breathe on my hands, my eyes;
perhaps some portion of calm may flow from your bosom to mine. I only
wish not to be mad; yet, if what is said be true, these wonderful things
may be, and I still sane. There, there, your hand is cool; press my
head. I know you well; you are Euthanasia; I am Beatrice; I may still be
preserved from madness."

Euthanasia wept; she folded Beatrice in her arms; she placed her cool
hand on her brow, and her pale cheek close to the flushed one of the
poor sick girl. Beatrice rested a few moments in silence; and then again
she spoke. "It has been said, that I am a witch, one who has power over
the elements, and still more over the mind of man. I do not believe
this: once, I know, a very long time ago, I fancied myself a prophetess;
but I awoke from that dream many years since. Why then do they madden me
with these insinuations? I will tell you, Euthanasia (sweet name, dear,
much-loved friend), that sometimes I fancy this is true.--Oh! that I
could tell the heavy secret that weighs upon my soul! I have sworn--they
did not well, that made me swear:--yet there is some truth in what they
say, doubtless there is some truth, and it shall be _proved_. Well,
well; I have sworn, and I will not tell--Good night, dearest; I shall
sleep now; so not a word more; I have reasoned with myself, and am
content."

Beatrice crept back to her chamber; but Euthanasia could not again rest.
She was amazed at her friend's strange words, and tried to divine
whether they proceeded from the heated imagination of the prophetess, or
from some real event of which Euthanasia was ignorant; but she had no
clue to guide her in her conjectures; and it appeared to her most
probable, that Beatrice was moved by the suggestions of her own heart;
she could not guess the dreadful and maniac thoughts that really
disturbed her, or the frightful incitements that had been employed to
deceive her.

A fortnight passed thus; when the Albinois brought a message from
Mandragola, bidding Beatrice repair that same night at twelve, to a wood
about four miles from Lucca. At this time Castruccio was employed in
building the tower of Nozzano, on a small hill which was surrounded by
the wood chosen by the witch. The weather (it was in the month of July)
was exceedingly hot; the cattle panted beneath the sun; the earth was
herbless; all life decayed: but delicious nights succeeded these
oppressive days; and Castruccio was accustomed to repair, as early as
two in the morning, to visit the fortress. Mandragola knew the spot near
which he passed; and she so planned her scheme, that her incantation
should be wound to the desired pitch, at the moment when he should ride
through the wood: and thus, to the simple mind of the Albinois, and the
exalted imagination of Beatrice, afford a proof of the extent of her
power.

It is impossible to say what her object was in all this; she might be
merely instigated by the desire to excite respect and terror, and have
trusted that this apparent confirmation of her assertions would enable
her to acquire unlimited power over the mind of her victims. She did not
intend on this occasion that Beatrice should speak to the prince;--that
she should call for him, and he appear, was sufficient mummery for one
day: another time more might be done, and another step taken in the
labyrinth of error and fraud.

That same night Bindo tapped at the door of Beatrice's chamber. The
prophetess opened it;--she looked aghast and wild, but spoke not.--"This
is the hour," said the Albinois.

"Wrap your cloak round you," he continued, "that you may not be known."
Beatrice did as he desired, moving her arms like inanimate machines, and
turning her eyes around, as if she saw nothing. Bindo led her
down-stairs; they quitted the palace by a small back door; he made her
mount a horse; and they rode out of the town. All passed in silence;
Beatrice hardly appeared to know whither she was going, or why she went;
the bridle fell from her hands, and hung loosely on the horse's neck;
but the animal mechanically followed Bindo's horse, which led the way.

They arrived at the wood, and dismounted. Bindo tied the horses to a
tree, and proceeded cautiously through the intricate paths of the
forest. It was an ilex wood; and the dark foliage canopied them above,
while the moon-beams penetrated through the interstices of the leaves,
and made a chequered shadow upon the ground, which was despoiled of its
grassy covering through long drouth. At length they came to a more
trodden road; and this led to a kind of woody amphitheatre, an open
space in the midst of the trees, one of the corners of which the path
traversed, and all around the ilexes formed a circular boundary of ample
circumference. At one of the extremities, farthest from the path, was a
fountain, which kept a soft murmuring all the still night through. Near
this fountain the witch sat: she was weaving two coronals of ivy, and
muttering as she wove; Beatrice and the Albinois were before her, but
she appeared not to notice them. Beatrice stood, her arms hanging down,
her head fallen on her bosom in a mute lethargy, her cloak had dropt
from her shoulders, and fallen to her feet; she was dressed, as the
witch had commanded, in white: several years had passed since she had
been thus habited, and her attire displayed the thinness of her form and
the paleness of her wasted cheeks; her hands were skinny and yellow, her
hair perfectly grey; a few weeks ago, although mingled with white, its
antient colour was preserved; but since then it had quite changed; her
eyes were sunken, ringed with black, and rayless.

When the witch had finished her work, she rose; and, taking some of the
water of the fountain in the hollow of her hand, she threw it over
Beatrice, and then crowned her with one of the chaplets; she placed the
other on her own head; and then she said to Bindo:--"I am about to
sanctify this place; you must depart."

Bindo bowed assent, and disappeared. She took up a curiously fashioned
ewer of brass; and, filling it at the fount, she walked round the
amphitheatre of trees, sprinkling the ground as she went, and muttering
her incantations, till she came round again to the spot, where Beatrice
stood, white, motionless, and silent. "You appear faint, daughter," she
said; "drink of this water."--She put it to the lips of her victim, who
drank it eagerly; and immediately a change took place in her appearance;
her eyes lighted up, her cheeks were flushed, the heavy chain of
mortality seemed to fall from her, she became active and even gay; by
degrees a kind of transport seized her, a drunkenness of spirit, which
made her lose all constraint over her words and actions, although it did
not blind her to what was passing around.[2]

"Aye, mother," she said, "I know what I come for; now let us begin; I am
an enchantress, you say; I can conjure him to appear, who before defied
my powers? be it so;--let us begin."

"Listen," replied Mandragola, "no art requires so much patience as ours.
We will make our incantations; and you will see him pass on horseback
along that road: do not now seek to speak to him. Exercise your power
moderately at first; and it will be greater afterwards: bind him now
with a straw; in time he will be inextricably enthralled. To-night be it
enough that you see him."

"Enough! oh! I would lay down my life for one, one moment's sight!"

The night was perfectly still; the air was sultry, and not a leaf moved:
the trees, bathed as it were in the cold moonshine, slept; and the earth
received their moveless shadows on her quiet bosom. The fountain
murmured on; beside it stood the witch and Beatrice;--Beatrice, her eyes
lifted to heaven, her arms crossed on her bosom, her hair clinging round
her faded neck. Mandragola was full of business; she piled a small heap
of wood, walking often around it, singing or chanting strange verses,
and scattering water and oil about her; she drew, with a wand formed of
a peeled chesnut-bough, a circle which surrounded the pile and the spot
whereon Beatrice stood, and commanded her not to pass the line till she
should give permission; since that circle would preserve her from the
spirits that their terrible incantations had called around them. She
then turned to the pile again, and placed on it incense and odoriferous
gums, and plants, and strange devices, cut in wood, or moulded in wax,
which no one might understand: then to crown the work she cut off a lock
of Beatrice's hair, and threw it on the heap.

She had just accomplished this work, when a slight sound struck her ear;
"Now is the time!" she exclaimed; and she set up a wild song to drown
the trampling of the approaching horses; she lighted a torch, and
cried--"This is your work, mistress of the powers of air; light the
pyre, and call thrice on the name of the prince of Lucca!"

Beatrice started forward with frantic haste; she seized the torch,
thrust it into the pile, which caught the flame, and blazed up as she
cried aloud, "Castruccio! Castruccio! Castruccio!"

And then, unable to restrain her impatience, she ran towards the path in
which Mandragola had said he would appear. The witch called on her to
stay; but she was too decrepid to follow swiftly to stop her: the sound
of coming horsemen was now distinctly heard; Beatrice threw herself on
her knees, in the midst of the path by which they must pass; with
flashing eyes and outstretched arms, she gazed eagerly forwards: the
dark wood covered her; the moon beams fell on her; and there she, once
the loveliest, now the most lost, the most utterly undone of women,
kneeled in frantic expectation. The horsemen approached; a turn in the
path concealed them, until they were full upon her; and then she saw
Castruccio and Tripalda advance. Her brain, already on fire with
impatience, and her spirits exalted by the drug administered to her,
could no longer sustain the sensations that overpowered her. The
presence of Tripalda was to her the sign of diabolical interference; she
believed him dead; that it was his spirit which then appeared; and, if
so, it was also an unreal form, the resemblance of Castruccio alone,
that she beheld.----She sunk in convulsions on the road.

Castruccio, surprised at what he saw, leaped from his horse; and his
example was followed by his attendants. The witch, who had hitherto
hobbled towards Beatrice, seeing them dismount, endeavoured to escape;
but Tripalda, who, judging of others by himself, was ever ready to
suspect knavery, cut off her retreat, and ordered two of the servants to
hold her. She submitted quietly, but remained invincibly silent to all
the questions that were put to her. Beatrice was carried to the
fountain; and they endeavoured, by chafing her temples, and rubbing her
hands, to bring her to life: the prince himself supported her head; but
he did not recognize her; so utterly was she changed from what the
prophetess of Ferrara had been. Once she opened her eyes; she saw the
face of Castruccio leaning over her, and she smiled. Castruccio thought
that he knew that smile; but Tripalda, leaving the witch, pressed in
among those who were about her.--No one who had seen him could ever
forget him; she saw what she believed to be the evil genius of her life;
and she again sunk into insensibility.

In the mean time the Albinois, who had been lurking near the spot,
hearing the trampling of horses, and the sound of men's voices, ventured
forward. Mandragola saw him first, as he came into the moonshine from
under the dark covert of trees. She darted forward, and cried
aloud--"Fly! fly!" Her words and gesture attracted the notice of her
guards, as Bindo turned about to obey her orders. They pursued him, and
easily took him prisoner.

He was brought to Castruccio, who instantly recognized him. "What do you
here?" he demanded. "Are you not the servant of the countess of
Valperga?"

"I am."

"Who then is this lady? and how came you here?"

"That is Beatrice of Ferrara. I can tell you no more until she"
(pointing to the witch) "gives me leave."

The name of Beatrice was sufficient to transfix the prince with pity and
remorse. "Beatrice!" he cried, and throwing himself on the earth beside
her, he kissed her hand passionately. Her faintness began now to
dissipate; but her reason did not return. The first words she uttered
were those of madness; she raved of that which ever haunted her thoughts
in delirium, her prison in Romagna. Tripalda heard the words, and
started, as if he had trodden on a viper; his sallow complexion became
paler,--but Castruccio did not attend to this, or make out her speech.
He perceived her frenzy; and, unable any longer to endure his remorse,
or the sight of his hapless victim, he gave hasty orders that she should
be conveyed slowly and carefully to the palace of the countess of
Valperga, and her companions be detained as prisoners; and then he rode
off. He rode towards Lucca; and, reflecting on the fright that
Euthanasia might sustain if she saw her unhappy friend brought home in
so miserable a state, he resolved to go first to her palace, and inform
her of what had passed.

"And are you come to this, lovely Beatrice?" he thought. "And is this
the same creature, who, radiant with beauty and joy, formerly gave me
her benediction at the palace of the good old Marsilio? I remember that
day, as if it were yesterday; and now I find her with grey hairs and a
wasted form, a young fruit utterly blighted, and, worse than all, her
reason fallen the victim of her misery. Am I the cause of this?"

He rode on swiftly, and soon arrived at the palace. He did not reflect
that he was going to behold Euthanasia, the beautiful and beloved; and
thinking of nothing but Beatrice, and finding the gates open, he
entered. It was about three in the morning. During the night Euthanasia
had thought that she heard a groan come from the chamber of Beatrice;
and she hastened thither, to discover if any new sorrow disturbed her
unfortunate guest. The chamber was empty; the bed unslept upon; she
sought her in the adjoining rooms; and, not finding her, she became
terrified, and, rousing the house, had the palace searched, but in vain;
no trace of her was left. She sent several messengers to different gates
of the town to learn whether she had been seen, and waited with
inexpressible anxiety for their return.

The prince found men consulting together in the great hall; and the
first words he heard was the name of "Madonna Beatrice."

"Do not be alarmed," he said, coming forward. "I know where she is, and
she will soon be here; some of you see that her couch be prepared, and
seek a physician, for she is very ill. Where is the countess?"

Appearing thus unexpectedly and alone, the men did not recognize the
prince; but the quick ear of Euthanasia caught the sound of his voice;
and, coming out of an adjoining room, she cried, "Do you then know where
my friend is, Castruccio?"

"I do indeed," he replied: "and it is fortunate; since I may have saved
her from evil hands. But I am perfectly ignorant how and why she came to
a spot so far from the town."

He related in a few words where and in what manner he had found her, and
concluded by saying, "I leave her to your care; I know how kind and
generous you are. If she recover, I intreat you to inform me without
delay of so favourable a change."

As he said this, the trampling of horsemen was heard in the streets;--he
cried, "I dare not see her again; farewell, Euthanasia; pity her and
me!"

He hastened from the palace, and in a few minutes after Beatrice was
brought in; her countenance was deadly pale, and her arms hung
lifelessly over the shoulder of one of the men who supported her; her
hair was dank, and her garments wetted with the dew of morning; her eyes
were open, and glared meaninglessly around. They laid her on a bed; and
Euthanasia, approaching, took her hand; Beatrice did not notice her; she
seemed to have lost all sensation, and the rolling of her eyes, and the
convulsive gaspings of her breath, were all the signs of life that she
gave.

Why should I describe the scenes that ensued during the following days?
Descriptions of unmixed horror cannot be pleasing; and what other
feelings could mingle to soften that sensation, on beholding the
declining state of poor Beatrice? She never again had any return of
reason, nor did she ever sleep; generally she lay, as I have described,
pale and motionless; if ever she woke to sensation, it was to rave and
scream, so that the hardest heart might have been penetrated with excess
of pity. Some have seen, most have read the descriptions of, madness.
She called upon Euthanasia, upon Castruccio; but, more than all, she
fancied that she was chained to her dungeon-floor in her tremendous
prison, mocked and laughed at by her keepers; and sometimes she imagined
that these beloved friends were chained beside her, suffering those
torments which she had herself endured. She never in her wildest sallies
uttered a reproachful word against Castruccio, although it appeared that
she sometimes thought that he accused himself; and then with the
tenderest accents, and most winning sweetness, she bade him not grieve,
and assured him that he had committed no fault.

These intervals of raving were short and rare; and, as she became
weaker, she still seldomer emerged from her state of insensibility. She
was evidently dying; the physicians gave no hopes of her life; and the
priests crowded about her. Padre Lanfranco was among them; and he
bitterly reproached himself for having left her, and endeavoured to
compensate for his neglect, by watching day and night for some return of
reason, when he might ask whether she died in the faith of the church.
This never arrived: but the priests were lenient; they placed the
crucifix on her breast, and she seemed to press it; once, when the name
of her Redeemer was mentioned, her eyes lighted up, and a smile seemed
to play upon her lips. She was so perfectly senseless, that this could
have had no connexion with the words that had been used; but the
charitable priests chose to construe it into an enternal assurance of
the salvation of her soul; and they administered the sacraments. She
never spoke afterwards; but day by day she grew weaker; Castruccio sent
continually to inquire of her state; but he dared not come. Euthanasia
hardly ever left her bed side; and she became as pale, and almost as
weak, as the dying Beatrice.

Such had been the effect of the witch's incantations. Beatrice had
needed the tenderest nursing; and she had received instead, a shock
which saner nerves than hers could hardly have sustained. Yet her death
was smoothed to her by the affectionate ministry of her friend; and she
at last lost all sense even of pain. She died, peacefully, and calmly as
a child; and her many sorrows and wrongs no longer filled her with
anguish and despair. She died: Euthanasia was beside her when she heard
a gentle sigh, followed by a fixedness of feature and rigidity of limb,
which shewed that the mighty change had taken place in her frame.

Tears and lamentation succeeded to her death. Euthanasia wished that her
funeral should be private and unnoticed; but Castruccio insisted that it
should be attended with every circumstance of pomp used in those days.
The room was hung with black cloth, and made as dark as night, to give
brightness to the many torches by which it was illuminated. Beatrice was
laid on a bier, arrayed in costly apparel, and canopied with a pall of
black velvet embroidered with gold: flowers, whose beauty and freshness
mocked the livid hues of the corpse, were strewn over her, and scattered
about the room; and two boys walked about, swinging censers of incense.
The chamber was filled with mourning women; one, the chief, dressed in
black, with dishevelled hair, knelt near the head of the bier, and began
the funeral song; she sang a strain in monotonous, but not unmelodious
voice: the verses were extempore, and described the virtues and fortunes
of the deceased; they ended with the words:


_Oime! ora giace morta sulla bara!_[3]


And the other women, taking up the burthen, cried in shrill tones:


_Oime! ora giace morta sulla bara!_


Again they were silent: and the _Cantatrice_, renewing her song,
repeated another verse in praise of poor Beatrice. Castruccio had told
her in part what ought to be the subject of her song. The first verse
described her as beautiful, beloved and prosperous, among her friends
and fellow citizens: "Then," cried the singer, "the spoiler came; she
lost all that was dear to her; and she wandered forth a wretch upon the
earth. Who can tell what she suffered? Evil persons were abroad; they
seized on her; and she became the victim of unspoken crimes: worse ills
followed, madness and heresy, which threatened to destroy her soul."

The woman wept, wept unfeigned tears as she sang; and the hired mourners
sympathized in her grief; each verse ended with the words,


_Oime! ora giace morta sulla bara!_


which were echoed by them all, and accompanied by cries and tears.

She ended; and, night being come, the hour for interment arrived. The
censers were replenished with incense; and the priests sprinkled holy
water about the room. Four lay-brothers raised the bier, and followed a
troop of priests and monks, who went first with the crucifix, chaunting
a _De profundis_. The streets through which they passed, were rendered
as light as day by the glare of torches; after the priests, came the
bier on which the body lay exposed, covered with flowers; many of the
young girls and women of the city followed, each carrying a wax taper; a
troop of horse closed the procession. It was midnight when they entered
the church; the moon threw the shadow of the high window on the
pavement; but all shadows were effaced by the torches which filled the
church. Beatrice was laid in her peaceful grave; and, mass being said
for the repose of her soul, the ceremony closed.

Euthanasia had not been present: and, although she longed for solitude
to weep in peace over the fate of her hapless friend, she was obliged to
receive the visits of the Lucchese ladies, who came to condole with her
on this occasion, and perhaps to satisfy their curiosity concerning its
object. The funeral feast was sumptuous and well attended, though few
knew in whose honour it was given. Euthanasia shrunk from their
questions, and was angry with Castruccio, that he should have placed her
in so disagreeable a situation. It seemed to her better to befit the
hapless fate of Beatrice, that she should have been permitted to depart
unmarked, wept only by those, who knew her worth, and who lamented her
unequaled misfortunes. It was the false pride of Castruccio, that made
him think differently; and such were the prejudices of the times, that
his contemporaries would have agreed with him, that he had in some
degree compensated for the injuries that Beatrice had received from him,
by the magnificence of her funeral.

After the ceremony was ended, Castruccio first thought of the two
individuals whom he had found in the forest with their victim.
Mandragola had preserved an uniform silence; and no threats, nor torture
itself, could induce her to speak. Bindo was formed of frailer clay; she
had charged him not to reveal what had passed, and had imprecated the
most terrible curses on his head, if he disobeyed. He trembled; but the
sight of the instruments of torture overcame him, and he confessed all.
Mandragola was condemned by the laws which then existed in every country
against the dealers in the black art, and suffered death as a witch.
Euthanasia endeavoured to procure the freedom of the Albinois; but in
vain. He was confined in the dungeons of the Dominican convent; he pined
for liberty; and in a few months he died.

The tie which bound Euthanasia to Lucca, was now broken. For many days
she sorrowed, forgetful of herself, over the fate of her friend. By
degrees however the feelings of actual life returned to her; and she
longed to quit a town, which had been for her the theatre of tremendous
misfortune. Two months after the death of Beatrice she returned to
Florence; where she found, in the society of her friends, and in the
cultivation of her mind, some alleviation for her sorrow, and some
compensation for the many evils she had endured.


[Footnote 2: Jusquiamo [henbane: hebenon, _Shakespear_] was
the principal ingredient in these intoxicating draughts. They
had the property of producing madness.]

[Footnote 3: Alas! she now lies dead upon the bier!]




CHAPTER VIII


_Castruccio's Progress in Arms.--He brings
Devastation to the Gates of Florence.--A
Conspiracy formed against him._


Castruccio had now been lord of Lucca for six years, and had attained
his thirty-third year; his character was formed; and his physiognomy,
changed from its youthful expression, had become impressed by his
habitual feelings. Constant exposure to the sun and weather had tinged
his cheek with brown; which, but for that, had been deadly pale; for
care, and the strong emotions to which he was subject, had left their
mark on his countenance; his eye had grown hollow, and the smooth lustre
of his brow was diminished by lines, which indeed looked gracefully at
his years, since they marked the progress of thought; but some, more
straggling and undefined, shewed that those passions whose outward signs
he suppressed, yet preyed upon the vital principle; his eyes had not
lost their fire, but their softness was gone.

He was kind and even grateful to his friends, so long as he considered
them as such; but he was quick to distrust; and cold looks and averted
favour followed suspicion: if these were answered by aught but patience
and submission, hatred quickly came, and that never failed to destroy
its object. If he only suspected, that was sufficient cause, that he who
had become thus obnoxious to his prince should be told that it was his
will that he should instantly depart from Lucca; and the confiscation
filled the public coffers. If he thought that he had reason to fear, the
doom of that man whom he feared was sealed: he was cruel and
unrelenting; and the death of his victim did not satisfy him; several
were starved to death by his command, and worse tortures were inflicted
upon others:--something of this was to be attributed to the usage of the
times; but cruelty had become an elemental feature of Castruccio's
character.

If he were feared by his enemies in open war, his secret policy was
still more dreaded. He had not forgotten the lessons of Alberto Scoto;
and, as his attempt on the life of the king of Naples might prove, his
measures had perhaps been influenced by the counsels of Benedetto Pepi.
He had many spies in each town, and collected intelligence from every
court of Lombardy. Women and priests were his frequent instruments; and
even the more distinguished among the citizens were induced through his
largesses to betray the counsels of their country.

Such was Antelminelli, the some time lover of Euthanasia; daring,
artful, bounteous and cruel; evil predominated in his character; and, if
he were loved by a few, he was hated by most, and feared by all. His
perpetual wars, which impoverished the neighbouring states, did not
enrich his own; his artful policy sowed distrust among dear friends, and
spies and traitors abounded during his reign. In Lucca he was as an
eagle in a cage; he had a craving that seemed to demand the empire of
the world; and, weak as he was in means and hopes, he made the nations
tremble.

The object of Castruccio's present policy was Florence. He proceeded by
measured steps; but he was perpetually gaining some advantage against
the rival state, improving his military discipline, and preparing for
the last assault. His first attempt was upon Pistoia, and he carried
this place by a double treachery. The Florentines took the alarm upon so
disastrous an event; and the pope sent to them Raymond de Cardona, one
of the most eminent generals of the times, whom they immediately placed
at the head of their armies. Cardona crossed the Guisciana, and ravaged
the plain of Lucca, which had for many years been unspoiled by the
hostile sword; but, when it became necessary for him to retreat,
Castruccio by masterly movements intercepted his march, obtained a
complete victory, and, after a short, but severe contest, took Cardona
and all his army prisoners.

The battle of this day was called the field of Altopascio. Arrigo
Guinigi was among the slain; and his loss was grievously felt by
Castruccio. The prince of Lucca had ever looked on him as a treasure
consigned to him by his late father; and, amidst all his faults,
Castruccio preserved his gratitude for the lessons of that admirable
man, and a sweet remembrance of the days of peace he had passed with him
among the Euganean hills. He had loved Arrigo, as a dear brother, or a
son; childless himself, he sometimes thought, that, although there was
small difference between their ages, Arrigo would succeed him, that his
children would be his heirs, and that, if not bound to him by the ties
of blood, yet they would look back to him with the same gratitude and
respect, that an honoured posterity regard the founder of their house.
Ambition hardens the heart; but such is the texture of the mind of man,
that he is constantly urged to contemplate those days, when his once
over-awing sceptre shall have fallen from his nerveless grasp; the worst
usurper, as he advances in years, looks with tenderness on his children,
who, in the peaceful exercise of power, are to efface the memory of the
lawless deeds by which he had acquired it. Castruccio saw the son of
Guinigi in this light, and he felt a pang of sincere and deep grief,
when it became his turn to heap his grassy tomb, amidst the many others
with which the plain around Altopascio was crowded, and to order the
place where the remains of Arrigo reposed, to be marked with a
sepulchral pillar.

From Altopascio, Castruccio advanced with his army to the very gates of
Florence. The peasants fled before him, and took refuge, with what
property they could save, in the city; the rest became the prey of the
Lucchese army, who marked their progress by fire and devastation. All
the harvests had been brought in; but Castruccio's soldiers wreaked
their vengeance upon the fields, tearing up and burning the vines,
cutting down the olive woods, seizing or burning the winter-stock, and
reducing the cottages of the poor to a heap of formless ruins. The
country about Florence was adorned by numerous villas, the summer abodes
of the rich citizens, ornamented with all the luxury of the times, the
grounds laid out in the most delicious gardens, where beautiful trees
and flowers adorned the landscape, and natural and artificial rills and
waterfalls diffused coolness in the midst of summer. These became the
prey of the soldier; the palaces were ransacked, and afterwards burned;
the cultivated grounds covered with ruins, the rivulets choked up, and
all that, a few days before, had presented the show of a terrestrial
paradise, now appeared as if an earthquake, mocking the best cares of
man, had laid it in ruin.

The army encamped before the gates of Florence. The remnant of the
troops of Cardona and the remainder of the citizens capable of bearing
arms, would have formed a force sufficient to cope with the army of
Antelminelli. But more than their declared enemies, the Florentines
feared domestic traitors; so many of their first citizens were prisoners
to the prince of Lucca, that they dreaded lest their relations might
endeavour to secure for them their freedom even by the betraying of
their native city. Day and night they guarded the walls and gates, and
patroled the streets, each regarding the other with suspicious eyes, and
listening with fear and horror to the sounds of rejoicing and riot that
issued from the camp of Castruccio.

The prince, in contempt and derision of the besieged, encouraged every
kind of pastime and insulting mockery, that might sting his proud,
though humbled enemies: he instituted games and races, coined money, and
sent continual defiances to the citizens to issue from their walls and
encounter him in battle. The men, too ready to seize the spirit of
hatred and ridicule, amused themselves with casting by means of their
_balestri_, the carcases of dead asses and dogs into the town. Woe to
the Florentine who fell into their hands; if a female, no innocence nor
tears could save her from their brutality, and, if a man, if their
insults were less cruel, they were hardly less cutting and humiliating;
to lead a prisoner naked through the camp, seated on an ass, with his
face turned towards the tail, was a common mockery. Castruccio perhaps
did not perceive the full extent to which the brutal ferocity of his
soldiers, made drunk by victory, carried them; if he did, he winked at
it; for he had not that magnanimity which should lead him to treat with
respect and kindness a fallen enemy.

While the Lucchese soldiers rioted in plenty, filling themselves even to
satiety with the delicate wines and food of the Florentine nobles, and
consuming in a few weeks the provision of years, the inhabitants of the
besieged city presented a far different spectacle. The villagers, driven
from their cottages, had taken refuge in Florence, whose gates jealously
closed, permitted not the means of subsistence to be increased. In
consequence of this, of the supernumerary population of the town, and of
the unwholesome food on which the poorer classes were forced to subsist,
pestilence and other contagious fevers declared themselves: the streets
were filled with mournful processions, the bells tolled a perpetual
knell of death; the citizens invited their friends to the funeral
feasts, but the seats of many of the guests were vacated by death, and
the hosts who celebrated them had been invited to several similar
commemorations. Every face looked blank and fearful. The magistrates
were obliged to interfere; they issued an order that the relations of
the dead were no longer to celebrate their funerals by assemblies of
their friends, or to toll the bell during the ceremony, so that the
numerous dead might go to their long homes without terrifying the
survivors by their numbers. Yet this law could not hide the works of
death that were so frequent in the town; the streets were almost
deserted, except by the monks, who hurried from house to house carrying
the cross and sacrament to the dying; while the poor, almost starving,
and often houseless, fell in the streets, or were carried in terrifying
troops to the hospitals and convents of charity. And this was the work
of Castruccio.

Euthanasia saw and felt this; and she felt as if, bound to him by an
indissoluble chain, it was her business to follow, like an angel, in his
track, to heal the wounds that he inflicted. Dressed in a coarse garb,
and endeavouring to throw aside those feelings of delicacy which were as
a part of her, she visited the houses of the poor, aided the sick, fed
the hungry, and would perform offices that even wives and mothers shrunk
from with disgust and fear. An heroic sentiment possessed her mind, and
lifted her above humanity; she must atone for the crimes of him she had
loved.

Bondelmonti one day visited her; she had just returned from closing the
eyes of an unhappy woman, whose husband and children had fled from their
mother and wife, in the fear of infection; she had changed her garments
on entering the palace, and lay on a couch, exhausted; for she had not
slept for the two previous nights. Bondelmonti approached her
unperceived, and kissed her hand;--she drew it away: "Beware!" she said.
"If you knew from whence I came, you would not touch a hand that may
carry infection with it."

Bondelmonti reproached her for the carelessness with which she exposed
her health and her life: but Euthanasia interrupted him: "I thank you,
dear cousin, for your anxiety; but you know me of old, and will not
attempt to deter me from doing that which I regard as my duty.----But
what would you now say to me; for I perceive weighty thought in your
overhanging brow?"

"Am I not like the rest of our townsmen in that? You see, Madonna,
perhaps better than any of us, to what straits our city is reduced,
while this Lucchese tyrant triumphs; you perceive our miseries too well
not to pity them; and I trust that you are too good a patriot not to
desire most earnestly to put an end to them."

"My dear friend, what do you say? I would sacrifice my life, and more
than life, to be of use to my fellow citizens. God knows how deeply I
lament their defeats and their unhappiness. But what can be done? An
angel alone could inspire our troops with that spirit and courage, which
would fit them to cope with the forces of the prince."

"You say true; but there are other means for overthrowing him. Consider,
Euthanasia, that not only he conquers and despoils us, but that he is a
cruel and bloody tyrant, execrated by the chiefs of our religion, feared
and hated by all who approach him, one whose death would spread joy and
exultation over all Italy."

"His death!" Euthanasia's pale cheek became still paler.

"Nay, you are a woman; and, in spite of your superior strength of mind,
I see that you are still to be frightened by words. Do not let us
therefore talk of his death, but only of his overthrow; we must contrive
that."

Euthanasia remained silent. Bondelmonti continued:

"Call to mind, Madonna, the many excellent and virtuous persons whom he
has murdered. I need not mention your friend Leodino, or any other
individual; his enemies have fallen beneath his axe like trees in a
forest; and he feels as little remorse as the woodman who fells them.
Torture, confiscation, treachery and ingratitude have gone hand in hand
with murder. Before he came, Lucca belonged to the Guelphs, and peace
hovered over Tuscany. Now the first nobles of the land have either
fallen victims to his jealousy, or wander as beggars in Italy. All that
is virtuous and worthy under his dominion send up daily prayers for his
downfall; and that is now near at hand; the means are ready, the
instruments are preparing----"

"For his death?" cried Euthanasia.

"Nay, if you intercede for him, he may be saved: but it must be upon one
condition."

"What is that?"

"That you join our conspiracy, and aid its accomplishment; thus
Antelminelli may be saved, otherwise his fate is sealed. Consider this
alternative; you may take a week for reflection on what I have said."

Bondelmonti left her. The sleep that had been about to visit her wearied
senses, fled far away,--scared by the doubts and anguish that possessed
her heart.

She felt with double severity this change from the calm that she had
enjoyed for the three preceding years, into the fears and miseries of a
struggle to which she saw no end. The tyranny and warlike propensities
of Castruccio were so entirely in opposition to every feeling of her
heart, that she would not have lamented his fall; especially as then
perhaps she would have conceived it her duty to stand near him in
misfortune, to console his disappointed hopes, and to teach him the
lesson of content in obscurity. But to join the conspiracy, to become
one of those who plotted against him, to assist in directing the blow
which should annihilate, if not his life, at least all that he regarded
as necessary to his happiness, was a task she shuddered at being called
upon to fulfil.

No one can act conscientiously up to his sense of duty, or perhaps go
even beyond that sense, in the exercise of benevolence and
self-sacrifice, without being repaid by the sweetest and most secure
happiness that man can enjoy, self-approbation. Euthanasia had devoted
herself for some weeks to the nursing the sick, and the feeding of the
hungry; and her benevolence was repaid by a return of healthful spirits
and peace of mind, which it seemed that no passing circumstance of life
could disturb. It was in vain that she witnessed scenes of pain and
wretchedness; she felt that pity which angels are said to feel; but so
strange is the nature of the human mind, that the most unblemished
serenity reigned in her soul. Her sleep, when she found time to sleep,
was deep and refreshing; as she moved, she felt as if she were air,
there was so much elasticity and lightness of spirit in her motions and
her thoughts. She shed tears, as she heard the groans and complaints of
the sufferers; but she felt as if she were lifted beyond their sphere,
and that her soul, clothed in garments of heavenly texture, could not be
tarnished with earthly dross. All this was now changed. She fell again
into weak humanity, doubting, fearing, hoping.

When Castruccio's army removed from before the walls of Florence, the
gates were thrown open, and its inhabitants were relieved from the
pressure and burthen of supernumerary inhabitants. But where did the
peasant go? he found his cottage burnt, his vines, his next year's hope,
destroyed, ghastly ruin stared him in the face, and his countenance
reflected back the horrors of a long train of misery that he saw was
preparing for him. Euthanasia could do little good amidst the universal
devastation; what she could do, she did. She restricted her own
expenditure, and all the money she could collect, was expended on the
relief of these poor people; but this was a small pittance, a drop of
water in the ocean of their calamities.

She was returning from one of these visits to the country, where she had
been struck with horror to perceive the inadequacy of her aid to the
miseries around her. A whole village had been laid waste, the implements
of husbandry destroyed, the cattle carried off, and there was neither
food for the starving inhabitants, nor hope of an harvest for the
ensuing year. She had heard the name of Antelminelli loaded with such
imprecations as a father's mind suggested, when his children called on
him vainly for food, and Castruccio the cause of this misery. "If God
fulfils," she thought, "as they say he does, the curses of the injured,
how will _his_ soul escape, weighed down by the imprecations of
thousands? Yet I will not consent to the hopes of his enemies, nor be
instrumental in dragging him from his seat of power. I have loved him;
and what would be just vengeance in another, would be treachery and
black ingratitude in me. Ingratitude! And yet for what? For lost hopes,
content destroyed, and confidence in virtue shaken. These are the
benefits I have received from him; yet I will not join his enemies."

On her return to her palace, she found Bondelmonti waiting for her.
"Have you decided?" he asked.

"I have. I cannot enter into your conspiracy."

"Do you know, Madonna, that in deciding thus you sign his
death-warrant?"

"Nay, cousin, it is ungenerous and unmanly to use such a menace with me.
If he be doomed to death, which indeed cannot, must not be,----how can I
save him? how can I, a woman, turn aside the daggers of the
conspirators? if it be not indeed by betraying your plot to him, a deed
you may perhaps force me to at last."

"I hope not, Euthanasia. For your own sake--for the sake of all the
virtue that ever dwelt beneath the female form, I hope that you will not
be led to commit so base an action. You cannot harm us. If you inform
Antelminelli that there is a conspiracy formed against him, and that I
am at the head of it, you tell him no more than he already knows. He
does not need the lessons of history; his own experience teaches him
sufficiently, that the sword is suspended over the tyrant's head by a
single hair. He knows that he has enemies; but he has too many to arrest
them all: he knows that his friends are treacherous; but he will never
guess who on the present occasion will turn traitor. He cannot be
surprised, nor can it do him any good to know, that I am the chief
conspirator; I have ever been his open and determined foe; and this is
not my first attempt to accomplish his downfal.

"As to what you say concerning my childish menace, you much
misunderstand me when you call it a threat. The persons who must act in
this business are Lucchese; I may direct their exertions; but they are
the actors. And, if you heard the appalling curses that they heap upon
Castruccio's name, if you beheld the deep hate their eyes express when
he is mentioned, their savage joy when they dream that one day they may
wreak their vengeance upon him, you would feel that his life is indeed
at stake. I do not wish him to die. Perhaps I am wrong in this; if his
life be preserved, it is probable that no good will arise from his
downfall and that no blood will in reality be spared. But I have eaten
at his board, and he has been my guest within these walls, so that I
would preserve his life; and I have pitched upon you as the person who
can best assist me in this. What else can I do? I cannot go to Lucca to
watch over and restrain the fury of his enemies; nor can I find one
Lucchese to whom I dare disclose the secret of the conspiracy, and whom
I may trust with the protection of his person. Indeed this task seems
naturally to devolve to you. You hate tyranny and war; you are a Guelph,
and would fain see the enemy of your country, the author of the
innumerable evils under which we groan, removed from his government: but
antient friendship, the reciprocal interchange of hospitality render his
person dear to you, and your female softness, and perhaps weakness,
would come in aid of these feelings. You are free to go to Lucca; you
may mix the voice of humanity with the bloody machinations of these men;
you may save him, and you alone."

Euthanasia was deeply moved by the representations of Bondelmonti. But
her thoughts were still confused; she saw no steady principle, on which
to seize, and make it her guide from out the labyrinth. She paused,
hesitated, and asked again for a few days for consideration. And this
Bondelmonti reluctantly granted.

In the mean time Castruccio was engaged in exhibiting the pomp of a
triumph, which was conducted with unparalleled splendour; and in which,
like a merciless barbarian, the prince of Lucca, led along Cardona and
all the most eminent of his prisoners as the attendants of his chariot.




CHAPTER IX


_Euthanasia joins the Conspiracy.--Tripalda
a Member._


During this festivity at Lucca, every thing wore the face of sorrow and
depression at Florence. The only circumstance that raised them from
their ruin, was the commerce of the city; for, by means of the
merchants, corn was brought from the neighbouring states, and the
magistrates distributed it among the poorer peasantry.

Euthanasia had listened to the intelligence of Castruccio's triumph with
unwilling ears. It seemed to her like the pomp of his funeral; and she
dreaded lest his person, exposed during the ceremonial, should be
attempted by some of his bolder enemies. But they worked with a closer
design.

The tide of her sensations turned, when the conclusion of that day's
pomp brought nothing with it, but the account of its splendour and
success; and, when she heard that the prince was personally safe, she
found fresh reason for regret, in the want of that delicate and
honourable feeling on his part, which above all her other virtues
characterised her own mind.

But, if she were disgusted by the low pride that Castruccio manifested
in his treatment of Cardona, her feelings of horror and of hatred were
called forth by the occurrences that followed. Four days after this
scene Bondelmonti entered her apartment: his manner was abrupt; his face
pale; he could not speak.--When he had somewhat recovered, his first
words were a torrent of execrations against Antelminelli.

"Oh, cease!" cried Euthanasia, "you hate, and would destroy, but do not
curse him!"

"Bid me rather add tenfold bitterness to my weak execrations; but all
words man can pronounce are poor. He has done that which, if he had
before been an angel, would blot and disfigure him for ever. He is the
worst of tyrants, the most cruel and atrocious wretch that breathes! But
earth shall soon be rid of the monster. Read that writing!"

He put into her hand a dirty scrap of paper, on which she deciphered
these words:

"For holy Jesu's sake, save me! My mother does not send my ransom. I was
put to the torture this morning. I suffer it again on Thursday, if you
do not send six hundred golden florins.

"Pity your FRANCESCO BONDELMONTI."

The paper dropt from her hands. "This comes from my cousin Francesco,"
said Bondelmonti; "others are in the same situation. Those who have not
been ransomed, he has thrown into the most loathsome dungeons, and
starves and tortures them to quicken their appetite for freedom. Shall
such a one reign?"

"No," cried Euthanasia, her cheek burning with indignation, and her lips
quivering with excessive pity; "No, he shall not reign; he were unworthy
to live, if it be not to repent. Bondelmonti, here is my hand; do with
me what you please; let his life be saved; but let him be torn from the
power which he uses more like a fiend than a human creature."

"Thank you, dear cousin, for this generous feeling: now I know you
again. I know my Euthanasia, who had forgotten herself awhile, only to
awake again with new vigour. Call up all your spirits, Madonna;
recollect all of noble, and wise, and courageous, that your excellent
father taught you. This is no may-day trick, or the resolution of
momentary indignation; it is the firm purpose of those, who see an evil
beyond imagination pregnant with destruction and horror. Your quick
concession merits my utmost confidence; and you shall have it. To-night
I will see you again. Now I must endeavour to borrow money to liberate
Francesco. My purse has been emptied by the ransom of my three brothers,
and his mother has three hundred florins only."

"I can supply the rest," said Euthanasia. "Poor fellow, send them
immediately; that with the shortest delay he may be rescued from the
power of one more remorseless than the rack on which he suffers.
To-night I see you again."

Euthanasia spent the intervening hours in great agitation. She did not
shrink from her purpose; she had given her word, and she did not dream
of recalling it. But all was turmoil and confusion in her mind. She
figured to herself the scenes that would ensue; she imagined the downfal
of him she had loved, his life saved only through her intervention,--and
he perhaps, knowing that she also had joined the conspiracy to despoil
him of the power he had laboured to attain, would turn from her in
abhorrence.

As she thought of this, a few natural tears fell; she cast her deep blue
eyes up to heaven; and tried to collect all her fortitude. Night came,
and with it the hour when she expected Bondelmonti; but all was tumult
and uneasiness in her heart: and to all other regrets she added the
startling doubt whether she were not on the present occasion quitting
the path of innocence, for the intricate and painful one of error. Then
she knelt down, and prayed fervently for a wisdom and judgement that
might guide her aright.

Euthanasia was now advanced to the very prime of life. Ten years had
elapsed since she had first interchanged vows with Antelminelli in her
castle of Valperga; but her mind was of that youthful kind, that, ever,
as it were, renewing itself from her own exhaustless treasure of wisdom
and sentiment, never slept upon the past, forgetful of the changes that
took place around her. Her character was always improving, always adding
some new acquirements, or strengthening those which she possessed
before; and thus for ever enlarging her sphere of knowledge and feeling.
She often felt as if she were not the same being that she had been a few
years before; she often figured to herself, that it was only from such
or such a period that she obtained a true insight into the affairs of
life, and became initiated in real wisdom; but these epochs were
continually changing, for day by day she experienced the acquisition of
some new power, the discovery of some new light which guided her through
the labyrinth, while another of the thousand-folded veils which hide the
sun of reality from the ardent spirit of youth, fell before her piercing
gaze. Yet the change that she felt in her faculties was greater than
that which had really taken place; it was only the disclosure of another
petal of the blowing rose, but the bud had contained the germ of all
that appeared as if new-created.

With this matured judgement and depth of feeling, she was called upon to
take an arduous part in a most doubtful and perilous undertaking. The
enthusiasm that distinguished her, had ever induced her to place a great
confidence in her own sentiments, and the instantaneous decision of any
doubtful point; and now she did not hesitate in resolving to become one
in the conspiracy: her refusal would not stop its progress; her consent
would enable her to judge of, and regulate its measures. She no longer
loved the prince; his cruelty had degraded him even from the small place
that he had still kept in her heart. But such was the force of early
feeling, that she desired to restore her affections to him, when he
should again become gentle and humane, as he appeared when she first
knew him. Adversity might bring about this change.

Bondelmonti appeared. He appeared with a face of satisfaction and even
of joy, as he claimed her promise of the morning. She renewed it
solemnly, while her serious countenance, and the touching modulation of
her voice, told how from the depth of her heart she felt the extent and
force of the engagement into which she entered. Bondelmonti then
detailed to her the circumstances of the conspiracy.

The family of the Quartezzani had been that which had most assisted
Castruccio in his rise to power, and had stood by him long with
fidelity. But, as his tyranny became more secure, he feared their power,
more than he was pleased by their support, and supected that they only
looked upon him as an instrument to fight their battles awhile, and then
to be put aside at the first opportunity. He changed his demeanour
towards them, from that of friendliness, to the coldest distrust, and
took the earliest opportunity to banish the chief among them from Lucca.
Disgusted by this ingratitude, they withdrew from court, and tempted by
the emissaries of Bondelmonti, now entered into a conspiracy against
him, joining with the Avogadii, his professed enemies, to despoil him of
power, perhaps of life.

Bondelmonti explained to Euthanasia all the circumstances of the plan
they had concerted to get the city into their hands. The present
governor of Pisa, who remembered, and hated the prince on account of the
treason he had fomented against him, was to advance in a hostile manner
to Ripafrata; and, while the shew of force on that side should attract
Castruccio and his army, a detachment was to cross the hill of St.
Giuliano, and come suddenly on the city, whose gates would be opened to
them by one of the conspirators. The Florentine force would hover on the
banks of the Guisciana; and, taking advantage of the confusion which the
seizure of Lucca would occasion, would pass the river, and march
directly towards the city, declaring liberty to the peasant, and
attacking the partizans of the tyrant alone. King Robert of Naples had a
fleet already in the gulph of Spezia, which, on the news of the breaking
out of the conspiracy, would disembark its soldiers on the Lucchese
territory, and thus add to the general confusion.

This was the outline of the plan; there were many smaller circumstances
which Bondelmonti detailed. He then named their associates in the plot.
In calling over the list he mentioned Tripalda; Euthanasia's eyes
flashed angrily at the sound of that name.

"Tripalda!" she cried, "Battista Tripalda! Is he one of your associates?
Nay then, I am truly sorry that I am now numbered among you."

"Why this passion, my fair cousin? Tripalda is a man of infinite talent:
his counsels have been of the greatest benefit to us. I do not think
that our plot would ever have ripened into maturity, had it not been for
him. Of what consequence is the virtue or vice of a man on such an
occasion? Edged tools are what we want; it matters little the evil name
with which they may be branded."

"You reason ill, my friend; and, if you persist, I foresee the failure
of our plan, and the destruction of those engaged in it. I have promised
my assistance, nor will I shrink from the task imposed upon me; but I
can no longer have faith in our success, if one so treacherous and
unprincipled as Tripalda be admitted into a participation of our
counsels. Accident has made me acquainted with the full extent of his
crimes; it is the knowledge of them that has caused his expulsion from
the palace and society of the prince, his crimes alone impel him to
associate in this conspiracy, and they also ought to induce us to reject
him; that cause must be bad, which requires the assistance of one so
wicked as this infidel priest."

"You are strangely prejudiced, methinks, against this man," replied
Bondelmonti, "but indeed, my dear cousin, such as he is, we must now
tolerate him. He is not only acquainted with every circumstance of the
conspiracy, but has been its most active member. Many of our most
valuable partizans have been gained over by him alone; he is the tie
which binds those who are personally at variance one with the other, and
the stay which fixes the fluctuating."

"And this then is the trap into which we are about to fall? This man
hates the prince, because Castruccio is fully acquainted with the extent
of his iniquity; for the same reason he detests me----"

"This expression of yours," interrupted Bondelmonti, "proves the excess
of your misapprehension. So far from disliking, he esteems and admires
you, and it was at his instigation that I first named our purpose to
you."

"All that you say, unfortunately increases my distrust. But, if, as I
believe, I have done well in promising my assistance, fear shall not
withhold me from exerting my powers, and giving my whole heart to the
undertaking. My dear Bondelmonti, you are the oldest of my friends, you
were the friend of my father, I trust much to your judgement; I confide
greatly in the sense of right which nature has implanted in my own
heart; I hope no false view, no veiled passion, misleads me now, when
most I desire to act well, justly towards others, and towards myself:
the catastrophe is in the hands of that irresistible Power which guides
us all; and, if we fail, no weakness, no vain reproach, or worse
treachery, shall tarnish my defeat. Trust in me to the death."




CHAPTER X


_Euthanasia removes to Lucca.--Conference
with Tripalda.--Tripalda turns Informer._


One of the first effects of Euthanasia's entrance into the conspiracy of
Bondelmonti, was a journey from Florence to Lucca. It was necessary for
her to be there some time before the breaking out of the plot, that she
might be able to take the part allotted to her. She quitted her native
city with a heavy heart. It was at the end of the month of November; and
the lowering skies portended rain, and the bare earth, stripped of its
summer ornaments, appeared chilled by the cold blast that passed over
it. The olive and ilex woods, and the few cork trees and cypresses, that
grew on the declivities of the hills, diversified the landscape with
their sober green: but they had a funereal appearance; they were as the
pall of the dying year, and the melancholy song of their waving branches
was its dirge.

Euthanasia's mind was no store-house of blithe thoughts. She felt deeply
the danger of the project in which she had embarked; and yet its danger
was one of the considerations that reconciled her to it. To have
encountered Castruccio with superior force, and to have despoiled him of
all power with security to herself, would have been hateful to her
feelings; and it appeared to her that in acting such a part she would
have merited the disapprobation of mankind. But she approached the
foundations of his power by a path encompassed with danger; she groped
through the murky air of night, and owls and bats flitted before her,
and flapped their wings in her eyes; her footing was unsteady;--a
precipice yawned on each side, and the probable result of her
undertaking was ignominy and death. She felt all this. The name of
Tripalda had extinguished in her bosom every hope of success. She felt
that the purity of her intentions would excuse her in her own eyes; and
she could then endure with patience all of bitter and evil that might
befal her. She could not say in the words of the poet,


Roll on, the chariot-wheels of my dear plots,
And bear mine ends to their desired marks!
As yet there's not a rub of wit, or gulph of thought,
No rocky misconstruction, thorny maze,
Or other let of any doubtfulness:
As yet thy way is smooth and plain,
Like the green ocean in a silent calm[4].


No! the course she followed was a slippery path, that overhung a chasm
terrible as death: the sea on which she sailed was rife with quicksands,
and its breakers threatened instant destruction.

Sometimes the memory of her peaceful life at Florence obtruded itself
upon her, and more than that, her charitable occupations when she
attended the sick in that city, and whence, as from a rough-hewn chalice
containing nectarian drink, she had quaffed happiness. Sometimes she
reproached destiny that she had not fallen a victim to her perilous
exertions; but she endeavoured to shut out these remembrances from her
mind, to look before her and not behind. What though dense clouds hid
the future, and thunder muttered above? she was borne on by a virtuous
purpose, which would be to her as the wings of an eagle, or the sure
foot of the precipice-walking chamois.

And then, if the enterprise succeeded, she would save Castruccio. But
for her he would be sacrificed by his insatiable enemies. But her hand
would avert their daggers, her voice bid them "Hold!"----Her imagination
pictured the whole scene. He would be seized by his enemies, and expect
death; he would be conveyed aboard one of the vessels of the king of
Naples; and she would be there, to watch over and tend upon him. At
first he might repulse, perhaps spurn her: but patient forbearance, and
her meek demeanour would soften him; he would see the tears of her
devotion; he would hear her defence; and he would forgive her. They
would disembark on some lovely island on the sea of Baiæ--his prison. A
resting-place, whose walls would be the ocean, and whose bars and locks
the all-encompassing air--would be allotted to him on the island of
Ischia. Thence he would survey the land where the philosophers of past
ages lived; he would study their lessons; and their wisest lore would
descend into his soul, like the dews of heaven upon the parched frame of
the wanderer in the Arabian desarts. By degrees he would love obscurity.
They would behold together the wondrous glories of the heavens, and the
beauty of that transparent sea, whose floor of pebbles, shells and
weeds, is as a diamond-paved palace of romance, shone on and illustrated
as it is by the sun's rays. He would see the flame arise from Vesuvius,
and behold afar off the smoke of the burning lava,--such was the emblem
of his former life; but he would then have become, like the land he
trod, an extinguished volcano; and the soil would prove more fertile,
more rich in beauty and excellence, than those cold natures which had
never felt the vivifying heat of mighty and subdued passions.

Thus she dreamed; and thus she cheated herself into tranquillity. She
arrived at Pisa, where she was met by Orlando Quartezzani, who explained
to her much of the minutiæ of the plot, and besought her to hasten its
execution. "I pine, in exile," he said, "still to behold that ungrateful
tyrant seated on a throne, which, if it be not formed of our skulls, yet
exists only to torture and destroy us. My brothers are tardy, those
Avogadii, lazy and inert. They are still at Lucca; they see its fertile
vallies; they live among its mountains. Sometimes indeed I dare go to
the top of the hill of San Giuliano, and behold its towers almost at my
feet; but I long to make one with my fellow-citizens, to enter again
into the lists of life."

Euthanasia quitted Pisa. She crossed the plain to the foot of the hills,
and passed along through Pugnano and Ripafrata. She was very melancholy.
How could it be otherwise? She had entered upon a race, whose penalty
was death, whose prize was yet hidden in the mists of futurity;--it
might turn out even more blighting and terrible than death itself. But
there was no room for retreat; the path was narrow, and her chariot
could not turn; she must fix her eyes upon the goal, for be the
consequence good or evil, she must arrive there, she must there seek and
find the fulfilment of her destiny.

She entered Lucca at the beginning of the month of December; and she
went immediately to the palace which had been assigned her by the
Lucchese government, in compensation for her demolished castle. The same
evening that she arrived, the two chiefs of the conspiracy, Ugo
Quartezzani and Tripalda, visited her. The name of Tripalda, so often
and so fearfully repeated by the dying Beatrice, made her shrink from
all communication with one who had tarnished his life with the foulest
crimes. On this occasion she was obliged however to smother her
indignation; and he, from a sense of his own importance, was more
presumptuous and insolent than she had ever seen him.

"Madonna," said he, stalking forward with an erect mien, and half shut
eyes, which, although they were not bent on the ground, yet ever avoided
the direct gaze of those to whom he spoke;--"Madonna, I much praise your
wisdom in entering into this conspiracy. We all know that, when you
choose to exert your abilities, you are the cleverest woman in Tuscany.
This is a period which will shew you in your true colours."

"Mester Battista, let us leave to speak of me and my poor talents: we
come to talk of far weightier matter; and I bear a message to Messer Ugo
from his brother Orlando."

They now began to speak of the future; but Tripalda would allow no one
to talk but himself; and he walked up and down the room delivering his
opinion in a loud voice.

"Hush, for Jesu's sake!" cried Ugo, "some one will overhear us, and we
are all lost."

Tripalda looked suspiciously around, approached on tiptoe the sopha on
which Euthanasia and Ugo sat, and, speaking in a whisper, he said,--"I
tell you we shall succeed. Look! I have already sharpened the dagger
which is to stab the tyrant to the heart."

"Now the Mother of God defend him!" cried Euthanasia, turning pale:
"that is beyond my contract. Bear witness, Ugo, that I entered into this
plot on condition that his life should be saved."

"Women! women!" said Tripalda, contemptuously. "By the body of Bacchus!
I wonder what Bondelmonti meant by introducing a woman into the plot.
One way or another they have spoiled, and ever will spoil, every design
that the wisdom of man has contrived. I say he must die."

"I say he shall not, sir priest. And remember, you are not one who dares
place your warrant on the life of Antelminelli. That is guarded by
spirits of whose very existence you are ignorant; it is guarded by
devoted love and disinterested virtue; and you shall not endanger it."

"You indeed talk of spirits, of which I and all the wise among men know
nothing. In the present case I do not exactly see what devoted love has
to do with a conspiracy to overthrow the party beloved; and as for
disinterested virtue, all the virtue I know any thing about bids me stab
the tyrant. He shall die."

"Nay, as you say that you understand me not, you may well leave to speak
of what dwells without the circle of your intelligence. Are you not a
priest? a man of peace? and dare you avow such thoughts? They shame your
profession; and, if any spark of virtue dwelt within you, you would now
blush as deep a red, as your hands would shew, stained with that blood
you think to shed."

"Madonna," said Ugo, "you are now animated beyond all prudence. Speak
mildly; and Messer Tripalda will yield."

"That will I not!" cried Tripalda, compressing his thin lips, and
elevating his high brows. "I have doomed him to death; and he shall die.
By my soul's salvation, he shall!"

"Then is your soul lost; for he shall live."

The gentle modulation of Euthanasia's voice, now first attuned to
command, carried with it an irresistible force, while she extended her
fair arm in earnest gesture; then, calming herself, she continued: "I
entered into this conspiracy on one condition; and I might well say, 'If
you keep not your words with me, neither will I keep mine with you; if
you betray me, so will I betray you.' But I say not this; I have other
means of silencing this man. I know you, Tripalda; and you are well
aware, that I can see through the many folds which you have wound round
your heart. You oblige me to menace you. I can tell a tale, Tripalda, a
tale the knowledge of whose exceeding horror is confined to your own
polluted heart; but whose slightest sketch would fill mankind with
detestation, and your destruction would quickly follow. Dare not even to
imagine the death of Castruccio; while he is safe, you are safe;
otherwise you know what will follow."

"So far from knowing, I cannot even guess your meaning," replied
Tripalda; but with a subdued voice and a humble manner. "In truth,
Madonna, you speak enigmas to me. But since you are resolved to save the
life of the prince, so let it be. But I suppose you will allow us to
secure his person."

"We have a plan for that," said Euthanasia, turning to Ugo, "a plan to
which I hope you will accede: for Castruccio must be saved; Bondelmonti
entered into that engagement with me, before I became a party to your
plot."

"It shall be as you command," replied Tripalda, who had shifted his
place several times, and seemed to stand as uneasily before the now
softened looks of Euthanasia, as a hypocrite well might before the eyes
of the accusing angel. "I will leave you now," continued he, "for I
promised to be with Nicola dei Avogadii at eight o'clock, and seven
struck some time ago. Good night, Madonna; when we again meet, I hope
you will be better pleased with my intentions, and thank me for my
exertions in favour of your friend, the prince."

He quitted the room. Euthanasia followed him with her eyes until he had
closed the door; and then she said to Ugo, "I distrust that man; and if
my purpose did not lift me alike above fear and hope, I should dread
him. But do you have a care, Ugo; and, if you regard your own safety,
watch him, as you would one whose sword you must parry, until the deed
you meditate be accomplished."

"You judge hastily, Madonna; he is the sworn enemy of Castruccio; and I
believe him to be, on this occasion at least, trust-worthy. I cannot
divine what you know concerning him; it is surely something black, for
he cowered beneath your words. But a man may be one day wicked, and good
the next; for self-interest sways all, and we are virtuous or vicious as
we hope for advantage to ourselves. The downfal of Antelminelli will
raise him; and therefore he is to be trusted."

"That is bad philosophy, and worse morality, Ugo: but we have no time to
dispute now; remember, that I tell you to beware of Tripalda. Now let us
occupy ourselves in worthier considerations."

After a long conversation, in which all was concluded except the exact
period for the breaking out of the conspiracy, Ugo retired, to prepare
messengers for Pisa and Florence, that they might, with the concurrence
of their associates, determine the conduct of this last act of the
tragedy. Euthanasia was left alone. She had been roused to the
expression of anger by the insolent cruelty of Tripalda; but her nature,
mild as it was, quickly forgot the feeling of indignation, and now other
thoughts (oh, far other thoughts!) possessed her. She was again in
Lucca. She ascended to the tower of her palace; and the waning moon,
which shone in the east, shed its yellow and melancholy light over the
landscape: she could distinguish afar the abrupt and isolated rock on
which the castle of Valperga had stood; it formed one of the sides of
the chasm which the spirits of creation had opened to make free the
course of the Serchio. The scene was unchanged; and even in winter the
soul of beauty hovered over it, ready again to reanimate the corpse,
when the caducean wand of spring should touch it. The narrow, deep
streets of Lucca lay like the allies of a prison around her; and she
longed for the consummation of the deed in which she had engaged, when
she might fly for ever from a scene, which had been too dear to her, not
to make its sight painful in her altered situation.

In the mean time, while in deep security of thought she brooded over the
success of her attempt, the hour which yet lingered on the dial was big
with her ruin; and events which threatened to destroy her for ever,
already came so near, that their awful shadow began to be thrown on the
path of her life.

Tripalda had left her, burning with all the malice of which his evil
nature was so amply susceptible. He had learned that the prisoner of the
castle in the Campagna di Roma had survived, and had fallen into the
hands of Euthanasia: and he knew that his fate depended upon disclosures
that she was enabled to make. The prisoner was now dead; but both
Castruccio and Euthanasia had become in part the depositaries of her
secret; Euthanasia had heard his name pronounced, mingled with shrieks
and despair, by the lips of the lovely maniac; and, after her death, she
had revealed her suspicions to the prince, while he in anger forbade the
priest ever again to approach his palace or his person. In disgracing
and banishing him from his presence, Castruccio had incurred the penalty
of his hate; and he was overjoyed to think, that in destroying the man
who had injured him, he should also free himself from one who was
conscious of the most perilous secrets concerning him. He had been loud
in his abuse of the prince; but none had listened to him, except those
who sympathized in his feelings; and Antelminelli despised him too
heartily to take heed to what he said.

Thus, with the wily heart and wicked design of a serpent beneath a
magpie's exterior, this self-named Brutus of modern Italy, whose feigned
folly was a cover for pride, selfishness and all uncharitableness,
fomented a conspiracy in Lucca to overthrow a tyrant, who well deserved
to fall, but who was as pure as the milk-white dove, if compared with
the sable plumage of this crow. He had endeavoured to intice Euthanasia
to participate in the plot, he hardly knew why, secure that, if she were
persuaded to enter into it, it would be pregnant with nothing but misery
and suffering for her. The scene which had taken place in her palace,
overturned all his ideas. Castruccio despised and banished him; but he
had never menaced the disclosure of those secrets, whose smallest effect
would be to immure him for ever within the dungeons of some convent. He
therefore hated, rather than feared him; but the words of Euthanasia had
terrified his soul, and with his terror awakened all those feelings of
hellish malignity with which his heart was imbued. To destroy her, and
save himself, was now the scope of his desire. To betray the conspiracy,
and deliver over his confederates to death, was of little moment in his
eyes, compared with the care he had for his own preservation, and the
satisfaction of his new-born revenge. All night he slept not; he walked
up and down his room, easing his heart with curses, and with images of
impending ruin for his enemies. When morning dawned, he hasted to
Agosta, and made his way into the private cabinet of Vanni
Mordecastelli.

Castruccio was at Pistoia, and would not return until the following day;
in the mean time Mordecastelli was the governor of Lucca. He was seated
in his cabinet with his secretary when Tripalda entered: like a true
courtier, he hardly deigned to look on the man who was disgraced by his
prince.

"Messer Tripalda," said he, "are you still in Lucca? I thought some one
told me that you had returned to your canonicate. Have you any business
with me? Be brief; for you see that I am occupied."

"Messer Vanni, I have business with you; but it must be private. Do not
look thus contemptuously on me; for you know that I have been useful to
you before; and I shall now be so again."

"I do not much care to trust myself alone with you; for they say that
you have sworn destruction to all the prince's friends. However, I am
armed," he continued, taking a dagger from his bosom, and drawing it
from it's sheath; "so, Ubaldo, you may leave us alone."

"And, Ubaldo, do you hear," cried Tripalda, "it is as much as your life
is worth to tell any one that I am with the governor. The very walls of
the palace must not know it."

"And are you the lord to threaten me, Messer Canonico? though you have a
fool's head, pray keep a discreet tongue."

"Silence, Ubaldo," said Mordecastelli. "Go, and remember what he says:
you shall answer for it, if it be known that this visit has taken
place.----And now, Sir Priest, what have you to say to me? if it be not
something well worth the hearing, you shall pay a rich penalty for this
impertinence of yours."

"Remember, Messer Vanni, who put you on the right scent in Leodino's
plot; remember the golden harvest which that brought you in. Remember
this; and put aside your pride and insolence."

"I remember well the detestable part that you then played, and it had
been well that your head had been struck off instead of Leodino's. But
you trifle now, and I have no time to waste; if you have any fresh scene
of villainy to disclose, be quick."

"I have discovered a plot of the highest consequence. One that counts
among the conspirators the first citizens of the principality. But I
must make my conditions before I tell you further: I hold the life of
your lord in my grasp; and, before I part with my advantage, I must be
paid its full worth."

"Conditions! Aye, they shall be generous and ample ones; if you fairly
tell all, you shall be believed on your word, and not be put to the
torture, to extort that which craft may make you conceal: these are all
the conditions a villain, such as you, deserves. Come, waste no more
time; if your plot be worth the telling, you well know that you will not
go unrewarded; if this is all smoke, why perchance you may be smothered
in it; so no more delay."

Tripalda opened each door, peeped behind the hangings, under the tables,
and chairs; and then, approaching as softly as a cat who sees a mouse
playing in the moonshine, or a spider who beholds his prey unconsciously
cleaning his wings within an inch of him, he sat down beside
Mordecastelli and whispered:

"The Avogadii."

"Well, what of them? I know that they hate Antelminelli; but they are
not powerful enough to do any mischief."

"The Quartezzani."

"Nay, then this is of deeper interest. Have they turned vipers? By St.
Martin! they have a sting!"

Tripalda in a low and solemn voice entered into a detail of the plot.
"And now," said he, when he had nearly concluded, "except for one
circumstance, you had not heard a word of this from me."

"You are a villain to say so;--but what is this circumstance? the love
you bear your prince?"

"The love I bear him might have made me bring the Pope to Lucca with
thirty thousand Gascons at his heels, but not betray a plot against him.
No truly it was not that; but they have admitted a woman into it; and,
as there is neither safety nor success where they are, I made my retreat
in good time."

"A woman! What, Berta Avogadii?"

"One of far higher rank; the countess of Valperga."

"Nay, then, it is all a lie, Tripalda, and, by the Virgin, you shall
repent having amused me with your inventions! The countess of Valperga!
She is too wise and too holy to mingle in one of your midnight plots:
besides, once upon a time, to my knowledge she loved Castruccio."

"The old proverb tells us, Vanni, that sweetest love turns to bitterest
hate. Remember Valperga! Do you think she has forgotten it? Remember her
castle, her power, the state she used to keep, when she was queen of
those barren mountains! Do you think she has forgotten that? She might
carry it humbly; but she, like the rest of those painted ruins, is proud
at heart, proud and revengeful; why she has vowed the death of her
quondam lover."

"I would not believe it, if an angel were to tell me; do you think then
that I will credit such a tale, when it is given out by a devil like
you? Nay, do not frown, Sir Priest; the devil loves to clothe himself in
a holy garb; and report says that you have more than once shewn the
cloven foot."

"You are pleased to jest, Lord Governor," replied Tripalda, with a
ghastly smile, "do you know the hand-writing of Orlando Quartezzani?"

"As I know my own."

"Read then that letter."

It was a letter from Orlando to Tripalda, conjuring him to be speedy in
his operations, and saying that, since the countess of Valperga appeared
to enter into the plot with a willing heart, all difficulties would now
be easily removed.

Vanni put down the letter with a look of mingled contempt and
indignation. "And who else have ye among you? I expect next to hear that
some of the saints or martyrs, or perhaps the Virgin herself has come
down to aid you."

"Here is a list of the conspirators; and here are letters which will
serve as further proofs of the truth of my disclosures."

"Give them to me. And now let me tell you, my excellent fox, that I by
no means trust you, and that, knowing your tricks of old, I may well
suspect that, after trying to get all you can from us by betraying your
associates, you will endeavour to get all you can out of them by
assisting them to escape; so, my good fellow, you must for the present
remain under lock and key."

"I hoped that I had deserved better----"

"Deserved! Aye, you deserve the torture, as much as the vilest heretic
who denies the passion of our Redeemer. You know yourself to be an
arch-traitor, and, by the saints! you shall be treated like one. Come,
there is a better room for your prison than you deserve: go in
peaceably; for if you oblige me to use force, you shall lodge for the
next week in one of those holes underground, of which I believe you have
some knowledge, since your fiendish malice contrived them."

"Well, Vanni, I yield. But I hope that your future gratitude----"

"Oh! trust to my gratitude. I know my trade too well not to encourage
such hell-hounds as you are."


[Footnote 4: The Dumb Knight by Machin: Act IV.]




CHAPTER XI


_Euthanasia in Prison._


Having thus disposed of Tripalda, Vanni sat down to study the list of
conspirators that he had given him. It contained three hundred names.
"What a murderous dog this priest is!" he cried. "Why every noble family
has one or more of its members engaged in this plot. I shall take the
liberty to curtail it exceedingly, before it meets the eyes of the
prince. The ringleaders are enough for him: the rest I shall punish on
my private account; a few fines will bring them to reason, and they are
better subjects ever after. But Valperga! I would as soon have believed
that an ass could drink up the moon, as that that villain could have
drawn her from her illustrious sphere, to be swallowed up among the rest
of the gulls, when he wants to make merry with a few murders. But, by
St. Martin! as she has sown, so must she reap; and I hate her ten times
the more for her hypocritical, angel face. Conspire against Castruccio!
He used her ill; but a meek and forbearing woman's love that forgave all
injuries, is what she ever boasted, if not in words, at least in looks
and manners. For thy sake, thou goodly painted saint, like the rest of
them, well looking outside, but worms and corruption within, I will
never trust more to any of thy sex!--Nor shalt thou escape. Others will
pay a fearful penalty for their treason; and thine, which merits much
more than theirs, shall not go free. I could have staked my life upon
Euthanasia; I knew her from a child; I remember her a smiling cherub
with deep blue eyes and curly tresses; and her very name seemed to carry
a divinity with it. I have many sins on my head; and, when my death
comes, many years of purgatory may be tacked on to my absolution; but
methought that, when I contemplated and almost adored the virtues of
Euthanasia, my soul was half-way through its purification;--and she to
fall!"

Vanni, who, in the common acceptation, was truly faithful to his master,
was struck with disgust at what appeared to him the depth of treachery
on her part. He knew little of the human heart, its wondrous subtlety
and lawyer-like distinctions; he could not imagine the thousand
sophistries that cloaked her purpose to Euthanasia, the veils of woven
wind, that made her apparent treachery shew like purest truth to her. He
could not judge of the enthusiasm, that, although it permitted her to
foresee the opprobrium and condemnation which would be attached to her
conduct, yet made her trample upon all. She walked on in what she deemed
the right path; and neither the pangs of doubt, nor the imminent risque
that awaited her perseverance, could arrest her; or, worse than all, the
harsh opinion of man, his ever ready censure of ideas he cannot
understand, his fiery scorn of virtue which he might never attain. She
passed on to her goal, fearless of, and despising "the barbed tongues,
or thoughts more sharp than they," which threatened to wound her most
sacred feelings.

But Vanni could not penetrate the inner sanctuary of her heart, which
throned self-approbation as its deity, and cared not for the false gods
that usurp the pleasant groves and high places of the world. After
having vented his spleen with that sceptred infallibility men assume,
and condemned her and her whole sex unheard, Mordecastelli proceeded to
more active business, and before night the chiefs of the conspiracy were
thrown into prison.

Early the following morning Castruccio returned to Lucca. Mordecastelli
met him with a countenance, in which the falcon-eye of the prince could
read uncommon tidings. "Why do you look thus, my friend?" said he.
"Either laugh or cry; or tell me why you do neither, although on the
verge of both."

"My lord, I have cause. I have discovered a conspiracy which threatened
your power, and that not a mean one; so that I must wish you joy, that
you have again escaped from these harpies. But, when you hear the names
of the conspirators, you also will be sorrowful; several of your friends
are among them; and names, which have been repeated in your daily
prayers with blessings joined to them, are now written in the list of
traitors."

"When I took power upon me, my dear Vanni, I well knew that I wrapt
suspicion about me as a robe, and wedded danger, and treachery, and most
other evils. So let it be! I was yet a boy, when I prayed to be a
prince, though my crown were of thorns. But who are these? Which of my
old friends are so blind, as to see their own interest in my downfal?"

Mordecastelli gave the list of the ringleaders which he had prepared,
and watched the countenance of Castruccio as he read it. He observed
contempt and carelessness on his countenance, until the name of the
countess of Valperga met his eyes; he then saw the expression change,
and a slight convulsion on his lips, which he evidently strove to
suppress. Vanni could contain himself no longer.

"You see, my lord, you see her name. And, as true as there is a sun in
heaven, as true, as she is false, this saintlike Euthanasia has spotted
her soul with treason. I have proofs, here they are. It would make one
doubt one's salvation, to see her with her Madona face creep into this
nest of traitors. There they must have been, closeted in a cellar, or
hid in some dark hole; for else my spies would have earthed them out
long ago. And I figure her to myself, with her golden hair, and eyes
which illumined even the night, they were so dazzling,--entering a room
made dark enough to hide treason;--and to think that the hellish bat did
not take wing out at the window when she appeared! but no, she cherished
him in her bosom."

"You are eloquent, Vanni."

"I am, my lord. I took her for an angel, and I find her a woman;--one of
those frail, foolish creatures we all despise----"

"Peace, peace, my dear Vanni; you talk insufferable nonsense. Let us
proceed to more serious business. What have you done with these people?"

"They are all in prison."

"The countess among them?"

"Why, my lord, would you have had her spared?"

"She is in prison then?"

"She is."

"Vanni, you must look to these people. I assure you that I by no means
find myself mercifully inclined towards them. These continual plots, and
this foolish ingratitude, to give it no worse name, disturb our
government too much. I will tear it away root and branch; and the
punishment of these fellows shall be a terrible warning to those who may
think of treading in the same steps."

Castruccio fixed his eyes upon Mordecastelli; but there was an
expression in them that made the confident cast his upon the ground.
They glared; and his pale face became paler, so that his very lips were
white. He looked steadily on Mordecastelli for some minutes; and then
said:

"They must all die."

"They shall, my lord."

"Yet not by an easy death. That were a poor revenge. They shall die, as
they have lived, like traitors; and on their living tombs shall be
written, Thus Castruccio punishes his rebel subjects. Have I toiled,
exposed my person to danger, become the fear and hope of Tuscany, to
stain with my best blood the dagger of one of these miserable villains?
Do you see that they die so, Vanni, as that I may be satisfied."

"I will, my lord. And the countess?"--

"Leave her to me. I will be her judge and executioner."

"Castruccio?"

"Do not look so pale, Vanni; you do not understand. A few hours hence I
will tell you more. Now leave me."

Solitude is a coy companion for a prince, and one he little loves. But
Castruccio had much to occupy his thoughts, much that agonized him.
"Revenge!" He clenched his hand, and, throwing his eyes upward, he
cried: "Yes, revenge is among those few goods in life, which compensate
for its many evils. Yet it is poor: it is a passion which can have no
end. Burning in pursuit, cold and unsatisfactory in its conclusion, it
is as love, which wears out its soul in unrequited caresses. But still,
it shall be mine; and these shall suffer. They shall feel in every nerve
what it is to have awakened me. I will not fear; I will not feel my life
depend alone upon the word of these most impotent slaves. They shall
die; and the whole world shall learn that Castruccio can revenge."

Thus he thought: yet there was an inner sense, that betrayed to him the
paltriness of his feelings, when he imagined that there was glory in
trampling upon the enemy beneath his feet. He would not listen to this
small still voice; but, turning from these ideas, he began to reflect on
that which filled him with a bitterness of feeling to which he had long
been a stranger.

"So, she has conspired against me; and, forgetful of all those ties that
bound us notwithstanding her coldness, she has plotted my death! She
knew, she must have known, that in spite of absence and repulse, she was
the saint of my life; and that this one human weakness, or human virtue,
remained to me, when power and a strong will had in other respects
metamorphosed me. Does she forget, that I have ever worn near my heart a
medallion engraven with her vows of childhood? She has forgotten all.
And not only has she forgotten to love, but she, has cast aside the
uprightness of her understanding, and stained the purity of her soul.

"It is well for me to speak thus, who, instead of the virtues that once
were mine, have as ministers, revenge, and hate, and conquest. But,
although I choose to be thus, and although I have selected these
hell-hounds to drag my car of life, I have not lost the sense of what is
just and right; and, in the midst of all my wilful errors and my
degradation, I could discern and worship the pure loveliness of
Euthanasia. By the saints! I believed, that, if she died, like Dante's
Beatrice, she would plead for me before the throne of the Eternal, and
that I should be saved through her. Now she is lost, and may perdition
seize the whole worthless race of man, since it has fallen upon her!

"But SHE MUST BE SAVED. My hands shall not be stained with her blood,
nor my soul bear the brand of that crime. But she must not stay here;
nor shall she remain in Tuscany. She shall go far away, so that I never
more may hear her name: that shall be her punishment, and she must bear
it. Now I must contrive the means; for she shall not remain another
night in prison."

Euthanasia in prison! Yes; she had become the inhabitant of this abode
of crime, though her high mind was as far above fault as human nature
could soar; hers, if it were an error, was one of judgement. But why
should I call it error? To remove a cruel tyrant from his seat of
power,--to devote those days, which she might have spent in luxury and
pleasure, to a deep solitude, where neither love nor sympathy would
cheer her;--to bear his anger, perhaps his hate, and in the midst of all
to preserve a firmness and sweetness, that might sustain her, and soften
him,--to quit all her friends, and her native country for ever, to
follow in the steps of one she had ceased to love, but to whom she felt
herself for ever bound by her wish to preserve him from that misery
which his crimes would ultimately occasion him: these were her errors.

After Quartezzani had quitted her on the night of her arrival in Lucca,
she had not slept; she was too full of various thought, of dread and
breathless expectation, to compose her spirits to rest. She felt
eternity in each second; and each slow hour seemed to creep forward,
stretching itself in a wide, endless circle around her. When day dawned,
it found her, not sleeping, but with open eyes looking on the one last
star that faded in the west, calling to mind a thousand associations, a
thousand hopes, now lying dead in the ashes of that pyre time had heaped
together and consumed; she looked forward; yet then she paused; she
dared not attempt to penetrate into futurity;--all was so tempestuous
and dark.

She arose at sun-rise, and had descended into the garden, to breathe the
bleak, but, to her feverish spirits the refreshing air of a December
morning; when, at noon, Quartezzani rushed in; he was deadly pale, and
his hair seemed to stand on end with fear.

"Holy saints! what has happened?" cried Euthanasia.

"We are all lost! dead, or worse than dead! We are betrayed!"

"Tripalda has betrayed us?"

"He has."

"And there is no escape?"

"None. The gates are shut, nor will they be opened, until we are all
seized."

"Then most certainly we die?"

"As sure as that Christ died upon the cross! so surely shall we perish."

"Then courage, my friend, and let us cast aside, with all mortal hopes,
all mortal fear. I have the start of you, Ugo; I was prepared for this;
but you would not believe me, until now my predictions are sealed by the
event. Let us die, as we would have lived, for the cause of freedom; and
let no trembling dismay, no coward fear, make us the mock of our
enemies.

"Other men in various ages have died by untimely death, and we will dare
to imitate them. Others have sustained their fate with fortitude; and
let faith and submission to the will of heaven be to us, instead of that
dauntless spirit of inbred virtue that supported the heroes of
antiquity."

Euthanasia raised her own spirits as she spoke; and fearless
expectation, and something like triumph, illuminated her countenance, as
she cast her eyes upward, and with her hand clasped that of her friend.
He received no warmth from the pressure; chilly fear possessed him; and
he stood utterly dejected before her--he wept.

"Aye, weep," she continued, "and I also, did not the tempest of my soul
bear all clouds far away, I also might shed tears. You weep to leave
those whom you love,----that is a bitter pang. You weep to see your
associates suffer; but each must relieve the other from that sorrow by
cheerfulness and courage. But," she continued, seeing him entirely
subdued by fear, "is there no hope of escape? Exert your ingenuity; once
past the gates, you would soon be out of the territory of Lucca. And
Castruccio----"

"Oh, that most hated name! Bloody, execrable tyrant! Curse him! May the
fiends----"

"Cease! know you not that a dying man's curse falls more on himself,
than on him against whom he imprecates the wrath of heaven? This is
childish; Ugo, collect yourself; you have a wife;--woman's wit is ready;
consult with her; she may devise some plan for your safety."

"You are an angel of consolation, Euthanasia. Heaven bless you! and do
you also reflect on your own danger."

He left her: and she (without giving a thought to vain regret; her
moments were too precious) sat down and wrote a long letter to
Bondelmonti. It was calm and affectionate: she felt raised above
mortality; and her words expressed the exceeding serenity of her soul.
She gave a last farewel to her friends. "It may seem strange to you,"
she wrote, "that I express myself thus: and indeed, when I reason with
myself, methinks I ought not to expect death from the hands of
Antelminelli. Nor do I; and yet I expect some solemn termination to this
scene, some catastrophe which will divide me from you for ever. Nor is
it Italy, beloved and native Italy, that I shall leave, but also this
air, this sun, and the earth's beauty. I feel thus; and therefore do I
write you an eternal farewel."

She had scarcely finished her letter, when a messenger arrived from
Mordecastelli. He told her that the conspiracy was divulged, and that
she must in a prison await the orders of Castruccio. She started at the
word _Prison;_ but, recovering herself, she made a sign that she was
ready to follow the messenger; so, without a word, without a sigh, she
quitted her palace, and, ascending her litter, was conducted to her
place of confinement. She passed through the same streets, through which
the jailor had conducted her to the dungeon of Beatrice. A small and
curiously carved shrine of the Madona with a lamp before it, chanced to
recal this circumstance to her mind. "Thou art at peace, blessed one,"
she said, "there where I hope soon to be."

The jailor of the prison, who was the same that had besought her to come
and comfort poor Beatrice, received her with a sorrowful countenance,
and led her to his most decent apartment, high in the tower, that
overlooked the rest of the building. There she was left alone to
ruminate on her fortunes, and to imbue herself with that fortitude,
which might carry her with honour through the trials that awaited her.
The circumstance that pressed most painfully upon her, was the death
which her associates must suffer. She tried to forget herself; she did
not fear death; she did not expect it at the hands of Castruccio; and
her expectations and ideas were too vague to permit her to dread much
the coming events as they regarded her. The window of her prison-chamber
was not grated, and from it she could survey the neighbouring country. A
thousand feelings passed through her mind, and she could put no order in
her thoughts. Sleep refused to visit her; but her reflections became
peaceful, and full of pleasant images and recollections.

Morning succeeded to a winter's night. It was clear, and sunshiny, but
cold. The cheering beams poured into her room; she looked upon the azure
sky, and the flock of giant mountains which lay crouching around, with a
strange pleasure. She felt as if she saw them for the last time, but as
if she were capable of enjoying until the latest moment those pleasures
which nature had ever conferred upon her. She repeated some of Dante's
verses where he describes in such divine strains the solemn calm and
celestial beauty of paradise. "When will it be my lot to wander there
also," she said, "when shall I enjoy the windless air, and
flower-starred meadows of that land?"

Thus the whole day passed; but it was quickly dark; and she, who had
watched for two nights, and was now quite overcome, looking out once
upon the evening star, that star she had ever loved, and which was ever
to her as the good genius of the world watching his children in their
repose, repeated the Catholic ejaculation, _"Stella, alma, benigna, ora
pro nobis!"_ then, crossing herself, she lay down to rest, and quickly
slept, as peacefully and happily, as a babe rocked in its mother's arms.




CHAPTER XII


_Euthanasia sails for Sicily, and is lost._


A little before midnight Euthanasia's prison-chamber was unlocked, and
the jailor entered, with a lamp in his hand, accompanied by one of
majestic figure, and a countenance beautiful, but sad, and tarnished by
the expression of pride that animated it. "She sleeps," whispered the
jailor. His companion raised his finger in token of silence; and, taking
the lamp from the man's hand, approached her mattress which was spread
upon the floor, and, kneeling down beside it, earnestly gazed upon that
face he had known so well in happier days. She made an uneasy motion, as
if the lamp which he held disturbed her; he placed it on the ground, and
shaded it with his figure; while, by the soft light that fell upon her,
he tried to read the images that were working in her mind.

She appeared but slightly altered since he had first seen her. If
thought had drawn some lines in her brow, the intellect which its
beautiful form expressed, effaced them to the eye of the spectator: her
golden hair fell over her face and neck: he gently drew it back, while
she smiled in her sleep; her smile was ever past description lovely, and
one might well exclaim with Dante


_Quel, ch' ella par quando un poco sorride,
Non si puo dicer, ne tenere a mente;
Si è nuovo miracolo, e gentile_[5].


He gazed on her long; her white arm lay on her black dress, and he
imprinted a sad kiss upon it; she awoke, and saw Castruccio gazing upon
her.

She started up; "What does this mean?" she cried.

His countenance, which had softened as he looked upon her, now reassumed
its severe expression. "Madonna," he replied, "I come to take you from
this place."

She looked on him, endeavouring to read his purpose in his eyes; but she
saw there no explanation of her doubts:--"And whither do you intend to
lead me?"

"That you will know hereafter."

She paused; and he added with a disdainful smile, "The countess of
Valperga need not fear, while I have the power to protect her, the fate
she prepared for me."

"What fate?"

"Death."

He spoke in an under tone, but with one of those modulations of voice,
which, bringing to her mind scenes of other days, was best fitted to
make an impression upon her. She replied almost unconsciously--"I did
not prepare death for you; God is my witness!"

"Well, Madonna, we will not quarrel about words; or, like lawyers,
clothe our purposes in such a subtle guise, that it might deceive all,
if truth did not destroy the spider's web. I come to lead you from
prison."

"Not thus, my lord, not thus will I be saved. I disdain any longer to
assert my intentions, since I am not believed. But am I to be liberated
alone; or are my friends included in your merciful intentions?"

"Your friends are too dangerous enemies of the commonwealth, to be
rescued from the fate that awaits them. Your sex, perhaps the memory of
our ancient friendship, plead for you; and I do not think that it
accords with your wisdom to make conditions with one who has the power
to do that which best pleases him."

"And yet I will not yield; I will not most unworthily attend to my own
safety, while my associates die. No, my lord, if they are to be
sacrificed, the addition of one poor woman will add little to the number
of your victims; and I cannot consent to desert them."

"How do you desert them? You will never see or hear of them more, or
they of you. But this is trifling; and my moments are precious."

"I will not--I dare not follow you. My heart, my conscience tell me to
remain. I must not disobey their voice."

"Is your conscience so officious now, and did it say nothing, or did
your heart silence it, when you plotted my destruction?"

"Castruccio, this I believe is the last time that I shall ever speak to
you. Our hearts are in the hands of the father of all; and he sees my
thoughts. You know me too well, to believe that I plotted your death, or
that of any human creature. Now is not the time to explain my motives
and plans: but my earnest prayer was that you might live; my best hope,
to make that life less miserable, less unworthy, than it had hitherto
been."

She spoke with deep earnestness; and there was something in her manner,
as if the spirit of truth animated all her accents, that compelled
assent. Castruccio believed all; and he spoke in a milder and more
persuasive manner "Poor Euthanasia! so you were at last cajoled by that
arch-traitor, Bondelmonti. Well, I believe, and pardon all; but, as the
seal of the purity of your intentions, I now claim your consent to my
offers of safety."

"I cannot, indeed I cannot, consent. Be merciful; be magnanimous; and
pardon all, banish us all where our discontent cannot be dangerous to
you. But to desert my friends, and basely to save that life you deny to
them, I never can."

The jailor, who had hitherto stood in the shade near the door, could no
longer contain himself. He knelt to Euthanasia, and earnestly and warmly
intreated her to save herself, and not with wilful presumption to cast
aside those means which God had brought about for her safety.
"Remember," he cried, "your misfortunes will be on the prince's head;
make him not answer for you also. Oh! lady, for his sake, for all our
sakes, yield."

Castruccio was much moved to see the warmth of this man. He took the
hand of Euthanasia, he also knelt: "Yes, my only and dearest friend,
save yourself for my sake. Yield, beloved Euthanasia, to my intreaties.
Indeed you will not die; for you well know that your life is dearer to
me than my own. But yield to my request, by our former loves, I intreat;
by the prayers which you offer up for my salvation, I conjure you as
they shall be heard, so also hear me!"

The light of the solitary lamp fell full upon the countenance of
Castruccio: it was softened from all severity; his eyes glistened, and a
tear stole silently down his cheek as he prayed her to yield. They talk
of the tears of women; but, when they flow most plenteously, they soften
not the heart of man, as one tear from his eyes has power on a woman.
Words and looks have been feigned; they say, though I believe them not,
that women have feigned tears: but those of a man, which are ever as the
last demonstration of a too full heart, force belief, and communicate to
her who causes them, that excess of tenderness, that intense depth of
passion, of which they are themselves the sure indication.

Euthanasia had seen Castruccio weep but once before; it was many years
ago, when he departed for the battle of Monte Catini; and he then
sympathized too deeply in her sorrows, not to repay her much weeping
with one most true and sacred tear. And now this scene was present
before her; the gap of years remained unfilled; and she had consented to
his request, before she again recalled her thoughts, and saw the dreary
prison-chamber, the glimmering lamp, and the rough form of the jailor
who knelt beside Antelminelli. Her consent was scarcely obtained, when
Castruccio leapt up, and, bidding her wrap her capuchin about her, led
her by the hand down the steep prison-stairs, while the jailor went
before them, and unlocked, and drew back the bolts of, the heavy,
creaking doors.

At the entrance of the prison they found a man on horseback holding two
other horses. It was Mordecastelli. Castruccio assisted Euthanasia to
mount, and then sprang on his own saddle; they walked their horses to a
gate of the town which was open;--they proceeded in silence;--at the
gate Castruccio said to his companion--"Here leave us; I shall speedily
return."

Vanni then turned his horse's head, slightly answering the salute of
Euthanasia, which she had involuntarily made at parting for ever with
one who had been her intimate acquaintance. A countryman was waiting on
horseback outside the gate: "You are our guide?" said Castruccio. "Lead
on then."

It was a frosty, cloudless night; there was no moon, but the stars shone
intensely above; the bright assemblage seemed to congregate from the far
wastes of heaven, and to press in innumerable clusters upon the edge of
the visible atmosphere, to gaze upon the strange earth beneath. The
party passed out of the city of Lucca by the Pisan gate, and at first
put their horses to a gallop. As they approached the hills, Castruccio
came up beside Euthanasia; they slackened their speed; she spoke thus:

"I have acceded to your request, and left the prison; indeed it were
useless in me to resist one who possesses the absolute power that you
do. But I intreat you now that I see you for the last time, to have pity
on my companions in this conspiracy. I can think only of them; and if I
am to live--if ever I am again to hear of the events which will pass
within the walls of that town, reflect on the sharp pang you will
inflict upon me, if I hear of their destruction."

"Madonna," replied the prince, "I will do that which I consider my duty:
and let not these our last moments be employed in fruitless discussion."

Euthanasia felt that it was in vain to speak. Her confederates, her
friends, who were reserved instantly to die, stood in funereal groupe
before the eye of her soul; her imagination made present to her all that
they thought, and all that they were to suffer. She looked upon
Castruccio; she saw that he was moulded of an impenetrable substance:
her heart swelled to the confines of her bosom, and forbade her such
degradation to the assured victims, as would be implied in her uttering
one further word in their behalf to the unhearing, unrelenting being
that stood before her. Castruccio continued:

"You are about to leave Tuscany, and to take up your abode in a foreign
land. You are still young. I send you from your native country; but you
may at a future period confess that I have done you a kindness. You have
hitherto mingled in the embroiled politics of a republic, and seen
conspiracies, heart-burnings, and war."

Euthanasia felt herself unable to reply.

They had crossed the plain of Lucca, and were arrived beneath those
hills, which, crowned with towers, and clothed with deep forests, were
the beautiful romantic steeps that she best loved. They struck off here
from the usual road, and, fording the Serchio, began to ascend the
acclivities on the opposite side, proceeding one by one up the narrow
path. At length they reached the summit, and viewed, stretched before
them beneath the stars of night, a scene of enchanting beauty. The plain
they had just crossed was dimly seen beneath, bounded by its hills;
before them was another plain, desert and barren, through which the
Serchio flows, bounded by the dark line of the sea; and the Lago di
Macciucoli, a marshy lake, was close beneath.

"Here I leave you," said Castruccio: "there is your destination," and he
pointed to the sea; "remember one with whom you have passed your
happiest days."

He took her hand, and kissed it. Her feelings were strange, and hardly
to be described. She could not entirely forget what he had once been to
her. She could at that moment have overlooked his tyranny, his lawless
ambition, and his cruelty. But, no; the moment itself was a bane to
oblivion. She could have forgotten his past cruelties, but not those
which were immediately to be perpetrated, to be perpetrated on
individuals who had been united with her in a plot for liberty, and some
of whom her name and her countenance had perhaps prompted to the
desperate undertaking, and egged on to destruction.

Castruccio spoke to the guide, recommending haste as soon as they should
reach the plain, and then turned his horse's head. Euthanasia and her
conductor paused on the summit of the hill; and she heard the steps of
Castruccio's horse, as it made its way back through the tangled
underwood. Then she also began her descent on the other side.

Euthanasia, being now separated from her former connections, and from
him who had been the evil genius of the scene, began to resume her
wonted tone. The eternal spirit of the universe seemed to descend upon
her, and she drank in breathlessly the sensation, which the silent
night, the starry heavens, and the sleeping earth bestowed upon her. All
seemed so peaceful, that no unwelcome sensation in her own heart could
disturb the scene of which she felt herself a part. She looked up, and
exclaimed in her own beautiful Italian, whose soft accents and
expressive phrases then so much transcended all other European
languages--"What a brave canopy has this earth, and how graciously does
the supreme empyrean smile upon its nursling!"

"_E Bellissimo_," replied her guide, "_ma figuratevi, Madonna, se è
tanto bello sul rovescio, cosa mai sarà al dritto_[6]."

Euthanasia smiled at the fancy of one so uncouth in manners and habits
of life; and she replied,--"Who knows how soon it may be my destiny to
see that other side, which you imagine outdoes this sublime spectacle in
splendour?"

"Heaven preserve you long upon earth," replied the man; "and make you as
happy as you deserve, as happy as you have made others!"

"Do you know me then?"

"I dwell in the village of Valperga. I and my family have been Aldiani
there, since the time of the old count Goffredo, your great-grandfather.
But, Madonna, please you to put spur to your horse; for we have little
time, and I fear that before long the heavens will be overclouded; that
last puff had something of the scirocco in it, and I see a mist in the
west that foretels wind from that quarter."

They put their horses to the gallop. Euthanasia's was a noble steed, and
bore her proudly on. She felt her spirits rise with the exhilarating
motion; the wind gathered from the west, and scattered her hair, which,
as she quitted her prison, she had slightly bound with a handkerchief;
and, as she faced the breeze, its warm breath brought the lagging blood
to her cheeks.

They approached the sea, and began to hear its roar; the breeze became
stronger as they drew near. The beach was flat, and the small line of
sand that bordered the waters, was now beaten upon, and covered by the
waves. As they came near, Euthanasia felt some curiosity to know her
destination; but she saw nothing but the dim weed-grown field, and the
white breakers of the troubled ocean. It was not until they were close
upon the sand, that she discerned a large black boat drawn up on the
beach, and several men near it. One of them came up, and asked the word,
which the countryman gave; and then a man, who had the appearance of a
leader, came from the boat, and welcomed Euthanasia.--"I am commanded,"
he said, "by the prince of Lucca to receive you, lady."

"And whither am I to go?"

He pointed to a vessel which rode hard by,--so near, that she wondered
she had not seen it before. Its black hulk cast a deep shade upon the
waters; and the dim sails, increased to an extraordinary size by the
darkness, flapped heavily. She looked upon it with surprize, and
wondered whither it was to bear her; but she asked no more questions:
addressing herself for her departure, she took a kind leave of the
countryman, and gave him the little gold that she had with her. The man
turned to the chief, and said,--"Sir knight, if it be not thought
impertinent, have the courtesy to inform me whither that vessel is
bound."

The man looked at him somewhat haughtily: but replied--"To Sicily."
Sicily was then under the rule of the family of the kings of Arragon,
who inherited from the daughter of Manfred, and were of course
Ghibelines.

"The Virgin Mother bless your voyage!" said her guide to Euthanasia.--"I
am afraid that it will be rough, for an ugly wind is rising: but the
saints will surely guard you."

Euthanasia stepped into the boat; its commander sat beside her; and the
men took their oars: she waved her hand to her guide, saying, "Farewel,
may God bless you!" she added in a low tone, half to herself--"They
speak Italian also in Sicily."

These were the last words she ever spoke to any one who returned to tell
the tale. The countryman stood upon the beach;--he saw the boat moor
beside the vessel; he saw its crew ascend the dark sides. The boat was
drawn up; the sails were set; and they bore out to sea, receding slowly
with many tacks, for the wind was contrary;--the vessel faded on the
sight; and he turned about, and speeded to Lucca.

The wind changed to a more northerly direction during the night; and the
land-breeze of the morning filled their sails, so that, although slowly,
they dropt down southward. About noon they met a Pisan vessel, who bade
them beware of a Genoese squadron, which was cruizing off Corsica: so
they bore in nearer to the shore. At sunset that day a fierce scirocco
rose, accompanied by thunder and lightning, such as is seldom seen
during the winter season. Presently they saw huge, dark columns,
descending from heaven, and meeting the sea, which boiled beneath; they
were borne on by the storm, and scattered by the wind. The rain came
down in sheets; and the hail clattered, as it fell to its grave in the
ocean;--the ocean was lashed into such waves, that, many miles inland,
during the pauses of the wind, the hoarse and constant murmurs of the
far-off sea made the well-housed landsman mutter one more prayer for
those exposed to its fury.

Such was the storm, as it was seen from shore. Nothing more was ever
known of the Sicilian vessel which bore Euthanasia. It never reached its
destined port, nor were any of those on board ever after seen. The
centinels who watched near Vado, a tower on the sea beach of the
Maremma, found on the following day, that the waves had washed on shore
some of the wrecks of a vessel; they picked up a few planks and a broken
mast, round which, tangled with some of its cordage, was a white silk
handkerchief, such a one as had bound the tresses of Euthanasia the
night that she had embarked, and in its knot were a few golden hairs.

She was never heard of more; even her name perished. She slept in the
oozy cavern of the ocean; the sea-weed was tangled with her shining
hair; and the spirits of the deep wondered that the earth had trusted so
lovely a creature to the barren bosom of the sea, which, as an evil
step-mother, deceives and betrays all committed to her care.

Earth felt no change when she died; and men forgot her. Yet a lovelier
spirit never ceased to breathe, nor was a lovelier form ever destroyed
amidst the many it brings forth. Endless tears might well have been shed
at her loss; yet for her none wept, save the piteous skies, which
deplored the mischief they had themselves committed;--none moaned except
the sea-birds that flapped their heavy wings above the ocean-cave
wherein she lay;--and the muttering thunder alone tolled her passing
bell, as she quitted a life, which for her had been replete with change
and sorrow.


[Footnote 5: Vita Nuova di Dante.]

[Footnote 6: I could not refrain from recording in their original
language the words of a Florentine peasant. A poet might well envy
the vivacity of this man's imagination.]




CONCLUSION


The private chronicles, from which the foregoing relation has been
collected, end with the death of Euthanasia. It is therefore in public
histories alone that we find an account of the last years of the life of
Castruccio. We can know nothing of his grief, when he found that she
whom he had once tenderly loved, and whom he had ever revered as the
best and wisest among his friends, had died. We know however that,
during the two years that he survived this event, his glory and power
arose not only higher than they had ever before done, but that they
surpassed those of any former Italian prince.

Louis of Bavaria, king of the Romans, entered Italy in the month of
February 1327. He found Castruccio, the scourge of the Guelphs, the
first power of Tuscany, and the principal supporter of his own titles
and pretensions.

Louis of Bavaria was crowned with the iron crown at Milan. But his
proceedings were tyrannical and imprudent. He deprived Galeazzo Visconti
of his power, imprisoned him, and set up the shadow of a republic at
Milan, which was in fact composed of a few Ghibeline nobles, who by
their jealousies and dissentions served only to weaken his power.

He marched through Lombardy, crossed the Apennines at Parma, and was met
by Castruccio at Pontremoli. The prince, whose chief aim was to
ingratiate himself with, and to raise himself to power through the
favour of, the emperor, made his visit more agreeable through the
magnificent presents by which he was accompanied; and his sagacity,
warlike spirit, and agreeable manners gained for him an easy entrance
into the councils, and afterwards into the friendship, of Louis. They
proceeded together to Pisa. The Pisans at first refused entrance to the
emperor, but yielded after he had besieged them a few days. Louis then
visited Lucca, where he erected a dutchy composed of the towns and
territory of Lucca, Pistoia, Volterra and Lunigiana, and created
Castruccio duke, honouring and exalting him as his best friend, and the
firmest support of the imperial power.

They went to Rome together, where the emperor knighted him, and he bore
the sword of state in the procession from the Campidoglio to St.
Peter's, where Louis received the imperial crown. He was created count
of the palace, senator of Rome, and master of the court. He had arrived
at the summit of his glory; he was more feared and obeyed than the
emperor himself; and, in the expedition which Louis meditated against
Naples, king Robert dreaded Castruccio alone, as his most formidable and
craftiest enemy. It was then, that the proud Antelminelli invested
himself in a robe of silk richly adorned with gold and jewels; and on
the breast were embroidered these words--EGLI È COME DIO VUOLE. And on
the shoulders, È SI SARA QUEL CHE DIO VORRÀ.

While he was thus enjoying the maturity of his glory, and partaking all
the amusements and feasts of the capital of Italy, he received
intelligence that the Florentines had possessed themselves of Lucca.
Without a moment's delay, he quitted Rome, traversed the Maremma with a
small band of friends, and appeared, when he was least expected, in the
midst of his enemies.

It was here that he again met Galeazzo Visconti. At Castruccio's request
the emperor had released him from prison; and he came to serve under the
ensigns of his more fortunate friend. Their meeting was an occasion of
mutual joy; they embraced each other affectionately, and confirmed and
renewed the vows of friendship and support which they had entered into
more than ten years before. Castruccio enjoyed for a short time the
unalloyed pleasure which the society of his friend afforded him; they
recounted to each other their various fortunes; and, in recording the
events which had passed since their separation, Galeazzo found, that, if
he had lost sovereignty and power, Castruccio had lost that which might
be considered far more valuable; he had lost his dearest friends; and on
his pale cheek might be read, that, although he disdained to acknowledge
the power of fortune, she had made him feel in his heart's core her
poisoned shafts. We know nothing of the private communion of these
friends; but we may guess that, if Castruccio revealed the sorrows of
his heart, Galeazzo might have regretted that, instead of having
instigated the ambition, and destroyed the domestic felicity of his
friend, he had not taught him other lessons, through which he might have
enjoyed that peace, sympathy and happiness, of which he was now for ever
deprived.

His presence restored the state of his affairs. He possessed himself of
Pisa, recovered Pistoia, and again returned in triumph to Lucca. But
this was the term of his victories. During the siege of Pistoia he had
tasked his strength beyond human suffering; he was ever in the trenches
on horseback, or on foot exposed to the hot sun of July, encouraging the
soldiers, directing the pioneers, and often, in the ardour of
impatience, he himself took the spade, and worked among them. He neither
rested nor slept; and the heats of noon-day, and the dews of night alike
fell upon him. Immediately on his return to his native city, he was
seized with a malignant fever. He knew that he was about to die; and,
with that coolness and presence of mind which was his peculiar
characteristic, he made every arrangement necessary for the welfare of
Lucca, and gave particular directions to his captains for the
prosecution of the war. But he felt, that he left behind him no fitting
successor; and that, if he were the sole creator and only support of the
Lucchese, so they would fall into their primitive insignificance when he
expired. Lying thus on the bed of pain, and conscious that in a few
hours he must surely die, he grasped the hand of Vanni Mordecastelli,
who wept beside him, saying: _Io morrò, e vedrete il mondo per varie
turbolenze confondersi, e rivoltarsi ogni cosa._ This consideration cast
a gloom over his last moments; yet he supported himself with courage.

Galeazzo Visconti had assisted Castruccio in all his labours, exposing
himself with like imprudence, and labouring with equal energy. He was
attacked at Pistoia with the same fever and the same symptoms. Hearing
that the prince was ill at Lucca, he desired, although dying, to be
conveyed to him. He was carried as far as Pescia, where he expired on
the third of September 1328.

On the same day, and at the same hour, Castruccio died at Lucca.

His enemies rejoiced in his death; his friends were confounded and
overthrown. They, as the last act of gratitude, conducted the pomp of
his funeral with princely magnificence. He was buried in the church of
San Francesco, then without, now included within, the walls of Lucca.
The antient tombstone is still seen on the walls of the church; and its
inscription may serve for the moral and conclusion of this tale.


EN VIVO VIVAMQUE
FAMA RERUM GESTARUM
ITALICÆ MILITIÆ SPLENDOR;
LUCENSIUM
DECUS ETRURIÆ
ORNAMENTUM CASTRUCCIUS
GERII ANTELMINELLORUM
STIRPE
VIXI PECCAVI DOLUI
CESSI NATURÆ INDIGENTI
ANIMÆ PIÆ BENEVOLI
SUCCURRITE BREVI MEMORES
VOS MORITUROS.