In one of those low-ceilinged apartments of a Parisian _hôtel_ which
modern luxury seems peculiarly to affect, decorating the walls with the
richest hangings, and gathering together promiscuously objects of art
and _virtù_, along with what can minister to voluptuous ease, Maitland
and Caffarelli were now seated. They had dined, and their coffee stood
before them on a table spread with a costly dessert and several bottles,
whose length of neck and color indicated choice liquor.
They lounged in the easiest of chairs in the easiest of attitudes, and,
as they puffed their havannahs, did not ill-represent in tableau the
luxurious self-indulgence of the age we live in. For let us talk as we
will of progress and mental activity, be as boastful as we may about the
march of science and discovery, in what are we so really conspicuous as
in the inventions that multiply ease, and bring the means of indulgence
within the reach of even moderate fortune?
As the wood fire crackled and flared on the ample hearth, a heavy plash
of hail struck the window, and threatened almost to smash it.
“What a night!” said Maitland, drawing closer to the blaze. “I say,
_Carlo mio_, it's somewhat cosier to sit in this fashion than be
toddling over the Mont Cenis in a shabby old sledge, and listening to
the discussion whether you are to spend the night in the 'Refuge No.
One, or No. Two.'”
“Yes,” said Caffarelli, “it must have been a great relief to you to
have got my telegram in Dublin, and to know that you need not cross the
Alps.”
“If I could only have been certain that I understood it aright, I 'd
have gone straight back to the north from whence I came; but there was a
word that puzzled me,--the word _calamità_. Now we have not yet arrived
at the excellence of accenting foreign words in our telegraph offices;
and as your most amiable and philosophical of all nations has but the
same combination of letters to express an attraction and an affliction,
I was sorely puzzled to make out whether you wrote with or without an
accent on the last syllable. It made all the difference in the world
whether you say events are a 'loadstone' or a 'misfortune.' I gave half
an hour to the study of the passage, and then came on.”
“_Per Bacco!_ I never thought of that; but what, under any
circumstances, would have induced you to go back again?”
“I fell in love!”
Caffarelli pushed the lamp aside to have a better view of his friend,
and then laughed long and heartily. “Maso Arretini used often to say,
'Maitland will die a monk;' and I begin now to believe it is quite
possible.”
“Maso was a fool for his prediction. Had I meant to be a monk, I 'd
have taken to the cowl when I had youth and vigor and dash in me, the
qualities a man ought to bring to a new career. Ha! what is there so
strange in the fact that I should fall in love?”
“Don't ask as if you were offended with me, and I 'll try and tell you.”
“I am calm; go on.”
“First of all, Maitland, no easy conquest would satisfy your vanity, and
you'd never have patience to pursue a difficult one. Again, the objects
that really have an attraction for you--such as Ambition and Power--have
the same fascination for you that high play has for a gambler. You do
not admit nor understand any other; and, last of all,--one is nothing
if not frank in these cases,--you 'd never believe any woman was
lovely enough, clever enough, or graceful enough to be worthy of Norman
Maitland.”
“The candor has been perfect. I 'll try and imitate it,” said Maitland,
filling his glass slowly, and slightly wetting his lips. “All you
have just said, Carlo, would be unimpeachable if all women were your
countrywomen, and if love were what it is understood to be in an
Italian city; but there are such things in this dreary land of fog and
snow-drift as women who do not believe intrigue to be the chief object
of human existence, who have fully as much self-respect as they have
coquetry, and who would regard no addresses so offensive as those that
would reduce them to the level of a class with which they would not
admit companionship.”
“Bastions of virtue that I never ask to lay siege to!” broke out the
other, laughing.
“Don't believe it, Carlo. You'd like the campaign well, if you only
knew how to conduct it. Why, it's not more than a week ago I quitted a
country-house where there were more really pretty women than you could
number in the crowd of one of your ball-rooms on either Arno or Tiber.”
“And, in the name of Heaven, why didn't you bring over one of them at
least, to strike us with wonderment and devotion?”
“Because I would not bring envy, malice, and jealousy to all south
of the Alps; because I would not turn all your heads, or torment your
hearts; and lastly, because--she would n't come. No, Carlo, she would
n't come.”
“And you really asked her?”
“Yes. At first I made the lamentable blunder of addressing her as I
should one of your own dark-skinned damsels, but the repulse I met
taught me better. I next tried the serious line, but I failed there
also; not hopelessly, however,--at least, not so hopelessly as to deter
me from another attempt. Yes, yes; I understand your smile, and I know
your theory,--there never was a bunch of grapes yet that was worth going
on tiptoe to gather.”
“Not that, but there are scores within reach quite as good as one cares
for,” said Caffarelli, laughing. “What are you thinking of?” asked he,
after a pause.
“I was thinking what possible hope there was for a nation of twenty
millions of men, with temperament like yours,--fellows so ingrained in
indolence that the first element they weigh in every enterprise was, how
little trouble it was to cost them.”
“I declare,” said the Italian, with more show of energy, “I 'd hold life
as cheaply as yourself if I had to live in your country,--breathe only
fogs, and inhale nothing pleasanter than coal-smoke.”
“It is true,” said Maitland, gravely, “the English have not got
climate,--they have only weather; but who is to say if out of the
vicissitudes of our skies we do not derive that rare activity which
makes us profit by every favorable emergency?”
“To do every conceivable thing but one.”
“And what is that one?”
“Enjoy yourselves! Oh, _caro amico_, you do with regard to your
pleasures what you do with your music,--you steal a little from the
Continent, and always spoil it in the adaptation.”
Maitland sipped his wine in half-sullen silence for some minutes, and
then said, “You think then, really, we ought to be at Naples?”
“I am sure of it. Baretti,--do you forget Baretti? he had the wine-shop
at the end of the Contrada St. Lucia.”
“I remember him as a Caraorrista.”
“The same; he is here now. He tells me that the Court is so completely
in the hands of the Queen that they will not hear of any danger; that
they laugh every time Cavour is mentioned; and now that both France
and England have withdrawn their envoys, the King says openly, 'It is a
pleasure to drive out on the Chiaja when one knows they 'll not meet a
French gendarme or an English detective.'”
“And what does Baretti say of popular feeling?”
“He says the people would like to do something, though nobody seems to
know what it ought to be. They thought that Milano's attempt t 'other
day was clever, and they think it might n't be bad to blow up the
Emperor, or perhaps the Pope, or both; but he also says that the
Camorra are open to reason, and that Victor Emmanuel and Cavour are as
legitimate food for an explosive shell as the others; and, in fact,
any convulsion that will smash the shutters and lead to pillage must be
good.”
“You think Baretti can be depended on?”
“I know he can. He has been Capo Camorrista eight years in one of the
vilest quarters of Naples; and if there were a suspicion of him, he'd
have been stabbed long ago.”
“And what is he doing here?”
“He came here to see whether anything could be done about assassinating
the Emperor.”
“I'd not have seen him, Carlo. It was most unwise to have spoken with
him.”
“What would you have?” said the other, with a shrug of his shoulders.
“He came to set this clock to rights,--it plays some half-dozen airs
from Mercadante and Verdi,--and he knows how to arrange them. He goes
every morning to the Tuileries, to Moquard, the Emperor's secretary: he,
too, has an Italian musical clock, and he likes to chat with Baretti.”
“I distrust these fellows greatly.”
“That is so English!” said Caffarelli; “but we Italians have a finer
instinct for knavery, just as we have a finer ear for music; and as we
detect a false note, so we smell a treachery, where you John Bulls would
neither suspect one or the other. Baretti sees the Prince Napoleon, too,
almost every day, and with Pietri he is like a brother.”
“But we can have no dealings with a fellow that harbors such designs.”
“_Caro amico_, don't you know by this time that no Italian of the class
of this fellow ever imagines any other disentanglement in a political
question than by the stiletto? It is you, or I, or somebody else, must,
as they phrase it, 'pay with his skin.' Fortunately for the world, there
is more talk than action in all this; but if you were to oppose it, and
say, 'None of this,' you 'd only be the first victim. We put the knife
in politics just as the Spanish put garlic in cookery: we don't know any
other seasoning, and it has always agreed with our digestion.”
“Can Giacomo come in to wind up the clock, Eccellenza?” said
Caffarelli's servant, entering at the moment; and as the Count nodded
an assent, a fat, large, bright-eyed man of about forty entered, with
a mellow frank countenance, and an air of happy joyous contentment that
might have sat admirably on a well-to-do farmer.
“Come over and have a glass of wine, Giacomo,” said the Count, filling a
large glass to the brim with Burgundy; and the Italian bowed with an air
of easy politeness first to the Count and next to Maitland, and then,
after slightly tasting the liquor, retired a little distance from the
table, glass in hand.
“My friend here,” said the Count, with a motion of his hand towards
Maitland, “is one of ourselves, Giacomo, and you may speak freely before
him.”
“I have seen the noble signor before,” said Giacomo, bowing
respectfully, “at Naples, with His Royal Highness the Count of
Syracuse.”
“The fellow never forgets a face; nobody escapes him,” muttered
Caffarelli; while he added, aloud, “Well, there are few honester
patriots in Italy than the Count of Syracuse.”
Giacomo smiled, and showed a range of white teeth, with a pleasant air
of acquiescence.
“And what is stirring?--what news have you for us, Giacomo?” asked
Caffarelli.
“Nothing, Eccellenza,--positively nothing. The French seem rather to be
growing tired of us Italians, and begin to ask, 'What, in the name of
wonder, do we really want?' and even his Majesty the Emperor t' other
day said to one of ours, 'Don't be importunate.'”
“And will you tell me that the Emperor would admit to his presence and
speak with fellows banded in a plot against his life?” asked Maitland,
contemptuously.
“Does the noble signor know that the Emperor was a Carbonaro once, and
that he never forgets it? Does the noble signor know that there has not
been one plot against his life--not one--of which he has not been duly
apprised and warned?”
“If I understand you aright, Master Giacomo, then, it is that these
alleged schemes of assassination are simply plots to deliver up to the
Emperor the two or three amongst you who may be sincere in their blood
thirstiness. Is that so?”
Far from seeming offended at the tone or the tenor of this speech,
Giacomo smiled good-naturedly, and said, “I perceive that the
noble signor is not well informed either as to our objects or our
organization; nor does he appear to know, as your Excellency knows, that
all secret societies have a certain common brotherhood.”
“What! does he mean when opposed to each other?”
“He does, and he is right, Maitland. As bankers have their
changing-houses, these fellows have their appointed places of meeting;
and you might see a Jesuit in talk with a Garibaldian, and a wild
revolutionist with one of the Pope's household.”
“The real pressure of these fellows,” whispered the Count, still lower,
“is menace! Menace it was brought about the war with Austria, and it
remains to be seen if menace cannot undo its consequences. Killing a
king is trying an unknown remedy; threatening to kill him is coercing
his policy. And what are you about just now, Giacomo?” added he, louder.
“Little jobs here and there, signor, as I get them; but this morning,
as I was mending a small organ at the Duc de Broglie's, an agent of the
police called to say I had better leave Paris.”
“And when?”
“To-night, sir. I leave by the midnight mail for Lyons, and shall be in
Turin by Saturday.”
“And will the authorities take his word, and suffer him to go his road
without surveillance?” whispered Maitland.
“_Si, signor!_” interposed Giacomo, whose quick Italian ear had caught
the question. “I won't say that they'll not telegraph down the whole
line, and that at every station a due report will not be made of me; but
I am prepared for that, and I take good care not even to ask a light for
my cigar from any one who does not wear a French uniform.”
“If I had authority here, Master Giacomo,” said Maitland, “it's not you,
nor fellows like you, I 'd set at liberty.”
“And the noble signor would make a great mistake, that's all.”
“Why so?”
“It would be like destroying the telegraph wires because one received an
unpleasant despatch,” said Giacomo, with a grin.
“The fellow avows, then, that he is a spy, and betrays his fellows,”
whispered Maitland.
“I 'd be very sorry to tell him so, or hear you tell him so,” whispered
the Count, with a laugh.
“Well, Giacomo,” added he, aloud, “I 'll not detain you longer. We shall
probably be on t' other side of the Alps ourselves in a few days, and
shall meet again. A pleasant journey and a safe one to you!” He adroitly
slipped some napoleons into the man's hand as he spoke. “_Tanti saluti_
to all our friends, Giacomo,” said he, waving his hand in adieu; and
Giacomo seized it and kissed it twice with an almost rapturous devotion,
and withdrew.
“Well,” cried Maitland, with an irritable vibration in his tone, “this
is clear and clean beyond me. What can you or I have in common with
a fellow of this stamp; or supposing that we could have anything, how
should we trust him?”
“Do you imagine that the nobles will ever sustain the monarchy, my dear
Maitland; or in what country have you ever found that the highest in
class were freest of their blood? It is Giacomo, and the men like him,
who defend kings to-day that they may menace them to-morrow. These
fellows know well that with what is called a constitutional government
and a parliament the king's life signifies next to nothing, and their
own trade is worthless. They might as well shoot a President of the
Court of Cassation! Besides, if we do not treat with these men, the
others will. Take my word for it, our king is wiser than either of us,
and he never despised the Caraorra. But I know what you 're afraid of,
Maitland,” said he, laughing,--“what you and all your countrymen tremble
before,--that precious thing you call public opinion, and your 'Times'
newspaper! There's the whole of it. To be arraigned as a regicide, and
called the companion of this, that, or t' other creature, who was or
ought to have been guillotined, is too great a shock for your Anglican
respectability; and really I had fancied you were Italian enough to take
a different view of this.”
Maitland leaned his head on his hand, and seemed to muse for some
minutes. “Do you know, Carlo,” said he, at last, “I don't think I 'm
made for this sort of thing. This fraternizing with scoundrels--for
scoundrels they are--is a rude lesson. This waiting for the _mot
d'ordre_ from a set of fellows who work in the dark is not to my humor.
I had hoped for a fair stand-up fight, where the best man should win;
and what do we see before us? Not the cause of a throne defended by the
men who are loyal to their king, but a vast lottery, out of which any
adventurer is to draw the prize. So far as I can see it, we are to go
into a revolution to secure a monarchy.”
Caffarelli leaned across the table and filled Maitland's glass to the
brim, and then replenished his own.
“_Caro mio_,” said he, coaxingly, “don't brood and despond in this
fashion, but tell me about this charming Irish beauty. Is she a
brunette?”
“No; fair as a lily, but not like the blond damsels you have so often
seen, with a certain timidity of look that tells of weak and uncertain
purpose. She might by her air and beauty be a queen.”
“And her name?”
“Alice--Alicia, some call it.”
“Alice is better. And how came she to be a widow so very young? What is
her story?”
“I know nothing of it; how should I? I could tell nothing of my own,”
said Maitland, sternly.
“Rich as well as beautiful,--what a prize, Maitland! I can scarcely
imagine why you hesitate about securing it.”
Maitland gave a scornful laugh, and with a voice of bitterness
said: “Certainly my pretensions are great. I have fortune--station--
family--name--and rank to offer her. Can you not remind me, Carlo, of
some other of my immense advantages?”
“I know this much,” said the other, doggedly, “that I never saw you fail
in anything you ever attempted.”
“I had the trick of success once,” said Maitland, sorrowfully, “but I
seem to have lost it. But, after all, what would success do for me here,
but stamp me as an adventurer?”
“You did not argue in that fashion two years ago, when you were going to
marry a Spanish princess, and the half-sister of a queen.”
“Well, I have never regretted that I broke off the match. It estranged
me, of course, from _him_; and indeed he has never forgiven me.”
“He might, however, now, if he saw that you could establish your
fortunes so favorably,--don't you think so?”
“No, Carlo. It is all for rank and title, not for money, that he cares!
His whole game in life was played for the Peerage. He wanted to be 'My
Lord;' and though repeatedly led to believe he was to have the title,
the Minister put off, and put off, and at last fell from power without
keeping his pledge. Now in this Spanish business he bargained that I
was to be a Duke,--a Grandee of Spain. The Queen declared it impossible.
Mufios himself was refused. The dukedom, however, I could have. With
the glitter of that ducal coronet before his eyes, he paid three hundred
thousand francs I lost at the Jockey Club in Paris, and he merely said,
'Your luck in love has been somewhat costly,--don't play such high
stakes again.'”
“He is _très grand seigneur!_” said the Italian, with a voice of intense
admiration and respect.
“Yes,” said Maitland; “in every case where mere money enters, he is
princely. I never met a man who thought less of his gold. The strange
thing is, that it is his ambition which exhibits him so small!”
“Adagio, adagio, caro mio!” cried Caffarelli, laughing. “I see where you
are bound for now. You are going to tell me, as you have some score
of times, that to all English estimation our foreign titles are sheer
nonsense; that our pauper counts and beggarly dukes are laughing matter
for even your Manchester folk; and that in your police code baron and
blackleg are synonyms. Now spare me all this, _caro_ Maitland, for I
know it by heart.”
“If one must say such impertinences, it is well to say them to a
cardinal's nephew.”
The slight flush of temper in the Italian's cheek gave way at once, and
he asked good-humoredly, as he said, “Better say them to me, certainly,
than to my uncle. But, to be practical, if he does attach so much
importance to rank and title, why do you not take that countship of
Amalfi the King offered you six months ago, and which, to this day, he
is in doubt whether you have accepted or refused?”
“How do you know that?” asked Maitland, eagerly.
“I know it in this wise; that when his Majesty mentioned your name t'
other day to Filangieri, he said, 'The Chevalier Maitland or Count of
Amalfi,--I don't know by which name he likes to call himself.'”
“Are you sure of this?”
“I heard it; I was present when he said it.”
“If I did not accept when it was offered, the reason was this: I thought
that the first time I wrote myself Count of Amalfi, old Santarelli
would summon me before him to show birth and parentage, and fifty other
particulars which I could have no wish to see inquired after; and as the
title of Amalfi was one once borne by a cadet of the royal family, he 'd
have been all the more exacting in his perquisitions before inscribing
my name in that precious volume he calls the 'Libro d'Oro.' If, however,
you tell me that the King considers that I have accepted the rank, it
gives the matter another aspect.”
“I suspect poor old Santarelli has very little heart for heraldry just
now. He has got a notion that the first man the Revolutionists will
hang will be himself, representing, as he does, all the privileges of
feudalism.”
“There is one way to do it if it could be managed,” said Maitland,
pondering. “Three lines in the King's hand, addressing me 'The Chevalier
Maitland, Count of Amalfi!' With these I 'd defy all the heralds that
ever carried a painted coat in a procession.”
“If that be all, I 'll promise you it. I am writing to Filangieri
to-morrow. Let me have some details of what men you have recruited and
what services you have rendered, briefly, not formally; and I'll say,
'If our master would vouchsafe in his own hand a line, a word even, to
the Count of Amalfi, it would be a recompense he would not exchange for
millions.' I 'll say 'that the letter could be sent to Ludolf at Turin,
where we shall probably be in a week or two. '”
“And do you think the King will accede?”
“Of course he will. We are not asking for a pension, or leave to shoot
at Caserta. The thing is the same as done. Kings like a cheap road out
of their indebtedness as well as humbler people. If not, they would
never have invented crosses and grand cordons.”
“Now, let us concoct the thing regularly,” said Maitland, pushing the
decanters from before him, as though, by a gesture, to show that he had
turned from all conviviality to serious considerations. “You,” continued
he, “will, first of all, write to Filangieri.”
“Yes. I will say, half incidentally, as it were, Maitland is here with
me, as eager as the warmest of us in the cause. He has been eminently
successful in his recruitment, of which he will soon send you details--”
“Ay, but how? That fellow M'Caskey, who has all the papers, did not meet
me as I ordered him, and I cannot tell where he is.”
“I am to blame for this, Maitland, for I ordered him to come over here,
as the most certain of all ways of seeing you.”
“And he is here now?”
“Yes. Arrived last night In the hope of your arrival, I gave him a
rendezvous here--any hour from ten to one or two to-night--and we shall
soon see him.”
“I must confess, I don't care how brief the interview be: the man is not
at all to my liking.”
“You are not likely to be much bored by him here, at least.”
“How do you mean?”
“The police are certain to hear of his arrival, and to give him a
friendly hint to arrange his private affairs with all convenient
despatch and move off.”
“With what party or section do they connect him?”
“With how many? you might perhaps ask; for I take it he has held office
with every shade of opinion, and intrigued for any cause from Henry V.
to the reddest republicanism. The authorities, however, always deal with
a certain courtesy to a man of this sort. They intimate, simply, We are
aware you are here,--we know pretty well for what; and so don't push
us to any disagreeable measures, but cross over into Belgium or
Switzerland. M'Caskey himself told me he was recognized as he drew up at
the hotel, and, in consequence, thinks he shall have to go on in a day
or two.”
“Is not the fellow's vanity in some measure a reason for this? Does he
not rather plume himself on being _l'homme dangereux_ to all Europe?”
“In conversation he would certainly give this idea, but not in fact. He
is marvellously adroit in all his dealings with the authorities, and
in nothing is he more subtle than in the advantage he takes of his own
immense conceit. He invariably makes it appear that vanity is his weak
point; or, as he phrases it himself, 'I always show my adversary so much
of my hand as will mislead him.'”
“And is he really as deep as all this would imply?”
“Very deep for an Englishman; fully able to cope with the cunningest of
his own people, but a child amongst ours, Maitland.”
Maitland laughed scornfully as he said, “For the real work of life all
your craft avails little. No man ever cut his way through a wood with a
penknife, were it ever so sharp.”
“The Count M'Caskey, Eccellenza, desires to know if you receive?” said
Caffarelli's servant, in a low tone.
“Yes, certainly; but do not admit any one else.”
Very significant--but very differently significant--were the looks that
passed between Maitland and Caffarelli in the brief interval before
M'Caskey entered. At last the door was flung wide, and the distinguished
Major appeared in full evening dress, one side of his coat a blaze of
stars and crosses, while in front of his cravat he wore the ribbon
and collar of some very showy order. Nothing could be easier than his
_entrée_; nothing less embarrassed than his salutation to each in turn,
as, throwing his white gloves into his hat, he drew over to the table,
and began to search for an unused wine-glass.
“Here is a glass,” said Caffarelli. “What will you drink? This is
Bordeaux, and this is some sort of Hock; this is Moselle.”
“Hand me the sherry; I am chilly. I have been chilly all day, and went
out to dine against my will.”
“Where did you dine?”
“With Plon-Plon,” said he, languidly.
“With the Prince Napoleon?” asked Maitland, incredulously.
“Yes; he insisted on it I wrote to him to say that La Verrier, the
sous-prefect, had invited me to make as short a delay at Paris as
was consistent with my perfect convenience,--the police euphuism for
twenty-four hours; and I said, 'Pray excuse me at dinner, for I shall
want to see Caffarelli.' But he would n't take any apology, and I went,
and we really were very pleasant.”
“Who was there?” asked Caffarelli.
“Only seven altogether: Bagration and his pretty niece; an Aldobrandini
Countess,--bygone, but still handsome; Joseph Poniatowsky; Botrain of
'La Patrie;' and your humble servant. Fould, I think, was expected, but
did not come. Fearfully hot, this sherry,--don't you think so?”
Maitland looked superbly defiant, and turned his head away without
ceremony. Caffarelli, however, came quickly to the rescue by pushing
over a bottle of Burgundy, and Baying, “And it was a pleasant party?”
“Yes, decidedly pleasant,” said M'Caskey, with the air of one
pronouncing a judicial opinion. “The women were nice, very well
dressed,--the little Russian, especially; and then we talked away as
people only do talk in Paris, where there is none of that rotten cant
of London, and no subject discussed but the little trivialities of daily
life.”
Caffarelli's eyes sparkled with mischievous delight as he watched the
expansive vanity in M'Caskey's face, and the disgust that darkened in
Maitland's. “We had a little of everything,” said M'Caskey, with his
head thrown back and two fingers of one hand jauntily stuck in
his waistcoat pocket. “We had politics,--Plon-Plon's own peculiar
politics,--Europe a democracy, and himself the head of it. We discussed
dinners and dinner-givers,--a race fast dying out We talked a little
finance, and, lastly, women.”
“Your own theme!” said Caffarelli, with a slight inclination of the
head.
“Without vanity I might say it was. Poor old D'Orsay always said,
'Scratch M'Caskey, and I'll back myself for success against any man in
Europe.'”
Maitland started as if a viper had bitten him; but by an effort he
seemed to restrain himself, and, taking out his cigar-case, began a
diligent search for a cigar.
“Ha, cheroots, I see?” cried M'Caskey; “cheroots are a weakness of mine.
Pick me out a well-spotted one, will you?”
Maitland threw the case as it was across the table to him without a
word.
M'Caskey selected some six or eight, and laid them beside him. “You are
low, depressed, this evening, Maitland,” said he; “what's the matter
with you?”
“No, sir, not depressed,--disgusted.”
“Ah, disgusted!” said M'Caskey, slowly; and his small eyes twinkled like
two balls of fire. “Would it be indiscreet to ask the cause?”
“It would be very indiscreet, Count M'Caskey,” interposed Caffarelli,
“to forget that you are here purely on a grave matter of business,--far
too grave to be compromised by any forgetfulness on the score of
temper.”
“Yes, sir,” broke in Maitland; “there can always be found a fitting time
and place to arrange any small questions outstanding between you and me.
We want now to learn something of what you have done in Ireland lately,
for the King's service.”
M'Caskey drew from his pocket a much-worn pocket-book, crammed to
bursting with a variety of loose papers, cards, and photographs, which
fell about as he opened it. Not heeding the disorder, he sought out
a particular page, and read aloud: “Embarked this twenty-second of
September, at Gravesend, on board the 'Ocean Queen,' bound for Messina
with machinery, two hundred and eleven laborers--laborers engaged for
two years--to work on the State railroads, twenty-eight do. do. on board
of the 'Star of Swansea,' for Molo de Gaeta with coals,--making, with
three hundred and eighty-two already despatched, within about thirty of
the first battalion of the Cacciatori of St Patrick.”
“Well done! bravissimo!” cried Caffarelli, right glad to seize upon the
opportunity to restore a pleasanter understanding.
“There's not a man amongst them would not be taken in the Guards;
and they who regard height of stature as the first element of the
soldier--amongst whom I am not one--would pronounce them magnificent!”
“And are many more available of the same sort?” asked Caffarelli.
“Ten thousand, sir, if you like to pay for them.”
“Do these men understand that they are enlisted as soldiers, not engaged
as navvies?” asked Maitland.
“As well as you do. Whatever our friend Caffarelli may think, I can tell
him that my countrymen are no more deficient in acuteness than his own.
These fellows know the cause just as well as they know the bounty.”
“I was not inquiring as to their sympathies,” said Mait-land,
caustically; “I merely wanted to hear how they understood the contract.”
“They are hirelings, of course, as I am, and as you are,” said M'Caskey.
“By what presumption, sir, do you speak of me?” said Maitland, rising,
his face dark with passion. “If the accidents of life range us in the
same cause, is there any other tie or bond between us?”
“Once more I declare I will have none of this,” said Caffarelli, pushing
Maitland down into his chair. “Count M'Caskey, the Central Committee
have placed you under my orders. These orders are that you report
yourself to General Filangieri at Naples as soon as you can arrive
there; that you duly inform the Minister at War of what steps you have
already taken in the recruitment, putting yourself at his disposition
for further service. Do you want money?” added he in a lower tone, as he
drew the Major aside.
“A man always wants money, sir,” said M'Caskey, sententiously.
“I am your banker: what shall it be?” said Caffarelli, drawing out his
pocket-book.
“For the present,” said M'Caskey, carelessly, “a couple of thousand
francs will suffice. I have a rather long bill against his Majesty, but
it can wait.”
He pocketed the notes without deigning to look at them, and then,
drawing closer to Caffarelli, said, in a whisper, “You 'll have to keep
your friend yonder somewhat 'better in hand,'--you will, really. If not,
I shall have to shoot him.”
“The Chevalier Maitland is your superior officer, sir,” said Caffarelli,
haughtily. “Take care how you speak of him to any one, but more
especially to me, who am his friend.”
“I am at his 'friend's' orders, equally,” said the Major; “my case
contains two pistols.”
Caffarelli turned away with a shrug of the shoulder, and a look that
unmistakably bespoke disgust.
“Here goes, then, for the stirrup-cup!” said M'Caskey, filling a large
goblet with Burgundy. “To our next meeting, gentlemen,” and he bowed
as he lifted it to his lips. “Won't you drink to my toast?” said he,
stopping.
Caffarelli filled his glass, and touched it to his lips; but Maitland
sat with his gaze bent upon the fire, and never looked up.
“Present my homage to the pretty widow when you see her, Maitland, and
give her that;” and he flung down a photograph on the table. “It's not a
good one, but it will serve to remind her of me.”
Maitland seized the card and pitched it into the fire, pressing down the
embers with his boot.
Caffarelli sprang forward, and laid his hands on M'Caskey's shoulders.
“When and where?” said the Major, calmly.
“Now--here--if you like,” said Maitland, as calmly.
“At last,” said a deep voice; and a brigadier of the gendarmerie
entered, followed by two of his men.
“M. le Comte,” said he, addressing the Major, “I have been in search of
you since eleven o'clock. There 's a special train waiting to convey you
to Macon; pray don't lose any more time.”
“I shall be at Naples within a fortnight,” whispered Maitland.
“All right,” replied M'Caskey. “M. le Brigadier, _à vos ordres_.
Good-bye, Count. By the way, I was forgetting my cheroots, which are
really excellent;” and so saying, he carefully placed them in his
cigar-case; and then, giving his great-coat to one of the gendarmes to
assist him while he drew it on, he waved a little familiar adieu with
his hand and departed.
“My dear Maitland, how could you so far forget yourself, and with such a
man?” said Caffarelli, laying his hands on his shoulder.
“With any _other_ man I could _not_ have forgotten myself,” said he,
sternly. “Let us think no more of him.”