_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.]