_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.]