HOW MARC'ANTONIO NURSED ME AND GAVE ME COUNSEL.
"Yet sometimes famous Princes like thyself,
Drawn by report, adventurous by desire,
Tell thee, with speechless tongues and semblance pale,
That without covering, save yon field of stars,
They here stand martyrs, slain in Cupid's wars;
And with dead cheeks advise thee to desist
For going on Death's net, whom none resist."
_Pericles, Prince of Tyre_.
His honour forbidding him to kill me, the Prince Camillo had given
orders to break my legs: and since to abandon me in this plight went
against the conscience of his followers (and even, it is possible,
against his own), he had left Marc'antonio behind to nurse me--thus
gratifying a second spite. The Prince was an ingenious young man.
So much I gathered in faint intervals between anguish while
Marc'antonio bound me with rude splints of his own manufacture.
Yet he said little and did his surgery, though not ungently, with a
taciturn frown which I set down to moroseness, having learnt somehow
that the bandits had broken up their camp on the mountain and marched
off, leaving us two alone.
"Did the Princess know of this?" I managed to ask, and I believe this
was my first intelligible question.
Marc'antonio paused before answering. "She knew that you were to be
hurt, but not the manner of it. It was she that brought you the
file, by stealth. Why did you not use it, and escape?"
"She brought me the file?" I knew it already, but found a fierce
satisfaction in the words. "And she--and you--tried to use it upon
my chain here and deliver me: I forced you to that, my friends!
As for using it myself, you heard what I promised her, yesterday,
before her brother came."
"I heard you talk very foolishly; and now you have done worse than
foolishly. I do not understand you at all--no, by the Mother of God,
I do not! You had the whole night for filing at your chain: and it
would have been better for you, and in the end for her."
"And for you also, Marc'antonio."
He was silent.
"And for you also, Marc'antonio?" I repeated it as a question.
"Your escape would have been put down to me, Englishman. I had
provided for that," he answered simply.
"Forgive me," I muttered, thrown back upon sudden contrition.
"I was thinking only that you must feel it a punishment to be left
alone with me. I had forgot--"
"It is hard," he interrupted, "to bear everything in mind when one is
young." His tone was quiet, decisive, as of one stating a fact of
common knowledge; but the reproof cut me like a knife.
"The Princess has gone too?" I asked.
"She has gone. They are all gone. That is why it would have been
better for her too that you had escaped."
I pondered this for a minute. "You mean," said I, "that--always
supposing the Prince had not killed you in his rage--you would now be
at her side?"
He nodded. "Still, she has Stephanu. Stephanu will do his best," I
suggested.
"Against what, eh?" He put his poser to me, turning with angry eyes,
but ended on a short laugh of contempt. "Do not try make-believe
with me, O Englishman."
"There is one thing I know," said I, doggedly, "that the Princess is
in trouble or danger. And a second thing I know, that you and
Stephanu are her champions. But a third thing, which I do not know,
is why you and Stephanu hate one another."
"And yet that should have been the easiest guess of the three," said
he, rising abruptly and taking first a dozen paces toward the hut,
then a dozen back to the shadow of the chestnut tree against the bole
of which my head rested as he had laid me, having borne me thither
from the sty.
"_Campioni?_ That is a good word, and I thank you for it,
Englishman. Yet you wonder why I hate Stephanu? Listen. Were you
ever in Florence, in the Boboli gardens?"
"Never. But why?"
"Mbe! I have travelled, for my part." Marc'antonio now and always
mentioned his travels with an innocent boastfulness. "Well, in the
gardens there you will find a fountain, and on either side of it a
statue--the statues of two old kings. They sit there, those two,
carved in stone, face to face across the fountain; and with faces so
full of hate that I declare it gives you a shiver down the spine--all
the worse, if you will understand, because their eyes have no sight
in them. Now the story goes that these two kings in life were
friends of a princess of Tuscany far younger than themselves, and
championed her, and established her house while she was weak and her
enemies were strong; and that afterwards in gratitude she caused
these statues to be set up beside the fountain. Another story (to me
it sounds like a child's tale) says that at first there was no
fountain, and that the princess knew nothing of the hatred between
these old men; but the sculptor knew. Having left the order with
him, she married a husband of her own age and lived for years at a
foreign court. At length she returned to Florence and led her
husband one day out through the garden to show him the statues, when
for the first time she saw what the sculptor had done and knew for
the first time that these dead men had hated one another for her
sake; whereupon she let fall one tear which became the source of the
fountain. To me all this part of the story is foolishness: but that
I and Stephanu hate one another not otherwise than those two old
kings, and for no very different cause, is God's truth, cavalier."
"You are devoted to her, you two?" I asked, tempting him to continue.
He gazed down on me for a moment with immeasurable contempt.
"I give you a figure, and you would put it into words! Words!"
He spat. "And yet it is the truth, Englishman, that once she called
me her second father. 'Her second father'--I have repeated that to
Stephanu once or twice when I have lost my temper (a rare thing with
me). You should see him turn blue!"
I could get no more out of Marc'antonio that day, nor indeed did the
pain I suffered allow me to continue the catechism. A little before
night fell he lifted me again and carried me to a bed of
clean-smelling heather and fern he had prepared within the hut; and,
all the night through, the slightest moan from me found him alert to
give me drink or shift me to an easier posture. Our total solitude
seemed from the first to breed a certain good-fellowship between us:
neither next day nor for many days did he remit or falter in his care
for me. But his manner, though not ungentle, was taciturn.
He seemed to carry about a weight on his mind; his brow wore a
constant frown, vexed and unhappy. Once or twice I caught him
talking to himself.
"To be sure it was enough to madden all the saints: and the Prince is
not one of them. . . ."
"What was enough to madden all the saints, O Marc'antonio?" I asked
from my bed.
Already he had turned in some confusion, surprised by the sound of
his own voice. He was down on hands and knees, and had been blowing
upon the embers of a wood fire, kindled under a pan of goat's milk.
The goat herself browsed in the sunlight beyond the doorway, in the
circuit allowed by a twenty-foot tether.
"What was enough to madden all the saints, O Marc'antonio?"
"Why," said he, savagely, "your standing up to him and denying his
birth and his sister's before all the crowd. I did not think that
anything could have saved you."
"If I remember, I added that the Queen Emilia's bare word would be
enough for me."
"So. But you denied it on his father's, and that is what his
enemies, the Paolists all, would give their ears to hear--yes, and
Pasquale Paoli himself, though he passes for a just man."
"Marc'antonio," said I, seriously, "are the Prince and Princess in
truth the children of King Theodore?"
"As God hears me, cavalier, they are his twin children, born in the
convent of Santa Maria di Fosciandora, in the valley of the Serchio,
some leagues to the north of Florence; and on the feast-day of Saint
Mark these sixteen years ago."
"Then King Theodore either knew nothing of it, or he was a liar."
"He was a liar, cavalier."
"Stay a moment. I have a mind to tell you the whole story as it came
to me, and as I should have told it to the Prince Camillo, had he
treated me with decent courtesy."
Marc'antonio ceased blowing the fire and sitting back on his heels
disposed himself to listen. Very briefly I told him of my journey to
London, my visit to the Fleet, and how I received the crown with
Theodore's blessing.
"That he denied having children I will not say: but (I remember well)
my father took it for granted that he had no children, and he said
nothing to the contrary. Indeed on any other assumption his gift of
the crown to me would have been meaningless."
Marc'antonio nodded, following my argument. "But there is another
difficulty," I went on. "My father, who does not lie, told me once
that King Theodore returned to the island in the year 'thirty-nine,
where he stayed but for a week; and that not until a year later did
his queen escape across to Tuscany."
But here Marc'antonio shook his head vigorously. "Whoever told your
father that, told him an untruth. The Queen fled from Porto Vecchio
in that same winter of 'thirty-nine, a few days before Christmas.
I myself steered the boat that carried her."
"To be sure," said I, "my father may have had his information from
King Theodore."
"The good sisters of the convent," continued Marc'antonio, "received
the Queen and did all that was necessary for her. But among them
must have been one who loved the Genoese or their gold: for when the
children were but ten days old they vanished, having been stolen and
handed secretly to the Genoese--yes, cavalier, out of the Queen's own
sleeping-chamber. Little doubt had we they were dead--for why should
their enemies spare them? And never should we have recovered trace
of them but for the Father Domenico, who knew what had become of them
(having learnt it, no doubt, among the sisters' confessions, to
receive which he visited the convent) and that they were alive and
unharmed; but he kept the secret, for his oath's sake, or else
waiting for the time to ripen."
"Then King Theodore may also have believed them dead," I suggested.
"Let us do him that justice. Or he may never have known that they
existed."
Marc'antonio brushed this aside with a wave of his hand.
"The cavalier," he answered with dignity, "may have heard me allude
to my travels?"
"Once or twice."
"The first time that I crossed the Alps"--great Hannibal might have
envied the roll in Marc'antonio's voice--"I bore the King tidings of
his good fortune. It was Stephanu who followed, a week later, with
the tale that the children were stolen."
"Then Theodore _did_ believe them dead."
"At the time, cavalier; at the time, no doubt. But more than twelve
years later, being in Brussels--" Here Marc'antonio pulled himself
up, with a sudden dark flush and a look of confusion.
"Go on, my friend. You were saying that twelve years later,
happening to be in Brussels--"
"By the merest chance, cavalier. Before retiring to England King
Theodore spent the most of his exile in Flanders and the Low
Countries: and in Brussels, as it happened, I had word of him and
learned--but without making myself known to him--that he was seeking
his two children."
"Seeking them in Brussels?"
"At a venture, no doubt, cavalier. Put the case that you were
seeking two children, of whom you knew only that they were alive and
somewhere in Europe--like two fleas, as you might say, in a bundle of
straw--"
I looked at Marc'antonio and saw that he was lying, but politely
forbore to tell him so.
"Then Theodore knew that his children were alive?" said I musing.
"Yet he gave my father to understand that he had no children."
"Mbe, but he was a great liar, that Theodore? Always when it
profited, and sometimes for the pleasure of it."
"Nevertheless, to disinherit his own son!"
Marc'antonio's shoulders went up to his ears. "He knew well enough
what comedy he was playing. Disinherit his own son? We Corsicans,
he might be sure, would never permit that: and meanwhile your
father's money bought him out of prison. Ajo, it is simple as
milking the she-goat yonder!"
"If you knew my father better, Marc'antonio, you would find it not
altogether so simple as you suppose. King Theodore might have told
my father that these children lived, and my father would yet have
bought his freedom for their sake; yes, and helped him to the last
shilling and the last drop of blood to restore them to the Queen
their mother."
"Verily, cavalier, I knew your father to be a madman," said
Marc'antonio, gravely, after considering my words for awhile.
"But such madness as you speak of, who could take into account?"
"Eh, Marc'antonio? What acquaintance have you with my father, that
you should call him mad?"
"I remember him well, cavalier, and his long sojourning with my late
master the Count Ugo at his palace of Casalabriva above the Taravo,
and the love there was between him and my young mistress that is now
the Queen Emilia. Lovers they were for all eyes to see but the old
Count's. Mbe! we all gossiped of it, we servants and clansmen of the
Colonne--even I, that kept the goats over Bicchivano, on the road
leading up to the palace, and watched the two as they walked
together, and was of an age to think of these things. A handsomer
couple none could wish to see, and we watched them with good will;
for the Englishman touched her hand with a kind of worship as a
devout man touches his beads, and they told me that in his own
country he owned great estates--greater even than the Count's.
Indeed, cavalier, had your father thought less of love and more of
ambition there is no saying but he might have reached out for the
crown, and his love would have come to him afterwards. But, as the
saying goes, while Peter stalked the mufro Paul stole the mountain:
and again says the proverb, 'Bury not your treasure in another's
orchard.' Along came this Theodore, and with a few lies took the
crown and the jewel with it. So your father went away, and has come
again after many years; and at the first I did not recognize him, for
time has dealt heavily with us all. But afterwards, and before he
spoke his name, I knew him--partly by his great stature, partly by
his carriage, and partly, cavalier, by the likeness your youth bears
to his as I remember it. So you have the tale."
"And in the telling, Marc'antonio," said I, "it appears that you, who
champion his children, bear Theodore's memory no good will."
"Theodore!" Marc'antonio spat again. "If he were alive here and
before me, I would shoot him where he stood."
"For what cause?" I asked, surprised by the shake in his voice.
But Marc'antonio turned to the fire again, and would not answer.
As I remember, some three or four days passed before I contrived to
draw him into further talk; and, curiously enough, after trying him a
dozen times _per ambages_ (as old Mr. Grylls would have said) and in
vain, on the point of despair I succeeded with a few straight words.
"Marc'antonio," said I, "I have a notion about King Theodore."
"I am listening, cavalier."
"A suspicion only, and horribly to his discredit."
"It is the likelier to be near the truth."
"Could he--think you--have _sold_ his children to the Genoese?"
Marc'antonio cast a quick glance at me. "I have thought of that," he
said quietly. "He was capable of it."
"It would explain why they were allowed to live. A father, however
deep his treachery, would make that a part of the bargain."
Marc'antonio nodded.
"I would give something," I went on, "to know how Father Domenico
came by the secret. By confession of one of the sisters, you
suggest. Well, it may be so. But there might be another way--only
take warning that I do not like this Father Domenico--"
"I am listening."
"Is it not possible that he himself contrived the kidnapping--always
with King Theodore's consent?"
"Not possible," decided Marc'antonio, after a moment's thought.
"No more than you do I like the man: but consider. It was he who
sent us to find and bring them back to Corsica. At this moment, when
(as I will confess to you) all odds are against it, he holds to their
cause; he, a comfortable priest and a loose liver, has taken to the
bush and fares hardly for his zeal."
"My good friend," said I, "you reason as though a traitor must needs
work always in a straight line and never quarrel with his paymaster;
whereas by the very nature of treachery these are two of the
unlikeliest things in the world. Now, putting this aside, tell me if
you think your Prince Camillo the better for Father Domenico's
company? . . . You do not, I see."
"I will not say that," answered Marc'antonio, slowly. "The Prince
has good qualities. He will make a Corsican in time. But, I own to
you, he has been ill brought up, and before ever he met with Father
Domenico. As yet he thinks only of his own will, like a spoilt
child; and of his pleasures, which are not those of a king such as he
desires to be."
Said I at a guess, "But the pleasures--eh, Marc'antonio?--such as a
forward boy learns on the pavements; of Brussels, for example?"
I thought for the moment he would have knifed me, so fiercely he
started back and then craned forward at me, showing his white teeth.
I saw that my luck with him hung on this moment.
"Tell me," I said, facing him and dragging hard on the hurry in my
voice, "and remember that I owe no love to this cub. You may be
loyal to him as you will, but I am the Princess's man, I! You heard
me promise her. Tell me, why has she no recruits?"
He drew back yet farther, still with his teeth bared. "Am _I_ not
her man?" he almost hissed.
"So you tell me," I answered, with a scornful laugh, brazening it
out. "You are her man, and Stephanu is her man, and the Prince too,
and the Father Domenico, no doubt. Yes, you are all her men, you
four: but why can she collect no others?" I paused a moment and,
holding up a hand, checked them off contemptuously upon my fingers.
"Four of you! and among you at least one traitor! Stop!" said I, as
he made a motion to protest. "You four--you and Stephanu and the
Prince and Fra Domenico--know something which it concerns her fame to
keep hidden; you four, and no other that I wot of. You are all her
men, her champions: and yet this secret leaks out and poisons all
minds against the cause. Because of it, Paoli will have no dealing
with you. Because of it, though you raise your standard on the
mountains, no Corsicans flock to it. Pah!" I went on, my scorn
confounding him, "I called you her champion, the other day! Be so
good as consider that I spoke derisively. Four pretty champions she
has, indeed; of whom one is a traitor, and the other three have not
the spirit to track him down and kill him!"
Marc'antonio stood close by me now. To my amazement he was shaking
like a man with the ague.
"Cavalier, you do not understand!" he protested hoarsely: but his
eyes were wistful, as though he hoped for something which yet he
dared not hear.
"Eh? I do not understand? Well, now, listen to me. I am her man,
too, but in a different fashion. You heard what I swore to her, that
day, beside my friend's body; that whether in hate or love, and be
her need what it might, I would help her. Hear me repeat it, lying
here with my both legs broken, helpless as a log. Let strength
return to me and I will help her yet, and in spite of all her
champions."
"In hate or in love, cavalier?" Marc'antonio's voice shook with his
whole body.
"That shall be my secret," answered I. (Yet well I knew what the
answer was, and had known it since the moment she had bent over me in
the sty, filing at my chain.) "It had better be hate--eh,
Marc'antonio?--seeing that for some reason she hates all men, except
you, perhaps, and Stephanu, and her brother."
"We do not count, I and Stephanu. Her brother she adores. But the
rest of men she hates, cavalier, and with good cause."
"Then it had better be hate?"
"Yes, yes"--and there was appeal in his voice--"it had a thousand
times better be hate, could such a miracle happen." He peered into
my eyes for a moment, and shook his head. "But it is not hate,
cavalier; you do not deceive me. And since it is not--"
"Well?"
"It were better for you--far better--that Giuse had died of the wound
you gave him."
"Why, what on earth has Giuse to do with this matter?" I demanded.
Indeed I had all but forgotten Giuse's existence.
"Only this; that had Giuse died, they would have killed you out of
hand in _vendetta_."
"You are an amiable race, you Corsicans!"
"And you came, cavalier, meaning to reign over us! Now, I have taken
a liking to you and will give you a warning. Be like your father,
and give up all for love."
"Suppose," said I, after a pause, "that for love I choose rather to
dare all?"
"Signore"--he stepped back and, raising himself erect, flung out both
hands passionately--"Take her, if you must take her, away from
Corsica! She is innocent, but here they will never understand.
What she did she did for her brother, far from home: yet he--he has
no thanks, no bowels of pity, and here at home it is killing her!
There was a young man, a noble, head of the family of Rocca Serra by
Sartene--" Marc'antonio broke off, trembling.
"You must finish," said I, in a voice cold and slow as the chilled
blood about my heart.
"There was no harm in her. By her brother's will they were
betrothed. She hated the youth, and he--he was eager--until the day
before the marriage--"
"What happened, Marc'antonio?"
"He slew himself, cavalier. Some story reached him, and he slew
himself with his own gun. O cavalier, if you can help us, take her
away from Corsica!"
He cast up both hands and ran from me.