Gerald passed a restless, disturbed night. Purcell’s words, ever ringing
in his ears, foreboded nothing but failure and disaster, while there
seemed something almost sarcastic in the comparison he drew between the
Prince Charles Edward’s rashness and his own waiting, delaying policy.
‘Is it fair or just,’ thought he, ‘to taunt me with this? I was not bred
up to know my station and my claims. None told me I was of royal blood
and had a throne for a heritage. These tidings break on me as I am
worn down by misfortune and broken by illness, so that my shattered
intellects scarcely credit them. Even now, on what, or on whom, do I
rely? Has not disease undermined my strength and distrust my judgment,
so that I believe in nothing, nor in anybody? Ah, Riquetti, _your_
poisons never leave the blood till it has ceased to circulate.’
There were days when the whole plan and scheme of his life seemed to him
such a mockery and a deception that he felt a sort of scorn for himself
in believing it. It was like childhood or dotage to his mind this dream
of a greatness so far off, so impossible, and he burned for some real
actual existence with truthful incidents and interests. Gloomy doubts
would also cross him, whether he might be nothing but a mere tool in the
hands of certain crafty men like Massoni, who having used him for their
purpose to-day would cast him off as worthless to-morrow. These thoughts
became at times almost insupportable, and his only relief against them
was in great bodily fatigue. It was his habit, when in this mood,
to mount his horse and ride into the forest. The deep pine-wood was
traversed in various directions by long grassy alleys, miles in extent;
and here, save at the very rarest intervals, no one was to be met with.
It is not easy to conceive anything more solemn and gloomy than one of
these forests, where the only sound is a low, sighing cadence as the
wind stirs in the pine-tops. A solitary blackbird, perchance, may warble
his mellow song in the stillness, or, as evening closes, the wailing cry
of the owl be heard; otherwise the stillness is deathlike.
Whole days had Gerald often passed in these leafy solitudes, till at
length he grew to recognise even in that apparent uniformity certain
spots and certain trees by which he could calculate his distance from
home. Two or three little clearings there were also where trees had been
felled and small piles of brushwood were formed; these were his most
remote wanderings and marked the place whence he turned his steps
homeward.
On the morning we now speak of he rode at such reckless speed that in
less than two hours he had left these familiar places far behind and
penetrated deeper into the dense wood. Toward noon he dismounted to
relieve his somewhat wearied horse, and walked along for hours, a
strange feeling of pleasure stirring his heart at the thought of his
utter loneliness; for there is something in the mind of youth that
attaches itself eagerly to anything that seems to savour of the
adventurous. And the mere presence of a new object or a new situation
will often suffice for this. Gradually, as he went onward, his mind
calmed down, the fever of his brain abated; passages of the poets he
best loved rose to his memory, and he repeated verses to himself as
he strolled along, his mind unconsciously drinking in the soothing
influences that come of solitude and reverie.
Meanwhile the day declined, and although no sense of fatigue oppressed
himself, he was warned by the blood-red nostrils of his horse and his
drawn-up flanks that the beast needed both food and water.
It was a rare occurrence to chance upon the tiniest stream in these
tracts, so that he had nothing for it but to push forward and trust that
after an hour or so he might issue beyond the bounds of the wood. Again
in the saddle, his mettled horse carried him gallantly along without
any show of distress; but although he rode at a sharp pace there seemed
little prospect of emerging from the wood; tall avenues of dark stems
still lined the way, and the dusky foliage spread itself above his head.
If he had but preserved a direct line he was well aware that he must
be able to traverse the forest in its very widest part within a day, so
that he now urged his horse more briskly to gain the open country before
nightfall. For the first time, however, the animal showed signs of
fatigue, and Gerald was fain to get down and lead him. Half dreamily
lost in his own thoughts he moved unconsciously along, when suddenly a
blaze of golden light startled him, and looking up he saw he had left
the wood behind him and was standing on the crest of a grassy hill,
from which he could see miles of open country at his feet, backed by the
Maremma Mountains, behind which the sun was fast sinking. It was that
true Italian landscape which to eyes only accustomed to the scenery
north of the Alps has always a character of hardness, and even
bleakness; but as by time and frequency this impression dies away, such
scenes possess an attractiveness unequalled by all other lands. There
was the vast plain, traversed by its winding rivulet, its course only
traceable by the pollard willows that marked the banks; while forests
of olives alternated with mulberry plantations, around and between
which the straggling vines were trellised. On the hot earth, half hid by
flowers of many a gorgeous hue, lay great yellow gourds and pumpkins, as
though thrown to the surface in a flood of rich abundance; and far away
in the distance the mountains closed in the view, their summit capped
with villages, or, perchance, some rugged castellated ruin, centuries
old.
How was it that Gerald stood and gazed at all these like one
spell-bound? Why was that scene not altogether new to his eyes? Why did
he follow out that little road, now emerging from the olives and now
lost again, till it gained the stream, which was spanned by a rude
wooden bridge? How is it that the humble mill yonder, whose laggard
wheel scarce stirs the water, seems to him like some old familiar thing.
And why does he strain his sight in vain to see the zigzag road up the
steep mountain-side? It was because a flood of old memories were rushing
full upon his mind, bringing up boyhood and ‘long ago.’ That was the
very path by which he set out to seek his fortune, when scarcely more
than a child he fled from the villa; there was the wide plain through
which he had toiled weary and foot-sore; in that little copse of
fruit-trees, beside the stream, had he slept at night; there, where a
little cross marks a shrine, had he stopped to eat his breakfast; around
the head of that little lake had he wended his way toward the mountains.
If at first these memories arose faintly, like the mere outlines of a
dream, they grew by degrees bolder and stronger. His boyish life at the
Tana then rose before him; the little room in which he used to sit,
and read, and ponder; then the narrow stair by which he would creep
noiselessly down to stroll out at night and wander all alone beside
the dark lake; and then the dusky pine-wood, through whose leafy shades
Gabriel would saunter as the evening closed in.
‘I will see them all once more, cried he aloud; ‘I will go back over
that scene, calling up all that I can remember of the past; I will try
if my heart has kept the promise of its boyish hopes, and see if I have
wandered away from the path I once destined for myself.’ There was
a marvellous fascination in the reality of all he saw and all the
recollections it evoked, after that life of fictitious station and mock
greatness in which he had been living of late.
He who has not tried the experiment for himself cannot believe the
extent of that view obtained into his own nature from simply revisiting
the scenes of boyhood. Till we have gone back to the places themselves,
we can never realise the life we led there; how we felt in that long
ago; what we thought of, what we ambitioned.
Wonderful messengers of conscience are these same old memories! the
little garden we used to dig; the narrow bed we slept in; our old bench
at school, deep graven on the heart, with all its thrilling incidents of
boyish life; the pathway through the flowery meadow down to the stream,
where we used to bathe; the little summer-house under the honeysuckles,
where we heard or invented such marvellous stories. Rely upon it, there
is not one of these unassociated with some high hopes, some generous
notion, some noble ambition; something, in short, which we meant to be,
but never realised; some path we intended to follow, but strayed from in
that wild and tumultuous conflict we call life.
Guided by the little river, on which the setting sun was now shedding
its last lustre, Gerald walked along beside his horse, and just as the
night was falling reached the mill. To his great surprise did he learn
that he was full fifty miles from Orvieto, for though he had parsed an
entire day, from earliest dawn, on the way, he had never contemplated
the distance he had travelled. As it was no unusual occurrence for
special couriers with despatches to pass by this route toward the Tuscan
frontier, his appearance caused little remark, and he was invited to sit
down at the miller’s table when the household assembled for supper.
‘You are bound for St. Stephano, I ‘ll warrant,’ said the miller, as he
stood looking at Gerald, who bedded down his tired beast.
Gerald assented with a nod, and went on with his work.
‘If I were you, then, I ‘d not take the low road by the Lago Scuro at
this season.’
‘And why so?’
‘Just for this reason: they have got malaria fever up in the mountains,
and the refugees who live up there, for safety against the carabinieri,
are obliged to come down into the plains, and they troop the roads
here in gangs of twenty and thirty, making the country insecure after
nightfall.’
‘They are brigands, then?’ asked Gerald.
‘Every man, ay, and every woman of them! They respect neither priest
nor prefect. What think you they did three weeks ago at Somarra? A
travelling company of players coming through the town obtained leave
from the Delegato to give a representation. The theatre was crammed, as
you may well believe, such a pleasure not being an everyday one. Well,
the orchestra had finished the symphony and up drew the curtain, when,
instead of a village fête with peasants dancing, the stage was crowded
with savage-looking fellows armed to the teeth, every one of whom held
a blunderbuss levelled at the audience. Meanwhile the doors of the boxes
were opened, and the people inside politely requested to hand out their
money, watches, jewels, in fact, all that they had of value about
them, the pit being treated exactly in the same fashion, for none could
escape, as all the doors were held by the bandits. They carried away
forty-seven thousand francs’ worth for the night’s work. Indeed, the
Delegato has never risen from his bed since it happened, and expects
every day to be summoned to Rome, or sent off to prison at Viterbo.’
‘And why does the Pope’s government not take some steps against these
fellows? Why are they suffered to ravage the whole country at their
will?’
‘You must ask your master, the Cardinal, that question,’ said the
miller, laughing. ‘It would be easy enough to hunt them down, now that
they ‘ve got the fever in the mountains, if any one cared to do it;
but the “Pastore,” as they call their captain, pays handsomely for his
patent to rob, and he never kills where it can be avoided.’
‘And who is this Pastore--what was he?’
‘He was a friar. Some say he was once a monsignore; and he might have
been, from his manners and language.’
‘You have seen him, then?’
‘Seen him! _per Bacco!_ that have I, and to my cost! He comes himself to
take up his “due de Pasqua,” as he calls his Easter-dues, which are not
the lighter that he assesses them all before he sits down to supper.’
‘Do you mean to tell me that he would sit down to table with you?’
‘Ay, and be the merriest at the board too. So full of pleasant stories
and good songs was he one night that one of my boys could not resist
the fascination of his company, but started off the next morning to join
him, and has never returned.’
If Gerald’s curiosity was excited to learn many particulars of this
celebrated bandit chief, the miller was only too happy to be questioned
on a theme he loved so well. In his apprehension the Pastore was
no ordinary robber, but a sort of agent, partly political, partly
financial, of certain great people of Rome. This was a theory he
was somewhat vain of having propounded, and he supported it with
considerable ingenuity.
The Pastore himself was described as a happy-looking, well-to-do man,
past the prime of life, but still hale and vigorous; and, if not very
active in body, with considerable acuteness and a ready wit. He stood
well in the estimation of the peasantry, who were always ready to render
him little services, and to whom in return he would show his gratitude
by little presents at the fête-days or scenes of family rejoicing. ‘And
as for the Curé,’ said the miller, ‘only ask him who sent the handsomest
chaplet for the head of the Madonna, or who gave the silver lamp that
burns at the shrine of St. Nicomède?’
This strange blending of devotional observance with utter
lawlessness--this singular union of _bon homme_ with open violence,
were features that in all his intercourse with life Gerald had never
met with; and he was not a little curious to see one who could combine
qualities so incompatible.
‘I should certainly like to see him,’ said he, after a pause.
‘Only ride that black mare through the pass of the “Capri,” to-morrow;
let him see how she brushes her way through the tall fern and never
slips a foot over the rocky ledges, and I’ll lay my life on’t you ‘ll
see him, and hear him too.’
‘You mean to say that he ‘d soon replace me in the saddle,’ said Gerald
half angrily.
‘I mean to say that the horse would change owners, and you be never the
richer of the compact.’
‘A bullet will overtake a man, let him ride ever so fast,’ said Gerald
calmly; ‘and your Pastore has only to lie in ambush till he has covered
me, to make me a very harmless foe; but I was thinking of a fair
meeting--man to man----’
A gesture of scornful meaning by the miller here arrested Gerald’s
words, and the young man grew crimson with shame and anger together.
‘It is easy enough to say these things, and hard to disprove them; but
if I were certain to meet this fellow alone and without his followers, I
‘d take the road you speak of to-morrow without so much as asking where
it leads to.’
An insolent laugh from the miller, as he arose from his seat, almost
made the young man’s passion boil over.
‘You asked about the “Capri” pass--that’s a picture of it,’ said he,
as he pointed to a rude representation of a deep mountain gorge, along
which a foaming torrent was wildly dashing. Stunted pine-trees lined the
crags, and fantastically-shaped rocks broke the leafy outline, on one of
which the artist had drawn the figure of a brigand, as with gun in hand
he peered down into the dark glen.
‘That is a spot,’ said the miller half laughingly, ‘the Carabinieri of
the Holy Father have never fancied; they tried it once--I forget how
many years ago--and left eleven of their comrades behind them, and since
that it has been as sacred for them as St. John of Lateran.’
‘But I see no road; it seems to be a mere cleft between the mountains,’
said Gerald.
‘Ay, but there is a road--a sort of bridlepath; it rises from the valley
and creeps along up yonder where you see a little railing of wood,
and then gains that peak which, winding around it, reaches a wide
table-land. I have not been there myself; but they tell me how from that
you can see over the whole Maremma, and in fine weather the sea beyond
it, and the port of St. Stephano and the islands.’
The miller was now launched upon a favourite theme, and went on to
describe how the smugglers, who paid a sort of blackmail for the
privilege, usually took this route from the coast into the interior. It
saved miles and miles of road, and was besides perfectly safe against
all molestation. As it led direct to the Tuscan frontier, it was also
selected by all who made their escape from Roman prisons. ‘To be sure,’
added he, ‘it is less frequented now that the Pastore is likely to be
met with; for as it is all chance what humour he may have on him, none
like to risk their lives in such company.’
Though Gerald was aware that ‘brigandage’ was a Roman institution--a
regularly covenanted service of the State, by which no inconsiderable
revenue reached the hands of some very exalted individuals--he had never
before heard that these outlaws were occasionally employed as actual
agents of the Government to arrest and detain travellers against whom
suspicion rested, to rifle foreign couriers of the despatches they
carried to the Ministers; now and then it was even alleged that they had
broken into strong places to destroy documents by which guilt could be
proved or innocence established--all of these services being of a nature
little likely to reward men for the peril, had they not acted under
orders from above! There might possibly have been much exaggeration
in the account the miller gave of these men’s lives and functions, but
there was that blending of incident and fact with his theorisings that
certainly amazed Gerald and interested him deeply. It was, to be sure,
no small aid to the force of the narrative that the yellow moonlight
was now streaming full upon one side of the very scene where these
characters acted, and that from the little window where he sat he could
look out upon their mountain-home.
‘See,’ said the miller, pointing toward a high peak, ‘where you see the
fire yonder there is an encampment of some of them! You can judge now
how little these fellows fear being surprised. As Gerald continued to
gaze, a second and then a third flame shot up from the summits of other
hills farther off, suggesting to the miller that these were certainly
signals of some kind or other.
‘There! rely on it, they have work on their hands up yonder to-night,
said the miller; and having pointed out his room to Gerald, he arose to
retire. ‘It will, maybe, cost many a penance, many a pater, to wipe off
what will be done ‘twixt this and daybreak ‘; and with this pious speech
he left the room.