WITHIN THE HIGH WALLS
In these degenerate days Saragossa has taken to itself a suburb--the
first and deadliest sign of a city's progress. Thirty years ago, however,
Torrero did not exist, and those terrible erections of white stone and
plaster which now disfigure the high land to the south of the city had
not yet burst upon the calm of ancient architectural Spain. Here, on
Monte Torrero, stood an old convent, now turned into a barrack. Here
also, amid the trees of the ancient gardens, rises the rounded dome of
the church of San Fernando.
Close by, and at a slightly higher level, curves the Canal Imperial, 400
years old, and not yet finished; assuredly conceived by a Moorish love of
clear water in high places, but left to Spanish enterprise and in
completeness when the Moors had departed.
Beyond the convent walls, the canal winds round the slope of the brown
hill, marking a distinctive line between the outer desert and the green
oasis of Saragossa. Just within the border line of the oasis, just below
the canal, on the sunny slope, lies the long low house of the Convent
School of the Sisters of the True Faith. Here, amid the quiet of
orchards--white in spring with blossom, the haunt of countless
nightingales, heavy with fruit in autumn, at all times the home of a
luxuriant vegetation--history has surged to and fro, like the tides
drawn hither and thither, rising and falling according to the dictates of
a far-off planet. And the moon of this tide is Rome.
For the Sisters of the True Faith are a Jesuit corporation, and their
Convent School is, now a convent, now a school, as the tide may rise or
fall. The ebb first came in 1555, when Spain threw out the Jesuits. The
flow was at its height so late as 1814, when Ferdinand VII--a Bourbon,
of course--restored Jesuitism and the Inquisition at one stroke. And
before and after, and through all these times, the tide of prosperity has
risen and fallen, has sapped and sagged and undermined with a noiseless
energy which the outer world only half suspects.
In 1835 this same long, low, quiet house amid the fruit-trees was sacked
by the furious populace, and more than one Sister of the True Faith, it
is whispered, was beaten to the ground as she fled shrieking down the
hill. In 1836 all monastic orders were rigidly suppressed by Mendizabal,
minister to Queen Christina. In 1851 they were all allowed to live again
by the same Queen's daughter, Isabel II. So wags this world into which
there came nineteen hundred years ago not peace, but a sword; a world all
stirred about by a reformed rake of Spain who, in his own words, came "to
send fire throughout the earth;" whose motto was, "Ignem veni metteri in
terram, et quid volo nisi ut accendatur."
The road that runs by the bank of the canal was deserted when the Count
de Sarrion turned his horse's head that way from the dusty high road
leading southwards out of Saragossa. Sarrion had only been in Saragossa
twenty-four hours. His great house on the Paseo del Ebro had not been
thrown open for this brief visit, and he had been content to inhabit two
rooms at the back of the house. From the balcony of one he had seen the
incident related in the last chapter; and as he rode towards the convent
school he carried in his hand--not a whip--but the delicately-wrought
sword-stick which had fallen from the hand of Francisco de Mogente into
the gutter the night before.
In the grassy sedge that bordered the canal the frogs were calling to
each other with that conversational note of interrogation in their
throats which makes their music one of Nature's most sociable and
companionable sounds. In the fruit-trees on the lower land the
nightingales were singing as they only sing in Spain. It was nearly dark,
a warm evening of late spring, and there was no wind. Amid the thousand
scents of blossom, of opening buds, and a hundred flowering shrubs there
arose the subtle, soft odour of sluggish water, stirred by frogs, telling
of cool places beneath the trees where the weary and the dusty might lie
in oblivion till the morning.
The Count of Sarrion rode with a long stirrup, his spare form, six feet
in height, a straight line from heel to shoulder. His seat in the saddle
and something in his manner, at once gentle and cold, something mystic
that attracted and yet held inexorably at arm's length, lent at once a
deeper meaning to his name, which assuredly had a Moorish ring in it. The
little town of Sarrion lies far to the south, on the borders of Valencia,
in the heart of the Moorish country. And to look at the face of Ramon de
Sarrion and of his son, the still, brown-faced Marcos de Sarrion, was to
conjure up some old romance of that sun-scorched height of the
Javalambre, where history dates back to centuries before Christ--where
assuredly some Moslem maiden in the later time must have forsaken all for
love of a wild yet courteous Spanish knight of Sarrion, bequeathing to
her sons through all the ages the deep, reflective eyes, the impenetrable
dignity, of her race.
Sarrion's hair was gray. He wore a moustache and imperial in the French
fashion, and looked at the world with the fierce eyes and somewhat of the
air of an eagle, which resemblance was further accentuated by a
finely-cut nose. As an old man he was picturesque. He must have been very
handsome in his youth.
It seemed that he was bound for the School of the Sisters of the True
Faith, for as he approached its gate, built solidly within the thickness
of the high wall, without so much as a crack or crevice through which the
curious might peep, he drew rein, and sat motionless on his well-trained
horse, listening. The clock at San Fernando immediately vouchsafed the
information that it was nine o'clock. There was no one astir, no one on
the road before or behind him. Across the narrow canal was a bare field.
The convent wall bounded the view on the left hand.
Sarrion rode up to the gate and rang a bell, which clanged with a sort of
surreptitiousness just within. He only rang once, and then waited,
posting himself immediately opposite a little grating let into the solid
wood of the door. The window behind the grating seemed to open and shut
without sound, for he heard nothing until a woman's voice asked who was
there.
"It is the Count Ramon de Sarrion who must without fail speak to the
Sister Superior to-night," he answered, and composed himself again in the
saddle with a southern patience. He waited a long time before the heavy
doors were at length opened. The horse passed timorously within, with
jerking ears and a distended nostril, looking from side to side. He
glanced curiously at the shadowy forms of two women who held the door,
and leant their whole weight against it to close it again as soon as
possible.
Sarrion dismounted, and drew the bridle through a ring and hook attached
to the wall just inside the gates. No one spoke. The two nuns noiselessly
replaced the heavy bolts. There was a muffled clank of large keys, and
they led the way towards the house.
Just over the threshold was the small room where visitors were asked to
wait--a square, bare apartment with one window set high in the wall, with
one lamp burning dimly on the table now. There were three or four chairs,
and that was all. The bare walls were whitewashed. The Convent School of
the Sisters of the True Faith did not err, at all events, in the heathen
indiscretion of a too free hospitality. The visitors to this room were
barely beneath the roof. The door had in one of its panels the usual
grating and shutter.
Sarrion sat down without looking round him, in the manner of a man who
knew his surroundings, and took no interest in them.
In a few minutes the door opened noiselessly--there was a too obtrusive
noiselessness within these walls--and a nun came in. She was tall, and
within the shadow of her cap her eyes loomed darkly. She closed the door,
and, throwing back her veil, came forward. She leant towards Sarrion, and
kissed him, and her face, coming within the radius of the lamp, was the
face of a Sarrion.
There was in her action, in the movement of her high-held head, a sudden
and startling self-abandonment of affection. For Spanish women understand
above all others the calling of love and motherhood. And it seemed that
Sor Teresa--known in the world as Dolores Sarrion--had, like many women,
bestowed a thwarted love--faute de mieux--upon her brother.
"You are well?" asked Sarrion, looking at her closely. Her face, framed
by a spotless cap, was gray and drawn, but not unhappy.
She nodded her head with a smile, while her eyes flitted over his face
and person with that quick interrogation which serves better than words.
A woman never asks minutely after the health of one in whom she is really
interested. She knows without asking. She stood before him with her hands
crossed within the folds of her ample sleeves. Her face was lost again in
the encircling shadow of her cap and veil. She was erect and motionless
in her stiff and heavy clothing. The momentary betrayal of womanhood and
affection was passed, and this was the dreaded Sister Superior of the
Convent School again.
"I suppose," she said, "you are alone as usual. Is it safe, after
nightfall--you, who have so many enemies?"
"Marcos is at Torre Garda, where I left him three days ago. The snows are
melting and the fishing is good. It is unusual to come at this hour, I
know, but I came for a special purpose."
He glanced towards the door. The quiet of this house seemed to arouse a
sense of suspicion and antagonism in his mind.
"I wished, of course, to see you also, though I am aware that the
affections are out of place in this--holy atmosphere."
She winced almost imperceptibly and said nothing.
"I want to see Juanita de Mogente," said the Count. "It is unusual, I
know, but in this place you are all-powerful. It is important, or I
should not ask it."
"She is in bed. They go to bed at eight o'clock."
"I know. Is not that all the better? She has a room to herself, I
recollect. You can arouse her and bring her to me and no one need know
that she has had a visitor--except, I suppose, the peeping eyes that
haunt a nunnery corridor."
He gave a shrug of the shoulder.
"Mother of God!" he exclaimed. "The air of secrecy infects one. I am not
a secretive man. All the world knows my opinions. And here am I plotting
like a friar. Can I see Juanita?"
And he laughed quietly as he looked at his sister.
"Yes, I suppose so."
He nodded his thanks.
"And, Dolores, listen!" he said. "Let me see her alone. It may save
complications in the future. You understand?"
Sor Teresa turned in the doorway and looked at him.
He could not see the expression of her eyes, which were in deep shadow,
and she left him wondering whether she had understood or not.
It would seem that Sor Teresa, despite her slow dignity of manner, was a
quick person. For in a few moments the door of the waiting-room was again
opened and a young girl hastened breathlessly in. She was not more than
sixteen or seventeen, and as she came in she threw back her dark hair
with one hand.
"I was asleep, Uncle Ramon," she exclaimed with a light laugh, "and the
good Sister had to drag me out of bed before I would wake up. And then,
of course, I thought it was a fire. We have always hoped for a fire, you
know."
She was continuing to attend to her hasty dress as she spoke, tying the
ribbon at the throat of her gay dressing-gown with careless fingers.
"I had not even time to pull up my stockings," she concluded, making good
the omission with a friendly nonchalance. Then she turned to look at Sor
Teresa, but her eyes found instead the closed door.
"Oh!" she cried, "the good Sister has forgotten to come back with me. And
it is against the rules. What a joke! We are not allowed to see visitors
alone--except father or mother, you know. I don't care. It was not my
fault."
And she looked doubtfully from the door to Sarrion and back again to the
door. She was very young and gay and careless. Her cheeks still flushed
by the deep sleep of childhood were of the colour of a peach that has
ripened quickly in the glow of a southern sun. Her eyes were dark and
very bright; the bird-like shallow vivacity of childhood still sparkled
in them. It seemed that they were made for laughing, not for tears or
thought. She was the incarnation of youth and springtime. To find such
ignorance of the world, such innocence of heart, one must go to a nunnery
or to Nature.
"I came to see you to-night," said Sarrion, "as I may be leaving
Saragossa again to-morrow morning."
"And the good Sister allowed me to see you. I wonder why! She has been
cross with me lately. I am always breaking things, you know."
She spread out her hands with a gesture of despair.
"Yesterday it was an altar-vase. I tripped over the foot of that stupid
St. Andrew. Have you heard from papa?"
Sarrion hesitated for a moment at the sudden question.
"No," he answered at length.
"Oh! I wish he would come home from Cuba," said the girl, with a passing
gravity. "I wonder what he will be like. Will his hair be gray? Not that
I dislike gray hair you know," she added hurriedly. "I hope he will be
nice. One of the girls told me the other day that she disliked her
father, which seems odd, doesn't it? Milagros de Villanueva--do you know
her? She was my friend once. We told each other everything. She has red
hair. I thought it was golden when she was my friend. But one can see
with half an eye that it is red."
Sarrion laughed rather shortly.
"Have you heard from your father?" he asked.
"I had a letter on Saint Mark's Day," she answered. "I have not heard
from him since. He said he hoped to give me a surprise, he trusted a
pleasant one, during the summer. What did he mean? Do you know?"
"No," answered Sarrion, thoughtfully. "I know nothing."
"And Marcos is not with you?" the girl went on gaily. "He would not dare
to come within the walls. He is afraid of all nuns. I know he is, though
he denies it. Some day, in the holidays, I shall dress as a nun, and you
will see. It will frighten him out of his wits."
"Yes," said Sarrion looking at her, "I expect it would. Tell me," he went
on after a pause, "Do you know this stick?"
And he held out, under the rays of the lamp, the sword-stick he had
picked up in the Calle San Gregorio.
She looked at it and then at him with startled eyes.
"Of course," she said. "It is the sword-stick I sent papa for the New
Year. You ordered it yourself from Toledo. See, here is the crest. Where
did you get it? Do not mystify me. Tell me quickly--is he here? Has he
come home?"
In her eagerness she laid her hands on his dusty riding coat and looked
up into his face.
"No, my child, no," answered Sarrion, stroking her hair, with a
tenderness unusual enough to be remembered afterwards. "I think not. The
stick must have been stolen from him and found its way back to Saragossa
in the hand of the thief. I picked it up in the street yesterday. It is a
coincidence, that is all. I will write to your father and tell him of
it."
Sarrion turned away, so that the shade of the lamp threw his face into
darkness. He was afraid of those quick, bright eyes--almost afraid that
she should divine that he had already telegraphed to Cuba.
"I only came to ask you whether you had heard from your father and to
hear that you were well. And now I must go."
She stood looking at him, thoughtfully pulling at the delicate embroidery
of her sleeves, for all that she wore was of the best that Saragossa
could provide, and she wore it carelessly, as if she had never known
other, and paid little heed to wealth---as those do who have always had
it.
"I think there is something you are not telling me," she said, with the
ever-ready laugh twinkling beneath her dusky lashes. "Some mystery."
"No, no. Good-night, my child. Go back to your bed."
She paused with her hand on the door, looking back, her face all shaded
by her tumbled hair hanging to her waist.
"Are you sure you have not heard from papa?"
"Quite sure--! I wish I had," he added when the door was closed behind
her.