ERCOLE AT THE FAIR
If needs must have it that I was to accommodate crime by falling into it
myself, it would appear that I was to do it with a certain air. When I
awoke I found a very decent suit of black prepared for me against the
proceedings of the day: a ribbon for my hair, shoes, shoebuckles, silk
stockings, ruffles, a neat cravat edged with lace. Thus attired, I was
to be Fra Palamone's secretary and lieutenant, to hold his devotional
objects, pass them about for inspection, praise them discreetly, and
take the money. Virginia was to play the country girl, who, by simple
ardour and appropriate questioning, was to excite general interest and
stimulate the sale. She, too, had a new gown and stomacher, and looked
so well that, the frate said, it was quite on the cards that half his
stock would be bought for her by enamoured contadini, and thus brought
into circulation over and over again. It was noticeable that far less
time was spent upon her instructions than upon mine. Fra Palamone was
not at all sure how far I should prove amenable.
Crime, however, by which I mean an unfailing fount of ready lying, was a
more difficult accomplishment than I had reckoned it. I had no notion
when I began what hard work it could be. It was not for want of an
exemplar, for although Fra Palamone sweated as he lied, it would be
impossible to relate the quantity, the quality or quiddity of his lies.
Their variety was indeed admirable, but apart from that they shocked me
not a little, for I could not but see that as ready a way as any of
discrediting true religion is to overcredit it; and that, where people
believe in a miracle, to give them a glib hundred is to tempt them to
infidelity. Because it might be true, as I undoubtedly believe it to be,
that St. Francis of Assisi floated between pavement and rafters, that
were no reason for pronouncing that Santa Caterina de' Ricci could
stroke the chimney-pots; or if one thought it possible that St. Antony
of Padua preached to the fishes of the sea, I contend that one would not
be supported, but rather discouraged, in the opinion by hearing that
Santa Caterina de' Ricci argued with eels in the stew-pan. But the
melancholy fact remains to be told that, haranguing all day long, the
wilder grew the anecdotes of Palamone, the brisker was his trade.
Virginia also, I freely own, acted her part superbly, with a lisp and a
trick of sucking her fingers for one batch, an "O la!" for another,
which brought in showers of purchasers. She presently took a fit of
bargaining--by mere caprice, I believe--in which she was so keen that
she beat down Fra Palamone to half his prices and set an example which
made him desperately angry. As for me, I fell into entire disgrace
almost at the outset, for when an old countryman asked me whether it was
true that Roses of Sharon were good for the stone, unthinkingly I
replied that prayer was better. "Cospetto!" cried my man, "and cheaper
too! Many thanks to you for an honest young gentleman." Fra Palamone
ordered me to resume my old part of deaf-mute.
The procession of the day, which, of course, put an end to all marketing
for the time, began at half after ten, with High Mass set for eleven
o'clock. It was a pompous business--the nuns of San Vincenzio, two and
two, with lighted tapers; their friends of the world, ladies in hoops
and feathers, attendant cavaliers; Donna Violante, widow of the Grand
Prince Ferdinand, deceased--a stout black-eyed woman of middle age,
under-dressed and over-painted. She had a court about her of half a
dozen gentlemen, twice that number of ladies, and three black boys to
hold her train. Donna Camilla Pallavicini may have been there, but I did
not see her. The clergy followed, then the bishop with his chaplains,
train-bearer and acolytes; torch-bearers next; and then the casket
containing the body of the saint under a heavy crimson canopy. Friars of
St. Dominic's religion closed a very fine procession.
Having myself a fair musical ear, I thought that the nuns sang badly,
without harmony or spirit. They looked about them too with what I
considered regretable freedom: they talked to their friends; one of them
had a damerino on either side of her, and one also, I was constrained to
notice, looked fixedly in my direction, with fine eyes, full of
knowledge--but presently turned her head and passed on. There was
nothing flagrant, nothing to be compared with what was allowed to
religious in Padua and Venice; but I was a little discontented at this
nun's inspection. I had observed that she was handsome and of fine
person, pale, serious, and with a high-bred air.
While all these devotees were winding their way round about the Piazza,
Virginia and I had been sitting on a patch of grass by the roadway in
the company of a country lad, who became extremely friendly. He was a
goatherd from San Benedetto in Alpi, he told us, and had played truant
for the day, walking over the stony hills for some sixteen or twenty
miles and intending to return the same road at night. His name was
Ercole; and that, as I told him, was as it should be. But I added,
"Hercules served Eurystheus for twelve years for one clear purpose,
which was that he might achieve immortality; and some of us labour for
the same end, and others of us for ends which seem to us equally good.
Will you tell me, Ercole, why you have undertaken these prodigious
exertions of yours?"
Ercole shrugged. "There is no life upon our mountains," he said.
"Moreover, Santa Caterina was a great saint, as I have heard your master
say just now. Nor can you deny it."
I said, "I do not deny it. But the saints never fail us. Wheresoever one
may dwell, there are they; and by the merits of holy baptism and the
benefits of the Mass we may be in communion with them whether we live on
mountain or plain."
"That is true," said Ercole. "Yet that was a good procession. I would
not have missed it for two gold florins. I expect that in your country
you have no finer processions of priests and noble ladies of religion. I
am myself impassioned for religion."
"I too," was my answer. "But in my poor country the true faith is
enmeshed in cold shrouds of unbelief. We dare not have processions, but
cry unto God in secret; and no profession is more discredited with us
than that of virgin."
"That is a terrible thing you tell me there," says he. "What else is a
girl to do if she cannot marry the man of her heart?"
"We have our compensations," I replied; "we worship in the dark, hoping
to be rewarded in the full light of heaven. Persecution has braced us;
the Church had grown lax. With us, for instance, you would never see
religious behave as here they do. Did you observe that nun that looked
me full in the face as the procession went by?"
Ercole's eyes flashed; but he said nothing. I went on, "That would be
impossible in my country, I can assure you."
"Pardon me," says Ercole; "you misunderstood the lady. It was not at you
that she looked."
"Certainly it was not," said Virginia with decision.
"She looked at me," the boy said, "and I looked at her. She knew that I
should be here."
"Ho!" said I, and Virginia said, "Gia!"
Ercole then explained. "That lady is Donna Domenica degli Onesti, who
was daughter of my master, the Marchese Onesti, when I was dog-keeper to
him at Bogazzano. She was always there, being in delicate health, and we
loved each other from the first. There was no doubt at all about the
matter."
"How could there be any doubt?" said Virginia; but Ercole took no notice
of her.
"There was no doubt. She jumped whenever I came round the corner, and
used to stand behind trees watching me. Also she used to come to see the
dogs fed. Now, when I knew beyond all question the state of her
feelings, I borrowed Guido's guitar, and struck one chord upon it at
night under her window, and sang but one word--Vieni! In three minutes
she came on to the balcony, and we looked at each other. There was a
moon, and we could see quite well. We stood looking like that for five
minutes without a syllable spoken, and then I went away. I went away
before she did; so the thing was clear. After that I called my Vieni
every night, and every night she came. Sir, you saw how fine she was,
with a face of dawn, and great eyes, and the mournful air of a saint in
the sky. There never was such a good love as ours in the world, since
the days of Antonio and Cleopatra of blessed memory. It lasted all one
summer, but she was turned of sixteen by then, and her father, the
marchese, wished her to marry. Naturally I forbade that."
"You!" I cried, and again Virginia nodded and said, "Gia!"
"You may say so," said Ercole. "What else could I do? And naturally also
she preferred the convent. I bade her farewell in the garden. She
allowed me then to touch her hand. I said, 'Addio, Madonna,' and she,
'Addio, Ercole,' and then I left her standing there. That was five years
ago. Since then I have seen her once a year. This is the fifth time."
"And when will the sixth time be?" I asked him.
"Immediately," he said. "When the procession returns."
"But, Ercole, is this tolerable?" I objected. "Is it humane to Donna
Domenica?"
Virginia turned upon me here. "To her?" she cried fiercely. "To her?
Why, what else could she do? What else should I--should any woman do?"
Immediately she had said this, I could see that she wished she had not.
She blushed and hung her head.
"It is not too easy," said Ercole, "but it was best under the
circumstances. Imagine her in the arms of a man! It is not conceivable.
On the other hand, one is not jealous of the Cross; and she knows that I
should not come to see her if I had not been faithful."
"And you have spoken--"
"For what do you take me? I have never spoken to her more than once in
the garden, or at a less distance than ten braccia--except when I
touched her hand. Also I used to say Vieni! and she came; but no more."
"But when she was asked in marriage, and you forbade it?"
"Then she told me herself that she supposed I wished her to take the
veil, and I nodded my head."
I was forced to admit his strength of purpose. "You are a great lover,
"I said, "that is certain. I am a lover also--but not at all in your
way."
Ercole said, "I have only done what any man would do who loved a lady."
"Don Francis would never say Vieni!" said Virginia with a snap, looking
up quickly.
"Then the lady would never come," said Ercole.
I was silent, condemning in my heart what my wits could not gainsay.
Ercole saw his Donna Domenica again. She passed with the returning
procession, and again looked full and mournful knowledge on her lover.
He neither blushed nor saluted her, but met her eyes steadily and did
not follow her retreating figure in the hope that she would turn her
head. Nor did she turn it. He seemed perfectly cheerful afterwards, and
disposed to sleep. He said that he should take another day in Prato, so
as to get a little fun of the fair. They had no fairs at San Benedetto
in Alpi.