Escapade, and his first Meeting with the Princess of Favara.
I should have said that ten minutes before the barge left, the Admiral
hailed me.
"Go and make yourself ready, Trinder. Mr. Hardres must not steer the
barge now."
And so I went with him. But though I was his particular mate, and
never away from him for five minutes when he was not with the Admiral,
he took no more account of me than any common seaman. He seemed wrapt
up in his mission, and I saw that he had the Admiral's great quality
of not letting an opportunity pass.
When we reached the long landing steps under the Marina, we were met
by a ragged rabble of a guard under an officer who spoke French. Now,
I knew a very little of French, and could make out that Will demanded
to be taken at once into the presence of the Governor, with myself and
his guard.
"_Oui_, Monsieur the Vice-Admiral," said the officer with the greatest
possible alacrity.
Like every one else in the city, he was bursting to know the reason of
the advent of this formidable fleet. England was at peace with the Two
Sicilies, he knew. So, for the matter of that, was France; though all
the time his King, and, what was more to the point, his Queen, were
dying to cut the throat of every Frenchman, and ready to declare war
the moment they could get sufficient protection from the Allies. In
the state of confusion Europe was then in no one would have been
surprised at any of the belligerents seizing any point of vantage they
happened to require, in the territories of the feeble principalities
of Italy. The townspeople, mad with delight, imagined that this fine
fleet had come to occupy Syracuse, and defend it against the dreaded
operations of the French. So delighted were they to see us, that the
Governor wrote afterwards to Sir John Acton, that they would have
carried the ships one by one to their houses, if it had been possible.
And in any case resistance would have been impossible. For centuries
it had been the cardinal belief that no large ship could cross the bar
at the entrance to the Great Port. Consequently, the inner face of the
city all along the Marina was hardly fortified; certainly not in a
state to resist any kind of naval attack more formidable than an
assault by boats. A frigate could have defied the landward guns of the
Castle, and laid the town in ashes. If the Syracusans had not been too
ignorant to know anything about the political questions with which
Europe was boiling, they might have thought that the English had come
there to seize the town, because the Two Sicilies had not declared war
upon the French. That the town was about to be seized upon some
pretext or other, they felt certain; else why this imposing force--the
greatest expedition which had ever come to the city since the famous
siege by the Athenians? And the Athenians, God bless them, came before
the days of gunpowder.
The officer, forming his ragged troops in some sort of order, led the
way to the ancient castello, built by the Greek, Georgio Maniace, when
he reconquered Syracuse from the Arabs, before the Norman conquest. A
lovely, but rather tumbledown black-and-white marble gateway had been
built by him to support the two famous bronze rams, made by ancient
Greeks in classical times. Seven hundred and seventy years afterwards
the gate and its rams were still there to give our entry becoming
state. The rams were really very comical, and I had it just on my
lips, when I caught Will's hard blue eye, and brought my face to
attention. Nor was that the only comical thing about the castle, which
was so little used that a fine crop of dwarf stocks were growing right
up to the guns.
The Governor, Don Giuseppe delle Torre, had chosen rather an _al
fresco_ scene for the reception.
To be brief, he had had a space cleared among the powder and shot and
flour barrels in the deep bomb-proof vaults, which are a feature of
fortresses in these parts. There was hardly any light, and there were
only three chairs, two of which he hastily assigned to us. I noticed
that a bed, with very fine but much-worn Spanish hangings, was being
erected in one corner; and I wondered if, as the next move, he would
not have the powder taken out and thrown into the sea. In which he
would have shown his wisdom, as the castle could not possibly have
made any resistance to our fleet, and it might have blown up if a
chance shot had found its way into the magazine.
Also, I wondered if Will was noticing all these comical details, and
looked at him. The icy contempt on his face showed that he had taken
the Governor's measure.
When we had been bowed into our seats, the Governor bowed again and
waited for Will to begin.
Generally the stronger waits for the weaker, but in this case the
explanation could only come from us. Will began by inquiring, could
his Excellency speak Italian? His Excellency, for a wonder, knew what
was nominally his native language. Will came to the point at once. He
presented the Royal despatch, written in the name of His Majesty, and
signed by the Captain-General, the Chevalier Acton, enjoining the
Governor in the most pressing manner to welcome and admit the English
squadron, going beyond what is usual, and mentioning many novel and
unexpected possibilities by reason of His Majesty's good-will and
friendship towards the English nation.
Would his Excellency, then, give the proper orders for the fleet of
his High and Mighty Majesty, the King of Great Britain and Ireland, to
be supplied at a proper price with such water and other stores as it
might need?
His Excellency's face fell. Then, noticing Will's youth, he began a
long and specious apology. His High and Mighty Majesty, the King of
Great Britain and Ireland, was, he admitted, a very good friend of his
August Majesty the King of the Two Sicilies; but in order to prevent a
French fleet being quartered upon him, his August Majesty the King of
the Two Sicilies had been compelled to enter into a compact not to
admit more than three or four ships of any nation into any of his
ports at one time. At the same time the French declared that they
would treat it as an act of war if any nation at war with them
(meaning, of course, us) was allowed to take in supplies in his August
Majesty's ports. He would therefore be unable to accede to the
request, much as he desired to do anything for the great Admiral
Nelson, the good friend of his country. Would the Illustrissimo
Vice-Admiral convey to the Admiral his most profound and heartfelt
apologies for not being able to comply? For himself, he must again say
that, if only he were able, it would give him the deepest
gratification, and so on and so on.
There was a look of unmitigated scorn on Will's fine face. He did not
believe one word that the Don was saying, and waited with diplomatic
impatience, formally restrained but clearly hinted, until the Governor
had finished; when he replied in cold, calm tones that the Governor
had here orders from his Sovereign, countersigned by the Chevalier
Acton, superseding all general orders, and directing him to act as
Admiral Nelson might wish. The Governor stoutly maintained that the
despatch gave no instructions about the admission of the entire
squadron; whereas we, through the good Lady Hamilton, by whose
influence they had been procured for us, knew positively that this was
intended. And here, perhaps, Will's diplomacy failed him, for he had
such a contempt for the whole nation, that he could not but consider
the possibility of further secret orders having been issued that the
Royal despatch, overriding the general policy of the country, should
itself be ignored. He did not know then--in fact none of us, from the
Admiral downward, did know--how completely Ferdinand gave over
politics to his imperious spouse in order to be allowed to devote
himself to the pleasures of the chase, the pleasures of the table, and
intrigues of a non-political kind.
In brief, the Governor refused to allow us to take in water or stores
of any kind until we withdrew our squadron.
"Then," said Will, looking positively majestic as he felt himself the
mouthpiece of his country, "I have the honour to present your
Excellency with the schedule of the Admiral's requirements." This with
a deep bow. And, with another deep bow, "I have the honour to inform
your Excellency that if permission for their supply is not sent on
board within twelve hours, the Admiral is prepared to enforce his
requirements with the guns of his ships. I have the honour to wish
your Excellency," this with a still deeper bow, "a very good morning."
"Stay! stay! not so fast, Illustrissimo. Would you graciously write
down this cartel, so that I may make no mistake? Ah, you have been
reading it!" he said, catching sight of a second scroll.
"I am afraid this will not do. It is in English--the Admiral's note of
the words I should use for the manifesto."
"And you assure me that what you have said is the exact translation
of this?"
"Put into the roundabout and compliment-paying phrases which your
language demands--yes."
"Then it is quite sufficient, Illustrissimo. Tell your terrible
Admiral that he will not have to fire his guns into us; that I shall
be rejoiced from the bottom of my heart to supply him with whatever he
requires, water, provisions, powder even, at the most reasonable
prices. With this piece of paper in my hands, I have only yielded to
force. His August Majesty will not declare war upon his High and
Mighty Majesty for this breach of the peace."
But he added to himself, as we learned from the ladies of his party on
the next evening, that he did not feel so certain that France would
not regard it as an act of war.
This whole affair of Syracuse has not even yet been cleared up, and it
must be remembered that I am writing a good many years after the
event. To this day the Admiralty is in the dark as to whether the
Governor did receive secret orders, overriding the Royal despatch, and
supposing he did, if it formed part of those orders that he was to
yield, but only to yield to a pretence of force. One thing is quite
certain--that, as soon as force was mentioned, he showed the greatest
good-will; and the Admiral wrote in two separate letters to Sir
William and Lady Hamilton, both written the day before he left: "I
have no complaint to make of private attention. Every body of persons
have been on board to offer me civilities." And in the other letter:
"My dear friends, thanks to your exertions we have victualled and
watered; and surely, watering at the fountain of Arethusa, we must
have victory. We shall sail with the first breeze; and, be assured, I
will return either crowned with laurel or covered with cypress."
A day or two afterwards the breeze did come in the afternoon, as it
always does at Syracuse. In the morning the Admiral wrote:
"The fleet is unmoored, and the moment the wind comes off the land, we
shall go out of the delightful harbour, where our present wants have
been most amply supplied, and where every attention had been paid to
us."
But I am anticipating. The Governor was as good as his word, and we
were soon in the thick of taking in stores and water; and as there was
no hope of going out in less than two days at the earliest, the
inhabitants began to organise a round of hospitalities.
The very next evening, the Governor, who had recovered so far from his
fright of our cannon as to have his state bed moved back from the
subterranean magazine of the castle, gave a ball in our honour at his
palace. The Admiral had in the afternoon paid him a state visit,
accompanied by his staff.
To the English it might sound a formidable undertaking to ask the
officers of a whole fleet to a ball at a few hours' notice, but in
Sicily it is very different. The palaces of the nobles were built,
many of them, in the Middle Ages, when it was necessary to house the
retainers, who were, in fact, the nobleman's army, within the walls of
his town palace when he happened to be there, as much as it was
necessary to house them within the walls of his castle when he was in
the country on his estates. When the custom of each noble maintaining
a private army died out, their palaces were naturally a great deal
larger than they required for their diminished establishments, and
each palace could afford to have noble suites of entertaining rooms
not used at ordinary times, but ready, with a little taking off of
covers, for any _fêtes_, like a ball at carnival time. As most nobles
grew their own wine, they had an unlimited supply maturing in their
cellars, and fruit in Sicily is as a drug in the market. There
remained nothing, therefore, but for the ladies to bring out their
gala dresses from their chests, and to summon all the banquet-cooks in
Syracuse to the Governor's kitchen.
I must say that we were received with very great ceremony, for though
they were of an old-fashioned style and sadly needed freshening up, a
plentiful supply of private coaches met us at the landing steps, and
drove us along the Marina, and up through the sea-gate to the
Governor's palace, which was situated in the main street near the
centre of the town. It was quite light when we drove in through the
lofty gateway, under the great Spanish balcony of heavy ironwork
bulging out like the bows of a first-rate, and ornamented at the ends
with splendid hammered-iron roses. Once through the gateway we found
ourselves in a courtyard, round which the palace was built. At the far
end was a wide sweeping stone outside-stairway, with a heavy stone
parapet, which went almost round two sides of the court. On the post
at the bottom end of the parapet was seated a queer lion, carved out
of the post itself at some time during the Middle Ages. This stairway,
and the terrace which led from it into the principal apartments, were
strewn with rich carpets of very ancient date, but more out of repair
than any gentleman would use in England. The rooms inside, too,
reminded me more of an English nobleman's seat which was never used by
its owner, but maintained in its ancient condition as a show place;
for the silk hangings of the walls were broken or threadbare in
places, and the carpets, likewise ancient, were in the like state. And
though chandeliers of rock-crystal hung in all the state rooms, and we
saw fine old cabinets here and there, there did not seem to be a good
new piece in the whole establishment, and the servants, whose name was
legion, were as dilapidated as the hangings.
The dresses of the ladies, too, were not such as we saw at Palermo,
when the King and Queen were holding their Court there after the
flight from Naples; but, while made of most valuable brocades, they
had the appearance of being used for a lifetime on the rare occasions
on which they were required. The ball consisted largely of eating the
fine fruits and drinking the good Sicilian wines, both of which were
very welcome in a Sicilian July, after a long spell at sea. For but
few of the English officers and the Sicilian ladies were able to dance
sufficiently well together, and it seemed not to be etiquette for the
Sicilian gentlemen to be dancing while any English officers were
without partners.
The few officers who spoke the language of the country conversed with
the younger ladies, who never moved from the sides of their mothers,
except to dance; and as the music was of the poorest order, the
proceedings were sufficiently doleful. But I must say that Will, as I
afterwards found was his invariable fortune, fell upon his feet.
He was attending the Admiral, who was, of course, conversing with the
Governor, who even in the midst of the festivities would from time to
time try and extract a promise from the Admiral to withdraw his ships.
The conversation was through the interpretations of Will and the
chaplain; and by the Governor was standing a young girl attended by a
brother in place of a mother. I may say at once that she was of
extraordinary beauty: somewhat tall and slender, distinguished to an
unusual degree by the singular grace of figure and carriage
characteristic of young Sicilian women. Her hair, which waved
beautifully, was dusky rather than dark; and a dusky complexion,
almost transparent in its purity, was thrown up by the wonderful
Sicilian eyes, which are not brown, but of a very dark grey, looking
blue in some lights and black in others; while the note of delicate
refinement suggested by the slight, beautifully carried figure, was
maintained by the delicacy of the thin nose of classical straightness,
and the thin mouth.
Thin mouths are ordinarily taken to be typical of cruelty, but this by
no means exhausts the category. There is another kind of thin lips
typical of sensibility, and yet another typical of passion, to some
degree of animal passion, but more of an intense ardour of devotion.
Donna Rusidda's lips had both these last two elements in them.
Devotion and extreme sensibility mingled curiously with the archness
of her face.
Donna Rosalia[1] (or Rusidda) di Mardolce and her brother Don
Ruggiero, who was the Prince of Favara, were Palermitans. They lived
in the old half-Arabic palace of the Favara, which was the great
Emperor Frederick II.'s favourite summer residence, and which had come
down to them through many generations. But they were connected with
Syracuse through their mother, who belonged to the ancient family of
the Mont' alti. The palace of the Mont' alti, which we saw the next
day, must, when it was built, four hundred years ago, have been one of
the most beautiful in Syracuse. The Gothic windows, rather in the
Venetian style, of its upper storey have an Arabic delicacy and
airiness. But in our day quite a mean street had grown up about it,
and the last of the Mont' alti, the widower uncle with whom the young
Prince and his sister were staying, lived in a mere corner of his
palace, only able to maintain his rusty equipages by practising the
strictest economy in every other way. People prophesied that these,
too, would go soon, and the last of the Mont' alti of Milocca, the
proudest barons of Syracuse in the Middle Ages, seek death by his own
hand, when he could no longer afford the last poor appurtenances of
his rank.
[1] Rosalia is pronounced Rōsă-lēă. Rusidda is a pet abbreviation
of it.
However, I shall have little more to say of him: he only comes into
my chronicle because "Rusidda Favara," as she was generally called,
was staying under his roof when she and Will met.
How far Will admired her I could not tell. There were only certain
moods which were easily reflected in his face, such as anger and
scorn. He had more than the ordinary English resolution to conceal his
gentler moods. Except when he was annoyed, his hard, handsome face was
almost inscrutable. He certainly talked to her and her brother a good
deal; they had been at the Neapolitan Court much in their richer days,
and spoke Italian fluently. During the conversation she seems to have
told Will about the windows of her room, the beautiful Arab-Gothic
windows which I was mentioning--a conversation which was shortly to
show my young sir in a new light. The function did not last late;
indeed, it dragged along somewhat too mournfully for that, and we
rowed back to our respective ships.
I had not been asleep a great while--I cannot say for certain how
long--when I heard my door open, and some one came in with a subdued
"H'sh!"
I recognised Will.
"Tubby," he whispered, coming up to my bunk, "will you come with me?"
I would have gone with Will to the devil, so I made no conditions, but
rose and began to put my things on. I only whispered one
word--"Ashore?" I felt certain that it was so, because there was
nothing else to rise for in this secret fashion, except a practical
jest, and Will was the last man in the world to play a practical jest
on a brother officer. His aloofness was their principal complaint
against him, and but for his fierce temper and remarkable courage he
might have been thought young-ladyish, so unlike was he to the
ordinary roystering young naval officer of that piping time.
I did not even ask how we were to get ashore, I concluded that Will
had seen to that; and I knew that our getting away depended on our not
being overheard, so kept silence. Will crept stealthily, I following,
to the starboard shrouds of the mizzen. Then he slipped over the side
into the mizzen chains, whispering as he went, "Stop in the chains."
He had, I observed, a coil of rope with him. Nothing happened for a
little while. I supposed that there was some boat that he was looking
for, and kept as still as a mouse. Apparently he saw nothing, but
presently he took a piece of phosphorus out of his pocket and rubbed
the sole of his foot. So he told me afterwards, for I only saw a bit
of something shining. He chose this part because if the watch came
along and peeped over he had only to set his foot down. Directly
afterwards I heard a low, muffled sound, and a boat slid almost
noiselessly beneath us. Will made fast one end of his rope to the
shrouds, and knotted a loop in the rope at a distance as far as he
could judge of about five feet from the water, whispering to me to
follow if he made a certain signal. The loop was, of course, to enable
him to stop if the boat was not all right. We both had our shoes hung
round our necks so that we could walk the more silently. I found
myself in the high-peaked bow of one of the little boats which all
Italians call a _barca_. The boatmen pulled us to the landing steps
very quickly and very quietly. There was a sentry there, but
fortunately he was one of the guard who had escorted us to the
Governor in the morning. He challenged, Will said something to him,
and the man recognised him as the "Vice-Admiral" who had arrived in
the Admiral's barge in the morning. And as his countrymen seldom did
important business without some passing of secret messages, he took it
that Will bore some such secret communication between the Admiral and
the Governor.
The boatman, I observed by the light of the sentry's wretched lamp--a
little flat earthenware vessel with a hole in the top, through which
some strands of cotton found their way into the oil--had left his
_barca_ and was accompanying us, carrying a mysterious bundle.
We had, of course, put on our shoes in the boat. The man led the way.
As soon as we were out of sight of the sentry Will followed close at
his heels, and I, who had not the smallest knowledge of what we were
to do, unless it were to have a knife put into us in this
evil-looking, cut-throat city, kept close to Will, you may be sure.
First he led us to a place where we had to climb the city wall, which
was not kept too well mended or guarded, on the side towards the Great
Harbour. The man went first and drew his bundle up after him by a line
which he seemed to have brought for the purpose. We followed, and then
went through a very network of narrow, black, winding streets, with
great doors every few yards, out of every one of which I expected some
one to spring upon us, not very much caring, because after all, I
remembered that it was my profession to be killed. At last we crossed
a big, open space, and, taking one or two turns more through narrow
lanes, came to a great house standing up gaunt and black against the
sky, which was clear and starlit, though there was no moon.
As we went along, having no longer any necessity for silence, Will had
unfolded his intention to me, and it fairly took away my breath.
Indeed, I did not believe that he would put it into execution. But
when he came to the great house which was our destination, taking the
bundle from the boatman, he unwrapped a stringed instrument, a sort of
lute or zither it seemed to me. I waited to see him assemble the
passers-by. In Sicily people seem hardly to go to bed all night in the
summer. And even more I expected the fortress-like gates of the palace
to open and some one to rush out. But nothing of the kind happened.
The passers-by smiled, and the gates of the palace remained as sealed
as if they never would open until the day of judgment.
Will had, in the meantime, struck up a tinkly little tune--he was
evidently familiar with the instrument--with some Italian words which
I did not understand, but took to be a serenade. He had a fair voice
and played well enough. After a while I let go of the handle of my
dirk which I had brought with me and gripped ready to strike. Will
went on singing.
As my eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, I made out that the palace
under which we stood had the beautiful moresco windows high up on its
front which identified it as the palace of the Mont' alti, concerning
which Will had told me--the palace where Donna Rusidda was visiting
with her uncle.
Will sang on, and presently the shutter of one of these windows was
opened just a chink, and a ray of light stabbed the darkness.
Will sang on, and the opening widened gradually, revealing first a
hand and then the graceful head of Donna Rusidda; and finally she
flung the shutters right back and stood in full view at the window,
inclining graciously. Will sang one or two more songs, and then,
making a very fine salute, and bowing, put his lute or zither under
his arm and joined me where I was standing in the shadow. The zither
was duly wrapped up again by the light of a flickering oil lamp which
hung under a much venerated image of the Virgin and Child let into the
wall of the Piazza, the open space which I have mentioned as being
close to the palace. The boatman then led the way back to his _barca_,
and rowed us swiftly and silently out to the flagship, under the
starboard mizzen chains, where we found our rope still hanging. We
then took our shoes off and tied them together and hung them round our
necks, and Will made the boatman a liberal present, which I dare
swear took a month's money from his pocket.
Creeping very cautiously, we reached our bunks without detection, and
I turned round and went to sleep, thinking that Master Will had had
monstrous little play for his money.