Coming to where the road into the city and the road to the ruins
divided, at a spot where a few almost-buried columns marked the site
of the ancient market-place--the Agora is the Greek term, I
believe--the Prince of Favara and his sister made their excuses and
bade their servants drive home to the Mont' alti palace; and here they
waited till sunset, within their palace, in the best poor state that
the Marchese's reduced circumstances permitted.
Not having received the expected communication--either while Will was
in his company on the Anapo, nor in the hours which elapsed in the
interval--at sunset, the Prince, with two gentlemen of his
acquaintance, rowed out in a private _barca_ to the _Vanguard_, there
to demand to see Will. Now Will, as it chanced, was the officer on
watch, so they found their man easily.
"You will understand why I have come," said the Prince, adding a great
many roundabout and studiedly ceremonious phrases.
"Not I," said Will, with equally studied carelessness, having noticed
something in the Prince's manner.
I was present, and had some inkling that a storm was brewing; though
otherwise I knew nothing of what it was about, until I had it from
Will afterwards.
"Last night you did my sister, the Princess of Favara, the honour of
paying her your addresses in the recognised Sicilian fashion of
appealing to the lady herself in the first instance, to know if your
attentions would be acceptable. I may tell you that the ladies of a
house like ours, if our possessions are diminished, do not make their
decision in so brief a period--though this is nothing unusual for
people of no family. But though courtships in Sicily are not of long
duration, as far as the lady's decision to accept or reject the
addresses is concerned, the accepted suitor goes immediately to the
father or guardian, states that he has the lady's consent, gives an
account of his position and property, and, if everything is
satisfactory, arrangements are then made. You have not done this. As
you did my sister the honour of offering her your attentions, and as
she did you the honour of accepting them, I have come here to know why
you have not called upon me."
As Will maintained an air of indifference and silence, the Prince went
on to say: "I should have mentioned that there are two circumstances
which made my sister accept the suit of a stranger upon so brief an
acquaintance. She was aware that your ship will sail as soon as the
wind springs up, and it was in defiance of the prophecy that the last
of our house will come to an evil end by reason of love for a
fair-haired stranger from the north. It is the motto of our family
that we fear neither man nor fate, and it has been our pride to live
up to our motto. It seemed to both my sister and myself that you were
the man indicated by the prophecy, and it was our duty to defy it.
When you came below her window last night, she consulted me as to
whether you were the man indicated, and as it seemed to us both that
you were, she accepted you."
"But, my good sir," said Will, speaking very rapidly in his excellent
Italian, "I am already engaged to another lady in England. I only
understood that serenading was the custom of the country. I was not in
the least aware that it constituted an offer of marriage, which I was
not in a position to make. However, though I cannot marry your sister,
I am perfectly willing to offer you the satisfaction which a gentleman
expects; and at four bells--that is, at eight o'clock--till when it is
my watch, I shall be at your service. I must trust to you to find a
place where we shall not be disturbed."
"The Latomia dei Cappucini beside the ancient wheel-well will do
excellently, and a carriage shall be waiting at the landing-stage to
convey yourself and your seconds at eight o'clock. Will you give me
the names of two of your brother officers who may confer with my
seconds after you have decided your choice of weapons. It is your
choice. I am the challenger, although you anticipated me in expressing
your readiness to give me satisfaction."
"The sword is the only weapon for gentlemen," says Will, as fine as
you please; though he was but eighteen years old and young in the art
of fence, while his adversary, being a Sicilian gentleman and nearer
thirty, was like to be an expert swordsman. And then, though they had
been so mighty civil to each other as to who was the challenger, I
heard the Prince whisper to Will as I went down to the ward-room to
see who would act for Will--for, mind you, there was not one of them
that liked him--I heard him whisper, "_A l'outrance_," and Will
replied, with the most contemptuous indifference, "If you wish it."
Now Will, being the officer on duty, had no time to waste in talking
on what I have just writ down, though he must perforce attend to the
Sicilian Prince who was come on board about a matter so serious. All
he said to me was--"Tell them I am going to fight this Italian at
eight o'clock, and ask if any of them will act for me. There is not
one of them upon whom I have any personal claim."
It was with some trepidation that I knocked at the door of the
ward-room. I knew that most of them were not on terms with him, and
had a sinking feeling at my heart that I should have to go back and
confess that he had not a friend to serve him in this pinch, in which
case the matter would have to remain until the Captain came on board
and told off two officers to do it. But when I went in and told my
errand, every officer in the room got up and laid his sword on the
table. So it fell, of course, to the two seniors present, one of whom
was the First Lieutenant, Mr. Galwey; and they spoke in the highest
terms of Will; and all present then went on deck.
When the two chosen to act as Will's seconds went forward to meet the
Prince's seconds, a most curious thing happened, for, the chaplain
being ashore with the Admiral, there was not a man on board save Will
who could speak their lingo. So here we had the strange spectacle of
the principal in a duel acting as the interpreter between his own and
his adversary's seconds.
And, the matter being settled in this fashion, the Prince and his
seconds went presently ashore. As soon as he was off watch, Will and
his seconds followed, and Will wrote in the boat a line to his mother
in the very probable event of his death, though I had no fear but that
he would give a good account of himself. Will's seconds had asked that
I should be allowed to accompany him as being his nearest friend; and
it was granted willingly.
We did not go through the town when we landed, but skirted along the
sea front to where the road from the drawbridge conducts to the ruins
of ancient Syracuse; and no sooner were we on the mainland, than we
turned up to the right and drove for about a mile till we came to the
Capuchin nunnery which stands on the brink of one of the most
remarkable monuments in the world, the vast Latomia or quarry in which
the unfortunate Athenians, captured at the siege of Syracuse, were
confined. The singularity of the Latomia is that the quarries cut into
enormous natural caverns, which had existed, probably unknown, beneath
a thin shell of stone and earth. They went on quarrying until all the
roof of the cavern had been cut away and its sides were as
perpendicular as cliffs down to a few feet from the bottom, where
fresh caverns, and shallower in depth, begin and stretch away into the
bowels of the earth. This Latomia, so vividly described by Thucydides,
as Mr. Comyn afterwards told us, seemed about a mile in length,
varying in breadth from a few yards to a hundred yards, and was, in
depth, of perhaps a hundred feet. It was largely covered with
undergrowth, though there were some fine orange and lemon groves,
valued, I was told, because, being somewhat sheltered from the sun,
they came on when other crops were over. In the centre of one of these
lemon groves, near the antique well, was an open glade and a lawn,
used I do not know for what purpose. And here the duel was to take
place.
No sooner had the fight begun than my worst fears were realised, for I
saw by the Prince's pose and the first few passes, that he was a
practised swordsman. But he was fighting with a demon rather than with
a man. I never saw a human being with such a fighting fury as Will,
who sprang at him like a leopard. I do not see, however, how this
should have prevailed, with Will's ignorance of fence, had not the
mossy ground on which the Prince was standing proved rotten, as mossy
ground will at times, the surface rubbing off and leaving a slippery
mud. The Prince's foot slipped, and Will struck his sword out of his
hand. The Prince called out to him to despatch him; but Will said,
with his air, "My honour is satisfied--I am not one to kill a fallen
man."
The Prince protested that he should send fresh seconds the next
morning, when the seconds on both sides decided that the duel could
not proceed. And so the matter was left.
You can imagine what shakings of the hand we gave Will as we took him
back to the landing-place for having defended in such a way the honour
of the ship; and I believe that our two lieutenants were settled in
their own minds that there should be no second duel, considering the
handsome way in which Will had given the Prince his life, though, with
one of Will's temper, it was not easy to see how the duel was to be
prevented, if the Prince sent fresh seconds, save by the authority of
the Captain, who could confine him to the ship, or the Admiral.
Considering that Will was one of the Admiral's staff, the First
Lieutenant, his senior second, concluded to lay the whole matter
before the Admiral when he came on board. And he came on board very
soon afterwards in the highest of spirits, for he always loved a good
day ashore as well as any A.B. in his fleet.
"God bless my soul!" cried the Admiral, when he had heard the First
Lieutenant's story, which, of course, was told in whispers that I did
not overhear, "I'll go and see the young man--His Highness, I suppose
I ought to call him--myself. I can't afford to delay the fleet if a
breeze springs up to let us get at the French, and I hope that none of
my officers will ever shirk a situation."
The barge was still at the gangway, the Lieutenant had hailed them to
await orders, and the Admiral prepared to descend.
"Have you supped, sir?" asked the Lieutenant; and the Admiral without
pausing replied, "I shall have a better appetite if I wait till this
matter is finished."
When he landed a few minutes afterwards, he hired a coach--there are
always two or three hackneys at the landing-place with such a large
fleet in port--and bade the man drive to the Prince of Favara's. The
Prince was well known in Syracuse, though he had no palace of his own
there, but was visiting with his uncle; and the man drove the Admiral
without delay to the Palazzo Mont' alti.
The Admiral, who had taken the chaplain with him as interpreter, in
the enforced absence of Will, asked if the Prince were in; and the
porter replied in the affirmative, not knowing that the Prince, who
had entered the palace with his seconds immediately after the duel,
had left by the garden door and gone to sup in a favourite tavern near
the Marina. Three or four servants passed the English officers from
the great gate across the courtyard, up the staircase which wound
round it, terminating in an arcade, and through a succession of fine
chambers into the principal salon, which had a large mirror at each
end with a kind of sofa arranged under it, facing about a dozen chairs
arranged in a horseshoe. Along the sides of the room were more couches
interrupted by mirrors with wide marble shelves in front of them,
supported by gilded lions' legs. Lustres hung on each side of the
mirrors, and they supported tall Chinese vases on French stands of
gilded bronze. The floor was tiled and covered with patterns, a good
many tiles going to form each pattern, and there was a small carpet at
each end of the room where the chairs were arranged. The Admiral
commented on all these to his chaplain, for there was a goodish delay.
In fact, they were so busy taking in the details in order to pass the
time, that it was only when they heard the light tapping of a woman's
heels on the tiles close beside them, that they perceived that some
one had entered the room.
The Admiral, as his wont was even over trifles, had been full of
animation when he was speaking, which changed to an air of grave
respectfulness when he perceived that it was Donna Rusidda herself who
had entered. She was alone, out of compliment to the Admiral, or
because she did not wish the ancient lady, whom she maintained as a
kind of duenna, to hear what passed between them. The Admiral had
brought me with him, saying, "You keep the conscience of our young
scapegrace, Trinder: you had best come along and answer for him."
Donna Rusidda naturally did not know the whole of the affair, though
she had had it from her maid already that a duel had been fought on
her account, which had been terminated by the disarmament of her
brother, who had announced his intention of finding fresh seconds to
renew it on the following day, as his late seconds would not consent
to its being proceeded with. It was, indeed, for this purpose that he
had gone to the albergo by the Marina, where, that being a resort of
the young bloods, he was likely to meet with friends to accommodate
him.
I thought I had never seen any one look more lovely than this girl,
whose clear dusky cheeks were flushed till the blood showed rosily
through them with the treble excitement. For she had come alone into
the presence of strangers, and the strangers were so famous, and come
upon a mission which concerned her so closely. And though the Admiral
had not then won the victory with which he was shortly to astonish the
world, the connection between the noble families of the Two Sicilies
and Spain was very strong, their kings being of the same family; and
his achievements of taking the two Spanish three-deckers one after the
other, with a handful of boarders from his seventy-four, was fresh in
their memories. It was this little one-armed man, with the sensitive
mouth, who had led the boarders in that heroic fight at St. Vincent.
She was glad she had come in without his noticing her and seen his
animation as he was discussing the unfamiliar aspects of the Mont'
alti salon with his chaplain. She had seen his natural energy instead
of the quiet air of dignity and respect which he put on for her. She
had come, she explained, to tell them that her brother was out; she
had despatched a messenger for him, and begged that they would remain
and give her the honour of receiving them until her brother arrived.
"Meanwhile, might she offer them some slight refreshment?" Servants
were entering with fruit and wine and cakes. The Admiral begged her to
excuse them. He had come like the Roman Senator of old, who went to
Carthage with peace and war in his robe, and he would not break bread
in the house of the Mont' alti until he knew whether he should leave
them as a friend or an enemy. In fact, now that one of the squadron
that he was engaging, to use his metaphor, was in range, he was
nothing but a commander. The Admiral, as is well known, was never held
to be indifferent to the charm of women; and the slender girl, with
her dark beauty thrown up by the white and pearls of her evening
attire, was remarkable even among Italian women in their heyday for
her exquisite grace. She had, too, the kind of face which might be
called, with equal truth, haunting and haunted,--it haunts my memory
still,--and she had in her eyes, or perhaps it was in her expression,
the look of one born to be the victim of a great misfortune.
The Admiral received her with dignity as well as profound respect, and
as the interview proceeded without either side caring to commit itself
until the Prince of Favara arrived, this dignity settled into an air
of dignified resolution. He looked as I have seen him look when he was
going into action, before he had quite settled some detail in the
attack. When all was plain fighting, he smiled. As the small, slender
figure, braced with the air of a commander's expectancy, stood before
her, she had some opportunity of knowing what manner of man this
Nelson was, when he was about to hurl a fleet of England on a fleet of
France.
I can see it all before me, as distinctly as on the night of that 21st
of July, '98: the world's great Admiral, that was to be, in his
attitude of "prepare for action," and the enemy represented by that
gentle, half-terrified, half-mystified Southern beauty, with the
background of the high, vaulted, half-furnished chamber in the
mediæval Sicilian palace. It was now quite dusk, and the candles in
the sconces on each side of the mirrors gave only a half light. There
were no candles in the vast crystal chandelier which hung from the
ceiling.
Presently we heard footsteps through the suite of reception-rooms
leading to the salon, and the Prince of Favara entered with his uncle
the Marchese, and two other Sicilian gentlemen. The Marchese had, it
appeared, gone out with him to assist him in finding seconds. They did
not seem so astonished as might have been expected at the presence of
Donna Rusidda, for they had spoken with her duenna in the chamber
leading immediately into ours. But they had the look of men who had
come in full of some excitement, suddenly checked by an important
piece of news, and greeted the Admiral with marked civility.
It was clearly for him to speak, and he began with his usual courage
and directness. "I have come, your Highness, to express my regret that
an officer of my fleet should have been guilty of a practical jest
upon a lady; but I understand that he has already given you the
satisfaction of a gentleman."
"Your Excellency is mistaken," said the Prince: "I am not satisfied. I
have just arranged with these gentlemen, the Conte di Noto and the
Conte di Spaccaforno, to seek his seconds and arrange for the
completion of the duel _à l'outrance_."
"I understand that he has given you your life, your Highness, which is
sufficient satisfaction for any gentleman that I have met in a
profession which exists for the purpose of fighting."
"It may be sufficient by the English code, your Excellency," said the
Prince firmly, but quite courteously; "but according to the code of
our country such an insult can only be wiped out by the death of one
of the combatants. I shall insist on the meeting being resumed, or
brand Signor----"
"Hardres," said the Admiral.
"----as a coward who insulted a lady and then ran away in the great
fleet of England."
"It seems to me a strange kind of cowardice for a boy of eighteen,
just studying the art of fence, to meet a man of thirty, and an
accomplished swordsman, and when he has--partly by accident, I will
allow--disarmed his adversary, to suffer him to depart untouched,
especially when he knows that that adversary had it in his heart to
kill him without mercy, and indeed protested that a new duel must be
fought."
But the Prince only replied, "I shall brand him as a coward."
"I think, your Highness," said the Admiral, with a wicked look upon
his face, such as I think I never saw again in all the years that I
had the honour of serving under him, "that you will need all the
courage you have to-morrow morning, when the duello is resumed. You
will take it up exactly where it ceased. You were lying on your back,
I believe, with your sword a dozen yards away in a garlic bed or
something of the kind, and Lieutenant Hardres was standing over you,
sword in hand. No interference will be tolerated by the guard, which I
shall land to see fair play, and the guns of the ships will be trained
on Syracuse."
The Prince's face did blench as the chaplain translated the words
delivered by the Admiral in a voice that was like a volley of grape
shot; and after a few minutes' conference with the Marchese, he
replied courteously, but with a quiet ring of sarcasm:--
"If you will allow me, your Excellency, I will go with you when you
return to your ship, and have my throat cut by Signor Hardres at
once. The solution you pronounce is, I see, the correct one.
Unfortunately I had no precedent to go upon. A Sicilian, in Signor
Hardres's place, would have killed me, as I would have killed him. I
am at your service whenever you are ready to go."
The Admiral's face cleared of wrath like the sky after a thunderstorm:
he was ever the most generous of men, but he had a look of
mystification when Donna Rusidda, who had been present all the while,
but had taken no part in the proceedings till this moment, said:
"Uncle Marchese, you have lived many years, and are referred to by
every one on matters of manners and breeding." He bowed. "What happens
when a lady, having begun by accepting the suit of a cavalier, sees
something to make her change her mind and desire to be relieved of the
suit?"
"Such a thing was never done in my time, Donna niece, by a lady of a
family like ours, but tradition is clear upon the point: the quarrel
then belongs to the rejected suitor, who would have the right to ask a
gentleman's satisfaction from the kinsman to whom it fell to represent
her. But he would also have the right to be indifferent."
"If, then, I say, and I swear by my patron, Santa Rosalia, that it is
true, that I am no longer willing to receive the suit of Signor
Hardres, the quarrel is, as you say, his, and it will be for him to
demand the fresh duello, not for the Prince, my brother."
"It is so," said the Marchese.
"Then, Signor Admiral," said the girl, with a most beautiful
expression on her face--which I, not knowing the Sicilians so well as
I did afterwards, imagined to express a woman's holy joy in
peace-making--"will you have it conveyed to Signor Hardres that I wish
to withdraw my acceptance of his suit, and that the quarrel is now his
own."
"I can answer for it that your brother will hear no more from him,
madam," replied the Admiral, stooping very low to kiss her hand--for
he, too, used the same interpretation as I. "And then, your
Excellency," he said, bowing to the Marchese, "and your Highness,"
bowing to the Prince, "as I have full power to represent Lieutenant
Hardres, we may regard this incident as at an end. And now, madam," he
added, looking at Donna Rusidda straight in the face with his most
gracious smile, "I shall, if you invite me again, partake of this
excellent entertainment, for I have not yet supped."
The invitation was, of course, graciously repeated; and I was glad to
see that the Prince had some of his sister's graciousness, for he took
one of the trays--the servants had been sent from the room--and
brought it, saying, "Hungry work, your Excellency!" And the smile with
which he said this, and the smile with which the Admiral received it,
laid the foundation of the friendship which, until its tragical
termination, played so conspicuous a part in the Admiral's life.