Acting upon my resolve, I went to wait for Cavalcanti in the little
anteroom that communicated with his bedroom. My patience was tried, for
he was singularly late in coming; fully an hour passed after all
the sounds had died down in the castle and it was known that all had
retired, and still there was no sign of him.
I asked one of the pages who lounged there waiting for their master, did
he think my lord would be in the library, and the boy was conjecturing
upon this unusual tardiness of Cavalcanti's in seeking his bed, when the
door opened, and at last he appeared.
When he found me awaiting him, a certain eagerness seemed to light
his face; a second's glance showed me that he was in the grip of some
unusual agitation. He was pale, with a dull flush under the eyes, and
the hand with which he waved away the pages shook, as did his voice when
he bade them depart, saying that he desired to be alone with me awhile.
When the two slim lads had gone, he let himself fall wearily into a
tall, carved chair that was placed near an ebony table with silver feet
in the middle of the room.
But instead of unburdening himself as I fully expected, he looked at me,
and--
“What is it, Agostino?” he inquired.
“I have thought,” I answered after a moment's hesitation, “of a means by
which this unwelcome visit of Farnese's might be brought to an end.”
And with that I told him as delicately as was possible that I believed
Madonna Bianca to be the lodestone that held him there, and that were
she removed from his detestable attentions, Pagliano would cease to
amuse him and he would go his ways.
There was no outburst such as I had almost looked for at the mere
suggestion contained in my faltering words. He looked at me gravely and
sadly out of that stern face of his.
“I would you had given me this advice two weeks ago,” he said. “But who
was to have guessed that this pope's bastard would have so prolonged his
visit? For the rest, however, you are mistaken, Agostino. It is not he
who has dared to raise his eyes as you suppose to Bianca. Were such the
case, I should have killed him with my hands were he twenty times the
Duke of Parma. No, no. My Bianca is being honourably wooed by your
cousin Cosimo.”
I looked at him, amazed. It could not be. I remembered Giuliana's words.
Giuliana did not love me, and were it as he supposed she would have seen
no cause to intervene. Rather might she have taken a malicious pleasure
in witnessing my own discomfiture, in seeing the sweet maid to whom
I had raised my eyes, snatched away from me by my cousin who already
usurped so much that was my own.
“O, you must be mistaken,” I cried.
“Mistaken?” he echoed. He shook his head, smiling bitterly. “There is no
possibility of mistake. I am just come from an interview with the Duke
and his fine captain. Together they sought me out to ask my daughter's
hand for Cosimo d'Anguissola.”
“And you?” I cried, for this thrust aside my every doubt.
“And I declined the honour,” he answered sternly, rising in his
agitation. “I declined it in such terms as to leave them no doubt upon
the irrevocable quality of my determination; and then this pestilential
Duke had the effrontery to employ smiling menaces, to remind me that he
had the power to compel folk to bend the knee to his will, to remind
me that behind him he had the might of the Pontiff and even of the Holy
Office. And when I defied him with the answer that I was a feudatory of
the Emperor, he suggested that the Emperor himself must bow before the
Court of the Inquisition.”
“My God!” I cried in liveliest fear.
“An idle threat!” he answered contemptuously, and set himself to stride
the room, his hands clasped behind his broad back.
“What have I to do with the Holy Office?” he snorted. “But they had
worse indignities for me, Agostino. They mocked me with a reminder that
Giovanni d'Anguissola had been my firmest friend. They told me they knew
it to have been my intention that my daughter should become the Lady of
Mondolfo, and to cement the friendship by making one State of Pagliano,
Mondolfo and Carmina. And they added that by wedding her to Cosimo
d'Anguissola was the way to execute that plan, for Cosimo, Lord of
Mondolfo already, should receive Carmina as a wedding-gift from the
Duke.”
“Was such indeed your intention?” I asked scarce above a whisper,
overawed as men are when they perceive precisely what their folly and
wickedness have cost them.
He halted before me, and set one hand of his upon my shoulder, looking
up into my face. “It has been my fondest dream, Agostino,” he said.
I groaned. “It is a dream that never can be realized now,” said I
miserably.
“Never, indeed, if Cosimo d'Anguissola continues to be Lord of
Mondolfo,” he answered, his keen, friendly eyes considering me.
I reddened and paled under his glance.
“Nor otherwise,” said I. “For Monna Bianca holds me in the contempt
which I deserve. Better a thousand times that I should have remained
out of this world to which you caused me to return--unless, indeed, my
present torment is the expiation that is required of me unless, indeed,
I was but brought back that I might pay with suffering for all the evil
that I have wrought.”
He smiled a little. “Is it so with you? Why, then, you afflict yourself
too soon, boy. You are over-hasty to judge. I am her father, and my
little Bianca is a book in which I have studied deeply. I read her
better than do you, Agostino. But we will talk of this again.”
He turned away to resume his pacing in the very moment in which he had
fired me with such exalted hopes. “Meanwhile, there is this Farnese
dog with his parcel of minions and harlots making a sty of my house.
He threatens to remain until I come to what he terms a reasonable
mind--until I consent to do his will and allow my daughter to marry his
henchman; and he parted from me enjoining me to give the matter thought,
and impudently assuring me that in Cosimo d'Anguissola--in that guelphic
jackal--I had a husband worthy of Bianca de' Cavalcanti.”
He spoke it between his teeth, his eyes kindling angrily again.
“The remedy, my lord, is to send Bianca hence,” I said. “Let her seek
shelter in a convent until Messer Pier Luigi shall have taken his
departure. And if she is no longer here, Cosimo will have little
inclination to linger.”
He flung back his head, and there was defiance in every line of his
clear-cut face. “Never!” he snapped. “The thing could have been done two
weeks ago, when they first came. It would have seemed that the step was
determined before his coming, and that in my independence I would not
alter my plans. But to do it now were to show fear of him; and that is
not my way.
“Go, Agostino. Let me have the night to think. I know not how to act.
But we will talk again to-morrow.”
It was best so; best leave it to the night to bring counsel, for we were
face to face with grave issues which might need determining sword in
hand.
That I slept little will be readily conceived. I plagued my mind
with this matter of Cosimo's suit, thinking that I saw the ultimate
intent--to bring Pagliano under the ducal sway by rendering master of it
one who was devoted to Farnese.
And then, too, I would think of that other thing that Cavalcanti had
said: that I had been hasty in my judgment of his daughter's mind. My
hopes rose and tortured me with the suspense they held. Then came to me
the awful thought that here there might be a measure of retribution,
and that it might be intended as my punishment that Cosimo, whom I had
unconsciously bested in my sinful passion, should best me now in this
pure and holy love.
I was astir betimes, and out in the gardens before any, hoping, I think,
that Bianca, too, might seek the early morning peace of that place, and
that so we might have speech.
Instead, it was Giuliana who came to me. I had been pacing the terrace
some ten minutes, inhaling the matutinal fragrance, drawing my hands
through the cool dew that glistened upon the boxwood hedges, when I saw
her issue from the loggia that opened to the gardens.
Upon her coming I turned to go within, and I would have passed her
without a word, but that she put forth a hand to detain me.
“I was seeking you, Agostino,” she said in greeting.
“Having found me, Madonna, you will give me leave to go,” said I.
But she was resolutely barring my way. A slow smile parted her scarlet
lips and broke over that ivory countenance that once I had deemed so
lovely and now I loathed.
“I mind me another occasion in a garden betimes one morning when you
were in no such haste to shun me.”
I crimsoned under her insolent regard. “Have you the courage to
remember?” I exclaimed.
“Half the art of life is to harbour happy memories,” said she.
“Happy?” quoth I.
“Do you deny that we were happy on that morning?--it would be just about
this time of year, two years ago. And what a change in you since then!
Heigho! And yet men say that woman is inconstant!”
“I did not know you then,” I answered harshly.
“And do you know me now? Has womanhood no mysteries for you since you
gathered wisdom in the wilderness?”
I looked at her with detestation in my eyes. The effrontery, the ease
and insolence of her bearing, all confirmed my conviction of her utter
shamelessness and heartlessness.
“The day after... after your husband died,” I said, “I saw you in a dell
near Castel Guelfo with my Lord Gambara. In that hour I knew you.”
She bit her lip, then smiled again. “What would you?” answered she.
“Through your folly and crime I was become an outcast. I went in danger
of my life. You had basely deserted me. My Lord Gambara, more generous,
offered me shelter and protection. I was not born for martyrdom and
dungeons,” she added, and sighed with smiling plaintiveness. “Are you,
of all men, the one to blame me?”
“I have not the right, I know,” I answered. “Nor do I blame you more
than I blame myself. But since I blame myself most bitterly--since I
despise and hate myself for what is past, you may judge what my feelings
are for you. And judging them, I think it were well you gave me leave to
go.”
“I came to speak of other than ourselves, Ser Agostino,” she answered,
all unmoved still by my scorn, or leastways showing nothing of what
emotions might be hers. “It is of that simpering daughter of my Lord of
Pagliano.”
“There is nothing I could less desire to hear you talk upon,” said I.
“It is so very like a man to scorn the thing I could tell him after he
has already heard it from me.”
“The thing you told me was false,” said I. “It was begotten of fear
to see your own base interests thwarted. It is proven so by the
circumstance that the Duke has sought the hand of Madonna Bianca for
Cosimo d'Anguissola.”
“For Cosimo?” she cried, and I never saw her so serious and thoughtful.
“For Cosimo? You are sure of this?” The urgency of her tone was such
that it held me there and compelled my answer.
“I have it from my lord himself.”
She knit her brows, her eyes upon the ground; then slowly she raised
them, and looked at me again, the same unusual seriousness and alertness
in every line of her face.
“Why, by what dark ways does he burrow to his ends?” she mused.
And then her eyes grew lively, her expression cunning and vengeful. “I
see it!” she exclaimed. “O, it is as clear as crystal. This is the Roman
manner of using complaisant husbands.”
“Madonna!” I rebuked her angrily--angry to think that anyone should
conceive that Bianca could be so abused.
“Gesu!” she returned with a shrug. “The thing is plain enough if you
will but look at it. Here his excellency dares nothing, lest he should
provoke the resentment of that uncompromising Lord of Pagliano. But once
she is safely away--as Cosimo's wife...”
“Stop!” I cried, putting out a hand as if I would cover her mouth. Then
collecting myself. “Do you suggest that Cosimo could lend himself to so
infamous a compact?”
“Lend himself? That pander? You do not know your cousin. If you have any
interest in this Madonna Bianca you will get her hence without delay,
and see that Pier Luigi has no knowledge of the convent to which she is
consigned. He enjoys the privileges of a papal offspring, and there is
no sanctuary he will respect. So let the thing be done speedily and in
secret.”
I looked at her between doubt and horror.
“Why should you mistrust me?” she asked, answering my look. “I have been
frank with you. It is not you nor that white-faced ninny I would serve.
You may both go hang for me, though I loved you once, Agostino.” And the
sudden tenderness of tone and smile were infinitely mocking. “No, no,
beloved, if I meddle in this at all, it is because my own interests are
in peril.”
I shuddered at the cold, matter-of-fact tone in which she alluded to
such interests as those which she could have in Pier Luigi.
“Ay, shrink and cringe, sir saint,” she sneered. “Having cast me off
and taken up holiness, you have the right, of course.” And with that she
moved past me, and down the terrace-steps without ever turning her head
to look at me again. And that was the last I ever saw of her, as you
shall find, though little was it to have been supposed so then.
I stood hesitating, half minded to go after her and question her more
closely as to what she knew and what she did no more than surmise. But
then I reflected that it mattered little. What really mattered was that
her good advice should be acted upon without delay.
I went towards the house and in the loggia came face to face with
Cosimo.
“Still pursuing the old love,” he greeted me, smiling and jerking his
head in the direction of Giuliana. “We ever return to it in the end,
they say; yet you had best have a care. It is not well to cross my Lord
Pier Luigi in such matters; he can be a very jealous tyrant.”
I wondered was there some double meaning in the words. I made shift to
pass on, leaving his taunt unanswered, when suddenly he stepped up to me
and tapped my shoulder.
“One other thing, sweet cousin. You little deserve a warning at my
hands. Yet you shall have it. Make haste to shake the dust of Pagliano
from your feet. An evil is hanging over you here.”
I looked into his wickedly handsome face, and smiled coldly.
“It is a warning which in my turn I will give to you, you jackal,” said
I, and watched the expression of his countenance grow set and frozen,
the colour recede from it.
“What do you mean?” he growled, touched to suspicion of my knowledge by
the term I had employed. “What things has that trull dared to...”
I cut in. “I mean, sir, to warn you. Do not drive me to do more.”
We were quite alone. Behind us stretched the long, empty room, before us
the empty gardens. He was without weapons as was I. But my manner was
so fierce that he recoiled before me, in positive fear of my hands, I
think.
I swung on my heel and pursued my way.
I went above to seek Cavalcanti, and found him newly risen. Wrapped in
a gown of miniver, he received me with the news that having given the
matter thought, he had determined to sacrifice his pride and remove
Bianca not later than the morrow, as soon as he could arrange it. And to
arrange it he would ride forth at once.
I offered to go with him, and that offer he accepted, whereafter I
lounged in his antechamber waiting until he should be dressed, and
considering whether to impart to him the further information I had that
morning gleaned. In the end I decided not to do so, unable to bring
myself to tell him that so much turpitude might possibly be plotting
against Bianca. It was a statement that soiled her, so it seemed to me.
Indeed I could scarcely bear to think of it.
Presently he came forth full-dressed, booted, and armed, and we went
along the corridor and out upon the gallery. As side by side we were
descending the steps, we caught sight of a singular group in the
courtyard.
Six mounted men in black were drawn up there, and a little in the
foreground a seventh, in a corselet of blackened steel and with a steel
cap upon his head, stood by his horse in conversation with Farnese. In
attendance upon the Duke were Cosimo and some three of his gentlemen.
We halted upon the steps, and I felt Cavalcanti's hand suddenly tighten
upon my arm.
“What is it?” I asked innocently, entirely unalarmed. “These are
familiars of the Holy Office,” he answered me, his tone very grave. In
that moment the Duke, turning, espied us. He came towards the staircase
to meet us, and his face, too, was very solemn.
We went down, I filled by a strange uneasiness, which I am sure was
entirely shared by Cavalcanti.
“Evil tidings, my Lord of Pagliano,” said Farnese. “The Holy Office has
sent to arrest the person of Agostino d'Anguissola, for whom it has been
seeking for over a year.”
“For me?” I cried, stepping forward ahead of Cavalcanti. “What has the
Holy Office to do with me?”
The leading familiar advanced. “If you are Agostino d'Anguissola, there
is a charge of sacrilege against you, for which you are required to
answer before the courts of the Holy Office in Rome.”
“Sacrilege?” I echoed, entirely bewildered--for my first thought had
been that here might be something concerning the death of Fifanti,
and that the dread tribunal of the Inquisition dealing with the matter
secretly, there would be no disclosures to be feared by those who had
evoked its power.
The thought was, after all, a foolish one; for the death of Fifanti was
a matter that concerned the Ruota and the open courts, and those, as I
well knew, did not dare to move against me, on Messer Gambara's account.
“Of what sacrilege can I be guilty?” I asked.
“The tribunal will inform you,” replied the familiar--a tall, sallow,
elderly man.
“The tribunal will need, then, to await some other opportunity,” said
Cavalcanti suddenly. “Messer d'Anguissola is my guest; and my guests are
not so rudely plucked forth from Pagliano.”
The Duke drew away, and leaned upon the arm of Cosimo, watching. Behind
me in the gallery I heard a rustle of feminine gowns; but I did not turn
to look. My eyes were upon the stern sable figure of the familiar.
“You will not be so ill-advised, my lord,” he was saying, “as to compel
us to use force.”
“You will not, I trust, be so ill-advised as to attempt it,” laughed
Cavalcanti, tossing his great head. “I have five score men-at-arms
within these walls, Messer Black-clothes.”
The familiar bowed. “That being so, the force for to-day is yours, as
you say. But I would solemnly warn you not to employ it contumaciously
against the officers of the Holy Office, nor to hinder them in the duty
which they are here to perform, lest you render yourself the object of
their just resentment.”
Cavalcanti took a step forward, his face purple with anger that this
tipstaff ruffian should take such a tone with him. But in that instant I
seized his arm.
“It is a trap!” I muttered in his ear. “Beware!”
I was no more than in time. I had surprised upon Farnese's mottled face
a sly smile--the smile of the cat which sees the mouse come
venturing from its lair. And I saw the smile perish--to confirm my
suspicions--when at my whispered words Cavalcanti checked in his
rashness.
Still holding him by the arm, I turned to the familiar.
“I shall surrender to you in a moment, sir,” said I. “Meanwhile,
and you, gentlemen--give us leave apart.” And I drew the bewildered
Cavalcanti aside and down the courtyard under the colonnade of the
gallery.
“My lord, be wise for Bianca's sake,” I implored him. “I am assured that
here is nothing but a trap baited for you. Do not gorge their bait as
your valour urges you. Defeat them, my lord, by circumspection. Do you
not see that if you resist the Holy Office, they can issue a ban against
you, and that against such a ban not even the Emperor can defend you?
Indeed, if they told him that his feudatory, the Lord of Pagliano,
had been guilty of contumaciously thwarting the ends of the Holy
Inquisition, that bigot Charles V would be the first to deliver you over
to the ghastly practices of that tribunal. It should not need, my lord,
that I should tell you this.”
“My God!” he groaned in utter misery. “But you, Agostino?”
“There is nothing against me,” I answered impatiently. “What sacrilege
have I ever committed? The thing is a trumped-up business, conceived
with a foul purpose by Messer Pier Luigi there. Courage, then, and
self-restraint; and thus we shall foil their aims. Come, my lord, I will
ride to Rome with them. And do not doubt that I shall return very soon.”
He looked at me with eyes that were full of trouble, indecision in
every line of a face that was wont to look so resolute. He knew himself
between the sword and the wall.
“I would that Galeotto were here!” cried that man usually so
self-reliant. “What will he say to me when he comes? You were a sacred
charge, boy.”
“Say to him that I will be returning shortly--which must be true. Come,
then. You may serve me this way. The other way you will but have to
endure ultimate arrest, and so leave Bianca at their mercy, which is
precisely what they seek.”
He braced himself at the thought of Bianca. We turned, and in silence
we paced back, quite leisurely as if entirely at our ease, for all that
Cavalcanti's face had grown very haggard.
“I yield me, sir,” I said to the familiar.
“A wise decision,” sneered the Duke.
“I trust you'll find it so, my lord,” I answered, sneering too.
They led forward a horse for me, and when I had embraced Cavalcanti,
I mounted and my funereal escort closed about me. We rode across the
courtyard under the startled eyes of the folk of Pagliano, for the
familiars of the Holy Office were dread and fearful objects even to the
stoutest-hearted man. As we neared the gateway a shrill cry rang out on
the morning air:
“Agostino!”
Fear and tenderness and pain were all blent in that cry.
I swung round in the saddle to behold the white form of Bianca, standing
in the gallery with parted lips and startled eyes that were gazing after
me, her arms outheld. And then, even as I looked, she crumpled and sank
with a little moan into the arms of the ladies who were with her.
I looked at Pier Luigi and from the depths of my heart I cursed him, and
I prayed that the day might not be far distant when he should be made to
pay for all the sins of his recreant life.
And then, as we rode out into the open country, my thoughts were turned
to tenderer matters, and it came to me that when all was done, that cry
of Bianca's made it worth while to have been seized by the talons of the
Holy Office.