We are now introduced to Taurello Salinguerra: a fine soldier-like
figure; the type of elastic strength in both body and mind. We are told
that he possesses the courage of the fighter, the astuteness of the
politician, the knowledge and graces of the man of leisure. He has
shown himself capable of controlling an Emperor, and of giving
precedence to a woman. He is young at sixty, while the son who is half
his age, is "lean, outworn and really old." And the crowning difference
between him and Sordello is this: that while Sordello only draws out
other men as a means of displaying himself, he only displays himself
sufficiently to draw out other men. "His choicest instruments" have
"surmised him shallow."
He is in his palace at Ferrara, musing over the past--that past which
held the turning-point of his career; which began the feud between
himself and the now Guelph princes, and which naturally merged him in
the Ghibelline cause. He remembers how the fathers of the present Este
and San Bonifacio combined to cheat him out of the Modenese heiress who
was to be his bride--how he retired to Sicily, to return with a wife of
the Emperor's own house--how his enemies surprised him at Vicenza. He
sees his old comrade Eccelino, so passive now, so brave and vigorous
then. He sees the town as they fire it together: the rush for the gates:
the slashing, the hewing, the blood hissing and frying on the iron
gloves. His spirit leaps in the returning frenzy of that struggle and
flight. It sinks again as he thinks of Elcorte--Adelaide's escape--her
rescued child; his own doom in the wife and child who were not rescued.
"And now! he has effaced himself in the interests of the Romano house.
Its life has grafted itself on his own; and to what end? The Emperor is
coming. His badge and seal, already in Salinguerra's hands, bestow the
title of Imperial Prefect on whosoever assumes the headship of the
Ghibellines in the north of Italy; and Eccelino, its proper chief,
recoils; withdraws even his name from the cause. Who shall wear the
badge? None so fitly as himself, who holds San Bonifacio captive--who
has dislocated if not yet broken the Guelph right arm. Yet, is it worth
his while? Shall he fret his remaining years? Shall he rob his old
comrade's son?" He laughs the idea to scorn....
Sordello has come with Palma to Ferrara. He came to find the men who
were to be the body to his spirit, the instrument to his will. But he
came, expecting that these would be great. And now he discovers that
very few are great; while behind and beneath, and among them, extends
something which has never yet entered his field of thought: the mass of
mankind. The more he looks the more it grows upon him: this people with
the
"... mouths and eyes,
Petty enjoyments and huge miseries,--" (vol. i. p. 181.)
and the more he feels that the few are great because the many are in
them--because they are types and representatives of these. Hitherto he
has striven to impose himself on mankind. He now awakes to the joy and
duty of serving it. It is the magnified body which his spirit needs. And
in the new-found knowledge, the new-found sympathy, his soul springs
full-grown into life.
But another check is in store for him. He has taken for granted that the
cause in which he is to be enlisted is the people's cause. The new soul
in him can conceive nothing less. A first interview with Salinguerra
dispels this dream, and dispels it in such a manner that he leaves the
presence of his unknown father years older and wearier than when he
entered it. He wanders through the city, mangled by civil war. The
effects of Ghibelline vengeance meet him on every side. Is the Guelph
more humane? He discusses the case with Palma. They weigh deeds with
deeds. "Guelph and Ghibelline are alike unjust and cruel, alike
inveterate enemies of their fellow-men." Who then represents the
people's cause? A sudden answer comes. A bystander recognizing his
minstrel's attire begs Sordello to sing, and suggests the Roman Tribune
Crescentius as his theme. Rome rises before his mind--the mother of
cities--the great constructive power which weaves the past into the
future; which represents the continuity of human life. _The
reintegration of Rome must typify the triumph of mankind._ But Rome is
now the Church; she is one with the Guelph cause. The Guelph cause is
therefore in some sense the true one. Sordello's new-found spiritual and
his worldly interests thus range themselves on opposite sides.