The sickles were flashing in the sunlight, felling the ripened wheat in
the valley, when our three artists, having previously arranged the
matter with a certain Segnian named Bruno, stood one morning early,
waiting his appearance with horses, to carry them down the mountain to a
farm belonging to Prince Doria, called the Piombinara. There they were
going to see a _triglia_ or threshing of wheat with horses.
'Here he comes,' said Caper, 'with a piebald horse and a bay mare and an
iron-gray mule. Let's toss up for a choice.'
The mule fell to Caper: mounting him gayly, and calling to the others to
follow, he led the way with their guide down the steep street of the
town until they reached the road outside of the gate, when the others
coming up, the party ambled along down the mountain road. In about an
hour they reached the plain, and fifteen minutes more brought them to
the old, ivy-covered, ruined fortress of the middle ages, called the
Piombinara: passing this, they soon reached an open field, in the centre
of which, near a small cabin, they found quite a number of harvesters
engaged piling up sheaves of wheat in a circle on a spot of ground
previously leveled and hardened until it presented a surface as even as
a barn-floor.
While they were inquiring of the harvesters as to the time when the
threshing would commence, a fine-looking man, mounted on a fiery,
full-blooded chestnut horse, rode up, and politely saluting the three
artists, inquired of them if they were not desirous of seeing the
_triglia_.
Rocjean answered that it was for that purpose they had come there,
having learned in Segni that the horses would begin the threshing that
morning.
The horseman then introduced himself as Prince Doria's agent for the
Piombinara and farmer of the estate, and gave them a warm welcome; being
very glad, he said, that the _triglia_ would not begin until the
afternoon, since he hoped it would give him in the mean time the
pleasure of showing them the estate, and extending the rough hospitality
of the Campagna to them.
Our artists, acknowledging his politeness, accepted the invitation of
Signor Ercole, as he was generally called, and upon his proposing a ride
around the estate, accompanied him. They first visited the old ruin,
riding in through what was formerly its main entrance. Once inside, they
found the lower walls sufficiently entire to give them an idea of the
size and form of the old fortress. At one end they found the ruins of a
small chapel, where even yet the traces of fresco-painting could be seen
on its walls; near this arose a tall, square tower, ivy-clad to its very
summit, from whence a flock of hawks were flying in and out; the
lightning had so shattered its walls that it threatened every moment to
fall, yet in this dilapidated state it had remained for years, and was
regarded, therefore, as an 'un-tumbling' curiosity. After some time
spent here, which Dexter improved by making a pencil-sketch of the
valley and adjacent mountains, Signor Ercole leading the way, they rode
through a small woods where herds on herds of black hogs were feeding,
to the pasture-grounds where the brood-mares and colts of the Prince
were seen grazing together. Over a hundred head of the purest
blood-stock were here, and Dexter, who was thoroughly conversant with
horse-flesh, passed the highest encomiums of praise on many of the
animals. Riding on, they next saw quite a number of oxen, but the
superintendent informed them that these were only a few kept to perform
the farm-work, the large herds belonging to the estate being at this
season of the year driven miles away to feed upon other lands of the
Prince. Continuing their ride, the party next came to the wheat-fields,
extending far and wide, like those of Illinois, for a hundred acres or
more: here the harvesters, most of whom were from the Abruzzi, were
busily engaged, men and women, in loading the large carts with
wheat-sheafs, the grain being all cut, and consequently many of the
laborers having returned to their distant homes. Returning from the
fields, Signor Ercole now invited them to enter the farmhouse. This was
a very large stone house whitewashed, looking as they approached it more
like a garrison for several regiments than a residence for a few
families, and a store-house for agricultural implements and crops. The
lower floor of this long building was taken up with stables and offices,
but mounting a wide stone staircase, our artists found themselves in a
large room scrupulously neat, with whitewashed walls, very high
ceilings, and whips, guns, dogs, tables, account-books, stone floors and
rough seats, making a curious mingling of monastery, squire's office,
sportsman's chamber, and social hall, for no sooner had Signor Ercole
seen his guests comfortably seated, than his servant brought in segars,
with a brass dish of live coals to light them, several bottles of wine,
and one of capital old Sambuca di Napoli, a liquor that is refreshing,
drank, as it should be, with a good allowance of water.
Dinner was served at an early hour, with a profusion of each dish that
would have frightened an economical Yankee housewife. Six roast chickens
were not considered at all too many for the five persons at table--the
fifth being a jolly old gentleman, an uncle to the Signor Ercole. The
plate of maccaroni looked as if Gargantua had ordered it--the salad
might have been put in a bushel measure, the bread been carried in a
donkey-cart, and the wine--ahem! in the expressive language of the
Celts, there was 'lashings of it.'
But even a Campagna dinner with a Farmer-General will have an end, and
when our friends had finished theirs, they arose and went dreamily forth
to the before-mentioned squire's office, where they lighted segars,
while they drank small cups of black coffee, and gazed out of the open
windows to the distant mountains, rising far above the plain sleeping in
the summer sun, and hushed to sleep by the unceasing song of the cicalas
sharply crying from leaf and blade of grass.
About three o'clock in the afternoon a man came to inform the Signor
Ercole that the mares and colts had been driven into the corral, and our
party accordingly walked out to see them lassoed prior to their
performance in the ring. As they approached the corral, they saw the
blooded animals circling around the inclosure, apparently aware that
they would soon be called on to do some work--the only work, in fact,
the majority of them had to do the whole year through. Taking a lasso
from one of the men, Signor Ercole entered the inclosure and singling
out a fine-looking bay mare, he threw the lasso--the noose encircling
her neck as she dashed forward, bringing her up all standing. Satisfied
with this performance, he handed her over to one of the herdsmen, who
fastening her with a halter, again and again swung the lasso, catching
at last twelve horses and mares. One long halter was now attached to six
of the animals, and a driver taking it in hand, led them toward the spot
where the beaten earth was covered with sheafs of wheat standing on end
one against the other in a circle of say thirty or forty feet in
diameter; another driver fastening six others, horses and mares, to
another long halter, led them to the side opposite the first six. As
soon as they were stationed, waving long-lashed whips, plunge! ahead
went the wild horses, jumping into the wheat-sheaves breast-high,
rearing, squealing, kicking, lashing out their hoofs, their eyes
starting from their heads, while each driver stood firm in one spot,
whirling his whiplash and keeping his team within a circle one half of
which was in the wheat and the other half outside. Thus there were three
circles, one of wheat and the other two described by the horses as they
dashed wildly around, the drivers shouting, the wheat flying and being
quickly threshed under the swift-moving hoofs of the twelve four-legged
flails!
Caper and Dexter were meanwhile as busy as they could be sketching the
scene before them and endeavoring to catch notes of the first plunges
and excited motions of the horses. The active motive-power of the
foreground finished, with a hasty sketch of the Piombinara at the right
hand, in the middle ground the Campagna with its corn-fields and ruined
towers, while in the distance the Lepini mountains stretched away into
cloud-land--all afforded a sketch from which both Caper and Dexter
afterward made two very excellent paintings.
The sketches finished, Signor Ercole insisted upon the artists taking a
stirrup-cup with him before they left for Segni, and accordingly
accompanying him to the house, they drank success to their hospitable
entertainer, and departed highly pleased with this Representative Man.
It is his class--the intelligent Producers of the Papal States--to whom
we must look for all the life that will keep that worn-out old body
sufficiently animated to last until Regenerated Italy can take it in
hand, see it decently buried, and over its tomb achieve a brilliant
future.