A COMMISSION.
When Ferdinand Lind looked out the next day from the window of his
hotel, it was not at all the Venice of chromolithography that lay before
him. The morning was wild, gray, and gloomy, with a blustering wind
blowing down from the north; the broad expanse of green water ruffled
and lashed by continual squalls; the sea-gulls wheeling and dipping over
the driven waves; the dingy masses of shipping huddled along the wet and
deserted quays; the long spur of the Lido a thin black line between the
green sea and purple sky; and the domed churches over there, and the
rows of tall and narrow and grumbling palaces overlooking the canals
nearer at hand, all alike dismal and bedraggled and dark.
When he went outside he shivered; but at all events these cold, damp
odors of the sea and the rainy wind were more grateful than the
mustiness of the hotel. But the deserted look of the place! The
gondolas, with their hearse-like coverings on, lay empty and untended by
the steps, as if waiting for a funeral procession. The men had taken
shelter below the archways, where they formed groups, silent,
uncomfortable, sulky. The few passers-by on the wet quays hurried along
with their voluminous black cloaks wrapped round their shoulders, and
hiding most of the mahogany-colored faces. Even the plague of beggars
had been dispersed; they had slunk away shivering into the foul-smelling
nooks and crannies. There was not a soul to give a handful of maize to
the pigeons in the Place of St. Mark.
But when Lind had got round into the Place, what was his surprise to
find Calabressa having his breakfast in the open air at a small table in
front of a _cafe_. He was quite alone there; but he seemed much content.
In fact, he was laughing heartily, all to himself, at something he had
been reading in the newspaper open before him.
"Well," said Lind, when they had exchanged salutations, "this is a
pleasant sort of a morning for one to have one's breakfast outside!"
"My faith," said Calabressa, "if you had taken as many breakfasts as I
have shut up in a hole, you would be glad to get the chance of a
mouthful of fresh air. Sit down, my friend."
Lind glanced round, and then sat down.
"My good friend Calabressa," he said presently, "for one connected as
you are with certain persons, do you not think now that your costume is
a little conspicuous? And then your sitting out here in broad
daylight--"
"My friend Lind," said he, with a laugh, "I am as safe here as if I were
in Naples, which I believe to be the safest place in the world for one
not in good odor with the authorities. And if there was a risk, would I
not run it to hear my little nightingale over there when she opens the
casements? Ah! she is the most charming Rosina in the world."
"Yes, yes," said Lind. "I am not speaking of you. But--the others. The
police must guess you are not here for nothing."
"Oh, the others? Rest assured. The police might as well try to put their
fingers on a globule of quicksilver. It is but three days since they
left the Piazza del Popolo, Torre del Greco. To-morrow, if their
business is finished to-night, they will vanish again; and I shall be
dismissed."
"If their business is finished?" repeated Lind, absently. "Yes; but I
should like to know why they have summoned me all the way from England.
They cannot mean--"
"My dear friend Lind," said Calabressa, "you must not look so grave.
Nothing that is going to happen is worth one's troubling one's self
about. It is the present moment that is of consequence; and at the
present moment I have a joke for you. You know Armfeldt, who is now at
Berne: they had tried him only four times in Berlin; and there was only
a little matter of nine years' sentence against him. Listen."
He took up the _Osservatore_, and read out a paragraph, stating that Dr.
Julius Armfeldt had again been tried _in contumaciam_, and sentenced to
a further term of two years' imprisonment, for seditious writing.
Further, the publisher of his latest pamphlet, a citizen of Berne, had
likewise been sentenced in his absence to twelve months' imprisonment.
"Do they think Armfeldt will live to be a centenarian, that they keep
heaping up those sentences against him? Or is it as another inducement
for him to go back to his native country and give himself up? It is a
great joke, this childish proceeding; but a Government should not
declare itself impotent. It is like the Austrians when they hanged you
and the others in effigy. Now I remember, the little Natalushka was
grieved that she was not born then; for she wished to see the spectacle,
and to have killed the people who insulted her father."
"I am afraid it is no joke at all," Lind said, gloomily. "Those Swiss
people are craven. What can you expect from a nation of hotel-waiters?
They cringe before every bully in Europe; you will find that, if
Bismarck insists, the Federal Council will expel Armfeldt from
Switzerland directly. No; the only safe refuge nowadays for the
reformers, the Protestants the pioneers of Europe, is England; and the
English do not know it; they do not think of it. They are so accustomed
to freedom that they believe that is the only possible condition, and
that other nations must necessarily enjoy it. When you talk to them of
tyranny, of political persecution, they laugh. They cannot understand
such a thing existing. They fancy it ceased when Bomba's dungeons were
opened."
"For my part," said Calabressa, lighting a cigarette, and calling for a
small glass of cognac, "I am content with Naples."
"And the protection of pickpockets?"
"My friend," said the other, coolly, "if you refer to the most honorable
the association of the Camorristi, I would advise you not to speak too
loud."
Calabressa rose, having settled his score with the waiter.
"Allons!" said he. "What are you going to do to day?"
"I don't know," said Lind, discontentedly. "May the devil fly away with
this town of Venice! I never come here but it is either freezing or
suffocating."
"You are in an evil humor to-day, friend Lind; you have caught the
English spleen. Come, I have a little business to do over at Murano; the
breeze will do you good. And I will tell you the story of my escape."
The time had to be passed somehow. Lind walked with his companion along
to the steps, descended, and jumped into a gondola, and presently they
were shooting out into the turbulent green water that the wind drove
against the side of the boat in a succession of sharp shocks. Seated in
the little funereal compartment, they could talk without much fear of
being heard by either of the men; and Calabressa began his tale. It was
not romantic. It was simply a case of bribery; the money to effect which
had certainly not come out of Calabressa's shallow pockets. In the
midst of the story--or, at least, before the end of it--Lind said, in a
low voice,
"Calabressa, have you any sure grounds for what you said about
Zaccatelli?"
His companion glanced quickly outside.
"It is you are now indiscreet," he said, in an equally low voice. "But
yes; I think that is the business. However," he added, in a gayer tone,
"what matter? To-day is not to-morrow; to-morrow will shift for itself."
And therewith he continued his story, though his listener seemed
singularly preoccupied and thoughtful.
They arrived at the island, got out, and walked into the court-yard of
one of the smaller glass-works. There were one or two of the workmen
passing; and here something occurred that seemed to arrest Lind's
attention.
"What, here also?" said he, in a low voice.
"Every one; the master included. It is with him I have to do this little
piece of business. Now you will be so good as to wait for a short time,
will you not?--and it is warm in there; I will be with you soon."
Lind walked into the large workshop, where there were a number of people
at work, all round the large, circular, covered caldron, the various
apertures into which sent out fierce rays of light and heat. He walked
about, seemingly at his ease; looking at the apprentices experimenting;
chatting to the workmen. And at last he asked one of these to make for
him a little vase in opalescent glass, that he could take to his
daughter in England; and could he put the letter N on it somewhere? It
was at least some occupation, watching the quick and dexterous handling
under which the little vase grew into form, and had its decoration
cleverly pinched out, and its tiny bits of color added. The letter N was
not very successful; but then Natalie would know that her father had
been thinking of her at Venice.
This excursion at all events tided over the forenoon; and when the two
companions returned to the wet and disconsolate city, Calabressa was
easily persuaded to join his friend in some sort of mid-day meal. After
that, the long-haired albino-looking person took his leave, having
arranged how Lind was to keep the assignation for that evening.
The afternoon cleared up somewhat; but Ferdinand Lind seemed to find it
dull enough. He went out for an aimless stroll through some of the
narrow back streets, slowly making his way among the crowd that poured
along these various ways. Then he returned to his hotel, and wrote some
letters. Then he dined early; but still the time did not seem to pass.
He resolved on getting through an hour or so at the theatre.
A gondola swiftly took him away through the labyrinth of small and
gloomy canals, until at length the wan orange glare shining out into the
night showed him that he was drawing near one of the entrances to the
Fenice. If he had been less preoccupied--less eager to think of nothing
but how to get the slow hours over--he might have noticed the
strangeness of the scene before him: the successive gondolas stealing
silently up through the gloom to the palely lit stone steps; the black
coffins appearing to open; and then figures in white and scarlet
opera-cloaks getting out into the dim light, to ascend into the
brilliant glare of the theatre staircase. He, too, followed, and got
into the place assigned to him. But this spectacular display failed to
interest him. He turned to the bill, to remind him what he had to see.
The blaze of color on the stage--the various combinations of
movement--the resounding music--all seemed part of a dream; and it
annoyed him somehow. He rose and left.
The intervening time he spent chiefly in a _cafe_ close by the theatre,
where he smoked cigarettes and appeared to read the newspapers. Then he
wandered away to the spot appointed for him to meet a particular
gondola, and arrived there half an hour too soon. But the gondola was
there also. He jumped in and was carried away through the silence of the
night.
When he arrived at the door, which was opened to him by Calabressa, he
contrived to throw off, by a strong effort of will, any appearance of
anxiety. He entered and sat down, saying only,
"Well!--what news?"
Calabressa laughed slightly; and went to a cupboard, and brought forth a
bottle and two small glasses.
"If you were Zaccatelli," he said, "I would say to you, 'My Lord,' or
'Your Excellency,' or whatever they call those flamingoes with the
bullet heads, 'I would advise you to take a little drop of this very
excellent cognac, for you are about to hear something, and you will need
steady nerves.' Meanwhile, Brother Lind, it is not forbidden to you and
me to have a glass. The Council provide excellent liquor."
"Thank you, I have no need of it," said Lind, coldly. "What do you mean
about Zaccatelli?"
"This," said the other, filling himself out a glass of the brandy, and
then proceeding to prepare a cigarette. "If the moral scene of the
country, too long outraged, should determine to punish the Starving
Cardinal, I believe he will get a good year's notice to prepare for his
doom. You perceive? What harm does sudden death to a man? It is nothing.
A moment of pain; and you have all the happiness of sleep, indifference,
forgetfulness. That is no punishment at all: do you perceive?"
Calabressa continued, airily--
"People are proud when they say they do not fear death. The fools! What
has any one to fear in death? To the poor it means no more hunger, no
more imprisonment, no more cold and sickness, no more watching of your
children when they are suffering and you cannot help; to the rich it
means no more triumph of rivals, and envy, and jealousy; no more
sleepless nights and ennui of days; no more gout, and gravel, and the
despair of growing old. Death! It is the great emancipation. And people
talk of the punishment of death!"
He gave a long whistle of contempt.
"But," said he, with a smile, "it is a little bit different if you have
to look forward to your death on a certain fixed day. Then you begin to
overvalue things--a single hour of life becomes something."
He added, in a tone of affected condolence--
"Then one wouldn't wish to cause any poor creature to say his last
adieux without some preparation. And in the case of a cardinal, is a
year too little for repentance? Oh, he will put it to excellent use."
"Very well, very well," said Ferdinand Lind, with an impatient frown
gathering over the shaggy eyebrows. "But I want to know what I have to
do with all this?"
"Brother Lind," said the other, mildly, "if the Secretary Granaglia,
knowing that I am a friend of yours, is so kind as to give me some hints
of what is under discussion, I listen, but I ask no questions. And
you--I presume you are here not to protest, but to obey."
"Understand me, Calabressa: it was only to you as a friend that I
spoke," said Lind, gravely. And then he added, "The Council will not
find, at all events, that I am recusant."
A few minutes afterward the bell rung, and Calabressa jumped to his
feet; while Lind, in spite of himself, started. Presently the _portiere_
was drawn aside, and the little sallow-complexioned man whom he had seen
on the previous evening entered the room. On this occasion, however,
Calabressa was motioned to withdraw, and immediately did so. Lind and
the stranger were left together.
"I need scarcely inform you, Brother Lind," said he, in a slow and
matter-of-fact way, "that I am the authorized spokesman of the Council."
As he said this, for a moment he rested his hand on the table. There was
on the forefinger a large ring, with a red stone in it, engraved. Lind
bowed acquiescence.
"Calabressa has no doubt informed you of the matter before the Council.
That is now decided; the decree has been signed. Zaccatelli dies within
a year from this day. The motives which have led to this decision may
hereafter be explained to you, even if they have not already occurred to
you; they are motives of policy, as regards ourselves and the progress
of our work, as well as of justice."
Ferdinand Lind listened, without response.
"It has further been decided that the blow be struck from England."
"England!" was the involuntary exclamation.
"Yes," said the other, calmly. "To give full effect to such a warning it
must be clear to the world that it has nothing to do with any private
revenge or low intrigue. Assassination has been too frequent in Italy of
late. The doubting throughout the world must be convinced that we have
agents everywhere; and that we are no mere local society for the
revenging of private wrongs."
Lind again bowed assent.
"Further," said the other, regarding him, "the Council charge you with
the execution of the decree."
Lind had almost expected this: he did not flinch.
"After twelve months' grace granted, you will be prepared with a sure
and competent agent who will give effect to the decree of the Council;
failing such a one, the duty will devolve on your own shoulders."
"On mine!" he was forced to exclaim. "Surely--"
"Do you forget," said the other, calmly, "that sixteen years ago your
life was forfeited, and given back to you by the Council?"
"So I understood," said Lind. "But it was not my life that was given me
then!--only the lease of it till the Council should claim it again.
However!"
He drew himself up, and the powerful face was full of decision.
"It is well," said he. "I do not complain. If I exact obedience from
others, I, too, obey. The Council shall be served."
"Further instructions shall be given you. Meanwhile, the Council once
more thank you for your attendance. Farewell, brother!"
"Farewell, brother!"
When he had gone, and the bell again rung, Calabressa reappeared. Lind
was too proud a man to betray any concern.
"It is as you told me, Calabressa," said he, carelessly, as his friend
proceeded to light him down the narrow staircase. "And I am charged with
the execution of their vengeance. Well; I wish I had been present at
their deliberations, that is all. This deed may answer so far as the
continental countries are concerned; but, so far as England is
concerned, it will undo the work of years."
"What!--England!" exclaimed Calabressa, lightly--"where they blow up a
man's house with gunpowder, or dash vitriol in his face, if he works for
a shilling a day less wages?--where they shoot landlords from behind
hedges if the rent is raised?--where they murder policemen in the open
street, to release political prisoners? No, no, friend Lind; I cannot
believe that."
"However, that is not my business, Calabressa. The Council shall be
obeyed. I am glad to know you are again at liberty; when you come to
England you will see how your little friend Natalie has grown."
"Give a kiss from me to the little Natalushka," said he, cheerfully; and
then the two parted.