AN EMISSARY.
One warm, still afternoon Calabressa was walking quickly along the
crowded quays of Naples, when he was beset by a more than usually
importunate beggar--a youth of about twelve, almost naked.
"Something for bread, signore--for the love of God--my father taken to
heaven, my mother starving--bread, signore--"
"To the devil with you!" said Calabressa.
"May you burst!" replied the polite youth, and he tried to kick
Calabressa's legs and make off at the same time.
This feat he failed in, so that, as he was departing, Calabressa hit him
a cuff on the side of the head which sent him rolling. Then there was a
howl, and presently there was a universal tumult of women, calling out,
"Ah, the German! ah, the foreigner!" and so forth, and drawing
threateningly near. Calabressa sought in his pockets for a handful of
small copper coins, turned, threw them high in the air, and did not stay
to watch the effect of the shower on the heads of the women, but walked
quietly away.
However, in thus suddenly turning, he had caught sight--even with his
near-sighted eyes--of an unwholesome-looking young man, pale,
clean-shaven, with bushy black hair, whom he recognized. He appeared to
pay no attention, but walked quickly on. Taking one or two unnecessary
turnings, he became convinced that the young man, as he had suspected,
was following him: then, without more ado, and even without looking
behind him, he set out for his destination, which was Posilipo.
In due course of time he began to ascend the wooded hill with its villas
and walls and cactus-hedges. At a certain turning, where he could not be
observed by any one behind him, he turned sharp off to the left, and
stood behind a wooden gate; a couple of minutes afterward the young man
came along, more rapidly now, for he no doubt fancied that Calabressa
had disappeared ahead.
Calabressa stepped out from his hiding-place, went after him, and tapped
him on the shoulder. He turned, stared, and endeavored to appear angry
and astonished.
"Oh yes, to be sure," said Calabressa, with calm sarcasm, "at your
disposition, signore. So we were not satisfied with selling photographs
and pebbles to the English on board the steamer; we want to get a little
Judas money; we sell ourselves to the weasels, the worms, the vermin--"
"Oh, I assure you, signore--" the shaven-faced youth exclaimed, much
more humbly.
"Oh, I assure you too, signore," Calabressa continued, facetiously. "And
you, you poor innocent, you have not been with the weasels six weeks
when you think you will try your nose in tracking me. Body of Bacchus,
it is too insolent!"
"I assure you, signore--"
"Now, behold this, my friend: we must give children like you a warning.
If you had been a little older, and not quite so foolish, I should have
had you put on the Black List of my friends the Camorristi--you
understand? But you--we will cure you otherwise. You know the
Englishman's yacht that has come into the Great Harbor--"
"Signore, I beg of you--"
"Beg of the devil!" said Calabressa, calmly. "Between the Englishman's
yacht and the Little Mole you will find a schooner moored--her name. _La
Svezia_; do not forget--_La Svezia_. To-morrow you will go on board of
her, ask for the captain, go down below, and beg him to be so kind as to
give you twelve stripes--"
"Signore--"
"Another word, _mouchard_, and I make it twenty. He will give you a
receipt, which you will sign, and bring to me; otherwise, down goes your
name on the list. Which do you prefer? Oh, we will teach some of you
young weasels a lesson! I have the honor to wish you a good morning."
Calabressa touched his hat politely, and walked on, leaving the young
man petrified with rage and fear.
By-and-by he began to walk more leisurely and with more circumspection,
keeping a sharp lookout, as well as his near-sighted eyes allowed, on
any passer-by or vehicle he happened to meet. At length, and with the
same precautions he had used on a former occasion, he entered the
grounds of the villa he had sought out in the company of Gathorne
Edwards, and made his way up to the fountain on the little plateau. But
now his message had been previously prepared; he dropped it into the
receptacle concealed beneath the lip of the fountain, and then descended
the steep little terraces until he got round to the entrance of the
grotto.
Instead of passing in by this cleft in the rockwork, however, he found
awaiting him there the person who had summoned him--the so-called
General Von Zoesch. Calabressa was somewhat startled, but he said, "Your
humble servant, Excellenza," and removed his cap.
"Keep your hat on your head, friend Calabressa," said the other,
good-naturedly; "you are as old as I am."
He seated himself on a projecting ledge of the rockwork, and motioned to
Calabressa to do likewise on the other side of the entrance. They were
completely screened from observation by a mass of olive and fig trees,
to say nothing of the far-stretching orange shrubbery beyond.
"The Council have paid you a high compliment, my Calabressa," the
general said, plunging at once into the matter. "They have resolved to
intrust you with a very difficult mission."
"It is a great honor."
"You won't have to risk your neck, which will no doubt disappoint you,
but you will have to show us whether there is the stuff of a diplomatist
in you."
"Oh, as for that, Excellenza," Calabressa said confidently, "one can be
a _bavard_ at times, for amusement, for nonsense; and one can at times
be silent when there is necessity."
"You know of the affair of Zaccatelli. The agent has been found, as we
desired in England. I understand you know him; his name is Brand."
Calabressa uttered an exclamation.
"Excellenza, do you know what you have said? You pierce my heart. Why he
of all those in England? He is the betrothed of Natalie's daughter--the
Natalie Berezolyi, Excellenza, who married Ferdinand Lind--"
"I know it," said the other, calmly. "I have seen the young lady. She is
a beautiful child."
"She is more than that--she is a beautiful-souled child!" said
Calabressa, in great agitation, "and she has a tender heart. I tell you
it will kill her, Excellenza! Oh, it is infamous! it is not to be
thought of!" He jumped to his feet and spoke in a rapid, excited way. "I
say it is not to be thought of. I appeal--I, Calabressa--to the
honorable the members of the Council: I say that I am ready to be his
substitute--they cannot deny me--I appeal to the laws of the
Society--"'
"Calm yourself--calm yourself," said the general; but Calabressa would
not be calm.
"I will not have my beautiful child have this grief put upon her!--you,
Excellenza, will help my appeal to the Council--they cannot refuse
me--what use am I to anybody or myself? I say that the daughter of my
old friend Natalie shall not have her lover taken from her; it is I,
Calabressa, who claim to be his substitute!"
"Friend Calabressa, I desire you to sit down and listen. The story is
brief that I have to tell you. This man Brand is chosen by the usual
ballot. The young lady does not know for what duty, of course, but
believes it will cost him his life. She is in trouble; she recollects
your giving her some instructions; what does she do but start off at
once for Naples, to put her head right into the den of the black bear
Tommaso!"
"Ah, the brave little one! She did not forget Calabressa and the little
map, then?"
"I have seen her and her mother."
"Her mother, also? Here, in Naples, now?"
"Yes."
"Great Heaven! What a fool I was to come through Naples and not to
know--but I was thinking of that little viper."
"You will now be good enough to listen, my Calabressa."
"I beg your Excellency's pardon a thousand times."
"It appears that both mother and daughter are beset with the suspicion
that this duty has been put upon their English friend by unfair means.
At first I said to myself these suspicions were foolish; they now appear
to me more reasonable. You, at all events, are acquainted with the old
story against Ferdinand Lind; you know how he forfeited his life to the
Society; how it was given back to him. You would think it impossible he
would risk such another adventure. Well, perhaps I wrong him; but there
is a possibility; there are powerful reasons, I can gather, why he
should wish to get rid of this Englishman."
Calabressa said nothing now, but he was greatly excited.
"We had been urging him about money, Calabressa mio--that I will explain
to you. It has been coming in slowest of all from England, the richest
of the countries, and just when we had so much need. Then, again, there
is a vacancy in the Council, and Lind has a wish that way. What happens?
He tries to induce the Englishman to take an officership and give us
his fortune; the Englishman refuses; he says then, 'Part from my
daughter, and go to America.' The daughter says, 'If he goes, I follow.'
You perceive, my friend, that if this story is true, and it is
consecutive and minute as I received it, there was a reason for our
colleague Lind to be angry, and to be desirous of making it certain that
this Englishman who had opposed him should not have his daughter."
"I perceive it well, Excellenza. Meanwhile?"
"Meanwhile, that is all. Only, when an old friend--when one who has such
claims on our Society as a Berezolyi naturally has--comes and tells you
such a story, you listen with attention and respect. You may believe, or
you may not believe; one prefers not to believe when the matter touches
upon the faith of a colleague who has been trustworthy for many years.
But at the same time, if the Council, being appealed to, and being
anxious above all things that no wrong should be done, were to find an
agent--prudent, silent, cautious--who might be armed with plenary powers
of pardon, for example, supposing there were an accomplice to be
bribed--if the Council were to commission such a one as you, my
Calabressa, to institute inquiries, and perhaps to satisfy those two
appellants that no injustice has been done, you would undertake the task
with diligence, with a sense of responsibility, would you not?"
"With joy--with a full heart, Excellenza!" Calabressa exclaimed.
"Oh no, not at all--with prudence and disinterestedness; with calmness
and no prejudice; and, above all, with a resolution to conceal from our
friend and colleague Lind that any slight of suspicion is being put upon
him."
"Oh, you can trust me, Excellenza!" Calabressa said, eagerly.
"Let me do this for the sake of the sweetheart of my old age--that is
that beautiful-souled little one; and if I cannot bring her peace and
security one way--mind, I go without prejudice--I swear to you I go
without bias--I will harm no one even in intention--but this I say, that
if I fail that way there is another."
"You have seen the two men, Beratinsky and Reitzei, who were of the
ballot along with Lind and the Englishman. To me they are but names.
Describe them to me."
"Beratinsky," said Calabressa, promptly, "a bear--surly, pig-headed;
Reitzei, a fop--sinuous, petted."
"Which would be the more easily started, for example?" the tall man
said, with a smile.
"Oh, your Excellency, leave that to me," Calabressa answered. "Give me
no definite instructions: am I not a volunteer?--can I not do as I
please, always with the risk that one may knock me over the head if I am
impertinent?"
"Well, then, if you leave it to your discretion, friend Calabressa, to
your ingenuity, and your desire to have justice without bias, have you
money?"
"Not at all, Excellenza."
"The Secretary Granaglia will communicate with you this evening. You can
start at once?"
"By the direct train to-morrow morning at seven. Excellenza." Then he
added, "Oh, the devil!"
"What now?"
"There was a young fellow, Excellenza, committed the imprudence of
dogging my footsteps this afternoon. I know him. I stopped him and
referred him to the captain of the schooner _La Svezia_: he was to bring
me the receipt to morrow."
"Never mind," said the general, laughing; "we will look after him when
he goes on board. Now do you understand, friend Calabressa, the great
delicacy of the mission the Council have intrusted to you? You must be
patient, sure, unbiassed; and if, as I imagine, Lind and you were not
the best of friends at one time in your life, you must forget all that.
You are not going as the avenger of his daughter; you are going as the
minister of justice--only you have power behind you; that you can allow
to be known indirectly. Do you understand?"
"It is as clear as the noonday skies. Confide in me, Excellenza." The
other rose.
"Use speed, my Calabressa. Farewell!"
"One word, Excellenza. If it is not too great a favor, the hotel where
my beautiful Natalushka and her mother are staying?"
The other gave him the name of the hotel; and Calabressa, saluting him
respectfully, departed, making his way down through the terraces of
fruit-trees under the clear twilight skies.
Calabressa walked back to Naples, and to the hotel indicated, which was
near the Castello dell' Ovo. No sooner had the hotel porter opened for
him the big swinging doors than he recollected that he did not know for
whom he ought to ask; but at this moment Natalie came along the
corridor, dressed and ready to go out.
"My little daughter!" he exclaimed, taking her by both hands, "did not
I say you would soon find me when there was need?"
"Will you come up-stairs and see my mother, Signor Calabressa?" said
she. "You know why she and I are together now?--my grandfather is dead."
"Yes, I will go and see your mother," said he, after a second: she did
not notice the strange expression of his face during that brief
hesitation.
There was a small sitting-room between the two bedrooms; Natalie
conducted him into it, and went into the adjoining chamber for her
mother. A minute after these two friends and companions of former days
met. They held each other's hand in silence for a brief time.
"My hair was not so gray when you last saw me," the worn-faced woman
said, at length, with a smile.
Calabressa could not speak at all.
"Mother," the girl said, to break in on this painful embarrassment, "you
have not seen Signor Calabressa for so long a time. Will he not stay and
dine with us? the _table-d'hote_, is at half-past six."
"Not the _table-d'hote_, my little daughter," Calabressa said. "But if
one were permitted to remain here, for example--"
"Oh yes, certainly."
"There are many things I wish to speak about; and so little time.
To-morrow morning I start for England."
"For England?"
"Most certainly, little daughter. And you have a message, perhaps, for
me to carry? Oh, you may let it be cheerful," he said, with his usual
gay optimism. "I tell you--I myself, and I do not boast--let it be
cheerful! What did I say to you? You are in trouble; I said to you,
count upon having friends!"
Calabressa did stay; and they had a kind of meal in this room; and there
was a great deal to talk over between the two old friends. But on all
matters referring to the moment he preserved a resolute silence. He was
not going to talk at the very outset. He was going to England--that was
all.
But as he was bidding good-bye to Natalie, he drew her a step or two
into the passage.
"Little child," said he, in a low voice, "your mother is suffering
because of your sorrow. It is needless. I assure you all will be well:
have I spoken in vain before? It is not for one bearing the name that
you have to despair."
"Good-bye, then, Signor Calabressa."
"_Au revoir_, child: is not that better?"