Behind her the Prime Minister, who had apologised for turning her house
into a temporary Ministry of the Interior, was talking to his Chief of
Police.
"You were there yourself?"
"I was, Excellency. I went up into a high part and looked down. It was a
strange and wild sight."
"How many would there be?"
"Impossible to guess. Inside and outside, Romans, country people,
perhaps a hundred thousand."
"And Rossi's speech?"
"The usual appeal to the passions of the people, Excellency. An
extraordinary exhibition of the art of flying between wind and water. We
couldn't have found a word that was distinctly seditious, even if we
hadn't had your Excellency's order to let the man go on."
"You have stopped the telegraph wires?"
"Yes."
"When the meeting was over, Rossi went home?"
"He did, Excellency."
"And the hundred thousand?"
"In their excitement they began to sing and to march through the
streets. They are still doing so. After going down to the Piazza Navona,
they are coming up by the Piazza del Popolo and along the Babuino with
banners and torches."
"Men only?"
"Men, women, and children."
"You would say that their attitude is threatening?"
"Distinctly threatening, your Excellency."
"Let your delegates give the legal warning and say that the gathering of
great mobs at this hour will be regarded as open rebellion. Allow three
minutes' grace for the sake of the women and children, and then ... let
the military do their duty."
"Quite so, your Excellency."
"After that you may carry out the instructions I gave you yesterday."
"Certainly, your Excellency."
"Keep in touch with all the leaders. Some of them will find that the air
of Rome is a little dangerous to their health to-night, and may wish to
fly to Switzerland or England, where it would be impossible to follow
them."
Roma heard behind her the thin cackle as of a hen over her nest, which
always came when Angelelli laughed.
"Their meeting itself was illegal, and our license has been abused."
"Grossly abused, your Excellency."
"The action of the Government was too conciliatory, and has rendered
them audacious, but the new law is clear in prohibiting the carrying of
seditious flags and emblems."
"We'll deal with them according to Articles 134 and 252 of the Penal
Code, your Excellency."
"You can go. But come back immediately if anything happens. I must
remain here for the present, and in case of riot I may have to send you
to the King."
Angelelli's thin voice fell to a whisper of awe at the mention of
Majesty, and after a moment he bowed and backed out of the room.
Roma did not turn round, and the Minister, who had touched the bell and
called for pen and paper, spoke to her from behind.
"I daresay you thought I was hard and inhuman at the Palazzo Braschi
yesterday, but I was really very merciful. In letting you see the
preparations to enclose your friend as in a net, I merely wished you to
warn him to fly from the country. He has not done so, and now he must
take the consequences."
Felice brought the writing materials, and the Baron sat down at the
table. There was a long silence in which nothing could be heard but the
scratching of the Minister's pen, the snoring of the poodle, and the
deadened sound through the wall of the Countess's testy voice scolding
Natalina.
Roma stepped into the boudoir. The room was dark, and from its unlit
windows she could see more plainly into the streets. Masses of shadow
lay around, but the untrodden steps were white with thin snow, and the
piazza were alive with black figures which moved on the damp ground like
worms on an upturned sod.
She was leaning her hot forehead against the glass and looking out with
haggard eyes, when a deep rumble as of a great multitude came from
below. The noise quickly increased to a loud uproar, with shouts, songs,
whistles, and shrill sounds blown out of door-keys. Before she was aware
of his presence the Baron was standing behind her, between the window
and the pedestal with the plaster bust of Rossi.
"Listen to them," he said. "The proletariat indeed!... And this is the
flock of bipeds to whom men in their senses would have us throw the
treasures of civilisation and hand over the delicate machinery of
government."
He laughed bitterly, and drew back the curtain with an impatient hand.
"Democracy! _Christian_ Democracy! _Vox Populi vox Dei!_ The sovereignty
and infallibility of the people! Pshaw! I would as soon believe in the
infallibility of the Pope!"
The crowds increased in the piazza until the triangular space looked
like the rapids of a swollen river, and the noise that came up from it
was like the noise of falling cliffs and uprooted trees.
"Fools! Rabble! Too ignorant to know what you really want, and at the
mercy of every rascal who sows the wind and leaves you to reap the
whirlwind."
Roma crept away from the Baron with a sense of physical repulsion, and
at the next moment, from the other window, she heard the blast of a
trumpet. A dreadful silence followed the trumpet blast, and then a clear
voice cried:
"In the name of the law I command you to disperse."
It was the voice of a delegate of the police. Roma could see the man on
the lowest stage of the steps with his tricoloured scarf of office about
him. A second blast came from the trumpet, and again the delegate cried:
"In the name of the law I command you to disperse."
At that moment somebody cried, "Long live the Republic of Man!" and
there was great cheering. In the midst of the cheering the trumpet
sounded a third time, and then a loud voice cried "Fire!"
At the next moment a volley was fired from somewhere, a cloud of white
smoke was coiling in front of the window at which Roma stood, and women
and children in the vagueness below were uttering acute cries.
"Oh! oh! oh!"
"Don't be afraid, my child. Nothing has happened yet. The police had
orders to fire first over the people's heads."
In her fear and agitation Roma ran back to the outer room, and a moment
afterwards Angelelli opened the door and stood face to face with her.
"What have you done?" she demanded.
"An unfortunate incident, Excellency," said Angelelli, as the Baron
appeared. "After the warning of the delegate the mob laughed and threw
stones, and the Carabineers fired. They were in the piazza and fired up
the steps."
"Well?"
"Unluckily there were a few persons on the upper flights at the moment,
and some of them are wounded, and a child is dead."
Roma muttered a low moan and sank on to the stool.
"Whose child is it?"
"We don't yet know, but the father is there, and he is raging like a
madman, and unless he is arrested he will provoke the people to frenzy,
and there will be riot and insurrection."
The Baron took from the table a letter he had written and sealed.
"Take this to the Quirinal instantly. Ask for an immediate audience with
the King. When you receive his written reply, call up the Minister of
War and say you have the royal decree to declare a state of siege."
Angelelli was going out hurriedly.
"Wait! Send to the Piazza Navona and arrest Rossi. Be careful! You will
arrest the Deputy under Articles 134 and 252 on a charge of using the
great influence he has acquired over the people to urge the masses by
speeches and writings to resist public authority and to change violently
the form of government and the constitution of the State."
"Good!"
Angelelli disappeared, the acute cries outside died away, the scurrying
of flying feet was no more heard, and Roma was still on the stool before
the fire, moaning behind the hands that covered her face. The Baron came
near to her and touched her with a caressing gesture.
"I'm sorry, my child, very sorry. Rossi is a dreamer, not a statesman,
but he is none the less troublesome on that account No wonder he has
fascinated you, as he has fascinated the people, but time will wipe away
an impression like that. The best thing that can happen for both of you
is that he should be arrested to-night. It will save you so many ordeals
and so much sorrow."
At that moment a cannon-shot boomed through the darkness outside, and
its vibration rattled the windows and walls.
"The signal from St. Angelo," said the Baron. "The gates are closed and
the city is under siege."