The doctor of the Engineers, not entirely satisfied with his diagnosis
of Roma's illness, prescribed a remedy of unfailing virtue--hope. It was
a happy treatment. The past of her life seemed to have disappeared from
her consciousness and she lived entirely in the future. It was always
shining in her eyes like a beautiful sunrise.
The sunrise Roma saw was beyond the veil of this life, but the good
souls about her knew nothing of that. They brought every piece of
worldly intelligence that was likely to be good news to her. By this
time they imagined they knew where her heart lay, and such happiness was
in her white face when as soldiers of the King they whispered treason
that they thought themselves rewarded.
They told her of an attempted attack on the Vatican, with all its
results and consequences--army disorganised, the Borgo Barracks shut up,
soldiers wearing cockades and marching arm in arm, the Government
helpless and the Quirinal in despair.
"I'm sorry for the young King," she said, "but still...."
It was the higher power working with blind instruments. Rossi would come
back. His hopes, so nearly laid waste, would at length be realised. And
if, as she had told Elena, he had to return over her own dead body, so
to speak, there would be justice even in that. It would be pitiful, but
it would be glorious also. There were mysteries in life and death, and
this was one of them.
She was as gentle and humble as ever, but every hour she grew more
restless. This conveyed to her guards the idea that she was expecting
something. Notwithstanding her plea of guilty, they thought perhaps she
was looking for her liberty out of the prevailing turmoil.
"I will be very good and do everything you wish, doctor. But don't
forget to ask the Prefect to let me stay in Rome over to-morrow. And,
Sister, do please remember to waken me early in the morning, because I'm
certain that something is going to happen. I've dreamt of it three
times, you know."
"A pity!" thought the doctor. "Governments may fall and even dynasties
may disappear, but judicial authorities remain the same as ever, and the
judgment of the court must be carried out."
Nevertheless he would speak to the Prefect. He would say that in the
prisoner's present condition the journey to Viterbo might have serious
consequences. As he was setting out on this errand early the following
morning, he met Elena in the anteroom, and heard that Roma was paying
the most minute attention to the making of her toilet.
"Strange! You would think she was expecting some one," said Elena.
"She is, too," said the doctor. "And he is a visitor who will not keep
her long."
The soldier who brought Roma her breakfast that morning brought
something else that she found infinitely more appetising. Rossi had
returned to Rome! One of the men below had seen him in the street last
night. He was going in the direction of the _Piazza_ Navona, and nobody
was attempting to arrest him.
Roma's eyes flashed like stars, and she sent down a message to the
Major, asking to be allowed to see the soldier who had seen Rossi.
He was a big ungainly fellow, but in Roma's eyes who shall say how
beautiful? She asked him a hundred questions. His dense head was utterly
bewildered.
The doctor came back with a smiling face. The Prefect had agreed to
postpone indefinitely the transfer of their prisoner to the
penitentiary. The good man thought she would be very grateful.
"Ah, indefinitely? I only wished to remain over to-day! After that I
shall be quite ready."
But the doctor brought another piece of news which threw her into the
wildest excitement. Both Senate and Chamber of Deputies had been
convoked late last night for an early hour this morning. Rumour said
they were to receive an urgent message from the King. There was the
greatest commotion in the neighbourhood of the Houses of Parliament, and
the public tribunes were densely crowded. The doctor himself had
obtained a card for the Chamber, but he was unable to get beyond the
corridors. Nevertheless, the doors being open owing to the heat and
crush, he had heard something. Vaguely, for five minutes, he had heard
one of their great speakers.
"Was it ... was it, perhaps...."
"It was."
Again the big eyes flashed like stars.
"You heard him speak?"
"I heard his voice at all events."
"It's a wonderful voice, isn't it? And you really heard him? Can it be
possible?"
Elena, the sad figure in the background of these bright pathetic scenes,
thought Roma was hoping for a reconciliation with Rossi. She hinted as
much, and then the fierce joy in the white face faded away.
"Ah, no! I'm not thinking of that, Elena."
Her love was too large for personal thoughts. It had risen higher than
any selfish expectations.
They helped her on to the loggia. The day was warm, and the fresh air
would do her good. She looked out over the city with a loving gaze,
first towards the Piazza Navona, then towards the tower of Monte
Citorio, and last of all towards Trinità de' Monti and the House of the
Four Winds. But she was seeing things as they would be when she was
gone, not to Viterbo, but on a longer journey.
"Elena?"
"Well?"
"Do you think he will ever learn the truth?"
"About the denunciation?"
"Yes."
"I should think he is certain to do so."
"Why I did it, and what tempted me, and ... and everything?"
"Yes, indeed, everything."
"Do you think he will think kindly of me then, and forgive me and be
merciful?"
"I am sure he will."
A mysterious glow came into the pallid face.
"Even if he never learns the truth here, he will learn it hereafter,
won't he? Don't you believe in that, Elena--that the dead know all?"
"If I didn't, how could I bear to think of Bruno?"
"True. How selfish I am! I hadn't thought of that. We are in the same
case in some things, Elena."
The future was shining in the brilliant eyes with the radiance of an
unseen sunrise.
"Dear Elena?"
"Ye-s."
"Do you think it will seem long to wait until he comes?"
"Don't talk like that, Donna Roma."
"Why not? It's only a little sooner or later, you know. Will it?"
Elena had turned aside, and Roma answered herself.
"_I_ don't. I think it will pass like a dream--like going to bed at
night and awaking in the morning. And then both together--there."
She took a long deep breath of unutterable joy.
"Oh," she said, "that I may sleep until he comes--knowing all, forgiving
everything, loving me the same as before, and every cruel thought dead
and gone and forgotten."
She asked for pen and paper and wrote a letter to Rossi:
"DEAREST,--I hear the good news, just as I am on the point of
leaving Rome, that you have returned to it, and I write to ask you
not to try to alter what has happened. Believe me, it is better
so. The world wants you, dear, and it doesn't want me any longer.
Therefore return to life, be brave and strong and great, and think
of me no more until we meet again.
"You will know by what I have done that what you thought was quite
unfounded. Whatever people say of me, you must always believe that
I loved you from the first, and that I have never loved anybody
but you.
"You were angry with me when we parted, but more than ever I love
you now. Don't think our love has been wasted. ''Tis better to
have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.' How beautiful!
ROMA."
Having written her letter, and put her lips to the enclosure, she
addressed the envelope in a bold hand and with a brave flourish: "All'
Illustrissimo Signor Davide Rossi, Camera dei Deputati."
"You'll post this immediately I am gone, Sister," she said.
Elena pretended to put the letter away for that purpose, but she really
smuggled it down to the Major, who despatched it forthwith to the
Chamber of Deputies.
"And now I'll go to sleep," said Roma.
She slept until mid-day with the sun's reflection from the white plaster
of the groined ceiling of the loggia on her still whiter face. Then the
twelve o'clock gun shook the walls of the Castle, and she awoke while
the church bells were ringing.
"I thought it was my dream coming true, Sister," she said.
The doctor came up at that moment in a high state of excitement.
"Great news, Donna Roma. The King...."
"I know!"
"Failing to form a Government to follow that of the Baron, appealed to
Parliament to nominate a successor...."
"So Parliament...."
"Parliament has nominated the Honourable Rossi, the King has called for
him, the warrant for his arrest has been cancelled, and all persons
imprisoned for the recent insurrection have been set at liberty."
Roma's trembling and exultant eyelids told a touching story.
"Is there anything to see?"
"Only the flag on the Capitol."
"Let me look at it."