"Ah! why so astonished? I have read the Abate Melchior Cesarotti, with
whose translation all Italy is enraptured. But, Signor Claude," she
added gaily, "remember my caution: you are under my guidance to-night."
I pressed the hand of the amiable girl, and assured her that I would
abide entirely by her advice. I could not sufficiently admire that
innate goodness of heart which made her so interested in the welfare and
safety of a comparative stranger.
The noble staircase, the illuminated corridors, and magnificent saloons
of the palace, were crowded with all the rich, the gay, and the
luxurious of Nicastro and the villas scattered along the coast, and
fresh arrivals were incessantly alighting from vehicles of every
description--the lumbering and gorgeous old-fashioned chariot, the
clattering calesso, and the humble jog-trot sedan. Some guests came on
horseback; but none who could avoid it came on foot: to use his legs on
such an occasion would be considered a blot on the escutcheon of a
Neapolitan gentleman; who, if he has the least pretension to dignity,
deems some sort of vehicle an indispensable appendage. But the French
had appropriated a vast number of horses for baggage and other purposes;
and those cavaliers who had lost their equipages were fain to steal in
unseen among the press, or remain at home; forfeiting the rich harvest
which the open halls and ample tables of the Prince of Sant' Agata
promised to every needy gentleman, sharp-witted dowager, and desperate
rogue.
"Truly," thought I, while surveying the gay assemblage, "the land is not
so desolate as we have been led to imagine!" But probably so dazzling a
concourse would not have met, but for the presence of our army; which
now lay between them and their hated enemies.
In a spacious saloon ornamented with statues and paintings, where the
lights of the girandoles were flashed back from gilded pendants and
shining columns and sparkled in bright gems and brighter eyes, stood the
prince, receiving the stream of company glittering with epaulettes,
orders, stars, and jewellery, which poured in through the folding-doors.
He was a withered little man, whom I had often seen at Palermo. Like too
many who were present, he was said to have succumbed to General Regnier;
but now, encouraged by our presence, he had hoisted the flag of the
Bourbons on his palace, and donned the green uniform of the Sicilian
Scoppetteria, or Fusiliers of the Guard, while the star of St. Mark the
Glorious sparkled on his breast.
None of our staff had yet arrived; and the Signora Bianca presented me
formally to her relation the prince; who inquired, with an affectation
of interest, about the health of the general--the number of our
forces--what news of the enemy: but I saw him no more that night. Moving
onward with the throng, we found ourselves passing through the opposite
folding-doors, opening into another room of the suite, which was the
grand scene of operations. Here the tables for faro and rouge-et-noir
were already glittering with ducats, piastres, and yellow English
guineas, mingled with Papal scudi and Venetian sequins. Seats were
seized, and places occupied, with the utmost eagerness: but I had not
made up my mind whether to play or not. Standing behind Bianca's chair,
and leaning over the back of it, I was much more occupied with her snowy
shoulders, her uplifted eyes, and parted rosy lips, when she turned
towards me, than with the company; of whom she gave me an account. To
my surprise, she included in her enumeration one or two very jaunty
cavaliers, who were supposed to be leaders of banditti--or, to speak
more gently, free companions--who had been raised to the rank of
patriotic soldiers by turning their knives and rifles against the
French, and co-operating with the chiefs of the Masse.
I confessed that I did not feel quite at home in such mixed society; but
Bianca only smiled at my scruples, shrugged her fair shoulders, and made
no reply.
A soft symphony, which at that moment floated from the music-gallery
through the lofty apartments, preluded the famous waltz of Carolina, and
announced that a few of the younger visitors preferred the more polite
and graceful amusement of the dance to rattling dice and insipid cards.
"Deuced hot here, is it not?" said Lascelles, my brother aide-de-camp,
as he passed me, adroitly handing a very pretty girl through the press
round the tables. "The dancers are beginning; for the honour of the
corps, you must join us, or some of those fellows of the 81st may march
away with your fair companion." He moved away, with a knowing wink.
"'T is the little Signora Gismondo--very pretty, is she not?" said
Bianca. The girl might have been termed supremely beautiful; and not
more so than unfortunate: but of that more anon. She waved her hand
invitingly to Bianca, and with her long satin train swept through the
folding-doors. Fearful of being anticipated by some of our staff, whom I
saw in close confab' with Santugo, I solicited the hand of his fair
cousin for the first waltz.
She glanced inquiringly at her aunt, who, smiling, bowed an assent, as
she swept a pile of ducats towards her. I drew the white-gloved hand of
Bianca across my arm; and in a moment more we were whirling in the giddy
circle of the waltzers.
With so fair a partner, and a heart buoyant with youth, vivacity, and
love, how joyously one winds through the mazes of that voluptuous dance
which is peculiarly the national measure of Italy. Never shall I forget
the happiness of that "hour of joy"--the time when Bianca raised her
soft, hazel eyes to mine, as if imploring the additional support which
my arm so readily yielded--the beaming smile and hurried whisper,--the
half caress, with soft curls fanning your cheek, the flushing face and
flashing eye--oh, the giddy, joyous waltz! It has a charm which will
alike outlive prudish censure and pungent satire: even that of the witty
Lance Langstaff. I mentally bequeathed Santugo to the great master of
mischief, when he dragged us back to the gambling saloon.
After a scanty allowance of ices, wine and fruit had been handed round,
or scrambled for at the side tables, the most important business of the
evening commenced in earnest. Then came the tug of war! Hundreds of
eager eyes, some of them bright and bewitching, were greedily gloating
on the shifting heaps, which glittered on the tables of the prince's
hell: for, by thus disgracing his palace, his altezza cleared an annual
income of twelve thousand ducats. The closeness of the evening,
combined with the pressure of the crowd at the tables, soon rendered the
atmosphere of the saloon quite oppressive; the faces of the ladies
became flushed, and the iced malvasia was most acceptable and delicious.
The general and staff had by this time arrived, and I soon became aware
that we were the lions of the evening: our scarlet uniforms and silver
epaulettes attracted universal observation. My fair Italian was
sensible of this, and seemed proud to have me as her cavalier: her eyes
sparkled with animation, and her vivacity increased; while her little
heart bounded with delight at this momentary triumph over sundry
disappointed cavalieri and female rivals. Vanity apart, a rich foreign
uniform on a tolerably good figure has a great attraction for female
eyes. But counts and countesses, cavaliers and signoras, even dark-robed
ecclesiastics (for there was a sprinkling of them), soon became
completely absorbed in the affairs of the table: for gambling is the
ruling passion on the continent.
"They neither have nor want any other amusement than this last," says
Kotzebue, writing of the Neapolitans. "The states of Europe are
overthrown; they game not the less. Pompeii comes forth from its grave;
they game still. Vesuvius vomits forth flames, yet the splendid
gaming-table is not left. The ruins of Paestum a few miles distant,
shining as it were before every eye, must be discovered by strangers:
for the Neapolitans are gaming. The greatest dukes and princes are
keepers of gambling-tables." As it was in the capital, so was it in all
the provinces.
Most of the ladies were attended by cavaliers; some of the married, by
that indescribable contingent on Italian matrimony (which we must hope
is disappearing)--_a cicisbeo_. A courtly old gentleman who had
attended the Viscontessa during her married life, now sat beside her;
sorting her cards, handing ices, and smiling as sweetly as if she were
still a belle: he was the Signor Battista Gismondo, a major of the loyal
Masse. On the other side sat Bianca, watching the various turns of the
game; although, for a time, she refused to take a part in it herself.
We were seated at the faro table, the acting banker of which was the
Duke of Bagnara, a professed gamester, and friend of the prince; as also
were the croupiers, il Cavaliere Benedetto del Castagno, and Castelermo,
a knight of Malta, with whom I had been on terms of intimacy at Palermo.
The latter was bailiff, or commander, of St. Eufemio: but, alas! in the
wars of Buonaparte, the commanderie had been scattered, and the
preceptory house reduced to ruins. He was a tall, swarthy,
broad-chested, and noble-looking fellow, and still wore the habit of his
order: a scarlet uniform, lapelled and faced with black velvet, and
laced with gold, having epaulettes of the same, with an eight-pointed
cross of silver on each; a large silver cross of eight points figured on
the breast, and an embroidered belt sustained a long cross-hilted sword.
Coal-black mustachios, protruding fiercely from his upper lip, completed
his soldier-like aspect. One of the last knights of his order, he was,
perhaps, also the last of his proud and distinguished race; and he
certainly looked a thorough Italian cavalier of the old school.
Before the banker lay heaps of coin, to which the gamesters continually
directed their greedy eyes, flashing alternately with rage, exultation,
or envy, as the piles of gold and silver changed owners, and were swept
hurriedly into bags and purses by the long bony fingers of sharp-eyed
priests, and sharper old ladies: who were too often winners to be
pleasant company at the tables generally. Although the duke was the
nominal holder of the bank, Santugo (who had lost considerably, and was,
therefore, out of humour) informed me that the prince had the principal
share in it, and that the profits were divided between them, when the
company separated. I could not but feel the greatest disgust at the
place, and contempt for the majority of the company; where women of rank
and beauty degraded themselves by mixing with high-born blacklegs and
professed gamesters, whose tricks and expressions were worthy of the
meanest "hell" in London or Paris.
One hideous fellow, in particular, attracted my attention. He was a
dwarf, and bulky in figure, but scarcely four feet in height, and
miserably deformed: his head and arms would have suited a strong man of
six feet high; but the head was half buried between his brawny shoulders
and a prodigious hump, which rose upon his back, and his arms reached
far below his bandy knees. He had the aspect as well as the proportions
of a baboon; for masses of black and matted locks hung round his knobby
and unshapely cranium, while a bushy beard of wiry black hair, and
thick, dirty mustachios, with fierce eyes twinkling restlessly on each
side of an enormous nose, made up a visage of satyr-like character. His
person contrasted strangely with the garb he wore, which was the serge
robe of San Pietro di Pisa: a brotherhood suppressed in 1809 by a decree
of Murat, King of Naples.
This monster was the most successful player present: he eyed the cards
in the hand of others more keenly than his own suite; and I soon became
convinced that he knew the backs as well as the fronts of them: yet the
cards were perfectly new. He was opposed to the Viscontessa, and
notwithstanding her skill, acquired by the nightly gamblings of
five-and-thirty years, he stripped her of a thousand ducats; every bet
he made being successful: his long ungainly arms and large brown hands,
found continual occupation in sweeping the money into a vast pouch which
hung at his knotted girdle; and he always accompanied the act with such
a provoking grin of malignant exultation, that I felt inclined to box
his ears.
Bianca d'Alfieri blushed and trembled with shame and sorrow, on
beholding the defeat and bitter mortification of her aunt; who sat like
a statue of despair, when her last ducat vanished into the capacious bag
of the hideous, little religioso: but her misery was unheeded by those
around, and even by her son, whose angry gestures and flashing eyes led
me to suppose that he was encountering an equal run of bad fortune at
the rouge-et-noir table. He had acted all night as a sort of assistant
to the banker, whom he often rendered uneasy by the enormous stakes he
answered.
"Bravone! sharper! oh, villain hunchback!" exclaimed the old lady,
kindling with uncontrollable fury at the loss of her gold; "I will
punish thee yet! My jewels are still left, and demon, though thou art
in face and figure, never shalt thou conquer Giulia d'Alfieri."
She unclasped a tiara of brilliants from her head, removed a costly
necklace from her bosom, and with trembling haste drew off her rings and
bracelets, which she cast on the table as a stake. The banker and the
knight of Malta attempted to interpose; but the hunchback had already
accepted the challenge with a fiendish grin of delight, promising to
answer the stake on his own responsibility.
"Madonna mia! my dearest aunt, beware!" urged the plaintive voice of
Bianca: but the Viscontessa heard her not. With straining eyes she
watched the fatal cards, which once more were told out slowly and
deliberately; while every eye was fixed, and every lip compressed, as if
the fate of Europe lay on the turning up of these "bits of painted
pasteboard."
The Viscontessa lost! Clasping her hands, she looked wildly round her
for a moment; Gismondo, her venerable cicisbeo, presented his arm, and
led her from the table in an agony of chagrin. Bianca unconsciously
laid her hand on mine, and sighed deeply.
"I am a sharper and bully, am I, illusstrissima?" chuckled the
hunchbacked rogue, as he swept the glittering jewels into his pouch, and
chuckled, wheezed, grinned, and snapped his fingers, like an animated
punchinello.
"Bravo! bravissimo! The signora called me ass too, I think! A hard
name to use in this illustrious company. Ho, ho! there are few asses so
richly laden, and fewer bullies whose bags are so well filled."
"Silence, fellow!" cried Castelermo, sternly; "silence, and begone!"
"Instantly," replied the other, with a dark look; "but keep me in
remembrance, signor. I am Gaspare Truffi--thou knowest me: all on this
side of Naples know me; and some on the other side, too." Here his eyes
encountered mine, which I had unconsciously fixed upon him, with an
angry frown of astonishment and contempt.
"Ho, ho! Signor Subalterno," said he, not daunted in the least; "spare
your frowns for those whom they are calculated to frighten. I have not
seen you playing to-night--will you try your hand with me? But, no; you
dare not: you are afraid to risk a paltry bajocco!"
"Signor Canonico!" I replied, sternly, "beware how you venture to insult
or taunt me. Recollect, rascal, that neither the presence upon which you
have intruded yourself, nor your black robe, may be a protection against
a horsewhip, should I be provoked so far as to use one on that unshapely
figure of yours."
"Corpo di Cristo!" cried he, while his eyes glared with avarice and
fury; "will you answer my stake, Signor Claude?"
"Undoubtedly: but was it the devil told you my name?"
"You have guessed it, my good friend,--Satan himself," he answered, with
a grin; and flung his great heavy purse upon the table.
"A thousand ducats on the black lozenge," said I.
"_Double or quit!_" he rejoined, and I bowed an assent, though I had not
above twenty ducats in my purse. But enraged at his insolent arrogance
in the presence of so many, I was determined to go on, neck or nothing,
and punish him, or myself, for engaging in a contest so contemptible.
He staked his money; which it was agreed by the banker and croupiers
must be entirely at his own risk, and independent of them. I staked my
word, which was of course deemed sufficient. The cards were dealt with
a precision which gave me full time to repent (when too late) of the
desperate affair in which I had become involved with a regular Italian
sharper. I dreaded the disgrace of incurring a debt of honour, which
could not be conveniently discharged: for I had no means of raising the
money, save by bills on England. There was also to be feared the
displeasure of the general; who, like all my countrymen, was stedfastly
opposed to gambling, and strictly enforced those parts of the "Articles
of War" referring to that fashionable mode of getting rid of one's
money. Agitated by these disagreeable thoughts, I knew not how the game
went: the room, seemed to swim around me; and I was first aroused to
consciousness by Bianca's soft arm pressing mine, and by a rapturous
burst of exultation from the company, who had crowded, in breathless
expectation, around the table.