The following days passed quietly, and Don Alberto did not again attempt
to see Ortensia alone. He was, indeed, much occupied with more urgent
affairs, for Queen Christina had noticed the signs of his approaching
defection and was becoming daily more exigent. On his side, young
Altieri only desired to be dismissed, and instead of submitting to her
despotic commands in a spirit of contrition, he cleverly managed to obey
them with a sort of superior indifference that irritated her to the
verge of fury. She wreaked her temper on every one who came near her,
and so far forgot her royal dignity as to box the ears of poor Guidi,
the deformed poet, for pointing out a grammatical mistake in some
Italian verses she had composed. But he would not bear the indignity of
a blow, even from her royal hand, and on that same night he packed his
manuscripts and his few belongings and left Rome to seek his fortune
where he might. The ex-Queen had Rome searched for him the very next day
by a score of her servants, and it was one of her grooms who had
mistaken Cucurullo for Guidi, because he hardly knew the poet by sight,
and thought that hunchbacks were all very much alike.
Don Alberto had not neglected to speak to the Cardinal about Stradella's
mass, nor was he surprised at the careless way in which His Eminence
acquiesced to the proposal and agreed that the composer should receive
a handsome fee. The young man did not notice that his uncle's thin lips
twitched a little, as if with amusement. The truth was that Stradella
had come to him before Don Alberto, and had explained that it was
materially impossible to do what His Eminence had so kindly proposed
through his nephew. The Cardinal was well aware of the latter's passion
for the musician's wife, and was not at all inclined to encourage it,
judging that there was more political advantage to be gained by his
young kinsman's continued intimacy with the ex-Queen than by a
love-affair with Ortensia. For Christina was almost always engaged in
some intrigue, if not in actual conspiracy, and though her dealings of
this kind were as futile as her whole life had been, it was as well that
the Papal Government should know what she was really about.
A week before the Feast of Saint John, Ortensia was already packing her
own and Stradella's belongings for the journey to Naples. Though she and
Pina had left Venice with no baggage but a piece of white Spanish soap,
a comb, and a little yellow leather work-case, Ortensia now had enough
linen and gowns, and laces and ribbons, to fill two respectable trunks,
and Pina was well provided with all that a serving-woman needed in the
way of clothes.
Nothing had yet been said between the nurse and her mistress about Don
Alberto's last visit, but an explanation was inevitable. One day Pina
asked if she might have a small box or a valise for her own things.
'We shall not want you in Naples,' said Ortensia quietly. 'You shall
have your wages from the day when my uncle last paid you, and a present
of ten gold florins for your long service; but I shall not want you any
more.'
She had been folding some delicate laces while she spoke, and she did
not look up till she heard a little choking cry from the nurse. Pina
stood grasping the back of a chair to keep herself from falling, and her
face was grey.
'Good heavens!' cried Ortensia. 'Are you ill? What is the matter with
you?'
Pina could hardly speak; she slowly moved her bent head from side to
side as if in an agony of pain.
'It is death!' she moaned. 'You are sending me to die!'
Ortensia went to her and took her by the arm energetically, as if to
rouse her.
'This is absurd!' she cried. 'I know what you said to my husband before
we fled from Venice, and it is of no use to pretend that you are going
to die of grief if you leave me!'
But Pina only shook her head, and would not look up.
'And as for having been so very faithful,' Ortensia went on, in a tone
of displeasure, 'it was only the other day that you took money from Don
Alberto to let him see me when my husband was out and I was alone! Do
not deny it!'
Pina looked up now, with something of a born lady's pride in her eyes
and tone.
'I never took a bribe in my life!' she cried indignantly. 'Don Alberto
threatened to have me arrested and put to the question, and I was
afraid, and let him in. Yes, I was afraid. I am a coward, for I have
felt pain. That was done to me once, to make me confess, and more too!'
She held out her broken thumb, and her hand shook; and Ortensia
shuddered as she looked at it.
'He threatened to have my pardon cancelled, and to have me tortured
again, and then sent to the Convent of Penitent Women for life! Do not
be hard on me, for I was in one of those places of penance for three
weeks before your uncle got me a pardon and took me to his house to be
your nurse. Don Alberto frightened me--I was weak, cowardly--I let him
in!'
'Poor Pina! Then it is all true? He told me your story, but I did not
believe him.'
'It is all true. It was to be revenged on the Senator that I wanted you
to run away. But even so, I have helped you to be happy, for I know you
are. For the happiness you have had through me, forgive me! Do not leave
me here at Don Alberto's mercy, for the sake of Heaven! He means to
carry you off, I am sure he does; and if you escape him, he will visit
it all on me!'
Her hands strained on the back of the chair till the knuckles whitened
with the effort, while her body quivered as if she had been struck.
Ortensia understood that she had told the truth, and that the mere
thought of physical pain almost drove her mad.
'I will take you with me to Naples,' Ortensia said. 'You will be safe
there. I am sorry for you; but how can I trust a woman who is so easily
frightened?'
'Easily!' groaned Pina. 'You do not know what it is!'
But she took her mistress's hand and kissed it gratefully, with many
tearful blessings.
'I must confess something else,' she said presently, 'though it is
Cucurullo's business as well as mine. We have been so much afraid that
Don Alberto would try to carry you off by some daring stroke that
Cucurullo has secretly asked help of the two Venetian gentlemen, who are
still here, and they have promised to watch over you and protect you as
far as they can, even at the risk of their lives.'
'Cucurullo should not have gone to them without asking his master's
consent,' said Ortensia, not altogether pleased. 'Do you know what Don
Alberto told me? He said that Count Trombin and Count Gambardella are
Bravi, the most famous in Italy!'
'It is not possible,' replied Pina, shaking her head. 'I do not believe
it!'
'Don Alberto told me the truth about you, it seems,' Ortensia said
rather coldly. 'Why should he have invented a story about the other two
who signed the marriage register as witnesses? And besides, if he meant
to carry me off by force, would he not very likely employ just such men
to do the deed for him?'
Pina did not try to answer this argument, but her face showed her
incredulity.
'I have told you what I know,' she said. 'If anything should happen,
and if one of those two gentlemen should tell me to do anything for your
safety, am I to obey? I must know that, for perhaps there will be no
time to be lost.'
'I will ask my husband,' Ortensia said. 'Let us go on with our packing.'
Pina knelt down before the open trunk again. She had told her mistress
exactly what Cucurullo had reported to her after his second interview
with Tommaso, when the two men had met in the wine-shop of the Via dei
Pastini. On that occasion the ex-highwayman had told the hunchback that
his masters would be only too glad to protect Stradella and his wife
against Don Alberto, to the last drop of their blood, and that Cucurullo
was free to inform the musician of their promise or not, as he pleased.
It would make no difference, they had said; henceforth Don Alberto
should be watched continually, as a mouse is watched by a cat, or in
fact by two cats; at the very first intimation that he meant mischief,
they would send him to the permanent future abode of all
mischief-makers; and as for the consequences of their action, if they
were ever detected, they would take such a trifle as that upon
themselves. Don Alberto might be the nephew of all the popes and
anti-popes that had reigned, excepting those who were canonised saints,
and who might therefore be offended by the statement that they did not
care a cabbage who he was, not a farthing, not a fig! If he attempted
anything against the Lady Ortensia or her husband, they would not only
make him wish he were dead, but would at once oblige him by satisfying
his wish. This, at least, was Tommaso's version of what they had said,
and Cucurullo saw no reason to doubt the statement, since he had seen
the two gentlemen demolish and put to flight a whole watch in a few
moments in the affair of the serenade.
What the Bravi thought of their own situation on the morning of the Eve
of Saint John is difficult to imagine; for they were in one of those
exciting but equivocal situations in which modern financiers not
infrequently find themselves. Their feelings might possibly be compared
to those of Lord Byron when he had written offers of marriage to two
young ladies on the same day, and both accepted him; or to those of an
'operator' who has advised one intimate friend to buy a certain stock at
any price, and another to sell all he has, while he himself has not made
up his mind as to what he had better do; or to those of a jockey who has
taken money to pull a horse when he was sober, and has backed his mount
when he was drunk.
The Bravi had, indeed, concocted a plan by which they hoped to win their
money from three employers for doing three different things, each of
which was contrary to the nature of the other two. And Gambardella might
be satisfied if the attempt succeeded; but Trombin was not only his
friend's partner in the whole scheme and intent on getting an equal
share of the profits, he was also very foolishly in love with Ortensia
on his own account, and was pondering how he might substitute himself
for Don Alberto in the first act of the coming comedy, or drama.
The preparations were now completed, and the two cut-throats awaited the
Eve of Saint John without the least qualm or the smallest fear for their
own safety. Had they not three blank pardons in their pockets, for
themselves and Tommaso, to be filled in with their names if necessary,
or to be sold at a high price to some gentleman in trouble, if they did
not need them?
Nothing was wanting. Tommaso had found the very carriage for the purpose
and the horses for the first start, and he himself could drive them
four-in-hand without a postillion, for he was as good a whip as any man
who drove a papal stage-coach. He had seen Don Alberto again, and,
besides the blank pardons, he had obtained the necessary order from the
Governor of the city to pass out of any gate during the night. Don
Alberto had, of course, ascertained without difficulty that Tommaso was
only a servant who represented the two famous Bravi, and in the hands of
such men young Altieri felt that the enterprise could not fail.
The little house in the Via di Santa Sabina was also ready, but he knew
nothing of this arrangement, and was willing that the Bravi should keep
secret the spot where he was to meet Ortensia, if they preferred to do
so. When the evening came he meant that one of his own men, who had
served him in a score of adventures, should follow him and Tommaso
stealthily to the place of meeting and hold himself ready, within call,
after Tommaso had gone away with the money that was to be paid on
delivering up Ortensia.
Now before I go on to tell what happened on that memorable night, let
me say that if any of the events I am about to describe seem improbable
to a sceptical reader, he had better learn the Italian language and dive
into one of those yellow manuscript accounts of similar affairs which
were written out in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and of
which whole volumes can still be bought in Italy for a few francs. He
will not go far without finding matter quite as surprising as what I
shall put down in this tale, though in all likelihood much more
unsavoury to his modern taste. Moreover, there is proof that a good many
of those accounts are quite as accurate as what a fairly decent
newspaper gives us nowadays for truth; and they are not, as a whole,
more nasty, though they are differently worded, because in those days
Boileau was calling 'a cat a cat, and Rolet a rascal,' and even people
who were not poets called a spade a spade.
A little rain fell during the night before Saint John's Eve, but the
morning of the twenty-third of June was clear and calm, and the air had
cooled a little. In Rome, for those who do not fear a little sunshine,
June is the most beautiful of all the months, and the loveliest June
days are those that follow showery nights. Then all the trees of the
great villas are in full leaf and all the flowers are in bloom: the
gorgeous, stiff-necked, courtly flowers in the formal beds and borders
of the Pope's gardens; the soft, sweet-scented, shapely carnations that
grow in broken pots and pitchers outside the humble windows of
Trastevere; the stately lilies in the marble fountains behind the
princely palace, and the roses that run riot in the poor Jewish
burial-ground halfway up the Aventine; the heavy-scented tuberose and
the rich blossom of bitter orange in the high Colonna gardens, and the
sweet basil growing in a rusty iron pail in the belfry of Santa Maria
Maggiore, where the old bell-ringer eats the savoury leaves with his
coarse bread and cheese, while he rests after ringing the bells for high
mass and waits till it is time to ring them again at noon, and he waters
the plant from his drinking pitcher. Then the wild onion is in flower
that scares away witches and keeps off the Evil Eye, and from all the
broad Campagna the scent of new-mown hay is wafted through the city
gates. Then, though the sun does not yet scorch the traveller, the shade
is already a heavenly refreshment; and though a man is not parched with
thirst, a cold draught from the Fountain of Egeria is more delicious
than any wine, and under the ancient trees of the pagan grove the
rose-purple cyclamens and the dark wood-violets are still blooming side
by side. The air is full of the breath of life, the deep earth is still
soft, and all trees and flowers and grasses still feel the tender youth
of the spring that is not yet quite gone.
Then, too, the gilliflowers are out, and on Saint John's Eve before
Vespers the Canons used to bless thousands upon thousands of them, tied
up in neat bunches, in small flat baskets, and the poor of Rome came to
the door of the sacristy on the south side and received them to take
home to their sick and infirm, with the blessing of Saint John and a
reviving breath of blossoming nature. But on that day many tents and
booths of boughs were also set up on the broad green that stretched
away to the hedges of vineyards and vegetable gardens, where modern
houses now are built. In each booth there was a little kitchen, a mere
earthen fire-pot, such as the alchemists used of old, but larger, and
there were tables made of boards laid on trestles with rude benches for
seats, and there were little ten-gallon barrels of wine still
unbroached, and piles of loaves covered with clean white cloths, and
there was much green lettuce for salad, floating in tubs full of water,
and there were also fresh onions without end, with their long stalks and
big bunches of tiny flowers. For on the Eve of Saint John the Baptist
all fairies good and bad, and goblins that are black or grey, and the
white hobgoblins too, and the shadowy, unearthly lemures, have deadly
power; and ghosts and wraiths go wailing through lonely church-yards,
and the fountain sprites float on the water and laugh in the pale
moonlight; the misshapen things of evil that haunt murderers' graves
move strangely in the gloom; and though the air be still, the chains
that dangle from old gibbets all clank together wildly when the
blood-spectres hang upon them with wan hands and swing themselves to and
fro; then the banshee shrieks amongst the ancient elms, and deep down in
the crypt of far San Sisto, by the Latin Gate, the Shining Corpse rises
from his grave against the south wall and glares horribly all night at
his fellow-dead. No wonder that against such terrors the Roman people
thought it wise to eat snails fried in oil, and to carry onions in
blossom in their hands, and especially to fortify their quailing
spirits with many draughts of strong wine from Genzano, and Frascati,
and Marino, till the grey dawn forelightened above the Samnite hills,
and a decent man might go home to sleep safely by daylight, and be waked
only by the bells that rang out for high mass at ten o'clock.
So in the late afternoon all those excellent preparations had been made
for resisting ghostly fear, and as soon as the sun went down the
firepots in the booths would be filled with charcoal, and presently a
marvellous smell of frying oil would pervade the air, while thousands
upon thousands of little lights would be lighted, all made of big
snail-shells filled with olive oil and tallow and each having a tiny
wick in it. But the sun was not low yet, and the great bells were
ringing to call the people into the Basilica for Vespers.
Fine coaches drove up to the transept entrance, one after the other,
bringing cardinals and princes and Roman ladies of high rank by the
score; and their gorgeously liveried footmen followed them into the
church carrying fald-stools and kneeling-cushions as if for a great
ceremony in Saint Peter's; and though it was a cloudless day in June two
huge closed umbrellas, of the colours of each family, were strapped upon
the top of every coach, but those of the cardinals were scarlet. Amongst
the many arrivals came the blue and yellow liveries of Christina of
Sweden, and with her was Don Alberto in a wonderful summer suit of pale
dove-coloured silk, and he wore the collar of the Order of Saint
Gregory; there were several other gentlemen in her train, and not a few
ladies, so that she was royally attended. She herself wore a
three-cornered blue French hunting-hat on the top of her immense black
wig, and a short riding-skirt of green cloth, and boots like a man.
The reason why there was such a concourse of society at the Lateran on
the eve of the feast was that Alessandro Stradella was going to sing an
air himself, and direct a part of the service which he had composed for
the occasion; and besides, a vast number of the common people were
collected about the Basilica, both from the city and from the Campagna,
to enjoy the customary feast of snails as a defence against witches and
fairies, and they thronged into the church through the great east door
to hear the music too, till there was no standing-room at all in the
transepts and little in the nave and aisles for thirty or forty yards
below the tabernacle, close beside which the old organ used to stand.
For there was no loft then, and the instrument stood out in the church
with its wide wooden balcony, draped all in red, which is the colour
appropriate to the Apostles, and to Martyrs also, of whom Saint John the
Baptist is counted one. The organ was a new one then, and, by the same
token, I saw it when I was young, and the keyboard was strangely made;
for there were two black keys together everywhere where we have one, the
first being for the sharp of the natural below it, and the second for
the flat of the natural above; and this meant that the ingenious builder
had thought he could get rid of the 'wolf' and produce an instrument
with the combined advantages of the even temper and the uneven; and any
one who does not know what that means may ask a tuner to explain it for
him or not, just as he pleases; but the old organ had double black keys,
for I saw and touched them myself, and that was the very instrument to
which Stradella sang on the afternoon of Saint John's Eve so long ago.
It has probably been destroyed altogether, but Rome is a great place for
treasuring rubbish and rombowline, and perhaps the old keyboard still
exists, with stacks of wooden and metal pipes and bundles of worm-eaten
trackers, all piled up together and forgotten in some corner of the
crypt, or in some high belfry room or long-closed attic above the
gorgeous ceiling of the Basilica.
It is a long distance from the Palazzo Altieri to the Lateran, and the
Canons sent one of their coaches to convey Stradella to the church. He
brought Ortensia with him, and found Cucurullo already waiting at the
transept door.
'It is impossible to get in by this way, sir,' said the hunchback,
coming to the window of the carriage. 'All Rome is here, from the Sacred
College and the Queen of Sweden to the poorest notary's clerk, and it
would take an hour to make your way through the crowd. Below the
tabernacle the church is nearly half full of country people.'
'You will have to go in by the main door,' Stradella said to Ortensia.
'Cucurullo will take you as far up the church as possible, and will not
leave your side till I come. As for me, I must go round by the sacristy.
Get up behind, Cucurullo, and tell the coachman to take us to the other
entrance.'
Cucurullo obeyed with some difficulty, for a crowd of young idlers of
the poorer sort had collected to see the cardinals and nobles go in, and
they pressed upon him to touch his hump for luck, which should be at
least double on such a day; and most of them blessed him, lest he should
look round angrily and cast the Evil Eye upon them. But as he was short
he found it hard to reach the footman's hanging strap, till a couple of
strong fellows lifted him bodily and set him on the footboard. He
submitted kindly to the touches he felt, and thanked his helpers with a
smile. Then the coach drove away.
Leaning back in its depths, Ortensia wound her arms round her husband's
neck, and kissed him tenderly.
'I shall sing for you only, love,' he said. 'Even if you cannot see me,
you will know that every note comes from my heart, and is meant only for
your ears!'
'One day more, and I shall have you all to myself,' she answered softly.
The coach stopped again, and Cucurullo dropped from the footboard behind
and came to the door. Stradella had now no time to lose, and he let
Ortensia get out alone and go in with his man, and before she had
disappeared he was driven away to the door of the sacristy. A few
moments later he was in the singers' robing-room, hastily getting into
the purple silk cassock and the spotless lace-trimmed cotta which he had
to wear when he appeared in the organ-loft of a basilica, or among the
singers of the Sistine Chapel. He brought these things, with his own
score of his music, in a purple cloth bag which Ortensia had worked for
him, and she had embroidered a lyre on it in silver thread, with the
word 'Harmonia' in cursive letters for a motto.
Half the singers were already in the organ loft, and the Canons were in
their places droning the psalms for the day antiphonally, and very much
through their portentous noses, even as they do to-day. As the noise
they made was neither musical nor edifying, Roman society was conversing
without the least restraint, except from the fact of being packed rather
close together in a comparatively small space. Here and there little
openings in the crowd marked the positions of the Cardinals and their
parasites, of Queen Christina with her court, and of two or three of the
greatest Roman ladies, such as the Princess Orsini and the Princess
Rospigliosi, whose husbands were Princes of the Empire as well as Roman
nobles. They all talked pleasantly and jested, and even laughed, as if
they were anywhere but in church, only pausing when the Gloria Patri was
sung from time to time at the end of a psalm.
Far overhead the level beams of the lowering sun poured through the
northwest windows. From the ancient mosaic of the tribune vault the
still faces of heavenly personages looked down at the doings of a
half-believing age with a sad and solemn surprise.
While they talked, the ex-Queen and many others glanced occasionally at
the balcony of the organ, and when Stradella at last appeared a little
murmur of satisfaction ran through the courtly throng, quite different
in tone from the hum of conversation that had preceded it; and as he
looked down the great singer saw many acquaintances who made signs of
greeting to him, and the ex-Queen waved her painted fan high in the air,
while a sprightly little Neapolitan duchess, who was in Rome for a visit
and had known him a long time, actually blew him a kiss from the tips of
her small gloved fingers. He smiled gravely, nodded once or twice, and
disappeared behind the other singers.
From the other side of the balcony, where it ran round the organ to the
rickety wooden steps, his gaze searched the distance, looking for
Ortensia; and at last he saw her on the outskirts of the crowd of common
people and peasants, leaning against the corner of the third pilaster
from the main entrance on his left as he looked down the church. His
eyes were good, and, besides, though she wore a large veil exactly like
that of many of the other ladies, he was sure it was she because
Cucurullo was beside her, unmistakable by his deformity, even at that
distance and in the shadow that darkened the nave below. Stradella had a
roll of music in his hand and, looking towards his wife, he held it
above his head for a signal; he immediately saw her raise her hand and
wave it a little, and Cucurullo held up his broad hat too. They had seen
him and he was satisfied; and at that moment the Canons reached the end
of the last psalm, and Stradella joined in the Gloria that followed it,
still standing where he was and looking at Ortensia in the distance. He
let his voice ring out to her, as different in tone from all the other
voices in the loft as strings are different from wood and brass
instruments, and every syllable he sang reached her ear; and now she
raised her hand again to show that she had heard him, and he held up his
little roll of music to return her signal, and then went to the front of
the organ to direct the concerted piece that was to follow.
If there had been time, he would have stopped and looked back again, for
as he turned he had the impression, without the certainty, that Trombin
and Gambardella were standing at the edge of the crowd on the other side
of the nave from Ortensia. She had told him of the step Cucurullo had
taken, and he had not blamed his man; on the contrary, the thought that
the two Bravi were perhaps near her now was comforting, and he wished
that he were quite sure of having seen them. As he took his place at the
desk to direct, he glanced to his right again, but the singing men close
to him hindered him from seeing the body of the church.
He had not been mistaken, however, for the Bravi were there and just in
sight, at some little distance behind Ortensia, near the pilaster next
beyond the one by which she stood. They were both dressed in black, and
though it was a warm afternoon in June, each carried a black cloak on
his arm. Their long hair was parted and smoothed with even more than
customary neatness, and Trombin's yellow locks were so wonderfully
arranged that they might easily have been taken for a wig. His pink face
wore a more than usually boyish and innocent expression, and as he stood
beside his companion listening to what the latter was saying in an
undertone, his eyes gazed steadily at Ortensia's graceful figure. Both
men were evidently indifferent to the possibility of her turning and
seeing them, and in fact they had taken up their present position in the
hope of being seen by Stradella himself from the organ, acting the part
of protectors to his wife.
'We have trusted each other in much more dangerous affairs than this,'
Gambardella said, almost in a whisper, 'but I have never before known
you to lose your heart to the subject of our operations.'
'"Subject" is good!' answered Trombin. '"Subject" is excellent! You
speak like a teacher of anatomy! But, so far, you are right, for I
cannot take my eyes from that adorable lady. My friend, do you notice
the exquisite curve from the throat to the shoulder and from the
shoulder to the elbow? And the marvellously suggestive fall of the
skirt? And the reflection of the sunshine from overhead in her wonderful
hair where it shows from under her veil? Answer me, have you ever seen
anything more perfect in art or nature?'
'No, nor anything more complete than your madness,' answered
Gambardella. 'If you speak a little louder she will hear you!'
'And turn her angel's eyes to mine!' whispered Trombin sentimentally.
'There is no poetry in your soul, my friend! You were certainly born
without any heart, or, if I may say so, with a heart like a German
prune, all dried up and hard, and needing to be boiled for hours in
syrup to soften it! On the other hand, I may compare my own to the fresh
fruit on the tree in July, delicate, juicy, and almost palpitating in
the sunshine with its own sweetness!'
Gambardella smiled sourly and shook his head.
'You once had a good intelligence,' he said, 'but it is shattered. Are
you capable of listening to me like a sensible being, while that lady is
in sight? If not, come with me behind the pilaster, for I have something
to say before we separate.'
As if admitting that he was helpless so long as he could gaze on
Ortensia, Trombin allowed his friend to lead him away into the shadow.
'Now, listen,' said Gambardella. 'We are playing three games, and if you
call yours one, it is the fourth, and the stakes are high. The smallest
mistake or hesitation will lose us everything, as you know, and before
long we shall be living in an attic again and supping on salt fish and
olives. But if we win we shall have money enough to enjoy a whole year
of luxury, and with a little economy to live comfortably for a much
longer time.'
'I know it,' answered Trombin, on whom the stronger will of his
companion made an impression. 'I shall keep my head at the right moment,
never fear!'
'But in order that we may risk nothing, I had better play the first part
of the comedy, since that is the most important to the success of the
whole.'
The two cut-throats looked at each other steadily for some moments, as
if neither meant to give way, and possibly they remembered their first
meeting, a good many years earlier; for their acquaintance had begun in
a sharp quarrel, in which they had almost instantly fallen to fighting,
and it was not till they had fenced for nearly twenty minutes, without a
scratch on either side, though each was trying to kill the other, that
they had both lowered their rapiers in mutual admiration, and had
forthwith made the alliance which had never been shaken since.
Yet, though they were so evenly matched in strength and skill,
Gambardella was the more determined character, and in important moments
like the present his decision generally prevailed; and so it ended now,
for Trombin at last turned his round eyes away and nodded his assent.
'Very well,' he said, in a tone of resignation. 'Then I will wait for
Stradella at the door of the sacristy. That was the original plan. Hark!
He is singing now!'
The two came out from behind the pillar and stood still to listen; and
Gambardella's eyes gazed steadily at the vast mosaic above the tribune,
while his friend's look fixed itself again on Ortensia's graceful
figure, and he feasted his sight, while his ears were filled with the
most rare music that the world had ever heard in that day.
Only those who have listened to a beautiful voice singing in the Lateran
towards evening can understand that, in spite of the grievous
disfigurements of the barocco age, and the exaggerated modern
decorations of the nineteenth century, the 'Mother of all Churches,' as
the Basilica is called, can still seem the most deeply and truly
hallowed place of worship in Christendom. There is a mystery in it at
the sunset hour which is felt by all men, though none can explain it;
the light glows and fades there as nowhere else, the shadows have a
sweet solemnity of their own, and consummate art, or supreme
good-fortune, has made the vast nave and colonnaded aisles responsive to
the softest notes the human voice can breathe. First the full organ
blares out triumphantly alone, and by and by the chorus, borne up by the
master instrument, swells from a hundred throats in such tremendous
harmonies that the marble pavement seems alive and thrilling under a
man's feet; yet the words are not lost in a clashing din of senseless
noise, for every one of them is complete and reaches the astonished ear
unbroken and distinct. Then, in an instant, the enormous gale of sound
is hushed and leaves no echo, and one voice alone is singing a low
melody, divinely spiritual as an angel's prayer. It rises presently,
full and strong, but every syllable rings out clear and perfect, even to
the outer doors; it sinks to all but a whisper, yet each delicate
articulation floats unbroken to the remotest corner of the outer aisle,
till he who listens feels the word vibrating in his heart rather than in
his outward ears.
Ortensia felt more than that, for the music was that of the man she
loved so well, and the single voice was his too, and the prayer it sang
was for her, and was in her heart while she listened; and, moreover,
Alessandro Stradella was not matched in voice or genius by any singer of
his age. It would be as hopeless to attempt a description of his singing
on that day as to analyse the feelings that thrilled Ortensia. There are
delights that must be felt to be believed, and only three are noble,
for they have their sources in true love, and in supreme art, and in
honourable fight for wife and child and country. Ortensia felt the first
two of these together; but he who dies, not having known even one of
them, had better not have lived at all.
As afternoon turned to evening, the straight golden beams overhead
melted to a red glow that spread downwards and illuminated all the great
church for a little while; then the light deepened to purple, and that
softened to violet, and the candles about the high altar under the
tabernacle shone out through thin clouds of incense like many stars.
Again Stradella's voice was heard alone, and Ortensia sank upon her
knees beside her pillar, though it was not yet quite time for kneeling.
It was as if she could bear no more of such intense pleasure without
praying to heaven that it might be hers hereafter to love her true love
to all ages, and for ever to hear his voice singing to her in a place of
peace.
The Bravi had now parted company, and Trombin had quietly gone out of
the church, leaving Gambardella alone. The dark-faced man in black moved
slowly and noiselessly as a shadow; he crossed the nave far down by the
door, and walked up the outer aisle on the south side, till he could go
no farther up for the crowd; then he turned to his right, making his way
quietly through the multitude wherever the people were least closely
packed, and he emerged at last not far from where Ortensia was kneeling,
and with all the appearance of having come out of the thick of the
press, which was exactly what he wished her to believe.
She was still kneeling, and Cucurullo was standing beside her, hat in
hand. It was now so dark in the body of the Basilica that Stradella
could not possibly see any one there, especially as he was dazzled by
the many candles that illuminated the upper end of the church.
Gambardella bowed gravely and bent down to speak near Ortensia's ear.
'I have a message from the Maestro for you,' he said, almost in a
whisper.
Ortensia had already looked up with a little surprise, which now
increased.
'A message?' she repeated. 'We came here together, and he has not left
the organ loft since!'
'Precisely,' answered Gambardella, unmoved. 'I was standing in the crowd
just below, and when he had finished directing the motett he made me a
sign to go to the steps at the back. I went, and he was already halfway
down the ladder. He seemed much agitated. You must have noticed how
strangely his voice thrilled in that last piece he sang.'
'Yes. Tell me what he said!'
Ortensia was already breathless with anxiety, and as she spoke she got
upon her feet. Gambardella helped her.
'He had a note in his hand. It was a warning which some one had brought
to him in the loft. Altieri's plan is to conceal a number of men in your
apartment this last night that you are to sleep there. When all is quiet
they are to gag you and your husband, and carry you downstairs to Don
Alberto's carriage. If you attempt to go home to the palace the scheme
will inevitably succeed.'
Ortensia stood leaning back against the pilaster very white. Gambardella
continued.
'The Maestro asked me if I knew of any place of safety to which you
could both go to-night before leaving Rome to-morrow. I told him that my
friend and I have just hired a small house in a quiet part of the city,
which is at your service, especially as we have not yet moved to it. He
begged me to take you there at once before Don Alberto can leave the
church, and possibly see you driving away with me.'
'But my husband----' interrupted Ortensia.
'My friend Trombin is already at the door of the sacristy, and will
bring him to you as soon as he can get away. It will be nearly half an
hour before the Benediction is over. But there is no time to be lost.
Ah--I forgot! He wished Cucurullo to hasten to the palace and get his
manuscripts and his lute, and any small necessaries for you that can be
hidden under a cloak. Your man can get there, and be on his way back
before Don Alberto can be at home. Even if the men are already concealed
in the apartment they will not trouble Cucurullo for fear of betraying
their master. As for your woman, Altieri has probably had her arrested
and taken away.'
Gambardella had purposely told his story so that Cucurullo could hear
it, and had glanced at him from time to time to be sure that he
understood.
'Are you afraid to go alone?' asked the Bravo, not at all
contemptuously.
'No, sir. I am not afraid. Where shall I find my master when I have got
the things?'
'Do you know where Santa Prassede is, in that narrow street near Santa
Maria Maggiore?'
'Certainly, sir. Shall I wait at the side door of the church? It is a
lonely place.'
'Yes. Be there as soon as you can. The house is close by, but I could
not easily make you understand which it is.' Gambardella turned to
Ortensia. 'Will you come with me?' he asked. 'My friend and I have a
carriage, and it is at the main door.'
Ortensia laid her hand on the Bravo's arm, not doubting that she was
obeying her husband's wishes for her safety and his. It would have taken
more than Don Alberto's rude assertion to make her and Stradella
distrust the men who had helped them so efficiently in their flight. The
two might be Bravi, as he said, but they were friends, and in such a
case as this they were the very friends the young couple needed.
The three entered the inner aisle to avoid all possibility of being seen
by Don Alberto, and hastened towards the main door. Though Ortensia was
not timid, her heart beat a little faster when she thought of the danger
from which she was escaping. It was already nearly dark in the church,
but the twilight was still bright outside, and the carriage was standing
quite close to the old porch; for the present portico was not built
then, and the steep carriage road ended in a square patch of pavement
before the doors.
Cucurullo glanced at the coachman and recognised Tommaso, who nodded to
him with a friendly smile. Then the hunchback hurried away on his
errand, leaving Gambardella to take care of Ortensia, who was already
getting in.
'To Santa Prassede,' said the Bravo to the coachman, in a tone meant for
Ortensia's ears.
Then he got in, shut the door, and seated himself beside her, bolt
upright, with his rapier between his knees, and his hands clasped on the
hilt. Ortensia glanced at him in the dim light, and noticed his attitude
with satisfaction, and not without reflecting on the terror she would
feel if Don Alberto were in his place. Nothing could be more reassuring
than Gambardella's behaviour.
'I suppose the carriage will go back for my husband?' she said. 'The
Canons lent us one of theirs to bring us to the church and take us home,
but you will not trust to that, will you?'
'No, indeed! If you do not mind being alone in the house for twenty
minutes I will go back with this carriage, or it can go without me and I
will stay with you.'
'I shall not be afraid,' Ortensia answered rashly. 'On the contrary, I
shall feel much safer if I know that you are going for my husband
yourself, for there can be no mistake then.'
'Precisely,' Gambardella said. 'That will be the best way.'
'How kind you are!' Ortensia sighed, and leaned back in the deep seat.
She did not know Rome very well yet, and it was the hour when all the
little snail-shell lamps were being lighted for the feast, and their
glimmer still further confused her; besides, she was not quite sure
where Santa Prassede was, nor in what sort of neighbourhood it was
situated. In that wide region, then almost without inhabitants, and
mostly divided into hedged vineyards and market-gardens, small groups of
houses stood here and there, more or less alike, but generally in the
neighbourhood of the ancient churches which had been built before the
city was unpeopled in the Middle Ages. Ortensia was not in the least
surprised when the carriage stopped before a decent-looking little
house, after ascending a steep hill. Gambardella opened the carriage and
got out to help her down.
'Are you quite sure that you do not mind being left alone here for a
while?' he asked, as he unlocked the door of the house, and held it open
for her to go in.
'If you can give me a light I shall not mind being alone at all,'
Ortensia answered, and she went in.
He followed her at once, shut the door behind him to keep out the chilly
breeze, and began the process of getting a light with flint and steel
and tinder and one of those wooden matches dipped in sulphur, which had
then been recently invented. By the sparks he made Ortensia saw that he
was standing beside an old marble table on which stood a brass lamp with
a three-cornered bowl that slid up and down on a stem.
The place had the peculiar odour of small Italian houses that are built
of stone, that stand in vineyards or market-gardens, and that are rarely
opened; it is a smell compounded of the odour of the worm-eaten
furniture, smoke-stained kitchen ceiling and wall, and the dusty plaster
within the house, combined with a faint sub-odour of growing things,
from vines to broccoli, which finds its way through the cracks of badly
fitting doors and windows.
When there was light at last, Ortensia saw that she was in a commonplace
little whitewashed vestibule, from which a single flight of stone stairs
led directly to the door of the living rooms above. Gambardella went up
first, holding the brass lamp low down for her to see the steps. The
room into which he led her had a Venetian pavement, and was sufficiently
well furnished. The walls were painted to represent views which were
presumably visible from the windows by day.
'Are you quite sure there is no one in the house?' asked Ortensia, who
liked the prospect of solitude less and less as the time for being left
alone came nearer.
'There is a bedroom at each end,' answered Gambardella. 'You shall see
for yourself. Above this there is a sort of attic which can only be
reached from outside by steps that also lead to a terrace on the roof.'
He showed her the two bedrooms, which had evidently been just cleaned
and put in order, and looked very neat. Ortensia was reassured.
'And what is there downstairs?' she asked.
'A kitchen and a dining-room,' Gambardella answered. 'But I must be off
if I am to fetch the Maestro. We shall be here in half an hour at the
utmost.'
Just then a great bell not very far off tolled three strokes, then four,
then five, and then one, and an instant later it rang out in a peal.
'It is Ave Maria,' Gambardella said. 'The Benediction is over by this
time. You had better come down with me and hook the chain inside the
front door.'
Ortensia followed him down the stairs again, and he carried the lamp. As
he went she heard him hurriedly repeating the Angelus.
'"Angelus Domini nuntiavit,"' he began, quite audibly, but the words
that followed were said in a whisper.
Ortensia repeated the prayer to herself too, partly by force of habit,
no doubt, but partly because it was a comfort to say it with the
kind-hearted friend who had once more intervened to help her and her
husband in time of danger. Even the Bravo, who could say his prayers
uncommonly fast, had not finished when they reached the foot of the
stairs, and as Ortensia set the lamp on the corner of the yellow marble
table she distinctly heard him say the first words of the third
responsory.
'"And dwelt with us,"' she answered quietly and clearly.
He laid his hand on the lock of the hall door, and when he turned to her
his eyes met hers with a look she had never seen. Both repeated the
third Ave Maria aloud, while he gazed earnestly at her pure young face,
so sweetly framed in the soft folds of the veil. Then without waiting
for the final prayer he opened the door, and as he shut it after him she
heard him say something aloud, but the words were so strange and
unexpected that she repeated them to herself twice while she was hooking
the chain before she quite realised what they were, and understood them.
'"And Judas went out and hanged himself."'
That was what he had said as he went away.