DUINO--_continued_
Full of long-sounding corridors it was,
That over-vaulted grateful gloom,
Thro' which the livelong day my soul did pass,
Well pleased, from room to room.
Tennyson.
The covered passage before mentioned leads one straight to the principal
staircase. It is a graceful winding staircase, and rare and interesting
prints cover the walls. On the first landing, after passing through
two anterooms (the second of which contains a collection of fine old
Viennese china), one enters the dining-room. It is a large room with a
balcony, from which there is a beautiful view of Miramar and the sea.
There are some most appropriate pictures of eatables by various Dutch
masters on the walls. It was a curious taste of these gentlemen to paint
things to eat. Perhaps they were on the verge of starvation--that
might account for it. I should have thought they might have found more
interesting studies, though, than "gralloched" hares and fishes with
their necks broken. I know nothing of Art (this is constantly dinned
into me), so can speak absolutely without prejudice. An old telescope
that once belonged to Nelson, and was presented by him to Count Della
Torre (Thurn), Admiral of the King of Naples, is in this room. It is a
very good glass; one can see things through it almost as well as with
the naked eye, but it requires some manipulation to get the focus right.
[Illustration: THE BALCONY]
People dine well in Austria, but you get a superabundance of veal. Veal
for lunch, veal for dinner, veal cooked in many ways and concealed under
numerous devices, but always veal. There is a fearful invention called
"Schnitzl" that is the worst form of all. Foreigners say we English live
on beef and mutton, but in Austria they live on veal, so we have the
pull over them in the way of variety. One never sees grown-up cattle
here. Poor things! they don't get the chance of reaching years of
maturity, they are always killed in the first spring of their youth.
Opening into the dining-room is a small drawing-room. This contains
mostly family portraits. The most noticeable among them is the portrait
of the late Princess Hohenlohe. She must have been very beautiful, and
has a very English appearance. She was the last Della Torre.
There are two pictures here that I am convinced are by Morland. No
one knew this before, so I am very proud at having made the
discovery. Some other animal pictures are ascribed to a Venetian
artist--Longhi--portraits of horses. They are extraordinary horses--very
fat, and they appear to have been taught to beg, as they are almost all
standing up on their hind legs. I am told this is a playful habit that
Spanish steeds had.
You go up another flight of stairs and arrive at the door of the
gallery. This is a long passage, especially designed for ghosts to walk
in--not the sort of place one would care to be left alone in after dark.
There are some very fine pictures of the Venetian and Dutch schools
here. One of the best is the "Entrance of the Dogaressa Morosina
Morosini into Venice," by Tintoretto--all the figures are said to be
portraits. At the further end of the gallery is the great banqueting
hall. There is a portrait here by Van Dyck of one Matthew Hofer, a
former owner of Duino. An old chronicle calls him "a tempestuous and
arrogant youth, who had always his hand on his sword, and whose whole
life was a drama of blood." In his portrait he has a proud and handsome
face, with dark melancholy eyes.
The other full-length portraits represent some of the Lords of
Milan--Della Torre--who after many years of unending civil wars were
vanquished by the rival family, the Visconti, and obliged to fly from
Milan. They took refuge near their kinsman, Pagano IV., then Patriarch
of Aquileia, and soon gained wealth and great power in their adopted
country. They were a turbulent and overbearing race, and many are the
tales still told by the people of their violent or heroic deeds.
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF MATTHEW HOFER (Van Dyck)]
Notice the painting of the gentleman on the ferocious-looking horse,
that appears determined to jump on you whichever part of the room
you retire to. He was quite a character, and had a special talent for
eloping with other people's wives. On one occasion he was condemned
to be beheaded, and the soldiers of the Emperor were sent to Duino to
arrest him. He treated them with great hospitality, and gave them a
splendid banquet--probably in this very room. After dinner he retired to
his own apartment, and as all the entrances to the castle were securely
guarded, the unsuspicious soldiers thought nothing of it. Suddenly they
heard a shot from the sea, rushed to find out what it was, and perceived
their former prisoner on board a ship in full sail. Our friend fired
the shot to let his would-be captors know they need not wait for him--a
proof of his kindly and considerate nature! There was an underground
passage leading from the library (the entrance may still be seen) to
the shore. The soldiers did not know this, and their host had omitted to
inform them of the fact.
[Illustration: THE BANQUETING HALL]
It is said that he was retaken years afterwards and deprived of his
head; but there is another account that he made a compact with the
devil and escaped again, this time on a black horse, one of His Satanic
Majesty's own particular breed, that carried him safely over the sea to
Aquileia, where horse and rider disappeared, and were seen no more.
The old man on the gray steed who is so cruelly trampling down four poor
individuals very scantily clothed, is Napoleon I. Della Torre. One
story says he rode over his own children in this way, but it is a base
calumny; the children are four cities which he conquered for Milan,
allegorically represented in the picture.
In the library I examined the entrance to the famous underground
passage. You see a trap-door cleverly concealed in the wooden floor,
and on lifting it, a small staircase leads you down to a very diminutive
room, built in the thickness of the massive outer wall. On your left
is the passage. It is very small--in fact, you have to proceed on your
hands and knees, and after a few yards you are stopped by a quantity of
stones and earth.
The father of "our host" wished to have the old passage reopened, and
set people to work, but it seems they were so frightened at finding
a number of human bones mixed with the soil and rubbish, that it was
impossible to persuade them to work on. They said it would be dangerous
to clear it, as the castle would inevitably fall in consequence--a mere
excuse, of course. I think the mysterious passage must descend through
the terrace tower which rises against the middle of the side of the
castle that faces the sea, and come out somewhere in the "Riviera,"
meeting the old staircase spoken of in the preceding chapter.
[Illustration: THE RIVIERA]
I must say this passage interested me much more than all the many books
of the library, but I noticed an enormous old "missal," most elaborately
painted by hand on parchment, a very valuable work of the fifteenth
century.
There is a charming little recess in the library, where there are some
beautiful miniatures, one or two fine old pastels, and some splendid old
china; this corner would be a paradise for an antiquary.
[Illustration: A RECESS IN THE LIBRARY]
A portrait of "Martin the Giant," a big man clad in armour, looks down
threateningly from one of the dark corners of the room. He was a great
warrior and statesman in his native Lombardy, but finally went off to
the Crusades, and after showing great prowess, is said to have been
taken and skinned alive by the Saracens (1147).
The walls of the drawing-room, next to the library, are covered with
pictures, mostly of religious subjects. I suppose I ought to expatiate
on them, but the artistic side of my nature is exhausted, and I should
probably admire the wrong ones.
What I can safely speak of is the view from the large terrace over the
afore-mentioned tower, where we used to have breakfast. It was charming
to sit there in the early morning and look out upon that grand expanse
of boundless sea, with the little wavelets dancing in the sunshine; it
was almost cool too at that time of the morning.
* * * * *
Here the "energetic lady" remarks in an undertone that at this early
hour she believes I was generally in bed, and that she did not remember
having _once_ seen me at breakfast on the terrace. Fortunately I can
allow such remarks to pass unnoticed.
* * * * *
There is a mysterious charm about all these old rooms, they are so
quiet, so restful, with their stained floors, their black oak carving,
the tapestried hangings, and the old furniture. There are no bright
colours, everything is subdued; no glare, always a sombre half-light.
One feels inclined to walk softly in them, and speak in whispers, so as
not to disturb their restfulness. There is something almost sad about
their silence; they belong to a time long ago, not to the present day,
and they seem to be waiting--waiting for the years that have passed to
come again.
[Illustration]