"No man on earth, sir, is more convinced of Colonel della Rebbia"s honour than myself! But the writer of the letter is now known."
"Who wrote it?" exclaimed Colomba, making a step toward the prefect.
"A villain, guilty of several crimes--such crimes as you Corsicans never pardon--a thief, one Tomaso Bianchi, at present confined in the prison at Bastia, has acknowledged that he wrote the fatal letter."
"I know nothing of the man," said Orso. "What can have been his object?"
"He belongs to this neighbourhood," said Colomba. "He is brother to a man who was our miller--a scamp and a liar, unworthy of belief."
"You will soon see what his interest in the matter was," continued the prefect. "The miller of whom your sister speaks--I think his name was Teodoro--was the tenant of a mill belonging to the colonel, standing on the very stream the ownership of which M. Barricini was disputing with your father. The colonel, always a generous man, made very little profit out of the mill. Now Tomaso thought that if Barricini got possession of the stream there would be a heavy rent to pay, for it is well known that Barricini is rather fond of money. In short, to oblige his brother, Tomaso forged the letter from the bandit--and there"s the whole story.
You know that in Corsica the strength of the family tie is so great that it does sometimes lead to crime. Please read over this letter to me from the attorney-general. It confirms what I have just told you."
Orso looked through the letter, which gave a detailed relation of Tomaso"s confession, and Colomba read it over his shoulder.
When she had come to the end of it she exclaimed:
"Orlanduccio Barricini went down to Bastia a month ago, when it became known that my brother was coming home. He must have seen Tomaso, and bought this lie of him!"
"Signorina," said the prefect, out of patience, "you explain everything by odious imputations! Is that the way to find out the truth? You, sir, can judge more coolly. Tell me what you think of the business now? Do you believe, like this young lady, that a man who has only a slight sentence to fear would deliberately charge himself with forgery, just to oblige a person he doesn"t know?"
Orso read the attorney-general"s letter again, weighing every word with the greatest care--for now that he had seen the old lawyer, he felt it more difficult to convince himself than it would have been a few days previously. At last he found himself obliged to admit that the explanation seemed to him to be satisfactory. But Colomba cried out vehemently:
"Tomaso Bianchi is a knave! He"ll not be convicted, or he"ll escape from prison! I am certain of it!"
The prefect shrugged his shoulders.
"I have laid the information I have received before you, monsieur. I will now depart, and leave you to your own reflections. I shall wait till your own reason has enlightened you, and I trust it may prove stronger than your sister"s suppositions."
Orso, after saying a few words of excuse for Colomba, repeated that he now believed Tomaso to be the sole culprit.
The prefect had risen to take his leave.
"If it were not so late," said he, "I would suggest your coming over with me to fetch Miss Nevil"s letter. At the same time you might repeat to M. Barricini what you have just said to me, and the whole thing would be settled."
"Orso della Rebbia will never set his foot inside the house of a Barricini!" exclaimed Colomba impetuously.
"This young lady appears to be the _tintinajo_[*] of the family!"
remarked the prefect, with a touch of irony.
[*] This is the name given to the ram or he-goat which wears a bell and leads the flock, and it is applied, metaphorically, to any member of a family who guides it in all important matters.
"Monsieur," replied Colomba resolutely, "you are deceived. You do not know the lawyer. He is the most cunning and knavish of men. I beseech you not to make Orso do a thing that would overwhelm him with dishonour!"
"Colomba!" exclaimed Orso, "your pa.s.sion has driven you out of your senses!"
"Orso! Orso! By the casket I gave you, I beseech you to listen to me!
There is blood between you and the Barricini. You shall not go into their house!"
"Sister!"
"No, brother, you shall not go! Or I will leave this house, and you will never see me again! Have pity on me, Orso!" and she fell on her knees.
"I am grieved," said the prefect, "to find Mademoiselle Colomba so unreasonable. You will convince her, I am sure."
He opened the door and paused, seeming to expect Orso to follow him.
"I can not leave her now," said Orso. "To-morrow, if----"
"I shall be starting very early," said the prefect.
"Brother," cried Colomba, clasping her hands, "wait till to-morrow morning, in any case. Let me look over my father"s papers. You can not refuse me that!"
"Well, you shall look them over to-night. But at all events you shall not torment me afterward with your violent hatreds. A thousand pardons, monsieur! I am so upset myself to-night--it had better be to-morrow."
"The night brings counsel," said the prefect, as he went out. "I hope all your uncertainty will have disappeared by to-morrow."
"Saveria," Colomba called, "take the lantern and attend the Signor Prefetto. He will give you a letter to bring back to my brother."
She added a few words which reached Saveria"s ear alone.
"Colomba," said Orso, when the prefect was gone, "you have distressed me very much. Will no evidence convince you?"
"You have given me till to-morrow," she replied. "I have very little time; but I still have some hope."
Then she took a bunch of keys and ran up to a room on the upper story.
There he could hear her pulling open drawers, and rummaging in the writing-desk in which Colonel della Rebbia had kept his business papers.
CHAPTER XIV
Saveria was a long time away, and when she at last reappeared, carrying a letter, and followed by little Chilina, rubbing her eyes, and evidently just waked out of her beauty sleep, Orso was wound up to the highest possible pitch of impatience.
"Chili," said Orso, "what are you doing here at this hour?"
"The signorina sent for me," replied Chilina.
"What the devil does she want with her?" thought Orso to himself. But he was in a hurry to open Miss Lydia"s letter, and while he was reading it Chilina went upstairs to his sister"s room.
"My father, dear sir, has not been well," Miss Nevil wrote, "and he is so indolent, besides, that I am obliged to act as his secretary. You remember that, instead of admiring the landscape with you and me the other day, he got his feet wet on the sea-sh.o.r.e--and in your delightful island, that is quite enough to give one a fever! I can see the face you are making! No doubt you are feeling for your dagger. But I will hope you have none now. Well, my father had a little fever, and I had a great fright. The prefect, whom I persist in thinking very pleasant, sent us a doctor, also a very pleasant man, who got us over our trouble in two days. There has been no return of the attack, and my father would like to begin to shoot again. But I have forbidden that. How did you find matters in your mountain home? Is your North Tower still in its old place? Are there any ghosts about it? I ask all these questions because my father remembers you have promised him buck and boar and moufflon--is that the right name for those strange creatures? We intend to crave your hospitality on our way to Bastia, where we are to embark, and I trust the della Rebbia Castle, which you declare is so old and tumble-down, will not fall in upon our heads! Though the prefect is so pleasant that subjects of conversation are never lacking to us--I flatter myself, by the way, that I have turned his head--we have been talking about your worshipful self. The legal people at Bastia have sent him certain confessions, made by a rascal they have under lock and key, which are calculated to destroy your last remaining suspicions. The enmity which sometimes alarmed me for you must therefore end at once. You have no idea what a pleasure this has been to me! When you started hence with the fair _voceratrice_, with your gun in hand, and your brow lowering, you struck me as being more Corsican than ever--too Corsican indeed!
_Basta!_ I write you this long letter because I am dull. The prefect, alas! is going away. We will send you a message when we start for your mountains, and I shall take the liberty of writing to Signorina Colomba to ask her to give me a _bruccio, ma solenne_! Meanwhile, give her my love. I use her dagger a great deal to cut the leaves of a novel I brought with me. But the doughty steel revolts against such usage, and tears my book for me, after a most pitiful fashion. Farewell, sir! My father sends you "his best love." Listen to what the prefect says. He is a sensible man, and is turning out of his way, I believe, on your account. He is going to lay a foundation-stone at Corte. I should fancy the ceremony will be very imposing, and I am very sorry not to see it.
A gentleman in an embroidered coat and silk stockings and a white scarf, wielding a trowel--and a speech! And at the end of the performance manifold and reiterated shouts of "G.o.d save the King." I say again, sir, it will make you very vain to think I have written you four whole pages, and on that account I give you leave to write me a very long letter. By the way, I think it very odd of you not to have let me hear of your safe arrival at the Castle of Pietranera!
"LYDIA.
"P.S.--I beg you will listen to the prefect, and do as he bids you. We have agreed that this is the course you should pursue, and I shall be very glad if you do it."