"Name him not to me; I have no patience!"
"Thou hast never patience when I bring thee news: and it is tiresome of thee, for one must talk, or die of ennui in this court!"
"Then let it be of something better." Eloisa answered in a tone which showed her distaste of the subject.
"Choose thou--since one can never know thy whim. Shall it be of that famous Saplana who runneth away to put himself in hiding;--for fear--_verily for fear_--the Commander of Famagosta! afraid to die like a man! A comedy!--one might laugh if it were less craven."
"One knoweth not if he be in hiding, since he is not found; he may be a traitor, yet not a coward too."
"Yes, one knoweth, bella Contarini mia: did I not promise thee news? And thou wilt never guess it."
"It was our Admiral Mocenigo who found him?" Eloisa asked eagerly.
"Nay; not "our Admiral Mocenigo";" the other answered lingering on the name with a fine mimicry of her tone; "not thine nor mine. Thou hast a foolish way with thee of mine and thine, as if all that came from Venice were held close to thy little heart.--How goes it with thy handsome Signor Bernardini?"
"Oh, Ecciva! The Chamberlain of the Queen! how darest thou? Thou art over free with thy foolish speech."
"Nay, little timid maid; it is thou who art foolish not to see--not to see----. Ah, well, he is but a man for all he is Venetian; and thou--thou art a child and hast no eyes."
"What meanest thou, Ecciva? Nay, thou _shalt_ tell me." She caught her companion"s hand as Ecciva made a feint of turning away.
"So----; now there is something found that doth not tax thy fickle patience, since we speak of the splendid Bernardini! Thou hast ever thine adoration ready for a Venetian."
Eloisa flushed indignantly, but she answered staunchly: "Not only I--but every one who loveth what is n.o.ble. Thou knowest, Ecciva, the Court is full of his praises."
"Aye, is it, my little one? As well it may be! Then what harm that I should sing them too? Verily, I think he is n.o.ble beyond all others;"
her taunting tone became suddenly earnest. "And this I came to tell thee."
"This is not news," the other answered coldly, having found it difficult to keep the pace of Ecciva"s changing admirations, for the Cyprian maiden was easily captured by any demonstration of power; "and thou camest to bring me news."
"Hast ever thought that the Chamberlain of the Queen would woo a bride?"
Dama Ecciva asked lightly, but unconsciously opening and closing her slender henna-stained fingers, straining them into the soft palms with strenuous motions, while she waited for her companion"s reply.
"If I knew his secrets or dreamed them, I would not tell thee--being his friend," Eloisa exclaimed indignantly, "such talk ill befitteth the dignity of Her Majesty"s maids of honor. What is thy news?"
Ecciva came closer and laid one hand on Eloisa"s wrist, tightening her clasp while she spoke in low, slow, insinuating tones--holding her with her strange gaze.
"This is no news to thee--that I--that I----? Tell me Eloisa, dost thou not see?"
The Venetian turned from her uneasily.
"Thou hast shewn me nothing with all thy talk of the Bernardini;" she spoke the name unwillingly, Ecciva seemed to force her to continue the theme, and it was with difficulty that she could withdraw her hand from the Grecian maiden"s sinuous clasp. "Let us talk no more; for thou hast no news of real matter."
"Not of the Bernardini, since thou wilt not hear it. But how if I knew of a bride for him?"
"I think he would not ask of whom thou speakest!" Eloisa tried to laugh and shake off the spell. "I will listen no more, Ecciva."
But the other paid no heed. "How if I knew of a bride for him?" she repeated; "of a most ancient house of Cyprus; n.o.ble enough to mate with him--for out of it came one of the queens of the land----. And if--and if she would not say him nay!--How then, Carina? For thou, "being his friend," wouldst wish to see him win such favor----?"
"It is not the Dama Margherita de Iblin," Eloisa asked with sudden eager interest.
"The Lady Margherita!" Ecciva echoed with a scornful toss of her head.
"Doth one seek a bride no longer young when one is a man like that?
Nor--nor beautiful?--She is not beautiful!"
"She is more rare than beautiful," Eloisa retorted, piqued. "For she is n.o.ble, like the Signor Bernardini: and her face is like her soul."
"They should not trust their secrets to so young a maid!" the Lady Ecciva cried tauntingly.
She had suddenly flushed and grown pale again. Then a new thought came to her. "But she also is a Dama di Maridaggio--_she also_. Thou mightest tell that for a bit of gossip to the Queen, who, perchance, hath influence with the Signor Bernardini." She had laid her hand again on Eloisa"s, with an insistent touch.
"Why dost thou say, _she also_?"
"That is for thy puzzle--to amuse thee, carinissima; for verily thy brain is dull. It is no wonder with the gravity of this court! But happily to-morrow--thou shalt see to-morrow how the people shout to him, for Cyprus doth owe him honor--and Her Majesty more than life. It is the Bernardini who hath done it all--more than the Soranzo, or the Mocenigo--more even than our great Admiral of Cyprus. Thou shalt see!"
Eloisa fell easily into praises of her hero, and her tongue was unsealed. "To go at night, with only a poor fishing-skiff and a handful of men, to steal back the little king from the galley of Naples--it was not easy! But how should one think of peril when the Prince was in danger?--They are both like that--he and she."
"All knights are like that, or they would be craven: that was no honor to him. But what woman went with him from the palace? I watched them going; it was a night like some great poem!"
"That was our dear Lady of the Bernardini; lest the Prince should be strange without some loving face about him, and none can smile him into quiet, as she with her gracious ways; and they feared a sound, for the galley lay close under the fortress. So quietly they went, along the sh.o.r.e, lingering where the nets are thrown by the shallows, to take the galley by surprise--the Lady of the Bernardini shrouded in the mantle of a fisher-woman."
"And after?--When they had found him? For it was not told where they hid the child--or I heard it not."
"Yes--now it may be known; thanks be to our Mater Sanctissima!" Eloisa answered devoutly. "They floated about in the fishing skiff until they reached the private galley of the Signor Bernardini--so far around the coast that it would be safe for the Prince. And of the peril, the Lady of the Bernardini had no thought. The galley of His Excellency was dark and with no sign of action, yet it had been manned for a cruise the night before the treason--the poor Signor Bembo was to have gone therein"--her voice faltered and they both crossed themselves, the horror of that night was still so new.
"The crew were hidden within it," she continued after a moment"s pause, "and if there had been pursuit, it would have started swiftly for Venice, to put the Prince in safety."
"How came this tale to thee?" Dama Ecciva asked with a sudden twinge of jealousy--"we both being of the court?"
"Nay, nay, Ecciva," Eloisa pleaded; "we both are here to do our duty, and in time of peril--thou knowest well--one may not ask counsel on the house-tops; and this was for life or death. How might they hope to surprise the galley of Naples, if it has been told to all the Court?"
"Thou, then?"
"Listen, Ecciva! Since it is past, thou shalt see how they are n.o.ble, this Mother and her son! They left with me that night a message for the dear Queen whom they might not reach with speech, to spare her greater anguish, if they came not back. For, oh my G.o.d, how she hath suffered!"
"It is yet more a poem," Ecciva exclaimed, stirred by the hope of further romance, and already half ashamed that she had shown her momentary feeling of jealousy. "The message--tell it!"
""If we come not back, thou wilt tell our beloved Lady that we have sought to wrest the child from the galley of Naples; for rumor hath it that he is hidden there. And if he be there, we will bring him, or give our lives to save him. Tell her our galley waiteth far, to take the Prince to Venice if, from pursuit, there should be need to fly."
"But--listen Ecciva--they said, "_if we come not again, and our galley should be found waiting on the coast, then tell her that our lives were little to express our love; and she shall not mourn that we have given them for her and for her child_."--Oh, Ecciva!" she ended with a long sigh of adoring appreciation.
Ecciva broke the tension with her exclamation: "No, Contarini mia, all knights are _not_ like that: I said it but to tease thee. Tell it to the Dama Margherita with a face like that, and she will make it a second "Kypria," for she hath, verily the gift. I have not such a tale of knighthood to tell thee: yet, if thou carest for my tidings they would make a canto for the new Kypria of the Dama Margherita, in contrast to thine. And first of the traitor Saplana--_of whom there is news_."
Eloisa greeted the tidings with an exclamation of relief.
"He--and the precious group of n.o.ble villains--or of villain n.o.bles--one"s tongue takes twist in talking trash--the more when it is true; a precious group of traitors, all on the wild seash.o.r.e--how the Dama Margherita would bring out the booming of the waves! These doughty villains fleeing because, forsooth, they feared the fleet of Venice!--tossing their reins on the necks of the steeds that brought them, and leaving them to wander at their will. A little gold and their arms and bucklers in the fishing skiff that brought them to the galley of the n.o.ble Ferdinand--the goodly King of Naples,--his well-beloved son, Alfonso, wore not for long the t.i.tle of the "Prince of Galilee!"--Is it a pretty tale for the poem of the Margherita? The tale of the fleeing villains!"
"But who went with the Commander?--Which others?"