"It was five-and-twenty years ago," he answered slowly. "Five-and-twenty years rotting in a Roman prison. That has been my fate. I was a young man then. You see me now."
He held up his arms, and let them drop again heavily to his side. It was a gesture full of sad dramatic pathos, but in that little room there was no one to observe it, no one to pity him for those white hairs and deep-drawn lines. But that was nothing. It was not pity that he wanted.
There was silence. Both men were absorbed in their own thoughts. Signor Bartlezzi was thunderstruck and completely unnerved. The perspiration stood out upon his forehead, and he could feel his hands and legs shaking. This was a terrible and altogether unexpected blow to him. It was not the thought of that twenty-five years" lonely captivity which was oppressing him, so much as the fact that it was over--that the day of release had come, and that it was indeed Count Marioni who stood before him, alive and a free man. That was the serious part of it. Had it not been proclaimed that the imprisonment was for life? That had certainly been the sentence. A gleam of hope flashed in upon him.
Perhaps he had escaped from prison. If so, the sooner he was back there the better.
"Was not the sentence for life?" he gasped.
The Count a.s.sented, shaking his head slowly.
"Yes, for life," he answered bitterly. "That was the sentence, imprisonment for life."
"Then you have escaped?"
The same slow shake of the head. The Professor was bitterly disappointed.
"No. At five-and-twenty years a prisoner with a good-conduct sheet is restored to liberty. My time came at last. It was a weary while."
"What evil fate kept him alive all that time?" the Professor muttered under his breath. "Men are buried deep who pa.s.s within the walls of an Italian prison. What had kept this frail old man alive?" Before the night was over, he knew!
The Professor sat on the edge of his chair, limp and dejected. He was quite powerless to frame any speech of welcome or congratulation.
Fortunately, it was not expected. His visitor was deep in thought, and some time pa.s.sed before he appeared even to notice the presence of Signor Bartlezzi. At last, however, he looked up and spoke.
"I fear that all things have not gone well with us!" he said sadly. "On my release, I visited the old home of our society in the Piazza di Spiola at Rome. It was broken up. I met with no one who could tell me anything about it. It was doubtless because I knew not where to go; but I had fancied--I had hoped--that there might have been some one whose memory would not have been altogether dulled by time, who would have come to meet me at the prison gates, and welcome me back into the living world once more. But that is nothing. Doubtless the day of my release was unknown. It was the hot season at Rome, and I wandered wearily about, seeing no familiar face, and unable to hear anything of our friends. I might have had patience and lingered, but it seemed to me that I had been patient so long--it was all exhausted. From there I went to Florence, with the same result. At last I came to London, and by making cautious inquiries through my bank, I discovered your address. So I have come here."
"Ah, yes, yes," answered the Professor, with blinking eyes, and still completely bewildered. "You have come here. Just so. Just so."
"The numbers have fallen off, I suppose? Yet you still have meetings?"
"Oh, yes; certainly. We still have meetings," the Professor a.s.sented spasmodically.
The little old man nodded his head gravely. He had never doubted it.
"When is the next?" he asked, with the first touch of eagerness creeping into his voice.
Signor Bartlezzi felt a cold perspiration on his forehead, and slowly mopped it with a red cotton handkerchief. The calmness of despair was settling down upon him. "He must know," he thought. "Better get it over."
"To-night," he answered, "in an hour--perhaps before. They"ll be dropping in directly."
"Ah!" It was a long-drawn and significant monosyllable. The Count rose to his feet, and commenced pacing the room. Already its meanness was forgotten, its narrow walls had expanded. The day of his desire had come. "What are your numbers now?" he asked.
The Professor drew a long breath, and kept his eyes fixed upon his visitor. The thing was narrowing down.
"Four," he answered; "four besides myself."
The Count started and appeared perplexed.
"Four on the acting committee, you mean, I suppose?" he suggested. "Four is the old number."
The Professor shook his head doggedly.
"Four altogether," he repeated.
The old man"s eyes flashed, but the angry light died almost immediately away. After all, there might be grave reasons, of which he was ignorant, for restricting the number.
"Four desperate and brave men may be much," he mused, half aloud. "One will do enough for my purpose."
There was a ghastly humor in that speech which was nearly too much for Signor Bartlezzi. He was within an ace of collapsing, but he saved himself by a quick glance at that worn old man. His visitor was living in the light of five-and-twenty years ago. The awakening would come. It was at hand.
"Signor Bartlezzi," the Count said, pausing suddenly in his restless walk, "I have a confession to make."
"So had he," Signor Bartlezzi mused, though his would keep.
"Proceed," he begged, with a wave of his hand and a touch of his old bombast, which had collapsed so suddenly. "Proceed, I am all attention."
The Count stood in the middle of the room, with his left hand thrust into the bosom of his coat, and the right stretched out toward the Professor. It was his old att.i.tude of bygone days into which he had unconsciously fallen, but his expression was no longer threatening, and his voice, though indeed it quivered, was free from the pa.s.sion and fire of his youth. He was apologetic now, rather than denunciatory. It was a great change.
"You will doubtless imagine, Signor Bartlezzi," he said, "from my presence here, from my seeking you out immediately upon my release, that the old fires burn still in my heart; that my enthusiasm for the cause still survives the chill of five-and-twenty years. Alas! that I should confess it, but it is not so!"
"Then what the mischief does he want here?" mused the Professor. "An account of his money, I suppose. Oh, d.a.m.n those meddlesome Italians who set him free."
"I am sorry, but it is natural," he remarked aloud, wagging his head sagely. "Five-and-twenty years is a devil of a time!"
"You will not misunderstand me, Professor," he went on almost pleadingly. "You will not imagine for one moment that the "Order of the White Hyacinth" and everything connected with it, is not still dear to me, very dear. I am an old man, and my time for usefulness is past. Yet there is one demand which I have to make of the a.s.sociation which I have faithfully served and suffered for. Doubtless you know full well what I mean. Will you hear it now, or shall I wait and lay it before the meeting to-night?"
"The latter, by all means," begged the Professor hastily. "They wouldn"t like it if you told me first. They"d feel hurt, I"m sure."
The Count bowed his head.
"So be it, then," he said gravely.
There was a short silence. The Professor, with his thumbs in his waistcoat, gazed fixedly down the street.
"I don"t see why they shouldn"t share the storm," he mused. "He"s small, but he looks as though he might be awkward. I would very much rather Martello and the others were here; Martello is a strong man."
There was a knock at the outside door, and Signor Bartlezzi peered through the window.
"There they are!" he exclaimed. "I"ll go and let them in myself. It would be better to prepare them for your presence. Excuse me."
His visitor bowed, and resumed his seat.
"I await the pleasure of the Council," he said with dignity.
CHAPTER XII