"If you will not-what was she to do?" Barto cut the question to interrogate his strayed wits. "Look at me, Countess Alessandra. I was in the prison. I heard that my Rosellina had a tight heart. She cried for her master, poor heathen, and I sprang out of the walls to her. There-there-she lay like a breathing board; a woman with a body like a coffin half alive; not an eye to show; nothing but a body and a whisper. She perished righteously, for she disobeyed. She acted without my orders: she dared to think! She will be d.a.m.ned, for she would have vengeance before she went. She glorified you over me-over Barto Rizzo. Oh! she shocked my soul. But she is dead, and I am her slave. Every word was of you. Take another head, Barto Rizzo your old one was mad: she said that to my soul. She died blessing you above me. I saw the last bit of life go up from her mouth blessing you. It"s heard by this time in heaven, and it"s written. Then I have had two years of madness. If she is right, I was wrong; I was a devil of h.e.l.l. I know there"s an eye given to dying creatures, and she looked with it, and she said, the soul of Rinaldo Guidascarpi, her angel, was glorifying you; and she thanked the sticking of her heart, when she tried to stab you, poor fool!"
Carlo interrupted: "Now go; you have said enough."
"No, let him speak," said Vittoria. She supposed that Barto was going to say that he had not given the order for her a.s.sa.s.sination. "You do not wish me dead, signore?"
"Nothing that is not standing in my way, signora contessa," said Barto; and his features blazed with a smile of happy self-justification. "I have killed a sentinel this night: Providence placed him there. I wish for no death, but I punish, and-ah! the cursed sight of the woman who calls me mad for two years. She thrusts a bar of iron in an engine at work, and says, Work on! work on! Were you not a traitress? Countess Alessandra, were you not once a traitress? Oh! confess it; save my head. Reflect, dear lady! it"s cruel to make a man of a saintly sincerity look back-I count the months-seventeen months! to look back seventeen months, and see that his tongue was a clapper,-his will, his eyes, his ears, all about him, everything, stirred like a pot on the fire. I traced you. I saw your treachery. I said-I, I am her Day of Judgement. She shall look on me and perish, struck down by her own treachery. Were my senses false to me? I had lived in virtuous fidelity to my principles. None can accuse me. Why were my senses false, if my principles were true? I said you were a traitress. I saw it from the first. I had the divine contempt for women. My distrust of a woman was the eye of this brain, and I said-Follow her, dog her, find her out! I proved her false; but her devilish cunning deceived every other man in the world. Oh! let me bellow, for it"s me she proves the ma.s.s of corruption! Tomorrow I die, and if I am mad now, what sort of a curse is that?
"Now to-morrow is an hour-a laugh! But if I"ve not been shot from a true bow-if I"ve been a sham for two years-if my name, and nature, bones, brains, were all false things hunting a shadow, Countess Alessandra, see the misery of Barto Rizzo! Look at those two years, and say that I had my head. Answer me, as you love your husband: are you heart and soul with him in the fresh fight for Lombardy?" He said this with a look penetrating and malignant, and then by a sudden flash pitifully entreating.
Carlo feared to provoke, revolted from the thought of slaying him. "Yes, yes," he interposed, "my wife is heart and soul in it. Go."
Barto looked from him to her with the eyes of a dog that awaits an order.
Victoria gathered her strength, and said: "I am not."
"It is her answer!" Barto roared, and from deep dejection his whole countenance radiated. "She says it-she might give the lie to a saint! I was never mad. I saw the spot, and put my finger on it, and not a madman can do that. My two years are my own. Mad now, for, see!
"I worship the creature. She is not heart and soul in it. She is not in it at all. She is a little woman, a lovely thing, a toy, a cantatrice. Joy to the big heart of Barto Rizzo! I am for Brescia!"
He flung his arm like a banner, and ran out.
Carlo laid his sword on a table. Vittoria"s head was on his mother"s bosom.
The hour was too full of imminent grief for either of the three to regard this scene as other than a gross intrusion ended.
"Why did you deny my words?" Carlo said coldly.
"I could not lie to make him wretched," she replied in a low murmur.
"Do you know what that "I am for Brescia" means? He goes to stir the city before a soul is ready."
"I warned you that I should speak the truth of myself to-night, dearest."
"You should discern between speaking truth to a madman, and to a man."
Vittoria did not lift her eyes, and Carlo beckoned to Violetta, with whom he left the room.
"He is angry," Countess Ammiani murmured. "My child, you cannot deal with men in a fever unless you learn to dissemble; and there is exemption for doing it, both in plain sense, and in our religion. If I could arrest him, I would speak boldly. It is, alas! vain to dream of that; and it is therefore an unkindness to cause him irritation. Carlo has given way to you by allowing you to be here when his friends a.s.semble. He knows your intention to speak. He has done more than would have been permitted by my husband to me, though I too was well-beloved."
Vittoria continued silent that her head might be cherished where it lay. She was roused from a stupor by hearing new voices. Laura"s lips came pressing to her cheek. Colonel Corte, Agostino, Marco Sana, and Angelo Guidascarpi, saluted her. Angelo she kissed.
"That lady should be abed and asleep," Corte was heard to say.
The remark pa.s.sed without notice. Angelo talked apart with Vittoria. He had seen the dying of the woman whose hand had been checked in the act of striking by the very pa.s.sion of animal hatred which raised it. He spoke of her affectionately, attesting to the fact that Barto Rizzo had not prompted her guilt. Vittoria moaned at a short outline that he gave of the last minutes between those two, in which her name was dreadfully and fatally, incomprehensibly prominent.
All were waiting impatiently for Carlo"s return.
When he appeared he informed his mother that the Countess d"Isorella would remain in the house that night, and his mother pa.s.sed out to her abhorred guest, who, for the time at least, could not be doing further mischief.
It was a meeting for the final disposition of things before the outbreak. Carlo had begun to speak when Corte drew his attention to the fact that ladies were present, at which Carlo put out his hand as if introducing them, and went on speaking.
"Your wife is here," said Corte.
"My wife and signora Piaveni," Carlo rejoined. "I have consented to my wife"s particular wish to be present."
"The signora Piaveni"s opinions are known: your wife"s are not."
"Countess Alessandra shares mine," said Laura, rather tremulously.
Countess Ammiani at the same time returned and took Vittoria"s hand and pressed it with force. Carlo looked at them both.
"I have to ask your excuses, gentlemen. My wife, my mother, and signora Piaveni, have served the cause we worship sufficiently to claim a right-I am sorry to use such phrases; you understand my meaning. Permit them to remain. I have to tell you that Barto Rizzo has been here: he has started for Brescia. I should have had to kill him to stop him-a measure that I did not undertake."
"Being your duty!" remarked Corte.
Agostino corrected him with a sarcasm.
"I cannot allow the presence of ladies to exclude a comment on manifest indifference," said Corte. "Pa.s.s on to the details, if you have any."
"The details are these," Carlo resumed, too proud to show a shade of self-command; "my cousin Angelo leaves Milan before morning. You, Colonel Corte, will be in Bergamo at noon to-morrow. Marco and Angelo will await my coming in Brescia, where we shall find Giulio and the rest. I join them at five on the following afternoon, and my arrival signals the revolt. We have decided that the news from the king"s army is good."
A perceptible shudder in Vittoria"s frame at this concluding sentence caught Corte"s eye.
"Are you dissatisfied with that arrangement?" he addressed her boldly.
"I am, Colonel Corte," she replied. So simple was the answering tone of her voice that Corte had not a word.
"It is my husband who is going," Vittoria spoke on steadily; "him I am prepared to sacrifice, as I am myself. If he thinks it right to throw himself into Brescia, nothing is left for me but to thank him for having done me the honour to consult me. His will is firm. I trust to G.o.d that he is wise. I look on him now as one of many brave men whose lives belong to Italy, and if they all are misdirected and perish, we have no more; we are lost. The king is on the Ticino; the Chief is in Rome. I desire to entreat you to take counsel before you act in antic.i.p.ation of the king"s fortune. I see that it is a crushed life in Lombardy. In Rome there is one who can lead and govern. He has suffered and is calm. He calls to you to strengthen his hands. My prayer to you is to take counsel. I know the hour is late; but it is not too late for wisdom. Forgive me if I am not speaking humbly. Brescia is but Brescia; Rome is Italy. I have understood little of my country until these last days, though I have both talked and sung of her glories. I know that a deep duty binds you to Bergamo and to Brescia-poor Milan we must not think of. You are not personally pledged to Rome: yet Rome may have the greatest claims on you. The heart of our country is beginning to beat there. Colonel Corte! signor Marco! my Agostino! my cousin Angelo! it is not a woman asking for the safety of her husband, but one of the blood of Italy who begs to offer you her voice, without seeking to disturb your judgement."
She ceased.
"Without seeking to disturb their judgement!" cried Laura. "Why not, when the judgement is in error?"
To Laura"s fiery temperament Vittoria"s speech had been feebleness. She was insensible to that which the men felt conveyed to them by the absence of emotion in the language of a woman so sorrowfully placed. "Wait," she said, "wait for the news from Carlo Alberto, if you determine to play at swords and guns in narrow streets." She spoke long and vehemently, using irony, coa.r.s.e and fine, with the eloquence which was her gift. In conclusion she apostrophized Colonel Corte as one who had loved him might have done. He was indeed that figure of indomitable strength to which her spirit, exhausted by intensity of pa.s.sion, clung more than to any other on earth, though she did not love him, scarcely liked him.
Corte asked her curiously-for she had surprised and vexed his softer side-why she distinguished him with such remarkable phrases only to declare her contempt for him.
"It"s the flag whipping the flag-pole," murmured Agostino; and he now spoke briefly in support of the expedition to Rome; or at least in favour of delay until the King of Sardinia had gained a battle. While he was speaking, Merthyr entered the room, and behind him a messenger who brought word that Bergamo had risen.
The men drew hurriedly together, and Countess Ammiani, Vittoria and Laura stood ready to leave them.
"You will give me, five minutes?" Vittoria whispered to her husband, and he nodded.
"Merthyr," she said, pa.s.sing him, "can I have your word that you will not go from me?"
Merthyr gave her his word after he had looked on her face.
"Send to me every two hours, that I may know you are near," she added; "do not fear waking me. Or, no, dear friend; why should I have any concealment from you? Be not a moment absent, if you would not have me fall to the ground a second time: follow me."
Even as he hesitated, for he had urgent stuff to communicate to Carlo, he could see a dreadful whiteness rising on her face, darkening the circles of her eyes.
"It"s life or death, my dearest, and I am bound to live," she said. Her voice sprang up from tears.
Merthyr turned and tried in vain to get a hearing among the excited, voluble men. They shook his hand, patted his shoulder, and counselled him to leave them. He obtained Carlo"s promise that he would not quit the house without granting him an interview; after which he pa.s.sed out to Vittoria, where Countess Ammiani and Laura sat weeping by the door.
CHAPTER XLIV
THE WIFE AND THE HUSBAND
When they were alone Merthyr said: "I cannot give many minutes, not much time. I have to speak to your husband."
She answered: "Give me many minutes-much time. All other speaking is vain here."
"It concerns his safety."
"It will not save him."
"But I have evidence that he is betrayed. His plans are known; a trap is set for him. If he moves, he walks into a pit."
"You would talk reason, Merthyr," Vittoria sighed. "Talk it to me. I can listen; I thirst for it. I beat at the bars of a cage all day. When I saw you this afternoon, I looked on another life. It was too sudden, and I swooned. That was my only show of weakness. Since then you are the only strength I feel."
"Have they all become Barto Rizzos?" Merthyr exclaimed.
"Beloved, I will open my mind to you," said Vittoria. "I am cowardly, and I thought I had such courage! Tonight a poor mad creature has been here, who has oppressed me, I cannot say how long, with real fear-that I only understand now that I know the little ground I had for it. I am even pleased that one like Barto Rizzo should see me in a better light. I find the thought smiling in my heart when every other thing is utterly dark there. You have heard that Carlo goes to Brescia. When I was married, I lost sight of Italy, and everything but happiness. I suffer as I deserve for it now. I could have turned my husband from this black path; I preferred to dream and sing. I would not see-it was my pride that would not let me see his error. My cowardice would not let me wound him with a single suggestion. You say that he is betrayed. Then he is betrayed by the woman who has never been unintelligible to me. We were in Turin surrounded by intrigues, and there I thanked her so much for leaving me the days with my husband by Lake Orta that I did not seek to open his eyes to her. We came to Milan, and here I have been thanking her for the happy days in Turin. Carlo is no longer to blame if he will not listen to me. I have helped to teach him that I am no better than any of these Italian women whom he despises. I spoke to him as his wife should do, at last. He feigned to think me jealous, and I too remember the words of the reproach, as if they had a meaning. Ah, my friend! I would say of nothing that it is impossible, except this task of recovering lost ground with one who is young. Experience of trouble has made me older than he. When he accused me of jealousy, I could mention Countess d"Isorella"s name no more. I confess to that. Yet I knew my husband feigned. I knew that he could not conceive the idea of jealousy existing in me, as little as I could imagine unfaithfulness in him. But my lips would not take her name! Wretched cowardice cannot go farther. I spoke of Rome. As often as I spoke, that name was enough to shake me off: he had but to utter it, and I became dumb. He did it to obtain peace; for no other cause. So, by degrees, I have learnt the fatal truth. He has trusted her, for she is very skilful; distrusting her, for she is treacherous. He has, therefore, believed excessively in his ability to make use of her, and to counteract her baseness. I saw his error from the first; and I went on dreaming and singing; and now this night has come!"
Vittoria shadowed her eyes.
"I will go to him at once," said Merthyr.
"Yes; I am relieved. Go, dear friend," she sobbed; "you have given me tears, as I hoped. You will not turn him; had it been possible, could I have kept you from him so long? I know that you will not turn him from his purpose, for I know what a weight it is that presses him forward in that path. Do not imagine our love to be broken. He will convince you that it is not. He has the nature of an angel. He permitted me to speak before these men to-night-feeble thing that I am! It was a last effort. I might as well have tried to push a rock."
She rose at a noise of voices in the hall below.
"They are going, Merthyr. See him now. There may be help in heaven; if one could think it! If help were given to this country-if help were only visible! The want of it makes us all without faith."
"Hush! you may hear good news from Carlo Alberto in a few hours," said Merthyr.
"Ask Laura; she has witnessed how he can be shattered," Vittoria replied bitterly.
Merthyr pressed her fingers. He was met by Carlo on the stairs.
"Quick!" Carlo said; "I have scarce a minute to spare. I have my adieux to make, and the tears have set in already. First, a request: you will promise to remain beside my wife; she will want more than her own strength."
Such a request, coming from an Italian husband, was so great a proof of the n.o.ble character of his love and his knowledge of the woman he loved, that Merthyr took him in his arms and kissed him.
"Get it over quickly, dear good fellow," Carlo murmured; "you have something to tell me. Whatever it is, it"s air; but I"ll listen."
They pa.s.sed into a vacant room. "You know you are betrayed," Merthyr began.
"Not exactly that," said Carlo, humming carelessly.
"Positively and absolutely. The Countess d"Isorella has sold your secrets."
"I commend her to the profit she has made by it."
"Do you play with your life?"
Carlo was about to answer in the tone he had a.s.sumed for the interview. He checked the laugh on his lips.
"She must have some regard for my life, such as it"s worth, since, to tell you the truth, she is in the house now, and came here to give me fair warning."
"Then, you trust her."
"I? Not a single woman in the world!-that is, for a conspiracy."
It was an utterly fatuous piece of speech. Merthyr allowed it to slip, and studied him to see where he was vulnerable.
"She is in the house, you say. Will you cause her to come before me?"
"Curiously," said Carlo, "I kept her for some purpose of the sort. Will I? and have a scandal now? Oh! no. Let her sleep."
Whether he spoke from n.o.ble-mindedness or indifference, Merthyr could not guess.
"I have a message from your friend Luciano. He sends you his love, in case he should be shot the first, and says that when Lombardy is free he hopes you will not forget old comrades who are in Rome."
"Forget him! I would to G.o.d I could sit and talk of him for hours. Luciano! Luciano! He has no wife."
Carlo spoke on hoa.r.s.ely. "Tell me what authority you have for charging Countess d"Isorella with... with whatever it may be."
"A conversation between Countess Anna of Lenkenstein and a Major Nagen, in the d.u.c.h.ess of Graatli"s house, was overheard by our Beppo. They spoke German. The rascal had a German sweetheart with him. She imprisoned him for some trespa.s.s, and had come stealing in to rescue him, when those two entered the room. Countess Anna detailed to Nagen the course of your recent plotting. She named the hour this morning when you are to start for Brescia. She stated what force you have, what arms you expect; she named you all."
"Nagen-Nagen," Carlo repeated; "the man"s unknown to me."
"It"s sufficient that he is an Austrian officer."
"Quite. She hates me, and she has reason, for she"s aware that I mean to fight her lover, and choose my time. The blood of my friends is on that man"s head."