But, signora, do you see that all concert about the signal is lost?
My friend, I see something; Laura nodded a significant half-meaning at him. And perhaps it will be as well. Go at once. See that another signal is decided upon. Oh! because we are readyready. Inaction now is uttermost anguishkills the heart. What number of the white butchers have we in the city to-night?
They are marching in at every gate. I saw a regiment of Hungarians coming up the Borgo della Stella. Two fresh squadrons of Uhlans in the Corso Francesco. In the Piazza dArmi artillery is encamped.
The better for Brescia, for Bergamo, for Padua, for Venice! exclaimed Laura. There is a limit to their power. We Milanese can match them. For days and days I have had a dream lying in my bosom that Milan was soon to breathe. Go, my brother; go to Barto Rizzo; gather him and Count Medole, Agostino, and Colonel Corteto whom I kiss my fingersgather them together, and squeeze their brains for the one spark of divine fire in this darkness which must exist where there are so many thorough men bent upon a sacred enterprise. And, Carlo,Laura checked her nervous voice, dont think I am declaiming to you from one of my Midnight Lamps. (She spoke of the title of her pamphlets to the Italian people.) You feel among us women very much as Agostino and Colonel Corte feel when the boy Carlo airs his impetuosities in their presence. Yes, my fervour makes a philosopher of you. That is human nature. Pity me, pardon me, and do my bidding.
The comparison of Ammianis present sentiments to those of the elders of the conspiracy, when his mouth was open in their midst, was severe and masterful, for the young man rose instantly without a thought in his head.
He remarked: I will tell them that the signorina does not give the signal.
Tell them that the name she has chosen shall be Vittoria still; but say, that she feels a shadow of suspicion to be an injunction upon her at such a crisis, and she will serve silently and humbly until she is rightly known, and her time comes. She is willing to appear before them, and submit to interrogation. She knows her innocence, and knowing that they work for the good of the country, she, if it is their will, is content to be blotted out of all participation:all! She abjures all for the common welfare. Say that. And say, to-morrow night the rising must be. Oh! to-morrow night! It is my husband to me.
Laura Piaveni crossed her arms upon her bosom.
Ammiani was moving from them with a downward face, when a bell-note of Vittorias voice arrested him.
Stay, Signor Carlo; I shall sing to-morrow night.
The widow heard her through that thick emotion which had just closed her speech with its symbolical sensuous rapture. Divining opposition fiercely, like a creature thwarted when athirst for the wells, she gave her a terrible look, and then said cajolingly, as far as absence of sweetness could make the tones pleasant, Yes, you will sing, but you will not sing that song.
It is that song which I intend to sing, signora.
When it is interdicted?
There is only one whose interdict I can acknowledge.
You will dare to sing in defiance of me?
I dare nothing when I simply do my duty.
Ammiani went up to the window, and leaned there, eyeing the lights leading down to the crowding Piazza. He wished that he were among the crowd, and might not hear those sharp stinging utterances coming from Laura, and Vittorias unwavering replies, less frequent, but firmer, and gravely solid. Laura spent her energy in taunts, but Vittoria spoke only of her resolve, and to the point. It was, as his military instincts framed the simile, like the venomous crackling of skirmishing rifles before a fortress, that answered slowly with its volume of sound and sweeping shot. He had the vision of himself pleading to secure her safety, and in her hearing, on the Motterone, where she had seemed so simple a damsel, albeit nobly enthusiastic: too fair, too gentle to be stationed in any corner of the conflict at hand. Partly abased by the remembrance of his brainless intercessions then, and of the laughter which had greeted them, and which the signora had recently recalled, it was nevertheless not all in self-abasement (as the momentary recognition of a splendid character is commonly with men) that he perceived the stature of Vittorias soul. Remembering also what the Chief had spoken of women, Ammiani thought Perhaps he has known one such as she. The passion of the young mans heart magnified her image. He did not wonder to see the signora acknowledge herself worsted in the conflict.
She talks like the edge of a sword, cried Laura, desperately, and dropped into a chair. Take her home, and convince her, if you can, on the way, Carlo. I go to the Duchess of Graatli to-night. She has a reception. Take this girl home. She says she will sing: she obeys the Chief, and none but the Chief. We will not suppose that it is her desire to shine. She is suspected; she is accused; she is branded; there is no general faith in her; yet she will hold the torch to-morrow night:and what ensues? Some will move, some turn back, some run headlong over to treachery, some hang irresolute all are for the shambles! The blood is on her head.
I will excuse myself to you another time, said Vittoria. I love you, Signora Laura.
You do, you do, or you would not think of excusing yourself to me, said Laura. But now, go. You have cut me in two. Carlo Ammiani may succeed where I have failed, and I have used every weapon; enough to make a mean creature hate me for life and kiss me with transports. Do your best, Carlo, and let it be your utmost.
It remained for Ammiani to assure her that their views were different.
The signorina persists in her determination to carry out the programme indicated by the Chief, and refuses to be diverted from her path by the false suspicions of subordinates. He employed a sententious phraseology instinctively, as men do when they are nervous, as well as when they justify the cynics definition of the uses of speech. The signorina is, in my opinion, right. If she draws back, she publicly accepts the blot upon her name. I speak against my own feelings and my wishes.
Sandra, do you hear? exclaimed Laura. This is a friends interpretation of your inconsiderate wilfulness.
Vittoria was content to reply, The Signor Carlo judges of me differently.
Go, then, and be fortified by him in this headstrong folly. Laura motioned her hand, and laid it on her face.
Vittoria knelt and enclosed her with her arms, kissing her knees.
Beppo waits for me at the house-door, she said; but Carlo chose not to hear of this shadow-like Beppo.
You have nothing to say for her save that she clears her name by giving the signal, Laura burst out on his temperate Addio, and started to her feet. Well, let it be so. Fruitless blood again! A rivederla to you both. To-night I am in the enemys camp. They play with open cards. Amalia tells me all she knows by what she disguises. I may learn something. Come to me to-morrow. My Sandra, I will kiss you. These shudderings of mine have no meaning.
The signora embraced her, and took Ammianis salute upon her fingers.
Sour fingers! he said. She leaned her cheek to him, whispering, I could easily be persuaded to betray you.
He answered, I must have some merit in not betraying myself.
At each elbow! she laughed. You show the thumps of an electric battery at each elbow, and expect your Goddess of lightnings not to see that she moves you. Go. You have not sided with me, and I am right, and I am a woman. By the way, Sandra mia, I would beg the loan of your Beppo for two hours or less.
Vittoria placed Beppo at her disposal.
And you run home to bed, continued Laura. Reason comes to you obstinate people when you are left alone for a time in the dark.
She hardly listened to Vittorias statement that the chief singers in the new opera were engaged to attend a meeting at eleven at night at the house of the maestro Rocco Ricci.
CHAPTER XIII
THE PLOT OF THE SIGNOR ANTONIO
There was no concealment as to Lauras object in making request for the services of Beppo. She herself knew it to be obvious that she intended to probe and cross-examine the man, and in her wilfulness she chose to be obtuse to opinion. She did not even blush to lean a secret ear above the stairs that she might judge, by the tones of Vittorias voice upon her giving Beppo the order to wait, whether she was at the same time conveying a hint for guardedness. But Vittoria said not a word: it was Ammiani who gave the order. I am despicable in distrusting her for a single second, said Laura. That did not the less encourage her to question Beppo rigorously forthwith; and as she was not to be deceived by an Italians affectation of simplicity, she let him answer two or three times like a plain fool, and then abruptly accused him of standing prepared with these answers. Beppo, within his own bosom, immediately ascribed to his sagacious instinct the mere spirit of opposition and dislike to serve any one save his own young mistress which had caused him to irritate the signora and be on his guard. He proffered a candid admission of the truth of the charge; adding, that he stood likewise prepared with an unlimited number of statements. Questions, illustrious signora, invariably put me on the defensive, and seem to cry for a return thrust; and this I account for by the fact that my motherthe blessed little woman now among the Saints!was questioned, brows and heels, by a ferruginouslyfaced old judge at the momentous period when she carried me. So that, a questionand I show point; but ask me for a statement, and, ah, signora! Beppo delivered a sweep of the arm, as to indicate the spontaneous flow of his tongue.
I think, said Laura, you have been a soldier, and a serving-man.
And a scene-shifter, most noble signora, at La Scala.
You accompanied the Signor Mertyrio to England when he was wounded?
I did.
And there you beheld the Signorina Vittoria, who was then bearing the name of Emilia Belloni?
Which name she changed on her arrival in Italy, illustrious signora, for that of Vittoria Campasull campo dells gloriaah! ah!her own name being an attraction to the blow-flies in her own country. All this is true.
It should be a comfort to you! The Signor Mertyrio
Beppo writhed his person at the continuance of the questionings, and obtaining a pause, he rushed into his statement: The Signor Mertyrio was well, and on the point of visiting Italy, and quitting the wave-embraced island of fog, of beer, of moist winds, and much money, and much kindness, where great hearts grew. The signorina corresponded with him, and with him only.
You know that, and will swear to it? Laura exclaimed.
Beppo thereby receiving the cue he had commenced beating for, swore to its truth profoundly, and straightway directed his statement to prove that his mistress had not been politically (or amorously, if the suspicion aimed at her in those softer regions) indiscreet or blameable in any of her actions. The signorina, he said, never went out from her abode without the companionship of her meritorious mother and his own most humble attendance. He, Beppo, had a master and a mistress, the Signor Mertyrio and the Signorina Vittoria. She saw no foreigners: thougha curious thing!he had seen her when the English language was talked in her neighbourhood; and she had a love for that language: it made her face play in smiles like an infants after it has had suck and is full;the sort of look you perceive when one is dreaming and hears music. She did not speak to foreigners. She did not care to go to foreign cities, but loved Milan, and lived in it free and happy as an earwig in a ripe apricot. The circumvallation of Milan gave her elbow-room enough, owing to the absence of forts all roundwhich knock ones funny-bone in Verona, signora. Beppo presented a pure smile upon a simple bow for acceptance. The air of Milan, he went on, with less confidence under Lauras steady gaze, and therefore more forcing of his candourthe sweet air of Milan gave her a deep chestful, so that she could hold her note as long as five lengths of a fiddle-bow:by the body of Sant Ambrogio, it was true! Beppo stretched out his arm, and chopped his hand edgeways five testificatory times on the shoulder-ridge. Ay, a hawk might fly from St. Lukes head (on the Duomo) to the stone on San Primo over Como, while the signorina held on her note! You listened, you gaspedyou thought of a poet in his dungeon, and suddenly, behold, his chains are struck off!you thought of a gold-shelled tortoise making his pilgrimage to a beatific shrine!you thoughtyou knew not what you thought!
Here Beppo sank into a short silence of ecstasy, and wakening from it, as with an ardent liveliness: The signora has heard her sing? How to describe it! Tomorrow night will be a feast for Milan.
You think that the dilettanti of Milan will have a delight to-morrow night? said Laura; but seeing that the mans keen ear had caught note of the ironic reptile under the flower, and unwilling to lose further time, she interdicted his reply.
Beppo, my good friend, you are a complete Italianyou waste your cleverness. You will gratify me by remembering that I am your countrywoman. I have already done you a similar favour by allowing you to air your utmost ingenuity. The reflection that it has been to no purpose will neither scare you nor instruct you. Of that I am quite assured. I speak solely to suit the present occasion. Now, dont seek to elude me. If you are a snake with friends as well as enemies, you are nothing but a snake. I ask youyou are not compelled to answer, but I forbid you to liehas your mistress seen, or conversed and had correspondence with any one receiving the Tedeschis gold, man or woman? Can any one, man or woman, call her a traitress?
Not twice! thundered Beppo, with a furrowed red forehead.
There was a noble look about the fellow as he stood with stiff legs in a posture, frowningtheatrical, but noble also; partly the look of a Figaro defending his honour in extremity, yet much like a statue of a French Marshal of the Empire.
That will do, said Laura, rising. She was about to leave him, when the Duchess of Graatlis chasseur was ushered in, bearing a missive from Amalia, her friend. She opened it and read:
BEST BELOVED,Am I soon to be reminded bitterly that there is a river of steel between my heart and me?
Fail not in coming to-night. Your new Bulbul is in danger. The silly thing must have been reading Roman history. Say not no! It intoxicates you all. I watch over her for my Lauras sake: a thousand kisses I shower on you, dark delicious soul that you are! Are you not my pine-grove leading to the evening star? Come, that we may consult how to spirit her away during her season of peril. Gulfs do not close over little female madcaps, my Laura; so we must not let her take the leap. Enter the salle when you arrive: pass down it once and return upon your steps; then to my boudoir. My maid Aennchen will conduct you. Addio. Tell this messenger that you come. Laura mine, I am for ever thy
AMALIA.Laura signalled to the chasseur that her answer was affirmative. As he was retiring, his black-plumed hat struck against Beppo, who thrust him aside and gave the hat a dexterous kick, all the while keeping a decorous front toward the signora. She stood meditating. The enraged chasseur mumbled a word or two for Beppos ear, in execrable Italian, and went. Beppo then commenced bowing half toward the doorway, and tried to shoot through, out of sight and away, in a final droop of excessive servility, but the signora stopped him, telling him to consider himself her servant until the morning; at which he manifested a surprising readiness, indicative of nothing short of personal devotion, and remained for two minutes after she had quitted the room. So much time having elapsed, he ran bounding down the stairs and found the hall-door locked, and that he was a prisoner during the signoras pleasure. The discovery that he was mastered by superior cunning, instead of disconcerting, quieted him wonderfully; so he put by the resources of his ingenuity for the next opportunity, and returned stealthily to his starting-point, where the signora found him awaiting her with composure. The man was in mortal terror lest he might be held guilty of a trust betrayed, in leaving his mistress for an hour, even in obedience to her command, at this crisis: but it was not in his nature to state the case openly to the signora, whom he knew to be his mistresss friend, or to think of practising other than shrewd evasion to accomplish his duty and satisfy his conscience.