"And Marco Vincenzio Colona, called Schioppone.
"It is solemnly ratified as follows:
"From this day, 4th of March, 1841, the Vendetta declared between the families shall cease.
"From the same period they shall live together as good neighbours and friends, as their relatives did before the unhappy disunion which has so long alienated their families.
"In witness whereof they have signed these presents under the portico of the village church, with Monsieur Polo Arbori, mayor of the commune, Monsieur Lucien de Franchi, arbitrator, the sponsors of the two contracting parties, and ourselves the Notary.
"Sullacaro, 4th of March, 1841."
I note with admiration that the mayor had very prudently omitted all mention of the hen which had put the Colona in such a bad position with the Orlandi.
So the face of the Colona got brighter in proportion as the figure of the Orlandi clouded; the latter looked at the hen which he was holding in his hand as if he had a great idea to throw it in the face of the Colona. But a glance from Lucien de Franchi checked this intention in the bud.
The mayor saw that he had no time to lose; he stepped back, holding the hands of the rivals, and without loosing them for a moment.
Then, in order to anticipate any discussion at the moment of signature, in view of each considering it a concession to sign before the other, he took the pen and wrote his own name first, and thus converting the shame into an honour, passed the pen to Orlandi, who took it, signed, and passed it to Lucien, who in his turn handed it to Colona, who made a cross.
At that moment the Te Deum was chanted as if for a victory.
We all signed afterwards, without distinction of rank or title, as the nobility of France a hundred years before had signed the protestation against Monsieur le Due du Maine.
Then the heroes of the day entered the church, and knelt in the places appointed for them.
I saw that from this moment Lucien appeared perfectly at ease. All had been finished satisfactorily: the reconciliation had taken place not only before man but before Heaven.
The service terminated without any incident worth recording; and when it was over, Orlandi and Colona passed out with the same ceremony as before.
At the church door, at the instance of the mayor, they once again shook hands; and then each one, attended by his friends and relatives, made his way to his house, which for three years he had not entered.
Lucien and myself went back to Madame de Franchi's house, where dinner awaited us.
It is not difficult to perceive by the attentions I received that Lucien had read my name over my shoulder when I was signing the paper, and the name was not altogether unknown to him.
In the morning I had announced to Lucien my intention to depart after dinner. I was urgently recalled to Paris by the rehearsals of "Un Mariage sous Louis XV.," and notwithstanding the importunities of mother and son, I persisted in adhering to my first determination.
Lucien then asked permission to take advantage of my offer, and to take a letter to his brother; and Madame Franchi made me promise that I would hand this letter myself to her son.
There was really no trouble in the matter, for Louis de Franchi, like a true Parisian as he was, lived at No. 7, Rue du Helder.
I asked permission to see Lucien's room once again, and he himself conducted me thither, explaining everything to me.
"You know," he said, "if anything strikes you I hope you will take it, it is yours."
I unhooked a small poignard hanging in an obscure corner, as if to show that it had no value attached to it; and as I had seen Lucien notice with some curiosity my huntingbelt and its appurtenances, I begged him to accept it, and he had the good taste to take it without being pressed.
At that moment Griffo appeared to tell me that the horse was saddled and the guide waiting.
I put aside the little present I had intended to give to Griffo, which consisted of a huntingknife and two pistols attached to it, the barrels of which were hidden in the hilt.
I never saw anybody so delighted as he was at this present.
I descended, and found Madame de Franchi at the bottom of the staircase, where she was waiting to bid me goodbye, in the same place where she had bade me welcome. I kissed her hand, feeling great respect for such a simpleminded and yet so dignified a woman.
Lucien accompanied me to the door.
"On any other day," he said, "I would saddle my horse, and ride with you beyond the mountain, but today I dare not quit Sullacaro for fear that one or other of the newlymade friends might commit some folly."
"You are quite right," I said; "and for my own part, I am very glad to have assisted at a ceremony so new to Corsica."
"Yes," he said, "you may well congratulate yourself, for you have today witnessed a thing which is enough to make our ancestors turn in their graves."
"I understandtheir word was sufficient; they did not need a notary to reconcile them, I suppose?"
"They were never reconciled at all."
He then shook me by the hand.
"Have you no message for your brother?" I said.
"Yes, certainly, if it will not incommode you to deliver it."
"Well, then, let us embrace. I can only deliver that which I am able to receive." [See "Transcriber's Note."]
So we embraced each other.
"We shall see you again some day?" I said.
"Yes, if you come to Corsica."
"No, but won't you come to Paris?"
"I shall never go there," replied Lucien.
"In any case, you will find my card on the mantelpiece in your brother's roomdo not forget the address."
"I will promise you that should any event call me to the Continent you shall have my first visit."
"Very well, that is agreed."
We shook hands once again and parted; but I noticed, so long as he could see me, he followed me with his eyes.
All was quiet in the village, although, of course, there was the usual agitation which follows the completion of a great public act; and as I went along the street I sought my friend Orlandi, who had never addressed a word to me, nor even thanked me; and so I passed the last house in the village, and entered the open country without having seen any one like him.
I thought he had entirely forgotten me, and under the circumstances I quite excused him, but before I got very far out of the village I perceived a man stride from the underwood, and place himself in the middle of the road. I recognized him at once as the man who in my great regard for appearances, and in my impatience, I had accused of ingratitude.
He was dressed in the same costume as he had appeared in the previous evening in the ruins of Vicentello.
When I was about twenty paces distant from him he took off his hat; while I spurred my horse so as not to keep Orlandi waiting.
"Monsieur," he said, "I did not wish you to quit Sullacaro without accepting my thanks for the kindness you have shown to a poor peasant like myself, and as in the village I had not the heart, and could not command the language, to thank you, I waited for you here."
"I am obliged to you," I said; "but it was not necessary to take any trouble about it, and all the honour has been mine."
"And after all, monsieur," continued the bandit, "the habit of four years is not easily overcome. The mountain air is strong at first, almost suffocatingbut now when I go to sleep in a house I should be afraid the roof would fall upon me."
"But surely," I said, "you will now resume your former habits. I understand you have a house, a field, and a vineyard."
"Yes, but my sister looks after the house; but the Lucquois are there to work in the field, and to raise the grapes. We Corsicans do not work."
"What do you do, then?"
"We overlook the labourers. We walk about with a gun upon our shoulders."
"Well, my dear Monsieur Orlandi," I said, extending my hand, "I wish you good luck; but recollect that my honour as well as your own will be compromised if you fire at anything but game or wild animals. You must never on any account draw a trigger on the Colona family."
"Ah! your Excellency," he replied, with an expression of countenance which I never remarked except amongst the natives of Normandy, "that hen they gave us was a very thin one."
And without another word he disappeared in the brushwood.
I continued my journey thinking that it was very likely that the meagre fowl would be the cause of another rupture between the Orlandi and the Colona.
That evening I slept at Albitucia, next day I reached Ajaccio.
Eight days afterwards I was in Paris.
Chapter XII
THE day I arrived in Paris I called upon M. Louis de Franchi. He was not at home.
I left my card, with an intimation that I had just returned from Sullacaro, and that I was the bearer of a letter from M. Lucien, his brother. I inquired when he would be at home, as I had undertaken to deliver the letter with my own hand.
To conduct me to his master's study, where I wished to write a note, the valet led me through the diningroom and the salon.
I looked around me as I proceeded with a curiosity which will be understood, and I recognized the influence of the same taste which I had already perceived at Sullacaro; only the taste was here set off by true Parisian elegance. M. Louis de Franchi certainly appeared to have a very charming lodging for a bachelor.
Next morning, about eleven o'clock, my servant announced M. Louis de Franchi. I told the man to offer my visitor the papers and to say that I would wait on him as soon as I was dressed.
In five minutes I presented myself.
M. Louis do Franchi who was, no doubt from a sense of courtesy, reading a tale I had contributed to La Presse, raised his head as the door opened, and I entered.
I stood perfectly astounded at the resemblance between the two brothers. He rose.
"Monsieur," he said, "I could scarcely credit my good fortune when I read your note yesterday on my return home. I have pictured you twenty times so as to assure myself that it was in accord with your portraits, and at last I, this morning, determined to present myself at your house without considering the hour, and I fear I have been too early."
"I hope you will excuse me if I do not at once acknowledge your kindness in suitable terms, but may I inquire whether I have the honour to address M. Louis or M. Lucien de Franchi?"