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diff --git a/42296-0.txt b/42296-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..be8a7a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/42296-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5427 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42296 *** + + THE + + DUCHESS OF TRAJETTO. + + + BY + + THE AUTHOR OF "MARY POWELL." + + + Giulia Gonzaga, che, dovunque il piede + Volge, e dovunque i sereni occhi gira, + Non pur ogn' altra di beltà le cede, + Ma, come scesa dal ciel, Dea l'ammira. + + Ariosto. + + + LONDON: + + ARTHUR HALL & CO., 26, PATERNOSTER ROW. + + 1863. + + + + + LONDON: + + BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + CHAP. PAGE + + I. THE DUCHESS IN DANGER 1 + + II. THE DUCHESS IN SAFETY 15 + + III. THE DUCHESS'S STORY 34 + + IV. MOORISH SLAVES 48 + + V. THE CARDINAL AND THE JEW 62 + + VI. THE SORROWS OF THE JEW 74 + + VII. SEBASTIAN DEL PIOMBO 86 + + VIII. THE DUCHESS AND THE PAINTER 99 + + IX. DAWN OF A PURE LIGHT 115 + + X. VITTORIA DI COLONNA 129 + + XI. VALDÉS AND OCHINO 144 + + XII. GOING TO LAW 159 + + XIII. THE CARDINAL TEMPTED 172 + + XIV. WHAT BEFEL BARBAROSSA 187 + + XV. MORE ABOUT THE CARDINAL 197 + + XVI. THE DUCHESS AND THE MARCHIONESS 221 + + XVII. ISCHIA 233 + + XVIII. A BETTER LIFE 247 + + XIX. REST AND PEACE 261 + + APPENDIX 275 + + + + + THE DUCHESS OF TRAJETTO. + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + THE DUCHESS IN DANGER. + + +It was night--the Duchess was in bed. Her hand shaded her wakeful eyes +from the light of a silver lamp fed with perfumed oil, which shone only +on what was calculated to please the taste, minister to the luxury, and +display the wealth of the owner. Rare paintings of Scriptural and +mythological subjects decorated the walls, the ceiling was richly +moulded and gilt, the floor of polished marble was only partially +covered with fine matting, a few choice statuettes and vases occupied +brackets and niches; the massive toilette service and mirror-frame of +precious metal were shaded by some texture of light silvery tissue; +while half-open cabinets and caskets revealed priceless jewels and +fragrant perfumes. On a velvet cushion lay an illuminated missal and a +rosary. + +Here was every outward appliance, one might think, to make a favourite +of fortune happy; but the good and honest face of the Duchess, which +spoke her every thought, did not look so. The night was sultry; she had +tried to sleep, but could not; and now she was feverishly endeavouring +to think of something pleasant, without success. + +The deep stone windows of her apartment, which were open, commanded a +small garden sleeping in the moonlight, where terraces were cut on a +declivity; and where Cupid and Psyche, Diana with her hounds, and Apollo +with his bow, gleamed white among orange, lemon, and myrtle. This little +pleasaunce was shut in within the walls of a strong baronial castle; +and beyond them lay the little town of Fondi, consisting of a single +street built on the Appian Way. Beyond it, a lake, a forest, a marsh, +stretching down to the blue brimming Mediterranean. The little town +seemed steeped in sleep: the silence was intense. + +All at once, a low, regular sound jarred on the Duchess's quickened ear. + +"That's a very unaccountable noise," thought she to herself. "I wonder +what it is. People are about, who ought to be in their beds. If it +continues, I shall ring up the Mother-of-the-maids. Now it has stopped. +I wish I were not so wakeful--how tiresome it is! + +"What could induce Isabella to write me that disagreeable letter? I +fancy the Prince of Sulmona had a hand in it. It is very hard, after the +Pope's substantiating my rights as he has done, and bringing me through +with a high hand, that I should be assailed in a fresh quarter. How +sorry Rodomonte would have been! Poor fellow, he loved us both so +dearly! And if ever a step-mother did her duty by a step-daughter, I did +mine by Isabella. But there was too little difference in our ages. She +presumed on my forbearance, and tried to domineer over me. I dare say +many people fancy the life of a rich young widow must needs be very +happy. Some were even stupid enough to think my dear Duke and I could +not be as happy as we seemed. Oh, yes, we were!--though he was forty and +I but thirteen." + +"Supposing I had been over-persuaded to have Ippolito, how different +would have been the story of our lives! Happier for him, possibly, but +he may be very well content to be a cardinal. At the same time I have +somehow suspected that if ever any one really valued me for myself, he +did. They all flatter too much. A flattered person is the tool of the +flatterer. It hurts one's mind---- + +"That noise again! Can it be Caterina snoring? She says she never does: +just as if she could hear herself! Whatever it is, I'll have it inquired +into. Caterina! Caterina! Cynthia! Cynthia!" + +At the sound of the Duchess's voice, two of her attendants came running +in from the antechamber. One of them was a withered old woman with a +very benevolent face and thin grey hair fastened at the top of her head +in a little knot about as big as an egg, with a bodkin: the other a +Moorish girl, with large, startled, lustrous eyes, and symmetrical as +one of Calypso's nymphs moulded in bronze. She was in a single white +garment, but had caught up a striped goat's hair haik, which by day +formed the upper part of her attire. + +"Did Leila call?" "What will your Vossignoria?" + +"I called because I could bear your snoring no longer, Caterina." + +"_I_ snore?" repeated Caterina, with a look of injured innocence. +"Vossignoria must surely be mistaken; for I was lying wide awake, with +Cynthia sleeping beside me, as quiet as a lamb." + +"You were dreaming that you were awake," said the Duchess. "I have not +once closed my eyes, nor has it been possible--Hark! there is the noise +again!" cried she, excitedly. "What on earth can it be?" + +They remained transfixed, with suspended breath, in various attitudes of +surprise and affright; each of them intently listening. + +"I hear nothing, Eccellenza," began Caterina. + +"There! there!" exclaimed the Duchess. + +Cynthia suddenly sprang to one of the open windows, and looked +out--then, clapped her hands to her head, and gave an unearthly yell. + +"What is it?" cried Caterina, hastening towards her, and peering forth +into the darkness. Then, shrieking, she exclaimed,----"The pirates are +upon us!" + +"_Balzo dal letto._"[1]--The Duchess sprang from her bed, and took one +hasty glance from the window. She could discern a string of turbaned +figures with gleaming scimitars swarming up the walls, and leaping down +on the inner side. + + [1] "Come lupi famelici entrarono in Fondi que' barbari, + destandovi tra gli ululati degli abitanti un tumulto indicibile. + Il fremito de' ribaldi assalitori, le grida degli assaliti che + assordavano l' aria, ruppero a Giulia il sonno, e mentre + palpitando e incerta iva pensando qual potesse essere la cagione + di tanto rumore, eccole i pallidi famiglieri col tristo annunzio + che i Turchi scorrevano l' occupata città, e che non vi era + tempo a perdere se bramava salvarsi dalle indegne loro mani. + Balzo dal letto," &c., &c.--Ireneo Affo, _Memorie di tre + Principesse_, &c. + +"We are undone!" exclaimed she, desperately. "Caterina! arouse the men! +Cynthia, help me to dress." + +Wild sounds were already heard on every side, both in the town and the +castle--alarm-bells ringing, hoarse war-cries, piercing +screams--Hayraddin Barbarossa was upon them! + +What a plunder! There was the town, to begin with; then, there was the +castle; and within the castle, the most beautiful and beloved lady in +all Italy! the friend and favourite of popes and princes; a princess +herself, enormously rich! What a ransom! + +But no ransom was the object of Hayraddin Barbarossa, the scourge of the +seas. He meant to carry her away captive to Solyman the Magnificent, +Emperor of the Turks. With this purpose, and no less, had Hayraddin been +hovering off the coast with a hundred galleys and two thousand Turks on +board,[2] terrifying the Neapolitans out of their wits at the very +thought of his red beard and red flag--he, who avowed himself "the +friend of the sea, and the foe of all who sailed upon it"--whose very +name was a word of fear from the Straits of Gibraltar to the +Dardanelles![3] + + [2] "Piena l' Italia e l' Europa fosse di quanto iva spargendo la + fama intorno le singolare bellezze di Giulia; erane passato + anche il grido ai molli regni dell' Asia. Solimano II., + Imperadore de' Turchi, non ignorava quanto ella fosse avvenente; + onde giacchè avea guerra coll' Imperador Carlo V., fornito + Ariadene Barbarossa di cento galere, con ciu potesse trascorrere + i mari nostri, e battere le coste de paesi Christiani, gl' + ingiunse che tra le spoglie più rieche, onde carico lo + attendeva, dovesse aver luogo la vagha Signora di Fondi. Fece + plauso al comando il baldanzoso corsaro, che, avido di riportar + gloria, al mare affidosi pien di si audace pensiero," + &c.--_Idem._ + + [3] Robertson's "Charles the Fifth." + +"They will be upon us directly, Signora," said her trembling, +grey-haired seneschal, who had hastened to her at the first alarm. "Lose +no time in escaping. The pirates will never content themselves with the +town--rely on it, _you_ are their object. We will lower you from the +window--you must then cross the draw-bridge, and pass through the +gallery cut in the rock. It will bring you out on the hill-side, where +Tiberio shall join you with horses--" + +"Come, then, Caterina--" + +"Alas, Madama, I am too old for jumping out of windows--I will remain to +secrete the jewels, and look after the maids. We will lock ourselves in +the cellars." + +"Come then, Cynthia. Be quick." + +Cynthia, who was wrapping herself in her haik, looked unwilling, and +said: + +"May I not remain with Caterina, Leila?" + +"Certainly not. Jump out of window this instant, and then you can help +me down." + +The Duchess accelerated her by a slight push, on which she sprang +lightly as a chamois to the ground, which was not far below; and the +Duchess, seeing she came to no harm, called on the saints, and did the +same. Caterina lowered them a lamp, which they covered, and soon they +were in the rocky passage, while the Turks in the distance were howling +like hungry wolves or mad dogs.[4] + + [4] "Lupi famelici," "colla rabbia d' affamati cani." + +"How cold it is!" complained the Duchess, shivering and drawing closer +the richly furred velvet mantle in which she was enveloped. + +"And you gave me no stockings, Cynthia, only slippers. How _could_ you +be so foolish?" + +"You must not mind that, Leila, since you are safe," said Cynthia, +bluntly. "Think what horrors are going on in the town. Holy prophet! it +reminds me of the night when my parents fled from the Spaniards!" + +"Cynthia, it is very wicked of you to use those heathenish imprecations, +now that I have taken the trouble to have you baptised. Your prophet was +not holy, nor a prophet at all, but a very bad man, as I have told you +several times, and you must not be so benighted any more." + +Cynthia's eyes flashed fire, but she held her peace. + +"If you call any one holy," continued the Duchess, "it should be the +blessed Virgin and holy saints. You ought to consider it a great mercy +that you have been led to the service of a Christian mistress who cares +for your soul. Don't you feel this?" + +"No," said Cynthia, stoutly; "I do not feel grateful that I was torn +from my home and country, and that my father was cut down on his own +doorstep, and my mother dragged along the ground by the hair of her +head. Could _you_ feel grateful, Leila?" + +"Not for those things, certainly; but misfortunes are often blessings in +disguise, and the Moors are very wicked people, and--" + +"They are doing those very things, just now, to _your_ people," said +Cynthia, expressively, and stretching out her arm towards the town. + +"Ah! Heaven forbid!" said the Duchess. + +"Heaven does not forbid, though," said Cynthia, sorrowfully, "and I +cannot think why Heaven only looks on." + +"Cynthia!" cried the Duchess, suddenly stopping short, and fixing a +piercing look on her, "did _you_ bring these people on us?" + +"What people, Leila?" + +"These pirates!--these Moors!" + +"Take the lamp!" cried Cynthia, thrusting it into her hand, and stamping +passionately. "Kill me if you will, since you can suspect me! Here's a +dagger--I brought it to defend you and myself." + +"Nay, but I do not want to suspect you. Put up your dagger, foolish +girl. Who talks about killing?" said the Duchess, shrinking from the +gleaming steel. "Speak but the word and I will believe you; only, as +they are countrymen of yours, and as you so hate the Christians, the +thought just crossed me." + +"I'll _never_ speak the word," said Cynthia, stubbornly. "You may kill +me if you will, but I'll _never_ say!" + +And with dilated nostrils, quivering lips, and flaming eyes, she strode +on before her mistress. It was not a time or place for the Duchess to +take notice of it--to a woman with a dagger! + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + THE DUCHESS IN SAFETY. + + +Emerging from the gallery, the Duchess uttered a faint cry, and would +have shrunk back again on seeing some dark figures stealthily +approaching; but they proved to be only two of her own servants, each +with a led horse, on which she and Cynthia were speedily mounted, and on +their way to Vallecorsa. + +Meantime a desperate conflict was raging in the town and castle, led on +by the fiery Barbarossa himself, his lieutenant Dragut, and the renegade +Sinan, the most relentless of his corsairs. Again and again resounds the +cry "Where is the Duchess, ye Christian dogs?"--"Out of your reach!" +they shout back; and a volley of stones descends from the battlements. +Defence is vain; the gates are forced in, the assailants pour through +the rooms, and, disappointed of their prey, hack and spoil the rich +furniture, and carry off what comes ready to hand. Faithful retainers +are cut down; others have their hands tied and are carried off to be +sold into slavery; among them, a youth called Tebaldo Adimari, the pride +and hope of Fondi. + +Day was breaking when the corsairs, laden with booty, drew off from the +town in good order and formidable numbers, leaving very few of their +party behind them. The little town was sick and gasping. Here and there +were low wails and continuous sobbings in-doors. Here and there a hollow +groan from some ditch. Here and there a broken scimitar, an unrolled +turban, a pool of blood. Monks now began to steal forth in couples from +the Dominican convent in which St. Thomas Aquinas had taught theology. +They went to shrive the dying, bury the dead, and console the bereaved. +A Jewish physician, with a couple of Hebrew servants, was also engaged +in offices of benevolence; causing some to be carefully removed; binding +up the wounds of others on the spot. The peril of the Duchess--though +she escaped unscathed--caused great commiseration and excitement at the +time. The death and captivity of the nobodies elicited a slight shudder +or a shrug, and was passed over. + +Cautiously the withered face of the Mother-of-the-maids peered forth +from the cellar-door when all was quiet; and fearfully issued forth the +train of scared, bewildered females who had taken shelter under her +wing. They were relieved to find themselves alive and safe; but +lamentations soon succeeded gratulations. Isaura's betrothed had been +carried away captive; Tonina's father lay stark and stiff. As for the +_cameriera_, she was weeping herself blind to find the Duchess's room +ransacked, the mirror smashed, the gowns tossed like hay, the pictures +stabbed, and many of the properties made booty of. She smote her breast +and wrung her hands to that degree that it was dreadful to see her. + +The news of the attack reaching Rome, Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici, who +was much more of a warrior than a churchman, hastened to the rescue with +a troop of horse. + +Meanwhile, a messenger from Vallecorsa brought a billet from the +Duchess. + +"Are the wretches gone? Have they done much harm? I have nothing to put +on. Is anybody hurt? I suppose I may come back?" + +As everybody was at sixes and sevens without the Duchess, a council was +held, the Dominican prior was consulted, evidence was heard, and it was +finally reported that the Paynims had made off, _viâ_ Itri, and put to +sea. + +On this, back came the Duchess, in very miscellaneous toilette; and she +was met by a general turn-out of the people of Fondi--a rough, +wild-looking set at their best, poor creatures! furnishing more than +their due quota, then as now, to the briganti. In the midst were two +biers, supporting the corpses of men who had been slain in the late +attack, and borne by monks, while the populace confusedly pressed around +them, beating their breasts, tearing their hair, and filling the air +with their lamentations. These were redoubled at sight of the Duchess, +whose tender heart melted at the scene. The sight of their liege-lady in +tears redoubled their woe; they closed round her, kissing her dress, +hands, and feet, recounting their losses, and each doing his possible to +prove himself more in want of solace than the rest. She condoled with +all, promised monetary restitution to the living and masses for the +dead; and, to crown all, proceeded straight to church to give thanks +for her deliverance and pray for the souls of the slain. Then she +re-entered her castle in a chastened frame of mind. + +"Caterina," said she to her old nurse, "how little we know what a few +hours may bring forth! It seems an age since yesterday. What a turn it +gave me when Cynthia first shrieked out! By the way, do you think she +was really frightened?" + +"Really frightened, Eccellenza?" + +"Yes. Do you not think it possible she might be glad the Moors were +landing and might carry her off?" + +"Barbarossa, Signora?" + +"Well, I know it was Barbarossa; but still he was her own countryman, +and--" + +"I do not think she would acknowledge Barbarossa for a countryman, +Illustrissima. She claims descent from the old Moors of Grenada--from +the Abencerrages." + +"Oh, yes, she may claim descent, and call herself a princess and all +that. They all do, I believe. You should have seen her look when I told +her Mahound was a false prophet--" + +"She's very touchy about that, I well know," said Caterina. + +"Touchy? Why, I believe she prays to him still--swears by him at any +rate. There is no sounding the depths of these Paynims." + +"I believe you would find great love for yourself in the depths of +Cynthia's heart,--poor, darkened young thing--if you could sound it, +Signora." + +"Ah, but unfortunately, I cannot; and she behaved very improperly to me +in the cavern." + +"You shock me, Illustrissima!" + +"She thrust the lamp into my hand, saying: 'Hold the light!' and +stamped!" + +"Inconceivable! Abominable!" ejaculated Caterina. "What could she have +been thinking of?" + +"And she brandished a dagger! Not to kill me, but telling me to kill +_her_. So uncalled for!" + +"I fear I must give her up," said Caterina, "though Perez lent her the +dagger to defend you, and she has returned it. I was beginning to grow +fond of her. She must be corrected, Signora." + +"Well, truly, I think she must. Let me speak to her first. I dare say +she is as hard as a stone. Call her." + +To the Duchess's surprise, when Cynthia was brought to the bar of +justice, and accused of _lèse-majesté_, she at once pleaded guilty, +saying her proud heart sometimes got the better of her; and kneeling +down, kissed the hem of her mistress's garment, in token of submission. +This appeased the placable Giulia, who contented herself with asking +what business she had with pride. + +"You doubted my fidelity, Leila," said Cynthia. "No one must doubt the +fidelity of an Abencerrage." + +"Tut! how do I know that you are an Abencerrage?" said the Duchess +lightly. "And what are the Abencerrages, or any other Moors, in the eyes +of Christians?" + +"They may be nothing now, but they were something once," said Cynthia +proudly; without rising, however, from her knees; or rather, sitting +upon her heels. "While the western Caliphate lasted, the Christians were +few and straggling in the land; and the mountains of Spain echoed back +the cry of the muezzins: 'There is no God but God, and Mahomet is his +prophet!'" + +"Ah, profanity!" exclaimed the Duchess, in disgust; and at the same +instant, her seneschal, bowing low, announced to her the arrival of +Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici. The Cardinal was already standing in the +doorway, noting at his leisure, and with admiration, the contrast +between Giulia's high-born beauty and that of the dusky Moorish girl at +her feet. + +He then advanced, with the mien of a prince and the tread of a soldier, +and said: + +"Your peril compelled me to fly to your succour. I have brought a troop +of horse, and will not leave you till danger and alarm be past." + +"How very good of you!" said the Duchess. "I was, indeed, sorely +scared--" + +"Fear no more," said he. "No harm shall reach you but through myself." + +"How very good of you," repeated the Duchess. "I was, indeed, as I said, +sorely scared; but all danger, and even the fear of it, is now over--" + +"That is more than you can tell," interrupted the Cardinal, "and since +you, the noblest and fairest lady in Italy, are so utterly unprotected, +I shall make your safety my care as long as Barbarossa is off the +coast." + +"Though I hope to have no need of you as a guard, you are most welcome +as a guest," said the Duchess. Then, addressing her seneschal, she said, +"Let suitable apartments be instantly prepared for his Eminence and also +for his suite, and provide good quarters for his Eminence's troops and +good stabling for their horses--" + +"I lodge with the Dominicans," interrupted the Cardinal, "and the Prior +will tell me where to bestow my men--" + +"Nay, then," said the Duchess, "direct immediate refection to be served +for his Eminence, and bid the Prior and a few select friends to supper; +to wit, Sertorio Pepe and his sister, Madonna Bianca, the Abate Siffredi +and the Abate Vincenzo." + +The seneschal bowed low and withdrew. + +"Giulia," said the Cardinal, reproachfully, "I am unwelcome." + +"On the contrary, you are most welcome," said she; "but I seek to grace +my guest, and distrust my own powers of entertainment. You find us in +sad disorder, but I will send a line to the Bishop--" + +"Pray do nothing so unnecessary, so unwished for--Ah, Giulia! it was +not thus I hoped you would welcome me! You will never understand that I +am your true friend, and prefer your conversation to that of any one +else. Your welfare, your safety, are dear to me; and yet you always +distrust me." + +"How can you say so?" said she, dropping her eyes. + +"How, indeed, save that you always betray it! Come, cannot we be +friends?" said he, pleasantly. "Once we might have been more, and now +need we be less?" + +"By no means, Cardinal, and--" + +"I am always Ippolito, to _you_--" + +"By no means, Cardinal; I enjoy using your title, it is so noble, so +imposing, it becomes you so well. You have taken a decided part at last, +and I esteem you all the more for it. Your learning and genius will +adorn your high vocation. What influence you now possess! how many look +up to you! Surely your position must be an enviable one?" + +A complex expression crossed his face, as he said, with emphasis, + +"Very! And yours?" + +"Oh, mine is what it has long been. It has its lights and its shadows." + +"Shadows?" + +"Not very dark ones, certainly; but three-fourths of my life are spent +in a sort of dull twilight, that is--infinitely melancholy!" + +"Whence proceeds that melancholy?" + +"I know not. My natural disposition, perhaps. I have everything I can +want or wish, yet it sometimes seems to me that there is only one thing +to reconcile us to life--" + +"What is that?" + +"The fear of death." + +"Just so," said he, abruptly. + +"Can you, a churchman, tell me how to overcome that fear?" + +"There is no fear of your dying--" + +"Die I must, soon or late! Death comes to all. Can you, a churchman, +tell me how to meet it?" + +"Surely, surely! The Church has provided supports. There are the +sacraments. There is absolution. There is extreme unction." + +"I do not know how these may support me when the time comes. Meanwhile +they do not remove the fear of death." + +He looked at her earnestly for a moment, and was about to speak, but +refrained. At the same time, the customary refection of wine and +comfits was brought in by two of the Duchess's damsels, while a third +brought a golden ewer of rose-water, and a fourth a basin and +gold-fringed napkin. The duenna and Moorish girl were embroidering at +one of the windows. + +When the girls had withdrawn, the Cardinal and Duchess resumed their +conversation, like two old and familiar friends, who had at some former +period seen a good deal more of one another than of late. + +He spoke of Hayraddin Barbarossa's descent upon Fondi, and minutely +inquired into the particulars, and the amount of damage done. He ended +with "Well, a wilful woman must have her way. All this may happen again, +and with a worse end." + +"Please do not frighten me," said the Duchess. "It is very unkind." + +"I mean it for kindness, for I want to put you on your guard." + +"I shall be on my guard now. My poor people have suffered sufficiently +to be on the alert. And I have long thought I should like to winter at +Naples. Now I have a sufficient reason for going." + +"The sooner the better. Giulia, how you surprised me just now by what +you said! How can one so good, so blameless as you are, be afraid of +death? You have never done anything wrong. I cannot conceive you ever to +have offended God, even in thought. Can _you_, then, be afraid to meet +Him?" + +"Ah! I am always shy of strangers; and, to me, God is such a +stranger!--" + +"But you _believe_ in Him, do not you? You believe that He _is_?" + +"Of course! But that is so little!" + +The Cardinal looked as if he thought it a good deal. + +"Your nerves are weak," said he, after a pause. "Your organisation is +too delicate. I should advise you to dwell as little as you can on +these things." + +"Oh, I speak of them to _no_ one. I don't know how I came to do so now. +Only, I suppose, because you are a friend and a churchman." + +"I _like_ you so to speak. Say on." + +"Why, then, I will add that, apart from this fear of death, which +sometimes thrills me, and especially did so last night, is a far more +permanent feeling--a desire for some higher good. An intense +dissatisfaction with myself and with all the things of this life." + +"Do you really suppose that that feeling is peculiar to yourself? +Everybody has it!--everybody who thinks and feels. I myself suffer +martyrdom from it." + +"Can you--a churchman--prescribe its remedy?" + +"There are two ways," said the Cardinal, after a pause, "in which you +may overcome it. In the first case, you must fast, you must pray, you +must keep painful vigils, you must perform pilgrimages barefoot, you +must deny yourself every innocent enjoyment, you must bestow all your +possessions on the Church--" + +"Hold, hold, I can never do all that," interrupted the Duchess. "Tell me +some other way, I beseech you, of remedying the weariness of life and +the fear of death." + +"The only other way," said he, hurriedly, "is to take the world as you +find it; enjoy the passing hour, indulge every innocent desire, and--let +come what may." + +"Is there no other course?" + +"None, Giulia, none! There is no middle path.[5] You must choose for +yourself." + + [5] Non c' è mezzo termine. + +"Of course I know which I ought to choose," said she, sorrowfully. "But +to give up _all_--and to the Church!--ah! this Church must have charms +for you that she has not for me!" + +"I am not very deeply in love with her," said the Cardinal, attentively +regarding his nails. "But my part is taken and I will play it out. Come, +shall we talk of something pleasanter?" + +"Yes, and, some of these days, I will try this better way you point +out--this watching, this fasting; only I know beforehand, I shall not +carry it out." + +"No good in trying then." + +"I am afraid you are right. I so dread the world's laugh! And I so +dislike doing what is disagreeable!" + +"Why on earth should you, then?" said he briskly. + +"Ay, why indeed?" said she, laughing and changing the subject. +Afterwards she thought, "What an answer for a priest! I was a goose to +say so much to him. I will not do so again." + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + THE DUCHESS'S STORY. + + +Giulia di Gonzaga, daughter of the Duke of Sabbionetta, was born +somewhere about the beginning of the sixteenth century. She was one of a +numerous and beautiful family, and, from her earliest infancy, the +darling of all hearts. There must have been something charming about the +dear little girl whose "vezzi e grazie," even from her cradle, were so +extolled by dry annalists,[6] and whose riper graces were sung by +Ariosto, Bernardo Tasso, Molza, Gandolfo Porrino, Claudio Tolomei, and +all the noted poets of the day. A child who, from the nursery, kisses, +sugar-plums, and petting could not spoil, her sweetness equally bore the +test when promoted to the school-room, where, without any apparent +trouble to herself, she outstripped her elder sisters, Paola, Ippolita, +and Eleanora, in their studies, though they were none of them considered +deficient. Enough, if not too much, praise was bestowed on the skill +with which her pretty hands touched the lute and guided the embroidery +needle. Children are quick to hear their own encomiums, though uttered +under the breath. + + [6] "Imperrochè le fu natura tanto de' suoi doni benefice, e + cosi di vezzi e di grazie la ricolmo, che gli atti suoi e le sue + parole, accompagnate ognora da modesta vivacità e condite di un + lepor soavissimo, legavano dolcemente a lei gli animi di + ciascuno."--Ireneo Affo. + +She had scarcely grown to her full height, and left off being sent early +to bed, when she was given in marriage to Vespasiano Colonna, Duke of +Trajetto. He was forty, and crippled with the rheumatism, yet her +parents thought it a suitable match. They told her he was good, +generous, and indulgent, and so he proved. She liked him. She liked +pleasing him, and tending him, and receiving his pleasant praises and +smiles. He had a daughter by a former marriage, rather younger than +herself, and he wished them to be friends; but Isabella was of a colder +nature than Giulia. The Duke had a singular feeling towards his little +bride. She was so good, so pure, that he shrank from her being +contaminated by the pernicious influence of Italian society, such as it +was in the sixteenth century, and resolved to seclude her from it as +much as he could in the retirement which his infirm health rendered so +grateful. But he did more than this, for he resolved that her mind +should receive the highest culture, and thus possess resources in itself +which should make retirement happy. And as he was a man of good parts +and delightful conversation, affectionate, indulgent, and quietly +humorous, it is not at all surprising, I think, that he captivated this +young girl, and made her really love him. + +This rendered more than tolerable her attendance on him as a nurse. He +would not let her do anything really painful or wearisome, took care +that she should have plenty of open-air exercise, and won her admiration +of his patience and cheerfulness during his tedious decline. + +When he died, in the year 1528, he left Giulia mistress of all his +possessions in the Campagna, the Abruzzi, and the kingdom of Naples, and +guardian of Isabella, whom he designed for the wife of Ippolito de' +Medici, nephew of Pope Clement the Seventh. + +Giulia soon felt the want of a male protector, for two of the Duke's +kinsmen, Ascanio di Colonna and Napoleone Orsini, laid claim to the +estates. The Pope substantiated her right to them, and the Emperor +Charles the Fifth, then a young man of eight-and-twenty, commissioned +her brother, Don Luigi, to put her in possession. Luigi, who was a +brilliant soldier, paid his sister a hasty visit at Fondi; and before +he left it, he and Isabella exchanged secret vows of affection. + +When Ippolito de' Medici, with youth, good looks, and noble bearing to +recommend him, was sent by the Pope to woo and win Isabella, he found +the Duchess much more attractive; and when she remarked one day on +something strange in his conduct, he spoke out at once, and said-- + +"Giulia, I care nothing for _her_--and I cannot but care for _you_!" + +Thereon the Duchess was much offended, and said she should write to the +Pope. Ippolito very stoutly refused to own himself at all wrong. +Giulia's widowhood, he averred, had been long enough for the world to +suppose that her hand might be sued for. The Pope would be well pleased +to see him win the daughter, but infinitely more so at his obtaining the +mother. Giulia very indignantly replied that no Pope on earth had, or +should have, power to make her marry again, against her will. She was a +free agent; she respected and cherished the memory of her dear Duke too +much ever to give him a successor. The amaranth was her chosen emblem, +and "_Non moritura_" her motto. + +Ippolito here ventured to murmur something about disparity of years, +which she instantly checked as the height of disrespect; and he then +said all that could be said by a very clever man, really and deeply, and +honestly in love; but the more he said, the less Giulia minded him, for +the idea had possessed itself of her mind that he might not have found +her so pre-eminently attractive but for the thirteen thousand ducats +which her good Duke had added to her dowry of four thousand immediately +after their marriage. Besides, she was extremely sensitive to the +opinion of "everybody," and she pictured what "everybody" could say, +if, after inviting Ippolito to her castle as the suitor of her +step-daughter, she were to marry him herself. Moreover, she did not like +the Medici; they were wonderfully clever, but they were not good. _Volti +sciolti, pensieri stretti_--she would rather not trust her happiness to +any one of them. Or to _any_ one. Why should not she continue, free and +happy as she was? + +So Ippolito found her impenetrable to the most insinuating words and +melting tones; and as she found him equally impracticable on the subject +of being faithful, as she called it, to Isabella, though he denied +having pledged any faith to her at all, Giulia told him very plainly she +wished he would end his visit; which he, much hurt, said he would do. +And his farewell bow was as stiff and stately as if he were an +unsuccessful envoy to a warlike sovereign; and he went away without any +leave-taking of Isabella. + +Thereon, the Duchess, much fluttered and embarrassed, went to tell +Isabella that Ippolito was gone; and Isabella, in her cold, dry way, +said: + +"Why?" + +Then the Duchess said he had been talking very uncomfortably and +unintelligibly: he seemed hardly inclined to fulfil his engagement. Then +Isabella said: + +"He need not trouble himself. I made no engagement with _him_." + +Then the Duchess said: + +"My dear Isabella! what _can_ you be thinking of?" + +"I am thinking," says Isabella, after a pause, "of Rodomonte." + +"_Possibile? che gioja!_" cried the Duchess, embracing her. + +Rodomonte was the pet name of Giulia's younger brother Luigi, already +spoken of. If Isabella were inclined to marry him, her portion would be +a famous thing for him. The only question was, would the Pope consent? + +The Pope consented when he found Isabella would not have Ippolito at any +rate, and when he learnt that Ippolito had good hope of securing the +Duchess. So Luigi and Isabella were married, and Luigi was mortally +wounded the following year in endeavouring to recover one of his +sister's castles; and died recommending his widow and infant son to her +care. Isabella afterwards married the Prince of Sulmona. + +Ippolito now changed his tactics. When the Duchess had received him as +the future husband of her step-daughter, she, not imagining their +positions could be misunderstood, addressed him by his Christian name. +Whereon he, not to be behindhand, and seeing that they were nearly of an +age, immediately called her Giulia, and persisted in doing so in spite +of hints and rebuking looks. Now that he had been charged with +"disrespect," he resolved to try what the utmost deference could do; so +he sent her a translation he had made (extremely well, too), of the +second book of the Æneid, with the following dedication prefixed: + +"Because that it often happens that one's woes are soothed by matching +them with those that are greater, I, not finding for my pain any other +remedy, have turned my mind to the burning of Troy; and, measuring my +own wretchedness with that, have satisfied myself beyond doubt that no +evil happened within its walls which I myself have not felt in the +depths of my heart; the which, seeking in some degree to ease by +thinking on Troy, I have thereby been enabled to understand. I therefore +send you this, that it may give you a truer picture of my grief than my +sighs, my tears, my pallid cheeks could ever impart." + +The obdurate Giulia was not to be melted. She was more impenetrable than +ever; and with good reason; having heard of a street fight in Rome, in +which Ippolito had killed a man. It is true Ippolito said he had not +meant it--he only meant to hurt him, and teach a lesson to a troublesome +fellow. However that may be, the man _was dead_, and Ippolito was under +a cloud for a while, till it blew over, according to the fashion of the +times, and he could come out again with only the taint of justifiable +homicide. He was a good deal quieted. He did not know what to do with +himself, nor did the Pope (a very bad old man) know what to do with him +or for him, since he would not or could not make his fortune by +marriage. There was the mixture of fame and infamy in his lineage which +pertained to but too many of the Medici, and he had not a penny that the +Pope did not give him; so the only opening for him was in the Church. He +gave him the Cardinal's hat. + +A handsome, comfortable-looking cardinal was Ippolito, with very little +token of care feeding on his damask cheek. You may see him, any time you +like, in the National Gallery--there he is, pen in hand, at a table +covered with a Persian carpet, having just signed a deed, apparently, to +which Sebastian, the famous Venetian painter, has affixed the leaden +seals, in virtue of his office as keeper of the Papal signet--whence his +cognomen, _Del Piombo_. Note them: they are noteworthy men. Sebastian +has put himself foremost; the Cardinal in the background. But the +Cardinal takes it easily; he has a jolly, good-tempered face, black +eyes, an aquiline nose, and black hair. + +His relations with Giulia were a good deal altered by the cardinalate. +She need no longer fear him as a suitor; she hoped his entering the +Church was a sign of a changed heart; she revered his holy office, and +gradually identified him with it. Once or twice, when affairs drew her +to the Eternal City, she saw him take part in the grand pageantry; and +when she heard Kyrie Eleison rolling and swelling through nave and +aisle, and Veni Creator breathed like the whispers of angels in +soul-subduing softness, and the Pope himself intoning the Te Deum,--her +unsophisticated mind was deeply impressed; for Giulia was still, and all +her life, as guileless as a little child; and herein, no doubt, lay the +unexplained and unexplainable attraction about her. She was glad +Ippolito had put an insuperable barrier between her and himself, because +now she could enjoy his really delightful society, when they met, +without alloy. + +But they did not meet very often; and it was a good thing they did not, +for Ippolito loved her as dearly as ever. It was a good thing they did +not meet often, and yet it was a good thing they met sometimes, and that +her influence continued to be felt by him, for it was the only good +influence he had! Poor Ippolito, with all his sins, was much better +than those who constantly surrounded him. The nearer from church, the +farther from God, was awfully true of the Papal court; and if he sought +refuge from men in books, as he continually did, they were the books of +heathens, none the less anti-Christian and poisonous for being in Greek. + +While the very ground seemed sinking under him, and all trust and hope +in himself and others perishing, there came the news that Giulia was in +danger, and had fled to the mountains to escape Barbarossa. Instantly +his better nature awoke, and he flew to her succour. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + MOORISH SLAVES. + + +A clatter of horses' feet in the court-yard announced the arrival of new +guests; and when these proved to be noble kinsmen and friends of the +Duchess, who had hastened to rally round her in her danger, the Cardinal +inly congratulated himself on having been the first comer and the +recipient of her first thanks. + +The old feudal castle, lately the nest of a few defenceless women, now +resounded with the clank of arms. Nothing could be more graceful than +the Duchess's reception of her guests. There was just enough of danger +past, and possibly impending, to give zest to present safety and +sociality. The feast was spread in the old ancestral hall, where the +family plate shone in beaufets ten feet high, music breathed from the +gallery amid the pauses in conversation, and the cobwebbed banners waved +heavily overhead in the cool evening air from the Mediterranean, that +stole through the open windows. Giulia's little cloud had entirely +disappeared: it was simple and even needful that she should just now +only seek to embellish the passing hour; and the Cardinal, as the +noblest dignitary present, fully seconded her as leader of the feast, or +rather took the initiative in entertaining and pledging the rest, while +she had only to sit by, smile, and enjoy it all. The Moorish girl, with +splendid jewels in her ears, stood behind the Duchess with a feather +fly-flapper. + +Barbarossa's enormities were the favourite theme; there was plenty of +red put in the brush. The streams of blood he had shed would float a +squadron; his beard was bright scarlet. He was even worse than his +brother Horuc had been; and now that he was Dey of Tunis, as well as of +Algiers, and the ally of Solyman the Magnificent, the world would not +hold him! He would swallow Italy, some of these nights, at a snap. + +Yet it was astonishing what some of the company were ready to do, +single-handed, against him! Only let him come on! _They'd_ show him +something. The Duchess need not be afraid. Not a hair of her head should +he touch. + +The next day or two these bold spirits scoured the neighbourhood, +and--as Barbarossa was out of sight--they did not spare their bragging. +They only wished he would come back, that they might give him his +deserts. The Cardinal grudged these vapourers their share of Giulia's +ear. True, he sat at her right hand; and none of them were younger, +braver, handsomer, or wittier than himself. And it was sweet, with all +its mixture of bitter, to be here at all; but then, how soon it would +end! How soon pass into that hungry, never-satisfied abyss of vanished, +irreclaimable joys! And then his old feeling of blank, gnawing +dissatisfaction returned. + +"That Mauritanian slave of yours," he said one day to Giulia, as they +returned from a reconnoitering party, "is singularly beautiful. She +would make a good study for Sebastiano. How I wish you knew that +remarkable man! You would delight in his musical attainments. He touches +the lute and viol with rare perfection, and has composed some exquisite +motets. As a portrait painter he is unrivalled. The Pope is so pleased +with the likeness he has painted of him, that he has conferred on him +the office of keeper of the papal signet. His verses are charming, and +he is a most excellent companion." + +"You excite my curiosity," said the Duchess. "Cannot you invent some +excuse to bring him here?" + +"Certainly," said the Cardinal, who was aiming at this very point. +"There could be no better method than for me to tell him you had +promised me your picture. This would draw him hither quite easily, after +such representations as I should make to him; for you must know, +Sebastiano is becoming exceeding coy and difficult, and will only on +much importunity be prevailed on, now, to paint a portrait. It is really +the branch in which he excels, and by which he will be known to +posterity; but he is slow and irresolute in his execution, and his taste +chiefly inclines him to large historical pieces, in which he is excelled +by Michael Angelo and Raffaelle. I beseech you, let me send him to paint +your portrait. You will be repaid for your complaisance by becoming +acquainted with a really great artist." + +"So let it be, then," said the Duchess. "With regard to my Moorish girl, +he may introduce her in the background if he will. Beautiful she is, +but the crossest patch at times! I pity her, and humour, and perhaps +spoil her a little, yet I shrink from her sometimes, for we hardly seem +of the same flesh and blood." + +"Is she converted?" inquired the Cardinal. + +"Baptized," said the Duchess, "but she seems utterly unimpressible as to +Christian doctrine. Confess she will not, and when we endeavour to +enforce its obligation on her, she answers us in her Arabic jargon, 'I +do not understand.'" + +"Is it safe to have her about you?" said the Cardinal. + +"I know not that there is any harm in her," said the Duchess, "and she +can be very ingratiating when she likes; but I own, a horrible thought +crossed my mind when she and I were escaping through the caverns. 'What +if she should have brought Barbarossa on us?'" + +"That is quite possible," said the Cardinal, gravely. "Has she any +confederates hereabouts, think you, among her own people?" + +"The only other Moor in my establishment is a poor boy whose tongue has +been cut out. His own people thus punished him, when he fell into their +hands, for having come over to us; he escaped from them, and knows too +well his own interest to betray us. He is in my stables." + +"I do not altogether like this," said De Medici, meditatively; "it would +be well to induce the girl to confess, even by a little wholesome +torture; for as long as she is unshackeled by Christian obligations, you +have no hold on her." + +"Torture, however," said Giulia, "is a course I particularly dislike." + +They were now riding into the castle court-yard; and, as the day was +very warm, she was thirsty, and called for a glass of iced water. It +was brought her by Cynthia; and at the moment she appeared with the +goblet on a salver, a large Spanish bloodhound, belonging to Alfonso +Gonzaga, sprang at her throat. + +The poor girl screamed piercingly, and so did the Duchess, who sprang +from her horse. Gonzaga, brutally laughing and swearing, called the dog +off without success; but the Moorish stable-boy, seizing it by the tail, +bit it till his teeth met. The unfortunate Cynthia was released, and she +fell swooning into the arms of her compassionate mistress, whose dress +was stained with her blood. She was instantly relieved of her burthen, +however, by her _maestro di casa_, Perez, who bore her off to her women, +while the hunting-party pressed round Giulia to extol her humanity to +the skies. Turning to the Cardinal she said, expressively-- + +"She _is_ of the same flesh and blood, after all!" And then went to +visit her poor wounded maiden, and change her dress. + +Cynthia, more dead than alive, was laid on a pallet bed, and Caterina +was in anxious attendance on her, while a Jewish physician dressed the +wound. + +"Do you think she will die?" said the Duchess in a low voice. + +"It is impossible, at present," returned he, "to pronounce an opinion." + +Cynthia opened her languid eyes, and seeing the Duchess's dress stained +with her blood, mutely drew it to her lips. Giulia kindly patted her +hand, saying-- + +"My poor girl! Keep quiet; be patient, and you will soon be well," and +then withdrew. + +When she re-entered the _sala di compagnía_, her cousin was telling +stories in a loud over-bearing voice, of the feats of his dog in hunting +up and pulling down Moors, Jews, and heretics. The brute's ancestors had +distinguished themselves in this line during the repeated massacres in +Spain. + +"Pray desist, Alfonso," said the Duchess, "or I shall be unable to eat +my dinner." + +He laughed, and continued his narrations in a lower voice. This was the +Cardinal's last day, and he grudged every moment of Giulia's time that +was devoted to any but himself. + +"Is the girl going on well?" said he to her. + +"The wound is dressed, but her recovery is considered doubtful by Bar +Hhasdai. Do you disapprove of my employing a Jewish leech?" + +"By no means; there are none equal to them. The Spaniards did very +foolishly, I think, to expel the whole race. There are no such +physicians, astronomers, or metaphysicians." + +"They are sad infidels, however, and Bar Hhasdai is unconverted." + +"All the better," said the Cardinal lightly. "I distrust renegades. +Better be a good Jew than a bad Christian. In medicine especially, I +believe a baptised Jew loses half his virtue; the charm is broken." + +"That never occurred to me," said the Duchess. "But I dare say it is so, +since you say it." + +"Your Jew," observed Ippolito, "will deal kindly by your Moorish girl, +for, under the western caliphs, his people were fostered by her people. +The prime minister of Abderrahman the Second was a Jew of the same name +as your physician, who probably claims descent from him. The two peoples +promoted each other's prosperity, for the Jews extended their commerce +with the East, and supplied them with the sinews of war. The Moors let +them peaceably accumulate wealth, occupy high offices, build synagogues, +and cultivate learning, insomuch that there was not a Jewish family +without a copy of the law; and they all could read it. So that 'the +Moor's last sigh' was nearly the last sigh of the Hebrew too. We are +profiting by the short-sightedness of Spain and Portugal. Clement the +Seventh permits even the Jews who have been forcibly baptised, to come +and settle in his dominions, without any inquiry into their past lives; +and owing to their industry Ancona is becoming a flourishing sea-port. +But, Giulia, if this girl is about to die, she had better receive the +last offices of the Church. I should like to receive her confession. +Tell her, if she will confess to me, she shall receive a cardinal's +absolution." + +"Are you in earnest?" + +"Quite." + +This was so high an honour, that the Duchess did not fail to acquaint +Cynthia with it. But Cynthia had no mind for confession, nor any respect +for a cardinal's absolution. She feigned lethargy, and could not be +induced to admit that she heard or understood anything that was said to +her while the Cardinal remained. + +"This looks bad," said he. "Can anything be made of the Moorish boy, +think you?" + +"He is dumb." + +"True; but not deaf, I suppose?" + +"No." + +"Let us have him in, then. I should like to speak to him." + +The boy was sent for. He was a sad object, poor lad. + +The Cardinal, without any preface, said to him in the _lingua Franca_, +which was commonly understood among the Moors-- + +"Did you send for Barbarossa?" The boy's eyes flashed fire. + +"If I have any reason to think you did so, you shall be flayed alive; +and I shall be sure to find out." + +The boy looked unmoved. + +"Your only chance of escaping punishment is your being henceforth +inviolably faithful to your mistress. There, go; and be a good boy." + +The boy made a salaam and retired. + +"There can be no harm," said the Cardinal to Giulia, "in giving him a +little reminder." + +Next day the boy was found drowned. Whether he had tried to escape by +swimming, or had intentionally ended his life, nobody knew. He could no +longer be a traitor at any rate. But this is anticipating. + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + THE CARDINAL AND THE JEW. + + +"I should like," said Ippolito, "to speak with that Jew before I leave +you. He may help me to some curious manuscripts." + +The Medici were very clever in hunting up curiosities of literature; +for their encouragement of the arts sprang less from the love of that +renown which rewards liberal patronage, than from real, genuine interest +in arts and letters _for their own sake_. Hence the worship of their +very names among poor _literati_, to whom sympathy and appreciation +are dearer than gold, though they like that too. Pity that they loved +Plato better than Christ! The spirit of poetical and philosophical +emulation which they kindled was accompanied by utter obtuseness to +spiritual things. A keen sense of purity of language fostered no love +of purity of life; there was, in fact, complete antagonism between the +elegant disciples of Lorenzo and the severe followers of Savonarola and +Bernardino Ochino; and if the very light that was in them was darkness, +how great was that darkness! The Medici retarded rather than advanced +the spirituality of their age; and in like manner, though in different +proportion, their elegant biographer has thrown a false shadow on good, +and a false light on evil. Of course I shall be covered with obloquy for +saying this. + +Cardinal Ippolito received Bar Hhasdai in a cabinet adjoining the _sala +di compagnía_, in which music and society-games were beguiling the +tedium of the other guests. The Jew was a grand specimen of the +Sephardim--he was a great deal older than he looked, his hair +unbleached, and his head unbent by age. + +"Your name is that of a great man," said the Cardinal to him. + +"My descent is from him likewise," said the physician. "I am son, or, as +your people would say, descendant of that Hhasdai ben Isaac who was +Hagib to the second Abderrahman, and wrote the famous epistle--of which +you doubtless have heard--to Joseph, King of Cozar." + +"No, I never heard anything about it," said Ippolito with interest. "Who +was the king of Cozar?" + +"The Cozarim," replied Bar Hhasdai, "were Jews dwelling on the Caspian +Sea. My ancestor had long heard of them without being able to +communicate with them, till, from the Spanish embassy at Constantinople, +he learned that some of them frequently brought furs for sale to the +bazaars there. On this, he addressed an epistle to them, beginning: 'I, +Bar Hhasdai ben Isaac, ben Ezra, one of the dispersed of Jerusalem, +dwelling in Spain,' and so on--'Be it known to the king that the name of +the land we inhabit is, in the holy language, Sepharad, but in that of +the Ishmaelites, el Andalus,' &c. Bar Hhasdai despatched this epistle to +the East by an envoy, who returned six months afterwards, saying he had +hunted high and low for the Cozarim, without being able to find them. +Their kingdom undoubtedly existed, but was quite inaccessible. Bar +Hhasdai transmitted his letter afterwards, however, through two +ambassadors of the Asiatic people called Gablim, who visited Cordova." + +"And were these Cozarim the lost tribes?" + +"I know not." + +"Where are they now?" + +"They are not found." + +"How came you Jews to settle in Spain?" + +"I believe in Abarbanel. He tells us that two families of the house of +David settled in Spain during the first captivity. One of them settled +at Lucena; the other, the Abarbanels, took root at Seville. Hence all +their descendants were of the royal stock--of the tribe of Judah." + +"You yourself, then, are of the royal stock?" + +"I trace up to David." + +Ippolito did not know whether to believe him; but he evidently believed +in himself. + +"I thought," said De' Medici, "your genealogies were lost?" + +"Not when we came to Spain. But it is believed that many Jews were in +Spain even _prior_ to the first captivity--Jews who came over with the +merchant ships of Hiram in the days of David and Solomon, and who +remitted large sums of money towards the erection of the Temple. You may +see a tombstone that confirms this, without the walls of Saguntum, to +this day. It bears the following inscription in Hebrew--'The sepulchre +of Adoniram, the servant of King Solomon, who came hither to collect +tribute.' The tomb was opened about fifty years ago, and found to +contain an embalmed corpse of unusual stature." + +"This is curious," said the Cardinal, reflectively,--"and merely a +matter of curiosity." + +"It ought not to be so in your eyes--nor in the eyes of any thoughtful +Christian," said Bar Hhasdai. + +"Why not?" + +"Because we Sephardim were not consenting unto the death of him whom you +term the Christ." + +"Ha!--But you would have done so, most probably, if you had been on the +spot." + +"That is a gratuitous supposition. On the contrary, we wrote an epistle +to Caiaphas the High Priest, pleading for the life of Jesus, whose good +report had been brought us." + +"Can this be so?" + +"Prince Cardinal! when I and my brethren were banished from Spain forty +years ago, we appealed to an ancient monument in the open square of +Toledo, bearing the inscription of some very early bishop, to the effect +that we Sephardim had not quitted Spain during the whole time of the +second Temple; and, therefore, could not have shared in the guilt of +crucifying Jesus!" + +"Singular!" + +"When Taric the Moor took Toledo, in the year 710 of your era, he found, +at Segoncia, among other treasures, the actual table of shew-bread which +had belonged to Solomon's Temple! and which our nation had secretly +brought to Spain. It was composed of one huge emerald, surrounded by +three rows of the choicest pearls, and it stood upon three hundred and +sixty feet of pure gold." + +"Are you fabling?" exclaimed the Cardinal, whom this tradition +interested more than all the rest. + +"Nay," said Bar Hhasdai, "the fable is not mine, at any rate. That such +a relic was really found there, is proved by their changing the name of +the place from Segoncia to Medinat al Meida, _the place of the table_." + +"Why, man, such a relic as that would redeem your whole race! Hist, the +Duchess is singing----" + +A lute, rarely touched, preluded a sweet, plaintive air, sung by a balmy +voice in the saloon. The Cardinal listened with pleasure and a little +provocation; for the Duchess had twice refused to sing to him, and it +was very bad of her to do so at the request of some one else. The little +snatch of song ended abruptly in the minor. + +"Could not you enter into that?" said Ippolito, noticing a strange +mixture of sadness and sarcasm on the physician's face. He replied with +a distich-- + + + "What saith the art of music among the Christians?-- + 'I was assuredly stolen from the land of the Hebrews!'" + + +"Do you mean that that is a Hebrew melody?" + +"O, yes!" + +"Jew! _why_ will you not convert, and be healed?" + +"It cannot be. I have seen whole families of slain Jews with gaping +gashes in their bodies, heaped at their own thresholds--and those gashes +were made by the swords of Christians!" + +"But that was in Spain." + +"Bear with me, Cardinal, while I repeat a parable to you. Pedro the +Great of Arragon inquired of a learned Jew which was the best religion. +He replied: 'Ours is best for us, and yours for you,' The king was not +satisfied with this answer, and the Jew, after three days, returned to +him seemingly in great perturbation, and said: 'A neighbour of mine +journeyed to a far country lately, and gave each of his two sons a rich +jewel to console them for his absence. The young men came to me to +inquire which jewel was the most valuable. I assured them I was unable +to decide, and said their father must be the best judge, on which they +overwhelmed me with reproaches.' 'That was ill done of them,' said the +king. 'O, king!' rejoined the Jew, 'beware how thou condemnest thyself. +A jewel has been given unto the Hebrew and likewise to the Christian, +and thou hast demanded that I should decide which is the most precious. +I refer thee to our great Father, the Giver of all good gifts, who alone +can exactly determine their comparative and absolute values.'" + +This apologue pleased the Cardinal, though, in fact, it was very +superficial. He inquired whether Bar Hhasdai could help him to any rare +manuscripts. + +"The few which I possess," said the physician, after a pause, "are not +such as would be of any value in your eyes: being either on our own law, +or on the science of medicine--" + +"Nay, but," said the Cardinal, "the latter are such as I should greatly +prize." + +"They are altogether obsolete and unworthy of your notice," said Bar +Hhasdai, "but I have a little treatise on Chess, which really is a +curiosity in its way; and also a treatise on Aristotle's Ethics, by +Rabbi Joseph ben Caspi, of Barcelona, which is at your service." + +"Let me have them both," said the Cardinal, "and in return I beg you to +accept this ruby of small value." + +"This is a rare gem!" said the physician, with delight, "and cut with +Hebrew characters. May I really have it?" + +"Certainly. And pray tell me before you go, do you think the Moorish +girl will recover?" + +"I have some hope of it." + +"Could not you, as you have a key to her confidence, which we have not, +ascertain whether she is really faithful to the Duchess?" + +"There can be no question of her fidelity. She has spoken of her +mistress with gratitude." + +"That is well. Farewell, then." + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + THE SORROWS OF THE JEW. + + +When Cardinal Ippolito had taken leave, and the last glimpse of his +scarlet tippet had been seen as his little cavalcade wound out of sight, +Giulia found her remaining guests very stale, flat, and unprofitable; +and when they too had departed, she became exceedingly listless and +peevish; very much in the mood of little children in the nursery, when +they weary their nurses with "I don't know what to do!" + +To do Giulia justice, it must be admitted that this mood was not +habitual to her. Naturally sweet-tempered, and highly cultivated, she +had too many resources within herself to be accustomed to find her time +hang heavy on her hands. She could sing, play, and paint; she was +skilful at her needle; she wrote very tolerable sonnets, and +corresponded with many of the most celebrated people of the day. She was +praised without insincerity by men whose names are still honoured among +us. And yet she was just now in that vapid frame when one exclaims--"Man +delighteth me not, nor woman either;" in that longing for some unknown, +unattainable good which made St. Anselm say--"Libera me, Domine, a isto +misero homine _meipso_!" + +So she leant her head on her hand and shed a few tears: then, fancying +she must be sickening of marsh miasma, she sent for Bar Hhasdai. + +The physician, perceiving that there was nothing the matter with her, +began to tell her, incidentally as it were, while he felt her pulse, of +the grief of the Adimari family, whose son had been carried off by +Barbarossa. The Duchess became interested in their sorrows, and forgot +her imaginary ailments. She consulted with him how she might console +them and relieve other bereaved persons. + +"Surely," said she, looking at his hand, "I have seen that ruby worn by +Cardinal Ippolito?" + +"He gave it me but yesterday," said Bar Hhasdai, "in return for two +manuscripts of not half the value; whereon I sent him another really +rare, and worthy of a place in the Vatican library." + +"You were determined not to be outdone by him in generosity, it seems," +said Giulia. "He told me he had held a very interesting conversation +with you about your own people. Tell me, Bar Hhasdai, is it really true +that you Jews mingle the blood of a Christian child with your unleavened +bread at Passover time?" + +"It is false, most scandalously false," replied Bar Hhasdai, "and only +invented by the Christians to colour their own outrages upon us. You +might as well ask, if there were any truth in the old story of there +being a magical brazen head in the castle of Tavora, which, on the +approach of any one of our race, would exclaim, 'A Jew is in Tavora!' +and, on his departure, 'The Jew is now out of Tavora!' O lady! revolting +are the accusations that have been raised against us!--of our crucifying +children, drinking their blood, and burning their hearts to ashes. +Sometimes our people have been tortured till their agonies have wrung +from them false confessions, which afterwards have been disproved; as in +the case of the brothers Onkoa, who, in the reign of one of the Alonsos, +were accused of stealing two of the king's golden vessels, and by +torture were induced to confess it, in consequence of which they were +hanged. Yet, three days after, the vessels were found in the possession +of one of the king's own servants." + +"I have always held torture," said Giulia, "to be a very uncertain as +well as cruel test." + +"Alonso quoted what I have related, as a case in point," said Bar +Hhasdai, "when certain Jews were accused of secreting the dead body of a +Christian, which, after all, turned out to have been cast into the house +of one of them by his Christian debtor, who owed him a sum of money he +had no mind to repay. Thus have obloquy and contumely been heaped upon +us, without our having the power to avenge ourselves; for the Lord hath +forgotten His footstool in the day of His wrath." + +"Who or what do you call His footstool?" + +"In a general sense, the whole earth; but in a more particular one, +Jerusalem." + +"Since you admit that God has forgotten you, you must submit to your +judicial punishment." + +"Lady, it is hard! Easy to say, but hard to do. The only consolation is +in knowing that a good time is coming, when we shall--when the Gentiles +themselves shall speed us to our city, even carrying us on their +shoulders." + +"Do you really believe that?" + +"_Literally!_" said Bar Hhasdai. "But I do not expect to live to see +it." + +"You are yet young----" + +"Ah, no! I am very old, and worn out with a life of trouble." + +"Tell me the story of your life," said the Duchess, with interest. "Tell +me how you came to leave Spain." + +"Will you listen to me?" said Bar Hhasdai. "Then you shall hear. In the +month Abib, or, as you would say, in March, in the year 5052, or +according to your reckoning 1492, a decree was passed that every Jew +should quit Arragon, Castile, and Granada, on pain of death and +confiscation. By a refinement in injustice, we were forbidden to take +out of the country plate, jewels, or coin: we must convert all our +possessions into bills of exchange. As our enemies would not buy of us +till the last moment, and then at a prodigious discount, you may +conceive the way in which we were pillaged, often reduced to exchange a +good house for an ass, or a field or vineyard for a few yards of cloth. + +"When the royal proclamation was announced, Abarbanel the Jew happened +to be at court. He entered the king's presence, and cast himself before +him on his face, exclaiming, 'Regard us, O king! Use not thy faithful +servants with so much cruelty! Exact from us everything we possess, +rather than banish us from what has now become our country!' But it was +all in vain. At the king's right hand sat the queen, who was the Jews' +enemy, and who urged him with an angry voice to carry through what he +had so happily commenced. We left no effort untried to obtain a reversal +of the king's sentence; but without effect. Baptism was the only +alternative. I am sorry to say, there were some who submitted to it, +rather than forsake their homes. Home is dear; but it may be purchased +too dearly. More noble were those _eight hundred thousand_ Sephardim who +forsook house and hearth, garden, field, and vineyard, the synagogues +and the burial-places of their fathers, and, on foot and unarmed, +collected together from every province, young and old, infants and +women, noble examples of passive endurance, to go whither the Lord +should lead them! Of that number was I; and with God for our guide we +set out---- + +"Do I tire you?" + +"O no!----Go on." + +"About twenty thousand of us took refuge in Portugal, where they were +admitted, _pro tempore_, on payment of eight golden ducats per head: +but, if they remained beyond a certain day, they were sentenced to +slavery. The frontiers were lined with tax-gatherers, to exact the +poll-tax. + +"The majority of us embarked at the different ports, where brutal +ship-masters exacted enormous sums for their passage, and, in many +cases, burned or wrecked their vessels when at sea, escaping themselves +in their boats, and leaving the unhappy Jews to perish. + +"The crew of the ship in which I, a young child, was, rose to murder us, +for the sake, as they averred, of avenging the death of Christ; but a +Christian merchant on board told them that Christ died to save men, not +to destroy them. So they altered their purpose, stripped us, and set us +on a barren coast, under a blazing sun, where they left us to perish. We +found a spring of fresh water, at which we slaked our thirst; but food +we had none. At night, some of our party were devoured by lions. Five +days we remained in this wretched state: we were then picked up by the +crew of a passing ship, who tore up old sails to clothe us, gave us +food, and carried us to a port. The people of that place inquired +whether they had brought us for sale. The ship-master nobly answered +'No!' and delivered us to our brethren in the city, who gladly +reimbursed him for our expenses, and united with us in praying that he +might live to a good old age." + +"You see there are some good Christians among us," interrupted the +Duchess. + +"Certainly," said the Jew. "But the majority of them were against us: +nor did we experience any better treatment from the Moors. At Fez the +gates were closed against the Jews, who, beneath a burning sun, could +find nothing but grass to eat, and miserably perished. Many hundred +children were sold into slavery. One mother was known to strike her +expiring child on the head with a stone, and then breathe her last on +his dead body. Two hundred widows dwelt together in Barbary, labouring +diligently with their hands, and sharing all things in common. Many of +these women had been separated from their husbands by cruel +circumstances, but knew not whether they were dead or alive. A +pestilence broke out among the Jews, who filled nine caravels bound for +Naples. On landing there the disease communicated itself to the +inhabitants, and swept off twenty thousand of them. At Genoa, the +citizens met our people with bread in one hand and the crucifix in the +other. Their choice lay between baptism and starvation." + +"I cannot wonder," said the Duchess, after a pause, "that you are +prejudiced against our religion, for you have seen it under false +colours, but I hope the time will come when those prejudices may wear +off." + +"I hope it may," said the physician, equivocally; and he changed the +subject. + +The little Vespasiano Gonzaga, who, on the death of the Duke of +Sabbionetta, came into Giulia's guardianship at eight years old, in +after times was very liberal to the Jews. He granted them a licence to +establish a Hebrew press at Sabbionetta, from which issued several +editions of the Pentateuch, Psalter, and Hebrew commentaries.[7] + + [7] Benj. Wiffen, _Introduction to Alfabeto Christiano_. + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + SEBASTIAN DEL PIOMBO. + + +Giulia remembered, the next morning, as her cameriera was warping some +pearls into her hair, that she had meant and half engaged to try a +course of mortification on the Cardinal's departure. She therefore put +on an old green gown, with bouffonnée sleeves, which was almost too worn +for a duchess; and, in a very easy pair of slippers, sat down to her +morning refection. Some sweetmeats allured her, but she took a piece of +plain bread and a glass of lemonade; after which, she thought "Well +done, resolution!" and tasted the sweetmeats after all. Moderately, +however. + +After this, she sat for a good while in a waking dream; and then, +rousing herself, determined to go to church, but found it was too late. +She thought she would send for the poor widow of whom Bar Hhasdai had +spoken to her; but just then, Caterina came to tell her that her lapdog +had run a thorn into its foot; and as one act of mercy would do for +another, she superintended the dressing of the little animal's paw, and +did not send for the widow. After this, she inspected the embroidery of +her maids of honour, and thought of fourteen rhymes as the skeleton of a +sonnet. + +She had advanced thus far in this well-spent day, when the sound of +horses' feet made her suddenly aware of the approach of a visitor. Now, +our Duchess did not like being caught; it was very seldom, indeed, that +she _could_ be caught in déshabille; for she enjoyed the consciousness +of being at all times a perfectly well-dressed woman. It was hard, +therefore, to be found in half-toilette the only time in all the season +that such a misfortune could have occurred; especially as it would not +be known to partake of the meritorious nature of a penance. However, +the mortification would be all the more complete. Who could the visitor +be? The Bishop of Fondi? + +She looked into the court-yard, and saw a grave, elderly person in +ecclesiastical habit, with four mounted attendants, descending somewhat +stiffly from his horse. His face was rather plain; his figure tall and +imposing. He had a snub nose, high, broad forehead, small, penetrating +eyes, and auburn hair and beard a little silvered. + +In a few minutes the maggior-domo announced "Messer Sebastiano +Veneziano." + +The Duchess uttered an exclamation of joy, and advanced, beaming with +smiles, to meet him. Never had she looked more lovely: the painter +started, and paused for a moment, as she approached. The next instant, +her white hand was in his. + +"Welcome, Messer Sebastiano, welcome! How good of you to grace my poor +house!" + +"Illustrious Lady, his Holiness the Pope desired me to give you his +paternal greeting." + +"I gratefully thank his Holiness." + +"--And his Eminence, Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici kisses your hands, and +supplicates of your condescension that you will remember your promise to +let my poor pencil limn your features." + +"I have not forgotten it. I shall esteem it an honour to sit to so great +a master. How would you have me dressed, Messer Sebastian? What pose +shall you choose?" + +"Vossignoria will allow me to study you a little before I decide?" + +"Certainly, certainly. Rather formidable, though, to think I am always +being studied!" + +"I should recommend Vossignoria not to think at all about it." + +"Well, I will try. You are fatigued with your journey, Messer +Sebastian." + +"It will soon pass off. My hand is not steady enough to paint to-day. +The journey has interested me. I have made acquaintance with the +promontory of Circe, the shining rock of Anxur, and the towering +Volscian mountains--all renowned in song, as I need not tell you, +Signora! I observed Cora and Sezza shining like aërial palaces against +the brown rugged rock that supports them. I viewed with interest the +woods and thickets that once sheltered Camilla. Piperno is, you know, +the _antiqua urbs_ of Virgil. I am speaking to a princess who is a +classical scholar----" + +"Little enough of one," replied the Duchess. "Cardinal Ippolito took +compassion on my ignorance, and translated the second book of the Eneid +for me. But how go things at Rome?" + +And the great painter found that the great lady was more interested in +the chit-chat of the capital, than in classical allusion and learned +quotation. + +The Duchess could always summon at short notice a little circle of +deferential friends to her evening meal. She appeared in velvet and +jewels. The next morning she wore white. This was not out of coquetry, +but as a simple matter of business, that the famous master might make up +his mind what suited her best, as a sitter, and proceed to work. + +"Lady," said he, "I prefer the dress in which I saw you first." + +"Oh, but that is so old! so shabby!----" + +"_Non importa_--it harmonises with your complexion----" + +"Two shades of olive," said she, laughing a little; and she went to +change her dress. + +When she returned, Sebastian had concentrated the light by excluding it +altogether from one window, and placing a screen before the lower half +of the other. His easel and panel had been brought in by his attendant, +who was now busy laying his palette, and the artist was selecting chalks +and cartridge paper for a preparatory sketch. + +"You look charming," said he, as Giulia entered and seated herself in a +raised chair. She was in the olive-green dress, cut square on the bust, +with velvet bars on the corsage; and full, puffed, long sleeves, a white +lace neckerchief, and long transparent veil, added to the modest and +noble simplicity of her dress; while her rich auburn hair, dark in the +shade and golden in the sun,[8] was braided behind with a few pearls, +and gathered into rich coils. + + [8] "As through the meadow-lands clear rivers run, + Blue in the shadow, silver in the sun." + + Hon. Mrs. Norton. _Lady of La Garaye._ + +Poor Cynthia, with her throat swathed up, stood behind with her +feather-fan; but the painter looked distastefully at her, and did not +repeat his glance: he had no mind to introduce her, even as a foil. + +"I must make a saint or an angel of you, since you are for a Cardinal," +said he, with a grave smile; "and it will not be difficult." + +"Surely, this old gown is not very angelical?" said the Duchess. + +"No matter. A nimbus and pincers will identify you with St. Agatha or +St. Apollonia, quite sufficiently for the purpose." + +He began to draw with great diligence, and was terribly silent. The +Duchess felt inclined to yawn. + +"More to the right," he said, abruptly, as she inclined her head a +little to the left. "Perdona, illustrissima." + +"Pray do not stand on ceremony," said she. Her countenance had become +vacant, and he felt he must call up its expression. + +"Do you take any interest in art, Signora?" + +"O yes, a great deal. I only wish I knew more about it." + +"Do you know what is its great object?" + +"To address the eye?" + +"To address the mind." + +"Certainly. Of course. I ought to have said so." + +"The painter who only aims to deceive the eye is ignorant of the true +dignity of art." + +"To deceive the eye, and to please it, however, are different things." + +"I grant it; but the eye of an intelligent, a refined person, is not +pleased by that which offends the mind." + +"I thought you Venetians cared more for colour than for drawing or +expression." + +"I did so as long as I was a pupil of Giorgione's. But when I came to +Rome, Michael Angelo showed me where I was wrong. He said, 'It is a pity +you Venetians do not learn to draw better in your youth, and adopt a +better manner of study.' I took the hint, and drew diligently from the +living model. But even this did not content him. 'You neglect the ideal +beauty of form,' said he, 'and propriety of expression,' I treasured +this hint, too. I said to him, 'If you would condescend to unite our +colouring to your drawing, you would be--what, after all, you are +already--such a master as the world ne'er saw,' 'That may not be,' said +he, half-smiling; 'you might as well try to graft a rose on an oak: but +if _you_, my son, would unite good drawing to your colouring, you might +distance Raffaelle.' And, taking up a piece of pipeclay, he sketched out +a Lazarus, and splashed in the colour. I do not altogether like it, the +action is too violent, and he has made him as black as your Moorish +girl; but still it is a grand thing--a very grand thing--the action of +the toe, trying to disentangle the bandage of the left leg, is +wonderfully original. I have tried to paint all the rest of my picture +up to it. A little more to the right, Signora!" + +"Cardinal Ippolito told me that picture of yours was very grand," said +the Duchess. "He especially admired the different expressions of the two +sisters. But he thought the figure of the Saviour too small." + +"----Well," said Sebastian, after drawing for a few minutes in silence, +"perfect proportion always gives the idea of smallness. The figure was +on the same scale with the rest, till Michael Angelo put in his great +Lazarus: and you know I could not re-touch the master's work." + +"Michael Angelo writes to me sometimes," observed the Duchess, "but he +is a better correspondent of my cousin, Vittoria Colonna." + +Sebastian worked a little while in silence, and then said: + +"Is not the Marchioness somewhat tinctured with the new opinions?" + +"Yes," said Giulia, "I am afraid she is. That's the worst of being too +clever." + +"Is it a proof of being so?" + +"Well, clever people are apt to run after new things." + +"Perhaps they see more in them than the less clever do." + +"They think they do, at any rate." + +"Has your ladyship looked yet into the works of the Prince of Carpi?" + +"Do you mean the great heavy books you brought me from the Cardinal? +No." + +"They contain a masterly refutation of the heresies of Erasmus. The +Cardinal thought they might confirm you in the faith." + +"I am happy to say my faith wants no confirming. I would rather have had +some novels. You may tell him so, if he says anything to you about +it.... Have you read the books yourself?" + +"I have looked into them." + +"Have you read Erasmus's books?" + +"No." + +"Well, when I attack controversy, I will read both sides." + +"That will be rather dangerous." + +"How can that be? Only one side can be right." + +"Your excellency is of course above danger," said Sebastian, with a +little cough, "but, for common minds, there is the danger of not +distinguishing which _is_ the right. For myself, being but a moderate +logician, and still slighter theologian, I prefer taking my religion as +I have been taught it, to meddling with edged tools. The Church is +irrefutable: the Church has foundations that will never be shaken. And I +am content to abide by its decisions.--A little more to the right." + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + THE DUCHESS AND THE PAINTER. + + +After the steed is stolen, we shut the stable-door; and the Duchess, who +now felt very cowardly after dark, set a regular watch on the +battlements, whose orders were that he should wind his horn every hour, +as he paced his rounds, that she might be certified he was on the alert. +The prolonged, wailing note of this horn, piercing the solemn stillness +of night, had something infinitely melancholy in it, and often woke her +with a start; but then she had the satisfaction of thinking all was +safe, and soon yielded herself again to soft repose. Her maids, of whom +she had as many as the Duchess in Don Quixote, were much more timorous +than she was, and yielded a good deal to their fears, thinking it rather +pretty and interesting to start and shriek on the smallest alarm, till +they were scolded out of it by the Mother of the maids. This important +functionary, whose name, like that of Giulia's nurse, was Caterina, but +who bore the dignified prefix of Donna, was of Spanish birth, starched +and stiff as Leslie's duenna. In the feudal times, when the sons of +knights and nobles took service in the household of some brother noble +or knight, and performed the various duties of page and squire, their +sisters in like manner attended on the said noble's lady, somewhat in +the capacity of maids of honour, under the strict surveillance of the +Mother of the maids, who initiated them into all feminine crafts and +handiworks, as well as into the decorums and duties of life. That the +Duchess's household comprised many of these girls, we know from her +will, leaving them marriage portions, generally with the addition of a +bed and bedding. Doubtless there was some Altesidora among them, +accustomed to wear the old Duenna's heart out with her mischief and fun; +but, on the whole, Donna Caterina's rule was popular. Obedience, the +grand principle of peace and order, once enforced, she exercised no +vexatious petty tyrannies. + +On the first rumour of Barbarossa's invasion, Donna Caterina had swept +off all these young people into the cellar, and there locked them and +herself in, while Caterina, the nurse, devoted herself to securing the +jewels and plate, which she did with complete success. + +Sebastian del Piombo made many studies of the Duchess before he could +please himself; and the irresolution with which captious cavillers have +chosen to charge him was indicated in the deliberation with which he +poised and valued the merits of each before his final decision was made. +But deliberation is a very different thing from vacillation; and even +irresolution is as often an evidence of a great mind before the ultimate +choice, as it is of a little one after it. Plenty of illustrations will +occur to you, without any impertinent suggestions. + +After sketching her, then, as a nymph, an angel, a goddess, he chose the +simplest of his studies: one that represented her as + + "A creature not too bright or good + For human nature's daily food; + But yet an angel, too, and bright + With something of celestial light:" + +and then, to it he set _con furore_, grasping palette and brushes as +Jove might his thunder-bolts, and painting up his study with consummate +art and science, often in dead silence only broken by "A little more to +the right." + +As for the Duchess, when she was off duty, that is, when Sebastian was +getting his picture together, and bringing the separate parts well up +at the same time--as nature creates her works--she would dabble a little +in the arts herself, and pore over a few inches of paper, working as if +for her bread; with now and then a modest appeal,--"Is this altogether +ill-done? Is this a trifle better? Just put in a touch or two." + +O, delightful art of painting! Who can pursue you and not be happy? +Those artists who have known envy, jealousy, and malice, have not loved +you for yourself, but for ends far below you; for you are infinitely +calming! The true painter knows no rivalry but with nature, no master +but truth, no mistress but purity, no reward but success. As Garibaldi, +king of men, said last year, "When God puts you in the way of doing a +good thing, _do it_, and hold your tongue." + +"Do you think," said Giulia, one day, "I might become a good painter, +if I gave my mind to it?" + +"Certainly, if you gave your mind to it. But you never will! You are too +rich to be a good painter. A certain degree of excellence you may +attain, that will embellish your life and charm your leisure; but, to +become really _great_, one must attack painting like any mechanical +trade, and apply to it like an apprentice, not merely when the fancy +inclines, but at all times, willing or unwilling." + +"Ah, that would never suit me," said the Duchess. "But, supposing I +could leap over the apprenticeship, and become at once a great artist +like Michael Angelo, I might have underlings to do all the rough work +for me, and only do what was pleasant." + +"That is not Michael Angelo's way at all," said Sebastian. "He grinds +his own colours, I promise you, and lays his own palette, as I myself +do when at leisure. One thinks out many profitable thoughts at such +times. And no one can prepare our colours to please us as we can +ourselves. Though many of the early stages of sculpture are executed +from the clay model by rule and plummet, yet I assure you Michael Angelo +trusts it to no inferior workman, but does it himself. He is a great +man! a truly great man! And one of his great achievements has been to +sweep away the gold and purple backgrounds and other puerilities of the +dark ages." + +Sebastian little thought art would ever make a _retrograde progress_ to +pre-Raffaelitism. _Do_ we then, after all, move in a circle? + +In a month, the picture was finished. It was curious that Giulia should +have sat for it, at Ippolito's request, and for Ippolito; but we know +that she did. Affo supposes that she could not in courtesy refuse him, +after his coming so chivalrously to her succour. You may see the picture +now, at the National Gallery. The Duchess and the painter had quite a +friendly parting; and she engaged him, at his earliest leisure, to paint +her a portrait of himself. + +When the Cardinal saw the picture, it gave him a strange mixture of +pleasure and pain. + +"You have doubtless had a pleasant month," said he, moodily. "I wish you +had been Ippolito and I Sebastian." + +And when he found that Sebastian had promised Giulia his own picture, he +begged him to introduce _his_ portrait into it--which he did. + +"Ippolito had, at all events," says one of his chroniclers, "some +loveable and estimable qualities, and most of the historians have a +good word for him."[9] Doubtless this was owing to the genuine love of +letters which made the Medici the idols of the literati. Endowed by +Clement the Seventh with immense wealth, he was, says Roscoe, "the +patron, the companion, and the rival of all the poets, musicians, and +wits of his time. Without territories and without subjects, Ippolito +maintained at Bologna a court far more splendid than that of any Italian +potentate. His associates and attendants, all of whom could boast of +some peculiar merit or distinction which had entitled them to his +notice, generally formed a body of about three hundred persons. Shocked +at his profusion, which only the revenues of the church were competent +to supply, Clement the Seventh is said to have engaged the _maestro di +casa_ of Ippolito to remonstrate with him on his conduct, and to request +that he would dismiss some of his attendants as unnecessary to him. +'No,' replied Ippolito, 'I do not retain them at my court because I have +occasion for their services, but because they have occasion for mine.'" +An answer worthy of a Medici, "His translation of the Eneid into Italian +blank verse is considered one of the happiest efforts of the language, +and has been frequently reprinted. Amongst the collections of Italian +poetry, also, may be found some pieces of his composition, which do +credit to his talents."[10] + + [9] T. A. Trollope. + + [10] Roscoe's Lorenzo de' Medici. Some of his pieces may be + found in Crescembini, Della volgare Poesia, ii. 11. + +One morning, when it was discovered that many valuable statues in Rome +had been broken and defaced during the night, the Pope was so incensed +at it that he gave orders that whoever had committed the outrage, unless +it should prove to be Cardinal Ippolito, should be hanged. This looks as +if he were not quite sure that Ippolito might not be the culprit. +However, the offender proved to be Lorenzino de' Medici; and it required +all Ippolito's influence with the Pope to get him off. + +A Cardinal who could even be suspected by a Pope of playing such a prank +must have been a sorry sort of a churchman; and though we read of "his +frank, chivalrous nature," it would be vain indeed to look for anything +like spirituality in a Medici. When Giulia asked him for something to +supply the vague longings of her heart for a higher happiness than this +world could give, he was quite at sea, and could direct her to nothing +but ascetic observances and the sacrifice of all her possessions to the +church, whose coffers he so recklessly emptied. Yet he had a nature +capable of better things; but it could not shake itself free from the +trammels of earth. When he looked at Giulia's picture he thought, +"There, is a woman who might have made me happy." Perhaps he even +thought, "There is a woman who might have made me good;" but when a man +thinks this and makes no effort to become one whit better than he is, he +might just as well spare himself the reflection. + +Of course there were many versions of the story of Barbarossa's attempt +to capture the Duchess. Affo, the family annalist, summons all his +sesquipedalian vocabulary to dignify the occurrence with such eloquence +as this--"Quali fosseri gli affetti del suo delicatissimo animo in cotal +fuga, degno argomento di poema! e di storia, gioverà per interrompimento +di questo basso mio stile, di alzarsi a tanto incapace," &c., &c. And +Muzio Giustinapolitano indited an eclogue on the subject, beginning-- + + "Muse! quali antri o qual riposte selve + Vi teneano in quel punto? e tu, Minerva! + Qual sacri studj? E qual nuova vaghezza + Il dolce Amor?" &c., &c. + +"What were you all about, ye muses, goddesses, and you, you little god +of love," &c., that you did not fly to the rescue of this adorable lady? +and so forth. + +It was not only declared that Barbarossa had been despatched by the +Sultan, who desired to enumerate her among the beauties of his harem, +but that she had flung herself out of window, in her chemise, and fled +barefooted to the mountains, where she fell into the hands of some +condottieri, who, recognising her, respectfully conducted her back to +her castle. Giulia was very angry when these stories reached her, which +she was the last, however, to hear of; and when it was learnt that she +was contradicting them with warmth, another and worse story was +circulated, that she had had a Moorish slave assassinated for having +told the truth; in proof of which, his dead body had been cast ashore +with his tongue cut out. When Giulia begged her kinsmen to refute these +calumnies, they only pooh-poohed them, which greatly enraged her; and +she was heard to exclaim, "What a world this is!" which, after all, was +not a very original observation. + +Extremely weary of herself and of things in general, she one morning +languidly opened a letter from her cousin, the Marchioness of Pescara, +with very little expectation of its affording her much interest or +amusement. + +"Vittoria is always a flight above me," she mentally said. "I never was, +and never shall be, one of your grand intellectual ladies." + +This was said with that species of contempt with which too many of us +imply, "Your grand intellectual ladies are great stupids, after +all"--but are they so? Have they not often the best of it, even in this +world? Appreciation and applause that we real stupids would be very glad +of, fall to the share of the working bees that make the honey, and have +not some of them, at any rate, as fair a hope as any of us, of a good +place in the world to come? + +Thus wrote "the divine Vittoria," as she was frequently called--not in +the sense of her being a doctor of divinity, but addicted to divine +things:-- + + "There is now among us a man who is producing an extraordinary + sensation--Fra Bernardino Ochino, a Capuchin, who comes in the + spirit and with the power of Savonarola. Another valuable addition + to our Christian circle is Signor Juan de Valdés, the new Governor + of San Giacomo, and twin-brother of the Emperor's Latin secretary. + How I wish you were among us! We have a very pleasant little + society here, quite apart from those worldlings whose company you + and I have forsworn, our chief delight being to interchange + thoughts and feelings, cultivate our minds, and elevate our souls. + When the hot weather comes, I shall return to Ischia. Farewell." + + "Thy Vittoria." + +"Truly," exclaimed the Duchess, "to be at Naples would be ten thousand +times better than to remain here, where the malaria certainly affects +me; and I am sure my dear Duke would have said so, were it only for fear +of Barbarossa." + +So she gave the word of command, to the immense joy of her ladies, and, +after a prodigious bustle of preparation, she started with quite a +little army of retainers--six ladies of honour in sky-blue damask, six +grooms in chocolate and blue, her maggior-domo in starched ruff and black +velvet, and a competent number of men armed to the teeth. She performed +the journey, no very long one, in a horse-litter, curtained with blue +and silver, and piled with blue satin mattresses; and when she wished to +change her position she mounted her white palfrey. + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + DAWN OF A PURE LIGHT. + + +Even in the darkest period of the middle ages, God had not left Himself +without witnesses of the Truth among the Alps. It was in the year 1370 +that these pure-minded people, finding themselves straitened for room, +sent emissaries into Italy in quest of a convenient settlement. These +deputies travelled as far south as Calabria, where they treated with the +proprietors of the soil for a waste, uncultivated district. Thither +emigrated a chosen body of the Vaudois, under whose industrious hands +the desert soon blossomed as the rose, the thorn and the thistle gave +place to clustering vines and waving corn; and the blessing of God +evidently rested on a praying people, who fed on His unadulterated +word, and addressed Him without superstition. + +This little light in a dark place could not shine unobserved. The +prosperity of the new settlers excited the envy of the neighbouring +villagers, who, seeing that they neither came to their churches nor +observed their ceremonies, got up the cry of heresy against them. The +land-proprietors, however, protected their valuable tenants; and the +priests, finding the increasing amount of their regularly paid tithes, +winked at their non-conformity. Thus, the little band continued to +flourish and increase till the dawn of the short-lived Italian +reformation. + +From a Calabrian monk of this district, Petrarch acquired a knowledge of +the then totally neglected Greek language; and Boccaccio learnt it of +this monk's disciple. These two distinguished Italians, of whom it is +poor praise to say that they would still have been great men, though +the one had never written sonnets, nor the other novels, gave an impulse +to the benighted minds of their countrymen which eventually led to the +glorious restoration of learning. The light went on shining more and +more unto the perfect day, till Greek became the one thing needful; and +Greek was the casket which enshrined the New Testament. + +It is sorrowful to know, however, that a love of letters does not imply +a love of religion, and too often accompanies a total disrelish of it. +Lorenzo the Magnificent lavished all his patronage on the disciples of +pagan Greece, and Leo the Tenth reserved preferment for the exponents of +a refined heathenism. Erasmus heard a sermon preached before Julius the +Second, in which the Saviour was likened to Phocion and Epaminondas. Of +Cardinal Bembo, the apostolical secretary, it was thought the highest +praise to say that he rivalled Cicero and Virgil. + +A doubtful convert from Judaism, detesting the brethren who now regarded +him as a renegade, obtained a decree from the Imperial chamber that all +Hebrew books but the Old Testament should be destroyed. Reuchlin, the +restorer of Hebrew literature among Christians, rose up to prevent the +execution of this barbarous decree, which would, indeed, have got rid of +the Mishna and Gemara,[11] but at the expense (perhaps not too great) of +annihilating many a profound and valuable work. + + [11] The Mishna, or Duplicate, purports to embody laws given to + Moses on the Mount, and delivered by him, not in writing, but by + word of mouth, to the elders of Israel. Though a bold imposture, + the Jews have accepted it as a divine tradition. The Gemara, or + Accomplishment, consists of a mass of Rabbinical expositions, + proverbs, and allegories. The two, united, form the Talmud, or + Doctrine; and to it the Jews referred all their decisions, + "making the Word of God of none effect."--_Finn's Sepharim._ + +Reuchlin's successful opposition aroused the anger of the clergy, and a +hot controversy ensued, in which Luther and Erasmus warmly took part. +Thereby many a chink was made in the strong prison-walls that shut in +the undying lamp of Truth; and through these crannies the pure light +streamed forth. + +The works of Luther and Erasmus, Zwingle and Melancthon, were eagerly +read in Italy, but speedily suppressed. Some of them, under feigned +names, even found their way into the Vatican. + +"We have had a most laughable business before us to-day," wrote the +elder Scaliger. "The Commonplaces of Philip Melancthon were printed at +Venice with this title, 'Per Messer Ippofilo da Terra Negra.' Being sent +to Rome they were speedily bought up and read with great applause, so +that an order was sent to Venice for a fresh supply. Meantime, a +Franciscan friar, who possessed a copy of the original edition, +discovered the trick, and denounced the book as a Lutheran production of +Melancthon's. It was proposed, at first, to punish the poor printer, +who probably had not read a word of the original; but, on second +thoughts, it was decided to burn the copies and hush up the whole +affair." + +Almost as bad as Elizabeth Barrett Browning's having her Greek books +bound like novels from the Minerva press! + +It is one thing, however, to perceive the scandals and abuses of the +Romish church, and another to appreciate the spirituality of the +Saviour's pure doctrine. But there were Italians who could do this. + +"It is now fourteen years," wrote Egidio da Porta, "since I, under the +impulse of a certain religious feeling, but not according to knowledge, +forsook my parents and assumed the black cowl. If I did not become +learned and devout, at any rate I appeared so, and for seven years was a +preacher of God's word, though, alas, in deep ignorance. I ascribed +nothing to faith, all to works. But God would not permit His servant to +perish for ever. He brought me to the dust. I was made to cry 'Lord! +what wilt thou have me to do?' And then the delightful answer was borne +in upon my heart, 'Arise, and go to Zwingle,' and he will tell thee what +thou must do!'" + +The Jews contributed their share towards the intelligent study of +Biblical literature. Already the world owed to them that prodigious +effort of patient industry, the Masora--a verification of every jot and +tittle of the Hebrew Scriptures, for the purpose of giving a full and +exact text of the Holy Word. The newly invented art of printing now gave +it extension and perpetuity. In 1477, the Hebrew Psalter, and various +books of the Old Testament, issued from the press; and in 1488, a Jewish +family at Soncino, in the Cremonese, brought out a complete Hebrew +Bible. For thirty years afterwards, this department of typography was +almost entirely engrossed by the Jews; and I have already mentioned how +Giulia Gonzaga's nephew, Vespasiano Colonna, subsequently allowed the +Jews to establish a printing-press in his duchy of Sabbionetta. + +Erasmus published his Greek edition of the New Testament in 1516. In +1527, Pagnini of Lucca published his Latin translation of the whole +Bible. Thus, the minds of the learned were attracted to the Scriptures +as literary curiosities; and happily there were some among them who +thereby became wise unto salvation. While, however, the Old and New +Testament were still confined to the dead languages, they were only +accessible to scholars. But, as early as in 1471, an Italian translation +of the Bible was printed at Venice, and it went through many editions. A +better translation, by Brucioli, was published in 1530. + +Travelling and letter-writing contributed to enlarge the minds of the +Italians and spread the reformed doctrines. There were also many +Reformers in the service of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, who freely +broached their opinions while in Italy. Thus, like fire set to the dry +prairie grass, the flame ran across the country, soon dying out where it +found no combustible matter; in other quarters, smouldering unseen, when +it seemed trodden out. The Pope reproached the Emperor; the Emperor +recriminated, and bade the Pope reform his clergy. The sack of Rome +under the Constable de Bourbon was looked on by many of the Italians as +a judgment on the Pope for his impiety, and the names of heretic and +Lutheran were no longer heard with horror. Sermons were delivered in +private houses against the abuses of Romanism; and the number of +evangelical Christians increased every day. + +About this time, there might be seen, pacing along the high-roads of +Italy, a venerable man of most charming aspect. His beard was white as +snow, and descended to his girdle: his profile was finely cut, his skin +transparent and pale even to delicacy; his large, lustrous, dark brown +eyes were deep set beneath overhanging brows whose shadow gave them +wonderful intensity of expression. He carried a staff, but his figure +was erect and vigorous, his tread firm. When he came to the palace of a +prince or bishop, he was always received with the honours due to one of +superior rank: when he departed, it was with the same distinction. The +lead in conversation was by common consent yielded to him; people, +whether rich or poor, hung on his words, and tried to remember them. He +ate of such things as were set before him, but sparingly, and as if he +did not care what he ate. He drank water from the spring, or wine +tempered with water. + +This was Bernardino Ochino, the Capuchin friar. He was a native of +Sienna, and of obscure parentage. Impelled by religious motives, he had +early in life joined the Franciscan Observantines, but he afterwards +became a member of the Capuchin brotherhood, and adopted the most rigid +ascetic practices. These altogether failed to give him the peace of mind +which he sought. At his wit's end, he exclaimed:-- + +"Lord, if I am not saved now, I know not what else I _can_ do!" + +At length he found the very guide he wanted in the Bible, by the +attentive perusal of which he became convinced that Christ by his death +had made a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the +whole world,--that religious vows of human invention were not only +useless but wicked,--and that the Romish church, with all her appeals to +the senses, was unscriptural and abominable in the sight of God. + +Ochino's natural powers of oratory, improved as they were by +cultivation, led to his being chosen for one of the Lent preachers in +the principal cities of Italy. He drew crowds to hear him. The Emperor, +when in Italy, attended his sermons. For the time, at any rate, he +effected in his hearers a change of heart and life--made them give +largely of their abundance to the poor, and reconciled their +differences. His adoption of the reformed doctrines was not discovered; +he seemed aiming at a reformation within the church, while Luther and +Calvin were effecting one out of it. The lower orders were becoming +imbued with new principles. An Observantine monk, preaching one day at +Imola, told his congregation that they must purchase heaven by their +good works. A young boy who was present exclaimed:-- + +"That's blasphemy! for the Bible tells us that Christ purchased heaven +for us by his sufferings and death, and bestows it freely on us by his +mercy!" + +"Get you gone, you young rascal," retorted the monk, "you are but just +come from the cradle; and do you take upon you to understand sacred +things which even the learned cannot explain?" + +"Did you never read these words," then rejoined the boy--"'Out of the +mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained praise?'" + +On this, the monk, furious with anger, quitted the pulpit, and delivered +the poor boy over to the secular arm, by which he was marched off to +jail; an awful warning to youngsters of his age and degree. + +When Giulia Gonzaga arrived at Naples, it was already beginning to +ferment with the leaven of the new opinions, without having yet drawn on +itself the displeasure of the Sacred College. She established herself in +a good house in the Borgo delle Vergini, (sleeping every night in the +nunnery of Santa Clara,) and immediately sought the society of Vittoria +Colonna, whose extraordinary interest in the reformed doctrines she was +at first quite at a loss to comprehend. + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + VITTORIA DI COLONNA. + + + "Vittoria è 'l nome; e ben conviensi a nata + Fra le vittorie, ed a chi, o vada o stanzi, + Di trofei sempre e di trionfi ornata, + La Vittoria abbia seco, o dietro o innanzi. + Questa e un' altra Artemisia, che lodata. + Fu di pietà verso il suo Mausolo; anzi + Tanto maggior, quanto è più assai bel opra + Che por _sotterra_ un nom, trarlo _di sopra_." + + Ariosto. _Orlando_, xxxvii., 18. + + +Costanza, the young and beautiful Duchess of Francavilla, had, at the +beginning of the century, the fortress of the little island of Ischia +committed to her charge. This young widow had sense, goodness, courage, +rare prudence, energy, and fidelity; or Ischia, the key of the kingdom, +and more than once a royal asylum, would never have been entrusted to +her keeping. + +She was not only guardian of the castle and island, but of her infant +brother, Ferdinand, Marquis of Pescara. In his fifth year, the little +fellow was betrothed to the baby Vittoria Colonna, of the same age, who +was thenceforth consigned to the Duchess Costanza, to be educated with +her future husband; and the little _promessi sposi_ might be seen +straying about together, hand in hand, sharing their sweetmeats and +play-things, and now and then having a little fight. + +"Let dogs delight," however, was so strenuously inculcated by the +Duchess, that reciprocal forbearance soon cemented their affections. The +Marquis was taught that he must reserve kicks and blows for his future +enemies, and Vittoria that she must learn to bind up wounds rather than +inflict them. And so they chased butterflies, gathered flowers, and +hunted for strawberries together, themselves the prettiest blossoms +that ever floated on summer air. + + "Ah, lovely sight! behold them,--creatures twain, + Hand in hand wandering thro' some verdant alley, + Or sunny lawn of their serene domain, + Their wind-caught laughter echoing musically; + Or skimming, in pursuit of bird-cast shadows, + With feet immaculate the enamelled meadows." + + "Tiptoe now stand they by some towering lily, + And fain would peer into its snowy cave; + Now, the boy bending o'er some current chilly, + She feebler backward draws him from the wave, + But he persists, and gains for her at last + Some bright flowers, from the dull weeds hurrying past."[12] + + [12] Aubrey de Vere. "A Tale of the Olden Time." + +And thus the little betrothed led charmed lives, sporting and caressing, +in the intervals of learning hymns and legends and listening to the +Duchess's fairy tales. + +She also taught them a good deal of history by word of mouth, so that +they came to be quite as conversant with Romulus and Remus, Curtius and +Horatius Cocles, as with giants and dwarfs. Then came the conning of +the criss-cross row, duly followed by the Latin accidence, each +rivalling and yet helping the other. Learned tutors and gifted artists +gave the Duchess their aid; and thus the tranquil days glided on till +they were nineteen; the bloodshed and anarchy which distracted unhappy +Italy never troubling this charmed islet. + +Bishop Berkeley said of Ischia, in a letter to Pope: "'Tis an epitome of +the whole earth! containing within the compass of eighteen miles a +wonderful variety of hills, vales, rugged rocks, fruitful plains, and +barren mountains, all thrown together in most romantic confusion. The +air is, in the hottest season, constantly refreshed by cool breezes from +the sea; the vales produce excellent wheat and Indian corn, but are +mostly covered with vineyards, interspersed with fruit trees. Besides +the common kinds, as cherries, apricots, peaches, &c., they produce +oranges, limes, almonds, pomegranates, figs, water-melons, and many +other fruits unknown in our climate, which lie everywhere open to the +passenger. The hills are the greater part covered to the top with vines; +some with chesnut groves, and others with thickets of myrtle and +lentiscus." + +During this interval, Pescara had grown up into a strikingly handsome +and interesting youth. His hair, says Giovio, was auburn, his nose +aquiline, his eyes large and expressive; alternately flashing with +spirit and melting with softness. Vittoria worshipped him; and this was +so artlessly manifest that Pescara grew a little arrogant upon it. She +was a lovely blonde, with regular features, blue eyes, and hair of that +tint which Petrarch described as "chioma aurata," and which Galeazzo da +Tarsia, one of her poet-lovers, called "trecce d'oro." The Spanish +painter, Francesco d'Olanda, spoke of her rare beauty; and Michael +Angelo felt its powerful though innocent spell when, after their tender +leave-taking on her death-bed, he regretted that he had not kissed her +cheek instead of her hand. + +Vittoria's father, in spite of his grand, historic name, was but a +condottiere or captain of free lances, whose business and pleasure +consisted in bloodshed and rapine. He dwelt perched up in an old +ancestral castle overlooking a gloomy little walled town on a steep +hill-side, from whence he and his men would now and then sweep down to +devastate the property of his neighbours, much in the style of our own +border chiefs. It was his son Ascanio, Vittoria's brother, who made war +on Giulia, and seized her castles. + +Thus, Vittoria, the daughter and sister of fighting men, was ready to +admire and sympathize in the martial ardour of Pescara, which would have +had something respectable in it, had any one fought in those days for +any grand principle. + +At nineteen, the betrothed were married. Of course there was much +rejoicing, much feasting; chroniclers record the homages Vittoria +received from rich relations, in the shape of diamond crosses, diamond +rings, "twelve golden bracelets," &c., and recount the crimson velvet +gowns fringed with gold, the flesh-coloured silk petticoats trimmed with +black velvet, the purple brocaded mantles and so forth, composing her +wardrobe, which doubtless exemplified the height of the fashion of the +time. + +After the great stir was a great calm: two years ensued of perfect +married happiness. Then the young Marquis was summoned to the field; nor +did Vittoria seek to withhold him from the call to arms. The King of +Spain was also King of Naples, so of course Pescara fought on the +Spanish side: but the French were victorious at Ravenna, where he was +taken prisoner, after receiving some wounds in the face, which, the +Duchess of Milan told him, only made him the better-looking. + +He charmed his captivity by addressing to his wife a Dialogue on Love, +full of the studied conceits of the time. Vittoria sent him a poetical +epistle, full of tenderness and classicality. Playing on her own name, +she said:--"Se Vittoria volevi, io t'era appresso. Ma tu, lasciando me, +lasciasti lei." + +"If victory was what you wanted, _I_ was by your side. But, leaving +_me_, you lost _her_." + +One day, when she was with tearful eyes, inditing a sonnet to him, lo, +Pescara himself suddenly stood before her! He had been released on +paying a heavy ransom: she looked on him as "un gran capitano." + +Before their happiness could pall, he was off again, to win new laurels. +He had, indeed, bravery worthy of some good cause; but he was a stern, +inflexible commander: and in doing justice, he sometimes lost sight of +mercy. + +Pescara supplied his wife with an occupation during his absence, by +sending her a young boy to educate; a little cousin of his own, the +Marquis del Vasto; beautiful as a Cupid, but the naughtiest little Turk! + +In a little while, Vittoria could guide him with a rein of silk. It is +excellent woman's work to train boys. It is well to talk to them and +listen to them a good deal; tell them your own plans and air-castles; +hear all about theirs; help them in little matters and get them to help +you in yours; ask their opinion sometimes, and suggest rather than +intrude your own. Long walks together inevitably lead to long talks: +little things occur in which the boy may aid the woman as if he were a +man; though it be but to help her across a brook or over a stile. + +Del Vasto soon adored Vittoria, and as she was a good classic, he +feared her detection of false quantities, and yet would often come to +her for help, sure of obtaining it. He burned to be a hero like Pescara: +they both thought him quite up to Achilles. But Vittoria was to learn +her idol was made of clay. + +They met once more--they spent three days together, without knowing they +were not to see each other again. He hurried back to take the lead in a +brilliant but cruel campaign. It included the battle of Pavia. Robertson +calls Pescara the ablest and most enterprising of the Imperial generals; +and certainly he divided with Lannoy the merit of this victory, which +caused the captivity of two kings, and changed the fate of Europe. + +Pescara thought himself injured, in having Francis the First taken out +of his hands; and his known pique on the subject made a certain +political party, with the Pope for its real, and a man named Morone for +its ostensible head, think they might perhaps detach him from the +Spanish interest--in other words, make a traitor of him. + +In an evil hour, Pescara listened. Where was the pure, lofty influence +of his wife at that moment? She was far away, believing in his unstained +honour. A fatal letter was written by him, yielding to the tempter's +snares, and entrusted to a messenger named Gismondo Santi. + +This man, lodging at a low hostelry on his journey, was murdered by the +landlord, and buried under his staircase. As no tidings, consequently, +were heard of the unfortunate emissary, Pescara concluded he had turned +traitor (like his master) and carried his despatches to the Emperor. +Fancy his feelings. + +Oh, for Vittoria! Oh that she had been with him at first!--oh! that she +were with him now! As he clasped his strong hands over his burning eyes, +and strove to think, he seemed to see her, sitting at her +writing-table, pensively gazing at his miniature, and then at the +crucifix above it, with a prayer for him on her lips--a prayer that he +might be surrounded by an atmosphere of sanctity and safety. + +After crowning such a brilliant campaign by winning the battle of Pavia, +should he end by dying a disgraced man?--a convicted traitor, like De +Bourbon, with, perhaps, the felon death that De Bourbon had escaped? And +all for what? What dust and ashes the Evil One gives us to drink! + +Just then, a courier, hot with haste, brought him a letter--it was from +Vittoria. Too agitated to disentangle gently the tress of her fair hair +knotted round it, he cut it with his dagger, and devoured rather than +read it. + +Some bird of the air had carried the matter!--she had heard of the plot! +No Lady Macbeth was Vittoria, to urge her husband on to guilt--she was +his guardian angel, and wrote, with infinite trouble and anxiety, to +implore him to think of his hitherto unstained character, and to weigh +well what he was about, declaring to him that she had no desire to be +the wife of a king, but only of a loyal and upright man. + +This letter decided Pescara as to his course. He wrote a full confession +to the Emperor, who certainly owed him small thanks for it, seeing he +believed him to know all already; and the confederates he compromised +owed him still less. Pescara was too deep in the mire now, to come out +unstained. He returned to his allegiance to the Emperor, but he betrayed +his friends, his tempters, accomplices, or whatever name we may give +them. The Pope, of course, was above danger; but Morone fell into a +regular trap laid for him. + +Vittoria, far away in her little island, would only hear as much as +Pescara chose to tell her, and in his own way. She would suppose his +character unscathed, his possession of imperial favour undiminished, +since he was shortly afterwards made generalissimo of the forces. +Suddenly his health broke down. No one could say why, unless the slight +wounds he had received at Pavia had injured him more than was supposed. +A troubled mind, probably, was at the root of his mortal sickness. + +And so, in the prime of life, and loaded with honours, he found all +earthly things receding from his grasp, and death hovering in view. In +great anguish he sent for Vittoria, begging her to come quickly. She +started instantly with all speed, and had travelled as far northwards as +Viterbo, when she was met by the news of his death. + +Thus closed their life's romance. And if she had breathed her last on +his grave, she would only be known to us, if known at all, as a +constant, affectionate woman. Instead of which, she lived to immortalise +his memory in noble verse, to exemplify by her life a rare purity, +constancy, intelligence, and devotion, and then to dedicate her pen to +the loftiest themes that an evangelical faith could consecrate. No mere +idyls or love-verses: her poems are full of deep thought and profound +piety. + +This was the Vittoria, perhaps the most distinguished lady in Italy, +whom Giulia Gonzaga, her cousin by marriage, found at Naples, listening +to the preaching of Bernardino Ochino. + +Del Vasto, her boy pupil, was now arrived at man's estate, and her +dearest friend. He was married to Maria d'Aragona, the greatest beauty +of the day. Like Pescara, he was destined to die early. + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + VALDÉS AND OCHINO. + + +Evening was closing on Naples and Pausilippo--bright, serene, +odoriferous. The sea spread its azure surface as smooth as glass--many a +lateen sail was extended to the grateful breeze. The universal hum of a +talkative city was continually broken by whoop and halloo, scream and +laughter, snatch of song or the sound of some stringed or wind +instrument. Now and then a church bell fell musically and mournfully on +the ear. + +A grave signor sat pensively at a table, with an open book before him. +He was the true type of a Castilian hidalgo; tall, spare, with long, +narrow face, classically cut features, the eyes almond-shaped and very +dark, lighted as if from within: the face oval, the beard pointed, the +skin clear olive, the brow high and pale. + +His habit was of black velvet, slashed with satin and with buttons of +jet: a small starched cambric ruff, edged with lace, was closed at the +throat with white silken cords and tassels. A rapier at his side; a +diamond of the purest water on his long, thin white hand. + +"It must needs be so"--such was the tenor of his meditation. "The very +image of God must be stamped on our souls like the cameo in soft wax, if +we are to be His. Oh, my God, mould me with thine own impress! stamp me +with thine own seal! keep my thoughts--I cannot keep them!--efface even +the memories of sin. Make me a weapon for thine own armoury, whether to +be used in actual service or to hang on the wall ready for use!" + +He covered his face with his hand, and remained lost in thought, till +some one tapped at the door. It was Fra Bernardino Ochino, the +Capuchin. + +I know not why Ochino should have had so white a beard; for his age, at +most, was scarcely fifty: but so it was. + +"Brother," said Valdés gladly, "you come at the right moment; for I am +in a singular frame of mind." + +"Strange!" cried Ochino; "I, too, found myself in a singular mood, and +it was on that account that I sought you. There are times when I am +oppressed by vain questionings; and nobody quiets them better than you +do." + +"I wonder whether your questionings relate to the same subject as my +own," said Valdés, with his peculiarly sweet smile. "Come! let us talk +it out. It wants half-an-hour yet to the time when Donna Isabella +expects me." + +"You know," said Ochino, "I am not book-learned--" + +"My chief book is my mind," rejoined Valdés. "Therein I read a nature +totally corrupt, and find an unutterable want of God. My other book is +His word. Herein I find a solution to every question, a remedy for every +want, in the blood of Christ. And that is my peace." + +"Such is the substance of all my preaching. I aim not so much at pulling +down rotten opinions as sowing good seed." + +"You are right, you are right: that will carry us through. The rotten +walls will fall of themselves. They already totter and crumble." + +"But oh, what a God is ours!" cried Ochino, stretching his two arms +straight upward. "His judgments are past finding out. How easy it would +be to Him to make all straight!--I find myself ready to pray there may +be no hell: that it may be a depopulated country--a burnt-out volcano: +that all, _all_ may be saved." + +"Surely you may do that," said Valdés. "The Lord's hand is not +shortened, that He cannot save. He stands at the door of our hard hearts +and knocks. He cries 'turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?' Could a +_man_ say more? Excuse the bathos of the expression. It is man who says +'I will not.'" + +"But what vindictive expressions--" + +"Hush, hush, my brother. David's vindictive expressions were those of a +Jew, not a Christian: and, after all, what a loving heart he had! If he +stormed at his enemies one instant, he forgave them the next. Otherwise, +he could never have been the man after God's own heart. His inner being +is subjected to a test that none of us could stand--the Psalms are +literally his heart-sighings--the thoughts and feelings that chased one +another like cloud-shadows over waving corn. Oh! believe me, the fault +is not in God, but in ourselves. Since we admit that He is not only +round about us but within us, how is it that we have so little +perception of Him? Because His grace does not operate in us. And why +does not His grace operate in us? Because, in reality, we do not humbly, +devoutly, and earnestly desire it.[13] Why do not we both desire it and +seek it? Because we do not love God with the whole heart and with all +the senses. Why not? Because we do not know Him. Why do not we know Him? +Because we do not even know ourselves." + + [13] Valdés. "Chain of Virtues and Vices." _Vide_ Wiffen's + "Alfabeto Christiano." + +"All this is true and logical enough," said Ochino; "and brings us back +to your starting-point, that your first book was your own mind. But that +book cannot be read _in the dark_. Nor without the light of the Holy +Spirit." + +"Unquestionably not," said Valdés. "That light enables me to read my own +book. It makes plain and full of interest what was arid, forbidding, +and deeply disappointing. You know that the Scriptures have helped me to +understand my own book. David and St. Paul are nothing to us, in +comparison with God and Christ. In the Old Testament we read of a God of +vengeance, and a Lord of hosts; for to the Jews he exhibited himself but +through a glass darkly. But _we_ know him through Christ, and, in seeing +one, we see the other. Oh, then, how is it we are insensible to such +love? A man would give the whole world, if he had it, to save the life +of an only son: God gave His own Son to save an ungrateful world." + +"That is a strong figure," said Ochino, with emotion. + +"And since He and His Son are one, in a mystical manner which we cannot +comprehend," pursued Valdés, "what is His giving His Son for us, but, in +other words, giving himself? His _alter ego_. 'Greater love than this +hath no man, that he lay down his life for his friends.' 'For scarcely +for a _righteous_ man (even) will one _die_:--but God commendeth His +love towards us, in that, while we were yet _sinners_, Christ died for +us.' Can you conceive a nobler antithesis?" + +"Ah!" said Ochino, gladly extending his arms. "I see it! I embrace it!" + +"Hold it fast, my brother. For on this rock is built the church. He was +delivered (delivered up by _man_) for our sins, but was raised, by God, +for our justification. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have +peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Continue to hammer upon +that, as you have done, and are still doing. Did you note an honourable +woman who sate immediately before you, this morning, with Vittoria +Colonna?" + +"Yes. She was very attentive." + +"She is Giulia, Duchess of Trajetto: one on whom the pure gospel light +has not yet shined. I believe she is much under the influence of +Cardinal Ippolito: as much as the Marchioness of Pescara is under that +of Cardinal Pole. Pernicious directors, both! You must do them all the +good you can, while they are under your ministry. There is much that is +hopeful in the little circle of distinguished women who are now drawn +together here. Isabella Manricha is far advanced in the spiritual life, +and will faithfully guide her younger sisters along the narrow way. +Speak the truth to them boldly: the word of God is not bound. And now +the time is come for our evening reading at Donna Isabella's, and here +comes Giulio Terenziano to join us." + +As he spoke, a slender, intellectual-looking young man, with eyes full +of spiritual light, entered, whom he embraced as a younger brother. +This youth was afterwards a sufferer for the truth. + +Nothing was more remarkable in the foregoing dialogue than the manner in +which Valdés took the lead, though Ochino was a churchman and he was +not, and he was Ochino's junior by twelve or fourteen years. It is +currently believed that Valdés was at this time secretary to the Spanish +Viceroy of Naples, Don Pedro de Toledo: he was certainly governor of the +Hospital of Incurables. His remarkable personal influence was exercised +both in conversation and by letters on special subjects; by meetings for +the purpose of reading and exposition, either at his friends' houses or +in his own in Naples, or at Pausilippo. Mr. Wiffen tells us that some +interesting allusions in the "Dialogo de la Lengua" give an insight into +his manner of reading and discoursing with his friends. + +"He held frequent intercourse with them at his own residence in the +city. His less divided leisure was given to them at his country house, +situated in a garden, on the shore of the Bay of Naples, near Chiaja. At +this country house, Valdés received on the Sunday a select number of his +most intimate friends; and they passed the day together in this manner. +After breakfasting and taking a few turns round the garden, enjoying its +beauty and the pleasant prospect of the shores and purple ripples of the +bay, where the isle of Capri on one side drew the eye to the luxurious +mansion of Tiberius, and Ischia and Procida rose in sight on the other, +they returned into the house, when Valdés read some selected portion of +the Scriptures, and commented upon it, or some divine 'Consideration' +which had occupied his thoughts during the week.... After this, they +discussed the subject together, or discoursed on some other points which +Valdés himself brought forward, until the hour for dinner. After +dinner, in the afternoon, when the servants were dismissed to their own +amusements, his friends and not himself proposed the subjects and led +the conversation, and he had to discuss them agreeably to their desire. +As they had been pleased to consecrate the morning according to his +wishes, in reading 'The Book of the Soul,' or upon subjects like his +'Divine Considerations,' he in return devoted his acquirements to their +gratification on themes of their selection. Such was the origin of the +'Dialogo de la Lengua,' a dialogue on the Spanish language, which +occupied seven or more sittings, and was in all probability much more +copious than the text which has come down to us, and which furnishes us +with these particulars. At nightfall, Valdés and his friends returned to +the city. + +"The Sunday meetings may have continued four or five years. These +Sabbaths of studious Christians, this exchange of subjects, this +interchange of thought between the proposers, the day, the pure +elevation of mind they brought as it were with them, the situation, the +beauty of the country, the transparent skies of a southern climate, the +low murmurs of the bay, would all be favourable to the purpose of +Valdés."[14] + + [14] Introduction to Wiffen's translation of the "Alfabeto + Christiano." + +The extreme beauty of this extract will preclude the need of apology for +its length, especially as the general reader could not otherwise have +access to it; for I believe only a hundred copies for private +circulation have been printed of the work to which Mr. Wiffen has +affixed his delightful introduction. + + "O, evenings worthy of the gods!" exclaimed + The Sabine bard. "O, evenings," I reply, + "More to be prized and coveted than yours, + As more illumined, and with nobler truths." + + Cowper, "The Task," book iv. + +Verini has described the charms of Lorenzo's farm at Poggio Cajano, and +Politian has left us a delightful description of his summer evenings at +Fiesole. + +"When you are incommoded," says he, "with the heat of the season in your +retreat at Careggi, you will perhaps think the shelter of Fiesole not +unworthy your notice. Seated between the slopes of the mountain, we have +here water in abundance, and being constantly refreshed with moderate +winds, find little inconvenience from the glare of the sun. As you +approach the house, it seems embosomed in the wood; but when you reach +it, you find it commands a full view of the city. But I shall tempt you +with other allurements. Wandering beyond the limits of his own +plantation, Pico sometimes steals unexpectedly on my retirement, and +draws me from my shades to partake of his supper. What kind of supper +that is, you well know; sparing, indeed, but neat, and rendered +grateful by the charms of his conversation." + +Pico and Politian would doubtless be very good company; but not equal to +Valdés and Ochino. + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + GOING TO LAW. + + +Giulia was in Naples, but she was neither enjoying herself nor +benefiting herself, as much as she ought to have done. The Princess of +Sulmona, who stood in the double relation to her of daughter-in-law and +sister-in-law, and who had once been her chosen companion and bosom +friend, had, since her second marriage, been gradually estranged from +her: and, from time to time, the Duchess had received letters from her +in so altered a tone, that she might have exclaimed-- + + "Is all the friendship that we two have shared, + When we have chid the hasty-footed time + For parting us,--oh! and is all forgot?" + +Firstly, a demand for a certain ewer and chalice of silver, richly +chased by Benvenuto, which were heirlooms, and held by Giulia in charge +for her nephew and Isabella's son, the little Vespasiano. On reading +this missive, the Duchess took the trouble to write her a long, +explanatory, and reproachful letter, reminding her of things whereof +Isabella ought not to have needed reminding. + +Letter the second, after a considerable pause, took no notice of +Giulia's answer, but enforced attention to letter the first, making +additional claim to a large ruby ring and a string of oriental pearls. + +On reading this, the Duchess said: "She's mad!"--burnt the letter, and +did not answer it. + +Letter the third was filled with the most aggravating things that one +woman could say to another. + +Giulia replied by desiring her instantly to return a service of plate +and several family jewels which had been lent her on her marriage. + +In answer to this, Giulia received a lawyer's letter, telling her that +her husband's will was null and void, and threatening her with +proceedings. + +Fancy the state of the poor Duchess! She received this letter just +before she went, for the first time, with Vittoria, to hear Ochino +preach; and however attentive he might have thought her, she was in fact +thinking of the lawyer's letter all the while, and writing imaginary +letters to the Pope and the Emperor. For, Giulia had overpowering +allies; and if her sweet nature were sufficiently stirred to call them +to her succour, woe unto those who attacked her! This had been +exemplified immediately after the Duke's death, when his kinsmen, +Ascanio Colonna and Napoleone Orsini, taking advantage of her supposed +helplessness, laid claim to his estates. Up in arms were the Pope and +the Emperor directly. The Pope pronounced the will valid, and the +Emperor put her in possession of her estates. Yet, now, here was the +whole matter to go over again, and with some one much nearer and dearer! +Giulia had a fit of crying; and the humid eyes and dejected mien which +Ochino and Valdés attributed to her convictions of sin were traceable to +a much lower source. + +"How well dear Ochino laboured the point of justification by faith!" +exclaimed Vittoria, after their return from church. "Did you ever hear +it better demonstrated?" + +"To say the truth, dear Vittoria," replied the Duchess, "I scarcely +heard two words of it, and do not remember one." + +The Marchioness looked shocked; but Giulia continued-- + +"Isabella threatens me with a lawsuit, and I am determined to write to +the Pope about it." + +"Oh, pray do not," cried Vittoria, "you are always a great deal too +violent. You use such extraordinarily strong measures when mild ones +would do." + +"_I_, violent? Why, that is the last thing I am! It is because I am +unprotected that people trample on me!" + +"Trample! O, my dear Giulia!" + +"Why, only remember how Ascanio and Napoleone came down upon me directly +my poor Duke was dead!" + +"Yes, and only remember how _you_ came down upon them. You raised the +whole country about it. No one less than the Pope and the Emperor would +serve your turn." + +"Well, and did not they say I was right? and did not they take my part?" + +"Truly they did!--but it does not follow that they would do so again. +Men are apt to fly to the rescue, directly they think a helpless woman +is oppressed; but if they find out she is able and willing to fight her +own battles, they let her! And indeed, dear Giulia, it does not become +a woman to be pugnacious." + +"Pugnacious!" The word was highly offensive, and the Duchess was deeply +hurt. She threw herself on a pile of cushions and began to tear a +nosegay to pieces, without saying a word. + +"Hear what St. Paul says," pursued Vittoria, sitting down beside her, +and turning over the leaves of a little book. + +"St. Paul knows nothing about it," muttered the Duchess. + +"There you are quite mistaken," said Vittoria, still eagerly hunting up +the passage, "St. Paul knew something about everything, for he was a +great genius and an eminently practical man, besides being a holy +apostle. This is what he says--'Dare any of you, having a matter against +another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?... I +speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? +No? Not one, that shall be able to judge between his brethren? But +brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers! Now, +therefore, there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one +with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? Why do not ye rather +suffer yourselves to be defrauded?'" + +"That is very fine for St. Paul to say," said Giulia. "I wonder how he +would have liked it himself." + +"Giulia! you must not say such things as that. It is wicked." + +"Why, to hear you talk, one would think it was I who wanted to go to law +with Isabella; whereas, it is Isabella who wants to go to law with +_me_!" + +And Giulia began to cry. + +"Nobody is so unfortunate as I," said she. + +"I pity you," said Vittoria, "but I own I think you are blameworthy." + +"In what?" + +"In your spirit." + +"Why, what would you do in my place?" + +"I would not write to the Pope." + +"That's what you would _not_ do. What would you do?" + +"Settle it by amicable agreement." + +"But Isabella will not be amicable!" + +"If she will not, that is _her_ fault." + +"Certainly! And so it is her fault." + +"Well, my dear Giulia, I would not trouble myself so for all the pearls +and diamonds in the world. What are they, but so much dust? If you throw +them into a crucible, they will lose all their beauty, and--" + +"So should I, if you put _me_ into a crucible," said Giulia, beginning +to laugh; and her own little joke did more to make her see the bright +side of things than all her cousin's wise saws. + +"I know what I'll do," said she. "I'll write to Ferrante." + +Ferrante was her only surviving brother. + +"Ah, that is a good thought," said Vittoria. "He will be sure to help +you." + +So the Duchess wrote to Don Ferrante; and when Don Ferrante's answer +came, which was not within a fortnight, he told her he was sorry to find +she was embroiling herself again with her husband's relations; a +contentious spirit was worse than a continual dropping: he feared she +had had a little too much prosperity and petting: misfortunes were the +lot of all, and it was vain to repine because a rose-leaf was doubled on +our couch, &c., &c., &c. Think how many people were a great deal worse +off, &c., &c., &c. + +Clearly, there was no comfort to be had from Don Ferrante. So Giulia, +getting another aggravating letter from Isabella, consulted the best +lawyers in Naples; who advised her not to answer her, but to leave them +to conduct the correspondence (for a consideration). + +Then came so much parry and thrust, and tergiversation, and objurgation, +and recrimination, that poor Giulia became seriously ill. Then the +Marchioness of Pescara was very kind to her, and sat by her all day, and +would have done so all night, but she fidgeted her to death, by what +Giulia called preaching, though Vittoria only spoke what she meant for a +word in season; and Giulia longed to tell her she would rather be nursed +by her own maids. + +"Ah, Leila!" said Cynthia, as she knelt, fanning her mistress, "I wish +we were all back at Fondi." + +"Why do you wish that, Cynthia?" + +"You would be better there, Leila. You would be under the care of Bar +Hhasdai." + +"Bar Hhasdai has no cure for worry, Cynthia." + +"I think you would be better there, Leila." + +"Cynthia! do _you_ care for me? do you love me?" + +Cynthia replied by repeatedly kissing the hem of the Duchess's garment. + +"Ah, it is all very well to make that dumb show; but do you really love +me?" + +"Yes, Leila, I love you. When the hound flew at me, you were bathed in +my blood, and did not mind." + +"Of course, poor girl, I could not help pitying you. By the bye, +Cynthia--would you do anything that would make me better?" + +"Try me, Leila." + +"Well then, Cynthia--do tell me--frankly, as a friend--I'll forget I am +your mistress--I will not punish you. _Did_ you have any communication +with Barbarossa?" + +Cynthia's face changed. "Oh, Leila! how can you ask?" + +"Well then, say no! It is so easily spoken." + +"It is not easy." + +"Easy or difficult, you _must_ say." + +Cynthia's obstinate look came on, which showed the case to be hopeless. + +"Oh, very well, Cynthia; then you do not love me, that is all." And the +Duchess turned her face away. + +"I _do_ love you, Leila." + +"No, I don't believe you." + +Cynthia took her hand and wetted it with tears. The Duchess drew it +away. + +"I wish you would kill me, Leila." + +"Don't tell such stories, Cynthia. You know it is not my nature to kill +people; though there were persons wicked enough to say I had killed poor +Muza, after cutting out his tongue, which you know he had lost before he +ever came to me." + +"I know it, Leila." + +"Muza was perhaps sent back as a spy; though he pretended he had +escaped. There are so many wicked people in the world that I do not know +who to trust--I believe I shall end by distrusting everybody." + +"Oh no, Leila. Do not!" + +"Why, how can I trust _you_? You have eaten of my bread and drank of my +cup these two years, and you are no more _of_ us than if you were a +stone." + +"I love my own people, I own," said Cynthia. "And so would you love +yours, if you were exiled from them." + +"I love mine without being exiled from them." + +"But you would find you loved them still more if you were sold into +slavery." + +"If Barbarossa had taken me to Constantinople! Well, I believe I should. +There is no making anything of you, Cynthia. You are a riddle. I believe +I could love you if you were not so close. But you shut yourself up like +a hedgehog. Sing me one of your Moorish songs--that one about Zelinda +and Ganzul. Perhaps you may quiet my poor nerves." + +So Cynthia immediately began a long, wailing ballad, the Spanish version +of which begins:-- + + "En el tiempo que Zelinda + Cerro ayrada la ventana + A la disculpa, a los zelos + Que il Moro Ganzul le dava." + +Before she reached the happy reconciliation of Ganzul and Zelinda, the +Duchess was asleep. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + THE CARDINAL TEMPTED. + + +How fared it with Cardinal Ippolito, after he left Fondi? In a general +way we may be pretty sure that he fared sumptuously every day, clothed +in purple and fine linen; that he entertained a constant succession of +noble, learned, witty, and intellectual guests; that a certain portion +of broken victuals from his table was daily given to beggars full of +sores at his gate; that he read the Greek and Latin poets a good deal +more than the Old and New Testament; that he bought whatever pleased him +in the way of intaglios, cameos, mosaics, ivory carvings, rare +manuscripts, and paintings,--out of the revenues of the Church; that he +now and then gave a ring, chain, or purse of gold to some poor author or +artist,--out of the revenues of the Church; that he took part in high +solemnities, and looked and acted his part well when relics were to be +exhibited, or pontifical mass performed, or martyrs to be canonised. + +Did he believe in them, think you? Did he believe in "the most holy +cross," "the most holy visage," the "sacred spear"? I very much doubt +the poor Cardinal's faith in much holier things than these. He would +have been very glad to possess the faith of that barefooted little +contadina with the silver dagger in her hair, whom he saw pressing her +lips so undoubtingly and affectionately to a dirty little box held by a +still dirtier friar. To him it was all an extremely well got-up scene; +interesting in an artistic point of view; painfully unreal whenever he +came to think of it. He liked the thrilling music, the air heavy with +incense, the various costumes and draperies, the heaps of church plate, +the shrines encrusted with gems, the portraits of famous beauties with +haloes and palms; but oh! they did not even touch his feelings; and as +for his thoughts, his thoughts!-- + +It seemed to him quite as hard to believe that the bread and wine on the +altar were what they purported to be, as that the imprint of the +Redeemer's face was stamped on the kerchief of St. Veronica. Sometimes +he was ready to persuade himself he blindly believed all; at other +times, he was too sadly sure he believed in nothing. Nothing but +death!--and it was almost death to think of it. "Let us eat and drink, +for to-morrow we die!" + +Well, but there was his old uncle, the Pope, who had a good deal more on +his conscience than he had, and must be a good deal nearer that +catastrophe than he was, he was so much older!--and how comfortably he +took it all!--washing the pilgrims' feet, blessing the horses, borne +aloft in that tottering seat between the two great fans of ostrich +feathers, stretching out his fingers in continual benediction--the +king--the vice-God of the hour--forgiving the sins of all the +world--_he_ seemed to get through it all very well-- + +But, just as the Cardinal had reached this point, Pope Clement +_died_--and how did the people show their sense of his holiness? He died +on the 26th of September, 1534; just two months after the sack of Fondi; +and during the period between his decease and the election of a +successor, the contempt and hatred of the Romans showed themselves by +the most outrageous insults to his memory. Night after night, his bier +was broken and defaced. On one occasion his body was actually torn from +its grave-clothes, and found in the morning transfixed with a sword. And +there were those who scrupled not to say it would have been dragged +through the streets with a hook, but for respect for Cardinal Ippolito. + +All this was very terrible for Ippolito. Death, in all its grisly +horrors, and without any of its holy and softening associations, was +brought before him whether he would or no; with no sacrament of tears +and blessings, no cherished memories of the last look, the last sigh; no +death-bed sanctities. + +And then the new Pope, Paul the Third, was a Farnese. The Medici party +had gone out, the Farnese party had come in; and Ippolito was looked on +as an enviable pluralist, whose benefices the new Pope's friends would +gladly share. Ippolito knew it was so, because it must be so: it would +not be Roman human nature if it had been otherwise. And in the night, he +would lie awake and think, "What a juggle, and a struggle, and a farce +it all is!--What a seeming, and a sham!--Why did I ever accept this +detestable hat? Why should I have been put off with it? Why should not I +have been Grand Duke of Florence instead of Alessandro? I am of the +elder branch, and any way I would have played my part better. O, Giulia, +why would not you have me? It would have been better for both of us!" +And he got into the way of fancying that all his faults were _her_ +fault. + +He was just in that state that he lay open to any temptation. And +temptation is never long coming, when we are in that case. He was ready +for anything that seemed to promise to put him in Alessandro's place; +and there was a large body of banished Florentines, or _fuorusciti_ as +they were commonly called, who burned to dethrone the tyrant and abolish +tyranny. Their views were larger and more patriotic than Ippolito's, for +he only wished to transfer his cousin's power to himself: however, +Felippo Strozzi, the richest and most crafty citizen in Florence, knew +enough of both parties to think he could make them serve his own +purposes. + +Felippo Strozzi therefore opened his mind to Ippolito on the subject of +getting rid of Alessandro, and found it easier to do than it might have +been, because Ippolito was already a guilty man concerning his +cousin--he had already been trying to induce the Archbishop of +Marseilles to assassinate him. What churchmen!--That scheme had not +answered, but his part was taken now; with a colour of patriotism in it; +for he must keep his selfish views out of sight of the _fuorusciti_, or +they would have nothing to say to him. + +The simplest way appeared to be to get Charles the Fifth to change the +government of Florence by an act of his sovereign will; and then, no +assassination need be in question. + +This appeared so bright an idea to the Cardinal, that, without troubling +himself to take counsel with his confederates, he sent a trusty +messenger on his own account to the Emperor, to lay such a statement +before him as would, he hoped, convince him of the justice and +expediency of subverting Alessandro's government. But alas, the +messenger brought back word that the Emperor would have nothing to say +to it; the Cardinal had nothing to expect from him. + +On this, Ippolito had recourse to his bad adviser, Strozzi, and put it +to him-- + +"What say you? Shall I, under these circumstances, please the Emperor by +making up matters with Alessandro, and accept the ecclesiastical +preferments which have, in that case, been offered me?" + +"Please yourself," says Felippo, with his cynical smile. "I wouldn't, if +I were you, but that's not my affair. Such a peace-making would +doubtless be very acceptable to the Duke, as relieving him of a +dangerous enemy; but it would be both injurious and disgraceful to +yourself. At least, that's the way _I_ take it." + +"Here am I all at sea again, then," said the Cardinal. + +"You talk of a reconciliation as if it could really be made," pursued +Strozzi; "whereas it would assuredly come to nothing: because such +matters have already passed between you as that Alessandro would never +really trust you; and this feeling on his part would make you, or ought +to make you, equally distrustful of him. So that you never could live +safely in Florence as long as he was in power there. And as to the +appanages he has promised you, depend upon it, that as soon as his +alliance with the Emperor was secured he would snap his fingers at you, +and you might go whistle for them!" + +"If you think _that_--" said Ippolito. + +"I do think that, I promise you," said Felippo Strozzi. "I don't want to +make differences between relations, not I; but if you ask me for my +plain opinion, there you have it. He would take care to gain the ear of +the Emperor so as that you should never have one of those benefices, for +his cue will be to keep you down as much as he can." + +"Nay then--" said the Cardinal. + +"Besides," continued Strozzi, "such a reconciliation would make you +despicable in the sight of all the world; for every one knows your +opinion of Alessandro, and would be quite aware that nothing but mere +hope of profit could have brought you to make it up with him--they would +never believe in any more honourable motive." + +"Then again--" resumed he, seeing that Ippolito was in a painful state +of vacillation, "by adopting a more spirited line of action, and uniting +yourself with the _fuorusciti_, you would gain immortal honour and glory +as the deliverer and true father of your country, _and would see your +arms put up all over the city_!" + +This last bait was too much for Ippolito to resist. His eye kindled, and +he half started from his seat. + +"And this would even be your wisest course of action," pursued his +cunning tempter, "should you feel inclined to make yourself absolute +master of the state instead of liberating it, inasmuch as it would +obtain such popularity for you in the first instance. All the old +friends of your house are so disgusted and alienated by the conduct of +Alessandro, that they would gladly transfer their allegiance to you. And +_I_ will undertake, if you will only be prudent, to make the +_fuorusciti_ espouse your cause. With the French money and favour which +my influence can secure to you, you may be certain of success!" + +Ippolito's breast heaved. It seemed "a good plot--an excellent +plot"--though a voice in his heart made its stifled accents heard +against it. And so, in evil hour, the decision was made; and he became +the tool of this wicked man, who designed, through him, to wreak his own +vengeance on Alessandro. + +But a bird of the air carried the matter to the Grand Duke; else how +should he have heard of it? He, ready enough to fight conspirators with +their own weapons, communicated secretly with Ippolito's steward, Giovan +Andrea di Borgho San Sepolcro, and covenanted with him to do a certain +deed for a certain sum of money. + +Meantime, Strozzi negotiated with the leaders of the _fuorusciti_, who, +knowing his character for craft and treachery, were not at all ready to +meet him half way, and sometimes drove him to such desperation with +their answers to his advances that he was almost minded to throw up +conspiracy altogether, and retire upon his enormous fortune to Venice, +and live quietly like an honest man. Well if he had! + +The Cardinal, meantime, hearing that the Emperor was fitting out an +expedition to Tunis, resolved to follow him thither, accompanied by +certain of the _fuorusciti_, and lay his complaints before him in +person. + +No sooner had he decided on this step than he hastened his preparations +for departure. He loved action and the bruit of arms: he would have made +a pretty good soldier: probably a noted commander. To supply himself +with the necessary funds, he broke up and sold all his plate, and +borrowed ten thousand ducats of Felippo Strozzi. Having hired twenty +horses for his personal attendants and four Florentines who were to +accompany him, he started from Rome at the latter end of July, 1535, _en +route_ for the little town of Itri, near Fondi, where he purposed +awaiting the vessel in which he was to embark at Gaeta. + +The reason he meant to wait at Itri rather than Gaeta was that he +believed Giulia to be at Fondi--in which he was mistaken. + +As he was in the act of mounting his beautiful mare, she fell beneath +him, without any apparent reason; which was afterwards looked back on as +an evil omen. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + WHAT BEFEL BARBAROSSA. + + +The Emperor Charles the Fifth had been very indignant when he heard of +the sack of Fondi, and the attempt to seize the Duchess. Some months +afterwards, when Muley Hassan, whom Barbarossa had driven from Tunis, +appealed to him for assistance, Charles, who was ambitious of military +renown, resolved at once to rid the coast of a dangerous invader, and +avenge an injured prince, by heading an expedition against Hayraddin. + +The united strength of his dominions was therefore called out upon this +enterprise, which he intended to increase his already brilliant +reputation. As the redresser of wrongs, his cause was popular, and drew +on him the applause of Christendom. A Flemish fleet conveyed his troops +from the Low Countries; the galleys of Naples were loaded with the +Italian auxiliaries, and the Emperor himself embarked at Barcelona with +the flower of his Spanish nobility, and considerable reinforcements from +Portugal. Andrea Doria commanded the Genoese galleys, and the Knights of +Malta equipped a small but powerful squadron, and hastened to the +rendezvous at Cagliari. + +All this mighty armament to hunt down a Lesbian pirate, the son of an +obscure potter! + +Hayraddin was, however, no contemptible foe. Ambitious and relentless, a +skilful and a generous chief, his lavish bounties among his partizans +made them his blind adherents: while his wondrous versatility had +enabled him to ingratiate himself with the Sultan and his Vizier. It was +therefore to be war to the knife between the Crescent and the Cross. + +As soon as Barbarossa heard of the Emperor's formidable preparations, +he called in all his corsairs from their different stations, drew from +Algiers what forces could be spared, summoned Moors and Arabs from all +quarters to his standard, and inflamed their fanaticism by assuring them +he was embarking in a holy war. + +Twenty thousand horse and a considerable body of foot answered his +summons, and drew together before Tunis. Hayraddin knew, however, that +his greatest dependence must be on his Turkish troops, who were armed +and disciplined in the European manner. He therefore threw six thousand +of them, under Sinan, the renegade Jew, into the fortress of Goletta +commanding the bay of Tunis; which the Emperor immediately invested. + +Three separate storming parties attacked the fort; Sinan raged like a +lion at bay: frequent sallies were made by his garrison, while the Moors +and Arabs made diversions. But nothing could withstand the fury of the +assailants; and a breach soon appeared in the walls of the fortress, +which the Emperor pointed out to Muley Hassan. + +"Behold," said he, "the gate through which you may re-enter your +kingdom!" + +With the Goletta, Barbarossa's fleet fell into the Emperor's hands; and +he was driven to extremities. Having strongly entrenched himself within +the city, he called his chiefs to a council of war, and proposed to +them, that before sallying out to decide their fate in battle, they +should massacre ten thousand Christians whom he had shut up in the +citadel. + +Even his pirate chiefs were staggered at this proposal; and Barbarossa, +seeing they would not support him in it, yielded the point with a +gesture of disgust at their want of hardihood. Charles and his chivalry +were meanwhile painfully toiling, under a blazing African sun, across +the burning sands which encompass Tunis, without so much as a drop of +water to cool their tongues: + + "Non e gente Pagana insieme accolta, + Non muro cinto di profonda fossa, + Non gran torrente o monte alpestre e folta + Selva, che 'l loro vïaggio arrestar possa." + + La Ger. Lib., _Canto I._ + +Hayraddin, sallying out upon them with his best troops, made a desperate +onset, but was so vigorously repulsed that his forces surged back to the +city, and he himself was irresistibly borne along with them like a straw +on the tide. + +Meanwhile, a pale girl, a Christian slave, who had been within earshot +of the council, carried the report of Barbarossa's ferocious proposal to +the keepers of the citadel. They were revolted at his cruelty, and her +entreaties, backed by the clamours of the despairing wretches in their +charge, prevailed on them to release the Christian prisoners and strike +off their fetters. Forth came Tebaldo Adimari, the pride of Fondi; +forth came many a grey-haired senator, illustrious cavalier, and +venerable hidalgo, some in their full strength, others wasted with long +captivity, but nerved at this moment to strike a blow for freedom. +Unarmed as they were, they flung themselves on the surprised guard, and +turned the artillery of the fort against Barbarossa himself as he and +his discomfited troops poured back in disorderly retreat. O, fell rage +and despair of the defeated pirate, late the sovereign of two kingdoms, +as he now heard Christian war-cries defying him from his own +battlements! gnashing his teeth, and cursing the comrades whose humanity +compelled him to spare those who were now manning the walls, he sought +safety in ignominious and precipitate flight. + +Then what a cheer arose, as the Christians saw the turbans in retreat, +and themselves masters of the city! The Emperor was first made aware of +the turn affairs had taken, by the arrival of deputies from Tunis, who +brought him the keys, and piteously besought him to check the violence +of his troops. In vain! They were already sacking the city, killing and +plundering without mercy; and thirty thousand defenceless people were +the victims of that day, while ten thousand more were carried away as +slaves. + +It is said that Charles lamented this dreadful slaughter, and that he +declared the only result of his victory which gave him any satisfaction +was his reception by the ten thousand Christian captives, who fell at +his feet, blessing him as their deliverer. In all, he freed twenty +thousand slaves, whom he sent, clothed at his own expense, to their own +homes; and they, as may well be supposed, made Europe ring with their +praises of his goodness and munificence. It was a bright day for Fondi +when Tebaldo Adimari returned! Though the Duchess was at Naples, and +though Isaura was in her train, he had seen them both on his way home, +and ratified his vows of love and constancy. The Duchess had promised to +smile on their espousals, which were shortly to take place; and +meanwhile his friends and relations got up a festa to welcome him, and +there was church-going and bell-ringing, and eating and drinking, and +dancing and singing, without any drunkenness, stabbing, or even +quarrelling. + +If such was the public joy in a little town of four thousand people at +the return of a young fellow of no mark or likelihood whatever, except +that he was comely, merry, brave, ingenuous, with a good word for +everybody and with everybody's good word,--it may be supposed what a +stir the Emperor's arrival at Naples made, and how that pleasure-loving +capital nearly exhausted itself in demonstrations of welcome. The mole, +when he landed, was so crowded, that you may be sure a grain of millet +thrown upon it would not have found room to reach the ground. Nothing +was to be heard but bell-ringing, acclamations, and the thundering of +cannon; nothing to be seen but gold, velvet, silk, and brocade, festoons +of flowers, triumphal arches, processions, deputations, triumphal cars, +prancing steeds, waving plumes, and bronzed cavaliers looking up at the +balconies of fair women waving their handkerchiefs, among whom, rely on +it, were Vittoria Colonna and Giulia Gonzaga. + +Charles, with his Spanish gravity ever uppermost, took it all very +soberly; heard what people had to say, enjoyed it in his way, said very +little himself, and in the proverb style; went to the cathedral, heard +Fra Bernardino Ochino preach, and afterwards observed, composedly, "That +man would make the stones weep!"--his own eyes being quite dry all the +while. Also if anything inexpressibly funny were said, he remarked, "How +very diverting!" but did not smile. He was best at business, and he +entered upon Giulia's affairs. + + + + + CHAPTER XV. + + MORE ABOUT THE CARDINAL. + + +Itri, the birthplace of the notorious Fra Diavolo, is a regular +robber's-nest, picturesquely placed on the side of a lofty hill, and +crested by a ruined castle. + +In Ippolito de' Medici's time the castle was not ruined; and there was +also a monastery, where he and his attendants were suitably entertained. + +On the afternoon of the 2nd of August, after a meal which we should call +luncheon, but which the early habits of those days distinguished as +dinner,--succeeded by a moderate siesta,--the court-yard was all alive +with preparations for a gallant riding-party, in the full heat and glare +of the day. Groups of cowled and bare-headed monks stood curiously +about, admiring the Cardinal's beautiful mare; and groups, too, of +robber-like, shaggy-looking men, and bright-eyed women and girls with +golden bodkins in their hair, hung about the gates and passed their +comments on the cortége. The Cardinal came forth, talking to the Prior, +whose pale, attenuated face and hollow eyes formed a notable contrast to +the vivid colouring of his own healthy, well-fed countenance. He was +within an ace of losing his good looks from too much eating and +drinking. In dress, the Cardinal was superb, with a touch of the church +militant. A smile was on his lip as he patted his mare and examined her +trappings, saying, + +"She will not serve me that sorry trick again, I hope." + +"Fear not, my Lord Cardinal," said his groom; and he threw himself into +the saddle. The Florentines also mounted their horses. + +At this moment, Piero Strozzi stepped forward, saying, "This, from my +father," with a meaning smile; and gave him a billet. + +This Piero was son of Felippo, and had something of the same cold, sly +look. + +The billet only contained these words: "All goes well." The Cardinal +read it with a gay smile, and tossed it back to Strozzi. + +"Good news to start with," said he to his companions, as they rode out +of the yard. + +"The sun can scarce be hotter in Africa than it is here to-day, I +think," said Donati, one of the _fuorusciti_. + +"Not a whit too hot for me; I enjoy it," said the Cardinal. "And the +road is in our favour, for it is all down-hill." + +"_Facile descensus_," said Capponi. "What a vibrating haze!" + +"We shall enjoy the shade and the coolness at Fondi," said Ippolito. +"You know I have undertaken to show you the fairest lady in Italy." + +"And I maintain, beforehand, that she cannot be so fair as the +Marchesana del Vasto," said Donati. + +"Allowing for difference of years, you mean," said Capponi. "The Duchess +is a little past her prime." + +"No such thing," said Ippolito quickly; and he used the spur, though +there was no need. The mare sprang forward; the others were obliged to +quicken their pace, and they had ridden a mile or two before another +word was spoken. + +Then the Cardinal slackened his speed, and began to talk of matters +quite different; of the brilliant African campaign; of the likelihood of +Muley Hassan holding his own, now he was reinstated; of the probable +movements of Barbarossa; of the glut of Moorish slaves in the market, +and so forth. + +Arrived at Fondi, the Cardinal was preparing to alight, when the +Duchess's grey-haired seneschal came forward and announced the +mortifying intelligence that his lady was from home. + +It may be matter of surprise that the Cardinal should not have been +apprised of her absence at Itri; but, in fact, he had learnt from what +he had considered good authority, that she was to return to Fondi a +little before this time, so that he had made sure of finding her at her +castle. + +His chagrin was extreme; not only because he had counted much on this +visit, and had now no hope of seeing her before he sailed, but because +he had given out to his companions that he possessed such perfect +knowledge of her movements and such security of a cordial reception, +that he was now open to their raillery, whether or no they spared it. + +The seneschal, who knew him well, respectfully besought him to partake +of such poor refreshment as the castle afforded; but the Cardinal was +vexed, and rode off again, without compassion for man or beast. + +The Florentines looked at one another and shrugged their shoulders, but +were too wise to remonstrate. They followed him, panting, across the +steaming plain, where groups of cream-coloured oxen, cropping the rank +herbage, looked up at them with dreamy, wondering eyes. When they +reached the covert of cypress, poplar, and gnarled old olives, they +loitered dangerously in the shade; and then, when well chilled, spurred +on again, making themselves and their horses hotter than ever. And of +course, as there was a descent all the way going, there was an ascent +all the way back. + +Arrived at Itri, the Cardinal, throwing himself from his horse, called +loudly for iced water. + +"My lord, you are very hot," said Giovanni Andrea, with seeming +kindness. "Let me prevail on your Eminence to take this broth instead. +It will be safer, and will repair your strength." + +The Cardinal took the broth, which was temptingly seasoned, and turned +away with a sigh of relief. It was the early supper-hour, and the tables +were already spread in the vaulted refectory, with abundance of better +cheer than the Prior's larder usually afforded, some of which had been +brought by his illustrious guest. And soon the hungry visitors took +their places, and a long Latin grace was said, and the first course of +confetti was served; and then the trencher of each man was filled with a +large piece of meat that had been stewed with almonds and sugar. + +And while this was being disposed of, the Cardinal's servants and +rubicund lay-brothers covered the table with dishes of boiled meat, +fowls, small birds, kids, wild boar, and other viands. And after this +course, another was to succeed, of tarts and cakes covered with spun +sugar. + +But before the banquet reached this stage, the Cardinal, who had +scarcely spoken since he sat down to table, and who had frequently +changed colour, suddenly exclaimed-- + +"Take me hence--I am strangely ill!"---- + +Every eye was upon him in a moment--many started from their seats--one +or two noted gourmands feigned deafness, and helped themselves to the +best. Bernardino Salviati, the Cardinal's personal attendant, caught him +in his arms. + +"Lean on me, my Lord Cardinal," said he. "We will bear you to your +chamber." + +"Treachery, treachery, Salviati!" murmured the Cardinal, almost +inarticulately. "I am poisoned." + +Giovanni Andrea, his other supporter, making believe to wipe the clammy +dew from his face, held the handkerchief over his mouth, so as to +muffle his voice. Above it glared the Cardinal at him fiercely. + +"Stand back!" said Salviati to him, roughly. + +"My Lord Cardinal is delirious, he raves," said Giovanni Andrea, +shrinking away. + +"Prior! don't let that man come near me," said Ippolito, faintly. + +The Prior, with solicitude, bent his ear to his lips, but only saw them +move. The next instant they were contorted with a spasm. + +By this time, they had carried him to his bed-room, which, though the +best guest-chamber of the monastery, was furnished with ascetic +plainness; a crucifix, a bénitier, and a wooden pallet, comprising most +of its moveables, the meagreness of which contrasted strangely enough +with the crimson satin cushions and mattresses the Cardinal had brought +with him, and which belonged to his horse-litter. + +"Air! air!" he said, feebly, as his friends pressed round him. + +"It will be well, I think, for all of you to leave the chamber," said +the Prior, "except Salviati, Brother Marco, and myself. The Cardinal is +in a high fever--I will open a vein for him." + +"Not on your life," gasped Ippolito. + +Meanwhile, all retired from the room except those whom the Prior had +named. + +"Marsh miasma, no doubt," said Donati, as he returned to the refectory. +"There was a pestiferous vapour on the marshes to-day." + +"And he would ride so fast," said Capponi, resuming his seat at table. +"For my part, I wonder we are not ill too. I feel quite spent, and want +something solid. I dare say a good night's rest will set him up again. +He is of a full habit, like many of the Medici: it does not do for them +to over-heat themselves. He takes everything too violently. What +excellent beccaficoes! I prefer, however, thrushes stuffed with +bergamots." + +While these two were composedly resuming their repast, there were others +who did not even sit down to table, but stood apart in a little knot, +anxiously debating whether the Cardinal had or had not exclaimed, + +"Ahí! tradimento!"-- + +Anxious looks were cast towards the door; and once or twice an envoy was +despatched to the sick room. The first of these came back with disturbed +aspect, saying, + +"His Eminence positively refuses to be bled, and the Prior is at his +wit's end." + +"What a pity!" said Strozzi. "There is no finer remedy." + +"If it were any one else," pursued the first, "the Prior might take the +matter into his own hands; but 'tis ticklish meddling with a Cardinal." + +"Especially when that Cardinal's a Medici," said young Strozzi, with his +father's unpleasant smile. "I'll go and see to it myself." + +Presently Strozzi returned, saying mysteriously, + +"A courier is instantly to be despatched to the Pope, to beg of him a +certain oil he possesses, known to be a sure antidote to all poison." + +"Poison!" repeated they all. + +"Can it be so?" said Capponi, wiping his lips, and rising from table. +"This ought to be looked to." + +"Nay, I say not that it _is_ so, I only say that he thinks so," replied +Strozzi. "At all events, I'm going instantly to despatch a messenger." + +"Sad, sirs, sad!" said Capponi, looking his companions in the face, as +Strozzi passed out. + +"Nay, I expect not that it will turn out anything serious," said Donati. + +"The Strozzi are tender on the subject of poison," observed Messer +Giunigi, the fourth Florentine, under his breath, "since the death of +Madonna Luisa." + +"Hush, sir, that touches me nearly too," gravely said Capponi, who was +of kin to Madonna Luisa's husband. + +Here the Prior came forth, very irate. + +"The Cardinal will none of my assistance," said he, "and yet I have been +held to know something. He is out of his head, and yet exacts obedience +as if he were himself. Not content with obstinately refusing to lose +blood, which would reduce the fever at once, and leave him as cool as a +cucumber, he insists that a courier on a fleet horse shall instantly be +despatched to Fondi for a certain Jew physician, named Bar Hhasdai, in +whom he has more faith than in all the Christian leeches in Italy. The +Jew hath never been baptised, therefore I cannot consent to send for +him." + +"Nay, but," said Donati, solicitously, "if the Cardinal himself desires +him, I see not how you are exonerated from having him, baptised, or +otherwise." + +"Send for him yourself, then," said the Prior; "you have plenty of your +own people." + +"That will I readily," said Donati, and he left the refectory for that +purpose. + +Those who remained behind, discussed the chances of the Pope's sovereign +remedy arriving in time to be of use, and talked over the present +political aspect of affairs in Rome, Florence, and Bologna; and of the +various deaths of the Medici--which was almost as dreary a subject as +their lives. + +Meanwhile, there lay the poor Cardinal on his crimson satin mattresses, +with his once ruddy, handsome face, now pale as ashes, pressed against a +crimson satin pillow fringed with gold--nothing white, nothing cool and +comfortable about him--there he lay, alternately flushing and chilling, +torn with pain and languishing with sickness and faintness--and all the +while ideas were rushing through his distracted head like clouds across +a racking sky; and the one predominant thought was, "Treachery! +treachery!" _Now_, he who had conspired, knew what it was to be +conspired against. Oh! what a long, long night! He scarcely knew or +cared that people from time to time looked in on him, stooped over him +to hear if he breathed, touched his heart, his wrist, drew the coverlet +closer over him, and went away. He scarcely knew or cared whether many +were around him or only the faithful Salviati. His thoughts were +following a fleet horse tearing along the road to Fondi, and striking +sparks as it clattered down the lava paved street. Then he seemed to see +the yellow-faced Jew, in a red night-cap, peering forth from one of the +high, unglazed windows, as the courier shouted out his name--and behind +him that Hebrew youth, whether son or acolyte, whom the Cardinal had +seen at his door in passing, only a few hours before, with his pale, +delicate face, and long, spiral curls, and look of sadness and +submission. How singular that that face, only once seen, and seen for a +moment, should have stereotyped itself on his mind as the type of Isaac +about to be sacrificed!--and now he seemed to see him collecting +medicines, while the old Jew hastily threw on his furred gaberdine and +came down to the door. + +A din of wild church music seemed to come through the air, and to wax +insufferably loud, and then die wailing away like a requiem over the +Pontine marshes. And then, wild shouts of "Palle! palle!" and citizens, +half-dressed and half-armed, rushing through streets, and some of them +crying "Liberty! liberty at last!" And then there was an awful, crushing +struggle at a cathedral door; and partisans were rallying round some one +who was being borne into the sacristy; and blood was flowing and swords +were clashing, and all the while an old pontiff at the altar, who seemed +charmed into stone, was holding aloft the consecrated wafer, and the +little tinkling bell was perpetually ringing till its shrillness seemed +as if it would crack the tympanum of his ears; and sweet childish voices +were singing:-- + + "Et in terra pax! hominibus bonæ voluntatis!" + +Then all melted away, and he was aware of a long, long suite of marble +halls, their silk and gilding covered with dust; and of an old, old man +with hoary hair borne through them in the arms of his servants, and +saying with a sigh, as he wistfully looked around them: + +"This is too large a house for so small a family!" + +After this stalked the dread pageant of his sins--sins of omission and +sins of commission--sins that seemed so little once, and that seemed so +crushing now--and as he moved his weary head, gibing faces seemed +grinning and skinny fingers pointing at him round the bed; and when he +closed his burning eyelids, he seemed to see them still, and to hear a +voice say, "Son, thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things." + +Oh! where were the sacraments of the Church? Where were they? Why did +not some one think of them and bring them? Why had he not voice enough +to ask for them? or strength enough to sign for them? And if he had, +could they do him any good? + +He knew not how time went. It seemed one long, long night, but in fact +it covered a few days. Bar Hhasdai arrived at last--he had been absent +when sent for. The Christian hangers-on scowled and spat on him as he +passed. He looked loftily down on them, and he passed on; following the +pale-faced Giovan Andrea. Pausing at the door, the Jew looked full at +him. + +"I want a dog," said he. + +"A dog?" repeated the steward, aghast. + +"Yes: a four-footed one; not a Christian. And a roll of bread." + +He passed into the sick room, where the faithful Salviati rose from the +Cardinal's bedside. The Prior, who was telling his beads, drew his robe +closer round him and retired as far from the Jew as possible. + +Bar Hhasdai took up a lamp, and held it full in the Cardinal's unwinking +eyes. + +"He does not see it," said he. + +He laid the palm of his hand against his heart: then taking some crumb +of the roll the steward had brought him, he rubbed it against his own +face and offered it to the lapdog Giovan Andrea held under his arm. The +little dog immediately ate it. + +"What next?" thought the steward, in wonder. The Prior stood transfixed, +curiously on the watch. Salviati's eyes had something imploring in them: +the faithful fellow had not once left his master, and was now haggard +with his long vigil. + +The Jew silently took another piece of bread and rubbed the Cardinal's +clammy face with it: then offered it to the little dog. The little dog +smelt it, and resolutely refused to taste it. + +"You see," said Bar Hhasdai, fixing the steward with his eye, "the +Cardinal is poisoned." Then, to the Prior, "Let him have the sacraments +of your Church." + +Giovan Andrea reeled back, but recovered himself in time to escape +falling. + +"Wretch!" exclaimed Salviati, springing towards him in rage and +despair; but Giovan Andrea glided like a serpent from beneath his grasp, +and clapped the door after him. + +"He will not escape justice," said the Prior. "I have given orders that +he shall be watched." + +Salviati cast himself on his expiring master in a paroxysm of grief. At +the sound of his wild cry, others rushed in: and the Jew quietly passed +out. Extreme unction was administered. + +Thus perished the brilliant Ippolito de' Medici, who would deserve more +pity if he had not designed some very similar end for his cousin +Alessandro. He was abundantly regretted; for his companionable qualities +and lavish bounties had endeared him to a very large circle of friends, +who did not scan his faults too closely; while his death was hailed with +intense satisfaction by his enemies. Paul the Third made a frivolous +excuse for not sending him the specific he so urgently requested. +Probably it would not have saved him; but the animus of his Holiness was +not shown to his advantage on the occasion. + +As for the wretched Giovan Andrea, he made straight for the outer gates +when he quitted the Cardinal's chamber; but was there collared by a +stalwart lay-brother, who, with the assistance of two of Ippolito's +retainers, conveyed him to the lock-up room. Here he remained a short +time, in full anticipation of being put to the torture; which too surely +came to pass. At first he denied any guilt; but that most odious process +being persisted in, his agony at length wrung from him the admission +that he had administered poison to the Cardinal, having ground it +between two stones, which he had afterwards thrown away. + +Where had he thrown those stones? + +Upon a rubbish-heap outside the buttery-window. + +Search was made for the stones. They were found, with marks of some +foreign substance upon them. They were shown him: he said they were the +same. + +The Cardinal's retainers were so enraged with the wretch, that they were +with difficulty restrained from falling upon him and putting him to +death. Felippo Strozzi had strongly charged his son to deliver him out +of their hands, that a regular judicial examination might take place at +Rome, and Alessandro's guilt, as the prompter of the crime, be +established. + +The younger Strozzi, therefore, sent Giovan Andrea, under a sufficient +guard, to Rome, where his examination took place; and in the first +instance he confirmed his former confession, and stated that he had +received the poison from one Otto di Montacuto, a servant of Duke +Alessandro's, to be employed as he had used it. + +Yet, after this, he denied _both_ his former confessions, and, in spite +of all that Strozzi could say or do, was actually let off! He thereupon +went straight to Florence, and remained some days in the Duke's palace, +openly under his protection. He then retired to his native place, Borgo +di San Sepolcro, a little town under the Apennines, some forty miles +from Florence. And here, after remaining in safety a few months, whether +or no on account of any fresh proof of his crime, he was stoned to death +in a sudden outburst of popular indignation. + +As for the wicked Duke, his employer, I shall only say that his murder +was most horrible: so that Ippolito's death was amply avenged. We may +all be very glad to have done with the subject. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + THE DUCHESS AND THE MARCHIONESS. + + +It was given out to the world that Ippolito had been carried off by +fever, caught on the marshes during his hot ride to and from Fondi; and +this filled the tender-hearted Duchess with grief, as she knew not but +that, had she been at home, he might yet be alive. She dwelt with +mournfulness on his long-cherished attachment, wept over his poems, +recalled his brightest points, and even questioned herself whether she +ought to have accepted him; but the answer always was no. And surely she +was right; for whatever Ippolito's society-attractions might have been, +and however his character might have been purified by household +association with a better nature, his worse qualities would undoubtedly +have cropped out as long as he remained an unconverted man. Might not +she have converted him? Why, Vittoria, who knew her best, would have +told you that, at this time, Giulia was not even converted herself. She +was very sweet, very amiable and charming; but she had not the faith +which saves. Vittoria, with her higher views and deeper nature, was +almost out of patience with her sometimes. + +"What is it you want? What is it you need?" she would say to her; trying +to rouse her to a nobler life. "I can tell you: you want the Holy +Spirit; and He will come to you if you seek Him: but unsought, He is +unfound." + +"O Vittoria! why _will_ you torment me so?" said Giulia, fretfully. "I +want rest; I want peace." + +"Rest and peace? Why, you have a great deal too much of both to be good +for you; and as for your lawsuit, that is a mere mosquito-sting, that +draws neither blood nor tears. Fie on you, Giulia! with all your +advantages, you ought not to sit and wail about nothing. I think you +loved Ippolito more than you say you did, or you would not give way so." + +"I did not love Ippolito at all," said Giulia, nettled. "I suppose one +may be sorry for a friend, without having been in love with him. You do +injustice to the memory of my dear Duke, to suppose I could ever forget +him." + +"As to that," said Vittoria, "considering your good Duke's years and +infirmities, it is difficult for any one to see why you should be +inconsolable. I am sure I am quite ready to do justice to all his +qualities of head and heart; but, if I am to speak sincerely, I must own +that your deploring him in the way you have done has always seemed to me +a little exaggerated." + +"I never asked you to speak sincerely," returned Giulia; "and people +generally make that a pretext for saying things that are disagreeable. +As for exaggeration, nobody possessed of any feeling could consistently +accuse me of having too much of it." + +"I am the last person to make an inconsistent accusation," observed +Vittoria, "and my own irreparable and immense loss is too world-known +for any one to say I want feeling. I think, cousin, there is no one in +Italy, unless yourself, who has not compassionated me in having been +bereaved of my beloved, adored Pescara, a man of infinite virtues, +graces, and attractions; in war a hero, in wisdom a sage; in love and +constancy a perfect phoenix,--reft from me, me wretched! in the very +prime and flower of his life." + +"Well, and I was very sorry for it," said Giulia, "as sorry as it was +possible to be for a man I had never seen, because I could feel for +_you_, cousin; and I went into the deepest mourning--" + +"The outward garb has little to do with inward woe, Duchess," said +Vittoria, severely, "else I had worn weeds for ever"--and she plunged +into her pocket for her handkerchief. + +"Well, and so should I have done, Marchioness," said Giulia. And then +they both burst into tears. + +"Oh, Giulia," said Vittoria, in a stifled voice, after crying some time, +"why _will_ you try me so?" + +"Why, you began," said Giulia. And then they embraced, like Brutus and +Cassius; and Vittoria's good and kindly nature recovering its +ascendancy, she said with her charming smile: + +"I really thank you, Giulia, for upsetting me, for I have wanted the +relief of a good cry for some time." + +"You dear thing," said Giulia, kissing her--"that was just my feeling +too." + +So, after this little squall, there was bright sunshine. And as this +was only a day or two before the 17th of August, when the Emperor was +expected to land on his return from Africa, Vittoria proposed to Giulia +that they should witness the procession together from the balcony of a +friend's palace in the best situation. + +Giulia said half reluctantly, "I don't affect such worldly scenes +much--" + +"Nor do I, certainly," said Vittoria. "But yet I should like to show my +loyalty to the Emperor; and the scene will not be a mere show, but will +have a kind of historic interest; and will doubtless figure hereafter on +the historic page. So that, if I go, surely you may." + +"Ah, well, we will go together," said Giulia, who really liked the idea. +So these two illustrious ladies were among the fairest of the fair whose +eyes "rained influence" on the gay pageant; and, the same evening, the +staid, sober Emperor left the banquet early, and sought out the widow +of his brave though not blameless general, Pescara; and he liked her so +well, that the following year, when he and she were in Rome, she was +almost the only lady whom he condescended to visit. + +On the present occasion, Giulia was with her; and something happening to +be said by the Viceroy, Don Pedro di Toledo, who accompanied the +Emperor, about her roses having paled in consequence of her vexatious +lawsuit, Charles inquired into it, and in his dry, succinct way, desired +Don Pedro to see to it, and let the affair be adjusted. So, when the +Emperor was gone, the Viceroy undertook the investigation of the rival +ladies' claims; and the result was, that he advised the Duchess to be +satisfied with her ample dowry, and the addition made to it by her +husband. + +This did not content Isabella, who laid claim to thirteen thousand +ducats for pin-money, and required that a judicial disposition she +herself had made should be declared void! She offered, as a set-off, to +give up five hundred ducats per annum to Giulia; but again changed her +mind. So that Giulia, nearly worried out of her life by this +unreasonable woman, again appealed to the Emperor, who deputed a +commission of three members of his council to give judgment as the case +required. This unpleasant affair extended through great part of another +year. + +Nothing brings out the unromantic features of human nature so +unpleasantly as a lawsuit. Giulia was in a constant turmoil; and she +lacked those leadings to a better life, which Ochino might have afforded +her; for he had been summoned to Venice by Cardinal Bembo, who was +anxious to hear him. + +This cardinal was not a good man, though I suppose there are good +cardinals now and then; however, he was at least a distinguished man +and a great scholar. And being an epicure in pulpit eloquence, he wrote +to Vittoria Colonna, begging her to use her known influence with Fra +Bernardino, to induce him to preach at Venice during the ensuing Lent. +Vittoria complied with his behest; and Ochino consequently went to +Venice, where the impression that he made may be judged-of from the +following passage in a letter from the Cardinal to the Marchioness: + + "I send Vossignoria notes of Fra Bernardino's sermons, to which + I have listened with a pleasure I cannot express. Certainly, I never + heard so capital a preacher, and I cannot wonder at your estimation + of him. He discourses in quite another manner from any one I have + ever heard; and in a more Christian spirit; bringing forward truths + of the utmost weight, and enforcing them with loving earnestness. + Every one is charmed with him: he will carry away all our hearts." + +And again: + + "I write to you, Marchioness, as freely as I talk to Fra + Bernardino, to whom I this morning opened my whole heart. Never have + I had the pleasure of speaking to a holier man. I ought to be now at + Padua, on account of a business which has engaged me all the year, + and also to get out of the way of the constant applications with + which I am assailed on account of this blessed cardinalate; but I + could not bear to lose the opportunity of hearing some more of his + excellent sermons." + +And again: + + "Our Fra Bernardino, whom I must call mine as well as yours, is + at present adored in this city. There is not a man or woman who does + not cry him up to the skies. Oh, what pleasure! oh, what delight, + oh, what joy has he not given! But I will reserve his praises till + I see Vossignoria, and meantime pray God to prolong his life for the + glory of the Lord and the good of man." + +What a pity that this enthusiasm was so short-lived! Ochino was soon +afterwards chosen Director of the Capuchins. His influence over his +brother friars was then great; and many of them, before they were well +aware of it, became imbued with the reformed opinions. Purgatory, +penance, and papal pardons crumbled and fell before his powerfully +wielded hammer, the doctrine of justification by faith. + +Side by side with him laboured Pietro Martire Vermigli, who possessed +more scholarship, and who, while Ochino filled the pulpit, furthered the +same cause by delivering lectures on the Epistles of St. Paul. Many +monks, many students, many nobles attended these lectures. At length +their tone became so different from that of the Church, that the +Viceroy interdicted him from preaching and lecturing. But Pietro +Martire appealed to Rome, and obtained the removal of the interdict. + + + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + ISCHIA. + + +Giulia was recruiting her health, meantime, at Vittoria's charming +island-home of Ischia, + + "Where nothing met the eye but sights of bliss." + +--where a graceful simplicity, indeed, reigned, but under the regulation +of the purest taste,--where duties, softened into pleasures, filled up +every hour; and where leisure, never degenerating into laziness, was +alternately dedicated to poetry, music, and painting, to the enjoyment +of the most exquisite beauties of nature, to the cultivation of the +mind, and to offices of charity and devotion. Among the poets and +eminent men who here "invoked the muses and improved their vein," and +who helped to make this remote rock famous, were Musefilo, Filocalo, +Giovio, Bernardo Tasso, and many others. Bernardo Tasso thus sang the +praises of this charmed islet-- + + "Superbo scoglio, altero e bel ricetto + Di tanti chiari eroi, d'imperadori, + Onde raggi di gloria escono fuori, + Ch' ogni altro lume fan scuro e negletto, + Se per vera virtute al ben perfetto + Salir si puote ed agli eterni onori + Queste più d'altre degne alme e migliori + V'andran che chiudi nel petroso petto. + Il lume è in te dell' armi; in te s'asconde + Casta beltà, valore e cortesia, + Quanta mai vide il tempo, o diede il cielo. + Ti sian secondi i fati, e il vento e l'onde + Rendanti onore, e l'aria tua natia + Abbia sempre temprato il caldo e il gelo!" + +Nor did younger and gayer poets want younger and gayer beauties to +inspire them than the two noble widows; for Vittoria's household +comprised six or eight nobly-born girls who were being trained under her +eye, and whom her conscientiousness prevented from turning over to the +sole superintendence of the Mother of the maids. + +"You might take more interest than you do, Giulia," said she, "in the +education of your damsels. It would do them good, and you, too." + +"Ah, nothing could be more tiresome to me," said Giulia. "I am most +happy to leave them to Donna Caterina!" + +"I doubt, however," said Vittoria, "whether we have even the right to +keep fellow-creatures about us, of like affections and passions with +ourselves, without providing some legitimate outlet for them, or +supplying them with sufficient motives for their restraint." + +"My girls seldom go into passions," said Giulia; "and I should think it +impertinent to inquire into their affections." + +"Why now, you incorrigible Giulia, did not you tell me of your fits of +suppressed laughter while you were overhearing (actually +eaves-dropping) that love dialogue between Tebaldo and Isaura? and of +your laughing at her to her face, afterwards, in the presence of the +other girls?" + +"I gave her a pearl necklace," said the Duchess. + +"Not till she married, months afterwards." + +"Well, I own I let myself down on that occasion." + +"As to letting yourself down, it is your keeping yourself up that I +complain of--" + +"O, what a beautiful butterfly!--" + +"My dear Giulia, _don't_ run after it and put yourself in a fever. You +are not quite a child now!" + +"No, but I was a child once; and when I was a child-Duchess of thirteen, +I thought that if I did not keep my maids at a distance, they would not +respect me. And my mother's word had always been, 'Never associate, +child, with servants.'" + +"Servants and slaves, that may apply to very well," said Vittoria, who +had not surmounted class-prejudices, "but your maids-of-honour are +well-born, and though for a time they occupy subordinate positions, +eventually they will marry respectably, it is to be hoped." + +"And that hope is enough to enliven them, I suppose," said Giulia. "My +dear Duke said to me, very soon after our marriage: 'Pargoletta!'--you +know he loved to call me 'pargoletta,' or 'animetta,' or 'dolce alma +mia,'--he said, 'Pargoletta, don't have much to say to your maids; they +are light and frivolous, and will do you no good.' And I loved to obey +him; and I love to obey him still, for he was a wise man." + +"They might do you no good, but you might do them great good now," said +Vittoria. + +"O, my dear, that set have long married off, and had their portions--so +many ducats, a bed, bedding, and ewer and basin." + +"The new set, then--" + +"Here's a strawberry, I declare," said Giulia, diving into the leaves on +the bank upon which they were sitting. "Do have it!" + +"No, thank you. The--" + +"I could no more preach and pray with my maids as you do, Vittoria, than +I could fly!" + +"Why not?" + +"I should die of shame." + +"Nonsense," said the Marchioness, laughing. + +"I really should. It would be so ridiculous." + +"Quite otherwise, I think, if you undertook it in the right spirit." + +"But I never could. It is not in me. They would all begin to laugh--" + +"They must be under very poor control, then," said Vittoria. + +"Besides, it would be so uncalled for--it would take their thoughts off +their proper work." + +"What is their proper work?" + +"To do vast quantities of embroidery and fine needlework." + +"Well, I think _your_ proper work is to care for their souls." + +"That's Fra Silvano's office." + +"Does he fulfil it?" + +"Not very well, I'm afraid. He chatters and laughs with them too much." + +"I should like to see him chatter and laugh with _my_ maids," said +Vittoria, kindling. "He should not do so twice." + +"Ah," said Giulia, after a pause--"I wish I were as good as you, +Vittoria--" + +"My dear soul, I am not good." + +"You are a great deal better than I am. Such as I am, I am and ever +shall be." + +"Hush, we can none of us say that!" + +"At any rate, there is no good thing in me, to impart to others. And the +girls do very well as they are--they stick to their needles." + +"What do they think of the while?" + +"Of their needles, I suppose." + +"If they do, they are better than I am," said Vittoria, almost with a +groan. "Oh, Giulia, don't believe it!" + +"Well, I suppose nonsense of some sort may pass through their heads," +said Giulia, rather uneasily. "How am I to keep it out?" + +"By putting something better in. Not merely by preaching and praying, +but by supplying proper, innocent food for their imaginations and +fancies. You know I read my girls pleasant tales and dialogues +sometimes, and lend them books of poetry and history." + +"Well, your girls are certainly better conducted than mine," said +Giulia. "They giggle less." + +"A canister with very little in it always rattles," said Vittoria. "I +hate giggling." + +"So do I; and, do you know, my dear Vittoria, that is one reason why I +have so little to say to my maids." + +"It is the very reason why you should say the more. You should fill the +canisters." + +"I will try then," said the ingenuous Giulia, "when I return to Fondi." + +She returned there very soon: and Vittoria Colonna went to Lucca; "in an +unostentatious manner," says the old chronicler, "attended by only six +gentlewomen." + +Why she went to Lucca, except that it was just then rife with the +Reformed opinions, and ready to throw off the yoke of Rome, the +chronicler sayeth not. From Lucca she proceeded by easy stages to +Ferrara, mounted on her black and white jennet, with housings of crimson +velvet fringed with gold, and attended by six grooms on foot, in cloaks +and jerkins of blue and yellow satin. She herself wore a robe of +brocaded crimson velvet, with a girdle of beaten gold; and on her head a +travelling-cap of crimson satin, well becoming her "trecce d'oro," and +large, mild blue eyes. + +Arrived at Ferrara, she was delightedly welcomed by Duke Ercole and +Duchess Renée. Here was a house divided against itself. The poor +Duchess--highly intelligent and a little crooked--now in her +twenty-ninth year, had been harshly dealt with by her husband, only a +twelvemonth back, for harbouring and comforting those arch-heretics +Calvin and Clement Marot; and was now kept very much in check by the +terrors of the Church, though in heart as much a Reformer as ever. + +To grace "the divine Vittoria," whose poetical fame was known all over +Italy, and whose eulogist, Bernardo Tasso, was secretary to the Duchess +of Ferrara, Duke Ercole invited the most distinguished literati of +Venice and Lombardy to meet her. Oh, what a feast of reason and flow of +soul! What reciprocations of compliments and couplets! What ransacking +of heathen mythologies for metaphors and allusions! And then, in the +retirement of the Duchess's closet, poor Renée could, with a full heart, +ask Vittoria how things were going at Naples, whether Fra Bernardino +were really as moving a preacher as was reported, and whether Juan di +Valdés were sound on the doctrine of justification. + +And perhaps they had a snatch of serious reading together, and Vittoria +might recite to her a few of her sacred sonnets, copies of which were +coveted even by cardinals; and if the Duke came in and constrained them +to change the subject, there was the clever little Princess Anne to +exhibit, who was being educated, for the sake of emulation, with Olympia +Morata. Certes, Vittoria was made much of! But the air of Ferrara did +not agree with her health, and she was soon obliged to move southwards. +Among the dreams and schemes of the hour, which were never to be +realised, was a projected visit to the Holy Land. She would so like to +see the holy places! + +"The wildest scheme!" young Del Vasto pronounced it, when a rumour of it +reached him at Rome. He lost no time in hastening to his beloved friend, +to dissuade her from what she had perhaps never seriously contemplated, +and to induce her to be content with the Eternal City. And when she +reached it, she was received with almost public honours--so proud was +Italy of its "divine Vittoria Colonna!" + +Here she found a circle of the most eminent men in Italy, hopefully +awaiting the issue of Cardinal Contarini's conciliatory mission to the +German Reformers; and it was trusted that, by wise concessions on the +part of Rome, a fearful schism might be avoided. But when did Rome ever +make wise concessions? + +It was at this time that the friendship commenced between Vittoria and +Michael Angelo, which was equally honourable to both; and we have his +own word for it, that through her he was made a devout Christian. It was +the crowning beauty of her life. + +Meanwhile Giulia was the prey of intense melancholy at Fondi. It +expressed itself in joyless looks, in mournful tones, in neglected +dress, in small austerities, in rising at out-of-the-way hours to tell +her rosary, &c. + +Her ladies united in declaring that she must be ill, and that the marsh +miasma was answerable for it. So then Bar Hhasdai was sent for; and he +advised change of air and _quantum sufficit_ of generous red wine well +spiced. She acquiesced in both prescriptions; and then indulged in a +little doctors' gossip, that most healing balm. They talked over the +Cardinal's death, and Bar Hhasdai said that, even if he had been sooner +sent for, he did not believe he could have saved him. + +"One cardinal the less, one saint the more," said Giulia. + +Bar Hhasdai looked sceptical. "Was he of the stuff that saints are made +of?" said he. + +"He was very generally liked," said Giulia. + +"And so long as thou doest good unto thyself, men will speak well of +thee," said the Jew, equivocally. + +So she returned to her old quarters at Naples, where she had the +satisfaction of hearing from Valdés, who immediately waited on her, that +Ochino was again preaching with great acceptance. She had tried ascetic +mortifications, on a small scale, without any beneficial result; and she +now, with a heart aching for a better life, and sick of the world's +pleasures, which, after all, she had never much indulged in, resolved to +prove whether enduring comfort might not be derived from the cross of +Christ. + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + A BETTER LIFE. + + +You may have seen an old print of Titus's Arch, in the foreground of +which is an Italian lady of quality, with hoop, lappets, and fan, +sailing to church, attended by her gentleman-usher. A stately +man-servant in advance clears the way, two ladies-in-waiting follow +their mistress at a respectful distance, and two or three more menials +close the procession. + +Something in this style did Giulia go to the cathedral. As she was +returning from it one evening, accompanied by Valdés, her heart was +full, and, after one or two ineffectual beginnings she said--[15] + + [15] Vide "Alfabeto Christiano." + +"I have so much confidence in our friendship, Signor Valdés, that I +feel as if I could speak to you on some subjects even more freely than +to a confessor. If you are not pre-engaged, therefore, I would gladly +tell you what is on my mind. Do I importune you?" + +"On the contrary, Signora," said Valdés, "I am honoured by your +commands, and you well know there is no one I love better to serve." + +"A truce, then, with compliments of every kind. I want to open to you my +whole heart, for I am sure you will pity me. I am a prey to such +constant dissatisfaction with myself and with everything around me, as +cannot be described. I neither know what I wish, nor with what I should +be contented. Hence, I cannot conceive anything that could be offered me +capable of appeasing this inquietude and removing my confusion of mind. +Many years have I felt thus: and of late you have given me reason to +hope that if I would give ear to the preaching of Ochino I should be +tranquillised. Alas, I find it quite otherwise! And though I admit that +the fault may be mine rather than his, yet the disappointment is so +bitter, that tears frequently come into my eyes through not knowing what +to do with myself, nor what to lean upon." + +Saying which, her tone was so sad, and she looked so troubled, that the +humane Valdés was filled with compassion. + +"Say freely, Signora," said he, "whatever you wish to ask of me; and be +assured that I will always expend in your service all that I know and am +able to do." + +"Tell me, then," said Giulia, "from what cause you believe this state of +mind to spring, and how, if possible, it can be remedied, or whether it +must be borne." + +"You must first make me one promise," said Valdés. + +"What can that be?" inquired the Duchess. + +"If I show you the way by which you may be relieved from your +disquietude, you must promise to walk in it." + +"Of course. Gladly!" + +"Be very attentive, then, Signora, to what I am about to say. You know +it is written that man is made 'in the image and likeness of God.' And +you will also remember that St. Paul counsels the Corinthians to put off +the old man with his deeds, that is, the sinful nature we have all +inherited since the fall, and be clothed with the new man, who is +created 'in the image and likeness of God.' From this it appears, that +in such a degree as man retains in himself the image and likeness of +God, in the same degree he apprehends and appreciates spiritual things +in a spiritual life and conversation. Recognise this, and you will all +at once perceive whence your disorder and disquietude of mind arise; +because you will see that your soul is striving for restitution to the +image of God, of which at present it is deprived. The remedy is in your +own hands." + +"In my hands?" + +"Yes! Because as soon as you determine to renew and restore within +yourself the image and likeness of God, you will find peace, quiet, and +repose." + +Giulia drew a deep breath, and then said-- + +"How must I do this?" + +"By withdrawing your affections from vain and transitory things, and +fixing them on those which are spiritual and eternal. Your spirit thus +finding its proper aliment, will always be content and cheerful, and +here in this present life will begin to taste of that felicity which it +expects to enjoy for ever in the life eternal. To this happiness only +the real Christian can attain." + +"As for that," said the Duchess, "I know many persons who have as much, +and perhaps more, cancelled the image of God than I have, who are yet +perfectly content and happy." + +"Such persons," returned Valdés, "have low and vulgar minds, and can +therefore suffice themselves with mean and frivolous objects that could +never satisfy a refined and generous nature like yours.... I am not at +all sorry that you should be troubled in the way you have described, +because it shows that the preaching of the Gospel is producing its first +effect on you.... There is nothing in this world that could give me so +much pleasure as to see you walking in the path of life, for I hold it +for certain that, once in complete union with God, you would outstrip +many who are now saints in heaven." + +"I desire to do so," said she, softly. + +"Then why don't you do what you desire?" rejoined Valdés. + +"Because I don't know how." + +"Force, force, Signora! force is the one thing wanting. 'The kingdom of +heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.'" + +"Lead me by the hand, then," said she, "instructing me in those +footsteps by which I believe you have walked." + +"You want me," said Valdés, "to show you some royal and ladylike road by +which you may get to God without turning away from the world. But, lady, +no such compromise can be made. Have you ever crossed a running stream?" + +"Yes, many times." + +"Do you not remember how your head swam if you looked at the flowing +water, but how steady it was if you fixed your eyes on the opposite +shore? Thus, with God and the world, endeavour to keep the view of your +soul fixed and nailed with Christ on the cross. And if at any time, +through want of care, your eyes are diverted to the things of this +world, return, return, Signora, as quickly as possible, to fix them on +Christ crucified; and all will be well. You know the human heart is +naturally inclined to love. It must either love God and all things for +God, or it must love itself and all things for itself. He who loves God, +performs everything he does for Him. And thus, if he loves anything +besides God, he loves it for the sake of God, and because God wills it +so. And then his good works please and are acceptable to God, because +they spring from love. Agreeable to this is what St. Augustine +says--'Good works follow in them who are already justified, and do not +go before in him who has to be justified.' You know how you yourself +estimate what a person does in your affairs when you know you owe not +his good services to the affection he bears you, but to some other +motive." + +This dialogue, which had been begun in the open air, was now being +carried on in the Duchess's parlour. She sat in a high-backed, richly +carved chair, looking out through the balconied window, on the bay of +Naples, with streaks of summer lightning now and then illumining the +sky, and the lurid fires of Vesuvius glowing in the distance. Valdés sat +on a stool a little apart. + +"Since you wish me," said she, after a pause, "to make the love of God +my prime motive, and, next to it, the love of my neighbour,--well then, +I will do so!--but mention, if it please you, some rule by which I may +know and understand what it is I ought to do; because I wish to give +myself up to the love of God, even so much so as to deprive myself of +your favour, and that of a hundred others like you." + +"No, Signora, no! you can never do that!" said Valdés, fervently: and he +then sketched out for her the outline of a Christian life, not +circumscribed within slavish bounds, but capable of adaptation to time +and place, sex and degree, based only on the immutable principle of +loving God above and in all things, and one's neighbour even as one's +self. It was a memorable evening for Giulia. Her cheeks were wet with +tears, but they were the sweetest she had ever shed. They took no note +of time, but prolonged the interview till night. + +When they parted, she said to him: + +"I shall never forget this conversation!" + +"And I," said he, deeply moved, "shall remember it always." + +"Oh, that I could preserve every word you have spoken! Do you think you +could commit the substance to writing?" + +"Undoubtedly, if you wish it." + +"I do wish it, most earnestly. And pray for me, pray for me, dear +friend, that your words may not only sink into my heart, but take root +in it, and bring forth fruit abundantly." + +"I will, indeed, Signora; but, above all, fail not to pray for yourself, +that the love of God may abound in you yet more and more." + +"Never knew I till now what that love was! I have heard tell a thousand +times of this going out of a person's self to enter into God, but never, +in all I have heard, was it made comprehensible." + +"You are so much the more under obligation to love God, since He has +preserved you so long in this world as to come to know this which till +now you have not understood." + +"You are right. May it please God that I know how to profit by it." + +She gave him her hand. He kissed it with the utmost reverence: then, +raising his eyes heavenwards, uttered a short, fervent prayer for her +confirmation in the knowledge and love of God. + +When he was gone, she covered her eyes with her hand, and tears slowly +trickled down her cheeks. Almost unconsciously, she sank on her knees +and murmured---- + +"O, my God! teach me to be what Thou wouldst have me to be, and then +enable me to do what Thou wouldst have me to do! Form in me Thine own +image and likeness, for Christ's sake!" + +A strange calm and sweet peace took possession of her soul. + +When Valdés presented himself to her, a few days afterwards, he brought +her his manuscript version of the substance of their dialogue, written +in his native Spanish, which was nearly as familiar to her as Italian, +seeing that it was continually spoken by Vittoria Colonna and others of +her familiar acquaintance. The faithfulness with which he had recalled +the vivacity of her rejoinders showed how deeply they had interested +him, and if his own speeches were less closely reported, it was chiefly +because he had taken the opportunity of extending them even at the +price of weakening their spirit. + +"Here," said he, "you have what you required of me; and I have called it +the Christian Alphabet, because, in fact, it contains but the A B C of +Christian doctrine. Believe in nothing I have here set down that you +cannot bring to the test of Scripture. And do not content yourself with +this Alphabet, or with any mere writings of men, but drink of the pure +water of life at its source. May Christ become the peaceful possessor of +your heart, in such a manner as that He may absolutely and without +contradiction rule and regulate all your purposes. When this is the +case, you will not feel the want of anything whatsoever in this life to +give you contentment and repose." + +She took the book with solemnity, and promised compliance with his +wishes. This singular little work, of which, till lately, it was not +known that there was a copy extant, does not profess to be more than +what Valdés called it, and confines itself to inculcating the formation +of the Divine image in the soul, if haply it might find Him, without +attempting to attack the prevailing corruptions of the Church. In fact, +this remarkable layman, who set so many Reformers forward on the path of +martyrdom, did so by inculcating a few great truths, rather than by +pulling down strongholds of error; and a certain class of his disciples +eventually brought discredit on him by veiling Reformed opinions under +the punctilious observance of Romish practices. But not of these +temporising spirits were Carnesecchi, Flaminio, or Vergerio; all of whom +were of the school of Valdés. + + + + + CHAPTER XIX. + + REST AND PEACE. + + +When the structure is built, the scaffolding is removed: when we are +raised up to Christ, our earthly props are often knocked away. + +Ochino was soon to leave Naples--Valdés was soon to leave this earthly +world. For a little while the Church had rest: and then burst out a +furious, fiery persecution. Its burning annals have no place in my +story; but I will annex a chapter about it as an Appendix, for those who +will not or cannot refer to the original sources. + +An advance had taken place in Ochino's opinions, which, for a time, was +felt rather than understood by his hearers. He appealed directly to the +Scriptures in support of his doctrine, and bade them search for +themselves. In spite of his boldness, he not only was allowed to +continue to preach in the Cathedral, but, in a chapter held at Naples in +1541, was re-elected General of the Capuchins. + +His departure from the Church of Rome was detected, however, by the +jealous eye of Cardinal Pole, who wrote to Vittoria Colonna, urging her +to beware of his influence, and even exacting from her a promise, which +no woman of independent spirit would have given, that she would not read +any letter addressed to her by Ochino, without consulting him or +Cardinal Cervini. Vittoria gave this promise, and afterwards redeemed it +by transmitting to Cardinal Cervini, not one letter, but a packet of +letters written to her by Ochino; observing on them, in an accompanying +note, "I am grieved to see that the more he attempts to excuse himself, +he condemns himself the more; and the more he believes he shall save +others from shipwreck, the more he exposes himself to the deluge; being +out of the ark which alone can save." + +Vittoria was at Rome, the head-quarters of intolerance, attending Fra +Ambrogio's lectures in the church of San Silvestro, and sending her +servant, after the sermon, to Michael Angelo, saying, "Tell him that I +and Messer Lattanzio are here in this cool chapel, that the church is +shut and very pleasant, and ask him if he will come and spend the +morning with us." And when he came, their talk was not of polemics, but +of painting, and of her building a convent on the slope of Monte +Cavallo. + +Vittoria, having put her hand to the plough, had drawn back; but Giulia +had chosen the better part, and has attained the honour of being +stigmatised in Romish records as "suspected of heretical pravity." + +Oh! how she wept when Valdés died! They were tears of sweet and pure +affection, unmixed with bitterness or gloomy foreboding, for he had +been called, at the second watch, to his rest: and she had now a good +assurance of following in the same luminous track, upheld by the same +right hand, straight up to heaven, without the intervention of a fearful +purgatory. + +He was called away in the strength of his manhood, for he was little +more than forty, and his twin brother is lost sight of about the same +time. Lovely in their lives, in death they were not long divided. +Peaceful, natural decline removed them from the persecutions that +awaited their followers. + +It is not hard to divine his last admonitions to Giulia. "Search the +Scriptures, for in them we know that we have eternal life. Pray, dear +Signora! pray! As our Lord prayed on the mount, the fashion of His +countenance was altered, and His raiment became white and glistening! +Doubtless, whenever _we_ pray, the expression of our countenance is +altered in the sight of God, if not of man; and our raiment, the +righteousness of Christ, becomes white and glistening. Oh, what an +incentive to prayer! St. Matthew and St. Luke, you will find, in +narrating the transfiguration, do not give us the preface--'_and as he +prayed_.' But how important an addition it is! What a blessing that +prayer drew down! It drew prophets and saints from heaven!" + +"Valdés, dear friend! Would that my prayers might hereafter draw _you_ +down from heaven to comfort me! Yet no; I recall the selfish wish. +Rather let me fancy you calling, 'Come up hither!'" + +"Fancy our Lord so calling you, dear Signora, and it will be mere fancy +no longer. All my teaching will have been in vain, if you covet human +rather than divine sympathy and help." + +"But you have been to me as a brother." + +"There is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother, Signora. Come, +give me a text, ere you leave me, to dwell upon when you are gone." + +"'Ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace.'" + +"God grant it! And here is one for you, whose time has not yet come to +be led forth. 'Behold! I have refined thee, but not with silver'--(not +in the same way, that is; not with mere physical heat)--'I have chosen +thee in the furnace of affliction.' See! there is something that escapes +us at first. God not only says He has tested us, but that He has +_chosen_ us. O, blessed to be the chosen of the Lord----" + +"Valdés, I seek Him, but I know not that I have yet found Him----" + +"Signora! 'let the heart of them rejoice that _seek_ the Lord.'" + +While masses were being sung and said for the soul of Cardinal +Ippolito, the spirit of Valdés departed without a sigh. "For so He +giveth His beloved sleep." But were Giulia's affections, which had been +gradually refining, then left without a human object? No. By the will of +his paternal grandfather, her nephew, Vespasiano, the little Duke of +Sabionetta, came into her charge; and the education of the dear little +boy, now eight years old, became her care. She procured the best and +most enlightened tutors for him, in Tuscan, Latin, and Greek; and +despatched an envoy to Charles the Fifth, to secure for him the +investiture of the state of Lombardy, and to supersede its +administrators by Don Ferrante and Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga. + +This young boy was trained up by her in the paths of virtue and +godliness; and lovingly did he repay her pains. He grew up a fine +character, distinguished for liberality and intelligence; and to him the +Jews owed the licence for their printing press at Sabionetta. When he +died, in 1591, the line became extinct. + +Besides superintending Vespasiano's education, the Duchess devoted +herself to visiting the sick in the hospitals, and relieving the poor +with her own hands. She shunned the company of the idle and frivolous, +and cultivated the friendship of the wise and good. She lived to a ripe +old age, shining more and more unto the perfect day--a light in a dark +place, during an age of gross corruption--unsullied by the breath of +slander, and respected, in spite of her averred 'heretical pravity,' by +the Romish Church. + +The faithful old maggior-domo, Perez, wrote thus to Vespasiano, on the +19th of April, 1566: + + "It appears to me that I should fail in my duty, as a servant for + twenty-one years together, towards the deserving memory of the + illustrious lady, my Lady Donna Giulia di Gonzaga, your aunt, if I + did not offer to condole with your Excellency on her death." + + ... "Her illustrious ladyship died, as you will have heard by + letter from Magnifico Modignano, and from M. Federigo Zanichelli + to-day, between twenty-one and twenty-two o'clock. She made an end + conforming with her most holy life, continuing sensible to the + moment when her sainted spirit left the body. Her will has been + opened, and you will have learnt from the before-mentioned + Modignano and Zanichelli, that your Excellency is left absolute + heir of her property, deducting certain legacies; the will being + very different from one executed seven years ago." + +To the aforesaid Perez she left an annuity of a hundred ducats: to +Caterina, her maid, two hundred ducats down, and a bed and bedding. To +Petrillo, whom she had brought up in her house, a thousand ducats; or, +in case of his death before he were of age, half that sum to his father +and mother. To Metello, her page, a hundred ducats down. To the brother +of her former maid, Caterina Rosso, and to his two children, a hundred +ducats each, in remembrance of her services. To her chaplain, twenty +ducats. To Madonna Antonia, her lady's-maid, twenty ducats and her +salary. To two little girls assisting in the kitchen, ten ducats each, +besides their wages. To all the house-servants, their expenses for a +month. + +Also, remembrances to the nuns of Santa Clara, and to certain officers +of the Hospital for Incurables. + +Also marriage portions to sundry young women, and legacies to her +physicians. + +Also legacies to four hospitals. + +This remarkable entry was made---- + + "I leave Cynthia, my slave, to the said Vespasiano my heir, whom + I direct to take her to his state of Lombardy; and, when he has + come to the truth of what I wished to know from her, to give her + in marriage in that province, with two hundred ducats currency + as dowry, and to make her free and set her at liberty." + +And, on re-consideration, towards the close of the will,--after leaving +a legacy to her undutiful daughter-in-law, and to her sister, a nun,---- + + "If ever any person be found who may have given me offence in + any manner whatsoever, I freely pardon them, and beg my heir not + to bear any resentment. I also order and bind my said heir that + he use no constraint or severity towards the said Cynthia;--nor + am I careful that he should learn from her what I said before + that I wished to know; but that he shall make her free and set + her at liberty, and give her in marriage in the province of + Lombardy, as I before said." + +If looks could kill, would not the stubborn, impenetrable Cynthia have +been annihilated by the glances that were given her by the rest of the +Duchess's women, when this testamentary disposition transpired? Had they +the concentrated power of burning-glasses, she would have borne them +just as stoutly. All her life she had been sinning and inly repenting; +but, to draw from her one word she did not choose to speak--no! that +they should not! _She_, an Abencerrage, to be treated like a slave? She +had no feelings in common with her captors: she hated their race, and +despised their creed. She only made an exception in favour of the +Duchess; but the Duchess did not understand her: nobody understood her. +Oh! how hackneyed a complaint it is, that we are not understood! + +So, although Cynthia had shed sincere tears for her mistress, she felt a +gloomy glory, when she heard the first clause relating to herself, in +thinking that the more the young Duke insisted on her telling, the more +she would never mind. But when she found her gentle mistress had +retracted that command, and left her mentally and bodily at liberty--she +stole away to a solitary place, and there shed big tears, beating her +breast, and saying, + + "O Leila, Leila! You loved me!--and indeed I loved you!" + + [Illustration] + + + + + APPENDIX. + + +My story is ended--but, as it is based on Truth, I hope few who have +read the foregoing pages with any pleasure, will be without some +interest in the subsequent progress of the Italian Reformation. + +Stifled in its infancy, it is now re-awakening into life; and though it +as yet only numbers its open converts by hundreds, yet, where the Bible +is now freely read, it cannot be but that Truth, which is great, shall +eventually prevail. + +The following sketch, chiefly abridged from McCrie may be acceptable to +those who cannot refer to his History of the Reformation in Italy. I +have, however, likewise drawn from other sources. + +It was in 1542 that the court of Rome first became seriously alarmed at +the progress of the new opinions in Italy. Cardinal Caraffa, who +afterwards became Pope Paul the Fourth, laid before the sacred college +the discoveries he had made of their spread in Naples and many other +parts. It was resolved to proceed against some of the leaders, +especially Ochino and Peter Martyr Vermigli. Ochino, learning that his +death was determined on at Rome, hastily fled to Ferrara, whence, being +assisted by the good Duchess Renée, he escaped the hands of the armed +men despatched to apprehend him, and reached Geneva in safety. + +This flight was considered very cowardly by the resolute disciples he +had left behind; and, indeed, Ochino's story would read much better if +he had remained to share their fate, for there is a great falling off in +his subsequent history. + +As for Martyr, who had parted with him at Florence, he took refuge in +Zurich, whence he wrote back to those whom he had left to weather the +storm, advising _them_ by all means to stand by the sinking ship! Seeing +the wolf coming, he and Ochino left the sheep, and fled; no wonder that +the wolf scattered the sheep. + +The result was this. Many of Ochino's friends were apprehended, and some +of them driven to recant: and eighteen monks of Peter Martyr's monastery +were thrown into prison. Before the year was out, eighteen more of them +escaped to Switzerland. Yet the little church that was in Lucca kept its +lamp burning twelve more years. + +Celio Curio was another leading Reformer. Receiving private information +that he had better consult his safety, he sought refuge in Lausanne. A +few months afterwards, he stole back to fetch his beloved wife and +children; but was tracked by the familiars of the Inquisition. He was +dining at an inn, when a captain of the Papal Band entered, and +commanded him to surrender. Celio rose from table, the carving-knife +still in his hand; the captain involuntarily drew back--seeing which, +Celio, still grasping the knife, and assuming a look of great +determination, walked deliberately out of the room, passed through the +armed men at the door, took his horse from the stable, and made off. + +The Inquisition had been introduced into Italy at its first +establishment in the twelfth century, but was so repugnant to the free +states, that it was confined to the Order of St. Francis. Bishops might +take part with the inquisitors in the examination of heretics, but had +no power to inflict punishments. In 1543, however, Paul the Third +granted the title and rights of inquisitors to six cardinals, with full +power to apprehend and imprison suspected persons of whatever rank: and +the operations of this court gradually extended over Italy, in spite of +great resistance. This was decisive of the unfortunate issue of the +movements in favour of religious reform. Numbers of Reformers fled from +the country: others remained to abjure or die for their faith. A +formulary was drawn up, to which academicians were expected to +subscribe, and this produced a great excitement. + +In 1545, proceedings were commenced against Felippo Valentino, a young +man of great promise, at Modena, suspected of heresy. Hearing that an +armed force was coming to apprehend him, he escaped by night, leaving +his books and papers behind, which, being examined by the Inquisitors, +brought many of his friends into trouble. Next day, an edict was +published, forbidding any to have heretical or suspected books, or to +dispute publicly or privately on any point of religion, under the +penalty, for the first offence, of a hundred crowns of gold, or, if +unable to pay that sum, of the strappado. For the second offence, two +thousand golden crowns, or banishment. For the third, death. + +Valentino and Castelvetro were cited to appear at Rome. The popular +feeling was so strong for them, that the Duke of Modena was petitioned +to intercede with the Pope, that the trial should be suspended; which he +declined. Valentino and Castelvetro, not answering the citation, were +excommunicated. The latter escaped to Ferrara, thence to Geneva, and +finally settled at Chiavenna. What became of Valentino we are not told. +He was gifted with an extraordinary memory, and could correctly repeat a +sermon or lecture after hearing it once. + +Another distinguished sufferer for the Truth was Olympia Morata, who did +not indeed seal her testimony with her blood, but who was driven from +home and country. Celio Curio had found refuge in her father's house in +Ferrara, about the time that Olympia went to reside at the Ducal Palace, +in order to inspire the little Princess Anne with emulation in her +classical studies. Here, her life was too gay and worldly to be good for +her. + +"Had I remained longer at court," she afterwards wrote to Celio Curio, +"it would have been all over with me and my salvation. For never, while +I remained there, did I attain the knowledge of ought high or heavenly, +or read the Old or New Testament." + +Yet she had two female friends of more than average merit--Francesca +Bucyronia and the Princess Lavinia della Rovere. Gifted and pure-minded +as they were, these interesting girls as yet only cared for the things +of this present life, and philosophy, falsely so called. + +Olympia was summoned from court by the mortal illness of her beloved +father; and, in the wholesome discipline of the sick-room, received +lessons of invaluable worth. He died, reposing on her promise to supply +a parent's place, as far as possible, to her little brother and her +three young sisters, and to minister with filial devotion to her sickly +mother. + +It was a great charge, but she struggled bravely with her difficulties. +The great questions at issue between the Reformers and their foes +addressed themselves, also, to her attention, more forcibly than +heretofore; connected as they were with the fate of one in whom her +friend, the Princess Lavinia, took deep interest. A young man, named +Fannio, was consigned to the dungeons of Ferrara, for adhering to the +reformed opinions. To his wife and sister, who came to see him in +prison, he said, "Let it suffice you that, for your sake, I _once_ +denied my Saviour! Had I then had the knowledge which, by the grace of +God, I have acquired since my fall, I would not have yielded to your +entreaties. Go home in peace!" Weeping, they went. He lay two years in +prison, "to the furtherance of the Gospel," inasmuch as "his bonds in +Christ were manifest in all the palace." Faithful friends resorted to +him thither; among them were Lavinia and Olympia. The peril of their +visits perhaps added a little zest to the impression of his teaching. In +that gloomy cell, he and they and a little handful of the faithful, +prayed, and read the Scriptures, and broke bread, and sang hymns, just +as in the early times. + +When it was found that many persons of rank, besides Lavinia, stole to +these meetings, while his fellow-prisoners were so wrought upon by his +heavenly-mindedness that they declared they had never known what true +liberty and happiness were till they found them in a prison--Fannio was +put into solitary confinement. + +Though visitors were rigorously excluded, he reached them with his +letters; notwithstanding the repeated change of his gaolers. With what +intense interest must Lavinia and Olympia have pored over these letters! +In 1550, Fannio was brought to the stake, and, being first strangled, +was committed to the flames. He was the first of the Reformers who laid +down his life for his faith. + +Olympia, meanwhile, bereft of court favour, led a troubled and painful +life. She wrote to Celio Curio--"After my father's death, I remained +alone; abandoned by those who ought to have supported me. My sisters +were involved in my misfortune, and only reaped ingratitude for the +devotion and services of years. How deeply I felt it, you may readily +conceive. Not one of those who had been our friends in former times had +now the courage to show the least interest in us." She knew and he knew, +indeed, that the Princess Lavinia was a noteworthy exception. + +This cheerless loneliness was broken by the constancy of a young +Bavarian student of medicine, named Grünthler, who had already offered +his hand to her and been refused. He now renewed his addresses: his +devotedness touched her heart, and she accepted him. They were married +very quietly in 1550. "Neither the resentment of the Duke," she wrote to +Curio, "nor all the miserable circumstances which surrounded me, could +induce him to abandon his desire to make me his wife. So great and true +a love has never been surpassed." + +Leaving her under the protection of Lavinia, Grünthler repaired to +Germany to find a home for her, where they might at least enjoy freedom +of conscience. + +"Your departure," Olympia wrote to him, "was a great grief to me, and +your long absence is the greatest misfortune that could befall me. I am +always fancying you have had a fall, have broken your limbs, or been +frozen by the extreme cold. You know what the poet says-- + + "Res est soliciti plena timoris amor." + +"If you would alleviate this tormenting anxiety, let me know what you +are about; for my whole heart is yours, as you know full well." + +Grünthler was so long finding what he wanted, that his good friend, +George Hermann, advised him to fetch his wife and live with him at +Augsberg, till something should turn up--which he did. Olympia's grief +was great at parting with her mother and sisters, whom she had little +hope of ever seeing again: her brother Emilio, eight years of age, she +took with her. Thus Italy lost one of its most distinguished women. + +Once settled in Germany, she was very happy. "We are still," she wrote, +"with our excellent friend, and I am delighted with my home here. I pass +my entire day in literary pursuits--_me cum Musis delecto_--and have no +cares to draw me away from them. I also apply myself to the study of +Holy Writ, which is so productive of peace and contentment." + +The occupation she chiefly found for her pen was translating the Psalms +of David into Greek verse. These her husband used to set to music, and +the singing of them formed the evening amusement of their little circle. + +After residing some months with George Hermann, they removed to another +friend, John Sinapi, a good physician who had married Olympia's early +companion, Francesca Bucyronia. At length they obtained a humble home of +their own at Schweinfurth on the Maine. And here they dwelt usefully and +happily till war and pestilence raged around them. Schweinfurth was +sacked: Olympia fled from it barefoot, in worse plight than Giulia +Gonzaga, for she had no horse to carry her to the nearest refuge, ten +miles off. "I might have been taken," she said, "for the queen of the +beggars." + +At length they reached Erbach, where the good Countess received her like +a mother, and nursed her through her sickness. But Olympia never +recovered from the effects of that fearful flight; and an early death +crowned her beautiful and exemplary life. + +The persecution which raged against the humbler confessors in Ferrara, +failed not to attack the Duchess herself, though the daughter of a King +of France. It was not till she had endured a short imprisonment that she +was intimidated into concealing her convictions. On the death of the +Duke, she returned to France, where she made open profession of the +reformed faith, and afforded shelter to its confessors. + +In the Venetian states, the persecution raged with great violence. +Francesco Spira, a lawyer of Padua, died in such agonies of mind at +having been induced, by the terrors of the Inquisition, to recant, that +Vergerio, the converted bishop of Capo d' Istria, who was present at his +death, was greatly affected by it. "To tell the truth," says he, "I felt +such a flame in my breast, that I could hardly help going to the legate +at Venice, and crying out, "Here I am! where are your prisons and your +fires?" Instead of this, he sought refuge among the Grisons." + +The way of putting the Venetian martyrs to death was not by fire but by +water. At dead of night, the prisoner was taken from his cell, and put +into a gondola, attended by a priest. He was rowed out to sea, beyond +"The two Castles," where another boat was waiting. A plank was then laid +across the two gondolas, upon which the prisoner, heavily chained to a +stone, was placed. On a given signal, the two boats paddled different +ways. + +The first martyr who thus suffered was Giulio Giurlanda. When set on the +plank, he calmly bade the gondoliers farewell, and, calling on the Lord, +sank into the deep. + +Antonio Bicetto, of Vicenza, followed his example, though urged to +recant by the most tempting bribes. Space would fail if I undertook to +recount all who in their turn were faithful unto death. Others escaped; +and there was not a city of note in Italy that did not swell the list of +fugitives. This shows how widely the reformed opinions must have +spread. + +Nowhere was greater cruelty shown than to the Milanese. Galeazzo Trezio, +a man of noble birth, was sentenced to be burnt alive, which he bore +with the utmost fortitude. A young priest, after being half-strangled, +was literally roasted alive, and then thrown to the dogs. + +At Naples, so great was the rigour of the Inquisition as seriously to +affect trade. Whole streets were deserted by their inhabitants. +Terrified by the severities exercised upon their brethren, a +considerable body of Neapolitans agreed to quit Italy together. But, +when they reached the Alps, and stopped to take a last view of their +beloved country, they burst into tears and resolved to return home. They +no sooner reached it than they were cast into prison. + +But, of all the barbarities of which Rome was guilty at this time, none +were more horrible than those which were inflicted on the Waldenses who +had settled in Calabria. I have already related how these peaceable +people had founded a little colony, and, by their exemplary lives, had +won the good opinion of even the priests. They now amounted to about +four thousand persons, and they possessed several towns in the +neighbourhood of Coscenza, two of which were Santo Xisto and La Guardia. + +Cut off from all intercourse with their Waldensian brethren, these +colonists had habituated themselves to attend mass, without which they +found it difficult to maintain friendly relations with their neighbours. +Hearing of the spread of the reformed opinions in Italy, similar to +those for which their ancestors had bled, these Waldenses became +convinced they had sinned in conforming to Popish observances, and they +applied to their friends and ministers at Pragela and Geneva, for +teachers who should reform and restore their discipline. + +No sooner was this known at Rome, than two monks were sent to reduce +these Waldenses to obedience to the holy see. They began very gently +with the inhabitants of Santo Xisto, saying they had only come to +prevent them from lapsing into error; and they appointed a time for the +celebration of mass, which they enjoined every person to attend. + +Instead of this, the Waldenses, in a body, retreated into the woods, +only leaving behind them a few old people and children. The monks, +concealing their chagrin, repaired to La Guardia, and, having caused the +gates to be shut, assembled the inhabitants and told them their brethren +of Santo Xisto had renounced their errors, and they had better follow +their good example. + +The poor simple people were talked over, and complied; but great was +their indignation when they found the deceit that had been practised on +them. They were eager immediately to join their brethren in the woods, +but were dissuaded by their feudal lord. + +Meanwhile, the monks directed two companies of foot-soldiers to beat the +woods, and hunt down the fugitives in them like wild beasts, which they +did, with cries of "Ammazzi! ammazzi!" "Slay them! slay them!" + +Some of the Waldenses, securing themselves among the rocks, demanded a +parley with the captain of their assailants. They pleaded for their +wives and children, said they were willing peaceably to leave the +country, and implored him to withdraw his men. Instead of this, the +captain commanded an instant attack, most of the parleyers were cut +down, and the rest took to flight. San Xisto was given up to fire and +sword; and the fugitives still lurking in the woods, either were put to +death or perished with hunger. + +The people of La Guardia were then given up to the tender mercies of the +Inquisition. My pen refuses to copy the account of the horrible +cruelties to which they were subjected. Sixty women were tortured, most +of whom died in prison, in consequence of their wounds remaining +undressed. Yet this was nothing to what afterwards ensued. One of the +Catholic historians says, "Some had their throats cut, others were sawn +asunder, others thrown from a high cliff: all were cruelly, but +deservedly put to death. It was strange to hear of their obstinacy; for +while the father saw his son put to death, and the son his father, they +not only exhibited no symptoms of grief, but said joyfully that they +should be angels of God! So much had the devil, to whom they had given +themselves up as prey, deceived them!"[16] + + [16] Tommaso Costa. + +Martyrs of whom the world was not worthy! It is less sad, after all, to +read of the martyrdoms of Carnesecchi, and Di Monti, and Paleario, and +many others, than to find heresies and schisms creeping into the little +flock itself, and drawing many of them away from the purity of that +faith for which others died. + +Unitarianism was the canker that ate into the bud of the Italian +Reformation. The opinions of Servetus and Socinus, and various +modifications of them, insinuated themselves into the minds of the +hapless exiles, who were scattered as sheep having no shepherd. Camillo +Renato was one of the leading schismatics; and though he did not avow +his own disbelief in the Trinity, his followers made no scruple of doing +so. Many were tossed in a wild sea of doubt; others were swayed to and +fro by every wind of doctrine; but we must not forget that a great many +were consistent and faithful to the end of their course. Even Ochino's +orthodoxy was suspected; though Calvin saw no reason to doubt it. There +was a cloud, however, over his latter days. + +Pius the Fourth was of a mild disposition, but he was not powerful +enough to overrule the inquisitors. A house beyond the Tiber was +appropriated to them, to which cells were added for criminals, or those +who were accounted such. This was called "the Lutheran prison," and it +was said to be built on the site of the ancient Circus of Nero, in which +so many Christians were delivered to the wild beasts. + +The persecution raged with redoubled fury under Pius the Fifth: +especially at Bologna, where "persons of all ranks were indiscriminately +subjected to the same imprisonment, tortures, and death. In Rome, some +were every day burnt, hanged, or beheaded; all the prisons were filled, +and they were obliged to seek new ones." Think of the constancy of these +confessors! Rome had no need to go to Japan for martyrs. If she should +hereafter have a Protestant martyrology, many of her own sons and +daughters may be enrolled in it. "We know not what becomes of people +here," wrote Muretus to De Thou; "I am terrified every morning when I +rise, lest I should be told that such and such a one is no more: and if +it should be so, we should not dare to say a word." + +And thus the Italian Reformation was crushed out! But its motto is +"Resurgam!" + + + II. + +"The 'Alfabeto Christiano' is a book unknown even to bibliographers for +the last three centuries. It had its origin in an actual conversation +between Juan de Valdés, twin brother to the Latin secretary of the +Emperor Charles the Fifth, and Giulia Gonzaga, Duchess of Trajetto and +Countess of Fondi, at Naples, about the close of 1535, or the beginning +of the following year. At her request it was immediately afterwards +written down by him in Spanish, to promote her instruction and refresh +her memory. It now essentially conveys to us the spirit and substance of +the conversation in the precise form and manner in which it took place +between them."--_Introduction by Benjamin B. Wiffen, Esq., to his +translation of the "Alfabeto Christiano."_ + +"It was printed at a time when for a few years the press of Venice was +comparatively free; and when, taking advantage of this liberty, then +existing nowhere else in Italy, it multiplied the tracts of the +Reformation by thousands. When the friends of Valdés were afterwards +persecuted at Naples, and his name condemned by the authority of Rome, +implicating by connection with him, one of the most distinguished +members of the noble family of the Gonzagas,--all parties, friends +equally with opponents, would of course be concerned to observe silence +on the subject; while all the friends of the family would be urged alike +by religious sentiment and by family considerations to destroy silently +and irrecoverably every copy of a book that appeared to cast, by its +association with her name, the shadow of its principles upon those who +were allied to her."--_Ibid._ + +The passage describing the manner in which a stray copy fell into his +hands, and the circumstances under which he perused it, is one of the +pleasantest in Mr. Wiffen's Introduction. McCrie quotes a passage from +Fontaine, who tells us that "on taking down an old house at Urbino, in +1728, the workmen disinterred a copy of Bruccioli's 'Paraphrase of St. +Paul's Epistles,' with some books of Ochino, Valdés, and others of the +same kind, which had remained in concealment for more than a century and +a half." + + + III. + +"Carnesecchi was secretary to Clement the Seventh, and afterwards +prothonotary to the Apostolic See. One of his preferments was an abbey +at Naples.... After the death of Clement, he retired from the Roman +court to Naples, where he became intimate with Juan de Valdés. He was in +that city in December, 1540, when Valdés died; and if he did not himself +receive his last confession, which is very probable, he at least knew +what it was, for his commendation of it formed part of the accusation +against him on his trial in 1567, before the Inquisition at Rome; and +after the death of Valdés he succeeded to the confidence of Giulia +Gonzaga. This correspondence brought her also under the suspicion of the +Inquisition on two occasions; once in 1545, and again, a short time +before her death, in 1566."--_Wiffen's Introd., &c._ + + + IV. + +"Few were the years of the life of Valdés after the conversation of the +'Alfabeto Christiano,' yet during four, or at the most, five of them, he +presented to Giulia his translation from the Greek of the Gospel +according to Matthew, of the Psalms translated from the Hebrew, of the +Epistle to the Romans, from the Greek, with a commentary; nor could she +be unacquainted with his 'Considerations' and other writings, while they +were yet in manuscript."--_Ibid._ + + + V. + +"Ippolito's translation of the second book of the Æneid was published at +Rome, in 1538, 4to., and in Venice, 1540. The latter is entitled, 'I sei +primi libri del Eneide de Vergilio, &c. Il secondo di Vergilio de +Hipolito de Medici Cardinale, a la Signora Giulia Gonzaga, MDXXXX.' It +contains twenty-three leaves."--_Ibid._ + +The lengthy title of Ireneo Affo's work, which a friend transcribed for +me at the British Museum, is:--"Memorie di tre Principesse della +famiglia Gonzaga; offerte a sua ecc: il Signor Conte Stefano Sanvitale +Parmigiano, gentiluomo di camera con esercito ed essente delle reali +guardie del corpo di S. A. R., in occasione delle sue felicissime nozze +con sua eccel: la Signora Principessa Donna Luigia Gonzaga Mantovana. +Parma, 1787. 4to." + +The title is not more wordy than the memoir itself, though a short one. + + + THE END. + + + BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. + + + * * * * * + + This day is Published, in fep. 8vo., neatly bound, + + THE NEST HUNTERS; + + OR, ADVENTURES IN THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. + + By WILLIAM DALTON, Esq. + + WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + CONTENTS OF CHAPTERS. + + CHAPTER + + I. An Important Letter. + + II. A Great Calamity. + + III. Our Uncle's Last Will and Testament. + + IV. The Robbery and Abduction of Marie. + + V. We Run Away and take Service with Nest Hunters. + + VI. We set out on our Voyage. + + VII. The Old Chief. The "Strong One," the "Weak One," the "Handsome + One." + + VIII. We descend into the Nest Caves. + + IX. My Adventures in the Nest Caves. + + X. I recognise the Nest Robbers. + + XI. A Search for a Mare's Nest + + XII. We "Bite the Biters," but are Overhauled by a Dutch Cruiser. + + XIII. We Sell our Nests, are taken Prisoners, but capture our Captors. + + XIV. History of our Captain: his Hatred of the Dutch. + + XV. Adventures with a Big Snake and a Man-eater. + + XVI. We pick up a Chinese Story-Teller, who sends us to Sleep. + + XVII. We are Hoodwinked by the Chinese, who Robs us of our All. + + XVIII. Wherein a Chief proves his Invulnerability by killing Himself. + + XIX. We visit the Capital of Blilling and witness Widow-Burning. + + XX. We return to the Coast and hear of an Old Enemy. + + XXI. The Wen-necked Hunchback and his Revelation to Prabu. + + XXII. We join a Tiger Hunt, but narrowly escape being Poisoned by a + Chief. + + XXIII. A Fight, a Great Peril, and a Timely Rescue. + + XXIV. We land at Mojopahit and are imprisoned as Rebels. + + XXV. Through Woods and Wilds. + + XXVI. We hunt Tigers and discover some Old Acquaintances. + + XXVII. And Last, containing a Tolerably Happy Ending. + + + * * * * * + + Shortly, + + ARTHUR MERTON. + + A STORY FOR THE YOUNG. + + By Mrs. J. B. WEBB, + + AUTHOR OF "NAOMI; OR, THE LAST DAYS OF JERUSALEM." + + In 16mo. With Frontispiece. + + + ARTHUR HALL & CO., 26, PATERNOSTER ROW. + + + * * * * * + + In Preparation. + + THINGS HARD TO BE UNDERSTOOD; + + OR, ILLUSTRATIONS OF DIFFICULT DOCTRINES + + AND MISINTERPRETED TEXTS. + + By the Rev. JOHN CUMMING, D.D., F.R.S.E. + + A NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION. + + * * * * * + Price 2s. 6d. Cloth, 3s. Gilt. + + SUNDAY THOUGHTS; + + OR, GREAT TRUTHS IN PLAIN WORDS. + + By MRS. T. GELDART. + + SECOND EDITION. + + + * * * * * + + Price 5s. Cloth. + + THOUGHTS AND SKETCHES IN VERSE. + + By CAROLINE DENT. + + + * * * * * + + Price 3s. Cloth, 5s. Gilt. + + POEMS. + + By the late MARIE J. E. FOTHERBY. + + EDITED BY HER HUSBAND. + + + * * * * * + 12mo., Cloth, 2s. + + BELLENGER'S FRENCH FABLES. + + ONE HUNDRED CHOICE FABLES, IMITATED FROM LA FONTAINE. + + + For the use of Children, and all Persons beginning to Learn the + French Language; with a Dictionary of the Words and Idiomatic + Phrases, Gramatically Explained. + + NEW EDITION, Revised and Corrected by C. J. DELILLE, Professor at + Christ's Hospital, &c. + + * * * * * + ARTHUR HALL & CO., 26, PATERNOSTER ROW. + + + + + Transcriber's Note: Although most printer's errors have been + retained, some have been silently corrected. Some spelling and + punctuation, capitalization, accents and formatting markup have been + normalized and include the following: + + Page 180 convice is now convince. + + The oe ligature has been expanded. + + Quotation marks have been inserted in rows 138, 224, 2068, 2344, + 2762, 4714, 4972 and 5016. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Duchess of Trajetto, by Anne Manning + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42296 *** |