Valperga (30 page)

"They are usurious bonds," said Castruccio, throwing
it down angrily.

"They are," replied Pepi, picking up the deed, and
folding it carefully; "said I not well that I had the keys of
the town? Every noble owes me a part, many the best part, of his
estate. Many bonds are forfeited; and the mulct hangs over the
signer by a single thread. There is count Grimaldi, whose bond was
due the very day after his castle was plundered and burned, and his
lands laid waste by the Germans; he owes me more than he can ever
pay, though his last acre with his patent of nobility went with it,
and he after with his brats, to beg at the doors of the Guelphs,
his friends. There is the marquess Malvoglio who bought the life of
his only son, a rank traitor, from the emperor by the sums which I
lent him, which have never been repaid. This box is full of the
bonds made before the siege of Cremona; it was concealed above in
my tower when you last visited me; and this is full of those made
since that time; you see the harvest the good emperor brought me.
When the Germans quitted the town, my halls were filled with the
beggarly Guelph nobility--`Messer Benedetto, my wife has not a
garment to cover her!' `Messer Benedetto, my palace is in
ruins!' `Messer Benedetto, my beds are destroyed, my walls are
bare of furniture!'--`Oh! Messer Benedetto, without your aid my
children must starve!'

"`Aye, my friends,' said I, `I will help you most
willingly; here are parchments to sign, and gold to
spend!'--For in the interim I had called in my debts from
various other towns, and had two chests of gold ready for the
gaping hounds; some read the bonds, and complained of the
conditions; the greater number signed without reading them; none
have been paid; now they are all mine, body and soul; aye, with
these bonds, the devil himself might buy them."

"And this is the trade by which you have become rich, and
to support which you have sold your paternal estate?"

"Ah! Messer Castruccio," replied Pepi, his countenance
falling, "not only have I sold every acre, but I have starved
myself, exposed myself by my beggarly garb to the jeers and mocks
of every buffoon and idiot, who had been weaned but a year from his
mother's milk: a knight in sheep-skin was an irresistible
subject for ridicule; I have been patient and humble, and by my
submissive mien have lulled my debtors into security, till the day
of payment passed; then I have come upon them, received no payment,
but got fresh bonds, and then with renewed hypocrisy, blinded them
again till I have drawn their very souls from their bodies;--and
they and theirs are mine. Why, Cane is himself my debtor, here is
his bond for ten thousand florins of gold, which I will burn with
my own hands, when by his exertions I am made lord of
Cremona."

Castruccio, who had steadily curbed his contempt, now, overcome
by indignation, burst forth like thunder on his host: "Thou
vile Jew," he exclaimed, "utter not those words again!
Thou, lord of Cremona! A usurer, a bloodsucker!--Why all the
moisture squeezed from thy miserable carcase would not buy one drop
of the noble heart's tide of your debtors.--And these
parchments! Thinkest thou men are formed of straw to be bound with
paper chains? Have they not arms? have they not swords? Tremble,
foolish wretch! Be what thou art,--a sycophant.--No, thou art not
human; but in these filthy vaults thou hast swollen, as a vile toad
or rank mushroom; and then, because thou canst poison men, thou
wouldst lord it over them! Now, thou base-minded fellow, be advised
to cast off these presumptuous thoughts, or with my armed heel I
will crush thee in the dust!"

Pepi was pale with rage; and, with a malignant, distorted smile,
which his quivering lips could hardly frame, he said, "Fair
words, my lord of Lucca; remember this is my palace, these vaults
are mine, and of these passages I alone have the key, know alone of
their existence."

"Slave! do you threaten?"

Castruccio had scarcely uttered these words, when he perceived
Pepi gliding behind him; with eyes that flashed fire, he darted
round, and transfixed by their gaze the wretched traitor; as he
cast up his arm with the passionate gesture of indignation and
command, Pepi grew pale with terror; it seemed to him, as if he
already felt the menaced vengeance of his youthful enemy; his sharp
eyes became glazed, his knees trembled, his joints relaxed, and the
dagger that he had already drawn from his bosom fell from his
nerveless hand. All had passed so silently, that the fall of the
weapon seemed to strike like thunder on the pavement, and it
re-echoed along the vaults. Castruccio smiled with a feeling too
lofty even to admit contempt; it was the smile of power
alone.--Pepi fell upon his knees; when, suddenly perceiving that
Castruccio glanced his eye from the lamp to the parchments, and
then to the lamp again, the fear of losing his precious documents
overcame every other feeling, and he tried, prostrate as he was, to
dart past his foe, and blow out the light; Castruccio waved his
hand to keep him off, and the miserable traitor again shrunk back,
and fell upon the ground in an agony of impotent rage and
terror.

Castruccio now spoke in a restrained and firm tone: "Fear
not; I came hither as a friend; and, though you have broken your
faith with me, yet will I not mine with you:--I promised not to
betray your secret, and I will not. But remember; if by these or
any other means you attempt to oppress your townsmen, I will raise
such a nest of hornets about you, that then, as now, you may
intreat my mercy. Now give me the keys of your vaults and passages;
and then up, and shew me the way from this infernal den."

Trembling and aghast, his strait lips white with fear, Pepi
gathered himself from the pavement; with unwilling hand he gave up
the keys of his vault, cast one lingering glance on his treasure,
and then, followed by Castruccio, who held the lamp, he quitted his
den with a hesitating and unequal gait; for his late terror made
him halt, and even his coward fear lest Castruccio should yet stab
him in the back as they ascended the stairs. The doors were
unlocked and thrown open; for no time was allowed, as in
descending, for the careful drawing of bolts and turning of locks
in their progress. Castruccio was eager to leave the pestilential
air of the place, and to bid farewell to his treacherous and
loathsome host. They at length arrived at the head of the
staircase; and Pepi would have opened the door that led to the
hall.

"Down, villain!" cried Castruccio, "let me go the
shortest way from your devilish abode."

"But your cloak; you left your cloak in the further
hall."

"It is my legacy to thee, old fox;--it will serve to wrap
your crazed limbs, and to remind you of my promises when you
descend again to your tomb."

Pepi went down stairs, and opened the several doors of his
palace; and Castruccio hastened past him, feeling new life as he
breathed the fresh air of the open street. His enemy, now seeing
him on the other side of the gates, threw off his terrors, and
collecting all his malice from his heart to his miserable
physiognomy, he said: "My lord Castruccio, might I say one
word to you?"

"No, not one syllable: remember this night, and so
farewell."

"Yet not farewell without my curse; and that I will spit
after thee, if thou hadst the speed of an eagle."

The impotent wretch grinned and stamped with rage, when he saw
his enemy pass on unheeding, and quickly disappear. Yet anger was
not a passion that could long hold possession of the heart of
Benedetto; he remembered that his dear chests were safe; and,
although he still shuddered at their imminent peril, yet he
satisfied himself with the deep contempt he felt towards his foe,
who had allowed him, while thus in his power, to escape unhurt.

As he ascended the stairs he gazed on the lamp, and with a
ghastly smile, said: "Thou wert the instrument he purposed to
use, and I will tread thee to dust. His time will come, and his
heart's blood and his soul's agony shall repay me for my
wrongs; and so will I wind my snares, that he himself shall
proclaim me lord of Cremona."

In a journey that Castruccio made to Lombardy some years after,
he enquired concerning his old enemy; and, hearing that he was
dead, he listened with curiosity to the relation of the last scenes
of Benedetto's life. Ten days after their interview (in the
September of the year 1317), Cane della Scala approached Cremona to
besiege it; but, after passing some weeks before the walls, the
rains, and the ravages which had been effected in the territory of
his allies, the Modenese, obliged him to withdraw. Whether Pepi
were terrified by the warning of Castruccio, or feared a similar
reception to his propositions from Can' Grande, cannot be
known: but it is certain that he made no effort to enter into a
treaty with him at that time.

In the month of March of the following year Cane received a
visit from the ambitious usurer at his palace in Verona. Pepi had
grown wise by experience, and in this interview managed his treaty
with great skill. He bought for the occasion a vest of scarlet silk
and boots of Tartarian fur; fastening on his gilt spurs, throwing
his gold fringed cloak over his shoulders, and putting on his head
a conical cap of the newest fashion, encircled with a golden band,
he mounted a good horse; and, thus caparisoned, he appeared, in his
own and in his old woman's eyes, as accomplished and noble a
knight as by the stroke of a sword it were possible to dub; nor did
he, in his conference with Cane, mention what his means were by
which he intended to betray the city, but merely boasted of his
power of admitting the army of the lord of Verona, if it should
appear before the gates, and named, as the condition of this
service, his being instituted its lord in vassalage to Cane, if his
Ghibeline townsmen should agree to receive him as their chief. The
veteran commander easily acceded to these stipulations; and, the
time and other circumstances being agreed upon, Pepi returned to
Cremona to prepare for his future government.

His great art consisted in attacking all the nobles for their
debts at the same time; and these were so numerous, and of so
considerable an amount, that it created much confusion in a town
which had been enfeebled by perpetual wars. The nobles, as
Castruccio had predicted, reflected that they had arms in their
hands, and that their debts being all due to one man, they could by
his death easily free their shoulders from a heavy burthen. It was
then that Pepi began to disclose to each separately his readiness
to destroy their bonds, if through their means he was admitted to
be lord of Cremona. The Ghibelines objected the strong opposition
they should meet with from the Guelphs; to these he confided the
hopes he entertained of aid from Cane della Scala. The Guelphs, now
much enfeebled, appeared more tractable, since he endeavoured to
persuade them that it would be wholly in his power to prevent the
Ghibelines from exiling them; and he promised to act as a moderator
between the parties. He was listened to, and many promised him
their assistance, each in his heart despising the usurer, but
believing that each by his single vote would be of no service to
raise him to the sovereignty, and that by fair words they should
discharge their heavy debts.

Pepi had so managed, that he had got the keys of one of the
gates into possession; he admitted the troops of the lord of
Verona; but he found that after all he did not possess the
influence he had hoped over the minds of his townsmen. When the
Ghibeline war-cry was raised, all the Guelphs of the city,
distrusting either the promises or the power of their creditor,
assembled in arms; and a tumult ensued, which ended in the defeat
of the popular party, and the triumphant entrance of Cane into the
town.

Pepi fell in that tumult: whether by a chance-blow, or by the
resolved dagger of one of his debtors, cannot be ascertained. But
his dead body was discovered among the slain; and, so great was the
enmity of his townsmen against him, that, although Cane and his
troops had already entered the city, the whole population rushed in
fury towards his palace, and in a few hours the massy walls, the
high tower, and all the boasted possessions of Pepi were, as
himself, a loathsome and useless ruin. The hidden and unknown
vaults were undisturbed; and the paper wealth of the usurer lay
buried there, to rot in peace among the mildews and damps of those
miserable dungeons.

IMMEDIATELY after the restoration of the marquess of Este to the
government of Ferrara, Galeazzo Visconti returned to Milan; and
thence, after a short delay, he made a journey to Florence. The
apparent motive of this visit was to accompany a younger brother,
who had been long betrothed to a Florentine lady; and the period
had now arrived for the celebration of their marriage. But he had
other secret views: he had heard of the engagement of Castruccio to
the countess of Valperga; and, this name being famous as belonging
to a Guelph family, he thought that he had now discovered the cause
of the peace concluded by Castruccio with Florence, and he resolved
to ascertain the motives and plans of his friend; and if the
countess were really the jealous Guelph fame gave her out to be, he
determined to spare neither artifice nor falsehood to disturb their
union.

The destined bride of young Azzo Visconti was a near relation of
Euthanasia. The family of Adimari to which she belonged, although
originally Guelphs, had been united to the party of the Bianchi,
and had been expelled with them; with the exception of that branch
which adhered to the Neri, of which the father of Euthanasia was
the chief. But the children of several of these exiles continued
with those of their relations who remained in Florence; and
Fiammetta dei Adimari, although the daughter of an exile of the
faction of the Bianchi, had continued to reside in Florence under
the protection of an aunt. Her father had made himself famous in
the wars of Lombardy; and it was there that the union between her
and Azzo Visconti had been projected.