Valperga (38 page)

"I will never willingly surrender my power into his hands:
I hold it for the good of my people, who are happy under my
government, and towards whom I shall ever perform my duty. I look
upon him as a lawless tyrant, whom every one ought to resist to the
utmost of their power; nor will I through cowardice give way to
injustice. I may be exasperated beyond prudence; but right is on my
side: I have preserved the articles of my alliance with him, and I
will hold them still; but, if he attack me, I shall defend myself,
and shall hold myself justified in accepting the assistance of my
friends. If I had not that right, if indeed I had pledged myself to
submit whenever he should call upon me to resign my birthright,
what an absurd mockery is it to talk of his moderation towards me!
I acknowledge that he might long ago have attempted, as now he
threatens, to reduce this castle to a frightful ruin; but then I
should have resisted as I shall now; resisted with my own forces,
and those of my allies. Valperga stands on a barren rock, and the
few villages that own its law are poor and unprotected; but this
castle is as dear to me as all his dominion is to him; I inherited
it from my ancestors; and if I wished to despoil myself of power,
it would be to make my people free, and not to force them to enter
the muster-roll of a usurper and a tyrant.

"My dear Arrigo, do not endeavour to persuade me to alter
my purpose; for it is fixed. I am not young nor old enough to be
scared by threats, nor happy enough to buy life on any terms
Castruccio may choose to offer. I am willing to lose it in a just
cause; and such I conceive to be the preservation of my
inheritance."

Arrigo was too raw and inexperienced to contend in words with
Euthanasia; he was overcome by her enthusiasm, which, although
serious and apparently quiet, was as a stream that runs deep and
waveless, but whose course is swifter and stronger than that which
wastes its force in foam and noise.

ARRIGO returned sorrowfully to Lucca. He found Castruccio
playing at chess with Mordecastelli; while a priest, Battista
Tripalda, sat observing the game, and spoiling it by his
interference.

"Nay, Vanni, I shall check-mate you next move," said
Castruccio; "think again if you cannot escape, and make better
play. Well, Arrigo, is peace or war the word you bring?"

"You must choose that, my lord; the countess wishes for
peace, but she will not submit."

"Not submit!" cried Tripalda, stalking with his tall,
upright figure into the middle of the room. "The woman is mad!
I see that there is something wrong in this, that I must set
right."

"Aye," said Mordecastelli; "as you set my game
right for me, and made me lose two knights and a castle."

"I wish he could persuade Euthanasia to lose a castle, and
then all would go well. Are there no hopes, Arrigo? tell me what
she said."

Arrigo repeated her message, endeavouring to soften her
expressions; but Castruccio was too experienced in the management
of the human mind, not to draw from the youth the very words she
had uttered.

"A murderer and a tyrant! pretty words applied to me,
because I put a traitor to death, who otherwise would have placed
my head on a Florentine pike. To what extremities am I driven! I
would give the world not to go to open war about her miserable
castle; yet have it I must, and that quickly, before she can send
for her Florentine friends. What a spirit she has! I do not blame
her; but, by St. Martin, I must tame it! Vanni, send for
Castiglione; I must give him instructions for the conduct of the
siege: I will have nothing to do with it personally; so tomorrow I
shall away to keep the Florentines in check, if not to beat
them."

"My lord," said Tripalda, drawing himself up before
Castruccio with an air of the utmost self-consequence, "you
have often found me of use in occasions of this sort; and I intreat
you to authorize me to go and expostulate with the countess; I
doubt not that I shall bring you a favourable answer: she must hear
reason, and from no one is she so likely to hear it as from
myself."

"You little know her disposition, friend Tripalda; but the
most hopeless effort is worth making, before I declare war, and
take her possessions by force. Go therefore to-morrow morning
early; in the mean time I will give Castiglione my instructions;
that, if your persuasions are vain, he may commence the attack the
following day."

Tripalda then retired to meditate the speech by which he should
persuade Euthanasia to yield; while Castruccio, desperate of any
composition, gave his full directions for the conduct of the
siege.

"If I were not in the secret of the place," said he to
Castiglione, "I might well believe the castle of Valperga to
be impregnable, except by famine; and that would be a tedious
proceeding; but I know of other means which will give you entrance
before nightfall. Lead a detachment of your most useless soldiers
to the pathway which conducts to the main entrance of the castle;
that of course will be well guarded; and, if the defence is
directed with common judgement, the disadvantages under which the
assailants must labour would render the attempt almost insane. But,
as I said, let your more useless troops be employed there; they
will keep the besieged in play; while you will conduct a chosen
band to sure victory. You remember the fountain of the rock, beside
which we were feasted, when the countess held her court, and where
she sustained the mockery of a siege; to be conquered in play, as
she now will be in earnest. You remember the narrow path that leads
from the fountain to the postern, a gate, which, though strong, may
easily be cut through by active arms and good hatchets. I know a
path which leads from this valley to the fountain; it is long,
difficult, and almost impracticable; but I have scaled it, and so
may you and your followers. To-night before the moon rises, and it
rises late, we will ride to the spot, and when you are in
possession of this secret, the castle is at your mercy."

It was now the beginning of the month of October; the summer,
which had been particularly sultry, had swiftly declined; already
the gales which attend upon the equinox swept through the woods,
and the trees, who know

His voice, and suddenly grow grey with fear. And tremble and
despoil themselves.

had already begun to obey the command of their ruler: the
delicate chestnut woods, which last dare encounter the blasts of
spring, whose tender leaves do not expand until they may become a
shelter to the swallow, and which first hear the voice of the
tyrant Libeccio, as he comes all conquering from the west, had
already changed their hues, and shone yellow and red, amidst the
sea-green foliage of the olives, the darker but light boughs of the
cork trees, and the deep and heavy masses of ilexes and pines. The
evening was hot; for the Libeccio, although it shuts out the sun
with clouds, yet brings a close and heavy air, that warms, while it
oppresses.

When evening came, Castruccio and his companion addressed
themselves for their expedition. They muffled themselves in their
capuchins, and, leaving the town of Lucca, crossed the plain,
riding swiftly and silently along. Who can descend into the heart
of man, and know what the prince felt, as he conducted Castiglione
to the secret path, discovered by his love, now used to injure and
subdue her whom he had loved? The white walls of the castle, half
concealed by the cork and ilex trees which grew on the platform
before it, stood quietly and silent; and she who dwelt within,
whose heart now beat fast with fear and wretchedness, was the
lovely and beloved Euthanasia, whose sweet and soft eyes, which
shone as violets beneath a load of snow, had formerly beamed
unutterable love on him, and whose gentle and modulated voice had
once pronounced words of tenderness, which, though changed, he
could never forget,--it was she, the beautiful, who had lived on
earth as the enshrined statue of a divinity, adorning all places
where she appeared, and adored by all who saw her; it was she,
whose castle he was about to take and raze, it was against her that
he now warred with a fixed resolution to conquer. Castruccio
thought on all this; he called to mind her altered mien, and the
coldness which had changed her heart from a fountain of burning
love to an icy spring: and this awakened a feeling which he would
fain have believed to be indignation. "Shall this false
girl," he muttered, "enjoy this triumph over me? And
shall the love which she despises, save her from the fate to which
her own coldness and imprudence consign her? Let her yield; and she
will find the Castruccio whom she calumniates, neither a tyrant nor
a monster; but, if she resist, on her be the burthen of the misery
that must follow."

Yet still, as officious conscience brought forward excuses for
her, and called on him again and again to beware, he rode along
side Castiglione, and entered into conversation. "Tomorrow at
this hour," he said, "you and your troop must come along
this road, and hide yourselves in the forest which we are about to
enter. When morning is up, do not long delay to scale the mountain,
and enter the castle, for the sooner you take it, the less blood
will be shed: order the battle so, that the troops you leave for
the false attack may be fully engaged with the besieged before you
enter; and then, coming behind the garrison, you can drive them
down the mountain among their enemies, so that they may all be
taken prisoners, at small expense either of their lives or
ours."

They now dismounted; and, leaving their horses to their
servants, began to ascend the acclivity. They moved cautiously
along; and, if there had been any to listen to their footsteps, and
sound was drowned by the singing of the pines, which moaned beneath
the wind. Following the path of a torrent, and holding by the
jutting points of rock, or the bare and tangled roots of the trees
that overhung them, they proceeded slowly up the face of the
mountain. Then turning to the right, they penetrated a complete
wilderness of forest ground, where the undergrowth of the giant
trees, and the fern and brambles, covered every path, so that
Castruccio had need of all his sagacity to distinguish the slight
peculiarities of scene that guided him. They awoke the hare from
her form; and the pheasants, looking down from the branches of the
trees, flew away with a sharp cry, and the whiz of their heavy
wings, as their solitude was disturbed.

Their progress was difficult and slow; but, after their toil had
continued nearly two hours, Castruccio exclaimed, "Yes, I see
that I am right!" and he paused a moment beside a spring, near
which grew a solitary, but gigantic cypress, that seemed, as you
looked up, to attain to the bright star which shone right above it,
and towards which its moveless spire pointed; "I am right; I
know this place well; mark it, Castiglione; and now our journey is
almost ended."

It was here, that in their childish days Castruccio and
Euthanasia often played; their names were carved on the rough bark
of the cypress, and here, in memory of their infantine friendship,
they had since met, to renew the vows they had formerly made, vows
now broken, scattered to the winds, more worthless than the fallen
leaves of autumn on which he then trod. The way to the rock which
overlooked the fountain was now short, but more difficult than
ever; and both hands and feet were necessary to conquer the ascent.
At length they came to a pinnacle, which, higher than the castle,
overlooked the whole plain; and immediately under was the alcove
which sheltered Euthanasia's fountain.

"I see no path which may lead to the fountain, my
lord," said Castiglione.

"There is none," replied the prince, "nor did I
ever get into the castle this way; but I have observed the place,
and doubt not of the practicability of my plan."

Castruccio drew from under his cloak a rope, and fastened it to
the shattered stump of a lightning-blasted tree; by the help of
this rope, and a stick shod with iron which he carried in his hand,
he contrived with the aid of Castiglione to reach a projecting
ledge in the rock about two feet wide, which ran round the
precipice about ten feet from its base; the fountain flowed from a
crevice in this ledge, and steps were hewn out of the rock, leading
from the source to the basin. Castruccio pointed out these
circumstances to his companion, and made if fully apparent that,
with a little boldness and caution, they might arrive by the means
he had pointed out at the path which led to the postern of the
castle. A few questions asked by Castiglione, which the prince
answered with accuracy and minuteness, sufficed to clear all the
doubts which the former had entertained, and to explain the whole
of his proceeding.

As they returned, however, Castiglione said suddenly, "My
lord, you understand this path so much better than I, why will you
not undertake the attack?"

"I thank you," replied Castruccio, with a bitter
smile; "but this business falls to your share; I must away to
keep off the aid the countess expects from the
Florentines."

They descended slowly; the moon had risen, which would have
discovered their path to them, but that she was hid behind so thick
a woof of dark and lightning-bearing clouds, that her presence
sufficed only to dispel the pitchy blackness, in which, but for
her, they had been enveloped. Every now and then the growling of
distant but heavy thunder shook the air, and was answered by the
screeching of the owl, and the screams of the birds whom it awoke
from their sleep among the trees. The two adventurers soon reached
the valley; and, mounting their horses, crossed the plain at full
gallop; and the strong Libeccio against which they drove, cutting
the air with difficulty, warmed the spirits, and somewhat
dissipated the melancholy, which, in spite of all his efforts,
oppressed Castruccio. He arrived much fatigued at his journey's
end; and, whatever might be the revolutions in his feelings, or the
remorse which stung him when he reflected on the work for which he
prepared, throwing himself on his couch, deep sleep quickly
overcame all; nor did he awake, until an attendant came to announce
to him, that the day was advanced, that the troops had long quitted
Lucca, and that his principal officers waited only for him to join
them in their march towards the Florentine camp. Castruccio then
shook off sleep; and, having examined well that his esquire had
omitted no piece of his armour which another horse bore, and having
visited his charger which was to be led unbacked to the field, he
mounted a black palfrey; and, merely saying to Castiglione, as he
passed him in the palace court, "You understand all,"--he
joined his officers, and they rode off on the road to Florence.