Valperga (56 page)

When Castruccio's army removed from before the walls of
Florence, the gates were thrown open, and its inhabitants were
relieved from the pressure and burthen of supernumerary
inhabitants. But where did the peasant go? he found his cottage
burnt, his vines, his next year's hope, destroyed, ghastly ruin
stared him in the face, and his countenance reflected back the
horrors of a long train of misery that he saw was preparing for
him. Euthanasia could do little good amidst the universal
devastation; what she could do, she did. She restricted her own
expenditure, and all the money she could collect, was expended on
the relief of these poor people; but this was a small pittance, a
drop of water in the ocean of their calamities.

She was returning from one of these visits to the country, where
she had been struck with horror to perceive the inadequacy of her
aid to the miseries around her. A whole village had been laid
waste, the implements of husbandry destroyed, the cattle carried
off, and there was neither food for the starving inhabitants, nor
hope of an harvest for the ensuing year. She had heard the name of
Antelminelli loaded with such imprecations as a father's mind
suggested, when his children called on him vainly for food, and
Castruccio the cause of this misery. "If God fulfils,"
she thought, "as they say he does, the curses of the injured,
how will his soul escape, weighed down by the imprecations of
thousands? Yet I will not consent to the hopes of his enemies, nor
be instrumental in dragging him from his seat of power. I have
loved him; and what would be just vengeance in another, would be
treachery and black ingratitude in me. Ingratitude! And yet for
what? For lost hopes, content destroyed, and confidence in virtue
shaken. These are the benefits I have received from him; yet I will
not join his enemies."

On her return to her palace, she found Bondelmonti waiting for
her. "Have you decided?" he asked.

"I have. I cannot enter into your conspiracy."

"Do you know, Madonna, that in deciding thus you sign his
death- warrant?"

"Nay, cousin, it is ungenerous and unmanly to use such a
menace with me. If he be doomed to death, which indeed cannot, must
not be,--how can I save him? how can I, a woman, turn aside the
daggers of the conspirators? if it be not indeed by betraying your
plot to him, a deed you may perhaps force me to at last."

"I hope not, Euthanasia. For your own sake--for the sake of
all the virtue that ever dwelt beneath the female form, I hope that
you will not be led to commit so base an action. You cannot harm
us. If you inform Antelminelli that there is a conspiracy formed
against him, and that I am at the head of it, you tell him no more
than he already knows. He does not need the lessons of history; his
own experience teaches him sufficiently, that the sword is
suspended over the tyrant's head by a single hair. He knows
that he has enemies; but he has too many to arrest them all: he
knows that his friends are treacherous; but he will never guess who
on the present occasion will turn traitor. He cannot be surprised,
nor can it do him any good to know, that I am the chief
conspirator; I have ever been his open and determined foe; and this
is not my first attempt to accomplish his downfall.

"As to what you say concerning my childish menace, you much
misunderstand me when you call it a threat. The persons who must
act in this business are Lucchese; I may direct their exertions;
but they are the actors. And, if you heard the appalling curses
that they heap upon Castruccio's name, if you beheld the deep
hate their eyes express when he is mentioned, their savage joy when
they dream that one day they may wreak their vengeance upon him,
you would feel that his life is indeed at stake. I do not wish him
to die. Perhaps I am wrong in this; if his life be preserved, it is
probable that no good will arise from his downfall, and that no
blood will in reality be spared. But I have eaten at his board, and
he has been my guest within these walls, so that I would preserve
his life; and I have pitched upon you as the person who can best
assist me in this. What else can I do? I cannot go to Lucca to
watch over and restrain the fury of his enemies; nor can I find one
Lucchese to whom I dare disclose the secret of the conspiracy, and
whom I may trust with the protection of his person. Indeed this
task seems naturally to devolve to you. You hate tyranny and war;
you are a Guelph, and would fain see the enemy of your country, the
author of the innumerable evils under which we groan, removed from
his government: but ancient friendship, the reciprocal interchange
of hospitality render his person dear to you, and your female
softness, and perhaps weakness, would come in aid of these
feelings. You are free to go to Lucca; you may mix the voice of
humanity with the bloody machinations of these men; you may save
him, and you alone."

Euthanasia was deeply moved by the presentations of Bondelmonti.
But her thoughts were still confused; she saw no steady principle,
on which to seize, and make it her guide from out the labyrinth.
She paused, hesitated, and asked again for a few days for
consideration. And this Bondelmonti reluctantly granted.

In the mean time Castruccio was engaged in exhibiting the pomp
of a triumph, which was conducted with unparalleled splendour; and
in which, like a merciless barbarian, the prince of Lucca, led
along Cardona and all the most eminent of his prisoners as the
attendants of his chariot.

DURING this festivity at Lucca, every thing wore the face of
sorrow and depression at Florence. The only circumstance that
raised them from their ruin, was the commerce of the city; for, by
means of the merchants, corn was brought from the neighbouring
states, and the magistrates distributed it among the poorer
peasantry.

Euthanasia had listened to the intelligence of Castruccio's
triumph with unwilling ears. It seemed to her like the pomp of his
funeral; and she dreaded lest his person, exposed during the
ceremonial, should be attempted by some of his bolder enemies. But
they worked with a closer design.

The tide of her sensations turned, when the conclusion of that
day's pomp brought nothing with it, but the account of its
splendour and success; and, when she heard that the prince was
personally safe, she found fresh reason for regret, in the want of
that delicate and honourable feeling on his part, which above all
her other virtues characterised her own mind.

But, if she were disgusted by the low pride that Castruccio
manifested in his treatment of Cardona, her feelings of horror and
of hatred were called forth by the occurrences that followed. Four
days after this scene Bondelmonti entered her apartment: his manner
was abrupt; his face pale; he could not speak.--When he had
somewhat recovered, his first words were a torrent of execrations
against Antelminelli.

"Oh, cease!" cried Euthanasia, "you hate, and
would destroy, but do not curse him!"

"Bid me rather add tenfold bitterness to my weak
execrations; but all words man can pronounce are poor. He has done
that which, if he had before been an angel, would blot and
disfigure him for ever. He is the worst of tyrants, the most cruel
and atrocious wretch that breathes! But earth shall soon be rid of
the monster. Read that writing!"

He put into her hand a dirty scrap of paper, on which she
deciphered these words:

"For holy Jesu's sake, save me! My mother does not send
my ransom. I was put to the torture this morning. I suffer it again
on Thursday, if you do not send six hundred golden florins.

"Pity your Francesco Bondelmonti."

The paper dropped from her hands. "This comes from my
cousin Francesco," said Bondelmonti; "others are in the
same situation. Those who have not been ransomed, he has thrown
into the most loathsome dungeons, and starves and tortures them to
quicken their appetite for freedom. Shall such a one
reign?"

"No," cried Euthanasia, her cheek burning with
indignation, and her lips quivering with excessive pity; "No,
he shall not reign; he were unworthy to live, if it be not to
repent. Bondelmonti, here is my hand; do with me what you please;
let his life be saved; but let him be torn from the power which he
uses more like a fiend than a human creature."

"Thank you, dear cousin, for this generous feeling: now I
know you again. I know my Euthanasia, who had forgotten herself
awhile, only to awake again with new vigour. Call up all your
spirits, Madonna; recollect all of noble, and wise, and courageous,
that your excellent father taught you. This is no mayday trick, or
the resolution of momentary indignation; it is the firm purpose of
those, who see an evil beyond imagination pregnant with destruction
and horror. Your quick concession merits my utmost confidence; and
you shall have it. To-night I will see you again. Now I must
endeavour to borrow money to liberate Francesco. My purse has been
emptied by the ransom of my three brothers, and his mother has
three hundred florins only."

"I can supply the rest," said Euthanasia. "Poor
fellow, send them immediately, that with the shortest delay he may
be rescued from the power of one more remorseless than the rack on
which he suffers. To- night I see you again."

Euthanasia spent the intervening hours in great agitation. She
did not shrink from her purpose; she had given her word, and she
did not dream of recalling it. But all was turmoil and confusion in
her mind. She figured to herself the scenes that would ensue; she
imagined the downfall of him she had loved, his life saved only
through her intervention,--and he perhaps, knowing that she also
had joined the conspiracy to despoil him of the power he had
laboured to attain, would turn from her in abhorrence.

As she thought of this, a few natural tears fell; she cast her
deep blue eyes up to heaven; and tried to collect all her
fortitude. Night came, and with it the hour when she expected
Bondelmonti; but all was tumult and uneasiness in her heart: and to
all other regrets she added the startling doubt whether she were
not on the present occasion quitting the path of innocence, for the
intricate and painful one of error. Then she knelt down, and prayed
fervently for a wisdom and judgement that might guide her
aright.

Euthanasia was now advanced to the very prime of life. Ten years
had elapsed since she had first interchanged vows with Antelminelli
in her castle of Valperga; but her mind was of that youthful kind,
that, ever, as it were, renewing itself from her own exhaustless
treasure of wisdom and sentiment, never slept upon the past,
forgetful of the changes that took place around her. Her character
was always improving, always adding some new acquirements, or
strengthening those which she possessed before; and thus for ever
enlarging her sphere of knowledge and feeling. She often felt as if
she were not the same being that she had been a few years before;
she often figured to herself, that it was only from such or such a
period that she obtained a true insight into the affairs of life,
and became initiated in real wisdom; but these epochs were
continually changing, for day by day she experienced the
acquisition of some new power, the discovery of some new light
which guided her through the labyrinth, while another of the
thousand-folded veils which hide the sun of reality from the ardent
spirit of youth, fell before her piercing gaze. Yet the change that
she felt in her faculties was greater than that which had really
taken place; it was only the disclosure of another petal of the
blowing rose, but the bud had contained the germ of all that
appeared as if new-created.

With this matured judgement and depth of feeling, she was called
upon to take an arduous part in a most doubtful and perilous
undertaking. The enthusiasm that distinguished her, had ever
induced her to place a great confidence in her own sentiments, and
the instantaneous decision of any doubtful point; and now she did
not hesitate in resolving to become one in the conspiracy: her
refusal would not stop its progress; her consent would enable her
to judge of, and regulate its measures. She no longer loved the
prince; his cruelty had degraded him even from the small place that
he had still kept in her heart. But such was the force of early
feeling, that she desired to restore her affections to him, when he
should again become gentle and humane, as he appeared when she
first knew him. Adversity might bring about this change.

Bondelmonti appeared. He appeared with a face of satisfaction
and even of joy, as he claimed her promise of the morning. She
renewed it solemnly, while her serious countenance, and the
touching modulation of her voice, told how from the depth of her
heart she felt the extent and force of the engagement into which
she entered. Bondelmonti then detailed to her the circumstances of
the conspiracy.

The family of the Quartezzani had been that which had most
assisted Castruccio in his rise to power, and had stood by him long
with fidelity. But, as his tyranny became more secure, he feared
their power, more than he was pleased by their support, and
suspected that they only looked upon him as an instrument to fight
their battles awhile, and then to be put aside at the first
opportunity. He changed his demeanour towards them, from that of
friendliness, to the coldest distrust, and took the earliest
opportunity to banish the chief among them from Lucca. Disgusted by
this ingratitude, they withdrew from court, and tempted by the
emissaries of Bondelmonti, now entered into a conspiracy against
him, joining with the Avogadii, his professed enemies, to despoil
him of power, perhaps of life.

Bondelmonti explained to Euthanasia all the circumstances of the
plan they had concerted to get the city into their hands. The
present governor of Pisa, who remembered, and hated the prince on
account of the treason he had fomented against him, was to advance
in a hostile manner to Ripafrata; and, while the shew of force on
that side should attract Castruccio and his army, a detachment was
to cross the hill of St. Giuliano, and come suddenly on the city,
whose gates would be opened to them by one of the conspirators. The
Florentine force would hover on the banks of the Guisciana; and,
taking advantage of the confusion which the seizure of Lucca would
occasion, would pass the river, and march directly towards the
city, declaring liberty to the peasant, and attacking the partizans
of the tyrant alone. King Robert of Naples had a fleet already in
the gulf of Spezia, which, on the news of the breaking out of the
conspiracy, would disembark its soldiers on the Lucchese territory,
and thus add to the general confusion.