Valperga (58 page)

"We have a plan for that," said Euthanasia, turning to
Ugo, "a plan to which I hope you will accede: for Castruccio
must be saved; Bondelmonti entered into that engagement with me,
before I became a party to your plot."

"It shall be as you command," replied Tripalda, who
had shifted his place several times, and seemed to stand as
uneasily before the now softened looks of Euthanasia, as a
hypocrite well might before the eyes of the accusing angel. "I
will leave you now," continued he, "for I promised to be
with Nicola dei Avogadii at eight o'clock, and seven struck
some time ago. Good night, Madonna; when we again meet, I hope you
will be better pleased with my intentions, and thank me for my
exertions in favour of your friend, the prince."

He quitted the room. Euthanasia followed him with her eyes until
he had closed the door; and then she said to Ugo, "I distrust
that man; and if my purpose did not lift me alike above fear and
hope, I should dread him. But do you have a care, Ugo; and, if you
regard your own safety, watch him, as you would one whose sword you
must parry, until the deed you meditate be accomplished."

"You judge hastily, Madonna; he is the sworn enemy of
Castruccio; and I believe him to be, on this occasion at least,
trust-worthy. I cannot divine what you know concerning him; it is
surely something black, for he cowered beneath your words. But a
man may be one day wicked, and good the next; for self--interest
sways all, and we are virtuous or vicious as we hope for advantage
to ourselves. The downfall of Antelminelli will raise him; and
therefore he is to be trusted."

"That is bad philosophy, and worse morality, Ugo: but we
have no time to dispute now; remember, that I tell you to beware of
Tripalda. Now let us occupy ourselves in worthier
considerations."

After a long conversation, in which all was concluded except the
exact period for the breaking out of the conspiracy, Ugo retired,
to prepare messengers for Pisa and Florence, that they might, with
the concurrence of their associates, determine the conduct of this
last act of the tragedy. Euthanasia was left alone. She had been
roused to the expression of anger by the insolent cruelty of
Tripalda; but her nature, mild as it was, quickly forgot the
feeling of indignation, and now other thoughts (oh, far other
thoughts!) possessed her. She was again in Lucca. She ascended to
the tower of her palace; and the waning moon, which shone in the
east, shed its yellow and melancholy light over the landscape: she
could distinguish afar the abrupt and isolated rock on which the
castle of Valperga had stood; it formed one of the sides of the
chasm which the spirits of creation had opened to make free the
course of the Serchio. The scene was unchanged; and even in winter
the soul of beauty hovered over it, ready again to reanimate the
corpse, when the caducean wand of spring should touch it. The
narrow, deep streets of Lucca lay like the allies of a prison
around her; and she longed for the consummation of the deed in
which she had engaged, when she might fly for ever from a scene,
which had been too dear to her, not to make its sight painful in
her altered situation.

In the mean time, while in deep security of thought she brooded
over the success of her attempt, the hour which yet lingered on the
dial was big with her ruin; and events which threatened to destroy
her for ever, already came so near, that their awful shadow began
to be thrown on the path of her life.

Tripalda had left her, burning with all the malice of which his
evil nature was so amply susceptible. He had learned that the
prisoner of the castle in the Campagna di Roma had survived, and
had fallen into the hands of Euthanasia: and he knew that his fate
depended upon disclosures that she was enabled to make. The
prisoner was now dead; but both Castruccio and Euthanasia had
become in part the depositaries of her secret; Euthanasia had heard
his name pronounced, mingled with shrieks and despair, by the lips
of the lovely maniac; and, after her death, she had revealed her
suspicions to the prince, while he in anger forbade the priest ever
again to approach his palace or his person. In disgracing and
banishing him from his presence, Castruccio had incurred the
penalty of his hate; and he was overjoyed to think, that in
destroying the man who had injured him, he should also free himself
from one who was conscious of the most perilous secrets concerning
him. He had been loud in his abuse of the prince; but none had
listened to him, except those who sympathized in his feelings; and
Antelminelli despised him too heartily to take heed to what he
said.

Thus, with the wily heart and wicked design of a serpent beneath
a magpie's exterior, this self-named Brutus of modern Italy,
whose feigned folly was a cover for pride, selfishness and all
uncharitableness, fomented a conspiracy in Lucca to overthrow a
tyrant, who well deserved to fall, but who was as pure as the milk-
white dove, if compared with the sable plumage of this crow. He had
endeavoured to entice Euthanasia to participate in the plot, he
hardly knew why, secure that, if she were persuaded to enter into
it, it would be pregnant with nothing but misery and suffering for
her. The scene which had taken place in her palace, overturned all
his ideas. Castruccio despised and banished him; but he had never
menaced the disclosure of those secrets, whose smallest effect
would be to immure him for ever within the dungeons of some
convent. He therefore hated, rather than feared him; but the words
of Euthanasia had terrified his soul, and with his terror awakened
all those feelings of hellish malignity with which his heart was
imbued. To destroy her, and save himself, was now the scope of his
desire. To betray the conspiracy, and deliver over his confederates
to death, was of little moment in his eyes, compared with the care
he had for his own preservation, and the satisfaction of his
new-born revenge. All night he slept not; he walked up and down his
room, easing his heart with curses, and with images of impending
ruin for his enemies. When morning dawned, he hasted to Agosta, and
made his way into the private cabinet of Vanni Mordecastelli.

Castruccio was at Pistoia, and would not return until the
following day; in the mean time Mordecastelli was the governor of
Lucca. He was seated in his cabinet with his secretary when
Tripalda entered: like a true courtier, he hardly deigned to look
on the man who was disgraced by his prince.

"Messer Tripalda," said he, "are you still in
Lucca? I thought some one told me that you had returned to your
canonicate. Have you any business with me? Be brief; for you see
that I am occupied."

"Messer Vanni, I have business with you; but it must be
private. Do not look thus contemptuously on me; for you know that I
have been useful to you before; and I shall now be so
again."

"I do not much care to trust myself alone with you; for
they say that you have sworn destruction to all the prince's
friends. However, I am armed," he continued, taking a dagger
from his bosom, and drawing it from its sheath; "so, Ubaldo,
you may leave us alone."

"And, Ubaldo, do you hear," cried Tripalda, "it
is as much as your life is worth to tell any one that I am with the
governor. The very walls of the palace must not know it."

"And are you the lord to threaten me, Messer Canonico?
though you have a fool's head, pray keep a discreet
tongue."

"Silence, Ubaldo," said Mordecastelli. "Go, and
remember what he says: you shall answer for it, if it be known that
this visit has taken place.--And now, Sir Priest, what have you to
say to me? if it be not something well worth the hearing, you shall
pay a rich penalty for this impertinence of yours."

"Remember, Messer Vanni, who put you on the right scent in
Leodino's plot; remember the golden harvest which that brought
you in. Remember this; and put aside your pride and
insolence."

"I remember well the detestable part that you then played,
and it had been well that your head had been struck off instead of
Leodino's. But you trifle now, and I have no time to waste; if
you have any fresh scene of villainy to disclose, be
quick."

"I have discovered a plot of the highest consequence. One
that counts among the conspirators the first citizens of the
principality. But I must make my conditions before I tell you
further: I hold the life of your lord in my grasp; and, before I
part with my advantage, I must be paid its full worth."

"Conditions! Aye, they shall be generous and ample ones; if
you fairly tell all, you shall be believed on your word, and not be
put to the torture, to extort that which craft may make you
conceal: these are all the conditions a villain, such as you,
deserves. Come, waste no more time; if your plot be worth the
telling, you well know that you will not go unrewarded; if this is
all smoke, why perchance you may be smothered in it; so no more
delay."

Tripalda opened each door, peeped behind the hangings, under the
tables, and chairs; and then, approaching as softly as a cat who
sees a mouse playing in the moonshine, or a spider who beholds his
prey unconsciously cleaning his wings with an inch of him, he sat
down beside Mordecastelli and whispered:

"The Avogadii."

"Well, what of them? I know that they hate Antelminelli;
but they are not powerful enough to do any mischief."

"The Quartezzani."

"Nay, then this is of deeper interest. Have they turned
vipers? By St. Martin! they have a sting!"

Tripalda in a low and solemn voice entered into a detail of the
plot. "And now," said he, when he had nearly concluded,
"except for one circumstance, you had not heard a word of this
from me."

"You are a villain to say so;--but what is this
circumstance? the love you bear your prince?"

"The love I bear him might have made me bring the Pope to
Lucca with thirty thousand Gascons at his heels, but not betray a
plot against him. No, truly it was not that; but they have admitted
a woman into it; and, as there is neither safety nor success where
they are, I made my retreat in good time."

"A woman! What, Berta Avogadii?"

"One of far higher rank; the countess of
Valperga."

"Nay, then, it is all a lie, Tripalda, and, by the Virgin,
you shall repent having amused me with your inventions! The
countess of Valperga! She is too wise and too holy to mingle in one
of your midnight plots: besides, once upon a time, to my knowledge
she loved Castruccio."

"The old proverb tells us, Vanni, that sweetest love turns
to bitterest hate. Remember Valperga! Do you think she has
forgotten it? Remember her castle, her power, the state she used to
keep, when she was queen of those barren mountains! Do you think
she has forgotten that? She might carry it humbly; but she, like
the rest of those painted ruins, is proud at heart, proud and
revengeful; why she has vowed the death of her quondam
lover."

"I would not believe it, if an angel were to tell me; do
you think then that I will credit such a tale, when it is given out
by a devil like you? Nay, do not frown, Sir Priest; the devil loves
to clothe himself in a holy garb; and report says that you have
more than once shewn the cloven foot."

"You are pleased to jest, Lord Governor," replied
Tripalda, with a ghastly smile, "do you know the hand-writing
of Orlando Quartezzani?"

"As I know my own."

"Read then that letter."

It was a letter from Orlando to Tripalda, conjuring him to be
speedy in his operations, and saying that, since the countess of
Valperga appeared to enter into the plot with a willing heart, all
difficulties would now be easily removed.

Vanni put down the letter with a look of mingled contempt and
indignation. "And who else have ye among you? I expect next to
hear that some of the saints or martyrs, or perhaps the Virgin
herself has come down to aid you."

"Here is a list of the conspirators; and here are letters
which will serve as further proofs of the truth of my
disclosures."

"Give them to me. And now let me tell you, my excellent
fox, that I by no means trust you, and that, knowing your tricks of
old, I may well suspect that, after trying to get all you can from
us by betraying your associates, you will endeavour to get all you
can out of them by assisting them to escape; so, my good fellow,
you must for the present remain under lock and key."

"I hoped that I had deserved better--"

"Deserved! Aye, you deserve the torture, as much as the
vilest heretic who denies the passion of our Redeemer. You know
yourself to be an arch-traitor, and, by the saints! you shall be
treated like one. Come, there is a better room for your prison than
you deserve: go in peaceably; for if you oblige me to use force,
you shall lodge for the next week in one of those holes under
ground, of which I believe you have some knowledge, since your
fiendish malice contrived them."

"Well, Vanni, I yield. But I hope that your future
gratitude--"

"Oh! trust to my gratitude. I know my trade too well not to
encourage such hell-hounds as you are."

HAVING thus disposed of Tripalda, Vanni sat down to study the
list of conspirators that he had given him. It contained three
hundred names. "What a murderous dog this priest is!" he
cried. "Why every noble family has one or more of its members
engaged in this plot. I shall take the liberty to curtail it
exceedingly, before it meets the eyes of the prince. The
ringleaders are enough for him: the rest I shall punish on my
private account; a few fines will bring them to reason, and they
are better subjects ever after. But Valperga! I would as soon have
believed that an ass could drink up the moon, as that that villain
could have drawn her from her illustrious sphere, to be swallowed
up among the rest of the gulls, when he wants to make merry with a
few murders. But, by St. Martin! as she has sown, so must she reap;
and I hate her ten times the more for her hypocritical, angel face.
Conspire against Castruccio! He used her ill; but a meek and
forbearing woman's love that forgave all injuries, is what she
ever boasted, if not in words, at least in looks and manners. For
thy sake, thou goodly painted saint, like the rest of them, well
looking outside, but worms and corruption within, I will never
trust more to any of thy sex!--Nor shalt thou escape. Others will
pay a fearful penalty for their treason; and thine, which merits
much more than theirs, shall not go free. I could have staked my
life upon Euthanasia; I knew her from a child; I remember her a
smiling cherub with deep blue eyes and curly tresses; and her very
name seemed to carry a divinity with it. I have many sins on my
head; and, when my death comes, many years of purgatory may be
tacked on to my absolution; but methought that, when I contemplated
and almost adored the virtues of Euthanasia, my soul was half-way
through its purification;--and she to fall!"