Gerald Fitzgerald: The Chevalier Part 17

'What a young creature to have come to such wickedness!' exclaimed another.

'Look at the roundness of her shape, and you 'll see she is not so very young neither,' whispered a third.

'That's her gypsy blood,' broke in another. 'There was one here t'other day, of thirteen, with an infant at her breast; and, more by token, she had just put a stiletto into its father.'

'The ragazza yonder looks quite equal to the same deed,' observed the former speaker, 'if _I_ know anything about what an eye means.'

'Vincenzio Bombici--where is Vincenzio Bombici?' cried a surly-looking brigadier, whose large cooked-hat, set squarely on, increased the apparent breadth of an immensely wide face.

'_Ecco mi, Eccelenza!_' whimpered out a wretched-looking object, who, with his face bound up, and himself all swathed like Lazarus from the tomb, came, helped forward by two a.s.sistants.

'Pa.s.s in, Vincenzio, and narrate your case,' said the brigadier, as he opened a door into the dread chamber of justice.

While public sympathy followed the Signor Bombici into the hall of justice, fresh expressions of anger were vented on the unhappy strollers. Any one conversant with Italy is aware that so divided is the peninsula by national jealousies--feuds that date from centuries back--the most opprobrious epithet that hate or pa.s.sion can employ against any one is to stigmatise him as the native of some other town or city. And now the mob broke into such gibes as, 'Accursed Calabrians!

Ah, vile a.s.sa.s.sins from Capri'--from Corsica, from the Abruzzi; from anywhere, in short, save the favoured land they stood in. Donna Gaetana was not one who suffered herself to be arraigned without reply, nor was she remarkable for moderation in the style and manner of her rejoinders. With a voluble ribaldry for which her nation enjoys a proud pre-eminence, she a.s.sailed her opponents, one and all. She ridiculed their pretensions, mocked their poverty, jeered at their cowardice, and--last insult of all--derided their personal appearance.

Pa.s.sion fed her eloquence, and the old dame vented upon them insult after insult with a volubility that was astounding. There is no need to record the vindictive and indecorous epithets she scattered broadcast around her; and even as her enemies skulked craven from the field, her wrathful indignation tracked them as they went, sending words of outrage to bear them company. The mere numerical odds was strong against her, and the clamour that arose was deafening, drawing crowds to the doors and the street in front, and at last gaining such a height as to invade the sacred precincts of justice, overbearing the trembling accents of Bombici as lie narrated his tale of woe. Out rushed the valiant carabinieri with the air of men hurrying to a storm, cleaving their way through the crowd--striking, buffeting, trampling all before them. At sight of the governmental power the crowd quailed at once, all save one, the Donna. Standing to her guns to the last, she now turned her sarcasms upon the gendarmes, overwhelming them with a perfect torrent of abuse, and with such success that the mob, so lately the mark of her virulence, actually shook with laughter at the new victims to her pa.s.sion. For a moment discipline seemed like to yield to anger. The warriors appeared to waver in their impa.s.sive valour; but suddenly, with a gleam of wiser counsel, they formed a semi-circle behind the accused, and marched them bodily into the presence of the judge.

Justice was apparently accustomed to similar interruptions; at least, it neither seemed shocked nor disconcerted, but continued to listen with unbroken interest to Vincenzio Bombici's sorrows--not, indeed, that he had arrived at the incident of the night before. Far from it. He was merely preluding in that fashion which the exact.i.tude of the Tuscan law requires, and replying to the interesting interrogatories regarding his former life, so essential to a due understanding of his present complaint.

'You are, then, the son of Matteo Friuli Bombici, by his wife Fiammetta?' read out the prefect solemnly, from the notes he was taking.

'No, Eccelenza. She was my father's second wife. My mother's name was Pacifica.'

'Pacifica,' wrote the prefect. 'Daughter of whom?'

'Of Felice Corsari, tin-worker in the Borgo St. Apostoli.'

'Not so fast, not so fast,' interposed the judge, as he took down the words, and then muttered to himself, 'in the Borgo St. Apostoli.'

'My mother was one of eight--three sons and five daughters. The eldest boy, Onofrio----'

'Irrelevant, irrelevant; or, if necessary, to be recorded hereafter,'

said the prefect. 'You were bred and brought up in the Catholic faith!'

'Yes, Eccelenza. The Prete of San Gaetano has confessed me since I was eleven years old. I have taken out more than two hundred pauls in private ma.s.ses, and paid for three novenas and a plenary, as the Prete will vouch.'

'I will note your character in this respect, Vincenzio,' said the judge approvingly.

'They will probably bring up before your worship the story against my father, that he stole the cloak of the Cancelliere Martelli, when he was performing the part of Pontius Pilate in the holy mysteries at Sienna; but we have the doc.u.ments at home----'

'Are they registered?'

'I believe not, Eccelenza.'

'Are they stamped?'

'I 'm afraid not, Eccelenza. The Cavallochio that defended my father couldn't write himself, and it was one Leonardo Capprini----'

'The sausage-maker,' broke in the judge, with a smack of his lips.

'The same, Eccelenza; you knew him, perhaps?'

'Knew him well, and liked his hog's puddings much.' Justice seemed half ashamed at this confession of a weakness, and in a more stern tone, told him to 'Go on.'

It was not very easy for honest Vincenzio to know at what part of his history he was to take up the thread; so he shuffled from foot to foot, and sighed despondingly.

'I said "go on,"' said the judge, more peremptorily than before.

'I was talking of my father, Eccelenza,' said he modestly.

'No, of your good mother Fiammetta,' said the judge, rather proud of the accuracy with which he retained the family history.

'She was my step-mother,' interposed Vincenzio humbly.

'Blockheads all!' broke in old Gaetana, with a hearty laugh.

'Silence!' cried the gendarmes, as, with their muskets dropped to the ground, they made the chamber ring again, while the judge, turning a glance of darkening anger on the speaker, said: 'Who is this old woman?'

'Let _me_ tell him. Let myself speak,' cried Gaetana, pressing forward, while the gendarmes, with their instinct as to coming peril, prudently held her back.

'So then,' said the judge, in reply to a whisper of one of his a.s.sistants, 'she is the princ.i.p.al delinquent'; and referring to the written charge before him, read out: 'An infuriated woman, who presided over the drum.'

'They smashed it, the thieves!' cried Gaetana; 'they smashed my drum; but, _per Dio_, I beat a roll on their own skulls that astonished them!

They 'll not deny that I gave them an ear for music' And the old hag laughed loud at her savage jest.

Again was silence commanded, and after some trouble obtained; and the judge, whose perceptions were evidently disturbed by these interruptions, betook himself to the pages of the indictment, to refresh his mind on the case. Muttering to himself the lines, he came to the words, 'and with a formidable weapon, of solid wood, with the use of which long habit had rendered her familiar, and in this wise dangerous, she, the aforesaid Gaetana, struck, beat, battered, and belaboured----'

'Didn't I!' broke in the hag.

What consequences might have ensued from this last interruption must be left to mere guess, for the door of the chamber was now opened to its widest to admit a gentleman, who came forward with the air of one in a certain authority. He was no other than the Count of the night before, who had so generously thrown his protection over the strollers.

Advancing to where the Prefetto sat, he leaned one arm on the table, while he spoke to him in a low voice.

The judge listened with deference and attention, his manner being suddenly converted into the very lowest sycophancy. When it came to his turn to speak, 'Certainly, Signor Conte; unquestionable,' muttered he. 'It is enough that your Excellency deigns to express a wish on the subject,' and, with many a bow, he accompanied him to the door. A brief nod to the youth Gerald was the only sign of recognition he gave, and the Count withdrew.

'This case is prorogued,' said the Prefetto solemnly. 'The Court will inform itself upon its merits, and convoke the parties on some future day.' And now the gendarmes proceeded to clear the hall, huddling out together plaintiffs and prisoners and witnesses, all loudly inveighing, protesting, denouncing, and explaining what n.o.body listened to or cared for.

'_Eh viva!_' exclaimed old Gaetana, as she reached the open air, 'there's more justice here than I looked for.'

CHAPTER XVI. THE POET'S HOUSE

It was late on the evening of the same day that Gerald received a message to say the Count desired to see him. No little jealousy was occasioned among his companions by this invitation. The Babbo deemed that, as 'Impressario' of the company, he ought himself to have been selected. Donna Gaetana was indignant that a mere Giovane was to occupy the responsible station of representing their dramatic guild; and even Marietta felt her eyes to swim, as she thought over this mere pa.s.sing separation, and in her heart foreboded some ill to come of it. She, however, did her very best to master these unworthy fears. She washed the b.l.o.o.d.y stains carefully off his forehead. She combed and oiled his long silky hair. She aided him to dress in the one only suit that now remained of all his wardrobe--a page's dress of light blue, with a little scarlet mantle, embroidered in silver, and a small bonnet surmounted by an ostrich feather. Nor was it without deep shame, and something very like open rebellion, that Gerald donned these motley habiliments.

'The Count has not said that he wants me to exhibit before him--why am I to masquerade in this fashion?'