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 S F O R Z A
 
 S F O R Z A 
 
 A STORY OF MILAN 
 
 WILLIAM WALDORF ASTOR 
 
 AUTHOR OK " VAI.KN TINO " 
 
 NEW YORK 
 : H A R L K S S C R 1 P, N K R S SONS 
 
 MDCCCLXXXIX
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1889, BY 
 WILLIAM WALDORF ASTOR. 
 
 Press of J. J. Little & Co 
 Astor Place, New York.
 
 TO MY DEAR WIFE.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The School of the Svord / 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Invasion ..................................... 16 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Isabel! e of Aragon .......... ................. 55 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Marriage of tbe Sea 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Tbe Star Chamber ............................. 75
 
 vfii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Between the Red Pillars 93 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 A Prophecy of the Stars / / / 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 A Revelation 729 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 The Hall of the Signoria 146 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Lago Lario 163 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Festa del/ Ottobrata 180 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Le Chevalier Bayard / 99 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Monastery of Divine Love 218
 
 CONTEXTS. i x 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A;: Alcbemic Magnet 257 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The Faith of the Swiss 257 
 
 Conclusion 275
 
 SFORZA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SCHOOL OF THE SWORD. 
 
 A FINE breezy July morning had dawned upon 
 Milan. At the market prevailed a hubbub of 
 sounds that had begun with the arrival of the 
 earliest contadini : before the inns, ostlers and ser 
 vants chatted and laughed as they worked ; at the 
 half-finished Duomo, the people streamed in and 
 out, pausing in the cool, incensed air of the aisles 
 to touch a finger-tip in holy water ; on the piazza 
 d armi, a regiment of gaudily-attired soldiers 
 marched and wheeled with drumbeat and bugle- 
 note ; and along the quiet banks of the little Olona 
 some boatmen towed and punted their barges with 
 fantastic snatches of song. 
 
 The year 1499 had opened with lowering aspect. 
 Louis the Twelfth of France, eager to efface the 
 discredit of his arms, had avowed his purpose of 
 scourging Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, for a 
 scheming adroitness which, five years before, had
 
 % SFOliZA. 
 
 caused the military misfortunes of Charles the 
 Eighth. To secure the advantage of a diversion 
 upon his subtle antagonist, he had signed a treaty 
 with the Venetians, whereby they were to make an 
 irruption upon the frontier of Lombardy, while the 
 French army, composed of knights, arquebusiers, 
 Swiss pikemen, and an artillery train of thirty 
 bronze cannon, should pass the Alps and cleave its 
 way to Milan. The approach of so formidable a 
 host might have gladdened the Milanese with the 
 prospect of quick riddance of their usurping duke, 
 but for the dread of men whose cruelties had 
 touched half Italy with suffering ; and so, as suc 
 cessive couriers announced the gathering of the 
 French in Dauphine, and their concentration in 
 Piedmont, the fickle populace knew not whether to 
 tremble or to rejoice. 
 
 Walking leisurely along one of the principal 
 streets, with an eye to any bright face that might 
 peep from gable or carved balcony, went a young 
 man named Hermes Sforza, whose air and dress 
 betokened him to be of the luxurious aristocracy. 
 His costume was of striped blue and white satin, 
 with a cap set with diamonds on his head ; at his 
 left wrist tinkled three slender bracelets, and his 
 long hair was heavily perfumed and bound in a 
 gauze net, after the fashion of Spain. He turned 
 into an unfrequented by-way, down which an indi 
 vidual of much his own attire, though of more
 
 THE SCHOOL OF THK SWORD. 3 
 
 advanced age, came sauntering. A smile illumined 
 Sforza s face at the sight, and, quickening his step, 
 he saluted the other with patronizing effusion. 
 
 " Is it indeed you, Messer Bernardino ? " he began, 
 speaking his native Italian with a Spanish accent, 
 which was the fashionable affectation of the period. 
 " I am glad of our meeting ; you shall tell me the 
 news ; you know I have been back but a day, there 
 fore return a step with me ; we will talk as we go. 
 Narvaez awaits me how I long to cross rapiers 
 with him again! 
 
 The individual thus addressed halted at the 
 greeting, and answered with a smile : 
 
 " You look jovial as ever, Hermes ; the moist 
 English climate does not dampen the spirits, it 
 seems." 
 
 " I foel dull this morning ; I have been out the 
 livelong night." 
 
 " And the littlo Eucellai with hazel eyes ? " 
 
 " Tush, Bernardino, a truce to thy nonsense ! " 
 
 " So vou arc going now to your fencing master s ; 
 and after that ? " 
 
 "After that we shall breakfast together at the 
 Osteria del Povero Diavolo yoii know it not ? 
 Why, they tell me tis a new cookshop opened since 
 I left, where everything is done to perfection in the 
 Spanish style." 
 
 " My time is brief ; I but meant to refresh my 
 self with a breath of air."
 
 4 BFORZA. 
 
 " Diamine ! you must eat ; I will hasten my 
 exercise. I have a hundred questions to ask, as all 
 people have after separation." 
 
 "Are you, too, going to the army?" inquired 
 Bernardino, turning to retrace his steps. 
 
 " For the present, no ; I am attached to the 
 military household. Doubtless we shall all look 
 the French in tfre eyes before the next Ottobrata. 
 But what of that ! Tell me rather how to forget 
 England. Maledetto! think of a whole month 
 there." 
 
 " Is it true that in London the red-haired girls 
 play games wherein they kiss the men ? " inquired 
 Bernardino, casting his eyes upon his companion s 
 bangles and effeminate dress. 
 
 " Possibly, but not with strangers, and I was 
 always a stranger among them." 
 
 " But at Carnival ? " 
 
 " They buffet one another s faces with great 
 gloves. But what carnival will you have when 
 from Christmas to Easter the fog is so dense you 
 would not know there were church towers did not 
 you hear the tinkling of the chimes ? I cannot yet 
 shake off the impression of those grimy streets, of 
 the rainy mornings, of the dark, solemn afternoons. 
 And the faces at the diamond-paned windows ! 
 Always the weazened faces of old scriveners and 
 money-changers, poring over their books and fum 
 bling their hoards."
 
 TUE SCHOOL OF THE SWORD. 5 
 
 " They must needs drink well in such a cli 
 mate ? " 
 
 " Drink ! Tis a country which makes no wine. 
 They serve at their banquets a dry Xeres which 
 they call sack, and the people play the fool in their 
 cups over a frothing yellowish, liquid." 
 
 " You talk as though you had been liomesick." 
 
 " I had the longing for Italy, and that, you know, 
 is a malady incurable abroad. I thought of the 
 silver and gold of our sky, of the sunset flush on 
 our mountains, of my favorite haunts 
 
 "And somewhat of the little Rucellai no? " 
 
 "Jest not of liar, or my good fortune will fly 
 away." 
 
 " Your good fortune delights me. And when is 
 the wedding feast ? " 
 
 " I spoke with her last night. Her father s house 
 was filled with dancers. I have known the old man 
 for years,- who knows not the banker Rucellai? 
 I danced a moresca with her ; we strolled among 
 tapestries and paintings ; she offered me a sherbet ; 
 I coaxed her to accept a bracelet from my wrist; 
 we walked down a terrace where were statues and 
 fountains and colored lanterns, and where a com 
 pany of lutes were playing the sweetest love songs, 
 and oil, Bernardino! it came over me that I might 
 meet my death in this accursed war ! " 
 
 "And that is all?" 
 
 "Hark. The dance over, the guests scattered,
 
 6 fiFOBZA. 
 
 the house closed, and, the night listening, I came 
 with my mandolin and filled the air with song." 
 
 " You never used to sing." 
 
 " No ; but love inspired me and gave me a 
 voice ; do you remember that quaint old passion 
 ate refrain of the Sunbeam and the Rose ? " 
 
 " You are too sleek and too well fed, my Hermes, 
 to be a soulful minstrel." 
 
 " So thought old Rucellai. A casement opened, 
 and I recognized his voice. Begone, he cried, 
 if you are human you should have some compas 
 sion ; if you are a devil I will presently discharge 
 an arquebuse your way." 
 
 " And the girl ? " 
 
 " Gave no sign. So, with the daughter asleep 
 and the father awake, I betook me to a trattoria, 
 where a dozen we know were supping, and pres 
 ently in came a bevy of girls who danced for ns 
 and here I am." 
 
 Their talk was interrupted by the leisurely round 
 of a town-crier. He stopped near them, rang a 
 bell, and, pointing to a handcuffed prisoner, re 
 cited the following words in a monotonous chant, 
 while the culprit, a miserable starveling, with 
 every token of degradation, listened intently, as 
 though each repetition of the sentence brought a 
 new horror : 
 
 " Be it known, that this man, Agosto Felice, a 
 Jew, having been convicted of sweating the public
 
 THE SCHOOL OF THE 8WORD. 7 
 
 moneys, and his goods forfeited, is condemned to 
 be branded on tlie face and hands to-morrow." 
 
 The knot of idlers, that followed the trembling 
 criminal throughout the city, passed on, and 
 Hermes and Bernardino resumed their way uncon 
 cerned. 
 
 " Had the duke news yesterday from the army ? " 
 asked the latter. 
 
 " I saw my uncle but briefly ; he looked pale 
 and troubled, though, in answer to the only ques 
 tion I durst put to him, he said that all goes for 
 the best. Nevertheless, twenty-five days since, as 
 I was leaving London, it was told me by a secre 
 tary to the Pope s legate that the Venetians would 
 assail us from behind. And at Como a rumor had 
 it that their scappoli and stradiotes are already 
 concentrated to march. Can such evil tidings be 
 true ? " 
 
 " Tis but the accustomed bluster of the Vene 
 tians. Our forces assemble at Asti ; it is to be a 
 defensive campaign until our autumn fevers ex 
 haust the French. At the worst, cannot our towns 
 stand siege ? If we but keep the French at arms 
 length for the summer, we shall make them eat 
 bitter bread with cold hands." 
 
 They had now reached the abode of Narvaez, the 
 celebrated fencing-master. There was an enclosure 
 at one side where, in summer, he received his pu 
 pils alfresco, and here he had marked out upon the
 
 8 SFORZA. 
 
 brick pavement the geometric lines which served 
 as a basis for the theories of his school. From 
 one extremity to the other ran parallels, along 
 which, said a naive explanation, two adversaries 
 might travel without changing distance. Further 
 on was an illustration, by footmarks, of the succes 
 sive positions occupied in gaining the advantage 
 of place and stroke by traversing. On the wall 
 was the outline of a human figure, upon which 
 were drawn, for the consideration of the beginner, 
 lines showing the relation of angles to arcs, of 
 tangents and chords to their circle. 
 
 Four hundred years ago every master of fence 
 advocated a system developed by his own favorite 
 methods. If he could afford the cost, he had 
 copied for sale, in manuscript, his treatise upon 
 staccadoes and imbrocatas and mandritas, mixed 
 with disquisitions upon self-defence as approved 
 by divine law, and on the commendable pastime of 
 the sword for the confusion of heretics and the 
 admiration of fair women. Some adepts offered to 
 sell a bottc secrete, a thrust that would surely reach 
 the adversary, while others devoted themselves to 
 pure theory, such as the exchange of compliments 
 which Spanish etiquette provided before a duel ; 
 thence leading the scholar to the habitual study 
 of every swordsman, whether stout, tall, muscular, 
 nervous, choleric, or phlegmatic, with the inferen 
 tial reasoning that such an opponent should be
 
 TILK &J1100L OF THE HWOHD. 9 
 
 met with tactics violent, measured, sudden, or 
 patient and finally passing into philosophical 
 digressions and the recital of Scriptural texts. 
 That, in spite of such drawbacks, the Spaniards 
 should have been accounted the most formidable 
 duellists of the sixteenth century, was due to the 
 strength required for the manipulation of their 
 heavy rapier which its incessant use in practice 
 developed, and to the habit of extreme coolness 
 which resulted from unflagging attention to arti 
 ficial method. 
 
 Both these qualities were possessed in their 
 perfection by Narvaez, the renowned fencing- 
 teacher, who advanced to greet Hermes and Ber 
 nardino as a servant admitted them into the 
 enclosure. All Milan knew the young Spanish 
 uvordsman by sight. He had come to Italy when 
 a stripling, and, since his father s death, had con 
 tinued alone in the exercise of the family profes 
 sion. The elder Narvaez had served his appren 
 ticeship in arms when, as a boy, he stood by his 
 father on the trembling rampart of Constantinople, 
 and saw Paleologns cast aside the purple robe, 
 that his body might not bo recognized by the Sara 
 cens as that of the last of the Roman Caesars. 
 
 His son inherited his deftness with the rapier, 
 and the nerve of the professional swordsman. He 
 had a serious face, a soft, musical voice, unusual 
 in a Spaniard, thick clustering hair, an earnest
 
 10 SFOEZA. 
 
 manner in talking, and a smile as sweet as a girl s. 
 His features were delicate, and under his dark 
 skin glowed a ruddy flush. He w*as a favorite with 
 all ; with Hermes chiefly for his incomparable 
 swordsmanship, and partly, be it confessed, because 
 the fencer loved dainty dishes as much as though 
 they were not contrary to perfect training. Half 
 a dozen times, in bygone days, had Hermes taken 
 him to one of his favorite resorts, where they had 
 feasted magnificently, to the Spaniard s delight 
 and to the promotion of a comradeship which in 
 olden times often existed between a crack fencing- 
 master and his patron. 
 
 But, above all, he was a favorite with the women 
 too much so for his own comfort. He declared 
 the pursuit of the sex to be inconsistent with the 
 pure science of the sword, and neither art nor 
 cajolery nor amorous token could move his indif 
 ference. His most demonstrative admirer was a 
 handsome widow of thirty, with ample revenue 
 and a tendency to embonpoint. This dame had 
 taken advantage of the prevalent taste among 
 ladies for fencing, to gain a more particular ac 
 quaintance than the Spaniard usually permitted; 
 but when she presumed upon this privilege with a 
 sudden embrace and an impassioned declaration, 
 the cold swordsman turned from her rosy face with 
 a vow that he would never cross rapiers with her 
 again.
 
 THE W1IOOL OF Till-: HWOIW. 11 
 
 "Good morning, Narvaez," said Hermes, "I 
 present you to Messer Bernardino Corte, Governor 
 of the Castle ; doubtless he has seen you fence in 
 public," he added, as the Spaniard raised a Moor 
 ish cap and bowed to his visitors with the grave 
 courtesy of the profession. 
 
 "The maestro has perhaps never noticed my 
 face," observed Bernardino, "though, Xarvaez, I 
 have often watched you, the last time at that 
 famous assalto wherein you vanquished the 
 French champion." 
 
 The fencer begged Bernardino to seat himself 
 at a bench embowered in vines, whence, while 
 awaiting Sforza s return, he could observe the les 
 son progressing between an assistant and a youth 
 receiving his first notions of arms. Bernardino 
 glanced at the opposite wall, whereon was painted 
 the maxim of the Cavaliere San Giorgio, of blessed 
 memory: "To the heart, always strike at the 
 heart," which the master was wont to repeat as 
 he placed a sword in the scholar s hand ; then his 
 eyes rested upon the assistant as he repeated to 
 his pupil the rules of posture, the respective merits 
 of passing one or two fingers over the quillons, and 
 the most approved method of advancing at an 
 angle, witli short, quick steps, always menacing 
 the adversary with the point, and delivering iipon 
 the body of an imaginary opponent a stab-like 
 thrust, which, in the use of the heavy Spanish
 
 ]2 8FORZA. 
 
 rapier, took the place of the modern fencer s 
 lunge. 
 
 Bernardino s musing was ended by the return of 
 Hermes, who had exchanged his dainty clothes for 
 a pair of coarse knee-breeches and a light shirt, 
 over which was strapped a heavy plastron. In his 
 right hand he carried a practising rapier with a 
 small metal ball at the end, and in his left a mask. 
 Narvaez gloved his right hand and bound a leather 
 thong about his fingers and through the quillons 
 with mathematical nicety, and they crossed swords. 
 For twenty minutes Bernardino watched them, ob 
 serving the careful poise of the heavy blades, the 
 nimble feet, the exact balance of the body, the 
 feint, the parry, then the fencing humor seized 
 him, and he longed for a bout himself. When 
 Hermes stopped to rest, he approached, and, 
 pointing to a rack of masks and blunt foils, said 
 to Narvaez : 
 
 "Good youth, do me the service to make me 
 breathe deep, and, if you touch me, I will call my 
 self your pupil." 
 
 " Five ducats to one he pinks thee, Bernardino ! " 
 cried Hermes, as the governor threw off his slashed 
 doublet and selected a sword. 
 
 Bernardino forced the fencing, thinking thereby 
 to derive advantage from his superior weight and 
 reach. Narvaez essayed to disengage, but his op 
 ponent s weapon always returned to contact with
 
 TEE SCHOOL OF THE SWORD. 13 
 
 his own. At length he succeeded in dropping his 
 sword ere his antagonist s blade caught it, and, 
 with a turn of tho wrist, delivered a stroke that 
 touched Bernardino fairly on the breast. 
 
 "AVell played, my Narvaez, and an honest Span 
 ish mandoble," cried Hermes, laughing at his com 
 panion s defeat ; " to the heart, always to the 
 heart," he added, pointing to the maxim of the 
 patron of fencers. 
 
 The governor appeared nettled. "If thou canst 
 touch me again with such trifling care," he ex 
 claimed, "I will reward the stroke with five gold 
 ducats ! " 
 
 Forward and back they moved, until Narvaez, 
 abandoning his guarded defence, made several 
 rapid passes, then, springing aside and forward, 
 he executed the favorite manoeuvre of the Spanish 
 school, the traverse, to be followed by a thrust 
 from the angle thus gained ; but Bernardino re 
 sorted simultaneously to a counter of French in 
 vention, with the result that Narvaez, divining his 
 thought, changed his own stroke in the instant of 
 execution, and, catching his opponent s blade with 
 his own, sent it flying to the ground. 
 
 At this discomfiture the governor turned on his 
 heel in vexation, and drew on his doublet. 
 
 " Disarmed is worse than touched, and here are 
 your five ducats," he said to the fencer, who 
 dropped them into a purse which he tossed in the
 
 14 SFORZA. 
 
 air with a merry laugh, and snatched as it de 
 scended. In a moment more Hermes had resumed 
 his ordinary attire. 
 
 "And now for breakfast," pursued the governor, 
 as they passed out into the street. " Fried pig s 
 trotters, peppered kidneys, ham with olive sauce, 
 eggs with cheese of Seville 
 
 His words ceased as the speaker crossed the 
 path of an approaching individual, whose appear 
 ance caused him a disagreeable surprise. The new 
 comer was a man in the prime of life, of vigorous 
 body and calm, intellectual face. He saluted 
 Hermes and Bernardino with a slight wave of the 
 hand and a murmured buon giorno, and pursued his 
 leisurely way. Hermes, in returning his greeting, 
 made, with middle fingers and thumb drawn to 
 gether and fore and little fingers extended, the 
 familiar sign which averts the blight of the evil 
 eye. 
 
 "What brings Almodoro back ? " he murmured. 
 "He has been in the Levant for years, and I 
 thought we were rid of him forever. Madre bea- 
 tissima, my appetite is gone." 
 
 " He returned a week ago in answer to a press 
 ing summons, and is now in high favor. We meet 
 to-day at noon, and together are to be received by 
 the duke. Tis said he has been on a pilgrimage." 
 
 "How should one who holds converse with Satan 
 make a pilgrimage?"
 
 THE SCHOOL OF THE SWORD. 15 
 
 "To confer with the evil spirits of the East 
 they are most potent under that burning sun. Be 
 hold ! " added Bernardino, pointing to the ground, 
 mark you that a dead leaf whence comes it 
 thus withered? See, it moves and rustles, though 
 not a breath stirs." 
 
 " And, mark you, he is not aged a day since I last 
 saw him. His looks never change. That is where 
 you may read the devil s blessing. It is w r ell known 
 that he is Giacomo Coiitarini, aged forty-nine to-day 
 aged forty-nine when he was 
 
 " Bah ! Giacomo Contarini was Doge of Venice 
 half a dozen generations back." 
 
 " But he did not die." 
 
 "He resigned his office." 
 
 " Resigned his office and its burdens, left Ven 
 ice, and has been wandering from one country to 
 another ever since. In the doge s palace hangs his 
 portrait among all the others. I have seen it, and 
 it is Almodoro s face the meeting eyebrows, the 
 furtive look of the eyes, the sad, set expression of 
 the lips, all are there and yet that portrait of 
 him was painted as he looked two centuries ago ! "
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 INVASION. 
 
 ON a broad terrace that skirted the parapet of 
 the castle of Milan sat Bernardino Corte, governor 
 of that fortress, and Almodoro, soothsayer to the 
 duke, and famous in the arts of magic and divi 
 nation. Both were men of striking appearance. 
 Bernardino possessed the muscular, deep-chested 
 frame and easy poise of an athlete. He had fine 
 gray eyes that could be keen or tender ; his ad 
 dress was frank and engaging ; for men, he had 
 brief, clear, straightforward words, and for women 
 the fascination of a handsome and successful man 
 who apparently has never loved. His early years 
 had been rilled with adversity. He had travelled 
 extensively, and, returning to his native Lombardy, 
 brought back a large observation upon the tactics 
 and equipment of foreign armies, and a mind filled 
 with the poesy and romance of France and Spain. 
 He could tell many a story of the age which pro 
 duced " Le Roman de la Rose," and a novelette 
 which he wrote attracted the attention of the 
 Court. 
 
 Almodoro s was a more thoughtful face. He had
 
 INVASION. 17 
 
 the vigorous physique and nerve-calin which re 
 main when the mind has not been overtasked nor 
 the body over-indulged. He seemed in the prime 
 of life, a student in appearance, and, from his dis 
 trait look, one could divine a man habituated to 
 the luxury of solitude. The repose and serenity of 
 his presence indicated a life apart from ordinary 
 care. His swarthy complexion had been deepened 
 by Asiatic climates, and in his accent there was a 
 savor of Oriental tongues. Of late he had been 
 journeying in India, amid scenes with which he 
 professed himself familiar, and in whose weird in 
 spiration he delighted. Men said that he belonged 
 to the brotherhood of alchemists a connection 
 which, with his learning and his independence, 
 procured him the enmity of the Church, an en 
 mity whereof he might have received emphatic 
 token had not the powers of darkness and of light 
 been so evenly balanced in the estimation of the 
 fifteenth century, that it was often accounted haz 
 ardous to meddle with the devil s own. 
 
 These two were the most trusted of all who, 
 after aiding Ludovico Sforza in the dispossession 
 of his nephew Galeazzo, had served him in the 
 maintenance of his usurped authority. Their 
 desultory talk had lapsed to silence as they 
 awaited the summons which should presently call 
 them to the presence of the duko, and they now 
 sat with heads bared iu the shade of an awning,
 
 18 8FOEZA. 
 
 while their gaze rested carelessly upon the castle 
 enclosure, the clustering masses of tawny gables 
 and peaked roofs, or, beyond, upon the immeasur 
 able expanse of green, stretching away to the Alps, 
 whose shadowy outline a keen eye could discover. 
 The famous citadel of Milan enclosed an exten 
 sive area, and served the purpose of palace, fort 
 ress, dungeon, treasury, and barrack. Within it 
 resided the duke ; at one side was imprisoned, with 
 her child, Isabelle of Aragon, widow of the dis 
 possessed Galeazzo : in a central tower were gold 
 and precious stones. Along the rampart, ready to 
 meet the impending attack, were stored the best 
 appliances known to military science. Upon each 
 tower was a contrivance capable of tossing a fifty- 
 pound stone two hundred yards ; within the cov 
 ered galleries were ranged crossbows of such 
 power that they could only be bent by a wheel ; 
 these last weapons threw either sharp steel bolts, 
 to pierce the armor of a knight, or bars bound 
 about with oakum dipped in inextinguishable fire, 
 and were so deadly that the Council of the Lateran 
 condemned them as " displeasing to God." In an 
 angle of the wall was an immense copper pan, 
 which, when filled with water and placed in the 
 dry ditch or on the counterscarp, revealed the 
 mines the enemy might be digging, each blow of 
 the pick in a subterranean gallery causing a quiver 
 on the water.
 
 INVASION. 19 
 
 " How tedious grows this waiting ! " the gov 
 ernor ejaculated, unbuckling his sword and laying 
 it on the bench beside him ; " this morning s estaf- 
 fette must have brought despatches of importance." 
 
 " Our couriers from Asti can bring only good 
 tidings," answered Almodoro, " for we know that 
 there all goes well ; but I dread our next letters 
 from Venice." 
 
 " Let us dismiss Venice from our thoughts, and 
 bid Ludovico do likewise. The Senate threatens 
 an incursion, and seeks to profit by the weakness 
 which an unlucky year imposes on us ; but the 
 only real danger is that we should be beguiled into 
 diverting a fraction of our strength from the de 
 cisive encounter with the French." 
 
 " Then what is to prevent the Venetians from 
 marching upon Milan ? " asked Almodoro. " You 
 will say because they are Italians, and that, be 
 yond the greed of adding a couple of towns to their 
 Venetia, they would not help the invader. But I 
 tell you the Venetians are not Italians : they are a 
 people by themselves ; they have more interests in 
 the Levant, or along the narrow seas, than here." 
 
 "It seems to me," observed the governor after 
 a pause, " that Ludovico is changed of late ; ten 
 years ago he would not have been taken thus, in 
 evil days, with two powerful adversaries closing 
 upon him, and not a friend in the world." 
 
 "Do you think it strange," retorted the sooth-
 
 20 SFORZA. 
 
 sayer, " that a man should be disconcerted at the 
 prospect of an exchange of rank and riches for 
 odium and exile ? " 
 
 " It is indeed a long way from his present eleva 
 tion to the days of his coudottiere ancestor," an 
 swered Bernardino, with a sneer. 
 
 "All my life," pursued the alchemist, and 
 my life has been longer than my looks tell I have 
 watched people pass from one calamity to another ; 
 therefore I have ceased to marvel at the infinitely 
 sad things Time brings about." 
 
 " And I," rejoined the governor, " who am 
 younger in heart than in years, have but lately 
 begun to wonder at them. Ah, mercy me ! yester 
 day brought back a bitter memory. Were you in 
 Milan, Almodoro, fourteen years ago, when the 
 plague was at its worst ? No ? Well I was here. 
 The streets were deserted ; every other lintel bore 
 the red sign ; the dead-cart passed with its crucifix 
 and its ghastly burden. I fled from the infected 
 air, and from the horrors that thronged on every 
 side. In all the streets I saw but one person, a 
 youth of my own age. I recall his face with vivid 
 ness, though we met no more until two years after, 
 when he took from me a girl of whom I was en 
 amoured. It was a boyish amourette of mine, and 
 foolish, if you will ; but such follies are the part of 
 life one loves best to look back upon. We crossed 
 swords in a grove beyond Monza, and by way of
 
 INVASION. 21 
 
 satisfaction I received two inches of his rapier. I 
 came out of the delirium of a sick-room to learn 
 that he and my sweetheart were married. Twelve 
 years have passed since then, and yesterday, going 
 into the Duomo to rest my thoughts in the calm of 
 its great white arches, I heard a priest chanting, 
 and saw a knot of people before the altar, and 
 in their midst a bier, and the face of the dead 
 was uncovered; and I looked, and recognized my 
 rival." 
 
 "You did not weep for him," remarked the 
 soothsayer indifferently. 
 
 "You might have thought I wept, for the tears 
 welled up to my eyes, and I lost the glittering 
 altar, and the droning priest, and the dead face, 
 and it seemed to me that I looked across them all 
 to the last time that I saw //, and I remembered 
 the crimson flush of that beautiful day, and the 
 tinkling cadencas of guitars, and it all came over 
 me like a new sorrow." 
 
 " Tis true that an old wound sometimes bleeds 
 afresh," assented Almodoro, restraining an incli 
 nation to smile at his companion s unwonted ear 
 nestness. " The Arabs call it the cut of a poisoned 
 L jiife. But hither comes a page to summon us." 
 
 Before receiving his confidential advisers Ludo- 
 vico Sforza had dined, as usual, at midday and 
 alone. In a room painted with Moorish ara-
 
 22 SFORZA. 
 
 besques, a major-domo, attended by two servants, 
 stood beside a table laid with damask cloth, and 
 furnished with knife and spoon and wooden salt 
 cellar, and Dutch porcelain platter, and tinted 
 goblet of Murano. They waited but a moment, 
 for Sforza had that punctuality which in olden 
 times was the virtue of princes. 
 
 A curtain was thrown back and the duke entered. 
 Though grown portly, Sforza was still of erect, 
 graceful figure. His face was full, clean-shaven, of 
 dark complexion, with a profile suggestive of firm 
 ness and refinement. His lips were delicate and 
 expressive. His eyes were black, lustrous, and 
 piercing, and looked from beneath strongly-arched 
 brows. His hair was cut square in front, and 
 brushed forward half way down the forehead, and 
 worn long at the sides and back. In character he 
 was shaped according to Macchiavelli s subsequent 
 standard of princely excellence, astute, self-reli 
 ant, well-informed, cruel at times, though less 
 through badness of heart than in compliance with 
 the stern egotism of the time, and using fraud and 
 force with the subtleness of Italian statecraft. He 
 was indefatigable in advancing the welfare of his 
 subjects, fond of letters and of the companionship 
 of learned men, and a magnificent patron of the 
 arts. His sagacity had procured him the sobriquet 
 of " II Moro," the mulberry tree, which, being in 
 spring the last to hazard its buds and the first to
 
 IXVASTOX. 23 
 
 mature its fruit, lie had adopted as his symbol of 
 patience and promptness. Of recent years he had 
 been saddened by the death of his young wife, 
 Beatrice ; if he had sought to console himself for 
 this affliction, it had been chiefly in the society of 
 scholars, in the employment of Bramante and Da 
 Vinci, and in the development and better cultiva 
 tion of Lombardy. 
 
 Ho seated himself without heeding the major- 
 domo s formal reverence, which, at the commence 
 ment of each meal, conveyed the assurance that the 
 dishes had been watched and the wine tasted, and 
 that, under Providence, neither had been tampered 
 with. From the sideboard were brought long, 
 slender stems of bread and a bowl of the famous 
 "golden soup," made of saffron and the yolk of 
 eggs, for it was Friday, and the duke was scrupu 
 lous in fasting. To tunny, browned and laid on 
 a bed of parsley, succeeded macaroni, simmered 
 beans, and toasted cheese, the servants being care 
 ful, in deference to a superstition of the time, to 
 approach the table with the right foot first. Hav 
 ing finished this frugal repast, II Moro returned to 
 his library, where he had been at work all the 
 morning. This was a large oblong room with easy- 
 chairs and divans, and a great carved writing-table ; 
 on two sides were bookshelves flanked by salient 
 caryatids, and between the windows hung a map 
 of the world as then known, with curious beasts
 
 24 8FORZA. 
 
 depicted upon the African coast, and still stranger 
 monsters rising from the Sinus Barbaricus of the 
 Indian Ocean ; in frames, whose gilding had faded 
 to a subdued lustre, were portraits of bygone 
 Sforza, intent and meditative men, and women 
 subtle-eyed ; here and there, beneath them, were 
 black cabinets with inlaid panels and chased han 
 dles and ivory figures, that age had streaked with 
 russet ; the casements were set in deep niches, and 
 through their little painted panes the sunlight laid 
 a kaleidoscopic pattern upon the floor. 
 
 The duke s eyes fell on a clock that stood before 
 the table, and which, in that day, was a rare curi 
 osity ; apparently reminded by its quaint face, he 
 ordered that his nephew, Hermes, be called, and, 
 upon his entrance, he saluted him with cold civil 
 ity and bade him be seated. 
 
 " You find me," he began, abruptly, after a quick 
 glance at the bright, manly face, " in even graver 
 straits than when I ordered your recall from En 
 gland." 
 
 He paused, seemingly in expectation of an an 
 swer ; but his nephew s remembrance of years of 
 neglect and isolation was too vivid to permit even 
 the semblance of a sympathy he could not feel, and 
 he received this declaration in silence. 
 
 " More than once," resumed the duke, coming to 
 the subject in his thought, " you have reproached 
 me for the seclusion of Francesco and his mother.
 
 INVASION. 25 
 
 lu tlie past it has been difficult to answer, except 
 to ask if you would put Milan in the care of a 
 child, or to repeat to you the words with which I 
 have sought to quiet my own conscience, that, if 
 aught has been done amiss, it is too late to turn 
 back, and as for regrets and repiuings, they are for 
 women. You see I speak frankly, and in this hour 
 of danger I acknowledge that I have been unjust, 
 and I declare that so far as lies in my power I will 
 make amends." 
 
 The young man shook his head incredulously. 
 " You cannot bring back my dead brother," he 
 said, with bitterness ; " you will not release Isa- 
 belle ; you think the French less dangerous to you 
 than little Francesco." 
 
 " But at least I have at heart the welfare what 
 say I ? the salvation of our family ; and in this, 
 if upon nothing else, we should agree." 
 
 " But we do not understand alike the interest 
 of our family," retorted Hermes, with barely per 
 ceptible sarcasm. " For .you, that interest is that, 
 while you rule Milan, I am to be sent on distant 
 and useless missions, and Isabelle and her boy 
 are to be kept soften the word as you please in 
 a prison." 
 
 The duke checked him with a vehement gesture. 
 " Be those rights and grievances what they may," 
 he exclaimed, "we shall all presently be outcasts 
 together."
 
 26 SFORZA. 
 
 "And whose the fault ?" bluntly ejaculated his 
 nephew. " Did not every one but Almodoro tell 
 you at the time that to call the French into Italy 
 would, in the end, prove fatal? You opened the 
 Alps a dozen years ago to Charles the Eighth 
 and now, here are the French on a second foray ; 
 and how must we, who bring such devastation, be 
 regarded ? " 
 
 " Your words are stern, Hermes, but I have said 
 as much to myself. Let us think no more of what 
 happened years ago ; a thousand regrets are not 
 worth a single archer, and one lucky day may right 
 months of mistakes and misfortunes. I began by 
 declaring that I would atone for the wrong done in 
 my name, in exchange for a service it is in your 
 power to render not me individually, but our 
 family." 
 
 " A service that I am to render ! " 
 
 " Do you refuse ? " 
 
 " First let me hear what it is ? " 
 
 " We are ruined if the advance of the Venetians 
 continue ; the French we can meet, but not both 
 together. You have a strong interest at stake, and 
 what I ask is that you go to Venice, see the doge, 
 and deliver to him a letter which I dare not trust 
 to other hands." 
 
 " What has this to do with the atonement you 
 spoke of?" 
 
 " That for its successful performance I will grant
 
 INVASION, 27 
 
 what you have so often asked, and liberate Isabelle 
 and Francesco." 
 
 " For this I will carry a letter to whom you will. 
 I grieve whenever I see that forlorn little boy. 
 And the duchess ! I would give a year of life to 
 free her, if only because it was I who commanded 
 her escort hither from Naples, and once, in the 
 midst of many sorrows, she said with an intensity 
 of reproach that rings in my ears, It fas you -who 
 b > (/i//i f me to this unhappy place ! 
 
 " Then we are agreed already. But I do not 
 conceal from you that this is a difficult and danger 
 ous adventure, for every one knows that it is trea 
 son to Venice for the doge to receive such a letter." 
 
 " By the keys of St. Peter, you send me upon a 
 thorny quest." 
 
 " Bunglers are caught ; a clever fellow slips be 
 tween obstacles that, for the moment, are no better 
 than watchmen asleep." 
 
 " How will it be possible to reach the doge?" 
 
 " Easily enough. Their great festival of the Mar 
 riage of the Sea has this year been postponed from 
 Ascension Day, first by stormy weather, then by 
 13arbarigo s illness, till now it is fixed for three 
 days hence. At that holiday all Venice is topsy 
 turvy, the attention of the council and of the sig- 
 nori di notte, as they call their police, is relaxed. 
 For half a day the doge is comparatively a free 
 man it is not supposed he can conspire with the
 
 28 SFORZA. 
 
 Adriatic. And in that hour of celebration, amid 
 the merrymaking that surrounds the Bucentoro, is 
 jour opportunity." 
 
 " And I am to give him your letter." 
 
 "Yes, I shall give you two letters, this little 
 triangular note for Barbarigo, and the other, as a 
 last resort, for his brother who serves him as sec 
 retary, and who, if the worst befall, and you are 
 forced to see the doge at his private palace, will 
 procure an audience." 
 
 : And if I am detected . . . ? " 
 
 "Beware of that. The Venetians watch their 
 doge as though he were a state prisoner, and it 
 entails terrible risks for a stranger to visit him 
 secretly. That is why I urge you to slip it him in 
 the crowd as though it were a petition, for its form 
 has a significance, and will warn him that it is no 
 ordinary paper. Then your task is done and you 
 disappear in the throng." 
 
 " And for this service you promise to let Isabelle 
 and Francesco go their ways whithersoever they 
 please." 
 
 "I not only promise it to you, but I will so 
 declare it to them this very day." 
 
 " Then I am ready : but tell me, why select me 
 for this difficult adventure ? " 
 
 "Because, in spite of our differences, there is 
 none other I dare so fully trust." 
 
 " And what says this letter ? "
 
 IXVASIOX. 29 
 
 " That which will fly straight to the heart of 
 Barbarigo." 
 
 " You do not expect me to go alone ? " 
 
 "Would you take a troop of horse? You are to 
 personate a banker s clerk commissioned with a 
 transfer of moneys. I have had notes made ready, 
 that you might be equipped to sustain your char 
 acter." 
 
 " The man I have in thought is a tried swords 
 man of coolness and courage." 
 
 " And his name ? " 
 
 " Xarvaez, my master of fence." 
 
 " Take, then, your fencer, but bid him be sober 
 and silent. Here are your letters, a memorandum 
 of instructions you are to read, a purse of ducats, 
 and a map of the way. Provide your own horses, 
 leave to-morrow, and remember that the unforeseen 
 always happens." 
 
 A few moments later Almodoro and Bernardino 
 Corte were shown into the duke s presence for the 
 conference which, during the last fortnight, had 
 been part of the daily routine. Several members 
 of this improvised council were absent ; Sansev- 
 erino, the commander-in-chief, was awa} r with 
 the army. Landriano, the high treasurer, was 
 absorbed in his finances ; and Cardinal Ascaiiio 
 Sforza, unwilling to brook longer the influence of 
 two men whom he considered, the one a juggling
 
 30 SFORZA. 
 
 trickster, and the other a mere soldier of parades, 
 had betaken himself in disgust to other duties. 
 
 The duke seated himself upon a long divan in 
 tended for the afternoon siesta, and called a " lit 
 de repos." Almodoro placed himself at the writ 
 ing-table, and Bernardino, jealous as the cardinal 
 of the alchemist, sat a little apart with face half 
 averted. 
 
 "I have called you," began the duke, spreading 
 some despatches upon his knees, " to consider first 
 Landriano s answer to the question how to draw 
 the utmost support from the populace. He de 
 clares that the thousands that fill the streets with 
 mischievous talk should be employed upon the 
 public Avorks. He reminds me that the canals 
 which drain the rice fields are unfinished, and says 
 half a million ducats to keep the idle busy were 
 money well spent." 
 
 "Does he think," asked Almodoro with a dis 
 paraging air, " that the city will continue quiet be 
 cause a fraction of laborers are drawing pay ? " 
 
 " It is the fraction you sneer at," answered Ber 
 nardino, "which strikes the spark and sets the 
 firewood blazing." 
 
 " At best," retorted the soothsayer, indifferent 
 to the governor s ill humor, "Landriano s is a 
 threadbare answer. The duke needs money in 
 his treasury, not out of it, and soldiers not an 
 army of shovellers."
 
 31 
 
 " As for money," observed the governor coolly, 
 " it must come as usual, by way of a loan from tlie 
 nobles and burgesses." 
 
 " You can more lightly talk of such a loan than 
 I dare order it," replied Ludovico with a shake oi 
 the head. 
 
 " Then call the Signoria, as the cardinal sug 
 gested, and tell the situation in straightforward 
 words." 
 
 " Can I demand money and make explanations 
 in this stress to a roomful of jealous nobles, with a 
 discontented rabble in the street ? " 
 
 " It were still more hazardous to let the Vene 
 tians approach Milan." 
 
 "I have thought," said Si orza, cunningly, "of a 
 resort which may prevent the Venetian advance. 
 
 At these words Bernardino changed his non 
 chalant attitude and eyed the duke intently, eager 
 to hear what this project might be ; but the dis 
 closure was prevent d by an interruption from 
 Almodoro. 
 
 " Then speak it not," exclaimed the alchemist 
 with the familiarity of an intimate adviser ; " it is 
 needless for us to know aught beyond our individ 
 ual duty ; and if a caution be required at this time, 
 behold here are the names of twelve reputable 
 citizens now in correspondence with the enemy." 
 
 Ludovico s dark face flushed as he snatched the 
 paper ; then he hesitated, while the governor ob-
 
 32 SFORZA. 
 
 served him in silence ; at length, after a moment s 
 indecision, he tossed it into the soothsayer s lap. 
 
 " Take back your list," he said ; " it is now no 
 time to punish, and I suffer enough without hav 
 ing in mind all the men who wish me ill. Keep 
 it till autumn ; then, if I still live, bring it me 
 again." 
 
 "At least/ cried Bernardino, angrily addressing 
 Almodoro, " you will tell the source from which 
 you derive those names. I wonder," he added, 
 half to himself, " on whom your next suspicion 
 will fall." Then, without waiting for an answer, 
 he turned impatiently and began toying with the 
 amber figures of a chess table that stood within 
 reach. 
 
 " My suspicion rests upon intercepted letters, 
 which I am ready to produce," replied the alche 
 mist, addressing Sforza. Then, glancing at Ber 
 nardino, he added significantly, "Is that suffi 
 cient ? " 
 
 At this declaration the governor turned from his 
 chessmen, and observed with a careless gesture : 
 " There is never a siege without disaffected, and 
 what can these twelve do more than talk for them 
 selves?" Then, speaking with sudden vehemence, 
 he cried : " It is little we need think of Milan ; the 
 castle overawes the populace ; you have, you say, 
 an expedient whereby to save the city from the 
 Venetians ; then our exclusive care should be for
 
 33 
 
 Sanseverino s army ; that it be not exposed through 
 his rashness ; that it bo used in such defensive 
 manner as to gain time ; that, above all, we with 
 stand the temptation to recall some part of it for 
 our needs here." 
 
 This despatch, written yesterday," answered 
 Ludovico, "shows how skilfully the army is dis 
 posed to watch the enemy, while keeping out of 
 reach." 
 
 "Is not Landriano coming to the castle to-day ? " 
 asked Almodoro. 
 
 " Xo ; he is busy settling arrears." 
 
 " Then let him take to-morrow also to sound the 
 bankers about a loan to the treasury, and, if they 
 talk of security, give them a mortgage on the lands 
 of the Cliurch? 
 
 " Cardinal Ascanio would invoke the anathema 
 of St. Peter, if he heard you." 
 
 " Then pledge the coffers of the Jews." 
 
 " Ungrateful rogues ! At the first whisper of 
 war they removed their money bags out of the 
 country by a scurvy trick called bills of exchange." 
 
 Ludovico interrupted them with an impatient 
 wave of the hand. " Landriano shall talk to the 
 usurers," he said ; then, addressing Bernardino, he 
 added : " One of the contractors of supplies has 
 somewhat to complain of, and waits below at the 
 rail. I pray you speak with him and let me know 
 to-morrow what he asks."
 
 34 SFORZA. 
 
 At this the governor withdrew to a chamber, 
 where the individual referred to waited on the 
 other side of an iron grating, which Ludovico s 
 fear of assassination put between himself and 
 ordinary persons. 
 
 Almodoro also went his ways, and the duke was 
 left alone. 
 
 He was still glancing over his reports when a 
 paper of unfamiliar appearance caught his eye. 
 Within it was written in a strange hand : 
 
 " Bernardino puts the torch to your paradise."
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ISABELLE OF AEAGON. 
 
 IL MOTTO S interviews with his nephew and witli 
 his chief counsellors disposed of, ho busied him 
 self with his secretaries until a late hour in the 
 day, when, taking up a silk cap and cloak, he 
 crossed the great courtyard to the residence 
 wherein were lodged the captive duchess ami her 
 child. 
 
 This woman is presented by contemporary writ 
 ers as intelligent, beautiful, and accomplished ; 
 but especially as one of the most ill-fortuned 
 characters of Italian history. Brought at the age 
 of seventeen from her seaside homo at Bari, she 
 was married, at the instance of her grandfather, 
 King Ferdinand of Naples, to Galeazzo Sforza, 
 heir to the duchy of Milan. This prince had at 
 that time been for nine years under the tutelage 
 of his uncle, whose regency was evidently intended 
 to become permanent. 
 
 Stung at length to decided speecli by the appeals 
 of his granddaughter, King Ferdinand bade Ludo- 
 vico relinquish the honors he usurped, or accept 
 the alternative of war. To this menace the duke
 
 36 SFORZA. 
 
 replied by proposing to Charles the Eighth of 
 France to possess himself of the kingdom of Na 
 ples ; and the French king, fired with an ardor for 
 conquest, soon after crossed the Alps and extin 
 guished the Neapolitan house of Aragon. Ludo- 
 vico often exulted at this discomfiture, and the 
 rapidity and completeness of his ingenious stroke 
 made him the envy and the admiration of his 
 neighbors. The main purpose of the French ac 
 complished, he profited by their reverses to join 
 with the Venetians in obliging them to an inglori 
 ous retreat. In the midst of these events the 
 young Galeazzo died, thereby rendering Ludovi- 
 co s triumph complete. 
 
 Upon this catastrophe Isabelle withdrew to 
 Pavia, where she abandoned herself to uncon 
 trolled grief. But fate had further ills in store, 
 the first of which was her compulsory return to 
 the castle of Milan, in a captivity no longer dis 
 guised, and ever haunted by the dread that she 
 and her child might presently suffer the violent 
 end which mediaeval statecraft meted out to the 
 heirs of a fallen foe. 
 
 In a seclusion only troubled by bugle call or 
 by the movement of equerries and guards, Isa 
 belle passed five weary years. By day, when the 
 pageant of morning drill was over, the inmates 
 of the castle passed their time in idleness as 
 vacant as the calm of a cloister. In the warm
 
 IS A BELLE OF ARA(WN. 37 
 
 noontide a lethargy settled upon rampart and 
 courtyard, and at night the changing of the senti 
 nels, or the faint halloo of some roysterer without 
 the walls, or on state occasions a murmur of revels, 
 were the only sounds. Her short career was to 
 her a story of hateful memories. She had loved, 
 and her youth had been full of bright promise ; 
 disappointment and humiliation had taught her to 
 suffer with patience ; and when Galeazzo died, and 
 the overthrow of her family at Naples left her 
 alone and helpless, the world had darkened around 
 her with the shadows of a changeless twilight. 
 
 For an hour each day she was allowed to walk 
 within the castle enclosure, followed at respectful 
 distance by a halberdier. She chiefly sought a 
 retired angle of the rampart, where, through long 
 years of peace, a dozen century plants had been 
 allowed to grow in great old flower-pots, while 
 beside them, and in contrast to their thorny and 
 ancient blades, sprouted the tendrils and buds 
 of to-day. Here she would sit while her child 
 played ball against the rosy brick facade of the 
 keep, or scampered in pursuit of a huge dog which 
 was his inseparable companion ; and here, in rev 
 eries less poignant than the memory of her de 
 parted splendor, she retraced the days of her 
 girlhood at Bari, and walked again by the mur 
 muring Adriatic, and listened to the sadness and 
 the secrets of the sea. In such hours she loved
 
 38 SFORZA. 
 
 to recall the crisp salt breeze, and the foaming 
 billows, and the argosies vanishing upon the hori 
 zon. Often her fancy had followed these passing 
 vessels upon wonderful cruises, and her imagina 
 tion, dwelling upon narratives of Oriental journey- 
 ings, could picture the luxuriant beauty of the 
 Levant as though the touch of some new Aladdin s 
 lamp had kindled its enchanted brilliance. And 
 even now the fabled East, which had filled so 
 many early days, still haunted these heavy years 
 of imprisonment. For beside the bench whereon 
 she rested was a Saracenic sundial, which, in a 
 bygone generation, had Keen the gift of a Genoese 
 merchant to some departed Sforza. Time and 
 exposure had chipped and stained its rich cjudlo 
 marble, in whose centre a caliph of Bagdad had 
 written a thought of the transiency of earthly 
 things, that could both moderate the excess of joy 
 and soften the edge of sorrow : 
 
 " And this, too, shall pass away ! " 
 
 Often had Isabelle mused over the blurred 
 tracery of this solemn inscription, with a wonder 
 ing speculation upon the life by whose failures it 
 must have been suggested. In what enchanted 
 garden of the Orient had this tablet rested ages 
 ago? How many thousands must have lingered 
 to read its melancholy admonition ! With how 
 enduring a voice did the caliph speak from the
 
 ISAIiELLK OF ARAGON. 39 
 
 tomb, and with how profound a truth of the yearn 
 ing of inexperience, and of the bereavement of 
 age ! 
 
 Unconscious of the visit she was presently to 
 receive, Isabelle had prepared to pass the evening 
 with her fancy work, seated, as usual, in a boudoir 
 which looked upon the courtyard, and which was 
 flanked on one side by an oratory, and on the 
 other by a sleeping-room, whose open door per 
 mitted a glimpse of a great high bed hung with 
 draperies of sarcenet that fell on each side of the 
 little flight of steps by which the couch was 
 reached. There was small semblance of luxury 
 about this modest lodging ; the tiled floor was 
 uncovered ; in the middle of the room was a table, 
 and here, beneath a cluster of lights, the boy Fran 
 cesco was eating a bowl of porridge by the side of 
 his mother. Isabelle had turned in listlessness 
 from the tapestry which stood before her with its 
 half-finished shapes of stately promise, and sky of 
 enchanted coloring, and tracery of branches with 
 rare and fabled fruit. 
 
 In a corner, and evidently neglected, leaned an 
 ivory lute of exquisite workmanship, with curved 
 neck bent like the throat of a swan, and about it a 
 ribbon that had figured on many a brilliant even 
 ing when the duchess had touched her instrument 
 and brought from its singing strings the wild and 
 sweet and languorous melodies of her Neapolitan
 
 40 SFORZA. 
 
 home. Before her, and covering the unused fire 
 place, stood a damask screen which, in the first 
 months of her married life, Isabelle had embroid 
 ered with the familiar amaranths of her garden. 
 It was one of her few mementos of those remote 
 and short-lived days ; and now, in the solitude and 
 silence of her captivity, and amid the sombre 
 recollections that pursued her, those faded little 
 flowers seemed the blossoms of a lost and incom 
 parable summer. On the wall above hung a sketch 
 of herself, taken when a child playing by the sea 
 side at Bari, with the rippling Adriatic at her feet, 
 and, in the offing, an argosy sailing magnificently 
 away beneath towering canvas. The sight of this 
 picture brought only heartburn and an infinite 
 compassion, and yet it was the most cherished of 
 all her humble possessions. But to Franceschino, 
 the portrait of his little-girl mamma was a never- 
 failing interest, and he often said prompted 
 doubtless by the recitals and romances of his 
 nurse that the argosy bore their better fortune, 
 and would put about some day, in God s good 
 time, and restore to them their missing treasure. 
 
 Ludovico, crossing the courtyard, noticed some 
 one wrapped, like himself, in a silk cloak, coming 
 from Isabelle s residence. He called ; the figure 
 halted, then advanced with bared head, and he 
 recognized Bernardino Corte. 
 
 " What is here amiss ? " exclaimed the duke,
 
 1SABELLE OF A RAG ON. 41 
 
 angry and suspicious at the untimely presence of 
 the governor, and still filled with the impressions 
 of the anonymous warning. 
 
 " Merely a round of duty," replied Bernardino, 
 with perfect assurance. "After visiting the posts 
 I stopped to inquire of the lady within concerning 
 a message the castellana brought me." 
 
 " Such evening visits will breed scandal ; you 
 will listen to her messages by daylight hereafter." 
 
 " Hereafter I shall leave them wholly to your 
 pleasure, Signer Duca," replied the other, with an 
 accent of sarcasm piercing the suavity of his voice. 
 
 Ludovico moved abruptly away, and, ascending 
 the stair, whose arched walls were lighted by a 
 single taper, entered Isabelle s room unannounced, 
 and, pausing at the threshold, threw aside his cap 
 and cloak, and took in at a glance the familiar as 
 pect of the room and the group before him, the 
 sturdy boy with eyes intent, the mother in robes of 
 mourning, and in her hair a band of gold, sole relic 
 of her lost insignia. And in the pale statuesque 
 face she turned toward him he read the first quick 
 glance of aversion, that faded instantly to the bland 
 composure of Italian self-restraint. 
 
 She rose as he entered and stood looking fixedlv 
 at him. Fastened about the waist of her bodice 
 was a silver chain, to which were attached a pair 
 of scissors, a crucifix, and a diminutive breviary, 
 which she hold in her hands before her. At her
 
 42 SFOHZA. 
 
 throat and wrists, and where the sleeves of her 
 dress were slashed at the elbow, after the fashion 
 of the time, was a border of linen ; her hair curled 
 over her brow and fell at her side in braids, and 
 upon the back of her head was a small pointed cap 
 with edging of lace. 
 
 " You will, pray, pardon my abrupt intrusion," 
 began Sforza. 
 
 "I beg you to be seated," answered Isabelle, 
 motioning coldly to a chair, and resuming her 
 place. 
 
 The duke settled himself at his ease, nodded 
 good-naturedly to the boy Francesco, and said in 
 his quiet voice : 
 
 " You must sometimes be lonesome here, and for 
 once, having matters of comforting and reassuring 
 import to speak of, I have interrupted your quiet 
 evening with glad tidings." 
 
 " I am ready to listen," replied the lady, with an 
 indifference suggestive of small faith in the prom 
 ised good news ; then, addressing her child, w r ho 
 had dropped his porridge-spoon and sat leaning 
 forward upon his elbows with his wondering gaze 
 rivetted upon the duke, she said : 
 
 Franceschino mio, get thee to bed : Maria waits 
 in the room yonder; close fast the door, and omit 
 not thy prayers." , 
 
 " First bid me good-night," said Ludovico, hold 
 ing out both hands to the boy, who had risen and
 
 ISMiKI.LE OF ARAGON. 43 
 
 kissed his mother. " How stout a youth we grow ! " 
 he continued, as the child drew reluctantly toward 
 him. " Shake hands, so, felicissima notte, and listen, 
 W 7 ill you hear a word of good sense? "When you 
 are a man, gather information from all, but take 
 advice from none. Can you remember that? " 
 
 " But some people take everything," objected 
 the child. 
 
 " Bah ! " ejaculated the duke, stung by the apt 
 ness of the retort, " at least they will not get thy 
 good looks, nor the care-free heart that beats un 
 der thy jacket." 
 
 " To bed, to bed," interposed Isabelle, as the 
 boy was about to answer ; then, when the door 
 closed, she added with a sudden and vehement bit 
 terness : 
 
 " You come to taunt me as ever to mock at the 
 helpless fate of my child ! Ah, may it be your 
 punishment after death, since there is 110 retribu 
 tion here 011 earth, to see your descendants make 
 havoc with the fair fame and the riches and the 
 power you have filched from me and mine." 
 
 " By heaven, you wrong me ! " ejaculated II 
 Moro, starting from his easy position, and cross 
 ing himself with a look of superstitious alarm. 
 " I come to speak kindly, and, however unwelcome 
 myself, to tell you something you will be infinitely 
 glad to hear." 
 
 " It were strange, indeed, to receive good tid-
 
 44 SFORZA. 
 
 ings ! " retorted the duchess, relapsing into an apa 
 thy of manner which had become habitual. 
 
 " First, are we alone ? No eavesdroppers about 
 your walls ? " 
 
 " None : the old nurse is deaf, as you know." 
 
 " True, I forgot, no one comes here but myself." 
 
 " Then say on, stay ! " interposed Isabelle, with 
 a woman s subtle perception; "when you say 
 none come here, you mean, with the next breath, 
 to accuse me of receiving Bernardino Corte, whom 
 quite probably you met in the court." 
 
 " Has Bernardino been here ? " asked Sforza, 
 with a puzzled look. " What can possibly bring 
 him to you at this hour?" 
 
 "How can I tell what brings him ? Of course it 
 is not the reason he gives, that you have bidden 
 him torment me." 
 
 " I shall reprove him for meddling," answered 
 the duke with an evident displeasure, which Isa 
 belle rightly attributed to vexation at seeing his 
 inquiry baffled. " And now," he continued, resum 
 ing the courtly manner that had left him in that 
 moment s impatience, " to the matter that brings 
 me. It is a month since I last spoke with you, 
 and in four weeks many things have happened." 
 
 "It is to the next four weeks I chiefly look," 
 observed Isabelle with malice that showed through 
 the calm of her measured speech. 
 
 " Because you anticipate misfortune to me ?
 
 IHABELLK OF AKA(WX. 45 
 
 Were it not wiser to conciliate my advances than 
 to buffet them back ? " 
 
 The duke spoke with quick, spontaneous feeling, 
 his figure bending forward, his arms extended. 
 
 Isabelle Hushed in resentment at words that 
 seemed so gross a perversion, and answered in a 
 vehement burst of anger : 
 
 " I conciliate your advances ! " she cried with 
 scornful indignation, you, that sought to prevent 
 my wedding ! that persecuted Galeazzo till he 
 died broken-hearted, powerless to smite you save 
 with the silent reproach of his eyes ! you, that 
 have deprived me of all you now possess, that have 
 kept me these years imprisoned, and fed me upon 
 the griefs that every anniversary recalls ! you, 
 whose interest it is to kill my child, and whose 
 cruel heart bids you strike ! Can such as you be 
 the friend of the defenceless ? " 
 
 Ludovico, listening with cold and dangerous 
 anger glittering in his eyes, measured in that in 
 stant the full magnitude of his captive s desola 
 tion. Under the conflicting emotions aroused by 
 her words he hesitated for an instant, and, turn 
 ing from her, walked up and down the further end 
 of the room, to pause at length before the little 
 oratory. He looked with a curious interest at the 
 altar, and at the cherubim frescoed on the wall, 
 that had floated down a century with scarce dimin 
 ished bloom of cheek, and with the same seraphic;
 
 46 SFORZA . 
 
 joy. At his feet rested a cradle of elaborate carv 
 ing, which he eyed with a bitter smile. In it had 
 been rocked, in infancy, four generations of Sforza, 
 the child Francesco, Galeazzo, Galeazzo Maria, 
 and Francesco the elder. His thoughts passed 
 from the boy who had gone to his rest in the adjoin 
 ing room, to the sad life of that boy s father; to 
 Galeazzo Maria and his career of storm and shadow ; 
 and back to the Francesco of a hundred years ago, 
 who had founded their fortune and their name. 
 And looking at this humble reminder of a sombre 
 past, the impressions of the lowering present filled 
 him with a sudden weariness of life ; of its ingrat 
 itudes devoured in secret ; of its false signposts 
 that cheat discretion ; of its chagrins decked out 
 in harlequin s disguise. And moved by a sudden 
 impulse, and softened by a tender remembrance, 
 Ludovico walked tpaickly back to where Isabelle 
 sat, and said : 
 
 " You do me injustice. The jealousies and rival 
 ries with which you and my Beatrice afflicted one 
 another impelled me beyond my deliberate inten 
 tion." 
 
 " Spare me at least the mention of that hateful 
 name." 
 
 "Speak not harshly of the dead; whatever hns 
 been done amiss is beyond remedy, nor would it 
 avail me anything to excuse or defend the past. It 
 is of the future I would speak of the future of
 
 ISABELLA OF ARAOON. 47 
 
 yourself and your child. You are not unaware 
 that a great danger threatens Milan ?" 
 
 " You began by intimating as much," answered 
 the ex-duchess, with a look of suppressed triumph. 
 
 " But you know more than I have told you," 
 objected II More, as his suspicion reverted to the 
 governor s clandestine visit. " Said Bernardino 
 Corte nothing ? " 
 
 "Ay, he did; he said you Avere at war with 
 France, and that your army is commanded by a 
 certain Sanseveriuo, whom I myself remember as 
 a captain of the parade ground a feeble chief, 
 methinks, to send in the face of an enemy ? " 
 
 " And what said he more ? " 
 
 "Nothing; but the populace must be making 
 ready to rise against you, when the castellana 
 said yesterday she had sent her children to a 
 distance." 
 
 " They are babbling fools ! " exclaimed Ludo- 
 vico, disconcerted by these dexterous thrusts. " It 
 matters not. They shall have small occasion for 
 further confidence. It was to tell you great news 
 that I came here to-night. I am about to set you 
 and Francesco at liberty you start well, it is not 
 wholly to me you owe this. I see in it my own 
 advantage, since your release will divert much of 
 the fury of this storm, at least so far as to appease 
 the Milanese. Mark you with what openness I 
 speak. But, further, your liberation has been
 
 48 SFORZA. 
 
 asked by my nephew as the reward of an infinite 
 service. If he acquit himself well, the Venetian ad 
 vance will be stajed : your release averts the peril 
 of an uprising within the city, and leaves me clear 
 to meet the French with all my forces and with 
 myself at their head ; and therefore I have con 
 sented to Hermes condition. Immediately upon 
 his return, a troop of horse shall escort you south 
 ward to your beloved Bari, and you and I will 
 distress one another no more." 
 
 Taught by evil experience, Isabelle scanned this 
 project only to discover its ulterior motive. To 
 her view, so suspicious a proffer must cover a 
 snare. Moreover, she had in Bernardino Corte a 
 secret and ambitious friend, whom, in the impend 
 ing crisis, she meant to use to tremendous pur 
 pose. She knew that a withdrawal at this decisive 
 moment meant the abandonment of the sovereignty 
 she had never ceased to claim, and a far-reaching 
 plan flashed upon her as she answered : 
 
 " You have kept me here against my will, and 
 now that this prison has become my only refuge, 
 you thrust me from it." 
 
 To this Ludovico replied with an impatience 
 which confirmed the duchess in her ominous mis 
 giving. 
 
 " Your release has been for years entreated by 
 yourself and many others ! " he exclaimed, " and 
 now that it is granted you reject it ? "
 
 1SABELLE OF ARAGO.\. 49 
 
 " In such perilous times I should surely run 
 upon some misadventure ; while here, as you and 
 Bernardino Corte have sworn a thousand times, I 
 need fear nothing." 
 
 " But," objected the duke, with a decided ges 
 ture, " times are changed since those assurances 
 were given, and the day may come, ere long, when 
 this citadel will be besieged, when its garrison 
 may have to endure extreme privation. How will 
 you fare then? " 
 
 The duchess eyed him, as he spoke, with in 
 tense and deliberate scrutiny, and read, as she 
 imagined, a world of dissimulation in his face. 
 Then, with a laugh of sardonic incredulity, she 
 answered : 
 
 " If, indeed, this fortress stands as the last bul 
 wark of our family, then here, among its defenders, 
 is my place." 
 
 II Moro felt the irony of this reply, and with an 
 angry imprecation he retorted : 
 
 " It is a necessity that you leave Milan, and you 
 shall go, if need be, strapped to the back of the 
 horse that carries you ! " 
 
 " Ah ! now, at last, we touch the truth ! " ex 
 claimed Isabolle, with an outcry of pretended sur 
 prise and rage ; " it is thus you grant me liberty, 
 to please Hermes, forsooth ! I am to be carried 
 away by force at the mercy of a band of your 
 bravos, and, in some defile of the Apennines, a 
 4
 
 50 SFORZA. 
 
 couple of sword-strokes will rid you of me and of 
 Francesco forever." 
 
 " By St. Peter, Hermes shall prove the truth of 
 my words." 
 
 " Good ! Bring him here, and what Hermes tells 
 me I will believe." 
 
 The duke s countenance suddenly changed. 
 
 "I cannot bring Hermes," he said. "He has 
 left the castle and could not now be found ; to- 
 morroAv at daybreak he leaves Milan." 
 
 " Could not now be found ! Why, but an hour 
 ago I saw him idling across the courtyard. Ah, 
 Sforza, you know you dare not bring him face to 
 face with me." 
 
 Perplexed by the taunts of this helpless woman, 
 and stung by these successive affronts, the duke 
 stood silent, and his face, that had reddened with 
 anger, grew pale. 
 
 " Mark you that ! " cried the duchess, with hand 
 outstretched as though she would have smitten 
 him, " a lie, tis said, brings a blush, and shame 
 can blanch even the cheek of a tyrant." 
 
 The duke s eyes were fastened upon her in omi 
 nous silence, and his fingers closed upon the ready 
 stiletto, but Isabelle heeded nothing. 
 
 " Torment me no longer with your proffers and 
 regrets," she said, " nor seek to pass the gulf that 
 separates us. Fare you back to \our council 
 chamber and order the march of your army ; and
 
 IS A BELLE OF A R Ad OX. 51 
 
 when you lie awake in the silence of the dawn, you 
 will hear, as I do, something in the air that bodes 
 of great events. Twas but last night I dreamt 
 that all my sorrows came to me with glistening eyes 
 and radiant faces, each one of them transfigured. 
 Oh ! you may scoff and sneer, yet you should covet 
 dreams like these, though you are free. What evil 
 remembrances must come to you, what disquieting 
 visions, what forebodings of the day w r heu hostile 
 cannon shall be trained upon these walls, and the 
 French flag is carried in triumph through yonder 
 streets." 
 
 Ere she finished speaking came a sound at w r hich 
 both started a sharp and imperative rap at the 
 knocker. It w r as an interruption of evidently seri 
 ous import, and both paused for an instant and 
 drew back from one another. Then the duke 
 threw wide the door and beheld one of his own 
 pages. 
 
 " What is it, boy ? " he exclaimed eagerly, though 
 with an accent of relief. 
 
 " Signor Duca, a despatch marked Immediate; 
 Messer Bernardino bade me bring it here at 
 once." And the youth presented a parchment 
 double sealed and fresh from a courier s wallet. 
 
 Ludovico brought the letter to the light. The 
 watchful Isabelle read its ill news in his over 
 clouding brow, and caught the words he muttered 
 above his breath :
 
 52 SFOEZA. 
 
 " Cremona taken by the Venetians ! " 
 
 He folded the letter, while his eyes instinctively 
 sought the duchess. But Isabelle was no longer 
 in the room. He looked about him and beheld 
 her kneeling at the oratory altar, with her arms 
 extended to heaven.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE MARRIAGE OF THE SEA. 
 
 HERMES had little difficulty in persuading Nar- 
 vae/ to start with him on the following morning, in 
 consideration of a purse of ducats, and upon the 
 stipulation that he should serve merely as guide 
 and companion, and be in no wise responsible for 
 the discharge of their mission, which, though 
 vaguely indicated, the fencing-master divined to be 
 beyond his methods. As he had lived in Venice 
 and knew the ways of the people, and could thread 
 his way afoot through its labyrinths, his selection 
 , promised to be of more practical value than Ludo- 
 vico had conceived it. 
 
 The first day of their journey was spent in one 
 of the canvas-covered post-wagons of the period, 
 which, passing by a northern route, brought them 
 in rear of the Venetian army. Here they were 
 made to exhibit their papers, and were delayed by 
 the march of a rear guard of Stradiot light horse 
 and Dalmatian infantry ; here, too, they passed 
 the provveditori, whose charge it was to watch 
 the conduct of every general in the field ; and 
 not far behind came a company of leeches, nurses,
 
 54 SFORZA. 
 
 and cooks, destined for the care of the wounded. 
 Early on the third morning they entered a gon 
 dola, and glided swiftly across the lagoon of Fu- 
 sina, leaving behind the fishing-boats, whose red 
 sails waited vainly for the breeze, and the round- 
 bowed market barges with freight of poultry and, 
 vegetables. Against the creamy flushes of the 
 eastern sky appeared the pointed campanili, and 
 above a misty outline of roofs rose domes and 
 spires. Southward lay a sandbar which hid the 
 sea, whose salt odor reached them; but toward the 
 north they beheld successive lines of violet hills, 
 and behind them the dolomites of Cadore and the 
 peak of the giant Antelao. Narvaez directed their 
 course to an obscure trattoria in the quarter called 
 II Rialto, which gave its name to a floating wooden 
 bridge on the Grand Canal. They passed under 
 many arched footways, nearly grazing the corners 
 as they turned with musical splash of the oars. 
 Hermes laughed with delight at the glimpses of 
 marble balconies and colonnades, and of frescoes 
 brilliant as flowers. 
 
 A sudden cry Sciar ! and a backward dip, and 
 they were before the slimy and discolored steps 
 which gave ingress to the hiding-place which Nar 
 vaez had selected. Its first impression upon the 
 fastidious Hermes was of an odor of seaweed and 
 floating substances long past their prime ; nor was 
 this perception bettered by the information that
 
 THE MARRIAGE OF THE SEA. 55 
 
 tlic cheer of the house was so meagre as to have 
 proeuivd for it the nickname of 1 Osteria della 
 Fame, I lie Imnyry hold. 
 
 " We sliall pass our time here undisturbed," 
 whispered the fencing-master, with unintended 
 sarcasm, as they seated themselves alone in the 
 eating-room, while the servants bustled away for 
 breakfast. 
 
 " Think you I will eat or sleep beside a kitchen 
 that gives out that musty odor ? " 
 
 "But, signore mio, you bade me bring you to 
 a place where even the Council of Ten an ill 
 digestion to them could not find you, and you 
 drop into this bird s nest and are as completely 
 lost to sight as though your uncle s soothsayer 
 had whisked you back to Milan." 
 
 "Well, well," answered Hermes impatiently, "let 
 us eat and be gone ; we will hasten to that famous 
 piazzetta the andata starts at three perhaps we 
 may leave Venice to-night." 
 
 An hour later they sallied out at the rear of 
 the hungry hotel, and crossed the Rial to, where 
 Hermes cast a wondering glance at the type of 
 Shylock in Jewish gaberdine, and overheard more 
 than one Bassanio chatting with his friends ; and 
 where, pausing to gaze down the vista of the 
 Grand Canal, he saw young faces, gravely beau 
 tiful as Portia s, passing, as the gondolas 
 brilliant in those days witli gilding and pol-
 
 50 SFORZA. 
 
 ished woods and varied colors flew noiselessly 
 
 by- 
 
 " How is it," exclaimed Hermes, looking about 
 him, " that you lived a year in this place and never 
 talked to me of it? " 
 
 " I once began to tell you of the piazzetta," re 
 plied the Spaniard. " I said that great diamonds 
 sparkling made me think of Venice and at that 
 you laughed, and I said no more." 
 
 They passed on through a street which widened 
 around a well with its stone rim grooved where the 
 ropes had been lowered and raised for centuries, 
 until they reached the Merceria, or arcade of 
 shops, with its profusion of wares filigree, mir 
 rors, mosaics, silks and velvets, spices and tapes 
 tries, ivory and weapons, indulgences from Home, 
 and relics from the Holy Laud. Through the clock 
 tower they emerged upon the Piazza San Marco, 
 and, for a moment, both paused to gaze upon the 
 scene thus disclosed. 
 
 The great fair annually held at the feast of the 
 Marriage of the Sea was nearly over, in conse 
 quence of this year s postponement of the festival; 
 but the piazza was still surrounded by a row of 
 temporary shops, while of the thousands who 
 resorted to Venice in the spring-time of every year, 
 enough still lingered to fill the square with gay 
 and busy groups. Before St. Mark s stood three 
 flagstaffs, from which floated the gonfalons em-
 
 THE MAltlflACfE OF THE HE A. 57 
 
 blematic of tho chief dominions of the republic, 
 Candi.i, Cyprus, and the Morea. Beyond rose the 
 two immortal red pillars and the carnation fay ado 
 of the doge s palace ; before it troops of children 
 went hither and thither, strewing flowers in imita 
 tion of a festival of the Levant called the Scatter 
 ing of the Roses, while in the shade of the prom 
 enade of the Broglio whose name, "the Brawl," 
 suggests the noisy conversation of the ancient 
 Venetians sat the Italian story-teller unfolding 
 his exhaustless romance to knots of dreamy list 
 eners, who from time to time sipped coffee and 
 oriental sherbets. 
 
 On the broad expanse of water before them the 
 sunlight laid its radiant gleams, a reflex, thought 
 Hermes, of that brilliant tracery with which Venice 
 has written her incomparable story upon the sea. 
 In the foreground several vessels rode at anchor, 
 argosies with half-spread sails, and close together 
 a Spanish felucca and an English two-master, 
 whose crews exchanged disparaging repartees, 
 while off the marble steps lay the doge s renowned 
 galley, // Sucentoro : its gilded surface, the multi 
 tude of polished oars folded against its sides, the 
 costly draperies which shaded its decks, and the 
 immense lanterns and flags with which it was deco 
 rated, giving it an appearance in keeping with the 
 mystical grandeur of the ceremony to which it was 
 chiefly dedicated.
 
 58 SFORZA. 
 
 " HOAV can I hope to be admitted? " murmured 
 Hermes, " still less to conceal myself on board ? " 
 
 That you may get on board," answered the 
 Spaniard, " is not impossible ; but that you should 
 be permitted to approach the doge seems prepos 
 terous. But our first care should be to recon 
 noitre, as it were, the enemy s stronghold ; for this 
 we need a boat." 
 
 "But," objected Hermes, "to employ Venetian 
 boatmen would be to put a guard upon ourselves." 
 
 " I have foreseen that," replied Narvaez, motion 
 ing away the men who, observing their scrutiny of 
 the quay, pressed forward like hungry animals, with 
 cries of "gondole, gondole." Then, leading bis com 
 panion toward the quarter frequented by foreign 
 sailors, he added : "And for that reason are we to 
 meet here on the Riva de Schiavoni a couple of 
 trusty lads whom the hotel has provided a brace 
 of Spaniards T asked for stay, that fellow with 
 patched breeches, see, he comes towards us." 
 
 "Have I ever seen you before? " inquired Nar 
 vaez softly, as the boatman approached. 
 
 " Oxteria della Fame, yes," answered the sailor, 
 speaking with a Maltese accent. 
 
 " Have you a boat ? " 
 
 " Not I, siguore ; do you take me for a wealthy 
 nobleman like yourself ? " 
 
 " There were to bo two men and a pinnace." 
 
 " Misericordia ! and is not everything prepared ?
 
 Till-: MARRIAGE OF THE fill A. 59 
 
 all thanks to St. Michael ! My mate is a Greek, 
 a God-fearing- man, and yonder lies his boat." 
 
 " Call me your Greek and make ready." 
 
 The Maltese returned with a sailor roughly clad 
 as himself, and with the ignoble face and fawning 
 speech of the modern Hellene. 
 
 "Will foreign boatmen like yourselves be allowed 
 to follow the andata ? " 
 
 " We will not follow, we will precede it," replied 
 ths Greek, with a cunning smile ; " besides, it is a 
 public festival, whoever will may go." 
 
 Aboard, then, and look to it that we infringe 
 no rule of the port or of the master of ceremonies ; 
 and first steer to the Bucentoro, that we may view 
 her closer." 
 
 They hoisted sail and pointed towards the doge s 
 galley. Already, at this early hour, it seemed a 
 hive of beings ; on the deck were gathered senators 
 and nobles, the ambassadors of foreign states, and 
 ladies of rank ; near the prow the Papal nuncio 
 conversed with half a do/en monsignori ; a throng 
 of musicians with the famous silver trumpets stood 
 at the stern, while below deck could be heard the 
 bustling and talking of the hundreds of slaves who 
 were presently to pull at the oars. 
 
 " My uncle s command is folly," whispered 
 Hermes with vexation ; "there is no sense in even 
 following the andata." 
 
 "Nevertheless, illnstrissimo, lose not the chance
 
 00 SFORZA. 
 
 of this occasion ; the eyes of all will be so en 
 grossed that every soul will presently be heed 
 less of what is done apart this ceremonial." 
 
 "Be it so," murmured Hermes resignedly; "if 
 
 1 am not at the andata, Ludovico will say I missed 
 the opportunity ; it will prove useless, and to-night 
 we will seek the doge at his palace." 
 
 This consultation had been hurriedly carried on 
 in an undertone, apparently unnoticed by the Mal 
 tese, who handled the ropes at the bow, or by the 
 Greek who held the tiller. Obedient to a further 
 order they now steered towards a shoal of islands 
 to the eastward, and presently reached the tranquil 
 sea outside the Lido, whither a number of sail 
 boats and gondolas were similarly going. They 
 continued as far as the outer limit of the Porto del 
 Lido, where the celebration was to be performed, 
 when the Greek interrupted their desultory talk 
 with an exclamation, and, pointing back, indicated 
 a large vessel, which, propelled both by oars and 
 sails, was already half way from shore, with a 
 queue of small boats in its wake. 
 
 " That is not the Bucentoro," objected Narvaez. 
 
 "No, master," replied the Greek; "it is the 
 galley of the anti-doge, rilled with buffoons and 
 jugglers and some hundreds of merry fellows, and 
 they make all manner of sport with their dancing 
 and antics and songs, and at last they wed the sea 
 with a barrel-hoop."
 
 THE MARRIAGE OF THE SEA. Gl 
 
 As he ceased speaking, they heard the salutes 
 fired that announced, as far as the sound could 
 reach, the sailing of the sacred Bucentoro. 
 
 The anti-doge drew near to where the small 
 boats clustered together, and the exuberance of 
 the light-hearted populace filled the air with jibes 
 and shouts. But ere long all eyes were fixed upon 
 the sailless ship, which, rounding the point with 
 its myriad oars, came swiftly towards them, till 
 presently they could distinguish the brilliant 
 throng that covered its deck, and, as the multitude 
 of bouts made way, a loud command was given and 
 the oars were held together in the foaming water. 
 The shouts on the harlequin s galley ceased, the 
 talk of the occupants of a multitude of gondolas 
 was hushed, and the few that had remained behind 
 came hurrying after ; and in the crowding that fol 
 lowed the pinnace was left astern. 
 
 There was an interval of waiting till all was 
 quiet. Then, amid the impressive silence that 
 reigned over the assembled thousands, arid with 
 every face intent upon him, the Primate of Venice 
 arose and stood at the prow between the banner of 
 St. Mark and the white, standard of the Sovereign 
 Poiitiii , and prayed. He asked that the ashes of 
 St. Mark might be more and more honored, that 
 the enemies of Venice might be confounded, that 
 the emblematic nuptials about to bo performed 
 might, in very truth, be typical of substantial and
 
 62 SFORZA. 
 
 enduring supremacy. And while his arms were 
 stretched above the placid Adriatic, and his rich, 
 vibrating voice was lifted to heaven, Narvaez, 
 glancing at the stern of the Bucentoro, whispered 
 to his companion : 
 
 " Through one of those open windows the galley 
 might be boarded ; not an eye but is fixed upon 
 her prow." 
 
 "My life would pay for it," muttered Hermes; 
 " it were suicide to risk so wild a cast." 
 
 " You never made a wiser resolve," replied the 
 Spaniard, as with a relieved expression he bade the 
 boatman push forward. 
 
 The prayer had ended, and in place of the robust 
 person of the primate there advanced a venerable 
 man with snowy beard and thin, sunken face and 
 high brow, and on his head the ducal beretta, and 
 about him an embroidered garment that fell to his 
 feet. And standing beneath the traditional crim 
 son umbrella, famous as the gift of a Pope, he 
 gazed upon the thousands of upturned faces, upon 
 the brightly painted gondolas with draperies and 
 jewelled slaves, and then, beyond, upon his shining 
 and beautiful bride, and in a half audible voice he 
 invoked the blessing of Heaven upon Venice, and 
 with a gesture of loving and reverent salutation 
 pronounced in Latin the words : " We wed thee, O 
 Sea, in token of true and everlasting sovereignty," 
 and threw far forward the sanctified ring which
 
 THE MARRIAGE OF THE SEA. (53 
 
 should rivet tlieso strange nuptials, and which fell 
 sparkling with a slight splash into the water. 
 
 And now arose an outcry of voices that drowned 
 for a moment the burst of mnsic which smote the 
 air with martial strains. The gondolas opened a 
 way for the Buceiitoro, which resumed its omvard 
 course, and, describing a half circle, headed in the 
 direction of the church of San Niccolb, \vhere the 
 doge was to hear mass. 
 
 As they returned to the landing whence they had 
 put forth, "There must be," said Hermes, "some 
 dainty cookshop hereabouts where we can rest and 
 sup ; I am athirst and hungry and jaded." 
 
 " Half a dozen such are on the piazza." 
 
 " Then dismiss these villainous boatmen and let 
 us have a luxurious repast. With a fiasco of good 
 wine, I shall talk to-night as impressively as the 
 primate himself. For, look you, Narvaez, I dare 
 not trust myself and you and the letters all at once 
 in the doge s presence. We might be intercepted, 
 and then all were lost. And so I shall leave the 
 letters with you ; here, button them securely within 
 your doublet, and you shall w r ait without while 
 I gain a hearing, and if all is w r ell they shall be 
 delivered : otherwise, if aught befall me, you shall 
 use them to-morrow to effect my release." 
 
 Arrived at the red pillars, Hermes observed a 
 trattoria whose appearance satisfied him. As the} 
 neared it, Narvaex said:
 
 64 SFORZA. 
 
 " Since you have so strong an aversion for the 
 hotel to which I conducted you, I Lave thought of 
 another this side the Grand Canal, where we shall 
 fare better with nearly equal concealment, and to 
 which, while you order, I will have the saddle 
 bags removed." 
 
 " Can you be back within half an hour ? " 
 " Yes, for it is but a step from here." 
 Half an hour had elapsed, and the stars were be 
 ginning to twinkle, when Narvaez returned to the 
 piazza, where he found the crowd as animated as in 
 the morning, and more noisy. Before the eating- 
 shop at which he had left Hermes were ranged 
 tables al fresco, but the Spaniard searched for him 
 in vain. He glanced over the fantastic scene, 
 the facade of St. Mark s, lighted with fairy tracery 
 by the lanterns before it ; the hundreds of lights 
 which flared and flickered in the wind above the 
 tables of the venders ; the odd costumes from far 
 countries ; the chattering puppet-shows in which 
 Italians delight. Then he grew troubled at the 
 thought that something amiss must have befallen, 
 and now his quick ear was fixed upon the talk 
 of a group, whose words explained this disappear 
 ance. 
 
 " I stand to it," said one, " the fellows are mad 
 men : who else would think to board the Bucen- 
 toro? "Who else would trust themselves and their 
 plot to a couple of gondoliers ? "
 
 THE MARK I AGE OF THE SEA. 05 
 
 "No," objected a second, "it is clear enough ; 
 tlio Greek knew them by their speech to be Milan 
 ese ; it is a resort of Duke Si orza to suspend the 
 war by assassinating the doge." 
 
 " What a pity only one of them was taken ! " re 
 marked a third, "but his inato Avill be found before 
 morning." 
 
 "He was a cool rascal," laughed the one who 
 had first spoken, " to regale himself on the public 
 piazza between his attempts on Barbarigo. How 
 queerly he looked when his boatmen came with the 
 signori di notte ! " 
 
 At these words Narvaez turned away instinc- 
 tiyely, and, skirting the piazza, buried himself in 
 the first alley. Arrived at the deep arch of a closed 
 door, he halted. 
 
 " A sleeyeless errand, this ! " he muttered with 
 an imprecation : " my only hope is to reach the 
 doge. I know where, he lives I will go afoot no 
 more boatmen for me." 
 
 It was no great distance to the Palazzo Bar 
 barigo. Xarvaez threaded his way through narrow 
 and tortuous streets, often crossing the bridges 
 which enable those familiar with the city to reach 
 any quarter. More than once lie paused to read 
 the name beneath the lanterns placed at great 
 intervals. Arrived at his destination, a summons 
 with the knocker brought a black slave to the peep 
 hole, through which he reconnoitred the stranger,
 
 66 SFORZA. 
 
 while demanding his business in the coarse Italian 
 peculiar to the Moors. Ludovico s letter to the 
 doge s brother was delivered, and presently the 
 younger Barbarigo appeared. He evidently re 
 garded Narvaez with misgiving ; but the nature of 
 his introduction from a prince and a friend, albeit 
 an enemy, secured him an audience, after conform 
 ing to the usual etiquette of laying aside his sti 
 letto. 
 
 Seated in a luxurious arm-chair at the extremity 
 of a large room sat Barbarigo, habited in skull 
 cap, cashmere vest, and easy gown. Behind him 
 had been stationed two Slavonian guards, each 
 leaning upon a weapon of formidable aspect. The 
 younger Barbarigo, who was his brother s secre 
 tary, followed Narvaez, and placed himself beside 
 the old man s chair. 
 
 " They take me for a spadaccino ! " was the fen 
 cer s thought as he bowed reverently and remained 
 standing and silent. 
 
 The doge turned to his brother and said queru 
 lously, "Ask what brings him here to vex us, and 
 by what chance he is possessed of a letter from 
 II Moro ? " 
 
 " You hear the question," said the secretary, 
 speaking with the decided utterance of one accus 
 tomed to authority. " Answer, and raise your voice 
 the doge s hearing is imperfect." 
 
 Thus summoned, the Spaniard, with some trepi-
 
 THE MARRIAGE OF THE HE A. 07 
 
 elation, made reply. " Your serenity," he began, 
 " I came from Milan as the companion of Hermes 
 Sforza, nephew to the duke, who was entrusted 
 with a weighty and confidential mission, and who 
 would be here with me to declare his business in 
 proper terms were it not that a strange mishap 
 has befallen him." 
 
 " Tell him to speak louder," interrupted Barba- 
 rigo, leaning forward, "and to come briefly to his 
 wish." 
 
 "That, my masters," resumed Narvaez, "could 
 only be set forth by Sforza, and my present pur 
 pose is simply to entreat that he may be restored 
 to liberty and permitted to speak his message." 
 
 " Where, then, is your companion ? " inquired 
 the secretary, perceiving that Barbarigo was at a 
 loss to make much of this confused declaration. 
 
 " Alas ! " exclaimed Narvaez, divining the awk- 
 ward impression he was making, "it is beyond my 
 power to tell more than that I believe him to have 
 been seized, an hour ago, by the signori di notte." 
 
 " The signori di notte do not arrest for nothing ; 
 ho must have made some disturbance a street 
 brawl, eh ? " 
 
 " I left him on the piazza, and, when I came 
 again, he was gone ; but the talk of some people 
 near by revealed that in my absence we had been 
 denounced by a pair of boatmen we employed to 
 day, and that lie had been carried off."
 
 68 SFORZA. 
 
 " Denounced ! " ejaculated Barbarigo, who caught 
 a fragment here and there. " For what were you 
 denounced ? " 
 
 "Upon some mistake of the boatmen, who at 
 tributed to us a sinister motive of which we are 
 innocent, and which it is therefore difficult to 
 define." 
 
 "This is a strangely halting story," remarked 
 the secretary, " and you are keeping back that 
 which is essential to make it intelligible. Answer 
 my questions, and withhold aught at your peril. 
 When did you arrive in Venice ? " 
 
 "This morning." 
 
 " If you came from Milan, how did you pass the 
 lines of the Venetian army ? " 
 
 " As honest citizens travelling upon business, and 
 furnished with the usual safe-conduct." 
 
 "A safe-conduct in time of war? That equals 
 the wild statement, with which you began, about a 
 message from the Duke of Milan." 
 
 " Yes, given to his nephew, who brought me with 
 him." 
 
 "What is your profession?" 
 
 At this question Narvaez recovered the self- 
 possession which was fast deserting him, and, smil 
 ing complacently, replied, " Master of the rapier, 
 and instructor in the use of the main gauche, the 
 stiletto, the 
 
 " Per 1 Ostia ! a spadaccino. And what is this
 
 THE MARRIAGE OF THE SEA. 09 
 
 mysterious accusation upon which your comrade 
 was arrested? " 
 
 "Signore," answered the fencer, wincing at the 
 return to this delicate point, " it is impossible to 
 explain what I know not ; but, I beseech you, 
 bring him hither and let him answer for him 
 self." 
 
 "I have a greater mind to send you to join him 
 at the pozzi ! " broke in the doge, who had fol 
 lowed this interrogatory. 
 
 " We both came in all honor, as under a flag of 
 truce." 
 
 The younger Barbarigo motioned his brother to 
 restrain his impatience ; then his face darkened 
 ominously. "You talk lightly of this harlequin 
 ade," he began, in a voice of menacing harshness, 
 " as a secret embassy from Si orza with whom we 
 are at war ; know you not that if this purpose is 
 declared to-morrow, such a messenger would be 
 accounted a spy ? " 
 
 " Eccellenza, you need but say a word to spare 
 him from examination." 
 
 "What! Shield a man whoso act is treason to 
 Venice ? You shall be taught to understand us 
 better. Mark me ! You came possessed of a letter 
 which entitled you to a hearing, in the course of 
 which you acknowledge yourself to be a profes 
 sional bravo, and the escort of one we must not 
 receive or listen to if you have interpreted his
 
 70 SFORZA. 
 
 mission aright. Upon an accusation which is not 
 explained, and which does not weigh in your favor, 
 he is seized by the guard. If to-morrow he but 
 breathe the purpose you attribute to him, he will 
 be arraigned before the council as a spy ; and 
 that you should seek to move the doge to connive 
 at this criminal mission is your last and greatest 
 offence. I shall now have you taken to the sig- 
 nori di notte, and, whatever befalls, we, at least, 
 will stand blameless." 
 
 The stout hearted Narvaez felt his courage sink 
 at this startling metamorphosis of their position, 
 and, as the last words were uttered, he threw him 
 self at the feet of the secretary, and extended the 
 second letter, which Hermes should have delivered 
 in person to the doge. 
 
 "Another missive!" cried the younger Barba- 
 rigo angrily. 
 
 " It explains all. In the name of the innocent, 
 read it ; but as you dread the powers to which you 
 would commit us, read it alone." 
 
 " We are alone," replied the secretary curtly : 
 " these Slavs comprehend nothing." Then, tak 
 ing the letter, he drew a chair to the side of his 
 brother, who bent forward with an old man s 
 eagerness as the parchment was opened. 
 
 Their eyes rested upon it together, and at the 
 first glance the doge s face contracted with a sud 
 den spasm, and he raised a startled and affrighted
 
 THE 3IARRIAUK OF THE SEA. 71 
 
 gaze upon the Spaniard ; his brother road down 
 the paper, then crumpled it violent!} 7 in his hands, 
 and, rising with a ghastly face from the seat he 
 had just taken, cast a furtive look about the room 
 to assure himself that no other eye had beheld the 
 writing. 
 
 Narvaez observed with stupor the effect of this 
 second letter, but the secretary left him little time 
 for wonder. 
 
 " Do you know what is here written ? " he asked, 
 in a subdued and altered voice. 
 
 " Xo," answered the Spaniard, with a bluntiiess 
 that carried conviction. 
 
 "AndSfor/a ?" 
 
 " Told me he received it sealed from the hand of 
 his uncle." 
 
 The secretary breathed a sigh of relief, smiled 
 reassuringly at his brotlier, and held the letter in 
 the name of a lamp till its last vestige curled in 
 cinders ; these he bore to the nearest window and 
 dropped into the canal. 
 
 He returned to the side of the doge, and they 
 conversed in an idiom of Greek used among Vene 
 tian merchants. Presently the younger Barbarigo 
 addressed Xarvaez with a kindliness that brought 
 the fencer a fresh surprise. 
 
 " So particular a letter from our brother of 
 Milan," he said, " commands us ; to-morrow morn 
 ing young Sforza shall be freed and shall tell his
 
 72 SFORZA. 
 
 message. Fear nothing ; but, that you may meet 
 with no further mishap, you shall pass this night 
 in an antechamber, to which you will now be con 
 ducted. And take this caution : should you have 
 so foolish a thought as to wish to leave our roof by 
 stealth, act not upon it as you value life."
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE STAli CHAMBER. 
 
 Ox the following morning Narvaez was awak 
 ened from an uneasy slumber by the ringing of 
 the Angelus, which all the bells in Venice took up, 
 each with its own peculiar voice, from the deep, 
 loud stroke of the clock tower, and the musical 
 clangor of church campanili, to the tuneful and 
 tinkling cadence of cloister chimes. In the fancy 
 of the sleeping youth their distant and softened 
 pealing recalled the familiar cow-bells of his native 
 sierras, and in his last moment of dreamy uncon 
 sciousness he beheld again the long lines of cattle 
 trooping at dawn through the forest calm, and 
 winding away to upland pastures amid the ame 
 thyst peaks. 
 
 He rose from an improvised couch with spirits 
 depressed, and with a premonition that his misad 
 venture was far from ended. He was presently 
 visited by the chaplain of the house, who, after 
 suavely reminding him that a meditation upon 
 the beatitudes was the proper employment of the 
 moments following his awakening, added that 
 the doge was about to leave for the official
 
 74 SFORZA. 
 
 palace, whither an escort should presently con 
 duct him. 
 
 Half an hour later lie was led to a gondola, 
 which was swiftly directed down the Grand Canal, 
 amid the animation and magnificence of the grace 
 ful palaces which stood in a continuous line of 
 elaborately chiselled colonnades and balconies and 
 pilasters and heavily -barred windows, and here 
 and there, high on the wall, a diminutive Madonna. 
 Tied to rusty piers lay pleasure-boats of gaudy 
 coloring, and through open doorways could be seen 
 a cortile with plants and vines of luminous green, 
 or a cool, dim hallway with great white stairs, and 
 statues, and arched mosaic roof. But Narvaez, in 
 his dejection, scarce cast a glance upon them all, 
 and it was with a feeling of impatient relief that he 
 came within hearing of the bustle of the piazzetta, 
 and landed on the steps of the private entrance to 
 the doge s palace. 
 
 At the close of the fifteenth century the republic 
 of Venice had attained its greatest development of 
 genius and strength. In the religious fervor which, 
 of old, tempered and enhanced so many virtues, its 
 people kept the pristine faith ; in the previous cen 
 tury it had dealt Genoa, its potent rival, a blow 
 from which that commonwealth never recovered ; 
 the forces by land and sea were still of the heroic 
 fibre of past generations, whose ultimate and final 
 prowess, seventy years later, was to smite the Turk-
 
 77777 STAR CHAMBER. 75 
 
 ish armada at Lepanto ; its commerce had not yet 
 suffered by the Portuguese discovery of the Cape 
 route to the Indies; its government was the most 
 concentrated, the best informed, and the most cruel 
 of the middle ages. 
 
 The administration of this redoubtable state was 
 absorbed by a Senate representing the families 
 inscribed upon the Libro d Oro ; since the failure 
 of Faliero s plot to recover by bloodshed the pre 
 rogatives withdrawn piecemeal from the doge, the 
 power of the nominal chief of the state had been 
 further reduced, till now little remained but the 
 exercise of high ceremonies, and the chair of honor 
 in the great Council. But the Senate, in its turn, 
 had suffered an equal encroachment from the Exec 
 utive Council of Ten, and from the famous Council 
 of Three, which held absolute power over life and 
 property. It was before the second of these that 
 Hermes was now to appear. 
 
 The fencing-master was led from the private 
 landing through the central court, with its flights 
 of sculptured stairs, and the domes and pinnacles 
 of St. Mark s, and a profusion of palm trees and 
 odorous shrubs, in imitation of the shaded and 
 fragrant courts of Stamboul, and thence to a se 
 cluded room where sat Barbarigo and his brother. 
 At sight of them the Spaniard rejoiced to know 
 that they shared his predicament and would be 
 tdad as himself to shorten it. Motioning him to
 
 76 SFORZA. 
 
 approach, and bidding his escort retire, Barbarigo 
 addressed him in the suppressed tone to which a 
 deaf man moderates his voice. 
 
 "Your companion," he began, " will presently 
 be brought before me ; a charge of conspiracy has 
 been preferred against him. Tell me, had he 
 other documents beside the two you brought ? " 
 
 " Yes," answered Narvaez, hoping that the worse 
 the case appeared the sooner it would be the 
 doge s desire to end it ; " only yesterday morning 
 I saw him draw a roll of papers from his wallet/ 
 
 " Have you knowledge of their import ? " mut 
 tered Barbarigo, glancing nervously at his brother. 
 
 " There was a safe-conduct to pass the Venetian 
 lines, some bills of exchange, and a map with notes 
 of the way." 
 
 " By whom was the safe-conduct signed ? " 
 
 " It looked regular enough, but the signature was 
 fictitious." 
 
 " And the bills of exchange ? " 
 
 " To say truth, they were imaginary also, being 
 merely part of our equipment, so to speak, and 
 intended, if we fell in with the Venetian troops, to 
 bear us out in our character of clerks commis 
 sioned with some banker s business." 
 
 " And when this nephew of Sforza is examined, 
 what story will he tell ? " 
 
 " That we are entrusted with the sale of the ex 
 changes he bears."
 
 THE STAR CHAMBER. 77 
 
 " Entrusted with the sale of forged bills, and 
 travelling under a false safe-conduct ! Those 
 damning papers found upon him, and so lame a 
 story on his tongue, he will be put to the ques 
 tion, and then 
 
 A light tap was heard at the door, and a confi 
 dential secretary entered and gravely said : " The 
 young man is without, and the iutendant of the 
 prison craves, in addition to your order, a line 
 declaring that the prisoner has been delivered to 
 you." 
 
 " Said I not there must be no writing in this 
 matter?" harshly answered Barbarigo; " that even 
 my order for his release must be returned ! " 
 
 " J3ut the jailer dare not ; remember he is ac 
 countable, and an accusation stands against the 
 prisoner which 
 
 " Hush thy heedless tongue ! " interrupted the 
 doge s brother, with a meaning gesture towards 
 the listening Narvaez. " (live him what he will, 
 Barbarigo, we have no room now to hesitate." 
 
 The doge sullenly wrote the required receipt, 
 and immediately Hermes entered the room, and 
 the door behind him closed. Whatever satisfac 
 tion he may have felt at sight of his companion, or 
 whatever greetings may have been upon his lips, 
 all vanished before the words now addressed him. 
 
 " Young man," quoth the doge, with voice sub 
 dued by emotion, and with every perception intent,
 
 78 SFORZA. 
 
 " you stand before me in grievous peril. I am 
 heartily sorry for it, since imprudence is less to be 
 blamed upon you than upon my brother of Milan. 
 I would gladly set you free, but it is too late, you 
 will presently be required from me by an authority 
 superior to mine. Profit by this moment, then, to 
 tell me the words you bear from Sforza." 
 
 "Your Highness well knows," began Hermes, 
 with earnestness, " the straits in which we of 
 Milan stand through the double invasion we have 
 to confront. To so painful a pass are we brought, 
 that deatli were no worse than the shame which 
 must presently overwhelm us. Our army can face 
 the French, for, however outnumbered, we have 
 stout hearts and strong walls, and time saves many 
 a beleaguered army. But therein lies the limit of 
 our resistance. If the soldiers of Venice unite 
 with those of France, we shall utterly perish. 
 Therefore, in the name of Sforza, I beseech you 
 refrain from doing us so grievous a hurt. Suffer 
 a generous compassion at the calamities that beset 
 one whom a year ago you called friend to move 
 you, and give us that respite which a brave man 
 accords to the antagonist he sees overborne ; halt 
 your troops, delay their march for two months, 
 set them to plundering our cities if you will ; but, 
 as you honor the reputation of Italian arms, grant 
 that w T hen we face the French it be not as men 
 who fight without hope."
 
 THE STAR CHAMBER. 79 
 
 Those wore straightforward words, and they 
 piercod to the sensibility of both the brothers. 
 
 "Woo is me," answered the doge, with veritable 
 concern, " that I cannot do what you ask and what 
 my desire would accord. But you know not Ven 
 ice ; the trouble of her neighbors has always been 
 her opportunity and is so now. The army has 
 crossed your frontier ; the pro vvedi tori watch the 
 generals with jealous vigilance ; what, then, can I, 
 old, inlirm. unable to leave this city, do to prevent 
 their advance ? " 
 
 "My uncle said, that, ichick the righteous man 
 steadfastly wills, the, devil si mil not prevent ; more 
 over, ho wrote a certain letter Xarvaez, I gave it 
 
 }T( -i-l-t 
 ou 
 
 " Ay, truly," interposed the doge ; "it was faith 
 fully delivered me last night." Then, alter labor 
 ing with a spasm that took him as often as that 
 cipher letter was mentioned, he went on to say : 
 " You may tell the Duke of Milan that, as I am a 
 Christian, I will seek to halt the troops, even to 
 the limit of risking my life in the attempt. Tell 
 me further," he added, " of your other papers- 
 were they taken from you ? " 
 
 "Yes, everything upon me, permit, bills of ex 
 change, purse, jewels, everything, for they searched 
 me from head to foot." 
 
 And were you identified ? " 
 
 "Yes, by two rogues of boatmen."
 
 80 SFORZA. 
 
 "No matter, all can be remedied, and all shall 
 yet be well, provided you leave everything im 
 plicitly to my judgment." 
 
 Hermes was about to assent to this reassur 
 ing declaration, when an imperative summons was 
 heard. Barbarigo s eyes fell at the sound, and his 
 fingers trembled as they toyed with a long quill 
 pen. Then, with abrupt resolution, he spoke as 
 one who nerves himself for an excruciating ordeal. 
 
 " Hermes Sforza," he said, " this is a message 
 from the Council ; we must not be found so many. 
 Withdraw with my brother into the adjoining 
 room, and confer with him upon the best means of 
 departure. And you, good youth," he pursued, 
 addressing Narvaez, " wait here ; I have some 
 special direction to give you as to the part that 
 you shall play, draw near to me, so ; when the 
 door opens you must be found standing thus, re 
 ceiving my command." 
 
 Hermes looked askance at this separation, but 
 the knocking was loudly renewed, and Barbarigo s 
 brother caught him by the arm, and whispering, 
 " For all our sakes, come ! " drew him away, and, 
 having bolted the door, leaned his back against 
 it. 
 
 And now the doge, being left alone with Narvaez, 
 bade whoso knocked enter, and instantly there 
 appeared a messenger, who saluted Barbarigo with 
 reverence, though, with malicious intention, leav-
 
 THE STAR CHAMBER. 81 
 
 ing ajar the door, so that an officer and six halber 
 diers could be seen standing in the hall. 
 
 " What business brings you thus impetuously ? " 
 asked the doge, with an abruptness of tone and an 
 aversion of manner he did not attempt to conceal. 
 
 " I am ordered by the clerk of the Council to ask 
 the reason for which you, this morning, ordered 
 the release of a prisoner named Hermes Sforza, 
 accused of high treason, and to require his instant 
 attendance." 
 
 " My proceeding will not fail to commend itself. 
 That an unknown youth, and a stranger, should 
 harbor designs against my life, seemed so incom 
 prehensible that, for my own honest information, I 
 wished to question him in gentleness before he 
 should pass to the sterner ordeal of the Inquisi 
 tors." 
 
 "It shall be so answered : now bid him follow 
 me." 
 
 " One moment is needed to finish the inquiry 
 you broke in upon, and by my faith it shall last 
 no longer. What, man ! think you I would release 
 him, or fear you he can escape ? " 
 
 The messenger yielded with ill grace, muttering 
 as he withdrew. 
 
 When the doge turned from this colloquy, he 
 
 perceived by the change in the bright young face 
 
 that the sacrifice about to be required had been 
 
 guessed. Barbarigo rose from his seat, caught 
 
 (j
 
 82 SFORZA. 
 
 Narvaez by the hand, and whispered : " You must 
 go ; you must take the place of Hermes Sforza. 
 It seems to you a fearful thing, but so it must 
 be. Bear a bold heart ; fear uot but I will work 
 to save you as though you were my own flesh 
 and blood." 
 
 " Why must I take Hermes place ? " asked Nar 
 vaez, whose lips quivered as he spoke. 
 
 " Because there is a terrible risk about that 
 which otherwise awaits him perhaps the question, 
 possibly worse see, I conceal nothing from you." 
 
 " But, again I ask, why put me in his place ? " 
 
 "Because the devil s letter you thrust in my 
 hand last night binds me to the Duke of Milan by 
 an obligation I shudder to recall. It were an ill 
 beginning, since I am to serve him, to let his 
 nephew be done to death. You alone now can 
 take the risk ; you can pass for Sforza, for you will 
 appear only before the Council and their attend 
 ants, not one of whom has seen him. Make the 
 best defence you can, and trust to me to secure 
 your escape to-night." 
 
 " And Hermes ? " 
 
 " Shall be out of Venice before the sun touches 
 the horizon." 
 
 The young swordsman listened with a flush of 
 color that died suddenly away ; then, with an ac 
 cent of determination beyond his years, he reso 
 lutely answered : " Be it as you will, and if I
 
 THE STAR CHAMBER. 83 
 
 perish let it be said to Hermes that I met this 
 danger willingly to save him." 
 
 Meanwhile Hermes eagerly availed himself of 
 his opportunity to question the doge s brother 
 upon the events of the previous night, and that 
 personage was soon volubly discoursing and ges 
 ticulating. The minutes passed ; the hall door of 
 the doge s room was repeatedly opened and closed ; 
 at length all was quiet. Their desultory talk drew 
 to an end ; the secretary, still leaning against the 
 door of communication, became silent. 
 
 "Narvaez is again alone with the doge," ob 
 served Hermes, after a listening pause ; " let us to 
 him, our task is accomplished; we would haste 
 from Venice." 
 
 The Venetian yielded to this importunity ; he 
 unbolted the door, and allowed Hermes to reenter 
 the study, whore, to his astonishment, he perceived 
 Barbarigo alone. 
 
 He glanced about the room abruptly; then, with 
 an angry face, he stammered : " The youth whom 
 we left here with you what has become of him? " 
 
 Barbarigo looked up with a troubled air, and 
 hesitatingly answered : " The youth is gone fear 
 not he shall return unharmed ; it was the only 
 recourse to spare you an examination." 
 
 " What ! he has been taken before the Council ! " 
 
 " The jailers came for their prisoner, and at my 
 suggestion he consented to take your place."
 
 84 SFORZA. 
 
 At tliis hearing Hermes dashed his cap upon the 
 ground with an oath, his face became purple with 
 rage, and, turning upon the secretary, he made as 
 though he would have taken that worthy by the 
 throat. 
 
 " Would to Heaven you had asked me ! " he 
 ejaculated ; " how quickly should I have refused 
 it ! But at least," he continued, smiting his hands 
 passionately together, " give me some promise of 
 his safety ; tell me what this examination is to be, 
 and when he will be released? " 
 
 Barbarigo wiped his face with a silk handker 
 chief ; the midsummer sun was gaining power, and 
 his emotions rendered him an uncomfortable prince. 
 He murmured slowly, softly, though audibly to 
 those about him, these singular words : " May my 
 merciful Father above account this part of the 
 expiation of the folly of my presumptuous youth." 
 Then, raising his voice, he replied : " Your com 
 panion stands in no greater risk than I do in this 
 solemn hour. It was my first duty to the Duke of 
 Milan to rescue his nephew ; it remained unavoid 
 able that some one must take his place before the 
 Council." 
 
 " But, in the fiend s name, why not blurt the 
 truth and tell how trivial was our errand ? " 
 
 "Trivial! Your purpose was a crime which 
 Venice punishes with death." 
 
 " And if your Council find Narvaez guilty ? "
 
 THE STAR CHAMBER. 85 
 
 "Then a means shall be found to save him." 
 
 "If his life be forfeit through fault of jours, 
 answered Hermes, " I will make public every 
 thing that I have seen and heard in Venice, and 
 hereafter, at the judgment day, I will cry ven 
 geance upon you ! " 
 
 "Peace, poor fool," answered Barbarigo, "think 
 you I could not in the next hour have your life 
 taken, and leave your swordsman to his fate ! " 
 
 " Say no more," whispered Barbarigo s brother 
 to Hermes ; "you may put faith in the doge, for 
 he shares your peril in what has become a state 
 secret ; let us be silent now, and devote ourselves 
 to your companion s rescue ; and for you, mean 
 while, a place of safety under this very roof has 
 been contrived, where you shall receive frequent 
 information and be in readiness for flight to-mor 
 row. Follow me, then, by this private door ; let 
 us lose no time ; come, let us go." 
 
 It was an ordinary circumstance for the members 
 of the Council of Three to be summoned from rest, 
 or pleasure, or private affairs, to sit, either as the 
 Supreme Executive of the State, or as a court hav 
 ing the functions of judge, jury, and prosecutor. 
 The news of a conspiracy had been conveyed to 
 each during the night, and, upon first assembling, 
 they had passed an hour in hearing read the record 
 of the prisoner s examination upon his arrest, and
 
 86 SFORZA. 
 
 in listening to the testimony of the boatmen. They 
 had now finished with the report of the signori di 
 notte ; and the boatmen, having told their story, 
 had been discharged : it was not the practice of 
 the time, nor of that court, to put the prisoner in 
 presence of his accusers, or of witnesses. 
 
 The three councillors sat at a table whereon 
 stood an ivory crucifix. Writing at a high desk 
 was their clerk, and leaning indifferently near a 
 rack, whose fearful shape occupied one side of the 
 room, was an African slave ; in his hand he held 
 a metal ball, with w T hose peculiar construction he 
 toyed with the interest of one who examines a 
 novel and ingenious mechanism ; it was, in fact, a 
 gag of improved workmanship, which, being thrust 
 into the mouth of the person about to undergo the 
 question, was, by the turn of a key, made to unfold 
 to triple its size, thereby holding the sufferer s 
 jaws distended and preventing an outcry. Before 
 a w r indow was a large arm-chair, above which, at a 
 proper elevation, was firmly braced the celebrated 
 helmet, which was the invention of Venice for 
 summary execution. In it the head of the con 
 demned was encased, and, at a signal, a turn of a 
 wrench drove a long, sharp bolt deep into the base 
 of the brain, severing the spinal column, and caus 
 ing instantaneous death. 
 
 The three councillors, their clerk, and the negro 
 looked up with a curious interest as the prisoner
 
 THE STAR CHAMBER. 87 
 
 was conducted before them. They wondered what 
 manner of man this reckless cut-throat the wit 
 nesses described would be, and all felt surprise at 
 the delicate form and startled face of the youth who 
 advanced with difficulty before them, his ankles 
 being chained with a short fetter. His conductor 
 scrupulously led him to a spot precisely in the 
 centre of the room, placed his cap in his bound 
 hands, and withdrew, closing the door, which the 
 slave bolted. 
 
 If Narvaez had not at first comprehended the im 
 minence and extremity of the danger he accepted, 
 he realized it now in standing before a tribunal 
 distinguished for never leaning to the side of mercy. 
 He knew that to confess was to incur immediate 
 sentence of death, with no hope beyond Barbari- 
 go s frail promise of rescue. To deny was to be 
 ordered instantly upon the rack. He looked at the 
 judges before him in their scarlet robes, and read 
 an unflinching purpose upon the face of each; then 
 he glanced at the secretary, trimming his pens, 
 and at the slave still fingering his metal gag; then 
 his eye rested upon the rack, and at sight of that 
 appalling instrument the anguish of despair came 
 over him in a thought of convulsed lips, and 
 starting eyes, and lacerated flesh, and sobs and 
 shrieks. 
 
 " Young man," began the elder and apparently 
 the chief of the Three, after a pause of silent scru-
 
 88 SFORZA. 
 
 tiny, " you come before us charged with the great 
 est offence known to the law of Venice. We are 
 here to determine your punishment, and although 
 the testimony setting forth your words and actions 
 yesterday, corroborated by the forged and fictitious 
 papers found upon you, leaves no doubt of your 
 guilty purpose, yet such is the justice that rules 
 the community against which you meditated a 
 monstrous crime, that you shall not be deprived of 
 a hearing nor of a single form of law. But that 
 you may know how vain were any pretence of 
 equivocation, you shall hear read the declarations 
 which sustain the charge against you." 
 
 The unhappy Narvaez listened in a horrible 
 bewilderment to the formal accusation, followed 
 by the testimony of the two boatmen. 
 
 Once more his judge addressed him : " Do you 
 acknowledge yourself to be the person charged 
 with this plot? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes ; I am Hermes Sforza, nephew to the Duke 
 of Milan." 
 
 " And do you confess yourself guilty of the pur 
 pose to murder a harmless and defenceless old 
 man?" 
 
 "What avails it to attempt a denial?" replied 
 the prisoner. 
 
 "A denial!" echoed the Venetian; "nay, at 
 tempt it not. Beware how you tax our forbear 
 ance with denials. Only the full truth can niiti-
 
 THE RTAIi CHAMBER. 
 
 gate, in some slight degree, the measure of your 
 deserts. You admit, then, your guilt?" 
 
 It was only the choice between the immediate 
 mutilation of the rack, and the supreme penalty, 
 and Narvaez realized that he signed his own 
 death-warrant in answering, " I do." 
 
 " But," pursued his examiner, " last evening, 
 before the signori di notte, and in presence of the 
 witnesses, you strenuously asserted innocence." 
 
 " I knew not then that the proof was conclusive 
 against me." 
 
 " Perverted wretch ! And what led you to such 
 devilish malevolence ? " 
 
 "The hope of saving Milan." 
 
 " You were not alone ; your denouncers say you 
 had a companion. Who was he ? " 
 
 "A Spanish fencing-master named Narvaez." 
 
 The three councillors exchanged significant 
 glances. Then the elder proceeded : " It is fortu 
 nate that you now repair your fault before the 
 police in refusing to give his name ; to show how 
 futile was your boyish attempt to shield him, know 
 that the osteria where you breakfasted was readily 
 discovered, and that, by searching your luggage, 
 enough was learned to establish the identity of 
 you both. J>ut one point remains, and I caution 
 you to beware of any subterfuge. Where is this 
 fellow concealed ? " 
 
 " Has he not been taken ? " exclaimed Xarvaez.
 
 90 SFORZA. 
 
 " Answer me not with a question," replied the 
 judge severely, "and hesitate at your peril." 
 
 " I last saw him yesterday, at sunset, on the 
 piazza ; before his return I was seized and carried 
 off. If he were not found at the osteria, he must 
 have fled from Venice on hearing of my arrest." 
 
 " It is impossible for him to have passed the 
 guards ; tell me instantly the familiar haunts in 
 which he may have sought hiding, or you shall 
 speak upon the rack." 
 
 "O masters!" answered Narvaez, with a despair 
 ing wail, " dispose of me as you will ; to every 
 question I have spoken the truth, and, however 
 you may mutilate my poor body, upon this matter 
 I shall still know only that I was twelve hours in 
 Venice ; that we went to but one public house ; 
 that the commonest thoroughfare in your city is 
 unfamiliar to me ; that it is impossible for me to 
 know whither this youth may have betaken him 
 self." 
 
 The inexorable face of the Venetian darkened 
 with the sullen displeasure of one whose will 
 brooks no denial. He turned to the expectant 
 slave, and motioned a, command which the latter 
 awaited. He stepped to Narvaez, grasped him by 
 the shoulders, and pushed him to the rack. 
 
 At this moment the councillor who sat at the left 
 of him who had conducted the interrogatory, and 
 who had more than once shown impatience at the
 
 THE STAR CH AllBER. 91 
 
 elaboration with which obvious conclusions were 
 reached, interposed. He had been summoned in 
 the gray of the morning from the bedside of his 
 dying child, and even the adamant of his spirit 
 could be so far impressed as to abridge details 
 and hang the accused with a short halter. 
 
 "What avails it," he exclaimed, " that we listen 
 for the next hour to the whimpering of this hare 
 brained boy? He cannot know where another 
 rogue has run to, or, if he does, put him to some 
 thing more intense than the rack let him suffer 
 the question in the first degree, and in five min 
 utes we will have the truth and his vitals out to 
 gether." 
 
 The slave paused, and the three Venetians en 
 gaged in a brief colloquy, at the end of which the 
 senior of them, for the last time addressing Nar- 
 vaez, said : 
 
 " Hermes Sforza, you are convicted by the evi 
 dence, and by your admission, of a crime whose 
 punishment in every land is death. It is as vain 
 to interrogate you upon the motives which in 
 duced your abominable resolve, as to question you 
 further about your comrade. He will be taken, 
 and of you, meanwhile, a prompt example shall 
 be made. The Council takes into consideration 
 every circumstance for and against you, and passes 
 judgment without passion. The directness of 
 your answers spares you the question; and the
 
 92 SFORZA. 
 
 honor of your name, however yon individually may 
 have soiled it, induces us to remit the penalties 
 which a common criminal would suffer. Had you 
 been a Venetian, we should have spared the state 
 the shame of knowing the baseness of one of her 
 sous, and have caused your instant execution be 
 fore us. But, as warning to foreign adventurers, 
 our sentence is that you be returned to the cell 
 whence you were brought, and that to-morrow, at 
 the rising of the sun, you be taken, gagged as a 
 malefactor, to the red pillars, and there strangled."
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BETWEEN THI-: R/J) PILLARS. 
 
 UPON leaving the doge s presence, Hermes was 
 conducted to the uppermost floor, where, on tap 
 ping at a small entrance, there appeared a clerical- 
 looking individual, who was evidently prepared for 
 their corning. The secretary paused hut to ad 
 dress him in a hasty whisper ; and by the time 
 Hermes had glanced ji.1x.nit, the door was closed 
 and the doge s brother was gone. 
 
 The attic to which he had been guided was 
 directly under a leaden roof, whereon the morning 
 sun streamed with intense heat. He sat down 
 upon a rough stool, of which there were several, 
 and, burying his fjice in his hands, abandoned him 
 self to a sombre meditation. Then, as the promise 
 of escape returned, he sprang up and strode from 
 one window to another. 
 
 At each his eye covered a wide panorama. From 
 one could be seen the lagoon, and beyond it the 
 Lido and the Adriatic, lying still and glassy in the 
 breathless intensity of the summer heat, and with 
 stationary s;iils upon the horixon; from another 
 he beheld acres of tiled roofs, with curiously oma-
 
 94 SFORZA. 
 
 merited chimneys and weather-vanes, and here and 
 there a covey of pigeons in the shade of some cor 
 nice ; from the third was caught a peep at the me 
 chanical bell-strikers of the famous clock-tower, 
 and, far away in the northern distance, across the 
 glare of sunlight, the glistening peaks of the Car- 
 nic Alps. 
 
 Then he looked at the man in whose custody he 
 had been left, .and whose austere face and simple 
 garb had caused Hermes, when he first entered, to 
 take him for some scrivener in the doge s private 
 employ, to whom such confidential service might 
 be entrusted. But a closer notice of the intel 
 lectual countenance, the delicate hands, the refined 
 accent in speaking, and the dignified and courtly 
 air, roused in him a momentary interest in the 
 stranger. 
 
 The latter scrutinized Hermes with his great 
 sad eyes, then a faint smile softened his thin and 
 rigid lips as the thought came to him that so 
 young and handsome a culprit had doubtless 
 sinned through the customary offence of an ill- 
 considered gallantry. 
 
 "Well, well," he said, with slow, deliberate ut 
 terance, and with a pleasant kindliness of manner, 
 as though willing to touch this misadventure with 
 the solace of resignation, " to one well favored as 
 yourself all is not lost while love remains, and tis 
 sure that neither the humblest nor the proudest
 
 BETWEEN THE RED PILLARS. 95 
 
 woman in the world denies the sweetness of being 
 its object. Yet in my own young days I noticed 
 that men are no less vain than women, and that 
 while women will die if they be not talked to 
 about some quality they possess, that men delight 
 most in hearing of the things they have not. To 
 win a man of low order you have but to praise his 
 intelligence. If he be a spendthrift, ask what s the 
 news upon change. If he is old, and rheum-eyed, 
 and gouty, quiz him upon his conquests with the 
 fair. 
 
 " Alas ! " replied Hermes to this apostrophe, " a 
 sore heart has no humor to gossip ; therefore suffer 
 me to digest my trouble in silence, or, if you would 
 give me food for reflection, be it of that substantial 
 kind over which men differ less easily. I have not 
 eaten more than a biscuit since yesterday s break 
 fast, a vile one, as you will believe if you know 
 the Osteria della Fame." 
 
 The stranger listened with a comical gesture of 
 sympathy. "You will lodge little better here," lie 
 answered, "for there is no refectory in the palace, 
 and the needs of my own appetite are infinitely 
 small." 
 
 " It is not your appetite but mine own I feel 
 for: no refectory in the palace! poor starvelings, 
 has it come to that in Venice 1 ? Were we in the 
 castle of Milan I could tell a different story ; but 
 on the piazza are cooks shops, the last thought
 
 96 SFORZA. 
 
 of my freedom was of a collop of beef and a bird ; 
 surely, something can be brought me." 
 
 " And you think it would not attract the keen 
 eyes of suspicion were I, who for two days have 
 lived like the pigeons, to set myself ordering col- 
 lops of beef ? " 
 
 The last words arrested Hermes attention. 
 "You have lived here but two days? " he queried 
 in surprise. 
 
 " Ay, two days that seem as months." 
 
 " I took this for your abode. Are you, too, in 
 hiding? have we both tried to assassinate the 
 
 " Assassinate ! " interrupted the other with every 
 mark of horror. " They told me you were guilty 
 of some trivial fault. Holy St. Theodore, what 
 purification can suffice to cleanse me from all these 
 worldly stains ? " 
 
 "Of what monstrous things have you been 
 guilty ? " ejaculated Hermes. " One would think 
 you had committed the unpardonable sin." 
 
 The Venetian started at the words, as if he heard 
 in them the condemnation of his own conscience. 
 
 " Woe is me ! " he exclaimed, joining his hands 
 and twisting his sinewy fingers together ; " that 
 chance utterance of a stranger speaks the words 
 that ring in my ears night and day the unpar 
 donable sin! the unpardonable sin 
 
 " And what is the unpardonable sin ? " ventured 
 Hermes, awestruck by the other s despair ; " tell
 
 BETWEEN THE RED PILLARS. 97 
 
 me, that I may profit by your warning an( l avoid 
 it." 
 
 The Venetian glanced sharply about him, as one 
 in habitual dread of eavesdroppers ; then, turning 
 upon Hermes his eyes, which an extraordinary 
 excitement filled with a glow akin to the light of 
 insanity, he asked in an abrupt whisper : 
 
 " For whom do you take me ? " 
 
 " At first I thought you some trusted clerk, to 
 whose confidence my safety was committed ; but 
 since you have been only two days in this dreadful 
 garret, and acknowledge the guilt of a nameless 
 crime, it occurs to me that you may be a fugitive 
 like myself." 
 
 " The guilt of a nameless crime and fugitive ! 
 Alas, yes. You have read my wretched life like 
 an open scroll. Listen. 
 
 "In my youth I was an officer in the Venetian 
 service, and commanded troops in the Levant. 
 Beside the glory of conquest, it was my ambition 
 to share the higher reward of those who piously 
 recovered the relics of the Saints who had suffered 
 martyrdom in the cities within our reach. To dis 
 cover the missing ribs of St. Theodore was my 
 constant preoccupation. One soft afternoon, as I 
 walked along the street of a Saracen town we had 
 captured, the thought filled my mind with unusual 
 intensity. The palm brandies rustled faintly in 
 the breeze ; ahead of me, down a vista of bazaars,
 
 98 SFOftZA. 
 
 strolled an Egyptian merchant ; from behind a 
 harem lattice peeped the laughing faces of two 
 young girls ; and at the balcony of a spire whose 
 gilded point glittered like a lance-head held aloft, 
 leaned a friar ringing the Ave Maria from a Chris 
 tian bell suspended upon the Moslem shaft. And 
 through the vague sound of that faint tinkling, 
 and with the solemn measure of waves breaking in 
 ocean caves, came the voice of St. Theodore him 
 self, speaking to me in accents of reproof for 
 thinking more of the sanctified dead bones of oth 
 ers than of the living flesh of my own evil nature, 
 and I stood rooted to the ground while he im 
 posed upon me the vows of celibacy and of pov 
 erty, for the glory of God. And when the words 
 were spoken, I beheld, as before, the merchant 
 strolling idly down the street of shops, and the 
 indistinct faces laughing behind the netting of the 
 harem window, and heard again, though now with 
 new and consecrated meaning, the soft, sweet sum 
 mons to prayer. 
 
 " And after ten years spent in a monastery near 
 the Alps, the Senate recalled me. You may well 
 look amazed ! My family, which in past genera 
 tions gave a doge and rendered some service to 
 the state, was about to become extinct. And 
 therefore Venice commanded me to forswear my 
 vow and renounce the life which St. Theodore had 
 appointed, and marry. And, as a servant of my
 
 BETWEEN THE RED PILLARS. 99 
 
 native city, I obeyed, and I Lave lived three years 
 in the wedlock that to me was forbidden, and in 
 the house that was my home are two infant boys 
 to perpetuate my name. But ever the voice of St. 
 Theodore rang in my ears The unpardonable *i, 
 tlte, unspeakable sin and three days ago I left all, 
 and having confided my secret to Barbarigo, even 
 as I have told it unto you, wait now till an oppor 
 tunity is found to send mo back to the Monastery 
 well named of Love Divine." 
 
 Hermes listened in silence to this grotesque and 
 heartless tale. It required no effort of the fif 
 teenth-century mind to conceive this strange char 
 acter, to admire its bigoted and fanatical mania, 
 and to construe as saintly heroism the cruel and 
 tragic selfishness of the end. The possessions of 
 this man s new life could have seemed to him no 
 nearer and no more significant than are fading 
 sails on the hori/on to the voyager; not even the 
 prattle of his babes had drowned the mystical 
 admonition of St. Theodore; not all the tender 
 bonds of home and love had availed against the 
 fervent summons that floated ceaselessly from mo 
 nastic cloisters, and that must have touched him 
 infinitely and irresistibly even as the faint peal 
 ing of church bells, borne o er the sea at sunset, 
 thrills forever the heart of Dante s mariner, out 
 ward bound. 
 
 An hour passed heavily away. A servant brought
 
 100 SFORZA. 
 
 them a frugal repast, and, this disposed of, Hermes 
 threw off his silken doublet and walked the room, 
 pausing now and again at the windows to catch the 
 breaths of air that stirred. After mid-day the heat 
 became excruciating, and he paced to and fro with 
 flushed face, and the moisture standing upon his 
 brow, and his eyes vacant, and his hands clenched 
 together, as there rose incessantly before him the 
 image of Narvaez, alone and defenceless, before 
 that terrible tribunal. As the day drew to a close, 
 and the flaming sunset faded to emerald on the 
 horizon, his nervous striding up and down sank to 
 a measured tread, while now and then he paused 
 to observe the diminishing daylight, fancying how 
 infinitely sad must be its vanishing from the dun 
 geon bars through which Narvaez was doubtless 
 watching it. 
 
 The Venetian sat unheeding, in motionless ab 
 straction, all the day. At dusk he rose, and, pro 
 ducing flint, steel, and tinder, was about to light the 
 end of a twisted taper, when a thought of the pos 
 sible risk for Hermes of showing a light in that 
 unfrequented part of the palace deterred him. A 
 moment after the door opened, and, in the obscu 
 rity, the doge s brother entered. 
 
 His first words brought infinite relief. Narvaez 
 had escaped the question, and was to be substi 
 tuted for another prisoner whose trivial fault the 
 doge could condone.
 
 HETWEEX THE KED PILLARS. 101 
 
 " But if Barbarigo can substitute and par 
 don whom he will, why not release Narvaez at 
 
 O11C3? " 
 
 " Because 3-0111- offense is beyond pardon ; the 
 other prisoner, who is a youth of his own age, is 
 held upon a petty accusation some private ven 
 detta which can be dismissed." 
 
 " How is it possible that lie can put one prisoner 
 in another s place ? " 
 
 At this innocent question the secretary laughed 
 sardonically. " Have you never heard of such 
 things in Milan?" was his only reply. 
 
 "But you say Narvaez is condemned to death ? " 
 
 "It is true." 
 
 " Then this other youth will suffer in his place." 
 
 "Cosa vuole ! what would you? that is the way 
 of the world." 
 
 "And Narvaez 
 
 " Will be released in the early morning, when 
 the prison watch is changed, and conveyed in a 
 gondola to the steps behind St. Mark s, within 
 which, for greater safety, you and this gentleman 
 Avill pass to-night; thence vou will all be taken to 
 Fusina, where suitable papers will pass you through 
 the guards." 
 
 Some time after this comforting visit, the bells 
 of the clock-tower rang out the hour, and the 
 Venetian, rising, beckoned Hermes to follow.
 
 102 SFORZA. 
 
 " And whither ? " 
 
 "Where Barbarigo s instructions siimmon to 
 pass the night in St. Mark s." 
 
 " And why not pass it here ? " 
 
 " Because we could not leave in the morning 
 without attracting notice, even if we got out at 
 all." 
 
 " How, then, are we to leave St. Mark s ? " 
 
 "After it is closed, at midnight, the keys are 
 hung in the sacristy. Fear not but we shall find 
 it a trusty hiding-place." 
 
 They reached the menials stair, felt their way 
 down its winding and unlighted length, and, after 
 a descent that in the obscurity seemed intermina 
 ble, emerged beneath the arches and looked out 
 over the piazza upon the crowd that sat and strolled 
 and talked along its brilliant extent. The distance 
 to the vestibule of the church was only fifty paces, 
 but neither dared risk the scrutiny of eyes that 
 might be watching. They therefore turned into 
 an alley, and, crossing a bridge, walked guardedly 
 along a dim passage, lighted at the corners by can 
 dles flickering before saintly images, whereof not 
 a few had already burned to the end, leaving saints 
 and street alike in darkness. 
 
 As they again emerged upon the canaletto there 
 arose the sound of exquisite music the tinkling 
 cadencas of mandolins, the thrumming of the gui 
 tar of Castile, and the voice of a lover serenading
 
 BETWEEN THE RED I lLLAIifi. 103 
 
 with the thrilling inspiration of Italian song. A 
 slow, sweet prelude rose and foil with amorous pa 
 thos and passion, and Hermes ventured nearer till 
 he beheld a gondola with flaring torches and indis 
 tinct forms reflected in the motionless water, and 
 pointed windows and sculptured reliefs and fres 
 coed colonnades above. 
 
 The music sank to a pleading intensity, and 
 rippled away. To Hermes that quaint old song 
 of the Sunbeam and the Hose was familiar : often 
 had he heard it sung, in Milan, in the twilight 
 of languorous evenings, by strolling minstrels in 
 whose pipes and lutes and vibrant voices the pop 
 ulace delighted. 
 
 Reclining low on a mossy IHM!, through the summer s dreamy 
 
 repose, 
 Blushing at noonday a deeper red, lay the lustre of earth a 
 
 Rose : 
 
 As fair as a hope of to-morrow, as sweet as a dream of to-day, 
 She knew not the autumn of sorrow, nor the freezing touch of 
 
 decay. 
 
 A Sunbeam parting the leaves above stole softly through creeper 
 
 and vine, 
 And whispering words of burning love cried, Rose, darling Rose, 
 
 Ihou art mine ! " 
 But ending their fondest embraces, and quenching the thrill of 
 
 delight, 
 Fell a veil that dispels and effaces, with the shadowy languors 
 
 of night.
 
 104 SFORZA. 
 
 As Man reverts to the brilliant past, when the day we call 
 
 Life" is done, 
 So, as the Sunbeam faded at last, the Rose turned to the setting 
 
 sun ; 
 And the evening breeze idling near her caught a murmur it 
 
 echoes yet, 
 That was partly a sob of rapture, and partly a sigh of regret. 
 
 Ere the song ended Hermes and his companion 
 had reached a side-door of St. Mark s. They 
 walked, in almost complete darkness, down the 
 pavement which the reverential tread of millions 
 had already worn to unevenness, and concealed 
 themselves in an obscure corner. Only two can 
 dles and the lurid spark of a lamp burned on the 
 altar. They could distinguish faint silhouettes of 
 the glimmering spans of the roof, and the sculp 
 tured chancel with iron rail twisted and beaten 
 into fantastic shapes, and the line of ivory-white 
 apostles, and beyond them the bronze statues of the 
 illustrious dead. The altar stood out in spectral 
 prominence, and upon the tracery of its carved and 
 figured surface the moonlight, slanting through 
 lofty windows of illuminated glass, laid soft, trans 
 parent coloring in feathery shafts of lemon, and 
 sprays of clear sea-green, and stains of ruby, pass 
 ing to pearly tints of sapphire, all which, when 
 falling thus within a sacred precinct, the pious con- 
 tadini call, " the flowers of the Virgin Madonna." 
 
 Exhausted beyond endurance, Hermes soon fell
 
 BETWEEN THE RED PILLARS. 105 
 
 into a slumber, from which he was awakened by 
 the steady and ominous tolling of one of the great 
 bells above. At the head of the church more 
 lights had appeared, and several figures were mov 
 ing. He started with a throb of despair at the 
 thought of discovery, but beside him sat the Ve 
 netian, alert and attentive, and in the chancel was 
 seen nothing more threatening than a venerable 
 bishop, who advanced in full view, while about 
 him clustered attendant priests and choristers. 
 Having performed the usual genuflections before 
 the altar, he faced the few people who had gathered, 
 silent and awestruck, in the body of the church, 
 while the choir began a shrill chant from one of 
 the Psalms of David : 
 
 " Set thou a wicked man over him, and let Satan 
 stand at his right hand. 
 
 "When he shall be judged, let him be con 
 demned : and let his prayer become sin. 
 
 " Let his days be few, and lot another take his 
 office. 
 
 "Let his children be fatherless and his wife a 
 widow. 
 
 " Let his children be continually vagabonds and 
 beg ; let them seek their bread also out of deso 
 late places. 
 
 "Let the extortioner catch all that he hath, and 
 let strangers spoil his labor.
 
 106 SFORZA. 
 
 " Let there be none to extend mercy unto him ; 
 neither let there be any to favor his fatherless 
 children. 
 
 " Let his posterity be cut off, and in the 
 generation following let their name be blotted 
 out." 
 
 Hermes recognized the function of the major 
 excommunication, and knew these words to be the 
 preliminary summoning up of the sinister images 
 wherewith, in olden days, the Church afflicted the 
 souls of men. The chant ceased, and the bishop 
 entered upon a lengthy recital of the pains and 
 penalties which followed body and soul of one 
 excluded from the fold, the priests answering at 
 intervals in chorus. On earth the excommunicated 
 was prohibited from entering a place of worship, 
 and, this life ended, his spirit was consigned to 
 Satan. He was denied the sacraments ; he could 
 not marry while living, nor be interred when dead ; 
 he was " a putrid member to be severed from the 
 body of the faithful;" he was to be shunned as a 
 leper ; and whoever held converse with him, or 
 relieved his necessity, or harbored him in peril, or 
 took compassion upon his hunger, became a part 
 ner in his guilt and incurred the like anathema. 
 As Hermes peeped from his hiding-place and 
 heard these weird denunciations, it seemed to him, 
 in his starved and forlorn condition, as if they
 
 BETWEEN THE RED PILLARS. 107 
 
 were directed against himself, and were already in 
 a fair way to fulfilment. 
 
 A lighted candle of yellow wax was now placed, 
 with profuse reyerences, in the hands of the officiat 
 ing bishop, and smaller tapers were distributed 
 among the attendant priests. A pause followed, 
 during which the church bells were noisily rung 
 in discord, as emblematic of the alarm and unrest 
 which should thereafter possess the soul of him 
 about to be named. Then the bishop proclaimed 
 the unfortunate who had incurred these manifold 
 distresses, and slowly and impressively pronounced 
 the sentence : 
 
 " I excommunicate him ; and as the light of this 
 c.indlc is now extinguished, so may the light of the 
 Church be lost to him, and his soul be damned 
 forever ! " 
 
 And, thus speaking, he dashed his candle vio 
 lently to the ground, and the priests, casting down 
 those which they held, repeated after him : 
 
 " His soul bo damned forever ! " 
 
 The church was thereby left in its original 
 obscurity. The companv that had gathered dis 
 persed with many crossings and bendings of de 
 vout knees. The bishop and his assistants with 
 drew, the bells no longer sounded, an acolyte 
 busied himself with the covering of the altar, 
 and the sacristan began the closing of the 
 doors.
 
 108 SFORZA. 
 
 The night passed ; the barking and howling of 
 dogs on the piazza ceased, and a sombre day 
 daAvned as Hermes raised himself, bruised and 
 stiff, from fitful snatches of sleep, to an awakening 
 worse than the distorted visions of the night. The 
 day passed in dim, cold streaks through lofty 
 windows, and the first sound that reached him was 
 the pattering of raindrops. The mechanical fig 
 ures on the clock-tower hammered out the hour of 
 five, and, in obedience to a gesture from his com 
 panion, he walked noiselessly to the main entrance, 
 in the door of which was its great bronze key. 
 They passed the vestibule, and looked across the 
 piazza to the two historic pillars, between whose 
 shafts had been, for centuries, the place of pub 
 lic execution. Already half a dozen men from 
 the prison stood there in the rain, adjusting a 
 rope. 
 
 Beneath that lowering sky Venice presented a 
 dreary aspect : the deserted pavement glistened 
 in the wet, and only the pigeons stirred beneath 
 the arcades, or peeped from their shelter along the 
 eaves. 
 
 Despite the nervous fatigue following upon hun 
 ger, sleeplessness, and anxiety, Hermes was alert 
 and keenly watchful. He believed that his own 
 deliverance was at hand, and that, at the appointed 
 hour, Narvaez would be released. But, for a mo 
 ment, a great excitement absorbed and detained
 
 BETWEEN THE It ED PILLARS. 109 
 
 him, for it was evident that an innocent life was to 
 be sacrificed. 
 
 He did not long remain in suspense : a file of 
 halberdiers emerged from the palace, and with 
 them came a black-veiled executioner, and in their 
 midst walked the youth who was to pay the forfeit 
 of Narvaez s escape, and, on each side, a religious 
 brother of the order whose office it was to accom 
 pany the condemned to execution. His arms were 
 pinioned, his ankles chained, and across his mouth 
 was a scarf covering the gag wherewith the Coun 
 cil stifled his utterance. The figure was slender, 
 like the fencer s ; the step, the hair, the very dress 
 were his. 
 
 A violent tremor fell upon Hermes as the escort 
 passed to where the men were waiting with silken 
 cords. He understood it all now but too late : 
 the doge had deceived him it was Narvaez who 
 stood there and in his helplessness his lips quiv 
 ered, his eyes filled with tears, his brain reeled, he 
 dropped upon his knees, and commenced an inar 
 ticulate recital of prayers. The veiled headsman s 
 work was dexterously finished ; to the lust the 
 monks muttered their supplications for the dying, 
 while, in accordance with his sentence, the culprit 
 was strangled between the pillars which bear the 
 emblems of ancient Venice, and, after a brief 
 spasm, his inanimate body rested against the post 
 to which it had been bound. And, at the instant,
 
 110 SFORZA. 
 
 the Venetian touched Hermes on the shoulder, 
 and together they hastened to the bridge behind 
 St. Mark s, and there lay a swift barge with four 
 rowers, and hidden under the awning sat some 
 one, and Hermes sprang in with an oath eloquent 
 of great joy, and the Venetian followed, and the 
 boatmen pushed off without a word and plunged 
 into the obscurity of the canal. 
 
 And it was indeed Narvaez who sat beneath 
 the cover, pale and weary, but unharmed. And 
 Hermes, not knowing, at the instant, in what 
 words to put his feelings, cast his arms about the 
 fencer s neck, and kissed him, after the Italian 
 fashion, upon each cheek.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 A PROPHECY OF THE STABS. 
 
 THE twilight hour of a quiet evening was well 
 advanced as Hermes Sforza and Narvaez separated 
 at the gate of Milan ; the fencer to return to his 
 school of arms, and Hermes to announce the result 
 of their journey to the duke. 
 
 At that moment Ludovico was awaiting the 
 soothsayer, Almodoro, for whom he had sent upon 
 receiving a despatch announcing the capture, by 
 the French, of the garrison of Aenone, and reveal 
 ing the dejection and lethargy of his generals. It 
 was his purpose to hasten to Alessandria to re 
 store the confidence of the army ; but, in accord 
 ance with the prevailing habit, before taking a 
 step of unusual moment, he first sought an admo 
 nition from the stars. 
 
 He had locked himself, for an hour s meditation, 
 in a study as small as that preserved in Florence 
 at the Casa Buonarotti, wherein, sixty years later, 
 Michael Angelo designed. It was large enough for 
 its occupant to take three strides ; its one window 
 looked upon the plain of Lombardy. For furniture 
 there was a single chair, some shelves piled with
 
 112 SFORZA. 
 
 letters and records, and a writing-table whereon 
 rested a marvellous cabinet of drawers and niches 
 and compartments, divided by miniature columns 
 of cornelian and onyx, and within whose secret 
 spaces the duke kept important papers. Opposite 
 the window was a crucifix, and beneath it a chro 
 nological tablet of the days and months. To this 
 cosey retreat he habitually withdrew when an un 
 disturbed morning of study and reflection lay be 
 fore him. No one intruded upon his privacy; his 
 memoranda and reports were there ; and he derived 
 a peculiar mental comfort from his narrow peep, 
 between gables and chimneys, upon the outer 
 world, where an occasional passer went hurrying 
 by, and where, on gusty afternoons, he could watch 
 the shrivelled leaves blown from the ground and 
 carried upward and away, till they disappeared 
 like birds that the eye can follow no more. 
 
 The iron-bound door of this diminutive retreat 
 opened into a gallery of arms, wherein the duke 
 occasionally crossed practice swords with some 
 fencing-master, and which was hung with weapons 
 and coats of mail, comprising his personal equip 
 ment. In the centre, mounted upon prancing 
 wooden horses, were the gorgeous historic suits of 
 his ducal ancestors, dating from the massive cui 
 rass and casque of Muzio Attendolo, his condotti- 
 ere grandfather. Along the walls were the helmets 
 and breastplates and iron gauntlets, then gradu-
 
 A PROPHECY OF THE STARS. 113 
 
 ally falling into disfavor, and the arquebuses and 
 pistols that Avere taking tlieir pLuce. At each end 
 Avas a complicated panoply of blades, from slen 
 der stilettos and broad hunting-knives, to Spanish 
 rapiers and great gilded swords of state. 
 
 A sudden gathering of extreme dangers had dis 
 turbed in Sforza that calm Avhich education and 
 long self-mastery had fixed upon an ardent nature. 
 To an irresponsible prince of mediaeval times, 
 Avhose life and fortune Avere at stake, alliances and 
 Avars Avere of more earnest import than they some 
 times seem to be to the talkative popular govern 
 ments of the present. The usurper of Milan had, 
 thus far, made his wayVith dexterous application 
 of the subtle precepts of Italian statecraft. His 
 breadth of view, his discrimination in dealing Avith 
 men, the depth and astuteness of his political com 
 binations, command the admiration of contempo 
 rary Avriters, and, among the Lombard people, his 
 talents Avere for tAvo centuries a subject of legend 
 ary tradition. But HOAV he stood Avith no ally, his 
 army was unnerved by a defeat, and in Milan pre 
 vailed whispers of treason that chilled the most 
 constant. 
 
 In this extremity he summoned one Avho had 
 been friend and counsellor, and Avho imposed upon 
 his imagination by the possession of mysterious 
 and marvellous gifts. In that superstitious and 
 spirit-haunted age, astrology appeared before the 
 8
 
 1U SFORZA. 
 
 terrors of humanity as an interpreter of incom 
 prehensible phenomena. The most learned were 
 beguiled by arts which bewildered the senses, 
 and fascinated with the lure of a glimpse into 
 futurity. 
 
 The duke had idled away the afternoon in un 
 easy reveries, now seated in his little study, now 
 passing to the library beyond, and watching from 
 an open window for the first appearance of the 
 stars. At length, unable to endure the phantasms 
 with which a nervous excitement filled his soli 
 tude, he despatched a page to hasten Almodoro s 
 coming. 
 
 The alchemist was found in the laboratory in 
 which he pursued the fantastic researches to 
 which the votaries of occult science were self- 
 dedicated, and whose toil they prized above all 
 earthly pleasure, each one believing that he held a 
 mystic thread issuing from the starlight of an 
 tiquity and leading to the dominion of the future. 
 This laboratory was a large, square room, with a 
 vast oven, and shelves of manuscript books, origi 
 nally copied from the Ptolemaic rolls in the Alex 
 andrian library, and alcoves crammed with odd 
 instruments, and glass retorts, and drugs, and es 
 sences, and meteoric stones, and uncouth petrifac 
 tions, such as would have filled the eyes of a 
 peaceable citizen of that period with wonder. His 
 chief treasure was a divininar chart which had come
 
 .1 P JIO PIT En T OF TITK STAR* 1 ] 5 
 
 down from the Greek sorcerers sole surviving 
 fragment of tho Looks of " them which used curi 
 ous arts," whereof Paul and Silas made so famous 
 a bonfire. 
 
 The alchemists were men of superior attain 
 ments, who possessed scientific knowledge in ad 
 vance of their age. They were apt mechanics in 
 the construction of philosophic instruments ; they 
 must be geologists, botanists, mineralogists, chem 
 ists, mathematicians, and astronomers. All this 
 collective knowledge, with the addition of Oriental 
 magic and astrologic divination, they applied to 
 their search for an elixir oi perpetual youth, and 
 for a method of converting the baser metals into 
 gold. 
 
 Through the complex theories woven by gener 
 ations of students, and across centuries of experi 
 ment, Almodoro had patiently traced and retraced 
 a devious path. He had devoted years to tin 
 study of magnetism, and to analyzing the princi 
 ples of suspended animation, which, he supposed, 
 could 1)0 infinitely developed. In the presence of 
 death he had repeatedly attempted a transfer of 
 vitality from one person to another, but so exqui 
 site was the nicety required for this performance 
 that on more than one occasion, between fright 
 and collapse, both subjects had slipped through 
 his incantations into eternity. 
 
 Ludovico advanced to meet Almodoro as he
 
 116 SFORZA. 
 
 entered the library, and looked into his fac3 with 
 earnest inquiry. 
 
 "I have suffered a day of torment," he began, 
 taking the astrologer abruptly by the arm, and 
 leading him to seats beside an open window. 
 
 "What is amiss?" queried the seer, with the 
 frank utterance of a familiar friend. " You do not 
 doubt that I am ready as ever, yet your impor 
 tunities this afternoon indicate almost a mistrust. 
 Surely you know that only at certain conj auctions 
 can a forecast be made." 
 
 "At the worst I have brought you here but an 
 hour too soon, and I could endure my unrest no 
 longer." 
 
 " For shame ! he that conquers himself is greater 
 than the Duke of Milan. Only to think that the 
 novitiate through which I led you towards an in 
 tellectual sovereignty more valuable than earthly 
 powers should prove thus futile." 
 
 The duke s countenance fell at this rebuke from 
 a nature stronger than his own. 
 
 " I have been ill," he answered, " and your in 
 genious formulas avail little to one who lacks your 
 flinty being. For me, every circumstance that I 
 brooded over took on a misproportion, and made 
 me long to know what new signs must be writ 
 ten since we deciphered the portents three years 
 ago." 
 
 Take courage," answered Almodoro, laving his
 
 A PROPHECY OF THE STARS. 117 
 
 hand caressingly upon Ludovico s ; " it is a trite 
 saying that, in this queer world, the extremity of 
 grief is often the beginning of joy." 
 
 Sforza clasped botli hands over his eyes as 
 though to shut out some pursuing presence ; then, 
 dashing them down, he exclaimed : 
 
 " It is yet time to remedy all. If your words 
 favor I shall leave in the morning for Alessandria. 
 Let us to the terrace is it too soon? Then, 
 while we wait, answer me a question I had in my 
 thoughts all day. You have told me of your wan 
 derings and of wondrous places and strange men. 
 Found you ever a scholar who could trouble your 
 faith in your arts?" 
 
 " What childish words are these ? The truths I 
 have unfolded to you were true to the Priests of 
 Philae, to the Druids of Britain, to the Magi of 
 Atlantis, as they are to-day to the fev patient and 
 zealous students that remain." 
 
 " I marvel not the alchemists are few," mur 
 mured Ludovico, "after my own apprenticeship." 
 
 "For that matter," replied Almodoro, "neither 
 do I. You wore warned at the outset that not one 
 ordinary man in a million could survive even that 
 preliminary discipline which purifies our infirm 
 bodies and leads the perfected spirit to that plane 
 where it gradually becomes superior to the muta 
 tions of nature. The Buddhist who has attained 
 this faculty has the power of walking upon water
 
 118 SFORZA. 
 
 or of floating through the air ; yet how trivial are 
 these vagaries beside the refined influence through 
 which the process of natural decline is averted. 
 The alchemist has quenched every human passion 
 and attachment. Only one flame remains, and this 
 is a reflex of the halo which encircles our mystic 
 cabala. Only he who has lived such a life can 
 judge of its spiritual compensations, its intimate 
 communings with secret principles, its fine per 
 ceptions of the mystery of its own being. Before 
 such a one stretch infinite cycles of experience and 
 discovery. He will follow the growth of nations 
 and outlive them ; he will watch the progress of 
 merely human learning and its decline ; he will 
 see the rise of new religions and their decadence. 
 And, borne irresistibly onward by the vast and 
 subtle forces he has conquered, lie will pass the 
 seas to the dominion of yet untrodden continents, 
 and pluck from the Golden Indies of Columbus 
 the forbidden attributes which the ancients sought 
 in vain." 
 
 The duke started from his half-recumbent ease, 
 apparently intending to break in upon this ab 
 struse discourse with an inquiry, but the sooth 
 sayer went on without heeding : 
 
 " Nor can you discover anything contrary to 
 reason," he continued, " in the principles I taught 
 you. It is often said, Such a one is old, but he 
 retains his faculties and the vigor of his body.
 
 A PROPHECY OF THE STARS. 119 
 
 There is no greater marvel than that lie has not 
 abused them by contradicting those simple rules of 
 longevity, whose minute observance is the alche 
 mist s elementary lesson. Fancy this habit multi 
 plied ail hundredfold in the hourly enforcement of 
 a system both mental and physical, and one of two 
 tilings results : either the novice dies insane, or, if 
 the stars favored his birth in an extraordinary 
 degree, the functions of brain and body may go on 
 for centuries. There is a time in life when the 
 production and exhaustion of the body are equal, 
 when, consequently, there is no loss, no diminution. 
 The Chaldeans began with the inquiry why this 
 balance could not be indefinitely continued ; the 
 alchemist has answered by successfully preserving 
 this subtle poise of his forces. And similarly it 
 has required ages to discover that beyond all 
 human knowledge, which is but an attempt to 
 hide the shame of ignorance, the mind has powers 
 which, when developed, reveal the secrets of the 
 universe. So truly as the transmutation of metals 
 is true, so certainly is perfected man capable of 
 renewing youth. If humanity lives upon the lees 
 of nature, it was none the less our primeval des 
 tiny to be of an unchanging vitality, drawing vigor 
 from the elements about us, and no more suscepti 
 ble to decay than the sunlight or the ocean. At 
 first, when this tremendous possession is ours, we 
 seem to hold all the powers of the infinite ; we
 
 120 SFORZA. 
 
 learn to govern ourselves in proportion as we per 
 ceive that our actions make and unmake our hap 
 piness We find that their effect follows us in 
 regret or in contentment, even through immortal 
 ity ; that it passes with us, day by day, the lines 
 which separate the present from the infinite here 
 after, and from the past ; out of the twilight of 
 bygone years come to us the spectres of bad and 
 ignoble actions. From them we learn to live as 
 men who have risen above the temptation ef their 
 own infirmity." 
 
 Ludovico interrupted this discourse with a bit 
 ter laugh. 
 
 " I can so far agree with you," he said, " that 
 these last days have shown that, even in my fail 
 ure, there remains a spark that can yet be warmed 
 to some purpose. You remember that Barbarigo, 
 of Venice, and I were novices together ; we took 
 the degree of fellowship, and assumed the obli 
 gation that binds your sect for life, or. if you 
 prefer, forever. We both proved unequal to the 
 ordeal, I thinking I should presently become de 
 mented, he fearing he was to be delivered over 
 to the devil. We both returned to the common 
 place of Earth, but the impressions of that extraor 
 dinary schooling remained, and the oath which 
 bound us never to do one another a mischief con 
 tinued. No one could escape the solemnity with 
 which that vow was assumed, and the fearful pen-
 
 .1 PROPHECY OF Till : XTAR8. 121 
 
 alties we each invoked if it were broken. Bar- 
 barigo remembers, and is faithful. In my extrem 
 ity I adjured him, by the pledge of our youth, 
 to relieve me ; and so nmch vigor remains in the 
 memory of that ghostly experience that, at the 
 risk of life, he engages to halt the Venetian troops 
 on the frontier. Hermes has just returned and 
 has told me the story. But come, we lose time ; 
 let us to the terrace. If your arts have value, you 
 shall this night give me straightforward answers." 
 
 The elevation upon which they emerged was a 
 balustraded roof, the approaches to which Ludo- 
 vico bolted before following his companion. 
 
 "How long it seems," he ejaculated, as they 
 stood together, " since we read the heavens ; twas 
 a few w r eeks before her death, well-nigh three 
 years ago." 
 
 " You blamed me then you blame me now 
 for that sad misfortune," answered the alchemist ; 
 "you would have taken my head had I not es 
 caped." 
 
 " I but held you responsible for the failure of 
 one of your devices." 
 
 "But I was not responsible for a thing I did 
 against my judgment, under the extreme pressure 
 of your wife s entreaty, enforced by your own 
 command, llerneniber all that happened, and do 
 me justice. The child had been born a month ; 
 from the first its life had been prolonged with in-
 
 122 SFORZA. 
 
 finite pains from day to day, almost from hour to 
 hour. Slowly that little spark had paled, till, 
 one night when I was summoned, I saw that it 
 could not survive till dawn. Your wife besought 
 me at any cost those were her words to save it. 
 You have never known what I did ; you would 
 listen to no explanation at the time ; in a moment 
 of weakness I imparted to her a secret of our 
 science the prolongation of one life by the sacri 
 fice of another ; to be surrendered, not merely vol 
 untarily, but with an intensity that translates its 
 very essence. She passed, at the hearing, from 
 despair to an heroic self-possession which I con 
 jured her to preserve. I warned her, above all, 
 not to fear for herself. I promised that, through 
 the watches of the night, I would not leave her ; 
 that, at the moment when the child had received 
 the requisite vitality, I would arrest its flow. I 
 was a fool to imagine that unpurified humanity 
 can exercise the loftiest acts of calm and courage. 
 An hour went by ; slowly the babe revived, as, by 
 an intense volition, the mother s life passed to it. 
 Then the color faded from her own face ; she be 
 came unconscious of a sudden I beheld the pal 
 lor of death. In vain I essayed to suspend the 
 flow of animation, something baffled my efforts, 
 finally she opened her eyes and murmured, as one 
 who acknowledges a fault : I did not fear, but I 
 doubted. Alas ! that doubt ruined all ; there she
 
 A PROPHECY OF THE STARS. 103 
 
 lay dead, with the infant asleep in her arms. My 
 failure was followed by an instantaneous relapse 
 in the child look up yonder, high in the second 
 division, you can see them both together one 
 large and bright, with a generous beam, the other 
 small and twinkling they are there, mother and 
 child." 
 
 For these astrological calculations of old, the 
 firmament was conceived as an inverted dome, 
 covered with figures, signs, and letters, through 
 whose shifting relations the master could decipher 
 past, present, and future. Almodoro produced a 
 paper on which were traced certain lines which 
 Ludovico recognized to be the magnetic latitudes 
 of the three regions Empyrium, /Ethereum, and 
 Elementary. 
 
 The wise man fixed his attention upon the stars, 
 occasionally bending down to trace upon the paper 
 a line, or to make a point, whose significance was 
 vaguely guessed by his companion ; gradually it 
 grew to be a chart of Sforza s life ; in its centre 
 a hieroglyph bearing the date of his birth ; and 
 every curve and dot made by the soothsayer ren 
 dered sufficiently distinct by the lamplight, which 
 streamed upon the table from the window behind. 
 
 " How marvellous a scroll is spread above us," 
 softly observed Almodoro, his mind filled with the 
 zest of his pursuit ; " do you remember my ex 
 plaining the indications of the freaks of destiny ?
 
 124 SFORZA. 
 
 Behold how salient they are to-night ; yonder 
 there is a beautiful girl in the promise of life 
 see, she is about to be clutched by a disease that 
 hovers near ; to the right a stalwart cavalier, 
 with seemingly brilliant future, will be cut down 
 in some paltry skirmish to-morrow ; and, stranger 
 than these, mark you there, low on the horizon, 
 that lengthening line, those are lives whose drift 
 is aimless and which rust on in sloth. Seems 
 it not strange that one should find, written 
 among the stars, even the ignoble caprices of 
 Fate?" 
 
 " Be these trifles as you please, let us to our 
 purpose." 
 
 " There is but one serious change : all is much 
 as we found it three years ago, except for a great 
 and newly declared peril ; follow me on this chart 
 and read for yourself. The line of your life begins 
 on the ascendant ; in early manhood comes a 
 crisis ; the line is violently agitated ; all this marks 
 the first accession ; here comes again an extreme 
 peril." 
 
 " Well, and after that ? " 
 
 " The line begins a long, undeviating course." 
 
 " All this means that I stand in imminent dan 
 ger ; that, if I escape, I have a long -future before 
 me ? " 
 
 "Yes, a dozen years at least." 
 
 "Will they be prosperous years ? "
 
 A PROPHECY OF THE STARS. 125 
 
 " They bear an aspect of great calm, as though 
 little troubled by the world." 
 
 " Give me no Delphic utterance ; shall I go to 
 Alessandria to-morrow ? " 
 
 " It is unsafe to approach a battlefield." 
 
 " But is the danger one that belongs to a battle 
 field ? " 
 
 " It is obviously connected with the present 
 war." 
 
 " But I may be assassinated during the present 
 war." 
 
 "That would still come under the portent of 
 arms and the shock of battle, all which is plain to 
 see." 
 
 " How ends the battle plain to see is it a vic 
 tory or a defeat ? " 
 
 " It begins auspiciously ; at its conclusion I 
 behold you standing with several French officers 
 in view perhaps the captive chiefs of the enemy." 
 
 " lo trin mpliG !" cried the duke, raising his 
 hands in exultation. " Methinks I see the rene 
 gade Trivulzio before me. But hark ye, Almo- 
 doro, your forecast is unusually hedged about with 
 doubts. Cannot the stars be made to tell an un 
 equivocal tale ? " 
 
 " Ludovico, I tell you what I read and the infer 
 ences to be drawn; to do more we must resort to 
 that for which I know your aversion, we must 
 summon a familiar."
 
 126 SFORZA. 
 
 " What ! conjure up a lesser devil, and bid him 
 speak the truth ? " 
 
 " I did not say a devil ; I mean a benignant pres 
 ence." 
 
 "I have not known a benignant presence since 
 Beatrice died. Had you power to bring her spirit 
 into communion with mine, I might receive some 
 admonition." 
 
 " Then let us return within, for our task here is 
 accomplished, and you are weary." 
 
 " I once sought in vain," said Sforza, after they 
 had seated themselves in the library, " to see a 
 well-known spirit. I rested a night, some years 
 ago, at the castle of Rimini, and, after supper, we 
 talked of Francesca ; and one present, who was 
 a scholar, repeated the lines wherein Dante de 
 scribes her spectre floating through realms of twi 
 light, till, as the evening wore on, I went out to 
 breathe the crisp air. From the gate leads a 
 promenade along which Francesca and Paolo may 
 have passed in the old romantic days ; and within 
 a half circle of venerable trees is a stone bench, 
 covered with lichens, upon which they may have 
 read together the idyl of Launcelot and Guine 
 vere. I found myself possessed by the mystic in 
 fluence which tradition weaves about the place ; 
 you may say that it was but the transition to the 
 midwinter gloom of the hedgerows from the great 
 wood-fire that blazed in our dining-hall ; but when
 
 A PROPIIKCY OF THE STARS. 1^7 
 
 something sighed in the branches, and an owl flew 
 hooting away. I fully belieyecl I should behold 
 
 \j * it 
 
 Fraucesca and her lover revisiting the scene which 
 memory makes dear to them forever." 
 
 As the duke spoke he became conscious of a 
 slight oppression ; he looked towards Almodoro 
 and beheld the alchemist s gaze fixed intently upon 
 him. Then Ludovico s eves closed, and in fancy 
 he beheld the broad garden by the Adriatic, where, 
 concealed in an arbor, he had waited and watched 
 one day, eight years ago, for the first glimpse of 
 the maiden Beatrice, his bride that was to be, who, 
 all unconscious of his presence, should presently 
 stroll down the walk. 
 
 An enchanted vision recalled the slumbrous 
 stretch of the amaranth-tinted sea, and the olives 
 that bent above him, and the flowering vines that 
 crept to their branches. 
 
 And, as on that day when first he beheld her, 
 she appeared, a tall, graceful figure, with pensive 
 face and lustrous eyes, unchanged and beautiful 
 as ever. He heard the rustle of her lilac satin 
 gown, and noticed the head-dress of her girlhood, 
 the pointed crimson beretta, with gauze floating 
 behind, the tight, golden sleeves of her dress, the 
 chatelaine suspended at her girdle, and the bunch 
 of honeysuckle unfaded in her hand after all these 
 years. 
 
 It was an apparition that, even in his dream,
 
 128 SFORZA. 
 
 thrilled Ludovico as deeply as on that well-remem 
 bered" day. But now he watched for some endear 
 ing sign, or some prophetic utterance, for the eyes 
 met his with wistful and intense desire. But the 
 figure vanished with no other token than that elo 
 quent gaze, and Ludovico awoke and beheld Alnao- 
 doro. The duke was still blinded by the dazzling 
 splendor of that southern sea, and the smell of 
 spectral orange blossoms lingered in his nostrils 
 as he exclaimed : 
 
 " O Almodoro, I have seen Beatrice ! and there 
 was a gentle melancholy upon her face, and she 
 looked upon me fixedly, as though her heart were 
 bursting to speak ; but she passed in silence, with 
 out sign or token, and often have I heard you 
 say that this portends some great, some terrible 
 misfortune ! "
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A HEVELATION. 
 
 THE Italian of four centuries ago lived under in 
 fluences widely different from those which mould 
 his voluble descendant. In the midst of a graceful 
 and cultivated civilization blazed feuds and strifes 
 whose alarms and sufferings were the common 
 place features of existence. Often confronted by 
 stirring and tragic events, and free from the acces 
 sories and distractions of modern ease, people were 
 less given to reading and talking than to thought 
 and action. In the Middle Ages men and women 
 faced danger frequently, and learned not merely to 
 confront it with self-command, but to pluck some 
 ingenious resource even from desperation itself. 
 Hence grew those habits of reticence, of self- 
 restraint, of dissimulation, which speak from the 
 intent, watchful, furtive portraits of the Quattro 
 Cento. 
 
 Amid the whirl of such swift achievement and 
 sudden reverse as fill the pages of mediaeval his 
 tory, had Bernardino Corto passed his life. Tho 
 contemplation of one idea in many aspects had 
 made him reserved and abstracted. He had mused 
 9
 
 130 SFOBZA. 
 
 upon the decline of the Visconti, and their suc 
 cession by the upstart Sforza in Milan ; he had 
 watched the creation of little states along the 
 Adriatic ; he had seen how individuals swayed the 
 Guelph and Ghibelline masses at Florence ; he 
 had laughed to observe at Rome the humblest 
 condottiere captains acquiring vast possessions, 
 and converting their sobriquets to patrician- 
 sounding names. And, consumed by that van 
 ity which sometimes stirs mediocrity to reckless 
 deeds, he sought the chance to carve a soldier s 
 fortune. In the impending collapse of the House 
 of Sforza he recognized his opportunity, and 
 promised himself to rise from the vortex upon his 
 master s shoulders. Inseparably linked with his 
 political aims was the wild aspiration to win the 
 imprisoned duchess, and, by a marriage with this 
 daughter of royalty, to attain a pinnacle equal to 
 the loftiest dream. 
 
 The transition had not been difficult from the 
 inspection of a captive to an impulsive sympa 
 thy, and thence to an occasional visit, when the 
 governor would beguile an hour in telling of his 
 wondrous travels in the Levant, of the doings in 
 Milan, of the painters and writers whose names 
 were becoming famous, of his own dabblings at 
 authorship ; how a companionship formed itself 
 between him and his characters ; how he thought 
 for them, spoke for them, shaped their actions,
 
 A REVELATION. 131 
 
 and, in fancy, shared their peril and measured 
 the temptation of their love. Or, again, lie talked 
 of music, of the latest barcarole of the Venetian 
 gondoliers, and he would take the liite which 
 rested against the wall, and, after some tuning of 
 the unused strings, touch them in vibrating swell 
 of full accords, and sing, till, for an instant, Isa- 
 belle forgot her sorrows, and strayed, where the 
 song led, down the long walk of some romantic 
 glade, or out upon the Adriatic, amid the sparkle 
 of the sunshine and the sea. 
 
 Accustomed as the duchess had been to the fas 
 cination exercised by the witchery of her presence, 
 she was not slow to divine the motive of these ad 
 vances. In the first discouragement of evil days 
 she repelled them with aversion, but, as months 
 went by, the thought repeated itself that, under 
 Ludovico, the governor was supreme in the castle; 
 that the future might bring political vicissitudes; 
 that, with better fortune and a pliant jailer, es 
 cape might be achieved and the sceptre recovered. 
 
 After several years the changes for which jailer 
 and captive had watched with the same envious 
 longing, though from different points of view, had 
 come. And now that the imminent overthrow of 
 Ludovico marked the hour for the unfolding of his 
 designs, Bernardino sought the duchess one even 
 ing, in the determination to make their interview 
 decisive. He was conscious that never before had
 
 132 8FORZA. 
 
 so delicate a task confronted him, but the ardor 
 of his infatuation was stimulated by the very dis 
 tance that held them apart. Often in bygone days 
 he had paced the starlit streets, meditating upon 
 the obduracy which met every advance ; but to 
 night he nerved himself with the boast, familiar to 
 such meditations, that he never yet had failed in 
 any purpose to which the effort of his undivided 
 powers had been applied. 
 
 The duchess received the governor with a 
 kindly greeting at varianc-e with her habitual in 
 difference. She rose with the satisfaction of one 
 who meets an expected friend, and Bernardino be 
 held, with wonder, that she had put off her som 
 bre robes of mourning. He paused, cap in hand, 
 an involuntary instant, seeking, in that moment s 
 pause, to read the meaning of that smiling calm ; 
 the words framed in salutation faltered, and he 
 remained gazing steadfastly upon the woman he 
 loved, in her resplendent attire, and wearing above 
 the heavy braids of her hair the coveted ducal 
 fillet of gold. 
 
 " Your startled look is a rebuke upon me for 
 these changed garments," she said, with sweet, 
 musical utterance; "I know not why I have put 
 ou again this sad, old, faded gown; it must have 
 been caprice, or perhaps the pulse of a hope for the 
 future, the first hope, oh, be it not my last ! But 
 draw near, wish me good-evening, and be seated."
 
 A REVELATION. 133 
 
 The governor advanced, raised to his lips the 
 hand she extended, and said with hesitation, " I 
 come to speak upon matters we have somewhat 
 talked of, the times are so ominous, and the new^s 
 so bad 
 
 The news so bad ! what is the news ? " 
 
 "I cannot iniess how much knowledge of the 
 
 o o 
 
 war has reached you, but 
 
 " I know all ; what then ? " 
 
 " The latest despatch from the front is couched in 
 such terms," answered the governor very slowly, 
 and observing her intently, as though to measure 
 the effect his next words would produce, "that 
 one might almost assume it equal to a declaration 
 that everything is lost." 
 
 The duchess listened with eyes brimming, and 
 with lips trembling with emotion, as one o ercome 
 with joy. 
 
 " Then God has heard the supplications of my 
 despair," she murmured, " and I am saved ! " 
 
 The governor bent compassionately over her, 
 and ventured to lay his hand upon hers as he 
 whispered : 
 
 " Our time is brief, -too brief for tears or use 
 less words ; a great crisis has burst upon us, and 
 it may present such an opportunity as comes but 
 once in a lifetime ; but for the moment we must 
 think of your safety, and your boy s." 
 
 Isabelle looked up in feigned astonishment.
 
 134 SFORZA. 
 
 " What possible danger threatens here ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " It requires courage nothing less than sublime," 
 answered the governor, with eyes fixed intently 
 upon the inquiring face uplifted to him, and 
 speaking with a tinge of sarcasm, " to watch the 
 approach of extreme peril with so much noncha 
 lance. Or is it, perhaps, a child s heedlessness, 
 which fears not because it does not understand ? " 
 
 " Are you serious in these alarms ? " exclaimed 
 the duchess. " If so, speak plainly, I beseech 
 you ; and, as becomes a brave woman, I will listen 
 to the worst." 
 
 "It is fortunate," replied Bernardino, "that in 
 me you have a friend equal to any emergency. 
 " Hark, what is this ? some one comes ! " 
 
 The door of the adjoining room flew wide open 
 as he spoke ; and the boy Francesco, unconscious 
 of the governor s presence, danced in, followed by a 
 dog, about whose ears he had bound a handkerchief. 
 
 " See ! " exclaimed the child gleefully, " he has 
 on his nightcap, it is bedtime for us both." 
 
 How well you love your four-legged playmate," 
 said Bernardino, catching the child for an instant. 
 
 "He never scolds me," replied Francesco, ex 
 plaining his affection as he watched the animal s 
 efforts to clear itself. 
 
 " And will you always be happy together in this 
 castle, you and your dog ? "
 
 A REVELATION. 135 
 
 "While I am a boy, yes," replied Francesco 
 dubiously. 
 
 " Then a time may come when you will be glad 
 to leave us ? " 
 
 " To be sure, when I am a man ; for then I shall 
 be Duke of Milan." 
 
 " Who says you will be Duke of Milan ? " 
 
 " Mamma and my nurse." 
 
 " J3ut your good uncle- is not he Duke of 
 Milan?" 
 
 " I hate him," savagely answered the child, dis 
 engaging himself. " I hate you too," he added 
 with rising color ; " some day I will cut off both 
 your heads! " 
 
 " Venomous little brute ! " thought Bernardino. 
 Then, turning to the duchess, with a smile, he said, 
 " Your son has your own magnificent spirit, but, 
 long before he puts these heroic resolves into 
 action, he will have learned to distinguish those 
 who wish him well." The door slammed violently 
 as he spoke, the boy and his favorite had taken 
 unceremonious leave. The duchess heeded not 
 his words, but returned to the point at which 
 their talk had been interrupted. "Tell me some 
 thing," she said, " of the danger whereof you began 
 to speak." 
 
 " If I understand that question aright, it means 
 that you ask my confidence." 
 
 The duchess bowed her head without speaking.
 
 136 SFORZA. 
 
 " In exchange for your own," pursued Bernardino. 
 " In exchange for mine," assented Isabelle sim- 
 
 " You say you know all ; then you have been 
 told of the massacre at Aenone." 
 
 " Every one but yourself has been talking of it 
 these last five days. " 
 
 " You have heard that a panic seized upon the 
 Italians at Alessandria, that the troops believed 
 themselves sold and became mutinous. And 
 lastly comes a despatch that Sanseverino, unable 
 to maintain his authority, and fearing his own 
 soldiers more than those of King Louis, fled for 
 his life, abandoning the army, whereupon followed 
 a great confusion between those w r ho would fight, 
 others eager to yield, and all hurrying this way 
 and that." 
 
 Isabelle had listened to the last sentence with 
 breathless interest ; she bent forward as Bernar 
 dino finished, and asked softly : 
 
 " And what says Ludovico to all this ? " 
 
 "He is silent and moody, consumed, as it were, 
 by his own thoughts." 
 
 " But you share his thoughts," insisted the 
 duchess, with earnestness and with coquettish in 
 sinuation ; " what are they ? " 
 
 " I know only what all know, that to-morrow 
 the great personages of Milan are to assemble in 
 the Hall of the Signoria, where Ludovico will ex-
 
 A REVELATION. 137 
 
 plain his administration and appeal to the citizens 
 to stand by him." 
 
 Isabelle s face clouded with disappointment. "I 
 thought you more generous," she said reproach 
 fully, " towards a friend whom you declare you 
 esteem, and in whom you know you can confide." 
 
 The governor shrugged his shoulders in vexed 
 impatience at this reproach. But, on the instant, 
 he checked his irritation and answered with un 
 ruffled composure. 
 
 "You do me injustice," he began; "you blame 
 me for not knowing what cannot be divined; you 
 take as nothing the indulgences by which you 
 proiit, each one of which is a breach of duty in me, 
 and some whereof, were they detected, would im 
 peril my life ; you tolerate my presence as one en 
 dures an unavoidable intrusion ; you do not even 
 give me credit for magnanimity, in that I do not 
 thrust upon you the words and the tokens of a 
 passion that is breaking my heart." 
 
 The duchess laughed sardonically in his face. 
 " A line suitor ! " she cried bitterly, " who leaves his 
 darling in a dungeon to suffer insult and privation. 
 Listen," she added, dropping her voice to a tone 
 of infinite tenderness, and fixing upon him the ap 
 pealing look of her Italian eyes ; "if I were a man 
 in your station, and loved a friendless and afflicted 
 woman, I would hazard all to rescue her from the 
 cruelty of her enemies ; and, though I died for it,
 
 138 SFORZA. 
 
 I should feel reward in the knowledge that she 
 could never after think of me without an emotion 
 that would be somewhat akin to mine for her." 
 
 " That were cold comfort to a man in his grave." 
 
 " You cut a sorry figure with your fears for your 
 self and your empty words for me." 
 
 Were this visit known to the duke, I should 
 have good reason to fear, and if these empty words 
 of ours could reach his ears, neither of us would 
 live to see to-morrow s sun." 
 
 "Yet you can stand motionless in your ow r n 
 peril, and leave me helpless in mine. What shall 
 I think of a man whom neither fear nor love can 
 move ? " 
 
 Stung to the quick by this retort, the governor 
 entered at once upon the ruse with which he had 
 prepared himself. The duchess, after her last 
 reply, had moved from him to the end of the* 
 room. The Avindows were open, the night was still, 
 the warm air bore in a vague sweetness of summer 
 perfumes ; they were alone, none could hear or in 
 terrupt, and Bernardino, with brain on fire, nerved 
 himself for the moment which should shape his life. 
 
 He began abruptly, in a tone of nervous excite 
 ment. "Isabelle!" he exclaimed, addressing her 
 for the first time by name, " this impossible situa 
 tion must cease. I have come to-night to end it. 
 I must speak, however briefly, of what you would 
 not hear ; if what I say displeases you, if you heed
 
 A REVELATION. 139 
 
 not my warning, I shall receive my final sentence 
 without demur, and leave 3*011 to your fate." 
 
 The duchess faced him with calm deliberation, 
 and, as he framed his next words, he thought her 
 more beautiful than ever before, but colder than 
 Diana, as she stood there listening, attentive, un 
 ruffled. 
 
 "You have been to me an ideal," he began, "at 
 the same time that your misfortune and your grief 
 appealed to me as they must have touched the 
 compassion of any man who had known your sor 
 row, or seen you helpless and forsaken. Such a 
 passion as neither strength can master, nor absence 
 change, nor disdain extinguish, grew within me. I 
 bore my burden two years in silence. One after 
 noon that I came in from the joyous sunshine and 
 the exuberant happiness of the flowering fields, 
 your sadness, your tears, your apprehensions 
 moved me beyond the repression I had imposed 
 upon myself. I spoke, less as a lover than as a 
 friend and you banished me. My love was hope 
 less : you clung to the thought of one whose affec 
 tion and whose memory were consecrated by the 
 tribulations you had shared together, and by the 
 solemn parting of his last hour. And yet the un 
 worthy thought comforted me that, with your hus 
 band dead, and yourself in the grasp of a relent 
 less enemy, without a soul to appeal to but your 
 confessor and myself, you would be reduced to
 
 140 8FORZA. 
 
 the extremity of despair, and that I should be re 
 called. Months passed an explanation followed, 
 and from that time you have tolerated my presence ; 
 nay, in my musings upon the theme never out of 
 iny thoughts, I have discovered signs that you are 
 not wholly averse to me ; that but for the empty 
 memory you live for, and without the difference in 
 our station, your heart and your soul would speak 
 in answer to mine. And now, in the gathering of 
 strange and terrible events, it is time to determine 
 whether you value my love, or if you think to trifle 
 with it in a way dangerous to us both." 
 
 " Dangerous ! " ejaculated the duchess incredu 
 lously ; " that is a forbidding argument with which 
 to ingratiate yourself." 
 
 " Dangerous ! " hissed the governor, made furi 
 ous by her quiet disdain, " fatal you will find it if 
 you spurn me again." 
 
 " What mean these dark croakings ? " 
 
 " That Ludovico never yet gave warning where 
 or when he strikes. Ah ! you begin to understand 
 you can at length be made to see that your own 
 destinv lianas by his." 
 
 J O / 
 
 " Think you Sforza would dare harm me or Fran- 
 ceschino, when the French are about to take him 
 by the throat?" 
 
 " Alas ! what avails revenge to the dead ? " 
 " The dead ! heart of a fiend that you have, to 
 torment me thus ! "
 
 A REVELATION. 141 
 
 " That which has been done before can be done 
 again," answered Bernardino, launching his long- 
 moditatod shaft. "What availed the French to 
 your husband, living or dead? did they even notice 
 his death, or the manner of it? " 
 
 "What means? AV hy look you thus? One 
 would think you meant " 
 
 " Yes, I do moan it." 
 
 " That Galeazzo died poisoned ! and it was you 
 that suffered so vile an infamy to be accomplished, 
 and you dare to come to me and talk of it ill the 
 same breath you declare your love ! " 
 
 A silence fell upon them. The duchess stood 
 with face averted, with lips convulsed, with moist 
 ened eyes, with ringers clenched in her handker 
 chief. The governor observed her attentively, 
 considering the effect of the stroke upon which all 
 depended. 
 
 "If the memory of an infinite wrong cannot stir 
 you to more than tears," lie said, stepping close to 
 her, surely the sense of a mortal dang. 1 ! to your 
 child will arouse you. It is strange if you knew 
 not what I have told you that (mleax/o died at 
 his uncle s command. That you blame me for his 
 death is saying that you hold the absent responsi 
 ble for what is done without their knowledge. But 
 after all was over, I heard the circumstances of 
 Galeazzo s end ; I was told of the suddenness of 
 the attack, of the cramps that baffled the leech you
 
 142 SFORZA. 
 
 had summoned, of the sweat that bedewed his face 
 as it flushed and paled alternately. That his death 
 removed the last obstruction in Ludovico s path 
 to the throne awakened the suspicion of many ; 
 crushed, persecuted, imprisoned as you were, you 
 heard not the murmur of execration that rose from 
 the populace. The usurper had held the sceptre 
 as regent ; now he sought the coronet for himself. 
 One evening, in conference with the duke, I hinted 
 at the taking off of Galeazzo as a secret I had 
 readily divined, and he started, then looked grave, 
 and answered, Necessity constrained me. Since 
 that night I have led him to speak of the details 
 of his crime, how Landriano urged its commission, 
 and how a juggling conjurer named Almodoro pre 
 pared the fatal drug. You know not the name of 
 Almodoro, the duke s incessant companion ? then 
 to-morrow ask your confessor what he thinks of 
 him, and, when you hear his answer, bear this in 
 mind : that, his task accomplished, the magician 
 vanished and has not been seen in the flesh from 
 that time until a week ago ; and why, think you, 
 should he have returned from his remote hiding- 
 place among the oriental masters of the black art, 
 had not Ludovico summoned him for a second ser 
 vice, he who did the first so well. Be warned in 
 time. If Ludovico dared not put an end to three 
 together, now, after a lapse of years, he will make 
 bold to send the two that remain after the first.
 
 A REVELATION. 143 
 
 The dreadful end of Galeazzo gathers about you 
 and your child, aud I, alone, can save you both." 
 
 With that intensity of volition possible to strong 
 natures, the duchess stifled the emotion of so vio 
 lent a shock and turned to listen. 
 
 Bernardino continued with increasing agitation. 
 "Consent to be mine," lie said, "to share the 
 future with me, and you shall have a revenge so 
 complete, that, from the ruin of Ludovico Sforza, 
 we shall raise ourselves together to power and to 
 the; honors that should be yours, and when that 
 much is readied my crime will be forgotten, and 
 the Church will bestow its benediction upon us as 
 man and wife. 
 
 "Your crime?" whispered the duchess, intent 
 upon his words. 
 
 "Listen," pursued the governor, grown very 
 pale, and speaking fast and low, as though to 
 hasten through the mention of the infamy he had 
 imagined. 
 
 " To me will be entrusted this castle, whose ram 
 parts and whose treasures are now the last sup 
 port that remain to Ludovico. If he hide within 
 its shelter, he shall perish by my hand ; if he fly, 
 leaving me here to defend it, I will proclaim you 
 duchess, and no foothold will remain to him in 
 Italy." 
 
 "If you save me and set me free," answered 
 Isabelle, " you shall have great reward ; if you can
 
 144 SFORZA. 
 
 persuade the French to restore Francesco, you 
 shall name your own honors ; but our fates are 
 not the same, nor can they be happily joined." 
 
 " It shall be that or nothing. I know what is in 
 your thoughts ; you are saying to yourself, the 
 daughter of a king weds not with the governor of a 
 fortress. Do you then take no heed of the strange 
 ups and downs that fill our time ? Have you for 
 gotten how the talents of the first Sforza lifted 
 him to the place of the effete Visconti ? So shall I, 
 with a single le-ip, rise above the remnants of your 
 house and make your dukedom mine. You know 
 me not yet, nor do you measure the intensity of 
 my nature. All my life I have followed few and 
 simple aims, but I have always known my own 
 purpose clearly, and that is a source of infinite 
 strength. And I have loved but once you, only 
 you and such love has an earnestness and an 
 endurance and a purity that no woman can wholly 
 withstand. Now, answer, will you and your child 
 take the torment of Galeazzo s last hour from your 
 enemy, or will you share my fortune and my crime 
 with me ? " 
 
 Isabelle s eyes fell at this question, and the 
 answer demanded came not. Bernardino marked 
 her irresolution, and, thinking her resistance ex 
 hausted, or her judgment overtempted, exclaimed 
 passionately: "Speak! choose between death 
 and Milan ! " And at the words the duchess
 
 A REVELATION. 145 
 
 bowed her head in assent and answered faintly, 
 with the constraint of one who is forced to a deci 
 sion : 
 
 " Since life is at stake, and since nothing less 
 than the sacrifice of myself can save my child 
 be it as yon require. But," she added, looking 
 suddenly up with face changed from white to crim 
 son, "you shall perform your task to the end be 
 fore I see you again. When Ludovico is dead, or 
 a fugitive, and this castle yours, come hither ; and 
 then, whatever the French king reserves for me 
 shall bo equally yours and mine." 
 
 He sprang toward her at the word with out 
 stretched arms, as if to snatch an embrace from 
 the lips that promised surrender ; but with an im 
 perious gesture she stopped him. 
 
 " Hark ! " she said softly, pointing to the open 
 window, " hear you not from afar the watchman s 
 cry ? he calls the hours and adds, All s well ! O 
 Bernardino, may that prove an omen of our future, 
 and when all this is done, may we look into one 
 another s eyes and say -all s well." 
 
 The, governor assented with a smile ; then, with 
 one swift, eloquent look upon her, left the room, 
 and, as the door closed after him, he drew a long, 
 deep sigh of nervous excitement, and muttered : 
 
 "It is done. I have but to strike, and all that 
 the world can give is mine." 
 
 10
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE HALL OF THE SIGNORIA. 
 
 ON the following morning the castle was astir 
 with unwonted activity. It was Sunday, and the 
 solemn gathering of the Signoria, or assemblage of 
 prelates, nobles, and citizens, had been appointed 
 to it, that the conclave and its resolves might bor 
 row from the day something of its spiritual pur 
 pose. To this appeal had Ludovico resorted as a 
 diversion wherewith to cajole from the Milanese a 
 voluntary conscription and a half-involuntary loan ; 
 and to this end he was to review before them the 
 favorable traits of his rule, and foreshadow the 
 calamities which must attend the invader. He 
 had designed to heighten the effect of this dis 
 course by a dramatic release of the duchess, but, 
 to Hermes astonishment, Isabelle refused to leave 
 her prison unless expelled by force. 
 
 Ludovico had prepared himself for this meet 
 ing with perfect confidence in its good effect. At 
 a time when representative government was well 
 nigh unknown, such a convocation was the most 
 flattering of all the arts of political persuasion with 
 which Machiavelli s typical prince could beguile
 
 7V//-: HALL OF THE SIGXORIA. 147 
 
 his subjects ; unfortunately it was also a confession 
 of extreme weakness, for it was resorted to only in 
 the direst straits. 
 
 The populace gathered in animated groups 
 about the space between the castle and the city. 
 The shopman, witli party-colored jacket ; the con- 
 tadina, with white and yellow dress and silver 
 shaft through her braids ; the soldier, with leather 
 doublet and iron casque ; the black-robed scri 
 vener s clerk, and his sweetheart, the milliner s 
 maid ; the swarthy artisans in their Sunday frocks, 
 all jeered and chatted and craned over one an 
 other s shoulders, as, through their midst, walked 
 the nobles followed by servants wearing their mas 
 ter s blazon, or, at intervals, a prelate attended by 
 a couple of sacristans carrying over his head a 
 purple umbrella ; close upon the heels of these 
 came the usurers, reluctantly obeying the sum 
 mons, and glad to follow in the peaceful wake of 
 the monsignori. While few escaped the gibes of 
 the rabble, several who were known to oppose the 
 duke were applauded. 
 
 The jesting and hooting subsided at the ap 
 proach of a dust -covered retinue attending a 
 mounted officer clad from the waist up in the 
 knightly armor which was soon to become obso 
 lete, and with helmet hanging at the saddle-bow. 
 A. muttered execration preceded him, for ho was 
 Sanseverino, the luckless commander of Ludovico s
 
 148 SFORZA. 
 
 army, who had fled after a first misfortune, leaving 
 his regiments to disperse. He sat his horse with 
 fine bearing, for in the lists he possessed a prowess 
 which, with an address in handling troops on the 
 parade ground, had won for him the repute of an 
 accomplished general. Irritated at the taunts of 
 the populace, he spurred his horse to a trot, and, 
 followed by the escort which had accompanied him 
 from Alessandria, disappeared within the castle. 
 While stretching himself after his fatigues in the 
 saddle, and listening to an explanation of the un 
 wonted throng on the piazza, he despatched his 
 seneschal to ask audience of the duke. His mes 
 senger was promptly conducted to the presence of 
 Ludovico, who was in the hands of a hairdresser, 
 having the usual cosmetics applied to his long, 
 soft locks, while another attendant trimmed and 
 polished the nails of his hands. Sforza was 
 dressed, all but the satin cassock which lay folded 
 near by, while before him sat Almodoro, talk 
 ing to beguile the last moments of the duke s 
 toilet. 
 
 " Maledetto ! " ejaculated Ludovico peevishly, 
 as the name of his captain was announced, " he 
 comes untimely : bid him wait until this business 
 is ended, or, stay, he must have weighty news; 
 Almodoro, go you and speak with him ; explain 
 that I must forthwith to the Signoria ; hear what 
 he has to say, and hasten back ; and, hark ye, bid
 
 THE HALL OF THE KIGNORIA. 149 
 
 him keep under cover, or the sight of his face to 
 day will mar all." 
 
 And while the alchemist went on this errand, 
 and while Lndovico ordered his guard of arque- 
 busiers to be summoned, the concourse in the 
 great hall increased, and talked more and more 
 volubly, and groaned at the heat, and derided the 
 bankers who came tardily. The place in which 
 they were gathered had served, for over a century, 
 as council room to the families of Yiscoriti and 
 Sforza, with whose portraits its walls were hung. 
 The latter had succeeded so naturally to the 
 extinct family, that, contrary to the practice of 
 Italian government, the memorials of the previous 
 line remained undisturbed. The only change had 
 been made fifty years before by Duke Francesco, 
 who, returning from a visit to Venice dazzled by 
 the gorgeous effects of the Palace of the Doges, 
 had enriched the Hall of the Signoria with tapes 
 tries and frescoes. At the head of the room was 
 an enclosed space, separated from the audience, 
 and here was Ludovico s chair, near which sat his 
 brother, Cardinal Ascanio, the recipient of osten 
 tatious and unctuous veneration from the prelates 
 admitted to this precinct, and who, in olden days, 
 were the nearest advisers of the Prince. Next in 
 order were the nobles, seated in rows, behind 
 whom, in a dense mass, stood the less favored. 
 
 It was precisely the hour appointed when a
 
 150 SFOEZA. 
 
 door opened, and Ludovico entered, preceded by 
 a group of pages : punctuality, lie was wont to say, 
 is a mark of education. Those who were seated 
 rose as he entered, and he saluted the Signoria 
 with ducal beretta raised from his head, and with 
 a glance of his keen, earnest eyes. He was 
 dressed without any of the insignia of his rank ; a 
 round cap with the crimson border turned up, an 
 edge of frilled linen at the throat, an embroid 
 ered doublet, a sleeveless maroon cassock lined 
 with yellow satin, black silk trunks and untanned 
 shoes. He seated himself, intending to speak as* 
 it were from the throne ; then, as moved by the 
 excitement which gathered about this last attempt 
 to redeem his waning glories, he rose and ad 
 dressed to his listening subjects the appeal whose 
 outline has been preserved by a contemporary. 
 
 He began by reviewing the beneficent features 
 of his rule, or, as he punctiliously named it, his 
 regency. He recalled the improvements and em 
 bellishments lavished upon Milan, and how men 
 distinguished in science and art and letters had 
 been attracted to it. " For," said he, " it has been 
 my ambition to be remembered not only as a 
 statesman, but more especially as a benefactor." 
 
 He passed to an explanation of the necessity 
 which had been upon him of maintaining an 
 armed force, of hiring soldiers from other coun 
 tries, and hence of levying money. " I have
 
 THE HALL OF THE SldXOllIA. 151 
 
 sought," he said, " by being strong, to make our 
 frontiers respected. It is the weak and wealthy 
 who are the readiest objects of attack, and during 
 my regency you have never seen the banners of a 
 foe. If my administration has been costly, it has 
 given you just laws, increased riches, and sub 
 stantial peace. My evil fortune cannot be attrib 
 uted to negligence or imprudence. These present 
 reverses spring from the incapacity or the faith 
 lessness of some on whom to my cost I relied. 
 I have been deceived by masked visages. The 
 harm can be remedied by our joint good will. 
 The support of the Emperor Maximilian is prom 
 ised ; we need but patience and stout hearts, and 
 in a few weeks a valiant army will relieve us. For 
 myself, I declare that I have preferred the labors 
 of government to any personal indulgence. What 
 prince is there in Italy who lias less abused his 
 power ? who has been so gentle and accessible to 
 the humblest ? " 
 
 He continued amid a faint murmur which could 
 scarcely have been taken for applause. 
 
 " They cannot gainsay him," whispered Hermes, 
 standing at the side of Bernardino ( V)rte. 
 
 "No, but they cavil at heart ; mark you how 
 coldly they eye him. He should have flattered 
 their vanity ; as it is, the Signoria will listen and 
 do nothing." 
 
 Perhaps Ludovico was already making similar
 
 152 SFORZA. 
 
 reflections, but he went on unruffled. He had 
 little more than spoken these opening sentences 
 when angry voices were heard at the entrance. 
 Hermes left noiselessly by the private door, and 
 discovered that the disturbance arose from Almo- 
 doro s attempt to enter after the delivery of his 
 message to Sanseveriiio, and when the hall was 
 filled and the duke s address commenced. The 
 alchemist, perceiving the inconvenience his en 
 deavor caused, would have withdrawn, but, as he 
 turned, a man, against whom he jostled, assailed 
 him with a torrent of abuse. When Hermes 
 reached the scene, this personage was pouring 
 forth a stream of invective such as only the volu 
 bility and the intensity of an Italian can sustain. 
 His body quivered with rage, he had dashed his 
 hat upon the ground, his arms cut the air with 
 gestures, his hands now clenched, his fingers now 
 extended in the speaking movements with which 
 the Latins emphasize their words. Before him, 
 pale, erect, silent, stood the alchemist, his tall 
 figure drawn up, his face intent, a dangerous fire 
 rising in his eyes. Pressing about them were the 
 two or three score who had been unable to gain 
 admittance. Suddenly Almodoro stepped forward, 
 and, with a quick swinging movement of his right 
 hand, dealt the other a heavy slap in the face. 
 
 In the confusion which followed, Hermes vainly 
 strove to interpose between them. The throng
 
 THE HALL OF THE S1GNORTA. 153 
 
 increased, but as the law of Milan forbade the 
 carrying of weapons within the city, the excited 
 me 11 who surged and clamored were without the 
 means of inflicting very dangerous strokes. Her 
 mes, feeling himself rudely pushed by some one 
 elbowing his way backward, seized the new-comer 
 violently, when, catching a glimpse of his face, he 
 took him by the shoulders and dragged him clear 
 of the crowd. 
 
 " There, Narvae/," he said with a laugh, as the 
 fencer s angered features w r ere revealed, " you are 
 more obliged to me for bringing you out of that 
 rabble than I am to you for trying to fracture my 
 ribs. What a gorgeous figure ! Per Bacco, where 
 got you that silvery cape ? " 
 
 The Spaniard had used a handful of the duke s 
 gold to purchase an outfit of unusual richness, 
 and, imitation being the sincerest flattery, Hermes 
 smiled to see his own dress and ornaments repro 
 duced, the hair gathered in a net, the bracelets 
 on the left wrist, the slashed doublet, the beretta 
 with cluster of brilliants, the silk cloak shot with 
 silver thread. 
 
 You have a graceful way of walking through a 
 crowd, backward, with both elbows going," he 
 continued. 
 
 " I meant to reach Messer Almodoro : hark ye, 
 padrone, I fear he may be hurt." 
 
 " And what concern is that of yours? "
 
 154 SFORZA. 
 
 "None, but it was a tempting quarrel; besides, 
 within the door sits you know whom I mean." 
 
 " Ha ! I guess it, the widow who is sworn to 
 marry you whether or no, am I right ? And she 
 gave you one amorous look, and you fled." 
 
 " Jesting aside, Almodoro is one against many, 
 and delivered that stroke with a fervor I could 
 not have surpassed. But he comes; see! they 
 make place for him." 
 
 " Then let us move aside ; we will walk as far as 
 the piazza ; you need have no further fear for the 
 magician. Come with me." 
 
 " You know him well ? " 
 
 " I know of him well." 
 
 " And can one believe the marvellous things 
 told of his art ? " 
 
 " No doubt, because they are vouched for to his 
 discredit by the monsignori, and even by Cardinal 
 Ascanio. His famous adventure with a siren rests 
 upon their declaration, when charges were made 
 before the Holy Office, so, of course, it must be 
 true." 
 
 " I never heard of it. What did he with the 
 siren ? " 
 
 " There are some rocks in the sea near Amain 
 called the Siren Islands, and famoiis since the 
 days of Ulysses. If you sail about them, as I have 
 done, you can see the bold face of the cliffs catch 
 ing the flushes of dawn, and the waves dashing in
 
 THE HALL OF THE S1GXOR1A. 155 
 
 and tossing the spray aloft like a banner. "Tis 
 there the sirens lurk far do\vn in the deep sea 
 caves, or bask in the sunshine on the water. Few 
 ever got more than a distant peep at them, -till 
 Almodoro caught one and brought her alive to 
 Milan." 
 
 " Mercy ! " ejaculated the Spaniard ; " with what 
 bait should one cast for a mermaid ?" 
 
 You are right," answered Hermes, smiling at 
 the fencer s earnestness, " that it required an ex 
 traordinary lure. These sirens already possess 
 most of the things the black art can bestow, per 
 petual youth, changeless beauty, fascination upon 
 whoever sees them : the, difficulty was to get within 
 speaking distance ; that gained, and one of them 
 listening, Almodoro offered her the one faculty she 
 had not the gift to renew and rekindle the pleas 
 ures and memories and loves of the past." 
 
 "What could the wizard want with her?" 
 
 "To make; her tell the future; for sirens can 
 read events to come almost as well as sibyls. And, 
 once in his power, lie wrung from her all the 
 secrets of the sea, and made, her reveal the story 
 of a thousand vears to come. But it lasted onlv 
 a few days; then the beautiful color the fair 
 weather of ages had laid on her cheeks, and the 
 violet green that her ryes had caught from the 
 sparkling brine, faded, and she pined away." 
 
 " What ! she died ? "
 
 156 SFORZA. 
 
 " Yes, woman-like slie craved the only thing 
 impossible for her to possess." 
 
 "And that was ?" 
 
 " Almodoro s love : tis an odd story, but I meant 
 not to waste so many minutes telling it. Come, 
 let us walk faster." 
 
 " You will not stay and listen to the duke? " 
 
 " Why should I ? he is not talking to me, nor to 
 you either. Come, I have seen you but once since 
 our return from Venice." 
 
 " Well, that was but a week ago, and doubtless 
 you have been very busy since then." 
 
 " In these anxious days who has been idle ? " 
 
 " Ah, but I mean busy with something the 
 thought whereof makes the eyes glisten and the 
 heart beat, is it not rightly called Bianca Eucel- 
 lai ? " 
 
 " Beatissima ! and do you, too, thrust gibes at 
 me because I love a pretty woman ? " 
 
 " Do you really love her ? " inquired Narvaez, 
 with interest grown suddenly serious. 
 
 "I do," replied the other earnestly. "I love 
 her as she should be loved." 
 
 "But not enough to wed!" asked the fencer, 
 turning upon him a face strangely flushed. " Re 
 member," he continued, with a furtive, sidelong 
 glance, the lines of our Spanish rime, that love, 
 like a lute, often needs fresh strings." 
 
 " And why not enough to wed ? And what mat-
 
 THE H.\J.L or mi: xi 
 
 tor is it to you whom I wed ? One would think 
 you h;i;l never loved a beautiful girl yourself." 
 
 I never have/ replied Narvaez, with an ab 
 stracted air. 
 
 " By my troth, I would no more be friends with 
 a youth who makes such an avowal, but that I 
 know you to be a hero. O Xarvaez, it was sub 
 lime in you to take my place before the Star 
 Chamber ! " 
 
 "Old Barbarigo bade me do so." 
 
 " But you risked your life." 
 
 "So he said." 
 
 " You did not slip a noose about your neck for 
 nothing. Now, what reward can I offer you ? " 
 
 " Cannot one be generous without being thought 
 mercenarv ? " 
 
 " But you did it for me, who am no more to you 
 than yonder branch rustling in the sunlight." 
 
 " One would think you were trying to pick a 
 quarrel over it. Listen ; since vou must reward 
 me, I will have this or nothing. You shall tell me 
 what was in that odd triangular letter that so 
 worked upon the doge ; surely, now that all is 
 over, it wore no harm to tell! " 
 
 "You shall share the little I know about it, but 
 there maybe eavesdroppers among these houses; 
 let us cross the; piazza." 
 
 Passing down a street whose centre was divided 
 by an odorous gutter, they came to the Piazza
 
 158 SFORZA. 
 
 de Mercanti, which had recently been cleared, 
 and which, with other improvements, had so em 
 bellished the city that, in the popular phrase, 
 II Moro had changed Milan from a spinster to a 
 fair maiden. Only one ancient building remained 
 upon this square, a tower ornamented at the top 
 with stone busts of generals of a century before, 
 which the designer had so pierced with apertures 
 that the wind blowing through them on stormy 
 nights made a dismal, whistling noise. They were 
 a sorry group that had been so gallant in their 
 prime, with here and there a nose or an ear or a 
 chin missing, and all stained and weatherbeaten, 
 and, on a boisterous night, moaning and shrilling 
 their forlorn condition till the tower gained an evil 
 repute. At another extremity of the piazza w r as a 
 building, recently renovated, which was the palace 
 of the Holy Inquisition, where heretics were tried, 
 and blasphemers flogged, and Jews fined, and deal 
 ers in the black art racked. Above its terraced 
 roof was a weather-vane in the form of a man, 
 which Hermes remembered of old ; for, as a child, 
 he had often watched it at dusk from his nursery 
 window, swerving in the breeze, and, to his boyish 
 fancy, seeming a shape of ill omen. In later years 
 his dislike of it increased, for when, at twilight, 
 he beheld its misty figure veering above the shad 
 owy roof-tops, it seemed to his imagination pos 
 sessed of satanic intelligence, and pointing, with
 
 777 K HALL OF THE XI(1X()RIA. 159 
 
 fiendish humor, at tlie follies and failures of his 
 life. 
 
 " You ask mo about that mysterious letter," 
 resumed Hermes thoughtfully. " From something 
 the duke said, it must have contained an allusion 
 to some sorceries of the doge s which bind him 
 yet. Old men like Barbarigo are great favorites 
 with witches ; they will cackle when they catch one, 
 like poor people laughing at a rich man s joke." 
 
 " But ho\v could the duke know of Barbarigo s 
 sorceries ? " 
 
 Doubtless from Almodoro. He is a Venetian 
 and as old as a church ; perhaps he was impli 
 cated, and, noAV that he is my uncle s soothsayer, 
 may have furnished a useful hint." 
 
 "And was it for such wanton trifles we were 
 sent on that mad adventure? " 
 
 " At least I stipulated a splendid reward. Can 
 you keep a secret? I bargained that the duchess 
 and Francesco be released, and that their captivity 
 end : I have done my utmost ; what sad fate awaits 
 them I know not, but at least they are free." 
 
 "That was bravely done, and like you; but a 
 week lias passed and they are still in the castle ?" 
 
 "They could not be turned adrift at an hour s 
 notice, but in a day or two I shall persuade Isa 
 bella to 
 
 Hermes paused involuntarily as a sudden ex 
 pression of unconscious repugnance appeared upon
 
 100 SFORZA. 
 
 Narvaez face ; and, turning to seek its cause, lie 
 beheld the alchemist following, with gaze fixed 
 intently upon them, and with an amused expres 
 sion as he perceived the concern his appearance 
 produced. 
 
 "Pardon me," he said suavely to Hermes, "if I 
 have come unwittingly upon your confidences ; but 
 blame me not, for the streets are free to all, and 
 you should not blurt strange tidings." 
 
 "You have the reputation," answered Hermes 
 bitterly, "of surprising many secrets; but you 
 shall rue this meeting if you betray what you have 
 overheard ! " 
 
 " Rue this meeting ! " repeated the alchemist 
 with sneering imitation ; " what must I understand 
 from such harsh words ? " 
 
 " That the will gains upon me to run you through 
 the body, and to end at once your eavesdropping 
 and your wizard s tricks." 
 
 "lam unarmed," answered Almodoro gravely, 
 "as the law commands all honest citizens to be. 
 You bear a rapier through that exemption which 
 extends to an officer. But swords are committed 
 to the duke s captains for nobler uses than that 
 you contemplate. A day s ride from here are 
 twenty thousand enemies of your family; but 
 lately there was an encounter with them ; were 
 you there to draw upon an armed foe the blade 
 with which you threaten me ? "
 
 THE HALL OF THE SWXOIUA. 161 
 
 Before Hermes could answer this taunt with the 
 defiance that sprang to his lips, the soothsayer 
 waved him back. 
 
 "Since this release is Ludovico s pleasure," he 
 said, " what care I further ? As for you, Sforza, 
 since you are thus eager for blood, be 011 your 
 guard at the next Ottobrata, for one shall cross 
 your path then who will do you a mischief. And 
 at Christmas think of me, and remember the prov 
 erb, lJ7/^/.v conic qidt l lij to unguarded treasure. 
 Then, casting a searching look upon Narvaez, he 
 added : 
 
 "Bold youth, I have 110 weapon, but I will smile 
 you with a whisper a syllable in your ear." 
 
 Hermes, watching the alchemist as he moved 
 to the side of Narvaez, saw the fencer reel back 
 before the faint words as though before some dire 
 ful stroke. Then Almodoro laughed softly, and 
 said aloud to Xarvaez, who stood gazing speech 
 less upon him : 
 
 "The truth peeps from your eyes it always 
 does for me." 
 
 The Spaniard labored under such intense dis 
 tress that Hermes, regarding Almodoro no further, 
 stepped to his side, and, taking him about the, 
 shoulder, said : 
 
 " Heed him not, man, but pluck up a brave heart ; 
 and look! he goes away; therefore be comforted. 
 In truth he has a ready wit, and if his sword be 
 11
 
 162 SFORZA. 
 
 as keen as his tongue - but what was it he 
 whispered? " 
 
 " Ask me not," answered the fencer faintly, gaz 
 ing with a relieved expression after the retreating 
 figure : " that strange being is no man that reads 
 in people s thoughts ! " 
 
 "As a friend, I beseech you, confide in me the 
 words that so strangely startled you." 
 
 "There are things which cannot be told." 
 
 " So you, too, have a secret ? " 
 
 " Alas, yes. I may tell it you on my deathbed, 
 but never before."
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 LAGO LARIO. 
 
 THREE days after Sforza s fruitless appeal to the 
 Signoria, a travelling retinue of unusual proportions 
 was collected at daybreak in the courtyard of the 
 castle. There were horses for the duke and his 
 companions, mules for the servants and baggage, 
 and the chargers of a score of knights who were to 
 escort Ludovico in the flight which the advance of 
 the French and the disaffected state of his capital 
 rendered necessary. His last resource was now to 
 seek assistance from abroad, and he was about 
 to depart silently, so that, before the Milanese 
 divined his purpose, he should be hastening from 
 among them. 
 
 The preceding day had boon devoted to calculat 
 ing the resources of the castle against the siege it 
 must presently sustain, and in visiting the ram 
 parts which were being made ready for defence : 
 in good and valiant Bernardino Corte s hands it 
 was to endure as a pivot for operations when the 
 duke should return with a host of Swiss mer 
 cenaries. Into it were collected eighteen hundred 
 cannon of various shapes and sizes, a year s pro-
 
 164 SFORZA. 
 
 visions for three thousand men, and in the great 
 keep were stored the jewels and part of the treas 
 ure. To the governor s fealty all this was con 
 fided with the charge, " Defend it as you would 
 your own for four months ; if within that time you 
 are hard pressed and I come not, you may make 
 terms." To which injunction Bernardino answered 
 with vehement protestation that, while his life 
 continued, the castle should not yield to less 
 than an enemy swarming in over demolished ram 
 parts. 
 
 Among those assembled were Herrnes, equipped 
 to the gauntlets for the journey to Innsbruck, and 
 Narvaez, who had come to report to his patron. 
 They had supped together the previous evening, 
 but, the intended flight being a military secret, 
 Hermes, at parting, had merely bidden his com 
 panion come at dawn, and so Narvaez, wrapped in 
 a white cloak, arrived betimes, and wondered at 
 the groups and the caparisoned horses, and the 
 knights stamping and fault-finding as their armor 
 was buckled on, and the files of men hastening to 
 the treasure-keep and back, bringing small barrels 
 of ducats. 
 
 And as Narvaez, standing by a great pile of 
 stone cannon-balls, watched and listened, Hermes 
 appeared and tapped him on the shoulder. 
 
 " You see," he began, " it was for a leave-taking 
 I bade you."
 
 LA GO LMllO. 165 
 
 " I divined it, replied the fencer ; " and now I 
 cannot shake off a premonition that, if we part, it 
 will be to meet no more." 
 
 "That is last night s Barolo," replied Hermes, 
 laughing ; then, changing his bantering tone to 
 one of sadness, he added, " yon are to await my 
 return ; for during this absence you can render 
 me a favor I shall always value." 
 
 " Say not so, dear Hermes, illustrissimo, but 
 take me with you ; I served well enough once be 
 fore to l)e trusted now." 
 
 "Alas, this is to be an absence of months, with 
 long days on horseback, and you are not famous 
 as a rider." 
 
 " How dreadful it will be in Milan ! A foreign 
 army, no fencing, and you gone. The days will be 
 more sombre than an old man s dream ; .and as for 
 me, I shall grow as melancholy as a caged bird to 
 which no one speaks." 
 
 "You have the widow to turn to." 
 
 " I will set her at the French." 
 
 " In truth I feel sorry for you, but vastly more 
 so for myself, thus chased forth perhaps for 
 ever." Then, catching the Spaniard s hands, he 
 added : " If you think of me sometimes, remember 
 only the pleasant days we have spent together 
 the tourneys and races we have watched the 
 Sunday afternoons at Monza ah me, Narvaez, a 
 niu ht like this makes one think that if we knew
 
 166 RFORZA. 
 
 beforehand the disappointments of the future, 
 hardly a man would care to live ! " 
 
 " Oh, take me with you," pleaded the fencer 
 beseechingly; "you know I mind no hardship, and 
 we shall comfort one another in exile." 
 
 "It cannot be, for there is an infinite service 
 you must render me here in Milan. I have con 
 fided to you that I love a beautiful girl : I have 
 not told you how artless she is, how trustful, 
 how untaught by the lessons of the world ; if 
 she remain here through all these calamitous 
 days- 
 
 The request that was to follow died on Hermes 
 lips, as, to his astonishment, Narvaez grew livid 
 with anger, and, without another word, turned on 
 his heel and walked rapidly away. Before Hermes 
 had recovered from his surprise, his uncle called 
 him. 
 
 Ludovico spoke in quick, earnest words. " The 
 moment has come," he said, " when I must trans 
 fer Isabelle and Francesco to your care, whether 
 they will or no ; set them free, commit them to the 
 French, or lead them to some remote province : it 
 is yours to decide." Then, beckoning the gover 
 nor, who was feverishly urging on the preparations, 
 he desired him to summon the duchess. 
 
 " Here, in the cortile, before all these men ! " 
 objected the governor, aghast at his master s com 
 mand.
 
 LA GO LA If 10. 107 
 
 " And why not? " retorted the duke; " do pris 
 oners no longer come when bidden, or is not this 
 courtyard good enough to set her free?" 
 
 " Free ! " echoed the other, whose visually ready 
 intelligence seemed stunned behind his discon 
 certed visage ; then, recovering himself with an 
 effort, he bowed and hastened away. 
 
 But he went no further than the guard-room 
 at the entrance of the building in which Isabelle 
 had been secluded, and here he threw himself 
 upon a bench and fell into a tremulous cogita 
 tion. 
 
 The duchess had been released by him at dusk 
 on the previous evening, and was now far 011 her 
 way to meet the French, her boy remaining in 
 Bernardino s quarters while she made this early 
 overture for the surrender of the unconquerable 
 castle. The little Francesco was guaranty that, at 
 her restoration, the governor s good offices should 
 be. rewarded. For two days Bernardino had been 
 in frequent converse with the duke, and, through 
 all the instructions given him, no word had been 
 spoken of Galeazzo s widow. He had assumed 
 that she would be left in his custody, and that the 
 haste and preoccupation of Ludovico s departure 
 would prevent a final interview. At Isabella s en 
 treaty, and upon her insistence that they must 
 be beforehand with their proposal, he had braved 
 the risk and set her free. And now the prisoner
 
 168 SFORZA. 
 
 must be instantly produced, at the alternative of 
 exposure. 
 
 In that age of action and of sanguinary emergen 
 cies, men reached determinations promptly. The 
 governor sprang up the stairway to the vacant 
 apartment, and, locking its heavy doors, tossed 
 the key away. Then, hurrying to his own quar 
 ters, he found there a lieutenant of the guard and 
 half a dozen arquebusiers. He called the officer 
 aside, with a grim smile at the chance which 
 brought that particular man on duty. 
 
 " Cola," he began, " I have but one minute to 
 speak ; shall I use that minute to make your for 
 tune ? " 
 
 "Si, signore," replied the lieutenant, with a sin 
 ister twinkle of the eyes. 
 
 " Promise your men a hundred ducats apiece if 
 the work is well done. For yourself a thousand, 
 and that vacant captaincy we spoke of." 
 
 " Si, signore." 
 
 " You are to do precisely what I tell you, and be 
 deaf, dumb, and blind to all beside." 
 
 " Si, signore." 
 
 " I shall enter this courtyard presently with one 
 person, perhaps with several. If I fold my arms 
 thus, the portcullis must be lowered ; if I drop my 
 handkerchief, you and your fellows are to run to 
 me and mind, Cola, there are to be no wounded 
 it must be neatlv done."
 
 LAGO LARK). 1GQ 
 
 "Si, signore." 
 
 " It matters not who the persons may be, even 
 were one of them the duke himself." 
 
 " But, signore ! " 
 
 "Tush! I must away. When all is done, you 
 shall choose yourself a sweetheart." 
 
 When Bernardino returned to the presence of 
 the duke, he found Ludovico bidding good-bv to 
 his two little boys, whom their uncle Ascanio was 
 about to conduct to a refuge in Germany. The 
 cardinal had put oil his habitual robes and also 
 his usual suavity. Had his advice been followed, 
 a douceur would have been paid the French as 
 their " damages." But the high treasurer Landri- 
 ano had scoffed at this, and now the French were 
 upon them, and all was lost. And likewise he had 
 objected to the appointment of Bernardino Corte to 
 so supreme a trust as the command of the castle ; 
 but Bernardino had been chosen despite his pro 
 test, and so the cardinal was vexed, and answered 
 in monosyllables when his brother addressed him. 
 
 And as Ludovico stood chatting with his boys, 
 IK; noticed the waiting governor, and sa\v that 
 he had returned without Isabella, and then his 
 sombre; brow grew darker as he asked : 
 
 "Why have you not brought the duchess, as I 
 bade you ? " 
 
 " Because," answered the governor with pro 
 found deference, "she refuses to come."
 
 170 SFORZA. 
 
 At this extraordinary declaration the cardinal 
 laughed sardonically, while Almodoro gazed in 
 amazement at the speaker, and even the guards 
 looked up from their work. Then Sforza asked 
 angrily : 
 
 " Did not you command her in my name ? " 
 
 "I did; but at this early hour she has not yet 
 risen : moreover the door was locked, and she re 
 fused to open it." 
 
 " And how is it that you leave to a prisoner the 
 means to lock herself in and thus defy you ? " 
 
 " I did so in obedience to your own order, that, 
 apart from the daily inspection, the duchess be at 
 liberty to seclude herself." 
 
 " Then call an armorer to beat in that door upon 
 the instant quick ! an armorer and a couple of 
 men." 
 
 The cardinal, who stood listening, grew merry 
 over this discourse, and chuckled as he said : 
 
 " It will be a lengthy process breaking in your 
 jail doors, and, ere you return, I and the children 
 will be on our way : see, it is almost sunrise, and 
 we have but twelve hours start of the French." 
 
 " The French ! a leprosy upon them ! " retorted 
 Ludovico. "Yet stay, Ascanio, I would have a 
 moment with you some other must look to this 
 woman Hermes, it shall be you you begged the 
 witch s release, go and deal with her as you will." 
 
 Hermes lost no time in availing himself of this
 
 LA GO LA mo. 171 
 
 permission : followed by Bernardino Corte, lie 
 started in the direction of the building the duch 
 ess had occupied. It would have fared ill with 
 him had he passed out of view of his companions, 
 for at his heels walked Bernardino with hand laid 
 upon the read_\ poniard ; but the quick eye of 
 Hermes noticed the open shutters of Isabelle s 
 rooms. He halted abruptly, turned a suspicious 
 glance toward his comrade, observed the gover 
 nor s right hand instinctively tightening upon his 
 stiletto, then, with a backward step, he brought 
 the heavy rapier within reach. At this the gov 
 ernor made an odd grimace, and threw his hands 
 aloft in vehement remonstrance, and poured forth 
 a torrent of reproach. 
 
 Did the friend who had been his boon com 
 panion suspect him? and, if so, of what? And 
 otherwise, what meant this strange menace ? why 
 scowled ho thus ? and why stood he ready to draw 
 upon one who extended the grasp of fellowship? 
 
 To all which Hermes answered impatiently : 
 "Those shades have not been closed since yester 
 day ; the duchess is no longer there where is 
 she?" 
 
 The governor cast aside as useless the denial that 
 rose to his lips. He reflected in that brief pause 
 that his life was now at stake, that a few min 
 utes must be gained, that Hermes must be coaxed 
 fifty paces further, just out of sight of those in the
 
 172 SFORZA. 
 
 court. He answered, therefore, without hesitation : 
 " I intended, as soon as we were beyond the reach 
 of observers, to tell you the dreadful secret, that 
 the duchess escaped with her child last night." 
 
 " Escaped ! none ever before escaped from this 
 castle. Speak me the truth you have killed 
 her ! Oh, cruel-hearted ! was it by the duke s 
 command, or does it hide some greater infamy of 
 your own ? " 
 
 At another time Bernardino would have been 
 quick to resent such words, but he had now a more 
 sinister purpose than the usual appeal to weapons, 
 and he mastered his auger and answered : 
 
 " These are harsh words, Hermes, but they are 
 uttered in hasty misunderstanding, and you will 
 recall them when I tell you all." 
 
 "Tell it then quickly, ere I summon the guard." 
 
 A vindictive flush passed over the governor s 
 face at this threat as he replied, with a smile : 
 " Come with me and I will do more than tell ; I 
 will prove the truth." 
 
 " How will you prove it ? " 
 
 " Through those who discovered her flight, and 
 who, at my order, made vigorous pursuit, only to 
 learn at a late hour that the fugitives were still 
 miles ahead on the road to Pavia." 
 
 " And where am I to hear this tale ? " 
 
 "At my own quarters." 
 
 " And thence to the bottom of an oubliette.
 
 LA tin LMtio. 17:5 
 
 Look von, Bernardino, of all this you shall clear 
 yourself upon the instant and before the duke." 
 
 The governor folded his arms in silence. And 
 as he did so the air was filled with the clamor of a 
 throng outside the castle. At the sound Hermes 
 sprang back to the entrance, and, as he passed the 
 gate, the portcullis fell behind him. He divined 
 at a glance what had happened. The depart 
 ure of Cardinal Ascaiiio and the Sfor/a boys had 
 attracted a great crowd, and when Ludovico sal 
 lied forth with his attendants and the train of pack 
 mules, a cry arose that the city was abandoned 
 to the enemy, and his progress was opposed with 
 staves and stones till, at Sanseveriiu/s command, 
 the knights laid lance in rest and charged, open 
 ing a broad avenue, upon which they left here and 
 there a lacerated body, pierced, and trampled by 
 the horses. The news flew, and from far and near 
 men came running with savage cries. For twenty 
 years the Milanese had grumbled at Ludovico s 
 presence : now they cursed his flight. Their own 
 apathy was forgotten, and they would fain have 
 presented their usurper in chains to the French. 
 Bnt Si orza heeded not, as, with a wave of the 
 hand, he urged his followers towards the highway : 
 then he called to the people : 
 
 " Forbear bloodshed ; you will have sorrows 
 enough ere long ; " and, borrowing from a homely 
 proverb, he cried, with a defiant gesture :
 
 174 SFORZA. 
 
 " The King of France has come to dine with me, 
 but it is with yon that he shall stay to sup." 
 
 The cavalcade started afresh, while the escort 
 wheeled and covered its departure. A mile beyond 
 the walls the duke halted and allowed his followers 
 to gain some distance ; then, dismounting, he ap 
 proached a tablet which stood in a cluster of wil 
 lows overlooking the river. It marked the grave 
 of Beatrice ; here had been her favorite walk to and 
 fro across the grass and the wild flowers ; often 
 she had sat in meditation upon a fallen oak, whose 
 trunk still lay half in shade and half in flickering 
 sunlight, and here, beneath the familiar shelter, 
 and in the place which, in life, had been her ac 
 customed retreat, she had asked to be buried. 
 Ludovico remembered how once he had accom 
 panied her to this spot, and how, through her 
 girlish ways and jesting humor, she had disclosed 
 strange and startling ambitions, inciting him to 
 dazzling ventures and taunting him with timidity, 
 and saying, as she tossed the jessamines at her 
 bodice into the Olona : 
 
 " See how idly fine resolves drift upon a slug 
 gish current ! " 
 
 And now he was there alone, and time had made 
 sad havoc with their jessamines. In that place 
 each humble object before him, the associations 
 that sprang to remembrance, and even the thou 
 sand inanimate voices of nature, all spoke of the
 
 r,AUO LARK). 175 
 
 faithful and valiant heart that was at rest. Ho 
 bent with infinite tenderness, and kissed the stone 
 on which his dead wife s name was carved ; then, 
 as lie mounted the horse that Almodoro held, the 
 alchemist whispered a word of encouragement. 
 
 " It is all a fool s trick," muttered the duke, as 
 they rode forward. " Have you, who spend your 
 days in the scrutiny of strange things, ever found 
 a queerer puzzle than the ups and downs of the 
 world ? I often think there is a malevolent force 
 all ages have called it by the name of some 
 divinity that baffles our hopes, and mocks at our 
 sorrows, and bewilders the future. But look, they 
 beckon us, let us on ; time presses and we have 
 far to go." 
 
 They trotted ahead as fast as the treasure-mules 
 could be urged. In the crisp October morning 
 the broad rice-fields mellowed to yellow stubble, 
 and the creepers that the first chill of autumn 
 had touched, hung in crimson garlands along the 
 russet hedges. Here and there, among stately 
 poplars, were farm-houses witli thatched roofs 
 that, afar, resembled the pointed haystacks on the 
 horizon. At intervals along the leafless forest a 
 cypress stood like a sombre shadow, while, in the 
 misty distance, the crooked olive-trees raised their 
 branches in tints of silver grey. The air Avas still, 
 but for an occasional hum of insect life, and 
 so clear that, as they advanced, the faint white
 
 17C SFORZA. 
 
 outline of the Alps became brilliant and glisten 
 ing. They approached Como by a road skirted 
 with villas and gardens such as the Italian imag 
 ines, with ancient statues, and shady alleys, and 
 shrubs curiously trimmed to the semblance of 
 centaurs and dragons. The long straight walks 
 were strewn with tiny twigs and leaves of last 
 summer, and were stained in places with a dark 
 green mould. There was the soft splash of water 
 trickling from huge, mossy vases, and here and 
 there, through a break in the foliage, struck an ar 
 rowy shaft of sunlight. Upon all rested an atmos 
 phere of delicious repose, of high-bred antiquity, 
 as though successive generations had delighted 
 to touch the lanes and arbors and parterres with 
 taste and refinement, and to people the solitudes 
 of cool, deep shade with marble images of poesy. 
 Half an hour later three large, square-sailed 
 barges bore Ludovico and his companions and his 
 treasure out of sight of the little port, with its 
 array of pink and lemon Venetian blinds, and, 
 along the quay, the tables of the venders, and, 
 in their midst, three sculptured Apostles, whose 
 gaze was wistfully fixed across the water, as they 
 raised their broken and lichen-grown fingers in 
 benediction. Swiftly impelled by the long oars of 
 the boatmen, they steered across the bends and 
 expanses of the lake, whose glassy surface reflected 
 the rocks, the overleaning foliage, and the sun-
 
 LAGO LAHIO. 177 
 
 flushed crags in ricli, deep coloring of marble 
 tints. 
 
 On lofty points stood vine-grown towers, while 
 in the distance appeared the Alps, touched in the 
 sunlight with opalescent hues. At the prow sat 
 Ludovico and Hermes and Almodoro, gazing on 
 the motionless tranquillity of the scene before 
 them, and heedless, for the hour, of the perils and 
 difficulties to come. Hermes had more than once 
 traversed the lake, and he knew the names of the 
 picturesque villages, with their quaint belfries 
 and arcades, and fishing-skiffs moored in the shal 
 lows, where; the water turned from sapphire to 
 glistening emerald. His reverie strayed from the 
 sheltered orange gardens to the olive groves, and 
 thence, by imagined forest paths, to the solitudes 
 above. Often in boyhood had he listened, at the 
 twilight hour, to his nurse s fireside tales of Lario 
 of the village where she lived, of the castle on 
 the heights, of romances and teats of arms, and 
 how, on iine afternoons, the hawks circled tirelessly 
 in the heavens : and there, yonder, was the castle, 
 now ruined, its fragments embowered in myrtle, 
 and above it a sheaf of feathery clouds, and a pair 
 of hawks soaring and wheeling against the blue. 
 And there came back to him a quaint remem 
 brance of this same old and garrulous nurse 1 , as he 
 saw, at the water s edge, the great rock when; her 
 elder sister was drowned half a century ago, when 
 12
 
 178 SFORZA. 
 
 they were girls together. Then, to her childish 
 fancy, as she often said, the few years between 
 them were a vast interval, and her playmate had 
 been mentor as well. But when she reached the 
 cares of middle life, and reverted to the holidays 
 of her youth, it seemed a younger rather than an 
 elder sister sho had lost ; and, as the years went 
 by, the dead girl s memory became ever relatively 
 younger, until, looking back from her infirmities, 
 she remembered her only as a happy and care-free 
 child. 
 
 Then he thought of Bianca Rucellai, and be 
 witched his fancy with the picture of the villa he 
 would build for her some day. It should stand 
 upon one of those headlands, with the purpling 
 hills before, and the chirp of birds in the air, and 
 on many a summer s morning they should walk 
 together through the laburnum groves, and de 
 light to lose their way and find their love anew. 
 Now and again the duke and Almodoro talked 
 softly, and once a contadino, wondering at the un 
 usual apparition, saluted them with a halloo that 
 reverberated from the opposite cliff. The amber 
 brightness of afternoon faded to the violet of dusk, 
 and a lethargy stole upon the scene, as though the 
 curtains of the evening had been drawn. Far away 
 rose a thread of smoke, and presently lights glim 
 mered, and they neared Bellagio, " the place of 
 pleasant repose," bordering the lake in a dim,
 
 LAGO LARIO, 179 
 
 gray mass. At length tlie duke turned to Hermes, 
 and, breaking the spell which had fallen upon them 
 all, asked abruptly, as one who returns to an un 
 welcome thought : 
 
 " And the duchess ; you gave her freedom ? 
 Wherefore was that freak that she would not 
 speak with me ? " 
 
 " Uncle," answered the younger Sforxa, with 
 bitter reproach in his voice, " it is to small pur 
 pose that I tell you what you already know 
 that the duchess was no longer in the castle : 
 whether liberated by Bernardino, or put to death 
 by him. I cannot say." 
 
 Then a look of consternation came over Ludo- 
 vico as a terrible; suspicion seized him. And 
 when, two weeks later, the news was brought that 
 the impregnable stronghold had been yielded for 
 a price which a sarcasm of the enemy stipulated 
 should be paid out of the treasure it contained, 
 he cried aloud ( so says the chronicler) : 
 
 " Verily, since Judas there has been no baser 
 traitor than Bernardino Corte ! "
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 FESTA DELL OTTOBRATA. 
 
 Six weeks had elapsed since the duke s aban 
 donment of his capital, and while the French 
 occupation proved costly and harassing to the 
 Milanese, it did not bring the grievous inflictions 
 they apprehended. The susceptible populace had 
 been vastly impressed by the numbers of the 
 French ; by their weapons, whose peculiarities 
 added to their formidable appearance ; by the 
 gorgeous pageant of the court ; by the calm and 
 resolute aspect of the king. In Louis train as, 
 he rode to the ducal residence in the castle, were 
 Ives d Allegre and Cardinal Amboise, and, among 
 many others, two youths destined to become fam 
 ous, one, an Italian, the son of Pope Alexander, 
 commonly called Cesare Borgia, but now styling 
 himself by his recently acquired French title, 
 Le Due de Valentinois ; the other, Pierre clu Ter- 
 rail, better known by a sobriquet he had taken 
 from the red castle in which he was born, Le 
 Chevalier Bayard. 
 
 When the first overture for capitulation was 
 made, the French showed themselves liberal in
 
 FL STA DKLIS OTTOJiJtA TA. 181 
 
 promises, agreeing with Isabelle that she should 
 bo restored to power, and with Bernardino that, 
 in addition to half the treasure in his custody, 
 he should receive the highest honors of France. 
 Whatever expectation may have remained that the 
 fugitive prince would return to tempt again the 
 fortune of arms was extinguished when the castle 
 surrendered, and its garrison marched out before 
 the eyes of the astounded Italians and amid the 
 gibes of the French. So fatal a weakness, or so 
 vast a betrayal, surpassed comprehension. 
 
 On the last Sunday of October was to be 
 observed the poetic Festa dell Ottobrata, a holi 
 day when, in former centuries in Italy, the towns 
 folk went oiit into the country to look upon the 
 mellow tints of autumn, to walk in the vineyards 
 and taste the purple grapes, and to breathe the 
 fragrance that rilled tho air with odors finer than 
 the flavor of wine. It was a festival of pagan 
 significance, with tho archaic dances and gar 
 landed processions of harvest and vintage. And 
 on this day the myths of antiquity recovered a 
 momentary influence ; tho old, romantic delight 
 in nature rekindled; the forest was beautiful as 
 when Irodden by the silver-sandalled huntress; 
 and across many a meadow, where the wild flowers 
 saluted their feet, went the laughing girls and 
 youths of sylvan days. 
 
 Early in the afternoon of the Ottobrata, Yalen-
 
 182 8FORZA. 
 
 tino and Le Bayard were seated in the room which 
 had formerly served as Ludovico s antechamber, 
 having dined with the officers of the king s house 
 hold at the usual hour of mid- day. On the mor 
 row they were to be separated ; for Borgia, with a 
 corps of French and Swiss, was to march to that 
 conquest of Romagna which was to be the first 
 page in his military life ; during the weeks they 
 had passed together on the journey from Paris 
 and in the engagements before Asti, so warm a 
 friendship had united them that they had bound * 
 themselves by that ancient pledge of chivalry 
 which was the comradeship in arms of one knight 
 with another. Both had just reached the age of 
 twenty-three. Le Bayard was thin and small, 
 with pale, shaven face, and severe, refined features, 
 and deep-set eyes that were filled with animation. 
 He was nervous in manner, given to quick, incisive 
 gesture, and possessed of great muscular strength. 
 His companion was of larger and more powerful 
 build. His countenance was stronger in expres 
 sion, owing to the high cheek-bones, the aquiline 
 nose, the steady, unflinching gaze. He wore his 
 hair gathered in a Spanish net, and his face was 
 covered with a silky auburn beard. Upon the 
 French youth s ascetic visage rested the inspired 
 look of one whose ideal is of unselfish service, of 
 unsullied duty. In Valentino s meditative, self- 
 confident mien one divined the adventurous sol-
 
 FESTA DELL OTTOBRATA. 183 
 
 clier aspiring to more tangible possessions than 
 an illuminated fame. Borgia s life was consist 
 ently vicious, while Le Bayard s only passion was 
 a mystic liaison such as the morality of the six 
 teenth century condoned. At an early age he had 
 been fascinated by a famous beauty, Yolande de 
 Fruzasco, the young wife of a Count of Savoy : in 
 the brief acquaintance of their first and only meet 
 ings they loved but their fault was no more than 
 a spiritual attachment. Le Bayard was wont to 
 declare that thore is nothing so ennobling as a 
 disappointed amour, and, however this opinion 
 may have been improved upon, it is certain that 
 he remained constant through lifelong separation; 
 until his death it was their habit, once a year, to 
 send to one another some trifling remembrance, 
 but they met no more. Only the memory of those 
 youthful and ardent meetings remained to Le Bay 
 ard, to become transfigured in the afterglow, and 
 to be so cherished and exalted that, as he himself 
 declared, it became the inspiration and treasure 
 of his life. 
 
 They had just entered the room, and the wine- 
 taster who, Avith a page, had brought in a flagon, 
 was performing the function of his office in empty 
 ing a cup before their eyes ; Le Bayard seated him 
 self as he cast an admiring glance upon the heavy 
 Turkish rug with which the floor was spread. 
 
 " Foi de mon a me, ! " he exclaimed, " how deli-
 
 184 SFORZA. 
 
 cate a texture ; I know nothing so soft to the foot, 
 unless it be the mossy paths of Dauphine." 
 
 " Soft to the foot ! ay, so it is," assented Valen 
 tino, filling two silver goblets, " and sweet to the 
 taste is this wine, and more to the purpose. Let 
 us drink, and your walks shall seem to you like 
 ways to the celestial gardens." 
 
 " I love not these wines of Montserrat," an 
 swered Le Bayard with a wry face as he sipped ; 
 " they leave a resinous taste upon the lips." 
 
 " Some day we w r ill drink a fiasco together in 
 Rome would we were there now to pass this Otto- 
 brata falconing on the Campania in view of the vio 
 let hills, and to-night, bethink you of this night 
 beside the Tiber the dreamy music, the starlight 
 reverie, the ruddy torches and lanterns reflected 
 in the water, the glimpse of beautiful women the 
 women with their black, glossy hair twdsted in 
 fantastic coils, their great, lustrous, brown eyes, 
 their necks bared, or half covered with a crimson 
 kerchief : do you know, Picquet, they found such 
 a one in marble a year ago beneath some ancient 
 rubbish a wood nymph, the Venetian ambassador 
 declared, carved in the days of the Caesars, and 
 the very image of one of our Campania girls. All 
 Rome went to see her the rabble, the learned, 
 the soldiers, the priests more than all, the priests, 
 for she w r as nude and as I stood looking at that 
 superb, lithe, sinewy form, and studied the half-
 
 FESTA DELL" OTTOBRATA. 185 
 
 divine, half-sensuous beauty of her marble face, I 
 thought ho\v many generations of men had looked 
 upon her with tin amorous passion, how perhaps 
 for ages to come she will inspire that same mute 
 vet eloquent worship that greeted her as she 
 stepped forth from the ruins of antiquity but 
 tush ! I remember, Picquet, you care no more 
 for our women than you do for our wine." 
 
 "No; but I would give a month of life in ex 
 change for a day in Home. And it is said that 
 from the Alban hills one can look upon the sea 
 how I should love to look upon the sea ! for they 
 say there sparkles upon it a thread of sunlight 
 that carries one back to boyhood ; have you ever 
 beheld the sunlight sparkle on the sea, Cesare ? " 
 
 " Yes ; and this morning I saw it sparkle in the 
 eyes of a girl, a daughter of the banker Kucellai ; 
 I have wooed her in vain for weeks, but to-night, 
 at the ball, we dance a Moresca together. A Span 
 ish fencer named Narvaez, with whom I practice, 
 first told me of her, declaring her the prettiest 
 maid in Milan, and saying that were he king of 
 France he would carry her back with him to 
 Paris." 
 
 "A truce to your talk about women! It may 
 be long before we meet again ; it was last summer 
 that we first met how long ago that seems, and 
 to-morrow you leave us." 
 
 " But only for a few months."
 
 186 SFORZA. 
 
 " You take a corps of our best troops, D Aubigny 
 told me." 
 
 " I laughed myself to sleep last night thinking 
 of the scattering there will presently be among 
 the signorotti of Eomagna." 
 
 " For so ambitious a man," observed Le Bayard, 
 " I think you were at fault to abandon the Church. 
 With the help of the king you might have suc 
 ceeded your father." 
 
 " The Church," repeated Valentino meditatively, 
 "yes, sometimes I regret it. To live outwardly 
 under the greatest of all restraints, and at the 
 same time to be habitually in emotional relations 
 with ah me ! who could wish a happier life than 
 that of confessor? " 
 
 " This Sl orza, whom we have driven off, would 
 have made a better than you. Amboise told me 
 his private life rarely held a fault." 
 
 " He is a singular mixture of weakness and 
 strength. He will yet come back with a swarm 
 of mountaineers to fight you." 
 
 "D Aubigny will trample them like straw." 
 
 " Your D Aubigny takes things too easily. Some 
 day he will be caught like a boar that has eaten 
 a paunchful of acorns, and lies asleep in the sun." 
 
 " Ha ! " laughed Le Bayard, " there speaks the 
 Italian. But the knights of France will not be 
 asleep, and they 
 
 " And there," retorted Valentino, " speaks the
 
 FESTA DELL OTTOBHATA. 187 
 
 Frenchman. But no doubt you are right. The 
 lanzknechts cannot rn^et you away from their de 
 files, and it would not surprise mo if Sforza were 
 taken." 
 
 " I should like to see him that is, to meet him 
 in battle, and then bring him into our camp." 
 
 "Your camp is not large enough to hold all who 
 will presently cross blades with you," answered 
 Borgia, piqued at the unconscious disparagement 
 with which his companion often referred to Ital 
 ians. " These Swiss you scatter so readily left 
 Charles the Bold and half his Frenchmen dead 
 on the Hold ; and when you confront the Spanish 
 phalanx, which I have watched drilling and march 
 ing at Naples, you will find it steady as a palisade, 
 and worse than a lighted petard to lay hands on." 
 
 " Mordi ! " ejaciilated Le Bayard with animation, 
 and unwittingly forecasting his own end, " how 
 gladly should one take the gift of death from such 
 a foe ! But hark, some one comes ; it must be 
 Cardinal Amboise," he added, rising to salute his 
 Eminence. 
 
 Valentino remained seated. He cared little for 
 cardinals : had he not been a cardinal himself? 
 
 The door opened to admit the diminutive figure 
 of a page ; Le Bayard muttered a curse at his need 
 less punctilio, and Borgia smiled. 
 
 " My masters," said the boy, " his Majesty de 
 sires your presence."
 
 188 SFORZA. 
 
 At this summons both took their caps and fol 
 lowed. They were the attendants of honor of 
 Louis, his companions often in the field, or at 
 table, or for an hour s chat when the day s task 
 was done. Valentino was interesting to the French 
 king for his graphic descriptions of Italian pol 
 itics, and of the intrigues of the Spanish viceroy 
 at Naples. It was not, however, for relaxation 
 that they were now bidden. In Ludovico s for 
 mer library they found the king seated in the 
 capacious leather chair which, though worn and 
 shabby, was infinitely comfortable, and which as- 
 soeiation had made a favorite with the departed 
 duke. Before him was a large table spread with 
 parchments, and furnished with the meagre writ 
 ing materials then in use. Among these Avas a 
 paper-weight which Almodoro had given to his 
 patron ; it was a slender crystal stalactite, and the 
 wise man, knowing the years required for the for 
 mation of each hair s-breadth of its length, had 
 measured the centuries upon it, and marked a few 
 famous dates with a spiral silver branch. An inch 
 back from the point was notched the last Crusade, 
 a finger s breadth behind followed the name of 
 Mahomet, then came Rome destroyed, and a little 
 higher the Christian Era ; after an interval was 
 Hannibal, then Marathon, and then after a space 
 the Golden Age, and still further Moses the 
 Pyramids Babylon ; beyond this, the stone had
 
 l- i:STA DELL OTTOBRATA. 189 
 
 formerly extended several inches, or, as Almodoro 
 computed, twenty thousand years ; but one day 
 Cardinal Ascanio, with a malediction upon the 
 wizard and his calculations, cast it from an open 
 window. 
 
 Louis was carelessly dressed in a fleur-de-lys 
 embroidered cassock, which much use had faded 
 and made threadbare. He looked weary and ill- 
 humored. Despite his easy conquest of Milan, 
 Italy was proving as troublesome to him as to 
 Charles the Eighth. His generals complained of 
 the Swiss ; the Swiss grumbled at everything ; the 
 Venetian alliance was found to be but a name ; 
 the outcast Sforza was raising an army ; the Span 
 iards held menacing language from Naples ; his 
 regiments were decimated by what the soldiers 
 called the Italian malady. 
 
 At one side of the room two clerks stood before 
 a wooden dresser, counting gold coin. If Ludovico 
 had failed to obtain a voluntary loan from the 
 Milanese, his successor had drawn from them an 
 unwilling contribution of no mean proportions. 
 Sequins and ducats, almost unalloyed, and struck 
 in large, thin pieces, made no unmusical sound as 
 they were dropped in heaps; and although this 
 noise had continued monotonously all the morn 
 ing, the king found in it no discordant or dis 
 turbing accompaniment to his labor. He scarcely 
 raised his eves as Le Bayard and Valentino entered
 
 190 SFORZA. 
 
 and saluted him, so busy was he writing with a 
 long swan s quill, that made a loud scratching upon 
 the parchment, and with which he was tracing line 
 after line of heavy black characters, whose illegi 
 bility attested the French monarch an indifferent 
 penman. After an interval a door opposite the 
 king s chair was opened, and one of the captains 
 of his military household appeared, followed by 
 the ex-governor of the castle, Bernardino Corte. 
 The appearance of this personage had changed 
 considerably in the company of his new friends. 
 His face was pale, his eyes bloodshot and hag 
 gard, his dress neglected, his expression that of 
 one who has learned how vain may be the promise 
 of a prince. He bowed to the king, and glanced 
 in recognition towards the young officers. Louis 
 looked at him fixedly, without answering his salu 
 tation ; Valentino returned a cold stare ; Le Bayard 
 averted his eyes, and Bernardino s white face be 
 came overspread with a deep flush. There was a 
 moment s silence, broken within by the chink of 
 the gold pieces, and without by a murmur of the 
 harlequin s games wherewith the French thought 
 to emulate the Italian Ottobrata. 
 
 The king pushed his writing back upon the 
 table, settled himself comfortably in his easy 
 chair, stroked his hair down over his brow with 
 one hand, while with the other he toyed with a 
 bunch of keys that hung at his girdle.
 
 FESTA DELU OTTOBRATA. 19] 
 
 "Messer Bernardino," lie began, "I have 
 granted this audience in deference to your urgent 
 desire, although, frankly, I knew not that we had 
 further subject for discourse. And if I have con 
 strained my inclination, it is not in recognition of 
 services you may have rendered, for they were to 
 be compensated in a manner agreed upon, and the 
 price has been paid. But in a few days I leave 
 Milan ; this is our last interview ; therefore I am 
 disposed to listen to whatever it may be your will 
 to say." 
 
 These cold words smote the heart of the rene 
 gade, and for a moment his utterance failed ; then, 
 with an effort, and with the eyes of all fixed atten 
 tively upon him, he said : 
 
 " Maesta, it is no new matter that I would speak 
 of. It was not for a bribe," he exclaimed, looking 
 about from one to another, " that I delivered this 
 castle. Its surrender was the completion of an 
 earnest and patriotic design. It was transferred 
 to you as a military necessity, but only upon 
 the promise that it should revert to the duchess 
 Isabelle." Then his voice faltered as he added : 
 " Through the long last year of her captivity she 
 and I watched the times together, and in the 
 flight of the usurper we read the opportunity 
 for her restoration to her own. Your faith was 
 pledged that you made war only upon Ludovico, 
 yet after all these weeks she waits in vain, while
 
 192 SFORZA. 
 
 I am hindered from seeing her, and deprived of 
 the child she confided to my care, and even refused 
 admission to your presence. O King," he sobbed, 
 in a voice hushed almost to a whisper, " is this the 
 honor of France ? " 
 
 Louis controlled a movement of impatience at 
 this blunt speech, and asked : 
 
 " How can the affairs of the duchess concern you, 
 or by what authority do you presume to speak for 
 her?" 
 
 " Sire, I have more than once declared to you 
 our love." 
 
 The king struck the table violently with his 
 hand. 
 
 " Bernardino Corte ! " he exclaimed, " you fill 
 yourself with vain and senseless dreams. Think 
 you that the Duchess of Milan would wed with you 
 a mere soldier of fortune ? " 
 
 A firm and complacent assurance appeared upon 
 the countenance of Bernardino in place of the 
 tremulous anger with which he had first spoken. 
 Then, with the simple conviction of one for whom 
 no doubts exist, he replied : 
 
 " Would that she were here to answer for her 
 self!" 
 
 " And would that content you to hear her 
 speak her mind freely? " 
 
 " It is not I that need to be thus assured, but 
 you ; let me but meet her eyes with mine, and you
 
 FESTA DELU OTTOBRATA. 193 
 
 shall hear her renew the pledge which gave me all 
 the sweetness of earth." 
 
 " By the Holy Grail, this favor you shall have," 
 answered the king with sarcastic emphasis ; " only, 
 as it might embarrass the candor of the lady s 
 declaration if you were standing by, you shall - 
 withdraw into the adjoining room a tapestry cov 
 ers the entrance you will hear as plainly as you 
 hear me now. 
 
 "But after that? " inquired Bernardino, warned 
 by some prophetic instinct, " what avails it me to 
 hear the duchess pledge her faith if afterwards 
 I am restrained, as I have been all these weeks, 
 from seeing her? 
 
 The king eyed him quizzically as he again toyed 
 with the bunch of keys which, in his nervous 
 moods, it was his habit to swing from side to side. 
 " Rest assured, good Bernardino," he answered, 
 "you will be satisfied ; but mark me, speak not, nor 
 give the slightest sign that you are near, nor let 
 your joy wring from you so much as a murmur 
 else beware ! And the king motioned Borgia 
 and Bernardino to the adjoining room, while Le 
 Bayard was sent to invite the duchess to his 
 presence. 
 
 Isabelle entered the room a few moments later, 
 
 ushered in with ceremonious courtesy, and received 
 
 by the king with an affectation of debormair good 
 
 humor. Her handsome face had acquired a care- 
 
 13
 
 194 SFORZA. 
 
 worn look in place of the haughty resignation of 
 her captivity. All hopes of recovering the duchy 
 had faded before the evasions of the French. 
 Even hsr boy Francesco had not been restored to 
 her, nor had she seen him since the night he was 
 left with Bernardino while she fled to Pavia. He 
 had passed to the custody of a French officer, 
 while she was left unheeded, save for the clam 
 orous lett?rs and messages of Bernardino. 
 
 The king drew forward a chair for her, and 
 placed himself with his back to his writing- 
 table, against which he leaned ; mindful who was 
 listening, he at once directed his interrogatory 
 to the subject in which Bernardino was con 
 cerned. 
 
 " I have sent for you," he began abruptly, " be 
 cause it is necessary to conclude a question upon 
 which we have touched heretofore. You have 
 repeatedly urged your claim to Milan, and insisted 
 upon the advantages that would result from your 
 rule. It appears that upon these particulars you 
 had a covenant with the officer who made over this 
 castle to me. Is it not so ? " 
 
 " Sire," answered the duchess with painful emo 
 tion, " you will hold a helpless woman but lightly 
 answerable for what she says or promises in escap 
 ing from a cruel imprisonment." 
 
 " But it is nevertheless true that you had en 
 tered into an agreement with your jailer."
 
 FESTA DELL OTTO BR ATA. 195 
 
 " It is true." 
 
 " He asserts that you made him a solemn prom 
 ise of marriage." 
 
 " If that be a promise which despair yields to 
 the edge of the sword." 
 
 " But Bernardino Corte maintains that you 
 freely pledged him your love ; that you would wed 
 him now, were you both at liberty." 
 
 " I have explained and answered this to you 
 before." 
 
 " Nay, but, for the love you bear him, answer it 
 now." 
 
 " O king, mock me not in my misery, else may 
 God render it to you again !" And Isabelle bowed 
 her face in her hands, while Louis stood silent a 
 moment in involuntary compassion. 
 
 " Suppose I restore you Milan if you wed Ber 
 nardino," resumed the king, " will you take it and 
 him together? " 
 
 At this cruel taunt Isabelle rose to her feet, and, 
 with face aflame, flew to her besetting idea. 
 
 "Do you not know the crime which links that 
 man with my sorrow? " she asked. " Have you not 
 heard that it was lie who poisoned my husband, 
 and cannot you understand the infamy of being 
 loved by him ? Can nothing make you feel for me 
 the shame of his advances, the humiliation of his 
 pity, the scourge of his pursuit, the loathing with 
 which I yielded to his conditions ? oh, does not
 
 196 SFORZA. 
 
 the thought of so bitter an anguish touch even the 
 heart of a king ? " 
 
 The French monarch and Isabelle confronted 
 one another in silence, he calm and sardonic, she 
 trembling with excitement and the restraint of 
 tears. 
 
 The clerks desisted from their work an instant, 
 and from the piazza came the faint noise of drums 
 and merry-making pipes. 
 
 " Then must I tell him," pursued Louis, un 
 moved, " that you refuse to see him again." 
 
 " Strike me off his head for the dullest rogue 
 that ever betrayed his trust ! " ejaculated the 
 duchess. 
 
 " And your boy Francesco ? " asked the king, 
 unable longer to resist the prompting of his mali 
 cious nature. 
 
 "You have promised, day after day, to restore 
 him to me ; let this, at least, be realized, and the 
 rest may go." 
 
 " It was but yesterday Cardinal Amboise spoke 
 of him and said : Let not t/ie icolf cub escape, or ten 
 years hence he will return to vex us. " 
 
 " How can an outcast and beggared prince dis 
 turb the king of France ? Give him to me, and I 
 will take him far hence to Bari ; we shall neither 
 of us ask to see Milan ever again." 
 
 "I have anticipated your thought of placing 
 him at a distance, but with this difference, that
 
 FESTA DELU OTTOBRATA. 197 
 
 it is best tliat henceforward his abode be in 
 France." 
 
 " Sire, I am powerless to dispute with you ; give 
 him to me, and together we will journey to some 
 secluded place beyond the Alps and live together." 
 
 "That you may train him the while to the mys 
 tery and silence of Italian ways ; that you may 
 till his mind with ambitions, and his heart with 
 hate of me. Xo ; you nrnst be separated. I have 
 bestowed upon him the abbaye of Nourmentiers ; 
 there he will forget his unhappy country, he will 
 exchange the name of Sforza for one the Church 
 will select ; instead of coudottieri chiefs he will 
 have godly brothers for companions ; he will learn 
 to resemble the last drone of them all what 
 ails you? why so pale? You dread the pangs of 
 leave-taking ; nay, fear not, I have spared you this 
 trial, he is already far hence, Jie has been gone 
 four days; and for yourself you spoke of l>ari, 
 well, nothing hinders your going there at once ! " 
 
 "Inhuman!" shrieked the duchess, in a parox 
 ysm of fury. "So long as breath remains tome 
 will I pray that you be followed by the sting of 
 my curse, that the cries of your wounded and the 
 faces of your dead may haunt you and blight your 
 days!" 
 
 The king s lips contracted and his hands clenched, 
 but before he could answer there came from the 
 adjoining room the voice, of Bernardino Corte,
 
 198 SFORZA. 
 
 speaking inarticulately, gasping ; a heavy crash 
 followed, then all was still. 
 
 Louis sprang to the door and threw aside the 
 tapestry, and beheld Ludovico s faithless lieuten 
 ant stretched on the floor, his own stiletto plunged 
 into his heart. And above him, with right hand 
 uplifted, stood Valentino, silent and motionless, 
 gazing fixedly down upon the bleeding and inani 
 mate form.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 LE CHEVALIER BAYAED. 
 
 THE military faults which caused the discom 
 fiture of Charles the Eighth in Italy were repeated 
 by his successor, and with the same results The 
 French forces were distributed along several lines 
 of operations, and when the outcast duke suddenly 
 reappeared at Como with sixteen thousand Swiss, 
 he found Louis returned to Paris, Ives d Allegre 
 campaigning in Romagna, and not half the French 
 army available for a battle. Perceiving his ene 
 my s weakness, Ludovico marched upon Milan 
 and entered it before the absent regiments could 
 be recalled. 
 
 But if the re-occupation of his capital was thus 
 lightly effected, the French continued in undis 
 puted possession of the castle, and the duke was 
 constrained to lodge in a palace on the piazza, and 
 to distribute his officers in its vicinity. Among 
 the few billeted under the same roof with him was 
 his nephew, Hermes Sforza. The return of this 
 youth had been less joyous than he had antici 
 pated, for, upon presenting himself at the Palazzo 
 Kucellai, he had found that magnificent pile de-
 
 200 SFORZA. 
 
 serted, and had learned with difficulty from a tim 
 orous custode that his sweetheart had fled a month 
 before with a cavalier named the speaker recalled 
 his name with difficulty ah, yes, it came back to 
 him now Valentino ; and her father, poor man ! 
 the sainted Madonna alone knew whither he had 
 followed them. Then Hermes covered his face 
 with both hands and wept, and remembered the 
 warning of Almodoro. 
 
 The day following, while moodily pacing the 
 streets, which had lost their familiar animation, 
 he bethought him of the fencing-master, and 
 straightway found Narvaez unemployed, living 
 upon the sequins which had rewarded his zeal 
 at Venice, greatly scandalized at the vicinity of 
 the French, whom, as a good Spaniard, he de 
 tested, and weary of idleness. Whatever qualms 
 of conscience he may have felt at sight of his 
 former patron, whose confidence he had betrayed, 
 were perfectly dissimulated. His first words were 
 of admiration of the beard which Hermes had 
 allowed to grow during his four months absence. 
 His next were of the suicide (for so the French 
 proclaimed it) of Bernardino Corte. It occurred 
 to the unsuspecting Hermes to engage him as his 
 personal follower for the campaign, after the man- 
 ner of officers of distinction, who frequently en 
 listed a fencer in their retinue, with whom to cross 
 swords for pastime, and who, in emergency, was
 
 LE CHEVALIER BAYARD. 201 
 
 more than a looker-on. His proposal was in 
 stantly accepted upon the attractions of good pay, 
 a servant, and horses. 
 
 If Narvaez resented the presence of the French, 
 he expressed himself still more forcibly at the 
 aspect of the army of lanzkneclits which Ludovico 
 encamped on the outskirts of Milan. Xo such ill- 
 favored troops had appeared in Italy since the 
 descents of Saracenic fleets some centuries before. 
 Such was the levity of the Italian populace, that 
 they marvelled like children at the strange cos 
 tumes and uncouth manners and rude weapons of 
 these mercenary mountaineers, of whose prowess 
 and ferocity so much had been said. 
 
 They were formed in battalions, each bearing a 
 flag emblazoned with the emblem of its canton : 
 the bear of the Oberland, the bull of Uri, the 
 fish of Lucerne. Their costumes were of various 
 shapes and colors ; all wore jerkins of cloth or 
 leather, long, tight, striped breeches, reaching from 
 the waist to the ankle, and fitting within heavy 
 untauned shoes ; their helmets were of leather, 
 furnished with brass rims, and profusely studded 
 with nails. The officers we re distinguished by 
 iron casques decorated with coarse plumes, and 
 those whose rank entitled them to a horse wore 
 soft boots falling in folds below the knee. For 
 weapons, some were armed with long, jagged hal 
 berds, others with au axe and cros- -bow slun<> at
 
 202 SFORZA. 
 
 the shoulder ; all had either a sheathless sword, 
 or a bare, thick dagger stuck through a thong at 
 their belt. The most remarkable feature in the 
 entire array was the number of women, many of 
 whom carried infants, while others were followed 
 by children old enough to walk ; all bore immense 
 burdens, containing provisions, cooking utensils, 
 and extra clothing for their consorts in the ranks. 
 Some had chickens perched upon the bundles they 
 shouldered, while others were attended by fierce 
 dogs. Such were the " Lansquenettes," as they 
 came to be called, probably the most suffering and 
 miserable of their sex in any age. 
 
 Early one morning, a week after his return 
 to Milan, Hermes was summoned to Ludovico s 
 room. As he passed through the antechamber, 
 the pages and attendants who, without undress 
 ing, slept at night upon tables or benches, rose 
 drowsily before him. He found II Moro seated in 
 profound thought before a manuscript map, which 
 he scanned with occasional reference to a roll of 
 reports. Between the windows blazed a bright 
 fire of pine logs, for the February air was damp 
 and cold; above it projected a great chimney- 
 piece carved with the temptation of Eden, Adam 
 at one side, Eve at the other, and between them 
 a spreading tree, wherein the arch-serpent had 
 coiled, and whence he gazed, as though in mock 
 ery, with outstretched tongue.
 
 LE CHEVALIER BAYARD. 203 
 
 The duke laid aside his despatches as Hermes 
 entered, and, motioning to a seat, was about to 
 address him, when he observed the lugubrious 
 expression of his face. 
 
 "Peste!" he exclaimed, "are you still brooding 
 about that baggage of a runaway Ilucellai? You 
 have had a disappointment? You will have a 
 dozen more in the next few years. Philosophy 
 tells you that through life the things that be, are 
 merely the counterfeit presentment of the things 
 that might have been. Does not that bring a 
 solace to your soul?" 
 
 "My uncle," answered the young man, "you 
 would not jest thus if you had ever felt 
 
 " Love, you are about to say," interrupted the 
 elder Sforza. " Listen. I seldom speak of it, 
 least of all to the young ; but you will find it true 
 that some men seek to gather the love of their life 
 when it is premature ; others wait till it is over 
 ripe and has fallen to the ground, then with might 
 and main they shake the tree ; but the bitterest 
 fate is his who mistakes a weed for a flower, and 
 plants that in his heart." 
 
 " I shall ne er give over till I see that man s blood 
 on my sword, and in her face the crimson of shame." 
 
 " Be that as you list," replied the duke care 
 lessly. "In the mean time I have summoned you 
 for an expedition of importance." 
 
 "Not another visit to Venice?"
 
 204 SFORZA. 
 
 "No. This time an inspection of the outposts 
 on the highway to Pavia. Take with you au es 
 cort of twenty or thirty men 
 
 " Twenty or thirty men galloping about the out 
 posts would rouse the whole French army. One 
 that I have will suffice." 
 
 " I warrant, the same knave that got you and 
 himself and Barbarigo into such a quandary. 
 Yes? I thought so. Then put him upon the 
 worst horse you can find, and, if the enemy ap 
 pear, clap in the spurs yourself, and away, and 
 perhaps you may be quit of your precious escort. 
 Here is a written order, and a map of the way; 
 gather all possible information along the front, 
 and be back before the Ave Maria. We inarch to 
 morrow at break of day." 
 
 An hour later Hermes, accompanied by Nar- 
 yaez, rode out towards the chief outpost of Ludo- 
 vico s German cavalry. The sun had risen ere 
 they mounted, and now cast a feeble brightness 
 upon the desolate fields whence the peasants had 
 fled and the cattle had been driven away. The 
 only sign of life was, upon the stubble, a company 
 of hungry crows, which, at the approach of the 
 riders, filled the air with their cawing, and flapped 
 their way swiftly out of sight. But presently they 
 perceived that the outpost which was to be the 
 first stage of their journey had already received a 
 visit of an animated nature.
 
 LE CHEVALIER BAYARD. 205 
 
 Upon the retreat of the French from Milan, 
 the Chevalier Bayard had received permission 
 to serve with the rear-guard, now nearest to the 
 enemy. Observing the isolated situation of the 
 detachment which formed the Italian van, and 
 which numbered only three hundred, he resolved 
 to attack it with the fifty troopers he commanded, 
 augmented by half a dozen cavaliers to whom lie 
 proposed the adventure. The intended surprise 
 failed, for the Germans were found with their 
 armor on and their horses harnessed, and, at the 
 appearance of the French, sounded a bugle blast 
 and set upon then]. The disparity of one to six 
 delighted the eccentric genius of Le Bayard, and 
 he galloped his little band into the midst of the 
 enemy with so fierce an onset that the German 
 centre gave way. The flanks of their line wheeled 
 in, however, and dealt so many and such vigorous 
 blows that, but for the prowess of Le Bayard and 
 his companions, upon whose superb armor the 
 German blades made little impression, the result 
 would have been the reverse of that the French 
 had designed. Before the din of this conflict 
 reached his oars, Hermes beheld the cloud of dust 
 which the trampling of so many horses raised, and 
 which floated over the combatants. And drawing 
 near, and hearing the war cries, and beholding 
 the inC cc, he unsheathed his sword and put spurs 
 to his horse. Narvaez, who bestrode a less fiery
 
 20G SFORZA. 
 
 charger, dropped behind. Their approach at 
 tracted sidelong glances from such of the com 
 batants as had leisure to divert their eyes, for 
 they might be the forerunners of a weighty re 
 inforcement. Le Bayard, however, w T hen once 
 well entered upon a hearty exchange of blows, 
 cared nothing for reinforcements, and, furious that 
 Frenchmen should be held in check and buffeted 
 by a foe he despised, he shouted to his comrades, 
 as they loved France and valued the favor of fair 
 women, to follow. Then, casting aside his sword, 
 w T hich he had broken, he grasped a mace which 
 hung at his saddle bow, and whose weight was 
 about four pounds, wherewith he dealt such pon 
 derous strokes that the lanzknechts fled from his 
 path. This retrograde movement instantly be 
 came a general flight, and Hermes was swept aw T ay 
 by the rush of the fugitives. With such hot haste 
 did the Germans ride, that Le Bayard, who led 
 the chase, could only come up with two of them, 
 and to each of these he administered a blow which 
 sent him reeling from his saddle. The like must 
 have befallen Narvaez, whose steed lagged, and 
 who was little accustomed to horsemanship, had 
 not his indifferent mount, aiicl the unskilled way 
 in which he rode, attracted the notice of the brav 
 est and gentlest of men : in the instant of raising 
 his formidable weapon, he lowered it in silence 
 and dashed by.
 
 LE CHEVALIER BAYARD. 207 
 
 It was not long before such a headlong gal 
 lop brought him in sight of Milan, all uncon 
 scious that his companions had drawn bridle, 
 and that he was now alone in the pursuit of two 
 hundred. At a bend in the highway he beheld 
 the familiar battlements, the lowered drawbridge, 
 the sentries on the walls, attracted by the fugi 
 tive cavalcade, whom they discerned, even at that 
 distance, to be of their army. Eight before him 
 dashed the lanzknechts, raising a cloud of dust 
 that veiled the road behind from the wardens who 
 gazed in search of the enemy before whom they 
 fled in such suggestive disarray. The sight over- 
 tempted Le Bayard s military discretion, and, sup 
 posing himself to be followed at least by some 
 of his comrades, and to be able to gratify him 
 self with the triumph of seizing one of the gates 
 of Milan, lie plunged across the bridge, which was 
 immediately lifted behind him. He saw at a 
 glance the desperate nature of his position, and 
 measured at a thought the dishonor of surrender 
 ing his arms. A single chance remained, which 
 was to cross the city and escape by some gate 
 on the opposite side, where no alarm could 
 yet have been communicated. But before him 
 crowded a hundred of the lanzknechts, who had 
 turned about as soon as the drawbridge was 
 raised, and from the ramparts came whizzing a 
 crossbow shaft that glancjd from his helmet, and
 
 208 SFORZA. 
 
 half a dozen stones slung by hand, which fell with 
 heavy thuds upon the ground. He brandished 
 aloft the mace which had done such redoubtable 
 service, and, shouting his battle-cry, " France ! 
 France ! " dashed into the thick of the lanz- 
 knechts. 
 
 And now arose the din of a singularly dispro- 
 portioned conflict. It was heard even on the 
 piazza, and faintly reached the room in which 
 Ludovico still sat before his map, measuring 
 marches and distances. Nearer and nearer it 
 drew, till the duke, startled at the extraordinary 
 tumult, sprang to a window, and there beheld the 
 spectacle of a French officer, encased in beautiful 
 armor, riding a wounded and exhausted horse, 
 dealing furious blows at the score of men who 
 crowded upon him from out a press that impo- 
 tently yelled and gesticulated. He was silent 
 now, too hard-pressed and desperate to spend 
 breath in war cries. The duke scanned him curi 
 ously. His helmet had lost its plumes, at his side 
 hung an empty scabbard, and on his breastplate 
 was engraved Oar Lady of Sorrows. While some 
 showered blows upon him, others flung hand- 
 fuls of dust against his closed visor, to blind him 
 through the sights. Suddenly his great bay horse 
 plunged violently and fell to the ground, when 
 both were overwhelmed by the lanzknechts, who 
 tore off the horse s accoutrements, and wrenched
 
 LE CHEVALIER BAYARD. 209 
 
 the mace from the hand which now relaxed in 
 token of surrender. 
 
 As Le Bayard rose painfully to his feet, the 
 captain of the German Horse claimed him, and 
 led him away. Ludovico, looking from his win 
 dow, followed him with his eyes, and, wondering 
 at the chance which had brought an enemy sin 
 gle-handed into their midst, ordered that the 
 German captain be summoned. The messenger 
 had been gone but a moment when Hermes 
 appeared, and recounted the rout of the outpost 
 he had been commissioned to visit, dilating upon 
 the extraordinary prowess of the stranger they 
 had just seen disarmed, and upon his rare mag 
 nanimity in sparing the life of the defenceless 
 Narvaez ; wdiereupon the duke modified his order, 
 and desired that the prisoner be brought before 
 him. 
 
 An hour later he was ushered into Ludovico s 
 presence, being announced by the name which he 
 had given, Pierre du Terrail, a name, of course, 
 unknown, as his achievement of the morning was 
 his first encounter. In the interval following his 
 capture he had made two requests, that he be 
 allowed to bathe himself with water, and be given 
 a bowl of bread and milk to eat. Having been 
 thus frugally refreshed, he was conducted to the 
 duke. 
 
 Sforza received him alone. The young Freiich- 
 14
 
 210 SFORZA. 
 
 man bowed gravely as the door closed upon him, 
 and remained standing with eyes fixed upon the 
 dark, beautiful face of his enemy, whose appear 
 ance, and the fame of whose dramatic life, were 
 familiar in the French camp. Sforza s gaze rested 
 with a not unkindly interest upon the spare figure 
 and pale, ascetic face. It was a meeting in which 
 Italian historians of that knightly period delight. 
 
 Le Bayard was clad in the close-fitting buffalo- 
 skin doublet and breeches worn under a suit of 
 mail. About his neck was a reliquary, the first 
 gift of Yolande de Fruzasco, and from his shoul 
 ders depended a long white cloak which had been 
 rolled behind his saddle. His hands hung down 
 before him, carelessly clasped together ; the thick 
 brown hair was brushed half an inch down over 
 his forehead, and fell at each side of his face in 
 long straight locks. The duke remained seated at 
 the table at which he had been writing, and, point 
 ing to a chair, addressed him in French. 
 
 " Be seated, Monsieur le Chevalier," he said ; 
 " you must be weary after such violent exertion:" 
 then, as Le Bayard took the place indicated, he 
 added, " I have sent for you to look more closely 
 upon so valorous a soldier, and to ask the motive 
 of your strange assault. Was it through an acci 
 dent that you entered Milan, or did you think to 
 storm the city single handed ? " 
 
 Le Bayard listened with an air of curious expec-
 
 LE CHEVALIER BAYARD. 211 
 
 tation to these first words. On being told that 
 he was to be taken to the duke s presence, he had 
 wondered what could be required of him, and now 
 an amused smile came to his lips as he answered. 
 
 " Monseigneur, I, with a few others whom the 
 king has honored with his service, had yet to 
 merit this favor by some prowess of arms ; and, 
 being stationed with the rear-guard over against 
 Milan, we were minded to charge an outpost which 
 lay before the gate, and, becoming heated with the 
 engagement which ensued, I followed across the 
 bridge, unconscious that I was alone." 
 
 Sforza observed him attentively as he spoke, 
 and remarked the dignified composure, and the 
 curt, matter-of-fact way in which so gallant an 
 exploit was described, and with a half-quizzical, 
 half-incredulous look he replied : 
 
 " Your blood must indeed have been hot to 
 plunge thus into the midst of a city filled with 
 men ut arms." 
 
 " Par la foi de mon ame ! " answered Le Bayard, 
 with a Gallic shrug, " Monseigneur must be equally 
 sensible of the charm of danger, or ho would not 
 be here." 
 
 " Forsooth ! " ejaculated Sforxa, piqued at the 
 wcrrds, "you have set me a good example, and 
 King Louis shall find that a man who stands be 
 fore his own, will show as great daring as strangers 
 in search of adventure. But I sent for you in kind-
 
 212 SFORZA. 
 
 ness, to ask you about yourself and the school of 
 arms in which you learned to fight one against an 
 hundred ; to offer you refreshment here at the 
 word it comes," and the duke motioned a ser 
 vant who had entered the room to advance, and 
 to place upon a table a tray he carried, whereon 
 were little gilt rolls usually served to royalty, a 
 crystal saucer of olives, and a Venetian flagon 
 encased in silver filigree, through which could be 
 discerned the words, 
 
 Health, Wealth, and Honor be his, 
 
 Who drinks from a pure and moderate cup. 
 
 A wine-taster who had followed the domestic 
 stepped forward, and, filling a goblet held ready in 
 his hand, drained it at a draught ; this done he 
 filled two glasses which stood on the tray, bowed 
 to his master, and withdrew. It was a wine w r hose 
 clear amber color attracted the eye, and whose 
 flavor and bouquet possessed so soothing an influ 
 ence, and produced so genial an exhilaration, that, 
 in the vineyard, it was known as " the wine of good 
 humor." 
 
 11 Will you drink ? " asked Ludovico, w r hen they 
 were again alone. 
 
 Le Bayard rarely used wine, for stimulants were 
 contrary to his habit ; but to refuse would seem 
 to hide a misgiving which the sinister repute of 
 Italian princes might have suggested. He there-
 
 LE C HEY ALTER BAYARD. 213 
 
 fore raised the glass to liis lips, and emptied it 
 with the Milanese salutation " Felicita." 
 
 "Answer me a question," resumed Ludovico, 
 balancing his glass, in which the wine of good 
 humor sparkled like a topaz in the firelight ; " are 
 there many in the French camp equal to such 
 feats as this you count so lightly ? " 
 
 " I am the youngest and least experienced of 
 them all." 
 
 " But you have seen military service ? " 
 "Pardon me, this is my first campaign." 
 " Then in what cunning school of arms were 
 you apprenticed ? " 
 
 " In the school of a hardy and abstemious youth. 
 My father served the king until enfeebled by age, 
 and from him my brothers and I learned the use 
 of weapons, and such sports and exercises as be 
 come a soldier, and, further, to read a little, and to 
 write our names, and to know the same again 
 when written. I spent rny days in the air, among 
 men, and thereby escaped the vanities with which 
 the children of the rich cumber and exhaust them 
 selves, and which it takes half a lifetime to cast 
 
 ^11 
 . 
 
 "Tell me something of your home. Do you 
 live in a city ? " 
 
 " I have spent most of my life at our Chateau de 
 Bayard. My first boyish recollection is of being 
 put on a pony and taught to tilt with a rod at a
 
 214 SFORZA. 
 
 wooden figure fixed in the ground, which was 
 called 1 Anglais. My delight was in long rides, 
 especially in spring, or in the early autumn, when 
 a golden flush falls on our hillsides in Dauphine. 
 And in winter I scoured the forests for game, and 
 loved each day as well as the brighter afternoons 
 of summer ; for you know, Monseigneur, that in 
 France there is something cheerful even in a win 
 ter s morning, as though a little of the September 
 brightness remained." 
 
 " Merely riding and hunting makes a dull life," 
 observed Ludovico, interested in the odd character 
 of his visitor. " Did your father never take you 
 to court ? " 
 
 " Our fortune is too scant for courts or journey- 
 ings," answered Le Bayard, without hesitation; 
 " only, when a tourney was proclaimed at some 
 neighboring city, he took my brothers and me 
 thither, and hired us suits of armor and bade us 
 lay on." 
 
 " He must be a tough-fibred veteran, this father 
 of yours." 
 
 " He trains us after the manner of his own 
 bringing up, whose maxim is written on the fly 
 leaf of our Bible, that nothing purifies the spirit 
 like suffering, and that the grandest things in life 
 are done under adversity." 
 
 "I, for one, should differ with the fly-leaf of 
 your Bible, and say that the best efforts are those
 
 LE CHEVALIER BAYARD. 215 
 
 kindled by love. You will find it so some day 
 when you marry." 
 
 " That must remain a lesson unread by me." 
 
 "And why?" 
 
 " Because I have taken a vow of lifelong celi 
 bacy." 
 
 " But a time will come when you can no longer 
 ride fiery steeds, and deal hurts, and smite the 
 stranger. And when old age steals upon you, will 
 it not be a sombre life to look back upon no love, 
 no children, no pleasure, 110 solace ? " 
 
 The French cavalier answered slowly, yet with 
 the fervor of a young crusader. 
 
 " So few," he said, "reach the age whereof you 
 warn me, that I give it small heed. But, standing 
 now between youth and maturity, my purpose is 
 so to serve the king that, when my vigor is past, 
 my conscience may pronounce me worthy to kiss 
 the earthly sepulchre of Christ. Think you that 
 after that I could ever be unhappy in the retro 
 spect ? " 
 
 "You talk like a sage, and you fight like the 
 knights we read of ; alas, they are not many nowa 
 days." 
 
 " I shall not be thus commended by my supe 
 riors ; I may even be severely punished." 
 
 " Punished ! and how do the French punish one 
 another s deeds of valor ? " 
 
 " My folly may be rebuked by ordering me to
 
 216 SFORZA. 
 
 the rear on the day when we have the honor to 
 meet you in the field." 
 
 You have a great thirst for the giving and 
 getting of blows," rejoined Ludovico ; but," he 
 added, " do you imagine that so redoubtable an 
 enemy will be released, now that fortune has put 
 you in our hands ? " 
 
 " I have already agreed with the captain whose 
 prisoner I am ; he consents to release me, with my 
 horse and armor, for a thousand ducats, and that 
 sum will be paid from the French camp to-mor 
 row." 
 
 The duke s interest had passed from curiosity to 
 an admiration he did not seek to conceal. 
 
 "God forbid," he said abruptly and with emo 
 tion, " that so valiant a soldier should be detained 
 for the sake of a purse of gold. I will pay your 
 ransom myself; you are at liberty to return at 
 once to your comrades ; and if this adventure 
 bring you to the presence of the king, say that 
 I charged you to salute him in my name." 
 
 Le Bayard sprang to his feet, his pale face 
 suddenly aglow with delight at the magnanimous 
 spirit which released him. He took the duke s 
 hand, and would have saluted it with the courtly 
 reverence of that ceremonious age. But Ludovico 
 checked him, and, drawing from his finger a ring, 
 gave it him and bade him God-speed, and caused 
 his horse and armor to be brought.
 
 LE CHEVALIER BAYARD. 217 
 
 And twenty-three years after, wlien le cJievalier 
 sans pei .r tt .s-.v rcproclic lay dying upon an un 
 fortunate battlefield, lie pressed to his lips the 
 reliquary of Yolaude de Fruzasco with the pas 
 sionate despair of cmc who dwells, in death, upon 
 remembered kisses ; then his gaze turned from the 
 strange faces of the Spaniards who crowded about, 
 and rested, it is said, upon the ring of Ludovico 
 Sl orza, as though its sight recalled some rare and 
 chivalric memory, worthy to be cherished even in 
 the last moment of life.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE MONASTERY OF DIVINE LOVE. 
 
 THE advance from Milan was unobstructed until 
 Ludovico approached Vigevano, where, while pre 
 paring for the assault, the Swiss stipulated that 
 they be permitted to pillage the town. But when 
 the scaling-ladders were ready, and the drums 
 about to beat, the duke s heart smote him, for 
 Vigevano was his birthplace, and he interposed 
 before his hirelings, promising them a ducat 
 apiece, at which the disappointed mountaineers 
 vented their anger in imprecations. 
 
 This was repeated at Novara. By pledging 
 the sack of that city he obtained untiring efforts, 
 and, such was their appetite for the reward, that 
 breaches were presently effected, through which 
 they poured with irresistible violence, and forth 
 with began plundering the houses, torturing the 
 women, and butchering whoever resisted. Horror- 
 struck at the sight, Sforza again interfered, and 
 bivouacked his savage auxiliaries between the city 
 and the position to which the enemy had with 
 drawn. It was at the peril of his own life that he
 
 THE MONASTERY OF DIVINE LOVE. 219 
 
 thus plucked their prey a second time from them, 
 nor was their loss forgiven. 
 
 To a busy afternoon in the bivouac before No- 
 vara had succeeded a stormy evening. At sunset 
 a mist rose from the rice-fields, and the clouds 
 grew heavier with every hour. The raindrops 
 hung in the hemlock branches until an occasional 
 stir sent them pattering down. Before Sforza s 
 tent crackled a fire whereon a servant made ready 
 to grill some mutton bones, and, near by, a table 
 had been spread with bread and cheese and flag 
 ons of wine. 
 
 The duke lay within, asleep on a camp bed. In 
 the doorway sat Sanseverino, the general of his 
 forces, muffled in a cloak, and with his head bound 
 in a cloth through which a little blood had oozed, 
 and at his feet rested an empty straw-covered 
 fiasco. Near by, half recumbent under a blanket, 
 was Almodoro, with eyes fixed upon the fire as it 
 sent showers of sparks into the murky darkness. 
 In their search for firewood the servants had 
 brought from the edge of a neighboring millpond 
 the debris of a skiff whose planks had for years 
 been alternately soaked in water and dried in 
 the sun. When tossed upon the blaze of forest 
 branches, these fragments emitted an odor as 
 sweet as oriental spice, and their flame brightened 
 with prismatic tints until, beneath the alchemist s 
 brooding gaze, their lurid embers seemed touched
 
 220 SFORZA. 
 
 by some unholy incantation. At a few yards dis 
 tance, two wet and hungry-looking sentries leaned 
 against the trunk of an oak, with their halberds 
 resting between their hands ; on either side was 
 the encampment of the army, and behind, in a 
 low, sombre mass, lay the city of Novara, difficult 
 to distinguish, save where a lofty glimmer indi 
 cated a watch-tower on the rampart. 
 
 Presently the duke awakened, and the servant 
 was withdrawing from the coals the supper he had 
 cooked, when two figures emerged from the dark 
 ness, and, passing the sentries unchallenged, came 
 within the firelight. The first was Hermes, and 
 the other a Swiss courier who declared himself 
 the bearer of an important despatch from Sforza s 
 diplomatic agent at Berne. 
 
 Upon hearing this the duke came forward, Al- 
 rnodoro and Sanseverino roused themselves, and 
 the grilled bones were forgotten. Ludovico took 
 the letter, then, beokoning the others to follow, he 
 returned into the tent, where, by the light of a lan 
 tern, he read it first to himself, then softly to the 
 others as they bent eagerly forward. It was a 
 curt warning that the Helvetian Diet had passed 
 an edict recalling from Italy all the Swiss troops 
 serving on both sides. 
 
 Three blank countenances met Sforza s as he 
 looked up aghast from the parchment. Almodoro 
 was the first to speak.
 
 THE MONASTERY OF DIVIDE LOVE. 221 
 
 " Tliis is bad news," lie said, " Imt it cannot be 
 a surprise, for it Las long been impending. That 
 Swiss should slaughter S\viss, in a foreign quarrel, 
 seems folly to the Diet as well as to the soldiers." 
 
 Ludovico turned from him with the impatience 
 of a man who finds little comfort in the uncom 
 promising truth. " Think you we could continue 
 the fight," he asked, addressing Sanseverino, "were 
 all the Swiss in Lombardy on their way to the 
 Alps V " 
 
 " No," immediately replied that officer ; " there 
 are four Frenchmen in Louis camp to one Ital 
 ian in ours." 
 
 " And," pursued the duke, thoughtfully, " it were 
 hopeless to tempt the Swiss to continue with us 
 after this edict reaches them." 
 
 Sanseverino laughed bitterly at the question, 
 then checked himself with a grimace of pain, and 
 raised his hand to his wound. " You may well 
 say so," he answered; "with the discontent that 
 prevails, and the furtive parleyings at the out 
 posts, such a command would sheath every lanz- 
 knecht blade." 
 
 "But," objected Almodoro, "the Swiss of King 
 Louis are the regular levies of cantons, whereas 
 ours are enrolled as volunteers, and are not sub 
 ject to the orders of the Diet." 
 
 The commander-in-chief shook his damaged 
 head moodily, but vouchsafed no reply.
 
 222 SFORZA. 
 
 " What think you, Alinodoro ? " asked the duke. 
 " With troops that will not fight, and Time that 
 will not wait 
 
 The alchemist interposed with quick, decisive 
 speech. 
 
 " Grant me this hour ! " he exclaimed vehe 
 mently, with a sudden inspiration, "and if you 
 have wit to profit by what I shall do, all our 
 troubles shall be ended within four days." 
 
 " You rave ! " ejaculated Sanseverino, with angry 
 impatience. " You think to sit here and work 
 charms while 
 
 But Ludovico interrupted his lieutenant with a 
 peremptory gesture, and turning to the soothsayer, 
 at whose last words he had caught, and speaking 
 with the breathless interest of one who fears to 
 have good tidings taken from him, he bade that 
 worthy explain himself. Thus admonished, Almo- 
 doro unrolled a map, and, tracing the road from 
 Novara to Bellinzona, said : 
 
 " The edict will obviously be sent by two mes 
 sengers, one to each camp ; and they will come by 
 this route, for it is the direct road, and shorter by 
 a day than any other. From the terms of your 
 letter, the courier who bore it had two days start 
 of those the Diet was about to send. Now, sup 
 pose the letter destined for our camp miscarried ; 
 imagine that its bearer fell into evil hands, while 
 the other pursued his way ; would it not result
 
 THE MONASTERY OF DIVINE LOVE. 223 
 
 that tlie Swiss in the employ of the French would 
 forthwith march off?" 
 
 " But these rogues of ours would go with them," 
 objected Sanseverino. " The vedettes speak to 
 gether daily, and such a mandate would be known 
 in one camp almost as soon as in the other, and 
 would be equally obeyed in both." 
 
 "I began by saying," retorted Almodoro, "that 
 something would remain for you to do ; your 
 charge, from this moment, is to prevent further 
 communication between the camps. Put the Ital 
 ian cavalry on guard outside our lines; when 
 Louis Swiss march, your men may hesitate ; then 
 offer them the plunder of the enemy, guaranteed 
 by hostages, and fall upon the French, ten to one, 
 and destroy them." 
 
 "As I live, it is worth trying!" cried Hermes, 
 who had listened with delight. 
 
 " Yes ; but, like many ingenious plans, it takes 
 much for granted. Where would you meet these 
 messengers, or how identify them, or how dis 
 tinguish one from the other, or how escape the 
 dangers that would attend every mile of your way? 
 Behold the road ; it runs in rear of the enemy. 
 Yoii would be made prisoner, and might think 
 yourself fortunate if you escaped the fate of a 
 
 SPJ 7 -" 
 
 " Tis true ; and true it is that these are timid 
 doubts of yours. Do not I offer to render you
 
 224 SFORZA. 
 
 this service ? Have I asked that any other shall 
 share its peril? I only say we touch the supreme 
 instant when everything is at stake ; when I, for 
 one, am ready for any sacrifice." 
 
 " And if you fail ? " 
 
 "You would be little worse off than now." 
 
 " He will not fail," ejaculated Hermes, " and if 
 he can forgive my rudeness on a bygone day, I will 
 go with him and share every danger and dangers 
 are lessened when divided." 
 
 " I thank you," replied Almodoro, not unkindly ; 
 " but I shall do as well, or better, alone." 
 
 "I beseech you, refuse me not," insisted Her 
 mes ; " at some moment I might serve you to ad 
 vantage, if only with a pair of keen eyes." 
 
 "It may not be amiss," assented Almodoro, 
 reflectively, " and bring with you the nimble 
 swordsman the youth with whom I met you 
 walking." 
 
 " He is a brave fellow, and has followed me 
 before to my profit." 
 
 The alchemist smiled in silence. 
 
 "You start at once?" queried Ludovico. 
 
 " Yes, upon the instant ; by midnight I shall 
 have circled past the enemy s camp, and thence 
 on till sunrise." 
 
 They took a hasty leave, Hermes casting regret 
 ful eyes towards the savory mutton bones. Ten 
 minutes elapsed before he returned witli the fencer,
 
 THE MONASTERY OF DIVINE LOVE. 225 
 
 who evinced a lively aversion to the company of 
 Almodoro. Then their horses were brought, and 
 in a moment they were out of sight, 
 
 Before they had ridden half a mile the quick- 
 eared Narvaez called a halt. 
 
 " Something approaches," he said, listening in 
 tently as they drew bridle. It was a murmur of 
 voices the voices of men singing, and the tramp 
 of hundreds of feet. At sight of the glitter of 
 torches Narvaez guessed its meaning, and led the 
 way a few yards within cover of the trees. 
 
 It was one of Sforza s regiments, which, hav 
 ing lingered upon some temporary service, had 
 marched through the evening to rejoin the main 
 bodv, and was now lighting the way and beguiling 
 the distance. Nearer the singing came, and at 
 times all joined in a chorus, through which floated 
 the jodel echo, associated then, and for centuries 
 before, with the Alps. The head of the column 
 came in view amid the glare of torches, and the 
 long files trudged after. At intervals the lans- 
 quenettcs passed in twos and threes, and these 
 only, beneath their heavy burdens, sang not. Now 
 and again went by a cluster of lanterns, preceding 
 a couple of officers, and by their light could be 
 seen the fantastic costumes, the bearded faces, the 
 bedraggled plumes, the long cloaks, the halberds 
 with fanged and glittering blades. Last of all 
 came a dozen footsore laggards, and, mounted 
 15
 
 226 SFORZA. 
 
 upon donkeys, three drowsy friars, the spiritual 
 guides of the battalion. 
 
 Towards midnight Almodoro and his escort 
 emerged upon the highway, the branches sway 
 ing in weird figures as the alchemist led on in 
 silence. He alone was unarmed, Hermes being 
 provided with a pair of pistols, then a formidable 
 novelty, and the fencer with a short blunderbuss, 
 which could scatter death amid a troop of horse. 
 When the morning light revealed their road 
 stretching between lines of poplars and disap 
 pearing in the gorge of a defile, Narvaez, who 
 was unaccustomed to riding, begged that they 
 might turn aside into some woods whence a riv 
 ulet issued. While their horses browsed they 
 breakfasted upon bread and mortadella, which 
 Hermes had thrust into the saddlebag at the mo 
 ment of departure. As they rode forward, the sun 
 appeared and dried their clothes. Towards noon 
 Almodoro unrolled a map and indicated their 
 whereabouts, pointing to a cross which Narvaez 
 surmised to signify a graveyard, but which the 
 alchemist informed them marked a famous rest 
 ing-place, II Monastero del Divino Amore. This 
 monastic hostelry, he said, stood in a fork of the 
 northern routes, and, there being no shelter south 
 of it, and to the northward only the wild spurs of 
 the Alps, whoever passed that way must needs 
 seek its hospitality.
 
 THE MONASTERY OF DIVINE LOVE. 227 
 
 Five miles further Hermes spied a turret, and 
 presently they perceived a castellated building. 
 Their approach was signalled by the barking of 
 shaggy dogs, which bounded furiously out, but 
 wagged their bushy tails as the visitors came 
 upon them. When they drew rein, the oaken en 
 trance was seen to be open. It was studded and 
 braced like the portal of a fortress, but, amid these 
 indications of its former character, was nailed a 
 crucifix that betokened its conversion to a spirit 
 ual stronghold. The outworks had been demol 
 ished, the chains by which the drawbridge was 
 raised had disappeared, the wooden scaffoldings 
 which protected the rampart had served for fire 
 wood, and the ancient loopholes had been en 
 larged to windows. Over the way was a stable 
 and a blacksmith s shop, where a cheerful sound 
 of hammering went on, and when the fencer beat 
 upon the door, a couple of unkempt contadini 
 ran out, while at the iron-barred casement of a 
 porter s lodge appeared a chubby-faced sacristan, 
 peering down in curious scrutiny. His obser 
 vation proving satisfactory, he addressed them 
 with a formality which delighted the Spanish 
 heart of Xarvaez, asking what their commands 
 might be, and, on learning their needs, desiring 
 them to leave their horses opposite, and then to 
 enter the courtyard, w r here he would be waiting. 
 When they had done this, he shook each gravely
 
 228 SFORZA. 
 
 by the hand, imitating the mellow voice of the 
 Italian prelate and the air of one who blesses the 
 universe, as he begged them to follow to an arbor, 
 where they might converse during the few minutes 
 that remained till the mid-day meal was served. 
 
 He added, as they crossed the court, that this 
 happened to be " razor day," and jestingly pointed 
 to a window, through which, in passing, the last 
 half dozen friars were seen being shaved and 
 freshly tonsured. They noticed, too, in the corner 
 of the sacristy in which this operation was per 
 formed, a waxen figure of the divine Bambino, 
 equipped with tinsel and trinkets, whose inter 
 position had worked miraculous cures, and from 
 whose presence within their walls the monks drew 
 unspeakable comfort on stormy nights, when the 
 wind blew and the devil whistled and groaned 
 through the tree-tops, while they lay awake listen 
 ing in the dreadful dark. 
 
 In reply to a stream of questions, Almodoro de 
 clared himself and his companions to be a patrol 
 from the French camp, sent to meet two Swiss 
 couriers, who were to be hourly looked for. 
 
 The sacristan, having extracted such further 
 particulars as to their names and histories as the 
 alchemist thought proper to give, vouchsafed the 
 information that this was, in very deed, the Mon 
 astery of Divine Love ; that a century ago it had 
 been a fortress ; that in its present more blessed
 
 THE MONASTERY OF DIVINE LOVE. 229 
 
 state it was under the protection of tlie Virgin, in 
 testimony whereof the "brothers numbered thirty 
 at the time the abandoned castle was made over 
 to them, and now, after the death of all the origi 
 nal members, behold they still numbered thirty, 
 all in good militant order save himself, who was 
 growing fat, and the superior, who was grown sad 
 ever since, but that was a long, long story, and 
 must wait a season of greater leisure. 
 
 And when the bell rang he led them to a fountain 
 that rippled over from a marble basin whose origi 
 nal whiteness was lost beneath a deposit of mould. 
 Here, at their guide s siiggestion, our horsemen 
 washed their hands, this being the only oppor 
 tunity for ablution. Upon entering the refectory 
 they were received by the superior, a man whose 
 ascetic face reflected something of the austere 
 gravity of cloister walks, and whose soft accent 
 declared him a Venetian. Unlike the sacristan, 
 he asked no questions, merely saying that they 
 would find the fare simple, but that, such as it 
 was, they were welcome. 
 
 At sight of him, and at the sound of his voice, 
 Hermes heart almost stood still an instant; for 
 lie recogni/ed the eccentric; fugitive to whose care 
 Barbarigo s brother had confided him in Venice, 
 and Avhose strange story had moved him in that 
 anxious hour. But the superior s glance showed 
 no answering recognition. Doubtless change of
 
 230 SFORZA. 
 
 dress and the growth of beard in the last three 
 months campaigning had altered Hermes appear 
 ance. 
 
 The refectory was furnished with long tables 
 and benches without backs. From the black raft 
 ers hung a candelabrum made of two short boards 
 nailed crosswise one upon the other, with a candle 
 stuck in each of the four ends ; the rope whereby 
 this contrivance was raised or lowered being at 
 tached to the wall. At intervals between the long 
 lines cf tin plates and mugs were wooden salt-cel 
 lars, bowls of dandelion salad, and fiaschi of vine 
 gar-tasting wine. During the repast, which was 
 served steaming hot in two courses, no one spoke, 
 for all were required to listen to a discourse 
 which a brother read. And each, at rising, bowed 
 to the superior and walked out, the friars to re 
 turn to their cells, and Almodoro and his com 
 panions to look to their horses. 
 
 After an inspection of the stable they strolled 
 along the highway, and Hermes, after deliberating 
 with himself, resolved to make no mention to his 
 companions of his previous meeting with the su 
 perior. The latter had clearly forgotten him, and 
 fear of his possible recognition would only perplex 
 and complicate their plans. 
 
 "Maestro," said Narvaez, addressing Almodoro, 
 "are you content to rest upon it that the Swiss 
 will halt at this place? May not they," he added,
 
 THE MONASTERY OF DIVINE LOVE. o;ji 
 
 with thoughts evidently reverting to the Moors of 
 his Amhilusian sierras, " stop here merely to water 
 their horses or to change them ? " 
 
 "No man," replied the alchemist, "whose occu 
 pation it is to carry despatches, could make his 
 horses last if he used them so severely ; as for a 
 re-mount, you noticed that all those in the stalls 
 are common field ponies. Now, there being no 
 station south of this before Novara, and none 
 north of it for forty miles, we may presume that 
 they would leave their last resting-place so as to 
 arrive here at sunset : hence I look for them late 
 in the afternoon to-day, or to-morrow." 
 
 "Were it not wise," pursued the fencer, who, in 
 the intense interest which absorbed every other 
 feeling, seemed to have forgotten his antipathy to 
 Almodoro, " to inquire of the stable men the usage 
 of couriers, -whether they rest here the night ; 
 whether spare horses are furnished ; whether per 
 chance two are presently expected ? " 
 
 "It were well done, and to you I allot it ; and, 
 while there, note minutely the doors and windows, 
 and the access from the rear. Meanwhile, Signor 
 Hermes, if you are disposed to oblige me, you will 
 find again the talkative sacristan, and get from 
 him everything about the rules and ways of the 
 monastery. And while you are both thus well 
 employed, I will skirt the building and learn if 
 there be a subterranean passage. We will meet
 
 232 SFORZA. 
 
 hereabouts within an hour, and bear in mind to 
 keep your weapons always ready." 
 
 Before the appointed time had passed, they 
 were again together, and, in answer to an inquir 
 ing glance, Narvaez said : 
 
 " The stable men declare that couriers pass here 
 frequently, and that it is their practice to rest the 
 night." 
 
 "And I," said Hermes, "found the fat sacristan 
 fresh from his own private table, looking rosy and 
 contented, and smelling of onions. He smacked 
 his lips and told of fasts and vigils and retreats, 
 and then he entered upon the story of the su 
 perior how he was the last of a Venetian family 
 that had given a doge to the State, and that, at 
 the command of the Council, he had left the 
 cloister to wed his cousin, that their name might 
 not perish. And after he had lived some years 
 with her, and she had borne him two sons, he 
 quietly vanished one day from his familiar places 
 and returned to the life he preferred of poverty 
 for the glory of God." 
 
 Then said Almodoro : " I have found three pri 
 vate ways out of the monastery : one by a postern 
 at the rear ; a second through a door that leads 
 into a dry moat, but which has been so long 
 unused that nothing short of a battering-ram 
 could open it ; the third by a steep path into the 
 valley. Moreover, I learn that we are to sleep on
 
 THE .MONASTERY OF DIVINE LOVE. 333 
 
 pallet beds in the refectory, which will answer 
 perfectly, for we shall be together, and near the 
 great gate, if at any time we need to get our 
 horses. More than this we cannot yet determine." 
 
 " I have wondered all the morning," said Her 
 mes, with diffident hesitation, " that you do not 
 resort to the powers of magic all the world knows 
 you possess, to learn something about the Swiss 
 couriers and their whereabouts, and thus dispel 
 half our doubts at once." 
 
 " Foolish boy ! you think the secrets of magic 
 are but a holiday trick? " 
 
 "Not so; but at this time, which you have your 
 self declared to be the climax, the gifts of each, 
 be they great or small, should be freely contrib 
 uted." 
 
 " Well reasoned," answered the alchemist ; "and 
 a process, which you and the world call magic, 
 shall indeed be used when the time comes ; it is 
 for that and for nothing else I am here." 
 
 " But the time has already come when it might 
 tell us what to expect, which all our conjectures 
 cannot do." 
 
 " For that I have not by me indispensable ap 
 pliances." 
 
 " Then we take the chance of their travelling by 
 another route, or passing here without stopping, 
 in either case failure for us, and ruin for the duke." 
 
 " We must accept not only these two unfavor-
 
 234 SFORZA . 
 
 able possibilities, but half a dozen others far more 
 serious." 
 
 " But iu setting forth upon this expedition, and 
 in making the declaration you did as to its results, 
 you certainly must have had something more po 
 tent in view than anything of which you have yet 
 spoken." 
 
 Almodoro looked about him to make sure that 
 they were not observed. Then he said : " This 
 grass is dry, now the sun has shone upon it ; let 
 us be seated, for the time has come when I may 
 explain to you the method by which I intend to 
 work, and the way in which you are to second 
 me." 
 
 They placed themselves at ease upon the green 
 sward that bordered the road, as though to enjoy 
 the sunshine of the pleasant April afternoon, and 
 the fragrance of apple blossoms that filled the air, 
 and the delicious restfulness of the broad fields. 
 
 The alchemist spoke with a familiarity and con 
 fidence unusual to his distant and formal bearing. 
 
 " There exists," he said, fixing his dark eyes 
 earnestly upon them, " a mysterious power in na 
 ture whereof I could give no rational explanation, 
 even were it my present purpose to make the 
 attempt. It is a strange and secret force which 
 one person exercises upon another, whereby the 
 consciousness and volition of the second are ar 
 rested."
 
 THE MONASTERY OF DIVINE LOVE. 235 
 
 His companions, filled with the universal dread 
 of mystic influences, listened with undisguised as 
 tonishment and awe. 
 
 " This power," he continued, with difficulty re 
 straining a smile at their timorous faces, " is a 
 magnet with which phenomena can be produced 
 that, to the natural sense, seem prodigies ; the 
 mind can be projected to distant places ; commu 
 nication can be held with those far away ; the clue 
 to things deemed unfathomable can be grasped ; 
 but what is of greater import to us is that the 
 subject brought into the focus of the magnet or 
 magnetized, as it is called can be made to do the 
 bidding of him who exercises it, without after 
 wards retaining a remembrance of what he has 
 been made to do." 
 
 He paused to note if this revelation produced 
 an intelligible meaning upon minds unused to the 
 science of alchemy. A glance exchanged by the 
 young men satisfied him that the application to be 
 made of this principle of the black art had been 
 perceived by them, and the deference and intent- 
 iiess with which they listened showed that the 
 witchery and intensity of their companion s nature 
 had seized them. 
 
 He passed at once, and with a relieved expres 
 sion, from the pale of the cabala to the common 
 place of the service they were to render. 
 
 " It is upon this agency that I rely," he went
 
 236 8FORZA. 
 
 on, " and it is necessary that you be alert to divine 
 my wish. You must be prompt to understand my 
 slightest signal, and all that can be foreseen now 
 is that I must have the bearer of our despatch to 
 myself for half an hour ; that I must be secure 
 from interruption ; that, above all, the superior 
 must be kept out of the way." 
 
 A light footfall was heard on the road behind 
 them. 
 
 " Hush," whispered Narvaez, hastily, " here 
 comes the superior."
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 AN ALCHEMIC MAGNET. 
 
 THE prelate approached them with a fixed and 
 scrutinizing eye. " I understand that you come 
 from the French camp before Novara," he said, 
 addressing Almodoro. 
 
 " Yes, we are sent to meet a bearer of important 
 despatches." 
 
 " And are you French ? " 
 
 "I am of many lands," replied the alchemist, 
 vexed at this pointed inquiry. 
 
 "Your speech has a savor of Arabic," assented 
 the Venetian. "And you," he said, addressing 
 Narvaez, who was brushing the specks of dust 
 from his doublet, " your dark skin bespeaks you 
 a child of some southern province, of Gascony, 
 perhaps, or ? " 
 
 " I am a Castilian," briefly responded the fencer, 
 with the haughty accent of his race. 
 
 " And you," pursued the superior, turning to 
 Hermes, "should also bo a Spaniard, if my remem 
 brance of costume be not at fault." 
 
 " I have spent much of my life among Span 
 iards," evasively answered Hermes, raising his
 
 238 SFORZA. 
 
 handkerchief to his face in his desire to escape 
 recognition. 
 
 Before they could be further questioned, the 
 wise man hastily interposed. 
 
 " Twice since our arrival," he began, I have 
 sought an opportunity to reveal a hidden purpose 
 connected with our journey, and if you and I 
 could walk as far as the bend of the road ? " 
 
 The superior bowed in silent assent; he would 
 willingly have pressed his interrogatory of the 
 young men, but, finding no pretext for refusing 
 the confidence of their chief, he followed. 
 
 " The magician will ruin all ! " ejaculated Nar- 
 vaez, looking vacantly after them. 
 
 "Fear not," answered Hermes, laughingly. 
 " Though Almodoro talk much, he will tell little ; 
 I only wish he might play these monks some 
 devil s trick, set their thin blood boiling with 
 fantastic lusts, or 
 
 " Tush, Hermes, for shame ! " 
 
 "He has played wilder pranks than that." 
 
 " Tis a marvel the Inquisition never put a 
 tether about him." 
 
 " It sought to, years ago, but now that he is in 
 high favor it dare not." 
 
 "How came it to fail? I thought the Holy 
 Office never failed." 
 
 "It could never lay physical hands upon him, 
 however much it scourged with ghostly stripes.
 
 AX ALCHEMIC MAGNET. 039 
 
 My uncle once told me an odd tale of how he 
 escaped the Franciscans who had followed him 
 for weeks ineffectually, till one night, as they 
 dogged his steps, looking to see him vanish as 
 usual in the wall of some house, or melt away 
 into the shadow of a tree, he was seen to enter 
 tho palace where Ludovico then lived. A rein 
 forcement of friars and a squad of halberdiers 
 were summoned, and every door was guarded, 
 and every window watched, while a search was 
 commenced with swords and flambeaux and holy 
 w r ater. They ascended the stairs in a body, with 
 exorcisms and clattering of sandals. Arrived at 
 the portrait gallery, there came from its dim 
 extremity a shuffling of limping footsteps, and 
 they caught sight of the semblance of a lame old 
 man in clerical habit, looking back with fright 
 ened face. It was Monsignore Pasquale, who was 
 lame all his life, who had been dead twenty 
 years, and whose life-size portrait hung on the 
 wall. The friars raised a hue and cry at the 
 sight, and rushed after like a rolling wave. But 
 Ludovico, who had followed, turned instinctively 
 to scan the Monsignore s likeness, and a chill crept 
 over him on discovering that a different person 
 age filled the picture. The wrinkled visage was 
 replaced by a beautiful and intellectual head, 
 the head of Almodoro, and his body was robed 
 in the magnificent garb of the doge Giacomo Con-
 
 240 SFORZA. 
 
 tarini. The wizard had thrust the aged and infirm 
 prelate from his place, and had substituted him 
 self upon the board himself as he was centuries 
 ago ! And when the monks and soldiers were 
 weary with chasing shadows, they went their 
 ways, and lo ! next morning, Almodoro s image 
 had vanished, and the Monsignore s had slunk 
 back to its place. But look ! the conjurer beck 
 ons us to him." 
 
 The alchemist and the superior had suddenly 
 stopped by the roadside, and were looking north 
 ward, as though attracted by some expected sound. 
 And Hermes and Narvaez, following their gaze, 
 beheld two horsemen riding at a trot through the 
 defile, both dressed in brown, the one wearing a 
 light- colored felt hat, the other a peaked cap and 
 feather. 
 
 The shaggy dogs came bounding out, with the 
 stable facchini after them. To Almodoro s dec 
 laration that he had been sent by King Louis, 
 the Swiss listened stolidly, nodding to one another 
 and at him. And answering the superior, whose 
 hand they reverently kissed, they told, in guttural 
 dialect, of the road they had come, and how they 
 had ridden, fasting, all that day over difficult 
 mountain paths, and would rest the night and 
 start again at dawn. And they acknowledged 
 Almodoro s information to be correct, that one 
 of them, named Soprasasso, he with the leather
 
 AX ALCHEMIC MAGNET. 241 
 
 doublet and gray hat, bore a despatch to Ludo- 
 vico, while his companion, who was referred to by 
 the name of Caspar, must follow the road to the 
 camp of King Louis. And being chilled, they 
 seated themselves before a hre kindled in the re 
 fectory, and drew off their muddy boots and hung 
 them upon the andirons to dry, and sat toast 
 ing their stockinged feet, and taking one or two 
 gurgling draughts from a fiasco while waiting 
 supper. And Hermes pledged them in a goblet, 
 rejoicing that on the morrow they would have 
 the trusty escort of himself and his companions, 
 the roads being beset with cut-throats. And Al- 
 modoro scanned them intently : much the same 
 build they were, and equipped alike, each with 
 his courier s wallet and thick German cutlass laid 
 on the table. But when lie asked concerning 
 their despatches, they answered nothing, nor did 
 they exhibit anything but indifference at the 
 promised escort. And when they were all served 
 with ham, and bread and cheese, and eggs, the su 
 perior explained that, as the porter s lodge had 
 already been occupied by Almodoro and his com 
 panions, the couriers should sleep in an ancient 
 guard-room on the other side of the refectory, 
 where two pallets had been laid for them on the 
 floor. 
 
 The couriers eat ravenously, and, when their 
 appetite was appeased, they returned drowsily to 
 1G
 
 242 8FORZA. 
 
 the fire and disposed themselves comfortably, like 
 dogs that have hunted all day. The superior, 
 finding no opportunity to speak a word to the 
 Swiss apart, left the refectory at vespers, attended 
 by Hermes, who promised himself not to let the 
 suspicious prelate out of his sight. He doubted 
 not that Narvaez would find an expedient to draw 
 the courier named Caspar from the room, thus 
 leaving Almodoro alone with the bearer of the 
 coveted despatch. 
 
 The moment approached when the alchemist 
 was to attempt an experiment which called for 
 his most occult and potent science. He doubted 
 not of its success, for the secrets of hypnotic 
 magnetism had been divined and mastered by the 
 fraternity, and Almodoro had developed the mag 
 netic faculty to an extraordinary accuracy and 
 range. 
 
 But, to the soothsayer s discomfiture, Sopra- 
 sasso, the one against w r hom his art was to be 
 directed, rose as the door closed behind Hermes, 
 and declared it bedtime for himself and his com 
 panion. 
 
 " Come, Caspar," he said, giving that individual 
 a nudge that made him open his sleepy eyes ; 
 " come and help me examine the fastenings ; rouse 
 up, man ; do you not know we have but little over 
 seven hours before us ? and that is barely enough 
 for a tolerable nap."
 
 AN ALCHEMIC MAGNET. 343 
 
 " I have several matters upon which to consult 
 you," resolutely interposed Almodoro, determined 
 to detain him ; " send Caspar to examine the fas 
 tenings, and let us consider the route to your 
 destination." 
 
 " The route is straight ahead," retorted the 
 Swiss, upon whom Almodoro s advances had pro 
 duced an unfavorable impression. 
 
 " But we have not even fixed the hour for start 
 ing," urged the alchemist, rising from his seat with 
 a movement of impatience. 
 
 " We start at dawn," answered the courier, with 
 a gesture of derision, " and if you must know more 
 exactly, you have but to keep watch through the 
 night ; " and, taking a rushlight from the table, lie 
 opened the door that communicated with the ad 
 joining guard-room, and closed it sharply behind 
 him. 
 
 Narvaez followed his retreating figure with a 
 look of blank dismay, but Almodoro had already 
 found an alternative. 
 
 Ho caught Caspar by the arm as he made ready 
 to follow, and, looking with good-natured earnest 
 ness in his face, said : 
 
 " Your mate has curt ways, and I like him, 
 though not so well as you, for your wit is the 
 keener, and your insight the more practical. 
 With such a mind you will be to blame if you 
 put not by a big sack of ducats to comfort your
 
 244 SFORZA. 
 
 old age. If you will listen a moment, while So- 
 prasasso is getting to bed, I will tell you a secret 
 that will add a yellow handful to your savings." 
 
 " Speak it briefly then," muttered the Swiss ; " I 
 have no time for lengthy tales." 
 
 They seated themselves, side by side, before 
 the fire, and Almodoro applied himself instantly, 
 and with intense earnestness, to securing the 
 attention and interest of the dull intelligence that 
 listened. 
 
 " A courier s is a hard life,"*he said quickly, 
 " at least you should be well paid for such con 
 stant exposure." 
 
 " More copper than silver," answered Caspar 
 sententiously, with the air of one who speaks a 
 profound and melancholy truth. 
 
 " And I say I can put you in the way of some 
 thing better than silver, if you will." 
 
 The courier rubbed his knees reflectively, and 
 turned his heavy face full upon the alchemist 
 with a look of silent interrogation. 
 
 " I can make your fortune ; I need just such a 
 trusty fellow as you for a delicate service where 
 whoso can hold his tongue will be free to fill 
 his pockets." 
 
 " What with ? " asked the Swiss, losing interest 
 in the fire. 
 
 " With ducats that have lain buried since the 
 time of the first Visconti."
 
 AN ALCHEMIC MAGNET. 
 
 245 
 
 " And you know where they are hidden ? " 
 
 "They are to be found by a divining-rod, which 
 reveals treasure under ground as accurately as 
 the eye perceives a light through the darkness." 
 
 " Do you offer me a handful of these ducats ? " 
 
 "Yes, if you will do what I ask." 
 
 " And what is that ? " 
 
 The voice of Soprasasso was heard calling an 
 grily from the next room : 
 
 " To bed, Caspar, or I will put out the light ! " 
 
 Almodoro whispered quickly : " Tell him to 
 leave the light burning and to go to sleep ; say 
 that you will come in a moment." 
 
 When this answer had been made, the alche 
 mist, dreading to see his prey escape, went on in 
 a hurried undertone. 
 
 "Before I reveal all," he said, "you must pledge 
 secrecy : put your hand in mine, so, look me 
 straight in the eyes; speak not, I shall believe 
 you honest if you look upon me fixedly." 
 
 They sat thus hand in hand by the flickering 
 logs, each with his eyes riveted upon the other s, 
 the Swi >s grown suddenly rigid, as though touched 
 by a magnetic fire. Then his respiration quick 
 ened, his eyelids drooped, while behind leaned 
 Narvaez, watching with beating heart what ho 
 doubted not to be a manifestation of the devil. 
 During this interval a fantastic vision possessed 
 the imagination of the Swiss. His fancy had been
 
 246 SFORZA. 
 
 kindled by the last words spoken, and by the 
 thought of the magical divining-rod ; and now, for a 
 single moment which seemed an hour, so crowded 
 was it with tumultuous and weird impressions- 
 he beheld the conjurer walking at night, through 
 strange and solitary places, in search of treasure, 
 and finding it in stacks of curious and outlandish 
 coin, and heaps of glittering gems, and piles of 
 cups and sacred vessels ; and behind all flitted 
 lurid lights and demon faces, that suddenly grew 
 dim as everything faded in a vague unconscious 
 ness, across which the alchemist s next words 
 came from a distance, with faint and solemn 
 sound. 
 
 Several minutes passed ; then Almodoro dropped 
 the hand he held, and breathed a sigh of infinite 
 relief. 
 
 "Fold your hands together," he said to the 
 Swiss. 
 
 Instinctively the courier clasped them one upon 
 the other. 
 
 " Stand up and walk to the window ; do you see 
 the window there before you ? " 
 
 With a slow, hesitating action the order was 
 performed. 
 
 Give me the despatch from your wallet." 
 
 Caspar fixed his eyes vaguely upon the leather 
 travelling-bag which lay upon the table ; then with 
 difficulty, as one who comprehends imperfectly
 
 ^IJV ALCHEMIC NACfXET. 047 
 
 what is required, lie undid the strap and drew out 
 a sealed envelope. 
 
 "Now put it back precisely as it was," said 
 Almodoro, after a glance at the superscription. 
 "You understand me when I speak?" he added, 
 after this had been done. 
 
 " Yes, perfectly." 
 
 " Then tell me if your companion s wallet con 
 tains a letter similar to yours." 
 
 "He has the counterpart to mine," said Caspar, 
 after a moment s intense thought, "but I cannot 
 remember what is written upon it." 
 
 " And do you know what is in his letter or in 
 yours ? " 
 
 " They contain orders, but I know neither the 
 words nor their meaning." 
 
 "Do you see objects about you? " 
 
 " I see you speaking to me." 
 
 "But do you not see this table and the fire ? " 
 
 " Ah, yes ; now I see them clearly." 
 
 " Have you been in the room in which you are 
 to sleep ? " 
 
 " I know not." 
 
 " It is the room beside this ; see the door to it 
 before us ; it is there your companion, Soprasasso, 
 awaits you." 
 
 " Soprasasso ? " 
 
 " Yes ; he who rides with you and carries a 
 despatch."
 
 248 SFOItZA. 
 
 " You are right ; I know the man." 
 
 " I wish you to enter that room noiselessly, and 
 to bring me Soprasasso s wallet." 
 
 The magnetized courier turned towards the door 
 which had been indicated, and was about to ap 
 proach it. 
 
 " Wait," interposed the alchemist ; " I have not 
 yet given you the information with which you 
 must be prepared. On the floor of the adjoining 
 room are two pallets. One is for you ; the other 
 is occupied by Soprasasso." 
 
 " Has he gone to bed ? " 
 
 " Yes ; but he will be sure to speak, and you 
 must answer." 
 
 "What shall I say?" 
 
 " You are to answer thus : Hush : make no noise : 
 the monastery is asleep. I long to sleep, too and so 
 good-night until the morrow" 
 
 " Will I be able to see in that room ? " 
 
 "Yes, because the rushlight has been left for 
 you to put out." 
 
 " But where shall I find the wallet ? " 
 
 " This youth who stands beside me has watched 
 Soprasasso, and the w r allet lies on the floor be 
 tween the two beds. First put out the light ; then 
 lay your own wallet, which I put in your hands, 
 on the floor, in the place of the one which now 
 lies there, and which you are to bring to me very 
 softly, as soon as Soprasasso sleeps. And re-
 
 AN ALCHEMIC MAGXET. 249 
 
 member tliat the instant you are in that room, 
 yon must bolt the door behind you. Do you 
 understand it all clearly ? " 
 
 " Not so clearly but that I would hear it again 
 in order." 
 
 When the soothsayer had complied with this 
 request, amplifying his instructions with extreme 
 minuteness and precision of detail, the Swiss 
 walked unhesitatingly to the door, went out, and 
 closed and bolted it behind him. 
 
 " Master," exclaimed Narvaez, " would he now 
 do anything that you command? " 
 
 " You see for yourself." 
 
 " Woiild he kill Soprasasso ? " 
 
 " He would try if I bade him with the prob 
 ability of rousing the monastery ; with the cer 
 tainty of spoiling the most ingenious feature of 
 our plan ; and with the chance of being worsted 
 after all." 
 
 The fencer looked unconvinced. 
 
 " It is necessary," pursued the wise man, as 
 though speaking to himself, " that these fellows 
 shall go 011 their way to-morrow unconscious that 
 anything has befallen. How long the dunce 
 takes !" 
 
 " Shall I listen at their door?" 
 
 "That were useless. If there be any noise if 
 Caspar fails, you will 
 
 " Listen. They are talking."
 
 250 SFORZA. 
 
 " No ; it is a step. Hark, he draws back the 
 bolt he comes ! " 
 
 The lights in the refectory had been extin 
 guished, the fire burned low, all was dark and 
 still. The door opened and Caspar entered, hold 
 ing Soprasasso s wallet. Narvaez softly closed the 
 door behind him, and the alchemist, undoing the 
 straps, took the despatch to the fire, glanced at 
 its contents with an exclamation of triumph, then 
 dropped it in the midst of the embers, where it 
 was instantly consumed. 
 
 The courier stood motionless and abstracted, as 
 if his thoughts were not upon what was happen 
 ing. 
 
 "Did Soprasasso speak?" asked Almodoro, 
 while Narvaez strapped the wallet together. 
 
 " Yes ; he chided me for tarrying so long." 
 
 " Was that all ?" 
 
 "He bade me haste and put out the light. I 
 answered as you charged me, and in the dark I 
 laid my wallet in the place of his and came softly 
 out." " 
 
 " Very w r ell. Now lay your wallet on the table 
 beside your sword, and sit down by the fire. Give 
 me your hand again." 
 
 At this moment Hermes reappeared and whis 
 pered that vespers were over, that he had tried in 
 vain to detain the superior, and that they might be 
 interrupted at any moment. Then he noticed with
 
 AN ALCHEMIC MAGNET. 051 
 
 astonishment the courier s vague and blank ex 
 pression, which gave place, as the magnetic influ 
 ence was lifted, to his accustomed look of stolid 
 attention. Almodoro spoke to him, resuming the 
 thread of their talk at the point where it had been 
 interrupted twenty minutes previously. 
 
 "You are an honest fellow," he said, "and, now 
 I know you to be sincere, you may depend upon 
 plunging your hands in the mounds of dingy red 
 ducats, none the less beautiful to you and me for 
 being tarnished." 
 
 " But when will you tell me wherein this service 
 you require is to consist?" asked the Swiss, un 
 conscious of the interval since the alchemist s ref 
 erence to the divining-rod. 
 
 " It is late," answered Almodoro, impatient to 
 get Caspar to his room. " To-morrow, as we ride, 
 you shall learn all. Your companion went to 
 bed some time ago we had all best do likewise. 
 Your shoes are dry now ; take them with you, and 
 give the remainder of the night to sleep." 
 
 The courier yawned, rose slowly, stretched him 
 self luxuriously, took his boots from the andirons, 
 and his wallet and cutlass from the table, and, 
 bidding them all a curt good-night, withdrew. 
 
 Then Almodoro turned to Hermes, his face suf 
 fused with exultation. "It is done," he whis 
 pered, with trembling lips. "The despatch is 
 destroved."
 
 252 SFORZA. 
 
 "It is done none too soon," answered Hermes, 
 " for the superior will surely be here in an instant. 
 He fairly bade me begone at the last, and I know 
 he suspects us of some mischievous intention." 
 
 " He can do no more than come to the refectory 
 to make sure that all is quiet." 
 
 " Hark ! I hear a step now," exclaimed Hermes, 
 breathless with excitement. 
 
 " Some one knocks at the door of the Swiss. It 
 is the superior. He has something to say to them, 
 and we must know what it is." 
 
 They crept to the door leading to the guard 
 room, and listened intently. The first w r ords they 
 heard were spoken by Caspar, who had relighted 
 the rush he had previously extinguished, and 
 was opening the side-door at which the superior 
 knocked. Soprasasso, roused by these noises, 
 threw back his coverlet with an angry growl. 
 Then they heard the superior speaking in a quick, 
 subdued voice. 
 
 " I come," he said, " to caution you against 
 these fellows who present themselves under the 
 guise of an escort. Is your door bolted ? Yes ? 
 Know, then, that one of them is Hermes Sforza, 
 nephew to the Duke of Milan. I met him once, 
 months ago, in Venice, but he is so altered that at 
 first I knew him not. As for his companions, 
 though they profess to come from the French 
 camp, you see for yourselves that neither of them
 
 AN ALCHEMIC MAGNET. ^3 
 
 is a Frenchman. All day they have been studying 
 the ins and outs of this building, and never for an 
 instant have their arms been out of reach. This 
 afternoon, when I came upon them unawares, their 
 chief, who is the oldest and most ill-favored of 
 them, palmed off a tale whose falsehood looked 
 me in the eyes. And I should have been here ear 
 lier to tell you this, had not the one whom I recog 
 nized, when talking face to face, as Sforza, detained 
 me with a tissue of nonsense." 
 
 The Swiss evinced little concern at this extraor 
 dinary communication, which they attributed to 
 the disordered imagination of a monk. 
 
 " I have but this moment left them dozing 
 over their fire," observed Caspar. " And we have 
 nothing to lose except our despatches," he added, 
 with a sigh at the remembrance of Almodoro s 
 treasure. 
 
 " Except your despatches," echoed the superior. 
 
 " And they are as they should be," added So- 
 prasasso, turning to the two wallets beside him 
 with a searching glance that changed to a wild 
 stare of alarm. 
 
 His hands shook as he clutched his own and 
 held it up for the others to see. 
 
 " It has been opened," he stammered. " I never 
 fastened it thus." 
 
 The superior bent above him as he unstrapped 
 it and found it empty.
 
 254 SFORZA. 
 
 " The despatch ! " he cried, with a terrible voice, 
 as he beat his hands violently together. 
 
 His companion looked on bewildered, then sud 
 denly tore open his own wallet and drew forth the 
 despatch it contained to the auxiliaries of King 
 Louis. 
 
 At sight of it Soprasasso gasped with joy. 
 
 " St. Michael, the guardian of messengers, be 
 praised!" he muttered, as he clutched the parch 
 ment and pressed it to his lips. " We can yet per 
 form our errand," he said, " for the other despatch 
 was the mate to this, and both recall our country 
 men to Switzerland." 
 
 On the other side of the door Almodoro stood 
 silent and aghast at the words. Behind him were 
 Hermes and Narvaez, and they read their failure 
 in the eyes with which he glanced back. 
 
 Then the superior spoke again. " These fellows 
 must have stolen the letter at supper before your 
 very faces," he said. " This is no place for you to 
 sleep ; they will get the second from you before 
 morning. You must to horse at once. Come, I 
 will guide you to the stable. The facchini are not 
 yet in bed. We must show no light, for they are 
 better armed than you. Pull on your boots, take 
 your cutlasses, and follow me softly." 
 
 A shuffling noise followed, then all was still. 
 The superior went but a step with them outside 
 the walls. Then he whispered : " The stable is
 
 AN ALCHEMIC MAGNET. 055 
 
 open, yon can easily saddle your horses. Mean 
 while I will go to the parapet, and, if the rogues 
 stir, I will ring the great bell." 
 
 Within the refectory Almodoro turned to his 
 companions and asked in a calm, deliberate voice, 
 " Are your weapons ready ? " then, without wait 
 ing for an answer, he added : " Yoii must be 
 quick to seize our last chance. The superior has 
 marred a finer scheme than ever lie made. But 
 you are cool and bold, and your arms are good. 
 You must kill Soprasasso. He was to have rid 
 den to our camp. He is intelligent enough to 
 make explanations, which the other is not. Cas 
 par will ride to Louis camp and deliver his 
 despatch. Whoever approaches our Swiss shall 
 be hanged as a spy. Come quickly ; you will 
 know them readily in the dark, for Soprasasso s 
 hat will show almost white, and will make a clear 
 target. Be sure not to fire at the other. You 
 shall station yourselves before the stable door, 
 and I will lock the monastery gate, that none may 
 come out to molest you." 
 
 Softly they passed from the refectory, where the 
 neglected fire burned low, casting their shadows in 
 grotesque and fantastic silhouettes upon the wall. 
 The stout old boards creaked beneath their steps 
 as Hermes led the way with a pistol in each hand, 
 and at his heels the fencer holding the redoubt 
 able blunderbuss. The alchemist locked the great
 
 256 SFORZA. 
 
 gate behind them and leaned against it, completely 
 hidden in shadow, while his companions stepped 
 forward to the edge of the road. 
 
 The double doors of the stable were opened ; 
 they heard the noise of horses led forth ; a head 
 peeped cautiously this way and that ; there was a 
 hasty exchange of words ; then, with a rush, the 
 Swiss were upon them, cutlass in hand. 
 
 Two sharp reports rang out, followed by the 
 louder detonation of the blunderbuss, and one of 
 the Swiss the one wearing the light gray hat 
 plunged headlong to the ground. The other spur 
 red furiously, and, in passing Narvaez, dealt him a 
 heavy cut ere he dashed away at a gallop. 
 
 It was over in an instant. Then Almodoro 
 came forward as Hermes sprang to the Spaniard, 
 who had fallen. Along the rampart came hurry 
 ing lights, and the monastary bell rang a note of 
 alarm far down the valley. 
 
 " What ! " exclaimed the alchemist, bending be 
 side Narvaez, " is she killed ? " 
 
 " She ! " echoed Hermes. 
 
 " Did you not know your fencer to be a girl ? 
 She is badly hurt. The cut has gone through the 
 arm to the bone. Give me a handkerchief, there, 
 bound thus the flow of blood will cease. Look, her 
 eyes open, she tries to speak. How the monks 
 swarm on the parapet. Hear them curse, no, they 
 are praying. Let us get the horses, quick, and away ! "
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE FAITH OF THE SWISS. 
 
 AT daybreak Hermes and the wounded girl 
 neared Novara. Almodoro had disappeared soon 
 after their flight from the monastery, for the al 
 chemist was in dire haste, and made off at a pace 
 which left them far behind. 
 
 At intervals, during the hours of their long 
 ride, they talked with a strange mixture of inti 
 macy and reserve, and by degrees Hermes drew 
 forth the story of her life. She spoke with horror 
 of that dreadful man who had divined her secret, 
 and, in place of the fencer s accustomed self- 
 reliance, appeared a sudden feminine dependence, 
 wherewith in her helplessness she turned to her 
 companion, and which was in odd contrast to the 
 epithets that, in moments of pain, she, showered 
 upon their thorny journey ings. 
 
 Her name, she said, was Mariquita, and her 
 disguise had been imagined by her father, who, 
 when she was still a child, dressed her as a boy, 
 and put a foil in her hand, saying that she must 
 take the place of the sou he had desired. At his 
 death he had enjoined upon her to continue the 
 17
 
 258 SFORZA. 
 
 life to which she had become accustomed, and, 
 committing to her his Toledo blade, which, in its 
 youth, had tasted the blood of many a Moor, 
 whispered his last characteristic words : " To the 
 heart ! always strike to the heart! " then his eyes 
 closed, he was dead. 
 
 She interrupted this narrative with denuncia 
 tions of the alchemist, with lamentations that she 
 should never fence again, with sobs of pain, with 
 wondering exclamations at what should become 
 of her now. At which Hermes, thinking to calm 
 her, said : 
 
 " I will care for you, Mariquita, until you can 
 be safely placed in a convent a shrewish nun 
 you will make ! " 
 
 At this the long-familiar masculine nature re 
 asserted itself, and the fencer s daughter vowed 
 by the sword of St. Peter that none should ever 
 house her in a nunnery. 
 
 When nearing camp, they heard from afar the 
 soft, musical notes of the mountain horns where 
 with the Swiss sounded their reveille, and whose 
 simple refrain, swelling and falling in the dis 
 tance, seemed filled with the pastoral strains of 
 Alpine valleys. And, following after, came the 
 roll of drums and the strident call of bugles from 
 the French and Italian camps. They passed 
 Ludovico s outposts almost unchallenged, and 
 rode through the familiar bivouac, where every-
 
 THE FAITH OF THE SWISS. 259 
 
 tiling wore an aspect of hustling preparation. 
 In an adjacent meadow were formed tlie Italian 
 knights, silent and motionless, glittering beneath 
 the first beams of the rising sun, in the steel 
 and brass of their incomparable Milanese armor. 
 Near by, the crossbowmen, in dark green tunics 
 and feathered caps, were filling their wallets with 
 bolts, and, away to the left, a battalion of Lom 
 bard pike men advanced with trumpet-blasts and 
 clashing of Turkish cymbals. 
 
 Hermes conducted Mariquita to a house occu 
 pied by a leech, in whose care he left her. He 
 then rode to Ludovico s tent, before which Saii- 
 severino was seated 011 horseback, surrounded by 
 officers, to whom he was reading his order for an 
 attack. A little to the front was St orza, equipped 
 in gilt mail, and attended by an esquire who bore 
 his shield, rather in observance of ancient custom 
 than in view of any heavy strokes the portly duke 
 was likely to receive or give. Beside him rode 
 Almodoro, whose usually sombre countenance was 
 radiant, as though success were the elixir of his 
 being. 
 
 But the promised triumph vanished at the start 
 ling words of some officers who galloped in with 
 blanched faces and trembling lips, and whose tid 
 ings struck the alchemist and his patron equally 
 aghast. The Swiss had furled their flags and 
 called in their sentries, and were busy with their
 
 260 SFORZA. 
 
 lansquenettes rolling tents and packing baggage, 
 and refused to obey orders, declaring that a com 
 mand from a source superior to the authority of 
 princelings called them away. 
 
 It needed but a moment to verify this state 
 ment, and to measure the immensity of the catas 
 trophe. They rode forward to the lines of their 
 mercenaries, where Ludovico was greeted with 
 derisive shouts. 
 
 " You promised us Vigevano ; you promised us 
 Novara," they cried ; " you shall learn to keep 
 faith with the Swiss." 
 
 Then Hermes whispered to Almodoro : " We 
 made some fatal mistake last night ; can it be 
 that the Swiss we killed was the one sent to the 
 French camp ? See how pale is Ludovico ! what 
 can it be they are saying to him ? they unfold a 
 despatch 
 
 " I cannot bear to meet his eyes," groaned the 
 wise man ; " I am faint, the sight of his face 
 oppresses me." 
 
 " Look yonder ! " exclaimed Hermes, catching 
 the alchemist by the sleeve and directing his 
 attention : " that fellow pointing to us do you 
 not recognize him ? it is Soprasasso. I under 
 stand it all now : in the haste of their flight the 
 one took the other s hat. Him we riddled with 
 bullets had caught up his companion s gray felt 
 O Magician, to what purpose are your arts ? "
 
 THE FAITH OF THE SWISS. 261 
 
 But Ludovico, at least, did not despair. He 
 could escape with liis Italian troops to Milan, 
 and defend his capital until a duplicate despatch 
 reached the hirelings of King Louis, and left 
 that sovereign similarly denuded. For this a 
 little time was necessary, that a few miles might 
 be gained unmolested. He rode forward to recon 
 noitre the French lines, and perceived with dis 
 may the menacing activity which evidenced that 
 the enemy were aware of the collapse of his army, 
 and would be quick to profit by it. 
 
 Meanwhile the Swiss till now in his service 
 continued their preparations for departure, undis 
 turbed by the approach of the enemy, who, having 
 driven in the Italian outposts, halted as though 
 anticipating some concerted event. And while 
 they waited thus, one of the chiefs of Ludovico s 
 Swiss, named Sileno of Uri, was addressed by 
 Soprasasso the courier, whose services were so 
 well known and so valued that, upon his request, 
 Sileno led him a few paces apart. 
 
 " The moment accorded to me upon my arrival 
 was so brief," began Soprasasso, " and my tidings 
 were so great, that I could not tell you of the 
 snare set for me last night." 
 
 ""What matters it now, since you escaped? " 
 
 "But my companion did not. Poor Caspar! 
 I heard the shots fired by those who surrounded 
 us ; I saw him fall. Master, I no longer doubt
 
 262 SFORZA. 
 
 that my life-long comrade was cruelly done to 
 death." 
 
 " Your own skin is whole ; what more asks a 
 man whose days and nights are equally spent in 
 danger ? " 
 
 " Kevenge ! " answered the courier, with a vio 
 lent gesture, as though he crushed the skull of a 
 foe with his fist. 
 
 " Holy Virgin ! " ejaculated Sileno, surprised at 
 the other s ferocity, * am I to scour the valleys of 
 the Alps to find some rogues with whom you 
 brawled ? " 
 
 " They are here beneath your hand. I saw 
 them following the duke a moment ago. The 
 youth who fired upon us is Sforza s nephew, and 
 he with the lowering brow is a conjuring worker 
 of charms." 
 
 " For a nephew of the duke we shall extort a 
 rich ransom," replied Sileno, with his broad face 
 aglow. " I see your drift, good Soprasasso ; you 
 require a consolation for the shots fired last night. 
 Fear not ; you shall have a sequin for every 
 bullet, say three or shall we say four in all ? " 
 
 The courier waved aside this magnanimous 
 offer. " I want no sequins," he retorted angrily, 
 "nor can you need more than the French will 
 pay for this day s work. For myself, I require 
 those two men s lives, nor will aught else content 
 me."
 
 THE FAITH OF THE SWISS. 203 
 
 " What reckless waste ! King Louis would pay 
 a thousand crowns for young Sforza." 
 
 "He is worth more than that to me dead." 
 
 " If you are thus spendthrift, you will come to 
 want in your old age." 
 
 " Refuse me not. Or, rather, remember I could 
 tell the Diet things you would pay well to have 
 unspoken." 
 
 " Hush ! I meant but to see if your zeal were 
 to be trusted. You shall have the youth, and the 
 conjurer too, since nothing else will serve." 
 
 " Good," answered the courier, with a sardonic 
 laugh ; " and they must be delivered in such con 
 venient way as I shall fix." 
 
 The officer stopped to reflect upon this de 
 mand, holding his cap in his hands and adjusting 
 its blue heron s plume. Then he said in a low 
 voice : 
 
 " I go presently to the duke. I can make a pro 
 posal of escape for his nephew which will bring 
 him in your way." 
 
 " And the magician ? " 
 
 " Father of usurers ! You ask much of my pa 
 tience." 
 
 " No matter, then ; you shall send me the youth 
 alone, whither I designate." 
 
 " And where is that to be ? " 
 
 " Tell him that in the clump of trees to the left, 
 yonder, near that burned house, he will find one
 
 264 SFORZA. 
 
 who for twenty ducats will guide him safely be 
 yond the enemy s line." 
 
 " But if he goes there with a man or two, and 
 finds you, he will finish what he began last night." 
 
 " Fear not. I shall make bold to borrow half a 
 dozen of your fellows of Uri, and it will go hard if 
 we cannot turn the tables." 
 
 " Do you mean that you will kill him ? " 
 
 " As surely as there is a man to follow me, or a 
 blade wherewith to strike." 
 
 Sileno shrugged his shoulders at the useless- 
 ness of further argument, and rejoined his battal 
 ion. It was not long before he walked across the 
 interval which separated the bivouac of his sol 
 diers from the duke s tent. The sentry had left 
 his post, and he entered unannounced. 
 
 Ludovico had thrown off his helmet and gaunt 
 lets, and was sitting, still clad in glittering splen 
 dor, with downcast eyes. On hearing a step he 
 looked up, and his face lighted with scornful in 
 dignation at sight of Sileno. 
 
 The Swiss was disconcerted by the silent dis 
 dain of his gaze. He came prepared for threats, 
 for reproaches, for entreaty ; but that mute ab 
 horrence pierced to the very baseness of his 
 soul. He was about to withdraw when II Moro 
 spoke. 
 
 " "What purpose," he asked bitterly, " brings 
 you now to intrude upon me ? "
 
 THK FAITH OF THE SWISS. 265 
 
 The hireling s self-sufficiency returned at the 
 words. 
 
 " Signer Duca," he answered, " I bear ill news : 
 the enemy s cavalry has circled round Novara ; it 
 is too late for flight, and a flag has come in de 
 manding your surrender." 
 
 " What concerns it you if flags are sent, you 
 whose battle-flags are furled ? " 
 
 " Because, while the time for fighting has passed, 
 there remains one last chance of escape." 
 
 " Escape, then, and glory in your flight." 
 
 "But you, Signer Duca, your own safety; you 
 have not heard the enemy s conditions ! " 
 
 " I have heard nothing since I listened to the 
 order bidding you abandon me." 
 
 "And your life, is that nothing ? Trivulzio s terms 
 are these : that we, in obedience to the Diet, march 
 off unmolested. That your Italian soldiers be dis 
 armed and disbanded. And for you, that you yield 
 yourself prisoner at discretion, mercy or no mercy." 
 
 A shadow passed over Sforza s eyes. 
 
 " Ay, there speaks Trivulzio," he answered, 
 after a moment s silent agony. 
 
 " But ho can be outwitted," pursued Sileno, 
 catching at Ludovico s distress. " Why should 
 not you go with us unnoticed, and so reach some 
 place of friendly safety ? 
 
 "I could not go a hundred paces undetected; 
 besides, how can I trust the faith of the Swiss ? "
 
 266 SFORZA. 
 
 " The faith of the Swiss is worth as much as the 
 promises you broke at Yigevano and Novara." 
 
 " I had rather venture out in arms with my 
 Italian knights than to trudge away shoulder to 
 shoulder with you lanzknechts, wearing the cloak 
 that covers your shame." 
 
 At this taunt the Swiss turned with an impetu 
 ous look towards the door. "The Italian knights! " 
 he echoed, with outstretched arms, "where are 
 they? I saw them charge the famous regiment 
 Auvergne an hour ago, and that charge not only 
 failed, but wrecked them." 
 
 " Then I will ride straight to King Louis and 
 yield me, as misfortune may yield without dis 
 honor." 
 
 " You forget," objected Sileno coldly, " that you 
 are outlawed for treason to the arms of France, 
 and that Louis will not hearken to your plea." 
 
 At this ominous reminder the unhappy prince 
 drew a handkerchief across his brow and answered 
 not. 
 
 " Come," said the Swiss, seating himself famil 
 iarly at the duke s side ; " in this extremity we 
 will do you a good turn as amends for the order 
 which no power of ours could change. At least 
 you can escape an ignominious death, bethink 
 you, the hangman s rope before the eyes of the 
 whole French army." 
 
 " Your column marches at once ? "
 
 THE FAITH OF THE SWISS. 267 
 
 " Immediately." 
 
 " And the disguise ? " 
 
 " Listen," replied tlie Swiss, speaking in an 
 undertone, and laying his finger upon his lips 
 with an affectation of mystery. " In place of this 
 armor put 011 the cowl of one of our friars, and 
 mount upon one of the donkeys they ride. Not 
 even my own men will know you, and at sunset 
 we shall be beyond reach." 
 
 Mariquita s last impression, when Hermes left 
 her, and when she composed herself to sleep upon 
 the veranda where the leech had bidden her rest, 
 was of brilliant sunlight, and of a multitude of 
 pink roses trellised against the wall, and of an 
 exquisite freshness and fragrance in the air. And 
 in the deep slumber that followed, her adventur 
 ous journey was forgotten, and she dreamt of the 
 lattice window from which, in infancy, she looked 
 upon the Castilian sierras, and upon a prim, rec 
 tangular garden whose venerable hedge of box 
 stretched away in solemn and odorous fringe. 
 And she remembered playing as a child in that 
 garden, and wondered now, in her dream, whether 
 some day, years hence, she might revisit those 
 familiar walks, and recall, in the silver twilight 
 of life, the places where grew the golden roses of 
 her youth. 
 
 And she still slept when Hermes returned. II
 
 2G8 SFORZA. 
 
 Moro liad profited by his opportunity of escape ; 
 Sileno of Uri had indicated to the duke s nephew 
 the means of flight destined to lead him into So- 
 prasasso s ambuscade ; the horses were ready, the 
 moments passing they must be gone at once. 
 
 But as Hermes stood beside Mariquita, the cur 
 rent of her dream altered. Her features became 
 contracted, and she spoke aloud in a voice that 
 was changed and weak, coming, as it seemed, 
 across an infinite distance of anguish and remorse. 
 
 " Wlien she is lost and ruined" she muttered, " she 
 will gladly give herself to death" 
 
 At these sinister words Hermes drew back the 
 hand outstretched to wake her. 
 
 " How often I have seen her dead face" went on 
 the girl, with a moan of weariness, " and to think 
 that I saw her living but once." 
 
 The listener bent forward to catch the words. 
 A strange suspicion seized him, and his face be 
 came haggard as that of the sleeping girl. Once 
 more she spoke : 
 
 " Dead ! " she ejaculated : " is she dead ? I knoiv 
 not, none Imoivs but he" 
 
 Then she woke with a violent start, glanced 
 wildly about her at the unfamiliar objects, and 
 met Hermes accusing gaze. 
 
 She raised herself with a gasp of terror, and 
 would have caught his hand, but he motioned her 
 back and asked :
 
 THE FAITH OF THE SWISS. 269 
 
 " Who is it that alone knows if she be dead? " 
 
 But the horror of her dream and the bewilder 
 ment of her awakening left the girl dazed, and 
 she answered his question with another. 
 
 "She! who is she?" 
 
 "Bianca Rucellai." 
 
 At this name, which she heard spoken by Her 
 mes for the first time since she had delivered 
 her rival to dishonor, Mariquita cowered with the 
 helpless fright of one whose awful misdeed is dis 
 covered. 
 
 Her fear and her silence told the story of her 
 crime. 
 
 "And he who knows if she be dead or not," 
 pursued Hermes steadily, " is Valentino ? You 
 start at the name, for it recalls your own infamy 
 as well as his. Oh Mariquita!" he exclaimed 
 with eyes suffused, " how could you, whom I 
 thought my most faithful friend, do me a wrong 
 that even an enemy would hardly have inflicted ? " 
 
 " Because I loved you," answered the girl, 
 speaking with sudden strength and vehemence 
 that melted to a paroxysm of sobs. "Have pity! 
 you were all the world to me I once risked my 
 life for you ; I would give the blood of my heart 
 for you now. A hundred times it lias been on my 
 lips to tell you the secret that lias racked me." 
 
 "And that was a token of your love, to deliver 
 my helpless and innocent sweetheart to the lust
 
 270 SFORZA. 
 
 of a fiend! And you have carried this coward s 
 secret in your heart, and taken my hand in yours, 
 and smiled in my face you, that, were you a man, 
 would not now be alive to hear me." 
 
 At these words Mariquita wept no more. The 
 decisive instant of her life had come, and she 
 dashed away her tears, impatient of such weak 
 ness. And from her suffering and exhaustion she 
 lifted to Hermes her face filled with the intense 
 persuasion of feminine entreaty, and outstretched 
 her arms with appealing and infinite tenderness. 
 
 " Can you fancy us parted," she cried, " one 
 from the other forever? Or can you turn away 
 with indifference, and leave me to the loneliness of 
 the world? Think, before you forsake me, how 
 vital is this instant ! Think how insignificant, 
 hereafter, compared to your decision, will seem 
 half the things in life ! To me, all on earth but 
 you seems a futile shadow, and in this hour, when, 
 perhaps, the bitterness of death draws near, I 
 think only of the greater pang of my punishment, 
 and I look beyond my fault, and pray that in 
 another world I may be judged more mercifully 
 even by you." 
 
 A step was heard as she spoke, and the leech 
 stood before them, attracted by their voices, and 
 looked from one to the other. And he caught 
 Mariquita s wounded arm and replaced it in a 
 sling, and took her by the shoulders and laid her
 
 THE FAITH OF TIIE SWISS. 271 
 
 clown upon the cane sofa, and begged her to be 
 quiet ; but she broke from him with an inarticulate 
 cry : " Hermes, Hermes, come back ; forgive rne ! " 
 Then she looked about her in silence. 
 
 He was gone gone from her forever. 
 
 He rode at a canter, hardly thinking whither he 
 went- past groups returning to Novara, and ser 
 vants and sutlers hurrying this way and that, and 
 stragglers wandering in an aimless fashion that 
 betrayed their quest for plunder. Already, in the 
 tacit truce that prevailed, the French officers w T ere 
 riding up to reconnoitre. But now the Swiss were 
 in movement, and the head of their column had 
 some time since passed between the line of French 
 drawn up on either side of the highway. The de 
 parture of the mercenaries was evidently a subject 
 of extreme interest, for Amboise, and Trivulzio, 
 and D Aubigny, and Ives d Allegre, and all but 
 King Louis himself, were there to see it. And at 
 this distant spectacle Hermes, knowing the man 
 ner of the duke s evasion, drew bridle to watch if 
 indeed he escaped. But even as ho halted there 
 was a break in the marching line, a figure on a 
 donkey was dragged from the ranks, the friar s 
 cowl was torn from his head then the Swiss re 
 sumed their way. They had fulfilled their bar 
 gain with the enemy, and Sileno of Uri, stepping 
 forward to Trivulzio, interrupted that officer s sar 
 castic welcome to the captive, and exclaimed :
 
 272 SFORZA. 
 
 "The money, oh greatest of men the thirty 
 thousand crowns. Are they ready?" 
 
 From the place where Hermes had stopped he 
 could see Ludovico standing before the group of 
 French officers, though too far to distinguish else 
 but that. Then, remembering his appointed tryst- 
 ing place, he rode away in the direction of the 
 clump of trees, all unconscious of the fate that 
 lurked there. 
 
 But, as he went, the quick gallop of a horse was 
 heard behind, and glancing back, he perceived Le 
 Chevalier Bayard, equipped in the armor where 
 with he had once before been made familiar, 
 though now with vizor raised, and with no weapon 
 in the hand he waved in salutation, and upon his 
 feet the great spurs of knighthood which had re 
 warded his prowess before Milan. 
 
 "I was riding to look at your camp," he said, 
 with courtly greeting, as Hermes drew bridle, 
 " and recognized you from afar. I wish to bid you 
 God -speed, and to see you safe out of reach of your 
 hirelings/ 
 
 Then Hermes thanked him, and, pointing to 
 the trees a bowshot distant, said that one waited 
 there who had promised to conduct him beyond 
 the French vedettes. And, as he spoke, both 
 caught sight of Soprasasso and his men peering 
 from behind the branches and trying to conceal 
 their long, keen halberds.
 
 THE FAITH OF THE SWISS. 373 
 
 The French knight divined their purpose, and 
 addressed them with characteristic force and 
 brevity. As the Swiss skulked sullenly away, he 
 asked, with ironical deference : 
 
 " Were these the good friends who promised to 
 see you harmless? 
 
 " You have saved me ! " ejaculated Hermes. 
 Then, with a sudden anguish, he added : "Yet am 
 I wretched enough to have welcomed the end. 
 
 " And shared the duke s imprisonment ! " ex 
 claimed Le Bayard, misunderstanding his thought. 
 " Then you would have deprived me of the privi 
 lege of repaying something of Sforza s generosity. 
 For him, in this pass, an obscure officer can do 
 nothing ; but, in a service to you, I acquit my 
 debt to the utmost of my power. Hide straight 
 on. We are at the flank of the French camp. Our 
 cavalry is far from here. You have not a moment 
 to lose, nor have I." 
 
 The sky, which had been overcast for an hour, 
 suddenly brightened as Hermes cast a parting 
 glance at the house, half a mile behind, where 
 he had abandoned Mariquita. In that instant s 
 change the earth became covered with a radiance 
 of sunshine, and the heavens seemed filled with 
 ineffable peace. And as swift as that transition 
 from shadow to brightness, came a revulsion over 
 the man, who lingered and hesitated in the act of 
 snatching the proffered freedom. 
 18
 
 274 SFORZA. 
 
 " I cannot leave her," he murmured ; " I will 
 share her fate." 
 
 And with a nod of farewell to his astonished 
 rescuer, he galloped back to the veranda where 
 Mariquita still lay, beneath the trellised roses, in 
 the breathless swoon of her despair.
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 AT evening 011 the day of the surrender, Luclo- 
 vico Si orza was immured in the castle of Novara. 
 De Ligny caused the fallen duke to be treated with 
 commiseration, and to be furnished with suitable 
 clothing in the place of the friar s disguise. 
 
 King Louis refused to see the captive, and pres 
 ently passed sentence of perpetual confinement in 
 the French dungeon of La Pierre Encise. The 
 journey towards the Alps was slow ; the prisoner 
 suffering such paroxysms of anguish, as the caval 
 cade drew further from all that he had lost, that, 
 fearing he would not survive, the escort tarried at 
 places by the way, to break the final pang of pass 
 ing beyond sight of Italy. At length they entered 
 a narrow valley ; the vegetation became sparse ; 
 only a glimpse remained of some white specks of 
 houses beside a campanile tower, and the distant 
 green, and the southern sunshine, then he noticed 
 nothing until, at Lyons, he was led through the 
 midst of the jeering populace. 
 
 Six months reclusioii followed in La Pierre En 
 cise. One morning, profiting by an inattention of 
 some guards, he slipped, unnoticed, into a cart that 
 was presently to be driven out of tho courtyard,
 
 276 SFORZA. 
 
 and concealed himself beneath the straw with 
 which it was filled. 
 
 Once outside, he walked through the woods all 
 that long summer s day, making slow progress 
 and little heeding whither he went. At evening 
 he came to water, and threw himself face down 
 ward, drinking deep, and dipping his parched 
 hands in the running stream. And when the stars 
 became visible he laid his course towards Lyons, 
 intending to beg food and shelter. But he soon 
 became exhausted, and fell asleep at a place where 
 he stopped to rest. 
 
 A fine rain was falling when he woke chilled, 
 stiff, and footsore. He gathered a handful of wild 
 berries, and, hearing the tramp of horses and the 
 voices of men, knew that his pursuers were near. 
 He lay hidden among some bushes until these 
 sounds ceased, and then ventured forward. At 
 dusk, being faint and half delirious with hun 
 ger, and seeing the light of a w r oodman s cottage, 
 he walked to it in desperation and besought a 
 crust of its inmates. And they smiled and set 
 provision before him, but, shrewdly guessing this 
 starving wanderer to be the fugitive for whom the 
 country was scoured, one of them slipped away 
 unnoticed, and at the moment Ludovico rose to 
 pursue his wanderings, the cottage was surrounded. 
 
 "Warned by this escape, he was removed to a 
 place of greater security, the castle of Lys Saint
 
 CONCL US ION. 2 7 7 
 
 Georges, where he remained four years. In 1506 
 he was transferred to the fortress of Lorches, in 
 Touraine, which as lately as 1720 was entire, 
 even to the frescoes and sentences which Sforza 
 painted on the walls of his chamber, and which 
 arc detailed by the pen of a visitor in that year. 
 Refused the solace of writing materials, he asked 
 for and obtained colors and brushes, and applied 
 himself to painting on the half-lighted walls of 
 his cell. His eyes accustomed themselves to the 
 obscurity, and he created a pastime wherewith to 
 struggle against the sad and heavy days. In the 
 infinite desolation and despair of his living death, 
 he delighted to recall the scenes of his earlier 
 years, and traced upon the walls silhouettes and 
 outlines that doubtless, in his hours of reverie, 
 appeared to him as real as life. These sketches 
 are described as finished with the elaboration of 
 a hand that seeks to beguile the hours ; all were 
 stamped with a character and force that laid in 
 pathetic imagery upon the rough plaster the 
 costumes and processions and landscapes of that 
 Italy the captive was to behold no more. The 
 most remarkable was a life-size head of himself 
 wearing an iron casojue and surrounded by the 
 
 words : 
 
 Je m iirmo do patience. 
 
 The features represented a vigorous soldier, 
 with dark eyes, heavy, sombre eyebrows, aquiline
 
 278 SFORZA. 
 
 nose, full lower lip, and sharply-defined chin. At 
 one side was the legend : 
 
 Qui ne craint Fortune n est pas sage ! 
 
 Year after year went by. All hope of release 
 or of escape faded ; communication by letter was, 
 from the first, refused ; he learned only at long 
 intervals that his children were in Germany ; that 
 Isabelle lived in seclusion at Bari ; that her son 
 Francesco had been made Abbot of Nourmentiers, 
 where he was learning to forget the ties of the 
 world. 
 
 Year after year went by. Every day an officer 
 looked in at the grated door, and at morning and 
 evening came an old menial with food ; sometimes 
 the latter paused to talk to enumerate his aches 
 and infirmities, and to bewail the hardships of his 
 poverty-stricken age : " Life is full of grievous 
 changes," he was wont to say ; then, with a sigh, 
 he murmured, " and sorrow is so muck more intense 
 than joy !" 
 
 At first Ludovico took exact note of time, 
 marking each day with a scratch, and Sundays 
 with a tiny cross, until the bitterness of their 
 lengthening line exceeded the gratitude of count 
 ing the passage of weeks and mouths. They 
 showed no progress towards release, and he 
 wearied of them. But while he thus lost the 
 record of his imprisonment, he could tell each
 
 CONCLUSION. 279 
 
 Sunday by the chanting of priests in the chapel, 
 and no festival passed unnoticed, for, leaning at 
 his dark and narrow casement, he heard the sound 
 of merry voices, and the laughter, and the songs of 
 love and war, and knew that others were light- 
 hearted. Looking by day from his turret, he saw 
 waving tree-tops and drifting clouds, and heard 
 from unseen pastures the faint, sweet tinkling of 
 cow-bells. The solitude and the dull routine con 
 tinued, the outer world grow more and more re 
 mote, and even the sting of his reverses became 
 less poignant. His mind assumed a retrospective 
 habit, and he thought often of his early years, and 
 of the forest paths of his youth, which took on 
 now the semblance of enchanted ground like the 
 sunny meadows which sometimes haunt a winter 
 night s dream. But, even in thinking of the Past, 
 the gruesome Present smote him with the words 
 of his boding jailer Borrow is so much more in 
 tense than joy. And the seasons in their course 
 succeeded each other, the December snow and 
 whistling wind : the morning-glory creeping in 
 spring-time to his lofty window, and caressing the 
 stone with tremulous leaves ; in summer the birds 
 chirping through the cool branches, or flitting to 
 the free expanse of the fields ; in autumn the 
 voices of the peasants rising from neighboring 
 vineyards as year after year went by. 
 
 Until one day, the 10th of August, 1512, the door
 
 280 SFORZA. 
 
 was opened and an officer appeared, who, with 
 smiling face and reverent salutation, invited Ludo- 
 vico to the presence of the governor. Ten years 
 solitary confinement in the half-twilight of medie 
 val dungeons had made him a feeble and broken 
 man, and he followed with slow and heavy step, 
 and with spirit dejected and eyes grown dim, and 
 the beautiful long hair gray and matted, and the 
 common clothes his jailers allowed him thread 
 bare and neglected. And as they passed the 
 flower beds before the governor s house, the gar 
 dener, trimming a bed of plants, turned from his 
 work, and, tossing his cap to the ground, advanced 
 with obeisance, and offered Ludovico a spray of 
 honeysuckle, with the single word " Monseigneur." 
 Sforza took the flower, muttered an abstracted 
 syllable of thanks, and looked with surprise at the 
 man who spoke, for the first time, with the old 
 familiar homage. 
 
 The governor and his assembled lieutenants 
 rose from their seats as he entered, and their first 
 words pierced his heart with a throb of such pro 
 found emotion that the blood surged to his brain 
 and the room swam before his eyes. In that 
 single instant he touched a whole long gamut of 
 tears and ecstasy, of sadness and exultation. The 
 officers gathered about, placed him in the gov 
 ernor s chair, and held to his lips a goblet of the 
 generous wine of Burgundy. They bade him take
 
 CONCL UXION. o a i 
 
 courage and summon a great spirit, for he was 
 free now, not only free, but restored to his duchy. 
 He listened in a dull stupor as the words were 
 explained : King Louis had met with reverses in 
 Italy, and the most effective counterstroke was to 
 liberate the Duke of Milan, give him means to 
 appeal to the popular faction, and thereby deprive 
 the Spaniards of what their prowess had wrested 
 from the French. 
 
 Ludovico collected himself, rose from his chair, 
 and with trembling lips thanked them for their 
 good tidings and kindly auguries. And, standing 
 before them in his shabby dress, there came to 
 him again the courtly pride, and the conscious 
 power, and the kindling look of the brilliant days 
 of his prime. And he ^said to them: "You are 
 strangers to me, or rather should I say that you 
 are new-found friends ; forgive me, then, if, in this 
 hour of overwhelming emotion, my soul turns with 
 yearning to my beloved companions of old. Suffer 
 me to walk an hour through the fields perchance 
 the image of some of them will rise to greet me." 
 
 And the governor made way, and led as far as 
 the drawbridge, and the duke went out alone be 
 tween the sentinels. He strolled aimlessly across 
 the quiet meadows, where the bees were busy 
 amid the clover, and inhaled the freshness of the 
 free and fragrant air. It seemed to him the most 
 beautiful day of his life. His eyes delighted in
 
 282 SFORZA. 
 
 the glancing sheen of the river, the hazy clumps of 
 willows, the suave and graceful outline of the hills. 
 Regrets, and lamentations, and self-reproach were 
 all forgotten now in the thrill of life reclaimed, 
 and in presence of the throng of aspirations and 
 resolves that sprang to salute him. 
 
 At a bend in the way, beneath a cluster of pines, 
 was the God s-acre of a neighboring village, and, 
 sauntering by, he stopped to lean at the fence and 
 to look upon the wooden crosses crumbling to 
 dust, and headstones bent awry, which marked 
 where slept those who once were the youths and 
 girls of the village green. And, fatigued by the 
 tumult of this tremendous day, he seated him 
 self by the wayside. His head sank, and tears 
 gathered in his eyes, for tears had been familiar 
 through so long suffering that they came now, even 
 in the hour of unmeasured happiness. And so, 
 beneath the deep shadows of the breathless pines, 
 and amid the intense silence of the summer after 
 noon, he gazed for the last time upon the pathos 
 and the glory of the sunset. And, as he looked, 
 an infinite exhaustion dulled his thoughts, and a 
 chill stole over the sunshine, and all the pleasant 
 things of earth faded into dimness. And there 
 they found him soon after, dead and at rest. A 
 sudden ecstasy, stronger than the prolonged grief 
 of years, had broken his heart For once, joy had 
 been more intense than sorrow.
 
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