Valperga (9 page)

"I readily agree, if that be indeed a house, and not an
unroofed sheep-cot; for I hardly expect to find in these regions a
bed softer than the rock, or a roof which will shelter me better
than the moonlight sky."

The cottage was shut up, and its inhabitants asleep; but, called
up by the shrill voice of the elder traveller, a man rolled himself
out from his bed of dried leaves and sheep skins, and opened the
door. Welcoming the travellers, he quickly blew up the decaying
ashes of a fire in the middle of the only room of the cottage, and
it threw a light on the bare walls of this disconsolate apartment;
the smoke rose and filled the upper part of the room, while a small
portion only escaped through a round hole in the roof. A large bed,
or rather dormitory of dried leaves and the stalks of Indian corn,
was strewed along one side of the room, on which many both men and
women lay, peeping out on the travellers from under their sheep
skin coverings: there was no furniture, except a rude bench, and a
ruder table; the bare walls were black and falling down, while the
sky peeped through many cracks in the roof. The room was so filled
with the stench of garlick and smoke, that Castruccio, hastily
retreating to the door, asked his companion whether he would not
prefer proceeding on his journey. The latter appeared better
accustomed to the sight and smell of such miserable cabins, and he
used his utmost eloquence to persuade Castruccio that the shelter
of the cottage was preferable to the pure and keen air of heaven;
but finding the latter resolute in his determination not to enter,
he told him, that having warmed for a few minutes his half frozen
fingers, and tasted the wine of the cottage, he would proceed with
him down the mountain.

The companion of Castruccio had not exaggerated the extreme
danger of the road by moonlight. The frightened horses often
refused to proceed, or to penetrate the murky depths which the
mountain shadows cast around them, even blackening the snow. They
rode on slowly and cautiously; and the following morning found
themselves little advanced in the descent. It was near noon before
they reached Susa, when, having passed the dangers of the journey,
the elder traveller, recovering his voice and recollection, rode up
to Castruccio, and asked him where he intended to rest after the
toil he had undergone. Castruccio replied, that he hoped to find an
inn in the town, and, if not, he should apply to some monastery,
where he doubted not he should be provided with food and shelter
for the following day and night.

"Sir," said his companion, "I am not a stranger
in Susa, and have in particular one good old friend, Messer Tadeo
della Ventura, well known to the Florentines and other Italians who
pass over this mountain for the purposes of merchandize: this
worthy man will receive me as an old friend and guest; and, as you
both generously and bravely saved my life, I can do not less than
offer to introduce you to the soft couches and good wines of Messer
Tadeo."

"Nor will I refuse your offer; for soft couches will be
welcome to my aching bones, and good wine a pleasant cordial to my
wearied spirits: therefore, Sir Knight, I thank you heartily for
your courtesy."

MESSER Tadeo received his old friend with respect and
friendship; and, courteously welcoming Castruccio, he led them into
a large hall, where the sight of a repast already set out seemed to
diffuse joy over the countenances of both travellers. The hall was
richly hung with scarlet cloth, and the tables and seats covered
with tapestry; at the upper end of the room was a chimney and a
fire, near which taking his seat, Messer Tadeo invited the new
comers to join several other friends of his, who arranged
themselves round the table.

When the long ceremony of dinner was finished, and the servants
were busy in removing the tables, Messer Tadeo proposed to the
newly arrived guests to conduct them to a bedchamber, where they
might repose after the fatigues of the journey. They both gladly
accepted this offer; and in a deep and refreshing sleep Castruccio
forgot his curiosity concerning who or what his companion might be,
and the latter recovered from the trembling fear of danger, which
had haunted him since his escape of the preceding day.

When Castruccio arose at about six o'clock in the evening,
he joined Messer Tadeo, who was sitting with the other traveller in
the great hall. The rest of the company had departed; and these two
were in earnest conversation, which they changed when Castruccio
entered.

After some time, holding up his finger, and drawing down still
longer the long wrinkles of his cheeks, the fellow--traveller of
Castruccio, in a mysterious manner, pronounced the word which had
been given to the soldiers of Alberto Scoto, that they might
distinguish one another during the darkness of night, or the
confusion of battle; Castruccio, hearing this, easily divined that
he had a fellow soldier, and a friend of his chief, in his strange
travelling companion; so smiling, he uttered the countersign, and
the other, turning on him, as if the ghost of one whom he had known
many years before had risen before him, hastily enquired, "You
served then in his troop?"

"Yes," replied Castruccio, "I had the honour of
serving under the noble knight, Messer Alberto Scoto; and, in
having rendered you a service, I am still more happy to find that I
saved one who has fought under the same banners with
myself."

"Is your name a secret?"

"I am of a noble Lucchese family; now exiled and wandering;
my name is Castruccio Castracani dei Antelminelli."

The elder traveller suddenly arose, and, embracing Castruccio
warmly, bestowed on him a brotherly kiss, and then turning to
Tadeo, said: "This morning I introduced to you a stranger
whose merit with me was that of having saved my life at the
imminent risk of his own; now I introduce to you a gallant soldier,
whose name has been spread through France, as that of the bravest
warrior and the ablest commander that fought in the Low Countries:
the Sieur Castruccio is a name which even the children in France
lisp with gratitude, and the Flemings tremble to hear."

Many compliments passed; and then the traveller said: "This
pleasant discovery has made friends of three who were before
strangers; nor will I conceal from you, Messer Castruccio, that my
name is Benedetto Pepi, a Cremonese, now returning to my own
country, after having gained laurels and knight-hood under the
banners of Messer Scoto. You, my dear companion, say that you are
an exile; but great changes are now taking place in Italy, and,
knowing who you are, we may well admit you to the confidential
conversation that I and Messer Tadeo were holding when you entered,
concerning all that has passed since the arrival of the emperor
Henry in Italy."

Saying this, Benedetto made a slight sign to his friend, which
Castruccio easily guessed to be an admonition to be discreet in his
disclosures. Tadeo replied to this sign by a nod, and said:

"Two Florentine usurers who had come through Milan, dined
yesterday at my house; they had witnessed the entrance of the
emperor into that city. The lord of Milan, Guido della Torre, was
obliged to discharge his soldiers, and unarmed, at the head of an
unarmed multitude, went out to meet the emperor, who had the
Visconti in his train, and all the Ghibelines, the old enemies of
the Torre family. These are now reinstated in their possessions;
yet Henry still pretends to impartiality, and in his march has
restored all the exiles to their various towns, whether they be
Guelphs or Ghibelines."

"I wonder," said Pepi, "how long he will keep on
the mask; few men are impartial, an emperor never: to one curious
in state affairs it were a fine occasion, to conjecture what will
be the issue and crown of these pretensions."

"Why," asked Castruccio, "should not they be as
they appear? Cannot the emperor be animated by a generous policy,
and wish to reconcile all parties by a just and fair
proceeding?"

"Impossible!" cried Pepi with energy; "an emperor
just! a prince impartial! Do not thrones rest upon dissentions and
quarrels? And must there not be weakness in the people to create
power in the prince? I prophesy; and as a discreet man I prophesy
seldom, yet I now securely foretell, that Henry will set all Italy
by the ears, to reap the fruits of their dissentions. He procures
the recall of all the exiles--I admire his policy, worthy of being
studied and understood by all who would reign. Can Ghibelines and
Guelphs live within the walls of the same town? No more than one
vessel can contain fire and water. No; the cities of Italy will be
filled with brawls, and her rivers run blood, by means of this
conjunction. If he had meant to establish peace in Italy, he would
have assassinated all of one party, to secure the lives of the
other; but to unite them, is to destroy both, and under the mask of
friendship to get into his own hands all that each has
possessed."

Pepi uttered this harangue with an energy and a vivacity that
startled Castruccio; his black eyes sparkled, his brows became
elevated, and drawing down the perpendicular wrinkles of his
cheeks, and contracting the horizontal ones of his forehead, he
looked round with an air of triumph on his companions.

"You say true, Messer Benedetto," said Tadeo, groaning
at the dismal prognostications of his friend; "and I greatly
fear lest this pretended justice prove the watchword for war and
bloodshed. Yet now all wears the appearance of peace and
brotherhood. The lords of Langusco, Pavia, Vercelli, Novara and
Lodi have resigned their tyrannies and given up the keys of their
respective towns to Henry, and Imperial Vicars are every where
established. Guido della Torre, the proudest and most powerful
tyrant of Lombardy, has submitted; and the court of the emperor at
Milan is crowded by the lords of the towns in the east of Italy,
and the ambassadors of the free states of the south."

"Has Florence submitted?" asked Castruccio.

"No;--that town and its league holds out; Sienna, Lucca and
Bologna. Yet, when the emperor marches south, we shall see these
proud republicans bow their stiff knees."

"Never!" cried Pepi; "Bologna, Lucca and Sienna
may submit; but Florence never will; they are stiff-kneed,
stiff-necked, and hate the name of emperor and master more than
Pope Urban hated the house of Suabia. These republicans, whom from
my soul I detest, have turned out the Ghibelines, and are now
fighting with the nobles, and asserting the superiority of the
vulgar, till every petty artizan of its meanest lane fancies
himself as great a prince as the emperor Henry himself. Besides,
when all else fails, they will buy him off: these Florentines
squander their golden florins, and pay thousands to purchase what
would be a dear bargain even as a gift. Their watchword is that
echo of fools, and laughing stock of the wise,--Liberty. Surely the
father of lies invented that bait, that trap, at which the
multitude catch, as a mouse at a bit of cheese: well would it be
for the world, if they found the same end; and, as the nibbling
mouse pulls down the iron on his head, they, as if they had one
neck, were lopped off, as they seized their prize:--but Florence
flourishes!"

Pepi ended his speech with a deep groan, and continued lost in
thought; while Tadeo and Castruccio discussed the chances that
might arise from the new order of things established in Italy; and
Castruccio owned his intention of joining the train of the emperor,
and his hopes of being by his means re-instated in his paternal
estates. The evening wore away during these discussions, and they
retired early to rest. The next morning Castruccio and Pepi took
leave of Tadeo, and departed together on the road to Milan.

For some time they rode along silently. Castruccio was overcome
by a variety of feelings on again visiting Italian earth. Although,
being winter, the landscape was stripped bare, and its vineyards
and corn- fields alike appeared waste, yet Castruccio thought that
no country could vie with this in beauty, unless it were the plain
of Lucca, such as he remembered it, the last time he beheld it,
then a child, standing on the summit of his father's
palace,--girded by hills, and the many-towered city set as its
heart in the midst. He longed for a companion to whom he could pour
out his full heart; for his overflowing feelings had for a time
swept away the many lessons of Alberto Scoto. He forgot ambition,
and the dreams of princely magnificence which he had cherished for
many months. He forgot Milan, the emperor, the Guelphs and
Ghibelines, and seemed to bury himself, as a bee in the fragrant
circle of a rose, in the softest and most humane emotions; till,
half recovering, he blushed to find his eyes dim, and his cheek
stained by the pure tears of his deep and unadulterated feeling.
Turning hastily round, he was glad to observe his companion
somewhat behind him, and he reined in his horse that he might
approach. Pepi rode up with his measured pace; and it would have
been a curious study to remark the contrasted countenances of the
travellers: Castruccio, glorious in beauty; his deep eyes suffused
with tears, and his lips breathing passion and delight, was more
opposite than light to dark, to the hard lines of Pepi's face,
which were unmoved as he glanced his small bright eyes from side to
side, while no other sign shewed that he felt or thought; his mouth
shut close, his person stiff and strait, his knees pressing his
mule's flanks, and his ungainly horsemanship easily betraying
the secret, that his feats in arms must have been performed on
foot.

At length tired of silence, and willing to speak although to so
unsympathizing a being, Castruccio asked: "Messer Benedetto,
you seemed last night to groan under the weight of your hatred of
the Florentines. Now I have good reason to hate them, since by
their means my party was exiled, and Lucca ranks among the Guelphic
cities of Tuscany. But you are of Cremona, a town separated from
Florence by many mountains and rivers; whence therefore arises your
abhorrence of this republic?"