CHAPTER II. THE CAPTAIN OF JUSTICE
There was a moment's silence after Rinolfo had flung that announcement.
"The Captain of Justice?" quoth my mother at length, her voice startled."What does he seek?"
"The person of my Lord Agostino d'Anguissola," said Rinolfo steadily.
She sighed very heavily. "A felon's end!" she murmured, and turned tome. "If thus you may expiate your sins," she said, speaking more gently,"let the will of Heaven be done. Admit the captain, Ser Rinolfo."
He bowed, and turned sharply to depart.
"Stay!" I cried, and rooted him there by the imperative note of mycommand.
Fra Gervasio was more than right when he said that mine was not a naturefor the cloister. In that moment I might have realized it to the full bythe readiness with which the thought of battle occurred to me, and moreby the anticipatory glow that warmed me at the very thought of it. I wasthe very son of Giovanni d'Anguissola.
"What force attends the captain?" I inquired.
"He has six mounted men with him," replied Rinolfo. "In that case," Ianswered, "you will bid him begone in my name."
"And if he should not go?" was Rinolfo's impudent question.
"You will tell him that I will drive him hence--him and his braves. Wekeep a garrison of a score of men at least--sufficient to compel him todepart."
"He will return again with more," said Rinolfo.
"Does that concern you?" I snapped. "Let him return with what hepleases. To-day I enrol more forces from the countryside, take up thebridge and mount our cannon. This is my lair and fortress, and I'lldefend it and myself as becomes my name and blood. For I am the lord andmaster here, and the Lord of Mondolfo is not to be dragged away thus atthe heels of a Captain of Justice. You have my orders, obey them. Aboutit, sir."
Circumstances had shown me the way that I must take, and the folly ofgoing forth a fugitive outcast at my mother's bidding. I was Lord ofMondolfo, as I had said, and they should know and feel it from thishour--all of them, not excepting my mother.
But I reckoned without the hatred Rinolfo bore me. Instead of the promptobedience that I had looked for, he had turned again to my mother.
"Is it your wish, Madonna?" he inquired.
"It is my wish that counts, you knave," I thundered and advanced uponhim.
But he fronted me intrepidly. "I hold my office from my Lady theCountess. I obey none other here."
"Body of God! Do you defy me?" I cried. "Am I Lord of Mondolfo, or amI a lackey in my own house? You'ld best obey me ere I break you, SerRinolfo. We shall see whether the men will take my orders," I addedconfidently.
The faintest smile illumined his dark face. "The men will not stir afinger at the bidding of any but Madonna the Countess and myself," heanswered hardily.
It was by an effort that I refrained from striking him. And then mymother spoke again.
"It is as Ser Rinolfo says," she informed me. "So cease this futileresistance, sir son, and accept the expiation that is offered you."
I looked at her, she avoiding my glance.
"Madonna, I cannot think that it is so," said I. "These men have knownme since I was a little lad. Many of them have followed the fortunes ofmy father. They'll never turn their backs upon his son in the hour ofhis need. They are not all so inhuman as my mother."
"You mistake, sir," said Rinolfo. "Of the men you knew but one or tworemain. Most of our present force has been enrolled by me in the pastmonth."
This was defeat, utter and pitiful. His tone was too confident, he wastoo sure of his ground to leave me a doubt as to what would befall ifI made appeal to his knavish followers. My arms fell to my sides, and Ilooked at Gervasio. His face was haggard, and his eyes were very full ofsorrow as they rested on me.
"It is true, Agostino," he said.
And as he spoke, Rinolfo limped out of the room to fetch the Captain ofJustice, as my mother had bidden him; and his lips smiled cruelly.
"Madam mother," I said bitterly, "you do a monstrous thing. You usurpthe power that is mine, and you deliver me--me, your son--to thegallows. I hope that, hereafter, when you come to realize to the fullyour deed, you will be able to give your conscience peace."
"My first duty is to God," she answered; and to that pitiable answerthere was nothing to be rejoined.
So I turned my shoulder to her and stood waiting, Fra Gervasio besideme, clenching his hands in his impotence and mute despair. And then anapproaching clank of mail heralded the coming of the captain.
Rinolfo held the door, and Cosimo d'Anguissola entered with a firm,proud tread, two of his men, following at his heels.
He wore a buff-coat, under which no doubt there would be a shirt ofmail; his gorget and wristlets were of polished steel, and his headgearwas a steel cap under a cover of peach-coloured velvet. Thigh-bootsencased his legs; sword and dagger hung in the silver carriages at hisbelt; his handsome, aquiline face was very solemn.
He bowed profoundly to my mother, who rose to respond, and then heflashed me one swift glance of his piercing eyes.
"I deplore my business here," he announced shortly. "No doubt it will beknown to you already." And he looked at me again, allowing his eyes tolinger on my face.
"I am ready, sir," I said.
"Then we had best be going, for I understand that none could be lesswelcome here than I. Yet in this, Madonna, let me assure you that thereis nothing personal to myself. I am the slave of my office. I do butperform it."
"So much protesting where no doubt has been expressed," said FraGervasio, "in itself casts a doubt upon your good faith. Are you notCosimo d'Anguissola--my lord's cousin and heir?"
"I am," said he, "yet that has no part in this, sir friar."
"Then let it have part. Let it have the part it should have. Will youbear one of your own name and blood to the gallows? What will men say ofthat when they perceive your profit in the deed?"
Cosimo looked him boldly between the eyes, his hawk-face very white.
"Sir priest, I know not by what right you address me so. But you dome wrong. I am the Podesta of Piacenza bound by an oath that it woulddishonour me to break; and break it I must or else fulfil my duty here.Enough!" he added, in his haughty, peremptory fashion. "Ser Agostino, Iawait your pleasure."
"I will appeal to Rome," cried Fra Gervasio, now beside himself withgrief.
Cosimo smiled darkly, pityingly. "It is to be feared that Rome will turna deaf ear to appeals on behalf of the son of Giovanni d'Anguissola."
And with that he motioned me to precede him. Silently I pressed FraGervasio's hand, and on that departed without so much as another look atmy mother, who sat there a silent witness of a scene which she approved.
The men-at-arms fell into step, one on either side of me, and so wepassed out into the courtyard, where Cosimo's other men were waiting,and where was gathered the entire family of the castle--a gaping, ratherfrightened little crowd.
They brought forth a mule for me, and I mounted. Then suddenly there wasFra Gervasio at my side again.
"I, too, am going hence," he said. "Be of good courage, Agostino. Thereis no effort I will not make on your behalf." In a broken voice he addedhis farewells ere he stood back at the captain's peremptory bidding. Thelittle troop closed round me, and thus, within a couple of hours of mycoming, I departed again from Mondolfo, surrendered to the hangmanby the pious hands of my mother, who on her knees, no doubt, would bethanking God for having afforded her the grace to act in so righteous amanner.
Once only did my cousin address me, and that was soon after we had leftthe town behind us. He motioned the men away, and rode to my side. Thenhe looked at me with mocking, hating eyes.
"You had done better to have continued in your saint's trade than havebecome so very magnificent a sinner," said he.
I did not answer him, and he rode on beside me in silence some littleway.
"Ah, well," he sighed at last. "Your course has been a brief one, butvery eventful. And who would have suspected so very fierc
e a wolf underso sheepish an outside? Body of God! You fooled us all, you and thatwhite-faced trull."
He said it through his teeth with such a concentration of rage in histones that it was easy to guess where the sore rankled.
I looked at him gravely. "Does it become you, sir, do you think, to girdat one who is your prisoner?"
"And did you not gird at me when it was your turn?" he flashed backfiercely. "Did not you and she laugh together over that poor, fond foolCosimo whose money she took so very freely, and yet who seems to havebeen the only one excluded from her favours?"
"You lie, you dog!" I blazed at him, so fiercely that the men turned intheir saddles. He paled, and half raised the gauntleted hand in which hecarried his whip. But he controlled himself, and barked an order to hisfollowers:
"Ride on, there!"
When they had drawn off a little, and we were alone again, "I do notlie, sir," he said. "It is a practice which I leave to shavelings of alldegrees."
"If you say that she took aught from you, then you lie," I repeated.
He considered me steadily. "Fool!" he said at last. "Whence elsecame her jewels and fine clothes? From Fifanti, do you think--thatimpecunious pedant? Or perhaps you imagine that it was from Gambara?In time that grasping prelate might have made the Duke pay. But pay,himself? By the Blood of God! he was never known to pay for anything.
"Or, yet again, do you suppose her finery was afforded her byCaro?--Messer Annibale Caro--who is so much in debt that he is neverlike to return to Piacenza, unless some dolt of a patron rewards him forhis poetaster's labours.
"No, no, my shaveling. It was I who paid--I who was the fool. God! Imore than suspected the others. But you. You saint... You!"
He flung up his head, and laughed bitterly and unpleasantly. "Ah,well!" he ended, "You are to pay, though in different kind. It is in thefamily, you see." And abruptly raising his voice he shouted to the mento wait.
Thereafter he rode ahead, alone and gloomy, whilst no less alone andgloomy rode I amid my guards. The thing he had revealed to me had tornaway a veil from my silly eyes. It had made me understand a hundredlittle matters that hitherto had been puzzling me. And I saw how utterlyand fatuously blind I had been to things which even Fra Gervasio hadapprehended from just the relation he had drawn from me.
It was as we were entering Piacenza by the Gate of San Lazzaro that Iagain drew my cousin to my side.
"Sir Captain!" I called to him, for I could not bring myself to addresshim as cousin now. He came, inquiry in his eyes.
"Where is she now?" I asked.
He stared at me a moment, as if my effrontery astonished him. Thenhe shrugged and sneered. "I would I knew for certain," was his fierceanswer. "I would I knew. Then should I have the pair of you." And I sawit in his face how unforgivingly he hated me out of his savage jealousy."My Lord Gambara might tell you. I scarcely doubt it. Were I butcertain, what a reckoning should I not present! He may be Governor ofPiacenza, but were he Governor of Hell he should not escape me." Andwith that he rode ahead again, and left me.
The rumour of our coming sped through the streets ahead of us, and outof the houses poured the townsfolk to watch our passage and to point meout one to another with many whisperings and solemn head-waggings. Andthe farther we advanced, the greater was the concourse, until by thetime we reached the square before the Communal Palace we found therewhat amounted to a mob awaiting us.
My guards closed round me as if to protect me from that crowd. But Iwas strangely without fear, and presently I was to see how little causethere was for any, and to realize that the action of my guards wassprung from a very different motive.
The people stood silent, and on every upturned face of which I caught aglimpse I saw something that was akin to pity. Presently, however, as wedrew nearer to the Palace, a murmur began to rise. It swelled and grewfierce. Suddenly a cry rose vehement and clear.
"Rescue! Rescue!"
"He is the Lord of Mondolfo," shouted one tall fellow, "and theCardinal-legate makes a cat's-paw of him! He is to suffer for MesserGambara's villainy!"
Again he was answered by the cry--"Rescue! Rescue!" whilst some added anangry--"Death to the Legate!"
Whilst I was deeply marvelling at all this, Cosimo looked at me overhis shoulder, and though his lips were steady, his eyes seemed to smile,charged with a message of derision--and something more, something that Icould not read. Then I heard his hard, metallic voice.
"Back there, you curs! To your kennels! Out of the way, or we ride youdown."
He had drawn his sword, and his white hawk-face was so cruel anddetermined that they fell away before him and their cries died down.
We passed into the courtyard of the Communal Palace, and the greatstudded gates were slammed in the faces of the mob, and barred.
I got down from my mule, and was conducted at Cosimo's bidding to oneof the dungeons under the Palace, where I was left with the announcementthat I must present myself to-morrow before the Tribunal of the Ruota.
I flung myself down upon the dried rushes that had been heaped ina corner to do duty for a bed, and I abandoned myself to my bitterthoughts. In particular I pondered the meaning of the crowd's strangeattitude. Nor was it a riddle difficult to resolve. It was evident thatbelieving Gambara, as they did, to be Giuliana's lover, and informedperhaps--invention swelling rumour as it will--that the Cardinal-legatehad ridden late last night to Fifanti's house, it had been put aboutthat the foul murder done there was Messer Gambara's work.
Thus was the Legate reaping the harvest of all the hatred he had sown,of all the tyranny and extortion of his iron rule in Piacenza. Andwilling to believe any evil of the man they hated, they not only laidFifanti's death at his door, but they went to further lengths andaccounted that I was the cat's-paw; that I was to be sacrificed to savethe Legate's face and reputation. They remembered perhaps the ill-odourin which we Anguissola of Mondolfo had been at Rome, for the ghibellineleanings that ever had been ours and for the rebellion of my fatheragainst the Pontifical sway; and their conclusions gathered a sort ofconfirmation from that circumstance.
Long upon the very edge of mutiny and revolt against Gambara'sinjustice, it had needed but what seemed a crowning one such as this toquicken their hatred into expression.
It was all very clear and obvious, and it seemed to me that to-morrow'strial should be very interesting. I had but to deny; I had but to makemyself the mouthpiece of the rumour that was abroad, and Heaven alonecould foretell what the consequences might be.
Then I smiled bitterly to myself. Deny? O, no! That was a last vilenessI could not perpetrate. The Ruota should hear the truth, and Gambarashould be left to shelter Giuliana, who--Cosimo was assured--had fled tohim in her need as to a natural protector.
It was a bitter thought. The intensity of that bitterness made merealize with alarm how it still was with me. And pondering this, I fellasleep, utterly worn out in body and in mind by the awful turmoil ofthat day.