CHAPTER XVII. RETRIBUTION
Justice! sacred word, yet how art thou abused by the powerful uponearth! Was not Christ, the just one, crucified in the name of justice?Was not Galileo put to the torture in the name of justice? And are notthe laws of this unjust Babel, falsely called civilized Europe, made andadministered in the name of justice? Ay, in Europe, where the would-beindustrious man dies of hunger, and the idle and profligate flauntin luxury and splendor!--in Europe, where a few families governthe nations, and keep them in a chronic state of warfare under thehigh-sounding names of justice, loyalty, military glory, and the like!There in the palace sit Procopio and Ignazio in the name of justice.Outside are the rabble--Attilio, forsooth, Muzio, and Silvio, withtwenty of our three hundred, who mean to have justice after their ownfashion. The hearts of these suitors are glad and gay, as on the eve ofa feast. It is true they beat, but it is in confident hope, for thehour of their duty is near. They pace the Lungara in parties of twos andthrees, to avoid suspicion, awaiting the striking of the clock. Whilstthey linger outside, we will enter, and take a retrospect.
When Gianni summoned Aurelia and Silvia to attend Father Ignazio,Clelia, suspecting treachery, drew a golden stiletto from her hair andsecreted it in her belt, that it might be at hand in the event of herneeding it to defend herself.
The prelate, meantime, having attired himself in his richest robes, inthe hope that their magnificence might have effect upon the simple girl,prepared, as he facetiously termed it, "to summon the fortress." Openingthe door of the apartment in which Clelia was anxiously awaiting hermother's return, he entered with a false benignancy upon his face.
"You must pardon us," he said, "for having detained you so long, mydaughter, but I wished to assure you in person that no harm shallbefall your father, as well as," he continued--and here he caught up herhand--"to tell you, most lovely of women, that since I beheld you firstmy heart has not ceased to burn with the warmest love for you."
Clelia, startled by the words and the passionate look which the Cardinalfixed upon her, drew back a little space, so as to place a small tablebetween them.
Then ensued a shameful burst of insult and odious entreaty. In vaindid he plead, urging that her consent alone could procure her father's'pardon. Clelia continued to preserve her look of horror, and hermajestic scorn, contriving by her movements to keep the table betweenthem. Enraged beyond measure, the Cardinal made a sign to his creatures,Ignazio and Gianni, who were near at hand, to enter.
Clelia, comprehending her danger, snatched forth her dagger, andexclaimed in an indignant voice, "Touch me at your peril! rather thansubmit to your infamous desires I will plunge this poniard into myheart!"
The libidinous prelate, not understanding such virtue, approached towrest the weapon from the Roman girl, but received a gash upon his palm,as she snatched it free, and stood upon the defensive, with majesticanger and desperation. He called to his satellites, and they closed likea band of devils about the maiden; nor was it till their blood was drawnby more than one thrust from her despair, that Gianni caught the wristof Clelia as she strove to plunge the knife into her own heart, whileFather Ignazio passed swiftly behind her, and seized her left hand,motioning to Gianni to hold the right fast, and the Cardinal himselfthrew his arms around her. The heroic girl was thus finally deprived ofher weapon. This achieved, they proceeded to drag her towards an alcove,where a couch was placed, behind a curtain of tapestry.
At this instant, happily for our heroine, there was a sudden crash inthe vestibule, and as her assailants turned their heads in the directionof the sound, two manly forms, terrible in their fiery wrath and grace,rushed forward. The first, Attilio, flew to his beloved, who, fromrevulsion of feeling, was becoming rapidly insensible, and tore her fromthe villains, while the prelate and his accomplices yielded their holdwith a cry, and endeavored to escape. This Muzio prevented by barringthe way; and bidding Silvio, and some of his men, who arrived at thisjuncture, to surround them, he drew forth a cord, and, after gaggingthe three scoundrels, he commenced binding the arms of the affrightedpriest, his friends similarly treating Ignazio and the trembling toolGianni Many and abject were the gestures of these miserable men formercy, but none was shown by their infuriated captors, but the prayersand curses of the Cardinal were choked with his own mantle; and Muziodid not refrain, as Father Ignazio writhed under the pressure of thecord, from reminding him of his villainy in robbing a helpless child ofhis lawful inheritance.
At dawn three bodies, suspended from a window of the Corsini palace,were seen by the awakening people, and a paper was found upon thebreast of the Cardinal, with these words, "So perish all those who havepolluted the metropolis of the world with falsehood, corruption, anddeceit, and turned it into a sewer and a stew."