CHAPTER VII. THE LEGACY
The Roman Republic, established by the unanimous and legitimate votes ofthe people, elected General Garibaldi, on the 30th June, legal guardianof the rights of the people, and conferred upon him the executivepower of the State, which the Triumvirate resigned into his hands. Thisnational government was overthrown by foreign bayonets, after a mostheroic struggle for freedom. The first act of General Oudinot was tosend a French colonel to lay the keys of the city at the feet of thePope.
Thus was the power of the priests restored, and they returned to alltheir former tyranny and luxury.
These worthy teachers, when preaching to the Roman women about the gloryof Heaven, impress upon them that they, and they only, have power togive free entrance into eternal bliss. To liberate these misguidedbeings from superstition, and rescue them from the deceit of theirso-called "reverend fathers," is the question of life or death to Italy;this, in fact, is the only way in which to work out the deliverance ofour country. Many will tell you there are good priests. But a priest, tobecome really good, must discard that wicked livery which he wears.Is it not the uniform of the promoters of brigandage over the half ofItaly? Has it not marched as a pioneer-garb before every stranger thatever visited our country?
The priests, by their continual impostures and crafty abuse of theignorance and consequent superstition of the people, have acquired greatriches. Those who endeavor to retard our progress make a distinctionbetween the temporal power, which should be combated, and the spiritualpower, which should be respected; as if Antonelli, Schiatone, andCrocco, were spiritual ushers, by whom the souls of men should hopeto be conducted into the presence of the Eternal. There are two chiefsources of their wealth. Firstly, they exact a revenue for repentance,as the vicegerents of God upon earth, as such, claiming power to pardonall sin. A rich but credulous man may thus commit any crime he chooseswith impunity, knowing that he has the means of securing absolution, andbelieving implicitly that, by rendering up a portion of his treasure orprofit to the clergy, he will have no difficulty in escaping the wrathto come.
The next source of wealth is the tax upon the agonies of death.. At thebedside of the sick, by threats of purgatory and eternal perdition,they frighten their unhappy victims into bequeathing to Mother Churchenormous legacies, if, indeed, they do not succeed in getting absolutepossession of the whole of their estates, to the detriment of the legalheirs, who are not unfrequently in this manner reduced to beggary. Look,for instance, at the island of Sicily: one-half of that country nowbelongs to the priesthood, or various orders of monks.
But, to our tale. One evening, about nine o'clock, in the month ofDecember, a thing in black might have been seen traversing the Piazzaof the Rotunda--that magnificent monument of antiquity--every columna perfect work, worth its weight in silver--which the priests haveperverted from sublime memories to their cunning uses. It was a figurewhich would have made a man shudder involuntarily, though he were one ofthe thousand of Calatifimi; enveloped in a black sottana--thecovering of a heart still blacker, the heart of a demon, and one thatcontemplated the committal of a crime which only a priest would conceiveor execute. A priest it was, and he made his stealthy path to thegateway of the house of Pompeo, where he paused a moment before knockingto gain admittance, casting glances around, to assure himself no one wasin sight, as if he feared his guilty secret would betray itself, or asif pausing to add even to ecclesiastical wickedness a sin so cruel ashe was meditating. He knocked at last. The door opened, and the porter,recognizing the "Reverend Father Ignazio," saluted him respectfully, andlighted him, as he entered, a few steps up the staircase of one of therichest residences of the city.
"Where is Sister Flavia?" demanded the priest of the first servant whocame forward to meet him.
"At the bedside of my dying mistress," replied Siccio, in a constrainedvoice, for, being a true Roman, he had little sympathy for "the birds ofill-omen," as he profanely styled the reverend fathers.
Father Ignazio, knowing the house well, hurried on to the sick-room, atthe door of which he gently tapped, requesting admittance in a peculiartone. An elderly, sour-looking nun opened the door quickly, and with asignificant expression on her evil countenance as her eyes sought thoseof the priest.
"Is all over?" whispered he, as he advanced towards the bed on which theexpiring patient lay.
"Not yet," was the equally low reply.
Ignazio thereupon, without another word, took a small vial from underhis sottana, and emptied the contents into a glass. With the assistanceof the nun he raised his victim, and poured the deadly fluid down herthroat, letting the head fall heavily back upon the pillows, whilst acomplacent smile spread itself over his diabolical features as, afterone gasp, the jaw fell. He then retired to a small table at the end ofthe apartment, where he seated himself, followed by Sister Flavia, whostealthily drew a paper from her dress and handed it to him.
Father Ignazio seized the paper with a trembling hand, and afterperusing it with an anxious air, as if to convince himself that it wasindeed the accomplishment of his desires, he thrust it into his breast,muttering, with an emphatic nod, "You shall be rewarded, my goodFlavia."
That paper was the last will and testament of the Signora VirginiaPompeo, the mother of the brave Emilio Pompeo, who perished fighting onthe walls of Rome, whence he fell, mortally wounded by a French bullet.His inconsolable widow did not long survive him, and committed, with herlast breath, her infant son to the care of his doting grandmother, LaSignora Virginia Pompeo, who tenderly cherished the orphan Muzio, theonly remaining scion of the noble house of Pompeo. But, unhappily forhim, Father Ignazio was her confessor. When the signora's health beganto fail, and her mind to be weakened, the wily Father spared no means toconvince her that she ought to make her will, and, as a sacred duty, toleave a large sum to be spent in masses for the release of souls frompurgatory. The signora lingering for some time, the covetous priest felthis desires grow, and resolved to destroy this first will, and obtainanother, purporting to leave the whole of her immense estates to thecorporation of St. Francesco di Paola, and appoint himself as her soleexecutor. This document he prepared and intrusted to Sister Flavia,whom he had already recommended to the Signora Virginia as a suitableattendant. One morning she dispatched a hurried message to theconfessor, reporting that the favorable time for signing the fraudulentdocument had arrived. He came, attended by witnesses, whom he had had nodifficulty in procuring, and, after persuading the sinking and agonizedlady that she ought to add a codicil to her will (which he pretendedthen and there to draw up) leaving a still larger sum to the Church, heguided her feeble hand as she unconsciously signed away the whole of herproperty, leaving her helpless grandson to beggary. As if to jeopardisehis scheme, the signora rallied towards the afternoon, whereupon,fearing she might ask to see the will, and so discover his treachery,Father Ignazio resolved to make such an undesirable occurrenceimpossible, by administering an effective potion, which he set off toprocure, wisely deferring his return till nightfall.
The result has been already disclosed; and while the false priestwrought this murder, the unconscious orphan, Muzio, slept peacefully inhis little bed, still adorned with hangings wrought by a loving mother'shands, to awake on the morrow ignorant of his injury, but robbed of hisguardian and goods together--stripped of all, and forthwith dependent onchance--a friendless and beggared boy.