*CHAPTER XII*
*RED FALERNIAN*
The palace of Theodora resounded with merriment, though it was long pastmidnight.
Round a long oval table in the great hall sat a score or more of belatedrevellers, their Patrician garbs in disorder, and soiled with wine,their faces inflamed, their eyes red and fiery, their tongues heavy andbeyond the bounds of control. Here and there a vacant or overturnedchair showed where a guest had fallen in the debauch, and had beenpermitted to remain on his self-chosen bed of repose. A band of playershidden in a remote gallery still continued to fill up the pauses in theriotous clamour with their barbaric strains.
At the head of the table, first in place as in rank sat Benilo, theChamberlain. He seemed to take little interest in the conversation,for, resting his head on his hands, he stared into his untouched goblet,as if he endeavoured to cast some augury from the rising and vanishingbubbles of the wine.
Next to him sat Pandulph, Lord of Spoleto and Beneventum. His low,though well-set figure, dark hair, keen, black eyes and swarthy featuresbespoke his semi-barbaric extraction. His countenance was far fromcomely, when in repose, even ugly and repulsive, but in his eyes lay theforce of a powerful will and a depth and subtlety of intellect, thatmade men fear, when they could not love him. On the right of the Countsat the Lord of Civitella, a large, sensual man, with twinkling greyeyes, thick nose and full red lips. His broad face, flushed with wine,glowed like the harvest moon rising above the horizon. Opposite him satthe Patricius Ziazo, crafty and unscrupulous, a parasite who flatteredwhosoever ministered to his pleasure. The Patricius was conversing withan individual who outshone Pandulph in rapine, the Lord of Civitella incoarseness and himself in sycophancy, Guido of Vanossa, an arrogantlibertine, whose pinched features and cunning leer formed the true indexto his character. The Lords of Sinigaglia, Torre del Grecco, Bracciano,Cavallo and Caetano swelled the roll of infamy on the boards ofTheodora,--worthy predecessors of the Orsini and Savelli, who were tooppress the city in after time.
Among those who had marked the beginning of the evening by more thanordinary gaiety, Benilo had by his splendid dissipation excited thegeneral envy and admiration among his fellow revellers. His face wasinflamed, his dark eyes were glittering with the adder tongues of theserpent wine, and his countenance showed traces of unlimited debauchery.It seemed to those present, as if the ghost of the girl Nelida, whom hehad killed in this very hall, was haunting him, so madly did he respondto the challenges from all around, to drink. But as the wine began toflood every brain, as the hall presented a scene of riotous debauch, hisformer reckless mood seemed for the nonce to have changed to its veryopposite. Through the fumes of wine the dead girl seemed to regard himwith sad, mournful eyes.
"Fill the goblets," cried Pandulph, with a loud and still clear voice."The lying clock says it is day. But neither cock-crows nor clockchange the purple night to dawn in the Groves of Theodora, save at thewill of the Goddess herself. Fill up, companions! The lamp-light in thewine cup is brighter than the clearest sun that ever shone."
"Well spoken, Pandulph! Name the toast and we will pledge it, till theseven stars count fourteen and the seven hills but one," said theCavallo looking up. "I see four hour glasses even now and every one ofthem lies, if it says it is dawn."
"You shall have my toast," said Pandulph, raising his goblet. "We havedrunk it twenty times already, but we will drink it twenty timesmore:--the best prologue to wine ever devised by wit of man--Woman."
A shadow moved in the dusky background and peered unseen into the hall.
"And the best epilogue," replied the Lord of Civitella, visibly drunk."But the toast--my cup is waiting."
"To the health--wealth--and love by stealth of Theodora!" yelledPandulph, gulping down the contents of his goblet.
Benilo's face turned ashen pale, but he smiled.
"To Theodora!"
Every tongue repeated the name, the goblets were drained.
"My Lord, it is your turn now," said Pandulph, turning to the Lord ofCivitella. "The good folks of Urbino have not yet rung the fire-bellsagainst you, but some say they soon will. Who shall it be?"
The Lord of Civitella filled up his cup with unsteady hand, until it wasrunning over and propping his body against the table as he stood up, hesaid:
"A toast to Roxane! And as for my foragers--they sweep clean."
The toast was drunk with rapturous applause.
"Right you are," bellowed the Cavallo. "Better brooms were never madeon the Posilippo,--not a straw lies in your way."
"Did you accomplish it without fight?" sneered the Lord of Bracciano.
"Fight? Why fight? The burghers never resist a noble! We conjure thedevil down with that. When we skin our eels, we don't begin at thetail."
"Better to steal the honey, than to kill the bees that make it."
"But what became of the women and children after this swoop of yourforagers?" asked the Lord of Bracciano, who appeared to entertain somefew isolated ideas of honour floating on the top of the wine he hadgulped down.
"The women and children?" replied the Lord of Civitella with a mockingair, crossing his thumbs, like the peasants of Lugano, when they wish toinspire belief in their words. "They can breakfast by gaping! They caneat wind, like the Tarentines,--it will make them spit clear."
The Lord of Bracciano, irritated at the mocking sign and proverbialallusion to the gaping propensities of the people round the Lago,started up in wrath and struck his clenched fist on the table.
"My Lord of Civitella," he cried, "do not cross your damned thumbs atme, else I will cut them off! The people of Bracciano have still cornin plenty, until your thieving bands scorch their fingers in the attemptto steal it."
Andrea Cavallo interposed to stop the rising quarrel.
"Do not mind the Lord of Civitella," he whispered to Bracciano. "He isdrunk!"
"The rake! The ingrate!" growled Bracciano, "after my men opened thetraps, in which the Vicar of the Church had caught him."
"Nay! If you gape at man's ingratitude, your mouth will be wide enough,ere you die, my lord," spoke Pandulph with a sardonic laugh. "And menin our day stand no more on precedence in plots than in loveaffairs,--do they, my lord Benilo?"
"Nay, I'll dispute no man's right to be hanged or quartered beforeme--least of all yours, my Lord Pandulph," the Chamberlain repliedvenomously.
"My lord Benilo," replied Pandulph, "you are, when drunk, the greatestruffian in Christendom, and the biggest knave when sober. Bring in moretankards, and we will not look for day till midnight booms again on theold tower of San Sebastian! I call for full brimmers, varlets,--bringyour largest cups! We will drink another toast five fathoms deep inwine, strong enough to melt Cleopatra's pearls, and to a jollier damethan Egypt's queen."
The servitors flew out and in. In a few moments the table wasreplenished with huge drinking cups, silver flagons and all the heavyimpediments of the army of Bacchus.
"We drink to the Fair Lady of the Groves,--and in her presence, too!"shouted the Lord of Spoleto, raising his goblet anew. "Why is she notamong us? They say," he turned to Benilo with a sneer, "that you are sojealous of the charms of your bird of paradise, that you have forbiddenher to appear before your friends."
Roaring peals of laughter crowned Pandulph's speech.
Benilo saw the absurdity of anger, but he felt it nevertheless.
"She chooses not to leave her bower even to look on you, my LordPandulph. I warrant you, she has not slept all night, listening to yourinfernal din."
A renewed outburst of mirth was the response.
"Then you will permit us to betake ourselves forthwith to her gildedchamber to implore pardon on our knees for disturbing her rest."
"Well spoken--by the boot of St. Benedict!" roared Guido of Vanossa.
"You may measure my foot and satisfy yourself that I am able to wearit," shouted the Lord of Civitella. "On our knees we will
crawl to theSanctuary of our Goddess,--on our knees!"
"But before we start on our pilgrimage, we will drain a draught long asthe bell-rope of the Capitol," bellowed the Lord of Bracciano.
"Fill up the tankards!" exclaimed the Lord of Spoleto. "My goblet is asempty as an honest man's purse,--and one of my eyes is sober yet."
"Do not take it to heart!" spoke Guido of Vanossa, whose eyes were fullof tears and wine. "You will not die in the jolly fellow's faith!" Andwith unsteady voice he began to sing a stanza in dog-Latin:
"Dum Vinum potamus Fratelli cantiamo A Bacco sia Onore! Te Deum laudamus!"
"Would your grace had a better voice, you have a good will!" stammeredthe lord of Sinigaglia. "'Tis ample time to repent when you can do nobetter. Besides--if you are damned, it is in rare good company!"
"Ay! Saint and Sinner come to the same end!" gurgled the Lord Pandulph,ogling the purple Falernian.
"Fill up your goblets! Though it be a merry life to lead, I doubt if itwill end in so cheery a death!" said Benilo, his eye wandering slowlyfrom one to the other.
"Fill up the goblets!" shouted the Lord of Spoleto, rising andsupporting his bulky carcass on the heavy oaken table.
With a sleepy leer he blinked at the guests.
"Down on your knees," he roared suddenly, his former intent reverting tohim. "To the Sanctuary of the Goddess! On our knees we will implore herto receive us into her favour."
A strange spirit of recklessness had seized Benilo. Instead ofresenting or resisting the proposition, he was the first to get down onall fours. His example had an electrifying effect. Although they swayedto and fro like sail-boats on angry sea-waves, all those still soberenough imitated the Chamberlain amid cheers and grunts, and slowly thesingular procession, led by Benilo, set in motion with the expressedpurpose of invading Theodora's apartments, which were situated beyondthe great hall. The Lord Pandulph resembled some huge bear as on allfours he hobbled across the mosaic floor beside the Lord of Bracciano,who panted, grunted and swore and called on the saints, to witness hisself-abasement. Being gouty and stout, he was at one time seized with acramp in his leg and struck out vigorously with the result of strikingthe Lord of Civitella squarely in the jaw, whereupon the latter,toppling over, literally flooded the hall with profanity and surpluswine. The other ten hobbled behind the leaders, cursing their ownfolly, but enjoying to a degree the novelty of the pageant.
Thus they had traversed the great hall at a speed as great as theirsingular mode of locomotion and their intoxicated condition wouldpermit. The background of the hall was but dimly lighted; the greatcurtain strung between the two massive pillars, which guarded theentrance into Theodora's apartments, excluded the glow of themulti-coloured lamps, strung in regular intervals in the corridorbeyond.
Benilo was the first to reach the curtain. Resting one hand on thefloor, he raised the other, after the manner of a dog, trying to pushits folds aside, when they suddenly and noiselessly parted. Somethinghissed through the air, striking the object of its aim a stinging blowin the face--a cry of pain and rage, and Benilo, who had sprung to hisfeet, stood face to face with Theodora. At the same moment the lightsin the great hall were turned on to a full blaze, revealing in itsentire repelling atrocity the spectacle of the drunken revellers, who,upon experiencing a sudden check to their further progress, had come toa sluggish halt, some of them unable to retain their balance andtoppling over in their tracks.
"Beasts! Swine!" hissed the woman, her eyes ablaze with wrath, the whipwhich had struck Benilo in the face, still quivering in her infuriatedgrasp. "Out with you--out!"
The sound of a silver whistle, which she placed between her lips,brought some five or six giant Africans to the spot. They were eunuchs,whose tongues had been torn out, and who, possessing no human weakness,were ferocious as the wild beasts of their native desert. Theodora gavethem a brief command in their own tongue and ere the amazed revellersknew what was happening to them, they found themselves picked up bydusky, muscular arms and unceremoniously ejected from the hall, thoselying in a semi-conscious stupor under the tables sharing the same fate.