CHAPTER XXVI
Amongst all her costly possessions in the Casa Caprona, there had once been none so loved, so treasured, so often consulted by Beatrice as a certain portrait of the little Parablist of San Zeno, which she had bought straight from the studio of its limner, Messer Antonello da Messina, at that time temporarily sojourning in Milan. This was the artist, pupil of Jan Van Eyck, who had been the first to introduce oil-painting into Italy; and the portrait was executed in the new medium. It was a work perpetrated con amore—one of the many in which the exaltation of the moment had sought to express itself in pigments, or marble, or metal. For, indeed, during that short spring of his promise, Bernardo's flower-face had come to blossom in half the crafts of the town.
Technically, perhaps, a little wan and flat, the head owed something, nevertheless, to inspiration. Through the mere physical beauty of its features, one might read the sorrow of a spiritual incarnation—the wistfulness of a Christ-converted Eros of the ancient cosmogonies. Here were the right faun's eyes, brooding pity out of laughter; the rather square jaw, and girlish pointed chin; the baby lips that seemed to have kissed themselves, shape and tint, out of spindle-berries; the little strutting cap and quill even, so queerly contrasted with the staid sobriety of the brow beneath. It was the boy, and the soul of the boy, so far as enthusiasm, working through a strange medium, could interpret it.
Beatrice, having secured, had hung the picture in a dim alcove of her chamber; and had further, to ensure its jealous privacy from all inquisition but her own, looped a curtain before. Here, then, a dozen times a day, when alone, had she been wont to pray and confess herself; lust with her finger-tips to charm the barren contours of the face into life; lay her hot cheek to the painted flesh, and weep, and woo, and appeal to it; seek to soften by a hundred passionate artifices the inflexible continence of its gaze.
But that had been all before the shock and frenzy of her final repulse. Not once since had she looked on it, until...
Came upon her, still crouching self-absorbed, that white morning of the Duke's tragedy; and, on the vulture wings of it, Narcisso.
The beast crept to her, fulsome, hoarse, shaken with a heart-ague. She conned him with a contemptuous curiosity, as he stood unnerved, trembling all through, before her.
'Well?' she said at last.
He grinned and gobbled, gulping for articulation.
'It's come, Madonna.'
She half rose on her couch, frowning and impatient.
'What, thou sick fool?'
'Sick!' he echoed loudly; and then his voice fell again. 'Ay, sick to death, I think. The Duke'
'What of him?'
'Rides to San Stefano.'
'Does he?'
'He'll not ride home again.'
She stared at him in silence a moment; then suddenly breathed out a little wintry laugh.
'So?' she whispered—'So? Well, thou art not the Duke.'
He struggled to clear, and could not clear, his throat. His low forehead, for all the cold, was beaded with sweat.
'All's one for that,' he muttered thickly. 'There's no class in carrion.'
She still conned him, with that frigid smile on her lips.
'Dost mean they'll seek to kill thee too?'
He clawed at his head in a frenzy.
'Ay, I mean it.'
'Why?'
'Why? quotha. Why, won't they have held me till this moment for one of themselves?'
'Till this moment?' she murmured. 'Ah! I see; this Judas who hath not the courage to play out his part.'
'My part!' He almost screamed it at last. 'Was death my part?' He writhed and snuffled. 'I tell thee, I've but now left them, on pretence of going before to the church. Shall I be there? God's death! Let but this stroke win through and gain the people, and my life's not worth a stinking sprat.'
She sank back with a sigh.
'Better, in that case, to have joined thy friends at San Stefano.'
The rogue, staring at her a moment, uttered a mortal cry:—
'Thou say'st it—thou?—Judas?—Who made me so?—Show me my thirty pieces—Judas? Ay; and what for wages?—Thy tool and catspaw—I see it all at last—thine and Ludovic's—bled, and my carcass thrown to swine!—Judas? Why, I might have been Judas to some purpose with the Duke—a made man by now. And all for thee foregone; and in the end by thee betrayed. I asked nothing—gave all for nothing—ass—goose—cried quack and quack, as told—decoy to these fine fowl, and, being used, my neck wrung with the rest. Now'
She put up a hand peremptorily. The fury simmered down on his lips.
'You presume, fellow,' she said. 'I betray thee?'
She raised her brows, amazed. Too stupendous an instance of condescension, indeed.
He slunk down on his knees before her, cringing and praying.
'No, Madonna, no! I spake out of my great madness.'
'Answer me,' she said disdainfully, 'out of thy little reason. What wouldst thou of me?'
He lifted his shaking hands.
'Sanctuary, sanctuary. Let me hide here.'
He crawled to her, pawing like a beaten dog.
'Sanctuary,' he reiterated brokenly. 'You owe it me—that at least. I've bided, bided—and ye made no sign—yielded all for guerdon of a sweet word, the whiles I thought thyself and Ludovic were stalking that conspiracy to cut it off betimes. God's death! Not you. And now I know the reason. Now comes the reckoning, and I'm left to face it as I will. God's death!' His panic mastered him again. 'What of my substance have I changed for nothing! There was Bona's ring—I might have lived ten year on't. And I parted with it—for what? O, you're a serpent, mistress! You worm your way—and get it too. What! Bona may bide a little, and Simonetta? They're but the bleeding trunk. The head's lopped while I talk.'
His voice rose to a screech—broke—and he grovelled before her.
'Mercy, Madonna. Spare me to be thy slave. All comes thy way—love, and revenge, and power. The boy's dead—the Duke's to die'
He had roused her at last, and in a flash. She sprang to her feet, white, hardly breathing.
'The boy?' she hissed; 'what boy?'
He whimpered, sprawling:—
'God a' mercy! Lady, lady! the boy, the very boy you sped the ring to kill.'
'Dead!' she whispered.
'Ay,' he snivelled from the ground; 'what would you? dead as last Childermas—starved to death, in the "Hermit's Cell" they call it, by the Duke's orders.'
Her fingers battled softly with her throat.
'Dead!' she said again. 'Narcisso, good Narcisso, who hath gulled thee with this lie?'
'No lie,' he answered, squatting, reassured, on his hams. ''Twas Messer Tassino, no less, that carried thy token to Vigevano. 'Twas no later than yesternight I met our fine cockerel louping from the stews. A' was drunk as father Noah—babbled and blabbed, a' did—perked up a's comb, and cursed me for presuming fellowship with a duke's minion. I plied him further, e'en to tears and confidence—had it all out of him; how a'd carried the ring for Messer Ludovic, and brought back the deadly order. Jacopo nipped the Saint that noon. A's singing in paradise these days past.'
Beatrice stood and listened. A dreadful smile was on her lips. But, when she spoke, it was with wooing softness.
'Good trust—always the faithful trust. Why, Narcisso, what should I do betraying thee? We'll work and end together, and take our wages. Dead, do you say? Why, then, all's said. Now go, and tuck thyself within the roof till the storm pass. This lightning's all below. Go, comrade, do you hear?'
He dwelt a moment only to gasp and mumble out his thanks; then turned and slouched away.
For minutes she dwelt as he had left her, rigid, smiling, bloodless. Presently, still standing motionless, she moved her lips and was muttering:—
'Dead? So swift? Made sure against all chances? Starved? He said starved. Not to that I betrayed him. Inhuman hound! Thou mightst have spared him bread!—left sorrow and cold durance to work their lingering end. What then? Why, Bona then—Bona made widow; free to work her will. Should I be the better?—Dead? was he not always dead to me? Starved to death! O, hell heat Lampugnani's dagger scarlet, that it hiss and bubble in his flesh! Galeazzo! Galeazzo! I'll follow soon to nurse thy pains to ecstasy!'
She fell silent; presently began to sway; then, with a sudden shriek, had leapt upon the picture, and torn aside its curtain.
'Bernardo!' she moaned and sobbed—'Bernardo, I loved thee! O God! he eats me with his eyes. Here, here! fasten with thy starved lips. I'll not speak or cry, though they burrow to my heart. All thine—hold on—I'll smile and pet mine agony—Bernardo!'
In the tumult of her passion she heard a sound at the door; caught her breath; caught herself to knowledge of herself, and, instinctively closing the curtain, stood panting, dishevelled, its hem in her hand.
Someone, something, had entered—a haggard, unshorn ghost of ancient days. It came very softly, closing the door behind; then, set and silent, moved upon her. Her pulses seemed to sink and wither.
'Carlo!' she shuddered softly.
It was fearful that the thing never spoke as it came on. Nor did she speak again. Love that has once joined keeps understanding without words. What has it bred but death? Here was the natural fruit of a sin matured—she saw it gleam suddenly in his clutch.
She watched fascinated. As he drew near, without a word she slowly raised her hands, and rent from her bosom its already desecrated veil. Then at last she spoke—or whispered:—
'I'm ready. Here's where you kissed and sighed. Bloody thy bed.'
He took her to his remorseless grasp. She had often thrilled to know her helplessness therein—wondered what it would be to feel it closed in hate. Now she had her knowledge—and instantly, in an ecstasy of terror, succumbed to it.
'No, no!' she gasped. 'Carlo, don't kill me!'
Voiceless still, he raised his hand. She gave a fearful scream.
'I never meant it. I'm innocent. Not without a word. Carlo! Carlo!—I loved him!'
Writhing in her agony, she tore herself free a moment, and sank at his feet, rending, as she fell, the curtain from its rings. His back was to the wall. In a mirror opposite he caught the sudden vision of his intent, and, looking down upon it, dim and spiritual, the sweet face of the Saint.
The dagger dropped from his hand.
The silence of a minute seemed to draw into an age.
Suddenly he was groping and stumbling like a drunken man. Words came to him in a babble:—
'Let be!—I'll go—spare her?—Where's thy Christ? He forgave too—I'm coming—answer for me—here!'
And he drove a staggering course from the room.
Tears began to gush from her as she lay prone. Then suddenly, in a quick impulse, she rose to her feet, and re-veiling the picture, turned with her back to it.
'Ludovic remains,' she whispered.
Reeling, dancing, to himself it seemed, Carlo passed down the streets. White was on the ground; his brain was thick with whirling flakes; the roar of coming waters tingled in his veins. Sometimes he would pause and look stupidly at his right hand, as if in puzzle of its emptiness. There should have been something there—what was it?—a knife—a stone for two birds—Beatrice—and then Galeazzo. What had he omitted? He must go back and pick up the thread from the beginning.
The waters came on as he stood, not close yet, but portentous, with a threatening roar. A crying shape, waving a bloody blade, sped towards and past him.
'Arm, arm, for liberty!' it yelled as it ran. 'Tyranny is dead!'
Carlo chuckled thickly to himself.
'That was Olgiati. What does he with my dagger? I'll go and take it from him.'
He turned, swaying, and in the act was swept upon, enveloped, and washed over by the torrent. It stranded him against a wall, where he stood blinking and giggling in the vortex of a multitudinous roar.
'Murdered! the Duke! Murdered! Close the gates!'
It thundered on and away. He looked at his hand once more; then turned for home.