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The Eternal City, a novel by Hall Caine |
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Part 5. The Prime Minister - Chapter 8 |
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_ PART FIVE. THE PRIME MINISTER CHAPTER VIII Behind her the Prime Minister, who had apologised for turning her house into a temporary Ministry of the Interior, was talking to his Chief of Police. "You were there yourself?" "I was, Excellency. I went up into a high part and looked down. It was a strange and wild sight." "How many would there be?" "Impossible to guess. Inside and outside, Romans, country people, perhaps a hundred thousand." "And Rossi's speech?" "The usual appeal to the passions of the people, Excellency. An extraordinary exhibition of the art of flying between wind and water. We couldn't have found a word that was distinctly seditious, even if we hadn't had your Excellency's order to let the man go on." "You have stopped the telegraph wires?" "Yes." "When the meeting was over, Rossi went home?" "He did, Excellency." "And the hundred thousand?" "In their excitement they began to sing and to march through the streets. They are still doing so. After going down to the Piazza Navona, they are coming up by the Piazza del Popolo and along the Babuino with banners and torches." "Men only?" "Men, women, and children." "You would say that their attitude is threatening?" "Distinctly threatening, your Excellency." "Let your delegates give the legal warning and say that the gathering of great mobs at this hour will be regarded as open rebellion. Allow three minutes' grace for the sake of the women and children, and then ... let the military do their duty." "Quite so, your Excellency." "After that you may carry out the instructions I gave you yesterday." "Certainly, your Excellency." "Keep in touch with all the leaders. Some of them will find that the air of Rome is a little dangerous to their health to-night, and may wish to fly to Switzerland or England, where it would be impossible to follow them." Roma heard behind her the thin cackle as of a hen over her nest, which always came when Angelelli laughed. "Their meeting itself was illegal, and our license has been abused." "Grossly abused, your Excellency." "The action of the Government was too conciliatory, and has rendered them audacious, but the new law is clear in prohibiting the carrying of seditious flags and emblems." "We'll deal with them according to Articles 134 and 252 of the Penal Code, your Excellency." "You can go. But come back immediately if anything happens. I must remain here for the present, and in case of riot I may have to send you to the King." Angelelli's thin voice fell to a whisper of awe at the mention of Majesty, and after a moment he bowed and backed out of the room. Roma did not turn round, and the Minister, who had touched the bell and called for pen and paper, spoke to her from behind. "I daresay you thought I was hard and inhuman at the Palazzo Braschi yesterday, but I was really very merciful. In letting you see the preparations to enclose your friend as in a net, I merely wished you to warn him to fly from the country. He has not done so, and now he must take the consequences." Felice brought the writing materials, and the Baron sat down at the table. There was a long silence in which nothing could be heard but the scratching of the Minister's pen, the snoring of the poodle, and the deadened sound through the wall of the Countess's testy voice scolding Natalina. Roma stepped into the boudoir. The room was dark, and from its unlit windows she could see more plainly into the streets. Masses of shadow lay around, but the untrodden steps were white with thin snow, and the piazza were alive with black figures which moved on the damp ground like worms on an upturned sod. She was leaning her hot forehead against the glass and looking out with haggard eyes, when a deep rumble as of a great multitude came from below. The noise quickly increased to a loud uproar, with shouts, songs, whistles, and shrill sounds blown out of door-keys. Before she was aware of his presence the Baron was standing behind her, between the window and the pedestal with the plaster bust of Rossi. "Listen to them," he said. "The proletariat indeed!... And this is the flock of bipeds to whom men in their senses would have us throw the treasures of civilisation and hand over the delicate machinery of government." He laughed bitterly, and drew back the curtain with an impatient hand. "Democracy! _Christian_ Democracy! _Vox Populi vox Dei!_ The sovereignty and infallibility of the people! Pshaw! I would as soon believe in the infallibility of the Pope!" The crowds increased in the piazza until the triangular space looked like the rapids of a swollen river, and the noise that came up from it was like the noise of falling cliffs and uprooted trees. "Fools! Rabble! Too ignorant to know what you really want, and at the mercy of every rascal who sows the wind and leaves you to reap the whirlwind." Roma crept away from the Baron with a sense of physical repulsion, and at the next moment, from the other window, she heard the blast of a trumpet. A dreadful silence followed the trumpet blast, and then a clear voice cried: "In the name of the law I command you to disperse." It was the voice of a delegate of the police. Roma could see the man on the lowest stage of the steps with his tricoloured scarf of office about him. A second blast came from the trumpet, and again the delegate cried: "In the name of the law I command you to disperse." At that moment somebody cried, "Long live the Republic of Man!" and there was great cheering. In the midst of the cheering the trumpet sounded a third time, and then a loud voice cried "Fire!" At the next moment a volley was fired from somewhere, a cloud of white smoke was coiling in front of the window at which Roma stood, and women and children in the vagueness below were uttering acute cries. "Oh! oh! oh!" "Don't be afraid, my child. Nothing has happened yet. The police had orders to fire first over the people's heads." In her fear and agitation Roma ran back to the outer room, and a moment afterwards Angelelli opened the door and stood face to face with her. "What have you done?" she demanded. "An unfortunate incident, Excellency," said Angelelli, as the Baron appeared. "After the warning of the delegate the mob laughed and threw stones, and the Carabineers fired. They were in the piazza and fired up the steps." "Well?" "Unluckily there were a few persons on the upper flights at the moment, and some of them are wounded, and a child is dead." Roma muttered a low moan and sank on to the stool. "Whose child is it?" "We don't yet know, but the father is there, and he is raging like a madman, and unless he is arrested he will provoke the people to frenzy, and there will be riot and insurrection." The Baron took from the table a letter he had written and sealed. "Take this to the Quirinal instantly. Ask for an immediate audience with the King. When you receive his written reply, call up the Minister of War and say you have the royal decree to declare a state of siege." Angelelli was going out hurriedly. "Wait! Send to the Piazza Navona and arrest Rossi. Be careful! You will arrest the Deputy under Articles 134 and 252 on a charge of using the great influence he has acquired over the people to urge the masses by speeches and writings to resist public authority and to change violently the form of government and the constitution of the State." "Good!" Angelelli disappeared, the acute cries outside died away, the scurrying of flying feet was no more heard, and Roma was still on the stool before the fire, moaning behind the hands that covered her face. The Baron came near to her and touched her with a caressing gesture. "I'm sorry, my child, very sorry. Rossi is a dreamer, not a statesman, but he is none the less troublesome on that account No wonder he has fascinated you, as he has fascinated the people, but time will wipe away an impression like that. The best thing that can happen for both of you is that he should be arrested to-night. It will save you so many ordeals and so much sorrow." At that moment a cannon-shot boomed through the darkness outside, and its vibration rattled the windows and walls. "The signal from St. Angelo," said the Baron. "The gates are closed and the city is under siege." _ |
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