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The Eternal City, a novel by Hall Caine |
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Part 5. The Prime Minister - Chapter 12 |
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_ PART FIVE. THE PRIME MINISTER CHAPTER XII After the Baron was gone, Roma had sat a long time in the dark among the ruins of the broken bust. When twelve o'clock struck she was feeling hot and feverish, and, in spite of the coldness of the night, she rose and opened the window. The snow had ceased to fall, the thunder was gone, and the city was quiet. At that moment the revolving searchlight on Monte Mario passed over the room. The white flash lit up the broken fragments at her feet, and brought a new train of reflections. The bust she destroyed had been only the plaster cast; the piece-mould remained, and might be a cause of danger. She closed the window, took a candle, and went down to the studio to put the mould out of the way. She had done so, and was sitting to rest and to think when Rossi's knock came at the door. In a moment all her dreams were gone. She was clasped in his arms and had put up her mouth to be kissed. "Is it you?" "Roma!" It was not at first that she realised what was happening, but after a moment she recovered from her bewilderment, and extinguished the candle lest Rossi should be seen from outside. They were in the dark, save at intervals when the revolving light in its circuit of the city swept across the studio, and lit up their faces as by a flash of lightning. He seemed to be dazed. His weary eyes looked as if their light were almost extinct. "You are safe? You are well?" she asked. "O God! what sights!" he said. "You have heard what has happened?" "Yes, yes! But you are not injured?" "The people were peaceful and meant no evil, but the soldiers were ordered to fire, and our little boy is dead." "Don't let us speak of it.... The police were told to arrest you, but you have escaped thus far, and now...." "Bruno is taken, and hundreds of others are in prison." "But you are safe? You are well? You are uninjured?" "Yes," he answered between his teeth, and then he covered his face with his hands. "God knows I did my best to prevent this bloodshed--I would have laid down my life to prevent it." "God _does_ know it." "Take this." He drew something from his breast-pocket and put it into her hands. It was the revolver. "I cannot trust myself any longer." "You haven't used it?" "No." "Thank God!" "I should have done so if I could have met the man face to face." "The Baron?" "I searched for him everywhere, and couldn't find him. God kept him out of my way to save me from sin and shame." With a frightened cry she put down the revolver and clasped her hands about his neck. He began to recover his dazed senses and to smooth the hair on her damp forehead. "My poor Roma! You didn't think we were to part like this?" Her arms slackened, and she dropped her head on to his shoulder. "Last night you told me to fly, and I wouldn't do so. There was no man in Rome I was afraid of then. But to-night there is some one I am afraid of. I am afraid of myself." "You intend to go?" "Yes! I shall feel like a captain who deserts his sinking ship. Would to God I could have gone down with her!... Yet no! She is not lost yet. Everything is in God's hands. Perhaps there is work for me abroad, now that the paths are closed to me at home. Let us wait and see." They were both silent for a while. "Then it's all over," she said, gulping down a sob. "God forbid! This black night in Rome is only the beginning of the end. It will be the dawn of the resurrection everywhere." "But it is all over between you and me." "Indeed, no. No, no! I cannot take you with me. That is impossible. I couldn't see you suffer hunger and thirst and the privations of exile, but...." "Our marriage cannot be celebrated now, and that being so...." "The banns are good for half a year, Roma, and before that time I shall be back. Have no fear! The immortality stirring beneath the ruins of this old city will give us victory all over Italy. I will return and we shall be very happy. How happy we shall be!" "Yes, yes," she brought out at intervals. "Be brave, my girl, be brave!" "Yes, yes." The revolving searchlight flashed through the room at that moment, and she dropped her face again. "Dearest," she said faintly, "if I should not be here when you come back...." He started and seized her arm. "Roma, you cannot intend to submit to the will of that man?" She shook her head as it rested on his shoulder. "The man is a monster. He may put pressure upon you." "It is not that." "He may even make you suffer for my sake." "Nor that either." "By-and-by he may require everybody to take an oath of allegiance to the King." "I have taken mine already--to _my_ king." "Roma, if you wish me to stay I will do so in spite of everything." "I wish you to go, dearest." "Then what is it you fear?" "Nothing--only...." "But you are sad. Why is it?" "A foreboding. I feel as if we were parting for ever." He passed his hands through her hair. "It may be so. Only God can tell." "It was too sweet dreaming. I was too happy for a little while." "If it must be, it must be. But let us be brave, dear! We, who take up a life like this, must learn renunciation.... Crying, Roma?" "No! Oh, no! But renunciation! That's it--renunciation." She could feel the beating of her heart against his breast. "Love comes to every one, but to some it comes too late, and then it comes in vain." She was striving to keep down her sobs. "They have only to conquer it and renounce it, and to pray God to unite them to their loved ones in another life." She was choking, but she struggled on. "Sometimes I think it must be my lot to be like that. Other women may dream of love and home and children...." "Don't unman me, Roma." "Dearest, promise me that whatever happens you will think the best of me." "Roma!" "Promise me that whoever says anything to the contrary you will always believe I loved you." "Why should we talk of what can never happen?" "If we are parting for ever ... if we are saying a long farewell to all earthly affections, promise me...." "For God's sake, Roma!" "Promise me!" "I promise!" he said. "And you?" "I promise too--I promise that as long as I live, and wherever I am and whatever becomes of me, I will ... yes, because I cannot help it ... I will love you to the last." Saying this in passionate tones, she drew down his head and he met her kiss with his lips. "It is our marriage, David. Others are married in church and by the hand, and with a ring. We are married in our spirits and our souls." A long time passed, during which they did not speak. The searchlight flashed in on them again and again with its supernatural eye, and as often as it did so Rossi looked at her with strange looks of pity and of love. Meantime, she cut a lock from her hair, tied it with a piece of ribbon, and put it in his pocket with his watch. Then she dried her eyes with her handkerchief and pushed it in his breast. The night went on, and nothing was to be heard but the chiming of clocks outside. At length through the silence there came a muffled rumble from the streets. "You must go now," she said, and when the next flash came round she looked up at him with a steadfast gaze, as if trying to gather into her eyes her last memories of his face. "Adieu!" "Not yet." "It is still dark, but the streets are patrolled and every gate is closed, and how are you to escape?" "If the soldiers had wished to take me they could have done so a hundred times." "But the city is stirring. Be careful for my sake. Adieu!" "Roma," said Rossi, "if I do not take you with me it is partly because I want your help in Rome. Think of the poor people I leave behind me in poverty and in prison. Think of Elena when she awakes in the morning, alone with her terrible grief. Some one should be here to represent me for a time at all events--to take the messages I must send, the instructions I shall have to give. It will be a dangerous task, Roma, a task that can only be undertaken by some one who loves me, some one who...." "That is enough. Tell me what I can do," she said. They arranged a channel of correspondence, and then Roma began her farewells afresh. "Roma," said Rossi again, "since I must go away before our civil marriage can be celebrated, is it not best that our spiritual one should have the blessing of the Church?" Roma looked at him and trembled. "When I am gone God knows what may happen. The Baron may be a free man any day, and he may put pressure on you to marry him. In that case it will be strength and courage to you to know that in God's eyes you are married already. It will be happiness and comfort to me, too, when I am far away from you and alone." "But it is impossible." "Not so. A declaration before a parish priest is all that is necessary. 'Father, this is my wife.' 'This is my husband.' That is enough. It will have no value in the eye of the law, but it will be a religious marriage for all that." "There is no time. You cannot wait...." "Hush!" The clocks were striking three. "At three o'clock there is mass at St. Andrea delle Frate. That is your parish church, Roma. The priest and his acolytes are the only witnesses we require." "If you think ... that is to say ... if it will make you happy, and be a strength to me also...." "Run for your cloak and hat, dearest--in ten minutes it will be done." "But think again." She was breathing audibly. "Who knows what may happen before you return? Will you never repent?" "Never!" "But ... but there is something ... something I ought to tell you--something painful. It is about the past." "The past is past. Let us think of the future." "You do not wish to hear it." "If it is painful to you--no!" "Will nothing and nobody divide us?" "Nothing and nobody in the world." She gulped down another choking sob and threw both arms about his neck. "Take me, then. I am your wife before God and man." _ |
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