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The Eternal City, a novel by Hall Caine |
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Part 6. The Roman Of Rome - Chapter 15 |
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_ PART SIX. THE ROMAN OF ROME CHAPTER XV The visiting-room of Regina C[oe]li is constructed on the principle of a rat-trap. It is an oblong room divided into three compartments longitudinally, the partition walls being composed of wire and resembling cages. The middle compartment is occupied by the armed warder in charge who walks up and down; the compartment on the prison side is divided into many narrow boxes each occupied by a prisoner, and the compartment on the world side is similarly divided into sections each occupied by a visitor. When Roma entered this room she was deafened by a roar of voices. Thirty prisoners and as many of their friends were trying to talk at the same time across the compartment in the middle, in which the warder was walking. Each batch of friends and prisoners had fifteen minutes for their interview, and everybody was shouting so as to be heard above the rest. A feeling of moral and physical nausea took possession of Roma when she was shown into this place. After some minutes of the hellish tumult she had asked to see the Director. The message was taken upstairs, and the Director came down to speak to her. "Do you expect me to speak to my friend in this place and under these conditions?" she asked. "It is the usual place, and these are the usual conditions," he answered. "If you are unable to allow me to speak to him in some other place under some other conditions, I must go to the Minister of the Interior." The Director bowed. "That will be unnecessary," he said. "There is a room reserved for special circumstances," and, calling a warder, he gave the necessary instructions. He was a good man in the toils of a vicious system. A few minutes afterwards Roma was alone in a small bare room with Bruno, except for two warders who stood in the door. She was shocked at the change in him. His cheeks, which used to be full and almost florid, were shrunken and pale; a short grizzly beard had grown over his chin, and his eyes, which had been frank and humorous, were fierce and evasive. Six weeks in prison had made a different man of him, and, like a dog which has been changed by sickness and neglect, he knew it and growled. "What do you want with me?" he said angrily, as Roma looked at him without speaking. She flushed and begged his pardon, and at that his jaw trembled and he turned his head away. "I trust you received the note I sent in to you, Bruno?" "When? What note?" "On the day after your arrest, saying your dear ones should be cared for and comforted." "And were they?" "Yes. Then you didn't receive it?" "I was under punishment from the first." "I also paid for a separate cell with food and light. Did you get that?" "No, I was nearly all the time on bread and water." His sulkiness was breaking down and he was showing some agitation. She lifted her large dark eyes on him and said in a soft voice: "Poor Bruno! No wonder they have made you say things." His jaw trembled more than ever. "No use talking of that," he said. "Mr. Rossi will be the first to feel for you." He turned his head and looked at her with a look of pity. "She doesn't know," he thought. "Why should I tell her? After all, she's in the same case as myself. What hurts me will hurt her. She has been good to me. Why should I make her suffer?" "If they've told you falsehoods, Bruno, in order to play on your jealousy and inspire revenge...." "Where's Rossi?" he said sharply. "In England." "And where's Elena?" "I don't know." He wagged his poor head with a wag of wisdom, and for a moment his clouded and stupefied brain was proud of itself. "It was wrong of Elena to go away without saying where she was going to, and Mr. Rossi is in despair about her." "You believe that?" "Indeed I do." These words staggered him, and he felt mean and small compared to this woman. "If she can believe in them why can't I?" he thought. But after a moment he smiled a pitiful smile and said largely, "You don't know, Donna Roma. But _I_ do, and they don't hoodwink me. A poor fellow here--a convict, he works on the Gazette and hears all the news--he told me everything." "What's his name?" said Roma. "Number 333, penal part. He used to occupy the next cell." "Then you never saw his face?" "No, but I heard his voice, and I could have sworn I knew it." "Was it the voice of Charles Minghelli?" "Charles Ming...." "Time's up," said one of the warders at the door. "Bruno," said Roma, rising, "I know that Charles Minghelli, who is now an agent of the police, has been in this prison in the disguise of a prisoner. I also know that after he was dismissed from the embassy in London he asked Mr. Rossi to assist him to assassinate the Prime Minister." "Right about," cried the warder, and with a bewildered expression the prisoner turned to go. Roma followed him through the open courtyard, and until he reached the iron gate he did not lift his head. Then he faced round with eyes full of tears, but full of fire as well, and raising one arm he cried in a resolute voice: "All right, sister! Leave it to me, damn me! I'll see it through." The private visiting-room had one disadvantage. Every word that passed was repeated to the Director. Later the same day the Director wrote to the Royal Commissioner: "Sorry to say the man Rocco has asked for an interview to retract his denunciation. I have refused it, and he has been violent with the chief warder. But inspired by a sentiment of justice I feel it my duty to warn you that I have been misled, that my instructions have been badly interpreted, and that I cannot hold myself responsible for the document I sent you." The Commissioner sent this letter on to the Minister of the Interior, who immediately called up the Chief of Police. "Commendatore," said the Baron, "what was the offence for which young Charles Minghelli was dismissed from the embassy in London?" "He was suspected of forgery, your Excellency." "The warrant for his arrest was drawn out but never executed?" "That is so, and we still hold it at the office...." "Commendatore!" "Your Excellency?" "Let the papers that were taken at the domiciliary visitation in the apartments of Deputy Rossi and his man Bruno be gone through again--let Minghelli go through them. You follow me?" "Perfectly, Excellency." "Let your Delegate see if there is not a letter among them from Rossi to Bruno's wife--you understand?" "I do." "If such a letter can be found let it be sent to the Under Prefect to add to his report for to-morrow's trial, and let the Public Prosecutor read it to the prisoner." "It shall be done, your Excellency." _ |
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