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The Eternal City, a novel by Hall Caine |
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Part 8. The King - Chapter 5 |
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_ PART EIGHT. THE KING CHAPTER V "My dear Roma," said the Baron, "I bring you good news. Everything has turned out well. Nothing could have been managed better, and I come to congratulate you." He was visibly excited, and spoke rapidly and even loudly. "The man was arrested on the frontier--you must have heard of that. He was coming by the night train on Saturday, and to prevent a possible disturbance they kept him in Milan until this morning." Roma continued to stand with her back to the bureau. "The news was in all the journals yesterday, my dear, and it had a splendid effect on the opening of the Jubilee. When the King went to Mass this morning the plot had received its death-blow, and our anxiety was at an end. To-night the man will arrive in Rome, and within an hour from now he will be safely locked up in prison." Every nerve in Roma's body was palpitating, but she did not attempt to speak. "It is all your doing, my child--yours, not mine. Your clever brain has brought it all to pass. 'Leave the man to me,' you said. I left him to you, and you have accomplished everything." Roma drew her lips together and tried to control herself. "But what things you have gone through in order to achieve your purpose! Slights, slurs, insults! No wonder the man was taken in by it. Society itself was taken in. And I--yes, I myself--was almost deceived." "Shall it be now?" thought Roma. The Baron was on the hearthrug directly facing her. "But you knew what you were doing, my dear. It was all a part of your scheme. You drew the man on. In due time he delivered himself up to you. He surrendered every secret of his soul. And when your great hour came you were ready. You met it as you had always intended. 'At the top of his hopes he shall fall,' you said." Roma's heart was beating as if it would burst its bounds. "He _has_ fallen. Thanks to you, this enemy of civil society, this slanderer of women, is down. Then the Pope too! And the confession to the Reverend Father! Who but a woman could have thought of a thing like that?---making your denunciation so defensible, so pardonable, so plausible, so inevitable! What skill! What patience! What diplomacy! And what will and nerve too! Who shall say now that women are incapable of great things?" The Baron had thrown open his overcoat, revealing the broad expanse of his shirt-front, crossed by the glittering collar of the Annunziata, and was promenading the hearthrug without a thought of his peril. "The journals of half Europe will have accounts of the failure of the 'Great Plot.' There was another plot, my dear, which did not fail. Europe will hear of that also, and by to-morrow morning the world will know what a woman may do to punish the man who traduces and degrades her!" "Why don't I do it?" thought Roma. She was fingering the revolver on the bureau behind her, and breathing fast and audibly. "You shall have everything back, my dear. Carriages, jewellery, apartments, exactly as you parted with them. I have kept all under my own control, and in a single day you can be reinstated." Roma's palpitating heart was hurting her. "But won't you sit down, my child? I have something to tell you. It is important news. The Baroness is dead. Yes, she died on Saturday, poor soul. Should I play the hypocrite and weep? Why should I? For fifteen years a cruel law, which I dare not attempt to repeal by divorce in a Catholic country, has tied me to a living corpse. Shall I pretend to mourn because my burden has fallen away?... Roma, sit down, my dear; don't continue to stand there.... Roma, I am free, and we can now carry out our marriage, as we always hoped and intended." "Now!" thought Roma, moving a little forward. "Ah, don't be afraid of anything. I am not afraid, and you needn't be afraid either. Certainly rumour has coupled our names already. But what matter about that? No one shall insult you, whatever has occurred. Wherever I go you shall go too. If they cannot do without me they shall not do without you, and in spite of everything you shall be received everywhere." "Is that all you had to say?" said Roma. "Not all. There is something else, and I couldn't wait for the newspapers to tell you. The King has appointed me Dictator for six months. That means that you will be more courted than the Queen. What a revenge! The women who have been turning their backs upon you will bend their backs before you. You will break down every barrier. You will...." "Wait," said Roma. The Baron had been approaching her, and she lifted her hand. "You expect me to acquiesce in this lie?" "What lie, my child?" "That I denounced David Rossi in order to destroy him. It is true that I did denounce him--unhappy woman that I am--but you know perfectly why I did it. I did it because I was forced to do it. _You_ forced me." At the sound of her own voice, her eyes had begun to fill. "And now you ask me to pretend that it was all done from an evil motive, and you offer me the rewards of guilt. Do you think I'm a murderer that you can offer me the price of blood? Have you any shame? You come here to ask me to marry you, knowing that I am married already--here of all places, in the house of my husband." Her eyes were blinded with tears, but her voice thickened with anger. "My child," said the Baron, "if I have asked you to acquiesce in the idea that what you did was from a certain motive it was only to spare you pain. I thought it would be easier for you to do so now, things being as they are. It was only going back to your original purpose, forgetting all that has intervened." His voice softened, and he said in a low tone: "If _I_ am so much to blame for what has been done, perhaps it was because you were first of all at fault! At the beginning my one offence consisted in agreeing to your proposal. It was the _statesman_ who committed that error, and the _man_ has suffered for it ever since. You know nothing of jealousy, my child--how can you?--but its pains are as the pains of hell." He tried to approach her once more. "Come, dear, try to be yourself again. Forget this moment of fascination, and rise afresh to your old strength and wisdom. I am willing to forget ... whatever has happened--I don't ask what. I am ready to wipe it all away, just as if it had never been." In spite of his soft words and gentle tones, Roma was gazing at him with an aversion she had never felt before for any human being. "Have no qualms about your marriage, my child. I assure you it is no marriage at all. In the eye of the civil law it is frankly invalid, and the Church could annul it at any moment, being no sacrament, because you are unbaptized and therefore not in her sense a Christian." He took another step towards her and said: "But if you have lost one husband another is waiting for you--a more devoted and more faithful husband--one who can give you everything in the place of one who can give you nothing.... And then that man has gone out of your life for good. Whatever happens now, it is impossible that you and he can ever come together again. But I am here still.... Don't answer hastily, Roma. Isn't it something that I am ready to face the opprobrium that will surely come of marrying the most criticised woman in Rome?" Roma felt herself to be suffocating with indignation and shame. "You see I am suing to you, Roma--I who have never sued to any human being. Even when I was a child I would not sue to my own mother. Since then I have done something in life--I have justified myself, I have given my country a place among the nations, I stand for it in the eye of the world--and yet--" "And yet I despise you," said Roma. There was a moment of silence, and then, recovering himself, the Baron tried to laugh. "As you will. I must needs accept the only possible interpretation of your words. I thought my devotion in spite of every provocation might burn away your bitterness. But if...." (he was getting excited) "if you have no respect for the past, you may have some regard for the future." She looked at him with a new fear. "Naturally, I have no desire to humiliate myself further by suing to a woman who despises me. It will be sufficient to punish the man who is responsible for my loss of esteem in the eyes of one who has so many reasons to respect me." "You mean that you will persuade the King to break his promise?" "The King need not be persuaded after he has appointed his Dictator." "So the King's promise to pardon Mr. Rossi will be set aside by his successor?" "If I leave this room without a better answer ... yes." Roma drew from behind the revolver she had held in her hand. "Then you will never leave this room," she said. The Baron stood perfectly still, and there was a moment of deadly silence. Then came the rattle of carriage wheels on the stones of the piazza, followed immediately by a hurried footstep on the stairs. Roma heard it. She was trembling all over. A moment afterwards there was a knock at the door. Then another knock, and another. It was imperative, irregular knocking. Roma, who had forgotten all about the Baron, was rooted to the spot on which she stood. The Baron, who had understood everything, was also transfixed. Then came a thick, vibrating voice, "Roma!" Roma made a faint cry, and dropped the revolver out of her graspless hand. The Baron picked it up instantly. He was the first to recover himself. "Hush!" he said in a whisper. "Let him come in. I will go into this room. I mean no harm to any one; but if he should follow me--if you should reveal my presence--remember what I said before about a challenge. And if I challenge him his shrift will have to be swift and sure." The Baron stepped into the bedroom. Then the voice came again, "Roma! Roma!" Roma staggered to the door and opened it. _ |
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