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The Eternal City, a novel by Hall Caine |
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Part 9. The People - Chapter 1 |
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_ PART NINE. THE PEOPLE CHAPTER I The Pope awoke next morning in the dreary hour of cock-crow, and rang for his valet while he was still in bed. When the valet came he was greatly agitated. "What's amiss, Gaetanino?" said the Pope. "A madman, your Holiness," said the valet. "They wanted me to awaken your Holiness, and I wouldn't do it. A madman is down at the bronze gate, and insists on seeing you." At this moment the Maestro di Camera came into the room. He also was greatly agitated. "What is this about some poor madman at the bronze gate?" asked the Pope. "I have come to tell your Holiness," said the master of the household. "The man declares he is pursued, and demands sanctuary." "Who is he?" "He says he will give his name to the Holy Father only; but his face...." "The man's mad," said the valet. "Be quiet, Gaetanino." "His face," continued the Maestro di Camera, "is known to the Swiss Guard, and when they sent up word...." The Pope sat up and said, "Is it perhaps..." "It is, your Holiness." "Where is he now?" "He has forced his way in as far as the Sala Clementina, and nothing but physical force...." Sounds of voices raised in dispute could be heard in a distant room. The Pope listened and said: "Let the man come up immediately." "Here, your Holiness?" "Here." The Maestro di Camera had hardly gone from the Pope's bedroom when the Secretary of State entered it with hasty steps. "Your Holiness," he said, "you will not allow yourself to receive this person? It is sufficiently clear that he must have escaped from the police during the night, probably by the help of confederates, and to shelter him will be to come into collision with the civil authorities." "The young man demands sanctuary, your Eminence, and whatever the consequences we have no right to refuse it." "But sanctuary is obsolete, your Holiness." "Nothing can be obsolete that is of divine institution, your Eminence." "But, your Holiness, it can only exist by virtue of concession from the State, and the present relation of the Church to the State of Italy..." "Your Eminence, I will ask you to let the young man come in." "Your Holiness, I beg, I pray, reflect..." "Let the young man come in, your Em..." The Pope had not finished when the words were struck out of his mouth by an apparition which appeared at his bedroom door. It was that of a young man, whose eyes were wild, whose nostrils were quivering, and whose clothes hung about him in rags as if they had been torn in a recent struggle. He had a look of despair and suffering, yet it was the same to the Pope at that moment as if he were looking at his own features in a glass. The young man was surrounded by Swiss Guards, and the Maestro di Camera pushed in ahead of him. Coming face to face with the Pope propped up in his bed, the loud tones on which he was protesting died in his throat, and he stood in silence on the threshold of the room. The Pope was the first to speak. "What is it you wish to say to me, my son?" The young man seemed to recover his self-possession, but without a genuflexion or even a bow of the head, and with a slightly defiant manner, he said, "My name is David Leone. They call me Rossi, because that was my mother's name, and they said I had no right to my father's. I am a Roman, and I have been two months abroad. For ten years I have worked for the people, and now I am denounced and betrayed to the police. Three days ago I was arrested on returning to Italy, and to-night by the help of friends I have escaped from the Carabineers. But every gate is closed against me, and I cannot get out of Rome. This is the Vatican, and the Vatican is sanctuary. Will you take me in?" The Pope looked at the Swiss Guard, and said in a tremulous voice, "Gentlemen, you will take this young man to your own quarters, and see that no Carabineer lays hand on him without my knowledge and consent." "Your Holiness!" protested the Cardinal Secretary, but the Pope raised his hand and silenced him. Rossi's defiant manner left him. "Wait," he said. "Before you decide to take me in you must know more about me, and what I am charged with. I am the Deputy Rossi who is said to have instigated the late riots. The warrant for my arrest accuses me of treason and an attempt on the person of the late King. It is false, but you must look at it for yourself. Here it is." So saying he plunged into his pocket for the paper, and then said, "It is gone! I remember now--I flung it at the feet of my betrayer." "Gentlemen," said the Pope, still addressing the Swiss Guard, "if the civil authorities attempt to arrest this young man, you may tell them they can only do so by giving a written promise of safety for life and limb." Rossi's wild eyes began to melt. "You are very good," he said, "and I will not deceive you. Although I am innocent of the crime they charge me with, I have broken the law of God and of my country, and if you have any fear of the consequences you must turn me out while there is still time." "Gentlemen," said the Pope, "instead of taking this young man to your quarters, let him be lodged in the empty apartment below my own, which was formerly occupied by the Secretary of State." Rossi broke down utterly and fell to his knees. The Pope raised two fingers and blessed him. "Go to your room and rest, my son, and God grant you a little repose." "Father!" By an impulse he could not resist, Rossi had risen from his knees, taken two or three steps forward, knelt again by the side of the bed, and put his lips to the Pope's hand. With wet eyes that gleamed under his grey brows the Pope followed the young man out until, surrounded by the Swiss Guard, he had passed from the room. Then he rose and turned into his private chapel for his early Mass. _ |
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