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The Eternal City, a novel by Hall Caine |
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Part 9. The People - Chapter 8 |
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_ PART NINE. THE PEOPLE CHAPTER VIII The doctor of the Engineers, not entirely satisfied with his diagnosis of Roma's illness, prescribed a remedy of unfailing virtue--hope. It was a happy treatment. The past of her life seemed to have disappeared from her consciousness and she lived entirely in the future. It was always shining in her eyes like a beautiful sunrise. The sunrise Roma saw was beyond the veil of this life, but the good souls about her knew nothing of that. They brought every piece of worldly intelligence that was likely to be good news to her. By this time they imagined they knew where her heart lay, and such happiness was in her white face when as soldiers of the King they whispered treason that they thought themselves rewarded. They told her of an attempted attack on the Vatican, with all its results and consequences--army disorganised, the Borgo Barracks shut up, soldiers wearing cockades and marching arm in arm, the Government helpless and the Quirinal in despair. "I'm sorry for the young King," she said, "but still...." It was the higher power working with blind instruments. Rossi would come back. His hopes, so nearly laid waste, would at length be realised. And if, as she had told Elena, he had to return over her own dead body, so to speak, there would be justice even in that. It would be pitiful, but it would be glorious also. There were mysteries in life and death, and this was one of them. She was as gentle and humble as ever, but every hour she grew more restless. This conveyed to her guards the idea that she was expecting something. Notwithstanding her plea of guilty, they thought perhaps she was looking for her liberty out of the prevailing turmoil. "I will be very good and do everything you wish, doctor. But don't forget to ask the Prefect to let me stay in Rome over to-morrow. And, Sister, do please remember to waken me early in the morning, because I'm certain that something is going to happen. I've dreamt of it three times, you know." "A pity!" thought the doctor. "Governments may fall and even dynasties may disappear, but judicial authorities remain the same as ever, and the judgment of the court must be carried out." Nevertheless he would speak to the Prefect. He would say that in the prisoner's present condition the journey to Viterbo might have serious consequences. As he was setting out on this errand early the following morning, he met Elena in the anteroom, and heard that Roma was paying the most minute attention to the making of her toilet. "Strange! You would think she was expecting some one," said Elena. "She is, too," said the doctor. "And he is a visitor who will not keep her long." The soldier who brought Roma her breakfast that morning brought something else that she found infinitely more appetising. Rossi had returned to Rome! One of the men below had seen him in the street last night. He was going in the direction of the _Piazza_ Navona, and nobody was attempting to arrest him. Roma's eyes flashed like stars, and she sent down a message to the Major, asking to be allowed to see the soldier who had seen Rossi. He was a big ungainly fellow, but in Roma's eyes who shall say how beautiful? She asked him a hundred questions. His dense head was utterly bewildered. The doctor came back with a smiling face. The Prefect had agreed to postpone indefinitely the transfer of their prisoner to the penitentiary. The good man thought she would be very grateful. "Ah, indefinitely? I only wished to remain over to-day! After that I shall be quite ready." But the doctor brought another piece of news which threw her into the wildest excitement. Both Senate and Chamber of Deputies had been convoked late last night for an early hour this morning. Rumour said they were to receive an urgent message from the King. There was the greatest commotion in the neighbourhood of the Houses of Parliament, and the public tribunes were densely crowded. The doctor himself had obtained a card for the Chamber, but he was unable to get beyond the corridors. Nevertheless, the doors being open owing to the heat and crush, he had heard something. Vaguely, for five minutes, he had heard one of their great speakers. "Was it ... was it, perhaps...." "It was." Again the big eyes flashed like stars. "You heard him speak?" "I heard his voice at all events." "It's a wonderful voice, isn't it? And you really heard him? Can it be possible?" Elena, the sad figure in the background of these bright pathetic scenes, thought Roma was hoping for a reconciliation with Rossi. She hinted as much, and then the fierce joy in the white face faded away. "Ah, no! I'm not thinking of that, Elena." Her love was too large for personal thoughts. It had risen higher than any selfish expectations. They helped her on to the loggia. The day was warm, and the fresh air would do her good. She looked out over the city with a loving gaze, first towards the Piazza Navona, then towards the tower of Monte Citorio, and last of all towards Trinita de' Monti and the House of the Four Winds. But she was seeing things as they would be when she was gone, not to Viterbo, but on a longer journey. "Elena?" "Well?" "Do you think he will ever learn the truth?" "About the denunciation?" "Yes." "I should think he is certain to do so." "Why I did it, and what tempted me, and ... and everything?" "Yes, indeed, everything." "Do you think he will think kindly of me then, and forgive me and be merciful?" "I am sure he will." A mysterious glow came into the pallid face. "Even if he never learns the truth here, he will learn it hereafter, won't he? Don't you believe in that, Elena--that the dead know all?" "If I didn't, how could I bear to think of Bruno?" "True. How selfish I am! I hadn't thought of that. We are in the same case in some things, Elena." The future was shining in the brilliant eyes with the radiance of an unseen sunrise. "Dear Elena?" "Ye-s." "Do you think it will seem long to wait until he comes?" "Don't talk like that, Donna Roma." "Why not? It's only a little sooner or later, you know. Will it?" Elena had turned aside, and Roma answered herself. "_I_ don't. I think it will pass like a dream--like going to bed at night and awaking in the morning. And then both together--there." She took a long deep breath of unutterable joy. "Oh," she said, "that I may sleep until he comes--knowing all, forgiving everything, loving me the same as before, and every cruel thought dead and gone and forgotten." She asked for pen and paper and wrote a letter to Rossi:
"You will know by what I have done that what you thought was quite unfounded. Whatever people say of me, you must always believe that I loved you from the first, and that I have never loved anybody but you. "You were angry with me when we parted, but more than ever I love you now. Don't think our love has been wasted. ''Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.' How beautiful! ROMA."
"You'll post this immediately I am gone, Sister," she said. Elena pretended to put the letter away for that purpose, but she really smuggled it down to the Major, who despatched it forthwith to the Chamber of Deputies. "And now I'll go to sleep," said Roma. She slept until mid-day with the sun's reflection from the white plaster of the groined ceiling of the loggia on her still whiter face. Then the twelve o'clock gun shook the walls of the Castle, and she awoke while the church bells were ringing. "I thought it was my dream coming true, Sister," she said. The doctor came up at that moment in a high state of excitement. "Great news, Donna Roma. The King...." "I know!" "Failing to form a Government to follow that of the Baron, appealed to Parliament to nominate a successor...." "So Parliament...." "Parliament has nominated the Honourable Rossi, the King has called for him, the warrant for his arrest has been cancelled, and all persons imprisoned for the recent insurrection have been set at liberty." Roma's trembling and exultant eyelids told a touching story. "Is there anything to see?" "Only the flag on the Capitol." "Let me look at it." He helped her to rise. "Look! There it is on the clock tower." "I see it.... That will do. You can put me down now, doctor." An ineffable joy shone in her face. "It _was_ my dream after all, Elena." After a moment she said, "Doctor, tell the Prefect I am quite ready to go to Viterbo. In fact I wish to go. I should like to go immediately." "I'll tell him," said the doctor, and he went out to hide his emotion. The Major came to the open arch of the loggia. He stood there for a moment, and there was somebody behind him. Then the Major disappeared, but the other remained. It was David Rossi. He was standing like a man transfixed, looking in speechless dismay at Roma's pallid face with the light of heaven on it. Roma did not see Rossi, and Elena, who did, was too frightened to speak. Lying back in her bed-chair with a great happiness in her eyes, she said: "Sister, if he should come here when I am gone ... no, I don't mean that ... but if you should see him and he should ask about me, you will say that I went away quite cheerfully. Tell him I was always thinking about him. No, don't say that either. But he must never think I regretted what I did, or that I died broken-hearted. Say farewell for me, Elena. _Addio Carissima!_ That's his word, you know. _Addio Carissimo!_" Rossi, blinded with his tears, took a step into the loggia, and in a low voice, very soft and tremulous, as if trying not to startle her, he cried: "Roma!" She raised herself, turned, saw him, and rose to her feet. Without a word he opened his arms to her, and with a little frightened cry she fell into them and was folded to his breast. _ |
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