Diavolo

“ His face is perfectly passionless, as if not even so terrible a combat could ruffle the serenity of his angelic nature. The Diavolo is one of those strange demons that entice souls down to the gulf of perdition, common in the middle ages, with two faces, not Janus-wise, but with the second face on the bowels, of most startling character. ”

“ Angelica was rapidly outstripping Diavolo, as was inevitable at that age. He was still a boy, but she was verging on womanhood, and already had thoughts which did not appeal to him, and moods which he could not comprehend, the consequence being continual quarrels between them,—those quarrels in which people are hottest and bitterest, not because of their hate, but because of their love for each other. There is such agony in misunderstanding and blame when all has hitherto been comprehension, approval, and sympathy. ”

“ Diavolo observed. "He'd be safer in a bath chair."
"Not if we were wheeling him," Angelica suggested, with a chuckle.
"What shall we do?" yawned Diavolo. "Shall we fight?"
"Yes; let's," said Angelica.
"You must do no such thing," Evadne interfered.
"Not fight! Why?" Angelica demanded.
"We must fight, you know," Diavolo asserted.
"I don't see that," said Evadne. "Why should you fight?"
"It's good for the circulation of the blood," said Angelica. "Warms a body, you know."
"And there's the property, too!" said Diavolo. "We've got to fight for that." ”

“ Diavolo answered. "Anybody who has lived as long with Angelica as I have would be that—if he were not a party in pieces."
"I admire your wit!" said Angelica sarcastically.
Diavolo bestowed a grateful smile upon her.
"But everything is easy enough for a man of intellect," she went on, "whatever his position. It is our powers that are wasted."
"Vanity! vanity!" said Lady Fulda. "Why do you suppose that your abilities are superior?"
"I can prove that they are!" Angelica answered hotly. Then suddenly her spirits went up, and she began to be sociable. ”

“ The memory of one good man is a light which sheds the brightest rays that fall on the lives of thousands—as Mr. Kilroy has reason to know; with whom, after the Tenor, Angelica is happier than she could have been with any other man. And then, again, she has Diavolo. The close friendship between them, which had been interrupted for some years, was renewed again in some inexplicable way by the effect of my marriage on Diavolo, and since then they have been as inseparable as their respective duties to husband and grandfather allow. ”

“ But, after all," she broke off, defending herself, "I only arrived at this by slow degrees, and I never should have come so far at all if Diavolo had stuck to me; but he got into a state of don't-care-and-can't-be-bothered, and separated his work from mine by going to Sandhurst. Then I found myself alone, and you cannot think how a woman, must suffer from the awful loneliness of a life like mine when I had no one near me in the sense in which Diavolo has always been near, a life that is full of acquaintances as a cake is full of currants, no two of which ever touch each other." ”

“ A capital understanding had always existed, between Diavolo and his grandfather, a fact which caused Lady Adeline's heart to sink every time she observed it, but had an opposite effect on the duke himself—a quite exhilarating effect, indeed, which was the cause of certain of those lapses which Lady Fulda had so often to deplore—as when, for instance, he aided and abetted Diavolo in some of his worst tricks, and then had to sit sheepishly by, saying nothing, when the boy was found out and corrected. ”

“ Diavolo's soul appeared in his face and shone out of his eyes when she bit it.
"Have some?" said Angelica, going over to him, and edging him half off his chair so as to make room for herself beside him. She held the bread and butter to his mouth as she spoke, and they finished it together, bite and bite about.
"Now I am ready for tea," said Angelica when they had done.
"So am I," said Diavolo, with a sigh of satisfaction.
"Let us have afternoon tea with you here to-day, Mr. Ellis," Angelica coaxed. "It's so much more sociable. And I want to talk to Mr. Kilroy." ”

“ CHAPTER III. The next day Diavolo happened to stroll into the oriel room about tea-time, and finding his grandfather sitting there alone, looking down upon Morningquest from his accustomed seat in the great deep window, which was open, he carefully chose a soft cushion, placing it on the low sill so that he could rest his back against it, and stretching himself out on the floor, looked up at the old gentleman sociably.
"You're growing a big fellow, sir," the latter observed.
"But not growing so fast as Angelica is," said Diavolo.
"Ah, women mature earlier," said the duke. ”

“ He raised himself on his elbow, and peered at the clock on the mantelpiece.
Angelica held up the candle. "It's two," she said. "What do you do when you first wake up in the morning?"
"Turn round and go to sleep again," Diavolo grunted.
"I always look at the clock," said Angelica. "But I want to tell you. You know after you said I was a cyclone in petticoats?"
Diavolo nodded. "So you are," he remarked.
"Well, I am, then," Angelica retorted. "Have it so, only don't interrupt me. I can't think why I cared," she added upon reflection; "it seems so little now, and such a long way off." ”

“ Colonel Colquhoun concluded.
At that same moment Evadne opened her eyes wide, and looked at us a second before she spoke, but showed no other sign of surprise.
"I am afraid I have been asleep," she said, rising deliberately, and shaking hands with me across the prostrate Diavolo. "Do sit down."
She sank back into her own chair as she spoke, and fanned a fly from Diavolo's face. "I never knew anyone sleep so soundly," she said, looking down at him lovingly. "He rides out here nearly every day when he is not on duty, simply for his siesta. ”

“ How far, if at all, this affair of Diavolo might have a bearing upon the murder mystery was uppermost in my mind. Suppose Diavolo and his "hired man" had quarreled. Suppose they had quarreled to the death? It was, of course, quite probable that a man of Barker's type would have many enemies, but here I was dealing not with probabilities but with a fact, however small it might be. There had been, in the recent past, an intimate relation between Barker and a man who was capable of touring the country as a hypnotist, a man who concealed his identity,--Ha, a motive! ”

“ Galbraith, taking off his hat and bowing low. "I assure you the expression was used as a mere façon de parler."
"I accept your explanation, sir," said Diavolo, returning the salute. "But I caution you to be careful for the future. What is a façon de parler, Angelica?" he whispered as he put his hat on.
"Oh, just a way of saying it," she answered. "I wish you wouldn't talk so much. Men are always cackling by the hour all about nothing. If people come to see me when I have a house of my own, I shall not forget the rites of hospitality." ”

“ If I'd been up to something, and you asked me if I'd done it, I'd say 'Yes' like a shot; but if Angelica had been up to something, and I knew all about it, and you asked me if she'd done it, I'd say 'No' flatly."
"Do I understand, sir, that you would tell me a lie 'flatly'?"
"Yes," said Diavolo decidedly, "if you were mean enough to expect me to sneak on Angelica."
"Father Ricardo," the latter began energetically, "when you tell a lie do you look straight at a person or just past the side of their heads?"
"I always look straight at a person myself," said Diavolo, gravely considering the priest ”

“ But Ferdinand despised no man who would help him; and so Fra Diavolo, the murderer and bandit, became a secret agent of the exiled king, working hand in hand with that even more atrocious scoundrel Mammone, whose habit it was to dine with a newly severed human head upon the table, and whose cold-blooded assassinations were more in number than any man could count. ”

“ Angelica asked.
"If we taught ourselves to be happy in this world, we should grow to love it too much, and then we should not strive to win the next."
"And that would impoverish the Church?" Diavolo suggested.
"But why not let us be happy, and you raise money in some other way?" Angelica wanted to know. "Miracles—now I should try some miracles; a miracle must be much better than a bazaar to raise the funds."
"Oh, but you forget the nunneries Father Ricardo was telling us about the other day," Diavolo said; "the austere orders where they only live a few years, you know." ”

“ Diavolo declared.
"It does hurt," she maintained aggressively; "and pain is pain, whether the seat of it be your head, heart, or hind-quarters."
"Angelica!" Lady Fulda exclaimed with tragic emphasis. "Someone must really talk to you seriously! you are positively vulgar!" ”

“ Evadne did not understand, so Angelica kindly explained: "You see, I'm the eldest, but Diavolo's a boy, so he gets the property because of the entail, and we neither of us think it fair; so we fight for it, and whichever wins is to have it. I won the last battle, so it's mine just now; but Diavolo may win it back if we fight again before papa dies. ”

“ Angelica suggested.
"The bishop first, then," said Diavolo. "They've such good cakes at the palace."
"Well, that's just why we should do grandpapa first," said Angelica. "Don't you see? We can have cake at Morne; and we shall be able to eat the ones at the palace too, if they're better."
"Yes," said Diavolo, with grave precision. "I notice myself, that, however much I have had, I can always eat a little more of something better." ”

“ There was a youth with a cropped head and swarthy neck lounging there teasing a spaniel. As the steps sounded on the flags he looked up; the old green cloak and clumsy shoes of the visitor did not interest him; he turned his back and went on with his game. Sandro accosted him—Was the Signorina at the house? The boy went on with his game. "Eh, Diavolo! I know nothing at all," he said. ”

“ The opening of the third act finds Fra Diavolo once more among his native mountains. He gives expression to his exultation in a dashing, vigorous song, “Proudly and wide my Standard flies,” followed by the pretty rondo, “Then since Life glides so fast away.” As he joyously contemplates a speedy meeting with Lord and Lady Allcash and the securing of their valuables, villagers arrayed in festival attire in honor of the approaching nuptials of Lorenzo and Zerlina enter, singing a bright pastoral chorus, “Oh, Holy Virgin, bright and fair.” ”

“ The best known account of Fra Diavolo is in Pietro Colletta’s Storia del reame di Napoli (2nd ed., Florence, 1848) ; B. Amante’s Fra Diavolo e il suo tempo (Florence, 1904) is an attempted rehabilitation ”

“ That's why he wants to fight now, I expect."
"Yes," Diavolo candidly confessed. "But we generally fight when we see papa go out for a ride."
"Because you are afraid he will catch you and punish you as you deserve, if he's at home, I suppose, you bad children."
"Not at all," said Angelica. "It's because he looks so unsafe on a horse; you never know what'll happen."
"It's a kind of a last chance," said Diavolo, "and that makes it exciting."
"But wouldn't you be very sorry if your father died?" Evadne asked.
The twins looked at each other doubtfully.
"Should we?" Diavolo said to Angelica. ”

“ Angelica thought.
"Oh, yes, they might," Diavolo considered. "Those big cooking fellows, you know—they're green enough."
"But they're not nice," said Angelica.
"No, but you don't think of that till you've got them," was the outcome of
Diavolo's experience. "Is your storeroom on the ground floor?" he asked
Evadne.
"No," she answered.
"Is there a creeper outside the window?" he pursued.
"No, creepers won't grow because a big lime tree hangs it."
The children exchanged glances.
"I shouldn't have made that room a storeroom," said Angelica. "Lime trees bring flies. ”

“ Hamilton-Wells, and looking dubiously at the cane—"I think, since Diavolo doesn't care a rap about being flogged, I had better devise a form of punishment for which he will care."
"Then come along, Diavolo," Angelica exclaimed, making a dash for the door. "They won't want us while they're devising."
Mr. Ellis would have followed them, but Mr. Hamilton-Wells gently restrained him. "It is no use, Mr. Ellis," he said, sighing deeply. "I would recommend you to keep up a show of disapproval for form's sake, but I beg that you will not give yourself any unnecessary trouble. ”

“ Angelica put in briskly; "and, at any rate, it's your own tone exactly, for I've heard you say as much and more, speaking of the priesthood."
"Not exactly," Diavolo corrected her. "Father Ricardo always says: 'Heaven, for some great inscrutable purpose, has mercifully vouchsafed this wondrous power to us, poor'—or humble or unworthy; the first adjective of that kind he can catch—'priests.' I like the short way of putting it myself."
"But why do you always try to make out that it is our duty to be miserable sinners?" ”

“ In an interview with Zerlina, she, mistaking him for the Marquis, sings him the story of Fra Diavolo in a romanza, “On Yonder Rock Reclining,” which has become a favorite the world over. To further his schemes he makes love to Lady Allcash in a graceful barcarole, “The Gondolier, Fond Passion’s Slave.” In the finale of the act Lorenzo and his carbineers return, and not finding Fra Diavolo at the inn, where they had hoped to surprise him, resume their search, leaving him to perfect his plans for the robbery. ”