Guiseppe

“ He patted the bag affectionately, looked again at Pappina, and added: "I'll let her rest. It's quiet after the fete, and I can't lose much to–day."
"To–day! Guiseppe, she shall not leave the house till she is quite well. You know how high–strung and sensitive she is, like a golden lute that responds to the slightest touch of any breeze, no matter how mild and soft. You must let her rest. You must, Guiseppe." Marta had gone close to her husband and was looking earnestly and pleadingly into his face.
"I'll not break her down and lose her," Guiseppe replied. "She did well at the fete. ”

“ Guiseppe, too, was soon asleep. And Marta? She shared neither Guiseppe's joy nor Pappina's happiness. She longed to be back in Naples, to take the child away from the applauding public. She kept saying to herself:
"It's a crime to make her the object of so much attention. It may spoil her, ruin her. What can I do? If only together we might run away to England, to America!"
In her fear of Guiseppe even the thought frightened her. She hated her weakness in not refusing to let the child continue such a life. ”

“ The typical Italian face with the black curly hair, dark eyes, small moustache and sallow skin; the slender figure arrayed in a doublet of blue velvet, slashed with white satin; the azure silk cloak, the poniard and the high riding-boots--nothing was wanting; the successful tenor of the portrait was the man who had taken poison from the hand of the lady of the sepulchre. Still it was no use telling Bianca of my suspicions until I had discovered the whole secret; and besides, as Guiseppe was dead, I naturally shrank from being the bearer of such bad news. ”

“ I heard him singing Faust at the Apollo, and told all my friends to go and hear the New Mario."
"That is what they call him here, Signora," replied Bianca proudly; "but, indeed, it was kind of you to aid him. I wonder Guiseppe never spoke to me about you, for he never forgets a kindness."
"Ah! I'm afraid some men have not much gratitude," said Madame Beltrami with a laugh. "Never mind, when Signor Pallanza comes in you will see he has not forgotten me." ”

“ Having thus found out what I suspected from the first, that the dying friend was a mere invention to cloak an intrigue, I left the impresario to tear his hair and call Guiseppe names in company with Signor Basso-profundo, and went back to my hotel, where I found Peppino waiting with his fiacre to drive me to the Palazzo Morone. ”

“ Marta timidly asked. "The ground is so hard for the child," she added.
"Marta, you have less sense every day," was Guiseppe's angry reply. "Bed for the child, eh? Next thing you'll be wanting me to carry around a cradle for her to sleep in. You'll want her to ride in a carriage. Aren't the nights warm and pleasant? The ground is good enough for me to sleep on; it's good enough for you; and it's good enough for the child."
Marta made no further appeal, but taking Pappina in her arms carried her where Guiseppe led. ”

“ As soon as she saw the great iron gateway Pappina darted away without a word. Guiseppe [Pg 70]
[Pg 71] smiled as he watched her disappear and heard the rattle of her tambourine—always music in his ears because it meant to him the jingle of money as well as of bells.
La Favorita
Marta, looking up the avenue of fine trees that led to the chateau, saw a group of ladies and gentlemen, sitting on the lawn. Before them the little red–dressed figure was swaying in its dance, and she heard the sweet voice singing.
"Oh, Guiseppe," she exclaimed, "live, live, for we have her, the wonder–child! ”

“ Guiseppe hesitated a moment before replying: "Si, si, carina. If you'll always sing and [Pg 99] dance as you did yesterday, we will go to America where there is no end of money."
"Oh, I'd like that!" and Pappina clapped her hands.
Something in her movements reminded Guiseppe of a song he used to sing.
"Come, girl," he said cheerfully, "here's a song—a new one that just suits you. Funny I never thought of it before! Listen, my beauty, and see how quickly you can learn it. It will bring gold, and gold brings everything. It will take us across the ocean to America. Come—stand up—so!" ”

“ Two months had elapsed since the affair of the Palazzo Morone had come to an end, and during that time two marriages in connection therewith had been celebrated--that of Beltrami with the Contessa Morone, at Rome; and that of Guiseppe Pallanza with Signorina Bianca, at Milan. True to his promise, Guiseppe had forfeited his engagement at the Ezzelino, much to the wrath of the impresario, and had rested quietly since at Milan, passing most of his time with Bianca, who was now in a state of high glee preparing for her marriage. ”

“ Every day she was quite as eager as Guiseppe to set forth, although they were in search of different things—Pappina coveting the smiles and [Pg 47] applause of the lords and ladies who seemed to her like beings from another world, Guiseppe eager for gold.
Every morning they would start out for some new quarter of the city which was visited by tourists and held mysteries for Pappina. It meant money to have these foreigners admire the child. Every one stopped to listen to her. ”

“ So many fast young Englishmen whom I knew had adopted the same lie to cover their little peccadilloes that I was quite sure Pallanza had employed the same fiction to prevent the scandal of his intrigue with this unknown woman from reaching the ears of his fiancée. Bianca was a very proud girl, and I felt certain, from what little I had seen of her character, that if she discovered Guiseppe was playing her false, she would at once break off the engagement at any cost. Like all Italian women, when she loved she loved with her whole soul, and expected the same single-hearted return to her passion ”

“ Marta's voice, perfectly calm, reached Pappina.
"Too bad she doesn't run away," the woman said, "but she'll return."
For days Marta had been growing braver, less fearful of Guiseppe. There was no sign of fright on her face even when Guiseppe shook his fist at her.
"You grow a bigger fool every day," he was saying. "You let her go. When I find her I'll beat her. If I'm good to her one day she walks over me the next. I'll beat you both, you fool, do you hear?"
"Sono qui [I am here] , Guiseppe," came faintly from Pappina's trembling lips. "Don't be cross, Guiseppe. ”

“ Perhaps to–morrow I shall hate you, and—really, Guiseppe—I [Pg 109] can't help it. Sometimes you're so mean I could kill you, but to–day, Guiseppe," fondling her beads, "I love you almost as well as I do Marta."
Pappina's words and little caress pleased Guiseppe, but he let neither her nor Marta see his pleasure. He took up the Punchinellos, merely saying: "I guess we'll be moving."
It was a happy little group that continued its way toward Salerno. Pappina took off her beads every few minutes to admire them. ”

“ In her delirium it was always of Guiseppe she spoke. She would [Pg 168] beg, plead and defy him, start to sing, then cry: "The tambourine will make no music. It is broken. I cannot sing or dance now, Guiseppe, for my head hurts and the sun is so hot."
It was easy to gather from her delirious talk some idea of the hard life she had led.
No artist's dream could have appeared more beautiful than she, as she lay in her bed. Mrs. Thurston came every day, sometimes twice, to see her. In Pappina she had found a real interest in life ”

“ She need not pass her tambourine to–day. She need not even stop to pick up the soldi as they rained upon her. That was Marta and Guiseppe's pleasant task.
"Bravo! Bravo! Encore! Encore!" the crowd shouted, and Pappina sang the song over and over again.
As one throng left for new sights and amusements another took its place, and so the tambourine was filled again and again. Yet Guiseppe kept her singing and dancing, dancing and singing. [Pg 54] Never, it seemed to Marta, would he be satisfied to let the child rest. ”

“ Up the hilly streets they climbed. Pappina, darting ahead on explorations, would stop at each corner as she came to it and wait for Guiseppe and Marta.
"Keep your eyes open for a likely house where [Pg 51] they will pay for entertainment," urged Guiseppe, who was as much a stranger in this new quest for money as was Marta.
At the two or three places at which they stopped the voice of the little girl rose through the heated afternoon air, but only a few soldi tinkled on the pavement. ”

“ Guise gazed at him for a long--a very long time, with eyes full of deep feeling, and then replied, "By Heaven! you are one of the most extraordinary young men I ever met with. I know the whole, Monsieur de Logères; and the words there spoken let me into the secrets of your bosom which I wished to know. I now understand how to deal with you; and while I do my best to secure your happiness, trust to the Duke of Guise to avoid, as far as possible, any thing that is painful to you in the course. ”

“ Had he remained in Paris no evil could have befallen him. He was safe, on my life, and on my honour.
"I believe you, cousin of Guise; I believe you;" replied the Queen, who thought she saw that the tone of the Duke of Guise was not quite so peremptory as it had been, while the King had seemed entirely in his power. "But now, in order to prove your good will entirely, let me beseech you to exert yourself to save the unhappy men who have been placed in such a situation of danger." ”

“ You think to rule them, Guise; but the first time you speak of money to Commons or to Clergy, you will find that cabalistic word, money, acts on them as the sign of the cross upon the fiends we read of, and makes the seeming angels resume their shapes of devils in a moment."
"Well, Sire, well," exclaimed the Duke of Guise, tossing his lofty head with a proud smile, "if they refuse us, we will shame them. You and I together will put our lances in the rest, as in days of old: we will call the nobility of France about us ”

“ Horace Walpole speaks of Guise as a very brave officer, but an incorrigible romancer. He writes to Sir Horace Mann: ‘When your relative, General Guise, was marching up to Carthagena, and the pelicans were wheeling round him, he said, “What would Chloe [the Duke of Newcastle's French cook] give for some of these to make a pelican pie!” What a pity that a man who can deal in hyperboles at the mouth of a cannon should be so fond of making them with a glass of wine in his hand! ”

“ My pretensions to the hand of Mademoiselle de Clairvaut are too small, too few to be thought of even by myself. My brother, indeed, may have greater pretensions. Your Highness knows that his estates in the south are considerable; that his race, though certainly not equal to that of the princely house of Guise, is as old and as pure as any in France; but he has a thousand high qualities that you do not know. He is brave, skilful, with far more experience than myself, faithful and true in his attachments, and even more zealous and eager than I am in every thing he undertakes. ”

“ The king, remaining stationary at the Louvre, sent his marshals to parley with the people massed in the thoroughfares; the queen-mother had herself carried over the barricades in order to go to Guise’s house and attempt some negotiation with him. He received her coldly, demanding that the king should appoint him lieutenant-general of the kingdom, declare the Huguenot princes incapacitated from succeeding to the throne, and assemble the states-general. At the approach of evening, Guise determined to go himself and assume the conqueror’s air by putting a stop to the insurrection. ”

“ René’s eldest surviving son by his marriage with Philippa, daughter of Adolphus of Egmont, duke of Gelderland, was Anthony, who succeeded his father as duke of Lorraine (d. 1544) , while the second, Claude, count and afterwards duke of Guise, received the French fiefs. The Guises, though naturalized in France, continued to interest themselves in the fortunes of Lorraine, and their enemies were always ready to designate them as foreigners. ”

“ What would become of the young Count and his bride, if----"
"Ay, well bethought," replied the Duke. "Bring me here paper and the ink-horn;" and when the boy brought them, Guise bent down over a large coffer that stood near, and wrote a few lines.
"Take that to the Count," he said, as soon as he had finished writing. "Quick, Ignati: but, after all, these warnings are but nonsense. There is nobody in France dares do it. Look, I have delayed too long. Here comes a messenger from the King." ”

“ Silence, Epernon! I forbid you, on pain of my utmost displeasure, to take notice, even by a word, of what this young man has said. You were yourself wrong to answer for the King in the King's presence. The Duke of Guise shall have no just occasion to complain of us," he added, the brightness which had come upon him gradually dying away like the false promising gleam of sunshine which sometimes breaks for a moment through a rainy autumnal day, and fades away again as soon, amidst the dull grey clouds; "the Duke of Guise shall have no occasion to complain of us. ”

“ We must put spurs to our horses and ride quick, for he has taken service, it seems, with the Duke of Guise--commands a band of stout men-at-arms, enough to overpower us here--and may think fit to arrest us on the spot, if he finds that we are not of the same party as himself. He is not one to be stopped by brotherly love or consideration, I can assure you."
"Nay!" replied the cavalier whom he addressed, speaking with a courtly but significant smile, "the Duke of Guise is King Henry's dear friend and faithful cousin, and professes every sort of reverence for the crown of France." ”