by George Eliot
CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT.
A FINAL UNDERSTANDING.
Tito soon returned from Siena, but almost immediately set out on anotherjourney, from which he did not return till the seventeenth of August.Nearly a fortnight had passed since the arrest of the accused, and stillthey were in prison, still their fate was uncertain. Romola had feltduring this interval as if all cares were suspended for her, other thanwatching the fluctuating probabilities concerning that fate. Sometimesthey seemed strongly in favour of the prisoners; for the chances ofeffective interest on their behalf were heightened by delay, and anindefinite prospect of delay was opened by the reluctance of all personsin authority to incur the odium attendant on any decision. On the oneside there was a loud cry that the Republic was in danger, and thatlenity to the prisoners would be the signal of attack for all itsenemies; on the other, there was a certainty that a sentence of deathand confiscation of property passed on five citizens of distinguishedname, would entail the rancorous hatred of their relatives on all whowere conspicuously instrumental to such a sentence.
The final judgment properly lay with the Eight, who presided over theadministration of criminal justice; and the sentence depended on amajority of six votes. But the Eight shrank from their onerousresponsibility, and asked in this exceptional case to have it shared bythe Signoria (or the Gonfaloniere and the eight Priors). The Signoriain its turn shrugged its shoulders, and proposed the appeal to the GreatCouncil. For, according to a law passed by the earnest persuasion ofSavonarola nearly three years before, whenever a citizen was condemnedto death by the fatal six votes (called the _set fave_ or _six beans_,beans being in more senses than one the political pulse of Florence), hehad the right of appealing from that sentence to the Great Council.
But in this stage of the business, the friends of the accused resistedthe appeal, determined chiefly by the wish to gain delay; and, in fact,strict legality required that sentence should have been passed prior tothe appeal. Their resistance prevailed, and a middle course was taken;the sentence was referred to a large assembly convened on theseventeenth, consisting of all the higher magistracies, the smallercouncil or Senate of Eighty, and a select number of citizens.
On this day Romola, with anxiety heightened by the possibility thatbefore its close her godfather's fate might be decided, had obtainedleave to see him for the second time, but only in the presence ofwitnesses. She had returned to the Via de' Bardi in company with hercousin Brigida, still ignorant whether the council had come to anydecisive issue; and Monna Brigida had gone out again to await themomentous news at the house of a friend belonging to one of themagistracies, that she might bring back authentic tidings as soon asthey were to be had.
Romola had sunk on the first seat in the bright saloon, too muchagitated, too sick at heart, to care about her place, or be conscious ofdiscordance in the objects that surrounded her. She sat with her backto the door, resting her head on her hands. It seemed a long whilesince Monna Brigida had gone, and Romola was expecting her return. Butwhen the door opened she knew it was not Monna Brigida who entered.
Since she had parted from Tito on that memorable night, she had had noexternal proof to warrant her belief that he had won his safety bytreachery; on the contrary, she had had evidence that he was stilltrusted by the Mediceans, and was believed by them to be accomplishingcertain errands of theirs in Romagna, under cover of fulfilling acommission of the government. For the obscurity in which the evidenceconcerning the conspirators was shrouded allowed it to be understoodthat Tito had escaped any implication.
But Romola's suspicion was not to be dissipated: her horror of hisconduct towards Baldassarre projected itself over every conception ofhis acts; it was as if she had seen him committing a murder, and had hada diseased impression ever after that his hands were covered with freshblood.
As she heard his step on the stone floor, a chill shudder passed throughher; she could not turn round, she could not rise to give any greeting.He did not speak, but after an instant's pause took a seat on the otherside of the table just opposite to her. Then she raised her eyes andlooked at him; but she was mute. He did not show any irritation, butsaid, coolly--
"This meeting corresponds with our parting, Romola. But I understandthat it is a moment of terrible suspense. I am come, however, if youwill listen to me, to bring you the relief of hope."
She started, and altered her position, but looked at him dubiously.
"It will not be unwelcome to you to hear--even though it is I who tellit--that the council is prorogued till the twenty-first. The Eight havebeen frightened at last into passing a sentence of condemnation, but thedemand has now been made on behalf of the condemned for the Appeal tothe Great Council."
Romola's face lost its dubious expression; she asked eagerly--
"And when is it to be made?"
"It has not yet been granted; but it _may_ be granted. The SpecialCouncil is to meet again on the twenty-first to deliberate whether theAppeal shall be allowed or not. In the meantime there is an interval ofthree days, in which chances may occur in favour of the prisoners--inwhich interest may be used on their behalf."
Romola started from her seat. The colour had risen to her face like avisible thought, and her hands trembled. In that moment her feelingtowards Tito was forgotten.
"Possibly," said Tito, also rising, "your own intention may haveanticipated what I was going to say. You are thinking of the Frate."
"I am," said Romola, looking at him with surprise. "Has he doneanything? Is there anything to tell me?"
"Only this. It was Messer Francesco Valori's bitterness and violencewhich chiefly determined the course of things in the council to-day.Half the men who gave in their opinion against the prisoners werefrightened into it, and there are numerous friends of Fra Girolamo bothin this Special Council and out of it who are strongly opposed to thesentence of death--Piero Guicciardini, for example, who is one member ofthe Signoria that made the stoutest resistance; and there is GiovanBattista Ridolfi, who, Piagnone as he is, will not lightly forgive thedeath of his brother Niccolo."
"But how can the Appeal be denied," said Romola, indignantly, "when itis the law--when it was one of the chief glories of the populargovernment to have passed the law?"
"They call this an exceptional case. Of course there are ingeniousarguments, but there is much more of loud bluster about the danger ofthe Republic. But, you see, no opposition could prevent the assemblyfrom being prorogued, and a certain powerful influence rightly appliedduring the next three days might determine the wavering courage of thosewho desire that the Appeal should be granted, and might even give acheck to the headlong enmity of Francesco Valori. It happens to havecome to my knowledge that the Frate has so far interfered as to send amessage to him in favour of Lorenzo Tornabuoni. I know you cansometimes have access to the Frate: it might at all events be worthwhile to use your privilege now."
"It is true," said Romola, with an air of abstraction. "I cannotbelieve that the Frate would approve denying the Appeal."
"I heard it said by more than one person in the court of the Palazzo,before I came away, that it would be to the everlasting discredit of FraGirolamo if he allowed a government which is almost entirely made up ofhis party, to deny the Appeal, without entering his protest, when he hasbeen boasting in his books and sermons that it was he who got the lawpassed. [Note 1.] But between ourselves, with all respect for yourFrate's ability, my Romola, he has got into the practice of preachingthat form of human sacrifices called killing tyrants and wickedmalcontents, which some of his followers are likely to thinkinconsistent with lenity in the present case."
"I know, I know," said Romola, with a look and tone of pain. "But he isdriven into those excesses of speech. It used to be different. I_will_ ask for an interview. I cannot rest without it. I trust in thegreatness of his heart."
She was not looking at Tito; her eyes were bent with a vague gazetowards the ground, and she had no distinct consciousness that the wordssh
e heard came from her husband.
"Better lose no time, then," said Tito, with unmixed suavity, moving hiscap round in his hands as if he were about to put it on and depart."And now, Romola, you will perhaps be able to see, in spite ofprejudice, that my wishes go with yours in this matter. You will notregard the misfortune of my safety as an offence."
Something like an electric shock passed through Romola: it was the fullconsciousness of her husband's presence returning to her. She looked athim without speaking.
"At least," he added, in a slightly harder tone, "you will endeavour tobase our intercourse on some other reasonings than that because an evildeed is possible, _I_ have done it. Am I alone to be beyond the pale ofyour extensive charity?"
The feeling which had been driven back from Romola's lips a fortnightbefore rose again with the gathered force of a tidal wave. She spokewith a decision which told him that she was careless of consequences.
"It is too late, Tito. There is no killing the suspicion that deceithas once begotten. And now I know everything. I know who that old manwas: he was your father, to whom you owe everything--to whom you owemore than if you had been his own child. By the side of that, it is asmall thing that you broke my trust and my father's. As long as youdeny the truth about that old man, there is a horror rising between us:the law that should make us one can never be obeyed. I too am a humanbeing. I have a soul of my own that abhors your actions. Our union isa pretence--as if a perpetual lie could be a sacred marriage."
Tito did not answer immediately. When he did speak it was with acalculated caution, that was stimulated by alarm.
"And you mean to carry out that independence by quitting me, I presume?"
"I desire to quit you," said Romola, impetuously.
"And supposing I do not submit to part with what the law gives me somesecurity for retaining? You will then, of course, proclaim your reasonsin the ear of all Florence. You will bring forward your mad assassin,who is doubtless ready to obey your call, and you will tell the worldthat you believe his testimony because he is so rational as to desire toassassinate me. You will first inform the Signoria that I am a Mediceanconspirator, and then you will inform the Mediceans that I have betrayedthem, and in both cases you will offer the excellent proof that youbelieve me capable in general of everything bad. It will certainly be astriking position for a wife to adopt. And if, on such evidence, yousucceed in holding me up to infamy, you will have surpassed all theheroines of the Greek drama."
He paused a moment, but she stood mute. He went on with the sense ofmastery.
"I believe you have no other grievance against me--except that I havefailed in fulfilling some lofty indefinite conditions on which you gaveme your wifely affection, so that, by withdrawing it, you have graduallyreduced me to the careful supply of your wants as a fair Piagnone ofhigh condition and liberal charities. I think your success in gibbetingme is not certain. But doubtless you would begin by winning the ear ofMesser Bernardo del Nero?"
"Why do I speak of anything?" cried Romola, in anguish, sinking on herchair again. "It is hateful in me to be thinking of myself."
She did not notice when Tito left the room, or know how long it wasbefore the door opened to admit Monna Brigida. But in that instant shestarted up and said--
"Cousin, we must go to San Marco directly. I must see my confessor, FraSalvestro."
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Note 1. The most recent, and in some respects the best, biographer ofSavonarola, Signor Villari, endeavours to show that the Law of Appealultimately enacted, being wider than the law originally contemplated bySavonarola, was a source of bitter annoyance to him, as a contrivance ofthe aristocratic party for attaching to the measures of the populargovernment the injurious results of licence. But in taking this viewthe estimable biographer lost sight of the fact that, not only in hissermons, but in a deliberately prepared book (the _CompendiumRevelationum_) written long after the Appeal had become law, Savonarolaenumerates among the benefits secured to Florence, "_the Appeal from theSix Votes, advocated by me, for the greater security of the citizens_."
