CHAPTER XIII
Panting, exhausted, Colomba was utterly incapable of uttering a singleword. Her head rested on her brother's shoulder, and she clasped oneof his hands tightly between her own. Orso, though secretly somewhatannoyed by her peroration, was too much alarmed to reprove her, evenin the mildest fashion. He was silently waiting till the nervous attackfrom which she seemed to be suffering should have passed, when therewas a knock at the door, and Saveria, very much flustered, announced theprefect. At the words, Colomba rose, as though ashamed of her weakness,and stood leaning on a chair, which shook visibly beneath her hand.
The prefect began with some commonplace apology for the unseasonablehour of his visit, condoled with Mademoiselle Colomba, touched on thedanger connected with strong emotions, blamed the custom of composingfuneral dirges, which the very talent of the _voceratrice_ renderedthe more harrowing to her auditors, skilfully slipped in a mild reproofconcerning the tendency of the improvisation just concluded, and then,changing his tone--
"M. della Rebbia," he said, "I have many messages for you from yourEnglish friends. Miss Nevil sends her affectionate regards to yoursister. I have a letter for you from her."
"A letter from Miss Nevil!" cried Orso.
"Unluckily I have not got it with me. But you shall have it within fiveminutes. Her father has not been well. For a little while we were afraidhe had caught one of our terrible fevers. Luckily he is all right again,as you will observe for yourself, for I fancy you will see him verysoon."
"Miss Nevil must have been very much alarmed!"
"Fortunately she did not become aware of the danger till it was quitegone by. M. della Rebbia, Miss Nevil has talked to me a great deal aboutyou and about your sister."
Orso bowed.
"She has a great affection for you both. Under her charming appearance,and her apparent frivolity, a fund of good sense lies hidden."
"She is a very fascinating person," said Orso.
"I have come here, monsieur, almost at her prayer. Nobody is betteracquainted than I with a fatal story which I would fain not have torecall to you. As M. Barricini is still the mayor of Pietranera, andas I am prefect of the department, I need hardly tell you what weightI attach to certain suspicions which, if I am rightly informed, someincautious individuals have communicated to you, and which you, I know,have spurned with the indignation your position and your character wouldhave led me to expect."
"Colomba," said Orso, moving uneasily to his chair. "You are very tired.You had better go to bed."
Colomba shook her head. She had recovered all her usual composure, andher burning eyes were fixed on the prefect.
"M. Barricini," the prefect continued, "is exceedingly anxious to put anend to the sort of enmity . . . or rather, the condition of uncertainty,existing between yourself and him. . . . On my part, I should bedelighted to see you both in those relations of friendly intercourseappropriate to people who certainly ought to esteem each other."
"Monsieur," replied Orso in a shaking voice, "I have never chargedBarricini with my father's murder. But he committed an act which mustalways prevent me from having anything to do with him. He forged athreatening letter, in the name of a certain bandit, or at least hehinted in an underhand sort of way that it was forged by my father. Thatletter, monsieur, was probably the indirect cause of my father's death."
The prefect sat thinking for a moment.
"That your father should have believed that, when his own hasty natureled him into a lawsuit with Signor Barricini, is excusable. But suchblindness on your part really can not be admitted. Pray consider thatBarricini could have served no interest of his own by forging theletter. I will not talk to you about his character, for you are notacquainted with it, and are prejudiced against it; but you can notsuppose that a man conversant with the law----"
"But, monsieur," said Orso, rising to his feet, "be good enough torecollect that when you tell me the letter was not Barricini's work, youascribe it to my father. And my father's honour, monsieur, is mine!"
"No man on earth, sir, is more convinced of Colonel della Rebbia'shonour than myself! But the writer of the letter is now known."
"Who wrote it?" exclaimed Colomba, making a step toward the prefect.
"A villain, guilty of several crimes--such crimes as you Corsicans neverpardon--a thief, one Tomaso Bianchi, at present confined in the prisonat Bastia, has acknowledged that he wrote the fatal letter."
"I know nothing of the man," said Orso. "What can have been his object?"
"He belongs to this neighbourhood," said Colomba. "He is brother to aman who was our miller--a scamp and a liar, unworthy of belief."
"You will soon see what his interest in the matter was," continued theprefect. "The miller of whom your sister speaks--I think his name wasTeodoro--was the tenant of a mill belonging to the colonel, standing onthe very stream the ownership of which M. Barricini was disputing withyour father. The colonel, always a generous man, made very little profitout of the mill. Now Tomaso thought that if Barricini got possession ofthe stream there would be a heavy rent to pay, for it is well knownthat Barricini is rather fond of money. In short, to oblige his brother,Tomaso forged the letter from the bandit--and there's the whole story.You know that in Corsica the strength of the family tie is so great thatit does sometimes lead to crime. Please read over this letter to me fromthe attorney-general. It confirms what I have just told you."
Orso looked through the letter, which gave a detailed relation ofTomaso's confession, and Colomba read it over his shoulder.
When she had come to the end of it she exclaimed:
"Orlanduccio Barricini went down to Bastia a month ago, when it becameknown that my brother was coming home. He must have seen Tomaso, andbought this lie of him!"
"Signorina," said the prefect, out of patience, "you explain everythingby odious imputations! Is that the way to find out the truth? You, sir,can judge more coolly. Tell me what you think of the business now? Doyou believe, like this young lady, that a man who has only a slightsentence to fear would deliberately charge himself with forgery, just tooblige a person he doesn't know?"
Orso read the attorney-general's letter again, weighing every word withthe greatest care--for now that he had seen the old lawyer, he felt itmore difficult to convince himself than it would have been a fewdays previously. At last he found himself obliged to admit that theexplanation seemed to him to be satisfactory. But Colomba cried outvehemently:
"Tomaso Bianchi is a knave! He'll not be convicted, or he'll escape fromprison! I am certain of it!"
The prefect shrugged his shoulders.
"I have laid the information I have received before you, monsieur. Iwill now depart, and leave you to your own reflections. I shall waittill your own reason has enlightened you, and I trust it may provestronger than your sister's suppositions."
Orso, after saying a few words of excuse for Colomba, repeated that henow believed Tomaso to be the sole culprit.
The prefect had risen to take his leave.
"If it were not so late," said he, "I would suggest your coming overwith me to fetch Miss Nevil's letter. At the same time you might repeatto M. Barricini what you have just said to me, and the whole thing wouldbe settled."
"Orso della Rebbia will never set his foot inside the house of aBarricini!" exclaimed Colomba impetuously.
"This young lady appears to be the _tintinajo_[*] of the family!"remarked the prefect, with a touch of irony.
[*] This is the name given to the ram or he-goat which wears a bell and leads the flock, and it is applied, metaphorically, to any member of a family who guides it in all important matters.
"Monsieur," replied Colomba resolutely, "you are deceived. You do notknow the lawyer. He is the most cunning and knavish of men. Ibeseech you not to make Orso do a thing that would overwhelm him withdishonour!"
"Colomba!" exclaimed Orso, "your passion has driven you out of yoursenses!"
"Orso! Orso! By the casket I gave you, I beseech you
to listen to me!There is blood between you and the Barricini. You shall not go intotheir house!"
"Sister!"
"No, brother, you shall not go! Or I will leave this house, and you willnever see me again! Have pity on me, Orso!" and she fell on her knees.
"I am grieved," said the prefect, "to find Mademoiselle Colomba sounreasonable. You will convince her, I am sure."
He opened the door and paused, seeming to expect Orso to follow him.
"I can not leave her now," said Orso. "To-morrow, if----"
"I shall be starting very early," said the prefect.
"Brother," cried Colomba, clasping her hands, "wait till to-morrowmorning, in any case. Let me look over my father's papers. You can notrefuse me that!"
"Well, you shall look them over to-night. But at all events you shallnot torment me afterward with your violent hatreds. A thousand pardons,monsieur! I am so upset myself to-night--it had better be to-morrow."
"The night brings counsel," said the prefect, as he went out. "I hopeall your uncertainty will have disappeared by to-morrow."
"Saveria," Colomba called, "take the lantern and attend the SignorPrefetto. He will give you a letter to bring back to my brother."
She added a few words which reached Saveria's ear alone.
"Colomba," said Orso, when the prefect was gone, "you have distressed mevery much. Will no evidence convince you?"
"You have given me till to-morrow," she replied. "I have very littletime; but I still have some hope."
Then she took a bunch of keys and ran up to a room on the upper story.There he could hear her pulling open drawers, and rummaging in thewriting-desk in which Colonel della Rebbia had kept his business papers.
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