CHAPTER III
Could it have been the Aged Friar?
"Signor Marchese," said the old man, stretching out his hand with, forhim, a very unusual degree of impulsive cordiality, "I have come to makeamende honorable--I need hardly say how delighted I am to do so. It isnot only that I think I may say there is now very little chance of anymischief falling on you in consequence of that unlucky excursion to thePineta, but that I am able, thank God, to say that I have myself nolonger the smallest suspicion that you had any hand in the crime thathas been committed there."
"Has anything been discovered, then?" asked Ludovico, eagerly."Ah--h--h! that would be good news indeed," added the young man, drawinga long breath of relief,--the evident strength of which feeling affordeda measure of the suffering he had endured more indicative of the realstate of his mind than any amount of depression which he had beforeallowed to be apparent.
"Well; enough, I think, has been discovered to relieve you of allsuspicion--enough, as I said, to convince my own mind verysatisfactorily that you are innocent of all complicity in the matter."
"I confess that I should have preferred, Signor Fortini, that my ownassertion should have sufficed to produce that conviction," replied theyoung man, somewhat drily.
"My dear Signor Marchese, permit me to say that such preference wouldhave been ill founded. Is not my conviction, based upon theprobabilities of the known facts, of much greater value than any mereacquiescence with your assertions? These are matters, my dear sir, whichmust be looked at reasonably, and not merely sentimentally. If you hadcommitted murder--if I had committed murder,--should we not either ofus, have denied it as resolutely as you denied this? If thecircumstances are such as to cause a man--any man--to be suspected atall, no words of his can be worth anything whatsoever on the subject;and you must admit that, the circumstances being as they were, it wasimpossible that the first suspicion should not have fallen on you. Youmay believe that no efforts or activity have been wanting on my part forthe discovery of the means of removing this suspicion. Let us bethankful that they have, to a very great degree, been successful."
"And what has been found out? For God's sake tell me all about it! Ideclare, for my own part, I could almost believe that I had done itmyself in my sleep, or in a fit of madness without knowing it, soutterly impossible does it seem to me to imagine what hand it could havebeen that did the deed."
"Signor Marchese, the hand that did that deed was no other than the handof the Venetian girl, Paolina Foscarelli," said the lawyer, withdeliberate and impressive slowness, emphasizing his words with extendedforefinger as he uttered them.
"Pshaw! Is that all you have to tell me?" cried the Marchese, jumping upfrom his chair, and pacing the room with impatient strides. "It is anabsurdity upon the face of it; I should have hoped that nobody inRavenna would have believed it possible that I could have been guilty ofsuch a deed; but, by Heaven, the whole city will see that it is morelikely that I should have done it than Paolina! It is simply absurd."
"Signor Marchese, prepossessions, and previous notions of what mighthave been expected to be possible, are of no value in such a case asthis against the logic of facts and circumstances. Other young women,who seemed as little likely to be capable of such a deed as thisSignorina Foscarelli, have committed such--and have done it under thepressure of motives exactly similar to those which we know withcertainty to have been vehemently operative in the heart of theVenetian."
"Motives! What conceivable motive could have existed to--"
"What motive? The most powerful of all the passions that ever drove awoman to become guilty of crime--jealousy; jealousy, Signor Marchese,has been the motive of this murder. Look at the facts as they stand: weknow that this Paolina Foscarelli was in the immediate neighbourhood ofthe spot where the deed was done, and as nearly as possible at the timewhen it was done; we know--excuse me, Signor Marchese, for speaking veryplainly; it is absolutely necessary to be plain--we know that this girlhad great reason to feel jealous of La Bianca. Remember that she saw youand the singer driving tete-a-tete together in that solitary place atthat unusual hour. I leave it to your own feeling to estimate the degreeof jealousy which such a sight, together with other previouscircumstances, was calculated to produce in this girl's mind; but, ifthat be not enough, we know, as a matter of fact, that she had, evenpreviously to seeing what was, so calculated to drive her jealousy to apitch of fury, expressed jealousy, animosity and hatred against thewoman whom she considered as her rival. We have this in evidence--theperfectly unimpeachable evidence of the Signora Orsola Steno. Add tothat, again, that the method of the murder was just such as a woman waslikely to adopt, and that a man was very little likely to think of, orto have the means of, in his possession. Put all these certain factstogether, Signor Marchese; and I think it will be impossible for evenyour mind to resist the conviction that must force itself upon every onewho considers the circumstances."
The Marchese stopped in his agitated walk to and fro across the floor ofthe chamber, and gazed into the lawyer's face with an expression ofbewilderment and pain, which the old man met with a keen and steadyglance, and a grave shake of the head. The Marchese, after encounteringhis eye for a few moments, struck his open hand on his forehead, andthrew himself on the chair he had left without uttering a word.
"And to you, Signor Marchese, it assuredly cannot appear strange thatthe circumstances I have enumerated should carry with them theconviction to other minds that Paolina Foscarelli is guilty of themurder of the singer," continued the lawyer, speaking very slowly andfixing the keen glance of his dark bright eyes on the working face ofhis companion; "to you, above all others, this cannot appear strange,since--to your own mind this suspicion first occurred."
"What do you mean? I! Signor Fortini. What strange notion is misleadingyou? I don't know what you mean!" cried the Marchese, while a look ofhorror gradually crept over his face.
"When the body of the murdered woman was brought into the city,--when wetwo stood in the gateway, and when your hand raised the sheet thatcovered the face of the dead, you exclaimed aloud 'Paolina!' What wasthen the thought that was in your mind? I imagined, at the time, thatyou recognized her in the dead woman before you. A very few minutes,however, sufficed to show that it was not Paolina, but Bianca who laythere murdered. And then, amid the horror of the first idea of yourguilt, which the nature of the circumstances rendered inevitable, Ithought no more of the exclamation you had uttered. But I have notforgotten the fact. You did, on seeing Bianca dead before you, exclaim,'Good God! Paolina!' What was the thought in your mind, Signor Marchese,that prompted that exclamation? What but the sudden spontaneous rush ofthe conviction that it was she who had done the deed on which you werelooking?"
For a few moments the Marchese seemed too much stunned by the inference,and the appeal of the lawyer, and by the vision of the consequences,which he purposed drawing from it, to utter any reply to the demandwhich had been made on him.
"You mistake, Signor Fortini," he gasped out at last; "you are in error.I cannot have made any such exclamation. I have no consciousness ofanything of the kind. In any case no such monstrous idea, as you wouldinfer from it, ever entered into my mind. You know how anxious I wasabout Paolina's prolonged absence. I was thinking of her; at least, Isuppose so, if, indeed, I uttered her name. I have no recollection. Idon't know why I should have done so. All I know is that no suchhorrible and impossible suggestion ever presented itself to my mind foran instant. If it were otherwise," continued the young man, after a fewmoments of painfully concentrated thought,--"if it were otherwise, whydid I not suggest such a solution of the mystery when I found myselfaccused of the crime?"
"That, Signor Marchese, those who know you best will be least at a lossto understand," replied the lawyer. "The motive that ruled your conductthen, is the same that rules it now. You were then unwilling, as you arenow unwilling, to exculpate yourself at the cost of inculpating one whois dear to you. Your objection, I am bound to tell you, carries noweight with i
t. I cannot abandon that part of my case that rests uponthe striking fact that your own first impression was that Paolina wasguilty."
"I utterly deny, and will continue to deny, that any such impression wasever present to my mind. I wholly refuse to avail myself of any defencebased on any such supposition; on any idea at all, that PaolinaFoscarelli is guilty. I know that she is as innocent of this deed as theangels in heaven. I will proclaim her innocence with my last breath. Iwill not accept any acquittal on the hypothesis of her guilt. I willrather avow that I did the deed myself. In one sense I did so. In onesense I am guilty of her death. For it was I who took her to the place,and into the circumstance that led to her death."
"Signor Marchese, in this matter the truth of the facts is what iswanted. It is that, and that alone that the magistrates will endeavourto discover. A great many facts, as I have pointed out to you, will bebefore them. Mere statements, one way or the other, will have littleavail. Quietly and seriously now, supposing we reject the theory ofPaolina's guilt, are you able yourself to conceive any other possibleexplanations of the facts? Can you yourself suggest any other theorywhatsoever?" said the lawyer, throwing his head on one side, andinterlacing the fingers of his clasped hands in front of his person, incalm expectation of the Marchese's answer.
"There was another theory. I heard that the Conte Leandro had beenarrested on suspicion of being the assassin. It would be very dreadful.God forbid that I should say that I suspected the Conte Lombardoni ofhaving done this foul deed. But I cannot avoid seeing that it is a greatdeal more likely that he should have done it than Paolina," returned theMarchese.
"The accusation against the Conte Lombardoni has been abandoned, and hehas been set at liberty," replied the lawyer; "there was, in fact,nothing against him, except the singular circumstance of his having goneout of the city towards the Pineta, at a very unusual hour on themorning of that same unlucky Ash Wednesday; and that he has at lastthought fit to explain."
"At last?" said Ludovico.
"Yes; for a long time he utterly refused to give any explanation of thefact whatsoever; and his manner was altogether such as to strengthen thenotion that it was possible that he might have been the criminal. He hastold the truth at last. And it is no wonder that he was loth to tell it,for it is not much calculated to increase his popularity in the city."
"Why, what is it? I never used to think anything worse of him than thathe was a fool," rejoined the Marchese.
"A fool, and a very mischievous and malicious one, as fools mostly are.What do you think took him out of the city that morning of the first dayin Lent? Simply the desire to play the spy on you and the poor woman whohas been killed."
"No, you don't mean it? the noxious animal!" exclaimed Ludovico, withintense disgust.
"It seems that he overheard you and the singer make your appointment forthe excursion, and that, moved by curiosity and the hope of makingmischief, he determined to be beforehand with you on the road, andpicking up, if he could, the means of paying off both the lady andyourself for some of the mortification your ridicule had caused him,"said the lawyer.
"I could not have believed it possible; the mean-spirited spitefulwretch! I did not think he had it in him!" said Ludovico.
"A man is apt to be spiteful towards those who cause him to suffergreatly. And there is no suffering greater to a man as vain as the ConteLeandro than the mortification of his vanity. But his spitefulness hasbeen punished: first, by a couple of days' imprisonment, and a frightwhich half killed him; and secondly, by the sort of reception which youmay suppose awaited him when he was released as the result of hisexplanation. I think he has had his due," added the lawyer, grimly.
"But how does his explanation exclude the possibility that he may havebeen the assassin after all? Why may not the same mortified vanity thatincited him to play the spy, have moved him to take deadly vengeance onthe woman he hated so bitterly? The man who was capable of the one islikely enough to be capable of the other. He is the man who may fairlybe suspected of being capable of stabbing a woman as she slept!" arguedthe Marchese, with intense indignation.
"No," said the lawyer, shaking his head; "depend upon it we did not lethim go till it was made clear that he could have had no hand in thecrime. He was able to prove beyond the possibility of a doubt, that hehad returned to the city, entering it by the Porta Sisi, before theearliest time when the murder could have been committed. No; that notionhas to be abandoned."
"And no other idea has been started?--no suspicion? Have theinvestigations of the police led to nothing?" asked Ludovico, withprofound discouragement.
The lawyer shook his head. "I have told you," he said, "how the casestands, Signor Marchese. An idea was started at one moment that the oldfriar at St. Apollinare might have been the man. Strangely enough healso was in or near the Pineta much about the same time. But the totalabsence of all assignable motive--an infirm octogenarian; no, that isnot it. But the truth is, Signor Marchese, that our inquiries withreference to this Padre Fabiano have brought to light facts which tendto make the case stronger against the girl Paolina Foscarelli."
"I tell you, Signor Fortini, that the notion of her guilt is moreentirely preposterous than any other possible imagination. I have toldyou that I would, rather than accept it, avow myself the murderer;--ay,and think that I had done it too, and forgotten it," said the Marchese,with extreme vehemence.
"But, Signor Marchese," returned the lawyer, with imperturbablecalmness, "it matters nothing to the result, whether you will accept theidea of the Venetian girl's guilt or not, seeing that you will not becalled upon to pronounce judgment in the case. The fact is, that everyreasonable consideration points to that conclusion. I wish with all myheart, that the criminal was one in whom you were less interested." Themeaning of which phrase in Signor Fortini's mouth, probably was, that hewished the Marchese felt less interest in her who was the criminal. "ButI was about to tell you that the police have become acquainted with thefact, that this Padre Fabiano, who is a Venetian, was formerly veryclosely connected in some way with the family of Paolina Foscarelli. Itseems very probable that he was, in fact, her father. Now he followedher to the forest, and returned thence in a state of great and painfulagitation, which all mention of the subject renews and increases; and.further, the old man obstinately refuses to give any account orexplanation of his walk to the forest. The conclusion which hassuggested itself to the police authorities--not at all an unnatural orunreasonable one--is that the old man has been cognizant of the deeddone by the girl."
The Marchese seemed struck by this statement, and remained in silentthought for a few minutes. "Paolina," he said, at length, "had motivesof hatred against the woman who has been killed, the friar had motivesfor feeling strong interest in Paolina. Why may it not be conceivablethat he may have adopted her cause to the extent of committing a crimewith the view of righting what may have seemed to him to be her wrongs?The explanation may seem a not very probable one; but no possible orconceivable explanation of the terrible fact is a probable one, and,certainly, it is more likely that the old friar should have done thedeed than the young girl."
"Humph!" said the lawyer, after spending some minutes of deep thought onthe idea the Marchese had put forward; "I am not quite so sure that itis more likely. However, the theory is a plausible one, and deservesattention. Depend upon it, we shall not lose sight of the old gentleman,let him shiver and shake as much as he may; and now, Signor Marchese, Imust go to your uncle," said the lawyer, rising.
"How does he bear up under all this misery?"
"Not well, not well. I cannot say that it has fared well with him duringthese days; but I have some comfort in store for him. I think I mayventure to assure him that there is no need to imagine that his name hasbeen disgraced by the commission of a crime, or that there is any dangerthat such should continue to be believed to be the case, either by themagistrates or by anybody else. You will come out of this dreadfulbusiness scatheless, Signor Marchese, I thank God for it?"
"I w
ill not come out scatheless at the cost of Paolina's condemnation,"said the Marchese, doggedly.
"But the Marchese Lamberto, you see," continued the lawyer, withouttaking any notice of his companion's interruption,--"the MarcheseLamberto has been hit from more sides than one. The most unfortunate andlamentable fascination that this woman seems to have exercised overhim--the deplorable fact that he should have proposed marriage to her,and that this fact should be universally known,--it is impossible thathe should not have suffered, and still suffer terribly. Honestly, Icannot say that I think he will ever altogether get over it--he willnever be the same man again. Would to God that fatal woman had nevercome near Ravenna!"
"Many thanks for your visit, Signor Fortini, and for all the kindnessyou have shown me since this sad misfortune befell. Tell my uncle howmuch I have felt and feel for him. Addio, Signor Fortini. If anythingnew should turn up you will not fail to let me know it? Think of what Isaid about the friar; and mind, once more, and once for all, I will notcome scatheless, as you say, out of this business and leave Paolina tobe held guilty."
"Addio, Signor Marchese."
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