This morning, after a breakfast of oranges and very sweet chocolate, Elizabeth sat at the open window of her sitting room, with its pleasant aspect on the garden slopes of the Pincio, and made her longest journal entry in a month. After recording her fears for Mary’s condition, she gave her opinion that her husband was, nevertheless, a very engaging man whose manners belie all that I had previously read or supposed, and whose regard for Matthew in his bereavement is evident and genuine, for they share something in this respect, I believe, though Matthew’s is infinitely more noble. Matthew for his part takes strength in their fellowship, and it is notable how freely he discourses on all manner of things that are novel and radical, for Mr Shelley is as eloquent in his speech in radical affairs as he is on the page, and he is very practised in the latter as we have known these several past years. It is a strange twist of fate that the two should meet and become intimates, and it could not have happened in England, where our relative positions would first have precluded it and then disallowed it. Perhaps it is one of the benefits of foreign travel, as is often said there are many, that one is propelled into intercourse with those whose society would otherwise be denied. Yet Matthew is far still from wholly sloughing off the melancholy, and I do so fear that our coming here will ultimately be to no purpose other than as a temporary amelioration.
Hervey knocked at the door. Elizabeth rose and went to it. ‘Ah, brother! Have you changed your mind? Are you not meeting Mr Shelley, then?’
‘Yes, but later. I came to see how you were. We hardly had an opportunity to speak yesterday.’
‘I am very well. You know it. Mary Shelley is engaging company.’
‘So you do not mind my spending so little time with you at present?’
‘I had not accounted it, Matthew. We are here on indefinite vacation, as you have said. Allow me to address these letters I wrote last evening, and then I shall be all attention.’
Hervey sat and contemplated his sister as she attended to her familial duties. Her defiant good spirits had been his support for so many years, unsung, unrecognized even, that he marvelled at her constancy. And not only that. Henrietta had been her companion long before she had been his. Elizabeth’s only companion. Her society since then had been the aged, the sick, the poor and the infirm. He, her brother, had shown scant regard for her bereavement. She held herself ready to assume whatever duties he asked of her in respect of his infant daughter, or indeed of himself. A brother had no right to expect such devotion, the more so when it went uncherished. ‘Shall we go to the opera tonight?’
Elizabeth turned. ‘Why, Matthew! You have not once suggested we go to the opera since we came here. I should like nothing more. Are the Shelleys to go too?’
‘I was not intending that we ask them.’
When Elizabeth showed surprise, her eyebrows arched so much that the eyes themselves seemed to grow larger. They had always been kind, but Hervey could also see they were eyes that might attract. And now that she had given up her ringlets, she ought to make men’s heads at least pause, if not quite turn — as indeed he had observed at Signora Dionigi’s conversazione. What suitors she had had in Wiltshire, truly, he was not sure, for in spite of his mother’s lamenting that Elizabeth had willed herself into her unmarried state, there was no objective evidence that there had been any actual proposals. One way or another, he had better have a care of his sister.
‘Matthew?’
‘Oh, I … I beg your pardon. I was quite preoccupied.’
‘I asked what is the opera this evening.’
‘That I don’t remember, save that the composer is Italian.’
Elizabeth frowned. ‘I had not imagined otherwise. But you are very good to me to commit yourself to an entertainment about which you know nothing.’
Hervey nodded. Perhaps he had made a beginning.
‘And now you shall spend the day climbing the ruins of the baths again?’
‘No, not today. I’m meeting Shelley in an hour, but then I intend visiting the English College. I don’t suppose he will agree to come with me.’
‘I have resolved to move from the Corso,’ Shelley announced.
Hervey sipped more of his cooling white wine, diluted and made frizzante by water from a sulphur spring near the city walls. ‘For what reason? I think your arrangements there are admirable.’
‘They are. But I confess to being out of sorts with the place ever since that business in the post office.’
Hervey sighed, and not without sympathy, although it had been the assault that had effected their introduction. ‘I still turn over in my mind what could so animate a man to strike another without warning. Was it really dislike of your philosophy? Does such a thing move rational men to common assault?’
It was Shelley’s turn to sigh. ‘The magistrate was not inclined to examine his mental state, so we cannot be sure. In England, you know, we were subject to such social hatred as was impossible to bear.’
Hervey shook his head. ‘You know that I dispute every bit of that part of your philosophy, yet I could never harry a man for it. Tolerance is the English virtue, is it not?’
Shelley smiled. ‘You and I are so very far separated, indeed, that I marvel we do sit here peaceably.’
‘I hope it would be so in England, too.’
Shelley’s expression changed to one of grim determination. ‘I shall never go back to England!’
Hervey looked shocked. ‘You must never say that! You cannot have so poor an opinion of your country.’
‘For as long as there’s a crowned head, I shall never set foot there!’
‘But—’
‘Nor a church established!’
‘There is no institution on earth that can claim to be without fault, Shelley!’
‘The Church of England is not so much without fault as without God! And certainly her religion is without Christ!’
Hervey frowned. ‘Now you are being … controversial.’
‘Am I? Am I indeed? You forget I was first at Eton and then at Oxford!’
Hervey prolonged his frown. ‘There is a little more to the world than those places, Shelley!’
‘I speak of institutions, and I count the Church in England no less corrupt than that here in Rome.’
Hervey would not respond. There seemed little point in addressing so vehement an opinion at the present.
‘You are a queer fellow, Hervey. You would call me a godless revolutionary, and yet you choose to hazard your soul in my company.’
‘I would call you more, but only to your face! But if you own to godlessness then the other sins are merely consequential.’
‘Christ alive! I half believe you mean it. What makes you so sure of your religion? You’ve had cause enough for a whole charterhouse to doubt it.’
Shelley touched deep at that moment, and not solely on account of Henrietta. Hervey said nothing.
Then Shelley’s demeanour changed altogether. He gave a shrug. ‘I myself contemplated ordination lately.’
Hervey fixed him with a disapproving look. ‘And what decided you against so outlandish a notion?’
Shelley laughed and clasped his hand on Hervey’s. ‘You are, I think the saying is, “steady under fire”.’
Hervey poured more wine, feigning not to take notice. ‘I have a mind to visit the English College this afternoon. Shall you come?’
‘You surprise me, Hervey,’ replied Shelley, with a distinctly mock expression of it. ‘Why should so unbending a son of the established church want to see the English College?’
‘Why should I not want to see it? It has a claim to great antiquity. It is connected with King Alfred.’
‘Since Rome is nothing but antiquity, how can that be any particular recommendation?’
Hervey was determined not to be drawn. ‘Milton visited there, so I do not see that I may not.’ And — though there was no point in saying it — John Keble had insisted he did.
Shelley looked sceptical. ‘He visited, did he? Sacred Mil
ton?’
‘I am sure of it.’
‘Then it is settled. I owe Milton too much to disregard his example.’
Hervey nodded, though in truth Shelley’s contrariness could exasperate.
‘Do you know his lines on the massacre in Piedmont?’
‘Indeed I do,’ said Hervey, pouring more sulphur water into his glass.
‘I have often wondered in what manner Milton wished God to “avenge His slaughtered saints”.’
Hervey was disinclined to discuss eschatology, however. ‘You know, I can admire your Cromwell for the stand he took in the affair.’
Shelley looked wary, expecting a trick.
‘Did you not know? He wrote to the Emperor and others on behalf of the Protestants, urging all sorts of visitations on the Duke of Savoy if he did not stop persecuting them. And it worked, it seemed.’
‘It is curious to imagine there are any Protestants in Italy. The country is so unsuited to fervour in such matters.’ Shelley took a sip of his wine, guardedly.
‘Well I may tell you that there are, and very proud too, and called Valdensians, though I can’t recall why. There is an Englishman who now ministers to them, who lost a leg at Waterloo. A general. I saw him carried from the field. Elizabeth and I thought we might call upon him on our way home.’
Shelley smiled. ‘You have a very charming way of avoiding the material issue, but not an entirely effective one. I asked how you supposed that Milton wished vengeance to be accomplished?’
Hervey did not hesitate. ‘Perhaps the wrath of God as well as the peace passes all understanding.’
Shelley raised his eyebrows and inclined his head, resigned to the knowledge that he could provoke his friend to no more.
However, Hervey was unsure whether the expression meant that Shelley acknowledged the reasoning, or that it was just the sort of rhetoric he had expected. ‘In any case, you surely cannot lay blame at the door of the English College?’
‘No, but it must have given rise to some very contrary sentiments.’
‘We all live with those!’
Shelley now looked at him intently. ‘Truly, you are a man of very decided certainties — even as regards contrary sentiments. I never had any thoughts of the army, as Coleridge and Southey had, but I think that were I ever to have served I should have wished to do so with an officer like you. Certainty can move mountains.’
‘Ha! I assure you, my dear Shelley, certainty in very senior officers is more often the cause of getting lost in mountains.’
‘Now here indeed is someone who at last speaks his own mind rather than the institution’s!’
‘Shelley, at times you speak absurdities.’
‘Very well, then. Let us speak not of absurdities. Where do we go this evening? I confess I shall be in need of gaiety after all the martyrdom at the English College.’
‘I am taking Elizabeth to the opera.’
‘And you did not ask me to accompany you? I call that dashed uncivil! Have you tired of me?’
Hervey frowned. ‘I have neglected Elizabeth of late.’
Shelley was about to protest further when the Greco’s proprietor approached their table, accompanied by a postal messenger. ‘Signor ’Ervey? Una lettera, molto urgente,’ said the messenger, and there were twenty scudi to pay.
Hervey gave over the money, and a further three for his trouble in searching him out.
When they had gone, Hervey began to examine the envelope.
‘It intrigues me why men tarry so long in contemplating an envelope when a moment’s address with a paper knife would reveal what they puzzle over,’ said Shelley.
But Hervey scarcely noticed. ‘I do believe it to be from a most gallant acquaintance of mine. It is sent from Naples only three days ago.’ He opened it and read the contents quickly. ‘It is indeed from him. And it appears he is made commodore. He says he will be in Naples for a month and more, and would see me in Rome as soon as I am able to receive him.’
‘And who is this gallant commodore? You have not told me of him.’
‘I would need many an evening to do him justice. I sailed to India and home in his frigate. He is uncommonly good company.’
‘An officer of the wooden walls, another high Tory!’
‘In that you suppose wrongly. There’s a radical heart beating in Commodore Peto’s breast — as well as one of oak. And you would not deride the latter, I’m sure?’
‘No, no; I should not deride a brave heart wherever it beat. How did he know you were here?’
Hervey put the letter in his pocket and stood up. ‘I knew his station was the Mediterranean, and so sent word to the embassy in Naples asking that the letter be forwarded when there was intelligence of his ship. I shall go to the post office at once and send him word to come at his pleasure. You will like him.’
‘A radical, you say?’
‘I did not quite say that. He has a radical bent. I would hardly think him a subscriber to the Black Hand, or whatever it is you revolutionaries read.’
‘Dwarf, Hervey, Black Dwarf.’
‘Just so. Shall you come with me to the college then?’
‘No; on second thoughts I’m a little weary. My eyes are aching again. I have not slept well these past nights. And I want to engage someone at once to find other lodgings. You do not forget Signora Dionigi’s party tomorrow evening?’
‘No, indeed.’ Hervey brushed the dust from his hat and placed it on his head a shade more carelessly than usual.
Shelley looked at him quizzically. ‘I perceive a sudden spring to your step — at last.’
Hervey failed to hear more than an easy remark. ‘Very well, then. Do we meet at the same time tomorrow?’
Shelley nodded, and with a wry grin. He had no words. And as he watched Hervey walk from the Caffè Greco, he wondered at the comradeship which black powder so evidently made.
There had been a night of rain and the Tiber had risen, so that the sewers were stagnant again and enterprising hawkers were doing a brisk trade in nosegays. Hervey made do without, though now the stench was so bad that he clutched a handkerchief to his face, and consoled himself with the thought that there would be incense enough to cover this rankness at the college. He quickened his pace, too, almost to double time, so that it was not long before he was pulling the bell handle at the ironclad doors of the English College, the Venerable College of St Thomas de urbe.
The portiere opened them, but he spoke no English, much to Hervey’s surprise — disappointment even — for John Keble had said the place was truly a piece of England in the heart of the old city, though he had not himself been to Rome. At length there came a tall man in a black cassock, and by the portiere’s manner, and a few of his words, Hervey supposed this must be the rector, which indeed the man confirmed as he held out a hand in welcome.
Father Robert Gradwell was striking in both appearance and bearing. Eyes that felt as if they pierced to the soul, albeit with gentleness, at once engaged the visitor; and when Hervey had detached himself from their hold he saw a face that might have been the Duke of Wellington’s own, for the features were spare, hawklike, fervent. Indeed, so arresting was the comparison that Hervey made a very faltering introduction for himself, and took a little time to explain that he would deem it a great privilege if he might see inside the seminary. He half expected to be asked for what purpose, but Father Gradwell did not enquire; he simply welcomed him, warmly and without condition.
Although it seemed otherwise, Hervey knew that the rector could not have had long experience of showing the college to chance visitors such as he. The house had only lately reopened following Bonaparte’s long occupation of what had variously been described as the Roman republic or the vassal kingdom of France’s. But mercifully, the evidence was not as great as it might have been, although horses had been stabled where the venerabili prayed, and the tombs had been opened for their imagined treasure. Least spoiled of all was the little garden, a very singular feature according to the rector
, for where in other palazzi there would be a cortile, with pots and running water perhaps, here was a place where in but a few moments an Englishman might think himself at home. Hervey, certainly, was able to cast his mind to Horningsham and to conjure an image of his parents, his father especially, for in no man could there be a closer unity of chancel and garden than in the Reverend, indeed now the Venerable, Thomas Hervey.
When the garden had pleased enough, the rector showed him some of the college’s treasures — memorials rather than fine plate — and then conducted him to what he called the chapel of the Martyrs. ‘I expect you shall wish to be in peace here. It is our custom to offer hospitality to any visitor. Please come to the refectory when you are quite ready.’
Hervey murmured his thanks, and the rector took his leave. He stood at the chapel door for some time before he felt ready to enter, for here was a place where the remembrance of English blood was as real as in the chapels-turned-dressing-posts he had seen too often in the ‘never-ending war’. At length he went inside, got to his knees and closed his eyes. A quarter of an hour he remained thus, his prayers a ramble of pleas for the living and the dead — and for himself above all, for he could not in his heart believe that Henrietta needed his oration, nor yet that the living had more need of divine help than he. In his mind’s eye he held the picture of Henrietta before him. It was a picture that no other had seen. Even in this most sacred place he had no scruple in conjuring the picture of passion which had transformed her face.
A Call to Arms mh-4 Page 4
