Complete Works of F Marion Crawford

by F. Marion Crawford

  The words were half spoken again, but suddenly ceased as he threw the window open. In the dim gray dawn he saw a muffled figure crouching on the stones by the gate, slowly swaying forwards and backwards. The wail began again, very soft and low, and as though the woman half feared to be heard and yet could not control herself.

  Orsino watched her intently for a few moments, and then understood. It was some woman who had loved Ferdinando Pagliuca, and who came in the simple old way to mourn at the door of the house wherein he lay dead. Her head was covered with a black shawl, and her skirts were black, too, but her hands were clasped about her knees, and visible, and looked white in the dawn.

  The young man drew back softly from the window, and sat down upon the edge of the bed. He, of all men, had no right to silence the woman. She did no harm, wailing for the dead man out there in the cold dawn. She was not the only one who was to mourn him on that day. In a few hours his sister would know, his mother, his brothers, and all the world besides, though the rest of the world mattered little enough to Orsino. But this woman’s grief was a sort of foretaste of Vittoria’s. She was but a peasant woman, perhaps, or at most a girl of the small farmers’ class, but she had loved him, and would hate for ever the man who had killed him. How much more should the slayer be hated by the dead man’s own flesh and blood!

  The light grew less gray by quick degrees, and there were heavy footsteps in the corridor. Then came a knock at the door, and a trooper appeared in his forage cap.

  ‘We have made the coffee, signore,’ he said, on the threshold.

  He held out a bright tin pannikin from which the steam rose in fragrant clouds. The physical impression of the aromatic smell was the first pleasant sensation which Orsino had experienced since he had pulled the trigger of his rifle on the previous afternoon. If we could but look at things as they are, we should see that there is neither love nor hate, neither joy nor grief, nor hope nor fear, that will not at last efface itself for a moment before hunger and thirst; so effectually can this dying body mask and screen the undying essence.

  Orsino drank the hot coffee with keen physical delight, though the woman’s wailing came up to his ears through the open window, and though he had known a moment earlier that the stealing dawn was the beginning of a day which might end in a broken heart.

  But the trooper heard the voice, and went to the window and looked out, while Orsino drank.

  ‘Ho, there!’ he cried roughly. ‘Will you go or not?’ He turned to Orsino. ‘She has been there since two o’clock,’ he explained. ‘We heard her through the closed gate.’

  ‘Let her alone,’ said Orsino authoritatively. ‘She is only a woman, and can do no harm; and she has a right to her mourning, God knows.’

  ‘There will be a hundred before the sun has been up an hour, signore,’ answered the soldier. ‘The people will collect about her, for they will come out of curiosity, from many miles away. It will be better to get rid of them as fast as they come.’

  ‘You might let that poor woman in,’ suggested Orsino. ‘After all, I have killed her lover — she has a right to see his body.’

  ‘As you wish, signore,’ answered the trooper, taking the empty pannikin.

  Orsino got up and looked out again, as the man went away. The girl had risen to her feet, and stood looking up to the window. Her shawl had fallen back upon her shoulders, and disclosed a young and dishevelled but beautiful head, of the Greek type, though the eyes were somewhat long and almond-shaped. There was no colour in the olive-pale cheeks, and little in the parted lips; and the hand that gathered the shawl to the bosom was singularly white. The regular features were set in a tragic mask of grief, such as one very rarely sees in the modern world.

  When she saw Orsino, she suddenly raised both hands to him, like a suppliant of old.

  ‘They have killed him!’ she cried. ‘They have killed my bridegroom! Let me see him! let me kiss him! Are they Christians, and will not let me see him?’

  ‘You shall see him,’ answered Orsino. ‘I will let you in myself.’

  ‘God will render it to you, signore. And God will render also to his murderer a bad death.’

  She sat down upon the stones, thinking, perhaps, that it would be long before the gate was opened; and she began her low moan again.

  ‘They have killed him! They have murdered him!’

  But Orsino had already left the window and the room. He had understood clearly from her words and face that she was no light creature, for whom Ferdinando had conceived a passing fancy. He had meant to marry her, perhaps within a few days. There was in her face the high stamp of innocence, and her voice rang fearless and true. Ferdinando had never been like his brothers. He had meant to marry this girl, doubtless a small farmer’s daughter, from her dress; and he would have lived happily with her, sinking, perhaps, to a lower social level, but morally rising far higher than his scheming brothers. Orsino had guessed from his dead face, and from what he had heard, that Ferdinando had been the best of the family; and in a semi-barbarous country like the interior of Sicily, the young Roman did not blame him overmuch for having tried to resist the new owners of his father’s house when they came to take possession.

  San Giacinto and the sergeant objected on principle to admitting the girl, but Orsino insisted, and at last opened the gate himself. She had covered her head and face again, and followed him swiftly and noiselessly across the court to the door of the church. As though by instinct she turned directly to her lover’s body, where it lay before the side altar, and with a low wail like a wounded animal, she fell beside it, with clasped hands. Orsino left her there alone, closing the door softly, and came out into the court, where it was almost broad daylight. The men had drunk their coffee and were grooming their black chargers tethered to rusty rings in the wall. The old stables were between the court and the rampart. The two foot-carabineers were despatched to Santa Vittoria to get a coffin for the dead man and a priest to come and bury him.

  From the church came every now and then the piteous echo of the girl’s lamentations. Then there was a knocking at the gate, and someone called from without. One of the troopers looked out through the narrow slit in the stone, made just wide enough to let the barrel of a gun pass. Half a dozen peasants were outside, and the soldiers could see two more coming down the drive towards the house. He asked what they wanted.

  ‘We wish to speak with the master,’ said one, and two or three repeated the words.

  They were the men who had brought the tools on the previous evening, with a number of others, the small tenants of the little estate. San Giacinto went and spoke with them, assuring them that he would be a better landlord than they had ever had, if they would treat him well, but that if he met with any treachery, he would send every man of them to the galleys for life. It was his way of making acquaintance, and they seemed to understand it.

  While he was speaking a number of men and women appeared in the drive, headed by the two soldiers who had gone to the village. Close behind them, swaying with the walk of the woman who carried the load upon her head, a white deal coffin caught the morning light. Then more people, and always more, came in sight, up the drive. Amongst them walked a young priest in his short white ‘cotta’ over his shabby cassock, and beside him came a big boy bearing a silver basin with holy water, and the little broom for sprinkling it. The two trudged along in a business-like way, and all the people were talking loudly. It seemed to San Giacinto that half the population of the village must have turned out. He stepped back and called to the troopers to keep the gate, and prevent the crowd from entering. Then he waited outside. The people became silent as they came near, and he looked at them, scrutinising their faces. Some of the men had their guns slung over their shoulders, but many were only labourers and had none.

  Many scowling glances were turned on San Giacinto as the crowd came up to the gate, and he began to anticipate trouble of some sort. The troopers had their rifles in their hands as they formed up behind him. The tenants of
Camaldoli mixed with the crowd, evidently not wishing to identify themselves with their new landlord.

  ‘What do you want?’ asked San Giacinto, in a harsh, commanding voice.

  The priest came close to him, and bowed and smiled, as though the occasion of meeting were a pleasant one. Then he stood aside a little, and a strapping woman who carried the coffin on her head marched in under the gate between the soldiers, who made way for her. And behind her came her husband, a crooked little carpenter, carrying a leathern bag from which protruded the worn and blackened handle of a big hammer. The third comer was stopped by the sergeant. He was a ghastly pale old man, with a three-days’ beard on his pointed chin, and he was dressed in dingy black.

  ‘Who are you?’ asked the sergeant sharply.

  ‘I am one without whom people are not buried,’ answered the old man, in a cracked voice. ‘You have a carpenter and a priest, but there is a third — I am he, the servant of the dead, who give no orders.’

  The sergeant understood that the man was the parish undertaker, and let him pass also. Meanwhile San Giacinto repeated his question.

  ‘What do you all want?’ he asked in a thundering tone, for he was annoyed.

  ‘If it please you, Signor Marchese,’ said the priest, ‘these, my parishioners, desire the body of Don Ferdinando Corleone, in order to bury it in holy ground, for he was beloved of many. Pray do not be angry, Excellency, for they come in peace, having heard that Don Ferdinando had been killed by an accident. Grant their request, which is a proper one, and they shall depart quickly. I answer for them.’

  As he spoke the last words in a tone which all could hear, he turned to the crowd, as though for their assent.

  ‘He answers for us,’ said many of them, in a breath. ‘Good, Don Niccola! You answer for us. We are Christians. We wish to bury Don Ferdinando properly.’

  ‘I have not the slightest objection,’ said San Giacinto. ‘On the contrary, I respect your wish, and I only regret that I have not the means of doing more honour to your friend. You must attend to that. Be kind enough to wait here while the priest blesses the body.’

  The priest and the boy with the holy water passed in, and the gate closed upon the crowd. While they had been talking, the carpenter and his wife had entered the court. Basili’s man led them to the door of the church and opened it. The woman marched in with her swinging stride, and one hand on her hips, while the other steadied the deal coffin.

  ‘Where is he?’ she asked in a loud, good-natured voice, for the church seemed very dark after the morning light outside.

  She was answered by a low cry from the steps of the side altar, where the unhappy girl lay half across her lover’s body, looking round towards the door, in a new horror.

  The woman uttered an exclamation of surprise, and then slowly swung her burden round so that she could see her husband.

  ‘Help me, Ciccio,’ she said, in a matter-of-fact way. ‘They are always inconvenient things.’

  The man held up his hands and took the foot, while his wife raised her hands also and shifted the weight towards him little by little, until she got hold of the head. The loose lid rattled as they set the thing down on the floor. Then the woman took the rolled towel on which she had carried the weight, from her head, undid it, wiped her brow with it, and looked at the girl in some perplexity.

  ‘It is the apothecary’s Concetta,’ she said, suddenly recognising the white features in the gloom. ‘Oh, poor child! poor child!’ she cried, going forward quickly, while her husband took the lid from the coffin and began to fumble in his leathern bag for his nails.

  As the woman approached the step, Concetta threw her arms wildly over her head, stiffened her limbs straight out, and rolled over and over upon the damp pavement, in one of those strange fainting fits which sometimes seize women in moments of intense grief. The carpenter’s wife tried to lift her, and to bend her arms, so as to get hold of her; but the girl was as rigid as though she were in a cataleptic trance.

  ‘Poor child! Poor Concetta!’ exclaimed the carpenter’s wife, softly.

  Then, bending her broad back, she raised the girl up by main strength, getting first one arm round her and then the other, till she got her weight up and could carry her. Her crooked little husband paid no attention to her. Women were women’s business at such times. The big woman got the girl out into the morning sunshine in the court, meeting the eccentric undertaker and the priest, who were talking together outside. San Giacinto came forward instantly, followed by Orsino, who had been wandering about the rampart over the river when the crowd had come. San Giacinto took the unconscious girl’s body from the woman, with ease.

  ‘Come,’ he said, carrying her before him on his arms. ‘Get some water.’

  He entered the room where the men had slept on some straw and laid Concetta down, her arms still stiffened above her head. One of the troopers brought water in a pannikin. San Giacinto dashed the cold drops upon the white face, and the features quivered nervously.

  ‘Take care of her,’ he said to the woman. ‘Who is she?’

  ‘She is Concetta, the daughter of Don Atanasio, the apothecary. She was to marry Don Ferdinando next week. But now that they have killed him, she will marry someone else.’

  ‘Poor girl!’ exclaimed San Giacinto compassionately, and he turned and went out.

  Orsino was standing by the door, looking in, and he had heard what the woman had said. It confirmed what he had guessed from the girl’s own words. He wondered how it was possible that the action of one second could really cause such terrible trouble in the world.

  From the open door of the church came the sound of the regular blows of a hammer. The work had been quickly done and the carpenter was nailing down the lid of the coffin. The priest, who had stayed in the early sunshine for warmth, hung a shabby little stole round his neck, and took the holy water basin and the little broom from the boy, and entered the church to bless the body before it was taken away.

  As it was not advisable to let in the crowd, the six soldiers lifted the coffin and bore it out of the gate. Then the peasants laid it on a bier which had been brought after them and covered it with a rusty black pall. The priest walked before it, and began to recite the psalms for the dead. The women covered their heads, and some of the men uncovered theirs, and a few joined in the priest’s monotonous recitations. A quarter of an hour later, San Giacinto, watching from the gate, saw the last of the people disappear up the drive. But the carpenter’s wife had stayed with Concetta.

  ‘It is a bad business,’ said the old giant to himself, as he turned and went in.

  CHAPTER XIII

  THE TAKING POSSESSION of Camaldoli had turned out much more difficult and dangerous than even San Giacinto had anticipated, for the catastrophe of Ferdinando Pagliuca’s death had at once aroused the anger and revengeful resentment of the whole neighbourhood. He made up his mind that it would be necessary for himself or Orsino to return to Rome at once, both in order to see the Minister of the Interior, with a view to obtaining special protection from the government, and to see the Pagliuca family, in the hope of pacifying them.

  The latter mission would not be an easy nor an agreeable one, and San Giacinto would gladly have undertaken it himself. On the other hand, he did not trust Orsino’s wisdom in managing matters in Sicily. The young man was courageous and determined, but he had not the knowledge of the southern character which was indispensable. Moreover, he was not the real owner of the lands, and would not feel that he had authority to act independently in all cases. It was, therefore, decided that Orsino should go back to Rome at once, while San Giacinto remained at Camaldoli to get matters into a better shape.

  It was a dreary journey for Orsino. He telegraphed that he was coming, found that there was no steamer from Messina, crossed to Reggio, and travelled all night and all the next day by the railway, reaching Rome at night, jaded and worn.

  He found, as he had expected, that all Rome was talking of his adventure with the brigands, an
d of the death of Ferdinando Pagliuca, and of the probable consequences. But he learned to his surprise how Tebaldo had been heard to say at the club on the previous afternoon that Ferdinando was no relation of his, and that it was a mere coincidence of names.

  ‘Nevertheless,’ said Sant’ Ilario, ‘we all believe that you have killed his brother. Tebaldo Pagliuca has no mind to have it said that his brother was a brigand and died like a dog. He says he is not in Sicily, but left some time ago. As no one in Rome ever saw him, most people will accept the statement for the girl’s sake, if not for the rest of the family.’

  Orsino looked down thoughtfully while his father was speaking. He understood at once that the story being passably discreditable to the d’Oriani, he had better seem to fall in with their view of the case, by holding his peace when he could. His father and mother, as well as the old Prince, insisted upon hearing a detailed account of the affair in the woods, however, and he was obliged to tell them all that had happened, though he said nothing about the fancied resemblance of Ferdinando to Vittoria, and as little as possible about the way in which the people had carried off the man’s body with a public demonstration of sorrow. After all, no one had told him that Ferdinando was the brother of Tebaldo. He had taken it for granted, and it was barely possible that he might have been mistaken.

  ‘There may be others of the name,’ he said, as he concluded his story.

  His mother looked at him keenly. Half an hour later he was alone with her in her own sitting-room.

  ‘Why did you say that there might be others of the name?’ she asked gravely. ‘Why did you wish to imply that the unfortunate man may not have been the brother of Don Tebaldo and Donna Vittoria?’

  Orsino was silent for a moment. There was reproach in Corona’s tone, for she herself had not the slightest doubt in the matter. He came and stood before her, for he was a truthful man.