And so it came to pass. Agnes rose from prayer with an experience which has been common to the members of the True Invisible Church, whether Catholic, Greek, or Protestant. “In the day when I cried Thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.” She had that vivid sense of the sustaining presence and sympathy of an Almighty Saviour which is the substance of which all religious forms and appliances are the shadows; her soul was stayed on God, and was at peace, as truly as if she had been the veriest Puritan maiden that ever worshiped in a New England meeting-house. She felt a calm superiority to all things earthly, — a profound reliance on that invisible aid which comes from God alone.
She was standing at her window, deep in thought, when Giulietta entered, fresh and blooming, bearing the breakfast-tray.
“Come, my little princess, here I am,” she said, “with your breakfast! How do you find yourself, this morning?”
Agnes came towards her.
“Bless us, how grave we are!” said Giulietta. “What has come over us?”
“Giulietta, have you seen poor grandmamma this morning?”
“Poor grandmamma!” said Giulietta, mimicking the sad tone in which Agnes spoke, “to be sure I have. I left her making a hearty breakfast. So fall to, and do the same, for you don’t know who may come to see you this morning.”
“Giulietta, is he here?”
“He!” said Giulietta, laughing. “Do hear the little bird! It begins to chirp already! No, he is not here yet; but Pietro says he will come soon, and Pietro knows all his movements.”
“Pietro is your husband?” said Agnes, inquiringly.
“Yes, to be sure, — and a pretty good one, too, as men go,” said Giulietta. “They are sorry bargains, the best of them. But you’ll get a prize, if you play your cards well. Do you know that the King of Naples and the King of France have both sent messages to our captain? Our men hold all the passes between Rome and Naples, and so every one sees the sense of gaining our captain’s favor. But eat your breakfast, little one, while I go and see to Pietro and the men.”
So saying, she bustled out of the room, locking the door behind her.
Agnes took a little bread and water, resolved to fast and pray, as the only defense against the danger in which she stood.
After breakfasting, she retired into the inner room, and opening the window, sat down and looked out on the prospect, and then, in a low voice, began singing a hymn of Savonarola’s, which had been taught her by her uncle. It was entitled “Christ’s Call to the Soul.” The words were conceived in that tender spirit of mystical devotion which characterizes all this class of productions.
“Fair soul, created in the primal hour,
Once pure and grand,
And for whose sake I left my throne and power
At God’s right hand,
By this sad heart pierced through because I loved thee,
Let love and mercy to contrition move thee!
“Cast off the sins thy holy beauty veiling,
Spirit divine!
Vain against thee the hosts of hell assailing:
My strength is thine!
Drink from my side the cup of life immortal,
And love will lead thee back to heaven’s portal!
“I, for thy sake, was pierced with many sorrows,
And bore the cross,
Yet heeded not the galling of the arrows,
The shame and loss.
So faint not thou, whate’er the burden be:
But bear it bravely, even to Calvary!”
While Agnes was singing, the door of the outer room was slowly opened, and Agostino Sarelli entered. He had just returned from Florence, having ridden day and night to meet her whom he expected to find within the walls of his fastness.
He entered so softly that Agnes did not hear his approach, and he stood listening to her singing. He had come back with his mind burning with indignation against the Pope and the whole hierarchy then ruling in Rome; but conversation with Father Antonio and the scenes he had witnessed at San Marco had converted the blind sense of personal wrong into a fixed principle of moral indignation and opposition. He no longer found himself checked by the pleading of his early religious recollections; for now he had a leader who realized in his own person all his conceptions of those primitive apostles and holy bishops who first fed the flock of the Lord in Italy. He had heard from his lips the fearless declaration, “If Rome is against me, know that it is not contrary to me, but to Christ, and its controversy is with God: doubt not that God will conquer;” and he embraced the cause with all the enthusiasm of patriotism and knighthood. In his view, the most holy place of his religion had been taken by a robber, who reigned in the name of Christ only to disgrace it; and he felt called to pledge his sword, his life, his knightly honor to do battle against him. He had urged his uncle in Milan to make interest for the cause of Savonarola with the King of France; and his uncle, with that crafty diplomacy which in those days formed the staple of what was called statesmanship, had seemed to listen favorably to his views, intending, however, no more by his apparent assent than to withdraw his nephew from the dangers in which he stood in Italy, and bring him under his own influence and guardianship in the court of France. But the wily diplomate had sent Agostino Sarelli from his presence with the highest possible expectations of his influence both with the King of France and the Emperor of Germany in the present religious crisis in Italy.
And now the time was come, Agostino thought, to break the spell under which Agnes was held, — to show her the true character of the men whom she was beholding through a mist of veneration arising entirely from the dewy freshness of ignorant innocence. All the way home from Florence he had urged his horse onward, burning to meet her, to tell her all that he knew and felt, to claim her as his own, and to take her into the sphere of light and liberty in which he himself moved. He did not doubt his power, when she should once be where he could speak with her freely, without fear of interruption. Hers was a soul too good and pure, he said, to be kept in chains of slavish ignorance any longer. When she ceased singing, he spoke from the outer apartment, “Agnes!”
The name was uttered in the softest tone, but it sent the blood to her heart, as if it were the summons of doom. Everything seemed to swim before her, and grow dark for a moment; but by a strong effort she lifted her heart in prayer, and, rising, came towards him.
Agostino had figured her to himself in all that soft and sacred innocence and freshness of bloom in which he had left her, a fair angel child, looking through sad, innocent eyes on a life whose sins and sorrows, and deeper loves and hates, she scarcely comprehended, — one that he might fold in his arms with protecting tenderness, while he gently reasoned with her fears and prejudices; but the figure that stood there in the curtained arch, with its solemn, calm, transparent paleness of face, its large, intense dark eyes, now vivid with some mysterious and concentrated resolve, struck a strange chill over him. Was it Agnes or a disembodied spirit that stood before him? For a few moments there fell such a pause between them as the intensity of some unexpressed feeling often brings with it, and which seems like a spell.
“Agnes! Agnes! is it you?” at last said the knight, in a low, hesitating tone. “Oh, my love, what has changed you so? Speak! — do speak! Are you angry with me? Are you angry that I brought you here?”
“My Lord, I am not angry,” said Agnes, speaking in a cold, sad tone; “but you have committed a great sin in turning aside those vowed to a holy pilgrimage, and you tempt me to sin by this conversation, which ought not to be between us.”
“Why not?” said Agostino. “You would not see me at Sorrento. I sought to warn you of the dangers of this pilgrimage, — to tell you that Rome is not what you think it is, — that it is not the seat of Christ, but a foul cage of unclean birds, a den of wickedness, — that he they call Pope is a vile impostor” —
“My Lord,” said Agnes, speaking with a touch of something even commanding in her tone, “you have me
at advantage, it is true, but you ought not to use it in trying to ruin my soul by blaspheming holy things.” And then she added, in a tone of indescribable sadness, “Alas, that so noble and beautiful a soul should be in rebellion against the only True Church! Have you forgotten that good mother you spoke of? What must she feel to know that her son is an infidel!”
“I am not an infidel, Agnes; I am a true knight of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and a believer in the One True, Holy Church.”
“How can that be?” said Agnes. “Ah, seek not to deceive me! My Lord, such a poor little girl as I am is not worth the pains.”
“By the Holy Mother, Agnes, by the Holy Cross, I do not seek to deceive you! I speak on my honor as a knight and gentleman. I love you truly and honorably, and seek you among all women as my spotless wife, and would I lie to you?”
“My Lord, you have spoken words which it is a sin for me to hear, a peril to your soul to say; and if you had not, you must not seek me as a wife. Holy vows are upon me. I must be the wife of no man here; it is a sin even to think of it.”
“Impossible, Agnes!” said Agostino, with a start. “You have not taken the veil already? If you had” —
“No, my Lord, I have not. I have only promised and vowed in my heart to do so when the Lord shall open the way.”
“But such vows, dear Agnes, are often dispensed; they may be loosed by the priest. Now hear me, — only hear me. I believe as your uncle believes, — your good, pious uncle, whom you love so much. I have taken the sacrament from his hand; he has blessed me as a son. I believe as Jerome Savonarola believes. He it is, that holy prophet, who has proclaimed this Pope and his crew to be vile usurpers, reigning in the name of Christ.”
“My Lord! my Lord! I must not hear more! I must not, — I cannot, — I will not!” said Agnes, becoming violently agitated, as she found herself listening with interest to the pleadings of her lover.
“Oh, Agnes, what has turned your heart against me? I thought you promised to love me a little?”
“Oh, hush! hush! don’t plead with me!” she said, with a wild, affrighted look.
He sought to come towards her, and she sprang forward and threw herself at his feet.
“Oh, my Lord, for mercy’s sake let me go! Let us go on our way! We will pray for you always, — yes, always!” And she looked up at him in an agony of earnestness.
“Am I so hateful to you, then, Agnes?”
“Hateful? Oh, no, no! God knows you are — I — I — yes, I love you too well, and you have too much power over me; but, oh, do not use it! If I hear you talk I shall yield, — I surely shall, and we shall be lost, both of us! Oh, my God! I shall be the means of your damnation!”
“Agnes!”
“It is true! it is true! Oh, do not talk to me, but promise me, promise me, or I shall die! Have pity on me! have pity on yourself!”
In the agony of her feelings her voice became almost a shriek, and her wild, affrighted face had a deadly pallor; she looked like one in a death-agony. Agostino was alarmed, and hastened to soothe her, by promising whatever she required:
“Agnes, dear Agnes, I submit; only be calm. I promise anything, — anything in the wide world you can ask.”
“Will you let me go?”
“Yes.”
“And will you let my poor grandmamma go with me?”
“Yes.”
“And you will not talk with me any more?”
“Not if you do not wish it. And now,” he said, “that I have submitted to all these hard conditions, will you suffer me to raise you?”
He took her hands and lifted her up; they were cold, and she was trembling and shivering. He held them a moment; she tried to withdraw them, and he let them go.
“Farewell, Agnes!” he said. “I am going.”
She raised both her hands and pressed the sharp cross to her bosom, but made no answer.
“I yield to your will,” he continued. “Immediately when I leave you your grandmother will come to you, and the attendants who brought you here will conduct you to the high-road. For me, since it is your will, I part here. Farewell, Agnes!”
He held out his hand, but she stood as before, pale and silent, with her hands clasped on her breast.
“Do your vows forbid even a farewell to a poor, humble friend?” said the knight, in a low tone.
“I cannot,” said Agnes, speaking at broken intervals, in a suffocating voice,—”for your sake I cannot! I bear this pain for you, — for you! Oh, repent, and meet me in heaven!”
She gave him her hand; he kneeled and kissed it, pressed it to his forehead, then rose and left the room.
For a moment after the departure of the cavalier, Agnes felt a bitter pang, — the pain which one feels on first realizing that a dear friend is lost forever; and then, rousing herself with a start and a sigh, she hurried into the inner room and threw herself on her knees, giving thanks that the dreadful trial was past, and that she had not been left to fail.
In a few moments she heard the voice of her grandmother in the outer apartment, and the old wrinkled creature clasped her grandchild in her arms, and wept with a passionate abandonment of fondness, calling her by every tender and endearing name which mothers give to their infants.
“After all,” said Elsie, “these are not such bad people, and I have been right well entertained among them. They are of ourselves, — they do not prey on the poor, but only on our enemies, the princes and nobles, who look on us as sheep to be shorn and slaughtered for their wearing and eating. These men are none such, but pitiful to poor peasants and old widows, whom they feed and clothe out of the spoils of the rich. As to their captain, — would you believe it? — he is the same handsome gentleman who once gave you a ring, — you may have forgotten him, as you never think of such things, but I knew him in a moment, — and such a religious man, that no sooner did he find that we were pilgrims on a holy errand, than he gave orders to have us set free with all honor, and a band of the best of them to escort us through the mountains; and the people of the town are all moved to do us reverence, and coming with garlands and flowers to wish us well and ask our prayers. So let us set forth immediately.”
Agnes followed her grandmother through the long passages and down the dark, mouldy stairway to the court-yard, where two horses were standing caparisoned for them. A troop of men in high peaked hats, cloaked and plumed, were preparing also to mount, while a throng of women and children stood pressing around. When Agnes appeared, enthusiastic cries were heard: “Viva Jesù!” “Viva Maria!” “Viva! viva Jesù! nostro Re!” and showers of myrtle-branches and garlands fell around. “Pray for us!” “Pray for us, holy pilgrims!” was uttered eagerly by one and another. Mothers held up their children; and beggars and cripples, aged and sick, — never absent in an Italian town, — joined with loud cries in the general enthusiasm. Agnes stood amid it all, pale and serene, with that elevated expression of heavenly calm on her features which is often the clear shining of the soul after the wrench and torture of some great interior conflict. She felt that the last earthly chain was broken, and that now she belonged to Heaven alone. She scarcely saw or heard what was around her, wrapt in the calm of inward prayer.
“Look at her! she is beautiful as the Madonna!” said one and another. “She is divine as Santa Catarina!” said others. “She might have been the wife of our chief, who is a nobleman of the oldest blood, but she chose to be the bride of the Lord,” said others: for Giulietta, with a woman’s love of romancing, had not failed to make the most among her companions of the love-adventures of Agnes.
Agnes meanwhile was seated on her palfrey, and the whole train passed out of the court-yard into the dim, narrow street, — men, women, and children following. On reaching the public square, they halted a moment by the side of the antique fountain to water their horses. The groups that surrounded it at this time were such as a painter would have delighted to copy. The women and girls of this obscure mountain-town had all that peculiar beauty of form and attitude
which appears in the studies of the antique; and as they poised on their heads their copper water-jars of the old Etruscan pattern, they seemed as if they might be statues of golden bronze, had not the warm tints of their complexion, the brilliancy of their large eyes, and the bright picturesque colors of their attire given the richness of painting to their classic outlines. Then, too, the men, with their finely-moulded limbs, their figures so straight and strong and elastic, their graceful attitudes, and their well-fitting, showy costumes, formed a no less imposing feature in the scene. Among them all sat Agnes waiting on her palfrey, seeming scarcely conscious of the enthusiasm which surrounded her. Some admiring friend had placed in her hand a large bough of blossoming hawthorn, which she held unconsciously, as, with a sort of childlike simplicity, she turned from right to left, to make reply to the request for prayers, or to return thanks for the offered benediction of some one in the crowd.
When all the preparations were at last finished, the procession of mounted horsemen, with a confused gathering of the population, passed down the streets to the gates of the city, and as they passed they sang the words of the Crusaders’ Hymn, which had fluttered back into the traditionary memory of Europe from the knights going to redeem the Holy Sepulchre.
“Fairest Lord Jesus,
Ruler of all Nature,
O Thou of God and man the Son!
Thee will I honor,
Thee will I cherish,
Thou, my soul’s glory, joy, and crown!
“Fair are the meadows,
Fairer still the woodlands,
Robed in the pleasing garb of spring:
Jesus shines fairer,
Jesus is purer
Who makes the woful heart to sing!
“Fair is the sunshine,
Fairer still the moonlight,
And all the twinkling starry host:
Jesus shines fairer,
Complete Works of Harriet Beecher Stowe Page 194
