Vittoria — Complete

by George Meredith

  CHAPTER XXV

  ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS

  After parting from Vittoria, Angelo made his way to an inn, where he ateand drank like a man of the fields, and slept with the power of one fromnoon till after morning. The innkeeper came up to his room, and, findinghim awake, asked him if he was disposed to take a second holiday inbed. Angelo jumped up; as he did so, his stiletto slipped from under hispillow and flashed.

  'That's a pretty bit of steel,' said the innkeeper, but could not get aword out of him. It was plain to Angelo that this fellow had suspicions.Angelo had been careful to tie up his clothes in a bundle; there wasnothing for the innkeeper to see, save a young man in bed, who had aterrible weapon near his hand, and a look in his eyes of wary indolencethat counselled prudent dealings. He went out, and returned a second anda third time, talking more and more confusedly and fretfully; but as hewas again going to leave, 'No, no,' said Angelo, determined to give hima lesson, 'I have taken a liking to your company. Here, come here; Iwill show you a trick. I learnt it from the Servians when I was threefeet high. Look; I lie quite still, you observe. Try to get on the otherside of that door and the point of this blade shall scratch you throughit.'

  Angelo laid the blue stilet up his wrist, and slightly curled his arm.'Try,' he repeated, but the innkeeper had stopped short in his movementto the door. 'Well, then, stay where you are,' said Angelo, 'and look;I'll be as good as my word. There's the point I shall strike.' With thathe gave the peculiar Servian jerk of the muscles, from the wrist up tothe arm, and the blade quivered on the mark. The innkeeper fell back inadmiring horror. 'Now fetch it to me,' said Angelo, putting bothhands carelessly under his head. The innkeeper tugged at the blade.'Illustrious signore, I am afraid of breaking it,' he almost whimpered;'it seems alive, does it not?'

  'Like a hawk on a small bird,' said Angelo; 'that's the beauty of thoseblades. They kill, and put you to as little pain as a shot; and it 'sbetter than a shot in your breast--there's something to show for it.Send up your wife or your daughter to take orders about my breakfast. It's the breakfast of five mountaineers; and don't "Illustrious signore"me, sir, either in my hearing or out of it. Leave the knife sticking.'

  The innkeeper sidled out with a dumb salute. 'I can count on hisdiscretion for a couple of hours,' Angelo said to himself. He knewthe effect of an exhibition of physical dexterity and strength upona coward. The landlord's daughter came and received his orders forbreakfast. Angelo inquired whether they had been visited by Germans oflate. The girl told him that a German chasseur with a couple of soldiershad called them up last night.

  'Wouldn't it have been a pity if they had dragged me out and shot me?'said Angelo.

  'But they were after a lady,' she explained; 'they have gone on toBormio, and expect to catch her there or in the mountains.'

  'Better there than in the mountains, my dear; don't you think so?'

  The girl said that she would not like to meet those fellows among themountains.

  'Suppose you were among the mountains, and those fellows came up withyou; wouldn't you clap your hands to see me jumping down right in frontof you all?' said Angelo.

  'Yes, I should,' she admitted. 'What is one man, though!'

  'Something, if he feeds like five. Quick! I must eat. Have you a lover?'

  'Yes.'

  'Fancy you are waiting on him.'

  'He's only a middling lover, signore. He lives at Cles, over Val Pejo,in Val di Non, a long way, and courts me twice a year, when he comesover to do carpentering. He cuts very pretty Madonnas. He is a German.'

  'Ha! you kneel to the Madonna, and give your lips to a German? Go.'

  'But I don't like him much, signore; it's my father who wishes me tohave him; he can make money.'

  Angelo motioned to her to be gone, saying to himself, 'That father ofhers would betray the Saints for a handful of florins.'

  He dressed, and wrenched his knife from the door. Hearing the clatterof a horse at the porch, he stopped as he was descending the stairs.A German voice said, 'Sure enough, my jolly landlord, she's there, inWorms--your Bormio. Found her at the big hotel: spoke not a syllable;stole away, stole away. One chopin of wine! I'm off on four legs to thecaptain. Those lads who are after her by Roveredo and Trent have badnoses. "Poor nose--empty belly." Says the captain, "I stick at the pointof the cross-roads." Says I, "Herr Captain, I'm back to you first of thelot." My business is to find the runaway lady-pretty Fraulein! prettyFraulein! lai-ai! There's money on her servant, too; he's a disguisedExcellency--a handsome boy; but he has cut himself loose, and he gohang. Two birds for the pride of the thing; one for satisfaction--I 'msatisfied. I've killed chamois in my time. Jacob, I am; Baumwalder, Iam; Feckelwitz, likewise; and the very devil for following a track. Ach!the wine is good. You know the song?

  "He who drinks wine, he may cry with a will, Fortune is mine, may she stick to me still."

  I give it you in German--the language of song! my own, my native'lai-ai-lai-ai-la-la-lai-ai-i-ie!'

  "While stars still sit On mountain tops, I take my gun, Kiss little one On mother's breast. Ai-iu-e!

  "My pipe is lit, I climb the slopes, I meet the dawn A little one On mother's breast. Ai-aie: ta-ta-tai: iu-iu-iu-e!"

  Another chopin, my jolly landlord. What's that you're mumbling? Aboutthe servant of my runaway young lady? He go hang! What----?'

  Angelo struck his foot heavily on the stairs; the innkeeper coughed andran back, bowing to his guest. The chasseur cried, 'I 'll drink fartheron-wine between gaps!' A coin chinked on the steps in accompanimentto the chasseur's departing gallop. 'Beast of a Tedesco,' the landlordexclaimed as he picked up the money; 'they do the reckoning--not we. IfI had served him with the worth of this, I should have had the bottle atmy head. What a country ours is! We're ridden over, ridden over!'Angelo compelled the landlord to sit with him while he ate like fivemountaineers. He left mere bones on the table. 'It's wonderful,' saidthe innkeeper; 'you can't know what fear is.'

  'I think I don't,' Angelo replied; 'you do; cowards have to serve everyparty in turn. Up, and follow at my heels till I dismiss you. You knowthe pass into the Val Pejo and the Val di Sole.' The innkeeper stoodentrenched behind a sturdy negative. Angelo eased him to submissionby telling him that he only wanted the way to be pointed out. 'Bringtobacco; you're going to have an idle day,' said Angelo: 'I pay you whenwe separate.' He was deaf to entreaties and refusals, and began tolook mad about the eyes; his poor coward plied him with expostulations,offered his wife, his daughter, half the village, for the service: hehad to follow, but would take no cigars. Angelo made his daughter fetchbread and cigars, and put a handful in his pocket, upon which, aftertwo hours of inactivity at the foot of the little chapel, where Angelowaited for the coming of Vittoria's messenger, the innkeeper was gladto close his fist. About noon Lorenzo came, and at once acted a play ofeyes for Angelo to perceive his distrust of the man and a multitude ofbad things about him he was reluctant, notwithstanding Angelo's readynod, to bring out a letter; and frowned again, for emphasis to theexpressive comedy. The letter said:

  'I have fallen upon English friends. They lend me money. Fly to Luganoby the help of these notes: I inclose them, and will not ask pardonfor it. The Valtellina is dangerous; the Stelvio we know to be watched.Retrace your way, and then try the Engadine. I should stop on a breakingbridge if I thought my companion, my Carlo's cousin, was near capture.I am well taken care of: one of my dearest friends, a captain in theEnglish army, bears me company across. I have a maid from one of thevillages, a willing girl. We ride up to the mountains; to-morrow wecross the pass; there is a glacier. Val di Non sounds Italian, but Iam going into the enemy's land. You see I am well guarded. My immediateanxiety concerns you; for what will our Carlo ask of me? Lose not onemoment. Away, and do not detain Lorenzo. He has orders to meet us uphigh in the mountain this evening. He is the best of servants butI always meet the bes
t everywhere--that is, in Italy. Leaving it, Igrieve. No news from Milan, except of great confusion there. I judge bythe quiet of my sleep that we have come to no harm there.

  'Your faithfullest

  'VITTORIA.'

  Lorenzo and the innkeeper had arrived at an altercation before Angelofinished reading. Angelo checked it, and told Lorenzo to make speed: hesent no message.

  'My humanity,' Angelo then addressed his craven associate, 'counsels methat it's better to drag you some distance on than to kill you. You 'rea man of intelligence, and you know why I have to consider the matter. Igive you guide's pay up to the glacier, and ten florins buon'mano. Wouldyou rather earn it with the blood of a countryman? I can't let thattongue of yours be on the high-road of running Tedeschi: you know it.

  'Illustrious signore, obedience oils necessity,' quoth the innkeeper.'If we had but a few more of my cigars!'

  'Step on,' said Angelo sternly.

  They walked till dark and they were in keen air. A hut full of recentgrass-cuttings, on the border of a sloping wood, sheltered them. Theinnkeeper moaned for food at night and in the morning, and Angelotossed him pieces of bread. Beyond the wood they came upon bare crag andcommenced a sharper ascent, reached the height, and roused an eagle.The great bird went up with a sharp yelp, hanging over them with knottedclaws. Its shadow stretched across sweeps of fresh snow. The innkeepersent a mocking yelp after the eagle.

  'Up here, one forgets one is a father--what's more, a husband,' he said,striking a finger on the side of his nose.

  'And a cur, a traitor, carrion,' said Angelo.

  'Ah, signore, one might know you were a noble. You can't understandour troubles, who carry a house on our heads, and have to fill mouthsagape.'

  'Speak when you have better to say,' Angelo replied.

  'Padrone, one would really like to have your good opinion; and I'm leanas a wolf for a morsel of flesh. I could part with my buon'mano for asight of red meat--oh! red meat dripping.'

  'If,' cried Angelo, bringing his eyebrows down black on the man, 'if Iknew that you had ever in your life betrayed one of us look below; thereyou should lie to be pecked and gnawed at.'

  'Ah, Jacopo Cruchi, what an end for you when you are full of goodmeanings!' the innkeeper moaned. 'I see your ribs, my poor soul!'

  Angelo quitted him. The tremendous excitement of the Alpine solitudeswas like a stringent wine to his surcharged spirit. He was one to whomlife and death had become as the yes and no of ordinary men: not morethan a turning to the right or to the left. It surprised him that thisfellow, knowing his own cowardice and his conscience, should consent tolive, and care to eat to live.

  When he returned to his companion, he found the fellow drinking fromthe flask of an Austrian soldier. Another whitecoat was lying near. Theypressed Angelo to drink, and began to play lubberly pranks. One clappedhands, while another rammed the flask at the reluctant mouth, tillAngelo tripped him and made him a subject for derision; whereupon theywere all good friends. Musket on shoulder, the soldiers descended,blowing at their finger-nails and puffing at their tobacco--lauterkaiserlicher (rank Imperial), as with a sad enforcement of resignationthey had, while lighting, characterized the universally detestedGovernment issue of the leaf.

  'They are after her,' said Jacopo, and he shot out his thumb and twistedan eyelid. His looks became insolent, and he added: 'I let them go on;but now, for my part, I must tell you, my worthy gentleman, I've hadenough of it. You go your way, I go mine. Pay me, and we part. With theutmost reverence, I quit you. Climbing mountains at my time of life isout of all reason. If you want companions, I 'll signal to that pair ofTedeschi; they're within hail. Would you like it? Say the word, if youwould--hey!'

  Angelo smiled at the visible effect of the liquor.

  'Barto Rizzo would be the man to take you in hand,' he remarked.

  The innkeeper flung his head back to ejaculate, and murmured, 'BartoRizzo! defend me from him! Why, he levies contribution upon us in theValtellina for the good of Milan; and if we don't pay, we're all of usdown in a black book. Disobey, and it's worse than swearing you won'tpay taxes to the legitimate--perdition to it!--Government. Do you knowBarto Rizzo, padrone? You don't know him, I hope? I'm sure you wouldn'tknow such a fellow.'

  'I am his favourite pupil,' said Angelo.

  'I'd have sworn it,' groaned the innkeeper, and cursed the day and hourwhen Angelo crossed his threshold. That done, he begged permission tobe allowed to return, crying with tears of entreaty for mercy: 'BartoRizzo's pupils are always out upon bloody business!' Angelo told himthat he had now an opportunity of earning the approval of Barto Rizzo,and then said, 'On,' and they went in the track of the two whitecoats;the innkeeper murmuring all the while that he wanted the approval ofBarto Rizzo as little as his enmity; he wanted neither frost nor fire.The glacier being traversed, they skirted a young stream, and arrived atan inn, where they found the soldiers regaling. Jacopo was informed bythem that the lady whom they were pursuing had not passed. They pushedtheir wine for Angelo to drink: he declined, saying that he had swornnot to drink before he had shot the chamois with the white cross on hisback.

  'Come: we're two to one,' they said, 'and drink you shall this time!'

  'Two to two,' returned Angelo: 'here is my Jacopo, and if he doesn'tcount for one, I won't call him father-in-law, and the fellow living atCles may have his daughter without fighting for her.'

  'Right so,' said one of the soldiers, 'and you don't speak bad Germanalready.'

  'Haven't I served in the ranks?' said Angelo, giving a bugle-call of thereveille of the cavalry.

  He got on with them so well that they related the object of theirexpedition, which was, to catch a runaway young rebel lady and hold herfast down at Cles for the great captain--'unser tuchtiger Hauptmann.'

  'Hadn't she a servant, a sort of rascal?' Angelo inquired.

  'Right so; she had: but the doe's the buck in this chase.'

  Angelo tossed them cigars. The valley was like a tumbled mountain, thickwith crags and eminences, through which the river worked strenuously,sinuous in foam, hurrying at the turns. Angelo watched all the ways froma distant height till set of sun. He saw another couple of soldiers meetthose two at the inn, and then one pair went up toward the vale-head.It seemed as if Vittoria had disconcerted them by having chosen anotherroute.

  'Padrone,' said Jacopo to him abruptly, when they descended to find aresting-place, 'you are, I speak humbly, so like the devil that I mustenter into a stipulation with you, before I continue in your company,and take the worst at once. This is going to be the second night of mysleeping away from my wife: I merely mention it. I pinch her, and shebeats me, and we are equal. But if you think of making me fight, I tellyou I won't. If there was a furnace behind me, I should fall into itrather than run against a bayonet. I 've heard say that the nerves arein the front part of us, and that's where I feel the shock. Now we'reon a plain footing. Say that I'm not to fight. I'll be your servant tillyou release me, but say I 'm not to fight; padrone, say that.'

  'I can't say that: I'll say I won't make you fight,' Angelo pacified himby replying. From this moment Jacopo followed him less like a gracelessdog pulled by his chain. In fact, with the sense of prospectivesecurity, he tasted a luxurious amazement in being moved about by asuperior will, wafted from his inn, and paid for witnessing strangeincidents. Angelo took care that he was fed well at the place wherethey slept, but himself ate nothing. Early after dawn they mounted theheights above the road. It was about noon that Angelo discerned a partycoming from the pass on foot, consisting of two women and three men.They rested an hour at the village where he had slept overnight; themuskets were a quarter of a mile to the rear of them. When they startedafresh, one of the muskets was discharged, and while the echoes wererolling away, a reply to it sounded in the front. Angelo, from his postof observation, could see that Vittoria and her party were marchingbetween two guards, and that she herself must have perceived both thefront and rearward couple. Y
et she and her party held on their course atan even pace. For a time he kept them clearly in view; but it was toughwork along the slopes of crag: presently Jacopo slipped and went down.'Ah, padrone,' he said: 'I'm done for; leave me.'

  'Not though I should have to haul you on my back,' replied Angelo. 'If Ido leave you, I must cut out your tongue.'

  'Rather than that, I'd go on a sprained ankle,' said Jacopo, and hestrove manfully to conquer pain; limping and exclaiming, 'Oh, my littlevillage! Oh, my little inn! When can a man say that he has finishedrunning about the world! The moment he sits, in comes the devil.'

  Angelo was obliged to lead him down to the open way, upon which theymade slow progress.

  'The noble gentleman might let me return--he might trust me now,' Jacopowhimpered.

  'The devil trusts nobody,' said Angelo.

  'Ah, padrone! there's a crucifix. Let me kneel by that.'

  Angelo indulged him. Jacopo knelt by the wayside and prayed for an easyankle and a snoring pillow and no wakeners. After this he was refreshed.The sun sank; the darkness spread around; the air grew icy. 'Does theBlessed Virgin ever consider what patriots have to endure?' Jacopomuttered to himself, and aroused a rare laugh from Angelo, who seizedhim under the arm, half-lifting him on. At the inn where they rested, hebathed and bandaged the foot.

  'I can't help feeling a kindness to you for it,' said Jacopo.

  'I can't afford to leave you behind,' Angelo accounted for hisattention.

  'Padrone, we've been understanding one another all along by our thumbs.It's that old inn of mine--the taxes! we have to sell our souls to paythe taxes. There's the tongue of the thing. I wouldn't betray you; Iwouldn't.'

  'I'll try you,' said Angelo, and put him to proof next day, when thesoldiers stopped them as they were driving in a cart, and Jacopo sworeto them that Angelo was his intended son-in-law.

  There was evidently an unusual activity among the gendarmerie of thelower valley, the Val di Non; for Jacopo had to repeat his fable morethan once, and Angelo thought it prudent not to make inquiries abouttravellers. In this valley they were again in summer heat. Summersplendours robed the broken ground. The Val di Non lies toward thesun, banked by the Val di Sole, like the southern lizard under a stone.Chestnut forest and shoulder over shoulder of vineyard, and meadows ofmarvellous emerald, with here and there central partly-wooded crags,peaked with castle-ruins, and ancestral castles that are still warmhomes, and villages dropped among them, and a river bounding and rushingeagerly through the rich enclosure, form the scene, beneath that Italiansun which turns everything to gold. There is a fair breadth to the vale:it enjoys a great oval of sky: the falls of shade are dispersed, dot thehollow range, and are not at noontide a broad curtain passing over fromright to left. The sun reigns and also governs in the Val di Non.

  'The grape has his full benefit here, padrone,' said Jacopo.

  But the place was too populous, and too much subjected to thegeneral eye, to please Angelo. At Cles they were compelled to bearan inspection, and a little comedy occurred. Jacopo, after exhibitingAngelo as his son-in-law, seeing doubts on the soldiers' faces,mentioned the name of the German suitor for his daughter's hand--thecarpenter, Johann Spellmann, to whose workshop he requested to be taken.Johann, being one of the odd Germans in the valley, was well known: hewas carving wood astride a stool, and stopped his whistling to listento the soldiers, who took the first word out of Jacopo's mouth, and wereconvinced, by Johann's droop of the chin, that the tale had some truthin it; and more when Johann yelled at the Valtelline innkeeper to knowwhy, then, he had come to him, if he was prepared to play him false. Oneof the soldiers said bluntly, that as Angelo's appearance answered tothe portrait of a man for whom they were on the lookout, they would,if their countryman liked, take him and give him a dose of marching andimprisonment.

  'Ach! that won't make my little Rosetta love me better,' cried Johann,who commenced taking up a string of reproaches against women, andpitched his carving-blade and tools abroad in the wood-dust.

  'Well, now, it 's queer you don't want to fight this lad,' said Jacopo;'he's come to square it with you that way, if you think best.'

  Johann spared a remark between his vehement imprecations against thesex to say that he was ready to fight; but his idea of vengeance wasdirected upon the abstract conception of a faithless womankind. Angelo,by reason of his detestation of Germans, temporarily threw himself intothe part he was playing to the extent of despising him. Johann admittedto Jacopo that intervals of six months' duration in a courtship werewide jumps for Love to take.

  'Yes; amor! amor!' he exclaimed with extreme dejection; 'I could wait.Well! since you've brought the young man, we'll have it out.'

  He stepped before Angelo with bare fists. Jacopo had to interpose. Thesoldiers backed Johann, who now said to Angelo, 'Since you've come forit, we'll have it out.'

  Jacopo had great difficulty in bringing him to see that it was a matterto talk over. Johann swore he would not talk about it, and was ready tofight a dozen Italians, man up man down.

  'Bare-fisted?' screamed Jacopo.

  'Hey! the old way! Give him knuckles, and break his back, my boy!' criedthe soldiers; 'none of their steel this side of the mountain.'

  Johann waited for Angelo to lift his hands; and to instigate hisreluctant adversary, thumped his chest; but Angelo did not move. Thesoldiers roared.

  'If she has you, she shall have a dolly,' said Johann, now heated withthe prospect of presenting that sort of husband to his little Rosetta.At this juncture Jacopo threw himself between them.

  'It shall be a real fight,' he said; 'my daughter can't make up hermind, and she shall have the best man. Leave me to arrange it allfairly; and you come here in a couple of hours, my children,' headdressed the soldiers, who unwillingly quitted the scene where therewas a certainty of fun, on the assurance of there being a livelier sceneto come.

  When they had turned their heels on the shop, Jacopo made a face atJohann; Johann swung round upon Angelo, and met a smile. Then followedexplanations.

  'What's that you say? She's true--she's true?' exclaimed the astoundedlover.

  'True enough, but a girl at an inn wants hotter courting,' said Jacopo.'His Excellency here is after his own sweetheart.'

  Johann huzzaed, hugged at Angelo's hands, and gave a lusty filial tap toJacopo on the shoulder. Bread and grapes and Tyrolese wine were placedfor them, and Johann's mother soon produced a salad, eggs, and fowl;and then and there declared her willingness to receive Rosetta into thehousehold, 'if she would swear at the outset never to have 'heimweh'(home-longing); as people--men and women, both--always did when theytook a new home across a mountain.'

  'She won't--will she?' Johann inquired with a dubious sparkle.

  'Not she,' said Jacopo.

  After the meal he drew Johann aside. They returned to Angelo, and Johannbeckoned him to leave the house by a back way, leading up a slope ofgarden into high vine-poles. He said that he had seen a party passout of Cles from the inn early, in a light car, on for Meran. Thegendarmerie were busy on the road: a mounted officer had dashed up tothe inn an hour later, and had followed them: it was the talk of thevillage.

  'Padrone, you dismiss me now,' said Jacopo.

  'I pay you, but don't dismiss you,' said Angelo, and handed him abank-note.

  'I stick to you, padrone, till you do dismiss me,' Jacopo sighed.

  Johann offered to conduct them as far as the Monte Pallade pass, andthey started, avoiding the high road, which was enviably broad andsolid. Within view of a village under climbing woods, they discerned anopen car, flanked by bayonets, returning to Cles. Angelo rushed aheadof them down the declivity, and stood full in the road to meet theprocession. A girl sat in the car, who hung her head, weeping; Lorenzowas beside her; an Englishman on foot gave employment to a pair ofsoldiers to get him along. As they came near at marching pace, Lorenzoyawned and raised his hand to his cheek, keeping the thumb pointedbehind him. Including the girl, there were four prisoners: Vittoria wasabsent. T
he Englishman, as he was being propelled forward, addressedAngelo in French, asking him whether he could bear to see an unoffendingforeigner treated with wanton violation of law. The soldiers bellowed attheir captive, and Angelo sent a stupid shrug after him. They rounded abend of the road. Angelo tightened the buckle at his waist.

  'Now I trust you,' he said to Jacopo. 'Follow the length of five milesover the pass: if you don't see me then, you have your liberty, tongueand all.'

  With that he doubled his arms and set forth at a steady run, leavinghis companions to speculate on his powers of endurance. They did socomplacently enough, until Jacopo backed him for a distance and Johannbetted against him, when behold them at intervals taking a sharp trot tokeep him in view.