The Duchess of Trajetto Part 14

"Then again--" resumed he, seeing that Ippolito was in a painful state of vacillation, "by adopting a more spirited line of action, and uniting yourself with the _fuorusciti_, you would gain immortal honour and glory as the deliverer and true father of your country, _and would see your arms put up all over the city_!"

This last bait was too much for Ippolito to resist. His eye kindled, and he half started from his seat.

"And this would even be your wisest course of action," pursued his cunning tempter, "should you feel inclined to make yourself absolute master of the state instead of liberating it, inasmuch as it would obtain such popularity for you in the first instance. All the old friends of your house are so disgusted and alienated by the conduct of Alessandro, that they would gladly transfer their allegiance to you. And _I_ will undertake, if you will only be prudent, to make the _fuorusciti_ espouse your cause. With the French money and favour which my influence can secure to you, you may be certain of success!"

Ippolito's breast heaved. It seemed "a good plot--an excellent plot"--though a voice in his heart made its stifled accents heard against it. And so, in evil hour, the decision was made; and he became the tool of this wicked man, who designed, through him, to wreak his own vengeance on Alessandro.

But a bird of the air carried the matter to the Grand Duke; else how should he have heard of it? He, ready enough to fight conspirators with their own weapons, communicated secretly with Ippolito's steward, Giovan Andrea di Borgho San Sepolcro, and covenanted with him to do a certain deed for a certain sum of money.

Meantime, Strozzi negotiated with the leaders of the _fuorusciti_, who, knowing his character for craft and treachery, were not at all ready to meet him half way, and sometimes drove him to such desperation with their answers to his advances that he was almost minded to throw up conspiracy altogether, and retire upon his enormous fortune to Venice, and live quietly like an honest man. Well if he had!

The Cardinal, meantime, hearing that the Emperor was fitting out an expedition to Tunis, resolved to follow him thither, accompanied by certain of the _fuorusciti_, and lay his complaints before him in person.

No sooner had he decided on this step than he hastened his preparations for departure. He loved action and the bruit of arms: he would have made a pretty good soldier: probably a noted commander. To supply himself with the necessary funds, he broke up and sold all his plate, and borrowed ten thousand ducats of Felippo Strozzi. Having hired twenty horses for his personal attendants and four Florentines who were to accompany him, he started from Rome at the latter end of July, 1535, _en route_ for the little town of Itri, near Fondi, where he purposed awaiting the vessel in which he was to embark at Gaeta.

The reason he meant to wait at Itri rather than Gaeta was that he believed Giulia to be at Fondi--in which he was mistaken.

As he was in the act of mounting his beautiful mare, she fell beneath him, without any apparent reason; which was afterwards looked back on as an evil omen.

CHAPTER XIV.

WHAT BEFEL BARBAROSSA.

The Emperor Charles the Fifth had been very indignant when he heard of the sack of Fondi, and the attempt to seize the d.u.c.h.ess. Some months afterwards, when Muley Ha.s.san, whom Barbarossa had driven from Tunis, appealed to him for a.s.sistance, Charles, who was ambitious of military renown, resolved at once to rid the coast of a dangerous invader, and avenge an injured prince, by heading an expedition against Hayraddin.

The united strength of his dominions was therefore called out upon this enterprise, which he intended to increase his already brilliant reputation. As the redresser of wrongs, his cause was popular, and drew on him the applause of Christendom. A Flemish fleet conveyed his troops from the Low Countries; the galleys of Naples were loaded with the Italian auxiliaries, and the Emperor himself embarked at Barcelona with the flower of his Spanish n.o.bility, and considerable reinforcements from Portugal. Andrea Doria commanded the Genoese galleys, and the Knights of Malta equipped a small but powerful squadron, and hastened to the rendezvous at Cagliari.

All this mighty armament to hunt down a Lesbian pirate, the son of an obscure potter!

Hayraddin was, however, no contemptible foe. Ambitious and relentless, a skilful and a generous chief, his lavish bounties among his partizans made them his blind adherents: while his wondrous versatility had enabled him to ingratiate himself with the Sultan and his Vizier. It was therefore to be war to the knife between the Crescent and the Cross.

As soon as Barbarossa heard of the Emperor's formidable preparations, he called in all his corsairs from their different stations, drew from Algiers what forces could be spared, summoned Moors and Arabs from all quarters to his standard, and inflamed their fanaticism by a.s.suring them he was embarking in a holy war.

Twenty thousand horse and a considerable body of foot answered his summons, and drew together before Tunis. Hayraddin knew, however, that his greatest dependence must be on his Turkish troops, who were armed and disciplined in the European manner. He therefore threw six thousand of them, under Sinan, the renegade Jew, into the fortress of Goletta commanding the bay of Tunis; which the Emperor immediately invested.

Three separate storming parties attacked the fort; Sinan raged like a lion at bay: frequent sallies were made by his garrison, while the Moors and Arabs made diversions. But nothing could withstand the fury of the a.s.sailants; and a breach soon appeared in the walls of the fortress, which the Emperor pointed out to Muley Ha.s.san.

"Behold," said he, "the gate through which you may re-enter your kingdom!"

With the Goletta, Barbarossa's fleet fell into the Emperor's hands; and he was driven to extremities. Having strongly entrenched himself within the city, he called his chiefs to a council of war, and proposed to them, that before sallying out to decide their fate in battle, they should ma.s.sacre ten thousand Christians whom he had shut up in the citadel.

Even his pirate chiefs were staggered at this proposal; and Barbarossa, seeing they would not support him in it, yielded the point with a gesture of disgust at their want of hardihood. Charles and his chivalry were meanwhile painfully toiling, under a blazing African sun, across the burning sands which encompa.s.s Tunis, without so much as a drop of water to cool their tongues:

"Non e gente Pagana insieme accolta, Non muro cinto di profonda fossa, Non gran torrente o monte alpestre e folta Selva, che 'l loro vaggio arrestar possa."

La Ger. Lib., _Canto I._

Hayraddin, sallying out upon them with his best troops, made a desperate onset, but was so vigorously repulsed that his forces surged back to the city, and he himself was irresistibly borne along with them like a straw on the tide.

Meanwhile, a pale girl, a Christian slave, who had been within earshot of the council, carried the report of Barbarossa's ferocious proposal to the keepers of the citadel. They were revolted at his cruelty, and her entreaties, backed by the clamours of the despairing wretches in their charge, prevailed on them to release the Christian prisoners and strike off their fetters. Forth came Tebaldo Adimari, the pride of Fondi; forth came many a grey-haired senator, ill.u.s.trious cavalier, and venerable hidalgo, some in their full strength, others wasted with long captivity, but nerved at this moment to strike a blow for freedom.

Unarmed as they were, they flung themselves on the surprised guard, and turned the artillery of the fort against Barbarossa himself as he and his discomfited troops poured back in disorderly retreat. O, fell rage and despair of the defeated pirate, late the sovereign of two kingdoms, as he now heard Christian war-cries defying him from his own battlements! gnas.h.i.+ng his teeth, and cursing the comrades whose humanity compelled him to spare those who were now manning the walls, he sought safety in ignominious and precipitate flight.

Then what a cheer arose, as the Christians saw the turbans in retreat, and themselves masters of the city! The Emperor was first made aware of the turn affairs had taken, by the arrival of deputies from Tunis, who brought him the keys, and piteously besought him to check the violence of his troops. In vain! They were already sacking the city, killing and plundering without mercy; and thirty thousand defenceless people were the victims of that day, while ten thousand more were carried away as slaves.

It is said that Charles lamented this dreadful slaughter, and that he declared the only result of his victory which gave him any satisfaction was his reception by the ten thousand Christian captives, who fell at his feet, blessing him as their deliverer. In all, he freed twenty thousand slaves, whom he sent, clothed at his own expense, to their own homes; and they, as may well be supposed, made Europe ring with their praises of his goodness and munificence. It was a bright day for Fondi when Tebaldo Adimari returned! Though the d.u.c.h.ess was at Naples, and though Isaura was in her train, he had seen them both on his way home, and ratified his vows of love and constancy. The d.u.c.h.ess had promised to smile on their espousals, which were shortly to take place; and meanwhile his friends and relations got up a festa to welcome him, and there was church-going and bell-ringing, and eating and drinking, and dancing and singing, without any drunkenness, stabbing, or even quarrelling.

If such was the public joy in a little town of four thousand people at the return of a young fellow of no mark or likelihood whatever, except that he was comely, merry, brave, ingenuous, with a good word for everybody and with everybody's good word,--it may be supposed what a stir the Emperor's arrival at Naples made, and how that pleasure-loving capital nearly exhausted itself in demonstrations of welcome. The mole, when he landed, was so crowded, that you may be sure a grain of millet thrown upon it would not have found room to reach the ground. Nothing was to be heard but bell-ringing, acclamations, and the thundering of cannon; nothing to be seen but gold, velvet, silk, and brocade, festoons of flowers, triumphal arches, processions, deputations, triumphal cars, prancing steeds, waving plumes, and bronzed cavaliers looking up at the balconies of fair women waving their handkerchiefs, among whom, rely on it, were Vittoria Colonna and Giulia Gonzaga.

Charles, with his Spanish gravity ever uppermost, took it all very soberly; heard what people had to say, enjoyed it in his way, said very little himself, and in the proverb style; went to the cathedral, heard Fra Bernardino Ochino preach, and afterwards observed, composedly, "That man would make the stones weep!"--his own eyes being quite dry all the while. Also if anything inexpressibly funny were said, he remarked, "How very diverting!" but did not smile. He was best at business, and he entered upon Giulia's affairs.

CHAPTER XV.

MORE ABOUT THE CARDINAL.

Itri, the birthplace of the notorious Fra Diavolo, is a regular robber's-nest, picturesquely placed on the side of a lofty hill, and crested by a ruined castle.

In Ippolito de' Medici's time the castle was not ruined; and there was also a monastery, where he and his attendants were suitably entertained.

On the afternoon of the 2nd of August, after a meal which we should call luncheon, but which the early habits of those days distinguished as dinner,--succeeded by a moderate siesta,--the court-yard was all alive with preparations for a gallant riding-party, in the full heat and glare of the day. Groups of cowled and bare-headed monks stood curiously about, admiring the Cardinal's beautiful mare; and groups, too, of robber-like, s.h.a.ggy-looking men, and bright-eyed women and girls with golden bodkins in their hair, hung about the gates and pa.s.sed their comments on the cortege. The Cardinal came forth, talking to the Prior, whose pale, attenuated face and hollow eyes formed a notable contrast to the vivid colouring of his own healthy, well-fed countenance. He was within an ace of losing his good looks from too much eating and drinking. In dress, the Cardinal was superb, with a touch of the church militant. A smile was on his lip as he patted his mare and examined her trappings, saying,

"She will not serve me that sorry trick again, I hope."

"Fear not, my Lord Cardinal," said his groom; and he threw himself into the saddle. The Florentines also mounted their horses.

At this moment, Piero Strozzi stepped forward, saying, "This, from my father," with a meaning smile; and gave him a billet.

This Piero was son of Felippo, and had something of the same cold, sly look.

The billet only contained these words: "All goes well." The Cardinal read it with a gay smile, and tossed it back to Strozzi.

"Good news to start with," said he to his companions, as they rode out of the yard.

"The sun can scarce be hotter in Africa than it is here to-day, I think," said Donati, one of the _fuorusciti_.

"Not a whit too hot for me; I enjoy it," said the Cardinal. "And the road is in our favour, for it is all down-hill."

"_Facile descensus_," said Capponi. "What a vibrating haze!"

"We shall enjoy the shade and the coolness at Fondi," said Ippolito.

"You know I have undertaken to show you the fairest lady in Italy."