Gerald Fitzgerald: The Chevalier Part 45

'But could be fetched, if necessary,' said Caraffa, half musing, as he moved toward the door.

Ma.s.soni did not wait to hear more, but stealthily threading his way through the copse, he gained the garden, and retracing his steps, returned to the convent. Ascending to his chamber by a private stair, he gave his servant orders to say that he was indisposed, and could not receive any one.

'So, then, your Eminence,' said he bitterly, as he sank into a chair, 'you would underplot me here. Let us see who can play his cards best.'

CHAPTER XI. AN AUDIENCE

Within less than half an hour after his arrival at home, Ma.s.sini received an order from the Cardinal to repair to the palace. It was a verbal message, and couched in terms to make the communication seem scarcely important.

Ma.s.soni smiled as he prepared to obey; it amused him to think, that in a game of craft and subtlety his Eminence should dare to confront him, and yet this was evidently his policy.

The Cardinal's carriage stood ready horsed in the courtyard as the Pere pa.s.sed through, and a certain air of impatience in the servants showed that the time of departure had been inconveniently delayed.

'That thunder-storm will break over us before we are half way across the Campagna,' cried one.

'We were ordered for one, and it is now past three, and though the horses were taken from their feed to get in readiness, here we are still.'

'And all because a Jesuit is at his devotions!'

The look of haughty rebuke Ma.s.soni turned upon them as he caught these words, made them shrink back abashed and terrified; and none knew when nor in what shape might come the punishment for this insolence.

'You have forgotten an appointment, Pere Ma.s.soni,' said the Cardinal as the other entered his chamber, with a deep and respectful reverence, 'an appointment too, of your own making. There is an opinion abroad, that we Cardinals are men of leisure, whose idle hours are at the discretion of all; I had hoped, that to this novel theory the Pere Ma.s.soni would not have been a convert.'

'Nor am I, your Eminence. It would ill become one who wears such a frock as this to deny the rights of discipline and the benefits of obedience.'

'But you are late, sir?'

'If I am so, your Eminence will pardon me when I give the reason. The entire of last night was pa.s.sed by me in watching for the arrival of a certain youth, who did not come till nigh daybreak, and even then, so ill, so worn out and exhausted, that I have been in constant care of him ever since.'

'And he is come--he is actually here,' cried the Cardinal eagerly.

'He is, at this moment, in the college.'

'How have you been able to authenticate his ident.i.ty,--the rumour goes that he died years ago?'

'It is a somewhat entangled skein, your Eminence, but will stand the test of unravelment. Intervals there are, indeed, in his story, unfilled up; lapses of time, in which I am left to mere conjecture, but his career is traceable throughout; and I can track him from the days in which he stood an acolyte beside our altars to the hour we now talk in.'

'It is to your sanguine hopes you have been listening rather than cold reason, Pere.'

'Look at me, Eminence--scan me well, and say, do I look like those who are slaves to their own enthusiasm?'

'The strongest currents are often calm on the surface.'

The Pere sighed heavily, but did not answer.

'The youth himself, too, may have aided the delusion: he is, probably, one well suited to inspire interest: in a varied and adventurous life, men of this stamp acquire, amid their other worldly gifts, a marvellous power of persuasiveness.'

The Pere smiled half sadly.

'You would tell me, by that smile, Pere Ma.s.soni, that you are not to be the victim of such seductions; that you understand mankind in a spirit that excludes such error.'

'Far be it from me to indulge such boastfulness,' said the other meekly.

'At all events,' said the Cardinal, half peevishly, 'he who has courage and ambition enough to play this game is, doubtless, a fellow of infinite resource and readiness, and will have, at least, plausibility on his side.'

'Would that it were so!' exclaimed Ma.s.soni eagerly.

'What do you mean by that?'

'Would that he were one who could boldly a.s.sert his own proud cause, and vindicate his own high claims; would that he had come through the terrible years of his suffering life with a spirit hardened by trials, and a courage matured by exercise; would, above all, that he had not come from the conflict broken in health, shattered and down-stricken!

Ay, sir, this youth of bold pretensions, of winning manners, and persuasive gifts is a poor fellow so stunned by calamity as to be helpless!'

'Is he dying?' cried the Cardinal with intense anxiety.

'It were as well to die as live what he now is!' said the Pere solemnly.

'Have the doctors seen him?--has Fabrichette been with him?'

'No, sir. It is no case for their a.s.sistance, my own poor skill can teach me so much. His is the malady of the wounded spirit and the injured mind.'

'Is his reason affected?' asked Caraffa quickly.

'I trust not; but it is a case where time and care can be the only physicians.'

'And so, therefore, falls to the ground the grand edifice you have so long been rearing. The great foundation itself is rotten.'

'He may recover, sir,' said Ma.s.soni slowly.

'To what end, I ask you, to what end?'

'At least to claim a princely heritage,' said Ma.s.soni boldly.

'Who says so?--of what heritage do you speak? You are surely too wise to put faith in the idle stories men repeat of this or that legacy left by the late Prince.'

'I know enough, sir, to be sure that I speak on good authority; and I repeat that when this youth can prove his descent, he is the rightful heir to a royal fortune. It may be, that he will have higher and n.o.bler ambitions: he may feel that a great cause is ever worthy a great effort; that the son of a prince cannot accept life on the same humble terms as other men. In short, sir, it may chance that the dream of a poor Jesuit father should become a grand reality.'

'If all be but as real as the heritage, Ma.s.soni,' said the Cardinal scoffingly, 'you called it by its true name, when you said "dream."'

'Have you, then, not heard of this legacy?'

'Heard of it! Yes: all Rome heard of it; and, for that matter, his Royal Highness may have left him St. James's and the royal forest of Windsor.'

'Your Eminence, then, doubts that there was anything to bequeath?'

'There is no need to canva.s.s what I _doubt_. I 'll tell you what I _know_. The rent of the Altieri for the last two years is still unpaid; the servants at Albano have not received their wages, and the royal plate is at this moment pledged in the hands of the Jew Alcaico.'