The Daltons Volume II Part 30

"And if I did, the fellow detected it. Ah, that rogue must have served Ma.s.s once on a time, or his ears had never been so sharp!"

"Are yours quick enough to say if that be the tramp of a horse?" asked Norwood, as he listened to the sounds.

"Yes, that is a horse," cried Jekyl.

"Now, then, for the soup," exclaimed the canon. "Ah, yes!" added he, with a sigh, as he turned to Lady Hester, "these are the crosses,----these are the trials of life; but they are good for us,--they are good for us! Poor mortals that we are! Non est sanitas in carne mea. Oime! oime!" And so moralizing, he gave her his arm as he reentered the house. In less than a minute later, D'Esmonde galloped up to the door, and dismounted.

"Has anything occurred?--you are late to-night," asked Norwood, hastily.

"Nothing. The city, however, was in great alarm, and the tocsin was twice sounded in the churches when I left at ten o'clock; the guards were doubled at the gates, and mounted patrols making the rounds in every quarter."

"What was this for?" asked Norwood.

"A mere false alarm,----nothing more. The Austrians are hara.s.sed beyond measure by these frequent calls to arms; and men grumble that they are mustered twice or thrice during the night without any cause. A petard exploded in the street, or a church bell rung, is sure to call out the whole garrison."

"I begin to suspect that our Italian friends will be satisfied with this, and never go further," said Norwood, contemptuously.

"You are wrong there. It is by the frequency and impunity of these demonstrations, that they are working up courage for an overt movement By the time that the Austrians have grown indifferent to such nightly disturbances, the others will have gained hardihood for a real outbreak."

"If they only be persuaded that war is a.s.sa.s.sination on a grand scale, they might make excellent soldiers," simpered Jekyl; but the others seemed to take no heed of his pleasantry.

"Have they not fixed a time?" asked Norwood, eagerly; "or is it all left vague and uncertain as ever?"

"The Swiss are quite ready; we only wait now for the Piedmontese. Genoa is with us at a word; so are Leghorn and the towns of the Romagna. The signal once given, there will be such a rising as Italy has not seen for centuries. England will supply arms, ammunition--"

"All but men," sighed Norwood; "and it is exactly what are wanting."

"And France--"

"Will give her sympathies," broke in Jekyl. "That dear France! that always says G.o.d speed to disturbance and trouble wherever it be."

"What of that Austrian soldier?" said D'Esmonde, who did not quite like the tone of either of his companions,--"is he better?"

"The surgeon says that he cannot recover," replied Jekyl; "and for that reason I suspect that he 's in no danger."

"Have you seen the officer to-day?" asked the priest again.

"No," replied Norwood. "Jekyl and I twice endeavored to speak with him; but he slept half the forenoon, and since that he has been writing innumerable despatches to headquarters."

"They say at Milan that he 'll be shot for this misadventure," said D'Esmonde; "that he acted in contravention to his orders, or did something, I know not what, which will be treated as a grave military offence."

"The canonico is furious with us for this delay," said Jekyl, laughing, as he returned from a peep into the _salon_.

The Abbe was, meanwhile, deep in a whispered conversation with Norwood.

"Ay," said the latter, doubtingly, "but it's a serious thing to tamper with a soldier's fidelity. The Austrians are not the people to suffer this with impunity."

"How are they to know it?"

"If it fail,--if this young fellow reject our offers, which, as a Hungarian, it is just as likely that he will do?"

"But he is not a Hungarian. I know him, and all about him."

"And can you answer for his readiness to join us?"

"I cannot go that far; but seeing the position he stands in, what can be more probable? And, take the worst case: suppose that he refuses, I have him still!"

"How do you mean?"

"Simply that I have in my hands the means to destroy all his credit, and peril his very life!" The sudden energy of pa.s.sion in which he delivered these words appeared to have escaped him unawares; for, as quickly recovering his wonted smoothness of tone, he said, "Not that anything short of the last necessity would drive me to such an alternative."

"May I never have to trust to your tender mercies, Abbe!" said Norwood, with a laugh, in which there was far more of earnest than of jesting; "but let us talk of these things after supper." And with the careless ease of a mere idler, he lounged into the house, followed by the others.

Once seated at supper, the conversation took a general turn, requiring all the Abbe's skill and Jekyl's tact at times to cover from the servants who waited the secret meaning of many of those allusions to politics and party which Lady Hester uttered, in the perfect conviction that she was talking in riddles. Her indiscretion rendered her, indeed, a most perilous a.s.sociate; and in spite of hints, warnings, and signs, she would rattle on upon the dangerous theme of revolt and insurrection; the poor devices of deception she employed being but sorry blinds to the native quickness of Italian shrewdness.

This little fire of cross-purposes sadly perplexed the canonico, who looked up now and then from his plate with a face of stupid astonishment at all that went forward.

"You have heard, I suppose, canon," said the Abbe, adroitly addressing him, "that the city authorities have only granted twelve thousand crowns for the festival of San Giovanni?"

"Twelve thousand crowns! It will not pay for the throne of the Virgin,"

growled out the canon, "not to speak of the twenty-six angels in sprigged muslin!"

"There are to be no angels this time. The priests of the Santa Croce are to walk behind the canopy."

"It will ruin the procession," muttered the canon.

"They certainly look as little like angels as need be," interposed Jekyl, slyly.

"Sixty lamps and two hundred tapers are a scant allowance," continued D'Esmonde.

"Darkness,--positive darkness!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the canon; "ubi evasit pietas nostra?--what has become of our ancient faith?"

"The soldier, your reverence, wishes to see you immediately," said a servant, entering in haste; "he fears that he is sinking fast."

"The heavy dews of the morning are falling--can he not wait till the sun rises, Giuseppe?"

"You had better see him at once, canon," whispered the Abbe.

"Oime! oime!" sighed the priest, "mine is a weary road--'potum meum c.u.m fletu miscebam,'" added he, finis.h.i.+ng off his champagne, "is it far from this?"

"Only to the boat-house, father," said Lady Hester.

"Per mares et ignos! it's a good half-hour's walk," growled he.

"You can have the pony carriage, father," interposed she.

"He starts at everything by night--don't trust the pony," said Jekyl.

"Well, then, be carried in my chair, father."