Sir John Constantine Part 48

At a little distance sat the Princess watching me, her gun across her knees. Beyond her and beyond the cottage, by the edge of the wood the firing-party had fallen into rank and were marching off among the pine-stems, the Prince and Father Domenico with them. I stared stupidly after the disappearing uniforms, and put out a hand as if to brush away the smoke which yet floated across the clearing.

The Commandant, turning to follow his men, at the same moment lifted his hand in salute. So he, too, pa.s.sed out of sight.

I turned to the Princess. She arose slowly and came to me.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE WOOING OF PRINCESS CAMILLA.

"Take heed of loving me, At least remember I forbade it thee; . . .

If thou love me, take heed of loving me."

DONNE, _The Prohibition_.

"You have conquered."

She had halted, a pace or two from me, with downcast eyes. She said it very slowly, and I stared at her and answered with an unmeaning laugh.

"Forgive me, Princess. I--I fancy my poor wits have been shaken and need a little time to recover. At any rate, I do not understand you."

"You have conquered," she repeated in a low voice that dragged upon the words. Then, after a pause,--"You remember, once, promising me that at the last I should come and place my neck under your foot . . ." She glanced up at me and dropped her eyes again. "Yes, I see that you remember. _Eccu_--I am here."

"I remember, Princess: but even yet I do not understand. Why, and for what, should you beseech me?"

"In the first place for death. I am your wife . . ." She broke off with a s.h.i.+ver. "There is something in the name, _messere_--is there not?--that should move you to kindness, as a sportsman takes his game not unkindly to break its neck. That is all I ask of you--"

"Princess!"

She lifted a hand. "--except that you will let me say what I have to say. You shall think hard thoughts of me, and I am going to make them harder; but for your own sake you shall put away vile ones-if you can."

I stared at her stupidly dizzied a little with the words _I am your wife_, humming in my brain. Or say that I am naturally not quick-witted, and I will plead that for once my dullness did me no discredit.

At all events it saved me for the moment: for while I stared at her, utterly at a loss, a crackle of twigs warned us, and we turned together as, by the pathway leading from the high-road, the bushes parted and the face of Marc'antonio peered through upon the clearing.

"Salutation, O Princess!" said he gravely, and stepped out of cover attended by Stephanu, who likewise saluted.

The Princess drew herself up imperiously. "I thought, O Stephanu, that I had made plain my orders, that you two were neither to follow nor to watch me?"

"Nevertheless," Marc'antonio made answer, "when one misses a comrade and hears, at a little distance, the firing of a volley . . . not to mention that some one has been burning gunpowder hereabouts," he wound up, sniffing the air with an expression that absurdly reminded me of our Vicar, at home, tasting wine.

"I warn you, O Marc'antonio," said the Princess, "to be wise and ask no more questions."

"I have asked none, O Princess," he answered again, still very gravely, and after a glance at me turned to Stephanu. "But it runs in my head, comrade, that the time has come to consider other things than wisdom."

"For example?" I challenged him sharply.

"For example, cavalier, that I cannot reconcile this smell with any Corsican gunpowder."

"And you are right," said I. "Nay, Princess, you have sworn not long since to obey me, and I choose that they shall know. That salvo, sirs, was fired, five minutes ago, by the Genoese."

"A 'salvo' did you say, cavalier?"

"For our wedding, Marc'antonio." I took the Princess's hand--which neither yielded nor resisted--and lifting it a little way, released it to fall again limply. So for a while there was silence between us four.

"Marc'antonio," said I, "and you, Stephanu--it is I now who speak for the Princess and decide for her; and I decide that you, who have served her faithfully, deserve to be told all the truth. It is truth, then, that we are married. The priest who married us was Fra Domenico, and with a.s.sent of his master the Prince Camillo.

I can give you, moreover, the name of the chief witness: he is a certain Signor or General Andrea Fornari, and commands the Genoese garrison in Nonza."

"Princess!" Marc'antonio implored her.

"It is true," said she. "This gentleman has done me much honour, having heard what my brother chose to say."

"But I do not comprehend!" The honest fellow cast a wild look around the clearing. "Ah, yes-the volley! They have taken the Prince, and shot him . . . But his body--they would not take his body--and you standing here and allowing it--"

"My friends," I interrupted, "they have certainly taken his body, and his soul too, for that matter; and I doubt if you can overtake either on this side of Nonza. But with him you will find the crown of Corsica, and the priest who helped him to sell it. I tell you this, who are clansmen of the Colonne. Your mistress, who discovered the plot and was here to hinder it, will confirm me."

Their eyes questioned her; not for long. In the droop of her bowed head was confirmation.

"And therefore," I went on, "you two can have no better business than to help me convey the Princess northward and bring her to her mother, whom in this futile following after a wretched boy you have all so strangely forgotten. By G.o.d!" said I, "there is but one man in Corsica who has hunted, this while, on a true scent and held to it; and he is an Englishman, solitary and faithful at this moment upon Cape Corso!"

"Your pardon, cavalier," answered Marc'antonio after a slow pause.

"What you say is just, in part, and I am not denying it. But so we saw not our duty, since the Queen Emilia bade us follow her son.

With him we have hunted (as you tell us) too long and upon a false scent. Be it so: but, since this has befallen, we must follow on the chase a little farther. For you, you have now the right to protect our well-beloved; not only to the end of Cape Corso, but to the end of the world. But for us, who are two men used to obey, the Princess your wife must suffer us to disobey her now for the first time.

The road to the Cape, avoiding Nonza, is rough and steep and must be travelled afoot; yet I think you twain can accomplish it. At the Cape, if G.o.d will, we will meet you and stand again at your service.

But we travel by another road--the road which does not avoid Nonza."

He glanced at Stephanu, who nodded.

"Farewell then, O Princess; and if this be the end of our service, forgive what in the past has been done amiss. Farewell, O cavalier, and be happy to protect her in perils wherein we were powerless."

The Princess stretched out both hands.

"Nay, mistress," said Marc'antonio, with another glance at Stephanu; "but first cross them, that there be no telling the right from the left: for we are two jealous men."

She crossed them obediently, and the two took each a hand and kissed it.

Now all this while I could see that she was struggling for speech, and as they released her hands she found it.

"But wherefore must you go by Nonza, O Marc'antonio? And how many will you take with you?"

Marc'antonio put the first question aside. "We go alone, Princess.

You may call it a reconnaissance, on which the fewer taken the better."

"You will not kill him! Nay, then, O Marc'antonio, at least--at least you will not hurt him!"

"We hope, Princess, that there will be no need," he answered seriously, and, saluting once more, turned on his heel. Stephanu also saluted and turned, and the pair, falling into step, went from us across the clearing.