Barbarossa; An Historical Novel Of The XII Century Part 58

"I am very old now, my dear child; death may come at any moment, and leave you without a protector. The Emperor Barbarossa has again crossed the Alps, and opened the campaign. What will become of you in a country where robbers and marauders can kill and plunder with impunity? No! I would not die in peace unless the walls of Castellamare were defended by some valiant knight."

"Dear father," she said, with emotion, "do not allude to this painful subject. You are strong; your health is excellent; why, then, speak of what may still be far from us, and which can only serve to make us unhappy?"

"You speak, dear child, as all do at twenty; youth lives thus careless of the future, and with scarcely even a thought for what the morrow may bring forth. Thank G.o.d, my health is good, but, at my age, a man should always be prepared for his last journey, and should accustom himself to the thought of death, which may come when he least expects it. As I have said, your isolation troubles me, and you should relieve my heart, Hermengarde, of this anxiety. You have seen and known Rapallo intimately; you tell me yourself that he is n.o.ble, and generous, and worthy of you--"

The young girl was silent; her lips moved convulsively, and tears fell from her eyes.

"Do not weep, my child; doubtless you are thinking of the gallant Erwin; he deserves all our sympathy, but why cherish a vain hope? He is dead; he has fallen beneath the weapons of the Saracens, like so many thousands of brave knights, victims of their devotion to the faith. As you must resign all thought of him for spouse and protector in these troublous times, another must take his place. Your marriage is the most ardent desire which your father now has. If you truly love him, you will relieve his heart of the burden which oppresses it."

Her tears ceased to flow, and she reflected seriously if it were not her duty to make the sacrifice which her filial love seemed to exact in order to secure her father's happiness.

At this moment the door opened, and Rapallo entered the room. The young man was scarcely above the middle height; his face beamed with frankness and benevolence, though his features were rather agreeable than positively handsome.

"Here you are at last, my dear Rapallo!" said the old man. "We were just speaking of you. You are right welcome now, although you have been neglectful of us lately."

Heribert bowed respectfully to the lady, pressed Bonello's hand cordially, and took a seat by his side.

"I was compelled to accept the invitation sent me by the Lombard confederation, which I am about to join," said he.

Bonello shook his head with a marked expression of disapproval.

"At least, I trust that you have made no positive engagement without consulting me?" he said. "Will you risk your life in an enterprise which has no chance of success? Heribert, Heribert, this is not well done! you have been very imprudent. I augur nothing good from this attempt."

An animated discussion followed between them; Hermengarde profited by it to leave the apartment unnoticed, and retired to her own room, where she could weep at her ease.

"Without doubt, I admit all that," replied Guido, after his guest had explained the motives which had induced his acceptance of the invitation sent to him. "I will even go further. I will suppose that the league increases, that the cities and the n.o.bles have given in their adherence to it, that the necessary funds can be procured, that its generals are skilful, that it can command everything necessary to sustain the struggle: one thing will still be wanting, and that is--unity. So long as Pavia, Genoa, Lodi, Pisa, and Florence, that is to say, the most important cities of Northern Italy, support the Emperor's cause, every attempt at independence will only aggravate our condition."

"Must we then always wear our chains?" cried the young man, in whose eyes shone a fire which Guido had never before observed in him.

"As long as Italy deserves her chains, she will wear them, and she does deserve them for her intestine divisions," replied Bonello. "Besides, be convinced that, in a military point of view, we are far inferior to the Germans. We have been taught this again by the late b.l.o.o.d.y battle fought near the walls of Rome. Forty thousand Romans have been routed by twelve thousand Germans, and of the forty thousand scarcely one half have escaped from the field."

"That affair is not so important as was at first supposed," answered Rapallo.

"Naturally the Lombards have tried to depreciate their enemy's success.

But it is certain, my lord Rapallo, that, at the siege of Ancona, the German advanced guard, even without its usual leader, Frederic, well nigh annihilated the Roman army. Give the Emperor time to install his Pope on the throne of Saint Peter, and conquer the Sicilian princes, and you will soon see then how easily he will overcome the Lombards."

"But the yoke which we bear is intolerable. The cries and complaints which we hear on all sides, are heartrending."

"Yes, our countrymen know very well how to complain. However, I readily acknowledge that their murmurs are well-grounded; but this new insurrection will be entirely to the Emperor's advantage; he will find in it an excuse to weigh us down with new extortions. So, my dear Rapallo, listen to an old man's advice: have nothing to do with the league, and do not compromise yourself in a rebellion which will have no better success than all those which have preceded it."

Heribert changed the subject, and soon after took leave of his host.

"I should have wished to speak to you," said Guido, "upon another business, which probably would not have seemed disagreeable; but as you appear in a hurry, we will reserve it for your next visit."

_CHAPTER L_.

_THE CONSPIRATORS_.

The young n.o.bleman galloped rapidly through the narrow valley of Castellamare, and more than once turned in his saddle and gazed earnestly upon the ancient walls of the lofty castle.

"What could he have meant?" he asked himself, "The good old man probably wishes to give me a suit of that costly armor which I have so often admired. If he do so, I will send him the best horse in my stables." In his excessive modesty, he had not suspected the old man's intentions, for he had never allowed such a hope to dwell in his imagination for a moment.

After a long ride, he entered a ravine, shut in on every side by lofty mountains. The heights were covered with trees, but below, all was barren and desolate. A few fruit-trees stood here and there as vestiges of former cultivation, and some stakes, almost decayed by time, rose from among the thistles and rank gra.s.s. In the lower part were the ruins of an ancient monastery, of which the four walls and the tower alone remained, and although of comparatively recent date, the stones were covered with parasitic plants. Heribert fastened his steed to a fragment of the wall, near which stood a number of other horses, all saddled, but browsing upon the abundant herbage.

He then proceeded to the church, where the profound silence would scarcely have allowed him to suppose, that he was in the immediate vicinity of hundreds of men all breathlessly awaiting an orator of a kind widely different from those who had formerly spoken there.

A rostrum of moss-covered stones had been erected on the place where the altar had once stood, and upon it was a man depicting in fervid language the misfortunes and disasters of Lombardy. His audience, who were all in armor, listened to him with pa.s.sionate and earnest attention; at times they applauded his words, at others their shouts of menace and defiance proved that he had succeeded in arousing their resentment. Rapallo, fearing to interrupt the harangue, stopped at the door.

"Dearly beloved brethren," cried the orator, with a piercing voice, "you have seen that Barbarossa is insensible to our grievances. In vain you have protested against the insolence of his prefects, against the injuries done to your property, the drudgery which has been imposed upon you, the ill treatment which you have borne; in short, against all the acts of violence and oppression of which you have been the victims.

The Emperor has remained deaf to all your complaints. Do you know the reason?"

The orator paused for a moment; his lips compressed, his nostrils dilated, he seemed to infuse into his hearers, by his looks, the fury with which he was himself animated.

"It is," he resumed in a still higher key, "because he looks upon you as slaves, whose necks are fitted to bear the yoke of his tyranny.

Think of what he once said at Pavia: 'Italy is a conquered province, she has lost all her rights; to demand any of her former privileges is an act of rebellion.' Yes, this is what he said openly, the despot! I heard him with my own ears; yes, he dared to say, that you have no longer any rights, that you are nothing but his va.s.sals."

A dull murmur ran through the a.s.sembly.

"Thus, brothers, when we appeal to right and justice, we are guilty of rebellion. With such principles, what have we left to hope for? Are you astonished now that an abstract has been made of your lands, of your houses, of your herds, of all your wealth, and that you have been taxed in consequence? Do you not know, brothers, that you no longer possess anything, but that all belongs to the Emperor? Gather in your harvests, the bailiffs come with their satellites and take what they please.

Prayers and tears are unavailing. Only enough is left us to barely prolong our own wretched existence, and that of our children; and this is all that is necessary for slaves, who live merely in the interest and for the service of their master."

The murmurs became more threatening, for pa.s.sion was working in the hearts of all.

"Poor slaves," he continued, "life is only a burden dest.i.tute of every joy. For this we have been deprived of our rights to hunt and fish, for this we are not allowed an instant which we can devote to the most innocent amus.e.m.e.nt. Woe to him who would leave his work to take a moment's rest. Is it right and just that your lives should be consumed in the most painful drudgery, that you should be subjected to every privation, whilst your masters revel in every luxury?"

The orator had attained his object, for he was compelled to pause an instant in order to allow his auditors to give vent to their rage in fierce imprecations against the oppressors of their native country.

"In ancient times the barbarians overran our fair land, but they only pa.s.sed over her surface; by bending the head to the storm, its fury was soon spent, and the evils could be repaired. Barbarossa, on the contrary, has put about our necks a yoke from which there is no relief.

We must build with our own hands the fortresses which threaten us; with our own hands we must construct for these cruel vultures--I mean for the worthy prefects of the Emperor--those nests from which they can swoop down upon us with impunity, to pillage and murder. Will you always submit to slavery? Are you willing to be oppressed until death sets you free? Will you not, at last, rise in your might, and expel the tyrants?"

"Liberty forever! Death to the tyrants! Down with Barbarossa! May he die, he and his infamous satellites!" was heard from all parts of the ruined church.

"Yes! liberty forever," resumed the orator in a calmer tone; "the hour of our deliverance is at hand; profit by it, for it may pa.s.s, never to return. At present the Emperor is before Rome. The most solid bulwarks to our liberty are the Church and Alexander, the successor of Saint Peter. If Barbarossa succeeds in overthrowing him, we shall lose forever all hope of shaking off the yoke imposed upon us by the Germans and the Emperor." And the orator descended from his rude platform amid the clamorous applause of his auditory.

The speaker was a n.o.bleman of great respectability, whose patriotism was equalled by his benevolence towards the needy and distressed. He had exaggerated nothing; but, on the contrary, had endeavored to palliate; and this very circ.u.mstance had increased the effect of his discourse. The pitiless severity of the prefects was, unfortunately, a positive and general fact, and the harsh sentiments of the Emperor towards unhappy Italy were only too evident. By adroit allusions, the orator had awakened all the memories of his hearers. A great number of them had felt the avidity of Frederic's agents; many had even suffered cruel tortures; and as they related their misfortunes, each imparted to his hearers the hatred by which he was himself convulsed.

Soon the a.s.sembly arrived at a paroxysm of fury. On all sides were heard fierce curses and expressions of grief and anger. Their arms shook with menacing sound; their eyes flashed; the audience seemed inspired with indignation.

At last another orator mounted the rostrum, and the noise gradually ceased.

"It is the Milanese Pandolfo," was said in a low tone; for all that came from Milan was received with great respect. Milan had won the martyr's crown.

"I bring the good wishes of my city to all the brothers of the Lombard League," said Pandolfo, with a clear, ringing voice. "You have heard, no doubt, that Milan is no longer a mere heap of ruins; her walls have risen; her fortifications have again appeared, and soon she will stand more proud, more threatening, than in former days. But walls and towers are not enough to defend us against tyranny; what we need above all, what already const.i.tutes our strength, is a powerful organization, and an extension of the Lombard League. Many powerful cities have already joined her; and next to Milan I can cite Brescia and Bergamo, Cremona and Placenza, Parma and Modena, while others are ready to raise the standard of Italian liberty. We no longer hold our meetings in the midst of ruins, or in narrow ravines, but in the open country. Whilst you are still forced to tremble before the minions of tyranny, and escape by stealth, to meet here, we defy Barbarossa's prefects, for we are now powerful, and strength gives us courage. Fear not for the interests of our sacred cause. Neglect nothing to gain over to it your kinsmen, your friends, and your neighbors. Encourage the timid, arouse the cowardly. The victory is ours, and the chains of slavery will be broken from the very moment in which we shall be united."