CORNELL 

UNIVERSITY 

LIBRARY 




FROM 
Bequest of 
ROGER P. CIARK 
1940 




The original of tliis bool< is in 
tine Cornell University Library. 

There are no known copyright restrictions in 
the United States on the use of the text. 



http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029248592 



FROM DAWN TO DARK 
IN ITALY. 



A TALE OE- 



€\t llefonttation in % Stents Centnrg. 




BOSTON: 
THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

iNSTITCTXD 1814. 

DEPOSITOBIES, 28 COENHII/L, BOSTON; AND 13 BIBLE 
HOUSE, ASTOR H-AOE, NEW YORK. 



REPKKfTED PEOM THE LONDOIT RELIGIOtJS TKACT SOCIETY. 



GEO. O. BAND & ATSRT, 
STERBOTYPERS AND PRIITTKBa. 



PREFACE. 



o»;o 



C*^'HIS historical tale of the Italian Reformation 
(^y has been prepared with great care from the 
best authorities on the subject. The writer has en- 
deavored to present a faithful picture of a period the 
most eventful in the religious history of Italy, when 
the little light that had always lingered among the 
Vaudois in the recesses of the Alps seemed rising 
and spreading on the horizon toward a perfect day. 
Man}'' a heart in the crowded cities of the priest-rid- 
den land hailed it with gladness. Cloistered monks, 
"nuns in their narrow cell," Roman nobles, Floren- 
tine citizens, Venetian senators, not a few, opened 
their souls to its effalgence. It has been painful to 
write how that glorious light was quenched, gradu- 
ally, but surely. One by one, Italy's contingent to 
the noble army of martyrs was dismissed heaven- 
ward, amid blood and fire, which darkened the land. 

in 



IV PREFACE. 

Ruthles^nd bloody persecution was followed by a 
terrible retribution of spiritual death, continuing 
almost to the present hour. 

The names and histories of men who fought and fell 
in this struggle for God's truth should not willingly 
be let die out of our memories and our grateful love. 
It has seemed to the writer that British Christians 
know less about these Italian Reformers than about 
any others. Perhaps the present little work may 
help to supply a felt deficiency. The accuracy of all 
its historical and biographical statements, and the 
truthfulness of the local coloring introduced, may be 
relied on. It is hoped that the reader's heart may 
be stirred up to gratitude toward God for his mercy 
manifested to our own favored Britain, wherein " the 
light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of 
Jesus Christ" has not been extinguished, but is 
spreading, as from a center, over the benighted na- 
tions of the earth, and even once more into that poor 
Italy. 



^^ 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



CHAPTER 

I.— The Dream before Awaking 7 

II.— The Escape, 16 

III. — Bbfoee the Nuncio, ■■..... 21 

IV.— The Wayside Cross, 31 

v. — The Sermon in ihe Piazza, . . . . ; 37 

VI.— The Exodus, 4? 

VII. — The Heretic Pilgrimage, ...... S3 

Vm. — The Relic-Sellek's Bemorse, ..... 62 

IX.— Among the Fbancisoans, 70 

X.— The Arrest 78 

xi.— In a Cell 88 

XII.— The Screw Ecclesiastic, 99 

XIII.— The Sentence, 107 

XIV. — Among the Mountains, ...... 116 

XV.— The Altar IN THE Foreign Land, . . . .124 

XVI. — Fra Bebnardin, ....... 133 

XVII.— A Daughter of France 142 

XVIII.— The Audience, 1S2 

XIX.— Ferrarese Interiors, 161 

XX.— "OUK Olympla," 171 

XXI. — The Renegade Monk, 181 

XXII. — Padua, 191 

XXIII. — The COMING Cloud OF War, 199 

1* 



VI 



CONTENTS. 



XXIV. — Tkmptation, 

XXV. — How Things went on in Modena, 
XXVI. — A Clew to a Conspieact, 
XXVII. — Ducal Commands, 
XXVIII. — KENftE'S Beneficencb, . 
XXIX. — The Mountain Osteria, 
XXX. — Beetheen in Flokence, 
XXXI. — Savonarola, .... 
XXXII. — On the Road to Rome, . 

XXXIII. — LUDOVICO Paschali, . 

XXXIV. — The Eternal City, 
XXXV. — Genius and Faith, 

XXXVI.— A Cleft in a Kock, 
XXXVII. — Juan Valdez and his School, . 
XXXVIII. — The Calabrian Colonies, 
XXXIX. — Storm gathering from the North, 
XL. — The Fokekunnee of the Tempest, 
XLI. — " Perfect through Sufferings," 
XLII. — The Resolve of San Sesto, . 
XLIII. — Samson's Chase, 

XLIV. — In "the Tops of the Ragged Rocks, 
XLV. — The Parley and the Assault, . 
XLVI. — The Ruined Home, 
XLVII. — Sign-Posts of the Times, . 
XLVIII. — Fire and Water, .... 
XLIX. — Eclipse deepens into Night, 



208 

216 
227 

234 
245 
263 
263 
272 
282 
291 
300 
308 
317 
324 
33S 
342 
351 
360 
.369 
377 
385 
394 
402 
411 
421 
430 




From Baton to Bark in Italg. 






OH AFTER I. 



THE BBEAM BEFORE AWAKING. 

»GLORY of Italian noonday lay upon the little 
town of Locarno. Sun-ounding Alpine hights 
were yet snowy with winter's livery, and the 
near forests of pine showed grandly gloomy 
against the distant peaks of piercing white- 
ness ; hut Lago Maggiore rippled as hlue and 
calm as in midsummer, reflecting a heaven 
without a cloud. 

The narrow streets of Locarno shut off the sunshine 
well, except in the broad market-place, where the usual 
venders of country provisions sat and sold and chattered 
in the pftnia of the mountains. 

Some absorbing subject interests them to-day. Many 
glances are directed towards the huge dark monastery 

7 




8 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

which overtops and shadows the other buildings, as the 
church in that age towered above and eclipsed all things 
secular. A side of the square is filled with the gray mas- 
sive front and ponderous portals of a convent. Occasion- 
ally a dingy lay brother enters or emerges from it, with 
fifty pair of eager black eyes following his movements, and 
fifty gUb tongues gossiping about him in whispers. 

"And how say you," observed a peasant girl, carrying a 
fruit-basket, to an aged crone who sold relics and images 
at a stall in one comer : " are the heretic ladies before his 
Eminence even now ? " 

"Even now," echoed Dame Ursula, crossing herself 
quickly: "the holy saints defend us from heresy and witch- 
craft, and all evil! I saw them entering' two hours agone. 
His Eminence condescends to argue with them, hoping to 
draw them again into the true faith. If they are obsti- 
nate, why, the Church has power to punish yet, in spite 
of Luther and all his fiends." The old woman pursed her 
withered lips firmly together, as she replaced on its proper 
end a leaden Madonna which had rattled down against a 
bead rosary, and propped it up by a crucifix securely. 

"But, Mother Ursula, they would not bum women, 
would they ? " And the dark eyes of the maiden opened 
widely with a sort of dread, as she nestled closer to the 
old relic-vender. 

"No, foolish child, not here; though I've heard of it 
in other places : but the Church has ways of punishing 
besides that, beheve me." The crone put up her brown 
bony finger, and nodded mysteriously, as if she knew a 



THE DREAM BEFORE AWAKING. 9 

great deal, were she only willing to tell. "You have 
heard of the Holy Office, child?" 

Twelve years before, in 1543, Pope Paul the Thii-d had 
issued his bull founding in Rome the congregation sancti 
officii, constituting six cardinals inquisitors-general, and 
endowing them with terrific power for the extirpation of 
Lutheran opinions. Thenceforward the dawn of divine 
truth in Italy began to be overcast with the darkness of 
premature eclipse. 

Caterina, the peasant-girl, had never heard the tremen- 
dous name, which was to prove a watchword of terror 
to the extremest verge of her native soil. Old Mother 
Ursula knew little more than the name ; but, drawing on 
her vivid southern imagination for her facts, she quickly 
sketched a few items of horror which blanched her listen- 
er's cheek and lips. 

" The poor ladies ! I hope his Eminence will convince 
them of their errors," sighed the girl. " It must be a ter- 
rible calamity to be a heretic ! Now, what is it that they 
don't believe. Mother Ursula ? " 

" Every thing," answered the other oracularly. " They 
don't believe the very saints are in heaven ! Nay, they 
blaspheme the adorable sacrifice of the mass, affirming 
that any common piece of bread is as good as the blessed 
euoharist! Sancta Cecilia pardon me for saying the 
words!" And she crossed herself vehemently many 
times, and pattered a few prayers on her bead amulet. 

"These very ears," she continued, "heard the physi- 
cian's wife declare that extreme unction was of no avail 



10 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

to a soul that had lived in sin. When I confessed it to 
Father Pietro, he said it was rank heresy, and an invea- 
tion of the Lutherans. And as for purgatory, they don't 
believe in it at all." 

Here the relic-seller grasped her companion's wrist, as 
she glanced at two men who passed by the stall. 

" There he goes, the Signor di Montalto, her husband ; 
the best leech in Locarno, and kindest to the poor, — more 
pity that he should be tainted with a heretic wife. And 
that tall youth beside him is a young doctor fi-esh from 
Padua, — Signor Francesco, they call him ; a most gentle 
and learned student, who cured my cough with a draught 
of simples the other day. He hath a certain look of my 
son Giovanni, thinkest thou, .Caterina? The same firm, 
burnt cheek, and great eyes, as black and bright as mid- 
night round the stars. But I forget; thou knowest not 
Giovan, who has gone to the wars : all the saints preserve 
him!" 

The two gentlemen thus noticed passed by the convent, 
and entered a labyrinth of wretched streets beyond, bound 
on some professional visit, much to Dame Ursula's disap- 
pointment, and that of other gazers in the market-place, 
who hoped that the plot was thickening by their an-ivah 
Let us readers in the nineteenth century do what they 
longed for in vain, enter the monastery, and oversee the 
conference between his eminence the papal nuncio Ri- 
verda, Bishop of Terracina, and these two Lutheran ladies 
of Locarno. 

He had been more than two hours convincing them, 



The dream before awaking. ii 

these weak women, With the triple power of his own episco- 
pal theology, and that of two Dominican divines besides ; 
and they were not yet convinced, nor even frightened. 
Brucioli's Italian Bible was their armory of arguments, 
which all the authority of popes and fathers could not 
foil. His Eminence the limicie was getting angry,— with 
some cause ; for is it not provoking when the battering- 
ram that could crush in a fortification strikes harmless 
against a soft cushion ? 

" Truly, the Church was wise when she forbade the read- 
ing of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue to the common 
people," he said with bitterness. "It hath ever been a 
fertile source of the most pernicious errors ; for the un- 
learned and the ignorant will wrest them to their own 
destruction." 

" My lord, we are ready to be taught," replied Lucia di 
•Orello gently ; " we desire to be instructed by those wiser 
than ourselves. If your Eminence can prove to us from 
God's Word that we are wrong " — 

" But we must have such proof, and none other will suf- 
fice," interposed the more impetuous Barbara di Montalto. • • 
"We submit to no human authority in matters of faith; 
not even to that of his Holiness, or of a General Coun- 
cil." 

The priests looked at one another. " Thou art a bold 
woman," said the nuncio, as he noted something in tablets 
before him, « thus to declare thyself superior to the voice 
of the Church in all ages." 

"But the voice of the Church hath uttered error," an- 



12 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

Bwered the lady fii-mly; "and God hath enabled us to 
discern that error through the light of his Spirit on Scrip- 
ture : therefore we will endure all things rather than yield 
an iaji8,.of the truth." 

The nuncio had grown suddenly cool. Except for an 
evil hght lurking in his deep-set eye, like lurid flame in a 
cavern, one might have thought he asked rather an indif- 
ferent question in his next words. 

"And what, signora, call you truth which the holy Ko- 
man Church calls not truth?" 

A slight gesture of his hand, imperceptible except to 
the person for whom it was meant, caused the Dominican 
beside him to record the answer in his tablets, unperceived 
by the speaker, whose enthusiasm kindled a bright glow 
in her eye and cheek as she stood before him. 

"All that God has written in his holy Scripture is truth. 
All that the popes have published in theu- decretals, add- 
ing to Scripture, is error. The whole system of the papacy 
is one vast error. Show me any thing in its doctrines or 
practices that is not alloyed with falsehood ! " 

As she paused for a moment, the nuncio shrugged his 
shoulders sUghtly, and his lips contracted back over his 
white teeth in a sort of smile. "The doctrine of the 
adorable eucj^ariati " he said insi^isualy. 

"Thou knowest, my lord, that there, most of all, thy 
Church has failed in keeping the truth," was the undaunted 
reply. " Thou knowest that Peter and John never under- 
stood the sacred bread and wine to contain the very body 
and soul of Christ, which then sat with them at the table. 



THE DREAM BEFORE AWAKING. 13 

But thy Church has made merchandise of the Holy Sup- 
per, turning it into an idolatrous mass, and causing men 
to worship the work of their own hands." 

" Barbara," said the soft voice of her friend Lucia, as 
she pulled the skirt of the speaker's robe, " you are over- 
bold ; you forget " — 

" I do not forget. I know that they have my life in 
their hands, that they can send me to the stake if they 
will. But I must speak the truth; and I say that the 
Romish mass is idolatrous, and an insult to the majesty 
of Heaven as well as to the reason of men ! " 

" Basta ! it is enough," exclaimed the nuncio, rising, with 
that evil smile on his lips still. " I thank you, ladies, for 
your courtesy and your plain words. My desire was to 
convince you of your heresy, and bring you back to the 
one fold under the one shepherd; and as I have failed, 
and these learned doctors have failed, our conference had 
best come to a close." 

He waved his hand, on which glittered the costly ring 
of his egiscogaitfi. The Lutheran ladies made their obei- 
sance, and withdrew. 

"O Barbara!" said the gentle Lucia, drawing a free 

breath when they reached the open air of the streets by a 

secluded postern, "how I trembled for you! The eyes 

of that Dominican were like daggers. You are too brave, 

■ my friend. You have a lion-heart." 

"Not braver than your own, my Lucia; though you 
have the grace of gentleness," said the Signora di Mon- 
taltQ, looking at her affectionately. "I know that you 

2 



14 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

would stand as firmly as I, but perhaps with less rash 
demonstration of strength. Ah! here conres Francesco." 

" Well, sign ora, are you convinced?" the young physi- 
cian asked with a smile. And it was apparent, from the 
conversation which followed, that others in the Montalto 
household besides its mistress were tainted with the lea ren 
of heresy. 

The house which they approached was more like a for- 
tress than a private dwelling. Immensely thick walls, slit 
with loopholes, and battlemented at top, — the foundation 
on a rock circled on three sides by the waters of the Lago 
Maggiore, — one could easily believe that its origin was 
during the wars between the Guelfs and Ghibellines, when 
every man's home required the strength of a castle. 

Night came down over the beautiful lake, arrayed in 
purple robes pierced with a thousand stars. In a turret 
of the fortified house a lamp burned, hour after hour, 
gleaming redly out upon the darkness. It shone on the 
coarse yellowish pages of a large volume under the eyes 
of Barbara di Montalto, — a copy of Brucioli's translation 
of the Bible. When her spirit was overwhelmed within 
her, when the sure re-action came after her excitement 
before the nuncio, she sought for cordial here. And, in 
a still small voice, these words breathed itito her soul : 
"When thou passest through the waters, I will be with 
thee ; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not 
be burned: for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of 
Israel, thy Saviour." And her dauntless eyes filled with 
happy tears in the realization of the presence .and help of ' 
that precious Saviour. 



TBE DREAM BEFORE AWAKING. 15 

A sound as of some person speaking in the next room, 
which opened from the turret by a curtained archway," 
attracted her attention. Shading the lamp with her hand, 
she entered, and stood by the couch on which her husband 
lay in restless sleep. His face startled her. The large 
veins were swollen on his forehead, the brows knit heav- 
ily, the lips drawn back from the clinched teeth. He 
flung out his arm violently. 

"Off — off!" he exclaimed fiercely, grasping the side 
of the couch, as if engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle. 
" Villains, traitors ! ye shall not dare " — 

She could look on the agony in his face no longer. She 
put her hand on his shoulder, and called him by name. 
Di Montalto's eyes opened widely, and glared about him 
with the indistinct vision of one suddenly awaked. 

"It was only a dream, mio caro," said his wife gently; 
" only a dream." And she pushed back the matted hair 
which had fallen over his damp brow. 

He drew a long, deep breath of relief. " It was horrible 
as a reality," he said. " They were dragging me to the 
dungeons of the Holy Office, Barbara. I tell you, I have 
seen nothing more plainly in my waking hours than the 
dark, reeking walls of that torture-chamber just now. I 
clung to them; I fought desperately. God be thanked, 
it was but a dream ! " 

His wife's face had paled somewhat, and a slight shiver 
ran through her frame. The dream was no impossibility 
•br her. 




CHAPTER II. 

THE ESCAPE. 

Jl MONTALTO'S sleep was over for that 
night. Presently he left his chambV3r, and 
proceeded down a narrow, winding stairs, 
contained in the thickness of the wall, to the 
lower stories of the fortified house. As he 
descended the steep, moldering steps, night 
air from the loopholes blew across his lana.p 
at intervals, and the plashing of waters became a nearer 
sound through the great silence without, till he reached 
a dark embrasure, wherein was sunk a massive iron-barred 
door. 

It had not been opened for a long time. Rust lay thick 
on the bolts, almost welding them and their holdfasts into 
a solid mass. Huge knobs of iron studded the ponder- 
ous oaken panels, between the interstices of a grating of 
the same metal. A lock of ancient and peculiarly strong 
construction secured the door into a socket of stone. 

" I must call Francesco," said the physician, shaking his 
head at all this strength, and at a mental measurement of 
the immense key in his hand with the force of his unaided 



THE ESCAPE. 17 

wrist. And so, passing from the -winding stair by a nar- 
row side-door which he unlocked, he roused his assistant, 
and told him what he wanted. 

" I can scarce account for the impulse," he said ; " but I 
am urged by some irresistible feeling to have this door 
opened, and the boat in readiness without. Tou smile ; 
you think the dream has not yet ceased beating in my 
brain: nor, perchance, has it; for I tell you, Francesco, 
the -rision was marvelously distinct. Methinks it were 
a warning from heaven. I see not thy face now more 
cleaiiy before me, boy, than I saw that ruffianly soldier's 
a while gone. And yet my Lutheran opinions have always 
been moderately held." 

The student's countenance had suddenly become grave, 
and he hurried on his clothes. " I trust it bodes no evU 
to the signora your wife," said he. "She is so fearless; 
she may have spoken unadvisedly before his Eminence." 

" Tut : the Church contends not with women," rejoined 
the worthy physician. "I will have that door opened in 
any case. I hope the boat has not quite decayed in its 
niche ; but we shall see." 

When at last, with the help of two servants, the .ock 
was forced back, the huge bolts drawn from their sock- 
ets, and the door, after infinite labor, pushed open la its 
groove widely enough to admit the passage of a man, the 
dark, deep water appeared just below the threshold with- 
out, fluctuating with a sobbing sound. Afar rose the wild, 
white Alps, ghostly in the starlight, and seen through a 
black tunnel of rock, into which opened the secret door. 

2*" 



18 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

" Ecco ! " said the physician, peering thi-ough the dark- 
ness with his lamp. " There's the boat on its shelf. Pull 
the chain, Piero;" and presently it was di-awn into its 
native element with a sUght splash. A slender cockle- 
shell of a bark, it could hold no more than three persons. 
From long disuse, the seams began to leak immediately. 

Francesco and his patron set about calking them with 
any rude means to be had at a minute's warning. Piero 
and the other serving-man had been sent to their beds 
again ; and, when the job was nearly finished, the physi- 
cian ascended to the roof of his mansion to look out for 
the danger of which his dream had wai-ned. 

All tranquil under the clear air and the starlight, the 
Uttle huddled Locarno lay on the edge of the great placid 
lake, and slept. No soul seemed stirring in aU the scene 
save himself. And he, a timid man, and one wise in his 
generation as worldly men count wisdom, began to think 
it had been as well he had never meddled with these new 
Lutheran opinions, and thus disquieted his life. 

The sound of oars, though very gently moved, broke 
upon his reverie unpleasantly. He crouched instantly be- 
hind a projecting battlement, and scanned the polished 
surface of the lake; but all was motionless. Leaning 
cautiously over, keeping his head in the shadow, he was 
relieved by seeing his own skiff creeping along from the 
cove by the edge of the rocks. The oarsman he guessed 
to be Francesco, who presently shot out his bark one or 
two boat's lengths on the luminous water, as if to obtain 
a viow of something high in the buUdingi «' But," thought 



THE ESCAPE. 19 

the husband, "he is a foolish boy thus to betray the secret 
of the door to any one who may be watching. Those Holy 
Office people come on one like serpents. Pah ! " and he 
shuddered again at the remembrance of his dream. In 
fact, Di Montalto was thoroughly frightened ; and a little 
pressure would have made him recant on the spot all his, 
Protestant sentiments. 

I say "sentiments," not "opinions" or "convictions;" 
for the latter can not be recanted when once they have 
entered and become incorporate with a man's being. But 
the first physician in Locarno was one of the stony-ground 
hearers, who, in time of persecution, faU away and are 
offended. 

He was tested at dawn next morning. A party of sol- 
diers burst into the room where his wife was dressing, and 
exhibited a warrant from the Locarnese deputies for her 
arrest. - Her husband involuntarily drew near, and shielded 
her with his arm. 

•" For blasphemies against the adorable sacrifice of the 
mass!" exclaimed the leader roughly. "For profaning 
the blessed sacrament to the very ears of his Eminence the 
nuncio ! Come, doctor, make way : you should have kept 
your wife in better order. But you'll smart for it, or my 
name's not Andrea d'Agnolo. Well, signora, are you 
ready?" 

Not a nerve of the brave woman had trembled, now 
that the worst was actually come : her heart seemed raised 
above fear. 

"Go to Bianca," she said to her husband. "The poor 



20 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

child will be terrified. As for these gentlemen, I must ask 
leave to finish dressing in this turret;" and she moved 
towards the door. 

"N"ay, signora; but you shall have leisure to dress even 
here," quoth Andrea. " His Eminence likes a woman to 
look well. Out, comrades ! "We shall leave sentinels at 
the doors." 

No sooner was the last step withdrawn than she raised 
the hangings, touched a concealed spring, and the door 
of the winding stairs flew open and closed behind her. 
Her heart beat violently, her eyes were dizzy, as she rap- 
idly descended the steps, and entered the waiting boat, 
wherein sat Francesco and Piero. In a moment they had 
shot out of the dark nook, and the disappointed shouts 
of their enemies were dwindling in the distance. 



^^^ 



'^tf^ 




CHAPTER III. 

BEFORE THE NUNCIO. 

iHE trooper Andrea had employed himself 
meanwhile in searching the turret-chamber 
for Lutheran books; and, making discovery 
of a portly volume in a niche behind the 
hangings, he congratulated himself on the 
stroke of politic politeness by which he had 
prevented the Signora di Montalto fi-om hav- 
ing opportunity to conceal any thing. 

"Ho, POippo!" to the sentry, who stood mute beside 
the door whUe his chief rummaged ; " but here's heresy 
enough to taint all Locarno. She thought to make away 
with this under pretence of dressing, forsooth. Tr^ to 
hoodwink an old campaigner, indeed ! I was not at the 
Bourbon's sack of Rome for nothing. Canst thou read, 
comrade ? " 

"I thank San Pietro, I can not," replied the sentry, on 
whose undisceming ear had just smitten the click of the 
secret door's closing. " It seems to me the high road to 
being an heretic: those printed books do all the mis- 
chief." 

21 



22 FROM DA WN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

"It's not a missal," said the other, dubiously turning 
over the coarse leaves. « I'll bring it before his Eminence. 
No more than thyself can I tell a letter, Filippo. My 
broadsword's my book;" and, having opened a chest of 
wearing apparel, 'he shook out its contents on the point 
of said sword. 

"Hist!" exclaimed Filippo presently, raising his hand. 
" She's veiy quiet within; "and he jerked his thumb over 
his shoulder. 

Andrea strode across, and burst the frail fastenings of 
the door. No one in the room ; but from the window he 
caught sight of the boat flying over the gleaming water, 
impelled by the pushing of two stout oarsmen, and with 
the signora seated in the stern. 

" Help, ho ! al-armi ! " he stamped his mailed foot, and 
shouted with rage and mortification, profanely swearing 
by all the saints in the calendar, and by divers of the 
heathen gods. His soldiers quickly gathered round him, 
only to gaze with helplessness on their escaping prisoner. 
But how could she have escaped ? Filippo prudently said 
nothing of the click of a fastening door which he had 
heard, and the remembrance of which had made his ears 
sensitive to the subsequent silence. The window was 
merely a narrow diamond casement of thick gi'eenish 
glass set in lead, and moving a few inches on a hinge : the 
lake lay full forty feet below, welling against the perpen- 
dicular rock. 

"I'll try a shot with my arquebuss, commander," said 
Filippo in an inquiring tone, as he raised his piece, and 



BEFORE THE NUNCIO. 23 

Stolidly covered the fugitives. Andrea's hoarse laugh 
sounded savage ; but with a gesture he stayed the brawny 
hand which was cocking the clumsy, crooked gun. 

"Truly they would leap if thy two-ounce ball struck 
among them; but it's not in the warrant, amico mio. 
Fools! idiots!" and the Italian burst into sudden fury: 
"why do none of you get a boat, and pursue?" 

It was more easily said than done. Before they could 
be afloat in the boat of a terrified fisherman, the skiff bear- 
ing their prey had shot round a craggy point, and was 
lost to sight and to pursuit. 

The story was a poor one to bring to his expecting 
Eminence, the Bishop of Terracina ; and, that they might 
not return quite empty-handed, Andrea and his troopers 
haled before him the physician, Di Montalto, and his 
daughter, as accomplices aiding and abetting the escape 
of a heretic. With bound hands they were marched 
through the principal streets and the market-place of Lo- 
carno to the court-room where the ecclesiastics and magis- 
trates were assembled. Old Dame Ursula, behind her 
relic-stall, crossed herself many times as'they passed, mut- 
tering, "May the holy saints defend us from heresy and 
all the fiends ! " 

" But surely, mother, that sweet young face belongs to 
no heretic ! " exclaimed a peasant youth who stood by. 
"I could believe no evil of the beautiful signorina." 

"My little one," answered the crone, "you know not. 
I've been told the worst heresy 'oft takes the fairest form. 
She may be like the ripe fruit which is rotten at the core. 



24 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

His Eminence will know." And tongues went chattering 
round the piazza like a tribe of jays, having all the same 
burden,— the escape of the signora, and the arrest of her 
husband and daughter; whereof many versions revolved, 
each one enlarging the marvel. 

Whatever doubts and fears the physician had experi- 
enced on the preceding night were as nothing to his sensa- 
tions now in the noonday. His heart, never very buoyant, 
sank and sank, as a millstone.in the Maggiore, deeper and 
deeper in depression, whereof the outward index was his 
chin clothed in grizzled beard, which dropped lower and 
lower till it rested on his very bosom. And thus he 
stood before the deputies and the nuncio, no protect- 
or, in sooth, for the slender maiden beside him: verily 
the timid nature of the girl seemed to have passed into 
the strong man's form, bending him like a reed, while 
Bianca's calm face and upright demeanor showed that her 
mother's spirit was hereditary. Not without effort was 
she thus calm externally : the tension of highly strung 
nerves was visible in the brightly dilated eye, and her 
heart beat with thick pulsation against her crimson bod- 
ice. Tet she could not suppress a slight smile at D'Ag- 
nolo's relation of how his prisoner had balked him and 
gone clean out of his hands. 

It was a slur on the' trooper's abilities, and he knew it, 
that a woman should have thus outwitted him. He waxed 
redder, and pulled his mustache more fiercely, as he told 
the story. " But in any case, your Eminence, though the 
jade has escaped this time, I've brought a proof of rank 



BEFORE THE NUNCIO. 25 

heresy against the whole household of this yorthy gentle- 
man ; for I take it, where a printed book so bulky as this 
is found, any fool can smell Lutheranism." 

His Eminence examined the book, passed it to his chap- 
lain, and said nothing then about it. His mood was 
sternly grim ; for the lady's escape and the physician's ill- 
concealed nervousness suggested to him a satiating object. 
Di Montalto was pitilessly examined and threatened. All 
soi-ts of vague terrors of confiscation, torture, death, were 
hung out in his view, till the craven heart thought of 
nothing but crouching. 

" Those Lutheran opinions were my wife's, most Ulus- 
tiious Eminence, and not mine. I never professed them 
to the extremity that it pleased her to do. Ask any 
citizen in Locarno; ask any of the worshipful deputies 
themselves;" and he spread out his hands appealingly 
towards the seats which they occupied. "Ask the illus- 
trious prefect Reuchlin, who so worthily presides over 
this city, was I not by his side at the last festa in the 
Chapel of Madonna del Sasso ? Have I ever failed in pay- 
ment of the Church's dues ? " 

And in fact he was correct. Di Montalto had been 
noted as a trimmer, — one who would fain keep well with 
both parties, the Reformed and the Catholic. But when, 
still further to defend himself, he ^.cknowledged that his 
absent wife had a rash tongue and a headstrong spirit, 
which it should have been his duty to keep under and 
bring into subjection; that he lamented the vehemence 
of her opinions, and even deemed her worthy of correction 

3 



26 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

therefor, — tl\p large bright eyes of his daughter turned 
upon him slowly with surprise, and perchance a lurking 
scorn, in their expression. 

"The signorina wishes to speak. My daughter, what 
wouldst thou say?" interposed one of the Dominicans 
sitting below the nuncio. " Speak without fear, mia fig- 
lia," he added insinuatingly. But her father's warning 
look came in time. She only replied by an obeisance to 
the monk's invitation. And, when presently examined 
herself, she kept clear of the theological traps laid for her, 
with a discretion surprising in one so young. 

Di Montalto left the court a beggar. Complete confis- 
cation of his property was the sentence passed by the 
seven deputies and his fellow-townsmen, under pressure 
of the episcopal presence. And whereas Bianca walked 
forth as stately as ever, her clear brown cheek perhaps a 
trifle paler, her father came out as if ten years had sud- 
denly been added on his shoulders and to the Knes on his 
brow. No man of all his wide acquaintance was brave 
enough to bear him company; and he had been a coward 
and a recreant for no gain. Dark thoughts enough to 
bring with him to the old fortified house of his fathers by 
the Lago Maggiore ! 

Guards were there in possession. Bianca was to be 
permitted to take her clothes; and he who but yesterday 
was the first physician in Locarno might lodge .in an 
attic of his own mansion until the great exodus of the 
Frotestants, a week hence, on the 3d of March, 1555. 

Wo understand which vast eviction, we must go back a 



BEFORE TBE NUNCIO. 27 

few weeks to one memorable afternoon when a procession 
filed through the streets of Locarno, — a procession not 
fragrant with incense, nor illuminated with wax tapers, 
nor gorgeously appareled in ecclesiastic robes, nor a pro- 
cession echoing with soft-chanted music, but more accept- 
able in the sight of the Highest than all these. Two 
hundred resolute and silent men, with wives and little 
children by the hand, walking to the council-chamber to 
confront the overwhelming power of the Swiss diet, and 
confess theii- faith in Christ as the only Saviour, though 
bonds and afliictions might abide them, — was not the 
spectacle one which the hosts of heaven might deem sub- 
lime, while the superbest pageants of Chaiies the Fifth, 
emperor, were not worth the passing glance of an angel's 
eye? 

They advanced — the dauntless, unarmed two hundred 
— with their wives and little ones, and appeared in the 
council-hall, greeted by the laughter and jeers of the 
deputies from the seven cantons, who found a ludicrous 
absurdity in the protest of this trifling minority against 
the religion which the large majority of Locamese had 
professed in the morning. The chief among the Protes- 
tants stood forth, and declared, in the name of his breth- 
ren, their common faith. 

The articles of this were few and grand, chiefly com- 
prised in the one, that theybeUeved the gospel prefigured 
in the Old Testament, and revealed more clearly by Christ 
and his apostles. They rejected aU buman tradition; 
they prayed for divine illumination upon Holy Scripture. 



28 FllOM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

They abhorred all false doctrine and all licentious prac- 
tice. They were prepared to suffer any thing rather than 
be the cause of civil war; yet they implored the lords of 
the cantons to have pity on the helpless women and chil- 
dren, and not drive them forth to exile and penury, espe- 
cially at the present inclement season. 

And the deputies replied, coldly and haughtily, " We 
come not here to listen to your faith. Our religion may 
not be disputed. Wherefore say, are you ready to quit 
your faith, or are you not ? " 

Clear and bold from the lips of the spokesman came the 
answer, "We will live in it, we will die iq it!" And, 
without a moment's hesitation, all the two hundred caught 
up the refrain, " We will live in it, we wiU die in it 1 " A 
divine fervor seemed to seize upon them: "Ours is the 
only saving faith," they cried: "we wiU never renounce 
it!" 

The names of those gallant heretics were taken down 
by the cleA of the council. Clasping hands together, con- 
gratulating each other on being called to suffer for Christ's 
sake, they came forward joyfully to be entered in the list 
of exiles ; for a decree had been issued by the diet that 
the inhabitants of Locarno who professed any other than 
the "Catholic" religion should leave their native country 
for ever; and in the teeth of this edict had the brave two 
hundred come forwai'd, knowing and having weighed 
their dooni. 

Di Montalto had admired their courage afar off; and 
now he was forced to share the confessor's suffering with- 



BEFORE TEE NUNCIO. 29 

out the rewai-d of the confessor's palm of victory. He 
had gained nothing hut contempt for his. shuffling and 
evasions. He had saved not a single ducat of his life's 
earnings, nor a hand's breadth of the popular esteem on 
which his fair fortune was built. The bleak world was 
before him, to be commenced again in his declining years. 

"I shall go to Florence, girl," he would say to Bianca. 
" I can not expatriate myself among those tei-rible Swiss 
mountains from my sunny Italy. They talk of refuge at 
Zurich. Whom know I there ? I shall go to Florence, 
or to Ferrara. Your mother once knew the Duchess 
Renee. From her she imbibed much of her unfortunate 
Lutheranism. Yes: FeiTara would be best," added the 
physician, stroking his neglected beard meditatively. 

" My father, it is God's truth : don't call it unfortunate," 
said Bianca, raising her face from her work. "It must 
prevail at the last." 

"I hope so, I hope so," replied her father peevishly; 
" but I know that at preserit it has caused me the loss of 
every thing. Young people are thoughtless, and don't 
understand losses." 

" Father, rememberest thou what the Lord said ? " and 
Bianca laid one hand on his shoulder, raising the other 
solemnly, as she pronounced, in the soft tones of her na- 
tive tongue, "lo vi dico in veritk, Che non v'e alcuno 
ch'abbia lasciata caso, o fratelli, . . . . o possessioni, per 
amor di me, e dell' evangelo, ch'ora, in questo tempo, non 
ne rioeva, cento cotanti, ease, e fratelli, . . . . e posses- 
sioni, con persecuzioni : e, nel seoolo a venire, la vita 
s* 



30 FROM DA WN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

etema ! " A passage which the English reader will find 
in Mark x. 29, .30. 

"ChUd, child, you are too enthusiastic. And I wish 
you would conceal that book : the sight of it may get us 
into further trouble ; though how much deeper we could 
be " — and he shrugged his shoulders dismally. 

" The book is hidden, father ; and I spoke those words 
of vhe Gospel from memory. But, father," and she trem- 
bled a little, " they say that Nicolas was put to the torture 
yesterday. Thank God that my mother has escaped ! " 

"Yes, girl: put to the rack last eventide, and sentenced 
to death this morning. What horrible times ! I wish we 
were well over the Alps, or somewhere that a man's head 
were safe." And the physician rose to walk up and down 
the narrow stone floor uneasily, ruminating over his losses 
and his prospects, with the anxiety of a soul unstayed by 
Heaven's strengthening faith. 





CHAPTEE IV. 

THE WAYSIDE CEOSS. 

r^ARLT morning broke upon the Alpine coun- 
try at the head of Lago Maggiore. Mists yet 
lay in the mountain gorges, islanding peak 
from peak, suggesting an infiniteness of ex- 
pansion and of distance. Gradually they 
floated out and away, to be glorified into 
sunlit clouds in the upper air. Every shade 
of indigo and purple lay on the nearer hills and hollows, 
except where a struggling sunbeam touched them with 
spring's emerald ; and afar, a chaos of snow-covered sum- 
mits on the horizon, now revealed, now hidden in patches, 
by the coquetry of clouds. 

Here, on the sloping side of a glen which widens to the 
lake's edge, stands a peasant's holding, — a rude, strong 
house of brown stone, set in a scant garden, where the 
shallow soil has been cultivated to the utmost. Not that 
much grows in it at this season, when thaw has only just 
unchained the ground. The vine alcoves are bare skele- 
ton scaffoldings, and pale buds are bursting on the fruit- 
trees. Narrow paths, scarce wide enough for the worker's 

81 



32 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

feet, divide the strips of vegetable-beds ; and so steep are 
they, that a stone set rolling adown them might leap 
sheer to the depth of the glen, and be buried in its rush- 
ing rivulet. 

On the ground-floor, lit by holes for windows, this 
brown house has a kitchen, and a shed for two cows. 
We can not say much for the cleanliness of either place. 
Our acquaintance, Caterina^its composedly milldng, and 
singing a bit of a Swiss ditty, amid sights and smells which 
would horrify an English dairy-maid. Perhaps she is 
thinking of Luigi, a stalwart peasant who lives a mile 
farther up the glen, and who happens to be her betrothed, 
or promesso sposo; for she is deaf to many calls from the 
kitchen till the voice comes forth. " Dove sei ? where art 
thou, little one ? I've been calling thee these ten min- 
utes past, and thou'rt dumb as the roof-tree. Listen. 
Thy father saith the snow has melted beyond the spring 
near the holy cross : thou mayest take the cows up there 
this morning for the new pasture." 

It was a very withered and wrinkled face that spoke ; 
but Caterina's mother was not within thirty years of what 
would be supposed her age. The hardships of peasant 
life, of exposure to the weather, and much labor in the 
open field, had serrated forehead and cheek with deep 
lines. 

"Thy father goes into Locarno to the execution," — 
here she crossed herself, — "and thou'rt to go with him: 
wherefore hasten, child, hasten." And she went back to 
her work, — the preparation of the morning meal. 



THE WAYSIDE CROSS. 33 

Caterina felt a momentary shudder, and muttered a 
prayer for the doomed man who was to suffer ; but she 
had all an Italian's love for a spectacle, of whatever 
species, and all an Italian's confidence that the Church 
can do no wrong. 

" If he had not meddled with heresy, — all the saints 
defend us ! — he had not been put in prison or condemned, 
I wish Luigi had not the way of talking that he has. He 
doesn't respect the monks one bit, and calls the preach- 
ing friars a pack of lazy beggars. He'll get himself into 
trouble with that free tongue of his, — our Lady preserve 
him ! He says only old women mind all those stories 
about the Madonna del Sasso and her wonderful cures. 
He doesn't care a farthing about relics, and called my 
bone of St. Christopher, which Mother Ursula says will 
save me from ever being drowned, — Luigi called it a bit 
of dried stick. I'm sure I hope that isn't heresy ; for if 
itis" — 

Now, what the Temple of Diana was to the Ephesians 
in the time of Demetrius the silversmith, the Chapel of the 
Madonna del Sasso was to the Locarnese in the sixteenth 
century. " The image which fell down from Jupiter" had 
its countei-part in the waxen statue, gorgeously dressed, 
which received the homage of all good Catholics, and 
about which were incrusted a score of legends. And 
"the silver shrines" had their successors in a host of 
votive offerings of various values, from old clothes to 
jewelry. 

During her soliloquy, Caterina was driving her. cows 



34 FROM DA WN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

along the narrow winding path which climbed the hights 
between masses of gray Uchened rook. The clear, cool 
morning air stood about her, which exhilarates young 
blood like wine : it helped her to shake ofP that fear about 

]juigi. 

After some distance and many turnings, the path sud- 
denly veered round a jutting spur of crag, which cut off 
all view downwards; and beyond was a pleasant reach of 
green, sloping gently towards the barren uplands on high. 
Midway in the little glen stood a great rusty-looking 
cross, formed by two pieces of wood, once painted a dull 
red, but now blackened by exposure ; and near the riiouth 
of the glen was the spring, gushing from a crevice in the 
rocks. 

Caterina started when she tui-ned that way; for a lady 
was stooping over the well, and drinking from her curved 
hand; and the sight of anybody in these solitudes was 
unexpected. The lady, becoming aware of her presence 
through the tread of the cattle, stood quietly, and looked 
at her. 

"Buon giomo, signora," quoth Caterina rather trem- 
blingly, yet deeming it best to be civil, even if the figure 
should prove an apparition. She was relieved when her 
salutation was returned in a suflSciently earthly voice ; yet 
she did not like the consciousness that those strange eyes 
were watching her, till she came to the cross, and, accord- 
ing to her custom, kneeled down before it. 

A hurried prayer for Luigi, for herself, for the man 
doomed to death in Locarno that day ; a glance upward 



THE WAYSIDE CROSS. 35 

at the rude spear, the sponge, the nails, fastened as re- 
membrancers upon the crossbeam; and she turned to 
descend the ravine homewards. But the stranger had 
come quickly from the spring, and met her. 

"My child, to whom did you pray ? " 

The sweet voice softened the abrupt question. Cate- 
rina dropped an obeisance as she observed, — 

" To our Blessed Lady, signora." ' 

" Why, was it she who died on the cross for you ? Was 
it our Lady who felt the spear and the nails ? " 

"No, surely," replied the peasant girl; "it was her 
blessed Son ; " and Caterina knelt again for an instant be- 
fore the cross. 

" Then, my child, why not pray to him ? He loves you, 
or he would not have died in torments that you might be 
saved. He is not pleased when we doubt his love, and 
think that we must ask anybody to ask him to be good 
to us. May he bless you, my child ! " and the stranger 
passed on with rapid ' step toward the upper end of the 
valley. 

Caterina was yet thinking of this rencounter, when she 
spied a man's figure climbing the rooks to the left beneath 
her. Before she distinctly beheld him, she felt that he 
was Luigi. But, for the first time that she could remem- 
ber, he did not seem equally pleased to see her. His 
brow contracted stormily. 

" What ! up the mountain so early ? Wherefore, Cater 
rina ? I thought your cows pastured lower down." 

She explained, and told him of the strange lady, 



36 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

"Luigi, she said what I remember your saying to me 
once, — that the Madonna never suffered or died for us." 

" Well, isn't it true ? But look here : don't say a word 
to any one of this lady. I know about her, and you 
might get me into trouble." 

That hint was stronger than an iron seal on Caterina's 
lips ; and so Signor Luigi was awai-e. 

" See the flowers I've been gathering for you through 
the gorges as I came along." He had them imprisoned 
in the cavity of his round hat, — a mass of blue cycla- 
men, and purple gentianella, and snowdrops and violets. 
" Wear a bouquet of them for my sake, little one." And 
so they parted. 

« He had a wallet," thought Caterina ; " and I feared 
to ask him whither he was going. Alas ! I dread lest he 
get into trouble through these heretics. He is so brave 
that he fears nothing himself. I must say more prayers 
for him, — my poor Luigi." 

Thus seeking the true refuge for her care, provided the 
prayer were but right, Caterina, from this day forward, 
never could kneel at a Madonna's shrine without misgiv- 
ings. Luigi's want of faith had much to do with this ; 
but by and by the feeling was her own. The era of her 
blind credulity was over. 

Now, however, she must go into the town with her 
father, and behold the great sight ; for this is a holiday in 
Locarno. 



wm 




CHAP.TER V. 

THE SERMON IN THE PIAZZA. 

HE old relic-vender sits behind her stall, as 
usual, this afternoon of the high holiday in 
Locarno. On her knees is the scaldino, 6r 
' red earthei-n pipkin containing a little glow- 



ing charcoal, over which she warms her skinny- 
hands. For into this shady cdtner of hers the 
wind comes cuttingly enough down a narrow 
by-street, and age is apt to be chill. 

Perhaps not from age or cold alone does she- shiver, 
now and again; especially when her keen eyes return, 
urged by a species of irresistible fascination, to that spot 
in the midst of the market square, where men are busy 
building up something. Full and bright the rich sun- 
shine falls on them and on their work, as if it approved 
and caressed. Mother Ursula has seen such preparations 
before now, and knows what they portend : the blackened 
timbers, the pile, the cord, are not utter novelties to her 
gaze ; and she is bigot enough rather to relish the Church's 
cruel justice. Still, the withered face, puckered over as 
if knives had seamed every inch of skin, is singularly 

4 37 



38 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

troubled. She is paler than the string of white beads 
that encircle her wizened throat in double row, and at 
which she clutches sometimes absently. 

"He was guilty: he would have been condemned in 
any case ; " so her thoughts ran. " There were other wit- 
nesses besides me ; and, moreover, could I refuse to speak ? 
It would have availed him inothing, and Father Antonio 
says that it would be a mortal sin on my soul." She pat- 
tered off a set of prayers rapidly. " I'm a poor old woman, 
and couldn't afford to buy indulgences." Here sjie stirred 
up the smoldering charcoal with a huge rusty key, — that 
of her own dwelling in a neighboring alley. Her finger 
touched the fuel for an instant. 

"Santissima! what bad pain! Ah, but burning must 
be a cruel pal*! These heretics don't mind it, as I'm 
told. Well, he will be strangled first. He always sneered 
at my relics. Many a good sale he has hindered. Still,- 
I'm sorry I bore witness; but I was forced. Perhaps 
the petitions of so many worthy citizens, true sons of the 
Church, may prevail with their lordships the deputies to 
save him, if he recant his errors." 

Thus endeavoring to quiet her uneasy conscience, which 
even now felt the murder-stain upon it, she looked forth 
again from under the penthouse of her black brows to the 
piazza. Already the crowd from the country was assem- 
bling for the spectacle; peasants with their wives and 
daughters taking up the best positions along the sides 
and on door-steps, — a gay-colored bordering to the rough 
brown houses. 



THE SERMON IN THE PIAZZA. 39 

" Well, Monna Ursula, and how fares it ? " inquired the 
rich round voice of Caterina's father. " So the fellow is 
to be executed after all." 

The old woman laid down the charcoal pipkin, and he r 
countenance perceptibly changed when she heard that. 

"The citizens have just come back from tl^e council- 
chamber. His Eminence wouldn't hear of it. He says 
an example is necessary to frighten the Lutherans. And, 
for my own part, I say, Down with all slanderers of our 
Madonna del Sasso ! " 

The impulsive crowd lining the piazza caught the words, 
and re-echoed them in a shout. It was not to be endured 
that any man should dare to doubt the power and glory 
of their pet idol. Our Lady of the Stone. 

« "What, girlj do you tremble ? " for Caterina clutched 
her father's arm nervously as the shout sprang up and 
circled round among the people. « She was ever a timid 
dove," he said half apologetically to old Ursula, who had 
the reputation of a sharp nose wherewith to smell heresy : 
" 'tis no sympathy she bears for heretics, believe me. But 
what, mother ! shutting up your stall ? I should say there 
never was a better day for driving a good trade. Evciry 
man will want to prove himself a good Catholic." 

The old woman was hastily gathering her reliquaries — 
bits of blessed bone and rags, and metal Madonnas, and 
crucifixes, and rude flaring pictures — into a basket be- 
neath her little counter, huddling all those reverend ob- 
jects together promiscuously as they had been so many 
chips of most unreverend wood. 



40 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

"A touch of a certain faintnesfi that seizes me now and 
again," whispered her shaking lips. "A sinking and weak- 
ness at the heart. Our Lady uphold me ! Help me to lift 
this basket, friend : 'tis heavy for my old arms. I will get 
me home, and lie down : these breezes are over-sharp." 

"Nay, good mother; but I will carry it for thee." And 
the peasant's brawny muscles raised the trifling weight on 
his shoulder, and took the scaldino in his hand. « Cate- 
rina, support her, and lead the way." 

Old Ursula had never fully realized the fact that her 
evidence had actually brought a good man to his death 
until now, when she heard the failure of his fellow-towns- 
men's intercession. She had strongly hoped that it would 
have availed to save his life ; for he had already under- 
gone sore punishment. She had been the. informer who 
began his persecution : she felt she could not dare to stay 
now and view the completion of her work. 

"And they say," quoth the peasant, walking after the 
two women along a street so naiTow that his hands could 
without difficulty have touched the houses on either side, 
— "they say he was tortured yesterday, — put to the 
question, they call it. I'm told he was slung up by a rope 
to the ceiling, and suddenly let fall with a jerk, to dislo- 
cate his bones, poor wretch ! I dare say he wishes he had 
let our Lady alone before now. But there's no teaching 
these heretics." 

Dame Ursula uttered an irrepressible moan, " Here is 
the house, my daughter; and this is the key. Nay, thy 
father had best turn it : 'tis hard on thy small hands. I'll 



THE SERMON IN THE PIAZZA. 4] 

go and say prayers for the poor wretch's soul, if I may 
pray for an unrepentant blasphemer of our Lady. I'll go 
to the Church of San Giorgio." 

"And thou wilt let me go with thee, good mother? I 
shall pray likewise. I fear to look on his death." 

Poor little heart of Caterina ! how fast it beat to think 
that Luigi had more than once spoken in-everently of that 
very Madonna del Sasso, thereby repeating 'the crime for 
which Nicolas had to die ! 

But her father insisted on her return to the market 
square ; and they left the old woman muttering and mum- 
bling in the gloomy stone vault, which she called her 
chamber, and which was hung with musty valuables of 
the relic class. 

" Methinks Mother Ursula likes not what she has helped 
to do," observed the peasant shrewdly. " But there will 
be one heretic the less in Locarno.'' 

The piazza had become considerably more crowded 
during the interval of their absence. Guai-ds paced up 
and down, to keep a clear space all about the spot where 
execution was to be done. The workmen had completed 
their hideous scaffolding ; above which rose a high black 
stake with a cross-beam, — a gaunt outline well known in 
Italian cities of that age. 

This stake was girt about with a broad pile of brush- 
wood and fagots. One or two executioner's assistants 
were building up the raw material into a proper shape for 
readier burning, when the human body should be laid in 
its core. The laying of every fagot had a honid fascina- 



42 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

tion for Caterina's eyes. Hid in a comer of a church- 
porch, behind her father's broad shoulders, she could peer 
thi'ough a crevice at the central object of attraction. She 
beheld seats arranged for the honorable deputies of the 
Swiss Catholic cantons, and for the illustrious nuncio and 
his attendant ecclesiastics, where was the best sight-seeing 
focus. She saw the windows of the tall dai-k houses filled 
with faces looking down, except where the great blank 
walls of the Dominican convent stretched along, incapa- 
ble of revealing aught to the most earnest gaze. Even 
the roofs were crowded, so far as she could see from her 
shelter. Truly it was a high holiday in Locarno. 

" Our prefect won't much relish being present at this 
afternoon's work," remarked a brawny blacksmith to his 
neighbor the peasant. " He's a Lutheran at heart, is that 
Monsignor Reuchlin. But he had better beware: keen 
eyes are on him." 

" What ! does he favor heretics ? " asked the other, who 
had all a peasant's veneration for the civic magistracy. 

"Amico mio, though you are from the country, I should 
think you might know better than to ask that," retorted 
the blacksmith, looking at him. "Why, he tried to save 
this veiy Nicolas, the blasphemer who is to die presently, 
by trying him in his own court, and giving him a fool's 
sentence of sixteen weeks' imprisonment. Forsooth ! as 
if he had stolen a loaf of bread instead of the good name 
of our Lady. But the lords of the Seven Cantons are 
not easily blindfolded, and his Eminence quickened their 
zaal." 



THE SERMON IN TBE PIAZZA. 43 

"Why," interposed a little man in front of their group, 
turning quickly round, " what would become of Locarno 
if the chapel of our Madonna were defamed ? No more 
pilgrimages, if all men thought as these scurvy Lutherans 
do, nor votive offerings, nor traffic of travelers stopping 
at thy forge to shoe their beasts, friend, and at my shop 
to purchase images of our Lady. For every consideration 
of public policy, these Lutherans must be extirpated. The 
Holy Office must become more vigorous." 

"Hark, father: hearest thou not the distant chant?" 
whispered Cateiina from the shadow. 

The chattering crowd — for an Italian assemblage is 
always talkative — grew presently husted under that 
sound, as if a chill crept through their ranks. 

" Miserere, Domine ! " 

Nearer and nearer swelled the long-drawn intonations 
of that prayer, appealing to heaven for mercy refiised by 
man on earth! And soon appeared the friars in their 
gray woolen frocks and rope girdles, walking in couples 
along the victim's death-path, rolling forth the unctuous 
"miserere" in a medley of bass and tenor voices. Two of 
them had the doomed man under convoy, alternately 
brandishing crucifixes before his downcast eyes and pour- 
ing exhortations into hie ears. 

There was a movement among the crowd, like a ground , 
swell, when the procession debouched into the square; 
and another movement much more thrilling, and a sup- 
pressed murmur, when the pallid prisoner came past. 
The majority of the gazers had seen him a thousand times, 



44 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

this poor Protestant tradesman Nicolas, whose humble 
life could furnish no reproach, save the few hot-headed 
words against the Virgin, spoken in the haste of argu- 
ment with a neighbor, — words no stronger than you, my 
reader, would pronounce, if called upon to believe, that, in 
a particular church in yom- next street, a particular picture 
was curing the sick and giving sight to the blind. You, 
safe in the nineteenth century, would scout the notion 
with incredulity. So did the tradesman Nicolas ; but he 
lived three hundred years too soon for such liberty of 
speech. 

That the weeks of imprisonment had told on him, and 
yet more the dislocating torture, those of his acquaint- 
ance in the crowd could see. The support of the strong 
monks at each side was absolutely necessary for his fail- 
ing limbs. Some of the lookers-on misconstraed this 
physical weakness into drpad or unwillingness; but that 
impression subsided when he raised his face, and they saw 
how untroubled it was. The poor thin features were 
glorified with calm; at sight of which all the women 
crossed themselves, and believed the heretic delivered 
over to a delusion. 

But there were certain among the crowd who could 
understand the grand composure on that humble man's 
commonplace countenance, and knew that it proceeded 
neither from stupor nor from an attempt at heroism. 
Many of the Protestants of Locarno were present to look 
upon their brother's death, and to aid his constancy by 
their silent prayers. Once that he glanced round upon 



THE SERMON IN THE PIAZZA. 45 

the people, he caught a gUmpse of some friendly eyes, 
and was strengthened by the human sympathy in his 
consciousness of the divine. 

For a moment the composure of his spirit had been 
disturbed when he beheld the gaunt apparatus of death 
beside him. There were certain things in this world, 
certain joys in his obscure life, which made it as hard for 
Nicolas to leave it as for any noble sufferer whom history 
records. But God had opened his eyes to see higher joys 
beyond tlie black gulf yawning at his feet, and had en- 
nobled him with the inspiration of a celestial love. For 
Christ's sake he could even die. 

That supreme moment was not yet come. Into an old 
carved stone pulpit, at an angle of the piazza, clambered a 
monk, and began to preach, partly to the people, partly to 
the prisoner. His coarse cowl fell back from the tonsured 
head, his ascetic face gleamed with eagerness, as he urged 
upon Nicolas a recantation for his soul's sake. 

" The blessed Padre Antonio ! He would stir the very 
stones with his words!" quoth the women. "A most 
blessed man ! They say he can even work miracles ! " 

But the heretic's heart was beyond his power. Perhaps 
the heretic's ears scarce took note of the fervid exhorta- 
tion. Those near him obseiwed his Ups moving, and his 
downward gaze abstracted. 

"Father, father!" said Cateiina in the church porch, 
"let me away! I can not look upon the death. I will 
to the altar's foot, and pray for him, if perchance even at 
the last he may be moved to forsake his errors : father, 



46 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

I m%bst go ! " and she swung aside the great folding-doo7 
behind her, and entered the cold dim church. 

"A plague on the girl and her tender-heartedness!" ex- 
claimed the father, after grasping her cloak in an eflFort at 
detention. But the juncture was too interesting to admit 
of moving his gaze from the scaffold. " Santissima 1 how 
firm he stands on the ladder! How he looks round 1 
Ha! there's the iron in the executioner's hand that's to 
girdle his thi-oat." 

And so the sermon preached that day in the Locarnese 
market-place came to an end ; the monk's words crowned 
with the martyr's deed. 





CHAPTER VI. 

THE EXODUS. 

\ HE execution of Nicolas seemed to sever the 
last bond between the reformed Locarnese 
and their native city. It also served to luU 
persecution somewhat for a time ; as a victim 
cast to a ravenous beast temporarily aUaya his 
fury. The Catholic citizens were -not without 
emotions of pity for these feUow-townsmen, 
who were about to suffer the loss of all things except life 
— of property, friends, homes, country — for the mere 
sate of religious opinion. It was incomprehensible to the 
worldly-wise: only a few loQ;ier natures had a glimpse 
of the moral magnificence of the renunciation, and ad- 
mired withoiit the power to imitate. 

But the lords of the seven Romish cantons, and their 
counselors the priests, relented not. They procured an 
edict from the Milanese government, within whose juris- 
diction lay the easiest passes of the Alps, forbidding any 
of their subjects to extend shelter or assistance to the 
Locarnese exiles, even dming then* necessary journey, on 
pain of death. This edict gi'eatly perplexed, the pooi 

i7 



48 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

Protestants : it cut them oflf fi-om tlie accessible entrance 
to theii- brethren in Switzerland. Now their only route 
lay through the country of the Grisons, and it was im- 
probable that the passes of the Helvetian Alps were open 
thus early in the yeai-. In any case, they must depart 
fi-om Locarno on the 3d of March. 

On the evening of the day previous, a man and a 
woman might have been observed walking slowly along 
the mountain path which we have seen before, near the 
rude TOSty-looking wayside cross. They were evidently 
in deep converse, and the maiden had been weeping. 

"Nay, my Caterina, but thou wouldst not have me 
give up my faith and my conscience, even for thy sake ? " 
asked Luigi, taking her passive hand : " thou wouldst not 
have a perjured hypocrite for thy husband ? But, more- 
over, this separation shall be only for a time, — a short 
time. I will return when I have found a home for thee, 
anima mia; and we shall be pai-ted no more tih God parts 
us." 

" But thou ai-t leaving .thy fi-iends, thy country, the 
house thy fathers built, and going forth a poor wanderer 
on the world. See how all men hate the Lutherans! 
Thou wilt be no better tlian one of them. O Luigi ! where 
didst thou learn this wretched heresy? Why couldst 
thou not live and die as our ancestors have done ? " 
He paused before the cross, and made a reverence. 
" Because I have seen Him who died there," he said in 
a low tone. "Nay, mistake me not: I have not looked 
on the blessed Chiist with my bodily eyes, but with the 



THE EXODUS. 49 

Mght of my soul I have seen his most holy sacrifice foi 
my redemption ; and I know that fiiar or euoharist can 
do no more for me than he hath perforrned in dying. 
Therefore I must depart where I can worship him pm'ely, 
without committing sin." 

" Thou didst never speak of it to me before," said Cate- 
rina after a pause. 

"Because I feared thou wouldst shun me, — hate me, 
anima mia ! I cared more for that than for his Eminence 
and all his monks." 

She had thought him stern in his declaration of depart- 
m"e, at the opening of their interview ; hard and cold in 
his resolve to cast in his lot with the proscribed Protest- 
ants. It seemed such a fearful sacrifice. Why should 
he set himself up to be wiser than aU the blessed priests 
and bishops, and join the people that everybody despisied 
and detested ? 

." I hope thou wilt know one day," Luigi had said, look- 
ing at her affectionately : " I hope thou wilt feel the rea- 
son in thine own heart, as I do. Thinkest thou it Is no 
trial to me to depart, Caterina? But I would do even 
more than this for the sake of the most blessed Saviour." 

« How knowest thou that he would have thee do it, 
Luigi ? " she asked with some shrewdness. 

"Little one, God has written a book for aU men to read, 
which contains his wiU and his orders to men. In this 
book, which the monks keep to themselves, there is not 
one word about praying to om- blessed Lady, or to the 
holy saints, or about purgatory ; and there are many words 



50 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

against bowing down to images. Now, if I stay here, I 
shall be obliged to do all that the book tells me not to do, 
unless I want to lose my life ; and that I had sooner keep 
for the present." 

"But if thou didst propound thy doubts to a reverend 
monk, — say to that holy Padre Antonio: they say he is 
most learned in such matters." 

"What! he who preached while Nicolas was burning? 
I care not to walk right into the wolFs den, little one. 
Thou wouldst not relish to see me strung up to the black 
stake." 

" O Luigi ! hush. Go if thou wilt. And I will pray our 
Lady" — 

" Thou mightest as well pray to the mountain-top, Ca- 
terina: she hears thee not, being but a woman, and far 
away in heaven. But pray in the name of the most 
blessed Christ, who loveth us, and hath power to help. I 
will pray him for thee, dear." 

And thus they parted, the chasm of a diverse creed be- 
tween them. 

Poor little Caterina wept abundantly, and felt very 
wretched, when, next morning in early dawnlight, she be- 
held the flotilla of boats begin to cross the lake, — a long 
procession of penniless exiles. Her heart was not more 
sad than many another among those two hundred families 
uprooted for ever from their homes. Luigi found com- 
panions enough in tribulation. Some shed silent tears: 
the more impulsive mourned aloud. A few firm natm-es 
held back theii- emotions, and sustained the rest by their 



THE EXODUS. 51 

words and demeanor. Perhaps not half a dozen among 
them all would have rescinded the declaration of faith 
which was costing them so much; hut natural feeling 
would have way, and no enemies were looking on to cause 
the restraint of pride. 

It is well that we should occasionally realize such scenes; 
that we should now and then lift our thoughts from the 
wide-spread toleration of our age, and look hack on the 
less-favored centuries, when pauperism and banishment 
were deemed mild punishments for reUgious belief. 
Which of us would have held by his Protestantism as did 
these Looamese, when to do so involved worldly ruin ? 
From the midst of our safety and comfort let us gaze 
with admiration at the men and women who feared utter 
poverty and persecution less than a compromise of their 
faith. 

Bianca and her mother — who had stealthily returned 
the previous evening — were seated together in the stern 
of a barge, hand clasped in hand. Theirs were the most 
heroic hearts on board just then ; for they had the cordial 
of a glad meeting to string each flagging nerve. Much 
was told in a low voice of the various events since they 
had parted : often each eye glanced at the moody figure 
of the physician, who paced up and down the deck out- 
side the shed which "^sheltered the women of the party. 
What a droop in his shoulders since a month ago ! The 
look of broken fortunes was upon him. And, without 
doubt it was somewhat hard, while he possessed not the 
spirit of a martyr for conscience' sake, to be compelled to 
suffer a martyr's hardships. 



52 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

At last the signora caught her husband's eye, and beck- 
oned to him to sit beside her. He complied with a lan- 
guid snule. 

" Thou ait looking wearied, my friend : the last weeks 
have told on thee, dear one," she said tenderly. " Bianca 
hath been giving me the history of all that has taken 
place, more fully than Francesco's hints could do." 

"Ay, Francesco," repeated the physician : "he is a good 
fellow. I trust he may be able to save some remnant of 
my property in Locarno. He has a rai-e head for busi- 
ness, though so young. I doubt that the confiscation can 
extend farther than the bailiwick." 

And over that he fell into a brown study, passing his 
fingera through his grizzled beard, while his elbow rested 
on his knee. 

Which of us all would not have looked longingly back 
at the Egyptian flesh-pots under like cii-cumstances ? Di 
Montalto is a representative man of the majority. 





CHAPTER VII. 

THE HERETIC PILGRIMAGE. 

LOWLY the heavily-laden harges crossed the 
lake, propelled by the usual long oars, which 
in Italy are invariably pushed forward, not 
pulled backward as with us. Prom distant 
spui-s of the shore, the goatherd and vine- 
dresser saw the procession of boats, and knew 
that it was no pleasure party nor holiday gath- 
ering of pilgrims to some shrine, but the passage into 
exile of brave souls. And so surely does persecution 
work adversely to what its promoters would desire, that 
even the dullest hind could not but think there was a 
reality in the faith for which these men and women were 
suffering the loss of the chief things which sweeten life. 

Ere they were half way to the nortliem extremity of 
the lake, the brightness of the morning became overcast ; 
threatening clouds floated up from the mountain gorges, 
and blackened overhead into dense masses. Luigi, who 
was working one of the oars with might and main, as 
finding muscular exertion the best specific for his mental 
disquietude, sprang to reef the broad discolored canvas, 

6» 53 



54 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

■ whicli hitherto acted as sail, just before the stormy shower 
came rushing from its laii- in a defile, and burst on the 
leading boat. 

Di Montalto was roused from the reverie concerning 
his confiscated possessions by the shai-p pelting of sleet, 
at d by the oarsmen's exertions to render the shed a more 
efl:ective shelter for the women of the party. The sail 
was flung across so as to curtain the open sides pai-tially; 
but the passionate shower was not thus to be balked. It 
continually rent up the corners of this canopy, and beat 
in with /Vehemence at unexpected points, each di'op cold 
and cutting as steel. Bianca was very soon drenched and 
shivering, but no worse than many of the other poor 
women and children on board. A few cowered round 
the single rude stove, and kept themselves comparatively 
dry. The men abided the blast as best they could out- 
side. 

" Coragio, signorina mia ! " said Luigi, making his way 
towards Bianca and her mother through the crowded 
deck, and bearing something aloft in his hand. "The 
sky is clearing in the east : we shall have fair weather by 
and by. Fair weather of every sort, ladies. But, in the 
mean time, here's a scaldino." 

The warm earthen pipkin was a comfort by no means 
to be despised. Luigi went back to his oar, and toiled 
strenuously. The signora told her daughter what she 
knew of him, — how he had daily brought her supplies 
of food during her concealment in the mountains ; how 
he had told her his religious doubts and fears, those rifts 



THE HERETIC PILGRIMAGE. 55 

in tlie clouds which precede the dawn of divine truth 
in the soul ; how for conscience' sake he was leaving all 
whom he loved, and going in search of a new home where 
he would have freedom to worship God. 

It is a pitch of sublime devotion to abstract principle, 
which we in these days of complacent self-indulgent re- 
ligion can hardly comprehend . in all its bearings. Yet 
poor Luigi felt any thing but heroic at the present junc- 
ture. What enthusiasm can resist the combined influence 
of wet and cold ? His sensitive southern nature sank to 
zero. Doubts, desii'es, anxieties, thronged over his heart. 
He could have leaped ashore, and gone back to Caterina, 
were that possible. 

" Friend, I will take your oar," said a voice beside him, 
— the physician's. " My wife would speak with you." 

Had not the woman's keen eye seen the sinking spirit, 
and the need of cordial ? She had the very best ready — 
and for others besides Luigi — in the broad book open on 
her knee. No human words were fit to breathe comfort 
to their deep poverty. God's own words might do it. 

Forth shone the unvailed sun brilliantly, as the dimin- 
ished clouds glided away, having spent their showers; 
and she began : — 

"Thus saith the Lord of heaven and of earth to his 
poor children: 'Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be 
not dismayed ; for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee ; 
yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the 
right hand of my righteousness. 

« ' Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall 



56 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

be ashamed and confounded; ... for I the Lord thy 
God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not. 
. . . When thou passest through the waters, I will bo 
with thee ; and through the rivers, they shall not ovei-- 
flow thee : when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt 
not be burned: for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy 
One of Israel, thy Sa\'iour.' " 

These glorious words came not hackneyed to the hear- 
ing of the exiles. Few of them, though banished for the 
Bible's sake, had read that Bible through, or were ac- 
quainted with more than the salient points of its histories. 
A direct and express revelation could scarce have soothed 
those sore hearts better than did this adaptation of the 
old Hebrew verses. 

Barbara di Montalto paused for a few moments, turning 
over the leaves, before she repeated : — 

" ' Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteous- 
ness' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' Dear 
fi-iends, is not the reward worth the suffering ? " 

" It is, it is ! " burst fi-om the impulsive listeners. " The 
kingdom of heaven is worth it all ! " 

"Ah ! we don't know that so well now as we shall by 
and by," said the lady. "By and by we shall see the 
glory and the gain ! Now the dark cloud shadows our 
path : then shall "be eternal sunshine. Let us fui'ther see 
what Christ our Saviour has suffered for us." « 

And she read, in her distinct low voice, the narrative 
in the twenty-seventh chapter of Matthew's Gospel, to 
the fiftieth verse. The deepest silence grew on her audi- 



THE HERETIC PILGRIMAGE. 57 

ence as she proceeded. The children, hushed by their 
mothers, nestled against their skirts, and hearkened to that 
wondrous history of divine love and pain. No sound in 
all the dense freight of living beings save the regular plash 
of the oars and the voice of the reader, unless when 'an 
occasional exclamation testified to the depth of suppressed 
emotion in some heart. Tears were stealing down more 
than one brown cheek when the climax was solemnly pro- 
nounced : — 

'"Jesus, having again cried vrith a great voice, gave up 
his spirit.' " * 

It was enough. The contrast between their small suf- 
fering and his mighty pangs was suggested to each soul 
of the exUes. 

" The good Lord ! the most blessed Christ ! We love 
thee ; we give thee thanks ! " Such were their exclama- 
tions ; and presently they burst into a simultaneous hymn 
of praise. Prom boat to boat it echoed, and was caught 
up as by electric impulse. All faces brightened : even 
Di Montalto smiled, and a hght dawned in his leaden 
eyes as his daughter wound her arm within his and joined 
in the triumphal music. 

"That is all very well, my. little one," he said after- 
wards; "but where are we to find daily bread?" 

"The good Lord will provide, father. He knows all 
about us, and that we shall have no food except he send 
it. I am not afi-aid that he will forget us, father." 

" Ay ; and Francesco may be able to save some of the 

* A literal translation of tbe Italian version of Matt, xxril. 50. 



58 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

property outside of the bailiwick," said the physician 
thoughtfully. His trust in the aim of flesh was strong. 

Bianca was silent for a few minutes; then timidly 
asked, "Father, I hope he runs no danger, — no great 
danger?" 

"Danger?" repeated her father somewhat testily; "why, 
we are all in danger continually, especially we who have 
the misfortune to be suspected of Lutheranism, child. The 
very earth and air are ftiU of enemies for us ! If those 
rascally lords of the Seven Cantons have not a band of 
condottieri on the road to the Giisons to fall on and 
slaughter us, poor outlaws of the creation, we may be 
thankful. Such things have been done before now, child." 

She shuddered slightly; for sudden death is tremen- 
dous, even to the most spiritually-minded, when violence 
is the means. She narrowly scanned the neaiing shore. 
Nothing but crags and rocks, and green patches between. 
Ah! something moves on that beetling summit. Nay, 
'tis but a wild goat browsing, and raising his horned head 
to look wonderingly on the boats below. 

"But, father," she said, "the lords of the cantons would 
not be guilty of such wickedness; for when the nuncio 
wanted them to detain the children of the Lutherans, that 
they might be brought up in the Eomish faith, the lords 
would not consent." 

"It is tyranny, — the gi-ossest tyranny!" exclaimed the 
physician, chafing against his loss for the hundredth time. 
"These" — indicating his fellow-passengers — "have all 
some remnant of property; but I — I have none. I, a 



THE HERETIC PILGRIMAGE. 59 

Montalto, am a pauper in my gray hairs. I'll appeal to 
the Diet : they must do me justice." 

"Father," Bianoa murmured in the gentlest tone, and 
with an appealing look which would have disarmed the 
worst anger, — " Father, dost remember the prayer, ' Thy 
will be done on earth as it is in heaven' ? " 

" But I can not see that it is God's will. I can only see 
it man's most unrighteous and cruel will," he said. 

She answered nothing to that; for she felt that his 
view was natural enough : she only pressed his arm lov- 
ingly. Her last words worked the better for her present 
silence. 

Rejoining her mother shortly afterwards, she observed, 
with a little sigh, " Madre mia, what a wicked man is that 
Walther, who caused all this persecution ! " 

" We will not think of him, dear. Our blessed God has 
permitted his evil doings for some wise purpose, which we 
do not see as yet, but shall know hereafter. The only 
vengeance we can take is to pray for him, Bianca." 

But the thought of many in that company would revert 
to the act of treachery and falsehood which laid fitting 
foundation for all subsequent injustice towards the Prot- 
estants, and it required a very efficient Christianity truly 
to forgive the prime mover in the iniquity. Walther was 
town-clerk of Locarno, and had some years before forged 
a deed, which he sent to the assembly of the seven Cath- 
olic cantons when the time was fully ripe. The deed pur- 
ported to be a declaration on oath, by whicli the senators 
and citizens of the bailiwick of Locarno boun(^ themselve* 



60 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

to adhere to the Romish religion, and to their holy fathei 
the pope, until the meeting of a General Council should 
settle the world's theology. Immediately on receipt of 
this bond, the deputies decreed that the Locarnese should 
fulfill their engagement by confessing to their priests dur- 
ing the coming Lent, and that no rights of burial should 
be pei-raitted to any person who should die without re- 
ceiving the Romish eucharist. After that decree came the 
choice offered to the inhabitants, — either to profess the 
Catholic religion, or to leave their native land for ever; 
and seven deputies were sent from the Catholic cantons 
to enforce the edict on the spot. Zurich alone, of the 
four reformed cantons, protested warmly against this 
tyranny; but her single voice availed nothing, except as 
encouragement to the oppressed. 

Zmich was now the refuge they sought to gain. They 
had sent a deputation to request shelter for their brethren 
in the faith. During those highly theological centmies, 
when the pivot of the world's politics was a question of 
creed, no bond was closer between man and man than a 
coFimon belief. Nationality was not so near a connec- 
tion. These Locarnese — Italians to all intents and pur- 
poses — turned from their native land and their native 
language to settle among the foreign Swiss, and feel them 
the closest friends. 

Before noon they had disembarked, and begun the most 
toilsome part of their pilgrimage. Some few mountain 
ponies, some sure-footed mules, some strong oxen draw- 
ing carts, were the means of transport, — not half enouo-h 



THE HERETIC PILGRIMAGE. 61 

for sucli a multitude as two hundred families. So the 
■weakest were sent forward, and the others walked in long 
procession after them. Many a tearful last look was cast 
upon their beautiful lake, as they climbed the pass which 
would soon shut it from their view for ever. 

Past the Helvetic bailliages, past the town of Bellin- 
zone, trudged the heretic pilgiims, growing wearier every 
hour. But they knew it was not safe to pause until they 
entered Protestant territory. The country of the Grisons 
was this day's goal. They passed its frontier with an ac- 
clamation, and presently approached the town of Rogo- 
reto through gatheiing dusk. 

" Father, look, look ! " exclaimed Bianca, pointing for- 
ward to the barrier of Alps beyond ; upon which wall of 
opal slowly dawned a pure, calm light, as if kindling from 
within, and eased with diamond. 

"Only the moon rising off there out of sight," explained 
the physician. " I'm sorry to see the mountains so snow- 
bound. We shall not be able to cross them for a month 
at least." 

He was only mistaken in his calculation as to time. 
Two months were to elapse before the exiles could pursue 
their journey. 

6 



-s^t^Y^b^- 




CHAPTER VIII. 

THE EELIC-SELLER'8 REMORSE. 

OCARNO had thus oast forth her heretics on 
the wide world. She was a purified city. 
"The accursed thing was rooted fi-om her 
heart," quoth the nuncio. She seemed, by 
one bold stroke, to have attained the beau 
ideal of the theologians and statesmen of that 
age, — perfect uniformity in religion. 
It was to be expected that a remedy so violent would 
leave the patient weakly and exhausted. After a few 
days' fierce exultation, the Catholic enthusiasm collapsed 
in all but ecclesiastic minds. The gaps in the social 
and commercial circles of the town became disagreeably 
evident. Somehow those ejected Lutherans had been 
pleasant neighbors, industrious citizens, faithful Mends. 
Ifay, they had beeh perhaps the cleverest in their respect- 
ive callings, and the most upright ; for which reason, me- 
diocrities and less upright tradesmen had borne them no 
good will. But long-headed people began to suspect that 
Locarno had injured herself by such violent expressions 
of her orthodoxy. The silk manufacture, the dyeing 

62 



THE RELIC-SELLER'S REMORSE. 63 

• 

trade, had both been pretty well drained of their practi- 
tioners by the Protestant exodus. The blessing of the 
Bishop of Terraoina would be but a poor recompense for 
declining commerce. As yet, however, only the far-see- 
ing few anticipated the real result of the expulsion. 

Spoil was to be divided, and the wolves soon began to 
wrangle over it. Most Italian cities of the time had their 
Capulet and Montague, — powerful rival families contin- 
ually at feud about one thing or other, who kept civic life 
in hot water. These in Locarno were named the Buchia- 
chi and the Rinaldi, who had been temporarily leagued 
against the Lutherans. Now that this source of union 
was no more, they recommenced the chronic quarrel. 
Street skirmishes were not infrequent, where the combat- 
ants on both sides were good Catholics, and the bone of 
contention some portion of Protestant property derelict. 
A very big bone was the sovereignty of a neighboring vil- 
lage vacated by the heretics. 

This, or some other cognate cause of dissension, had 
one evening brought on a brawl in a wine-shop on the 
piazza. The smooth-tongued landlord sought to pacify 
both parties into a common consumption of his liquor; 
and, failing that, persuaded them to have out their quar- 
rel in the street. Rushing forth headlong, the two fore- 
most, charging one another with blind fury, came full 
upon poor old Ursula's frail stall, where she was just put- 
ting up her wares. A crash and a cry, — all had fallen 
together, the relic-vender undermost. 



64 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

"What, ho! good Christians, help! here's a woman 
badly hurt," cried one of the combatants, when he had 
picked himself vip, and beheld the old woman motionless. 
"Holy Madonna! but I believe she's dead. A piece of 
the wood must have hit her hard. "Well, fate is fate ; and 
she wouldn't let me have that tooth of San Ambrociio's 
this forenoon under a broad piece. I may help myself to 
it now." So, coolly pocketing the relic from the owner's 
basket, the bravo turned away to join in the melee raging 
stiU a few yards off. 

But old Ursula was not dead. Presently a sharp pain 
forced through her dulled consciousness, and she opened 
her eyes to the faces bending over her, — one, that of a 
friar supporting her head ; the other, of the young leech 
who had been applying restoratives. 

" I told you how it was, Fra Pietro," observed the latter 
pale and intelligent face to the former flabby and undis- 
cerning one. " She was but stunned, not slain ; and should 
be taken home now, poor woman." In which office he 
volunteered to assist personally. 

When laid on the pallet in her gloomy stone chamber, 
lit only by a loophole, she plucked his sleeve. 

" I know thee," she whispered : " thou art the young 
Lutheran doctor from Padua. It is not safe for thee to 
be here." 

"Nay, good dame; I feai- not," he rejoined, and con- 
tinued in the same suppressed tone to give directions 
for the compounding of a lotion to soothe her sprained 
foot. 



THE RELIC-SELLER'S REMORSE. 65 

" But thou miglitest fear me. Knowest thou not that 
it -was I who bore witness to the death against Nicolas?" 
she said, her glittering eyes fixed on his face. 

"I know it," he replied, bowing his head slightly. 
" Thou needest forgiveness, truly, for that misdeed ; albeit 
Nicolas may well pai'don thee for aiding in his translation 
among the angels of God, and count thee his best friend, 
Dame Ursula." 

She turned her head uneasily away, with an irrepressi- 
ble moan, from sight of those grave, kindly eyes. 

" What are you saying ? " asked the friar curiously. 

" She seemeth to have some charge on her conscience," 
observed Francesco. Stooping over her for another in- 
stant, he added in the aforesaid low tone, " If we confess 
our sins to God, Christ is faithful and just to forgive us 
our sins. Pray to him, good mother." 

And he left the apartment with the usual "buona 
notte," drawing his mantle forward so as to conceal the 
lower part of his face, while a deep slouched hat shaded 
his upper features. 

"It puzzles me to recall where I have seen that young 
man before," quoth Fra Pietro. "Ah ! now I bethink me, 
it was in the piazza the day that Mcolas was burned. 
San Pietro defend us from heretics! He took not his 
eyes from the pile to the very last. I fear much that he 
is one of like vein himself. " 

"Good father, he would not have recommended me to 
confession with his last words were he a Lutheran," sail I 
the old woman cunningly. 

0* 



66 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

"And did he so?" Then he is a true son of our Holy 
Mother Church ; for nothing do these heretics detest so 
entirely as confession to a priest. Well, my daughter," 
and Fra Pietro assumed his professional drawl, and his 
professional half-closed eyes, " I am ready, as thy ghostly 
father, to receive thy confession, and to give thee the 
grace of absolution when thou shalt have opened to me 
thine heart." 

"Father, I must prepare myself by thought and prayer; 
for I would make it a general confession, and my old 
memory needs quickening. To-morrow, at noon, I shall 
be ready for thee. I am in sore pain now." 

Fra Pietro hitched up his rope girdle, and departed, 
his fingers raised in a hasty benediction ; for he just re- 
membered that the evening meal at his monastery was 
approaching, and this was not a fast day. A neighbor 
woman, who came in to trim the feeble lamp and gossip 
over the accident, had also gone, when Dame Ursula 
raised herself, and drew from her bosom a small bright 
object, which she kissed fervently. It was counted a most 
precious relic, even a bit of the wood of the true cross, 
set in silver, under a crystal lid, — a treasure so costly 
as to have absorbed most of the old woman's life-long 
savings, and so enviable that she scarce dare avow its 
possession. 

Yet even the fervid grasp of this valued object gave 
her conscience but little ease just now. She had never 
got rid of the blood-stain of that bearing witness against 
the Iiutheran Nicolas. Two or three absolutions since 



THE RELIC-SELLERS REMORSE. 67 

had not wiped it out, nor all the spiritual sophistry of 
her confessors deadened the feeling of guilt. Fneasy 
from pain of body and of mind, she lay awake the live- 
long night; while the little. lamp burned out, and the 
moon traced with a silver arrow the loophole on the 
dark wall. Very little would have made the old relic- 
vender behold visions in that bright ray. A degree more 
of mental excitement, a pulsation or two of fever, and 
the moonbeam would have quivered with angels to her 
gaze. 

Litany after litany, paters, aves, and credos by the de- 
cade, she repeated to her long black rosary. " St. Barna- 
bas, St. Lawrence, and all the holy martyrs ! St. Augus- 
tine, St. Chrysostom, and all the holy doctors! all the 
holy pontiffs, all the holy virgins and widows, all the holy 
saints of God, — orate pro me ! " Such was the style of 
Ursula's prayers, and hence may be judged their efficacy. 
Conscience was really aroused now, and no such opiates 
could lull it to sleep. 

Mid-day was nearing when the little Caterina, missing 
the old woman from her accustomed stand in the market- 
place, looked into the dark chamber where she Hved. A 
fine young gentleman stood by the bed, talking earnestly. 
When he turned his face to notice what caused the shadow 
in the open door, she recognized the student whom she 
had seen in the piazza one day. 

" Go on, signer," said the tremulous tones of old Ursula, 
>-how weak and ill she looked, even by this insufficient 



68 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

light! — "goon; it is only the little Caterina: you may 
speak before her." 

"The best way that I can speak for thee, good dame, is 
to pray;" and down on the blocks of stone he kneeled, and 
held up his hands toward heaven. What ! was the relic- 
seller listening to a heretic prayer? Yet she dared not 
interrupt his few solemn words. But she grasped the bit 
of the true cross tightly, as a talisman against evil ; and 
kept repeating, under her breath, a host of aves. 

"Blessed be all in this house!" exclaimed the friar, 
entering, with his three fingers uplifted in the stereotype 
form of benison. 

"I was telling my rosary, good father," said the old 
woman, to explain the devotional attitudes of the party; 
for Caterina had had her face buried in the pillow beside 
her aged friend. 

"A pious and a worthy office, my daughter," rejoined 
Fra Pietro, " when partaken of by worthy souls. And 
that young leech — he knelt also? Methought I heard 
his voice as I drew near;" and the ecclesiastical eyes 
looked cunning. 

Any reserve in the poor old penitent's conscience was 
quickly dragged to light by the machinery of the confes- 
sional. Fra Pietro laid on her a heavy penance for hav- 
ing hearkened to the Lutheran's prayer, and went away 
cogitating as to how he should stop this pestilence. 

Ursula was in an agony of conflicting feeling when the 
peasant girl returned. Her confession would probably 



THE RELIC-SELLER'S REMORSE. 



69 



cause the arrest of that kind physician. She should he 
foi-ced to bear witness again. " I must warn hun, I must 
warn him," she repeated. " He must fly. Couldst thou 
seek him out, little one? Alas! I know not whither 
to guide thee; and I will not have a second death to 
answer for, Santa Brigida forgive me ! " 





CHAPTER IX. 

AMONG THE FRANCISCANS. 

1 HE friar had gone away from old Ursula's bed- 
side in thoughtful mood, with that portentous 
under lip of his pui-sed out, and his broad 
thumbs deeply sunk in the rope girdle which 
bound his coarse woolen fi'ock at the waist. 
His half-shut eyes fixed abstractedly on the 
uneven flagstones of the piazza, as he shuffled 
along in his sandals, were taken as the index of pious 
meditation within that shaven crown. " The holy man ! " 
murmured the brown contadinas in the market-place, as, 
with low obeisance, they noted his absorbed demeanor 
from beneath their hempen hoods: "he is doubtless med- 
itating on his breviary, or reciting some sacred office." 
But Fra Pietro was only devising the best plan to cir- 
cumvent a heretic ; which certainly was all of a piece with 
his habitual holiness, and nowise at variance with the 
popular estimate of the sanie. 

The Franciscan well knew how dangerous was the 
leaven of these new doctrines, which threatened to dis- 
turb all the comfortable ecclesiastic arrangements of soci- 

70 



AMONG THE FRANCISCANS. 71 

ety by their uplifting and disrupting tendencies, and to 
eject his fraternity, in common with all others, as the 
veriest scum of the ferment. He was fully aware, that, if 
Lutheranism gained the upper-hand, the power of the 
priesthood, both secular and regular, was at an end. 
Therefore he hated Lutherans with a blind, unreasoning 
hatred ; and would willingly have lit the fagots that con- 
sumed Nicolas, or any other sectary holding those level- 
ing doctrines. Something of the Demetrius spirit was 
in it, — "seeing that by this craft we have our wealth:" 
friars by these superstitions had their existence. 

And here was a young Paduan student endeavoring to 
undermine that great pillar of all orthodoxy, that might- 
iest engine of all church power, — the confessional! This 
pestilent heresy must not be allowed to spread : stamp out 
the spark at once, thought brother Peter, and you will 
never have a conflagi-ation. His dull nature was quick- 
ened into cunning by sundry hopes and fears : hopes of 
the merit, accruing to him with his superiors in the order, 
for vigilance and discernment, — two qualities for which 
the monk had heretofore not been much distinguished ; and, 
like all persons of similar mental caliber, he was most de- 
sirous to be esteemed as possessing the sharpness of which 
he was devoid by nature. Likewise by fears : a chronic 
dread of the heresy, and an immediate dread lest anybody 
else should discover the culprit, and gain the honor and 
glory resulting therefi-om. 

But he must put the conduct of the affair into abler 
hands than his own. Hence, when he entered the con- 



72 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

vent, and had learned from the lay-brother porter that 
their holy father the prior was absent on some sphitual 
mission in the, town, Fra Pietro lounged into the cloisters, 
and awaited his retm-n with ill-dissembled impatience. 

He was not the sole occupant of the old stone benches 
under these carved Gothic arches. One or two monks 
were reading; others were conversing; and pairs were 
walking to and fro, arm-in-arm, reciting Latin psalms in 
alternate verses, or, if less devotionally disposed, indul- 
ging in such gossip as the monastery afforded. 

Very small and scant were the items of news sufficient to 
animate the whole fraternity. We, in this age of electric 
telegraphs and daily newspapers, can scarcely form a con- 
ception of the narrow range of thought, the exceedingly 
limited vision, of a cenobite of those cloistered centuries. 
His widest horizon was the town in which he lived ; his 
largest interests, the petty ambitions of his convent. The 
last few months had been times of unwonted excitement. 
The decree against the Lutherans of Locarno ; the visit 
of the seven lords of the Romish cantons, and afterwards 
of his Eminence the papal nuncio ; the expulsion of the 
whole heretic population at one swoop, — had, indeed, 
been stirring events. So much had not clustered together 
in any monk's memory there present, not even in that of 
aged, doting Friar Ambrogio, whose nerveless hands were 
spread feebly on his knees under the warm sunshine, and 
his lack-luster eyes raised mildly to the face of each pass- 
er-by when the shadow touched him. No such events 
had strode across his dead level of a life. 



AMONG THE FRANCISCANS. 73 

" But much I fear," observed a tall, ascetic-looking man, 
the loftiness of whose head bespoke a favorable moral 
development, — "much I fear that only the branches have 
as yet been lopped off: the root of the tree of heresy 
remains in our midst. That wholesale turning to the 
faith is auspicious. I believe not in the devotion which 
must be forced at the spear's point." 

" Truly, truly," muttered Fra Pietro, in assent, from his 
seat in the cornei-, and nodded his round head porten- 
tously. " Truly thou art right." 

" Brother Pietro hath made a great discovery to-day," 
remarked the second monk in an ironical tone. " Where- 
in dost thou vouchsafe to consider our brother Stefano 
right, good Pietro ? " 

" In all that he saith about the heretics," was the some- 
what sullenly-spoken answer. Fra Pietro could not but be 
conscious that he was oftentimes the butt of the bi'other- 
hood ; and now, when he was swelling with the impor- 
tance of a secret, the sense of this was doubly galling. 
" I also know that the pestilence is not extinct," he added. 

"When thou seest wine, my brother, thou knowest 
there have been grapes," said the other, turning away. 
But the monk Stefano paused. 

"Perchance our good brother has aught to impart: 
thou wert in the town this morning?" he observed in the 
silldest of tones ; for the half-suppressed importance of 
Fra Pietro's manner struck him. But the latter had no 
idea of a premature disclosure ; and, besides, the seal of 
the confession.".! was upon him. He had really little to 
7 



74 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

tell of anybody ; though his surmises and suspicions had 
been increasing every moment in magnitude, till they filled 
the whole field of his mental vision, and caused him to 
view poor Francesco Altieri, the Paduan student, as a 
monster of depravity and evil-doing, who must be had in 
safe keeping as speedily as possible. « 

Under these circumstances, the good friar took refuge 
in nods and shakes of the head, meant to convey the vast 
importance of that knowledge which he held concealed, 
and the impossibility of revealing it to any but the supe- 
rior of the monastery in proper person. 

" Our brother has doubtless had a vision, by the special 
favor of his patron saint," said the monk who had before 
spoken ironically : " he would fain organize a new crusade 
against heretics." 

" Heretics ! ah, those are bad men," babbled Fra Am- 
brogio, raising his bleached face when he caught the word. 
"But Savonarola was none such. I remember," — and he 
passed his hand over his poor wrinkled brow, — "I re- 
member his heavenly face when he stood up to preach in 
the Church of San Marco in Florence, and the day when 
he headed the Dominicans to essay the ordeal of fire." 

''And the order of Saint Francis gained the victory!" 
interposed brother Stefano, his cold eye kindling. " How 
came it thou wast not a Dominican, Fra Ambrogio, thou 
dost espouse theii- champion so warmly, albeit he was a 
thorough-paced heretic as ever burned ? The black habit 
would have suited thee better than the woolen frock; 
and then ttou wouldst be of the dominant order, — that 



AMONG THE FRANCISCANS. 75 

which hath the Holy Office, and all power in heaven 
and on earth in consequence," he added with some bitter- 
ness ; for the rivalry between these monastic tribes had 
always run high. 

"I — I — pardon me, good brother," said the old monk 
falteringly; "I am an aged man, and infirm. I may say 
things I should not. But the prior of San Marco was 
to my soul an exceeding precious comforter in time of 
trouble, speaking of the love of Christ : therefore I did 
cleave to him. But he is gone ; and I am an old man, — 
very old : I know not how many years it is ago." 

And the gleam of reasoning remembrance which had 
visited the aged brain died away into inarticulate mur- 
murs. 

"And he was once of the Florentine signory, sixty 
years ago ! " observed the monk Stefano, with contemptu- 
ous compassion in his tone, as they walked away from the 
poor bent figure. " Methinks I should not care that my 
own novitiate for the kingdom of heaven were so length- 
ened as our good brother's. Ha ! here comes our reverend 
father the prior." 

The prior paused before the aged Ambrogio with a few 
kind words for his infirmities ; while Fra Pietro, big with 
the importance of his revelation, lingered uneasily beside 
the door he must pass at the farther end of the cloister. 

" Well, brother, what wouldst thou ? " asked the great 
man, coming upon him with a sudden movement, which 
rather disconcerted the slow-brained monk. 

"My father, I have somewhat to say unto thee in pri- 



76 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

vate." Whereupon the prior swung open the heavy oaken 
door, and passed rapidly along the corridor leading to his 
cell, having signed to Fra Pietro to follow. 

It was in no wise distinguished from the habitation of 
the humblest monk in the convent, except by the rare 
beauty of a silver crucifix hung upon the wall, in full light 
of the deep window, and directly above it a snowy skull 
resting on a bracket. What exquisite sculpture in that 
drooped head beneath its thorny crown ! what an aban- 
donment of agony in the suffering limbs ! The work was 
Benvenuto Cellini's, who was then the highest sculptural 
celebrity in the world. 

" My good brother, I musk ask thee to be brief," were 
the priors words as he seated himself on the hard bench, 
which, with a low table, and a sleeping-pallet pillowed by 
a log, composed the sole furniture of the apartment. 

In answer, Fra Pietro offered himself for confession. 
His spiritual father was listless enough at first, as expect- 
ing only some peccadillo needing absolution, or some cob- 
web of theologic perplexity troublihg his thick-headed 
brother. But his attention deepened very visibly toward 
the close of the narration. 

"And I fear, my father, that I may have done wi'ong in 
according her absolution, when she hath listened to such 
rank heresy." 

"No, no, good brother, — absolvo te, — thou hast acted 
to the best of thy judgment, and hereby I absolve thee. 
But who, sayest thou, was the second person who heard 
this young leech utter his blasphemies ? " 



AMONG THE FRANCISCANS. 77 

"A young contadina, my father. I know not more 
particularly ; though I have seen her in the mai-ket-place, 
methinks, before" now." 

" Then I charge thee to discover, and have word for me 
at this hour on the morrow." He rapidly repeated the 
Latin formula of absolution, and added, " Thou hast done 
well, brother, to bring this matter before rae, and wilt bo 
discreet concerning it elsewhere." With which, Pra Pie- 
tro was turned out of the cell, to relish the implied pro- 
hibition of his self-importance as he might, and find that, 
in this instance, duty was not its own reward. 

The Franciscans were determined to prove their zeal 
for the Church as well as their powerful rivals, the Domi- 
nicans, who occupied the vanguard as defenders of the 
faith. What seemed a goodly opportunity was now at 
the prior's feet ; and he had never been slow to make cap- 
ital of pious deeds. What could be greater piety than to 
capture a noted heretic, and to procure evidence against 
him sufficient to warrant the interference of the secular 

arm? 

1* 





CHAPTER X. 

THE ARREST. 

THEREFORE it came to pass, that on the 
same evening, after sundown, three men, 
coming from different directions, dropped in, 
one after another, within the shadow of the 
"loggia," or arcade along the lower story, of 
a house opposite to old Ursula's dwelling. 
They did not exchange a word, but watched 
the street intently. 

As a general rule, nothing watched for ever comes ex- 
actly when and how it is expected. Andrea d'Agnolo had 
begun to mutter through his mustache, and make various 
restive movements, like a war-horse kept too long in the 
stall, when that warning " Hist ! " — singularly resembling 
the sound of a serpent, which Italians utter when they 
wish to attract one's notice — issued from the farther end 
of the loggia. 

Their prey was walking unsuspiciously up the center 
of the narrow street, a cloak wrapped about him, so that 
they could not see whether he carried weapons. He 

78 



THE ARREST. 79 

paused an instant, after knocking at old Ursula's door, ere 
he entered. 

" Eoeo ! he's trapped," growled Andrea. " Now for your 
part, good neighbor." 

One of the three, who wore a civic dress and was ap- 
pai-ently unarmed, stole from the loggia, and crossed "the 
few yards into the passage beside the relic-seller's cham- 
ber. The two troopers followed, but did not take the 
same pains to get within earshot : they contented them- 
selves with standing sentry at each doorpost. 

This is what the spy heard : — 

"And in thy pain of body, good mother, I trust thou 
hast not pain of soul ? Didst thou confess, as I advised 
thee?" 

Strange advice for a heretic, thought the spy within 
himself. . 

"Thou must go, — thou must fly, signer. I fear the 
sbirri will be upon thee each moment!" exclaimed the 
old- woman's voice eagerly. " They wiU drag thee to 
prison, — perchance to the fate of Nicolas ! As thou vai- 
nest life, fly while there is time ! " 

An evil smile grew on the concealed face of the listener 
on the threshold. 

"Nothing shall befall me but what my God pleases," 
was the calm rejoinder. " I will first dress these bruises 
of thine, good dame." 

He could see that she was perceptibly weaker than in 
the morning, and that the healing process was almost at 
a stand in her aged frame. 



80 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

" Thou hast lived many years in this world, mother," 
ho said, after a pause of attention to her injuries. " Thou 
hast a long life to remember, and a longer life soon to 
begin." 

The old woman groaned. "And my last action has 
been to do hai-m to thee, my kind friend," she said. " I 
have done thee a notable harm to-day, — all the saints 
jDreserve thee, signor! I am a most unfortunate old 
wretch, — Santa Brigida forgive me! — but I did not in- 
tend to work thee evil." 

"Ask not the saints to forgive thee, dame," — and the 
eaves-dropper's nostrils quivered at this first scent of her- 
esy : " for they are doubtless blessed ; but, being men and 
women like ourselves, they can not aid thy soul, nor wash 
it white of a single stain. But ask our most precious 
Lord to pardon thee, who died for thee on that painful 
cross ; " and he pointed to a rude crucifix in one corner 
of the meager room, where, with much red paint and un- 
shapely carving, the death of the Saviour was set forth 
roughly and coarsely for common minds. 

" He will pardon thee," continued Francesco, withdraw- 
ing his gaze after an instant from the crucifix, as if the 
unfitness of the symbol almost pained him ; " and he will 
give thee the sense of pardon in thine heart, — a most 
joyous knowl'edge, a divine flame to warm thy whole 
being. This is God's absolution, dame : without it, man's 
is little worth." 

" Now thou speakest heresy, and I dare not listen to 
thee," interposed the old relic-vender. " Fra Pietro laid 



THE ARREST. 81 

penance on me of aves and credos, which this day hath 
been too short to fulfill by one-half. Go, signer, go ; and 
the blessing of all the holy saints.be with thee! " 

Long before this, the impatient Andrea d'Agnolo had 
been champing outside, though noiselessly, and much dis- 
posed to go in and cut short the conference by a summary 
an-est. As the Paduan student stepped over the thresh- 
old, the spy withdrew a few paces into the darkness, and 
the troopers laid hands on their prisoner. 

Two against one, and fully armed men, again -.t a half- 
drawn rapier : yet the wild thought of the youth for the 
first moment was successful resistance ; the next he was 
overborne and pinioned. Neighbors, putting forth cau- 
tious heads when the sound of the scuffle had ceased, 
beheld three dark figures passing away down the narrow 
street, and the fourth skulking at some distance behind. 
Women-friends, flocking in to old Ursula for explanation, 
found her in a heavy swoon, unable to give any ; and, as 
under similar circumstances in the nineteenth century, 
they gossiped and chatted an infinite deal while bringing 
the poor patient round. 

" There hath an ill-favored bravo been lingering about 
the street all the afternoon," quoth one whisperingly. " I 
saw him when going to draw water at the Piazza foun- 
tain; raethought as evil eye as ever glanced beneath a 
broad leaf." 

"Yes, yes," added another; "and he frightened mio 
poverino, the little Jacopo, nearljr into fits. Our Lady 
defend us ! " 



82 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

"It is just those heretics again," put in a third oracle. 
" Locarno will have no peace till they are rooted out en- 
tirely. Just those heretics, — nothing else ! " 

" Well," said a woman who had been particularly active 
about the sick Ursula, and was bathing her temples with 
water, " I have no evii to say of the Lutherans. What- 
ever their faith be, their deeds are more right than most 
good Catholics. They visit the sick and the aged like 
any friars or nuns in an order, and all for the love of God, 
without any vows. I remember, when my good Geronimo 
was ill of the ague, how the Signora di Montalto hath 
many a time ministered unto him with her own hands, 
and made savory messes to tempt his appetite ; and she 
was wont to talk no heresy, but most sweetly to discourse 
of the divine and most blessed Christ." 

"Ah! that is the worst," rejoined the last speaker: "it 
is a poison which you know not till it begins to slay. 
They are too cunning openly to attack the Church, most 
of them. And as for the Signora di Montalto, it is well 
known that she uttered blasphemies in the ears of his 
illustiious Eminence the Nuncio himself. Our blessed 
Mother preserve us from all delusions of Luther and of 
the devil!" 

"Amen ! " echoed the pious women, crossing themselves 
severally with great expertness. Luther and the devil 
were well-nigh synonymous terms in Italian ears of that 
age ; and the sign of the cross was a specific to ward off 
any evil from either fiend. 

Of the two, it is probable that an orthodox Italian 



THE ARREST. 83 

cliurohmaii in the sixteentli century entertained less dread 
of the latter, whose influence might indeed lead to the 
commission of sins, venial or mortal, as the case might be ; 
but a sufficiency of money or of penances would set all 
that to rights: whereas the suspected influence of Lu- 
theran doctrines could by no means be atoned for, and 
entailed sundry direful inconveniences in this world, even 
to loss of goods and of Ufe, — considerations which made 
the other influence clearly preferable. 

A mingled terror and rage was excited by the very 
name of the great German reformer. The mass of the 
faithful believed in some witchcraft exercised by him and 
his followers, which di-ew away men from their allegiance 
to the holy father, and rendered them insensible to self- 
interest, even to self-preservation, where the new creed 
was concerned. The perpetually inexplicable fact of the 
Divine Spirit's agency on the soul, leading it into all truth, . 
nerving it for all disaster, ^- that enigma of the renewed 
heart, which has, since the gospel was first published, been 
a deep mystery to natural men, — was accounted for in 
the vulgar estimation by sorcery during the great Refor- 
mation movement; as at the present day the wise, the 
wealthy, and the learned are too often satisfied, in similar 
cases, with the solution, — "enthusiasm." 

Andrea d'Agnolo and his troopers, possessing the usual 
conscience and creed of men-at-arms, were least of all able 
to comprehend the faith of the heretics whom they hunted 
down. Plucking a half-burned brand from the hearth in 
the guard-room, the condottiere captain held it pear his 
prisoner's face. 



84 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

"Ay, I thought %hou wert not unknown to me," he 
observed, flinging back his impromptu torch, which sent 
forth a volley of sparks. "I owe thee a gi-udge likewise, 
messer, if I don't mistake, for carrying oflf my lady the 
physician's wife after she was my lawful capture. Thou 
deservest to swing for that alone, my young sir, to teach 
thee better manners in future." 

Francesco replied nothing. He was only just beginning 
to realize that he was in the power of enemies whom he 
had done much to exasperate. Some bewildennent was 
over him: consequences and possibilities were so jumbled 
before his thoughts, that he but half caught the meaning 
of Andrea's words. The next that distinctly visited his 
consciousness were these : — 

" Do you hear, messer ? I say that I would fain ask 
thee a question for my own satisfaction. What business 
hast thou, being a fine handsome young fellow with the 
world before him, and plenty of advantages to make way 
in it too, — what business hast thou meddling with the 
musty creed of these Lutherans, and getting thy fingers 
burnt — ay, and perchance thy whole body burnt too — 
in their heretic practices ? Thou ait no old man tired of 
life, nor hast had thy fill of enjoyment, and art now trying 
to secure the other world too ; though, if we're to believe 
our good fathers the friars, you're going the very way to 
lose both. I'm a rough soldier of fortune ; and I haven't 
niany words, nor many thoughts either, beyond my sword 
and my goblet : but I'd like to understand this." 

"They are all mad," succinctly observed the trooper 
Filippo. 



THE ARREST. 85 

" Yes, madness might account for a man's standing in 
the fire as if he didn't feel it, while his ten fingers were 
blazing like torches, as I've seen at an auto da fe, which 
is the new Holy-Office name for heretic bonfires; but it 
won't account for other things." 

" My friend," said Francesco, " we are not mad. We 
liave counted the cost, and set this world against the 
next, and have seen which is best worth our pains and 
our esteem. And, moreover " — 

"Enjoy the present, and let the future take care of 
itself, — that's my i;ule," inten-upted another of the band, 
whose huge sensuous lower jaw fully bore out his asser- 
tion. " Priests and women pray enough for us all." 

" Ho, comrade ! none of thy heathenish notions here," 
called the authoritative voice of the captain. "No man 
is the worse for an occasional ave or credo, and a relic or 
two inside his cuirass. Thou mayest be glad enough to 
don the cowl in thy coffin yet." 

For be it noted here, that to die and be buried in a 
monk's habit was considered, " during the ages of faith," 
one of the readiest modes of enduing the soul with some 
robe of righteousness ; and being so much less costly than 
a life of purity, and so much more comprehensible to the 
popular mind than simple faith in the Eedeemer's finished 
work, it was a mode much patronized, and originated an 
extensive mercantile traffic in cast-off cowls, to the great 
benefit of divers fi-aternities. 

" But I have not answered the noble captain's inquiry," 
said the prisoner, when he could get a hearing. "The 



86 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

heretics whom he has seen die were men who knew that 
heaven was right before them to enter, and who preferred 
that joy to a few years longer of this sorrowful earth. I 
also have seen such men die, shouting 'victory' even amid 
the cries of their bodily anguish in the flames." 

"And thou wert not terrified?" asked Andrea with in- 
terest. 

"My mortal heart may have trembled," acknowledged 
the prisoner; "but my spirit was the stronger for the sight, 
through favor of my good Lord. And I tell thee, noble 
captain, that should the good Lord vouchsafe to thee, 
even to thysel:^ the same grace, and put into thy soul his 
ardent love, thou couldst give up all for him, as the Lu- 
therans do, and even walk to death with a glad face." 

" Thou art right, Pilippo : 'tis a sort of madness," ob- 
served D'Agnolo after a pause, during which he surveyed 
the student attentively by the flicker of the firelight. 
"Yet. there is no wildness in his words, except their wild 
meaning. Hark ye, messer: a word of counsel. Be not 
so open-mouthed before the holy fathers, or — the stake 
of Nicolas may be thine." 

Here the person in a civic dress who had followed them 
at a distance in the streets, and had eaves-dropped at 
Ursula's threshold, entered the guard-room, and made 
some whispered communication to its officer. 

" Amico mio, thou hast some little way farther to walk," 
D'Agnolo observed to his prisoner when the messenger 
was gone. " I would fain keep thee here all night ; but it 
may not be. Nevertheless, I'll give thee a friend's ad- 



THE ARREST. 87 

vice : throw heresy to the dogs, come out into the world, 
and amuse thyself as a young man should. Though thou 
didst do me an evil turn about the lady, I wish thee no ill, 
and should be sorry to think thou wert food for fagots." 

" Worthy captain, my life is dear to me : but one thing 
is dearer still, — my Saviour ; and I dare not, I can not, 
deny him. Perchance the charge against me may not 
affect hfe. I know not what I have done, nor wherefore 
I am thus haled to prison. I thank thee for thy kind- 
ness." 

" Thank me not," growled D'Agnolo. " If thou carest 
not for thyself, who else should care ? " 

Francesco was considerably relieved to find that his 
guard stopped not before the Dominican convent, where 
the Holy Office of the Inquisition held tribunal, but before 
the common prison of Locarno. 





CHAPTER XL 

IN A CELL. 

I HE word "prison," though still a sound of suf- 
ficient dread and discomfort, means something 
very different with us Britons of the nine- 
teenth century from what it meant in the ears 
of Italians of the sixteenth. We erect large 
airy edifices for our criminals, paying due at- 
tention to health as well as to safe keeping: 
but the jails of olden time were regarded simply as lock- 
up places; and, provided the walls were thick and the 
dungeons deep, the prisoners might die from foul air, or 
starve from scanty food, or perish wholesale from disease, 
without the free world outside troubling itsBlf at all on 
the matter. 

Francesco Altieri knew pretty well what he had to ex- 
pect in the common prison of Locarno, — a wide, low, 
vaulted chamber, with matted masses of straw in the cor- 
ners and along the sides where the damp floor and damp 
walls met ; each of these pallets occupied by one or two 
prisoners, so that a perfect fringe of heads raised them- 
selves to look at the new arrival : an atmosphere of the 

88 



IN A CELL. 89 

foulest; for a grating in the massive door, and a slit in the 
six-foot-thick masonry at one end, were all the access to 
outer air. 

"You'll find some of your kin there before you," re- 
marked the jailer with a hoarse laugh. "We're accus- 
tomed to heretic guests of late;" and the door swung 
back into its socket with the dull, heavy collapse of ex- 
ceeding strength. 

"Altieri, my friend, is it thou?" and a person who had 
been sitting apart on a stone bench rose, and clasped his 
hand. " I grieve to see thee here, brother, although it is 
for conscience' sake. I hoped thou hadst made good thy 
retreat with the exiles." 

" I had well-nigh done so, but returned on business of 
my patron's," answered the Paduan student, trying to 
make out the other's face by the dim light of the oil lamp, 
which flung a pattern of the grating on the floor from the 
passage outside. 

" Thou dost not remember : yet, signer, thou mightest 
recall the dyer Ottoboni, who refused to have his child 
baptized after the Roman manner, with chrism and cross ; 
and whom the deputies of the Seven Cantons amerced in 
a heavy fine, enough to ruin an honest man." 

" Forgive me," said Francesco, grasping his hand afresh. 
" Methought I knew the voice, but could not recall the 
name. I have seen thee in the Lutheran meetings at the 
Signora di Montalto's. I should have better known thee, 
my brother in the faith." 
They seated themselves on the stone bench by the en- 

6* 



90 PROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

trance, and conversed in low tones. Both were .jheered 
by this unexpected meeting; for the poor dyer's mind 
had been growing more and more rancorous against the 
persecutors who had robbed him of his hvehhood and 
ruined his humble business : he was in danger of totally 
forgetting the precepts of Christian charity. Perhaps the 
meekest of us would do likewise in like case. And Fran- 
cesco was the better for seeing one in worse estate than 
himself, — one who had wife and children depending on 
him, whose lives as well as his own were blighted by this 
tyranny. 

"A plague on you for pestilent heretics!" growled the 
occupant of the nearest pallet ; " you will not let a good 
Christian sleep, with your prating! If I had but my 
trusty poniard, and the use of my sword-arm, I would 
soon have you silent enough ! " 

Francesco turned round. He was young, and of gentle 
blood, and his heart was hot : he could not trust himself 
to speak for a few moments. Then he said gently, — 

" Friend, thy poniard is not needed : we can hold our 
peace without it." He leaned back his proud head against 
the massive rough stones of the prison, and choked down 
the resentment which had surged into his feelings, with 
difSculty enough. Presently the soothing came; across 
his memory ghded those words concerning his Saviour: — 

"II quale, oltraggiato, non oltraggiava all'incontro ; pa- 
tendo, non minacciava," — " Who, when he was reviled, 
reviled not again ; suffering, he threatened not." 

Francesco could not but be calm in presence of that 



IN A CELL. 91 

great Exemplar. As for poor Ottoboni, his spirit was 
broken by his month of captivity, during which he had 
been the pariah among the orthodox criminals who had 
only transgressed the laws of God and of the State ; while 
his unpardonable offense was, that he had transgressed the 
laws of the Church. 

A heavy groan from that neighboring pallet more than 
once disturbed the slight uneasy slumber into which the 
Paduan student fell, farther in the night. A groan, and 
the unquiet plunge of great restless limbs; and, by the 
dim oil light which gleamed through the grating, he 
could just see the outline of a long stalwart figure flung 
on the straw, with one arm apparently bound up. 

"A brigand, brought in yesterday," whispered Ottoboni. 
"He suffered from a sore wound in his right arm, received 
in his capture, as well as another on his head ; and he is a 
very savage, as thou heardest a while since. They say he 
has uncounted murders on his soul : he was the terror of 
the passes to the MUanese." 

" Poor wretch ! " But remorse had no part in his dis- 
quietude : it proceeded simply from physical pain and 
impatience. Ere long his inarticulate moans passed into 
very articulate imprecations. 

"Friend," said Francesco, "I am a leech, and might 
perchance be able to relieve thy pain, if the wounds want 
dressing, and a light could be had." 

"No!* exclaimed the other with an oath : "no heretic 
hand shall touch my bandages, laid on with holy hands. 



92 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

Because of thy hateful presence is the blessed charm un- 
availing doubtless." 

Francesco was sufficiently versed in the popular medi- 
cal practice of the lower classes to be aware that the 
charm alluded to consisted of three pieces of old linen 
steeped in holy water, and bound on the wound in shape 
of a cross. At the time of application, no weapons should 
be about the patient, and he should repeat three paters 
and three aves by heart : if unable to do so, somebody 
must say them on his behalf, — a salve of most singular 
efficacy when used in faith ! 

Whether the brigand had not sufficient faith, or there 
had been some error in the performance of the rite, his 
wounds were none the easier when morning light stole in 
through the deep loophole at the end of the vault. Grad- 
ually the haggard faces and forms of the prisoners came 
in view, long after the outer world had been glorified with 
full day. 

"And now, fi-iend," said Francesco, after some struggk 
with himself whether he should again proffer his rejected 
kindness, " I might be able to do thy wounds a service." 

The sufferer replied not; and, taking the silence for 
assent, the young surgeon laid bare the brawny arm, 
where a sword-thrust had passed through the muscles, 
and severed much of the flesh : he washed it in water pro- 
cured from the jailer, and bound it up afresh in linen torn 
from his own sleeve. Likewise to the wound on the 
head, cutting away the close curling hair from its edges. 

"And pray to thy God, poor man, instead of cursing 



IN A CELL. 93 

thy fellows and thyself; pray to him to forgive thy sins, 
and to heal the sore wounds of thy soul as well as of thy 
body. For be assured that this is but a light torment to 
that which will overtake thee if thou continuest in sin, 
and repentest not that thou mayest be saved." 

" Chut ! " exclaimed the wounded man : " an indulgence 
will settle all that for me comfortably. Ten golden crowns 
will buy me a free pass through the gates of heaven, praise 
to our Lady ! " 

"And thinkest thou the Most High, who hath created 
the mines of silver and gold in the bowels of the hills, 
can be tempted with thy poor offering of coin ? No, my 
friend : he hath given power to no man to admit sinners 
into heaven. He will not have heaven bought; but he 
giveth it freely to aU who repent through his dear Son." 

"And it seemeth to me, that, were thy doctrine right, 
our holy father the Pope would have but a beggarly ex- 
chequer ! " observed a man who leaned against the wall at 
the head of the pallet, and had narrowly watched the 
binding of the wounds. "Thy doctrine will never find 
favor among the great ones, good sir, and will only get 
thine own skin into danger. If our good friars didn't 
empty the 'people's purses to their own advantage by 
masses and indulgences, and such Uke holy wai-e, the 
blessed men would be reduced to work themselves,— 

don't you see ? " 

Francesco looked inquiringly at the speaker of these 
free-thinking words, who immediately added with a cun- 
ning laugh, "But I'm a good Catholic aU the time, you 



94 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

know: I'd kiss his Holiness's toe with anybody, d'ye 
see?" 

"And when you come to die, friend ? " asked the stu- 
dent. 

The prison door was flung wide, and a rush of the purer 
air without hurried to replace the exhausted and foul at- 
mosphere within. Standing on the threshold, the com- 
mandant of the town-guard required to see Francesco 
Altieri, who soon learned that he was to go in his cus- 
tody to the Dominican convent, where the Holy OflSce 
at that time held court; and fetters were placed upon his 
hands. 

" Fare thee well, brother ; God strengthen thee, — God 
bring thee safe through ! " and the poor dyer embraced 
the gentiluomo, to whom at another time he would dofi' 
his cap obsequiously. But, in community of faith and of 
suffering, all social distinction between the physician and 
the artisan vanished. "God be with thee, good Otto- 
boni ! " and Francesco felt as if he had left the last friendly 
face. He passed the prisoner's wife and child in the 
court-yard, bringing to him some meager fare, yet better 
than the jailer was authorized to provide; and the inno- 
cent babe — unwitting occasion of its father's i-uin — woke 
in its mother's arms from the noisy tramp of the guards, 
and wept. 

Francesco had been in the Dominican convent before 
now, to attend an ailing monk : the massy gloom of its 
apartments was therefore no novelty to him. The hall 
where Riverda had endeavored to argue the Lutheran 



IN A CELL. 95 

matrons from their faith was changed into a sort of tribu- 
nal : two velvet chairs were set on the dais for the inquis- 
itors, and two secretaries sat at ends of a table before 
them. But the proceedings to-day were merely prelimi- 
nary : Francesco was asked a few questions about name, 
residence, and such indifferent matters, and presently re- 
manded. 

" But, most holy fathers, I would fain know the charge 
against me," he remonstrated, — "I would fain know 
whereof I am accused, that I may clear myself." 

The chief inquisitor waved his hand impatiently, and 
two monks grasped each arm of the prisoner. " I warn 
thee and all," exclaimed Francesco, standing still for a 
moment by main force, "that I am no subject of the can- 
tons : I claim the protection of the Venetian Republic ; 
I was born under the Lion of St. Mark." 

" That may not much avail thee," observed the second 
inquisitor with a sarcastic smile ; " for know that the Holy 
Office regardeth not race or nation, being established 
above all civil power by the ordinance of our holy father, 
Pope Paul the Third." 

The prisoner was hurried away into the underground 
vaults of the convent, where monks were sometimes sent 
for discipline of fasting and seclusion. He was barred 
into a cell of narrow dimensions, and heard the footsteps 
of his guard die away along the dark passage they had 
come. 

What a silence when that sound had passed! No 
(^eater silence could be if he was buried. Was any liv- 



96 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

ing thing in the cells he had seen near? He hoped so. 
But the mighty masonry would intercept the loudest 
voice. By and by, when the chafing of his spirit had 
worn off, and his thoughts grew more calm, that silence 
came upon him more oppressively. He began to calcu- 
late how far he was from the other inmates of the con- 
vent, tracing his steps back as well as he could remember 
tlie labyi-inth of passages and staii-ways he had come. 
Ha! something moved across that slit in the wall, far 
above his head, on which his eyes were fixed with the 
craving which they have for' light ; something moved ! 
Francesco sprung to his feet, and watched intently 
Again ! — and only a green leaf blown "by the fragrant 
breeze; yet it shed a gladness on his heai't which was 
to himself inexplicable. It was a stepping-stone for his 
thoughts to the outer world, fi-om which he had begun to 
feel himself so hopelessly immured. "Whither did that 
slit look out? On trees and grass above ground, cer- 
tainly ; and though he had not been many hours removed 
from the sight of those common things, he felt an uncon- 
trollable desire to gaze at them again. He examined 
the projections of the rough stone-work for a means to 
climb ; but — what madness ! wei-e not fetters on his 
hands ? 

He threw himself on the thin mattress, which was his 
bed, and groaned. The clanking irons on his wrists, fast- 
ened together by a short chain, seemed a pledge of im- 
prisonment forte et dure. His own helplessness irritated 
him. But he knew of the unfaULng refuge for this and all 



IN A CELL., 97 

other ills. He betook himself to prayer: "My Father, 
my Father ! have I faint heart already ? Can I not -watch 
even one hour with thee ? Shall I, on this my first day 
of suffering for thy sake, chafe against the discipline thou 
permittest me ? Forbid it. Lord ! I am very weak. Oh, 
strengthen me ! " In many ejaculations like these, he 
wrestled against the adversaiy who would tempt him to 
repine. 

Days passed over, and, except the lay-brother who 
brought him food and water once in the twenty-four 
hours, he saw no one, nor heard any voice. The want 
of events made the time seem intolerably long; and he 
found but one subject of thought ever fresh, perennially 
new ; but one topic which did not pall nor wear out, — the 
thought of his Saviour. At times one verse of the Scrip-- 
tares stored in his memory would stand out before him 
as if illuminated within and without with heaven's o-wn 
light ; as if some angel painted each word with brilUant 
coloring of celestial dyes. He would lie rapt in spirit 
before that many-sided truth, and wonder how he had 
never before seen its splendor. 

O Divine and Holy Ghost ! rightly art thou named the 
Comforter. In many a wretched garret, devoid of all 
earth's delights, thou art now working this miracle of 
consolation, as in martyrs' cells of old! Thou showest 
of the things of Christ ; and a glimpse at this treasury 
of heaven is enough to outbalance all the feKcity of 
worldly men ! 

Reader, do you feel this true ? or does it seem an en- 

9 



98 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

thnsiasm without parallel in your experience ? If bo, pray 
to God to visit you with the glorious fact. 

Looking back to the Dominican prison in after-times, 
Francesco could not say that he had been ever intolerably 
unhappy, even in his worst hours; and he could recall 
many a season of exquisite spiritual enjoyment. He knew 
that there he had been very near to God, which is the 
soul's bliss. 





CHAPTER XII. 

THE SCREW ECCLESIASTIC. 

jNE night, torches came along the subtena- 
nean passage, and the door of Francesco's 
cell was unbarred. He had been sleeping 
tranquUly. The sudden entrance and flai-e 
of light startled him to his feet. The next 
instant, two stout, monks had him in convoy, 
as on the previous occasion. Hardly were 
the prisoner's faculties fully collected, when he found him- 
self in a large vaulted apartment, and sitting on a block, 
to which the fetters on his wrists were quickly fastened 
by another short chain. 

The two inquisitors, whom he had seen before, being 
the Dominicans who had come with the nuncio Riverda, 
and who stayed after his departure to finish the work of 
heretic extirpation which that worthy bishop had begun, 
were seated on "the throne of judgment" in front of the 
prisoner. Their iron-like faces, wherein appeared no fea- 
ture capable of change or of motion save the cold eyes, 
would indeed chill a heart more sanguine than Frances- 

99 



100 FROM DA WN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

co's. Some large, low object at the side of the room was 
covered with a dark cloth. The glances of the accused 
turned uneasily thither. A shudder ran through his 
fi-ame at the premonition, that underneath was stretched 
the hideous machinery of the rack. 

The inquisitors, skilled in human emotions, noted that 
slight shudder as a key to operations. Presently the ex- 
amination began. A deposition from some unknown wit- 
ness. was read, narrating Francesco's conversation at the 
bedside of the old. relic-vender on the night of his an-est, 
and considerably exaggerating his alleged heretical state- 
ments ; and he was asked what he had to say in answer. 

"That much of it is false," was the impetuous reply. 
"That is, false as to the fact of my utterance on the 
occasion referred to; not false as to'' — He hesitated, 
remembering that he was in no wise bound to criminate 
himself by too open confession of his opinions in the very 
teeth of the inquisitors. 

" Go on, my son," said the elder Dominican in a wheed- 
ling tone. 

"I demand to be confronted with my accusers," ex- 
claimed Francesco. 

" 'Tis not the usage of the Holy Office," coldly replied 
the judge. "But to what in this testimony dost thou 
plead guilty?" he added insidiously. 

"I say not that I am guilty of aught," answered the 
prisoner. "Guilt is a word pertaining to crime, and I 
have committed no crime. Bring forward my accusers, 
holy father : let them meet me face to face, and testify 



THE SCREW ECCLESIASTIC. 101 

boldly as to what I have said or done that is deserving 
of punishment." 

" Thou art contumacious, my son ; yet will I bear with 
thee a little," said the chief inquisitor. " Know then that 
thou art charged with holding Lutheran tenets, to the 
denying of the blessed sacrament of auricular confession, 
and also to the contempt of prayers addressed to the holy ' 
saints, whose intercession availeth much with the most 
high God. Thou art ch&ged with disseminating these 
pestilent heresies on more than one occasion." 

"My father, I would crave you to name the circum- 
stances." Francesco waited a few minutes to collect his 
thoughts, and decide on his reply. He was sorely tempted 
to evade a full declaration of his faith. Which of us, with 
the rack two yards away, and unscrupulous hands ready 
to stretch the victims thereupon, would not be assailed 
with similar temptation? The prisoner's glance was 
troubled, and fixed upon the groimd. Earthly probabili- 
ties, earthly hopes, weighed with him, and curbed down 
his soul. 

"Take thy choice, my son, between recantation and 
punishment. The Church is most merciful to those who 
will return to her embrace," were further words of the 
inquisitor. " She desireth not the death of a sinner, as 
saith Holy Scripture. And if thou wilt not recant, my 
son, I would be loth to put thee to the torture." 

" Father, you are taking my heresy for granted," said 
the prisoner. " Now, I affirm that I am no heretic, but a 

9* 



102 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

true follower of Christ our Saviour, and an unworthy 
member of his most holy Church." 

'* Subterfuge ! " exclaimed the inquisitor almost angrily. 
"Thou canst not deny that thou despisest the sacrament 
of confession, and blasphemously casteth slanders on the 
power of the most blessed saints. But I will speedily put 
thee to the test." He drew over to him some papers, and, 
after a momentary looking among them, read the follow- 
ing query : — 

"Dost thou believe, that after the sacramental «words 
have been pronounced by the priest at mass, after he haa 
said the holy formula, 'Hoc est corpus meum,' the body 
of Christ is truly and indeed present in the host?" 

The prisoner paused for a moment. All the conse- 
quences of speaking the truth rushed before him; yet 
nothing seemed so utterly impossible as the utterance of 
the lie which might have freed him. Only a word ! only 
to say that he did believe ! But for worlds he could not 
stain his soul with that falsehood. Still, human nature 
shrank on the verge of the avowal. 

" Well, my son, we wait your answer," said the oily 
voice of the chief inqmsitor. "Do you believe that the 
body of Christ is carnally and indeed present in the con- 
secrated host?" 

.Francesco raised his head, and a light glowed in the 
previously deadened eyes. " Christ's body is in heaven, 
whither h^ bath asoei^ded to sit upon the right haad of 
G^d ! Aad the pppQ and all his Ciardi;ii9ls, co^ld not bripg 



THE SCREW ECCLESIASTIC. - 103 

him down until he come to judge the quick and the 
dead! Yet I believe in his presence to all his faithful 
people." 

"The Zwinglian heresy perfected," remarked one of the 
judges to the other. "Even the accursed Luther hath 
not dared to go as far as this. It was reserved for. a son 
of Switzerland to cap the climax of heretical doctrine by 
denying the divinity of the blessed eucharist. Thou 
need'st say no more," he continued, addressing the pris- 
oner ; " thine own lips have condemned thee. The only 
question now is. Wilt thou recant ? " 

" Father, if you mean that I am expected to declare 
that I believe what I do not believe, my conscience 
toward God will not allow of falsehood. But if you can 
show me that the doctrine of Christ's real presence in the 
mass is taught in Holy Scripture, I am ready to be con- 
vinced, and shall gladly be reconciled to the CathoUc 
Church on that point." 

Now, be it observed that a secretary was taking copious 
notes of every word spoken on either side. 

" "We have no time for controversy with obstinate here- 
tics," began the young inquisitor; but the elder inter- 
posed. 

" Out of compassion for thy youth, which may have led 
thee astray, I wUl endeavor to enlighten thee. Thou 
deniest the doctrine of the mass, as a sacrifice for the 
Uving and the dead? Then hearken. In the Pentateuch 
itself is this truth taught; for what signifleth the He- 
brew 'massah,' to consecrate, whence Gom«th the very 



104 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

name 'mass,' the name of a holy sacrifice appointed by 
God?"* 

Francesco Altieri had dabbled in other studies besides 
those of medicine ; and even his small knowledge of the 
Hebrew tongue enabled him to see the fallacy of the 
translation sought to be fastened on the word " massah." 

" I have read portions of Holy Scripture in the original 
tongues, my father," he said with deference, and suppress- 
ing the smile in which he could have indulged. " I do 
not remember where that word beareth the sense you 
would put upon it. But surely there are other passages 
where the repetition of the Redeemer's death as an effi- 
cient sacrifice, and the adoration of the host, are set forth. 
1 would crave instruction." 

The prisoner could not wholly stifle the perilous mock- 
ing spirit which was evoked by the Dominican's lame 
argument. 

" Though young in years, we perceive that thou art old 
in heresy," observed the chief inquisitor. " We must try 
other means of taming thy spirit." 

A slight gesture of his head, and the attendants drew 
the cloth from the face of the rack, revealing the cruel 
apparatus of pulleys and cords across that dismal oblong 
frame. Here had poor Nicolas lain to be drawn asunder 
by torture. Now was he receiving his reward in the 
martyr's heaven ! Francesco, at that sight, kneeled down, 

* This identical argument was put forward by Autoine Poussevin, ecolesias- 
tloal oommiBsioner among the Vaudois in the Valley of Lucerne, during the 
year 18* i itnd was considerfed most convincing — by the aUreody orthodox I 



TBE SCREW ECCLESIASTIC. 105 

•with difficulty by reason of his chains, and besought his 
Master to help him to witness for his truth. What in- 
tensity of prayer was compressed into those moments! 
Face between the fettered hands bowed down, he heard 
not the clank of iron handles fixing into the transverse 
bars, nor saw the lay-brethren fling off their serge gowns 
for greater freedom of action. All he knew was that the 
crisis of his faith had come, and he had need of divine 
strength that he might not be found wanting. 

The chain was unfastened: his wrists were sore from 
the weight of the heavy irons. A strange sensation of 
lightness and fi'eedom to be without those fetters ! But 
it was momentary : his hands were bound behind him. 
Then his torture was not to be the rack, after all ? 

Inquisitorial mercy has provided grades of torment for 
its victims. Step by step are they inducted into the 
arcana of physical anguish. Agony is dealt out in drops, 
diluted less and less according to the endm-ance. The 
opening scene was generally an attempt to dislocate the 
prisoner's limbs, — a trifling inconvenience when com- 
pared with the roasting of his feet over a brazier of glow- 
ing charcoal, which was a more advanced stage, worthily 
occupying the next station to burning alive. 

And so Francesco Altieri was suspended by a rope to 
a pillar ; which rope being suddenly let slip, he fell down 
violently to within a short distance of the ground, every 
muscle of his joints strained by the jolt. Setting his 
teeth firmly, he did not even moan, though every limb 
ached sharply. Two or three performances of this dislo- 



106 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

eating jerk qualified him for promotion to the deepei 
anguish of the rack. 

He could never teU afterwards how long he had been 
lying there ; how long the pulleys and straps were strain- 
ing fiercely at his limbs, worked by strong men till the 
damp ran down their faces. All sense of time, all con- 
sciousness, was swallowed up soon in excess of suffering. 
They asked him questions; but he remained resolutely- 
silent, except for the groans and exclamations forced fi-om 
him at every fi-esh strain of the ghastly machinery. At 
last the chief inquisitor commanded the pressure to be 
relieved for a few moments. 

" My son, our hearts bleed to see thee obstinate. One 
little word, and thy torture ceases. Dost thou recant ? " 

"O Saviour! aid thy poor servant not to deny thy 
truth," was the sufferer's feebly-spoken prayei". 

The Dominican's face darkened, and he signed for the 
assistants to proceed, leaving the subterranean chamber 
himself, immediately. The powerless had baflled the 
powerfiil ! 

Before the cords had tightened by more than an addi- 
tional turn of the screws, Francesco had swooned. 




CHAPTER XIII. 

THE SENTENCE. 

SLOW, heavy dawning of consciousness, as 
in the gradual withdrawal of some terrific 
dream which has filled hours with perplexed 
involutions of misfortune, and the Paduan 
student opened his weary eyes. Pain, — pain 
all over, — and the utterest exhaustion; these 
were his waking sensations, when, with a long- 
drawn hreath, the swoon passed. 

No longer on the rack, nor in the subterranean vault, 
lit by swinging, smoky oil-lamps shedding radiance on 
hard faces dealing out torture. He was alone in his old 
cell, with early daylight streaming through the loophole, 
and the blessed air blowing in upon his fevered head. 

The old cell ! but could he have seen himself as he lay 
there, and compared himself with the Francesco Altieri 
who had issued thence on the previous night, he would 
scarce have recognized his own form. Gaunt and hag- 
gard, with lines furrowed on his face, which might have 
been the work of five years' hardship, or of five months' 
illaesB; every oerve flaccid and uastrung, every sinew 



108 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

distended, till his body was but one huge bruised sprain, 
and to move was a fresh anguish, he could only lie still 
and endure passively. 

Sleep, or an unconsciousness, came at intei-vals. To- 
ward mid-day, he, roused with a great thirst upon him, 
perceived that an earthen jar had been left within his 
reach ; and, when he had grasped it with infinite pains, he 
drank copiously of the water. After that his brain was 
clearer. The sort of dull submissiveness of devotion 
whioh had lain in his spirit became more active : he was 
able to pray and to think. 

Many days passed before he could stand without sup- 
port. He anticipated that another visit to the torture 
cham))er was preparing for him : but the lay-brother, who 
was his sole jailer, came morning after morning with his 
food, as dumb as though he could not hear when the pris- 
oner spoke ; and no one else ever came. When the last 
bolt had shot into its sheath outside, and the sandaled 
feet trod away in the passage, Francesco might reckon 
upon total silence, except for vesper and matin bells, until 
the same hour next day. Sometimes he sang aloud him- 
self, to break that incubus from his heart. Then he would 
get rapt in the hymn, and fancy his voice joining the 
Church triumphant, even through dense walls and from 
this living grave. 

But how long was it to last? Had they indeed sen- 
tenced him to solitary confinement for life ? He shuddered 
at the thought of years lapsing through that cell ; of his 
head growing old and gray in its muiiy shadows. Intol- 



TEE SENTENCE. 109 

erable! The fiery death would be more easily borne 
than such living burial. Thus, as he recovered bodily 
strength, the stagnation of this existence began to corrode 
his spirit. 

That paltry incident, the leaf blowing across the loop- 
hole, — he had recognized it as an ivy-leaf by this time, 
and guessed that the wall was grown over outside, — he 
would watch for, lying on his pallet, with an interest for 
which he almost despised himself. He had no fetters on 
his hands now, and so essayed to climb by the rough ma- 
sonry to the opening as soon as he was strong enough. 
By picking out the mortar tediously, for it was well-nigh 
as hard as the stones it cemented, he widened niches for 
his feet and fingers. Oh joy ! when at last one evening 
he grasped a bar across that window-slit, and had a 
glimpse of the outer earth again. ^ 

Into a garden the loophole looked ; for grass was level 
with his eye, and trunks of trees close by, — olives, he 
knew by their gnarled and tortuous outlines. Dead gray 
wall shut in the enclosure ; but brilliant sunshine lay upon 
that grassy expanse for some time every day, till the 
shadows of unseen buildings stole across it. Francesco 
could soon have constructed a dial by the regular march- 
ings of their shade ; and the bell-tower of the convent 
was sketched in variable slopes of profile, — continuing to 
lie there sometimes when the night air was full of moon- 
light. 

Once a monk came to read his hours while walking 
under the dead gray wall. "Without thinldng of conse- 

10 



110 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

quences, Francesco called aloud in his first gladness at 
beholding an accessible human being: whereupon the 
good friar paused, looked round, and up and down, seem- 
ing to wait for a repetition, which the prisoner was wise 
enough to withhold. Fra Domenico crossed himself 
piously, uttered a short exorcism against all things evil, 
and took his hours elsewhere for completion. Shortly 
afterwards a pair of monks entered the little garden, 
looked down and up and about with the same sort of 
gesture, and whispered each other ominously. Francesco 
could scarce refrain from scaring their superstitions with 
another cry; But the risk was too gi-eat. If his stolen 
outlook was discovered, he would certainly be consigned 
to a still more lonely cell. 

The prior's private garden had thenceforth an uncanny 
reputation : the hardiest monks ventured not within its 
precincts after vespers, and even in the noonday none 
cared to read his breviaiy there alope. Fra Domenico 
would tell the tale of that strange cry to the novices in 
recreation time, with various imaginative interpellations, 
which soon grew into historical facts. It is so hard to 
avoid being a hero when one tells one's own tale ! 

But even the view from his loophole had palled upon 
poor Francesco ere long. He implored his dumb servitor 
for a book, — for writing materials, — any thing to em-, 
ploy himself. He might as well have petitioned one of 
the stalwart oUves outside. The lay-brother made as 
though he heard not. A tenible torture is utter idleness 
930^ hopelessness t 



THE SENTENCE. Ill 

The Christian can never be hopeless, never -without 
resource. He has a personal Friend whom no bars and 
bolts can shut out, no banishment distance. Francesco 
was thrown more upon his spiritual relationships by this 
long isolation. God the Father above him, — God the 
Redeemer beside him, — God the Spirit within him. 
When he was enabled to realize this, the meager cell be- 
came a chamber of delights. And he knew that even in 
the present evil world the Lord of hosts has given them 
that love him such good things as pass carnal man's un- 
derstanding, — such good things as merely mortal eye 
hath not seen, neither hath ear heard. 

Two months had probably passed from the day that he 
had last crossed the threshold, when again the torches 
flared into his cell at midnight, and he was brought forth 
once more. Steeling his nerves for anticipated suffering, 
he entered the torture chamber, — the hall of judgment 
in inquisitorial phrase. 

The Dominicans who had previously examined him 
were not present. In their stead sat the prior of the 
convent. A record of the foregoing process was read, 
and the prisoner was asked whether he assented to its 
truth. 

On his reply in the affirmative, the' prior took up another 
paper, and read aloud the sentence of the Holy Office : 
That whereas the accused, Francesco Altieri, had con- 
fessed the heretical principles laid to his charge by several 
credible witnesses, and, having been put to the question, 
bed signified his desire of being reconciled to the holy 



112 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

Catholic Church, thereby vii-tually recanting the aforesaid 
heresies, the Court of the Congregation of the Holy Office, 
of its clemency, decreed that the extreme punishment to 
be inflicted on the said Francesco Altieri, graduate in 
medicine of the University of Padua, was confiscation of 
goods and perpetual banishment from the Locamese and 
the Seven Cantons, adding the usual threat of the penalty 
of death should he return. 

One throb of delight in the prisoner's heart ; the iiext 
instant he was grave as though stepping to the rack in- 
stead of regaining liberty. 

" Father, they have misunderstood, — I did not recant ; 
I never meant to recant. The words I spoke can not bear 
that interpretation." 

The prior, a former acquaintance of Altieri's, had left 
his elevated seat immediately on the declaration of the 
.sentence, and with it quite put oflF his official manner. 
Inquisitor's work was very distasteful to his easy, indul- 
gent nature ; and he hated the arrears of such business 
left hun by the Roman doctors. 

" We are not here to judge thee, but to pronounce a 
sentence previously concluded on, my son," he said blandly 
enough. " 'Tis a mistake, if there be one, for which thou 
shouldest be thankful, and bless our Lady, instead of peck- 
ing at thy good fortune. And if thou art so ambitious to 
be a martyr, there will be fires enow in all Italy soon ; for 
his Holiness Pope Paul the Fourth has been grand inquis- 
itor himself, and likes the trade." 

"What, Cardinal Caraflfapope!" exclaimed the prisoner 



TBE SENTENCE. 113 

eagerly. " He who was once of ' the Oratory of Divine 
Love,' — once a reformer ? " 

"Even so," quoth the prior dryly. "And now, my son, 
I counsel thee to withdraw thyself from reach of the same 
Holy Office. A boat waits to take thee from the bailiwick 
into neutral soil. Thou -didst once do me a service in 
curing for me a troublesome pleurisy: therefore I wish 
thee well, and did speak on thy behalf to the Roman in- 
quisitor. Buon viaggio, my son;" and the good-natured 
monk moved away, waving a benediction. 

That piece of political news, the election of a fresh 
pope, turned the current of Francesco's feelings wonder- 
fully. The great surging world of living beings, from 
whom he had been so long cut off, suddenly arose again 
before his eyes ; and the young blood pulsed quicker at 
thought of its struggles, its ambitions, its countless inter- 
lacing interests. He shook the slough of the prison from 
his heart. Oh ! how fresh was the open air ; how glitter- 
ing the silver stars ; how beautiful even the night earth, 
on which he had not looked for so long a time ! Andrea 
d'Agnolo and a couple of his " free lances " were at the 
monastery gate to convoy the banished to the water's 
edge. 

" Methinks thou hast learned some shai-p lessons since 
we spoke together in the guard-room, good friend," said 
the trooper when he recognized his charge. " What say- 
est thou, FUippo ? Is he not taller than his wont, — taller 
by an inch or two of the rack?" The soldier appealed to 
laughed gratingly, and signified assent. " I hope thou art 

10* 



114 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

a cured case of heresy now," continued Andrea, " and wilt 
give these merciful priests no more trouble. Indeed, un- 
less thou wert, thou wouldst scarce be -walking toward 
freedom now." 

"Friend," began the prisoner, "if thou meanest that I 
have grown tired of my faith, or have found it not woith 
the suffering for, thou art mistaken. Christ's soldiers do 
not desert his colors so : they love their general too well." 

"I never shall understand it, — never," replied the 
trooper. " Why men who might lead an easy life persist 
in leading a hard and painful life, and not only cut them- 
selves off every enjoyment, — for wine and dice find no 
favor among you ' Oltramontani,' — but also run the risk 
of rack and stake, — for what? an idea; a thing they 
neither hear nor see : Andrea d'Agnolo can not fathom it." 

Did not Francesco remember that prophecy of the far- 
seeing Apostle, " The preaching of the cross is, to them 
that perish, foolishness ; but unto us which are saved it is 
the power of God. The natural man receiveth not the 
things of the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto 
him ; neither can he know them, because they are spirit- 
ually discerned " ? 

And if any should glance upon this page who exult in 
the pride of intellect as the bright keen weapon to cut 
the Gordian knot of theology, and rather despise the sim- 
ple, unquestioning faith of the unlettered, or the thorough- 
ly submissive Christian, — bewai-e lest this be foolishness 
to your wisdom, only because you are one of those that 
perish ! 



THE SENTENCE. 115 

'My friend," said Pranoesoo, "suppose thou -wert sen- 
^uflced to a sore punishment for some crime, and one came 
forward, who was innocent, to bear the suffering for thee, 
simply because he loved thee, and would not have thee 
suffer: wouldst thou not love that person evermore? 
wouldst thou not hold by him for thy life long ? " 

"Find me the friend first," said the trooper incredu- 
lously. " Most men love themselves better than anybody 
else." 

" I found such a friend once ; and shall I join his ene- 
mies, who dishonor him ? Never! Moreover, he hath done 
for thee what he hath done for me, — taken aU the pun- 
ishment due for thy sins, and borne it on the cross, to 
which his blessed limbs were nailed by unholy hands : he 
hath done this for thee; and thou canst never be con- 
demned, so thou but believe." 

"Thou mightest be a preaching friar, messer, thou 
speakest with such unction," carelessly replied the trooper. 
"Meanwhile, here we are at the boat. Filippo, see this 
good gentleman safe out of the baUiwick, and let him have 
converse with none while in thy custody. Fair voyage, 
my excellent sir ; felicissima notte." Trolling a stave of a 
soldier's song, the condottiero disappeared in the darkness. 





CHAPTER XIV. 

AMONG THE MOUNTAINS. 

Lull a fortnight after Francesco Altieri had 
been landed on the opposite shore of the Lago 
Maggiore, to make his way as best he could 
without money or friends in a strange coun- 
try, he found himself traveling through the 
Grison Alps, staff in hand, toward the exiles' 
refuge at Zurich. For he had learned at Ro- 
goreto, that after a forced sojourn of two months, on 
account. of the continuance of snow and ice in the defiles 
beyond, the majority of the Locarnese had set forward, 
upon the earliest May thaw, and reached the canton of 
Zurich, which had hospitably offered them an asylum. 

This latest exile was now treading in their footsteps 
across the savage mountain passes which are the sole ave- 
nues into Switzerland from Italy. He had gone through 
the Bernardin Pass, and was now approaching that most 
sublime of Alpine defiles, the Splugen. 

Engineering has made all transits easy now-a-days, and 
well-nigh completely subjugated the world of matter to 
the world of motion. The traveler may drive in his car- 

116 



AMONG THE MOUNTAINS. 117 

riage from end to end of the tremendons gorge of the Via 
Mala, the core of the Sphigen, and, from his cushions and 
comforters, leisurely sprvey the overwhelming sublimity 
of precipice and snow-peak; but our poor exiled stu- 
dent's journey was made before smooth pai-apeted roads 
had been carved along the sides of the stupendous rift, a 
thousand feet above the raging young Rhine. He was 
obliged to scale crags and skirt chasms and leap torrents, 
and otherwise comport himself, with an agility which 
would puzzle our modern traveler in a London-built britzs- 
ka. He had certain advantages over that comfortable 
traveler, nevertheless ; for he could pause when he pleased, 
and he could select the finest points of view, had he been 
so minded, and stand still while the grandeur of nature 
entered and elevated his very soul. 

Those precipices might be sixt^ hundred feet high in 
some places; and down in their black depth thundered 
the aforesaid impatient Rhine, flashing whitely in cas- 
cades, or plunging furiously athwart -fathomless pools.* 
Dark forests of- fir climbed the lower slopes and shelves of 
the split mountains wherever foot of tree could plant 
itself; sturdy large-Umbed firs, accustomed to wrestling 
with tempests. And some of them in that wrestling had 
succumbed, and lay prostrate, flung do.wn by strong invis- 
ible arms of the winds ; others stood blasted on inaccessi- 
ble bights, as if proving thai the loftiest position is also 
the most perilous. 

Francesco had never imagined any thing more grand 
than this gorge. His heart expanded under a sense of 



118 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

the exceeding great power of his God, the Creator of "the 
strength of the hills." Standing on the edge of the vast 
rift, while the surging of the imprisoned river came almost 
faintly from the far depths, he opened his lips in a song 
of praise. It was one of the hymns written by Antonio 
Brucioli, translator of the earliest Italian Bible from the 
Hebrew and Greek ; a man not professedly Lutheran, yet 
persecuted as such ; and his works ranked among prohib- 
ited books of the first class, by the Index Expurgatorius 
of the Council of Trent. 

What was Francesco's astonishment, as he paused after 
the first verse, to hear it taken up and repeated by some 
unknown voice not far distant ! Echo ! was his first idea, 
but rejected instantly. What echo could recite four lines 
of a hymn, with all variations of tune ? Some Lutheran 
traveler like himself; Ited he peered about unavailingly, 
till the singer emerged at the corner of the path, where it 
wound round a lichened crag. 

" My good fiiend Luigi Feo 1 " 

"Well met, signer! and let me introduce to you my 
traveling companion, my little wife Caterina." 

He had kept his word of returning, so soon as the home 
was found for her ; and the maiden, following the myste- 
rious law coeval with creation, had left father and mother, 
and cleaved to her husband, even to a life-long exile. 

"You see, signor, I did not wait two months at Rogo- 
reto with the rest of them. I was young and hardy, 
accustomed to the mountains : so I set out before the 
thaw," said Luigi, "and reached Zurich safely; where I 



AMONG THE MOUNTAINS. 119 

found my knowledge of weaving silk so nwioh in demand, 
that very soon I had more employment than I could man- 
age, and shall have the same now, when I return. I 
think, though, the little Caterina would sooner I had fixed 
to stay in Rogoreto among the Grisons. Wouldst thou, 
anima mia?" 

And she answered dutifully what was the very truth, 
that Luigi knew best, and that she was satisfied. 

" Poor little heart ! the mountains fi:ighten her ; and 
half the time she hath her eyes shut as the mule plods 
past the precipices," observed her husband. "What a 
woman's fears are, for a verity ! But thou art going to 
Zurich, signor?" 

Luigi was not quite sure that he would find the physi- 
cian Di Montalto and his family before him. When he 
left, they were speaking of returning into Italy, and set- 
tling at Ferrara. This intelligence took Messer Francesco 
almost aback ; but, as nothing certain was known of their 
movements, he concluded to go on to where they were 
last heard of. 

"And now that I look at you, signor, you seem older 
and more worn than when last I saw your face among 
the Locamese mountains. Ah ! little thou knewest mine 
errand past the Red Ci'oss that morning, Caterina ! This 
gentleman and I were taking care of the Signora Barbara. 
But in very truth, signor, thou hast suffered since then !" 

The young physician told of his imprisonment and tor- 
ture in the Dominican convent; little Caterina uttering 
all sorts of pitying exclamations, and once or twice begin- 



120 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

ning the usual appeal to the saints or our Lady, until she 
met her husband's grave glance. 

"My friend, I forget," she said to him apologetically, 
twining her arm within his as he stood. Her life's habit 
was not easily broken, though its substratum of bhnd be- 
lief was gone. 

Luigi's brows knitted, and his black eye flashed, to hear 
of the torture. 

« If they had caught the signora, she would have lain 
on the same rack! We are well out of that land, Cate- 
rina : we go where they dare molest no man for his belief, 

— where no shaveling Mar durst show himself among a 
free people ! " The good Luigi not perceiving that this 
last was intolerance even as the former, — a shortness of 
sight common to his cotemporaries. 

By and by, when the toils of the way permitted further 
conversation, Francesco learned that old Ursula had died, 

— in great remorse and unquietness of conscience, Cate- 
rina said, grasping the holy reho of the true cross even to 
the last — 

"And it helped to show this little one," added Luigi, 
who seemed to consider himself necessarily his wife's 
spokesman, — "it helped to show this little one, more 
than any thing else, that the pope's religion is not God's 
religion, when nothing could pacify the old woman's mind. 
No absolutions nor rosaries nor masses gave her ease; 
not even a letter of plenary indulgence itself, ratified by 
the archbishop, and costing many golden scudi, was suf- 
ficient. And she called incessantly for her son Giovan : 



AMONG THE MOUNTAINS. 121 

that was the last day, when her head wandered. He weot 
to the' wars some years ago, selling himself as a condot- 
tiero to the Emperor Charles ; and she called him to come 
and drive away with his sword the evil things tliat looked 
at her." 

Lutheran as Luigi was, old habit inclined him much to 
cross himself at this juncture. Caterina shuddered. 

" She always said she had helped to kill Nicolas, and 
would be the means of slaying you also, signer ; and not 
all Fra Pietro's preachings could persuade her that was 
a pious work. All the money she had she left to that 
shaveling knave to say masses for her soul ; and she gave 
Caterina the blessed relic, the bit of the true cross, — of 
inestimable value, they say ! " 

"Signor," began the young wife, a blush tinging her 
dark rich cheek, "I now bethink me how Fra Pietro 
questioned me concerning the evening that thou didst 
pray beside old Ursula. I could not know why he ex- 
amined me so closely ; perchance it was to witness against 
thee, signor : and he laid on me heavy penances." 

"Which thou didst perform, like a little fool," cried 
Luigi, patting her cheek. "Well, never friar again shall 
dare hear the soul secrets of wife of mine ! Of all the 
clever things invented by pope and cardinals, confession 
is the very cleverest ; for don't you see, signor, it gets 
the key of the world through the women ! Do you think 
I'd tell ray wife any thing, if she was to kneel next week 
at the ear of some double-dealing priest, and tell it all 
back again?" 
11 



122 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. ' 

Luigi's opinions had undergone considerable strength- 
ening during his residence among the Lutherans at Zu- 
rich. He cast in his lot with the Reformed party, by rea- 
son of the single point of truth which he clearly saw, — 
Christ's power to save, above all saints, priests, or popes ; 
and gradually he was advancing to see other truths, and 
to reason from them and concerning them with consider- 
able homely good sense. Indeed, the truth first received 
had embodied, them all, as surely as blossoms in the sheath 
of a many-shafted lily. Their development might confi- 
dently be awaited. For that promise is of eternal fulfill- 
ment, " If any man will do God's wiU, he shall know of 
the doctrine, whether it be of God." 

A part of the pass which suspended aU conversation 
was before the travelers. This is the abyss entitled by 
the peasantry the Verlohren Loch, or Lost Gulf; a por- 
tion of the chasm impassable, until, within the present 
century, a tunnel was blasted through the overhanging 
mountain. Here our three wayfarers were compelled to 
make a long circuit over steep hights ere they could again 
descend the pass toward Tusis. 

And here, once more in the grand gorge, a view of sur- 
passing splendor opened before their eyes. Through the 
jaws of the dark ravine, as through a vista of perspective, 
were seen, afar, sunlit lands, with the old Etruscan castle 
of Realt in the foreground, cresting a vast detached clill^ 
the warder of the mighty pass. It would have been easy 
to idealize that scene — something of the thought crossed 
Francesco's imagination — behind, black precipices and 



AMONG THE MOUNTAINS. 123 

gloomy caverns, a very land of the shadow of death, 
whence the Reformed were making their way slowly, 
painfully, through hosts of difficulties, to a fair sunlit land 
of freedom and happiness. 

"See, signer!" observed the garrulous Luigi : "a fair 
omen ! The clouds are in the rear, the sunshine all be- 
fore us!" 

And, with common consent, the pilgrims took up again 
their hymn of praise. 





CHAPTER XV. 

THE ALTAR IN THE FOREIGN LAND. 

fcROM the village of Tusis, situated before the 
jaws of the mighty Splugen Pass, our travel- 
ers proceeded northward along the Rhine to 
Reichenau, and thence — still along the Rhine, 
but eastward — to Coire, capital of the Grison 
country. Now, these Grisons had been most 
kind to the Locarnese exiles ; had offered to 
them a permanent refuge, and admission into all the rights 
of citizenship, as if they had been born Switzers, instead 
of Italians. Nearly half the Protestants who had left 
Locarno were induced by these advantages to travel no 
farther, but to settle down in the Grison canton with 
their wives and families. And truly, even in this world, 
the hospitable Grisons had their reward. An infusion of 
the best new blood was thus poured into their State ; in- 
dustrious sinew and bone, intelligent heads and honest 
hearts, were added to the subjects of the League ; and an 
access of material prosperity was the result, by the devel- 
opment of new trades and manufactures, and the exten- 
sion of the old. 

124 



TBE ALTAR IN THE FOREIGJST LAND. 125 

Some of the indomitable Protestant spirit lingers still 
among the mountaineers of this region. There ia a ham- 
let called Feldsberg, built in a perilous position beneath 
a mountain so perpendicular that its fall was expected, 
which would of course crush the village utterly. The in- 
habitants petitioned the authorities of a neighboring com- 
mune for leave to migrate, and settle in their territories; 
which was refused, unless the Protestants of Feldsberg 
would become Roman Catholics. And the peasants pre- 
ferred to abide the chance of burial alive under their over- 
hanging mountain than to give up their olden faith. All 
honor to their brave persistence ! This occurred not so 
many years ago ; and hitherto the threatening rocks have 
been upheld. 

Francesco's haste to Zurich made him quite an impa- 
tient lingerer for a few days at Coire, even among his 
brethren the Locarnese emigrants. Joyfully tui-ning west- 
ward at Ragatz, through the beautiful Vale of Scez, the 
glorious mountains again gathered round him at the 
" Wallenstatter," that grand Lake of Wallenstadt. Hard 
times again for Caterina's mule; but no other pass like 
the Via Mala tried his sinews and her nerves. 

Amid all the magnificence of the scenery, our pilgrims 
began to feel the sensations of exiles. No flowing accents 
of sweet Italian greeted their ears at the inns, but rough 
guttural German dialects, of which poor Caterina could 
not comprehend a syllable. The dress of the peasantry, 
their dwellings, the very vegetation of the earth, were all 
alien. Something of her loneliness she breathed to Luigi. 
11* 



126 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

' " Dear heart ! our God will make a home for us : we 
shall learn to love these great mountains ; " but an almost 
involuntary sigh escaped his own breast. " It is the wUl 
of the good God, Uttle one; and heaven is as near Zurich 
as Locarno, — ay, and a trifle nearer,'' he added, knitting 
his black brows. " See ! the excellent signor hath gone 
on before to the point of the pass: methinks his heart 
outruns his steps to Zurich. Ah ! I know what that feel- 
ing is, httle one." 

" But, Luigi," she said, " I hope the mountains are not 
so fierce about Zurich : I never could love them, I know. 
Our own beautifiil lake was so gentle! the sunshine 
seemed to love it, and the rocks were not black and bris- 
tling like these." 

" Well, thou wilt have a lake at Zurich which is fair 
enough," repUed her husband. " The Switzers love it sur- 
passingly. Behold ! here are pilgrims bound for out Lady 
of Einseidlen ; they cross our path southwards : her ora- 
tory is off there among the mountains." 

A number of men and women, walking in long files, 
telling their beads audibly, and some carrying huge 
waxen tapers for presentation at the shrine ; chiefly peas- 
ants, who had left home and families and all the duties of 
their hardworked lives in order to fulfill a senseless vow 
of pilgrimage. Presently, through the murmur of patera 
and aves, a single rough voice began to chant — 

" Ave, maris Stella, 
l>el mater alma, 
Atque semper virgo, 
Felix coeli porta!" 



THE ALTAR IN THE FOREIGN LAND. 127 

and twenty other voices took up tlie strain, hailing Mary, 
" Star of the Sea, Mother of God, Gate of Heaven ! " In 
the next verse, they besought her to pardon all their sins ; 
and so marched away through the valley, to the burden 
of a song as idolatrous as ever ancient Helvetian uttered 
before pagan deity. 

Perhaps Caterina felt some wi-enchings of the old creed 
at her heart as she listened to the rude melody of that 
well-known hymn winding away among the mountains. 
Luigi looked at her earnestly : he divined the feeling. 

" Little one ! it is for love of me, and not of God's truth, 
that thou hast left father, mother, and native land. But 
I will. pray that thou mayest love the blessed Jesus more 
than thou lovest me, dear heart! I wUl read to thee 
from the Book, Caterina, that the divine flame may light 
into thy soul, and fill thee with joy, and enable thee to 
cast off the chains of the pope's religion for evermore. 
For dost thou not see that thou art in chains as long as 
thou hast a dread of God, — the God who is loving thee ? 
And popes and priests like men to have such a terror; 
for then they are driven to seek access through them, 
which puts money into the Church's purse, and power 
into the Church's hands." 

The Italian girl listened, with her large dovelike eyes 
fixed on her husband, thinking in her simple heart how 
clever he was, but not quite able to follow his ideas. " I 
can not help going back to the old religion sometimes," 
she said : " but you will teach me better, Luigi ; I have 
no head for these things." 



128 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

'"Tis not head that God wants, but heart, little one. 
Pray to him to make it clear to thee how the blessed Christ 
has redeemed thee, and thou needest to do nothing further 
but believe: thou needest not penances nor absolutions 
nor pilgrimages, nor aught else, but only to trust in him.'' 

And Luigi walked silently at the head of her mule for 
a long distance, until they came in sight of the blue Zu- 
rich-See, lying tranquilly among verdant hills, which were 
crested with snowy peaks rising behind afar off. Their 
road lay through the old fortified town of Rapperschwyl, 
on the edge of the lake ; whence was twenty miles to the 
city of their destination. 

A month before, when the great body of the Locamese 
exiles approached Zurich, with one consent the inhabit- 
ants came forth to meet them, and embrace the sufferers 
as dear brethren, and give them house-room and heart- 
room. What a strange old-world scene ! One would 
like to have looked on it, and brought away the lesson, 
"See how these Christians love one another!" The 
strong, simple-hearted Protestantism of the age was most 
earnest in its sense of brotherhood, and of its duties 
toward the household of faith, even to self-sacrifice. We 
trust, that, in our more complicated and refined state of 
society, the feeling is only latent, not deadened. For 
truly the closest bond that can unite human beings, 
whether singly or in masses, is the community of conver- 
sion to God : all other ties are without the man, are per- 
ishable with this world's ending at furthest; but this 
single bond clasps soul to soul, and js eternal as heaven. 



THE ALTAR IN THE FOREIGN LAND. 129 

Francesco pressed forward to the city in early morning. 
Noon was shining on the wide waters when he first beheld 
the amphitheater of hights circling Zurich ; well-cultured 
hills, bearing rich pastures and farmsteads, — a populous 
and peaceful province, doubly gi-ateful to the eye after 
the savage scenery he had passed through. The tiled 
roofs and church-steeples of the town nestled to the 
water's edge, after the manner of most lake cities : that 
ancient cathedral of the tenth century crowned all, and 
the white peaks of the Albis culminated the view. 

" What ho, Peppi ! " This to a man who was traveling 
along before him at a rapid rate. "Dost not know thy 
friends ? " when he paused and stared. 

" The Signor Altieri ! Nay, but we had given thee up 
for lost ; " and the men shook hands heartily. " Thou hast 
escaped, then? I give thee joyous welcome to the land 
of ireedom." 

"But what of Di Montalto, the physician? Is he iu 
Zurich?" 

"Methinks he is now in the new church which the 
senate have given us, listening to Fra Bemasdin, our pas- 
tor, who is installed to-day." 

" Not Bernardin Ochino, the celebrated general of the 
Capuchins ? " said Francesco. 

" The same. He has been in Basle since he fled fi-om 
England, and was invited to be our chaplain, after Becoa- 
ria; a most eloquent friar, they say, nnd one sound in the 
faith. I was hastening but now to hear him." 

" Then I will speed Tvith thee ; " and they mended their 



130 * FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

pace toward the gates of the towD, Francesco's spirits 
having risen considerably to find that his patron, and by- 
probable consequence his patron's family, were still in 
Zurich. As they walked along, the refugee told the 
young physician various circumstances of interest con- 
nected with the exiles, — the brotherly welcome they had 
received in Zwingle's' city, the efforts made to procure 
them occupation suited to their callings, and many do- 
mestic particulars, with which this narrative has naught 
to do. 

Passing through the quaint, steep-roofed streets, they 
found themselves presently standing amid the Ustening 
crowd in the vestibule of the Locarnese church. The 
good Zurichers had flocked in numbers to behold the 
inauguration of this fiery Capuchin friar, who had endured 
BO much for the faith, and whose zeal was unquenchable 
by the bitterest persecution. True, few of them could 
understand the tide of burning language which flowed 
from his lips, and flooded the hearts of the exiles with 
passionate emotion. Francesco could hear that great 
glowing voice where he stood near the street entrance. 
He wondered whether the Signora Bianca was listening 
to it likewise. 

But presently the marvelous ardor and eloquence of 
the preacher seized his whole attention, and held it riv- 
eted. His subject was evidently justification by faith, the 
mighty doctrine which had first given quietness to his 
own restless, seething soul. These were some of Ochino's 
words : — 



rEE ALTAR IN THE FOREIGN LAND. 131 

" How is it possible that a man, by his owii exertions, 
can make atonement for his immeasurable sinfulness? 
Would it not be as if a dead man should attempt to call 
himself back to hfe?. Christ by no means said to the 
chief ruler of the synagogue. Do thou perform thy part of 
the atonement, and I will fiU up what is wanting. Nay : 
he said, ' Only beheve ! ' It was human righteousness that 
cracified Christ ; and how can we ascribe to it the power 
of justifying and blessing mankind? Look to the thief 
who was affixed to the accursed tree along with Christ ; 
and tell me, I pray you, what good did he ever do that 
he should hear from Christ those words, ' This day shalt 
thou be with me in paradise ' ? You say, perhaps, he suf- 
fered stripes and the cross. Ah ! were he to die a thous- 
and times over, he could not give satisfaction to Divine 
Justice. If you should say he was saved by a miracle, I 
tell you that it is by an equal miracle, and by the singular 
mercy of God, that any of us will be saved." * 

Some movement in the crowd enabled Francesco to 
advance nearer, so that presently he had a view of the 
speaker, — a tall, spare, worn form, the hair and beard 
white as a snowdrift, the last flowing even to his gii-dle ; 
but in the midst of his pallid face glowed most searching 
eyes, whence one could have fancied the glitter of flint 
sparks, when the excitement of the man's spirit rose high. 

Francesco cast one rapid glance round the building for 
his friends, but could not see them. They were perchance 

* Extracted ttom a eermon of Ms, translated into Latin from Italian by 
Beeundo Curlone. 



132 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

in the galleries overhead. Again he was bome away on 
the preacher's words : — 

"Let not any man imagine that we are thus justified 
by Christ simply as an intercessor,-!- because he asks God 
the Father for remission of our sins. My friend, you omit 
the divinest thing of all ! — for Christ hath transferred our 
sins to himself, and desired that they be ascribed to him, 
out of his great kindness. And not only did he accept 
them, as if he, who was free from all shadow of blame, had 
committed them, but he suffered the most agonizing death 
to satisfy Divine Justice. He gave unto us his innocence, 
his holiness, nay, his very spirit and soul, to animate our 
souls, to enable us to call God our Father, before whom 
we may stand boldly, uncontaminated by even the shadow 
of a sin. We are utterly free from our old sins, because 
Christ has made them his own, and has given us his 
purity, that we may appear lovely before God. But this 
immortal treasure depends upon one faith, one strong and 
certain persuasion, which is only to be received from God. 

"And why should I detain you longer? Whoever is 
justified in this manner may stand before God's tribunal 
with that security wherewith Christ himself doth stand. 
As Jacob was received by his father instead of Esau, from 
wearing his brother's garments, so are we clothed with 
Christ, and with his ornaments beautified. God will re- 
ceive us as sons, and give us a portion in his everlasting 
kingdom." 




CHAPTER XVI. 

FRA BEENAEDIN. 

^NGLISH words can render the main matter 
of Ochino's sermons, but not the full force or 
delicacy of meaning ; nor can the fervid ac- 
cents, the impassioned gestures, of this most 
celebrated preacher of the Italian Reforma- 
tion, be reproduced across the ages for our 
appreciation. Suffice it to say, that among 
his cotemporaries he was renowned for "extraordinary 
eloquence," and that Cardinal Caraffa, mourning his de- 
fection from the Roman faith, wrote of Mm thus : "Ah ! 
Bernardino, how great wert thou in the eyes of all men ! 
Thy coarse cap excelled the pope's miter; thy deep pov- 
erty, the riches of the world. Thou wert the very herald 
of the Highest ; full of wisdom, and adorned with knowl- 
edge : the Lord placed thee in his holy mount as a light, 
as the sun of the people, as a pillar in his temple, as a 
watchman in his vineyard." And when the emperor 
Charles the Fifth heard him preach, he exclaimed, " That 
man would make the very stones weep ! " 
He had been twice general of the order of Capuchins, 

12 133 



134 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

and bid fair for a cardinal's haf. Now, for conscience' 
sake, he was the persecuted pastor of a congi'egation of 
exiled Italians; and aU prospects of earthly honor were 
closed to the heretic. Oohino thought that he had chosen 
the best part ! 

In the evening, when young Altieri was sitting at sup- 
per with Di Montalto and his family, the new pastor 
entered. The nobility of his presence struck Francesco 
even more than it had done from the pulpit. 

"My mend, hearing that thou art going back to our 
-poor Italy, I bethought me that I might be of some 
service to thee, with such friends as yet remember the 
name of Fra Bemardin," he said, addressing the elder 
j)hysician. " So, if I can do aught for thee in letters of 
introduction, or such like, I pray thee to command me, 
brother." 

"I think of going to Ferrara," replied Di Montalto, 
passing his hand across his bearded chin in a furtive man- 
ner and with look askance. The truth was, that he had 
no desire to distinguish himself in Italy by adherence to 
the Reformed party, but meant to take a middle course, 
in which he had already proved that no safety rested. 
He would as soon be without Oohino's introductions. 

" Ferrara ! Ah ! that was once a blessed city," said the 
ex-Capuchin ; " a light to the dark places of Lombardy. 
And still there are precious souls there, — God's hidden 
ones : above all, the noble Duchess Ren^e ; though she 
hath appeared, of late, to fall from the truth." 

" It was my privilege to know her Excellency," said the 



FEA BERNARDIN. 135 

Signora Barbara, " and to receive much benefit from her 
teaching in my youth. I could scarce believe that she 
would recant the convictions of her soul." 

'•Ah!" observed Ochino, "the heart is weak, and our 
deadly enemy is strong." 

"But Christ is stronger!" exclaimed the physician's 
wife. 

" True, my sister, most true ; yet even a Peter failed in 
the hour of bearing witness," replied the deep tones of the 
pastor. "Not unto all men is martyr's grace given." 
And Fi-aneesco remembered the account he had heard 
of Ochino's own flight from Florence to Geneva; not a 
flight connected with any dishonor or cowardice, but 
simply a withdrawal from the face of death in its most 
fearful form. 

" But it is better to fly than to desert to the enemy," 
remarked Francesco when he perceived the glittering eye 
of Ochino fixed upon him. 

" Thou hast borne scars in the cause likewise, if I am 
told rightly concerning thee, my young brother," said the 
ex-Capuchin. " I hear that already thou hast sufiered at 
Locarno for the name of Jesus. Thou hast the honor 
of early graduating in Christ's coUege of trial. I would 
fain learn how it was, brother." So Francesco, for the 
second time, narrated the main facts of his arrest, im- 
prisonment, and torture. He fancied that the Signorina 
Bianca shuddered and grew paler as he just touched on 
those terrible hours spent upon the rack; but then she 
would compassionate anybody, her mature was so kind. 



136 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

"Ah ! " exclaimed Ochino, rousing himself from the sort 
of reverie in which he had hearkened, " we have seen but 
the prelude of the martyrdoms in our poor Italy. I know 
the Cardinal Caraffa well, — he who last month assumed 
the tiara under the name of Paul the Fourth : no sterner 
bigot ever wore the purple ! He is one, that, in slaying 
Christ's servants, will think he doeth God service. Not 
that he is without noble qualities: in purity of life he 
yields to none, and in singleness of aim. He is a man of 
one idea; and that iden, the dominance of the Catholic 
Church." 

"Yet he once belonged to that saintly society, 'The 
Oratory of Divine. Love,' with Sadolet and Thiene — who, 
they say, is fit for canonization — and the noble Conta 
rini." 

"Ay, well mayest thou say 'the noble Contarini!'" 
echoed Ochino, his piercing eye softening at recollection 
of his friend. " That gentle soul suffers no more contra- 
diction of unrighteous men, — he hath passed to heaven 
before the evil days. Never did the scarlet hat rest on a 
worthier or more unworldly head. In very truth, he was 
too guileless for this age of hypocrisy and state-craft. His 
dream was the reformation of the Church, by the agency 
of her own sons stripping off her meretricious adornment; 
but God chose to reform her by a disruption of the very 
foundations of her throne: and when Contarini saw that 
she would still clasp all her filthy rags and false jewelry 
to her heart, and would not be purified, the idea of his 
life was gone ; he had but to die. And he died believing 



FRA BERNARDIN. 137 

in Christ only, justified by his righteousness only. I saw 
him at Bologna shortly before he yielded up the ghost, 
and he found this fsiith sufficient for that hour of fear." 

A few moments' pause, and the physician's wife gently 
remarked, "From the conclave to the peasant's cot, Christ's 
truth hath witnesses throughout all Italy." 

" Yet, mark me," — the monk rose as one inspired, — 
" it will not prevail ! The agencies of evil are too many 
and too active. Methinks it is not God's purpose to bless 
our poor Italy with a fi-ee gospel. She is trampling out 
the spark of light most vehemently, and she will suflFer 
through centuries to come — centuries of chained con- 
sciences and of fettered Uberties — for her present rejec- 
tion of her Lord ! " 

"But the Duchess Renee surely hath some power in 
Ferrara still ? " quoth the physician, who had been think- 
ing over his worldly prospects, and had heard little of 
the foregoing conversation. Bending an anxious gaze on 
Ochino, he repeated his interrogative remark. 

''As a daughter of France, she must always wield influ- 
ence, even over the despotic Ercole, her unworthy hus- 
band. I doubt if there could be a safer retreat for the 
Reformed in Italy, except indeed among the Waldense 
colonies in Calabria, far south." 

''A pastoral people," said the physician; "and I am ac- 
customed to the life of cities. I love not the stagnation 
of the country. I seek to live an honest, quiet life, as 
folks led before these new opinions came to overturn the 
world. Why can not men believe what they choose, and 
la* 



138 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

make no noise about it?" added Di Montalto testily 
"The world would be so much happier!" 

"And, my friend," what of the next world ? Would that 
not be so much the unhappier ? " asked Ochino. " Time- 
serving is one of the devil's delusions. Did Christ make 
a pleasant home for himself on earth? Then how can 
we, his followers, nestle ourselves down in the comforts 
and pleasures of time?" 

But Di Montalto would not be lifted out of his dissatis- 
faction. Fra Bemardin's keen wits had little diflBculty in 
reading the inner man. " My friend," he said, " bewai'e 
that the wings of thy soul become not clogged with 
earthly dross, which will prevent thy rising into the heav- 
ens when thy call comes." 

" Thou wert speaking of the present pope," interposed 
Francesco, willing to divert his attention. Ochino saw 
the object, and humored it. Before wife and daughter, 
he could not rebuke father. " Is he not a very aged man ? 
and may not deliverance fi-om his bigotry arise by the 
shortness of his reign ? " 

" His years may be nine and seventy," replied Ochino. 
" He is hale and healthy as thou art. He has been grand 
inquisitor ; whence thou mayest judge of his mind toward 
the Refonned. He helped to found the order of Thea- 
tines; whence judge of his ascetic devotion. He will be 
for purging the Church, but only after his own manner. 
His first bull proclaimed reform for the Roman court and 
the hierarchy. The very day of his coronation, he sent 
monks into Spain to restore the discipline of convents 



FRA BERNARDIN. 139 

there. Oui- latest news speaks of a congregation of cardi- 
nals and prelates established for purposes of general re- 
form. There is no mightier proof of the conquests of 
Lutheranism than the election of such a pope. Alexan- 
der and Leo would not have dreamed of this forty years 
ago." 

"But it is merely lopping oflf disfiguring excrescences," 
said the young man: "all Rome's soul-destroying delu- 
sions remain ; she is still a church of works, and not of 
faith. "What avails it that an ecclesiastical government is 
pure, when it saves not souls ? " 

"Rome is the wicked Antichrist," affirmed Ochino. 
" There can be no compromise with her ; for she is 
founded on the one huge lie, that man's own doings can 
make him acceptable to the holy Lord God. Many years 
was I myself in thralldora to that yoke. I sought, by 
fastings, prayers, .abstinence, watchings, afflictions of the 
flesh, to purchase heaven, and make satisfaction for my 
sins through the concurring grace of God. Therefore I 
joined the order of Franciscan Obsei-vants, as the most 
austere of all regulars; therefore I further joined the more 
rigid Capuchins, when I beheld their still severer ritual, 
which commanded midnight prayers, weeks of silence, 
personal discipline from sackcloth and scourge. And then 
I said to Christ, 'Lord, if I am not saved now, I know 
nothing more that I can do ! ' Still was my heart dark 
and wretched. I was a stranger to true peace of mind, * 
until, in the Sacred Scriptures, Christ showed me his great 



140 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

righteousness as enough for me and all mankind. It was 
as if the sun had arisen over a cold, dark world. Thence- 
forth my soul was glad and strong." 

" I suppose," remarked Francesco, " that most of those 
who come out from Rome have a similar struggle of 
human works against divine faith. I have heard my ex- 
cellent uncle, Baldassare Altieri, of Venice, speak of his 
own emancipation from the false faith in words like those ; 
but he never took the monk's fi-ock." 

"And thou art so close of kin to that worthiest of Ve- 
neti.m confessors?" said Ochino. "Then suffering for 
Christ's cause is in some measure thine heritage. How 
noble that declaration of his to Bullinger by letter! I 
have seen it under his own hand : ' Having given myself 
to Christ, I chose exile rather than to enjoy pleasant 
Venice.' And he hath since been wandering about with 
his wife arid boy, in want and trouble, sealing his faith 
verily with a painful life. Has aught been heard of him 
lately, knowest thou ? " 

"Alas!" said Francesco, "we fear he hath fallen into the 
hands of his adversaries ; but I purpose a journey to Ven- 
ice, where live my nearest of kin, and I shall make inquiry 
concerning him." 

"Be not rash, my son, when thou approachest the 
stronghold of the wicked one," said Ochino after a pause 
of steadfiist regard. " Thy body as well as thy soul belongs 
to Chi-ist, and must be preserved for his service. Yet 
flinch not should the hour of trial come ; for He can give 



FRA BEENARDIN. 



141 



strength for any endurance. And now methinks we have 
Bpoken long enough of things pertaining to this passing 
world: let us raise our thoughts to heavenly places in 
Christ. What sayest thou, my young brother? " 

And Fra Bernardin drew a book from his long loose 
sleeve, opened it at John's Gospel, and read. 





CHAPTER XVII. 

A DAUGHTEE OF FRANCE. 

EVEN" miles'feircuit of -walls, set in vast marshes 
along the curve of a turbid, sluggish river, 
which is probably given to overflow ; for high 
embankments shut it in. A network of simi- 
lar embankments cross the country wherever 
a stream creeps through the rich black soil, 
and between the most fertile fields in North 
Italy. Maize and millet and rice gi-ow luxuriantly, when- 
ever the desolation of war sweeps not over the plain with 
destructive blast. But no peasant was quite sure of his 
harvest anywhere near the Lombardian battle-ground of 
kings during the sixteenth century. Everybody lived in 
an uncertain, disquieted way; even when men were honest 
burghers, and dwelt under guard so efficient as the above 
seven miles of wall. 

Within, long lines of handsome, spacious streets radiate 
10 the central heart of the place, — a moated castle of 
ponderous red masonry. Plenty of marble-fronted palazzi 
intersperse those busy streets, richly carved in plaster and 
fagade, yet with iron-stanchioned windows, strangely sug- 

142 



A DAUGHTER OF FRANCS. 143 

gestive of an insecure state of society. The piazza contains 
a fine old cathedral, and is overlooked by the aforesaid huge 
castle, yet with a deep broad fosse between, — unwitting 
symbol of the chasm between the common life of the 
people and their prince, over which may sometimes be 
flung the drawbridge of necessity or of policy, only to be 
lifted away again when the urgency is past, and leave the 
despot isolated as before. 

Such were Ferrara and her surroundings as they ap- 
]!CP-red to the newly-arrived from Switzerland in the 
r.utumn of 1555. Such, in outline, is Ferrara still. TI'.c 
great skeleton city remains, though the informing life has 
departed. It now resembles one of the gaunt suits of 
armor set up in our museums, — a shape over a hoUow- 
ness. The rich marshes along the sluggish river give off 
as much malaria as harvest, owing to bad tiDage and 
drainage. The spacious streets are muffled with grass 
and weeds; and, for the most part,, are silent as Tadmor 
in the wilderness. The sculptured palazzos survive, gi-eat 
stranded monsters of the aristocratic age, sometimes hous- 
ing a colony of canaille instead of the blue-blooded counts 
and cavaliers of their original; but still is the conve- 
niently situated castle true to its duty, as the residence 
of the spider who watches this web, — no longer one of 
the ducal line of Este, but a frocked churchman deputed 
by Ferrara's late lord pope, or perchance, at the present 
date, a green-coated Sardinian officer. 

But we have to do with "la gran Donna di Po," as 
Tassoni terms it, in tht; era of her greatness, while yet a 



144 FROM DA WN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

native prince sat in the huge red castle, with a daughter 
of France for his spouse. Then were the streets and 
squares abundantly animate; commerce and manufactures 
were carried on to some considerable extent ; fleets of 
trading-boats voyaged on the Po ; the university boasted 
dozens of learned professors occupying all sorts of chairs, 
and mentally ministering to hundreds of students. Duke 
Ercole was esteemed a well-conditioned prince, as princes 
went in his time ; that is to say, he would now be consid- 
ered an intolerable tyi-ant, and probably meet the fate of 
the recent King of Naples : but the standard of princely 
character was low in Italy of the sixteentli centmy, much 
lower than that required in their subjects. A little cru- 
elty, a little license, were reckoned trivial blemishes, espe- 
cially if a ruler were orthodox. 

That Ercole the Second was orthodox, he had given 
many convincing proofs. Had he not inaugurated the 
martyr ci-usade in Italy, by the burning of Faventino 
Fanriio of Faenza, a young man of blameless life, but of 
heretical opinions ? Had he not established a college for 
the new order of Jesuits, and taken one of their number 
to be his confessor? Above all, had he not forced his 
wife, the daughter of Louis XII. of France, to recant her 
heresies, under the potent influence of solitary confine- 
ment in the CavaUo chambers of his grim old castle, 
where deprivation of her children's company, an absence 
of all comforts of books and friends, and a dread of still 
further extremities, in short space brought her to declare 
that she believed what all men knew that she did not be- 



A DAUGHTER OF FRANCE. 145 

lieve ? Who could doubt that Duke Erode was a favorite 
son of the Church, after such signal achievements ? 

True, he never could quite cleanse the precincts of his 
palace from heretical taint. In whatever guise of sophis- 
iry the Duchess Renee reconciled her conscience to the 
recantation aforesaid, she in reality yielded none of her 
obnoxious Protestant opinions. The barest conformity 
was her concession to the Roman ritual ; and, somehow 
or other, none of her chosen companions, none of her im- 
mediate household, were what might be called good Cath- 
olics. The confessor Pelletario was wont to tease Duke 
Ercole on this head more than on his small offenses of 
cruelty and license above alluded to, but with no tangible 
result ; for the duchess had acquired worldly wisdom, and 
gave no tangible offense. Besides, there were limits to 
the persecution that could be brought to bear on a daugh- 
ter of France. 

But would it not have been happier for Renee to have 
been more straightforward in her conduct ? That defec- 
tion of hers has been a scandal to the Church through the 
centuries since, and was a stumbling-block to many a 
feeble Christian during her own time. Perhaps it is the 
consciousness of this consequence which casts such a 
shadow over her large open brow, as we behold her sit- 
ting in an apartment of the huge red castle one autumn 
morning, engaged with her women at embroideiy. Her 
pale plain face bends over the work into which she is 
weaving golden threads ; but her thoughts are evidently 
oot absorbed by the rich tissue, in her fingers, On the 

13 



146 FnOM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

marble slab near her is lying an open volume, — Thomas 
h. Kempis' great work " On the Imitation of Christ." Per- 
haps she is thinking how weakly she has failed in follow- 
ing him. 

Out of sight, in the pockets of that stiff brocade dress, 
which rustles with every movement, she cai-ries a little 
book which she deems yet niore precious than k Kempis. 
It is a small swart volume, meanly bound, fitter in aspect 
for a poor scholar than a duchess ; and as she presently 
draws it forth, and turns over the closely printed leaves, 
covered with the beautifiil black typography of the age, 
we read the title, "Trattato utilissimo del beneficio de 
Gesu Cristo crucifisso verso i Cristiani," — "A most useftd 
tract concerning the benefits which Christ crucified giveth 
unto Christians," — by a learned professor of Siena, named 
Aonio Paleario. Verily a proscribed book, containing 
heresy enough to infect a province, the approval and cir- 
culation of which, some years afterward, helped to pro- 
cure the imprisonment of the vii-tuous Cardinal Morme, 
and the burning of Carnesecchi ; for it clearly set forth, 
as Paleario himself testified, " that those who turn with 
their souls to Christ crucified, commit themselves to him 
by faith, and cleave to him with assured confidence, are 
delivered from all evil, and enjoy full pardon of their sins. 
And, since he in whom the Divinity resided has poured 
out his life's blood so willingly for our salvation, we ought 
not to doubt of his good wUl, but may promise ourselves 
the greatest tranquillity and peace." * 

* Extracted from Falsario's defense, pronounced before the senate of Sten*. 



A DAUGHTER OF FRANCE. 147 

These glorious doctiines — now, thank God, the heri- 
tage of every English cottager in our free land — were a 
stolen luxury to this royal duchess. Her heart was soothed 
as she read ; the contracted lines on her forehead smoothed 
away under the influence of happier thoughts. A page 
entered, and announced a visitor. 

One of Rente's favorite learned men; a Greek professor, 
named Franciscus Portus in the Latinized speech of the 
day, but a Candian by birth, and more than suspected of 
the new heresy. 

Reni^e led the way to a deep bay-windowed recess, 
which looked out on the brimming canal or moat encir- 
cling the castle : beyond were the quaint crowded tene- 
ments of old Perrara. Here they could speak without 
being overheard by her ladies. 

"I have brought to your Excellence the promised 
sonnets of the most noble the Marchesa di Pescara, the 
'divine Colonna,' as scholars dehght to call her," said 
Portus, after gome opening conversation. "Truly, for 
purity of idiom and beauty of conceits, there hath not 
arisen her like since Petrarch's lyre is dumb." 

" But I wonder," quoth Renee, turning over the thin 
volume, — for her soul needed something better than liter- 
aiy conceits just then, — "I wonder if she hath expressed 
any of her rehgious feelings here. I have seen sonnets 
wherein her words had scarce an uncertain sound. Oh 
for the old days when we both heai-kened with delight to 
the good Prate Bemardin Ochino preaching in our cathe- 



148 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

dral on the piazza, ere yet the ferocious Inquisition shut 
the "Word of God from our people ! " 

The wary professor glanced across his shoulder; but 
the three attendants were tranquilly embroidering, as 
their mistress had left them. 

"All 'novatori,' as our Reformed are styled," said the 
duchess, answering the gesture. " Moreover, we are too 
distant to be overheard. My friend, believe me that I 
have learned to bccautious." 

" If your excellent Highness will permit me," said Tor- 
tus, coloring slightly, "I will show you certain in this 
collection of sonnets which prove that the marchesa still 
retains the truth, "howsoever her utterance of it may be 
straitened. What think you of these lines against Rome's 
most powerful engine of craft, — the confessional?" He 
read for the duchess the sonnet whose ending runs briefly 
thus in English prose : — 

" Passing beyond the priestly gown, 
To Christ alone we tell our every sin." 

"Methinks," added the professor, "that verse bears not 
indistinct meaning." 

"Many a minor heretic has been burnt for less," said 
the lady, glancing through the short poem a second time. 
" Poor Vittoria ! she was very near the kingdom of God, 
— that kingdom which I have entered, and seemed to 
betray," added Renee in her own heart. " Yet can I not 
serve the good cause better as I stand in my royal estate 
than if I were a captive in a dungeon ? " 



A DAUGHTER OF FRANCE. 149 

Povtus respected her momentary reverie, and spoke not 
till she looked up. 

"Another sonnet, your Highness, and one of the Col- 
onna's best, sets forth plainly the reformed doctrines of 
instant conversion and justification, without any agency 
of Church or ceremony; a truth surely most distasteful 
to Rome, as striking at the very root of her dominion. 
The marchesa affirms that the miraculous light from 
heaven hath molten the ice roimd her heart, hath caused 
the dark mantle of her sin to fall away, and hath discov- 
ered her robed in primal innocence and primal love ! " 

Reaee smiled ; and Nature, as if to compensate for her 
homely features, had bestowed on her a smile of rare 
sweetness. "Well had she known the sensation which that 
sonnet recorded; the purest of all joys granted to human 
souls, — conscious conversion to God. And she remem- 
bered that no vivid metaphor, nor impassioned eloquence 
of words, could exaggerate the glory of that light from 
heaven, or the deliverance from that dark vesture of sin. 

"But she writes only of primal innocence," observed 
the duchess when Portus had finished reading the grace- 
ful fourteen lines. " She speaks not of Christ's righteous- 
ness ; and evil were it for us if we had not justification 
through him, as well as sanctification through the Divine 
Spirit." 

"Most noble lady, the marchesa has not forgotten," 
cried the professor, who did not like the smallest blemish 
to be found in the compositions of this literary idol ; for 

13* 



150 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

Buch was Vittoria Colonna during her brilliant lifetime. 
" Hearken to these lines : — 

* Fear not, poor seal I into this world has come / 

Jesus, great ocean of eternal good : 
He will make light for thee each heaviest load.' 

Or these other lines ; " and Portus turned the pages rap- 
idly:— 

■■ ■ He who alone on Christ hath fixed his gaze, 
N^ot who best understands, or studies best 
With human learning, shall be blest in heaven.' " 

" Yes," obsei'ved the duchess, " that is the ring of the 
true metal. My good Portus, I thank you for your trouble 
in procuring me this book. And now about the signora 
concerning whom you spoke to me formerly ? " 

"I crave your Highness's pardon," said the professor 
hurriedly; "but the Signora di Montalto hath been wait- 
ing in the antechamber till it should be your pleasure to 
admit her to audience. I — I — your Highness knows my 
absent disposition, especially when a matter of learning is 
in hand." 

"It were well that the fault could be remedied, my 
fiiend," replied Renee gently when he stumbled in his 
excuses. " It were hardly courteous to leave the lady — 
an old acquaintance too — so long waiting. But you have 
something further to say, monsieur?" 

"A moment: I would beseech your Highness to permit 
that I should introduce to you the noble Count Galeazzo 
Caraccioli, eldest son of the Marquis di Vico, who is trav- 



A DAUGHTER OF FRANCE. 151 

eling to Geneva, and is under persecution for the gospel's 
sake. The noble •gentleman is lodging at my poor house 
for the present." 

"We will receive him; but the Signora di Montalto 
Cometh first," said the duchess briefly, and rising. Now, 
when Ren^e stood, the natural deformity of her figure 
became manifest: attitudes of sitting might conceal the 
crookedness. Another of the crosses in her apparently 
brilliant lot was this peraonal uncouthness ; and the worse 
was it because it alienated from her the regards of her 
husband. Ercole the Second would never have cast into 
solitary confinement a wife whom he reaUy loved. 





CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE AUDIENCE. 

I HE Signora di Montalto had begun to be seri- 
ously uneasy for her expected reception be- 
fore the forgetful Portus re-appeared. The 
windows of the antechamber looked upon a 
narrow alley floored with a canal of deep dark 
water ; for the huge red castle is intersected 
with canals which flow beneath archways and 
between lofty piles of buildings : and the dungeons under- 
neath — oh, what noisome and slimy recesses of unclean 
things ! Barbara could not help thinking of the dungeons 
as she glanced downward at that dull, blinking water. 

But up here in the royal rooms, all high and dry, are 
walls paneled with paintings, and ceilings emblazoned, 
and ponderous inlaid furniture, and beaufets ten or twelve 
feet high in the banqueting-hall, loaded with silver plate ;. 
and the sleeping-chambers contain beds curtained with 
crimson satin, adorned with massive gold fringe. This 
anteroom, where Barbara di Montalto has been waiting 
so long, is lined with sets of stamped leather hangings, 
of the valuable " ostrich-egg " pattern : vast settees, iin- 

162 



THE AUDIENCE. 153 

movable as stone benches, extended in various lengths 
along the sides. A couple of richly dressed pages lounge 
near the door opening on the grand staircase, 

" The court is much gayer," quoth one lad, " since the 
return of the Prince Alfonso; but I fear me he hath 
broiight with him some of the hatred against the Protes- 
tants which 'our cousin Henry of France' shows so plen- 
tiftilly. He goes with the duke in every thing." 

" His sister of Guise has been giving him some lessons, 
I trow," rejoined the other. "Besides, don't you see, 
'tis easy for us to tails, and for her Highness, who won't 
have to handle halbert? But we lie too close to Rome 
here; and that fiery old Paul the Fourth would swoop 
down upon Ferrara like a kite on a capon if the duke 
didn't give him at least fair words." 

Conversation of this sort did not tend to re-assure 
the already downcast spirit of the physician's wife. And 
so much depended on this interview ! so many hopes 
had been built on it! Two anxious hearts waiting at 
home, — drearily waiting, — looking out for her ere now : 
what if she could only bring them disappointment? 
And then she tried to stay her soul on the great ultimate 
thought, — the will of God, which must be good and 
wise for all who put their trust in him. She tried to 
leave on him her care, knowing that he had permitted 
this evil of exile to befall them. Yes, come what might, 
she would not lose hope in him. 

When the professor entered from the duchess's saloon, 
Barbara almost expected to hear that her request for. 



154 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

an audience was refused : she had learned something of 
Rente's position, and the extreme caution which that 
royal lady was compelled to observe in her encourage- 
ment of the Reformed. It was therefore a joyful surprise 
when Portus, drawing his cloak about him, whispered, — 

"The most illustrious duchess will receive you: enter 
at once. I go for the Count Caraecioli, of whom I told 
you: addio." 

With a beating heart, the physician's wife entered 
Rente's presence. She was standing still in the recessed 
window, looking forth on the slumbering moat and its 
brown shadows. Quickly turning at the slight sound of 
the footstep, she looked piercingly on Barbara, who knelt, 
according to usage, and kissed the sovereign hand. 

" Thou art not so much changed by time and matron- 
hood," said the duchess, " but that I would know thee to 
be the daughter of Bianca Dolfi, — a lady for whom, in 
verity, we had much esteem and regard, and whom the 
princesses still remember with aflfection. Therefore thou 
art welcome to Perrara, and to such poor help as may lie 
in our present favor." 

The physician's wife again kissed the sovereign's hand 
with fervor, and tears rose in her eyes. " Your Highness 
is too good," she said falteringly ; for the graciousness had 
been more than she had dared to hope during the last 
dreary hour. 

"Portus has told me somewhat of you," added the 
duchess, " and that you approved yourself a good soldier 
of Jesus Ghilst before the papal nuncio at Locarno. You 



THE AUDIENCE. 155 

have been braver l3ian I, good Barbara," continued Ben^e, 
with a touching humility; "you stood firm where I failed: 
the scholar has indeed excelled the teacher ! " 

"Most illustrious lady," began Di Montalto's wife, rather 
confounded by this unexpected allusion to Rente's public 
defection from the faith. She sought for some courtly 
words which might gloss over that great error ; but truth 
compelled her to be silent. 

" Thou doest well not to strive for excuse," observed 
the duchess, "with a shade of bitterness in her tone. " But 
let that pass. Tell me, when wert thou last at this court 
of ours ? " 

" Twenty years agone, most noble lady, since the spring 
when the Signor Carlos Heppeville sojourned in this 
castle," was the reply. 

"Ah! the great John Calvin, as he is called in our 
native land," observed the duchess. "A powerftil and 
weighty preacher as ever wielded God's word to the con- 
fusion of error. He had just at that time printed his ' In- 
stitutes of the Christian Religion,' dedicated to our royal 
brother-in-law Francis : we remember it well. Ah ! the 
light of truth was rising fairly over our poor Italy in that 
year ; but, since, it hath been as a morning overcast with 
cloud and storm." 

A few brief moments' pause; while Rente's mind trav- 
eled quickly back over that gulf of twenty years, to the 
days of her youth, when fair children clustered about her 
knees, nor had yet been taught to regard their mother's 
instructions as contamination, — Anna d'Este, now ijnhap- 



156 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

pily wife to Duke Francis of Guise, then learning Scrip- 
ture from her lips, with the self-willed heir-apparent 
Alfor.so. Ob for those happy times of love and trust and 
unsullied trith! Other figures rose in the camera obscura 
of memory, — the sweet, grave face of Madame de Sou- 
bise, governante of Ren(5e's childhood, to whom she owed 
her first glimpse of the Reformed faith; the learned canon 
Calcagnini, who was the earliest asserter in that age of 
the schoolboy truism of the earth's rotation on its axis ; 
the strange and versatile Clement Marot, her secretary 
and laureate, who cultivated poetry and theology by 
turns, enjoying the sentimental beauty of Scripture truth, 
but having no root of the matter in him. These, and 
many others, all passed away ! The followers of Christ's 
gospel skuUking in holes and corners of the Ferrarese 
territory, herself first among renegades! The duchess 
heaved a deep sigh, and returned to the widely difierent 
present time. 

"I had forgotten," said the physician's wife timidly, — 
" I had well-nigh forgotten to give your Excellence a let- 
ter from the Frate Ochino, wherewith he intrusted me 
when Are were leaving Zurich." 

At the close of faithful counsels to the lady's selfj — and 
so plain-spoken were these counsels, that even the gentle 
Ren6e's brow contracted while reading them, — the former 
general of the Capuchins mentioned somewhat of the 
physician Di Montalto's desire to settle and follow his 
profession in Ferrara, under the powerfiil protection of 
her most serene Highness. 



THE AUDIENCE. 157 

" He overrates my power," said the duchess sadly. " I, 
who can not protect my own self from imprisonment, am 
scarcely likely to be able to protect others. But the post 
of second physician to our household may soon be vacant, 
for the present holder thereof seeks for a chair of medi- 
cine at Padua : if he succeed, then the Sieur di Montalto 
may reckon on our favor. Nay, no thanks : are we not 
commanded, above all others, to assist the household of 
faith?" 

Renee pronounced these words, and indeed all which 
bore reference to her proscribed opinions, in a lower tone. 
As she ended, some bustle in the antechamber, audible 
even at this far end of the inner apartment, announced 
an arrival of importance. The heavy door was swung 
aside by the page to its fullest width ; and his " most illus- 
trious Highness il Principe Luigi " was announced. 

The duchess's pale face, which, for an instant, had worn 
an expression of anxiety and unpleasing expectation, — 
had she not feared the entrance of her despotic lord, 
Ercole the Second ? — hghted up as if a sunbeam had 
glanced across her, as the gallant-looking young prince 
bent knee and kissed her hand, — such courtly deference 
did the manners of the age require between the best- 
loving parent and child. But the next instant he was 
clasped in her arms, and, stooping his tall figure, pressed 
his lip on her brow affectionately. 

" I could not go on the hawking-party without seeing 
thee, dear mother," he whispered. " I have been at mv 
books all the morning, — my father saith I shall be a pre- 

14 



158 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

mature charchman ; truly I delight more in them than 
in falcon and hound : but he sent to demand my presence 
on this ride ; so I obey." 

It was the blessed golden thread of domestic peace in 
Rente's life, the possession of this vii-tuous and dutiful 
son. Called at the font after his grandfather Louis XII., 
the "father of his people," she had often prayed that in 
goodness he might resemble that kindly monarch : and 
the prayer was granted ; for, even under the cardinal's 
red hat which he wore in aftei'-years, Luigi d'Este was 
honorably known for his gi-eat virtues. 

"And thou hast not looked at my brave attire, my lady 
mother,'' said he, drawing himself up with a smile : " the 
handsomest doublet in all Ferrara, be the other what it 
may. Methought," he added saucily, "the woman's eye 
would spy out the finery in a moment ! " 

Of Genoa velvet, slashed in the sleeves so as to show 
the white linen beneath, and embroidered with dead gold, 
. it became the lithe figure well ; and the close-fitting pur- 
plish-gray hosen, reaching from hip to heel, set off his 
shapely limbs. From his hand dangled a black velvet 
cap, adorned with a flowing ostrich plume of the purest 
white. 

" Thou art well dressed, my dearest," replied tjie mother, 
her eye wandering with an instant's pride over the well- 
loved form; "but I trust,"— and here Ren(5e'8 voice again 
dropped to the heretical whisper, — "I trust thou hast 
fairer adornments than these, in the sight of thy God, my 
LuigL" 



TEE AUDIENCE. 159 

The winding of bngles was heard without. 

" Well, mother mine, when'I am pontiff, thine innocent 
little heresy shall not be disturbed, — you have my epis- 
copal word for it; I am sure that faith can not be bad 
which makes you so much better than anybody else; 
though I was forgetting, — you are as orthodox as any of 
us since Pelletario heard your confession. I must be 
gone, or those horns will be hoarse, and his most serene 
Highness in a rage ! " 

And the brilliant hawking-party rode over the castle 
drawbridge, and across the thronged piazza; foremost "the 
fine presence" and commanding - port of Ercole the Sec- 
ond, with his fair youngest son riding at his right hand. 
Merry jest and laugh resounded among the richly dressed 
cavaliers and dames who followed the sovereign's steps 
on jennet and palfrey; while the poor hard-working 
lieges, in hempen attire, looked at the courtly array- as at 
some glimpse of a grandeur immeasurably above them, — 
as much above their lowly spheres of labor and of need 
as the ponderous red castle is above the fruit-booths in 
the subject piazza. 

Not twenty minutes after the ducal cavalcade has glit- 
tered by, a woman in common black mantle and tunic 
coi^es over the same drawbridge, and through the same 
thronged market-place, bearing in her heart more gen- 
uine happiness than the most envied individual of that 
brilliant hafl"king-party. Indeed, Barbara di Montalto 
feels as though her cup of joy were well-nigh running 
over ; for it is a very little temporal delight, that, added 



160 



FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 



to a heart already endued with a' love of our dear Saviour, 
will suffice to fill it to the toim with happiness. What a 
value is added to the commonest events, the humblest 
joys and successes, of human life, if the" Almighty Friend 
stand consciously by, blessing them all ! 





CHAPTER XIX. 

FEEEAKESE INTERIORS. 

I^T is Chiistmas-tide in FeiTara. All the broad, 
paved thoroughfares are full of fluctuating 
crowds, swaying to and fro at church arch- 
ways, flowing beneath the heavy-corniced pal- 
aces and beside great grim monasteries, bound 
on that mixed medley of business, pleasure, 
and devotion, which forms a Roman holiday. 
Enter these vast ecclesiastical buildings, and see the 
religion of the multitude embodied in wax or marble, — 
in endless groups of the predominant Mother and her 
subject Child. Behold the cupola of burnished gold above 
her head, her throne of lapis-lazuli, her robes of the gaud- 
iest and costliest tissues inwrought with precious stone. 
The holy Child is quite subordinate, both in the image 
and in the worship it calls forth. Again, pass into the 
next sanctuary among the surging crowd trampling the 
mosaic pavement between dim marble columns ; gaze at 
the treasures this day bared to popular view, — a dusky 
antique picture of the same holy woman, — in sooth, not 
fair to view, but stern enough for a sphinx, — with golden 

14* 161 



162 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

lamps burning continually before the flattened features, 
and golden angels holding up the frame. St. Luke is be- 
lieved to have been the painter of the representation thus 
glorified. Votive offerings of jewels and cups and chalices 
lie before it. A neighbor church has no such transcendent 
attraction ; but the wits of the brotherhood which own it 
have devised a very taking exhibition to draw some cus- 
tom to their booth. This is none else than an accurate 
model of the Bethlehem stable, including the manger, the 
cattle, waxen figures of Joseph and Mary, and— wonderful 
to relate ! — a tiny clothes-horse holding still tinier baby 
linen of cambric and lace ! This exhibition particularly 
pleased the women and children, who were not soon tired 
of admiring the miniature waxen Mother and her infant 
Son, but, above all, the domestic drapery attendant. 
Why, the dazzling high altar, with curtains of rose-colored 
silk looped up to its snowy pillars, with its tall crosses of 
many-hued flowers, with its galaxy of gold and silver ves- 
sels flashing back the brilliance of a hundred tapers, was 
no attraction compared with the tiny clothes-horse ! 

Then there was no end of processions, music, chanted 
litanies; long files of tapers winding round the aisles, 
dropping wax as they went on the mosaic ; priests and 
friars in all sorts of garments, from violet silk and lace to 
the dun serge and rope. The religion of scenic effect was 
perfect. 

Yet not all in Ferrara bowed down before it. A little 
band of obscure Christians lurked in by-streets, who dared 
to withdraw themselves from the universal popular hom- 



FERRARESE INTERIORS. 163 

age, and who found not food for devotion in pictures, 
ohantings, and wax-lights. Nay, even the noble army of 
martyrs had gained recruits among them. Fannio had 
led the van of the Italian contingent gradually ascend- 
ing in fiery chariots to join that mighty army in heaven. 
Death, tortui-e, banishment, had greatly lessened the once- 
flourishing Reformed Church in Ferrara ; and perhaps the 
sorest blow of all was struck by the hand of a real friend, 
when the Duchess Rent5e bowed in the Romish confes- 
sional, and publicly received the Romish eucharist. 

And so, this Christmas-time of 1555, the religion of 
scenic effect was in ftill swing at Fen-ara ; in full favor at 
court and with the people. Our few obscure " heretics " 
hid themselves, and were satisfied to retain their lives and 
daily bread if possible. Particularly softly did the physi- 
cian Di Montalto walk, as a man wise in his generation, 
as a child whose fingers have been burned. "All things 
to all men" was a text which he admired much, and ap- 
plied in practice according to his own theory of its mean- 
ing. He had no mind to suffer any further for conscience' 
sake. He would sail with the tide ; but he fondly hoped 
to be able to port helm and shift yards before coming to 
the breakers. Had he not a mental reservation of belief? 
Could any one really blame him for bowing his head be- 
fore St. Luke's blackened picture, when in his heart he 
knew it a hideous imposition, though it would cost him 
his life to say as much? He reasoned that the philo- 
Rophio deceit was necessary, — "evil that good might 
come," 



164 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

The young girl clasping his arms through all the crowds 
never made a semblance of obeisance at any shrine. The 
very multitude was her safety in this daring disobedience. 
Drawing her wimple about her face with one hand, she 
clung to her father with the other, noting with her bright 
eyes the theatrical decorations, the religious jewelry, the 
toy-shop models, and having some scorn for them all; 
also noting the hurried gestures which were deemed de- 
votion, the rapid signing of the cross, mutterings with the 
lips while the eyes wandered in quick glances at one's 
neighbors, and the facile knee bent for a few seconds 
before an image. A good deal of this was new to Bianca. 
She had been reared in the lap of the Reformation by an 
enlightened mother, and the thick darkness of Italian 
popery came upon her with unpleasant suri^rise. She had 
gone to none of the festas in Locarno. Her father occa- 
sionally went, true to his trimming policy ; and now, in 
Ferrara, he insisted on her accompanying him. What 
comparisons to the pure worship of the Reformers were 
made by that pi'etty, well-balanced head veiled with the 
dark wimple ! How much worthier of the Supreme ap- 
peared the spirit-adoration of a renewed heart, clothed in 
fervid utterance of the common tongue, than these pro- 
longed Latin chantings, these meaningless genuflexions! 
How incomparably more exalted one of Savonarola's or 
Brucioli's hymns than these litanies and rosaries replete 
with nomenclature ! 

She was glad when the tour of the churches was over 
and she entered the narrow, quaint street where she wag 



FERRARESE INTERIORS. 165 

to join her mother and friends at supper. Her father did 
not speak for some minutes after they had left the crowds 
behind. She felt that he was displeased. 

"A tolerable religion this of yours," he observed at last, 
" which allows you to disobey your parent, and run him 
into danger. But I warn you. Mistress Bianca. Your 
mother has drawn on me the loss of all my property, and 
left me a pauper in my gray hairs ; and I have no mind 
to lose my life for sake of your obstinacy next." 

" Father, what can I do ? " said Bianca with a sinldng 
heart. 

"Just what the Duchess Ren(5e has done, like a sensible 
woman. Keep your opinions as you choose, but don't 
obtrude them. Everybody knows that she has not really 
given up one iota of her faith, and that her confessing to 
Fra Pelletario was a mere form, gone through for peace' 
sake. But see what she has gained by it ! I wish your 
mother would follow her example, that's all, and not run 
my neck into danger by her headstrong zeal. It is little 
more than three years since Giorgio Siculo, a most learned 
man, was found hanging before the windows of that Pa- 
lazzo della Ragione on charge of heresy." Di Montalto 
shuddered as he glanced at the great marble pile, the 
upper stories of which passed on high into the dark air 
far above. Not far away was the spot where had stood 
the stake of Fannio ; and an undersound, pervading the 
hum of populous streets, was the plash and lapse of that 
turbid river which had borne the martyr's ashes to the sea. 
Ferrara had corners, dowered with associations, sufficient 



166 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

to make a nervous man, suspected of heresy, tremble in 
his shoes. 

He left his daughter on the high steps of the house of 
the Madonna Morata, and passed along deeper into the 
labyrinth of streets himself. 

" My father, — who used to be so kind, so good, — how 
strangely altered!" thought Bianca. "My dear father I 
His soul is bitter vdth poverty. God show him the true 
riches ! " 

"Within a low, wide room, rather bleak-looking, — for, in 
Italian houses of the middle classes of that period, httle 
provision for winter comfort existed, — three women were 
sitting at work. Bianca's mother we readily recognize 
by the bold, dauntless features, which yet have enough of 
feminine softness chastened by trial : beside her is a worn- 
looking woman, with pale, anxious face, now bent over 
repairs of house linen, but more often laying down her 
needle in the earnestness of conversation. This was the 
Dame Luoresda Morata, described by cotemporaries as " a 
model of matronly and domestic virtue, and who proved 
by her conduct in times of trial and persecution that she 
was also endowed with strength of mind and genuine 
religious principle." 

The third is a fair young matron, scarce past the bloom 
of girlhood : her distaflf and spindle are busy. Bianca is 
received with much welcome, — with more demonstrations 
of it from the strangers than from the parent; but the eye 
of this last follows her and rests on her when the polite- 
ness of the others has ceased, and notes a certain weari- 



FERBARESE INTERIORS. 167 

■atWs in her expression. She is able to guess the cause, 
and says nothing. Work was found for Bianca on some 
of the house-linen, — such hard, heavy linen as no loom 
produces now, each web of which might last a lifetime, 
und form an item in a legacy. 

The younger women naturally draw together, and con- 
verse in low tones. Between them, in matters mental, 
lies one great gulf Morata's daughter has been trained, 
as became the sister of the celebrated Olympia, to a con- 
siderable knowledge of classic learning. Latin iambics 
and Greek hexameters are famiUar to her ; while Bianca 
knows no more of the dead languages than a few gram- 
mar-lessons from Francesco Altieri have left in her mem- 
ory. Consequently, she looks with respectful admiration 
on the other ; for the hight of education in that age was 
to construct Latin verses fluently, and to translate the 
Psalms of David into Greek odes. 

But not on such learned topics do they talk this even- 
ing. The signorina who has been visiting the churches 
relates their scenic shows, and the signora who has 
stayed at home admires or condemns as the narrative 
requires. 

"But, my Bianca," the young matron says, with the 
slightest of sly looks, " how would a friend of ours who 
has gone into the Venetian territories approve of this man- 
ner of spending your Christmas Eve ? " 

" I don't suppose he would approve of it at all," replies 
the other, coloring deeply, despite her quiet tone; "but; 
yoM know that I do not owe him obedience, until" — 



168 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

And here some intricacy in the damsel's work requires 
her to look very closely at it inxJeed. 

"Well done, my transparent Bianca," cries her mis- 
cHevous friend. -" Until when do you intend to disobey 
this yoxmg signor ? " 

"I mean," said the other, "that — that it is my certain 
duty to obey my father." An appealing look was turned 
upon Peregrina, with the words, "Tou know it is my 
duty to obey my father; and he required me to go with 
him to see the sights." 

" Whether such bowing in the house of Rimmon is al- 
lowable even on the plea of filial obedience," — remarked 
Peregrina, rather pedantically, but relapsing into serious- 
ness, — "I have not made up my mind ; though I rather 
think that sophistry alone can justify it." 

" But, my Peregi-ina, I did not bow," pleaded Bianca : 
"I merely looked. I have come back, as I always do, 
tenfold a Lutheran. Such ceremonies and splendors don't 
now attract me in the least." 

" Because you have a northern imagination. They arc 
only suited for our warm southerns," responded Peregrina. 
"Now, they attract me strongly. I own to an admiration 
for the music, the lights, the crowds, the rich coloring: 
therefore there's some merit in my abstinence." 

"Well," said Bianca, "what I think about these shows 
and ceremonies is, that when the most gracious Lord has 
truly enhghtened one's soul, and revealed his own salva- 
tion by the indwelling of the Divine Spirit, then one sees 
the popular religion to be dishonoring to him, and that an 



FERRARESE INTERIORS. 169 

idolatry of the Virgin and the saints has supplanted true 
spiritual worship of Christ our Saviour. Is it not so, dear 
-friend?" 

"Truly," said Peregiina. "It hath often struck me, 
when reading the poets and historians of old Rome. 
Thou knowest somewhat of those great luminaries of the 
mind, my Bianca ? " 

" Nay, scarce any thing," said Di Montalto's daughter 
humbly, and feeling herself only fit for house-linen. 

"Well, it hath come forcibly to my thought, that the 
numerous saints of our modern Rome do strongly resem- 
ble the gods and goddesses of the old Pantheon in pagan 
times. The Virgin is worshiped in the very shrines of 
Diana and of Venus : she is called the Queen of Heaven, 
like Juno. Minor divinities have quite withdrawn wor- 
ship from the Supreme : every village hath its local saint, 
successor of the tutelary god of the Romans." 

" Peregrina," called her mother across the table, " find 
for me in the second oaken chest that Sapphic ode written 
by our Olympia when she was but in her twelfth year. 
Ah! how entranced was the Canon Calcagnini over it! 
How did he style her the tenth Muse ! Methinks I be- 
hold her now in fair white vesture reciting her verses for 
her father's learned friends ; conversing with them in 
Latin as fluently as in Italian, while they marveled at her 
acquirements. Ah me, those happy days ! " 

The poor widow leaned back in her chair, and a natural 
tear welled down the faded cheek. But present exigen- 
cies brought back her wandering regrets ; as the returning 

16 



170 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

needs of daily life do always, in God's wise providence, 
recall from sorrow. 

"Peregrina, go thou and see after the supper: that 
service-maid is dilatory." So the youthful matron obedi- 
ently rose a second time to carry out her mother's behest. 
Filial submission was in that age considered to extend 
through life, and no altering of position or circumstances 
could release from such duty. The Dame Lucrezia or- 
dered about her daughter — though manied for some 
time to a Milanese signer of good means — as if she had 
been yet a school-girl. 

Rice, with milk of almonds and dried figs, fish cooked 

«dth wine and spices, were the items of fare this evening 

* 
at the Italians' great daily meal of supper ; for it was the 

vigil of a festival. The table now only awaited the arri- 
val of the Milanese signer and of Di Montalto. 





CHAPTER XX. 

"OUR OLYMPIA." 

\ HE massive oaken chest had accordingly been 
opened, whose lid was all heavily carven in 
basso-relievo ; and a treasury of a few valuable 
books — relics of the late professor's library — 
and priceless papers revealed. Examine the 
former, chiefly delicate editions of the classics 
from the Venetian press of the famous typog- 
rapher Aldus; hold the latter up to the hght, and you 
will find the orthodox water-mark of the crossed keys on 
its coarsely wired surface. Early scribblings of the gifted 
Olympia's hand ; translations of Italian fables into Latin 
(bearing date of an age when our degenerate children 
toU through monosyllabic spelling-books of their mother- 
tongue) ; attempts at Greek composition of an equally 
premature season ; some few finished poems, which showed 
an astonishing command over the resources of an extinct 
language; — these were the proud mother's choice posses- 
sions, showed out daintily while the women waited for 
their lords. 
"And my little Emilio was treading in her steps : bless 

171 



172 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

his heart! he's hardly the little Emilio now, but growing 
apace, she tells me, and making progress in all polite 
learning, under her instruction. She hath had him to 
train from the cradle, — he numbered but five years when 
his poor father died ; and she would take him to Schwein- 
furth with her when she was married." 

"You said she dwells at Heidelberg now?" remarked 
the other matron. 

"Yes, Griinthler has got the chair of medicine at the 
university; and our Olympia might be attached to the 
elector's court, an she but willed it. Methinks her spirits 
have never recovered that fearful siege of Schweirifurthj 
when she and her husband lost every thing; and her 
health has never been the same. "Would that I could see 
her once more ! They have asked us to go and live in 
Germany with them; but traveling is so uncertain in 
these warlike times- for women. Olympia calleth Italy 
Babylon, and would have us leave it at all hazards ; but I 
love Ferrara, and my son-in-law conld not withdraw him- 
self from his properties : he is well to do, as thou knowest, 
Dame Barbara, and asked no dowry with my Peregrina. 
And I hear enough of tumults on the other side of the 
Alps likewise : the emperor wiM fight with the electors, 
and keep Germany in a broil. Mine elder daughter Vit- 
toria is well settled with the Princess Lavinia della Ro- 
vere, in Rome ; who was a special friend of our Olympia, 
and favored her when even the Duchess Ren^e was turned 
against her by the arts of that Cannelite Bolsec : for I am 
convinced it was all his fault," said the poor mother, to 



"OUR OLYMPIA." 173 

whom the machinations of a court and the whims of royal 
personages were inexplicable. "As almoner, he had the 
ear of her Excellence ; and was a most pestilent knave, 
and hated the influence of our Olympia over the prin- 
cesses." 

" But I have heard you say yourself, my friend," inter- 
posed the physician's wife, "that her disgrace at court 
was the first thing which drove her soul to the blessed 
Christ ; and, if this be so, it wei-e not a misfortune to her 
best interests." 

" Oh ! truly it was the neglect of her great friends which 
turned her heart to God," replied the mother. "During 
her years at court, when she was feted, admired, caressed 
beyond example, by the noble and the learned, she was 
indeed a good and a worthy daughter ; but the Greek and 
Latin authors had filled her mind with heathen lore so 
much, that she might nigh as well have been a pagan 
maiden of TuUy's time, for all the Christian faith and 
hope that was in her soul. She knew not the grace of 
God as a living principle. She had heard Fra Bernardin 
Ochino, whose eloquence would move the very angels; 
yet his sermons were to her only as the music of a sweet 
player, passing away when the sound was over. Her 
brain was indeed filled with curious speculations as to 
election, predestination, and the like class of doctrine, 
with which, as my poor Fulvio Morata used to say, she 
too much occupied the intellect, to the neglect of the 
practical culture of the heart. But when the blessed 
Lord spake to her himself by troublous dispensations, and 

J5» 



174 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

brought the dark cloud of sorrow and poverty over her 
life, she was humbled, and hearkened unto him; and I 
have heard her bless the day that her life at court ended. 
Therefore she careth not to be the electress's lady-in- 
waiting now. See what her letter sayeth, — this letter 
which my daughter Vittoria sent to me to read some 
time since." 

There was a very small bundle of them, these precious 
letters; not so many received during the four-years' ab- 
sence, as you, my young lady-readers, probably have in 
your desk from a fortnight's correspondence. But, in six- 
teenth-centuiy days of scant and slow communication, an 
epistle was a large event to both sender and receiver : it 
was no ephemeral production, to be tossed aside when 
glanced over, but rather in the nature of an important 
dispatch, to be laid up carefully after every word was 
weighed. 

" 'Tis many a month since we heard from our Olympia : 
ah ! my friend, there was a time when all Ferrara proudly 
styled her ' our Olympia.' Do I not remember her," and 
the mother pulled down again the cumbrous, jointed 
spectacles through which she was about to scan the let- 
ter,— « do I not remember her in her fifteenth year, de- 
claiming publicly in Latin and Greek before the whole 
court and university, explaining the paradoxes of the 
gi-eatest orators, answering every question addi-essed to 
her, and all with so much modesty and gi-aoe, that she 
won the affection as well as the admiration of her hearers? 
Ah, those were halcyon days!" exclaimed the widow, 



"OUR OLYMPIA." 175 

looking back with pai-donable elation on the triumph of 
her child. "How proud was her poor father! for her 
learning was his work. Many a bitter day of penury and 
exile did he spend ia laying a foundation for her fame ; and 
truly her like was seen in no age since the Augustan." 

With a sigh, the faded woman closed that bright page 
of her memory, and pushed up the clumsy spectacles 
again to read a duskier page of later date. Her greatest 
pleasure was to talk of the old laurel-crowned times ; and 
a curious struggle existed between her worldly pride in 
these remembrances, and her consciousness that the pres- 
ent obscurity of Olympia's life — away in Germany, mar- 
ried to a poor physician — was best both for her temporal 
and eternal happiness. 

These were some extracts fi-om the cherished letter, 
after an account of the siege of Schweinfurth, and her 
husband's settlement as professor in Heidelberg; — 

"In England, also, I hear that the pious are much 
afflicted" (written in 1554, when Mary Tudor had com- 
menced lighting the Smithfield fires) ; " so that whoever 
wishes to be a Christian must bear with him his cross in 
all places. Indeed, I would rather endure any evils in 
the cause of Christ, than possess the whole world without 
him; nor do I desire any thing more than him. One 
thing I implore, — that God may bestow on me constancy 
and faith, even unto the end. I continually pour out my 
soul to him : nor is it in vain ; for I feel myself so strength- 
ened and supported, that I would not yield even a hair's- 
breadth in his cause My sister, I again beseech 



176 PROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

you to have more fear of that Being who by a word 
created the universe, than of powerless creatui-es of clay, 
or of the aspect of this world, whether threatening or 
smiling." 

Few knew more of it in both aspects than the gifted 
wiiter. Her letter ended with the commendation, " Fare- 
well, and overcome, my dearest Vittoria ! " Verily Olymr 
pia was changed since her days of declaiming before the 
Ferrarese court, when the turning of a Greek strophe 
was her chief object in Ufe. She had made the glorious 
discovery, that the foolishness of Christ's gospel was 
nobler than the wisdom of the world. 

The widow's thoughts had sundry times wandered from 
even these" precious letters and remains to her waiting 
suppei", as testified by various interjections with reference 
to the delay of the honorable signors they expected. Be- 
fore long, these last arrived. Di Montalto looked brighter 
than usual. An envoy from the palace had sought Mm, 
and formally presented him with the place of second phy- 
sician to the ducal household. 

" Ah ! thou seest the Duchess Renee did not forget ! " 
exclaimed his wife. " Her protection availeth much even 
yet ; and she is so kind, so good ! " For every one knew 
that Rente's benefactions to the- poor and afflicted were 
of unexampled generosity ; and that, even at the matter 
of gifts, her land nature did not stop, but was always 
planning for their benefit in other ways. 

"And I also have news for thee, madonna," said Dam' 
Lucrezia's son-in-law ; " at least, whatever tidings is t.cn. 



"OUR OLYMPIA." 177 

tained in that," laying before her a slight packet wound 
round with silken thread. "A messenger from Lucca, 
bringing advices to the Jew banker in the Piazza, brought 
that among them." ^ 

It contained money sent by the beloved Olympia, 
gathered from her poor income at Heidelberg, and re- 
mitted to one Thomas of Lucca for behoof of her mother. 
The said Jew banker would pay gold-pieces to the order 
which Dame Lucrezia Morata was to present him with. 
And a short letter, in the dear, beautiful handwriting, ac- 
companied the filial tribute, — a letter which she was 
afraid might fall into unkindly hands, the wording was so 
cautious, and no friend specially mentioned. She was 
aware that the mere name of one so celebrated for per- 
sistent heresy as herself might draw on the correspondent 
trouble fi-om the Inquisition. 

The floodgates of the poor mother's heart were opened 
afresh ; and glad tears wetted the short, vague, constrained 
note which Olympia's hand had touched. Ah, could she 
have seen the vacant, desolate home at Heidelberg this 
very Christmas Eve! Could she have seen the heart- 
broken husband of her adored child, going about his 
duties mechanically, through a plague-stricken city, and 
with the seeds of death lodged already in his frame, turn- 
ing ofttimes into the graveyard of St. Peter's Church, 
where lay buried the remains of her who was his very life 
of life! A merciful vail of time and distance hung be- 
tween the bereaved mother and that reality. 

But thus was it torn away. Olympia died in October; 



178 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

and such was the slowness of communication in those 
days, such also the unwillingness of friends in Germany to 
impart the sad news, that up to the middle of January, 
1556, it had not ||ached Ferrara. Then, one day, came 
the fatal missive from Bale. 

Some speculation took place, before the sheet was 
opened, as to whose writing addressed the exterior. It 
was not Andreas Grunthler's, and certainly not Olympia's 
own. Peregiina, looking oyer her mother's shoulder, read 
the uppermost line of the letter as follows : — 

"CeHo Secondo Gurione, to the most excellent Dame 
Lucrezia Morata, wisheth health." 

"Ah! dear mother, thou seest how needless was thy 
fear ! " she said with a caress. " A letter from my father's 
oldest friend, the professor of Roman eloquence at Bale 
University: perchance he hath some studentship for our 
Emilio, or hath late tidings of our Olympia. Read, dear 
mother; read." 

" If I have seldom written to you, Lucrezia," so ran the 
letter, " you whom I cherish as a sister, you must regard 
it as a sad effect of the disturbances of our time, and not 
as flowing from forgetftdness of your former kindness. 
I shall always remember the good offices which you ren- 
dered me during the life of your husband Fulvio, when 
your house was my asylum." 

"Ay, ay," said the widow, "but my poor Fulvio was 
kind to him ; though he considered it Only the discharge 
of a debt, since from Gurione he had learned the re- 
formed faith, when in exile at Vercelli, — before you were 



"OUR OLYMPIA." 179 

bom, child. And that time, when the pope threatened to 
excommunicate the University of Pavia on his account, 
he had to fly to Venice, and thence here. I remember 
my Pulvio's letter inviting him, as if it was written yes- 
terday; and our Olympia was then but a growing girl, 
beautiful and learned beyond her years; and Curione 
taught her much." 

Then came fresh reminiscences of that period of Olym- 
pia's glory, — the noontide splendor to which the poor 
widow so often reverted, as the eyes of a person who has 
passed from light into obscurity love to gaze back at a 
former brilliance on his path. 

" But, dear mother, wilt thou not read ? " said the half- 
impatient Peregrina. 

What gloom of foreboding, inexplicable save by the 
mysterious intimations which we sometimes seem to have 
of approaching calamity, grew over the mother and 
daughter even before that letter was perused! Curione 
went on to narrate some of Olympia's trials and difficul- 
ties; merging thence into a reflection on the fleeting 
nature of all earthly joys, contrasting them with the 
fixed and perfect glories of the eternal life laid up in 
heaven, which is the perpetual aspiration and earnest 
desire of the Christian soul. It had been Olympia's 
often-expressed and fervent wish to depart, and be with 
Christ her Redeemer. 

Peregrina need scarce have read farther ; but the next 
lines told how the dear, suffering Olympia had gained her 
highest bliss. " God has taken her from the arms of the 



180 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

tenderest husband, and permitted her peaceftdly to depart 
to heaven ; has transported her into his glory, where only 
is happiness worthy of the name, — that happiness which 
she always desired." 

Not for days afterward could the poor mother receive 
the sequel of the consolation which Curione had penned. 
How cold and measured were the warmest words of sym- 
pathy in the hitter hour of bereavement! 

"If we think only of ourselves," he wrote, "we can not 
be too much afiB.icted at having lost her ; but, if we com- 
pare the feUcity she enjoys with the miseries of this life, 
we shall find cause for thankfulness as well as consolation. 
The Olympia whom we loved is not dead ; she lives with 
Jesus Christ, happy and immortal: after the storms of her 
earthly destiny, she dwells safe in the haven of an eternal 
repose ! " 

Her poor husband had requested of Curione, as one 
who loved and valued the gifted dead, and who was in- 
timately acquainted with the whole family, to break the 
sad tidings to her mother. His letter is a model of its 
kind for caution and tenderness and piety. It arrived in 
Ferrara much about the time that the heart-broken hus- 
band of Olympia and her young brother Emilio lay dead 
together of the plague in Heidelberg. 

Thus one of the brightest stars sparkling in the dawn 
of the ItaUan Reformation set to the earthly horizon, only 
to shine in a more glorious firmament for ever and ever. 




CHAPTER XXI. 

THE RENEGADE MONK. m 

i N" Ferraxa the Reformed party dared not wor- 
ship openly at this period. Upper chambers 
and subterranean vaults were their cathedrals, 
— the place of gathering changed each meet- 
ing for greater security; for the Argus-eyed 
Inquisition was abroad. 
None of our safe English Sabbaths for these 
pioneers of Italian reformation, but a skulking through 
by-places at early or late hours, with a consciousness that 
every man's hand was against them, and that the forbid- 
den luxury of united prayer might be paid for with their 
lives. Would our churches be crowded if such were the 
terms of fellowship? It is good sometimes to glance 
back at the dark places of the past, and contrast other 
men's privations with our own privileges, purchased for us 
through blood and fire in these same years 1555-6. 

Let us visit one of these dangerous gatherings, which 
the archbishop of the Ferrarese diocese knows well to 
exist; though he can not lay his crosier thereon to crush 
them, for want of definite information. Spies are dis- 

16 181 



182 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

persed everywhere, commissioned traitors empowered to 
scent out heresy anyhow, — to work into unsuspecting 
confidences, to assume any character, to commit any base- 
ness, so only they bring fuel to the fires of the Holy Office. 
Many an incautious speaker has thus been haled to prison? 
and many a heedless Uver, who neglected the sacrament 
of penance, been stimulated to fulfillment of a duty so 
dangerojifc when left undone ; and many who felt them- 
selves unsound in theology have fled to territories where 
the Argus eye is not quite so penetrating. For some 
have been tortured, some banished, some put to death, by 
the sacred tribunal, acting on the information of its flying 
squadron of spies. The external uniformity of Ferrarese 
faith is quite edifying of late. 

But not a bowshot from the sumptuous BasiUoa del 
Spirito Santo, — all whose bells are ringing forth this 
noontide, and priests crowding about its various altars, 
clothed in purple and fine linen, — within the unacknowl- 
edged sanctuary of a humble room, two or three are met 
together in the name of Christ. Very apostoUc is the dan- 
ger and the obscurity of their assemblage. These taste- 
less sectaries have passed by the great folding-doors of ■ 
the Basilica, whence issue faint odors of perfumed incense, 
and full echoes of most harmonious chanted masses ; and 
have chosen, instead of that rich ritual, the unadorned 
speaking, the fervid supplication, th^ reading from a Bible 
Ln common words, which are the sole forms of devotion 
in their heretic meetings. Raise their voices in a hymn 
they dare not; but He who stood in the midst of the 



THE RENEGADE MONK. 183 

gathered apostles when " the doors were shut for fear of 
the Jews" was surely present in this perilous place of 
prayer, breathing on his servants the priceless gift of the 
Holy Ghost. 

Truly were the inspired- words here fulfilled, — "Not 
many mighty, not many noble, are called." Poor and 
unattractive were the few who held fast through much 
tribulation, and counted the reproach of Christ better 
than the world's smiles. A renegade monk was to preach, 
who had lately escaped from prison at Bologna, and was 
hiding in Duke Ercole's territories. A beaten, hunted 
man he looked, but vehement with the enthusiasm of per- 
secution: Ms eye had an almost startling glare, — perhaps 
from having for months viewed the blazing pile of martyr- 
dom not a day's length away in possibility. Ascetic and 
haggard in his countenance; and his words weighty, 
drawn from the depths of a rare experience of suffering 
and of spiritual support. 

The old doctrine he chooses to discourse upon, the key- 
note of the Reformation, — justification by faith in Christ's 
merits only. Twice it has nigh cost the intrepid monk 
his hfe; and so it is most dear to him, as an imperiled 
treasure is cherished by men specially. 

Afterward he gives to the little audience, who drink in 
his words with eager ears, — no listless attention there, 
good reader ! no wandering thoughts or abstracted eyes ! 
— the renegade monk gives them some account of the 
Church of God in Bologna, whence he has just escaped. 
Ten years ,ago it numbered many thousand converts, in- 



184 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

eluding some of the highest names at the university. 
The disturbance had begun by the Minorite friar Mollio's 
lectures on the Epistles of Paul; for which the said friar 
was cited to Rome, and defended himself so ably, that the 
judges appointed by Pope Paul III. to try him were 
forced to acquit him of the chai-ge of heresy, declaring 
that the doctrines he taught were true, though not such 
as could be pubUcly promulgated without injury to the 
apostoUc see ! For, before Romish error was irrevocably 
fixed by the canons of the Council of Trent, some lati- 
tude of belief was permitted in theory ; at least, a loop- 
hole of escaj)e might thus be opened to the accused. 

" Ah ! woe is me," said our monk ftirther, " that I stood 
beside the same Frate Giovanni MoUio before the congre- 
gation of the Holy Office in Rome, and that I witnessed 
his good confession without sharing it ! For tremors of 
the flesh came over me, and my heart sank from the long 
imprisonment in noisome dungeons, and I was not clear 
in the truth then as I am now ; and the evil one whispered 
to me of the agonies of death and the sweetness of life. 
I was among those that recanted," added the monk in 
a lower tone, and drooping his head with abasement. 
" Only two stood firm of all who held the death-torches 
in that dismal procession. The Frate Giovanni had leave 
to speak to his articles of accusation. They hoped he 
would have given them the triumph of yielding : but no ; 
he defended his heresies most boldly, no whit abashed by 
the six illustrious cardinals and the episcopal assessors. 
Nay, he even declared the power n.f the pope to be anti- 



THE RENEGADE MONK. 185 

Christian, and derived from the devil. 'If you, cardinals 
and bishops,' said he, holding the torch aloft, 'if your 
power was from God, then your doctrine and life would 
resemble those of the apostles. But now your church is 
a receptacle of thieves and a den of robbers, overspread 
everywhere with falsehood and profaneness. Your great 
object is to seize and amass wealth by every species of 
injustice and cruelty. You thirst without ceasing for the 
blood of the saints. Can you be the successors of the 
holy apostles, the vicars of Jesus Christ, — you who de- 
spise Christ and his word, who act as if you did not believe 
there is a God in heaven, who persecute to the death his 
faithful ministers ? ' " 

A low, deep hum of approbation from the audience, 
whose eyes were spai-kling assent to these daring senti- 
ments of the martyr. The monk paused, that the effer- 
vescence might for the moment subside. 

"Dear brethren and sisters in the Lord, I had not 
strength to follow that noble example; for which I do 
most heartUy repent, seeing that I should now have 
entered upon that eternal joy which the good Frate Gio- 
vanni has these two years experienced in the presence of 
the most blessed Christ and his angels. Mea culpa, mea 
maxima culpa! I am not worthy to minister unto the 
(Jhui-eh of the most high God. But, further, the Frate 
said words like these ; for I was by, holding my torch 
while he spoke: 'I appeal from your sentence, O crael 
tyrants and murderers ! I summon you to appear before 
tho judgment-seat of Christ at the last day, and answer 

16* 



186 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

for your deeds, where your pompous titles and gorgeous 
trappings ■will not dazzle us, nor your guards and tortures 
terrify us ! And, in testimony, take back what you have 
given me;' herewith he flung the flaming torch on the 
ground, and extinguished it. The cardinals ordered him, 
and another who was equally steadfast, instantly to the 
fire; and so he entered heaven that same day from the 
Campo del Fior." 

With breathless interest had the narrative been followed 
by the hearers. It was a case which might any day be 
theirs ; no old-world story, looked back to from a safe dis- 
tance of centuries, but duplicate transactions were each 
week taking place throughout Italy. The professor Pran- 
ciscus Portus, who was present, had known the Minorite 
Mollio as a celebrated teacher in the universities of Milan 
and Pavia, as well as of Bologna : he had read his com- 
mentary on Genesis, which was composed while in prison 
at Rome. 

" My brother," said the professor, rising, and laying his 
hand on the monk's shoulder, " not to every man is mar- 
tyr's grace given. Thou hast done well to confess thy 
fault, and the gracious Lord has surely forgiven thee. 
His mercy endureth for ever. Wherefore, be not down- 
hearted, but for the future use thy gifts to the edifying of 
the Church of God : so shalt thou pm-chase to thyself a 
good degree. Thou hast heard of the blessed Faventino 
Fannio, who sufiered here in the Piazza of Perrara ? He 
had an hour of weakness like thine, when his young wife 
and his fiiends persuaded him to deny Christ ; but he was 



THE RENEGADE MONK. 187 

miserable till he again confessed him, and did his best to 
repair the error by sowing the truth through the Romagna. 
Some here," added Portus, looking round the room, "knew 
him well, and learned the knowledge of salvation from his 
lips, even in his prison." 

Yes : one had been confined for a crime, and by Fan- 
nio's teaching had been brought to sin no more ; another 
had visited him from the pious motive of trying to con- 
trovert his errors, and been himself drawn into them 
beyond remedy; others had read letters of his, issuing 
from his cell of solitary confinement, and by them been 
freed into the glorious liberty of the gospel. Truly Rome 
was wise to put out of the way the author of so much 
damage to her empire, whose efforts to spread divine 
truth ceased but with his mortal breath. 

"And, if he glorified God by after-Ufe, why mayest not 
thou?" continued Portus. "Dying for Christ is not al- 
ways the best way of serving him : if all his confessors 
were martyred, would truth be found upon the earth? 
Wherefore be of good courage, brother : thou hast work 
to do for the Master yet." 

The monk raised his hollow eyes, which had been hid- 
den by his hand. " There is forgiveness with Him, that 
he may be feared," he murmured ; " and oh ! brother, I 
have had a bitter repentance since ! " 

When he had returned to his Bolognese convent, with 
the ban of the Inquisition upon him, and many irksome 
penances to perform, — such as carrying heavy tapers for 
hours about the church and in street processions, dressed 



188 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

as a penitent ; or lying for hours in the form of a cross, 
extended on the stone pavement before our Lady's altar; 
or repeating hundreds of aves and credos, and dozens of 
penitential psalms, within a given time ; or passing days 
in darkness and solitude in subten-anean cells beneath the 
monastery, — he found these acts of enforced mortifica- 
tion an intolerable dissembling. The solitary hours which 
his spiritual overseers intended him to spend in meditation 
on his heresies were indeed so spent, but with a diflference. 
The doctrines which were the convictions of his soul came 
again uppermost, and demanded their supremacy. A 
season of deep depression for his sin was followed by 
another sight of the Lord Jesus as the j)ardoner for his 
own sake; and the renegade monk found it impossible 
to continue to appear what his heart disavowed. After 
some lengthened imprisonment for his lapse, he was per- 
mitted to escape by connivance of the civil authorities, 
who, in Bologna, reserved some traditions of former fi-ee- 
dom, and did not always allow the inquisitors to ride 
rough-shod over them, but were capable of being visited 
by an occasional impulse of human pity ; for the doublet 
and hose of the laic covered charities and sympathies 
wholly unknown to the priestly heart. 

Such was the story of the renegade monk, — a story far 
from uncommon with pliant natures and tender nervous 
temperaments, who grasped a behef without being able 
physically to brave the suffering it entailed. Yet, by 
drawing back in the hour of trial, they incurred mental 
torture worse than the bodily, — a torture whence some 



THE RENEGADE MONK. 189 

of them gladly rushed for refuge even to rack and stake 
again, rather than face the endless anguish of remorse. 

One or two other brethren spoke afterward. The sub- 
ject of the address of the last — an old white-haired man 
leaning on a stick — was the suggestive expression of 
Scriptui-e, "As when a standard-bearer fainteth." 

" My brethren," he said, " I remember when I was a 
young man, in wars which are now forgotten, as all the 
p?mp and pageants of this world pass away, — I mind me, 
when, in battle, he who bore the banner fell, it was as 
though the army was routed; for its ensign of victory was 
gone ! But if he had only fainted through the sore bur- 
den, and arose again, raising his standard, or if a stronger 
hand drew it from his weak grasp, and upheld it in sight 
of friend and foe, then arose a shout from the ranks ; for 
the old flag was floating once more, and all remembered 
that the general who led the army was still at its head. 
My brethren, it is so with us : our standard-bearer hath 
for the moment fainted, and the banner lies low; shall 
we, therefore, be dispirited ? No, comrades ; for the great 
Captain never leaves our van ; and the standard will be 
lifted by some stronger hand, though I may not live to 
see it." 

All understood the old soldier's allusion to the drawing- 
back of the Duchess Ren^e under the threats of her hus- 
band, and his words deeply moved the little assemblage. 
His voice, which had deepened into ' energy as he spoke, 
broke again into trembling accents when he resumed. 

" I have lived many years in the world, — years before 



190 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

the infamous Borgia sat upon Peter's throne ; and I re- 
member the time when Italy lay black as a moonless mid- 
night in the thickest darkness of ignorance. I was here 
in the days of Ercole the First, when all the great streets 
of Ferrara were built. I remember when none in all Italy 
dare wag his tongue against priest or friar ; when they 
did what they liked, and lived how they chose, and the 
blessed "Word of God was never heard of. I suppose the 
monks had it locked up safely, out of the way. At last, a 
monk got at it ; and he was honester than the rest, and 
spoke about the wonderful things in the book. But they 
burned him because he would not be silent. His name was 
Savonarola : he was bom here in Ferrara, I have heard old 
people say. He was the first dawn of the light, blessed 
be God! The light has been all over Italy since. My 
comrades, we are not to be cast down when the standard- 
bearer faints. My grandson read that for me from the 
good book: I thought it like ourselves. I thought I 
would say a few words about it, as I am a very old man. 
We will fight on, comrades ! " 

He sat down again. Ah that the great Duchess Ren^e 
should deserve such a censure, and should give such dis- 
couragement to the people of the Lord ! 

The little prayer-meeting presently dispersed ; its mem- 
bers dropping away in twos and threes at intervals, and 
taking unfrequented paths back into the wider thorough- 
fares. A knot of half a dozen remained to witness the 
betrothal of Bianca di Montalto to the young physician 
Francesco Altieri. 




CHAPTER XXII. 

PADUA. 

^ND now to seek for a home to shelter that 
dear one who would intrust herself to him 
all the world over, — a home in which they 
might with peace worship God as their con- 
sciences directed them. Where, through the 
length and breadth of toi-mented, restless, 
priest-ridden Italy, was such a spot to be 
found ? Francesco had been to Venice seeking it, though 
ostensibly bound on other errands. He imagined, that, 
in his native republic, he might find protection for the 
faith which was incorporate with his life. He knew that 
the signory had never permitted the establishment of the 
Inquisition as a domestic institution within their territo- 
ries : he had himself been brought up at Vicenza and 
Padua, where were flourishing Reformed churches, which 
no man made afraid in those days. The wide commerce 
of Venice made liberty of speech and of thought well- 
nigh a state necessity in her cosmopolitan society. Her 
senate was aware of this, and was very slow to lay an iron 
yoke of Rome's forging on the people's neck. Powers 

191 



192 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

civil and ecclesiastic did not pull together to accomplish 
this end, but for a long time pulled most contrariwise. 
A papal rescript complained to the doge that the magis- 
trates of Vicenza would not aid their bishop in extii-pating 
heresy, but rather connived at the scandal. Alas ! that 
Mot of toleration was now removed from the Venetian 
icutcheon. The Re&rmed churches had been scattered 
tocadcast into many lands. The Lutheran was become 
as much a fair object of chase and of cruelty on Venetian 
soil as elsewhere ; though, up to this time, no lives had 
beeii sacrificed to the demon of bigotry. 

But the thin edge of the wedge had been introduced 
into- the State : Roman artifices had procured the admis- 
sion of inquisitors as judges in all cases of heresy ; with 
the ria\'iiig clause, that certain ci^dl magistrates should 
always bt piescnt at such trials to examine witnesses and 
scrutinize the vholo procedure. Under this joint juris- 
diction, ne>'ertl;elesp, the galleys were pretty well replen- 
ished with heretics : there was soon no spot in the repub 
lie's provinces safe for xhe sole of a Lutheran foot. 

Francesco found his brniher living still at Padua, hold- 
ing an office in the university, and reputably vailing his 
opinions by an occasional hearing of mass and a regular 
payment of dues. "What can I do? "he said: "behold 
my little children ! " 

"And our mother, Giuseppe, — our mother, descended 
from the j)urest blood of the Vaudois, who have held 
God's truth as an heir-loom through generations, — what 
would she say, could she know of the weak compliance ? " 



PADUA. 193 

"My poor little children!" was all Giuseppe's argument. 

But there was in this temporizing something far more 
excusable than in that of the physician Di Montalto ; per- 
sonal selfishness being the mainspring of the latter. 

It set Francesco deeply thinking, whether, in these 
perilous times, he would do right to_ encumber his fate 
with a wife, however beloved. How much stronger, then, 
would be his bonds to the present evil world! How 
much harder would he find it to bear testimony for his 
Saviour, even to the death, if needed ! Would it be just 
to her to ask her to link her life with one in frequent dan- 
ger, in continual poverty? For his patrimony was but 
small, and unless he settled in some great town, under a 
great patron, his profession would prove little resource ; 
and he could not live in a pubho position without his 
religion attracting notice. Alas ! those were times when 
the dearest relations of life only exposed the followers of 
Christ to the intenser suffering. 

" Thou seest, my brother," pursued Giuseppe, breaking 
in upon the young man's reverie, — "thou seest that the 
blessed Lord, having given me these children, doth not in- 
tend that I should fail in duty toward them by leaving 
them orphans prematurely. He intendeth that I should 
train them up in his nurture and fear ; which I am doing, 
God wot ! And when thou hast wife and Uttle ones thy- 
self, my Francesco, thou wilt not think evU of the outward 
eomplianfce which gaineth for them bread and home." 

" I would ask thee a question, Giuseppe mio. Is it now 
"with thee as in days past? ' Hast thou the hearenlypres- 

17 



194 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

ence in thine heart as strongly as when we both Lingered 
before Ochino's pulpit, and heard words of life from his 
Ups?" 

" It was excitement," said the other, yet with a some- 
what averted glance ; "it was but excitement, and youth's 
blood is easily made hot. And if thou wantest examples," 
he added with alacrity, "have we not in this very city 
Pietro Carnesecchi, the Florentine, keeping his opinions 
quiet for his safety's sake ? " 

This was not altogether the case. Carnesecchi had 
been a wanderer in many lands for Christ's sake before 
he settled in Padua about 1552. Savoy and France had 
successively yielded him asylum ; and he who was once so 
influential at the papal court, that a proverb ran, " The 
Church is governed rather by Carnesecchi than by Pope 
Clement," was a persecuted, homeless man, in daily dread, 
at the present juncture, of a monitory summons to appear 
at Rome, and give himself up to the most furiously bigot- 
ed pontiff that had ever sat under the tiara. But he was 
prepared for the worst, this gentle, amiable, accomplished 
Florentine ; this man with such refined taste, such distin- 
guished appearance, such courtly manners, who had been 
lapped in the luxuries of high estate xmtil the heresy 
blasted his prospects, and caused men to consider his wis- 
dom folly, and his sobriety madness. Twelve years from 
the present date — that is to say, in 1567 — his long im- 
prisonment in Roman dungeons ended, and the block and 
stake gave him eternal freedom. 

"And does Carnesecchi compromise so far as to attend 



PADUA. 195 

the idolatrous mass ? " asked Fi-ancesco. Brother Giuseppe, 
coloring, could not assert that he did ; but, then, he held 
no public employment. It was a guaranty required of 
public men ; and, more than all, the little children must 
live. 

Francesco said nothing further on the subject; though 
strongly into his mind came the Redeemer's declaration : 
" Whosoever shall confess me before men, him wiU I also 
confess before my Father which is in heaven ; but whoso- 
ever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before 
my Father which is in heaven." 

May we all remember, that, even in our enUghtened 
nineteenth century, the force of this passage remains the 
same, and the need for our fulfillment of the greafduty it 
enjoins! Still must we confess. Christ before men, un- 
heeding smile or s»eer, if we would share in his glory 
at the last. 

" Giuseppe mio," asked Francesco by and by, " I would 
fain learn something of our uncle Baldassare Altieri, — he 
who was secretary to the English embassy. Have there 
been late tidings of him ? Tell me what thou knowest." 

" No late tidings," replied his brother. " I fear me he 
has fallen into the hands of his enemies. He was hiding 
in the Brescian territory when we last heard; and his let- 
ter said that he was there in great trouble, and danger of 
his life. We know" — and the cautious Giuseppe spoke 
very softly, with a furtive glance at the closed door of 
the apartment — "that the Holy Office has spies every- 
where, and scarce a dog can run across a road in Italy but 



196 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

they know it. Therefore I believe that our good uncle has 
been tracked and seized : we shall never hear of him again. 
For oftentimes, when they can not punish a heretic with 
impunity at any palrtioular city, they convey him secretly 
to some other, where he is unknown, or to Rome itself 
where the whole world might seek for him in vain." AH 
his caution could not suppress a little shudder, as the 
ubiquity of the selfsame Holy Office, its remarkably sharp 
eyes, and remai-kably long arms, occurred to him forcibly. 
He would go to hear mass the very next day, would Giu ■ 
seppe, further to lull suspicion : nay, he wondered if it 
would not be good policy to make some sort of confession 
to some friar or other. This was an under-current of 
thought. Aloud he was saying, -"Had our good uncle 
stayed among the Grisons, he would be safe : that was my 
advice to him. He had made himsilf too remarkable to 
return to Venice with impunity: the magistrate could 
scarce do any thing else than demand a recantation, and 
condemn him to exile when he refused. You see, brother 
Francesco, had he followed my plan " — 

" I never quite understood," interposed the other, " why 
he went into the Grison country at that time." 

" He wanted to get the agency of the cantons, as he al- 
ready held that of the Elector of Saxony and other Lu- 
theran princes at Venice : he thought he could then bring 
their influence to bear in favor of the Protestants. But 
he only succeeded in getting letters of commendation in 
behalf of the persecuted ; which caused him much disap- 
pomtment. Passing through Padua on his way hack, he 



PADUA. 197 

told me that he knew of the designs of his enemies, and 
how much he was hated by the papal party at Venice : he 
foreboded the worst, and asked our prayers. When I be- 
sought him to attend to his private affairs, and provoke 
none by an undue display of zeal, — for thou knowest, 
brother, that he had a wife and child dependent on 
hun, — he replied, somewhat hotly, 'God forbid that I 
should entertain the blasphemous thought of ceasing to 
labor for Christ, who never ceased laboring in my cause 
until he had endured the reproach of the cross ! I am 
ready to meet whatever may befall me, and willing to be 
bound for the name of Christ.' He was always a trifle too 
impetuous, was our worthy uncle." 

Francesco did not care to controvert the opinion : he 
knew how that alleged impetuosity ranked in the es- 
timate of Heaven. But, from that hour to the present, 
nothing further was ever heard of the intrepid Baldassare 
Altieri ; he probably perished in nameless martyrdom : but 
is not "the death of his saints" "precious" in the eyes 
of the Lord? And shall not the smallest particle of their 
dust, whether dispersed m ashes over a flowing tide, or 
walled up in a black, forgotten dungeon, or sleeping peace- 
fully in our quiet English churchyards, be raised again in 
glory at the last day? 

Padua was no place for him to settle : Francesco came 

to that conclusion. The other conclusion to which he was 

coming, that this restless era was no time for him to 

marry, lasted in force till he amved\t Ferrara again. 

17* 



198 



FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 



After a few days, he became convinced, that, with a be- 
loved wife, he could better stand the brunt of every storm 
likely to assaU him ; and, as another person was of the 
same opinion, the result was the betrothal by the rene- 
gade monk before mentioned. 





CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE COMING CLOUD OF WAR. 

ANY an anxious donbt and fear overshadowed 
that betrothal. For, to the followers of Christ 
in the Reformation of the sixteenth century, 
every relationship of hfe, even the sweetest, 
became imbittered. Parent looked anxiously 
on child, because not the tenderest years 
could disarm the rage of persecution, or stay 
the assassin's hand, if once let loose to shed Protestant 
blood. Husband and wife knew that their bond of union 
might at any moment be severed by the sword. The 
lover and his betrothed dare not yield to the happy an- 
ticipations natural to their estate ; for were they not of a 
proscribed race, to whom the face of the earth seemed to 
offer no safe resting-place ? Perhaps their hearts were all 
the more in heaven. 

Di Montalto did not very much relish his daughter's 
choice, in the present juncture of circumstances. Any 
tacit encouragement formerly given to the affau', when 
they lived at Locarno, had arisen from a half-formed idea 
that this young man, of good family and good character, 

199 



200 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

would be a suitable partner and successor for himself in 
his " practice," as a modem physician would teiTa it ; but 
now, when the family was living on his precarious gains in 
a foreign city (and the professions were just as overstocked 
in those days as they are now, and there was as little open- 
ing for a new leech in Ferrara as in any English country 
town which boasts the usual staff of physician, surgeon, 
and a couple of chemists), and when young Altieri was 
totally without employment, and with but a small sum of 
money in the celebrated Bank of Venice for his patri- 
mony, the elder physician very naturally thought that cir- 
cumstances looked rather gloomy for a betrothal. Like all 
other fathers, he would fain have seen something tangible 
for the young pair«to Uve upon before they contemplated 
housekeeping. However, the preliminary cei-emony of be- 
trothal did not of necessity imply subsequent marriage ; 
and Di Montalto was an easy-going man, addicted to the 
laissez faire : he permitted it to take place ; but, rather 
sulkily, so managed his employments for the day, that he 
could not be present. 

No rosy horizon opened forth before these betrothed 
ones as they returned quietly through the quaint streets 
from standing before the renegade monk. TSo troops of 
friends escorted them, nor was a feast prepared in cele- 
bration; no festal garlands, no picturesque scene-work, as 
fete-loving Italians are wont to arrange round every avail- 
able occasion in their lives. A looker-on would have said, 
"How somber! " The Ferrarese maidens of Bianca's ac- 
quaintance did say, " How stupid ! " There was no end 



THE COMING CLOUD OF WAR. 201 

to the decorations and junketings they would have had! 
But these " novatori," you know, these " infected " people, 
are so queer, so different fi-om everybody else 1 None 
could see the wellspring of tranquU happiness that lay 
deep in those newly united hearts : only each knew it of 
the other, and was satisfied. 

One or two friends, also "infected" people, came to sup 
with the promessi sposi and their parents ; chief of them 
the Madonna Morata, her daughter and son-in-law, the 
Milanese gentleman who had asked no dower with his 
wife, because his own means were enough. But Fran- 
cesco had dower neither to get nor to give. A most im- 
provident match, sufely! Even the usual chest-full of 
clothes and jewelry would probably be wanting to this 
poor pair. Any gossips of Dame Barbara's acquaintance 
in Ferrara held but the one opinion on the matter ; and 
such topics were just as interesting to the female mind 
then as now. 

Di Montalto was thinking some desponding thoughts 
about it when he came into his house in the afternoon ; 
for, since the court appointment, he had succeeded in ob- 
taining a roof of his own. He set himself moodily to in- 
scribe some manuscript by the window, not heeding Bian- 
ca's presence, tiU she drew near to him, and stood by his 
chair. 

"Father! will you not speak to me on this day?" 

Tears were in her eyes, and in her voice as she spoke : 
he looked up suddenly. "Child! what would you have?" 

He laid by the great goose-quill which he was dipping 



202 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

in the ink-horn, rose to his feet, and blessed her solenmlj- ; 
then kissed her brow. It was an age when the reverence 
of children to parents was carried to a pitch of obsequious- 
ness which seems most strange to this free-and-easy gene- 
ration." Bianca durst not even return the caress, though 
her heart yearned to her father. 

"And now, child, for this foolish lover of thine. I met 
him in the street but anon ; I gave him my benediction 
also : though I could wish thou wert to marry a man 
more settled in the world, mia figlia, and able to take 
thee under a roof-tree of thine own. I suppose thou 
thinkest thy Francesco fortune and dower enough? 
Well, so said thy mother in the day 6f our espousal; and 
I know not whether she has repented her trust." 

Plucking that grizzled beard as he spoke, and looking 
ftirtively; for he could not but guess that many a time of 
late he had been a sore cross to his bolder-minded wife, 
while he was trying to walk as no time-server has ever 
yet succeeded in walking, — one foot in the narrow and 
another in the broad way. 

" But it is certain," added the physician, rousing him- 
self and his face changing into sternness, " that marriage 
for you both is out of the question, till Altieri can show 
me a home for thee, Bianca mia." He kissed her agam, 
but with rather a chillier touch; and resumed his quill 
and horn over the parchment of the manuscript he was 
noting. 

Presently thereafter arrived the widow Morata; and Di 
Montalto received her with his best affability. Men of 



THE COMING CLOXTD OF WAR. 203 

his character have a strong regard for external advan- 
tage of any sort, and prefer these, even in the past tense, 
to the undistinguished individuals who have never had 
them at aU. The halo of the lost court-life surrounded 
this faded woman even still, in the eyes of the Locamese 
physician ; and, while the newly affianced pair were talk- 
ing low apart, the elders were traveling back over times 
when things were very different in Ferrara, and when that 
Reformed faith, which now was a bar, was a passport to 
the favor of the reigning family. 

"But," quoth Di Montalto, "the Church had not then 
decided as to whether many of Luther's doctrines were to 
be believed or not. Now this council of the fathers at 
Trent is settling every thing, methinks it were not just 
to censure men for espousing opinions which had never 
been condemned by the Church. How is a man to know 
whether faith or worlds is the justifier, unless the Church 
win speak plain ? " 

His wife looked at him half-sorrowiully : was expe- 
dience, then, to be the sole rule of faith ? But she. said 
nothing ; and he took care not to glance toward her, as 
he added, " The Almighty knows that we are often obliged 
to put on an appearance of believing what we don't be- 
lieve ; but he is most merciful, and looks more to one's 
heart than to one's knees." 

" Yet the blessed Lord was not pleased when San Pietro 
denied him three times ; and San Pietro would perchance 
not have denied him, had he not been sitting" familiarly 
among the servants of his enemies," said the Dame Lucre-; 



204 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

zia Morata, who was in her heart somewhat disposed to 
contemn the cringing principles of the physician, and had, 
moreover, a womanly sympathy for her friend his wife. 
Well she guessed what her decision of spirit must suffer, 
mated with his indecision ; her heart, Ml of fervor, yoked 
to his timid, calculating brain. But this unsuitability 
was Dame Barbara's private cross, which she revealed to 
none by word or act. 

Before long, the physician betook himself again to hie 
manuscript of medical secrets bequeathed to him from his 
master in the art thirty years ago, who again inherited it 
from his a generation farther back ; for these ever-during 
parchments had not yet been quite superseded by the 
comparatively ephemeral printed book. Look over Di 
Montalto's shoulder, and you, graduate of our rnodern 
colleges, will strangely despise the lore therein presented 
with all gravity. " Pulverized humaai bones " is an arti- 
cle constantly recurring in the pharmacopoeia. Much is 
written of the virtues of egg-shells and sodden snails. 
"The toad's stone" is a specific against poison, and 
stanches blood when aE other styptics fail ; daisy-tea cures 
goiit and rheumatism : and, for alraopt every ailment, the 
earliest ren^edy is letting blood; which, indeed, is of 
greatest repute in Italian medical practice to this day. 
- Then there is no end of prescriptions for charms and 
amulets ; for a drink to make splintered bones come out 
of the wound of their own accord ; a balsam of bats, com- 
prising such ingredients as earthworms, adders, the mar- 
row; of a stag, &c. ; ajid if the amethyst be hung round 



THE COMING CLOUD _ OF WAR. 205 

the neck, or, more efficacious still, be powdered into a 
draught, "it resists sorrow, and recreates the heart;" 
the sapphire, similarly used, will yet more marvelously 
operate, by freeing the mind and mending the manners. 
Whence it will appear that the sesixteenth-century physi- 
cians had secrets for moral as well as corporeal cures, 
entering with fearless foot upon ground where their mod- 
em successors dare not tread. 

The good Dr. di Montalto was known to take refuge 
in this volume, and in noting his " cases " on interleaves 
of paper, whenever perturbed by domestic or other occur- 
rences. Professor Portus came in by and by with the 
latest whisperings of court news ; likewise with an offering 
of a Latin epithalamium, or betrothal ode, to the bride 
elect, whereof she very ignorantly did not comprehend 
more than a few nouns here and there : but could not 
Francesco translate it for her? "Ah!" exclaimed the 
professor regretfully, " what a rare head for polite learning 
was lost in the Signoiina Bianca ! I could wish she had 
been attending my course of readings from Sophocles," — 
a desire not echoed by the subject of it. 

The court news was rather important. For on dit in 
the Ferrarese world that Philip II., newly ascended on 
the throne of Spain by the abdication of that emperor 
whose will had been law to half Europe for thirty years, 
was forming a party in Italy, clustering round his depend- 
encies of Milan and Naples, to counterpoise French ia- 
fluence; and Cosmo de Medici, Duke of Tuscany, with 

18. 



206 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

Ottavio Famese, Diike of Parma, were reported to have 
allied themselves in the design. " And of course," said 
the professor oracularly, " our Duke Ercole goes with his 
nephew, Henry of France, who is leagued hand and glove 
with his Holiness. More clouds and storms for us poor 
Lutherans;" whereat his friend the physician slightly 
shivered, and complained of a draught of air from the ill- 
fitting leaden casement. 

Bolder hearts than the Locamese doctor's might tremble 
to perceive that little cloud on the horizon, no bigger now 
than a man's hand. Two of the fiercest persecutors ever 
molded were sitting irresponsibly on the world's loftiest 
thrones, and determined in their unrighteous hearts to 
make war on the saints; whatever else disagreed upon, 
firmly agreed in this, — to press the iron hoof of uniformi- 
ty, even to crushing, upon the necks of aU nations. 

" We have had no war in Lombardy, to speak of, since 
1552," said Portus further; "but Paul IV., our duke's 
suzerain, is a very firebrand, old as he is, — enough to set 
all Italy iu a blaze." 

"Ercole is peacefully inclined enough himself" ob- 
served Di Montalto. 

" Yes ; but he dare not offend his liege lord : he has a 
good memory, and can recall what his father Alfonso suf- 
fered from Julius and Clement. Even peace' sake may 
force him into war; but whichever side gaia the upper 
hand, whether Philip or Paul, we poor Lutherans are 
equally in the lurch." 

"'God is our refiige and strength,'" said Francesco in 



TEE COMING CLOUD OF WAR. 



207 



a low tone to his betrothed ; " ' a very present help in 
trouble : therefore wUl not we fear, though the earth be 
removed.' " 

But a shadow was creeping over Francesco's own hope- 
ful heart likewise. 





CKAPTER XXIV. 

TEMPTATION. 

=.FTER the company had departed, that self- 
same shadow wrapped round Di Montalto's 
mien loweringly, as he still bent over his chi- 
rurgical manuscript. 

" A word with you, messer, ere you leave," 
he said, in almost a hostile manner, to Altieri, 
while the goose-quill scratched a transcript of 
some prescription. It cost Bianca something to retire 
after her mother, and leave him to face the brunt of the 
storm alone. 

"And 'tis not just," she thought in her little heart, — 
"'tis not just of my father to have given his consent to 
our betrothal, and now to harass Francesco with doubts 
and fears. I hope I have not done wrong in thiniing 
thus of my father. I hope I was right ia loving Fran- 
cesco. Oh, I hope it is not all, all wrong ! " as a hundred 
irrepressible anxieties thronged before her mind, and 
she threw herself on her knees beside her bed, ia the 
small cell which was her chamber, where her mother 
found her presently, and comforted her with that thQught- 

208 



TEMPTATION. 209 

ful tenderness which reads even unexpressed doubts by 
the intuition of love. Remembrance of her own maiden- 
hood brought her interpretation for poor little Bianca's 
tears ; and she could repeat to her the oft-told consolation, 
that the heavenly Father above was watching lovingly 
over her and over him, and would guide their lives at the 
last to some perfect end. 

Meanwhile Francesco was sitting at the table on which 
his patron was writing, without the latter's taking heed 
of him for some space; but the puckered lines on his 
forehead deepened with the access of uneasy thoughts. 

" You desired speech with me, signor," said the young 
man, after a pause of watching the slow- letters as. they 
grew under the quill. 

"Yes," replied the elder, throwing down his pen: "I 
want to know what you will do about this betrothal. It is 
a very foolish business, where there is nothing to live upon." 

" Certainly, signor," rejoined the young man with frigid 
pohteness, but a blush mounting to his forehead. « I hope 
that my profession " — 

To his amazement, Di Montalto repeated these last 
words, laying most scornful emphasis on " hoJ)e " and " pro- 
fession." " You ought to know, messer, that no one can 
live on hopes." 

" N"or do I expect it, signor," said Francesco, who grew 
coolei" when he saw the excitement of the other ; and 
under no circumstances could he be angry with Bianca's 
father. " I mean to woi"k, and to earn a position for my- 
Bclf and for her." 

18* 



210 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

"Ay, under the ban of the Church, a proscribed heretic, 
with your neck in the noose ; a Lutheran, with every man's 
hand against him through the wide world!" 

It was very exasperating to a man of no particular 
faith, at least of none that had made lodgement in his 
heart, to find his plans . obstructed and himself impover- 
ished by the obstinate adherence of others to an unprofit- 
able, nay, a positively ruinous heresy. 

"I ought to have withheld my consent," added this 
vacillating and irascible temper, " untU some better turn 
in affairs. It is a positive sacrifice of the little one's pros- 
pects in life. There is a gallant at court admires her 
much." 

" Signer," said Francesco, whose heart was growing hot 
within him, " this is beside the mark. What you wish to 
speak of is the future, not the unchangeable past. I pur- 
posed to seek for a home in the Calabrias, among kinsfolk 
of my mother, until you expressed your disapprobation, 
and desired me to try the expedient of opening classes in 
the languages at this university: but now I think of 
Modena as more suitable ; and the worthy professor, Fran- 
ciscus Portus, but this day promised me patronage of his 
friends there, he having read Greek lectures in that uni- 
versity for many years." 

The elder physician had time to calm during this speech, 
though he still looked sullen. He had been walking about 
perturbedly : now he drew near, and stood. 

" Hearken, my Mend. Thou art young, and not devoid 
of talent, which may push thy way to the highest chair m 



TEMPTATION. 211 

llie colleges. Why lose thy hest chances, and doom Tier 
to a life of struggle and of poverty, because of an open 
profession of a faith which all society disowns ? "Why 
not cloak thy creed tiU happier times shall give liberty ? 
Thy life belongs not now altogether to thyself; thou hast 
pledged it to her : why needlessly risk it ? Canst not hold 
thy faith as firm imder the disguise of an apparent con- 
formity to things indifferent, as if thou wert a mark for 
the scorn of aU men, — a very outcast ? and couldst thou 
bear to have Tier such ? " 

The first words of this artful address had found Fran 
cesco very resolved : the last words had trickled deeply 
under the foundation of his firmness ; he drooped his face 
upon his hands. The tempter, encouraged by this sjrmp- 
tom of indecision, went on, touching his shoulder with 
his finger: — 

" Conceal thy faith : that is all I would have of thee. 
Heaven forbid that I should ask thee to violate thy con- 
science further ! Thou art called to no public recantation, 
no open denial: thou art but entreated by aU that is 
dearest to thee to refi-ain Irom outward demonstration 
against the Roman creed ; to purchase thyself an easy life 
— ay, my Francesco, and to purchase Tier a happy life 
^— by a simple negation, a simple abstinence fi-om assertion 
of thy belief or thy non-belief Think well of it, my son, 
and thou wilt see the wisest and kindest course." 

He resumed his walk into the shadows at each end of 
the lank apartment, leaving his words to work. But 
before the shrouded eyes of the young man had arisen, 



212 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

during those last sentences, a melancholy vision of mtm- 
ory, — a ghastly face and form lying in ever-during mental 
anguish ; lips always burning with thirst, always refusing 
drink, often shaping and uttering the despairing words, 
"My sin is greater than the mercy of God! I have 
denied Christ voluntarily, and against my knowledge; 
and I feel that he hardens me, and will allow me no hope. 
Yes, my sin is greater than God's mercy." 

Then, for a moment, the closing scenes of that sad 
drama : the slow-decaying atrophy sapping life away ; the 
restless bloodshot eyes, very homes of blank despair; 
groups of Romish priests, — ay, up to the purple legate, 
— aU powerless to bring an instant's consolation ; humble, 
simply-clad Christian men, whose prayers might suffice, 
like EUjah's, to shut or open the windows of heaven, 
aU powerless likewise to bring a ray of peace to the 
apostate's soul ; and the last supreme hour, when the tor- 
mented skeleton frame slowly yielded up its tormented 
spirit, with the fearful conviction, that, as he had rejected 
Christ, Christ had also for ever rejected him. 

Francesco sprung to his feet. 

" No, signer ! — never, never ! I have seen Spira the 
apostate. I beheld him devoured with the torments of 
hell for many miserable months even in this world. I 
was in the church at Citadella," he added in a quieter 
tone, "the day that he repeated his abjuration, at the 
close of the mass, before two thousand persons, who had 
often heard him preach mightily the doctrines of free 
grace ; and I saw him swoon away for very anguish when 



TEMPTATION. 213 

the words were ended. Afterward at Padua I was 
brought to his chamber by one of the many surgeons 
attendant on him. It is eight years ago; but nothing 
of yesterday's experience is more vividly before me than 
that haggard, despairing man, a lost soul incarnate, ever 
seeming to have foretaste of endless agonies. Present 
with him continually was the judgment-day in its worst 
terrors, and the nether hell in its vast despau-." 

" A very pretty case of insanity, or, more probably, of 
demoniacal possession," he remarked, with aifected care- 
lessness, when the speaker paused. "The man wanted 
to be exorcised : some witchcraft was over him. A very 
pretty case of insanity," he remarked again, in a dogged 
sort of tone, as if determined that nothing should con- 
vince him to the contrary. " I suppose the upshot of all 
this is that you will not do the sensible thing, but are de- 
termined to ruin both yourself and the confiding little one 
who has trusted herself to you. If I could have foreseen 
you would be so headstrong " — 

" Signor,'' interrupted Francesco respectfully, " you 
knew that my principles were fixed on the ground of 
God's word, which is unchangeable. I have been brought 
up in the Reformed faith ; yet not for that reason do I 
adhere to it, but because it is the religion of my heart, 
^nd because my Saviour, the most blessed Christ, has 
given me the joy of his divine love in my soul. More- 
over, signor, you ask me to do what, were Bianca here, 
for whose sake you urge it, she would be the first to 
forbid and condemn. She would despise me were I to 



214 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

Stifle or suppress my religion for the sake of any worldly 
advantages. If I mistake her not most grievously, she 
would prefer a poor and narrow home, unpurchased by 
apostate concessions, to the richest palazzo in all Modena 
gained by a virtual denial of our heavenly Lord." 

"Well, well," said the poor puzzled physician, "she 
will know what she will know, after a few years of such 
sordid life. But it comes to this, — that, between the 
obstinacy of you three, my house is the most Ul-smelling * 
in all Ferrara, and I hope I shall be able to keep out of 
the duke's dungeons. Young people will be so hot and 
so headstrong ! " And he muttered further to himself as 
he stowed away ink-horn and manuscripts in the drawers 
of a tall beaufet by the wall. • 

" I hope I need not say, signer, that I shall run myself 
into no unnecessary danger, and that I shall preserve 
Bianca with aU the powers of my head and hand from 
every harm or trouble," quoth the aewly affianced, with 
a very warm glow at his heart from the thought of that 
pleasant duty. " I shall strive to obey and to please her 
father in every thing which interferes not with the higher 
fealty I owe to my divine Saviour." 

"Well, well," repeated Di Montalto, as if to himself: 
" queer notions are afloat now-a-days. Men like to get 
their heads broken, when they might live easy lives^ 
And mine the most ill-smelling house in all Ferrara, as 
the Padre Abbate told me but to-day. Well, well." 

* A colloqnial expression of the time; signif^g, tainted with Iseresy. 



TEMPTATION. 215 

And Bianca heard like mutterings to these, as she lay- 
awake in her little stone ceU, every sense watching for 
the close of the conference ; when her father came heavily 
lip the narrow steps which wound past her door, and 
another tread passed downwards into the street. The 
poor little betrothed prayed for both very fervently. 




CHAPTER XXV. 



HOW THINGS WENT ON IN MODENA. 



m 




lITH efficient recommendations from the 
learned of Ferrara, the new classical teacher 
had, a month afterward, commenced his lec- 
tures at Modena. Of com-se he found vested 
interests to oppose him, and would have to 
work his way through the disadvantages of 
youth and an unknown name ; but there ap- 
peared a very reasonable prospect of his doing well after 
a time, provided he kept quiet those unfortunate religious 
opinions. 

Almost every city of any note in N"orthern Italy pos- 
sessed a university in the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 
turies. The age of the " Renaissance " (as it was fondly 
called), the time of the new birth of science and tlie 
awakening of literatm-e, was distinguished by a supreme 
desire for collegiate education. The scholars of Europe 
wandered from one seat of learning to another, imparting 
and receiving knowledge by turns. A constellation of 
professors gathered at the great schools of Pai-ma, Pisa, 
Florence, Venice, Padua, Mantua, Milan, Brescia, and a 

216 



MODENA. 217 

score of others, scattered thick through Lomhardy ; and, 
as usual, true learning attended true religion as hand- 
maid. The most enlightened colleges were those with 
the greatest names attached to their chairs : most of the 
Eeformed " infection " were found where dwelt the high- 
est repute for secular knowledge. 

Duke Ercole II., Renee's husband, possessed two of 
these illuminated cities in his small feudatory dominions. 
Both Ferrara and Modena contained distinguished uni- 
versities. But the former was declining strangely of late 
years. It was surely singular, that from the period when 
the duke had thrown his sword into Mother Church's 
scale, and done his best to secure purity- and uniformity 
of Catholicism in his capital, the brightest ornament of 
that capital should immediately begin to decline and fade ; 
yet this certainly was the case. Where now was the 
galaxy of genius that had decorated the Ferrarese uni- 
yersity during the early years of Rente's reign ? Names 
which wake no echo of memory in our nineteenth century 
then commanded the audience of civilized Europe, — 
Calcagnini, filling the chair of belles-lettres, with a uni- 
versality of accompUshments, which, at our present Ox- 
ford or Cambridge, would excite wonder; Giraldi, the 
renowned Grecian of vast erudition ; Guarini, the gram- 
marian, also the duke's secretary; Ricoi, the writer of the 
best Italian comedy extant, tutor to Prince Alfonso ; the 
brothers Sinapi, presiding respectively over Greek and 
medicine ; Celio Curione, celebrated for eloquence : all 
these stars glittered in Fen-ara before the cloud of bigo.try 



218 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

blotted out their brightness. For most of them wore 
persons of "ill savor," suspected of favoring, or else 
having openly espoused, the new German doctrines, 
which were setting aU society by the ears ; and, when 
Duke Ercole sold himself to do evil at the papal bidding, 
his covey of learned professors grew frightened, and took 
to flight. Students ceased to crowd the haUs when the 
attraction of teachers with great names was withdrawn : 
the Ferrarese university had received its death-blow, and 
not even the subsequent glory of Ariosto's residence could 
revive it. 

Strange, how generally a declension in all things of 
worldly value has followed a suppression of religious 
liberty through every land ! As surely as night follows 
*;he setting of the sun, so surely do the people degenerate 
who have been deprived of freedom of conscience. What 
incalculable happiness and wealth has Italy lost by her 
r6_^^ection of a pure gospel when it stood in her midst, 
and attracted the noblest and best of her sons about its 
glorious shining ! What incalculable wealth and happi- 
ness has Britain gained by her acceptance of the same 
gospel, and her kindling from its light the household fires 
of generations 1 

But those "who loved darkness rather than light" were 
in power over poor Italy. This very year 1556, in partic- 
ular, when Philip and Paul were quarreling, and Michael 
Angelo Was repairing the fortifications of Rome with a 
view to siege by those faithful children of the Church, 
Alva's troops, the Inquisition was more busily at work 



MODENA. 219 

than ever since its resuscitation under the third Paul 
The system of espionage was working well. A cloud of 
terror hung over the wretched sectaries who dared seek 
for freedom of conscience on this side the Alps. "A 
look, a word, the possession of a book deemed heretical, 
or of a New Testament in the vulgar tongue, were of- 
fenses sufficient to expose persons, without distinction of 
age, sex, rank, or office, first to imprisonment ; afterwards, 
by means of torture, to forced concessions, to no less 
forced recantations; or, as the case might turn out, to 
death itself." Thus writes an historian of credit. Thus 
went on the crusade against God's truth. 

Perhaps there was less of this ecclesiastical tyranny in 
Duke Ercole's dominions than elsewhere in Italy, ex- 
cept in that far sunny south of the Calabrias, where, un- 
der a convention more than a century and a half old, 
a goodly colony of Waldenses worshiped the God of theii 
fathers without present molestation. Thither Francesco's 
heart often turned in wishful longings for such external 
peace. Certain of his mother's kinsfolk had settled there, 
with the last migration of Vaudois, about the year 1500 ; 
and so he ftlt to have some tie with the region, besides the 
common bond of the common faith. He would take part 
of his patrimony in broad pieces from the Bank of Ven- 
ice, and purchase a strip of land and a house, and settle 
himself and Bianca in rural life. 

His solitary castle in the air! and a modest one 
enough ; but Di Montalto set his face wholly against such 
felicitous obscurity. He was unwilling that the talents he 



220 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

descried in his future son-in-law should thus be buried, — 
lost alike to name and fame. He was pleased with the 
praises which the professor Portus, and the acute critic 
Castelvetro of Modena (to whom Portus had introduced 
Francesco), uttered concerning the young man's abilities. 
The patronage of the latter, himself also one of the " in- 
fected," procured several pupils for the new teacher of 
medicine and of Greek. The distinguished Academia del 
Grillenzone, so called because that company of learned 
men met originally in the house of a physician with this 
name, was inclined to take up the young Venetian, and 
push his interests. " All might be well," muttered the old 
father-in-law, " if only he will keep under those unfortu- 
nate religious opinions." 

For some time, the suspicion that he was addicted to 
Lutheranism rather served than injured him, notwith- 
standing. The sympathy among the learned of Italy for 
the Reformation movement was largely diffused. War 
with the illiteracy of the Romish priests was the normal 
state of literature and its professors. A decree of the In- 
quisition about this period states that three thousand 
schoolmasters had embraced refoi-med tenet%'; and that 
vigilant tribunal immediately addressed its energies to 
lessen the number. Perhaps our poor Francesco was in- 
cluded in the list ; for he \^as incapable of dissimulation. 
The most he could do was to refrain from demonstration. 

Once Modena had been most remai-kable for her enthu- 
diastic reception of the Lutheran doctrines. " Persons of 
all classes," writes a cotemporary Romish author, "not 



MODENA. ^ 221 

only the learned, but also the illiterate and women, when- 
ever they met in the streets, in shops, or in churches, dis- 
puted about faith and the law of Christ ; and all promis- 
cuously tortured the Sacred Scriptures, quoting Paul, 
Matthew, John, the Apocalypse, and all the doctors."* 
Cardinal Morone, bishop of the see, and himself tainted, 
says it was the common report, that "the whole city -was 
turned Lxitheran." But the aU-powerful Inquisition had 
worked with conclusive eflfect : heresy only smoldered in 
the popular depths now. 

Francesco had entrance to the academic conversazioaes, 
which were the chief form of social intercourse among the 
higher educated classes of the day in university-towns. 
To a modem of our time, these gatherings would have 
been insufferably stiff: for the themes of commonest talk 
were readings of obgcure passages in the classics ; the last 
new watery sonnet of some bepraised literary favorite ; 
the abstruse doctrines of predestination, or fi-ee-will ; the 
pursuance of an argument through weary stages of syllo- 
gisms. From specimens that have descended to us, we 
may congratulate ourselves that our colloquial entertain- 
ments iave taken a livelier turn. But there was one sub- 
ject which never failed to kindle all hearts, — one danger- 
ous subject, perhaps fascinating from its very danger, to 
be spoken of with bated breath, and a glance round for 
spies. The tenets taught among them by Ochino, and 
later by Ricci and the friar Pergala, were more interesting 
by far than any scholastic disputation; and many of the 

* Tassoni. 

17* 



222 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

wise men of Modena had taken them into their hearts, 
and owned them as a rule of life. 

"But I fear me a storm is brewing for us," remarked 
Castelvetro to his young acquaintance Altieri, as .they 
stood at a case of old Roman coins : " the inquisitors look 
very brisk these few days past, as if fresh orders had ar- 
rived from head-quarters. ' H Padre Canonico ' of the 
Duomo glances at me most knowingly ; as who should 
say, ' You're a heretic, good Ludovico ; and I'll have my 
hands on you by and by ! ' " 

Francesco smiled. " I suppose there will be naught for 
it but the old advice : 'When they persecute you in this 
city, flee ye into another,' " he observed. 

" That saved me more than once or twice," said a third 
person, joining the group. 

" Ay, that it did, my Filippo ! " rejoined Castelvetro fa- 
miliarly. " For instance, the night that Erri and his sol- 
diers found the bird flown ! " 

" How was that ? " asked Francesco 

" Well, you must know that we academicians were long 
known to be a body of ill savor to his Holiness : and one 
Filippo Valentino, happening to be of noble birth, was 
reckoned the worst criminal ; also because his fi-iends were 
partial enough to talk of his talent. The Famese Pope 
Paul did me the honor of issuing a special brief to Duke 
Ercole, stating that the author of all heresy in Modena 
was that son of wickedness, Filippo Valentino ; and re- 
questing that I should therefore be delivered up to his 
merciful hands. And so, one night, I received warning, 



MODENA. 228 

from a friend, of the friendly purpose ; and had left my 
house but a short time, when Pellegrino Erri and his 
' sbirri ' came up, and, in default of my person, arrested all 
my papers. I went off to Trent, and after some time got 
myself elected podesta, which was a safeguard from any 
legal attempts. But the Inquisition is not particular, and 
we don't forget the Borgias : so I keep rather a sharp 
lookout in general, since I've come back to the old nest." 

Here a call rose from the company that the young no- 
bleman should favor them with some proof of the aston- 
ishing memory which was his distinguishing talent. Bow- 
ing gracefully, he signified assent : whereupon a learned 
professor stood up, and read from Erasmus's celebrated 
" Praise of Folly " several pages. 

This treatise, renowned for its biting sarcasm and its 
daring liberalism, was so popular as to pass through twen- 
ty-seven editions during the lifetime of its author, and to 
be translated into every European tongue. Gadaldino, 
the great printer of Modena, held now the original Latin 
version in his hands wherewith to experiment on Valen- 
tino's memory. It sets forth the eulogy of Moria, or 
Folly, daughter of Plutus, born in the Fortunate Isles, 
reared in darkness, and become the queen of a powerful 
empire among men. The satire spares not any, from the 
triple crown to the friar's frock. 

Valentino stood perfectly motionless — his ear slightly 
bent toward the reader, his eyes fixed on the ground — 
until the pages were ended ; when, suddenly raising his 
head, he began to speak at the opening paragraph, giving 



224 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

to each sentence its due intonation, animating it as if it 
were his own mental utterance, until he reached the end. 
This is part of what he pronounced : — 

"The mind of man is so constituted, that imposture 
has more hold on it than truth. If there be one saint 
more apocryphal than another, — a St. George or Christo- 
pher or Barbara, — you will see him more worshiped 
than Peter or Paul ; nay, more even than Christ himself. 
. . Can there be any greater enemies to the Church than 
those unholy pontiffs, who, by their silence, allow Jesus 
Christ to be forgotten ; who bind him by their mercenary 
regulations, falsify his doctrine by forced interpretations, 
and crucify him a second time by theii- scandalous lives ? " 

The hum of applause broke into frequent " vivas " as 
Valentino uttered the last words of his task with great 
force. "Ecco! that's the truth! they suffer the most 
blessed Christ to be forgotten! they crucify him with 
their scandalous lives ! E pw troppo vero : it is but too 
true ! " 

Amid the gush of conversation which followed, all 
tongues being loosened (and Italians are a gravely garru- 
lous people), when Castelvetro was whispering to Fran- 
cesco, " That is nothing of a test for Valentino's memory ; 
he hath the principal Latin poets by heart, and, after a 
long sermon, he can repeat it word for word," — the mas- 
ter of the house was called aside by one of the servants, 
who seemed dismayed enough. 

Castelvetro returned after a few moments, bearing in 
his hand a legal-looking document. His own face had 



MODENA. 225 

changed mucli in those few moments, and bore ahnost a 
haggard expression. And well it might; for the whole 
prospects of his life had been overcast, and the fear of 
death had fallen upon him as by a single stroke. 

"Ohe vuol c^re? what's the matter?" and his guests 
crowded about him curiously, yet some of them with a 
foreboding. 

" Only my citation to appear before the Congregation 
of the Inquisition at Rome," replied Castelvetro in a 
husky voice, and gazing at the fatal paper. "I don't 
know what charges they can have against me : I am sure 
I have been cautious enough." 

" I never saw one of those birds of ill omen solitary," 
remarked Valentino : " there's a flook of them abroad, be 
sure. And shall we meanly cower before them, friends? 
Shall we not remember om- own dear Lord's saying? — 
' Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute 
you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, 
for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great 
is your reward in heaven.' " 

"Ay," added his brother Bonifacio, who was provost of 
the cathedral : " we ought to make a hand-in-hand vow 
that we will die ere we desert the cause." 

Alas ! less than two-years' imprisonment, subsequently, 
in the vaults of the Inquisition, taught this fiery disciple 
his own weakness ; for Bonifacio made a solemn and pub- 
lic recantation in the Minerva church at Rome, and after- 
ward in his own at Modena, of all the doctrines which he 
now thought he would die fori 



226 FROM DAWN 10 DARK IN ITALY. 

The company were not long in dispersing that night 
from Castelvetro's conversazione; the instinct of fleeing a 
felling house uppermost with some. The printer and the 
provost were apprehended, and sent under guards to 
Rome : Castelvetro and Filippo Valentino fled. 

This was the death-blow to the Reformation in Mo- 
dena. 





CHAPTER XXVI. 

A CLEW TO A CONSPIEACY. 

'Y that swoop of the hawk-like Inquisition, the 
university was pretty well frightened. Learn- 
ing is a delicate plant, which can not thrive 
in a disturbed air, but sickens and dies amid 
storms, even if not uprooted by force of the 
blast. The tide of students began to recede 
from Modena likewise, as the city became 
more orthodox. 

Francesco's moderate success for a few months dwindled 
into a final failure. The prospects of the poor betrothed 
pail" seemed duller than ever, and Di Montalto was yet 
angrier with himself and those about him for the dismal 
fate which seemed to link his fortunes so determinedly 
with the sinking Reformation. Francesco guessed that 
the women of the family must suffer a good deal from his 
testy temper, and he sometimes found Bianca with traces 
of tears on her face; but nothing was ever told him of the 
husband and father's private demeanor, and he respected 
their silence. 
Now he was trying a teacher's life in Ferrara ; that ip 

m 



228 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

Modena having been abruptly closed by the sudden per- 
secution. It was a consolation to be near Bianca in any 
case, and to see her every day ; though marriage for them 
seemed as distant as ever. Portus helped him to some 
pupils ; and he struggled on. 

The cloud of war now actually lowered over the terri- 
tories of Ferrara. Duke Ercole yielded at last to entrea- 
ties and menaces from his spiritual father the pope, and 
his very unspiritual nephew Henry II. of France : he 
joined their league against Philip of Spain in mid-Novem- 
ber, 1556, and was named captain-general. 

The land rang throughout with preparations for the 
strife, — with the swinging of smiths' hammers upon 
cuirass and halberd, with the tramp of mailed men, and 
the roll of war-wagons. Six thousand infantry were Er- 
cole's contingent to the invading army of France, besides 
horse and men-at-arms. His son-in-law, the Duke of 
Guise, was to be his fellow-general. 

Francesco offered himself as one of the Ferrarese sur- 
geons to accompany the expedition. He had deliberated 
much before taking this step, which was so strongly urged 
by his futui'e father-in-law: he knew not but it might 
place him in a false position, making his duty to his 
earthly prince clash with his duty to his heaivenly King. 

"You will make more in a single campaign than in 
seven years' slaving at the desk," quoth Di Montalto. 
The young physician was not so sure of that ; for he dis- 
dained to share in plunder: still there was nothing un- 
lawful in, find there was a certain amount of gain con- 



A CLEW TO A CONSPIRACY. 229 

nected Avith, the post of soldier-surgeon. And Di Montalto 
urged it on him by every plea : he might earn a position 
to enable him to man-y Bianca ; and so he went. 

Present at the great review, at Reggio, of the allied 
French and FeiTarese forces; present at the ineffectual 
sieges of Coreggio and Guastalla ; present during the idle 
summer's watching of the Milanese frontier, where Span- 
iards swai-med (for Ercole would not leave his own States 
unprotected, and suffered Guise to go on to the glory of 
laying waste the Abruzzo, and threatening Rome, without 
him), — Francesco was weary of camp life ere he had been 
a month in it. The scene was most uncongenial ; though, 
even among the rough soldiers, he found some of the 
"infected" like himself, and with them enjoyed stolen 
worship. In fact, where were not the Reformed to be 
found in Italy at that time, despite all the savagery of per- 
secution ? From the pillared halls of the Vatican, where 
Michael Angelo, a concealed heretic, held audience with 
his Holiness concerniDg St. Peter's, and knew that certain 
cardinals were " lame of the same foot," to the tent of the 
trooper, the cell of the Carmelite, the cot of the peasant, 
Christ's gospel of glad tidings bad penetrated alike to 
hearts beneath the purple robe, the glitteiing cuirass, the 
woolen frock, and the hempen doublet. 'Italy was abun- 
dantly leavened with the truth ; but ^he Inquisition sup- 
pressed its healthy fermentation, causing a bitterness 
which works fatally even stUl. 

Francesco was attached to the household troops., and 
returned to Ferrara with joy when the duke paid Mb 

20 



230 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

palace a business visit. And here occurred a circumstance 
of moment for all parties. 

The commonest things in the Italian political world of 
that age were conspiracies. Everybody of any note had 
a hand in plots of one kind or other for the promotion or 
downfall of governments or dynasties ; and some highly 
respectable personages did not scruple to put their fingers 
into very dirty plots occasionally, when any big purpose 
was to be served. Noblemen and ecclesiastics alike, nay, 
even the delicate hands of high-born women, were found 
meddling with such ugly work. 

Now, Duke Ercole being captain-general of the league 
against King Philip, and his States lying very conveniently 
for junction to the Spanish fief of the Milanese, it. occurred 
to the astute Cardinal Madrucci and to the Marquis di 
Pescara, Philip's agents in Italy, that if, by any means, 
Ercole and his family could be got rid of, their master's 
cause would be well served. But, of course, persons in 
such lofty positions must not be seen at all in the busi- 
ness : there were hangers-on enough, of doubtful reputa- 
tion, to whom a hint was sufficient; and before long a 
very neat little conspiracy was hatching in Ferrara itself, 
within a stone's-throw of the tremendous red moated cas- 
tle, in whose strength Rende securely reposed. 

And so it came to pass, that one day, when the duke 
walked in the gardens of his grand Belvidere Palace 
(cotemporary historians grow plethoric of fine adjectives 
in 'th^ vain attempt to delineate the splendors of this regal 
residence of the house of Este, and finally denominate it 



A CLEW TO A CONSPIRACY. 231 

a terrestrial paradise), — as he walked here, with the lovely 
Leonora, his youngest daughter, beside, him, — that Leo- 
nora who afterward became "the worship and the woe of 
Tasso," — one of his gentlemen came to say that a certain 
young man, but now arrived from the city, craved audi- 
ence. 

"Admit him here," replied the duke : "this shall be our 
presence-chamber for the nonce." And he seated him- 
self on a carved bench which commanded a view of the 
superb palace at some distance, which was built on a tri- 
angular island, formed by arms of the River Po. Marble 
battlements girded the shore, and shut in the little wilder- 
ness of woods, meadows, fountains, and streamlets, gar- 
dens of rich flowers and fruits, all contrived by the inge- 
nuity of Alfonso I., and serving subsequently to inspire 
Tasso's description of the gardens of Armida. 

Francesco hardly saw these glories and beauties as he 
stepped forward, almost too hastily for the marshaling of 
the official, and, in reply to the duke's address, demanded 
to speak with him piivately. He had been personally 
known to his Highness before now. 

Ercole walked aside a few paces into shelter of a blos- 
soming bosquet of shrubs. Whatever he heard in that 
shadow had strangely changed his mien when he returned 
to where Leonora d'Este still sat, looking toward the 
smiling palace. 

" I must leave thee, anima mia : urgent business calls 
me to the city immediately. Order one of the barges to 
be got ready without delay," he said to a gentleman-in- 



232 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

wajting; and a scowl gaAered ominously on his already 
dark brows as he turned away, and Leonora fancied she 
could detect the muttered « Traitors !" gnashed between 
his teeth. 

After the noble figure of their duke stared the crowd in 
the piazza, as he galloped by with a detachment of his 
guards, and stopped presently at a convent gate. The 
minute after, he stood beside a bed in the infiiTuary of the 
brotherhood. An old man, grievously wounded, had been 
found without in a neighboring street, — wounded unto the 
death, the most skillftil monk thought : and so did Altieri, 
the surgeon, to whom alone he imparted the secret that 
enemies had set on him because he had gained knowledge 
of a certain conspiracy against the duke and his dynasty, 
which they feared he would divulge ; and sought to in- 
sure his silence by the dagger's .point. 

Ercole heard it all — all he could tell — from the failing 
breath of tlie old trooper. " Because I was one of the 
Reformed, and thou a pers«5utor, they thought I would 
approve their .lesassin's plan. — Take away that bawble, 
good brother," — to a monk who held a crucifix before 
him. "The cross of Christ is in my hearty I want no 
other Saviour. I have the most blessed Christ " — 

" Holy Mother ! the man is a heretic ! " ejaculated the 
monk with the crucifix, rather over his breath. "If we 
knew that, it is long till such carrion should defile our 
convent " — 

The duke raised his eyes, and regarded the sycophant 
so sternly that he shrank back a pace. "Better try to 



A CLEW TO A CONSPIRACY. 233 

convert him than refuse comforts to the dying," remarked 
Ercole : " he has been a loyal subject, and shed his life for 
us and ours as truly as 'twere on the battle-field. — Good 
friend," and he turned to the prostrate old man, " would 
we could requite thee this service ! but thy spirit is ebb- 
ing fast. Nevertheless, we will have a thousand masses 
sung for thy soul, to bring thee quickly into paradise 
through the aid of our Lady " — 

By a prodigious exertion of his last strength, the dying 
man raised himself partially, and fixed his hollow, glitter- 
ing eyes on the duke. " Tour Excellence is most kind ; 
but there is no need of masses for me. I shall go straight 
to heaven; for has not my Saviour died? I believe. — 
that for the most blessed Christ's sake — I am even now 
pardoned — all my sins." The aged voice had broken, 
and he presently sank back exhausted. 

It was one glimpse of the pui'e, the ennobling faith of 
the gospel, in nature's dire extremity, bi'ought before the 
bigoted Ercole ; but he viewed it thl'ough the mist of a 
thousand prejudices and false beliefs. 

" One reward," gasped the poor old man : " tell them" 
— he glanced at the friars about — "not to molest me — 
with prayers — for I have my own Oonfessor — my Sa- 
viour;" and the worn face brightened into a smile. 

"Let the heretic die in his heresy, good fathers," ordered 
the duke ; " but we will have the thousand masses for him, 
notwithstanding." And he strode away. 

20* 




CHAPTER XXVII. 

DUCAL COMMANDS. 

CONSEQUENTLY the plot so comfortably 
hatching in the very heart of Ferrara was 
stifled before maturity : and Fen-ante di Gon- 
zaga and the cardinal and the marquis, those 
highly noble personages who moved the pup- 
pets by wires from Milan, and whose honor 
was in no wise soiled by the concoction of 
assassination, heard of the failure as a piece of grievous 
ill-fortune, but hoped for better luck next time ; and left 
their subordinates to perish from Duke Ercole's anger 
without a quahn, except for the usefulness of the agency 
thus destroyed. 

Enter we the ducal cabinet, in that moated castle be- 
fore described, where the lord of Ferrara is engaged in 
public business with his secretary. Just now the work in 
hand is a dispatch to Rome, to answer the pope's urgent 
demands that Ercole and his troops shall march south- 
ward to co-operate with the Duke of Guise against Naples. 
But Ercole knows well the unremitting vigilance of his 
Spanish neighbors in the Milanese, and will not be per- 

234 



DUCAL COMMANDS. 235 

suaded to leave his capital undefended, even to engage in 
the holier office of keeping Alva's hands off Rome. There- 
fore the holy father is informed in the most respectful 
manner, by his dutiful son Ercole, that a murderous con- 
spiracy has been but just disconcerted, which had for its 
object the destruction of the whole ducal family; that, for 
this and other reasons, he must utterly decline to stir 
either himself or his soldiers from their vantage-ground 
in Lombardy. 

" His Holiness seems quite to forget every interest save 
his own," was the duke's remark, somewhat petulantly 
spoken. "Not content with dragging me into this war 
sorely against my will, he now indicates to me the direct 
road to ruin, and would have me walk ia it to please 
him. Think you these rotten fortifications of Ferrara 
would hold out forty-eight hours against the Milanese 
army ? And, once in the grasp of the Spaniards, it is too 
fair a fief to be loosened by aU the power of the keys." 

" And your Highness has more than your share of the 
burden of the war already," observed the obsequious sec- 
retary. 

" Ay, truly : have I not engaged to supply the army of 
Guise with munitions of war ? and do not I guard for 
them the passage of retreat to their own country ? For 
retreat they will," added the duke. "The strife is too 
unequal : would that I were well out of it ! Our nephew 
Henry of France is able to hold his own ; but I have 
every thing to fear from Philip's vengeance." 

He walked about the apartment perturbedly, a firown 



236 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

contracting his handsome, imperious face. It was rather 
hard, that he, constitutionally a lover of peace, should be 
plunged against his will into an expensive and harassing 
war, whence he could gain no advantage, but incuiTcd the 
extremest danger. 

"Friendship or enmity, both well-ni^ equally fatal," 
muttered he, his chin on his chest, as he looked down- 
ward into the deep coui"t-yard, where stood the equestrian 
statue of Niccolo III. of the Est6 line. " The Holy See 
hath damage even in its amity for its poor allies. Domes- 
tic broils without end," — and the regretful thought of an 
instant was given to the gentle wife who had suffered so 
much from his bigotry, though he fain would cloak that 
persecution under pretext of obedience to his spiritual 
guides, — " domestic broils without endj" thought Ercole, 
" and the Inquisition for my subjects, and now perchance 
the loss of the dukedom for myself Rebellion could 
scarce be worse punished than fealty is rewarded." 

And the massive statue of his old ancestor, so tran- 
quilly standing below in such a steadfast calm, representa- 
tive of a man once just as full of cares, and of honors, and 
of ambitions, and of restlessness, seemed a tacit rebuke 
to the chafed spirit, — seemed virtually to say to the 
unquiet ruler of Ferrara, "Wait, thou inheritor of my 
glories and of my toils, but wait, and thou shalt be calm 
as I!" 

Perhaps Ercole felt the unspoken utterance : be turned 
abruptly from the window, and rang a little silver bell 
which was on the table. A page from the antechamber 



DUCAL COMMANDS. 237 

entered; and inxmediately afterward, on his summons, 
our old acquaintance Francesco Altieri. 

"Well, my young leech," was the duke's reply to his 
obeisance, " and what wouldst have for the service thou 
hast rendered us?" 

"Tour most excellent Highness sent for me," began 
Altieri, somewhat puzzled at thus being peremptorily re- 
quired to name his price. 

"Yes, yes, — just to ask you this," returned Ercole. 
" Most essential service have you rendered us : we wish 
to reward it in a way chosen by yourself." 

" Tour Highness, I was but a messenger." 

"A truce to extenuations," interrupted the duke im- 
patiently: "we have no time to waste in idle converse. 
We are wUling to reward, be you but willing to receive. 
Say, then, what would you have ? " 

" Tour Highness's commands," promptly answered .the 
young physician, as he stood respectfully before his prince,' 
— "your Highness's commands to leave your army, and 
betake myself as a settler to the Calabrias." 

Ercole fixed on hini his sharp eyes. "To leave my 
service ? Methinks thou shouldst be more than ever anx- 
ious to be retained in it, now that thou hast laid us under 
an obligation," he observed. "And wherefore to settle 
in the Calabrias, messer ? " 

"Because, your Excellence"-^ And Francesco, in 
few words, told of his betrothal for the past year and a 
half well-nigh, and his desire to find a home for his bride. 
The duke listened attentively. 



238 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

"But yet I perceive no reason why that home need 
be in the Calabiias," said Ercole ; " while I can see many 
reasons for retaining so loyal a subject as thou in Ferrara." 

"Your Highness knows not," replied Francesco, " that 
I am of the Lutheran faith, and seek a place where I can 
worship my God as my conscience directs." 

" A Lutheran ! " The moment's pause which followed 
seemed to the young physician minutes long. His sover- 
eign was steadily gazing at the hardy Ladividual who 
dared present himself in the Ferrarese audience-chamber, 
and avow himself a Lutheran. 

" Then you have weU said," resumed Ercole, " that my 
dominions are no place for heretics! I give thee the re- 
quired guerdon : leave my service, and get thee to the 
Calabrias, and see whether our brother of Spain and 
Naples hath not even a warmer welcome for the ' novar 
tori ' than we have here ! " 

He drew over a set of papers, and began to turn them 
uneasily with his hands, Ulce one pre.-occupied with some 
thought. Gratitude was struggling with bigotry. 

" And see, Messer Altieri, — now that we recall it, thy 
name seems flavored with heresy in its very sound, -r- was 
there not some noted Lutheran so called ? " He appealed 
to his secretary. 

" Si, Monsignor," answered that supple personage, one 
of whose duties was to keep a prodigious memory : " agent 
for sundry German princes at Venice, and secretary to 
the English embassy." 

"Wherein a heretic would find small favor now," ob- 



DUCAL COMMANDS. 239 

sei-ved his master. "His Eminence the Cardinal of 
England* hath -wrought wonders there, and brought 
back the whole nation into apostolic allegiance. But 
tliis Altieri in Venice, was he kin of thine ? " 

" My father's brother, your Excellence," said Francesco, 
ieeling as if he was cutting oflf his last chance of favor. 
An attendant entered with a packet of dispatches from 
France, just arrived by special courier. 

"Then," said Ercole, negligently breaking the seal, 
"thou hast it by hereditary descent, which is not so 
blamable. — Ha! what have we here?" 

His eyes seemed to devour the lines of writing; but 
the healthy florid complexion of his face actually paled 
to a livid hue ere he had ended. 

"Now, indeed, has the worst come," said he, folding 
the paper half mechanically, as he handed it to his sec- 
retary. " A great battle at St. Quentin, in Picardy ; the 
French troops utterly routed, — a second Pavia. The 
Duke of Guise must be recalled directly ; and I shall 
have to bear the brunt of both Alva and Gonzaga. 
Holy Mother, what a fearful calamity!" 

He would have totally forgotten Francesco's presence, 
had not the secretary pointed to where he stood. " This 
gentleman, your Highness, has not received your High- 
ness's final orders." 

"Ay: what was I speaking of?" Ercole passed his 
broad white hand over his bronzed brow. "I remem- 
ber — yes, I was about to teU thee, that as Di Montalto 
is but a refugee, and can not have much dower for his 

• Cardinal Pole. 



240 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

daughter, and as thou hast rendered us good and loyal 
service nathless thine heresy, we will of our bounty be- 
stow upon the maiden five hundred gold florins as a por- 
tion on her wedding-day." 

And so Francesco was bowed out .by the supple secre- 
tary, feeling in his heart more profiise of thanks than his 
Hps had time to utter. And which was the happier, — 
the almost penniless young physician, despised as one 
of th". "infected" by certain courtiers in the antecham- 
ber attired in brave raiment of brocade and gold ; or the 
powerful prince of Ferrara, seated in his cabinet to wres- 
tle with the black care and fear that had issued from 
those dispatches, and laid hold of his Highness like twin- 
vultures ? 

Cause enough had Ercole for dread. The dispatch 
informed him, that, in the battle of St. Quentin, no fewer 
than six hundred French gentlemen, the flower of the 
noblesse, had been taken prisoners ; so utterly broken was 
the French chivalry. The great Marshal de Montmorency 
had also fallen into the hands of the Spaniards : the Duke 
of Guise must be recalled with his troops to protect Paris. 
"What remained to oppose the overwhelming Spanish force 
in Italy ? A handful of papal troops, chiefly mercenaries, 
and the Ferrarese six thousand, against whom were pitted 
the armies of Alva and Gonzaga, the Dukes of Parma and 
of Florence. Well might Ercole call the tidings " a fear- 
ful calamity." 

Italian princes of that age held their temtories by such 
slight tenure, that the scepter was always trembling in 



DUCAL COMMANDS. 241 

their grasp. Any shook of war might precipitate their 
feudal cro-wns to the dust ; and Ereole might be pardoned 
for the first thought that his turn of decadence had come. 

" Guise must leave me troops," he soliloquized : " I shall 
be ruined without Krench help. Hire Germans or Swiss, 
after the example of the holy father? Nay, but my prov- 
inces would be snapped up by Gonzaga ere an arquebuse 
would have time to cross the mountains. Oh that Guise 
had taken Milan when it lay comparatively at his mercy ! 
But the Caraffas insisted on the march into Naples : this 
comes of gownmen meddling in campaigns." 

It may be believed that Ercole's gold-iringed pillows 
were pressed that night by a weary yet restless head. 
Hour after hour, thinking, thinking, — traveling back over 
his policy, forward over its probable disastrous results ; his 
wakeful eye wandering over the dark folds of the Flan- 
ders arras lining his apartments, whence loomed shadowy- 
woven figures dismal as his fears. The rich crimson satin 
hangings and embroidered Unen and silken coverlet of his 
couch were to him smaU elements of comfort that night. 
Few Ferrarese peasants, lying on their sack beds stufied 
irregularly with husks of maize, and looking up to their 
duke habitually as to some half-celestial being, but enjoyed 
sounder repose than his ; for they knew not the ducal sen- 
sation of thorns in the piUow." 

Some of his thoughts dwelt on the strange anomaly 
then enacting in the Papal States. Those Gei-man and 
Swiss mercenaries, who were protecting the holy father 
against his most dutiful children of Naples, were men 

SI 



242 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

who, for the most part, despised his anthority utteily in 
their own persons. Paul IV. was warred against by AlTa, 
who would have lain in the dust to be walked over by 
the papal palfrey, so deep was his reverence for the see 
of Rome. He was defended by the troops of Albert 
of Brandenbui'g, the head of the Protestants of the em- 
pire, — soldiers who "jeered at the images of the saints, 
laughed at the mass, broke the fasts of the Church," * and 
scrupled not to insult sacerdotal dignity whenever it suited 
them to do so. Eroole of Ferrara knew in his heart that 
such an anomaly could not long continue. He foresaw a 
speedy peace between Philip and Paul, even though his 
correspondents in Rome had written to him how the pope 
would inveigh against the Spaniards as " schismatics, ac- 
cursed dregs of the earth." Now, to get himself advan- 
tageously inserted in such a peace was the main object 
of Ercole's cogitations. 

He was passing through the antechamber into his cabi- 
net next morning, still brooding on the same, when he 
spied among the bare-headed gathering of courtiers and 
suitors the physician Di Montalto ; who was first honored 
with an audience, being, in fact, invited into the presence- 
chamber by the duke himself — an action which had a 
very significant value in the courtiers' eyes, and caused 
them to respect "il medico" rather more than previously. 

"Well, my fiiend," said Ercole familiarly, — for he was 
commonly renowned by reason of his afiable manners, and 
now was in better humor than for twenty-four hours paet, 

* Kouke'B " History of toe Popes." 



DUOAL COMMANDS. 243 

as imagining he saw a way out of his political difficulties, 
— " well, amico mio, how goes it ? I hope you have set- 

r 

tied all that affair of the betrothal with your son-in-law 
that is to be? I must, see the young lady myself : per- 
chance I may give her away at the bridal ? Eh, Messer 
Physician, what do you say ? " 

Di Montalto's countenance had positively fallen at the 
idea. "What if he were compelled to confess the humili- 
ating truth, that the rite must be Lutheran? for those 
whom it most nearly concerned were Lutheran. He ac- 
tually blushed under the ducal gaze. 

"Ha! I had forgotten," said Ercole, perhaps divining 
the cause of his physician's discomfited look, — "I had for- 
gotten that the young fellow declared himself one of the 
accursed ' novatori,' — one of those heretics who have set 
the world in a blaze ! But surely it can not be the case 
that thy daughter goes with him in his opinions, thou 
seemest so orthodox thyself, Di Montalto?" added the 
duke rather maliciously ; for he had more than a suspicion 
of how matters were in the physician's household. 

" I try to do my duty to God" and man, your Highness," 
replied the other, trying with a bow to conceal the sensa- 
tions which made his very grizzled mustache quiver; 
"but, unfortunately, my daughter has imbibed certain of 
the new doctrines." 

" Ay, ay : a maiden is but too apt to pick up the con- 
science of her betrothed," said the duke. "Thou canst 
scarce do better than ship them off for the Calabrias, and 
BO relieve thy household of the taint which may fetter our 



244 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

favor. The dower shall be paid by our treasurer;" and 
Ercole rapidly wrote a memorandum. " Leave us now ; " 
and Di Montalto, with much obeisance, glided from the 
presence, who was unconscious of his profound bows, be- 
ing seated with its back to the door, and engrossed with 
the perusal of a state paper. 

The deferential curve in Di Montalto's shoulders less- 
ened perceptibly in the antechamber, and disappeared al- 
together in the street ; and, by the time he reached " the 
most ill-smelling house in aU Fen-ara," his mien was as 
unbending as ever had stricken with dread the sensitive 
nature of poor little Bianca. > 





CHAPTER XXVIII, 

EEKEE'S BENEFICENCE. 

;S the Duke of Ferrara had foreseen, the pope 
was obliged to conclude peace with Philip of 
Spain in little more than a month from the 
battle of St. Quentin. Very tenderly had the 
superstitious Alva made war upon his holy 
father, and very submissively did he impose 
peace. After advancing twice to the gates of 
Rome, and having the Vatican at his mercy, he gave back 
to Paul IV. every advantage he had gained; restored 
every castle and city which his Holiness claimed.^ and 
comported himself in all things as if he had been the' 
conquered, instead of the conqueror. 

Shortly afterward might such a scene as the following 
have been witnessed in Rome, — Paul the Fourth, " the 
servant of servants," seated upon a throne, high and lifted 
up ; his tall, commanding figure dressed in purple robes 
of empire, his deep sunken eyes glowing with the fire of 
youth in a frame which numbered more than eighty years 
in age ; something of scorn, of suppressed hate and rage, 
conflicting with politic afiability and papal dignity in his 

21* 245 



246 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

still handsome countenance. And before him kneels the 
conqueror Alva, with profoundest reverence asking par- 
don for his conquests; with deepest abasement kissing 
the foot of his vanquished enemy ; his cruel soul actually 
cringing before the octogenarian pontiff: for he declared 
subsequently, that never had he feared the face of man as 
he did Paul's. 

But what about Ercole of Ferrara in this peace-mak- 
ing ? Alas ! he had been quite left out : he might make 
tei-ms for himself as best he could. Paul was, perhaps, 
disposed to punish him. for previous lukewarmness ; or 
perhaps — thought Ercole, apprehensively — he would 
have no objection to the Ferrarese tenitoiies forming a 
principality for his favorite nephews, the Caraffas. It 
would be quite after the manner of the popes, this last 
notion. 

Amid such wars, and rumors of wars, in the autumn 
of 1557, were celebrated the humble nuptials of our be- 
trothed pair. And, as at the former ceremony, little fes- 
tivity was held : it was chiefly a festival of hearts. A cus- 
tom of the age was, that the bridegroom spent the bride's 
dower in handsome clothes and ornaments for her, which 
were all exhibited at the wedding-feast, — we presume, as 
a stimulus to other maidens to follow her example; but 
Bianoa had no finery to exhibit. The touching simplicity 
of the Reformed service — again in an upper chamber — 
was indeed a contrast to the marriage rite as elsewhere 
performed in Ferrara : with a deeper, holier import were 
these two lives joined, to walk together not only through 



RENTE'S BENEFICENCE. 247 

time, "till death them did part," but to love for eternity 
also. 

This privileged thought has the Christian at his espou- 
sals, and no other man. The marriage-bond is, for all but 
Christians, a tie snapped at death, or only productive of 
additional misery beyond ; while for the children of God 
it endures, so far as spiritualized affection is concerned, 
into the countless ages of a glorious eternity. Francesco 
and his wife knew it, — felt it : how inexpressibly endear- 
ing the belief ! 

But after a few brief weeks must come the needful 
parting for a time, while Francesco sets out for the Cala- 
brias to establish there the home he had promised Bi- 
anca; a long, unfjertain journey, which could be lightened 
by few of those great consolers of absence, — letters; but' 
a journey through a country devastated by the late wars, 
and where even yet hostile troops were moving. 

At last came tidings that Cosmo, Duke of Florence, 
had made peace with his neighbor Ercole. The poor 
new little wife Bianca never had been so sorry to hear 
of any war being ended ; for it seemed to clear the path 
for Francesco's departure on his perilous quest. But still 
war was going forward with Parma : she would fain keep 
him until that danger was removed likewise. Had not 
the gallant young Prince Alfonso gone forth at the 
head of all the Ferrarese chivalry against Ottavio Far- 
nese? He must have success with such a brave com- 
pany ; and if Francesco would but wait until then ! So 
reasoned Bianca. 



248 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

It came trae in the first month of the year 1558, when 
a battle was fought discomfiting Parma; and peace en- 
sued among all parties, and harassed Duke Ercole could 
breathe easily. 

Francesco and his father-in-law had been by no means 
idle of late. For the remains of the army of Guise had 
gathered to Ferrara, destitute of every thing ; hoping re- 
lief from the known hberality and kindliness of the Duch- 
ess Rende, daughter of their olden king. Sick, wounded, 
naked, were not a few of these poor French soldiers, — 
the raw material of victories, discarded like a broken tool 
when no longer wanted by the great weavers of wars; 
and starving were they all, even to the number of thou- 
sands. Every surgeon in Ferrara was employed by the 
duchess to look after their needs, and supply them with 
suitable medical appliances, at her sole expense. 

One forenoon, having an audience with her on such 
matters, the young surgeon Altieri was present when the 
steward of her household brought in his accounts; her 
embroidering ladies working at a little distance, mean- 
while, as usual. 

"Your Highness will observe," quoth the gray-haired 
servitor, bowing low, "that the expenses of this week past 
have been yet heavier than those of the foregoing ; and, 
if I might presume to speak to your Highness " — 

"I know what thou wouldst say, good Checco," inter- 
rupted his mistress pleasantly, and with her sweet smile. 
" Thou wouldst say that the expense of aU these poor sol- 
diers falls heavily on om* treasury : thinkest thou I have 



RENTE'S BENEFICENCE. 249 

not read as much in thy glance for the last half-dozen 
audiences we have given thee? Thou dost grudge the 
golden ducats, good Checco ; and reasonably enough, were 
the case other than it is. But, my faithful Checco, con- 
sider ,hat these are poor Frenchmen, and my country- 
men, who had been my subjects now had I a beard on my 
chin ; nay, would have been my subjects but for the unjust 
Salic law.* And so it comes to pass, that we "tliink no 
sacrifice too gi-eat for these poor soldiers, and no succor 
too costly. I should rather thou wonldst curtail our own 
personal expenses, good Checco, than stint these our kins- 
folk of help." 

The steward, privileged old attendant as he was, durst 
say no more ; and his grudgingness for a little time was 
quickened subsequently, more from dread of the duchess's 
displeasure than from approbation of her spendings. 

" Is it not true, signer ? " asked Ren^e graciously, turn- 
ing to the young physician who stood near, when Checco 
and his papers had departed. "Could I refuse aid to 
these poor creatures, victims of my nephew's ambition ? " 

" It would not be like your Highness's usual benignity 
to do so," replied Francesco, uttering a courtier's phrase 
with more than a courtier's sincerity ; for Renee's benefi- 
cence had passed into a proverb. 

" Nay, is it not in a manner my duty ? " exclaimed Re- 
nde with animation. " Debarred by a hard fortune from 
succoring ' the household of faith,' " she added in a lower 
tone, " shall I not at least succor ' my kinsmen according 

* Brantome. 



250 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

to the flesh ' ? Well, well : patience ! The cause of Christ 
must conquer yet." 

She resumed her conference with the young surgeon 
about his destitute and diseased French patients, but by 
and by came back to what was, after all, nearest to 
Rente's heart, — the cause of her co-religionists, the Re- 
formed. For them her sympathies never ceased to be 
drawn forth ; though she seldom dared ©jDenly display her 
partiality, because of her stormy lord. But somehow she 
always contrived to be surrounded by the infected. 

"And the latest news from Rome," quoth the duchess, 
" is that stringent measures of reform have begun there : 
a medal has actually been struck, representing Paul the 
Fourth, under the type of the most blessed Christ, cleans- 
ing the temple of its salesmen and money-changers ! " 

" I fear that reform, in the mind of a pope who has been 
Grand Inquisitor, will mean also persecution," said Fran- 
cesco respectfully. 

" He has given earnest of it already," the duchess re- 
plied, "by the increased activity of the Holy Office since 
his reign began. It is said that he even means to cite the 
more liberal-minded cardinals, such as Morone and Fos- 
cherari, before the Congregation, on suspicion of hetero- 
dox opinions; and, when the red hats can not escape, what 
are humbler heads to do ? Messer Altieri, hold you still 
to your purpose of settling in the Calabrias, and thereby 
withdrawing yourself from these stormy times in the 
north?" 

Yes,, he persevered in his intention. He did not care 



RENEE'S BENEFICENCE. 251 

to utter what was the truth, — that here he could not stay- 
without a compromise of principle farther than he felt 
would be faithful to his Master. But had he not the 
highest example of compromise before him ? He checked 
himself just in time. 

" Colonies of Waldfinses have settled in Apulia and 
Calabria, under convention with the lords of the soil, and 
have preserved their religious privileges intact for nigh 
two hundred years," said the young physician. " I wish 
to find a resting-place among them, being somewhat of 
kin. My mother's ancestors were from the Valleys." 

" But I believe," observed the duchess, " that they have 
not kept free of persecution without a variety of unworthy 
compliances : at least," she added, and her fair brow col- 
ored slightly, "they have been compelled to admit the 
Roman baptism. of their children, and to receive the holy 
eucharist at mass " — • 

" Truly unworthy compliances ! " Francesco uttered 
when the duchess paused, " such as I trust my God will 
give me grace to refrain from. Most noble lady," he 
added, repenting lest his unwary ejaculation should be 
misunderstood to contain a personal reflection, " I entreat 
you to believe " — 

" Only the unguarded utterance of a fervid and honest 
heart," rejoined Ren^e, looking kindly on his embarrass- 
ment. " Thy zeal may find reasons enow for cooling by 
and by, signer: thou hast not had thy finest aflfections 
put to the torture yet." 

There was something so deprecatingly gentle ir hey 



252 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

tone and manner, that Francesco, as he kissed her hand 
at departure, could willingly have kissed the hem of her 
robe, in honor of that noble humility. 

" We may give thee letters to sundry in Rome, which 
will bear thy traveling charges so far," was Rente's last 
act of grace toward her young brother in the faith. 





CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE MOUNTAIN OSTEEIA. 

I OTWITHSTANDING aU the delays, the bit- 
ter day of parting came none the less surely. 
Poor Bianca took leave of her husband for 
his long and perilous journey with many a 
tear and many a lingering embrace ; but even 
ia the sorrow of separation she had a conso- 
lation of which the world knows nothing. 
Her heart was stayed on the faithfulness of God : no great 
evil could he permit to befall his servant ; for over such 
he giveth his angels charge. And she could have the 
fullest confidence in prayer for Francesco, as knowing that 
he was one of the Lord's own people, dear unto him with 
a most special love. 

Across the broad Ferrarese marshes, among the planta- 
tions of maize and millet, and the innumerable sluggish 
streams embanked in deep channels, until, behind the pil- 
grim, the great city had contracted to a long, low line 
of roofs, broken by towers of churches, he rode as far as 
Bologna, where the mountains begin by a great gathering 
of summits behind the minarets and leaning towers of the 

22 253 



254 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

town. Here lie lodged -with certain brethren, after the 
manner of primitive times ; having been recommended to 
them by friends in Ferrara. 

" The underground railroad " of the United States was 
in that age anticipated by the Reformed. Hunted as per- 
sistently as any fugitive slaves from city to city, a c ordon 
of communication from one haunt of heresy to another 
was needful. Many towns full of persecutors had yet one 
Mnason, a disciple with whom other disciples might seek 
shelter. 

But, desiring to push on as rapidly as possible to Flor- 
ence and to Rome, our pilgrim stayed only a night in 
Bologna, nor visited any of its hundred churches, rich iu 
sculpture and fresco ; for he regarded them as little better 
than idol-temples. Men were apt at that time to hold 
strong opinions. Nor did he look through the oldest uni- 
versity in Europe : his hours were too precious for sight- 
seeing. Yet he contrived to ascend the hill whence he 
might have a last view of Ferrara far away to the east, 
beneath the long line of the Adriatic skirting the skies ; 
and scarce glanced at the broad, level plains of Lombardy, 
stretched northward, studded with villages and towns, 
even so far as Mantua and Verona, which lay embossed 
on the land darkly, a mass of miniature towers. 

Then slowly he turned his face to the hill country of 
the Apennines, and entered the chaos of bights and hol- 
lows, of serrated peaks and ravines, which slowly ascends 
for many a mile to the highest range of the Italian back- 
bone. The path— it was not entitled to be called a road 



THE MOUNTAIN 08TERIA. 255 

— climbed by circuitous ways along the edges of olive- 
clothed dells, and under shadow of crags, and beneath 
gray walls of outlying monasteries, and past many little 
saint-shrines, hung up in solitary trees, or fixed in niches 
of rock ; hour after hotlr attaining gi-eater altitude ; get- 
ting into barrener regions, where moss and lichen clung 
to the cliff-faces, despite wild storms, and where the view 
was savagely lonely of precipice and torrent and black 
tarn asleep. Those torrents hurried to the river beside 
Perrara. Then he would emerge at the summit of some 
pass, and get a glimpse of the plain behind, sown with 
white cities thickly, and seamed with wandering streams. 
Occasionally he arrived at a piece of table-land bearing a 
hamlet and some fields. In one such place he deemed 
it expedient to stop for the night ; and went up to the 
gaunt, stone post-house to seek shelter. 

Straw was the only bed, and black bread and olives, 
with a skin of sour wine, the only fare ; but Francesco 
had been used to rough it, and heretics could never afford, 
to be particular. He was asleep soundly on the straw in 
the comer of the great stone room, with his knapsack — 
or what answered to that modern convenience in the six- 
teenth century — under his head ; when, toward midnight, 
he was roused by the tramp of many feet and loud voices 
entering the outer door. A military tramp, he was sure ; 
and some of the voices spoke a foreign tongue, — German. 

"What ho, mine host! Rouse the house! Bring 
lights ! " and the trooper strode to the kitchen fireplace, 
kicked the dying brands with his foot, and, seizing a quan- 



256 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

tity.of the straw which carpeted the floor, illuminated the 
apartment in a moment. " Come, mine host ! wine for 
the defenders of his Holiness ! " The nearly empty flagon 
on the rude table was drained of its dregs into his hairy 
lips in a moment. Francesco lay quite stUl in his comer, 
and unseen by reason of his envelopment of straw. 

Others had come in, and, bringing fagots from the wood- 
pile, soon had crackling an enormous fire, the breadth of 
the great chimney. 

' " Ha ! wouldn't his Holiness like to set a heretic roast- 
ing in the middle of that ! " exclaimed one, following his 
remark with a horse-laugh loudly echoed. 

"As for me," said another, "I don't wonder at his visit 
to Home making a heretic of Martin Luther. I'm very 
much of the mind of the Jew who was advised by his 
friend to go there and see all the finery of the pope, think- 
ing it must convert him : and sure enough he Avent, and 
came back, and got himself baptized immediately; be- 
cause, he said, nothing short of a perpetual miracle could 
keep alive a religion which was supported by such wicked 
men as the priests and cardinals." 

""Well done, TTlrich ! thy tale and jest as ustial. Com- 
rades, we'll have to help ourselves in this house, I fore- 
see," — and he looked significantly at some dried meat 
and skins of wine pendent from the ceiling, — "if so be 
that mine host comes not quickly. He doth sleep soundly, 
this fellow!" 

Then, roaring forth a song by Hans Sachs (the popular 
lyrist of the Reformation), either his music or his threat 



THE MOUNTAIN OSTERIA. 257 

speedily brought down the owner of the establishment, — 
a black little Italian, who actually cowered before these 
huge Geraian guests, and, with a profusion of bows, would 
know their pleasure. 

" Pleasure ! why thou sleepest heavily as a cathedral," 
said the former spokesman in tolerable Italian, " or thou 
wouldst know that our pleasure is supper, at this present. 
What else should troopers, hungry off the road, requu-e at 
this time of night ? So quicken thyself, good Boniface : 
for my men are rare eaters, and don't understand being 
kept waiting. Meantime, a skin of thy vintage here." 

The expression of the Italian's face, as Francesco could 
see it over the fire while cooking, boded any thing but 
good wiU to these blustering " oltra-montani," who had 
thus stormed his dwelling at night's noon. But, when- 
ever he had occasion to turn around toward the company, 
its suavity was delightful to behold. 

The Germans sat round the. table, with drinking-horns 
busy; or sauntered up and down the room, conversing in 
their own tongue. Francesco, still lying with his knap- 
sack under his head, could make out sufficient of their 
words to pick up allusions to tbeir late campaign, and in- 
timations of how things were going on in Rome. 

" Paul was badly off for defenders when he sent for us," 
said one". " The idea of us Protestants fighting- against 
good Catholics, all for the sake of his Holiness ! " 

"But did you ever see such fellows as those Roman 
arquebusiers ? The very braying of a trumpet would 

22* 



258 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

disperse them, albeit their ofBcers were all of noble 
blood!" 

"I hope you valued the pope's blessing properly, 
Hans?" shouted another. "It's worth half our pay, at 
all events." 

Hans growled. " I would sooner have a ducat than 
five hundred of his benedictions ! " And darker grew 
the Italian landlord's face as this last observation was 
^repeated to him, in his own tongue, by a soldier at the 
fireplace. 

"And the Swiss from XJnterwalden were a legion of 
angels ! " laughed another. " I suppose gold chains are 
part of angeho outfit, since his Holiness gave them to the 
captains ! Ah ! mine officer, wert thou there ? " 

But the young man, who sat at the table without touch- 
ing the wine, glanced at his underling sternly enough to 
repress the familiar speech on his lips, prompted, perhaps, 
by the aforesaid wine. 

ITot until then- meal was over, and they were lying 
down to sleep on different parts of the floor, did the Ger- 
mans perceive the stranger in the corner. 

" Ho ! what have we here ? A spy ? " 

"A true man!" replied Francesco in their own lan- 
guage, springing to his feet. "A true man, and a Lu- 
theran ! " 

But he was prepared for the suspicious demeanor of the 
Gertnan officer, notwithstanding this declaration, — the 
hostile scanning from his blue eyes under bent brows; 
for he knew how unsafe the times were, and how many 



THE MOUNTAIN OSTERIA. 259 

doubtful characters loitered about Italy. Francesco 
walked forward to the firelight, to reveal his faith thor- 
oughly, with the truth and honesty which he felt was 
in it. 

"An thou wert one of the Holy-Office spies, HeiT 
Stranger," growled a gigantic trooper, "thou wouldst find 
a short shrift, and a shorter rope to the nearest tree!" 

"I am soiTy to hear you, fiiend," replied Francesco 
_ undauntedly, " talk so lightly of committing murder." 

"A truce to this," quoth the captain, raising his lazy 
length from the bench where he had been sitting. " My 
men have witnessed an auto-da-fe, good sir, and are in 
no pleasant mood toward any emissaries of the Inquisi- 
tion. But I can perceive, if I have any skill in reading 
the countenance, that thou ai-t none such. I would invite 
thee, if thou hast had enough sleep, to some conference 
over the remains of this flagon. To your slumbers, my 
fellows; and leave this gentleman and myself to settle 
matters." 

The troopers, who had crowded round the table, re- 
treated to their cloaks on the straw. Francesco soon 
found that his companion was one of those free-thinking 
soldiers of fortune 'tvho sold their swords to the highest 
bidder; and who, while professing to despise the Roman 
religion and to be disciples of Luther, had, in reality, no 
faith at all, but a sort of deism. So long as Francesco 
dwelt on the abuses of the Church, the young man could 
talk glibly enough; but when he rose higher, into the 
atmosphere of spiritual knowledge and feeling, the sol- 



260 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

dier could not follow. He could recite passages of tl i 
"Eulenspiegel," that celebrated German satiric poem, 
■wherein the priests are ridiculed as sensual and glutton- 
ous, keeping handsome and luxurious establishments, with 
fat butteries and groaning supper-tables. These he much 
enjoyed, as hkewise the belligerent passages of Luther's 
works ; but the gentle spirit of the gospel found no echo 
in his heart. 

" It is true," said he, " what Ulrich von Hiitten wrote 
in his 'Roman Trinity:' 'There are three things that 
Rome does not beUeve, — the immortality of the soul, 
the resurrection of the dead, and heU.' I thought it an 
exaggeration, till I saw for myself." 

"After aU," responded Altieri, "it is not what Rome 
disbelieves, but what we believe, that is the great concern 
for us, and on which our eternal safety hangs." 

"As to that," observed the German, "what a pity it is 
that even the Reformed camp is splitting up into divis- 
ions, and that their greatest doctors can not settle on 
what should be believed! Theology does not he in a 
soldier's way." 

"Pardon me," said Altieri; "but I can imagine no 
closer concern of anybody's than how he may be saved." 

" Oh ! of course," answered the other, shifting his posi- 
tion somewhat uneasily ; " and we all know the standard 
doctrine of justification by faith, — that on which gallant 
old Luther so bravely did battle with the popedom : he 
had the spirit of a Paladin, and deserved to have been 
born a general, instead of a miner. I believe they all 



THE MOUNTAIN OSTEEJA. 261 

agree on that point. But they have had a regular split 
on the matter of the Real Presence ; and Luther upholds 
something very like the old Roman doctrine ; and Zwin- 
gle, the Swiss preacher, says the bread is nothing but 
bread : and, vrhere the captains differ so much, how shall 
the privates know which to believe ? " 

"But that is also a question wide of personal salva- 
tion," said Altieri. "I think that Luther and Zwingle 
have met in heaven ere now, and wondered at their dif- 
ferences, while each adoring the most blessed Christ who 
purchased their eternal pardon. And, my friend, it is the 
great matter for us to get to heaven likewise ; to be for- 
given all our sins now; and to have the divine presence 
of the Saviour in our hearts, as the earnest of glory here- 
after." 

"Yes, yes, of course," replied the officer, pulling his 
fair mustache over his red lips. " Of course, that is the 
main matter. But we were speaking of divisions in the 
Reformed camp ; and the latest is that headed by Lelius 
Socinus, who has gathered the anti-Trinitarians into a 
body, and will have none of the divinity of Christ ; and 
runs a tilt at various other of the received doctrines, fol- 
lowing the footsteps of Servetus : and these all Itahaa . 
heretics too." 

" God pardon them for darkening the light of his truth, 
and dishonoring his most divine Son ! " prayed Francesco. 
''Sir Officer, you and I may never meet again; and I 
would say to you. Permit not your mind so to run after 
these curious points of doctrine, or to speculate in here- 



262 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

sies, as to forget to insure the regeneration of your own 
heart by the power of the Divine Spirit." 

"It is clear thou art no Socinian, at all events," ob- 
served the officer. "Methinks we might get an hour's 
sleep ere dawn ; and, as thou hast given me good counsel 
about my soul, I would give thee good counsel about thy 
body. Be somewhat less free-spoken when thou goest 
farther on the road : for, now that Philip and Paul pull 
together, the conjunction of two such baleful stars omens 
a fiery persecution ; and 'tis hard if aught in Italy be left 
breathing that opposes itself to the papacy. Every vil- 
lage and public place is swarming with spies ; hence my 
men's suspicion of thee but a while since : and citizens dis- 
appear from their very homes, kidnapped into the Inqui- 
sition. Thou hast been slack at the wine-skin, friend ; " 
the fact being that Francesco had not even touched 
it. " Well, as I intend to pay honorably, — you see we 
secured our 'gelt' before leaving Rome, — I may drain 
the horn. Here's to thy health and safe journey, an thou 
wilt but be prudent, Messer Traveler." 





CHAPTER XXX. 

BRETHEEUr IN FLORENCE. 

I HE highest pass of these Tuscan Apennines 
was yet to he surmounted. There were no 
grand gorges, like the Splugen ; no sublimity 
of desolation ; but for miles the path wound 
away without habitation or sign of man, save 
a rude cross, or cairn of stones, perhaps mark- 
ing the site of some deed of violence. It was 
a country eminently suited for the transaction of banditti 
business, and is celebrated for such even to this day. 

As he climbed, Francesco felt the wind becoming 
stronger, as if resenting the invasion of its nurseries on 
the hill-tops ; and from transverse openings into glens it 
would burst furiously at times, and belabor the solitary 
man, who struggled steadfastly on. He thought he should 
scarce have a harder bit of his journey than this. A final 
buffeting visited him at the turn down the western slope : 
thence the greatest difficulty was over. From naked gray 
crag he descended upon lichen and moss, from moss upon 
grassy nooks where wild goats pastured, from these upon 
patches of vines ; and now the streams all flowed down- 

263 



264 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

ward to the Amo, not to the Po. Somehow he felt as if 
that were another link severed between him and home. 

Soon hamlets and villages sprinkled the valleys, and 
flowers bloomed abundantly in sunny spots ; for was he 
not approaching Fiorenza la Bella, the flower of Italy, set 
in the midst of its garden ? Warm southern airs blew 
over the plains of the Arno, past mulberry groves and 
olive thickets and chestnut copses: a fair land and a 
goodly was this of Tuscany, flowing with wine and oil at 
the industry of its peasants. 

Early one morning, he looked from the hUl which com- 
mands a view of Florence. Dominant over all, the vast 
dome of its cathedral curved grandly against the blue 
distance. He gazed upon the silver Arno spanned by 
busy bridges, and the many-colored marble campanile 
rising amid a maze of palaces. All around were lands 
of the deepest verdure, blossoming into white villas and 
cottages, inclosed by lines of superb mountains. 

Francesco descended into this panorama of loveliness, 
and an hour afterward found himself on one of the 
bridges aforesaid; being that Ponte Vecchio built by 
so old an architect as Taddeo Gaddi of the fourteenth 
century. It was clustered closely over with shops and 
houses, and some of the busiest traffic in Florence went 
on in its narrow thoroughfare. The traveler with staff 
and knapsack made his way to a central house, a little 
workshop of a lapidary, adorned with handsome speci- 
mens of "pietro duro," the special jewelry of Tuscany, 
set out in cases to tempt the passer-by. 



BRETHREN IN FLORENCE. 265 

A customer was haggling with the gray-bearded pro- 
prietor of the shop over some article of this precious in- 
laid work. So Francesco merely glanced into the place, 
and, turning back, passed near by, at the opening, in the 
side of the bridge, which revealed the favorite view of 
Michael Angelo. Framed like a bright-colored picture in 
the old stone buttresses, he could see a massive brown 
castle standing out against a hUl of rich foliage : clusters 
of houses and church-towers lined the slopes to the Amo ; 
dense banks of verdure, interspersed woods, hoary crags, 
crowned the prospect. Many dwellers on that bridge had 
seen the greatest artist of aU time stop to gaze at the fa- 
miliar view, and never grow weary of drinking into his 
eyes its details of beauty. 

Francesco returned to find the bargain not as yet com- 
pleted: so he looked over the ipecimens of "pietro duro," 
and refused to be served by the 'prentice lad, who stood 
up from his bench at seeing the travel-soiled stranger, and 
who kept a sharp eye on him after that suspicious reftisal. 
At length, the two voluble Tuscans had ended their chaf- 
fering; and the lapidary, depositing certain broad pieces 
in his pouch, came over with a gi'ave politeness to Fran- 
cesco, and inquired his pleasure. 

" I would know the cost of these ear-rings ; " and he 
singled out a pair covered over so closely with turquoises, 
that the gold setting was scarce visible. Then bending 
toward the lapidary, while he peered into the jewels for 
the mark of their value, Francesco whispered a word or 
two. 

23 



266 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

The shop-owner raised his head slowly, and fixed a 
piercing gaze on the stranger. "These ear-jewels are 
cheap at fifty ?ire," he said. " Stephano ! " — to the 'pren- 
tice youth aforesaid, who was within easy earshot of any 
conversation, — " prepare thee, and take this casket to the 
Marchesana Pamfili, that she may choose certain of the 
rings ; and hasten, lad, and bring back a ready account 
of what is trusted to thee." 

When he had gone, the lapidary again took a long 
investigating look at the stranger. "Didst thou not 
know Monsignor Camesecchi?" inquired the latter. "I 
have heard him. speak of thee as of a good Mend ia 
Florence." 

" Since he became a heretic, and fell under the ban of 
our holy father the pope, but few good Catholics know 
aught of him whom you mention," replied the other eva- 
sively, and taking out fi-esh ear-rings. " These, signor, I 
can let you have for thirty Kre." * 

" But Pietro Martire Vermigli has lodged in thy house," 
persisted Francesco. 

A visible alarm was growing in the honest lapidary's 
spirit. " Before they became heretics, I wUl acknowledge 
my acquaintance with those persons," he answered, clos- 
ing his last casket nervously. 

" Come, come," said Francesco ; " a little more, and thou 
wouldst deny even thy Master. Admit me to sit on thy 
working-bench for a few moments, and I will satisfy thee 
jat I am a true man, and no spy. Hearest thou not my 

* About twelve pounds Btoiliug. 



BRETHREN IN FLORENCE. 267 

speech, that it is no ' lingua Toscana,' but from the north 
side of the Apennines ? " 

" Yet, my good sir, there be villains north of the Po, as 
on the Amo," returned the lapidary. 

The young physician laughed at the fallacy of his own 
proof. But he had papers in his pocket enough to con- 
vince the most incredulous of his truth. And so it came 
to pass, that, when the boy Stefano returned, he found the 
stranger disencumbered of staff and knapsack, seated in 
the little upper room with the lozenge-shaped glass case- 
ment, and busily tended by the lapidary's own hands. 

But it was not till nightfall, when the shops on the 
Ponte Vecchio were closed, and lights began to gleam 
from the darkening casements, as though to challenge the 
flashing-forth of stars above, that the gray-bearded jew- 
eler and his country visitor had much converse. He 
brought Francesco to the uppermost room in his narrow 
house, where was another lozenge-casement, looking out 
over the Amo as it lapsed away peacefully beneath the 
old bridge and its freight of houses ; and here the new 
friends, drawn together by that single bond of faith in 
Christ, talked tiU the night wore on, and the stars had 
traveled much of their silvery rounds. 

" I am obliged to keep very quiet, as you saw to-day," 
said the lapidary, " and to be most cautious in my speech. 
There are so many spies going, an honest man hardly 
knows how to walk without setting foot in the trap." 

"And are many like-minded with you in the city ? " in- 
quired Francesco. 



268 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

"A few — perhaps" — answered his host, coughing be- 
hind his hand, as he glanced round apprehensively. "It's 
best not to mention names ; for the very walls have ears 
these times." 

"Well, well, three stories above the river, I would fancy 
we should be free from eavesdroppers," quoth the new- 
comer. 

"Best to be safe, — best to be safe," observed the other. 
"But Florence never made much way in the Reformed 
doctrines : she lost her opportunity, I trow, when Savo- 
narola preached to our fathers. Besides, we Florentines 
have had two of our citizens in the papal chair of late : 
we could not be so ungrateful as to spui-n what promoted 
us to such honor." 

"Yet you boast the names of Carnesecchi and Peter 
Martyr," said Francesco. 

"Ay, and of two translators of the Sacred Scriptures, 
— Brucioli and Teofilo," asserted the lapidary. "Oh! 
our city hath not been wanting in upholders of the 
truth, though she has no great number of Reformed," 
he added. 

" I do not remember the name of Teofilo," remarked his 
guest. 

The lapidary rose, and, from behind a panel in the til- 
ing of the wall, drew'forth two books. " My treasures," 
said he ; " and enough to bum me, should the Holy Office 
get scent of them : which I pray may never be the case ; 
for I fear that I should dishonor my Lord and Master by 
a denial. Brother, those words of thine this day pierced 



BRETHREN IN FLORENCE. 269 

me to the heart, — 'A little more, and thou wouldst deny 
the Christ,' — because they are so true. Brother, I am 
one of the weak- souls: I have not martyr's grace at all. 
I could not face the rack or the stake ; nor, I fear me, 
even the prison-walls." 

" If thy Lord tries thee, he will give strength for the 
hour," gently responded Francesco ; and he told how he 
had himself been stretched on the rack at Locarno, and 
how the suffering, though intense, was no greater than he 
could bear. 

''And I have been base enough to doubt thee for a 
moment, my brother ! " cried the lapidary with tears in 
his old eyes, and grasping the stranger's hand. "Nay, 
let me embrace thee, tlwu noble confessor of the faith ! " 
and the impulsive Florentine kissed Francesco's cheek. 
" Thou art one of the brave souls who put all the world 
to shame, and shalt be crowned first on the resurrection- 
morning." 

This last revelation of Francesco's quite broke away 
every remaining barrier of reserve on the part of his en- 
tertainer. Had he been the first nobleman of Duke Cos- 
mo's court, he could not have been honored more by. the 
poor lapidary ; for men commonly accord the highest ad- 
miration to those mental qualities which are most oppo- 
site to their own. 

" I was about to show thee Teofilo's translation, signer : 
it is the New Testament, pubUshed at Lyons in 1551; 
and is rendered in remarkably pure and choice Italian, 
whereas Brucioli is rough enough at times. Nevertheless, 

23* 



270 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

I would not give up this old Bible of Antonio Brucioli's 
for all the new versions they can print ; for this it was 
which led me fii-st into the truth,, twenty-five yeai-s ago, 
signor. And I am a very bahe in Christ stiU, albeit my 
gray hairs should speak me a master in Israel. I fear at 
the very shadow of persecution ! But He who looked so 
gently at Peter will not discard me : that is my faith and 
Iiope, signor." 

" Still thou livest far below thy privilege, friend. God 
empowers thee to know that thou art redeemed, not for 
thine own merits ; nor wilt thou be condemned for thy de- 
merits or shortcomings : for Christians are perfect through 
the comeliness of the blessed Christ upon them, now and 
for ever." « 

"Ah ! " said the lapidary, " so sayeth that good book 
of Messer Paleario's, ' On the Benefit of the Death of 
Christ ; ' a treatise which hath been of unspeakable com- 
fort to me at times, — a most sweet, pious, and simple 
book. See here, signor," — and he drew from the same 
sliding panel the heretical " tratto," eagerly turning over 
the leaves to his favorite passage, — " how blessed are 
these thoughts : ' He ' (that is, God) ' hath already pun- 
ished and chastised all our sins in his own dearly-beloved 
Son, and consequently proclaims a general pardon to all 
mankind; which everybody enjoyeth that believeth the 
gospel. . . . Oh great unkindness ! that we who profess 
ourselves Christians, and hear that the Son of God hath 
taken all our sins upon him, and washed them out with 
his precious blood, suffering himself to be fastenecl to the 



BRETHREN IN FLORENCE. 271 

cross for our sakes, should nevertheless make as though 
we would justify ourselves, and purchase forgiveness of 
our sins by our own works! — as who should say, that the 
deserts and bloodshed of Jesus Christ were not enough to 
do it, unless we add our righteousness, which is altogether 
defiled.' Signer Altieri, what think you: are these not 
fine words?" 

" Truly," answered Francesco. " They have the very 
pith and marrow of the gospel in them : methinks it wiU 
go hard but Rome fix her claws in the author. Milan is 
perilous ground for so noted a reformer as he : 'twere weU 
he placed the Alps or the ocean between him and the 
Holy Office." 

And Rome did fulfill her vengeful will when she burned 
him on the 3d of July, 1570, — twelve years forward from 
the date when Francesco was speaking. 





CHAPTER XXXI. 

SAVONAEOLA. 

t'LL tell thee a tale I heard of that devout and 
learned Aonio," pursued the lapidary's guest. 
" He, being asked one day what was the chief 
ground on which men should rest for their sal- 
vation, answered immediately, ' Jesus Chi-ist ; ' 
and, being still asked the second ground, he 
stUl answered, ' Christ ; ' and, being asked the 
third ground, he answered, ' Christ.' Truly he is a most 
pious Christian, not only in words "and writings, but also 
in deeds." 

"Ah," quoth the lapidary with a great sigh, and bend- 
ing forward his arms upon his knees, " the same Aonio is 
of opinion, that, in such times as these, it becometh not a 
Christian to die in his bed. Alas ! my friend, I feel not 
within me grace to profess the same. I am a most timid 
soldier in, the heavenly warfare : one screw of that rack 
of which thou spakest a while since would make me say 
any thing. Nothing astonishes me more than the forti- 
tude of some men. Thou hast heard of the noble Ga- 
leazzo Trezia, in the Milanese ? " 

272 



SAVONAROLA. 273 

And he went on to tell the circumstances attendant on 
his being burnt alive for the faith of Christ ; the unflinch- 
ing endurance of the torture, when some apparently trivial 
concessions would have saved him. 

"I was in company the other night," said Francesco, 
"with a German officer, who had late news from the 
north. Since Alva has been made governor of the Span- 
ish provinces, the persecution there is redoubled. Two 
persons were burnt alive only the other day: one a monk, 
who was placed in a pulpit beside the stake, in hopes he 
would recant ; but he only proclaimed the truth most 
loudly, and was diiven into the fire immediately with 
blows and curses. No matter: the angels had benedic- 
tions for him." 

"Well, well, pazienza!" exclaimed the lapidary after a 
moment's pause. "Let us have patience. The divine 
Lord sees it all. It only sets one longing for the New 
Jerusalem, friend." And in a low, melodious voice, he 
commenced to chant that very ancient hymn, descended 
from the primitive Church, — a voice of all ages, — 

" CoBlestis urbs Jerusalem, 
Beata pacis visio," 

concerning "the heavenly city, the blessed vision of 
peace," which is yet to come down from God among 
men. Heaven's last great boon to earth. 

" You see," he said, pausing in the chant, " I dare not 
sing one of Savonarola's or Brucioli's hymns, for they are 
deemed heretical ; ajid who kijows how I might be over- 



274 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

heard ? A boat passing the Amo below, or a spy in the 
next window, — ah ! my friend, men have to be cautious 
these times, when the Inquisition is all eyes and ears, 
and a grand inquisitor wears the tiara. But I find hymns 
enow in the services of the Church ; and Latin is all jight, 
they think, whereas Italian would be suspicious : and I'm 
in no good odor already, though I pay my dues so regu- 
larly, and my old friend Fra Battista lets me off very 
easily at confession twice a year. He's half a Lutheran 
himself, — the good old monk ! and when, I told him that 
I read the writings of Fra Girolamo, ' Thou dost well, my 
son,' quoth he: 'that was a most holy doctor, and unjustly 
put to death ! ' But, you perceive, he knew to whom he 
was talking. Signor, he would not be so open-mouthed 
to everybody, though he generally has a volume of the 
Vulgate in his sleeve: and I suspect he's not thought 
much of as a confessor, — he has been under discipline, I 
know ; but he is very aged, and they let him alone." 

"It is wonderful," said Francesco, as if reflecting, "how 
many monks have simultaneously been taught the truth 
of God in their cells, — most unlikely places for the light 
to penetrate. Our church in Locarno, which, as I told 
thee, gave, three years since, two hundred families to 
exile for Christ's cause, began with three members in 
1530, — one of them a monk named Balthasar, who wrote 
to the churches of Germany for books ; and from that 
spark God kindled a great flame. It may yet be so with 
Florence." 

"Alas!" said the lapidary, "thefcares of this world, and 



SAVONAROLA. 275 

the deceitfulness of riohes, and the lusts of other things 
entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitftil 
among us Florentines. The people are too wealthy and 
too worldly. Even the eloquence of Ochino produced 
but a temporary sensation; for, when the heart is a 
money-bag, where is room for Christ? Ah! the Fra 
Savonarola knew us well: 'You ought already to be 
saints,' quoth he, ' having heard so much ; yet it appears 
to me you wUl not understand ; ' and it is thus still." 

"What! you have written copies of Savonarola's ser- 
mons ? " 

" Si, signer, — copies descended to me from my father, 
who heard him when a young man, and when printed 
books were scarce beginning to be known. Here is his 
treatise on the fifty-first Psalm, — a most sweet and com- 
fortable writiug for Christian souls. Thou knowest it, 
signor ? Then thou hast drawn peace fi-om these blessed 
words: 'Here am I, a great sinner, to whom the Lord 
God has pardoned many sins, washing them out by the 
blood of his Christ, and covering them by his passion. 
"Why, Lord, didst thou give me this knowledge of thy 
Son? Why this faith in him? Didst thou give it me 
that I might have the more sorrow ; seeing my redemp- 
tion, and not being able to attain it?', 

" Signor," observed the lapidary, pausing, with his fin- 
gei on the yellow page under the line, " that's where most 
men stop, who caU themselves Christians. Seeing the re- 
demption, but not knowing how to attain to it ! And the 
Koman Church steps in, and says, 'Do so apd so: take a 



276 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY- 

pilgrimage, buy so many indulgences, keep your sins bal- 
anced and blotted by confessions and penances ; so shalt 
thou grasp this redemption WTOught by the Son of God.' 
Fra Savonarola knew better : he knew that men had but 
to reach forth the hand of faith." 

Again the reader bent his eyes on the page, and fin- 
ished the passage of the commentary which he had be- 
gun. " ' No, certainly; bat thou didst give me this knowl- 
edge, that I, seeing pardon prepared for me, should take 
it by the grace of Christ.' " 

It was a joy of no usual sort to this poor lapidary to 
meet with one before whom he could confess his faith, 
sure of a sympathetic resj)onse. Now his pale features 
glowed, his deep-set eyes kindled, the irresolute lines of 
his face seemed set with strength. He could have been 
brave in a multitude ; but, singly, his soul cowered. Be- 
fore we censure him, or secretly despise him, let us ask 
ourselves, " How bold have I been to-day in confessing 
my Master Christ ? Have I manfuUy faced, not stake or 
sword, but the lesser sharpness' of a sneer or a smile, for 
his sake?" 

■Do we not all too much cover up our Christianity ? Is 
there not too strenuous an effort to speak the language, 
and walk in the ways, of those to whom our Redeemer is 
an obnoxious stranger ? And what is this compliance but 
another and less justifiable development of the timidity 
which caused many a weak believer in the sixteenth cen- 
tuiy to hide his faith ? And, had not bolder spirits taken 
the lead, — men who counted not their lives dear unto 



SA VONAliOLA. 277 

them, — the world -would never have been blessed with 
the Reformation. 

The lapidary would not permit his guest to go away 
early in the morning, as he would have wished. " No," 
said the timid man : " they might infoi-m on me for enter- 
taining secret envoys, and get me into I know not what 
ti-ouble. Thou must be seen by the neighbors ; thou must 
come to look at the chief places in Florence." 

" But I bear letters from the Duchess of Perrara to 
Rome," replied Francesco: "I know not how they can 
brook delay. Nevertheless, I would not bring thee into 
trouble, my brother : I will stay untU two hours before 
noon." 

"And I will direct thee to a certain house in Siena, 
through which thy road lies, and where are brethren 
who wiU receive thee joyfully," said his host. And so, 
next morning, while the early sun glittered on the snow- 
browed Apennines and on the silver Arno, and over all 
the marble palaces of Fiorenza la Bella, the little shop 
was left in care of the apprentice Stefano, while its owner 
and his north-country guest sallied forth to look at the 
lions. The lapidary was very proud of his beautiful city, 
and especially of that masterpiece of architecture, the 
Duomo, which is described as a very " mountain of pre- 
cious marbles and mosaics," and before which the poet 
Dante would sit for hours together on the stone afterward 
engraven with the title, " Sasso di Dante," gazing up at 
the glorious pile. Beside it rose the Campanile of Giotto, 
— a most unequaled bell-tower, slender, and "gi-aceful as 

24 



278 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

a lily of paradise ; " and palace after palace, tier above 
tier, looked over the wondrous piazza wlii«h held these 
two gems of art, — the Cathedral and the Campanile. 

But one spot was more sacred than all the rest, though 
tmglollfied by statue or mausoleum, — the spot where the 
proto-martyr of Italy had suffered, after he had fulfilled 
his course a» her earliest reformer. 

"I am sixty-seven years old, and was but a bambino 
at the time," quoth the lapidary, smoothing his ragged 
beard ; " but well I remember one or two incidents of that 
scene. I bethink me of holding my father's hand, he 
weeping the while : and before my memory comes the 
high black stake, — a strong wind driving aside the smoke 
and flame, so that for long the dead body chained to the 
stake was not touched ; but the arm was still stretched 
forth, as if to bless the people. I remember, before that, 
the majestic figure ascending the ladder, gazing on the 
multitude, his lips moving : my father has since told me, 
that he, the heresiarch, the contumacious son of the 
Church, repeated in that awful moment the Apostles' 
Creed. These are the only distinct memories I have of 
what I witnessed ; but my father often made a tale for us 
children of the ordeal by fire which Fra Savonarola was 
willing to pass through to establish the truth of his doc- 
trine." 

"Was it not on the same spot as the burning?" said 
Francesco. 

"Tes, signer, next to the Golden Lion, and opposite 
that street leading to Santa Cecilia. I have myself a dim 



SAVONAROLA- 279 

remembrance of the huge pile of fagots and brushwood 
erected for the rival friars to pass through, eighty feet 
long, and as high as a man. A naiTow passage ran its 
whole length. Oil and pitch and gunpowder were poured 
on the wood to make the burning better. I was but a 
bambino at the time," repeated the good lapidary, — 
"only seven years of age; yet I think those,, sights did 
terrify me for all my life long ! The most ordinary fire 
btingeth to my thought a martyrdom." 

" But the friars did not enter the pile ? " 

"No; for the Franciscans and Dominicans could not 
agree as to the manner. First, the Franciscans would not 
permit Fra Domenico, who was Savonarola's champion, to 
bring the crucifix with him into the flames ; and, when 
that was settled, they would not permit him to carry the 
host in his hands, lest their god should be burnt. Finally, 
a tremendous storm of haU and rain beat down upon the 
pile, and extinguished their fire : the Almighty had de- 
cided as to the impiety of such ordeals. But, my brother, 
there is a listener," — looking round apprehensively, — 
" and this is a spot of ill savor. Let us come away ; " and 
the lapidary began to move ofi". 

Francesco perceived that the piazza was filling with its 
daily traffickers, and that a certain contadino, with his 
heavy ox-cart, had drawn near enough to be in ear-shot, 
had he so listed ; while the dull countenance of the peas- 
ant gave him sufficient assurance that he could not acit 
the spy. Bui it "vas not so easy to convince the lapi- 



280 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

dary that his fears overrated the danger. " My brother, 
my brother," he whispered, "thou knowest not the wiles 
of these men : Italy is full of spies. Two men can not 
stop to speak, without the Inquisition hearing. One can 
not be too cautious ; " and he stopped not till he had lefl 
the piazza altogether. 

" But there is a thing also in my memory ; for I was a 
man when it took place," he said, pointing to the front of 
the old Palace of the Signoiy, on which appeared nine 
scutcheons of successive governments ; and between the 
aims of the Duke of Athens and the Republic was carven 
the monogram of the Redeemer of the world, recording 
the fact, that, in the year 1528, the Grand Council of Flor- 
ence had formally elected the Lord Jesus Christ to be 
their King ! 

" ' My kingdom is not of this world,' " repeated Fran- 
cesco gently. " They did not give him the rule of their 
hearts,' which is the royalty he values." 

The friends, now making their way to the skirt of the 
town, passed the grand Pitti Palace, and through divers 
strange old winding streets dense as passages in a rabbit- 
warren. " And there," quoth the lapidary in a reverential 
tone, " in the Church of Santa Maria Novella, is Cima- 
bue's great picture of the most blessed Madonna, brought 
thither in procession two hundred and fifty years ago; 
also certain frescos by Fra Angelioo." 

When the young physician saw the cowled figure that 
passed by, shuffing in sandals before the words were well 



SAVONAROLA. 



281 



spoken, he understood the reason of the reverence in the 
speaker's manner. His was a scared soul, truly ; " through 
fear of death, all its lifetime subject to bondage : " and 
yet which of us, in our safe century, dare censure him? 
Francesco, who had himself endured the rack, could only 
pity him. 



24* 





CHAPTER XXXII. 

ON THE ROAD TO ROME. 

^HE first stage lay through a very beautiful 
country to Siena; passing through villages 
which looked lovely at a distance, — white, 
nestUng among vine-leaves and lemon-copsefi, 
— but, near at hand, changed into rows of flat- 
roofed, ugly houses, filthy and dark within, 
with brown children rolling about in the sun- 
shine outside; while the women spun or loitered, as 
pleased them. Thus the human sh*re of the landscape 
was not inviting ; but Nature made up for such blots by 
her own exceeding beauty of hill and vale. What a won- 
drous coloring ! what grouping of mountainous masses ! 
Sometimes bare marble shafts and peaks, sometimes 
rounded verdurous bights in the foreground; and the 
marvel ously beautiful vegetation of Tuscany covering all 
the lowlands, — almond-trees drooping with blossom, or- 
ange and citron groves, copses of fig and olive, — on the 
earth a perfect carpet of flowers. But the roads were atro- 
cious ; and there were few passengers, albeit Francesco 
was on the northern highway to the world's capital. 

282 



ON THE ROAD TO ROME. 283 

Tuscan peasants worked in the fields here and there, 
shaded from the sun by their broad-leaved straw hats : 
great patient oxen were their helpers, with enormous 
strength and stolidity, plowing or" harrowing, or draw- 
Lag burdens; harnessed by their huge, homed heads. 
Spotless cream-color were they, of the very race which 
had tilled the soil around Mantua when Virgil was a boy. 
The buUook-carts might have had equally antique de- 
scent ; their wheels being each a solid wooden circle, and 
the linchpin like the stem of a young pine. 

The sun had set when our traveler approached Siena, 
— that city enthroned in the very crater of a spent vol- 
cano, and whose streets gush up over the edge, and flow 
down the cone-sides in intricate lines of building bounded 
by the old walls. Here had the great preacher Ochino 
been bom ; and here had Paleario taught for many a year, 
ostensibly Greek and Latin ; but a good deal more besides, 
which was not so harmless to Mother Church. Here also 
was the very seat and throne of the mighty miracle-work- 
ing St. Catherine, whose house is yet shown to adoring 
pilgrims ; and who is to this hour the town's deity, as 
truly as ever was Diana of the Ephesians. 

Thence, another day's journey brought Francesco to the 
edge of the papal dominions. Nearing Aquapendente the 
second forenoon, he looked out for some place of refresh- 
ment and shelter from the hottest hours of the sun. See- 
ing a flask and vine-branches hanging over a doorway, he 
accepted the sign of hospitality, and approached; though 
beneath the thick shade of some mulberry-trees along- 



284 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

side were sitting soldiers, whom a slight development of 
his Florentine friend's caution would have taught him to 
avoid. 

Some of the pope's guard : which fact he did not know, 
or he would have thought twice before entering the oste- 
ria. But having a good conscience, and being constitu- 
tionally void of nervousness, he sat down upon one of the 
benches to rest, and enjoy the cool ; while before him lay 
the wide landscape shimmering in a hazy heat. 

" That feUow looks like an ' oltra-montano,' " remarked 
one thick-headed trooper to another ; observing through 
eyes which much wine might have muddled, were it in 
the power of wine to do so : but it could as soon have in- 
fluenced the wooden cask in which it was shipped. 

"Ay, that he does ; or like a north-country heretic : they 
say Lombardy is fiiU of them," responded the comrade 
addressed, taking another pull at the flask. " His clothes 
and his tongue are not Tuscan, I'll wan'ant you. Pity our 
barisello is not here : he has a sharp nose for smelling out 
heresy." 

" Ho ! good fi-iend," quoth the principal trooper, stand- 
ing up, and beckoning him. "You seem lonely over 
there : come and join us in our wine-skin. Nothing like 
good fellowship between travelers ! " 

Francesco hesitated for an instant : he was already un- 
comfortable by reason of their glances and whisperings, 
and knew not whether it were best to advance or retreat. 
His frank disposition and his tired limbs inchned him to 
comply with the invitation ; prudential motives suggested 
the pursuance of his journey. 



ON THE ROAD TO ROME. 285 

"The fact is, my friend," added the soldier, approaching 
him as he buckled on a rapier which had till then Iain 
against the tree-trunk', " we're susijicious about you, and 
can't let you stir till our captain comes back from the 
town yonder. So you may as well come and sit with us, 
and let's while away the time in talk." 

" Certainly, good sirs," replied the young physician with 
an alacrity partly assumed, and looking up at the rough, 
bearded faces which had gathered round. "I shall be 
ready to give account of myself to your officer : at the 
same time, I warn you how you detain a courier from her 
Highness the illustrious Duchess of Ferrara, bearing let- 
ters to certain noble personages in Rome." 

For a moment, the troopers glanced at each other ; then 
the spokesman said, — 

" We have that on your own word, messer : but, be it 
ever so true, Ferrara's heretical quarters to hail from ; and 
as to the duchess, she's known to be out and out a Luther- 
an. So I'm afraid you must wait tiU our barisello returns : 
no discourtesy to you, messer ; for we'd serve her Highness 
herself in the same way. Our holy father makes 'no apol- 
ogy to any one on his own territories ; and we've got or- 
ders to arrest every suspicious person, and search him." 

There was nothing for it but submission ; and so Fran- 
cesco imstrapped his knapsack, and laid it by him on the 
bench, in some misgivings as to what results an examina- 
tion of its contents might bring on his head. For he now 
remembered with alarm, that the book of the Gospels, 
done into Italian by Brucioli, and usually carried in hie 



286 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

bosom, he had hastily laid in his pack that morning, when 
leaving the inn where he had slept. 

Had the deadliest adder been spied nestling among 
the traveler's poor clothes in the bundle, the worthy ser- 
geant of the guard could not have expressed in counte- 
nance and gesture more hate and horror than at sight of 
the printed volume. A line of it he could not read: 
enough for him that it was a book, belonging to a man 
who acknowledged his origin to be Ferrara. 

" My friend," said Francesco gently, " it is not an heret- 
ical book ; it is a book highly honored in the Church, and 
to be found in every convent hbrary through Italy : nay, 
in the very Vatican thou wouldst find it in the holy 
father's chamber ! Stay, and I wiU read for thee certain 
passages to prove how good it is." 

And he lifted the volume from among the things in 
his pack, and, opening it on the table, turned over some 
leaves. 

"A book which the holy father would have in his cham- 
ber, and in every convent library!" muttered the ser- 
geant: "truly, if that be so, no good Christian can be 
harmed by having it or hearing it. Go on, messer, so as 
it be not so stupid as worthy Friar Ambrogio's sermons." 

"Whereat I fell asleep last Sunday," obse^ed a soldier. 

"This is a book of histories of the life of the most 
blessed Christ," said the traveler. "And, for that ye are 
soldiers, I will read you somewhat about soldiers ; because 
there is here what suits each man to his profit. Behold, 
then, what Roman soldiers did to the most blessed Christ 



ON THE ROAD TO ROME. 287 

our Saviour ; " and he commenced to read the nineteenth 
chapter of John's Gospel, at the first verse, slowly and 
reverently. 

As he proceeded, the attention of his listeners became 
more fix^ed; even the wine-skin was neglected. Their 
black eyes presently glowed and lightened as every fresh 
insult to the Lord of life and glory passed the reader's 
lips. The fascination of the most thrilling tale of all time 
was upon them. Suppressed murmurs bespoke their in- 
terest. " O che meraviglia ! what marvel ! Ahi poltroni ! 
ah, the villains ! who would have believed it ? — who ever 
eaw the like ? " And, when the chapter was ended, their 
exclamations were yet louder. 

" My friends," said the reader, " behold what the most 
blessed Christ suffered to redeem us, and to open to us 
the kingdom of heaven ! Think you he could not have 
had hosts of angels in a moment from the skies to defend 
him ? But, if he had not endured all this, we could not 
have been saved. Behold his love ! Will you not love 
him in return ? He stretches out his arms from that cross, 
— his hands pierced, and dropping blood : your sins nailed 
him there ! " 

" "Well, I never forget to say a pater and five aves every 
night," said the sergeant : " and the blessed Virgin has a 
special care of those who remember her; and I never pass 
her shrine without an obeisance, and a prayer if I've time. 
That was a fine story of the brigand who always prayed 
to her before every robbery; and, when at last he was 
hanged for his misdeeds, she kept her white hands under 



288 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

his feet for two whole days, holding him up invisibly; 
and, when the executioner tried to finish his job with 
the sword, she turned aside every blow. So you see the 
benefit of remembering the Madonna ! " 

Just as this notable legend was finished, the clatter of 
hoofs announced the return of the barisello, who flung 
himself off his horse into the group, saying, " What have 
we here ? " 

All his danger, partially forgotten in the excitement of 
his reading, rushed back on Francesco's heart with a sick- 
ening shock. He raised his eyes to the bronzed face of 
the man in whose hands lay his fate. Where had he seen 
it before ? 

Gravely the captain listened to his sergeant's recital, 
and inspected the things found in the pack. Then he de- 
manded to see the letters intrusted to the courier by the 
Duchess Ren(5e ; which Francesco delivered up under pro- 
test. But the barisello merely looked at the seals, and 
gave them back. Then he walked away a little distance 
under the mulberry-trees, out of hearing, beckoning the 
prisoner to follow. 

"Dost not remember Andrea d'Agnolo, in the guard- 
room at Locarno ? For the sake of all thy suffering then, 
comrade, I'll let thee off this time. Pack up thy bundle, 
and be off; for I can't always answer for my fellows : and, 
if thou hadst not these letters with thee, I should bring 
thee before the prior at yon convent," — pointing to a 
square white building emerging from thickets of oUve 
and cypress on the slope of the hill, not far off, — " that 



ON THE ROAD TO ROME. 289 

he might judge of the contents of that book I see with 
thee. I've little doubt myself, — though I can't read a 
word, thanks to the blessed Madonna! — I've little doubt 
but it's the 'Vangelo, the Gospel-book, which would get 
thee the lowest dungeon in the Inquisition an thou wert 
a cardinal. Take my advice, and, before going a mile 
farther, burn it under the fagots in mine host's fire ; for 
thou mayest not meet an old acquaintance at every hos- 
tehy." 

"I thank thee for thy kindness, good friend," replied 
Francesco ; " but, as touching my book, the best I could 
wish thee for the next world would be that thou shouldst 
grasp the hope and the faith that are in it : then wouldst 
thou not counsel me to bum it, but rather to keep it most 
sacredly, as the words of my best Friend and only Sa- 
viour. Mayest thou, good bariseUo, yet know in thy heart 
the preciousness of this Word which bringeth salvation, 
and embrace the most blessed Christ in the arms of thy 
soul's desire ! " 

D'Agnolo was lounging back to his troopers, and made 
no answer. 

" Comrades," he observed, " I've spoken with this fel- 
low, and find he is what he represents himself; and so we 
will allow him to pursue his journey. But it was.a proper 
zeal to detain him until ye were assured of his nature 
and business. Now, messer, as thou hast perchance had 
enough of resting from the noonday heats, thou mayest 
be gone." 
One of the guardsmen passed with him from beneath 

26 



290 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

the mulberry shade, and a little 'way along the road, — a 
beardless youth, whose eyes had glistened vdth feeling 
a while since, as he heard the altogether new story of the 
gospel. " I fain would hear it again, friend ; but I may 
not linger : it gave me a pleasure such as never did tale 
before, or legend of saint. Friend, I would not have 
pierced the blessed Christ with my halberd, had I been 
there. Friend, thinkest thou it is all true ? " 

"Written by the finger of God himself! " was the reply; 
" and, because of that most holy death of the innocent for 
the guilty, are we freed from all sin and from eternal pain. 
Believe this ; take it into thy soul, and love Him who so 
loved us as to die for us." 

" I will go to the church this very night, and look at him 
hanging on that cross," said the young soldier. "Fare- 
well, friend!" • 

"Ton need not wait till then to think of him," said 
Francesco as they parted. 





CHAPTER XXXIII. 

LtTDOVICO PASCHALI. 

ANY pens have endeavored to depict the 
desolation of the Campagna of Rome, upon 
■which Francesco entered from the latest spurs 
of the Apennines. A great silence and drear- 
iness hangs over the vast rich plain ; yet the 
heaven above is bright and clear, the soil fat 
and fertile. In ancient times, the republic 
and the empire drew from it vast wealth by agriculture ; 
but centuries of disuse and papal misgovemment have 
reduced the population to a few scattered groups of peas- 
ants in miserable huts, and the cultivation to a few patches 
of arable land. It is the same under Pius the Ninth as 
under Paul the Fourth ; for the papacy is unchangeable. 

Little shrines and great stone crosses dotted the road- 
side at intervals, as usual. From a long way ofl^ our pil- 
giim would discern one of these, and make its attainment 
a sort of object in his dreary flat walk. Sometimes in a 
knot of trees one trunk would have a hollow, dressed up 
and lined gayly when the now-faded trappings were new, 
and enshrining a tiny image of stone or metal or painted 

291 



292 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

wood. Before this, devout Catholics were wont to pause 
for a bareheaded prayer. It was precisely the want of 
this bit of devotion which caused Francesco to wonder 
who, those two travelers at some distance before him could 
be; for they had passed three saintly shrines and a large 
cross without stopping, or in any wise displaying rever- 
ence, — a very unusual, in fact an altogether improbable, 
omission on the part of orthodox Romanists. Could they 
be even as Francesco himself, refraining from idolatry 
conscientiously ? 

He would draw near, and observe them more narrowly. 
Their pace was so rapid, that his own had to be much 
accelerated to gain upon them. He thought he could 
notice a certain foreignness of attire and general aspect, 
afler he had attained a closer inspection. Presently they 
paused in the shade of a strip of copse ; for the noontide 
heats were strong : they sat upon the grass, and seemed 
to eat somewhat from a wallet borne by one. Francesco 
shortly reached the spot, and, seeing them both young 
men,'with the frankness of his own youth addressed them. 

" Buon ^orno, good friends ! I have been desirous to 
come up with you ; for I perceive that you did not bow 
before the images or crosses on the wayside." He paused; 
for the travelers exchanged a glance: and the idea in- 
stantly struck him, that he must not commit himself with 
these total strangers ; one of whom, at least, was thijiking 
the same. 

" Nay," responded the elder of the twain, " but we had 
once noticed that you yourself refrained in like manner." 



LUDOVIGO PASCHALI. 293 

" He seems an honest man," quoth the other traveler, 
whose semi-mUitary bearing had struck Francesco, and 
whose glittering eyes had been reading the new-comer's 
face and mien. " He seems an honest man, Stefano : why 
not avow " — 

"Thine avowals, my brother Ludovico, will one day 
ruin thee," said the other in a suppressed tone, and put- 
ting a hand on his arm. " Spies are abroad, and men can 
not be too cautious." 

" I have come from Ferrara," said Francesco, " and have 
bowed knee to no shi-ine along the road. If your motive 
be the same as mine, we are brothers in the true faith of 
Christ." 

"Well and freely spoken!" exclaimed the traveler 
Ludovico, springing up, and clasping his hand warmly. 
" Thou art a Lutheran ; and so are we : we hold the truth 
of God, written in his Holy Scriptures, as above all priests 
and popes, our sole rule, our sole knowledge of salvation." 

Francesco returned the pressure. " Even so, my friend : 
I am even as ye are. God has granted me knowledge of 
his free grace from childhood until now. I hail you heart- 
ily as brethren." 

The cloud of doubt did not remove from the more 
worldly-wise Stefano for some little time; while Ludo- 
vico, with characteristic ardor, took their new acquaint- 
ance cordially as he declared himself. But when Fran- 
cesco exhibited the credeqtials of the Duchess Een^e, in 
answer to the unexpressed suspicion, even Stefano was 
satisfied. 

25* 



294 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

That noontide rest was lengthened so much by the 
pleasant converse of those beneath the trees, that shadows 
■were growing long on the plain when they bestirred them- 
selves again. The bond uniting Christians in that age 
was of a strength and thrilling power which we hardly 
know. Danger hemmed them in as by a narrowing circle 
of ever-advancing angry tides ; and the souls within that 
circle were driven very closely together, and very near to 
the great common center, — their divine Master. 

" My brother Stefano Negrino and myself are pastors 
of a Reformed church," Ludovico said. " We are on a 
mission to certain brethren in the south of Italy." 

" Perchanqe to Calabria ! " exclaimed the young physi- 
cian eagerly. 

"Even so. We have been deputed by the Italian 
Church at Geneva to visit the colonies of the Vaudois, 
and assist in building up that portion of Christ's Church 
which has in some respects wandered from the simplicity 
of the truth." 

"But, my brother," interposed the gejitler Stefano, 
" they have been sorely tempted and tried." 

"No temptati«n," averred the sturdy half-soldier Ludo- 
vico Paschali, "is sufficient warrant for concealment of 
the faith, and a sinful compliance with the superstitious 
practices of Rome. They have been guilty of a very gen- 
eral lapse in taking the eucharist at mass, and permitting 
the baptism of their children by Romish priests, while yet 
they secretly hold that the mass is a horrid impiety, and 
reject purgatory and saint-worship. But what saith the 



LUDOVICO PASCBALI. 295 

worthy doctor Ecolampade in his Remonstrance ? " and 
Paschali drew from his bosom a roll of parchment, whence 
he selected a page: "'It; becomes men who know they 
have been redeemed by the blood of Christ to be more 
courageous. In sajdng Amen to the mass, do you not 
deny Christ ? for, if these masses make satisfaction for the 
sins of the living and the dead, what is the consequence, 
but that Christ has not made it sufficiently, and that he 
died for us in vain ? ' Thou seest, then, my brother, what 
dishonor these Calabrian churches have cast upon their 
Lord : they need a reformution, though reformed." 

" I grieve to hear all this," said Francesco ; "for my pur- 
pose was to settle among these Vaudois colonies, to which 
I have certain ties by blood, and with whom I had heard 
that freedom of conscience was established in some sort. 
Perchance portions of the colonies may be freer from the 
taint of Romanized worship than others ? " 

"They settled on the soil," said Ifegrino, raising his 
thoughtful face, " under convention with the signers who 
owned it, and who guaranteed to them self-government 
by their own magistrates and pastors. This convention 
was ratified by Ferdinand of Aragon, Eng of Naples, so 
late as the year 1500 : methinks it ought to be security 
enough for the peaceable exercise of religion ; but, alas ! 
the theorj»is better than the practice. The clergy have 
long complained that these Calabrians are not like other 
people, in that none of them become priests or nuns ; 
and they concern themselves little about chantings, wax- 
tapers, or images: that they had unknown foreign school- 



296 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

masters, to whom they paid a deeper respect than even to 
the secular clergy, Now, these suspicions being afloat, 
the Calabrians have been compelled to be very cautious, 
lest the Inquisition should be down upon them; for it 
overrides all laws and national institutions, as remodeled 
by the Cardinal Carafia. Hence the state of things which 
our brother Paschali describes. A people within a people, 
they have been seeking to blot over the line of demarca- 
tion as much as might be, for self-preservation's sake." 

" But now, when the Christian world is rising against 
Antichrist as one man," exclaimed the vehement Paschali, 
" shall they sleep the ignominious sleep of carnal security 
longer? shall they not add their voice to the universal 
protest ? When this peninsula, the very seat of the beast, 
is stirred from its center to its verge with the great Ref- 
ormation movement, shall the Calabrian colonies, who 
have possessed the light of truth so long, be not rather 
ashamed of the cowardice which has kept it so much con- 
cealed?" 

"Ah! my brother," said Negrino, looking at the flash- 
ing eyes and kindling face with a certain affectionate sor- 
To^w, " methinks thou art a candidate for the noble army 
of martyrs. Methinks, in laying by helmet and rapier, 
thou didst not put aside the martial spirit." 

" Nay, my Stefano," said the other more caimly, " but 
surely a man may have ardor in Christ's army, and for the 
Captain of his salvation, as ever for earthly general. My 
warlike instincts may serve me in good stead against 
spiritual foes ; and, if I ' please Him who hath chosen me 
to be a soldier,' I care httle for aught else." 



LUDOVICO PASCHALI. 297 

" But the day is wearing," observed Stefano ; " the sim 
is "wheeling westward already. If we would reach Rome 
to-night, we had better resume our way." 

The fragments of the meal were stowed away in the 
wallet carried by Paschali, and the three travelers passed 
from the copse to the open road again. Before them, 
afar, rose towers and spires of the Eternal City, crested 
with the wondrous, though yet unfinished, dome of St. 
Peter's. 

"Ay, the great Babylon," muttered Paschali, striding 
onwards, " drunken with the blood of the saints, and of 
the martyrs of Jesus. Hast thou heard of the latest mar- 
tyrdom, brother?" turning round to Francesco. "God- 
fredo Varaglia, the Capuchin preacher, has sealed his 
testimony with his blood, not a month since, at Turin." 

" What ! he who once preached so vehemently against 
the Waldenses ? " 

" Even so. While arguing with our pastors, God gave 
him power to receive the truth to the salvation of his 
soul. Fra Bernardin Ochino, general of Ms order, was 
of Hke belief; and they worked together in publishing 
Christ's gospel, until Rome became so roused that Ochino 
had to fly. Varaglia was arrested, and, on making some 
abjuration of heresy in general terms, was kept in Rome 
for five years. Afterward he went to France with the 
papal legate; and thence retired to Geneva, where his 
heart had long been with Calvin and Beza. Again he 
went among our brethren of the Valleys ; but it was now 
to preach the faith he had once labored to destroy: and 



298 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

the long arms of the Inquisition, stretching over the fron- 
tier, seized him. When questioned before the tribunal, 
he declared that the number of preachers ready to enter 
Italy and publish the gospel was so great, that wood to 
bum them could not be found." 

Again Paschali took the lead, as if his ardent spirit was 
hasting onward to his scene of labor moi'e rapidly than 
his body could travel. With head erect, and military 
marching gait, the ex-soldier pressed forward: Negrino, 
older and less fiery, kept with Francesco a few paces in 
the rear. 

" The pastor hath been in the army," observed the lat- 
ter, indicating Paschali by that pointing of the thumb 
which is so characteristically Italian. 

" He was trained for it," was the reply, " but quitted it 
for Christ's service whUe very young; studied at Lau- 
sanne for some time ; and, when the Calabrese Vaudois 
applied for an Italian preacher as well as the occasional 
'barbe' from the VaUeys, he was found so eminently 
suited by zeal and by acquirements, that he was at once 
nominated by our Genevese pastors to accompany me. 
Poor feUow ! he has much to sadden him just now. He 
was betrothed, two days before his appointment, to a cer- 
tain maiden, Camilla Guarina, whom he truly loves : yet 
at the call of duty they severed ; and she, more vahant 
than ever was the lady of knight going into mortal com- 
- bat, and buckling on the armor in which he may receive 
the death-wound, committed him to her God for this per- 
ilous mission, not knowing if she shall ever again behold' 
him in the flesh." 



LVDOVICO PASCHALI. 299 

A thrill of sympathy struck through the listener's heart 
as he heard of this quiet heroism ; not very iafrequent in 
an age when principle constantly demanded the highest 
sacrifices, but still appealing to the deepest feelings of 
human nature. 

"A nobler spirit never breathed," quoth Negrino in 
the same undertone. " He counteth not his life dear unto 
him, so he may finish his course with joy, and gain the 
great Master's 'Well done, good and faithful servant!'" 

The interest attached to PaschaU was indefinitely in- 
creased in Francesco's eyes by this item of knowledge 
about his former life. He bent instinctively before the 
noble, self-sacrificing soul which for Christ's sake separat- 
ed itself from all it held dearest on earth, and went forth 
to carry the banner of truth into a region where the very 
air of common life breathed peril. 

And the name of Camilla Guarina — the betrothed 
maiden whose self-sacrifice was equal; for she remained 
at home to sufier in monotony and silence, while Paschali 
passed into exciting scenes of action and endurance — 
should not be forgotten among those of the women who 
laid their hearts on the shrine of the Italian Reformfition, 
She never saw her lover on earth again. 





CHAPTER XXXIV. 

THE ETERNAL CITY. 

IITH that aerial dome for goal, our travelers 
marclied across the blackened bosom of the 
Campagna. Michael Angelo was yet its un- 
paid architect, toiling day after day at col- 
onnade and arch and pier, elaborating the 
minutest details with the grand exactitude 
of genius, as the vast pile slowly grew, which 
took more than a century to mature into full magnifi- 
cence. But few sight-seers visited Rome at this era. 
The world's business was too stem to admit of pleasure- 
tours; and the concourse of outer "barbarians," who now 
annually admire the Eternal City, was utterly unknown. 
For something apart from archaeology or sesthetics did 
the pilgrim from north or west cross sea and mountain to 
the center of the Christian world, the capital of the faith, 
the seat of the earthly vicegerent of the Supreme. 

"Accursed Babylon!" muttered Paschali in the very 
Porta del Popolo, unawed by the magnificence sun-ound- 
ing; and, though his tongue was silent, his companions 
could read the same denunciation in his uncomiDromising 

300 



THE ETERNAL CITY. 301 

face, as they passed along crowded streets, and under the 
walls of the immense Fortress of St. Angelo, raising its 
gray battlements far above their heads. Two short years 
aflei-ward, what a scene for him in the court adjoining ! 
What a presentation before the hierarchy of pope and 
purple cardinals, and before the more glorious, though 
invisible, hierarchy of heaven ! what a spectacle for angels 
and for men ! 

But the future is vailed from us in mercy. Pasohah 
was not to be unnerved for present duty by any prevision 
of his mortal fate. 

A vast crowd is gathered before one of the half-thou- 
sand churches : it was that higher order of ecclesiastical 
building entitled a basiUca, of dignity sufficient for ponti- 
fical ceremonies. And the very crowd is characteristic of 
Rome. Nowhere else such a medley of. ecclesiastic cos- 
tumes, such variety of cowls and gowns and cords and 
caps, appertaining to all orders of regulars. Long flowing 
robes of some, coarse brown cloaks of others, white tunics 
of a third order ; all most blessed, and conferring on their 
wearers the privilege of independent idleness. 

"Ditemi che c'e? Tell me, what's all this about?" 
asked Francesco of his nearest neighbor, whose homed 
cowl and patched rochet bespoke him a Capuchin. The 
friar turned on his questioner a pair of lazy brown eyes, 
as he replied, — 

« Oh ! it's only our holy father borne in his chair of 
Slate. As you're evidently a new-comer, I don't mind 
making room for you, if you care to see the show ;" and 

26 



302 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

he moved to let Francesco on a step which he occupied 
as vantage-ground. While thanking him, the obliged 
person could not but feel the language rather more irrev- 
erent than he would have looked for in a monkish habit ; 
but he soon found, that, in Rome, this was nothing new. 

The crowd were talking abundantly among themselves, 
and now and then sending up a jet of applause into the 
air around the old church-towers. The murmur of the 
garrulous Romans, separated into its constituent elements 
of gossip, was not always complimentary to their spiritual 
father and his court. For instance : — 

"I say, Jacopo, did you see how angrily the pope 
glanced at his nephew CarafFa, when he drew near to 
him at the doorway? The old man is beginning to see 
through that hypocrite ; and 'tis time." 

" Nay, but they say that lately, when the cardinaJ was 
ill, the holy father, going to visit him suddenly, found him 
in very bad company. His Eminence has long loved gam- 
blers and drinkers more than learned doctors and priests : 
how he managed to hide it from the sharp eyes of Paul, is 
the question." 

" Oh ! that's his camp education," put in a little shorn 
Benedictine, clothed in black woolen gown. "Why, the 
holy father himself said of the cardinal, that his arm was 
dyed in gore to the elbow." 

Paschali uttered a sort of groan. "And are these thy 
princes, O Rome ? " was his mental ejaculation: 

The Capuchin stared as intently as his sleepy brown 
eyes could. « Art thou ill, friend ? " 



TEE ETERNAL CITY. 303 

"Not in the least," responded Paschali curtly; "but a. 
man may.groan over sin, especially when throned in high 
places, my friend." 

« Oh ! if that be thy fancy," observed the monk, pushing 
back his funnel-shaped cowl, " thou needst not be silent 
night or day in Rome; "we're used to it here: and yet 
the holy father himself is all a pope should be. But 
human nature is human nature, we all know;" and he 
shrugged his shoulders cozily under the patched cloak. 
" I fancy thou art a stranger, or this would not be so new 
to thee, and thy groanings would be kept for thyself." 

"But the pope — he is a conscientious man: how can 
he tolerate this blood-stained Caraffa ? " 

" Hist ! speak gently, fiiend. Though everybody knows 
it, 'tis a matter for whispering. Now, in the first place, 
Caraffa is his nephew; and you wouldn't have the holy 
father without natural affection ? Then the cardinal had 
cleverness enough to feign a deep remorse for his past 
excesses, and was more than once surprised — accidentally 
of course — by his Holiness, prostrate before the crucifix, 
and confessing apparently sins. Being the sincerest man 
alive himself, our holy father could not suspect such play- 
ing of the hypocrite, and gave the opportune penitent 
the red hat he sought ; took him deeply into his counsels, 
and often praised him as the ablest statesman in the pa- 
pacy, — a character which Caraffa vindicated by plunging 
headlong into wars with the Colonnas, whom he plun- 
dered ; and with Spain and Naples, who plundered him 
back again." 



304 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

"And what of the government of the Church all this 
time of wielding the secular sword?" asked Pasohali. 

"The Church! — oh! she is taken good care of: don't 
you know the promise to Saint Peter, that ' the gates of 
hell shall not prevail against' her? And his Holiness is a 
pope most zealous for the faith : never was the Holy Office 
so busy ; never was heresy more determinately rooted out, 
with an unsparing hand, from the highest places as well as 
from the lowest. The cardinal's pui-ple is no protection : 
Contarini could not now palter with heretics as he used. 
Morone and Foscarari have seen the inside of the new 
Lutheran prison beyond Tiber. Even the Cardinal of 
England has fallen under suspicion : nay, the tribunal of 
the Inquisition itself has required expurgation ; and lay- 
men of undoubted orthodoxy have been introduced as 
judges instead of suspected clerics. Ah ! my friend, there 
wiU not be a heretic breathing on this side the Alps in 
five years, if his Holiness works as he is now doing. I 
only wish he could plant the same all-powerful machinery 
on the other side.'' 

Had the heavy brown eyes been a trifle sharper, they 
might have read in the stranger's face a very unmistaka^ 
ble dissent from his enthusiasm in favor of the Holy 
Office ; but the good monk never doubted he was speak- 
ing to a stanch Catholic Uke himself, — one who could 
see discrepancies of practice in his spiritual superiors, but 
never deem them the less worthy of all reverence, or the 
less infalhble in their ecclesiastical capacity. 

"You see," continued the talkative Capuchin, "I can't 



THE ETERNAL CITY. 305 

bear those Lutherans. They would take the supremacy 
fi-om our Rome: no more universal bishop, forsooth! 
What would become of us all here, I should like to know ? 
We might shut up half our churches and convents. That's- 
the great thing with these 'novatori;' and I just wouldn't 
leave one of them breath to be crowing his blasphemies 
in our ears, and picking the Church's pockets of her dues." 

Paschali was with dLflBculty silent : only the strongest 
sense of the duty of self-preservation restrained his speech. 
Negrino, who feared that his ardor would betray him into 
imprudent utterance, hastened to inteipose. 

"And these Lutherans of whom you speak, my friend: 
have they been numerous in Rome ? " 

" I should irather say not,'' replied the other with a low 
laugh ; " though there are accessions most days, brought 
in from all parts, to that palace of theirs, beyond the Tiber, 
whereof I spoke anon, and which our present holy father 
has erected for their accommodation." 

"Are we likely to see the pope to-day?" inquired Ne- 
grino when the monk's chuckle ceased. 

" Oh, yes ! he will come out to give us all his blessing, 
don't you understand? " and herewith the Capuchin picked 
from the pouch of a mendicant Franciscan beside him, who 
was returning home from his morning's work of begging 
victuals, a portion of bread and meat, and began to eat. 
The action struck the rude sense of humor in the lookers- 
on ; and hearty laughter followed the discomforted look 
of the Franciscan, as he found how involuntarily he had 
ministered to his brother's need. 

26* 



306 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

"Never mind, good Frate: thy pouch is tolerably swol- 
len yet." "Fasting a meal will do his fat cheeks no 
harm!" And similar remarks greeted him on every side, 
till he retreated to rid himself of the bulging provender 
in the safe repository of his convent. 

At intervals, these outsiders heard peals of solemn 
chantings from within ; and wafts of incense through the 
wide folding-doors visited another sense. At last came 
forth the center of aU eyes, — Paul the Fourth, — borne 
in a great gUded chair, beneath a canopy of white satin 
heavily fringed with bullion ; the old man's bony hand 
perpetually raised in the benedictory attitude, Hs lips 
moving Avith benedictory words, but no trace of snule or 
of blessing on the thin anxious face or in the restless fiery 
eyes. Whatever this holy father could do in the way of 
making others happy or blessed, he had certainly kept but 
little of such enjoyments for himself, to judge by appear- 
ances. 

No, not all the ascetic observances of the Theatine Car- 
dinal (as he was called, because of founding that order), 
not all the zealous preachings of John Peter Caraffa, not 
all the bitter bigotry of the Grand Inquisitor, had sufficed 
to make of Pope Paul the Fourth aught but a misera- 
ble old man. Disappointed in his schemes of ambition, 
thwarted in the nearest relations of life by his designing 
nephews, defeated in every war, he was victorious on one 
field alone, — the pope against the heretics. Here he had 
undisputed conquest : here might the malevolence of his 
spirit legitimately expatiate, and his furious temper find 



THE ETERNAL CITY. 307 

victims for vengeance. No one did more to crush the 
Reformation in Italy than this man, who had in his early- 
days sat in the Oratory of Divine Love, with Sadolet, 
Pole, Contarini, and other men who loved the gospel in 
its purity. Widely had their paths diverged ; never to 
meet, we fear, for aU eternity. 





CHAPTEE XXXV. 

GENIUS AND I-AITH. 

^N old man stands in a sculptor's studio, strik- 
ing flakes of marble from a block before him 
with a most decisive chisel. Three figures of a 
group are already sketched, and he is at work 
on the fourth. A dead Christ, supported by 
the sorrowing mother, forms the chief of these. 
The former is partially elaborated; and a 
weight of deathliness has been infused from the artist's 
vivid conceptions into those marble limbs, which is to this 
day, in the duplicate group, the wonder of all beholdera, 
where the statues remain behind the great altar of the 
Cathedral of Florence. The other figures are much less 
finished. The sculptor is now outhning a standing N"ico- 
demus. His chisel-strokes are so vehement, — though the 
arm wielding that mallet is now eighty-three years old! 
— that the spectator trembles for the roughness of each 
blow, lest the design be injured by the great fragments 
which fall away ; but the impetuous sculptor sees through 
the shapeless marble his idea, and is merely knocking 
away the dead matter that imprisons it. 

808 



GENIUS AND FAITB. 309 

Francesco paused on the threshold of Michael Angelo's 
studio, and beheld the scene. So engrossed was the re- 
nowned workman, that he did not hear the entrance : 
with knitted brows, and concentrated expression of face, 
he continued to strike and to ruminate, until his servant 
Antonio, drawing near, announced a messenger from the 
Duchess of Ferrara. 

Then the full piercing glance of those blue-gray, deep- 
set eyes suddenly fell on the visitor ; a most kingly face 
and form, bearing some natural command in both, born of 
inextinguishable self-reliance and self-knowledge. Fran- 
cesco approached the greatest artist of the age with the 
reverence due to his genius, and presented him with the 
letter from her Highness of Ferrara. While it was being 
read, he had leisure to look about him in this sanctuary 
of art. 

A model of the cupola of St. Peter's stood on a table; 
plans of the building lay about : unfinished statues abound- 
ed. For such was the impetuous eagerness of the great 
sculptor, that he frequently grew impatient with the slow 
development of his ideal from the dull marble ; and some 
la,ter-born thought would usurp possession of his brain, 
which he must forthwith strive to evolve into actual shape 
and solidity. Hence the number of unfinished works 
which remain to attest the unexampled fecundity of Mi- 
chael Angelo's imagination. 

- "Eh, signor, you admire that?" said the garrulous and 
familiar Antonio in an undertone, while he glanced toward 
his ma^er, and signaled the stranger Avith his thumb to 



310 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN Il'ALY. 

draw nearer. "'Tis a rare design; but you should see 
the original that he gaye me ! The .Signer Tiberio CaU- 
agni — you know him, a Florentine sculptor? He has 
it now, giving me two hundred.gold crowns for my right. 
Of course, signer, the seudi were of more use to a poor 
man than the statue ; yet, for all, I did not quite like to 
sell it. My master intended it for his own tomb first ; 
but he grew tired of it, and the marble had a blemish 
which provoked him mightily every day. At last, striv- 
ing to finish the whole afiair in a hurry, he unfortunately 
struck a bit off the Madonna's elbow; and I think he 
would have smashed up the whole group in his vexation, 
if I had not begged him to give it me just as it was. 
Then Signer Tiberio, who had been longing to possess 
some work of art from my master's hand, persuaded me 
to let him have it for the two hundred crowns ; and my 
master has promised me the use of his models for its re- 
pair. This is the same subject, but smaller in size. My 
master just amuses himself with sculpturing it, as you saw 
him new : but he can not work long at a time ; age comes 
en him apace." And the voice of the faithftil servant 
dropped still lower, as he looked toward the spare snoy- 
crowned figure of the master concerning whom he was so 
proud. 

"And this?" ventured Francesco, seeing the still ab- 
stracted gaze of Michael Angelo upon his letter. 

« This, signer, is a model of the restoration of the fa- 
mous terse of the Belvidere^ — Hercules reposing from 
his labors, do you see ? My master amuses himself with 



GENIUS AND FAITH. 311 

such trifles, signor : he has not the heart nor the muscle 
for large labors now, more especially since Urbino died. 
Urbino was my predecessor, signor : my master loved him 
greatly, and grieved much for him after twenty-six years 
living together. He has an incomparable heart, has my 
master!" "♦ 

Michael Angelo seemed suddenly to rouse himself from 
a reverie. He walked quickly across the room to another 
chamber beyond, and returned in a few minutes with a 
large cartoon in his hand, which presented the outlines of 
a very beautiful face, and a figure half length, — the fea- 
tures of rich Roman type, and exceeding purity of line : 
calm, full eyes ; classic nostril ; soft, crimson lips ; and light 
golden hair, in great folds of plaiting and waves around 
the head, beneath a heavy antique ornament Uke a half 
helmet. 

"Ah! " explairned Michael Angelo, setting his drawing 
in a good light against the wall, " hast thou ever seen face 
like that, young man ? " 

Never, might Francesco safely affirm, as he gazed at 
that peerless beauty. 

" Her Highness , the duchess is good enough to ask me 
for a picture of the illustrious Marchesa di Pescara, — she 
who is best known, perhaps, by her name of the ' divine 
Vittoria Colonna.' I have nothing but this sketch ; yet, 
if a man so old as I am may talk of time or opportunity, 
I shall endeavor to complete from it a portrait worthy of 
the subject and the person for whom it is destined. Thou 
art not going hack, to Fen-ara immediately?" 



312 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

]!To : the young physician had business in Naples. 

"My good Antonio, thou mayest go." So the servant, 
who had busied himself in grinding colors at a little dis- 
tance from the conversation, left the studio. " Thou art 
no mere courier, signor, — of that thine air and gait would 
inform me ; but this letter teUs somewhat more. , We are 
in Rome, so can not speak plainly : yet I will say so far as 
that, thou seest a like believer in Michael Angelo Buona- 
rotti ; and, in what thou needest, command my help." 

Francesco clagped the aged hand which had executed 
the world's wonders of art, yet was dearer to him as the 
hand of one who trusted in the same Saviour than as a 
hand which princes had pressed in deference : he kissed 
it fervently, — an Italian action of reverential respect from 
man to man. " Most noble signor, I thank thee." 

" Yes," said the great artist, turning again toward the 
portrait of his illustrious friend : " she it was who led me 
to the truth, and taught me the path to heaven. I pre- 
sented to her 'the blank page of a troubled mind;' and on 
it she wrote for me the highest knowledge, — the knowl- 
edge that brings eternal life. She was my spiritual guide : 
she held up before me the one solution for all my doubts 
and fears, in the faith of the most blessed Christ. Ought 
I not to be grateful to her memory? She has helped me 
to be new-born, — to be remodeled for eternity." • 

A minute's gazing at the magnificent features, grandly 
calm. " Beautiful as her soul," observed Michael Angelo : 
" never was fairer spirit shrined in fairer form." 

* See the sonnets of Michael Angelo. 



GENIUS AND FAITH. 313 

" One would scarce think to find a noble lady of her 
dignity, and among her temptations, heeding the truths 
of the gospel," said Francesco. " 'Not many mighty, not 
many noble, are called.' " 

" Fra Bernardino Ochino was the first who showed her 
the truth. When her heart was desolate after Pescara's 
death, and no comfort but the Divine could reach her, his 
words seemed a balm from heaven; and he set her to 
search the Holy Scriptures of God, to prove whether his 
sayings were true, and that the faith of Christ alone could 
justify. Verily it was good news ! As for me, my soul 
had for sixty-three years been tossed on seas of doubt be- 
fore I received that glorious knowledge, and sailed into 
the haven of everlasting peace. "Well-nigh had I doubted 
that a religion so full of the foulest corruption as this in 
Rome could be from God in any wise ; well-nigh had I 
looked up with the fool, and said, ' There is no God,' or 
such iniquities could not be done under the sun ! For I 
remember Borgia pope, young man; and human crime has 
never farther gone ! " 

" Even the papacy has been purified to a certain de- 
gree," said the visitor. " Paul IV. is a vast improvement 
on Alexander and Leo." 

"Yes, yes," assented the artist; "but never can the 
Church agree to the great doctrine of justification by- 
faith. Don't you see that it would cut away every tem- 
poral power at a blow? No more purgatory with a 
golden key; no more sacrifices for the dead; no more be- 
quests of rich lands to buy salvation after a life of ciime ; 

27 



314 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

no more papal absolutions nor indulgences ; in fact, vei-y 
little need of a priesthood. Ah ! no, my friend : this new 
Council at Trent will condemn justifying faith as the 
blackest heresy. It can not do otherwise." 

Just then, a man in the prime of life,_ and richly dressed 
in courtier's garb, entered the studio, and saluted Michael 
Angelo with the familiarity of an assured friend. 

"Ah, my Giorgio ! is it thou ? Hast done any thing to- 
ward rectifying the mistake which that yarlet of a mason 
committed in the King of France's chapel at St. Peter's ? 
How he could make so grave an error in the measure- 
ments, I know not. My model should have been sufficient 
guide. See here ; " and he proceeded to explain and com- 
ment on the fault that had occurred, as lucidly and ener- 
getically as if but fifty years, instead of eighty, were 
weighing on his brain. " He believes, I dare Warrant, that 
Michael Angelo is reaUy in second childhood, as certain 
detractors have asserted; and thinks he may alter my 
plans with impunity. I shall show him that it is not so. 
See, young man ! " turning to Francesco : " they say I am 
in my dotage : look here ! " 

He brought him to the half-finished model of the cu- 
pola which had attracted Francesco's attention previously. 
"Behold! much of it was executed by this hand. It 
should be sufficient to prove my continued faculties, think 
you?" 

Francesco felt it almost affecting to be thus appealed to 
by this mighty intellect ag^st detracting suspicions of 
decay. Hfe bent to inspect the model closely, as well as 
lio hide a moisture that gathered about his eyes. 



GENIUS AND FAITH. 315 

" Noble Buonarotti, it seemeth to me perfect," he said 
unfeignedly. " But I am no artist nor engineer." 

" My Vasari," said Michael Angelo, addressing the new- 
comer, " hast thou that last sonnet I sent thee but a short 
time agone"? He would have more skill to judge of 
words than of "architecture, perchance." 

And Vasari read for the young man the beautiful lines 
which have descended to our day, wherein the great 
sculptor takes adieu of his art, and of imagination, its 
" idol and monarch ; " wherein he speaks of the two 
deaths approaching, — "one certain, the other threaten- 
ing. What can art or imagination do to avert such 
doom?" 

" My one sole refuge is that love divine 
Which from the cross stretched forth its arms to save." * 

"Methinks that Michael Angelo hath even excelled 
himself in this sonnet," observed Vasari complaisantly. 
" There is the ring of the true Petrarch metal therein." 

"And of a greater than Petrarch!" broke in Francesco. 
"A celestial hope and faith are uttered, of which Petrarch 
never dreamed in his loftiest inspirations." 

"Young men, young men, ye are partial," said the 
author. " Yet believe me that not my works, which the 
world is pleased to call mighty efforts of genius, nor my 
fame, which is great, nor my friends, which are many and 
dear, are my cherished thought now, or my source of sat- 
isfaction. Nay, rather do I turn to Him who died upon 
• Sonnet Ivi., written in Ms eighty-third year. 



316 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

that cross; and straightway my soul, 'like a frail bark 
'scaped from fierce storms of wrath, glides into a placid 
sea of peace.' * Before I knew the ftdlness of Christ's 
pardon, I scarce thought that even Divine Love could 
overlook my countless sins ; but now the priceless value 
of his blood has taught me that ' measureless as his pains 
for us is his mercy for us, most blessed Christ ! ' " f 

The reader of Michael Angelo's sonnets at the present 
day is amazed to find that this great man, who dwelt in 
the antechamber of popes, and devised gorgeous accesso- 
ries for Roman worship, and devoted his highest science 
to the erection of the noblest Roman cathedral, yet held 
doctrines as Protestant as Luther or Zwingle, and was at 
heart a humble, earnest believer in Jesus, and not in the 
sacred mummeries which daily surrounded him. Thus 
did the Lord God choose his own people from the most 
unlikely positions, and seal them his own till the day of 
his appearing. 

Vasari, who is chiefly renowned in the nineteenth cen- 
tury as the Boswell to this greater than Johnson, pres- 
ently brought forward a plan of some apartments in the 
ducal palace at Florence, on which he was then engaged 
as architect and fresco-painter. Francesco shortly took 
his leave. He had thus executed the Duchess Rente's 
last commission in Rome, and was at liberty to proceed 
on his jomney southward. 

* Sonnet sUz. t Sonnet 1, 




CHAPTER XXXVI. 

A CLEFT IN A EOCK. 

ONG lines of tapers blinking feebly to the 
noonday sun, and dropping wax about as they 
leaned hither and thither in uncertain hands ; 
crucifixes seeming top-heavy, and borne at va- 
rious angles ; a path beautifully flower-strewn, 
embroidered with patterns of colored blossoms, 
crushed at every step of the crowd ; an image 
lifted above all, — the perpetual Madonna, smiling feebly 
with scarlet lips and pink cheeks and staring eyes ; copes 
and cowls in abundance on the central line of the pro- 
cession, — all winding through a long street of lava-built 
houses in the little town of Ariccia. Had the pagans of 
Horace's time, who worshiped Diana on the same spot, 
glanced aci-oss the centuries, and seen this procession to 
honor the Virgin Mary, they could scarce believe but it 
was their own goddess-adoration still walking the earth, a 
little modernized, but essentially the same. 

" My httle heart," quoth Paschali to a chUd by the way- 
side, as the procession drew nigh along the flower-strewn 
road, " what great day is this, that the images are shown 
forth?" 

27* 317 



318 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

The child looked up at the tall, bearded figure, without 
reply : her skirt was fuU of the roseate-purplish cyclamen, 
which she strewed into oei"tain chalked marks on the 
path. Others were similarly engaged with baskets of 
blossoms; and so the many-colored mosaic of flowers 
grew before the feet of the procession, and behind them 
was a crushed, shapeless mass. 

" Knowest thou not the day of the Invention of the 
Holy Cross?" said an old monk, who stood aside, and 
seemed to superintend the carpeting of the road. "Me- 
thinks, friend, thou hast paid but small attention to the 
festivals of our holy Church, or thou needest not have 
asked. Come here, mia figlia, and lay a bordering of that 
golden broom-blossom along the edge of this cyclamen. 
These two little damsels, my son," he added, addressing 
Paschaliagain," are most highly honored of our Lady; for 
they have so well behaved themselves by her favor, as to 
be chosen to represent the blessed Santa Anna and the 
Madonna on the last festa in Ariccia." 

Then Paschali noticed, that, instead of a garland round 
her hair, the little girl with the cyclamen wore a gilded 
coronet, and that the small head was held erect with 
somewhat of an elated au-. Could the child forget that 
lately she had been seated on a throne before the high 
altar, as representative of the queen of heaven ; and that 
a whole congregation had bowed before her, and done her 
reverence ? It was a lesson of self-importance and of 
idolatry not easily obliterated. 

" Come away down this by-street," said Negrino, who 



A CLEFT IN A ROCK. 319 

did not desire to attract suspicion by an ostentatious re- 
fusal of obeisance as the procession passed. " Perchance 
there is some outlet for getting on the Naples road more 
quickly than if we waited till this path be clear." 

So, just as the foremost taper-carriers approached, our 
tliree travelers dived down a narrow passage between the 
lava-built houses skirting the main streets at the back. 
Emerging lower down on the bill which the town crests, 
before them stretched along the horizon the wide blue 
expanse of the Mediterranean; and the land was all diver- 
sified with hill and vale and wood between. 

"Again thou didst tremble for my headstrong zeal, 
amico mio," said Paschali to his brother pastor, Negrino. 
" Yet I am well assured, that, at a pinch, thou wouldst 
be as steadfast in not bowing the knee to the idol as I 
would be.".. 

The other smiled. " I hope so," he said. " But my 
body belongs to my Master, as well as my soul ; and I am 
desirous to work for him so long as I can, knowing that he 
does not wish me rashly to destroy any of his good gifts. 
It seemeth to me that we can glorify the most blessed 
Christ, and do injuiy to the kingdom of Satan, at this pres- 
ent time, more by our life than by our death, my Paschali." 

" Hear him, arguing with rue as with a being devoid of 
the first principle of self-preservation ! " quoth the Pied- 
montese, turning toward Francesco. "Ah! my friend, 
thou knowest I have too many reasons to wish for both 
long hfe and quiet life," he added, with a touch of mourn- 
fulness in his voice, as his thoughts went back to the 



320 FROM DA WN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

lonely maiden in Geneva, — a reflex of some of her con- 
tinual thoughts of him. 

" But, as I was saying before we met the procession," 
quoth Negrino, taking up the thread of foimer discourse, 
" the characteristic of this present Reformation is its union 
of science and piety. The enlightened and educated of 
the earth are its great promoters, and it has repaid their 
attachment by a Christianizing influence on the learning 
of the age. I doubt not but Italy would drift back into 
paganism, except for the renovation of religion conse- 
quent on the study of the Sacred Scriptures." 

"It is strange how the modern tongues have been 
brought into use by the same movement!" remarked 
Francesco. " The appeal of the reformers to the people 
necessitated the speaking in the popular languages, and 
not in Latin or Greek, which is understood only by 
learned men. Luther wrote in German : Ochiao can only 
utter or write Italian! It is a sign of the times." 

"Yes, a symptom that the renovation of religiqn pro- 
ceeds now from no limited sect or narrow clique, but from 
the powerful people." 

"More so in Germany than in Italy, I should say," ob- 
served Francesco. " I see no fewer processions than ever, 
nor are the churches less crowded. I fear that with us 
the Reformation is rather among the upper ranks." 

" It was fashionable to be a free-thinker before it be- 
came a dangerous amusement," said Negrino. "Prm- 
cesses and cardinals do not easily lay down their honors 
and go to prison : they have not the sturdy grasp of aty. 



A CLEFT IN A ROCK. 321 

common men and Tvomen upon truth and faitli. Yet me- 
thinks Contarini could have made a martyr." 

" AU believers need that stamp upon them )w, when a 
Caraffa wears the tiara," observed Paschali, his face, set 
sternly. "As for me, I expect none other fate. Nay, 
what do I say? I look for none other crown of rejoicing." 

Some days of slow pedestrian march elapsed before 
they reached Naples. " Vedi Napoli, e poi muori ! " — 
" See Naples, and die ! " ^ is the vainglorious proverb of 
its citizens ; and truly God has showered a rich dower of 
beauty on the southern capital of Italy. But in no splen- 
did villa or palazzo set in gorgeous scenery did our trio 
of travelers, find repose. Negrino, who waiS a Vaudqis 
"barbe,"or itinerant pastor, and had been thisiroad before 
on a Calabiian mission, knew that the brethren who would 
receive them in Naples were poor and obscure, hiding lit- 
erally in the rocks. He guided his cc-mpanioBS to, a certain 
outlet of the town, where were prenpitauig mural cliffs, 
perhaps the relic of an ancient sea-bfcach. Little shops, 
were ranged along beneath : at one, th&t of a fruit-seller, 
he pausjed. 

The old woman was in,tent on arran^g a fresh batch 
of blood-oranges among their green leavoa temptingly. 
Negrino put his, hajod on the brown wrinkled lingers with 
a friendly pressure. She looked wp quickly,, sha,diw^ her 
eyes from the, sun-glare. 

" What, signer ! Thou art wen-ome to pof^r oiA Clar-, 
ic%'% Ismm- N*y, .qQ«« ifl: <^va^ te J^ BS*"**? geBtsJo- 



322 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

men : I have a chamber for ye all, an ye be the right sort, 
as I guess by your company. Gian, stay by the fruit-bas- 
kets till I return;" ■which, aside, was addressed to a chubby 
grandchild, who looked far more ready to eat the figs and 
oranges than to take care of them. 

" Here, gentlemen, — here is the chamber where Mon- 
signor Valdez hath often held his meetings, when poor 
old Clarice was a younger woman by twenty years : thou 
knowest it of old, Messer Negiino ; and, for that it hath 
been put to holy uses, no common traveler lodges therein. 
Enter, gentlemen, — enter in the name of the blessed 
'Vangelo, which we all love ; and I will have somewhat 
for your repast presently." 

The room was excavated from the precipitous rock, and 
was reached by a flight of steps similarly cut out. Two or 
three other such apartments, but darker and smaller, com- 
posed the fruit-seUer's whole house. 

" Clarice is an old disciple," Observed Negiiao. " She 
hath kept on the even course of her profession for thirty 
years, as I have heard, since the gospel was first preached 
in Naples; and her fearlessness seems to prosper. She 
hath never had the persecution, one might think ; yet I 
doubt if she hath sheltered herself beneath any com- 
pliances." 

"Ah! my friend, the bold policy is not always the 
worst, thou seest," said Paschali. " ' He giveth his angels 
charge : ' no servant of God can perish till his Master's 
work be ended." 

" CJarice," asked Negrino, while the old woman bustled 



A CLEFT IN A ROCK. 323 

about preparing their meal, " we were wondering how it 
came to pass that you have been preserved to this day in 
peace and safety, with the Inquisition abroad." 

" Ah ! signor, that's just as it should be ; through the 
good hand of the great Lord taking care of me. Perhaps 
they don't think a poor old woman of my sort worth 
burning, or shutting up in prison : perhaps they never re- 
member me at all. In either way, it's just the doing of 
the good Lord ; and I am not afraid, signor, — not afraid 
but he will take care of his poor servant to the end. I 
was in the hands of the sbirri once, signor : but the good 
Lord saved me ; and I was sent back the same day to my 
little shop, and didn't lose as much as an orange by the 
business. Hey, Gian, what's that ? " 

For the little guardian of the baskets called his grand- 
mother on appearance of a customer. Having received 
many kisses and blessings for his faithfulness, he was con- 
tinued in office after the sale was effected; and Dame 
Clarice i-eturned to her guests. 

"Ay, this is a blessed chamber," began the garrulous 
Neapolitan afresh. " Many a time have I seen the holy 
signer Valdez sit where you sit now, signor, and hold dis- 
course over the blessed gospel-book with the most rever- 
end Fra Pietro Martire, the Frate MoUio, and others:- 
nay, we had the Fra Bernardin here more than once. 
Ohim^! alas! those are old times now, and the Word is 
nigh extinct in Naples. 'Tis hard for a poor body to get 
along ; but there's the same most blessed Christ in heaven ; 
and he never changes, never grows old." 




CHAPTER XXXVII. 

JUAN VALDEZ AND HIS SCHOOL. 

, LD Clarice the fruit-seller was bent on show- 
ing her best hospitality to the strangers, for 
the sake of the common faith. Stefano Ne- 
grino was a former acqi^aintance, having trav- 
eled this way before on a mission to the Ca- 
labrian Christians : for, as a Yaudois " barbe," 
or pastor, his duty called him to go whither 
the synod sent him; and thus the colonies were minis- 
tered unto in spiritual things by itinerant teachers com- 
missioned from the Valleys. 

He sat at the small window, whose wooden sliutter was 
drawn back for light's sake, and looked out on the little 
open-ail" shops in the street, and on the changeful tide of 
people flowing past. Naples was just rousing from its si- 
lent hours of siesta : the lazzaroni were stretching their 
great drowsy lengths in shades of porches and arcades, 
waking from the delicious oblivion of sleep to the want 
of macaroni : even the wide, cool churches had been ten- 
anted by many a slamberer ; while tl^e fierce sun burned 
external nature with almost tropical glow, compelling lan- 
guor and repose to all things animate. 

324 



JUAN VALDEZ AND HIS SCHOOL. 325 

Negrino turned from the window with an audible 
moan, after a few minutes' gaae. The thought which 
so often visits eariiiest-minded believers in Jesus Christ, 
and partakers of his great salvation, whe» they behold 
heedless multitudes treading the common ways of life, 
crowding the thoroughfares of busi^vess or pleasure,— 
"How is it with the souls of all these? how fare these oh 
the journey for eternity ?" — had entered the pastor's 
heart, and smote his spiritual sensibilities to the quick. 
Ay, he felt that he could offer his body to be burned on 
the grand piazza of the heedless city, if only such a sacri- 
fice might stir the souls of its thousands, and set them, in 
the road to eternal life. 

" Once it bid fair for reformation," he murmured i "but, 
the movement is stifled ere this, and Naples' day of grace 
is past. Good sister," he added aloud to old Clarioei 
"have our Mends any meeting-place now, as in times 
gone by ? " 

"Alas!" was the reply, "save a gathering here, or m 
some poor brother's upper room, we dare not assemble 
regularly to worship the Lord. A great many of them 
have gone back, signor ; affiighted, doubtless, at the cruel 
rage of the adversary. Ah ! gentlemen, how different was 
it in the days of my mistress, the most illustrious signora, 
Giula Gonzaga, when I have seen the noblest dames, apd 
docto;:s of Naples 9,11 assembled to study the sacred 
Word!" 

" Wert thou then," asked Paschali with interest, " ap- 
pertaining tq the hQUiehold ojftjiat celebrated lady?" 



326 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

"Ay, was I, signer ; and there I learned the truth, which 
has become a part of my own soul : for meetings were 
held in my lady's private chambers, to which sometimes 
her servitors were admitted, when any learned man was 
to edify by preaching the Word. Whom have I not seen 
there, among the noble and the good of Naples? And 
how beautiful was she herself, my most illustrious fnis- 
tress ! Those two ladies, sisters-in-law likewise, were like 
angels come down from heaven, more lovely than any 
man had ever beheld, — the Marchesa di Pescara and my 
mistress. Often have I seen them sitting humbly side by 
Bide, with a volume of the Gospel-book, the 'Vangelo, be- 
tween them, while some learned doctor expounded it in 
their hearing. She had the most golden hair that ever 
. was seen, had the Marchesa Vittoria ; but verily you could 
not tell which of the twain was the lovelier, my mistress 
or she. And they were as good as they were beautiful, 
and loved each other exceeding much ; though they loved 
our Saviour Christ more than all things. Ah ! most blessed 
days were those ! But poor old Clarice is left almost a 
sole relic in Naples ; for they are all dead or gone. I'm 
like a withered cluster of last year's grapes on a blasted 
vine, signor ! Well, pazienza ! the good Lord won't forget 
poor old Clarice, when his time comes." 

Attending them during supper, and by no means to be 
persuaded to partake of the meal, she had more to say 
of her remembrances on the same subject. Twenty-two 
3'ears before, the Refoi-med doctrines had found in Naples 
Bome of their warmest supporters throughout Italy. A 



JUAN VALDEZ AND HIS SCHOOL. 327 

band of earnest believers quickly gathered round Juan 
Valdez, a highly born and intellectual Spaniard ; who, in- 
trusted with a German embassy by Charles the Fifth, had 
in Germany found the turning-point of his life, when he 
read the writings of Luther, and felt the truths therein 
contained brought home to his heart by the Divine Spirit. 
Coining to Naples as secretary to the viceroy, and con- 
scious in himself that he was a saved man through the^ 
belief of Christ, he could not rest satisfied without impart- 
ing this life-giviQg faith to others; and the distinctive 
doctrines of justification , by faith, and sanctification by 
the Spirit, were received among the noble and the highly 
educated before the dark suspicion of heresy had visited 
Valdez. He had extraordinary influence, from his position 
and his talents, with those of the highest rank ; and this 
power he used for his soul's Master, without ceasing; and 
the more efficaciously, in that he wore no ecclesiastical 
frock, nor ever arrogated to himself the office of preacher. 
But he was a close, careful Bible-student ; and his whole 
conduct was permeated with the piety thence drawn : his 
eloquence of conversation and elegance of manner were 
pressed also into the service of his Lord. Men saw that 
he lived the truths which he professed; and the beauty 
of his example drew forth many inquirers to ask after 
"the more excellent way" in which Juan Valdez was 
walking. 

Old Clarice remembered that spare, slender figure well, 
which seemed always in infirm health, yet always beam- 
ing with intellect and heart-happiness. It was the center 



328 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

of every gathering of the Reformed in Naples for man • 
year. She had seen it surrounded by such learners « 
Peter Martyr, Camesecchi, Marc Antonio Plaminio (the 
greatest Latinist of his age), Giula Gonzaga, and Vittoria 
Colonna. The honest fruit-aeller comprehended not the 
full significance of such names ; but she knew that they 
were of the world's great ones : and many besides poor 
Clarice were attracted by the brilliancy of the clique,, who 
in time of temptation and persecution fell away, because 
they had no deepness of earth. 

" But, gentlemen, I was forgetting" — and away bustled 
the old woman to the crevice in her cavern home which 
acted as her cellar, the cool storage-place for fruits and 
flowers over-night. " Gentlemen, here's some of the best 
wine of Naples, from the black volcanic grape which is 
so much esteemed. Ecco ! 'tis, almost thick : they call it 
mangiaguerra. You've no such wine in the north, sig- 
ner." 

But she thought that they did not at all do. justice to 
her precious beverage in the small quantity each used. 

" These are no times for fleshly delights, such as eating 
and drinking beyond what we need for mere sustainment 
of our bodily strength," observed the ascetic PaschaU in 
answer to her remonstrance. "Good sister, be not like 
Martha in the 'Vangelo, who. was cumbered about much 
serving." 

"And if the honest woman had a house and guests, as I 
have, it was all very, natural and proper that she should 
be desirous to serve them," cyied old Claiice, her hous,^- 



JUAN VALDEZ AND HIS SCHOOL. 329 

■wifely instincts rising. *'And thou, young signer, hast 
had never a roof of thine own, or thou wouldst understand 
her better." 

PaschaU made no reply ; but a glance of Negrino's as- 
sured the latter that his companion was carried back in 
thought to the fair betrothed in Geneva, the maiden with 
whom he had hoped one day to share a home. The 
young man arose, and walked quickly to the unshuttered 
opening which served for a window. How would the old 
hostess's heart have yearned over him with the true in- 
stincts of woman, — whose compassion is deep for such 
things, — had she guessed how matters stood with that 
fine soldierly fellow! As it was, she felt somewhat af- 
fronted, and put up her wine with an offended air. 

The two pastors had some business with a certain Nea- 
pohtan who carried on the trade of a goldsmith in one of 
the most populous streets. To him they had letters equiv- 
alent to money, which it behooved them to cash before 
proceeding farther on their journey. The man had been 
a Valdesian once, but had taken the safe line of outward 
conformity to the Romish Church of late years, 

" Better to bend, and avoid the storm, than let it sweep 
me away altogether," he remarked, as he gathered from a 
drawer the golden ducats which were value for the dingy 
uncommercial-looking bit of paper that Fegrino had given 
him. "'Tis pity," said he, lingeringly toying with the 
coins, and glancing again half dubiously at the bit of 
paper, — "'tis pity to trust such good gold with you, mes- 
ser, on a dangerous errand. Could you not leave even 

28* 



330 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

a portion in my safe keeping? I'll give thee wan-ant 
for it." 

"Why, man," quoth Negrino, "it is naught but affection 
for the very metal thou hast, or thou wouldst consider 
that the exchange letter amply pays thee for thy trouble. 
Ah ! my fiiend, now I comprehend how thy former faith 
has waned so as to scandalize thy brethren." 

The citizen minutely scanned the order again with a 
darkened face. Reproof was no sweeter to him than to 
any other man. He commenced paying out the money 
slowly. " But, fi-iend, art thou not returning after a time ? 
Would it not be well to leave some of this gold in safe 
hands?" 

No great sum was it, after all: Negrino took every 
ducat into his broad leathern purse. " We would not be 
burdensome on the churches," he observed ; " although he 
who serves the altar should live of the altar. And Cala- 
bria is no such unsafe place, unless the sbirri of the Inqui- 
sition penetrate therein," he added. 

The citizen visibly shuddered as he locked his till, more 
from apprehension for his dear-loved money than for him- 
self. Yet some old feeling of clanship moved him toward 
the pastors. " Come,'' he said, " and rest a while, if ye 
have no further business ; come in and sup with my fam- 
ily. I am glad to see friends of such nature ; and truly 
we are not much troubled with them in these days." 

The goldsmith's house was a fine one, and overlooked 
the wide, blue bay of Naples ; concerning whose beauties, 
pairters and poets have gone wild for expression these 



JUAN VALDEZ AND HIS SCHOOL. 331 

two centuries past. Opposite rose its distinctive feature, 
the dread volcano, which by day wafts a faint smoke into 
the blue heavens, gentle as the breathing of a censer's 
incense, and by night shows its brow frowned over by a 
black cloud, and ftirrowed oftentimes with fire. The 
broad road between the houses and the water's edge was 
peopled with an ever-passing throng; and the highway 
of the sea was gay with vessels, from the latteen-sailed 
felucca to the armed galley of Spain. Truly a fair scene, 
as well under the iron government of Alva as under the 
tyranny of the last Italian Bourljon. 

Our three travelers needed not to sup again ; but Ne- 
grino had desired converse with the goldsmith, and em- 
braced the opportunity afforded by the social board. The 
latter was a gray-haired man, probably co-eval with the 
century. His shifting eyes and hard-set mouth were a 
good index to his character. Yet deep in his soul lay the 
conviction of the truth of the doctrines which once he 
had openly professed, while Religion walked in her silver 
slippers ; and the double-dealing of his life brought its own 
punishment of inquietude and unhappiness in its train. 

"Does not the Marchese di Vico dwell somewhere 
near?" asked Negrino. "Methinks his palazzo is on the 
bay, as well as I remember." 

"Ah I yes," replied the citizen; "but farther on some 
distance, — a very noble residence : but he takes no pleas- 
ure in aught since he is so angered with his son." 

A light broke on Negrino's countenance. "Galeazzo 
Caraccioli hath indeed chosen the better part, and counted 



332 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

' the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures 
in Egypt,'" he observed, smiling. "He hath seen 'the 
recompense of the reward ' by faith, and deems it worth 
some little endurance." 

"Well, well, there's reason in all things," rejoined the 
time-serving citizen ; " and, when a man is born to a great 
inheritance, I see not why he should willingly put himself 
on equality with those who are bom to nothing but hard 
work." 

"There's one answer to it all, my friend, — 'For Christ's 
sake ! ' The noble young marquis knows that he can not 
bear too much for Him who died to save his soul. Thou 
didst know Caraccioli at Geneva, my brother ? " 

This he said to Paschali, who answered in the affii-ma- 
tive. " He is among the refugees in most consideration, 
so that to him Ca^yin has dedicated a Commentary ; yet 
he has laid aside his title, and lives as simply as any barbe 
of the VaUeys, without the least pretension." 

"And now, with his relative Caraffa on the papal throne, 
he might hope for any reward, were he to give up the 
faith," remarked Negiino. 

" That was one of the bribes held out to tempt him, 
when some time sinee his father had an interview with 
him at Mantua; but finding him inflexible to prayers, and 
considerations of interest, the old man ended by cursing 
him heartily, and loading him with the bitterest re- 
proaches." 

"Ay, he has proved Jmnself a good soldier," was Ne- 
gjiino's observation. 



JUAN VALDEZ AND HIS SCHOOL. 333 

"But his hardest trial of all," said Paschali, "was when 
his wife, whom he tenderly loved, wrote to him, naming a 
place of meeting, where she could propound to him cer- 
tain scruples of conscience ; and when, at the risk of his 
life, he reached the Castle of Vico, where his whole family- 
were assembled, he found that the said scruples were 
artful insinuations of her confessor, that she ought to 
iivorce herself from a heretic. Even this did not move 
jhe young man's steadfastness ; nor the tears and caresses 
i*f his little children, nor the entreaties of his aged father, 
renewed with importunity. No : he could not falsify his 
'faith for the dearest relationships on earth combined! 
He came back, looking haggard and worn from the effects 
of this fiery trial. And what is mine to his?" added 
Paschali mentally. 

"Another star in Valdez' crown of rejoicing," said Ne- 
grino, his eyes on the distant altar-fire of the volcano. 
"'Whoso leaveth wife and children and houses and lands, 
for my sake and the gospel's,' saith Christ, ' shall receive 
a hundred-fold.' " 

" It is well for those to whom grace is given," quoth 
the worthy citizen, who had Budgeted a little during the 
story of Caraccioli. And when, later in the evening, his 
guests rose to depart, he drew Kegrino aside, and be- 
sought him once more to reflect whether the sum he was 
carrying in solid gold were not better left in surety tUl 
matters were somewhat more settled: "For they say," 
added the goldsmith, " that, whensoever Alva succeeds in 
erecting his Spanish Inquisition here, the first onslaught 



334: FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

will be on that very Calabrian territory whereunto yon 
are bound; and then, signer" — shrugging his shoulders 
expressively, as if to signify a universal deluge, in which 
gold-pieces must needs be irrecoverably swallowed up. 

"Amico mio, I had trouble to keep thy patrimony from 
his hands," said Negrino to Francesco Altiefi, as they 
proceeded to old Clarice's cavern-quarters for the night. 
For the major part of the gold belonged to Francesco, 
and was intended for investment in some fields and house 
where he might prepare a home for his wife. He had not 
been re-assured by the goldsmith's last statement ; but it 
only proved a fresh anxiety to cast upon his strong Sa- 
viour. What he would have done many a time, but for 
that mighty refuge and help, what worldly men did 
always without it amid the turmoils and uncertainties 
of this troublesome life, he could not tell. 




CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

THE CALABRIAJSr COLONIES. 

I HE monastery bells from the Lights were toll- 
^^^^^ ing the Ave Maria, soothingly floated down 
^^^^^^ the chimes through the still evening air ; and 
"^^ aU men paused in their work or their pleas- 
ure, whatever it might be, to utter the un- 
meaning prayer which was, in their habit, 
indissolubly connected with those evening 
bells. The goat-herd stood still in his lounging march 
homeward ; the peasant with the buffalo cart made the 
sign of the cross, and muttered ; the housewife laid down 
her spindle for a minute ; and Italy was wrapped in brief, 
idolatrous devotion, from the Alps to the Straits of Mes- 
sina. 

Scarcely a whit more idolatrous had it been the glory 
of the sinking sun which they adored, as away the orb 
subsided from sight, settling down, Uke a red wreck, into 
the great Mediterranean Sea. Through the mouth of the 
valley that pageant could be seen, where the spurs of 
the Southern Apennines stood apart, to admit cool, salt 
breezes into the heart of a hot laud. But all in that glen 

336 



336 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

did not ■worship when the monastery chimes came float- 
ing down so musically from the hights. Certain cottages 
there were, where dwelt men of doubtftil opinions, but of 
undoubted character; men seldom seen at mass or con- 
fession, but always seen when a sick neighbor needed 
help, or some righteous work for public weal required to 
be done ; men whom monk and priest hated, except for 
the fat tithes, the best in the district, paid regularly from 
their farms, yet who were loved by the peasantry about 
them for their kindliness and good-wiU. This contrariety 
between heretical faith and most Christian practice had 
sorely confounded others than the illiterate farmers of 
Calabria. " If you ask what is its manner of life,'' wrote 
St. Bernard, " nothing is more irreproachable. The Vau- 
dois heretic strikes no one, defends no one; does not 
exalt himself above any one. Fastings render him pale : 
he does not eat the bread of idleness, but labors with his 
own hands for a hvehhood." And an archbishop of Turin 
had testified, " They are without blame among men ; ap- 
plying themselves with all their power to the observance 
of the commandments of God." 

Our travelers, with the bright sunset before aUuded to, 
had reached the outskirts of the Vaudois settlements. 
But they were anxious to attain San Sesto before resting , 
if possible ; and pushed on through the waning many- 
colored light, and through the beautiful landscape of 
wood and hill and fertile valley, where the air was laden 
with luxurious perfume from the orange-blossom and 
from hedges of sweet myrtle ; and for treble to the grand 



THE CALABRIAN COLONIES. 337 

bass diapason of the not distant surge was the shrill mu- 
sical monotone of the cicala in the long grass, and the 
notes of some of the latest-waking birds in the copse. 
How lovely was every scene ! how peaceful ! Francesco's 
heart beat with throbs of joy to think of Bianca's hap- 
piness here, if their heavenly Father so willed it. 

The twUight was not long : before Francesco had ceased 
from the thought of Bianca, night had descended upon 
the glowing world, and troops of stars rushed forth into 
the purple vault above. Simultaneously, troops of other 
stars seemed to kindle on the earth ; myriads of brilliant , 
atoms flitted about, an evanescent illumination of all dark 
places. Never had our northerns seen fireflies so numer- 
ous and dazzling. They could scarcely "weary of admira- 
tion; for, in this land, night seemed jocund as day. 

A mass of dark, mysterious woods girded the road 
almost to the dwellings of San Sesto. Primeval forest/ 
and marsh, according to JSTegrino : "A retreat for om- four 
thousand," quoth he, "should ever — which God forbid! — 
persecution set its iron front in our territory." The Nea- 
politan's words had perhaps helped him to a foreboding. 

"And the colony amounts to four thousand?" said 
Francesco. "A strong body, especially of such men as 
our Vaudois. Methinks even Philip's government would 
hesitate ere it lent sanction to the oppression of so many 
good subjects and citizens." 

"Ah! but see you not," returned Negrino, "that thfe 
Church has no such scruples. Its officers are the most 
•pitiless men aliv^, — men in whom every feeling of com- 



338 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

passion and brotherliness has been stifled by their unnat- 
ural life, devoid of hallowing domestic ties. But evil is 
sufficient for its own day," he added more cheerfully. 
"Not a hair of our head can perish without our Father. 
Come, my brothers, let us sing the ' Hymn of the Cross.' " 
And the three voices, on the skirts of the dark forest, 
raised the sweet words of Savonarola : — 

" Jesu, 9ommo conforto, 
Tu eel tutto il mio amore, 

E'l mlo beato porto, 

E santo Redentore I 
O gran bontiil dolce pietkl 
Felice quel che teco unlto stal " 

"Tes, happy the soul united unto thee!" reiterated 
Negrino, pausing in the chant. "My brothers, in the 
strength of .this, shall we not face any woe, knowing 
that Ufe or death can not separate us from the love of 
Christ?" 

The hymn, heard distinctly by the dwellers in San 
Sesto, was recognized ere the singers had ended it, and 
reached the first houses of the little town. Negrino 
threaded his way with the assured step of one familiar 
to the place, unheeding the curiosity of people that 
turned out of their cottages to look at the strangers as 
the bright moonlight revealed them, until he came to a 
small habitation close by a large one. And here, opening 
the door without preliminary, he was in the presence of a 
family at supper. The father rose up inquiringly; but, 
ifter a steady glance, he embraced th6 forenrost of the 



THE CALABRIAN COLONIES. 339 

three. "My brother! — thou hast returned! Thou art 
a thousand times welcome." 

" And I have bj-ought thee a new pastor," said Negrino, 
introducing Paschali, — "a pastor that shall abide to feed 
the flock, and that is fearless as any mountain eagle in his 
defense of truth," he added. 

The younger man smiled, perhaps a little sadly, at the 
commendation. The Vaudois schoolmaster looked nar- 
rowly at his countenance as he grasped his hand : then, 
as if satisfied with the inspection, he wrung it again, cor- 
dially. " Welcome, in thy Master's name." 

Wife and children were meanwhile busy adding to the 
repast for the strangers : an uncut goat's-milk cheese was 
produced, more maize-cakes put on the table, some Cala- 
briari wine drawn from their small stores. Chestnuts and 
olives brought them to their limit of variety; and the 
good woman secretly wished she had only known of the 
guests beforehand: she might have procured grapes, or 
even baked fresh maize-cakes, instead of these stale, crus- 
ty things. 

She was soon easy on the subject ; for two of the new 
arrivals seemed not to. know what they were eating, and 
engrossed her husband so much, that he was nigh as ab- 
stinent as themselves. Francesco, who was not quite so 
sublimated, won her heart by his attention to the cheese 
and cakes, accompanied with certain laudatory words. 

Supper was scarce over, when neighbors began to drop 
in ; and soon the news spread like wild-fii-e through the 
adjoining streets, that the new pastor had come for whom 



340 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

Marco d'Asceglo had been sent, — tbg Genevese ordained 
preacher, who was to dwell among them, and set all right 
which had hitherto been wrong in theip discipline or doc- 
trine. Paschali was nothing loth to begin his ministerial 
work that very hour. To as many as the small house 
would hold, and as many as could hear his words through 
the open door, he preached a full and clear gospel. He 
spared not that which he considered their sinM compli- 
ances for safety's sake. 

"You have forgotten that you should confess Christ's 
name ; and remember you not, O deluded people ! that 
whoso confesseth not Christ upon earth shall be denied 
by him before his Father and the holy angels? Certainly 
ye are not alone in this backsliding. There be some in 
our valleys of the Alps who carry with them certificates 
that they be genuine papists, and have their children bap- 
tized by priests with all the mummeries of superstition ; 
ay, and go to the so-called sacrifice of the mass, openly 
bowing the knee to Baal, that they may be seen of men ; 
and they excuse themselves — verily a fancied excuse ! — 
by saying secretly when they enter the mass-house, ' Cave 
of robbers, may God confound thee ! ' I have heard that 
similar practices extend even here. My brethren, such 
duplicity is intolerable to the righteous Lord. Think you 
that he wUl not protect the men who range themselves 
under his banner against Antichrist in the face of all the 
world ? I tell you, that, if all the devils on earth and in 
hell were leagued to destroy you, mightier is He that is 
for you than all that can be against youl Your Father 



THE CALABRIAN COLONIES. 341 

can slieathe the sward and quench the fagot of the per- 
secutor, if it be his will; and if it he not his will, O 
servants of Christ ! will there not be a quicker entrance 
into the joy of your Lord, and a more dazzling crown of 
glory?" 

Sobs and moans came from that excitable southern 
audience : glowing eyes, betokening glowing hearts, met 
the youthfiil preacher's every look. 

" I am no smooth man," he said, " and shall speak no 
smooth words to you, people of my charge. I shall pub- 
lish the gospel of Christ among you, in this and your 
other towns, as freely and fearlessly as they do at Gene- 
va. Circumstances of peril do not alter a pastor's duty. 
If it were my duty in Switzerland to speak boldly the 
whole doctrine of my Master, it is no less my duty in 
Italy, having no fear before mine eyes but that of God." 

Thus did Paschali enunciate the principles which were 
to guide his ministry. Strange passionate feelings of re- 
morse for past dereliction, resolve for future duty, admira- 
tion of the fearless young man who thus offered himself 
a mark for all venom-points of hate and persecution, 
mingled stormily in the breast of many a one in San 
Sesto that night. A throb of electric courage had passed 
from his intrepid soul to theirs : a new career of confess- 
ofship was indeed opening before them. 

29* 




CHAPTER XXXIX. 

STORM GATHERING FROM THE NORTH. 

ASOHALI fulfilled the promise of his earliest 
seiiQon in San Sesto. Nothing could be 
more uncompromising than his preaching. 
Through all public places in Calabria, wher- 
ever descendants of the Vaudois were to be 
found, there did the young Genevese pastor 
stand up and declare the gospel of Christ 
with boldness, fearing no earthly menace. Such zeal is 
infectious. His exhortations against the sinful compli- 
ances to which fear had forced his flock were so effectual, 
that numbers ceased to attend the services of the Romish 
Church, notwithstanding the suspicion that fell on them 
forthwith. Par and wide it was reported among the 
Roman Catholics of Calabria and ApuUa, that a fiery 
Lutheran had come from the north, utterly to destroy 
the Church in these provinces. But there seemed no 
feasible plan for silencing the daring evangeUst as yet. 
The "Vaudois residents were protected by the most sa- 
credly stringent conventions, observed by generations of 
landholders and rulers, which guaranteed them certain 

342 



STORM GATHERING. 34!» 

rights of worship, and the possession of theii- own teach 
ers. 

"But, my friend," would the gentle Negrino say, "thou 
needest not to be so vehement, nor to attack the religion 
of the majority so openly." 

" Truth requires openness and vehemence," would be 
PaschaU's reply. " Too long has God's word been spoken 
with bated breath and fearfulness. Forgettest thou the 
confession of Angrogna ? If 'twere by nothing but that, 
I am bound to set my face against all evasions of duty, 
and every act of dissimulation by which the weak-minded 
seek to ward off danger. Thou dost remember how that 
synod adjured all men to practice no more concealment,, 
but be open in their profession of faith, for the glory of 
God? And as for my own life, brother, which thou 
apprehendest may fall a sacrifice, I fear not," added Pas- 
chah with a sublime smile. " I have given it to God : let 
him use it as seemeth good in his sight." 

And the young pastor persisted in denouncing every 
superstition which came under his view ; would ridicule 
the ceremonies of dedicating altars or holy places, calling 
them "feasts of stones;" would openly proclaim that 
none but God can excommunicate ; that every man in 
a state of grace has as much power of absolution as the 
pope himself, for that the only abfolution possible by man 
is the declaring to the contrite heart the benefit of the 
death of Jesus Christ our Lord. Other such doctrines, 
leveling at the root of priestly power, would he proclaim 
on every occasion, continually fearless of consequences. 



344 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

Thus a year passed by. Mutterings of storm were 
heard in the distance ; but the heaven over the Vaudois 
was as yet serene ; while the other Reformed communi- 
ties of Italy experienced the full buffetings of persecu- 
tion. Often did Francesco and his wife (for Bianca had 
now joined him) congratulate each other on the quiet 
retreat they had found in these Calabrian vales, where 
they could worship their God in simplicity and peace. 
Paschali was a frequent guest in their vine-covered cot- 
tage, not far from the town of La Gnardia ; which Fran- 
cesco had chosen for neighborhood, because it was the 
single fortified place possessed by the colonists, and had 
been erected pui-posely for defense and refiige on the 
sea-coast. The first Vaudois had been aided to build it 
by their feudatory the Marquis of Spinello, who named it 
from its guardian wall. 

One blight evening in July, 1559, Bianca was sitting in 
the little garden which fronted their cottage, waiting foi' 
the return of her husband from the fields. At her feet, 
on the grass, nestled a little child of some months old. 
She looked away toward the concentrated brilliance of the 
sunset over the sea. A few bands of rose-colored vapor 
lay about the declining orb ; and away, farther north, was 
piled a stone-gray mass of cloud, now gilded most beauti- 
fully on its protuberances, and almost imperceptibly di- 
lating, climbing, sailing southward. 

"Hal eccolo! my little bird, my angel! here comes 
father! Dost see thy father, little one? Look down the 
slope, mio fanciuUetto ! Ah ! thou seest him : thou shalt 



STORM GATHERING. 345 

run to meet him, little bird ! And the good pastor is with 
him : nay, frown not at the stranger, mio bambinello, my 
precious one ! " 

And caiTying on such running remarks concerning the 
phases of feeling which she, by an innocent fiction not 
yet wholly extinct, chose to attribute to her babe, the 
young mother hastened toward the pair who were slowly 
ascending the hill. Before reaching them, she saw that 
some grave business was in hand. Francesco's eyes met 
hers without the usual smile : he even put by her arm in 
an abstracted way, and scarce noticed his child. ""She 
stepped behind into the narrow path, with an undefined 
sinking at her heart, conscious that the matter must in- 
deed be important which absorbed her husband's faculties 
so completely; and the old bugbear of Bianca's Ufe rose 
before her again, — the very real fiend. Persecution. 

It was no sentimental terror, this which had overshad- 
owed her since her early days at Locarno. She had lived 
in a continual dread and doubt until her removal to Ca- 
labria, where the extensive tract of country peopled by 
Protestants, their organization and guaranteed immuni- 
ties, gave her a sense of security unknown before. And, 
now, was the old dread to be revived ? Walking after 
the men in the path, she could overhear such low wgrds 
as the " marquis our suzerain," " never adverse formerly," 
"summons to appear at Foscalda," and others like these: 
whence her woman's wit easily welded the tmth. 

Suddenly her husband turned round, as if some idea 
nad struck him; and he took the burden of the child from 



346 tROM DAWN TO DARK IN (TALY. 

her arms. "'Tie too much for thee, up-hill, my Bianca;" 
and the grave face resumed its talking with Paschali. 

The Marchese di Spinello summon the Vaudois before 
him ! Why, he' had always hitherto been friendly : verily 
it was his interest to be so, seeing that he had no more 
improving tenants on all his lands than these " oltra-mon- 
tani," as the Romigh peasantry styled them. No higher 
or surer rents Were payable throughout the province than 
they paid. Some dense pressure must have been put on 
him from without, to induce this seemingly hostile step of 
a formal citation. And the poor young wife trembled in 
her very soul as she heard again the dreaded names which 
had been familiar enough in Ferrara, — the Holy Office, 
the Inquisition, the Congregation of the Faith. Mysteri- 
ous and awful powers ! Bianca pressed her hand on her 
throbbing little heart, which already imagined the worst ; 
and unspoken words ascended in prayer to God. 

The child reached forth its chubby hands, with inartic- 
ulate murmurings of wishfulness, toward a bright knot of 
crimson gladiolas growing on a crag beside the pathway. 
The father stopped, and gathered for him the blossom, 
smiling at his eagerness, and smiling also back at the 
mother; by which action he became aware of the fear 
dwelling in her face. Immediately he left Paschali, and 
drew her arm within his own. 

"What aileth thee, dear one? Is it this news of the 
summons before the marquis that affiighteth thee ? Let 
not thy faith be small, my wife. He who has delivered 
us from six troubles is not powerless to save us from the 
seventh." 



STORM GATBERING. 347 

"But tell me, Francesco, — tell me what it is that 
causeth this sudden change of our lord's demeanor. He 
■was wont to be conciliating toward the oltra-montani." 

A slight contraction grew on her husband's brow. " To 
tell thee very truth, I know not," was his reply. « It may 
be but to save appearances with the court of Rome, and 
that merciless bigot, Philip of Spain, his liege lord and 
our sovereign. It may be that he is compelled to wear 
an aspect of austerity against Us which his heart belies ; 
for, unless the man be a very monster of falsity, he bears 
us good will, and is thoroughly alive to his own interests 
in having such tenants as the Vaudois. So put not on 
thyself the burden of to-morrow, Bianca mia, in addition 
to what our most blessed God has given us to carry to- 
day : he has promised strength for the day, dear one, but 
not strength for the morrow." 

" Yet the child, the child, Francesco ! " and all the dis- 
quiet of her heart was expressed in the passionate em- 
brace which wrapped the boy for a moment : " we might 
bear persecution for ourselves; but for himP'' Her eyes 
were fiill of tears. 

"Tut, tut, thou trembler!" said her husband. "Doth 
not thy God love him even better than thou ? Canst thou 
not trust ? The grain of mustard-seed hath more faith 
than we who call ourselves Christians, and who^rofess to 
have a more enduring substance in heaven, and a city 
which hath foundations ! Dishonor not thy Saviour by 
such doubt, my little one. Perchance thou art conjuring 
up fears which are but phantoms. It is a very innoceiit 



348 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

thing after all, this citation. Paschali is sanguine of a ta- 
vorable result : if they seek to put us down by contro- 
versy, no man is more able at the weapons of dialectic 
discourse than he." 

The pastor was walking forward, his head erect, with 
the usual fearless, martial air which he had drawn from 
nature and training ; perhaps a Uttle pang at his heart as 
he was conscious of the pair behind him, happy even in 
this hour of fear that they could trust in one another. 
And wrenching his mind from that, as many a time he 
had to do, by reason of the enervation which attends use- 
less wishings, Paschali grasped the truth of his position 
now, standiag in the forefront of his four thousand Vau- 
dois, first to meet whatever storm was coming. His he- 
roic soul rose to the hight of his great calling, to be an 
example in all things, not only by word and deedj but 
also by patience, to those among whom God had made 
him overseer ; and the thought of divine duty comforted 
him, as it does all strong souls. 

When Bianca and the child had passed into the cot- 
tage, the men lingered a moment outside. The gloi-y of 
the sunset had all but departed, — only a gold streak oi 
two lined the edge of the great blue sea ; and the banls. 
of heavy cloud had stolen onward in its imperceptible 
march, tflteatening presently to swallow up even the 
gleam of past light. Amidst it, as they looked at its black 
folds, burst forth a sheet of pale lightning, wavering for 
an instant among abysses of the solid vapor, revealing a 
■B'orld of menacing bights and gulfs aloft in that cloud- 
Land. 



STORM GATHERING. 349 

"I fear me, a storm is gathering from the north," ob- 
served Francesco, looking at his friend with a meaning. 
Paschali's eyes were now fixed on the rapidly fading 
gleam in the west. 

" The light is but overlaid, curtained, not extinguished," 
was his remark. "God's sun must run its appointed 
course, and no earth-bom clouds can permanently blot its 
glory. Amico mio ! let us sing the forty-sixth of David's 
Psalms ; " and some of the sublime trust therein breathed 
entered into their souls : — 

"God is our reftige and strength, a very present help 
in trouble. 

" Therefore wiU not we fear, though the earth be re- 
moved, and though the mountains be carried into the 
midst of the sea ; though the waters thereof roar and be 
troubled ; though the mountains shake with the swelling 
thereof." 

Ere it was ended, Francesco felt his wife's cheek laid 
against his arm, and heard her clear voice mingling in the 
strain. 

" Be stUl, and know that I am God : I will be exalted 
in the eartk The Lord of hosts is with us ; the God of 
Jacob is our reftige." 

Grand words and inspiring, even as we read them here, 
sitting safely in our protected English homes. But what 
were those thoughts of divine all-power and guardian 
care to men and women who thoroughly realized the need 
of it in the common affairs of life ; who might to-morrow 
be dragged from their homes to noisome dungeons by a 

30 



350 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

relentless tyranny; who might end their career on the 
scaflFold, or by the sword of indiscriminate massacre ? I 
teU you that the whole Bible was transfigured by such 
light of possible experience, and its truths were intensified 
so as we can scarce realize. 

And for many an hour, during that wild night of tem- 
pest, did Bianca lie awake, listening and dreading. 
Through pauses of the blast she could hear the pastor's 
voice, from his little chamber in the roof: she could dis- 
tinguish no word, but judged from the earnest tone that 
it was prayer. And . here lay the secret of Paschali's 
strength, — in close, constant communion with his God. 
Like Luther, he wrestled mightily, and prevailed. 





CHAPTER Xii. 

THE FOKEETJSTNER OF THE TEMPEST. 

ASCHALI was thus fitted to be the next 
morning the animating soul of the body of 
Vaudois which obeyed the summons of their 
suzerain, and journeyed toward Foscalda be- 
fore noontide. • 

All men of mark among the colonists were 
there. At their head walked Marco d'Asceg- 
lio, " the principal man," who had been deputed to obtain 
them a preacher fi-om Geneva, and whose exertion had 
gained them Paschali. He and the pastor — Uke-minded 
in many ways — led the van of the party; though some- 
times they dropped behind among the others with cheer- 
ing or strengthening words. 

" I desire nothing better," said the zealous young pas- 
tor, "than an opportunity to preach Christ's glorious 
gospel to the marquis and his oflScers : the truth of God 
against any man's falsehood ; ay, albeit he were a pope ! 
Perchance the marquis may have Romish priests to argue 
down our faith : I hope so ; I desire nothing better than a 
tilt at arms with the heaviest-armed doctor of them all ! " 

361 



352 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

" But, my brother," said D'Asceglio, " it is probable that 
oui- lord the marquis has been urged to this citation and 
apparent unfriendliness by the bigots' outcry round him : 
he finds, perchance, that he will himself be suspected of 
heresy, if he scowl not at us. This may be a monitory 
measure, — a safeguai-d for us as well as for himself." 

" Let me only spread the truth of God, whether by life 
or by death," rejoined the intrepid Paschali. "And thou, 
my brother," quoth he to Francesco Altieri, whose heart 
was heavy enough as he thought of the precious ones at 
home in the vine-covered cottage, " be not mournful, as if 
the great God were dead, and no help could come from 
heaven. But I have a commission to give thee, should 
aughF that men call evil befall me this day. Thou know- 
est how I have been preparing a new translation, in 
French and Italian, of the most blessed Word of lifo 
especially for our people, who comprehend either tongue. 
I would have thee take the papers in thy custody, and let 
them not perish, but prosper to the end I purposed in the 
undertaking. At Lyons, or at Geneva, thou mayest find 
a printer willing for the risk; which indeed I trust is 
smaU in days when Holy Scripture hath so many readers." 

Francesco could not help remarking, that the chances 
of his escape, should an outburst of persecution come, 
were but small: wife and child were no aids to rapid and 
secret traveling. "And where, upon this earth, shall we 
find rest for the sole of our feet?" he added somewhat 
bitterly. "Were I alone, I think I should not care to 
walk to the death for sake of the most blessed Christ; 



FORERUNNER OF THE TEMPEST. 3J3 

but, O my friend ! thou knowest not the anguish of fear- 
ing for those dearer than life." 

"Nor know I the joy of possessing such," returned Pas- 
chali sadly. "But thou must pray for more faith, my 
brother; more of such faith as can subdue the world 
under our feet, can stop the mouths of lions, can quench 
the violence of fire, and out of weakness be made strong!" 

But a deep yearning lay in those anxious hearts for 
rest, for some safety or assurance, such as we enjoy every 
day around us hke the common air, so pei-petual a bless- 
ing that we cease to recognize it or to be thankful for it. 
What would not the harassed Lutherans of Italy have 
given for a measure of our security, our tranquil certainty 
that " to-morrow shall be as this day," so far as regards 
social safety, and permission to serve God as we Hst! 
Let us not forget to enter this in the roll of our thanks- 
givings to that heavenly Father who has set us a peace- 
able habitation, guarded by law, and guaranteed by the 
strength of a mighty people. 

The Marquis di Spinello met his vassals with a stern 
demeanor. They had- exceeded the limits of their lib- 
erty ; they had attacked the ruling Church by the mouths 
of their pastors with a license altogether to be condemned, 
and which the marquis would not permit in the districts 
of which he was suzerain. " Since your coming," added 
the nobleman, addressing himself to Paschali, "there has 
been naught but confusion and uproai". You have drawn 
these oltra-montani from the peaceable ways of their fore- 
fathers, from the decent agreement with others in wor- 

30* 



354 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

ship and manners of life, to a fancied rule of your own, to 
a rejection of every symbol of the true faith, and made 
them — I know not what — truly I know not what," ended 
the marquis, plucking his mustache in sore perplexity. 

"Most noble marquis," began the young pastor gently, 
"it is not I that have made them any thing, but the Spirit 
of God, that divine flame which cometh down from heaven, 
and giveth light to dead human hearts. And, as touching 
the practices and doctriaes of that false religion which 
thou caUest true, 1 am ready to join issue with any of your 
Excellency's chaplains or learned men, now or at any fu- 
ture time, to prove them contrary to the tenor and spirit 
of Holy Scripture, which hath been appointed to us of 
God to be our lamp and guide." 

"But I can permit no such controversies within my 
domains," declared the marquis, remembering the very 
emphatic pressure from the ecclesiastic powers in Naples 
which had caused him to convene this assembly of his 
chief tenants. " Te must submit ; ye must obey," he reiter- 
ated. " I can have no heresies in my domains. Ye must 
hold your peace, and be content -to do as did your fore- 
fathers. Why can ye not let your children be baptized," 
— he had taken up a paper, apparently of charges against 
the Vaudois, and cast his eye along the items, — "and 
assist at the celebration of mass, and keep the saints' days 
and fast-days, and pay your dues regularly, as heretofore ? 
If ye wiU return to the old ways, there may yet be peace ; 
and, if not, I give warning that I can not sacrifice myself 
to protect a set of obstinate wrong-headed heretics." 



FORERUNNER OF THE TEMPEST. 355 

A moment's silence among the Vaudois : they looked at 
one another. AH knew now wherefore they had been 
assembled, and what they had to expect in case of adher-' 
ence to their faith. 

" Yes, yes," said the marquis, who looked on the slight 
pause as favorable to the success of his design ; " yes, yes, 
good people, submit, obey, — only obey, and there shall 
be no more about this. I wUl intercede for you ;" and his 
Excellency smoothed back his short peaked beard com- 
placently. " Only obey, good people : nothing is easier." 

" Pardon us, most noble marquis," said Asceglio, step- 
ping forward a pace in front of his brethren : " nothing is 
more impossible. I speak for all, when I say, that never 
will we give up our right to that blessed gospel which has 
brought us salvation; never will we enter the churches 
where Roman worship of saints and angels defiles God's 
sanctuary. But we appeal to the conventions under which 
our forefathers settled on the lands of your Excellency's 
ancestors, — conventions, the latest of which is ratified by 
no less a person than Ferdinand of Aragon, King of Spain 
and Naples, and which not even Philip himself durst dis- 
regard ! Tour ExceUenoy may recollect, that under those 
deeds we were guaranteed perfect freedom of worship ; we 
were permitted to govern ourselves in civil matters by our 
own magistracy, as in spiritual matters by our own pas- 
tors ; and we have done nothing to deserve the forfeiture 
of these privileges." 

The marquis had listened with iU-restrained impatience, 
and now broke forth afresh. "I am neither theologian 



356 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

nor lawyer : I will have none of this. It comes to the one 
point, — will you subnait to the Church's authority, or will 
you not ? " 

Then said Paschali, "We must obey God rather than 
men." 

A murmur of approbation followed his words. The 
marquis started from his seat in a fury. " Away with him 
to the dungeons ! " The guard of sbirri seized Paschali. 
"My lord, this is illegal: no charge has been laid against 
me." 

" We will find charges enough ! " said the marqui^ ve- 
hemently. "It is enough that thou hast disturbed and 
perverted the people, making the province a very hotbed 
of heresy." 

Paschali remembered one to whose charge was laid the 
like, and he held his peace. A priest at the marquis's 
elbow whispered him something. 

"Ay, truly, tliis other man seems a pestilent fellow like- 
wise : we had best have him in safe keeping also. Arrest 
Marco d'Ascegho for being a ringleader of heresy and 
sedition, and have them both to the prison of the castle : 
there they may preach and pray so long as they list." 

A dead silence fell upon the remaining Vaudois. A 
parting look was aU the farewell of those dear brethren , 
but that Paschali said, " Quit you like men ; be strong 1 " 
The marquis, chafing with vexation, — for his sudden 
rage, and the monk at his ear, had committed him to a 
line of conduct which his sober judgment by no means 
approved, — bit his mustaches petulantly, and growled 
like one of his own hounds. 



FORERUNNER OF TEE TEMPEST. 357 

" Ye see what ye have to expect. I'll have no heresy 
in my domains : I'll have none but good Catholics on 
my lands." Francesco thought he said this manifestly 
for the benefit of the monk b^gide him. "As to those 
old conventions to which yon fellow appealed but just 
now, his Holiness is not bound by one of them : his Holi- 
ness knows nothing about them. And King Philip kfiows 
that a ruler's first obligation is to root out heresy." Here 
the evil-omened monk whispered again.- 

"Is one Stefano Negrino among you?" inquired his 
Excellency the mouthpiece. " My summons extended to 
him; did it not ?" addressing the secretary, who answered 
affirmatively. But Negrino was not present, and the de- 
sign of the inquisitor was baffled for that time. 

" I will have no heretics on my lands," repeated the 
marquis, who took refuge in this tautology whenever he 
was at a loss for somewhat convincing to say. " So now 
go home all of you ' oltra-montani,' and reflect on what 
you've seen, and remember that I expect obedience and 
submission from you all as your suzerain and liege, and 
I command you to obey the holy Church and our holy 
father." This oration concluded, his Excellency, the not 
very fluent marquis, rose from his seat in the great hall, 
and, raising the tapestry at his left hand, passed out of 
sight. The audience was ended. 

Bianca waited long that evening for her husband's re- 
turn. The child was sleeping; and again and again she 
went to the door to look out, seeing a most serene heaven 
lit with the great silver-shielded moon, which had echpsed 



358 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

the stars in all her neighborhood, as day eclipses them, by 
affluence of light. But, for many a weary hour, no echo 
of footstep satisfied the young wife's ear. Her heart was 
sick before it came. Nor hers alone ; but in fifty Vaudois 
cottages that night was the same anxious watch, — the 
same yearning of listening. What had been the result of 
that day's perilous interview ? For that it was perilous, 
and a premonition of worse things coming, the instinct of 
afiection too truly told those women watchers. 

At last — oh joy! — the step is heard, rapidly ascending 
toward the vine-clad cottage. Bianca flies to meet him. 
"What news ? what has been done? " and many a thanks- 
giving for his safety interpolates his narrative. 

" But where is the pastor Paschali ? I deemed he was 
to have been home with thee." 

" He is in prison at Foscalda. There ! it were no use 
to conceal fi-om thee what is the town-talk already. He 
and Marco d'Asceglio were arrested before the audience 
was over. The marchese was much chafed, and ordered 
it in a sudden wrath ; but I dare say, that, before a few 
days, they may be released." Francesco said nothing of 
the spiritual power at the nobleman's elbow. 

Bianca shuddered, clinging to her husband's arm. "God 
was very merciful that thou wert not taken," she mur- 
mured. " But the evil days are come, and the curse of 
Cain is on this land : it contains no rest. Let us go away, 
Francesco." 

"Away, dear one?" he repeated. "Whither? Are not 
all other regions of Italy even more dangerous than this? 



FORERUNNER OF THE TEMPEST. 359 

No : we will wait and see what God has in store for Cala- 
bria. Perchance this is but a passing gust of storm, which 
will blow over. The imprisonment of two is not the 
persecution of a nation ; and, however the marquis may 
swagger, he can scarce disregard the treaties under which 
the oltra-montani colonized here." 

" But another power can, and will," interposed Bianca. 
" The Inquisition knows no law, human or divine. Let us 
go away, Francesco, if only for the child's sake." 

"Dear one, thou reniemberest not how the chief part 
of my small patrimony is sunk in this cottage and these 
fields : until I find a purchaser, at least, we must remain. 
It all comes to this, my wife: 'God is our refuge and 
strength.' " 




CHAPTER XLI. 



"PERFECT THROUGH STIFFERINGS." 




I HE bright busy months of harvest and of vin- 
tage came, and passed, over the valleys of Car 
labria ; and, during the earliest of them, it was 
reported that the fiery old Carafia, Pope Paul 
the Fourth, bigot and persecutoi', had died- 
Rather good news for Protestants everywhere, 
but especially those within arm's-reach in It- 
aly, could they have hoped that the intolerant spirit of 
which he was the embodiment had died with him. Reg- 
ularly every Thursday had the aged pontiff attended the 
Congregation of the Inquisition, and urged forward the 
severest measures against heretics. Whatever other duty 
of his office was left undone, he never forgot this. His big- 
otry grew into a rampant rage against all who dared differ 
from him: the very cardinals and inquisitors themselves 
became objects of his suspicion. His last words were to 
commend the Inquisition to the care of the Conclave; 
and, with the thought, the old man, invigorated for a 
moment, strove to raise himself up, to speak further ; but 
strength there vas none : he fell back, and died. 

360 



PERFECT THROUGH SUFFERINGS. 361 

Then the people arose, and their concentrated fury burst 
forth, when the keen, lion-like eye that had so often awed 
them was dull and closed. They rushed upon the statue 
of the pope, and took a poor revenge for his tyrannies by 
breaking it in pieces, and dragging the triple-crowned 
head through the mire of the streets. A worthier effort 
of theii- rage was the attacking and bui-ning of the Inqui- 
sition buildings, and destruction of the archives. The 
Dominican convent della Minerva, whose brethren were 
particularly active against heresy, narrowly escaped the 
same fate. 

The echoes of these doings penetrated even to the Ca- 
labrian vintage-grounds, and waked some hope in Vaudois 
breasts. While crushing the purple grapes in the wine- 
press, or shaking the ripe chestnut-boughs, these simple 
people would tell each other the exaggerated story, how 
all Rome had arisen, and cast out the Inquisition ; and 
who knows but it is the beginning of a Protestant move- 
ment ? — who knows but the dear pastors will soon be 
released from Poscalda dungeons, and liberty of faith be 
permitted once more ? 

Others, less sanguine, thought it was a mere momentary 
ebullition of feeling, perhaps of turbulent license, — simply 
the re-action from a tyranny to an interregnum; and the 
Romans would presently accommodate their necks to the 
yoke as abjectly as ever, and yell around an. mtto-dorfe as 
savagely. So the issue proved. 

Did any such news penetrate into the gloomy prisons 
of Foscalda, where the pastors and D'Asceglio lay im- 

31 



362 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

mured ? Did the long fair summer days wane into the 
shortest, and no tidings from the outside world reach 
these confessors of the faith ? None but what their keep- 
ers chose to tell. How chafed the soldier spirit of Pas- 
chali, which could better have borne the active torture 
than the passive endurance ! "What strifes for submission 
did he wage with the flesh and the devil ; ay, and with 
their ally, the- world ; for life was fair to him as to most 
young men ; and his prospects might be bright enough, 
if he would only give up his Saviour : but, by the grace 
of God, he received strength to conquer them all. 

Round the evening fires that winter, many a story crept 
out among the frightened flock — as dreadful slimy crea- 
tures crawl from the darkness of dungeons — concerning 
secret tortures of body and of mind borne by their beloved 
pastor and their friend D'AscegUo. Many a brawny hand 
of herdsman and husbandman was clinched in impotent 
rage ; while the women cowered in terror from the tale, . 
and had afterward uneasy dreams. It was a time for 
searchings of heart, for much and mighty prayer, among 
these Italian Vaudois ; and the majority of them feared 
nothing so greatly as a possible desertion of the truth in 
the hour of nature's weakness. Even Bianca could, not 
wish to purchase the safety of her husband at this price. 

Yet between her and the sunshine loomed perpetually 
that awfiil shadow of what might be coming : had she not 
from childhood heard of sword and fire as the proper her- 
itage of Lutherans ? The dread imbittered every sweet 
which God poured into her cup of life. It ought not to 



PERFECT THROUGH SUFFERINGS. 363 

have been so : for Paul -writes the injuaction, " Be careful 
for nothing ; but in every thing by prayer make your re- 
quests known unto God ; and the peace of God, which 
passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts." Like- 
wise a greater than Paul spoke: "Sufficient to the day 
is the evil thereof Take no thought for your life : - . . 
the very hairs of your head are all numbered." Bianca 
should have remembered, and practically wrought out, 
these blessed truths. The Almighty Father has given 
power to many a weak woman so to do ; as in this very 
year 1560, in the Piedmontese town of Carignan, a won- 
drous heroism was witnessed by the angels and the inquis- 
itors. A certain man named Mathurin was in prison for 
heresy, and before him lay the option of recantation or 
the fire. Easy words for me to write, and for you, my 
reader, 'to pronounce ; but just try, for a moment, to real- 
ize the dread alternative ! His wife obtained leave to 
speak with him for a few moments in presence of the 
commissioners, "for his good," as she phrased it; and 
they understood that after their own fashion : and, when 
she entered his ceU, she besought him to persevere in his 
confession of faith, and not to trouble himself about the 
agonies of his punishment, which could not last long; for 
that, if it pleased God, she would die with him at the 
same stake. Great was the fury of the inquisitors : they 
had made sure that her entreaties would have taken quite 
another turn ; and the utmost effort of their malignity 
could only compass that which most she desired, — a joint 
entrance into heaven. 



364 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

. But, if we are disposed to censure poor little Bianca fot 
her want of faith and trust in the God whom she believed 
to be her Father, do we not commit the same sin often- 
times ourselves without a tithe of the cause ? Are we 
not anxious and troubled about many things, which in- 
volve nothing at all so precious as the liberty and life of 
our best loved ? Whoever has not thus oflFended, let that 
rare individual pass judgment. 

Francesco tried in vain to keep from her the intelli- 
gence which was whispered about in spring, blanching 
many a cheek and lip with fear. Stefano Negrino, the 
beloved missionary from the Alpine Valleys, had been 
seized, and tortured to death. 

In February of the year, the three martyrs had been 
removed fi-om Foscalda to the securer and more hopeless 
dungeons of the Castle of Cosenza; where the secret 
efforts of the Marquis di Spinello to ward off persecution 
from them, and to avert the zeal of the bishop, who was 
fain to attempt forced conversion, woxdd be unavailing. 
It is probable that then the prisoners gave up hope, and 
parted company with desire of life. Until the all-reveal- 
ing judgment of the great day, the savage secrets of the 
Cosenza prison-house may not be known. What press- 
ure of torture was appUed to the poor body, while its 
unflinching mate, the soul, agonized in every sensation, 
yet rose superior to the pain, clinging fast to the out- 
stretched hand of Omnipotence ; what torture of tempta- 
tion to the mind, arrays of promises and threatenings, if 
by any means such noted men might be warped from 



PERFECT THROUGH SUFFERINGS. 365 

Steadfastness, and their fall be as when a standard-bearer 
faileth, — we have only vain records of these. It is cer- 
tain that the many torturings of the gentle Stefano Ne- 
gi-ino ended in the climax of death by hunger; and 
through this painful door he entered into the joy of his 
Lord. 

And Marco d'Asceglio, the layman, — had he like pre- 
cious faith ? Could he hold out bravely, though assaulted 
by rack and fagot ? There was a pile built one April day 
in the courtyard of the castle, and his worn and ema- 
ciated form stood upon it to be burnt, — " not accepting 
deliverance, that he might obtain- a better resurrection." 

Such heroic self-devotion is pitched more than a note 
too high for our social scale. Comfortable carpet Chris- 
tians are the rule now-a-days ; and we look back from our 
easy existence with a half-incredulous marveling at the 
grand old souls, who counted not ease or life so dear as 
Christ. It is good to think ourselves back into that age 
of true heroes, and stimulate our sluggish hearts by such 
examples. 

Paschali's hour was not yet come. A few days after 
the burning of his friend D'Asceglio, he was conducted to 
Naples in company with twenty-two prisoners sentenced 
to the galleys. The man whose crime was preaching 
Christ chained hand to hand with banditti and mur- 
derers ! 

It was a long, weary journey on foot. Paschali's let- 
ters have left on record some of its painfulness. The 
Spaniard who had charge of the prisoners hated the here- 

31* 



366 FROM DA WN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

tic most of all : an assassin was less odious in his eyes. 
In addition to the chain which bound Paschali like the 
others, he put upon >iiTn " a pair of handcuffs, so strait that 
they entered into the flesh;" and when at night, aftei 
the day's march over rough roads and through noontide 
heats, the wretched prisoners reached the rude inn where 
a few hours' pause would be made, their bed was the hard 
earthen floor, without pillow or covering, while the very 
beasts had litter on which to rest. But, if Paschali had had 
the most luxurious couch, he could not have slept, because 
of the torturing handcuffs eating into his flesh. He asked 
the Spaniard to remove them, and found that what would 
not be done for justice or mercy might be accomplished 
by an adequate bribe. Alas! the heretic possessed but 
two ducats in the world : with these he must feed himself. 
So the handcuffs remained on him nine nights and days, 
until he was finally lodged in the dungeon allotted to him 
at Naples, — a most noisome cell, reeking with " damp and 
the putrid breath of prisoners." 

Prom all which, and from all possible torture and cruel 
death, he had it in his own power to save himself by one 
simple action, one falsehood. " Say that yoii recant ; so 
shall hfe, enjoyment, honor, be yours." How often was 
this fair prospect held up before his weary eyes ! How 
did human nature plead within the youthful heart ! How 
did the face of his dearly loved, his betrothed, rise with 
irrepressible yearnings of memory, of hope, across the 
blank dungeon-walls ! Not alone to the Saviour of man- 
kind on the mountain's brow did the enemy whisper, 



PERFECT THROUGH SUFFERINGS. 367 

" If thou wilt ■worship me, all shall he thine." Paschali 
heard the words ; hut he was given grace to turn away 
likewise from the tempter. 

Ay, though he came at last in the guise of a beloved 
brother, who offered Paschali half his property if he 
would recant, and backed the entre|,ty with prayers and 
tears. It was harder to endure this than the cajolings 
and threats of a crowd of priests. But the Vaudois pas- 
tor stood fast by his faith. He was in no wise unwilling 
to live : he loved ease and domestic enjoyments and quiet 
days as much as other men. The difference was, that he 
loved his Saviour more. 

Truly an obstinate heretic ! So proclaimed all the 
monkish doctors, whose rhetoric was foiled by his firm 
faith. Had the Caraffa been pope, he would long since 
have brought so perverse a Lutheran to Rome, and dealt 
with him in the court of the Castle of St. Angelo. But 
Pius the Fourth, of a jovial and worldly disposition, desired 
not the unenviable reputation of his pi-edecessor for big- 
otry and blood-thirstiness. The Inquisition was not his 
pet institution as it had been Paul's. Nay, Pius had been 
known even to censure the harshness of its proceedings, 
not as inhuman or unjust, but simply as impolitic : yet, at 
the same time, he declared that he would not interfere 
with the tribunal ; for he was no theologian. The Con- 
gregation might continue to do whatever they deemed 
necessary for the extirpation of heresy; while his Holi- 
ness amused himself with architecture, gardening, conver- 
saziones, diplomacy. Obscure Lutherans were no affair 



368 FROU DAWN TO DARK IN ITALYr 

of his: if princes were infected, the supreme pontiff 
might be called on to interfere. He wished, indeed, that 
all the world could quietly dwell in the fold of Rome, 
and be sheared or slain meekly at the will of the chief 
shepherd. As for the outlaws who transgressed limits, let 
the Holy OflSce do<«Bdth them as seemed good in its 
sight. 

And presently the Holy Office thought fit to have Lu- 
dovico Pasehali, the obstinate Vaudois heretic, who con- 
stantly asserted that the pope was Antichrist, and his seat 
the Apocalyptic Babylon, brought in chains to Rome on 
the 16th of May, 1560. 





CHAPTER XLII. 

THE RESOLVE OF SAII SESTO. 

J NE afternoon, in the same month of May, the 
schoolmaster of San Sesto came home de- 
cidedly out of sorts. The playfulness or 
caresses of his childi-en failed to extort a smile 
on his usually indulgent face. He ate of his 
favorite dish, — a sort of rude omelet, — and 
his wife knew that he was scarce conscious 
of the nature of his food. Not so sensitive as Bia,nca, 
the good woman merely concluded that her " sposo " had 
heard some bad news abroad, which he would be sure to 
tell her by and by ; and as to that intelligence being any 
thing which could very deeply affect her, — why, her whole 
world was contained within the four walls of her humble 
house. Her husband and children were secure as yet; 
and it is a privilege possessed by such slow, short-sighted 
natures as the schoolmaster's wife, that the largeness of 
evil which a higher type of woman can in a m.oment an- 
ticipate never strikes them until actually presented. 

And so the good Cecca saw her husband's gloomy mood 
without a pang of that agonizing^ fprebodin^ which would 

369 



370 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

have rent Bianca's heart in like case. She stowed away 
the children in their crib early, from instinctive feeling 
that their frolic annoyed the father somehow ; and, return- 
ing, found him sitting in the same spot, but with his head 
laid on his arms upon the uncleared table where they had 
supped. 

"Amico mio, what aileth thee? " 

Twice she repeated the little question ere reply came : 
then he raised his face to look at her large, placid, ox-like 
eyes, as he said, " There's evil news abroad, Cecca. Evil 
visitors come to our town, from whom the Lord alone can 
deliver us." 

"Why, what have we done?" she asked. 

"Done ? Are we not Vaudois ? are we not ' oltra-mon- 
tani ' ? That were enough for a fiery death, my wife." 

" The good Lord will care for us, caro sposo," was her 
quiet answer. " "We ought not to be afraid under the pro- 
tection of the good Lord. But who are the evil visitors 
of whom you spake ? " 

" Two Dominican monks, sent by the Cardinal Alexan- 
drin, inquisitor-general, to suppress heresy in the Cala- 
brias," he answered. " They have convened a great meet- 
ing of- the inhabitants of our town for to-morrow, in the 
piazza, at noon ; when, I suppose, we shall hear our fate." 

"The good Lord will take care of us," repeated the 
placid woman ; yet even she had pressed her hand on her 
breast for an instant when she heard the dreaded word 
" inquisitor." And she went steadily about her household 
duties as usual, with nothing in her outward appearance 



THE RESOLVE OF SAN SESTO. 37l 

to testify that a dull pain had been planted at her heart, 
— the man's eyes following her; for this evening his 
dear books were neglected, and he was calculating conse- 
quences. 

There he sat until his God raised him from that dreary 
mental occupation, and directed the troubled spirit to the 
fountain of comfort in his own "Word. 

" Bring the 'Vangelo, the Gospel-book, Cecca," he said 
to his wife. And therewith he roused from his despond- 
ing recumbent posture to find such words as these : — 

" Beati coloro che son perseguiti per cagione di giusti- 
zia ; perciocch^ il regno de' cielo e loro," — " Blessed are 
they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake ; for 
theirs is the kingdom of heaven." 

" The kingdom of the heavens is theirs." The poor 
schoolmaster felt immediately lifted to the consciousness 
of the vastness of his Ufe, — the life which, through his 
Saviour, had been given to his regenerate soul. No en- 
emy could take from him the eternal happiness which 
Jesus had purchased, and the existence of unknown joys 
which awaited him, whenever it should please his Father 
to call him from this mortal life. But the little children ! 
With a great pang, the. thought of them came across his 
stout heart : he grasped the book with a starting of the 
muscles in his hands, — with a far fii-mer grasp than was 
needftil, and which left the fingers white from pressure. 

"Cecca mia, listen to what our most blessed Christ 
said: — 

« « Voi sarete beati, quando gli uomini v'avranno vitu- 



372 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

perati, e perseguiti: e mentendo, avranno detto contr'a 
voi ogni mala parola per cagion mia.' 

" 'Tis just what they have done," said the schoolmaster, 
leaving his finger under the line : " they falsely have spo- 
ken evU words against us for Christ's sake. The priests 
and monks assert that we commit the most odious crimes 
when we meet together to worship God ; and the calumny 
is revived stronger than ever of late, since the dear pastor 
Paschali's preaching. But we are blessed when men re- 
vile and persecute us ! " 

He read and mused long over the 'Vangelo that night ; 
and the strength which God's words give in the hour of 
need visited his soul like cordial. Yet the children's crib 
almost unmanned the father again. For those beloved little 
ones on the morrow — what ? He remembered traditions 
descended from the last generation, of fiendish persecu- 
tions in the valleys of Piedmont, — of " mother and infant 
hurled down the rocks," of children held aloft on transfix- 
ing spears. Such images haunted his sleep, when he did 
sleep, through one or two feverish hours to dawn. 

His was not the only restless head that night in San 
Sesto. The presence of those two ill-omened monks of 
St. Dominic had given the population of the town a night- 
mare. Longing for, and yet fearing, the light of the day 
which was to decide all, the worst would have been almost 
as bearable as the suspense. 

Hundreds of eyes scanned those monks' inscrutable 
faces that forenoon in the piazza, — the one, a portly, im- 
perious-voiced man, whose coarse white woolen robe en- 



THE RESOLVE OF SAN SESTO. 373 

veloped a massive figure ; the other, dark, pale, lithe ; but 
both with countenances impenetrable, at least to the hur- 
ried, anxious stare of the multitude who felt in their power. 

Very gentle was the speech of the little monk, yet sig- 
nifying much : — 

"Most dear friends, the Fra Valerio and myself have 
been sent hither by his Eminence the Cardinal Alexan- 
drin, of the Holy Congregation ; and we come in all love 
and good faith, not to hurt any person, but only to warn 
you, as deeply concerned for your prosperity and salva- 
tion, that you should desist from hearing any teachers of 
religion but those appointed by your ordinary the bishop. 
His Eminence has learned with sorrow that certain Lu- 
therans have penetrated among you, and are seeking to 
undermine the foundations of your faith. Now, if you 
dismiss these men, who have led you astray, and sought 
to draw you from the holy Roman Church into all manner 
of heresies, you shall do well. We are desirous to deal by 
you in love and peace : therefore we invite all here pres- 
ent to the celebration of the holy sacrifice of the mass to- 
morrow morning, at the hour of matins, in the Church of 
our Blessed Lady ; when we shall be enabled to distin- 
guish the tares from the wheat, and to act accordingly. 
And now we commend you to the guardianship of our 
Lady and the holy saints. Benedicite." 

The monk's prayer was stifled in a chorus of murmurs 
which arose from the crowd. But his brother Valerio 
stepped forward. In few and terse words, he gave them 
to understand the alternative, — recantation, or loss of life 

32 



374 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

and property. If they attended the mass, and comported 
themselves otherwise as good Catholics, no inquiry as to 
former conduct should endanger them : if they remained 
obstinate, they must expect the punishment of heretics. 

"And the convention, — the convention ! " The royally 
ratified treaty, guaranteeing the rights of the Vaudois set- 
tlers, — -was it so much waste paper? Could no security 
be drawn from long usage, long possession, from genera- 
tions gone by, under feudatories who obeyed their own 
and their fathers' promises and agreements sacredly? 
Ah ! the Inquisition could ride roughshod over all. No 
power, civil, military, or ecclesiastical, could pretend to 
stay the hand of the terrible tribunal, or to ask it, " What 
doestthou?" 

So the Dominican monks knew that the turbulence of 
the crowd was but vaporing: they waited, calmly confi- 
dent, tUl the morrow's crisis. Brother Alfonso and brother 
Valerio attended in the Church of our Lady at the ap- 
pointed hour: the bell rang for matins, loud and long; 
the mass was begun, the mass was ended. Where were 
the congregation ? Fra Valerio swung his incense to 
comparatively empty benches: the handful of Roman 
Catholics in San Sesto attended, — not one more. 

The elder Dominican's black eyes gleamed dangerously. 
His ofSce and his embassy despised by these " oltra-mon- 
tani"! Contemptuous silence and disobedience their only 
answer to persuasions and threatenings ! He would show 
them that he was not thus to be trifled with. He would 
send to the viceroy at Naples for troops, and compel these 
obstinate heretics to submit at sword's-point. 



THE RESOLVE OF SAN SESTO. 375 

But lo ! when he came forth into the town, thus chafed, 
and lithe brother Alfonso casting oil on the flame with his 
quiet words, the street was deserted. The house-doors 
stood open into empty chambers. A great silence was 
everywhere. 2^0 clang of hammer or anvil, no ox-carts 
standing in the market-place, no busy stalls and shops, no 
voices of children at play in the shady loggias : the place 
was as one depopulated. What had become of the inhab- 
itants ? 

"Verily," quoth Fra Alfonso with his sinister smile, 
"had we brought with us the plague, we could not be 
more shunned by the good people of San Sesto. Ecco ! 
there's an old man leaning on a staff. Follow and ques- 
tion him, my brother Giulio, that we may solve this mys- 
tery. Truly, were the town all asleep or dead, 'twould 
scarcely be more silent." 

The aged Vaudois was brought forward and interro- 
gated. It took not many questions to draw from him the 
fact, that the inhabitants of San Sesto had in a body left 
their homes, their trades, their property, and withdrawn 
to the shelter of the neighboring woods. 

Fra Valeiio's countenance grew pale with rage. 

"And wherefore, old dotard," he shouted, "have they 
thus done ? Let them not think to escape the Holy Of- 
fice. I will have troops from the viceroy; I will hunt 
them from their coverts." 

"Ay, thou art a worthy successor of St. Dominic the 
persecutor!" replied the old man undauntedly, — "he 
who massacred our forefathers in Provence, and lighted 



376 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

the piles of a thousand martyi-s ! Yes, strike me do^7n, if 
thou wilt ; I have lived long enough : my greatest hope is 
death!" 

" Have him away to the prison, for insult to the repre- 
sentatives of the Holy Office!" ordered Fra Valerio; 
"and prepare a swift messenger to Naples immediately. 
These heretics must be made an example of. We came 
in all peace and amity, willing them to be reconciled to 
the Church ; and they have rejected mercy : nothing re- 
mains but justice." 

"Yet I would suggest," said the younger monk, "that 
a bloodless victory would bring greater honor to our mis- 
sion. I would try gentler measures a while. I know they 
deserve severe punishment ; yet may not a premature 
drawing of the sword defeat our ends ? " 

The inquisitors held conference together for some mo- 
ments in low tones. Fra Alfonso's crafty countenance 
indicated some deep-laid scheme of astute policy; to 
which the other monk gradually assented, as his wrath 
cooled. 

No more was heard of troops from the viceroy. In 
much milder mood, Fra Valerio returned to his convent ; 
whence, shortly after, he and his brother inquisitor 
emerged, mounted mules at a postern gate, and, accom- 
panied by the guard of sbirri, took the road to La Guar- 
dia, twelve miles away. 




CHAPTER XLIII. 

SAMSON'S CHASE. 

sLONG through the beautifiil Calahrian valleys 
passed the monldsh cavalcade from San Sesto 
to La Guardia, — a distance of perhaps twelve 
miles. Central in the party were the two in- 
quisitors, bestriding their apostolic mules ; al- 
beit that to Fra Alfonso's lean form and fiery 
eye a war-charger would have seemed the 
more suitable beast. Not alone to the sword spiritual did 
these worthy sons of the Church trust. A goodly escort 
of soldiers and sbirri accompanied them ; for there was no 
knowing what these " oltra-montani " might attempt in 
their desperation. And portly Fra Valerio entered no 
strip of woodland nor gloomy gorge of the hills without 
certain uneasy sensations, and an irrational desire to spur 
his peaceful mule. 

But they traveled without interruption tUl the broad 
blue sea lay stretched before them ; and, like a cluster of 
shells on the shore, rose the gray walled town of La Guar- 
dia at some distance. Straight toward the shimmering 
waters lay the road now, through open country, smiling 

82* 377 



378 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

with the cultivation of fields and vineyards. Fra Valeric 
felt his valor wax strong again as he emerged from the 
perilous cincture of hills upon level lands, where white 
cottages lay scattered like sheep ready for slaughter. 

Entering La Guardia, immediately the gates were shut, 
and soldiers posted beside them. What hostile move- 
ment was this? The people flocked to the piazza, the 
center of civic life, where, if anywhere, they would learn 
the meaning of this alarming demonstration. The smooth- 
tongued brother Alfonso adjusted his white robe grace- 
fully, and uttered falsehoods without a blush on his pale 
olive cheek. 

"Dear and faithful friends," he began, "we shall be 
compelled, much to our regret, to condemn you to death, 
if you do not follow the example of yom- brethren at San 
Sesto. They have renounced their errors, and returned 
to the bosom of the holy Church with true contrition. 
They have assisted at the most blessed sacrifice of the 
mass, and received the most holy eucharist; and there- 
upon a plenary absolution has been granted them. The 
like course is open to you. You may follow the example 
of their dutiful conduct, and thereby consult your best in- 
terests, and be partakers of their blessings. Be wise, as 
they have been, most dear friends ; for the Chm'ch hath 
yet open arms to receive the penitent, while she hath a 
sharp sword for the ofiending." 

Now, the people of La,Guardia were simple folk, for the 
most part wholly unused to deceit and treachery. Had 
tJ-«r brethren of San Sesto yielded? — then the sin could 



' SAMSON'S CHASE. 379 

not be gi-eat of doing likewise. They had no time to de- 
liberate : the bloody sword or the mass was offered ; the 
decision must be immediate. Who would not be soared 
by the alternative ? And as to questioning the truth of 
the inquisitor's plausible statement, their own native hon- 
esty disarmed them from suspicion. 

So Fra Valerio and Fra Alfonso swung their censers, 
and performed their genuflexions, and adored their conse- 
crated bread, in presence of the population of La Guardia, 
who with unquiet consciences looked on, and knelt when 
required, sullenly obedient and perplexed. 

Truly a great victory for the monks ! It never occurred 
to these worthy gentlemen that the deluded Vaudois 
might prove recalcitrant on discovering the trick played 
on them. But, next day, there was a tumultuous gather- 
ing in the same market-place. The news of the steadfast- 
ness of San Sesto had reached their ears, filling them with 
shame and self-scorn. They would instantly leave their 
town, with wives and children, and go to join their breth- 
ren in the woods. The Marquis di Spinello, their feu- 
datory superior, endeavored to quell their excitement. 
He made the fairest promises and representations. He 
would use his influence with the viceroy that the San 
Sesto people should meet with no further persecution. 
Attendance at mass M'w a mere matter of form, which was 
valuable as securing them from the Inquisition. They 
would not draw fire and sword on themselves by an in- 
considerate zeal ! He who had imprisoned Paschah and 
P'Asceglio might seem a bad preacher of moderation; 



380 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

but it is a terrible thing by the heat of the moment to for- 
feit home and property, perhaps life. The veryspeecb of 
the marquis, if only by its duration, helped to cool the au- 
dience. They hesitated from the boldness of their first 
resolve: they were prevailed on to wait the issue of 
events. 

The ardent and youthful spirits among them were iU 
satisfied with such cautious conduct. Some went off to 
join the San Sestans in their forest, in no wise anxious 
to avoid the hand-to-hand combat which seemed there in- 
evitable. For soon the news spread that the Marquis di 
Spinello had promised more than he could perform. Two 
companies of soldiers had already been dispatched by 
the monks to pursue and exterminate the fugitive Vau- 
dois. 

Francesco Altieri was at supper with his wife and child 
in the vine-covered cottage before mentioned, when the 
door was burst open suddenly, and a very tall man ap- 
peared in the entry. Bianca grasped her husband's arm 
convulsively until the stranger spoke in familiar tones : — 

" What, Samson ! " said Francesco, half rising. ''At this 
hour ! News from La Guardia, my friend ? " 

"Ay, truly; shameful and sorrowful news," answered 
the young man, coming forward, and flinging his broad- 
leaved straw hat on the table. He narrated what has 
been told already in this chapter. 

"And thou art away to the woods?" asked Altieri. 

"Yes: whither I counsel thee and thine also to retreat," 
replied the speaker, who, for his colossal size and strength, 



SAMSON'S QBASE. 38] 

was surnamed by his acquaintances Samson. He rose 
from his seat. " I miist depart now, and endeavor during 
the dark hours to find our brethren's hiding-place. I came 
simply to warn thee, my friend, that soldiers are abroad, 
led by devils in the shape of monks. Thinkest thou, that 
should a score of them come upon thy cottage, and know 
it inhabited by a Vaudois, either justice or mercy would 
save thee? Verily, nay; for their delight is treachery 
and blood." 

He took the wide hat again in his hand. 

" Fly with me. I know the passes of the woods and 
glens better than thou" — 

"What ! this night ? " said Bianca fearfully. 

" N'ay," said her husband, " but we would do nothing 
rashly. We wUl ask God to guide us ere we decide, 
anima mia ! I thank thee, Samson, for coming with the 
news, dark and grievous though it be. If thou wilt stay 
till the morning" — 

But Samson would not. Through the moonless mid- 
night he sped him along, by unfrequented paths, into 
the deepest recesses of the Apennines skirted with forest. 
Here were defiles where a few might hold an army at bay; 
and great fastnesses of rock, which required only victual- 
ing to make them tenable as towers*; and patches of pes- 
tilent marsh, over whose quaking surface now crept the 
wavering ignis-fatuus. When some distance into the 
depths of these solitudes, he began to feel a weariness 
stealing over him. He could stumble upon no trace of 
his exiled brethren anywhere : the hooting of the owl, the 



882 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

chii-ping of the cicala, were the only sound of living thing. 
He would lay him down and rest till dawn. 

Accordingly, he climbed to a shelf of rock a few yards 
jfrom the rugged goat-path he had been pursuing among 
the crags, and was presently fast asleep on its hard surface. 
Samson was not used to much luxury of soft pillows or 
coverlets in his simple Vaudois life : his strength rested 
as dreainlessly on the rock as on feathers. But, as the 
morning light was breaking over the mountains, a dream 
visited the sleeper. He heard the baying of hounds ; he 
was pursued by them ; he fled precipitately ; his breath 
came quick, his limbs failed; their fangs were fastened in 
him ! Samson started up, cold drops on his brow. Little 
birds were singing morning-songs in the boughs beneath. 
A stream wad trickling in tiny cascade over the rock. 
But beyond and above these sounds came at intervals a 
distant baying of dogs : some hunters were abroad. 

And Samson smiled at the terrors of his dream. He 
returned thanks to his God for the repose which had re- 
freshed him, and clambered down to the goat-herd's path. 
The baying of hounds again ! but considerably nearer. He 
paused a moment. That was no ordinary baying. He 
listened for a repetition : he recognized the deep mouth 
of the bloodhound. 

Then the fiends had brought dogs to track the wretched 
Vaudois! But he had not a moment for indignation: 
flight was his only resource, and to endeavor to reach 
some inaccessible rock, or to break the scent somehow. 
He bethought him of having heard that water would 



SAMSON'S CEASE. 383 

throw a hound off track: he sped through the trees to 
find the course of the little stream from whose tinkling 
cascade he had drank a few minutes previously. It lost 
itself in a marsh, as do most waters of the district. But 
central in the marsh was a rushy mere. Samson plunged 
through quagmire and slough and sedge, startling a flock 
of wild water-fowl, which rose with screams into the air ; 
plunged into the stagnant lakelet, and gained the matted 
copse at the other side. 

He had escaped. But many and many a fugitive in 
those woods could not escape. Many and many a man 
and woman were seized, dragged down, hardly delivered 
from the cruel teeth of the bloodhounds into the crueler 
hands of the soldiery and inquisitors. 

Thus opened the campaign against the Vaudois by the 
use of an expedient so barbarous as to be unknown in 
civilized warfare. But there was no law nor usage which 
might not be wrested in favor of persecuting Lutherans 
all over Italy at that date. No treatment was too savage 
for them. The story of the Calabrese Vaudois is written 
in blood, — as miserable a story as ever historian penned ; 
and details which we shudder only to hear were actually 
endured by men and women Uke ourselves, for no other 
offense than that they worshiped God as we do. 

The game of hunter and hunted went *on bravely in 
these woods for some days : the hunters, well-fed soldiers 
in the livery of his Spanish majesty, ruler of Naples like- 
wise ; and the hunted, humble unarmed " oltra-montani," 
with their wives and little children. One might have 



384 FROM DAWN TO. DARK IN ITALY. 

thought that tameness in the quarry would blunt the edge 
of the hunters' gratification. But desperation makes even 
the timid doe turn to bay. How many unobserved and 
unrecorded martyrdoms dyed the moss and fallen leaves 
of those CaJabrian forests, none knows but He who has 
kept a record of them all. The woodland rang with the 
savage cry, " Amazzi, amazzi ! " — " Kill jthem, kill them ! " 
The inexplicable fierce thirst for slaying which forms the 
dehrium of battle, and makes some natures of kia with 
the tiger, possessed the ISTeapolitan soldiers. Our saintly 
Dominican monks meanwhile kept their white vestments 
without sensible blood-spot; but how crimson-dyed was 
the sin of their souls ! Perhaps they mildly censured the 
vehemence of such proceedings ; yet the population of a 
province would rather have cumbered the dungeons of the 
Inquisition. Their myrmidons might have remembered, 
however, that such is the tenderness of holy Church about 
shedding of blood, that she favors the condemned with 
the stake instead of the sword. 







CHAPTER XLIV. 

IN "THE TOPS OP THE BAGGED ROCKS." 

kHREE men sat beside a watch-fire built against 
a great gray crag on a mountain-side. Large 
branches of cork-trees fed the blaze, which 
sprang up merrily from time to time, licking 
the face of the rock affectionately, and crack- 
ling with energy and cheeriness. 

The features of the watchers reflected little 
more than the outside ruddiness of that buoyant flame. 
Surely that grave countenance, with more than one Une 
of care on its youthful brow and a sorrowful droop in 
the curve of the lips, is not the face of our friend Fran- 
cesco ? If so, a few days' racking anxiety and danger 
have oldened him by years. Well might it be ; for all 
that he holds dearer than life are staked upon this des- 
perate cast, — successful resistance by the unarmed to the 
armed. Bianoa and her child are among the women in 
the central point of the Vaudois position, — a wild glen 
higher up, whose sides have more than one cavern pierced 
therein. The man next Erancesco has ^jrife and babes 
also to think of: he is the sohoolmaster of San Sesto. > 

33 385 _ ( 



386 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

The tall figure of Samson paces to and fro as sentry at 
a little distance, on a spot conuiianding the only path at 
that side of the mountain. 

They are rudely armed. Scythes and reaping-hooks, 
sharpened spades, a few rusty halberds apd swords, a 
few rough pikes, hurriedly manufactured by the country 
smiths from any iron at hand, form the chief weapons 
among these poor Vaudois. They rely most on ammu- 
nition of huge rocks, which they have gathered to certain 
exposed points, with intent to hurl down on the enemy. 
The goodness of their cause, and the desperation of their 
circumstances, are the grand armory whence they gain 
nerve, — a quality much needed : for they have heard a 
rumor, that the Cardinal Alexandrin himself, the chief 
inquisitor, to whom was committed by his Holiness the 
conversion of Calabria, has arrived in their countiy from 
Naples with fresh troops, temporal as well as spiritual ; 
and further, that his Highness the viceroy is hastening 
after him, to bring all civil and military power to aid this 
Church's crusade. 

No wonder that the three countenances round the 
watch-fire were gloomy. Thinking, forecasting, to meu 
in their position, was a maddening process; yet every 
eflfort at conversation died away presently into silence. 

" My brothers, let us sing to the God of our salvation," 
said the schoolmaster, raising himself. " The Lord often 
hath sent good comfort on the wings of music and sweet 
words of praise. Christ is not dead, that he can not hear 
or help : let us trust in him." And his voice rtiised the 
prayer,— 



IN THE TOPS OF THE ROCKS. 387 

" La croce e" 1 orooiflsso 
61a nel mio cor scolpito, 
Ed io eia sempre affisso 
In gloria ov egli 6 ito ! " * 



" ' Sta con Gesu, cuor mio, 
£ lascia ogn' uomo gridarel 
Questo 6 il tuo doloe Dio ! ' " f 

The words of trust and aspiration which had com- 
forted Savonarola in many a troubled hour were soothing 
to these watchers. They were able to join in full chorus 
with the last verse, which begins, — 

" Prendete tutti I'arme 
Nemici d'ogni bone : 
Che pill non temo, e parme 
Che dolci Biau le pene." % 

"Tet," said the schoolmaster, breaking the swell of mu- 
sic, " the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. I would 
not use sword or spear against them : it is not lawful, as 
I before declared, for Christian men to defend themselves 
by blood-shedding. Ye see not with me, my brothers, 
nor can I expect that hot young hearts should ; but the 
holiest of our forefathers in the Valleys were of like opin- 

* We want tlie Cross and the Crucified more deeply graven on our hearts. 
We want' to realize that we have risen with him, and are ascended to his 
glory, with as great surety as if already there. 

t My heart, remain TvitU Jesus, and leave all men to wrangle : he is thy 
gentle God. 

X Take, therefore, all your weapons, ye enemies of every thing good I We 
fear you no longer; nay, rather, your enmity is welcome, your cruelties are 
sweet I 



388 fhom da wn to dark in italy. 

ion, that only in the last extremity should a Christian man 
fight'' — 

"And are -we not now at the last extremity?" asked 
the third person in the group, a young armorer from La 
Guardia: "A fig "for such timid policy! We are not 
bound to let ourselves be slaughtered like sheep by these 
ravening wolves, who thirst for the blood of the martyi-s 
of Jesus ! " 

"Then 'they that take the sword shall perish with 
the sword ! ' " exclaimed the gentle-spirited schoolmaster. 
"Knowest thou not what the Lord said? — 'If any man 
smite thee on the left cheek, turn to him the other also.' 
Such was the spirit of our most blessed Master ; and shall 
we, his servants " — 

"Methinks, good neighbor," said the young armorer 
hotly, "thou deemest thyself discoursing to a knot of boys 
in thy school, or perchance women in thy meeting-room, 
and not men whose hearts are afire with countless wrongs. 
How dare these accursed inquisitors come into our coun- 
ti-y, and make desolate a thousand homesteads at a blow ? 
How dare they threaten to take away our lives by the 
crudest of deaths ; and not only ours, but the live? of 
harmless women and helpless children ? " 

" My brother," interposed the quiet voice of the elder 
man, — and in its tones was a touch of heart-break, — 
"have I not wife and children? Thou hast none. Would 
I not lie down and die for them ? Ay, truly : so it saved 
them from suffering, dying were but a small matter. My 
brother, I speak as conscience guides me, concerning the 



IN THE TOPS OF THE ROCKS. 389 

fighting ; not from vain chimera or from cowardice," he 
added humbly. The other was softened : he grasped his 
hand, and kissed it, in his impulsive ItaUan way. 

" I was wrong, father ; I was impetuous : forgive my 
wild words. But truly these are times that would mad- 
den the coolest judgment. How doth the Lord in heaven 
look on such iniquities, and flash not forth his lightning ? " 

" Because he knoweth the end from the beginning," was 
the reply. 

"It seems to me," said Francesco, who had been 
thoughtftiUy gazing at the burning brands, and from time 
to time replenishing the fuel, " that, in making resistance 
to the inquisitors and their troops, we shall only be dis- 
charging the duty of self-preservation ; and further, that 
the guilt of blood will really lie upon the men who pur- 
sued us, and forced us to draw the sword. Our just God 
knoweth that we fight not from wantonness nor foolhard- 
iness, but simply to prevent the cruel slaying of those 
dear to us. I would that a further trial were made of ne- 
gotiating : it seemeth to me impossible that all hearts in 
the king's troops are so steeled to mercy " — 

"A better hope," observed the armorer shrewdly, 
" lieth in the great strength of our position here, which 
must cost them many lives or a long blockade to force. 
Bemardin Conto and myself walked round about the 
crags at sunset this night. "Well-nigh inaccessible is our 
eyiie : on but one side could any enemy, unless he had 
squirrels' feet, scale our defenses." 

" ' The strength of the hills is his also,' " murmured the 

33* 



390 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

schoolmaster. "'And their defense shall be the muui- 
tions of rocks : bread shall be given them ; their waters 
shall be sure.' " 

"But I would that further negotiation were tried," 
Francesco said, rising, and moving apart to think over his 
idea. A few yards away, and he stood on the edge of 
a sheer precipice rising from dense woods. A whisper 
of numberless leaves came up to his ears, as the night 
wind stirred among the matted boughs a hundred feet be- 
low. Far off in an opening between dark hiUs, streaks 
of silver amid dappled pearl showed where the moon 
would rise presently. No sign of enemy in aU the noise- 
less land could he see ; but he had learned to be cam- 
paigner enough, during his service with the Duke of Fer- 
rara's forces, to know that such non-appearance was de- 
ceitful. He had a suspicion that every brake and copse 
concealed a foe ; that the glens could in a moment glisten 
with hostile halberds. His spirit groaned to think of the 
inequality of the strife, — simplicity of peasants and arti- 
sans matched against aU the arts and duplicities of war ; 
rude weapons, manufactured from husbandry implements, 
to contend with the well-appointed soldiers of Spain. 

Then before his memory rose an unequal contest be- 
tween a Philistine giant and a shepherd's boy in Palestine 
long ago. " Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a 
spear, and with a shield ; but I come to thee in the name 
of the Lord of hosts, the God whom thou hast defied ! " 

Francesco looked back to the watch-fire burning against 
the crag ; and forcibly it reminded him of the emblem of 



IN THE TOPS OF THE ROCKS. 391 

the Vaudois church, — a lighted torch amid darkness, bear- 
ing for motto, " Lux lucet in tenebris." 

"Thou wilt not suffer the spark of thy truth to be 
trampled into darkness, O Lord!" And gradually the 
conviction strengthened upon him, that, however Christ's 
cause might for a while be crushed in this spot of Cala- 
bria, — and Francesco had Uttle hopes that matters could 
end otherwise, — God's truth must run and be glorified 
over the whole earth, and prosper to the purpose for 
which he sent it. 

Suddenly, from the very edge of the precipice, a man 
slowly raised himself, and whispered, " Hist ! " 

Francesco recoiled a pace. " Hist ! " repeated the other, 
raising his hand as a warning sign : the new moonbeams 
fell full on his crouching figure. "I would speak with 
thee. Alarm not thy guard ; for I am unarmed, see ! " 

"And what dost thou want with me ? " asked the young 
physician, half inclined to collar and drag him to the fire. 
Some faint memories were moved by the voice and the 
gesture, he could not tell what : his curiosity wfis roused. 

" I have been seeking to speak with thee these three 
days past," said the stranger ; " for I would do thee a ser- 
vice in this perilous time for thee and thine. I would 
show thee the securest hiding-place in all the Apeu; 
nines " — 

" Come, my friend," said Altieri incredulously, " if 
thou'rt not able to give some better account of thyself 
than this, I must seize thee as a spy. Why shouldst thou . 
seek to befriend me ? " 



392 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

"Because I remember the common prison of Locamo," 
was the only answer. It set swimming in the young phy- 
sician's brain a variety effaces there seen. 

"And what of the common prison of Locarao?" he 
asked in some slight bewilderment. 

"A wounded brigand," — it all flashed on Francesco's 
memory in a moment; "but the wound is quite healed 
years ago, signer: thanks to thy bandaging, from that 
day 'twas better. And I made a vow to my patron saint, 
that, could I meet the man to whom I did insult before 
he did me kindness, I would, repay as I could" — 

" Thanks, my friend. Where is the hiding-place thou 
speakest of?" 

" Not far from here, — a cavern : wife and child could 
shelter in it. It has been my lair for months, when I 
wanted no man to know whence I came. It is in the face 
of a clifl^ with trees across the mouth, — a most secure 
hiding-place as ever bandits roosted in." 

He was still at the old trade, this brigand, and had 
been one of a gang among the numerous gangs which in- 
fested the mountain passes, and defied all the civic power 
of his Neapolitan majesty ; but as they merely robbed 
travelers, and murdered them occasionally, the Church 
never bestirred herself against outlaws who regularly mut- 
tered prayers at every shrine they came across. 

"And, signor, I have somewhat to tell thee of danger. 

A proclamation has been issued, as I am told, oflfering 

• pardon to aU of us — to all the banditti in Naples — if 

they will help to exterminate the heretics ; and you ' oltra- 



IN THE TOPS' OF THE ROCKS. 393 

montani' were never regularly hunted down till that were 
done, — if it be done. The banditti know every pass and 
secret path in your mountains : they can guide troops to 
the securest lurking-places." 

Considerable alarm was awakened in Francesco's mind 
by this intelligence. Such human bloodhounds were in- 
finitely more dangerous than the trained sleuth-dogs 
which had been ranging the forests. 

"And sayest thou that no man Imows of this cavern?" 
said he, grasping at the hope of absolute secrecy for his 
dear Bianca and h6r little Cosmo. " Well, my watch ends 
at dawn : I may not leave my post till then." 

"Signor, I can wait;" and he rolled himself into a 
shadow of I'ocks and bushes, earthing himself so well, that 
when Francesco returned to the place, as the first rosy 
streaks painted the east, he could see no trace of him ; 
until, with a low, hissing laugh, the robber crept from the 
thicket. 

" I was sleeping, signor ; but the step of a hare would 
rouse me. In half an hour hence, you had been too late 
to see the cavern this morning ; for, though the secretest 
place in all the Apennines whe*!} once you're in it, the en- 
trance is about the most public ; " and he chuckled through 
his black bristling beard. " The signorina will be quite 
safe there, amico mia : fear not." 




CHAPTER XLV. 

THE PARLEY AND THE ASSAULT. 

^S that morning's sun raised his round red disk 
above the edge of the world, and his light 
caught on the tops of the serrated crags, fling- 
ing long shadows behind and across the rifts 
and patches of table-rock where the fugitive 
Vaudois nested, he looked right into a deep 
ascending ravine, stretching east and west, 
wherein men were busy throwing up an intrenchment. 
This was the one accessible point of the position, and the 
way by which it was known the troops would advance to 
the attack. All the simple engineering skill of the Vau- 
dois was exerted to make the passage difficult. A bani- 
cade of trees was thrown 'across. Piles of stones wore 
heaped along the tops of the precipices at each side, to be 
flung down on the invaders. And then, having done all 
in human power to prepare for defense, they committed 
their cause to their God. 

Bare-headed knelt the mass of fugitives, gilded by the 
early sunlight, as, one after another, their leading men 
arose and prayed. What prayer was that! what a press 

S94 



THE PARLEY AND THE ASSAULT. 395 

ing to the foot of the divine throne! what a wrestling 
with divine strength ! what a cleaving to the arm of Om- 
nipotence ! No lukewarm feelings, no half-hearted words, 
there. Tears poured down many a firm face unused tc 
such trickling. The tremendous issues involved in the 
approaching contest ; the all at stake, and veriest weakness 
to protect what was most precious, — little wonder that 
they had an agony of prayer, and could scarce be silent. 
Intense " Amens" burst from a hundred lips at each clause 
of a petition ; and many, prostrate upon their faces, re- 
peated again and again the prayer which had just left the 
lips of the spokesman with iiTepressible moans of longing. 

And while yet kneeling before theii- God, under his own 
canopy of heaven, a scout appeared upon the crags near by. 
A message was brought to the leading rhen. AH knew 
what it meant, ere the words went round,— ^ that the 
troops were within sight, marching up the defile toward 
the intrenchment. 

The well-ai-med, well-trained veteran soldiers, who had 
faced many a stomi of battle, despised these puny Vaudois 
adversaries with their wretched scythe-blades and plow- 
coulters and rusty ancestral rapiers. Hitherto the contest 
had been nothing but a secure running-down of game, as 
it wore. They anticipated nothing more now ; save, per- 
haps, such slight resistance as should add piquancy to the 
sport. But deeper they wound into the defile, and closer 
darkened the sides precipitously together : it v?-as becom- 
ing an ugly-looking place to get entangled in, The cap- 
tain called the peasant who acted as gilide, and interro- 



396 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

gated him. Was this the only avenue to the heretics' 
lair? Then they had more knowing heads among them 
than he fancied. ITever mind: the conquest would be 
the completer. The wilderness had shut them in : none 
could escape. At one blow, Calabria would lose all her 
heresy, and he, the captain, would be covei'cd with im- 
mortal honor. 

So the troops advanced until they came in sight of the 
ban-icade. It had been erected at the narrowest part of 
the pass; and the gulley in front was commanded by a 
double pile of rocks, and of desperate men to hurl them 
down. A hesitation entered the captain's mind, though 
his apparent advance was sturdy as before. The place 
was ugly, — there was no doubt of that. It could be 
made a Thermopylas ; but the gallant capitano d'infanteria 
had never heard of that celebrated pass, and go did not 
institute comparisons. But the thought did flash into his 
military mind, that here could a few resolute men st;op an 
army; yet it was so improbable that these untutored 
peasants and tradesmen would know how to organize a 
successful defense. 

"Like their own wild goats," reflected il capitano, 
" which look boldly at one fi-om the brow of the precipice 
before starting off in flight." 

He took it as a symptom of the approaching flight 
ivhen a man appeared on the nearest crag, waving some 
white cloth as a flag of truce. 

"The varlets! A proper answer would be to shoot 
him as he stands ! " observed the leader to the oiiiccr 



THE PARLEY AND THE ASSAULT. 397 

next him. "Nevertheless, to gain time, — for I believe 
not but there must be some safer access than this to their 
position ; and if so, yon guide shall swing from the near- 
est cork-tree, — to gain time, while we send to examine, 
shall we hear what the wretches have to say?" 

" Perhaps it is to negotiate a surrender," remarked the 
other. 

For a few moments, such might be thought. The 
envoy was not one skilled in diplomatic arts ; nor did 
he remember how thoroughly steeled to all merciful con- 
siderations were the men vwhom he addressed, when he 
began by entreating them to have pity on the helpless 
women and children, and not hunt down to death the 
unoffending. As well might he have pleaded with the 
mountain vulture to spare the lamb because it was help- 
less. Had the prey not been helpless, neither vulture nor 
trooper would dare swoop upon it. 

"A truce to this folly!" called the captain. "Sun-en- 
der thyself and thy fellows, and leave his Highness the 
viceroy to deal as he will with convicted rebels." 

« But we are no rebels, may it please your Excellency," 
answered the Vaudois. "We only seek to enjoy our 
common rights as men. We only want our lives and our 
lands secured to us as they have been by treaty from 
time immemorial. Our forefathers inhabited this country 
of Calabria for ages, and gave no person cause of com- 
plaint by their conduct " — 

« Come, come," said il capitano impatiently : " we can 

84 



398 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

not listen to thy harangues all day. Will ye surrender, 
or not?" 

"If your Excellency meaneth by 'surrender' our yield- 
ing ourselves and our little ones to the edge of the sword, 
such we wUl not do while God gives us strength to defend 
the weak ! " proclaimed the Vaudois spokesman undaunt- 
edly. "But if our adversaries are resolved not to leave 
us in this land of Calabria any longer, unless we base!)- 
renounce our faith, we trust that the king's clemency will 
allow us to withdraw to some other country, where we 
can worship God as our consciences dii-ect. We will 
go, by sea or by land, to any place which our superiors 
are pleased to appoint; and we will promise never to 
return." 

The captain would not listen to the proposition, which 
it had cost the poor Vaudois so much to make, in good 
faith : he would not- even report it to his superior officer, 
or suspend operations till a messenger could be sent to 
the viceroy. He knew the temper of his master too well, 
perhaps ! 

"And we will take no property with us ; we will give 
up all but a bare support during the journey; thy soldiers 
shall not be balked of their plunder," pleaded the flag of 
truce with pitiable humility. 

"There is no peace to be held with heretics," was 
the captain's answer. "If ye be reconciled to the holy 
Church" — 

"That is the one thing we can not do, yom* Excellency 
kuoweth : we can never forswear our faith. But, should 



THE PARLEY AND THE ASSAULT. 



we be driven now to extremities, your Excellency, per- 
haps, can guess the strength that lieth in desperate men." 

" What, ho ! do ye threaten ? Sound the advance there, 
trumpeter ! We shall teach tiaese heretics a lesson." 

And, as the companies of half-mailed infantry marched 
forward, they caught a ghmpse of a strange sight. Down 
upon their knees had fallen the Vaudois. To supplicate 
mercy from the relentless? — no ; but to cry to the strong 
God for strength in this terrible horn-. Entreaty had 
failed, eflfort at oapitulation had failed; and they were 
thrown upon the last resource, hand and sword. 

The infantry rushed on with shrill outcries and blasts 
of horns, drowning the momentary prayer. Their fore- 
most files were almost at the barricade, when, thundering 
into their midst, plunged huge bowlders from the preci- 
pices, crushing all they touched. Twenty picked men of 
the heretics dashed among them to take advantage of the 
confusion. A fearful hand-to-hand struggle succeeded; 
and all the while these unassailable enemies on the bights 
roUed great stones down, without aim, or need for it, pros- 
trating some foe with every fragment of rock. The defile 
was choked with struggling soldiers; and the few who 
could get away were glad to retreat from such inglorious 
destruction. 

They could hear — as, abashed and confounded, a mere 
handful of the two companies of invaders gathered them- 
selves out of that fatal ravine — they could hear already 
rising from the hills the songs of thanksgiving with which 
the heretics celebrated their victory. Tears of joy were 



400 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

no rare tribute of gratitude that morning. The women, 
who had cowered in their glen and caverns during the 
strife, listening fearfully for every sound, — or some on 
their knees, hiding their heads, and smothering their ears 
fi-om the tenible distant clamor, — came forth to welcome 
their deliverers — husbands, sons, brothers — who had re- 
pulsed the foe. What meetings ! what embraces ! what 
happiness ! too heartfelt for laughter, and nearer akin to 
weeping. 

The success purchased at least a temporary respite. 
Our discomfited captain of infantry returned to his mas- 
ters the monks with a very different tale from what they 
had expected momentarily to hear. Fra Valerio was con- 
siderably frightened. Though within a fortified castle, 
with portcullis down, he expected every hour to hear the 
battle-cry of the avenging Vaudois without. He wished 
himself well out of the cursed country. He vowed all 
sorts of severest punishments on the heretics who had 
dared defend themselves. But Fra Alfonso's far-seeing 
eyes glittered with an unpleasant light. Never were the 
Vaudois so sure^ of extermination as now : they were not 
only heretics to holy Church, but rebels to the king. He 
sat down and wrote a letter to Naples, setting forth and 
magnifying the repulse of the royal troops. He sent this 
missive by a courier, and tranquilly awaited the result. 
Meanwhile Fra Valerio tried the cajoling system. Ho 
put forth papers fuU of brotherly kindness and charity. 
His roaring was gentle as the voice of a dove. He la- 
mented pitifully over the deplorable contumacy of his 



THE PARLEY AND THE ASSAULT. 401 

dearly-beloved sons the Vaudois of Calabria. He invited 
them even yet to return to the open arras of their most 
affectionate mother the Church, who longed to pour forth 
her compassions upon these poor prodigals. Certain cred- 
ulous people were found to believe him, and fell into the 
snare thus baited: they were quietly lodged In prison 
until such time as the inquisitors should be at leisure to 
look up their victims. 

The discerning among the band of Vaudois on the 
mountains well knew that this lull was but the prelude 
to a terrible tempest. They spent the pause wisely in 
trying to fortify and provision their retreat ; for they like- 
wise knew that no mercy was to be had by submission, 
and that their sole chance of quarter lay in a desperate 
defense. 




o^?3~— 




CHAPTER XLVI. 

THE RUINED HOME. 

^T was one morning at this time, before the 
mists of night had cleared from the water- 
courses of the valleys, that Francesco Altieri 
approached his cottage home in company with 
the brigand who had so unexpectedly be- 
friended him. He thought of bringing cer- 
tain things from it to make less bare the cav- 
ern where Bianca and her child were to find refuge at 
the last extremity, — some covering for the straw and 
boughs which had formed the robber's lair, some stores 
of food. They emerged from the dense cork woods, 
crossed the last strip of morass, and entered cultivated 
lands. As the dawn-light increased, they saw the fea- 
tures of the country more plainly. The fields had a 
strange look. Green and flourishing a few days before, 
when Francesco paid his last visit to the vine-covered 
cottage, they seemed now trampled and torn up. Closer 
inspection showed that some destroyers had been there, 
ruining the crops of the year. The land was as if a whirl- 
wind had dashed across it, prostrating every plant and 

402 



THE RUINED HOME. 403 

tree. The maize was lying in matted masses, the vines 
were rooted up, the mulberry-trees were cut down. Even 
the brigand gnashed his great teeth together, and mut- 
tered a curse on the savage soldiery. 

""Ks fit for Turks and Pagans; 'tis no Christian war- 
fare! "said he, little aware that a first principle of Mo- 
hammedan war-making is, that no tree useful to man, and 
no herb of the field yielding food, shall be destroyed by 
the soldiers of the crescent. But, in the sixteenth cen- 
tury, the Turks were yet a chronic terror to Christendom, 
and every thing particularly evil and brutal was laid to 
their charge. " And here's a farm-house smoking, burnt 
yesterday, I suppose : perhaps the owners within it ; for 
that would be a mere peccadiglio, and just anticipate the 
roasting they would get from their Excellencies the in- 
quisitors. As weU have it over sooner as later. I hope 
they haven't laid hands on your pretty nest, signer." 

" It is very unlikely that they have spared it," was the 
reply, as Francesco tried to steel his heart for what he 
might see. Alas ! no white walls gleaming through green 
leaves met his view when he came hurrying along to the 
first point of sight, but a blackened ruin, from one comer 
of which a faint smoke curled up into the early light. 

-Yes, the pretty, peaceful homestead was iitterly de- 
stroyed. Francesco gasped for breath as he gazed on 
the ruthless ruin. The walls of the little inclosure were 
beaten down ; every plant rooted up ; the vines cut ofi" 
close to the earth; the fruit-trees wounded half across 
their trunks, so that akeady their tops were dying. The 



404 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

houseliold furniture was all burnt: only charred sticks 
remained protruding from the crushed wreck of a roof. 
" Come, come, signor, bear up ! " said the brigand in his 
rough, friendly way, when he saw the young physician 
bury his face in his hands with uncontrollable emotion. 
"The best part of the home is left you yet in the signo- 
rina and the little ohe. Thank the saints you were not 
all in it yester-morn, when this havoc was done ; for they 
are folk who would only reUsh such a center to their fire. 
Come to the spring, signor, and drink : 'twill refresh 
you." 

But the spring was choked, the basin was filled up. 
"Like them!" exclaimed the brigand. "And these devils 
hunt us, who never thought of such wickedness in our 
lives. Ma coragio, signor! You and I will see better 
days, may it please the blessed saints." 

When poor Francesco came to himself, and could re- 
flect on what were best to be done, — which truly in this 
bewilderment were a hard matter, — he gave a few of his 
remaining crowns to his companion, that he might buy in 
the nearest village some needful comforts for Bianca and 
the child. Off marched the brigand, and left Francesco 
alone in his ruined home. 

Never more could it be a home, that was certain ; for 
one might more easily construct house and garden fi-om 
the wilderness than rebuild and replant what the destroy- 
ers had desolated. A surprising ingenuity of mischief 
had in an horn- laid waste the industry of years. And 
something more than vines and fruit-trees had been rooted 



THE RUINED HOME. 405 

up for Francesco : all the sweet associations of home, all 
the tendrils which hunian hearts wind about familiar ob- 
jects, were torn asunder utterly. 

Perhaps this ruin was a providential teaching as to his 
future course. He must turn his mind now to another 
wandering in search of a home : all hope connected with 
this one died out as he examined the smoldering wreck. 
He knew, that, since God had ceased speaking to men 
with audible voice, he directs his servants by events, 
wherein is to be found the " promised guidance with the 
eye," for those who look at all things, great or small, as 
the expression of Divine Will. 

Francesco began to revolve plans for escape fi'om the 
country. His patrimony was buried in these blasted fields ; 
but it must go. "Was not " the life more than meat ? " A 
vessel from the coast was the most feasible means of de- 
parture. Bianca and the child could travel in no other 
way. While yet cogitating, a step ascending the hill at- 
tracted his attention; and he recognized the peaked hat 
of the brigand with some surprise. 

" Why, my fi-iend, you must have flown," he said, going 
to meet him: "you've surelynot been to the town since?" 

« I've been far enough," was the dubious answer, as he 
lifted off the slouched hat to cool his brow. "I've been 
to Chigi's masseria, and heard news enow for one day, I'll 
warrant, and a fine opportunity for making my fortune 
into the bargain." 

" How ? what mean you ? " 

« I've but to go across to Cosenza, and offer his High- 



406 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

ness the viceroy my services to guide his troops to the 
Vaudois fastnesses, — hey presto ! my fortune's made." 

« What ! has the viceroy come into Calabria ? " 

"Ay, has he, with a whole army; and has delivered up 
San Sesto already to fire and sword. And the proolamar 
tion to the banditti is really out at last, — free pardon to 
everybody, no matter how bad, if he'll only help against 
the heretics. Tou see it's not . near so unpardonable to 
murder a man as to refuse to go to mass, signor." 

His eye was caught by something moving on the plain 
far off. He pointed his finger. " Ecco ! i soldati." 

His quick sight had recognized the uniform at such 
great distance. They were clustering about a masseria, 
or farm-house. "If we look long enough, we shall see 
smoke presently," predicted the brigand. "They leave 
fire-marks after them like the Evil One." And so it was. 

" The mountains will be overrun immediately," he add 
ed, " by these banditti, who know every recess. Birds ol 
the air could not escape. Take my advice, signor, and 
lodge la signora and her little one in the den I showed 
you. There's no other safety for them." 

Francesco returned through the woods and marshes 
empty-handed, and with a heavy heart. 

He found his wife in some alarm at the thi'eatened ill- 
ness of her little child, who lay on her knees in an unquiet 
sleep, his dark curls tossed back from a burning forehead. 
A slight infantine fever, the father thought. " Lay him 
aside for a moment, dear Bianoa, and come with me." 
She knew that she would not be asked to lay by her little 



THE RUINED HOME. 407 

Cosmo without urgent reason. The brigand opened his 
great smii-ched arms for the load, and she trusted him. 
Woman and babe can touch the roughest hearts, and 
Sanga was harder by trade than by nature. 

She could read the troublous news in her husband's 
eyes even before he spoke. " Bene mio, some evil has be- 
fallen ; yet not such as we can not bear, while we are left 
to one another, Francesco." 

He told her in few words ; and she bravely suppressed 
the pang of the destruction of their pleasant home, till he 
thought the misfortune much the lighter for the manner 
in which she bore it. " I am ready to do what you think 
fit, Francesco," when he suggested their withdrawal to 
the place of concealment offered by Sanga. " Yet, O my 
husband ! can we trust him so implicitly ? " 

"You have already trusted him with something far 
more pi-ecious than yourself, little heart,'' observed Fran- 
cesco, smiling down to her fice. "Aiter laying Cosmo in 
his arms, 'tis not for thee to talk of want of confidence ! " 

The mass of fugitives collected in the glen had melted 
away from various causes. Some were trying to steal out 
of the country by land or sea during the interim of quiet- 
ness. Many had taken their families to securer retreats in 
the mountains, where they had collected some small store 
of provisions, and trusted to hide till the storm blew over. 
All thought of combined defense, which might have ef- 
fected some compromise, was at an end : the doomed peo- 
ple were scattered abroad, — sheep without a shepherd. 



408 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

A slaughter in detail corameuced. The viceroy lay in- 
active with the chief body of his troops when he saw that 
his opportune proclamation to all freebooters, outlaws, 
and criminals was likely to do the business of extermina- 
tion quietly yet surely, and save him the trouble. Singly 
and in families, according as they were discovered, the 
Vaudois perished by the sword ; while the benevolent in- 
quisitors were shocked at the stories of wholesale assassi- 
nation which they heard, and would have murder perpe- 
trated more orthodoxly, — by dungeon, rack, and fagot. 
Fra Valeric and Fra Alfonso, to whose council was now 
added the chief inquisitor Panza, withdrew their merciful 
selves from the neighborhood of the war. Military exe- 
cution was too severe to find favor in their eyes ; but the 
bloodiest rapier was mercy compared with their designs. 

The whole, district smoked with fires, and streamed 
with slaughter. Those heretics who gave themselves up 
in despair were reserved for the after-repast.. The inquisi- 
tors published a decree full of soft promises, summoning 
the people of La Guardia to assemble before them. Our 
unwary Vaudois, slow to learu the fathomless duplicity of 
monkhood, gathered in the market-place of the town to 
the number of seventy. Soldiers immediately issued from 
all the avenues and buildings round, and took them pris- 
oners, chained then-., and led them to Montalto for safe 
keeping. This was the last great haul maao by Mother 
Church. She had now sixteen hundred heretic wretches 
in her hands, to be treated as she list ; and cruel was her 
pleasure. 



THE RUINED HOME. 409 

Sixteen hundred inoffensive, well-behaved men and 
■women, concerning whose conduct no accusation could be 
brought ; persons who were represented by the testimony- 
even of foes to have been noted for indefatigable industry, 
orderly conduct, good manners, social truth and happi- 
ness ; sixteen hundred of such doomed to suffering and 
to death because of their faith in Christ as the only Sa- 
viour ! Never had the noble army of martyrs a nobler 
addition to its celestial ranks than day by day ascended 
from the torture-chambers, the reeking woods, and blood- 
stained caverns of Calabria, during that dreary autumn 
and winter of 1560. 

The brigand Sanga would bring tidings of such things 
going on in the outer world to Altieri and his wife, shut 
up in their hiding-place among the rocks. The man was 
strangely faithful to these helpless ones. 

He sought remedies for the child's ailment, even at 
personal risk; and thus when Vaudois babes were per- 
ishing on all sides by sword and famine, in ways too hor- 
rible for narration sometimes, Bianea saw nothing of these 
mm'ders. Her husband was careftil lest she should even 
hear revolting details. So, in her ignorance, she would 
murmur occasionally at the perpetual shutting-up in the 
cave ; it was injuring the health of httle Cosmo : he pined 
for full light and fresh air, like a flower transplanted frotai 
the mountain-side into a vault. He would run, whenever 
he found himself free, in the intervals of fever, toward 
the pale-green twilight which entered at the opening 

86 



410 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

through branches of underwood : but outside was a preci- 
pice sheer for so many feet down, that his mother hurried 
after him in terror ; and the disappointed little creature 
would lay his curly head on her knees, and cry bitterly. 
Francesco could see that daily the bright eyes were grow- 
ing dim, and the little cheek becoming paler and less 
round, the little pulse more feeble and fluttering ; and the 
apprehension slowly augmented into a certainty, that the 
Good Shepherd was removing their darling gently from 
them to the green pastures and still waters of a fair world 
where there is no strife in which lambs are stifled. Yet 
he spoke not of this truth to the mother, lest in her wild 
grief she should chafe against the insurmountable. And 
how gentle was this dealing to the agonies of other Lu- 
theran mothers in that black year ! 

One Glencoe, in the history of England, remains a foul 
stain for ever ; but, in these Calabrian valleys and villages, 
Glencoe was repeated, fore-acted, a hundred times, with 
aggravation of treachery and cruelty. Scarce can our re- 
fined ears bear to hear what these noble confessors of the 
faith endured. A Romish historian writes : " Some had 
their throats cut, others were "sawn across the middle, 
others thrown firom the top of a high cliflT: all were cru- 
elly put to death. It was strange to heai- of their obsti- 
nacy ; for while the father saw his son put to death, and 
the son his father, they not only showed no symptoms of 
griie^ but said jpj^ajly that ih^y would be as the aijgelg 
of God." 




CHAPTER XLVII. 

SIGN-POSTS OF THE TIMES. 

CORCHING noontide lay upon all Calabria. 
Even the tops of the gray-green Apennines 
rose bare and sharp into the blue air; there 
being in the whole skies no cloud for them to 
transfix, and hold charmed upon their sum- 
mits. The brigand Sanga climbed a peak 
somewhat out of his pathway, and could see 
across the lerel land to the horizon of sea. How changed 
the prospect since a few weeks! The trail of the de- 
stroyer defaced all that was human. For white farm- 
houses were blackened heaps; for tilled fields, withered 
patches of blight ; for vine-yards and olive-yards, confused 
brown dead herbage and foliage. A blast had passed 
over the country, — a blast more desolating than sirocco ; 
for man's malignity to man had guided it. 

"And they were a peaceful, happy people," mused 
Sanga as he gazed. "They were mild and sober and 
faithful above most men. No crimes were heard of here 
but what were done against them, not by them. Only 
for me, and such as me, the district had been spotless. 

411 



412 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

See this very pair, the young leech and his wife that are 
hiding in my den, — how good are they! They talk of 
a forgiveness toward their worst enemies; and when I 
have marveled that their country people did not unite, 
and at least sell their lives as dearly as possihle, — nay, 
but revenge and bloodshed are forbidden by the most 
blessed Christ. Nay, but the signora would forgive even 
those who burned her pretty house to the ground ! And 
how wondrously they die, these Vaudois! That gray- 
haired elder, whose body was smeared with stilphiu: and 
resin before he was committed to the fire yesterday, — 
how bravely he endured it ! What fiends these holy in- 
quisitors are, to be sure ! " 

He turned to descend the peak on the other side. A 
few yards downward, and his attention was arrested by a 
growling, proceeding from the rocks on his left. Picking 
his poniard fi:om his belt, he advanced toward the noise, 
and found himself opposite the entrance to a cave, which 
was partially concealed by a huge jutting bowlder. Enter- 
ing cautiously, and side-long, that he might not intercept 
the light, he saw some object, a man perhaps, lying on 
the ground, and a great dog standing over him. The 
animal flew forward fizriously ; and then Sanga perceived 
that his fangs and mouth were bloody. He struck at him 
with the dagger, and the beast fled howling away out of 
the cave down the hiU. 

Just as he had died lay the corpse of the Vaudois ; an 
aged man, as the white hair testified. Hand and arm 
were torn by the brute which had discovered the carrion: 



SIGN-POSTS OF THE TIMES. 413 

not indeed that much could be picked from the poor 
bones; for manifestly he had perished from starvation. 
And yet, "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death 
of his saints." 

"Pah!" said the brigand with a shudder, "but he has 
'scaped the burnings and butoherings only by the same 
road, after all. I suppose there will be many lost this 
way by starvation in the caves. Poor souls ! the whole 
world is against them : they'd best leave it as quickly as 
they can." 

He went out of the cave to reconnoiter, and returned 
presently. The mountain lakelet was near enough, as he 
had imagined : he partly drew, partly carried, the body 
to the precipitous edge, and cast it into the deep dark 
water. 

" There ! 'tis the only burial I had for thee, poveretto ; 
'tis better than that savage dog's maw, at all events : and, 
if thy soul's home is with the blessed God, what matters 
it ? I wonder " — and his eye glanced upward from its 
shaggy brow — " which is wrong. Mother Church or 
thee? And without doubt these Vaudois lead rare 
Jives." 

A quarter of an hour afterward, he turned into the 
narrow glen which was the covered way to his friends' 
retreat. Great bowlders leaned their massive gray sides 
on emerald turf, and a rivulet ran from a sullen black tarn 
buried in precipices at the upper end. Now, just at the 
commencement of the tarn, one of these huge bowlders 
rose abruptly : the robber mounted it by a path at the 
86* 



4:14 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

back. When he walked to the edge nearest the muial 
precipice, a space of nine or ten feet separated it from a 
naiTOW ledge, on which, somewhat farther, underwood 
had rooted. Sanga jumped the space with slight effort : a 
false step would have flung him into the water, producing 
a bath which would have troubled him no longer than the 
necessity for drying ; but he made no such mistake. He 
went for a few yards along the ledge, which indeed was 
exceedingly naiTOw; and presently, raisiag the trailing 
bushes, stooped into the cave. 

" Buon di h. vosignoria," he said, seeing Francesco first 
in the dim twilight. "I bring good news, o che bella 
nuovita! There's a ship on the coast." 

But the absence of response to his salutation, the un- 
usual stillness, checked his garrulous tongue from even 
" la bella nuovita." The father moved a pace aside ; and 
then Sanga saw that little Cosmo, the oheiished child, 
had died. 

Bianca was tearless now. Her grief had exhausted 
itself in violence during the first hours of bereavement, 
when the Uttle flower of her life had finally drooped its 
liead, and breathed away the last sigh. " He has God's 
light and heaven's own air now, bene mio ! " she said to 
her husband : .that was the first glimpse of comfort. "I 
would not call him back to this cavern. No : he nestles 
in the ai-ms of the beloved Jesus ! " 

But when the little clay treasure had to be laid in the 
hole dug in the earthen floor of the cave, and to be cov- 
ered up from her sight for evermore, the moment was 



SIGN-POSTS OF THE TIMES. ilfi 

more bitter than mortal mother could bear. She flung 
herself passionately on the baby form whioh she had 
loved so intensely ; she wreathed that icy coldness with 
arms which seemed as though they never would untwine. 

" La signorina should^ thank the good God that he died 
without pain," observed the brigand, standing by. "1 
have seen infants writhing upon pike-points before their 
mothers' eyes." 

The words recalled her to self-control. "Let me lay 
him down myself," she pleaded: "I have always folded 
him to sleep." So, with her poor eyes streaming, she 
composed the Uttle limbs, and crossed the limp dimpled 
hands, and placed a coverlet above : the father laid green 
leaves upon it before he gently turned in the earth. And 
thus was the little Cosmo hidden from the evil to come. 

And, kneeUng by the sacred spot, Francesco poured 
forth his soul in prayer to his God. How near seemed 
the heaven which that sweet babe had entered ! how real 
the everlasting arms which infolded little children ! The 
brigand, standing by, and crossing himself and kissing his 
relic at intervals, heard his own eternal weal pleaded for 
with the Most High, fervently, as for a deeply desired re- 
quest. What was the new life they wanted for him? — 
some of their mystic heresies, he thought. But they 
were very good people, notwithstanding : they lived like 
saints, whatever they believed. 

"And now, signer," quoth Sanga by and by, "there's no 
time to lose. The next fair wind, and the fSlucoa's off to 
sea. And believe me, the death of the child is not such a 



416 FROM DA WN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

bad thing for you both, — nay, signorina mia, look not so 
angrily ; for I would have kept ' il poverino ' living if I 
could, — but you can escape so much more easily. 'H 
poverino ' would certainly have betrayed you. Now it is 
only to assume some of the signqr's costume, and travel 
as brothers. The master of the felucca expects my cousin 
and his wife, — not but he has a shrewd notion of the 
truth : so I'd have you hold yourselves close, and say 
little, and cut off your traces as soon as possible by dis- 
guising yourselves as I say." 

It was after sundown when they left the cavern, which 
had suddenly become a most precious place to poor Bi- 
anca. When Francesco took her hand to guide her 
across the rude plank (which connected the bowlder with 
the ledge, and was then drawn back into the underwood 
by Sanga), he found clasped in it a bit of earth, — a ves- 
tige of that beloved grave, caught up in the agony of 
parting. She hardly cared what fortune they might 
meet with, now that this great joy had died. Even the 
mightier love against which she leaned produced no 
warmth in her callous heart during the stun of bereave- 
ment. She heard her husband talking, and Sanga talk- 
ing, as one in a dream hears with half-comprehension. 
She knew that her hand was clasped in Francesco's, 
drawn within his arm closely ; and he felt how very chUl 
and pulseless it was, how dead to every thing but the 
dear little one whom it never more might touch. 

Sanga was "talking of the state of the country. An 
awful sameness of suffering and of cruelty was in his 



SIGN-POSTS OF THE TIMES. 417 

narratives. Devastation of house and land, and simple 
murler with the sword, were the gentlest of the miseries 
he could tell. 

"You see, signer, our new inquisitor, Panza, has got 
into his head that all sorts of evil practices were carried 
on in the reUgious meetings of you ' novatori : ' somebody 
told him thf'lie, I suppose ; and he's determined to get it 
proved somehow. So he puts everybody on the rack, 
light and left, to try whether he can wring out a con- 
fession. It didn't do that he saw a man die before his 
eyes last week, actually torn to bits on the rack, — pulled 
asunder, as one may say. There's another precious instru- 
ment, called a ' hell ; ' and he kept poor Verminello — do 
you recollect him, signer? — he kept him on it for eight 
hours after he had promised to go to mass, a,nd yet he 
couldn't make him say what he wanted. I suppose, when 
he gave way in one point, and promised to attend mass 
and forswear his religion, poor wretch ! — il poveraccio ! — 
the inquisitors thought it only wanted stronger pressure 
to make him do any thing they chose; but they were 
mistaken." 

"He was a steadfast spirit, after all," observed Fran- 
cesco. " 'Twere a pity he marred his constancy by the 

first lapse." 

"Well, signor, you have some right to speak; for you 
did not flinch from the rack in Locarno, as I have heard. 
But as to myself,"— and he shrugged his shoulders incred- 
ulously, —" I'd swear any thing they chose to name after 
one turn of the screw. Stay: did you hear of Samsoii? 



418 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

No: how should you, who have been so shut up? He 
was hurled from a high tower the other day, and his bones 
all fractured on the pavement beneath. It didn't kill him. 
He was still breathing, crushed and mangled though he 
was, when his Highness the viceroy came by. 'What 
camon is this ? ' quoth his Excellency. 'A heretic that 
will not die ! ' answered some attendant : wffereupon his 
Highness kicked Samson's bleeding head, and ordered 
that the pigs should eat him ! " 

The woman, clinging to her husband's arm, here clasped 
it closer with a sudden cry ; not alone from horror at the 
recital of the barbarous death of one whom she had known 
as a friend, but from a conviction of her own great bless- 
ing in the safety of that husband, and the guilt of repining 
at any will of God so long as he was left to her heart. 
"Pardon me, bene mio; I have seemed regardless of thee, 
when the child was taken : in my impatience I have un- 
dervalued thee, my Francesco ! Thou mightest have suf- 
fered as they have, but for the good God's care." He had 
to stop and soothe her. The revulsion of feeUng was ben- 
eficial : she saw how much worse they might have had to 
bear than the faUing-asleep of an infant. 

How those great agonies are borne I profess myself un- 
able to imagine. God be thanked that such do not cross 
our quiet English life-paths ! But no efibrt of realization 
could help us to know how Verminello lay eight hours, 
stanch to truth, on a torturing instrument so diabolical as 
to deserve the naine of a "hell;" or how Samson en- 
dured to be devoured piecemeal by swine ; or how Ber- 



SIGN-POSTS OF THE TIMES. 419 

nardin Conto, at about the same period, was covered with 
a coat of pitch, and burned alive as a human torch in the 
market-place of Cosenza. For Conto had been going to 
an ordinary burning at the stake, when his zealous execu- 
tioner forced a crucifix into his hands : the martyr flung 
away the idolatrous symbol, and Panza the inquisitor in- 
vented for him this new torment. Elders and schoolmas- 
ters of the Vaudois had the dismal pre-eminence of being 
coated with resin ere consumed, " in order," writes Luigi 
d'Appiano, " that, being burned slowly, they might suffer 
the more in the correction of their impiety." 

Through the blasted land our travelers proceeded, in 
gathering night, toward the shore. Afar on the sea, the 
horizon line was broken by a dim gray peak, solid against 
the clearness of the west : faint smoke hung over that 
volcanic isle of Stromboli perpetually. When they reached 
a frequented district outside the woods and marshes which 
skirted the hills, — or rather a district that had once been 
frequented, where happy homesteads and cultured fields 
had once flourished, — Sanga walked on in front, and en- 
joined strict silence. At last, they struck upon a public 
road. The robber paused. 

" 'Tis fortunate if the wind do not veer," he said, look- 
ing up to the winking stars where a few clouds hung mo- 
tionless across their faces. "It has already dropped very 
low. The signora should hasten as much as possible: 
we are a mile from the shore yet." 

Rapidly as they sped along, she could not help observ- 
ing, that, at regular iatOTvals on this high-road, they 



420 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

passed certain posts sunk at the side, which appeared b 
the uncertain light to uphold some strange excrescences. 
" What are they, Francesco ? " she asked, yet shuddering 
■without known reason at the mysterious objects. 

" Well, I did not think they'd do it," was the comment 
of Sanga, " though I heard it was threatened to set way- 
posts of Vaud|Ois Umbs for thu-ty-six miles through their 
country. I'd sooner the lady hadn't noticed it: what! has 
she fainted ? And, if the wind veers, that felucca is off 
to a certainty! Che c'e da fdre, — what is to be done 
now?" 





CHAPTER XLVIII. 

FIKE AND WATER. 

I HE felucca was running along in the gray 
morning light, leaving Stromboli far to the 
south-west under its canopy of smoke, and to 
the east the pretty Calabrian coast. Bianca 
lay on the little deck, and would not glance 
landward. " It is a cursed country," she said, 
" though it holds Cosmo's grave : I wiU look 
at God's pure sky and sea." 

The sturdy rowers, bronzed lithe sailors, standing at 
their vocation, and pushing their oars forward to help the 
latteen sails which pointed like pinions far above their 
heads, easily divined the truth about this hapless pair of 
refugees. But though each of the eight wore round his 
neck a reUc more or less sacred, from a shaving of the 
toe-nail of St. Peter to a thread of St. Catherine of Siena's 
robe, they were no bigots, and felt not called upon to 
assist the Holy Office to more victims by informing. They 
only trusted that these " oltra-montani " would not bring 
them any ill luck in the shape of bad weather ; and the 
skipper kept a sharp lookout to windward. 

36 421 



42^ FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

Nevertheless, and despite the heretic freight, they made 
Policastro without accident, and set their passengers 
ashore. The rest had somewhat recruited poor Biancai's 
strength toward the fatigue of land-journeyings. Here 
was effected the disguise of which Sanga had spoken, and 
which both now recognized to be the wisest plan for 
traveling. Here also Francesco learned with dread that 
orders had been dispatched throughout Italy to all civic 
powers, to magistrates and sbirri, to bargemen and wag- 
oners, to inn-keepers and toll-keepers, that they should 
arrest, or cause to be arrested, every passenger who could 
not produce a certificate of orthodoxy from his parish 
priest, with visas from other priests at every stage of his 
journey. 

Proceeding northward by land seemed hopeless in this 
condition of things. An idea which had already struck 
him appeared more feasible ; which was, to cross the 
country to the Adriatic coast, and there find some felucca 
from port to port till they should reach Venice. His own 
and Bianca's nearest friends were in Venice and Ferrara. 

It needs not to follow them step by step through their 
wearying pilgrimage. Danger and fear "were never absent 
from their path by land or sea. The feeling of perfect 
personal security, common to us as the air we breathe, 
was wholly unknown to the Italian Protestant of that age. 
Every stranger might be, and probably was, an enemy. 
Noah's dove had no more resting-place in the weltering 
world of deluge than could the Lutheran have among the 
fluctuating princedoms and republics of the peninsula. 



FIRE AND WATER. 423 

When, after infinite toils and risks, our poor pair reached 
Venice, it was only to find new dangers. From the Tyrol 
to Cape Spartivento, there could henceforth be no spot in 
Italy tolerant of the Reformed opinions ; no spot without 
the glaring eye of the Holy Office bent on it fiercely, if 
perchance some man dared assert that first freedom of 
humanity, — the freedom of the soul. 

Now, there was a certain brother in the faith, Antonio 
Ricetto of Vicenza, formerly known to Francesco ; and 
in his house in Venice the young physician and his wife 
obtained shelter and breathing-time for a short space. 
Whither to turn for permanent refiige, they knew not as 
yet. The horizon was clouded everywhere. War deso- 
lated the Alpine valleys of Piedmont, where they had 
kin of blood and of faith. Far-distant England, under 
sagacious and strong-hearted Elizabeth, seemed the one 
earthly land of rest for Protestants. 

Altieri and his friend sat in the window of a mansion 
in the sea-streeted city at eventide. A sheen of sunset 
lay along the silent canal below, broken here and there by 
shadowed bars of bridges. Occasionally a gondola glided 
by, and the stillness was disturbed by the sharp warning 
ciy of the solitary boatman as he neared a comer. The 
two had been speaking of news but that day arrived from 
Rome, — the news of ftfrther " acts of faith," and of the 
death of the Calabrian pastor, Ludovico Paschali. 

The record remains for us, written by his brother, who 
had offered him half his property if he would recant. 
"It was hideous to see him," writes this zealous Catholic, 



424 fEOM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

"rntli his bare head, his hands and arms lacerated by 
cords. On advancing to embrace him, I sank to the 
ground. ' My brother ! ' he exclaimed, ' if you are a Chris- 
tian, why distress yourself thus ? Do you not know that 
a leaf can not fall to the ground without the wiU of God ? 
Comfort yourself in Christ Jesus; for the present troubles 
are not to be compared with the glory to come.' " 

And, not many days before Francesco reached Venice, 
a scaffold was built in the court of the Castle of St. Ange- 
lo; and aU around it and its ghastly stake and pile of 
fagots curved an amphitheater of luxurious couches and 
richly adorned benches for the spectators of the tragedy. 
Chief figure among these was his Holiness Pope Pius the 
Fourth ; a jovial, pleasant, affable prince to all but here- 
tics ; " fond of witty conversation, good cheer, and merri- 
ment," yet presiding here at the cruel execution of a 
blameless man ! Around him, crowds of cardinals, in- 
quisitors, monks of all orders and garbs ; an excited popu- 
lace filling every remaining space where guards were not. 
And then forth comes the martyr, the young man bleached 
and wrinkled with captivity and tortures, who has been 
buried so deep beneath the Torre di Nona that his poor 
eyes scarce bear the daylight. With difficulty he drags 
himself along under a weight of chains; and see! the 
duU cords have cut his flesh to the bone, leaving red raw 
wounds. How do the people gaze, and the guards aniB 
the clergy and the cardinals, even up to the sacred eyes 
of Pius himself and seek for some symptom of fear in 
that frail form and worn face ! But the gentleness of 



FIRE AND WATER. 425 

endurance and pardon is all they can read; and he ascends 
the scaffold with feehle step, though nowise reluctant. A 
short interval is allowed him to speak ; and he declares 
that for no crime has he come to die, but for confession 
of the pure faith of Jesus his Master; that the pope is not 
the vicar of God on earth, but most plainly Antichrist, 
showing himself in every thing the mortal enemy of the 
Lord. 

Ho ! this fellow takes too much license. Pius moves 
imeasily in his gUded chair : the chief inquisitor makes a 
secret signal to the executioner. But, before the last act 
of the tragedy can be consummated, Paschali in a loud 
voice proclaims, — 

" I summon you to the bar of God ! I summon you to 
give account of your cruelties and heresies and supersti- 
tions with which you have defiled tie Church of Christ ! 
I shall stand in his presence before another hour. I shall 
bear witness against you, pope and cardinals and monks!" 

They could have gnashed their teeth with rage, those 
gloriously arrayed dignitaries in purple and scarlet ; and 
who shall say how many deathbeds were haunted by that 
apparition of the pale martyr in chains at the black stake, 
charging the heads of the Church with their misdeeds? 
His ashes were thrown into the Tiber; and the cruel ti- 
dings traveled north to her who loved him best, — the 
Genevese maiden, Camilla Guerina. 

"Father," said the noble boy of perhaps seven years, 
who stood between the knees of Antonio Eicetto at the 
window where he talked with Altieri, — "father, I wish 

36* 



426 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

those wicked men were burned themselves ! " And the 
child's dark eyes brimmed over with tears. "Father, 
will not God punish them? I — I wish I were a man, to 
have helped Paschali ! " 

Ricetto smoothed the dark hair under his hand, and 
pushed it from the ingenuous brow. " He is happier now 
than if thou hadst saved him, dear heart of mine. He is 
with the most blessed Christ yonder." The boy furtively 
dashed away his tears, and smiled into his father's face. 

" Then it is good he died, mio padre ? " 

"Yes, Picciolo; for that was his birthday into the end- 
less life ; and he glorified his God before men and angels." 
Francesco had been looking at the child, and thinking 
that his Cosmo might have been thus, had God spared 
him. 

" Read, my friend," said Ricetto, " that letter of Pas- 
chaU's to his people. Methinks I scarce could hear it too 
often. Now, little one, hearken to his own words about 
his departure." 

They were rather above the child's comprehension, but 
gave him a general sort of idea that Paschali had been 
well content to die. " I feel my joy increase every day," 
he wrote ; " for I approach nearer to the hour in which I 
shall be offered as a sacrifice to the Lord Jesus Christ, my 
faithful Saviour; yea, so inexpressible is my gladness, that 
I seem to myself to be free fi'om captivity, and am pre- 
pared to die, not only once, but many thousand times, for 
Christ, if that were possible." Such were some of the 
expressions in that parting letter from the martyr to his 
old flock. 



FIRE AND WATER. 427 

Ricetto rose, and brought away the boy in his arms, 
•'I have left him with my wife and thine," quoth he to 
Francesco on return; "for the child is sensitive, and 
might be dreaming, perchance, of these horrors. Evil 
days hath he fallen on, il poveretto ! — evil days for Lu- 
therans' children." 

" The persecution appears to rage less intensely here 
than elsewhere in Italy," remarked Francesco. 

" Perchance so, in that we have as yet no Ughted pyres 
in our piazzas," replied Ricetto. " But many a one is in 
close durance for the cause of Christ. There is Fra Baldo 
Lupetino, once provincial of the Franciscans, and an emi- 
nent preacher of God's word in both Italian and Sclavonic : 
he lies in a dungeon these many years, and not all the in- 
tercession of the German princes can get him out. And 
Julio Gnirlanda of the Trevisano — they threaten him 
constantly with death: but the doge and senate will 
allow no burnings; they have invented another martyr- 
dom." 

"What?" 

" Suitable to Venice, — drowning. The inquisitors ob- 
ject, because such death will not be at all so horrifying 
as the stake ; so impressive to all good Christians, as they 
term it. I wonder, indeed, that they have not long since 
made away with Fra Baldo ; for his steadfastness does 
them grievous harm : he bears the most undaunted testi- 
mony to the blessed gospel." 

"And how hast thou kept thyself safe, good friend ? " 

"Perchance through a want of faithfiiliies?," was the an- 



428 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

swer. " N"ot that I have ever denied my Master in word 
or in deed; but methinks all tnie men will suffer persecu- 
tion in such times as these." 

Antonio Ricetto could not see, over the lapse of five 
years coming, into a prison-chamber where his future self 
stands, listening to an offer, fi-om the senate, of life, lib- 
erty, and property, provided he wiU conform to the wor- 
ship of Rome ; or afterward, when his boy, now grown 
to twelve, falls at his feet, and beseeches him with tears 
and caresses not to die, — not to leave him fatherless. 
Nor yet farther, into a gloomy midnight, where a gondolar 
has drawn up beside that prison, and receives the victim, 
and shoots along canal after canal, and away from lighted 
houses to the lonely sea, to where, beyond the Two Cas- 
tles, another gondola waits ; and a plank is laid between 
them; and the shackled prisoner, stones fastened to his feet, 
is placed upon it. What sayeth the prisoner? Prayers 
to God for those who ignorantly put him to death ; praises 
of the Saviour whose heaven he shall presently enter : and 
so the gondolas glide apart, and the martyr is cast into 
the deep dark sea. 

Thus did Antonio Ricetto depart this life, and enter 
upon his eternal joy. The Pra Baldo Lupetino of whom 
he spoke lingered in prison for twenty years before like 
deliverance. Even his Holiness applied to the senate that 
he naight be burned, as a noted heresiarch ; but the request 
was not acceded to, though renewed many times. The 
martyrology of Venice comprises noble names, but none 
of steadfaster endurance than this monk. 



FIRE AND WATER. 429 

Reader, are you weary of the roll of heroes? Cruelties 
were committed upon God's servants in that age of Italy, 
too foul and fiendish for our ears to hear, or our hearts 
to conceive. The hundredth part of the maUee and the 
barbarity of the Roman Inquisition can not be told, nor 
every hundredth name among those whom it recruited 
into heaven's " noble army of martyrs." 





CHAPTER XLIX. 

ECLIPSE DEEPENS INTO NIGHT. 

I OTHER and daughter were again clasped in 
each other's arms : Barbara di Montalto once 
more held her child to her heart, and gazed 
into her eyes, and wept over her who had 
been given up for lost. In these days of rail 
and telegraph, when Moscow is nearer to Lon- 
don than was Naples to Rome during the six- 
teenth century, few partings or meetings of friends can be 
such as they were in those days of no correspondence. 
We receive letters from India and Australia as regularly 
as the month changes, — letters which bring dear ones 
close in spirit. But then, mother and daughter separated, 
it might be by only a couple of hundred miles, and no 
blank barrier of empty space could stay intercourse more 
effectually than did that interval during disturbed times 
in Italy. Princes had couriers, commerce had pack-horses 
and galleys, but, for private requirements of friendship 
among the masses of men,- there was no post, no courier. 

They had a great deal to say to each other then, these 
women. All the information that would have been dis- 

430 



ECLIPSE DEEPENS INTO NIGHT. 431 

tilled on paper in successive letters, had they lived in oui; 
time, was condensed into one tide of talk. You may he 
sure that before and above all else was the little dead 
Cosmo spoken of, and the dark slight curl from his small 
head fingered and wept over, and kissed lovingly. His 
winning ways and his smiles and his broken talk — the 
mother had worlds to say of these to the other mother's 
sympathizing ears ; and her heart was relieved when she 
had poured it all forth. 

The physician of the ducal household seemed much as 
usual. His wife did not say, even to his daughter, how 
far he had gone in the matter of conformity ; for he regu- 
larly went to mass now, and conducted himself, in all re- 
spects, as an orthodox Catholic. Yet he said that this 
was merely for the sake of peace ; that his opinions were 
unchanged : in which case, he certainly took great pains 
to hide his light under a bushel. No man could get on in 
the world, he averred, who did not swim with the tide ; 
he had not the temperament of a martyr, and his private 
beliefs were no matter to any one. 

But he had never been able to induce his wife to follow 
his example. She read her Bible at home, and visited 
a few obscure " novatori " in the lanes of the city, and 
held her faith pertinaciously. Di Montalto was perpetu- 
ally afraid that he would get into trouble on her account ; 
and this bugbear made him unjust to her at times. Bianca 
heard not a word of it : her mother was one of those self- 
denying, reticent women, who do not add to the burdens 
of others by a recital of their own, but bear in silence and 



y-' 



432 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

submission what God has sent them : and their reward is, 
that the load becomes lighter and smaller; while what we 
contemplate, and talk about, increases. 

Bianca was inquiring after her old friends. Few of the 
Refoi-med were left : they had emigrated, or quietly set- 
tled into the courtly faith. 

"And, since that dear lady the duohess left, things 
look darker than ever for us," said the Signora Barbara. 
" While she was here, we felt that some protection could 
be had." 

" Tell me about it, mother. Why did the duohess leave 
her realm ? " 

"As I believe, the cause was her faith," replied the 
physician's wife. "She 'revealed the state of her heart' 
more openly than ever during Duke Ercole's lifetime- 
and declared herself, if not absolutely in words, yet in 
every deed, to be a Lutheran." 

" Bat I thought that her son loved her greatly,'' said 
Bianca. 

"My daughter, all considerations of aflfection yield to 
policy with princes, so 'far as I have ever seen," said the 
elder lady. " The Duke Alfonso went to Rome last May 
to receive investiture of his fiefs from the Holy See; and 
it is said that the pope complained to him of the scandal 
which his mother's heresies were bringing on the house 
of Este. So, when the prince came home, he entreated 
her to act as in his father's lifetime, and attend the 
public worship of the Church. But neither his prayers, 
nor the persuasions of various learned men, who thought 



ECLIPSE DEEPENS INTO NIGHT. 433 

to overcome her resolution by argument, could move her 
from her faith. At last, the duke was driven to declare 
that she must either conduct herself as a Catholic, or leave 
Ferrara. Her husband had left her the jsalace of Belri- 
guardo and half its lands by his will, for so long as she 
remained a good Catholic : of course his bequest was void 
now. And she chose to depart, even for ever, rather than 
act over again the old falsehood, which had once wrought 
such disgrace in the Church of God." 

" She was always a most noble heart," observed Bianca. 
"And are not the people grieved at her absence? Her 
liberality was wondrous great." 

"Yes: they are sorry for her, because she never was 
weary of aiding the necessitous by plenteous alms. It 
was a sad day when she departed from the city, where 
for more than thirty years she had been everybody's 
friend. We shall see her in heaven, Bianca mia^" 

"Ah ! mother, it never was so real to me till my little 
flower died ! " 

With the Duchess Renee went out the gospel-light of 
Italy. Ifo more patronage in high places for the word of 
God, but the utterest persecution for all who dared read 
or listen to it. Pius the Fourth could look all over the 
land with his shrewd worldly eyes, and behold naught but 
clouds of thick darkness rolUng on every side, obscuring 
the whole spiritual firmament, as he would fain have it 
obscured ; while the wax tapers of Rome and the lurid 
pyres of martyrs alone ht the evil gloom. 

A few confessors of God's truth still remained; such as 
sr 



434 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

Barbara di Montalto, who would not bow the knee to 
Baal. Perhaps there were many more than we suspect ; 
for had not the Lord seven thousand worshipers in idola- 
trous Israel, when Elijah the Tishbite believed himself 
the only one ? But, whatever was their number, in the 
night that overspread Italy henceforth they kept them- 
selves close and quiet, and were thankful to be permitted 
to die peaceably in their beds. 

Old Babylon was scarcely a worse desolation than the 
once fertile and flourishing Vaudois valleys of Calabria, 
whose roads were dotted with quartered heretics, black- 
ening under sun and moon. The policy inaugurated by 
Paul the Fourth had verily prospered and prevailed. 

One bright evening in the summer of 1561, two persons 
were approaching the little town of La Torre, under the 
long sliadow of the Castelluzzo. Before tbem lay the 
Valley of Lusema, sentineled by that wondrous obelisk 
whose top often catches clouds as they fleet by ; and mas- 
sive mountains, snow-crowned, yet robed in coats of many 
colors where they rested on the earth, encompassed it. A 
tinkle of bells was in the air, yet not the Ave Maria, 
which bowed every superstitious head in Italy just then, 
but simply the ringing of the cattle as they were driven 
home from pasture. 
"At last," sighed Bianea, "this land looks like peace." 
"Little heart," said her husband, "how well is it that 
not on outward things alone do we depend for peace! 
How well that God has given us of his celestial calm 
which passeth all understandincr!" 



ECLIPSE DEEPENS INTO NIGHT. 435 

"Thou art right, my friend," she answered gently. 
"God will pardon me for that murmur." 

Dearly had the Vaudois purchased whatever peace 
reign fed in their valleys just now. Fifteen months of sore 
strife, many defeats and obstinate defenses, had tenni- 
nated in the treaty of Cavor, signed by Philip of Savoy, 
and ratifying to them a certain liberty of conscience. For 
they had repulsed the savage Count de la Trinite in his 
attack on Pra del Torre ; and he declared that in revenge 
he would ravage the whole country, destroying all the 
corn in the blade and the young vines ; and, while yet 
a serious illness held him back from fulfillment of his 
threat, the mountaineers sought and obtained the media- 
tion of Philip of Savoy, who procured them a general 
pardon from their prince, Emanuel PhUibert, and a prom- 
ise of the impartial administration of justice in future. 
All fugitives were to be permitted to return, and enjoy 
their religion without molestation. 

Common rights enough, such as we have every day, 
blessed be God ! without fighting for them, but an inesti- 
mable boon to the Cottian Vaudois. And likewise intol- 
erable to the h'ead of the Komish Church: Pius the 
Fourth complained bitterly of this "pernicious example 
of tolerance," — this single gleam of illumination on the 
Western Alps, theextremest edge of his dark empire. 

But no treaty of peace, no princely promises, could give 
again the noble hearts sacrificed, the happy homes deso- 
lated, in the strife. "When Francesco Altieri and his wife 
came to settle in the Valleys, vestiges of the late wars 



436 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

were everywhere apparent. Ruined chalets clung tc 
the mountain-sides ; the mills had been destroyed. Only 
gradually did the old people come back who had sought 
refuge in dens of the Upper Alps, and found their villages 
for the most part heaps of ruin; and the neighbors — 
where were they? Slain, or galley-slaves, or beggars. 

Yet, "bating no jot of heart or hope," the often- 
crushed Vaudois set about a reconstruction of their 
homes and society. Some small contribution of mem- 
bers came from the far-off Calabrian colonies, stripped 
of every thing, having passed through unnumbered dan- 
gers and disguises. An equality of poverty was theirs. 
For the first year, there was scarce enough to eat. But 
had they not freedom to worship God ? And this com- 
pensated for aU beside. 

Many years afterward, in a white ^alSt upon a moun- 
tain spur striking the Val d',^grogna, lived the pastor 
and physician of the place', no native-born Vaudois, peo- 
ple said, and speaking their patois in a strongly Italian 
fashion, but much beloved, and worthy of love. A grave, 
man, as one who has seen and suffered above the common 
allotment; but the more qualified he to comfort and to 
strengthen others. The education of endurance had beeii 
his, by which God fits men for usefulness to their fellows. 

And to Bianca was given a noonday of peace after a 
morning of cloud and storm. Although other children 
gi-ew up around her knees, born to a fairer prospect of 
niortal life than her little Calabrian Cosmo, perhaps none 
was loved so intensely as that early lost one. His ]fahy 
fingers had loosened her grasp of all earthly joys. 



ECLIPSE DEEPENS INTO NIGHT. 437 

And, whenever M. le Pasteur Altieri and his wife 
looked from their quiet mountain-home eastward upon 
their own loved land of Italy, "behold trouble and dark- 
ness, dimness of anguish ; " yea, it was driving daily into 
deeper darkness. Yet never have the Vaudois hill-tops 
lost the gleam of the glorious sun ; and even now, three 
hundred years since the light of truth was eclipsed in 
Italy, from the self-same Cottian Alps comes a kindling 
ray, already caught upon the palaces of Turin and the 
workshops of Florence, and perhaps destined to be re- 
flected on the very Tiber itself, rolling beside the wreck 
of Inquisition-prisons, during decades to come. 

37* 




]sr O T E 



! ! 

jj. The following extracts fi-om M'Crie's " History of the 
'EeA)nnation iu Italy" is inserted, in order to show how. 
closely the actual facts have been adhered to in the fore- 
gSiipg tale. It narrates the incidents described in the 
earlier ^chapters. 

" Perceiving that they could look for no favor from the deputies, who 
sternly refused them permission to remain till the rigor of winter was 
over, the Protestants made prepai-ations for their departure, arid sent 
Taddeo it Dunis before them to request an asylum at Zurich from the 
magistrates of that city. But they had sffllto suffer greater trials. 
Riverda, tlio papal nuncio, following up his success in Switzerland, 
appeared at Locarno. Having obtained an audience of the deputies, 
and thanked them in the pope's name for the care they had testified 
for the Catholic faith, ho requested, first, that they^hould require the 
Grison League to deliver up the fugitive Beccario, that he might be 
punished for the daring crime which he had committed in coiTupting 
the faith of his countrymen ; and, secondly, that they would not permit 
the Locarnese emigrants to carry along with thera their property and 
children, but that the former should be forfeited, and the latter retained, 
anil broiight up in the fnith of the Church of Rome. The ilcputiorf 
«8 



NOTE. 439 

readily acceded to the first of these requests, but excused themselves 
from complying with the second, with which their instructions would 
not allow them to interfere. At the same time, they begged the nuncic 
to grant power to the priests of Locarno to receive such of the Protes- 
tants as might be induced to return into the bosom of the Church. 
This Riverda not only granted, but also offered his services, along with 
those of two Dominican doctors of theology, whom he had brought 
along with him, for convincing the deluded heretics ; but though he 
harassed the Protestants by obliging them to listen to harangues deliv- 
ered by the monks, and to wait on conferences with himself, he did not 
succeed in making a single convert. 

"Having heard of three ladies of great respectability — Catarina 
Eosalina, Lucia di Orello, and Barbara di Moutalto — who were zealous 
Protestants, the nuncio felt a strong inclination to hold a controversy 
with them ; but they parried his attacks with so much dexterity, and 
exposed the idolatry and abuses of the Romish Church with such bold- 
ness and severity, as at once to mortify and irritate his Eminence. 
Barbara di Montalto, the wife of the first physician of the place, having 
incurred his greatest resentment, he prevailed on the deputies to issue 
an order to apprehend her for blasphemies which she had uttered against 
the sacrifice of the mass. Her husband's house, which had been con- 
structed as a place of defense during the violent feuds between the 
Guelphs and Ghibellines, was built on the Lago Maggiore, and had a 
concealed door, which it required the strength of six men to move, 
opening upon the water, where a boat was kept in waiting, to carry off 
the inmates upon any sudden alarm. This door he had caused his 
servants to open at night, in consequence of an alarming dream, which 
led him to apprehend danger, not to his wife indeed, but to himself. 
Early next morning, the officers of justice entered the house, and, 
bursting into the apartment where the lady was in the act of dressing 
herself, presented a warrant from the deputies to convey her to prison. 
Rising up with great presence of mind, she begged them, with an air 
of feminine delicacy, to permit her to retire to an adjoining apartment 
for the purpose of putting on some article of apparel. This being 



44:0 FROM DAWN TO DARK IN ITALY. 

granted, she descended the stairs, and, leaping into the boat, was rowed 
off in safety before the eyes of her enemies, who were assembled in the 
court-room to receive her. Provoked at this disappointment, the nun' 
cio and deputies wreaked their vengeance upon the husband of the lady, 
whom they stripped of his property. Kot satisfied with this, they 
amerced in a large sum two members of the Keformed Church who had 
refused to have their children baptized after the popish forms. 

" But the severest punishment fell on a poor tradesman named Nico- 
las, who belonged to the Eeformed Church. He had been informed 
against, some time before, for using, in a conversation with some of his 
neighbors, certain expressions derogatory to the Virgin Mary, who had 
a celebrated chapel in the vicinity, called Madonna del Sasso ; and the 
prefect Eeuchlin, with the view of silencing the clamors of the priests, 
had punished his imprudence by condemning him to an imprisonment 
of sixteen weeks. This poor man was now brought a second time to 
trial for that offense ; and, after being put to the torture, had sentence 
of death passed upon him, which was unrelentingly executed by order 
of the deputies, notwithstanding the intercession of the Roman-Catho- 
lic citizens in his behalf. 

" The Protestants had fixed on the 3d of March, 1555, for setting out 
on their journey ; and so bitter had their life been for some time, that, 
attached as they were to their native place, they looked forward to the 
day of their departure with joy. But, before it arrived, they received 
intelligence which damped their spirits. The government of Milan, 
yielding to the instigations of the priesthood, published an edict, com- 
manding all their subjects not to entertain the exiles from Locarno on 
their journey, nor allow them to remain above three days in the Milan- 
ese territory, under pain of death ; and imposing a fine on those who 
should afford them any assistance, or enter into conversation with them, 
especially on any matter connected with religion. Being tlius precluded 
from taking the road which led to the easiest passage across the Alps, 
they set out early in the morning of the day fixed, and, after sailing to 
the northern point of the Lago Maggiore, passed the Helvetian bail- 
liages by the wiiy of Bellinzone, and, before night came on, reached Rog- 



N@TE. 



441 



orcto, — a town subject to the Grison League. Here the Alps, covered 
with snow and ice, presented a barrier which it was vain attempting to 
pass, and obliged them to talte up their winter quarters, amidst the in- 
conveniences necessarily attending the residence of such a number of 
persons among strangers. After two months, the thaw having opened 
a passage for them, they proceeded to the Grisons, where they were 
welcomed by their brethren of the same faith. Being offered a perma- 
nent residence, with admission to the privileges of citizenship, nearly 
half of thrar number took up their abode in that country : the remainder, 
amounting to a hundred and fourteen persons, went forward to Zurich, 
the inhabitants of which came out to meet them at their approach, and, 
"by the kind and fraternal reception which they gave them, consoled 
and revived the heairts of the sad and weary exileSi" 




Cornell University Library 
BR390 .F93 1865 



From dawn to dark In Italy : a tale of t 




olln 



3 1924 029 248 592 



