Valperga (11 page)

They then mingled with the rest of the company; and Galeazzo
introduced his new friend to the Ghibeline lords of Lombardy. He
here saw for the first time the magnificent Cane della Scala, lord
of Verona, and the generous Guido della Polenta, lord of Ravenna,
and father of the unhappy Francesca of Rimini. These nobles had
assembled at Milan, to be present at the coronation of the emperor,
which had taken place a few weeks before; all wore the appearance
of gaiety and good humour; the empress headed the band, accompanied
by a beautiful youth who bore a bow in his hand; and Cane della
Scala was beside her, descanting on the merits of his falcon.
Castruccio was struck by the countenance of the youth who rode near
the empress. He was dressed with a profusion of magnificence; at
his back he wore a gilt quiver studded with gems, and a scarf
embroidered with pearls was thrown over one shoulder, and tied
under the other arm; in every way he was accoutred as might become
the favourite page of an empress. Yet Castruccio thought that he
remembered those light blue eyes; and his sweet yet serious smile
filled his own with tears of tender recollection. He eagerly asked
Galeazzo who and what he was: his friend replied; "He is the
squire of Can' Grande, and he is called Arrigo; I do not know
what other name he bears; the empress wishes to attach him to her
suite; but the youth would prefer bearing arms under his munificent
patron, to the situation of the effeminate page of a queen's
ante-chamber."

"That cannot surprise me," said Castruccio; "for
his infancy was spent in the labour of the fields, and in listening
to the lessons of his godlike father; he must therefore be ill
prepared to enter into the intrigues and follies of a court. If he
have not forgotten his childish affection for me, I shall win him
from them both; and, if indeed his father be dead, it shall be my
pride and boast to be the protector of his Arrigo."

As they re-entered the gates of the town, the trains of the
emperor and empress joined; and, Arrigo falling back among the
nobles, Castruccio rode up to him. For some time he gazed on him,
and heard the gentle tones of his youthful voice; he dared not
speak; his heart was full; and to his eyes dimmed by emotion, he
fancied that the revered form of Guinigi stood beside his son,
smiled on Castruccio, and pointed to the boy. At length, recovering
himself, he came abreast with the horse of Arrigo, and whispered,
"Does the son of Guinigi forget me? does he forget the farm
among the Euganean hills?"

Arrigo started; his countenance became radiant with joy; and he
exclaimed, "My own Castruccio!"

They rode away from the company, and entered the town by more
lonely streets. Castruccio saw by the looks of his young friend,
that his worst fears were true, and that Guinigi was dead; and
Arrigo easily read in Castruccio's face that he was thinking of
his father. At length he said: "My brother, if so you will
permit me to call you, a year has now passed since I was left an
orphan; ten months ago I quitted my happy life among the hills, to
dwell with a patron, who is indeed munificent and kind to me; but
who is not as my father. It appears to me a vision that such a
being ever existed; he was so great, so angelically wise and good;
and I now float down the stream with the rest, an esquire, an
attendant; I pass my life without enjoyment, and look forward to
the future without pleasure; but if, my brother, you would grant me
one request, a brighter sun would shine upon me."

"Dearest Arrigo, my dear, dear brother, I read in your
earnest looks all that you would say; be assured we shall never
part again! We will sally forth soldiers of fortune; and the same
star shall ascend and descend for both."

"Enough, leave the rest to me; be it my task to contrive my
departure from Can' della Scala; inform me of your motions, and
fear not but that I shall be at your side."

That same evening a magnificent feast was given at the palace of
the emperor; and Castruccio was introduced to this prince by
Galeazzo. The lords of Lombardy regarded him with a favourable eye;
for they knew that he could not hurt their interests north of the
Apennines, and they hoped that by his means the Ghibeline faction
might revive and triumph in Tuscany.

Castruccio spent almost the whole evening in conversation with
Arrigo. For the youth would not absent himself from him, but
recalled with earnest affection all the circumstances of their
former intercourse; and related with tears the death of Guinigi; a
death, calm as his most innocent life. One afternoon, during the
heats of summer, he sat under a cypress with his son, and entered
into an anxious detail of what would be the prospects and probable
fate of the young Arrigo, when he, his father and protector, should
be no more. The boy, struck with the melancholy foreboding,
intreated him not to dwell on a period, which was far distant, and
which, when it approached, would bring to him nothing but despair.
Guinigi however told him that he would not be overruled in this,
and with earnest affection talked for hours on the subject with a
wisdom and goodness that appeared more than human.
"Alas," said Arrigo, "even as he spoke, I thought I
saw his eyes beam with a heavenly light, and the torrent of
impressive words that he poured forth, were uttered with a voice
deep and tender, filling the air as it were with a harmony sweeter
than any earthly music. I listened, till I became almost as a
statue with attention; and as he either exhorted to virtue, or
described the evils of my country, or marked forth the glorious or
peaceful path that I might pursue, I felt my countenance change, as
I have seen a cloud vary as it passes before the moon, now, as it
advances, beaming in a silver light, and then again fading into
darkness. At length he dismissed me, saying that he wished to
sleep, and I saw him stretch himself under the cypress, gazing on
the sky, whose dazzling light was softened by the dark foliage
through which it passed; and he slept never to wake again.

"Oh! what I then suffered, when our friends crowded round,
and the mourning women came, and the mummery of the funeral went
on! But all that is passed; and now I should again feel the
elasticity of youth, but that I was, until you returned, friendless
in the world."

They talked thus, while the company around them were amusing
themselves with dances and song; the feast broke up late; and it
broke up only to be renewed with greater zeal the following and the
following day. Yet, while all appeared so calm, the storm which the
politicians prognosticated, broke out, and the quiet of these
festive meetings was disturbed by the revolt of Milan against the
Germans. And now Castruccio was witness for the first time to the
popular commotions of his country: armed knights galloped through
the streets crying, "Libertà! Death to the Germans!" And
a multitude of the people, who were enraged at the new taxes
imposed upon them, joined in the cry. But the revolt thus quickly
excited, was as quickly appeased. The Visconti after some
hesitation ranged themselves under the emperor; the Della Torre and
his partizans were obliged to fly; their houses were razed, their
goods confiscated, and themselves declared traitors.

But the effects of the Milanese revolt were not so easily
removed. The various Guelph towns of Lombardy, Crema, Cremona,
Brescia, Lodi, and Como, set up the standard of revolt against the
emperor; and, spring having now advanced, Henry began his campaign
with the attempt to reduce these towns. Castruccio had received
from him permission to raise a troop of volunteers, to serve under
his command in the Imperial army, and his fame collected a brave
band, whose discipline and valour were the admiration of the other
generals.

Crema and Lodi submitted to the emperor on his advance, and
reaped from their unseasonable resistance an increase of those
vexations which had caused their revolt. Henry marched against
Cremona, which at first made shew of resistance; but, when the
Guelphs, hopeless of success, escaped from the town, the Ghibelines
surrendered to the emperor; who, unmollified by their submission,
punished his own innocent partizans, sending them to cruel prisons,
razing the walls and fortifications of the town, and delivering
over the property and persons of the unprotected citizens into the
hands of the brutal Germans who composed the greater part of his
army.

Castruccio entered Cremona at the head of his little troop, and
beheld with dismay the cruel effects of the conquest of the emperor
over this city. Most of the German soldiers were busy in destroying
the fortifications, or in compelling the peasants and citizens to
raze the walls of their town. Other parties were ranging about the
streets, entering the palaces, whose rich furniture they destroyed,
by feasting, and tearing down from the walls all that had the
appearance of gold or silver. The cellars were broken open; and,
after inebriating themselves with the choice wines of Italy, the
unruly, but armed bands were in a better mood for oppressing the
defenceless people. Some of these poor wretches fled to the open
country; others locked themselves up in their houses, and, throwing
what they possessed from the windows, strove to save their persons
from the brutality of their conquerors. Many of the noble females
took refuge in the meanest cottages, and disguised themselves in
poor clothing, till, frightened by the eager glances, or brutal
address of the soldiers, they escaped to the country, and remained
exposed to hunger and cold among the woods that surrounded the
town. Others, with their hair dishevelled, their dresses in
disorder, careless of the eyes which gazed on them, followed their
husbands and fathers to their frightful prisons, some in mute
despair, many wringing their hands, and crying aloud for mercy. As
night came on, the soldiery, tired of rapine, went to rest in the
beds from which the proprietors were remorselessly banished:
silence prevailed; a dreadful silence, broken sometimes by the
shriek of an injured female, or the brutal shouts of some of the
men, who passed the night in going from palace to palace, calling
up the inhabitants, demanding food and wine, and on the slightest
shew of resistance hurrying their victims to prison, or binding
them in their own houses with every aggravation of insult.

Castruccio divided his little band, and sent his men to the
protection of several of the palaces, while he and Arrigo rode all
night about the town; and, having the watchword of the emperor,
they succeeded in rescuing some poor wretches from the brutality of
the insolent soldiers. Several days followed, bringing with them a
repetition of the same scenes; and the hardest heart might have
been struck with compassion, to see the misery painted on the faces
of many, whose former lives had been a continual dream of pleasure;
young mothers weeping over their unfortunate offspring, whose
fathers lay rotting or starving in prison; children crying for
bread, sitting on the steps of their paternal palaces, within which
the military rioted in plenty; childless parents, mourning their
murdered babes; orphans, helpless, dying, whose parents could no
longer soothe or relieve them. Castruccio, though a soldier, wept;
but Arrigo, who had never before witnessed the miseries of war,
became almost frenzied with the excess of his compassion and
indignation; he poured forth curses loud and bitter, while his eyes
streamed tears, and his voice, broken and sharp, was insufficient
to convey his passionate abhorrence. Castruccio was at length
obliged to use violence to draw him from this scene of misery; and,
after soothing him by every argument he could use, and by the most
powerful of all, that Henry would be soon obliged to withdraw his
soldiers from Cremona to serve him at the siege of Brescia, he
dispatched the youth with a letter to Galeazzo Visconti.

Returning to the town, Castruccio saw a figure pass along at the
end of the street, which reminded him of one whom he had almost
forgotten--Benedetto Pepi. "Alas! poor fellow," said
Castruccio to himself, "you will find the pillage of the
Germans a tremendous evil. Well; as I restored your life once, I
will now try, if I am not too late, to save the remnant of your
property."

He enquired of a passenger for the house of Benedetto Pepi.
"If you mean Benedetto the Rich, if any can now be called rich
in this miserable city," replied the man, "I will conduct
you to his house."

"My Pepi ought rather, I think, to be called the poor; lead
me however to Benedetto the Rich; and if he be a tall, gaunt figure
with a wrinkled, leathern face, he is the man for whom I
enquire."

Castruccio was conducted to a palace in the highest and most
commanding part of the town, built of large blocks of stone, and
apparently firm and solid enough to bear a siege. The windows were
few, small, grated and sunk deep in the wall; it had a high tower,
whose port-holes shewed that it was of uncommon strength and
thickness; a parapet built with turrets surrounded it at the top,
and in every respect the mansion resembled more a castle, than a
palace. The entrance was dark; and, by the number of grooves, it
appeared as if there had been many doors; but they were all
removed, and the entrance free. Castruccio advanced: there were two
large halls on the ground--floor, on each side of the
entrance-court; both were filled with German soldiers; they were
high, dark, bare rooms, more like the apartments of a prison than a
palace. In one of them a number of beds were laid on the paved
floor; in the other there was a large fire in the middle, at which
various persons were employed in the offices of cookery, and near
this, a table was spread out with immense quantities of food,
haunches of boiled beef, and black bread; two boys stood at either
end of the table, each holding a large flaring torch; and the
soldiers with riotous exclamations were choosing their seats on the
benches that were placed around. Castruccio paused, unable to
discern whether Pepi were among this strange company. At length he
observed him standing in one corner filling large jugs from a
barrel of wine: he accosted him with a voice of condolence; and
Pepi looked up with his little bright eyes, and a face rather
expressive of joy than sorrow. After he had recognized his guest,
he left his wine barrel, and invited him into another room, for
they could hardly distinguish each other's voices amidst the
shouts and tumult of the rude feasters. They ascended the steep
narrow stairs; and, Castruccio complaining of want of light, Pepi
said: "Let us go to the top of my tower; the sun has been set
about ten minutes, and, although dark every where else, it will be
light there. If you will wait a short time I will get the
key."