Chapter 5.IV. The Hollowness of the Base.
The rapid and busy march of state events has led us long away from the
sister of the Tribune and the betrothed of Adrian. And the sweet thoughts
and gentle day-dreams of that fair and enamoured girl, however full to her
of an interest beyond all the storms and perils of ambition, are not so
readily adapted to narration: - their soft monotony a few words can paint.
They knew but one image, they tended to but one prospect. Shrinking from
the glare of her brother's court, and eclipsed, when she forced herself to
appear, by the more matured and dazzling beauty, and all-commanding
presence, of Nina, - to her the pomp and crowd seemed an unreal pageant,
from which she retired to the truth of life, - the hopes and musings of her
own heart. Poor girl! with all the soft and tender nature of her dead
brother, and none of the stern genius and the prodigal ambition, - the eye-
fatiguing ostentation and fervour of the living - she was but ill-fitted
for the unquiet but splendid region to which she was thus suddenly
transferred.
With all her affection for Rienzi, she could not conquer a certain fear
which, conjoined with the difference of sex and age, forbade her to be
communicative with him upon the subject most upon her heart.
As the absence of Adrian at the Neapolitan Court passed the anticipated
date, (for at no Court then, with a throne fiercely disputed, did the
Tribune require a nobler or more intelligent representative, - and
intrigues and counter-intrigues delayed his departure from week to week),
she grew uneasy and alarmed. Like many, themselves unseen, inactive, the
spectators of the scene, she saw involuntarily further into the time than
the deeper intellect either of the Tribune or Nina; and the dangerous
discontent of the nobles was visible and audible to her in looks and
whispers, which reached not acuter or more suspected ears and eyes.
Anxiously, restlessly, did she long for the return of Adrian, not from
selfish motives alone, but from well-founded apprehensions for her brother.
With Adrian di Castello, alike a noble and a patriot, each party had found
a mediator, and his presence grew daily more needed, till at length the
conspiracy of the Barons had broken out. From that hour she scarcely dared
to hope; her calm sense, unblinded by the high-wrought genius which, as too
often happens, made the Tribune see harsh realities through a false and
brilliant light, perceived that the Rubicon was passed; and through all the
events that followed she could behold but two images - danger to her
brother, separation from her betrothed.
With Nina alone could her full heart confer; for Nina, with all the
differences of character, was a woman who loved. And this united them. In
the earlier power of Rienzi, many of their happiest hours had been passed
together, remote from the gaudy crowd, alone and unrestrained, in the
summer nights, on the moonlit balconies, in that interchange of thought,
sympathy, and consolation, which to two impassioned and guileless women
makes the most interesting occupation and the most effectual solace. But
of late, this intercourse had been much marred. From the morning in which
the Barons had received their pardon, to that on which they had marched on
Rome, had been one succession of fierce excitements. Every face Irene saw
was clouded and overcast - all gaiety was suspended - bustling and anxious
councillors, or armed soldiers, had for days been the only visitors of the
palace. Rienzi had been seen but for short moments: his brow wrapt in
care. Nina had been more fond, more caressing than ever, but in those
caresses there seemed a mournful and ominous compassion. The attempts at
comfort and hope were succeeded by a sickly smile and broken words; and
Irene was prepared, by the presentiments of her own heart, for the stroke
that fell - victory was to her brother - his foe was crushed - Rome was
free - but the lofty house of the Colonnas had lost its stateliest props,
and Adrian was gone for ever! - She did not blame him; she could not blame
her brother; each had acted as became his several station. She was the
poor sacrifice of events and fate - the Iphigenia to the Winds which were
to bear the bark of Rome to the haven, or, it might be, to whelm it in the
abyss. She was stunned by the blow; she did not even weep or complain; she
bowed to the storm that swept over her, and it passed. For two days she
neither took food nor rest; she shut herself up; she asked only the boon of
solitude: but on the third morning she recovered as by a miracle, for on
the third morning, the following letter was left at the palace: -
"Irene, - Ere this you have learned my deep cause of grief; you feel that
to a Colonna Rome can no longer be a home, nor Rome's Tribune be a brother.
While I write these words honour but feebly supports me: all the hopes I
had formed, all the prospects I had pictured, all the love I bore and bear
thee, rush upon my heart, and I can only feel that I am wretched. Irene,
Irene, your sweet face rises before me, and in those beloved eyes I read
that I am forgiven, - I am understood; and dearly as I know thou lovest me,
thou wouldst rather I were lost to thee, rather I were in the grave with my
kinsmen, than know I lived the reproach of my order, the recreant of my
name. Ah! why was I a Colonna? why did Fortune make me noble, and nature
and circumstance attach me to the people? I am barred alike from love and
from revenge; all my revenge falls upon thee and me. Adored! we are
perhaps separated for ever; but, by all the happiness I have known by thy
side - by all the rapture of which I dreamed - by that delicious hour which
first gave thee to my gaze, when I watched the soft soul returning to thine
eyes and lip - by thy first blushing confession of love - by our first kiss
- by our last farewell - I swear to be faithful to thee to the last. None
other shall ever chase thine image from my heart. And now, when Hope seems
over, Faith becomes doubly sacred; and thou, my beautiful, wilt thou not
remember me? wilt thou not feel as if we were the betrothed of Heaven? In
the legends of the North we are told of the knight who, returning from the
Holy Land, found his mistress (believing his death) the bride of Heaven,
and he built a hermitage by the convent where she dwelt; and, though they
never saw each other more, their souls were faithful unto death. Even so,
Irene, be we to each other - dead to all else - betrothed in memory - to be
wedded above! And yet, yet ere I close, one hope dawns upon me. Thy
brother's career, bright and lofty, may be but as a falling star; should
darkness swallow it, should his power cease, should his throne be broken,
and Rome know no more her Tribune; shouldst thou no longer have a brother
in the judge and destroyer of my house; shouldst thou be stricken from pomp
and state; shouldst thou be friendless, kindredless, alone - then, without
a stain on mine honour, without the shame and odium of receiving power and
happiness from hands yet red with the blood of my race, I may claim thee as
my own. Honour ceases to command when thou ceasest to be great. I dare
not too fondly indulge this dream, perchance it is a sin in both. But it
must be whispered, that thou mayest know all thy Adrian, all his weakness
and his strength. My own loved, my ever loved, loved more fondly now when
loved despairingly, farewell! May angels heal thy sorrow, and guard me
from sin, that hereafter at least we may meet again!"
"He loves me - he loves me still!" said the maiden, weeping at last; "and I
am blest once more!"
With that letter pressed to her heart she recovered outwardly from the
depth of her affliction; she met her brother with a smile, and Nina with
embraces; and if still she pined and sorrowed, it was in that "concealment"
which is the "worm i' the bud."
Meanwhile, after the first flush of victory, lamentation succeeded to joy
in Rome; so great had been the slaughter that the private grief was large
enough to swallow up all public triumph; and many of the mourners blamed
even their defender for the swords of the assailant, "Roma fu terribilmente
vedovata." ("Rome was terribly widowed.") The numerous funerals deeply
affected the Tribune; and, in proportion to his sympathy with his people,
grew his stern indignation against the Barons. Like all men whose religion
is intense, passionate, and zealous, the Tribune had little toleration for
those crimes which went to the root of religion. Perjury was to him the
most base and inexpiable of offences, and the slain Barons had been twice
perjured: in the bitterness of his wrath he forbade their families for
some days to lament over their remains; and it was only in private and in
secret that he permitted them to be interred in their ancestral vaults: an
excess of vengeance which sullied his laurels, but which was scarcely
inconsistent with the stern patriotism of his character. Impatient to
finish what he had begun, anxious to march at once to Marino, where the
insurgents collected their shattered force, he summoned his Council, and
represented the certainty of victory, and its result in the complete
restoration of peace. But pay was due to the soldiery; they already
murmured; the treasury was emptied, it was necessary to fill it by raising
a new tax.
Among the councillors were some whose families had suffered grievously in
the battle - they lent a lukewarm attention to propositions of continued
strife. Others, among whom was Pandulfo, timid but well-meaning, aware
that grief and terror even of their own triumph had produced reaction
amongst the people, declared that they would not venture to propose a new
tax. A third party, headed by Baroncelli - a demagogue whose ambition was
without principle - but who, by pandering to the worst passions of the
populace, by a sturdy coarseness of nature with which they sympathised -
and by that affectation of advancing what we now term the "movement," which
often gives to the fiercest fool an advantage over the most prudent
statesman, had quietly acquired a great influence with the lower ranks -
offered a more bold opposition. They dared even to blame the proud Tribune
for the gorgeous extravagance they had themselves been the first to
recommend - and half insinuated sinister and treacherous motives in his
acquittal of the Barons from the accusation of Rodolf. In the very
Parliament which the Tribune had revived and remodelled for the support of
freedom - freedom was abandoned. His fiery eloquence met with a gloomy
silence, and finally, the votes were against his propositions for the new
tax and the march to Marino. Rienzi broke up the Council in haste and
disorder. As he left the hall, a letter was put into his hands; he read
it, and remained for some moments as one thunderstruck. He then summoned
the Captain of his Guards, and ordered a band of fifty horsemen to be
prepared for his commands; he repaired to Nina's apartment, he found her
alone, and stood for some moments gazing upon her so intently that she was
awed and chilled from all attempt at speech. At length he said, abruptly -
"We must part."
"Part!"
"Yes, Nina - your guard is preparing; you have relations, I have friends,
at Florence. Florence must be your home."
"Cola, - "
"Look not on me thus. - in power, in state, in safety - you were my
ornament and counsellor. Now you but embarrass me. And -"
"Oh, Cola, speak not thus! What hath chanced? Be not so cold - frown not
- turn not away! Am I not something more to thee, than the partner of
joyous hours - the minion of love? Am I not thy wife, Cola - not thy
leman?"
"Too dear - too dear to me," muttered the Tribune; "with thee by my side I
shall be but half a Roman. Nina, the base slaves whom I myself made free
desert me. - Now, in the very hour in which I might sweep away for ever all
obstacles to the regeneration of Rome - now, when one conquest points the
path to complete success - now when the land is visible, my fortune
suddenly leaves me in the midst of the seas! There is greater danger now
than in the rage of the Barons - the Barons are fled; it is the People who
are becoming traitors to Rome and to me."
"And wouldst thou have me traitor also! No, Cola; in death itself Nina
shall be beside thee. Life and honour are reflected but from thee, and the
stroke that slays the substance, shall destroy the humble shadow. I will
not part from thee."
"Nina," said the Tribune, contending with strong and convulsive emotion -
"it may be literally of death that you speak. - Go! leave one who can no
longer protect you or Rome!"
"Never - Never."
"You are resolved?"
"I am."
"Be it so," said the Tribune, with deep sadness in his tone. "Arm thyself
for the worst."
"There is no worst with thee, Cola!"
"Come to my arms, brave woman; thy words rebuke my weakness. But my
sister! - if I fall, you, Nina, will not survive - your beauty a prey to
the most lustful heart and the strongest hand. We will have the same tomb
on the wrecks of Roman liberty. But Irene is of weaker mould; poor child,
I have robbed her of a lover, and now - "
"You are right; let Irene go. And in truth we may well disguise from her
the real cause of her departure. Change of scene were best for her grief;
and under all circumstances would seem decorum to the curious. I will see
and prepare her."
"Do so, sweetheart. I would gladly be a moment alone with thought. But
remember, she must part today - our sands run low."
As the door closed on Nina, the Tribune took out the letter and again read
it deliberately. "So the Pope's Legate left Sienna: - prayed that Republic
to withdraw its auxiliary troops from Rome - proclaimed me a rebel and a
heretic; - thence repaired to Marino; - now in council with the Barons.
Why, have my dreams belied me, then - false as the waking things that
flatter and betray by day? In such peril will the people forsake me and
themselves? Army of saints and martyrs, shades of heroes and patriots,
have ye abandoned for ever your ancient home? No, no, I was not raised to
perish thus; I will defeat them yet - and leave my name a legacy to Rome; a
warning to the oppressor - an example to the free!"
