The Duchess of Trajetto Read online

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  THE

  DUCHESS OF TRAJETTO.

  BY

  THE AUTHOR OF "MARY POWELL."

  Giulia Gonzaga, che, dovunque il piede Volge, e dovunque i sereni occhi gira, Non pur ogn' altra di belta le cede, Ma, come scesa dal ciel, Dea l'ammira.

  Ariosto.

  LONDON:

  ARTHUR HALL & CO., 26, PATERNOSTER ROW.

  1863.

  LONDON:

  BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

  CONTENTS.

  CHAP. PAGE

  I. THE DUCHESS IN DANGER 1

  II. THE DUCHESS IN SAFETY 15

  III. THE DUCHESS'S STORY 34

  IV. MOORISH SLAVES 48

  V. THE CARDINAL AND THE JEW 62

  VI. THE SORROWS OF THE JEW 74

  VII. SEBASTIAN DEL PIOMBO 86

  VIII. THE DUCHESS AND THE PAINTER 99

  IX. DAWN OF A PURE LIGHT 115

  X. VITTORIA DI COLONNA 129

  XI. VALDES AND OCHINO 144

  XII. GOING TO LAW 159

  XIII. THE CARDINAL TEMPTED 172

  XIV. WHAT BEFEL BARBAROSSA 187

  XV. MORE ABOUT THE CARDINAL 197

  XVI. THE DUCHESS AND THE MARCHIONESS 221

  XVII. ISCHIA 233

  XVIII. A BETTER LIFE 247

  XIX. REST AND PEACE 261

  APPENDIX 275

  THE DUCHESS OF TRAJETTO.

  CHAPTER I.

  THE DUCHESS IN DANGER.

  It was night--the Duchess was in bed. Her hand shaded her wakeful eyesfrom the light of a silver lamp fed with perfumed oil, which shone onlyon what was calculated to please the taste, minister to the luxury, anddisplay the wealth of the owner. Rare paintings of Scriptural andmythological subjects decorated the walls, the ceiling was richlymoulded and gilt, the floor of polished marble was only partiallycovered with fine matting, a few choice statuettes and vases occupiedbrackets and niches; the massive toilette service and mirror-frame ofprecious metal were shaded by some texture of light silvery tissue;while half-open cabinets and caskets revealed priceless jewels andfragrant perfumes. On a velvet cushion lay an illuminated missal and arosary.

  Here was every outward appliance, one might think, to make a favouriteof fortune happy; but the good and honest face of the Duchess, whichspoke her every thought, did not look so. The night was sultry; she hadtried to sleep, but could not; and now she was feverishly endeavouringto think of something pleasant, without success.

  The deep stone windows of her apartment, which were open, commanded asmall garden sleeping in the moonlight, where terraces were cut on adeclivity; and where Cupid and Psyche, Diana with her hounds, and Apollowith his bow, gleamed white among orange, lemon, and myrtle. This littlepleasaunce was shut in within the walls of a strong baronial castle;and beyond them lay the little town of Fondi, consisting of a singlestreet built on the Appian Way. Beyond it, a lake, a forest, a marsh,stretching down to the blue brimming Mediterranean. The little townseemed steeped in sleep: the silence was intense.

  All at once, a low, regular sound jarred on the Duchess's quickened ear.

  "That's a very unaccountable noise," thought she to herself. "I wonderwhat it is. People are about, who ought to be in their beds. If itcontinues, I shall ring up the Mother-of-the-maids. Now it has stopped.I wish I were not so wakeful--how tiresome it is!

  "What could induce Isabella to write me that disagreeable letter? Ifancy the Prince of Sulmona had a hand in it. It is very hard, after thePope's substantiating my rights as he has done, and bringing me throughwith a high hand, that I should be assailed in a fresh quarter. Howsorry Rodomonte would have been! Poor fellow, he loved us both sodearly! And if ever a step-mother did her duty by a step-daughter, I didmine by Isabella. But there was too little difference in our ages. Shepresumed on my forbearance, and tried to domineer over me. I dare saymany people fancy the life of a rich young widow must needs be veryhappy. Some were even stupid enough to think my dear Duke and I couldnot be as happy as we seemed. Oh, yes, we were!--though he was forty andI but thirteen."

  "Supposing I had been over-persuaded to have Ippolito, how differentwould have been the story of our lives! Happier for him, possibly, buthe may be very well content to be a cardinal. At the same time I havesomehow suspected that if ever any one really valued me for myself, hedid. They all flatter too much. A flattered person is the tool of theflatterer. It hurts one's mind----

  "That noise again! Can it be Caterina snoring? She says she never does:just as if she could hear herself! Whatever it is, I'll have it inquiredinto. Caterina! Caterina! Cynthia! Cynthia!"

  At the sound of the Duchess's voice, two of her attendants came runningin from the antechamber. One of them was a withered old woman with avery benevolent face and thin grey hair fastened at the top of her headin a little knot about as big as an egg, with a bodkin: the other aMoorish girl, with large, startled, lustrous eyes, and symmetrical asone of Calypso's nymphs moulded in bronze. She was in a single whitegarment, but had caught up a striped goat's hair haik, which by dayformed the upper part of her attire.

  "Did Leila call?" "What will your Vossignoria?"

  "I called because I could bear your snoring no longer, Caterina."

  "_I_ snore?" repeated Caterina, with a look of injured innocence."Vossignoria must surely be mistaken; for I was lying wide awake, withCynthia sleeping beside me, as quiet as a lamb."

  "You were dreaming that you were awake," said the Duchess. "I have notonce closed my eyes, nor has it been possible--Hark! there is the noiseagain!" cried she, excitedly. "What on earth can it be?"

  They remained transfixed, with suspended breath, in various attitudes ofsurprise and affright; each of them intently listening.

  "I hear nothing, Eccellenza," began Caterina.

  "There! there!" exclaimed the Duchess.

  Cynthia suddenly sprang to one of the open windows, and lookedout--then, clapped her hands to her head, and gave an unearthly yell.

  "What is it?" cried Caterina, hastening towards her, and peering forthinto the darkness. Then, shrieking, she exclaimed,----"The pirates areupon us!"

  "_Balzo dal letto._"[1]--The Duchess sprang from her bed, and took onehasty glance from the window. She could discern a string of turbanedfigures with gleaming scimitars swarming up the walls, and leaping downon the inner side.

  [1] "Come lupi famelici entrarono in Fondi que' barbari, destandovi tra gli ululati degli abitanti un tumulto indicibile. Il fremito de' ribaldi assalitori, le grida degli assaliti che assordavano l' aria, ruppero a Giulia il sonno, e mentre palpitando e incerta iva pensando qual potesse essere la cagione di tanto rumore, eccole i pallidi famiglieri col tristo annunzio che i Turchi scorrevano l' occupata citta, e che non vi era tempo a perdere se bramava salvarsi dalle indegne loro mani. Balzo dal letto," &c., &c.--Ireneo Affo, _Memorie di tre Principesse_, &c.

  "We are undone!" exclaimed she, desperately. "Caterina! arouse the men!Cynthia, help me to dress."

  Wild sounds were already heard on every side, both in the town and thecastle--alarm-bells ringing, hoarse war-cries, piercingscreams--Hayraddin Barbarossa was upon them!

  What a plunder! There was the town, to begin with; then, there was thecastle; and within the castle, the most beautiful and beloved lady inall Italy! the friend and favour
ite of popes and princes; a princessherself, enormously rich! What a ransom!

  But no ransom was the object of Hayraddin Barbarossa, the scourge of theseas. He meant to carry her away captive to Solyman the Magnificent,Emperor of the Turks. With this purpose, and no less, had Hayraddin beenhovering off the coast with a hundred galleys and two thousand Turks onboard,[2] terrifying the Neapolitans out of their wits at the verythought of his red beard and red flag--he, who avowed himself "thefriend of the sea, and the foe of all who sailed upon it"--whose veryname was a word of fear from the Straits of Gibraltar to theDardanelles![3]

  [2] "Piena l' Italia e l' Europa fosse di quanto iva spargendo la fama intorno le singolare bellezze di Giulia; erane passato anche il grido ai molli regni dell' Asia. Solimano II., Imperadore de' Turchi, non ignorava quanto ella fosse avvenente; onde giacche avea guerra coll' Imperador Carlo V., fornito Ariadene Barbarossa di cento galere, con ciu potesse trascorrere i mari nostri, e battere le coste de paesi Christiani, gl' ingiunse che tra le spoglie piu rieche, onde carico lo attendeva, dovesse aver luogo la vagha Signora di Fondi. Fece plauso al comando il baldanzoso corsaro, che, avido di riportar gloria, al mare affidosi pien di si audace pensiero," &c.--_Idem._

  [3] Robertson's "Charles the Fifth."

  "They will be upon us directly, Signora," said her trembling,grey-haired seneschal, who had hastened to her at the first alarm. "Loseno time in escaping. The pirates will never content themselves with thetown--rely on it, _you_ are their object. We will lower you from thewindow--you must then cross the draw-bridge, and pass through thegallery cut in the rock. It will bring you out on the hill-side, whereTiberio shall join you with horses--"

  "Come, then, Caterina--"

  "Alas, Madama, I am too old for jumping out of windows--I will remain tosecrete the jewels, and look after the maids. We will lock ourselves inthe cellars."

  "Come then, Cynthia. Be quick."

  Cynthia, who was wrapping herself in her haik, looked unwilling, andsaid:

  "May I not remain with Caterina, Leila?"

  "Certainly not. Jump out of window this instant, and then you can helpme down."

  The Duchess accelerated her by a slight push, on which she spranglightly as a chamois to the ground, which was not far below; and theDuchess, seeing she came to no harm, called on the saints, and did thesame. Caterina lowered them a lamp, which they covered, and soon theywere in the rocky passage, while the Turks in the distance were howlinglike hungry wolves or mad dogs.[4]

  [4] "Lupi famelici," "colla rabbia d' affamati cani."

  "How cold it is!" complained the Duchess, shivering and drawing closerthe richly furred velvet mantle in which she was enveloped.

  "And you gave me no stockings, Cynthia, only slippers. How _could_ yoube so foolish?"

  "You must not mind that, Leila, since you are safe," said Cynthia,bluntly. "Think what horrors are going on in the town. Holy prophet! itreminds me of the night when my parents fled from the Spaniards!"

  "Cynthia, it is very wicked of you to use those heathenish imprecations,now that I have taken the trouble to have you baptised. Your prophet wasnot holy, nor a prophet at all, but a very bad man, as I have told youseveral times, and you must not be so benighted any more."

  Cynthia's eyes flashed fire, but she held her peace.

  "If you call any one holy," continued the Duchess, "it should be theblessed Virgin and holy saints. You ought to consider it a great mercythat you have been led to the service of a Christian mistress who caresfor your soul. Don't you feel this?"

  "No," said Cynthia, stoutly; "I do not feel grateful that I was tornfrom my home and country, and that my father was cut down on his owndoorstep, and my mother dragged along the ground by the hair of herhead. Could _you_ feel grateful, Leila?"

  "Not for those things, certainly; but misfortunes are often blessings indisguise, and the Moors are very wicked people, and--"

  "They are doing those very things, just now, to _your_ people," saidCynthia, expressively, and stretching out her arm towards the town.

  "Ah! Heaven forbid!" said the Duchess.

  "Heaven does not forbid, though," said Cynthia, sorrowfully, "and Icannot think why Heaven only looks on."

  "Cynthia!" cried the Duchess, suddenly stopping short, and fixing apiercing look on her, "did _you_ bring these people on us?"

  "What people, Leila?"

  "These pirates!--these Moors!"

  "Take the lamp!" cried Cynthia, thrusting it into her hand, and stampingpassionately. "Kill me if you will, since you can suspect me! Here's adagger--I brought it to defend you and myself."

  "Nay, but I do not want to suspect you. Put up your dagger, foolishgirl. Who talks about killing?" said the Duchess, shrinking from thegleaming steel. "Speak but the word and I will believe you; only, asthey are countrymen of yours, and as you so hate the Christians, thethought just crossed me."

  "I'll _never_ speak the word," said Cynthia, stubbornly. "You may killme if you will, but I'll _never_ say!"

  And with dilated nostrils, quivering lips, and flaming eyes, she strodeon before her mistress. It was not a time or place for the Duchess totake notice of it--to a woman with a dagger!