The Daughter of an Empress
Page 30
A DEATH-SENTENCE
An approaching bustling, a vehement calling and screaming, disturbedthe two old men. It was Lorenzo who was called, and he quickly glidedthrough the bushes to look after the cause of this disturbance. But soonhe returned with a melancholy face and depressed mien.
"Brother Clement," said he, "it is already all over with our enjoyment,which has been so great for me that I forgot to remind you that the popecannot neglect the hour in which he gives audience. That hour has nowcome, and your anteroom is already filled with princes and prelates."
"And yet you speak of the great happiness of being pope," saidGanganelli, rising with a sigh from the grassy bank. "I am not allowedan hour for recreation, and yet people think--but no," said Ganganelli,interrupting himself and laughing, "we should not be ungrateful, and itwould be ungrateful for me now to complain. If I have not had an hourfor recreation, well, I have had half an hour, and even that is much!"
And, beckoning to brother Lorenzo to follow him, the pope crept throughthe bushes that separated the place from the more frequented part of thegarden.
As he then walked up the grand alley, his face and his whole formassumed a very different appearance. The mild friendliness had vanishedfrom his features, pride and dignity were now expressed by them, andhis tall, erect form had in it something noble and imposing; it was nolonger the stooping form of age, but only that of a somewhat elderlyhero. The brother Clement had been transformed into the prince of theChurch, who was about to receive his vassals.
They now saw a tall, manly form hastening down the alley directly towardthe pope.
"Who is it?" asked Ganganelli, half turning toward Lorenzo, who wasfollowing him.
"It is Juan Angelo Braschi, the former treasurer, to whom you yesterdaysent the cardinal's hat."
"Ah, the beautiful Braschi," sadly murmured Ganganelli. "The beloved ofthe favorite of my nephew, of the Cardinal Rezzonico. Ah, how bad theworld is!"
In fact, he whom Ganganelli called the "beautiful" Braschi, welldeserved that epithet. No nobler or more plastic beauty was to beseen; no face that more reminded one of the divine beauty of ancientsculpture, no form that could be called a better counterfeit of theBelvedere Apollo. And it was this beauty which liberal Nature hadimparted to him as its noblest gift, which helped Juan Angelo Braschi,the son of a poor nobleman of Cesara, to his good fortune, his highestoffices and dignities. Not for his merits, but solely for his beauty,did the women bestow upon him their love; and as among these women therewere some who exercised an important influence upon powerful cardinals,Braschi had quickly mounted from step to step, crowding aside those whohad nothing but their merits and services to speak for them.
With a free and noble demeanor, Braschi now approached the pope, whoremained standing at some distance awaiting him, with a calm and proudself-possession. Braschi dropped upon one knee, and pressing the hem ofthe pope's garment in his lips, said:
"Pardon me, most holy father, that I have ventured to seek you here.But my lively gratitude would not be longer restrained. It impelled metoward you with the wings of the wind. I must be the first to fall atyour feet to stammer out to you my inexpressible thanks."
Proudly nodding his head the pope motioned him to rise.
"It is well," said he, "and you have lent your gratitude an abundance ofwords. It is true you were only treasurer, and I have permitted youto take a great step in making you a cardinal. But remember, my lordcardinal, that I have promoted you only because I wished to take fromyou the office of treasurer, as I need a man for that post whose honestyno one could call in question!"
Thus speaking he passed on with a ceremonious salutation, leavingthe new cardinal rooted to the earth with terror, his beautiful browdistorted with rage.
"He shall expiate that," muttered Braschi, gnashing his teeth, as thepope slowly pursued his way. "By the Eternal, the proud Franciscan shallexpiate that! Ah, the day will come when he will fully remember thesewords!"
Meantime, Ganganelli wandered calmly on, followed by his faithfulLorenzo, with a smile of joy at this dismissal and humiliation of theproud and handsome Cardinal Braschi.
The pope suddenly stopped, and turning to Lorenzo said:
"What a strange thought has passed through my head! I have made thismiserable coxcomb Braschi a cardinal because he was not honest enoughfor a treasurer, but in doing so I have paved the way for him to thepapal throne! Would it not be strange, Lorenzo, if I have thus myselfprovided my successor? His dishonesty and intriguing disposition hasmade him a cardinal. Why can it not also make him a pope? The world isindeed so strange!"(*)
(*) Juan Angelo Braschi, whom Pope Clement XIV. made a cardinal, was in fact Ganganelli's successor, and took possession of the papal chair as Pius VI. He was chosen after a very stormy conclave and indeed the different parties voted for him on the ground that he belonged to no party, and because they thought he was so very much occupied with his own beauty that he would think of nothing else, and, while occupied with the care of his face, would leave the cares of state to others.
"What dreams those are," murmured Lorenzo, shrugging his shoulders; "theidea that a Braschi could be the successor of the noble Ganganelli!"
Many cardinals and princes of the Church, many noblemen and foreignambassadors, were assembled in the pope's audience-room, and asGanganelli entered, they all received him with joyful acclamations,and humbly fell upon their knees before the head of the church, thevicegerent of God, who, with solemn majesty, bestowed upon them hisblessing, and then condescendingly conversed with them. That was aceremony to which the pope was obliged to subject himself once a week,and which he reckoned as not one of the least of the troubles attendantupon his exalted position. Hence he was well pleased when this hourwas over, and he at length was relieved of the presence of all theseeulogistic and flattering gentlemen.
Only Cardinal Bernis had remained behind, and to him Ganganelli, givinghim his hand, and drawing a deep breath, said:
"What a mass of false and hypocritical phrases we have again beenobliged to swallow! These cardinals have the impudence to speak to me oftheir love and veneration; they do not hesitate so to lie with the samelips which to-day have already pronounced blessings and pious words ofedification! But let us forget these hypocrites. Business is over, andit is kind of you to come and chat with me for one little hour. You knowI love you very much, my good friend Bernis, although you do pay homageto the heathen divinities, and, as a real renegade, have constitutedyourself a priest of the muses."
"Ah, you speak of my youthful sins," said the cardinal, smiling. "Theyare long since past, and sleep with my youthful happiness."
"That must be a wide bed which enables them all to find place side byside," responded Ganganelli, laughing, and holding up his forefingerthreateningly to the cardinal.
"But what is that you are drawing from your breast-pocket with such animportant air?"
"A letter from the Marquise de Pompadour, holy father," seriouslyreplied the cardinal--"a letter in which I am commanded to communicateto you, the father of Christendom, the acquiescence of France in yourproposed abolition of the order of the Jesuits. Here is a private letteraddressed to me by the marquise, and here the official letter signed byKing Louis, which is destined for your holiness."
The pope took the papers, and while he was reading them his face turneddeadly pale, and a dark cloud gathered upon his brow.
"France also acquiesces," said he, when he had finished the reading."How is it, then--were you not yourself against the abolition of theorder, and were you not in accordance with the Spanish ambassador, yourfriend of many years?"
"This friendship of many years is to-day destroyed by a fish, and drivesus a helpless wreck upon the wildly-rolling waves," said the cardinal,shrugging his shoulders.
Ganganelli paid no attention to him. Serious and thoughtful, he walkedup and down the room, while his heavenward-directed eye seemed toaddress a great and all-important question to the Being th
ere above,which received no answer.
"I clearly see how it will be," finally murmured the pope, as if talkingto himself. "I shall complete the work I have begun--it is God Himselfwho has opened the way for it, but this way will at the same time leadme to my grave."
"What dark thoughts are these?" said Bernis, approaching him. "Thisbold and high-hearted resolution will not bring you death, but fame andimmortality."
"It will at least lead me to immortality," said the pope, with a faintsmile. "The dead are all immortal. But think not so little of me as tosuppose I would now timidly shrink from doing that which I have oncerecognized as right and necessary. Only there are necessities of a verypainful and dreadful kind. Such a necessity is war. And is it not a warthat I commence, and does it not involve the destruction of all thosethousands who call themselves the followers of Loyola, and belong to theSociety of Jesus? Ah, believe me, this Society of Jesus is a hydra, andwe shall never succeed in entirely extirpating it. I may now separate myown head from my body; but a day will come when the head of this hydrawill have grown again, and when it will rise from the dead with renewedvitality, while I shall be mouldering in my grave. Say not, therefore,that I know not how to destroy them, and if you do say it, at least addthat I lacked not the will, but that I gave for it my own life."
Thus speaking, the pope slightly nodded an adieu to the cardinal, andwithdrew into his study, the door of which he carefully closed afterhim.
There was he long heard to walk the room with measured steps. Then allwas still. No one ventured to disturb him. Hours passed. Lorenzo, witha fearful presentiment, knelt before the door. He laid his ear to thekeyhole and tried to listen. All was still within, nothing stirred.At length he ventured to call the pope's name--at first low andtremulously, then louder and more anxiously, and as no answer wasreceived, he at last ventured to open the door.
At his writing-table sat the pope; his face deadly pale, with staringeyes and great drops of perspiration on his forehead. Immovable sat hethere, his right hand, which held a pen, resting on a parchment lyingupon the table before him.
Like an image of wax, so stiff, so motionless was he, that Lorenzo,shuddering, made the sign of the cross upon his brow. Then, noiselesslyadvancing, he timidly and anxiously touched the pope's shoulder.Ganganelli shuddered, and a slight trembling pervaded his members; hethen drew a long breath, and, casting a dull glance at his faithfulfriend, said:
"Lorenzo, let my coffin be ordered, and pray for my soul. I have justnow signed my own death-sentence. See, there it lies. I have signedthe decree abolishing the order of the Jesuits! I must thereforedie, Lorenzo. It is all over and past with our shady place and ourrecreations. My murderers are already prowling around me, for I tell youI have myself signed my death-sentence!"