XVII
With whatever magnificence of pageantry the ceremonies of the Baptismand Coronation of the infant Prince of Galilee were surrounded--andunder the tutelage of Venice and the auspices of Cyprus which aspired tothe splendor of an Eastern Empire, there could be nothing lacking--therewere nobler aspects of that brilliant festival which those who witnessednever forgot.
The Embassies which had been despatched to all friendly courts hadreturned with deputations of rejoicing; a fleet from Venice and shipsfrom the East had brought costly gifts of welcome and men, high indignity, charged to represent their governments: and the AdmiralMorenigo, with two Provveditori had arrived to stand sponsors for theGrandson of the Republic. In the vast banquet-hall of the palace,decorated with all its ancient heraldic devices and trophies of Crusadesand Eastern victories, the Coronation Feast was spread, where presentlythe knights of the noblest families of the kingdom would count it anhonor to serve: and the splendid city of Famagosta was gay with thesuites and banners of foreign guests.
But, for all that, it was the _People's Day_--for the young Queen hadwilled it so.
"Let proclamation be made throughout the land," she had said, "that all,of every degree, may share the festivities, and come to pay their homageto the infant King. And bid the mothers bring their little ones."
The people thronged from far and near until Famagosta could hold nomore; from Nikosia, from Larnaca and Limasol and Kerynea and othercities and districts of Cyprus, came great deputations of burghers, withthose peasants from the nearer _casals_ and hamlets whom the invitationof their gracious Sovereign Lady had reached and who were not restrainedby the unwillingness of their nobles: for there were still some amongthe ancient families of the island who looked with disfavor upon Janusand his successors.
The Queen had not shown herself to the people since the birth of herlittle son; and they knelt along her pathway as she passed across thePiazza San Nicolo, from the palace to the Duomo, holding their childrenup that she might bless them--for it was a miracle! She had come backfrom Death's door to rule and bless their land!
"Sancta Maria!"
Before her on the golden cushion of state were borne the sceptre and thequaint Royal Crown of Cyprus of the time of their first king, Guy deLusignan--heavy and far too rough for her delicate brows to endure; andthe Councillors and Counts of the kingdom, the knights and nobles andladies of the court made a brave array. But the people,--thepeasants,--half-dazed by their unaccustomed nearness to suchmagnificence, not feeling as did the people of Venice that the fetes ofthe kingdom were meant for them, had looked on stolidly at all thebravery of the passing procession and at the glitter of theinsignia,--showing no sign of greeting until a white, girlish figurestood under the palace portal.
"_Panagia mou!_ Holy Virgin!" The familiar ejaculation came,half-suppressed, in a whisper of awe, from hundreds of voices. For thewords of the Cyprian peasant were few, and this appeal to their mostrevered image of the Virgin sufficed for the expression of their deepestemotions. Was it, in truth their Queen--or the blessed Madonna herself,who came forth from the palace arches in her sweeping robes, white andgleaming, her royal mantle of cloth of gold and her jewelled crown--likethe beautiful ivory image in the Duomo of Santa Croce?--Very pale andfair and sad she was, yet with a smile in her eyes, as she turned fromside to side to answer their greetings, which now broke forthrapturously.
The color flushed her pale face when their cries of loyalty arose, andshe turned and took the little Prince of Galilee from her Eccellenza,the Royal Governess the Dama Margherita de Iblin, holding him high,close-pressed to her cheek for all the people to see, with a great gloryof mother-love in her shining eyes. They rent the air with their sobsand shouts.
The child lay smiling on his mother's arm--serene and very beautiful; itwas in truth a holy picture.
The populace forgot that it was their Queen; as never before, that anydistance of caste lay between them--they forgot their native awkwardnessand dread of the great ones--they thronged nearer, unafraid--only totouch her--to kiss some hem of her floating garments--to look in theface of the little child who was to be their King!
And when the mother and the child were gone into the shadows of theDuomo, so thronged with noble guests and with all the splendid Hierarchyof Cyprus that there was scarce room for the royal procession to pass tothe High-Altar beyond the tomb of Janus, the hearts of the people in thePiazza joined in the chorus of love and benediction of the choirswithin, as, with new hints of devotion in their patient faces, theyfolded their own little ones closer with some vague, struggling,incomprehensible sense of aspiration--they were one with their RoyalLady and the Blessed Madonna, in the sacred mystery of Motherhood.
In the spacious apse the Hierarchy and the Royal Court were ranged forthe ceremonial, and back of them a low three-arched opening at one sideof the apse, supported on columns of polished porphyry clasped withgrotesquely hammered copper, gave glimpses of palms waving in the greatCourt of the Tombs; gave glimpses also of the Monks of Troodos who hadcome hither with all their numbers, to witness the solemn services ofthe dedication of their infant king to his high trust.
And just within the portal, in strange contrast to the pomp of hissurroundings, stood Hagios Johannes Lampadisti, "the Illumined"--a wild,stern figure, in his sombre robes--unchanged for any highestfestival--with the symbol of solemn sacrifice on his breast, beyond allthought of admiration or of reproach for the splendor about him, hisprophetic gaze fastened on the face of the Queen with imperiousintensity--one hand slightly extended towards her, holding out his crossof thorns.
When the solemn rites were over and the Queen had received her childagain from the arms of the Archbishop of Nikosia, Hagios Johannes,never moving his eyes from her face came forward with slow movements,and Caterina, with a sudden, uncontrollable impulse, lifting her eyesbeheld the mystic gaze of Hagios Johannes and knelt down before thealtar, straining her baby close to her breast.
"Dear Christ in Heaven!" she cried, in the dialect of the people. "Igive him to Thee!--I give _my All_ to Thee! He and I, we will live forThee; and for this People of Cyprus!--so Thou and the Blessed Mother beour helpers."
The Queen's Councillors in their splendid robes of office, looked inamazement to see their Queen forget her state in such a presence, andoutrage every precedent by crying out in the unlearned language of thepeople, before this stately company; and the face of the dignifiedPrimate flamed with wrath at this unseemliness. But Caterina, notingnothing, turned to receive their homage for the infant King, for whom asby an inspiration, she had publicly offered these vows, from the depthsof her heart.
As the procession moved out into the sunshine of the Piazza, she heldthe child up again to the eager, waiting throng--the light gleaming onthe tiny coronet above his baby-cap as she spread out his dimpled handswith a motion of welcome, saying quite simply:
"This is your King. Love him, dear people of Cyprus!"
And she would not give the infant back to the Royal Governess, butcarried him herself in her own arms across the Piazza, held up for thepeople to see--which never before had a queen of Cyprus been known todo. But there was a light in her face which silenced those who wouldhave spoken of ways more seemly, and it was a triumphal procession tothe palace. But she paused before the peristyle, turning to face thepeople again.
"There is welcome for every Cypriote," she said, "men, women and littlechildren, who come this day to pay homage to their infant King; and goodcheer in the palace for all," and signing to the attendants that theyshould be made to enter she passed in, smiling, before them.
The child lay in his cradle in the splendid _Sala Regia_, under thecanopy blazoned with the arms of Cyprus--a little, helpless, smilingchild--guarded by the Councillors and Counts of the kingdom; and nearhim stood the Queen with all her court, who for this day only had putoff their mourning that no suggestion of gloom nor any hint of evil omenmight shadow the royal baptismal and coronation fetes. The ladies weredazzling in gems and heirlooms
of broideries and brocades; the knightsand barons of the realm were glittering with orders--here and there,above his costly armor, one showed the red cross of the Crusade, or worethe emblem of the Knights of San Giovanni. But the people, who neverbefore had entered those palace doors, came surging--not afraid--norshrinking from the novelty and splendor nor curious for it; they came topledge their fealty to the baby-prince--a little child like theirown--whose gentle mother asked their love--than which no monarch maybring a gift more royal.
The Royal Pawn of Venice Page 17