The Royal Pawn of Venice

by Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull

  XXXV

  With the removal of the Court to Nikosia days of peace and sunshine hadat last dawned for the distracted island kingdom--whether compassed bythe wisdom of the astute and vigilant counsellors who sat close underthe ear of the youthful Queen--by the superior force of the Venetiangalleys, or by the winning charm of the Queen herself. The echoes ofconspiracy had been stilled and the cities of Cyprus were taking newpride in their commerce, while they were growing richer in measures ofphilanthropy and education and that blossoming of arts and culture whichonly may adorn a court at leisure from petty wars and intrigues.

  Early in these days of quiet Caterina had turned once more to her cousinthe Bernardini, bidding him ask some favor at her hand--"For verily Iowe thee more than I may repay."

  "There could be never a debt between us, my cousin," he answeredsmiling: then with the ceremonious bow of a courtier, he added, with asingular mixture of gravity and playfulness: "I would remind yourMajesty of a function of this Court which it hath never pleased my faircousin to exercise. There is one among the maids of honor--most rare andnoble--bounden by special vows of fealty, as a _Dama di Maridaggio_, tomarry at the command of her Sovereign."

  He stood before her quite unabashed and smiling, while she scanned himin surprise.

  "Margherita de Iblin?" she questioned, half unbelieving.

  "Margherita!" he answered, radiantly; "there is no other."

  "And how--if when I name the other two which custom doth demand for thisceremonial, she shall find a knight more to her liking?" Caterina askedteasingly.

  "Name one; and name him thrice," he answered boldly.

  "Little I dreamed thee, Aluisi, so poor a knight that thou shouldst lackthe courage to plead thine own cause," she exclaimed in amusement. "Andof what avail a gift that is not free?"

  He joined frankly in her laugh.

  "Nay," he said; "the case is quite otherwise. For she will not say menay, fair Cousin, because--in sooth some day she shall tell me why; andI count myself too leal a knight to tell it--if I knew--before she shallbid me speak. For the cause hath been pleaded and _not_ rejected; andthe gift hath been given, but _not_ confessed; which, were it not thus,I should seek no aid--having no mind to steal, were it even the heart ofa maid. But now it is rather wit than 'courage' that I lack, to outwitmy lady--may those forgive me who hold her favor!"

  "I will right heartily forgive thee, so but thou win it," Caterinaassured him. "Yet if she hath not said thee nay--what lackest thou offavor?"

  He was suddenly grave. "She will not say me '_yea_,'" he answered her,"lest the speaking of the word which she foldeth close in her heartuntil she giveth her rare self leave to utter it, should make hersomewhat less to her Sovereign Lady--who, she hath most solemnly assuredme--hath need of us both--and _thus_--with no bond between her two loyalservitors but their loyalty to their Queen."

  "Shall mine be less because of their happiness?" Caterina questionedindignantly. "Nay, but much less--_much_ less, without it!--Where is theDama Margherita?"

  "Nay, fair Cousin," he protested, "let discretion rule the command, Ibeseech you. For she herself is more proud than any Queen and of atemper to which surrender cometh not easily; and the wooing hath beenlong. Yet the truth of her deep eyes betrayeth her,--and so I trust myhappiness in your gracious hands."

  But Caterina would not rest until she had found the occasion for speech:and so soon as she chanced to be alone with Dama Margherita, sheannounced, without preamble, that she would presently command a rightroyal festival to please the nobles but lately come to court, withjousts of song and floral games, "and I myself will give the prize, andthou--Cara Margherita, being my faithful _Dama di Maridaggio_, shall bethe Queen thereof."

  But the Margherita drew herself haughtily away from the Queen'soutstretched hand.

  "I do not understand," she said, in a tone that was half resentful. "Iam ever at your Majesty's command for loyalty and service: but thiscustom displeaseth me--I pray your Majesty, let it be dismissed."

  "Nay, Margherita, it is my right;" the Queen persisted. "I would havethee choose one of three noble knights whom I will present to thee."

  "Three!" she echoed with a sensation of relief: then, after all, hersecret had not been guessed: it was truly some freak of the Queen's, andshe turned more willingly to listen.

  "The first is of rare nobility, whom I fain would honor in bestowingupon him the hand of one so dear--because he hath spent himself for me,and hath held his life little when it might serve me."

  Margherita half opened her lips to speak, then closed them resolutelyand held silence--a faint flush growing in her cheek.

  "The next is one of a most ancient house, of vast estates, it hath beentold me, which he himself nameth not, save for some generous use whenthere is need: of whom all men speak well, because of a certain strengthhe hath; but women rarely, for the scorn he showeth for heartlesstrifling. If he should love a woman, she need not fear to trust him."

  "And if he loveth not though he were a prince among men," Margheritaanswered with an effort at playful speech, "it were folly to trust hisvows."

  "Truly it were folly," the Queen replied, growing suddenly pensive, "andit were not easy to know wisdom from folly in such a matter, perchance.Let us speak no more of it--though I had a third to bring before thee."

  "Then," said Margherita with unexpected docility, "an' it please yourMajesty I will listen."

  "Thou art so gracious that I scarce do know thee!" the Queen retortedplayfully, "thou who art wont to hold me with a wholesome fear! But forthe third--now I bethink me--it were scarce worth the telling, since itwas but a word that he left with me--no more--that I would that thouhadst seen him utter it, a simple vow--yet I know that none shall movehim from it! Listen, Margherita: '_For me there is none other._'"

  "Said he no more, when he asked so much?" Dama Margherita questionedwith a desperate attempt to defer the moment of yielding.

  Caterina turned and looked at her seriously.

  "If he hath not the gift, already," she said, "it is much to ask. Yet,if he holdeth it, by no constraint--but _because it is for him alone andmay not be withheld_--however one may struggle,--need one ask furtherassurance of happiness? Choose thou from these, my Margherita. They aregood knights."

  "All three--or one?" Margherita asked, with deepening color and shiningeyes that were her confession and surrender. "These three are one--myLady giveth me no choice."

  "How one?" the Queen answered promptly, willing to grant her a littlemore time, for she saw that it was not easy for this proud maid toyield. "For one is lofty and masterful, and of a great prowess--so thatmen fear him. And one is knightly and worshipful, with a trick of speechwhen it pleaseth him, so that a woman might love him if he plead withher for favor. And one--nay, of him we will speak no more. For he hath awill that may not be denied when he hath said, '_For me_ there is noneother.'"

  "My beloved Lady doth trifle with me," Margherita exclaimed inconfusion. "She will not lay this command upon me!"

  "My Margherita--most solemnly I bid thee choose that which shall bringthee happiness. For thy lover hath confessed himself to me."

  "Is it happiness to love,--or is it pain?" the girl questioned very low.

  "If sometimes it may be pain," the young Queen answered, a shadowcrossing her brow; "yet even then, methinks, one would not have missedit--so only one hath held one's own heart true: for it discoverethdepths and heights one might not know without it, and bringeth dreamsthat make one's soul the fairer. But for thee, _cara_ Margherita--itshall be all happiness--for thy knight is true and noble like thyself;and my heart is glad that I may give thee to him."

  "Since I have not chosen him--and there are three!" Margheritainterposed faintly--"but if it is of your Majesty's command----?"

  "Tell me but this one thing--dost love him, Margherita?"

  "If there must be confession, should not the high-priest of thissacrament be first to hear it?" the proud maid whispered, as she kneltand kissed her Lady's han
d with a sudden grace: but the Queen knew thatshe might neither tease nor trifle more.

  "My Margherita," she said, folding her closely; "I could dream nosweeter dream than to know my two very dearest ones worthy of each otherand happy together."

  So it was not long before the Court of Nikosia was gladdened with afestival of old-time splendor, lasting for many days--with tournamentsof knights and jousts of song, and recitals of quaint Cyprian legendsand classic story, and all that their most punctilious custom mightdecree for a noble's marriage feast in the days of the _cinque cento_.

  * * * * *

  But as time slipped by in apparent tranquillity and growing prosperity,with constant evidences of judicious thought bestowed by the Queen uponthe well-being of her subjects--with the coming and going of artists andmen of letters to her court, and the resuming of all those ancientCyprian customs that might minister to the content of the nobles--whomit was ever most needful to satisfy with a sufficient show ofgaiety--there had nevertheless been an imperceptibly increasingtightening of the threads of government which stretched far across thewaters to Venice's own blue Adriatic, into the very Council-Chambers ofthe Palazzo San Marco.

  Even the moneys of Cyprus were flowing somewhat overfreely into thecoffers of the Venetian Provveditori who kept vigilant watch over theisland kingdom--which was, in truth, no longer anything but a Venetianprovince, except in name. Yet Caterina, while she chafed at manyhampering restrictions which she was powerless to overcome, loved herpeople and her work with the strength of desperation, and struggledbravely on.

  It was a relief that the petty warfare of conflicting claimants withoutand within her kingdom had ceased; even the importunity from aspiringsuitors came no more--since the same cold answer was ever ready for all,alike: and to Caterina this also was a relief. For, although of her ownwill she could have given but one reply, she had bitterly resented theimperative command of the Signoria forbidding her second marriage, as anindignity assuring her that she was not free--and each freshimportunity was a reminder of her bondage.

  If the Cyprian members of the Council of the Realm also saw that themeshes of Venice were steadily gathering more closely about them, theyhad no longer power of resistance against that craftiness of theRepublic which had known how to divert the moneys that should have goneto the making of a Cyprian Marine, while tickling their love of splendorwith some outward show--yet had kept the island kingdom fromappreciating this great need, by the readiness with which full-mannedVenetian galleys protected the Cyprian coasts whenever they werethreatened with devastation.

  More than one letter of resistance and impotent pleading in Caterina'sown hand, had gone from this Daughter of the Republic to the Dogehimself, and passed from the Serenissimo into the secret archives of SanMarco; but the very fact of the appeal was an acknowledgment of Venetianright, and the evils steadily increased. While Caterina tried to forgetthat the clasp of a velvet paw may fatally crush, when the force of anangry lion is behind it: or--if she remembered it too cruelly in thehours of her desolate midnight vigils, what could she do but ignore theinsult, with a woman's power of endurance, that she might defer the daythat should separate her from her work and her people with whom her lastdim hopes of happiness were inextricably bound up: for to them she knewthat she was still the Mother Queen--"Nostra Madonna," and the deartitle was a cure for much heart-anguish.

  More than once the good Father Johannes--his hair and beard now fallingin thin gray locks about his throat and breast, but the spirit withinhim still gleaming fiercely from his deep eyes--had come with painfulsteps down the long way from his distant Troodos to help and comforther.

  "Daughter," he said, "for thy brave wrestling I absolve thee from thyvow. Christ and the Holy Mother are merciful. They ask no more than manmay do. If thou hast not the strength----"

  "Father, without my work I have naught to live for. I have not thestrength to leave it."

  "Then God help thee! and the prayers of all the pilgrims to theTroodista help thee! And of all who have tasted of thy bounty; and ofall who have known thy care!"

  "Unless, my Father," she interrupted painfully, "there should be one whomight better hold this trust, to whom I may yield it? If Carlotta----"

  "Is she not like her Mother, the Paleologue?" the Lampadisti answeredangrily. "Hath she not plotted murder and treachery to compass her ends?Aye--even a fratricide--because forsooth of the crime of the grace thather brother possessed? Is there a record of good deeds, that the peopleshould wish her back?--Did _she_ strive to uphold the laws, or to knowthem?--To have her people taught and comforted?"--his eyes blazed.

  "Thou dost verily comfort me, my Father."

  "For that I am sent. The Holy Relic on the altar of the Troodista seemedto point me hither, with every Sacred Thorn. I could pray no prayers butfor thee; I could hearken to no other tales of woe. My feet turned everthither without my will: and thus I knew that thou hadst need of me!"

  But once when he came, and she knew not that it was the last time, shesaid:

  "I have somewhat to ask of thee, my Father."

  "Say on."

  "That thou wilt receive me into the Holy Sisterhood of St. Francis--as alay sister; that if I find the world more weary than I can bear, I maybe sure of a retreat which thou my faithful friend and spiritual Fatherwill have prepared for me. So that the act of my admission may be knownonly to thee and me and the directors of the Chapter of St. Francis, andto the Holy Sisterhood, of which I shall be one--yet living in theworld, so long as my duty shall call me."

  "Thou hast deserved it by thy constancy," he said. "And may the HolyMadonna be gracious to thee: and our blessed St. Francis sing to thysorrowing soul sweet measures of content, by the voices of 'hisbrothers, the birds of the air.'"

  It was evening, and the Queen had bidden him to her summer terrace overthe gardens, where in the luxuriant shrubberies below them the birdswere vying with each other in the loud-voiced evening orisons for whichthe brief flame of the Cyprian sunset was ever a signal.

  "The years will make of thee a poet, my Father," Caterina said, smilingat the turn of phrase so unusual from his lips.

  "It is not the years but thou, my Daughter, who hast taught me thatbeauty may be holy and lift the soul."