Gravely, but with gleaming eyes, the pale and beautiful girl came forward and faced Ippolito.
‘Yesterday at sunset I was at the gate of the cemetery,’ she said. ‘This man’s brother, who lives at Camaldoli, shot this Don Tebaldo’s brother, to whom I was betrothed, and he is buried in the cemetery. Therefore, I go every day to the gate, to visit him. Yesterday Don Francesco came up the road and was speaking to me. He who lies there dead was talking with me but yesterday. God give his soul peace and rest. Then this priest, coming down from Santa Vittoria, fell upon him from behind treacherously, and choked him by the collar, and beat him upon the head, so that he fell down fainting. But certain peasants came by that way and lifted him up and took him into our village, but the priest went down to Camaldoli. This I saw, and this I tell you. And now two Saracinesca have killed two Pagliuca.’
She ceased speaking, and her white hands drew her shawl over her head, for she was in church, where a woman’s head should be covered.
‘Do you admit the truth of what this girl says?’ asked the corporal, turning to Ippolito.
‘It is true that I beat Francesco Pagliuca with my hands yesterday afternoon.’
‘Do you not admit also that you killed him to-day, in this church, with that knife? Don Tebaldo testifies that he saw you do it.’
The young priest drew himself up to his height, and his clear gaze riveted itself on Tebaldo’s half-veiled eyes. The good man faced the bad silently for many seconds.
‘Did you testify that you saw me kill your brother?’ asked Ippolito, at last.
‘I did, and I shall repeat my testimony at the proper time,’ answered Tebaldo, steadily.
But under the clear, high innocence that silently gave him the lie, his eyelids dropped more and more, till he looked down.
‘Do you admit that you killed him?’ asked the corporal again.
‘I did not kill him.’
‘But you must necessarily know who did, if you did not,’ said the soldier. ‘The sacristan says that you sent a boy for him some time ago. The man is only just dead, as my men have seen. You must have been in the church when he was killed, and you must have seen the man who did it.’
Ippolito had not seen the deed done, but he had seen the murderer. It would be hard to answer on the one point and not on the other, and by the very smallest slip he might unintentionally say something which might end in the betrayal of the secret told him in confession. He therefore kept silent.
‘You say nothing? You insist in saying nothing?’ asked the corporal.
‘I say nothing beyond what I have said. I did not do it.’
‘And you,’ continued the soldier, addressing Tebaldo, ‘you testify that you saw this man do it?’
‘I do. Those things would bear evidence without me.’ added Tebaldo, pointing to the knife and the bloody handkerchief, which latter one of the soldiers held by a single corner in order not to soil his fingers. ‘Those things, and the man’s hands,’ he added. ‘Moreover, his brother killed my other brother, as everyone knows, and he himself admits that he assaulted Francesco only last night. You can hardly hesitate about arresting him, corporal. The fact that he is a Roman and that we are Sicilians is hardly a sufficient defence, I think.’
The corporal understood that he had no choice. He was a very sensible man and had seen much service in Sicily, and whenever there was bloodshed he was inclined to attribute the crime to a Sicilian rather than to an Italian. He liked Ippolito’s face and innocent eyes and would have given much to feel that he had a right to leave him at liberty. But he had to admit that the evidence was overpoweringly strong against the accused. At first sight, indeed, it seemed perfectly absurd to suppose that a young churchman of a sensitive organisation and educated in a high state of civilisation should suddenly, wilfully, and violently stab to death such a man as the carabineer believed Francesco Pagliuca to have been; a man against whom the authorities had been warned, as being likely on the contrary to do the Saracinesca some injury, if he could; a man who had grown up in a wild part of Sicily, imbued with the lawless ideas of the mafia; a man, in fact, who though a nobleman by birth was looked upon as a ‘maffeuso,’ and whose brother had certainly had friendly relations with outlaws. It was not to be denied that the carabineers and the soldiers were all strongly prejudiced in favour of the Saracinesca, as against the Corleone.
At the same time, the evidence was overwhelming, and was the more so because Ippolito was so obstinately silent and would say nothing in self-defence beyond making a general denial of the charge. In his difficulty the corporal turned to the officer of the line, both as his military superior and as a man of higher education than himself. He wanted support. He begged the lieutenant to speak with him in private for a moment, and they moved away together to one of the side chapels.
Ippolito folded his arms and paced up and down before the carabineers, in profound and distressing perplexity. Tebaldo leaned against a pillar and watched him with evil satisfaction. Concetta went and knelt down, facing the altar, by a pillar on the opposite side, and the fat sacristan stood still in the background, watching everybody.
The lieutenant shook his head from time to time while the corporal went over the case.
‘For my part,’ said the officer at last, ‘I will wager my honour as a soldier that the priest did not kill him. But you will have to arrest him, not because of the feeling in the village, but simply because the evidence appears to be so strong. There is something here which we do not understand. But soldiers are not called upon to understand. It is always our duty to act to the best of our ability on what we can see. Understanding such things belongs to the law. I advise you to take him to your quarters and get him away from here to-night. He will make no resistance, of course.’
The corporal was satisfied, though he did not like the duty, and he came back to Ippolito.
‘It is my duty to arrest you,’ he said, in a tone which expressed some respect and much annoyance. Ippolito had stopped in his walk and turned when he heard the soldier’s footsteps behind him.
‘You must do what you think right,’ he said calmly. ‘I am ready.’
The corporal gave an order to his men, and requested Ippolito to walk between them. Then he himself opened the door of the church.
A multitude of people had assembled outside, and there were now at least three times as many as had at first followed Tebaldo and the carabineers. Many more were hurrying down from the gate, and there was the confused sound of many voices, talking angrily. But when Ippolito appeared there was silence for a moment. Then, from far back in the crowd, came a single cry, loud, high, derisive, and full of hatred.
‘Assassin!’
The word rang out, and was immediately taken up and repeated by a hundred men and women, with a sort of concentrated fury that hissed out the syllables, as though each were a curse.
Ippolito faced the people calmly enough, walking between the four carabineers, who marched two and two on each side of him, and the evening light shone full upon his clear-cut features and his innocent, brave eyes. He needed courage as well as innocence to bear him through the ordeal, for he knew that but for the handful of soldiers, the crowd would have made short work of tearing him to pieces in their fury. For once, the soldiers were on their side against the hated Italians of the mainland. The people applauded them and their corporal, and the infantry officer, as they went by.
The children ran before, crying out to the people who were still coming down from the village.
‘Here comes the priest of the Saracinesca!’ they shouted. ‘Here comes the assassin!’
‘Assassin! assassin!’ Ippolito heard the word a thousand times in five minutes. And some of the people spoke to the soldiers and the corporal.
‘Give him to us, Uncle Carabineer!’ cried the crooked carpenter. ‘What has the law to do with him? Give him to us! We will serve him half roasted and half boiled!’
All the people who heard laughed at this and jeered at Ippolito.
‘See the blood on his hands!’ screamed the carpenter’s big wife, suddenly catching sight of the red stains. ‘See the blood of Sicily on the priest’s hands!’
A yell rose from all the multitude, for a hundred had heard the woman’s high, shrill voice, and the rest took up the cry, so that the children who went before ran back to see what was the matter. One was the woman’s child. She caught him in her strong arms and raised him up to see, as she marched along.
‘See the good Sicilian blood!’ she cried into the boy’s ear.
‘Curses upon the souls of his dead!’ yelled the child, half mad with excitement.
All the people surged along together, running and jostling one another to keep the priest in sight. And the children whistled and made cat-calls and strange noises, and the women screamed, and the men cursed him in their hard voices.
Bareheaded he walked between the soldiers, looking far ahead and not seeing or not wishing to see the people, nor to understand what they said. He had but one thought — not to break the faith of his priestly order by betraying the confession. Had he known that death was before him, he would not have yielded.
Suddenly something struck him on the shoulder, and he started, and his face changed. Someone had thrown a rotten orange at him, well aimed, and as it smashed upon his shoulder, some of the yellow juice spurted upon his cheek. For one moment the calm look was gone, and the clear features set themselves sternly, and the eyes flashed with human anger at the indignity of the insult. The crowd screamed with delight, and pushed the soldiers upon each other.
‘Halt!’ cried the carabineer corporal.
In a moment his great army revolver was in his hand, and all his men, watching him, had theirs ready.
‘We are acting in the name of the law,’ he said, in a loud voice. ‘If anything more is thrown at us, we shall disperse you, and you must take the consequences.’
‘The orange was not thrown at you,’ cried the carpenter’s wife.
‘I have warned you,’ said the corporal. ‘Stand off, there! Fall back! Make way!’ And he kept his revolver in his hand, as the people slunk away to right and left, cowed by the sight of the weapon.
After that there was less noise for a while, though he did not pretend to control that, nor to hinder them from saying what they pleased. And presently they began again, and the hissing words filled the air, and pierced the young priest’s ears.
But he said nothing, and his face was cold and pale again, as he walked on, fearless and innocent, keeping the real murderer’s secret for the sake of his own churchman’s vow, and holding his head high amidst the insults and the jeers of the multitude.
It was a long way, for they had to march through the whole town to reach the quarters of the carabineers in the old convent on the other side. Ippolito would have marched a whole day’s journey without wincing, if it had fallen to his lot, but he was glad when the wooden gates of the yard were loudly shut behind him, and he was at last free from his enemies. He looked round, and Tebaldo was gone, and Concetta, and the sacristan, as well as all the rest, except the carabineers. The officer of the line had gone home to write a despatch to his colonel, and Ippolito was alone with the carabineers.
Meanwhile the little lame boy whom Ippolito employed, and who had a sort of half-grateful, half-expectant attachment for the kind priest, had done a brave thing, considering his infirmity. Seeing what was happening at the church and hearing what all the people said, he quietly slipped away and limped down to Camaldoli to warn Orsino Saracinesca. It took him a long time to get there, for he was very lame, having one leg quite crooked from the knee, besides some natural deformity of the hip. But he got to the gate at last, and it chanced that Orsino had just come in from riding and was standing there, his rifle slung behind him, when the little boy came down.
At first Orsino could not understand, and when he partly understood, he could not at first believe, the story. The boy’s account, however, was circumstantial, and could not possibly have been invented. Then, when he felt sure that his brother was accused of Francesco’s murder, Orsino’s face darkened, and he called for his horse again and mounted quickly. The little lame boy looked up to him wistfully, beginning to limp along, and Orsino bent over in his saddle and picked him up with one hand by his clothes, and set him before him, though he was a dirty little fellow. Then he galloped off up the hill. But the boy begged to be let down to the ground at the cemetery, for he said that his mother would kill him if she knew that he had warned Orsino.
The crowd was still lingering in the streets as the big man on his big horse came thundering along the paved way, his rifle at his back and the holsters on his saddle, his face stern and set. It was as well that he did not meet Tebaldo Pagliuca just then. It was one thing to throw an orange at an unarmed priest, and to scream out curses at him; it was quite another to stand in the way of Orsino Saracinesca, with nearly thirty shots to dispose of, mounted on his strong horse, and in a bad temper. The people shrank aside in silence, and looked after the hated Roman as he galloped by towards the carabineers’ quarters.
He struck the gate with his heavy boot by way of knocking, without dismounting. A man on duty inside asked who he was, for there were orders to keep the gate shut on account of the crowd.
‘Saracinesca!’ answered Orsino.
The gate swung back, and he rode in and asked for the corporal, dismounted, threw the bridle to the soldier, and went into the house. The corporal met him in the corridor.
‘What is the meaning of this?’ asked Orsino. ‘Is it true that you have arrested my brother?’
‘I was obliged to do so,’ answered the corporal, quietly enough. ‘I consulted the lieutenant and he also advised it. I am sorry, but it was evidently my duty.’
‘Release him at once,’ said Orsino, in a tone of authority.
The corporal shook his head.
‘I cannot do that,’ he answered. ‘You are at liberty to see him, but he is a prisoner.’
‘You are the best judge of your own conduct. You know what you are doing. I shall telegraph to the Ministry in Rome at once.’
‘The Ministry will not order Don Ippolito’s release,’ answered the corporal, with conviction.
Orsino stared at him, and laughed rather roughly.
‘You are mad,’ he replied. ‘You will lose your stripes for this, if nothing worse happens to you. I advise you to let my brother out at once.’
‘Signor Don Orsino,’ said the corporal, gravely, ‘I am an old soldier. I am specially instructed to protect you and your interests here. Yet, in the execution of my duty, I have been absolutely obliged to arrest your brother, the Reverend Don Ippolito, for killing Don Francesco Pagliuca, in the church of Santa Vittoria, this afternoon. The evidence was such that I should have risked degradation and punishment, if I had refused to arrest him. It is not for me to judge of his possible guilt, which to me, personally, seems impossible. I could only act as a non-commissioned officer of carabineers is obliged to act by the terms of our general orders. I say this to you personally, but I am answerable for the act to my superiors, and they do not often overlook mistakes. If you will come with me into my private room, I will tell you all the details of the case, and show you the knife and the bloodstained handkerchief which we found in Don Ippolito’s pocket. I and my men will do all in our power to serve you, as we are instructed to do; but to release Don Ippolito without further proceedings is absolutely out of the question.’
Orsino’s expression changed while the man was speaking, for he judged him to be what he was, an honourable soldier with a vast amount of common sense. He followed him into the little room which had been the parlour of the convent, and sat down beside the plain deal table on which lay several day-books and a heap of large ruled paper with printed headings over the columns, half filled with neat writing. A little lamp with a green shade was already burning.
Orsino sat down and listened patiently to all the corporal had to say. When the latter had finished, he had
said more than enough to prove to any sane person that he had done his duty.
There was the fact of the quarrel on the previous day. It mattered little that Orsino knew the true cause of the scuffle in the road, and that the corporal had not known it till Orsino told him. The fact of violence remained. There was the singularly continuous chain of circumstantial evidence got in the church. And there was Ippolito’s obstinate silence.
‘I see,’ said Orsino, gravely. ‘I beg your pardon. You have done right. That Francesco Pagliuca was killed by his brother Tebaldo, I am convinced.’
‘By his own brother?’ exclaimed the carabineer, incredulously.
‘That is what I believe; but I have no evidence. I should like to see Don Ippolito, if you please.’
‘I am glad that you understand me,’ said the corporal, who was used to being misjudged.
He led the way to a door in the corridor, and opened it. It was not locked, and he simply closed it by the latch, after admitting Orsino.
The room was a large one, overlooking the ample courtyard, but the two windows were heavily barred, as indeed were all those on the lower floor of the old convent. On one side, against the wall, stood a low trestle bed, covered with one of the soldiers’ brown blankets. There was a deal table that had been painted green, an iron washstand, and half a dozen rush-bottomed chairs. On the table stood a small lamp, with a shade precisely like the corporal’s own, and beside it there was a big jug of wine and a heavy glass tumbler into which nothing had as yet been poured. The corporal had brought the wine himself, supposing that Ippolito would need it. It was the soldier’s idea of comfort and refreshment.
Ippolito sat by the other side of the table, and started to his feet as Orsino entered. He smiled rather sadly, for he knew that he was in a very terrible and dangerous situation. So far as he could see, he might be sent to penal servitude for Tebaldo’s crime, for nothing could have induced him to break his vow and betray the secret.
Complete Works of F Marion Crawford Page 907