III
Checco led us to a smaller room, at some distance from the great hall ofthe reception; then, turning to a man I did not know, he said, 'Did youhear the Piacentini?'
'Yes!' he answered; and for a moment they looked at one anothersilently.
'He would not have been so bold without good cause,' added the man.
I was told that his name was Lodovico Pansecchi, and that he was asoldier in the Count's pay.
Checco turned round and looked at me sharply. Matteo understood what hemeant, and said, 'Have no fear of Filippo; he is as safe as myself.'
Checco nodded, and made a sign to a youth, who immediately rose andcarefully closed the door. We sat still for a while; then Checco stoodup and said impatiently, 'I cannot understand it.' He walked up and downthe room, stopping at last in front of me.
'You had never seen that man before?'
'Never!' I answered.
'The quarrel was brought on solely by Ercole himself,' said the youth,whom I found to be Alessandro Moratini, a brother of Giulia dall' Aste.
'I know,' said Checco, 'but he would never have dared to behave thusunless he knew of some design of Girolamo.' He paused a moment to think,then turning to me again, 'You must not challenge him.'
'On the contrary,' I replied, 'I must challenge him; he has insultedme.'
'I don't care about that. I will not have you challenge him.'
'This concerns myself alone.'
'Nonsense! You are a guest of my house, and for all I know it is justsuch an opportunity as this that Girolamo is seeking.'
'I don't understand,' I said.
'Listen,' said Checco, sitting down again. 'When Sixtus obtainedpossession of Forli for his nephew, Girolamo Riario, I, like the fool Iwas, did all I could to bring the town to his allegiance. My father wasagainst the plan, but I bore down his opposition and threw the wholepower of my house on his side. Without me he would never have been Lordof Forli.'
'I remember,' said Matteo. 'You used Sixtus to keep the Ordelaffi out;and you thought Girolamo would be a catspaw in our hands.'
'I did not give the city for love of a person I had never seen in mylife.... Well, this was eight years ago. Girolamo took off the heaviesttaxes, granted favours to the town and entered in solemn state withCaterina.'
'Amid shouts and cheers,' remarked Alessandro.
'For a while he was more popular than ever the Ordelaffi had been, andwhen he went out the people ran to kiss the hem of his garment. He spentthe great part of his time in Rome, but he employed the riches of thePope in beautifying Forli, and when he came it was one round of feastsand balls and gaiety.
'Then Pope Sixtus died, and Girolamo settled here for good in the palacewhich he had commenced building on his accession. The feasts and ballsand gaiety continued. Whenever a distinguished stranger passed throughthe town, he was welcomed by the Count and his wife with the most lavishhospitality; so that Forli became renowned for its luxury and riches.
'The poets ransacked Parnassus and the ancients for praises of theirrules, and the people echoed the panegyrics of the poet....
'Then came the crash. I had often warned Girolamo, for we were intimatefriends--then. I told him that he could not continue the splendour whichhe had used when the wealth of Christendom was at his command, when hecould spend the tribute of a nation on a necklace for Caterina. He wouldnot listen. It was always, "I cannot be mean and thrifty," and he calledit policy. "To be popular," he said, "I must be magnificent." The timecame when the Treasury was empty, and he had to borrow. He borrowed inRome and Florence and Milan--and all the time he would not retrench, butrather, as his means became less, the extravagance became greater; butwhen he could borrow no more outside, he came to the citizens of Forli,first, of course, to me, and I repeatedly lent him large sums. Thesewere not enough, and he sent for the richest men of Forli and asked themto lend him money. Naturally they could not refuse. But he squanderedtheir money as he had squandered his own; and one fine day he assembledthe Council.'
'Ah, yes,' said Alessandro, 'I was there then. I heard him speak.'
Checco stopped as if for Alessandro.
'He came to the Council chamber, clad as usual in the richest robes, andbegan talking privately to the senators, very courteously--laughing withthem, shaking their hands. Then, going to his place, he began to speak.He talked of his liberality towards them, and the benefits he hadconferred on the town; showed them his present necessities, and finallyasked them to re-impose the taxes which he had taken off at thebeginning of his reign. They were all prejudiced against him, for manyof them had already lent him money privately, but there was such a charmin his discourse, he was so persuasive, that one really could not helpseeing the reasonableness of his demand. I know I myself would havegranted him whatever he asked.'
'He can make one do anything he likes when he once begins talking,' saidLodovico.
'The Council unanimously voted the re-imposition of the taxes, andGirolamo offered them his thanks in his most gracious manner.'
There was a silence, broken by Matteo.
'And then?' he asked.
'Then,' answered Checco, 'he went to Imola, and commenced spendingthere the money that he was gathering here.'
'And what did they think of it in Forli?'
'Ah, when the time came to pay the taxes they ceased their praises ofGirolamo. First they murmured beneath their breath, then out loud; andsoon they cursed him and his wife. The Count heard of it and came backfrom Imola, thinking, by his presence, to preserve the town in itsallegiance. But the fool did not know that the sight of him wouldredouble the anger of the populace. They saw his gorgeous costumes, thegold and silver dresses of his wife, the jewels, the feasting andriotry, and they knew that it came out of their pockets; the food oftheir children, all that they had toiled and worked for, was spent onthe insane luxury of this papal favourite and his bastard wife.'
'And how has he treated us?' cried Lodovico, beating his fist violentlydown on the table. 'I was in the pay of the Duke of Calabria, and hemade me tempting offers, so that I left the armies of Naples to enterthe papal service under him. And now, for four years, I have notreceived a penny of my salary, and when I ask him, he puts me aside withgentle words, and now he does not even trouble to give me them. A fewdays back I stopped him in the piazza, and, falling on my knees, beggedfor what he owed me. He threw me violently away, and said he could notpay me--and the jewel on his breast was worth ten times the money heowed me. And now he looks at me with frowns, me who have served himfaithfully as a dog. I will not endure it; by God! I will not.' Heclenched his fists as he spoke, trembling with rage.
'And you know how he has served me,' said Checco. 'I have lent him somuch that he has not the face to ask for more; and how do you think hehas rewarded me? Because I have not paid certain dues I owe theTreasury, he sent a sheriff to demand them, and when I said I would notpay them at that moment, he sent for me, and himself asked for themoney.'
'What did you do?'
'I reminded him of the money he owed me, and he informed me that aprivate debt had nothing to do with a debt to the State, and said that Imust pay or the law should take its course.'
'He must be mad,' said Matteo.
'He is mad, mad with pride, mad in his extravagance.'
'I tell you,' said Lodovico, 'it cannot be endured.'
'And they tell me that he has said my tongue must be silenced,' addedChecco. 'The other day he was talking to Giuseppe Albicina, and he said"Let Checco beware; he may go too far and find the hand of the masternot so gentle as the hand of the friend!"'
'I, too, have heard him say things which sounded like threats,' saidAlessandro.
'We have all heard it,' added Lodovico. 'When his temper overcomes him,he cares not what he says, and one discovers then what he and his silentwife have been plotting between them.'
'Now, sir,' interrupted Checco, speaking to me, 'you see how thingsstand: we are on thin ground, and the fire is raging beneath us. Youmust promise not t
o seek further quarrel with this countryman of yours,this Ercole Piacentini. He is one of Girolamo's chiefest favourites, andhe would not bear to see him touched; if you happened to kill him, theCount would take the opportunity to have us all arrested, and we shouldsuffer the fate of the Pazzi at Florence. Will you promise?'
'I promise,' I answered, smiling, 'to defer my satisfaction to a fitteropportunity.'
'Now, gentlemen,' said Checco, 'we can separate.'
We bade one another Good-night; Alessandro, as he was going, said toMatteo, 'You must bring your friend to my sister to-morrow; she will beglad to see you both.'
We said we should be enchanted, and Alessandro and Lodovico Pansecchileft us.
Matteo looked at Checco meditatively.
'Cousin,' he said, 'all this looks very like conspiracy.'
Checco started.
'I cannot help it, if the people are dissatisfied with Girolamo.'
'But you?' pursued Matteo. 'I imagine you do not greatly care whetherthe people are taxed or no. You knew the taxes would have to come onagain sooner or later.'
'Has he not insulted me by sending a sheriff to demand his dues?'
'Is there nothing further than that?' asked Matteo, looking at hiscousin steadily.
Checco lifted his eyes and gazed back into Matteo's.
'Yes,' he said at last; 'eight years ago I was Girolamo's equal, now Iam his servant. I was his friend, he loved me like a brother--and thenhis wife came, the daughter of Francesco Sforza, the bastard--andgradually he has lifted himself up from me. He has been cold andreserved; he begins to show himself master; and now I am nothing morethan a citizen among citizens--the first, but not the equal of themaster.'
Checco kept silence for a moment, and in his quietness I could see theviolence of his emotion.
'This concerns you as well as me, Matteo. You are an Orsi, and the Orsiare not made to be servants. I will be no man's servant. When I think ofthis man--this bastard of a pope--treating me as beneath him, by God! Icannot breathe. I could roll on the floor and tear my hair with rage. Doyou know that the Orsi have been great and rich for three hundred years?The Medici pale before them, for they are burghers and we have beenalways noble. We expelled the Ordelaffi because they wished to give us abastard boy to rule over us, and shall we accept this Riario? I swear Iwill not endure it.'
'Well said!' said Matteo.
'Girolamo shall go as the Ordelaffi went. By God! I swear it.'
I looked at Matteo, and I saw that suddenly a passion had caught hold ofhim; his face was red, his eyes staring wide, and his voice was hoarseand thick.
'But do not mistake again, Checco,' he said; 'we want no foreign rulers.The Orsi must be the only Lords of Forli.'
Checco and Matteo stood looking at one another; then the former, shakinghimself as if to regain his calmness, turned his back on us and leftthe room. Matteo strode up and down for a while in thought, and then,turning to me, said, 'Come.'
We went out and returned to our hostelry.
The Making of a Saint Page 4