“Good-morning to you, pretty dove!” said a voice from without the garden-wall; and Agnes, roused from her reverie, saw old Jocunda.
“I came down to help you off,” she said, as she came into the little garden. “Why, my dear little saint! you are looking white as a sheet, and with those tears! What’s it all for, baby?”
“Ah, Jocunda! grandmamma is angry with me all the time now. I wish I could go once more to the convent and see my dear Mother Theresa. She is angry, if I but name it; and yet she will not let me do anything here to help her, and so I don’t know what to do.”
“Well, at any rate, don’t cry, pretty one! Your grandmamma is worked with hard thoughts. We old folks are twisted and crabbed and full of knots with disappointment and trouble, like the mulberry-trees that they keep for vines to run on. But I’ll speak to her; I know her ways; she shall let you go; I’ll bring her round.”
“So-ho, sister!” said the old soul, hobbling to the door and looking in at Elsie, who was sitting flat on the stone floor of her cottage, sorting a quantity of flax that lay around her. The severe Roman profile was thrown out by the deep shadows of the interior, — and the piercing black eyes, the silver-white hair, and the strong, compressed lines of the mouth, as she worked, and struggled with the ghosts of her former life, made her look like no unapt personification of one of the Fates reviewing her flax before she commenced the spinning of some new web of destiny.
“Good-morning to you, sister!” said Jocunda. “I heard you were off to-morrow, and I came to see what I could do to help you.”
“There’s nothing to be done for me, but to kill me,” said Elsie. “I am weary of living.”
“Oh, never say that! Shake the dice again, my old man used to say, — God rest his soul! Please Saint Agnes, you’ll have a brave pilgrimage.”
“Saint Agnes be hanged!” said Elsie, gruffly. “I’m out with her. It was she put all these notions into my girl’s head. Because she didn’t get married herself, she don’t want any one else to. She has no consideration. I’ve done with her: I told her so this morning. The candles I’ve burned and the prayers I’ve gone through with, that she might prosper me in this one thing! and it’s all gone against me. She’s a baggage, and shall never see another penny of mine, — that’s flat!”
Such vituperation of saints and sacred images may be heard to this day in Italy, and is a common feature of idol-worship in all lands; for, however the invocation of the saints could be vitalized in the hearts of the few spiritual, there is no doubt that in the mass of the common people it had all the well-defined symptoms of the grossest idolatry, among which fits of passionate irreverence are one. The feeling which tempts the enlightened Christian in sore disappointment and vexation to rise in rebellion against a wise Providence, in the childish twilight of uncultured natures finds its full expression unawed by reverence or fear.
“Oh, hush, now!” said Jocunda. “What is the use of making her angry just as you are going to Rome, where she has the most power? All sorts of ill-luck will befall you. Make up with her before you start, or you may get the fever in the marshes and die, and then who will take care of poor Agnes?”
“Let Saint Agnes look after her; the girl loves her better than she does me, or anybody else,” said Elsie. “If she cared anything about me, she’d marry and settle down, as I want her to.”
“Oh, there you are wrong,” said Jocunda. “Marrying is like your dinner: one is not always in stomach for it, and one’s meat is another’s poison. Now who knows but this pilgrimage may be the very thing to bring the girl round? I’ve seen people cured of too much religion by going to Rome. You know things ain’t there as our little saint fancies. Why, between you and me, the priests themselves have their jokes on those who come so far to so little purpose. More shame for ‘em, say I, too; but we common people mustn’t look into such things too closely. Now take it cheerfully, and you’ll see the girl will come back tired of tramping and able to settle down in a good home with a likely husband. I have a brother in Naples who is turning a pretty penny in the fisheries; I will give you directions to find him; his wife is a wholesome Christian woman; and if the little one be tired by the time you get there, you might do worse than stop two or three days with them. It’s a brave city; seems made to have a good time in. Come, you let her just run up to the convent to bid good-by to the Mother Theresa and the sisters.”
“I don’t care where she goes,” said Elsie, ungraciously.
“There, now!” said Jocunda, coming out, “Agnes, your grandmother bids you go to the convent to say good-by to the sisters; so run along, there’s a little dear. The Mother Theresa talks of nothing else but you since she heard that you meditated this; and she has broken in two her own piece of the True Cross which she’s carried in the gold and pearl reliquary that the Queen sent her, and means to give it to you. One doesn’t halve such gifts, without one’s whole heart goes with them.”
“Dear mother!” said Agnes, her eyes filling with tears, “I will take her some flowers and oranges for the last time. Do you know, Jocunda, I feel that I never shall come back here to this dear little home where I have been so happy, — 297everything sounds so mournful and looks so mournful! — I love everything here so much!”
“Oh, dear child, never give in to such fancies, but pluck up heart. You will be sure to have luck, wherever you go, — especially since the mother will give you that holy relic. I myself had a piece of Saint John Baptist’s thumbnail sewed up in a leather bag, which I wore day and night all the years I was tramping up and down with my old man; but when he died, I had it buried with him to ease his soul. For you see, dear, he was a trooper, and led such a rackety up-and-down life, that I doubt but his confessions were but slipshod, and he needed all the help he could get, poor old soul! It’s a comfort to think he has it.”
“Ah, Jocunda, seems to me it were better to trust to the free love of our dear Lord who died for us, and pray to Him, without ceasing, for his soul.”
“Like enough, dearie; but then, one can’t be too sure, you know. And there isn’t the least doubt in my mind that that was a true relic, for I got it in the sack of the city of Volterra, out of the private cabinet of a noble lady, with a lot of jewels and other matters that made quite a little purse for us. Ah, that was a time, when that city was sacked! It was hell upon earth for three days, and all our men acted like devils incarnate; but then they always will in such cases. But go your ways now, dearie, and I’ll stay with your grandmamma; for, please God, you must be up and away with the sun to-morrow.”
Agnes hastily arranged a little basket of fruit and flowers, and took her way down through the gorge, under the Roman bridge, through an orange-orchard, and finally came out upon the seashore, and so along the sands below the cliffs on which the old town of Sorrento is situated.
So cheating and inconsistent is the human heart, especially in the feminine subject, that she had more than once occasion to chide herself for the thrill with which she remembered passing the cavalier once in this orange-garden, and the sort of vague hope which she detected that somewhere along this road he might appear again.
“How perfectly wicked and depraved I must be,” she said to herself, “to find any pleasure in such a thought of one I should pray never to meet again!”
And so the little soul went on condemning herself in those exaggerated terms which the religious vocabulary of conventual life furnished ready-made for the use of penitents of every degree, till by the time she arrived at the convent she could scarcely have been more oppressed with a sense of sin, if she had murdered her grandmother and eloped with the cavalier.
On her arrival in the convent court, the peaceful and dreamy stillness contrasted strangely with the gorgeous brightness of the day outside. The splendid sunshine, the sparkling seas, the songs of the boatmen, the brisk passage of gliding sails, the bright hues of the flowers that garlanded the rocks, all seemed as if the earth had been arrayed for some gala-day; but the moment she had passed the por
tal, the silent, mossy court, with its pale marble nymph, its lull of falling water, its turf snow-dropt with daisies and fragrant with blue and white violets, and the surrounding cloistered walks, with their pictured figures of pious history, all came with a sad and soothing influence on her nerves.
The nuns, who had heard the news of the projected pilgrimage, and regarded it as the commencement of that saintly career which they had always predicted for her, crowded around her, kissing her hands and her robe, and entreating her prayers at different shrines of especial sanctity that she might visit.
The Mother Theresa took her to her cell, and there hung round her neck, by a golden chain, the relic which she designed for her, and of whose genuineness she appeared to possess no manner of doubt.
“But how pale you are, my sweet child!” she said. “What has happened to alter you so much? Your cheeks look so thin, and there are deep, dark circles round your eyes.”
“Ah, my mother, it is because of my sins.”
“Your sins, dear little one! What sins can you be guilty of?”
“Ah, my dear mother, I have been false to my Lord, and let the love of an earthly creature into my heart.”
“What can you mean?” said the mother.
“Alas, dear mother, the cavalier who sent that ring!” said Agnes, covering her face with her hands.
Now the Mother Theresa had never left the walls of that convent since she was ten years old, — had seen no men except her father and uncle, who once or twice made her a short call, and an old hunchback who took care of their garden, safe in his armor of deformity. Her ideas on the subject of masculine attractions were, therefore, as vague as might be the conceptions of the eyeless fishes in the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky with regard to the fruits and flowers above ground. All that portion of her womanly nature which might have throbbed lay in a dead calm. Still there was a faint flutter of curiosity, as she pressed Agnes to tell her story, which she did with many pauses and sobs and blushes.
“And is he so very handsome, my little heart?” she said, after listening. “What makes you love him so much in so little time?”
“Yes, — he is beautiful as an angel.”
“I never saw a young man, really,” said the Mother Theresa. “Uncle Angelo was lame, and had gray hair; and papa was very fat, and had a red face. Perhaps he looks like our picture of Saint Sebastian; — I have often thought that I might be in danger of loving a young man that looked like him.”
“Oh, he is more beautiful than that picture or any picture!” said Agnes, fervently; “and, mother, though he is excommunicated, I can’t help feeling that he is as good as he is beautiful. My uncle had strong hopes that he should restore him to the True Church; and to pray for his soul I am going on this pilgrimage. Father Francesco says, if I will tear away and overcome this love, I shall gain so much merit that my prayers will have power to save his soul. Promise me, dear mother, that you and all the sisters will help me with your prayers; — help me to work out this great salvation, and then I shall be so glad to come back here and spend all my life in prayer!”
CHAPTER XXIV. THE MOUNTAIN FORTRESS
And so on a bright spring morning our pilgrims started. Whoever has traversed the road from Sorrento to Naples, that wonderful path along the high rocky shores of the Mediterranean, must remember it only as a wild dream of enchantment. On one side lies the sea, shimmering in bands of blue, purple, and green to the swaying of gentle winds, exhibiting those magical shiftings and changes of color peculiar to these waves. Near the land its waters are of pale, transparent emerald, while farther out they deepen into blue and thence into a violet-purple, which again, towards the horizon-line, fades into misty pearl-color. The shores rise above the sea in wild, bold precipices, grottoed into fantastic caverns by the action of the waves, and presenting every moment some new variety of outline. As the path of the traveler winds round promontories whose mountain-heights are capped by white villages and silvery with olive-groves, he catches the enchanting sea-view, now at this point, and now at another, with Naples glimmering through the mists in the distance, and the purple sides of Vesuvius ever changing with streaks and veins of cloud-shadows, while silver vapors crown the summit. Above the road the steep hills seem piled up to the sky, — every spot terraced, and cultivated with some form of vegetable wealth, and the wild, untamable rocks garlanded over with golden broom, crimson gillyflowers, and a thousand other bright adornments. The road lies through villages whose gardens and orange-orchards fill the air with sweet scents, and whose rose-hedges sometimes pour a perfect cascade of bloom and fragrance over the walls.
Our travelers started in the dewy freshness of one of those gorgeous days which seem to cast an illuminating charm over everything. Even old Elsie’s stern features relaxed somewhat under the balmy influences of sun and sky, and Agnes’s young, pale face was lit up with a brighter color than for many a day before. Their pilgrimage through this beautiful country had few incidents. They walked in the earlier and latter parts of the day, reposing a few hours at noon near some fountain or shrine by the wayside, — often experiencing the kindly veneration of the simple peasantry, who cheerfully offered them refreshments, and begged their prayers at the holy places whither they were going.
In a few days they reached Naples, where they made a little stop with the hospitable family to whom Jocunda had recommended them. From Naples their path lay through the Pontine Marshes; and though the malaria makes this region a word of fear, yet it is no less one of strange, soft, enchanting beauty. A wide, sea-like expanse, clothed with an abundance of soft, rich grass, painted with golden bands and streaks of bright yellow flowers, stretches away to a purple curtain of mountains, whose romantic outline rises constantly in a thousand new forms of beauty. The upland at the foot of these mountains is beautifully diversified with tufts of trees, and the contrast of the purple softness of the distant hills with the dazzling gold and emerald of the wide meadow-tracts they enclose is a striking feature in the landscape. Droves of silver-haired oxen, with their great, dreamy, dark eyes and polished black horns, were tranquilly feeding knee-deep in the lush, juicy grass, and herds of buffaloes, uncouth, but harmless, might be seen pasturing or reposing in the distance. On either side of the way were waving tracts of yellow fleur-de-lis, and beds of arum, with its arrowy leaves and white blossoms. It was a wild luxuriance of growth, a dreamy stillness of solitude, so lovely that one could scarce remember that it was deadly.
Elsie was so impressed with the fear of the malaria, that she trafficked with an honest peasant, who had been hired to take back to Rome the horses which had been used to convey part of the suite of a nobleman traveling to Naples, to give them a quicker passage across than they could have made on foot. It is true that this was quite contrary to the wishes of Agnes, who felt that the journey ought to be performed in the most toilsome and self-renouncing way, and that they should trust solely to prayer and spiritual protection to ward off the pestilential exhalations.
In vain she quoted the Psalm, “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon-day,” and adduced cases of saints who had walked unhurt through all sorts of dangers.
“There’s no use talking, child,” said Elsie. “I’m older than you, and have seen more of real men and women; and whatever they did in old times, I know that nowadays the saints don’t help those that don’t take care of themselves; and the long and the short of it is, we must ride across those marshes, and get out of them as quick as possible, or we shall get into Paradise quicker than we want to.”
In common with many other professing Christians, Elsie felt that going to Paradise was the very dismalest of alternatives, — a thing to be staved off as long as possible.
After many days of journeying, the travelers, somewhat weary and foot-sore, found themselves in a sombre and lonely dell of the mountains, about an hour before the going down of the sun. Th
e slanting yellow beams turned to silvery brightness the ashy foliage of the gnarled old olives, which gaunt and weird clung with their great, knotty, straggling roots to the rocky mountain-sides. Before them, the path, stony, steep, and winding, was rising upward and still upward, and no shelter for the night appeared, except in a distant mountain-town, which, perched airily as an eagle’s nest on its hazy height, reflected from the dome of its church and its half-ruined old feudal tower the golden light of sunset. A drowsy-toned bell was ringing out the Ave Maria over the wide purple solitude of mountains, whose varying outlines were rising around.
“You are tired, my little heart,” said old Elsie to Agnes, who had drooped during a longer walk than usual.
“No, grandmamma,” said Agnes, sinking on her knees to repeat her evening prayer, which she did, covering her face with her hands.
Complete Works of Harriet Beecher Stowe Page 192