658-663, And became a monk. 663-695. Whereupon Taurello struck harder than ever at gains and of the growth of his own House-so that, as one might expect, Este rose again, while Romano sank. It being observed that Ecelin indulged in his mad freaks only when Taurello was away, every friend besought him to be advised by his soldier. But he would have no such thing. "He had sons," he retorted, "to advise himindeed he was quite capable of making his own plots." It was Adelaide that kept him from being destroyed root and branch; and, when she died, his case was hopeless. Gaily he made alliances, gave away lands to any who would take them, and withdrew from the world. Taurello, finding his patience abused when, being summoned to the convent, he was refused a word at its door, promptly threw off both his imbecile superior's yoke and his own frank, foolish smile, and took the chief place in the management of the Ghibellin cause. A few successful exploits soon made men speak of him again as one destined for prominence. His position, too, made him fight, and that was what fitted him best. So, as in the flush of a second youth, he dealt his blows with a right good-will. Este, in truth, was in a short time utterly overcome; and men began to recollect an old outrageous hatred Taurello bore toward that House. They remembered how it would break out suddenly, like an earthquake in sunny weather; as it did, for example, on that famous day when, with his hundred friends, he tried to slay Azzo before the Emperor's face, and how, when Azzo calmly refused to fight a liegeman, Taurello immediately became calm again himself. It was the downfall of the House of Este, rather than the destruction of an Azzo, that he sought; therefore he compelled himself to avoid inexcusable violence and keep himself in the right. Thus Este's true antagonist rose out of Ecelin in the shape of this soldier, and the attention of all men was again directed toward him. This man it was who, in his palace of San Pietro, leaned absent-mindedly in the window-recess, where he amused himself by trying to draw Frederick's face in the dust with his sheathed forefinger. As his eye rested on the waving withering trees, his smile deepened and his thoughts of the past came out in monologue. 664. then refused.' But compare Bk. II., 1. 899. 675. 'stifled hate.' guetta). Because of the theft of Marchesella (Lin 681. 'calm refusal.' See Bk. I., 1. 818. When on the same occasion Salinguerra preferred a similar charge against Azzo, he replied that he had plenty of men nobler than Salinguerra to fight with if he felt inclined. 689. 'whist.' "The wild waves whist." -The Tempest, Act 1. sc. ii. Ll. 696-848. Still at San Pietro, Taurello Salinguerra soliloquises on the events of the memorable night on which Ecelin II. and he were driven out of Vicenza, when, as he believed, his wife and child were lost. His old comrade having turned monk, shall it be another member of the House of Romano that he will invest with the Imperial symbol -or himself? The latter idea evaporates in ashamed amusement. 696-718. now. "So you are fairly housed in your cloister at last, my old comrade! That we should stick together the whole Taurello soliloquises. year I kept Vicenza! How old Boniface and old Azzo Ecelin then caught us in the market-place, when, Ecelin at that and Ecelin pillar, I at this, each of us was in mid-swing of a more than furious speech, in which he was egging on the rabble to abjure allegiance to their Marquis! Bacchus, how they boasted when they got us! Ecelin was to be their drudge, and I was to be released on a promise to pay up all arrears of tribute-Bacchus ! At that time my Ecelin could stoutly promise anything. What bone and muscle the man had! Sound of wind and limb, he spoke out the excuse I made up for him; and now he sits slavering and dumb, chafing each foot, benumbed by the cold altar-slab! Will no vein throb when some 718-748. What visions, in the dead of night, will steal upon his monkish brain? monk, out of spite, shall blab to his tonsured fellows that Frederick is reported to be on this side of the Alps?-eh, brother whatever they call you, sworn to abjure the world, with all its vexations, and to be God's own now? Shut out old memories if you can! The midnight whisper becomes a shout, the walls about you grow into a human crowd, and the past, with the world you hate, is with you! You are lying in ambush; you are in the open field; we are firing Vicenza-see the surging flames-hurrah! Follow me! Bring up the Mantuans! Safe through the San Biagio gate! No, not yet! The mad people waken! They are trying to intercept us! What if they block the gateway? None of us can get through! Back out of the way, you Bassanese! Use the sword's edge, my men-shear, thrust, hew down the living wedge, knock out their upturned black eyes! Hell is there fire in them, that they make your brass gloves hiss as you tear them out! Bravely done! Slidder through the reeking gateway! We are clear! And then the sudden cry: 'How now? Where is Adelaide ? You six had charge of her!' Next comes your vow, and you foam at the Adelaide and mouth, and tear your hair, till, with one great shriek, you fling your basnet with the gold flower to a man who hauls naked across the fire the Adelaide he that morning had scarce dared to look upon unveiled. And how you crown the archer who lays your infant smiling at your feet and dies. While mine- Bacchus! There must 727-736. Gate San Biagio reeks with blood. 736-744. child Ecelin are rescued. 745-748. Taurello's wife and child. 748-777. Ecelin is worse than useless, but who else can get the baldric? be more than one charred corpse there. "Well, it was my fate. And now, though Adelaide is dead, I live on, and, instead of that Azzo, to-day's Azzo is here for me to fight: by whatever means, we pull the House of Este into a heap. That business, often foiled when touching success, will come off at last. True, it was at such a juncture that Henry died, and that Otho doffed his crown; still, if Frederick holds to his purpose of coming to Lombardy, and if this baldric is laid on the neck of this same Ecelin, I suppose, that must needs recoil when our best days are beginning. Recoil ! That would be nothing. If he would only let me use his name and leave me free to plan and fight! But he must interfere, forsooth, coming forth from his cloister to be my stumbling-block as before. Ay, and there's the old problem again: we must hold by a certain Head in the land. Who can explain this reverence for a name? Think of these Ecelins. Take them as men of originating force-why, six out of any twelve common soldiers digging in the trenches would excel them. But Ecelin is a fine, clear-sounding name; though, to be sure, it would be much simpler for men to cling to me and be done with it, for our friend Ecelin's abilities were-well, not much to boast of. I had to do all the work. I had to divide myself into fifty parts, like an overtasked elf that is compelled to shine at fifty different points at But now, though they have been sorely frittered, my forces gather themselves together and crown once. "But, Bacchus is it so certain that Ecelin must be crowned ? 778-805. What should prevent his "That aloe would climb if it dared, but to climb is not its nature; neither is it mine. It was just such a sprawling thing I looked upon, with just such a thought, wearing it at Messina's castle-court when Henry jestingly asked me himself? if I would pledge my faith to win him back his right in Lombardy. Get marauders out of it, and you will rule there in my stead,' he said, laying the silk glove of Constance upon my head. I can see her now, robed all in miniver, Retrude following! "I am absolved from toil for any master in Lombardy. The Ghibellin power devolves on me: that is what Tito said. For once I can freely form my own plan, with none to direct and none to whom account must be rendered. It is with the Emperor himself I have to do. He understands what a post I kept when toiling behind Romano. He knows who did true service, and who was able or was useless, and whether Ecelin or I deserve reward. And now, having rewarded me, he will soon 805-822. to be a ask my advice; and I will point out that, if he would really vie with the Pope, Azzo and Boniface make a strong arm which the Hohenstauffen race must break, and will show him in words how, that arm being already out of joint, it were easy to twist the bone out of the socket. What then? My friend Azzo will stare when I, who used to be the plague of his House, take to playing the counsellor. I shall fret myself abundantly -for what? To wear a useless badge-to occupy a It is his fate post devoid of action. No! I have twenty years to fighting-man, live, and how can I spend them better than in my old trade of fighting? To be sure, I could, if it were necessary, do something in the way of statecraft. If there were one who sought to overthrow my power by intrigue say a son in league with Azzo to raid my palace and poison me-I might, having an object I care for, engage in diplomacy; but not otherwise. Besides, a life of fighting is ordained for me. The world's tide of struggle rolls and tosses, and why should I hope that I, a single wave, shall be lifted aside from the turmoil and laid to rest upon the shore? Without a doubt my day must be lived out in the storm of our time. For fifty years Lombardy has held me. Troubles have been raised and troubles have been quelled, but in the midst of them all has been Taurello; yet, a year or two after I leave this quaint palace and these garden-trees, my name is unknown. Ah! how can a man obtain a memory in the world? How can one make his fellows continue to talk of him, as this poor minstrel Sordello does, who, in spite of the bustle of our age, is so devoted to his songs? "Yes! poets and old native families may be destined to live on. There are flowers one may tear and trample upon, which yet never become extinct. That patch there, green as ever, covers the spot where I planted Retrude's Moorish lentisk beside the stair, that it might make a grander show than the aloes; and we trod down these green flowers-whatever you call them-into the sod. A world of trouble we took to shelter the stately foreign 823-840. And he can. not change his element. |