"Confound these wakes, Colomba! I don't at all like my sister to perform in public in this way."

"Orso," replied Colomba, "every country pays honour to its dead after its own fashion. The _ballata_ has come down to us from our forefathers, and we must respect it as an ancient custom. Maddalena does not possess the 'gift,' and old Fiordispina, the best _voceratrice_ in the country, is ill. They must have somebody for the _ballata_."

"Do you believe Carlo-Battista won't find his way safely into the next world unless somebody sings bad poetry over his bier? Go if you choose, Colomba--I'll go with you, if you think I ought. But don't improvise! It really is not fitting at your age, and--sister, I beg you not to do it!"

"Brother, I have promised. It is the custom here, as you know, and, I tell you again, there is n.o.body but me to improvise."

"An idiotic custom it is!"

"It costs me a great deal to sing in this way. It brings back all our own sorrows to me. I shall be ill after it, to-morrow. But I must do it.

Give me leave to do it. Brother, remember that when we were at Ajaccio, you told me to improvise to amuse that young English lady who makes a mock of our old customs. So why should I not do it to-day for these poor people, who will be grateful to me, and whom it will help to bear their grief?"

"Well, well, as you will. I'll go bail you've composed your _ballata_ already, and don't want to waste it."

"No, brother, I couldn't compose it beforehand. I stand before the dead person, and I think about those he has left behind him. The tears spring into my eyes, and then I sing whatever comes into my head."

All this was said so simply that it was quite impossible to suspect Signorina Colomba of the smallest poetic vanity. Orso let himself be persuaded, and went with his sister to Pietri's house. The dead man lay on a table in the largest room, with his face uncovered. All the doors and windows stood open, and several tapers were burning round the table.

At the head stood the widow, and behind her a great many women, who filled all one side of the room. On the other side were the men, in rows, bareheaded, with their eyes fixed on the corpse, all in the deepest silence. Each new arrival went up to the table, kissed the dead face, bowed his or her head to the widow and her son, and joined the circle, without uttering a word. Nevertheless, from time to time one of the persons present would break the solemn silence with a few words, addressed to the dead man.

"Why has thou left thy good wife?" said one old crone. "Did she not take good care of thee? What didst thou lack? Why not have waited another month? Thy daughter-in-law would have borne thee a grandson!" A tall young fellow, Pietri's son, pressed his father's cold hand and cried: "Oh! why hast thou not died of the _mala morte_?[*] Then we could have avenged thee!"

[*] _La mala morte_, a violent death.

These were the first words to fall on Orso's ear as he entered the room.

At the sight of him the circle parted, and a low murmur of curiosity betrayed the expectation roused in the gathering by the _voceratrice's_ presence. Colomba embraced the widow, took one of her hands, and stood for some moments wrapped in meditation, with her eyelids dropped. Then she threw back her _mezzaro_, gazed fixedly at the corpse, and bending over it, her face almost as waxen as that of the dead man, she began thus:

"Carlo-Battista! May Christ receive thy soul! . . . To live is to suffer! Thou goest to a place . . . where there is neither sun nor cold.

. . . No longer dost thou need thy pruning-hook . . . nor thy heavy pick. . . . There is no more work for thee! . . . Henceforward all thy days are Sundays! . . . Carlo-Battista! May Christ receive thy soul!

. . . Thy son rules in thy house. . . . I have seen the oak fall, . . .

dried up by the _libeccio_. . . . I thought it was dead indeed, . . .

but when I pa.s.sed it again, its root . . . had thrown up a sapling.

. . . The sapling grew into an oak . . . of mighty shade. . . . Under its great branches, Maddele, rest thee well! . . . And think of the oak that is no more!"

Here Maddalena began to sob aloud, and two or three men who, on occasion, would have shot at a Christian as coolly as at a partridge, brushed big tears off their sunburnt faces.

For some minutes Colomba continued in this strain, addressing herself sometimes to the corpse, sometimes to the family, and sometimes, by a personification frequently employed in the _ballata_, making the dead man himself speak words of consolation or counsel to his kinsfolk. As she proceeded, her face a.s.sumed a sublime expression, a delicate pink tinge crept over her features, heightening the brilliancy of her white teeth and the l.u.s.tre of her flashing eyes. She was like a Pythoness on her tripod. Save for a sigh here and there, or a strangled sob, not the slightest noise rose from the a.s.sembly that crowded about her. Orso, though less easily affected than most people by this wild kind of poetry, was soon overcome by the general emotion. Hidden in a dark corner of the room, he wept as heartily as Pietri's own son.

Suddenly a slight stir was perceptible among the audience. The circle opened, and several strangers entered. The respect shown them, and the eagerness with which room was made for them, proved them to be people of importance, whose advent was a great honour to the household.

Nevertheless, out of respect for the _ballata_, n.o.body said a word to them. The man who had entered first seemed about forty years of age.

From his black coat, his red rosette, his confident air, and look of authority, he was at once guessed to be the prefect. Behind him came a bent old man with a bilious-looking complexion, whose furtive and anxious glance was only partially concealed by his green spectacles. He wore a black coat, too large for him, and which, though still quite new, had evidently been made several years previously. He always kept close beside the prefect and looked as though he would fain hide himself under his shadow. Last of all, behind him, came two tall young men, with sunburnt faces, their cheeks hidden by heavy whiskers, proud and arrogant-looking, and showing symptoms of an impertinent curiosity.

Orso had had time to forget the faces of his village neighbours; but the sight of the old man in green spectacles instantly called up old memories in his mind. His presence in attendance on the prefect sufficed to insure his recognition. This was Barricini, the lawyer, mayor of Pietranera, who had come, with his two sons, to show the prefect what a _ballata_ was. It would be difficult exactly to describe what happened within Orso's soul at that moment, but the presence of his father's foe filled him with a sort of horror, and more than ever he felt inclined to yield to the suspicions with which he had been battling for so long.

As to Colomba, when she saw the man against whom she had sworn a deadly hatred, her mobile countenance a.s.sumed a most threatening aspect. She turned pale, her voice grew hoa.r.s.e, the line she had begun to declaim died on her lips. But soon, taking up her _ballata_ afresh, she proceeded with still greater vehemence.

"When the hawk bemoans himself . . . beside his harried nest, . . . the starlings flutter round him . . . insulting his distress."

A smothered laugh was heard. The two young men who had just come in doubtless considered the metaphor too bold.

"The falcon will rouse himself. . . . He will spread his wings. . . . He will wash his beak in blood! . . . Now, to thee, Carlo-Battista, let thy friends . . . bid an eternal farewell! . . . Long enough have their tears flowed! . . . Only the poor orphan girl will not weep for thee!

. . . Wherefore should she moan? . . . Thou has fallen asleep, full of years, . . in the midst of thine own kin . . . ready to appear . . .

in the presence of the Almighty. . . . The orphan weeps for her father . . . overtaken by vile murderers, . . struck from behind. . . . For her father, whose blood lies red . . . beneath the heaped-up green leaves.

. . . But she has gathered up this blood, . . this innocent and n.o.ble blood! . . . She has poured it out over Pietranera . . . that it may become a deadly poison. . . . And the mark shall be on Pietranera . . . until the blood of the guilty . . . shall have wiped out the blood of the innocent man!"

As Colomba p.r.o.nounced the last words, she dropped into a chair, drew her _mezzaro_ over her face, and was heard sobbing beneath it. The weeping women crowded round the _improvisatrice_; several of the men were casting savage glances at the mayor and his sons; some of the elders began to protest against the scandal to which their presence had given rise. The dead man's son pushed his way through the throng, and was about to beg the mayor to clear out with all possible speed. But this functionary had not waited for the suggestion. He was on his way to the door, and his two sons were already in the street. The prefect said a few words of condolence to young Pietri, and followed them out, almost immediately. Orso went to his sister's side, took her arm, and drew her out of the room.

"Go with them," said young Pietri to some of his friends. "Take care no harm comes to them!"

Hastily two or three young men slipped their stilettos up the left sleeves of their jackets and escorted Orso and his sister to their own door.

CHAPTER XIII

Panting, exhausted, Colomba was utterly incapable of uttering a single word. Her head rested on her brother's shoulder, and she clasped one of his hands tightly between her own. Orso, though secretly somewhat annoyed by her peroration, was too much alarmed to reprove her, even in the mildest fashion. He was silently waiting till the nervous attack from which she seemed to be suffering should have pa.s.sed, when there was a knock at the door, and Saveria, very much fl.u.s.tered, announced the prefect. At the words, Colomba rose, as though ashamed of her weakness, and stood leaning on a chair, which shook visibly beneath her hand.

The prefect began with some commonplace apology for the unseasonable hour of his visit, condoled with Mademoiselle Colomba, touched on the danger connected with strong emotions, blamed the custom of composing funeral dirges, which the very talent of the _voceratrice_ rendered the more harrowing to her auditors, skilfully slipped in a mild reproof concerning the tendency of the improvisation just concluded, and then, changing his tone--

"M. della Rebbia," he said, "I have many messages for you from your English friends. Miss Nevil sends her affectionate regards to your sister. I have a letter for you from her."

"A letter from Miss Nevil!" cried Orso.

"Unluckily I have not got it with me. But you shall have it within five minutes. Her father has not been well. For a little while we were afraid he had caught one of our terrible fevers. Luckily he is all right again, as you will observe for yourself, for I fancy you will see him very soon."

"Miss Nevil must have been very much alarmed!"

"Fortunately she did not become aware of the danger till it was quite gone by. M. della Rebbia, Miss Nevil has talked to me a great deal about you and about your sister."

Orso bowed.

"She has a great affection for you both. Under her charming appearance, and her apparent frivolity, a fund of good sense lies hidden."

"She is a very fascinating person," said Orso.

"I have come here, monsieur, almost at her prayer. n.o.body is better acquainted than I with a fatal story which I would fain not have to recall to you. As M. Barricini is still the mayor of Pietranera, and as I am prefect of the department, I need hardly tell you what weight I attach to certain suspicions which, if I am rightly informed, some incautious individuals have communicated to you, and which you, I know, have spurned with the indignation your position and your character would have led me to expect."

"Colomba," said Orso, moving uneasily to his chair. "You are very tired.

You had better go to bed."

Colomba shook her head. She had recovered all her usual composure, and her burning eyes were fixed on the prefect.

"M. Barricini," the prefect continued, "is exceedingly anxious to put an end to the sort of enmity . . . or rather, the condition of uncertainty, existing between yourself and him. . . . On my part, I should be delighted to see you both in those relations of friendly intercourse appropriate to people who certainly ought to esteem each other."

"Monsieur," replied Orso in a shaking voice, "I have never charged Barricini with my father's murder. But he committed an act which must always prevent me from having anything to do with him. He forged a threatening letter, in the name of a certain bandit, or at least he hinted in an underhand sort of way that it was forged by my father. That letter, monsieur, was probably the indirect cause of my father's death."

The prefect sat thinking for a moment.

"That your father should have believed that, when his own hasty nature led him into a lawsuit with Signor Barricini, is excusable. But such blindness on your part really can not be admitted. Pray consider that Barricini could have served no interest of his own by forging the letter. I will not talk to you about his character, for you are not acquainted with it, and are prejudiced against it; but you can not suppose that a man conversant with the law----"

"But, monsieur," said Orso, rising to his feet, "be good enough to recollect that when you tell me the letter was not Barricini's work, you ascribe it to my father. And my father's honour, monsieur, is mine!"