"Perfectly; but I am astonished that you should take the trouble to lead me hither to-day; for it was here that you fell, when I hurled you to the ground." "Yes, Captain, and it was here that I told you, as I showed you these two scars, that the man who imprinted them upon my face fell by my hand. At the moment of venturing our lives against each other, I wished to bring you to this spot, which still preserves the tokens of my shame and of your triumph; for this print that you see here is the print of my spur; I wished to bring you hither, to convince you that within the hour one of us will have ceased to live. I do not know the lot which fortune has this day reserved for me; but I have always lived, and until the event falsifies my confidence, I always shall live in the conviction, that I am destined, inevitably, to triumph over my enemies. I have been insulted thrice, Captain, and I have left three lifeless bodies upon the earth. It is true, I have never encountered an adversary as formidable as you; I confess it; but not the less do I feel the certainty, that the one of us two who is to lose his life in this combat is yourself. If I were not destined to be avenged of the most shameful affront that I have ever received from man, should I feel the boundless joy which at this moment overflows my heart?" "But why speak after this fashion, my poor Signor Fiorentino? Do you not see that your head just reaches to my breast, and that I can clasp your body with my two hands? But enough of words; let us repair to the torrent, and we shall soon know what to think of your presentiments." As they walked onward, they perceived Gabuzzi, who made a sign to Fiorentino that he wished to speak with him. will hold yourself, at first, upon the defensive, without venturing the slightest attack; you will wait prudently until the Captain shall lay himself open to your thrusts, whether in consequence of fatigue, or from the fury which will not fail to seize him, when he finds the combat prolonged without re sult; in this way, perhaps, you will avoid the fate which, I fear, awaits you." "I will do my best to draw myself from the encounter with honor," said Fiorentino; "but I wish, and if necessary, I demand, in the name of that friendship which we have solemnly plighted to each other, that you should witness this combat; let me at least feel myself supported by the presence and the wishes of a friend." "I will be there, since you desire it," said Gabuzzi; “and I need not tell you that you can count upon my prayers, since, unhappily, I can do nothing further for you in this emergency." "Let us go then; we must not keep them waiting." In the course of a few moments they had reached the torrent of which we have spoken at the commencement of this narrative. The Prince Vivaldi and all his male guests were already collected here beneath a palm-tree; but none of the females had been willing to be present at the sanguinary spectacle which was in preparation except Giulia, and Vanina the poor maniac, who had come hither ignorant of that which was to pass before her eyes; but by a mechanical instinct she perpetually followed the beautiful Signorina Giulia, who awaited, not without great terror, the commencement of the combat. The Prince pressed Fiorentino's hand in silence, and his eyes were turned sadly to"Pass on," said the latter to the Captain; wards his daughter, who was seated upon a "I will overtake you in a moment.-What stone a few paces distant from him. Fiobrings you here," he said, turning to the art-rentino understood his thought. ist, "and why are you not with the rest at the place of combat?" "My dear Fiorentino," said the artist, with emotion, "all are convinced, and I with the rest, that you will fall before the sword of Captain Fiaramonti; it is for this reason that they are at the torrent, and that I am here." "Do not be alarmed too soon," said Fiorentino; "the Captain, I confess, is a dangerous antagonist, but he is not invincible." "If you will follow my counsel," said Gabuzzi, in a tone of the warmest interest, "you "Prince," he said, "when, three days ago, I implored you to intrust me with the difficult task which I have undertaken, I might then have harbored some doubts, although even then success appeared to me infallible; but to-day, after that which I have already accomplished, I would stake my existence that, at the moment when this contest is ended, the Princess will entirely recover her reason. But she is seated at much too great a distance; it is indispensable that she should not be more than a few paces from us." "So near!" said the Prince; "do you not fear that she may experience an emotion too violent ?" given him by his friend Gabuzzi; he assailed the Captain with such fury, and harassed him with such rapidity and pertinacity, that the latter, who had expected to see him bear himself with more prudence, was as it were dazzled by his impetuosity. Still, as he was a most skilful swordsman, he soon recovered the coolness which had for "It is the contrary rather that I fear." "Do you know, Signor Fiorentino," said Pezzolini, "that you are a rare genius; you, who to-day give lessons to a physician and to a soldier, although you are neither a soldier nor a physician? It will be a glorious tri-a moment forsaken him, and, ashamed at umph, and I wait impatiently until you have vanquished both myself and Captain Fiaramonti, to pay you my compliments on the occasion." having suffered himself to be anticipated by "You see this fair, smooth platform," said Fiorentino, turning to the Captain; "you will Vanina followed at first with an attentive confess that no place could be better arranged eye, but without the slightest manifestation for the little interview which we are about of alarm, the rapid movements of the two to have together; the very sight is enough combatants. The Signorina Giulia had fled to move a man to draw a blade, even had as soon as she had seen them cross blades. he no ground for quarrel. It is precisely The maniac remained for some time indiftwice the length of our swords, and this will ferent to the spectacle, smiling at times upon prevent me from retreating, as you might that deadly encounter, or gazing upon it with fear; here, too, we combat in the view of all, dry eyes. But this calmness was not of and this dispenses us from taking seconds; long duration; by degrees her glance grew and finally, it rises like a promontory over animated, her face turned pale, her brow this beautiful and picturesque torrent, which was knitted, and the poor maniac, kneeling will serve as a tomb ready made for him upon the stone on which she had been who falls. Come, then, Captain, let us com-seated, clasped her hands upon her breast, mence the game." and with her eyes still fixed upon the combatants, her lips murmured some words in a low, inaudible tone. He signed to Giulia to direct the Princess's glances towards them, who was seated a few paces distant, near a gentle slope close to the verge of the platform; then he grasped his sword in his right hand and his poignard in his left, and the combat began. Every eye was turned towards them with breathless anxiety, except the eyes of the Prince, which were fastened upon the face of his daughter. Fiorentino did not follow the counsel Prince Vivaldi, who had not turned his eyes from his daughter for a single instant, felt his strength fail him, for he saw that the critical moment had arrived. "O my God!" he murmured in a trembling voice, "protect my poor child!" At this moment he cast a glance upon the combat, on the issue of which depended, perhaps, the destiny of his daughter. The Captain Fiaramonti was pushed to extremity; he felt his strength desert him, while Fiorentino's freshness and vigor seemed unabated. He saw that he was infallibly lost if he prolonged the strife in this manner, and that nothing remained to him but to grasp his enemy in his Herculean arms, and to poignard him or stifle him in his clutch. Convinced then that this was his only means of safety, he collected all his remaining strength for a last and desperate effort, and violently dashing aside Fiorentino's sword, he rushed upon him and grasped him in his arms. "Thine be the torrent!" he cried, raising his poignard. "Morituri salutant!" replied Fiorentino. And dexterously extricating himself from the Captain's grasp, he plunged his poignard to the hilt in his bosom. The Captain Fiaramonti fell without uttering a moan n-he was dead! Then a fearful cry re-echoed in Fiorentino's ears; he turned, and beheld the Princess Vanina standing erect before him, pale as a spectre. "O Heaven!" exclaimed the young girl, "I am not deceived; it is indeed he!" She approached the young man, and placing her hand upon his shoulder, as if she feared she were deluded by a dream— "Oh, speak to me," she said; "tell me that it is thou, Cellini !" "Great God!" exclaimed the Prince, who had hastened up with his friends to aid the Captain," she is still a maniac!" 66 No," said Fiorentino, "no, your daughter is no longer a maniac, for she recognizes in every mind. Benvenuto appeared sensible to the flattering testimonials which were showered upon him; but amid all these distinguished personages, his glance sought out the youngest and most obscure, the sculptor Gabuzzi. He alone had not intruded himself upon the artist; far from endeavoring to attract his attention, he had retired behind the crowd, gazing upon him stealthily, and feeling confused at the thought of the familiarity with which he had treated this great genius. Benvenuto approached the young man, and clapping him with a friendly air upon the shoulder, he said: "What, Signor Gabuzzi, one would think that you wished to avoid me; have you already forgotten our pact of friendship?" "Signor," said Gabuzzi, "when I thought that I was addressing Signor Fiorentino, I could treat you without ceremony and as an equal, as I have done, indeed; but—” "But now you refuse to look upon me as friend?" "Ah, Signor!" a "Let us see, Signor Gabuzzi; you told me yesterday that it was your most ardent wish to study under Benvenuto Cellini; well, this is an excellent occasion to speak with him of the matter, if you are still of the same mind." "What, Signor! you would consent "I receive as a pupil the man whom I have judged worthy of my friendship; what is there strange in that? Come, then, your hand, or I shall think that you have changed your purpose." "With all my heart," said Gabuzzi, clasping with transport the hand which Cellini reached to him. the singular means that I have employed to restore the Princess to her reason." "To speak truth, Signor, I have been far from comprehending them; I have left all blindly to you." "And you see, Prince, that I have not made an ill use of your confidence. But I will in a few words reveal the secret of my system. ence. "When you informed me that the Princess Vanina had dwelt for some months in the village of V, I already knew this; for at that time I inhabited the castle adjacent to your sister's, where she often came to pass the day. Your daughter, Prince, possesses every attaction-the charms of the mind and the graces of the body. I could not, therefore, steel my bosom against her attractions, and I soon saw, as I thought, that she did not look upon me with indifferI resorted to the following means to acquire certainty on this point. One day when in the park with the daughter of my host, I saw the Princess Vanina approaching at a distance; I then said to Marie, who loved me as a brother, for we had been friends since childhood, 'Here is Vanina coming towards us; let us mislead and perplex her.' I persuaded her to sit near me, and began to speak to her of love, in the language of a man who was passionately enamored of her; she lent herself admirably to this jest, which I prolonged for some time after I had heard the light steps of the Princess behind us. At last I turned towards her to observe the effect which the spectacle of this imaginary passion had produced upon her: judge of my alarm when I beheld the Princess lying in a swoon at the foot of a tree. "While Marie had gone to seek assistance from the castle, your daughter recovered her senses, and I confessed the stratagem which I had employed to discover if I were loved. She did not reply, but from the glance that she cast upon me I felt that I was not indifferent to her. "Some time after this, being unable to succeed to my wish in carving a figure upon a vase which the Duke di Medici had been long expecting from me, I was seized with anger, and with a single stroke I dashed my work in pieces. At the same moment a cry resounded upon my ear; it came from the Princess, who, at the sight of this disaster, stood for some moments pale and cold as a corpse. "On another occasion, a man, imagining that he enjoyed the privilege of insolence because he was of illustrious birth, insulted me in the presence of several persons, among whom was your daughter. Unhappily for him, this man was wanting in coolness, and on the following day, after a combat which lasted two minutes, I stretched him dead upon the meadow. "As I turned my eyes from the body, I perceived the Princess behind me, dumb with horror and affright. Having reached the spot at the moment when we crossed blades, she had had the courage to control herself and to repress the cry which was about to escape her lips, fearing that, aware of her presence, I might lose the calmness of which in that moment I stood in such need. But this effort, combined with the terror which had seized upon her, completely overcame her, and the first words that she addressed to me were so strange and incoherent that I thought her mad. She soon returned to herself, however, but she then confessed to me, and repeated it several times, that after the three shocks that she had successively experienced in so short a time, she felt that the slightest emotion would suffice to impair her reason. "Now, Prince, you know the secret of my conduct. I have some wrongs wherewith to reproach myself towards you, but I think that I have repaired them in restoring to you a child, who but for me was lost to you for ever. If I did not come hither sooner, it was because I was ignorant of the misfortune which had befallen the Princess; it was because, having learned her departure, without knowing its cause, without receiving from her a word of counsel or of consolation, I attributed this conduct to disdain; and listening only to the promptings of offended pride, far from seeking to approach her, I accompanied my host on a journey which he undertook at that time to Romagna. It was only on my return to Florence, that is to say, three days ago, that chance informed me of all that had happened, and two hours after, I was here." "Signor Cellini," said the old man, clasping the artist's hand, "I will be frank with you. I would willingly have offered you half my fortune, did I not know the nobleness of your character, but under other circumstances I would never have consented to give you my daughter's hand; not but that I esteem the alliance very honorable ther rendered me the arbiter of her destiny, for my house, but your turbulent character who would have said, that in the space of a seems little calculated to secure the happi-short year I should leave this castle, with a ness of a wife. I give my daughter to you, however, for, I will not conceal it from you, the first name that she uttered after mine, on recovering her senses, was the name of Benvenuto Cellini." "I can take no offense at fears that proceed from the heart of a father," replied the artist; "but be assured, in receiving her from your hands, I take a solemn engagement to render your daughter happy, and you know that I do not pledge myself presumptuously." A year after the events that we have just recounted, two horsemen, the one mounted upon a handsome sorrel courser, the other upon a steed black as yet, rode from the Villa Juliana on a fine summer evening. The one was the sculptor Gabuzzi, the other his master, the great Benvenuto Cellini. When they had crossed the drawbridge, the latter turned, and casting upon the castle a glance marked with profound sadness, he murmured: "Alas! who would have said, when I restored to the unhappy Vanina the reason that she had lost, when her unfortunate fa soul racked with despair, and a heart crushed by misfortune! for in this castle, where I hoped to pass so many happy years, I leave two graves, in one of which reposes the old man, in the other sleeps the young wife." He rode onward, for a long while, absorbed in these sad thoughts; then, raising to the heavens, in which already shone some scattered stars, a glance glowing with the fire of inspiration, he said: "There is but one consolation for me now -it is fame." And turning to the young artist, he added: แ "And thou, Gabuzzi, my friend, my pupil, art thou ready to follow me, whithersoever caprice may lead me?" "Every where," said Gabuzzi, "were it to the end of the world." "Well then, let us depart for France! It is there that noble hearts do breathe, that intellect exists in its vigor, that the halo of genius shines in all its splendor. To France! I have renounced happiness, and I must have fame, ay, fame!" He pressed his horse with the spur, and both disappeared like the flashing lightning. |
