With this Odo was forced to be content; and he passed the interveningtime in devising the means of Fulvia's rescue. He was resolved to let norashness or negligence hinder the attempt, and to prove, by thediscretion of his course, that he was no longer the light fool who hadonce hazarded her safety. He went about his preparations as one that hadno private stake in the venture; but he was therefore the morepunctilious to show himself worthy of her trust and sensible of thecharge it laid upon him.
At their next meeting he found her in the same open and friendly mood,and she listened gratefully as he set forth his plan. This was that sheshould first write to a doctor of the University in Geneva, who had beenher father's friend, stating her plight and asking if he could help herto a living should she contrive to reach Geneva. Pending the reply, Odowas to plan the stages of the journey in such fashion that she mightcount on concealment in case of pursuit; and she was not to attempt herescape till these details were decided. Fulvia was the more ready toacquiesce in this postponement as she did not wish to involve SisterMary in her adventure, but hoped to escape unassisted during anentertainment which was to take place in the convent on the feast ofSaint Michael, some six weeks later.
To Odo the delay was still more welcome; for it gave him what he mustneeds regard as his last opportunity of being in the girl's company. Shehad accepted his companionship on the journey with a readiness in whichhe saw only the magnanimity of pardon; but in Geneva they must part, andwhat hope had he of seeing her again? The first smart of vanity allayed,he was glad she chose to treat him as a friend. It was in this characterthat he could best prove his disinterestedness, his resolve to makeamends for the past; and in this character only--as he now felt--wouldit be possible for him to part from her.
On his second visit he ventured to discharge his mind of its heaviestburden by enquiring what had befallen her and her father after he hadlost trace of them at Vercelli. She told him quite simply that, failingto meet him at the appointed place, they at once guessed that his planhad been winded by the abate who travelled with him; and that after afew hours' delay her father had succeeded in securing a chaise which hadtaken them safely across the border. She went on to speak of thehardships they had suffered after reaching Milan. Even under acomparatively liberal government it was small advantage to be marked bythe Holy Office; and though he received much kindness, and even materialaid, from those of his way of thinking, Vivaldi was unable to obtain theprofessorship he had hoped for.
From Milan they went to Pavia; but in this University, the most liberalin Italy, the chairs were so sought after that there was no hope of hisreceiving a charge worthy of his talents. Here, however, his spiritbreathed its natural air, and reluctant to lose the privileges of suchintercourse he decided to accept the post of librarian to an eccentricnobleman of the town. If his pay was modest his duties left him leisurefor the work which was his chief concern; for his patron, who had housesin Milan and Brescia, came seldom to Pavia, and Fulvia and her fatherhad the vast palace to themselves. They lodged in a corner adjoining thelibrary, spending their days in studious seclusion, their evenings inconversation with some of the first scholars of Europe: the learnedbotanist Scopoli, Spallanzani, Volta, and Father Fontana, the famousmathematician. In such surroundings Vivaldi might have pursued his taskcontentedly enough, but for the thought of Fulvia's future. This, hisdaughter said, continually preyed on him, driving him to labours beyondhis strength; for he hoped by the publication of his book to make good,at least in part, the loss of the small property which the Sardiniangovernment had confiscated. All her entreaties could not dissuade himfrom over-exertion; and in addition to his regular duties he took onhimself (as she afterward learned) the tedious work of revising proofsand copying manuscripts for the professors. This drudgery, combined withsevere intellectual effort, exceeded his flagging powers; and the bookwas hardly completed when his patron, apprised of its contents, abruptlyremoved him from his post. From that day Vivaldi sank in health; but heended as became a sage, content to have discharged the task for which hehad given up home and substance, and dying with the great Stoic's wordsupon his lips:--Lex non poena mors.
Vivaldi's friends in Milan came generously to Fulvia's aid, and shewould gladly have remained among them; but after the loss of her smallinheritance and of her father's manuscript she was without means ofrepaying their kindness, and nothing remained but to turn to her ownkin.
As Odo sat in the quiet cell, listening to her story, and hearing againthe great names his youth had reverenced, he felt himself an exilereturning to his own, mounting the familiar heights and breathing theair that was his birthright. Looking back from this recovered standpointhe saw how far behind his early hopes had been left. Since his departurefrom Naples there had been nothing to remind him of that vast noiselesslabour of the spirit going on everywhere beneath the social surface:
that baffled but undiscouraged endeavour in which he had once soimpatiently claimed his share. Now every word of Fulvia's smote thebones of some dead purpose, till his bosom seemed a very valley ofEzekiel. Her own trials had fanned her love of freedom, and the nearhope of release lent an exaltation to her words. Of bitterness, ofresentment she gave no sign; and he was awed by the same serenity ofspirit which had struck him in the imprisoned doctor. But perhaps thestrongest impression she produced was that of increasing his points ofcontact with life. His other sentimental ties had been a barrier betweenhimself and the outer world; but the feeling which drew him to Fulviahad the effect of levelling the bounds of egoism, of letting into thecircle of his nearest emotions that great tide of human longing andeffort that had always faintly sounded on the shores of self. Perhaps itwas her power of evoking this wider life that gave a sense ofpermanence, of security almost, to the stolen moments of theirintercourse, lulling the lover's impatience of actual conditions withthe sense of something that must survive the accidents of fortune. Onlyin some such way could he explain, in looking back, the completeness ofeach moment spent with her. He was conscious even at the time of asuspension of the emotional laws, a charmed surrender to the limitationsof his fate. When he was away his impatience reasserted itself; but herpresence was like a soothing hand on his spirit, and he knew that hisquiet hours with her would count among those intervals between thecrises of life that flower in memory when the crises themselves havefaded.
It was natural that in the course of these visits she in turn shouldquestion him; and as his past rearranged itself beneath her scrutiny heseemed once more to trace the thread of purpose on which its fragmentshung. He told her of his connection with the liberals of Pianura, of thesituation at court, and of the reason for his prolonged travels. As hetalked her eyes conveyed the exquisite sense of her completecomprehension. She saw, before he could justify himself, how theuncertainty of his future, and his inability to act, had cast him adriftupon a life of superficial enjoyment; and how his latent dissatisfactionwith this life had inevitably resulted in self-distrust and vacillation.
"You wait your hour," she said of him; and he seized on the phrase as ajustification of his inactivity and, when chance should offer, a spur tofresh endeavour. Her interest in the liberal cause had been intensifiedand exalted by her father's death--his martyrdom, as she described it.
Like most women possessed of an abstract idea she had unconsciouslypersonified the idea and made a religion of it; but it was a religion ofcharity and not of vindictiveness. "I should like my father's deathavenged by love and not by hate," she said; "I would have it bringpeace, not a sword."On one point only she remained, if not hostile yet unresponsive. Thiswas when he spoke of de Crucis. Her manner hardened instantly, and heperceived that, though he dwelt on the Jesuit's tolerant view andcultivated tastes, she beheld only the priest and not the man. She hadbeen eager to hear of Crescenti, whom she knew by name as a student ofEuropean repute, and to the praise of whose parochial charities shelistened with outspoken sympathy; but the Jesuits stood for the HolyOffice, and she had suffered too deeply at the hands of the Holy Officeto regard with an open mind any who might be supposed to represent itsprinciples. It was impossible for Odo to make her understand howdistinctly, in de Crucis's case, the man predominated over the order;and conscious of the painfulness of the subject, he gave up the attemptto interest her in his friend.
Three or four times he was permitted to visit her in her cell: afterthat they met almost daily in the parlour, where, about the hour ofbenediction, they could talk almost as privately under cover of thegeneral chatter. In due time Fulvia received an answer from theCalvinist professor, who assured her of a welcome in Geneva and shelterunder his roof. Odo, meanwhile, had perfected the plan of their journey;but as Michaelmas approached he began to fear Cantapresto's observation.
He now bitterly regretted that he had not held to his purpose of sendingthe soprano back to Pianura; but to do so at this point would be tochallenge observation and he resolved instead on despatching him toMonte Alloro with a letter to the old Duke. As the way to Geneva lay inthe opposite direction this would at least give the fugitives a threedays' lead; and they had little cause to fear pursuit from any otherquarter. The convent indeed might raise a hue and cry; but the nuns ofSanta Chiara had lately given the devout so much cause for scandal thatthe abbess would probably be disposed to hush up any fresh delinquency.
The time too was well-chosen; for the sisters had prevailed on theReverend Mother to celebrate the saint's day by a masked ball, and thewhole convent was engrossed in the invention of whimsical disguises. Thenuns indeed were not to take part in the ball; but a number of them wereto appear in an allegorical entertainment with whi............