Angelo. A romance of modern Rome

Front matter

ANGELO VOL. I LONDON : R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL. ANGELO A ROMANCE OF MODERN ROME " Yet there are things whose strong reality Outshines our fairy-lami." — Loiui Btrus. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON : RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1854. P E E F A C E. The mighty impetus which has been given to mental energy, during the present age, is in nothing more conspicuous than the eagerness with which travellers over-run every civilized nation of Europe, and the intelligence dis played by them in investigating the relics of past ages, and appreciating those w-orks of art which the world appears destined never to surpass. By means of this rapid and unceasing intercommunion, an universal in terest becomes prevalent in the affairs of countries, which space seems no longer to separate ; and a feeling of brotherhood is insensibly superseding that sentiment — now VOL. I. B VI

Preface

. of rivalry, now of hatred — which rendered history, in former times, but a panorama of a battle-field, and exhibited man under the influence alone of those passions, which he shared in common Avith the animal creation. Among the many and petty revolutions which convulsed Europe in the years 1818 and 1849, the Roman is, perhaps, the least understood ; whilst in the duplicate nature of the institutions of that state, and the peculiar character of its people, it presented features calculated, more than any other, to arrest interest and excite reflection. In attempting to draw attention to such an event in the pages of fiction, some difficulty was experienced ; and the Author is painfully conscious that that difficulty has not been altogether surmounted with the success she desired. Works of imagination are the resource, generally speaking, of hours when the mind seeks rest and recreation, and would

PREFACE.

. VII fain dw-ell on the bright, rather than the shadowy side of human thought and action. But, in displaying those scenes of passion in which men become brutes, and communities a wreck, sensibility must, occasionally, be shocked, and pain excited; and the only alternative lay in avoiding a morbid dally with horrors, as repugnant to her own taste as the inclination of her readers. Still, in any grapple with History, there is a debt due to Truth, and a debt which no refinement can evade ; and, if a suspicion arise as to the reality of such societies as the Sanfedi, such scenes as the murder of Vorni, she begs but to refer to the unimpeached record of the historian Farini, a high and an active official in the 'government of Rome at the period of Count Rossi's assassination ; or, to the lighter pages of our oaati countryman, Baillie Cochrane, whose graceful and graphic pictures defy the competition of fiction. b

PREFACE.

. VIII The Author has, likewise, obligations to acknowledge to two admirable articles in the Quarterly, and a contribution in Colburn's New Monthly ; to Mr. Gladstone's Letter on the Prisons of Naples, and an able pamphlet by Lord Mount Edgecumbe. As a mere English reader, the worst defile ments of Jesuitism are, happily, as sealed a chapter to her, as to the majority of her sex ; but Michelet, and the current litterateurs of the day on that subject, fully justify her portraiture of an infidel Roman Catholic priest ; a type, alas ! of that fearful body, who, disembarrassed of those responsibilities which restrain, those fears wdiich awe, and those hopes which inspire a Christian, roam power fully protected over the earth, and, in the voice and accents of a religion of love, of purity, and of peace, incite to crime, and compound with iniquity. Day by day, the fearful fact becomes more prominent, that the

PREFACE.

. IX disciples of Loyola guide the reins of almost every government upon earth _ and, day by day, it becomes more and more the duty of every sincere Protestant in this favoured land, to further to the utmost, according to his station and opportunities, the growth and nurture of that eternal Truth, to the glorious influence of wliich he owes every political advantage, every social blessing ; and, what is far dearer, more precious than these, that hope, which over-arches the gulf of death, and makes him a joyful inheritor of a better world. If, in this imperfect endeavour to exemplify how a well-constituted mind may overcome the contaminations of religious error, the benumbing effects of a sohtary position, the adurements of temporary prosperity, one straggler hi the world's strife shoidd find strength, one wavering soul be led to put forth its powers, and trust for support in that X

PREFACE.

. Providence who is ever near to the humble seeker, the Author will have had her revA-ard — the highest reward Avhich can await a human effort, — she has added a good seed in the Avide field of God's bountv, and that seed has started info life. ANGELO

Chapter I

" Meet is it changes should control Our being, lest we rust in ease ; We all are changed by still degrees, All but the basis of the soul." Tennyson. The bed w-as tolling heavdy in the little village of Glanavon, in the county of Merioneth, on the 31st of January, 1848. It ceased at intervals. The snow fell continuously, and in large flakes, whilst a deep stillness reigned, as though sound, like moisture, w-ere congealed and voiceless. It was a bitter, biting day, just such an one as sends the hardiest and humblest to the friendly covert of home ; whilst age and feebleness become painfully sensible of that sluggishness in their veins, ANGELO. soon to be succeeded by the cold torpor of death. Again the awful warning boomed upon the ear ; and the busy housewife of many cares and many sorrows, no less than the helpless cripple and dependent invahd, found the tear of regret starting unbidden for the loved one and the lost.

At an upper Avindow of Plas Penryn, the principal house in the village, attired in the deepest mourning, tear less and lonely, stood Leoline Dimsdale. There was a deep hush around her, though the portals were thronged by the sable myrmidons of woe ; but that dismal knell seemed the pulse of her being. There Avas no pause now in its measured beat ; the time drew near, and she listened to every stroke with the same breath lessness and anxiety, Avith which she had recently watched the parting sighs of expiring life. All at once there was a movement in the adjoining apartment — a bustle — a slight grating noise upon the staircase. She started, and flew to the door, but again an awful silence reigned. She knew it must be so; she had looked her last ; her hand had closed the eyes wdiose latest lingering beam had fallen on ANGELO. herself.

The trappings of woe, Avhat language had they ? Mockery to a grief like hers ! She returned to the window to listen, — and behold, gliding amongst the trees, in deep contrast to their glittering livery, the sombre cavalcade ! Her eye folloAved it in apparent vacancy ; she was all ear, till the vibration of that iron tongue no longer awoke an echo from the opposite hill ; then, a weight, but not of tears, pressed doAvn her eye-lids ; she ceased to think, she ceased to feel, and when her attendant sought her, shortly afterwards, she wras found lifeless on the floor It was about three in the afternoon, and a bright gleam of sunshine suddenly burst forth The few friends who had been summoned on the occasion had departed, and Mr. Dimsdale was Avalking doAA-n the avenue which led to the road, with the vicar, Mr. Mountford.

" These events," said the latter, " are pain ful ; but, knowing they are intended for our good, we are bound to submit." "Undoubtedly," said Mr. Dimsdale, and he broke off an obtruding branch of a tree. " See, this is rotten." b ANGELO. " You have a consolation," pursued the vicar, " you have acted a noble part by her and hers." "I have fulfided my promise, Sir, to my dying brother. I think of cutting down the ivy from that oak ; it strangles it. What say you?" " I never can doom an evergreen," replied the vicar, " so cheering now-, for instance, glittering through the snoAV." "Like youth and age, the dualism of nature, —eh?" ' " Exactly. I hope you wdl be rewarded by the devotion of those young people ; you have been a father to them." " My nephew and niece are very amiable. We shall have more snowr, I fear."

" Mrs. Mountford told me this morning the glass was rising. — But, there she is, loiter ing about for me to go to the school, — good morning;" and cordiady shaking his Avealthy parishioner by the hand, despite his un graciousness, the vicar passed quickly through the entrance gates, aud Mr. Dimsdale turned abruptly into the adjoining shrubbery. ANGELO. Long before a blade of grass has had time to groAV upon a grave, curiosity, that bindweed of the vulgar heart, has struck root and crawled into life. Mrs. Mountford walked discontentedly home by the side of her husband, Avhen she found he could neither tell her the amount of the deceased lady's property, nor the intentions of the squire with regard to her children. We will not pursue the matri monial colloquy, but follow Mr. Dimsdale as he paces the terrace-walk he has just reached ; and, by an occasional glance at his working features, guess that chain of retrospection which is darting through his mind with electric clearness and rapidity.

He had once an only brother, to Avhom he was devotedly attached. Their mother died when they were both in their infancy, and they had been brought up under the watchful eye of a stern father, a man in whom it was hard to say, whether narroAvness of mind or coldness of heart predominated. In yonder wood the youths were wont to steal away together, their favourite dogs hunting about, and their own eager thoughts anticipating the ANGELO. time when they should escape their bondage, and take a survey of a world, only known as yet through the medium of others; and if here the survivor stop at a time-worn tree, there, at a spring of fresh clear water gurgling over a mimic cascade, it is that each bears a voice from this lost, and earliest, and best-loved friend. He has taken a circuitous and ascending path, and reached an unfrequented nook, where stand the remains of what once was a pretty Italian temple.

Noav, the pillars are discoloured by the incrustations of age and rude Aveather ; the statues have lost heads and arms, whilst broken vases, filled Avith moss and fungi, lie about in ad directions. There is the chronicle of his life — the budd ing, his fair young heart — its broken gods, his crushed affections— the foul vegetation, the peculiar idiosyncrasy which had kept his man hood in unhealthy and false relations Avith the world. He dashed a mist from his eyes, and resolutely masters a steep rugged road, leading to a knoll at the topmost point of his demesnes. He clears a rude bench, and con- ANGELO. 17 templates beneath him, near and far, his ancestral estates ; and the realities of the pre sent moment spread themselves side by side, as it were, for his inspection. For upwards of twenty years he has scarcely once stepped beyond the boundary of his own soil ; he has been living in a world of his own, half regard less of the Avants and responsibilities of that world around him ; he has been nursing, in the visionary form of a lost angel, a dumb demon, AAdiich has cramped his heart and fettered his soul.

He rises and wralks to and fro with perturbed steps ; and, chilling as was the atmosphere, a moisture burst upon his brow-, and his cheek flushed. Presently a young couple are on the terrace he had not long quitted; Leoline leaning on the arm of her brother. They are walking slowly and thoughtfully ; few Avords are being exchanged, and both are looking pale and desponding. They arrive at a little gate which leads down a flight of stone steps, and thence into the churchyard. There they stand beside the new and already deserted grave ; they walk around it— both are very calm. For ANGELO. a time they are lost amongst the trees and behind the old tower, but reappear and turn towards the fresh mound of earth. An Italian greyhound springs over it, and leaps up to Leoline. It was hers ! — their mother's !

The chord is touched ; site again rises before them in all her gentleness — her thin white hand is seen on the neck of the favourite — her soft low voice is heard, Avhich commended Tasso to their care. Leoline hid her face upon her brother's breast and wept — wept passionately. He AA-ould have comforted her, but there was a sensation in his throat which choked him. " And I can envy them even that," ejaculated their uncle, as, Avith dimmed eyes, he Avatched the scene. " Ah, Nina ! Nina ! why could I never AA'eep over thy grave ? Why could I never dare to hope that thy end was peace ? "

Chapter II

" If balm there be for heart distrest, It is to journey, not to rest, For rest sinks sadly down with thought ; And then the fearful past is brought Freshly before the mental eye > In all its green tenacity." Dispensations occur, in this wrorld of change, so awful in their character, so astounding in the force with Avhich they act, so wholly beyond the control of human volition, that one would imagine every mind must succumb without a struggle to their power, every heart distrust its own instincts, and pay unhe sitating obeisance to the will of thek far seeing Author. What a deep hush succeeds the loss of the female genius of a house ! What desolation if she be a mother ! For a season it seems as though the spirit of love had fled those Avails — that cohesive spirit, ANGELO. without which the component particles of home incline to all asunder, even as this earth itself Avould crumble and decay, de prived for one moment of the gravitating power at its centre.

Yet, crushing as such a calamity proves, it is differently received, felt, and understood by each individual, whose destiny was either modelled or upheld by the lost influence, — such is the complex nature of »ur spiritual mechanism, it were as easy to create a world, as to stamp with the same seal the same sign on two reasoning and sentient beings. On the death of his sister-in-laAv, w-ho for seventeen years had been his almoner, his secretary, the link between himself and the world he had tacitly abjured, Mr. Dimsdale shed no tear, uttered no word of consolation. The economy of his household proceeded as before ; but his library was deserted, he might be heard pacing his room the greater part of the night, and by day he buried himself in an adjoining wood. At the hours of assembling, he would frequently begin to speak, then check himself, as if there Avere no one now ANGELO. 21 who could comprehend him, look vacantly around, and relapse into an oppressive gloom.

Frederic, who had been summoned hastily from Oxford by his mother's sharp and sudden dlness, mourned her in impetuous torrents of grief. He had worshipped rather than loved her, and his heart seemed ready to burst its confines, at every forced admission of a fact it could never, as it were, fully realise. Leo line's suffering was more intense, more calm, more concentrated, more of the nature of a calamity too great for utterance, too actual for a momentary oblivion, too personal for com parison of its extent even with a brother. Her cheek w-as blanched, but it seldom bore the external trace of sorrow. She glided noise lessly about ; her only occupation, anticipating the wishes of others, her only indulgence, recalling the virtues of her who was gone. And brave were the schemes she formed to fodow in her steps; no longer to be a wdd, a wayward, and petted idol, but, by degrees, to become her uncle's friend, and the thoughtful centre, yet helpful handmaiden of the lessened circle.

She had begun, she fondly ANGELO. fancied, her neAv career — she was appealed to on ad occasions ; and many a little gratified smile from him, Avhose every look she studied, had reAvarded her pains and forethought, when lo! to her utter dismay, in one instant, a fresh gulf yaw-ned at her feet, — a second desolation was opened to her view ! Mr. Dimsdale had already settled the matter with himself; and one evening, just before separating for the night, about two months after the bereavement, he announced the result. " You have often expressed a wish to travel, Frederic," said he, " and it is but right you should do so. An acquaintance with foreign nations is essential to the education of a gentleman ; aud you have done so wed at the University, I am happy to show my appro bation by gratifying you.

I have wished for many years to see Rome again myself; Ave will go there together, and then shape our course as circumstances and inclination may suggest. You, Leoline, of course, could not remain here alone, and aac have no female relation Ave could call in, Avho Avould be a pro tector to you as Avell as a companion ; but I ANGELO. 23 have spoken to our good neighbour, Mr. Mountford, and he wdl receive you with pleasure during my absence. The Dunnings Avill remain in the house, aud you can yourself superintend, as usual, your aviary and different favourites. Mrs. Mountford's peculiarities may at first prove a little annoying, but you have much good sense, and will soon see the proper conduct to pursue. We wid sail, Frederic, on the 15th, and I have sent into yom room my old travelling chest.

Deposit Cicero, Virgil, et hoc genus omne, at the bottom of it, — we must pay due homage to the gods on the seven hills. You wid have a sitting room of your own, Leoline, at the vicarage ; remove any of the chattels you please. Good night." " Why, Leo," said Frederic, as the door closed on Mr. Dimsdale, " the commander-in chief is coming out in good earnest. This is the very thing that old fellow, Matmin, has harped upon for the last twelvemonth, and I should not be the least surprised if he put it into his head. If I had had my choice now, it is just exactly what I should have hit upon ; ANGELO. but I hope I am not to have a bear-leader long, — that will be no joke." " My uncle is sure to be very kind to you," said Leoline, and bent her head stid lower over a purse she was in the act of finishing.

" And to you too, my little Sissy — why, what the deuce can you desire better than to be shut up at the vicarage Avith your adorer? Gad! how poor Ned grunted and sighed through his last term ! There were bets he would be plucked, but he is a sharp one, like your humble servant of course, and came off with glory ; all for a glance of yom bright eyes, though, that he exerted himself!" " He has lost his pains, then." " Why, you little Avitch — you ! are you going to snub him ? " "I hope not; I hope he will give me no occasion." " Do you mean to say, that if he were to propound the question, you Avould pout at him?" He is not likely to try the experiment." " How fond you wTomen are of shamming ! Why can't you be natural ? What disgrace is ANGELO. 25 there in a fellow liking you, who has been your playmate all your life ?

Sissy dear, it is the only matter in which you are not honest as the day." "I am honest about that, Fred. I have always said the same. Edward is very well as a friend, but never can be anything more. He has sense to see my mind, and I hope will not add to my misery at the vicarage." " Misery, Leo, not misery ! " He moved round to the back of her chair, leaned over it, put her head coaxingly on his shoulder, and kissed her forehead. "We shall soon be back again, you know. However, I won't go if it makes you unhappy ; I never thought of that." " Oh, yes, — go, go, by all means ! I am so glad my uncle should have a change. Never mind me — only — you see dear, it was like the other, so sudden — so very, very sudden — and I am so silly ! " She burst into tears. " I'll not go," said Frederic. " Yes, yes ; he would not enjoy the trip without you ; he must not go alone," — a little more sobbing.

" There, it wdl be over now — ANGELO. it is very selfish of me not to be quite glad you are going." " Not at all — I won't leave you — please not to cry any more." " I promise, if — I am half-afraid to ask — " " Out Avith it, Sissy — anything." "Wdl you write to me often — very often?" " By every post on land — by every packet when we are at sea ; but if I catch only another watery twinkle of the eye before the 15th — you mind, I Avon's go."

Chapter III

" The groves of Eden, vanish' d now so long, Live in description, and look green in song : These, were my breast inspir'd with equal flame, Like them in beauty, should be like in fame. Here hills and vales, the woodland and the plain, Here earth and water seem to strive again ; Not chaos-like, together crush'd and bruis'd, But, as the world, harmoniously confused, Where order in variety we see, And where, though all things differ, all agree." Pope. It was about the month of May, 1830, that amongst the romantic mountain passes and rapid streams in the neighbourhood of Glan avon, a traveller might be espied, sometimes traversing the high road at a rapid pace, with a small wallet on his back, and a neatly packed fishing-rod in his hand, sometimes by the side of the river, where, with no ordinary skill, he succeeded in capturing the finny tribe, and sometimes at the village hostel, where he ANGELO. generally contrived to extract a vast deal of information, and this without appearing either inquisitive, or as possessing any personal interest whatever in the gossiping narrations.

When, indeed, he ventured on any direct interrogatory, it was on the subject of land advertised to be sold ; but his unostentatious bearing and equipment, forbade the presumption of any other motive in the inquiry than mere curiosity. The most decided peculiarity that attended him was, his apparent ubiquity. After he had been thought to have taken his final departure, he Avould constantly reappear, and that at odd seasons, and in relations with persons AA-ith Avhom it was puzzling to fancy him in any way concerned. But some of the mystery Avas solved, towards the end of the summer, when a wild and beautiful tract amongst the hills Avas put up to auction, and he appeared in the sale-room at Dolgelly, and, after a faint opposition, gave a bidding which negatived all further chance of competition.

No sooner had the hammer ratified the contract than he vanished entirely, and a professional man who was present undertook future negotiations, which were stated to be entrusted to him in behalf of a foreigner of great wealth. Some months had elapsed, and the transfer had ceased altogether to occupy the minds of the idle, when suddenly, and as if by magic, the spot was alive with the operations of workmen of every description. The granite rocks were seen yielding to the force of the hammer and chisel — stately trees, the growth of ages, lay prostrate on the sward — a lime-kiln was sending up its heavy suffocating cloud — and the waters of the stream were here and there diverted from their course, and formed into lifeless and muddy pools. In little more than a year, a stately edifice had arisen ; but, by a rare combination of tact and talent, it presented none of the revolting features of newness.

Its position was on the well-w-ooded side of a lofty range of mountains ; and so cautiously had the axe been laid to the root of the sylvan possessors of the soil, that it was difficult to suppose, from the ornamental bearing of those which were left, they had not been planted at a period subsequent to the erection. vol. i. c space, for two or three rades, had been cleared with the same view to artistic effect. Here, a giant oak spread his ample branches, and diffused a depth of shade ; there, the sdver birch AA-aved his pensile drapery ; and the graceful ash, indigenous to the mountains, gloAved in all its rich contrast of leaf and berry. This park-like scenery, as it stretched far to the left, was gradually absorbed in the tangled wildness of the untouched forest, AA-hilst in front, and to the right, it was bounded by the tortuous windings of a river.

But, by the word " river," image not, fair reader, the placid stream that " drags its slow length along" the meads and plains of level England. The Lora was a wild and talking torrent, which, fed by innumerable tiny cataracts from the rocks above, foamed and sparkled, leapt over its craggy bed, and brightened the Avhole defile like a thing of life. Its opposite bank Avas thickly fringed Avith willows ; and well-clad hills beyond formed a double, a triple, and in some parts a quadruple, barricade to the newly tenanted yet peaceful valley. The style of architecture adopted was not ANGELO. strictly that of any period or clime. The main part of the erection was two stories high, and terminated at the top by a kind of castellated balustrade, above which no roof was visible ; but the chimneys, placed at certain intervals, rose like small turrets, and were highly orna mented.

The facade was extended, on either side, by a row of double cloisters, the inter secting arches of which were arranged with much cunning effect. Over these were ter races, guarded by a baluster of stone-work in harmony with the finish of the house, and furnished with orange and citron trees, came lias, and other choice and ornamental exotics. But here, in the outer shell as it were, the finger of taste was arrested ; the interior of that building presented none of the appliances of ease, none of the refinements of a soul subduing luxury. On the ground-floor, long halls were fitted up with wooden benches, and desks or tables of the plainest construction ; whdst above were lines of dormitories, con taining iron bedsteads with mattresses hard as their framework, and coverings of the coarsest manufacture.

The kitchen departc ANGELO. ment was equally meagre in its details, huge furnaces and ungainly ovens being the only machinery by which food would be prepared to supply the rows of wooden platters that lined the walls. No ; these wrere not lordly halls, or bowers for sickly elegance, but a seminary for the train ing of those destined hereafter to be invested with poAver — power the most awful, the most absolute — power over the living and respon sible souls of thousands. On what grounds the Church of Rome originally assumed, and, through ad the casualties of time and empire, has maintained, this authority over her adhe rents, is a question too deep and intricate to be trifled with by the pen of the mere novelist ; we deal but with the fact, Ave sketch but the ostensible principles on Avhich such foundations as this College of Glaslyn have of late years sprung up in divers parts of our Protestant island.

Yet, however we may dissent from, nay, however bitterly we may condemn her errors, stid should our creature hearts bow in genuine humility to the self-crucifixion of those, her disciples, who maintain their faith by the ANGELO. sacrifice of every worldly bond, — to whose zeal the desert, the forest, the ocean impose no limit, — to whom heaven is a haven attainable only by the wreck of every earthly hope and human yearning. Under the banner of Loyola had this edifice been reared, and with unex ampled celerity had its every nook been occupied, as professors of the first celebrity had been engaged to preside over the different departments of knowledge. It was the evening after the one which con cluded our last Chapter; the setting sun had tinted his pavilion with burnished gold, and, like a courtier lover, was retreating with a smile from the face of a mistress, whom his absence would plunge into darkness.

Dr. Maturin, the head of this establishment, cast aside a book he had long been poring over, walked to the window of his sitting-room, and seemed transfixed by the scene before him. He was aroused by the arrival of the post-bag ; it contained a letter for himself, a foreign one. He turned it round and about for some time, examined the superscription with minuteness, balanced it on his finger, gave some directions ANGELO. to the gardener, looked at it again, and at length investigated its contents, which, having the privdege of looking over his shoulder, we proclaim to have run as fodows : — " Rome, February 1st, 1848. " Reverend brother and dear friend — Your communication of the 18th October was highly satisfactory. Methinks I see the beautiful spot I selected, glowing under the auspices of your cultivated taste, Avhilst the success Avhich attends the Codege gives proof that the trust reposed in you has not been misplaced.