The Viper of Milan: A Romance of Lombardy
hound by the table. Then methinks I lost my wits, and went mad with rage
and agony. When my ravings ceased, I found myself, my hands upon the
food, it almost at my lips. But I resisted; I set it from me; and then
my eyes wandered round the room in blank despair. I saw--the key still
in the lock! I thought it was a vision, a trick of Satan. I crawled
toward the door: I dragged myself along. It was no vision: they had gone
and left me free!" Conrad paused; Tomaso, an absorbed listener, drew a
deep breath.
"What did it mean, lord?" he asked.
"Ask me not, Tomaso," answered Conrad with a lighter air. "They were so
certain I should eat and die, it made them careless, or Giannotto had a
throb of pity. Many kindnesses the knave has had from me. I know not
what it was; such things will happen. I have heard of them when in my
native land from prisoners of war. But all I knew and cared for was that
I was free! At first, indeed, it seemed to promise little good. I crept,
I know not how, into the garden--into the air: the sky was overhead: it
gave me strength: let me but get to the water and I would live.... As by
a miracle I reached the fountain." Again Conrad paused, shuddering at
remembrance of his anguish.
"The fountain?" repeated Tomaso, absorbed in the relation.
"The fountains were poisoned, boy; you know it; it boots not talking of
it; it is all past and done with, and I live, a sound, free man, thanks
to our brave Veronese; though in sooth how he could have saved me, had
he not been a giant, I leave to my good angel to think out"; and Conrad
laughed.
Tomaso looked surprised. He could not understand how Conrad could so
easily shake off his hatred of Visconti, save when the thought was
forced on him.
A silence fell which Conrad was again the first to break.
"The Lady Valentine," he said, following his own train of thought,
rather than addressing his companion, "does she ever think of me?"
Tomaso inwardly wondered how much he thought of her. Save when telling
his tale to Francisco, this was the only time he had named her. It
seemed as if his sufferings and his love alike were to lie lightly on
his mind.
"They say in Milan Lady Valentine is to marry the Duke of Orleans,"
Tomaso ventured presently.
"They say!" echoed Conrad with scorn. "The Frenchman is not even yet in
Italy. Much may have happened ere he is."
Tomaso rose and looked from the doorway anxiously.
"It is close on sundown," he said, "it is time Francisco came."
"It is intolerably wearisome," yawned Conrad. "I would I had gone with
our friend--'twould have been more enlivening than this."
Tomaso's face ill concealed his scorn.
"'Tis a matter of life and death, Count Conrad; even now the soldiers
may at any time return."
With a pleasant smile Von Schulembourg leaped from the table.
"Pardon me, if I vex thee with my seeming carelessness," he said, with
the charm of manner that could always win him friends. "I owe too large
a debt to all of you, to really be so heedless as I seem; but methinks
there is no single thing----"
"Save keep ourselves in readiness, my lord," said Tomaso. "Francisco
charged us to be so disposed that we could leap into the saddle without
a breath's delay."
"I remember," said Count Conrad, lapsing again into an idle mood.
"Methinks our Veronese deliverer issues commands as if well used to it."
The youth made no reply; he was gazing eagerly along the
chestnut-bordered path, sorely impatient for Francisco's return.
"Canst thou play chess?" asked Conrad suddenly.
Tomaso looked around at him in surprise. Did the German noble jest?
Von Schulembourg was again seated on the table, admiring his shapely
hand, which he held against the light.
"Play chess?" repeated Tomaso. "No, my lord."
Count Conrad crossed his legs daintily and sighed.
"It were a splendid chance to teach thee--had we but the men. Thou hast
read old romance, boy? And must remember how the knights and ladies play
at chess? 'Tis a royal game."
He sighed again, and glanced with disdain down at his leather doublet.
"Yet 'twere strange to play chess in this garb," he added, and kicked
the table with his heels in discontent.
Silence again fell, Tomaso still at the door, unheeding of the Count's
complaints, watching anxiously through the gathering dusk.
"By heaven, boy!" Conrad exclaimed suddenly. "Till this moment I had
forgot it. Lady Valentine's gift--thinking of the chessmen brought it to
my mind--I swore never to leave it--with my life! And 'tis behind me in
the villa."
"Behind thee, lord?" cried Tomaso, bewildered and startled at his
excited tones. "Where? What?"
Conrad was on his feet, his eyes sparkling with excitement.
"At the villa," he cried. "I know where it is, I will go and fetch it."
"My lord, consider what thou say'st," and Tomaso barred the door with
outstretched arms. "We promised Francisco we would not leave the hut--to
attempt the villa would be simple madness!"
"Why, boy, the villa is close by," laughed Conrad, "and Francisco may
not be back for hours most like; he may hang back till dark. Meanwhile
am I to twirl my thumbs in here, and Lady Valentine's love-gift calling
to me from beyond that wall? Out of my way, Tomaso. The dagger may be
useful, and 'tis beautiful: a handle carved out of a single stone. Lady
Valentine will not forgive my losing it!"
"The Lady Valentine will forgive the loss of a dagger, lord, when thou
help to rescue her from Milan," he said curtly. "But what use to seek
her gift? And give thyself again into the Visconti's power?"
"Tush, Visconti! Visconti!... I have heard the name enough," returned
Count Conrad. "I intend to have my lady's gift--it suits neither my
honor nor my affection to leave it there to be some mercenary's plunder;
and the chessmen too, boy! The set the Emperor gave--ah! you would love
them--silver and ivory--I will bring them too. They will while away more
weary hours such as these. What was I thinking of to leave them there so
long!"
"At any moment Francisco may return, and without thee here time will be
lost; moreover, his orders were that we await him."
At Tomaso's words, Conrad raised his arched eyebrows.
"Order? To thee, maybe; thou art a boy, and of humble station. I am Von
Schulembourg: orders scarcely tally with that name."
He drew his mantle over his despised doublet, and stepped to the door,
putting Tomaso aside and unheeding his entreaties.
"Calm thyself, I shall be back long before the grim Veronese!" he said
airily. "Were there light enough, there would be time to learn the game
before he comes again."
"I will learn from no one who so little knows his duty," cried Tomaso in
hot wrath.
But it was as impossible to anger Conrad as to stop him, and with a
smile on his lips and a good-humored wave of his hand, he was gone.
Gone, absolutely gone, out of sight, into the heart of danger and at the
crucial moment, for a set of chessmen and for a lady's love-gift.
After an undecided pause of utter vexation, Tomaso could not resist the
impulse to start in pursuit after him. But Count Conrad was fleet of
foot; he had disappeared, and Tomaso dared follow no farther, for
Francisco might return at any moment, and to find them both gone would
make bad worse.
And scarcely had he re-entered the hut before he heard the sound of
horses ridden cautiously, and in a few moments more Francisco turned
into the open.
He was mounted, Vittore in front of him, on a powerful black horse, and
leading two others, and his face was animated with his triumph.
"Thou see'st," he said, "we are well provided, though it has taken me
all day. Now, to mount, without pause. Where is the Count?"
"The Count," faltered Tomaso, half-crying with vexation, "the Count----"
"Well, what of him?" said Francisco, pausing keenly.
"He has gone back to the villa--to fetch something. Oh, Messer
Francisco, prevent him I could not--he left but now----"
"Gone back to the villa!" cried Francisco. "Did he rave? Is he in his
senses?"
Tomaso wrung his hands.
"He went to fetch a dagger he remembered and some chessmen."
With a cry of rage Francisco flung himself from his saddle. "Methinks I
left a fool to guard a fool," he said. "Did I not tell thee to see Count
Conrad kept from folly? Our lives are on it!"
Tomaso paled at his displeasure, and faltered out a recital of what had
happened, but Francisco cut him short.
"The thing has happened," he said sternly, "and may cost us dear, but
mine the fault to trust the foreign coxcomb." Never had the two boys
seen him so moved, and they shrank into silence.
Francisco fumed with anger. "We will ride without him," he said at
length; but even while he bade Tomaso mount, and saw to his own girths,
he paused irresolute, and Tomaso was thankful. He did not like to think
of the gay Conrad left to meet his fate alone. He ventured to speak.
"The dagger was a lady's gift," he said--"the Lady Valentine's. He could
not bear to leave it."
"He will have been wishing that he had," said Francisco brusquely; but
his face softened, and he added presently: "He must be brought back, we
cannot wait, and 'tis too dangerous to abandon him--for him and for
ourselves."
He flung the reins to Tomaso, and lifted Vittore to the ground.
"Stretch thy legs the while," he said.
"Shall I go, messer?" asked the boy.
"He will come quicker at my bidding," said Francisco grimly. "Keep open
eyes," he added, "the soldiers must come by the road if come again they
do. Hold thither once and spy, and then return and wait us here. Tether
the horses carefully and water them. They cost me something." He pointed
to his roughly bandaged arm.
Half wild with remorseful vexation, Tomaso watched Francisco go the way
the Count had gone, till his tall figure was lost to view. Then he and
Vittore surveyed each other with anxious eyes.
"Oh, cousin!" cried the boy, "we have had a fearful day!"
"Thou wert fortunate," returned the other bitterly; "Francisco is not
vexed with thee."
But Vittore, full of his tale, was eager rather for a listener than to
himself give sympathy.
"Till noon we found nothing," he said. "Francisco hung around the
farmhouses, but there were naught but sorry jades in every stable that
we peered into, every one we tried, Tomaso, and so we roamed farther and
farther across the plains----"
"But how didst thou ever get such steeds as these?" asked Tomaso,
looking admiringly at the splendid animals, well groomed and well fed,
fresh and vigorous.
"We took them," said Vittore proudly. "We came upon a camp of soldiers
with horses and to spare, and Francisco asked them would they trade with
him, and offered money, but they jeered and shouted and drove us off.
Then Francisco stood before me while I crept up to those three and
loosened their halters. The soldiers drank and sang; some lay and
snored; they thought that we were gone, then suddenly--" his voice
sinking with excitement.
"What happened?" asked Tomaso with interest. "I am glad that thou
show'st thyself a brave lad, Vittore; what happened?"
"They saw us; three of them rushed out; there was a fight, and Francisco
won."
"Won? Against three?" cried Tomaso.
"He scattered them like the wind," said Vittore. "I know not how. He is
a giant. He flung me on this black horse here; he mounted, I had the
halters of the others in my hand. We rushed away. Of one he broke the
head, I think, with his thick staff, and had his arm hit hard, but 'tis
not hurt, he says. Some followed awhile, but they drank too deep; we
left them like men dazed and mad, some falling by the road. It was a
great business, cousin, but I felt no fear; Francisco is a brave, brave
man."
"He is a leader of men, methinks," said Tomaso gravely. "I little doubt