Authors: James Fenimore Cooper
"Thou canst never come amiss, child as thou art of my ancient friend,
and the especial care of the state!" he added. "The gates of the
Gradenigo palace would open of themselves, at the latest period of the
night, to receive such a guest. Besides, the hour is most suited to the
convenience of one of thy quality who would breathe the fresh evening
air on the canals. Were I to limit thee to hours and minutes, some
truant wish of the moment—some innocent caprice of thy sex and years,
might go ungratified. Ah! Donna Florinda, we may well pray that all our
affection—not to call it weakness—for this persuasive girl, shall not
in the end lead to her own disadvantage!"
"For the indulgence of both, I am grateful," returned Violetta; "I only
fear to urge my little requests at moments when your precious time is
more worthily occupied in behalf of the state."
"Thou overratest my consequence. I sometimes visit the Council of Three
Hundred; but my years and infirmities preclude me now from serving the
Republic as I could wish Praise be to St. Mark, our patron! its affairs
are not unprosperous for our declining fortunes. We have dealt bravely
with the infidel of late; the treaty with the Emperor is not to our
wrong; and the anger of the church, for the late seeming breach of
confidence on our part, has been diverted. We owe something in the
latter affair to a young Neapolitan, who sojourns here at Venice, and
who is not without interest at the Holy See, by reason of his uncle, the
Cardinal Secretary. Much good is done by the influence of friends
properly employed. 'Tis the secret of our success in the actual
condition of Venice; for that which power cannot achieve must be trusted
to favor and a wise moderation."
"Your declarations encourage me to become, once more, a suitor; for I
will confess that, in addition to the desire of doing you honor, I have
come equally with the wish to urge your great influence in behalf of an
earnest suit I have."
"What now! Our young charge, Donna Florinda, has inherited, with the
fortunes of her family, its ancient habits of patronage and protection!
But we will not discourage the feeling, for it has a worthy origin, and,
used with discretion, it fortifies the noble and powerful in their
stations."
"And may we not say," mildly observed Donna Florinda, "that when the
affluent and happy employ themselves with the cares of the less
fortunate, they not only discharge a duty, but they cultivate a
wholesome and useful state of mind?"
"Doubt it not. Nothing can be more useful than to give to each class in
society, a proper sense of its obligations, and a just sentiment of its
duties. These are opinions I greatly approve, and which I desire my ward
may thoroughly understand."
"She is happy in possessing instructors so able and so willing to teach
all she should know," rejoined Violetta.
"With this admission, may I ask the Signor Gradenigo to give ear to my
petition?"
"Thy little requests are ever welcome. I would merely observe, that
generous and ardent temperaments sometimes regard a distant object so
steadily, as to overlook others that are not only nearer, and perhaps of
still more urgent importance, but more attainable. In doing a benefit to
one, we should be wary not to do injury to many. The relative of some
one of thy household may have thoughtlessly enlisted for the wars?"
"Should it be so, I trust the recruit will have the manhood not to quit
his colors."
"Thy nurse, who is one little likely to forget the service she did thy
infancy, urges the claim of some kinsman to an employment in the
customs?"
"I believe all of that family are long since placed," said Violetta,
laughing, "unless we might establish the good mother herself in some
station of honor. I have naught to ask in their behalf."
"She who hath reared thee to this goodly and healthful beauty, would
prefer a well-supported suit, but still is she better as she is,
indolent, and, I fear, pampered by thy liberality. Thy private purse is
drained by demands on thy charity;—or, perhaps, the waywardness of a
female taste hath cost thee dear, of late?"
"Neither. I have little need of gold, for one of my years cannot
properly maintain the magnificence of her condition. I come, guardian,
with a far graver solicitation than any of these."
"I hope none in thy favor have been indiscreet of speech!" exclaimed the
Signor Gradenigo, casting a hasty and suspicious look at his ward.
"If any have been so thoughtless, let them abide the punishment of their
fault."
"I commend thy justice. In this age of novel opinions, innovations of
all descriptions cannot be too severely checked. Were the senate to shut
its ears to all the wild theories that are uttered by the unthinking and
vain, their language would soon penetrate to the ill-regulated minds of
the ignorant and idle. Ask me, if thou wilt, for purses in scores, but
do not move me to forgetfulness of the guilt of the disturber of the
public peace!"
"Not a sequin. My errand is of nobler quality."
"Speak without riddle, that I may know its object."
Now that nothing stood between her wish to speak, and her own manner of
making known the request, Donna Violetta appeared to shrink from
expressing it. Her color went and came, and she sought support from the
eye of her attentive and wondering companion. As the latter was ignorant
of her intention, however, she could do no more than encourage the
supplicant by such an expression of sympathy as woman rarely refuses to
her sex, in any trial that involves their peculiar and distinctive
feelings. Violetta struggled with her diffidence, and then laughing at
her own want of self-possession, she continued—
"You know, Signor Gradenigo," she said, with a loftiness that was not
less puzzling, though far more intelligible than the agitation which a
moment before had embarrassed her manner, "that I am the last of a line
eminent for centuries in the state of Venice."
"So sayeth our history."
"That I bear a name long known, and which it becomes me to shield from
all imputation of discredit in my own person."
"This is so true, that it scarce needed so clear an exposure," drily
returned the senator.
"And that, though thus gifted by the accidents of fortune and birth, I
have received a boon that remains still unrequited, in a manner to do no
honor to the house of Thiepolo."
"This becometh serious! Donna Florinda, our ward is more earnest than
intelligible, and I must ask an explanation at your hands. It becometh
her not to receive boons of this nature from any."
"Though unprepared for this request," mildly replied the companion, "I
think she speaks of the boon of life."
The Signor Gradenigo's countenance assumed a dark expression.
"I understand you," he said, coldly. "It is true that the Neapolitan was
ready to rescue thee, when the calamity befell thy uncle of Florence,
but Don Camillo Monforte is not a common diver of the Lido, to be
rewarded like him who finds a bauble dropped from a gondola. Thou hast
thanked the cavalier; I trust that a noble maiden can do no more in a
case like this."
"That I have thanked him, and thanked him from my soul, is true!"
fervently exclaimed Violetta. "When I forget the service, Maria
Santissima and the good saints forget me!"
"I doubt, Signora Florinda, that your charge hath spent more hours among
the light works of her late father's library, and less time with her
missal, than becomes her birth?"
The eye of Violetta kindled, and she folded an arm around the form of
her shrinking companion, who drew down her veil at this reproof, though
she forbore to answer.
"Signor Gradenigo," said the young heiress, "I may have done discredit
to my instructors, but if the pupil has been idle the fault should not
be visited on the innocent. It is some evidence that the commands of
holy church have not been neglected, that I now come to entreat favor in
behalf of one to whom I owe my life. Don Camillo Monforte has long
pursued, without success, a claim so just, that were there no other
motive to concede it, the character of Venice should teach the senators
the danger of delay."
"My ward has spent lier leisure with the doctors of Padua! The Republic
hath its laws, and none who have right on their side appeal to them in
vain. Thy gratitude is not to be censured; it is rather worthy of thy
origin and hopes; still, Donna Violetta, we should remember how
difficult it is to winnow the truth from the chaff of imposition and
legal subtlety, and, most of all, should a judge be certain before he
gives his decree, that, in confirming the claims of one applicant, he
does not defeat those of another."
"They tamper with his rights! Being born in a foreign realm, he is
required to renounce more in the land of the stranger than he will gain
within the limits of the Republic! He wastes life and youth in pursuing
a phantom! You are of weight in the senate, my guardian, and were you to
lend him the support of your powerful voice and great instruction, a
wronged noble would have justice, and Venice, though she might lose a
trifle from her stores, would better deserve the character of which she
is so jealous."
"Thou art a persuasive advocate, and I will think of what thou urgest,"
said the Signor Gradenigo, changing the frown which had been gathering
about his brow, to a look of indulgence, with a facility that betrayed
much practice in adapting the expression of his features to his policy.
"I ought only to hearken to the Neapolitan in my public character of a
judge; but his service to thee, and my weakness in thy behalf, extorts
that thou would'st have."
Donna Violetta received the promise with a bright and guileless smile.
She kissed the hand he extended as the pledge of his faith, with a
fervor that gave her attentive guardian serious uneasiness.
"Thou art too winning even to be resisted by one wearied with rebutting
plausible pretensions," he added. "The young and the generous, Donna
Florinda, believe all to be as their own wishes and simplicity would
have them. As for this right of Don Camillo—but no matter—thou wilt
have it so, and it shall be examined with that blindness which is said
to be the failing of justice."
"I have understood the metaphor to mean blind to favor, but not
insensible to the right."
"I fear that is a sense which might defeat our hopes—but we will look
into it. My son has been mindful of his duty and respect of late, Donna
Violetta, as I would have him? The boy wants little urging, I know, to
do honor to my ward and the fairest of Venice. Thou wilt receive him
with friendship, for the love thou bearest his father?"
Donna Violetta curtsied, but it was with womanly reserve.
"The door of my palace is never shut on the Signor Giacomo on all proper
occasions," she said, coldly. "Signore, the son of my guardian could
hardly be other than an honored visitor."
"I would have the boy attentive—and even more, I would have him prove
some little of that great esteem,—but we live in a jealous city, Donna
Florinda, and one in which prudence is a virtue of the highest price. If
the youth is less urgent than I could wish, believe me, it is from the
apprehension of giving premature alarm to those who interest themselves
in the fortunes of our charge."
Both the ladies bowed, and by the manner in which they drew their cloaks
about them, they made evident their wish to retire. Donna Violetta
craved a blessing, and after the usual compliments, and a short dialogue
of courtesy, she and her companion withdrew to their boat.
The Signor Gradenigo paced the room in which he had received his ward
for several minutes in silence. Not a sound of any sort was audible
throughout the whole of that vast abode, the stillness and cautious
tread of those within, answering to the quiet town without; but a young
man, in whose countenance and air were to be seen most of the usual
signs of a well-bred profligacy, sauntering along the suite of
chambers, at length caught the eye of the senator, who beckoned him to
approach.
"Thou art unhappy, as of wont, Giacomo," he said, in a tone between
paternal indulgence and reproach. "The Donna Violetta has, but a minute
since, departed, and thou wert absent. Some unworthy intrigue with the
daughter of a jeweller, or some injurious bargain of thy hopes with the
father, hath occupied the time that might have been devoted more
honorably, and to far better profit."
"You do me little justice," returned the youth. "Neither Jew nor Jewess
hath this day greeted my eye."
"The calendar should mark the time for its singularity! I would know,
Giacomo, if thou turnest to a right advantage the occasion of my
guardianship, and if thou thinkest with sufficient gravity of the
importance of what I urge?"
"Doubt it not, father. He who hath so much suffered for the want of that
which the Donna Violetta possesses in so great a profusion, needeth
little prompting on such a subject. By refusing to supply my wants, you
have made certain of my consent. There is not a fool in Venice who sighs
more loudly beneath his mistress's window, than I utter my pathetic
wishes to the lady—when there is opportunity, and I am in the humor."
"Thou knowest the danger of alarming the senate?"
"Fear me not. My progress is by secret and gradual means. Neither my
countenance nor my mind is unused to a mask—thanks to necessity! My
spirits have been too buoyant not to have made me acquainted with
duplicity!"
"Thou speakest, ungrateful boy, as if I denied thy youth the usual
indulgences of thy years and rank. It is thy excesses, and not thy
spirits, I would check. But I would not now harden thee with reproof.
Giacomo, thou hast a rival in the stranger. His act in the Giudecca has
won upon the fancy of the girl; and like all of generous and ardent
natures, ignorant as she is of his merits, she supplies his character
with all necessary qualities by her own ingenuity."