Читать книгу The Siege of Malta (St. Angelo) - S. Fowler Wright - Страница 14

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The High Council of the Commanders of the Order of the Knights of St. John met in a formal style, as they had done when they had debated St. Elmo’s fate, in the same hall, that was rich and high and of noble size, and furnished in the latest Italian style, so that a synod of cardinals would not have called it a mean place in which to debate the mysteries of the Faith, or the chastising of rebel lands.

But the Grand Master, looking round, thought not of grandeur or pride, seeing the empty places of those who had been there but a month before.

Where was Miranda now? De Broglio? D’Egueras? Medrano? Montserrat? Where a dozen more who had died on St. Elmo’s walls? Where Zanoguerra, who had commanded the water-front of the Sanglea, and died at the moment when he had flung backward the last attack? Where La Cerda, the one man who had dared to assert opinion against his own? They were surely with God, having shed their blood to His and the Order’s praise, and in the cause of all Christian lands. He did not doubt nor regret, but he saw how high St. Elmo’s cost had been in his greatest names.

As to those who had fallen in the storming attack of the last day, he had made oration that afternoon over their flag-draped biers, and among them La Cerda’s had not been the least of honour, as he had told himself in a stubborn but honest mind, and with the consciousness that we are all but a poor dust before the Infinite God, which must be felt by all Christian men, as they bend over the dead....

There were others absent besides the dead—knights who excused themselves for weariness or for wounds, or that they must stand to a threatened post; and those who came, being a poor dozen at best, had the look of men who would have welcomed rest more than debate. Yet they had the aspect of stern and resolute men, with will and strength to endure, though the youth of most was a past day.

“Brothers,” the Grand Master said, having made but a short prayer, as the time required, “I have called you here for a simple cause, and one, I hope, which may be quickly resolved.

“It is known to all, for it was debated before, that the Chevalier La Cerda brought to this place, in contempt of his own vows and to the scandal of Christian faith, a certain woman whom he had hidden away in his hired house when he was appointed to St. Elmo’s defence.

“This woman, as was likely to be, became a fountain of lust and crime, so that a man was soon slain by her hand, and she fled, to make mischief in new resorts.

“I desire to say little of her, she being now laid by the heels, that she may be justly tried, as our custom is: nor would I have mentioned the Chevalier La Cerda as so debased, he being now dead in a better way, except that the tree which springs from this seed of hell has fruited again, with an evil which is not easy to mend.

“When this woman fled, there was proclamation made, by our common resolve, that none should give her cover to cheat the law, except at the pain of his own life, which should be forfeit therefor, and this alike were he high or low, with lack of favour to all.

“Now it was laid bare to my own eyes, and to others who are now here, that she was so hidden away by one who would not have been soon suspect, he being younger than most, of good name and blood, and being free from the lewd report to which some of our youth will fall when they are not under the Order’s vows. I mean, as you mostly know, the youth, Don Francisco, who is nephew to our late brother, the Commander Don Manuel, who so lately died.

“Don Manuel was my friend for fifty years, or but little less to the time he died, and he served our Order as few, under the favour of God, have been permitted to do. Don Francisco alike, seeming to be of his uncle’s complexion in this, has done good service to Malta’s cause, it being due to him, both in design and control, that the boats of the Turks were sunk, with a loss to them which I need not say.

“That is a matter for which we might give reward with a free hand, either of gold (but that would be naught to him for he does not lack) or in honour that he might put at a higher price; but how can we reward one whom we must apprehend, and put to a quick death, or have it said that we deal justice with partial scales?”

Having put the issue thus, the Grand Master sat down without suggesting a decision he would prefer. He let others speak, which all were not ready to do.

Del Monte sat silently await, conceiving that he was bound by his oath, not as having opinion himself, but as one holding a brief to speak the mind of a dead man, as he must suppose that he would have wished him to do. He waited to hear others first, that he might know what it might be necessary for him to say.

A Commander with a narrow ascetic face, and bright, piercing eyes under penthouse brows, whose name may be left aside, was the first to speak: “There is no choice that I see, but the law must perform its part. For we must observe that this was not an outrage of sudden blood, but that Don Francisco has defied both the law and the special proclamation we made, in a mood of sustained contempt, which is too much to condone in a time of war, when discipline must not fail.”

His words were followed by comment of sundry sorts, showing that the Commanders might not be lightly agreed.

For one said: “Yet it was a fault of youth, and of the hot blood that pertains thereto. I say it should not be too hardly judged, he having done the great service he has.”

And another: “It is matter to mourn, as is all weakness and sin.... It should be most straitly proved that she was hidden of his device, and not secretly there. Yet must the law stand at the last, if it be so sustained. We must pluck forth the offending eye, though the flesh shrink in its human way.”

And a third: “It may be observed that Don Francisco is not sworn to the Order’s rule, either as serving-brother or knight, and his fault is the less for that.”

To which another rejoined: “But that is not the issue with which we deal. He is not charged that he has made lecherous use of the quarters where he is placed, but that he has hidden one whom the law required.”

And a fifth agreed: “It was a risk he took, having been warned in a plain way. What can he object, being caught?”

But after that there was a voice of dissent: “It is the temptress who should feel stripes, rather than those whom she brings to sin, and that the more when they are knights who will give their blood for our cause.”

And the seventh voice was that of one who agreed: “May we not say that it is shed too greatly by heathen hands for us to spill at this time? That it can be spent in a better way, as such knights are not unwilling to do?”

Del Monte felt that he had heard enough to judge what would be best to say, and that it would be wiser to intervene before differences had become too sharply shown for their advocates to accord with a ready will.

“Brothers,” he said, “you will bear with me when I say that I speak for one who would be mostly concerned, but that he is now dead, and it is his dying charge that I give you now. He hewed Hassan down at his life’s cost, when he was over the fosse, and if it be said that but for him I should have lost the Sanglea (excepting only St. Michael’s fort) I would call it less than a lie. That being so, I am the more bold to ask you to hear me now.

“As to the woman, she must be tried, as we may lightly agree, and I suppose that La Cerda himself would not have cavilled at that.”

“I can tell you,” Sir Oliver interposed, “that it was no less than his urgent will that she should be tried, and (as he thought) absolved thereby of the steward’s death.... And, as I suppose, she would not have fled, but that she was seized with fear when she heard that he was himself held, so that he would not be free to support her part.”

“That,” Del Monte replied, “was how I thought it to be. And had he not been slain, we may say that she would have come forth by his will, and there had been better end than is threatened now.... She must be fairly tried. There is no issue on that. For there must be justice done to the dead, as well as to those who still live, and no less that he who died was suspect, and of mean degree.

“But when we come to the part which Don Francisco has played, of which we know less, as it may have been either at his own will, or as one who would aid a friend——”

“The wanton,” the Grand Master said, “was in the single chamber he used. You must face that.” He did not speak in a hostile way, but as one sitting above, who would point out that which Del Monte’s logic must overcome.

“So I agree,” Del Monte replied. “We know not how little it meant, nor how much, and I submit that if we leave it unprobed we may show wisdom in that.... But there is one thing you should know, that La Cerda, being at point of death, said that to grieve Don Francisco for this would be equal dispite to him, by which you may say, if no more, that he did not think him to be less than a loyal friend.”

“As between themselves,” the Grand Master allowed, “it is the best point that you have, and you take it well when you do not urge it too far, for it might break at a higher strain. But this is largely beside the cause which has drawn us here. It is not to La Cerda that Don Francisco must be absolved, nor (as has been said) is he charged with lecherous ways. It is of contempt of law that he stands accused, and can you clear him of that?”

“I do not know that I can. And if he be tried, and let free, or but lightly rebuked, I do not say that respect of law will be fostered thereby.

“I may offer better counsel than that, if I propose that we do nothing at all. For while we do naught, none can tell what is to appear on the next day. And few, if any, will surely know but that we may have witness by which we hold him excused, or even that she was exposed by his own will. There will be sundry tales scattered abroad, and none true; and none will be held by discreet men as more than a likely lie.

“Let us keep this in suspense, and if we drive the Turk from the land at last (to which this is a little thing), then we may review all that Don Francisco has done in another mood, and in the hour of triumph and thanks to God amnesty will seem no more than is timely to give; but if we fail, as we are resolved by the grace of God that we shall not do, then it is all one, and he may better perish by heathen swords than at Christian hands.”

There was a voice that asked: “If we accord to that, how will you secure that he will not openly boast that we fear to enforce the law as against himself? From one who has been so hardy in his contempt, it is no less than a likely thing.”

“As to that,” Sir Oliver said, “I can give some manner of pledge; for I can convey warning to him in a private way, and, if he ignore that, he will not be in the case of a pardoned man, but we can make arrest with a good cause, and his death will be on his own head.”

“Is it agreed,” the Grand Master asked, “that this matter be put to suspense, to be considered again if the need come, or else not till a further day?”

There were some who murmured assent, and the rest were still. The Grand Master had his way, as he mostly would, whether for mercy or blood, and Del Monte felt that he had got more than he had forecast, and with fewer words, till La Valette addressed him again:

“That this woman be fairly tried, and in accordance with the usage in time of war, there should be one who will put her case, as she can be little fitted to do. Will you take this, as you have so well assumed the part of La Cerda’s friend, whose mistress she was?”

There was a short pause, and Del Monte said that he would, though it was plain that he had a poor will....

The Grand Master left the hall leaning on Sir Oliver’s arm, as it was becoming his habit to do.

“Oliver,” he said, “I may have done well or ill, but I lacked heart to bring one who is near of blood to so old a friend to the shame which would have been surely his, for, if he were found guilty of such a fault, though I might grant reprieve of his life, or even find pretext to set him free, it would be a shame that would mark his life; so that he would be debarred from the companionship of this Order in which his Uncle had more honour than most, and it may be from any high trust or command whether with us, or from the hands of his own King.

“I may grow feeble with age, so that God should cut me off like a rotten branch, as he must at last; but I have a better thought that He will let me endure till the land is free.”

“You should take more rest,” Sir Oliver replied; “but I say in this that you have done wisely and well.”