University of Virginia Library

Scene II.

—The Castle of Malespina.—Rosalba and Fiordeliza.
Fiordeliza.

Does nothing ever happen in this castle?
I have been gazing up the great avenue for an hour and
more, trying to think that there was a Knight Errant
pricking forward at the further end; but I saw only
two rabbits that crossed the road in a leisurely manner
on their affairs, and a squirrel which, for want of
something to do, jumped from one tree and flung itself into
the arms of another over the way. Look at Lion; he
sleeps away his second childhood at the gate, and if you
hear a grunt, 'tis that he dreams of his younger days,
when once upon a time he saw a stranger and barked.
For myself, my only companion is the ancient steward,
and his only topic is the wholesomeness of the air; a
commendation which I dare not deny, inasmuch as all
the persons I have seen beside himself, are ten serving
men whose joint ages are nine hundred and thirty-six.

Rosalba.

I wish the castle could be made more
cheerful for you; but how can it, the present Lord of it being
so far away on so perilous an enterprise, and the late
Lord .... Oh Fiordeliza! are the imaginations of my
heart very wicked when they wander after him?

Fiordeliza.

You know best; how should I take the
measure of their wickedness?

Rosalba.

It is doubt and fear which keep them so
busy; if I did but know more about him I should think
less.

Fiordeliza.

Something, then, you do know?

Rosalba.

Shall I tell you? Yes. In a summer-house
which was once a temple—you can see the corner of it
yonder in the wood on the other side of the brook—is
a statue of Silisco, made when he was a boy. A statue
of Antinoüs stands opposite to it, and Silisco's is the
more beautiful of the two. On the evening after my
arrival, as I was looking upon it, I descried in the fold
where the hand joins the drapery, a thread of silk, fastened
to which was this scroll.

Fiordeliza.

Oh, let me see it.

Rosalba.

No, Fiordeliza, I cannot give it you: see,
you will tear it.

Fiordeliza.
(reading).

He has been here then.

Rosalba.

From the farmer on the demesne I learn,
that from about the time of Silisco's disappearance from
Palermo, there lodged at the farm a person of a light,
lofty, and graceful appearance, courteous and winning of
demeanour, who answers to Silisco in everything, except
that he was not gay, but pensive and retiring. He went
hence, no one knows whither, on the day of my arrival.

Fiordeliza.

I wish he would come back; is there no
hope of him?

Rosalba.

None, Fiordeliza, none.

Fiordeliza.

Why then I return to my former aspiration
and I wish for any Knight Errant that it may please
Providence to send us.

Rosalba.

You said once that flowers and sunshine were
enough for you.

Fiordeliza.

While the sun is hot and the flowers are
happy; but look at yonder sunflower on one side the
arch, how it hangs its head? and at the hollyhock leaning
over from the other; they are heart-broken about the last
carnation, poor thing! for it died yesterday; this gusty
wind, which is getting up, is to sing its dirge. Lo! See!
There is a Knight Errant!

Rosalba.

Where?

Fiordeliza.

Behind that mountain-ash; when the wind
waves it you'll see him;—there—and I protest I believe
he is very handsome. He seems as if he did not know
which way to go. Send some one .....

Rosalba.

I see no Knight Errant.

Fiordeliza.

How blind you are! there—there.

Rosalba.

That, my dear? That is the scarecrow which
I told Girolamo to put there yesterday to keep the
blackbirds from the gourds.

Fiordeliza.

How can you be so unkind, Rosalba!
Everybody deceives me and I know the scarecrow was
put there on purpose—

Rosalba.

Nay, you deceived yourself now and I cannot
think that you have ever been deceived by another. I
should not quarrel with you for seeing that which is not,
if you would but believe in that which is; for, trust me,
it is when we are most faithless that we are most deceived.
Believe in Ruggiero, and you will have present peace and
a reward to come. To me experience has given a sharp
schooling against distrust, and I will never again let the
world's outcry and the masking of circumstance get the
better of a faithful instinct.

Fiordeliza.

I never did so yet; and when the world
and circumstance commended Ruggiero for a young
nobleman of excellent discretion and infinite sobriety,
my faithful instinct told me, there is something wicked
here.

No, no; when he ran off with Lisana, it was but a
clenching and confirming.

Rosalba.

They disappeared together; whether he took
her away I know not; but if he did, it was for no evil
purpose.

Fiordeliza.

Oh no, none: doubtless he withdrew
with her to the desert for a season of fasting and
humiliation.

Enter Mariana.
Mariana.

Please you, my Lady, the Falconer sends
his duty and Alathiella has not touched her food for three
days; he is fearful she will die, and he says the Count
gave a hundred crowns for her.

Rosalba.

Poor bird! she doted on her master and has
never held up her head since she missed him; I fear she
will die, like some of her betters, of a broken heart.

Mariana.

He says he knows but of one thing to do
with her, which is to take her to the Conjurer at the Farm.

Fiordeliza.

The Conjurer? who is he?

Mariana.

Have you not heard of him, my Lady? 'Tis
the strangest story!

Fiordeliza.

If there be anything strange left us here
below, I prithee tell of it; for I thought that everday
droppings had worn the world as smooth as a wash-ball.
How came a Conjurer to the Farm?

Mariana.

I will tell you, my Lady. It was the very
night of the going off of the wart on my thumb and the day
after the worm in Maria's nose put out horns, Dame Agata,
being in her first sleep, heard a great rushing of wings;
and so says she to her husband,—“Osporco, either the
Devil is hereabouts or there's a cockchafer;” and then
there came a knock; so, says she, “Wait to see if they
knock again, and if they do, put your blunderbuss out at
the window and ask if there's anything wanted.” Well,
the knock came a second time, and then a third; and
Osporco looked out and saw a tall man in a horseman's
cloak, which said he lacked a lodging; and as he was
but one by himself they let him in, and he has lodged
there ever since.

Rosalba.

But is he a Conjurer?

Mariana.

Surely, my Lady, no one but a Conjurer
was ever heard of to come flying through the air in that
way. And besides that, he is a magnificent man to look
at, and orders this and orders that, as though he held
the Powers of the Air at his bidding. And then he
wanders out by moonlight a-culling of simples; and he
heals the sick; and they come to him from ten miles
round; though Father Fungoso tells them it were better
to die and be saved than be healed and be damned. But

the Falconer says that, be it as it may with us, Alathiella
has no soul to trouble her and she may take any cure she
can come by.

Fiordeliza.

Well, I do not believe he is a Conjurer, or
that it will hurt us to heal us. Rosalba, I am sick.

Rosalba.

Of what, my love? of solitude or of my
society?

Fiordeliza.

I must send for this stranger.

Rosalba.

Oh, then I know what ails you; it is
curiosity.

Fiordeliza.

I say I am sick; very grievous sick.
Mariana, send word of it to the farm, and say that the
stranger must come with all the speed he can.

Mariana.

I will say, with what speed he can in the
way of nature; but he must not come rushing through the
air with wings.

Fiordeliza.

In the way of nature will serve; I shall live
till he comes in a natural way. But I will give the orders
myself. Tell Girolamo to attend me in the conservatory.
Come, Rosalba.