Marco Visconti - chapter XXX

by Tommaso Grossi

revised, edited and reworked by Gianfranco Maitilasso Grossi

THE SEARCH

This letter sent a dagger through Marco’s heart; he was eager to mount at once and ride to Milan, and was with difficulty restrained by remembrance of the affairs of Lucca and the treaty that was to be settled the next day. He spent all that night as if lying on thorns, tortured by a frantic impatience that nearly drove him mad.

At last it was day; the appointed hour struck, and he presented himself before the Priors. His face was haggard; he spoke but little, and was impatient of the slightest contradiction; he disputed everything that was said or done, and seemed as if he wanted to pick a quarrel with everybody. In short, he so overstepped the boundaries of discretion and common civility, that the small minority who had always been against the purchase had no difficulty now in bringing over the majority to their side. It was, therefore, decided to give up Lucca altogether, and break off at once all negotiations relating thereto.

Marco, who had withdrawn from the Council Chamber during these deliberations, no sooner heard what had been decided upon than, without saying a word to the German leaders, he returned to his palace, and, accompanied by Lupo and two attendants, mounted his horse and set off on his return to Lombardy.

He travelled night and day, and on the way he made Lupo tell him all he knew about Beatrice and his master Ottorino. Ermelinda had gone into no particulars, as she felt sure that Marco held the threads of the whole plot in his hands, and therefore supposed that he must know far more about the affair than she could have told him within the compass of a letter.

Visconti, however, being quite in the dark about it all, on hearing now for the first time of the disappearance of Beatrice and her maid, of the trap in which the speaker himself had been caught, together with his master, and of the danger he had subsequently incurred on his journey to Lucca, could not help remembering what mortal aversion Lodrisio had always shown towards Ottorino.

He then remembered a certain offer that had been made to him through Pelagrua to rid him of that young knight, and certain malicious expressions and insinuations directed against him either by Pelagrua himself or by some agent acting on his behalf; and, on comparing the dates, the event itself, and the character of the parties, he found such a remarkable coincidence that he felt persuaded the whole scheme of assassination had been concocted by those two dissemblers, who had been for some time, to his certain knowledge, on the most intimate terms with each other.

Having arrived at this conclusion, he felt the blood boil in his veins and his cheeks flush scarlet. He swore in his rage to revenge himself on those traitors for seeking to bring such infamy upon his head; to punish them for the agony they had caused the poor mother and her unfortunate daughter; and indeed not to rest so long as either of those rascals still lived.

Arriving at Milan at last, he and Lupo made their way to the house of Count del Balzo, determined by some means to obtain an interview with Ermelinda, and to discover all she knew of the whereabouts of the missing pair, with a view to taking immediate steps for their rescue.

He wished at the same time to clear himself, in her eyes, of the charge of being concerned in such a piece of treachery; for he could not endure the notion of being branded with such infamy in the mind of the woman whom he had formerly loved more than life itself, and still reverenced more than any other being in the world.