Hieroglyphic Tales

  TALE VI.

  _A true Love Story_.

  In the height of the animosities between the factions of the Guelfs andGhibellines, a party of Venetians had made an inroad into theterritories of the Viscontis, sovereigns of Milan, and had carried offthe young Orondates, then at nurse. His family were at that time under acloud, though they could boast of being descended from Canis Scaliger,lord of Verona. The captors sold the beautiful Orondates to a rich widowof the noble family of Grimaldi, who having no children, brought him upwith as much tenderness as if he had been her son. Her fondnessincreased with the growth of his stature and charms, and the violence ofhis passions were augmented by the signora Grimaldi's indulgence. Is itnecessary to say that love reigned predominantly in the soul ofOrondates? Or that in a city like Venice a form like that of Orondatesmet with little resistance?

  The Cyprian queen, not content with the numerous oblations of Orondateson her altars, was not satisfied while his heart remained unengaged.Across the canal, overagainst the palace of Grimaldi, stood a convent ofCarmelite nuns, the abbess of which had a young African slave of themost exquisite beauty, called Azora, a year younger than Orondates. Jetand japan were tawny and without lustre, when compared to the hue ofAzora. Afric never produced a female so perfect as Azora; as Europecould boast but of one Orondates.

  The signora Grimaldi, though no bigot, was pretty regular at herdevotions, but as lansquenet was more to her taste than praying, shehurried over her masses as fast as she could, to allot more of herprecious time to cards. This made her prefer the church of theCarmelites, separated only by a small bridge, though the abbess was of acontrary faction. However, as both ladies were of equal quality, and hadhad no altercations that could countenance incivility, reciprocalcurtsies always passed between them, the coldness of which eachpretended to lay on their attention to their devotions, though thesignora Grimaldi attended but little to the priest, and the abbess waschiefly employed in watching and criticising the inattention of thesignora.

  Not so Orondates and Azora. Both constantly accompanied their mistressesto mass, and the first moment they saw each other was decisive in bothbreasts. Venice ceased to have more than one fair in the eyes ofOrondates, and Azora had not remarked till then that there could be morebeautiful beings in the world than some of the Carmelite nuns.

  The seclusion of the abbess, and the aversion between the two ladies,which was very cordial on the side of the holy one, cut off all hopesfrom the lovers. Azora grew grave and pensive and melancholy; Orondatessurly and intractable. Even his attachment to his kind patronessrelaxed. He attended her reluctantly but at the hours of prayer. Oftendid she find him on the steps of the church ere the doors were opened.The signora Grimaldi was not apt to make observations. She was contentwith indulging her own passions, seldom restrained those of others; andthough good offices rarely presented themselves to her imagination, shewas ready to exert them when applied to, and always talked charitably ofthe unhappy at her cards, if it was not a very unlucky deal.

  Still it is probable that she never would have discovered the passion ofOrondates, had not her woman, who was jealous of his favour, given her ahint; at the same time remarking, under affectation of good will, howwell the circumstances of the lovers were suited, and that as herladyship was in years, and would certainly not think of providing for acreature she had bought in the public market, it would be charitable tomarry the fond couple, and settle them on her farm in the country.

  Fortunately madame Grimaldi always was open to good impressions, andrarely to bad. Without perceiving the malice of her woman, she wasstruck with the idea of a marriage. She loved the cause, and alwayspromoted it when it was honestly in her power. She seldom madedifficulties, and never apprehended them. Without even examiningOrondates on the state of his inclinations, without recollecting thatmadame Capello and she were of different parties, without taking anyprecautions to guard against a refusal, she instantly wrote to theabbess to propose a marriage between Orondates and Azora.

  The latter was in madame Capello's chamber when the note arrived. Allthe fury that authority loves to console itself with for being underrestraint, all the asperity of a bigot, all the acrimony of party, andall the fictitious rage that prudery adopts when the sensual enjoymentsof others are concerned, burst out on the helpless Azora, who was unableto divine how she was concerned in the fatal letter. She was made toendure all the calumnies that the abbess would have been glad to havehurled at the head of madame Grimaldi, if her own character and the rankof that offender would have allowed it. Impotent menaces of revenge wererepeated with emphasis, and as nobody in the convent dared to contradicther, she gratified her anger and love of prating with endlesstautologies. In fine, Azora was strictly locked up and bread and waterwere ordered as sovereign cures for love. Twenty replies to madameGrimaldi were written and torn, as not sufficiently expressive of aresentment that was rather vociferous than eloquent, and her confessorwas at last forced to write one, in which he prevailed to have some holycant inserted, though forced to compound for a heap of irony thatrelated to the antiquity of her family, and for many unintelligibleallusions to vulgar stories which the Ghibelline party had treasured upagainst the Guelfs. The most lucid part of the epistle pronounced asentence of eternal chastity on Azora, not without some sarcasticexpressions against the promiscuous amours of Orondates, which ought incommon decorum to have banished him long ago from the mansion of awidowed matron.

  Just as this fulminatory mandate had been transcribed and signed by thelady abbess in full chapter, and had been consigned to the confessor todeliver, the portress of the convent came running out of breath, andannounced to the venerable assembly, that Azora, terrified by theabbess's blows and threats, had fallen in labour and miscarried of fourpuppies: for be it known to all posterity, that Orondates was an Italiangreyhound, and Azora a black spaniel.

  POSTSCRIPT.

  The foregoing Tales are given for no more than they are worth: they aremere whimsical trifles, written chiefly for private entertainment, andfor private amusement half a dozen copies only are printed. They deserveat most to be considered as an attempt to vary the stale and beatenclass of stories and novels, which, though works of invention, arealmost always devoid of imagination. It would scarcely be credited, wereit not evident from the Bibliotheque des Romans, which contains thefictitious adventures that have been written in all ages and allcountries, that there should have been so little fancy, so littlevariety, and so little novelty, in writings in which the imagination isfettered by no rules, and by no obligation of speaking truth. There isinfinitely more invention in history, which has no merit if devoid oftruth, than in romances and novelty which pretend to none.

  FINIS.