“Bodies set forth: a many have I seen,
“Yet all was poor to this I live and see.
“Here the world’s wickedness seals up the sum:
“What with Molinos’ doctrine and this deed,
“Antichrist’s surely come and doomsday near.
“May I depart in peace, I have seen my see.”
“Depart then,” I advised, “nor block the road
“For youngsters still behindhand with such sights!” (130)
“Why no,” rejoins the venerable sire,
“I know it’s horrid, hideous past belief,
“Burdensome far beyond what eye can bear;
“But they do promise, when Pompilia dies
“I’ the course o’ the day,—and she can’t outlive night,—
“They’ll bring her body also to expose
“Beside the parents, one, two, three a-breast;
“That were indeed a sight which, might I see,
“I trust I should not last to see the like!”
Whereat I bade the senior spare his shanks, (140)
Since doctors give her till to-night to live
And tell us how the butchery happened. “Ah,
“But you can’t know!” sighs he. “I’ll not despair:
“Beside I’m useful at explaining things—
“As, how the dagger laid there at the feet,
“Caused the peculiar cuts; I mind its make,
“Triangular i’ the blade, a Genoese,
“Armed with those little hook-teeth on the edge
“To open in the flesh nor shut again:
“I like to teach a novice: I shall stay!” (150)
And stay he did, and stay be sure he will.
At noon to have his look: I name no names:
Well then, His Eminence the Cardinal,
Whose servitor in honourable sort
Guido was once, the same who made the match,
(Will you have the truth?) whereof we see effect.
No sooner whisper ran he was arrived
Than up pops Curate Carlo, a brisk lad,
Who never lets a good occasion slip, (160)
And volunteers improving the event.
We looked he’d give the history’s self some help,
Treat us to how the wife’s confession went
(This morning she confessed her crime, we know)
And, may-be, throw in something of the Priest—
If he’s not ordered back, punished anew,
The gallant, Caponsacchi, Lucifer
I’ the garden where Pompilia, Eve-like, lured
Her Adam Guido to his fault and fall.
Think you we got a sprig of speech akin (170)
To this from Carlo, with the Cardinal there?
Too wary, he was, too widely awake, I trow.
He did the murder in a dozen words;
Then said that all such outrages crop forth
I’ the course of nature, when Molinos’ tares
Are sown for wheat, flourish and choke the Church:
So slid on to the abominable sect
And the philosophic sin—we’ve heard all that,
And the Cardinal too (who book-made on the same),
But, for the murder, left it where he found. (180)
Oh but he’s quick, the Curate, minds his game!
And, after all, we have the main o’ the fact:
Case could not well be simpler,—mapped, as it were,
We follow the murder’s maze from source to sea,
By the red line, past mistake: one sees indeed
Not only how all was and must have been,
But cannot other than be to the end of time.
Turn out here by the Ruspoli! Do you hold
Guido was so prodigiously to blame?
A certain cousin of yours has told you so? (190)
Exactly! Here’s a friend shall set you right,
Let him but have the handsel of your ear.
And galiard, of the modest middle class:
Born in this quarter seventy years ago,
And married young, they lived the accustomed life,
Citizens as they were of good repute:
And, childless, naturally took their ease
With only their two selves to care about
And use the wealth for: wealthy is the word, (200)
Since Pietro was possessed of house and land—
And specially one house, when good days were,
In Via Vittoria, the aspectable street
Where he lived mainly; but another house
Of less pretension did he buy betimes,
The villa, meant for jaunts and jollity,
I’ the Pauline district, to be private there—
Just what puts murder in an enemy’s head.
Moreover,—and here’s the worm i’ the core, the germ
O’ the rottenness and ruin which arrived,— (210)
He owned some usufruct, had moneys’ use
Lifelong, but to determine with his life
In heirs’ default: so, Pietro craved an heir,
(The story always old and always new)
Shut his fool’s-eyes fast on the visible good
And wealth for certain, opened them owl-wide
On fortune’s sole piece of forgetfulness,
The child that should have been and would not be.
When first Violante, ’twixt a smile and a blush, (220)
With touch of agitation proper too,
Announced that, spite of her unpromising age,
The miracle would in time be manifest,
An heir’s birth was to happen: and it did.
Somehow or other,—how, all in good time!
By a trick, a sleight of hand you are to hear,—
A child was born, Pompilia, for his joy,
Plaything at once and prop, a fairy-gift,
A saints’ grace or, say, grant of the good God,—
A fiddle-pin’s end! What imbeciles are we! (230)
Look now: if some one could have prophesied,
“For love of you, for liking to your wife,
“I undertake to crush a snake I spy
“Settling itself i’ the soft of both your breasts.
“Give me yon babe to strangle painlessly!
“She’ll soar to the safe: you’ll have your crying out,
“Then sleep, then wake, then sleep, then end your days
“In peace and plenty, mixed with mild regret,
“Thirty years hence when Christmas takes old folk”—
How had
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