Kitabı oku: «The Shadow Of The Bell Tower», sayfa 5

Chapter 5

Remember, man, that dust you are and dust you will return!

(Genesis 3:19)

The Cardinal pointed out the faithful gathered in the church, pointing his inquisitor finger and staring, one after another, at some faces in the front rows.

«Memento, homo, quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris!», and was capable of making anyone who met his eyes feel guilty, even if he had never done anything wrong in his life.

On Sunday morning, ten days after the brutal and cowardly attack by the enemy armies, taking advantage of the peace of which Cardinal Baldeschi himself had been the creator, the bodies of the Jesi’s inhabitants who had fallen in the streets, in the squares and in their homes were recovered and placed, covered with white cloths, on the naked floor of the church of St. Florian, on one side and on the other of the red velvet guide that went from the entrance to the three steps leading to the altar. The only one who had been placed in a finished and decorated wooden box, which had found its place just in front of the high altar, was Guglielmo Franciolini. The box, which had no lid, was to be lowered into a special niche in the floor of the church, covered with a marble slab engraved with his name and which was to become an integral part of the floor itself. The other fallen would be transported, through an opening in the aisle, to the crypt, where they would be placed in an anonymous common burial place. An environment that coincided with ancient Roman building basements, whose characteristics of humidity and temperature favoured the decomposition of the bodies without spreading the ungrateful odours of putrefaction to the rooms above.

«It is difficult at times like this to thank the Lord!»

The Cardinal, assisted on the altar by the Dominican Father Ignazio Amici, wanting to show the people that the Inquisition in the following days would not be without do anything, began the sermon in a calm tone, to pass in brief to thunderous words, which stuck like sharp knives in everyone’s chest.

«But be assured that whoever has betrayed will pay!»

He paused in silence, casting his gaze over the masses of the faithful. In the benches of the first rows sat the nobles, behind them the craftsmen and shopkeepers. The standing crowd, gathered in the aisles and, who had not found a place, even on the churchyard, represented the rabble, the people of the workers. Everyone, noble or not, trembled at the idea of being the scapegoat to be taken to the gallows, just to satisfy the Cardinal’s desire to feed the people some guilty one, soothe their souls and take over the reins of government left vacant by the People’s Capitan.

«Surely the Devil, the Demon, is behind such a cowardly assault. And we know that someone in Jesi has allied with him, opening the gates of the city to the enemy. And who is classically in league with the Devil? The witches!», and stared at his sister Elena, who followed his homily from a bench in the second row. «The Jews! And who does business with them. Beware you, merchants, shopkeepers, craftsmen, who borrow money at interest, or entrust your savings to the Jew who lives down by the river. No Christian would offer the same services, because usury is condemned by the Church, by the Pope: it is a serious sin.»

Those who were appointed paled, imagining themselves already on a scaffold beside Giosuè. Each of them had in fact sooner or later turned to the Jew. A small loan, necessary to start a business, or to give it an innovative boost, was in fact worth paying back with interest. And punctually the earnings were reinvested in Giosuè’s bank, which always guaranteed an income, large or small as it was. Since the trade with the New World had been opened, many Jesi’s inhabitants traders had also ridden the wave and taken advantage of lucrative exchanges. Most of the merchandise from the West Indies reached the port of Barcelona, Spain. The most shrewd merchants would bear the cost of a trip from time to time to buy, thanks to favourable auctions, goods that would be resold at five times the price at which they had purchased, in their shops, but especially at fairs and markets. Franciolini himself had faced the long journey to Barcelona more than once, and had returned with wagons full of goods. Of course, if the first trip had not been financed by the Jew, he would not have had the chance to get rich as he had done. He had returned the money to Giosuè with interest and had reinvested the earnings, partly in new trips, partly in credit certificates purchased by the Jew himself. And many others in the city had done so. Never as in the last twenty years had both the weekly market and the various fairs in Jesi been so rich in precious goods on display. Every Saturday the main square, known as the Piazza del Mercato since ancient times, was filled with stalls, and the strong smells of spices hovered in the air from the early morning hours. The fair of St. Septimius, in honour of the patron saint of the city, began on September 22nd and lasted until the middle of October. The vendors would not leave until the season turned ugly and the autumn rains began. The stalls occupied not only the Piazza del Mercato, but extended all along Via delle Botteghe, while Piazza del Panno¹² and Piazza delle Scarpe¹³ were named after the goods that could be bought there during the market and fair days. In addition to that of St. Septimius, other smaller fairs were held in Jesi, that of Santa Maria, at the end of March, and that of St. Florian, from 30 April to 8 May.

Elena, from the bench in the second row, had listened distractedly to her brother’s long homily. Her mind was going round and round, wondering where her granddaughter Lucia was, even if she could imagine it, and how far she wanted to push Artemio into her power cravings. In some cases it could be very dangerous, and he would have had no scruples if members of his family had also been at his expense. Three days earlier she had seen the Duke of Montacuto and the Grand Duke of Urbino enter the house, and she did not like it at all. Without being a seer, she had been able to understand very well what arrangements would be made. She had gone down into the kitchens, from where, by a strange acoustic effect due to a chimney in common with the one passing in her brother’s study, one could hear the words being spoken in the room above. And she had received exact confirmation of her suspicions. "As promised, I will intercede with the Holy Father that you, Grand Duke Della Rovere, be given back your lands and title. You may retire to Urbino and be respected forever by your subjects. As for Ancona, dear Duke, within a month I shall have ten thousand gold florins poured into the coffers of your city, which will serve to enlarge and fortify the port, but the merchants of the city of Jesi must be guaranteed a commercial port of call. And now, withdraw your armies."

As if waking up from a dream, his brother’s voice, from the one heard a few days earlier distorted by a pipe, came back to her ears.

«Those of you who know, speak! Those who know the traitors, accuse them, and I guarantee you that justice will take its course! In the coming days, the Court I presided over will always be open and, for the occasion, a civil judge will also be at my side, the only one left alive, the noble Dagoberto Uberti. We will be ready to hear all the testimonies and all the complaints! ...Oremus!»

The faithfuls got up from the benches and the Holy Mass went on, with the offertory, the blessing of the bread and wine and then with the sacrament of the Eucharist. Only a few years ago, the hosts, once consecrated, were kept in the tabernacle so as not to be wasted. They were handmade by the cloistered nuns, from a dough obtained with water and flour shaped into small round pieces. These were crushed with a metal press, where a talented craftsman, of the Jesian goldsmith school, had engraved, in bas-relief, the design of the cross that originates from the H of the inscription IHS. The wafers obtained in this way had a rather irregular roundish appearance and had the design in relief impressed on them by the "negative" of the press. In addition to those contained in the tabernacle, on that day the officiants had consecrated a great number of them, so many were the population gathered in the church, practically all the citizens and the whole county.

The faithful stood in line to receive the Eucharist, arranged in two parallel rows along the red velvet guide. As they approached the altar, they passed by the bodies of the fallen and circumvented the coffin of Guglielmo Franciolini, some on one side, others on the other, just before they came to receive Communion. While Cardinal Baldeschi distributed the sacrament to the faithful who came to the altar on the right side, Father Ignazio Amici did the same thing on the other side. By a strange coincidence, Elena Baldeschi had lined up to receive the Host from her brother, and immediately behind her was Elisabetta, the young girl who still showed on her arms and face the marks of the burns for which she had held the niece of the one whose back she now saw, just one step ahead.

«Corpus Christi.» The words came out like a chant from the Cardinal’s mouth, as he placed the host on his sister’s tongue, slightly pushed forward through her open mouth. Elena noticed a strange light in Artemio’s eyes, which she knew how to interpret. She already felt the flames clinging around her body; there was no need to read her brother’s thoughts to understand what his intentions were. Among his sacrificial victims there would have been her, and perhaps even Lucia, if he had had the chance to find the girl. The thought that a minister of God could be such a treacherous and evil person made her stomach turn. She felt the acidity rise up from her bowels to her mouth, and the lump in her throat was a premonition of a gagging gag.

«Amen!» Elena was quick to turn around, with the wafer still in her mouth, coming face to face with the girl who was right behind her. She could not hold her gagging, and the host came out of her jaws with force, while her hands, by instinct, were able to recover it, to prevent the body of the Lord from falling to the ground. This did not escape to Elisabetta, who in a flash realized the opportunity to take revenge on her grandmother for Lucia’s alleged faults.

«Sacrilege!» she shouted, pointing her index finger to the old woman. «She’s a witch! She took the wafer out of her mouth to use it in her nefarious practices!»

A buzz rose up in the crowd, until someone even shouted out accusations.

«It’s true, she gather with other damsels in the field behind the Jew’s house, where witches practice their blasphemous rites!»

«Yes, together with the Jew, they throw children into the fire and then eat their own flesh!»

«And I saw her flying on a broomstick!» said one young man, raising the hilarity of many.

«She’s a witch, let’s burn her now!»

«Burn her, burn her!»

The Cardinal would never have thought that such an occasion could happen to him, served on a silver platter. These unexpected accusations made everything easier. He raised his arm to call the people to order and at the same time nodded to the guards guarding the right aisle.

«Justice will take its course. No person can be executed without a trial and a chance to defend against the charges. Guards! Take her to the dungeons of the Torre di Mezzogiorno. The next few days we will review the charges and, if she is guilty, she will confess the names of her accomplices. The Lord’s will be done!»

While the guards were leading Elena out of the church, someone spit on her, others begged, some more superstitious farmer, who had garlic in his pocket, looked for it, holding it in his hands. One of them, who was following the Mass from the churchyard, passed some cloves to his wife and two little children, whispering to them: «Hold it tight, it keeps the devil away, and it seems that Beelzebub himself is here among us today!»

Once the witch had gone away and calm was restored among the faithful, the Holy Mass could go on, ending with the funeral of the dead. It had been a long function, lengthened even more by the unforeseen fact, and Artemio was tired, but despite this, already while he was in the sacristy undressing his vestments, his mind was busy studying the best strategies to exploit the situation. The sister Elena would have been condemned as a witch, perfect as a victim, to show everyone that he didn’t look anyone in the face, not even members of his own family, if there was any need. But Elena had to take a few accomplices with her on the scaffold, because it had to be clear that there had been a conspiracy, and she had been the perpetrator along with other excellent names. What better occasion to get rid of his enemies and some people who had become uncomfortable for him?

That same evening Father Ignazio Amici, the Captain of his guards Carlo Balistreri, and the lieutenant of the Guards of the People’s Captain, Antonio Capoferri, summoned to his studio. The latter, orphaned of his lord, had been forced by the Cardinal to pass into his service. For the Capoferri one master was worth the other, so he had made a good face to bad play, and had united his militia with that of the Cardinal, attracting the jealousy of the Balistreri on himself. Therefore, the two of them, gathered in the same room, looked at each other in doggedness, but they both hung on the cardinal’s lips to know what orders he would give them. The Baldeschi invited them to sit down on the armchairs, and closed the door of the room.

«What has happened in these days is extremely serious. The Devil, in his most varied form, seems to have taken over this city, but we will hunt him down, won’t we, Father Ignazio?»

«Of course!» replied the Dominican, with the exalted gaze of who feels himself a guardian of important truths. «From my deductions, it seems that someone has invoked and made the devil Baal materialize. He is a king, he teaches all kinds of knowledge, and his state is in the East. He manifests himself with three heads, one of man, one of toad and one of cat. He has a hoarse voice and knows the art of making himself invisible, which can teach those who evoke him. He commands 66 legions of devils. And we have just counted in the last days 66 legions of the enemy, each one made up of a handful of men, invade the city. Coincidence? No! But it seems we now have in our hands who summoned the devil.»

«Nonsense, to be fed to poor people to justify a much simpler conspiracy», Lieutenant Capoferri interrupted him. «The dukes of Ancona and Urbino needed a good booty and they got it. In fact, it seems that they were not so interested in maintaining the occupation of the city and, once the plundering was over, they disappeared.»

Knowing the truth about the Cardinal’s mediation with the Dukes, the Balistreri looked at the lieutenant with sufficiency, but refrained from making comments. He let the Cardinal resume the lines of argument.

«However treason there has been, and whoever is responsible for it must pay, and must pay with his life, whether he is part of my family or not. Let’s get back to the point, Father Ignazio! Elena has been imprisoned in the dungeons of the Tower. I believe that five days of putrid water and mouldy bread will reduce her to reason and we can get a confession from her. But if she should resist, do you have any good torturers?»

«Of course, we do! The Inquisition cannot send to the scaffold a person who has not confessed his crimes! Sooner or later, under torture, everyone confesses.»

Of course, the Cardinal thought to himself, who had also witnessed the torture at times. Better to face the scaffold to put an end to certain tortures. And, under torture, someone comes to accuse other persons of being his accomplices, who will follow him into his final destiny!

«I have some ideas who the witch’s accomplices are. Elena, my sister, has been very insistent lately that I favour my niece’s engagement to young Franciolini. And I also fell into her trap, organizing the official engagement party on the very day the enemy attacked us. And so I would say that my sister was in agreement with Franciolini, who facilitated the city’s attack to subvert the power of the Church and definitively hand over the government to the Ghibelline factions.»

«How can you say this?» the lieutenant intervened, outraged. «Guglielmo Franciolini is dead and his son is missing. We haven’t found Andrea’s body, but he’s certainly a corpse!»

«Not necessarily! My niece Lucia is also missing, or rather, we don’t know what happened to her. I bet the two lovebirds are together, safe somewhere not even that far away. I’ll question whoever I say, and as soon as I have the necessary information, you, Father Ignazio, with the Balistreri and a good escort, will search for the two young men. You, on the other hand, Capoferri, at the opportune moment, will take care of the Jew, and of another girl who lives in the country and about whom I will speak to you separately.»

«The Jew? Cardinal, you know well that the Court of the Inquisition cannot judge subjects belonging to other religions. What does the Jew have to do with all this?» replied the Balistreri, who until then had not made his voice heard.

«It has something to do with it! It has more to do with it than you imagine. We’ll just have to check his accounting records and go and see what his relationship with Franciolini was. Combining luck with cunning, it will be easy to show that large sums paid to the Jew by the People’s Capitan were turned over to the Duke of Montacuto or the Grand Duke of Urbino. It will not be the court of the Inquisition that will judge the Jew, but the civil judge, who has willingly agreed to assist me in the coming days. You will see, in a short time, justice will be done! Now go, leave me alone, but stay at my disposal. By tomorrow morning you’ll have precise orders.»

As the three men leave, Giovanni, the Cardinal’s faithful servant, entered, holding a tray with a jug and a chalice already full of rosolio¹⁴ in his hand. Artemio drank greedily and poured some more, then he asked Giovanni to go and look for Pinuccia, the black handmaiden who, together with the blonde Mira, was in charge of looking after his niece Lucia. It was not by chance that the choice had fallen on the brunette; other times the Cardinal had taken advantage of her and found her willing, provided he had rewarded her adequately. The blonde, on the other hand, had always eluded him. Within a few minutes, Giovanni tracked down Pinuccia, introduced her into the Cardinal’s study and closed the door, not after having bowed reverently to his master as he took his leave. For his part, the latter gave a turn of the key to the door to make sure no one entered, and then turned to the girl, pointing to the fireplace.

«Light a nice fire, I need to warm up!»

«But, Your Eminence, the season is hot and I don’t think it’s appropriate!»

Artemio approached Pinuccia and untied the bow that tied her dress around her neck, revealing the young girl’s skin to the point of a dimple between her breasts. Then with the palm of his hand, he went searching under her clothes until he found a nipple. Artemio sensed that Pinuccia felt a little disgust at the thought of having to satisfy his sexual whims again, but the five silver coins, which she would eventually earn, would make her overlook any hesitation. The girl loaded the wood into the fireplace and lit the fire, complying with her master’s request. The fire was now bursting merrily when the Cardinal spoke again.

«All right, now get undressed. I want to see your body lit only by the light of the fire», and so saying, as Pinuccia began to slowly take off his clothes, he began to extinguish all the candles in the candelabra, until the room was lit only by the reddish light produced by the fire in the fireplace. The young girl’s slightly amber skin, soaked in a layer of sweat due to both heat and nervous tension, shone in the flickering light of the fire. Artemio approached her and melted her brown hair. A gesture which, from delicate as it seemed, suddenly turned into gratuitous violence. With the same hand with which he had untied it, he pulled abruptly towards the flames the lock of hair caught between his fingers. When hair came close to the fire, it sizzled a little, and Artemio was pleased to smell the typical smell, though barely hinted at, of witnessing the execution of a witch. Tears were streaming down the girl’s face, while the Cardinal was enjoying the violence he was causing his victim to suffer.

«I could throw you into the flames now, if I wanted, or have you tried for witchcraft and burned alive in the public square. But it would be a pity not to enjoy the presence and services of such a beautiful young woman!»

Still pulling her by the hair, he pulled her away from the flames and led her to kneel before him, so that her mouth was a short distance away from his erect member. Then, pressing behind the back of her neck, he guided the girl’s head a little further forward.

«If you’re good and tell me what I want, not only will I not hurt you, but I’ll be able to reward you much more generously than before.»

Having achieved pleasure with oral intercourse, Artemio lifted the girl, so that her face was a short distance from his eyes. At the same time, he tightened the young body so as to feel the pressure of her firm breasts against his chest.

«I want to know where my niece Lucia is hidden!»

Pinuccia shook his head at that request.

«You can’t ask me, I don’t know!»

Artemio, having already achieved a certain fulfilment, decided not to use violence again. He went to his desk, opened a drawer, triggered a mechanism and, from a secret drawer, pulled out a small saddlebag.

«These could soon be yours!» he said, opening the saddlebag and showing its contents to the young woman: a handful of gold florins. Suddenly Pinuccia spoke. Then he stretched out her hand to take possession of the promised money, but the Cardinal was quick to withdraw it.

«A little too much for a simple piece of information that I might have come to myself. Come into the bedroom. You will satisfy me properly and then you will have your reward. Not before!»