2) ***




Produced by Al Haines.




                             JOHN INGLESANT

                               A Romance


                                   by

                         John Henry Shorthouse



              [Greek: Agapetoi, nun tekna Theou esmen, kai
                     oupo ephanerothe ti esometha.]



                                VOL. II.



                                 London
                           MACMILLAN AND CO.
                                  1881




                _Printed by_ R & R. CLARK, _Edinburgh_.




                           *JOHN INGLESANT.*



                              *CHAPTER I.*


Inglesant travelled to Marseilles, and by packet boat to Genoa.  The
beauty of the approach by sea to this city, and the lovely gardens and
the country around gave him the greatest delight.  The magnificent
streets of palaces, mostly of marble, and the thronged public places,
the galleries of paintings, and the museums, filled his mind with
astonishment; and the entrance into Italy, wonderful as he had expected
it to be, surpassed his anticipation.  He stayed some time in Genoa, to
one or more of the Jesuit fathers in which city he had letters.  Under
the guidance of these cultivated men he commenced an education in art,
such as in these days can be scarcely understood.  From his coming into
Italy a new life had dawned upon him in the music of that country.
Fascinated as he had always been with the Church music at London and
Oxford, for several years he had been cut off from all such enjoyment,
and, at its best, it was but the prelude to what he heard now.  For
whole hours he would remain on his knees at mass, lost and wandering in
that strange world of infinite variety, the mass music--so various in
its phases, yet with a monotone of pathos through it all.  The musical
parties were also a great pleasure.  He played the violin a little in
England, and rapidly improved by the excellent tuition he met with here.
He became, however, a proficient in what the Italians called the viola
d'amore, a treble viol, strung with wire, which attracted him by its
soft and sweet tone.  Amid a concord of sweet sounds, within hearing of
the splash of fountains, and surrounded by the rich colours of an
Italian interior, the young Englishman found himself in a new world of
delight. As the very soul of music, at one moment merry and the next mad
with passion and delightful pain, uttered itself in the long-continued
tremor of the violins, it took possession in all its power of
Inglesant's spirit.  The whole of life is recited upon the plaintive
strings, and by their mysterious effect upon the brain fibres, men are
brought into sympathy with life in all its forms, from the gay promise
of its morning sunrise to the silence of its gloomy night.

From Genoa he went to Sienna, where he stayed some time--the dialect
here being held to be very pure, and fit for foreigners to accustom
themselves to.  He spoke Italian before with sufficient ease, and
associating with several of the religious in this city he soon acquired
the language perfectly. There can be nothing more delightful than the
first few days of life in Italy in the company of polished and congenial
men. Inglesant enjoyed life at Sienna very much; the beautiful clean
town, all marble and polished brick, the shining walls and pavement
softened and shaded by gardens and creeping vines, the piazza and
fountains, the cool retired walks with distant prospects, the Duomo,
within and without of polished marble inexpressibly beautiful, with its
exceeding sweet music and well-tuned organs, the libraries full of
objects of the greatest interest, the statues and antiquities everywhere
interspersed.

The summer and winter passed over, and he was still in Sienna, and
seemed loth to leave.  He associated mostly with the ecclesiastics to
whom he had brought letters of introduction, for he was more anxious at
first to become acquainted with the country and its treasures of art and
literature than to make many acquaintances.  He kept himself so close
and studious that he met with no adventures such as most travellers,
especially those who abandon themselves to the dissolute courses of the
country, meet with,--courses which were said at that time to be able to
make a devil out of a saint.  He saw nothing of the religious system but
what was excellent and delightful, seeing everything through the medium
of his friends. He read all the Italian literature that was considered
necessary for a gentleman to be acquainted with; and though the learning
of the Fathers was not what it had been a century ago, he still found
several to whom he could talk of his favourite Lucretius and of the
divine lessons of Plato.

When he had spent some time in this way in Italy, and considered himself
fitted to associate with the inhabitants generally, the Benedictines
took Inglesant to visit the family of Cardinal Chigi, who was afterwards
Pope, and who was a native of Sienna.  The cardinal himself was in Rome,
but his brother, Don Mario, received Inglesant politely, and introduced
him to his son, Don Flavio, and to two of his nephews. With one of
these, Don Agostino di Chigi, Inglesant became very intimate, and spent
much of his time at his house.  In this family he learnt much of the
state of parties in Rome, and was advised in what way to comport himself
when he should come there.  The Cardinal Panzirollo, who with the
Cardinal-Patron (Pamphilio), had lately been in great esteem, had just
died, having weakened his health by his continued application to
business, and the Pope had appointed Cardinal Chigi his successor as
first Secretary of State.  The Pope's sister-in-law, Donna Olympia
Maldachini, was supposed to be banished, but many thought this was