miasmas, odours or stenches, but per animalcula: through minuscule beings which can transmigrate from one being to another: from rats to the Pope.'
'It is true!' I recalled. 'At the beginning of our quarantine, we all discussed theories of the plague together, and Dulcibeni explained the theories of Kircher down to their minutest details. He knew them so well that it seemed he had never thought of anything else; for him this seemed to be almost…'
'… a ruling passion. The idea of contaminating the Pope must have come to him some time ago; probably, when he was speaking of the secrets of the plague with Fouquet, during the three years which the Superintendent spent in Naples.'
'But then, Fouquet must have trusted Dulcibeni implicitly.'
'Certainly. So much so that we found Kircher's letter in his undergarments. Otherwise, why should Dulcibeni have helped a blind old man so generously?' commented the abbot sarcastically.
'But where will Dulcibeni have procured the animalcula that transmit the plague?' I asked.
'There are always outbreaks here and there, although they do not always develop into major visitations. I seem to recall, for instance, that there were outbreaks on the borders of the Empire, around Bolzano. No doubt, Dulcibeni will have obtained the blood of infected rats there, with which he began his experiments. Then, when the time was ripe, he came to the Donzello, just next to Tiracorda's house, and continued to infect rats in the underground city, so as to have a ready supply of freshly infected blood.'
'In other words, he kept the plague alive, passing it from one rat to another.'
'Precisely. Perhaps, however, something caused him to lose control of his activities. In the underground galleries, everything was to be found: infected rats, phials of blood, lodgers at the inn coming and going… too much movement. In the end, some invisible germ, some animalculum, reached Bedfordi and our young Englishman was infected with the distemper. Better thus: it could have struck down you or me.'
'And Pellegrino's illness, and the death of Fouquet?'
'The plague has nothing to do with all that. Your master's illness has turned out to be simply the result of a fall, or little else. Fouquet, however, according to Cristofano (and in my view, too), was poisoned. And I would not be surprised if he was killed by Dulcibeni himself.'
'Oh heavens, the assassination of Fouquet, too?' I exclaimed in horror. 'But, to me, Dulcibeni did not seem too unpleasant a character… After all, he has suffered greatly from the loss of his daughter, poor man; his way of life could hardly have been more modest; and he was able to gain the confidence of old Fouquet, assisting and protecting him…'
'Dulcibeni intends to kill the Pope,' Atto cut me short, 'you were the first to understand that. Why, then, should he not have poisoned his friend?'
'Yes, but…'
'Sooner or later, we all make the mistake of trusting the wrong person,' said he, silencing me with a grimace. 'And besides, you have already heard how the Superintendent always trusted his friends too much,' he added, shivering a little at his own words. 'If, however, you have a taste for doubts, I have a far greater one: when he is bled tonight, the Pope will be infected by Tiracorda's leeches and will die of the pestilence. Why? Only because the Odescalchi did not help Dulcibeni to find his daughter?'
'So, what are you saying?'
'Are you not struck by how flimsy a motive this is for taking the life of a Pontiff?'
'Well, yes, indeed…'
'It amounts to so little, so very little,' repeated Atto, 'and I have the impression that Dulcibeni must have some other motive for so bold an undertaking. Just now, however, I cannot go beyond that.'
While we two were thus reflecting, Ugonio and Ciacconio were also deep in discussion. In the end, Ugonio stood up, as though impatient to be on his way.
'Concerning the matter of mortal risks, how did you manage to save yourself from the wreck of our bark on the Cloaca Maxima?' he asked the corpisantaro.
'Sacramentum of salvage, this was done by Baronio.'
'Baronio? And who would that be?'
Ugonio looked at us with solemn mien, as though he were about to make a grave announcement: 'When and wheresoever, he intervenerates to salvage a personable acquaintance in emergentitious necessity,' said he, while his companion invited us with a series of pulls and pushes to rise and follow him.
Thus, guided by the corpisantari, we again set out in the direction of conduit C.
After a few minutes' march, Ugonio and Ciacconio suddenly stopped. We had entered the first part of the gallery, and I seemed to hear a discreet rustling sound grow closer and closer. I became aware, too, of a strong, disagreeable, bestial stench.
Suddenly, Ugonio and Ciacconio bowed down, as though to worship an invisible deity. From the thick darkness of the gallery, I could just descry a number of greyish outlines, jumping up and down.
'Gfrrrlubh,' proffered Ciacconio, deferentially.
'Baronio, of all the corpisantari, Excellentissimus, Caporal and Conducentor,' announced Ugonio solemnly.
That the people of darkness who formed the corpisantari might be fairly numerous was doubtless foreseeable; but that it should be guided by a recognised chief to whom the stinking mass of seekers after relics accorded prestige, authority and quasi-thaumaturgical powers-that, we really had not expected.
And yet here was the novelty which now faced us. The mysterious Baronio had come to meet us, almost as though he had sensed our approach, surrounded by a dense group of followers. They were a motley crowd-if one can use the word motley for shades only of grey and of brown-composed of individuals not too dissimilar to Ugonio and Ciacconio: attired at best in miserable and dusty cloaks, their hands and faces concealed by cowls and over- long sleeves, the acolytes of Ugonio, Ciacconio and Baronio formed the most frightful rabble conceivable to the mind of man. The penetrating stench which I had smelled before the meeting was no more and no less than the clarion call that heralded their coming.
Baronio stepped forward. He could be distinguished by the fact that he was slightly taller than those who accompanied him.
Hardly had we met, however, than there occurred something unforeseeable: the head of the corpisantari made a rapid withdrawal and two of his stunted adepts instantly stepped in to form a shield before him. Hedgehog- like, the entire assembly of corpisantari formed into a phalanx, emitting a rumble of mistrustful mutterings.
'Gfrrrlubh,' then spoke forth Ciacconio, and suddenly the group appeared to lower their guard.
'You scarified Baronio: he misbegot you for a daemunculus sub-terraneus,' said Ugonio, 'but I did reinsure him, and can conswear, that you are a goodlious comrade-in-harms.'
The head of the corpisantari had taken me for one of those little demons which-according to their bizarre beliefs-inhabit the subterranean darkness and whom the searchers after relics have never seen but of whose existence they are horribly certain. Ugonio explained to me that such beings, who were said to inhabit the vast regions under the ground, had been amply described by Nicephorus, Caspar Schott, Fortunius Licetus, Johannes Eusebius Nierembergius and by Kircher himself, who broadly discussed the nature and customs of the daemunculi subterranei, as well as of the Cyclops, the giants, pygmies, monopods, tritons, sirens, satyrs, cynocephali and acephaii (or dog-headed and headless beings).
Now, however, there was nothing to be feared. Ugonio and Ciacconio stood guarantors for me and for Atto. The other corpisantari were therefore presented to us, answering (although my memory may betray me) to such appellations as Gallonio, Stellonio, Marronio, Salonio, Plafonio, Scacconio, Grufonio, Polonio, Svetonio and Antonio.
'Such an honour,' said Atto, restraining his ironic disgust only with the greatest of difficulty.
Ugonio explained that it was Baronio who had guided the group which came to his assistance when our little bark had capsized, leaving us at the mercy of the Cloaca Maxima. Now, too, the head of the corpisantari had mysteriously perceived (by virtue, perhaps, of the same miraculous olfactory sensibility possessed by Ciacconio, or of other out-of-the-ordinary faculties) that Ugonio wished to meet him, and he had come to the encounter from the deep bowels of the earth; or perhaps, more simply, from the trapdoor which led into the underground tunnels from the Pantheon.
The corpisantari seemed to be united by bonds of brotherhood and Christian solidarity. Through the mediation of a cardinal with a passionate interest in relics, they had informally petitioned the Pope for the right to form an
