explain. More than once, she was asked where some lost object was to be found, which the owner had for a long time been seeking in vain. In a trice, she'd find it.'
'But how?'
'She'd think of it a moment, then she would move directly behind a wardrobe, or rummage in some drawer, and there was the thing they were looking for.'
'Good heavens, and how did she manage to…'
'She could do even better. She could guess at the contents of sealed envelopes or the names of people who were being introduced to her for the first time. She had premonitory dreams which were extraordinarily detailed and genuine. She invariably won at cards because, as she said, she could read the cards on her adversary's face.'
'This seems to be almost a case of witchcraft.'
'What you say makes sense. But no one ever pronounced that word. It would have caused a scandal; besides which, everyone took Capitor for what she was: a rather strange toy with which to amuse the Bastard's soldiery and, for a few days, the royal family. At the Louvre, they were many who enjoyed the entertainment during Don John's stay. When she left, the Queen, the King's brother and Madame de Montpensier bestowed on her their portraits painted on enamel and decorated with diamonds. Madame La Baziniere, who had even invited her into her home, gave her silverware and boxes full of ribbons, fans and gloves. They all, as I said, enjoyed themselves immensely, except for two persons.'
'And who were they?'
Capitor, replied Atto, pampered unguardedly by the King and the Queen Mother, had without question behaved bizarrely during those days in Paris, but never insolently. Except once. Whenever Maria Mancini was in her presence, she would always speak of the same thing: the Spanish Infanta; in other words, the woman whose hand had been offered to Louis.
'She would repeat unceasingly how beautiful the Infanta was, what a great Queen she would be one day, how she was far more beautiful than any other woman, and so on,' trilled Atto.
No one knew why the madwoman provoked Mazarin's niece, whose life at court was already difficult enough, with such irritating persistence. Some held that she had been inspired to do so by the Spaniards, who feared that the influence of the young Italian woman might prevent the marriage with the Infanta. Others thought, more simply, that Maria was not borne well by her rival, with whom she shared an instinctive, sanguine nature which, as is well known, gives rise to much discord where temperaments are equal and adverse.
Maria refused to play that game. She already had quarrels enough to pick with the court and lacked the sangfroid to put up with these provocations. She would react angrily, calling Capitor a cretin, insulting and scorning her. The madwoman responded by mocking Maria in turn with humorous, coarse verses and puns bordering on the obscene.
'And who was the other person that was not content with Capitor's presence in Paris?'
'To answer you, I must now recount for you a curious fact, which is precisely what I was intending to tell you, and which obliged me to provide this lengthy preamble.'
This took place on an afternoon when it was raining heavily, during one of those sudden, violent storms which can for a few hours prevent any business from being carried on and which remind human beings of the superiority of the forces of nature.
While the driving rain was making puddles boil and flowing in muddy rivulets through the streets of Paris, a strange gathering was taking place in a room at the Louvre.
The Bastard had at last deigned to reciprocate the myriad attentions with which he had been honoured in Paris and offered the royal family a little entertainment. Capitor was to hand over a number of gifts to Cardinal Mazarin, after which the reigning family was to be entertained with a little song recital.
'And who was to sing?' I asked, growing curious, aware as I was of Atto's musical past.
'You have been well aware since the first night we met, seventeen years ago, that in my greener years I enjoyed no little public appreciation for my musical virtues, and that sovereigns and Princes of the Blood deigned to be my audience; and that, among the latter, Queen Anne enjoyed my singing more than ordinarily,' said Abbot Melani, reminding me somewhat summarily of the fact that he had, when young, been one of the most acclaimed castrati in the theatres and courts of all Europe.
'Yes, I remember very well, Signor Atto,' I replied briefly, mindful of the fact that Abbot Melani did not care to bring out too much from his past that seemed out of place in his current career as political counsellor to the King and secret diplomatic courier.
'Well, it fell to me to sing. And that was no easy matter. It was indeed one of the most singular performances of my entire life.'
Everyone was looking forward to attending one of the madwoman's shows, explained Atto: two or three laughs and it would all be over. The company was most select: Queen Anne, Mazarin, the young King, Monsieur, his brother and, lastly, Maria whom, fearing some insolence on the part of Capitor at her expense, Louis had wanted at all costs to seat on a stool by his side. In a deep armchair near the group, but a little apart, sat Don John, accompanied by a retainer.
Upon a signal from the Bastard, three Spanish pages were ushered into the room bearing as many voluminous objects, each of them covered with a blood-red velvet cloth; whereupon I made my entry with the Capitor surrounded by her usual court of birds. The madwoman was all smiles, delighted to be the provider of the royal entertainment.
The presents, thus veiled, were placed on as many tables, arranged in a semicircle, in the middle of which the madwoman took up position, embracing a guitar.
'Courage, Capitor, show the Cardinal our gratitude,' the Bastard amiably exhorted her. Capitor, after bowing submissively, turned to the Cardinal: 'These presents are for His Eminence,' said she graciously, 'that he may extract the occult and presumed meaning therefrom, but also the clear and resplendent sense which instils knowledge in the soul.'
She unveiled the first gift. It was a great wooden globe, containing a representation of all the known earth, the lands and the rivers that furrow them, and the seas that surround them, mounted on a monumental and imposing pedestal of solid gold. The Bastard, full of pride, explained at that juncture that the terrestrial globe was the counterpart to a celestial one; he had had the pair made in Antwerp and had kept for himself the one which represented the regions of the sky, while this one he was offering to Mazarin.
Capitor turned the globe and, caressing it with her pointing finger as she looked straight into the Cardinal's eyes, she then recited a sonnet.
Friend, look well upon this figure,
Et in arcano mentis reponatur,
Ut magnus inde fructus extrahatur,
Inquiring well into its nature.
Friend, of venture here's the wheel,
Quae in eodem statu non firmatur,
Sed in casibus diversis variatur,
And some it casteth down; to others, worldly weal.
Behold, one to the heights hath risen
Et alter est expositus ruinae;
The third is stripp 'd of all, deep down, to waste is driven.
Quartus ascendet iam, nec quisquam sine
By labouring he gained his benison,
Secundum legis ordinem divinae.
'For heaven's sake, how did you manage to remember that sonnet? This all took place forty years ago!'
'What of it? You should know, my boy, that I still retain the whole of Luigi Rossi's Orfeo, which I had the honour to sing before the King in Paris when he was barely nine years old, in 1647; in other words, half a century ago. Be that as it may, Capitor distributed a copy of that sonnet, no doubt to be sure that the message would not be lost. If you had read it and reread it, as we all did in the days that followed, you too would still remember it today without the slightest difficulty…'
'The interpretation does not seem that difficult to me: 'venture's wheel' obviously refers to the turning globe.'
