conversation but to annoy the guests? How dared he permit himself to provoke so impudently a friend and close collaborator of the master of the house? What was more, had not Atto overplayed his French background quite outrageously? Everyone knew, of course, that he was an agent in the service of the Most Christian King; but to make such a display of his partisanship (thus calling down upon himself an open denunciation by Albani) had really been most unwise. At this rate, no one would ever be able to approach him without attracting unwelcome attention. Anyone who talked openly with Melani risked being taken for an open seconder of the French King's ambitions.
Albani had at last calmed down. Not content with the effect he had produced, Atto began speaking yet again.
'Your Excellency is too subtle of understanding not to pardon me if I commit some errors, and too great- hearted not to be indulgent if I briefly recall how Pope Alexander VIII, as I was on the point of saying a few moments ago, had two nephews who were both Secretaries of State: Cardinal Rubini, who formally held the post, and Cardinal Ottoboni, who exercised it de facto. And yet it was he who pronounced those famous words: 'Take heed, for the eleventh hour has sounded.' By this he meant that matters could not go on like this much longer. And he was pope just before the present one! So, you see that…'
'Come, Abbot Melani, do you really want to make these excellencies angry?' Don Giovanni Battista Pamphili interrupted him; having plenty of famous cases of nepotism in his own family and being of a gay and amiable disposition, he easily succeeded in changing the tone and the direction of the conversation. ''Tis true we're in a Jubilee Year, and so must recognise our sins, but our own, not those of others!'
Laughter from those nearby at table thus succeeded in undoing the frowns of a few Zealot cardinals and silencing Atto's unwelcome incitement.
'The Prince of Monaco, the new Ambassador of the Most Christian King of France, made a most dignified entry to the Quirinale a few days ago to salute the Holy Father with a sumptuous, noble and rich equipage, served by an infinite number of prelates and the nobility,' broke in Monsignor D'Aste, in an attempt to take part in Pamphili's diversion.
Someone must, however, have counselled him with a kick under the table to avoid at all costs mentioning the word 'France', for a brief grimace of pain crossed his face and he fell silent at once without waiting for any answer from his neighbours.
'Monsignor Straccetto will never understand what and when,' commented Prince Borghese sotto voce in the ear of Baron Scarlatti.
The Steward, all agitated and bathed in perspiration, ordered that other wines were to be served at once, to create a little movement and distract the table.'On Tuesday, the Reverend Father of the Dominicans went in procession to visit the new Padre General of the Franciscans,' said Durazzo.
'Yes, that I heard,' replied Negroni. 'He climbed right to the top of the Ara Coeli Steps with the cross on his shoulders. Heaven knows how fatiguing that must have been. And, speaking of news, I have heard that His Holiness's Privy Chamberlain has left bearing the Most Eminent Monsignor de Noailles his new cardinal's hat, which he is taking all the way to…'
'… Yes, of course, and now they're choosing who is to bring it to the new Cardinals Lamberg and Borgia,' said Durazzo, just succeeding in preventing Negroni from mentioning Paris, where the new Cardinal de Noailles was indeed awaiting his hat.
At that juncture, as the end of the nuptial banquet approached, all eyes turned towards the spouses' table: Cardinal Spada had risen, glass in hand, to salute the providential chairborne arrival of the Princess of Forano, the deus ex machina who thus brought the whole embarrassing dispute to a close.
La Strozzi remained seated in her conveyance; although visibly put to the test by her confinement, she had not been willing to forgo the opportunity to embrace the bride who, as Cloridia had mentioned to me, was a good friend of hers.
The child was not there. Needless to say, the Princess had already dumped him upon the wet-nurse. He would soon be arriving with his father. Cardinal Fabrizio greeted the Princess with a toast and a speech.
'Aristotle was mistaken when he said that woman is weak,' he began in a facetious tone. 'While 'tis true that the females of rapacious animals such as leopards, panthers, bears, lions and the like, are stronger and more robust than the males, I would make another point: namely that women's ways are idle and delightful, and that each of these things is enough to unnerve a Hercules or an Atlas.'
Everyone laughed at the sharpness and piquancy of the Secretary of State's observation.
'Nor do 1 agree with Aristotle when he calls woman 'a monster' or 'an accidental animal'. Here, the great man was raving, perhaps because he was angry with his own good wife.'
The renewed outburst of laughter had the effect of clearing the air and cheering souls; the tension caused by Abbot Melani had now completely vanished.
'But above all,' continued the master of the house in flattering tones, 'a woman like the Princess here present may certainly be said to be strong and not weak, and worthy to stand beside Lasthenia of Mantinea and Axiothea of Phlius, Plato's disciples. And while the examples of Panthasilea and Camilla are reputed favourable, those of Zenobia and Fulvia, Antony's wife, to whom Cassius Dio refers in his account of the reign of Augustus, are most true and historical. Likewise most certain is the history of the Amazons' valour and of their empire. And he who knows not of the Sibyls knows nothing. I can surely place these women beside our newly delivered Princess, so that all together, after the Most Holy Madonna, they may be upheld as models of virtue and wisdom for the bride who now sits here before us.'
These words were greeted with a round of applause and a toast to wish Maria Pulcheria Rocci every good fortune: as a bride and not a mother, she was in fact less important than the new mother; besides which, the poor thing, with her seaweed- coloured turbot's countenance, was certainly not one to inspire high-flown epithalamia.
'And what should be said of Aspasia, who taught Pericles and Socrates?' the speech continued, 'or of the most learned Areta, remembered by Boccaccio? Was she not simultaneously both mother and philosopher? So well did she raise her offspring that she wrote a most useful book on how to instil manners in children, and another, for the use of the children themselves, on the vanity of youth; at the same time, for thirty-five years she taught natural philosophy, having a hundred philosophers for disciples, as well as composing the most erudite works: on the wars of Athens, on the power of tyrants, on Socrates' Republic, on the un- happiness of women, on the vanity of funerary rites, on bees and on the prudence of ants.'
Meanwhile, the fifth course was served, usually consisting entirely of fruit. Although I had already eaten, I could not remain indifferent to the dishes of tartufali tartufolati — truffles in a truffle sauce served on crusts of toasted bread with half-lemons, or to the dishes making up an imperial feast of ravioli with butter, cauliflowers, tartuffolo sea urchins, egg yolks, with juice of lemon and cinnamon. Nor were the other poor torchbearers unmoved by such delicacies, yet they must like Tantalus stand by and listen powerlessly to the motions of the great lords and ladies'jaws and palates. Then came the fried Ascoli olives, the Florentine marzolino cheeses and the Spanish olives.
'But was this not to be the fruit course?' Baron Scarlatti discreetly asked the Prince Borghese.
'The fruit is there,' replied the other. 'Namely, the truffles on toast and in the imperial feast, the citrus cubes inside the fried olives and the orange flowers garnishing the fresh olives.'
'Ah, I see,' replied Scarlatti laconically, yet remaining unconvinced that subterranean truffles could be described as fresh fruit.
Then, to refresh the palate, bowls of iced pistachios were brought to the table, together with ground pistachios, pistachios in their shells, pistachio cakes, peach pies alla Senese, candied lettuce stalks and, in honour of Cardinal Durazzo, who came of a noble Genoese family, bowls of candied Genoese pears, together with prunes and candied Adam's apples, citrons and medlars, all from Genoa.
At that moment the Princess of Forano's newborn babe arrived, well swaddled in his father's arms.
'Minor mundus,' said Cardinal Spada, greeting him with the name 'world in miniature' accorded to man by the ancients for the perfection of his composition. Spada blessed the child and prayed that this might be a sign most auspicious.
'May you augur a prolific future for our beloved bride and groom today!' he concluded.
There was yet another toast; the various members of the couple's families then stood up one after another and, turning to the happy pair, they eulogised, magnified, augured, remembered and exhorted as is the custom at
