The Rising Storm

As Roger struggled with the half of a crayfish, he sighed at the thought of the King's offer of a commission in his crack regiment of Sea Cadets. If only he could have accepted it and remained on in Naples! But he knew only too well that even were the offer to be renewed tomorrow in all seriousness, he would have to refuse it.

By the time he had supped it was getting on for one in the morning, and soon afterwards he ran into Sir William, who asked if he felt like going home. Roger agreed at once, so they went down to the diplomat's carriage and set off for the Palazzo Sessa.

The carriage had hardly turned into the Calle Toledo when Sir William said: 'The Royal Family will be taking up their residence at Caserta tomorrow, and I have been ordered to take you out there. It is a drive of about sixteen miles, so we had better start at ten o'clock.''

'Then I must beg you to excuse me, sir,' Roger said firmly. 'I have an appointment here in Naples at midday which it is impossible for me to cancel.'

Sir William raised an eyebrow. 'Really, Mr. Brook! I should hardly have thought it necessary to remind you that the orders of Her Majesty-take precedence of all private matters.'

Roger bit his lip for a second, then exclaimed: 'That, sir, obviously applies to everyone who is in the service of the Queen of Naples; but I am not.'

'You are, however, in that of His Britannic Majesty,' Sir William replied coldly, 'and I regard this as His Majesty's business.'

'Indeed, sir, I pray you pardon me.' Roger's voice was desperate. 'After all your kindness to me my behaviour must seem monstrous-churlish. But this matter is to me one of life and death. Could I not follow you on horse-back and still arrive in time? What is the latest possible hour at which it is imperative that I should be at Caserta?'

Seeing his distress, the elderly diplomat said kindly: 'I do not think the Queen and General Acton will tackle the Ring until the-afternoon; but if a particularly favourable opportunity offered they-might decide to do so any time after he returns from hunting, and that, should be between twelve and one.'

'If you could furnish me with a mount, sir, I could make the-journey in an hour.'

'How long will your appointment detain you ?'

'I had hoped for half an hour at least.'

'Then I fear it is out of the question. Too much hangs upon the-matter for us to jeopardize the issue.'

'Will it satisfy you, sir, if I give you my word to be at Caserta by one o'clock? If I ride all out I can do the sixteen miles well under the hour, so that would give me five or ten minutes with ... to see . . .'

'So be it then,' Sir William covered Roger's hesitation. 'But remember that I shall count upon you.'

At twenty to twelve next day Roger was at the Francavillas'. He had come early, praying that Isabella would be early too, and down in the­street a groom was holding Sir William's fastest riding-horse ready for him. But Isabella did not c ome early, and when midday chimed out he was still waiting for her in a fury of impatience, up in Donna Francavilla's boudoir. It was already seven minutes past twelve when Isabella arrived looking pale and wan.

Knowing the situation the Princess left them together at once; and Roger, seizing Isabella in his arms, told her that they had only a bare few minutes before he must take the road.

A couple of those precious minutes went in kisses, and his asking her if it was really illness that had caused her to leave the ball early the preceding night; but she assured him that she had done so only on account of the strain she had been under, and that she had not seen him, or known that he was there, otherwise she would have remained.

He then plunged into the matter that concerned them so desperately; swore that he could not live without her, and urged her again either to agree to his returning to Naples or to elope with him.

Wringing her hands she declared that in no circumstances must he return, as if he did he would be dead within three months; then tear­fully advanced the arguments she had used the day before against an elopement.

Hurriedly, he cut her short. 'Yes, yes, my sweet! But what I had no chance to say yesterday was this. We should have to live quietly in the country only for a time, as in due course we could regularize our union. You could get an annulment of your present marriage.'

She sadly shook her head. 'Nay, Roje. The Catholic Church would never grant an annulment to a woman who had left her husband and was living in sin, for the purpose of enabling her to marry again.'

'But what of Don Diego ?' he exclaimed. 'Should you leave him, will the Church condemn him to remain wifeless for life through no fault of his own? He is rich and influential; moreover, he is barely thirty and will not wish to spend the rest of his days like a widower. Surely the Church would not refuse an annulment to him?'

Isabella sharply drew in her breath. 'Perhaps you are right. Yes, I cannot think they would refuse him. But how long will it be before he meets someone that he wants to make his wife? And we cannot even be certain that he will wish to marry again. We should be pledging our lives on a desperate gamble. Roje', you must give me time to think! I must have time to think!'

'God forbid that I should hurry you in taking such a decision; but ''tis as good as certain now that I shall be leaving Naples tomorrow. .1 will come to the house for your answer tonight.'

'Nay, Roje! I implore you not to! I forbid it!'

'I must! I shall be held at Caserta all this afternoon. 'Tis our only chance for a last meeting; and if I die for it I must hold you in my arms again.'

As he finished speaking a nearby clock chimed the quarter after twelve, and he cried desperately: 'My poor sweet, I positively must leave you now. I will come for your decision tonight.'

Suddenly she seized and clung to him. 'One moment! Listen, I beg, or you will get us both killed. Diego is in one of his black moods. Before he left for Sicily he had fixed his eye on a Signora Goudar. She is little better than a courtesan, but difficult in spite of that; and so far she has rejected his advances. His unsatisfied passions disturb him to such a pitch that when one of them has gripped him he often paces up and down for hours at a stretch by night, in the garden. Should you enter it tonight I vow there will be murder done.'

Roger was silent for a moment, then he said: 'I care naught for an encounter with him; but if you fear he would attempt your life as well, I dare not risk it.'

'He would! I know it! Did he surprise us together he would do his utmost to kill the two of us.'

'Then I'll not come tonight. Somehow I will get my departure postponed for twenty-four hours. And in some way I'll lure Don Diego from the house tomorrow night. I'll come to you then and bring a carriage with me. That will give you ample time to decide upon our future. If 'tis favourable to me, I beg you have your things packed and Maria and Quetzal ready to leave with you; for we must take advantage of the night to get away unseen.'

With the tears streaming down her face Isabella nodded dumbly. Then, as he released her, she swayed and fainted. Catching her in his arms again, he laid her on a couch, and dashed out of the room.

At breakneck speed he rode out to Caserta; and, as he entered the fine avenue of elms that led to the palace, the clear single note of one came to him from a clock in the stables behind it.

In view of the comparative smallness of the Kingdom of Naples the size of the palace astonished him, for, as he galloped up the straight towards its thousand-foot-long facade, the building seemed positively immense. But the thought was only a passing one. Leaving his sweating mount with one of the grooms at the main entrance, he mopped the sweat from his own brow and hurried inside.

The entrance hall, great staircase and galleries around it were even more astonishing than the exterior, as they were entirely fashioned from the most rare and costly marbles, but his surprise was still further added to by the fact that there was hardly anybody about. A swift enquiry from a portly factotum produced the laconic reply that His Majesty was out hunting and might not yet be back for some time. Roger was furious. He had curtailed his all- important interview with

Isabella, winded Sir William's best horse, and had his gruelling ride, all quite unnecessarily.

The official pointed through the open door to an upward slope of the park beyond which he said the royal party would be found; so, having given his horse a good breather, Roger mounted again and set off in that direction. On the far side of the hill he arrived at a big enclosure with rustic arbours for protection from the rain, and in it was the Queen surrounded by most of her Court. The enclosure faced towards a natural amphitheatre of woods so that the spectators had a fine view of the sport which was in progress. In the woods hundreds of beaters were banging kettles and firing off petards so that the game, which consisted of deer, boar, hares and foxes, should be driven out into the open for the King to shoot at.