The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-12-06
Published by special ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 49, ALI Rights Resmvedl
DON GESUALDO
t-Copyrighted 1885; All Rights Reserved
Author of UNDER Two FLAGS" "Two LITTLE WOODEN Shoes "PUcK,n "SrRArHMoRF
"CHANDos" "a RAINY DAY IN JUNE" and Other Popular Novels.
PART Nv.

Meantime, Gesualdo was striving with the ut
most force that was in him to persuade the real
criminal to confess publicly what he had told
under the seal of confession. He saw the man
secretly, and used every argument with which
the doctrines of his church and his own intense
desires could supply him. But there is no obsti-
macy SO logged. no egotism SO impenetrable. no
shield against persuasion so absolute as the stolid
ignorance and self-love of a low mind. The
Girellone turned a deaf ear to all censure as to
all entreaty; he was stolidly indifferent to all the
woe that he had caused and would cause if he re-
manned silent. What was all that to him? The
thought of the miller's widow shut up in prison
pleased him; he had hated her as he had seen
her in what he called her fnery, going by him in
the sunshine, with all her bravery of
pearl necklace, of silver hairpins. of
gold watch and chain. Many and
many a time he had thirsted to snatch at them,
and pull them off her. What right had she to
them-she, a daughter of naked, hungry folks,
who dug and carried sea and river sand for q liv-
iBgR She was no better than himself! Now and
then, Generosa had called him, in her careless,
imperious fashion, to draw water or carry wood
for her, and when she had done 80 she had never
taken the trouble to bid him good day, or to say
a good natured word. His pride was hurt, and
he had had much ado to restrain himself from
calling her a daughter of beggars, a worm Of
the sand. Like her own people, he was pleased
that she should now find her fine clothes and her
ieweled trinkets of no avail to her, and that she
should weep the light out of her big eyes, and
the rosebloom off her peach-like cheeks in the
equalor and nausea of a town prison.
Gesualdo, with all the force which a profound
conviction that he speaks the truth lends to any
speaker, wrestled for the soul of this logged
brute, and warned him Of the punishment ever
lasting which would await him if he persisted in
his refusal to surrender himself to justice. But
he might as well have spoken to the great mill
stones at rest in the river water. Why then
had this wretch cast the burden of his vile secret
on innocent shouldersl 1t was the most poignant
anguish to him that he could awaken no sense
of guilt in the conscience of the criminal. The
man had come to him partly from a vague super
stious impulse, remnant of a credulity instilled
into him in childhood, and partly from the want
to sfogare himself, as he called it, to tell his
story to someone, which is characteristic of all
weak minds in times of trouble and peril. 1t
had relieved him to drag the priest in to sharing
his own guilty consciousness: he was half proud
and half afraid of the manner in which he had
slain his master, and bitterly incensed that he
had done the deed for nothing; but beyond this
he had no other emotion except that he was glad
that Generosa should suffer through and for it.
"You will burn forever if you persist in such
hideous wickedness," said Gesualdo again and
again to him.
81 will take my chance OF that, said the man;
''hell is far off, and the galleys are near"
But if you do not believe in my power to alb
solve you or leave you accursed, why did you
ever confess to me9" cried Gesualdo.
Because one must clear ones breast to some
body when one has a thing like that on ones
mind" answered the Girellone, sand know you
cannot tell of it again."
And from that position nothing moved him.
No entreaties, threats, arguments, denuncia-
tions stirred him a hairs breadth. He had con-
fessed per ~sfogarsi; that was all.
But one night after Gesualdo had thus spoken
to him, vaeuge fears assaulted him, terrors ma
terial, not spiritual; he had parted with his Sc
cret; who could tell that it might not come out
like a sleuth hound, and find him and denounce
bim9 He had told it to be at peace, but he was
not at peace. He feared every instant to have
the hand of the law upon him. Whenever he
heard the trot of the carbineers' horses going
through the village, or saw the white belts and
cooked hats of gendarmes in the sunlight of the
fields, a cold tremor OF terror seized him lest the
priest should after all have told. He knew that
it was impossible. and yet he was afraid.
He counted up the money he had saved, a little
roll of filthy and crumpled bank notes for very
small amounts, and wondered if they would be
enough to take him across to America. They
were very few, but his fear compelled him to
trust to them. He invented a story of remit
tances which he had received from his brother,
and told his fellow-laborers and his employer
that he was invited to join that brother; and
then he packed up his few clothes and went.
AT the mill and in the village they talked a little
Of 1t. saying that the Girellone was in luck, but
that they for their parts would not care to 60 so
far. Gesualdo heard of his flight in the course
of the day.
my God!-gone away!-out of the country2n
he cried, involuntarily, with white lips.
The people who heard him wondered. ''What
could it matter to him that a carter had gone to
seek his fortunes over the seas9"
The Girellone had not been either such a good
worker or such a good boon companion that any
one at the mill or in the village should greatly
regret him.
America gets all our rubbish" said the peo-
pie. Much good may it do her"
Meantime, the man took his way across the
country and, sometimes by walking, sometimes
Dy hits IN wagons, sometimes by helping char
coal burners on the road. made his way, without
spending much, to the sea coast. and in the port
of Leghorn took his passage in an emigrant ship
then loading there. The green canebrakes and
peaceful mil,et fields Of Marca saw him no more.
But he had left the burden of his blood
outlines behind him, and it lay on the ~guiltless
soul with the weight of the world.
So long as the man had remained in Marca