"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 Cardinaclass="underline" "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."
"You will understand that the Cardinal hesitated when faced with that rhyming dedication which was both unexpected and somewhat insolent."
"Why insolent?"
"If you listened carefully, you will have noticed that the sonnet is rather curious."
"In the first place, it contains verses in Latin."
"Not only that."
"Well, it says something like the proverb that the world's a ladder: some go down and some, up; one day, you're in luck, the next, the wind may change."
"Quite. And Mazarin, who was at the height of his power, did not care to be reminded that, secundum legis ordinem divinae, in other words, according to the order of God's law, he must sooner or later resign himself to relinquishing his command."
Someone at court hastened at once to whisper in his ear that the sphere which imitates the world (giving the illusion of being able with a glance and with the sense of touch to embrace the entire terrestrial orb) subtly suggests the notion of possession of lands, cities, entire nations: in other words, the prerogative of monarchs. This was a manner of saying that Capitor, and Don John, and in the final analysis, all Spain, recognised him as the real Sovereign of France. All the more so in that the Bastard had taken pains to make it clear that he was donating the terrestrial sphere to the Cardinal, while keeping only the globe of the constellations for himself. This interpretation ended up by flattering His Eminence, so that he regained his good humour.
Capitor then unveiled the second gift. It was a great and marvellous golden charger in the Flemish style with subjects in silver in relief, representing the god of the sea, Neptune, trident in hand in lieu of a sceptre, together with his spouse, the nereid Amphitrite. They were seated rather closely side by side on a rich chariot drawn by a pair of Tritons at the gallop, gloriously parting the waves and leaving a vast land behind them.
"One of the finest Flemish chargers that I have ever seen. It must have been worth a fortune," commented Atto. "Curiously, Capitor called it by a strange name, which imprinted itself in my mind because it was neither French nor Spanish, nor of any language of our times, and this I shall tell you later."
On the dish a number of pastilles of incense had been placed, which Capitor burned, releasing their potent and noble perfume. When the smoke began to thin, the madwoman turned to the Cardinal with a lopsided smile and, pointing with menacing mien, first at the two marine deities, then at the trident, proclaimed: "Two in One!"
Mazarin, continued Abbot Melani, was rather flattered. Like many of those present, he had seen in the two deities himself and Queen Anne, and in Neptune's sceptre, the French crown, held firmly in his hand. Others, however, saw in the marine allegory of the chariot ploughing the immense sea and leaving the land behind it, and above all in the trident in Neptune's grasp, not the crown of France but that of Spain, mistress of the oceans and of two continents, exhausted by wars and thus falling into Mazarin's hands. And that sent Mazarin into raptures.
"He who deprives the crown of Spain of its sons, the crown of Spain will deprive of his sons," Capitor added even more enigmatically, instantly silencing the murmuring of the audience.
"Here too, there was a wealth of possible interpretations. Everyone understood that the warning was aimed at Philip IV of Spain, all of whose male heirs had died at a tender age. According to others, it was because his sister Anne of Austria had been made to sign a deed renouncing the Spanish throne, thus depriving the Spanish crown of its descendants in the female line; while there were those who interpreted it in terms of Philip's obstinate refusal to appoint Don John the Bastard as his heir, despite the fact that many wanted him for their future King."
Capitor moved to the third gift. Yet again, she raised the red cloth with a sharp tug, casting it away. This time, it was a splendid goblet, yet again of silver and gold, with a long stem in the form of a centaur holding up the calyx.
"An object of the finest workmanship," commented Melani, "but above all, symbolic, like the other two presents."
The goblet was in fact full of a dense and oily matter, almost like plaster. Capitor explained that this was myrrh.