Sorceress of Rome

NATHAN GALLIZIER

Description

Though he went on to have a successful career as a businessman in the United States, Nathan Gallizier was born in Italy, and his early experiences in that country significantly influenced his literary output as a novelist. Set in Rome in the year 999, this novel follows the torrid romance of protagonists Otto and Stephania.

Sujets

• Historical fiction

Informations

• Publié par: The Floating Press
• Date de parution: 01 mai 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776670093
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE SORCERESS OF ROME
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NATHAN GALLIZIER
 
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The Sorceress of Rome First published in 1907 Epub ISBN 978-1-77667-009-3 Also available: PDF ISBN 978-1-77667-010-9 © 2014 The Floating Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in The Floating Press edition of this book, The Floating Press does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. The Floating Press does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book. Do not use while operating a motor vehicle or heavy equipment. Many suitcases look alike. Visit www.thefloatingpress.com
Contents
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Introduction BOOK THE FIRST Chapter I - The Grand Chamberlain Chapter II - The Pageant in the Navona Chapter III - On the Palatine Chapter IV - The Wanton Court of Theodora Chapter V - The Wager Chapter VI - John of the Catacombs Chapter VII - The Vision of San Pancrazio Chapter VIII - Castel San Angelo Chapter IX - The Sermon in the Ghetto Chapter X - The Sicilian Dancer Chapter XI - Nilus of Gaëta Chapter XII - Red Falernian Chapter XIII - Dead Leaves Chapter XIV - The Phantom at the Shrine Chapter XV - The Death Watch Chapter XVI - The Conclave BOOK THE SECOND Chapter I - The Meeting Chapter II - The Queen of Night Chapter III - The Elixir of Love Chapter IV - The Secret of the Tomb Chapter V - The Grottos of Egeria Chapter VI - Beyond the Grave Chapter VII - Ara Coeli Chapter VIII - The Gothic Tower Chapter IX - The Snare of the Fowler Chapter X - The Temple of Neptune Chapter XI - The Incantation Chapter XII - The Hermitage of Nilus Chapter XIII - The Lion of Basalt Chapter XIV - The Last Tryst Chapter XV - The Storm of Castel San Angelo Chapter XVI - The Forfeit Chapter XVII - Nemesis Chapter XVIII - Vale Roma BOOK THE THIRD Chapter I - Paterno Chapter II - Memories Chapter III - The Consummation Chapter IV - The Angel of the Agony Chapter V - Return
Introduction
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The darkness of the tenth century is dissipated by no contemporaryhistorian. Monkish chronicles alone shed a faint light over thediscordant chaos of the Italian world. Rome was no longer the capitalof the earth. The seat of empire had shifted from the banks of theTiber to the shores of the Bosporus, and the seven hilled city ofConstantine had assumed the imperial purple of the ancient capital ofthe Cæsars.
Centuries of struggles with the hosts of foreign invaders had in timelowered the state of civilization to such a degree, that in point ofliterature and art the Rome of the tenth century could not boast of asingle name worthy of being transmitted to posterity. Even the memoryof the men whose achievements in the days of its glory constituted thepride and boast of the Roman world, had become almost extinct. A greatlethargy benumbed the Italian mind, engendered by the reaction from theincessant feuds and broils among the petty tyrants and oppressors of thecountry.
Together with the rest of the disintegrated states of Italy, united byno common bond, Rome had become the prey of the most terrible disorders.Papacy had fallen into all manner of corruption. Its former halo andprestige had departed. The chair of St. Peter was sought for by briberyand controlling influence, often by violence and assassination, and thecity was oppressed by factions and awed into submission by foreignadventurers in command of bands collected from the outcasts of allnations.
From the day of Christmas in the year 800, when at the hands of Pope LeoIII, Charlemagne received the imperial crown of the West, the GermanKings dated their right as rulers of Rome and the Roman world, a right,feebly and ineffectually contested by the emperors of the East. It wasthe dream of every German King immediately upon his election to crossthe Alps to receive at the hand of the Pope the crown of a country whichresisted and resented and never formally recognized a superiority forcedupon it. Thus from time to time we find Rome alternately in revoltagainst German rule, punished, subdued and again imploring the aid ofthe detested foreigners against the misrule of her own princes, tosettle the disputes arising from pontifical elections, or as protectionagainst foreign invaders and the violence of contending factions.
Plunged in an abyss from which she saw no other means of extricatingherself, harassed by the Hungarians in Lombardy and the Saracens inCalabria, Italy had, in the year 961, called on Otto the Great, King ofGermany, for assistance. Little opposition was made to this powerfulmonarch. Berengar II, the reigning sovereign of Italy, submitted andagreed to hold his kingdom of him as a fief. Otto thereupon returned toGermany, but new disturbances arising, he crossed the Alps a secondtime, deposed Berengar and received at the hands of Pope John XII theimperial dignity nearly suspended for forty years.
Every ancient prejudice, every recollection whether of Augustus orCharlemagne, had led the Romans to annex the notion of sovereignty tothe name of Roman emperor, nor were Otto and his two immediatedescendants inclined to waive these supposed prerogatives, which theywere well able to enforce. But no sooner had they returned to Germanythan the old habit of revolt seized the Italians, and especially theRomans who were ill disposed to resume habits of obedience even to thesovereign whose aid they had implored and received. The flames ofrebellion swept again over the seven hilled city during the rule of OttoII, whose aid the Romans had invoked against the invading hordes ofIslam, and the same republican spirit broke out during the brief, butfantastic reign of his son, the third Otto, directing itself in thelatter instance chiefly against the person of the youthful pontiff,Bruno of Carinthia, the friend of the King, whose purity stands out inmarked contrast against the depravity of the monsters, who, to thenumber of ten, had during the past five decades defiled the throne ofthe Apostle. Gregory V is said to have been assassinated during Otto'sabsence from Rome.
The third rebellion of Johannes Crescentius, Senator of Rome, enactedafter the death of the pontiff and the election of Sylvester II, formsbut the prelude to the great drama whose final curtain was to fall uponthe doom of the third Otto, of whose love for Stephania, the beautifulwife of Crescentius, innumerable legends are told in the old monkishchronicles and whose tragic death caused a lament to go throughout theworld of the Millennium.
BOOK THE FIRST
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The Truce of God
"As I came through the desert, thus it was As I came through the desert: All was black, In heaven no single star, on earth no track; A brooding hush without a stir or note, The air so thick it clotted in my throat. And thus for hours; then some enormous things Swooped past with savage cries and clanking wings; But I strode on austere; No hope could have no fear." — James Thomson .
Chapter I - The Grand Chamberlain
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It was the hour of high noon on a sultry October day in Rome, in theyear of our Lord nine hundred and ninety-nine. In the porphyry cabinetof the imperial palace on Mount Aventine, before a table covered withparchments and scrolls, there sat an individual, who even in the mostbrilliant assembly would have attracted general and immediate attention.
Judging from his appearance he had scarcely passed his thirtieth year.His bearing combined a marked grace and intellectuality. The finelyshaped head poised on splendid shoulders denoted power and intellect.The pale, olive tints of the face seemed to intensify the brilliancy ofthe black eyes whose penetrating gaze revealed a singular compound ofmockery and cynicism. The mouth, small but firm, was not devoid ofdisdain, and even cruelty, and the smile of the thin, compressed lipsheld something more subtle than any passion that can be named. Hisears, hands and feet were of that delicacy and smallness, which is heldto denote aristocracy of birth. And there was in his manner thatindescribable combination of unobtrusive dignity and affected elegancewhich, in all ages and countries, through all changes of manners andcustoms has rendered the demeanour of its few chosen possessors theinstantaneous interpreter of their social rank. He was dressed in acrimson tunic, fastened with a clasp of mother-of-pearl. Tight fittinghose of black and crimson terminating in saffron-coloured shoes coveredhis legs, and a red cap, pointed at the top and rolled up behind broughtthe head into harmony with the rest of the costume.
Now and then, Benilo, the Grand Chamberlain, cast quick glances at thesand-clock on the table before him; at last with a gesture of mingledimpatience and annoyance, he pushed back the scrolls he had beenexamining, glanced again at the clock, arose and strode to a windowlooking out upon the western slopes of Mount Aventine.
The sun was slowly setting, and the light green silken curtains hungmotionless, in the almost level rays. The stone houses of the city andher colossal ruins glowed with a brightness almost overpowering. Not aripple stirred the surface of the Tiber, whose golden coils circled thebase of Aventine; not a breath of wind filled the sails of the desertedfishing boats, which swung lazily at their moorings. Over the distantCampagna hung a hot, quivering mist and in the vineyards climbing theJaniculan Mount not a leaf stirred upon its slender stem. The rampartsof Castel San Angelo dreamed deserted in the glow of the westering sun,and beyond the horizon of ancient Portus, torpid, waveless and suffusedin a flood of dazzling brightness, the Tyrrhene Sea stretched toward thecloudless horizon which closed the sun-bright view.
How long the Grand Chamberlain had thus abstractedly gazed out upon theseven-hilled city gradually sinking into the repose of evening, he wasscarcely conscious, when a slight knock, which seemed to come from thewall,