文章简介

===============================================================

小说下载尽在http://bbs.txtnovel.com---书香门第【凌落无声】整理

附：【本作品来自互联网,本人不做任何负责】内容版权归作者所有!

===============================================================

ROME

FROM "THE THREE CITIES"

By Emile Zola

Translated By Ernest A. Vizetelly

PREFACE

IN submitting to the English-speaking public this second volume of M.

Zola's trilogy "Lourdes, Rome, Paris," I have no prefatory remarks to

offer on behalf of the author, whose views on Rome, its past, present,

and future, will be found fully expounded in the following pages. That a

book of this character will, like its forerunner "Lourdes," provoke

considerable controversy is certain, but comment or rejoinder may well be

postponed until that controversy has arisen. At present then I only

desire to say, that in spite of the great labour which I have bestowed on

this translation, I am sensible of its shortcomings, and in a work of

such length, such intricacy, and such a wide range of subject, it will

not be surprising if some slips are discovered. Any errors which may be

pointed out to me, however, shall be rectified in subsequent editions. I

have given, I think, the whole essence of M. Zola's text; but he himself

has admitted to me that he has now and again allowed his pen to run away

with him, and thus whilst sacrificing nothing of his sense I have at

times abbreviated his phraseology so as slightly to condense the book. I

may add that there are no chapter headings in the original, and that the

circumstances under which the translation was made did not permit me to

supply any whilst it was passing through the press; however, as some

indication of the contents of the book--which treats of many more things

than are usually found in novels--may be a convenience to the reader, I

have prepared a table briefly epitomising the chief features of each

successive chapter.

E. A. V.

MERTON, SURREY, ENGLAND,

April, 1896.

CONTENTS TO PART I. I

"NEW ROME"--Abbe Froment in the Eternal City--His First Impressions--His

Book and the Rejuvenation of Christianity

II

"BLACK MOUTH, RED SOUL"--The Boccaneras, their Mansion, Ancestors,

History, and Friends

III

ROMANS OF THE CHURCH--Cardinals Boccanera and Sanguinetti--Abbes

Paparelli and Santobono--Don Vigilio--Monsignor Nani

CONTENTS TO PART II. IV

ROMANS OF NEW ITALY--The Pradas and the Saccos--The Corso and the Pincio

V

THE BLOOD OF AUGUSTUS--The Palaces of the Caesars--The Capitol--The

Forum--The Appian Way--The Campagna--The Catacombs--St. Peter's.

VI

VENUS AND HERCULES--The Vatican--The Sixtine Chapel--Michael Angelo and

Raffaelle--Botticelli and Bernini--Gods and Goddesses--The Gardens--Leo

XIII--The Revolt of Passion

CONTENTS TO PART III. VII

PRINCE AND PONTIFF--The International Pilgrimage--The Papal Revenue--A

Function at St. Peter's--The Pope-King--The Temporal Power

VIII

THE POOR AND THE POPE--The Building Mania--The Financial Crash--The

Horrors of the Castle Fields--The Roman Workman--May Christ's Vicar

Gamble?--Hopes and Fears of the Papacy

IX

TITO's WARNING--Aspects of Rome--The Via Giulia--The Tiber by Day--The

Gardens--The Villa Medici---The Squares--The Fountains--Poussin and the

Campagna--The Campo Verano--The Trastevere--The "Palaces"--Aristocracy,

Middle Class, Democracy--The Tiber by Night

CONTENTS TO PART IV. X

FROM PILLAR TO POST--The Propaganda--The Index--Dominicans, Jesuits,

Franciscans--The Secular Clergy--Roman Worship--Freemasonry--Cardinal

Vicar and Cardinal Secretary--The Inquisition.

XI

POISON!--Frascati--A Cardinal and his Creature--Albano, Castel Gandolfo,

Nemi--Across the Campagna--An Osteria--Destiny on the March

XII

THE AGONY OF PASSION--A Roman Gala--The Buongiovannis--The Grey

World--The Triumph of Benedetta--King Humbert and Queen Margherita--The

Fig-tree of Judas

XIII

DESTINY!--A Happy Morning--The Mid-day Meal--Dario and the Figs--Extreme

Unction--Benedetta's Curse--The Lovers' Death

CONTENTS TO PART V. XIV

SUBMISSION--The Vatican by Night--The Papal Anterooms--Some Great

Popes--His Holiness's Bed-room--Pierre's Reception--Papal Wrath--Pierre's

Appeal--The Pope's Policy--Dogma and Lourdes--Pierre Reprobates his Book

XV

A HOUSE OF MOURNING--Lying in State--Mother and Son--Princess and

Work-girl--Nani the Jesuit--Rival Cardinals--The Pontiff of Destruction

XVI

JUDGMENT--Pierre and Orlando--Italian Rome--Wanted, a Democracy--Italy

and France--The Rome of the Anarchists--The Agony of Guilt--A

Botticelli--The Papacy Condemned--The Coming Schism--The March of

Science--The Destruction of Rome--The Victory of Reason--Justice not

Charity--Departure--The March of Civilisation--One Fatherland for All

Mankind

ROME

PART I.

I.

THE train had been greatly delayed during the night between Pisa and

Civita Vecchia, and it was close upon nine o'clock in the morning when,

after a fatiguing journey of twenty-five hours' duration, Abbe Pierre

Froment at last reached Rome. He had brought only a valise with him, and,

springing hastily out of the railway carriage amidst the scramble of the

arrival, he brushed the eager porters aside, intent on carrying his

trifling luggage himself, so anxious was he to reach his destination, to

be alone, and look around him. And almost immediately, on the Piazza dei

Cinquecento, in front of the railway station, he climbed into one of the

small open cabs ranged alongside the footwalk, and placed the valise near

him after giving the driver this address:

"Via Giulia, Palazzo Boccanera."*

* Boccanera mansion, Julia Street.

It was a Monday, the 3rd of September, a beautifully bright and mild

morning, with a clear sky overhead. The cabby, a plump little man with

sparkling eyes and white teeth, smiled on realising by Pierre's accent

that he had to deal with a French priest. Then he whipped up his lean

horse, and the vehicle started off at the rapid pace customary to the

clean and cheerful cabs of Rome. However, on reaching the Piazza delle

Terme, after skirting the greenery of a little public garden, the man

turned round, still smiling, and pointing to some ruins with his whip,

"The baths of Diocletian," said he in broken French, like an obliging

driver who is anxious to court favour with foreigners in order to secure

their custom.

Then, at a fast trot, the vehicle descended the rapid slope of the Via

Nazionale, which dips down from the summit of the Viminalis,* where the

railway station is situated. And from that moment the driver scarcely

ceased turning round and pointing at the monuments with his whip. In this

broad new thoroughfare there were only buildings of recent erection.

Still, the wave of the cabman's whip became more pronounced and his voice

rose to a higher key, with a somewhat ironical inflection, when he gave

the name of a huge and still chalky pile on his left, a gigantic erection

of stone, overladen with sculptured work-pediments and statues.

* One of the seven hills on which Rome is built. The other six

are the Capitoline, Aventine, Quirinal, Esquiline, Coelian,

and Palatine. These names will perforce frequently occur in

the present narrative.

"The National Bank!" he said.

Pierre, however, during the week which had followed his resolve to make

the journey, had spent wellnigh every day in studying Roman topography in

maps and books. Thus he could have directed his steps to any given spot

without inquiring his way, and he anticipated most of the driver's

explanations. At the same time he was disconcerted by the sudden slopes,

the perpetually recurring hills, on which certain districts rose, house

above house, in terrace fashion. On his right-hand clumps of greenery

were now climbing a height, and above them stretched a long bare yellow

building of barrack or convent-like aspect.

"The Quirinal, the King's palace," said the driver.

Lower down, as the cab turned across a triangular square, Pierre, on

raising his eyes, was delighted to perceive a sort of aerial garden high

above him--a garden which was upheld by a lofty smooth wall, and whence

the elegant and vigorous silhouette of a parasol pine, many centuries

old, rose aloft into the limpid heavens. At this sight he realised all

the pride and grace of Rome.

"The Villa Aldobrandini," the cabman called.

Then, yet lower down, there came a fleeting vision which decisively

impassioned Pierre. The street again made a sudden bend, and in one

corner, beyond a short dim alley, there was a blazing gap of light. On a

lower level appeared a white square, a well of sunshine, filled with a

blinding golden dust; and amidst all that morning glory there arose a

gigantic marble column, gilt from base to summit on the side which the

sun in rising had laved with its beams for wellnigh eighteen hundred

years. And Pierre was surprised when the cabman told him the name of the

column, for in his mind he had never pictured it soaring aloft in such a

dazzling cavity with shadows all around. It was the column of Trajan.

The Via Nazionale turned for the last time at the foot of the slope. And

then other names fell hastily from the driver's lips as his horse went on

at a fast trot. There was the Palazzo Colonna, with its garden edged by

meagre cypresses; the Palazzo Torlonia, almost ripped open by recent

"improvements"; the Palazzo di Venezia, bare and fearsome, with its

crenelated walls, its stern and tragic appearance, that of some fortress

of the middle ages, forgotten there amidst the commonplace life of

nowadays. Pierre's surprise increased at the unexpected aspect which

certain buildings and streets presented; and the keenest blow of all was

dealt him when the cabman with his whip triumphantly called his attention

to the Corso, a long narrow thoroughfare, about as broad as Fleet

Street,* white with sunshine on the left, and black with shadows on the

right, whilst at the far end the Piazza del Popolo (the Square of the

People) showed like a bright star. Was this, then, the heart of the city,

the vaunted promenade, the street brimful of life, whither flowed all the

blood of Rome?

* M. Zola likens the Corso to the Rue St. Honore in Paris, but

I have thought that an English comparison would be preferable

in the present version.--Trans.

However, the cab was already entering the Corso Vittorio Emanuele, which

follows the Via Nazionale, these being the two piercings effected right

across the olden city from the railway station to the bridge of St.

Angelo. On the left-hand the rounded apsis of the Gesu church looked

quite golden in the morning brightness. Then, between the church and the

heavy Altieri palace which the "improvers" had not dared to demolish, the

street became narrower, and one entered into cold, damp shade. But a

moment afterwards, before the facade of the Gesu, when the square was

reached, the sun again appeared, dazzling, throwing golden sheets of

light around; whilst afar off at the end of the Via di Ara Coeli, steeped

in shadow, a glimpse could be caught of some sunlit palm-trees.

"That's the Capitol yonder," said the cabman.

The priest hastily leant to the left, but only espied the patch of

greenery at the end of the dim corridor-like street. The sudden

alternations of warm light and cold shade made him shiver. In front of

the Palazzo di Venezia, and in front of the Gesu, it had seemed to him as

if all the night of ancient times were falling icily upon his shoulders;

but at each fresh square, each broadening of the new thoroughfares, there

came a return to light, to the pleasant warmth and gaiety of life. The

yellow sunflashes, in falling from the house fronts, sharply outlined the

violescent shadows. Strips of sky, very blue and very benign, could be

perceived between the roofs. And it seemed to Pierre that the air he

breathed had a particular savour, which he could not yet quite define,

but it was like that of fruit, and increased the feverishness which had

possessed him ever since his arrival.

The Corso Vittorio Emanuele is, in spite of its irregularity, a very fine

modern thoroughfare; and for a time Pierre might have fancied himself in

any great city full of huge houses let out in flats. But when he passed

before the Cancelleria,* Bramante's masterpiece, the typical monument of

the Roman Renascence, his astonishment came back to him and his mind

returned to the mansions which he had previously espied, those bare,

huge, heavy edifices, those vast cubes of stone-work resembling hospitals

or prisons. Never would he have imagined that the famous Roman "palaces"

were like that, destitute of all grace and fancy and external

magnificence. However, they were considered very fine and must be so; he

would doubtless end by understanding things, but for that he would

require reflection.**

* Formerly the residence of the Papal Vice-Chancellors.

** It is as well to point out at once that a palazzo is not a

palace as we understand the term, but rather a mansion.--Trans.

All at once the cab turned out of the populous Corso Vittorio Emanuele

into a succession of winding alleys, through which it had difficulty in

making its way. Quietude and solitude now came back again; the olden

city, cold and somniferous, followed the new city with its bright

sunshine and its crowds. Pierre remembered the maps which he had

consulted, and realised that he was drawing near to the Via Giulia, and

thereupon his curiosity, which had been steadily increasing, augmented to

such a point that he suffered from it, full of despair at not seeing more

and learning more at once. In the feverish state in which he had found

himself ever since leaving the station, his astonishment at not finding