The White Rose

The Imperial Palace

While the usual greetings were being exchanged, Guccio looked from the high oaken chairs to the Damascus hangings, from the stools of precious woods encrusted with ivory to the rich carpets that covered the whole floor, from the monumental chimney-piece to the massive silver torch-holders. And the young man could not help making a rapid valuation in his mind. 'The carpets, sixty pounds apiece, certainly; the torch-holders, twice as much. The house, if every room in it is on the same scale as this one, must be worth three times my uncle's.' For, though he might dream of himself as a secret ambassador, a knight-errant of the Empress', Guccio was none the less a merchant, the son, grandson and great-grandson of merchants.

'You should have taken passage in one of my ships, for we are ship-owners too, and sailed from Rochester,' said Master Albizzi. 'You would have had a more comfortable crossing, Cousin.'

He had Hypocras served, an aromatic wine that one drank with comfits.

'You want to have an audience with the Empress, do you?' said Albizzi, playing with the great ruby that he wore on his right hand. 'Your uncle Tolomei, whom I hold in great esteem, was wise to send you to me. I will not conceal from you that this particular business, impossible perhaps for others, will be easy for me. One of my principle clients, who owes me much, is called Peter von Epp.'

'The particular friend of Maximillian?' asked Guccio.

'No, Peter the father. His influence is less evident but all the greater for that. He cleverly uses the favor shown his son, and if things go on as they are, he is likely to rule the kingdom. He is, therefore, not precisely of the Emperor's party.'

'In that case,' asked Guccio, 'is he the right person from whom I should ask assistance?'

'Cousin,' interrupted Albizzi with a smile, 'you seem still very young. Here, as elsewhere, are people who, while belonging to neither one party nor the other, profit from both by playing one off against the other. You need only measure out your smiles and words, know how to profit by the weaknesses of the great, indeed, get to know them better than they know themselves. I know what I can do.'

He summoned his secretary and rapidly wrote a few lines which he then sealed.

'You will be at the Imperial Palace this very day after dinner, Cousin,' he said, sending the secretary on his way, 'and the Empress will give you audience. You will seem to everyone but a merchant of precious stones and goldsmith's work, come especially from Italy and recommended to her by me. Like all women, Elizabeth likes pretty things. While showing her jewels, you will be able to give her your message.'

He went to a great coffer, opened it, and took out a casket covered in red velvet and ornamented with a gold lock.

'Here are your credentials,' he added.

Some hours later, the young Sienese entered the Imperial Palace's courtyard. He was utterly worn out. Showing his papers, he was quickly admitted to the imperial apartments.

Elizabeth was sitting very straight on a chair, which looked to Guccio like a throne, in the same room where, a little while before, she had received Robert Stafford. A young woman with a narrow face and rigid deportment sat beside her on a stool. Guccio went down on one knee and searched his mind for the elusive compliment. He had imagined – from what absurd illusion? – that the Empress would be alone.

'Lady von Epp' she said, 'let us look at the jewels this young Italian has brought. I am told they are marvelous.'

The name von Epp disquieted Guccio, made him anxious.

What possible role could a von Epp have about the Queen?

Having risen at a sign from Isabella, he opened the casket and showed it to her. Lady von Epp, glancing at it, said in a dry, curt voice, 'The jewels are certainly quite beautiful, but they are not for us. We cannot buy them, Madam.'

The Empress looked put out but, containing her anger, replied, 'I know, Madam, that you, your husband and indeed all your family take such great care of the finances of the kingdom that one might think they were your very own. But here you will permit me to spend my own money as I please. I notice too, Madam, that when some stranger or merchant comes to the Palace, my English ladies are always absent, as if by some accident, so that you or your mother-in-law are in attendance upon me as if you were on guard. I suspect that, if these same jewels were shown to my husband or to yours, they would find a use for them in loading each other with them as women dare not do.'

However much she might try to control herself, Isabella could not help showing her resentment against this abominable family who, while bringing the crown into contempt, pillaged the treasury. For not only did the von Epps, father and mother, profit in an abject way from the brotherly love the Emperor bore their son, but even the wife of the latter consented happily to the scandal, even forwarded it. This Lady von Epp the younger, born Maria de Kalb, was moreover the cousin of the late Jesshonek, that is to say that Emperor Maximillian had married the nearest relative of his late companion, who had been beheaded, to his present favorite.

Vexed at the affront, Lady von Epp rose and busied herself in a far corner of the enormous room, though she never took her eyes from the Queen and the young Sienese.

Guccio, recovering some of the self-possession that was ordinarily natural to him, but which today had been so strangely lacking, at last dared look Isabella in the face. Now or never, he must make the young Empress understand that he was on her side, that he pitied her misfortunes and wished for nothing but to serve her. But she was so cold in manner, showed such indifference to his person, that his heart froze. Undoubtedly she was beautiful, but her beauty seemed to Guccio to repel all thought of desire, tenderness or even understanding. She seemed to him more like a religious statue than a living woman. Her beautiful blue eyes had the same cold, fixed stare as those of Edward the Handsome. How could one say to such a woman, 'Madam, we are of similar age, we are both young and I am in love with you'? It seemed that inheritance, royal function and consecration, had created a being who differed from the rest of the human race and for whom time and flesh and blood had other rules.

All Guccio could do was to take the Earl of Northampton's iron ring from his finger, taking care to hide the gesture from the von Epp, and say, 'Madam, you will do me the favor of looking at this ring and examining its design?'

The Empress nodded her head and, her expression unaltered, looked at the ring.

'It pleases me,' she said. 'I imagine you have other things worked by the same hand?'

Guccio pretended to search the casket, played with some pearls and, taking the message from his pocket, said, 'The prices are all marked.'

'Let us go to the light that I may better see these pearls,' replied Elizabeth.

She rose and, accompanied by Guccio, went to a window embrasure where she read the message at her ease.

'Are you going back to England?' she said in a low voice.

'As soon as it pleases you to order me to do so, Madam,' replied Guccio softly.

'Then tell the Scarlet Baron, Sir Robert, that I shall shortly be in England, and that everything will be done as we agreed.'

'The honour of seeing and obeying you, Madam, is the finest reward that I could wish.'

Elizabeth thanked him with a movement of her head, merely as she would have greeted the simple compliment of a servant, and Guccio realized that between the descendant of many Kings and the nephew of a Tuscan banker there was a distance that could never be crossed.

In a loud voice, so that the von Epp might hear, Elizabeth said, 'I will let you know through Albizzi what I may decide about these pearls. Good-bye, Master Baglioni.'

She dismissed him with a gesture.

He went down on one knee again and then retired, relieved at having accomplished his mission, but very disappointed of his dreams.