The Italian, Volume 2

The Italian, Volume 2 by Ann Ward Radcliffe

In this portion of The Italian, Ellena escapes from the convent of San Stefano with Vivaldi’s help. Disguised in Olivia’s veil, she receives Vivaldi’s instructions during a festival, then slips through the convent with Olivia and meets Vivaldi and brother Jeronimo at the garden gate. Jeronimo leads them through secret passages, but his conduct arouses suspicion when an outer gate is found locked and he leaves them concealed in a chamber resembling the prison where a nun had died. An aged monk discovers them, confirms that Jeronimo has betrayed them, and finally frees them through the gate as their pursuers approach. Vivaldi, Ellena, and Paulo flee by moonlight, evade pilgrims and two suspicious Carmelites, and travel toward the lake of Celano. They rest with hospitable shepherds, while Vivaldi repeatedly urges Ellena to marry him at once for their safety. Ellena loves him and feels bound by her promise to Signora Bianchi, but resists becoming a member of his hostile family without its consent. They reach Celano, where Ellena is sheltered by Ursalines and Vivaldi lodges with Benedictines. Meanwhile, the Marchesa learns that Ellena has escaped with her son and believes they are married. Furious at the supposed disgrace to her family and the loss of a wealthy proposed alliance, she consults Schedoni. He artfully inflames her pride, persuading her that Ellena’s death is justice and self-defence. Though the Marchesa recoils at murder when a requiem awakens pity and terror, she agrees to meet him again and remains vulnerable to his influence. At Celano, Ellena falls ill from her anxieties. When she recovers, Vivaldi renews his plea for marriage. At last, moved by love, gratitude, and the memory of Bianchi, she consents, though she fears humiliation in the eyes of his family. A Benedictine agrees to marry them secretly in the chapel of San Sebastian. As the ceremony begins, armed men burst in, summon Vivaldi and Ellena in the name of the Inquisition, and accuse Vivaldi of stealing a nun from her convent. Ellena’s borrowed nun’s veil gives plausibility to the charge. Vivaldi and Paulo resist but are wounded and overpowered. Ellena is taken away while Vivaldi collapses, and they part in despair. Vivaldi and Paulo are conveyed to Rome and imprisoned by the Holy Office. In the Inquisition’s gloomy chambers, Vivaldi fears for Ellena more than for himself. He is examined by an Inquisitor, required to swear secrecy, and accused not merely through the supposed abduction of a nun but also through some hidden accusation connected with the church of the Spirito Santo. He indignantly denies guilt, challenges the tribunal’s concealed accusers and witnesses, and refuses to confess falsely even under threat of torture. The Inquisitor orders him to prepare either for confession or for the question on the following day. Ellena, however, has not been taken to Rome. Her captors carry her through Apulia to a lonely decaying house on the Adriatic, inhabited by Spalatro. Believing the Marchesa has arranged her murder, Ellena suspects poison in the milk brought to her and secretly pours it away. Spalatro later permits her to walk on the shore, where she sees distant fishermen’s huts and hopes for rescue. Instead she encounters Schedoni, whose questions reveal that he considers her the destroyer of a noble family. He seizes her, but, when she faints, he hesitates between pity and the murderous purpose he has undertaken. He leaves her briefly, only for Spalatro to recapture her and return her to confinement. Schedoni reflects on his past as Count di Marinella, his ambition, his assumed monastic identity, and his bargain with the Marchesa: Ellena’s death in exchange for ecclesiastical advancement. Resolving again that she must die, he orders Spalatro to murder her in sleep and dispose of her body in the sea. Spalatro refuses the killing, haunted by former crimes, though he agrees to assist afterward; Schedoni prepares to undertake the murder himself.

By Ann Ward Radcliffe · First published 1797 · Genre: Gothic fiction, Gothic romance, Romantic fiction · 10 chapters · 65,761 words

First lines

That lawn conceals her beauty / As the thin cloud, just silver'd by the rays, / The trembling moon: think ye 'tis shrouded from / The curious eye?

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Gothic fiction · Romanticism · historical novel · religious persecution · Italian setting · Catholic clergy · Inquisition · convent life · aristocracy · forbidden love · family secrets · villainy

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