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CHAPTER VII

From the top of the eight steps leading to the door of the armed castle
occupied by Signora de Franchi and her son, I could overlook the whole place.

The village wore a very different aspect from what it had presented the day
previous; it was crowded with people, composed, however, entirely of women, and
children under twelve years of age; not a man appeared in the streets.

On the first step of the church was a man solemnly girded with a tri-colored
scarf, it was the Mayor.

Under the portico, another man, dressed in black, was sitting before a table,
upon which was laid a paper colored with writing. This was the Public Notary,
and the paper was the deed of reconciliation.

I took my stand on one side of the table with the witnesses of Orlandini. On
the other side stood the witnesses of Colonna.

Lucien, as belonging equally to both parties, stood in the centre behind the
Notary.

In the choir of the church, the priests were saying mass.

The clock struck ten.

At this moment a shudder ran through the crowd, and all eyes were turned to
the two opposite ends of the street, where, from the hill side, appeared
Orlandini, while at the same time Colonna entered from the river side. Both of
them were accompanied by their partisans. But according to the articles of
agreement none of them carried arms. Had it not been for the crabbed expression
of their countenances, one would have taken them for peaceable churchwardens
following a procession.

The chiefs of the two parties presented a very remarkable physical contrast.
Orlandini, as I have already said, was tall, thin, dark complexioned and agile.

Colonna was short, heavy and vigorous; his hair and beard were red, short,
and curled.

Both chiefs carried in their hands a branch of olive tree, a symbolical
emblem of the peace which they were going to conclude; this was one of the
Mayor’s poetical inventions.

Colonna also carried by the feet a white hen, destined to serve as damages
for the one which ten years before had given rise to the quarrel.

The hen was a living one. This point had been long discussed, and was very
near causing the whole affair to be a failure—Colonna considering it a double
humiliation to give back a living hen, when his aunt had thrown a dead one into
the face of Orlandini’s cousin. However, by means of logical arguments, Lucien
had prevailed upon Colonna to give the hen, and by the power of similar
demonstrations, had determined Orlandini to accept it.

At the moment when the two enemies made their appearance, the church bells,
which had been silent for some time, began to ring violently.

Upon seeing each other, both Colonna and Orlandini made a movement, which
left no doubt of their mutual repulsion; nevertheless they continued to advance.

They halted directly in front of the church door, and stood opposite each
other, about four steps apart.

If, three days before, these two men had met at a hundred steps’ distance,
one of them would certainly have fallen on the spot.

During five minutes there reigned, not only in the two parties, but also in
the whole crowd, a silence, which, notwithstanding the amicable and reconciling
character of the ceremony, had nothing in it of a very peaceful expression.

The Mayor then said in a loud voice:

“Well, Colonna, you know that you have to speak first.”

Colonna made a great effort, and pronounced a few words in the Corsican
dialect.

It seemed to me that he expressed his regret for having passed ten years in
vendetta with his good neighbor Orlandini, and he offered him the white hen
which he carried as a reparation.

Orlandini waited until the speech of his adversary was fully terminated, and
promised in another few Corsican words, not to remember any thing but the solemn
reconciliation which was taking place, under the auspices of the Signor Mayor,
the arbitration of Signor Lucien, and the arrangement of the Signor Notary.

They then both became silent again.

“Well, signori,” said the Mayor, “it was greed upon, I believe, that you
should shake hands with each other.”

By an instinctive movement, the two enemies put their hands behind them.

The Mayor descended the steps upon which he was standing, took Colonna’s hand
from behind his back, then got hold of Orlandini’s hand, and after some efforts,
which he tried to hide from the by-standers by smiling, he succeeded in joining
their hands.

The Notary took advantage of that moment, rose, and commenced reading the
following, while the Mayor still kept the two hands joined, which at first did
all they could to disunite, but finally consented to remain together.

“Before us, Guiseppe-Antonio-Sarrola, Notary Royal, at Sullacaro, Province of
Sartene; “On the square of the village, in front of the church, in presence of
the Signor Mayor, the witnesses and the whole population; “Between Gaetano-Orso
Orlandi, called Orlandini,

“And Marco-Vincenzio Colonna, called Schioppone,

“Has been concluded as follows, viz: From this day, March 9th of the year
1841, the vendetta existing between them for the last ten years shall cease.