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"And Randolph Harby is dead," said Rufus, "shot as a spy by the devilish rebel of Cambridge. See, sire see!" He offered the letter to Charles, but the King put it from him. His face was inscrutable as Evander urged his case. "Your Majesty, I am no spy, and my life could not be pawned for a spy's life." Charles's sad eyes travelled to Brilliana. "Randolph Harby was no spy," he said.
For I was minded to blow the place to pieces rather than yield it to this gentleman who would so speciously persuade me to surrender." As she spoke she glanced disdainfully in the direction of Evander Cloud, who now for the first time since the irruption of the Cavaliers became in any sense an object of public interest.
Surely it is dull for a man of action to be a prisoner, and for my own part I mope sadly now that my little war is well over." She had seated herself as she spoke, and she motioned to Evander to take his place by her side. When she paused he asked: "Are you so strenuous an amazon?"
The shepherds said it was Jupiter, and that they had often seen him kindling his lightnings and hurling his thunderbolts from thence. Evander then pointed to the ruined cities of Saturnia and Janiculum, on either side of the Tiber, whose destruction had been caused by the wrath of the god.
He was a Grecian by birth, who had left Argos, his native city, and followed Evander into Italy. It pierced the shield of Mezentius, and wounded him in the thigh. Lausus, his son, could not bear the sight, but rushed forward and interposed himself, while the followers pressed round Mezentius and bore him away.
Evander had scarcely ceased speaking when lightning flashed through the heavens and peals of thunder were heard and sounds as of trumpets blaring, and then across the sky were seen arms blazing brilliantly as the sun arms such as heroes bore in battle, and they clashed with a loud resounding noise.
Giorgione embodies in such a picture as the Adrastus and Hypsipyle, or the Aeneas and Evander, not so much what has been related to him of those ancient legends as his own mood when he is brought into contact with them; he transposes his motive from a dramatic into a lyrical atmosphere, and gives it forth anew, transformed into something "rich and strange," coloured for ever with his own inspired yet so warmly human fantasy.
Though he stood upon the edge of peril's precipice, at the threshold of death's temple, Evander could not scrutinize without vivid and conflicting emotions the face of the man because of whom the solid realm of England seemed to be dissolving into anarchy.
Though Evander surveyed his enemies as composedly as if they had been children threatening him with pins, Brilliana knew that the spirit of mischief was alive and that the Cavaliers would not boggle at cruelty, six to one, for the sport of making a Parliament man honor the King against his will. She hated the man, but she would not have him so handled.
These are the "Adrastus and Hypsipyle," in the collection of Prince Giovanelli, in Venice, and the "Aeneas, Evander, and Pallas," in the gallery at Vienna. The painted myth is a new departure, the creation of Giorgione's own brain, and as such, is treated in a wholly unconventional manner.
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