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"Your newspapers are, no doubt, in the mail-bags," he said. "We had a good passage, and are a full ship. Of passengers I have two and ladies. One, by the way, is the heiress of Mattei Perucca over at Olmeta, whom you doubtless knew." The colonel turned, and looked towards the steamer with some interest. "Is that so?" he said reflectively. "Yes; a pinched old maid in a black dress.
Of all tales of household feud and vengeance and murder that can be found in old Rome, one of the most terrible is told of the Mattei, whose great palace used to stand almost opposite the bridge of Saint Bartholomew, leading to the island, and not more than two hundred yards from the Anguillara tower.
In the Villa Mattei we saw an ediculo, which rises at the edge of a terrace, amidst climbing plants. There, as an inscription says, Saint Philip Neri talked to his disciples of things divine. From the terrace one can see the Baths of Caracalla, and part of the Roman Campagna behind them.
"But if they thought you were dead, what satisfaction could there be in living on here?" But the count only looked at his son in silence. He did not seem to follow the hasty argument. He had the placid air of a child or a very old man, who will not argue. "Besides, Mattei Perucca is dead." "So they say. So Jean tells me. I have not seen the abbe lately.
"Never, mademoiselle, he is as steady as a rock, either on sea or land!" "Very good then, you can take him," said she. "You can take him!" echoed the colonel, and they passed on their way. Toward five o'clock in the evening Captain Mattei came to escort them on board the schooner.
He then returned to Rome, where, M. Jacopo Mattei, a Roman gentleman, discoursing with Francesco Sant'Agnolo of his desire to have the façade of his house painted in chiaroscuro, Francesco proposed Taddeo to him; but he appeared to that gentleman to be too young, wherefore Francesco said to him that he should make trial of Taddeo in two scenes, which, if they were not successful, could be thrown to the ground, and, if successful, could be continued.
And Alessandro Mattei came also, with his son, Girolamo, and bringing with him two men whom he called his friends, but whom no one knew. These were hired murderers, but Piero smiled pleasantly and made a pretence of being well satisfied. The company feasted together, and drank old wine, with songs and rejoicings of all sorts.
Early on the 6th, the firing began all along the line, the Italian 16-pounders having been the first to open fire. The Italian right was commanded by Colonel Mattei, the left by Colonel Bangoni, who did excellent work, while the other wing was not so successful.
Most often they would go to one of the villas, left like flotsam from the shipwreck of the Splendid Rome of the setticento under the assault of the flood of the Piedmontese barbarians. They preferred, above all, the Villa Mattei, that promontory of ancient Rome, beneath which the last waves of the deserted Campagna sink and die.
King Charles IV and his wife were in Rome, living in the Barberini Palace, and they spent their days in the seclusion of the Villa Mattei; and while the favourite and the Queen, who had now become a harpy, walked in those poetical avenues, bordered with box and laurel, the good Bourbon, now an old man, walked behind them, his forehead ornamented like a faun's, enchanted to watch them; I don't know whether he was playing the flute.
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