The Passport

by Richard Bagot

XXIX

It was Sunday; and on Sunday and other feasts Don Agostino celebrated an additional mass at the principal altar in the parish church of Montefiano at half-past seven o'clock. This function was neither a high mass nor a messa cantata, for, except on very special occasions, when extraneous talent from Civitacastellana, or from some other larger ecclesiastical centre in the neighborhood, was forthcoming, the difficulties both musical and ceremonial of either form would have been beyond the powers of the faithful at Montefiano satisfactorily to surmount. The funzione, as it was generally called, at half-past nine on a festa was doubtless an inartistic and even an irreligious affair, if regarded from the point of view of the purist in piety or musical art. At intervals during the celebration of the mass, the organist would rattle out from the wheezy pipes such stirring airs from popular operas, comic and otherwise, as might seem to him likely to please the saint to whom the day was dedicated.

This particular Sunday happened to fall within the octave of the 8th of September, the day on which the Church commemorates the Nativity of the Madonna, and, during the consecration and elevation of the sacred elements at the mass, strains from "La Traviata" assisted the spiritual aspirations of the kneeling worshippers. The remarkable infelicity, under the circumstances, of the selection, certainly never suggested itself either to the organist or to the congregation, and Don Agostino, remembering that "to the pure all things are pure," was far too wise to think of pointing it out afterwards in the sacristy. Nevertheless, his sense of humor was acute, and not entirely to be suppressed, even when he was ministering at the altar.

But to-day the organist's doubtful compliment to the Madonna passed almost unnoticed by Don Agostino. He knew that his people gave of their best to their religion; and, if that best were not of a standard to satisfy more artistic or more pious conceptions, the fact did not greatly concern him. The truth was that it was not the first time by many that Don Agostino had heard selections from "La Traviata" at the half-past nine o'clock mass, and on this occasion he had more important matters to occupy his mind than the lack both of perception of the fitness of things and of a sense of humor on the part of the organist.

A glance round the church as he had entered it and made his way to the altar, showed him that there was scarcely a man, and certainly none of the younger men, among the congregation. The fact was all the more noticeable because Don Agostino invariably had a good attendance of men at that mass. They did not, to be sure, penetrate very far into the church, and the majority showed a determination to stand as near the door as possible. But the great point was that they came; and they came, moreover, not only to attend mass, but also to listen to the short, practical address—it was certainly not a sermon, for Don Agostino never built imaginary edifices on the foundation of a passage from Scripture—to which they knew that ten minutes were sometimes devoted by their parroco before the canon of the mass was begun.

To-day, however, the male element was conspicuous by its absence, and Don Agostino said mass in the presence of women and children only. That very morning an answer had been sent by Princess Montefiano to the request made by its leading members that she would receive a deputation from the tenants on the Montefiano lands to protest against the raising of their rents and the dismissal of Giuseppe Fontana, the fattore. The answer had been brief and decided. The princess caused it to be conveyed to the tenants and peasants that she would do nothing of the kind. Any reasonable complaints would be received by the ex-fattore Fontana's successor, and would be forwarded by him to the administration, to the Eccellentissima Casa Acorari, for consideration.

Montefiano was in no mood for a mass that morning, even though it was a Sunday and within the octave of the Madonna di Settembre. Don Agostino had heard the news as he was vesting himself in the sacristy, and had heard it with no little dismay. He had watched the storm brewing, and though he felt that a storm was much needed to clear the air, he did not wish it to burst with too great a fury. He had, indeed, prepared a discourse which he had intended to deliver at mass that morning, counselling obedience to all lawful authority, and pointing out that any attempt to redress grievances by unlawful means was not only wrong, but impolitic. The discourse remained undelivered; and when Don Agostino had read the Gospel for the day, he proceeded to recite the Credo and passed on to the canon of the mass. Those for whom his words had been specially prepared were thronging the Corso Vittorio Emanuele, eagerly debating as to what steps they should take to show the princess and her foreign advisers that they intended to persist in their determination to place their grievances before her and the principessina in person.

The curt refusal to receive the proposed deputation had, as was but natural, provoked intense indignation in and about Montefiano. Had it been a working-day, the news that the princess, as acting for Donna Bianca, had declined to listen to the representatives of the peasants would have circulated more slowly, for there were tenute belonging to the estate, some of which were several miles distant from Montefiano. But on a festa everybody who could walk, or who had a beast to carry him, came into the paese; and after being present, at any rate, during a portion of Don Agostino's half-past-nine o'clock mass, the remainder of the day was spent in gossiping with friends and acquaintances and putting hardly earned money into the pockets of the keepers of the trattorie and the wine-shops.

The error in judgment committed by Princess Montefiano in allowing her decision not to receive the deputation which had asked permission to wait upon her to be publicly known in the morning of a festa was already bearing fruit. Don Agostino, indeed, had uttered an exclamation of surprise and annoyance when he was told the news, and heard of the excitement and ill-feeling that was being already shown in the paese. He had always thought that Princess Montefiano would decline to see the deputation, for it would most probably not suit the Abbé Roux that she and Bianca Acorari should receive it. The abbé, no doubt, had counselled the showing of a firm front and an unconditional refusal to admit that the tenants had any right to interfere with the administration of the estates of the Casa Acorari. But why, in the name of common-sense and prudence, had not the Abbé Roux so arranged that the princess's reply should not be known till Monday? Don Agostino asked himself the question impatiently, and the only reply he could find to it was that the abbé, being a foreigner, had not sufficient knowledge of the customs of the people; and that he probably understood neither the character nor the temper of the Montefianesi.

The mass was scarcely concluded when, after unrobing himself of his vestments, Don Agostino hurried down the flight of steps which formed a short cut from the piazza where the church stood to the main street of the town. As he expected, he found the Corso Vittorio Emanuele thronged by an excited crowd of peasants and farmers. Among them were not a few women. Little groups were angrily discussing the event of the day, and the countenances of many of those composing them wore an expression not very pleasant to look upon.