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Authors: Umberto Eco
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should allow the commander first to inform His Highness. With equal elegance the marshal of Bassompierre, cantering over the snow, doffed his hat before his king and, after informing him that the violins had entered and the mummers were at the door, asked his permission to open the dance. Richelieu celebrated a field mass, the French infantry attacked, and Susa was conquered.
Seeing how things then stood, Charles Emmanuel decided that Louis XIII was a most welcome guest and came out to receive him, asking him only not to waste time at Casale, which was already being dealt with, but to help him take Genoa instead. He was courteously invited not to talk nonsense and was given a handsome goose quill to sign a treaty allowing the French freedom of action in Piedmont. Charles Emmanuel managed to retain Trino as a consolation and was authorized to exact an annual rent from the duke of Mantua for Monferrato. "And so Nevers," the officer said, "to keep what was his, agreed to pay rent to someone who had never been its owner."
"And he paid!" Another man laughed. "Quel con!"
"Nevers has always had to pay for his follies," said an abbé, who had been introduced to Roberto as Toiras's confessor. "Nevers is a jester of God, convinced that he is Saint Bernard. He has always been dominated solely by the idea of assembling the Christian princes for a new crusade. These are times when the Christians are killing one another: who gives a thought to the infidels these days? Gentlemen of Casale, if a stone or two is left of this city, you must expect your new lord to invite all of you to Jerusalem!" The abbé smiled, amused, stroking his well-trimmed blond moustache, as Roberto was thinking: So it goes: this morning I was about to die for a madman, and this madman is called mad because he dreams, as I used to dream, of the days of the fair Melisende and the Leper King.
Nor did subsequent events allow Roberto to untangle the motives behind this story. Betrayed by Charles Emmanuel, Gonzalo de Cordoba realized that he had lost the campaign, recognized the Susa agreement, and led his eight thousand men back into Milanese territory. A French garrison was installed at Casale, another at Susa, the rest of Louis's army crossed the Alps again to wipe out the last Huguenots in Languedoc and the valley of the Rhone.
But none of those gentlemen had any intention of honoring pacts, and the officers seated around the table told the whole story as if it was all entirely natural, indeed some agreed and remarked, "La Raison d'Estat, ah, la Raison d'Estat." For reasons of state OlivaresâRoberto gathered that he was some sort of Spanish Richelieu, but less blessed with luckârealized he had cut a sorry figure, unceremoniously dismissed Gonzalo, and put Ambrogio Spinola in his place, repeating that the insult offered to Spain was detrimental to the Church. "Rubbish," the abbé interjected. "Urban VIII favored the succession of Nevers." And Roberto wondered what the Pope had to do with matters not involving questions of faith.
Meanwhile the emperorâand there was no telling the thousand different ways Olivares put pressure on himâremembered that Mantua was in the hands of a commissioner, and Nevers could neither pay nor not pay for something that was still not his due; the emperor lost patience and sent twenty thousand men to besiege the city. The pope, seeing Protestant mercenaries running about Italy, immediately imagined another sack of Rome and sent troops to the Mantuan border. Spinola, more ambitious and determined than Gonzalo, decided to besiege Casale again, but seriously this time. In short, Roberto privately concluded, if you would avoid wars, never make treaties of peace.
In December of '29 the French again crossed the Alps. According to their pacts, Charles Emmanuel should have let them pass, butâevidence of his reliabilityâhe reiterated his claims to the Monferrato and demanded six thousand French soldiers to
Seeing how things then stood, Charles Emmanuel decided that Louis XIII was a most welcome guest and came out to receive him, asking him only not to waste time at Casale, which was already being dealt with, but to help him take Genoa instead. He was courteously invited not to talk nonsense and was given a handsome goose quill to sign a treaty allowing the French freedom of action in Piedmont. Charles Emmanuel managed to retain Trino as a consolation and was authorized to exact an annual rent from the duke of Mantua for Monferrato. "And so Nevers," the officer said, "to keep what was his, agreed to pay rent to someone who had never been its owner."
"And he paid!" Another man laughed. "Quel con!"
"Nevers has always had to pay for his follies," said an abbé, who had been introduced to Roberto as Toiras's confessor. "Nevers is a jester of God, convinced that he is Saint Bernard. He has always been dominated solely by the idea of assembling the Christian princes for a new crusade. These are times when the Christians are killing one another: who gives a thought to the infidels these days? Gentlemen of Casale, if a stone or two is left of this city, you must expect your new lord to invite all of you to Jerusalem!" The abbé smiled, amused, stroking his well-trimmed blond moustache, as Roberto was thinking: So it goes: this morning I was about to die for a madman, and this madman is called mad because he dreams, as I used to dream, of the days of the fair Melisende and the Leper King.
Nor did subsequent events allow Roberto to untangle the motives behind this story. Betrayed by Charles Emmanuel, Gonzalo de Cordoba realized that he had lost the campaign, recognized the Susa agreement, and led his eight thousand men back into Milanese territory. A French garrison was installed at Casale, another at Susa, the rest of Louis's army crossed the Alps again to wipe out the last Huguenots in Languedoc and the valley of the Rhone.
But none of those gentlemen had any intention of honoring pacts, and the officers seated around the table told the whole story as if it was all entirely natural, indeed some agreed and remarked, "La Raison d'Estat, ah, la Raison d'Estat." For reasons of state OlivaresâRoberto gathered that he was some sort of Spanish Richelieu, but less blessed with luckârealized he had cut a sorry figure, unceremoniously dismissed Gonzalo, and put Ambrogio Spinola in his place, repeating that the insult offered to Spain was detrimental to the Church. "Rubbish," the abbé interjected. "Urban VIII favored the succession of Nevers." And Roberto wondered what the Pope had to do with matters not involving questions of faith.
Meanwhile the emperorâand there was no telling the thousand different ways Olivares put pressure on himâremembered that Mantua was in the hands of a commissioner, and Nevers could neither pay nor not pay for something that was still not his due; the emperor lost patience and sent twenty thousand men to besiege the city. The pope, seeing Protestant mercenaries running about Italy, immediately imagined another sack of Rome and sent troops to the Mantuan border. Spinola, more ambitious and determined than Gonzalo, decided to besiege Casale again, but seriously this time. In short, Roberto privately concluded, if you would avoid wars, never make treaties of peace.
In December of '29 the French again crossed the Alps. According to their pacts, Charles Emmanuel should have let them pass, butâevidence of his reliabilityâhe reiterated his claims to the Monferrato and demanded six thousand French soldiers to
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