To Guido, and defrauded of his due
This one and that one,—more than she could name,
Until her solid piece of wickedness (580)
Happened to split and spread woe far and wide:
Contritely now she brought the case for cure.
“Make man some restitution! Do your part!
“The owners of your husband’s heritage,
“Barred thence by this pretended birth and heir,—
“Tell them, the bar came so, is broken so,
“Theirs be the due reversion as before!
“Your husband who, no partner in the guilt,
“Suffers the penalty, led blindfold thus (590)
“By love of what he thought his flesh and blood
“To alienate his all in her behalf,—
“Tell him too such contract is null and void!
“Last, he who personates your son-in-law,
“Who with sealed eyes and stopped ears, tame and mute,
“Took at your hand that bastard of a whore
“You called your daughter and he calls his wife,—
“Tell him, and bear the anger which is just!
“Then, penance so performed, may pardon be!”
Nobody in the world: but, out o’ the world, (600)
Who knows?—might timid intervention be
From any makeshift of an angel-guide,
Substitute for celestial guardianship,
Pretending to take care of the girl’s self:
“Woman, confessing crime is healthy work,
“And telling truth relieves a liar like you,
“But what of her my unconsidered charge?
“No thought of, while this good befalls yourself,
“What in the way of harm may find out her?” (610)
No least thought, I assure you: truth being truth,
Tell it and shame the devil!
Home went Violante and disbosomed all:
And Pietro who, six months before, had borne
Word after word of such a piece of news
Like so much cold steel inched through his breast-blade,
Now at its entry gave a leap for joy,
As who—what did I say of one in a quag?—
Should catch a hand from heaven and spring thereby (620)
Out of the mud, on ten toes stand once more.
“What? All that used to be, may be again?
“My money mine again, my house, my land,
“My chairs and tables, all mine evermore?
“What, the girl’s dowry never was the girl’s,
“And, unpaid yet, is never now to pay?
“Then the girl’s self, my pale Pompilia child
“That used to be my own with her great eyes—
“He who drove us forth, why should he keep her
“When proved as very a pauper as himself? (630)
“Will she come back, with nothing changed at all,
“And laugh ‘But how you dreamed uneasily!
“ ‘I saw the great drops stand here on your brow—
“ ‘Did I do wrong to wake you with a kiss?’
“No, indeed, darling! No, for wide awake
“I see another outburst of surprise:
“The lout-lord, bully-beggar, braggart-sneak,
“Who not content with cutting purse, crops ear—
“Assuredly it shall be salve to mine
“When this great news red-letters him, the rogue! (640)
“Ay, let him taste the teeth o’ the trap, this fox,
“Give us our lamb back, golden fleece and all,
“Let her creep in and warm our breasts again!
“What care for the past?—we three are our old selves,
“Who know now what the outside world is worth.”
And so, he carried case before the courts;
And there Violante, blushing to the bone,
Made public declaration of her fault,
Renounced her motherhood, and prayed the law
To interpose, frustrate of its effect (650)
Her folly, and redress the injury done.
That though indisputably clear the case
(For thirteen years are not so large a lapse,
And still six witnesses survived in Rome
To prove the truth o’ the tale)—yet, patent wrong
Seemed Guido’s; the first cheat had chanced on him:
Here was the pity that, deciding right,
Those who began the wrong would gain the good.
Guido pronounced the story one long lie (660)
Lied to do robbery and take revenge:
Or say it were no lie at all but truth,
Then, it both robbed the right heirs and shamed him
Without revenge to humanise the deed:
What had he done when first they shamed him thus?
But that were too fantastic: losels they,
And leasing this world’s-wonder of a lie,
They lied to blot him though it brand themselves.
Wherefore the court, its customary way, (670)
Inclined to the middle course the sage affect—
They held the child to be a changeling,—good:
But, lest the husband got no good thereby,
They willed the dowry, though not hers at all,
Should yet be his, if not by right then grace—
Part-payment for the plain injustice done.
But then, that other contract, Pietro’s work,
Renunciation of his own estate,
That must be cancelled—give him back his goods,
He was no party to the cheat at least! (680)
So ran the judgment:—whence a prompt appeal
On both sides, seeing right is absolute.
Cried Pietro, “Is Pompilia not my child?
“Why give her my child’s dowry?”—“Have I right
“To the dowry, why not
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