THE CAPSINA
An Historical Novel.
By
E. F. Benson
Author of
"The Vintage" "Limitations" "Dodo"
"The Judgment Books" etc.
With Illustrations by G. P. Jacomb-Hood
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
1899
ILLUSTRATIONS
"HE RAISED THE MUSKET TO HIS SHOULDER"
"UP THE STEPS CAME THE SINGER, FROM THE SEA AND THE SUN"
"THE SPIRIT OF THE STILLNESS TOUCHED THE CAPSINA'S SOUL"
"HALF A DOZEN MEN BURST INTO THE CUSTOM-HOUSE"
CHAPTER I
The little town of Hydra, white-walled and trailing its skirts in theÆgean, climbs steeply up the northeastern side of the island fromwhich it is named, and looks towards the hills of Argolis on themainland and the setting of the sun. Its harbor sheltered from thenorthern and southern winds, and only open towards the west, wherethe sea is too narrow ever to be lashed into fury by gales of thatquarter, was defended in the year 1819 by a very creditable pier and agood deal of swift and rakish shipping. The inhabitants lived a lifesomewhat sequestered from their oppressed and down-trodden countrymen,supporting themselves by enterprises of fishing and the humble sortof commerce, and the hand of the Turk, then as now lustful, cruel,and intolerable, lay but lightly on them, for the chief products ofthe island itself were only stones and cold water, untaxable goods.But something of the spirit of stones and cold water, something ofthe spirit, too, of that quickly roused sea, soon made furious, soonappeased, but always alive, had gone to the making of the men of Hydra;and they were people frugal and hardy, resourceful and industrious, menof the wave and the mountain. Of its various clans—and its regime washighly feudal—that of Capsas was the wealthiest and most influential;but just now, a tragic prologue to this tale, a blow so direful hadfallen on those much-esteemed men, and in particular on ChristosCapsas, a youth of about two and twenty, that the clan generally, andChristos in particular, were in a state of paralyzed inaction strangeto such busy folk. It had happened thus:
The head of the clan, Nicholas Capsas, had died some nine monthsbefore, leaving an only daughter, Sophia, henceforth officially calledthe Capsina, just nineteen years of age. The clan all remembered thatthey had warned each other that trouble would come on account of theCapsina, and they found to their unspeakable dismay, and without agrain of pleasure in the fulfilment of their prophecy, that theirgloomy forebodings were completely accomplished. Sophia was a girl ofmuch greater force of will than it was at all usual to look for in awoman, for the most refractory women, so the clan believed, chatteredand scolded, but obeyed. The Capsina had struck out a new and eminentlydisconcerting line in following her own desires in silence, deaf toremonstrance. The beginning of trouble had been a very stormy scene