“I was born,” he said, “at Elizondo, in the valley of Baztan. My name
is Don José Lizzarrabengoa, and you are familiar enough with Spain,
señor, to know at once from my name that I am a Basque and a Christian
of the ancient type. I use the title _Don_ because I am entitled to
it; and if I were at Elizondo, I would show you my genealogy on a
sheet of parchment. My family wished me to be a churchman, and they
forced me to study, but I profited little by it. I was too fond of
playing tennis--that was my ruin. When we Navarrese play tennis, we
forget everything. One day, when I had won, a young man from Alava
picked a quarrel with me; we took our _maquilas_,[7] and again I had
the advantage; but that incident compelled me to leave the country.
I fell in with some dragoons, and I enlisted in the cavalry regiment
of Almanza. The men from our mountains learn the military profession
quickly. I soon became a corporal, with the promise of being promoted
to quartermaster, when, to my undoing, I was placed on duty at the
tobacco factory in Seville. If you have ever been to Seville, you
must have seen that great building, outside of the fortifications,
close to the Guadalquivir. It seems to me that I can see the doorway
and the guard-house beside it at this moment. When on duty Spanish
troops either gamble or sleep; I, like an honest Navarrese, always
tried to find something to do. I was making a chain of brass wire, to
hold my primer. Suddenly my comrades said: ‘There goes the bell; the
girls will be going back to work.’ You must know, señor, that there
are four or five hundred girls employed in the factory. They roll the
cigars in a large room which no man can enter without a permit from
the Twenty-four,[8] because they are in the habit of making themselves
comfortable, the young ones especially, when it is warm. At the hour
when the women return to work, after their dinner, many young men
assemble to see them pass, and they make remarks of all colours to
them. There are very few of those damsels who will refuse a silk
mantilla, and the experts in that fishery have only to stoop to pick
up their fish. While the others stared, I remained on my bench, near
the door. I was young then; I was always thinking of the old province,
and I did not believe that there were any pretty girls without blue
petticoats and long plaited tresses falling over their shoulders.[9]
Moreover, the Andalusian girls frightened me; I was not accustomed as
yet to their manners: always jesting, never a serious word. So I had my
nose over my chain, when I heard some civilians say: ‘Here comes the
_gitanella_!’ I raised my eyes and I saw her. It was a Friday, and I
shall never forget it. I saw that Carmen whom you know, at whose house
I met you several months ago.
“She wore a very short red skirt, which revealed white silk stockings
with more than one hole, and tiny shoes of red morocco, tied with
flame-coloured ribbons. She put her mantilla aside, to show her
shoulders and a huge bunch of cassia, which protruded from her chemise.
She had a cassia flower in the corner of her mouth, too, and as she
walked she swung her hips like a filly in the stud at Cordova. In
my province a woman in that costume would have compelled everybody
to cross themselves. At Seville every one paid her some equivocal
compliment on her appearance, and she had a reply for every one,
casting sly glances here and there, with her hand on her hip, as
impudent as the genuine gypsy that she was. At first sight she did not
attract me, and I returned to my work; but she, according to the habit
of women and cats, who do not come when you call them, but come when
you refrain from calling them,--she halted in front of me and spoke to
me.
“‘_Compadre_,’ she said in Andalusian fashion, ‘will you give me your
chain to hold the keys of my strong-box?’
“‘It is to hold my primer’ [_épinglette_], I replied.
“‘Your _épinglette_!’ she exclaimed, with a laugh. ‘Ah! the señor makes
lace, since he needs pins!’ [_épingles_]
“Everybody present began to laugh, and I felt the blood rise to my
cheeks, nor could I think of any answer to make.
“‘Well, my heart,’ she continued, ‘make me seven ells of black lace
for a mantilla, pincushion [_épinglier_] of my soul!’
“And, taking the flower from her mouth she threw it at me with a jerk
of her thumb, and struck me between the eyes. Señor, that produced
on me the effect of a bullet. I did not know which way to turn, so I
sat as still as a post. When she had gone into the factory, I saw the
cassia blossom lying on the ground between my feet; I do not know what
made me do it, but I picked it up, unseen by my comrades, and stowed it
carefully away in my pocket--the first folly!
“Two or three hours later, I was still thinking of her, when a porter
rushed into the guard-house, gasping for breath and with a horrified
countenance. He told us that a woman had been murdered in the large
room where the cigars were made, and that we must send the guard there.
The quartermaster told me to take two men and investigate. I took my
two men and I went upstairs. Imagine, señor, that on entering the room
I found, first of all, three hundred women in their chemises, or
practically that, all shouting and yelling and gesticulating, making
such an infernal uproar that you could not have heard God’s thunder.
On one side a woman lay on the floor, covered with blood, with an X
carved on her face by two blows of a knife. On the opposite side from
the wounded woman, whom the best of her comrades were assisting, I saw
Carmen in the grasp of five or six women.
“‘Confession! Confession! I am killed!’ shrieked the wounded woman.
“Carmen said nothing; she clenched her teeth and rolled her eyes about
like a chameleon.
“‘What is all this?’ I demanded. I had great difficulty in learning
what had taken place, for all the work-girls talked at once. It seemed
that the wounded one had boasted of having money enough in her pocket
to buy an ass at the fair at Triana.
“‘I say,’ said Carmen, who had a tongue of her own, ‘isn’t a
broomstick good enough for you?’ The other, offended by the insult,
perhaps because she was conscious that she was vulnerable on that
point, replied that she was not a connoisseur in broomsticks, as she
had not the honour to be a gypsy or a godchild of Satan, but that the
Señorita Carmencita would soon make the acquaintance of her ass, when
the corregidor took her out to ride, with two servants behind to keep
the flies away. ‘Well!’ said Carmen, ‘I’ll make watering-troughs for
flies on your cheek, and I’ll paint a checker-board on it.’ And with
that, vli, vlan! she began to draw St. Andrew’s crosses on the other’s
face with the knife with which she cut off the ends of the cigars.
“The case was clear enough; I took Carmen by the arm. ‘You must come
with me, my sister,’ I said to her courteously. She darted a glance at
me, as if she recognised me; but she said, with a resigned air:
“‘Let us go. Where’s my mantilla?’
“She put it over her head in such wise as to show only one of her great
eyes, and followed my two men, as mild as a sheep. When we reached the
guard-house, the quartermaster said that it was a serious matter, and
that she must be taken to prison. It fell to my lot again to escort
her there. I placed her between two dragoons, and marched behind, as a
corporal should do under such circumstances. We started for the town.
At first the gypsy kept silent; but on Rue de Serpent--you know that
street; it well deserves its name because of the détours it makes--she
began operations by letting her mantilla fall over her shoulders, in
order to show me her bewitching face, and turning toward me as far as
she could, she said:
“‘Where are you taking me, my officer?’
“‘To prison, my poor child,’ I replied, as gently as possible, as a
good soldier should speak to a prisoner, especially to a woman.
“‘Alas! what will become of me? Señor officer, take pity on me. You are
so young, so good looking!’ Then she added, in a lower tone: ‘Let me
escape, and I’ll give you a piece of the _bar lachi_, which will make
all women love you.’
“The _bar lachi_, señor, is the lodestone, with which the gypsies claim
that all sorts of spells may be cast when one knows how to use it. Give
a woman a pinch of ground lodestone in a glass of white wine, and she
ceases to resist.--I replied with as much gravity as I could command:
“‘We are not here to talk nonsense; you must go to prison--that is the
order, and there is no way to avoid it.’
“We natives of the Basque country have an accent which makes it easy
for the Spaniards to identify us; on the other hand, there is not one
of them who can learn to say even _baï, jaona_.[10] So that Carmen
had no difficulty in guessing that I came from the provinces. You
must know, señor, that the gypsies, being of no country, are always
travelling, and speak all languages, and that most of them are
perfectly at home in Portugal, in France, in the Basque provinces, in
Catalonia, everywhere; they even make themselves understood by the
Moors and the English. Carmen knew Basque very well.
“‘_Laguna ene bihotsarena_, comrade of my heart,’ she said to me
abruptly, ‘are you from the provinces?’
“Our language, señor, is so beautiful, that, when we hear it in a
foreign land, it makes us tremble.--I would like to have a confessor
from the provinces,” added the bandit in a lower tone.
He continued after a pause:
“‘I am from Elizondo,’ I replied in Basque, deeply moved to hear my
native tongue spoken.
“‘And I am from Etchalar,’ said she. That is a place about four hours’
journey from us. ‘I was brought to Seville by gypsies. I have been
working in the factory to earn money enough to return to Navarre, to
my poor mother, who has no one but me to support her, and a little
_barratcea_[11] with twenty cider-apple trees! Ah! if I was at home,
by the white mountain! They insulted me because I don’t belong in
this land of thieves and dealers in rotten oranges; and those hussies
all leagued against me, because I told them that all their Seville
_jacques_[12] with their knives, wouldn’t frighten one of our boys
with his blue cap and his _maquila_. Comrade, my friend, won’t you do
anything for a countrywoman?’
“She lied, señor, she always lied. I doubt whether that girl ever said
a true word in her life; but when she spoke, I believed her; it was too
much for me. She murdered the Basque language, yet I believed that she
was a Navarrese. Her eyes alone, to say nothing of her mouth and her
colour, proclaimed her a gypsy. I was mad, I paid no heed to anything.
I thought that if Spaniards had dared to speak slightingly to me of
the provinces, I would have slashed their faces as she had slashed her
comrade’s. In short, I was like a drunken man; I began to say foolish
things, I was on the verge of doing them.
“‘If I should push you and you should fall, my countryman,’ she
continued, in Basque, ‘it would take more than these two Castilian
recruits to hold me.’
“Faith, I forgot orders and everything, and said to her:
“‘Well, my dear, my countrywoman, try it, and may Our Lady of the
Mountain be with you!’
“At that moment we were passing one of the narrow lanes of which there
are so many in Seville. All of a sudden Carmen turned and struck me
with her fist in the breast. I purposely fell backward. With one spring
she leaped over me and began to run, showing us a fleet pair of legs!
Basque legs are famous; hers were quite equal to them--as swift and as
well moulded. I sprang up instantly; but I held my lance horizontally
so as to block the street, so that my men were delayed for a moment
when they attempted to pursue her. Then I began to run myself, and they
at my heels. But overtake her! there was no danger of that, with our
spurs, and sabres, and lances![13] In less time than it takes to tell
it, the prisoner had disappeared. Indeed, all the women in the quarter
favoured her flight, laughed at us, and sent us in the wrong direction.
After much marching and countermarching, we were obliged to return to
the guard-house without a receipt from the governor of the prison.
“My men, to avoid being punished, said that Carmen had talked Basque
with me; and to tell the truth, it did not seem any too natural that
a blow with the fist of so diminutive a girl should upset a fellow of
my build so easily. It all seemed decidedly suspicious, or rather it
seemed only too clear. When I went off duty I was reduced to the ranks
and sent to prison for a month. That was my first punishment since I
had been in the service. Farewell to the uniform of a quartermaster,
which I fancied that I had already won!
“My first days in prison passed dismally enough. When I enlisted I had
imagined that I should at least become an officer. Longa and Mina,
countrymen of mine, are captains-general; Chapalangarra, who, like
Mina, is a negro and is a refugee in your country--Chapalangarra was
a colonel, and I have played tennis twenty times with his brother,
who was a poor devil like myself. Now I said to myself: ‘All the time
that you have served without punishment is time thrown away. Here you
are blacklisted, and to regain the good graces of your superiors, you
will have to work ten times harder than when you first enlisted! And
why did you receive punishment? For a gypsy hussy, who made a fool of
you, and who is doubtless stealing at this moment in some corner of the
city.’--But I could not help thinking of her. Would you believe it,
señor? I had always before my eyes her silk stockings, full of holes,
which she had shown me from top to bottom when she ran away. I looked
through the bars into the street, and among all the women who passed
I did not see a single one who could be compared with that devil of a
girl! And then, too, in spite of myself, I smelt of the cassia flower
she had thrown at me, which, although it had withered, still retained
its sweet odour. If there are such things as witches, that girl was one!
“One day the jailer came in and gave me an Alcala[14] loaf.
“‘Here,’ said he, ‘your cousin sends you this.’
“I took the loaf, greatly surprised, for I had no cousin in Seville.
‘It may be a mistake,’ I thought as I glanced at the loaf; but it was
so appetising, it smelt so good, that, without disturbing myself as
to whence it came or for whom it was intended, I determined to eat it.
On attempting to cut it my knife came in contact with something hard.
I investigated and found a small English file, which had been slipped
into the dough before baking. There was also in the loaf a gold piece
of two piastres. There was no more doubt in my mind; it was a gift from
Carmen. To people of her race freedom is everything, and they would set
fire to a city to save themselves from a day in prison. However, she
was a shrewd minx, and with that loaf one could snap one’s fingers at
jailers. In an hour’s time the stoutest bar could be sawed through with
the little file; and with the two piastres I could exchange my uniform
for a civilian’s coat at the first old clo’-man’s. You may imagine that
a man who had many a time taken young eaglets from their nests on our
cliffs would not have been at a loss to climb down into the street from
a window less than thirty feet high. But I did not wish to escape. I
still possessed my honour as a soldier, and to desert seemed to me a
heinous crime. However, I was touched by that token of remembrance.
When you are in prison you like to think that you have a friend outside
who is interested in you. The gold piece disturbed me a little, and I
would have liked to return it; but where was I to find my creditor?
That did not seem to me a simple matter.
“After the ceremony of reduction to the ranks, I thought that I could
not suffer any more; but I had still another humiliation to undergo:
when, on my release from prison, I was restored to duty and made to
take my turn at sentry-go like any private. You cannot conceive what
a man of spirit feels at such a time. I believe that I would as lief
have been shot. Then, at all events, you walk alone, in front of the
platoon; you feel that you are somebody; people look at you.
“I was stationed at the colonel’s door. He was a wealthy young man,
a good fellow, who liked to enjoy himself. All the young officers
were at his house, and many civilians--women, too, actresses, so it
was said. For my own part, it seemed to me as if the whole city had
arranged to meet at his door, in order to stare at me. Finally, the
colonel’s carriage drives up, with his valet on the box. Whom do I see
alight from it?--the _gitanella_! She was arrayed like a shrine this
time, bedizened and bedecked, all gold and ribbons. A spangled dress,
blue slippers, also with spangles, and flowers and lace everywhere. She
had a tambourine in her hand. There were two other gypsy women with
her, one young and one old. There always is an old woman to go about
with them. Then, there was an old man, also a gypsy, with a guitar, to
play for them to dance. You know that it is the fashion to hire gypsies
to go about to parties, to dance the _romalis_--that is their national
dance--and oftentimes for something else.
“Carmen recognised me and we exchanged a glance. I do not know why, but
at that moment I would have liked to be a hundred feet underground.
“‘_Agur laguna_,’[15] she said; ‘you seem to be mounting guard, like a
raw recruit, my officer!’
“And before I had thought of a word to say in reply, she was inside the
house.
“The whole company was in the _patio_, and in spite of the crowd, I
could see through the gate almost everything that took place.[16]
I heard the castanets, the tambourine, the laughter and applause;
sometimes I could see her head when she leaped into the air with her
tambourine. And then I heard some of the officers say to her many
things that brought the blood to my cheeks. I did not know what she
replied. It was that day, I believe, that I began to love her in good
earnest; for I was tempted three or four times to go into the _patio_
and run my sabre into the belly of those popinjays who were making love
to her. My torture lasted a good hour; then the gypsies came out and
the carriage took them away. Carmen, as she passed, glanced at me again
with the eyes that you know, and said, very low:
“‘My countryman, when one likes nice fried things, one goes to Lillas
Pastia’s at Triana for them.’
“Nimble as a kid, she jumped into the carriage, the coachman whipped
his mules, and the whole merry band drove away, I know not where.
“You will readily guess that when I was relieved from duty I went to
Triana; but I was shaved first, and brushed my clothes as for a dress
parade. She was at Lillas Pastia’s, an old gypsy, black as a Moor,
who kept an eating-house, to which many civilians came to eat fried
fish--especially, I rather think, since Carmen had taken up her
quarters there.
“‘Lillas,’ she said, as soon as she saw me, ‘I shall do nothing more
to-day. It will be light to-morrow.[17] Come, my countryman, let’s go
for a walk.’
“She put her mantilla over her face, and behold, we were in the street,
I with no idea where we were going.
“‘Señorita,’ I said, ‘I believe that I have to thank you for a present
which you sent me when I was in prison. I ate the bread; I shall use
the file to sharpen my lance, and I shall keep it in memory of you; but
here is the money.’
“‘My word! he has kept the money!’ she exclaimed, laughing heartily.
‘However, it’s all the better, for I am not in funds. But what does it
matter? The dog that keeps going always finds a bone.[18] Come on, we
will eat it all up. You shall treat me.’
“We were walking in the direction of Seville. As we entered Rue
de Serpent, she bought a dozen oranges and bade me put them in my
handkerchief. A little farther on she bought bread and sausages, and a
bottle of Manzanilla; and finally she entered a confectioner’s shop.
There she tossed on the counter the gold piece I had given back to
her with another that she had in her pocket and some small silver;
then she asked me for all that I had. I had only a _piecette_ and a
few _cuartos_, which I gave her, sorely vexed because I had no more.
I thought that she intended to carry off the whole shop. She selected
all the best and most expensive sweetmeats: _yemas_,[19] _turon_,[20]
preserved fruits, so long as the money held out. All those things too
I must needs carry in paper bags. Perhaps you know Rue de Candilejo,
where there’s a head of King Don Pedro the Justiciary?[21] That head
should have suggested some salutary reflections to my mind. We stopped
in front of an old house on that street. She entered the passage and
knocked at a door on the ground floor. A gypsy woman, a veritable
handmaid of Satan, opened the door. Carmen said a few words to her in
_rommani_. The old woman grumbled at first, and Carmen, to pacify her,
gave her two oranges and a handful of bonbons, and allowed her to taste
the wine. Then she put her cloak over her shoulders and escorted her
to the door, which she secured behind her with an iron bar. As soon as
we were alone, she began to dance and laugh like a mad woman, saying:
“‘You are my _rom_, and I am your _romi_!’[22]
“I stood in the middle of the room, laden with all her purchases, not
knowing where to put them. She threw them all on the floor and jumped
on my neck, saying:
“‘I pay my debts, I pay my debts! That is the law of the _cales_.’[23]
“Ah! that day, señor! that day! When I think of it, I forget to-morrow!”
The bandit was silent for a moment; then, having relighted his cigar,
he continued:
“We passed the whole day together, eating, drinking, and the rest.
When she had eaten her fill of bonbons, like a child of six, she
stuffed handfuls of them into the old woman’s water-jar.--‘That’s to
make sherbet for her,’ she said. She crushed _yemas_ by throwing them
against the wall. ‘That’s to induce the flies to let us alone,’ she
said. There is no conceivable trick and no folly that she did not
commit. I told her that I would like to see her dance; but where was
she to obtain castanets? She instantly took the old woman’s only plate,
broke it in pieces, and in a moment she was dancing the _romalis_,
clapping the pieces of crockery in as perfect time as if they had been
castanets of ebony or ivory. One was never bored with that girl, I
assure you.
“Night came on and I heard the drums beating the retreat.
“‘I must go to quarters for the roll-call,’ I said.
“‘To quarters?’ she repeated, contemptuously; ‘are you a negro, pray,
that you allow yourself to be led by a stick? You are a regular canary,
in dress and in temper![24] Go! you are a chicken-hearted fellow!’
“I remained, with my mind made up beforehand to the guard-room. The
next morning, she was the first to mention parting.
“‘Look you, Joseito,’ she said, ‘have I paid you? According to our law,
I owed you nothing, as you are a _payllo_; but you are a comely youth,
and you took my fancy. We are quits. Good-day.’
“I asked her when I should see her again.
“‘When you are less stupid,’ she replied with a laugh. Then, in a more
serious tone: ‘Do you know, my son, that I believe that I love you a
little bit? But it can’t last. Dog and wolf don’t live happily together
for long. Perhaps, if you should swear allegiance to Egypt, I should
like to be your _romi_. But this is foolish talk; it can never be.
Believe me, my boy, you have come off cheap. You have met the devil,
yes, the devil; he isn’t always black, and he didn’t wring your neck. I
am dressed in wool, but I am no sheep.[25] Go and put a wax candle in
front of your _majari_.[26] She has well earned it. Well, good-bye once
more. Think no more of Carmencita, or she might be the cause of your
marrying a widow with wooden legs.’[27]
“As she spoke she removed the bar that secured the door, and once in
the street, she wrapped herself in her mantilla and turned her back on
me.
“She spoke truly. I should have been wise to think no more of her; but
after that day on Rue de Candilejo, I could think of nothing else. I
walked about all day long, hoping to meet her. I asked the old woman
and the eating-house keeper for news of her. Both replied that she
had gone to Laloro,[28] which was their way of designating Portugal.
Probably they said that in accordance with Carmen’s instructions, but I
very soon found out that they lied. Several weeks after my day on Rue
de Candilejo, I was on duty at one of the gates of the city. A short
distance from the gate there was a breach in the wall; men were at work
repairing it during the day, and at night a sentinel was posted there
to prevent smuggling. During the day I saw Lillas Pastia going to and
fro around the guard-house, and talking with some of my comrades; all
of them knew him, and they knew his fish and his fritters even better.
He came to me and asked me if I had heard from Carmen.
“‘No,’ said I.
“‘Well, you will, _compadre_.’
“He was not mistaken. At night I was stationed at the breach. As soon
as the corporal had retired, I saw a woman coming towards me. My heart
told me that it was Carmen. However, I shouted:
“‘Go back! You cannot pass!’
“‘Don’t be disagreeable,’ she said, showing me her face.
“‘What! is it you, Carmen?’
“‘Yes, my countryman. Let us talk a little and talk quick. Do you want
to earn a _douro_? There are some men coming with bundles; let them
alone.’
“‘No,’ I replied. ‘I must prevent them from passing; those are my
orders.’
“‘Orders! orders! So you’ve forgotten the Rue de Candilejo?’
“‘Ah!’ I exclaimed, completely overwhelmed by the bare memory of that
day, ‘that would be well worth the penalty of forgetting orders; but I
want no smugglers’ money.’
“‘Well, if you don’t want money, would you like to go again to old
Dorothy’s and dine?’
“‘No,’ I said, half suffocated by the effort it cost me, ‘I cannot.’
“‘Very good. If you are so stiff-backed, I know whom to apply to. I
will go to your officer and offer to go to Dorothy’s with him. He looks
like a good fellow, and he will put some man on duty here who will see
no more than he ought to see. Farewell, Canary. I shall laugh with all
my heart on the day when the orders are to hang you.’
“I was weak enough to call her back, and I promised to allow all
gypsydom to pass, if necessary, provided that I obtained the only
reward that I desired. She instantly swore to keep her word on the
next day, and hastened away to notify her friends, who were close by.
There were five of them,--Pastia was one--all well laden with English
goods. Carmen kept watch. She was to give warning with her castanets
the instant that she saw the patrol; but she did not need to do it. The
smugglers did their work in an instant.
“The next day I went to Rue de Candilejo. Carmen kept me waiting, and
when she came she was in a villainous temper.
“‘I don’t like people who make you ask them so many times,’ she said.
‘You did me a very great service the first time, without knowing
whether you would gain anything by it. Yesterday, you bargained with
me. I don’t know why I came, for I don’t love you any more. Here, take
this _douro_ for your trouble.’
“I was within an ace of throwing the money at her head, and I was
obliged to make a violent effort over myself to keep from striking
her. After we had quarrelled for an hour, I left the house in a rage.
I wandered about the city a long while, tramping hither and thither
like a madman; at last I entered a church, and, seeking out the darkest
corner, wept scalding tears. Suddenly I heard a voice:
“‘A dragoon’s tears! I must make a love-philtre of them!’
“I raised my eyes; Carmen stood in front of me.
“‘Well, my countryman, are you still angry with me?’ she said. ‘It must
be that I love you, in spite of what I know of you, for since you left
me, I don’t know what is the matter with me. See, I am the one now who
asks you to come to Rue de Candilejo.’
“So we made our peace; but Carmen’s moods were like the weather in our
country. Among our mountains a storm is never so near as when the sun
shines brightest. She promised to meet me again at Dorothy’s, and she
did not come. And Dorothy told me coolly that she had gone to Laloro on
business of Egypt.
“As I knew already from experience what to think on that subject, I
sought Carmen wherever I thought that she could possibly be, and I
passed through Rue de Candilejo twenty times a day. One evening I was
at Dorothy’s, having almost tamed her by treating her now and then to a
glass of anisette, when Carmen came in, followed by a young officer, a
lieutenant in our regiment.
“‘Off with you, quick,’ she said to me in Basque.
“I sat as if stupefied, with rage in my heart.
“‘What are you doing here?’ the lieutenant asked me; ‘decamp, leave
this house!’
“I could not take a step; I was like a man who has lost the use of his
limbs. The officer, seeing that I did not withdraw, and that I had not
even removed my forage cap, lost his temper, seized me by the collar,
and shook me roughly. I do not know what I said to him. He drew his
sword, and I my sabre. The old woman grasped my arm, and the lieutenant
struck me a blow on the forehead, the mark of which I still bear. I
stepped back and knocked Dorothy down with a blow of my elbow; then,
as the lieutenant followed me, I held the point of my sabre to his
breast, and he spitted himself on it. Thereupon Carmen put out the
lamp and told Dorothy in her language to fly. I myself rushed out into
the street and started to run, I knew not whither. It seemed to me
that some one was following me. When I came to my senses, I found that
Carmen had not left me.
“‘You great idiot of a canary!’ she exclaimed; ‘you can’t do anything
but make a fool of yourself! I told you, you know, that I should bring
you bad luck. Well! there’s a cure for everything when one has for
one’s friend a Roman Fleming.[29] First of all, put this handkerchief
on your head, and toss me that belt. Wait for me in this passage. I
will return in two minutes.’
“She disappeared, and soon brought me a striped cloak, which she had
obtained heaven knows where. She bade me take off my uniform and put
on the cloak over my shirt. Thus attired, with the handkerchief with
which she had bound up the wound on my head, I looked not unlike a
peasant from Valencia, so many of whom came to Seville to sell their
_chufas_[30] orgeat. Then she took me into a house much like Dorothy’s,
at the end of a narrow lane. She and another gypsy washed me and
dressed my wound better than any surgeon could have done, and gave me
something, I don’t know what, to drink; finally, they laid me on a
mattress, and I went to sleep.
“Probably those women had mingled with my drink one of those soporific
drugs of which they know the secret, for I did not wake until very late
the next day. I had a terrible headache and a little fever. It was
some time before I remembered the terrible scene in which I had taken
part the night before. After dressing my wound, Carmen and her friend,
both squatting beside my mattress, exchanged a few words of _chipe
calli_, which seemed to be a medical consultation. Then they united in
assuring me that I should soon be cured, but that I must leave Seville
at the earliest possible moment; for, if I should be caught, I would
inevitably be shot.
“‘My boy,’ said Carmen, ‘you must do something. Now that the king gives
you neither rice nor dried fish,[31] you must think about earning
your living. You are too stupid to steal _à pastesas_[32]; but you
are strong and active; if you have any pluck, go to the coast and be
a smuggler. Haven’t I promised to be the cause of your being hung?
That’s better than being shot? However, if you go about it the right
way you will live like a prince as long as the _miñons_[33] and the
coast-guards don’t get their hands on your collar.’
“In this engaging way did that diabolical girl point out to me the new
career for which she destined me, the only one, to tell the truth,
which remained open to me, now that I had incurred the death penalty.
Need I tell you, señor? she prevailed upon me without much difficulty.
It seemed to me that I should become more closely united to her by that
life of perils and of rebellion. Thenceforth I felt that I was sure
of her love. I had often heard of a band of smugglers who infested
Andalusia, mounted on good horses, blunderbuss in hand, and their
mistresses _en croupe_. I imagined myself trotting over mountain and
valley with the pretty gypsy behind me. When I spoke to her about
it she laughed until she held her sides, and told me that there was
nothing so fine as a night in camp, when every _rom_ retires with
his _romi_ under the little tent formed of three hoops with canvas
stretched over them.
“‘If I ever have you in the mountains,’ I said to her, ‘I shall be sure
of you! There, there are no lieutenants to share with me.’
“‘Oh! you are jealous,’ she replied. ‘So much the worse for you! Are
you really stupid enough for that? Don’t you see that I love you, as I
have never asked you for money?’
“When she talked like that I felt like strangling her.
“To cut it short, señor, Carmen procured a civilian’s costume for me
in which I left Seville without being recognised. I went to Jerez
with a letter from Pastia to a dealer in anisette, whose house was
a rendezvous for smugglers. There I was presented to those gentry,
whose leader, one Dancaïre, took me into his troop. We started for
Gaucin, where I found Carmen, who had agreed to meet me there. In our
expeditions she served us as a spy, and a better spy there never was.
She was returning from Gibraltar and she had already arranged with the
master of a vessel to bring a cargo of English goods which we were to
receive on the coast. We went to Estepona to wait for it, and concealed
a portion in the mountains. Then, laden with the rest, we journeyed to
Ronda. Carmen had preceded us thither, and it was she who let us know
the opportune moment to enter the town. That first trip and several
succeeding ones were fortunate. The smuggler’s life pleased me better
than that of a soldier. I made presents to Carmen; I had money and a
mistress. I suffered little from remorse, for, as the gypsies say:
‘The scab does not itch when one is enjoying one’s self.’ We were well
received everywhere; my companions treated me well, and even showed me
much consideration. The reason was that I had killed a man, and there
were some among them who had not such an exploit on their consciences.
But what appealed to me most strongly in my new life was that I saw
Carmen often. She was more affectionate with me than ever; but before
our comrades she would not admit that she was my mistress; and she
had even made me swear all sorts of oaths never to say anything about
her. I was so weak before that creature that I obeyed all her whims.
Moreover, it was the first time that she had exhibited herself to
me with the reserve of a virtuous woman, and I was simple enough to
believe that she had really corrected herself of her former manners.
“Our troop, which consisted of eight or ten men, seldom met except
at critical moments; ordinarily we were scattered about by twos and
threes, in different towns and villages. Each of us claimed to have
a trade; one was a tinker, another a horse-dealer; I was a silk
merchant, but I seldom showed my face in the large places because of my
unfortunate affair at Seville.
“One day, or rather one night, our rendezvous was at the foot of Veger.
Dancaïre and I arrived there before the rest. He seemed in very high
spirits.
“‘We are going to have another comrade,’ he said. ‘Carmen has just
played one of her best tricks. She has managed the escape of her _rom_,
who was at the presidio at Tarifa.’
“I was already beginning to understand the gypsy tongue, which almost
all my comrades spoke, and that word _rom_ gave me a shock.
“‘What’s that? her husband! is she married?’ I asked the captain.
“‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘to Garcia the One-Eyed, a gypsy, as sharp as
herself. The poor fellow was at the galleys. Carmen bamboozled the
surgeon at the presidio so successfully that she has obtained her
_rom’s_ liberty. Ah! that girl is worth her weight in gold. For two
years she has been trying to manage his escape. Every scheme failed
until they took it into their heads to change surgeons. With the new
one she seems to have found a way to come to an understanding very
soon.’
“You can imagine the pleasure that that news afforded me. I soon saw
Garcia the One-Eyed; he was surely the most loathsome monster that
ever gypsydom reared; black of skin, and blacker of heart, he was the
most unblushing villain that I have ever met in my life. Carmen came
with him; and when she called him her _rom_ in my presence, you should
have seen the eyes she made at me and her grimaces when Garcia turned
his head. I was angry, and I did not speak to her that night. In the
morning we had made up our bales and were already on the march, when
we discovered that a dozen horsemen were at our heels. The braggart
Andalusians, who talked of nothing but massacring everybody, made a
most pitiful show. It was a general save himself who could. Dancaïre,
Garcia, a handsome fellow from Ecija whom we called the Remendado, and
Carmen, did not lose their heads. The rest had abandoned the mules, and
had plunged into the ravines, where horses could not follow them. We
could not keep our animals, and we hastily unpacked the best of our
booty and loaded it on our shoulders, then tried to escape down the
steep slopes of the cliffs. We threw our bundles before us and slid
down on our heels after them as best we could. Meanwhile the enemy were
peppering us; it was the first time that I had ever heard the whistle
of bullets, and it didn’t affect me very much. When one is under the
eye of a woman, there is no merit in laughing at death. We escaped, all
except the poor Remendado, who received a shot in the loins. I dropped
my bundle and tried to carry him.
“‘Fool!’ shouted Garcia, ‘what have we to do with carrion? Finish him
and don’t lose the stockings!’
“‘Drop him!’ Carmen called to me.
“Fatigue forced me to place him on the ground a moment, behind a rock.
Garcia stepped up and discharged his blunderbuss at his head.
“‘It will be a clever man who will recognise him now,’ he said,
glancing at his face, which was torn to shreds by a dozen bullets.
“Such, señor, was the noble life I led. That night we found ourselves
in a copse, utterly worn out and ruined by the loss of our mules.
What does that infernal Garcia do but pull a pack of cards from his
pocket and begin to play with Dancaïre by the light of a fire which
they kindled. Meanwhile I had lain down and was gazing at the stars,
thinking of the Remendado and saying to myself that I would rather be
in his place. Carmen was sitting near me, and from time to time she
played with the castanets and sang under her breath. Then, drawing
nearer as if to speak to me, she kissed me, almost against my will, two
or three times.
“‘You are the devil!’ I said to her.
“‘Yes,’ she replied.
“After a few hours’ rest she started for Gaucin, and the next day a
young goatherd brought us food. We remained there the whole day, and
at night went in the direction of Gaucin. We expected to hear from
Carmen. No one appeared. At daybreak we saw a muleteer conducting a
well-dressed woman with a parasol, and a small girl who seemed to be
her servant. Garcia said:
“‘Here’s two mules and two women sent to us by Saint Nicholas; I should
rather have four mules; but no matter, I’ll make the best of it.’
“He took his blunderbuss and crept down toward the path, keeping out
of sight in the underbrush. We followed him, Dancaïre and I, at a
short distance. When we were within arm’s length we showed ourselves
and called to the muleteer to stop. The woman when she saw us, instead
of being frightened--and our costumes were quite enough to frighten
her--shouted with laughter.
“‘Ha! ha! the _lillipendi_, to take me for an _erani_!’[34]
“It was Carmen, but so perfectly disguised that I should not have
recognised her if she had spoken a different tongue. She jumped down
from her mule and talked for some time in a low tone with Dancaïre and
Garcia, then said to me:
“‘We shall meet again, Canary, before you’re hung. I am going to
Gibraltar on business of Egypt. You will hear of me soon.’
“We parted, after she had told us of a place where we could obtain
shelter for a few days. That girl was the Providence of our party. We
soon received some money which she sent us, and some information which
was worth much more to us; it was to the effect that on such a day two
English noblemen would leave Gibraltar for Grenoble by such a road.
A word to the wise is sufficient. They had a store of good guineas.
Garcia wanted to kill them, but Dancaïre and I objected. We took only
their money and watches, in addition to their shirts, of which we were
in sore need.
“Señor, a man becomes a rascal without thinking of it. A pretty girl
steals your wits, you fight for her, an accident happens, you have to
live in the mountains, and from a smuggler you become a robber before
you know it. We considered that it was not healthy for us in the
neighbourhood of Gibraltar, after the affair of the noblemen, and we
buried ourselves in the Sierra de Ronda. You once mentioned José Maria
to me; well, it was there that I made his acquaintance. He took his
mistress on his expeditions. She was a pretty girl, clean and modest
and well-mannered; never an indecent word, and such devotion. As a
reward, he made her very unhappy. He was always running after women, he
maltreated her, and sometimes he took it into his head to pretend to be
jealous. Once he struck her with a knife. Well, she loved him all the
better for it. Women are made like that, especially the Andalusians.
She was proud of the scar she had on her arm, and showed it as the
most beautiful thing in the world. And then José Maria was the worst
kind of a comrade, to boot. In an expedition that we made together, he
managed matters so well that he had all the profit, we all the blows
and trouble. But I resume my story. We heard nothing at all from Carmen.
“‘One of us must go to Gibraltar to find out something about her,’ said
Dancaïre; ‘she should have arranged some affair for us. I would go, but
I am too well known at Gibraltar.’
“The One-Eyed said:
“‘So am I too; everybody knows me there, and I’ve played so many games
on the lobsters[35]! and as I have only one eye, I am hard to disguise.’
“‘Shall I go then?’ said I in my turn, overjoyed at the bare thought of
seeing Carmen again; ‘tell me, what must I do?’
“The others said to me:
“‘Arrange it so as to go by sea or by San Roque, as you choose; and
when you get to Gibraltar, ask at the harbour where a chocolate seller
called Rollona lives; when you have found her, you can learn from her
what’s going on yonder.’
“It was agreed that we three should go together to the Sierra de
Gaucin, where I was to leave my companions and go on to Gibraltar in
the guise of a dealer in fruit. At Ronda, a man who was in our pay
had procured me a passport; at Gaucin they gave me a donkey; I loaded
him with oranges and melons, and started. When I reached Gibraltar, I
found that Rollona was well known there, but that she was dead or had
gone _to the ends of the earth_,[36] and her disappearance explained,
in my opinion, the loss of our means of correspondence with Carmen. I
put my donkey in a stable, and, taking my oranges, I walked about the
city as if to sell them, but in reality to see if I could not meet
some familiar face. There are quantities of riff-raff there from all
the countries on earth, and it is like the Tower of Babel, for you
cannot take ten steps on any street without hearing as many different
languages. I saw many gypsies, but I hardly dared to trust them; I
sounded them and they sounded me. We divined that we were villains;
the important point was to know whether we belonged to the same band.
After two days of fruitless going to and fro, I had learned nothing
concerning Rollona or Carmen, and was thinking of returning to my
comrades after making a few purchases, when, as I passed through a
street at sunset, I heard a woman’s voice calling to me from a window:
‘Orange-man!’ I looked up and saw Carmen on a balcony, leaning on the
rail with an officer in red, gold epaulets, curly hair--the whole
outfit of a great noble. She too was dressed magnificently: a shawl
over her shoulders, a gold comb, and her dress all silk; and the saucy
minx--always the same!--was laughing so that she held her sides. The
Englishman called to me in broken Spanish to come up, that the señora
wanted some oranges; and Carmen said in Basque:
“‘Come up, and don’t be surprised at anything.’
“In truth nothing was likely to surprise me on her part. I do not know
whether I felt more joy or grief at seeing her again. There was a tall
English servant with powdered hair, at the door, who ushered me into a
gorgeous salon. Carmen instantly said to me in Basque:
“‘You don’t know a word of Spanish; you don’t know me.’ Then, turning
to the Englishman: ‘I told you I recognised him at once as a Basque;
you will hear what a strange tongue it is. What a stupid look he has,
hasn’t he? One would take him for a cat caught in a pantry.’
“‘And you,’ I said to her in my language, ‘have the look of a
brazen-faced slut, and I am tempted to slash your face before your
lover.’
“‘My lover!’ she said; ‘did you really guess that all by yourself? And
you are jealous of this simpleton? You are more of a fool than you
were before our evenings in Rue de Candilejo. Don’t you see, blockhead
that you are, that I am doing the business of Egypt at this moment, and
in the most brilliant fashion too? This house is mine, the lobster’s
guineas will be mine; I lead him by the end of the nose, and I will
lead him to a place he will never come out of.’
“‘And I,’ I said, ‘if you go on doing the business of Egypt in this
way, I will see to it that you won’t do it again.’
“‘Ah! indeed! Are you my _rom_, to give me orders? The One-Eyed thinks
it’s all right, what business is it of yours? Oughtn’t you to be
content to be the only man who can say that he’s my _minchorrò?_’[37]
“‘What does he say?’ asked the Englishman.
“‘He says that he is thirsty and would like to drink a glass,’ Carmen
replied.
“And she threw herself on a couch, roaring with laughter at her
translation.
“When that girl laughed, señor, it was impossible to talk sense.
Everybody laughed with her. The tall Englishman began to laugh too,
like the fool that he was, and ordered something to be brought for me
to drink.
“While I was drinking:
“‘Do you see that ring he has on his finger?’ she asked me; ‘I will
give it to you if you want.’
“I replied:
“‘I would give a finger to have your lord on the mountains, each of us
with a _maquila_ in his hand.’
“‘_Maquila_--what does that mean?’ asked the Englishman.
“‘_Maquila_,’ said Carmen, still laughing, ‘is an orange. Isn’t that a
curious word for orange? He says that he would like to give you some
_maquila_ to eat.’
“‘Yes?’ said the Englishman. ‘Well! bring some _maquila_ to-morrow.’
“While we were talking, the servant entered and said that dinner was
ready. Thereupon the Englishman rose, gave me a piastre and offered
Carmen his arm, as if she could not walk alone. Carmen, still laughing,
said to me:
“‘I can’t invite you to dinner, my boy; but to-morrow, as soon as you
hear the drums beating for the parade, come here with some oranges. You
will find a room better furnished than the one on Rue de Candilejo, and
you will see whether I am still your Carmencita. And then we will talk
about the business of Egypt.’
“I made no reply, and after I was in the street I heard the Englishman
calling after me:
“‘Bring some _maquila_ to-morrow!’ and I heard Carmen’s shouts of
laughter.
“I went out, having no idea what I should do. I slept little, and in
the morning I found myself so enraged with that traitress that I had
resolved to leave Gibraltar without seeing her; but at the first beat
of the drum all my courage deserted me; I took my bag of oranges and
hurried to Carmen. Her blinds were partly open, and I saw her great
black eye watching me. The powdered servant ushered me in at once;
Carmen gave him an errand to do, and as soon as we were alone she burst
out with one of her shouts of crocodile laughter and threw herself
on my neck. I had never seen her so lovely. Arrayed like a Madonna,
perfumed--silk-covered furniture, embroidered hangings--ah!--and I,
dressed like the highwayman that I was!
“‘_Minchorrò!_’ said Carmen, ‘I have a mind to smash everything here,
to set fire to the house, and fly to the mountains!’
“And such caresses! and such laughter! and she danced, and she tore her
falbalas; never did monkey go through more antics, more deviltry, more
grimacing. When she had resumed her gravity:
“‘Listen,’ she said, ‘let us talk of Egypt. I want him to take me to
Ronda, where I have a sister who’s a nun (a fresh outburst of laughter
here). We shall go by a place that I will let you know. Do you fall
upon him; strip him clean! The best way would be to finish him; but,’
she added, with a diabolical smile which she assumed at certain times,
and no one had any desire to imitate that smile at such times,--‘do you
know what you must do? Let the One-Eyed appear first. Do you stay back
a little; the lobster is brave and a good shot; he has good pistols. Do
you understand?’
“She interrupted herself with a fresh burst of laughter that made me
shudder.
“‘No,’ I said, ‘I hate Garcia, but he is my comrade. Some day, perhaps,
I will rid you of him, but we will settle our accounts after the
fashion of my country. I am a gypsy only by chance; and in certain
things I shall always be a downright Navarrese, as the proverb says.’
“She retorted:
“‘You are a blockhead, a fool, a genuine _payllo_! You are like the
dwarf who thinks he’s tall when he can spit a long way. You don’t love
me--be off!’
“When she said ‘be off!’ I could not go. I promised to leave Gibraltar,
to return to my comrades and wait for the Englishman; she, on her side,
promised to be ill until it was time to leave Gibraltar for Ronda. I
stayed at Gibraltar two more days. She had the audacity to come to
see me at my inn, in disguise. I left the city; I, too, had my plan.
I returned to our rendezvous, knowing the place and hour when the
Englishman and Carmen were to pass. I found Dancaïre and Garcia waiting
for me. We passed the night in a wood beside a fire of pine cones,
which blazed finely. I proposed a game of cards to Garcia. He accepted.
In the second game I told him he was cheating; he began to laugh. I
threw the cards in his face. He tried to take his gun, but I put my
foot on it and said to him: ‘They say you can handle a knife like the
best _jaque_ in Malaga--will you try it with me?’ Dancaïre tried to
separate us. I had struck Garcia two or three times with my fist. Anger
made him brave; he drew his knife and I mine. We both told Dancaïre to
give us room and a fair field. He saw that there was no way of stopping
us, and he walked away. Garcia was bent double, like a cat on the point
of springing at a mouse. He held his hat in his left hand to parry, his
knife forward. That is the Andalusian guard. I took my stand Navarrese
fashion, straight in front of him, with the left arm raised, the left
leg forward, and the knife along the right thigh. I felt stronger than
a giant. He rushed on me like a flash; I turned on my left foot, and
he found nothing in front of him; but I caught him in the throat, and
my knife went in so far that my hand was under his chin. I twisted the
blade so sharply that it broke. That was the end. The knife came out of
the wound, forced by a stream of blood as big as your arm. He fell to
the ground as stiff as a stake.
“‘What have you done?’ Dancaïre asked me.
“‘Look you,’ said I; ‘we couldn’t live together. I love Carmen, and
I wish to be her only lover. Besides, Garcia was a villain, and I
remember what he did to poor Remendado. There are only two of us left,
but we are stout fellows. Tell me, do you want me for your friend, in
life or death?’
“Dancaïre gave me his hand. He was a man of fifty.
“‘To the devil with love affairs!’ he cried. ‘If you had asked him for
Carmen, he’d have sold her to you for a piastre. There’s only two of us
now; how shall we manage to-morrow?’
“‘Let me do it all alone,’ I replied. ‘I snap my fingers at the whole
world now.’
“We buried Garcia and pitched our camp again two hundred yards away.
The next day Carmen and her Englishman passed, with two muleteers and a
servant.
“I said to Dancaïre:
“‘I will take care of the Englishman. Frighten the others--they are not
armed.’
“The Englishman had pluck. If Carmen had not struck his arm, he would
have killed me. To make my story short, I won Carmen back that day, and
my first words to her were to tell her that she was a widow. When she
learned how it had happened:
“‘You will always be a _lillipendi_!’ she said. ‘Garcia ought to have
killed you. Your Navarrese guard is all folly, and he has put out the
light of better men than you. It means that his time had come. Yours
will come too.’
“‘And yours,’ I retorted, ‘unless you’re a true _romi_ to me.’
“‘All right,’ said she, ‘I’ve read more than once in coffee grounds
that we were to go together. Bah! let what is planted come up!’
“And she rattled her castanets, as she always did when she wished to
banish some unpleasant thought.
“We forget ourselves when we are talking about ourselves. All these
details tire you, no doubt, but I shall soon be done. The life we were
then leading lasted quite a long time. Dancaïre and I associated with
ourselves several comrades who were more reliable than the former
ones, and we devoted ourselves to smuggling, and sometimes, I must
confess, we stopped people on the highroad, but only in the last
extremity and when we could not do otherwise. However, we did not
maltreat travellers, and we confined ourselves to taking their money.
For several months I had no fault to find with Carmen; she continued
to make herself useful in our operations, informing us of profitable
strokes of business we could do. She stayed sometimes at Malaga,
sometimes at Cordova, sometimes at Granada; but at a word from me, she
would leave everything and join me at some isolated tavern, or even in
our camp. Once only--it was at Malaga--she caused me some anxiety. I
knew that she had cast her spell upon a very rich merchant, with whom
she probably proposed to repeat the Gibraltar pleasantry. In spite of
all that Dancaïre could say, I left him and went to Malaga in broad
daylight; I sought Carmen and took her away at once. We had a sharp
explanation.
“‘Do you know,’ she said, ‘that since you have been my _rom_ for good
and all I love you less than when you were my _minchorrò_? I don’t
choose to be tormented or, above all, to be ordered about! What I want
is to be free and to do what I please. Look out that you don’t drive me
too far. If you tire me out I will find some good fellow who will serve
you as you served the One-Eyed.’
“Dancaïre made peace between us; but we had said things to each
other that remained on our minds and we were no longer the same as
before. Soon after an accident happened to us. The troops surprised
us, Dancaïre was killed, and two more of my comrades; two others were
captured. I was seriously wounded and but for my good horse I should
have fallen into the soldiers’ hands. Worn out with fatigue, and with
a bullet in my body, I hid in some woods with the only comrade I had
left. I fainted when I dismounted, and I thought that I was going to
die in the underbrush like a wounded rabbit. My comrade carried me
to a cave that we knew, then he went in search of Carmen. She was at
Granada, and she instantly came to me. For a fortnight she did not
leave me a moment. She did not close an eye; she nursed me with a skill
and attention which no woman ever showed for the man she loved best. As
soon as I could stand she took me to Granada with the utmost secrecy.
Gypsies find sure places of refuge everywhere, and I passed more than
six weeks in a house within two doors of the corregidor who was looking
for me. More than once as I looked out from behind a shutter I saw him
pass. At last I was cured; but I had reflected deeply on my bed of pain
and I proposed to change my mode of life. I spoke to Carmen of leaving
Spain and of seeking an honest livelihood in the New World. She laughed
at me.
“‘We were not made to plant cabbages,’ said she; ‘our destiny is
to live at the expense of the _payllos_. Look you, I have arranged
an affair with Nathan Ben-Joseph of Gibraltar. He has some cotton
stuffs that are only waiting for you, to pass the frontier. He knows
that you are alive. He is counting on you. What would our Gibraltar
correspondents say if you should go back on your word?’
“I allowed her to persuade me and I resumed my wretched trade.
“While I was in hiding in Granada there were some bull-fights which
Carmen attended. When she returned she had much to say of a very
skilful picador named Lucas. She knew the name of his horse and how
much his embroidered jacket cost. I paid no attention to it. Juanito,
my last remaining comrade, told me some days later that he had seen
Carmen with Lucas in a shop on the Zacatin. That began to disturb me.
I asked Carmen how and why she had made the picador’s acquaintance.
“‘He’s a fellow with whom one can do business,’ she said. ‘A river that
makes a noise has either water or stones. He won twelve hundred reals
in the bull-fights. One of two things must happen: either we must have
that money, or else, as he’s a good rider and a fellow of good pluck,
we must take him into our band. Such a one and such a one are dead and
you need some one in their places. Take him.’
“‘I don’t want either his money or his person,’ I said, ‘and I forbid
you to speak to him.’
“‘Beware!’ said she, ‘when any one defies me to do a thing it’s soon
done!’
“Luckily the picador left for Malaga, and I turned my attention to
bringing in the Jew’s bales of cotton. I had a great deal to do in that
affair, and so did Carmen; and I forgot Lucas; perhaps she forgot him,
too, for the moment at least. It was about that time, señor, that I met
you, first near Montilla, then at Cordova. I will say nothing about
our last interview. Perhaps you remember it better than I do. Carmen
stole your watch; she wanted your money, too, and above all, that ring
that I see on your finger, which, she said, was a magnificent ring,
which it was most important for her to own. We had a violent quarrel,
and I struck her. She turned pale and shed tears, and that produced
a terrible effect on me. I asked her to forgive me, but she sulked a
whole day, and, when I started to return to Montilla, she refused to
kiss me. My heart was very heavy, when, three days later, she came
to see me with a laughing face and gay as a lark. Everything was
forgotten, and we were like lovers of two days’ standing. At the moment
of parting, she said to me:
“‘There’s to be a fête at Cordova; I am going to it, and I shall find
out what people are going away with money and let you know.’
“I let her go. When I was alone, I mused upon that fête and upon
Carmen’s change of humour. ‘She must have had her revenge already,’ I
thought, ‘as she was the first to make advances.’ A peasant told me
that there were bulls at Cordova. My blood began to boil, and like a
madman, I started for the city and went to the public square. Lucas was
pointed out to me, and on the bench next to the barrier, I recognised
Carmen. A single glance at her was enough to satisfy me. Lucas, when
the first bull appeared, played the gallant, as I had foreseen. He tore
the cockade[38] from the bull and carried it to Carmen, who instantly
put it in her hair. The bull took it upon himself to avenge me. Lucas
was thrown down, with his horse across his chest and the bull on top
of them both. I looked for Carmen; she was no longer in her seat.
It was impossible for me to leave the place where I was, and I was
compelled to wait until the end of the sports. Then I went to the house
that you know, and I lay in wait there all the evening and part of the
night. About two o’clock Carmen returned, and was rather surprised to
see me.
“‘Come with me,’ I said to her.
“‘All right!’ said she; ‘let us go.’
“I went for my horse and took her behind me, and we rode all the rest
of the night without exchanging a word. At daybreak we stopped at a
lonely _venta_, near a little hermitage. There I said to Carmen:
“‘Listen; I will forget everything; I will never say a word to you
about anything that has happened; but promise me one thing--that you
will go to America with me and remain quietly there.’
“‘No,’ she said, sullenly, ‘I don’t want to go to America. I am very
well off here.’
“‘That is because you are near Lucas; but understand this, if he
recovers, he won’t live to have old bones. But, after all, why should I
be angry with him? I am tired of killing all your lovers; you are the
one I will kill.’
“She looked earnestly at me with that savage look of hers, and said:
“‘I have always thought that you would kill me. The first time I saw
you, I had just met a priest at the door of my house. And that night
when we left Cordova, didn’t you see anything? A hare crossed the road
between your horse’s feet. It is written.’
“‘Carmen, don’t you love me any more?’ I asked her.
“She made no reply. She was seated with her legs crossed, on a mat, and
making figures on the ground with her finger.
“‘Let us change our mode of life, Carmen,’ I said to her in suppliant
tone. ‘Let us go somewhere to live where we shall never be parted. You
know, we have a hundred and twenty ounces buried under an oak, not far
from here. Then, too, we have funds in the Jew Ben-Joseph’s hands.’
“She smiled and said:
“‘Me first, then you. I know that it is bound to happen so.’
“‘Reflect,’ I continued; ‘I am at the end of my patience and my
courage; make up your mind, or I shall make up mine.’
“I left her and walked in the direction of the hermitage. I found the
hermit praying. I waited until his prayer was at an end; I would have
liked to pray, but I could not. When he rose I went to him.
“‘Father,’ I said, ‘will you say a prayer for some one who is in great
danger?’
“‘I pray for all who are afflicted,’ he said.
“‘Can you say a mass for a soul which perhaps is soon to appear before
its Creator?’
“‘Yes,’ he replied, gazing fixedly at me.
“And, as there was something strange in my manner, he tried to make me
talk.
“‘It seems to me that I have seen you before,’ he said.
“I placed a piastre on his bench.
“‘When will you say the mass?’ I asked.
“‘In half an hour. The son of the innkeeper yonder will come soon to
serve it. Tell me, young man, have you not something on your conscience
which torments you? Will you listen to the advice of a Christian?’
“I felt that I was on the point of weeping. I told him that I would
come again, and I hurried away. I lay down on the grass until I heard
the bell ring. Then I returned, but I remained outside the chapel. When
the mass was said, I returned to the _venta_. I hoped that Carmen would
have fled--she might have taken my horse and made her escape--but I
found her there. She did not propose that any one should say that I had
frightened her. During my absence she had ripped the hem of her dress,
to take out the lead. Now she was standing by a table, watching the
lead, which she had melted and had just thrown into a bowl filled with
water. She was so engrossed by her magic that she did not notice my
return at first. At one moment she would take up a piece of lead and
turn it in every direction with a melancholy air; then she would sing
one of those ballads of magic in which they invoke Maria Padilla, Don
Pedro’s mistress, who, they say, was the _Bari Crallisa_, or the great
queen of the gypsies.[39]
“‘Carmen,’ I said, ‘will you come with me?’
“She rose, pushed her bowl away, and put her mantilla over her head, as
if ready to start. My horse was brought, she mounted behind me, and we
rode away.
“‘So, my Carmen,’ I said, after we had ridden a little way, ‘you will
go with me, won’t you?’
“‘I will go with you to death, yes, but I won’t live with you any more.’
“We were in a deserted ravine; I stopped my horse.
“‘Is this the place?’ she said.
“And with one spring she was on the ground. She took off her mantilla,
dropped it at her feet, and stood perfectly still, with one hand on her
hip, looking me in the eye.
“‘You mean to kill me, I can see that,’ she said; ‘it is written, but
you will not make me yield.’
“‘Be reasonable, I beg,’ I said to her. ‘Listen to me. All of the past
is forgotten. However, as you know, it was you who ruined me; it was
for your sake that I became a robber and a murderer. Carmen! my Carmen!
let me save you and myself with you.’
“‘José,’ she replied, ‘you ask something that is impossible. I no
longer love you; you do still love me, and that is the reason you
intend to kill me. I could easily tell you some lie; but I don’t choose
to take the trouble. All is over between us. As my _rom_, you have a
right to kill your _romi_; but Carmen will always be free. _Calli_ she
was born, _calli_ she will die.’
“‘Then you love Lucas?’ I demanded.
“‘Yes, I did love him, as I loved you, for a moment--but less than I
loved you, I think. Now, I love nobody, and I hate myself for having
loved you.’
“I threw myself at her feet, I took her hands, I drenched them with
my tears. I reminded her of all the blissful moments we had passed
together. I offered to remain a brigand to please her. Everything,
señor, everything; I offered her everything, if only she would love me
again.
“She said to me:
“‘To love you again is impossible. I will not live with you.’
“Frenzy took possession of me. I drew my knife. I would have liked her
to show some fear and to beg for mercy, but that woman was a demon.
“‘For the last time,’ I cried, ‘will you stay with me?’
“‘No! no! no!’ she replied, stamping the ground with her foot.
“And she took from her finger a ring I had given her and threw it into
the underbrush.
“I struck her twice. It was the One-Eyed’s knife, which I had taken,
having broken my own. She fell at the second stroke, without a sound.
I fancy that I still see her great black eye gazing at me; then it
grew dim and closed. I remained utterly crushed beside that corpse for
a long hour. Then I remembered that Carmen had often told me that she
would like to be buried in a wood. I dug a grave with my knife and laid
her in it. I hunted a long while for her ring and found it at last. I
placed it in the grave with her, also a small crucifix. Perhaps I did
wrong. Then I mounted my horse, galloped to Cordova, and gave myself
up at the first guard-house. I said that I had killed Carmen, but I
have refused to tell where her body is. The hermit was a holy man. He
prayed for her! He said a mass for her soul. Poor child! The _Cales_
are guilty, for bringing her up so.”