Santillane's Visit to Poet Nunez, the Company, and Conversation.
BOOK THE TWELFTH.
CHAPTER I.
Gil Blas sent to Toledo by the Minister. The Purpose of his Journey,
and its Success.
CHAPTER II.
Santillane makes his Report to the Minister, who commissions him to
send for Lucretia. The first Appearance of that Actress before the
Court.
CHAPTER III.
Lucretia's Popularity, her Appearance before the King, his Passion,
and its Consequences.
CHAPTER IV.
Santillane in a new Office.
CHAPTER V.
The Son of the Genoese is acknowledged by a legal Instrument, and
named Don Henry Philip de Guzman. Santillane establishes his
Household, and arranges the Course of his Studies.
CHAPTER VI.
Scipio's Return from New Spain. Gil Blas places him about Don
Henry's Person. That young Nobleman's Course of Study. His Career
of Honor, and his Father's matrimonial Speculation on his Behalf. A
Patent of Nobility conferred on Gil Blas against his Will.
CHAPTER VII.
An accidental Meeting between Gil Blas and Fabricio. Their last
Conversation together, and a Word to the Wise from Nunez.
CHAPTER VIII.
Gil Blas finds that Fabricio's Hint was not without Foundation. The
King's Journey to Saragossa.
CHAPTER IX.
The Revolution of Portugal, and Disgrace of the Prime Minister.
CHAPTER X.
A difficult, but successful Weaning from the World. The Minister's
Employment in his Retreat.
CHAPTER XI.
A Change in his Lordship for the Worse. The marvellous Cause, and
melancholy Consequences of his Dejection.
CHAPTER XII.
The Proceedings at the Castle of Loeches after his Lordship's Death,
and the Course which Santillane adopted.
CHAPTER XIII.
The Return of Gil Blas to his Seat. His Joy at finding his
God-daughter Seraphina marriageable, and his own second Venture in
the Lottery of Love.
CHAPTER XIV.
A Double Marriage, and the Conclusion of the History.
HISTORY OF GIL BLAS OF SANTILLANE.
BOOK THE EIGHTH.--(CONTINUED).
_CHAPTER VIII._
_HISTORY OF DON ROGER DE RADA._
Don Anastasio de Rada, a gentleman of Grenada, was living happily in
the town of Antequera, with Donna Estephania his wife, who united
every charm of person and mind with the most unquestionable virtue.
If her affection was lively towards her husband, his love for her was
violent beyond all bounds. He was naturally prone to jealousy; and
though wantonness could never assume such a semblance as his wife's,
his thoughts were not quite at rest upon the subject. He was
apprehensive lest some secret enemy to his repose might make some
attempt upon his honor. His eye was turned askance upon all his
friends, except Don Huberto de Hordales, who frequented the house
without suspicion in quality of Estephania's cousin, and was the only
man in whom he ought not to have confided.
Don Huberto did actually fall in love with his cousin, and ventured
to make his sentiments known, in contempt of consanguinity and the
ties of friendship. The lady, who was considerate, instead of making
an outcry which might have led to fatal consequences, reproved her
kinsman gently, represented to him the extreme criminality of
attempting to seduce her and dishonor her husband, and told him very
seriously that he must not flatter himself with the most distant hope.
This moderation only inflamed the seducer's appetite the more.
Taking it for granted that, as a woman who had been accustomed to
save appearances, she only wanted to be more strongly urged, he began
to adopt little freedoms of more warmth than delicacy, and had the
assurance one day to put the question home to her. She repulsed him
with unbridled indignation, and threatened to refer the punishment of
his offence to Don Anastasio. Her suitor, alarmed at such an
intimation, promised to drop the subject; and Estephania, in the
candor of her soul, forgave him for the past.
Don Huberto, a man totally devoid of principle, could not feel his
passion to be foiled without entertaining a mean spirit of revenge.
He knew the weak side of Don Anastasio's temper. This was enough to
engender the blackest design that ever scoundrel plotted. One
evening, as he was walking alone with this misguided husband, he said
with an air of extreme uneasiness, My dear friend, I can no longer
live without unburdening my mind; and yet I would be forever silent,
but that you value honor far above a treacherous repose. Your acute
feelings and my own, on points which concern domestic injuries,
forbid me to conceal what is passing in your family. Prepare to hear
what will occasion you as much grief as astonishment. I am going to
wound you in the tenderest part.
I know what you mean, interrupted Don Anastasio, in the first burst
of agony; your cousin is unfaithful. I no longer acknowledge her for
my cousin, replied Hordales with impassioned vehemence; I disown her,
as unworthy to share my friend's embraces. This is keeping me too
long upon the rack, exclaimed Don Anastasio: say on; what has
Estephania done? She has betrayed you, replied Don Huberto. You
have a rival to whom she listens in private, but I cannot give you
his name; for the adulterer, under favor of impenetrable darkness,
has escaped the ken of those who watched him. All I know is, that
you are duped: of that fact I am well assured. My own share in the
disgrace is a sufficient pledge of my veracity. Her infidelity must
be palpable indeed, when I turn Estephania's accuser.
It is to no purpose, continued he, watching the successful impression
of his discourse,--it is to no purpose to discuss the subject
further. I perceive your indignation at the treacherous requital of
your love, and your thoughts all aiming at a just revenge. Take your
own course. Heed not in what relation to you your victim may stand;
but convince the whole city that there is no earthly being whom you
would not sacrifice to your honor.
Thus did the traitor exasperate a too credulous husband against an
innocent wife; depicting in such glowing colors the infamy in which
he would be plunged, if he left the insult unpunished, as to heighten
his anger into madness. Behold Don Anastasio with his mind
completely overturned, as if goaded by the Furies. He returned
homewards with the frantic design of murdering his ill-fated wife.
She was just going to bed when he came in. He kept his passion under
for a time, and waited till the attendants had withdrawn. Then,
unrestrained by the fear of vengeance from above, by the vulgar scorn
which must recoil upon an honorable family, by natural affection for
his unborn child, since his wife was near her time, he approached his
victim, and said to her in a furious tone of voice, Now is your hour
to die, wretch as you are! One moment only is your own, which my
relenting pity leaves you to make your peace with heaven. I would
not that your soul should perish eternally, though your earthly honor
is forever lost.
At these words he drew his dagger. Estephania, just speechless with
terror, throwing herself at his feet, besought him, with uplifted
hands and inarticulate agony, to tell her why he raised his arm
against her life. If he suspected her fidelity, she called heaven to
attest her innocence.
In vain, in vain, replied the infuriated murderer; your treason is
but too well proved. My information is not to be contradicted: Don
Huberto... Ah! my lord, interrupted she with eager haste, you must
hold your trust aloof from Don Huberto. He is less your friend than
you imagine. If he has said aught against my virtue, believe him
not. Restrain that infamous tongue, replied Don Anastasio. By
appealing against Hordales, you condemn yourself. You would ruin
your relation in my esteem, because he is acquainted with your
misconduct. You would invalidate his evidence against you; but the
artifice is palpable, and only whets my appetite for vengeance. My
dear husband, rejoined the innocent Estephania, while her tears
flowed in torrents, beware of this blind rage. If you follow its
instigation, you will perpetrate a deed for which you will hate
yourself, when convinced of its injustice. In the name of heaven,
compose your disordered spirits. At least give me time to clear up
your suspicions; you will then deal candidly by a wife who has
nothing to reproach herself with.
Any other than Don Anastasio would have been touched by her
pleadings, and still more by her agonizing affliction; but the
barbarian, far from being softened, ordered the lady once again to
recommend herself briefly to mercy, and lifted his arm to strike the
blow. Hold, inhuman as you are! cried she. If your love for me is
as if it had never been, if my lavish fondness in return is all
blotted from your memory, if my tears have no eloquence to disarm
your hellish purpose, have some pity on your own blood. Launch not
your frantic hand against an innocent, who has not yet breathed this
vital air. You cannot be its executioner without the curse of heaven
and earth. As for myself, I can forgive my murderer; but the butcher
of his own child--think deeply of it!--must pay the dreadful forfeit
of so detestable a deed.
Determined as Don Anastasio was to pay no attention to anything
Estephania could say, he could not help being affected by the
frightful images these last words presented to his soul. Wherefore,
as if apprehensive lest nature should play the traitress to revenge,
he hastened to make sure of his staggering resolves, and plunged his
dagger into her bosom. She fell motionless on the ground. He
thought her dead, and on that supposition left his house immediately,
to be no more seen at Antequera.
In the mean time, the unhappy victim of groundless suspicion was so
stunned with the blow she had received, as to remain for a short
interval on the ground without any signs of life. Afterwards, coming
to herself, she brought an old female servant to her assistance by
her plaints and lamentations. That good old woman, beholding her
mistress in so deplorable a state, waked the whole household, and
even the neighborhood by her cries. The room was soon filled with
spectators. Surgical assistance was sent for. The wound was probed,
and pronounced not to be mortal. Their opinion turned out to be
correct, for Estephania soon recovered, and was in due time delivered
of a son, notwithstanding the cruel circumstances in which she had
been placed. That son, Signor Gil Blas, you behold in me; I am the
fruit of that dreadful pregnancy.
Women, when chaste as ice, when pure as snow, seldom escape calumny:
this plague, however, though virtue's dowry, did not alight upon my
mother. The bloody scene passed, in common fame, for the transport
of a jealous husband. My father, it is true, bore the character of a
passionate man, prone to kindle into fury on the slightest occasion.
Hordales could not but suppose that his kinswoman must suspect him of
having sown wild fancies in the mind of Don Anastasio, so that he
satisfied himself with this imperfect relish of revenge, and ceased
to importune her. But, not to be tedious, I shall pass over the
detail of my education. Suffice it to say, that my principal
exercise was fencing, which I practised regularly in the most famous
schools of Grenada and Seville. My mother waited with impatience
till I was of age to measure swords with Don Huberto, that she might
instruct me in the grounds of her complaint against him. In my
eighteenth year, she submitted her cause to my arbitrament, not
without floods of tears, and every symptom of the deepest anguish.
What must not a son feel, if he has the spirit and the heart of a
son, at the sight of a mother in such distressing circumstances? I
went immediately and called out Hordales; our place of meeting was
private, as it should be; we fought long and furiously; three of my
thrusts took place, and I threw him to the ground, like a dead dog
despised.
Don Huberto, feeling his wound to be mortal, fixed his last looks
upon me, and declared that he met his death at my hands as a just
punishment for his treason against my mother's honor. He owned that
in revenge for the pangs of despised love he had resolved on her
ruin. Thus did he breathe his last, imploring pardon from heaven,
from Don Anastasio, from Estephania, and from myself. I deemed it
imprudent to return home and acquaint my mother of the issue; fame
was sure to perform that office for me. I passed the mountains, and
repaired to Malaga, where I embarked on board a privateer. My
outside not altogether indicating cowardice, the captain consented at
once to enroll me among his crew.
We were not long before we went into action. Near the island of
Alboutan, a corsair of Millila fell in with us, on his return towards
the African coast with a Spanish vessel richly laden, taken off
Carthagena. We attacked the African briskly, and made ourselves
masters of both ships, with eighty Christians on board, going as
slaves to Barbary. Afterwards, availing ourselves of a wind direct
for the coast of Grenada, we shortly arrived at Punta de Helena.
While we were inquiring into the birthplace and condition of our
rescued captives, a man about fifty, of prepossessing aspect, fell
under my examination. He stated himself, with a sigh, to belong to
Antequera. My heart palpitated, without my knowing why; and my
emotion, too strong to pass unnoticed, excited a visible sympathy in
him. I avowed myself his townsman, and asked his family name. Alas!
answered he, your curiosity makes my sorrow flow afresh. Eighteen
years ago did I leave my home, where my remembrance is coupled with
scenes of blood and horror. You must yourself have heard but too
much of my story. My name is Don Anastasio de Rada. Merciful heaven
I exclaimed I; may I believe my senses? And can this be? Don
Anastasio? Father! What is it you say, young man? exclaimed he, in
his turn, with surprise and agitation equal to my own. Are you that
ill-fated infant, still in its mother's womb, when I sacrificed her
to my fury? Yes, said I; none other did the virtuous Estephania
bring into the world, after the fatal night when you left her
weltering in her own blood.
Don Anastasio stifled my words in his embraces. For a quarter of an
hour we could only mingle our inarticulate sighs and exclamations.
After exhausting our tender recollections, and indulging in the wild
expression of our feelings, my father lifted his eyes to heaven, in
gratitude for Estephania saved; but the next moment, as if doubtful
of his bliss, he demanded by what evidence his wife's innocence had
been cleared. Sir, answered I, none but yourself ever doubted it.
Her conduct has been uniformly spotless. You must be undeceived.
Know that Don Huberto was a traitor. In proof of this I unfolded all
his perfidy, the vengeance I had taken, and his own confession before
he expired.
My father was less delighted at his liberty restored than at these
happy tidings. In the forgetfulness of ecstasy, he repeated all his
former transports. His approbation of me was ardent and entire.
Come, my son, said he, let us set out for Antequera. I burn with
impatience to throw myself at the feet of a wife whom I have treated
so unworthily. Since you have brought me acquainted with my own
injustice, my heart has been torn by remorse.
I was too eager to bring together a couple so near and dear to me,
not to expedite our journey as much as possible. I quitted the
privateer, and with my share of prize money bought two mules at Adra,
my father not choosing again to incur the hazard of a voyage. He
found leisure on the road to relate his adventures, which I inclined
to hear as seriously as did the Prince of Ithaca the various recitals
of the king his father. At length, after several days, we halted at
the foot of a mountain near Antequera. Wishing to reach home
privately, we went not into the town till midnight.
You may guess my mother's astonishment at beholding a husband whom
she had thought forever lost; and the almost miraculous circumstances
of his restoration were a second source of wonder. He entreated
forgiveness for his barbarity with marks of repentance so lively,
that she could not but be moved. Instead of looking on him as a
murderer, she only saw the man to whose will high heaven had
subjected her; such religion is there in the name of husband to a
virtuous wife! Estephania had been so alarmed about me, that my
return filled her with rapture. But her joy on this account was not
without alleviation. A sister of Hordales had instituted a criminal
prosecution against her brother's antagonist. The search for me was
hot, so that my mother, considering home as insecure, was painfully
anxious about me. It was therefore necessary to set out that very
night for court, whither I come to solicit my pardon, and hope to
obtain it by your generous intercession with the prime minister.
The gallant son of Don Anastasio thus closed his narrative; after
which I observed, with a self-sufficient physiognomy, It is well,
Signor Don Roger; the offence seems to me to be venial. I will
undertake to lay the case before his excellency, and may venture to
promise you his protection. The thanks my client lavished would have
passed in at one ear and out at the other, if they had not been
backed by assurances of more substantial gratitude. But when once
that string was touched, every nerve and fibre of my frame vibrated
in unison. On the very same day did I relate the whole story to the
duke, who allowed me to present the gentleman, and addressed him
thus: Don Roger, I have been informed of the duel which has brought
you to court; Santillane has laid all the particulars before me.
Make yourself perfectly easy; you have done nothing but what the
circumstances of the case might almost warrant; and it is especially
on the ground of wounded honor that his Majesty is best pleased to
extend his grace and favor. You must be committed for mere form's
sake; but you may depend on it, your confinement shall be of short
duration. In Santillane you have a zealous friend, who will watch
over your interests and hasten your release.
Don Roger paid his respectful acknowledgments to the minister, on
whose pledge he went and surrendered himself. His pardon was soon
made out, owing to my activity. In less than ten days, I sent this
modern Telemachus home, to say, "How do you do?" to his Ulysses and
Penelope; had he stood upon the merits of his case without a
protector, he might have whined out a year's imprisonment, and
scarcely have got off at last. My commission was but a poor hundred
pistoles. It was no very magnificent haul; but I was not as yet a
Calderona, to turn up my nose at the small fry.
_CHAPTER IX._
_GIL BLAS MAKES A LARGE FORTUNE IN A SHORT TIME, AND BEHAVES LIKE
OTHER WEALTHY UPSTARTS._
This affair gave me a relish for my trade; and ten pistoles to
Scipio, by way of brokerage, whetted his eagerness to start more game
of the same sort. I have already done justice to his talents that
way; he might as modestly have appended "the great" to the tail of
his name, as the most noted scoundrel of antiquity. The second
customer he brought me was a printer, who manufactured books of
chivalry, and had made his fortune by waging war against common
sense. This printer had pirated a work belonging to a brother
printer, and his edition had been seized. For three hundred ducats I
rescued his copies out of jeopardy, and saved him from a heavy fine.
Though this was a transaction beneath the prime minister's notice,
his excellency condescended, at my request, to interpose his
authority. After the printer, a merchant passed through my hands;
the occasion was thus: A Portuguese vessel had been taken by a
Barbary corsair, and retaken by a privateer from Cadiz. Two thirds
of the cargo belonged to a merchant at Lisbon, who, having claimed
his due to no purpose, came to the court of Spain in search of a
protector, with sufficient credit to procure him restitution. I took
up his cause, and he recovered his property, deducting the sum of
four hundred pistoles, paid to me in consideration of my
disinterested zeal for justice.
And now most surely the reader will call out to me at this place,
Well said, good master Santillane! Make hay while the sun shines.
You are on the high road to fortune; push forward, and outstrip your
rivals. O! let me alone for that. I spy, or my eyes deceive me, my
servant coming in with a new gull that he has just caught. Even so!
It is my very Scipio. Let us hear what he has to say. Sir, quoth
he, give me leave to introduce this eminent practitioner. He wants a
license to sell his drugs, during the term of ten years, in all the
towns of the Spanish monarchy, to the exclusion of all other quacks;
in short, a monopoly of poisons. In gratitude for this patent to
thin mankind, he will present the donor with a gratuity of two
hundred pistoles. I looked superciliously, like a patron, at the
mountebank, and told him that his business should be done. As
lameness and leprosy would have it, in the course of a few days, I
sent him on his progress through Spain, invested with full powers to
make the world his oyster, and leave nothing but the shell to his
unpatented competitors.
Besides that my avarice outran my accumulating wealth, I had obtained
the four boons just specified so easily from his grace, as not to be
mealy-mouthed about asking for a fifth. The town of Vera, on the
coast of Grenada, wanted a governor; and a knight of Calatrava wanted
the government, for which he was willing to pay me one thousand
pistoles. The minister was ready to burst with laughing, to see me
so eager after the scut. By all the powers, my friend Gil Blas, said
he, you go to work tooth and nail! You have a most inveterate itch
to do as you would be done by. But mark me! When mere trifles stand
between us, I shall not stand upon trifles; but when governments or
other places of real value are in question, you will have the modesty
to be content with half the fee for yourself, and will account to me
for the other half. It is inconceivable at what expense I stand, and
how it presses on my finances to support the dignity of my station;
for though disinterestedness looks vastly well in the eyes of the
world, you are to understand, between ourselves, that I have made a
solemn vow against dipping into my private fortune. On this hint,
arrange your future plans.
My master, by this discourse relieving me from the fear of being
troublesome, or rather egging me on to run at the ring for every
prize, made me still more worldly-minded than ever I had been before.
I should not have objected to circulating handbills, with an
invitation to all candidates for places to apply on certain terms at
the secretary's office. My functions were here, Scipio's were there;
and we met at the receipt of custom. My client got the government of
Vera for his thousand pistoles; and as our price was fixed, a knight
of St. James met his brother of Calatrava in the market on an equal
footing. But mere governors were paltry fish to fry; I distributed
orders of knighthood, and converted some good stupid burgesses into
most insufferable gentry by one stroke of the pen, and a lacing
across the shoulders with a broadsword. The clergy, too, were not
forgotten in my charities. Lesser preferments were in my gift;
everything up to prebendal stalls and collegiate dignities. With
regard to bishoprics and archbishoprics, Don Rodrigo de Calderona had
the charge of our holy religion. As church and state must always go
together, supreme magistracies, commanderies, and viceroyalties were
all in his gift; whence the reader will naturally infer, that the
upper offices were little better tenanted than the lower ones; since
the subjects on whom our election fell, establishing their
pretensions on a certain palpable criterion, were not necessarily and
unavoidably either the cleverest or the best-principled people in the
world. We knew very well that the wits and lampooners of Madrid made
themselves merry at our expense; but we borrowed our philosophy from
misers, who hug themselves under the hootings of the people, when
they count over the accumulation of their pelf.
Isocrates was in the right to insinuate, in his elegant Greek
expression, that what is got over the devil's back is spent under his
belly. When I saw myself master of thirty thousand ducats, and in a
fair way to gain perhaps ten times as much, it seemed to be a
necessity of office to make such a figure as became the right hand of
a prime minister. I took a house to myself, and furnished it in the
immediate taste. I bought an attorney's carriage at second hand; he
had set it up at the suggestion of vanity, and laid it down at the
suggestion of his banker. I hired a coachman and three footmen.
Justice demands that old and faithful servants should be promoted; I
therefore invested Scipio with the threefold honor of
valet-de-chambre, private secretary, and steward. But the minister
raised my pride to its highest pitch, for he was pleased to allow my
people to wear his livery. My poor little wits were now completely
turned. I was little more in my senses than the disciples of Porcius
Latro, who, by dint of drinking cumin, having made themselves as pale
as their master, thought themselves every whit as learned; so I could
scarcely refrain from fancying myself next of kin and presumptive
heir to the Duke of Lerma himself. The populace might take me for
his cousin, and people who knew better, for one of his bastards--a
suspicion most flattering to my pride of blood.
Add to this, that after the example of his excellency, who kept a
public table, I determined to give parties of my own. Pursuant
thereunto, I commissioned Scipio to find me out a professed cook; and
he stumbled upon one who might have dished up a dinner for
Nomentanus, of dripping pan notoriety. My cellar was well stored
with the choicest wines. My establishment being now complete, I gave
my house-warming. Every evening some of the clerks in the public
offices came to sup with me, and affected a sort of political high
life below stairs. I did the honors hospitably, and always sent them
home half seas over. Like master like man! Scipio, too, had his
parties in the servants' hall, where he treated all his chums at my
expense. But besides that I felt a real kindness for that lad, he
contributed to grease the wheels of my establishment, and was
entitled to have a finger in the dissipation. As a young man, some
little license was allowable; and the ruinous consequences did not
strike me at the time. Another reason, too, prevented me from taking
notice of it; incessant vacancies, ecclesiastical and secular, paid
me amply in meal and in malt. My surplus was increasing every day.
Fortune's curricle seemed to have driven to my door, there to have
broken down, and the driver to have taken shelter with me.
One thing more was wanting to my complete intoxication--that Fabricio
might be witness to my pomp. He was, most probably, come back from
Andalusia. For the fun of surprising him, I sent an anonymous note,
importing that a Sicilian nobleman of his acquaintance would be glad
of his company to supper, with the day, hour, and place of
appointment, which was at my house. Nunez came, and was most
inordinately astonished to recognize me in the Sicilian nobleman.
Yes, my friend, said I, behold the master of this family. I have a
retinue, a good table, and a strong box besides. Is it possible,
exclaimed he with vivacity, that all this opulence should be yours?
It was well done in me to have placed you with Count Galiano. I told
you beforehand that he was a generous nobleman, and would not be long
before he set you at your ease. Of course you followed my wise
advice, in giving the rein a little more freely to your servants; you
find the benefit of it. It is only by a little mutual accommodation,
that the principal officers in great houses feather their nests so
comfortably.
I suffered Fabricio to go on as long as he liked, complimenting
himself for having introduced me to Count Galiano. When he had done,
to chastise his ecstasies at having procured me so good a post, I
stated at full length the returns of gratitude with which that
nobleman had recompensed my services. But, perceiving how ready my
poet was to string his lyre to satire at my recital, I said to him,
The Sicilian's contemptible conduct I readily forgive. Between
ourselves, it is more a subject of congratulation than of regret. If
the count had dealt honorably by me, I should have followed him into
Sicily, where I should still be in a subordinate capacity, waiting
for dead men's shoes. In a word, I should not now have been hand in
glove with the Duke of Lerma.
Nunez felt so strange a sensation at these last words, that he was
tongue-tied for some seconds. Then gulping up his stammering accents
like harlequin, Did I hear aright? said he. What! you hand in glove
with the prime minister? I on one side, and Don Rodrigo de Calderona
on the other, answered I; and according to all appearance, my
fortunes will move higher. Truly, replied he, this is admirable.
You are cut out for every occasion. What a universal genius! To
borrow an expression from the tennis-court, you have a racket for
every ball; nothing comes amiss to you. At all events, my lord, I am
sincerely rejoiced at your lordship's prosperity. The deuce and all,
Master Nunez! interrupted I; good now, dispense with your lords and
lordships. Let us banish such formalities, and live on equal terms
together. You are in the right, replied he; altered circumstances
should not make strange faces. I will own my weakness; when you
announced your elevation, you took away my breath; but the chill and
the shudder are over, and I see only my old friend Gil Blas.
Our conversation was interrupted by the arrival of four or five
clerks. Gentlemen, said I, introducing Nunez, you are to sup with
Signor Don Fabricio, who writes verses of impenetrable sublimity, and
such prose as would not know itself in the glass. Unluckily I was
talking to gentry who would have had more fellow-feeling with an
orang outang than with a poet. They scarcely condescended to look at
him. In vain did he pun, parody, rally, or rail to hit their
fancies, for they had none. He was so nettled at their indifference,
that he assumed the poetic license, and made his escape. Our clerks
never missed him, but forgot at once that he had been there.
Just as I was going out the next morning, the poet of the Asturias
came into my room. I beg pardon, said he, for having cut your clerks
so abruptly last night; but, to deal freely, I was so much out of my
element, that I should soon have played old chaos with them. Proud
puppies, with their starch and self-important air! I cannot conceive
how a clever fellow like you can sit it out with such loutish guests.
To-day I will bring you some of more life and spirit. I shall be
very much obliged to you, answered I: your introduction is
sufficient. Exactly so, replied he. You shall have the feast of
reason and the flow of soul. I will go forthwith and invite them,
for fear they should engage themselves elsewhere; for happy man be
his dole who can get them to dinner or supper, they are such
excellent company!
Away went he; and in the evening, at supper-time, returned with six
authors in his train, whom he presented one after another with a set
speech in their praise. According to his account, the wits of Greece
and Italy were nothing in comparison of these, whose works ought to
be printed in letters of gold. I received this deputation from the
tuneful sisters very politely. My behavior was even in the
extravagance of good breeding; for the republic of authors is a
little monarchical in its demands upon our flattery. Though I had
given Scipio no express direction respecting the number of covers at
this entertainment, yet knowing what a hungry and voluptuous race
were to be crammed, he had mustered the courses in more than their
full complement.
At length, supper was announced, and we fell to merrily. My poets
began talking of their poems and themselves. One fellow, with the
most lyrical assurance, numbered up whole hosts of first-rate
nobility and high-flying dames, who were quite enraptured with his
muse. Another, though it was not for him to arraign the choice which
a learned society had lately made of two new members, could not help
saying that it was strange they should not have elected him. All the
rest were much in the same story. Amid the clatter of knives and
forks, my ears were more discordantly dinned with verses and
harangues. They each took it by turns to give me a specimen of their
composition. One languishes out a sonnet; another mouths a scene in
a tragedy; and a third reads a melancholy criticism on the province
of comedy. The next in turn spouts an ode of Anacreon, translated
into most un-anacreontic Spanish verse. One of his brethren
interrupts him, to point out the unclassical use of a particular
phrase. The author of the version by no means acquiesces in the
remark; hence arises an argument, in which all the literati take one
side or the other. Opinions are nearly balanced; the disputants are
nearly in a passion; as argument weakens, invective grows stronger;
they get from bad to worse; over goes the table, and up jump they to
fisticuffs. Fabricio, Scipio, my coachman, my footman, and myself
have scarcely lungs or strength to bring them to their senses. The
moment the battle was over, off scampered they as if my house had
been a tavern, without the slightest apology for their ill behavior.
Nunez, on whose word I had anticipated a very pleasant party, looked
rather blue at this conclusion. Well, my friend, said I, what do you
think of your literary acquaintance now? As sure as Apollo is on
Parnassus, you brought me a most blackguard set. I will stick to my
clerks; so talk no more to me about authors. I shall take care,
answered he, not to invite any of them to a gentleman's house again;
for these are the most select and well-mannered of the tribe.
_CHAPTER X._
_THE MORALS OF GIL BLAS BECOME AT COURT MUCH AS IF THEY HAD NEVER
BEEN AT ALL. A COMMISSION FROM THE COUNT DE LEMOS, WHICH, LIKE MOST
COUNT COMMISSIONS, IMPLIES AN INTRIGUE._
When once my name was up for a man after the Duke of Lerma's own
heart, I had very soon my court about me. Every morning was my
antechamber crowded with company, and my levees were all the fashion.
Two sorts of customers came to my shop; one set, to engage my
interposition with the minister, on fair commercial principles; the
other set, to excite my compassion by pathetic statements of their
cases, and give me a lift to heaven on the packhorse of charity. The
first were sure of being heard patiently and served diligently; with
regard to the second order, I got rid of them at once by plausible
evasions, or kept them dangling till they wore their patience
threadbare, and went off in a huff. Before I was about the court, my
nature was compassionate and charitable; but tenderness of heart is
an unfashionable frailty there, and mine became harder than any
flint. Here was an admirable school to correct the romantic
sensibilities of friendship: nor was my philosophy any longer
assailable in that quarter. My manner of dealing with Joseph
Navarro, under the following circumstances, will prove more than
volumes on that head.
This Navarro, the founder of my fortune, to whom my obligations were
thick and threefold, paid me a visit one day. With the warmest
expressions of regard, such as he was in the habit of lavishing, he
begged me to ask the Duke of Lerma for a certain situation for one of
his friends, a young man of excellent qualities and undoubted merit,
but encumbered with an inability of getting on in the world. I am
well assured, added Joseph, that with your good and obliging
disposition, you will be enraptured to confer a favor on a worthy man
with a very slender purse; I am sure you will feel obliged to me for
giving you an opportunity of carrying your benevolent inclinations
into effect. This was just as good as telling me that the business
was to be done for nothing. Though such doctrine was not quite level
to my capacity, I still affected a wish to do as he desired. It
gives me infinite pleasure, answered I to Navarro, to have it in my
power to evince my lively sense of all your former kindness to me.
It is enough for you to take any man living by the hand; from that
moment he becomes the object of my unwearied care. Your friend shall
have the situation you want for him; nay, he has it already: it is no
longer any concern of yours; leave it entirely to me.
On this assurance Joseph went away in high glee; nevertheless, the
person he recommended had not the post in question. It was given to
another man, and my strong box was the stronger by a thousand ducats.
This sum was infinitely preferable to all the thanks in the world, so
that I looked pitifully blank when next we met, saying, Ah, my dear
Navarro! you should have thought of speaking to me sooner. That
Calderona got the start of me; he has given away a certain thing that
shall be nameless. I am vexed to the soul not to meet you with
better tidings.
Joseph was fool enough to give me credit, and we parted better
friends than ever; but I suspect that he soon found out the truth,
for he never came near me again. This was just what I wanted.
Besides that the memory of benefits received grated harshly, it would
not have been at all the thing for a person in my then sphere to keep
company with a certain description of people.
The Count de Lemos has been long in the background; let us bring him
a little forwarder on the canvas. We met occasionally. I had
carried him a thousand pistoles, as the reader will recollect; and I
now carried him a thousand more, by order of his uncle, the duke, out
of his excellency's funds lying in my hands. On this occasion the
Count de Lemos honored me with a long conference. He informed me
that at length he had completely gained his end, and was in
unrivalled possession of the Prince of Spain's good graces, whose
sole confidant he was. His next concern was to invest me with a
right honorable commission, of which he had already given me a hint.
Friend Santillane, said he, now is the time to strike while the iron
is hot. Spare no pains to find out some young beauty, worthy to
while away the prince's amorous hours. You have your wits about you;
and a word to the wise is sufficient. Go; run about the town; pry
into every hole and corner; and when you have pounced upon anything
likely to suit, you will come and let me know. I promised the count
to leave no stone unturned in the due discharge of my employment,
which seemed to require no great force of genius, since the
professors of the science are so numerous.
I had not hitherto been much practised in such delicate
investigations, but it was more than probable that Scipio had, and
that his talent lay peculiarly that way. On my return home I called
him in, and spoke thus to him in private: My good fellow, I have a
very important secret to impart. Do you know that in the midst of
fortune's favors there is something still wanting to crown all my
wishes? I can easily guess what that is, interrupted he, without
giving me time to finish what I was going to say; you want a little
snug bit of contraband amusement, to keep you awake of evenings, and
rub off the rust of business. And, in fact, it is a marvellous thing
that you should have played the Joseph in the heyday of your blood,
when so many gray beards around you are playing the Elder. I admire
the quickness of your apprehension, replied I with a smile. Yes, my
friend, a mistress is that something still wanting; and you shall
choose for me. But I forewarn you that I am nice hungry, and must
have a pretty person, with more than passable manners. The sort of
thing that you require, returned Scipio, is not always to be met with
in the market. Yet, as luck will have it, we are in a town where
everything is to be got for money, and I am in hopes that your
commission will not hang long on hand.
Accordingly within three days he pulled me by the sleeve: I have
discovered a treasure! a young lady whose name is Catalina, of good
family and matchless beauty, living with her aunt in a small house,
where they make both ends meet by clubbing their little matters, and
set the slanderous world at defiance. Their waiting-maid, a girl of
my acquaintance, has given me to understand that their door, though
barred against all impertinent intruders, would turn upon its hinges
to a rich and generous suitor, if he would only consent, for fear of
prying neighbors, not to pay his visits till after nightfall, and
then in the most private manner possible. Hereupon I magnified you
as the properest gentleman in the world, and entreated piety in
pattens to offer your humble services to the ladies. She promised to
do so, and to bring me back my answer to-morrow morning at an
appointed place. That is all very well, answered I; but I am afraid
your goddess of bed-making has been running her rig upon you. No,
no, replied he; old birds are not to be caught with chaff: I have
already made inquiry in the neighborhood, and by the general report
of her, Signora Catalina is a second Danae, on whom you will have the
happiness of coming down,
Like Jove descending from his tower,
To court her in a silver shower.
Out of conceit as I was with the intrinsic value of ladies' favors,
this was not to be scoffed at; and as our Mercury in petticoats came
the next day to tell Scipio that it only depended on me to be
introduced that very evening, I dropped in between eleven and twelve
o'clock. The knowing one received me without bringing a candle, and
led me by the hand into a very neat apartment, where the two ladies
were sitting on a satin sofa, dressed in the most elegant taste. As
soon as they saw me enter, they got up and welcomed me in a style of
such superior breeding, as would not have disgraced the highest rank.
The aunt, whose name was Signora Mencia, though with the remains of
beauty, had no attractions for me. But the niece had a million, for
she was a goddess in mortal form. And yet, to examine her
critically, she could not have been admitted for a perfect beauty;
but then there was a charm above all rules of symmetry, with a
tingling and luxurious warmth about her, that seized on men's hearts
through their eyes, and prevented their brains from being too busy.
Neither were my senses proof against so dazzling a display. I forgot
my errand as proxy, and spoke on my own private individual account,
with the enthusiasm of a raw recruit in the tender passion. The dear
little creature, whose wit sounded in my ears with three times its
actual acuteness, under favor of her natural endowments, made a
complete conquest of me by her prattle, I began to launch out into
foolish raptures, when the aunt, to bring me to my bearings, led the
conversation to the point in hand: Signor de Santillane, I shall deal
very explicitly with you. On the high encomiums I have heard of your
character, you have been admitted here without the affectation of
making much ado about trifles: but do not imagine that your views are
the nearer their termination for that. Hitherto I have brought my
niece up in retirement, and you are, as it were, the very first male
creature on whom she has ever set eyes. If you deem her worthy of
being your wife, I shall feel myself highly honored by the alliance:
it is for you to consider whether those terms suit you; but you
cannot have her on cheaper.
This was proceeding to business with a vengeance! It put little
Cupid to flight at once: or else he was just going to try one of his
sharpest arrows upon me. But a truce with the Pantheon! A marriage
so bluntly proposed dispelled the fairy vision: I sunk back at once
into the count's plodding agent, and changing my tone, answered
Signora Mencia thus: Madam, your frankness delights me, and I will
meet it half way. Whatever rank I may hold at court, lower than the
highest is too low for the peerless Catalina. A far more brilliant
offer waits her acceptance; the Prince of Spain shall be thrown into
her toils. Surely it was enough to have refused my niece, replied
the aunt, sarcastically; such compliments are sufficiently unpleasing
to our sex; it could not be necessary to make us your unfeeling
sport. I really am not in so merry a mood, madam, exclaimed I: it is
a plain matter of fact; I am commissioned to look out for a young
lady, of merit sufficient to engage the prince's heart, and receive
his private visits; the object of my search is in your house, and
here his royal highness shall fix his quarters.
Signora Mencia could scarcely believe her ears; neither were they
grievously offended. Nevertheless, thinking it decent to be startled
at the immorality of the proceeding, she replied to the following
effect: Though I should give implicit credit to what you tell me, you
must understand that I am not of a character to take pleasure in the
infamous distinction of seeing my niece a prince's concubine. Every
feeling of virtue and of honor revolts at the idea.... What a
simpleton you are with your virtue and honor! interrupted I. You
have not a notion above the level of a tradesman's wife. Was there
ever any thing so stupid as to consider affairs of this kind with a
view to their moral tendency? It is stripping them of all their
beauty and excellence. In the magic lantern of plenty, pleasure, and
preferment, they appear with all their brightest gloss. Figure to
yourself the heir to the monarchy at the happy Catalina's feet; fancy
him all rapture and lavish bounty; nor doubt but that from her shall
spring a hero, who shall immortalize his mother's name, by enrolling
his own in the unperishable records of eternal fame.
Though the aunt desired no better sport than to take me at my word,
she affected not to know what she had best do; and Catalina, who
longed to have a grapple with the Prince of Spain, affected not to
care about the matter, which made it necessary for me to press the
siege closer, till at length Signora Mencia, finding me chopfallen
and ready to withdraw my forces, sounded a parley, and agreed to a
convention, containing the two following articles: _Imprimis_, if the
Prince of Spain, on the fame of Catalina's charms, should take fire,
and determine to pay her a nightly visit, it should be my care to let
the ladies know when they might expect him. _Secondo_, that the
prince should be introduced to the said ladies as a private
gentleman, accompanied only by himself and his principal purveyor.
After this capitulation, the aunt and niece were upon the best terms
possible with me; they behaved as if we had known one another from
our cradles; on the strength of which I ventured on some little
familiarities, which were not taken at all unkindly; and when we
parted, they embraced me of their own accord, and slabbered me over
with inexpressible fondness. It is marvellous to think with what
facility a tender connection is formed between persons in the same
line of trade, but of opposite sexes. It might have been suspected
by an eye-witness of my departure, in all the plenitude of warm and
repeated salutation, that my visit had been more successful than it
was.
The Count de Lemos was highly delighted when I announced the
long-expected discovery. I spoke of Catalina in terms which made him
long to see her. The following night I took him to her house, and he
owned that I had beat the bush to some purpose. He told the ladies
he had no doubt but the Prince of Spain would be fully satisfied with
my choice of a mistress, who, on her part, would have reason to be
well pleased with such a lover; that the young prince was generous,
good-tempered, and amiable; in short, he promised in a few days to
bring him in the mode they enjoined, without retinue or publicity.
That nobleman then took leave of them, and I withdrew with him. We
got into his carriage, in which we had both driven thither, and which
was waiting at the end of the street. He set me down at my own door,
with a special charge to inform his uncle next day of the new game
started, not forgetting to impress strongly how conducive a good bag
of pistoles would be to the successful accomplishment of the
adventure.
I did not fail on the following morning to go and give the Duke of
Lerma an exact account of all that had passed. There was but one
thing kept back. I did not mention Scipio's name, but took credit to
myself for the discovery of Catalina. One makes a merit of any dirty
work in the service of the great.
Abundant were the compliments paid me on this occasion. My good
friend Gil Blas, said the minister with a bantering air, I am
delighted that, with all your talents, you have that besides of
discovering kind-hearted beauties; whenever I have occasion for such
an article, you will have the goodness to supply me. My lord,
answered I with mock gravity like his own, you are very obliging to
give me the preference; but it may not be unseasonable to observe
that there would be an indelicacy in my administering to your
excellency's pleasures of this description. Signor don Rodrigo has
been so long in possession of that post about your person, that it
would be manifest injustice to rob him of it. The duke smiled at my
answer, and then changing the subject, asked whether his nephew did
not want money for this new speculation. Excuse my negligence! said
I; he will thank you to send him a thousand pistoles. Well and good!
replied the minister; you will furnish him accordingly, with my
strict injunction not to be niggardly, but to encourage the prince in
whatever pleasurable expenses his heart may prompt him to indulge.
_CHAPTER XI._
_THE PRINCE OF SPAIN'S SECRET VISIT, AND PRESENTS TO CATALINA._
I went to the Count de Lemos on the spur of the occasion, with five
hundred double pistoles in my hand. You could not have come at a
better time, said that nobleman. I have been talking with the
prince; he has taken the bait, and burns with impatience to see
Catalina. This very night he intends to slip privately out of the
palace, and pay her a visit; it is a measure determined on, and our
arrangements are already made. Give notice to the ladies, through
the medium of the cash you have just brought; it is proper to let
them know they have no ordinary lover to receive, and a matter of
course that generosity in princes should be the herald of their
partialities. As you will be of our party, take care to be in the
way at bed-time; and as your carriage will be wanted, let it wait
near the palace about midnight.
I immediately repaired to the ladies. Catalina was not visible,
having just gone to lie down. I could only speak with Signora
Mencia. Madam, said I, forgive my appearance here in the daytime,
but there was no avoiding it; you must know that the Prince of Spain
will be with you to-night; and here, added I, putting my pecuniary
credentials into her hand, here is an offering which he lays on the
Cytherean shrine, to propitiate the divinities of the temple. You
may perceive, I have not entangled you in a sleeveless concern. You
have been excessively kind indeed, answered she; but tell me, Signor
de Santillane, does the prince love music? To distraction, replied
I. There is nothing he so much delights in as a fine voice, with a
delicate lute accompaniment. So much the better, exclaimed she in a
transport of joy; you give me great pleasure by saying so, for my
niece has the pipe of a nightingale, and plays exquisitely on the
lute: then her dancing is in the finest style! Heavens and earth!
exclaimed I in my turn, here are accomplishments by wholesale, aunt;
more than enough to make any girl's fortune! Any one of those
talents would have been a sufficient dowry.
Having thus smoothed his reception, I waited for the prince's
bed-time. When it was near at hand, I gave my coachman his orders,
and went to the Count de Lemos, who told me that the prince, the
sooner to get rid of the people about him, meant to feign a slight
indisposition, and even to go to bed, the better to cajole his
attendants; but that he would get up an hour afterwards, and go
through a private door to a back staircase leading into the
court-yard.
Conformably with their previous arrangements, he fixed my station.
There had I to beat the hoof so long, that I began to suspect our
forward sprig of royalty had gone another way, or else had changed
his mind about Catalina; just as if princes ever began to be fickle
till the goad of novelty and curiosity began to be blunted. In
short, I thought they had forgotten me, when two men came up.
Finding them to be my party, I led the way to my carriage, into which
they both got, and I upon the coach-box to direct the driver, whom I
stopped fifty yards from the house, whither we walked. The door
opened at our approach, and shut again as soon as we got in.
At first we were in absolute darkness, as on my former visit, though
a small lamp was fixed to the wall on the present occasion. But the
light which it shed was so faint as only to render itself visible
without assisting us. All this served only to heighten the romance
in the fancy of its hero, fixed as he was in steadfast gaze at the
sight of the ladies as they received him in a saloon whose brilliant
illumination was more dazzling when contrasted with the gloom of the
avenue. The aunt and niece were in a tempting undress, where the
science of coquetry was displayed in all its luxury and absolute
sway. Our prince could have been happy with Signora Mencia, had the
dear charmer Catalina been away; but as there was a choice, the
younger, according to the rules of precedency in the court of Cupid,
had the preference.
Well! prince, said the Count de Lemos, could you have desired a
better specimen of beauty? They are both enchanting, answered the
prince, and my heart may as well surrender at once; for the aunt
would arrest it in its flight, if it attempted to sound a retreat
from the niece's all-subduing charms.
After such compliments as do not fall by wholesale to the share of
aunts, he addressed his choicest terms of flattery to Catalina, who
answered him in kind. As convenient personages of my stamp are
allowed to mingle in the conversation of lovers, for the purpose of
making fire hotter, I introduced the subject of singing and playing
on the lute. This was the signal of fresh rapture! and the nymph,
the muse, the anything but mortal, was supplicated to outtune the
jingle of the spheres. She complied like a good-humored goddess;
played some tender airs, and sung so deliciously, that the prince
flopped down on his knees in a tumult of love and pleasure. But
scenes like these are vapid in description: suffice it to say that
hours glided away like moments in this sweet delirium, till the
approach of day warned the sober plotters of the lunacy to provide
for their patient's safety and their own. When the parties were all
snugly housed, we gave ourselves as much credit for the negotiation
as if we had patched up a marriage with a princess.
The next morning the Duke of Lerma desired to know all the
particulars. Just as I had finished relating them, the Count de
Lemos came in, and said, The Prince of Spain is so engrossed by
Catalina, he has taken so decided a fancy to her, that he actually
proposes to be constant. He wanted to have sent her jewels to the
amount of two thousand pistoles to-day, but his finances were
aground. My dear Lemos, said he, addressing himself to me, you must
absolutely get me that sum. I know it is very inconvenient; you have
pawned your credit for me already; but my heart owns itself your
debtor, and if ever I have the means of returning your kindness by
more than empty words, your fortunes shall not suffer by your
complaisance. In answer, I assured him that I had friends and
credit, and promised to bring him what he wanted.
There is no difficulty about that, said the duke to his nephew.
Santillane will bring you the money; or, to save trouble, he may
purchase the jewels, for he is an admirable judge, especially of
rubies. Are you not, Gil Blas? This stroke of satire was of course
designed to entertain the count at my expense; and it was successful,
for his curiosity could not but be excited to know the meaning of the
mystery. No mystery at all, replied his uncle, with a broad laugh.
Only Santillane took it into his head one day to exchange a diamond
for a ruby, and the barter operated equally to the advantage of his
pocket and his penetration.
Had the minister stopped there I should have come off cheaply; but he
took the trouble of dressing out in aggravated colors the trick that
Camilla and Don Raphael played me, with a most provoking enlargement
of the circumstances most to the disadvantage of my sagacity. His
excellency, having enjoyed his joke, ordered me to attend the Count
de Lemos to a jeweller's, where we selected trinkets for the Prince
of Spain's inspection, and they were intrusted to my care, to be
delivered to Catalina.
There can be little doubt of my kind reception on the following
night, when I displayed a fine pair of drop ear-rings, as the
presents of my embassy. The two ladies, out of their wits at these
costly tokens of the prince's love, suffered their tongues to run
into a gossiping strain, while they were thanking me for introducing
them into such worshipful society. In the excess of their joy, they
forgot themselves a little. There escaped now and then certain
peculiar idioms of speech, which made me suspect that the party in
question was no such dainty morsel for royalty to feed upon. To
ascertain precisely what degree of obligation I had conferred on the
heir-apparent, I took my leave with the intention of coming to a
right understanding with Scipio.
_CHAPTER XII._
_CATALINA'S REAL CONDITION A WORRY AND ALARM TO GIL BLAS. HIS
PRECAUTIONS FOR HIS OWN EASE AND QUIET._
On coming home, I heard a devil of a noise, and inquired what was the
meaning of it. They told me that Scipio was giving a supper to
half-a-dozen of his friends. They were singing as loud as their
lungs could roar, and threatening the stability of the house with
their protracted peals of laughter. This meal was not in all
respects the banquet of the seven wise men.
The founder of the feast, informed of my arrival, said to his
company, Sit still, gentlemen; it is only the master of the house
come home; but that need not disturb you. Go on with your
merry-making; I will but just whisper a word in his ear, and be back
again in a moment. He came to me accordingly. What an infernal din!
said I. What sort of company do you keep below? Have you, too, got
in among the poets? Thank you for nothing! answered he. Your wine
is too good to be given to such gentry; I turn it to better account.
There is a young man of large property in my party, who wishes to lay
out your credit and his own money in the purchase of a place. This
little festivity is all for him. For every glass he fills, I put on
ten pistoles, in addition to the regular fee. He shall drink till he
is under the table. If that is the case, replied I, go to your
presidentship, and do not spare the cellar.
Then was no proper time to talk about Catalina; but the next morning
I opened the business thus: Friend Scipio, the terms we are upon
entitle me to fair dealing. I have treated you more like an equal
than a servant; consequently you would be much to blame to cheat me
on the footing of a master. Let us, therefore, have no secrets
towards each other. I am going to tell you what will surprise you;
and you, on your part, shall give me your sincere opinion about the
two women with whom you have brought me acquainted. Between
ourselves, I suspect them to be no better than they should be; with
so much the more of the knave in their composition, because they
affect the simpleton. If my conjecture be right, the Prince of Spain
has no great reason to be delighted with my activity; for I will own
to you frankly that it was for him I spoke to you about a mistress.
I brought him to see Catalina, and he is over head and ears in love
with her. Sir, answered Scipio, you have dealt so handsomely by me,
that I shall act upon the square with you. I had yesterday a private
interview with the abigail, and she gave me a most entertaining
history of the family. You shall have it briefly, though it did not
come briefly to me. Catalina was daughter to a sort of gentleman in
Arragon. An orphan at fifteen, with no fortune but a pretty face,
she lent a complying ear to an officer who carried her off to Toledo,
where he died in six months, having been more like a father than a
husband to her. She collected his effects together, consisting of
their joint wardrobe and three hundred pistoles in ready money, and
then went to housekeeping with Signora Mencia, who was still in
fashion, though a little on the wane. These sisters, every way but
in blood, began at length to attract the attention of the police.
The ladies took umbrage at this, and decamped in dudgeon for Madrid,
where they have been living for these two years, without making any
acquaintance in the neighborhood. But now comes the best of the
joke: they have taken two small houses adjoining each other, with a
passage of communication through the cellars. Signora Mencia lives
with a servant girl in one of these houses, and the officer's widow
inhabits the other, with an old duenna, whom she passes off for her
grandmother; so that her versatile child of nature is sometimes a
niece brought up by her aunt, and sometimes an orphan under her
grandam's fostering whiff. When she enacts the niece, her name is
Catalina; and when she personates the granddaughter, she calls
herself Sirena.
At the grating sound of Sirena I turned pale, and interrupted Scipio,
saying, What do you tell me? Alas! it must be so. This cursed imp
of Arragon is Calderona's charming Siren. To be sure she is,
answered he, the very same! I thought you would be delighted at the
news. Quite the reverse, replied I. It portends more sorrow than
laughter; do not you anticipate the consequences? None of any ill
omen, rejoined Scipio. What is there to be afraid of? It is not
certain that Don Rodrigo will rub his forehead; and in case any
good-natured friend should show it him in the glass, you had better
let the minister into the secret beforehand. Tell him all the
circumstances straightforward as they happened; he will see that
there has been no trick on your part; and if, after that, Calderona
should attempt to do you an ill office with his excellency, it will
be as clear as daylight that he is only actuated by a spirit of
revenge.
Scipio removed all my apprehensions by this advice, which I followed
in acquainting the Duke of Lerma at once with this unlucky discovery.
My aspect, while telling my tale, was sorrowful, and my tone
faltering, in evidence of my contrition for having unadvisedly
brought the prince and Don Rodrigo into such close quarters; but the
minister was more disposed to roast his favorite than to pity him.
Indeed, he ordered me to let the matter take its own course,
considering it as a feather in Calderona's cap to dispute the empire
of love with so illustrious a rival, and not to be worse used than
his lawful prince. The Count de Lemos, too, was informed how things
stood, and promised me his protection, if the first secretary should
come at the knowledge of the intrigue, and attempt to undermine me
with the duke.
Trusting to have secured the frail bark of my fortunes by this
notable contrivance from the rocks and quicksands that threatened it,
my mind was once more at rest. I continued attending the prince on
his visits to Catalina, siren-like in nature as in nickname, who was
fertile in quaint devices to keep Don Rodrigo away from next door,
whenever the course of business required her to devote her nights to
his royal competitor.
_CHAPTER XIII._
_GIL BLAS GOES ON PERSONATING THE GREAT MAN. HE HEARS NEWS OF HIS
FAMILY: A TOUCH OF NATURE ON THE OCCASION. A GRAND QUARREL WITH
FABRICIO._
I mentioned, some time ago, that in the morning there was usually a
crowd of people in my antechamber, coming to negotiate little private
concerns in the way of politics; but I would never suffer them to
open their business by word of mouth; but adopting court precedent,
or rather giving myself the airs of a jack in office, my language to
every suitor was, Send in a memorial on the subject. My tongue ran
so glibly to that tune, that one day I gave my landlord the official
answer, when he came to put me in mind of a twelvemonth's rent in
arrear. As for my butcher and baker, they spared me the trouble of
asking for their memorials, by never giving me time to run up a bill.
Scipio, who mimicked me so exactly, that only those behind the scenes
could distinguish the double from the principal performer, held his
head just as high with the poor devils who curried favor with him, as
a step of the ladder to my ministerial patronage.
There was another foolish trick of mine, of which I do not by any
means pretend to make a merit; neither more nor less than the extreme
assurance of talking about the first nobility, just as if I had been
one of their kidney. Suppose, for example, the Duke of Alva, the
Duke of Ossuna, or the Duke of Medina Sidonia were mentioned in
conversation; I called them, without ceremony, my friend Alva, that
good-natured fellow Ossuna, or that comical dog Medina Sidonia. In a
word, my pride and vanity had swelled to such a height, that my
father and mother were no longer among the number of my honored
relatives. Alas! poor understrappers, I never thought of asking
whether you had sunk or were swimming in the Asturias. A thought
about you never came into my head. The court has all the soporific
virtues of Lethe in the case of poor relations.
My family was completely obliterated from the tablets of my memory,
when one morning a young man knocked at my door, and begged to speak
with me for a moment in private. He was shown into my closet, where,
without asking him to take a chair, as he seemed to be quite a common
fellow, I desired to know abruptly what he wanted. How! Signor Gil
Blas, said he, do you not remember me? It was in vain that I perused
the lines of his face over and over again; I was obliged to tell him
fairly that he had the advantage of me. Why, I am one of your old
schoolfellows! replied he, bred and born in Oviedo; Bertrand Muscada,
the grocer's son, next door neighbor to your uncle the canon. I
recollect you as well as if it was but yesterday. We have played a
thousand times together at blind man's buff and prison bars.
My youthful recollections, answered I, are very transient and
confused. Blind man's buff and prison bars are but childish
amusement! The burden of state affairs leaves me little time to
ruminate on the trifles of my younger days. I am come to Madrid,
said he, to settle accounts with my father's correspondent. I heard
talk of you. Folks say that you have a good berth at court, and are
already almost as well off as a Jew broker. I thought I would just
call in and say, how d'ye do? On my return into the country, your
family will jump out of their skins for joy, when they hear how
famously you are getting on.
It was impossible in decency to avoid asking how my father, my
mother, and my uncle stood in the world; but that duty was performed
in so gingerly a manner as to leave the grocer little room to
compliment dame Nature on her liberal provision of instinct. He
seemed quite shocked at my indifference for such near kindred, and
told me bluntly, with his coarse shopman's familiarity, Methinks you
might have shown more heartiness and natural feeling for your
kinsfolk! Why, you ask after them just as if they were vermin! Your
father and mother are still at service; take that in your dish! And
the good canon, Gil Perez, eaten up with gout, rheumatism, and old
age, has one foot in the grave. People should feel as people ought;
and seeing that you are in a berth to be a blessing to your poor
parents, take a friend's advice, and allow them two hundred pistoles
a-year. That will be doing a handsome thing, and making them
comfortable; and then you may spend the rest upon yourself with a
good conscience. Instead of being softened by this family picture, I
only resented the officiousness of unasked advice. A more delicate
and covert remonstrance might perhaps have made its impression, but
so bold a rebuke only hardened my heart. My sulky silence was not
lost upon him, so that while he moralized himself out of charity into
downright abuse, my choler began to overflow. Nay, then! this is too
much, answered I, in a devil of a passion. Get about your business,
Master Muscada, and mind your own shop. You are a pretty fellow to
preach to me! As if I were to be taught my duty by you! Without
further parley I handed the grocer out of my closet by the shoulder,
and sent him off to weigh figs and nutmegs at Oviedo.
The home-strokes he had laid on were not lost to my sober
recollection. My neglect of filial piety struck home to my heart,
and melted me into tears. When I recollected how much my childhood
was indebted to my parents, what pains they had taken in my
education, these affecting thoughts gave language for the moment to
the still small voice of nature and gratitude; but the language was
never translated into solid sense and service. An habitual
callousness succeeded this transient sensation, and peremptorily
cancelled every obligation of humanity. There are many fathers
besides mine who will acknowledge this portrait of their sons.
Avarice and ambition, dividing me between them, annihilated every
trace of my former temper. I lost all my gayety, became absent and
moping; in short, a most unsociable animal. Fabricio, seeing me so
furiously bent on accumulation, and so perfectly indifferent to him,
very rarely came to see me. He could not help saying one day, In
truth, Gil Blas, you are quite an altered man. Before you were about
the court, you were always pleasant and easy. Now you are all
agitation and turmoil. You form project after project to make a
fortune, and the more you realize, the wider your views of
aggrandizement extend. But this is not the worst! You have no
longer that expansion of heart, those open manners, which form the
charm of friendship. On the contrary, you wrap yourself round, and
shut the avenues of your heart even to me. In your very civilities I
detect the violence you impose upon yourself. In short, Gil Blas is
no longer the same Gil Blas whom I once knew.
You really have a most happy talent for bantering, answered I, with
repulsive jocularity. But this metamorphose into the shag of a
savage is not perceptible to myself. Your own eyes, replied he, are
insensible to the change, because they are fascinated. But the fact
remains the same. Now, my friend, tell me fairly and honestly, shall
we live together as heretofore? When I used to knock at your door in
the morning, you came and opened it yourself, between asleep and
awake, and I walked in without ceremony. Now, what a difference!
You have an establishment of servants. They keep me cooling my heels
in your antechamber; my name must be sent in before I can speak to
you. When this is got over, what is my reception? A cold
inclination of the head, and the insolent strut of office. Any one
would suppose that my visits were growing troublesome! Can you
suppose this to be treatment for a man who was once on equal terms
with you? No, Santillane, it can never be, nor will I bear it
longer. Farewell. Let us part without ill blood. We shall both be
better asunder; you will get rid of a troublesome censor, and I of a
purse-proud upstart who does not know himself.
I felt myself more exasperated than reformed by his reproaches, and
suffered him to take his departure without the slightest effort to
overcome his resolution. In the present temper of my mind, the
friendship of a poet did not seem a catch of sufficient importance to
break one's heart about its loss. I found ample amends in the
intimacy of some subaltern attendants about the king's person, with
whom a similarity of humor had lately connected me closely. These
new acquaintances of mine were for the most part men from no one
knows where, pushed up to their appointments more by luck than merit.
They had all got into warm berths, and, wretches as they were,
measuring their own consequence by the excess of royal bounty, forgot
their origin as scandalously as I forgot mine. We gave ourselves
infinite credit for what told so much and bitterly to our disgrace.
O Fortune! what a jade you are, to distribute your favors at
hap-hazard as you do! Epictetus was perfectly in the right when he
likened you to a jilt of fashion, prowling about in masquerade, and
tipping the wink to every blackguard who parades the street.
BOOK THE NINTH.
_CHAPTER I._
_SCIPIO'S SCHEME OF MARRIAGE FOR GIL BLAS. THE MATCH, A RICH
GOLDSMITH'S DAUGHTER. CIRCUMSTANCES CONNECTED WITH THIS SPECULATION._
One evening, on the departure of my supper company, finding myself
alone with Scipio, I asked him what he had been doing that day.
Striking a master-stroke, answered he. I intend that you should
marry. A goldsmith of my acquaintance has an only daughter, and I
mean to make up a match between you.
A goldsmith's daughter! exclaimed I, with a disdainful air; are you
out of your senses? Can you think of tying me up to a trinket-maker?
People of a certain character in society, and on a certain footing at
court, ought to have much higher views of things. Pardon me, sir,
rejoined Scipio; do not take the subject up in that light. Recollect
that nobility accrues by the male side, and do not ride a higher
horse than a thousand jockeys of quality whom I could name. Do you
know that the heiress in question will bring a hundred thousand
ducats in her pocket? Is not that a pretty little sprig of jewelry?
To the resounding echo of so large a sum my ears were instantly
symphonious. The day is your own, said I to the secretary; the
fortune determines the case in the lady's favor. When do you mean to
put me in possession? Fair and softly, sir, answered he; the more
haste, the worse speed. It will be necessary for me first to
communicate the affair to the father, and instil the advantage of it
into his capacity. Good! rejoined I, with a burst of laughter; is it
thereabouts you are? The match is far advanced in its progress
towards consummation. Much nearer than you suppose, replied he. But
one hour's conversation with the goldsmith, and I pledge myself for
his consent. But, before we go any farther, let us come to an
agreement, if you please. Supposing that I should transfer a hundred
thousand ducats to you, what would my commission be? Twenty
thousand! was my answer. Heaven be praised therefore, said he. I
guessed your gratitude at ten thousand; so that it doubles mine in a
similar case. Come on then! I will set this negotiation on foot
to-morrow morning; and you may count upon its success, or I am little
better than one of the foolish ones.
In fact, he said to me two days afterwards, I have spoken to Signor
Gabriel Salero, my friend the goldsmith. On the loud report of your
high desert and credit, he has lent a favorable ear to my offer of
you for a son-in-law. You are to have his daughter with a hundred
thousand ducats, provided you can make it appear clearly that you are
in possession of the minister's good graces. Since that is the case,
said I confidently to Scipio, I shall soon be married. But, not
entirely to forget the girl, have you seen her? is she pretty? Not
quite so pretty as her fortune, answered he. Between ourselves, this
heiress's looks are as hard as her cash. Luckily, you are perfectly
indifferent about that. Stone blind, by the light of the sun, my
good fellow! replied I. As for us whimsical fellows about court, we
marry merely for the sake of marrying. When we want beauty, we look
for it in our friends' wives; and if, by fates and destinies, the
sweets are wasted on our own, their flavor is so mawkish to our
palate, that there is some merit in their not carrying the commodity
to a foreign market.
This is not all, resumed Scipio: Signor Gabriel hopes for the
pleasure of your company to supper this evening. By agreement, there
is to be no mention of marriage. He has invited several of his
mercantile friends to this entertainment, where you will take your
chance with the rest, and to-morrow he means to sup with you on the
same terms. By this you will perceive his drift of looking before he
leaps. You will do well to be a little on your guard before him. O,
for the matter of that, interrupted I, with an air of confidence, let
him scrutinize me as closely as he pleases, the result cannot fail to
be in my favor.
All this happened as it was foretold. I was introduced at the
goldsmith's, who received me with the familiarity of an old
acquaintance. A vulgar dog, but warm; and as troublesome with his
civility as a prude with her virtue. He presented me to Signora
Eugenia his wife, and the youthful Gabriela his daughter. I opened
wide my budget of compliments, without infringing the treaty, and
prattled soft nothings to them, in all the vacuity of courtly
dialogue.
Gabriela, with submission to my secretary's better taste, was not
altogether so repulsive; whether by dint of being outrageously
bedizened, or because I looked at her in the raree-show box of her
fortune. A charming house this of Signor Gabriel! There is less
silver, I verily believe, in the Peruvian mines, than under his roof.
That metal presented itself to the view in all directions, under a
thousand different forms. Every room, and especially that where we
were entertained, was a fairy palace. What a bird's-eye view for a
son-in-law! The old codger, to do the thing genteelly, had collected
five or six merchants about him, all plodding, spirit-wearing
personages. Their tongues could only talk of what their hearts were
set upon: it was high change all supper-time; but unfortunately wit
was at a discount.
Next night it was my turn to treat the goldsmith. Not being able to
dazzle him with my sideboard, I had recourse to another artifice. I
invited to supper such of my friends as made the finest figure at
court, hangers-on of state, noted for the unwieldiness of their
ambition. These fellows could not talk on common topics: the
brilliant and lucrative posts at which they aimed were all canvassed
in detail; this too made its way. Poor counting-house Gabriel, in
amazement at the loftiness of their ideas, shrunk into
insignificance, in spite of all his hoards, on a comparison with
these wonderful men. As for me, in all the plausiblity of
moderation, I professed to wish for nothing more than a comfortable
fortune; a snug box and a competence: whereupon these gluttons of the
loaves and fishes cried out with one voice that I was wrong,
absolutely criminal; for the prime minister would do anything upon
earth for me, and it was an act of duty to anoint my fingers with
bird-lime. My honored papa lost not a word of all this, and seemed,
at going away, to take his leave with some complacency.
Scipio went, of course, the next morning, to ask him how he liked me.
Extremely well indeed, answered the knight of the ledger; the lad has
won my very heart. But, good master Scipio, I conjure you by our
long acquaintance to deal with me as a true friend. We have all our
weak side, as you well know. Tell me where Signor de Santillane is
fallible. Is he fond of play? Does he wench? On what lay are his
snug little vices? Do not fight shy, I beseech you. It is very
unkind, Signor Gabriel, to put such a question, retorted the
go-between. Your interest is more to me than my master's. If he had
any slippery propensities, likely to make your daughter unhappy,
would I ever have proposed him as a son-in-law? The deuce a bit! I
am too much at your service. But, between ourselves, he has but one
fault--that of being faultless. He is too wise for a young man. So
much the better, replied the goldsmith; he is the more like me. You
may go, my friend, and tell him he shall have my daughter, and should
have her, though he knew no more of the minister than I do.
As soon as my secretary had reported this conversation, I flew to
thank Salero for his partiality. He had already told his mind to his
wife and daughter, who gave me to understand, by their reception,
that they yielded without disgust. I carried my father-in-law to the
Duke of Lerma, whom I had informed the evening before, and presented
him with due ceremony. His excellency gave him a most gracious
reception, and congratulated him on having chosen a man for his
son-in-law for whom he himself had so great a regard, and meant to do
such great things. Then did he expatiate on my good qualities, and,
in fact, said so much to my honor, that honest Gabriel thought he had
met with the best match in Spain. His joy oozed out at his eyes. On
parting, he pressed me in his arms, and said, My son, I am so
impatient to see you Gabriela's husband, that the affair shall be
finally settled within a week at latest.
_CHAPTER II._
_IN THE PROGRESS OF POLITICAL VACANCIES, GIL BLAS RECOLLECTS THAT
THERE IS SUCH A MAN IN THE WORLD AS DON ALPHONSO DE LEYVA, AND
RENDERS HIM A SERVICE FROM MOTIVES OF VANITY._
Let us leave my marriage to take care of itself for a season. The
order of events requires me to recount a service rendered to my old
master Don Alphonso. I had entirely forgotten that gentleman's
existence; but a circumstance recalled it to my recollection.
The government of Valencia became vacant at this time, and put me in
mind of Don Alphonso de Leyva. I considered within myself that the
employment would suit him to a nicety, and determined to apply for it
on his behalf, not so much out of friendship as ostentation. If I
could but procure it for him, it would do me infinite honor. I told
the Duke of Lerma that I had been steward to Don Cæsar de Leyva and
his son, and that, having every reason in the world to feel myself
obliged to them, I should take it as a favor if he would give the
government of Valencia to one or other of them. The minister
answered, Most willingly, Gil Blas. I love to see you grateful and
generous. Besides, the family stands very high in my esteem. The
Leyvas are loyal subjects; so that the place cannot be better
bestowed. You may take it as a wedding present, and do what you like
with it.
Delighted at the success of my application, I went to Calderona in a
prodigious hurry, to get the patent made out for Don Alphonso. There
was a great crowd waiting in respectful silence till Don Rodrigo
should come and give audience. I made my way through, and the closet
door opened as if by sympathy. There were no one knows how many
military and civil officers, with other people of consequence, among
whom Calderona was dividing his attentions. His different reception
of different people was curious. A slight inclination of the head
was enough for some; others he honored with a profusion of courtly
grimace, and bowed them out of the closet. The proportions of
civility were weighed to a scruple. On the other hand, there were
some suitors, who, shocked at his cold indifference, cursed in their
secret soul the necessity for their cringing before such a monkey of
an idol. Others, on the contrary, were laughing in their sleeve at
his gross and self-sufficient air. But the scene was thrown away
upon me; nor was I likely to profit by such a lesson. It was exactly
the counterpart of my own behavior; and I never thought of
ascertaining whether my deportment was popular or offensive, so long
as there was no violation of outward respect.
Don Rodrigo, accidentally casting a look towards me, left a
gentleman, to whom he was speaking, without ceremony, and came to pay
his respects with the most unaccountable tokens of high
consideration. Ah, my dear colleague! exclaimed he, what occasion
procures me the pleasure of seeing you here? Is there anything we
can do for you? I told him my business; whereupon he assured me, in
the most obliging terms, that the affair should be expedited within
four-and-twenty hours. Not satisfied with these overwhelming
condescensions, he conducted me to the door of his antechamber,
whither he never attended any but the nobility of first rank. His
farewell was as flattering as his reception.
What is the meaning of all this palaver? said I, while retreating;
has any raven croaked my entrance, and prophesied promotion to
Calderona by my overthrow? Does he really languish for my
friendship? or does he feel the ground giving way under his feet, and
wish to save himself by clinging to the branches of my favor and
protection? It seemed a moot point which of these conjectures might
be the right. The following day, on my return, his behavior was of
the same stamp; caresses and civilities poured in upon me in
torrents. It is true that other people, who attempted to speak to
him, were rumped in exact proportion with the blandishments of his
face towards me. He snarled at some, petrified others, and made the
whole circle run the gantlet of his displeasure. But they were all
amply avenged by an occurrence, the relation of which may give a
gentle hint to all the clerks and secretaries on the list of my
readers.
A man very plainly dressed, and certainly not looking at all like
what he was, came up to Calderona, and spoke to him about a memorial
stated to have been presented by himself to the Duke of Lerma. Don
Rodrigo, without looking from his clothes up to his face, said in a
sharp, ungracious tone, Who may you happen to be, honest man? They
called me Francillo in my childhood, answered the stranger,
unabashed; my next style and title was that of Don Francillo de
Zuniga; and my present name is the Count de Pedrosa. Calderona was
all in a twitter at this discovery, and attempted to stammer out an
excuse, when he found that he had to do with a man of the first
quality. Sir, said he to the count, I have to beg you ten thousand
pardons; but not knowing whom I had the honor to .... I want none of
your apologies, interrupted Francillo with proud indignation; they
are as nauseous as your rudeness was unbecoming. Recollect
henceforth that a minister's secretary ought to receive all
descriptions of people with good manners. You may be vain enough to
affect the representative of your master, but the public know you for
his menial servant.
The haughty Don Rodrigo blushed blue at this rebuke. Yet it did not
mend his manners one whit. On me it made a salutary impression. I
determined to take care and ascertain the rank of my petitioners
before I gave a loose to the insolence of office, and to inflict
torture only upon mutes. As Don Alphonso's patent was made out, I
sent it by a purpose messenger, with a letter from the Duke of Lerma,
announcing the royal favor. But I took no notice of my own share in
the appointment, nor even accompanied it with a line, in the fond
hope of announcing it by word of mouth, and surprising him agreeably,
when he came to court on occasion of taking the customary oaths.
_CHAPTER III._
_PREPARATIONS FOR THE MARRIAGE OF GIL BLAS. A SPOKE IN THE WHEEL OF
HYMEN._
And now once more for my lovely Gabriela! We were to be married in a
week. Preparations were making on both sides for the ceremony.
Salero ordered a rich wardrobe for the bride, and I hired a
waiting-woman for her, a footman, and a gentleman usher of decent
aspect and advanced years. The whole establishment was provided by
Scipio, who longed more longingly than myself for the hour when we
were to be fingering the fortune.
On the evening before the happy day, I was supping with my
father-in-law, the rest of the company being made up of uncles,
aunts, and cousins of either sex and every degree. The part of a
supple-visaged son-in-law sat upon me to perfection. Nothing could
exceed my profound respect for the goldsmith and his wife, or the
transports of my passion at Gabriela's feet, while I smoothed my way
into the graces of the family, by listening with impregnable patience
to their witless repartees and irrational ratiocinations. Thus did I
gain the great end of all my forbearance--the pleasure of pleasing my
new relations. Every individual of the clan felt himself a foot
taller for the honor of my alliance.
The repast ended, the company moved into a large room, where we were
entertained with a concert of vocal and instrumental music, not the
worst that was ever heard, though the performers were not selected
from the choicest bands at Madrid. Some lively airs put us in mind
of dancing. Heaven knows what sort of performers we must have been,
when they took me for the coryphæus of the opera, though I never had
but two or three lessons from a petty dancing-master, who taught the
pages on the establishment of the Marchioness de Chaves. After we
had tired our tendons, it was time to think of going home. There was
no end of my bows and God-bless-you's. Farewell, my dear son-in-law,
said Salero, as he squeezed my hand; I shall be at your house in the
morning with the portion in ready money. You will be welcome, come
when you list, my dear father-in-law, answered I. Afterwards,
wishing the family good night, I jumped into my carriage, and ordered
it to drive home.
Scarcely had I got two hundred yards from Signor Gabriel's house,
when fifteen or twenty men, some on foot and some on horseback, all
with swords and fire-arms, surrounded and stopped the coach, crying
out, _In the name of our sovereign lord the king_. They dragged me
out by main force, and thrust me into a hack-chaise, when the leader
of the party got in with me, and ordered the driver to go for
Segovia. There could be no doubt but the honest gentleman by my side
was an alguazil. I wanted to know something about the cause of my
arrest; but he answered in the language of those gentry, which is
very bad language, that he had other things to do than to satisfy my
impertinent curiosity. I suggested that he might have mistaken his
man. No, no, retorted he, the fool is wiser than that. You are
Signor de Santillane; and in that case you are to go along with me.
Not being able to deny that fact, it became an act of prudence to
hold my tongue. For the remainder of the night we traversed
Mancanarez in sulky silence, changed horses at Colmenar, and arrived
the next evening at Segovia, where the lodging provided for me was in
the tower.
[Illustration: Gil Blas in prison]
_CHAPTER IV._
_THE TREATMENT OF GIL BLAS IN THE TOWER OF SEGOVIA. THE CAUSE OF HIS
IMPRISONMENT._
Their first favor was to clap me up in a cell, where they left me on
the straw like a criminal, whose only earthly portion was to con over
his dying speech in solitude. I passed the night, not in bewailing
my fate,--for it had not yet presented itself in all its
aggravation,--but in endeavoring to divine its cause. Doubtless it
must have been Calderona's handiwork. And yet, though his branching
honors might have pressed thick upon his senses, I could not conceive
how the Duke of Lerma could have been induced to treat me so
inhumanly. Sometimes I apprehended my arrest to have been without
his excellency's knowledge; at other times I thought him the
contriver of it, for some political reasons, such as weigh with
ministers when they sacrifice their accomplices at the shrine of
state policy.
My mind was vibrating to and fro with these various conjectures, when
the dawn, peeping in at my little grated window, presented to my
sight all the horror of the place where I was confined. Then did I
vent my sorrows without ceasing, and my eyes became two springs of
tears, flowing inexhaustibly at the remembrance of my prosperous
state. Pending this paroxysm of grief, a turnkey brought me my day's
allowance of bread and water. He looked at me, and on the
contemplation of my tear-besprinkled visage, jailer as he was, there
came over him a sentiment of pity: Do not despair, said he. This
life is full of crosses, but mind them not. You are young; after
these days, you will live to see better. In the mean time, eat at
the king's mess with what appetite you may.
My comforter withdrew with this quaint invitation, answered by my
groans and tears. The rest of the day was spent in cursing my
wayward destiny, without thinking of my empty stomach. As for the
royal morsel, it seemed more like the message of wrath than the boon
of benevolence; the tantalizing protraction of pain, rather than the
solace of affliction.
Night came, and with it the rattle of a key in my keyhole. My
dungeon door opened, and in came a man with a wax-light in his hand.
He advanced towards me, saying, Signor Gil Blas, behold in me one of
your old friends. I am Don Andrew de Tordesillas, in the Archbishop
of Grenada's service while you enjoyed that prelate's favor. You may
recollect engaging his interest in my behalf, and thereby procuring
me a post in Mexico; but instead of embarking for the Indies, I
stopped in the town of Alicant. There I married the governor's
daughter, and by a series of adventures of which you shall hereafter
have the particulars, I am now warden of this tower. It is expressly
forbidden me to let you speak to any living soul, to give you any
better bed than straw, or any other sustenance than bread and water.
But besides that your misfortunes interest my humanity, you have done
me service, and gratitude countervails the harshness of my orders.
They think to make me the instrument of their cruelty, but it is my
better purpose to soften the rigor of your captivity. Get up and
follow me.
Though my humane keeper was entitled to some acknowledgment, my
spirits were so affected as to interdict my speech. All I could do
was to attend him. We crossed a court, and mounted a narrow
staircase to a little room at the top of the tower. It was no small
surprise, on entering, to find a table, with lights on it, neatly set
out with covers for two. They will serve up immediately, said
Tordesillas. We are going to sup together. This snug retreat is
appointed for your lodging; it will agree better with you than your
cell. From your window you will look down on the flowery banks of
the Erêma, and the delicious vale of Coca, bounded by the mountains
which divide the two Castiles. At first you will care little for
prospects; but when time shall have softened your keener sensations
into a composed melancholy, it will be a pleasure to feast your eyes
on such engaging scenes. Then, as for linen and other necessaries
befitting a man accustomed to the comforts of life, they shall be
always at your service. Your bed and board shall be such as you
could wish, with a plentiful supply of books. In a word, you shall
have everything but your liberty.
My spirits were a little tranquillized by these obliging offers. I
took courage, and returned my best thanks, assuring him that his
generous conduct restored me to life, and that I hoped at some time
or other to find an opportunity of testifying my gratitude. To be
sure! and why should you not? answered he. Did you fancy yourself a
prisoner for life? Nothing less likely! and I would lay a wager that
you will be released in a very few months. What say you, Signor Don
Andrew? exclaimed I. Then surely you are acquainted with the
occasion of my misfortune. You guess right, replied he. The
alguazil who brought you hither told me the whole story in
confidence. The king, hearing that the Count de Lemos and you were
in the habit of escorting the Prince of Spain by night to a house of
suspicious character, as a punishment for your loose morals, has
banished the count, and sent you hither, to be treated in the style
of which you have had a specimen. And how, said I, did that
circumstance come to the king's knowledge? That is what I am most
curious to ascertain. And that, answered he, is precisely what the
alguazil did not tell, apparently because he did not know.
At this epoch of our conversation, the servants brought in supper.
When everything was set in order, Tordesillas sent away the
attendants, not wishing our conversation to be overheard. He shut
the door, and we took our seats opposite to each other. Let us say
grace, and fall to, said he. Your appetite ought to be good after
two days of fasting. Under this impression he loaded my plate as if
he had been cramming the craw of a starveling. In fact, nothing was
more likely than that I should play the devil among the ragouts; but
what is likely does not always happen. Though my intestines were
yearning for support, their staple stuck in my throat, for my heart
loathed all pleasurable indulgence in the present state of my
affairs. In vain did my warden, to drive away the blue devils,
pledge me continually, and expatiate on the excellence of his wine;
imperishable nectar would have been pricked, according to the
fastidious report of my palate. This being the case, he went another
way to work, and told me the story of his marriage, with as much
humor as such a subject would admit. Here he was still less
successful. So wandering was my attention, that before the end, I
had forgotten the beginning and the middle. At length he was
convinced that there was no diverting my gloomy thoughts for that
evening. After finishing his solitary supper, he rose from table,
saying, Signor de Santillane, I shall leave you to your repose, or
rather to the free indulgence of your own reveries. But, take my
word for it, your misfortune will not be of long continuance. The
king is naturally good. When his anger shall have passed away, and
your deplorable estate shall occur to his milder thoughts, your
punishment will appear sufficient in his eyes. With these words, my
kind-hearted jailer went down stairs, and sent the servants to take
away. Not even the brass candlesticks were left behind; and I went
to bed by the palpable darkness of a glimmering lamp suspended
against the wall.
_CHAPTER V._
_HIS REFLECTIONS BEFORE HE WENT TO SLEEP THAT NIGHT, AND THE NOISE
THAT WAKED HIM._
Two hours at least were my thoughts employed on what Tordesillas had
told me. Here, then, am I, for having lent myself to the pleasures
of the heir-apparent! It was certainly not having my wits about me,
to pander for so young a prince. Therein consists my crime: had he
been arrived at a more knowing age, the king perhaps might only have
laughed at what has now made him so angry. But who can have given
such counsel to the monarch, without dreading the prince's resentment
or the Duke of Lerma's? That minister will doubtless take ample
vengeance for his nephew the Count de Lemos. How can the king have
made the discovery? That is above my comprehension.
This last was the eternal burden of my song. But the idea most
afflictive to my mind, what drove me to despair, and laid fiend-like
hold upon my fancy, was the unquestioned plunder of my effects. My
strong box, exclaimed I, my dear wealth, what is become of you? Into
what hands have you fallen? Alas! you are lost in less time than you
were gained! The ruinous confusion of my household was the perpetual
death's head of my imagination. Yet this wilderness of melancholy
ideas sheltered me from absolute distraction; sleep, which had
shunned my wretched straw, now paid his readier visit to my soft and
gentlemanly couch. Watching and wine, too, imparted a strong
narcotic to his poppies. My slumbers were profound; and to all
appearance, the day might have peeped in upon my repose, if I had not
been awakened all at once by such sounds as rarely perforate a prison
wall. I heard the thrum of a guitar, accompanying a man's voice. My
whole attention was absorbed; but the invisible musician paused, and
left the fleeting impression of a dream. An instant afterwards, my
ear was soothed with the sound of the same instrument, and the same
voice.
Wisely the ant against poor winter hoards
The stock which summer's wealth affords;
In grasshoppers, that must at autumn die,
How vain were such an industry!
Of love or fortune the deceitful light
Might half excuse our cheated sight,
If it of life the whole small time would stay,
And be our sunshine all the day.[*]
[*] To have substituted, with a slight variation, these two stanzas
from Cowley for a translation of the commonplace couplet in the
original, will probably not be thought to require any apology. They
necessarily involve a change in the consequent reflections of our
hero. TRANSLATOR.
These verses, which sounded as if they had been sung expressly for
the dirge of my departed happiness, were only an aggravation of my
feelings. The truth of the sentiment, said I, is but too well
exemplified in me. The meteor of court favor has but plunged me in
substantial darkness; the summer sunshine of ambition is quenched in
these autumnal glooms. Now did I sink again into cold and
comfortless meditation; my miseries began to flow afresh, as if they
fed and grew upon their own vital stream. Yet my wailings ended with
the night; and the first rays which played upon my chamber wall
amused my mind into composure. I got up to open my window, and let
the vivid air of morning into my room. Then I glanced over the
country, so attractively depicted in the description of my keeper.
It did not seem to justify his panegyric. The Erêma, a second Tagus
in my magnifying fancy, was little better than a brook. Its flowery
banks were fringed with nettles, and arrayed in all the majesty of
thistles; the delicious vale in this fairy prospect was a barren
wilderness, untamed by human labor. It therefore was very evident
that my keener sensations were not yet softened into such a composed
melancholy as could give any but a jaundiced coloring to the
landscape.
I began dressing, and had already half finished my toilet, when
Tordesillas ushered in an old chambermaid, laden with shirts and
towels. Signor Gil Blas, said he, here is your linen. Do not be
saving of it; there shall always be as many changes as you can
possibly want. Well, now! and how have you passed the night? Has
the drowsy god administered his anodyne? I could have slept till
this time, answered I, if I had not been awakened by a voice singing
to a guitar. The cavalier who has disturbed your repose, resumed he,
is a state prisoner; and his chamber is contiguous to yours. He is a
knight of the military order of Calatrava, and is a very accomplished
person. His name is Don Gaston de Cogollos. You may meet as often
as you like, and take your meals together. It will afford reciprocal
consolation to compare your fortunes. There can be no doubt of your
being agreeable to one another. I assured Don Andrew how sensible I
was of his indulgence in allowing me to blend my sorrows with those
of my fellow-sufferer; and, as I betrayed some impatience to be
acquainted with him, our accommodating warden met my wishes on the
very same day. He fixed me to dine with Don Gaston, whose
prepossessing physiognomy and symmetry of feature struck me sensibly.
Judge what it must have been to make so strong an impression on eyes
accustomed to encounter the dazzling exterior of the court. Figure
to yourself a man fashioned in the mould of pleasure; one of those
heroes in romance, who has only to show his face, and banish the
sweet sleep from the eyelids of princesses. Add to this, that
nature, who is generally bountiful with one hand and niggardly with
the other, had crowned the perfections of Cogollos with wit and
valor. He was a man, whose like, take him for all in all, we might
not soon look upon again.
If this fine fellow was mightily to my taste, it was my good luck not
to be altogether offensive to him. He no longer sang at night for
fear of annoying me, though I begged him by no means to restrain his
inclinations on my account. A bond of union is soon formed between
brethren in misfortune. A close friendship succeeded to mere
acquaintance, and strengthened from day to day. The liberty of
uninterrupted intercourse contributed greatly to our mutual support;
our burden became lighter by division.
One day after dinner I went into his room, just as he was tuning his
guitar. To hear him more at my ease, I sat down on the only stool;
while he, reclining on his bed, played a pathetic air, and sang to it
a ditty, expressing the despair of a lover and the cruelty of his
mistress. When he had finished, I said to him with a smile, Sir
knight, such strains as these could never be applicable to your own
successes with the fair. You were not made to cope with female
repulse. You think too well of me, answered he. The verses you have
just heard were composed to fit my own case--to soften a heart of
adamant. You must hear my story, and in my story, my distresses.
_CHAPTER VI._
_HISTORY OF DON GASTON DE COGOLLOS AND DONNA HELENA DE GALISTEO._
It will be very soon four years since I left Madrid to go and see my
aunt Donna Eleonora de Laxarilla at Coria: she is one of the richest
dowagers in Old Castile, with myself for her only heir. Scarcely had
I got within her doors, when love invaded my repose. The windows of
my room faced the lattice of a lady living opposite; but the street
was narrow, and her blinds pervious to the eye. It was an
opportunity too delicious to be lost, and I found my neighbor so
lovely that my heart was captivated. The subject of my sentry-watch
could not be mistaken. She marked it well; but she was not a girl to
glory in the detection, still less to encourage my fooleries.
It was natural to inquire the name of this mighty conqueror. I
learned it to be Donna Helena, only daughter of Don George de
Galisteo, lord of a large domain near Coria. She had innumerable
offers of marriage; but her father repulsed them all, because he
meant to bestow her hand on his nephew Don Austin de Olighera, who
had uninterrupted access to his cousin while the settlements were
preparing. This was no bar to my hopes: on the contrary, it whetted
my eagerness, and the insolent pleasure of supplanting a favored
rival was, perhaps, at bottom equally my motive with a more noble
passion. My visual artillery was obstinately planted against my
unyielding fair. Her attendant Felicia was not without any incense
of a glance, to soften her rigid constancy in my favor; while nods
and becks stood for the current coin of language. But all these
efforts of gallantry were in vain--the maid was impregnable, like her
mistress--never was there such a pair of cold and cruel ones.
The commerce of the eyes being so unthrifty, I had recourse to
different agents. My scouts were on the watch to hunt out what
acquaintance Felicia might have in town. They discovered an old
lady, by name Theodora, to be her most intimate friend, and that they
often met. Delighted at the intelligence, I went point blank to
Theodora, and engaged her by presents in my interest. She took my
cause up heartily, promised to contrive an interview for me with her
friend, and kept her engagement the very next day.
I am no longer the wretch of yesterday, said I to Felicia, since my
sufferings have melted you to pity. How deep is my debt to your
friend for her kind interference in my behalf! Sir, answered she,
Theodora can do what she pleases with me. She has brought me over to
your side of the question; and if I can do you a kindness, you shall
soon be at the summit of your wishes; but, with all my partiality in
your favor, I know not how far my efforts may be successful. It
would be cruel to mislead you; the prize will not be gained without a
severe conflict. The object of your passion is betrothed to another
gentleman, and her character most inauspicious to your designs. Such
is her pride, and so closely locked are her secrets within her own
breast, that if, by constancy and assiduities, you could extort from
her a few sighs, fancy not that her haughty spirit would indulge your
ears with their music. Ah! my dear Felicia, exclaimed I, in an
agony, why will you thus magnify the obstacles in my way? To set
them in array will kill me. Lead me on with false hopes, if you
will, but do not drive me to despair. With these words I took one of
her hands, pressed it between mine, and slid a diamond on her finger,
value three hundred pistoles, with such a moving compliment as made
her weep again.
Such speeches and corresponding actions deserved some scanty comfort.
She smoothed a little the rugged path of love. Sir, said she, what I
have just been telling you need not quite quench your hope. Your
rival, it is true, is in possession of the ground. He comes back and
fore as he pleases. He toys with her as often as he likes; but all
that is in your favor. The habit of constant intercourse sheds a
languor over their meetings. They part without pain, and come
together without emotion. One would take them for man and wife. In
a word, my mistress has no marks of violent love for Don Austin.
Besides, in point of person, there is such a difference between you
and him as cannot fail to catch the eye of a nice observer like Donna
Helena. Therefore do not be cast down. Continue your particular
attentions. You shall have a second in me. I shall let no
opportunity escape of pointing out to my mistress the merit of all
your exertions to please her. In vain shall she intrench herself
behind reserve. In spite of guard and garrison, I will ransack the
muster-roll of her sentiments.
Now were my open attacks and secret ambuscades more fiercely pointed
against the daughter of Don George. Among the rest, I entertained
her with a serenade. After the concert, Felicia, to sound her
mistress, begged to know how she had been entertained. The singer
had a good voice, said Donna Helena. But how did you like the words?
replied the abigail. I scarcely noted them, returned the lady; the
music engrossed my whole attention. The poetry excited as little
curiosity as its author. If that is the case, exclaimed the
chambermaid, poor Don Gaston de Cogollos is reckoning without his
host; and a miserable spendthrift of his glances, to be always ogling
at our lattice-work. Perhaps it may not be he, said the mistress,
with petrifying indifference, but some other spark, announcing his
passion by this concert. Excuse me, answered Felicia, it is Don
Gaston himself, who accosted me this morning in the street, and
implored me to assure you how he adored, in defiance of your rigorous
repulses; but that he should esteem himself the most blest of mortals
if you would allow him to soothe his desponding thoughts by all the
most delicate and impassioned attentions. Judge now if I can be
mistaken, after so open an avowal.
Don George's daughter changed countenance at once, and said to her
servant, with a severe frown. You might well have dispensed with the
relation of this impertinent discourse. Bring me no more such idle
tales; and tell this young madman, when next he accosts you, to play
off his shallow artifices on some more accommodating fool; but, at
all events, let him choose a more gentlemanly recreation than that of
lounging all day at his window, and prying into the privacy of my
apartment.
This message was faithfully delivered at my next interview with
Felicia, who assured me that her mistress's modes of speech were not
to be taken in their literal construction, but that my affairs were
in the best possible train. For my part, being little read in the
science of coquetry, and finding no favorable sense on the face of
the author's original words, I was half out of humor with the
wire-drawn comments of the critic. She laughed at my misgiving, and
asked her friend for pen, ink, and paper, saying, Sir knight of the
doleful countenance, write immediately to Donna Helena as dolefully
as you look. Make echo ring with your sufferings; outsigh the
river's murmur; and, above all, let rocks and woods resound with the
prohibition of appearing at your window. Then pawn your existence on
obeying her, though without the possibility ever to redeem the
pledge. Turn all that nonsense into pretty sentences, as you gay
deceivers so well know how to do, and leave the rest to me. The
event, I flatter myself, will redound more than you are aware to the
honor of my penetration.
He must have been a strange lover who would not have profited by so
opportune an occasion of writing to his mistress. My letter was
couched in the most pathetic terms. Felicia smiled at its contents,
and said that if the women knew the art of infatuating men, the men,
in return, had borrowed their influence over women from the arch
wheedler himself. My privy counsellor took the note, and went back
to Don George's, with a special injunction that my windows should be
fast shut for some days.
Madam, said she, going up to Donna Helena, I met Don Gaston. He must
needs endeavor to come round me with his flattering speeches. In
tremulous accents, like a culprit pleading against his sentence, he
begged to know whether I had spoken to you on his behalf. Then, in
prompt and faithful compliance with your orders, I snapped up the
words out of his mouth. To be sure, my tongue did run at a fine rate
against him. I called him all manner of names, and left him in the
street like a stock, staring at my termagant loquacity. I am
delighted, answered Donna Helena, that you have disengaged me from
that troublesome person. But there was no occasion to have snubbed
him so unmercifully. A creature of your degree should always keep a
good tongue in its mouth. Madam, replied the domestic, one cannot
get rid of a determined lover by mincing one's words, though it comes
to much the same thing when one flies into a passion. Don Gaston,
for instance, was not to be bullied out of his senses. After having
given it him on both sides of his ears, as I told you, I went on that
errand of yours to the house of your relation. The lady, as ill luck
would have it, kept me longer than she ought. I say longer than she
ought, because my plague and torment met me on my return. Who the
deuce would have thought of seeing him? It put me all in a twitter;
but then my tongue, which at other times is apt to be in a twitter,
stuck motionless in my mouth. While my tongue stuck motionless in my
mouth, what did he do? He slid a paper into my hand without giving
me time to consider whether I should take it or no, and made off in a
moment.