After this introduction, she drew my letter from under her stays, and

gave it with half a banter to her mistress, who affected to read it

in humorous scorn, but digested the contents most greedily, and then

put on the starch, offended prude. In good earnest, Felicia, said

she, with all the gravity she could assume, you were extremely off

your guard, quite bewildered and fascinated, to have taken the charge

of such an epistle. What construction would Don Gaston put upon it?

What must I think of it myself? You give me reason, by this strange

behavior, to mistrust your fidelity, while he must suspect me of

encouraging his odious suit. Alas! he may, perhaps, lay that

flattering unction to his soul, that my love is legible in these

characters, and not his trespass. Only consider how you lay my

towering pride. O, quite the reverse, madam, answered the

petticoated pleader; it is impossible for him to think that; and if

he did, he would soon be convinced with a flea in his ear. I shall

tell him, when next we meet, that I have delivered his letter, that

you glanced at the superscription with petrifying indifference, and

then, without reading a word, tore it into ten thousand pieces. You

may swear that I did not read it with a safe conscience, replied

Donna Helena. I should be puzzled to retrace a single sentiment.

Don George's daughter, not contented with these words, suited the

action to them, tore my letter, and imposed silence on my advocate.

As I had promised no longer to play the lover at my window, the farce

of obedience was kept up for several days. Ogling being interdicted,

my courtship was doomed to enter in at my Helena's obdurate ears.

One night I attended under her balcony with musicians; the first bars

of the serenade were already playing, when a staggering blade, sword

in hand, rushed in upon our harmony, laying about him to the right

and left, to the utter discomfiture of the troop. Such mad warfare

fired my tilting propensities to equal fury. The affray became

serious. Donna Helena and her maid were disturbed by the clash of

swords. They looked out at their lattice, and saw two men engaged.

Their cries roused Don George and his servants. The whole

neighborhood was assembled to part the combatants. But they came too

late: on the field of battle, bathed in its own blood and almost

lifeless, lay my unfortunate body. They carried me to my aunt's, and

sent for the best surgical assistance in the place.

All the world was merciful, and wished me well, especially Donna

Helena, whose heart was now unmasked. Her forced severity yielded to

her natural feelings. Would you believe it? The cold, relentless,

insensible, was kindled into the warmest of love's votaries. She

wore out the remainder of the night in weeping with her faithful

confidante, and giving her cousin, Don Austin de Olighera, to

perdition; for him they taxed with the plotted massacre, and the bill

was a true one. He could hide his heart as well as his cousin; he

therefore watched my motions, without seeming to suspect them; and

fancying them not to be without a corresponding impulse, he resolved

not to be sacrificed with impunity. The accident was an awkward one

to me, but it ended in overpowering rapture. Dangerous as my wound

was, the surgeon soon brought me about. I was still confined to my

chamber, when my aunt, Donna Eleonora, went over to Don George, and

made proposals for Donna Helena. He consented the more readily to

the marriage, as he never expected to see Don Austin again. The good

old man was afraid of his daughter's not liking me, because cousin

Olighera had kept her company; but she was so tractable to the

parental behest, as to furnish grounds for believing that in Spain,

as in other countries, the species, not the individual, is the object

with the sex.

Felicia, at our first private meeting, communicated the emotions of

her mistress on my misfortune. Now, like another Paris, I thought

Troy well lost for my Helen, and blessed the happy consequences of my

wound. Don George allowed me to speak with his daughter in presence

of her attendant. What a heavenly interview! I begged and prayed

the lady so earnestly to tell me whether her sufferance of my vows

was forced upon her by her father, that she at length confessed her

obedience to be in unison with her inclinations. After so delicious

a declaration, my whole soul was given up to love and pleasurable

gratifications. Our nuptials were to be graced by a magnificent

procession of all the principal people in Coria and the neighborhood.

I gave a splendid party at my aunt's country-house, in the suburbs on

the side of Manroi. Don George, his daughter, the family, and

friends on both sides were present. There was a concert of vocal and

instrumental music, with a company of strolling players, to represent

a comedy. In the middle of the festivities, some one whispered me

that a man wanted to speak with me in the hall. I got up from table

to go and see who it was. The stranger looked like a gentleman's

servant. He put a letter into my hand, containing these words:--

"If you have any sense of honor, as a knight of your order ought to

have, you will not fail to attend to-morrow morning in the plain of

Manroi. There you will find an antagonist ready to give you your

revenge for his former attack upon your person, or, what he rather

hopes and meditates, to spoil your connubial transports with Donna

Helena.

"DON AUSTIN DE OLIGHERA."

If love is a Spanish passion, revenge is the Spanish lunacy. Such a

note as this was not to be read with composure. At the mere

subscription of Don Austin, there kindled in my veins a fire which

almost made me forget the claims of hospitality. I was tempted to

steal away from my company, and seek my antagonist on the instant.

For fear of disturbing the merriment, however, I bridled in my rage,

and said to the messenger, My friend, you may tell your employer that

I shall meet him on the appointed spot at sunrise, and resume the

contest with obstinacy equal to his own.

After sending this answer, I resumed my seat at table with so

composed a mien that no creature had the least suspicion of what had

occurred. During the rest of the day I gave myself up to the

pleasures of the festival, which ended not till midnight. The guests

then returned to town; but I staid behind, under pretext of taking

the air on the following morning. Instead of going to bed, I watched

for the dawn with maddening impatience. With the first ray I got on

horseback, and rode alone towards Manroi. On the plain was a

horseman, riding up to me at full speed. I pushed forward, and we

met halfway. It was my rival. Knight, said he, superciliously, it

is against my will that I meet you a second time on the same

occasion; but you have brought your fate on yourself. After the

adventure of the serenade, you ought to have waived your pretensions

to Don George's daughter, or at least to have been assured that the

support of them must cost you dearer than a single encounter. You

are too much elated, answered I, with an advantage which is less

owing, perhaps, to your superior skill, than to the darkness of the

night. Remember that victory is of the same blind family with

fortune. It shall be my lot to teach you, replied he with insulting

scorn, that I have unsealed the eyes of both.

At this proud defiance, we both dismounted, tied our horses to a

tree, and engaged with equal fury. I must candidly acknowledge the

prowess of my antagonist, who was a consummate master of fencing. My

life was exposed to the greatest possible danger. Nevertheless, as

the strong is often vanquished by the weak, my rival, in spite of all

his science, received a thrust through the heart, and fell a lifeless

corpse.

I immediately returned, and told a confidential servant what had

happened, requesting him to take horse and acquaint my aunt, before

the officers of justice could get intelligence of the event. He was

also to obtain from her a supply of money and jewels, and then join

me at the first inn as you enter Plazencia.

All this was performed within three hours. Donna Eleonora rather

triumphed than mourned over a catastrophe which restored my injured

honor, and sent me large remittances for my travels abroad till the

affair had blown over.

Not to dwell on different circumstances, suffice it to say, that I

embarked for Italy, and equipped myself so as to make a respectable

figure at the several courts.

While I was endeavoring to beguile the weary hours of absence, Helena

was weeping at home from the same cause. Instead of joining in the

family resentment, her heart was panting for a compromise, and for my

speedy return. Six months had already elapsed, and I firmly believe

that her constancy would have been proof against the track of time,

had time been seconded by no more powerful ally. Don Blas de

Combados, a gentleman from the western coast of Galicia, came to

Coria, to take possession of a rich inheritance unsuccessfully

contested by a near relation. He liked that country so much better

than his own, that he made it his principal residence. Combados was

a personable man. His manners were gentle and well bred, his

conversation most insinuating. With such a passport, he soon got

into the best company, and knew all the family concerns of the place.

It was not long before he heard of Don George's daughter, and of her

extraordinary beauty. This touched his curiosity nearly; he was

eager to behold so formidable a lady. For this purpose, he

endeavored to worm himself into the good graces of her father, and

succeeded so well, that the old gentleman, already looking on him as

a son-in-law, gave him free admission to the house, and the liberty

of conversing with Donna Helena in his presence. The Galician soon

became deeply enamoured of her; indeed, it was the common fate of all

who had ever beheld her charms. He opened his heart to Don George,

who consented to his paying his addresses, but told him that so far

from offering violence to her inclination, he should never interfere

in her choice. Hereupon Don Blas pressed every device that

impassioned ingenuity could suggest into his service, to melt and

warm the icicles of reserve; but the lady was impenetrable to his

arts, fast bound in the fetters of an earlier love. Felicia,

however, was in the new suitor's interest, convinced of his merit by

the universal argument. All the faculties of her soul were called

forth in his cause. On the other hand, the father urged his wishes

and entreaties. Thus was Donna Helena tormented for a whole year

with their importunities, and yet her faith continued unshaken.

Combados, finding that Don George and Felicia took up his cause with

very little success, proposed an expedient for conquering prejudice

to the following effect. We will suppose a merchant of Coria to have

received a letter from his Italian correspondent, in which, among the

news of the day, there shall be the following paragraph: "A Spanish

gentleman, Don Gaston de Cogollos, has lately arrived at the court of

Parma. He is said to be nephew and sole heir to a rich widow of

Coria. He is paying his addresses to a nobleman's daughter; but the

family wishes to ascertain the validity of his pretensions. Send me

word, therefore, whether you know this Don Gaston, together with the

amount of his aunt's fortune. On your answer the marriage will

depend. Parma, ... day of, &c."

The old gentleman considered this trick as a mere ebullition of

humor, a lawful stratagem of amorous warfare; and the jade of a

go-between, with conscience still more callous than her master's, was

delighted with the probability of the manoeuvre. It seemed to be so

much the more happily imagined, as they knew Helena to be a proud

girl, capable of taking decisive measures in the moment of surprise

and indignation. Don George undertook to be the herald of my

fickleness, and by way of coloring the contrivance more naturally, to

confront the pretended correspondent with her. This project was

executed as soon as formed. The father, with counterfeit emotions of

displeasure, said to Donna Helena, Daughter, it is not enough now to

tell you that our relations inveigh against an alliance with Don

Austin's murderer; a still stronger reason henceforward presses to

detach you from Don Gaston. It may well overwhelm you with shame to

have been his dupe so long. Here is an undeniable proof of his

inconstancy. Only read this letter, just received by a merchant of

Coria from Italy. The trembling Helena caught at this forged paper,

glanced over the writing, then weighed every expression, and stood

aghast at the import of the whole. A keen pang of disappointment

wrung from her a few reluctant tears; but pride came to her

assistance; she wiped away the falling drops of weakness, and said to

her father, in a determined tone, Sir, you have just been witness of

my folly; now bear testimony to my triumph over myself. The delusion

is past; Don Gaston is the object of my utter contempt. I am ready

to meet Don Blas at the altar, and be beforehand with the traitor in

the pledge of our transferred affections. Don George, transported

with joy at this change, embraced his daughter, extolled her spirit

to the skies, and hastened the necessary preparations, with all the

self-complacency of a successful plotter.

Thus was Donna Helena snatched from me. She threw herself into the

arms of Combados in a pet, not listening to the secret whispers of

love within her breast, nor suspecting a story which ought to have

seemed so improbable in the annals of true passion. The haughty are

always the victims of their own rash conclusions. Resentment of

insulted beauty triumphed wholly over the suggestions of tenderness.

And yet, a few days after marriage, there came over her some feelings

of remorse for her precipitation; it struck her that the letter might

have been a forgery; and the very possibility disturbed her peace.

But the enamoured Don Blas left his wife no time to nurse up thoughts

injurious to their new-found joys; a succession of gayety and

pleasure kept her in a thoughtless whirl, and shielded her from the

pangs of unavailing repentance.

She appeared to be in high good humor with so spirit-stirring a

husband, so that they were living together in perfect unanimity, when

my aunt adjusted my affair with Don Austin's relations. Of this she

wrote me word to Italy. I returned on the wings of love. Donna

Eleonora, not having announced the marriage, informed me of it on my

arrival, and remarking what pain it gave me, said, You are in the

wrong, nephew, to show so much feeling for a faithless fair. Banish

from your memory a person so unworthy to share in its tender

recollections.

As my aunt did not know how Donna Helena had been played upon, she

had reason to talk as she did; nor could she have given me better

advice. To affect indifference, if not to conquer my passion, was my

bounden duty. Yet there could be no harm in just inquiring by what

means this union had been brought to bear. To get at the truth, I

determined on applying to Felicia's friend, Theodora. There I met

with Felicia herself, who was confounded at my unwelcome presence,

and would have escaped from the necessity of explanation. But I

stopped her. Why do you avoid me? said I. Has your perjured

mistress forbidden you to give ear to my complaints? or would you

make a merit with the ungrateful woman of your voluntary refusal?

Sir, answered the plotting abigail, I confess my fault, and throw

myself on your mercy. Your appearance here has filled me with

remorse. My mistress has been betrayed, and unhappily in part by my

agency. The particulars of their infernal device followed this

avowal, with an endeavor to make me amends for its lamentable

consequence. To this effect, she offered me her services with her

mistress, and promised to undeceive her; in a word, to work night and

day, that she might soften the rigor of my sufferings, and open the

career of hope.

I pass over the numberless contradictions she experienced before she

could accomplish the projected interview. It was at length arranged

to admit me privately, while Don Blas was at his hunting-seat. The

plot did not linger. The husband went into the country, and they

sent for me to his lady's apartment.

My onset was reproachful in the extreme, but my mouth was soon shut

upon the subject. It is useless to look back upon the past, said the

lady. It can be no part of our present intention to work upon each

other's feelings; and you are grievously mistaken if you fancy me

inclined to flatter your aspiring hopes. My sole inducement for

receiving you here was to tell you personally that you have only

henceforth to forget me. Perhaps I might have been better satisfied

with my lot had it been united with yours; but, since heaven has

ordered it otherwise, we must submit to its decrees.

What! madam, answered I, is it not enough to have lost you, to see my

successful rival in quiet possession of all my soul holds dear, but I

must also banish you from my thoughts? You would tear from me even

my passion, my only remaining blessing! And think you that a man,

whom you have once enchanted, can recover his self-possession? Know

yourself better, and cease to enforce impracticable behests. Well

then! if so, rejoined she with hurried importunity, do you cease to

flatter yourself with interesting my gratitude or my pity. In one

short word, the wife of Don Blas shall never be the mistress of Don

Gaston. Let us at once end a conversation at which delicacy revolts

in spite of virtue, and peremptorily forbids its longer continuance.

I now threw myself at the lady's feet in despair. All the powers of

language and of tears were called forth to soften her. But even this

served only to excite some inbred sentiments of compassion, stifled

as soon as born, and sacrificed at the shrine of duty. After having

fruitlessly exhausted all my stores of tender persuasion, rage took

possession of my breast. I drew my sword, and would have fallen on

its point before the inexorable Helena; but she saw my design, and

prevented it. Stay your rash hand, Cogollos, said she. Is it thus

that you consult my reputation? In dying thus, and here, you will

brand me with dishonor, and my husband with the imputation of murder.

In the agony of my despair, far from yielding to these suggestions, I

only struggled against the preventive efforts of the two women, and

should have struggled too successfully, if Don Blas had not appeared

to second them. He had been apprised of our assignation, and,

instead of going into the country, had concealed himself behind the

hangings, to overhear our conference. Don Gaston, cried her as he

arrested my uplifted arm, recall your scattered senses, and no longer

give a loose to these mad transports.

Here I could hold no longer. Is it for you, said I, to turn me from

my resolution? You ought rather yourself to plunge a dagger in my

bosom. My love, with all its train of miseries, is an insult to you.

Have you not surprised me in your wife's apartment at this

unseasonable hour? What greater provocation can you want for your

revenge? Stab me, and rid yourself of a man who can only give up the

adoration of Donna Helena with his life. It is in vain, answered Don

Blas, that you endeavor to interest my honor in your destruction.

You are sufficiently punished for your rashness; and my wife's

imprudence, in giving you this opportunity of indulging it, is

sanctified by the purity of her sentiments. Take my advice,

Cogollos: shrink not effeminately from your wayward destiny, but bear

up against it with the patient courage of a hero.

The prudent Galician, by such language, gradually composed the

ferment of my mind, and waked me once more to virtue. I withdrew in

the determination of removing far from the scene of my folly, and

went for Madrid two days afterwards. There, pursuing the career of

fortune and preferment, I appeared at court, and laid myself out for

connections. But it was my ill luck to attach myself particularly to

the Marquis of Villareal, a Portuguese grandee, who, lying under a

suspicion of intending to emancipate his country from the Spanish

yoke, is now in the castle of Alicant. As the Duke of Lerma knew me

to be closely connected with this nobleman, he gave orders for my

arrest and detention here. That minister thought me capable of

engaging in such a project--he could not have offered a more

outrageous affront to a man of noble birth and a Castilian.

Don Gaston thus ended his story. By way of consolation I said to

him, Illustrious sir, your honor can receive no taint from this

temporary detainer, and your interest will probably be promoted by it

in the end. When the Duke of Lerma shall be convinced of your

innocence, he will not fail to give you a considerable post, and thus

retrieve the character of a gentleman unjustly accused of treason.

_CHAPTER VII._

_SCIPIO FINDS GIL BLAS OUT IN THE TOWER OF SEGOVIA, AND BRINGS HIM A

BUDGET OF NEWS._

Our conversation was interrupted by Tordesillas, who came into the

room, and addressed me thus: Signor Gil Blas, I have just been

speaking with a young man at the prison gate. He inquired if you

were not here, and looked much mortified at my refusal to satisfy his

curiosity. Noble governor, said he, with tears in his eyes, do not

reject my most humble petition. I am Signor de Santillane's

principal domestic, and you will do an act of charity by allowing me

to see him. You pass for a kind-hearted gentleman in Segovia; I hope

you will not deny me the favor of conversing for a few minutes with

my dear master, who is unfortunate rather than criminal. In short,

continued Don Andrew, the lad was so importunate, that I promised to

comply with his wishes this evening.

I assured Tordesillas that he could not have pleased me better than

by bringing this young man to me, who could probably communicate

tidings of the last importance. I waited with impatience for the

entrance of my faithful Scipio, since I could not doubt him to be the

man; nor was I mistaken in my conjecture. He was introduced at the

time appointed; and his joy, which only mine could equal, broke forth

into the most whimsical demonstrations. On my side, in the ecstasy

of delight, I stretched out my arms to him, and he rushed into them

with no courtly, measured embrace. All distinctions of master and

dependant were levelled in the sympathetic rapture of our meeting.

When our transports had subsided a little, I inquired into the state

of my household. You have neither household nor house, answered he:

to spare you a long string of questions, I will sum up your worldly

concerns in two words. Your property has been pillaged at both ends,

both by the banditti of the law and by your own retainers, who,

regarding you as a ruined man, paid themselves their own wages out of

whatever they found that was portable. Luckily for you, I had the

dexterity to save from their harpy clutches two large bags of double

pistoles. Salero, in whose custody I deposited them, will make

restitution on your release, which cannot be far distant, as you were

put upon his majesty's pension list of prisoners without the Duke of

Lerma's knowledge or consent.

I asked Scipio how he knew his excellency to have had no share in my

arrest. You may depend on it, answered he, my information is

undeniable. One of my friends in the Duke of Uzeda's confidence

acquainted me with all the circumstances of your imprisonment.

Calderona, having discovered by a spy that Signora Sirena, with the

handle of an alias to her name, was receiving night visits from the

Prince of Spain, and that the Count de Lemos managed that intrigue by

the pandarism of Signor de Santillane, determined to be revenged on

the whole knot. To this end, he waited on the Duke of Uzeda, and

discovered the whole affair. The duke, overjoyed at such a fine

opportunity of ruining his enemy, did not fail to bestir himself. He

laid his information before the king, and painted the prince's danger

in the most lively colors. His majesty was much angered, and showed

that he was so by sending Sirena to the nunnery provided for such

frail sisters, banishing the Count de Lemos, and condemning Gil Blas

to perpetual imprisonment.

This, pursued Scipio, is what my friend told me. Hence you gather

your misfortune to be the Duke of Uzeda's handiwork, or rather

Calderona's.

Thus it seemed probable that my affairs might be reinstated in time;

that the Duke of Lerma, chagrined at his nephew's banishment, would

move heaven and earth for that nobleman's recall; and it might not be

too much to expect that his excellency would not forget me. What a

delicate gypsy is hope! She wheedled me out of all anxiety about my

shattered fortunes, and made me as light-hearted as if I had good

reason to be so. My prison looked not like the dungeon of perpetual

misery, but like the vestibule to a more distinguished station. For

thus run the train of my reasoning: Don Fernando Borgia, Father

Jerome of Florence, and more than all, Friar Louis of Aliaga, who may

thank him for his place about the king's person, are the prime

minister's partisans. With the aid of such powerful friends, his

excellency will bear down all opposition, even supposing no change to

take place in the political barometer. But his majesty's health is

very precarious. The first act of a new reign would be to recall the

Count de Lemos; he would not feel himself at home in the young

monarch's presence till he had introduced me at court; and the young

monarch would not sit easy on his throne till he had showered

benefits on my head. Thus, feasting by anticipation on the pleasures

of futurity, I became callous to existing evils. The two bags, snug

in the goldsmith's custody, were no bad doubles to the part which

hope acted in this shifting pantomime.

It was impossible not to express my gratitude to Scipio for his zeal

and honesty. I offered him half the salvage; but he rejected it. I

expect, said he, a very different acknowledgment. Astonished as much

at his mysterious claim as at his refusal, I asked what more I could

do for him. Let us never part, answered he. Allow me to link my

fate with yours. I feel for you what I never felt for any other

master. And on my part, my good fellow, said I, you may rest assured

that your attachment is not thrown away. You caught my fancy at

first sight. We must have been born under Libra or Gemini, where

friendship is lord of the ascendant. I willingly accept your

proffered partnership, and will commence business by prevailing with

the warden to immure you along with me in this tower. That is the

very thing, exclaimed he. You were beforehand with me, for I was

just going to beg that favor. Your company is dearer to me than

liberty itself. I shall only just go to Madrid now and then, to

snuff the gale of the ministerial atmosphere, and try whether any

scent lies which may be favorable for your pursuit. Thus will you

combine in me a bosom friend, a trusty messenger, and an unsuspected

spy.

These advantages were too important for me to forego them. I

therefore kept so useful a person about me, with leave of the

obliging warden, who would not stand in the way of so soothing a

relief to the weariness of solitude.

_CHAPTER VIII._

_SCIPIO'S FIRST JOURNEY TO MADRID: ITS OBJECT AND SUCCESS. GIL BLAS

FALLS SICK. THE CONSEQUENCE OF HIS ILLNESS._

If it is a common proverb that our direst enemies are those of our

own household, the converse ought equally to be admitted among the

saws of a more candid experience. After such incontestable proof of

Scipio's zeal, he became to me like another self. All distinction of

place was confounded between Gil Blas and his secretary; all

insolence was dropped on the one hand, all cringing on the other.

Their lodging, bed, and board were in common.

Scipio's conversation was of a very lively turn; he might have been

dubbed the Spanish Momus, without any derogation to the Punch of the

Pantheon. But he had a long head, as well as a fanciful brain,

combining the characters of counsellor and jester. My friend, said

I, one day, what do you think of writing to the Duke of Lerma? It

could, methinks, do no harm. Why, as to that, answered he, the great

are such chameleons, that there is no knowing where to have them. At

all events, you may risk it; though I would not lay the postage of

your letter on its success. The minister loves you, it is true; but

then political love lacks memory as much as personal love lacks

visual discrimination. Out of sight, out of mind! is at once the

motto and the stigma of these gentry.

True as this may be in the general, replied I, my patron is a

glorious exception. His kindness lives in my recollection. I am

persuaded that he suffers for my sufferings, and that they are

incessantly preying on his spirits. We must give him credit for only

waiting till the king's anger shall pass away. Be it so, resumed he;

I wish you may not reckon without your host. Assail his excellency

then with an epistle to stir the waters. I will engage to deliver it

into his own hands. Pen, ink, and paper being brought, I composed a

specimen of eloquence which Scipio declared to be a paragon of

pathos, and Tordesillas preferred, for the cant of sermonizing

prolixity, to the old archbishop's homilies.

I flattered myself that there would be tears in the Duke of Lerma's

eyes, and distraction in his aspect, at the detail of miseries which

existed only on paper. In that assurance, I despatched my messenger,

who no sooner got to Madrid, than he went to the minister's. Meeting

with an old domestic of my acquaintance, he had no difficulty in

gaining access to the duke. My lord, said Scipio to his excellency,

as he delivered the packet, one of your most devoted servants, lying

at his length on straw, in a damp and dreary dungeon at Segovia, most

humbly supplicates for the perusal of this letter, which a

tender-hearted turnkey has furnished him with the means of writing.

The minister opened the letter, and glanced over the contents. But

though he found there a motive and a cue for passion enough to amaze

all his faculties at once, far from drowning the floor with briny

secretions, he cleaved the ear of his household, and smote the heart

of my courier with horrid speech: Friend, tell Santillane that he has

a great deal of impudence to address me, after so rank an offence,

worthily confronted by the severe sentence of the king. Under that

sentence let the wretch drag out his days, nor look to my mediation

for a respite.

Scipio, though neither dull nor muddy-mettled, began to be unpregnant

of this defeated cause. Yet he was not so pigeon-livered as to

retire without an effort in my favor. My lord, replied he, this poor

prisoner will give up the ghost with grief at the recital of your

excellency's displeasure. The duke answered like a prime minister,

with a supercilious corrugation of features, and a decisive

revolution of his front to some more prosperous suitor. This he did

to cover his own share in the shame of pimping; and such treatment

must all those hireling scavengers expect, who rake in the filth and

ordure of rotten statesmen, courtiers, and politicians.

My secretary came back to Segovia, and delivered the result of his

mission. And now behold me, sunk deeper than on the first day of my

imprisonment in the gulf of affliction and despair! The Duke of

Lerma's turning king's evidence gave a hanging posture to my affairs.

My courage was run out; and though they did all they could to keep up

my spirits, the agitation and distress of my mind threw me into a

fever.

The warden, who took a lively interest in my recovery, fancying in

his unmedical head that physicians cured fevers, brought me a double

dose of death in two of that doleful deity's most practised

executioners. Signor Gil Blas, said he, as he ushered in their

grisly forms, here are two godsons of Hippocrates, who are come to

feel your pulse, and to augment the number of their trophies in your

person. I was so prejudiced against the whole faculty, that I should

certainly have given them a very discouraging reception, had life

retained its usual charms in my estimation; but being bent on my

departure from this vale of tears, I felt obliged to Tordesillas for

hastening my journey by a safer conveyance than the crime of suicide.

My good sir, said one of the pair, your recovery will, under

Providence, depend on your entire confidence in our skill. Implicit

confidence! answered I: with your assistance, I am fully persuaded

that a few days will place me beyond the reach of fever, and all the

shocks that flesh is heir to. Yes! with the blessing of heaven,

rejoined he, it is a consummation devoutly to be wished, and easily

to be effected. At all events, our best endeavors shall not be

wanting. And indeed it was no joke; for they got me into such fine

training for the other world, that few of my material particles were

left in this. Already had Don Andrew, observing me fumble with the

sheets, and smile upon my fingers' ends, and thinking there was but

one way, sent for a Franciscan to show it me: already had the good

father, having mumbled over the salvation of my soul, retired to the

refection of his own body: and my own opinion leaned to the immediate

necessity of making a good end. I beckoned Scipio to my bedside. My

dear friend, said I, in the faint accents of a tortured and evacuated

patient, I give and bequeath to you one of the bags in Gabriel's

possession; the other you must carry to my father and mother in the

Asturias, who, if still living, must be in narrow circumstances.

But, alas! I fear they have not been able to bear up against my

ingratitude. Muscada's report of my unnatural behavior must have

brought their gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. Should Heaven

have fortified their tender hearts against my indifference, you will

give them the bag of doubloons, with assurances of my dying remorse;

and, if they are no more, I charge you to lay out the money in masses

for the repose of their souls and of mine. Then did I stretch out my

hand, which he bathed in silent tears. It is not always true that

the mourning of an heir is mirth in masquerade.

For some hours I fancied myself outward-bound, and on the point of

sailing; but the wind changed. My pilots having quitted the helm,

and left the vessel to the steerage of nature, the danger of

shipwreck disappeared. The fever mutinying against its commanding

officers, gave all their prognostics the lie, and acted contrary to

general orders. I got better by degrees, in mind as well as in body.

My consolation was all derived from within. I looked at wealth and

honors with the eye of a dying anchorite, and blessed the malady

which restored my soul. I abjured courts, politics, and the Duke of

Lerma. If ever my prison doors were opened, it was my fixed resolve

to buy a cottage, and live like a philosopher.

My bosom friend applauded my design, and to further its execution,

undertook a second journey to solicit my release, by the intervention

of a clever girl about the person of the prince's nurse. He

contended that a prison was a prison still, in spite of kind

indulgence and good cheer. In this I agreed, and gave him leave to

depart, with a fervent prayer to Heaven that we might soon take

possession of our hermitage.

_CHAPTER IX._

_SCIPIO'S SECOND JOURNEY TO MADRID. GIL BLAS IS SET AT LIBERTY ON

CERTAIN CONDITIONS. THEIR DEPARTURE FROM THE TOWER OF SEGOVIA, AND

CONVERSATION ON THEIR JOURNEY._

While waiting for Scipio's return from Madrid, I began a course of

study. Tordesillas furnished me with more books than I wanted. He

borrowed them from an old officer who could not read, but had fitted

up a magnificent library, that he might pass for a man of learning.

Above all, I delighted in moral essays and treatises, because they

abounded in commonplaces, according with my antipathy to courts, and

philosophic relish of solitude.

Three weeks elapsed before I heard a syllable from my negotiator, who

returned at length with a cheerful countenance, and news to the

following effect: By the intercession of a hundred pistoles with the

chambermaid, and her intercession with her mistress, the Prince of

Spain has been prevailed with to plead for your enlargement with his

royal father. I hastened hither to announce these happy tidings, and

must return immediately to put the last hand to my work. With these

words he left me, and went back to court.

At the week's end my expeditious agent returned, with the

intelligence that the prince had procured my liberty, not without

some difficulty. On the same day my generous keeper confirmed the

assurance in person, with the kindest congratulations, and the

following notice: Your prison doors are open, but on two conditions,

which I am sorry that my duty obliges me to announce, because they

will probably be disagreeable to you. His majesty expressly forbids

you to show your face at court, or to be found within the limits of

the two Castiles on this day month. I am extremely sorry that you

are interdicted from court. And I am delighted at it, answered I.

Witness all the powers above! I asked the king for only one favor;

he has granted me two.

With my liberty thus confirmed, I hired a couple of mules, on which

we mounted the next day, after taking leave of Cogollos, and thanking

Tordesillas a thousand times for all his instances of friendship. We

set forward cheerfully on the road to Madrid, to draw our deposit out

of Signor Gabriel's hands, amounting to a thousand doubloons. On the

road my fellow-traveller observed, If we are not rich enough to

purchase a splendid property, we can at least secure ease and

competency to ourselves. A cabin, answered I, would be large enough

for my most ambitious thoughts. Though scarcely at the middle period

of life, the world has lost its charms for me; its hopes, its fears,

its cares, its duties are all absorbed in the selfishness of

philosophical retirement. Independently of these principles, I can

assure you I have painted for myself a rural landscape, with a

foreground of innocent pleasures, and pastoral simplicity in the

perspective. Already does the enamel of the meadows glitter under my

eyes; already does the river's murmur accord with the winged chorus

of the grove: hunting exasperates the manly virtues, and fishing

preaches patience. Only figure to yourself, my friend, what a

continual round of amusement solitude may furnish, and you will pant

to be admitted of her crew. Then, for the economy of our table, the

simplest will be the cheapest, and of course the best. Unadulterated

Ceres shall be our official caterer; when hunger shall have tamed our

fastidious appetites into sobriety, a mumbled crust will relish like

an ortolan. The supreme delight of eating is not in the thing ate,

but in the palate of him who eats--a proposition in culinary

philosophy proved by the frequent loathing of my own stomach, through

a long series of ministerial dinners. Abstemiousness is a luxury of

the most exquisite refinement, and the best recipe in the materia

medica.

With your good leave, Signor Gil Blas, interrupted my secretary, I am

not altogether of your mind respecting the luscious treat of

abstemiousness. Why should we mess like the bankrupt sages of

antiquity? Surely we may indulge the carnal man a little, without

any reasonable offence to the spiritual. Since we have, by the

blessing of Providence and my forecast, wherewithal to keep the spit

and the spigot in exercise, do not let us take up our abode with

famine and wretchedness. As soon as we get settled, we must stock

our cellar, and establish a respectable larder, like people who know

what is what, and do not separate themselves from the vulgar crowd to

renounce the good things of this life, but to taste them with a more

exquisite relish. As Hesiod says,

Enjoy thy riches with a liberal soul;

Plenteous the feast, and smiling be the bowl.

And again,

To stint the wine a frugal husband shows,

When from the middle of the cask it flows.

What the devil, Master Scipio, interrupted I in my turn, you can cap

verses out of the Greek poets! And pray where did you get acquainted

with Hesiod? In very learned company, answered he. I lived some

time with a walking dictionary at Salamanca, a fellow up to the

elbows in quotation and commentary. He could put a large volume

together like a house of cards. His library furnished him with a

hodge-podge of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin commonplaces, which he

translated into buckram Castilian. As I was his transcriber, some

tags of verses, stings of epigrams, and sage truisms stuck by the

way. With such an apparatus, replied I, your memory must be most

philosophically stocked. But, not to lose sight of our future

prospects, whereabouts in Spain had we best fix our Socratic abode?

My voice is for Arragon, resumed my counsellor. We shall there enjoy

all the beauties of nature, and lead the life of Paradise. Well,

then, for Arragon, said I. May it teem with all the dear delights

that youthful poets fancy when they dream!

_CHAPTER X._

_THEIR DOINGS AT MADRID. THE RENCOUNTER OF GIL BLAS IN THE STREET,

AND ITS CONSEQUENCES._

On our arrival in Madrid, we alighted at a little public house where

Scipio had been accustomed to put up, whence our first visit was to

my banker, Salero. He received us very cordially, and expressed the

highest satisfaction at my release. Indeed, added he, your untoward

fate touched me so nearly as to change my views of a political

alliance. The fortunes of courtiers are like castles in the air; so

I have married my daughter Gabriela to a wealthy trader. You have

acted very wisely, answered I; for besides that a bird in the hand is

worth two in a bush, when a plodding citizen aspires to the honor of

bringing a man of fashion into his family, he very often has an

impertinent puppy for his son-in-law.

Then changing the topic, and coming to the point, Signor Gabriel,

pursued I, we came to talk a little about the two thousand pistoles

which ... Your money is all ready, said the goldsmith, interrupting

me. He then took us into his closet, and delivered the two bags,

carefully labelled with my name on them.

I thanked Salero for his exactness, and heaven in my sleeve for my

escape from his daughter. At our inn, we counted over the money, and

found it right, deducting fifty doubloons for the expenses of my

enlargement. Our thoughts were now wholly bent upon Arragon. My

secretary undertook to buy a carriage and two mules. It was my

office to provide household and body linen. During my peregrinations

for that purpose, I met Baron Steinbach, the officer in the German

Guards with whom Don Alphonso had been brought up.

I touched my hat to him; he knew me again, and returned my greeting

warmly. My joy is extreme, said I, at seeing your lordship in such

fine health, to say nothing of my wish to inquire after Don Cæsar and

Don Alphonso de Leyva. They are both in Madrid, answered he, and

staying at my house. They came to town about three months ago, to be

presented on occasion of Don Alphonso's promotion. He has been

appointed Governor of Valencia, on the score of old family claims,

without having in any shape pushed his interest at court. Nothing

could be more grateful to his feelings, or prove more strongly our

royal master's goodness, who delights to recognize the merits of

ancestry in the persons of their descendants.

Though I knew more of this matter than Steinbach, I kept my knowledge

in the background. Yet so lively was my impatience to hail my old

masters, that he would not damp my ardor by delay. I had a mind to

try Don Alphonso, whether he still retained his regard for me. He

was playing at chess with Baroness Steinbach. On my entrance, he

started up from his game, ran towards me, and squeezing me tight in

his embrace, Santillane, said he, with demonstrations of the

sincerest joy, at length, then, you are restored to my heart. I am

delighted at it! It was not my fault that we ever parted. You may

remember how strongly I urged you not to withdraw from the Castle of

Leyva. You were deaf to my entreaties. But I must not chide your

obstinacy, because its motive was the peace of the family. Yet you

ought to have let me hear from you, and to have spared my fruitless

inquiries at Grenada, where my brother-in-law, Don Ferdinand, sent me

word that you were.

And now tell me what you are doing at Madrid. Of course you have

some situation here. Be assured that I shall always take a lively

interest in your concerns. Sir, answered I, it is but four months

since I occupied a considerable post at court. I had the honor of

being the Duke of Lerma's confidential secretary. Can it be

possible? exclaimed Don Alphonso, as if he could scarcely believe his

ears. What, were you so near the person of the prime minister? I

then related how I had gained and lost his favor, and ended with

avowing my determination to buy a cottage and garden with the wreck

of my shattered fortunes.

The son of Don Cæsar heard me attentively, and made this answer: My

dear Gil Blas, you know how I have always loved you; nor shall you

longer be fortune's puppet. I will set you above her vagaries, by

securing you an independence. Since you declare for a country life,

a little estate of ours near Lirias, about four leagues from

Valencia, shall be settled on you. You are acquainted with the spot.

Such a present we can make without putting ourselves to the least

inconvenience. I can answer for my father's joining in the act, and

for Seraphina's entire approbation.

I threw myself at Don Alphonso's feet, who raised me immediately.

More penetrated by his affection than by his bounty, I pressed his

hand and said, Sir, your conduct charms me. Your noble gift is the

more welcome, as it precedes the knowledge of a service it has been

in my power to render you; and I had rather owe it to your generosity

than to your gratitude. This governor of my making did not know what

to understand by the hint, and pressed for an explanation. I gave it

in full, to his utter astonishment. Neither he nor Baron Steinbach

could ever have the slightest suspicion that the government of

Valencia was owing to my interest at court. Yet, having no reason to

doubt the fact, my friend proposed to grant me an annuity of two

thousand ducats, in addition to the little farm at Lirias.

Hold your hand, Signor Don Alphonso, exclaimed I at this offer. You

must not set my avarice afloat again. I am myself a living witness,

that fortune may give superfluities to her favorites, but has no

competence to bestow. With pleasure will I accept of the estate at

Lirias, where my present property will be sufficient for all my

wants. Rather than increase my cares with my possessions, I would

build a hospital out of my existing funds. Riches are a burden; and

it must be a foolish animal that would bear fardels in the manger or

the field.

While we were talking after this fashion, Don Cæsar came in. His joy

was not less than his son's at the sight of me; and being informed of

the family obligations, he again pressed me to accept of the annuity,

which I again refused. When the writings were drawn, the father and

son made the assignment their joint act and deed, transferring to me

the fee simple, and putting me in immediate possession. My secretary

half stared the eyes out of his head when I told him we had a landed

estate of our own, and how we came by it. What is the value of this

little freehold? says he. Five hundred ducats per annum, answered I;

and the farm in high cultivation, within a ring fence. I have often

been there during my stewardship. There is a small house on the

banks of the Guadalaviar, in a little hamlet, surrounded by a

charming country.

What pleases me better than all, cried Scipio, is, that we shall have

plenty of sporting, rare living, and excellent wine. Come, master,

let us leave this crowded city, and hasten to our hermitage. I long

to be there as much as you can do, answered I; but I must first go to

the Asturias. My father and mother are not in comfortable

circumstances. They shall therefore end their days with me at

Lirias. Heaven, perhaps, has thrown this windfall in my way to try

my filial duty, and would punish me for the neglect of it. Scipio

approved my purpose, and urged its speedy execution. Yes, my friend,

said I, we will set out as soon as possible. I shall consider it as

my dear delight to share the gifts of fortune with the authors of my

existence. We shall soon be settled in our country retreat; and then

will I write these two Latin verses over the door of my farmhouse, in

letters of gold, for the pious edification of my rustic neighbors:--

Inveni portum. Spes et fortuna, valete.

Sat me lusistis; ludite nunc alios.

BOOK THE TENTH.

_CHAPTER I._

_GIL BLAS SETS OUT FOR THE ASTURIAS, AND PASSES THROUGH VALLADOLID,

WHERE HE GOES TO SEE HIS OLD MASTER, DOCTOR SANGRADO. BY ACCIDENT,

HE COMES ACROSS SIGNOR MANUEL ORDONNEZ, GOVERNOR OF THE HOSPITAL._

Just as I was arranging matters to take my departure from Madrid, and

go with Scipio to the Asturias, Paul V. gave the Duke of Lerma a

cardinal's hat. This pope, wishing to establish the inquisition in

the kingdom of Naples, invested the minister with the purple, and by

that means hoped to bring King Philip over to so pious and

praiseworthy a design. Those who were best acquainted with this new

member of the sacred college, thought, much like myself, that the

church was in a fair way for apostolical purity, after so ghostly an

acquisition.

Scipio, who would have liked better to see me once more blazing at

court, than either cloistered or rusticated, advised me to show my

face at the cardinal's audience. Perhaps, said he, his eminence,

finding you at large by the king's order, may think it unnecessary to

affect any further displeasure against you, and may even reinstate

you in his service. My good friend Scipio, answered I, you seem to

forget that my liberty was granted only on condition of making myself

scarce in the two Castiles. Besides, can you suppose me so soon

inclined to become an absentee from my domain of Lirias? I have told

you before, and I tell it you once again, Though the Duke of Lerma

should restore me to his good graces, though he should even offer me

Don Rodrigo de Calderona's place, I would refuse it. My resolution

is taken: I mean to go and find out my parents at Oviedo, and carry

them with me to Valencia. As for you, my good fellow, if you repent

of having linked your fate with mine, you have only to say so; I am

ready to give you half of my ready money, and you may stay at Madrid,

where fortune puts on her kindest smiles to those who woo her lustily.

What, then, replied my secretary, a little affected by these words,

can you suspect me of any unwillingness to follow you into your

retreat? The very idea is an injury to my zeal and my attachment.

What, Scipio! that faithful appendage, who would willingly have

passed the remnant of his days with you in the tower of Segovia,

rather than abandon you to your wretched fate, can he feel sorrowful

at the prospect of an abode where a thousand rural delights are

waiting to smile on his arrival? No, no, I have not a wish to turn

you aside from your resolution. Nor can I refrain from owning my

malicious drift; when I advised you to show your face at the Duke of

Lerma's audience, it was for the purpose of ascertaining whether any

seedlings of ambition were scattered among the fallows of your

philosophy. Since that point is settled, and you are mortified to

all the pomps and vanities of the world, let us make the best of our

way from court, to go and suck in with Zephyrus and Flora the

innocent, delicious pleasures so luxuriant in the nursery of our

imaginations.

In fact, we soon afterwards took our departure together, in a chaise

drawn by two good mules, driven by a postilion whom I had added to my

establishment. We stopped the first day at Alcala de Henarès, and

the second at Segovia, whence, without stopping to see our generous

warden, Tordesillas, we went forward to Penafiel on the Duero, and

the next day to Valladolid. At sight of this large town, I could not

help fetching a deep sigh. My companion, surprised at that

conscientious ventilation, inquired the reason of it. My good

fellow, said I, it is because I practised medicine here for a long

time. It gives me the horrors, even now, to think of my unexpiated

murders. The whole list of killed and wounded are mustered in battle

array yonder: the tomb and the hospital yawn with their disgorged

inhabitants, who are rushing on to tear me piecemeal, and exact the

vengeance due to the drenched crew. What a dreadful fancy! said my

secretary. In truth, Signor de Santillane, your nature is too

tender. Why should you be shocked at the common course of exchange

in your branch of trade? Look at all the oldest physicians: their

withers are unwrung. What can exceed the self-complacency with which

they view the exits of patients, and the entrances of diseases?

Natural constitution bears the brunt of all their failures, and

medical infallibility takes the credit of lucky accidents.

It is very true, replied I, that Doctor Sangrado, on whose practice I

formed myself, was like the rest of the old physicians in point of

self-complacency. It was to little purpose that twenty people in a

day yielded to his prowess: he was so persuaded that bleeding in the

arm and copious libations of warm water were specifics for every

case, that instead of doubting whether the death of his patients

might not possibly invalidate the efficacy of his prescriptions, he

ascribed the result to a vacillating compliance with his system. By

all the powers! cried Scipio with a burst of laughter, you open to me

an incomparable character. If you have any curiosity to be better

acquainted with him, said I, it may be gratified to-morrow, should

Sangrado be still living, and resident at Valladolid: but it is

highly improbable; for he had one foot in the grave when I left him

several years ago. Our first care, on putting up at the inn, was to

inquire after this doctor. We were told that he was not dead; but,

being incapacitated by age from paying visits or any other vigorous

exertions, he had been superseded by three or four other doctors who

had risen into repute by a new practice, accomplishing the same end

by different means. We determined on lying by for a day at

Valladolid, as well to rest our mules as to call on Signor Sangrado.

About ten o'clock next morning we knocked at his door, and found him

sitting in his elbow-chair, with a book in his hand. He rose on our

entrance, advanced to meet us with a firm step for a man of seventy,

and begged to know our business. My worthy and approved good master,

said I, have you lost all recollection of an old pupil? There was

formerly one Gil Blas, as you may remember, a boarder in your house,

and for some time your deputy. What! is it you, Santillane? answered

he, with a cordial embrace. I should not have known you again. It,

however, gives me great pleasure to see you once more. What have you

been doing since we parted? Doubtless you have made medicine your

profession. It was very strongly my inclination so to do, replied I;

but imperious circumstances made me reluctantly abandon so

illustrious a calling.

So much the worse, rejoined Sangrado: with the principles you sucked

in under my tuition, you would have become a physician of the first

skill and eminence, with the guiding influence of heaven to defend

you from the dangerous allurements of chemistry. Ah, my son! pursued

he with a mournful air, what a change in practice within these few

years! The whole honor and dignity of the art is compromised. That

mystery by whose inscrutable decrees the lives of men have in all

ages been determined, is now laid open to the rude, untutored gaze of

blockheads, novices, and mountebanks. Facts are stubborn things; and

ere long the very stones will cry aloud against the rascality of

these new practitioners: _lapides clamabunt!_ Why, sir, there are

fellows in this town, calling themselves physicians, who drag their

degraded persons at the _currus triumphalis antimonii_, or, as it

should properly be translated, the cart's tail of antimony.

Apostates from the faith of Paracelsus, idolaters of filthy _kermes_,

healers at haphazard, who make all the science of medicine to consist

in the preparation and prescription of drugs! What a change have I

to announce to you! There is not one stone left upon another in the

whole structure which our great predecessors had raised. Bleeding in

the feet, for example, so rarely practised in better times, is now

among the fashionable follies of the day. That gentle, civilized

system of evacuation, which prevailed under my auspices, is subverted

by the reign of anarchy and emetics, of quackery and poison. In

short, chaos is come again! Every one orders what seems good in his

own eyes; there is no deference to the authority of ancient wisdom;

our masters are laid upon the shelf, and their axioms not one tittle

the more regarded for being delivered in languages as defunct as the

subjects of their application.

However desirable it might seem to laugh at so whimsical a

declamation, I had the good manners to resist the impulse; and not

only that, but to inveigh bitterly against _kermes_, without knowing

whether it was a vegetable or an animal, and to pour forth a

commination of curses against the authors and inventors of so

diabolical an engine. Scipio, observing my by-play in this scene,

had a mind to come in for his share in the banter. Most venerable

prop of the true practice, said he to Sangrado, as I am descended in

the third generation from a physician of the old school, give me

leave to join you in your philippic against chemical conspiracies.

My late illustrious progenitor--heaven forgive him all his sins!--was

so warm a partisan of Hippocrates, that he often came to blows with

ignorant pretenders, who vomited forth blasphemies against that high

priest of the faculty. What is bred in the bone will not come out of

the flesh: I could willingly inflict tortures and death with my own

hands on those rash innovators whose daring enormities you have

characterized with such accuracy of discrimination and such force of

language. When wretches like these gain an ascendency in civilized

society, can we wonder at the disjointed condition of the world?

The times are even more out of joint than you are aware of, said the

doctor. My book against the vanities and delusions of the new

practice might as well have fallen still-born from the press; it

seems, if anything, to have acted by contraries, and to have

exasperated heresy. The apothecaries, like the Titans of old,

heaping potion upon pill, and invading the Olympus of medicine, think

themselves fully qualified to usurp and maintain the throne, now that

it is only thought necessary to set open the doors, and to drive the

enemy out at the portal or the postern by main force. They go to the

length of infusing their deadly drugs into apozems and cordials, and

then set themselves up against the most eminent of the fraternity.

This contagion has spread its influence even among the cloisters.

There are monks in our convents who unite surgery and pharmacy to the

labors of the confessional. These medical baboons are always dipping

their paws into chemistry, and inventing compositions strong enough

to lay a scene of ecclesiastical mortality in the temperate abodes of

peace and religion. Now, there are in Valladolid above sixty

religious houses for both sexes: judge what ravage must have been

made there by unmerciful pumping and the lancet misapplied. Signor

Sangrado, said I, you are perfectly in the right to give these

poisoners no quarter. I utter groan for groan with you, and heave

the philanthropic sigh over the invaded lives of our

fellow-creatures, sinking under the fell attack of so heterodox a

practice. It fills me with horror to think what a dead weight

chemistry may one day be to medicine, just as adulterated coin

operates on national credit. Far be that evil day from this

generation.

Just at this climax of our discourse, in came an old female servant,

with a salver for the doctor, on which were a little light roll and a

glass with two decanters, the one filled with water and the other

with wine. After he had eaten a slice, he washed it down with a

diluted beverage, two parts water to one of wine; but this temperate

use of the good creature did not at all save him from the acrimony of

my ridicule. So so, good master doctor, said I, you are fairly

caught in the fact. You a wine-bibber? you, who have entered the

lists like a knight-errant against that unauthenticated fermentation?

you, who reached your grand climacteric on the strength of the pure

element? How long have you been so at odds with yourself? Your time

of life can be no excuse for the alteration? since, in one passage of

your writings, you define old age to be a natural consumption, which

withers and attenuates the system; and as an inference from that

position, you reprobate the ignorance of those writers who dignify

wine with the appellation of old men's milk. What can you say,

therefore, in your own defence?

You belabor me most unjustly, answered the old physician. If I drank

neat wine, you would have a right to treat me as a deserter from my

own standard; but your eyes may convince you that my wine is well

mixed. Another heresy, my dear apostle of the wells and fountains!

replied I. Recollect how you rated the canon Sedillo for drinking

wine, though plentifully dashed with the salubrious fluid. Own

modestly and candidly that your theory was unfounded and fanciful,

and that wine is not a poisonous liquor, as you have so falsely and

scandalously libelled it in your works, any further than, like any

other of nature's bounties, it may be abused to excess.

This lecture sat rather uneasily on our doctor's feelings as a

candidate for consistency. He could not deny his inveteracy against

the use of wine in all his publications; but pride and vanity not

allowing him to acknowledge the justice of my attack on his apostasy,

he was left without a word to say for himself. Not wishing to push

my sarcasm beyond the bounds of good humor, I changed the subject;

and after a few minutes' longer stay, took my leave, gravely

exhorting him to maintain his ground against the new practitioners.

Courage, Signor Sangrado! said I: never be weary of setting your wits

against _kermes_; and deafen the health-dispensing tribe with your

thunders against the use of bleeding in the feet. If, spite of all

your zeal and affection for medical orthodoxy, this empiric

generation should succeed in supplanting true and legitimate

practice, it will be at least your consolation to have exhausted your

best endeavors in the support of truth and reason.

As my secretary and myself were walking to the inn, making our

observations in high glee on the doctor's entertaining and original

character, a man from fifty-five to sixty years of age happened to

pass near us in the street, walking with his eyes fixed on the

ground, and a large rosary in his hand. I conned over the

distinctive cut of his appearance most cunningly, and was rewarded in

the recognition of Signor Manuel Ordonnez, that faithful trustee for

the affairs of the hospital, of whom so honorable mention is made in

the first volume of these true and instructive memoirs. Accosting

him with the most profound and unquestionable tokens of respect, I

paid my compliments in due form and order to the venerable and

trustworthy Signor Manuel Ordonnez, the man of all the world in whose

hands the interests of the poor and needy are most safely and

beneficially placed. At these words he looked me steadfastly in the

face, and answered that my features were not altogether strange to

him, but that he could not recollect where he had seen me. I used to

go backwards and forwards to your house, replied I, when one of my

friends, by name Fabricio Nunez, was in your service. Ah! I

recollect the circumstance at once, rejoined the worthy director with

a cunning leer, and have good reason to do so; for you were a brace

of pleasant lads, and were by no means backward in the little

scape-grace tricks of youth and inexperience. Well! and what is

become of poor Fabricio? Whenever he comes across my thoughts, I

cannot help feeling a little uneasy about his temporal and eternal

welfare.

It was to relieve your mind upon that subject, said I to Signor

Manuel, that I have taken the liberty of stopping you in the street.

Fabricio is settled at Madrid, where he employs himself in publishing

miscellanies and collections. What do you mean by miscellanies and

collections? replied he. I mean, resumed I, that he writes in verse

and prose, from epic poems and the highest branches of philosophy,

down to plays, novels, epigrams, and riddles. In short, he is a lad

of universal genius, and most exemplary benevolence; sometimes

modestly taking to himself the credit of his own compositions, and

sometimes lending out his talents to the literary ambition of those

noblemen who write for their own amusement, but wish their names to

be concealed, except from a chosen circle. By traffic like this, he

sits at the very first tables. But how does he sit at his own? said

the director; upon what terms does he live with his baker? Not quite

so confidentially as with people of fashion, answered I; for, between

ourselves, I take him to be quite as much out at elbows as ever Job

was. More bonds and judgments against him than ever Job had, take my

word for it! replied Ordonnez. Let him lick the spittle of his

titled friends and patrons, till his stomach heaves at the nauseating

saliva; his printed dedications and his oral flattery, in spite of

all the cringing and all the toad-eating which constitute the stock

in trade of his profession, with all the profits of his works,

whether by subscription or ordinary publication, will not bring grist

enough to his mill to keep hunger from the door. Mind if what I say

does not turn out to be true! He will come to the dogs at last.

Nothing more likely, replied I; for he cohabits with the muses

already, and many a plain man has found to his cost, that there is no

keeping company with the sisters without being worried by their

bullying brethren. My friend Fabricio would have done much better by

remaining quietly with your lordship; he would now have been lying on

a bed of roses, and everything he had touched would have turned to

gold. He would at least have been in a very snug berth, said Manuel.

He was a great favorite of mine; and I meant, by a regular gradation

from subaltern to principal situations, to have established him in

ease and affluence on the basis of public charity; but the foolish

fellow took it into his head to set up for a wit. He wrote a play,

and brought it out at the theatre in this town: the piece went off

tolerably well, and nothing thenceforth would serve his turn but

commencing author by profession. Lope de Vega, in his estimation,

was but a type of him: preferring, therefore, the intoxicating vapor

of public applause to the plain roast and boiled of this substantial

ordinary, he came to me for his discharge. It was to no purpose for

me to argue the point, or to prove to him what a silly cur he was, to

drop the bone and run after the shadow: the mad blockhead was so

suffocated by the smother of authorship, that the instinctive dread

of fire could not rouse his alacrity to escape burning. In short, he

was miserably unconscious of his own interest, as his successor can

testify; for he, possessing practical good sense, though without half

Fabricio's quickness and versatility, makes it his whole study and

delight to go through his business in a workman-like manner, and to

fall in with all my little ways. In return for such good conduct, I

pushed him forward in a manner corresponding with his deserts; and he

unites in his own person, even at this time of day, two offices in

the hospital, the least lucrative of which would be more than

sufficient to place any honest man at his ease, though encumbered

with a yearly teeming wife.

_CHAPTER II._

_GIL BLAS CONTINUES HIS JOURNEY, AND ARRIVES IN SAFETY AT OVIEDO.

THE CONDITION OF HIS FAMILY. HIS FATHER'S DEATH, AND ITS

CONSEQUENCES._

From Valladolid we got to Oviedo in four days, without any untoward

accident on the road, in spite of the proverb which says that robbers

lay their ears to the ground when pilgrims are going with rich

offerings, and traders are riding with fat purses. It would have

been a feasible as well as a tempting speculation. Two tenants of a

subterraneous abode might have presented an aspect to have frightened

our doubloons into a surrender; for courage was not one of the

qualities I had imbibed at court; and Bertrand, my mule-driver,

seemed not to be of a temper to get his brains blown out in defending

a purse into which he had no free ingress. Scipio was the only one

of the party who was anything of a bully.

It was night when we came into town. Our lodgings were at an inn

near my uncle, Gil Perez, the canon. I was very desirous of

ascertaining the circumstances of my parents before my first

interview with them; and, in order to gain that information, it was

impossible to make my inquiries in a better channel than through my

landlord and landlady, into the lines of whose faces you could not

look without being satisfied that they knew every tittle of their

neighbors' concerns. As it turned out, the landlord kenned me after

a diligent perusal of my features, and cried out, By Saint Antony of

Padua! this is the son of the honest usher, Blas of Santillane. Ay,

indeed! said the hostess; and so it is, without a single muscle

altered! just for all the world that same little stripling Gil Blas,

of whom we used to say that he was as saucy as he was high. It

brings old times to my memory, when he used to come hither with his

bottle under his arm, to fetch wine for his uncle's supper.

Madam, said I, you have a most inveterate memory; but for goodness'

sake change the subject, and tell me the modern news of my family.

My father and mother are doubtless in no very enviable situation. In

good truth, you may say that, answered the landlady; you may rack

your brains as long as you like, but you will never think of anything

half so miserable as what they are suffering at this present moment.

Gil Perez, good soul! is defunct all down one side by a stroke of the

palsy, and the other half of him is little better than a corpse; we

cannot expect him to last long: then your father, who went to live

with his reverence a little while ago, is troubled with an

inflammation of the lungs, and is standing, as a body may say,

quavery-mavery between life and death; while your mother, who is not

over and above hale and hearty herself, is obliged to nurse them both.

[Illustration: Gil Blas at Gil Perez's bedside]

On this intelligence, which made me feel some compunctious yearnings

of nature, I left Bertrand with my stud and baggage at the inn: then,

with my secretary at my heels, who would not desert me in my time of

need, I repaired to my uncle's house. The moment I came within my

mother's reach, a natural emotion of maternal instinct unfolded to

her who I was, before her eyes could possibly have run over the

traces of my countenance. Son, said she, with a melancholy

expression, after having embraced me, come and be present at your

father's death; your visit is just in time to take in all the piteous

circumstances of so deplorable an event. With this heart-rending

reception, she led me by the hand into a chamber where the wretched

Blas of Santillane, stretched on a comfortless bed, in cold and

dismal accord with the thinness of his fortunes, was just entering on

the last great act of human nature. Though surrounded by the shades

of death, he was not quite unconscious of what was passing about him.

My dearest friend, said my mother, here is your son Gil Blas, who

entreats your forgiveness for all his undutiful behavior, and is come

to ask your blessing before you die. At these tidings my father

opened his eyes, which were on the point of closing forever: he fixed

them upon me, and reading in my countenance, notwithstanding the

awful brink on which he stood, that I was a sincere mourner for his

loss, his feelings were recalled to sympathy by my sorrow. He even

made an attempt to speak, but his strength was too much exhausted. I

took one of his hands in mine, and while I bathed it with my tears,

in speechless agony of soul, he breathed his last, as if he had only

waited my arrival to pay the debt of nature, and wing his way to

scenes of untried being.

This event had been too long present to my mother's mind to overwhelm

her with any unparalleled affliction. Perhaps it sat more heavily on

me than on her, though my father had never in his life given me any

reason to feel for him as a father. But besides that mere filial

instinct would have made me weep over his cold remains, I reproached

myself with not having contributed to the comfort of his latter days;

then, when I considered what a hard-hearted villain I had been, I

seemed to myself like a monster of ingratitude, or rather like an

impious parricide. My uncle, whom I afterwards saw lying at his

length on another wretched couch, and in a most lamentable pickle,

made me experience fresh agonies of upbraiding conscience. Unnatural

son! said I, communing with my own uneasy thoughts, behold the

chastisement of heaven upon thy sins in the disconsolate condition of

thy nearest relations. Hadst thou but thrown to them the superflux

of that abundance in which before thy imprisonment thou rolledst,

thou mightest have procured for them those little comforts which thy

uncle's ecclesiastical pittance was too scanty to furnish, and

perhaps have lengthened out the term of thy father's life.

Gil Perez had fallen into a state of second childhood, and was,

though numerically upon the list of the living, in every individual

organ a mere corpse. His memory, nay, his very senses had retired

from their allotted stations in his system. Bootless was it for me

to strain him in my pious arms, and lavish outward tokens of

affection on him: they might as well have been wasted on the desert

air. To as little purpose did my mother ring in his unnerved ear,

that I was his nephew Gil Blas; he gazed at me with a vacant, stupid

stare, and gave neither sign nor answer. Had the ties of

consanguinity and gratitude been all too weak to awaken my tender

sympathy for an uncle to whom I owed the means of my first launch

into the world, the impression of helpless dotage on my senses must

have softened me into something like the counterfeit of virtuous

emotion.

While this scene was passing, Scipio preserved a melancholy silence,

sharing in all my sorrows, and mingling his sighs with mine in the

chastised luxury of friendship. But concluding that my mother, after

so long an absence, might wish to have some such conversation with me

as the presence of a stranger must rather repress than promote, I

drew him aside, saying, Go, my good fellow, sit down quietly at the

inn, and leave me here with my only surviving parent, who might

consider your company as an intrusion, while talking over family

affairs. Scipio withdrew, for fear of being a clog upon our

confidence, and I sat down with my mother to an interchange of

communication which lasted all night. We reciprocally gave a

faithful account of all that had happened to each of us since my

first sally from Oviedo. She related in full measure and running

over all the petty insults, disappointments, and mortifications which

she had undergone in her pilgrimage from house to house as a duenna.

A great number of these little anecdotes it would have hurt my pride

that my secretary should have noted down in his biographical budget,

though I had never concealed from him the ups and downs in the

lottery of my own life. With all the respect I owe to my mother's

sainted memory, the good lady had not the knack of going the shortest

road to the end of a story; had she but pruned her own memoirs of all

luxuriant circumstances, there would not have been materials for more

than a tithe of her narrative.

At length she got to the end of her tether, and I began my career.

With respect to my general adventures, I passed them over lightly;

but when I came to speak of the visit which the son of Bertrand

Muscada, the grocer of Oviedo, had paid me at Madrid, I enlarged with

decent compunction on that dark article in the history of my life. I

must frankly own, said I to my mother, that I gave that young fellow

a very bad reception; and he, doubtless, in revenge, must have drawn

a hideous outline of my moral features. He did you more than

justice, I trust, answered she; for he told us that he found you so

puffed and swollen with the good fortune thrust upon you by the prime

minister, as scarcely to acknowledge him among your former

acquaintance; and, when he gave you a moving description of our

miseries, you listened as if you had no interest in the tale, or

knowledge of the parties. But as fathers and mothers can always find

some clew for palliation in the conduct of their graceless children,

we were loath to believe that you had so bad a heart. Your arrival

at Oviedo justifies our favorable interpretation, and those tears

which are now flowing down your cheeks are so many pledges either of

your innocence or your reformation.

Your constructions were too partial, replied I; there was a great

deal of truth in young Muscada's report. When he came to see me, all

my faculties were engrossed by vanity and mammon; ambition, the

prevailing devil which possessed me, left not a thought to throw away

on the desolate condition of my parents. It, therefore, could be no

wonder if in such a disposition of mind I gave rather a freezing

reception to a man, who, accosting me in a peremptory style, took

upon him to say, without mincing the matter, that it was well known I

was as rich as a Jew, and therefore he advised me to send you a good

round sum, seeing that you were very much put to your shifts: nay, he

went so far as to reproach me, in phrase of more sincerity than good

manners, with my unfeeling negligence of my family. His confounded

personality stuck in my throat; so that, losing my little stock of

patience, I shoved him fairly by the shoulders out of my closet. It

must be confessed that I took the administration of justice a little

too much into my own hands, being judge and party in the same cause;

neither was it proper that you should bear the brunt, because the

grocer was a little anti-saccharine in his phraseology; nor was his

advice the less pertinent or just, though couched in homely terms, or

urged with plodding vulgarity.

All this came plump in the teeth of my conscience the moment I had

turned Muscada out of doors. The voice of natural instinct contrived

to make its way; my duty to my parents brought the blood into my

face; but it was the blush of shame for its neglect, and not the glow

of triumph at its performance. Yet even my remorse can give me

little credit in your eyes, since it was soon stifled in the fumes of

avarice and ambition. But some time afterwards, having been safely

lodged in the tower of Segovia by royal mandate, I fell dangerously

ill there; and that timely remembrancer was the cause of bringing

back your son to you. So true is it that sickness and imprisonment

were my best moral tutors; for they enabled nature to resume her

rights, and weaned me effectually from the court. Henceforth, all my

dear delight is in solitude; and my only business in the Asturias is

to entreat that you would share with me in the mild pleasures of a

retired life. If you reject not my earnest petition, I will attend

you to an estate of mine in the kingdom of Valencia, and we will live

there together very comfortably. You are, of course, aware that I

intended to take my father thither also; but since heaven has

ordained it otherwise, let me at least have the satisfaction of

affording an asylum to my mother, and making amends by all the

attentions in my power for the fallow seasons in the former harvest

of my filial duty.

I accept your kind intentions in very good part, said my mother, and

would take the journey without hesitation if I saw no obstacles in

the way. But to desert your uncle in his present condition would be

unpardonable; and I am too much accustomed to this part of the

country to like living elsewhere: nevertheless, as the proposal

deserves to be maturely weighed, I will consider further of it at my

leisure. At present your father's funeral requires to be ordered and

arranged. As for that, said I, we will leave it to the care of the

young man whom you saw with me; he is my secretary, with as clever a

head and as good a heart as you have often been acquainted with; let

the business rest with him; it cannot be in better hands.

Hardly had I pronounced these words when Scipio came back; for it was

already broad day. He inquired whether he could be of any service in

our present distresses. I answered that he was come just in time to

receive some very important directions. As soon as he was made

acquainted with the business in hand, A word to the wise, said he:

the whole procession, with its appropriate heraldry, is already

marshalled in this head of mine; you may trust me for a very pretty

funeral. Have a care, said my mother, to make it plain and decent,

without anything like pomp or parade. It can scarcely be too humble

for my husband, whom all the town knows to have been low in rank and

indigent in circumstances. Madam, replied Scipio, though he had been

the meanest and most destitute of the human race, I would not bate

one button in the array of his posthumous honors. My master's credit

is at stake in the proper conduct of the ceremony; he has been in an

ostensible situation under the Duke of Lerma, and his father ought to

be buried with all the forms of state and nobility.

I thought exactly as my secretary did upon the subject, and even went

so far as to bid him spare no expense on the occasion. A little

leaven of vanity still fermented in the mass of my philosophy, and

rose in my bosom with all the effervescence of its original

lightness. I flattered myself that by lavishing posthumous honors on

a father who had blessed the day of his decease by no lucrative

bequest, I should instil into the conceptions of the bystanders a

high sense of my generous nature. My mother, on her part, whatever

airs of humility she might put on, had no dislike to seeing her

husband carried out with due observance of funeral pomp and ceremony.

We therefore left Scipio to do just as he pleased; and he, without a

moment's delay, adopted all the necessary measures for the display of

the undertaker's liveliest fancy.

The genius of that artist was called forth but too successfully. His

emblems, devices, and draperies were so ostentatious as to disgust

instead of cajoling the natives: every individual, whether of the

town or the suburbs, whether high or low, rich or poor, felt shocked

and insulted by this after-thought parade. This ministerial beggar

on horseback, said one, can put his hand into his pocket for his

father's funeral baked meats, but never found in his heart

wherewithal to furnish his living table with common necessaries. It

would have been much more to the purpose, said another, to have made

the old gentleman's latter days comfortable, than to have wasted such

thriftless sums on a post-obit act of filial munificence. In short,

quips of the brain and peltings of the tongue pattered round our

execrated heads. It would have been well had the storm been only a

whirlwind of passion, or hurricane of words; but we were all, Scipio,

Bertrand, and myself, corporally admonished of our misdeeds on our

coming out of church; they abused us like pickpockets, made mouths

and odious noises as we passed, and followed Bertrand at his heels to

the inn with a copious volley of stones and mud. To disperse the mob

which had collected before my uncle's house, my mother was obliged to

show herself at the window, and to declare publicly that she was

thoroughly satisfied with my proceedings. Another detachment had

filed off to the stable-yard where my carriage stood, in the full

determination of breaking it to pieces; and this they would

inevitably have done, if the landlord and landlady had not found some

means of quieting their perturbed spirits, and turning them aside

from their outrageous purpose.

All these affronts, so revolting to my dignity, the effect of the

tales which the young grocer had been spreading about town, inspired

me with such a thorough hatred for my native place, that I determined

on quitting Oviedo almost immediately, though but for this bustle I

might have made it my residence for some time. I announced my

intention, with the reasons of it, to my mother, who, considering my

uncouth reception as no very flattering compliment to herself, did

not urge my longer stay among people so little inclined to treat me

civilly. The only point remaining now to be discussed was her future

destiny and provision. My dear mother, said I, since my uncle stands

so much in need of your attendance, I will no longer urge you to go

along with me; but, as his days seem likely to be very few on earth,

you must promise to come and take up your abode with me at my farm as

soon as the last duties are performed to his honored remains.

I shall make no such promise, answered my mother, for I mean to pass

the remnant of my days in the Asturias, and in a state of perfect

independence. Will you not on all occasions, replied I, be absolute

mistress in my household? May be so, and may be not, rejoined she:

you have only to fall in love with some flirt of a girl, and then you

will marry: then she will be my daughter-in-law, and I shall be her

step-mother; and then we shall live together as step-mothers and

daughters-in-law usually do. Your prognostics, said I, are fetched

from a great distance. I have not at present the most remote

intention of entering into the happy state; but even though such a

whim should take possession of my brain, I will pledge myself for

instructing my wife betimes in an implicit submission to your will

and pleasure. That is giving security without the means of making

good your contract, replied my mother; you would scarcely be able to

justify bail. I would not even swear that, in our sparring-matches,

you might not take your wife's part in preference to mine, however

ill she might behave, or however unreasonably she might argue.

You talk very excellent sense, madam, cried my secretary, coming in

for his share of the conversation; I think just as you do, that

docility is about as much the virtue of a donkey as of a

daughter-in-law. As the matter stands, that there may be no

difference of opinion between my master and you, since you are

absolutely determined to live asunder, you in the Asturias, and he in

the kingdom of Valencia, he must allow you an annuity of a hundred

pistoles, and send me hither every year for the payment. By thus

arranging matters, mother and son will be very good friends, with an

interval of two hundred leagues between them. The parties concerned

fell in at once with the proposal: I paid the first year in advance,

and stole out of Oviedo the next morning before dawn, for fear of

vying with Saint Stephen in popular favor. Such were the charms of

my return to my native place. An admirable lesson this, for those

successful upstarts, who, having gone abroad to make their fortunes,

come home to be the purse-proud tyrants of their birthplace.

_CHAPTER III._

_GIL BLAS SETS OUT FOR VALENCIA, AND ARRIVES AT LIRIAS; DESCRIPTION

OF HIS SEAT; THE PARTICULARS OF HIS RECEPTION, AND THE CHARACTERS OF

THE INHABITANTS HE FOUND THERE._

We took the road for Leon, afterwards that of Valencia; and,

continuing our journey by short stages, arrived on the evening of the

tenth day at the town of Segorba, whence early on the morrow we

repaired to my seat, at the distance of very little more than three

leagues. In proportion as we approached nearer, it was amusing to

see with what a longing eye my secretary looked at all the estates

which lay in our way, to the right and left of the road. Whenever he

caught a glimpse of any which bespoke the rank and opulence of its

owner, he never missed pointing at it with his finger, and wishing

that were the place of our retreat.

I know not, my good friend, said I, what idea you have formed of our

habitation; but if you have taken it into your head that ours is a

magnificent house, with the domain of a great landed proprietor, I

warn you in time that you are laying much too flattering an unction

to your vanity.

If you have no mind to be the dupe of a warm imagination, figure to

yourself the little ornamented cottage which Horace fitted up near

Tibur, in the country of the Sabines, on a small farm, the fee-simple

of which was given him by Mæcenas. Don Alphonso has made me just

such another present, more as a token of affection than for the value

of the thing. Then I must expect to see nothing but a dirty hovel!

exclaimed Scipio. Bear in mind, replied I, that I have always given

you quite an unvarnished description of my place; and now, even at

this moment, you may judge for yourself whether I have not stuck to

truth and nature in my representations. Just carry your eye along

the course of the Guadalaviar, and observe at a little distance from

the further bank, near that hamlet, consisting of nine or ten

tenements, a house with four small turrets: that is my mansion.

The deuce and all! stammered out my secretary, short-breathed with

sudden admiration: why, that house is one of the prettiest things in

nature. Besides the castellated air which those turrets give it, all

the beauties of situation and architecture, fertility of soil, and

perfection of landscape, combine to rival or excel the immediate

neighborhood of Seville, complimented as it is for its picturesque

attractions by the appellation of an earthly paradise. Had we chosen

the place of our settlement for ourselves, it could not have been

more to my taste: a river meanders through the grounds, distilling

plenty and verdure from its fertilizing bosom; the leafy honors of an

umbrageous wood invite the mid-day walk, and qualify the temperature

of the seasons. What a heavenly abode of solitude and contemplation!

Ah! my dear master, we shall act very foolishly if we are in a hurry

to run away from our happiness. I am delighted, answered I, that you

are so well satisfied with the retreat provided for us, though yet

acquainted with only a small part of its attractions.

As we were chatting in this strain, we got nearer and nearer to the

house, where the door opened as by magic, the moment Scipio announced

Signor Gil Blas de Santillane, who was coming to take possession of

his estate. At the mention of this name, received with reverential

homage by the people who had been instructed in the transfer of their

obedience, my carriage was admitted into a large court, where I

alighted; then, leaning with all my weight upon Scipio, as if walking

was a derogation from my dignity, and putting on the great man after

the most consequential models, I reached the hall, where, on my

entrance, seven or eight servants made their obeisances. They told

me they were come to welcome their new master with their best loves

and duties; that Don Cæsar and Don Alphonso de Leyva had chosen them

to form my establishment, one in quality of cook, another as

under-cook, a third as scullion, a fourth as porter, and the rest as

footmen; with an express injunction to receive no wages or

perquisites, as those two noblemen meant to defray all the expenses

of my household. The cook, Master Joachim by name, was

commander-in-chief of this battalion, and announced to me the whole

array of the campaign; he declared that he had laid in a large stock

of the choicest wines in Spain, and insinuated that for the solid

supply of the table, he flattered himself a person of his education

and experience, who had been six years at the head of my Lord

Archbishop of Valencia's kitchen, must know how to dish up a dinner

so as to meet the ideas of the most fastidious layman in Christendom.

But the proof of the pudding is in the eating, added he; so I will

just go and give you a specimen of my talent. You had better take a

walk, my lord, while dinner is getting ready; look about the

premises, and see whether you find them in tenantable condition for a

person of your lordship's dignity.

The reader may guess whether I did not stir my stumps; and Scipio,

still more eager than myself to take a bird's-eye inventory of our

goods and chattels, dragged me back and fore from room to room.

There was not a corner of the house that we did not peep into, from

the garret to the cellar; not a closet or a cranny, at least as we

supposed, could escape our prying curiosity; and in every fresh room

we went into, I had occasion to admire the kindness of Don Cæsar and

his son towards me. I was struck, among other things, with two

apartments, which were as elegantly furnished as they could be,

without misplaced magnificence. One of them was hung with tapestry,

the celebrated manufacture of the Low Countries; the velvet bed and

chairs were still very handsome, though in the fashion of the time

when the Moors possessed the kingdom of Valencia. The furniture of

the other room was in the same taste: to wit, an old suit of

hangings, made of yellow Genoa damask, with a bed and arm-chairs to

match, fringed with blue silk. All these effects, which would have

furnished but a sorry display in an upholsterer's shop, made no

contemptible appearance in their present situation.

After having rummaged over every article of the paraphernalia, my

secretary and myself returned to the dining-room, where the cloth was

laid for two; we sat down, and in an instant they served up so

delicious an olla podrida, that we could not help revolving on the

various turns of the fate below, which had parted the good Archbishop

of Valencia from his cook. We had in truth a most catholic and

ravenous appetite--a circumstance which added new zest to our praises

and enjoyments. Between every succeeding help, my servants, with all

the alacrity of fresh and holiday service, filled our large glasses

to the brim with wine, the choicest vintage of La Mancha. Scipio,

not thinking it genteel to express aloud the inward chucklings of his

heart at our dainty fare, winked and nodded his delight, and spoke by

signs, which I returned with the like dumb eloquence of overflowing

satisfaction. The remove was a dish of roast quails, flanking a

little leveret in high order, just kept long enough; for this we left

our hash, good as it was, and gorged ourselves to a surfeit on the

game. When we had eaten as if we had never eaten before, and pledged

one another in due proportion, we rose from table, and went into the

garden to look out for some cool, pleasant spot, and take our

afternoon's nap voluptuously.

If hitherto my secretary had goggled satisfaction at what he had

seen, he stared wider and grinned broader at this vista vision of the

garden. He scarcely allowed the comparison to be in favor of the

Escurial. The reason of its extreme niceness was, that Don Gæsar,

who came backwards and forwards to Lirias, took pleasure in improving

and ornamenting it. All the walks well gravelled and lined with

orange trees, a large reservoir of white marble, with a lion in

bronze spouting water like a dolphin's deputy in the middle, the

beauty of the flower borders, the profusion and variety of the fruit

trees,--such pretty particulars as these made Scipio smack his lips,

and snuff the air; but his raptures reached their summit at the

gradual descent of a long walk, leading to the bailiff's cottage, and

overarched by the interwoven boughs of the trees planted on each

side. While eulogizing a place so well adapted for a refuge from the

intenseness of the heat, we made a halt, and sat down at the foot of

an elm, where sleep required very little cunning to entangle two

high-fed, half-tipsy blades, just risen from so voluptuous and

voracious a repast.

In about two hours we were startled out of our sleep by the report of

musketry, popping so near the head-quarters of our repose, that we

apprehended the camp to be attacked. On the alert! was the first

idea that invaded our dozing minds. That we might procure the most

authentic intelligence in what direction the enemy was approaching,

we directed our march towards the bailiff's tenement. There were

collected eight or ten clodhoppers, all friends and neighbors,

assembled on the green for the purpose of honoring my arrival, just

communicated to the vacant senses of the said clodhoppers by a

discharge of fire-arms, whose barrels and furniture might thank me

for the unusual favor of a thorough cleaning. The greater part of

them were acquainted with my person, having seen me more than once at

the castle, while engaged in the business of my stewardship. No

sooner did they set eyes on me, than they all shouted in unison, Long

life to our new lord and master! Welcome to Lirias! Then they

loaded once again, and fired another volley in honor of the occasion.

My habits and manners were softened down to the most condescending

urbanity, though with a decorous infusion of distance, lest any

degrading constructions might be put upon too unlimited a freedom of

address. With respect to my protection, I promised it according to

the customary charter of newly-installed possessors, and went so far

as to throw them a purse of twenty pistoles: and this, in my opinion,

was the point of all others in my conduct which touched their hearts

most nearly. After this benefaction, I left them at liberty to waste

as much powder as they pleased, and withdrew with my secretary into

the wood, where we walked to and fro till nightfall, without being at

all tired of our rural prospect; so many charms had the view of a

landscape, heightened by the substantial beauties of ownership in

fee-simple, to our elevated and delighted imaginations!

The cook, the under-cook, and the scullion were not resting upon

their oars all this time; they were working hard to fit up for us an

artifice of belly timber more magnificent than what we had already

demolished, so that we were over head and ears in amazement, when, on

our return to the room where we had dined, we saw on the table a dish

of four roast partridges, with a smothered rabbit on one side, and a

fricasseed capon on the other. The second course consisted of pigs'

ears, jugged game, and chocolate cream. We drank deeply of the most

delicious wines, and began to think of going to bed when it became a

matter of doubt whether we could sit up any longer. Then my people,

with lighted candles before me, led the way to the best bedroom,

where they were all most officious in assisting to undress me; but

when they had tendered me my gown and nightcap, I dismissed them with

an authoritative undulation of my hand, signifying that their

services were dispensed with for the remainder of that night.

Thus I sent them all about their business, keeping Scipio for a

little private conference between ourselves; and I led to it by

asking him what he thought of my reception, as arranged by order of

my noble patrons. Indeed and indeed, answered he, the human heart

could not devise anything more delicious; I only wish we may go on as

we have begun. I have no wish of the kind, replied I: it is contrary

to my principles to allow that my benefactors should put themselves

to so much expense on my account; it would be a downright fraud upon

their benevolence. Besides, I could never feel myself at home with

servants in the pay of other people; it is just like living in a

lodging or an inn. Then it is to be remembered, that I did not come

hither to live upon so expensive a scale. What occasion have we for

so large an establishment of servants? Our utmost want, with

Bertrand, is a cook, a scullion, and a footman. Though my secretary

would not have been at all sorry to table for a continuance at the

governor of Valencia's expense, he did not oppose his own luxurious

taste to my moral delicacy, but conformed at once to my sentiments,

and approved the reduction I was meditating to introduce. That point

being decided, he left my chamber, and betook himself to his pillow

in his own.

_CHAPTER IV._

_A JOURNEY TO VALENCIA, AND A VISIT TO THE LORDS OF LEYVA. THE

CONVERSATION OF THE GENTLEMEN, AND SERAPHINA'S DEMEANOR._

I got my clothes off as soon as possible, and went to bed, where,

finding no great inclination to sleep, I communed with my own

thoughts. The mutual attachment between the lords of Leyva and

myself was uppermost in the various topics of my contemplation. With

my heart lull of their late kindness, I determined on setting out for

their residence the next day, and quenching my impatience to thank

them for their favors. Neither was it a slender gratification to

anticipate another interview with Seraphina; though there was

somewhat of alloy in that pleasure: it was impossible to reflect

without shuddering, that I should at the same time have to encounter

the glances of Dame Lorenza Sephora, who might not be greatly

delighted at the renewal of our acquaintance, should her memory

happen to stumble upon the circumstances connected with a certain box

on the ear. With my mind exhausted by all these different

suggestions, my eyelids at length closed, and the sun had peeped in

at my window long before they turned upon their hinges. I was soon

out of bed, and dressed myself with all possible expedition, in the

earnest desire of prosecuting my intended journey. Just as I had

finished my hasty operations, my secretary came into the room.

Scipio, said I, you behold a man on the point of setting out for

Valencia. I ought to lose no time in paying my respects to those

noblemen to whom I am indebted for my little independence. Every

moment of delay in the performance of this duty throws a new weight

of ingratitude on my conscience. As for you, my friend, there is no

necessity for your attendance; stay here during my absence; I shall

come back to you within the space of a week. Heaven speed you, sir!

answered he: be sure you do not slight Don Alphonso and his father:

they seem to me to thrill with the kindly vibrations of friendship,

and to be unbounded in their acknowledgment of obligation: gratitude

and benevolence are so uncommon in people of rank, that they deserve

to be made the most of where found. I sent a message to Bertrand, to

hold himself in readiness for setting out, and took my chocolate

while he was harnessing the mules. When all was prepared, I got into

my carriage, after having directed my people to consider my secretary

as master of the house in my absence, and to obey his orders as if

they were my own.

I got to Valencia in less than four hours, and drove at once to the

governor's stables, where I alighted and left my equipage. On going

to the house, I was informed that Don Cæsar and his son were

together. I did not wait for an introduction, but went in without

ceremony; and addressing myself to both of them, Servants, said I,

never send in their names to their masters: here is an old piece of

family furniture, not ornamental indeed, but of a fashion when

gratitude was neither out of date nor out of countenance. These

words were accompanied with an effort to throw myself on my knees;

but they anticipated my purpose, and embraced me one after the other

with all possible evidence of sincere affection. Well, then, my dear

Santillane, said Don Alphonso, you have been at Lirias to take

possession of your little property. Yes, my lord, answered I; and my

next request is, that you would be pleased to take it back again.

What is your reason for that? replied he. Is there anything about it

at all offensive to your taste? Not in the place itself, rejoined I:

on the contrary, that is everything that my heart can wish; the only

fault I have to find with it is that the kitchen smells too strongly

of the hierarchy; a lay Christian should not live like an archbishop;

besides that, there are three times as many servants as are

necessary, and consequently you are put to an expense at once

enormous and useless.

Had you accepted the annuity of two thousand ducats, which we offered

you at Madrid, said Don Cæsar, we should have thought it enough to

give you the mansion furnished as it is; but you know you refused it;

and we felt it but right to do what we have done as an equivalent.

Your bounty has been too lavish, answered I: the gift of the estate

was the utmost limit to which it should have been extended, and that

was more than sufficient to crown my largest wishes. But to say

nothing about what it has cost you to keep up so great and expensive

an establishment, I declare to you most solemnly that these people

stand in my way, and are a great annoyance. In one word, gentlemen,

either take back your boon, or give me leave to enjoy it in my own

way. I pronounced these last words so much as if I was in earnest,

that the father and son, not meaning to lay me under any unpleasant

restraint, at length gave me their permission to manage my household

as it should seem expedient to my better judgment.

I was thanking them very kindly for having granted me that privilege,

without which a dukedom would have been but splendid slavery, when

Don Alphonso interrupted me by saying, My dear Gil Blas, I will

introduce you to a lady who will be extremely happy to see you. Thus

preparing me for the interview, he took me by the hand and led the

way to Seraphina's apartment, who set up a scream of joy on

recognizing me. Madam, said the governor, I flatter myself that the

visit of our friend Santillane at Valencia is not less acceptable to

you than myself. On that head, answered she, he may rest confidently

assured; time has not obliterated the remembrance of the service

which he once rendered me; and to that must be added a new debt of

gratitude incurred on the score of your obligations. I told the

governor's lady that I was already too well requited for the danger

which I had shared in common with her deliverers in exposing my life

for her sake: compliments to the like effect were bandied about for

some time on both sides, when Don Alphonso motioned to quit

Seraphina's room. We then went back to Don Cæsar, whom we found in

the saloon with a fashionable party, who were come to dinner.

All these gentlemen were introduced, and paid their compliments to me

in the politest manner; nor did their attentions relax in assiduity,

when Don Cæsar told them that I had been one of the Duke of Lerma's

principal secretaries. In all likelihood several of them might not

be unacquainted that Don Alphonso had been promoted to the government

of Valencia by my interest, for political secrets are seldom kept.

However that might be, while we were at table, the conversation

principally turned on the new cardinal. Some of the company either

were, or affected to be, his unqualified admirers, while others

allowed his merit upon the whole, but thought it had been rather

overrated. I plainly saw through their design of drawing me on to

enlarge on the subject of his eminence, and to gratify their taste

for scandal with court anecdotes at his expense. I could have been

well enough pleased to have delivered my real sentiments on his

character, but I kept my tongue within my teeth, and thereby passed,

in the estimation of the guests, for a close, confidential, politic,

trustworthy young statesman.

The party respectively retired home after dinner to take their usual

nap, when Don Cæsar and his son, yielding to a similar inclination,

shut themselves up in their apartments.

For my own part, full of impatience to see a town which I had so

often heard extolled for its beauty, I went out of the governor's

palace with the intention of walking through the streets. At the

gate a man accosted me with the following address: Will Signor de

Santillane allow me to take the liberty of paying my respects to him?

I asked him who and what he was. I am Don Cæsar's valet-de-chambre,

answered he, but was one of his ordinary footmen during your

stewardship; I used to make my court to you every morning, and you

used to take a great deal of notice of me. I regularly gave you

intelligence of what was passing in the house. Do you recollect my

apprising you one day that the village surgeon of Ley va was

privately admitted into Dame Lorenza Sephora's bedchamber? It is a

circumstance which I have by no means forgotten, replied I. But now

that we are talking of that formidable duenna, what is become of her?

Alas! resumed he, the poor creature moped and dwindled after your

departure, and at length gave up the ghost, more to the grief of

Seraphina than of Don Alphonso, who seemed to consider her death as

no great evil.

Don Cæsar's valet-de-chambre, having thus acquainted me with

Sephora's melancholy end, made a humble apology for having presumed

to stop my walk, and then left me to continue my progress. I could

not help paying the tribute of a sigh to the memory of that ill-fated

duenna; and her decease affected me the more because I taxed myself

with that melancholy catastrophe, though a moment's reflection would

have convinced me that the grave owed its precious prey to the

inroads of her cancer, rather than to the cruel charms of my person.

I looked with an eye of pleasure upon everything worth notice in the

town. The archbishop's marble palace feasted my eyes with all the

magnificence of architecture; nor were the piazzas which surrounded

the exchange much inferior in commercial grandeur; but a large

building at a distance, with a great crowd standing before the doors,

attracted all my attention. I went nearer, to ascertain the reason

why so great a concourse of both sexes was collected, and was soon

let into the secret by reading the following inscription in letters

of gold on a tablet of black marble over the door: _La Posada de los

Representantes_.[*] The play-bills announced for that day a new

tragedy, never performed, and gave the name of Don Gabriel Triaquero

as the author.

[*] The theatre.

_CHAPTER V._

_GIL BLAS GOES TO THE PLAY, AND SEES A NEW TRAGEDY. THE SUCCESS OF

THE PIECE. THE PUBLIC TASTE AT VALENCIA._

I stopped for some minutes before the door, to make my remarks on the

people who were going in. There were some of all sorts and sizes.

Here was a knot of genteel-looking fellows, whose tailors at least

had done justice to their fashionable pretensions; there, a mob of

ill-favored and ill-mannered mortals, in a garb to identify

vulgarity. To the right was a bevy of noble ladies, alighted from

their carriages to take possession of their private boxes; to the

left, a tribe of female traders in lubricity, who came to sell their

wares in the lobby. This mixed concourse of spectators, as various

in their minds as in their faces, gave me an itching inclination to

increase their number. Just as I was taking my check, the governor

and his lady drove up. They spied me out in the crowd, and having

sent for me, took me with them to their box, where I placed myself

behind them, in such a position as to converse at my ease with either.

The theatre was filled with spectators from the ceiling downwards,

the pit thronged almost to suffocation, and the stage crowded with

knights of the three military orders. Here is a full house, said I

to Don Alphonso. You are not to consider that as anything

extraordinary, answered he; the tragedy now about to be produced is

from the pen of Don Gabriel Triaquero, the most fashionable dramatic

writer of his day. Whenever the play-bill announces any novelty from

this favorite author, the whole town of Valencia is in a bustle. The

men as well as the women talk incessantly on the subject of the

piece: all the boxes are taken; and on the first night of performance

there is a risk of broken limbs in getting in, though the price of

admission is doubled, with the exception of the pit, which is too

authoritative a part of the house for the proprietors to tamper with

its patience. What a paroxysm of partiality! said I to the governor.

This eager curiosity of the public, this hot-headed impatience to be

present at the first representation of Don Gabriel's pieces gives me

a magnificent idea of that poet's genius.

At this period of our conversation the curtain rose. We immediately

left off talking, to fix our whole attention on the stage. The

applauses were rapturous even at the prologue: as the performance

advanced, every sentiment and situation, nay, almost every line of

the piece, called forth a burst of acclamation; and at the end of

each act the clapping of hands was so loud and incessant, as almost

to bring the building about our ears. After the dropping of the

curtain, the author was pointed out to me, going about from box to

box, and with all the modesty of a successful poet, submitting his

head to the imposition of those laurels which the genteeler, and

especially the fairer part of the audience had prepared for his

coronation.

We returned to the governor's palace, where we were met by a party of

three or four gentlemen. Besides these mere amateurs, there were two

veteran authors of considerable eminence in their line, and a

gentleman of Madrid with tolerably fair claims to critical authority

and judgment. They had all been at the play. The new piece was the

only topic of conversation during supper-time. Gentlemen, said a

knight of St. James, what do you think of this tragedy? Has it not

every claim to the character of a finished work? Thoughts that

breathe, and words that burn, a hand to touch the true chords of

pity, and sweep the lyre of poetry--requisites how rarely, and yet

how admirably united! In a word, it is the performance of a person

mixing in the higher circles of society. There can be no possible

difference of opinion on that subject, said a knight of Alcantara.

The piece is full of strokes which Apollo himself might have aimed,

and of perplexities contrived so that none but the author himself

could have unravelled them. I appeal to that acute and ingenious

stranger, added he, addressing his discourse to the Castilian

gentleman; he looks to me like a good judge, and I will lay a wager

that he is on my side of the question. Take care how you stake on an

uncertainty, my worthy knight, answered the gentleman with a

sarcastic smile. I am not of your provincial school; we do not pass

our judgment so hastily at Madrid. Far from sentencing a piece on

its first representation, we are jealous of its apparent merit while

aided by scenic deception; our fancies and our feelings may be

carried away for the moment, but our serious decision is suspended

till we have read the work; and the most common result of its appeal

to the press is a defalcation from its powers of pleasing on the

stage.

Thus you perceive, pursued he, that it is our practice to examine a

work of genius closely before we stamp on it the mark of a stock

piece: its author's fame, let it ring as loudly as it may, can never

confound our exactness of discrimination. When Lope de Vega himself

or Calderona ventured on the boards, they encountered rigid critics,

though in an audience which doted on them--critics who would not sign

their passport to the regions of immortality till they had sifted

their claims to be admitted there.

That is a little too much, interrupted the knight of St. James. We

are not quite so cautious as you. It is not our custom to wait for

the printing of a piece in order to decide on its reputation. By the

very first performance it sinks or swims. It does not even seem

necessary to be inconveniently attentive to the business of the

stage. It is sufficient that we know it for a production of Don

Gabriel, to be persuaded that it combines every excellence. The

works of that poet may justly be considered as commencing a new era,

and fixing the criterion of good taste. The school of Lope and

Calderona was the mere cart of Thespis, compared with the polished

scenes of this great dramatic master. The gentleman, who looked up

to Lope and Calderona as the Sophocles and Euripides of the

Spaniards, could not easily be brought to acknowledge such wild

canons of criticism. This is dramatic heresy with a vengeance!

exclaimed he. Since you compel me, gentlemen, to decide like you on

the fallacious evidence of a first night, I must tell you that I am

not at all satisfied with this new tragedy of your Don Gabriel. As a

poem, it abounds more with glittering conceits than with passages of

pathos or delineations of nature. The verses, three out of four, are

defective either in measure or rhyme; the characters, clumsily

imagined or incongruously supported; and the thoughts have often the

obscurity of a riddle without its ingenuity.

The two authors at table, who, with a prudence equally commendable

and unusual, had said nothing for fear of lying under the imputation

of jealousy, could not help assenting to the last speaker's opinions

by their looks; which warranted me in concluding that their silence

was less owing to the perfection of the work, than to the dictates of

personal policy. As for the military critics, they got to their old

topic of ringing the changes on Don Gabriel, and exalted him to a

level with the under tenants of Olympus. This extravagant

association with the demigods, this blind and stiff-necked idolatry,

divorced the Castilian from his little stock of patience, so that,

raising his hands to heaven, he broke out abruptly into a volley of

enthusiasm: O divine Lope de Vega, sublime and unrivalled genius, who

hast left an immeasurable space between thee and all the Gabriels who

would light their tapers from thy bright effulgence! and thou,

mellow, soft-voiced Calderona, whose elegance and sweetness,

rejecting buskined rant and tragic swell, reign with undisputed sway

over the affections, fear not, either of you, lest your altars should

be overturned by this tongue-tied nursling of the muses! It will be

the utmost of his renown, if posterity, before whose eyes your works

shall live in daily view, and form their dear delight, shall enroll

his name, as matter of history and curious record, on the list of

obsolete authors.

This animated apostrophe, for which the company was not at all

prepared, raised a hearty laugh, after which we all rose from table

and withdrew. An apartment had been got ready for me by Don

Alphonso's order, where I found a good bed; and my lordship, lying

down in luxurious weariness, went to sleep upon the tag of the

Castilian gentleman's impassioned vindication, and dreamed most

crustily of the injustice done to Lope and Calderona by ignorant

pretenders.

_CHAPTER VI._

_GIL BLAS, WALKING ABOUT THE STREETS OF VALENCIA, MEETS WITH A MAN OF

SANCTITY, WHOSE PIOUS FACE HE HAS SEEN SOMEWHERE ELSE. WHAT SORT OF

MAN THIS MAN OF SANCTITY TURNS OUT TO BE._