OF THE DOINGS OF DON CLEOPHAS AFTER ASMODEUS HAD LEFT HIM; AND OF THE
MODE IN WHICH THE AUTHOR OF THIS WORK HAS THOUGHT FIT TO END IT.
Upon the retreat of Asmodeus, the Student, feeling fatigued at having
passed all the night upon his legs, and by the extraordinary bustle in
which he had been occupied, undressed himself and went to bed. Agitated
as his mind may be supposed to have been, it is no wonder that he lay
for some time restless; but at last, paying with compound interest to
Morpheus the tribute which all mortals owe to his sombre majesty, he
fell into a deathlike sleep, in which he passed the whole of that day
and the following night.
Twenty-four hours had he been thus lost to the world, when Don Luis de
Lujana, a young cavalier whom he numbered among his friends, entered
his chamber, singing out lustily, "Hollo! Signor Don Cleophas, get up
with you!" At this salutation, Zambullo awoke. "Are you aware," said
Don Luis to him, "that you have been in bed since yesterday morning?"
"Impossible!" exclaimed Leandro. "Not the less true for that," replied
his friend; "twice have you slept the clock's dull round. All the
inmates of the house assure me of this fact."
[Illustration: Zambullo awakened by his friend]
The Student, astonished at the trance from which he emerged, feared at
first that his adventures with Asmodeus were but an illusion. He could
not, however, persist in this belief; and when he recalled to himself
certain circumstances of his intercourse with the Demon, he soon ceased
to doubt of its reality. But, to make assurance doubly sure, he rose,
dressed himself quickly, and went out with Don Luis, whom he took,
without saying why, in the direction of the Gate of the Sun. Arrived
there, and perceiving the mansion of Don Pedro almost reduced to ashes,
Don Cleophas feigned surprise. "What do I behold?" he cried. "What
dreadful ravages has fire made here! To whom did this unlucky house
belong, and when was it thus consumed?"
Don Luis de Lujana, having replied to these two questions, thus
continued: "This fire is less spoken of in the town on account of the
great damage it has done, than for a circumstance which attended it,
and of which I will tell you. The Signor Don Pedro de Escolano has an
only daughter, who is lovely as the day: they say that she was in a
room all filled with fire and smoke, in which it seemed certain she
must perish; but that nevertheless her life was saved by a youthful
cavalier, whose name I have not heard;--it forms the subject of
conversation throughout Madrid. The young man's daring is lauded to the
skies; and it is believed that, as a reward for his success, however
humble my gentleman may be, he may well hope to gain a life interest in
the daughter of the Don."
Leandro Perez listened to Don Luis without appearing to take the
slightest interest in what he heard; then getting rid of his friend,
under some specious pretext, he gained the Prado, where, seating
himself beneath a tree, he was soon plunged in a profound reverie. The
Devil first came flitting through his mind. "Ah! my dear Asmodeus,"
he exclaimed, "I cannot too much regret you. You, in a moment, would
have borne me round the world; and, with you, should I have journeyed
without any of the usual devilries of travelling: gentle spirit, you
are a loss indeed! But," he added a moment afterwards, "my loss,
perhaps, is not quite irreparable: why should I despair of seeing
the Demon again? It may fall out, as he himself suggested, that the
magician will shortly restore him to freedom and to me." As the Devil
left his mind the lady entered it; upon which he resolved at once to
seek Don Pedro in his temporary abode, moved principally by curiosity
to see the lovely Seraphina.
As soon as he appeared before Don Pedro, that signor rushed towards
him with open arms, and embracing him, exclaimed: "Welcome! generous
cavalier, I began to feel angry at your absence. 'What!' said I, 'Don
Cleophas, after the pressing invitation which I gave him to my house,
still to shun my sight! He ill indeed repays the impatience of my soul
to testify for him the friendship and esteem which fill it.'"
Zambullo bowed respectfully at this kindly objurgation; and, in
order to excuse his seeming coldness, replied to the old man, that
he had feared to incommode him in the confusion which the event of
the preceding day must have occasioned. "I cannot listen to such an
excuse," resumed Don Pedro; "you can never be unwelcome in a house
which but for your noble conduct would have been a house of mourning
indeed. But," he added, "follow me, if you please; you have other
thanks than mine to receive." And taking the Student's hand, he led him
to the apartment of Seraphina.
"My child," said Don Pedro, as he entered the room, where this lady was
reposing from the noon-day heat, "I present to you the gentleman who so
courageously saved your life. Show to him now, if you can, how deeply
sensible you are of the obligation he conferred, since the danger from
which he rescued you deprived you of the power to do so on the spot."
On this, the Signora Seraphina, opening a mouth of roses to express the
gratitude of her heart to Leandro Perez, paid him in compliments so
warm and graceful, as would charm my readers as much as they did their
blushing object, could I repeat each honeyed word; but as they have not
been faithfully reported, I think it better to omit them altogether,
than chance to spoil them by my own imperfect knowledge in such
matters.
[Illustration: Seraphina thanks Zambullo]
I will only say, that Don Cleophas thought he beheld and listened to
some bright divinity, and that he was at once the victim of his eyes
and ears. To say that he loved her, is a thing of course; but, far
from regarding the beauteous form before him as a possession to which
he might aspire, his heart foreboded, despite all that the Demon had
assured him, that they would never pay at such a price the service they
imagined him to have rendered. As her charms increased in their effect
upon his mind, doubts, teasing doubts, came threatening to destroy the
infant Hope, first-cherished child of Love.
What completed his mystification on the subject, was, that Don Pedro
during the lengthened conversation which ensued, not once e'en touched
upon the tender theme; but contented himself with loading him with
civilities, without hinting in the slightest degree that he had any
desire for the honour of his relationship. Seraphina, too, as polite
as her father, while she did not fail in expressions of the deepest
gratitude, dropped no one word whose magic charm would serve Zambullo
to conjure visions of wedding joys; so that our Student left the Signor
Escolano and his daughter with Love as his companion, but leaving Hope
behind him.
"Asmodeus, my friend," he muttered as he walked along, as though the
Devil still were by his side, "when you assured me that Don Pedro was
disposed to adopt me as his son-in-law, and that Seraphina burned with
passion lighted in her heart by you for me, it must have pleased you to
make merry at my cost, or else you know as little of the present time
as of that which is to come."
He now regretted that he had ever seen the dangerous beauty; and
looking on the love which filled his breast as an unhappy passion
which he ought to stifle in its infancy, he resolved to set about it
in earnest. He even reproached himself for having desired to gain his
point, supposing he had found the father all disposed to give his
daughter to him; and represented to himself that it would have been
disgraceful to have owed his happiness to a deception like that he had
projected.
He was yet occupied with these reflections, when Don Pedro, having sent
to seek him on the following day, said to him: "Signor Leandro Perez,
it is time I proved to you by deeds, that in obliging me you have not
to do with one of those who repay a benefit in courtly phrases. You
saved my daughter: and I wish that she, herself, should recompense
the peril you encountered for her sake. I have consulted Seraphina
thereupon, and find her ready to obey my will; nay, I can say with
pride, I recognized her for my child indeed when I proposed that she
should give her hand to him who saved her life. She showed her joy by
transports which at once convinced my soul her generosity responds to
mine. It is settled therefore that you shall marry with my daughter."
After having spoken thus, the good Signor de Escolano, who reasonably
expected that Don Cleophas would have gone down on his knees to thank
him for so great a boon, was sufficiently surprised to find him
speechless, and displaying an evident embarrassment. "Speak, Zambullo!"
he at length exclaimed. "What am I to infer from the confusion which
my proposition to you has occasioned? What possible objection can you
have? What! a private gentleman--although respectable--to refuse an
alliance which a noble would have courted! Has then the honour of my
house some blemish of which I am ignorant?"
[Illustration: the marriage of Zambullo and Seraphina]
"Signor," replied Leandro, "I know too well the space that Heaven has
set between us." "Why then," returned Don Pedro, "seem you to care
so little for a marriage which does you so much honour? Confess! Don
Cleophas, you love some maiden, and have pledged your faith; and it
is your honour now which bars your road to fortune." "Had I," replied
the Student, "a mistress to whom my vows had bound my future fate, it
is not fortune that should bid me break them; but it is no such tie
that now compels me to reject your proffered bounty. Honour, it is
true, compels me to renounce the glorious destiny that you would tempt
me with; but, far from seeking to abuse your kindness, I am about to
undeceive you to my own undoing. I am not the deliverer of Seraphina."
"What do I hear!" exclaimed Don Pedro, in utter astonishment. "It was
not you who rescued Seraphina from the flames which threatened her with
instant death! It was not Don Cleophas who had the courage to risk his
life to save her!" "No, Signor," replied Zambullo; "mortal man would
have vainly essayed to shield her from her fate; learn that it was a
devil to whom you owe your daughter's life."
These words only increased the astonishment of Don Pedro, who, not
conceiving that he was to understand them literally, entreated the
Student to explain himself. Upon which Leandro, regardless of the loss
of the Demon's friendship, related all that had passed between Asmodeus
and himself. Having finished, the old man resumed, and said to Don
Cleophas: "The confidence you have reposed in me confirms me in my
design of giving you my daughter. You were her chief deliverer. Had you
not thus intreated the Devil whom you speak of to snatch her from the
death which menaced her, it is clear that he would have suffered her
to perish. It is you then who preserved the life of Seraphina, which
cannot be better devoted than to the happiness of your own. You deserve
her; and I again offer you her hand with the half of my estate."
Leandro Perez at these words, which removed all his conscientious
scruples, threw himself at the feet of Don Pedro to thank him for
his generosity. In a few weeks, the marriage was celebrated with
a magnificence suitable to the espousal of the heir of the Signor
de Escolano, and to the great satisfaction of the relations of our
Student, who was thus amply repaid for the few hours' freedom he had
procured for the Devil on Two Sticks.
[Illustration: tailpiece of Asmodeus in his bottle]