The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, Alain René le Sage [most read books .txt] 📗

I

have done more: I have employed all my credit to introduce you to

the prime minister. In short, I have interested myself for you as

I should have done for my own son. After this confession, take

your measures accordingly. If you can purge your affections from

their dross, and look on me as a mother, you are not banished

from my presence, and I shall treat you with my accustomed

tenderness. But if you are not equal to an effort, which nature

and reason demand from you, fly instantly, and release me from

the horror of beholding you.

 

Inesilla spoke to this effect. Meanwhile Don Valerio preserved a

sudden silence: it might have been interpreted into a virtuous

struggle, a conquest over the weakness of his heart. But his

purposes were far different; he had another scene to act before

his mother. Unable to withstand the total overthrow of all his

wild projects, he basely yielded to despair. Drawing his sword,

he plunged it in his own bosom. His fate resembled that of

Oedipus, with this distinction; that the Theban put out his own

eyes from remorse for the crime he had perpetrated, while the

Castilian, on the contrary, committed suicide from disappointment

at the frustration of his purposes.

 

The unhappy Don Valerio was not released from his sufferings

immediately. He had leisure left for recollection, and for making

his peace with heaven, be fore he rushed into the presence of his

Maker. As his death vacated one of the secretaryships on the Duke

of Lerma’s establishment, that minister, not having forgotten my

memoir on the subject of the fire, nor the high character he had

heard of me, nominated me to succeed to the post in question.

 

CH. II. — Gil Blas is introduced to the Duke of Lerma, who

admits him among the number of his secretaries, and requires a

specimen of his talents, with which he is well satisfied.

 

MONTESER was the person to inform me of this agreeable

circumstance, which he did in the following terms: My friend Gil

Blas, though I do not lose you without regret, I am too much your

well-wisher not to be delighted at your promotion in the room of

Don Valerio. You cannot fail to make a princely fortune, provided

you act upon two hints which I have to give you: the first, to

affect so total a devotion to his excellency’s good pleasure, as

to leave no room to conceive it possible that you have any other

object or interest in life — the second, to pay your court

assiduously to Signor Don Rodrigo de Calderona; for that

personage models and remodels, fashions and touches upon the mind

of his master, just as if it was clay under the hands of the

designer. If you are fortunate enough to chime in with that

favourite secretary, you will travel post to wealth and honour,

and find relays upon the road.

 

Sir, said I to Don Diego, returning him thanks at the same time

for his good advice, be pleased to give some little opening to

Don Rodrigo’s character. I have heard a few anecdotes of him. One

would suppose him, from some accounts, not to be the best

creature in the world; but the people at large are inveterate

caricaturists when they draw courtiers at full length; though,

after all, the likeness will strike, in spite of the aggravation.

Tell me, therefore, I beseech you, what is your own sincere

opinion of Signor Calderona. That is rather an awkward question,

answered my principal with an ironical smile. I should tell any

one but yourself, without flinching, that he was a gentleman of

the strictest honour, upon whose fair fame the breath of calumny

had never dared to blow; but I really cannot put off such a copy

of my countenance upon you. Relying as I do on your discretion,

it becomes a duty to deal candidly in the delineation of Don

Rodrigo; for without that, it would be playing fast and loose

with you to recommend the cultivation of his goodwill.

 

You are to know then, that when his excellency was no more than

plain Don Francisco de Sandoval, this man had the humility to

serve him as his lackey; since which time he has risen by degrees

to the post of principal secretary. A prouder excrescence of the

dunghill never sprung into vegetation on a summer’s day. He

considers himself as the Duke of Lerma’s colleague; and in point

of fact, he may truly be said to parcel out the loaves and fishes

of administration, since he gives away offices and governments at

the suggestions of his own caprice. The public grumbles and

growls upon occasion; but who cares for the grumbling and

growling of the public? Let him steal a pair of gloves from the

prostitution of political honour, and the bronze upon his

forehead will be proof against the peltings of scandal. What I

have said will decide your dealings towards so supercilious a

compound of dust and ashes. Yes, to be sure, said I; leave me

alone for that It will be strange indeed if I cannot wriggle

myself into his good graces. If one can but get on the blind side

of a man who is to be made a property, it must be want of skill

in the player if the game is lost. Exactly so, replied Monteser;

and now I will introduce you to the Duke of Lerma.

 

We went at once to the minister, whom we found in his audience-chamber. His levee was more crowded than the king’s. There were

commanders and knights of St James and of Calatrava, making

interest for governments and viceroyalties; bishops who,

labouring under oppression of the breath and tightness of the

chest in their own dioceses, had been recommended the air of an

archbishopric by their physicians; while the sounder lungs of

lower dignitaries were strong enough to inhale the Theban

atmosphere of a suffragan see. I observed besides some reduced

officers dancing attendance to Captain Chinchilla’s tune, and

catching cold in fishing for a pension, which was never likely to

pay the doctor for their cure. If the duke did not satisfy their

wants, he put a pleasant face upon their importunities; and it

struck me that he returned a civil answer to all applicants.

 

We waited patiently till the routine of ceremony was despatched.

Then said Don Diego: My lord, this is Gil Blas de Santillane, the

young man appointed by your excellency to succeed Don Valerio.

The duke now took more particular notice of me, saying

obligingly, that I had already earned my promotion by my

services. He then took me to a private conference in his closet,

or rather to an examination. My birth, parentage, and course of

life were the objects of his inquiry; nor would he be satisfied

without the particulars, and those in the spirit of sincerity.

What a career to run over before a patron! Yet it was impossible

to lie, in the presence of a prime minister. On the other hand,

my vanity was concerned in suppressing so many circumstances,

that there was no venturing on an unqualified confession. What

cunning scene had Roscius then to act? A little painting and

tattooing might decently be employed to disguise the nakedness of

truth, and spare her unsophisticated blushes. But he had studied

her complexion, as well as the beauties of her natural form.

Monsieur de Santillane, said he with a smile on the close of my

narrative, I perceive that hitherto you have had your principles

to choose. My lord, answered I, colouring up to the eyes, your

excellency enjoined me to deal sincerely; and I have complied

with your orders. I take your doing so in good part, replied he.

It is all very well, my good fellow: you have escaped from the

snares of this wicked world more by luck than management: it is

wonderful that bad example should not have corrupted you

irreparably. There are many men of strict virtue and exemplary

piety, who would have turned out the greatest rogues in

existence, if their destinies had exposed them to but half your

trials.

 

Friend Santillane, continued the minister, ponder no longer on

the past; consider yourself as to the very bone and marrow the

king’s; live henceforth but for his service. Come this way; I

will instruct you in the nature of your business. He carried me

into a little closet adjoining his own, which contained a score

of thick folio registers. This is your workshop, said he. All

these registers compose an alphabetical peerage, giving the

heraldry and history of all the nobility and gentry in the

several kingdoms and principalities of the Spanish monarchy. In

these volumes are recorded the services rendered to the state by

the present possessors and their ancestors, descending even to

the personal animosities and rencounters of the individuals and

their houses. Their fortunes, their manners, in a word, all the

pros and cons of their character are set down according to the

letter of ministerial scrutiny; so that they no sooner enter on

the list of court candidates, that my eye catches up the very

chapter and verse of their pretensions. To furnish this necessary

information, I have pensioned scouts everywhere on the look-out,

who send me private notices of their discoveries; but as these

documents are for the most part drawn up in a gossiping and

provincial style, they require to be translated into gentlemanly

language, or the king would not be able to support the perusal of

the registers. This task demands the pen of a polite and

perspicuous writer; I doubt not but you will justify your claim

to the appointment.

 

After this introduction, he put a memorial into my hand, taken

from a large portfolio full of papers, and then withdrew from my

closet, that my first specimen might be manufactured in all the

freedom of solitude. I read the memorial, which was not only

stuffed with a most uncouth jargon, but breathed a brimstone

spirit of rancour and personal revenge. This was most foul,

strange, and unnatural! for the homily was written by a monk. He

hacked and hewed a Catalan family of some note most unmercifully;

with what reason or truth, it must be reserved for a more

penetrating inquirer to decide. It read for all the world like an

infamous libel, and I had some scruples about becoming the

publisher of the calumny; nevertheless, young as I was at court,

I plunged head foremost, at the risk of sinking and destroying

his reverence’s soul. The wickedness, if there was any, would be

put down to his running account with the recording angel; I

therefore had nothing to do but to vilify, in the purest Spanish

phraseology, some two or three generations of honest men and

loyal subjects.

 

I had already blackened four or five pages, when the duke,

impatient to know how I got on, came back and said — Santillane,

shew me what you have done; I am curious to see it. At the same

time, casting his eye over the transcript, he read the beginning

with much attention. It seemed to please him; strange that he

could be so pleased! Prepossessed as I have been in your favour,

observed he, I must own that you have surpassed my expectations.

It is not merely the elegance and distinctness of the

handwriting! There is something animated and glowing in the

composition. You will do ample credit to my choice, and fully

make up for the loss of your predecessor. He would not have cut

my panegyric so short, if his nephew the Count de Lemos had not

interrupted him in the middle of it. By the warmth and frequency

of his excellency’s welcome, it was evident that they were the

best friends in the world. They were