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

of our commons on the

minister’s establishment. I never knew what it was to exceed this

stint during the day, and at night I most frequently went

supperless to bed.

 

Such was the fare of a man who made a splendid figure at court;

but his illustrious fortunes, like those of other courtiers, were

more a subject of pity than of grudge. I could no longer resist

the pressure of my circumstances, and ultimately resolved on

their disclosure at a seasonable opportunity. By good luck such

an occasion offered at the Escurial, whither the king and the

Prince of Spain removed some days afterwards.

 

CH. VI. — Gil Blas gives the Duke of Lerma a hint of his

wretched condition. That minister deals with him accordingly.

 

WHEN the king kept his court at the Escurial, all the world was

at free quarters: under such easy circumstances I did not feel

where the saddle galled. My bed was in a wardrobe near the duke’s

chamber. One morning that minister, having got up according to

his cursed custom at daybreak, made me take my writing apparatus,

and follow him into the palace gardens. We went and sat down

under an avenue of trees; myself, as he would have it, in the

posture of a man writing on the crown of his hat; his attitude

was with a paper in his hand, and any one would have supposed he

had been reading. At some distance, we must have looked as if the

scale of Europe was to turn upon our decision; but between

ourselves, who partook of it, the talk was miserably trifling.

 

For more than an hour had I been tickling his excellency’s fancy

with all the conceits, engendered by a merry nature and an

eccentric course of life, when two magpies perched on the trees

above us. Their clack and clatter was so obstreperous, as to

force our attention whether we would or no. These birds, said the

duke, seem to be in dudgeon with one another. I should like to

learn the cause of their quarrel. My lord, said I, your curiosity

reminds me of an Indian story in Pilpay or some other fabulist.

The minister insisted on the particulars, and I related them in

the following terms:

 

There reigned in Persia a good monarch, who not being blessed

with capacities of sufficient compass to govern his dominions in

his own person, left the care of them to his grand vizier. That

minister, whose name was Atalmuc, was possessed of first-rate

talents. He supported the weight of that unwieldy monarchy,

without sinking under the burden. He preserved it in profound

peace. His art consisted in uniting the love of the royal

authority with the reverence of it; while the people at large

looked up to the vizier as to an affectionate father, though a

devoted servant of his prince. Atalmuc had a young Cachemirian

among his secretaries, by name Zeangir, to whom he was

particularly attached. He took pleasure in his conversation,

invited him frequently to the chase, and opened to him his most

secret thoughts. One day as they were hunting together in a wood,

the vizier, at the croaking of two ravens on a tree, said to his

secretary — I should like to know what those birds are talking

about in their jargon. My lord, answered the Cachemirian, your

wishes may be fulfilled. Indeed! How so? replied Atalmuc.

Because, rejoined Zeangir, a dervise read in many mysteries, has

taught me the language of birds. If you wish it, I will lay my

ear close to these, and will repeat to you word for word whatever

they may happen to say.

 

The vizier agreed to the proposal. The Cachemirian got near the

ravens, and affected to suck in their discourse. Then, returning

to his master, My lord, said he, would you believe it? We are

ourselves the topic of their talk. Impossible! exclaimed the

Persian minister. Prithee now, what do they say of us? One of the

two, replied the secretary, spoke thus: Here he is, the very man;

the grand vizier Atalmuc, the guardian eagle of Persia, hovering

over her like the parent bird over its nest, watching without

intermission for the safety of its brood. For the purpose of

unbending from his wearisome toils, he is hunting in this wood

with his faithful Zeangir. How happy must that secretary be, to

serve so partial and indulgent a master! Fair and softly,

observed the other raven shrewdly, fair and softly! Make not too

much parade about that Cachemirian’s happiness. Atalmuc, it is

true, talks and jokes familiarly with him, honours him with his

confidence, and may very possibly intend to signalize his

friendship by a lucrative post; but between the cup and the lip

Zeangir may perish with thirst. The poor devil lodges in a ready-furnished apartment, where there is not an article of furniture

for his use. In a word, he leads a starving life, with all the

paraphernalia of a plump-fed courtier. The grand vizier never

troubles his head about inquiring into the right or wrong of his

affairs; but satisfied with empty good wishes towards him, leaves

his favourite within the ruthless gripe of poverty.

 

I stopped here, to see how the Duke of Lerma would take it; and

he asked me with a smile what effect the fable had produced on

the mind of Atalmuc; and whether the grand vizier had not felt a

little offended at the secretary’s presumption. No, my noble

lord, answered I, with some little embarrassment at the question;

historians say that his ingenuity was amply rewarded. He was more

lucky than discreet, replied the duke with a serious air; there

are some ministers who would esteem it no joke to be lectured at

that rate. But the king will not be long before he is getting up;

my duty demands my attendance. After this hint he walked off with

hasty strides towards the palace without throwing away a word

more upon me, and to all appearance in high dudgeon at my Indian

parable.

 

I followed him up to the very door of his majesty’s chamber, and

went thence to arrange my papers in the places whence they had

been taken. Then I entered a closet where our two copying

secretaries were at work; for they also were of the migratory

party. What is the matter with you, Signor de Santillane? said

they at the sight of me. You are quite down in the mouth! Has

anything untoward happened?

 

I was too much mortified at the ill success of my narrative, to

be cautious in the expression of my grief. On the recital of what

had passed with the duke, they sympathized in my disappointment

You have some reason to fret, said one of them. Heaven grant you

may be better treated than a secretary of Cardinal Spinosa. This

unlucky secretary, tired of working for fifteen months without

pay, took the liberty of representing his necessities to his

Eminence one afternoon, and of asking for a little money towards

his subsistence. It is very proper, said the minister, that you

should be paid. Here, pursued he, putting into his hands an order

on the royal treasury for a thousand ducats; go and receive that

sum; but take notice at the same time that it balances accounts

between us. The secretary would have pocketed his thousand ducats

without remorse, had the thousand ducats been tangible, and the

liberty of changing services secure; but just as he stepped down

from the cardinal’s threshold, he was tapped on the shoulder by

an alguazil, and carried away to the tower of Segovia, where he

has been a prisoner for a length of lime.

 

This little historical anecdote set my teeth chattering. All was

lost and gone! There was no comfort from within nor from without!

My own impatience had been my ruin! just as if I had not borne

starving, till patience could avail no longer. Alas! said I,

wherefore must I have blurted out that ill-starred fable, which

went so much against the grain of the minister? He might have

been just on the point of extricating me from all my miseries; it

might have been the moment of that tide in the affairs of men,

which sets in for sudden and enormous elevation. What wealth,

what honours have slipped through the fingers by my blunder! I

ought to have been aware that great folks do not love to be

forestalled, but require the common privileges of elementary

subsistence to be received as favours at their hands. It would

have been more prudent to have kept my lenten entertainment

longer without bothering the duke about it, and even to have died

with hunger, that he might be blamed for letting me.

 

Supposing any hope to have remained, my master, when I saw him

after dinner, put an extinguisher over it at once. He was very

serious with me, contrary to his usual custom, and spoke scarcely

at all; an omen of dire dismay for the remainder of the evening.

The night did not pass more tranquilly: the chagrin of seeing my

agreeable illusions vanish, and the fear of swelling the calendar

of state prisoners, left no room but for sighs and lamentations.

 

The following was the critical day. The duke sent for me in the

morning. I went into his chamber, with the ague fit of a criminal

before his judge. Santillane, said he, showing me a paper in his

hand, take this order … . I shuddered at the word order, and

said within myself: Oh heaven! here is the Cardinal Spinosa over

again; the carriage is ordered out for Segovia. Such was my alarm

at this moment, that I interrupted the minister, and throwing

myself at his feet, May it please your lordship, said I, bathed

in tears, I most humbly beseech your excellency to forgive me for

my boldness; necessity alone impelled me to acquaint you with my

wretched circumstances.

 

The duke could not help laughing at my distress. Be comforted,

Gil Blas, answered he, and hearken attentively. Though by

betraying your necessities a reproach lights upon me for not

having prevented them, I do not take it ill, my friend. I rather

ought to be angry with myself for not having inquired how you

were going on. But to begin making amends for my want of

attention, there is an order on the royal treasury for fifteen

hundred ducats, payable at sight. This is not all; I promise you

the same sum annually; and moreover, when people of rank and

substance shall solicit your interest, I have no objection to

your addressing me on their behalf.

 

In the excess of joy occasioned by such tidings, I kissed the

feet of the minister, who, having commanded me to rise, continued

in familiar conversation. I endeavoured to rally my free and easy

humour; but the transition from sorrow to rapture was too

instantaneous to be natural. I felt as comical as a culprit, with

a pardon singing in his ears, just when he was on the point of

being launched into eternity. My master attributed all my flurry

to the sole dread of having offended him; though the fear of

perpetual imprisonment had its share of influence on my nerves.

He owned that he had affected to look cool, to see whether I

should be hurt at the alteration; that thereby he formed his

opinion with respect to the liveliness of my attachment to his

person, and that his own regard for me would always be

proportionate.

 

CH. VII. — A good use made of the fifteen hundred ducats. A

first introduction to the trade of office, and an account of the

profit accruing therefrom.

 

THE king, as if on purpose to play into the hands of my

impatience, returned to Madrid the very