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

>disordered spirits. At least give me time to clear up your

suspicions; you will then deal candidly by a wife who has nothing

to reproach herself with.

 

Any other than Don Anastasio would have been touched by her

pleadings, and still more by her agonizing affliction; but the

barbarian, far from being softened, ordered the lady once again

to recommend herself briefly to mercy, and lifted his arm to

strike the blow. Hold, inhuman as you are! cried she. If your

love for me is as if it had never been, if my lavish fondness in

return is all blotted from your memory, if my tears have no

eloquence to disarm your hellish purpose, have some pity on your

own blood. Launch not your frantic hand against an innocent, who

has not yet breathed this vital air. You cannot be its

executioner without the curse of heaven and earth. As for myself,

I can forgive my murderer; but the butcher of his own child,

think deeply of it, must pay the dreadful forfeit of so

detestable a deed.

 

Determined as Don Anastasio was to pay no attention to anything

Estephania could say, he could not help being affected by the

frightful images these last words presented to his soul.

Wherefore, as if apprehensive lest nature should play the

traitress to revenge, he hastened to make sure of his staggering

resolves, and plunged his dagger into her bosom. She fell

motionless on the ground. He thought her dead; and on that

supposition left his house immediately to be no more seen at

Antequera.

 

In the mean time, the unhappy victim of groundless suspicion was

so stunned with the blow she had received, as to remain for a

short interval on the ground without any signs of life.

Afterwards, coming to herself, she brought an old female servant

to her assistance by her plaints and lamentations. That good old

woman, beholding her mistress in so deplorable a state, waked the

whole household and even the neighbourhood by her cries. The room

was soon filled with spectators. Surgical assistance was sent

for. The wound was probed, and pronounced not to be mortal. Their

opinion turned out to be correct; for Estephania soon recovered,

and was in due time delivered of a son, not withstanding the

cruel circumstances in which she had been placed. That son,

Signor Gil Blas, you behold in me: I am the fruit of that

dreadful pregnancy.

 

Women, when chaste as ice, when pure as snow, seldom escape

calumny: this plague, however, though virtue’s dowry, did not

alight upon my mother. The bloody scene passed in common fame for

the transport of a jealous husband. My father, it is true, bore

the character of a passionate man, prone to kindle into fury on

the slightest occasion. Hordales could not but suppose that his

kinswoman must suspect him of having sown wild fancies in the

mind of Don Anastasio; so that he satisfied himself with this

imperfect relish of revenge, and ceased to importune her. But,

not to be tedious, I shall pass over the detail of my education.

Suffice it to say, that my principal exercise was fencing, which

I practised regularly in the most famous schools of Grenada and

Seville. My mother waited with impatience till I was of age to

measure swords with Don Huberto, that she might instruct me in

the grounds of her complaint against him. In my eighteenth year

she submitted her cause to my arbitrement, not without floods of

tears, and every symptom of the deepest anguish. What must not a

son feel, if he has the spirit and the heart of a son, at the

sight of a mother in such distressing circumstances? I went

immediately and called out Hordales; our place of meeting was

private as it should be; we fought long and furiously; three of

my thrusts took place, and I threw him to the ground, like a dead

dog despised.

 

Don Huberto, feeling his wound to be mortal, fixed his last looks

upon me, and declared that he met his death at my hands as a just

punishment for his treason against my mother’s honour. He owned

that in revenge for the pangs of despised love he had resolved on

her ruin. Thus did he breathe his last, imploring pardon from

heaven, from Don Anastasio, from Estephania, and from myself. I

deemed it imprudent to return home and acquaint my mother of the

issue; fame was sure to perform that office for me I passed the

mountains, and repaired to Malaga, where I embarked on board a

privateer. My outside not altogether indicating cowardice, the

captain consented at once to enrol me among his crew.

 

We were not long before we went into action. Near the island of

Alboutan, a corsair of Millila fell in with us, on his return

towards the African coast with a Spanish vessel richly laden,

taken off Carthagena. We attacked the African briskly, and made

ourselves masters of both ships, with eighty Christians on board,

going as slaves to Barbary. Afterwards, availing ourselves of a

wind direct for the coast of Grenada, we shortly arrived at Punta

de Helena.

 

While we were inquiring into the birth-place and condition of our

rescued captives, a man about fifty, of prepossessing aspect,

fell under my examination. He stated himself, with a sigh, to

belong to Antequera. My heart palpitated, without my knowing why;

and my emotion, too strong to pass unnoticed, excited a visible

sympathy in him. I avowed myself his townsman, and asked his

family name. Alas! answered he, your curiosity makes my sorrow

flow afresh. Eighteen years ago did I leave my home, where my

remembrance is coupled with scenes of blood and horror. You must

yourself have heard but too much of my story. My name is Don

Anastasio de Rada. Merciful heaven! exclaimed I, may I believe my

senses? And can this be Don Anastasio? Father! What is it you

say, young man? exclaimed he in his turn, with surprise and

agitation equal to my own. Are you that ill-fated infant, still

in its mother’s womb, when I sacrificed her to my fury? Yes, said

I; none other did the virtuous Estephania bring into the world,

after the fatal night when you left her weltering in her own

blood.

 

Don Anastasio stifled my words in his embraces. For a quarter of

an hour we could only mingle our inarticulate sighs and

exclamations. After exhausting our tender recollections, and

indulging in the wild expression of our feelings, my father

lifted his eyes to heaven, in gratitude for Estephania saved; but

the next moment, as if doubtful of his bliss, he demanded by what

evidence his wife’s innocence had been cleared. Sir, answered I,

none but yourself ever doubted it. Her conduct has been uniformly

spotless. You must be undeceived. Know that Don Huberto was a

traitor. In proof of this I unfolded all his perfidy, the

vengeance I had taken, and his own confession before he expired.

 

My father was less delighted at his liberty restored than at

these happy tidings. In the forgetfulness of ecstacy, he repeated

all his former transports. His approbation of me was ardent and

entire. Come, my son, said he, let us set out for Antequera. I

burn with impatience to throw myself at the feet of a wife whom I

have treated so unworthily. Since you have brought me acquainted

with my own injustice, my heart has been torn by remorse.

 

I was too eager to bring together a couple so near and dear to

me, not to expedite our journey as much as possible. I quitted

the privateer, and with my share of prize-money bought two mules

at Adra, my father not choosing again to incur the hazard of a

voyage. He found leisure on the road to relate his adventures,

which I inclined to hear as seriously as did the Prince of Ithaca

the various recitals of the king his father. At length, after

several days, we halted at the foot of a mountain near Antequera.

Wishing to reach home privately, we went not into the town till

midnight.

 

You may guess my mother’s astonishment at beholding a husband

whom she had thought for ever lost; and the almost miraculous

circumstances of his restoration were a second source of wonder.

He entreated forgiveness for his barbarity with marks of

repentance so lively, that she could not but be moved. Instead of

looking on him as a murderer, she only saw the man to whose will

high heaven had subjected her; such religion is there in the name

of husband to a virtuous wife! Estephania had been so alarmed

about me, that my return filled her with rapture. But her joy on

this account was not without alleviation. A sister of Hordales

had instituted a criminal prosecution against her brother’s

antagonist. The search for me was hot, so that my mother,

considering home as insecure, was painfully anxious about me. It

was therefore necessary to set out that very night for court,

whither I come to solicit my pardon, and hope to obtain it by

your generous intercession with the prime minister.

 

The gallant son of Don Anastasio thus closed his narrative; after

which I observed, with a self-sufficient physiognomy: It is well,

Signor Don Roger; the offence seems to me to be venial. I will

undertake to lay the case before his excellency, and may venture

to promise you his protection. The thanks my client lavished

would have passed in at one ear and out at the other, if they had

not been backed by assurances of more substantial gratitude. But

when once that string was touched, every nerve and fibre of my

frame vibrated in unison. On the very same day did I relate the

whole story to the duke, who allowed me to present the gentleman,

and addressed him thus: Don Roger, I have been informed of the

duel which has brought you to court; Santillane has laid all the

particulars before me. Make yourself perfectly easy: you have

done nothing but what the circumstances of the case might almost

warrant; and it is especially on the ground of wounded honour,

that his Majesty is best pleased to extend his grace and favour.

You must be committed for mere form’s sake; but you may depend on

it, your confinement shall be of short duration. In Santillane

you have a zealous friend, who will watch over your interests,

and hasten your release.

 

Don Roger paid his respectful acknowledgments to the minister, on

whose pledge he went and surrendered himself His pardon was soon

made out, owing to my activity. In less than ten days, I sent

this modern Telemachus home, to say “how do you do?” to his

Ulysses and Penelope; had he stood upon the merits of his case

without a protector, he might have whined out a year’s

imprisonment, and scarcely have got off at last. My commission

was but a poor hundred pistoles. It was no very magnificent haul;

but I was not as yet a Calderona, to turn up my nose at the small

fry.

 

CH. IX. — Gil Blas makes a large fortune in a short time, and

behaves like other wealthy upstarts.

 

THIS affair gave me a relish for my trade; and ten pistoles to

Scipio by way of brokerage, whetted his eagerness to start more

game of the same sort. I have already done justice to his talents

that way; he might as modestly have appended “the great” to the

tail of his name, as the most noted scoundrel of antiquity. The

second customer he brought me was a printer, who manufactured

books of chivalry, and had made his fortune by waging war against

common sense. This printer had pirated a work belonging to a

brother printer, and his edition had been seized. For