The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, Alain René le Sage [most read books .txt] 📗
- Author: Alain René le Sage
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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 neighbourhood.
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 honour, 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 half way. 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 honour; and sent me large remittances for my travels
abroad, till the affair had blown over.
Not to dwell on indifferent 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 endeavouring 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
endeavoured 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 he 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
humour, 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 colouring 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 gaiety and pleasure kept
her in a thoughtless whirl, and shielded her from the pangs of
unavailing repentance.
She appeared to be in high good humour 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 shew 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.
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