The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, Alain René le Sage [most read books .txt] 📗
- Author: Alain René le Sage
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highest terms his conduct in the administration of our
temporalities. What is most of all miraculous, and shews the hand
of heaven in his conversion, is that, with such an accumulation
of business rushing in upon him in his bursarial department, his
regards are inalienably fixed on the world to come. When business
leaves him but a moment to recruit nature, instead of lavishing
the short period in indulgence, his thoughts wing their way into
the regions of devout and holy meditation. In short, he is the
most exemplary member of this body.
At this period of our conversation I interrupted Lamela by an
ebullition of joy to which I gave vent at the sight of Raphael
coming in. Here he is! exclaimed I: behold that righteous bursar
for whom I have been so impatiently waiting. With a leap and a
bound did I run to meet and embrace him. He submitted to the hug
with his newly-acquired resignation; and, without betraying the
slightest shock at meeting with an old companion of his profaner
hours, his words were dictated by the spirit of gentleness and
humility: The powers above be praised, Signor de Santillane, the
powers be praised for this kind providence whereby we meet again.
In good truth, my dear Raphael, replied I, your happy destiny
pleases me as much as if it had been my own good luck; brother
Ambrose has told me the whole story of your conversion, and the
tale almost moved me to a similar change. What a glorious lot for
you two, my friends, when you have reason to flatter yourselves
with being among that picked number of the elect, who have
eternal happiness thrust upon them whether they will or no!
Two miserable sinners like ourselves, resumed the son of Lucinda,
with an air which marked the extreme of sanctified morality, must
not hope that our own merits are of weight enough to save our
souls; but even the wicked one who repenteth, findeth grace with
the Father of mercies. And you, Signor Gil Blas, added he, is it
not time to lay in a claim for pardon of the offences which you
have committed? What is your business here in Valencia? Are you
not hankering after some office of devil’s deputy, and making
shipwreck of your voyage to another world? Not so, by the
blessing of heaven, answered I; since I turned my back on the
court, I have led a very moral sort of life: sometimes enjoying
rural recreations on an estate of mine at a few leagues distance
from this town, and sometimes coming hither to pass my time with
my friend the governor, whom you both of you must know perfectly
well.
On this cue I related to them the story of Don Alphonso de Leyva.
They heard the particulars with attention; and on my telling them
that I had carried to Samuel Simon, on the part of that nobleman,
the three thousand ducats of which we had robbed him, Lamela
interrupted the thread of my narrative, and addressing his
discourse to Raphael, said: Father Hilary, if this be true, the
honest vendor of wares has no reason to quarrel with a robbery
which has paid him fifty per cent; and our consciences, as far as
that indictment goes, may bask in the sunshine of acquitted
innocence. Brother Ambrose and I, said the bursar, did actually,
on the assumption of the habit, send Samuel Simon fifteen hundred
ducats privately, by a pious ecclesiastic who made a pilgrimage
to Xelva for the sole purpose of accomplishing this restitution;
but it will go hard with Samuel at the general reckoning, if he
for filthy lucre could soil his fingers with that sum, after
having been reimbursed in full by Signor de Santillane. But, said
I, how do you know that your fifteen hundred ducats were
faithfully paid into his hands? Unquestionably they were!
exclaimed Don Raphael; I would answer for the disinterested
purity of that ecclesiastic as soon as for my own. I would be
your collateral security, said Lamela; he is a priest of the
strictest sanctity, a sort of universal almoner; and though many
times cited for sums of money, deposited with him for charitable
uses, he has always nonsuited the plaintiff and gone out of court
with an augmentation of alms-giving notoriety.
Our conversation continued for some time longer: at length we
parted, with many a pious exhortation on their side, always to
have the fear of the Lord before my eyes, and with many an
earnest intreaty on mine, that they would remember me constantly
in their prayers. Don Alphonso was now the first object of my
search. You will never guess, said I, with whom I have just had a
long conference. I am but now come from two venerable Carthusians
of your acquaintance; the name of the one is father Hilary, that
of the other, brother Ambrose. You are mistaken, answered Don
Alphonso; I am not acquainted with a single Carthusian. Pardon
me, replied I; you have seen brother Ambrose at Xelva in the
capacity of commissary, and father Hilary as register to the
Inquisition. Oh heaven! exclaimed the governor with surprise, can
it be within the bounds of possibility that Raphael and Lamela
should have turned Carthusians? It is even so, answered I; they
professed several years ago. The former is bursar and proctor to
the convent; the latter, porter.
The son of Don Caesar rubbed his forehead twice or thrice, then
shaking his bead, These worshipful officers of the Inquisition,
said he, most assuredly purpose playing over the old farce on a
new stage here. You judge of them by prejudice, answered I, from
the impression of their characters as men of sin: but had you
been edified by their lectures as I have been, you would think
more favourably of their holiness. To be sure, it is not for
mortal men to fathom the depth of other men’s hearts; but to all
appearance they are two prodigals returned home. It possibly may
be so, replied Don Alphonso: there are many instances of
libertines, who hide their heads in cloisters, after having
scandalized human nature by their obliquities, to expiate their
offences by a severe penance: I heartily wish that our two monks
may be such libertines restored.
Well! and why not? said I. They have embraced the monastic life
of their own accord, and have squared their conduct for a length
of time according to the maxims of their order. You may say what
you please, retorted the governor; but I do not like the
convent’s rents being received by this father Hilary, of whom I
cannot help entertaining a very untoward opinion. When the fine
story he told us of his adventures comes across my mind, I
tremble for the reverend brotherhood. I am willing to believe
with you, that he has taken the vow with the pious intention of
keeping it; but the blaze of gold may be too much for the
weakness of his regenerated eyesight. It is bad policy to lock
up a reformed drunkard in a wine cellar.
In the course of a few days Don Alphonso’s misgivings were fully
justified; these two official props and stays of the
establishment ran away with the year’s revenue. This news, which
was immediately noised about the town, could not do otherwise
than set the tongues of the wits in motion; for they always make
themselves merry at the crosses and losses of the well-endowed
religious orders. As for the governor and myself, we condoled
with the Carthusians, but kept our acquaintance with the apostate
pilferers in the background.
CH. VII. — Gil Blas returns to his seat at Lirias. Scipio’s
agreeable intelligence, and a reform in the domestic
arrangements.
I PASSED a week at Valencia in the first company, living on equal
terms with the best of the nobility. Plays, balls, concerts,
grand dinners, ladies’ parties, all things that heart could wish
or vanity grow tall upon, were provided for me by the governor
and his lady, to whom I paid my court so dexterously, that they
were heartily sorry to see me set out on my return to Lirias.
They even obliged me, before they would let me go, to engage for
a division of my time between them and my hermitage. It was
determined that I should spend the winter in Valencia, and the
summer at my seat. After this bargain, my benefactors left me at
liberty to tear myself from them, and go where their kindness
would be always staring me in the face.
Scipio, who was waiting impatiently for my return, was ready to
jump out of his skin for joy at the sight of me; and his
ecstasies were doubled at my circumstantial account of the
journey. And now for your history, my friend, said I, taking
breath: to what moral uses have you turned the solitary period of
my absence? Has the time passed agreeably? As well, answered he,
as it could with a servant to whom nothing is so dear as the
presence of his master. I have walked over our little domain,
circuitously and diagonally: sometimes seated on the margin of a
fountain in our wood, I have taken pleasure in be holding the
transparency of its waters, which are as pellucid as those of the
sacred spring, whose projection from the rock made the vast
forest of Albunea to resound with the roar of the cascade:
sometimes lying at the foot of a tree, I have listened to the
song of the linnet or the nightingale. At other times I have
hunted or fished; and, what has given me more rational delight
than all these pastimes, I have whiled away many a profitable
hour in the improvement of my mind.
I interrupted my secretary in a tone of eager inquiry, to ask
where he had procured books. I found them, said he, in an elegant
library here in the house, whither master Joachim took me.
Heyday! in what corner, resumed I, can this said library be? Did
we not go over the whole building on the day of our arrival? You
fancied so, rejoined he; but you are to know that we only
explored three sides of the square, and forgot the fourth. It was
there that Don Caesar, when he came to Lirias, employed part of
his time in reading. There are in this library some very good
books, left as a never-failing phylactery against the blue
devils, when our gardens despoiled of Flora’s treasure, and our
woods of their leafy honours, shall no longer challenge those
miscreant invaders to combat in the forest or the bower. The
lords of Lena have not done things by halves, but have catered
for the mind as well as for the body.
This intelligence filled me with sincere rapture. I was shewn to
the fourth side of the square, and feasted with an intellectual
banquet Don Caesar’s room I immediately determined to make my
own. That nobleman’s bed was still there, with correspondent
furniture, consisting of historical tapestry, representing the
rape of the Sabine women by the Romans. From the bedchamber, I
went into a closet fitted up with low bookcases well filled, and
over them the portraits of the Spanish kings. Near a window
whence you command a prospect of a most bewitching country, there
was an ebony writing-desk and a large sofa, covered with black
morocco. But I gave my attention principally to the library. It
was composed of philosophers, poets, historians; and abounded in
romances. Don Caesar seemed to give the preference to that light
reading, if one might judge by the profusion of supply. I must
own, to my shame, that my taste was not at all above the level of
those productions, notwithstanding the extravagances they delight
in stringing together; whether it
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