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

was owing to my not being a

very critical reader at that time, or because the Spaniards are

naturally addicted to the marvellous. I must nevertheless plead

in my own justification, that I was alive to the charms of a

sprightly and popular morality, and that Lucian, Horace, and

Erasmus became my favourite and standard authors.

 

My friend, said I to Scipio, when my eyes had coursed over my

library, here is wherewithal to feed and pamper our minds; but

our present business is to reform our household. On that subject

I can spare you a great deal of trouble, answered he. During your

absence I have sifted your people thoroughly, and flatter myself

it is no empty boast to say that I know them. Let us begin with

master Joachim: I take him to be as great a scoundrel as ever

breathed, and have no doubt but he was turned away from the

archbishop’s for errors which were too great to be excepted in

the passing of his accounts. Yet we must keep him for two

reasons: the first, because he is a good cook; and the second,

because I shall always have an eye over him; I shall peep into

his actions like a jackdaw into a marrow-bone, and he must be a

more cunning fellow than I take him for, to evade my vigilance. I

have already told him that you intended discharging three-fourths

of your establishment. This declaration stuck in his stomach; and

he assured me that, owing to his extreme desire of living with

you, he would be satisfied with half his present wages rather

than be turned off, which made me suspect that he was tied to the

string of some petticoat in the hamlet, and did not like to break

up his quarters. As for the under-cook, he is a drunkard, and the

porter a foul-mouthed Cerberus, of whose guardianship our gates

are in no want; neither is the gamekeeper a necessary evil. I

shall take the latter office myself, as you may see to-morrow,

when we have got our fowling-pieces in order, and are provided

with powder and shot. With regard to the footmen, one of them is

an Arragonese, and to my mind a very good sort of fellow. We will

keep him; but all the rest are such rapscallions, that I would

not advise you to harbour one of them, if you wanted an army of

attendants.

 

After having fully debated the point, we resolved to keep well

with the cook, the scullion, the Arragonese, and to get rid of

the remainder as decently as we could: all which was planned and

executed on the same day, mollifying the bitter dose by the

application of a few pistoles, which Scipio took from our strong

box, and distributed among them as from me. When we had carried

this reform into effect, order was soon established in our

mansion; we divided the business fairly among our remaining

people, and began to look into our expenses. I could willingly

have been contented with very frugal commons; but my secretary,

loving high dishes and relishing bits, was not a man who would

suffer master Joachim to hold his place as a sinecure. He kept

his talents in such constant play, working double tides at dinner

and at supper, that any one would have thought we had been

converted by father Hilary, and were working out the term of our

probation.

 

CH. VIII. — The loves of Gil Blas and the fair Antonia.

 

Two days after my return from Valencia to Lirias, clodpole Basil,

my farming man, came at my dressing-time, to beg the favour of

introducing his daughter Antonia, who was very desirous, as he

said, to have the honour of paying her respects to her new

master. I answered that it was very proper, and would be well

received. He withdrew, and in a few minutes returned with his

peerless Antonia. That epithet, though bold, will not be thought

extravagant, in the case of a girl from sixteen to eighteen years

of age, uniting to regular features the finest complexion and the

brightest eyes in the world. She was dressed in nothing better

than a stuff gown; but a stature somewhat above the female

standard, a dignified deportment, and such graces as soared

higher than the mere freshness and glow of youth, communicated to

her rustic attire the simplicity of classical costume. She had no

cap on her head; her hair was fastened behind with a knot of

flowers, according to the chaste severity of the Spartan

fashionables.

 

When she illumined my chamber with her presence, I was struck as

much on a heap by her beauty, as ever were the princes, knights,

nobles, and strangers assembled at the solemn feast and

tournament of Charlemain, by the personal charms of Angelica.

Instead of receiving Antonia with modish indifference, and paying

her compliments of course, instead of ringing the changes on her

father’s happiness in possessing so lovely a daughter, I stood

stock still, staring, gaping, stammering: I could not have

uttered an articulate sound for the universal world. Scipio, who

saw clearly what was the matter with me, took the words out of my

mouth, and accepted those bills of admiration which my affairs

were in too much disorder to admit of my duly honouring For her

part, my figure being shrouded by a dressing-gown and nightcap,

like the orb of day by a winter fog, she accosted me without

being shamefaced, and paid her duty in terms which fired all the

combustibles in my composition, though her words were but the

holiday expressions of commonplace salutation. In the mean time,

while my secretary, Basil, and his daughter, were engaged in

reciprocal exchange of civility, I found my senses again; and

passed from one extreme of absurdity to another, just as if I had

thought that a hare-brained loquacity would be a set-off against

the idiotic silence of my first encounter. I exhausted all my

stock of well-bred rodomontade; and expressed myself with so

unguarded a freedom, as to make Basil look about him: so that he,

with his eye upon me as a man who would set every engine at work

to seduce Antonia, was in a hurry to get her safely out of my

apartment, with a resolved purpose, probably, of withdrawing her

for ever from my pursuit.

 

Scipio finding himself alone with me, said with a smile: Here is

another defence for you against the blue devils! I did not know

that your farming man had so pretty a daughter; for I had never

seen her before, though I have been twice at his house. He must

have taken infinite pains to keep her out of the way, and it is

impossible to be angry with him for it What the plague! here is a

morsel for a liquorish palate! But there seems to be no necessity

for blazoning her perfections to you; their very first glance

dazzled you out of countenance. I do not deny it, answered I. Ah!

my beloved friend, I have surely seen an inhabitant of the realms

above; the electrical spark now thrills through all my frame, it

scorches like lightning, yet tingles like the vivifying fluid at

my heart.

 

You slight me beyond measure, replied my secretary, by giving me

to understand that you have at length fallen in love. Nothing but

a mistress was wanting to complete your rural establishment at

all points. Thanks to Heaven, you are now likely to be

accommodated in every way. I am well aware that we shall have a

hard matter to elude Basil’s vigilance; but leave that to me, and

I will undertake before the end of three days to manage a private

meeting for you with Antonia. Master Scipio, said I, it is not so

sure that you would be able to keep your word; but at all events,

I have not the least desire to make the experiment I will have

nothing to do with the ruin of that girl; for she is an angel,

and does not deserve to be numbered among the fallen ones.

Therefore, instead of laying the guilt upon your soul of

assisting me in her dishonour, I have made up my mind to marry

her with your kind help, supposing her heart not to be pre-occupied by a prior attachment I had no idea, said he, of your

directly plunging headlong into the cold bath of matrimony. The

generality of landlords, in your place, would stand upon the

ancient tenure of manorial rights: they would not deal with

Antonia upon the square of modern law and gospel, till after

failure in the establishment of their feudal privileges. But

though this may be the way of the world, do not suppose that I am

by any means against your honourable passion, or at all wish to

dissuade you from your purpose. Your bailiff’s daughter deserves

the distinction you design for her, if she can give you the

firstfruits of her heart, an offering of sensibility and

gratitude; that is what I shall ascertain this very day by

talking with her father, and possibly with her.

 

My agent was a man to transact his business according to the

letter. He went to see Basil privately, and in the evening came

to me in my closet, where I waited for him with impatience,

somewhat exasperated by apprehension. There was a slyness in his

countenance, whence my prognostic inclined to the brighter side.

Judging, said I, by that look of suppressed merriment, you are

come to acquaint me that I shall soon be at the summit of human

bliss. Yes, my dear master, answered he, the heavens smile upon

your vows. I have talked the matter over with Basil and his

daughter, declaring your intentions without reserve. The father

is delighted at the idea of your asking his blessing as a son-in-law; and you may set your heart at rest about Antonia’s taste in

a husband. Darts and flames! cried I in an ecstacy of amorous

transport; what! am I so happy as to have made myself agreeable

to that lovely creature? Never question it, replied he; she loves

you already. It is true, she has not owned so much by word of

mouth; but my assurance rests on the tale-telling sparkle of her

eye, when your proposals were made known to her. And yet you have

a rival! A rival! exclaimed I, with a faltering voice, and a

cheek blanched with fear. Do not let that give you the least

uneasiness, said he; your competitor cannot bid very high, for he

is no other than master Joachim your cook. Ah! the hangdog! said

I, with an involuntary shout of laughter: this is the reason,

then, why he had so great an objection to being turned out of my

service. Exactly so, answered Scipio; within these few days he

made proposals of marriage to Antonia, who politely declined

them. With submission to your better judgment, replied I, it

would be expedient, at least so it strikes me, to get rid of that

strange fellow, before he is informed of my intended match with

Basil’s daughter: a cook, as you are aware, is a dangerous rival.

You are perfectly in the right, rejoined my trusty counsellor; we

must clear the premises of him — he shall receive his discharge

from me to-morrow morning, before he puts a finger in the

fricandeaus; thus you will have nothing more to fear either from

his poisonous sauces or bewitching tongue. Yet it goes rather

against the grain with me to part with so good a cook; but I

sacrifice the interests of my own belly to the preservation of

your precious person. You need not, said I, take on so for his

loss: he had no exclusive patent; and I will send to Valencia for

a cook, who shall