The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, Alain René le Sage [most read books .txt] 📗
- Author: Alain René le Sage
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harmony was interrupted by an alarming occurrence. My secretary,
being in the hall where I was dining with Don Alphonso’s
principal officers and Seraphina’s women, suddenly fainted. I
started up and ran to his assistance; and while I was employed in
bringing him about, one of the women was taken ill also. It was
evident to the whole company that this sympathetic malady must
involve some mysterious incident, as in effect it turned out
almost immediately, that thereby hung a tale; for Scipio soon
recovered, and said to me in a low voice, Why must one man’s meat
be another man’s poison, and the most auspicious of your days the
curse of mine? But every man bears the bundle of his sins upon
his back, and my pack-saddle is once more thrown across my
shoulders in the person of my wife.
Powers of mercy! exclaimed I, this can never be; it is all a
romance. What! you the husband of that lady whose nerves were so
affected by the disturbance? Yes, sir, answered he, I am her
husband; and fortune, if you will take the word of a sinner,
could not have done me a dirtier office than by conjuring up such
a grievance as this. I know not, my friend, replied I, what
reasons you may have for thus belabouring your rib with wordy
buffets, but however she may be to blame, in mercy keep a bridle
on your tongue; if you have any regard for me, do not displace
the mirth and spoil the pleasure of this nuptial meeting, by
ominous disorder or enraged questions of past injuries. You shall
have no reason to complain on that score, rejoined Scipio; but
shall see presently whether I am not a very apt dissembler.
With this assurance he went forward to his wife, whom her
companions had also brought back to life and recollection; and,
embracing her with as much apparent fervour as if his raptures
had been real, Ah, my dear Beatrice, said he, heaven has at
length united us again after ten years of cruel separation! But
this blissful moment is well purchased by whole ages of torturing
suspense! I know not, answered his spouse, whether you really are
at all the happier for having recovered a part of yourself: but
of this at least I am fully certain, that you never had any
reason to run away from me as you did. A fine story indeed! You
found me one night with Signor Don Ferdinand de Leyva, who was in
love with my mistress Julia, and consulted me on the subject of
his passion; and only for that, you must take it into your stupid
head, that I was caballing with him against your honour and my
own: thereupon that poor brain of yours was turned with jealousy;
you quitted Toledo in a huff, and ran away from your own flesh
and blood as you would from a monster of the deserts, without
leaving word why or wherefore. Now which of us two, be so good as
to tell me, has most reason to take on and be pettish? Your own
dear self, beyond all question, replied Scipio. Beyond all
question, re-echoed she, my own illused self. Don Ferdinand,
very shortly after you had taken yourself off from Toledo,
married Julia, with whom I continued as long as she lived; and,
after we had lost her by sudden death, I came into my lady her
sister’s service, who, as well as all her maids, and I would do
as much for them, will give me a good character; honest and
sober, and a very termagant among the impertinent fellows.
My secretary, having nothing to allege against such a character
from my lady and her maids, was determined to make the best of a
bad bargain. Once for all, said he to his spouse, I acknowledge
my bad behaviour, and beg pardon for it before this honourable
assembly. It was now time for me to act the mediator, and to move
Beatrice for an act of amnesty, assuring her that her husband
from this time forward would make it the great object of his life
to play the husband to her satisfaction. She began to see that
there was reason in roasting of eggs, and all present were loud
in their congratulations, on the triumph of suffering virtue, and
the renovated pledge of broken vows. To bind the contract firmer,
and make it memorable, they were seated next to one another at
table; their healths were drank according to the laws of
toasting; wish you joy! many returns of this happy day! rang
round on every side: one would have sworn that the dinner was
given for their reconciliation, and not on account of my
marriage.
The third table was the first to be cleared. The young villagers
jumped up in a body; the lads took out their blooming partners;
the tambourines struck up a merry beat; spectators flocked from
the other tables, and caught the enlivening spirit from the gay
bustle of the scene. Every limb and muscle of every individual
was in motion: the household of the governor and his lady formed
a set, apart from the rustics of the company, while their
superiors did not disdain to mingle with the homelier dancers.
Don Alphonso danced a saraband with Seraphina, and Don Caesar
another with Antonia, who afterwards took me for her partner. She
did not perform much amiss, considering that she never got much
further than the five positions, in learning which she had her
ankles kicked to pieces by a provincial dancing-master at
Albarazin, while on a visit to a tradesman’s wife, one of her
relations. As for me, who, as I have already said, had taken
lessons at the Marchioness de Chaves’s, I figured away as the
principal man in this rural ballet. With regard to Beatrice and
Scipio, they preferred a little private conversation to dancing,
that they might compare notes on the subject of war and tear
during the painful period of separation: but their billing and
cooing was interrupted by Seraphina, who, having been informed of
this dramatic discovery, sent for them to pay the customary
compliments of congratulation. My good people, said she, on this
day of general joy, it gives me additional pleasure to see you
two restored to one another. My friend Scipio, I return you your
wife under a firm belief that she has always conducted herself as
became a woman; take up your abode with her here, and be a good
husband to her. And you, Beatrice, attach yourself to Antonia,
and let her be as much the object of your devoted service as
Signor de Santillane is that of your husband. Scipio, who could
not possibly, after this, think of Penelope as fit to hold a
candle to his own wife, promised to treat her with all the
deference due to such a paragon of conjugal fidelity.
The country people, having kept up the dance till late, withdrew
to their own homes; but the rejoicings were prolonged by the
company in the house. There was a grand supper, and at bed-time
the vicar-general pronounced the
blessing of consummation. Seraphina undressed the bride, and the
lords of Leyva did me the same honour. The ridiculous part of the
business was, that Don Alphonso’s officers and his lady’s
attendants took it into their heads, by way of diverting
themselves, to perform the same ceremony: they also undressed
Beatrice and Scipio, who, to render the scene supremely farcical,
gravely allowed themselves to be untrussed, and put to bed with
all nuptial pomp and state.
CH. X. — The honey-moon (a very dull time for the reader as a
third person) enlivened by the commencement of Scipio’s story.
“‘Tis heaven itself, ‘tis ecstacy of bliss,
Uninterrupted joy, untired excess;
Mirth following mirth, the moments dance away;
Love claims the night, and friendship rules the day.”
ON the day after the wedding the lords of Leyva returned to
Valencia, after having lavished on me a thousand marks of
friendship. There was such a general clearance, that my secretary
and myself, with our respective wives, and our usual
establishment, were left in undisturbed possession of our own
home.
The efforts which we both made to please our ladies were not
thrown away: I breathed by degrees into the partner of my joys
and sorrows as much love for me as I entertained for her; and
Scipio made his better part forget the woes and privations he had
occasioned her. Beatrice, who had very winning ways with her, and
was all things to all women, had no difficulty about worming
herself into the good graces of her new mistress, and gaining her
complete confidence. In short, we all four agreed admirably well
together, and began to enjoy a bliss above the common lot of
humanity. Every day rolled along more delightfully than the last.
Antonia was pensive and demure; but Beatrice and myself were
enlisted in the crew of mirth; and even though we had been
constitutionally sedate, Scipio was among us, and he was of
himself a pill to purge melancholy. The best creature in the
world for a snug little party! one of those merry drolls who have
only to shew their comical faces, and set the table in a roar of
inextinguishable laughter.
One day, when we had taken a fancy to go after dinner, and doze
away the usual interval in the most sequestered spot about the
grounds, my secretary got into such exuberant spirits, as to
chase away the drowsy god by his exhilarating sallies. Do hold
your tongue, my loquacious friend, said I: or else, if you are
determined to wage war against this lazy custom of our
afternoons, at least tell us something which we shall he the
wiser for hearing. With all my heart and soul, sir, answered he.
Would you have me go through all fabulous histories of wandering
knights, distressed damsels, giants, enchanted castles, and the
whole train of legendary adventures? I had much rather hear your
own true history, replied I; but that is a pleasure which you
have not thought fit to give me so long as we have lived
together, and I seem likely to go without it to the end of the
chapter. How happens that? said he. If I have not told you my own
story, it is because you never expressed the slightest wish to be
troubled with the recital: therefore it is not my fault if you
are in the dark about my past life; but if you are really at all
curious to be let into the secret, my loquacity is very much at
your service on the occasion. Antonia, Beatrice, and myself,
unanimously took him at his word, and arranged ourselves for
listening like an attentive audience. The speculation was a safe
one on our parts; for the tale was sure to answer, either as a
stimulant or a soporific.
I certainly ought to have been descended, said Scipio, from some
family of the highest rank and earliest antiquity; or in default
of such parentage, from the most distinguished orders of personal
merit, such as that of St James or Alcantara, if a man may be
permitted to decide on the fittest circumstances his own birth:
but as it is not among the privileges of human nature to elect
one’s own father, you are to know that mine, by name Torribio
Scipio, was a subaltern myrmidon of the Holy Brotherhood. As he
was going back and fore on the king’s highway, and looking after
business in his own line, he met once on a time, between Cuen�a
and Toledo, with a young Bohemian babe of chance, who appeared
very pretty in his eyes. She was alone, on foot, and carried her
whole patrimony at
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