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

was neither more nor less than to get into

his clutches, in the form of a loan, my dividend on the joint

stock of the strong box. I refunded to the last farthing; and

this restitution, it is to be hoped, may be set off as an

anticipated act of justice to the old draper, in the person of

his heir.

 

The young man, having exhausted this scanty supply, and desperate

of any other, fell into a deep melancholy, and into ultimate

derangement. He no longer looked on his father in any other light

than as the bane of his life. His frenzy broke out into the most

dreadful projects; so that, without listening to the voice of

consanguinity or nature, the wretch conceived the impious design

of poisoning him. He was not content with making me privy to the

atrocious design, but even proposed to render me the instrument

of parricide. At the very thought, my blood ran cold within me.

Sir, said I, is it possible that you are so rejected of heaven as

to have formed this horrid plot? What! is it in your nature to

murder the author of your existence? Shall Spain, the favoured

abode of the Christian faith, bear witness to the commission of a

crime, at the first blush of which transatlantic savages would

recoil with horror? No, my dear master, added I, throwing myself

on my knees, no, you will not be guilty of an action which would

raise the hand of all mankind against you, and be overtaken by an

infamous punishment

 

I pressed many arguments beside on Gaspard, to dissuade him from

so fearful an enterprise. How the deuce I came by all the moral

and religious topics, which I brought to act against the fortress

of his despair, is more than I can account for; but it is certain

that I preached like a doctor of Salamanca, though a mere

stripling, born of a gipsy fortune-teller. And yet it was to no

purpose that I suggested the duty of communing with his own

better resolutions, and stoutly wrestling with the fiend, who was

lying in wait for his immortal soul; my pious eloquence was

dissipated into air. His head hung sullenly on his bosom, and his

tongue uttered no sound, in answer to all my mollifying

exhortations, so that there was every reason to conclude he would

not swerve from his purpose.

 

Hereupon, taking my own measures, I requested a private interview

with my old master; and being closeted with him, Sir, said I,

allow me to throw myself at your feet, and to implore your pity.

In pathetic accord with my moving accents, I prostrated myself

before him, with my face all bathed in tears. The merchant,

surprised at what he saw and heard, asked the cause of my

distress. Remorse of conscience and repentance, answered I; but

neither repentance nor remorse can ever wash out my guilt. I have

been weak enough to give ear to your son, and to be his

accomplice in robbing you. To this confession I added a sincere

acknowledgment of all that had happened, with the particulars of

my late conversation with Gaspard, whose design I laid open

without the least reserve.

 

Bad as was the opinion which old Velasquez entertained of his

son, he could scarcely believe his ears. Nevertheless, finding no

good reason to distrust the truth of my account, Scipio, said he,

raising me from the ground, where I had till now been prostrate

at his feet, I forgive you in consideration of the important

notice you have communicated. Gaspard! pursued he, raising his

voice up to the loudness of anguish, does Gaspard aim a blow at

my life! Ah l ungrateful son, unnatural monster! better thou

hadst never been born, or stifled at thy birth, than to have been

reared for the destruction of thy father! What plea, what object,

what palliation of the atrocious deed? I furnished thee annually

with a reasonable allowance for thy pleasures, and what wouldst

thou have more? Must I have drained my fortune to the dregs to

support thee in thy extravagance? Having vented his feelings in

this bitter apostrophe, he enjoined secrecy on me, and told me to

leave him alone, while be considered how to act in so delicate a

conjuncture.

 

I was very anxious to know what resolution this unhappy father

would take, when on that very day he sent for Gaspard, and

addressed hint thus without betraying the inward emotions of his

heart: My so; I have received a letter from Merida, purporting

that if you are disposed to marry, you may make a match with a

very fine girl of fifteen, with a handsome fortune in her pocket.

If you have not forsworn that happy and holy estate, we will set

out to-morrow morning by daybreak for Merida: you will see the

lady in question, and if she hits your fancy, the business may

soon be settled, Gaspard, pricking up his ears at a handsome

fortune, and already fingering the cash by anticipation, answered

unhesitatingly that he was ready to undertake the journey; and

accordingly they departed the following day at sunrise, without

attendants, mounted on good mules.

 

Having reached the mountains of Fesira, in a delightful spot for

the operations of banditti, but terror-stirring to the timid

souls of travellers, Balthasar dismounted, and desired his son to

do likewise. The young man obeyed, but expressed his surprise at

such a requisition, in so lonely a place. I will tell you the

reason presently, answered the old man, darting at him a look of

mingled grief and anger: We are not going to Merida; and the

alleged courtship was only an invention of mine, for the purpose

of drawing you hither. I am not ignorant, ungrateful and

unnatural son, I am not uninformed of your meditated crime. I am

aware that a poison, prepared by your hands, was to have been

administered to me; but, mad as you are, could it enter into your

contemplation that my life could have been invaded with impunity

by such means? How fatally mistaken! Your crime would soon have

been detected, and you would have perished under the hands of the

executioner. There is a safer way of glutting your fell malice,

without exposing yourself to an ignominious death; we are here

without witnesses, and in a place where daily murders are

perpetrated; since you are so thirsty after my blood, plunge your

dagger into my bosom: the assassination will naturally be laid at

the door of some banditti. After these words, Balthasar, laying

his breast bare, and pointing to his heart, ended with this

challenge: Here, Gaspard, strike deep enough, strike home; make

me pay that forfeit for having engendered such a disgrace to

human nature, and no more than what is due to so monstrous a

production,

 

Young Velasquez, struck by this reproach as by a thunderbolt, far

from pleading in his own justification, fell instantly lifeless

at his father’s feet. The good old man, hailing the germ of

repentance in this unfeigned testimony of shame, could not help

yielding to paternal weakness; he made all possible haste to give

his assistance; but Gaspard had no sooner recovered the use of

his senses, than unable to stand in the presence of a father so

justly offended, he made an effort to raise himself from the

ground, then sprang upon his mule, and galloped out of sight

without saying one word. Balthasar suffered him to take his own

course, and returned to Cordova, little doubting but conscience

would play its part in revenging his wrongs. Six months

afterwards it appeared that the culprit had thrown himself into

the Carthusian convent at Seville, there to pass the remnant of

his days in penance.

 

CH. XII. — Conclusion of Scipio’s story.

 

BAD example sometimes produces the converse of itself. The

behaviour of young Velasquez made me think seriously on my own

predicament. I began to wrestle with my thievish propensities,

and to live like one of the better sort. A confirmed habit of

pouncing upon money wherever I could get it, had been contracted

by such a long succession of individual acts, that it was no easy

matter to say where it should stop. And yet I was in hopes to

accomplish my own reformation, under the idea that to become

virtuous a man had nothing to do but to contract the desire of

being so. I therefore undertook this great work, and heaven

seemed to smile upon my efforts: I left off eyeing the old

draper’s strong box with the carnal regard of avaricious longing:

nay, I verily believe, that if it had depended on my own will and

pleasure to have turned over the contents to my own use, I should

have abstained from the crime of picking and stealing. It must,

however, be admitted, that it would have been an unadvisable

measure to tempt my new-born integrity with meats too strong for

its stomach: and Velasquez was nurse enough to keep me on a

proper diet.

 

Don Manriquez de Medrano, a young gentleman, knight of Alcantara,

was in the habit of coming backwards and forwards to our house.

He was a customer, one of our principal in point of rank, if not

punctual in point of pay. I had the happiness to find favour with

this knight, who never met me without that sort of notice which

encouraged conversation, and with that conversation he appeared

always to be very much pleased. Scipio, said he, one day, if I

had a footman of your kidney, it would be as good as a fortune to

me, and if you were not in the service of a man who stands so

high in my regards, I should make no scruple about enticing you

away. Sir, answered I, you would have very little trouble in

succeeding; for I am distractedly partial to people of fashion;

it is my weak side; their free and easy manners fascinate me to

the extreme of folly. That being the case, replied Don Manriquez,

I will at once beg Signor Balthasar to turn you over from his

household to mine: he will scarcely refuse me such a request.

Accordingly Velasquez was kind and complying, with so much the

less violence to his own private feelings, as there seemed no

reason to think, that if a man parted with one knavish servant,

he might not easily get another in his place. To me the change

was all for the better, since a tradesman’s service appeared but

a beggarly condition in comparison with the office of own man to

a knight of Alcantara.

 

To draw a faithful likeness of my new master, I must describe him

as a gentleman possessing every requisite of person, figure,

manners, and disposition. Nor was that all; for his courage and

honour were equal to his other qualities: the goods of fortune

were the only good things he wanted, but being the younger son of

a family more distinguished by descent than opulence, he was

obliged to draw for his expenses on an old aunt living at Toledo,

who loved him as her own child, and administered to his occasions

with affectionate liberality. He was always well dressed, and

everywhere well received. He visited the principal ladies in the

city, and among others the Marchioness of Almenara. She was a

widow of seventy-two, but the centre of attraction to all the

fashionable society of Cordova, by the elegance of her manners

and the sprightliness of her conversation: men as well as women

laid themselves out for an introduction, because her parties

conferred at once on the frequenters the patent of good company.

 

My master was one of that lady’s most assiduous courtiers. After

leaving her one evening, his spirits seemed to be more elevated

than was natural to him. Sir, said I,