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

>advantageously in my lord duke’s service; and I did not suffer

the happy moment to pass by.

 

I was engaged in chat one morning with Don Raymond Caporis, the

prime minister’s steward, and our conversation turned on the

sources of his excellency’s income. My lord, said he, enjoys the

commanderies of all the military orders, yielding a revenue of

forty thousand crowns a year; and he is only obliged to wear the

cross of Alcantara. Moreover, his three offices of great

chamberlain, master of the home, and high chancellor of the

Indies, bring him in nn income of two hundred thousand crowns;

and yet all this is nothing in comparison of the immense sums

which he receives through other transatlantic channels; but you

will be puzzled to guess how. When vessels clear out from Seville

or Lisbon for those parts of the world, he ships wine, oil,

grain, and other articles, the produce of his own estate; and his

consignments are duty free. With that perquisite in his pocket,

he sells his merchandise for four times its current price in

Spain, and then lays out the money in spices, colouring

materials, and other things which cost next to nothing in the new

world, and are sold very dear in Europe. Already has he realized

some millions by this traffic, without detracting from the dues

of his royal master.

 

You will easily account for it, continued he, that the people

concerned in carrying on this trade return with great fortunes in

their pockets; for my lord thinks it but reasonable that they

should divide their diligence between his business and their own.

 

That shrewd son of chance and opportunity, of whom we are

speaking, overheard our conversation, and could not help

interrupting Don Raymond to the following purport. Upon my word,

Signor Caporis, I should like to be one of those people; for I am

fond of travelling, and have long wished to see Mexico. Your

inclinations as a tourist shall soon be gratified, said the

steward, if Signor de Santillane will not stand in the way of

your wishes. However particular I may think it my duty to be

about the persons whom I send to the West Indies in that

capacity, and they are all of my appointment, you shall be placed

on the list at all adventures, if your master wishes it. You will

confer on me a particular favour, said I to Don Raymond; be so

good as to do it in kindness to me. Scipio is a young fellow much

in my good graces, very capable in business, and will be found

irreproachable in his conduct. In a word, I would as soon answer

for him as myself.

 

That being the case, replied Caporis, he has only to repair

immediately to Seville: the ships are to sail for South America

in a month. I shall give him a letter at his departure for a man

who will put him in the way of making a fortune, without the

slightest interference in his excellency’s dues and profits,

which ought to be held sacred by him.

 

Scipio, delighted with his berth, was in haste to set out for

Seville with a thousand crowns with which I furnished him, to

make purchases of wine and oil in Andalusia, and enable him to

trade on his own bottom in the West Indies. And yet, overjoyed as

he was to make a voyage, and as he hoped his fortune therewithal,

he could not part from me without tears: and the separation

raised the waters even from my dry fountains.

 

CH. XII. — Don Alphonso de Leyva comes to Madrid; the motive of

his journey a severe affliction to Gil Blas, and a cause of

rejoicing subsequent thereon.

 

No sooner had I parted with Scipio than one of the minister’s

pages brought me a note conceived in the following terms: “If

Signor de Santillane will take the trouble of calling at the sign

of Saint Gabriel, in the Street of Toledo, he will there see a

friend who is not indifferent to him.”

 

Who can this nameless friend possibly be? said I to myself. What

can be the meaning of all this mystery? Obviously to occasion me

the pleasure of a surprise. I attended the summons immediately,

and on my arrival at the place appointed, was not a little

astonished to find Don Alphonso de Leyva there. Is it possible!

exclaimed I: you here, my lord? Yes, my dear Gil Blas, answered

he with a close compression of my hand in his, it is Don Alphonso

himself. Well! but what brings you to Madrid? said I. You will be

not a little startled, rejoined he, and no less vexed at the

occasion of my journey. They have taken my government of Valencia

from me, and the prime minister has sent for me to give an

account of my conduct. For a whole quarter of an hour I was like

a man stupefied; then recovering the powers of speech: Of what,

said I, are you accused? I know nothing at all about it, answered

he; but my disgrace is probably owing to a visit paid about three

weeks ago to the Cardinal Duke of Lerma, who was banished about a

month since to his seat at Denia.

 

Yes, indeed! cried I in a pet, you may well attribute your

misfortune to that imprudent visit: there is no occasion to look

out for causes and effects else where; but give me leave to say

that you have not acted with your usual good sense, in claiming

acquaintance with that favourite out of favour. The leap is

taken, and the neck broken, said he; and I have nothing to do but

to make the best out of a bad bargain: I shall retire with my

family to our paternal estate at Leyva, where the remnant of my

days will glide away in peace and obscurity. What taunts and

teases me, is the requisition of appearing before a haughty

minister, who may receive me with all the insolence of office.

How humiliating to the pride of a Spaniard! And yet it is a

measure of necessity; but before the degrading ceremony took

place, I wanted to talk it over with you. Sir, said I, do not

announce your arrival to the minister, till I have ascertained

the nature of the reports to your discredit; for there are few

evils without a remedy. Whatever may be your alleged crimes, you

will give me leave, if you please, to act in the affair as

gratitude and friendship shall dictate. With this assurance, I

left him at his inn, and promised to let him hear from me soon.

 

As I had taken no active part in state affairs since the two

memorials, in which my eloquence was so signally displayed, I

went to look for Carnero, with a view to inquire whether Don

Alphonso’s government was really taken from him. He answered in

the affirmative, but professed not to know the reason. Finding

how things stood, I determined to apply at head-quarters, and to

learn the grounds of grievance from his lordship’s own mouth.

 

My spirits were really harassed; so that there was no need of

putting on the trappings and the suits of woe, to attract my lord

duke’s notice. What is the matter, Santillane? said he, as soon

as he saw me. I perceive a marked unhappiness on your

countenance, and tears just ready to trickle down your cheeks.

Has any one behaved ill to you? Tell me, and you shall have your

revenge. My lord, answered I, in a melancholy tone, even though

my grief would seek to hide itself, it must have vent: my despair

is past endurance. The report goes that Don Alphonso is no longer

Governor of Valencia; a severer stroke could not have been

inflicted on me. What say you, Gil Blas? replied the minister in

astonishment: what interest can you take in this Don Alphonso and

his government? On this question, I detailed at length my

obligations to the Lords of Leyva, and modestly stated my own

interference with the Duke of Lerma, to obtain the appointment

for my friend.

 

When his excellency had heard me through with the most polite and

kind attention, he spoke thus: Make yourself easy, Gil Blas.

Besides my entire ignorance of what you have just told me, I must

own that I considered Don Alphonso as the cardinal’s creature.

Only put yourself in my place: was not the visit to his eminence

a most suspicious circumstance? Yet I am willing to believe that

owing his preferment to that minister, he might have remembered

him in his adversity from a motive of pure gratitude. I am sorry

for having displaced a man who owed his elevation to you; but if

I have pulled down your handiwork I can build it up again. I mean

to do still more than the Duke of Lerma for you. Your friend Don

Alphonso was only Governor of Valencia; I appoint him Viceroy of

Arragon: you may send him word so yourself; and order him hither

to take the oaths.

At these words, my feelings changed from extreme grief to an

excess of joy, which completely caricatured the mediocrity of

common sense, and made me utter an incoherent rhapsody of thanks:

but the want of method in the madness of my discourse was not

taken amiss; and on my hinting that Don Alphonso was already at

Madrid, he told me that I might present him this very day. I ran

to the sign of Saint Gabriel, and communicated my own raptures to

Don Caesar’s son, by informing him of his new appointment. He

could not believe what I told him; but found it a hard matter to

persuade himself; that the prime minister, though likely enough

to be very well disposed towards me, should attend his friendship

so far as to dispose of viceroyalties at my instance. I carried

him with me to my lord duke, who received him very affably,

complimented him on his uniform good conduct in his government of

Valencia, and finished by saying that the king, considering him

as qualified for a higher station, had named him for the

viceroyalty of Arragon. Besides, added he, your family is of a

rank not to disparage the dignity of the office; so that the

Arragonese nobility will have no plea for excepting against the

choice of the court.

 

His excellency made no mention of me, and the public was kept in

the dark as to my share in the business; indeed, this prudent

silence was lucky both for Don Alphonso and the minister, since

the tongues of defamers would have been busy in taking to pieces

the pretensions of a viceroy who owed his preferment to my

patronage.

 

As soon as Don Caesar’s son could speak with certainty of his new

honours, he sent off an express for Valencia with the information

to his father and Seraphina, who soon arrived in Madrid. Their

first object was to find me out, and ply me thick and threefold

with acknowledgments. What a proud and affecting sight for me, to

behold the three persons in the world nearest my heart, vying

with each other in their testimonies of affection and gratitude!

The pleasure my zeal seemed personally to give them, was equal to

the dignity conferred on their house by the post of viceroy. They

even talked with me on a footing of equality, and scarcely

remembered my original distance or servitude in the fervour of

their present feelings. But not to dwell on unnecessary topics,

Don Alphonso having taken the oaths and returned thanks, left

Madrid with his family, to take up his abode at Saragossa. He

made his public entry with appropriate magnificence; and the

Arragonese caused it to appear, by their cordial reception, that

I