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

and testified loudly my

approval of the expedient. I paid my respects also to the

masquerading marshalmen. They were three servants and two

journeymen barbers of his acquaintance, whom he had engaged to

act this farce. I ordered wine to be served round to the

detachment, and we all went together at night-fall to Camilla’s

residence. The door was shut, and we knocked. The old woman,

taking my companions to be on the scent of justice, and knowing

they would not come into that neighbourhood for nothing, was

terribly frightened. Cheer up again, good mother, said Fabricio;

we are only come here upon a little business which will be soon

settled. At these words we made our entry, and found our way to

the sick chamber, under the guidance of the old dowager who

walked before us, and by favour of a wax taper which she carried

in a silver candlestick. I took the light, went to the bedside,

and, making Camilla take particular notice of my features,

Traitress, said I, call to mind the too credulous Gil Blas whom

you have deceived Ah! thou wickedness personified, at last I have

caught thee. The corregidor has taken down my deposition, and

ordered this alguazil to arrest you. Come, officer, said I to

Fabricio, do your duty. There is no need, replied he, swelling

his voice, to inflame my severity. The face of that wretch is not

new to me: she has long been marked with red letters in my

pocket-book. Get up, my princess, dress your royal person with

all possible dispatch. I will be your squire, and lodge you in

durance vile, if you have no objection.

 

At these words, Camilla, ill as she was, observing two marshalmen

with large whiskers ready to drag her out of bed by main force,

sat up of herself, clasped her hands in an attitude of

supplication; and looking at me ruefully, said, Signor Gil Blas,

have compassion on me: I call as a witness to my entreaties the

chaste mother whose virtues you inherit. Guilty as I am, my

misfortunes are greater than my crimes. I will give you back your

diamond, so do not be my ruin. Speaking to this effect, she drew

my ring from her finger, and gave it me back. But I told her my

diamond was not enough, and that she must refund the thousand

ducats they had embezzled in the ready-furnished lodging. Oh! as

for your ducats, replied she, ask me not about them. That false-hearted deceiver, Don Raphael, whom I have not seen from that

time to this, carried them off the very same night. O ho! my

little darling, said Fabricio in his turn, that will not do, you

had a hand in the robbery, whether you went snacks in the profit

or no. You will not come off so cheaply. Your having been

accessory to Don Raphael’s manoeuvres is enough to render you

liable to an examination. Your past life is very equivocal; and

you must have a good deal upon your conscience. You will have the

goodness, if you please, just to step into the town jail, and

there unburden yourself by a general confession. This good old

lady shall keep you company; it is hard if she cannot tell a

world of curious stories, such as Mr Corregidor will be delighted

to hear.

 

The two women, at these words, brought every engine of pity into

play to soften us. They filled the air with cries, complaints,

and lamentations. While the old woman on her knees, sometimes to

the alguazil and sometimes to his attendants, endeavoured. to

melt their stubborn hearts, Camilla implored me, in the most

touching terms, to save her from the hands of justice. I

pretended to relent. Officer, said I to the son of Nunez, since I

have got my diamond, I do not much care about anything else. It

would be no pleasure to me to be the means of pain to that poor

woman; I want not the death of a sinner. Out upon you, answered

he, you set up for humanity! you would make a bad tipstaff. I

must do my errand. My positive orders are to arrest these virgins

of the sun; his honour the corregidor means to make an example of

them. Nay! for mercy’s sake, replied I, pay some little deference

to my wishes, and slacken a little of your severity, on the

ground of the present these ladies are on the point of offering

to your acceptance. Oh! that is another matter, rejoined he; that

is what you may call a figure of rhetoric suited to all

capacities and all occasions. Well, then, let us see, what have

they to give me? I have a pearl necklace, said Camilla, and drop

ear-rings of considerable value. Yes; but, interrupted he

roughly, if these articles are the produce of the Philippine

Isles, I will have none of them. You may take them in perfect

safety, replied she: I warrant them real. At the same time she

made the old woman bring a little box, whence she took out the

necklace and ear-rings, which she put within the grasp of this

incorruptible minister. Though he was much such a judge of

jewellery as myself, he had no doubt of the drops being real, as

well as the pearls. These trinkets, said he, after having looked

at them minutely, seem to be of good quality and fashion: and if

the silver candlestick is thrown into the bargain, I would not

answer for my own honesty. You had better not, said I in my turn

to Camilla, for a trifle, reject so moderate and fair a

composition. While uttering these words, I returned the taper to

the old woman, and handed the candlestick over to Fabricio, who,

stopping there because perhaps he espied nothing else that was

portable in the room, said to the two women: Farewell, my dainty

misses, set your hearts at rest, I will report you to his worship

the corregidor, as purer than unsmutched snow. We can turn him

round our finger; and never tell him the truth, but when we are

not paid for our lies.

 

CH. V. — Sequel of the foregoing adventure. Gil Blas retires

from practice, and from the neighbourhood of Valladolid.

 

AFTER having thus carried Fabricio’s plan into effect, we took

our leave of Camilla’s lodging, hugging ourselves on a success

beyond our expectation; for we had only reckoned on the ring. We

carried off without ceremony all we could get besides. Far from

making it a point of conscience not to steal from a description

of ladies whose names are commonly associated with rogues, we

thought to cover some scores of other sins by so meritorious an

action. Gentle men, said Fabricio, when we were in the street, my

counsel is for returning to our tavern, and devoting the night to

a regale. To-morrow we will sell the candlestick, the necklace,

the drop ear-rings, and then share the prize money like brother

adventurers, after which every man shall tramp home again, and

make the best excuse he can to his master. His worship the

alguazil’s idea seemed equally bright and judicious. We returned

rank and file to the tavern, some in the pious hope of finding a

plausible excuse for having slept abroad, others in a desperate

indifference about being turned out of doors without a character.

 

We ordered a good supper to be got ready, and sat down to table

with our physical and mental powers in full vigour. The relish

was heightened by a thousand pleasant anecdotes. Fabricio, of all

men in the world, having the happy knack of a chairman in a

company of jovial spirits, kept the table in a roar. There

escaped from him I know not how many charges of true Castilian

wit, worth more either in the schools of philosophy or the

exchange of commerce than the drug of Attic salt. While we were

in a full peal of laughter, we were made to laugh on the other

side of our mouths by an unforeseen occurrence. There appeared at

table a man of no contemptible prowess, followed by two other as

ill-looking dogs as ever existed. After this specimen we had

three others, and reckoned up to a dozen, marching in by

triplets. They were armed with carbines, swords, and bayonets. We

could not mistake their office, and were at no loss to guess

their business. At first we had a mind to be refractory; but they

beset us in an instant, and kept us under, as much by their

numbers as by their weapons. Gentlemen, said the captain

commandant in a jeering strain, I have been informed by what

ingenious artifice you have recovered a ring from the custody of

a lady no better than she should be. Undoubtedly, the device was

admirable, and well deserves a civic crown; the patriotism of our

police will not be found wanting. Justice, with her lodgings to

let for gentry of your description, will not be deficient in her

acknowledgments for so brilliant a display of genius. The company

to whom this introductory address was directed, looked a little

sheepish on the occasion. Our countenances fell; and Camilla had

her full revenge. Fabricio, however, though pale and puzzled,

made an attempt at a defence. Sir, said he, we did it in the

innocence of our hearts, and. of course we shall be forgiven this

not immoral fraud? What the devil, replied the commandant in a

rage, do you call this a not immoral fraud? Moral or immoral, it

may bring you to the gallows. Besides that the power of

restitution is too sacred to be assumed by the individual, you

have made away with a candlestick, a necklace, and a pair of drop

ear-rings: and what is worse, you have committed your rascalities

in the livery of the law. Scoundrels dressing them selves up like

the pillars of morality to undermine its very foundation! I shall

wish you much joy if you are condemned to nothing worse than

mowing the salt marsh. When he had impressed it on our

convictions that the affair was even more serious than our first

fears, we threw ourselves on his mercy, and implored him to have

pity on our tender years, but his stubborn heart was relentless.

He rejected moreover the proposal of relinquishing the necklace,

ear-rings, and candlestick; nay, he was deaf to the rhetoric of

my ring: perhaps because I offered it before too many witnesses:

in short, he was the most obdurate dog of his kennel. He ordered

my companions to be handcuffed, and sent us in a body to the

public prison. As we were on our way, one of the marshalmen

acquainted me that Camilla’s old vixen, suspecting us not to be

licensed scouts of justice, had dogged us to the tavern; and

having satisfied her doubts, in revenge informed against us to

the patrole.

 

We were searched in the first instance. Away went the necklace,

the ear rings, and the candlestick. They picked my pocket of my

ring, and my ruby of the Philippine Isles; without even sparing

the few fees I had received in the forenoon for my prescriptions:

so that it was plain trade was carried on by the same firm at

Valladolid as at Astorga, and that all these reformers held the

same creed. While they rifled me of my trinkets and money, the

lord in waiting of the patrole made known our adventure to the

inferior agents of legal rapine. The trespass appeared so

audacious that the majority voted it capital. A few kind souls

were of opinion that we might come off for two hundred lashes a

piece, with a few years on board the galleys. Waiting his

worship’s sentence, we were locked up in a cell, where we lay

upon straw, spread over our stable like a