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

apartment, and

laboured to persuade him that his distrust and confusion would

only set her on an unconjugal and litigious defence of her

insulted virtue.

 

The constable returned no answer to the arguments of his father-in-law, whether because he began to think in good earnest that

his senses were imposed on by the disorder of his mind, or

because he thought it more to the purpose to dissemble, than to

undertake ineffectually to convince the old man of an event so

devoid of all likelihood. He returned to his wife’s chamber, laid

himself down by her side, and endeavoured to obtain from sleep

some relief from his extreme uneasiness. Blanche, on her part,

the unhappy Blanche, was not a whit more at her ease. Her ears

had been but too open to the same alarming sounds, which had

assailed her husband’s peace; nor could she construe into

illusion an adventure of which she well knew the secret and the

motives. She was surprised that Enriquez should attempt to find

his way into her apartment, after having pledged his faith so

solemnly to the Princess Constance. Instead of feeding her soul

with vanity, or deriving any flattering omens from a proceeding

fraught with personal tenderness, but destructive to self-approbation, she considered it as a new insult, and her heart was

only so much the more exasperated with resentment against the

author.

 

While Siffredi’s daughter, with all her prejudices excited

against the young king, believed him the most guilty of men, that

unhappy prince, more than ever ensnared by Blanche, was anxious

for an interview, to satisfy her mind on a subject which seemed

to make so much against him. For that purpose he would have

visited Belmonte sooner, but for a press of business too urgent

to be neglected; nor could he withdraw himself from the court

before that night. He was perfectly at home in all the turnings

of a place where he had been brought up, and therefore was at no

loss to slip into the castle of Siffredi. Nay, he was still in

possession of the key to a secret door communicating with the

gardens. By this inlet did he gain his former apartment, and

thence found his way into Blanche’s chamber. Only conceive what

must have been the astonishment of that prince to find a man in

possession, and to feel a sword opposed to his guard. He was just

on the point of betraying all, and of punishing the rebel on the

very spot, whose sacrilegious hand had dared to lift itself

against the person of its lawful sovereign. But then the delicacy

due to the daughter of Leontio held his indignation in check. He

retreated in the same direction as he had advanced, and regained

the Palermo road, in more distress and perplexity than ever.

Getting home some little time before daybreak, his apartment

afforded him the most quiet retreat. But his thoughts were all on

the road back to Belmonte. The resting-place of his affections, a

sense of honour, in a word, love with all its pretensions and

surmises, would never allow him to delay an explanation,

involving all the circumstances of so strange and melancholy an

adventure.

 

As soon as it was daylight he gave out that he was going on a

hunting expedition. Under cover of sporting, his huntsmen and a

chosen party of his courtiers penetrated into the forest of

Belmonte under his direction. The chase was followed for some

time, as a blind to his real design. When he saw the whole party

eagerly driving on, and wholly engrossed by the sport, he

galloped off in a different direction, and struck, without any

attendants, into the road towards Leontio’s castle. The various

tracks of the forest were too well known to him to admit of his

losing his way. His impatience, too, would not allow him to take

any thought of his horse; so that the moments scarcely flitted

faster, than his expedition in leaving behind him the distance

which separated him from the object of his love. His very soul

was on the rack for some plausible excuse to plead for a private

interview with Siffredi’s daughter, when, crossing a narrow path

just at the park gate, he observed two women sitting close by

him, in earnest conversation under the shelter of a tree. It

might well be supposed that these females belonged to the castle;

and even that probability was sufficient to rouse an interest in

him. But his emotion was heightened into a feeling beyond his

reason to control, for these ladies happened to look round on

hearing the trot of a horse advancing in that direction; when at

once he recognized his dear Blanche. The fact was, she had made

her escape from the castle with Nisa, the person of all others

among her women most in her confidence, that she might at least

have the satisfaction of weeping over her misfortunes without

intrusion or restraint.

 

He flew, and seemed rather to throw himself headlong than to fall

at her feet. But when he beheld in the expression of her

countenance every mark of the deepest affliction, his heart was

softened. Lovely Blanche, said he, do not, let me entreat you,

give way to the emotions of your grief. Appearances, I own, must

represent me as guilty in your eyes: but when you shall be made

acquainted with my project in your behalf, what you consider as a

crime will be transformed in your thoughts into a proof of my

innocence, and an evidence of my unparalleled affection. These

words, calculated, according to the views of Enriquez, to allay

the grief of Blanche, served only to redouble her affliction.

Fain would she have answered, but her sobs stifled her utterance.

The prince, thunderstruck at the death-like agitation of her

flame, addressed her thus. What, madam, is there no possibility

of tranquilizing your agitation? By what sad mischance have I

lost your confidence, at the very moment when my crown and even

my life are at stake, in consequence of my resolution to hold

myself engaged to you? At this suggestion the daughter of

Leontio, doing violence to her own feelings, but thinking it

necessary to explain herself, said to him — My liege, your

assurances are no longer admissible. My destiny and yours are

henceforward as far asunder as the poles. Ah! Blanche,

interrupted Enriquez with impatience, what cutting words are

these, too painful for my sense of hearing? Who dares step in

between our loves? Who would venture to stand forward against the

headlong rage of a king who would kindle all Sicily into a

conflagration, rather than suffer you to be ravished from his

long-cherished hopes? All your power, my liege, great as it is,

replied the daughter of Siffredi in a tone of melancholy, becomes

inefficient against the obstacles in the way of our union. I know

not how to tell it you, but … . I am married to the

constable.

 

Married to the constable! exclaimed the prince, starting back to

some distance from her. He could proceed no further in his

discourse, so completely was he thunderstruck at the

intelligence. Overwhelmed by this unexpected blow, he felt his

strength forsake him. His unconscious limbs laid themselves

without his guidance against the trunk of a tree just behind him.

His countenance was pallid, his whole frame in a tremor, his mind

bewildered and his spirits depressed. With no sense or faculty at

liberty but that of gazing, and there every power of his soul was

suspended on Blanche, he made her feel most poignantly how he

himself was agonized by the fatal event she had announced. The

expression of countenance on her part was such as to show him

that her emotions were not uncongenial with his own. Thus did

these two distressed lovers for a time preserve a silence towards

each other, which portended something of terror in its calmness.

At length the prince, recovering a little from his disorder by an

effort of courage, resumed the discourse, and said to Blanche

with a sigh — Madam, what have you done? You have destroyed me,

and involved yourself in the same ruin by your credulity.

 

Blanche was offended at the seeming reproaches of the king, when

the strongest grounds of complaint were apparently on her side.

What! my lord, answered she, do you add dissimulation to

infidelity? Would you have me reject the evidence of my own eyes

and ears, so as to believe you innocent in spite of their report?

No, my lord, I will own to you such an effort of abstraction is

not in my power. And yet, madam, replied the king, these

witnesses by whose testimony you have been so fully convinced,

are but impostors. They have been in a conspiracy to betray you.

It is no less the fact that I am innocent and faithful, than it

is true that you are married to the constable. What is it you

say, my lord? replied she. Did I not overhear you confirming the

pledge of your hand and heart to Constance? Have you not bound

yourself to the nobility of the realm, and undertaken to comply

with the will of the late king? Has not the princess received the

homage of your new subjects as their queen, and in quality of

bride to Prince Enriquez? Were my eyes then fascinated? Tell me,

tell me rather, traitor, that Blanche was weighed as dust in the

balance of your heart, when compared with the attractions of a

throne. Without lowering yourself so far as to assume what you no

longer feel, and what perhaps you never felt, own at once that

the crown of Sicily appeared a more tenable possession with

Constance than with the daughter of Leontio. You are in the

right, my lord. My title to an illustrious throne, and to the

heart of a prince like you, stands on an equally precarious

footing. It was vanity in the extreme to prefer a claim to

either: but you ought not to have drawn me on into error. You

well recollect what alarms were my portion at the very thought of

losing you, of which I had almost a supernatural foreboding. Why

did you lull my apprehensions to sleep? To what purpose was that

delusive mockery? I might else have accused fate rather than

yourself, and you would at least have retained an interest in my

heart, though unaccompanied by a hand which no other suitor could

ever have obtained. As we are now circumstanced, your

justification is out of season. I am married to the constable. To

relieve me from the continuance of an interview, which casts a

shade over my purity hitherto unsullied, permit me, my lord,

without failing in due respect, to with draw from the presence of

a prince to whose addresses I am no longer at liberty to listen.

 

With these words, she darted away from Enriquez in as hurried a

step as the agitation of her spirits would allow. Stop, madam,

exclaimed he, drive not to despair a prince, inclined to overturn

a throne, which you reproach him for having preferred to

yourself, rather than yield to the importunities of his new

subjects. That sacrifice is under present circumstances

superfluous, rejoined Blanche. The bond must be broken between

the constable and me, before any effect can be produced by these

generous transports. Since I am not my own mistress, little would

it avail that Sicily should be embroiled, nor does it concern me

to whom you give your hand. If I have betrayed my own weakness,

and suffered my heart to be surprised, at least shall I muster

fortitude enough to suppress every soft emotion, and prove to the

new king of Sicily, that the wife of the constable is no longer

the mistress of Prince Enriquez. While this conversation was

passing, they reached the