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

park gate. With a sudden spring she and

Nisa got within the walls. As they took care to fasten the wicket

after them, the prince was left in a state of melancholy and

stupefaction. He could not recover from the stunning sensation,

occasioned by the intelligence of Blanche’s marriage. Unjust may

I well call you, exclaimed he. You have buried all remembrance of

our solemn engagement! Spite of my protestations and your own,

our fates are rent asunder? The long-cherished hope of possessing

those charms was an empty phantom! Ah! cruel as you are, how

dearly have I purchased the distinction, of compelling you to

acknowledge the constancy of my love!

 

At that moment his rival’s happiness, heightened by the colouring

of jealousy, presented itself to his mind in all the horrors of

that frantic passion. So arbitrary was its sway over him for some

moments, that he was on the point of sacrificing the constable,

and even Siffredi, to his blind vengeance. Reason, however,

calmed by little and little the violence of his transports. And

yet the obvious impossibility of effacing from the mind of

Blanche her natural conviction of his infidelity, reduced him to

despair. He flattered himself with weaning her from her

prejudices, could he but converse with her secure from

interruption. To attain this end, it seemed the most feasible

plan to get rid of the constable. He therefore determined to have

him arrested, as a person suspected of treasonable designs, in

the then unsettled state of public affairs. This commission was

given to the captain of his guard, who went immediately to

Belmonte, secured the person of his prisoner just as the evening

was closing in, and carried him to the castle of Palermo.

 

This occurrence spread an alarm at Belmonte. Siffredi took his

departure forthwith, to offer his own responsibility to the king

for the innocence of his son-in-law, and to represent in their

true colours the unpleasant consequences attending such arbitrary

exertions of power. The prince, who had anticipated such a

proceeding on the part of his minister, and was determined at

least to secure himself a free interview with Blanche before the

release of the constable, had expressly forbidden any one to

address him till the next day. But Leontio, setting this

prohibition at defiance, contrived so well as to make his way

into the king’s chamber. My liege, said he, with an air of

humility tempered with firmness, if it is allowable for a subject

full of respect and loyalty to complain of his master, I have to

arraign you before the tribunal of your own conscience. What

crime has my son-in-law committed? Has your majesty sufficiently

reflected what an everlasting reproach is entailed on my family?

Are the consequences of an imprisonment calculated to disgust all

the most important officers of the state with the service, a

matter of indifference? I have undoubted information, answered

the king, that the constable holds a criminal correspondence with

the Infant Don Pedro. A criminal correspondence! interrupted

Leontio, with surprise. Ah! my liege, give no ear to the surmise.

Your majesty is played upon. Treason never gained a footing in

the family of Siffredi. It is sufficient security for the

constable that he is my son-in-law, to place him above all

suspicion. The constable is innocent: but private motives have

been the occasion of your arresting him.

 

Since you speak to me so openly, replied the king, I will adopt

the same sincerity with you. You complain of the constable’s

imprisonment! Be it so. And have I no reason to complain of your

cruelty? it is you, barbarous Siffredi, who have wrested my

tranquillity from me, and reduced your sovereign, by your

officious cares, to envy the lowliest of the human race. For do

not so far deceive yourself as to believe that I shall ever enter

into your views. My marriage with Constance is quite out of the

question … . What, my liege, interrupted Leontio, with an

expression of horror, is there any doubt about your marrying the

princess, after having flattered her with that hope in the face

of your whole people? If their wishes are disappointed, replied

the king, take the credit to yourself: Wherefore did you reduce

me to the necessity of giving them a promise my heart would not

allow me to make good? Where was the occasion to fill up with the

name of Constance an instrument designed for the elevation of

your own daughter? You could not be a stranger to my design; need

you have completed your tyranny by devoting Blanche to the arms

of a man to whom she could not give her heart? And what authority

have you over mine to dispose of it in favour of a princess whom

I detest? Have you forgotten that she is the daughter of that

cruel Matilda, who, trampling the rights of consanguinity and

human nature under foot, caused my father to breathe his last

under all the rigours of a hard captivity? And should I marry

her! No, Siffredi, throw away that hope. Before the lurid torch

of such an hymeneal shall be kindled in your presence, you shall

behold all Sicily in flames, and the expiring embers quenched in

blood.

 

Do not my ears deceive me? exclaimed Leontio. Ah! sovereign, what

a scene do you present me with! Who can hear such menaces without

shuddering? But I am too forward to take the alarm, continued he

in an altered voice. You are in too close a union with your

subjects to be the instrument of a catastrophe so melancholy. You

will not suffer passion to triumph over your reason. Virtues like

yours shall never lose their lustre by the tarnish of human and

ordinary weakness. If I have given my daughter into the arms of

the constable, it was with the design, my liege, of securing to

your majesty a powerful subject, able by his own valour, and the

army under his command, to maintain your party against that of

the Prince Don Pedro. It appeared to me that by connecting him

with my family in so close a bond … . Yes, yes! This bond,

exclaimed Prince Enriquez, this fatal bond has been my ruin.

Unfeeling friend, to aim a wound at my vital part! What

commission had you to take care of my interests at the expense of

my affections? Why did you not leave me to support my pretensions

by my own arm? Was there any question about my courage that I

should be thought incompetent to reduce my rebellious subjects to

their obedience? Means might have been found to punish the

constable had he dared to have fallen off from his allegiance! I

am well aware of the difference between a lawful king and an

arbitrary tyrant. The happiness of our people is our first duty.

But are we, on the other hand, to be the slaves of our subjects?

From the moment when we are selected by heaven for our high

office, do we lose the common privilege of nature, the birthright

of the human race, to dispose of our affections in whatsoever

current they may flow? Well then! if we are less our own masters

than the lowest of the human race, take back, Siffredi, that

sovereign authority you affect to have secured to me by the wreck

of my personal happiness.

 

You cannot but be acquainted, my liege, replied the minister,

that it was on your marriage with the princess, the late king,

your uncle, made the succession of the crown to depend. And by

what right, rejoined Enriquez, did even he assume to himself so

arbitrary a disposition? Was it on such unworthy terms that he

succeeded his brother, King Charles? How came you yourself to be

so besotted as to allow of a stipulation so unjust? For a high

chancellor, you are not too well versed in our laws and

constitutions. To cut the matter short, though I have promised my

hand to Constance, the engagement was not voluntary. I do not

therefore think myself bound to keep my word; and if Don Pedro

founds on my refusal any hope of succeeding to the throne without

involving the nation in a bloody and destructive contest, his

error will be too soon visible. The sword shall decide between us

to whom the prize of empire may more worthily fall. Leontio

could not venture to press him further, and confined himself to

supplicating on his knees for the liberty of his son-in-law. That

boon he obtained. Go, said the king to him, return to Belmonte,

the constable shall follow you thither without delay. The

minister departed, and made the best of his way to Belmonte,

under the persuasion that his son-in-law would overtake him on

the road. In this he was mistaken. Enriquez was determined to

visit Blanche that night, and with such views he deferred the

enlargement of her husband till the next morning.

 

During this time the feelings of the constable were of the most

agonizing nature. His imprisonment had opened his eyes to the

real cause of his misfortune. He gave himself up to jealousy

without restraint or remorse, and belying the good faith which

had hitherto rendered his character so valuable, his thoughts

were all bent on his revenge. As he conjectured rightly that the

king would not fail to reconnoitre Blanche’s apartment during the

night, it was his object to surprise them together. He therefore

besought the governor of the castle at Palermo to allow of his

absence from the prison, on the assurance of his return before

daybreak. The governor, who was devoted to his interest, gave his

permission so much the more easily, as being already advertised

that Siffredi had procured his liberty. Indeed, he even went so

far as to supply him with a horse for his journey to Belmonte.

The constable on his arrival there fastened his horse to a tree.

He then got into the park by a little gate of which he had the

key, and was lucky enough to slip into the castle without being

recognized by any one. On reaching his wife’s apartment he

concealed himself in the antechamber, behind a screen placed as

if expressly for his use. His intention was to observe narrowly

what was going forward, and to present himself on a sudden in

Blanche’s chamber at the sound of any footstep he should hear.

The first object he beheld was Nisa, taking leave of her mistress

for the night, and withdrawing to a closet where she slept.

 

Siffredi’s daughter, who had been at no loss to fathom the

meaning of her husband’s imprisonment, was fully convinced that

he would not return to Belmonte that night, although she had

heard from her father of the king’s assurance that the constable

should set out immediately after him. As little could she doubt

but Enriquez would avail himself of the interval to see and

converse with her at his pleasure. With this expectation she

awaited the prince’s arrival, to reproach him for a line of

conduct so pregnant with fatal consequences to herself. As she

had anticipated, a very short time after Nisa had retired the

sliding panel opened, and the king threw himself at the feet of

his beloved. Madam, said he, condemn me not without a hearing. It

is true I have occasioned the constable’s imprisonment, but then

consider that it was the only method left me for my

justification. Attribute therefore that desperate stratagem to

yourself alone. Why did you refuse to listen to my explanation

this morning? Alas! To-morrow your husband will be liberated, and

I shall no longer have an opportunity of addressing you. Hearken

to me then for the last time. If the loss of you has embittered

the remainder of my days, vouchsafe me at least the melancholy

satisfaction of convincing you that I have not called down this