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

writing her a sarcastic

farewell. They shall be enclosed in one cover, and serve as an

answer to her own letter. But do not let us proceed to this

extremity till you have examined your heart; it may be you will

repent hereafter of having broken off with Isabella. No, no,

interrupted Don Lewis, I am not such a fool as that comes to; let

it be a bargain, and we will mortify the ungrateful wretch as you

propose.

 

I immediately sent for pen, ink, and paper, when they sat

themselves down at opposite corners of the table, and drew up a

most tender bill of indictment against Doctor Murcia de la

Llana’s daughter. Pacheco, in particular, was at a loss for

language forcible enough to convey his sentiments in all their

acrimony; away went exordium after exordium, to the tearing and

maiming of five or six fair sheets, before the words looked

crooked enough to please his jealous eyes. At length, however, he

produced an epistle which came up with his most tragical

conceptions. It ran thus — “Self-knowledge is a leading branch

of wisdom, my little philosopher. As a candidate for a

professor’s chair, lay aside the vanity of fancying yourself

amiable. It requires merit of a far different compass to fix my

affections. You have not enough of the woman about you to afford

me even a temporary amusement. Yet do not despair, you have a

sphere of your own, the beggarly servitors in our university have

a keen appetite, but no very distinguishing palate.” So much for

this elegant epistle! When Aurora had finished hers, which rang

the changes on similar topics, she sealed them, wrapped them up

together, and giving me the packet — There, Gil Blas, said she,

take care that comes to Isabella’s hands this very evening. You

comprehend me! added she, with a glance from the corner of her

eye, which admitted of no doubtful construction. Yes, my lord,

answered I, your commands shall be executed to a tittle.

 

I lost no time in taking my departure; no sooner in the street

than I said to myself — So ho! Master Gil Blas, your part then

is that of the intriguing footman in this comedy. Well! so be it,

my friend! shew that you have wit and sense enough to top it over

the favourite actor of the day. Signor Don Felix thinks a wink as

good as a nod. A high compliment to the quickness of your

apprehension! Is he then in an error? No. His hint is as clear as

daylight. Don Lewis’s letter is to drop its companion by the way.

A lucid exposition of a dark hieroglyphic, enough to shame the

dulness of the commentators. The sacredness of a seal could never

stand against this bright discovery. Out came the single letter

of Pacheco, and away went I to hunt after Doctor Murcia’s abode.

At the very threshold, whom should I meet but the little page who

had been at our lodging. Comrade, said I, do not you happen to

live with the great lawyer’s daughter? His answer was in the

affirmative. I see by your countenance, resumed I, that you know

the ways of the world. May I beg the favour of you to slip this

little memorandum into your mistress’s hand?

 

The little page asked me on whose behalf I was a messenger. The

name of Don Lewis Pacheco had no sooner escaped my lips, than he

told me — Since that is the case, follow me. I have orders to

shew you up. Isabella wants to confer with you. I was introduced

at once into a private apartment, where it was not long before

the lady herself made her appearance. The beauty of her face was

inexpressibly striking; I do not recollect to have seen more

lovely features. Her manner was somewhat mincing and infantine,

yet for all that it had been thirty good years at least since she

had mewled and puked in her nurse’s arms. My friend, said she

with an encouraging smile, are you on Don Lewis Pacheco’s

establishment? I told her I had been in office for these three

weeks. With this I fired off my paper popgun against her peace.

She read it over two or three times, but if she had rubbed her

eyes till doomsday she would have seen no clearer. In point of

fact, nothing could be more unexpected than so cavalier an

answer. Up went her eyes towards the heavens, appealing to their

rival luminaries. The ivory fences* of her pretty mouth committed

alternate trespass on her soft and suffering lips; and her whole

physiognomy bore witness to the pangs of her distressed and

disappointed heart. Then coming to herself a little, and

recovering her speech — My friend, said she, has Don Lewis

taken leave of his senses? Tell me, if you can, his motive for so

heroic an epistle. If he is tired of me, well and good, but he

might have taken his leave like a gentleman.

 

Madam, said I, my master most assuredly has not acted as I should

have acted in his place. But he has in some sort been compelled

to do as he has done. If you would give me your word to keep the

secret, I could unravel the whole mystery. You have it at once,

interrupted she with eagerness; depend on it you shall be brought

into no scrape by me, therefore explain yourself without reserve.

Well, then! replied I, the fact is, without paraphrase,

circumlocution, loss of time, or perplexity of understanding, as

I shall distinctly state in two short words — Not half a minute

after the receipt of your letter, there came into our house a

lady, under a veil as impenetrable as her purpose was dark. She

inquired for Signor Pacheco, and talked with him in private for

some time. At the close of the conversation, I overheard her

saying — You swear to me never to see her more; but we must not

stop there, to set my heart completely at rest you must instantly

write her a farewell letter of my dictating. You know my terms.

Don Lewis did as she desired, then giving the result into my

custody — Acquaint yourself; said he, where Doctor Murcia de la

Liana lives, and contrive to administer this love potion to his

daughter Isabella.

 

You see plainly, madam, pursued I, that this uncivil epistle is a

rival’s handiwork, and that consequently my master is not so much

to blame as he appears. Oh, heaven! exclaimed she, he is more so

than I was aware of. His words might have been the error of his

hand, but his infidelity is the offence of his heart. Faithless

man! Now he is held by other ties … . But, added she,

assuming an air of disdain, let him devote himself unconstrained

to his new passion; I shall never cross him. Tell him, however,

that he need not have insulted me. I should have left the course

open to my rival, without his warning me from the field: for so

fickle a lover has not soul enough about him to pay for the

degradation of soliciting his return. With this sentiment she

gave me my dismissal, and retired in a whirlwind of passion

against Don Lewis.

 

My exit was conducted entirely to my own satisfaction, for I

conceived that with due cultivation of my talent I might in time

become a consummate hypocrite and most successful cheat. I

returned home on the strength of it, where I found my worthy

masters, Mendoza and Pacheco, supping together, and rattling away

as if they had been playfellows from their cradles. Aurora saw at

once, by myself-sufficient air, that her commission had not been

neglected in my hands. Here you are again then, Gil Blas, said

she, give us an account of your embassy. Wit and invention was

all I had to trust to, so I told them I had delivered the packet

into Isabella’s own hands; who, after having glanced over the

contents of the two letters, so far from seeming disconcerted,

burst into a fit of laughter, as if she had been mad, and said —

Upon my word, our young men of fashion write in a pretty style.

It must be owned they are much more entertaining than scribes of

plebeian rank. It was a very good way of getting out of the

scrape, exclaimed my mistress, she must be an arrant coquette.

For my part, said Don Lewis, I cannot trace a feature of Isabella

in this conduct. Her character must have been completely

metamorphosed in my absence. She struck me too in a very

different light, replied Aurora. It must be allowed some women

can assume all modes and fashions at will. I was once in love

with one of that description, and a fine dance she led me. Gil

Blas can tell you the whole story! She had an air of propriety

about her which might have imposed upon a whole synod of old

maids. It is true, said I, putting in my oar; it was a face to

play the devil with a sworn bachelor, I could scarcely have been

proof against it myself.

 

The personated Mendoza and Pacheco shouted with laughter at my

manner of expressing myself; the one for the false witness I bore

against a culprit of my own creation; the other laughed simply at

the phrase in which my anathema was couched. We wait on talking

about the versatility of women, and the verdict, after hearing

the evidence, all on one side, was given against Isabella. A

convicted coquette! and sentence passed on her accordingly. Don

Lewis made a fresh vow never to see her more and Don Felix, after

his example, swore to hold her in eternal abhorrence. By dint of

these mutual protestations a sort of friendship was established

on the spur of the occasion, and they promised on both sides to

keep — no secrets from each other. The time after supper

passed in ingratiating intercourse, and the time seemed short

till they retired to their separate apartments. I followed Aurora

to hers, where I gave her a faithful account of my conversation

with the Doctor’s daughter, not forgetting the most trivial

circumstance. She had much ado to help kissing me for joy. My

dear Gil Blas, said she, I am delighted with your spirit. When

one has the misfortune to be engaged in a passion not to be

gratified but by stratagems, what an advantage is it to secure on

the right side a lad of so enterprising a genius as yourself.

Courage, my friend, we have thrown a rival into the background,

whose presence in the scene might have marred our comedy. So far,

all is well. But as lovers are subject to strange vagaries, it

seems to me that we must make short work of it, and bring Aurora

de Guzman on the stage to-morrow. The idea met with my entire

approbation; so leaving Signor Don Felix with his page, I

withdrew to bed in an adjoining closet.

 

*Note: “Ivory fences”: Should this phrase appear far-fetched in

the person of Gil Blas, it may be recollected, that though not

much of a student himself, he had waited on students; and might

have sucked in, while standing behind their chairs, along with

“fates and destinies, and such old sayings, the sisters three,

and such branches of learning,” that exquisitely characteristic

Greek metaphor — “a hedge of teeth.” — TRANSLATOR.

 

CH. VI. — Aurora’s devices to secure Don Lewis Pacheco’s

affections.

THE two new friends met as soon as they came down in the morning.

The ceremonies of the day began with reciprocal embraces, about

which it was impossible for Aurora to be squeamish, for then Don

Felix must have dropped the mask altogether. They went