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

>to fear, it is under more stately roofs that confidences are

betrayed. On this assurance the cavalier began his story.

 

CH. X. — The history of Don Alphonso and the fair Seraphina.

 

I WILL attempt no disguise from you, my venerable friend, nor

from this gentleman who completes my audience. After the

generosity of his conduct towards me, I should be in the wrong to

distrust him. You shall know my misfortunes from their beginning.

I am a native of Madrid, and came into the world mysteriously. An

officer of the German guard, Baron Steinbach by name, returning

home one evening, espied a bundle of fair linen at the foot of

his staircase. He took it up and carried it to his wife’s

apartment, where it turned out to be a new-born infant, wrapped

up in very handsome swaddling-clothes, with a note containing an

assurance that it belonged to persons of condition, who would

come forward and own it at some future period; and the further

information that it had been baptized by the name of Alphonso. I

was that unfortunate stranger in the world, and this is all that

I know about myself. Whether honour or profligacy was the motive

of the exposure, the helpless child was equally the victim;

whether my unhappy mother wanted to get rid of me, to conceal an

habitual course of scandalous amours, or whether she had made a

single deviation from the path of virtue with a faithless lover,

and had been obliged to protect her fame at the expense of nature

and the maternal feelings.

 

However this might be, the Baron and his wife were touched by my

destitute condition, and resolved, as they had no children of

their own, to bring me up under the name of Don Alphonso. As I

grew in years and stature their attachment to me strengthened. My

manners, genteel before strangers and affectionate towards them,

were the theme of their fondest panegyric. In short, they loved

me as if I had been their own. Masters of every description were

provided for me. My education became their leading object; and

far from waiting impatiently till my parents should come forward,

they seemed, on the contrary, to wish that my birth might always

remain a mystery. As soon as the Baron thought me old enough to

bear arms, he sent me into the service. With my ensign’s

commission, a genteel and suitable equipment was provided for me;

and, the more effectually to animate me in the career of glory,

my patron pointed out that the path of honour was open to every

adventurer, and that the renown of a warrior would be so much the

more creditable to me, as I should owe it to none but myself. At

the same time he laid open to me the circumstances of my birth,

which he had hitherto concealed. As I had passed for his son in

Madrid, and had actually thought myself so, it must be owned that

this communication gave me some uneasiness. I could not then, nor

can I even now, think of it without a sense of shame. In

proportion as the innate feelings of a gentleman bear testimony

to the birth of one, am I mortified at being rejected and

renounced by the unnatural authors of my being.

 

I went to serve in the Low Countries, but peace was concluded in

a short time; and Spain finding herself without assailants,

though not without assassins, I returned to Madrid, where I

received fresh marks of affection from the Baron and his wife.

Rather more than two months after my return, a little page came

into my room one morning, and presented me with a note couched

nearly in the following terms — ” I am neither ugly nor

crooked, and yet you often see me at my window without the

tribute of a glance. This conduct is little in unison with the

spirit of your physiognomy, and so far stings me to revenge that

I will make you love me if possible.”

 

On the perusal of this epistle, there could be no doubt but it

came from a widow, by name Leonora, who lived opposite our house,

and had the character of a very great coquette. Hereupon I

examined my little messenger, who had a mind to be on the reserve

at first, but a ducat in hand opened the floodgates of his

intelligence. He even took charge of an answer to his mistress,

confessing my guilt, and intimating that its punishment was far

advanced.

 

I was not insensible to a conquest even of this kind. For the

rest of the day home and my window-seat were the grand

attraction; and the lady seemed to have fallen in love with her

window-seat too. I madesignals. She returned them; and on the

very next day sent me word by her little Mercury, that if I would

be in the street on the following night between eleven and

twelve, I might converse with her at a window on the ground-floor. Though I did not feel myself very much captivated by so

coming on a kind of widow, it was impossible not to send such an

answer as if I was; and a sort of amorous curiosity made me as

impatient as if I had really been in love. In the dusk of the

evening, I went sauntering up and down the Prado till the hour of

assignation. Before I could get to my appointment, a man mounted

on. a fine horse alighted near me, and coming up with a

peremptory air — Sir, said he, are not you the son of Baron

Steinbach? I answered in the affirmative. You are the person

then, resumed he, who were to meet Leonora at her window to-night? I have seen her letters and your answers, her page has put

them into my hands, and I have followed you this evening from

your own house hither, to let you know you have a rival whose

pride is not a little wounded at a competition with yourself in

an affair of the heart. It would be unnecessary to say more. We

are in a retired place, let us therefore draw, unless, to avoid

the chastisement in store for you, you will give me your word to

break off all connection with Leonora. Sacrifice in my favour all

your hopes and interest, or your life must be the forfeit. It had

been better, said I, to have ensured my generosity by good

manners, than to extort my compliance by menaces. I might have

granted to your request what I must refuse to this insolent

demand.

 

Well, then, resumed he, tying up his horse and preparing for the

encounter, let us settle our dispute like men. Little could a

person of my condition have stomached the debasement of a

request, to a man of your quality. Nine out of ten in my rank

would, under such circumstances, have taken their revenge on

terms of less honour but more safety. I felt myself exasperated

at this last insinuation, so that, seeing he had already drawn

his sword, mine did not linger in the scabbard. We fell on one

another with so much fury, that the engagement did not last long.

Whether his attack was made with too much heat, or my skill in

fencing was superior, he soon received a mortal wound. He

staggered, and dropped dead upon the spot. In such a situation,

having no alternative but an immediate escape, I mounted the

horse of my antagonist, and went off in the direction of Toledo.

There was no venturing to return to Baron Steinbach’s, since,

besides the danger of the attempt, the narrative of my adventure

from my own mouth would only afflict him the more, so that

nothing was so eligible as an immediate decampment from Madrid.

 

Chewing the cud of my own melancholy reflection, I travelled

onwards the remainder of the night and all the next morning. But

about noon it became necessary to stop, both for the sake of my

horse and to avoid the insupportable fierceness of the mid-day

heat. I staid in a village till sun-set, and then, intending to

reach Toledo without drawing bit, went on my way. I had already

got two leagues beyond Ilescas, when, about midnight, a storm

like that of to day overtook me as I was jogging along the road.

There was a garden wall at some little distance, and I rode up to

it. For want of any more commodious shelter, my horse’s station

and. my own were arranged, as comfortably as circumstances would

admit, near the door of a summer-house at the end of the wall,

with a balcony over it. Leaning against the door, I discovered it

to be open, owing, as I thought, to the negligence of the

servants. Having dismounted, less from curiosity than for the

sake of a better standing, as the rain had been very troublesome

under the balcony, I went into the lower part of the summer-house, leading my horse by the bridle.

 

My amusement during the storm was in reconnoitring my quarters;

and though I had nothing to form an opinion by, but the lurid

gleams of the lightning, it was very evident that such a house

must belong to some family above the common. I was waiting

anxiously till the rain abated, to set forward again on my

journey; but a great light at a distance made me change my

purpose. Leaving my horse in the summer-house, with the

precaution of fastening the door, I made for the light, in the

assurance that they were not all gone to bed in the house, and

with the intention of requesting a lodging for the night. After

crossing several walks, I came to a saloon, and here too the door

was left open. On my entrance, from the magnificence so

handsomely displayed by the light of a fine crystal lustre, it

was easy to conclude that this must be the residence of some

illustrious nobleman. The pavement was of marble, the wainscot

richly carved and gilt, the proportions of architecture

tastefully preserved, and the ceiling evidently adorned by the

masterpieces of the first artists in fresco. But what

particularly engaged my attention was a great number of busts,

and those of Spanish heroes, supported on jasper pedestals, and

ranged round the saloon. There was opportunity enough for

examining all this splendour, since there was not even a foot-fall, nor the shadow of any one gliding along the passage, though

my ears and eyes were incessantly on the watch for some

inhabitant of this fairy desert.

 

On one side of the saloon there was a door a-jar; by pushing it a

little wider open, I discovered a range of apartments, with a

light only in the furthest. What is to be done now? thought I

within myself. Shall I go back, or take the liberty of marching

forward, even to that chamber? To be sure, it was obvious that

the most prudent step would be to make good my retreat; but

curiosity was not to be repelled, or rather, to speak more truly,

my star was in its ascendant. Advancing boldly from room to room,

at length I reached that where the light was. It was a wax taper

on a marble slab, in a magnificent candlestick. The first object

that caught my eye was the gay furniture of this summer abode;

but soon afterwards, casting a look towards a bed, of which the

curtains were half undrawn on account of the heat, an object

arrested my attention, which engrossed it with the deepest

interest. A young lady, in spite of the thunderclaps which had

been pealing round her, was sleeping there, motionless and

undisturbed. I approached her very gently, and by the light of

the taper I had seized, a complexion and features the most

dazzling