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

about his

only son, who was nearly of my own age. Lucinda gave her consent

without reluctance, and it was then that I began to mind a little

what I was about. Young Leganez could not reproach me with my

ignorance, his little lordship was not cast in a scientific

mould, for he scarcely knew a letter of his alphabet, though he

had been under private tuition for fifteen months. None of his

masters could make anything of him, patience was never formed to

engage in so unequal a match. To be sure, they were expressly

forbid to exercise any severity on his noble carcass, their

orders were to teach, not to torture him; and this tender

precaution, acting on a subject of insufferably untoward

dispositions, was the means of throwing to the dogs all the

mental physic they poured in; he would none of it.

 

But the verb-grinder engendered in his noddle a most ingenious

device, by which to keep this troublesome young lordling in awe,

without trenching on his foolish father’s injunctions. This

scheme was no other than to flog me when ever that scape-grace

Leganez had incurred the penalty of the rod, and this vicarious

execution was inflicted with the utmost rigour. My consent to the

transfer had never been asked, and there was nothing in the act

itself to recommend it; so that my only chance was to run away,

and appeal to my mother against so arbitrary a discipline.

However her maternal feelings might inwardly revolt, no trace of

woman’s weakness could be detected in her manner of receiving my

complaint. The Leganez connection was too important to be lost

for a few whippings; and away went she, dragging her culprit into

the presence of his tormentor, who by this act of hers became

master of broom field. Experience had convinced him that the

success of his invention corresponded with its felicity. He

therefore went on improving the mind and manners of the little

grandee at the expense of my skin. Remorse for his delinquencies

was to be excited only by sympathy; so that whenever it became

necessary to make a bloody example, my seat of vengeance was

firked most unmercifully. The running account between young

Leganez and me was all on one side, and scarcely a day passed but

he sinned on tick and suffered by attorney. By the nearest

calculation of whole numbers, there went somewhere about a

hundred cuts to teach him each single letter of the alphabet; so

that if you multiply 100 by 24 for stupidity, and add an 0 to the

amount for moral offences, you will have the sum total of the

belabouring that his education cost me.

 

This thick and threefold companionship with birch was not the

only rub; my path through this family was more beset with thorns

than sweetened by flowers. As my birth and connections were no

secret, the whole of the establishment, to the very refuse of the

household, the stable-boys and scullions, twitted me with my

shameful origin. This stuck so terribly in my throat that I made

my escape once more, but not without borrowing my tutor’s ready

money, amounting to upwards of a hundred and fifty ducats, for an

indefinite period, and without interest. Thus was the account

settled between us, since he had made a property of my hide for a

scarecrow, it was but fair that I should have a finger in the

earnings of his arm. For a first attempt at thieving both the

plan and execution were hopeful. A hue and cry was raised for two

days, it was hot while it lasted, but I lay snug, and they missed

me. Madrid was no longer a fit hiding-place, so I took to cover

in Toledo, and the hounds were thrown out.

 

I was just then entering into my fifteenth year. What a happy

fellow, at such an early age, to shape my own conduct and be in a

condition of forming a set of morals for myself! I soon scraped

acquaintance with some pleasant youths, who rescued me from the

dominion of prejudice, and shared liberally with me in the sin of

spending what was not my own. By degrees I rose in society and

leagued myself with a set of professional sharpers, who found me

so fine a subject to work upon, that a short time, with plenty of

practice, put me in possession of all the most desperate jobs. At

the expiration of five years, an itch for travelling laid hold of

me. I therefore took leave of my comrades and got as far as

Alcantara, wishing to commence my peregrinations with the

province of Estremadura. In this my first excursion, an

opportunity of keeping in my hand occurred; and I was too

diligent a practitioner to let it escape. As I was on foot, and

loaded moreover with a pretty heavy knapsack, I halted from time

to time to avail myself of the shade, and recruit a little under

the trees which lined the highway. At one of these baits I picked

up two young gentlemen, who were chatting at their ease upon the

grass, and inhaling the freshness of the breeze. My mode of

accosting them was suited to the occasion; nor did its

familiarity seem to be taken in ill part. The eldest could not be

more than fifteen — a couple of as practicable greenhorns as

ever fell into the hands of a man of genius. Courteous stranger,

said the youngest, we are the Sons of two rich citizens at

Placentia. Longing extremely to see the kingdom of Portugal, we

have each of us begged a hundred pistoles from our friends, and

are setting out to satisfy our curiosity. Travelling on foot as

we do, we shall be able to get a good way with that supply, shall

we not? What do you think of it? If I had as much, answered I,

they might take me who could catch me. I would scour over the

four known quarters of the globe, and then set out on new

discoveries. Fire and fury! Two hundred pistoles! Why it is an

entail for a dukedom! You ought to lay by out of the interest. If

it is agreeable to you, gentlemen, I will club with you as far as

Almeria, whither I am going to take possession of an estate left

me by an uncle who was settled there for twenty years or upwards.

 

My young cockneys testified at once the pleasure they should

derive from my company. Whereupon, when we were all three a

little refreshed, we trudged on towards Alcantara, where we

arrived early in the afternoon. No inn but the best was fit to

hold such guests. We asked for a room, and were shown into one

where there was a press with a good strong lock upon it. Supper

was ordered without delay; but as some time was required to get

it ready, I proposed to my travelling companions a gentle saunter

about the town. The party seemed perfectly agreeable. We locked

up our knapsacks in the press, the key of which one of the

citizens put in his pocket, and out sallied we from the inn. The

churches were the best lions we met with in our way; and while we

were gaping about the principal, I pretended to have recollected

on a sudden some very urgent business. Gentlemen, said I to my

companions, it has just come across me that a good man of Toledo

gave me a commission to say two words on his behalf to a merchant

who lives hard by this church. Have the goodness to wait for me

here, I will be back in a moment. With this excuse, I went off

like a shot, in the direction of our inn. The press was my point

of attack — I forced the lock, ransacked the baggage of my young

citizens, and laid a sacrilegious hand on their pistoles. Poor

youths! How they were to pay their reckoning, it was not for me

to presume even to guess, for most assuredly I stripped them of

all the natural means. After this feat, I decamped as

expeditiously as my legs could carry me from the town, and took

the direction of Merida, without caring a curse what became of

the young brood I had plucked.

 

Such a windfall as this placed me in a condition of travelling

merrily. Though in the very blush of youth, a certain forecast

was not wanting to carry me discreetly through the world, and

keep my head above water. It must be admitted without question,

that I was a youth of forward parts for my age, and unfettered by

the prejudices of innocence. I determined to buy a mule, and

cheapened one at the first market town. My knapsack was

metamorphosed into a portmanteau, and by degrees I began to put

on the man of consequence. On the third day a man came across me

singing vespers with lungs like a pair of bellows on the highway.

By his air, he seemed to be a musician of the church

establishment, and I accosted him accordingly. Well done, my holy

howler of the hallelujahs! You sing your penitential ditties at a

good jovial pitch. To all appearance you sol-fa with your whole

heart and soul. Good sir, replied he, I belong, with your good

leave, to the musical department of the Catholic church: and it

is my common practice to keep my devotion and my wind in play by

the rehearsal of an anthem or two as I travel along the road.

 

With this disposition to be sociable, we soon got into

conversation. It was clear to me that I had fallen in with a

character not to be despised in point of shrewdness, nor

indisposed to society and merriment. He was four or five-and-twenty. My companion being on foot, I slackened my pace, for the

pleasure of chatting with him. Among other things, we talked

about Toledo. I am perfectly well acquainted with that city, said

the brazen-lunged torturer of anthems. It was my residence for a

considerable time, and my connections there are not altogether

contemptible. And in what part of the town, interrupted I, did

you reside? In the New Street, was his answer. I was hand in

glove with Don Vincent de Buena Garra, Don Matthias de Cordello,

and two or three other gentlemen of very considerable fashion. We

lived together; took our meals at the same mess, and, in short,

were scarcely ever asunder. It was a charming society! This

avowal was no small surprise to me, for it is to be understood,

that the gentlemen whose names he cited with so pompous an air

were the very sharpers with whom I had been affiliated at Toledo.

Why, thou degenerate vicar choral! exclaimed I, these fine blades

of whom thou hast been boasting are among the number of my

acquaintance also, for I too have lived with them in the New

Street; we were hand in glove, took our meals at the same mess,

and, in short, were scarcely ever asunder. You are a wag! replied

he, with a knowing wink, that is to say, you got into the gang

three years ago, when I left it. My motive for quitting such a

worshipful fraternity, resumed I, was an itch for travelling. I

mean to make the tour of Spain. A little more knowledge of the

world will make me quite another thing. Doubtless, said he, there

is no possible way but travelling to rub off the rust, or bring

wit, talent, and address to perfection. It is for the self-same

reason that I too turned my back upon Toledo, though the time

glided away there very agreeably. But thanks to a kind

providence, which has yoked me with a labourer in my own

vineyard, when I least expected