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

such unchecked profusion, when it turned out that

they lined the entrance of a very deep cavern. The opening was

wide, and the recess in consequence partially illuminated. We

were determined to explore; and descended by some stone steps

overgrown with flowers on each side, so that it was difficult to

say whether the approach was formed by art or nature. When we had

got down, we saw several little streams winding over a sand, the

yellow lustre of which outrivalled gold. These drew their sources

from the continual distillations of the rock within, and lost

themselves again in the hollows of the ground. The water looked

so clear, that we were tempted to drink of it; and such was its

freshness, that we made a party to return the next day, with some

bottles of generous wine, which we were persuaded would acquire

new zest from the retreat where they were to be quaffed.

 

It was not without regret that we left so agreeable a place: nor

did we omit, on our return to the fort, boasting among our

comrades of so interesting a discovery. The commander of the

fortress, however, with the warmest professions of friendship,

warned us against going any more to the cavern, with which we

were so much delighted. And why so? said I, is there anything to

be afraid of? Most undoubtedly, answered he. The corsairs of

Algiers and Tripoli sometimes land upon this island, for the

purpose of watering at that spring. One day they surprised two

soldiers of my garrison there, whom they carried into slavery. It

was in vain that the officer assumed a tone of kind dissuasion;

nothing could prevent us from going. We fancied that he meant to

play upon our fears; and the day following I returned to the

cavern with three adventurous blades of our establishment. We

were even fool-hardy enough to leave our fire-arms behind as a

sort of bravado. Young Moralez declined being of the party: the

fort and the gaming-table had more charms for him, as well as for

his brother.

 

We went down to the bottom of the cave, as on the preceding day,

and set some bottles of the wine we had brought with us to cool

in the rivulets. While we were enjoying them in all the luxury of

elegant conviviality, our wits set in motion by the novelty of

the scene, and the echo reverberating to the music of our

guitars, we espied at the mouth of the cavern several abominable

faces overgrown with whiskers; neither did their turbans and

Turkish dresses render them a whit more amiable in our conceits.

We nevertheless took it into our heads that it was a frolic of

our own party, set on by the commanding officer of the fort, and

that they had disguised themselves for the purpose of playing us

a trick. With this impression on our minds, we set up a horse-laugh, and allowed a quiet entrance to about ten, without

thinking of making any resistance. In a few moments our eyes were

opened to that fatal error, and we were convinced, in sober

sadness, that it was a corsair at the head of his crew, come to

carry us away. Surrender, you Christian dogs, cried he in most

outlandish Castilian, or prepare for instant death. At the same

time the men who accompanied him levelled their pieces at us, and

our ribs would have been well lined with the contents, if we had

resisted in the least. Slavery seemed the better alternative than

death, so that we delivered our swords to the pirate. He ordered

us to be handcuffed and carried on board his vessel, which was

moored not far off; then, setting sail, he steered with a fair

wind towards Algiers.

 

Thus were we punished for having neglected the warning given us

by the officer of the garrison. The first thing the corsair did

was to put his hand into our pockets and make free with our

money. No bad windfall for him! The two hundred pistoles from the

greenhorns at Placentia; the hundred which Moralez had received

from Jerome de Moyadas, and which, as ill luck would have it,

were in my custody; all this was swept away without a single

qualm of conscience. My companions too had their purses well

lined; and it was all fish that came to the net. The pirate

seemed to chuckle at so successful a drag; and the scoundrel, not

contented with chousing us of our cash, insulted us with his

infernal Moorish witticisms: but the edge of his satire was not

half so keen as the dire necessity which made us the subject of

it. After a thousand clumsy sarcasms, he called for the bottles

which we had set to cool in the fountain; those irreligious

Mahometans not having scrupled to load their consciences with the

conveyance of the unholy fermentation. The master and his man

pledged one another in many a Christian bumper, and drank to our

better acquaintance with a most provoking mockery.

 

While this farce was acting, my comrades wore a hanging look,

which testified how pleasantly their thoughts were employed. They

were so much the more out of conceit with their captivity, as

they thought they had drawn a prize in the lottery of human life.

The island of Majorca, with all its luxuries and delights, was a

melancholy contrast with their present situation. For my part, I

had the good sense to take things as I found them. Less put out

of my way by my misfortune than the rest, I joined in

conversation with this transmarine joker, and shewed him that wit

was the common language of Africa and of Europe. He was pleased

with my accommodating spirit. Young man, said he, instead of

groaning and sighing, you do well to arm yourself with patience,

and to fall in with the current of your destiny. Play us a little

air, continued he, observing that I had a guitar by my side; let

us have a specimen of your skill. I complied with his command, as

soon as my arms were loosened from their confinement, and began

to thrum away in a style that drew down the applauses of my

discerning audience. It is true that I had been taught by the

best master in Madrid, and that I played very tolerably for an

amateur upon that instrument. A song was then called for, and my

voice gave equal satisfaction. All the Turks on board testified

by gestures of admiration the delight with which my performance

inspired them; from which circumstance it was but modest to

conclude, that vocal music had made no very extraordinary

progress in their part of the world. The pirate whispered in my

ear, that my slavery should be no disadvantage to me; and that

with my talents I might reckon upon an employment, by which my

lot would be rendered not only supportable, but happy.

 

I felt somewhat encouraged by these assurances; but flattering as

they were, I was not without my uneasiness as to the employment,

which the corsair held out as a nameless, but invaluable boon.

When we arrived in the port of Algiers, a great number of persons

were collected to receive us; and we had not yet disembarked,

when they uttered a thousand shouts of joy. Add to this, that the

air re-echoed with a confused sound of trumpets, of Moorish

flutes, and of other instruments, the fashion of that country,

forming a symphony of deafening clangour, but very doubtful

harmony. The occasion of these rejoicings proceeded from a false

report, which had been current about the town. It had been the

general talk that the renegado Mahomet, meaning our amiable

pirate, had lost his life in the attack of a large Genoese

vessel; so that all his friends, informed of his return, were

eager to hail him with these thundering demonstrations of

attachment.

 

We had no sooner set foot on shore, than my companions and myself

were conducted to the palace of the bashaw Soliman, where a

Christian secretary, questioning us individually one after

another, inquired into our names, our ages, our country, our

religion, and our qualifications. Then Mahomet, presenting me to

the bashaw, paid my voice more compliments than it deserved, and

told him that I played on the guitar with a most ravishing

expression. This was enough to influence Soliman in his choice of

me for his own immediate service. I took up my abode therefore in

his seraglio. The other captives were led into the public market,

and sold there at the usual rate of Christian cattle. What

Mahomet had foretold to me on ship-board was completely verified;

my condition was exactly to my mind. I was not consigned to the

stronghold of a prison, nor kept to any works of oppressive

labour. My indulgent master stationed me in a particular quarter,

with five or six slaves of superior rank, who were in momentary

expectation of being ransomed, and were therefore favoured in the

distribution of our tasks. The care of watering the orange-trees

and flowers in the gardens was allotted as my portion. There

could not be a more agreeable or less fatiguing employment.

 

Soliman was a man about forty years of age, well made as to

figure, tolerably accomplished as to his mind, and as much of a

lady’s man as could be expected from a Turk. His favourite was a

Cashmirian, whose wit and beauty had acquired an absolute

dominion over his affections. He loved her even to idolatry. Not

a day but he paid his court to her by some elegant entertainment;

at one time a concert of vocal and instrumental music, at

another, a dramatic performance after the fashion of the Turks,

which fashion implies a loose sort of comedy, where moral and

modesty enter about as much into the contemplation of the

contriver, as do Aristotle and his unities. The favourite, whose

name was Farrukhnaz, was passionately enamoured of these

exhibitions; she sometimes even got up among her own women some

Arabian melodramas to be performed before her admirer. She took

some of the parts herself; and charmed the spectators by the

abundant grace and vivacity of her action. One day when I was

among the musicians at one of these representations, Soliman

ordered me to play on the guitar, and to sing a solo between the

acts of the piece. I had the good fortune to give satisfaction,

and was received with applause. The favourite herself, if my

vanity did not mislead me, cast glances towards me of no

unfavourable interpretation.

 

On the next day, as I was watering the orange-trees in the

gardens, there passed close by me an eunuch, who, without

stopping or saying a word, threw down a note at my feet. I picked

it up with an emotion, strangely compounded of pleasure and

alarm. I crouched upon the ground, for fear of being observed

from the windows of the seraglio; and, concealing myself behind

the boxes in which the orange-trees were planted, opened this

unexpected enclosure. There I found a diamond of very

considerable value, and these words, in genuine Castilian: “Young

Christian, return thanks to heaven for your captivity. Love and

fortune will render it the harbinger of your bliss: love, if you

are alive to the attractions of a fine person, and fortune, if

you have the hardihood to confront danger in every direction.”

 

I could not for a moment doubt that the letter was written by the

favourite sultana; the style and the diamond were more than

presumptive evidence against her. Besides that nature did not

cast me in the mould of a coward, the vanity of keeping up a good

understanding with the mistress of a scoundrelly Mahometan in

office, and, more than all the temptations of vanity or

inclination, the hope of cajoling her out of four