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

of

ours was not designed to turn the religion we outwardly professed

into ridicule; it was only to furnish ourselves with amusement,

and give loose to a ludicrous whim which struck us in the moment

of jollity, that of paying the last offices of humanity to my

dog.

 

This action was, however, very near laying me by the heels. On

the following day there came a fellow to my house, saying, Master

Sidy Hali, it is no laughing matter that induces me to pay you

this visit. My employer, the cadi, wants to have a word in your

ear; be so good, if you please, as just to step to his office,

without loss of time. An Arabian merchant, who supped with you

last night, has laid an information respecting a certain act of

irreverence perpetrated by you, on occasion of a dog which you

buried. It is on that charge that I summon you to appear this day

before the judge; and in case of failure, you are hereby warned

that you will be the subject of a criminal prosecution. Away went

he, leaving me to digest his discourse; but the citation stuck in

my throat, and took away my appetite. The Arabian had no reason

whatever to set his face against me; and I could not comprehend

the meaning of the dog’s trick the scoundrel had played me. The

circumstance at all events demanded my prompt attention. I knew

the cadi’s character: a saint on the outside, but a sinner in his

heart. Away went I therefore to wait on this judge, but not with

empty pockets. He sent for me into his private room, and began

upon me in all the vehemence of pious indignation: You are a

fellow rejected out of paradise! a blasphemer of our holy law! a

man loathsome and abominable to look upon! You have performed the

funeral service of a Mussulman over a dog. What an act of

sacrilege! Is it thus, then, that you reverence our most holy

ceremonies? Have you only turned Mahometan to laugh at our

devotions and our rites? My honoured master, answered I, the

Arabian who has told you such a cock-and-bull story is a wolf in

sheep’s clothing; and more than that, he is even an accomplice in

my crime, if it is one, to grant such rest as to peace-parted

souls to a faithful household servant, to an animal with more

good qualities than half the two-legged Mahometans out of

Christendom. His attachment besides to people of merit and

consideration in the world was at once moral and sensible; and at

his death he left several little tokens of remembrance to his

friends. By his last will and testament, he bequeathed his

effects in the manner therein mentioned, and did me the honour to

name me for his executor. This old crony came in for twenty

crowns, that for thirty, and another for a cool hundred; but your

worship is interested deeply in this instrument, pursued I,

drawing out my purse; he has left you residuary legatee, and here

is the amount of the bequest. The cadi’s gravity could not but

relax, after the posthumous kindness of his deceased friend; and

he laughed outright in the face of the mock executor. As we were

alone, there was no occasion to make wry mouths at the purse, and

my acquittal was pronounced in these words: Go, Master Sidy Hali;

it was a very pious act of yours, to enlarge the obsequies of a

dog, who had so manly a fellow-feeling for honest folks.

 

By this device I got out of the scrape; and if the hint did not

increase my religion, it doubled my circumspection. I was

determined no longer to open either my cellar or my soul in

presence of Arabian or Jew. My bottle companion henceforward was

a young gentleman from Leghorn, who had the happiness of being my

slave. His name was Azarini. I was of another kidney from

renegadoes in general, who impose greater hardships on their

Christian slaves than do the Turks themselves. All my captives

waited for the period of their ransom, without any impatient

hankering after home. My behaviour to them was, in truth, so

gentle and fatherly, that many of them assured me they were more

afraid of changing their master than anxious after their liberty;

whatever magic that word may have to the ears of those who have

felt what it is to be deprived of it.

 

One day the bashaw’s corsairs came into port with considerable

prizes. Their cargo amounted to more than a hundred slaves of

either sex, carried off from the Spanish coast. Soliman retained

but a very small number, and all the rest were sold. I happened

to go to market, and bought a Spanish girl, ten or twelve years

old. She cried as if her heart would break, and looked the

picture of despair. It seemed strange, that at her age slavery

should make such an impression on her. I told her, in Castilian,

to combat with her terrors: and assured her that she was fallen

into the hands of a master who had not put off humanity when he

took up the turban. The little mourner, not initiated in the

trade of grief, pursued the subject of her lamentations without

listening to me. Her whole soul seemed to be breathed in her

sighs; she descanted on her wretched fate, and exclaimed from

time to time in softened accents: O my mother, why were we ever

parted? I could bear my lot with patience, might we share it

together. With these lamentations on her lips, she turned round

towards a woman of from five-and-forty to fifty, standing at the

distance of several paces, and waiting with her eyes fixed to the

ground, in a determined, sullen silence, till she met with a

purchaser. I asked my young bargain if the lady she was looking

at was her mother. Alas! she is, indeed, sir, replied the girl;

for the love of God, do not let me be parted from her. Well,

then, my distressed little damsel, said I, if it will give you

any pleasure, there is no more to do than to settle you both in

the same quarters, and then you will give over your murmuring. On

the very moment I went up to the mother, with the intention of

cheapening her; but no sooner did I cast my eyes on her face,

than I knew again, with what emotion you may guess! the very form

and pressure of Lucinda. Just heaven! said I within myself; this

is my mother! Nature whispers it in my ear, and can I doubt her

evidence? On her part, whether a keen resentment of her woes

pointed out an enemy in every object on which she glanced, or

else it might be my dress that disfigured me; … . or else I

might have grown a little older in about a dozen years since she

had seen me … . but however historians may account for it,

she did not know me. But I knew her, and bought her: the pair

were sent home to my house.

 

When they were safely lodged, I wished to surprise them with the

pleasure of ascertaining who I was. Madam, said I to Lucinda, is

it possible that my features should not strike you? ‘Tis true, I

wear whiskers and a turban: but is Raphael less your son for

that? My mother thrilled through all her frame at these words,

looked at me with an eager gaze, my whole self rushed into her

recollection, and into each other’s arms we affectionately flew.

I then caressed, in moderated ecstasies, her daughter, who

perhaps knew as much about having a brother as I did about having

a sister. Tell the truth, said I to my mother; in all your

theatrical discoveries, did you ever meet with one so truly

natural and dramatic as this? My dear son, answered she, in an

accent of sorrow, the first sight of you after so long a

separation overwhelmed me with joy, but the revulsion was only

the more deeply distressing. In what condition, alas! do I again

behold you? My own slavery is a thousand times less revolting to

my feelings than the disgraceful habiliments … . Heyday! By

all the powers, madam, interrupted I with a hearty laugh, I am

quite delighted with your newly-acquired morality: this is

excellent in an actress. Well! well! as heaven is my judge, my

honoured mamma, you are mightily improved in your principles, if

my transformation astounds your religious eyesight. So far from

quarrelling with your turban, consider me rather as an actor,

playing a Turkish character on the stage of the world. Though a

conformist, I am just as much a Mussulman as when I was in Spain;

nay, in the bottom of my heart, I never was a more firm believer

in our Christian creed than at the present moment. When you shall

become acquainted with all my hair-breadth escapes, since I have

been domesticated in this country, you will not be rigorous in

your censure. Love has been the cause of my apostasy, and he who

worships at that shrine may be absolved from all other

infidelities. I have a little of my mother in me, take my word

for it. Another reason besides ought to moderate your disgust at

seeing me under my present circumstances. You were expecting to

experience a harsh captivity in Algiers, but you find in your

protector a son, with all the tenderness and reverence befitting

his relation to you, and rich enough to maintain you here in

plenty and comfort, till a favourable opportunity offers of

returning with safety into Spain. Admit, therefore, the force of

the proverb, which says that evil itself is good for something.

 

My dear son, said Lucinda, since you fully intend one day to go

back into your own country, and to throw off the mantle of

Mahomet, my scruples are all satisfied. Thanks to heaven,

continued she, I shall be able to carry back your sister Beatrice

safe and sound into Castile. Yes, madam, exclaimed I, so you may.

We will all three, as soon as the season may serve, go and throw

ourselves into the bosom of our family: for I make no matter of

doubt but you have still in Spain other indisputable evidences of

your prolific powers. No, said my mother, I have only you two,

the offspring of my body; and you are to know that Beatrice is

the fruit of a marriage, manufactured in as workmanlike a manner

as any within the pale of the church. And pray, for what reason,

replied I, might not my little sister have been just as

contraband as myself? How did you ever work yourself up to the

formidable resolution of marrying? I have heard you say a hundred

times, in my childhood, that there was no benefit of clergy for a

pretty woman who could commit such an offence as to take up with

a husband. Times and seasons ebb and flow, my son, rejoined she.

Men of the most resolute character may be shaken in their

purposes: and do you require that a woman should be inflexible in

hers? But I will now relate to you the story of my life since

your departure from Madrid. She then began the following recital,

which will never be obliterated from my memory. I will not

withhold from you so curious a narrative.

 

It is nearly thirteen years, if you recollect, said my mother,

since you left young Leganez. Just at that time, the Duke of

Medina Coeli told me that he had a mind to sup with me one

evening in private. The day was fixed. I made preparations for

his reception: he came, and I pleased him. He required from me

the sacrifice of