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

fancy. I do not

deny it, replied Lucinda: I love that renegado, and mean to take

him for my fourth husband. What an idea! interrupted I with

horror: you, to marry a Mussulman! You forget yourself to be a

Christian, or rather have hitherto been one only in name and not

in heart. Ah! my dear mother, what a futurity do you present to

my imagination! You are running headlong to your eternal ruin.

You are going to do voluntarily, and from impure motives, what I

have only done under the pressure of necessity.

 

I urged many other arguments in the same strain, to turn her

aside from her purpose: but all my eloquence was wasted; she had

made up her mind to her future destiny. Not satisfied with

following the bent of her base inclinations, and leaving her son

to go and live with this renegado, she had even formed a design

to settle Beatrice in her own family. This I opposed with all my

might and main. Ah! wretched Lucinda, said I, if nothing is

capable of keeping you within the limits of your duty, at least

rush on perdition alone; confine with in yourself the fury which

possesses you; cast not a young innocent headlong over a

precipice, though you yourself may venture on the leap. Lucinda

quitted my presence in moody silence. It struck me that a remnant

of reason still enlightened her, and that she would not

obstinately persevere in requiring her daughter to be given up to

her. How little did I know of my mother! One of my slaves said to

me two days afterwards: Sir, take care of yourself. A captive

belonging to Pegelin has just let me into a secret, of which you

cannot too soon avail yourself. Your mother has changed her

religion; and as a punishment upon you for having refused

Beatrice to her wishes, it is her purpose to acquaint the bashaw

with your flight. I could not for a moment doubt but what Lucinda

was the woman to do just what my slave had said she would. The

lady had given me manifold opportunities of studying her

character; and it was sufficiently evident that by dint of

playing bloody parts in tragedy, she had familiarized herself

with the guilty scenes of real life. It would not in the least

have gone against her nature to have got me burned alive; nor

probably would she have been more affected by my exit after that

fashion, than by the winding up of a dramatic tale.

 

The warning of my slave, therefore, was not to be neglected. My

embarkation was hastened on. I took some Turks on board,

according to the practice of the Algerine corsairs when going on

a piratical expedition: but I engaged no more than was necessary

to blind the eyes of jealousy, and weighed anchor from the port

as soon as possible, with all my slaves and my sister Beatrice.

You will do right to suppose, that I did not forget, in that

moment of anxiety, to pack up my whole stock of money and jewels,

amounting probably to the worth of six thousand ducats. When we

were fairly out at sea, we began by securing the Turks. They were

easily mastered, as my slaves outnumbered them. We had so

favourable a wind, that we made the coast of Italy in a very

short time. Without let or hindrance, we got into the harbour of

Leghorn, where I thought the whole city must have come out to see

us land. The father of my slave Azarini, either accidentally or

from curiosity, happened to be among the gazers. He looked with

all his eyes at my captives, as they came ashore; but though his

object was to discover his lost son among the number, it was with

little hope of so fortunate a result. But how powerful is the

plea of nature! What transports, expressed by mutual embraces,

followed the recognition of a tie so close, but so painfully

interrupted for a time!

 

As soon as Azarini had acquainted his father who I was, and what

brought me to Leghorn, the old man obliged me, as well as

Beatrice, to accept of an apartment in his house. I shall pass

over in silence the description of a thousand ceremonies,

necessary to be gone through, in order to my return into the

bosom of the church; suffice it to say, that I forswore

Mahometanism with much more sincerity than I had pledged myself

to it. After having entirely purged myself from my Algerine

leaven, I sold my ship, and set all my slaves at liberty. As for

the Turks, they were committed to prison at Leghorn, to be

exchanged against Christians. I received kind attention in

abundance from the Azarini family: indeed, the young man married

my sister Beatrice, who, to speak the truth, was no bad match for

him, being a gentleman’s daughter, and inheriting the castle of

Xerica, which my mother had taken care to let out to a rich

tanner of Paterna, when she resolved upon her voyage to Sicily.

 

From Leghorn, after having staid there some time, I departed for

Florence, a town I had a strong desire to see. I did not go

thither without letters of recommendation. Azarini the father had

connections at the grand duke’s court, and introduced me to them

as a Spanish gentleman related to his family. I tacked don to my

name, in honest rivalry of impudence with other low Spaniards,

who take up that travelling title of honour without compunction,

when far enough from home to set detection at defiance. Boldly

then did I dub myself Don Raphael; and appeared at court with

suitable splendour, on the strength of what I had brought from

Algiers, to keep my nobility from starving. The high personages,

to whom old Azarini had written in my favour, gave out in their

circle that I was a person of quality; so that with this

testimony, and a natural knack I had of giving myself airs, the

deuce must have been in it if I could not have passed muster for

a man of some consequence. I soon got to be hand in glove with

the principal nobility; and they presented me to the grand duke.

I had the good fortune to make myself agreeable. It then became

an object with me to pay court to that prince, and to study his

humour. I sucked in with greedy ear all that his most experienced

courtiers said about him, and by their conversation fathomed all

his peculiarities. Among other things, he encouraged a play of

wit; was fond of good stories and lively repartees. On this hint

I formed myself. Every morning I wrote down in my pocket-book

such anecdotes as I meant to rack off in the course of the day.

My stock was considerably extensive; so that I was a walking

budget of balderdash. Yet even my estate in nonsense required

economy; and I began to get out at elbows, so as to be reduced to

borrow from myself, and mortgage my resources twenty times over:

but when the shallow current of wit and wisdom was nearly at its

summer drought, a torrent of matter-of-fact lies gave new force

to the exhausted stream of quibble. Intrigues which never had

been intrigued, and practical jokes which had never been played

off were the tools I worked with, and exactly to the level of the

grand duke: nay, what often happens to dull dealers in

inextinguishable vivacity, the mornings were spent in finaciering

those hinds of conversation, which were to be drawn upon after

dinner, as if from a perennial spring of preternatural wealth.

 

I had even the impudence to set up for a poet, and made my

broken-winded muse trot to the praises of the prince. I allow

candidly that the verses were execrable; but then they were quite

good enough for their readers; and it remains a doubt whether, if

they had been better, the grand duke would not have thrown them

into the fire. They seemed to be just what he would have written

upon himself. In short, it was impossible to miss the proper

style on such a subject But whatever might be my merit as a poet,

the prince, by little and little, took such a liking to my

person, as gave occasion of jealousy to his courtiers. They tried

to find out who I was. This, however, was beyond their compass.

All they could learn was, that I had been a renegado. This was

whispered forthwith in the prince’s ear, in the hopes of hurting

me. Not that it succeeded: on the contrary, the grand duke one

day commanded me to give him a faithful account of my adventures

at Algiers. I obeyed; and the recital, without reserve on my

part, contributed more than any other of my stories to his

entertainment

 

Don Raphael, said he, after I had ended my narrative, I have a

real regard for you, and mean to give you a proof of it, which

will place my sincerity beyond a doubt Henceforth you are

admitted into my most private confidence, as the first fruits of

which, you are to know that one of my ministers has a wife, with

whom I am in love. She is the most enchanting creature at court;

but at the same time the most impregnable. Shut up in her own

household, exclusively attached to a husband who idolizes her,

she seems to be ignorant of the combustion her charms have

kindled in Florence. You will easily conceive the difficulty of

such a conquest And yet this epitome of loveliness, so deaf to

all the whispers of common seduction, has sometimes listened to

my sighs. I have found the means of speaking to her without

witnesses. She is not unacquainted with my sentiments. I do not

flatter myself with having warmed her into love; she has given me

no reason to form so sweet a conjecture. Yet I will not despair

of pleasing her by my constancy, and by the cautious conduct,

even to mystery, which I take care to observe.

 

My passion for this lady, continued he, is known only to herself.

Instead of pursuing my game wantonly, and overleaping the rights

of my subjects like a true sovereign, I conceal from all the

world the knowledge of my love. This delicacy seems due to

Mascarini, the husband of my beloved mistress. His zeal and

attachment to me, his services and honesty, oblige me to act in

this business with the closest secrecy and circumspection. I will

not plunge a dagger into the bosom of this ill-starred husband,

by declaring myself a suitor to his wife. Would he might for ever

be insensible, were it within possibility, to the secret flame

which devours me: for I am persuaded that he would die of grief,

were he to know the circumstances I have just now confided to

you. I therefore veil my pursuit in impenetrable darkness; and

have determined to make use of you, for the purpose of conveying

to Lucretia the merit of the sacrifices my delicacy imposes on my

feelings. Of these you shall be the interpreter. I doubt not but

you will acquit yourself to a marvel of your commission. Contrive

to be intimate with Mascarini; make a point of worming yourself

into his friendship. Then an introduction to his family will be

easy; and you will secure to yourself the liberty of conversing

freely with his wife. This is what I require from you, and what I

feel assured that you will execute with all the dexterity and

discretion necessary to so delicate an undertaking.

 

I promised the grand duke to do my utmost, in furtherance of his

good opinion, and in aid of his success with the object of his

desires. I kept my word