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

said, “Whosoever you are, my brethren, profit by the

spectacle which presents itself to your observation. I have seen

out forty years in the world, and sixty in this solitude. But

mark! At this eternal crisis, the time I have devoted to my

pleasures seems an age, and that on the contrary which has been

sacred to repentance, but a minute! Alas! I fear lest the

austerities of brother Juan should be found light in the balance

with the sins of the licentiate Don Juan de Solis.”

 

No sooner were these words out of his mouth than he breathed his

last. We were struck by the solemn scene. Objects of this kind

always make some impression even on the greatest libertines; but

our serious thoughts were of no long duration. We soon forgot

what he had been saying to us, and begun making an inventory of

what the hermitage contained; an employment which was not

oppressively laborious, since the household furniture extended no

further than what you remarked in the grotto. Brother Juan was

not only in ill-furnished lodgings; his kitchen, too, was in a

very rustic plight All the store laid in consisted of some small

nuts and some pieces of crusty barley bread as hard as flint,

which had all the appearance of having been impregnable to the

gums of the venerable man. I specify his gums, because we looked

for his teeth, and found they had all dropped out. The whole

arrangement of this solitary abode, every object that met our

eyes, made us look upon this good anchoret as a pattern of

sanctity. One thing only staggered us in our opinion. We opened a

paper folded in the form of a letter, and lying upon the table,

wherein he besought the person who should read the contents, to

carry his rosary and sandals to the bishop of Cuen�a. We could

not make out in what spirit this modern recluse of the desert

could aim at making such a present to his bishop. It seemed to us

to tread somewhat on the heels of his humility, and to savour of

one who was a candidate for a niche in the calendar. Though

indeed it might be, that there was nothing in it but a simple

supposition, that the bishop was such another as himself; but

whether his ignorance was really so extreme, I shall not pretend

to decide.

 

In talking over this subject, a very pleasant idea occurred to

Lamela. Let us take up our abode, said he, in this holy retreat.

The disguise of hermits will become us. Brother Juan must be laid

quietly in the earth. You shall personate him; and for myself, in

the character of brother Anthony, I will go and see what is to be

done in the neighbouring towns and villages. Besides that we

shall be too cunningly ensconced for the prying curiosity of the

corregidor, since it is not to be supposed that he will think of

coming hither to look for us, I have some good connections at

Cuen�a, which may be of essential service to us. I fell in with

this odd whim, not so much for the reasons given me by Ambrose,

as in compliance with the humour of the thing, and as it were to

play a part in a dramatic piece. We made an excavation in the

ground at about thirty or forty yards from the grotto, and buried

the old anchoret there without any pompous rites, after having

stripped him of his wardrobe, which consisted of a single gown

tied round the middle with a leathern girdle. We likewise

despoiled him of his beard to make me an artificial one: and

finally, after his interment, we took possession of the

hermitage.

 

The first day our table was but meanly served; the provisions of

the deceased were all we had to feed on; but on the following

morning, before sunrise, Lamela set off to sell the two mules at

Toralva, and returned in the evening, laden with provisions and

other articles which he had purchased. He brought everything

necessary to metamorphose us completely. For himself he had

provided a gown of coarse dark cloth, and a little red horse-hair

beard, so ingeniously appended to his ears, that one would have

sworn it had been natural. There is not a cleverer fellow in the

universe for a frolic. Brother Juan’s beard was also new-modelled, and adapted to the plumpness of my face. My brown

woollen cap completed the masquerade. In fact, nothing was

wanting to make us pass for what we were not. Our equipage was so

ludicrously out of character, that we could not look at one

another without laughing, under a garb so diametrically at

variance with our general complexion. With brother Juan’s mantle,

I caught and kept his rosary and sandals; taking the liberty of

borrowing them for the time being from the bishop of Cuen�a.

 

We had already been three days in the hermitage, without having

been interrupted by a living soul; but on the fourth, two

countrymen came into the grotto. They brought bread, cheese, and

onions, for the deceased, whom they supposed to be still living.

I threw myself on our miserable couch as soon as they made their

appearance; and it was not difficult to impose on them. Besides

that it was too dark to distinguish my features accurately, I

imitated the voice of brother Juan, whose last words I had heard,

to the best of my ability. They had no suspicion of the trick,

though a good deal surprised at finding another hermit there.

Lamela, taking advantage of their stupid wonder, said in a

canting tone: My brethren, be not astonished at seeing me in this

solitude. I have quitted a hermitage of my own in Arragon, to

come hither and be a companion to the venerable and edifying

brother Juan, who, at his advanced age, wants a yoke-fellow to

administer to his necessities. The rustics lavished their clumsy

panegyrics on the charity of Ambrose, and congratulated

themselves that they might triumph over their neighbours, and

boast of two holy personages residing in their country.

 

Lamela, laden with a large wallet which he had not forgotten

among the number of his purchases, went for the first time to

reconnoitre the town of Cuen�a, which is but a very short

distance from the hermitage. With a mortified exterior, by which

nature had dubbed him for a cheat, and the art of making that

natural deception go as far as possible, by a most hypocritical

and factitious array of features, he could not fail to play upon

the feelings of the charitable and humane, and those whom heaven

has blessed with affluence. His knapsack bore testimony to the

extravagance of their pious liberalities. Master Ambrose, said. I

on his return, I congratulate you on your happy knack at

softening the souls of all good Christians. As we hope to be

saved! one would suppose that you had been a mendicant friar

among the Capuchins. I have done something else besides bringing

in food for the convent, answered he. You must know that I have

ferreted out a certain lass called Barbara, with whom I used to

flirt formerly. She is as much altered as any of us: for she also

has addicted herself to a godly life. She forms a coterie with

two or three other sanctified dames, who are an example to the

faithful in public, and flounce over head and ears in every sort

of private vice. She did not know me again at first. What then,

mistress Barbara, said I, is it possible that you should have

discharged one of your oldest friends from your remembrance, your

servant Ambrose? As I am a true Christian, Signor de Lamela,

exclaimed she, I never thought to have turned you up in such a

garb as that. By what transformation are you become a hermit?

This is more than I can tell you just now, rejoined I. The

particulars are rather long; but I will come to morrow evening

and satisfy your curiosity. Nay, more; I will bring brother Juan,

my companion, along with me. Brother Juan, interrupted she, the

venerable hermit who has taken up his saintly residence near this

town? You do not know what you are saying; he is supposed to be

more than a hundred years old. It is very true, said I, that he

was of that age some little while ago; but time; in deference to

his sanctity, has gone backward with him; and he is grown

considerably younger within these few days. He is at present just

about my turn of life. Say you so! Then let us have him too,

replied Barbara. I perceive there is something more in this

mystery than the church will be able to explain.

 

We did not miss our appointment with these whited sepulchres on

the following night To make our reception the more agreeable,

they had laid out a sumptuous entertainment. Off went our beards

and cowls, and vestments of mortification; and without any

squeamishness we confessed our birth, education, and real

character, to these sisters in hypocrisy. On their part, for fear

of being behindhand with us in freedom from prejudice, they

fairly let us see of what pretended religionists are capable,

when they drop the veil of the sanctuary, and exhibit their

unmanufactured faces. We spent almost the whole night at table,

and got back to our grotto but a moment before daybreak. We were

not long in repeating our visit; or, if the truth must be told,

it was nightly for three months; till we had ate up more than

two-thirds of our ways and means in the company of these delicate

creatures. But an unsuccessful candidate for their favour got

wind of our proceedings, and prated of our whereabout in the ear

of justice, which was to have been in motion towards the

hermitage this very day, to lay hold of our persons. Yesterday

Ambrose, while picking up eleemosynary at Cuen�a, stumbled upon

one of our whining sisterhood, who gave him a note, with this

caution: A female friend of mine has written me this letter,

which I was going to send to you by a man on purpose. Shew it to

brother Juan, and regulate your proceedings accordingly. It was

this very note, gentlemen, that Lamela gave me in your presence,

which occasioned us to take so abrupt a leave of our solitary

dwelling.

 

CH. II — Don Raphael’s consultation with his company, and their

adventures as they were preparing to leave the wood.

 

WHEN Don Raphael had finished the narrative of his adventurous

life, which, with all the other qualities of a romance, had the

tediousness, Don Alphonso, according to the laws of good

breeding, swore himself black in the face that he had been

prodigiously entertained. After the usual exchange of

compliments, Signor Ambrose put in his oar, with an admonitory

hint to the partner of his exploits and peregrinations. Consider,

Don Raphael, that the sun is setting. It would not be amiss,

methinks, to take counsel on what we are to do. You are in the

right, answered his comrade, we must determine on the place of

our destination. For my own part, replied Lamela, I am of opinion

that we should get upon the road again without loss of time,

reach Requena to-night, and enter upon the territory of Valencia

to-morrow, where we will go to work full tilt at our old trade. I

have some prognosticating twitches, which tell me that we shall

strike some good strokes in that quarter. His colleague, from

ample experience of his infallibility in such prophecies, voted

on his side of the question. As for Don Alphonso and myself,

having nothing to do but to follow the lead of these two worthy

gentlemen, we waited, in silent acquiescence, the issue of this

momentous