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

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about Segorba, just to make the experiment whether any

opportunity might offer of striking another stroke. You have no

thing to do, added the heir of Lucinda’s wit and wisdom, but to

wait for us under these willows: we shall not be long before we

are with you again. Signor Don Raphael, exclaimed I with a horse-laugh, tell us rather to wait for you under a more substantial

tree; the gallows. If you once leave us, we are in a month’s mind

that we shall not see you again till the day after the fair. This

suspicion of our honour goes against the grain, replied Signor

Ambrose; but we deserve that our characters should suffer in your

esteem. It is but reason that you should distrust our purity,

after the affair at Valladolid, and should fancy that we shall

make it no more a matter of conscience to play at the devil take

the hindmost with you, than with the party that we left in the

lurch in that town, Yet you deceive yourselves egregiously. The

gang upon whom we turned the tables were people of very bad

character, and their company began to be disreputable to us. Thus

far justice must be done to the members of our profession, that

there is no bond in all civilized life less liable to be broken

by personal and private interest; but when there are no feelings

in common, our good understanding will be the worse for wear, as

it happens among other descriptions of men. Wherefore, Signor Gil

Blas, I entreat you, and Signor Don Alphonso as well as you, to

be somewhat more liberal in your construction of us, and to set

your hearts at respecting Don Raphael’s and my whim about going

to Segorba.

 

It is the easiest thing in the world, observed Lucinda’s hopeful

brat, to quash all subject of uneasiness on that score: they have

only to remain treasurers of the exchequer, and they will have a

sufficient pledge in their hands for our re turn. You see, Signor

Gil Blas, that we are all fair and above-board. You shall both

hold security for our re-appearance, and you may rest assured

that for Ambrose and myself, we shall set off without the

slightest misgiving of your taking to your heels with so valuable

a deposit. After so substantial a proof of our good faith, will

you not place implicit confidence in us? Yes, gentle men, said I,

and you may do at once whatever seems good in your own eyes. They

took their departure immediately, carrying the bottle and the

wallet along with them, and left me under the willows with Don

Alphonso, who said to me after they were out of sight: Now is the

time, Signor Gil Blas, now is the time to open my heart to you. I

am angry with myself for having been so easily prevailed on to

herd thus far with these two knaves. You have no idea how many

times I have quarrelled with myself on that score. Yesterday

evening, while I was watching the horses, a thousand mortifying

reflections rushed upon my mind. I thought it did not become a

young man of honourable principles to live among such scurvy

fellows as Don Raphael and Lamela; that if by ill-luck some day

or other, and many a more unlikely thing has happened, the

success of our swindling tricks should throw us into the hands of

justice, I might sustain the shame of being tried with them as a

reputed thief, and under going the disgraceful sentence of the

law. These frightful thoughts present themselves incessantly to

my imagination, and I will own to you that I have determined, as

the only means of escape from the contamination of their bad

actions, to part from them for ever. I can scarcely suppose that

you will disapprove of my design. No, I promise you, answered I:

though you have seen me perform the part of the alguazil in

Samuel Simon’s comedy, do not fancy that such pieces as those are

got up to my taste. I take heaven to witness that while acting in

so witty a scene, I said to myself: Faith and troth, master Gil

Blas, if justice should come and lay hold of you by the wezand at

this moment, you would well deserve the penitential wages of your

iniquity. I feel therefore no more disposed than yourself, Don

Alphonso, to tarry longer in such bad company; and if you think

well of it, I will bear you company. When these gentlemen come

back, we will demand a balancing of the accounts, and to-morrow

morning, or even to-night before to-morrow, we will make our bow

to them.

 

The lovely Seraphina’s lover approved my proposal. Let us get to

Valencia, said he, and we will embark for Italy, where we shall

be able to enter into the service of the Venetian republic. Will

it not be far better to take up the profession of arms, than to

lead such a dastardly and disreputable life as we are now engaged

in? We shall even be in a condition to make a very handsome

figure with the money that will be coming to us. Not that I

appropriate to myself without remorse a fund so unfairly

established; but besides that necessity obliges me to it, if ever

I acquire any property in my campaigns, I make a vow to indemnify

Samuel Simon. I gave Don Alphonso to understand that my

sentiments coincided with his own, and we resolved at once to

separate ourselves from our companions on the following morning

before daybreak. We were above the temptation of profiting by

their absence, that is, of marching off in a hurry with the sum

total of the finances: the confidence they had reposed in leaving

us masters of the whole revenue, did not permit such a thought so

much as to pass through our minds.

 

Ambrose and Don Raphael returned from Segorba just at the close

of day. The first thing they told us was, that their journey had

been propitious; for they had laid the corner-stone of a

rascality which, to all appearance, would turn out still better

than that of the evening before. And thereupon the son of Lucinda

was going to put us in possession of the details; but Don

Alphonse cut him short in his explanation, and declared at once

his intention of parting company. I announced my own wish to do

the same. To no purpose did they employ all their rhetoric, to

prove to us the propriety of our accompanying them in their

professional travels: we took leave of them the next morning,

after having made an equal division of our cash, and pushed on

towards Valencia.

 

CH III. — An unfortunate occurrence, which terminated to the

high delight of Don Alphonso. Gil Blas meets with an adventure

which places him all at once in a very superior situation.

 

We galloped on gaily as far as Bunol, where, as ill-luck would

have it, we were obliged to stop. Don Alphonso was taken ill. His

disorder was a high fever, with such an access of alarming

symptoms, as put me in fear for his life. By the greatest mercy

in the world, the place was not beset by a single physician, and

I got clear off without any harm but my fright. He was quite out

of danger at the end of three days, and with my nursing, his

recovery was rapid and without relapse. He seemed to be very

grateful for my attentions; and as we really and truly felt a

liking for each other, we swore an eternal friendship.

 

At length we got on our journey again, in the constant

determination, when we arrived at Valencia, of profiting by the

first opportunity which might offer to go over into Italy. But

heaven disposed of us differently. We saw at the gate of a fine

castle some country people of both sexes making merry and dancing

in a ring. We went near to be spectators of their revels; and Don

Alphonso was never less prepared than for the surprise which all

at once came over his senses. He found it was Baron Steinbach,

who was as little backward in recognizing him, but ran up to him

with open arms, and exclaimed, in accents of unbridled joy — Ah,

Don Alphonso! is it you? What a delightful meeting! While search

was making for you in every direction, chance presents you to my

view.

 

My fellow-traveller dismounted immediately, and ran to embrace

the baron, whose joy seemed to me of an extravagant nature. Come,

my long-lost son, said the good old man, you shall now be

informed of your own birth, and know the happy destiny that

awaits you. As he uttered these words, he conducted him into the

castle. I went in along with them; for while they were exchanging

salutations, I had alighted and tied our horses to a tree. The

lord of the castle was the first person whom we met. He was about

the age of fifty, and a very well-looking man. Sir, said Baron

Steinbach as he introduced Don Alphonso, behold your son. At

these words, Don Caesar de Leyva, for by that title the lord of

the castle was called, threw his arms round Don Alphonso’s neck,

and weeping with joy, muttered indistinctly, My dear son, know in

me the author of your being. If I have for so long left you in

ignorance of your birth and family, rest assured that the self-denial was mine in the most painful degree. I have a thousand

times been ready to burst with anxiety, but it was impossible to

act otherwise. I had married your mother from sheer attachment,

for her origin was very inferior to mine. I lived under the

control of an austere father, whose severity rendered it

necessary to keep secret a marriage contracted without his

sanction. Baron Steinbach, and he alone, was in my confidence: he

brought you up at my request, and under my directions. At length

my father is laid with his ancestors, and I can own you for my

son and heir. This is not all; I can give you for a bride a young

lady whose rank is on a level with my own. Sir, interrupted Don

Alphonso, make me not pay too dear for the happiness you have

just been throwing in my lap. May I not be told that I have the

honour of being your son without being informed at the same time

that you are determined to make me miserable? Ah, sir! be not

more cruel than your own father. If he did not consent to the

indulgence of your passion, at least he never compelled you to

take another wife. My son, replied Don Caesar, I have no wish to

exercise a tyranny over your inclinations, which I spurned at in

my own case. But have the good manners just to see the lady I

design for you, that is all I require from your filial duty.

Though a lovely creature and a very advantageous match, I promise

never to force you into marriage. She is now in this castle.

Follow me; you will be obliged to acknowledge that you have

rarely seen a more attractive object. So saying, he led Don

Alphonso into a room where I made myself one of the party with

Baron Steinbach.

 

There was the Count de Polan with his two daughters, Seraphina

and Julia, and Don Ferdinand de Leyva, his son-in-law, who was

Don Caesar’s nephew. Don Ferdinand, as was mentioned before, had

eloped with Julia, and it was on the occasion of the marriage

between these two lovers that the peasantry of the neighbourhood

were collected on this day to congratulate the bride and bride

groom. As soon as Don Alphonso made his appearance, and