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

a doublet which you wore, lined with

playbills. Neither have I forgotten that you complained of

having a wife cursed with incorruptible chastity. Oh! that

misfortune has found its remedy long ago, said Zapata, shaking

his ears. By all the powers of womanhood, the jade has

effectually reformed that virtue, and given me a warmer lining to

my doublet.

 

I was going to congratulate him on his wife’s having shewn so

much sense, when he was obliged to leave me and go on the stage.

Being curious to know what sort of an animal his wife was, I went

up to an actor and desired him to point her out. He did so,

saying at the same time: There she is, it is Narcissa; the

prettiest of all our women except your sister. I concluded that

this must be the actress in whose favour the Marquis de Marialva

had declared before meeting with his Estella; and my conjecture

was but too correct. After the play I attended Laura home, where

I saw several cooks preparing a handsome entertainment. You may

sup here, said she. I will do no such thing, answered I; the

marquis perhaps will like to be alone with you. Not at all,

replied she; he is coming with two of his own friends and one of

our gentlemen; you will just make the sixth, You know that in our

free and easy way there is no impropriety in secretaries sitting

down at table with their masters. Very true, said I: but it is

rather too soon to assume the privilege of a favourite. I must

first get employed in some confidential commission, and then lay

in my claim to that honourable distinction. Judging it to be so

best, I went out of Laura’s house, and got back to my inn,

whither I reckoned on repairing every day, since my master had no

regular establishment.

 

CH. IX. — An extraordinary companion at supper; and an account

of their conversation.

 

I REMARKED in the coffee-room a sort of an old monk, habited in

coarse grey cloth, at supper quite alone in a corner. I went and

sat opposite to him out of curiosity; we exchanged a civil bow,

and he shewed himself to be quite as well bred as I was,

notwithstanding my lay education. My commons were brought me, and

I fell to with a very catholic appetite. While I was eating, my

tongue was mute, but my eyes glanced by snatches towards this

singular character, and always caught his at the same employment.

Liking better to stare than be stared at, I addressed my speech

to him thus: Pray, father, have we ever by any chance met

anywhere but here? You peer at me as if you scarcely knew whether

I was an acquaintance or a stranger. He answered gravely: If I

look at you with fixed attention, it is only to admire the

prodigious variety of adventures which are chronicled in the

features of your face. It should seem, said I in a joking tone,

as if your reverence was something of a physiognomist. Far more

deeply imbued in science than a mere physiognomist, answered the

monk, I found prophecies on my observations which have never been

belied by the event. My skill in palmistry is no less, and I will

set my oracles against the surest of antiquity, after comparing

the inspection of the hand with that of the face.

 

Though this old man had all the appearance of profound wisdom,

his talk was so like that of a madman, that I could not help

laughing at him outright. So far from being offended at my want

of manners, he smiled at it, and went on to the following effect,

after running his eye round the coffee-room, to be assured that

there were no listeners: I am not surprised at finding you so

prejudiced against two sciences which pass at this time of day

for mere frivolity; the long and painful study they require

disheartens the learned, who turn their backs upon them, and then

swear that they are fables out of disgust at having missed their

attainment. For my part, I am not to be frightened by the

darkness which envelopes them, any more than by the difficulties

which are perpetual stumbling-blocks in the pursuit of chemical

discoveries, and in the marvellous art of transmuting baser

metals into gold.

 

But I do flatter myself, pursued he, looking steadfastly at me,

that I am addressing a young gentleman of good sense, to whom my

systems will not appear altogether in the light of idle dreams. A

sample of my skill will dispose you better than the most subtle

arguments to pass a favourable judgment on my pretensions. After

talking in this manner he drew from his pocket a phial full of a

lively-looking red liquor, on which he expatiated thus: Here is

an elixir which I have distilled this morning from the juices of

certain plants; for I have employed almost my whole life, like

Democritus, in finding out the properties of simples and

minerals. You shall make trial of its virtue. The wine we are

drinking with our supper is very bad; henceforth it will become

excellent. At the same time he put two drops of his elixir into

my bottle, which made my wine more delicious than the choicest

vintages of Spain.

 

The marvellous strikes the imagination; and when once that

faculty is enlisted, judgment is turned adrift. Delighted with so

glorious a secret, and persuaded that he must have out-devilled

the devil before he could have got at it, I cried out in a

paroxysm of admiration: O reverend father! prythee forgive your

servant if he took you at first for an old blockhead. I now

abjure my error. There is no need to look further to be assured

that it depends only on your own will to turn an iron bar into a

wedge of gold in the twinkling of an eye. How happy should I be

were I master of that admirable science! Heaven preserve you from

ever acquiring it, interrupted the old man with a deep sigh. You

know not, my son, what a fatal possession you covet. Instead of

envying, rather pity me, for having taken such infinite pains to

be made unhappy. I am always disturbed in mind. I fear a

discovery; and then perpetual imprisonment would be the reward of

all my labours. In this apprehension, I lead a vagabond life,

sometimes disguised as a priest or monk, sometimes as a gentle

man or a peasant. Where is the benefit of knowing how to

manufacture gold on such terms? Are not the goods of this world

downright misery to those who cannot enjoy them in tranquillity?

 

What you say appears to me very sensible, said I to the

philosopher. There is nothing like living at one’s ease. You have

rid me of all hankering after the philosopher’s stone. I will

rest satisfied with learning from you my future destiny. With all

my heart, my good lad, answered he. I have already made my

remarks upon your features; now let me see your hand. I gave it

him with a confidence which will do my penetration but little

credit in the esteem of some readers. He examined it very

attentively, and then pronounced, as in a rapture of inspiration:

Ah! what transitions from pain to pleasure, and from pleasure to

pain! What a whimsical alternation of good and evil chances! But

you have already experienced the largest share of your allotted

reverses. You have but few more tides of misfortune to stem, and

then a great lord will contrive for you an eligible fate, which

shall not be subject to change.

 

After having assured me that I might depend on his prediction, he

bade me farewell and went out of the inn, leaving me in deep

meditation on the things I had just heard. There could be no

doubt of the Marquis de Marialva being the great lord in

question; and consequently nothing appeared more within the verge

of possibility than the accomplishment of the oracle. But though

there had not been the slightest likelihood, that would have been

no hindrance to giving the impostor monk unbounded credit, since

his elixir had transmuted my sour incredulity into the most

tractable digestion of his falsehoods. That nothing might be

wanting on my side to play into the hands of my foreboded luck, I

determined to attach myself more closely to the marquis than I

had ever done to any of my masters. Having taken this resolution,

I went home in unusually high spirits; never did foolish woman

descend in better humour from the garret of another foolish woman

who had told her fortune.

 

CH. X. — The Marquis de Marialva gives a commission to Gil Blas.

That faithful secretary acquits himself of it as shall be

related.

 

THE marquis was not yet returned from his theatrical party, and I

found his upper servants playing at cards in his apartment while

they were waiting for his arrival. I got to be sociable with

them; and we amused ourselves with jocular conversation till two

o’clock in the morning, when our master arrived. He was a little

surprised at seeing me, and said with an air of kindness which

made me conclude that he came home very well satisfied with his

evening: How is this, Gil Blas? Are you not gone to bed yet? I

answered that I wished to know first whether he had any commands

for me. Probably, replied he, I may have a commission to give you

to-morrow morning; but it will be time enough then to acquaint

you with my wishes. Go to your own room; and henceforward

remember that I dispense with your attendance at bed-time; my

other servants are sufficient for that occasion.

 

After this hint, which was much to my satisfaction in the main,

since it spared me a slavery which I should have felt very

unpleasantly at times, I left the marquis in his apartment, and

withdrew to my garret. I went to bed. Not being able to sleep, it

seemed good to follow the counsel of Pythagoras, and to examine

all the actions of the day by the test of reason; to reprimand

severely what had been done amiss, and if anything had been done

well, to rejoice in it.

 

On looking into the day-book of my conscience, the balance was

not sufficiently in my favour to keep me in good humour with

myself. I felt remorse at having lent myself to Laura’s

imposition. It was in vain to urge, in self defence, that I could

not, with any decency, give the lie to a girl who had no object

in view but to do me a pleasure, and that I was in some sort

under the necessity of becoming an accomplice in the fraud. This

was a paltry excuse in the darkness of the night, for I pleaded

against myself that at all events the matter should be pushed no

further, and that it was the summit of impudence to remain upon

the establishment of a nobleman whose confidence I so ill repaid.

In short, after a severe trial, it was agreed in my own breast,

that I was very little short of an arrant knave.

 

But to have done with the morality of the act, and pass on to the

probable issue, it was evidently playing a desperate game, to

cozen a man of consequence who might be enabled, as an instrument

for the visitation of my sins perhaps, to detect the imposture in

its very infancy. A reflection at once so prudent and so virtuous

acted as a refrigerator on my spirits; but visions of pleasure

and of interest soon raised them again above the freezing point.

Besides, the prophecy of the man with the elixir