Gil Blas, Alain-René Lesage [best romance ebooks .txt] 📗

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 honored 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 that at the present moment. When you shall become acquainted with all my hairbreadth 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 favorable 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 Muhammad, 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