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

de Zúñiga, my master; he is uncle to the Count of Olivarez, and shares with him in the toils and cares of office.” Navarro, having given me this assurance, inquired where I lived, and then we parted.

It was not long before we met again; for he came to call on me the very next day. “Señor de Santillane,” said he, “you are not without a protector; my master will lend you his powerful support: on the strength of the good character which I have given your lordship, he has promised to speak to his nephew, the Count of Olivarez, in your behalf; and I doubt not but he will effectually prepossess him in your favor.”

My friend Navarro, not meaning to serve me by halves, introduced me two days afterwards to Don Balthazar, who said, with a gracious air, “Señor de Santillane, your friend Joseph has pronounced your panegyric in terms which have won me over completely to your interest.” I made a low obeisance to Señor de Zúñiga, and answered, that to the latest period of my life I should entertain the most lively sense of my obligation to Navarro for having secured to me the protection of a minister who was considered, and that for the best reasons possible, as the presiding genius, the greater luminary, or, as it were, the eye and mind of the ministerial council. Don Balthasar, at this unexpected stroke of flattery, clapped me on the shoulder with an approving chuckle, and returned my compliment by a more significant intimation: “You may call on the Count of Olivarez again tomorrow, and then you will have more reason to be pleased with him.”

For the third time, therefore, did I make my appearance before the prime minister, who, picking me out from among the mob of suitors, cast upon me a look conveying with it a simper of welcome, from which I ventured to draw a good omen. “This is all as it should be,” said I to myself; “the uncle has brought the nephew to his proper bearings.” I no longer anticipated any other than a favorable reception, and my confidence was fully justified.

The count, after having given audience to the promiscuous crowd, took me with him into his closet, and said with a familiar address, “My friend Santillane, you must excuse the little disquietude I have occasioned you merely for my own amusement; it was done in sport, though it was death to you, for the sole purpose of practising on your discretion, and observing to what measures your disgust and disappointment would incite you. Doubtless you must have concluded that your services were displeasing to me; but on the contrary, my good fellow, I must confess frankly, that, as far as appears at present, you are perfectly to my mind. Though the king, my master, had not enjoined me to take charge of your fortunes, I should have done so of my own free choice. Besides, my uncle, Don Balthasar de Zúñiga, to whom I can refuse nothing, has requested me to consider you as a man for whom he particularly interests himself; that alone would be enough to fix my confidence in you, and make me most sincerely your friend.”

This outset of my career produced so lively an impression on my feelings, that they became unintelligibly tumultuous. I threw myself at the minister’s feet, who insisted on my rising immediately, and then went on to the following effect: “Return hither today after dinner, and ask for my steward; he will acquaint you with the orders which I shall have given him.” With these words his excellency broke up the conference to hear mass, according to his constant custom every day after giving audience; he then attended the king’s levee.

IV

Gil Blas ingratiates himself with the count of Olivarez.

I did not fail returning after dinner to the prime minister’s house, and asking for his steward, whose name was Don Raymond Caporis. No sooner had I made myself known, than paying his civilities to me in the most respectful manner, “Sir,” said he, “follow me, if you please: I am to do myself the honor of showing you the way to the apartment which is ordered for you in this family.” Having spoken thus, he led me up a narrow staircase to a gallery communicating with five or six rooms, which composed the second story belonging to one wing of the house, and were furnished neatly, but without ostentation. “You behold,” resumed he, “the lodging assigned you by his lordship, where you will always have a table of six persons, kept at his expense. You will be waited on by his own servants; and there will always be a carriage at your command. But that is not all: his excellency insisted on it, in the most pointed manner, that you should be treated in every respect with the same attention as if you belonged to the house of Guzmán.”

What the devil is the meaning of all this? said I within myself. What construction ought I to put upon all these honors? Is there not some humorous prank at the bottom of it? and must it not be more in the way of diversion than anything else, that the minister is flattering me up with so imposing an establishment? While I was ruminating in this uncertainty, fluctuating between hope and fear, a page came to let me know that the count was asking for me. I waited instantly on his lordship, who was quite alone in his closet.

“Well! Santillane,” said he, “are you satisfied with your rooms, and with my orders to Don Raymond?”

“Your excellency’s liberality,” answered I, “seems out of all proportion with its object; so that I receive it with fear and trembling.”

“Why so?” replied he. “Can I be too lavish of distinction to a man whom the king has committed to my care, and for whose interests he especially commanded me to provide? No: that is impossible; and I