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

“No, indeed,” answered he; “my lord duke has removed me, and put another in my room. He probably considered me as entirely devoted to his predecessor.”

“And I,” said Don Gastón, “was set at liberty for the contrary reason; the prime minister was no sooner informed that my imprisonment was by the Duke of Lerma’s order, than he ordered me to be released. The present business, Señor Gil Blas, is to relate the subsequent particulars of my adventures.

“The first thing I did,” continued he, “after thanking Don Andrew for his kind attentions during my confinement, was to repair to Madrid. I presented myself before the Count Duke of Olivarez, who said, ‘You need not be apprehensive of any blemish on your character in consequence of your late misfortune; you are honorably acquitted: nay, your innocence is so much the more satisfactorily established, as the Marquis of Villareal, with whom you were supposed to be implicated, was not guilty. Though a Portuguese, and related to the Duke of Braganza, he is less in his interests than in those of the king my master. That connection, therefore, ought not to have been imputed to you as a crime; but, to repair your wrongs, the king has given you a lieutenant’s commission in the Spanish guards.’ This I accepted, begging it as a favor of his excellency to allow me, before I joined my regiment, to go and see my aunt, Doña Eleonora de Laxarilla, at Coria. The minister gave me leave of absence for a month, and I departed with only one servant.

“We had got beyond Colmenar, and were threading a narrow pass between two mountains, when we came within sight of a gentleman defending himself bravely against three men, who all fell upon him together. I did not hesitate about going to his aid, but hastened forward and planted myself by his side. I remarked, while we were fighting, that our enemies were masked, and that we had to do with expert swordsmen. But we triumphed over the united advantages of their skill and disparity. I ran one of the three through the body; he fell from his horse, and the two others immediately betook themselves to flight. The victory indeed was scarcely less fatal to us than to the wretch whom I had killed, for we were both dangerously wounded. But conceive my surprise, when I discovered the gentleman to be Combados, the husband of Doña Helena. He was no less astonished at recognizing me as his defender.

“ ‘Ah, Don Gastón!’ exclaimed he, ‘was it you, then, who came to my assistance? When you took my part so generously, you little thought it was the person who had snatched your mistress from you.’

“ ‘I really did not know it,’ answered I; ‘but though I had, do you think I could have wavered about doing as I have done? Can you entertain so ill an opinion of me as to believe my soul so sordid?’

“ ‘No, no,’ replied he; ‘I think better of you; and should I die of my wounds, it will be my prayer that yours may not disable you from profiting by my death.’

“ ‘Combados,’ said I, ‘though I have not yet forgotten Doña Helena, know that I do not pant after the possession of her charms at the expense of your life; so far from it, that I congratulate myself on having contributed to your rescue from assassination, since by so doing I have performed an acceptable service to your wife.’

“While we were communing together, my servant dismounted, and drawing near to the gentleman stretched at his length, took off his mask, when Combados, with sensations of gratitude for his deliverance, distinctly traced the features. ‘It is Caprara,’ exclaimed he; ‘that treacherous cousin, who, in mere disgust at having missed a rich inheritance which he had unjustly disputed with me, has long since cherished a murderous design against my life, and fixed on this day to put it in execution; but heaven has turned him over to its determined vengeance, and made him the victim of his own attempt.’

“While this conversation was going on, our blood was flowing at the same rate, and we were becoming more exhausted every minute. Nevertheless, disabled as we were, we had strength enough to reach the town of Villarejo, which lies within a gunshot or two from the field of battle. At the very first house of call we sent for surgeons. The most expert came at our summons. He examined our wounds, and reported them as dangerous. After taking off the bandages and dressing them a second time, he pronounced those of Don Blas to be mortal. Of mine he thought more favorably, and the event corresponded with his prognostic.

“Combados, finding himself consigned to the grave, thought only of due preparation for a most serious event. He sent an express to his wife, with an account of what had happened, particularizing his present sad condition. Doña Helena soon arrived at Villarejo. Her mind was drawn different ways by two opposite occasions of distress⁠—the hazard of her husband’s life, and the fear of feeling the revival of a half extinguished flame at the sight of me. This sight occasioned her to experience a terrible agitation.

“ ‘Madam,’ said Don Blas when she appeared in his presence, ‘you are come just in time to receive my farewell. I am at the point of death, and I consider my fate as a punishment from heaven for having taken you from Don Gastón by a feint: far from murmuring at it, I exhort you with my last breath to restore to him a heart which I had stolen from him.’ Doña Helena answered him only by her tears; and indeed it was the best answer she could make; for she had neither forgotten her first love, nor the artifices whereby she had been influenced to renounce her plighted faith.

“It happened, as the surgeon had anticipated, that in less than three days