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

catch in the best of us. And yet, my friend, I could willingly unbosom myself to you without disguise. My present occupation is much against the grain; it requires too circumspect and too mysterious a conduct; there is nothing to be done but by underhand dealings, gravity, and cunning. O! for my first trade! The new one is safer, to be sure; but there is more fun in the other, and liberty is my motto. I feel disposed to get rid of my office, and to set out, some sunshiny morning, for the mountains at the source of the Tagus. I know of a retreat thereabouts, inhabited by a numerous gang, composed chiefly of Catalonians; when I have said that, I need say no more. If you will go along with me, we will swell the number of those heroes. I shall be second in command. To make your footing respectable at once, I will swear that you have fought ten times by my side. Your valor shall mount to the very skies. I will tell more good of you than a commander-in-chief of a favorite officer. I will not say a word about the runaway trick; that would render you suspected of turning⁠—nose therefore, mum is the word. What say you to it? Are you ready to set off? I am impatient to know your mind.”

“Everyone to his own fancy,” said I, then, to Rolando; “you were born for bold exploits, and your friend for a serene and quiet life.”

“I understand you,” interrupted he; “the lady whom love induced you to carry off, still preserves her influence over your heart, and you doubtless lead with her that serene life of which you are enamoured. Own the truth, Master Gil Blas; she is become a thing of your own, and you are both living on the pistoles carried off from the subterraneous retreat.”

I told him he was mistaken; and, to set him right, related the lady’s adventures and my own, while we sat at dinner. When our meal was finished, he led back to the subject of the Catalonians, and attempted once more to engage me in his project. But finding me inflexible, he looked at me with a terrific frown, and said seriously, “Since you are dastard enough to prefer your servile condition to the honor of enlisting in a troop of brave fellows, I turn you adrift to your own grovelling inclinations. But mark me well: a lapse may be fatal. Forget our meeting of today, and never prate about me to any living soul; for if I catch you bandying about my name in your idle talk⁠ ⁠… you know my ways, I need say no more.”

With these words, he called for the landlord, paid the reckoning, and we rose from the table to go away.

III

Gil Blas is dismissed by Don Bernard de Castil Blazo, and enters into the service of a beau.

As we were coming out of the tavern, and taking our leave, my master was passing along the street. He saw me, and I observed him look more than once at the captain. I had no doubt but he was surprised at meeting me in such company. It is certain that Rolando’s physiognomy and air were not much in favor of moral qualities. He was a gigantic fellow, with a long face, a parrot’s beak, and a very rascally contour, without being absolutely ugly. I was not mistaken in my guess. In the evening, I found Don Bernard harping on the captain’s figure, and charmingly disposed to believe all the fine things I could have said of him, if my tongue had not been tied. “Gil Blas,” said he, “who is that great shark I saw with you awhile ago?”

I told him it was an alguazil, and thought to have got off with that answer; but he returned to the charge; and observing my confusion, from the remembrance of the threats used by Rolando, broke off the conversation abruptly, and went to bed.

The next morning, when I had performed my ordinary duties, he counted me over six ducats instead of six reals, and said, “Here, my friend, this is what I give you for your services up to this day. Go and look out for another place. A servant keeping such high company is too much for me.”

I bethought myself of saying, in my own defence, that I had known that alguazil, by having prescribed for him at Valladolid, while I was practising medicine.

“Very good,” replied my master; “the shift is ingenious enough; you might have thought of it last night, and not have looked so foolish.”

“Sir,” rejoined I, “in good truth, prudence kept me silent, and gave to my reserve the aspect of guilt.”

“Undoubtedly,” resumed he, tapping me softly on the shoulder, “it was carrying prudence very far, even to the confines of cunning. Go, lad; I have no farther occasion for your services.”

I went immediately to acquaint Meléndez with the bad news, who told me, for my comfort, that he would engage to procure me a better berth. Indeed, some days after, he said, “Gil Blas, my friend, you have no notion of the good luck in store for you. You will have the most agreeable post in the world. I am going to settle you with Don Matthias de Silva. He is a man of the first fashion⁠—one of those young noblemen commonly distinguished by the appellation of beaus. I have the honor of his custom. He takes up goods of me, on tick, indeed; but these great men are good pay in the long run: they often marry rich heiresses and then old scores are wiped off; or, should that fail, a tradesman who understands his business, puts such a price upon his articles, that if three fourths of his debts are bad, he is no loser. Don Matthias’s steward is my intimate friend. Let us go and look for him. It will be for him to