The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane - Alain René le Sage (best fiction books of all time .txt) 📗

that I was better, and entreat

them to give me quarter. They left off killing me with kindness,

and I took care not to complain any more, for fear of

experiencing their tender attentions a second time.

 

This scene lasted nearly three hours. After which the robbers,

calculating it to be near daybreak, prepared for their journey

to Mansilla. I was for getting up, as if I had set my heart on

being of the party; but that they would not allow. No, no, Gil

Blas, said Signor Rolando, stay here, my lad; your colic may

return. You shall go with us another time; to-day you are not in

travelling condition. I did not think it prudent to urge my

attendance too much, for fear of being taken at my word; but only

affected great disappointment with so natural an air, that they

all went off without the slightest misgiving of my design. After

their departure, for which I had prayed most fervently, I said to

myself: Now is your time, Gil Blas, to be firm and resolved. Arm

yourself with courage to go through with an enterprise so

propitiously begun. Domingo is tied by the leg, and Leonarda may

show her teeth, but she cannot bite. Pounce down upon opportunity

while it offers; you may wait long enough for another. Thus did I

spirit myself up in soliloquy. Having got out of bed, I laid hold

of my sword and pistols; and away I went to the kitchen. But

before I made my appearance I stopped to hear what Leonarda was

talking about to the fair incognita, who was come to her senses,

and, on a view of her misfortune in its extremity, took on most

desperately. That is right, my girl, said the old hag, cry your

eyes out, sob away plentifully, you know the good effect of

woman’s tears. The sudden shock was too much for you; but the

danger is over now the engines can play. Your grief will abate by

little and little, and you wilt get reconciled to living with our

gentlemen, who are very good sort of people. You will be better

off than a princess. You do not know how fond they will be of

you. Not a day will pass without your being obliged to some of

them. Many a woman would give one of her eyes to be in your

place.

 

I did not allow Leonarda time to go on any longer with this

babbling. In I went, and putting a pistol to her breast, insisted

with a menacing air on her delivering up the key of the grate.

She did not know what to make of my behaviour; and, though almost

in the last stage of life, had such a propensity to linger on the

road as not to venture on a refusal. With the key in my hand I

directed the following speech to the distressed object of my

compassion: Madam, Heaven sends you a deliverer in me; follow,

and I will see you safe whithersoever you wish to be conducted.

The lady was not deaf to my proposal, which made such an

impression on her grateful heart that she jumped up with all the

strength she had left, threw herself at my feet, and conjured me

to save her honour. I raised her from the ground, and assured her

she might rely on me. I then took some ropes which were

opportunely in the kitchen, and with her assistance tied Leonarda

to the legs of a large table, protesting that I would kill her if

she only breathed a murmur. After that, lighting a candle, I went

with the incognita to the treasury, where I filled my pockets

with pistoles, single and double, as full as they could hold. To

encourage the lady not to be scrupulous, I begged she would think

herself at home, and make free with her own. With our finances

thus recruited, we went towards the stable, where I marched in

with my pistols cocked. I was of opinion that the old blackamoor,

for all his gout and rheumatism, would not let me saddle and

bridle my horse peaceably, and my resolution was to put a

finishing hand to all his ailments if he took it into his head to

play the churl: but, by good luck, he was at that moment in such

pain that I stole the steed without his perceiving that the door

was open. The lady in the mean time was waiting for me. We were

not long in threading the passage leading to the outlet; but

reached the grate, opened it, and at last got to the trap. Much

ado there was to lift it, which we could not have done, but for

the new strength we borrowed from the hopes of our escape.

 

Day was beginning to dawn when we emerged from that abyss. Our

first object was to get as far from it as possible. I jumped into

the saddle: the lady got up behind me, and taking the first path

that offered, we soon gal loped out of the forest. Coming to some

cross-roads we took our chance. I trembled for fear of its

leading to Mansilla, and our encountering Rolando and his

comrades. Luckily my apprehensions were unfounded. We got to

Astorga by two o’clock in the afternoon. The people looked at us

as if they had never seen such a sight before as a woman riding

behind a man. We alighted at the first inn. I immediately ordered

a partridge and a young rabbit to the spit. While my orders were

in a train of execution, the lady was shown to a room, where we

began to scrape acquaintance with one another; which we had not

done on the road, on account of the speed we made. She expressed

a high sense of my services, and told me that after so

gentlemanly a conduct, she could not allow herself to think me

one of the gang from whom I had rescued her. I told her my story

to confirm her good opinion. By these means I entitled myself to

her confidence, and to the knowledge of her misfortunes, which

she recounted to the following effect.

 

CH. XI — The history of Donna Mencia de Mosquera.

 

I WAS born at Valladolid, and am called Donna Mencia de Mosquera.

My father, Don Martin, after spending most of his family estate

in the service, was killed in Portugal at the head of his

regiment. He left me so little property, that I was a bad match,

though an only daughter. I was not, however, without my admirers,

notwithstanding the mediocrity of my fortune. Several of the most

considerable cavaliers in Spain sought me in marriage. My

favourite was Don Alvar de Mello. It is true he had a prettier

person than his rivals; but more solid qualities determined me in

his favour. He had wit, discretion, valour, probity; and in

addition to all these, an air of fashion. Was an entertainment to

be given? His taste was sure to be displayed. If he appeared in

the lists, he always fixed the eyes of the beholders on his

strength and dexterity. I singled him out from among all the

rest, and married him.

 

A few days after our nuptials, he met Don Andrew de Ba�sa, who

had been his rival, in a private place. They attacked one another

sword in hand, and Don Andrew fell. As he was nephew to the

corregidor of Valladolid, a turbulent man, violently incensed

against the house of Mello, Don Alvar thought he could not soon

enough make his escape. He returned home speedily, and told me

what had happened while his horse was getting ready. My dear

Mencia, said he at length, we must part. You know the corregidor:

let us not flatter ourselves; he will hunt me even to death. You

are unacquainted with his influence; this empire will be too hot

to hold me. He was so penetrated by his own grief and mine as not

to be able to articulate further. I made him take some cash and

jewels: then he folded me in his arms, and we did nothing but

mingle our sighs and tears for a quarter of an hour. In a short

time the horse was at the door. He tore himself from me, and left

me in a condition not easily to be expressed. It had been well if

the excess of my affliction had destroyed me! How much pain and

trouble might I have escaped by death! Some hours after Don Alvar

was gone, the corregidor became acquainted with his flight. He

set up a hue and cry after him, sparing no pains to get him into

his power. My husband, however, eluded his pursuit, and got into

safe quarters; so that the judge, finding himself reduced to

confine his vengeance to the poor satisfaction of confiscating,

where he meant to execute, laboured to good purpose in his

vocation. Don Alvar’s little property all went to the hammer.

 

I remained in a very comfortless situation, with scarcely the

means of subsistence. A retired life was best suited to my

circumstances, with a single female servant. I passed my hours in

lamenting, not an indigence, which I bore patiently, but the

absence of a beloved husband, of whom I received no accounts. He

had indeed pledged himself, in the melancholy moments of our

parting, to be punctual in acquainting me with his destiny, to

whatever part of the world his evil star might conduct him. And

yet seven years roiled on without my hearing of him. My suspense

respecting his fate afflicted me most deeply. At last I heard of

his falling in battle, under the Portuguese banner, in the

kingdom of Fez. A man newly returned from Africa brought me the

account, with the assurance that he had been well acquainted with

Don Alvar de Mello; had served with him in the army, and had seen

him drop in the action. To this narrative of facts he added

several collateral circumstances, which left me no room to doubt

of my husband’s premature death.

 

About this time Don Ambrosio Mesia Carillo, Marquis de la

Guardia, arrived at Valladolid. He was one of those elderly

noblemen who, with that good breeding acquired by long experience

in courts, throw their years into the background, and retain the

faculty of making themselves agreeable to our sex. One day he

happened by accident to hear the story of Don Alvar; and, from

the part I bore in it and the description of my person, there

arose a desire of being better acquainted. To satisfy his

curiosity, he made interest with one of my relations to invite me

to her house. The gentleman was one of the party. This first

interview made not the less impression on his heart for the

traces of sorrow which were too obvious on my countenance. He was

touched by its melancholy and languishing expression, which gave

him a favourable forecast of my constancy. Respect, rather than

any warmer sentiment, might perhaps be the inspirer of his

wishes. For he told me more than once what a miracle of good

faith he considered me, and my husband’s fate as enviable in this

respect, however lamentable in others. In a word, he was struck

with me at first sight, and did not wait for a review of my

pretensions, but at once took the resolution of making me his

wife.

 

The intervention of my kinswoman was adopted as the means of

inducing me to accept his proposal. She paid me a visit; and in

the course of conversation, pleaded, that as my husband had

submitted to the decree of Providence in the kingdom of Fez,

according to very credible accounts, it was no longer rational to

coop up my charms. I had shed tears enough over