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

and blessed the happy

consequences of my wound. Don George allowed me to speak with his

daughter in presence of her attendant. What a heavenly interview!

I begged and prayed the lady so earnestly to tell me whether her

sufferance of my vows was forced upon her by her father, that she

at length confessed her obedience to be in unison with her

inclinations. After so delicious a declaration, my whole soul was

given up to love and pleasurable gratifications. Our nuptials

were to be graced by a magnificent procession of all the

principal people in Coria and the neighbourhood.

 

I gave a splendid party at my aunt’s country-house, in the

suburbs on the side of Manroi. Don George, his daughter, the

family, and friends on both sides were present. There was a

concert of vocal and instrumental music, with a company of

strolling players, to represent a comedy. In the middle of the

festivities, some one whispered me that a man wanted to speak

with me in the hall. I got up from table to go and see who it

was. The stranger looked like a gentleman’s servant. He put a

letter into my hand, containing these words:

 

“If you have any sense of honour, as a knight of your order ought

to have, you will not fail to attend to-morrow morning in the

plain of Manroi. There you will find an antagonist, ready to give

you your revenge for his former attack upon your person, or, what

he rather hopes and meditates, to spoil your connubial transports

with Donna Helena.

 

“DON AUSTIN DE OLIGHERA.”

 

If love is a Spanish passion, revenge is the Spanish lunacy. Such

a note as this was not to be read with composure. At the mere

subscription of Don Austin, there kindled in my veins a fire,

which almost made me forget the claims of hospitality. I was

tempted to steal away from my company, and seek my antagonist on

the instant. For fear of disturbing the merriment, however, I

bridled in my rage, and said to the messenger: My friend, you may

tell your employer that I shall meet him on the appointed spot at

sunrise, and resume the contest with obstinacy equal to his own.

 

After sending this answer, I resumed my seat at table with so

composed a mien, that no creature had the least suspicion of what

had occurred. During the rest of the day, I gave myself up to the

pleasures of the festival, which ended not till midnight. The

guests then returned to town, but I staid behind, under pretext

of taking the air on the following morning. Instead of going to

bed, I watched for the dawn with maddening impatience. With the

first ray I got on horseback, and rode alone towards Manroi. On

the plain was a horseman, riding up to me at full speed. I pushed

forward, and we met half way. It was my rival. Knight, said he,

superciliously, it is against my will that I meet you a second

time on the same occasion, but you have brought your fate on

yourself. After the adventure of the serenade, you ought to have

waived your pretensions to Don George’s daughter, or at least to

have been assured that the support of them must cost you dearer

than a single encounter. You are too much elated, answered I,

with an advantage which is less owing, perhaps, to your superior

skill, than to the darkness of the night. Remember, that victory

is of the same blind family with fortune. It shall be my lot to

teach you, replied he with insulting scorn, that I have unsealed

the eyes of both.

 

At this proud defiance, we both dismounted, tied our horses to a

tree, and engaged with equal fury. I must candidly acknowledge

the prowess of my antagonist, who was a consummate master of

fencing. My life was exposed to the greatest possible danger.

Nevertheless, as the strong is often vanquished by the weak, my

rival, in spite of all his science, received a thrust through the

heart, and fell a lifeless corpse.

 

I immediately returned, and told a confidential servant what had

happened, requesting him to take horse and acquaint my aunt,

before the officers of justice could get intelligence of the

event. He was also to obtain from her a supply of money and

jewels, and then join me at the first inn as you enter Plazencia.

 

All this was performed within three hours. Donna Eleonora rather

triumphed than mourned over a catastrophe, which restored my

injured honour; and sent me large remittances for my travels

abroad, till the affair had blown over.

 

Not to dwell on indifferent circumstances, suffice it to say,

that I embarked for Italy, and equipped myself so as to make a

respectable figure at the several courts.

 

While I was endeavouring to beguile the weary hours of absence,

Helena was weeping at home from the same cause. Instead of

joining in the family resentment, her heart was panting for a

compromise, and for my speedy return. Six months had already

elapsed, and I firmly believe that her constancy would have been

proof against the track of time, had time been seconded by no

more powerful ally. Don Blas de Combados, a gentleman from the

western coast of Galicia, came to Coria, to take possession of a

rich inheritance unsuccessfully contested by a near relation. He

liked that country so much better than his own, that he made it

his principal residence. Combados was a personable man. His

manners were gentle and well-bred, his conversation most

insinuating. With such a passport, he soon got into the best

company, and knew all the family concerns of the place.

 

It was not long before he heard of Don George’s daughter, and of

her extraordinary beauty. This touched his curiosity nearly; he

was eager to behold so formidable a lady. For this purpose, he

endeavoured to worm himself into the good graces of her father,

and succeeded so well, that the old gentleman, already looking on

him as a son-in-law, gave him free admission to the house, and

the liberty of conversing with Donna Helena in his presence. The

Galician soon became deeply enamoured of her: indeed, it was the

common fate of all who had ever beheld her charms. He opened his

heart to Don George, who consented to his paying his addresses,

but told him that so far from offering violence to her

inclination, he should never interfere in her choice. Hereupon

Don Blas pressed every device that impassioned ingenuity could

suggest into his service, to melt and warm the icicles of

reserve; but the lady was impenetrable to his arts, fast bound in

the fetters of an earlier love. Felicia, however, was in the new

suitor’s interest, convinced of his merit by the universal

argument. All the faculties of her soul were called forth in his

cause. On the other hand, the father urged his wishes and

entreaties. Thus was Donna Helena tormented for a whole year with

their importunities, and yet her faith continued unshaken.

 

Combados finding that Don George and Felicia took up his cause

with very little success, proposed an expedient for conquering

prejudice to the following effect. We will suppose a merchant of

Coria to have received a letter from his Italian correspondent,

in which, among the news of the day, there shall be the following

paragraph: “A Spanish gentleman, Don Gaston de Cogollos, has

lately arrived at the court of Parma. He is said to he nephew and

sole heir to a rich widow of Coria. He is paying his addresses to

a nobleman’s daughter; but the family wishes to ascertain the

validity of his pretensions. Send me word, therefore, whether you

know this Don Gaston, together with the amount of his aunt’s

fortune. On your answer the marriage will depend. Parma, day of,

&c.”

 

The old gentleman considered this trick as a mere ebullition of

humour, a lawful stratagem of amorous warfare; and the jade of a

go-between, with conscience still more callous than her master’s,

was delighted with the probability of the manoeuvre. It seemed to

be so much the more happily imagined, as they knew Helena to be a

proud girl, capable of taking decisive measures, in the moment of

surprise and indignation. Don George undertook to be the herald

of my fickleness, and by way of colouring the contrivance more

naturally, to confront the pretended correspondent with her. This

project was executed as soon as formed. The father, with

counterfeit emotions of displeasure, said to Donna Helena:

Daughter, it is not enough now to tell you that our relations

inveigh against an alliance with Don Austin’s murderer; a still

stronger reason henceforward presses, to detach you from Don

Gaston. It may well overwhelm you with shame, to have been his

dupe so long. Here is an undeniable proof of his inconstancy.

Only read this letter just received by a merchant of Coria from

Italy. The trembling Helena caught at this forged paper; glanced

over the writing; then weighed every expression, and stood aghast

at the import of the whole. A keen pang of disappointment wrung

from her a few reluctant tears; but pride came to her assistance;

she wiped away the falling drops of weakness, and said to her

father in a determined tone: Sir, you have just been witness of

my folly; now bear testimony to my triumph over myself. The

delusion is past; Don Gaston is the object of my utter contempt.

I am ready to meet Don Blas at the altar, and be beforehand with

the traitor in the pledge of our transferred affections. Don

George, transported with joy at this change, embraced his

daughter, extolled her spirit to the skies, and hastened the

necessary preparations, with all the self-complacency of a

successful plotter.

 

Thus was Donna Helena snatched from me. She threw herself into

the arms of Combados in a pet, not listening to the secret

whispers of love within her breast, nor suspecting a story which

ought to have seemed so improbable in the annals of true passion.

The haughty are always the victims of their own rash conclusions.

Resentment of insulted beauty triumphed wholly over the

suggestions of tenderness. And yet, a few days after marriage,

there came over her some feelings of remorse for her

precipitation; it struck her that the letter might have been a

forgery; and the very possibility disturbed her peace. But the

enamoured Don Blas left his wife no time to nurse up thoughts

injurious to

their new-found joys; a succession of gaiety and pleasure kept

her in a thoughtless whirl, and shielded her from the pangs of

unavailing repentance.

 

She appeared to be in high good humour with so spirit-stirring a

husband; so that they were living together in perfect unanimity,

when my aunt adjusted my affair with Don Austin’s relations. Of

this she wrote me word to Italy. I returned on the wings of love.

Donna Eleonora, not having announced the marriage, informed me of

it on my arrival; and remarking what pain it gave me, said: You

are in the wrong, nephew, to shew so much feeling for a faithless

fair. Banish from your memory a person so unworthy to share in

its tender recollections.

 

As my aunt did not know how Donna Helena had been played upon,

she had reason to talk as she did: nor could she have given me

better advice. To affect indifference, if not to conquer my

passion, was my bounden duty. Yet there could be no harm in just

inquiring by what means this union had been brought to bear. To

get at the truth, I determined on applying to Felicia’s friend

Theodora. There I met with Felicia herself, who was confounded at

my unwelcome presence, and would have escaped from the necessity

of explanation.