The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane - Alain René le Sage (best fiction books of all time .txt) 📗
- Author: Alain René le Sage
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played upon. I have even gone so far as to lock him up, but that
only made hint more headstrong than before. In short, he is one
of those impracticable beings, on whom good example, good advice,
and a good horsewhip, are equally thrown away. If ever he makes
any figure in the world, it must be by a miracle from heaven.
Though my heart was not grievously wrung by the sorrows of this
unhappy father, sympathy was expected from me, and I condoled
with him accordingly. How much to be pitied you are, sir! said I.
Virtues like yours deserved to have been handed down in your
progeny. The event is quite the reverse, my good lad, answered
he. Heaven heard my prayer, and gave me a son, but converted the
blessing into an affliction. Among other grounds of complaint
against Gaspard, I may tell you in confidence, there is one which
gives me a great deal of uneasiness; a vast longing to rob his
old father, which he too often finds the means of satisfying, in
spite of all my caution. Your predecessor played into his hands,
and was turned away in consequence. As for you, I flatter myself
that my son will never be able to tamper with your honesty. You
will take my side of the question; for doubtless Father Alexis
has given you your lesson on that head. You may rest assured of
that, said I; for a good long hour did his reverence lecture me
on doing your will and pleasure without let or hindrance; but I
can assure you, there was no need of his saying anything about
the matter. I feel within myself a sort of call to serve you
faithfully, and I promise to do it with a zeal beyond all the
temptations of the world to shake or lessen.
He who only hears one side is in danger of deciding partially.
Young Velasquez, a mixture of the fribble and the braggart,
concluding from the cut of my countenance that I was made up of
mortal frailty like my dear predecessor, drew me aside to a snug
corner, and there talked to me after this fashion. Now mind what
is said to you, my dear fellow; you may think I do not know that
you are set as a spy upon me by my father; but take especial care
how you proceed, for I can assure you most sincerely, that the
office is not without very considerable inconvenience to those
who undertake it. If ever I find that you tell tales out of
school, I will give you such a basting as you never had in your
life; but if you will make common cause with me, and a fool of my
father, you may buy golden returns of gratitude from your humble
servant. Do you wish me to deal with you upon the nail? You shall
go snacks in at that we can squeeze out of the old fellow. You
have only to take your choice: fall at once into the ranks either
of father or son; for neutrals will come worse off, where the
contending parties fight for their existence.
Sir, answered I, you make the shoe pinch very tight; it is self-evident that there is nothing for me to do but to enlist under
your banners, though in my conscience it seems like a crying sin
to betray Signor Velasquez. That is no concern of yours, rejoined
Gaspard; he is an old hunks, who wants to keep me under his
thumb; a curmudgeon who refuses me the rights of nature, in
refusing to stand to the expenses and repairs of my pleasures;
for pleasures are the necessaries of life at five-and-twenty. It
is in this point of view that you must form your opinion of my
father. If that is the case, so be it, sir, said I; there is no
standing against so just a subject of complaint. I am quite at
your service to play second fiddle in all your laudable
enterprises; but let us take especial care to conceal our good
understanding, for fear your faithful, humble servant should be
kicked out of doors. It will not be amiss, in my poor opinion,
for you to affect an extreme antipathy against me: some good
round of abuse would have a very pretty effect; you need not be
nice; all the blackguard terms in the dictionary will come at
your call. Nay, a box on the ear now and then, or a kick on the
breech, will break no squares; on the contrary, the more you
express your thorough dislike, the more Signor Balthasar will pin
his faith upon my sleeve. My cue will be, apparently to avoid
speaking to you if possible. In waiting at table, I shall perform
my little attentions to you at arm’s length; and whenever your
honour may happen to be called over the coals by the shopmen, you
must not take it amiss if I abuse you worse than a pickpocket.
As plain as chalk from cheese! cried young Velasquez at this last
hint; this is admirable, my friend; at your early age, it is
uncommon to meet with such a talent for intrigue; I consider it
as a most happy omen for my purpose. With such a performer to
play up to me, I flatter myself the old codger will be pinched to
the bone and left penniless. You really carry your good opinion
of me beyond what my merit will justify, said I; some industry
may fall to my share, but not such exalted genius. But I shall do
my utmost; and if my honest endeavours fail, your candour most
find excuses for my imbecility.
It was not long before Gaspard had proof positive that I was to a
hair’s breadth the very man he wanted; and the following was
precisely the first trick I played into his hand. Balthasar’s
strong box was in the good man’s chamber, by his bedside, a sort
of oratory, with a prayer-book always lying upon it. Every time I
looked that way, my eyes glistened with hope and pleasure; my
heart chuckled over the very idea of what might happen: Fair,
sweet, cruel box, will you for ever be coy to my addresses? May I
never experience the heartfelt delight of possessing all your
charms for better, for worse? As I went into the room at
pleasure, and only Gaspard was warned off the premises, it
happened one day that I watched his father. The old gentleman,
fancying himself unobserved of human eye, after having opened his
treasury and closed it fast again, hid the key behind the
hangings. I took an accurate observation of the place, and
communicated the discovery to my young master, who said with an
improving hug: Ah! my dear Scipio, what glorious news you bring!
Our fortune is made, my dear fellow. I will furnish you with wax;
you shall take the impression of the key, and then our business
is done, There will be no difficulty in finding a benevolent
locksmith in Cordova, where, to do the place justice, there are
as many rogues as in any part of Spain.
Well! but why, said I to Gaspard, do you want a false key? We may
find our account in the proper one. Yes, answered he; but I am
afraid lest my father, through mistrust or whim, should take a
fancy to hiding it elsewhere; and the safest way is, to have one
of our own. I commended his precaution, and falling in with all
his principles, got ready for taking the impression of the key:
this was effected one morning early, while my old master was
paying a visit to Father Alexis, with whom he for the most part
held very long conferences. I did not stop here; but availed
myself of the key to open the strong box, wherein an ample range
of large and small bags threw me into the most delightful
perplexity imaginable. I did not know which to choose, there was
such a family likeness among them; nevertheless, as the fear of
being caught did not allow of any long deliberation, I laid
hands, haphazard, on the largest. Then, locking the box
carefully, and putting the key back again behind the hangings, I
got away out of the chamber with my booty, and hid it under my
bed, in a small closet where I lay.
Having performed this exploit so successfully, I ran back as fast
as my legs would carry me to young Velasquez, who was waiting at
a house where he had given me notice to meet him, and his delight
was extreme at the recital of what I had just done. He was so
fully satisfied with me, as to lavish caresses without number,
and to offer me thrice, in the fulness of his heart, half the
contents of the bag, which I did thrice refuse. No, no, sir, said
I, this first bag is yours and yours only; apply it to your own
uses and occasions. I shall return forth with to the strong box,
where, as our lucky stars have contrived it, there is money
enough for both of us. Accordingly, three days afterwards I
carried off a second bag, containing, like the first, five
hundred crowns, of which I would only handle the fourth part, let
Gaspard be as pressing as he pleased to force upon me a brotherly
division, share and share alike.
As soon as this young man found himself so flush of money, and
consequently in a condition to gratify his hankering after women
and play, he gave himself up entirely to the devices of his own
imagination; nay, his evil genius pursued him so far, as to make
him fall desperately in love with one of those female harpies,
who devour without remorse or intermission, and swallow up the
largest fortunes. His disbursements at her instigation were
frightful; and thus it became necessary for me to pay so many
visits to the strong box, that old Velasquez at length found out
he had been robbed. Scipio, said he one morning, I must give you
a piece of information; some one robs me, my friend; my strong
box has been opened; several bags have been taken out, that is a
certain fact. Whom ought I to accuse of this theft? or rather,
who else but my son can have committed it? Gaspard must have got
by stealth into my chamber, or else you yourself must have played
booty with him; for I am tempted to believe you are in league
with him, though to outward appearance you do not set up your
horses together. And yet I am unwilling to harbour that
suspicion, because Father Alexis undertook to answer for your
honesty. I gave him to understand that, by the blessing of heaven
on a good natural disposition, my neighbours’ goods had no
temptation in my sight; and I so happily suited the action to the
lie, and the lie to the action, that my judge pronounced a
verdict of acquittal on the evidence of grimace and hypocrisy.
Accordingly the old man dropped the subject; but for all that,
there was a general misgiving in his breast, and it would
sometimes light upon me; taking precautions, therefore, against
our further attacks, he had a new lock put to his strong box and
always carried the key in his pocket By these means, an embargo
being laid on our traffic with the bags, we looked excessively
foolish, especially Gaspard, who, being unable any longer to keep
his nymph in her usual style, knew very well that he was likely
to be tossed out of her window. He had, however, invention enough
to devise an expedient for keeping his head above water a few
days longer, and that
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