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

the next day between nine and ten

o’clock; I brushed his clothes. He paid me my six rials, and sent

me packing till the evening. My mysterious master went out

himself too, not without great caution in fastening the doors,

and we parted for the remainder of the day.

 

Such was our course of life, very agreeable to me. The best of

the joke was, that I did not know my master’s name. Melendez did

not know it himself. The gentleman came to his shop now and then,

and bought a piece of cloth. My neighbours were as much at a loss

as myself; they all assured me that my master was a perfect

stranger, though he had lived two years in the ward. He visited

no soul in the neighbourhood, and some of them, a little given to

scandal, concluded him to be no better than he should be.

Suspicions got to be more rife; he was suspected of being a spy

of Portugal, and it was thought but fair play to give a hint for

my own good. This intimation troubled me. Thought I to myself,

should this turn out to be a fact, I stand a chance for seeing

the inside of a prison at Madrid. My innocence will be no

security; my past ill-usage makes me look on justice with

antipathy. Twice have I experienced that if the innocent are not

condemned in a lump with the guilty, at least the rights of

hospitality are too little regarded in their persons to make it

pleasant to pass a summer in the purlieus of the law.

 

I consulted Melendez in so delicate a conjuncture. He was at a

loss how to advise me. Though he could not bring himself to

believe that my master was a spy, he had no reason to be

confident on the other side of the question. I determined to

watch my employer, and to leave him if he turned out to be an

enemy of the state; but then prudence and personal comfort

required me to be certain of my fact. I began, therefore, to pry

into his actions; and to sound him, Sir, said I one evening while

he was undressing, I do not know how one ought to live so as to

be secure from reflections. The world is very scurrilous! We,

among others, have neighbours not worth a curse. Sad dogs! You

have no notion how they talk of us. Do they indeed, Gil Blas?

quoth he. Be it so! but what can they say of us, my friend? Ah!

truly, replied I, evil tongues never want a whet. Virtue herself

furnishes weapons for her own martyrdom. Our neighbours say that

we are dangerous people, that we ought to be looked after by

government; in a word, you are taken for a spy of Portugal. In

throwing out this hint, I looked hard at my master, just as

Alexander squinted at his physician, and pursed up all my

penetration to remark upon the effect of my intelligence. There

seemed to be a hitch in the muscles of my mysterious lord,

altogether in unison with the suspicions of the neighbourhood;

and he fell into a brown study, which bore no very auspicious

interpretation. However, he put a better face on the matter, and

said with sufficient composure: Gil Blas, leave our neighbours to

discourse as they please, but let not our repose depend on their

judgments. Never mind what they think of us, provided our own

consciences do not wince.

 

Hereupon he went to bed, and I did the like, without knowing what

course to take. The next day, just as we were on the point of

going out in the morning, we heard a violent knocking at the

outer door on the staircase. My master opened the inner, and

looked through the grate. A well-dressed man said to him: Please

your honour, I am an alguazil, come to inform you that Mr

Corregidor wishes to speak a word with you. What does he want?

answered my pattern of secrecy. That is more than I know, sir,

replied the alguazil; but you have only to go and wait on him;

you will soon be informed. I am his most obedient, quoth my

master; I have no business with him. At the tail of this speech,

he banged the inner door; then, after walking up and down a

little while, like one who pondered on the discourse of the

alguazil, he put my six rials into my hand, and said: Gil Blas,

you may go out, my friend; for my part, I shall stay at home a

little longer, but have no occasion for you. He made an

impression on my mind, by these words, that he was afraid of

being taken up, and was therefore obliged to remain in his

apartments. I left him there; and, to see how far my suspicions

were founded, hid myself in a place whence I could see if he went

out. I should have had patience to have staid there all the

morning, if he had not saved me the trouble. But an hour after, I

saw him walk the street with an ease and confidence which dumbfounded my sagacity. Yet far from yielding to these appearances,

I mistrusted them; for my verdict went to condemnation. I

considered his easy carriage as put on; and his staying at home

as a finesse to secure his gold and jewels, when probably he was

going to consult his safety by speedy flight. I had no idea of

seeing him again, and doubted whether I should attend at his door

in the evening; so persuaded was I, that the day would see him on

the outside of the city, as his only refuge from impending

danger. Yet I kept my appointment; when, to my extreme surprise,

my master returned as usual. He went to bed without betraying the

least uneasiness, and got up the next morning with the same

composure.

 

Just as he had finished dressing, another knock at the door! My

master looked through the grate His friend the alguazil was there

again, and he asked him what he wanted. Open the door, answered

the alguazil; here is Mr Corregidor. At this dreadful name, my

blood froze in my veins. I had a devilish loathing of those

gentry since I had passed through their hands, and could have

wished myself at that moment an hundred leagues from Madrid. As

for my employer, less startled than myself; he opened the door,

and received the magistrate respectfully. You see, said the

corregidor, that I do not break in upon you with a whole posse:

my maxim is to do business in a quiet way. In spite of the ugly

reports circulated about you in the city, I think you deserve

some little attention. What is your name, and business at Madrid?

Sir, answered my master, I am from New Castile, and my title is

Don Bernard de Castil Blazo. With respect to my way of life, I

lounge about, frequent public places, and take my daily pleasure

in a select circle of polite company. Of course you have a

handsome fortune! replied the judge. No, sir, interrupted my

Mecaenas, I have neither annuities, nor lands, nor houses. How do

you live then? rejoined the corregidor. I will show you, replied

Don Bernard. At the same time he lifted up a part of the

hangings, before a door I had not observed, opened that and one

beyond, then took the magistrate into a closet containing a large

chest chuck full of gold.

 

Sir, said he again, you know that the Spaniards are proverbially

indolent; yet, whatever may be their general dislike to labour, I

may compliment myself on bettering the example. I have a stock of

laziness, which disqualifies me for all exertion. If I had a mind

to puff my vices into virtues, I might call this sloth of mine a

philosophical indifference, the work of a mind weaned from all

that worldlings court with so much ardour; but I will frankly own

myself constitutionally lazy, and so lazy, that rather than work

for my subsistence, I would lay myself down and starve.

Therefore, to lead a life befitting my fancy, not to have the

trouble of looking after my affairs, and above all to do without

a steward, I have converted all my patrimony, consisting of

several considerable estates, into ready money. In this chest

there are fifty thousand ducats; more than enough for the

remainder of my days, should I live to be an hundred! For I do

not spend a thousand a year, and am already more than fifty years

old. I have no fears, therefore, for futurity, since I am not

addicted, heaven be praised, to any one of the three things which

usually ruin men. I care little for the pleasures of the table; I

only play for my amusement; and I have given up women. There is

no chance of my being reckoned, in my old age, among those

libidinous greybeards to whom jilts sell their favours by troy

weight.

 

You are a happy man! said the corregidor. They are in the wrong

to suspect you of being a spy: that office is quite out of

character for a man like you. Take your own course, Don Bernard:

continue to live as you like. Far from disturbing your peace, I

declare myself your protector; I request your friendship, and

pledge my own. Ah! sir, exclaimed my master, thrilled with these

kind expressions, I accept with equal joy and gratitude your

precious offer. In giving me your friendship you augment my

wealth, and carry my happiness to its height. After this

conversation, which the alguazil and myself heard; from the

closet door, the corregidor took his leave of Don Bernard, who

could not do enough to express his sense of the obligation. On my

part, mimicking thy master in doing the honours of the house, I

overburdened the alguazil with civilities. I made him a thousand

low bows, though I felt for him in my sleeve the contempt and

hatred which every honest man naturally entertains for an

alguazil.

 

CH. II. — The astonishment of Gil Blas at meeting Captain

Rolando in Madrid, and that robber’s curious narrative.

 

DON Bernard de Castil Blazo, having attended the corregidor to

the street, returned in a hurry to fasten his strong box, and all

the doors which secured it. We then went out, both of us well

satisfied, he at having acquired a friend in power, and myself at

finding my six rials a day secured to me. The desire of relating

this adventure to Melendez made me bend my steps towards his

house; but, near my journey’s end, whom should I meet but Captain

Rolando! My surprise was extreme, and I could not help quaking at

the sight of him. He recollected me at once, accosted me gravely,

and, still keeping up his tone of superiority, ordered me to

follow him. I tremblingly obeyed, saying inwardly: Alas! he

means, doubtless, to make me pay my debts! Whither will he lead

me? There may, perhaps, be some subterraneous retreat in this

city. Plague take it! If I thought so, I would soon show him I

have not got the gout. I walked, therefore, behind him carefully

looking out where he might stop, with the pious design of putting

my best leg foremost, if there was anything in the shape of a

trap-door.

 

Rolando soon dispersed my alarms. He went into a well-frequented

tavern; I followed him. He called for the best wine, and ordered

dinner. While it was getting ready, we went into a private room,

where the captain addressed me as follows: You may well be

astonished, Gil Blas, to renew your acquaintance with your old

commander; and you will be still more so, when you