Gil Blas by Alain-Rene Lesage

Author:Alain-Rene Lesage [Lesage, Alain-Rene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CH. II -- The determination of Don Alphonso and Gil Blas after this adventure.

We travelled all night, according to our modest and unobtrusive custom; so that we found ourselves at sunrise near a little village two leagues from Segorba. As we were all tired to death, it was agreed unanimously to strike out of the highway, and rest under the shade of some willows, which we saw at the foot of a little hill, about ten or twelve hundred yards from the village, where it did not seem expedient for us to halt. These willows furnished us with an agreeable retreat, by the side of a little brook which bubbled as it washed their roots. The place struck our fancy, and we resolved to pass the day there. We unbridled our horses, and turned them out to grass, stretching our own gentle limbs on the soft sod. There we courted the drowsy god of innocent repose for a while, and then rummaged to the bottom of our wallet and our wine-skin. After an ecclesiastical breakfast, we counted up our ten tithes of Samuel Simon's money; and it mounted to a round three thousand ducats. So that with such a sum and what we had before, it might be said, without boasting, that we knew how to make both ends meet.

As it was necessary to go to market, Ambrose and Don Raphael, throwing off their dresses now the play was over, said that they would take that office conjointly on themselves: the adventure at Xelva had only sharpened their wit, and they had a mind to look about Segorba, just to make the experiment whether any opportunity might offer of striking another stroke. You have no thing to do, added the heir of Lucinda's wit and wisdom, but to wait for us under these willows: we shall not be long before we are with you again. Signor Don Raphael, exclaimed I with a horse- laugh, tell us rather to wait for you under a more substantial tree; the gallows. If you once leave us, we are in a month's mind that we shall not see you again till the day after the fair. This suspicion of our honour goes against the grain, replied Signor Ambrose; but we deserve that our characters should suffer in your esteem. It is but reason that you should distrust our purity, after the affair at Valladolid, and should fancy that we shall make it no more a matter of conscience to play at the devil take the hindmost with you, than with the party that we left in the lurch in that town, Yet you deceive yourselves egregiously. The gang upon whom we turned the tables were people of very bad character, and their company began to be disreputable to us. Thus far justice must be done to the members of our profession, that there is no bond in all civilized life less liable to be broken by personal and private interest; but when there are

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