The Wanderings of Persiles and Sigismunda by Miguel de Cervantes--Delphi Classics (Illustrated) by Miguel De Cervantes

Author:Miguel De Cervantes [CERVANTES, MIGUEL DE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Parts Edition 4 of 8 by Delphi Classics
Publisher: Delphi Classics (Parts Edition)
Published: 2017-08-25T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XIX.

Of the kind Reception they met with in the Isle of Hermits.

IF it be true, as I think it is, that we find a pleasure in listening to the storm without, when we are comfortably sheltered at home; and in recalling the perils of the past battle in times of peace; or in health, remembering our late weakness; then is it sweet to me to tell of all my wanderings and troubles in this calm and peaceful place of rest, where, although I may not as yet consider that I am quite free from care, I may say I am enjoying repose for the present: and happy in feeling this, I will now return to tell you about the ship wherein I was left with our conquered enemies, and where I learnt, as I have already told you, the particulars of how my sister and Clelia, and the two fishermen’s brides, had been sold to the prince Arnoldo here present.

“Whilst my people were busily investigating and weighing the provisions that were in the icebound vessel, I perceived that on the side nearest the land, a body of armed men, about perhaps four thousand in number, was approaching; a sight such as this left us even more frozen than that icy sea. We prepared our arms, but more that we might stand up like men, than with any thought of defending ourselves. They moved along the ice only on one foot, giving with the right a touch against the left heel, and thereby impelling their bodies, and sliding with the other over the sea for a long space, and then immediately renewing the blow again, made another slide for a great distance, in which manner of travelling they were with us speedily, and soon surrounded us on every side. One of the party who was, as I afterwards learnt, the commander of the party, came near enough to the ship to make himself heard by us, and announced that they came with peaceable intentions, by displaying a white flag, which he carried on his arm: he spoke in a loud voice in the Polish tongue, and said, ‘Cratilius, King of Lithuania, and lord of these seas, has a custom, which is to dispatch armed men to all those ships that are detained in the ice, and to take from them the persons and merchandize that they contain, repaying himself for the kindness by taking the latter for his own; if you choose to accept this arrangement without resistance, you shall enjoy both your liberty and your lives, for we have no wish to take you prisoners.’

“The brevity and determination of his manner pleased me. I replied, ‘that I must take counsel with my people,’ and my fishermen said, ‘that of all evils the worst and the last was to lose one’s life, which we must preserve by all the means we could devise, unless it were by infamy, and that, as in the terms now offered, there was none, and

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