The Spanish dancer : being a translation from the original French by Henry L. Williams of Don Caesar de Bazan (15 page)

This led to the hunting-boxes, in which were held nightly revels after the slaying of big game, becoming shooting pavilions. Here the mild sportsmen discussed, on the table, the woodcock, snipe and hares, which had superseded the wolf, boar and roebuck.

Such a shooting shelter, magnified with luxuries, adorned with decorations by Italian artists and paintings by Velasquez and his disciples, received the Countess of Garofa, under the tutelage of her suddenly-provided father and mother.

It is one of the redeeming features of the court, which has few, to let nothing disturb its surface, for, if you accept a proclaimed event as settled, argument ceases, and consequently there cannot arise the acrimony of debate.

As every family pretending to antiquity had its legend of a 'Stolen heir, sometimes abducted by eagles, sometimes by those human birds of prey, the gypsies, the tale of Maritana being rescued from the everlasting wanderers was t!o be endured. The story was embellished by miystery of the midnight marriage, followed by an unaccountable fusillade in the Corregidor's courtyard; this was claimed by one tale-teller to have been fatal to the bridegroom, and by another to have so little injured him

that he was very palpably living-, but was journeying to Gibraltar and thence voyaging- in Africa along the coast.

This abrupt self-banishment on the part of a penniless adventurer was a daily occurrence in that era of fortunes made by adventurers in the still productive East. Besides, Don Caesar was known to have been in the Algerian service, a polite way of putting the fact that, as a slave, he had rowed in the pirates' galleys.

This disappearance of the husband, blotting out his commonplace life among ithe vagrants and her short but bright career as a mountebank, songstress and dancer, was sufficiently striking as to furnish the debutante with the halo of attraction, which brought all eyes to bear upon her.

Then, again, the family of Castello-Rotondo, whose head was continually favored with proofs of the royal esteem, took up the daggers for Maritana, and it was as miuch as one's life was worth to hint—simply to hint— that her restoration was more than a passing step from the nunnery to the parlor.

If some still questioned the gypsy abducting and argued that the cunning rogues had offered the first sharp and pretty girl at hand for the position of daughter of one marquis, protegee of another, and wife of a count, the iready reply was that none but a creature born of the sangre-asul and educated according to the school of gen-^ tility, could so stand the inquisition of social arbitresses.

But all fell to the ground and "ko-towed" when, after having given the hunting^pavilion to the Castello-Ro-tondos, the kin'g announced that he would celebrate the union of the Two Criowns' anniversary by a battue in that park and be the guest of honor at a gala in the evening.

Maritana, Countess of Garofa, was ""accepted." There was not a word to say.

The day had been delightful; the game had come like

docile lambs to the range of the ro^^al sportsman, who had bag-s full enough to feast all the patients in all the hospitals of Madrid; at dusk the fireworks began to sparkle and blaze. The lanterns shone like glowworms and fireflies. The spaces at the crossroads had each their little entertainments, masquerades, burlettas, clowns and oolurnbines, musical scenas, and balls on the lawn.

There were hopes that the hereditary sulks of the kings would die out in Carlos, who had never reached this height of lightheartedness.

The hosts were in the seventh heavens. Relying on the favor from both sovereign and his premier, the parasites fastened themselves upon the marquis and his d'ame. They could not well felicitate their daughter, as she relegated to the background until the existence of her husband was authorit;atively declared by the police minister. He was inquiring the more rigidly and closely as his own relative was the vanished grandee.

She could see a little of the shooting party, perhaps, through the bars of her windows, the jalousies or Venetian blinds borrowed from the Orientals by theTtal-ians and the Spanish. But of the banquet she was not to have a peep. She hoped that if the news of Don Caesar having in some w^y escaped the doom which had befallen him in spite of the royal pardon should arrive, she might be allowed in at the "wine and nuts" period.

But Don Jose, whether or not he had spurred on his "familiars," as they were called, to ascertain the truth in the popular report that his cousin, having sinned against the goodmes's of justice as much as against social canons by his escapades, had been carried away by the Prince of Evil, came with a smooth countenance to join the choice assembly in the boudoir of the marchioness. Here were merely members of the families of Castello-Rotondo and the marchioness.

Don Jose joined them,' with a saddened visage, but tmder his breath he whispered to the host and the guest, without letting- the bereaved one hear:

"We sihall have a consoling visit before the night is out!"

Therefore, with -a good heart, those who were as pre-pared t;o mourn as encourage began to broaden their faces and wag the tongue merrily.

Two or three continued assiduous court to the old! dame.

Others lauded the marquis and besought remembrance as he mounted the gilded steps.

"Never," said the young Knight of Xarragona, flaunt-inig in a Parisian suit, for he was fresh from the FrencH court, accompanying an envoy, to negotiate another of those treaties which were called "piecrust" (pate) because they were so short and easily broken, "never in my experience" (he was about three-and-twenty), "never did I see a woman look so charming as your lady. I have not the honor to have seen the daughter of the house priorily, but I can aver that no one would assume that they were other than sisters!"

"Elder sister, if you please," interrupted the marchioness, with a simper.

"Now, I protest!"

"And I," said his companion, an Italian stripling who had reached Madrid to learn the language.

The marquis strutted and thought that in unanimity must be truth.

"My young friends," 'S'aia he, puffing out like a pigeon, "you miust comie again and see my gallery—I have appended to it—lappend is good, for they are not on the panels but 'hung'—diepended, see !—several masterpieces by our own artists, for I detest the skinny saints of your old Italians and the blue-eyed crockery madonnas of the!

Dutch! You show so much taste in other matters that I am sure you are first-rate judges of paintings "

"At the present rage for cosmetics and tints," said the pert youth, "one who can judge paintings can judge feminine beauty!"

The premier was studying the captive saved from the Egyptians steadfastly. Her abstraction seemed to him founded on ambition, and this chimed in with his keynote :

"All goes well. This musing shows intellect. She will be a ruler for Spain, under my tuition!"

There was a glow of the fireworks without and bursts of all kinds of music.

Castello-Rotondo went up to his patron, who was so enrapt.

"Have you been siated with the fete, in which I see your hand? Our dark women must look lovely under the artificial lights. Your magic has caused the stern hidalgos to throw off their usual taciturnity and they are prattling light nonsense in the bowers like pages! I see, though, that you regard most fixedly my daughter—^does she not bear her trying new station well?"

"She is a princess!" said Jose, with unguarded enthusiasm. "Blood will tell! She has merely stepped uipon the pedestal destined for her!"

"May it be but a stepping-stone to a higher position! Under your auspices, who knows how high her husband may .arise! For it is undoubted—'I had it from the writer for the Royal Signet—that the king, with his unfaltering support of the old nobility, did grant a full pardon to the luckless Don Caesar."

'T—I think that we may presume that, if he were shot down, it was rtot fatally!"

"That will fill mv poor child with hope!" ; "Only he must have fainted from loss of blood. That

is How two or three penitent friars, conveying the body away as if it were a dead rag cast off by all mankind, deposited it in some catacomb of the mountains, and to cover their stupid error, relate all sorts of insensate stories."

"Do you hope for his return "

"Wounded and weak, perhaps; but able to bear his replacement in society. What is your opinion?"

"Oh, the reformed rake is known to become a steady pillar of the state. Ah, you and he, cousins that are like brothers, you might, indeed, be the two pillars of the state—our twin columns of Hercules, incomparable, unsurpassable— 'Ne plus ultra!'"

"I see that your opinion is mine—you are unrivaled ad a courtier. You will get on in the palace, my lord."

"With your aid, my lord."

"Your tact is so fine—your obedience so utter."

"Quito! have done!" and the old noble attempted to blush.

"By the way, how are the royal birds, under your care, coming on?"

"They are coming off excellently. I am happy to say that there is not a bishoD in all Spain superior to them in plumpness."

"I suppose you are not wedded for life to the establishment of poulterer royal?"

"I—^I—prefer horses and dogs, of course, as a nobleman."

"You have met the fairy godfather—^at least, you may have one of your wishes while awaiting the other to be fumiled."

"Would you overwhelm me?"

"It is rumored to me that Don Canino Barcahunda, whose absence from the hunt to-day was attributed to a fall off his horse, was bitten by one of his charges, on

whose tail he had incautiously stepped. If he should retire on a pension on account of this wound received in service, why "

"Oh, he is master of the ro)ral lapd'ogs, descended unbroken from the Chow-chows sent hither by the Great Cham to Pope Clement, who sent a pair to our King Philip! Master of the lapdogs! I—catch me lest I lose my footing! Oh, I never aspired to that dignity! Canino had it by right of succession and taste, for he loves pugs! His nose verifies that taste ! But I—am I worthy of such a distinction, dear Don Jose?"

"You have peculiar parts which entitle you to be set foremost on the list of applicants!"

"My lord, if I secure that post, count on all the ladies of your preference having the choice of the litters!"

"Yes, but see how those fops are pestering your lady! I think such coxcombs should be taught a lesson! Get your hand in by breaking those puppies, ha, ha!"

Trying to assume the air of a jealous Ottoman, the old dotard hurried over to where the gallants were amusing themselves at the dowager's expense.

This left the plotter to center his attention upon Mari-tana. He spoke to her and she started as if she had forgotten the surroundings.

"You are traveling in a voyage to the moon!" said he, softly, "but how can you be pleased with a festival seen through the windovvpane. But soon, I engage, you will be able to participate in such rejoicings. There is all at your disposition which wealth and taste can bring— nothing is wanting but " he plaused for her to supply the omission.

Maritana heaved a sigih as if the gems on her boidice weighed upon her.

"Mother of mercy!" said she at length, with much melancholy, "nothing is wanting but one whose absence

left a void here, and this yearning for a companion makes me loathe the gUtter and the perfumes and the melody which grate on my senses!"

A footman gUded skillfully among the guests and went up to the minister, to whom he said, in a carefully-modulated voice:

"Please your lordsihip, the personiage expected has come into the little red room."

Jose smiled with relief. He beckoned to the marquis and remarked like one who could not be refused:

"I wish to hold a private confabulation with a friend here. Could you kindly manage to clear the floor of these flutterings?"

This was somewhat unceremonious and quite opposite to the old routinist's conduct, but it had to be done, he did not doubt.

"Oh, it will not be difficult," returned he quickly to 'hide his surprise if not his chagrin as host. "I will induce my rich cousins to go out into the Moorish divan, where I open the flasks of wine from the royal cellars, and I will turn out my poor cousins on the balcony over the patio, where they shall have the wine that was in the cellars here for the hard-drinking huntsmen. If that does not rid us of them, do not count me more your deliverer from nuisances!"

But after he had stiltedly shown out the antonished guests, he and his wife were called back by the self-appointed director.

"T should like the dear countess to stay with her 'daughter," observed he like a command. "And you will also oblige me by lingering."

"Oh, it is we who are obliged," said the lady.

*'I know I am—^for I am going to the dogs I" chuckled the marquis.

Don Jose went up to the brooding Maritana and uttered wheedlingly in her ear:

"This merrymaking shall be perfect, for it is going to have 'the presence here of one whose absence left a void in your bosom and yearning for a companion!' "

Then, without waiting to mark the effect of her words thus emphatically repeated, he quitted the room by the side door used by the messenger who had stated that a visitor was waiting for him.