The Spanish dancer : being a translation from the original French by Henry L. Williams of Don Caesar de Bazan (21 page)

"My guests never were so happy," ejaculated he, not seeing other than the prime minister at his entrance. "They do nothing but toast my wife and the Countess of Garofa."

Caesar rose and gave the old noble a careful bow, which, by its utter elegance, foiled the tarnished wedding-6uit.

"My wife, the countess, is a toast, is she? Hound my cats! I can sympathize with her, for I came pretty nigh to being a toast myself not so great a while ago."

The host stared at the speaker, who he but dimly recalled.

"Where is my lady?"

"I declare," exclaimed the m-arquis. "This must be the son of my old friend, who was at King Philip's court. You are Don Caesar of Bazan, I believe? Yet, I heard that you were dead."

"I am convalescent," returned the dashing don, with supreme politeness.

Don Jose made haste to draw his muddling old confederate to one side, and felt like administering a sound shaking.

"Not a word—not another word,'* hissed he, in a voice which showed his unusual concern. "Show no astonishment at anything you see or hear, and do as I wish."

"My future! Oh, the pet dogs "

"They shall be yours." Leaving the other stunned with the important promise, he returned to his cousin, who evinced no sign of stirring.

"Such sacred rights as yours must be respected, and shall be here," said he, firmly "Your wife, the countess, being here, you shall meet without impediment or delay. Let me have the honor to conduct her to you!"

"A mint of friendship this, cousin!" exclaimed the count, his eyes filling with bright tears, for he saw again the beautiful Maritana no longer in tawdry rags, but as the bride, than which he had never known a more perfect vision of loveliness. "What, marquis, are you going to leave me! No, participate in my pleasure, for if I have found a wife of super-excellence, you, I hear, have found a peerless daughter."

"My dear son " began the marquis, in perplexity^

as to how far he might go without Don Jose's permission. "To find a son like you for my old age, in addition to such a daughter, is like meeting with two sticks when one looked forward to walking about with one."

"A stick, am I! Well, this is pretty complimentary!"

"Don't agitate yourself, boy!" continued the marquis, on seeing Cssar pace the room. "I know of old what it is to face a young and beautiful bride! I had the advantage of 3'^ou thirty years ago !"

Don Jose had returned, leading in the Marchioness of Castello-Rotondo, trying to look as if she bad emerged from a dip in the Fountain of Youth. He darted a knowing glance, and gave a warning gesture toward the marquis.

"Caesar, I have the. pleasure to present to you the Countess of Bazan!"

"The countess! my countess ?" uttered the expectant one, abaished at the wrinkled face. "I remembered her

as willowy—but this form is elderly! I ought to have remained at the convent—I did not know what I was hastening to!"

The marquis was paralyzed by the substitution which the minister performed wit'h matchless effrontery. As the old dame smiled upon the young man, spite of his dilapidated toilet, her husband chafed.

"Gad! she simpers as if she liked the discourteous trick under my own roof!"

"I know that one often plucks the thorn for the rose," moralized Csesar, under his breath, "but this is a hag of sixty—no wonder she wore an inch-thick veil!"

The young gallant turned to the host, and added in a low tone:

"As you are better acquainted with this mansion than I, will you kindly point out the shortest cut, out upon the king's roadF'

"Don Csesar," said Jose, "the countess is prepared to fulfill such duties as are prescribed to her 1"

"It is useless!" returned the 'happy O'ne. "I do no! claim any sacrifices on her part! I should prefer another warrant of execution to my marriage certificate ! Make it out!" Retreating a little, and being stopped by the old marquis, he said:

"Old fellow, you have 'had long experience, but did you ever fall in with such a gorgon! Is she not frightful?"

"Tastes differ, my son! This young rake has 'had iiis sig^ht perverted as badly as his morals—he cannot see a beauty in any one, now!"

"The countess awaits your determination," persisted Jose, in the belief that the stream had turned in his favor ; "she is ready to share your fate and fortune!"

"Heaven's v/ill be undone!" cried the cavalier. "Lady fair, I will not take advantage of an accident, thougih

charmed at the generosity of one willing to share the lot of so poor, so dunned, so black a hbertine! to live with you ? ah, better for you I should wed the gallows!"

"The lady knew your low condition when she con-semted to the union," observed the minister,

"Did she? and did she know that—ahem! if that old fossil accepted this beldame from the gypsies as his daughter, and not his long-lost grandmother, then I— but," added he loudly, "I am not going to be outdone in generosity. Lady, I will not take you from those to whom years of diverted affection must be offered ! I free you from every tie which would hold you back from those to whom your charms, your lively company, and your simplicity, must recommend you! Did you ever," he went on to the marquis, to give himself a countenance, for this was a Medusa, after his anticipations, "ever see such wrinkles?"

"Wrinkles, you pert fellow! where you see wrinkles, I see dimples, egad! wimples—I mean, dinkles—hang it! this perverse cousin of Don Jose's drives all sense out o^ me! But I must not break out and lose my temper— and the lapdogs!"

"Perhaps, lady," resumed Don Czesar, trying to cover his retreat with honor, "at some distant time, some very

distant time, I may " The marchioness turned to*

ward him with such vivacity that he drew back as if a tigress was making its spring. "No, I can never shorten the distance between us! My poor old friend of my father," proceeded he, as he again consulted the vacillating noble, "as a reverend couinselor, let me ask you if you would, on any worldly consideration, entitle that venerable left-over from the Deluge, a wife?"

"This is too much! you malapert. If you do mot approve of caviare to the general, you might abstain from scoffing at it before others!"

"Oh, do not let me stand in anybody else's way! Marry her off to some other fool!"

Don Jose had pacified the marchioness, who was not highly pleased with the erratic conduct of the young count.

It was necessary to end the imbroglio.

"Don Caesar, you will know," said he, "that the object of this marriage was to transfer your title and no more?'*

"That is a bargain by, which I am willing to stand 1"

"At your nuptials you had not ten minutes to live!"

"Oh, for the only happy ten minutes I have enjoyed!"

*'The countess does not care for you!"

"Wonderful fellow-feeling in man and wife!"

"You cannot shake off the chains, but they will wear more lightly if gilded! Your wife has become one in a rich family—you still possess nothing?"

"My own steward could not estimate my financial standing more exactly!"

"Quit Madrid forever, and you shall have six thousand piasters yearly!"

"Six thousand only for ridding the capital of the bugbear of the burghers, the nightmare of the cits' marrying mammas, the terror of the money-lenders and the despair of the tailors ! It is dog-cheap !"

"Ten thousand then! eh, marquis:

"I would give half out of my own purse to be quit of so dull and indiscriminating an Esau!" said Castello-Ro-tondo, eagerly.

The marchioness said nothing, but s^he curled her lip till the red ilaked off, in her expressive disdain.

"At ten thousand, going, going, going—no, I am not yet gone I Quit Madrid, the place of my birth ?"

"The place where were incubated your debts!"

"A'h, it is true! It is no longer my home, but that of my dupes, my creditors! I can break their coffers b/

going! This decides me! And my last injunction should be, cousin, do not wipe out my liabilities!"

"You must also renounce all rigihts acquired by your marriage!" pursued his relative, warily.

"Forego the bliss of the fruit when it ripens—ah! it is seedy already—it is a bargain, coz!"

"Will you put your hand to paper to that eflfect?" said the tempter, delighted.

"Dictate!"

The marquis opened a flap of a table and showed within material for writing. Don Jose led his cousin, without any exertion, to the seat before it. He dictated:

"Don Caesar of Bazan, Count of Garofa, etc., pledges his honor to quit Madrid forever!"

Cjesar paused at the word and sighed; he was not thiuiking of the lady at their elbow, but of his creditors, whose last hope would thus flee with him.

"And renounce the Countess of Bazan, 'his wife!"

Csesiar did not glance at the lady; 'he was indelibly inp-pressed with her appearance, and wrote textually withouil a pause.

"Never to claim the husband's place?"

"Oh, never—the longest possible never!"

"You have only to sign "

But at "the Ca?s—" he ceased, for a footman, passing in the antechamber, was heard calling out:

"The coach of the Countess of Bazan waits 1" And, thinking his mistress might be in this side room, he ventured to push open the door. It was due to this that Cassar, looking up, naturally perceived a ravishing apparition out there.

Like a queen, surrounded by her minions and squires, Maritana, in her splendid dress, worn with the air of in-Ibom gentilit}', slowly sailed down the passage, acclaimed by the young gallant whom she had fascinated in her new

part as deeply as when she had danced and dinked the

tambourine on the plaza.

"Maritana!" shouted Caesar, springing up and drenching the paper with the over-set inkdish. "What do I see?"

Jose flung himself across his path. The marquis hurriedly shoved the door back and eclipsed the dazzling vision.

"Stay—your signature! You have pledged your word!"

"Fraud! I see the trick!" He rent the splashed paper into shreds. "So much for that infamous document!"

"My poor girl!" moaned the marchioness, trying to re^ member in what attitude one should fall, if executing a ladylike and juvenile swoon.

"Bring in the footmen!" said Jose to the marquis.

The old man disappeared with his wife, foreseeing a tempest and glad to be out of its reach.

Jose held his ground before the closed door.

"You must remember that you are a doomed criminal," said he, red in the face, but white in the lips, struggling between fury and doubts, "and that when those servants arrive, one word from the prime man in Spain, would be the death signal for you !"

"Ah, a rogue has a rogue's mind! By help of San Jago, we may yet come out with flying colors! I can cope with you better when you drop the mask!"

The patter of feet was heard in the corridor. There was a trumpet blast in the gardens, and it was to be surmised that the soldiery, at hand when the royal presence ,was immediate, would be at his minister's orders.

"Flight is still possible," said he, his eyes bloodshot, **I will aid my kinsman on one condition!"

The reckless rover drew himself up to his full height. At that time he was brim with nobility, and his fine

honor emerged unsullied from the contest with mercenary moves.

"No more shameful propositions," said he, haug^htily.

He took a forward step toward the lobby, where had passed the retinue of beauty and fashion, enframing his wife—the real one. His Maritana!

"Be warned," stammered Don Jose, for he felt powerless with all his might against this man to whom death yvsLS an old and idle tale. "Follow your wife another pace and it will precipitate you to destruction!"

"My wife!" cried Caesar, with exultation. "You lend me the spur! It is, indeed, my darling wife—my long-loved Maritana! Give free passage to the Count of Gar-ofa going to present his devotion to his countess, or I shall owe the law another life!"

He was weaponless, but such was his intrepid advance that his opponent feared to draw on him, and being pushed aside as if he were a lackey, stood trembling with conflicting emotions, as the daring one burst open a wing of the door and flew out of the room. At the last words, the corridor had been choked up with servants and a few of the royal guards in half-uniform. If the stranger had been in any other garb than the Church's, no doubt they would have seized him without any explicit orders. But the cowl was sacred as a crown—the gown as appalling as the steel coat, if not inspiring the terror of a hundred years before, in faithful Spain. All fell back, and some, with force of habit, bowed to receive the benediction.

Csesar reached the top of the great stairs, when his enemy, recovering from his panic, dashed out in the same course.

His way was impeded by the throng, and, foaming at the mouth as one in an epileptic fit he could just falter:

"That man! Pursue him! Soldiers, if he resist, fire tipon him I"

Cassar at Auction. |8|

But even so soon the fugitive had descended the noble stairs by the schoolboy trick of sliding down the broad and polished balustrade. From the bottom., beside the fat hall porter's chair, he sent back a demoniacal shout of laug-hter.

"But a priest—a priest, excellency I" objected the lieu-t

"Fire on him like a boor!"

But the desperate man, light and active as a buck, had already cleft the mob of footmen on the steps and vanished •19 if his previous unearthly friend, by superstition, ha(} once more flown to his aid.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE despot's WILU

Jose of Santarem quitted the brilliant grounds with nothing but the shadow accompanying him.

In all his ascent of that path replete with difficulties ,which the statesman knows, he had never been so clearly aware of his treading between the precipices.

•Maritana, spite of her ambition, was no longer the same ductile metal since she had perceived by instinct that it was Don Caesar, her first and only love, v/ho had stood beside her in the prison chapel.

Don Csesar was not only not dead but capable of crossing his course at all undesirable moments. It could not long be concealed from him that the king had granted him pardon.

"As for the king, this selection of our Lord Don Philip,'* mused the politician, as he rode mechanically, "I cannot make of him what I will, I fear. He is dough that has become stone. He imitates his sire so well at times that I perceive that he may do a great deed, almost a good one, out of something naturally commendable in his heart. Pie forgave Don Caesar in tlie teeth of his own edict, because he was clement. He would strike me from my place if he knew all, because he would see it was justice. He is generous, for he has, for this whim toward the gypsy girl, let me open purse after purse, and he will not fiddle over the details. But the amours of a monarch are ephemeral! Besides, the queen would never be pushed oft the throne to m.ake way for even a marquis' daughter. She will remain queen and Maritana will never reign, like

die fair Gabrielle in France or Jane Shore in England. I must fan his flame; not throw cold water upon it!"

He was compelled to match his cousin in speed, and he was backed with unlimited means.

Maritana, put in the carriage, and escorted strongly, was on the way to the destination which he had chosen.

The king, whetted by the brief glance at her, arrayed! as became a king's fancy, was notified by a sure messenger where he might find the lady without any further hindrances to the suit.

The queen, retired to the palace of Aranjuez, which 13 on the border of what is called Toledo Province now, was also apprised by a confidential courier that Don Jose, carrying out his promise to inform her on her husband's absences, would this night convey proof of that infidelity.

Double, treble traitor, not believing at last that Maritana would be his tool or that anything in his power would reduce Don Csesar to submission, he concluded to make the queen such a proposition as in her jealousy she would accept.

"She shall ruin the king and accept my sole guidance. I will see that the king occupies the throne no more and that he is relegated to a monastery! Into his place I will lead over the frontier the new Charles the Eighth, who will, for my breaking down barriers that the emperor considers impassable, reward me with the prime ministership in perpetuity and a bonus of a princely revenue! I have my eye, too, on half Andalusia being sliced off into a principality whereupon I should be Prince of Sevilla 1"

A night bird screamed and his horse tripped. But he was too absorbed and, on the whole, relieved by his plan to notice the omen.

At the gateway, where the horse had halted and his escort looked inquiringly at him, a man, armed with an arquebus, confronted the party. ^

" 'Santarem!' I compliment you on your jfood ward, Lazarillo!" cried Don Jose, assuming a pleased tone as he was helped out of the saddle by his groom.

Lazarillo, for it was the page transferred to the prime minister's private service, gave the word for the porter to open the door, but only the master entered.

In the hallway he paused and shook off the dust, asking impatiently:

"Is the house in good condition?"

It was one of those small houses like a fort, more Moorish than even in Morocco, with small windows and thick walls, capable of standing a siege without great guns to batter it. It stood in a grove of chestnuts-and had a small garden walled in. Broken potsherds glittered on the coping, embedded in cement.

"The house, my lord," replied the young varlet, smiling, "is fully fitted, though the time was short. On the other hand, there was an army of furnishers. I could no less than goad tliem on, since the tenant was a lady and one in whom your excellency takes a deep interest."

"Boy, her welfare is second to none!" said he, enigmatically.

"Oh, is it the queen?" muttered the bright youth. "What mysterious intrigues! It is bad for the poor, humble finger which gets into the hinges of these palace doors 1"

"Has the dame arrived ?"

"Yes, my lord; and she was shown at once to her suite of rooms, on the next floor."

"Did her servants rem.ain "

"They took the horses and carriage straight away—I, presume back to Madrid."

"Don't assume anything."

**Am I to announce your lordship?" said the youth, timidly.