Part 26 (1/2)
”Who should it be,” answered the secretary, ”but he who is seated in the chair?”
”I humble myself in his presence,” quoth the countryman; and kneeling down, he begged for his hand to kiss.
Sancho refused it, and commanded him to rise and tell his business. The countryman did so, and said: ”My lord, I am a husbandman, a native of Miguel Terra, two leagues from Ciudad Real.”
”What! another Tirteafuera?” quoth Sancho. ”Say on, brother; for let me tell you, I know Miguel Terra very well; it is not very far from my own village.”
”The business is this, sir,” continued the peasant: ”by the mercy of Heaven I was married in peace and in the face of the holy Roman Catholic Church. I have two sons, bred scholars; the younger studies for bachelor, and the elder for licentiate. I am a widower, for my wife died, or rather a wicked physician killed her by improper medicines when she was pregnant; and if it had been G.o.d's will that the child had been born, and had proved a son, I would have put him to study for doctor, that he might not envy his two brothers, the bachelor and the licentiate.”
”So that, if your wife,” quoth Sancho, ”had not died, or had not been killed, you would not now be a widower.”
”No, certainly, my lord,” answered the peasant.
”We are much the nearer,” replied Sancho; ”go on, friend, for this is an hour rather for bed than business.”
”I say, then,” quoth the countryman, ”that my son who is to be the bachelor fell in love with a damsel in the same village, called Clara Perlerino, daughter of Andres Perlerino, a very rich farmer; which name of Perlerino came to them not by lineal or any other descent, but because all of that race are paralytic; and to mend the name, they call them Perlerinos. Indeed, to say the truth, the damsel is like any oriental pearl, and looked at on the right side seems a very flower of the field; but on the left not quite so fair, for on that side she wants an eye, which she lost by the small-pox; and though the pits in her face are many and deep, her admirers say they are not pits but graves wherein the hearts of her lovers are buried. So clean and delicate, too, is she, that to prevent defiling her face, she carries her nose so hooked up that it seems to fly from her mouth; yet for all that she looks charmingly, for she has a large mouth, and did she not lack half a score or a dozen front teeth she might pa.s.s and make a figure among the fairest. I say nothing of her lips, for they are so thin that, were it the fas.h.i.+on to reel lips, one might make a skein of them; but, being of a different color from what is usual in lips, they have a marvellous appearance, for they are streaked with blue, green, and orange-tawny.
Pardon me, good my lord governor, if I paint so minutely the parts of her who is about to become my daughter; for in truth I love and admire her more than I can tell.”
”Paint what you will,” quoth Sancho, ”for I am mightily taken with the picture; and had I but dined, I would not desire a better dessert than your portrait.”
”It shall be always at your service,” answered the peasant; ”and the time may come when we may be acquainted, though we are not so now; and I a.s.sure you, my lord, if I could but paint her genteelness and the tallness of her person, you would admire: but that cannot be, because she is crooked, and crumpled up together, and her knees touch her mouth; though, for all that, you may see plainly that could she but stand upright she would touch the ceiling with her head. And she would ere now have given her hand to my bachelor to be his wife, but that she cannot stretch it out, it is so shrunk; nevertheless, her long guttered nails show the goodness of its make.”
”So far so good,” quoth Sancho; ”and now, brother, make account that you have painted her from head to foot. What is it you would be at? Come to the point without so many windings and turnings, so many fetches and digressions.”
”What I desire, my lord,” answered the countryman, ”is, that your lords.h.i.+p would do me the favor to give me a letter of recommendation to her father, begging his consent to the match, since we are pretty equal in our fortunes and natural endowments; for, to say the truth, my lord governor, my son is possessed, and scarcely a day pa.s.ses in which the evil spirits do not torment him three or four times; and having thereby once fallen into the fire, his face is as shrivelled as a piece of scorched parchment, and his eyes are somewhat bleared and running; but, bless him! he has the temper of an angel, and did he not buffet and belabor himself, he would be a very saint for gentleness.”
”Would you have anything else, honest friend?” said Sancho.
”One thing more I would ask,” quoth the peasant, ”but I dare not,--yet out it shall; come what may, it shall not rot in my breast. I say then, my lord, I could wish your wors.h.i.+p to give me three or six hundred ducats towards mending the fortunes of my bachelor,--I mean, to a.s.sist in furnis.h.i.+ng his house; for it is agreed that they shall live by themselves, without being subject to the impertinences of their fathers-in-law.”
”Well,” quoth Sancho, ”see if there is anything else you would have, and be not squeamish in asking.”
”No, nothing more,” answered the peasant.
The governor then rising, and seizing the chair on which he had been seated, exclaimed, ”I vow to Heaven, Don Lubberly, saucy b.u.mpkin, if you do not instantly get out of my sight, I will break your head with this chair! Son of a rascal, and the devil's own painter! At this time of day to come and ask me for six hundred ducats! Where should I have them, villain? And if I had them, idiot! why should I give them to thee? What care I for Miguel Terra, or for the whole race of the Perlerinos?
Begone, I say! or, by the life of my lord duke, I will be as good as my word. Thou art no native of Miguel Terra, but some scoffer sent from the devil to tempt me. Impudent scoundrel! I have not yet had the government a day and a half, and you expect I should have six hundred ducats!”
The sewer made signs to the countryman to go out of the hall, which he did, hanging down his head, and seemingly much afraid lest the governor should put his threat into execution,--for the knave knew very well how to play his part.
But let us leave Sancho in his pa.s.sion; peace be with him!
The devil will never give you a high nose if a flat nose will serve your turn.
All is not gold that glitters.
I am fully convinced that judges and governors are, or ought to be, made of bra.s.s, so as that they may not feel the importunity of people of business, who expect to be heard and despatched at all hours and at all seasons, come what will, attending only to their own affairs; and if the poor devil of a judge does not hear and despatch them, either because it is not in his power, or it happens to be an unseasonable time for giving audience, then they grumble and backbite, gnaw him to the very bones, and even bespatter his whole generation. Ignorant man of business! foolish man of business! be not in such a violent hurry; wait for the proper season and conjuncture, and come not at meals and sleeping-time; for judges are made of flesh and blood, and must give to nature that which nature requires.
Good physicians deserve palms and laurels.