The Manuscript Found in Saragossa (28 page)
Read The Manuscript Found in Saragossa Online
Authors: Jan Potocki
I was awoken just after dawn by the chirping of the cicadas, which is particularly lively and cheerful in Andalusia. I had become sensitive to the beauties of nature. I left my tent to see the effect of the first rays of the sun on the vast horizon. My thoughts turned to Rebecca. âShe is right,' I said to myself, âto prefer the concrete joys of this mortal life to idle speculation about an ideal world to which we shall all sooner or later belong. Does not this world offer us physical sensations and pleasurable impressions in enough variety to occupy us during the time of our short life?' I was carried away for a moment by such thoughts, though they were no more than day-dreams. Then, seeing that others were on their way to breakfast in the cave, I made my way there also. We ate like people who had slept in the fresh mountain air, and when our appetite had been satisfied we asked the gypsy chief to take up again the thread of his story, which he did as follows:
   THE GYPSY CHIEF'S STORY CONTINUED   I told you, Señores, that two nights out from Madrid on the way to Burgos we were in the company of a young girl who was in love with Maria de Torres's son, who was dressed up as a muleteer. This same Maria was telling us that the Conde de Rovellas had been left for dead at one end of the arena, while at the other a mysterious young stranger had killed the bull which threatened to put an end to his life. So it's Maria de Torres who will continue her story.
   MARIA DE TORRES'S STORY CONTINUED   Once the fearsome bull lay wallowing in its own blood, the count's equerries rushed into the arena to come to his assistance. He gave no sign of life. He was lifted on to a stretcher and was carried to his
house. The spectacle did not go ahead, as you may well imagine, and everyone returned home. But that very evening we learnt that Rovellas was out of danger. My husband sent our page out for news of him. It was a long time before he returned. At last he brought us the following letter.
Señor Coronel Don Enrique de Torres,
Your honour will see from this letter that the Creator's mercy has deigned to leave me still in possession of some of my powers. But a great pain which I feel in my chest leads me to doubt whether I shall recover completely. You know, Señor Don Enrique, that providence lavished upon me worldly goods. I hereby bequeath a share of these to the noble stranger who risked his life to save mine. As for the remainder, I could not make better use of it than to lay it at the feet of Elvira de Noruña, your incomparable sister-in-law. I beg you to make known to her the respectful and honourable feelings she has inspired in one who will shortly perhaps be no more than dust and ashes, and whom heaven still grants the strength to call himself, Conde de Rovellas, Marqués de Vera Lonza, y Cruz Velada, Hereditary Commander of Tallaverde, y Rio Floro, Señor de Tolesquez, y Riga Fuera, y Mendez, y Lonzos, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on.
You will be surprised that I can remember so many of his titles but we used to attribute them to my sister one after another as a joke and in this way we ended up by learning them.
As soon as my husband received this letter he let us know its contents and asked my sister what reply he should make to it. Elvira replied that she would not act without having first heard the advice of my husband, but she confessed that the count's good qualities had impressed her less than the excessive vanity which was apparent in all his words and actions.
My husband easily grasped the tenor of this reply, and so he replied to the count that although Elvira was too young to appreciate the proposals of His Excellency, she joined with all the household in wishing him restored to health. The count did not take this to be a refusal. He even spoke of his marriage with Elvira as settled. In the meanwhile we left for Villaca.
Our house was situated at one end of the village and was more or less in the country. Its situation was charming and it had moreover been very prettily restored. But exactly opposite it stood a peasant's house which had been decorated in unusually good taste. There were flowerpots on the front steps, fine windows and an aviary, together with some other pleasant, refined features. We were told that the house had just been bought by a
labrador
from Murcia. The farmers to whom are given the name of
labradores
in our province are a class of persons midway between the nobles and the peasants.
It was late when we arrived at Villaca. We began by going over the whole house from cellar to attic. Then we had chairs placed at the front door and partook of chocolate. My husband teased Elvira about the poverty of the house, which was unworthy to receive a future Countess of Rovellas. She took these jokes in good part. Soon after, we saw a cart pulled by four powerful oxen returning from work in the fields. They were led by a farm-hand, followed by a young man with a young woman on his arm. The young man was remarkable for his height. When he came close Elvira and I recognized the person who had saved Rovellas. My husband paid no attention to him, but my sister shot a glance at me which I clearly understood. The young man greeted us like a person who did not wish to make our acquaintance and went into the house opposite. The young woman seemed to observe us very closely.
âWhat a handsome couple,' said our housekeeper, Doña Manuela.
âWhat do you mean, a handsome couple?' said Elvira. âAre they married?'
âIndeed, they are,' said Doña Manuela. âTo tell you the truth, they were married against the wishes of their parents. The girl was abducted. No one around here is under any misapprehension about it. We could well see they are not peasants.'
My husband asked Elvira why she had made so much of it and added, âHe might well be the mysterious singer.'
At that moment we heard a prelude on the guitar coming from the house opposite, and the voice that accompanied it confirmed the suspicions of my husband. âThat's strange,' he said. âBut since he's married, the serenades were perhaps intended for one of our neighbours.'
âActually,' said Elvira, âI believe they were intended for me.'
This naïve comment made us smile and then we fell silent on the matter. Throughout the six weeks of our stay at Villaca the blinds of the house opposite remained closed, and we did not catch sight of our neighbours. I even think that they left Villaca before us.
At the end of our stay we learned that the Conde de Rovellas was well on the road to recovery and that the bullfights were going to begin again, although he himself would not take part. We returned to Segovia. Festivity followed festivity, and ingeniously contrived social event followed ingeniously contrived social event. In the end the count's attentions touched Elvira's heart and the wedding was celebrated with the greatest magnificence.
The count had only been married three weeks when he learned that his exile was over. He had permission once again to appear at court. The idea of taking my sister there gave him very great pleasure, but before leaving Segovia he wanted to discover the name of the person who had saved his life. So he had the town crier announce that anyone giving news of the person who had saved him would receive a reward of a hundred pieces of eight, each worth eight pistoles. The next day he received the following letter:
Señor Conde,
Your Excellency is putting himself out to no purpose. Give up your plan of discovering the man who saved your life and satisfy yourself with the thought that you have taken his from him.
Rovellas showed this letter to my husband and said in a very haughty way that this missive could only have come from a rival, but that he had not known that Elvira had had previous affairs of the heart. If he had known this he would not have married her. My husband begged the count to be more circumspect in what he said and never again called on him.
Going to court was no longer in question. Rovellas became sombre and violent. All his vanity had turned into jealousy and his jealousy turned into sustained fury. My husband had communicated to me the contents of the anonymous letter. We concluded that the farmer from
Villaca must have been a suitor in disguise. We sent for information about him, but he had disappeared and the house had been sold.
Elvira was pregnant. We carefully hid from her what we knew about the change in her husband's feelings. She noticed it and did not know to what to attribute it. The count declared that for fear of incommoding his wife he would sleep in a separate bed. He only saw her at mealtimes. Conversation then was awkward and nearly always conducted in an ironic tone.
As my sister was in her ninth month of pregnancy, Rovellas left on the pretext of business which called him to Cadiz. A week later, a notary appeared who gave Elvira a letter and asked her to read it in front of witnesses. We all foregathered. These were the contents of the letter:
Señora,
I have discovered your amorous intrigue with Don Sancho de Peña Sombra. I have long harboured suspicions about it. His stay at Villaca proves your infidelity, which was ineptly disguised by the presence of Don Sancho's sister, whom he passed off as his wife. I expect that I was preferred because of my wealth. You will have no part of it. We will never again live together. I will provide for your needs but I will not recognize as mine the child to whom you will give birth.
