The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane

Chapter II. Gil Blas continues his journey, and arrives safely at Oviedo. The condition in which he found his parents. The death of his father, and the consequences thereof.

426 The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane chapter ii. Gil Blas continues his journey, and arrives safely at Oviedo. The condition in which he found his parents. The death of his father, and the consequences thereof. From Valladolid, we got in four days to Oviedo, without meeting with any bad accident on the road, notwithstanding the proverb, which says, that robbers smell the money of travellers afar off. We should have been, however, a pretty good booty; and two inhabitants of the cavern would have been sufficient to carry off our doubloons1 with ease; for I had not learned to grow valiant at court; and Bertrand, my Moço de Mulas,* did not seem of a humour to die in defence of his master’s purse: Scipio was the only Hector2 among us. It being night when we arrived in town, we went to lodge at an inn hard by the house of my uncle Canon Gil Perez. I was willing to understand the situation of my parents, before I should appear as their son: and for this piece of information, I could not apply to a more proper person than my landlord or his wife, who I knew to be people who were very well acquainted with the affairs of their neighbours. In effect, the landlord, after having eyed me with attention, recollecting my face, cried, “By St. Antonio de Padua! this is the son of honest Usher Blas de Santillane.” “Yes truly, (said his wife) it is he indeed! he is very little altered: it is the same little brisk Gil Blas, who had always more spirit in his heart than beef on his bones. I think I see him still coming to this house, with his bottle, for wine to his uncle’s supper.” “Madam, (said I) you have a very happy memory: but pray tell me news of my family ; my father and mother are, doubtless, in no very agreeable situation.” “That is but too true: (replied the landlady) how bad soever you may think their condition is, you cannot conceive them more distressed than they are. Gil Perez, honest man, has lost the use of one half of his body, by the palsy;3 and, in all appearance, cannot last long: your father, who has lived of late with the canon, has got a defluxion4 in his breast, or rather, is at this moment in the agonies of death; and your mother though far from being well, is obliged to serve as a nurse to both.” On this report, which made me feel that I was a son, I left Bertrand with my equipage at the inn; and, attended by my secretary, who would not quit me, repaired to my uncle’s house. As soon as I appeared before my mother, an emotion which I caused in her, signified my presence, before her eyes had distinguished my features. “Son, (said she, with a melancholy air, after she had embraced me) come and see your father breathe his last: you are come time enough to be struck with that cruel spectacle.” So saying, she carried me into a chamber where the unfortunate Blas of Santillane, lying on a bed that too well denoted the poverty of an usher, drew near his exit. Though he * Moço de Mulas, a mule-driver. Volume Four: X.2 427 was environed by the shades of death, his senses had not quite forsaken him. “My dear friend, (said my mother to him) here is your son Gil Blas, who begs your forgiveness for the sorrows he has occasioned, and asks your blessing.” At these words, my father opening his eyes, which death had begun to close, fixed them upon me; and observing, in spite of his own lamentable condition, that I was very much affected with the loss of him, seemed moved at my grief, and attempted to speak; but had not strength enough to utter one word. I took hold of one of his hands; and while I bathed it with my tears, unable to pronounce a syllable, he expired, as if he had waited for my arrival, before he would breathe his last. My mother was too well prepared for his death, to be immoderately afflicted at it; and I was, perhaps, more grieved than she, although my father had never given me the least mark of friendship in his life. My being his son, was a sufficient cause for me to...