The Manuscript Found in Saragossa (49 page)

Throughout my time at the Theatine college I often thought about the good fortune which the few small beggars who stood at the door of
our church seemed to enjoy. Their fate seemed clearly preferable to mine. Indeed, while I grew pale over my books without any chance of completely satisfying my masters, these young children of poverty roamed the streets and played cards for chestnuts on the steps of the church. They fought each other without being forcibly separated. They got dirty without being made to wash. They undressed in the street and washed their shirts in the gutter. Could there be any more pleasant way of passing the time?

These thoughts on the happy lives of these young urchins came back to me in my prison. And thinking about the best course of action for me to follow, it seemed to me to be that of adopting the profession of beggar for the time my penance was to last. It is true that I had had an education which might have given me away through my having more polished speech than my colleagues, but I hoped to take on their accent and manners without difficulty and return to my own in due course. This decision was odd but at bottom it was the best I could take in the situation in which I found myself.

Once I had made my mind up, I broke the blade of a knife and started working on one of the iron bars of the grille. It took me five days to work it free. I carefully collected up the bits of stone and put them back around the bar so nothing could be seen.

The day I finished this task la Girona brought me my basket. I asked her whether she wasn't afraid that it might come to be known that she was supplying food to a young man in the cellar of the house.

‘No,' she replied, ‘the trap-door through which you came down leads into a separate building, the one where you had been laid out. I have had the door bricked up on the pretext that it brought back sad memories to the duchess. The passage by which we come down ends in my bedroom and the entry to it is hidden by a wall-hanging.'

‘I trust that there's a good iron door at that end,' I said.

‘No,' she replied. ‘The door is quite light but it's very well hidden. In any case, I keep my bedroom door locked. In this house I believe there to be other similar vaults, put there by other jealous husbands who have committed similar crimes.'

Having said this, la Girona seemed to want to go away.

‘Why go away so soon?' I asked her.

‘Because the duchess wants to go out. Today she has completed the first six weeks of her mourning and she wants to go for a ride.'

Having learnt what I needed to know, I did not detain la Girona any longer. She went away again without closing the vault door. I hastily wrote a letter of apology and thanks to the duchess, and put it on the bars. Next I loosened the iron bar and entered first the vault of the two ladies, and then a dark passage which ended in a door which I found shut. I heard the sounds of a coach and horses and concluded that the duchess had gone out and that the nurse was not in her room.

I set myself to the task of breaking the door down. It was half-rotten and yielded as soon as I tried to break it. I then found myself in the nurse's bedroom and, knowing that she took care to keep the door locked, I thought that I could stay there in safety.

I saw my face in a mirror and decided that my appearance did not yet correspond to the profession I was to embrace. I took a piece of charcoal from a grate and used it to dull the colour of my skin. After that I made some rents in my shirt and clothing. Then I went to the window. It looked out on to a small garden, once favoured by the presence of the masters of the house but now utterly abandoned. I opened the window and could see no other which looked out in the same direction. It wasn't very high and I could have jumped down into the garden but I preferred to use la Girona's sheets. After that, the frame of an old bower afforded me the means of climbing up on to the wall, from which I took flight into the countryside, delighted to be able to breathe the country air and yet more so to be free of Theatines, Inquisitions, duchesses and their nurses.

I saw the city of Burgos far off, but went in the opposite direction. I reached a low tavern. I showed the innkeeper's wife a twenty-real coin which I had carefully wrapped in paper, and told her I wanted to spend all the money in her inn. She began to laugh and gave me bread and onions worth double the sum. I had some money but was afraid of letting it be seen, so I went to the stable and there I slept as one sleeps when one is sixteen years old.

I reached Madrid without anything happening to me which is worth relating. I entered the city at nightfall. I was able to find my aunt's house and I leave it to your imagination how pleased she was to see
me. But I only spent a moment there for fear of giving my presence away. I went right across Madrid, came to the Prado and there I lay down on the ground and fell asleep.

As soon as it was light I went around the streets and squares to select a place where I intended mainly to practise my profession. Passing by the Calle de Toledo, I met a servant girl carrying a bottle of ink. I asked her whether she wasn't from the house of Señor Avadoro.

‘No,' she replied. ‘I have come from the house of Don Felipe del Tintero Largo.'

So it was that I discovered that my father was still known by the same name and still passed his time in the same pursuits.

Meanwhile I had to think about a place to live. Under the portals of St Roch, I caught sight of a few urchins of my age with faces which predisposed me in their favour. I went up to them and said that I was a boy from the provinces; I had come to Madrid to commend myself to charitable souls, I had a small handful of reals left and if there was a common kitty I would willingly place this money in it.

This first speech predisposed them in my favour. They said that they indeed had a common kitty which was kept by a chestnut-seller whose pitch was at the end of the street. They took me to her and then we all came back to the portal, where we started playing tarot.

As we were engrossed in this game, which requires quite a lot of attention, a well-dressed man appeared and seemed to examine us all closely, first one then another. Then, apparently deciding on me, he called me over and told me to follow him. He led me into a quiet street and said, ‘My boy, I have preferred you to your comrades because your face indicates that you have more wit than they and that will be needed for the task I want you to do for me. This is what it is about. Many women will pass by this spot, all wearing black velvet dresses and a black lace mantilla which hides their faces so well that it is impossible to see who they are. But luckily the patterns of the velvet and the lace are not the same and thus are ways of detecting who these unknown beauties are. I am the lover of one such person, who loves me and who seems to have a propensity to be inconsistent. I have decided to discover whether this is so or not. Here are two samples of velvet and two of lace. If two women go by whose clothes
correspond, you will look closely to see whether they go into this church or into the house opposite, which is that of the Knight of Toledo. And then you will come to the tavern at the end of the street and tell me. Here is a gold piece. You will be given another if you acquit yourself well of this mission.'

While the man was speaking to me, I had examined him very closely. He didn't seem to me to look like a lover, but rather a husband. The rage of the Duke of Sidonia came back to my mind. I jibbed at sacrificing the interests of love to the dark suspicions of marriage. So I decided to accomplish only half the mission, that is to say, if the two women went into the church I decided that I would tell the jealous husband, but if they went elsewhere I would, on the contrary, warn them of the danger which threatened them. I returned to my comrades, telling them to continue their game without paying attention to me. Then I lay down behind them, keeping my eye on the samples of velvet and lace.

Soon many women came in pairs, and eventually two who were indeed wearing the materials of which I had samples. The two women made as if to go into the church, but they stopped under the portal, looked all around them to see if they were being followed and then hurried across the street as fast as they could and went into the house opposite.

Velásquez then spoke and said, ‘Really, this story alarms me. All the gypsy's stories begin in a simple enough way and you think you can already predict the end. But things turn out quite differently. The first story engenders the second, from which a third is born, and so on, like periodic fractions resulting from certain divisions which can be indefinitely prolonged. In mathematics there are several ways of bringing certain progressions to a conclusion, whereas in this case an inextricable confusion is the only result I can obtain from all the gypsy has related.'

‘In spite of that you derive great pleasure from listening to them,' said Rebecca. ‘If I am not mistaken, you were to go directly to Madrid, yet you can't bear to leave us.'

‘There are two reasons which keep me in this place,' replied Velásquez. ‘First, I have begun important calculations which I want to finish here. Second, Señora, I must confess to you that I have never found so much pleasure in the company of a woman as I have in yours or rather, to be more precise, that you are the only woman whose conversation gives me pleasure.'

‘Señor duque,' replied the Jewess, ‘I would indeed be happy if the secondary reason became the primary one.'

‘You shouldn't be too upset about whether I think of you before or after I think about geometry,' said Velásquez. ‘What upsets me is something else – not knowing what to call you. I am reduced to designating you by the symbol
x, y
or
z
, which we use in algebra for unknown quantities.'

‘I would willingly entrust to you the secret of my name,' said the Jewess, ‘if I did not have to fear the results of your absent-mindedness.'

‘There is nothing to fear,' interrupted Velásquez. ‘Through the frequent practice of substitution in calculations I have acquired the habit of always designating the same values in the same way. As soon as you have given me your name you couldn't change it even if you wanted to.'

‘Very well,' said Rebecca. ‘Call me Laura de Uzeda.'

‘With the greatest pleasure,' said Velásquez. ‘Or fair Laura, clever Laura, charming Laura, for there are many mathematical exponents of your base value.'

As they were chatting I remembered the promise I had made to the brigand to meet him four hundred yards west of the camp. I took a sword with me and when I had gone a certain distance, I heard a pistol shot. I went towards the forest from which the shot had come and met the men with whom I had already had dealings. Their chief said to me, ‘Welcome, Señor caballero. I see that you keep your word, and do not doubt that you are brave as well. Do you see that tunnel in the rock? It leads to an underground cave where you are very impatiently awaited. I hope that you will not disappoint the trust that has been placed in you.'

I went into the tunnel while the stranger stayed outside. After a few paces I heard a loud noise behind me and saw an enormous stone, which was moved by a secret mechanism, shutting off the entry. The
dim light which came through the chink in the rock soon disappeared in that dark tunnel. But in spite of the darkness I went forward at a good pace, for the path was smooth and the slope gentle. I wasn't required to expend much effort, but I imagined that many another person would have felt terror as they went down without a visible goal into the bowels of the earth. I walked for two whole hours, one hand holding my sword, the other extended to protect me from bumping into things.

Suddenly I felt a breath close to mine, and a sweet, melodious voice said, ‘By what right does a mortal dare to come down into the kingdom of the gnomes?'

An equally seductive voice replied, ‘Perhaps he has come to rob us of our treasure.'

The first one then said, ‘If he would consent to throw down his sword, we could come near him.'

After that I said, ‘Charming gnomesses! I recognize you by your voices, if I am not mistaken. I may not throw down my sword but I have stuck its point into the earth so you can come near without fear.'

These chthonic divinities then threw their arms round me, though a secret instinct told me that they were my cousins. Suddenly there was bright light on every side and I saw that I was not mistaken. They led me towards a cave decorated with carpets and minerals shot through with countless opalescent colours.

‘Well,' said Emina. ‘Are you pleased to meet us again? You are now living in the company of a young Israelite who is as intelligent as she is charming.'

‘I can assure you,' I replied, ‘that Rebecca has made no impression on me. On the other hand, every time I meet you, I am anxious in case it may be the last. People have tried to convince me that you are evil spirits but I did not believe them. An inner voice tells me that you are creatures of my kind meant for love. It is always claimed that one can only truly love one woman. This is indisputably false because I love the two of you equally. My heart does not distinguish in any way between you. You both reign there in common.'

‘Oh,' cried Emina, ‘it is the blood of the Abencerrages that speaks in you because you can love two women at the same time; so adopt the sacred faith which permits polygamy.'

‘You might then accede to the throne of Tunis,' added Zubeida. ‘If only you could see that enchanting country, the harems of Bardo and Manouba, the gardens, fountains, marvellous baths and thousands of young slave girls even prettier than us!'

‘Enough of kingdoms on which the sun shines,' I replied. ‘We are in an abyss, and however close we might be to hell we can here know the sensual pleasures which the prophet, it is said, promises to his elect.'

Emina smiled nostalgically, and looked at me tenderly; and Zubeida put her arms round my neck.