The Spanish dancer : being a translation from the original French by Henry L. Williams of Don Caesar de Bazan (10 page)

water in their mouths, and there was no blood in their eyes.

There was more than a little doubt that they would have supper, as in duty bound, out of either the principals, but the host solved that by pointing to a table spread by the doorway, where the waiters began to bring dishes, platters and vessels, proclaiming a hearty festival.

"In carnival?" said Caesar, as if he had qualms.

"Did you pick up the tenets in the gypsy quarter?" ventured the 'host. "Know that I have received three wounds in the Vv^ars with the Turks—so that I am a tried and true Christian. You shall have fish, and eggs, and herbs, and the wine is water of the river Jordan!"

Unfortunately, there was not given time to verify the host's assertion of not sinning against the ecclesiastical mandates, for, just as the party were seated comfortably, the only blot to the jollity being the arquebusier's bandaged arm, a pale-faced neighbor of the Next Sovereign rushing up to the host, in his nightcap and bed-wrapper, stuttering m alaim:

"My racketty boy, who did not come in before we locked the door, climbed in at my window and said that there is an edict against dueling!"

"So there is," said the landlord, with an innocent face. "I had the proclamation on a printed sheet to be stuck up on my door lintel—an edict, bless my soul!"

"Forbidding it, with the capital penalty!"

"A fig!" cried the captain, whose first glass of wi—'that is, Jordan water—had restored the vitality lost through his cut. "I am authorized to bear arms, in and out of Carnival! The king's ofiEicer can fight at all seasons, that is what he is sworn in to do!"

"But. Don Caesar!" said the host, "he is not the king's officer!"

"Ensign of the Devil's Own, rather!"

"And you, gentlemen, the seconds, what the law calls aids and no-betters! Oh, haste into the church for sanctuary!"

"All the sooner, as I hear the patrol! See their torches by the church!"

There was great confusion; all rose.

Half an hour afterward, when Don Jose, afraid hitherto to pass down in the dark to the still-Iig'hted square, reached it at the heels of the watch, he hastened to inquire about his cousin.

The tale was straight.

At the close of the duel, when the parties were washing away the stain of defeat on one side, and toasting the glory on the other, the edict was called to mind. The captain allowed his friends to take him into the hospital adjacent to the cathediral, which was thus a refuge not to be invaded by the civic and military arms. As for the friend of the outcasts, who had proven to be an acconir plished swordsman and a noble of the realm, he had forbidden his friends to interfere, and had let himself be conveyed into the city tower, where he would probably remain until led out for execution. Trial was not necessary for an infraction of the royal mandates.

"Oh, I knew," muttered the plotter, "that he would not fall by the sword; he is such an adept! But to be snatched away when I might make use of him? Condemned to death—ah, I think I see my way to rise, or, at least, to raise my puppet by the rope which hangs him!"

Joyously he resisted the host's entreaty for him to taste his blessed water from the Jordan, and hurried away from the square.

CHAPTER V:i.

ON another's MISSION".

Don Jose left the one bright spot in slumberous Madrid and returned to the great square.

He stood in a corner, and perceived a solitary figure crossing the plaza. He noted that when accosted by his men in ambush the stranger replied with a potent password, for they let him pass as readily as they had their superior.

Pricked by this mystery, a little jealous that another had his might, he came forth and threw himself in the way.

A light strayed from a flickering lamp at a devotional post.

"The mischief! It is our old friend, the Marquis of Castello-Rotondo! Why, Master of the Lapdogs, what do you out of doors at this untimely hour? You will catch your death of cold, and we shall have to go into half-mourning 1"

"Oh, my dear Don Jose! believe me that I am not prowling the filthy streets by my own prompting! It is, between ourselves, our good queen's orders."

"I know that the king's writ runs day and night, but the queen's wishes?—since when have they had the proviso: 'Posthaste and no stoppages?' "

I, "Since she has gone crazy—save the mark!—over this gypsy v/itch who has cozened her into second childhood! She wakes up and sends a token to her that she is to be by her side early in the morning."

"Oh, not Maritana?"

"There is none other! Surely, she is incomparable!

But the queen ought not to have the failings of uncrowned mortals."

"I must always agree with your lordship's sense. But why seek such a wild girl as a gypsy in a city ditch by night? As well hunt a black rabbit with a ferret having no lantern round its neck."

"Oh, I can find her," replied the old nobleman, with a fatuous smile; "I am free of the ghetto."

"The devil you are! Impossible ! Why, you know my rank and its power over the unruly—^but I would not venture down into that sink of iniquity with my badge of office. No, the scum would throttle me and run away with the collar to pledge it!"

"Oh, I dare say they are capable of it; but, I repeat, I am free of the family !"

"Is it purchasable with money, friend?"

"I took the first steps thereby. I have been a very good friend to the Bohemian, first on my own estate in the province of Murcia, where they are allowed to camp, cut wood for firing and poach a little."

"Well, for the rarity of such leniency, I do not doub? that they might be grateful danglers on your excellency's kindness."

"It was a good recommendation when I came to town, too!"

"It saved your pocket from being picked ?"

"My throat from being cut!—for these Zingari are no sticklers!"

"But apart from the natural softness of your head—I mean your heart—marquis," continued the police head, thinking that even in this stupid sycophant there might be reason for chatting with him, "how do you bind these masterless rogues to be decorous?"

"I pay several annuities to prosecute some searches of mine 1"

"Oho! You do not interfere with the police prerogative of restoring stolen property, do you? It would go hard with me to have to arrest your excellency!"

"Tut, tut! The property I seek is live stock. In a word, I have been seeking for over fifteen weary years a child."

"A child! Oh, my poor friend I"

"As a father!"

"I excuse your ^blushes "

'flushes, sir?—tears!" and the old man wiped his eyes showily. "You may know that when I was young I was a testy, choleric tomfool I"

*T could guess that!"

"Besides my ancestral estate there was a large sum in gold, derived from trading with the East, which was to accrue to me if I became father of an heir."

"Oh, a son ?"

"Exactly. And we had a daughter!"

"What a slip I"

"Yes, a fair slip of a girl—hang my ill-fortune and hers! for I was so enraged, wanting money terribly at the nick to advance me at court, that I put the deceptive imp from us!"

"Unnatural parent! Ugolino!" and he tapped him on the shoulder as if arresting him.

Tlie dotard cackled.

"Or rather, I talked of putting the cliild out of the iSATorld!"

"Horrible!"

"This alarmed my wife, who thought that I was maddened beyond control! She conferred with her confidential maid, and the two formed a counter plot. They hired some vag-abonds to take the child out over the fcalcony and across the moat in the midnight!"

"But, being a make-believe "

. "Unfortunately, the rogues did their task completely.

They carried away the babe, and did it so cleverly thaf their traces were entirely lost!"

"This is harrowing!"

"All we learned was that my blundering lady had entrusted our darling to gypsies—things of no country^ who are here to-day and "

"In the jail to-morrow!"

"At all events, there is no line which we could follow. At last my wife was advised to apply to the Duke of Egypt '■"

"The pretended king of these homeless wanderefs, just so!"

"He offered his aid and charged so much for his acolytes I It has cost me a pretty penny, especially when I fail to be advanced lucratively at court "

"Oh, that may be mended!"

"Thank you, my lord—I would you had the power to mend my lacerated heart!"

"Our lady! lacerated, w'hen you proposed the suppression of the heiress because she was not the heir!"

"Oh, that was my joke—it is the kidnapers who took it too deeply in earnest! But they are nearing the goal!"

"How—^tell me! How do you feel so much eagerness to recover what was a detriment years ago ?"

"Because the dolt of an attorney to whom was confided the papers of my relative, did not inform me till he died, a few years ago, that a second testament amended the former and left the vast sum to my offspring whatever the sex!"

"So, no)w I understand the revival of affection! I wish you success with your hirelings."

"Then, if you will let me pass "

"But you said that you visited them by order of the queen?"

"I am trying to kill—that is, catch two birds with the! saimelure!" j

"Let me see; the queen is the patroness of that dancer—pride of their tribe?"

"She begs her to come live in the palace beside her!"

"She refu'sed! She is a stone! But to penetrate the accursed ward—you must be furnished with a more powerful open-sesame than the queen's name!"

"It is true; this scarf makes all doors open and all windows turn! The gypsies sleep in the open air, but you understand the figure!"

"Let me see that scarf!" The old marquis drew a curious Indian fabric from his bosom, and the other examined it as well as he could in the poor light. It was embroidered with Arabic letters, perhaps a prayer, but it looked what they called "magical." Don Jose shivered a little, and, without letting the noble perceive it, kissed the muslin.

"It is Maritana's," he said.

"Yes, and that is why I can, under its shelter, pierce to the King of the Gitanos' presence. Poor king—his throne an empty wine-cask, his sceptre a seaman's pipe, and his cup a pewter pot."

"Listen," said Jose, gravely, retaining the scarf. "My] police inform me that there has been uncommon! agitation in this region of blackness since a fight of gamesters over their spoil. The flame of riot spreads, and there has been another 'ruffling,' from which a captain of the guards lies bleeding in the hospital; so, as your life is pre'cious to your lost child—'and the royal lapdogs—> I would beg to relieve you of your mission this time. Let one of my men replace you!"

"Well, this is kind, but "

"Hie home and resume your broken rest. In the morning tell the queen that you fearlessly executed your

errand, and that Maritana, notified of her wish, will have the honor to present herself at the appointed hour!"

"Good; but if she should not come?"

"What is that to your lordship? It will be another of her tantrums! But I believe you may confidently asseverate that she will be at th3 queen's feet a suppHant for some favor "

"Which her majesty will be only too glad to meet. 'I never saw one woman more fond of another."

"Go! If my police accost you, say 'Josephus'— that will pass!"

The instant that the plotter was left alone, he set to laughing, noiselessly, and crushed up the scarf In his hands against his beating breast.

"Why, Fortune is surely my friend!" said he. "It is I who will venture into the lair of his grace of Egypt. The knowledge I gain of their mode of life may be useful to the police minister, as the interview with Maritana will advantage the future prime minister."

At the ingress to the forbidden region he wavered. It was fairly quiet now, since the vvassailers had been stupefied by their potions and were wearied by their long tramps for bread and filching during the day.

There was no artificial lights, only the starlight and the vague lustre of a rising moon. The long and narrow court which was the ghetto's main street, was encumbered with peddlers' packs, fishmongers' carts and fruit stalls, while the owners, strewn about as if overthrown by a gale, reposed at random. The repose was fitful, and there was a continual murmur mingled withi the snoring.

Don Jose would have refrained from risking himself among the slumberers, who would perhaps spring up and knife him before he could explain how he cam^e to

step upon them, but he spied several figures stealing about in the mass, like watchers.

Emboldened a little, he thrust himself into the squalid passage and groped his way. He did not stoop or skulk, but designedly made himself prominent. Immediately one of the wakeful came toward him and brandished a cudgel.

'He hastened to display the scarf and utter the watch-?word of the marquis:

"Castillo-Rotondo—from the queen to Maritana!"

Both acted like a charm; not only did the challenger bo'w, but silently offered his escort. Thus he was piloted unimpeded to the middle of the alley, where the razed foundation of a once-noble mansion afforded shelter to the vagrants in case of a thunderstorm.

As there was no ceiling to the large basement, the gypsies had made tents of old sailcloth and those tarred sheets used by farmers to preserve cut grass until carted into mows.

In one of these tents, occupied by herself alone, the visitor was glad to see the object of his quest.

On his waving the scarf, Maritana rose from sitting on a stool, and advanced to receive him. But, perceiving that he, in the prime of life, bore mo resemblance to the old noble, she stopped and exclaimed:

"From her gracious majesty? No, you' are not the usual messenger!"

"I am as good," returned Don Jose, confidently and breathing more freely at noticing that nobody questioned his presence or, indeed, intruded on the girl's privacy. "You remember me, of course? Yet, I think that I cooled a warmth on your cheeks—checked the flow of pleasant thoughts which prevented you sleeping—perhaps they were as delightful as any dreams which might have arisen during your rest!"