The bagatelle for
which he was confined was robbery and murder by the following
strange device.
In concert with two others, he hired a large house
in an unfrequented part of the town, to which place he would order
tradesmen to convey valuable articles, which were to be paid for on
delivery; those who attended paid for their credulity with the loss
of their lives and property. Two or three had fallen into the
snare. I wished much to have had some private conversation with
this desperate man, and in consequence begged of the alcayde to
allow him to dine with me in my own apartment; whereupon Monsieur
Basompierre, for so I will take the liberty of calling the
governor, his real name having escaped my memory, took off his hat,
and, with his usual smile and bow, replied in purest Castilian,
"English Cavalier, and I hope I may add friend, pardon me, that it
is quite out of my power to gratify your request, founded, I have
no doubt, on the most admirable sentiments of philosophy. Any of
the other gentlemen beneath my care shall, at any time you desire
it, be permitted to wait upon you in your apartment. I will even
go so far as to cause their irons, if irons they wear, to be
knocked off in order that they may partake of your refection with
that comfort which is seemly and convenient: but to the gentleman
in question I must object; he is the most evil disposed of the
whole of this family, and would most assuredly breed a funcion
either in your apartment or in the corridor, by an attempt to
escape. Cavalier, me pesa, but I cannot accede to your request.
But with respect to any other gentleman, I shall be most happy,
even Balseiro, who, though strange things are told of him, still
knows how to comport himself, and in whose behaviour there is
something both of formality and politeness, shall this day share
your hospitality if you desire it, Cavalier."
Of Balseiro I have already had occasion to speak in the former part
of this narrative. He was now confined in an upper story of the
prison, in a strong room, with several other malefactors. He had
been found guilty of aiding and assisting one Pepe Candelas, a
thief of no inconsiderable renown, in a desperate robbery
perpetrated in open daylight upon no less a personage than the
queen's milliner, a Frenchwoman, whom they bound in her own shop,
from which they took goods and money to the amount of five or six
thousand dollars. Candelas had already expiated his crime on the
scaffold, but Balseiro, who was said to be by far the worst ruffian
of the two, had by dint of money, an ally which his comrade did not
possess, contrived to save his own life; the punishment of death,
to which he was originally sentenced, having been commuted to
twenty years' hard labour in the presidio of Malaga. I visited
this worthy and conversed with him for some time through the wicket
of the dungeon. He recognized me, and reminded me of the victory
which I had once obtained over him, in the trial of our respective
skill in the crabbed Gitano, at which Sevilla the bull-fighter was
umpire.
Upon my telling him that I was sorry to see him in such a
situation, he replied that it was an affair of no manner of
consequence, as within six weeks he should be conducted to the
presidio, from which, with the assistance of a few ounces
distributed among the guards, he could at any time escape. "But
whither would you flee?" I demanded. "Can I not flee to the land
of the Moors," replied Balseiro, "or to the English in the camp of
Gibraltar; or, if I prefer it, cannot I return to this foro (city),
and live as I have hitherto done, choring the gachos (robbing the
natives); what is to hinder me? Madrid is large, and Balseiro has
plenty of friends, especially among the lumias (women)," he added
with a smile. I spoke to him of his ill-fated accomplice Candelas;
whereupon his face assumed a horrible expression. "I hope he is in
torment," exclaimed the robber. The friendship of the unrighteous
is never of long duration; the two worthies had it seems quarrelled
in prison; Candelas having accused the other of bad faith and an
undue appropriation to his own use of the corpus delicti in various
robberies which they had committed in company.
I cannot refrain from relating the subsequent history of this
Balseiro. Shortly after my own liberation, too impatient to wait
until the presidio should afford him a chance of regaining his
liberty, he in company with some other convicts broke through the
roof of the prison and escaped. He instantly resumed his former
habits, committing several daring robberies, both within and
without the walls of Madrid. I now come to his last, I may call it
his master crime, a singular piece of atrocious villainy.
Dissatisfied with the proceeds of street robbery and house-
breaking, he determined upon a bold stroke, by which he hoped to
acquire money sufficient to support him in some foreign land in
luxury and splendour.
There was a certain comptroller of the queen's household, by name
Gabiria, a Basque by birth, and a man of immense possessions: this
individual had two sons, handsome boys, between twelve and fourteen
years of age, whom I had frequently seen, and indeed conversed
with, in my walks on the bank of the Manzanares, which was their
favourite promenade. These children, at the time of which I am
speaking, were receiving their education at a certain seminary in
Madrid. Balseiro, being well acquainted with the father's
affection for his children, determined to make it subservient to
his own rapacity. He formed a plan which was neither more nor less
than to steal the children, and not to restore them to their parent
until he had received an enormous ransom.
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