I See By Your Look That
You Wish To Know My History.
I shall not tell it you.
It contains
nothing that is remarkable. See, I have smoked out your cigar; you
may give me another, and add a dollar if you please, nous sommes
creves ici de faim. I would not say as much to a Spaniard, but I
have a respect for your countrymen; I know much of them; I have met
them at Maida and the other place." {18}
"Nothing remarkable in his history!" Why, or I greatly err, one
chapter of his life, had it been written, would have unfolded more
of the wild and wonderful than fifty volumes of what are in general
called adventures and hairbreadth escapes by land and sea. A
soldier! what a tale could that man have told of marches and
retreats, of battles lost and won, towns sacked, convents
plundered; perhaps he had seen the flames of Moscow ascending to
the clouds, and had "tried his strength with nature in the wintry
desert," pelted by the snow-storm, and bitten by the tremendous
cold of Russia: and what could he mean by plying his trade in
Biscay and the Landes, but that he had been a robber in those wild
regions, of which the latter is more infamous for brigandage and
crime than any other part of the French territory. Nothing
remarkable in his history! then what history in the world contains
aught that is remarkable?
I gave him the cigar and dollar: he received them, and then once
more folding his arms, leaned back against the wall and appeared to
sink gradually into one of his reveries. I looked him in the face
and spoke to him, but he did not seem either to hear or see me.
His mind was perhaps wandering in that dreadful valley of the
shadow, into which the children of earth, whilst living,
occasionally find their way; that dreadful region where there is no
water, where hope dwelleth not, where nothing lives but the undying
worm. This valley is the facsimile of hell, and he who has entered
it, has experienced here on earth for a time what the spirits of
the condemned are doomed to suffer through ages without end.
He was executed about a month from this time. 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.
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