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 THE ADVENTURES 
 
 OF 
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA
 
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 Adventures of David Simple. By SUSAN FIELDING. 
 
 Willy Reilly. By W. CARI.KTON. 
 
 The Hour and the Man. By HARRIET MARTINEAU. 
 
 The Pottleton Legacy. By ALBERT SMITH. 
 
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 The Cruise of " The Midge." By MICHAEL SCOTT. 
 
 The Nightside of Nature. By Mrs. CROWE.
 
 English 
 
 Room 
 
 rr 
 
 THE ADVENTURES 
 
 3ft E 
 
 OF 
 
 now 
 
 DON SYLVIO 
 
 DE ROSALVA 
 
 BY 
 
 C. M. [WIELAND 
 
 With an Introduction by 
 
 ERNEST A. BAKER, M.A. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, LIMITED 
 NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & Co. 
 
 1904
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 
 
 + \L 
 
 The title of this romance, as given in the 
 original Edition of the present translation, 
 will be found on page xxviii.
 
 Introduction 
 
 WIELAND belongs to that inferior order of genius that 
 brings no creative energy, no epoch-making ideas to 
 bear upon human life and thought, but receives the 
 impress of the age, reflects its movements and revolu- 
 tions, and reacts upon them with the force and insight 
 of an acute and subtle mind, richly stored with the 
 learning of the past. Such a mind finds its appropriate 
 task in criticism and interpretation. Wieland's life 
 coincided with the epoch of fermenting opinions and 
 revolutionary cataclysms that preceded the birth of the 
 nineteenth century, and his life and works may be 
 regarded as, in a measure, an epitome of the intellectual 
 history of his time. 
 
 The life of Christoph Martin Wieland divides itself 
 into three periods, more or less clearly marked out by 
 the stages of his mental conflict between the rigid pietism 
 in which he was nurtured and his instinctive tendency 
 towards freedom of thought and enjoyment of nature. 
 The impulses of youth were almost wholly eliminated 
 by his father's training and the discipline of a peculiarly 
 monastic school : under their influence he tried sincerely 
 but unsuccessfully to make himself a saint. His earliest 
 writings were mainly the offspring of Christian or . 
 theosophical enthusiasm ; Plato was not austere enough '' 
 for his Puritanism, without a strong infusion of Stoic 
 severity ; and he went out of his way to make an on- 
 / slaught on the brotherhood of Anacreontic poets, Gleim, 
 Gotz, and Uz. The second period, among the first-fruits 
 of which was the present work, was distinguished by a 
 violent revolt against these repressive influences. In it 
 he wrote much that is frivolous and licentious, if not
 
 vi DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 
 
 positively immoral. But as his genius ripened, and he 
 saw more profoundly into the realities of human life, 
 he entered upon another phase, a phase of greater sanity 
 and equilibrium, in which the rebellious hedonism of 
 the middle period was chastened and subdued, the 
 unruly republic of the senses brought under the authority 
 of mind, and the supremacy of the spiritual element in 
 man's nature freely acknowledged. Such works of 
 varied excellence as the Agathon in its final form, his 
 Geron the Noble, the pregnant satire of The Abderites, 
 the matchless Oberon, and his latest romance of Hellenic 
 life, Aristippus, were the products of that period. 
 
 Born in 1733 at Biberach, a free corporation town of 
 Swabia, he was the son of a Lutheran minister, a learned 
 man, who undertook the entire charge of his education, 
 and with parental zeal pushed him on so fast that at 
 seven he was able to read Nepos with enjoyment, and 
 at thirteen made pocket companions of Virgil and 
 Horace. This unwise stimulation of the mental facul- 
 ties had the usual effect of giving him a distaste for the 
 healthy recreations of boyhood ; he grew shy, and fond 
 of solitary musing, unfit for competition with his equals, 
 and inclined by his father's religious discipline to morbid 
 habits of self-analysis, and, it may be added, of self- 
 deception. His frequent tears of contrition, his out- 
 bursts of religiosity, were not insincere ; they were the 
 transient emotions of an impressionable soul, and by no 
 means implied any deep and lasting conviction. 
 
 His father's perseverance was rewarded by making 
 him a prodigy of learning ; his turn for writing and 
 imitation was not less precocious. From the age of 
 eleven he was passionately fond of poetry, and used to 
 rise at daybreak to compose little operas and cantatas, 
 not being allowed to write verses during the day. Among 
 the juvenilia which he is supposed to have burned later 
 -'< on was an epic on the destruction of Jerusalem, written 
 at this period. At fourteen, his father sent him to the 
 high school of Klosterberg, near Magdeberg, a college 
 equally renowned for the excellence of its classical teach- 
 ing and for its semi-monastic system of instruction, an 
 evangelical monasticism that made it a stronghold of
 
 INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 the pietism then dominant among German Protestants. 
 The austere life, the spiritual exercises, and the habits 
 of meditation, penitence, and devotion had a powerful 
 effect on Wieland. He applied himself with ardour to 
 the sentimental side of religion, though he had no 
 inclination for dogmatic theology. Yet, at the same 
 time, his constant reading in Greek and Latin poets 
 and philosophers was deepening the inner tendencies 
 of his mind, and preparing silently for the epoch of 
 emancipation. Already he had become acquainted with 
 the pangs of doubt as a consequence of dipping into 
 Bayle's Dictionary and Voltaire ; but he expiated his 
 curiosity with tears of repentance, and when he left 
 school his piety and orthodoxy seemed to be as great a 
 credit to the religious instruction of home and college, 
 as his classical attainments were to his intellectual 
 training. 
 
 The elder Wieland had destined his son for the minis- 
 try, but now had, reluctantly, to agree, on account of 
 his weak lungs, that he should follow the law. In 1750 
 the young man returned to Biberach for a short stay 
 before taking up his studies at Tubingen university, a 
 visit that was fraught with importance as the era of his 
 first love affair. The lady was the accomplished Sophia 
 von Gutermann, known under her later name of De la 
 Roche as the author of some novels. She was two or 
 three years his senior, and already engaged, but seems 
 to have regarded the brilliant young enthusiast with 
 feelings of real affection, while his love for her was none 
 the less passionate for being of a reverential and idola- 
 trous kind. She was the muse who inspired his first 
 serious poem. His father had been preaching one Sunday 
 on the text, " God is Love," and as he walked in the 
 fields with Sophia, Wieland began to pour out in rhap- 
 sodical language the feelings and visions with which 
 such a theme filled his imagination. He spoke of the 
 destiny of men and spirits, of the dignity of the human 
 soul, and of eternity. "Never in my life," he said 
 afterwards to Bodmer, " had I been so eloquent." The 
 lady suggested that he should commit his thoughts to 
 writing, and Wieland, as soon as he took pen in hand,
 
 viii DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 
 
 began the composition of his " Nature of Things," a 
 metaphysical poem that was to some extent an imita- 
 tion of Lucretius, and analogous in method, though 
 different in style, to Pope's Essay on Man. 
 
 At Tubingen, he devoted little attention to law, but 
 continued by his wide, if not profound, reading in many 
 literatures to amass the great store of learning that gives 
 so rich and varied a colouring to all his works. In 1752 
 appeared his first volume of poems, containing the 
 " Nature of Things," the " Anti-Ovid," and his " Moral 
 Epistles," the last-named being the earliest example of 
 that Socratic irony which was to be an important in- 
 gredient of his more mature productions. The book was 
 dedicated to Sophia. An epic in the style of Ossian, on 
 Hermann, or Ariminius, the ancient hero of the Father- 
 land, which he began at Tubingen, was the occasion of 
 another salient incident in his career. He sent the 
 first portion in manuscript to the critic and autocrat of 
 letters, Bodmer, who was living at Zurich with a coterie 
 of literary men, and conducting a Swiss review. Bod- 
 mer's response was to invite the young genius to Zurich, 
 and to install him in the apartment Klopstock had 
 vacated a year ago. Here Wieland found himself in a 
 congenial world. Living in a delightful country house, 
 which seemed to him the proper scene for the talks and 
 meditations of Plato and his disciples, with such literary 
 friends about him as Gessner, Bottiger, and Kleist, and 
 in intimate companionship with Bodmer, whose char- 
 acter and opinions he revered, he had a stronger in- 
 centive than ever to devote himself to authorship. His 
 visionary tendencies were strengthened by their con- 
 versation and his sedulous study of Plato, and by the 
 peculiar tenets held by the circle. From Bodmer also, 
 who availed himself of his services as a contributor to 
 the journal, he derived the practice of borrowing from 
 foreign writers, ancient and modern, which he was to 
 turn to such good account throughout his career that 
 he virtually legitimised its morality. Wieland's mind 
 was naturally eclectic ; his aptitude for assimilating 
 ideas from all sources amounted to a gift. Whatever he 
 borrowed he enriched with new implications and an
 
 INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 interpretation adapted to the age. To what was old 
 and impotent he gave, so to speak, a new life. This is 
 sufficient justification for his seeming plagiarisms. The 
 idea of his Letters from the Dead to the Living (1753), was 
 the result of reading Mrs Rowe's Friendship in Death. ,/ 
 He imitated Bodmer's mannerisms in his Trial of 
 Abraham (1755), after having written a too friendly 
 panegyric on the master's scriptural poem, " Noah." The 
 Platonic Contemplations on Mankind, the Vision of a 
 World of Innocent Men, the Sympathies, Timodea, and 
 the Vision of Myrza, were all more or less imitative. 
 
 All these works were saturated with the mystical 
 teaching and the intolerant puritanism of Bqdmer and / 
 his sect. His metaphysical opinions were of a nebulous 
 and extravagant kind, unadapted to life and conduct, 
 and his practical views narrow and bigoted, identifying 
 religion with all that is gloomy and repressive. It was 
 at this time that he wrote his attack on the lascivious 
 tendencies of the Anacreontic poets, a rebuke that he 
 stultified by his own loose writings at a later period. 
 
 He pities Petrarch for speaking of his Laura with an idolatry 
 to which no human excellence can be entitled from man ; he laments 
 that the sublime genius of Pindar had been squandered on the decora- 
 tion of a heathen and profane mythology ; and he adds that whoever 
 did not consider indifference to religion as an honour was bound in 
 duty infinitely to prefer the feeblest spiritual hymns of the ecclesias- 
 tical poets to the seductive imagery of the finest odes of Uz or 
 Gleim. 
 
 Xenophon gave him a subject, and the great Frederick 
 of Prussia a hero, for his epical poem, " Cyrus," begun 
 at the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, the fortunes 
 of which he watched with anxiety. But readers took 
 little interest in this glorification of their monarch as a 
 compendium of public and private virtue, and the poem 
 remains a fragment. 
 
 The religious inspiration was not destined to last very 
 long, and from the enthusiasm of the visionary and the 
 stern denunciation of sensual joys and mundane beauty, 
 he was soon to pass to the opposite extreme. Wieland 
 had left Bodmer's house in 1754, finding the restraints 
 and the master's love of interference irksome. Bodmer
 
 x DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 
 
 had been bitterly disappointed in Klopstock, in whom 
 he had anticipated something ethereal, a kind of seraph, 
 and had found a beer-drinking and pipe-smoking gallant, 
 fresh from student life in Leipzig, with no aversion from 
 the sentiments or the morals of Gleim and his associates. 
 Wieland was to cause him a still more painful disillusion- 
 ment. The revolution that was about to take place in 
 the young man's philosophy showed that his convictions 
 had been without depth, and his religious fervour but 
 the offspring of an ecstatic imagination. A letter he 
 wrote to Zimmerman, the author of Solitude, in 1758 is 
 an indication of the coming change. 
 
 I am not quite so much of a Platonist as you think me ; I begin to 
 be a little more familiar with the inhabitants of this lower world. . . . 
 My morality is not that of the Capuchins. I no longer confound 
 wisdom with austerity, nor admire those authors who paint the virtues 
 which they recommend to us as so ugly and disgusting. I think with 
 you that the wise man cultivates all his senses, internal and external ; 
 exercises all his faculties, and enjoys all nature. 
 
 Soon he went much further, and from the gloomy and 
 morose idealism he had cultivated under Bodmer he 
 rushed headlong into the frank hedonism, the doubt and 
 the frivolity of his middle period. 
 
 From Zurich he went to Berne, to become tutor in 
 the house of a M. Sinner, partly drawn thither by the 
 presence of a company of actors who had performed his 
 translation of Rowels .Lady Jane Grey. This had been 
 produced with very slight alteration as his own work, 
 and now he composed a tragic_jdrama on an episode from 
 Sir Charles Grandison, and yet another on the beautiful 
 story of Araspes and Panthea in the Cyropcedia. The 
 last-named, which foreshadowed many of the ideas of 
 Agathon, was afterwards published separately, and forms 
 the earliest dramatic romance in German literature. 
 
 In 1760 he was suddenly recalled to Biberach by the 
 news that the corporation had spontaneously appointed 
 him town clerk, with a moderate stipend, which he 
 hoped would put him in a situation of independence. 
 Moral independence and a greater measure of self- 
 reliance he did acquire as a result of absence from those
 
 INTRODUCTION xi 
 
 who had hitherto exerted too potent sway over his 
 plastic, impressionable mind, always so delicately re- 
 sponsive to external stimulus. But the duties of the 
 office proved more engrossing than he had anticipated, 
 and the lack of agreeable society was painful. In a 
 letter to Gessner, he compares Biberach with San Marino, 
 describing the tediousness and triviality of his legal 
 occupations, and the uncongenial people among whom 
 his lot was cast. His only relief from the daily round 
 was in the hours he devoted to the Muses. Among the 
 employments of his leisure during the years 1762-6 
 was a translation of Shakespeare, which was afterwards 
 completed and corrected by Eschenburg. 
 
 But he was not left long to this Boeotian solitude. In 
 1763, Count Stadion, a fine old courtier and man of the 
 world, cultivated, and fond of literature, retired from a 
 long career of diplomacy to the family mansion of 
 Warthausen, some three miles from Biberach, bringing 
 with him his former secretary, La Roche, the husband 
 of Sophia. Through her friendship, Wieland was wel- 
 comed by the Count, and soon became a constant guest 
 at Warthausen, where La Roche and his family, with 
 their patron and his visitors, formed a circle of friends 
 and amiable critics, who incited him to new work, and, 
 by introducing him to a more luxurious and more tolerant 
 society, contributed with other causes to hasten on the 
 process of emancipation. In the Count's well-stocked 
 library Wieland had access to the works of all the 
 eminent modern writers. Bolingbroke and Shaftesbury, 
 Rousseau, Montesquieu and Voltaire, and other ex- 
 ponents of the moral and metaphysical scepticism of the 
 time, helped to shatter the fabric of belief that was 
 already shaken. The journal of this period of gradual 
 transformation was faithfully kept by Wieland, though 
 under many disguises. Agathon (1766-7) is in reality ^i 
 his own story ; Hippias is Count Stadion ; and the 
 Epicurean arguments by which the hero is converted 
 from the austere religion of his youth are, in a manner, ' 
 Wieland' s own apologia. -* 
 
 The touching picture drawn by Euripides of the child- 
 hood of Ion suggested the story of Agathon's early years.
 
 xii DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 
 
 Educated like the Attic hero among the hallowed groves 
 and shrines of Delphi, Agathon has been initiated into 
 the transcendental visions of the Orphic theosophy, and 
 is imbued with the lofty idealism of Plato. His virtue 
 is tried by collision with the world and its temptations, 
 and his philosophy by the sophisms of Hippias. Though 
 he succumbs for a while to these united assaults, yet he 
 frees himself again from the trammels of sensuality, 
 and enters upon a career of action, proceeding at the 
 end to summarise the results of his experience, and to 
 find a means of harmonising the rival claims of virtue 
 and pleasure. In his first draft of the story, Wieland 
 hardly succeeded in determining the problem in a way 
 to satisfy serious thinkers ; but years later he gave the 
 story a more conclusive ending, and one more in unison 
 with a philosophy that admits man's intuitive demand 
 for goodness and right. At the present stage, his 
 thought has not got beyond a utilitarian conception of 
 morality, and even that was wanting in breadth. 
 , It was at this time, 1764, that he composed the story of 
 Don Sylvio de Rosalva. Wieland was in the habit of read- 
 ing his manuscript poems to the Warthausen ladies, in- 
 cluding such risky stories as that of Diana and Endymion, 
 and others of the Komische Erzdhlungen, in which he had 
 cast off the fetters of pietism and Bodmer, and followed 
 in the lascivious footsteps of Voltaire and Crebillon fits. 
 Such light and flippant tales were exactly to the taste 
 of the German aristocracy, dominated as they were by 
 French influences ; but at the same time it gave them 
 a new interest in the literature of their own language. 
 The Attic world depicted by Aristophanes and his 
 favourite, Xenophon, the satirical stories of Lucian, " 
 French and Oriental fairy tales, and the chivalric 
 romances, supplied him with a multitude of subjects for 
 prose and verse during this period. With an imagina- 
 tion that easily bore the weight of his vast and mis- 
 cellaneous equipment of learning, he revived the life of 
 ancient Greece and the Middle Ages, and added thereto 
 the delicate charm of his ironical allusion to the present. 
 Musarion is the most illustrious of a series of metrical 
 tales whose scenes are laid in classic Greece. Phanias,
 
 INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 an Athenian voluptuary, having lost his wealth, retires 
 like Timon to the sea-shore, and persuades himself that 
 he is a Stoic, and has learned to despise the pleasures he 
 can no longer enjoy. His friends Cleanthes and Theo- 
 phron are similar representatives of the Cynic and the 
 Platonic philosophies. They are pursued in their retreat 
 by Musarion, a rich and beautiful hetaira, who, by her 
 demonstration of the more potent charms of Epicurean- 
 ism, puts their convictions to a test they are unable to 
 withstand. The dramatic vivacity, and the half-sportive, 
 half -serious irony of Wieland appear at their best in 
 this admirable dialogue. In the same year, 1768, was 
 written the fairy tale of Idris and Zenide, in which he 
 took Ariosto as his model : only five cantos were finished. 
 Sensual attractions are here again shown in conflict with 
 those of mind and spirit. Idris, who in the moral im- 
 plied by the allegory stands for Platonic love, in order to 
 win the hand of Zenide, queen of the four races of genii, 
 is subjected to the ordeal of withstanding the tempta- 
 tions of the most beautiful females in each of the four 
 tribes beneath her sovereignty. He successfully resists 
 the enchantments of the nymphs of Water and of Fire, 
 but the narrative of his trials was not carried any further. 
 
 In 1765 Wieland had married. His wife was the 
 daughter of a merchant of Augsberg, a plain, affection- 
 ate, domesticated woman, with no accomplishments, 
 who was unable to appreciate her husband's writings, 
 but looked up to him with a species of blind worship. 
 In Schiller's letters she is said to have been " as ugly 
 as night, but worth her weight in gold, and gay and 
 naive almost to simplicity." The licence of Wieland' s 
 opinions did not extend to his conduct. He was an 
 excellent husband and father, and found true happiness 
 in his home life. In a little summer-house, quite close 
 to the town, yet completely in the country, he spent his 
 leisure hours " in company with the muses, fauns, and 
 grass- nymphs " that floated before his fancy, "fair as 
 those which break in upon the meditations of holy 
 hermits in the wilderness." 
 
 So nine years rolled away at Biberach, and then, in 
 1769, Wieland received an invitation from the Elector
 
 xiv DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 
 
 of Mayence, probably on the recommendation of Count 
 Stadion, who was anxious to remove him from Biberach 
 after an affair in which Wieland's independence had 
 made him obnoxious to the Court of Vienna, to become. .. 
 Professor of Law at the University of Erfurt. The 
 university was in a decadent condition, with few students, 
 and professors out of employ. Wieland entered upon 
 his duties with energy, attracted attention by his course 
 of lectures " On the State of Nature and Society," and 
 drew so many hearers that the number of students at 
 the university was quickly doubled. Sundry disserta- 
 tions on political and social philosophy, delivered during 
 his three years at Erfurt, were afterwards embodied in 
 his collected works ; and the same line of thought is 
 pursued in his prose romance of Koxkox and Kikequetzel, * 
 or the Mexican Paradise Lost, which ridjcules, somewhat 
 after the manner of Candide, the anti- matrimonial and 
 anti-social theories enunciated by Rousseau. The 
 Travels of the Priest Abulfanaris into the Interior of 
 Africa is a satire on the missionary work of the time, v 
 and the worthless apostles who were being sent out for 
 the nominal purpose of converting and civilising the 
 heathen. More seriously argumentative diatribes upon 
 the paradoxes of Rousseau were his essays " On the 
 Original Condition of Man," " On the Attempts to Dis- 
 cover the True State of Nature," " On the Perpetual 
 Amelioration of Human Society," and the like. His 
 defence of his erotic poetry, " Cupid Accused," and the 
 exceedingly clever and cynical " Combabus," one of the 
 finest of his Comic Tales, were among the poetical * 
 compositions of the period. 
 
 An Oriental novel in the style of Cre'billon, The Golden 
 Mirror, or the Kings of Scheshian (1772), also deals in 
 a Utopian manner with schemes of social reform, and 
 was suggested by the revolutionary innovations of the 
 Emperor Joseph II., who is praised under the name of 
 Tifan, the ideal sultan. Its object was to apply the 
 lessons that the best and noblest of every nation may 
 derive from history ; in other words, it inculcates the 
 theory of an enlightened despotism as the ideal state. 
 With enchanting eloquence, Wieland discourses on the
 
 INTRODUCTION xv 
 
 eudaemonistic principles he has adopted, propounding his 
 philosophy of happiness with a persuasiveness and a 
 nobility of thought far removed from the daring and 
 aggressive mockery of preceding works. Yet the book . 
 is not without its comic chapters, in which a fantastic \ K 
 humour like that of Tristram Shandy relieves the gravity 
 of the moral discussions. Diogenes of Sinope is another 
 study of a historical personage in which the whimsical 
 humour of Sterne has been adapted to a satirical pur- 
 pose like that of Voltaire's romances. The cynic phil- 
 osopher is portrayed as a sharp and humorous critic of ^\ 
 mundane follies, and, as in the Quixotic romances, 
 artistic effect is given to the view that perhaps it is the 
 world that is mad, and not the philosopher. 
 
 Wieland did not find much to please him among the 
 "new-fangled, dainty, philosophical, and literary petit- 
 mattres with which the school of Baumgarten, Meyer, 
 and Klotz had filled Saxony." Erfurt was a field of 
 strife between the old professors and those recently 
 appointed by the Elector, into which Wieland was 
 reluctantly drawn. He was assailed virulently in the 
 pulpit for his scepticism and the hedonistic trend of his 
 philosophy, which was supposed to be an index to the 
 character of his private life. At the same time, the 
 actual licentiousness that prevailed in the most fashion- 
 able circles in Erfurt was far from agreeable to him, and 
 he preferred to stay at home with his wife and his two 
 daughters rather than go much into society. The young 
 La Roche, Sophia's son, was now his pupil and an inmate 
 of his house. 
 
 It was, accordingly, a grateful release when he received 
 an invitation from the reigning Duchess of Weimar, 
 Anna Amalia, to become tutor to her children, the young 
 duke, Karl August, and his brother, Constantin. He 
 moved to Weimar in 1772, and was presented with the 
 honorary title of Aulic Counsellor. Now at length he 
 found himself in a congenial home, in an honourable and 
 lucrative position, with ample leisure for his literary 
 avocations ; ere long he was to be the centre of a brilliant 
 gathering of the finest intellects of modern Germany. In 
 1773 he began the publication of his periodical miscellany,
 
 xvi DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 
 
 the Teutscher Merkur, a magazine resembling the Parisian 
 "J Mercure de France, edited and partly written by himself, 
 and containing all sorts of original contributions, literary 
 notices, criticism, and discussions of the higher topics of 
 polite conversation. In it, from this time forward, 
 appeared the first draft of most of his works, an admir- 
 able method of giving them in their more permanent 
 form the advantage of careful and deliberate revision. 
 The Mercury had no small share in the reputation 
 Weimar eventually attained in the intellectual world, 
 and, directly or indirectly, it helped to bring together 
 the galaxy of eminent writers that made the city famous 
 as the German Athens. Bertuch, Reinhold, and Schiller 
 successively acted as Wieland's coadjutors ; then he was 
 assisted by Bottiger, who took over the editorship in 
 1795. At the same time, he did not escape the ills to 
 which editors must inevitably expose themselves. One 
 party attacked him for his supposed lack of patriotism, 
 and another, headed by Herder and Goethe, for the 
 ..narrowness of his aesthetic views. A captious review 
 / of Gotz von Berlichingen, which happened not to be from 
 Wieland's pen, provoked Goethe to write his farce, Gods, 
 Heroes, and Wieland. Instead of fomenting a quarrel, 
 the persiflage was received with perfect good humour by 
 Wieland, and when, in response to the Duke's invitation, 
 Goethe came to Weimar, the two poets met each other 
 in a cordial manner, and with Herder, who shortly 
 followed them, formed a literary alliance unparalleled 
 in Europe. The first number of the Mercury for 1776 
 was headed by a poem of Goethe's. Schiller also became 
 a member of the circle, and in his letters to Korner gives 
 an amusing account of Wieland's attempts to capture 
 him as a son-in-law. His opinion of the older writer was " 
 somewhat unfavourable. He feared that Wieland's 
 sensitive and vacillating mind was not able to act upon 
 fixed principles. Korner seems to have instilled these 
 suspicions, for he asks whether Wieland is anything 
 more than a clever juggler, or a highly finished man of 
 the world. It must be admitted that Wieland's frequent 
 changes, and the veil of irony in which he wraps his 
 personal opinions, are some justification for these doubts.
 
 INTRODUCTION xvii 
 
 Among the earliest productions of the Weimar period 
 were the metrical tales modelled on the Fabliaux of the 
 Trouveres charming examples of Wieland's genius for " 
 borrowing the literary forms, the plots, and the costumes 
 of a forgotten style, and adapting them to the tastes of - 
 his own day. The theme of The King of the Black Isles 
 was taken from the Arabian Nights ; The Summer's Tale, 
 from Chrestien de Troyes ; the Pentameron, the Lays de 
 I'Oiselet, the C antes of le Grand, and other Oriental tales 
 and romances of chivalry supplied him with similar 
 material for stories in verse. Some are satirical, some 
 didactic, others, again, preserve the simple garb of the 
 old ballad poetry. The versatility of style, and the 
 humour are most pleasing ; and there are few offences 
 against good taste. A gradual and permanent change 
 is evident from the sceptical and ironical philosophy of 
 former years to a deeper and purer feeling, a belief in the 
 existence of goodness, and a vindication of the triumph 
 of spiritual over corporeal beauty. In Peregrinus I 
 Proteus, a Lucianic novel that has twice been translated 
 into English, it is said : "If the spirit be not ever soaring 
 upward, the animal part will soon stagnate in the mire 
 of the earth, and the man who does not strive to become 
 a god will find himself in the end degraded to a beast." 
 That novel and the Agathodcsmon are notable exemplars 
 of his acute psychological analysis. Peregrinus was a 
 Cynic philosopher whose portrait Lucian drew as that 
 of a hypocritical sensualist. Wieland retells the story 
 in such a way as to give a more kindly interpretation to 
 the incidents supposed to be narrated to Lucian by an 
 eye-witness. In the Agathod&mon he treats the story of 
 Apollonius of Tyana in an equally ingenious manner, 
 and attempts to furnish a plausible explanation of the 
 reported marvels. 
 
 In 1774, in the pages of the Mercury, Wieland brought 
 out his satirical romance, Die Abderiten, finely trans- > 
 lated into English by Henry Christmas (1861) under the 
 title, The Republic of Fools. The story seems to have 
 been the outcome of an unpleasant affair that had 
 occurred years ago at Biberach, whilst Wieland was the 
 town clerk. A minister named Brechter, whom he had 
 A
 
 xviii DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 
 
 helped to obtain some preferment in the town, gave 
 offence to the orthodox party, and had to be reinstated 
 in his pulpit by the mayor and his officers in person, 
 assisted by Wieland in his official capacity. An attempt 
 was made by the enemies of Brechter to deprive Wieland 
 of his appointment, but the lawsuit ended in his favour. 
 Under fictitious names, and with an ingenious disguise 
 of the actual incidents, the affair was now parodied in 
 Die Abderiten, with much personal ridicule of the 
 members of the corporation of Biberach. But the 
 satire has far wider scope than this. According to 
 Wieland, though the city of Abdera has disappeared 
 from the face of the earth, its people are not extinct, 
 but, like the Jews, " they live still, undestroyed and 
 immortal .... and, although scattered among the 
 nations, they remain to the present day pure, unmixed, 
 and faithful to their original Abderitish fashions and 
 manners. . . . Notwithstanding that they speak every- 
 where the language of the country in which they live, 
 acknowledge in common the constitutions, religion, and 
 customs of the non-Abderites, eat and drink, walk and 
 act, dress and adorn themselves, curl and perfume their 
 hair, purge and physic themselves ; and, in short, per- 
 form everything that is necessary in human life just 
 like others, they, I say, notwithstanding this, remain 
 like to themselves only, in all that constitutes them 
 Abderites, just as if from remotest time they had been 
 separated from the sensible beings of our planet by a 
 diamond wall, thrice as high and thick as the walls of 
 Babylon." " There is no town in Germany . . . where 
 ' the Abderites ' have not met with readers ; and, where- 
 ever it has been read, the descriptions it contains have 
 been received as portraits, of which everybody has seen 
 the originals in a thousand places where," says the 
 author, " I had never been, and where I had not the 
 slightest acquaintance." 
 
 At the epoch chosen by Wieland for his representation 
 of this metropolis of dulness, the philosopher Democritus 
 is a citizen of Abdera, and the town is about to receive 
 the honour of a visit by Euripides. One cannot give 
 even an outline here of the farcical events that lead up
 
 INTRODUCTION xix 
 
 to the Abderitish cause cdebre, the lawsuit about the 
 ass's shadow, of the humorous comments of the laughing 
 philosopher, who is, however, represented in a somewhat 
 different character from the traditional, or of the story 
 how Euripides was a spectator, incognito, of the Abder- 
 itish performance of his own play, The Andromeda. As 
 a specimen of Wieland's irony, nevertheless, I may 
 as well quote the history of the lawsuit as to the estate 
 of Pamplius. This property was intrinsically of little 
 value, but it commanded a beautiful view. Unfortu- 
 nately, a neighbour thought fit to build a barn in such 
 a position as to cut off four-fifths of the prospect, making 
 the property, in the opinion of Pamplius, less desirable 
 to the value of eighty talents. 
 
 The subject was referred to law. Pamplius certainly could not 
 prove that the prospect was an essential and indispensable part of his 
 estate, or that his neighbour's barn shut out air and light from him, or 
 that his grandfather, from whom the property came in a direct line to 
 him, had given a single drachma more, on account of the prospect, than 
 the land was worth in the time of Pamplius himself ; neither could he 
 assert that his neighbour was under any kind of engagement to him in 
 virtue of which he was bound to pull down the barn at his desire. 
 
 Only his advocate contended that the real question at issue lay much 
 deeper, and arose out of the original idea of all property. " If the air 
 were not a transparent medium, Elysium and Olympus itself might be 
 opposite my client's estate, and he would be able to enjoy the sight of 
 them as little as though a high wall were built right up to the sky 
 against his window. This transparent nature and peculiarity of the 
 atmosphere is the first and true cause of that lovely prospect which 
 renders my client's property so desirable. Now this free and trans- 
 parent air is, as everybody knows, one of those common things which 
 are equally the property of all, and every unoccupied portion of it must 
 be regarded as a res nullius, a thing which belongs to nobody, and, 
 therefore, which becomes the property of him who first takes possession 
 of it. From time immemorial the ancestors of my client have together 
 with their estate possessed and enjoyed the prospect which is now 
 in dispute, unhindered and uncontested by any man They have, 
 therefore, with their eyes, occupied the thereunto-belonging portion of 
 air, and through this occupation the aforesaid portion has become an 
 essential part of the hereinbefore-mentioned estate, and no part of this, 
 however small, can be taken away without bringing into danger of 
 destruction every principle of law and rectitude." 
 
 The senate of Abdera found this reasoning very powerful. The 
 litigation went on with great subtlety on both sides, and, as Pamplius 
 himself was during the course of it elected into the senate, the cause 
 became daily more and more intricate, and the arguments on his side 
 all the more considerable. At last the farmer died without seeing any
 
 xx DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 
 
 endofhis lawsuit, and his heirs, perceiving that simple agriculturists like 
 them could do little or nothing against so great a man as a senator of 
 Abdera, allowed their advocate to bring the matter to a compromise, 
 by which it was agreed that they should pay the costs of the action, and 
 abstain from completing the proposed barn, the rather as they had no 
 money left to finish it, and the lawsuit had so eaten up their estate that 
 there was no longer any necessity for a barn upon it at all. 
 
 Although this romance is somewhat too elaborate in 
 its plan, and, like Don Sylvio de Rosalva, too academical * 
 in style, it must rank high among those universal satires 
 which are a permanent rebuke to the weaknesses and 
 the follies of mankind. It has the same bearing upon 
 the England of our own day that it had upon Wieland's 
 Germany. 
 
 The final edition of Agathon is a convincing proof of 
 the permanent alteration in his moral attitude. In the 
 earlier version, Agathon was left in a state of moral 
 uncertainty by the arguments of the sophist, Hippias. / 
 The sequel tells how, in the household of the venerable 
 sage, Archytas, who realises the ideal of his lifelong 
 quest, he learns once more to put his trust in wisdom 
 and purity. The train of thought implied in this 
 changed conclusion is that all men in their hearts admit 
 the reality of virtue, even though their acts seem to deny 
 it. In man there are two natures, a merely animal 
 element impelling him towards the things of earth, and 
 a free, intelligent, and spiritual element, striving to uplift 
 him, even beyond the limits of the knowable universe. 
 These antagonistic natures must be reconciled, and the 
 senses subjected to the control of the diviner self ere 
 man can fulfil his proper destiny. 
 
 Wieland's great epic of romance, Oberon, is permeated 
 by these loftier views of morality. Oberon is the story 
 of Huon of Bordeaux, told originally in a chanson de 
 geste in the thirteenth century, and translated into noble 
 English by Lord Berners. It is a strangely composite 
 story. To the ordinary tale of Charlemagne and his 
 peers, with its deeds of arms and its courtly broils, are 
 added the more diversified interests of Arthurian romance 
 and the Oriental magic that came into vogue in the 
 Middle Ages. The dwarf Oberon is of Teutonic origin,
 
 INTRODUCTION xxi 
 
 though placed in Oriental surroundings, so there was 
 some propriety in making him the titular hero in a 
 German poem. By shifting the centre of interest from 
 earth to the realm of Oberon, Wieland adapts the fan- 
 tastic and preposterous incidents, that pleased the 
 Middle Ages as the proper adventures of knight-errantry 
 in the Orient, to the course of a modern epic of fairyland. 
 In his poem, glamour and beauty take the place of mere 
 marvel and absurdity. Yet it is noticeable that he 
 adheres most religiously to the details and the chrono- 
 logical order of the traditional story. His plastic skill 
 is mainly shown on the ethical side of the narrative, that 
 is to say, in making the issues depend upon motives, and 
 so welding the multifarious and antagonistic elements 
 of the romance into a beautiful harmony. 
 
 The legend tells how Huon, son of the Duke of Bor- 
 deaux, slays, unwittingly and guiltlessly, Prince Chariot, 
 the dissipated son of Charlemagne, and escapes death at 
 the hands of that fierce monarch only on the condition 
 that he undertake an impossible commission, namely, to 
 journey to Bagdad, beard the caliph, carry off his 
 daughter, and four of his grinders as a trophy. On his 
 way to carry out this desperate venture, Huon falls in 
 with the king of the fairies, the dwarf Oberon, who 
 supplies him with the means of accomplishing it. But 
 in his subsequent adventures on the vogage home with 
 the caliph's beautiful daughter, Huon forgets the in- 
 junctions of the elfin monarch that he should preserve 
 his chastity. Vengeance swift and terrible falls on the 
 disobedient knight and his lady. With admirable skill, 
 Wieland makes the interposition of Oberon dramatically 
 probable by tracing it to the consequences of his quarrel 
 with Titania. Then he had sworn a great oath that one 
 thing alone should heal their feud, the preservation of 
 faith and constancy by two mortals under the stress 
 of superhuman trials and misfortunes. Thus the 
 absurdity of Huon's enterprise, which nothing less than 
 a miracle could enable him to achieve, is rendered 
 natural as a stage in the affairs of the immortals ; the 
 role played by Oberon in the Medieval history is no 
 longer capricious and inexplicable ; and on the human
 
 xxii DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 
 
 side, the seemingly mad and aimless series of adventures 
 finds an adequate motive in the moral ordeal and 
 purification of the hero. 
 
 But there is no heavy seriousness in Wieland's re- 
 telling of the story. His humour plays about it, recon- 
 ciling farce and tragedy, revelling, like Shakespeare in 
 his Midsummer Night's Dream, in the enchanting juxta- 
 position of the natural and the supernatural worlds. 
 The comic effects that ensue when Oberon's miraculous 
 horn is winded, are a congenial opportunity for Wieland's 
 elfish merriment. 
 
 He to his rosy lip the horn applies, 
 
 And breathes enchanting tones of fairy sound : 
 
 At once old Sherasmin in giddy round 
 
 Reels without stop away the spinner flies, 
 
 Seizes a hoary nun without a tooth, 
 
 Who dies to dance, as if the blood of youth 
 
 Boil'd in her veins : the old man deftly springs, 
 
 Bounds like a buck, while every caper flings 
 
 Her veil and gown in air, that all laugh loud forsooth. 
 
 Cloyster and convent burn with equal rage, 
 
 Nor hoary hairs nor rank, the dance withstand ; 
 
 Each sinner takes a sister by the hand, 
 
 And in the gay contention all engage. 
 
 Not soon such ballets shall be seen again : 
 
 No rules or discipline the choir restrain 
 
 No tipsy faun so bounds in wanton dance ; 
 
 Huon unmoved beholds the reeling trance, 
 
 While laughter shakes his breast to see the giddy train. 
 
 Wieland had the good fortune to secure a sympathetic 
 and poetical translator in William Sotheby, whose 
 version of Oberon ranks as one of the finest translations 
 in the English language. Sotheby's verse maintains an 
 equable level of smooth, harmonious numbers, from 
 which it is difficult to select examples of outstanding 
 excellence. Let two more passages chosen at random 
 give a taste of his style. The first is Oberon's answer 
 to the sprite who begs the fairy king to have pity on the 
 persecuted hero. 
 
 " Blind to futurity earth's children stray," 
 The king replies. " Ourselves, each fate and sprite, 
 Are slaves, thou know'st, to fate's resistless might ! 
 In holy gloom high o'er us winds his way.
 
 INTRODUCTION xxiii 
 
 All go, where'er his secret influence draws : 
 Willing or not, all own that ruling cause. 
 And, in the depth of this abyss unknown 
 That parts me from the knight, one hope alone, 
 One hope alone is left by fate's eternal laws." 
 
 The other extract is a brief specimen of Wieland's sug- 
 gestive powers of description, which, when it has full 
 scope, achieves many entrancing pictures of scenes in 
 the East, and landscapes from the unknown land of 
 faery. 
 
 'Mid the wide circuit of the stormy deep 
 
 This lonely tow'ring island strikes her sight, 
 
 Pil'd up with monstrous ruins height on height. 
 
 The gloomy clouds that round the desert sweep 
 
 Lure her to steer amid the wild unknown 
 
 Her hovering flight grief marked it for her own. 
 
 Downward she rushes in this dreary grave, 
 
 To mourn her being, and beneath the cave 
 
 Become, ah ! would to Heaven ! herself a senseless stone. 
 
 And since Titania to these mountains fled, 
 
 Far from all joy, sev'n times by her unseen 
 
 Gay spring had cloth'd the earth in cheerful green 
 
 As on an altar lies her stone-propt head, 
 
 Expecting death The seasons flourish fair : 
 
 Days rise and set deep shade, and sunny glare, 
 
 Chequer the rocks, in vain, with magic gleams 
 
 Tho' joy should o'er her pour a thousand streams, 
 
 Her soul in lonely gloom would brood o'er dead despair. 
 
 She loathes the cliffs and dark o'ershadowing height, 
 
 Where, prey of willing grief, she lonely lay 
 
 Lo ! at her wish, as sink the rocks away, 
 
 A new Elysium opens on her sight. 
 
 Lonely no more three lovely sylphs appear 
 
 Swift at her call, rejoic'd her voice to hear : 
 
 Three sister sylphs, rejoiced to bring relief, 
 
 Gaily they come to dissipate her grief, 
 
 And love, not duty, hastes to check the gushing tear. 
 
 The paradise, which here the elfine queen 
 
 Form'd for herself, was, sure, the lonely place 
 
 That hid Alphonso in its lov'd embrace : 
 
 Unknown to him, the sheltering cliffs between 
 
 Stood the lov'd grotto, her sequester'd throne : 
 
 Whence, from the grove, by whispering night-winds blown, 
 
 Soft notes seraphic flow'd, and oft by night 
 
 O'er him at rest, she pois'd her viewless flight, 
 
 And breath'd upon his cheek pure airs to earth unknown.
 
 xxiv DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 
 
 Between 1790 and 1795 the Mercury teemed with 
 articles and imaginative essays originating in the events 
 of the French Revolution. Wieland, unfortunately, 
 became obnoxious to both parties in Germany, since, 
 like several other wise and eminent men, he welcomed 
 the Revolution at first with frank eloquence as the dawn 
 of a glorious epoch, and then, when he was disillusioned 
 by the subsequent anarchy, he denounced the revolution- 
 ary spirit that was now gaining ground even in Germany. 
 The Dialogues of the Gods, under a Hellenic disguise, 
 'agitate many of these questions. Wieland had the 
 sagacity to foretell in 1798, in one of his Dicdogues\ 
 between Four Eyes, that the anarchy of France would 
 find its cure in military despotism, pointing out Bona- 
 parte as the prospective dictator. When the event 
 proved his foresight, he was accused by the anti- Jacobins 
 of collusion with the revolutionary party in France. 
 He gave up the editorship in 1795 to his faithful lieu- 
 tenant, Bottiger. Much obliquy was thrown upon him 
 about this date by the teachers of the new aesthetic, 
 foremost among them the Schlegel brothers, for his 
 adherence to an effete critical system, and more par- 
 ticularly for his alleged plagiarisms. That Wieland 
 had sought his models, and often his ideas, from other 
 writers could not be gainsaid, but the manner of his 
 borrowing was sufficient defence. The last years of 
 his literary career were embittered by these malicious 
 attacks, all the more unfair as they were directed against 
 an aged man who had always sought the love of his 
 fellows, and, as he said to Gleim, had never lost the 
 esteem of a wise and good man who had learned to know 
 him. 
 
 In 1797, Wieland, now sixty-four years old, made a / 
 short tour in Switzerland, and revisited the scenes of 
 his youth. On returning to Weimar he felt more keenly 
 the attractions of a country life, and was induced to 
 venture on the purchase of a villa at Osmanstadt, on 
 the Ilm, a few miles from Weimar, whither he removed 
 with his children and grandchildren, a numerous family, 
 and settled down in almost patriarchal retirement. He 
 was honoured by the continuous regard of the Duke of
 
 INTRODUCTION xxv 
 
 V 
 
 Weimar and the Dowager Duchess Amalia, who often 
 visited his new home ; he was also annoyed occasionally 
 by the foreigners who made pretexts to call upon a man 
 of his European reputation. Sophia de la Roche paid 
 him a visit in 1799, and has left an Arcadian picture of 
 Wieland in his country house, surrounded by two genera- 
 tions of his children, honoured by his peers, on intimate 
 terms with Goethe and Herder, and still busy at times 
 with his pen. He was composing his last important 
 work, Arisippus and his Contemporaries, a historical 
 study of the later offspring of Socratic thought, the 
 Platonic, Cynic, and Cyrenaic systems. In developing 
 the Epicureanism of Aristippus and his personal char- 
 acter, Wieland once again shows inimitable skill and 
 delicacy in filling in the vague outline of the existing 
 records. Socrates, Plato, Xenophon, and Aristophanes 
 are finely portrayed, and the philosophers enunciate 
 their own doctrines in person, with such a freshness and 
 enthusiasm, as if the author were imparting his own 
 original thoughts. The famous hetaira Lais is magnifi- 
 cently drawn, an exquisite embodiment of the beauty, 
 wit, and paganism of the Greek world that Wieland 
 worshipped. 
 
 But friends and relatives were dying around him, and 
 in 1801, after thirty-five years of happy wedded life, he 
 lost his wife. 
 
 " Since the death of my dear wife," he writes to Bottiger two years 
 later, " I have lost all pleasure in life, and the glow which things had for 
 me before is gone for ever. I endeavour to occupy my attention, and 
 to deaden the sense of my loss, which I feel most keenly when I lie 
 down at night or when I awake. Never have I loved anything so 
 much as I did her. When I knew that she was near me in the room, 
 or if she came into my room at times, and spoke a friendly word or two, 
 and went away it was enough. Since she is gone, I say to myself, no 
 labour will prosper with me more. Perhaps I could not have supposed 
 that with her weak frame she would have been spared to me for thirty- 
 five years, to scatter flowers upon my path of life with her unpretending 
 fidelity and duty. But then I think of Philemon in the fable. Why 
 could we not have died the same day ? " 
 
 His sorrows were aggravated by pecuniary troubles. 
 Osmanstadt had been bought on the instalment plan,
 
 xxvi DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 
 
 and, the political convulsions of the time having rendered 
 literary incomes precarious, the purchase money could 
 not be paid off. Wieland was obliged to sell the property 
 at a loss and return to Weimar. The Duke gave him 
 a house opening into the gardens of the Dowager Duchess, 
 and henceforth he was counted as a member of the 
 household, with a State box at the theatre. He had 
 the reputation of being fond of living in the society of 
 great people, and to this is attributed his weakness for 
 elegant furniture. With the Dowager Duchess he was 
 a great favourite, and Schiller says he regarded her with 
 special affection because she used to let him go to sleep 
 on the sofa by her side. The story goes that he was so 
 lacking in reverence on one occasion as to throw a book 
 at her head. After Jena, Wieland's dwelling was saved 
 from pillage or destruction by the express orders of 
 Napoleon. In 1808, at the time of the Congress of 
 Erfurt, the Emperor came to Weimar. Wieland was 
 present in the theatre, where a company of French 
 actors gave Voltaire's Death of Ccesar ; and Napoleon 
 caught sight of the venerable old man with the black 
 skull-cap. Being told that it was the famous Wieland, 
 whom he had already expressed a desire to see, the 
 Emperor sent for him, and after the play they had a 
 long conversation in the ball-room. The account shall 
 be given in Wieland's own words. 
 
 " I had not been there many minutes before Napoleon came across 
 the room towards us : the Duchess then presented me in form, and he 
 addressed me affably with some words of compliment, looking me 
 steadily in the face. Few persons have appeared to me to see through 
 a man so quickly at a glance. He saw that, notwithstanding my 
 celebrity, I was a plain, unassuming old man ; and as he evidently 
 wished to make a good impression upon me, he at once assumed the 
 manner in which he was sure to attain his purpose. Never have I seen 
 anyone appear more simple, quiet, gentle and unpretending. There 
 was nothing to remind one that he was a great monarch. He talked to 
 me like an old acquaintance with an equal, and, what had never 
 happened to any one of my rank, chatted for half-an-hour together. 
 to the great surprise of all present. At length, about midnight, I 
 began to feel that I could not bear to stand any longer ; I took the 
 liberty of begging his Majesty to let me take my leave. ' Allez done,' 
 he said with a friendly voice and manner, ' l>on soir. ' 
 
 "The more remarkable points of our conversation were these: 
 The play which had just been performed brought up the subject of
 
 INTRODUCTION xxvii 
 
 Julius Caesar. Napoleon observed that he was one of the greatest men 
 in the history of the world, and would have been without exception . 
 the greatest but for one error. I was about to inquire to what error he 
 alluded, but Napoleon read the question in my face and continued, 
 ' Caesar knew the men who wanted to put him out of the way, and he 
 should have been beforehand with them. Could Napoleon have seen 
 what was in my mind, he would have read the answer, ' You, at all 
 events, will never lay yourself open to such a charge.' From Julius 
 Caesar the conversation turned to the Roman people, whose military 
 and political system were warmly praised by the Emperor, while the 
 Greeks he characterised with profound contempt. What good could 
 come, he asked, from their petty republics with their interminable 
 squabbles ? The Romans, on the contrary, were ever intent on great- 
 ness, and greatness they achieved the mighty empire, whose enormous 
 power made a new epoch for the world. I tried to say something for 
 the arts and the literature of Greece, but he treated these two with 
 contempt, affirming that they only served to make matters for dispute. 
 
 " He excepted Homer, whom he placed on a level with Ossian. In 
 poetry, he valued only sublimity, energy, pathos. Of Ariosto and the 
 poets akin to him he spoke in much the same terms as Cardinal 
 Hyppolito d'Este, not recollecting that he was giving me a box on the 
 ear. He seemed to have no liking for humour ; and notwithstanding 
 the flattering kindliness of his manner, he gave me the idea of a heart 
 cast in bronze. At length, however, he had put me so much at ease 
 that I ventured to ask him why, in reforming the religion of France, he 
 had not made it more philosophical in character and more adapted 
 to the spirit of the times. Napoleon answered with a smile, ' My 
 dear Wieland, worship is not made for philosophers, they believe 
 neither in me nor in my religion ; and as for those who do believe, 
 you can never have wonders enough. When I make a religion for 
 philosophers, it shall be after quite another fashion.' " 
 
 Wieland received from Napoleon the order of the 
 Legion of Honour, and from the Emperor Alexander 
 of Russia, almost at the same time, the order of Saint 
 Anne. He was not to be prevented by flattery, however, 
 from raising his voice against the system of oppression 
 the French rule had imposed upon his country. 
 
 But his active career was already over, and the infir- 
 mities of age were creeping on. In 1809 he all but suc- 
 cumbed to a severe illness. Even in the last stage of his 
 life, his fondness for free and unrestrained social inter- 
 course led to his becoming a Freemason. In 1812, the 
 Amalia Lodge at Weimar, which he had joined, struck 
 a medal to celebrate his eightieth birthday. The 
 Brentano family, into which the daughter of Sophia de 
 la Roche had married, had now acquired Osmanstadt,
 
 xxviii DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 
 
 and willingly granted him the site for a monument to 
 himself, his wife, and Sophie Brentano. A simple, 
 three-sided pyramid was placed on a hillock between the 
 three graves, and inscribed with a distich from Wieland's 
 pen commemorating the love and friendship that in 
 life united the souls of those whose mortal part was 
 covered by this common stone. All was now in readi- 
 ness for his departure, and he said jokingly that he 
 ought not to be kept long waiting. He was struck down 
 by paralysis in January 1813, and took to his bed. His 
 friends and descendants successively bade him farewell ; 
 and as his end approached he was heard repeating his 
 own translation of Hamlet's soliloquy. As he came to 
 the momentous words, " To be or not to be," it is 
 recorded, his soul took flight. Wieland was buried with 
 great pomp in the tomb prepared for him at Osmanstadt, 
 the Lodge of Freemasons having undertaken the whole 
 charge of the funeral. 
 
 Wieland wrote his Don Sylvio de Rosalva in 1764. It 
 was first translated in 1769, into French. A second and 
 abridged translation was published in 1771 by Madame 
 / d'Ussieux, under the title of the Don Quichotte moderns. 
 ^ Under the earlier title, this was republished in 1786 at 
 Geneva, as the last volume (the thirty-sixth) of Le 
 Cabinet des Fees ou Collection choisie des Contes des 
 Fees et autres Contes merveilleux. It is a pretty little 
 book, and charmingly illustrated. The English trans- , 
 lation of Wieland's story, Reason Triumphant over - 
 Fancy ; Exemplified, in the Singular Adventures of Don 
 Sylvio de Rosalva. A History in which every marvellous 
 Event occurs Naturally, is a very scarce duodecimo in 
 three volumes, published in 1773, and bearing the triple 
 imprint, " London : Printed for J. Wilkie, at No. 71, 
 St Paul's Church- Yard ; S. Leacroft, at the Globe, at 
 Charing-Cross, and C. Heydinger, No. 274, in the Strand." 
 I have come across only one copy of it, that from 
 which this edition has been printed. The anonymous 
 translator has done his work well, the narrative often 
 attaining a high level of English prose. 
 
 Outside his own country, where almost every impor- 
 tant romance has had to stand the competition of the
 
 INTRODUCTION xxix 
 
 most barefaced imitations, Cervantes has met with 
 numerous imitators both in prose and verse. For the 
 sake of any reader who may wish to pursue the com- 
 parison of their several aims and methods, I will enum- . 
 erate the principal Quixotic novels written in English up 
 to the year 1820. Charlotte Lennox, in The Female 
 Quixote ; or, the Adventures of Arabella (1752) portrayed 
 a woman who has got all her ideas of life from reading 
 romances of the Scuderi type. In every stranger she 
 sees a knight-errant, and romantic adventures in the 
 most trivial incidents ; and she runs a course of the 
 most extravagant folly until the reasoning of her friends 
 restores her to sanity, when she marries a worthy man. 
 It is not at all improbable that Wieland had read this 
 book. Smollett wrote an amusing parody of Don 
 Quixote, in fact a sort of double parody, for the hero of 
 the tale has a foil in a madder knight-errant, who is a 
 travesty of himself. This, The Adventures of Launcelot^ 
 Greaves, is usually ranked among Smollett's minor works, 
 and is probably but seldom read nowadays. Nor does 
 that curious " comic romance " of the Reverend Richard 
 Graves, entitled, The Spiritual Quixote : or, the Summer's 
 Ramble of Mr Geoffrey Wildgoose, find many modern 
 readers, although its editor, in 1816, stated that, " By 
 occasionally introducing real characters and authen- 
 ticated narratives, he has also diffused a charm over 
 the whole, by which curiosity is excited, and gratified 
 in the most pleasing manner." The Heroine : or, the 
 Adventures of Cherubina, by Eaton Stannard Barrett,^ 
 (1813), is another burlesque attacking the blood-curdling 
 romances fashionable at that period. Crazed by reading 
 these, Cherubina disowns her yeoman father, adopts a 
 high-flown name, and has many absurd adventures in 
 London, and in a deserted castle, where she tries to 
 establish herself with a retinue of attendants. The 
 Quixotic form of romance lends itself admirably to 
 political purposes. I have in my hand, for example, 
 a thin book in shabby boards, called The Political 
 Quixote : or, the Adventures of the renowned Don Blackibo- 
 Dwarfino, and his trusty Squire, Seditiono ; a romance, in 
 which are introduced many popular and celebrated political
 
 xxx DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 
 
 characters of the present day. This appeared in 1820, 
 and was mainly a reprint of a series of sketches in 
 Shadgett's Weekly Review, attacking such writers as 
 Cobbett, Tom Paine, Sherwin, and Wooler, author of 
 Castles in the Air. 
 
 Wieland's Adventures of Don Sylvio, although, like 
 these, avowedly suggested by the great novel of Cer- 
 vantes, is in purpose and spirit a totally different work 
 from any of them. It certainly has no serious social 
 object, the satire of abuses or the denunciation of foolish- 
 ness, nor can it even be taken seriously as an attack on 
 the innumerable fairy stories that were in such great 
 vogue among the cultivated classes of Europe in Wie- 
 land's time. One must simply take it as a jeu d esprit, 
 written to please himself, and to divert the ladies of 
 the circle at Warthausen. His vast and appreciative 
 acquaintance with the great stock of fairy stories, 
 modern, Medieval, and Oriental, is proved by the 
 wealth of reference thereto. The best thing in the 
 book, Don Gabriel's delightfully mad story of Prince 
 Biribinquer, with its dazzling scenery and inexhaustible 
 surprises, shows how he revelled in such imaginations. 
 Wieland has simply taken Don Quixote as a suitable 
 model for an entertaining fable : the ostensible thesis, 
 which is the evil effects of an education based on such 
 reading as Pharamond, Cldie, the Grand Cyrus, The 
 Adventures of the Twelve Peers, and The Knights of the 
 Round Table, with the other volumes in which, as Donna 
 Menzia believed, " were to be found all the treasures 
 of the most sublime and useful knowledge," this flimsy 
 motive is merely put forward as a convenient theme 
 for burlesque. Sylvio is not a real madman, like Don 
 Quixote, but only a playful exaggeration of the dreamy 
 sentimentality and the crazy enthusiasm that might be 
 produced in a childish and superstitious mind by an ill 
 digestion of such literature. No doubt there is a certain 
 amount of satirical reference to the visionary ideas of 
 his own youth. But there are no limits to Wieland's 
 irony, and when he tries to class his novel among those 
 books, " in which truth is spoken laughingly," and 
 which teach wisdom and morality whilst they seem to
 
 INTRODUCTION xxxi 
 
 be intended merely to keep people in good humour, he 
 is really poking fun at his reader. The whole of the 
 first chapter of Book V., "in which the author has the 
 pleasure to talk about himself," is a delightful example 
 of Wieland's sportive irony. He says : 
 
 "We very much doubt whether, since fairy tales first existed in the 
 world, there ever was a lover protected by fairies whether he were 
 prince, knight, or shepherd, that saw or felt himself in such critical 
 circumstances as those in which we left our hero at the close of the 
 preceding book. , 
 
 'Tis true, other heroes, travelling under the auspices of fairies, have . 
 their tribulations likewise : they are often obliged to wage war with 
 dragons, sea-monsters, blue centaurs, and the like : they run the risk 
 of being devoured by hyenas and chimeras ; they are brought up by 
 old toothless fairies, who put their virtue to the keenest trials, and at 
 last turn them into paroquets, cats, or crickets. But, that ever a 
 person so extraordinary as the favourite of a queen of the salamanders, 
 and the lover of an enchanted blue butterfly, should be so terribly 
 scratched and mauled by a parcel of country wenches, is what you may 
 in vain look for an example of in the whole collection of all those 
 histories that begin with that elegant phrase, there was once upon a 
 time. 
 
 The benevolent reader will deduce the consequence ; but, as perhaps 
 he may not do so, the author hereby begs leave to inform him, that 
 this palpable difference between the history of Don Sylvio, and all 
 other tales of the fairies, inculcates a very favourable prepossession in 
 regard to the historical fidelity and veridicity of the writer. Had we 
 made our hero travel in a sapphire car, drawn by birds of paradise ; 
 had we made him descend every evening to some enchanted palace ; 
 had we given him the little red hat of Prince Hobgoblin, or the fairy 
 Mustachio's slipper, or King Gyges' ring, or the royal fairy Trusio's 
 enchanted wand, by means of which he might have extricated himself 
 from all difficulties, then every child of ten years old must have per- 
 ceived we had only been entertaining him with a fairy tale. But 
 though our history is more extraordinary and more marvellous than any 
 of those with which they once upon a time endeavoured to amuse the 
 sage Schac Baham, Sultan of the Indies, yet nobody can reproach us 
 with ever having made any adventure befall our hero, that does not 
 perfectly coincide with the ordinary course of nature, or that may not 
 be seen to happen every day : as for instance, that a frog should run 
 the hazard of being swallowed up by a stork, or that a person should 
 find a picture set round with diamonds, which probably some other 
 might have lost before. Besides, we have made^ our hero travel afoot, 
 without having even taken care to guard him against bogs and ditches. 
 Has he been asleep ? It was only upon the hard ground, or in a 
 miserable inn, where he is half devoured by fleas. Instead of nymphs 
 with rosy arms, or sylphs with golden wings, to serve him with nectar 
 and ambrosia on the flowery borders of crystal fountains, we have fed 
 him with a pie, found in Pedrillo's wallet ; and, still more recently,
 
 xxxii DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 
 
 we have seen him almost knocked at head, not by giants or enchanted 
 blackamoors, but by simple country clowns." 
 
 Both the main story and the appended story of Prince 
 Biribinquer would be merely nonsensical without this 
 interfusion of playful irony. This it is which makes the 
 following a perfect example of the burlesque style of 
 fairy narrative : 
 
 " I shall waive giving you the various private reflections which 
 occurred to Biribinquer, and proceed to inform you that about noon, 
 when the heat began to be insupportable, he alighted at the entrance 
 of a forest, and sat himself down upon the bank of a rivulet which ran 
 down under the shadow of some thick spreading trees. Soon after he 
 perceived a shepherdess driving a little herd of pink-coloured goats 
 before to water in the rivulet, just by the spot where Biribinquer was 
 laid down in the shade. 
 
 " Imagine to yourself, Don Sylvio, how great must be his rapture, 
 on recollecting in this young shepherdess his well beloved milkmaid. 
 She now appeared to him a hundred times more lovely than when he 
 first beheld her : but what rejoiced him most was, that instead of 
 flying from him, she approached nearer and nearer to him. At length 
 she seated herself upon the grass close beside him, seemingly as if she 
 had taken no notice of his being there. The prince had not courage 
 to speak to her, but threw at her such ardent glances as might almost 
 have vitrified the flint stones at the bottom of the stream before him. 
 The fair shepherdess, who must have been of a very cold constitution 
 not to have been broiled by such powerful glances, was tying up, in 
 the most composed manner imaginable, a garland of flowers, but could 
 not help every now and then giving him a sidelong look, as it were by 
 stealth. The prince thought there seemed to be no indignation in her 
 countenance ; and this rendered him so bold that he stole nearer to her 
 unperceived, just as she was caressing a little she-goat, which, instead 
 of hair, wore nothing but fine silver threads, and was all over bedecked 
 with garlands and rose-coloured ribands. Biribinquer's looks glancing 
 from this new-fixed point, said full as many clever things now as they 
 had done before ; while hers corresponded with them from time to time 
 so politely that at length he could not help throwing himself at her 
 feet, and, according to his custom, repeating to her in very poetical 
 figures, what he had before told her in language much more intelligible 
 and persuasive. Having finished his tender elegy, the beautiful 
 shepherdess answered him with a look, the beginning of which was 
 more cool than the close of it. 
 
 " ' I know not,' said she, ' whether I have perfectly understood you : 
 but did not you mean to tell me all this while, that you love me ? ' 
 
 " ' That I love you !' cried Biribinquer, all transported, ' Heavens ! 
 say rather that I adore you, and could wish to yield up my soul thus 
 languishing at your feet.' 
 
 " 'Well, lookye,' replied the shepherdess, ' I am but a very simple 
 girl : I neither wish you to adore me, nor that you should yield up your
 
 INTRODUCTION xxxiii 
 
 soul, for I do not imagine you to have too much of it. I shall be 
 satisfied if you do but love me. But I must tell you, it will be a more 
 difficult matter to persuade me, than the fairy with whom you spent 
 the evening yesterday.' 
 
 " ' Gods ! ' exclaimed the prince, in the deepest confusion, ' what's 
 this I hear ! How is it possible who can have given you from 
 whence could you learn I know not what I say oh ! wretched 
 Biribinquer ! ' 
 
 " Scarce had he uttered this fatal name, when the beautiful shepherd- 
 ess set up a loud shriek. 
 
 "'Yes, wretched Biribinquer, indeed,' she cried, starting up with 
 great precipitation, ' and must you again offend my ears with that 
 detestable, unworthy name ? You force me at once to hate and to fly 
 from you, just when I ' 
 
 " Here the enraged Galactina was suddenly interrupted by a spectacle 
 which equally prevented her and the prince from thinking of anything 
 else but the object before their eyes. Advancing towards them they 
 beheld a giant, whose forehead was encircled with a couple of young 
 oaks twisted together instead of a diadem. The monster stalked 
 forward, picking his teeth with a large pointed stake, and coming up 
 to the shepherdess, spoke to her in so terrible and thundering a voice, 
 that upwards of two hundred crows which had built their nests in his 
 huge bushy beard, issued forth on all sides in the greatest hurry and 
 confusion. 
 
 Don Sylvio is undoubtedly open to many criticisms, 
 which may be left to the reader to apply. It is too long 
 and elaborate for modern taste. Now we should expect 
 such a slight theme to be treated on the scale of the 
 " long short story." But it is extremely interesting, if 
 only as an early example of prose fiction ; and, though 
 tastes have altered so much, it is a noteworthy fact that 
 the fairy tales to which it owes its origin are now as much 
 in fashion as ever they were in Wieland's time. But 
 there is no need for me to stand any longer between the 
 author and his story. 
 
 A*
 
 DRAMATIS PERSONM. 
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA, a young gentleman of quality 
 
 in Valencia, who plays the part of Don Quixote in 
 
 an imaginary fairyland. 
 PEDRILLO, a body servant, his Sancho Panza. 
 DONNA MENZIA DE ROSALVA, his aunt and guardian, 
 
 whom he takes for the fairy Fanfreluche. 
 MRS BEATRICE, her maid. 
 SIGNIOR RODRIGO SANCHEZ, an attorney of Xelva, who 
 
 attempts to marry the aged Donna Menzia. 
 MERGELINA, his rich and ugly niece, who has similar 
 
 designs on Don Sylvio. 
 DONNA FELICIA DE CARDENA, the youthful and lovely 
 
 widow of a wealthy Mexican : plays in Sylvio 1 s 
 
 disordered mind the role of a fairy princess. 
 LAURA, her maid, the sylphid beloved by Pedrillo. 
 DON EUGENIO DE LIRIAS, a young gentleman of Granada, 
 
 Felicia's brother. 
 
 DON GABRIEL, /MS friend and mentor. 
 JACINTHA, a beautiful girl of unknown birth, whom Eugenio 
 
 loves. 
 
 ARSENIA, a benevolent actress, who protects Jacintha. 
 MARITORNES, a maidservant. 
 PYRAMUS, a groom. 
 BLAS, a barber. 
 A GYPSY HAG, who acts the part in the story of the fairy 
 
 Carabossa.
 
 THE ADVENTURES 
 
 OF 
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 
 
 BOOK I 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE CHARACTER OF A CERTAIN SPECIES OF AUNTS 
 
 IN an old ruinous castle, situated in Valencia, a 
 province of Spain, lived some time since a lady of 
 quality, who, at the time of acting her part in the 
 ensuing story, had already, for threescore years, cut 
 a very small figure in the world, under the name of 
 Donna Menzia de Rosalva. 
 
 Ever since the war about the succession, this lady 
 had given up all hope of distinguishing herself by her 
 personal charms ; though at that period she was 
 young, and not disinclined to render a lover of merit 
 happy. She had, however, suffered such sensible 
 mortifications from the coldness of the men, as had 
 more than once tempted her to make to Heaven, in 
 the asylum of a convent, the sacrifice of a heart of 
 which the world had shown itself so unworthy. Her 
 prudence, notwithstanding, was always putting her 
 
 B
 
 2 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 in mind, that this, like every other means suggested 
 by vexation, seldom attained its end ; and, in fact, 
 would only punish the ingratitude of mankind upon 
 herself. 
 
 She therefore, happily, thought of another ex- 
 pedient, which while, it cost her less trouble, was 
 better calculated to favour the only design that in 
 her present situation appeared worthy of her atten- 
 tion. She became a prude ; determined to avenge 
 her offended charms upon all those unfortunates, 
 whom she had never failed to consider as clouds 
 that intercepted and diminished her personal lustre. 
 She declared herself the open enemy of beauty and 
 of love ; and, to mend the matter, set up as the pro- 
 tectress of all those venerable vestals, who are by 
 nature endowed with the gift of transcendent 
 chastity, and whose very aspect alone was capable of 
 disarming the most resolute sylvan deity. 
 
 Donna Menzia did not content herself with that 
 simple friendship, which a very intimate connection, 
 sympathy, and their common lot had established 
 between her and certain ladies of the same disposi- 
 tion, with whom she had been brought up at Valencia, 
 and successively made an acquaintance. They 
 thought proper to institute a kind of community 
 among themselves, which, in the polite world, cor- 
 responded to that of the religious in the political 
 world. That is to say, a state within a state, whose 
 private interests require them to do every shrewd 
 turn to others that lies in their power. Hence they 
 acquired the name of " the anti-graces " ; as being 
 engaged, with respect to whatever is called the 
 empire of love, in as open and implacable a war, as 
 that of the Knights of Malta with the Mussulmen. 
 
 To render their assemblies as useful to the public, 
 as they were agreeable to themselves, they chose for 
 the object of their generous cares the progress of 
 virtue and good manners among their own sex ; for, 
 according to them, the true and only source of all the
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 3 
 
 possible evils in the world, was the deplorable con- 
 dition of these same manners. They laid it down as 
 a principle of their morality, that it was impossible 
 for a fine woman to be virtuous ; and upon this 
 principle they determined as well upon the actions, 
 as upon the moral value of every person of that 
 sex. A woman who pleased, was, in their eyes, a 
 wretched lost creature, a pest to society, a vessel and 
 instrument of Satan ; a harpy, a hyena, a siren, an 
 amphisbaena, or anything worse ; in proportion as 
 she had more or less of that dangerous venom, which, 
 according to the system of these moralists, is as 
 mortal to virtue, as it is flattering to self-love, and 
 seductive to the poor men. 
 
 For more than fifteen years past had Donna 
 Menzia made herself formidable to the beau-monde of 
 Valencia by the austerity of her character, when Don 
 Pedro de Rosalva, her brother, resolved to quit 
 Madrid, where he had exhausted the remnants of an 
 estate, most of which had been expended in the ser- 
 vice of the new king. He had solicited a pension, 
 which he could not obtain ; and at length, too late, 
 regretted the not having rather employed the ruins of 
 his fortune in repairing an old castle he enjoyed, 
 three leagues from Xelva, and which was the only 
 patrimony left him by his forefathers. 
 
 His wife, whom he had lately lost, left him a son 
 and a daughter, whose tender years, as well as the 
 care of his little household, required the direction of 
 a woman. He therefore devolved it to his sister, 
 who wished for nothing more than to exchange the 
 humiliations she had undergone at Valencia, for the 
 pleasure of being the woman of highest distinction 
 in a village ; a turn of mind, which, by the way, 
 she had evidently derived from Julius Caesar, who, 
 on passing through a poor little town in the Pyrenean 
 mountains, declared to his friends that " he had 
 rather be the first there, than the second in Rome." 
 The chagrin which Don Pedro felt at seeing his
 
 4 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 hopes frustrated, did not long permit him to enjoy 
 the delights and freedom of a rural life ; an advan- 
 tage, indeed, unknown to his competitors, even to 
 this day. He died, leaving to his son, Don Sylvio, 
 a genealogical table of his family, which lost itself in 
 the remote times of the Gargoris and Habides ; an 
 old castle with three towers tottering to its fall, and 
 the appendage of a few farms. He left, moreover, to 
 his children, the hope of succeeding to an inheritance, 
 consisting of old trinkets, a pair of spectacles, some 
 rosaries, and a large heap of books of chivalry and 
 romance, which their aunt, Donna Menzia, would 
 one day or other bequeath to them at her death. 
 
 Don Pedro died with greater satisfaction in the 
 thought that he was leaving his son, hardly ten years 
 old, in the hands of a lady so sage and prudent as 
 Donna Menzia had always appeared to him. For 
 that prodigious stock of reading which she possessed, 
 in chronicles and books of chivalry, joined to the 
 eloquence wherewith she displayed her extensive 
 science ; and above al) her profound erudition in 
 point of politics, as well as in matters of moral con- 
 cern, with which she regaled her brother at every 
 meal, and upon every possible occasion ; all this had 
 given Don Pedro an opinion of the lady's understand- 
 ing, so much the more exalted, as the martial life he 
 had always led had left him little leisure to acquire a 
 better share of what the world calls polite erudition ; 
 saving, indeed, that little which a treacherous 
 memory had still preserved to him from his studies 
 when at school.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 WHAT SORT OF EDUCATION DON SYLVIO RECEIVED 
 FROM HIS AUNT 
 
 DONNA MENZIA did not contradict the good opinion 
 which her brother had entertained of her abilities ; 
 for as soon as Don Sylvio had learned enough Latin 
 from the vicar of the village, to comprehend Ovid's 
 Metamorphoses, and when the barber of the neigh- 
 bouring hamlet had taught him music sufficient to 
 accompany some dozens of old ballads on the guitar, 
 Donna Menzia determined to take upon herself the 
 care of forming the young man, and of giving him 
 every perfection, which, in her ideas, could make him 
 an accomplished cavalier. 
 
 It was rather unfortunate that Donna Menzia had 
 picked up all those ideas respecting education in 
 Pharamond, Clelia, Grand Cyrus, and other books of 
 that stamp, which, with the Adventures of the Twelve 
 Peers of France, and the Knights of the Round Table, 
 constituted the chief part of her library. In these 
 volumes, she conceived, were to be found all the 
 treasures of the most sublime and useful knowledge, 
 and therefore thought she could no way better 
 instruct her young pupil, than by endeavouring to 
 inspire him with those ideas, and with that taste, 
 which herself had deduced from sources so pure. 
 The happy disposition of young Don Sylvio in this 
 respect, seconded her views so well, that before he 
 had attained his fifteenth year, he was at least as 
 learned as his noble aunt. At that tender age he 
 already possessed as extensive a knowledge of history,
 
 6 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 physics, theology, metaphysics, morals, politics, the 
 art of war, antiquities, and belles-lettres, as any of 
 the heroes of Grand Cyrus could ever attain. He 
 could moreover reason with so much eloquence upon 
 the most subtle questions in those sciences, that the 
 footmen of the family, the vicar, the schoolmaster, 
 and the barber above-mentioned, with other persons 
 of distinction who had free access to the house, could 
 never enough admire the wonderful talents of our 
 young lord, and the infinite sagacity of his aunt in 
 giving him such an education. 
 
 But what most charmed her in her nephew was 
 the uncommon desire which animated him to imitate 
 those sublime patterns, whose high deeds and moral 
 virtues had transported him with admiration, and to 
 which he had so familiarised his imagination, that he 
 was at length persuaded it would cost him no more 
 pains to put them in practice, than it had already 
 done to conceive the idea of them. Donna Menzia, 
 for her part, nothing doubted but that with inclina- 
 tions so noble, and a turn of thought^so heroic, 
 Don Sylvio would in time be well enabled to act a 
 great part in the world ; and to equal in glory and 
 happiness her most admired heroes, as he now 
 yielded to none of them in beauty and personal 
 accomplishments.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 PSYCHOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS 
 
 IT will afford much less astonishment at seeing the 
 imagination of Don Sylvio take so singular an impres- 
 sion from an education still more singular, when we 
 have observed, that among the other endowments he 
 had received from Nature, she had profusely bestowed 
 on him a very exquisite sensibility ; and, what is 
 its immediate concomitant, a strong disposition to 
 tenderness. 
 
 Young persons of this sort are generally fond of all 
 those ideas which make a lively impression upon the 
 heart ; which awaken, as it were, the slumbering 
 passions, and spring up, as from a lethargy, at the 
 slightest alarm. 
 
 If, besides this, it happens that such persons are 
 brought up in a remote solitude and a rural sim- 
 plicity, in places where they enjoy those natural 
 pleasures which the country affords, free from its 
 labours, and insensible of its inconveniences ; in 
 this case, the marvellous and impassioned ideas 
 assume an empire over their hearts ; which is so 
 much the stronger, as In that situation fancy is ever 
 busied to fill up the void, which the uniformity of 
 sensible objects leaves in the soul. The imagination 
 insensibly blends itself with the sentiment ; the mar- 
 vellous with the natural ; the false with the true. 
 The soul, which by a blind instinct works as regu- 
 larly upon chimeras as upon certain truths, is 
 formed by little and little from these collected parts 
 into a whole, and becomes accustomed to take it for
 
 8 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 truth, on the first glimpse of light and connection. 
 The reason is, because the imagination is grown as 
 familiar with chimeras, which are its chief ingredi- 
 ents, as the senses are with those real objects where- 
 with they are surrounded, without once perceiving 
 the least change or alteration. 
 
 This was precisely the case with the young man 
 who will be the hero of our history. The natural 
 ingenuity of his soul rendered him incapable of sus- 
 pecting that he could be deceived. His imagina- 
 tion therefore was impressed with those chimerical 
 beings which the poets and dealers in romance 
 exhibited to him, just in the same manner as his 
 senses received the impression which natural things 
 made upon them. The more agreeable he found the 
 marvellous and the supernatural,* the more was he 
 tempted to believe them true ; and especially as he 
 had no doubt of things the most incredible : for 
 the ignorant believe everything possible. In this 
 manner the poetical and enchanted world dis- 
 possessed his brain of the true ; while the stars, 
 elementary spirits, enchanters, and fairies, accord- 
 ing to his system, were as certainly the movers 
 of all nature, as gravity, attraction, elasticity, 
 electrical fire, and other natural causes are, in the 
 system of a modern philosopher. Nay, though in 
 Nature herself, if observed with a fixed and minute 
 attention, may be found the surest means of defence 
 against the extravagances of fanaticism, yet, on 
 the other hand, this same Nature seems to be the 
 source of those very extravagances, by reason of the 
 immediate impression she makes upon our souls, 
 aided by the majestic spectacles which she exhibits. 
 
 That gentle tremor which seizes us on entering a 
 labyrinth formed in an obscure forest, has doubtless 
 given place to the universal belief, in past times, 
 
 Ut omne 
 
 * Ut omne 
 
 Humanum genus est avidum nimis auricularum. 
 
 LUC RET.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 9 
 
 that woods and forests were inhabited by the gods. 
 Those soft emotions, that stupefaction, that idea of 
 expansion, and of the elevation of our nature, which 
 we experience in a fine night, on beholding the 
 heavenly canopy of stars, these evidently coun- 
 tenanced the opinion that this brilliant abyss of 
 numberless inextinguishable lamps was the abode of 
 immortal beings. 
 
 And hence very probably it arises that country 
 people, whose continual labour leaves them no 
 leisure to discriminate the confused impressions 
 which nature makes upon them, or to conceive a 
 clear idea of the subject, are more superstitious 
 than others. Hence those corporeal spirits, which, 
 in their notion, fill up the whole circle of creation ; 
 hence those unseen huntings in the woods ; those 
 fairies who dance in the fields their nightly round ; 
 hobgoblins good and bad; and the nightmare, 
 oppressive to slumbering girls. Hence, in short, 
 those spirits of the mines and floods ; with men all- 
 fire, and Heaven knows how many other fantastic 
 beings, of which this class of people can tell you 
 such a variety of tales, and whose reality, in their 
 estimation, is a thing so demonstrative, that you 
 must not venture to doubt or deny it, unless you 
 mean to pass with them for an impious or a stupid 
 creature. 
 
 Now, adding all these circumstances together, 
 which jointly contributed to finish the romantic 
 education of our young cavalier, we shall not per- 
 haps think it difficult to comprehend his situation, 
 and to see the little trouble it must have cost him to 
 run into schemes as visionary, as extraordinary, as 
 ever entered an unsettled brain, since the time of his 
 countryman, the knight of La Mancha.
 
 io THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 HOW DON SYLVIO BECAME ACQUAINTED WITH FAIRIES 
 
 UNFORTUNATELY for his poor reason, among the 
 various other books that filled a great room in the 
 castle, Don Sylvio one day found out a quantity of 
 fairy tales. His father, Don Pedro, it seems, had 
 been a great admirer of this kind of literature, 
 though often checked on that head by his venerable 
 sister, who sharply censured his extravagant taste 
 for such trifling stuff, as she was pleased to call it. 
 For as much as she esteemed books of chivalry 
 ranging them in the same class with the chronicles, 
 histories, and accounts of voyages and travels so 
 much did she despise all those trifling pieces of 
 witticism, which at best are only fit to divert children, 
 or perhaps to amuse grown men, and are solely 
 indebted for a favourable reception to the pleasing 
 manner in which they are written. 
 
 Don Pedro, in reply, honestly owned that they 
 were but trifling stuff. " And yet," said he, " this 
 trifling stuff enables me to pass away many an hour, 
 that otherwise would be irksome to me : for the 
 more droll I find this fool of an author's ideas, the 
 more I laugh at them, and that is all I look for." 
 
 The sage Donna Menzia, who, like all whimsical 
 folks, thought nobody's reveries rational but her 
 own, was not satisfied with the ingenuity of this 
 reply. However, in defiance of all she could urge, 
 the Arabian Nights, the Persian Tales, novels, and 
 the Tales of the Fairies, still kept peaceable possession 
 of their place in the library ; and being only stitched
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA n 
 
 up, for the most part, in blue paper, very"modestly 
 concealed themselves behind the respectables in 
 folio and quarto belonging to Donna Menzia, so 
 that, after the old gentleman's decease, they were 
 entirely forgotten. 
 
 But, in all probability, the fairy who interested 
 herself in the fortunes of young Don Sylvio, was 
 determined that he should not fall short of his destiny, 
 for, the latter being one day rummaging in the library, 
 in order to select some amusing books in the absence 
 of his aunt, whose great gravity and endless moral 
 lectures began to weary him, there, either by chance 
 or some secret impulse of the aforesaid fairy, he laid 
 his hand upon a large parcel of fairy tales. Full of 
 joy, he clapped them into his pocket, and retired 
 into the garden with all possible expedition, to 
 examine his good fortune without fear of interrup- 
 tion ; for the first glance of the title already pre- 
 saged to him the many fine things he should meet 
 with in the contents. 
 
 The conciseness with which the tales in question 
 were written was the principal motive that induced 
 Don Sylvio to read them, as his aunt had so daily 
 tired him with reading of dull and insipid folios for 
 hours together. But as soon as he had run over one 
 or two of these lighter studies, nothing could equal 
 the pleasure they afforded him, and the avidity of 
 his pursuit in getting through the rest. 
 
 There is a certain instinct in young folks, however 
 simple they may be in other respects, that tells them 
 what they ought to say, or to conceal from those 
 who are set over them : this same instinct suggested 
 to Don Sylvio by no means to apprise his dear aunt 
 of the discovery he had made. At the same time, the 
 restrictions he was obliged to labour under on that 
 score only served to render the fairy tribe so much 
 dearer to him ; and we have no room to doubt 
 but he would nightly have pursued their delightful 
 acquaintance if, as Tasso once wished in his prison,
 
 12 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 one could contrive to read by the light of a cat's 
 eyes ; for it may be necessary to inform the reader 
 that the care which Donna Menzia took of Don 
 Sylvio's health, joined to a certain economy in 
 point of candles, had long since precluded our young 
 gentleman from that means of enjoying his learned 
 vigils. 
 
 But no sooner did day appear than he was ready, 
 took his volumes from under his bolster, ran through 
 one tale after another, and when his whole collection 
 was exhausted, indefatigably began anew. To this 
 end he retreated as often as possible into the garden, 
 or an adjacent grove, carrying with him his favourite 
 speculations. The vivacity with which his imagina- 
 tion feasted upon them was extraordinary : he did 
 not read, but he saw, he heard, he felt the whole. A 
 system of nature, more beautiful and surprising than 
 all he had hitherto known, seemed to unfold itself to 
 his view ; and that mixture of the marvellous with 
 the simplicity of nature, which characterises most 
 illusions of this sort, was to him an infallible mark 
 of their truth. 
 
 Nor was this circumstance so very difficult to a 
 mind like nis, already prepared, as he had been, by 
 the kind cf life he had always hitherto led. For 
 ever since the commencement of his studies, when 
 initiated into Ovid's Metamorphoses, no book that 
 could give him any juster ideas had fallen into his 
 hands. On the contrary, his present sentiments 
 were strengthened and confirmed in him by the 
 sanction of various authors in those times, when the 
 Pythagorico-cabalistic philosophy was in high repute 
 throughout all Europe ; and these authors it was, 
 who, by means of their systematical reveries, about 
 planetary and elementary spirits, exorcisms, mysti- 
 cal numbers, talismans, and that pretended wisdom 
 which was to render its possessors masters of all 
 nature, had so powerfully engrossed tyis imagination, 
 that even Babiole's wonderful nutshell, and the
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 13 
 
 web of cloth four hundred ells long, which the lover 
 of the White Cat drew out of a grain of millet, and 
 then six times together through the eye of the finest 
 needle, had nothing at all in them that exceeded his 
 comprehension. 
 
 Nothing, therefore, now hindered him from devoting 
 himself entirely to the pleasure of studying the fairy 
 tales, a prodigious quantity of which he at length 
 found concealed under the old waste papers that 
 covered the shelves of his library. These exquisite 
 pieces surpassed each other in extravagance ; and 
 yet our hero found in them such a fund of amuse- 
 ment as he would not have bartered for all the 
 diversions in the world. 
 
 At length, however, all his circumspection could 
 not prevent his rigid and penetrating governess from 
 discovering the reason of his frequent walks in the 
 grove ; accordingly, she read him a lecture, very 
 learned, though at the same time very harsh and 
 very tiresome. But all this, as it commonly happens, 
 served only to redouble Don Sylvio's precautions, 
 and, therefore, he took safer measures to conceal 
 from his aunt his plans and inclinations. 
 
 To say the truth, Don Sylvio had always feared, 
 though he never loved the old lady ; judge then, 
 how considerably this sentiment must have gained 
 ground, since the filling of his brain with Florinas, 
 Rosettas, Brilliantes, Crystallinas, and a thousand 
 other imaginary beauties supernatural and divine ! 
 In short, he was now frequently tempted to take his 
 good old aunt for a kind of Carabossa ; and the 
 tyranny of her government became of course every 
 day more and more insupportable. 
 
 In vain, therefore, did Donna Menzia tell him 
 whatever came uppermost. In vain were all her 
 efforts of persuasion. Enchantments, palaces of 
 diamonds and rubies, princesses enchanted, or shut 
 up in towers or subterraneous palaces ; together 
 with those tender lovers, who, under the wondrous
 
 14 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 protection of a good fairy, escaped all the subtleties 
 of a bad one ; these, and the like, still kept in his 
 imagination the quiet possession they had gained. 
 Don Sylvio read nothing else ; dwelt and meditated 
 on no other object : in short, as the poet observes of 
 his favourite mistress, " 'Twas all his thoughts by 
 day, and all his dreams by night.'*
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 15 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE STRANGE INFATUATION OF DON SYLVIO. HIS 
 LOVE FOR AN IDEAL PRINCESS 
 
 IN a situation of mind so extraordinary, nothing was 
 more natural than to see Don Sylvio run into the 
 folly of wishing for the same adventures with those 
 in the fairy tales, the relation of which had afforded 
 him so much pleasure. 
 
 In a little while he went still further. He en- 
 deavoured to realise the chimeras that filled his head, 
 and determined to transport himself, as far as pos- 
 sible, into the fairy world. Hence it was that he 
 gave names to everything about him, like what he 
 had met with in those bewitching tales. His pretty 
 little dog, which was formerly called Amoret, he now 
 named Pimpimp, because the princess Mirabella's 
 dog had enjoyed the same appellation. He next 
 conceived a disgust for an ash-coloured grey cat, 
 with white feet, which had always been his favourite, 
 and substituted in her stead another entirely white ; 
 which, in honour of the princess's White Cat, was 
 fondled by him with all imaginable politeness. 
 
 He went every morning and evening to look at 
 some painted panes of a window that lay half broken 
 to pieces in a gallery belonging to the castle, in hopes 
 of finding among them, like prince Hunchback, such 
 paintings as might somehow develop to him his 
 future fortunes ; and twenty times a day would he 
 run over every hole and corner of the castle, from top 
 to bottom, to see if he could discover any enchanted 
 armour, or any trap-door by which he might descend 
 into some enchanted palace. He found, indeed, 
 nothing that he sought for ; and the bits of glass
 
 16 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 showed him no more than knights armed, who, with 
 rested lances, had from age to age been tilting at each 
 other : our hero, however, had learned better than 
 to despair. He was not yet eighteen years of age ; 
 and most of the tales had informed him that a prince 
 or knight must be at least eighteen, before he under- 
 takes adventures. 
 
 In the meantime, therefore, he constructed in a 
 corner of his garden a sort of arbour, made of ver- 
 dure, which was to resemble that castle of flowers in 
 which the fairy Everfair commonly chose to retire 
 from the importunities of her court, in order to enjoy 
 those delicious moments she passed in the arms of 
 her best-loved shepherd. This arbour of Don Sylvio's 
 was contrived in the following manner : he arranged 
 a few beeches in order, proper for the purpose, 
 so that the trunks of them served for pillars to 
 support the edifice; the lowest branches formed 
 the flooring, and the upper ones the ceiling. The 
 walls of this singular arbour were of myrtles, inter- 
 woven with roses and honeysuckles, and, behind all, a 
 slope of green turf was so artfully thrown up, that 
 the structure could hardly be perceived. 
 
 In this " Green Castle," as Don Sylvio was pleased 
 to call it, he had ordered one smaller arbour to be 
 made, which, to give it more of the fairy appearance, 
 he decorated with the most beautiful butterflies he 
 could catch in his ramblings through the neighbour- 
 ing wood, and along the banks of the Guadalaviar, 
 a little rivulet that ran at a small distance from his 
 garden. 
 
 Here it was that Don Sylvio often passed a good 
 part of the night, dwelling in fancy upon those 
 wonderful adventures for which he sighed, and in 
 which he proposed soon to engage. These fan- 
 tastical reveries insensibly lulled him to sleep, and 
 favourable dreams obsequiously pursued the adven- 
 tures over which his waking meditations had so 
 pleasingly rambled. A beautiful princess, whom he
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 17 
 
 loved, was commonly their subject ; but, what was 
 extremely vexatious, he always found that princess 
 in the power of the fairy Fanfreluche, or some other 
 envious old sorceress, who put a thousand obstacles 
 in the way of his affections. Sometimes he found it 
 necessary to fight with dragons or flying cats ; some- 
 times the avenues of the castle that detained his 
 princess were choked up with thistle-tops, which, 
 the moment he touched them, became so many 
 giants that disputed the passage with massive iron 
 clubs in their hands. He attacked them, indeed, as 
 became a valiant knight, and slew them by dozens at 
 a stroke : but no sooner had he dispatched them, 
 and was on the point of entering the castle in triumph, 
 than he beheld his dear princess carried off through 
 the chimney, sitting in a chariot, and drawn by bats. 
 At another time, he finds her seated by the bank of a 
 rivulet, on a bed of flowers, when, casting himself 
 on his knees, he tells her the most passionate things, 
 which his princess seems to listen to with pleasure ; 
 but, just as he is going to embrace her (for the reader, 
 I hope, will observe, that love, in a reverie, does not 
 observe all the gradations prescribed to an Arcadian 
 shepherd), lo ! with horror, he beholds it to have 
 been the coarse figure of Maritornes, the wench that 
 looked after the cattle. 'Twas her he had pressed 
 to his bosom, receiving from her lips, which before 
 breathed nothing but nectar and ambrosia, a kiss 
 that savoured so powerfully of cheese and garlic, as 
 might have entirely suffocated a man of gallantry 
 with disgust and aversion. 
 
 These imaginary evils, chimerical as they were, 
 put him, however, to very exquisite pain : he took 
 these dreams as ill omens, not doubting but that he 
 had a powerful enemy who studied to render him 
 unhappy in his love ; that love, which he already 
 began to feel in an eminent degree, for the charming 
 unknown, whom he was bound to love by the decrees 
 of fate, 
 c
 
 i8 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 ADVENTURE OF THE GREEN FROG. HOW DON SYLVIO 
 CAME NOT TO DISCOVER THAT THE FROG WAS NOT 
 A FAIRY 
 
 THE idea of having an invisible enemy of this im- 
 portance greatly disturbed our young hero. How- 
 ever, as in all the tales he never met with a prince 
 persecuted by fairies or enchanters, who was not, at 
 the same time, protected by another fairy, the 
 flattering hope that he should not be made the first 
 exception to the general rule somewhat supported 
 his courage. And, as in the fairy world, no less than 
 in this lower globe, it is rarely the custom to oblige 
 persons from whom we do not expect, at least, as 
 great services as those we offer them : upon this 
 same principle, Don Sylvio wished for nothing so 
 ardently as to find an opportunity of obliging one of 
 those generous fairies. 
 
 On walking, therefore, one day in his garden, by 
 the side of a ditch, he saw, on the other side, a cock- 
 stork (though other accounts, without sufficient 
 foundation, for certain reasons, say it was a hen- 
 stork), ready to swallow a pretty little green frog, 
 which was skipping about the grass, and croaking in 
 a very audible manner. 
 
 Don Sylvio, from the emotion of his generous and 
 compassionate heart, could not have failed to come 
 in to the assistance of the poor frog, but the idea 
 that possibly it might be a fairy nay, perhaps that 
 very identical frog which had rendered such singular 
 services to the princess Musetta and her mother 
 this instantly gave him wings ; accordingly, he 
 sprung across the ditch, and, staff in hand, made at
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 19 
 
 this sworn foe to frogs, just at the moment he was 
 about to swallow the innocent chorister. The stork 
 abandoned his prey and fled, while the little animal 
 leaped into the ditch without giving itself any con- 
 cern to inquire the author of its safety from such 
 impending ruin. 
 
 Don Sylvio stopped at the ditch-side for a while to 
 see if his frog would not reappear in the shape of a 
 beautiful nymph, or at least with a garland of roses 
 upon its head, to requite him for the important 
 services he had rendered it. There he waited for 
 more than half an hour ; but, to his great astonish- 
 ment, neither nymph nor frog made its appearance. 
 
 This unlucky circumstance embarrassed him not a 
 little : he could not comprehend an act of ingrati- 
 tude so uncommon among fairies. " If," said he to 
 himself, "it had been the little ugly Magotine, old 
 Ragotta, or the fairy Cucumber, a service of this 
 nature might, at least, have demanded some acknow- 
 ledgement from her : " but soon after, recollecting 
 himself, " It is not impossible," said he, " but that 
 she may at present be incapable of appearing 
 before me in her own proper shape : nay, probably, 
 there may be other reasons determining her to defer 
 her gratitude till some future occasion on which she 
 may afford me more essential services." 
 
 In short, after having well considered the matter, 
 this conjecture appeared to him so plausible, and at 
 the same time suited so well his chimerical wishes, 
 that he returned perfectly satisfied to his " Green 
 Castle," not allowing himself a moment's doubt, 
 but that his late adventure would soon produce a 
 considerable change in his destiny. 
 
 Some of our readers may possibly be surprised to 
 think how Don Sylvio could be so silly as not to 
 draw from the event a very contrary conclusion 
 which naturally presented itself ; namely, that the 
 green frog was not a fairy. But, with their permission, 
 we would observe that they have not, perhaps,
 
 20 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 sufficiently weighed either the force of prejudices, or 
 their own experience. Nothing is more common 
 among mankind than this species of false reasoning ; 
 passion and prejudice never adopt any other. 
 
 An old fool, who fancies he has purchased by his 
 profuse presents the fidelity of his mistress, attri- 
 butes the sparkling eye and glowing cheek, with 
 which she receives him, to her joy at his coming, 
 never reflecting how much more consistent it would 
 be to place them to the account of some younger 
 inamorato, who, shut up all the while in a private 
 corner, is laughing at the old dotard's credulity and 
 importance. 
 
 An Indian buys amulets * of his Bonze f to cure 
 all sorts of diseases ; this same Indian falls sick, and 
 his amulets leave him just where he was. What 
 does he conclude from thence ? that these charms 
 have not the power to cure him, or that the Bonz6 is 
 an impostor ? No, by no means. All that he con- 
 cludes is, that he has not shown devotion enough to the 
 idol whose image he wears at his neck ; or that he has 
 not been sufficiently liberal in his alms to the Bonze". 
 No people think themselves of greater consequence 
 than those of whom the rest of the world think 
 nothing at all. It might therefore be very unreason- 
 able to wish that such persons would attribute our 
 contempt of them, and which they readily suppose is 
 the effect of envy, to a far more natural cause, viz., 
 that it is impossible for another to have that par- 
 tiality in our own favour, which we are so apt to 
 entertain for ourselves. 
 
 One might quote a variety of examples in proof of 
 the fact above mentioned. It does not, indeed, 
 lessen the follies of Don Sylvio, but it may suffice to 
 say in excuse for him that his mode of reasoning is 
 not at all more absurd than that of many other very 
 good kind of people. 
 
 * A sort of medical charm, hung upon some part of the body, 
 t A Chinese or Japanese priest.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 21 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 DON SYLVIO FINDS THE PORTRAIT OF HIS DEAR IDEAL 
 PRINCESS IN AN ALMOST MIRACULOUS MANNER 
 
 A FEW days after the adventure of the green frog, 
 Don Sylvio took a walk in the grove by break of day, 
 in search of butterflies, as he still wanted a few more 
 to complete the decoration of his arbour. 
 
 He had already gone above three miles from his 
 castle, when he beheld a butterfly of singular beauty, 
 perched upon a flower, at a few paces distance from 
 him. Its wings were of a sky blue, edged with 
 purple, and shining like gold in the sun. Don Sylvio 
 thought to have caught it, but the volatile little 
 creature got from under his straw hat, and hid itself 
 among some of the thickest bushes. 
 
 " Oh, but," cried Don Sylvio, " thou shalt still be 
 mine, though I were to pursue thee even to the sub- 
 terraneous regions of King Mutton, where it rains 
 mince-pies, and roasted partridges grow upon every 
 tree." 
 
 The butterfly, proud of the advantage its wings 
 had afforded, seemed determined to spare him so 
 long a journey, and had scarce disappeared, when Don 
 Sylvio again discovered it sitting upon a rosemary 
 branch, a little way before him. Again he strove to 
 catch it, but again, as before, the blue charmer 
 seemed to laugh at him ; sometimes flying about in 
 little circles round him ; now resting itself for a 
 moment ; and then, just as he was laying his hand 
 upon it, darting away to some new place of safety. 
 This pursuit, in short, continued so long, that at
 
 22 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 length Don Sylvio perceived he had wandered into 
 a part of the country hitherto wholly unknown to 
 him. At first, he repented his having so deeply 
 engaged himself for the sake of a poor butterfly, but, 
 since the matter had gone so far, he was determined 
 not to bestow this much labour in vain, and there- 
 fore indefatigably continued the chase, till happily 
 he had the good luck to seize the little victim which 
 had cost him more pains than ever prude cost her 
 lover, since the species existed. 
 
 His joy was great beyond measure ; indeed, one 
 should hardly meet with a butterfly of more extra- 
 ordinary beauty. Long and eagerly did he contem- 
 plate his little captive with a pleasure proportioned 
 to the trouble it had given him in the chase, when 
 lo ! just as he was about to enclose it in a small cage 
 which he had brought with him for the purpose, it 
 seemed to him as if his beautiful prisoner looked 
 upon him with an air of supplication, and with 
 cowering wings ; in short, at length so fertile was 
 his imagination he even fancied he could hear his 
 butterfly sending forth as audible a sigh as ever shot 
 from the bosom of any of its tribe. 
 
 There needed no more to throw Don Sylvio into 
 his usual train of visionary ideas. It appeared to 
 him not at all improbable that this butterfly might, 
 at least, be some fairy or enchanted princess : " And 
 surely," said he, " if the princess Burzelina was 
 changed into a grasshopper, why may not another 
 be so changed, in form of a butterfly ? " From 
 that instant, therefore, he determined to restore to 
 his charming captive that liberty which she seemed 
 to supplicate with such pathetic importunity. 
 
 The butterfly, thus set free, took flight again with 
 all imaginable satisfaction, followed by Don Sylvio, 
 in the keenest expectation of some notable event, 
 when, as good luck would have it, he perceived 
 something, in his career, lying upon the grass a few 
 steps before him, which entirely engrossed his
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 23 
 
 attention. He took it up, and what should it be 
 but an elegant sort of trinket set round with large 
 brilliants, and fastened to a string of the finest pearls. 
 Don Sylvio turned it about on ah 1 sides ; but how 
 great was his astonishment when, on putting his 
 ringer by chance upon a spring which he had not 
 observed, a large turquoise slipped from the middle 
 and displayed to him a miniature picture, in enamel, 
 highly finished, representing a shepherdess of un- 
 common beauty ! 
 
 The spectacle before him struck our hero motion- 
 less for some minutes ; he was in doubt whether or 
 no to believe his eyes : he examined, turned, and 
 handled the portrait again and again, to be con- 
 vinced if it was anything more than imagination. 
 But the more he contemplated, the more was he per- 
 suaded it could be no other than the picture of a 
 goddess, or, at least, of the most beautiful mortal 
 that the world ever did, or ever will produce. 
 
 Our fair readers will the more readily pardon Don 
 Sylvio his too precipitate judgment when they con- 
 sider with their usual candour the situation of this 
 young man ; that he had been brought up by an aunt 
 (who, for reasons well known, saw but little of the 
 world), in so close a retirement, that, excepting this 
 dear aunt, and her chambermaid, the widow of one 
 Signior Escudero (who, though fifty years old, would 
 never own more than thirty-five), together with fat 
 Maritornes, and the peasants' wives in the village ; 
 excepting these, he had never seen any that could 
 properly be called the fair sex ; for his sister, who 
 was truly a pretty little girl, had been carried off, 
 when she was but five years old ; and it was strongly 
 suspected that a gipsy woman, who had been seen 
 lurking about the castle at that period, had stolen 
 her away. 
 
 It was very natural, therefore, to suppose that Don 
 Sylvio must have been exceedingly smitten with the 
 beauty of this fair shepherdess, who, in comparison
 
 24 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 with the other figures to which his eyes were neces- 
 sarily accustomed, appeared to him in the same 
 light that Latona appeared to the inhabitants of 
 Delos, when they came croaking around her, trans- 
 formed into frogs. In short, it seemed impossible 
 to Don Sylvio that Gratiosa, Belbella, the Nymph 
 of the Golden Locks, or Venus herself, could ever 
 have been so handsome ; accordingly he became so 
 enamoured of this portrait from the first moment he 
 saw it, as never knight-errant or Arcadian shepherd 
 had been before with his Dulcinea or Amaryllis. 
 
 " At length," all in an esctasy he exclaimed, " at 
 length I have found her ! Her, whom I have every- 
 where sought for, with so much desire, and so high 
 expectations ! Her, whom I am destined to love ; 
 her, in short, by whom, unless a too presumptuous 
 hope deludes me, my happy destiny is fixed, to be 
 rendered by her love equal in felicity to the gods ! 
 
 most kind fairy who takest charge of me, to 
 thee alone I owe this surprising and unexpected 
 fortune ! What other than thou could have placed 
 this divine portrait in my path amidst this lonely 
 desert, where, perhaps, never human footstep was 
 found before. Oh ! accomplish thy blessings ; show 
 me thyself ; and, while prostrate at thy feet, give me 
 to know where I may trace out her whose picture 
 alone suffices to kindle in my heart an inextinguish- 
 able love : for here, by every god propitious to love, 
 
 1 swear that never shall quiet sleep seal up my eye- 
 lids till I have found her out, though it were distant 
 as the lake of quicksilver, or in the midst of monsters 
 attendant on the fairy Lesena ; nay, though it lay in 
 the circle of Saturn, or even in that great flagon of 
 Rosasolis which fairies themselves make use of." 
 
 Thus having said, he sware. 
 
 The sylvan train all heard him, 
 While the nymphs and fairies round 
 Heigh-day ! 
 
 and in heroics too ! What an epidemical fever is this
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 25 
 
 same enthusiasm ! The enraptured apostrophe of 
 Signior Don Sylvio surprised us before we were 
 aware ; and if Apollo had not twitched us gently by 
 the ear in time, our poor readers were in danger of 
 sustaining a deluge of verse before we had once sus- 
 pected that our brain was touched. Here, then, let 
 us rest awhile, leaving our blood time to flow more 
 coolly, and in common prose, before we pursue the 
 thread of this true history.
 
 26 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE AUTHOR'S REFLECTIONS WITH THOSE OF DON 
 SYLVIO 
 
 " SOME think to pick truffles and get nothing but 
 turnips," said the sententious Sancho to his master on 
 a certain occasion. Nothing, indeed, happens more 
 frequently than to seek one thing and find another. 
 Saul went in search of his father's asses, and found a 
 crown ; Don Sylvio hunted butterflies and found a 
 beautiful girl, or at least her picture. 
 
 Being, therefore, in the highest degree enamoured 
 with the portrait, his only care was how to get at the 
 original ; for, though he certainly knew the features 
 of his well-beloved, still he remained ignorant who 
 she was, and where to find her. 
 
 It is easy to conceive what a common man would 
 have done in Don Sylvio's situation ; but this was no 
 concern of his. Our hero neither did, nor thought 
 anything like other men. Those ideas which would 
 first and most naturally have occurred to every other 
 man were what he either very cautiously adopted, or 
 never admitted at all : so that whenever any singular 
 accident befell him, he instantly assigned to it such a 
 cause, as, according to the course of nature, was of all 
 others the most improbable. 
 
 Might not this portrait or miniature be a mere 
 fancy painting ? or was it not possible it might 
 represent a person long since dead ? and of course, 
 was it not likely that Don Sylvio might be in Prince 
 Seyf-el-Mouluk's situation, who, according to the 
 Persian tales, fell in love with a mistress of King 
 Solomon's about two thousand years too late ?
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 27 
 
 But these were a sort of ideas that never entered 
 the head of our hero. The more he thought of his 
 morning's expedition, the more did every circum- 
 stance convince him that this was the commence- 
 ment of some adventure as extraordinary as ever 
 prince or knight yet met with. 
 
 But what step was he now to take ? Where shall 
 he seek his beautiful shepherdess, or of whom shall 
 he inquire about her ? The blue butterfly, who was 
 most likely to have informed him, had disappeared ; 
 not to say that it might have been too hazardous to 
 have pursued his way at all adventures, in the midst 
 of a forest, where some one of his invisible enemies, 
 whose malice he already experienced in his imagina- 
 tion, by so many proofs, might as probably mislead 
 him into some unlucky path, as his better fortune 
 could point out to him the safe and good. 
 
 After many reflections, therefore, which were often 
 interrupted by the contemplation of the fair portrait 
 in his hand, Don Sylvio judged it the safest method 
 to rest awhile and see whether the blue butterfly 
 would not pay him another visit with more certain 
 intelligence of his princess : for it was already 
 decided in his own mind that the little volatile was a 
 fairy ; and as, by thus introducing him to the picture 
 in question, she had now begun to demonstrate her 
 gratitude for the liberty he had granted her, he had 
 no doubt but that she would continue to show him 
 the happy effects of her favour. 
 
 Pimpimp, his little dog, who, except speaking, no 
 way yielded in gentility or understanding either to 
 Princess Mirabella's spaniel, or little Toutou, was now 
 in search for his master through the wood, and great 
 was the joy on both sides when at last he found him. 
 
 Don Sylvio, it seems, had just recollected that it 
 was now almost noon ; he was, therefore, very glad 
 to have picked up a guide that could conduct him 
 home, and extricate him from the wood into which 
 he had never before advanced so far. His dinner,
 
 28 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 too, became a material consideration ; for all en- 
 chanted as he was, and as lovers are and may be to 
 the end of time, it is nevertheless indisputable (as a 
 celebrated writer observes), that the mode of living 
 whole years without meat and drink, and of feeding 
 entirely upon love, is nowadays so altered, that 
 even the most sublime and animated lover is pretty 
 much in the same case with a professed epicurean ; 
 a change, however, which, according to our small 
 judgment, we cannot disapprove, and the rather, as 
 we are persuaded, that the fair sex are likely to lose 
 nothing by the event. 
 
 At length Don Sylvio reached the house, with his 
 treasure that chance had bestowed upon him in his 
 hand, and which, in the course of his walk, he had 
 so diligently contemplated, that at every step he 
 took, he either stumbled, or hit his head against 
 some tree or other. 
 
 His adventure afforded him much food for reflec- 
 tion by the way, and gave birth to the most un- 
 accountable ideas. He imagined it very probable 
 for the portrait in question to be that of the fairy 
 herself, who had appeared to him in the shape of a 
 blue butterfly. " Possibly," said he nor is it the 
 first time that a mortal has received such an honour 
 " possibly she herself may love me, and hence, may 
 have determined to try what impression her real 
 figure would make upon me." 
 
 This was an idea so flattering, that he dwelt upon 
 it with pleasure a good while : at length, however, it 
 necessarily gave place to others, which lasted him 
 till he got home. In fine, the blue butterfly and 
 the fair shepherdess led his imagination so extra- 
 ordinary a dance, as to argue no absurdity in those 
 who should soon look for it to produce effects of a 
 very singular nature. 
 
 To consider the follies of our young cavalier 
 follies which, by the way, always increase the further 
 they proceed one would hardly suppose that the
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 29 
 
 unsettled state of his brain should remain a secret to 
 his aunt ; nor, indeed, could it have escaped her 
 penetration had the lady herself had leisure to 
 observe his condition. But, not to mention that the 
 youth was now seventeen years old, and, therefore, 
 did not so much seem to require her close attention, 
 his aunt had for several weeks past been otherwise 
 engaged in a certain affair which obliged her to be 
 frequently absent from home on visits to a little 
 neighbouring town. 
 
 This affair must evidently have been of no small 
 consequence to her, for, whenever she returned from 
 the scene of her engagements, an unusual pensive- 
 ness and perturbation sat visibly on her countenance. 
 Household matters so seldom engrossed her concern ; 
 she talked so much to herself, and so little to others ; 
 and, in giving orders to the domestics, so often mis- 
 took one thing for another, that all the family, 
 except her nephew, were struck with the alteration. 
 
 It will readily be supposed that a variety of con- 
 jectures were passed respecting the causes of this 
 great change ; but the circumspection of Donna 
 Menzia and the discretion of Mrs Beatrice were so 
 well managed that the whole remained a mystery. 
 There, accordingly, we shall leave it for the present, 
 till time, which at length discovers all, shall have 
 brought it to that state of maturity in which secrets 
 of this kind naturally betray themselves.
 
 30 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 SEQUEL OF THE ADVENTURE WITH THE BUTTER- 
 FLY. THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO A NEW 
 ACQUAINTANCE 
 
 THE faithful Pimpimp had so good a scent as to get 
 home just as the family were sitting down to dinner. 
 A profound silence reigned at the table, and Don 
 Sylvio, as will easily be conceived, was not at all 
 disposed to interrupt it. He was too deeply ab- 
 sorbed in his private meditations, to perceive how 
 much his dear aunt was enveloped in her own. As 
 little did he observe that his aunt was dressed un- 
 commonly fine, and every now and then primmed 
 and adjusted herself at the looking-glass that hung 
 before her, though the scene appeared so highly 
 diverting to Pedrillo, who waited at table, that to 
 prevent his bursting out into a downright horse-laugh, 
 he was forced to bite his lips. 
 
 The cloth being taken away, Donna Menzia 
 announced to her nephew that she was obliged to 
 go to town upon business and should not return till 
 next day. 
 
 Don Sylvio understood matters too well, to show 
 the least curiosity before his aunt concerning the 
 nature of her business ; but it really cost him 
 nothing, for he had no curiosity at all about it. 
 Accordingly, they parted, to the mutual satisfaction 
 of both, and the moment she had got out of sight, 
 our young spark left the house without acquainting 
 any of the family where he was going. 
 
 As it was customary with him to take an after-
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 31 
 
 noon's nap * in his " Green Castle," nobody per- 
 ceived his absence till near supper time ; and then 
 they went in search of him about the house, in the 
 garden, fields, and woods, but all in vain. Every 
 now and then they called him by his name, but no 
 Don Sylvio appeared. 
 
 The whole family, during the absence of Donna 
 Menzia and Mrs Beatrice, her faithful chambermaid, 
 consisted of the above-mentioned Pedrillo, a young 
 lad of the village, who was kept to wait upon Don 
 Sylvio, together with the cook-maid, a groom, and the 
 fair Maritornes of whom we have already spoken. 
 These four good folks were in no small tribulation at 
 being unable to learn what was become of their young 
 master, for they all alike loved him on account of his 
 sweetness of temper and affability. After having 
 sought for him, therefore, a great while by moonlight, 
 they returned home, and went to bed, concluding, 
 as they could not find him, that he might possibly be 
 gone to join his aunt at the little village she went to, 
 which was only about six or eight miles distant from 
 the castle. 
 
 Pedrillo, who had often accompanied his master, 
 and was not ignorant of his passion for fairy notions, 
 was the only one that doubted upon the subject. 
 But, after deliberating a while, it came into his head, 
 that possibly some adventure or other, in his usual 
 walk, might have led him upon a ramble among the 
 woods. Accordingly, he got up next morning by 
 daybreak, and hunted after him in every copse and 
 shady spot, but with as little success as the night 
 before ; when, just as he was about to return home, 
 he discovered a grotto dug in a rock, covered over 
 with honeysuckles, at the front of which stood a 
 double row of laurels, planted round about the rock 
 in a circular form. 
 
 *The original is La siesta; a Spanish term, to signify the time 
 for sleeping in the shade in warm climates, during the heat of the 
 day.
 
 32 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 Now though Pedrillo had all the air of a simpleton, 
 he was by no means destitute of understanding, nor, 
 indeed, was his reading in books of chivalry and 
 fairy tales much inferior to that of Don Sylvio ; no 
 sooner, therefore, had he reached sight of the place, 
 than he conjectured from its romantic appearance, 
 that, very probably, he might find his master there. 
 His conjecture for once was right, for, on entering 
 the grotto, he beheld him lying in a profound slum- 
 ber, upon a bed of moss and flowers ; little Pimpimp 
 slept at his feet ; his guitar lay beside him, and the 
 portrait of his fair shepherdess was hanging at his neck. 
 
 Pedrillo, who had never seen the picture before, 
 was dazzled with the lustre of the precious stones 
 and pearls that sparkled on all sides of it ; and 
 though he hardly knew anything of jewels, these 
 appeared to him of more value than a dozen such 
 villages as his own. Long, therefore, and earnestly 
 did he consider it, without regarding the portrait, 
 and stood at a loss to comprehend where Don Sylvio 
 could have picked up so precious a trinket. At 
 length, his curiosity became so eager that he could 
 scarce help venturing to wake his master : however, 
 he did not ; for though a poor country lad, and the 
 son of a peasant, Pedrillo had more politeness than 
 any of his rank in Andalusia. The only expedient 
 left him was to take up his master's guitar, which he 
 thrummed as loudly as he possibly could, and accom- 
 panied with his voice ; but all to no manner of 
 purpose. 
 
 At length, in a violent pet, he cried out, " Gad- 
 zooks ! this must be out of nature ; 'tis either all 
 enchantment, or I am the greatest fool in the world. 
 Nay, who knows but the charm may all lie in this 
 gewgaw ; could I but be sure of that let me see 
 'twere best to tear it from his neck ; or, if not, break 
 it to pieces where it is. Surely, this would be better 
 than to let my young master sleep here, like a dor- 
 mouse, for a thousand years together ! "
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 33 
 
 So saying, he determined to seize the trinket, but 
 as ill luck would have it, the string somehow rubbed 
 against Don Sylvio's neck so hard that it waked him. 
 The young gentleman was at first too drowsy to be 
 able to open his eyes ; and this so prevented his 
 knowing who it was that disturbed him, that in the 
 bustle, he took Pedrillo for somebody that wanted 
 to rob him of his beloved shepherdess. 
 
 Our hero accordingly flew into a violent rage at 
 so heinous an attempt. " Oh, cursed enchantress," he 
 exclaimed, "is it not enough to have deprived this 
 innocent princess of her divine beauty, and to have 
 changed her into a wretched butterfly ? wouldst 
 thou also wrest from me the only thing that can 
 render life supportable under the burthen of my dis- 
 grace ? But know, that before I resign this sacred 
 pledge, sooner shalt thou tear from my bosom that 
 heart on which her image is engraven in characters 
 of the purest flames." 
 
 "For Heaven's sake!" cried Pedrillo, in amaze- 
 ment, and retreating to the entrance of the grotto, 
 " what do you mean, sir, by these extravagant 
 speeches ? I am neither enchanter nor necromancer, 
 God help me ! I am your servant Pedrillo, sir, born 
 of as right old Christians as any one in the parish.* 
 And sorry I am, after having sought for you in every 
 corner of the globe, to find you in this cursed grotto, 
 and in a perilous condition. What are you talking 
 about enchanters and butterflies turned into prin- 
 cesses ? Heaven knows, I looked for no good from 
 the first, when I saw you sleeping here." 
 
 " And art thou Pedrillo ? " answered Don Sylvio, 
 rubbing his eyes. " If thou art Pedrillo as in 
 truth thy appearance leads me to believe 'tis well. 
 The reproaches I threw at thee regard thee not, for 
 
 * We are told that there is not a peasant in Spain without a roll 
 of his pedigree : every one ran show that he is descended in a right 
 line from the old Gothic Christians, who assisted their King Pelagius 
 in expelling the Infidel Moors. 
 
 D
 
 34 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 I took thee for some other person. But what did 
 you want with this picture ? " 
 
 " With what picture ? " demanded Pedrillo. 
 
 "Oh, thou villain ! " exclaimed Don Sylvio, " I tell 
 thee, the picture which thou wast on the point of 
 stealing from me, had not an invisible hand awakened 
 me to prevent so dire a disaster." 
 
 " Bless my soul, Don Sylvio," replied Pedrillo, 
 " methinks you are either dreaming, or something 
 worse ! We were hunting after you all yesterday 
 evening, God help us ! till the hour that spirits walk, 
 but all in vain. To-day, early in the morning, I have 
 been coursing through the woods, and running into 
 every bush and covert ; at length, I found you asleep 
 in this cave : here I saw that bauble, and, finding that 
 you slept too soundly, I fancied it might be from 
 the effect of some talisman,* that had buried you 
 in this everlasting slumber till somebody or other 
 should break the talisman to pieces, as I have 
 found many examples of that kind in the large thick 
 books that lay in our most gracious mistress, Donna 
 Menzia's, library. Now, because I love you, and 
 because you put me in fear that possibly you might 
 be in Demonion's case, who was one day enchanted 
 by the goddess Diana, and laid asleep for a hundred 
 years together, that she might have the pleasure 
 of kissing him as much as she liked. Oh, the old 
 amorous sorceress ! But you know the story, sir ; 
 I found it in an old book which I purchased out of 
 my grandmother's allowance for thirty maravedis,^ 
 though it was unbound and without a title ; there 
 were a vast many painted figures in it that pleased 
 me mightily when I was a little boy ; and then my 
 grandmother would read me the stories by the side 
 of those pictures. Oh, the good old woman : 'tis 
 
 * A talisman ; a magical configuration or image, made under some 
 celestial sign ; which was pretended to be endowed with a virtue of 
 working miracles, such as curing diseases, preserving from hurt, etc. 
 
 t A maravedis is a little Spanish coin.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 35 
 
 just as if I saw her now before me ; God have mercy 
 on her ! But what was I saying ? Oh ! and so, you 
 see, because you made me very uneasy, as I said 
 before, and was to lie sleeping so long a time, I was 
 a-going to break the talisman. Now, sir, do ye see, 
 this is the whole story, so that I don't think you had 
 reason to fall into a passion with me, as you have 
 done." 
 
 Whatever inclination Don Sylvio might have had 
 to be angry, he could not help laughing, to hear 
 Pedrillo ramble in this manner. " Well, hold thy 
 tongue, Pedrillo," said he, " 'tis enough that thou 
 hadst no ill intention, but I assure thee, thou wast 
 upon the point of doing me a very shrewd turn. It 
 is but too true that I am enchanted by what thou 
 callest a talisman ; but rather would I lose my life, 
 than permit any one to break the charm. I have 
 this night learned things of high importance, but ask 
 me not what they are : thou shalt know more in due 
 time, for I have need of thy services. I cannot tell 
 thee more at present." 
 
 Pedrillo could not comprehend a syllable of this 
 discourse, which only served to inflame his curiosity 
 the more. " Sir," said he, as they walked home, " I 
 will ask you no questions. You have forbidden me, 
 and I know very well the respect I owe you. For, in 
 the first place, you are my lord, because I am of your 
 own village ; and in the next place, you are my 
 master, since I am your waiting-man, and I eat your 
 bread; for, although Madam Menzia governs the 
 whole house, I know pretty well who pays the reckon- 
 ing. Ah, sir," continued he, " simple as you may 
 think me, yet I know what's what, I promise you ; 
 you may take my word for it. I shall, therefore, 
 neither be curious nor ask questions, how important 
 soever the matters may be which I am not to inquire 
 after ; for why, sir, you cannot tell me them yet, 
 though you are resolved I shall know 'em at a 
 proper time. I think you said so, sir ? And yet one
 
 36 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 thing is vastly odd : methinks I myself am almost 
 as much enchanted as you are, for formerly I could 
 understand everything you said ; but ever since I 
 have touched that talisman, 'tis as if you spoke 
 nothing but Hebrew. Let me die if I have under- 
 stood a single word of all we have been talking about. 
 I have often heard say, that knowing a vast deal 
 only gives one the headache ; but if one did but 
 know where you had passed last night, when we 
 were hunting for you all the world over, one might 
 then, perhaps, be able to guess a little. But I say 
 no more. You might possibly suppose I was in- 
 quisitive and wanted to ask questions ; but curiosity 
 is not among my failings. Whatever does not touch 
 me can't disturb me. For example, if I was in- 
 quisitive, I might have wanted to know why my 
 lady went to town so often for this week past ; for, 
 between you and I, sir, though I say it, and should 
 not, I can assure you I am not indifferent to Mrs 
 Beatrice, whatever you may think. Oh, marry go 
 to, 'tis a sly gipsy, that same Madam Beatrice, 
 though the rosary * at her girdle is as big as an old 
 hermit's, and to see her walk, you'd think she was 
 treading upon eggs. Still waters are generally the 
 deepest, and they are not all cooks that wear long 
 knives. However, one word's as good as a thousand. 
 You must know, sir, I was going by her chamber 
 yesterday, and the moment she saw 'twas me (for 
 the door stood half open) she called to me to come in 
 and pin her handkerchief ; but I can't tell how it 
 was, instead of fixing it to her back, I did just the 
 contrary. In short, I could no way manage it at all. 
 Upon this she said nothing, but laughed at my 
 awkwardness ; and, heavens forgive me, I should 
 have stood there till now, if my lady had not rung 
 the bell. The first time she rung, we heard nothing 
 
 * A rosary is composed of various rows of beads, and is used by 
 Roman Catholics, to keep account of their Ave Mary's, Paternosters, 
 and other devotions, as they repeat them.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 37 
 
 of it, I was so busy ; but she soon returned to the 
 charge, and gave such a peal, that Mrs Beatrice told 
 me, ' I must go to her, Pedrillo, or my lady will scold 
 me : had I known,' said she ' that you were so awk- 
 ward, I certain should not have called you, for you 
 see how long you have been, and now, at last, 
 I must fasten it on myself.' Upon saying which, 
 away she went. But, pray, sir, what was it I 
 was going to tell you oh, it was about, I might 
 have wished to know why my lady went so often 
 to town, and who she went to, and all how and about 
 it ; but, as I said before, the handkerchief put it 
 all out of my head. You see, then, I am not curious, 
 not I ; for Mrs Beatrice was in so good a humour, 
 that I believe she would have told me everything." 
 In this manner did Pedrillo continue chattering all 
 the way he came, while Don Sylvio gave not the 
 least heed to anything he said, so deeply was he 
 engaged in his own wild meditations. But scarce had 
 they reached home when his stomach put our hero in 
 mind that he had eaten nothing for the last four and 
 twenty hours. For, as we have before observed, the 
 stomach is above all enchantment. He therefore 
 ordered his breakfast to be got ready, consisting of 
 an omelet,* and some chickens fricasseed, which he 
 dispatched with so good a grace as revived Pedrillo's 
 sinking spirits, and gave him a better opinion of 
 his master's intellects ; far better than he had 
 entertained of them while he ran on so strangely 
 about transformations, princesses, and enchanted 
 butterflies. 
 
 * A sort of pancake made of eggs ; a common dish in Spain.
 
 38 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 IN WHICH FAIRIES, SALAMANDERS, PRINCESSES, AND 
 GREEN DWARFS MAKE THEIR APPEARANCE 
 
 As soon as the heat of the day was over, Don Sylvio 
 retreated into the garden, accompanied by his faith- 
 ful Pedrillo, and seated himself in a bower composed 
 of jessamine, which was the shadiest spot he could 
 find. There, after having strictly enjoined Pedrillo 
 not to interrupt him, as was so commonly the case, 
 he related to him in the most circumstantial manner 
 everything that had happened to himself from the 
 adventure of the green frog to the moment in which 
 Pedrillo found him sleeping in the grotto. 
 
 We shall pass over in silence all that our readers 
 have been already informed of, and only take up the 
 narration from the period of his elopement, which 
 had given so much uneasiness to his domestics. 
 
 " As soon as my aunt was gone," continued he, " I 
 returned to the grove to look for the place where the 
 blue butterfly had disappeared ; and where, in her 
 stead, she had left me this portrait, on which at 
 present all the happiness or misery of my life depends. 
 I took little Pimpimp with me, in hopes that, being 
 prompted by instinct, he might better re-conduct me 
 into the road we had taken together, and which I 
 could not very well recollect. Nor was I deceived ; 
 I found out the same spot ; and, after very carefully 
 running over and searching it, in hopes of meeting 
 with something that might any way inform me whom 
 the portrait belonged to, I resumed my course 
 through the wood, to see if 'twere possible to trace
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 39 
 
 out the blue butterfly, who, since the adventure of 
 the portrait, no longer appeared to me to be of any 
 ordinary species. ' If it be a fairy,' said I to myself, 
 * as -I have good reason to believe, perchance she 
 may be touched with the solicitude in which she 
 beholds me ; nay, perhaps, too, she may render her- 
 self visible to these eyes, in order to give me that 
 necessary intelligence without which I know not how 
 to live.' 
 
 " I accordingly made a general search through all 
 the wood ; I found butterflies enough, but no blue 
 butterfly. The night was already far advanced, and 
 Pimpimp was so tired that he could get no farther ; 
 nor was I much less so, when luckily I discovered that 
 grotto where you found me, and resolved to pass the 
 night in it. I threw up a bed for myself, and Pim- 
 pimp went asleep by my side, while I lay awake, 
 musing upon my present situation. The moon- 
 light at length shone so very fine, that it induced me 
 to get out, and take a little turn in the alley that 
 stood before the grotto. 
 
 " I had not been long walking, when all on a 
 sudden I was struck with a burst of light that 
 instantly seemed to gild the trees and bushes on all 
 sides. I looked up very attentively at this pheno- 
 menon, which appeared to be a globe of fire, and to 
 move in a higher sphere than the moon itself. At 
 length it insensibly descended toward the place where 
 I stood. You cannot conceive, Pedrillo, the joy 
 which this apparition gave me." 
 
 " Joy, sir ! " exclaimed Pedrillo ; " joy ! Why, one 
 would really suppose you were not made like other 
 people. I, myself, sir, for example, should have 
 died with terror at seeing such a globe ; and you 
 even rejoice at it ! " 
 
 " Now, did not I tell you that I would not 
 be interrupted ? " replied Don Sylvio. " I tell 
 you again, I was rejoiced, and had good reason so 
 to be ; for well I knew it was a fairy, and my
 
 40 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 heart sufficiently suggested to me that it was the 
 same I sought. My expectations were not deceived : 
 the globe of fire, which continually increased in size 
 as it came nearer, burst at length with a prodigious 
 noise a little over my head ; and instead of it, I 
 beheld a lady of wonderful beauty seated on a chariot 
 made of carbuncles, drawn by two winged serpents 
 of a flame colour. Around her fluttered upon a 
 thin silver cloud a multitude of salamanders, in the 
 shape of little boys, winged, and of a supernatural 
 beauty. Their hair appeared like Titan's curling 
 beams ; their wings were flames, their bodies whiter 
 than the snow in sunshine ; their foreheads and 
 cheeks more radiant than the splendours of Aurora. 
 The lustre of the fairy herself, however, effaced the 
 whole ; 'twas, in short, so dazzling, that I must have 
 lost my sight, had not the gentle fairy taken the 
 precaution of touching me with her wand. 
 
 " * Don Sylvio,' she began, ' I am the fairy 
 Radiante, whose life thou didst preserve in the day 
 when thou beheldest me under the shape of a little 
 green frog ; that life, on which, however despicable 
 it might then appear, depended the glories wherein 
 thou now survey est me. Thou knowest that in 
 every hundred years, we are necessitated to assume, 
 for the space of eight days together, the figure of 
 some bird or other animal ; and that during this 
 period, we lose the exercise of all our powers, and are 
 exposed to all those accidents which await the 
 animal nature. The eight days in which I was 
 necessitated to be a green frog were within a few 
 hours of being elapsed, when the pleasure of behold- 
 ing myself again in my natural shape made me 
 neglect the precaution of keeping within the ditch ; 
 and thus I exposed myself to the danger which, 
 without thy generous assistance, must have cost me 
 my life. The terror which I felt on being just in 
 the stork's beak hindered my thanking thee immedi- 
 ately for my deliverance ; and as in a few hours
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 41 
 
 after I resumed my usual shape, I could not help 
 giving my first moments to the affairs of the sala- 
 manders, whose queen I am. So soon, however, as I 
 had any time to think of my own private concerns, 
 I recalled to mind my high obligations to thee ; 
 and have since thought of little else but how to 
 testify my gratitude for them. My books, which 
 I consulted, have shown me that fate destines thee 
 to love a certain princess ; but there were difficulties 
 in the way of thy happiness, which, without some 
 powerful aid, would have proved very hard for thee 
 to surmount. I am come, therefore, to offer thee my 
 services ; thy beloved one is under persecution from 
 the fairy Fanfreluche, because she cannot resolve to 
 marry a certain dwarf, nephew to that fairy, and 
 who, on account of his complexion is named the 
 Green Dwarf, or the Knight of the Wasp, from the 
 animal on which he is commonly seen to ride. The 
 princess, being immovable in her sentiments, was 
 not long since changed by this cruel fairy into a blue 
 butterfly edged with purple, under a condition that 
 the enchantment shall not cease till in her present 
 state she have found a lover who will pluck off her 
 head and her wings. And oh ! hapless Don Sylvio ! 
 the blue butterfly caught by thee this morning 
 was thy princess ! She saw thee in the grove, and 
 instantly she loved thee. She fled from thee only to 
 see if thou wouldst follow her, and suffered thee, of 
 her own accord, to take her the moment she was con- 
 vinced of her not being indifferent to thee, even in the 
 shape of a butterfly. On finding herself in thy hand, 
 she strove by her fluttering to tell thee how agreeable 
 she felt her prison ; but the cruel Fanfreluche had 
 deprived her of speech, so that she could only heave 
 a sigh, which thou didst unhappily mistake as a mark 
 of her regret for the loss of liberty. Thy compas- 
 sionate heart therefore incited thee to let her fly ; 
 she did so, with the extremest sorrow ; and in all 
 probability would presently have returned toward
 
 42 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 thee, had she not at that instant perceived the Green 
 Dwarf, mounted on his wasp, who put on such a look 
 of terror, that fear made the princess wish for every 
 wing in creation to add all possible speed to her 
 precipitate retreat. Fortunately for the princess, I 
 was just set out in search of thee. I saw the danger 
 she was in, and flew to her succour, after having 
 commissioned one of my salamanders to throw the 
 princess's portrait in the path before you. I pursued 
 the Green Dwarf, who, finding himself too feeble to 
 enter the lists with me, assumed every possible shape 
 in order to escape me. At length he transformed 
 himself into a thin cloud, but I soon perceived the 
 change, and pressed it so hard that it presently dis- 
 solved. The labourers at work in the fields beneath 
 us fancied they saw it rain blood, and took it for an 
 evil omen. The Green Dwarf, unable to endure the 
 pressure, at length resumed his own shape; which, 
 however, I suffered him not long to enjoy, trans- 
 forming him into an ivory tooth-pick, on condition 
 never to regain his native form, till he should have 
 served to pick the hindermost cheek-tooth of some 
 female of fourscore, that was still a maiden.' ' 
 
 "Oh, merciful to me ! " cried Pedrillo on hearing 
 this ; "I am the fairy Rademante's most humble 
 servant, but I cannot think she knew what she talked 
 about. At this rate, the poor Green Dwarf will 
 remain a tooth-pick for ever: for, look ye, Signior 
 Don Sylvio, I will consent to be no longer Pedrillo if 
 you find either in the Old or New World a virgin of 
 fourscore that has any teeth left to pick ; or a female 
 of fourscore with all her teeth, that is still a maid." 
 
 "That," replied Don Sylvio, "will be the Green 
 Dwarf's concern ; at least, I shall have nothing to 
 fear from him during the long period of his search 
 after this phoenix. But, prithee, sir, have not I 
 repeatedly ordered you not to interrupt me, on pain 
 of my indignation ? take care then, how you oblige 
 me to tell you so the third time ! "
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 43 
 
 " Very well, sir," answered Pedrillo, " go on with 
 your discourse, and don't be angry with me ; I 
 won't open my lips again ; you know I am not fond 
 of chattering, but when you talk of tooth-picks, and 
 maids of fourscore " 
 
 " Plague take the prating fellow ! " cried Don 
 Sylvio ; "what, are you beginning again ? " 
 
 " Oh, sir, pray forgive me," said Pedrillo, " I 
 promise you I wiU never interrupt you any more, nor 
 should I have done it now, if it had not been for the 
 tooth-pick " 
 
 " Would thou wert a tooth-pick thyself," ex- 
 claimed the Don, in high indignation. " Hear what 
 I tell ye, and be silent, or else, by all that's good, this 
 is the last time I'll ever speak to you." 
 
 This terrible menace struck poor Pedrillo all 
 in a heap ; for he had the utmost love for his 
 young master. He therefore put his hand upon 
 his mouth to show he was determined to be 
 silent ; and Don Sylvio continued his narration 
 as follows : 
 
 ; ' The fairy having ended her discourse, made a 
 short pause ; I seized that moment, to throw myself 
 at her feet and to testify my gratitude in the most 
 lively terms. ' Powerful fairy,' said I, ' who hast 
 already done for me so much, oh pursue, I conjure 
 thee, the generous design, and give it full perfec- 
 tion. Thou who wast able to give a Green Dwarf the 
 shape of a tooth-pick, how easy will it be for thee 
 to restore my dear princess to her native form ! '" 
 
 ' It is not in my power,' replied the fairy, ' to 
 dissolve an enchantment wrought by one of my com- 
 panions. This great adventure is reserved for thee. 
 Lose no time, Don Sylvio ! Take with thee thy 
 faithful Pedrillo, and the little Pimpimp, and till 
 thou hast found her, never quit thy search for the 
 blue butterfly. I am not a little apprehensive that 
 the malicious Fanfreluche will study to avenge her 
 nephew ; but let not these difficulties daunt thy
 
 44 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 resolution. On the contrary, be assured, that when- 
 ever thou findest thyself in distress, my succour shall 
 not be implored in vain.' 
 
 *' At these words, the fairy, her chariot, and the 
 salamanders disappeared, while I, finding myself 
 greatly fatigued, fell into that profound slumber, out 
 of which I don't think I should have waked till this 
 time, had not you come to rouse me. 
 
 " Thus then, Pedrillo, you have heard what the 
 fairy hath enjoined me. I have no time to lose. 
 We must instantly bestir ourselves in search of my 
 dear princess ; and I trust you will not refuse to 
 follow me."
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 45 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 DIALOGUE BETWEEN PEDRILLO AND HIS MASTER. 
 PREPARATIONS FOR THE INTENDED JOURNEY 
 
 PEDRILLO had listened with great pleasure to this 
 history of the fairy, the princess, and the Green 
 Dwarf, for he was a great lover of such marvellous 
 tales and stories. But the moment he understood 
 that Don Sylvio was setting out in earnest, ar>d 
 must run all the world over in search of the blue 
 butterfly, this part of the business did not at all suit 
 his taste ; he grated his teeth, shrugged up his 
 shoulders, and, after a hesitation of some minutes, at 
 length he cried 
 
 " Merciful to me ! Signior Don Sylvio, what would 
 you have me say to you ? If I understand matters 
 right, you may just as well have been dreaming this 
 as anything else ; and if I did not know you were 
 so good a gentleman, Heaven forgive me, but one 
 would be almost tempted to believe " 
 
 " How, sir ! " said Don Sylvio, " have you the 
 face then to doubt the truth of what I tell you." 
 
 " No, indeed," replied Pedrillo, " I have no doubt 
 of it at all ; but the globe of fire, and the frog fairy, 
 and the Green Dwarf in love with the princess, and the 
 butterfly too, which is to be your wife, and turned by 
 
 you into a princess, and the tooth-pick . Don't 
 
 be angry, dear sir, but, upon my word, d'ye see, I do 
 think you must have dreamed about all this ; and 
 one very often has droll dreams : for example, I 
 myself dreamed but a little while ago " 
 
 " Oh, good heavens ! " cried Don Sylvio, losing all
 
 46 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 patience ; " am I to do nothing else but hear your 
 dreams ? And do you suppose that my seeing the 
 fairy Radiante, and her informing me of all I had to 
 do for regaining my incomparable princess tell me, 
 blockhead, do you suppose all this to be a dream ? 
 and do you suppose this picture here at my neck 
 too to be all a dream ? " Saying this, he took the 
 trinket, pressed the spring, and showed Pedrillo the 
 little picture that lay concealed under the great 
 diamond. 
 
 Pedrillo stared very earnestly on seeing the por- 
 trait of a woman who appeared to him a thousand 
 times handsomer than Mrs Beatrice herself. "Ah ! by 
 Saint James," cried he, " I have now no more to say. 
 What, then, this is the princess that fairy Radiante 
 has promised you, and who is transformed into a 
 blue butterfly ? I must be an oaf indeed now, not 
 to believe everything you have been telling me ; 
 though, on my conscience, I never could have 
 believed it, had I not seen it with my own eyes. 
 Well, this is wonderful ! for who but a fairy could 
 have done all this for you ? Why, I'll lay any wager 
 that the least of these precious stones is worth ten 
 of our cottages. And then I have often read, how 
 that such pieces of furniture were nothing but trifles 
 to a fairy ; diamonds with them are as common a 
 merchandise as pebble-stones are among us ; and I 
 am pretty well persuaded that Madam Rademante 
 has finer jewels about her chamber-pot than there are 
 in our queen's necklace, whom God preserve ! Well, 
 well, these are not things to be found in one's sleep. 
 You must therefore have been awake, and, if you 
 were awake, you could not have dreamed, as I said 
 just now ; and so, as that's the case, the princess 
 must certainly be a butterfly. Do, sir, let me see it 
 again. Bless my heart, how pretty it is ! what a 
 sweet look is that ! Why, if one did not know 'twas 
 only a painting, one would think she was going to 
 open her mouth and talk. Oh, the devil take those
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 47 
 
 cursed creatures that could be so unmerciful as to 
 change this charming little face into an insect. 
 Indeed, Sir Knight of the Wasp, 'tis well for you and 
 all such folks, that princesses like these are to be met 
 with : but a plague take ye ! can you have the front 
 to imagine that, because she is so small that one may 
 cover her whole pretty little face with a gnat's wing, 
 therefore she must be made for such a pitiful, bandy- 
 legged, hunchbacked, diminutive green monster as 
 you ? " 
 
 " What a stupid thing you are ! " said Don Sylvio. 
 " And do you imagine that the princess is no bigger 
 than you see this little portrait ? You must know 
 that the reason of representing her so small, is merely 
 because the bit of ivory could not be any larger to 
 suit the case. But this does not hinder but she may 
 be full as tall as the goddess Diana, or the beautiful 
 Alia, who certainly must have been none of the least, 
 since a giant so big as Molandino absolutely fixed upon 
 her for a wife ; and even supposing her to be not 
 quite so tall, she would only be so much more like the 
 Graces, who are represented by the poets and painters 
 smaller than the other goddesses, thereby to express 
 in a more striking manner those attractions and 
 that sweetness which render them worthy the honour 
 of being companions and attendants to the Queen of 
 Love." 
 
 " True, sir," answered Pedrillo, " nothing can be 
 more just ; for, as the proverb says, ' Whatever is 
 little is pretty ' ; and though madam the princess 
 were no bigger than a wax doll, yet, I daresay, upon 
 seeing her, we shall find it the drollest little creature 
 that a man should behold in a summer's day." 
 
 " Pedrillo, my friend," interrupted Don Sylvio, 
 " let us not lose time in frivolous discourse, while, 
 perhaps, my mistress is in danger." 
 
 " Ay, very true, sir," said the facetious Pedrillo, 
 " that's just what I was going to say : for, surely, 
 nothing can be more disagreeable to so fine a
 
 48 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 princess than to see herself every moment exposed to 
 the hazard of being devoured by some cursed crow or 
 other. Mercy on me ! 'twould as soon snap her up 
 as the commonest insect without any regard to her 
 princely rank, which I really begin to be persuaded 
 of, now that I have seen her picture." 
 
 " What thou hast said, Pedrillo," replied Don 
 Sylvio, " gives me no uneasiness at all. With 
 regard to all such apprehensions I rest the matter 
 entirely in the protection of the fairy Radiante. 
 But, mighty as this protection may be against all the 
 crows upon earth, it is not enough to screen her from 
 the subtle practices of that wicked fairy Fanfre- 
 luche ; for, as I told thee before, it is for me only 
 that the disenchantment of the blue butterfly is 
 reserved. What sayst thou, Pedrillo ? Would it 
 not be better for us to set off immediately, while my 
 aunt is from home ? Thou seest we are all here to- 
 gether ; thou, I, and Pimpimp : let us then go seek 
 the princess, though it were to the Antipodes. The 
 fairy will take care of the rest." 
 
 " You are in a very great hurry, sir," said Pedrillo ; 
 " but I am inclined to think you don't rightly 
 calculate matters. You must know that in travelling 
 there is occasion for a thousand things, which one 
 ought to be provided with in case of necessity." 
 
 " And you must know, too, sir," interrupted Don 
 Sylvio, " that I think you don't know what you are 
 talking about. Where did you ever hear or read of 
 any prince or knight that used such a precaution, 
 while he was travelling through the world under the 
 protection of a fairy ? Such persons never want for 
 rich habits, fine linen, or money for all necessary 
 occasions. They commonly pass the night in en- 
 chanted palaces, where they are magnificently 
 regaled ; and should they happen to wander in 
 forests or deserts, there, without the least thought 
 or care in the world, they behold a table set out 
 before them, served up by invisible hands, and
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 49 
 
 loaded with the most delicious viands ; after which 
 refreshment they lie down and sleep on a bed of 
 flowers, either in grottos or in arbours planted by 
 the hands of nymphs, and clad in the richest 
 verdure." 
 
 " All this, sir," said Pedrillo, " is charming and 
 delightful ; but, to tell you the truth, I should still 
 be of the opinion not to trust too much to these fine 
 things. Among the fairies, you know, one has both 
 friends and enemies ; and they would not be the first 
 princes or princesses I have read of, who, upon such 
 adventures, with the finest teeth in the world, had 
 nothing to nibble. Too much precaution never does 
 harm. As my good old grandmother used to say : 
 One bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. In 
 a word, sir, if you do not disdain my advice, I will go 
 and make a provision of linen, a good bit of some- 
 thing eatable, and a few bottles of wine : and do 
 you, sir, on your part, take care to have your purse 
 well lined with reals. This done, we will take what- 
 ever road you please ; only heaven grant we may 
 neither meet with blue nor green dwarfs, who might 
 take it in their heads perhaps to dispute our princess 
 with us." 
 
 Don Sylvio, who, setting aside his wild notions, 
 was one of the best youths in the world, suffered 
 himself to be easily persuaded by Pedrillo, and 
 accordingly returned with him to the castle, first 
 clapping the picture of his supposed princess into his 
 pocket, that he might not raise the curiosity of the 
 servants. With all the confidence that our hero 
 reposed in the succour of the fairies, he failed not, 
 however, to take off with him a few trinkets which 
 he had inherited from his father ; as also his little 
 hoard of money, which, to say the truth, did not 
 amount to above ten or a dozen ducats ; while 
 Pedrillo, on his part, ransacked the kitchen and 
 cellar. The above-mentioned sum, though rather of 
 the least, seemed, notwithstanding, to our hero, 
 E
 
 50 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 more than sufficient for a journey from one hemi- 
 sphere to the other under the protection of the fairy 
 Radiante. He then put on his handsomest laced 
 shirt, dressed himself in a doublet of green satin 
 edged with gold and lined with pink taffety ; and 
 his breeches, stockings, and the feather in his hat 
 were of the same colour. Thus equipped, and 
 equalling of figure all the Narcissuses and Hyacinths 
 of poetic story, Don Sylvio waited with impatience 
 for the companion of his travels, firmly resolved to 
 steal off privately before his aunt should return 
 home.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 51 
 
 x 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE AUTHOR'S REFLECTIONS 
 
 HAD it been in our power to write this history half 
 a dozen centuries ago, the whole chapter before us 
 would have been superfluous. In former times, that 
 which we call the marvellous was so common, that 
 people could not meet with anything more extra- 
 ordinary than natural events. But in the present 
 age, one would almost suppose that a mode of 
 thinking diametrically opposite had taken the lead : 
 insomuch, that perhaps, out of all the readers of this 
 history, we can hardly natter ourselves with finding 
 one who would readily be persuaded to think that 
 everything related in the foregoing chapter might 
 have happened every day. Since the invention of 
 microscopes, invisible things have but little influence 
 on human minds ; and even a ghost himself would 
 find it very difficult to persuade people of the reality 
 of his existence. In short, it would be in vain for us 
 to pretend (since nobody would believe it if we did) 
 that there exists such a fairy as Radiante, or that the 
 blue butterfly has ever been a princess, or that a 
 tooth-pick ever yet figured away in the character of 
 a green dwarf. 
 
 Our best way then, in such circumstances, is 
 candidly to confess that we ourselves have as little 
 faith in all that Don Sylvio has been telling Pedrillo, 
 as we have in the visions of our pious countrywoman, 
 Mary d'Agreda, or the tale of the Red Cap, or any 
 other tale with which our good nurses formerly fed 
 us from the very cradle.
 
 52 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 That truth, however, which we profess through- 
 out the whole course of this history, obliges us to 
 observe that Don Sylvio in his narrations has 
 neither advanced nor asserted anything which 
 may not, in a certain sense, be as true and real 
 as most other stories drawn from the imaginary 
 world. 
 
 To understand this seeming paradox, we must 
 remember that there are two sorts of realities, which, 
 in concrete, are not so easily distinguishable as, 
 perhaps, some may imagine. 
 
 Now, as in spite of all the egotists in the world, there 
 are things which really exist out of ourselves, so are 
 there, in return, others which exist only in our 
 imagination. The former exist, though we do not 
 know that they exist ; the latter exist only so far as we 
 imagine them to exist. These things have no reality 
 in themselves, but with him who takes them for 
 real they have the same effect as if they were so ; 
 and without depriving men, by this means, of a good 
 share of that high opinion they entertain of them- 
 selves, we may assert that these matters are the 
 mainsprings of most of the actions of mankind, that 
 they are the fountain either of our happiness or of 
 our misery, the source of our most detestable vices 
 or of our most shining virtues. 
 
 What fairy or enchanted palace can be more 
 chimerical than that glorious renown which the 
 greatest men agree to have been the aim of their 
 most splendid enterprises ? Did not Alexander, the 
 great Alexander, who realised that fabulous march 
 of Bacchus into India, and thereby plunged himself 
 in a thousand dangers, to furnish others with matter 
 for conversationdid not he pursue a chimera as 
 unreal as that which made Don Sylvio run after a 
 blue butterfly in order to disenchant it ? To any 
 spectator, who coolly considers the actions of men, 
 the former must appear as great a madman as 
 the latter ; at least the latter hath this advantage
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 53 
 
 over the other, that his chimera injured no one, 
 while that of Asia's conqueror laid waste half the 
 world. 
 
 But it is time for us to recollect that we are enter- 
 ing upon reflections very remote from our subject ; 
 so remote, indeed, that we are not a little embarrassed 
 to find out a happier transition than those commonly 
 adopted by gentlemen compilers, when, after half a 
 dozen digressions, they want to return to the place 
 from whence they came. 
 
 To resume then our subject. In the narrative of 
 our young knight, we must be careful to distinguish 
 between what happened to him in reality and what 
 his imagination added to it. The reader may remem- 
 ber, after the adventure of the butterfly and portrait, 
 we left him in a condition wherein his imagination 
 was elevated in an extraordinary manner. The 
 vivacity of the ideas which presented themselves to 
 him was so much the more increased by night as 
 those ideas themselves were less weakened by any 
 external sensation ; they only wanted one more 
 degree to make them felt, as if they were real. In 
 such a disposition of mind it was that Don Sylvio per- 
 ceived a globe of fire, which rolled about in the air, 
 and shortly after burst close by him. This known 
 meteor, which a good naturalist would have regarded 
 with a curious eye, finished the enchantment of a 
 Don Sylvio. He recollected to have often, in his 
 tales, met with such globes of fire, from whence 
 there always issued a fairy seated on a diamond car 
 drawn by six swans, or by four and twenty rams 
 with fleeces of gold. This appearance then, other- 
 wise very natural, was, according to his mode of 
 reasoning, the beginning of a supernatural appari- 
 tion ; and nothing more was wanting to change his 
 chimeras, which were already formed in his brain, 
 and ready to burst forth into a series of realities; 
 since it had no other difference from a dream than 
 that Don Sylvio was awake, and had been so much
 
 54 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 the more powerfully deceived by the connection 
 between his prior and subsequent ideas. 
 
 This, so far as we understand the matter, is the 
 most probable explication that can be given of such 
 visions ; we are very far, however, from wishing to 
 force any one to subscribe to our sentiments. Don 
 Sylvio was alone, when he pretended that the fairy 
 had appeared to him ; and we may boldly defy all 
 the sceptics, materialists, deists, and pantheists in 
 the world to prove that the fairy Radiante, or her 
 apparition, was anything impossible. We offer our 
 explication only as a bare conjecture ; and if the 
 lovers of the marvellous should be more disposed to 
 believe it than Don Sylvio himself (who undoubtedly 
 was an eye-witness 01 the whole affair, and, which is 
 more, cannot be suspected of premeditated imposture), 
 in this case we have nothing to reply against them.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 55 
 
 BOOK II 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A DEMONSTRATION THAT PRUDERY MAY EXCITE THE 
 DISPLEASURE OF VENUS 
 
 WHILE Don Sylvio was getting matters ready to go 
 in search of adventures, Donna Menzia endeavoured 
 to detain him in a way which Don Sylvio as little 
 suspected as Donna Menzia suspected Don Sylvio's 
 intrigue with an enchanted butterfly. 
 
 We think it has been already observed that this 
 lady had, for some time past, made frequent visits 
 to a small town in the neighbourhood ; visits, indeed, 
 that gave little concern to Don Sylvio's curiosity, 
 but which, in fact, tended to no less than playing 
 him a viler turn than all the united malice of all the 
 Fanfreluches and all the Carabossas in the world 
 could have invented against him. 
 
 The reader may, perhaps, remember that Donna 
 Menzia, notwithstanding her extreme prudery, had 
 been no enemy to love in her tender youth ; nay, 
 and to speak the truth ingenuously, there never 
 perhaps was a woman to whom that virtue, which the 
 cruelty of men obliged her to retain, had been more 
 irksome. It is even pretended that from the time 
 of her first renouncing the world to live in retirement, 
 which, generally speaking, is said to be no way 
 favourable to forced prudery it is, I say, pretended 
 that this irksomeness of situation had been more 
 than once so pressing, that (without the least offence 
 to her sex be it spoken) she had even made some
 
 56 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 advances to one of the grooms in the family ; ad- 
 vances which could not have failed to produce their 
 effect, had not the charms of young Maritornes 
 rendered this clownish lover insensible to all the 
 advantages of a skeleton of quality over a young 
 female peasant. Whatever ground there might be 
 for this anecdote, it is certain that Donna Menzia 
 was so far unhappy as to be obliged to seek in the 
 vague illusions of a heated imagination the shadow 
 of a pleasure which her want of experience esti- 
 mated in proportion to the ardour of her desires. 
 Her aversion to Boccace's tales, and even to the 
 innocent pleasantries of Lopez de Vega, did not 
 prevent those dialogues which some modern Sotades 
 has placed to the account of the famous Aloysia 
 Sigea, from being her favourite book ; in short, it 
 was constantly under her bolster a custom which, 
 perhaps, she thought justified by the example of 
 Saint Chrysostom, who did the same honour to the 
 comedies of Aristophanes. 
 
 It may possibly be thought an indecorum that by 
 revealing these secrets we have annihilated the 
 benefits which the world might have derived from 
 the edifying example of the chaste Donna Menzia. 
 But in this instance it was indispensably necessary 
 to discharge the duties of a faithful historian ; especi- 
 ally as an ill-timed discretion might have rendered 
 the truth of our history suspected with regard to 
 some matters, which we shall be obliged to relate 
 presently. 
 
 Not to keep our readers any longer in painful 
 suspense, we must inform them it is but too true 
 that neither the virtue of Donna Menzia, nor the 
 pride of her birth, nor the threescore springs which 
 she had already passed, were able to defend her 
 tender heart against the love wherewith a certain 
 attorney of Xelva had the good fortune to inspire her. 
 
 She had become acquainted with him at a lady's, 
 a friend of hers. The attorney managed that lady's
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 57 
 
 affairs, and often came to visit her. Donna Menzia 
 had, therefore, an opportunity of being thoroughly 
 informed of the attorney's circumstances in life, 
 which appeared to be very favourable to the design 
 she had formed upon his person from the first moment 
 she saw him. 
 
 This worthy personage was named Rodrigo 
 Sanchez ; a man who, setting aside his talents for 
 chicanery, was more remarkable for his personal 
 advantages than for the qualities of his mind. He 
 was a square-built man, of a middling stature, with 
 broad shoulders, hair that naturally curled, little 
 sparkling eyes overshadowed with large black eye- 
 brows, a large aquiline nose, and limbs that in case 
 of need might have supported an Atlas. 
 
 We cannot positively say whether these sort of 
 figures are, in general, so dangerous for professed 
 prudes as some pretend. This is certain, that Mr 
 Rodrigo was an Adonis in the eyes of Donna Menzia, 
 and had the honour, at their first interview, of 
 conquering that aversion for marriage which she 
 was known to have always entertained ; nay, he had 
 merit sufficient to excite in that illustrious lady a 
 desire of bearing with him the yoke of Hymen, 
 though the man was only forty years of age, and, to 
 mend the matter, an understrapper in his profession. 
 
 If the eyes of this new Adonis were not grateful 
 enough to find a Venus in the person of Donna 
 Menzia, yet the idea of such a marriage was as 
 powerful a motive with a man of his stamp as the 
 charms of a person commonly are with lovers of a 
 more refined composition. 
 
 Ever since the death of his elder brother, who was 
 a jeweller, he had been guardian to his niece, named 
 Mergelina, who, from the time of her parent's decease, 
 possessed a fortune of 100,000 ducats. As indiffer- 
 ent as his niece was in point of person, so much 
 tenderness had our attorney for her ducats, and for a 
 long time past had he ruminated in vain, and turned
 
 58 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 about in his head a project of making himself legally 
 master of that sum, or, at least, a good part of it ; 
 when lo ! the passion which he had the happiness to 
 enkindle in Donna Menzia seemed to give him a 
 favourable opportunity for succeeding to his wishes. 
 His niece, who undoubtedly enjoyed a very pretty 
 fortune, had already refused some pretenders on 
 account of their mean extraction ; for she had taken 
 it into her head, once for all, either to be a woman of 
 quality or to die a maid. Mr Rodrigo, therefore, 
 entertained not the least doubt of bringing her to 
 whatever he wanted, provided he could but marry 
 her to a hidalgo ; * but the grand point was, where 
 to find one who would be as complaisant as Mr 
 Rodrigo required. The advice given him by Donna 
 Menzia's female friend led him to hope that no person 
 could be more suited to his purpose than Don Sylvio, 
 who had been represented to him as a young gentle- 
 man, very generous, but without any experience or the 
 least knowledge of the world ; and who had, more- 
 over, accustomed himself to be governed by his aunt 
 in everything. He resolved, therefore, to try his 
 fortune, and derive every possible advantage from 
 the amorous fit of old Donna Menzia. In truth, he 
 played the part of a tender swain as ridiculously as 
 could be ; however, he displayed vivacity enough 
 to persuade so sensible a lady that he was the most 
 amorous man in the world. 
 
 No sooner was Donna Menzia assured of her con- 
 quest, than she began to recollect what she owed to 
 her virtue and to her rank ; accordingly, she played 
 off so many airs, that the attorney, who was extremely 
 deficient in the art of securing prudes, would have 
 lost all patience a hundred times, had he not been 
 held in by a force superior to the charms of his cruel 
 fair one. His grand consolation was that the lady 
 found it exceedingly difficult to conceal the chaste 
 flames which preyed upon her ; insomuch, that she 
 
 * The Spanish term for a gentleman.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 59 
 
 thought proper to shorten ceremonies so much the 
 more, as she had no reason to doubt the excess of her 
 lover's passion. She therefore, at length, consented 
 to make him happy, and a double marriage was 
 agreed on between the uncle and aunt, the nephew 
 and the niece ; upon which the attorney drew up a 
 contract, wherein the interests of the two former were 
 not forgotten. 
 
 Donna Menzia had brought up her nephew too well 
 to look for any contradiction on his part ; but yet 
 the idea that this twofold alliance would derogate 
 from the nobility of the family with which she had 
 always been highly infatuated, gave her some degree 
 of pain. For though the shining merit of Mr Rod- 
 rigo seemed well to justify the vehemence of her 
 passion, it would have cost her very much to sacrifice 
 herself to such considerations, had not the gentle- 
 man (who was a great genealogist) led her to hope 
 that he would soon show her a pedigree that should 
 prove the family of Rodrigo Sanchez to have derived 
 its origin, and to have descended in a right line, from 
 a natural son of Sanchez the Great, King of Castile.
 
 60 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 A PICTURE IN THE STYLE OF CALOT 
 
 DON SYLVIO, who had nothing in his head but butter- 
 flies and green dwarfs, never so much as dreamt it 
 possible that his dear aunt could think of marrying 
 him to a plebeian of Xelva, while all his attention 
 was engaged how to deliver his winged princess not 
 to say that the plebeian in question was one of the 
 most homely beings that ever man espoused. 
 
 Great was his surprise, therefore, when, before 
 Pedrillo had finished his preparations for their journey, 
 he saw his aunt arrive, accompanied by a lady and 
 gentleman entirely unknown to Don Sylvio. Still 
 more was his astonishment increased, when he 
 considered these strange figures more closely ; in par- 
 ticular, he was struck in so extraordinary a manner 
 with the young lady, that he took her at first for a 
 monkey in woman's clothes. Pedrillo, who assisted 
 them to alight from the carriage, had the utmost 
 difficulty to refrain from laughing when he beheld 
 them ; and Don Sylvio, perfectly polite as he was 
 in other respects, retreated a few steps backward 
 greatly ruffled, and without observing what a sweet 
 satisfaction diffused itself over the charming visage 
 of the diminutive monster, the moment she had 
 examined him. 
 
 In short, if Donna Menzia had wished to have a 
 niece that should not eclipse her own charms, she 
 could have pitched upon no properer person than 
 this same Donna Mergelina. 
 
 We will just attempt a sketch, and see if it be
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 61 
 
 possible to convey any idea of the subject to our 
 reader's imagination. 
 
 She was, then, exactly four feet four inches high, 
 and as many broad, reckoning from one shoulder to 
 the other ; the whole so regularly constructed that 
 her head made nearly a fourth part of her entire 
 height. Her neck, breast, and the residue of her 
 body were lost so insensibly the one in the other, that 
 it was impossible to distinguish where one began or 
 the other ended. Notwithstanding the enormous 
 length of her chin, her face, however, formed a very 
 regular square, for her forehead was exactly as much 
 too low as her chin was too long. Her eyes were so 
 round, and stood so far out of her head, that the 
 nickname which Homer has given Juno seems to 
 have been expressly created for Donna Mergelina.* 
 Her mouth was of so capacious a size, that without 
 a shadow of fear you might have introduced Prince 
 Tanzai's skimmer into it without touching her large 
 teeth ; and if ever a poet had thought of making her 
 lips the seat of the Graces, it must be owned the 
 goddesses would have found room and a couch there 
 to have enjoyed their pastimes with some of the 
 young gods of love. Her nose, indeed, was a little too 
 small, for it was difficult to discover it between her 
 fat hanging-down cheeks, which were something high 
 in bone ; however, you must be obliged to let it pass 
 for a nose, on account of the nostrils that stared out 
 before it. This, by the way, was the only thing in 
 which nature had shown itself niggardly in her person ; 
 but, in return, she had a back of so considerable a 
 height that nothing could be added to it . Her ears were 
 tolerably long, and her hands and feet so large that 
 she might have lived like an amphibious being either 
 on land or water. But that which, in her idea, was 
 sufficient to efface all the above-mentioned charms, 
 was a neck and bosom ; but such a neck and bosom 
 as you shall hardly see, especially in Spain ; it being 
 
 s, ox-eyed. //. i. lin. 551 et al.
 
 6a THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 indeed very white, but of so immense a bulk, that if 
 one had wished to make a statue of Venus Callipygos,* 
 it would have served as a model for a very opposite 
 part of the body. She prided herself so much in 
 this species of perfection as to display it with a 
 prodigality which rigid moralists might perhaps 
 have treated as scandalous, even had it been less 
 disgusting. 
 
 As to the colourings which nature had employed 
 to ornament such a masterpiece, they were, in truth, 
 arranged in so wonderful a manner as must have 
 puzzled a Vandyke. Her hair was neither white 
 like that of Ceres, nor brown like that of Venus, nor 
 of a brilliant yellow like that of the " Lass with the 
 Golden Locks " ; but it was of a fiery red, naturally 
 so short, and so bristly, that it must have tired the 
 patience of a Cypassis.f Her eyes were of a fine 
 light grey ; her forehead and cheeks of an olive 
 colour, heightened by a beautiful brownish - red 
 where it was wanted ; her mouth (if you will be kind 
 enough to allow the expression a second time) 
 bordered a little upon the colour of the Aigue-Marine,J 
 and lost nothing of its agreeableness by the black 
 hue of her broad, ill-arranged teeth. Lastly, her arms 
 and hands were of so natural a leather colour, that 
 she might easily have spared herself the expense 
 which other ladies put themselves to for chicken-skin 
 gloves. 
 
 All this, which undoubtedly composed such a kind 
 of figure as one seldom meets with anywhere but 
 over a chimney-piece, was set off by decorations that 
 gave a high idea of the fair Mergelina's good taste ; 
 insomuch that you had only to look at it to admire 
 in her that fine harmony of body and mind which, 
 according to Pythagoras's principles, constitutes 
 
 *That is, "The white-armed." (This is not correct: Venus Calli- 
 pygos means, of course, Venus with the beautiful rvyr/. ) 
 T " Ponendis in mille modis perfecta capillos, 
 
 Comere sed solas digna, Cypassi, deas." OVID. 
 J A sort of precious stone of the sea-water colour.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 63 
 
 perfect beauty. She wore a deep yellow satin 
 petticoat embroidered with silver ; her bodice was of 
 green taffety tied with pale blue ribands ; she had 
 a flame-coloured aigrette, crimson slippers worked 
 with gold, and pink stockings with silver clocks. 
 
 No sooner had this amiable person, with the 
 assistance of Don Sylvio, gained the little parlour in 
 which Donna Menzia commonly received her visits, 
 than the first thing she did was to run to the glass 
 to repair, as she observed, the disorder which the 
 journey had occasioned in her dress. This done, she 
 took her seat, and while they waited the coming of 
 Mrs Beatrice with some refreshments, each member 
 of the little society seemed under an embarrassment 
 what was to be done with its own proper person, 
 and those of the company. Donna Mergelina either 
 played with her fan, or eyed herself in the looking- 
 glass which hung opposite where she sat. Mr 
 Rodrigo one while contemplated the amiable and 
 juvenile Donna Menzia, then looked down at his legs. 
 Don Sylvio stared about him, and seemed in a total 
 confusion ; while his good aunt was continually 
 opening her mouth, without knowing what to say. 
 
 Mr Rodrigo was just going to observe that it was 
 fine weather, when in came the serviceable Mrs 
 Beatrice to animate the conversation with a basket 
 of green, dry, and candied fruits. The whole com- 
 pany felt it a very seasonable consolation. Donna 
 Mergelina displayed, upon this occasion, the good 
 education she had received, and declared, with many 
 grimaces and congees, that she was quite sorry to 
 think of the pains which had been kindly taken with 
 her. These compliments and distortions of face were 
 answered by the obliging Donna Menzia with as many 
 compliments and as many distortions. A further 
 observation was made that the strawberries were 
 very large, and the cherries of a delicious flavour ; 
 while the nuts and preserved peaches met with very 
 great applause. This furnished Donna Menzia with
 
 64 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 the subject of a very learned dissertation upon the 
 art of making preserves, which so heartily tired out 
 the attorney, that he did all he could to turn the con- 
 versation ; in short, he burned with impatience to 
 enter upon the relation of a suit then under his 
 management, and the moment he could cleverly 
 bring it in, the ladies were accordingly entertained in 
 the most gallant manner imaginable.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 65 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE AUNT AND THE NEPHEW 
 
 MRS BEATRICE soon returned to the parlour with all 
 sorts of wines and other liquors ; and while, upon a 
 signal from her mistress, she entertained the guests 
 with her lively chat, Donna Menzia retired into 
 another room with her nephew, in order to explain 
 to him the occasion of their visit. 
 
 As her first salutation, " Don Sylvio," said she, 
 "I see you are dressed very fine to-day ; pray, 
 did you know I should bring you such agreeable 
 company ? " 
 
 " No, aunt," replied Don Sylvio, blushing and 
 hesitating. " But I don't know I thought " 
 
 " There's no need of apologies, Don Sylvio," said 
 his aunt. " You could not have set yourself off 
 more opportunely ; I could almost attribute it to a 
 kind of foresight." 
 
 So saying, she sat down, blew her nose, spat 
 several times, and at length, after a few preambles, 
 and not without blushing, discovered .to him her 
 twofold design of marrying him to the amiable 
 Mergelina, and of yielding the right of property in her 
 own fair person to the worthy gentleman, Rodrigo 
 Sanchez. She did not fail to enlarge with Don Sylvio 
 upon the great advantages that would accrue to him 
 from this alliance, and gave it as her opinion that he 
 owed her a particular obligation for the great care she 
 had taken of his patrimony. 
 
 Don Sylvio, however, was very far from being so 
 pliant and grateful as his aunt had imagined. The 
 F
 
 66 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 astonishment which had seized him from the be- 
 ginning of this discourse changed at length into an 
 indignation which he had much ado to contain. He 
 did this violence to himself notwithstanding, and, 
 after a pretty long pause, told his dear aunt, though 
 with less appearance of wonder than of anger : " I 
 protest to you, aunt, I have no conception of all 
 you have been saying. I am hardly eighteen years 
 of age ; my birth, and the education you have given 
 me, require me shortly to quit this idle rustic kind of 
 life and seek a suitable fortune through a series of 
 adventures. It is you yourself, madam, who have 
 inspired me with these sentiments ; and now, all on a 
 sudden, you want me to marry a petty citizen of 
 Xelva a woman whose deformity and personal 
 defects might well stagger the greediest fortune- 
 hunter upon earth ; * not to mention that I must be 
 obliged to confine myself for my whole life in this 
 miserable village, to hide from every eye my misery 
 and shame." 
 
 " Nephew," cried Donna Menzia, " you forget the 
 respect which you owe me ; and, I confess, I had 
 expected more obedience " 
 
 " Obedience from me ? " interrupted Don Sylvio 
 briskly, " when you want to chain me to a monster 
 that would make me despise the greatest dangers, 
 were it only to avoid the sight of her ! " 
 
 " Why, truly," replied Donna Menzia, with a sneer, 
 " we all know you have a high idea of your beauty, 
 but we won't dispute upon that head. Donna Mer- 
 gelina by no means deserves the contempt you are 
 pleased to express : she is an amiable young creature ; 
 and even if she were less so, the offer of a hundred 
 thousand ducats is not a matter for a poor country 
 gentleman, with hardly an income of a hundred 
 pistoles, to reject with so much haughtiness." 
 
 u Madam," replied Don Sylvio, with a little more 
 composure, " you have not been long used to estimate 
 
 * In the original, Den geldgicrigsten Harpax,
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 67 
 
 the worth of a gentleman by his income ; and if a 
 hundred thousand ducats have not been able so to 
 fascinate my eyes as to make me think the person 
 amiable whom you call Donna Mergelina, let me add, 
 that, excepting Heaven, to which I owe my heart, 
 such as it is, no person in the world but Donna 
 Menzia hath taught me to despise riches when they 
 are to be gained by meannesses." 
 
 " And pray, sir," said Donna Menzia, " in what 
 can those meannesses consist, if you marry Donna 
 Mergelina ? Though her ancestors, through mis- 
 fortunes, may have been obliged to conceal their 
 origin, which, perhaps, is full as illustrious as any in 
 the^ kingdom I know what I say, Don Sylvio 
 yet fortune, which has since been more propitious, 
 hath enabled them to raise their own family, and 
 restore that splendour to ours, which its disgraceful 
 indigence has almost effaced." 
 
 " Madam," replied Don Sylvio, his countenance 
 glowing with indignation, " that indigence is never 
 disgraceful which is not brought upon us by our own 
 fault. Leave it to me, if you please, to restore honour 
 to my name ; I am conscious of sufficient courage to 
 face that ill-fortune which may now seem to condemn 
 it to obscurity. Let Donna Mergelina be noble, if 
 you will have it so ; but, for my own part, I assure 
 you, that if she were even descended from the Grand 
 Cid, and brought me in marriage all the mines of 
 Peru, I would still have nothing to say to her." 
 
 " How ! " cried Donna Menzia, in a tone that 
 might better have been employed with a boy of 
 twelve years old, " and so you will not marry her ? 
 But, sir, give me leave to tell you that you shall 
 marry her, or you shall soon see whether Donna 
 Menzia knows how to preserve that authority which 
 nature, and the will of your father, have given me 
 over you. You shall marry her, I say, or " 
 
 " None of your vain threatenings, madam ! " 
 interrupted Don Sylvio, with an air and firmness that
 
 68 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 a little confounded the old lady. " I know the 
 whole extent of my duties to you ; but I know 
 equally well the limits of your assumed authority. 
 Go and marry your good man, Rodrigo Sanchez I 
 shall never think of troubling my head about it ; but, 
 at the age I am, permit me to refuse an engagement 
 which by no means suits my inclinations." 
 
 At these words the old lady fired with rage and 
 fury. " I hear you," cried she, grinding the few old 
 rotten teeth which, like ancient monuments, stuck 
 here and there out of her wide mouth, " and I can see 
 all that secret malice of reproach which you wish to 
 cast upon me ; but, sir, I despise you, and all that 
 you can say of me. What ! shall a boy of your age 
 know better than I, what is, or is not suitable ? But, 
 indeed, I am a fool to be thus angry. If your under- 
 standing is not sound enough to acknowledge the 
 value of those pains which I have taken for your 
 interest, at least I will not suffer your levity to 
 make you forego a fortune which far exceeds all that 
 you could ever hope for. You are beginning very 
 early to shake off the yoke which it rests with me 
 either to alleviate or to increase, as I shall find 
 necessary. For, in one word, Mr Nephew, you are 
 dependent upon me, and I know how to make myself 
 obeyed." 
 
 " Madam," said Don Sylvio, full of choler, " your 
 conduct is a sufficient proof that grey hairs are not 
 always the surest indications of wisdom. Know 
 then, madam, that I am neither old enough, nor yet 
 so young, as to become a sacrifice to your ridiculous 
 passion. I exempt you from every duty which the 
 care of my fortune may impose upon you ; and if I 
 refuse your hideous Mergelina with her hundred 
 thousand ducats, by which she may think to bribe me, 
 you may believe, madam, that I have good reasons for 
 so doing for I too know what I say, Donna Menzia 
 and be assured that under the protection which I 
 enjoy, I can despise, in my turn, all the menaces
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 69 
 
 wherewith you think to intimidate me, just as 
 though I were still a little boy." 
 
 So saying, he hurried out of the room into the 
 garden, where he trudged about at a great rate, 
 foaming with rage, and waiting impatiently the 
 coming of his faithful Pedrillo.
 
 70 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 DON SYLVIO'S CONJECTURES. HE CONSULTS PEDRILLO 
 ABOUT HIS ESCAPE 
 
 PEDRILLO, who, it must be confessed, was full as 
 curious as talkative, had listened behind the door 
 and overheard all that passed between his master and 
 Donna Menzia : accordingly, on seeing the former 
 run into the garden in such high indignation, he 
 followed him very softly, and met him in a grove of 
 chestnut trees walking in a great hurry, with his 
 hands clenched together behind his back, and talking 
 very loud to himself. In short, there was something 
 in his air so wild that Pedrillo had not courage to 
 accost him. Don Sylvio, however, the moment he 
 perceived him, called to him, and said : " I see thou 
 art afraid of my reproaches ; for if thy superfluous 
 precautions had not retarded us, we should have been 
 far enough off this cursed house, from whence now, 
 I fear, we shall not be able to escape without the 
 assistance of the powerful fairy Radiante. But don't 
 be frightened, my friend ; I know thou hadst the 
 best intentions in the world, and I am not so unjust 
 as to put these unlucky events to thy account 
 which are only the effect, either of my evil destiny, 
 or of the malice of enchanters, my enemies." 
 
 So saying, he took him by the hand and led him 
 into a thicket, where, after having ordered him to 
 look about on all sides to see if they were alone, he 
 said to him in a low voice : "Listen, Pedrillo, I am 
 going to discover to thee my most secret thoughts. I 
 am fully persuaded that that old skeleton of a woman 
 whom you saw alight from the coach with the two 
 other monsters is not my aunt, Donna Menzia;
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 71 
 
 though at first sight I was dupe enough to take it for 
 her. It is certainly the wicked Fanfreluche, who has 
 borrowed her shape, the more readily to frustrate 
 those plans which the beneficent fairy Radiante has 
 laid for my happiness. She has given me certain 
 tokens, which leaves me no room to doubt on this 
 head ; neither can I doubt it, for this pretended 
 Donna Menzia, in spite of her disguise, showed me 
 something so terrible in her eyes while I talked with 
 her, that I have never seen anything like it in those 
 of my aunt. In short, for I cannot now enter into 
 particulars, I have no longer any doubt upon this 
 matter. Fanfreluche must have heard of the trans- 
 formation of the Green Dwarf ; and, in order to 
 prevent me from disenchanting the blue butterfly, 
 under the aid of the powerful Radiante, she is come 
 here in the form of Donna Menzia to force me into 
 marriage such a marriage as I should detest, even 
 though the object they would have me espouse were 
 as beautiful as this is hideous." 
 
 " And do you think so, sir ? " replied Pedrillo, 
 who had listened to his master with great attention. 
 " To say the truth, I myself almost believe you may 
 be right, for I observed the moment they got out of 
 the coach that all was not natural ; and now that 
 you have communicated to me your ideas, I could 
 venture, sir, to lay any wager that this Donna 
 Smergelina (or what do you call her ?) is the Green 
 Dwarf's sister, or something worse. God help us, for, 
 in my conscience, I never in my life saw anything 
 so ugly. I am sorry we did not, at first, look more 
 narrowly to her feet ; but one thing I am sure I saw, 
 and that is, that her countenance and body were very 
 much tinged over with green ; and then, she had a 
 humpback too, and terrible long ears." 
 
 " And yet, with all these beauties," said Don 
 Sylvio, " she asks no less than for me to marry her ! " 
 
 " You marry her ? " cried Pedrillo, " marry her ? 
 You ! What ! You marry such a homely puss as
 
 72 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 she ? Surely you must have lost your senses 
 (pardon me, sir, for saying so) : but I am satisfied 
 you'll never do any such thing. What a devil would 
 the monster be at ? Indeed, sir, it would be a very 
 great pity for such a handsome young gentleman as 
 you to be seen in the arms of a frightful sea-calf like 
 that. No, no, Madam Smergelina, that will never 
 do, by my troth ! Troop off, prithee, or, if you will 
 absolutely be married, take the dwarf Migonnet ; he 
 suits you far better. Ha ! ha ! 'twould be a mighty 
 good match. While he was adorning his nose with 
 a half-dozen linnets and goldfinches, as the stories 
 go she might set off her enormous bosom with as 
 many young porpoises laid tumbling at full length. 
 'Twould be a high scene. Deuce take it ! ay, well, 
 well ! So, then, we are to see these copper-faces 
 soon married, are not we ? They tell me, indeed, 
 that she is prodigiously rich ; but were she even gilt 
 all over from head to foot, I would not have her, 
 though I am only a poor country lad. Less money 
 and more beauty, if you please, Madam Fanfreluche, 
 or else go look out for your husbands elsewhere." 
 
 This strange rhapsody which Pedrillo poured forth 
 with much warmth, made Don Sylvio laugh, in spite 
 of all his efforts to stifle it ; but, finding there was 
 no likelihood of his leaving off, he at length inter- 
 rupted him and said : " My dear Pedrillo, the business 
 in hand is more serious than perhaps you may think. 
 Fanfreluche is one of the most wicked and revengeful 
 fairies that ever existed ; and, what is still worse, one 
 of the most powerful. If it be she that returned 
 this evening to make me absolutely marry that 
 monstrous Mergelina " 
 
 " Adzooks, sir ! " interrupted Pedrillo, who at 
 these words had suddenly changed his mind, " if my 
 lady your aunt is not your aunt, as you have been 
 telling me, but, on the contrary, is that same cursed 
 Fanfreluche, then, Heavens defend us, for what 
 would you have us do against witches and spirits ? "
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 73 
 
 " Hear me, my friend Pedrillo," said Don Sylvio ; 
 " the only way left us is to decamp this very night." 
 
 " How, this night ? " cried Pedrillo, in agitation. 
 " Oh, sir, don't think of it : the night is nobody's 
 friend, and in such circumstances, do you see, I 
 would not set a foot out of doors, if you'd give me as 
 many doubloons as I have hairs upon my head. Let 
 me die, if we should not meet with thousands of spirits, 
 dragons, and porcupines to stop up the way every 
 step we trod. I beg of you, dear sir, Don Sylvio " 
 
 " Have done with your idle tittle-tattle," said 
 Don Sylvio. " Have I not about me the portrait 
 of my mistress, whose aspect alone is more than 
 sufficient to keep all tii-j monsters in Africa at a 
 respectable distance ; and has not the fairy Radiante 
 promised us her succour in every exigency ? We 
 have every appearance of its being a fine night ; and 
 even though the moon did not shine a jot, I am in 
 hopes that the fairy, in case of necessity, will send us 
 one or more of her salamanders to light us along, and 
 guard us from the persecutions of the fairy Fanfre- 
 luche. In a word, friend Pedrillo, if thou lovest me, 
 thou wilt assist me in my designs ; for, if we neglect 
 this opportunity of escaping, God knows whether we 
 may ever find it again. Be assured, I will not be 
 ungrateful. I am not fond of promising more than I 
 know how to perform ; but the moment I have found 
 out my princess, you may reckon your fortune made. 
 However, in case you do not choose to accompany 
 me, I assure you I would rather go quite alone, 
 and suffer death a thousand times, than consent to 
 pass one night more in this cursed castle." 
 
 Pedrillo, notwithstanding all his cowardice, was 
 yet as honest a lad as any in the world. The tears 
 came into his eyes when he heard these words from 
 his master : he therefore determined to follow him 
 in spite of all the spirits and Fanfreluches in the 
 creation, even though he should set out in the 
 darkest midnight.
 
 74 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 A WALKING PARTY. DON SYLVIO'S PRUDENCE 
 
 SCARCE had they formed their measures, when the 
 shrill voice of Donna Menzia was heard to sound at 
 some distance from them. She led her company 
 into the garden to take the air. This garden was not 
 over-well kept up, but its situation and the manner 
 of laying it out were yet very agreeable. Pedrillo 
 had hardly time to hide himself behind a hedge of 
 myrtles, and then slink away into another alley, 
 from whence he might steal out of the garden unper- 
 ceived, while Don Sylvio kept his seat till the guests 
 came pretty near him. 
 
 As, setting aside his whimsies, this young man did 
 not want for understanding, he instantly bethought 
 himself that, the better to conceal his intended flight, 
 it was necessary to affect such an air as, without 
 contradicting too much his late declaration to his 
 aunt, might keep her from despairing to gain her 
 point with him. 
 
 Accordingly, he advanced towards the company 
 with a slow pace, and a countenance neither quite 
 gloomy nor altogether satisfied ; mixed with a good 
 grace in their conversation, and endeavoured to stifle 
 that great disgust and secret horror with which the 
 Green Dwarf's sister inspired him an aversion so 
 much the stronger, as the person strove to please 
 him, and convince him, in every possible way, of her 
 high opinion of his taste. 
 
 The vanity of the beauteous Mergelina happily 
 made her amends for whatever a person of more
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 75 
 
 delicate sensations might have thought insupportable 
 in Don Sylvio's mode of conduct ; so completely, 
 indeed, that she even appeared vastly well pleased 
 with him, though the young gentleman kept himself 
 strictly within the bounds of the most rigid polite- 
 ness that sort of politeness which cannot be dis- 
 pensed with towards every stranger, and especially 
 towards one of that sex which Miss Mergelina seemed 
 to belong to. 
 
 As to his aunt, nothing could be more useless than 
 his fear of her suspecting him of some ill design. She 
 knew he was short of cash, and had no sort of 
 acquaintance in the whole neighbourhood ; she had 
 not the least conception, therefore, of his intention to 
 elope, while thus destitute of every necessary means 
 for that purpose. Indeed, the tone of voice he had 
 opposed to hers, and especially the last words that 
 escaped him in his wrath, had a little disconcerted 
 her. On this occasion she had determined to inform 
 herself whether, during her absence, anything had 
 happened in the family that could induce Don Sylvio 
 to use so extraordinary language. But the neces- 
 sity of keeping her dear Don Rodrigo company (for, 
 at Rosalva, Mr Rodrigo Sanchez was as good a Don 
 as Gusman) had hitherto left her no time for it. 
 Besides, seeing her nephew so polite to Mergelina, 
 she hoped he had at length thought better of it, and 
 therefore supposed it could be of no use to cavil at a 
 few expressions which, very probably, might only be 
 the effect of a young man's hastiness.
 
 76 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 DON SYLVIO IS TRANSPORTED IN AN ECSTASY TO 
 THE GARDENS OF THE FAIRY RADIANTE : THE 
 SINGULAR MISTAKE IT OCCASIONS, WITH ITS 
 DISAGREEABLE CONSEQUENCES 
 
 OUR little society, or at least the ladies who were the 
 soul of it, found their walk so pleasant, that night 
 came and surprised them, without their even wishing 
 to perceive it. 
 
 In fact, that night appeared to be so expressly 
 formed to favour love. It was so clear and so agree- 
 able, that the chaste Diana herself could not have 
 chosen a finer to lull her beautiful Endymion asleep 
 in, nor the Goddess of Love to make her Adonis 
 happy. 
 
 The tender Donna Menzia and her ^Eneas insen- 
 sibly loitered behind, and stopped in a thick shady 
 retreat, very snug and obscure. Mergelina, on her 
 part, who was no less tender, squeezed the hand of 
 her conductor in a manner better calculated to 
 express the strength of her passion than the lightness 
 of her own hand ; this she did, to extricate our hero 
 from a reverie in which he, for some time, appeared 
 quite absorbed. 
 
 Don Sylvio, who, no less than the rest of them, 
 was struck with the beauties of silent nature, which 
 seemed, as it were, stretched out in soft repose, 
 fraught with charms delicately negligent, and clad 
 in moonlight, as with a robe of transparent gauze ; 
 Don Sylvio, I say, in the height of his ecstasy, forgot 
 both where he was, and whom he had got by the side
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 77 
 
 of him. He fancied himself transported into the 
 enchanted gardens of the fairy Radiante ; and that 
 he was walking under arches covered with ethereal 
 jessamines, intermingled with never-fading roses. 
 The stars appeared to be so many male and female 
 salamanders, sporting and dancing their airy rounds 
 in those spacious fields of azure. The frogs that 
 resounded from the neighbouring ditches were, to 
 him, so many ravishing voices chanting forth the 
 glory of his princess, and the felicity he enjoyed in 
 loving her. In a word, he was so beside himself, 
 that at the very instant when the beautiful Mergelina 
 let him feel the weight of her hand, he imagined he 
 saw his dear princess standing beside him. 
 
 " How ! " cried he, all in a rapture ; " and shall I 
 venture to believe my eyes ? Gods ! is it a delusive 
 dream of my impatient heart, or do I really behold 
 thee, my charming princess ? Has then the un- 
 bounded passion I entertain for thee at length 
 triumphed over the power of a detestable enchant- 
 ment ; and has it at last restored to thee that divine 
 shape whose dazzling splendours supply the absent 
 sun, shedding a new and still more charming day 
 over all the scenes of embellished nature ? " 
 
 In this strain of the sublimest extravagance did 
 Don Sylvio run on, telling Donna Mergelina things 
 beyond her comprehension. However, that did not 
 occasion her being less affected by them : she judged 
 at least, by the tone and vivacity with which he 
 spoke them, that his discourse must be full of ani- 
 mated sentiments ; and as she knew nothing of the 
 tone of good company but from books of chivalry 
 and high-flown romances, and was, moreover, greatly 
 prepossessed in favour of Don Sylvio' s education, 
 she easily persuaded herself that this was the very 
 style in which people of quality made love. It never 
 came into her head that possibly Don Sylvio might be 
 only laughing at her probable as it might otherwise 
 have been, and must have appeared to anybody else :
 
 78 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 but in a girl of her stamp it was very natural for her 
 not to think of this. She listened to him, therefore, 
 without attempting to interrupt him, and with 
 greater pleasure, in hopes that the fine things he said 
 to her and which, indeed, she could very well have 
 dispensed with might lead them into certain ex- 
 planations, of which a young shopkeeper's lad in 
 the neighbourhood, a very anti-platonic blade, had 
 suggested to her some ideas in a former private 
 conversation ; ideas which, undoubtedly, were more 
 suited to her ardent wishes than the sublimest 
 declarations of love. However, not to remain in a 
 state of total inaction, and to hasten the moments so 
 much desired, she began to lean upon Don Sylvio in 
 a very tender manner ; she took him by his hand 
 and pressed it to her bosom, which undulated with 
 increasing rapidity to her chin ; and, in short, she 
 rolled about her glassy-looking optics so prodigiously 
 quick, that they became as electrical and glittering as 
 a cat's eyes in the night. 
 
 But whether our hero's imagination was exhausted 
 by the quantity of incoherencies he had uttered to 
 his dear supposed princess, or whether there was no 
 illusion, extravagance, or enchantment strong enough 
 to hold out against the aspect of Donna Mergelina : 
 no sooner were they got out of the thicket, and Don 
 Sylvio had an opportunity of seeing a little clearer, 
 than, casting his eyes upon his companion, he started 
 back with a great cry, and in an astonishment no less 
 terrible than that of the Princess Laidronetta, when, 
 instead of a husband whom she had thought more 
 handsome than the god of Love, she found the horrid 
 green serpent entangled in her arms. 
 
 " O Heavens ! what do I see ? " exclaimed he, all 
 confounded ; " what a frightful metamorphosis is 
 here ! Ah, thou accused Fanfreluche and are not 
 the persecutions which already thou hast made me 
 suffer are not they sufficient to appease thy unjust 
 malevolence ? What have I done, that, instead of
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 79 
 
 the charming princess, whom I supposed myself 
 embracing, thou puttest this horrible dwarf, whose 
 nauseous embraces, without the beneficent light of 
 the chaste Goddess Luna, might have thus converted 
 me into a monster, or at least have petrified me, as 
 the sight of Medusa's head once did every beholder ? 
 But think not that I will rest without taking ven- 
 geance for so dire an outrage. Speak, little monster ; 
 tell me where is my princess ? Thy life depends 
 upon thy answer. I am aware of thy ridiculous 
 pretensions to my heart ; but know that, in spite of 
 all the Fanfreluches, and of all the green dwarfs, I 
 will crush thee beneath my foot, unless thou restore 
 my love this instant to my arms." 
 
 Poor Mergelina was thunderstruck with this 
 proposition. The enraged tone of voice and menacing 
 gestures wherewith it was accompanied so terrified 
 her spirits, that she began to cry out with all her 
 might, so as to bring Donna Menzia and the noble 
 Signior Rodrigo toward them as soon as ever the con- 
 versation would permit them, in which they were so 
 deeply engaged. 
 
 It will be easily conceived how much they must 
 have been astonished at what they saw and heard, 
 at the state in which they beheld Don Sylvio, foaming 
 with rage, and at the relation given them by the 
 offended fair one of all that had befallen her a rela- 
 tion which she did not go through without shedding a 
 flood of tears. In short, they unanimously concluded 
 that Don Sylvio's head was turned : who, on his part, 
 by the harangue which he continued to hold on, in 
 the heat of his frantic emotion, not a little conduced 
 to fix them in their opinion. 
 
 The noise and tumult created by this scene soon 
 brought all the domestics of the family to the place. 
 The sum total was, that Don Sylvio, notwithstanding 
 a very stout resistance for a time, was bound hand 
 and foot, and carried up to his chamber. 
 
 There they undressed him, put him to bed, and the
 
 8o THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 faithful Pedrillo was commissioned to take care of 
 him. Meanwhile Donna Menzia busied herself in her 
 little apothecary shop, to prepare for him a strong 
 emetic powder ; and the nimble Maritornes was 
 dispatched away in search of the barber to bleed 
 him.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 81 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 DON SYLVIO COMES TO HIMSELF. CONVERSATION 
 WITH PEDRILLO. THE ADDRESS OF THE LATTER, 
 IN ORDER TO ELUDE THE VIGILANCE OF THE 
 PRETENDED FANFRELUCHE 
 
 VIOLENT as the fits were, that every now and then 
 attacked our hero, they soon, however, went off ; 
 though the principal cause of the evil was lodged in 
 that part of the soul whose situation is determined 
 by the divine Plato to lie between the lungs and the 
 diaphragm. 
 
 No sooner, then, had he been left alone for a few 
 minutes, than he came to his senses again, not a little 
 astonished at seeing himself in his chamber, and in 
 bed. 
 
 K- At length he discovered Pedrillo in a corner of the 
 room, who, at the first motion his master made, had 
 concealed himself, in a perpetual jeopardy of his 
 falling again into one of his mad fits. 
 
 " Is it thou, my dear Pedrillo," said Don Sylvio, 
 calling him with a gentle voice, and stretching forth 
 his hand, " I thought thou hadst been one of those 
 that have abandoned me : but thou hast too good a 
 heart to do so ; nor shalt thou one day have cause to 
 repent the having been so affectionate to me." 
 
 Pedrillo wept for joy at hearing his young master 
 talk with so much reason and composure, after 
 having supposed him frantic : he testified his joy, 
 therefore, by the most lively expressions that came 
 next to hand. 
 
 " I neither comprehend," said Don Sylvio, " what 
 G
 
 82 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 them tellest me, nor what has been done to me. It is 
 not above five minutes since I was in the gardens of 
 the fairy Radiante, queen of the salamanders. Canst 
 not thou tell me how I came hither, and who can 
 have bound me in this manner ? " 
 
 " Oh, God help us ! " cried Pedrillo, utterly dis- 
 concerted, " what are you saying about salamanders 
 and their queen, whom you have no more seen than 
 I have seen my grandmother. Don't you know, sir, 
 what has happened to you ? But, indeed, consider- 
 ing how they have used you, it is not to be wondered 
 at if you are fallen into a syncope. I was just going 
 to carry my wallet slily out of the house, when I 
 heard a great noise in the garden ; I immediately 
 threw my wallet behind a hedge, and ran with all my 
 might to see what was the matter, for it seemed to me 
 as if you was crying out ; but I came too late. These 
 cursed people all in a breath declared, saving your 
 presence, sir, that your head was turned ; or to speak 
 more properly, that you were mad. Then they all 
 fell upon you, and tied you without my having the 
 least power in the world to hinder it. A plague take 
 the rascals ! I see clearly now that all was a lie, and 
 that you have your five senses as perfect as I, or 
 any other good Christian." 
 
 * Hear me, Pedrillo," replied Don Sylvio. " But, 
 first of all, untie me these bands, for I can no longer 
 bear them. If I had a foresight this evening that 
 some mystery lay concealed under the arrival of that 
 old woman who calls herself my aunt, I am now fully 
 ascertained what I ought to think of her. I have 
 seen surprising things come to pass since thou leftest 
 me in the garden ; but here we must only venture to 
 utter it in a whisper. We are not safe in this place, 
 and God knows what more may happen to us, if 
 we do not endeavour to escape from it by a speedy 
 flight." 
 
 " But how will that be possible ? " answered 
 Pedrillo ; " the whole family is still up, and madam
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 83 
 
 the old sorceress, I mean will be coming in a moment 
 to give you a powder of turpentine, as she calls it." 
 
 " What do you say ? " interrupted Don Sylvio, 
 " a temperate powder ? " 
 
 " Let her call it what she will," said Pedrillo ; 
 " but I know, were I in your place, sir, I would not 
 be such a madman as to take that powder. No, no, 
 we must never trust the wicked. She might just as 
 easily give you ratsbane, or the parings of her nails, 
 as oyster-shell powder." 
 
 " Of that," replied Don Sylvio, " I have no great 
 fear; but what I am afraid of is, lest they should 
 give me a philtre, to inflame me with love for that 
 ugly dwarf, who is either the daughter or the niece of 
 that old sorceress, I know not which of the two. But 
 I conjure thee, my friend Pedrillo, think of some 
 method to enable me to escape this night, that so I 
 may never more behold either the old or young one ; 
 for, upon my honour, the trick they have played me 
 sits so much at heart, that it would be impossible for 
 me to be master of myself, if I saw them ? " 
 
 " But pray, sir," said Pedrillo, " after a short 
 reverie, " don't you think this might be a very 
 proper season for Madam Radamante to assist us ? 
 If she is so much your friend as she says she is, why 
 does not she come to deliver us from the clutches of 
 this old bawd ? She might at least send us an aerial 
 chariot, or Prince Hobgoblin's little hat, or some- 
 thing like it, and help us to get off the better. But 
 this is just the way of these lords and ladies. When 
 you want nothing they promise you golden moun- 
 tains. Let him trust them that will ! you may be 
 sure they are not at home when you have most need 
 of their assistance. I will lay you any wager you 
 please, that she won't fail to come when we are once 
 changed into scorpions or dragons, to pay us her 
 compliments of condolence, and throw all the blame 
 upon fate, or some unlucky jumble of the stars " 
 
 " Do not talk so," interrupted Don Sylvio. " And
 
 84 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 dost thou suppose, then, that the fairies have nothing 
 else to do but to hold themselves always in readiness 
 to receive thy orders whenever the whim takes thee 
 to declare them ? When once we find ourselves in 
 such a situation as to be at a loss what to think or do, 
 I am persuaded that Radiante will not then refuse 
 me her succours. In the meantime, it is our part 
 to attempt even impossibility itself, and to choose 
 such means " 
 
 " Hush, hush ! " cried Pedrillo, " I hear the old 
 sorceress, she is coming upstairs. What shall we do 
 now ? Let's see oh, I have it : turn yourself on 
 the other side, and make as if you were asleep. 
 There, that will do ; only snore a little, and leave 
 the rest to me." 
 
 He had scarce done speaking when in came Donna 
 Menzia with the powder and a glass of water in her 
 hand. 
 
 " Well," said she to Pedrillo, who stepped up to 
 meet her, treading on tiptoe, " how is Don Sylvio ? 
 I did not think it would have took me up so much 
 time, but " 
 
 " Softly, softly, if you please," cried Pedrillo, in a 
 low whisper ; my young master has fell asleep 
 within these few moments, and you know, madam, 
 one must not wake the sleeping cat. Rest will do 
 him more good than all the powders and medicines 
 in the world." 
 
 " But has he had no new fits since you have 
 stood by him ? " said the old lady. 
 
 " No, Madam Fanfreluche," answered Pedrillo, 
 looking sometimes at her forehead, then at her feet ; 
 " He only had " 
 
 " What did you say ? " cried Donna Menzia ; 
 " and what is it you called me, you fool ! What do 
 you mean by it ? " 
 
 " Oh, dear madam," replied Pedrillo, all in a 
 tremor, " I most humbly beg your pardon ; it slipped 
 from me before I thought. Nothing more easy,
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 85 
 
 madam, than to say one thing for another ; but 
 what I meant, madam, is that you would do well to 
 let my master sleep on, for, not above half a quar- 
 ter of an hour ago, he called out to me, ' Pedrillo ! ' 
 ' Sir ! ' said I, ' what did you want ? ' ' Hear me, 
 Pedrillo,' answered he ; ' I know not how it is, but 
 I am as tired as if anybody had beaten me all 
 over ; but methinks, if I could but sleep a little, I 
 should soon be better.' So saying, he turned himself 
 round, and fell into a doze : don't you hear him 
 snore ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Donna Menzia, after opening the cur- 
 tains a little, " yes, yes, he is asleep. I am very glad 
 to find him so composed. Don't you wake him, by 
 any means : but if he wakes of himself, give him 
 this powder : it will certainly do him a deal of good. 
 Meantime the barber will be come to bleed him, for 
 we cannot use too much precaution in these cases. 
 His sleeping seems to proceed merely from weari- 
 ness, and I am afraid the fever will only return the 
 stronger when he wakes." 
 
 " As to that, madam," replied Pedrillo, " I think 
 you may now go to bed very quietly, for I am in 
 hopes the worst is over ; however, I shall take good 
 care of him ; but as for waking him, it is what I will 
 never do, though the Barber of Bagdad himself were 
 coming. All I can allow him to do is to help me 
 watch my master ; for if unfortunately he should 
 rave again, two people will not be more than enough 
 to hold him." 
 
 Donna Menzia yielded to Pedrillo's reasoning, and, 
 leaving her nephew's chamber, went to console the 
 strangers, who greatly interested themselves in the 
 young gentleman's welfare, with the news of his 
 being better. 
 
 " What a terror hast thou put me in ! " said Don 
 Sylvio, the moment they were alone together ; " when 
 wilt thou learn to govern that cursed tongue of thine ? 
 Could ever anything be more stupid and thoughtless
 
 86 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 than to tell her to her face that thou tookest her for 
 the fairy Fanfreluche ? " 
 
 "Don't be angry, signior," replied Pedrillo ; " for 
 though it must be allowed I know how to commit 
 faults, yet I know also how to mend them upon the 
 spot, and that is no small art. It is no uncommon 
 case for a goose to lose her egg : 1 mean, for the 
 preacher in his pulpit sometimes to say one thing 
 instead of another. But, as I have oftentimes 
 heard madam say, the best general was he who com- 
 mitted the most faults no, no ! he who best knew 
 how that is, he who, out of his faults well, I 
 cannot remember what it was ; but, however, I was 
 speaking about faults, and this threw itself in my way 
 so very oddly " 
 
 " Why, sure thou art dreaming," interrupted Don 
 Sylvio ; " what devil of a jargon is all this ? Thou 
 knowest that things of far greater importance demand 
 all my present cares ; and yet, hast been dinging me 
 in the ears with thy wretched tittle-tattle. While I 
 dress myself, go down very softly, and see if they are 
 gone to bed. We must endeavour to get off before 
 the barber arrives, or otherwise our departure will be 
 retarded, and then all is over with us." 
 
 " Ay, there is the thing," replied Pedrillo. 
 " Maritornes has been gone now above half an hour ; 
 and if she have found him at home, we are not sure 
 a moment but he will be here." 
 
 " Courage ! " said Don Sylvio, who was now 
 almost quite dressed. " Go and do what I bid thee ; 
 and when thou findest everybody is asleep, then go 
 down by the little private staircase into the garden, 
 and wait for me near the Green Castle at the lowest 
 part of the wall, for it is pretty well crumbled away 
 thereabouts." 
 
 " And have you your keys then ? " said Pedrillo ; 
 "but no, I remember they took from you in the 
 garden everything of iron you had about you; as, 
 for example, sword, knife, keys, nay, and even your
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 87 
 
 corkscrew ; for fear, truly, that you should do either 
 yourself or somebody else a mischief." 
 
 " Well, well," cried Don Sylvio, " go, and wait 
 for me near the Green Castle, for we have not a 
 moment to lose." 
 
 Pedrillo obeyed, and in less than a quarter of an 
 hour Don Sylvio, looking out of the window into the 
 garden, saw Pedrillo trudging through a long alley 
 of orange-trees which led to the Green Castle. Don 
 Sylvio was just upon the point of following, when 
 he perceived he had no sword on. To go in search 
 of adventures without a sword seemed to him an 
 unpardonable indecorum. " Though I have reason 
 to hope," said he to himself, " that in case of need 
 the fairy Radiante will give me one of diamonds, it 
 would have an air of cowardice to think of availing 
 myself only of an enchanted weapon." At length, 
 however, he recollected an old sabre that used to 
 hang in an adjacent room, among some other old 
 iron and pieces of antiquity. This sabre, from its 
 appearance, did not seem to have been drawn since 
 the days of Ferdinand the Catholic : the weight, too, 
 of this venerable blade rendered the necessity of 
 using it very disagreeable to Don Sylvio : but as he 
 did not know how to manage matters otherwise, he 
 armed himself with it, fully determined at the first 
 opportunity to exchange it for something better and 
 more commodious. 
 
 The great silence that reigned throughout the 
 house convinced him that all were asleep. He 
 went, therefore, full of confidence, straight to the 
 garden, where every moment's delay seemed an age 
 to Pedrillo, so great was his fear lest the sudden 
 return of Maritornes should discover their flight. 
 This, joined to the dread of that chastisement which 
 he apprehended on the part of the fairy Fanfreluche, 
 had driven from his heart every other fear. 
 
 But the good fortune of our young knight had re- 
 moved this difficulty : Maritornes, either fearing spirits ,
 
 88 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 or being unwilling to hazard her genteel person alone 
 in the night, had permitted her lover the groom to 
 accompany her. In their way this tender couple 
 had suffered themselves to be overtaken by the 
 charms of a night so seducing as at length to incline 
 them to seat themselves down in a little thicket. 
 What shall we say more ? the opportunity so favour- 
 able, the lover importunate, the fair one weak : in 
 a word, they conducted themselves as Jupiter had 
 often done before them upon similar occasions. The 
 beautiful Maritornes forgot she was to find out the 
 barber, and never thought of it more, till Aurora 
 had awakened her and her dear inamorato from 
 their gentle slumbers in that same thicket.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 89 
 
 BOOK III 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE SECRET FLIGHT OF OUR ADVENTURERS. A DIS- 
 PUTE BETWEEN THEM CONCERNING A TREE 
 WHICH PEDRILLO TAKES FOR A GIANT 
 
 IT was about half an hour past midnight when Don 
 Sylvio, after having sent forth many an ardent sigh 
 towards the sovereign mistress of his heart, set out 
 on his journey to seek adventures, accompanied 
 by his faithful and well furnished Pedrillo. Little 
 Pimpimp, who by order of the fairy was one of the 
 party, skipped playfully before them, and whether 
 by simple instinct, or the secret impulse of some 
 fairy, led them the same road on which Don Sylvio 
 had found his princess's portrait. Pedrillo had 
 great objections to this way, urging that there was a 
 much more commodious path along the bank of the 
 Guadalaviar, from whence you are gently conducted 
 down an easy slope by the edge of the wood. But 
 Don Sylvio insisted upon having no other guide 
 than Pimpimp, whom he began to take for a kind of 
 fairy, or at least some rational animal. Accordingly, 
 Pedrillo saw himself obliged to yield, though most 
 violently afraid of going through a wood in the night, 
 his imagination making him see spectres in every- 
 thing he met : and what is still worse, after having 
 been hardly got an hour on their way, the sky was 
 overspread so thick with clouds, that they could not, 
 without great difficulty, make out their path in the 
 wood, which was otherwise a very plain one.
 
 9 o THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 This circumstance did not fail to put poor Pedrillo's 
 imagination into an utter confusion. In a moment 
 he called to mind every story about spirits and 
 apparitions that he had been told from his infancy ; 
 every moment he fancied he saw something sus- 
 picious ; trembling as much, and perhaps more, 
 than one of Klopstock's devils, at the least noise he 
 heard. 
 
 " Why, thy teeth chatter as if thou hadst the 
 ague," at length said Don Sylvio, who had long 
 observed his agitation, " what is the matter with 
 thee ? " 
 
 " Oh, dear sir," cried Pedrillo, stammering and 
 catching hold of him by the coat ; " do you see 
 nothing, then ? " 
 
 " Yes, I see trees," replied Don Sylvio, " as well 
 as one can see them in this obscurity." 
 
 " Heaven defend us ! " said Pedrillo, scarce able 
 to breathe, " and don't you then see that frightful 
 giant coming out there there to the left hand ? 
 See how he comes up out of the ground ! ha, how 
 he grows bigger and bigger ! one would think he 
 holds out more than a hundred arms at us ; see where 
 he comes on." 
 
 " Why, surely," said Don Sylvio, " thou art mad ; 
 open thine eyes again, and thou wilt see thou hast 
 taken a tree for a giant ; thou oughtest to die with 
 shame." 
 
 "Oh, Heaven grant this be not something far 
 worse than a giant ! " replied Pedrillo. " A tree, do 
 you call it ? pray, whoever yet saw a tree that had 
 arms and thighs ? " 
 
 " But I tell thee it is a tree, thou poor simpleton," 
 said Don Sylvio ; " what thou tookest for arms are 
 its branches ; it seems to grow bigger, because the 
 ground on which we are walking is a little raised ; 
 and in the next place it seems to approach us, be- 
 cause we approach it. If thou art so fearful as to 
 take oaks for giants, I should be glad to know for
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 91 
 
 whom thou wilt take the real giants, that we shall 
 probably meet with by and by. For my own part, I 
 swear to thee, that all the trees of this forest might 
 become giants without exciting in me the least fear 
 of them." 
 
 " I beg of you, my dear master," said Pedrillo," do 
 not talk so loud ; my hair stands up upon my head 
 to hear you speak at this rate. The giants might 
 take you at your word : believe me, sir, one single 
 giant might find you so much business as to give you 
 enough of it. I beseech you, then, to avoid him, and 
 not to irritate him. Oh, poor lad that I am ! this 
 devil would not concern himself to examine whether 
 I be innocent or guilty : he would crush me to pieces 
 just as well as yourself." 
 
 " Ay," replied Don Sylvio, laughing, " I knew very 
 well thou wert afraid only for thy own skin ; but 
 take courage. The fairy Radiante hath appointed 
 thee my companion ; she taketh thee, therefore, as 
 well as myself, under her protection. Hold up then, 
 I tell thee once more. If every tree in this forest were 
 to become a giant, and from every leaf there sprung 
 a little devil, we should still have nothing to fear. 
 But, in one word, dost not thou now see that thy 
 giant is neither more nor less than what I tell thee ? 
 We are now very near it ; and if that is not enough 
 to convince thee it is a tree an oak I will cut off 
 a branch of it to give thee a demonstration." 
 
 " Ah, my good sweet sir ! " exclaimed Pedrillo, 
 catching him in his arms, " do not so, I entreat you, 
 for all the world : let that alone, and do not make 
 yourself and me both miserable by your rashness. 
 Granting that it were now an oak, or an ash ; it's 
 enough for me to have seen this monstrous giant 
 with my own eyes. I will not absolutely say a 
 giant ; God only knows what it was : but I well 
 know what I saw, mind me. The devil, God help 
 us ! is very cunning. He can as well " 
 
 " And do'st not thou know, then, Pedrillo,"
 
 92 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 interrupted Don Sylvio, " that I begin to be tired 
 with thy fooleries ? Upon my soul, I think you want 
 to make a Don Quixote of me, and to persuade me to 
 take windmills for giants. Mind now, and see what 
 my sentiments are of these same giants." So saying, 
 he drew his sabre, and with one stroke cut off a pretty 
 strong branch of the tree. 
 
 Pedrillo was at first so greatly terrified at this rash 
 action that his fright had nearly overset him ; but 
 as soon as he beheld it was attended with no ill con- 
 sequences, his courage began to revive. " Signior 
 Don Sylvio," said he, " I could never have believed 
 you were of so determined a spirit : God forgive me ! 
 I thought you could never have been fool enough to 
 have attacked the devil and his grandmother : but 
 don't let us cry victory too soon : only see whether 
 the branch does not spout forth blood." 
 
 " Take it and look ; view it thyself," cried Don 
 Sylvio, holding it to him ; " and now confess, for 
 once, that thou art the greatest oaf I ever yet saw in 
 my life. Tell me, then, where didst thou pick up 
 all these impertinent foolish notions which thou hast 
 just been uttering ? " 
 
 " Nay, sir, look ye," replied Pedrillo, " what I 
 told you is not so very stupid as you perhaps may 
 think. I have read many histories in this way ; 
 and what has happened may just as well happen 
 again : for example, I remember this moment a 
 Troyon prince, I think they called him Coridor or 
 Isidor ; for it was something with a dor : this prince 
 was changed into a cypress by a Mahometan en- 
 chanter ; and when Pope ^Eneas Sylvius ordered 
 this cypress to be cut down, I don't recollect why, 
 there came blood out of it at every stroke, and good 
 blood too, I assure you, and as red as any you shall 
 meet with. The people were terribly frightened, as 
 you might well suppose ; but Pope ^Eneas, who 
 immediately comprehended there was some mystery 
 in it, gave them orders to follow their blow. Weil
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 93 
 
 now, and what do you think came to pass ? Why, 
 they heard a voice, an extremely lamentable voice 
 come from it, which said that it was the soul of this 
 same Isidor, or what you please to call him ; and 
 then it told what had happened to it, and how it had 
 been changed into a tree by that infidel enchanter, 
 without having been able to make its confession or 
 prepare itself. Then it begged every good Christian 
 soul that stood by, to say a few dozen Ave Maries, 
 for the softening of its pains and torments ; and in 
 short went through its supplications in so affecting a 
 manner that the audience all burst into a hot flood 
 of tears." 
 
 " Well, Pedrillo," said Don Sylvio, after the his- 
 torian had finished his narrative, " as to this matter, 
 I must confess thee to have had a prodigious share 
 of reading ; and as for the gift of story-telling, I'll 
 bet my castle and whatever I have besides, if there 
 be either at Salamanca, or in any other village or 
 university in Spain, any bachelor of them all, that 
 can dare cope with thee. I defy them all put to- 
 gether, to join a Trojan prince with Pope ^Eneas 
 Sylvius, called Pius II., as you have done ; unless 
 it be in the infernal regions, where certainly ^Eneas 
 Sylvius cannot be ; for he was one of the most pious 
 and learned popes that ever yet filled the Holy See." 
 
 " Ay, so you are pleased to say, sir," replied 
 Pedrillo ;' " but, whether you speak seriously or no, 
 I can assure you, though I have never studied for it, 
 I am not afraid of anybody in these matters, let him 
 be who he will, though he were a bachelor three 
 times over, or even a doctor of the seven faculties. 
 'Tis not above eight years since I knew all the 
 stories in Ovidus Nasus by heart, as well as the 
 fables in Florian's Chronicles. Perhaps, sir, you 
 would not have supposed me to have so much learn- 
 ing ; but, let me tell you, I had the memory of an 
 elephant, and our old curate, God bless him, often told 
 my grandmother, that if I was but put to studying,
 
 94 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 I might very like become a bishop, if please God ; 
 or even, perhaps, a vicar-general : and who knows, if 
 my lord your late father had not took me into his 
 service, just as my grandmother thought of sending 
 me to her brother's, who was then churchwarden of 
 a village not far from Toledo, and, as many people 
 said, had great interest with the archbishop ; who 
 knows what might have come about ? But don't 
 imagine, sir, for all this, that I mean to say I have 
 lost anything by the change. There is a livelihood 
 to be got everywhere. You know that I have served 
 you, as it were, from your infancy, with all fidelity 
 and loyalty ; and I am sure you will one day make 
 my fortune, when, God grant it may soon be, we 
 shall have found your princess ; for though you are 
 as noble a gentleman as any in Christendom, I am 
 persuaded, however, that you would keep your word 
 just as if you were only a peasant." 
 
 Pedrillo ran on at this rate a long while, without 
 the least attention from his master, who was totally 
 absorbed by other reflections. Pedrillo was loqua- 
 cious for the same reason which excites little children 
 to sing when it is dark ; for his fear was so great that 
 he sweat great drops in abundance : not a saint in 
 the calendar to whom he did not offer some vow, 
 if he would but bring him into daylight again safe 
 and sound.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 95 
 
 \ 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 MEMORABLE ADVENTURE OF THE SALAMANDER AND 
 THE DITCH 
 
 IN spite of the darkness of the night, which increased 
 every minute, our travellers got on so far as to be 
 pretty nearly out of the forest, when they perceived 
 before them a very spacious field, the sight of which 
 gave poor Pedrillo the highest transport imaginable. 
 He instantly turned his footsteps thither, and his joy 
 considerably increased when at a distance he beheld 
 a light which he took for a sign that there must be 
 some cottage or farmhouse thereabouts whither they 
 might retire, and wait for the approach of day. 
 
 But his joy was presently changed into fear and 
 horror, on perceiving that this light came near him, 
 and grew considerably bigger as it came. Don 
 Sylvio, on the contrary, had no sooner caught sight 
 of it, than he cried out with transport, " Well, 
 Pedrillo, now I hope you see that I have not been 
 flattering myself with a vain hope, in reposing my 
 confidence upon the aid of the fairy Radiante." 
 
 " And what then would you have me see ? " 
 demanded Pedrillo. 
 
 " Why, surely, thou must be more blind than 
 Tiresias was, to ask such a question," replied our 
 hero. " Dost not thou then behold the salamander 
 there, advancing towards us in all the most splendid 
 pomp of an inhabitant of the empyrean heaven ? " 
 
 " A salamander ! " cried Pedrillo ; " where is it, 
 I pray ? For I can see nothing but a will-o'-the- 
 wisp, condemned to traverse about these places,
 
 96 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 to expiate the offences committed during his life- 
 time." 
 
 " Oh, thou sot ! " answered Don Sylvio, a little 
 vexed, " will thy superstitious eyes never behold 
 anything but these chimeras which thy old hag of a 
 grandmother inherited from her great grandsire, and 
 has transmitted in succession to thy stupid brain ? 
 What thou takest for a will-o'-the-wisp is a sala- 
 mander, I tell thee ; nay, more, and one of the most 
 beautiful that surround the shining throne of fairy 
 Radiante. Dost thou not perceive how the locks of 
 his hair, like curling sunbeams, flow down his neck, 
 that resembles the aurora ? Dost thou not behold 
 his eyes sparkling like two stars ? And canst thou 
 not discern those wings of azure streaked with light, 
 wherewith in flight majestic he cleaves the ether as 
 an immortal spirit ? " 
 
 " Oh, good Heavens, Signior Don Sylvio," cried 
 Pedrillo, striking his forehead, " either I am a mad- 
 man, or you are not in your right senses : may I be 
 tossed in a blanket if, notwithstanding all you have 
 been saying, I can see anything but a little globe of 
 fire that moves in the air, now forwards, now back 
 again, and of which I have seen hundreds in my life- 
 time : you shall call it what you please ; but for my 
 own part, I have always heard say, that as to these 
 will-o'-the-wisps ' ' 
 
 " Friend Pedrillo," interrupted Don Sylvio, " if I 
 did not pity thy simplicity, I could be tempted 
 to shut thy impudent mouth in such a manner 
 as should make thee remember it for ever. I 
 should have thought Mr Pedrillo might well have 
 referred himself to me when the question turned 
 upon what is a salamander or what is not. To me, 
 I say, who have seen more than ten thousand of 
 them in the fairy Radiante's train. Once more 
 then, I tell thee, it is a salamander, who in all pro- 
 bability is charged with some commission for me ; 
 or perhaps he may be sent merely to show us our
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 97 
 
 way : whatever may be the cause, we will follow him, 
 and wait the rest with patience." 
 
 " Well then, let it be a salamander if you will," 
 replied Pedrillo. " You must certainly understand 
 these sort of sublime things better than I : you were 
 possibly born on a Sunday, for they say children 
 born then can see spirits at high noonday." 
 
 " What thou hast said," replied Don Sylvio, " is 
 not entirely destitute of foundation. This may be 
 one of those advantages with which some fairy 
 honoured me at my birth ; insomuch that the 
 elementary spirits, who are commonly imperceptible 
 by vulgar eyes, are not invisible to me." 
 
 " But if this were so," replied Pedrillo, " it 
 would be necessary that I should see nothing at all 
 now ; according to your description of it, this sala- 
 mander must be as beautiful as a cherubim. Now 
 why does he envy me the pleasure of seeing him in 
 all his splendour, and why must I behold him under 
 that terrible figure of a will-o'-the-wisp ? " 
 
 " That," answered Don Sylvio, " is the fault of 
 thy troubled imagination. If thou hadst not an 
 head already filled up with these will-o'-the-wisps, 
 thou wouldst certainly see the same as I do. 'Tis 
 with thee now as to the salamander who is become 
 our guide, just as it was before with regard to the 
 oak which thou tookest for a giant " 
 
 " Softly, softly, Signior Don Sylvio," interrupted 
 Pedrillo, " pray don't touch upon that string ; let 
 us carry the sponge over it. I thought one polite- 
 ness demanded another ; and if I let your sala- 
 mander pass muster, you might very well overlook 
 my giant ; besides, who knows whether these two 
 things may not have more to do with each other than 
 one might imagine ; for, to tell you the truth, the 
 ground upon which your salamander has led us 
 begins to become a little plashy or so : I am vastly 
 afraid lest he should treat us no better than will-o'- 
 the-wisps are used to do : these wicked rake-hells 
 H
 
 98 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 have no greater pleasure than to torment poor 
 travellers, and lead them either into a ditch or a 
 bog." 
 
 Pedrillo had hardly done speaking, when Don 
 Sylvio, who went on boldly, and followed the pre- 
 tended salamander with hasty steps, sunk all on a 
 sudden up to the knees in a ditch. The moment he 
 heard him splashing in the water Pedrillo eagerly 
 came to his assistance, which he did with so little 
 precaution that he met with worse luck than his 
 master ; for he tumbled all along into the thickest 
 of the puddle. The lamentable cries which he sent 
 forth made our hero afraid that his valet had either 
 put his foot out of joint, or broke his thigh ; accord- 
 ingly, he cried to him, " What is the matter with 
 thee, my good Pedrillo ? What makes thee exclaim 
 so piteously ? " while he endeavoured to drag him- 
 self out of the mire as fast as possible, and as well as 
 the length and weight of his sabre would permit him. 
 
 " And where are you then, my dear master," cried 
 Pedrillo in his turn, with a very doleful voice ; " are 
 you still in your own shape, or are we now changed 
 into frogs. God help us ! Methinks already I hear 
 myself croak, unless the terror I am in has turned my 
 poor head. Well, well, and so it's come to this, is it ? 
 Did not I tell you beforehand that this would be the 
 case ; now then, will you be kind enough for the 
 future to reflect a little upon what I say to you ? 
 Where now is this same salamander, pray, with 
 golden wings, azure locks, and starry eyes ? Oh, the 
 devil take him ! for little does it concern him how we 
 get ourselves out of this filthy mud." 
 
 " The evil is not near so great as thou imaginest," 
 said Don Sylvio, " and though it were ever so bad, 
 it shall never be laid at the salamander's door. Why 
 did not we take care of ourselves ? He lighted us 
 sufficiently ; and if he disappeared, it was only on 
 account of the impertinence of thy tongue." 
 
 " Oh, don't say so," cried Pedrillo, who by this
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 99 
 
 time had scrambled out of the bog ; " deuce take it ! 
 I think my tongue has been sufficiently punished for 
 it, and even more than was necessary. I tumbled all 
 my length in, and presently got whole mouthfuls of 
 liquor, which had not the taste of Muscadel, I can 
 assure you." 
 
 " Enough," said Don Sylvio ; " in an expedition 
 like ours, we must accommodate ourselves to every- 
 thing ; but, to tell thee ingenuously, I myself begin 
 to doubt. Though I could readily swear that we 
 have seen a salamander, yet it is not impossible but 
 our enemies, who dare not use open violence, may 
 have availed themselves of this stratagem to set us 
 against the pursuit of our enterprise." 
 
 " If I might be permitted to speak," said Pedrillo, 
 " I very well know what I should say." 
 
 " And prithee, then, what is it thou wouldst say ? " 
 
 " Why, that our enemies are not at all to blame." 
 
 " And how so, Mr Pedrillo, if you please ? " 
 
 " Because I think we seem to have been tolerably 
 
 mad, to travel at this rate by night, and in the dark ; 
 
 to run over hills and dales, break our heads against 
 
 the trees, and then to tumble into ditches, and bury 
 
 ourselves in quagmires ; and all, forsooth, for a fine 
 
 reason : namely, to fly away from a little purse of a 
 
 hundred thousand ducats, which we might marry 
 
 when we would, without its costing us a farthing 
 
 more than a little yes." 
 
 " By what I can see," replied Don Sylvio, " the 
 ditch has made a considerable change in thy mode 
 of thinking. But, before we enter further into the 
 business, pray be so kind as to look into our knap- 
 sack, and take me out a pair of stockings, for those 
 I have on are so wet and uncomfortable that I can 
 bear them no longer." 
 
 " Well, sir," said Pedrillo, " you still have more 
 reason to be satisfied with the salamander than I 
 have ; for I am so embalmed all over^from head to 
 foot, that it will take me at least a whole day to get
 
 ioo THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 dry again. Methinks I see yonder a little rising 
 ground, where we may cleverly sit us down and 
 change our linen. You see now," he continued, 
 opening his wallet, " my cares were not superfluous ; 
 we might have rested here with our arms across a 
 pretty long while, I fancy, before the fairy would 
 have brought us fresh linen. But to return to our 
 business I suppose we are now sufficiently cooled 
 to talk of our affairs pretty soberly. Would it not 
 be as well then, Don Sylvio, for us to wait here till 
 daybreak, and then return quietly to the place from 
 whence we came ? It seems to me, look ye, as if we 
 had undertaken an affair that we shall never see the 
 end of. Upon my credit, I had rather look for a 
 needle in a bottle of hay than for a butterfly in this 
 vast universe ; not to mention the inconveniences 
 to which one is exposed : as, for instance, these 
 scratches in the face, and bunches upon one's head ; 
 these broken shins, giants, salamanders, ditches 
 and all this for the love of what, forsooth ! for the 
 beautiful eyes of a butterfly all, by St James, that 
 could have been done, even for the fair Hecuba of 
 Greece ! It is true the butterfly is a princess ; but, 
 look ye, sir to tell you all I think of the matter, for 
 I have always been a very ingenuous lad there is 
 still such a but here as spoils the whole affair. A 
 butterfly princess is in truth a butterfly of distinc- 
 tion ; but, deuce take it, a princess that is only a 
 butterfly is even less than a puppet-show princess ; 
 for when the Princess Tacamahaca or Rossabarba, 
 with her picked chin, tinsel crown, and long train 
 of mohair worked in *nock silver, retires behind the 
 scenes, still we find the genteel Lolotta left, who, 
 take her for all in all, is at least as good a princess as 
 the best of them, and does not make all this to do. 
 I hope you won't take what I say amiss ; and so, 
 
 look you, sir, as I was going to say " 
 
 " Very well, Pedrillo, very well," cried Don Sylvio ; 
 " all this goes on wonderfully, thou speakest like a
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 101 
 
 Cicero ; go on, I beg of thee ; for I am curious to 
 know what thou meanest to have said when thou 
 hast done." 
 
 " That you shall see presently," answered Pedrillo, 
 " though I know you have a mind to laugh at my 
 expense : but it would not be the first time that an 
 ass has given good counsel to a prophet. ' Children 
 and fools tell truth,' says the proverb. The upshot of 
 the whole matter is this, ' A bird in the hand is 
 worth two in the bush ; ' and as the folks say, ' Vain 
 wishes never gain riches.' 'Tis true, Lady Rade- 
 mante has promised you great things ; but ' Promise 
 and pay are two things,' says John Peretta ; and 
 indeed, if you consider right, it would be just as if 
 one should make me a present of treasures that were 
 still to seek, without knowing where. Let them say 
 what they will, sir, would it not be much better for 
 us to hold what we have already ? Donna Smer- 
 gelina is a young lady, which, by the way, is no 
 despisable thing : and, upon my conscience, a hun- 
 dred thousand ducats is a good round sum : and if in 
 the end there should be some few hundreds less, it 
 will possibly be more, sir, than the principality which 
 your princess shall bring you in marriage is worth. 
 Besides, if you did but recollect, don't we all know 
 who this same Donna Smergelina is ? Why, she is, 
 at least, certainly the niece of the fairy Fanfreluche ; 
 and though Fanfreluche be as old and as ugly as 
 you please, still she is a fairy ; ay, and full as good 
 a fairy as another ; and at one stroke of her wand, 
 can turn all the tiles of your castle into rubies, if she 
 chooses." 
 
 " All this is vastly fine," said Don Sylvio ; " but 
 thou thyself hast granted that Donna Smergelina is 
 too hideous to excite love." 
 
 "Well, well," replied Pediillo, " I grant you she 
 is not the handsomest in the world ; and yet, if 
 you observed, she has a something or other in her 
 countenance "
 
 102 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 ' Yes," interrupted Don Sylvio, " as much pimple 
 and small-pox as you please." 
 
 " Ah, sir, but what is all that to the point ? 
 Beauty is one of those flowers which very soon fade ; 
 beauty passes away, virtue keeps her ground ; the 
 little violet has a better smell than the proud but 
 stinking amaranth. Besides, Madam Smergelina is 
 not so ugly as you make her out. I must confess she 
 is, as one may say, tolerably crooked ; and, at first 
 sight, one might fancy her to have red hair ; but 
 when you look at it in a certain light, it borders upon 
 a rose-colour, and really does not at all misbecome 
 her ! In short, sir, were I in your place, I would do 
 like the one-eyed man. A hundred thousand ducats 
 ought to excuse us the trouble of paying too nar- 
 rowly ; all cats are grey in the night ; and money 
 does everything ; money rules the world ; no penny, 
 no paternoster : this is my maxim, and I shall not 
 change it, though all the seventy wise masters of the 
 East were to prove me the contrary." 
 
 Don Sylvio, who, with the best mind in the world, 
 was in very good humour this morning, took so much 
 pleasure in the chat of his prattling valet, that he 
 let him talk on without interruption. Accordingly, 
 Pedrillo entertained him with a long detail of all the 
 advantages which a marriage with the fairy Fan- 
 freluche's niece would procure him ; then reckoning 
 up the hundred thousand ducats, and the tiles to 
 be changed by the fairy into rubies, he presently 
 built as fine castles as ever were built in Spain. In a 
 word, by this means he had heated his imagination 
 to such a degree, as for a good while not to perceive 
 that Don Sylvio was fallen into a very sound sleep. 
 Not being therefore philosopher sufficient to pursue a 
 soliloquy, he at length ceased, and, after giving his 
 bottle a few cordial embraces, found out the softest 
 bed and easiest posture, and soon followed his 
 master's example.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 103 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 IN WHICH PEDRILLO IS VERY DISAGREEABLY ROUSED 
 FROM HIS SLUMBERS 
 
 HONEST Pedrillo was snoring his best, when all on a 
 sudden Don Sylvio burst from a terrible dream which 
 had interrupted his repose in the most disagreeable 
 manner. " Oh, thou cursed Green Dwarf ! " cried 
 he, seizing Pedrillo by the throat, " give me back my 
 portrait, or thou diest this instant ! " 
 
 " Hollo ! Help, help, murder, fire, help ! " ex- 
 claimed Pedrillo, defending himself with kicks and 
 fisticuffs, when he found himself so unpolitely roused, 
 without knowing why. 
 
 " It is my princess whom I demand of thee," cried 
 Don Sylvio again, " or else " 
 
 " Oh, by all the devils," roared out Pedrillo, 
 scrambling as fast as he could to get free, " is it you, 
 sir ? And is the devil in you, that you want to 
 throttle me so by main force ? Plague on 't, one is 
 not sure of one's life with you ! " 
 
 " How ! what ! " cried Don Sylvio in the utmost 
 perturbation, " is it thee, Pedrillo ? " 
 
 " Yes, ay with a vengeance," answered the 
 other ; " 'tis me indeed, unless they have made a 
 changeling of me. What the deuce can be the 
 matter with you, to fall upon people asleep in this 
 manner ? Let me tell you, sir, if you go on at this 
 rate I am your Highness's most humble servant 
 let them go and look for butterflies that will ; you 
 won't easily make such a fool of me, I assure you." 
 
 " I know not where I am," replied Don Sylvio.
 
 104 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 " I now see with my own eyes that thou art Pedrillo ; 
 but " 
 
 "Oh, cry you mercy, Signior Don Sylvio de 
 Rosalva ! Your servant ! Mighty fine, truly ! You 
 are extremely kind at last, to allow me to pass for 
 my mother's own son ; but do you suppose then 
 that all is said and done ? P faith, you might have 
 twisted my neck ofc before I could have had power to 
 see how it was done. Now, pray, only observe and 
 see how you have used me ! Upon my life, if you 
 treat your friends at this rate but Pd lay any wager 
 now, some dwarf or salamander had a hand in it." 
 
 " Well, well, compose thyself, my dear Pedrillo," 
 said Don Sylvio ; " thou art very sensible I never in 
 my life had any intention to hurt thee : and by the 
 life of my princess I swear to thee, it is inconceivable 
 to me how it could have happened that the cursed 
 Green Dwarf should have thus escaped me, when I 
 had him in my power, and should have put thee in 
 his place." 
 
 " Why, look there now ; did not I tell you so ? " 
 cried Pedrillo : " still nothing but that Green Dwarf ! 
 Did not I tell you before, that the moment we set 
 foot out of doors, the devil would bring all the 
 dragons, and giants, and dwarfs, and monsters in the 
 universe upon our backs ? This will never be the 
 case by daylight, Pll answer for it. Oh, but now 
 I call to mind, sir, did not you say somewhat about 
 the Green Dwarf ? I thought he had been changed 
 into a tooth-pick. Methinks, under favour of madam 
 the queen of the salamanders, she is not very strict 
 to her word. God forgive me ! I know one ought 
 not to think evil of one's neighbour ; but upon my 
 conscience, sir, Pll be shot if she does not make game 
 of you." 
 
 Prithee," said Don Sylvio very gravely, " speak 
 with ru TC respect of so great a fairy, or thou wilt one 
 day repent it. I tell thee now for the last time that 
 I will no longer bear the insolence of thy licentious
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 105 
 
 speeches. Before them hadst spoken, thou might'st 
 better have heard what hath befallen me. What 
 right or need hast thou to determine before thou 
 knowest the point in hand ? " 
 
 " I did not suppose I was committing so great a 
 crime," replied Pedrillo seriously ; "I thought I had 
 sense enough to know a crab-apple from a quince. 
 People shall never make me believe what they 
 please ; and, begging your pardon, I am not so great 
 a simpleton as I may seem to be. 'Tis not five 
 minutes ago you wanted to choke me, because, for- 
 sooth, you took me for the Green Dwarf. Now then, 
 I reason in this manner : either the Green Dwarf is a 
 tooth-pick, or he is not a tooth-pick. If he is not a 
 tooth-pick, the fairy has you know what : but, 
 if he is a tooth-pick, then how the devil can I resemble 
 a tooth-pick ? Now, look ye, sir, this is an argu- 
 ment, I hope, that nothing can be objected to ; and 
 I could only be glad to know how you will be able to 
 get over it." 
 
 " Oh, peascods take thee ! " said Don Sylvio, 
 smiling, " what, dost thou pretend to meddle with 
 dilemmas too ? If thou goest on at this rate, nobody 
 will be able to cope with thee. However, only allow 
 me to speak in my turn, and then we shall see the 
 better how to manage the argument."
 
 106 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 HOW WONDERFUL ARE THE EFFECTS OF IMAGINATION ! 
 
 PEDRILLO having promised to moderate the intem- 
 perance of his tongue, Don Sylvio began his story 
 in the following manner : " No sooner hadst thou 
 fallen asleep by my side " 
 
 " Hold there, sir," interrupted Pedrillo, " for, 
 with your permission, how could you know this, 
 when you was asleep long before me, while I watched 
 you ? " 
 
 " Thou keepest thy promise wonderfully well," 
 said Don Sylvio. " Wilt thou be kind enough to let 
 me speak without interrupting me ? I shall never 
 have done if I am to answer all thy impertinent 
 questions. I tell thee I was not asleep, and let 
 that content thee. While I lay thinking of all that 
 has happened to us, I beheld a sylphid before me." 
 
 " A sylphid ! " cried Pedrillo, stopping short, 
 and staring to observe his master's countenance. 
 
 " Yes, a sylphid," replied our hero with great 
 composure, " and the most beautiful too, that ever 
 was beheld by mortal eye. ' Don Sylvio,' said she, 
 ' I know whom you are seeking ; come with me, I 
 will lead you to your mistress ; I am an old friend of 
 hers ; but I cannot do you this pleasure without having 
 some interest in view.' ' Oh, beautiful sylphid,' 
 cried I, throwing myself at her feet, ' there is not 
 that thing in the world which I would not do for thee, 
 to testify my gratitude, so thou wilt but fulfil thy 
 promise.' ' What I ask of you is but a trifle,' replied 
 the sylphid ; ' come first, and see your princess : we
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 107 
 
 shall settle about the rest.' Upon this she took a 
 rose from her bosom, and threw it on the ground. 
 All on a sudden this rose was transformed into a 
 chariot of rubies, in the shape of a conch-shell, 
 drawn by twelve birds of paradise of incomparable 
 beauty. I seated myself beside her, and in a few 
 minutes we descended into a place the most delight- 
 ful that imagination can conceive. I should never 
 have done, were I to attempt to give thee a descrip- 
 tion of it." 
 
 "Oh, sir," said Pedrillo, "pray don't let that 
 trouble you ; if the description is a little of the 
 longest, so much the better. I could willingly listen 
 to you all day without eating a morsel, so much do 
 I love to hear you tell a story." 
 
 " Figure to thyself, then," continued our hero, 
 " an immense plain, in which the magic of some fairy 
 had collected together all the charms so boasted by 
 the poets of Tiber and Tarentum, of Thessalian 
 Tempe, and the delightful groves of Daphne ; en- 
 chanting thickets, silver streams flowing in wild 
 meanders ; meads embroidered with flowers ; walks 
 of orange trees ; little lakes surrounded with myrtles ; 
 bowers of jasmine, and roses of a thousand dyes 
 in short, everything that can be imagined, in a place 
 consecrated to pleasure and to love. Troops of 
 young nymphs, lightly dressed, were seen, skipping 
 like fawns amidst these myrtle shades, or dancing 
 over these transporting fields with the gods of love, 
 or bathing their snowy limbs in grottoes, where endless 
 silence reigned." 
 
 " Well, Signior Don Sylvio," interrupted Pedrillo, 
 " it must be confessed you were born under a very 
 happy constellation. O brave ! long live the syl- 
 phids, say I ; why, this is quite another thing 
 from those dogs of salamanders, that are good for 
 nothing but to lead one into a ditch ! But, pray, 
 why did not you take me out upon this same 
 party ? But this now is just your way. When
 
 io8 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 any agreeable scheme is going forward, nobody thinks 
 of me." 
 
 " Patience ! " continued Don Sylvio. " ' No one 
 can be reckoned happy before his death,' said the 
 sage Solon : " this seems to be my lot too, destined 
 at every turn to experience the fact to my sorrow. 
 Having, then, turned my view on all sides of this 
 charming scene,! perceived a nymph seated in a shady 
 bower, and playing with a butterfly, that fluttered 
 about her, fastened by a thread of gold. O Heavens ! 
 what did I feel, on beholding this to be my adorable 
 princess ; for it was the very same blue butterfly 
 that we hunted after ! ' And is it thou, young 
 gentleman,' said the nymph to me, ' who, under the 
 protection of the fairy Radiante, hast undertaken to 
 disenchant the blue butterfly ? ' ' Yes, beauteous 
 nymph,' I replied, ' 'tis I, ready to sacrifice to you 
 even life itself.' ' Nay,' interrupted she, ' I do not 
 ask so much ; if thou canst prove to me that thou 
 art Don Sylvio de Rosalva, the butterfly is thine. '- 
 * Oh, speak,' returned I, ' say in what manner thou 
 wouldst have me prove it ; too sure am I, that he 
 whom thou seest before thee is my own individual 
 self, to suffer me to fear that probation, whatever it 
 may be.' ' Show me then the portrait of the prin- 
 cess,' said she ; ' thou must have it, if thou art Don 
 Sylvio ; I require no other proof than that.' Ah, my 
 dear Pedrillo, how wretched am I ! where, at that 
 fatal moment, was my protectress, the fairy Radiante? 
 I gave her the portrait ; but no sooner had she 
 got it in her hands, that I beheld Heavens, how 
 shall I have power to tell thee ! with horror I 
 beheld, instead of the beautiful nymph, the Green 
 Dwarf before me. That little hunchbacked monster 
 could not contain himself for joy. He leaped up 
 into the air, turned and turned the portrait in his 
 hands, gnashed his teeth against me, and then, 
 grinning horribly a contemptuous smile, he cried: 
 ' At length, then, I have what I so much desired !
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 109 
 
 Know, thou impotent rival, that none but the 
 possessor of this portrait is capable of restoring to 
 the butterfly her pristine shape. I now have them 
 both in my own power, and thou hast no more to 
 hope. Go and thank the ecstasy of transport in 
 which thou seest me, for suffering thee to escape with 
 life. But beware ; remember what I now tell thee. 
 I shall mark thee closely, and if thou henceforth pre- 
 sumest even to think of thy mistress, thou art a dead 
 man ! " 
 
 " Figure to thyself, dear Pedrillo, the rage into 
 which this discourse, and the aspect of that hideous 
 gnome, holding the portrait of my mistress in his 
 clutches, must have put me. I instantly fell upon 
 him, struggled, fought ; firmly resolved, either to 
 lose my life, or tear from him that image of my dear 
 princess " 
 
 " The design was good and laudable," said Pedrillo, 
 " but pray, what occasion was there to bring me into 
 the squabble, and that too just when throttling was 
 the word ? " 
 
 " That," replied our hero, " is what I cannot com- 
 prehend. I fought the dwarf, as I was telling you ; 
 and just as I was upon the point of strangling him, 
 thy exclamations, and my own eyes, showed me it 
 was thou who laidst struggling under my hands. The 
 dwarf had disappeared, and I found myself in the 
 same place from whence the nymph had taken 
 me." 
 
 " Well," said Pedrillo, " and pray then what 
 became of the sylphid ? " 
 
 " The sylphid," replied Don Sylvio, " must have 
 disappeared the moment we set foot to the ground, 
 for after that I saw no more either of her or her 
 chariot." 
 
 " Why, this is the devil of a story," cried Pedrillo ; 
 " it begun so well, that upon my soul, 'tis pity it 
 should have ended no better. But, pray, now, 
 might a poor fool like myself only be permitted to ask
 
 no THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 you a single question : you really then, signior, do 
 believe that all this really happened to you." 
 
 " And why not ? " answered Don Sylvio : " there 
 is not the least room to doubt it. I was broad awake 
 when all this fell out. I saw it with my own eyes ; 
 heard it with my own ears : I had the use of all my 
 senses : and therefore I must have been awake ; 
 and if so " 
 
 " Ay, ay, that now is exactly the question," 
 replied Pedrillo, " I would not positively say so 
 much ; but though you are so particular and so odd 
 as not to suffer one to suppose that you might dream 
 as well as other good folks ; yet I know but how- 
 ever I won't say it ; and yet I think what I think." 
 
 " Thou imaginest, Pedrillo, that this was only a 
 dream ; I could wish it were so with all my heart. 
 But " 
 
 " Look ye, sir," continued Pedrillo, " we should 
 make a distinction in everything : when you had the 
 apparition of the fairy Radiante, I at first thought 
 you had only been dreaming, till you showed me that 
 rich jewel, and the portrait which she had given you ; 
 and then, indeed, there was absolutely nothing to be 
 said against it. What the eyes see the heart believes. 
 Now, if you could only let me see a single feather of 
 one of those birds of paradise that drew your chariot, 
 I would give it up ; but, bless my heart ! what need 
 have we of all these pros and cons. You have the 
 jewel still and always about you, the same which you 
 said the dwarf had stolen from you. Only look 
 under your doublet, and you will again find the 
 princess in the same place where she usually is 
 
 " Oh, a miracle ! " cried Don Sylvio, finding in 
 reality the portrait on his breast, where he commonly 
 used to put it. " Thou art right, Pedrillo ; thanks 
 to the kind protecting Radiante, I have it ; do but 
 see here ! " 
 
 " Sir," said Pedrillo, " for once, methinks, you do 
 the fairy rather too much honour ; and I'll venture
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA ill 
 
 any wager you will, though I have nothing to lose, 
 that the Green Dwarf has seen the blue butterfly and 
 the portrait, only just as much as I have seen the 
 pope. Here, sir, you have been sleeping, and every- 
 thing has appeared to you in a dream ; at length you 
 waked, and then caught hold of me by the throat. 
 O' my conscience, I think you might as well have 
 dreamed that part of the story, as all the rest. And 
 I swear, the next time you are disposed for sleeping, 
 I shall be kind enough to remove myself at least two 
 hundred yards from you. I have no desire to suffer 
 punishment, waking, for what a dwarf shall be pleased 
 to do with you while you are asleep." 
 
 It might however have been pretty difficult to 
 bring Don Sylvio into his companion's sentiments 
 concerning this adventure ; but Pedrillo, who for 
 this once found himself on the right side of the ques- 
 tion, never left off, till he had brought his master to 
 confess that he himself found it hardly possible to 
 conceive how the Green Dwarf should so soon be 
 delivered from his condition of a tooth-pick. At 
 length they both agreed that the whole had been 
 nothing more than an illusion, which Don Sylvio 
 immediately put to the account of the fairy Cara- 
 bossa, who, as he assured Pedrillo, was an intimate 
 friend of Fanf reluche and the Green Dwarf ; and then 
 concluded, that this lady, not having it in her power 
 to hurt him immediately, had taken a malicious 
 pleasure in disturbing his mind, and rendering his 
 journey painful and unpleasant. 
 
 Pedrillo was satisfied with these reasons, and both 
 of them set off walking and chatting, till the great 
 heat of the day obliged them to take shelter in the 
 wood, and enjoy the benefit of its shade.
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 IN WHICH THE HISTORY RETURNS TO ROSALVA 
 
 THE faithful author of this singular and pleasant 
 history finds it absolutely necessary to interrupt for 
 a moment the thread of his narrative in order to 
 inform the reader of what passed at Rosalva Castle 
 during the above period. 
 
 Poor Maritornes, whom we left sleeping with her 
 faithful Pyramus under the protection of the nymphs 
 and fauns, when sent out after the barber, no sooner 
 waked than she saw daylight appear. Immediately 
 she called to mind her having been deputed to find 
 out Master Bias the barber. At first she began to 
 consider what she should have to say, if they asked 
 her the cause of her delay ; then, not being able to 
 hit upon any plausible reply, she fell to tearing her 
 fair golden locks, and raised such a miserable outcry 
 as presently awakened her lover, who demanded the 
 cause of this despair. " What, is that all, my?little 
 honey ? " cried he, as soon as she had told him the 
 grievance, " I'll soon find you out a remedy. I 
 know Master Bias very well ; he is in love with a 
 certain young girl, a handsome, plump, rosy thing 
 that lives at a farmhouse, about half a mile from his 
 village. She is the farmer's own daughter ; and as 
 Bias plays well on the guitar, as everybody allows, 
 there does not a night come, but he is under her 
 window thrumming and singing away, ready to split 
 his lungs . You have nothing else to do then , but to go 
 to him this morning, and tell him that you were there 
 last night, but could not find him : then you shall
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 113 
 
 bring him with you, and tell madam that you had 
 express orders to stay for him, and that you were 
 determined not to come back without bringing him 
 with you, or something of that sort. But take care 
 now, my little dear Maritorne, not to play or trifle 
 with him ; for, look ye, Master Bias is a jolly fellow, 
 that loves to make free wherever he can, and I 
 should not much like that, not I. You understand 
 me, don't you ? Pox take him, I don't understand 
 trifling in these matters." 
 
 Maritornes, now perfectly consoled, spared no pains 
 to assure her lover, and make him easy on this head. 
 The latter, on whom the morning had the same 
 influence as the evening, convinced her, by new 
 proofs of his tenderness, how deserving he was of her 
 love and fidelity ; but, apprehending the rising sun 
 might become jealous of their happiness, thought fit 
 therefore at length to retire from her embraces, and 
 betake himself very quietly to his stables, where, for 
 want of better, he commonly reposed upon half- 
 mouldy straw, and a few rags of the mule-coverings, 
 in company with two or three horses, that had more 
 the appearance of skeletons than of those animals. 
 
 It was near six o'clock in the morning when Donna 
 Menzia waked. The expectation of that happy 
 epocha (at which, in consequence of the good opinion 
 she entertained of her own charms, she flattered her- 
 self with being waked much more agreeably), brought 
 to her mind the accident that had happened to her 
 nephew the day before ; an accident which threatened 
 her amorous ardour with a very irksome delay. She 
 therefore rose up, wrapped herself in her nightgown, 
 and hastened immediately to her nephew's apart- 
 ment, to see how he had passed the night. She 
 stared about her to some purpose, as may well be 
 supposed, not seeing the least traces either of master 
 or man. After having therefore sought for him in 
 every hole and corner, she assembled the whole 
 house, who were filled with consternation at the news
 
 Ii4 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 of this disappearance of her nephew and Pedrillo. 
 Those who have ever loved as Donna Mergelina 
 loved, will be able to represent to themselves the 
 grief which rent and distracted her tender heart, at 
 receiving such unexpected tidings. Kind, good 
 creature ! She would infallibly have swooned away, 
 had not her uncle's arms, and her presumptive 
 aunt's eau de luce come in very opportunely to her 
 assistance. Nothing was to be heard for a long while 
 but groans and lamentations. Mrs Beatrice, who, 
 having long had very serious views respecting 
 Pedrillo, had moreover flattered herself with holding 
 no small share in his friendship, was the only one 
 who would not believe that they had escaped. 
 
 " You will certainly find them," said she, " in 
 some part of the garden, or else in Don Sylvio's 
 green summer-house, where he commonly passes the 
 morning." 
 
 At this signal every one ran into the garden, dis- 
 persing themselves round on all sides ; then they 
 made a strict search among all the hedges and bushes, 
 ransacked the kitchen grounds, and, at length, not 
 finding anybody, they began their inquiries anew. 
 Maritornes, who, with the barber, was just now arrived, 
 mixed herself with the rest of the seekers, and carried 
 it on as naturally as if nothing had happened. She 
 had likewise taken the precaution to make sure of 
 the barber, by certain little instances of complais- 
 ance, with which she thought she had not too dearly 
 purchased the advantage of escaping reproach. 
 There was no want, therefore, of people to look out ; 
 yet all was equally to no purpose. Accordingly, 
 after having overrun the garden, the grove and 
 park, till noon, they at length found themselves 
 obliged to return to the castle as they came. There 
 Donna Menzia convoked all the company into the 
 great hall, to deliberate upon an event as melan- 
 choly as unlocked for. Several questions were 
 instantly brought on the carpet at the same time :
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 115 
 
 every individual reasoned differently, and formed his 
 own conjectures ; and as they all spoke together, 
 the noise beame so great that they could not hear 
 one another. At length, however, Signior Rodrigo 
 exerted his authority so powerfully, though with a 
 deal of trouble, that after a general silence it was 
 resolved to hear everybody distinctly, and to talk 
 one after the other. Every possible expedient, 
 every imaginable scheme, was presently exhausted. 
 First, Signior Rodrigo, in particular, a great disputant 
 in his profession, and who had moreover one of the 
 finest bass voices in the world ; then Master Bias, 
 the barber, who, for the volubility of his tongue, 
 merited to be the dean of his faculty, distinguished 
 themselves so well, that the sessions lasted till two 
 in the afternoon. But when the time came for 
 putting matters to the vote, and then for proclaiming 
 the conclusion, a new tumult arose : every one 
 maintained his own sentiment, and after Mrs 
 Beatrice and the barber had put themselves to all 
 imaginable pains to restore tranquillity and good 
 order, they at length concurred in the conclusion 
 following : " That no one could conceive what was 
 become of the strayed sheep." But as it was now 
 near three o'clock, and everybody was hungry, it was 
 unanimously resolved, " That first and before all 
 things, it was necessary to dine ; " and that in the 
 ensuing sitting, it should be enquired into, " What 
 was to be done next in this critical state of things ? " 
 Our Spanish author, who, as being in the train of a 
 certain well-known minister of his nation, had made 
 
 a stay of some years in G , takes the liberty on 
 
 this occasion to divert himself at the expense of 
 certain small republics, for he pretends to have 
 observed that the deliberations in Donna Menzia's 
 hall exactly resemble those which you meet with 
 amongst them ; and that it was even a copy of 
 their manner of treating public affairs. It must be 
 confessed the anecdotes which he cites are hardly
 
 u6 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 calculated to give us any great idea of the republican 
 state : but we are to recollect this is a Spaniard's 
 account of things, whose whole liberty consists in the 
 prerogative of wearing two or three pairs of large 
 spectacles upon his nose, and of sitting at his door 
 cross-legged, picking his teeth, and dozing as long, 
 and dreaming as profoundly as he pleases. From 
 such a one we are not likely to gain a very exact 
 estimate of the advantages of political liberty, any 
 more than of its inconveniences. How indeed could 
 this same man, so dazzled with the pretended 
 grandeur of his nation and of his king, be able to 
 make an observation like the following, viz : " That 
 it often requires more dexterity to regulate the com- 
 plicated springs in a little state, composed of free- 
 men, than to command half a world of slaves ? " 
 We all know how far prejudices may be carried, 
 even from the case before us, and consequently, if 
 Don Ramiro de Z imagines that he has repre- 
 sented to us the state of such little republicans, in 
 this deliberation at Rosalva, we, in our turn, might 
 oppose to him certain examples drawn from great 
 monarchies ; in which, after a variety of conferences 
 and profound debate, the influence of a waiting- 
 woman, a player, or a buffoon, has prevailed over 
 the consummate sagacity of scores of men, with large 
 periwigs and long cloaks, h la mode cTEspagne. 
 
 Be this, however, as it may, I apprehend nobody 
 will blame the translator, because his patriotic spirit 
 would not allow him to translate a passage which 
 the enviers of republican felicity might possibly 
 have turned to some improper use. A regard for our 
 country is a duty that ought to extend itself even to 
 our minutest actions ; and if he only can merit the 
 name of a good citizen who is content with the 
 present state of his republic, we can never blame that 
 horror which prevails in little states at everything 
 that can be called political satire ; for with good 
 reason is that horror entertained. Far from us,
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 117 
 
 therefore, be the ideas of wishing, though but for a 
 moment, to interrupt that noble repose, that gentle 
 slumber, in which our country is buried in this 
 respect. Let Don Ramiro have observed what he 
 pleases, we shall still wrap ourselves up in our 
 patriotism, bite our lips, and sit down contented.
 
 n8 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 A BREAKFAST CONVERSATION. DON SYLVIO'S 
 JEALOUSY 
 
 NOT a little fortunate was it for our adventurers 
 that such wise delays governed the deliberations at 
 Rosalva. We left our hero and his faithful Pedrillo 
 in a wood, whither they had retired for shelter from 
 the hot noonday sun. They had not proceeded far, 
 when Pedrillo, in conformity with the sentiment 
 of Asclepiades and other skilful naturalists, repre- 
 sented to his master that when folks travelled in 
 a morning there was nothing better than to take a 
 good breakfast, especially if they wished to secure 
 a successful journey. Don Sylvio having no good 
 reasons at hand to oppose this remonstrance, 
 Pedrillo chose out a commodious spot for them to 
 sit down. He then opened his wallet, and took out 
 a large pie, which Mrs Beatrice had brought from 
 Xelva, but for a very different purpose. 
 
 " Don't I discover in your looks, sir," said Pedrillo, 
 " some little astonishment at seeing this pie. Oh, 
 that good Mrs Beatrice ! She'll make large round 
 O's with her eyes when she finds her bird is flown. 
 But you see now what it is to be clever, and keep 
 good company. If Mrs Beatrice had not wished me 
 well, we might have been forced to content ourselves 
 with a bit of bread and a handful of shabby filberts." 
 
 " And was it she, then, that gave thee the pie ? " 
 said Don Sylvio. 
 
 " No, not just so neither," replied Pedrillo. " But 
 yesterday evening, you must know, when she went
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 119 
 
 into the pantry, she made signs to me to follow her, 
 and we talked together a good while. In short, I 
 must own to you, I wanted to steal a kiss of her, for I 
 have always heard our old curate say, that giving a 
 kiss was but a venial sin : she, however, turned away 
 her head in such a hurry that I missed her mouth by 
 at least a foot. But, i' faith, it was not very much 
 out of luck, for I stumbled just upon a place where 
 her handkerchief was half open, and I'll assure you, 
 signior, it was softer than velvet, and as white as the 
 driven snow. She grumbled at me indeed, as you 
 may suppose, and, I think, gave me a little slap into 
 the bargain ; but I soon pacified her, for in token of 
 reconciliation she gave me this piece of seed-cake, 
 and then we trifled away and chatted together a good 
 while longer, for 'tis opportunity that makes thieves, 
 you know, and Mrs Beatrice is not near so great a 
 prude as you would take her for by her looks. What- 
 ever she may make believe, she loves a little romping 
 for all that, take my word for it. Well, and then she 
 showed me this pie, and then some other things that 
 she had brought from Xelva to treat our strangers 
 with. I fixed a longing eye upon this same pie the 
 moment I saw it : and now, sir, only do you guess 
 how I got at it ; you would not have thought me so 
 dexterous, I'm sure. But mark me, Signior Don 
 Sylvio, though I may be simple enough, I am not 
 quite an oaf, and were it to give you a pleasure, I 
 could even go to Rome, God forgive me ! and steal 
 the Pope's slipper, if it was necessary." 
 
 " Well, but how did you manage it then," said 
 Don Sylvio, " for certainly she must have taken the 
 key of the pantry with her, and put it in her pocket." 
 
 " Even so," answered Pedrillo ; " but one finds a 
 remedy for everything but death. As soon therefore 
 as everybody in the house was asleep, I stole away 
 very softly to her chamber door, clapped my ear 
 to the keyhole and listened awhile, and, when I 
 heard her snore, I opened the door gently, and went
 
 120 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 a-tiptoe to her bedside ; though the room was as dark 
 as a dungeon. At last, however, creeping and groping 
 about, I found out the bunch of keys which she 
 commonly carries at her girdle, and took myself off 
 with them very quietly. Now then, you know the 
 whole secret, for as soon as I had once secured the 
 keys, the pie could not long escape me. Ods bobs ! 
 I pocketed away to some tune ; and to convince you 
 that I have forgot nothing," continued he, lugging a 
 bottle out of his knapsack, " see here ! Do but taste 
 this Alicant wine, and if it is not as good as you ever 
 drank, I'll engage to drink nothing but water with 
 the geese as long as I live." 
 
 Here Pedrillo made a great pause, but his grinders 
 were not a whit the less idle for his not talking. In 
 short, he acquitted himself so well, that almost 
 before you could look round you, the pie found itself 
 less by above a third ; nor did he forget to pay his 
 hearty and frequent respects to the bottle, always 
 drinking to the health of Mrs Beatrice. This at 
 length put him into such high good-humour, that he 
 began to sing and whistle like a blackbird. " Huzza ! " 
 cried he, lifting up the bottle and turning it round 
 and round, "long live the fairies and enchanted 
 princesses ! Adzooks, what a pleasant life is this 
 same hunting after adventures ! But, i' faith, one 
 ought to have a good well-stuffed wallet too. 
 Well, but how now, signior, what's the matter 
 with you ? Why, you have not a bit of good 
 humour about you. You neither eat nor drink ; 
 pray, what ails you ? Come, come, deuce take it ; 
 hang sorrow and cast away care ; let us be gay so 
 long as we are not married, who knows when we shall 
 have such another jovial batch. 'Twill be time 
 enough to be sad when this vadus mecus and our 
 bottles are empty." 
 
 " My good Pedrillo," cried Don Sylvio, " thou art 
 in the right to make thyself as merry as thou canst ; 
 but don't concern thyself about me. I am heartily
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 121 
 
 pleased to see thee so gay ; thou wouldst not be so 
 wert thou in my place." 
 
 " But why not, sir, and please you ? What new 
 gadfly has stung you now ? " 
 
 " Ah, Pedrillo ! " replied our young knight, " how 
 can I forget the great distance at which I stand from 
 the dear, the inestimable, object of my vows ! What 
 obstacles, oh, what insurmountable obstacles have I 
 not in all probability still to overcome ? I can assure 
 thee, if the promises of the fairy Radiante did not 
 support my courage, the ideas which at present dis- 
 tract my mind, would, I really think, drive me to 
 despair." 
 
 " God and Our Lady of Guadaloupe preserve us ! " 
 cried Pedrillo, " how you do frighten people. But 
 since these are nothing but thoughts, why don't you 
 drive them away ? Why, pox take it, this is just 
 what they call plaguing oneself for mere fun. Look 
 ye, sir, I am hearty and well, you see ; I have no 
 cares nor pains, and so long as I have but enough to 
 eat and drink, I'm as gay as a lark, and give myself 
 very little trouble about what to-morrow may bring 
 forth." 
 
 ; ' Tell me, I prithee," replied Don Sylvio, heaving 
 a deep sigh, " how can I be in good humour, or at all 
 composed, while my dear princess is wandering 
 through the world in the shape of a butterfly, which 
 perhaps of all the shapes in creation, is the most 
 dangerous for my love." 
 
 " Dangerous, do you say, signior ? And pray how 
 can that be ? what danger can there be in her being 
 a butterfly ; for you yourself have told me that she 
 has nothing to fear from the crows ? " 
 
 " The fairy flattered me indeed," continued Don 
 Sylvio, " that the princess loved me : but who shall 
 insure me that an inclination, which, properly 
 speaking, was but the issue of a flying moment, will 
 retain its hold in her heart against all those snares." 
 
 " Oh, the plague take all enchantment," interrupted
 
 122 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 Pedrillo ; " are you dreaming, sir, or do you know 
 what you say ? How can the shape of a butterfly 
 be a dangerous shape, or how can you be afraid 
 of any snares laid for her heart, while she continues 
 to be a butterfly ? Never since the hour I was 
 born did I hear such things. O' my conscience, 
 he seems to have been quite in the right, who said, 
 ' That to fall in love and to run mad were the same 
 thing.' Jealous ! what then, and would you be 
 jealous of the butterflies who might possibly approach 
 her under that form ? Adzooks ! what a droll idea ! 
 He ! he ! he ! Why, this is just now for all the world 
 as if you should turn jealous of the fleas skipping 
 under her petticoat, when she is turned into a real 
 princess again. He ! he ! he ! " 
 
 " Hear me, my friend Pedrillo," replied Don 
 Sylvio very gravely, " I have observed a good while 
 that thou art mighty desirous to play the buffoon ; 
 but be pleased to take notice, ' There is a time for all 
 things, and nothing in the world can be more dis- 
 agreeable than people that crack their jokes out of 
 season.' Tell me, hast thou ever read the history 
 of Prince Little Page, or that of the Prince of the 
 Island of Perpetual Spring ? " 
 
 " Of Prince Little Page ? " replied Pedrillo ; " no, 
 on my conscience, I don't know him, and it is the 
 first time I have ever heard his name." 
 
 " Why, then, you know nothing about the Island 
 of Butterflies neither ? " continued our hero. 
 
 " The Island of Butterflies, did you say ? Pray, is 
 not that all one, as if one should say, the Island of 
 winged Caterpillars ? " 
 
 " Yes," answered Don Sylvio, " in one sense it is. 
 Know then, that these butterflies are a sort of winged 
 genii, perfectly resembling in shape and beauty, the 
 little gods of love, or the sylphs. They are more- 
 over of so amorous a complexion, but at the same 
 time so volatile and so inconstant, that they are 
 always fluttering about from one object to another.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 123 
 
 No sooner hath such a butterfly sworn an eternal 
 fidelity to one fair, but he is instantly upon the wing 
 to tell a second she is the sole object of his ardent 
 love. In a word, the same day, nay, often the same 
 hour, sees their flame kindling, blazing, burning, 
 and extinguished ; and scarce have they tasted 
 happiness with one, when in the same moment their 
 love and their memory evaporate together." 
 
 " Well," cried Pedrillo, " this is a droll way of 
 making love : and so then, these butterflies can 
 talk ? " 
 
 " But I do not tell thee that they are common 
 butterflies, but a species of sylphs, who, as a certain 
 Arabian naturalist observes, are the stolen fruit of 
 love between a fair young sylphid and a youthful 
 faunus. That supernatural beauty, that perpetual 
 youth, and ethereal agility with which they are 
 endued, comes to them from their mother's side, 
 as from their father's they inherit temerity and 
 inconstancy." 
 
 " Good lack ! Well, now I call to mind I know 
 now what you are talking about," cries Pedrillo. 
 " Ay, ay, I have seen some of this sort of little 
 winged boys in the great picture that hangs in 
 madam's closet : you must remember it too, sir ; 
 it represents the loves of Floras and Zippora." 
 
 " Thou art forever puzzling names, Pedrillo : 
 thou meanst to say, of Zephyras and Flora." 
 
 " Yes, signior, that is what I meant truly ; it did 
 represent Floras and the beautiful Zeppora. She is 
 beautiful indeed, upon my word. I never could have 
 courage to look quite full at that picture ; for our 
 vicar says it is a sin to contemplate upon such sort 
 of things. But I know what I know ; what speaks 
 for itself does not want an interpreter ; and between 
 ourselves, signior, the good vicar is not made of the 
 most bashful stuff, and it would not be much amiss 
 it he was to begin the reformation with his own 
 person. Pray, now, can you guess who I found him
 
 124 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 with by chance a little while ago, for upon my word it 
 was not designedly ? Why, with our fat Maritornes, 
 and it was not to rehearse his breviary, believe me, 
 signior ! I shall say no more, for if it were to be 
 known it might make mischief, and then one had 
 better see nothing at all. All that I mean by it, 
 signior, is only that the fact is very certain, and that 
 you may take me at my word. But I tell you before- 
 hand, if you should think of mentioning a word of it, 
 I stand to nothing ; not a syllable, trust me if the 
 question was to be put to me, ay or no ? For, 
 i' faith, it is not good to know too much about these 
 sort of gentlemen. You take me, signior ? " 
 
 " But what then hast thou seen ? " demanded 
 Don Sylvio. 
 
 " Oh no, pardon me, signior, I am ashamed to 
 tell you," answered Pedrillo. " As it was Maritornes, 
 'twas rather too much ; but if it had been Mrs 
 Beatrice " 
 
 " Enough, enough ! " said Don Sylvio, blushing, " I 
 don't want to know any more. But what didst thou 
 mean about the picture ? " 
 
 " Ay, true, about the picture ? Why, if I remem- 
 ber right yes, 'tis so I told you, mind me, and 
 I'm a rogue if it is not true, that I never could find 
 courage to look steadfastly at it. However, I just 
 saw that it seems to represent her a-bathing. Only 
 fancy to yourself then, that she thought herself 
 alone, and that it was in the heat of summer. In 
 short, she is as naked as the back of my hand, and 
 then, look ye, there is her lover Florus, sitting upon v a 
 cloud, looking at her as earnest as if he could eat her 
 up with his eyes ; and then comes a vast sight of 
 these little boys with butterflies' wings, fluttering 
 about her, and scattering roses." 
 
 " Good," interrupted Don Sylvio ; " but thou 
 must know, that by the power of an enchantment, 
 under which they are held by love, whose indigna- 
 tion they have brought upon them, these butterflies
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 125 
 
 lose their shape as soon as they raise themselves 
 above the island where they were born. In short, 
 they become winged caterpillars, or at least appear so 
 because nothing of their former shape remains but 
 their wings. Under this shape, then, they mix 
 themselves among the true butterflies, and enjoy at 
 pleasure certain privileges, which even a vestal could 
 not find it difficult to grant to these little innocents, 
 not thinking that their irresistible propensity to 
 gallantry has already often rendered them more 
 dangerous under that shape than one should easily 
 conceive. For, as they can talk " 
 
 ; ' Talk ! " interrupted Pedrillo ; " that must be 
 very droll if it be true. By Saint James ! a butterfly 
 talk ! I could only wish to see one that knew how, 
 and I promise you I would get as much money by it, 
 in less than a month, as would buy me all Valencia, 
 if the king had a mind to sell it. So then, at last I 
 perceive, signior, where the shoe pinches you. Well, 
 truly you are much in the right, for o' my conscience, 
 a butterfly that can talk, and is a sylph too, and 
 before you can look round you can change himself 
 into a handsome young fellow, is not a matter to be 
 laughed at. There is always a possibility that the 
 princess may get acquainted with one of those little 
 whimsical young devils, and then they might creep 
 under a bush together and be sociable all the live- 
 long day ; and then one word follows another, said 
 the good country girl, and then by degrees they 
 come a little and a little nearer each other, and then 
 you understand me, signior ; I shan't tell you all 
 that might happen afterwards. But we are all poor 
 sinners ; and this poor thing would have nothing 
 more to do than to forget, for a moment, that she 
 was your mistress, and then we should see fine 
 doings." 
 
 " If I did not know," cried Don Sylvio in a 
 rage, " that thou art the most prating fellow in the 
 world, thou should pay me with thy blood for that
 
 126 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 unbridled licentiousness with which thou hast dared 
 to sully the virtue of my incomparable princess." 
 
 " I most humbly beg your pardon, signior," said 
 Pedrillo, retreating some steps back at every word ; 
 " I wish I may be hanged, if I had any such wicked 
 intention as you lay to my charge. You make your- 
 self angry at every little word I say. Bless my soul, 
 one cannot wash a cloak without wetting it. Ods 
 bobs, you either are jealous, or you are not : if you 
 are jealous, you certainly must have good reasons 
 for it ; and if you have none, what a deuce can make 
 you pretend to jealousy ? " 
 
 " If I am jealous, as thou art pleased to call it," 
 replied Don Sylvio, " I am so only of her heart ; not 
 that I feared she could be capable of a step which 
 might render her virtue suspected. She is destined 
 for me ; I have the fairy Radiante's word for it, and 
 the princess knows she can never be other than mine. 
 I am therefore secure of her person, and should detest 
 myself if the least shadow of a suspicion could enter 
 into my soul. Our person is always in our power, 
 but not so our sentiments ; another may be master 
 of her heart, and I myself might only possess her 
 beauteous person." 
 
 " May I be burnt, Signior Don Sylvio, if I com- 
 prehend a syllable of all you have been saying," 
 interrupted Pedrillo. " What can you mean with 
 your heart, and your person, and your sentiments. 
 Ods bobs ! when I have her person, I have her heart, 
 and when I have her heart I have her person too ; one 
 can't go without the other. Look ye, signior, I don't 
 at all understand these fine high-flown notions ; but 
 I reason in this manner, as, for example : If I had a 
 wife that did not love me with all her heart, my fore- 
 head would itch terribly if she was virtue itself. He 
 who has once got the heart of a woman, d'ye see- 
 But hark ! what a deuce is that ? hush ! what a 
 noise ! Don't you hear something, signior ? " 
 
 " No ; and what dost thou hear ? "
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 127 
 
 " It was a noise that came out there, on that side ; 
 just there, out of those bushes " 
 
 " Perhaps it was some bird " 
 
 " Great Heaven, signior, it may not be some bird of 
 prey. I hear no more of it now, though. But what 
 was I saying ? Oh, we were talking about your 
 jealousy ; well, and then I told you mercy on us ! 
 there's the same noise again ! Ah, powers defend 
 us ! what is that which comes there ? God help us, 
 it is a she-dwarf, signior ; 'tis a hobgoblin ! " 
 
 " Silence, thou poltroon," whispered Don Sylvio, 
 as he stood looking to make out the object which had 
 thrown Pedrillo into so terrible a consternation, " I 
 see now what it is ; 'tis a fairy." 
 
 " A fairy, do you say ? Yes, truly, one of those 
 fairies that ride through the chimney to the devil's 
 meeting on Sundays, mounted upon a pitchfork. A 
 fairy ! yes, 'tis as much like a fairy as I am like the 
 Grand Turk." 
 
 " Stop, Pedrillo, and do not talk at this rate. It is 
 very possible this may be one of my fairy friends. 
 The most beautiful fairies have sometimes appeared 
 in the form of hideous old women, in order to see 
 what respect shall be paid them under that external 
 semblance." 
 
 " Ah, now I see what it is," cried Pedrillo. " He ! 
 he ! he ! 'tis a gipsy, signior ; only look at her, that's 
 all. 'Tis a gipsy, I tell you ; no doubt of it ; and she 
 comes just in the nick of time to tell us some good 
 fortune." 
 
 " Have a care what thou sayest, Pedrillo," said Don 
 Sylvio in a low voice. " It is a fairy, I tell thee ; at 
 least it is possible she may be one, and in that case it 
 is better to take the surest way. Let her be what she 
 will, we will treat her as a fairy, and then we can run 
 no hazard." 
 
 During this conversation, the supposed fairy came 
 up to them. She was neither more nor less than an 
 old humpbacked fortune-teller, that had her reasons
 
 128 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 for strolling about the neighbourhood, and found 
 herself at least as much surprised as our adventurers 
 could be, especially when she perceived a young 
 gentleman with so noble an aspect as Don Sylvio 
 trudging it afoot, and equipped in so singular a 
 manner.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 129 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 ADVENTURE WITH THE GIPSY FORTUNE-TELLER 
 
 As soon as the gipsy was come near them, Don Sylvio 
 rose up, saluted her very civilly, and asked her if it 
 were in his power to render her any services. 
 
 " Saint Barbara ! " cried the old hag ; "what can 
 such a handsome, well-made young nobleman as you 
 are be doing here in the wood ? Surely you must 
 have lost your way, or perhaps you may be in search 
 of " 
 
 " Aha! madam gipsy," interrupted Pedrillo, "none 
 of your curiosities, if you please ; we did not ask you 
 what you were seeking after. And pray who told 
 you " 
 
 " Silence, thou blundering rascal ! " cried Don 
 Sylvio, casting at him a look full of fury and indigna- 
 tion. " You had reason, my good mother, to be 
 surprised ; but, as it seems, you are not ignorant of 
 the cause which led us hither " 
 
 " Heyday, grandmother ! " cried Pedrillo, for now 
 the fumes of his Malaga had begun to operate not 
 a little in his brain ; " you know how to tell for- 
 tunes, don't ye ? Come hither ; look me this gentle- 
 man in the hand, and tell me whether he has got a 
 lucky physiognomy ? " 
 
 " I have no need of his hand for that," replied the 
 old woman, "I see it in his eyes. Ah, my modest 
 rosy-faced young gentleman, 'tis but early days with 
 you, and yet you already know what love is, I 
 warrant you. Ha, ha, ha ! you blush, sir. Have 
 not I guessed it now ? " 
 K
 
 130 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 " Pox take ye, you old gossip ! " cried Pedrillo. 
 " You see that in his eyes ? So then, I suppose you 
 see, by the same rule, that the princess he is in love 
 with is a butterfly ; hey ? " 
 
 " A butterfly ! " cried the gipsy, " hi ! hi ! hi ! 
 very fine, truly ! O' my conscience, I believe 'tis a 
 true butterfly : has it got wings already, my young 
 squire ? Has it taken flight, hi ! hi ! hi ! I have 
 known butterflies of this sort too ; there was a time 
 when I kept a good stock of them in my cage at 
 Seville, believe me. But I fancy from your beating 
 about here, that she you are in search of is fled away." 
 
 " Why, mother," said Pedrillo, " one would almost 
 think you know more of the matter than we do our- 
 selves. But prithee now, since you have seen so 
 much in his eyes, you will see still more in his hand 
 at least they have always told me so. Give her 
 your hand then, signior, if you please. Look me 
 there, granny ; what do you say to those lines ? " 
 
 " Upon my honour," answered the gipsy, " it is a 
 beautiful white hand. Harkye, my pretty sir, if you 
 put a ducat into this beautiful white hand, I'll tell 
 you such good fortune as shah 1 charm you." 
 
 " A ducat ! " cries Pedrillo, " very fine truly, 
 grandmother ! Prithee now, have not you been 
 drinking a drop too much this morning ? A ducat, 
 indeed ! If you had said a real, look ye, one might 
 possibly have talked with you. But, in short, we 
 want none of your predictions ; for, d'ye see, we 
 know everything that we need to know." 
 
 " Ay, but you don't know all neither," replied the 
 old woman ; " who knows what shall happen here- 
 after ? You are not yet come to the end of your 
 adventures, and so far as I can see " 
 
 " Here, here's the ducat, my good mother," said 
 Don Sylvio ; "let this chattering fellow alone ; 'tis 
 an honest lad, but he does not often know what he is 
 talking about ; you must not mind his nonsense." 
 
 " My dear pretty sir," answered the gipsy, " you
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 131 
 
 are so kind and so obliging, that by Saint Ignatius 
 there is not that thing in the world I would not do 
 for you, were I but what I have been in times past. 
 There was a time, believe me, when I made no con- 
 temptible figure : but you see, old age will steal on 
 in spite of one's teeth. However, it does not hinder 
 me from remembering the day when I was called the 
 genteel gipsy girl, and the young gentlemen of Toledo 
 disputed who should give me the first serenade. To 
 tell you the truth, I made lute and guitar strings 
 dear, and I'll assure you it rained pistoles and sonnets 
 for me at the same time." 
 
 " Well, well," said Pedrillo, " we don't trouble our 
 heads about a few serenades you may have had a 
 hundred years ago, while the devil was a little boy, 
 and you had all your teeth in your head. But to the 
 point in hand, if you please ; you have got our ducat, 
 and it is but fair we should have your bargains. 
 Your hand, signior " 
 
 " Only one little ducat more, my dear sir," cried 
 the gipsy, " and then I will tell you such a fortune 
 that you could not wish for a better." 
 
 " Well, here," said Don Sylvio, holding her the 
 ducat in his hand, while Pedrillo could hardly 
 contain his choler. 
 
 " 'Tis a beautiful hand, as I said just now, a very 
 lucky hand indeed, young gentleman. He ! he ! he ! 
 did not I tell you now ? you are in love, my little 
 honey, are not you ? Nay, nay, you need not blush, 
 my good sir, you are exactly at the right age. Ah, 
 that love is a fine thing. Heyday ! How is this ? 
 let us see ; you are in love with a sweet pretty little 
 girl, a charming young maid " 
 
 " A witch ! upon my soul, a witch ! " cried 
 Pedrillo ; " she is a charming creature indeed, and 
 as small as a wax doll into the bargain." 
 
 " A young lady very young, but a little flighty 
 or so " 
 
 " Ay, flighty, indeed," said Pedrillo, " for she flies
 
 132 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 it over hedges and ditches where the devil himself 
 can't follow her " 
 
 " No matter for that, we grow older every day. 
 However, she loves you too. Ain't I right ? " 
 
 " Oh ho, that now is just what we would wish to 
 know, for we have some little suspicion ; or as one 
 may say " 
 
 " Hold thy prating tongue ! " cried Don Sylvio ; 
 " canst thou not be silent a moment ? " 
 
 " What did you say ? She loves another ? " con- 
 tinued the gipsy. "Oh, the wicked little creature ! 
 Love another ? that's a pity ; but this is the way 
 with these young girls. They that do but tell them 
 fine things, and chatter and flatter away, are sure 
 to make the best of their time with them. Yes, 
 indeed, she loves another ! I'd venture any wager 
 it is one of those sugar-lipped Jack-straws, those 
 butterfly things, that fly and buzz about every flower 
 and never stop at any " 
 
 " Hollo, madam gipsy," said Pedrillo, observing 
 his master turn pale at these words, " you tell us 
 more of the matter than we wished to know." 
 
 " 'Tis enough," exclaimed Don Sylvio, pulling 
 away his hand ; "let me go, my misery is deter- 
 mined : she hath even read it in my hand." 
 
 " Nay, but what does all that signify," said 
 Pedrillo, " so long as people can't see it upon your 
 forehead ? Hark ye, grandam, let us talk of some- 
 thing else. Pray, what do you say to my hand ? 
 Here's two reals, and I fancy they'll make you see 
 fine things." 
 
 " Upon my word," cried the old woman, after 
 looking at his hand a moment ; " well, what a 
 strange planet were these young people born under ! 
 Why, I protest you are both of you as amorous 
 as so many sparrows ! Out upon it ! Here 
 are five or six wives at first sight, all upon one 
 line " 
 
 " Five or six wives ? why, you are raving, sure ;
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 133 
 
 you meant to say girls : what a devil would you have 
 me do with so many wives ? " 
 
 " Oh, whenever you have too many, you may 
 share them with your neighbours," said the old 
 woman ; " they won't die upon it, believe me. I 
 hope you don't pretend to have a pretty wife to 
 yourself alone. I' faith, I see one of them there in 
 your hand, who I think bids very fair for procuring 
 you some friends." 
 
 " How, what ! can you see in my hand the person 
 I am thinking of this minute ? " 
 
 " Undoubtedly," said the old woman. 
 
 " Well then, we shall see. Is she tall or short, old or 
 young, plump or thin ? Answer me that, mother." 
 
 " She is neither over-tall, nor over-short good ! 
 Nor is she very young nor very old Adso ! And she 
 is, as one may say, rather plump than thin. Is it not 
 so?" 
 
 " God bless me ! But pray, how do you manage 
 to see all this in my hand ? And so then you can see 
 those large black eyes ? " 
 
 " Yes, surely ; and fine black eyes they are ay, 
 and very sweet and bewitching ones too ; yes, yes. 
 Black eyes, black hair, and teeth the whitest and 
 prettiest that ever mouth was filled with. Now ain't 
 I pretty near the mark ? " 
 
 " Near ? a peascods take it ! why, you know as 
 much as myself. But come a fine bosom, hey ? " 
 
 " Oh yes, that's of course. But if the tailor had 
 not " 
 
 " How ! what do you say about the tailor ? There 
 you are mistaken, I promise you. No, no ; no tailor, 
 if you please : no, faith, if that were all the difficulty 
 you should soon see her rank with the first Infanta 
 in the world, believe me. But what do you say to 
 her little feet ; are not they very genteel ? Do tell 
 me. And then the legs ? indeed, you can't see 
 them by reason of her petticoats but you may trust 
 me for that ; no turner could make 'em better."
 
 134 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 " You are quite right, she is a charming little 
 creature, by my troth, finished from top to toe ; but 
 so much the worse for you, young man." 
 
 " But why so ? " 
 
 " A fine question that, truly ! You'll know why, 
 I can tell you beforehand ; you'll know what it is 
 to have a pretty wife. She'll only plant something 
 there, a little above your eyebrow ; remember, 'twas 
 I that told you : she'll plant some certain things for 
 you, mind me. I shall say no more." 
 
 " Nay, s'death," cried Pedrillo, " methinks you 
 have explained yourself clear enough already. She 
 will plant me something there indeed : what you 
 mean to say, she will fix horns." 
 
 " I will not positively say horns, but, however, 
 something there will be something that will set 
 your forehead an itching, mind me a few sprouts or 
 so. In short, if thou ever hast a house of thy own, I 
 advise thee to get the doors made as high as possible, 
 for one cannot be too careful in these cases. But I 
 am losing my time ; I think I have now told you 
 enough for your money, and you ought to be satis- 
 fied : business calls me away. Adieu, my young 
 gentlemen, till we meet again." 
 
 So saying, the gipsy left them. Her departure left 
 poor Pedrillo in a cruel dilemma, and he knew not 
 what to think of it. " Oh, the devil," cried he, 
 running towards his master, who had thrown himself 
 down at the foot of a tree in a fit of the keenest vexa- 
 tion, " if this old humpbacked sorceress is not a fairy, 
 sir, as you said just now, it is the devil himself speak- 
 ing by her mouth. There is certainly some magic 
 or other in all she has been telling. How could she 
 know that you were in love with a princess, and that 
 this princess is a butterfly ? And then, as to Mrs 
 Beatrice, has not she painted her out to me as 
 naturally as if she herself had made her ? and yet 
 to-day is certainly the first time she ever saw us in 
 our lives. What do you say to it, signior ? For my
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 135 
 
 own part, I confess to you I should be afraid of 
 going mad, were I to think of wishing to understand 
 more of this dark affair." 
 
 Don Sylvio, absorbed in the profoundest medita- 
 tions, paid no attention to his fellow - traveller's 
 harangue ; at length, however, his clamours all of a 
 sudden roused him as from a lethargy. " Hear me, 
 Pedrillo," said he ; "I will tell you my sentiments of 
 this adventure, and I am sure that I am not deceived. 
 But what is become of the old gipsy ? " 
 
 " She disappeared, signior, I know not how. I 
 only turned my head to look t'other way, and in that 
 moment of time she became invisible." 
 
 " Pedrillo," continued Don Sylvio, " I own to you 
 I was not immediately capable of supporting the 
 uneasiness into which the news of my princess's 
 infidelity had thrown me. At first this circumstance 
 did not much disturb me, for thy own indiscretion 
 had dictated it to her. But this particular detail of 
 the butterfly, to whom I have been sacrificed, too 
 strongly confirmed my former fears to suffer me a 
 moment's further peace ; and yet, since I have better 
 reflected on all she said for full well do I remember 
 every word, joined to the tone of voice and look 
 with which she spoke, I am the more persuaded that 
 the mock salamander, the sylphid with whom I 
 travelled in the morning, and this old gipsy, are all 
 but one and the same person, and that all these ap- 
 paritions are nothing but wicked artifices by which 
 my enemies seek to divert me from my design. In a 
 word, I have not a moment's doubt of this old gipsy 
 woman's being, in reality, the fairy Carabossa. One 
 thing is certain ; she had exactly the same figure 
 which history gives that fairy, for she was short, 
 humpbacked, and had squinting, bleared eyes, and a 
 swarthy countenance. However, be that as it may, 
 I am firmly resolved not to suffer myself to be 
 staggered by all these artful wiles. No, divine 
 princess ! " continued he, with an elevated tone of
 
 136 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 voice, looking at her portrait and kissing it tenderly, 
 " nothing shall ever make me capable of stifling that 
 pure immortal flame which thy heavenly beauty hath 
 kindled in my heart ! I will love thee still, how cold, 
 inconstant, or faithless soever thou may'st be to me ! 
 But whither am I going ? Cursed be the idea that 
 represents thee faithless, after what the gentle fairy, 
 our protector, hath testified of thy tenderness for me ! 
 Ah me ! perchance at this moment thou art lost in 
 some desert, far, far remote, whither thy sorrows and 
 thy destiny have transported thee ! There, perhaps, 
 thou art reposing thyself in the bosom of some 
 new-blown rose, invisible to my sight, watering it 
 with thy tears, and sighing that I have forsaken thee ! 
 But, good Heavens ! could I be base enough to for- 
 sake such excellence ? No, charming mistress of my 
 soul, not death itself, under the most terrible form in 
 which the cruelty of our enemies could dress it not 
 death itself should prevent my shade, animated by 
 deathless love, from pursuing thee everywhere, 
 following thee through every scene of being, and 
 without envying the gods their spheres, incessantly 
 seeking in thy breast its perfect elysium ! " 
 
 Don Sylvio uttered this pathetic apostrophe with 
 such rapidity of speech, and in so tender an accent, 
 accompanied with such affecting emotions, that 
 tears started into the eyes of poor Pedrillo, who had 
 been listening with the utmost attention to his 
 master, gaping and staring at all he saw, and unable 
 to comprehend a syllable of what he heard. 
 
 " Upon my soul, Don Sylvio," at length he cried, 
 wiping his eyes, " you have a very surprising gift at 
 melting people's hearts. How is it you manage to 
 say such fine things, and what can it be you have 
 got into your head ? Pox take it ! if you were a 
 parson and preached in this manner who could help 
 crying to hear you ? O' my conscience, there would 
 be tears enow to drown the congregation : I know 
 not what I would not give to be able to keep such
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 137 
 
 things in my head as you have been talking of, and 
 yet I think I have kept some of them such as the 
 new-blown roses, and bosoms watered with tears, 
 and immortal shadows ; and then you mixed it with 
 something about the spheres and gods, and somewhat 
 or other about love and Saint Elizabeth. I'll be shot 
 if I can comprehend how you are able to put such 
 things together. But to come to the point " 
 
 " True, true," interrupted Don Sylvio, " our first 
 care should be to seek the blue butterfly. Pack 
 up your bundle and let us be going. But, I see, 
 here is more than one path into the wood. Prithee, 
 where is Pimpimp ? methinks I have not seen him 
 for some hours." 
 
 This question was like a thunderclap to Pedrillo, 
 who suddenly called to mind, that ever since the 
 adventure of the ditch, he had taken no thought of 
 Pimpimp. However, not being sure but his master 
 might look upon so great a neglect as unpardonable, 
 he boldly assured him that the dog could not be far 
 off. " I carried him all night in my arms," said he, 
 " for the poor little beast was so tired that he could 
 go no farther. He was here this morning when the 
 old woman came. I'll call him ; he cannot be far 
 off." So saying, he cried out with all his might, and 
 his master joined the chorus. This done, they began 
 a diligent search after him, but with just as little 
 success as the Argonauts, when they sought the 
 beautiful Hylas, whom the nymphs had carried off 
 and concealed in their grotto beneath the briny deep. 
 Running through bush, through briar, and along the 
 shores, " Ah, Hylas ! Hylas! " with such din they cried 
 as made the forest and the shores resound. In vain, 
 for now was Hylas fast locked in the arms of the most 
 beauteous nymph, and neither heard nor listened to 
 their cry. Such was the case now, only with this 
 difference, that Pimpimp at the time, instead of the 
 arms of a fairy nymph, found himself in the grip of a 
 vile old gipsy, who, after taking leave of our travellers,
 
 138 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 met with him half dead with fatigue, hunting for his 
 master, and finding him genteel and pretty, took a 
 fancy to him and commenced his guardian. 
 
 Don Sylvio was extremely afflicted at this new 
 disaster, which damped his spirits to such a degree as 
 almost to cool his courage for further achievements. 
 Pedrillo had no great difficulty to persuade him that 
 the fairy Carabossa had stolen Pimpimp away : but 
 it was not quite so easy to divert him from a thousand 
 extravagant resolutions suggested by his despair. 
 
 " This might possibly have been the lucky moment 
 for Pedrillo to have made his master the proposal of 
 returning to the castle ; but since his late conversa- 
 tion with the pasty and bottle of Alicant, his thoughts 
 had, in some measure, taken a different turn. At 
 present, therefore, he had so little notion of going 
 homeward, that he would rather have been sorry if 
 Don Sylvio had hit upon that expedient. To say 
 the truth, Pedrillo always trusted to the time 
 present ; his thoughts one way in the dark, and 
 another in broad daylight ; his ideas in a forest left 
 him generally in the open plain, and his sentiments, 
 while wallowing in a ditch, were prodigiously con- 
 trasted after a good breakfast. In this respect 
 Pedrillo was another Seneca, and the difference 
 between him and a philosopher consisted merely 
 in his not giving himself the trouble, by force of 
 reasoning, to form his contradictions into a system. 
 Accordingly, he displayed all his rhetoric to prove to 
 his master that there was no harm done yet. " Pim- 
 pimp," says he, " will find us again when we least 
 expect him ; leave him only to Madam Rademante ; 
 who knows what view she may have in letting him 
 disappear ? We must always hope for the best, 
 signior ; the bad comes soon enough of itself ; and so 
 let me tell you once for all, your friend the fairy, as a 
 woman of honour, is bound to keep her word, and 
 sooner or later we must have our princess, and then a 
 fig for them all, say I."
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 139 
 
 This emphatical harangue a little soothed our dis- 
 consolate hero ; and a fresh breeze just then coming 
 from the sea and brushing through the wood, so 
 tempered the sultry air that they resolved to con- 
 tinue their journey for some time, under the pleasant 
 shade of the surrounding trees.
 
 140 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 WEARIED IN PURSUIT OF THE BLUE BUTTERFLY, DON 
 SYLVIO FALLS ASLEEP, AFTER TAKING A RURAL 
 REPAST 
 
 OUR hero, having no other end in this wonderful 
 excursion than that of catching the blue butterfly, 
 it will easily be imagined that almost every butterfly 
 he met with on the road drew his attention. 
 
 One would have thought, as Pedrillo himself re- 
 marked, that the fairies Fanfreluche and Carabossa 
 had given the signal for all the butterflies in the uni- 
 verse to assemble and disperse themselves in this 
 same wood. From every bush there issued dozens 
 of them, and our knight, every moment thinking he 
 saw his princess, took a fancy not to rest till he had 
 caught it. Pedrillo followed him, with a pox ! and 
 a plague ! at ever step, but all in vain ; nothing 
 would do but to accompany his zealous master. 
 
 At length, however, after having coursed it like 
 mad folks for two hours, and fatigued themselves till 
 they could hold out no longer, they discovered that 
 these cursed butterflies had been only laughing at 
 them. They had, indeed, already a quantity suffi- 
 cient for a complete cabinet collection of yellows, 
 reds, greys, flame-coloured, pinked, spotted, varie- 
 gated, streaked, and peacock-eyed butterflies : in a 
 word, butterflies of every colour and of every kind, 
 but no one that spoke, or was a princess. 
 
 " Signior Don Sylvio," at last exclaimed Pedrillo, 
 quite out of breath, and throwing himself at the foot 
 of a tree, " I can run no longer ; I wish the devil had
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 141 
 
 all the butterflies excepting your princess, and then 
 we might have some hopes of finding her ; for to tell 
 you a bit of my mind, if Madam Rademante does 
 not help us better than she has done yet, I'll fairly 
 give up the chase." 
 
 " Pedrillo, my friend," replied Don Sylvio, half 
 stifled for want of respiration, " I am so tired that I 
 can hardly stir me : look, I beseech thee, and see for 
 some convenient spot where we may rest ourselves ; 
 I'll tell thee my thoughts when I have more power 
 and breath to speak." 
 
 ; ' Then only go a few steps farther, if you please," 
 said Pedrillo, " unless you have not strength enough 
 left to walk thither ; I see there's a fine spot upon 
 the turf there behind those olive trees, you may 
 look all the country round and not find so clever a 
 resting-place." 
 
 'Twas, a spot indeed, even more beautifully 
 situated than it seemed at a distance to promise ; for 
 on one side it was surrounded with hedges of white 
 and yellow roses that formed a kind of natural alcove, 
 and where it stood open you were presented with 
 the view of meadows bespangled with flowers and 
 intersected by a hundred little serpentine rivulets, 
 whose borders, enriched with fruit-trees on both 
 sides, exhibited to the enchanted eye a paradise in 
 miniature. 
 
 " What a charming scene," cried Don Sylvio, 
 recovering spirits at sight of this elegant enclosure ; 
 " one would think some nymph or fairy had this 
 moment produced it on purpose for our reception. 
 But if thou lovest me, go and get me a bottle of 
 water from the rivulet that runs between those rose- 
 bushes, for I am excessively dry and weary." So 
 saying, he threw himself upon the green turf, whose 
 tender verdure afforded him a softer couch than 
 down or velvet. 
 
 Pedrillo returned in a minute with his bottle. 
 " Animo ! Signior Don Sylvio," cried he, " see, here's
 
 142 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 water in abundance, and what is better still, there 
 are two more bottles of Malaga wine left in my wallet. 
 We shall drink them with so much the better gofit, as 
 they have cost us more time to get at. Come, come ! 
 here's to our princess's health. ' Medlars grow ripe 
 with time and straw.' Courage, signior ; there's no 
 harm done yet ; 'tis not four-and-twenty hours since 
 we set out, perhaps it would be better for us not to 
 make so much haste. Deuce take it, we know what 
 women are made of. I'll lay you a wager, if we were 
 to go on quietly, eating and drinking well, and make 
 as if we thought nothing about her, she'd come 
 presently of her own accord and put us in spirits 
 again, just like that shepherdess, who, to fly from her 
 beloved shepherd, went and hid herself in a cave. 
 Who the devil is to be a greater gainer by the bargain 
 than herself ? Do you suppose then, that she would 
 rather continue a poor blue butterfly than to be a 
 princess, and your wife to boot ? Let them believe 
 it that will ! So that you see there's no harm done 
 yet, and therefore, let's be gay while we may, in spite 
 of all the cursed Carabossas. Come, come ! Signior 
 Don Sylvio, 'tis eating and drinking that keeps life 
 and soul together ; let us eat then and be thankful : 
 who knows but we may dine with our princess 
 to-morrow in a castle of alabaster, and have our 
 table served up in dishes made out of a rainbow ? " 
 
 This fine exhortation of Pedrillo's was so power- 
 fully supported by the example he set, and by our 
 hero's being pretty hungry, that, if we may be 
 allowed to make use of a Jansenistical expression, it 
 was of necessity attended with an irresistible effect. 
 
 Don Sylvio on this occasion experienced the just- 
 ness of that remark of the sage Zoroaster, who, in one 
 of his books, now lost, asserts that a pound of white 
 bread, a cold pie, and a bottle of Malaga wine, to a 
 person of a good appetite, and who has not eaten for 
 some time, are an infallible remedy against all sorts 
 of vexation. The courage of our hero increased
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 143 
 
 therefore, in proportion as the volume of pie and 
 quantity of wine diminished. The vivid spirits of 
 the wine in a short time dissipated the black vapours 
 which had overclouded his brain, and by degrees, 
 pleasant ideas, smiling prospects, and soothing 
 reveries succeeded ; insomuch, that at length the 
 god Morpheus took possession of his senses without 
 the least occasion for a grain of poppy ; and after 
 having stetched him along in a gentle slumber upon 
 the verdant grass, gave order to the zephyrs to per- 
 fume him, from time to time, with a delicious odour 
 of roses. 
 
 Pedrillo followed his master's example, after 
 taking the precaution to place his person and his 
 dear knapsack behind a bush, at least thirty paces 
 from his master, where he judged himself in safety. 
 
 Our readers, probably from the narcotic virtue of 
 our narrative, may find themselves in the same 
 situation with our travellers. That we may not 
 therefore hinder them from keeping these sleepers 
 company, if they chose, we shall here make a short 
 pause, and take breath f r the ensuing chapter.
 
 144 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE PRETTIEST ADVENTURE OF THIS BOOK 
 
 PEDRILLO waked after a nap of about two or three 
 hours ; when, finding himself perfectly refreshed, 
 he arose, quitted his couch, and went to see what 
 was become of his master. But how great was his 
 astonishment at the sight of certain personages who 
 presented themselves to him on his nearer approach ! 
 A prude, who, sleeping in a verdant arbour, tastes 
 those pleasures in her dream which waking she con- 
 temns, could not be more astonished on rousing from 
 her slumbers, to find herself in a bold lover's arms, 
 than was Pedrillo, at sight of two young ladies, who, 
 being partly concealed by the rose-bushes, stood near 
 his master, and seemed to behold him with the most 
 attentive contemplation. 
 
 They were both of them habited like shepherdesses, 
 both of them seemingly about sixteen or seventeen 
 years of age, and both of them so beautiful, that 
 Pedrillo was for a moment in doubt whether they 
 might not possibly be some of those nymphs or 
 sylphids that usually appeared in vision to his master. 
 
 Am I dreaming," said he to himself, " or do I 
 fancy myself awake, or do I see with my own eyes ? 
 Oh, we'll know that presently ; 'tis only pinching 
 my cheeks or arms. Ay, ay, 'tis all right, I am myself, 
 I'm sure ; 'tis so. Yes, yes, they are my own eyes 
 too ; let me rub 'em as long as I will they still show 
 me the same two beautiful creatures, if such they be. 
 But I could almost fancy they are fairies, and the 
 finest, too, that a man shall see in a summer's day." 
 
 Upon this he began to stare at them anew, with
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 145 
 
 open eyes and wide gaping mouth, and knew not 
 when to leave off. The more he surveyed them, the 
 more was he confirmed in the opinion, that in 
 the whole course of his life he had never met with 
 anything so fine. 
 
 One of the two was taller and more genteel than 
 the other ; she appeared to be not above seventeen, 
 or between that and eighteen years old ; was dressed 
 all in white, and instead of natural flowers, wore 
 small ones in her hair composed of diamonds. The 
 splendour of her jewels, however, was effaced by the 
 lustre of her eyes, while the whiteness of her neck 
 and arms surpassed that of her dress. 
 
 Pedrillo, dazzled with so much finery, no longer 
 hesitated to conclude that it must be the fairy 
 Radiante herself, and what confirmed him in the idea 
 was to see two pages a little way off so smartly 
 decked out and shining in silver that he could not 
 fail taking them for salamanders. At that instant, 
 all the little doubts, which from time to time 
 had arisen in his mind concerning the real existence 
 of fairies, and of course, their whole history, dis- 
 appeared. Nothing now was more certain to his 
 imagination than the existence of a butterfly- 
 princess ; and the fairy's appearance (upon which, as 
 he firmly believed, the unravelling of this romance 
 totally depended), was a full conviction to him that his 
 young master would soon be triumphant over all the 
 dwarfs and dwarfesses in the world, and at length 
 become the happiest prince upon earth. 
 
 Full of these flattering ideas, he approached them, 
 through trembling, and perceiving that they talked 
 to each other, he stopped short close beside them, 
 concealed by a bush, and holding his breath, 
 listened to them with great attention with the 
 curiosity indeed of a young Faunus, who privately 
 descries two nymphs busied in fixing upon the spot 
 where they intend to bathe themselves the night 
 following.
 
 146 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 " You must confess," said the shortest of the two, 
 who was a pretty brunette, and made poor Pedrillo's 
 heart leap and rattle about at a strange rate as she 
 spoke ; " you must confess you cannot behold this 
 young man without being moved. How handsome 
 he is ! what beautiful ringlets of hair ! what a 
 charming countenance ! what a mixture of rose and 
 lily ! upon my honour, I don't think Endymion was 
 so pretty as this young sleeper. Could not you be 
 tempted, madam, and don't you feel some little 
 inkling of a desire to be his Diana ? " 
 
 " Why, surely thou art mad," replied the pre- 
 tended fairy, " what an idea is that ! and yet I own 
 to thee, Laura, he is really handsome. But what 
 if he should wake ? Our best step will be to get 
 away." 
 
 " You are right, madam," said the short one, with 
 a malicious, saucy look, " for what business have we 
 here ? You know, he may wake every minute, and 
 what will he think to see us standing here, and as 
 busy in looking at him as if we had never seen a 
 pretty, rosy-faced young lad in our lives before." 
 
 " But still, I could wish to know who and what he 
 is," answered the fairy. " His figure and garb be- 
 speak him something above the common run ' 
 
 " Oh yes, I warrant you," said the nymph ; " if 
 a Carmelite sister was in our place, and had found 
 him at the foot of this rose-bush, as we have, she'd 
 at least have taken him for a little Saint John the 
 Baptist, unless, indeed, she had supposed him a little 
 angel." 
 
 " But who can he be, then ? I don't know in all 
 this neighbourhood " 
 
 " Very true, madam ; you have been here almost 
 a month, and your antipathy to these rustic gentry 
 has not yet allowed you to make any acquaintance 
 among them ; excepting the licentiate, Don Gabriel, 
 whom you knew before at Valencia, and my lord, 
 your brother. You converse with none, I believe,
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 147 
 
 but the nightingales in your park, and the lambs in 
 your fields." 
 
 " Don't talk so loud," said the lady, " I am afraid 
 every minute of his waking, and I would not for all 
 the world he should see us. But tell me, Laura, can 
 you conceive what can have brought hither a young 
 man all alone, that seems to be of some distinction ? " 
 
 " He is not so much alone as you may think him, 
 fair ladies," cried Pedrillo, who could no longer 
 contain himself, when he found that the fairy was a 
 dame of fashion, and the nymph a kind of waiting- 
 woman. 
 
 The little terror into which this salute threw our 
 belles, not seeing at first from whence it came, soon 
 disappeared upon their discovering Pedrillo, who, in 
 spite of his unsplendid equipage, was a lad of a 
 happy physiognomy, and sufficiently well shaped to 
 have tempted a much more prudish girl than the fair 
 Laura seemed to be. 
 
 " I see," continued he, " you are very curious to 
 know what kind of a bird is this same young master 
 of mine he that you see sleeping there : but you 
 must give me leave to be silent on that head, for 'tis 
 of no small consequence to us to keep a certain old 
 aunt of ours from knowing what is become of us. 
 There is some mystery in the case, mind me ; and 
 yet, to such handsome young ladies as you are, if 
 you'll promise to keep the secret, I think I might 
 very well open the budget ; for, upon my conscience, 
 you neither look like nieces nor aunts of the fairy 
 Fanfreluche." 
 
 " Please to explain yourself a little, my friend," 
 said Laura, accompanying her words with a look that 
 Pedrillo did not suffer to pass unnoticed, " but be 
 quick, or we shall be afraid of waking your master." 
 
 " Oh, don't let that trouble you," replied Pedrillo ; 
 " he d:'d not close his eyes all last night, and when he 
 is once got asleep, the sky might fall without waking 
 him. He sleeps now from downright weariness, for
 
 148 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 only since yesterday evening we have travelled at 
 least four-and-twenty leagues." 
 
 " Four-and-twenty leagues ! and afoot too ! " 
 cried Laura, seemingly astonished. 
 
 " My pretty young lady," said Pedrillo, " one 
 travels very fast when fairies are one's guides. You 
 go off without knowing how, and have frequently got 
 to the distance of some thousands of leagues, before 
 you can perceive you have changed your place." 
 
 " Indeed ! " cried Laura. " But pray, what do 
 you mean by having fairy guides ? " 
 
 " Why, faith, miss, that's a puzzling kind of a 
 question which cannot be answered in a moment ; 
 but to make it short, between you and me, we are 
 seeking out after a princess, or more properly speak- 
 ing, a butterfly, that my master is in love with ; 
 and when we have found her, my master is to change 
 her into a princess and marry her. This is the whole 
 affair, look ye ; but pray be silent about it, I beg 
 of you. We must be upon our guard against certain 
 dwarfs that fancy they have pretensions to our 
 princess, and might knock our scheme at head per- 
 haps, if they had the least notion of what we are 
 about." 
 
 " Well now, madam," said Laura, turning to her 
 mistress, " what do you say to this ? Did you ever 
 hear anyhing like it before ? 'Twould puzzle a 
 conjilror to strike out a fancy half so extravagant." 
 
 " But who then is thy master ? " demanded the 
 lady. 
 
 " Oh, as to my master, madam, he is certainly one 
 of the best, and the most generous, and good- 
 natured in short, madam, he is one of the learnedest 
 and bravest noblemen you shall meet with in all 
 Spain, take my word for it ; and I think I ought to 
 know him, for I was brought up with him, and what 
 is more still, he and I are foster-brothers." 
 
 " Very well," interrupted the lady, " but I only 
 want to know his name ; who do you call him ? "
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 149 
 
 " His name, madam," said Pedrillo, " is Don Sylvio 
 de Rosalva, at your service ; his castle is but 
 three little leagues from Xelva. He is Don Sylvio, 
 as I said before, and his father's name was Don 
 Pedro de Rosalva ; he was one of my godfathers, 
 and for that reason they gave me the name of Pedro ; 
 but when I was only a little one, they called me 
 nothing but Pedrillo, and so they do still to this hour, 
 and Pedrillo I will be so long as it pleases God, 
 unless my master soon finds out his princess ; and 
 then, indeed, I can't tell what may happen ; perhaps 
 I may then get at some one of the marquisates or 
 countyships that the princess is to bring my master 
 as her marriage portion." 
 
 Pedrillo spoke this with so very grave and in- 
 genuous an air, that our fair visitants no longer 
 hesitated to conclude both him and his master were a 
 little touched in the head. " Why, this is more than 
 Don Quixote himself ! " cries Laura to her mistress . 
 " the master in love with a butterfly, and the man 
 looking out for nothing less than a marquisate : well, 
 this will make us fine diversion. But here, hark ye, 
 my friend, you told us just now about a butterfly 
 your master was in love with, and that he was to 
 change it into a princess ; perhaps you meant to say 
 that he is in love with a princess changed into a 
 butterfly by some enchanter ? " 
 
 " You have it, you have it," said Pedrillo ; 
 " that's the very case, and the business now is to 
 turn her back again into a princess. But to tell you 
 the truth, and between ourselves, methinks the fairy 
 Rademante, who promised my master her produc- 
 tion, has not quite taken all the care of us she might 
 have done, and I must own I cannot help being in 
 doubt as to the' upshot of the matter." 
 
 " But what fairy is it ? " demanded Laura ; 
 " Rademante, did you say ? " 
 
 " Pshaw ! let her be called what she will," inter- 
 rupted the lady, with an air of chagrin, " we have
 
 150 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 no time for troubling ourselves about fairies and 
 butterflies; 'twill be night before we get to Lirias. 
 What will my brother think of our staying out so 
 long ? " 
 
 At these words the lady departed, first casting a 
 look at the handsome sleeper ; a look, which, had 
 she been alone, might possibly have been changed 
 into a kiss ; at least, this was one of Laura's shrewd 
 reflections to herself by the way. 
 
 Pedrillo thought it his duty to escort his pretty 
 visitors to the high-road, where they had left their 
 mules in the hands of their pages. But not to dis- 
 semble the truth, his heart had a greater share in the 
 step than his politeness. Little Laura, in a few 
 moments, had effected a change, which Mrs Beatrice 
 had been labouring at for some years with very small 
 success. In short, he was as much in love as any 
 Pedrillo ever was. He seemed to have a thousand 
 things still to say to his fair unknown, but he had so 
 many more at his heart, as hindered him from 
 uttering a single word. Thus he stood like one fixed 
 to the place for a good while after the ladies had dis- 
 appeared, and still kept looking on towards the spot 
 at which he had lost sight of them.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 151 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 SHOWING WHO THE LADIES WERE THAT PEDRILLO 
 TOOK FOR FAIRIES 
 
 INSTANTANEOUSLY, or to speak more properly, from 
 the moment that the chaste Laura first cast her 
 smiles on Pedrillo, he was no longer of that rank of 
 beings which could justly be expected to enjoy such 
 presence of mind as commonly distinguishes persons 
 of a cold and phlegmatic constitution. He had now 
 for some time lost sight of the two ladies who had 
 appeared to him in the preceding chapter, before he 
 recollected that possibly it might have been very 
 proper to have informed himself, both who they were, 
 and where they might again be met with. 
 
 However, as it would be doing our readers injustice 
 to keep them in suspense by the amorous distractions 
 of Pedrillo, we think ourselves obliged to satisfy 
 their curiosity ; which we flatter ourselves to have 
 excited in them, without our having used any of that 
 mysterious parade, commonly employed by writers 
 of romance, to keep the mind upon the stretch for 
 whole chapters together, about such or such a 
 person, with whom they have scraped acquaintance, 
 whether at an ordinary, or in a stage coach. We will 
 therefore discover to them under the seal of secrecy 
 for Don Sylvio must still remain ignorant of the matter 
 both who the ladies were, and by what chance 
 they came to the place ; where, unhappily for the 
 repose of their hearts, they found the beautiful Don 
 Sylvio sleeping, and his faithful Achates awake. 
 
 She then, whom Pedrillo, on account of her figure
 
 152 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 and jewels, took for a fairy, was named Donna 
 Felicia de Cardena : she was something about 
 eighteen years of age, the relict of Don Miguel de 
 Cardena, who had been so discreet as to die at three- 
 score and ten, after a marriage of about two years, 
 leaving his widow sole heiress of an immense fortune 
 which he had been labouring the greatest part of his 
 life to acquire in Mexico. 
 
 Ever since their marriage they had resided at 
 Valencia, a city which, for its beauty and fine situa- 
 tion, is called by the Spaniards, " The Fair." But 
 as soon as Donna Felicia saw herself mistress of her 
 fate by the death of her old man, she determined in 
 favour of a country life, where she had more oppor- 
 tunity to pursue a certain romantic turn, both of 
 heart and imagination. 
 
 The poets, it seems, had made nearly the same 
 impression upon her mind as the fairy tales had done 
 upon Don Sylvio's. If the latter had his imagina- 
 tion stuffed up with metamorphoses, enchantments, 
 princesses, hobgoblins, dwarfs, and so on, that of the 
 former was equally so with poetic pictures, Arcadian 
 shepherds, and love adventures. Hence, if she threw 
 herself into the arms of a lover so frigid and so 
 unpoetical as a husband must be at the age of 
 seventy, it was merely from the hope and expecta- 
 tion of soon coming to the disposal of his riches, 
 which might enable her to realise all those brilliant 
 schemes of a i r <*e and happy mode of life, which she 
 had eagerly formed upon her poetic ideas. 
 
 Donna Felicia, exclusive of a singular share of 
 beauty, possessed all those charms which at once 
 supply the place of female beauty, and render that 
 beauty irresistible. She played upon the lute, and 
 sung to it in the highest perfection, and what made 
 it still more charming, there was that something in 
 the bare sound ot her voice so affectingly sonorous, 
 as, according to good old King Lear's opinion, is an 
 excellent thing in woman. She was moreover skilled
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 153 
 
 in drawing and crayon-painting ; and, that no gift 
 or excellence might be wanting, she composed 
 sonnets, idylliums, and little madrigals, which, if 
 you'll take the word of her lovers for it, surpassed all 
 the productions of the Sapphos, Corinnas, and Nine 
 Muses put together. 
 
 It may be easily imagined, then, what a revolution 
 the death of her husband must have occasioned in 
 the polite circle of Valencia. All the ladies trembled 
 for the fidelity of their lovers, and every fop pre- 
 pared himself for making so brilliant a conquest. 
 The poets laid in a large stock of odes and elegies, in 
 hopes of selling them at a moderate price to the 
 young widow's admirers. In a word, everybody was 
 in motion, herself excepted, who was the object of so 
 much bustle and so many schemes. When lo ! 
 scarce had her mourning and the winter elapsed, but 
 she quitted the town, totally unconcerned at the 
 deplorable situation into which her cruel resolution 
 had plunged her adorers ; retiring with her brother 
 to his fine estate at Lirias, seated in one of the 
 pleasantest countries in the world. 
 
 This retreat she chose principally out of civility 
 to her brother, Don Eugene de Lyrias, whom she 
 tenderly loved. She had a noble mansion of her 
 own, which Don Miguel, at her instance, had pur- 
 chased in the neighbourhood of Xelva, but she 
 thought it more suitable to live under her brother's 
 eye, both as being her nearest relation, and a young 
 nobleman of high character and distinguished merit. 
 
 At her own seat Donna Felicia had formed a kind 
 of pastoral scene, which in time she thought of 
 making another Arcadia. Thither she every now 
 and then took a little excursion, and it was just on her 
 return from one of this sort, that she had discovered 
 the rose-bush under the shade of which Don Sylvio 
 lay sleeping. The place appeared to her so en- 
 chantingly fine, that she alighted from her mule to 
 pluck a few roses, of which she was very fond, as all
 
 154 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 poetic souls generally are ; and hence she met with 
 that unexpected surprise of seeing our handsome 
 cavalier fast asleep. 
 
 Let the word sympathy appear to the ears of many 
 of our modern sages as poetical, mysterious, and 
 magical as they please, we are ignorant of any other 
 to express a certain kind of affection, which we that 
 is to say, all the sons and daughters of Adam and 
 Eve feel at first sight for persons unknown : an 
 affection that is so visibly distinguished from all 
 other kinds of inclination, friendship, and love, no 
 less in its cause, than by its effects. 
 
 For instance, there were above fifty of the most 
 engaging young sparks in Valencia, who took all 
 imaginable pains to touch the heart of this beautiful 
 Felicia, without being able to determine her in 
 giving a preference to any of them, in comparison 
 with the riches of old Don Miguel. Some of her 
 adorers had real merit; Donna Felicia did them 
 all perfect justice. She esteemed them, liked their 
 company, honoured them with her friendship, and 
 perhaps for the reader will be kind enough to note 
 it is only a perhaps she might have been capable of 
 entertaining even some certain weakness, in certain 
 circumstances, under a certain sign of the Zodiac, 
 or the direction of a certain wind, in a certain place, 
 at a certain hour, and in certain dispositions, towards 
 some one amongst them, who should have more 
 experience than Madam de Lisban's little Abbe. 
 For, with our fair countrywomen's leave, according to 
 the sage Avicenne's idea, and, we may add, that of 
 the Reverend Father Escobar, in his moral theology, 
 " There are certain moments in which virtue is very 
 fortunately seconded by a lucky chance." But none 
 of these same young gentlemen could succeed, nor 
 might they have succeeded in a longer series of years 
 than the Celadons of the Astrea spent dying at 
 the feet of their unfeeling goddesses. None could 
 inspire her with that inexplicable, that extraordinary
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 155 
 
 sentiment, which Don Sylvio, without knowing it, 
 or contributing to it, had enkindled in her even at the 
 first sight, and which had told her more in the tenth 
 part of a minute than ever her heart had told her 
 respecting all her admirers. In short, a sentiment 
 which might have made her clearly comprehend, if 
 the ecstatic condition in which she stood had allowed 
 her a moment's self-examination, that she was 
 capable of sacrificing with pleasure, to this young 
 man unknown, all those riches for which she herself 
 had sacrificed the best days of the most amiable 
 young lady in Valencia. 
 
 To examine what could properly be the cause of so 
 singular an effect, as well as of all those by which 
 love sympathetic distinguishes itself from the other 
 kinds of love, would carry us too far from our narra- 
 tive : the reader has our permission to adopt any 
 hypothesis that to his own mind shall appear most 
 suitable. Whether then it be, that the souls of these 
 sympathising creatures have mutually known and 
 loved each other in a state anterior to this, or whether 
 there be any natural kindred in souls, or whether 
 there be any sister souls, as an English poet calls 
 them, or whether their genii carry on a certain 
 reciprocal correspondence, or whether some musical 
 harmony produces this effect mechanically upon 
 their fibres and finer nerves 'tis enough, that this 
 same sympathy does as truly exist in nature, as either 
 gravity, attraction, elasticity, or magnetic power, 
 and that, all circumstances duly weighed, the beautiful 
 Donna Felicia, impelled by the magic influence of 
 this mysterious attraction, is as little to blame for 
 not having been able to defend herself against some- 
 thing in favour of our hero, which till now she had 
 never felt for any one, as one Regulo Vasconi, ac- 
 cording to Scaliger's account, is blamable for not 
 having been able to retain his water on hearing the 
 sound of a bagpipe.* 
 
 * See Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, Act iv. Sc. I.
 
 156 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 It is not without good reason that we have availed 
 ourselves of this ignoble comparison, though we were 
 greatly afraid of its shocking the delicacy of our 
 prudish readers ; since in case any future com- 
 mentators should entertain a curiosity to guess at 
 our real sentiments touching sympathy, this will 
 serve their turn, and help to throw light upon the 
 subject. At present, without dwelling any longer 
 upon such intricate matters, we shall return to our 
 two ladies, whom, if we remember right, we left on 
 the road in their return to Lirias.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 157 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 ONE OF THE MOST LEARNED CHAPTERS IN THIS WHOLE 
 PERFORMANCE 
 
 TASTE, in matters of love, is so various in this world, 
 that we might possibly meet with readers who would 
 sooner declare for Laura, though only a beauty of the 
 second order, or to express ourselves more learnedly, 
 a dea minorum gentium, than even for her mistress 
 herself. If there be any of this sort of lovers, they 
 might probably be a little angry with us if we did not 
 communicate to them, at least, an abstract of the 
 fair Laura's history. All such we entreat to bear in 
 mind that we have already said everything necessary 
 respecting her, by saying that she was a pretty little 
 brown girl, genteel, smart, and very lively ; and 
 these, we humbly conceive, are the most remarkable 
 circumstances that we could have urged in her 
 favour. For, as to her history, every one knows she 
 was a chamber-maid, or waiting-woman, and the 
 history of waiting-women, as everybody knows, is 
 the same throughout the world, or at least according 
 to the common course of nature. 
 
 The famous father Sanchez, in his book entitled 
 De Matrimonio, which is equally chaste and in- 
 structive, observes, that a growing love operates 
 upon a young widow in a different manner to what 
 it does upon a young girl. " The former," says he, 
 " in consequence of it, becomes gay, alert, and 
 petulant ; whereas in the other we observe an 
 inward stupefaction, and a gloomy melancholy, 
 which," adds this excellent man, " are the effects of 
 that inward secret horror, which the soul feels at the 
 danger it incurs on plunging from its glorious and 
 angelic state, into that gross and material passion,
 
 158 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 which, in its consequences, leads us on to so indecent 
 an incorporation as that whereby the world is 
 populated and filled with sins." 
 
 We have too profound a respect for the Holy 
 Inquisition to dare to accuse so great a man even of 
 the slightest error : we shall therefore only say that 
 nature was greatly to blame for having dared, with- 
 out the least regard to this great man's authority, 
 who hath invented so large a catalogue of new sins, 
 to operate in the beautiful Felicia and her confidante, 
 precisely contrary to this great casuist's remarks ; 
 for however contradictory it might appear, it is 
 nevertheless strictly true, and we cannot deny it, that 
 on their way to Lirias our young widow was perfectly 
 stupefied and silent, while the lass, her companion, 
 notwithstanding the danger at which her virgin soul 
 ought to have trembled, was so gay, and in so good a 
 humour, that the most seraphic sister of Saint Claire 
 might have been tempted to a wish of being in her 
 place. They had already got a good way on the 
 road, without Donna Felicia's once opening her lips, 
 though Laura waited for the signal with great im- 
 patience, to give a scope to her sallies. It is true, a 
 sigh did, as it were by chance, escape the lady ; but 
 it was only a mere fragment of a sigh, for she caught 
 it back again just in time to hinder the transporta- 
 tion of at least two-thirds of it from escaping her 
 discreet bosom. 
 
 At last Laura, who, for a waiting-woman, had 
 observed a very great and extraordinary silence, 
 could contain herself no longer. She began with one 
 question, which was presently followed by another ; 
 so that at length a conversation insensibly sprung 
 up betwixt her and her mistress or friend call her 
 which you will, for she was both. We shall not fail 
 to communicate this conversation to our honoured 
 and gentle readers, word for word, just as Pedrillo 
 assures us he learned it afterwards from the coral 
 lips of his dear nymph herself.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 159 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 A FEMALE DIALOGUE 
 
 " You are prodigiously grave, madam." 
 
 " Grave, Laura ! " 
 
 " Yes, madam, if you please ; nay, and even 
 almost melancholy too, if so sad a word can suit a 
 countenance, upon which even sadness itself would 
 appear charming." 
 
 " I know not what thou art talking about ; I 
 think I am in as good spirits as I have been all day." 
 
 " Not quite in so good spirits, madam." 
 
 " And prithee why should not I ? " 
 
 " I can't tell indeed, madam. But I thought just 
 now I heard a little sigh " 
 
 " A sigh ! " 
 
 " Yes, madam ; but one of those little sighs, one 
 of that sort of sighs that escape from a girl of fourteen 
 when a pretty young fellow demands her elder sister 
 in marriage." 
 
 " Thou bringest very impertinent comparisons, 
 Laura, and changest a mere breathing into a sigh, 
 to enable thee to vent a joke that hast cost thee a 
 quarter of an hour's meditation." 
 
 " I thank you for the compliment you have made 
 my understanding ; but since you are determined 
 neither to seem grave, nor to allow it was a sigh 
 though by the way many objections might be made, 
 we'll change the subject, if you choose." 
 
 " I am not at all disposed for talking this evening." 
 
 " That was a charming spot where you gathered 
 those roses, madam ; though to say the truth, for I
 
 160 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 am no poet, they already begin to fade a little in your 
 bosom. Indeed it was a charming spot ! " 
 
 " True, it was so." 
 
 " Yes, indeed, one of those sweet poetical spots 
 that the books tell us of ; and I hope, madam, you'll 
 never repent having set foot in it notwithstanding 
 that little Endymion we found sleeping there. Well, 
 ma'am, you must own we never saw anything so 
 handsome in Valencia." 
 
 " Why, thou talkest so briskly that 'twould almost 
 make one think thou'rt in love with him." 
 
 " Perhaps, madam, you might rather have thought 
 this of me, if I had said nothing about him ? " 
 
 " I comprehend thee, and thou shalt imagine what 
 thou wilt and welcome. But I assure thee his beauty 
 did not appear so supernatural to me as thou wouldst 
 fain make me believe." 
 
 " Beauty, supernatural ! Indeed, I did not mean 
 to say any such thing, for I know nothing about 
 supernatural matters. But yet you must acknow- 
 ledge, he is infinitely handsomer than Don Alexis, 
 that very important gentleman at Valencia, whom 
 the ladies cannot help wishing so impatiently for 
 their admirer ; and whom none, except Donna Felicia 
 de Cardena, does not pique herself upon having 
 possessed for a few days together." 
 
 " Handsomer than Don Alexis is no such great 
 matter. For my own part, I never took him for 
 anything but a very insipid coxcomb, whose greatest 
 merit consisted in having a fair, plump hand, and 
 white teeth, not to mention his lisping out perpetually 
 a vast quantity of silly jokes, and venting them with 
 an air of mighty consequence." 
 
 " Nay, for that matter, I know not how it came 
 into my head to mention Don Alexis, for indeed I 
 never could conceive what the ladies found so very 
 extraordinary in him. Let him look to it, if his ill 
 luck should bring this Don Sylvio to Valencia, for 
 in my opinion, he would scarce leave him merit
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 161 
 
 enough to seduce the poor heart even of a tender 
 Abigail." 
 
 " I know not with what eyes thou hast looked 
 upon this Don Sylvio ; I grant he appears amiable, 
 but as to being so handsome as thou sayest " 
 
 " Well, madam, you have hit upon the right word 
 amiable ; ay, that's the very word I meant to say ; 
 for indeed his beauty is not without defects light 
 hair " 
 
 " What dost thou mean ? 'tis of a chestnut 
 colour." 
 
 " Ay, true, 'tis chestnut. But as he is so ruddy, 
 and, as one might say, has so womanish a counten- 
 ance, light hair in my mind " 
 
 " And in my mind, Laura, Nature understands 
 these assortments of colours better than thou. His 
 hair suits the colour of his face perfectly well " 
 
 " Well, but yet methinks he ought to have a more 
 manly air. If one was to dress him like a woman, 
 Donna Leonora de Zuniga herself, who knows men so 
 well, might be deceived by him as soon as anybody, 
 I'd answer for it." 
 
 " Why, certainly, he is not a Hercules ; but not- 
 withstanding the delicacy and regularity of his 
 features, there seems something grand and heroic in 
 his physiognomy, which one should think you might 
 have observed, after so attentive an examination as 
 you appear to have made of him." 
 
 " And yet, madam, I protest you seem to have 
 observed this young man with more exactness in one 
 moment, than I in a quarter of an hour. But what 
 do you say to his mouth ? I own it is pretty, only a 
 little too small in my opinion " 
 
 " Why, prithee now, Laura, what can be the 
 reason of thy undervaluing everything in him that is 
 particularly graceful ? " 
 
 " I most humbly beg pardon, madam, for telling 
 you things only just as they appear to me. But, if 
 
 it was not for fear of displeasing you " 
 
 M
 
 162 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 " Displeasing me, sayest thou ? Thou art a fool ! 
 But to say the truth, I am not much the wiser for 
 lending an ear to thy follies. What is it to us whether 
 Don Sylvio is handsome, or whether he is not ? " 
 
 " True, madam ; it is enough that he is amiable, 
 that's the grand point. I remember to have read 
 somewhere, that nothing appears handsome or 
 beautiful to us, but what we love." 
 
 " If that be so, thou must surely be furiously taken 
 with our unknown : for, by thy account, the Vatican 
 Apollo himself cannot be a more perfect beauty than 
 Don Sylvio." 
 
 " At least, madam, the latter has the advantage 
 over the former of breathing, and that, in my mind, 
 is no contemptible matter." 
 
 " Have done with this trifling. Tell me, Laura ; 
 thou rememberest what that Pedrillo, or what do 
 you call it, told us about him ? " 
 
 " If one may credit what that lad said, our un- 
 known gentleman must be of a very good family, the 
 son of Don Pedro de Rosalva, whom my lord, your 
 late father, used often to speak of as an officer of 
 great merit. But if I may give my opinion, I fancy 
 Pedrillo may have said more than he will be able to 
 prove." 
 
 " Possibly ; externals may deceive, for these are 
 in his favour. But prithee, what reasons hast 
 thou " 
 
 " Why, madam, if we believe this Pedrillo, and he 
 seems to be a frank, open-hearted young fellow, in 
 what he has said in favour of his master, we cannot 
 then refuse to believe that Don Sylvio is in love with 
 a butterfly, and has, God knows what some dwarf 
 for his rival : that a fairy protects him, and that by 
 this same fairy's assistance, the butterfly is to be 
 changed into a princess, and so forth. Now all this 
 in my mind, is pretty much of the Bedlam stamp : 
 and yet, what is still worse, the lad utters these idle 
 stories with so simple and ingenuous an air, and such
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 163 
 
 an absolute appearance of sincerity, as leaves us no 
 room to suppose or to hope that all he said was merely 
 for our diversion, which renders the case so much 
 the more desperate." 
 
 " I grant thee, Laura, and why should I make it a 
 mystery to thee, that this young gentleman gives 
 me some concern ; for he must be out of his senses if 
 what Pedrillo said be true." 
 
 " Yes, and Pedrillo himself must be much more so, 
 for nobody can talk of the most common things with 
 more calmness or indifference than he does of butter- 
 flies, dwarfs, fairies, princesses, and marquisates." 
 
 " Well, there is something very unaccountable in all 
 this : however, from the man's confused account we 
 may learn that Don Sylvio has taken his flight from 
 home upon some love adventure. The lad mentioned 
 an old aunt, who probably may have thrown some 
 obstacles in the way of his amour, and perhaps that 
 has turned his head ; for, as everybody knows, a 
 violent passion, if it be too indiscreetly opposed, may 
 produce fatal effects." 
 
 " That is true, especially as nothing is more easy, 
 say some folks, than to set reason at variance with 
 love. But if we do not suppose this Pedrillo as crazy 
 as his master, we have gained nothing by our argu- 
 ment. A droll thought, madam, just now strikes 
 into my mind ; let us adopt it for want of a better. 
 There is something so melancholy in the idea of sup- 
 posing an amiable young gentleman touched in his 
 head, as might well deserve the sigh that escaped 
 you a few minutes ago for indeed, madam, you 
 must not deny it it was one of those sort of sighs 
 than cannot be denied. I followed it from the birth, 
 from the moment of its rising, by little and little, from 
 your fair bosom, till at length it burst from your 
 opening lips, and took its flight hi the shape of a little 
 amorous boy." 
 
 " Simpleton ! But, pray, what idea was it thou 
 meanest to tell me ? "
 
 164 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 "Oh, I was thinking that Don Sylvio, with your 
 permission, might possibly be a little unsettled 
 without being precisely what one may call crazy. 
 In short, he might perhaps yield to some folly, ex- 
 travagarce, or what you please to term it, without 
 its rendering him unworthy to appear amiable in the 
 eyes of a lady who should have found him sleeping 
 at the foot of so beautiful a rose-bush." 
 
 " Laura, I perceive thou hast taken it into thy 
 head, and fully determined that I am in love with 
 him. We shall not dispute upon that head, believe 
 me : but I prithee tell me, in what dost thou think 
 his extravagance consists ? " 
 
 " I suppose he may be a Don Quixote in miniature, 
 who, as Pedrillo expressed it, runs a-fa.ry hunting, 
 just as the hero of La Mancha rambled after knight- 
 errantry. And is it then so incomprehensible a thing 
 for a lively young man one thai has never seen the 
 world, and meets with nothing in his own village 
 capable of gratifying the delicacy of his taste to 
 have become so frantic with reacting romances and 
 fairy tales, as to take all their enchanters, fairies, 
 enchanted palaces, and dragons, together with the 
 dwarfs and hobgoblins, and blue centaurs they 
 speak of, for so many real beings ? " 
 
 " 'Twould be a very singular species of frenzy, 
 Laura ; and yet I could conceive it not impossible. 
 But if so, what shall we say to his love for the 
 princess that has been changed into a butterfly ? " 
 
 " I could venture any wager, madam, that this 
 same princess is neither more nor less than some 
 smart country girl he has somewhere got sight of. 
 His imagination has exalted her to the rank of a 
 princess, and at length, with the assistance of a 
 yellow dwarf, or some hunchbacked Magot'.ie, has 
 changed her into a butterfly. r< " that he will have 
 nothing more to do, than see =ome young lady that 
 may suit his fancy, i.o rr ,tore his well-beloved in a 
 moment to her proper t,^ape, without the^help of a
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 165 
 
 talisman or enchanted ring : and thus, to speak in 
 Pedrillo's style, she may presently be re-metamor- 
 phosed into a peasant lass, at least, if not into a 
 princess." 
 
 " Well, Laura, * orotest thou hast excited my 
 curiosity ; I am only soi y now, that we did not sto"> 
 a little till he waked." 
 
 " Nay, madam, as to that, it will be no difficult 
 matter to get such an account of him as may relieve 
 us from our embarrassment, his place of residence 
 being so near only a few leagues from your brother's 
 seat. And who knows but those same hobgoblins 
 that are so interested in his destiny, may bring 
 him as easily to Lirias as they conducted us this 
 day to those rose-bushes, which, upon the word of 
 a maid, penectly resembled the enchanted groves of 
 a fairy." 
 
 While Laura was going on with this striking 
 harangue, they arrived at the courtyard of the castle 
 of Lirias ; where, for some time, we shall do our- 
 selves the honour to take leave of their , and return 
 to see what is become of our hero ; a personage 
 whom we cannot long lose sight of without being 
 guilty of great neglect, though we can as little deny 
 but the company of Donna Felicia has afforded us a 
 most agreeable satisfaction.
 
 166 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 BOOK IV 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 IN WHICH THE AUTHOR DISPLAYS HIS PROFOUND SKILL 
 IN THE MYSTERIES OF ONTOLOGY. 
 
 IF ever man found himself in a critical situation, it 
 was Pedrillo, after he had lost sight of the two fair 
 creatures, to whose acquaintance we introduced him 
 in the preceding book. The tumult which this 
 apparition created, no less in his head than in his 
 heart, was so great, that the bare difficulty of 
 describing it throws us almost into the same dilemma. 
 The question with him was, whether he had been 
 awake or dreaming ; whether the objects were 
 fairies, or mere mortals; and whether they had 
 vanished, or only taken leave in the ordinary course 
 of things. But this was a great problem in his idea, 
 and the more he thought of it the less was he able 
 to resolve it. Meditations, indeed, are not every- 
 body's business ; at least, Pedrillo so ill applied 
 himself to the work, as presently to be involved 
 in the labyrinth of his own cogitations, which, like 
 a net, only served to entangle him more and more. 
 In short, after having battled with himself for above 
 a quarter of an hour, he concluded with beginning 
 in good earnest to doubt his own existence. 
 
 Of all the doubts to which man's poor and feeble 
 reason is exposed, none can be found, perhaps, so 
 little capable of being supported at the long run as 
 this I have just mentioned. Hence poor Pedrillo 
 soon fancied he saw himself incessantly turning
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 167 
 
 round upon his own axis, as quick as a silk-bobbin 
 or a windmill's wing. 
 
 Some, perhaps, will tell us, that had he been 
 Cartesian, he might have extricated himself from 
 his doubts, by the famous " Cogito, ergo sum." 
 But in this poor lad's situation, Descartes himself 
 might possibly have lost all his Latin : for, in fact, 
 he thought nothing at all ; and in this state, if he 
 had even been capable of framing a syllogism, the 
 Cartesian axiom would have served him to no other 
 end than. to precipitate him from his doubts of 
 existence into the certainty of not existing; an 
 event not much better than that of falling ex Scytta 
 in Chary bdin, or as the vulgar sometimes phrase it, 
 " Out of the frying pan into the fire." 
 
 It must be confessed that crude genius in a state 
 of nature, instinct, common sense, or what you 
 please to call it (for we are not fond of cavilling 
 about words), is often of more utility to the 
 possessor than the subtlest wit, or the keenest 
 penetration. Had Pedrillo been a metaphysician, 
 he certainly would not have stopped at the doubt 
 of his own existence. He would have gone on 
 ruminating, reflecting, analysing, abstracting, dis- 
 tinguishing, and combining, till he had denied both 
 his own, and the existence of all other things, and 
 even the possibility that they should exist. And 
 who knows, but at last he might have become the 
 founder of a new sect of philosophers, of whom it 
 might reasonably be conjectured, that from their 
 singular facility at resolving the most difficult 
 problems in physics and morals, without the least 
 trouble, it must soon have swallowed up all the 
 other sects of Dualists, Materialists, Pantheists, 
 Idealists, Egotists, Platonics, Aristotelians, Stoics, 
 Epicureans, Nominalists, Realists, Occamists, Abe- 
 lardists, Averroists, Paracelsists, Machiavellans, 
 Rosicrucians, Cartesians, Spinosists, Wolffians, and 
 Crusians put together.
 
 i68 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 We cannot think, without horror and trembling, 
 of the pernicious consequences which must have 
 attended such a philosophy in the system of human 
 society : it seeming to be an effect impossible, that 
 the principle of non-existence should ever be reduced 
 into a system in the least degree tolerable ; there 
 being no known religion, no established laws or 
 customs, in any polite nation whatsoever, that can 
 possibly have assorted with such a system. For 
 with what appearance of right could it be demanded 
 of a man who does not exist, to pay tithes, offerings, 
 and what are called Jura stola ? or how should it 
 be possible to convict any one of a crime, who, by a 
 long geometrical demonstration, should prove to his 
 judge, that he, the accused, did not, nor could have 
 existed at the time in which he is charged with 
 having done such or such things. 
 
 But, happily for the public repose, Pedrillo had 
 not the least disposition for speculative philosophy ; 
 on the contrary, instead of long ratiocination upon 
 the perplexing situation in which he now stood, 
 he had nothing so much at heart, as to free himself 
 from it in the speediest manner. He imagined that 
 his master, who had slept all this while, and con- 
 sequently must be supposed very impartial, would 
 be the most likely person to free him from so uneasy 
 a predicament, 
 
 We shall not enquire whether Pedrillo reasoned 
 justly in this matter, or how far he did so, since a 
 particular examination would infallibly involve us in 
 that famous dispute, concerning what is termed 
 intellectum agentem et patientem : to which we 
 feel ourselves so much the less disposed at this 
 present writing, as the superlatively-learned subject 
 of the foregoing chapter hath so weakened our brain, 
 that we find it indispensably necessary, with the kind 
 reader's permission, to make some little pause.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA :69 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 AN INSTANCE THAT OCULAR TESTIMONY IS NOT 
 ALWAYS SO CERTAIN AS TO BE THE MOST 
 CREDIBLE. 
 
 PEDRILLO presently waked his master, but, un- 
 fortunately, in the very moment that the latter 
 was engaged in one of the finest dreams that ever 
 Platonic lover enjoyed, or the lover of a butterfly 
 could wish for. 
 
 " Wretch ! " cried Don Sylvio as he awaked, 
 " from what a dream hast thou disturbed me ! " 
 
 " Pox take it, Signior Don Sylvio ! " said Pedrillo, 
 "what have we to do with dreams now? There 
 are very different things upon the carpet. But I 
 beg of you, my dear master, if you have a drop of 
 charity left for poor Pedrillo, only tell me whether I 
 am Pedrillo still, or not ? for i' faith, everything is 
 not as it should be and let me be burnt, if I should 
 have believed my own mother at the time, if she 
 had come and told me I was my father's son." 
 
 " What the devil is the matter with thee ? " 
 replied Don Sylvio, greatly surprised at his discourse. 
 " What hast thou to believe that thou art any other 
 than thy own self ? " 
 
 " Nay, now, only do but tell me whether I am 
 myself," said Pedrillo, " and reasons shall follow in 
 time and place. Let us first determine the principal 
 point. Only be so kind as to answer me my questions 
 offhand ; for you will find it's a matter of more 
 consequence than you may think." 
 
 " Poor simpleton ! " cried Don Sylvio, smiling ;
 
 170 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 " thou hast been Pedrillo for these twenty years, 
 and why shouldst thou not be so now ? " 
 
 " Look at me, signior, contemplate me before 
 and behind, and then tell me the truth, upon the 
 faith of a gentleman." 
 
 " Why then, as truly as that I am a gentleman," 
 said Don Sylvio, "thou art Pedrillo, or thou art an 
 ass : one of the two is certain " 
 
 " An ass ! Stay, signior, here's my ears ; me- 
 thinks you may find longer ones under many a 
 doctor's cap ; and if I am but as certainly Pedrillo 
 as I am not a doctor an ass, I would say every- 
 thing goes as it should : for, to tell you the truth, 
 signior, I, myself, had some kind of forethought, 
 something of a reprehension, that the thing could 
 not be otherwise than you have just now assured 
 me : but when things happen to anybody so out of 
 the way, 'tis not to be wondered, if one even forgot 
 one's own name." 
 
 " And prithee, what has happened to thee ? " 
 demanded Don Sylvio. " Tell me in few words, if 
 you please ? " 
 
 " Signior," said Pedrillo, " there's no telling the 
 whole in a moment. A wise man may put as many 
 questions in a breath as a fool cannot answer in a 
 whole day. If you'll but give me time, I'll tell you 
 it all to the least syllable. For, look ye, upon my 
 faith, it's just as if I saw her still before my eyes, 
 with those large brown eyes, and that charming 
 roguish look and smile she gave me, as she mounted 
 upon her mule. Let me die if it was not just for 
 all the world, as if she was drawing my heart with a 
 pack-thread. You may laugh at me, signior, but 
 I'm as great a knave as ever breathed, if I did not 
 look with an eye of envy at the mule that carried 
 her." 
 
 " No longer abuse my patience," cried Don Sylvio, 
 who could not comprehend a word of all this 
 medley harangue; "tell me plainly, and in proper
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 171 
 
 order, what has happened to thee, while I was 
 asleep ? " 
 
 " Well, signior, that I will, provided you have 
 but patience enough to hear me : for, as I told you, 
 I have so much to say, that I know not where to 
 begin, though I am filled ready to burst with it, 
 and wish I could speak it all in a breath. But 
 since you choose to have me relate the thing in 
 proper order, be pleased to know, signior, it was 
 not long after you fell asleep that I begun to gape 
 and yawn too, and did so two or three times to- 
 gether, and so went on, till I was afraid of doing 
 nothing else the whole evening. However, I judged 
 by that, I had some need of sleep ; but, as I had 
 determined to keep watch and take care of you, I 
 beat it off as much as possibly I could ; and, to 
 keep myself awake, I drank two or three sups out 
 of the bottle ; it might be four for I don't exactly 
 call to mind. In short, the bottle was at last 
 empty, and I was not a bit more in spirits than 
 before. My eyelids shut up all in a moment, and 
 then I yawned again ; and I kept on a good while 
 holding an argument between sleep and myself " 
 
 " Oh, the devil ! " exclaimed Don Sylvio, " if thou 
 continuest talking at this rate thy life and mine 
 would not be sufficient to see thee at the end of thy 
 story. So then, thou hast been asleep ? " " Good." 
 " And then waked ? " " True."" Or did these 
 marvellous affairs thou wished'st to tell me, appear 
 to thee in a dream ? " 
 
 " In a dream ! no, truly, signior, when I saw this 
 apparition I was quite broad awake, as I should 
 have told you, if you had let me go on without 
 interrupting me : for if you will have me relate 
 things in order, I must let them follow one after 
 another." 
 
 "Undoubtedly," said Don Sylvio; "but is it 
 necessary, then, that thou shouldst mention every 
 uninteresting circumstance, and make the tale as
 
 172 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 heavy and tedious as an old nurse's story ? Thou 
 hast been asleep, and thou hast waked : this is the 
 whole mystery, and thou might'st have said it all 
 in two words. Well, go on " 
 
 "Oh, the vengeance ! how would you have me go 
 on, when you are every moment making me lose the 
 thread of my story ; and then you would have me 
 find it again in a trice whereabouts was I ay 
 well : when I fell asleep." 
 
 " But you was already got awake." 
 
 " Ay, but however, one must go to sleep before 
 one can wake ? But be that as it may, or as you 
 please ; I then got awake, as you was saying ; 
 though, to say the truth, I think it's very likely I 
 might have slept till this time, if a certain necessity 
 a certain I don't know how to name it, so as to 
 speak with common decency : but, * A word to the 
 wise is enough,' says the proverb. In short, a 
 certain want which one cannot well get supplied by 
 proxy. You understand me now, I hope ? " 
 
 *' Pshaw ! yes, I do ; prithee get on with thy story, 
 Pedrillo, and come to the point." 
 
 "There is a time for all things, says Solomon. 
 In one word, then, it was a something that the 
 Corregidor of Xelva, as well as the king himself, 
 are obliged to do just in the same way as the 
 poorest country clown yes, truly. I have often 
 had it in my head, that if the great lords and ladies 
 would but think seriously of the matter and it's 
 no such very head-breaking business it would cut 
 down a vast deal of their pride and haughtiness ; as 
 if they valued themselves infinitely more than poor 
 common people. If, for example, they did but 
 think I cannot tell it out of respect to your 
 worship ; and yet 'tis very true, that they neither 
 make amber nor musk ; and if you consider it 
 closely " 
 
 " O brave Pedrillo ! " cried Don Sylvio, laughing ; 
 "if once thou settest about moralising, thou wilt
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 173 
 
 never have done. Good, now, do pass over the 
 fine things that have jumped into thy brain, and 
 leave this doing thy affairs " 
 
 " Well, there now, your worship has said it at 
 once, and has hardly left it a covering. For my 
 own part, I could never have dared to speak it out 
 so plainly : but as it is done, I'll tell you without 
 any further preamble or circumround-about, that 
 after having assisted nature, which, by the way, 
 was behind a bush, fifty or sixty paces at least 
 from the spot where you was laid down " 
 
 " My friend Pedrillo," interrupted Don Sylvio, " I 
 see thou art disposed to harrass and tease me. But 
 go on in your own ""vy; since it must be my fate 
 to become the martj T of thy stunning tittle-tattle, 
 I shall endeavour to bear with it as long as my 
 patience will let me." 
 
 " Signior," replied Pedrillo, " I should be very sorry 
 to abuse your patience ; but you see how the matter 
 stands : we must go on from one word to another ; 
 people often begin with a goose quill, and end with 
 the Angel Gabriel,* and I could not find in my heart, 
 especial 1 ^ to pass over this circumstance, without 
 speaking of it, by reason of what follows ; since by 
 that you may see, I was certainly awake, and had 
 the perfect use of my senses ; but we won't fall out 
 about it ; for, as I am now coming to the main 
 point, I shall be pretty brief." 
 
 "Wonderful, Pedrillo! No more excuses, I beg 
 of thee." 
 
 " Know then, my dear master, that on my coming 
 back from behind my bush, and wanting to know 
 how you did, I saw guess, signior, what I 
 saw ? " 
 
 "Why, thou lookedst into some rivulet, and there 
 didst thou see the most silly, and the most stupid, 
 the most impudent, tiresome, and insipid ass, that 
 
 * This proverbial expression seems to refer to a sort of diversion, 
 similar to the English " Royal Game of the Goose."
 
 174 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 ever walked on two feet since the time of Balaam. 
 Is not it so ? " 
 
 " Nay, signior, you are not right there ; but I'll 
 be hanged if you won't guess it immediately, when 
 I have told you that that I saw a fairy ; ay, and 
 more than a fairy let me tell you. For surely, 
 'twas the most beautiful fairy that a man shall 
 see in a summer's day ; and, if 'twas not the 
 fairy Rademante herself, I'm positive she was hand- 
 somer than all your Bellinas, and Charmantas, 
 and Amarantas, and Rademantes, put together." 
 
 " A fairy ! sayst thou ? And how didst thou 
 know it was one ? " 
 
 " How did I know ! Deuce take it, signior, do 
 you suppose then that I know nothing at all ? 
 Have I been all this while in your service, and can't 
 I tell what a fairy is ? If this was not one, mind 
 me, say that Pedrillo is a blockhead, that deserves 
 to be tossed in a blanket. I tell you, signior, her 
 countenance sparkled as if it had been all cut out 
 of a single diamond. For three or four leagues 
 about her there was a bright light, as if half a dozen 
 suns were shining all together and if this was not 
 a fairy, you would do mighty well to throw all your 
 fairy-tales into the fire, and swear boldly that there 
 never was, nor never will be a fairy, while there 
 have been, or shall be any people, who have eaten, 
 or shall eat their soup with a spoon, as long as it 
 pleases God." 
 
 " Well, but where didst thou see the fairy, and 
 what did she do ? " 
 
 " What did she do ? Deuce take it ! she did 
 nothing but keep looking at you : you cannot think 
 how she looked at you : 'twas just as if she could 
 never look at you enough. She stood close beside 
 you, and then she stooped down, and then again 
 she began looking at you afresh, that 'twas quite a 
 charm to behold her." 
 
 "Was she alone?"
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 175 
 
 " Oho ! that's the principal affair : had she been 
 alone, I should not have talked so much about her ; 
 but she had another little fairy, or a nymph, or a 
 sylphid with her call her what you please and 
 'twas certainly the prettiest little creature you ever 
 saw in your life." 
 
 " But how did she look ? Give me a description 
 of her, perhaps I may guess who she was." 
 
 " Why, as I told you, signior, she was a genteel 
 little creature, with hair as black as a crow " 
 
 " I ask thee," said Don Sylvio, " what sort of air 
 had the fairy ? " 
 
 " She was, as I told you before, very genteel ; 
 neither too plump nor too thin, but as fresh and as 
 full of juice as a morning rose. Her face was of a 
 cherry red, and such a neck, such arms I cannot 
 tell you how I felt. But I assure you Mrs Beatrice 
 is a mere dowdy in comparison with her. I was 
 quite ashamed at having been so stupid as to amuse 
 myself with such an ugly old baggage ; but one 
 can't think of everything. If I could but have 
 foreseen this " 
 
 " I want thee to inform me of the fairy, and thou 
 only keepest bothering me and prating about her 
 attendant." 
 
 "Well, signior, and what, forsooth, would you 
 have me tell you more ? She did not give me time 
 to look much at the other ? Oh, I wish you had 
 but seen her ? O' my conscience, I could have stood 
 looking and wondering at her all day, without ever 
 being tired." 
 
 " Well, well, but what of the fairy ? " 
 
 " The fairy ? Why, as to the fairy, she stood 
 there, as I told you, and kept continually looking at 
 you, that's all I can tell you about her. For, as I 
 said just now, that little creature was always in 
 motion, and every moment I discovered something 
 in her that quite set my brains a-wool-gathering. 
 I told you from the first she was a very beautiful
 
 176 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 fairy ; and I do think the diamonds and precious 
 jewels she had about her were well worth two or 
 three kingdoms. They threw such a glittering all 
 about, that one could not look at 'em long together. 
 But this little one ! 
 
 "Well, well, but did they say nothing to each 
 other ? Didst thou hear nothing ? What said the 
 fairy ? " 
 
 " What did she say ? Oh, she said fine things, I 
 do assure you. I listened with all my ears, and 
 have got everything by heart word for word. 
 ' Bless me ! ' said she, what a handsome young 
 gentleman is here ! ' 'Is not he, madam ? ' said 
 the other ; 'I'll never be honest, if we have anything 
 so handsome in all Valencia. I would lay you what 
 you will, this is some sylph, or perhaps it may be a 
 faun.' ' But how should he be here ? ' cried the 
 fairy. ' Madam,' said the short one, ' he can have 
 got here only by enchantment, for we certainly 
 know all the men within ten leagues round the 
 neighbourhood; and i' faith, a pretty young fellow 
 like this is not a bargain to remain long concealed.' 
 In short, signior, I shall not tell you over again all 
 that they said about you, for you know pride is 
 one of the seven deadly sins, and I would not take 
 it upon my conscience to have been the cause 
 of keeping you a single hour longer in purgatory 
 than pleases God ; no, not for an empire, I assure 
 you." 
 
 " But, my good Pedrillo, if all thou hast been 
 telling me is true, these are rather two female 
 adventurers than fairies for when did ever fairies 
 talk in so familiar a strain as this ? " 
 
 " Why, I must own to you, signior, this put me 
 into some little scruple within myself, and that 
 emboldened me to get nearer and nearer, and at 
 last I spoke to them. But, when I looked the little 
 one in the face, and saw the jewels that sparkled 
 about the other oh, and I had almost forgot to
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 177 
 
 tell you, they had two salamanders with them, that 
 shone all over like the sun, and kept charge of the 
 mules that the two fairies came upon." 
 
 " What sayest thou ? Salamanders ? " 
 
 "Yes, signior, salamanders, true salamanders; 
 and I know it by this, that when the two ladies 
 were got upon their beasts again, they all took 
 flight together through the air, so that in an instant, 
 I saw as little of them as if they had never been 
 here." 
 
 " Pedrillo, my friend," cried Don Sylvio, " thou art 
 either determined to do me the honour of trifling 
 with me, or else the fumes of the Malaga bewitched 
 thy eyes when thou beheldest all these things. Who 
 ever saw fairies, since there were any, mounted upon 
 mules ? If thou hadst said, indeed, that they 
 took their flight in a chariot of gold or ebony, 
 drawn by winged mules, one might have taken it 
 for granted. But for a fairy to travel just as an 
 honest farmer's wife would do, is what you will 
 have some trouble to persuade people of. But, in 
 short, thou must allow thou understandest nothing 
 of these matters. Thy fairy must have been at 
 best some lady that has an estate in this neighbour- 
 hood : the nymph who has made a conquest of thee, 
 must have been her waiting-woman, and those whom 
 thou tookest for salamanders must have been two 
 sons of earth, called pages, who might be terribly 
 embarrassed, should you make them pass, like true 
 salamanders, from one end of the world to the 
 other, in six or seven minutes' time, mounted upon 
 a sunbeam." 
 
 "Signior," answered Pedrillo, "I thought I had 
 deserved more confidence from you, than for you 
 even to imagine me capable of wishing to impose 
 upon you. If the salamanders who took charge of 
 the mules were not salamanders, it is their affair, 
 and not mine : what have I to do with it ; or why 
 must I be obliged to know whether they are one 
 
 N
 
 178 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 thing more than anothe*- ? All I can say is, that 
 the will-o'-the-wisp, which you took last night for a 
 salamander, was not a tenth part so much of a 
 salamander as these two ; and I'll be hanged, d'ye see, 
 if that, compared with them, was a bit better than 
 a farthing candle is to a flambeau ; and as for the 
 fairy, neither Artichocle nor Pluto shall ever persuade 
 me but she was as much a fairy every bit as the 
 fairy Rademante ; nay, I could almost have sworn 
 'twas your own princess : for upon my word she had 
 vastly the resemblance of that little picture that the 
 fairy gave you " 
 
 " Why, thou ravest, my dear Pedrillo ? " 
 
 " No, faith, signior, the thing is just as I tell you. 
 Now show me the princess, if you please. Bless 
 my soul ! why, 'tis as like her as if it were spit out 
 of her mouth. Excepting the size (for indeed this 
 whole picture might almost lie upon her finger-nail) 
 I could swear it was she herself." 
 
 " Hark'ye, Pedrillo," said Don Sylvio, " if the whole 
 of thy narration did not already sufficiently show 
 that thou hast only been dreaming, this single 
 circumstance would be enough to prove it. I am as 
 sure that this portrait resembles no one in the world 
 but my princess, as I am of my own existence : now, 
 as it cannot be denied to be impossible that my 
 princess should cease to be a butterfly, till I have 
 found her and have torn off her head and her 
 wings, consequently, it is absolutely impossible for 
 anybody whom thou hast seen to resemble my 
 princess. This is a demonstration as clear as any 
 in Euclid." 
 
 " I know nothing at all about remonstrations, 
 Signior Don Sylvio," replied Pedrillo ; " but what I 
 saw, I saw ; and was the Pope himself your cousin, 
 you must excuse me if I rather trust to my own 
 eyes than to your arguments. If I had an onion 
 before me, and all the bachelors and licentiates of 
 Salamancha nay, all the patriarchs, monarchs, and
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 179 
 
 exarchs in Christendom wanted to prove to me that 
 this same onion was not an onion, but a leg of 
 mutton, I should still believe that an onion is an 
 onion ; and why ? Why, because my eyes are my 
 eyes, and because nobody in the world can know 
 what I see, better than I myself. In short, your 
 honour shall believe what you please ; my comfort 
 is, that in proper time and place, we shall see who 
 is in the right : for the fairy, be she who she will, 
 won't confine herself, I suppose, to a first visit. By 
 Saint James, she looked as if she had some ill designs, 
 and methinks she did not seem pleased to hear that 
 you were in love with an enchanted butterfly." 
 
 " What then ! didst thou tell her that, Pedrillo ? " 
 
 " I most humbly beg your honour's pardon," said 
 Pedrillo, a little confounded, "if I have not done 
 right in telling it : but I hardly know what I said 
 or did, that little sorceress did so pump me about it 
 and about it, that I fancied myself bewitched, and 
 then I thought in this manner : If she is a fairy, she 
 will know it in spite of me, and I should only make 
 her angry if I did not answer to her questions just 
 as she would have me." 
 
 " And so then, thou hast suffered her to sift you ? 
 and thou hast told every thing ? " 
 
 ' Yes, yes, signior ! but in very general terms, 
 and in so obscure a manner, that she never can 
 comprehend anything about it, unless she be a fairy. 
 But, as I told you before, that little one looked as 
 if she knew all beforehand better than I did myself. 
 I could lay anything she put all these questions to 
 me only to see what answer I would make her." 
 
 " But, pray, what did she say, whom thou tookest 
 for a fairy ? " 
 
 " No great matters, for she was very thoughtful. 
 'We must be going,' said she, seemingly a good 
 deal vexed; 'what will my brother say, when he 
 sees we have stayed out so late ? ' " 
 
 " O Heavens ! " exclaimed Don Sylvio, turning as
 
 i8o THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 pale as death; "what horrors hast thou opened to 
 my affrighted view ! What if this should be the 
 sister of the Green Dwarf " 
 
 "Mercy on me, signior," cried Pedrillo, "what an 
 idea have you started ! Heaven grant you may not 
 have guessed it right! But you bring it now 
 exactly to my mind; she had, indeed, a green 
 petticoat, and a green gown embroidered with gold. 
 Well, what a beast am I I thought no ill, for my 
 part. But this plaguy little devil of a she-thing 
 
 " The more I think of all the circumstances of 
 thy narration," continued Don Sylvio, " the more do 
 I find my suspicions confirmed : nothing can be 
 surer. It could be no other than that odious Donna 
 Mergelina " 
 
 "Nay, but, sir, the fairy was as beautiful as a 
 spring morning ; and Donna Smergelina, begging 
 your honour's pardon, is one of the most disagree- 
 able, ugliest hags I ever saw in my life. Now how 
 can all this be ? " 
 
 " The fairy, her aunt, has power enough to give 
 her whatever shape she pleases ; and surely it is not 
 without reason that she should make her resemble 
 my princess, as thou sayest she did ? " 
 
 " Why, yes, signior, she had the resemblance, it 
 is true : but, deuce take it, if she had her choice of 
 whatever shape she pleased, sure she must have 
 been a great fool to have shown her at first under 
 the most hideous shape of all. One would hardly 
 suppose she could be in love with that monstrous 
 humpback, and such a circumference of fat bosom." 
 
 " Be that as it may," replied Don Sylvio ; " but 
 canst thou suppose then that this she-dwarf, all 
 over deformed as she is, does not flatter herself with 
 being one of the most amiable of her sex ? or dost 
 thou imagine that she would yield in beauty to my 
 princess ? No, Pedrillo, self-love is the greatest of 
 all fairies, and has no need either of wands or 
 talismans to produce the strangest metamorphoses.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 181 
 
 When I call to mind what happened to me in the 
 gardens of the fairy Radiante, and my last 
 adventure with the sylphid, I am mightily 
 apprehensive ' ' 
 
 " Why, look ye here, signior ! " interrupted 
 Pedrillo, " if the beautiful lady who looked at you so 
 earnestly is Donna Smergelina, there is no more 
 to be said : but I must beg your pardon for the 
 little one. I don't know how it comes about, but 
 my heart tells me that the shape she appeared in 
 was her own proper shape ; and I'll venture to lose 
 my ears, if you find anywhere in the world two 
 eyes, a nose, and a little mouth, that could suit her 
 better than those she had. In short, I cannot bear 
 to think of any change befalling her ; but if, at all 
 events, your fancy is determined to have her meta- 
 phrased, let it be only into an orange-tree ; so I 
 may but be turned into a bee at the same time, 
 and you will but banish for two hundred leagues 
 every way about her, all the other bees, drones, 
 hornets, flies, gnats, and so forth." 
 
 "Heyday, Pedrillo," cried Don Sylvio, "what, 
 art thou beginning to have poetical sallies ? What 
 cannot love do ! If thou goest on at this rate we 
 shall presently see whole volumes of tender elegies 
 and sonnets of thy own composing. But, my good 
 friend, I advise thee not to flatter thyself too much. 
 This may not be the first time that the Green 
 Dwarf has assumed the shape of a fair young 
 nymph. Thou wouldst do well to remember what 
 happened to me this morning. The only thing that 
 makes me judge the best of them is, that they have 
 left me my princess's picture just as it was." 
 
 " Very well, signior," said Pedrillo ; " but when 
 you consider the matter strictly, you will find that 
 here is one certain Pedrillo to whom you may owe 
 this too : they certainly were got so close to you that 
 I know not what might have been the case, if I had 
 nor come just in the nick of time. The little rogue,
 
 182 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 indeed, had such a look with her just the look of 
 a young rogue ; and then she whispered to the other, 
 and told her I don't know what, and kept every 
 moment pointing to you with her finger. But, as 
 I said before, I disturbed their schemes a little, by 
 creeping out of my nest. Ay, ay, my dear creatures, 
 Pedrillo is not quite so silly as you may think him ; 
 he's no fool, I promise ye 
 
 " Well, well enough," said Don Sylvio, rising, and 
 preparing himself to go ; " for this time we have got 
 off safely ; but let us stay here no longer. The 
 evening is very fine, and we may travel some 
 leagues before night overtakes us. Possibly we may 
 soon see what the apparition thou speakest of prog- 
 nosticated for us. Time will clear it up." 
 
 Pedrillo, who, 'tis well known, had always the 
 gift of speaking the last word, took occasion from 
 the word prognosticate, to turn the conversation 
 to that rich subject of forethoughts, signs, and 
 other things of the like nature : accordingly, as 
 they walked on, he regaled his master with a very 
 circumstantial detail of all the stories and events 
 of this kind, which he pretended to have happened 
 to the great-aunts, and great-grandames of his 
 family, from time immemorial, and to have passed 
 by a faithful tradition from grandmother to grand- 
 mother. He did not perceive that Don Sylvio, 
 whose mind was quite otherwise engaged, paid not 
 the least attention to his tales ; and even if he had 
 perceived it, he might not have ceased his loquacity 
 on that account ; for thinking and talking were the 
 same thing to honest Pedrillo; and provided you 
 let him go on without interruption, it was in- 
 different to him whether you listened to him or no : 
 a discretion this, which he held in common with 
 a certain poet of our acquaintance, who never 
 went to see his friends without having a large 
 bundle of his works in his pocket, which he began 
 reading the moment he was seated. His auditors
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 183 
 
 in the meantime, were at perfect liberty either to 
 yawn, or sleep, or snore, as much and as heartily 
 as they pleased. Our poet's enthusiasm did not 
 permit him to observe this; and provided the 
 hearers, after a nap of two or three hours, waked 
 time enough to hear the end of the poem, and 
 confirm the poet's self-given applause, the latter 
 had no doubt of having amused his friends in the 
 best manner possible.
 
 184 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 IN WHICH DON SYLVIO SHOWS HIMSELF IN A VERY 
 ADVANTAGEOUS LIGHT 
 
 OUR travellers had now been walking about half an 
 hour, when suddenly they heard the report of 
 pistols, which was followed with a shrill loud cry, 
 coming from the adjacent wood. 
 
 " Hark ! " said Don Sylvio, " I hear a voice that 
 seems to demand our help ; we must run and see 
 what it means." 
 
 Pedrillo, who at night, and in those hours when 
 spirits are supposed to walk, was the greatest 
 poltroon in the world, had on the contrary the 
 courage of a young Andalusian bull, when business 
 called him to fight with flesh-and-blood men like 
 himself. He therefore made not the least difficulty 
 to follow his master. They had hardly got above 
 fifty or sixty paces into the wood, following a noise 
 they heard, when all on a sudden they perceived, 
 in a very beautitul spot of plain ground, three men 
 on horseback attacked by seven others (four of 
 them also mounted), with the greatest fury. Don 
 Sylvio, without a moment's hesitation, flew to the 
 assistance of the weakest, among whom was a 
 handsome young cavalier that stood defending 
 himself singly against three of his antagonists, and 
 with all the bravery of a Spaniard fighting for his 
 mistress. A moment later, and his help had been of 
 little avail ; for one of the young gentleman's adver- 
 saries was upon the point of giving him a stroke that 
 might have terminated the combat, if Don Sylvio
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 185 
 
 had not immediately thrown himself in between 
 them, parrying the blow with his sabre, which 
 indeed rather resembled the Durindana of the great 
 Orlando, than the sword of a petit maHre in our 
 days. 
 
 While Don Sylvio, as little cut out as he was for 
 these death-doing exploits, laid furiously about him, 
 to the terror of the enemies, who were startled at 
 his apparition, his courage, and the bitter blows he 
 dealt them, Pedrillo, on his part, did not stand 
 still with his arms across. His only armour was a 
 thick knotty club-staff ; but he had the skill and 
 address to wield it so nimbly, that in less than five 
 minutes he had downed with two of the most 
 formidable assailants. In a word, our adventurers 
 laboured with such success, that victory soon 
 declared for their party, and the enemy were forced 
 to seek their safety in flight, and abandon two of 
 their corps, greatly bruised, to the discretion of the 
 conquerors. 
 
 As soon as the combat was over, Don Sylvio 
 looked round for the young cavalier, in whose 
 cause he had so deeply interested himself at first 
 sight, to testify his joy at the fortunate issue of 
 this perilous adventure. The latter, however, had 
 nothing so near his heart at present, as the succour 
 of a young lady that was now lying half-dead in the 
 arms of her waiting-woman, at a small distance 
 from the field of battle. They had much ado to 
 bring her to life, and the manner in which the 
 young gentleman seemed affected, left it doubtful 
 whether she were his sister or his beloved mistress. 
 The moment she had recovered her senses, " My dear 
 Jacintha," he cried, " if your deliverance is dear to 
 you, and if the life of a friend, who wishes to live 
 but for your sake, is not indifferent to you, behold 
 here the amiable young cavalier, to whose generosity 
 and valour I am indebted for both these blessings." 
 
 At these words Don Sylvio approached her, with
 
 i86 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 that noble, graceful air, which nature, or I know 
 not what fairy, had conferred upon him at his birth. 
 After having profoundly saluted the young lady, 
 he signified to her in the most lively terms, the joy 
 he felt at having been the means of her deliverance. 
 'Tis true, his expressions, as usual, had a pretty 
 romantic, high-flown turn ; but the emotions with 
 which the gentleman and lady were agitated, 
 hindered them from taking notice of it. The 
 young lady was still too weak and too much 
 affrighted to be able to express her gratitude other- 
 wise than by signs ; but Don Eugenic (for that was 
 the young gentleman's name), and Don Gabriel 
 his friend, who no less owed his life to our hero, 
 testified theirs in the strongest manner. At length, 
 after having learned from Don Sylvio that he was 
 escaped safe and sound from the engagement, Don 
 Gabriel said to the fair Jacintha, " Our defender, 
 in every respect, so much resembles a guardian 
 angel, that we have no reason to be astonished that 
 he should be as invulnerable as an angel." 
 
 Don Sylvio, all this while, stood looking at the 
 young lady with such attention, and with such 
 certain inward emotions, as the more surprised him, 
 on account of his having always thought that there 
 was no woman in the world charming enough to 
 make the least impression on that heart of his, in 
 which the picture of his princess bore a sovereign 
 sway. The beauty of this fair unknown, who 
 seemed not to be above sixteen years of age, had 
 nothing very dazzling, indeed, at first sight : but 
 none could possess in a more eminent degree that 
 enchanting charm, which cannot be defined ; and 
 which, in the judgment of connoisseurs, is more 
 taking than beauty . itself . It was impossible, from 
 the first glance, to refuse her his benevolence such 
 was the attraction diffused over her whole person : 
 even the slightest look of hers had something 
 tenderly affecting ; the ordinary sound of her voice
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 187 
 
 seemed music, and even sadness itself could *not 
 efface the charming smile that graced her pretty 
 mouth. 
 
 Don Sylvio seemed for some minutes to undergo 
 such a trial from these seducing charms, as might 
 have made Don Eugenio uneasy ; but the wounds 
 which the latter and his friend had received in the 
 combat, and which they had neglected during the 
 first heat of action, now began to bleed again so 
 fast, that they found it necessary to get them 
 dressed immediately. Jacintha, who never lost 
 sight of Don Eugenio, no sooner saw the blood 
 trickle from her friend, than she instantly gave a 
 plaintive shriek, and fell into a fainting-fit as before. 
 
 This accident served to confirm our hero in the 
 opinion, that they could be no other than a couple 
 of lovers ; nor had he now the least doubt, but that 
 the young lady was a princess, whom some odious 
 rival had endeavoured to tear from her favourite 
 lover by the help of an enchanter. This idea, as 
 is very natural to suppose, redoubled the concern 
 he had hitherto felt for her, from so unexpected an 
 interview. 
 
 Don Eugenie's wound was not dangerous, and 
 the fair Jacintha's swoon was as little so as those 
 of young ladies generally are, whether occasioned 
 by an excess of pain or of pleasure. Having there- 
 fore brought her to herself again by the assistance 
 of sal volatile, and the gentleman's wounds being 
 dressed as well as they could be done in such a 
 hurry, it was determined that, as the night drew 
 on, and Donna Jacintha wanted repose, they should 
 stop at the first inn they could meet with on the 
 road. Our hero, for better security, offered to 
 accompany them, and Don Eugenio accepted the 
 offer with the greater pleasure as he was curious 
 to know who this amiable, but singular Unknown 
 could be, to whom he was so fortuitously indebted 
 both for his life and his mistress. Accordingly,
 
 i88 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 after a few compliments had passed on both sides, 
 Don Eugenio got into their carriage, which was in 
 waiting just by, and seating the young lady beside 
 him, give his horse to Pedrillo ; who throughout 
 the whole scene stood with open eyes staring at all 
 he saw, and felt himself not a little flattered by the 
 obliging things which Don Gabriel and his valet 
 expressed of his valour. It was not without some 
 difficulty that he could persuade himself to occupy 
 a seat so near Mrs Teresilla, a young lass of six and 
 thirty, who had laid on the white and red so art- 
 fully that, what with the help of a fair bosom, 
 which she very modestly exposed, and so finished a 
 complexion, Pedrillo was soon mightily inclined to 
 believe, nay, and if need were, could have sworn to 
 his beautiful sylphid, that the object before him, 
 (or, more properly speaking, behind him) could not 
 be above twenty at the utmost.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 189 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE COMPANY ARRIVES AT THE INN. 
 
 As they travelled very slowly, it was almost ten 
 o'clock when they arrived at an inn, where, as their 
 best accommodation, they found nothing but a 
 number of empty rooms. 
 
 Happily for our society, the chief persons had 
 more need of rest than of eating ; for the landlord 
 had all his excuses at his fingers' ends, as to every 
 thing they wanted. The wild fowl was all gone 
 yesterday; the butcher's meat was to be brought 
 in to-morrow morning ; the vulture had carried off 
 his pigeons, and it was but the night before, that 
 a little devil of a polecat had depopulated the 
 whole hen-roost. However, the next day he hoped 
 he should be able to regale them like persons of 
 quality ; for his house had the good fortune to be 
 frequented by nobles and grandees, and the day 
 before yesterday he had lodged the Count de Leyva, 
 and last Monday he had had the Duchess of Medina 
 Sidonia, with a vast retinue of cavaliers and ladies. 
 
 The landlord would have run on hi this strain 
 a long time, if they had chosen to give him audience. 
 But as Mrs Teresilla, the valet de chambre, and 
 Pedrillo, had business to transact with their masters 
 and mistress, and as the latter were busied on their 
 own concerns, it became necessary to interrupt his 
 narration in the midst of the Duchess of Medina 
 Sidonia's repast, with which he regaled their ears. 
 At length therefore, after many compliments and 
 reverences, he retired to the stables, to see that the
 
 igo THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 horses and mules were well served ; that is to say, 
 as well as their masters. 
 
 Donna Jacintha, who was by no means well, took 
 leave of her protectors, after repeating her lively 
 sense of gratitude to them, especially our hero, for 
 having thus risked their lives with so much 
 generosity for her sake. 
 
 Don Sylvio accompanied Don Eugenio and his 
 friend to their apartment, to be present at the 
 dressing of their wounds, and soon after retired to 
 leave them to that repose, which, in their present 
 situation, they so much wanted. 
 
 The two young gentlemen, and particularly Don 
 Gabriel, had put themselves to a good deal of 
 pains, as far as decency permitted, to lead our hero 
 to a discovery of his name and quality. However, 
 they could get nothing out of him but vague, 
 mysterious, and broken hints, which served to 
 confirm them in the idea of his being a kind of 
 adventurer. On the one hand, his beauty, noble 
 mien, and valour, the gracefulness of his person, and 
 the politeness of his behaviour, prejudiced them so 
 much the more favourably in his behalf, as it was 
 easily seen that he owed all these advantages to 
 nature. For though he possesssed that species of 
 politeness, which is acknowledged as such among all 
 nations, as it consists merely in the expression of a 
 great affability, and in a combination of certain 
 regards which we owe to ourselves with those which 
 we owe to others ; yet was Don Sylvio totally 
 deficient of that ton which at this time reigned in 
 the most considerable cities of Spain, amongst that 
 sort of people who are called the beau monde. The 
 same thing was observable in his dress and outward 
 attire ; and the terrible sabre that hung at his side 
 made so ridiculous a contrast with the rest of his 
 apparel, that one could hardly tell what to think 
 of him. 
 
 While the two cavaliers deferred satisfying their
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 191 
 
 curiosity till the next morning, Don Sylvio, on his 
 part, did not a little rejoice in having been so 
 fortunate as to render his services to one of the 
 most amiable princesses upon earth, as well as to 
 that young prince or cavalier, who seemed to him 
 so worthy of her : and being persuaded that some 
 great fairy interested herself in their fortunes, he 
 was in hopes that this new acquaintance might 
 possibly have some happy influence on his own 
 affairs. These last were too much at his heart to 
 suffer him to be long occupied by other con- 
 siderations. The image of this dear princess, her 
 deplorable metamorphosis, the snares of the fairy 
 Fanfreluche ; in a word, everything that had be- 
 fallen him for some days past, like a torrent poured 
 in afresh and usurped his imagination. After 
 having therefore resigned himself for a few restless 
 hours to his usual reveries, deploring the fate of his 
 unfortunate princess, as well as his own, he at 
 length fell asleep, with his head full of those agree- 
 able perspectives, which a secret anticipation re- 
 presented much nearer to him than he had any 
 reason to believe.
 
 192 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 WHICH THE AUTHOR HOPES MAY FALL INTO THE 
 HANDS OF NO CHAMBERMAID OR WAITING-WOMAN. 
 
 DURING the interval of our conducting the princess 
 and her heroes to bed, whom we shall allow to 
 sleep as long as they please, Pedrillo, who as we 
 have already observed, always trusted to the 
 present moment, could not resist an inclination to 
 become better acquainted with the fair Teresilla. 
 As good luck would have it, there was no one else 
 that could have disputed with him the advantage of 
 tlte-h-iUe ; for the valet de chambre, who had 
 been grazed with a pistol shot, and was moreover 
 slightly wounded by two or three cuts of a sabre in 
 the conflict, was now retired to rest : as for the 
 coachman, he was not a man to dare think of a 
 lady's waiting- woman. 
 
 Pedrillo availed himself therefore of this op- 
 portunity to sit and chat with Mrs Teresilla, while 
 a fat Gallician slattern was busy in the kitchen 
 preparing a ragout made out of a young cat well 
 peppered, to give these strangers instead of a 
 rabbit. 
 
 The charms of conversation augmented the im- 
 pression which the roses and lilies of Teresilla's new- 
 made complexion may be supposed to have made 
 upon an honest country lad, who took it all for 
 natural; and the lady, on account of the sultry 
 heat, having thrown off her handkerchief, Pedrillo's 
 passion suddenly mounted to such a degree, bound- 
 ing at every step insensibly beyond the limits of
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 193 
 
 platonic love, that the fair Teresilla, however 
 great her confidence in the strength of her virtue 
 might be, had soon room to fancy herself in some 
 danger. 
 
 However, certain it is, she conducted herself 
 towards him in such a manner as if she had nothing 
 to fear on her part : whether this proceeded from 
 the good opinion she had of him (for we have 
 already remarked that he was a lad of a very 
 promising appearance) or whether from the inex- 
 perience of her youth, or whatever other particular 
 cause, we cannot say : only we are so much the 
 more strongly inclined to suspect the last of these, 
 since no sooner did she perceive the advantage 
 which poor Pedrillo's weakness seemed to give her 
 over him, than she displayed all the power of her 
 charms and eloquence, to get from him the name 
 and private concerns of his master. 
 
 But Pedrillo, who probably had made the same 
 observation as she, was determined to sell her the 
 secret, at least as dear as possible : accordingly he 
 insisted upon it that she should previously tell him 
 the history of Donna Jacintha, if she wished to 
 tempt him even in the slightest manner to trespass 
 against the express and rigorous prohibition of his 
 master. 
 
 The fair (and perhaps we may soon be obliged to 
 add, the tender) Teresilla, perceiving she had to 
 deal with a man who was not to be managed in too 
 strict a way, did not hesitate a moment to satisfy 
 Pedrillo's curiosity by a very circumstantial relation, 
 which, excepting a few of the main points, was 
 possibly just as apocryphal as the relations given by 
 waiting-women of their mistresses memoirs usually 
 are. However, from thence Pedrillo learned that 
 Donna Jacintha was 'mt just as good a Donna as 
 any of those that hang their shifts out to dry upon 
 the hedges ; that it was her face and little person 
 which composed all her titles to nobility, all her 
 o
 
 194 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 fortune, claims, and every pretension ; nay, that 
 she was even supposed to have been a deserted 
 foundling, whose mother could never absolutely say 
 to whom she owed her existence ; that for some 
 time she had cut a great figure upon the stage at 
 Granada ; that she had had as many lovers there as 
 men who came to be spectators of her performance : 
 that, among the rest, none had taken more pains to 
 gain her heart than Don Ferdinand de Zamora, a 
 very rich young cavalier, who had put himself to 
 great expense on her account, without being able, as 
 was said, to obtain the least favour from her : that, 
 in short, among all who had sighed for her, Don 
 Eugenio de Lirias seemed to be the only one whose 
 lively and virtuous attachment she had at least 
 suffered, if not encouraged ; but that none could be 
 fool enough to be duped by these appearances of a 
 rigid virtue, when once they were well acquainted 
 with Donna Jacintha. That it was a clear point 
 she loved Don Eugenio to distraction ; and that she 
 would not have continued cruel all this while, but 
 for a scheme she had of bringing him to do the last 
 mad thing, by marrying her. That in this view she 
 had absolutely persuaded him to remove her from 
 the stage, and put her for some time into a convent 
 at Valencia, from whence she might be able to re- 
 appear in the world under another name. But, 
 unfortunately, this project had been betrayed a few 
 weeks before its execution, to Don Ferdinand de 
 Zamora ; (Mrs Teresilla might as well have said at 
 the same time by whom, for it was she herself who 
 had done this notable feat). This Don Ferdinand, 
 she observed, had assigned his despair in consequence 
 of his ill success, and other like reasons, as a pre- 
 tence for his retreat from Granada, in order in the 
 mean time to make the necessary preparations for 
 bearing off the prize by force from his happy rival ; 
 that he must certainly have known of the very day 
 when Jacintha was to set out from Valencia, as the
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 195 
 
 event had very clearly shown. That, in short, he 
 had taken his measures so well, as to have surprised 
 her within a league of Montesa, where he had made 
 himself master of her person : that in all probability 
 his design was to have conveyed her to one of his 
 estates in Arragon ; but, as the lady's good luck 
 would have it, they had met with Don Eugenio 
 upon the road, who was supposed to be at Valencia, 
 but had merely by chance been taking a ride that 
 way with his friend Don Gabriel ; little suspecting, 
 surely, to find his mistress in the power of a rival. 
 Accordingly, the moment they met, Don Eugenio, 
 notwithstanding the enemy's superiority in number, 
 determined sooner to lose his life than his dear 
 Jacintha : but that in all likelihood, he would have 
 lost both, if a lucky chance had not brought him 
 that assistance in the person of the young cavalier 
 unknown, and the brave Pedrillo, in consequence of 
 which, victory immediately declared in their favour. 
 The complaisant Teresilla having thus finished 
 her story, begged, as was but reasonable, the like 
 condescension from Pedrillo. The latter, however, 
 had many difficulties instantly at his fingers' end : 
 as an excuse, he alleged the importance of the secret, 
 his word given, and the danger to which he should 
 expose himself by his indiscretion. In short, she 
 expended all her eloquence upon him, and bestowed 
 even many little favours, which, though of no 
 mighty consequence in themselves, must neverthe- 
 less, in her opinion, be more than sufficient to 
 inspire him with the most lively sense of gratitude. 
 Pedrillo proved to her by good reasons, and with his 
 usual strength of argument, that secrets of this 
 nature were to be entrusted only to such persons 
 from whom nothing was kept concealed ; and even 
 went so far as to set the complaisance she required 
 of him at so exorbitant a price, as she might reason- 
 ably think excessive, without being in the strictest 
 sense a vestal.
 
 196 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 Cicero, whom every one justly allows to have been 
 an incomparable orator, a great statesman, a 
 moderate philosopher, and a very poor general, in 
 one of his pleasing and instructive pieces, somewhere 
 observes, " That the desire of knowledge is the most 
 natural instinct of mankind. This desire of knowing," 
 says he, " seems to be something so essential to our 
 constitution, that nature herself inclines us to 
 whatever may increase our stock of science, without 
 a hope or view of any peculiar advantage." And 
 after having given a few instances, he adds, " Homer 
 seems to have had this in his eye, when he says of 
 the sirens, that the magical virtue of their song did 
 not so much consist in the charms of their voice, or 
 in the extraordinary sweetness of their melody, as 
 in people's being persuaded that they knew every- 
 thing that passed throughout the world ; promising 
 their hearers to send them back more learned than 
 they came." He supposes that a little charm could 
 not have attracted so great a man as Ulysses to such a 
 degree, that, without the sage regimen prescribed by 
 the fairy Circe, the certainty even of an unavoidable 
 shipwreck would have been insufficient to preserve 
 him from the fatal rocks of the enchantress. 
 
 The youthful and virtuous Teresilla furnishes us 
 with a memorable instance how far this illustrious 
 author's observation above quoted is just. The 
 price stipulated by the interested Pedrillo for the 
 discovery of his secret at first disconcerted her. 
 She did not fail to urge many objections, and made 
 use of every argument to bring him to a just abate- 
 ment in his demands : but, as he obstinately insisted 
 upon what this history cannot be supposed capable 
 of relating anywhere but in his chamber, at length 
 she saw herself obliged to sacrifice her little scruples 
 to the desire of extending her knowledge, estimating 
 its importance by the greatness of the price required. 
 Accordingly she promised him, that as soon as all 
 the family was retired, she would come to him in
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 197 
 
 his chamber, upon condition, however, that he 
 should not abuse the great confidence she thus re- 
 posed in him. Pedrillo, who had nothing to urge 
 against the equity of this condition, promised her 
 whatever she would ; and both of them kept their 
 word as religiously as can be conceived.
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 CONTAINING A NOTABLE EXAMINATION UPON 
 INTERROGATORIES 
 
 AFTER a long wakeful series of reverie, Don Sylvio 
 at length fell into a sound sleep. He had not 
 continued so above a couple of hours, when his rest 
 was broken in upon by the little animals with which 
 the inn swarmed. The gentle reader will be kind 
 enough to consider this circumstance, which we 
 mention as a repeated proof of that exactness 
 wherewith we strive to acquit ourselves of the duty 
 of a faithful historian ; as it would certainly have 
 been very easy for us to have waked our hero by 
 some nobler and more wonderful cause, had our 
 object been merely to pay a compliment to our own 
 ingenuity. 
 
 While therefore he was busied in providing for 
 his defence against the importunity of these vermin, 
 he thought he heard in the adjacent chamber, which 
 was separated from his own only by a wainscot, 
 a still voice, the sound of which seemed to be that 
 of a woman. Upon this he sat up, and clapping 
 his ear as close as he could to the partition, 
 fancied he could distinctly make out the following 
 words : " No, no, an't please you ; upon no other 
 condition than that you'll get me a sight of the 
 princess's picture." But pray," replied another 
 voice, " how can I possibly do that ? For was I even 
 to think of venturing into his chamber to take it 
 from him while he is asleep, I could not gain the 
 point, for he always wears it hung about his neck 
 and then he'd certainly wake, and I should be "
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 199 
 
 "Oh, none of your excuses," cried the female 
 voice, " upon my word, I could not have supposed 
 but, I tell you, I will see the picture, or else don't 
 imagine that I " 
 
 Here the voice sunk a little, or rather Don 
 Sylvio, who had hardly heard too much, had not 
 patience to listen any longer. " How ! " cried he, 
 turning himself upon his pillow, trembling and 
 aghast, " a dark plot laid against me ? nay, 
 against that, too, which is dearer to me than life ? 
 O Radiante, now, now is the time to succour me 
 or I am lost without it ! " 
 
 Don Sylvio spoke so loud, that Pedrillo and the 
 curious Teresilla judged it improper to continue 
 their conversation, and as soon after they heard him 
 twice call out " Pedrillo ! " the young lady thought it 
 right to take herself very softly out of an apartment, 
 where, for all the wealth of the universe, she would 
 not have wished to be seen by a third person. She 
 could not, however, get away so quick, but that Don 
 Sylvio, the moment he opened a little door that 
 stood between his own room and Pedrillo' s, per- 
 ceived, by the dull glimpse of the twilight that now 
 faintly gleamed through a narrow window full of 
 cobwebs, the figure of a woman stepping out at 
 the door opposite. Luckily for Mrs Teresilla, this 
 circumstance so violently augmented Don Sylvio's 
 perturbation, that he stood a great while quite 
 stupefied, and as if he were frozen ; an event, that 
 gave the amiable creature time to get back to her 
 mistress's chamber a-tiptoe. 
 
 The subtlest disputant that ever found himself in 
 Pedrillo's situation, might probably have been much 
 embarrassed to get himself cleverly out of so ticklish 
 a scrape. All the arguments in festino et barocco 
 would not have done him half the service which 
 simple instinct afforded the shrewd Pedrillo : 
 accordingly, he even ventured to trust to it in this 
 critical moment.
 
 200 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 " Is it you, signior ? " he cried, making as if he 
 was just waked out of a sound sleep ; " what's the 
 matter with you, that you are up so early ? " 
 
 " Dress thyself and follow me instantly to my 
 chamber," replied Don Sylvio, with a tone of voice 
 that set Pednllo a-trembling. So saying, he stepped 
 on and locked Pedrillo's room door, which Mrs 
 Teresilla had left half open. 
 
 " I'll be ready immediately, signior," said Pedrillo, 
 " if you will leave me alone a moment, for 'twould 
 not be quite so decent to put on my breeches before 
 your honour." 
 
 "Do what thou wilt," said Don Sylvio: "but 
 I tell thee make haste, or we shall be undone for 
 ever." 
 
 Pedrillo, who no longer doubted but his master 
 had overheard all that passed betwixt him and 
 Mrs Teresilla, cursed in his heart the year, month, 
 day, hour, and minute, when he first caught sight 
 of this seductive siren. She in a moment seemed to 
 him as ugly, old, hagged and disagreeable, as some 
 moments before he had thought her young, 
 handsome, genteel, and desirable ; and gladly would 
 he have beat himself, could that have done the 
 cause any good. But, as the instinct aforesaid 
 assured him that the only means of getting out of 
 this hobble was a stiff denial, at length he made his 
 appearance before his master, firmly resolved to be 
 tossed in a blanket sooner than confess any thing 
 whatever. 
 
 As soon as he entered Don Sylvio's chamber, his 
 master ordered him to bolt the door: this done, 
 with all the sternness of an Inquisitor-General, he 
 began the following examination : 
 
 What person was that just now in thy 
 chamber ? " 
 
 " What person, signior ? " replied Pedrillo, with a 
 voice as if he did not at all understand the 
 question.
 
 SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 201 
 
 " Traitor ! " cried Don Sylvio, "mind me. I will 
 know who it was." 
 
 " Signior," answered Pedrillo, " I know of nobody 
 at all, excepting yourself when I saw you open the 
 door, and you came and waked me : for I don't 
 suppose you mean to speak of the fleas, though I 
 am sure I have had at least two or three hundred 
 thousand of them for my bed-fellows : the cursed 
 vermin kept waking me every minute almost ; 
 whole regiments of them came on, and, as it were, 
 relieved guard by turns. I'll be hang 3d if they did 
 not make such a noise that it almost stunned me ; 
 not to mention half a dozen great he-cats that kept 
 running about the roof, just over my window, and 
 seemed as if they meant to give the little cat of the 
 inn a serenade, for they did me-aw so miserably 
 that my very back aches with it to this moment." 
 
 " A truce with thy impertinent prating," said Don 
 Sylvio ; " depend upon it, it shall not serve your 
 turn. I saw a person go out of thy chamber, I 
 heard that person speaking with thee, and I will 
 know who it was." 
 
 "Signior," cried Pedrillo, "let me die if I know 
 what to answer you. If you have seen anything, 
 I don't pretend to contradict you ; the fairies have 
 endowed you with this gift, and you can always see 
 more than we common folks. But as to me, if I 
 was to grant I had seen anything, it it must have 
 been in a dream ; for I slept very sound, except 
 indeed, when the fleas, and the cats a-cater wauling, 
 waked me, as I told you before. I can say nothing 
 more to it if 'twas for my life." 
 
 "Wretch ! " said Don Sylvio, drawing his terrible 
 sabre, " I'll not be thus put off by thy contemptible 
 evasions. Confess the truth this instant, or thou 
 diest ! " 
 
 " Oh, my dear master, Signior Don Sylvio," cried 
 Pedrillo, throwing himself at his feet, " I conjure you 
 by all the saints to spare my youth ; I'll tell you
 
 202 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 every thing I know. What is it that can lead you 
 to use me so cruelly ? I have served you many a 
 year, and you know I would run through fire and 
 water for you, if you required it. Do pray, signior, 
 pray put up that dreadful sabre, and I'll confess 
 everything to you : and yet it would be a monstrous 
 thing to die because a body has seen nothing. O 
 holy Saint James ! provided I am but saved this time 
 Indeed, signior, you could not treat me worse 
 even if you had caught me in bed with Donna 
 Jacintha's waiting-woman." 
 
 " Glorious evasion ! " replied Don Sylvio ; " and 
 dost thou conceive me then so stupid, as to imagine 
 that the waiting-woman of a princess would make 
 herself so familiar with thee, whom she has known 
 nothing of but for three or four hours past, as to 
 spend the night in thy chamber ? I tell thee again, 
 thou hast no other way to save thy life, than that 
 of declaring to me the truth. No harm shall come 
 to thee ; but I do insist upon thy telling the 
 truth." 
 
 "And what then would you have me tell you, 
 signior ? " said Pedrillo. " I know nothing more than 
 what I have told you already, and if I must say 
 more than I know, you ought to put the words into 
 my mouth." 
 
 " Answer me exactly to all I ask thee was there 
 not somebody with thee just now in thy chamber ? " 
 
 " Ten thousand squadrons of fleas, as I told your 
 honour before ; and except them, no soul living 
 that I know of." 
 
 " Who then was the person that I saw go out at 
 the other door, as I came in at this ? " 
 
 "I know nothing at all about it, signior; I 
 waked the moment you called me, for I was then 
 fast asleep. If you have seen anything, you must 
 absolutely know what it was better than I. 
 
 " It seemed to me to be the figure of a woman, 
 but I could not distinguish what she was. She got
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 203 
 
 away in a hurry, or rather disappeared the very 
 instant I perceived her." 
 
 "Oh, the devil, signior ; why then, it must have 
 been some spirit, and that's not at all unlikely. At 
 our first coming into this house, everything had a 
 look that smacked of ghosts. If you have seen 
 something that immediately vanished, God help us ! 
 it must certainly have been a spirit, that possibly 
 may have been killed in this room in times past. 
 Upon my soul, I am as glad I saw nothing of it, as 
 if anybody had given me a whole county ; for I'm 
 sure I should have died upon the spot." 
 
 Pedrillo spoke this with so ingenuous an air, that 
 Don Sylvio began to think he had accused him 
 unjustly. 
 
 But, pray now," continued he, "though you 
 might not see anything, did not you hear anything 
 stirring ? " 
 
 " Signior," replied Pedrillo, " people you know 
 sometimes have very droll fancies, especially when 
 'tis in the night time, and at a strange house. I 
 should not have thought much about it, however, 
 for I still very well remember how you laughed at 
 me when I saw the giant, that you cut a great 
 branch off from yesterday morning. But now, as 
 you yourself seem to believe that this inn is a 
 little bedevilled or so, I will frankly tell you. You 
 must know, about half an hour ago I waked, and 
 then it seemed to me just for all the world as if a 
 great bundle had tumbled upon me, that almost 
 hindered me from breathing. Some moments after 
 this, I could have sworn I heard people talking in a 
 low voice. I wanted vastly to know what they 
 said, but was in such a fright that I hid myself 
 under the bedclothes, and so I fell asleep a little 
 and a little by degrees ; and then I heard no more 
 of it. This is the exact truth, and if you don't find 
 this is fact, kill me if you like it, or else throw me 
 to the fleas of this house, and I am sure they are
 
 204 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 as much famished as the wolves are upon the 
 Pyrenean Mountains. I'll consent to anything." 
 
 " Pedrillo, my friend," answered Don Sylvio, in a 
 tone of voice that restored the other to life and 
 spirits, " I am satisfied : but when I tell thee how 
 far the malice of certain persons that shall be 
 nameless, is carried, thou wilt not be surprised at 
 my having talked to thee so roughly. Know then, 
 that with my own ears I just now overheard a 
 scheme projected in thy chamber to rob me of the 
 portrait of my dear princess. I am persuaded thou 
 art incapable of so black a treason : but upon the 
 faith of a cavalier, I swear to thee, that I heard 
 thy voice distinctly. I have not therefore a moment's 
 doubt but these must have been my two enemies, 
 one of whom borrowed thy voice with a design, that 
 if they had not succeeded in stealing away the 
 picture, they might at least make me suppose thee 
 to be the most infamous of all traitors." 
 
 " Why, what a cursed rascal is this, signior," 
 cried Pedrillo ; " pox take it, this is carrying the joke 
 a little too far. At this rate an honest man is not 
 safe even in his bed, so long as a cursed dwarf or 
 an enchanter can borrow his shape, and commit 
 such crimes under that mask as might get a poor 
 creature hanged for their devilish tricks. But pray 
 now, signior, what did my voice, or the sorceress 
 that had got my tone, say to it ? " 
 
 " Make thyself easy, Pedrillo," replied our hero ; 
 " I am persuaded of thy innocence, and we are both 
 amply revenged, as they have failed of their double 
 design. But get thyself ready ; I will not stay a 
 moment longer in this house." 
 
 " But would you go, then," said Pedrillo, " without 
 taking leave of the lady and gentleman, whose life 
 you saved yesterday ? You know they were so 
 taken up with their wounds, that they had not 
 even time to thank you for it as they should ; and 
 I can't help thinking that saving a person's life is
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 205 
 
 such a service as at least deserves a God bless 
 you." 
 
 "I don't pretend to thanks," replied Don Sylvio, 
 " for an action in which I only did my duty, whither 
 I consider myself as a cavalier, or merely as ; 
 man. I would do the same thing at any time for 
 a Turk, a Jew, or a Pagan ; and though I could have 
 wished to know something more particularly of 
 their adventures, the horrible discovery which I 
 have just made, forces me to change my resolution. 
 How fortunate was it for me to have waked time 
 enough to frustrate these wretches in their scheme ! 
 But I am sure it was an invisible hand that 
 awaked me ; and I confess to thee, I don't think 
 myself safe in this house a single moment. The 
 fairy Radiante has promised me her protection, but 
 it was on the express condition of our going in 
 search of my beloved princess ; and if thou callest 
 to mind, thou wilt see that every mischance we 
 have met with in our journey, has constantly befell 
 us either while we were asleep, or taking any 
 repose " 
 
 '* True, signior, you are right," said Pedrillo, 
 " excepting the ditch indeed, that your salamanders 
 led us into " 
 
 "And for my own part,'' continued Don Sylvio, 
 " I look upon them as a just punishment for the not 
 having better fulfilled my vows, which were, that 
 I would not close my eyes till I had found my 
 princess. In a word, Pedrillo, I am determined not 
 to stay a moment longer in this house, where 
 perhaps the fairy Fanfreluche may have her 
 friends, or other advantages unknown to me. Get 
 thy wallet then, and let us decamp privately : the 
 day is but just dawning, every body is asleep, and 
 even if our enemies were upon the watch, I am 
 persuaded that Radiante will involve us in so thick 
 a mist, that Argus himself, with his hundred eyes, 
 could not see us through it."
 
 206 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 "Well, signior," said Pedrillo, "since you will 
 have it so, we may think ourselves lucky to have 
 escaped so well. Pox take it! I had no good 
 opinion of the matter from the first moment I found 
 such legions of fleas pouring upon me. I do assure 
 you I am half -eaten up ; and I could venture to 
 take my oath upon a book, they are not natural 
 fleas, but enchanted porcupines and hedgehogs, 
 that this cursed tribe of enchanters has been pleased 
 to hunt us with like so many hares." 
 
 Pedrillo went on talking at this rate, till he had 
 packed up his wallet, being afraid every minute 
 that if he left his master time for reflection, he 
 might get at the truth. As soon therefore as he 
 was ready, they sallied so very softly out of the 
 house, leaving their reckoning unpaid, that even 
 Mrs Teresilla herself, who for good reasons kept 
 very quietly in her chamber, had not the least 
 suspicion of their departure.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 207 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 A SHORT DIGRESSION TO LIRIAS : WHICH MAY 
 SERVE TO SHOW THAT THE AUTHOR IS NOT SO 
 UNSKILLED IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HUMAN 
 HEART, AS PERHAPS SOME MIGHT THINK HIM 
 
 UNCERTAIN which way to pursue his route, Don 
 Sylvio cordially regretted the loss of poor little 
 Pimpimp. However, as the thing was without 
 remedy, they contented themselves with keeping 
 the same road they had hitherto come. 
 
 For some hours together so little remarkable 
 happened to them, that, not to fatigue the reader 
 by an incessant recital of their dialogues, we shall 
 here make a little digression to Lirias, where the 
 amiable Donna Felicia, with her worthy confidante, 
 were greatly surprised at not finding Don Eugenio, 
 and much more so on hearing that he went out on 
 horseback with Don Gabriel, attended only by his 
 footman. His unusual absence put them into a 
 cruel state of disquietude, and the prudent Laura 
 thought she could not do better than to divert her 
 mistress's attention from this to some other object. 
 
 Accordingly, they passed almost the whole night 
 in talking of nothing but Don Sylvio. The love 
 with which, even sleeping, he had been happy 
 enough to inspire the charming Felicia, manifested 
 itself so openly in her discourse, that it must have 
 been too gross an affectation, had she wished to 
 make a mystery of it to her dear Laura ; who, for 
 the goodness of her heart, as well as of her under- 
 standing, was not unworthy the confidence with
 
 208 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 which her mistress honoured her, in raising her to 
 the rank of a friend. 
 
 Their eyes had already told them that this 
 unknown sleeper was the handsomest of all mortals. 
 They enlarged therefore with so much the more 
 satisfaction on the subject, as hitherto they had 
 met with no other opportunities of knowing his 
 merit. But to know who he was, and whether his 
 condition and his moral qualities corresponded to 
 the beauty of his external, this was a trying point, 
 and it left poor Donna Felicia in a terrible anxiety ; 
 at least, however, she made it seem so, in order to 
 have the pleasure of seeing all her doubts destroyed 
 by the good Laura. 
 
 Hence, after they had said every thing that 
 could be said for and against, it was at length 
 agreed to be not at all improbable, for a young 
 man, whose figure seemed, as it were, expressly 
 formed by nature to indicate an excellent mind, to 
 be at the same time the most noble and virtuous, 
 the most brave and agreeable, in short, the most 
 amiable creature that ever woman produced to the 
 world. Nay, the testimony of Pedrillo himself, as 
 little disposed as they were to believe any thing he 
 had said in the least disadvantageous to his master, 
 was esteemed so much more authentic, on account of 
 the praises he bestowed upon his moral character, 
 since domestics are not usually fond of speaking 
 well of their masters to strange people. 
 
 But what was to be done with the enchanted 
 butterfly, the princess, the fairies, and the dwarf, 
 whom Pedrillo had thrown into his narrative ? 
 What were they to think of that very serious look, 
 that honest ; "ysiognomy, and positive tone with 
 which a lad like this, (who had nothing at all the 
 air of one that wanted to impose upon ladies) had 
 assured them, that his master was in love with 
 an enchanted princess, whom he flattered him with 
 delivering, under the auspices of a mighty fairy.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 209 
 
 Donna Felicia was not so easily to be satisfied on 
 this head ; and it cost the ingenious Laura a deal 
 of trouble to persuade her mistress to do, in this 
 case, as the rational Mussulmans do in regard to 
 certain incredible and childish stories of the Alcoran, 
 who suppose that they must be taken in an 
 allegorical sense, under which, the moment you had 
 got the key, nothing more could be found than 
 some very natural and very common love-adventure. 
 This explication, however, plausible as it might 
 seem, was not entirely satisfactory to Donna 
 Felicia : in a word, Laura had opportunity to 
 remark, that the young lady would rather see her 
 young lover a little crazy, with his heart at liberty, 
 than to find him perfectly in his right senses, and 
 in love with another. 
 
 She concluded therefore with telling Laura, that 
 she must try to learn, as soon as possible, something 
 more clear and positive concerning this Don Sylvio 
 de Rosalva. Luckily, chance stood her friend in 
 this respect better than she could have hoped ; for 
 the same barber whom we have already so frequently 
 mentioned, (and who, by the way, passed for a 
 great surgeon throughout the whole district, and 
 was the only one for at least ten leagues round), 
 came accidentally to Lirias the day after Don 
 Sylvio's flight from the inn, to dress one of the 
 domestics who had broken his thigh a few weeks 
 before. < 
 
 Laura happened to come into the room where 
 the barber attended, just as he was relating, with 
 that volubility of tongue appropriated to his 
 profession from time immemorial, the news of Don 
 Sylvio's elopement ; news which, as he observed, 
 had become the subject of conversation through the 
 whole neighbourhood of Rosalva. Laura therefore 
 had no great difficulty to get from this faithful 
 narrator all necessary information respecting our 
 hero. Accordingly, she learned what kind of woman 
 P
 
 210 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 his aunt was ; next, the manner in which the young 
 gentleman had been brought up, his mode of life, 
 the scheme of Donna Menzia for marrying him to 
 the hundred thousand ducats of the hideous 
 Mergelina Sanchez ; and lastly, how Don Sylvio 
 had taken flight with his footman Pedrillo, probably 
 to avoid being obliged to espouse a person so 
 disagreeable, and that nobody knew what was 
 become either of the master or man. The barber 
 moreover declared, that as to personal qualities, his 
 superior for beauty, knowledge, and virtue, was yet 
 unborn; adding, that he supposed he should have 
 said enough when he assured the gentlemen and 
 ladies present, that under his instructions Don 
 Sylvio had made such great progress only in two 
 months upon the guitar, that he freely acknowledged 
 himself his inferior at that instrument. As to any 
 love-intrigue of Don Sylvio's, whatever might have 
 been said, the barber, for his part, insisted that he 
 was entirely ignorant of it. However, he could not 
 but say, that the cavalier was really a little 
 singular and romantic, and that in a late conversa- 
 tion they had held together, he, the barber, had 
 discovered in the young man such a taste for fairy 
 tales, that he believed it had led him to take them 
 all for true histories ; nay, and that Don Sylvio was 
 so strongly persuaded of the existence of fairies, as 
 to have assured him that he should not think it 
 at all extraordinary, if such things happened to 
 himself. 
 
 This intelligence comprehended almost every 
 thing that was wanted to compose the mind of 
 Donna Felicia. 
 
 But though the romantic turn of Don Sylvio's brain 
 was the more agreeable to her, as she found it 
 coincide so nearly with her own mode of thinking, 
 yet still, on the other hand, she was not very well 
 satisfied to see him carry his passion for fairies to 
 such a degree of extravagance as nearly bordered
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 211 
 
 upon a kind of madness. " Perhaps," said she, " he 
 may be in love with an ideal princess whom he 
 never saw, and possibly, to give his amour a more 
 mysterious air, he may have persuaded himself she 
 has been changed into a butterfly by some fairy 
 that protects his rival." The idea, however, seemed 
 to be an extremely silly one : but surely, if Don 
 Sylvio was ridiculous for being enamoured only in 
 idea, how much less so was Donna Felicia, to be 
 jealous of that idea ? She herself indeed saw and 
 felt it ; but in spite of the confidence she had in her 
 good Laura, she could not, without blushing, avow 
 her weakness. Their conversation on the subject 
 led them insensibly to form various projects to see 
 if they could not bring about a more intimate 
 acquaintance with Don Sylvio. But, unfortunately 
 for them, fresh difficulties arose every moment ; 
 difficulties which they had not discovered, till after 
 having highly pleased themselves in anticipation of 
 the good effect their plans must certainly produce. 
 Nothing therefore at length was left them, but to 
 hope for some lucky chance, which they flattered 
 themselves might soon turn out more favourably for 
 them and their design, than the best concerted 
 projects they could devise.
 
 212 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 A MOST DEPLORABLE ADVENTURE WITH A PARCEL 
 OF FEMALE HAY-MAKERS 
 
 DON SYLVIO, with his fidus Achates, had now been 
 travelling a good while, discoursing by the way on 
 the various subjects with which the adventures of 
 their journey had supplied them, and every now 
 and then reposing themselves in those pleasant little 
 woods, that like so many garlands variegate and 
 adorn the charming rural scenes of the province 
 of Valencia. 
 
 At length they found themselves in a little 
 cypress grove, whither the heat, that now began to 
 be troublesome, obliged them to retire. There for a 
 while they amused themselves in contemplating 
 that smiling prospect which extends itself over the 
 flowery meads along the banks of the Guadalaviar ; 
 when, suddenly, Pedrillo made such a discovery, as 
 seemed to promise our hero a happy issue of all his 
 cares, his amorous anxieties, and almost hopeless 
 pursuits. 
 
 " Huzza ! courage, sir," he exclaimed ; " let us jump 
 for joy ; for unless I am as blind as a beetle, we 
 have found our princess. Don't you see that blue 
 butterfly there, skipping about the rose-bushes ? " 
 
 Pedrillo was not quite out in his conjecture, for it 
 was really a blue butterfly ; and Don Sylvio too 
 eagerly wished it might be his princess to suffer 
 him a moment's doubt upon the subject. "Come 
 along, signior," said Pedrillo ; "do you slip softly 
 down on the other side, and I'll keep close to this :
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 213 
 
 it can't get away from us, and I fancy the princess 
 will have nothing to do but see you, to make her 
 fly immediately into your hands." 
 
 In truth, the butterfly seemed to justify Pedrillo's 
 hopes. It made directly up to Don Sylvio, and 
 kept flitting about him on all sides. He had now 
 got very near it, and in a transport of exulting joy 
 and warm desire stretched out his hands to seize it ; 
 when, as our poor lover's ill-luck would have it, 
 another butterfly of a greyish complexion, having 
 got sight of the blue one, instantly sprung upon her 
 with a boldness consistent with the genius of that 
 coquettish tribe ; and in the very teeth of his rival 
 took such liberties with the azure princess such 
 liberties as possibly he supposed were the more 
 allowable, from having never once taken it into his 
 head that the fair volatile before him could be a 
 princess. 
 
 Startled, as may easily be imagined at this 
 temerity of the grey butterfly, Don Sylvio burst 
 into a rage, which was so much the more violent, 
 as he fancied he could discern in the blue butterfly's 
 resistance a new reason to persuade him it was his 
 princess. He therefore threw himself in between 
 them, and was fortunate enough to knock down 
 his rival with a little switch he had in his 
 hand. 
 
 This circumstance however, so terrified the 
 supposed princess, that with all the wings she had 
 she instantly darted away, pursued by Don Sylvio 
 and Pedrillo. In vain did they run, and strain, and 
 puff, and blow; the more they followed her, the 
 faster she fled from them, perhaps supposing 
 herself to be still pursued by the grey-coated 
 inamorato. 
 
 It happened, oddly enough, that three or four girls 
 of a neighbouring village, after fatiguing themselves 
 with mowing grass, were set down upon the river- 
 side to refresh them in the shade ; and by way of
 
 214 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 amusement, exercised their fancy in making garlands 
 of the flowers that grew in vast quantities just 
 beside them. 
 
 The blue butterfly had left its persecutors so far 
 behind that they could hardly keep sight of it. 
 Hence, fancying itself out of danger, it began to be 
 composed, and resumed its sportive dance from 
 flower to flower; till at length, behold, it fell into 
 the hands of one of those hay-making girls, who 
 took and fastened a thread to its leg, and then let 
 it fly as it pleased round about her. 
 
 Don Sylvio by this time was got near enough to 
 observe all that passed, and addressing Pedrillo : 
 "Now," said he, "at last I perceive the issue of 
 that dream, which yesterday morning so puzzled 
 me to explain it. It was a warning from my friend 
 the fairy, who made me foresee in my dream what 
 now awaits me, in order that I may take my 
 measures accordingly, so as not to fall into the 
 snares of my enemies. Do but observe that nymph 
 yonder sitting under the shade, holding the blue 
 butterfly, fastened with a thread, and flying about 
 her." 
 
 " A nymph, say you ? " answered Pedrillo ; " deuce 
 take it, signior, sure you are only laughing at me. 
 Why, that creature there is just as much like a 
 nymph as I am like a bottle of hay. She is only a 
 country wench, just as the others that sit under the 
 trees beside her." 
 
 " I am already too much accustomed to thy 
 blundering conduct," replied Don Sylvio, " to make 
 myself angry at this impertinence. I know 
 what I am to think of the matter, thanks to 
 the fairy Radiante ; and whatever thou shalt 
 take her for, nymph or rustic, I tell thee she 
 shall yield me up my princess, or I will lose my 
 life." 
 
 " Signior," said Pedrillo, " whenever there's any- 
 thing to do about salamanders and sylphids, or
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 215 
 
 about spirits, or other things of that sort, which 
 are quite above the reach of a common man, there 
 I'll readily give up to your honour, and I'll own to 
 you with all my heart, that I am sure you under- 
 stand such matters better than I : but, as to 
 country-folks, 'tis quite another affair; for surely 
 I must be able to know somewhat about those 
 things. Besides, 'tis impossible to be deceived in 
 a case of this kind, for you may even smell these 
 honest wenches at least thirty foot off. Now, I 
 should be glad to know when you ever met with 
 any nymphs that smelled of garlic, or their petti- 
 coats so rent and tattered that you may see their 
 smocks every way you look at them. In short, 
 signior, I tell you 'tis a downright country 
 wench, ay, and one of the nastiest too that ever 
 you saw in your life. She'll yield you up the 
 blue butterfly, never fear ; and if you'll but 
 give her a few maravedis, will return you a 
 thousand ' thank ye's ' and ' God bless ye's ' into the 
 bargain." 
 
 Don Sylvio, who never listened to reason, when 
 once he had got anything into his head, did not 
 deign the least attention to what Pedrillo said ; but, 
 marching up to the supposed nymph, demanded 
 of her his butterfly. 
 
 " And what will you give me for it, signior ? " said 
 the girl, laughing. 
 
 " Whatever thou wilt," replied Don Sylvio. 
 
 " Oh, very well ; then pray give me the little toy 
 that hangs about your neck," said the nymph ; " I'll 
 give it to my little sister at home, and if you'll but 
 put half a real to it, the butterfly and the thread 
 are both yours." 
 
 " Cursed Green Dwarf ! " cried Don Sylvio, draw- 
 ing his sabre, and foaming with rage ; " hope not, 
 that under that borrowed shape, which sufficiently 
 proves thy cowardice, thou canst mock me with 
 impunity. Die, thou wretch! or restore me the
 
 216 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 butterfly, to which thou hast no right or claim, 
 and which I will tear from thy accursed heart, 
 though it should cost me my life." 
 
 It will easily be imagined, that to an apostrophe 
 so ungracious, and accompanied with terrible 
 menaces, the fair nymph before him could make 
 no other reply than by crying out with all her 
 might. Pedrillo, whom his master's folly had 
 almost worked up into a violent passion, threw 
 himself forward between the nymph and our hero, 
 endeavouring at the same time to disarm his master, 
 on finding him deaf to all his remonstrances. Mean- 
 while the other nymphs, seeing their companion so 
 roughly treated, came up in a great hurry, and fell 
 like furies both upon Don Sylvio and Pedrillo ; 
 insomuch that our hero had the greatest difficulty 
 in the world to defend himself against their violent 
 hands and forked nails. 
 
 Unfortunately, the lover of the young nymph 
 mistaken for the Green Dwarf, was at work with 
 two or three other peasants in the neighbouring 
 fields. The lamentable cries of the women, and the 
 countenance of his mistress, whom Pedrillo was just 
 going to pull by the hair, put him in such a fury, 
 that he run up to them, accompanied by his fellow 
 labourers. The first thing he did was to wrench 
 Pedrillo's large staff out of his hands which done, 
 he thrashed our adventurers in so emphatical a 
 manner, that, in spite of their vigorous defence, at 
 length they yielded to the multitude of their 
 enemies. This exploit, however, did not yet appear 
 sufficient to the furious lover, or the young wench, 
 who breathed nothing but revenge ; nor was their 
 rage satisfied, till after having so battered our 
 adventurers with fisticuffs, that the peasants 
 themselves began to think that they had gone 
 too far. Matters being brought to this state, the 
 nymph made herself mistress of our hero's trinket, 
 as he lay almost breathless on the ground, which she
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 217 
 
 did to indemnify herself for the butterfly, who, from 
 the commencement of the fray, had taken wing. 
 This done, the rustic assembly quitted the field, 
 leaving our poor adventurers half dead, extended 
 upon the grass.
 
 218 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 BOOK V 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 IN WHICH THE AUTHOR HAS THE PLEASURE TO TALK 
 ABOUT HIMSELF 
 
 WE very much doubt whether, since fairy tales 
 first existed in the world, there ever was a lover 
 protected by fairies whether he were prince, knight, 
 or shepherd, that saw or felt himself in such critical 
 circumstances as those in which we left our hero at 
 the close of the preceding book. 
 
 'Tis true, other heroes, travelling under the 
 auspices of fairies, have their tribulations likewise : 
 they are often obliged to wage war with dragons, 
 sea monsters, blue centaurs, and the like : they run 
 the risk of being devoured by hyenas and chimeras ; 
 they are brought up by old toothless fairies, who put 
 their virtue to the keenest trials, and at last turn 
 them into paroquets, cats, or crickets. But, that 
 ever a person so extraordinary as the favourite of a 
 queen of the salamanders, and the lover of an 
 enchanted blue butterfly, should be so terribly 
 scratched and mauled by a parcel of country 
 wenches, is what you may in vain look for an 
 example of in the whole collection of all those 
 histories, that begin with that elegant phrase, there 
 was once upon a time. 
 
 The benevolent reader will deduce the con- 
 sequence ; but, as perhaps he may not do so, the 
 author hereby begs leave to inform him, that this 
 palpable difference between the history of Don
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 219 
 
 Sylvio, and all other tales of the fairies, inculcates 
 a very favourable prepossession in regard to the 
 historical fidelity and veridicity of the writer. Had 
 we made our hero travel in a sapphire car, drawn by 
 birds of paradise ; had we made him descend every 
 evening to some enchanted palace ; had we given 
 him the little red hat of Prince Hobgoblin, or the 
 fairy Mustachio's slipper, or King Gyges' ring, or 
 the royal fairy Trusio's enchanted wand, by means 
 of which he might have extricated himself from all 
 difficulties, then every child of ten years old 
 must have perceived we had only been entertaining 
 him with a fairy tale. But though our history is 
 more extraordinary and more marvellous than any 
 of those with which they once upon a time en- 
 deavoured to amuse the sage Schac Bah am, Sultan 
 of the Indies, yet nobody can reproach us with 
 ever having made any adventure befall our hero 
 that does not perfectly coincide with the ordinary 
 course of nature, or that may not be seen to happen 
 every day : as for instance, that a frog should run 
 the hazard of being swallowed up by a stork, or 
 that a person should find a picture set round with 
 diamonds, which probably some other might have 
 lost before. Besides, we have made our hero travel 
 afoot, without having even taken care to guard him 
 against bogs and ditches. Has he been asleep ? 
 It was only upon the hard ground, or in a miserable 
 inn, where he is half devoured by fleas. Instead of 
 nymphs with rosy arms, or sylphs with golden 
 wings, to serve him with nectar and ambrosia on 
 the flowery borders of crystal fountains, we have 
 fed him with a pie, found in Pedrillo's wallet ; and, 
 still more recently, we have seen him almost knocked 
 at head, not by giants or enchanted blackamoors, 
 but by simple country clowns. 
 
 We flatter ourselves that what has been said 
 will serve as convincing proofs to the gentle reader ; 
 most sincerely wishing we could say as much, and
 
 220 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 as justly, of many a famous historian, and show 
 them to have been as distant from that propensity 
 to imposition, which leads them to embellish their 
 pictures and characters, or to give their adventures 
 a smack of the marvellous, as we are ourselves ; 
 whose whole aim in the publication of this very 
 faithful and credible history has been, not (as some 
 giddy hare-brained young people may possibly have 
 supposed) merely to divert our readers, but rather 
 to promote their public health and welfare, both of 
 body and mind. 
 
 Perhaps some of those, whose sagacity can 
 penetrate no further than the superficies of things, 
 may not be able to comprehend how the history of 
 Don Sylvio should avail to so salutary a purpose. 
 To us nothing could be easier than to prove to them, 
 as well from the writings of the greatest physicians, 
 as from those of natural philosophers, "that there 
 is a certain fever to which the human mind is very 
 subject, from the fourteenth year of man's existence 
 up to his grand climacteric : that this fever cannot 
 so efficaciously be expelled by any other remedy, as 
 by that which at once shakes the diaphragm, thins 
 the blood, and vivifies the animal spirits; just as 
 the envenomed bite of a tarantula can be cured 
 only by the symphatic virtue of certain airs, which 
 are played to the sick folks to set them a-dancing." 
 We could also very easily, and upon very good 
 authorities, demonstrate to them, that the same 
 salutary virtues here mentioned lie concealed in 
 this present history. But, as this might carry us 
 too far from the continuation of our hero's 
 adventures, to the great displeasure of our readers, 
 we rather wish to leave it to their own discretion to 
 judge of the matter as they shall think best. How- 
 ever, in the second edition of this work which, 
 without vanity, and judging from the good taste of 
 the public, we foresee can be no very distant event 
 we shall not fail to insert Parera, of the College of
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 221 
 
 Physicians, upon the subject : that Parera, who 
 knows how to turn everything to our advantage. 
 And for his fuller confirmation, we shall subjoin a 
 detail of the various remarkable cures, which the 
 physicians of our acquaintance have made by means 
 of this book. 
 
 Over and above all this, we should be very glad if 
 some Academy in Europe, (were it even that Pau in 
 B6arn) would, condescend to offer a premium of 
 fifty ducats for an investigation of that utility, 
 physical, moral, and political, which society in 
 general might derive from writings calculated to 
 make people laugh, in a decent manner, I mean. 
 An examination of the following question in par- 
 ticular, would certainly merit the premium, viz. : 
 Whether the public good, as well as booksellers' 
 profit, (which, 'tis well known, is so considerable a 
 branch of commerce in Europe), would not turn to 
 better account, if, instead of that quantity of vile 
 productions in morality, great or small, which their 
 tedious authors pour in upon the world, under 
 pompous titles, and which, at bottom, are nothing 
 more than trite observations, lame thoughts, badly 
 compiled and ill-digested, cold declamations, etc. 
 whether, I say, if, instead of those, we were to 
 produce every six months some dozen of books in 
 the taste of the Roman Comique, the Bachelor of Sala- 
 manca, or the Foundling ; nay, or even in the taste 
 of Candide, Garagantua and Pantagruel; books in 
 which truth is spoken laughingly ; books which tear 
 off the false mask from stupidity, fanaticism, and 
 rascality; books which exhibit mankind in their 
 true light and just proportion, with their passions 
 and follies about them, and without the least 
 addition or diminution; books which remove from 
 the actions of men that varnish wherewith they are 
 so ingenious to cover them, while at the same time 
 they are all the offspring of pride, private views, 
 and a voluntary self-delusion; books, in short,
 
 222 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 which instruct and correct their readers so much the 
 more successfully, as they seem to be intended 
 merely for amusement ; and which, even though 
 they served only to divert and recreate persons 
 deeply engaged in business, or innocently to amuse 
 persons of no business at all, and in a general view, 
 to keep people in good -humour; such books, I 
 insist upon it, would be of infinitely more use to the 
 public, than that insipid species of morality, that 
 systematical jumble of misshapen whimsical ideas ; 
 those phlegmatic and fanatical monkeries, now 
 under contemplation; and which (no affront to 
 their authors' good intentions, of which they make 
 such parade) puzzle more brains than they correct 
 hearts ; and the possible pernicious effects of which 
 nothing could prevent from being formidable, but 
 the common practice of cutting them to pieces to 
 pack up other books. 
 
 For certain reasons we could have been glad to 
 have placed these remarks to the account of Pedrillo, 
 or some other privileged person ; for nobody blames 
 a Pedrillo, or a Launcelot Gobbo, or Gobbo 
 Launcelot, when he speaks the truth. But as this 
 could not be managed conveniently, we were obliged 
 to pluck up a resolution and do it ourselves, as it 
 were by the bye ; offering at the same time our 
 humble deprecations, and hoping for the best 
 allowances, in whatever place, or to whatever person, 
 they shall seem necessary.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 223 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 WHEREIN PEDRILLO DISPLAYS HIMSELF TO GREAT 
 ADVANTAGE 
 
 THOUGH Pedrillo had much the severest share of 
 drubbing in the skirmish with the country clowns, 
 he came first to himself again, after lying upon the 
 ground a full half -quarter of an hour, quite stunned 
 with the blows he had received. The first use he 
 made of his senses was to give to the devil all the 
 nymphs, fauns, sylvans, dwarfs, princesses and 
 butterflies, with every fairy tale that had been told 
 from the creation, and ever should be to the end of 
 the world; together with their authors, abettors, 
 and relators ; not forgetting their kinsfolk and right 
 heirs, in the ascending and descending line all 
 together, and every one in particular. Such was his 
 mighty wrath and fiery indignation ! Next did he 
 curse every goose, whose quills had administered to 
 the writings of all such tales; nor less did he 
 execrate the letters and the ink employed in printing 
 them: wishing from the very bottom of his heart, 
 that the Holy Inquisition might reduce to dust and 
 ashes all who had given utterance to such con- 
 founded devil's tricks, which had only served to 
 turn the head of the noblest and bravest young 
 gentleman in all Spain, For now the blows he had 
 received without number or measure, and all for the 
 love of a blue butterfly, fully convinced him, that 
 whatever his master had told him about the fairy 
 Radiante, and the enchantment of his pretended 
 princess, was nothing but a parcel of dreams and
 
 224 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 foolish fancies. " Pox take it !" he cried, " when did 
 ever a fairy allow country fellows and country 
 wenches to knock people down, after she had once 
 taken them under her protection ? Indeed, if one 
 had been obliged to fight with monsters, or dragons 
 spitting fire out of their nostrils, nothing could have 
 been said to it. But to think that such low ragged 
 devils Ads death ! I'll consent to be swallowed up 
 by the first monster we meet with, if this Radiante 
 of his that has played us this trick, to name no 
 more, is not just as much a fairy as the three jades 
 that have almost scratched my eyes out with their 
 nails, are nymphs " 
 
 At this emphatical rate he ran on for a good 
 while, till, looking about, he observed his master still 
 lying stretched along beside him, without life or 
 motion. His countenance, with the fear of his being 
 quite dead, made the poor fellow instantly forget 
 his own misfortunes. At first he called his master 
 by his name, then he shook him ; but still finding 
 no signs of life in him, he began to cry as piteously, 
 or more so, than the wicked king's son Hunchback 
 did, when the girl that tended the geese refused to 
 many him. 
 
 In this distress, however, he presently recollected 
 a bottle of Madeira in his knapsack, which luckily 
 the enemy had not perceived in the heat of their 
 engagement; Pedrillo having prudently thought of 
 laying it down a little way off just before the onset. 
 Accordingly, he took the bottle, and, without the least 
 regret, threw the wine into Don Sylvio's face. This 
 expedient had the desired effect, and our hero soon 
 came to his senses ; for it seems his disaster pro- 
 ceeded only from a single blow, well applied indeed, 
 but which had done him no other harm than the 
 raising a large tumour upon his head. At length he 
 opened his eyes, and asked with a feeble voice, 
 " Where am I ? Art thou still alive, Pedrillo ? " 
 
 " Yes, my dear master," said he, " and you too,
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 225 
 
 thank Heaven ! or my eyes deceive me. But upon 
 the faith of an honest lad, look you, sir, had you 
 been dead, as I really thought you were, I would 
 sooner have jumped into the river than have wished 
 to survive you." 
 
 "Would it were in my power immediately to 
 reward thee for thy fidelity and kind concern ! " 
 replied Don Sylvio ; " but tell me, if thou knowest, 
 Pedrillo, what is become of my princess ? O 
 Heavens ! " 
 
 " The princess ? " cried Pedrillo ; " she is got off, and 
 gone to the devil ; she flew away the moment that 
 those fat-cheeked nymphs fell upon us with their 
 crooked claws : deuce take her, I could only wish 
 
 she did but feel But, pray, what's the matter 
 
 with you, signior ? Mercy on me ! My dear master, 
 what ails you ? Oh, the cursed fairies ! " 
 
 The reason of Pedrillo's uttering these lamenta- 
 tions was, that his master, having looked for the 
 princess's picture, and not finding it, instantly fell 
 into a swoon, overwhelmed with terror and despair. 
 
 It was with very great difficulty he could recover 
 our hero to any sense or spirits ; and much more to 
 soothe the desperation to which he gave himself up 
 the moment he was capable of feeling the greatness 
 of his loss. Pedrillo, however desirous he might be 
 to pour out invectives against the fairy Radiante, 
 and all the fairies in the universe, or to divest his 
 master of that mad passion for a butterfly, no 
 longer knew what to do or say, on hearing Don 
 Sylvio send forth such bitter lamentations; more 
 especially too, when he found him resolving to make 
 the river Guadalaviar famous by his death. He 
 therefore threw himself at his feet, wept, railed at 
 all fairies and the science of fairy, begged and 
 prayed of him ; but alas ! the one did him no 
 manner of good, and the other only served to make 
 him worse. 
 
 After having in vain attempted every imaginable 
 Q
 
 226 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 method, he at last hit upon the only remedy that 
 could promise him success in such a circumstance. 
 This was to set up a crying in concert with his 
 master, and this he did so well, as if possible, to 
 exceed him. He reasoned in this manner, " My 
 young master will at length be tired of making 
 lamentations, and provided I do but let him get over 
 the first fits of his frenzy, remonstrances may pos- 
 sibly be brought on, to compose his troubled spirits." 
 Accordingly, the moment he found Don Sylvio 
 cease to complain, he began, though contrary to 
 his own conviction, to ruminate in his brain the 
 best means to soothe our hero's mind. He assured 
 him that even if his princess's portrait was in the 
 hands of the Green Dwarf, though that was very 
 unlikely, yet the princess, as to her person, was 
 still safe and sound, for he had seen her with his 
 own eyes take her flight. " Believe me, my dear 
 master," continued he, " the fairy Rademante only 
 means to try your patience : things will soon change 
 their face ; while there is life there's hope. Besides, 
 don't you suppose that other princes or cavaliers 
 have been treated full as bad, or worse than your- 
 self ? Only think of what the blue bird suffered 
 before his deliverance from the villainous Forella, 
 and yet at last he was put in possession of his dear 
 Fiorina ; and what a deal of trouble and difficulty 
 did the Prince Hunchback go through before he 
 could unite his fortunes with those of the beautiful 
 Brillianta, whom the black enchanter had changed 
 into a grasshopper ; though, by the bye, she was full 
 as good a princess as others that I don't choose to 
 name. And therefore, signior, I can't see any 
 reason you can have to toss yourself neck-deep 
 into the water, or into a cave full of toads and 
 lizards, like the brothers of the Princess Rosetta. 
 You have not been turned into an animal, like the 
 prince of the fortunate island, nor have you ever 
 been in danger of being devoured by monsters and
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 227 
 
 hyenas as Prince Amatus was. In short, signior, 
 let me tell you, I have just as much reason to 
 complain, and as bitterly too, as you yourself. 
 I don't know why the Lady Rademante should 
 favour me so much, not I : but this I am sure of, 
 I have received ten times more blows than you ; 
 and besides, the princess who is to make me amends 
 for it is still unborn. If you suffer, you know at 
 least why you suffer; but there's nobody to give 
 poor Pedrillo the least word of comfort ; and yet in 
 every unlucky scrape, he is always certain to come 
 in for the worst share of drubbing. But no matter 
 for that, I shan't complain ; though, to tell you the 
 truth, these cursed scoundrels have so turned my 
 poor back, that it is become as soft as my belly : 
 however, once for all, 'tis my fate, and if so be you 
 are easy, signior, that's enough for me. I will never 
 forsake your honour so long as Heaven shall spare 
 me, and while I have a rib unbroke in your honour's 
 service." 
 
 These remonstrances, to which Pedrillo's good 
 heart added great weight and emphasis, together 
 with the certainty not only that the princess lived, 
 but was at full liberty, so effectually operated upon 
 our hero by degrees, that he began to recover his 
 spirits. He said some very obliging things to 
 Pedrillo in consequence of the devotion he had 
 testified to his service, assuring him that if he ever 
 was so happy as to obtain the desired object, his 
 first care should be to reward his integrity, and to 
 make him such amends for the inconveniences he 
 had suffered out of regard for him, as to leave him 
 nothing to wish for on that head. These consolatory 
 promises, notwithstanding the little likelihood at 
 present of their being accomplished, rejoiced 
 Pedrillo's grateful heart to such a degree, that he 
 could readily have forgot his late hearty beating, 
 had not his back been so unpolite as to put him in 
 mind of it every moment.
 
 228 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 Things being in this state, Pedrillo used all his 
 endeavours to re-animate his master. He chose out 
 the most shady spot close by the river, and there 
 they determined to stay awhile, till they were quite 
 come to themselves again. 
 
 Don Sylvio felt himself too much affected at the 
 loss of his beloved's picture to be sensible of any 
 thing else. Every moment he renewed his dolorous 
 complainings, and it necessarily took him some 
 time before he could determine to become Pedrillo's 
 second in consuming the provisions of their knap- 
 sack, notwithstanding hunger loudly called upon 
 him. Among the provisions they met with one 
 more bottle of Malaga wine, that came very op- 
 portunely in their present uncomfortable situation, 
 and it soon restored honest Pedrillo to such good 
 humour, that he could no longer bear with his 
 master's gloomy countenance. " Courage, Signior 
 Don Sylvio ! " he cried ; " bad luck ought to have good 
 spirits, anybody can laugh when fortune smiles : 
 then let us be gay while we may. Courage! 
 signior, one good wedding will pay for all. Chance 
 is changeable, and every dog has his day. One hour 
 comes with a whole volley of dry blows ; the next 
 hour we may swim in pleasure. My grandmother 
 always used to say, * So goes the world ; so many 
 days, so many tribulations: but everything comes 
 round as long as people have but patience ; for Rome 
 was not built in a day.' Methinks now, it is as if I 
 saw you as gay as a linnet, in the peaceable posses- 
 sion of your princess ; but not like a miserable 
 butterfly, an't please you ; no, no, but like a beauti- 
 ful princess made of flesh and blood, just as she 
 came out of her mother : ay, and by such tokens 
 too, look'ye, that I can see her now as it were, with 
 a rich gold crown upon her head, wrapped up in a 
 royal mantle set with pearls and carbuncles, and 
 shining like the sun. Oh ! how will our hearts then 
 leap for joy : then indeed, they that have much
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 229 
 
 shall have more; we shall have nothing but days 
 of feasting and rejoicing, and the moment we open 
 our mouths, it will be, ' What's your pleasure ? ' 
 We shall dance, and jump, and laugh, and divert 
 ourselves, were all the Carabossas and Fanfreluches 
 to burst themselves out of spite, at seeing us in 
 such good spirits. Once more then, signior, courage ! 
 Devil's in't, what shall we want with her picture, 
 when we have the princess herself ? This would be 
 my way of thinking, was it my own affair; and 
 what is more, I could freely take my oath, that the 
 Green Dwarf has just as much seen your trinket, as 
 he has seen the maid of fourscore, whom he was to 
 serve for a tooth-pick ; for, surely, my eyes are none 
 of the worst ; and I think I can pretty well distin- 
 guish a woman from a slip of wood. I tell you, 
 signior, the nymph was a poor country wench, and 
 I'm as positively sure of it, as if I had made her 
 myself. If you won't believe me, you have still one 
 way more to come at the truth, and soon too. The 
 village where the girl lives can't be a hundred 
 leagues off. We'll go there this evening, and seek 
 about till we have found her; and then, if there's 
 any justice to be had for love or money, I warrant 
 you we'll get our picture from her." 
 
 " But if this be so," said Don Sylvio, " whence arises 
 that singular conformity between our late adventure, 
 and my yesterday's dream ? " 
 
 "Signior," replied Pedrillo, "I remember your 
 dream as well as if I had dreamt it myself ; but for 
 the soul of me, I can see none of that conformity which 
 you find in it; for where is the sylphid that ap- 
 peared to you ? Where is the chariot of roses, 
 drawn by twelve ruby-coloured birds of paradise, 
 that conducted you to the enchanted island ? And 
 yet that's a material point, which we know nothing 
 of. And then you said that the nymph held the 
 blue butterfly by a golden thread ; now this too is 
 wrong, for the thread that the girl here made use of,
 
 2 3 o THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 was only such a one, as perhaps she intended to 
 have mended her smock with ; and there, o' my 
 conscience, I think she would not have been wrong, 
 for her skin peeped out on all sides. I'll be hanged 
 if it was not as black as soot, and I have always 
 heard say that nymphs had a complexion and a 
 skin like lilies and roses. But to sum up the 
 matter, it is of no mighty consequence whether 
 she was a nymph or any thing else. All I know 
 of it for certain, is, that the blows we have received 
 from these great loobies were not given us in a 
 dream. But I don't love to bear malice. What 
 is done is done. Here's to the princess's health, 
 wherever she be, and I hope one day or other she'll 
 make us full amends for all we have suffered for her 
 sake."
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 231 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 DON SYLVIO'S INWARD STRUGGLE WITH HIMSELF 
 
 TEASED with Pedrillo's loquacity, Don Sylvio 
 pretended to take a nap during the heat of the day, 
 in order to get rid of him, and reduce him to silence. 
 Accordingly, he dissembled sleep, and Pedrillo soon 
 followed the example in good earnest. Don Sylvio's 
 perturbation was an effectual bar to his own in- 
 dulgence. A thousand unpleasant ideas that 
 intruded themselves in spite of him, at length 
 brought him to that irksome state, that now, for 
 the first time in his life, he began to doubt the 
 reality of his fond conceits. " How is this ? " said 
 he ; " what if the pretended apparition of the fairy 
 Radiante should be only the sport of a heated 
 imagination ? " The more he reflected on this 
 supposition, the more probable he found it ; and the 
 late unlucky adventure with the clowns, whom he 
 was now strongly inclined to take for what they 
 really were, in a few minutes changed that proba- 
 bility into certainty ; for it seemed to him incom- 
 prehensible that the fairy Radiante, if she had 
 indeed granted him her protection, should thus 
 have abandoned him to the fisticuffs of such a 
 rabble. 
 
 These doubts made him exceedingly uneasy. He 
 collected all the forces of his understanding to beat 
 them off ; but still they returned to the charge with 
 redoubled impetuosity, and the tumult they excited 
 in his brain became so violent, as greatly to 
 endanger the total loss of that small residue of 
 good sense which fairy science had left him.
 
 2 3 a THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 In this afflicting situation the image of his beloved 
 mistress was the only object to support his misgiv- 
 ing and harassed mind ; the only thing that remained 
 unshaken amidst this general vertigo of his ideas. 
 "If all the rest," cried he, "is mere illusion, yet 
 still, thou dear unknown in person and in name, 
 still am I sure that I sincerely love thee, and here 
 is no deception. Whether a fairy therefore has 
 thrown thy picture in my way, or friendly chance 
 alone produced the event ; whether thou art a 
 princess or a shepherdess ; whether thou art 
 destined for me, or wert once beloved by some more 
 happy mortal : O thou, the fairest nymph under 
 the cope of heaven, if my fate will have it so that 
 deprived of thee I still must languish, yet never 
 shall it tear thy image from my heart. Through 
 every land and sea I'll seek thee round the globe. 
 From Pole to Pole I'll urge my fond pursuits ; from 
 the Cimmerian Mountains, clad in eternal snows, 
 even to the torrid zone, where neither shady tree, 
 nor cooling fountain tempers the sultry heat ; and 
 if there I find thee not, and this low earth has lost 
 thee, its chief est ornament what then shall hinder 
 my unwearied spirit, still constantly aspiring to 
 possess thee, and elevated by the power of deathless 
 love, to take its aerial flight from sphere to sphere, 
 and there to seek thee where thine alone eclipses all 
 these numberless beauties of ether ? Or who shall 
 forbid me to descend the subterraneous regions and 
 there explore thee amidst those happy shades, 
 who, by thy eyes enlightened, no more regret the 
 beams of day, sipping from thy looks a sweet oblivion 
 of all their other wishes." 
 
 These dithyrambic thoughts, fond and frantic 
 as they may seem to our grave readers, wrought, 
 however, so salutary an effect upon our hero, that 
 they lulled him insensibly into a sound slumber; 
 the only circumstance in his present state that could 
 afford him consolation : for what better can await
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 233 
 
 the wretched, than " Timid Nature's sweet restorer, 
 balmy sleep ? " 
 
 For this once Don Sylvio found a double 
 advantage from sleeping; first, an oblivion of his 
 cares, and next, the happiness of a pleasing dream ; 
 which, at least for the time it lasted, had the same 
 effect upon him as if it had been ever so real. He 
 imagined he saw his dear princess, not under the 
 form of a nymph or a butterfly, but in her own 
 shape, attired like a goddess : she was reclined upon 
 a rose-coloured cloud, that hung a little above the 
 earth very near him. The princess talked with him 
 a long time ; she conjured him not to lose courage ; 
 requested him, on the contrary, manfully to resist 
 the obstacles which their enemies interposed against 
 them ; and assured him that the period was not far 
 remote, when her real shape, under which she now 
 appeared to him, should be restored to her by his 
 means; adding, in a manner equally tender and 
 obliging, that she could wish herself a thousand 
 times more amiable, were it but to reward the 
 troubles he had necessarily undergone to gain 
 possession of her person and of her heart. Don 
 Sylvio was just going to make her the same reply 
 that every lover must have had ready for so flatter- 
 ing a declaration, when, all on a sudden, the fair 
 phantom disappeared. 
 
 This circumstance was indeed the most unpleasant 
 of the whole dream. But the pleasure of having 
 beheld his lovely object, joined to that soft and 
 consolatory tone of voice which still seemed 
 to sound in his enchanted ear, rendered him in- 
 sensible to every thing less palatable. He forgot 
 all his past anxieties, despised all those that 
 were to come, and now thought of nothing else 
 but to pursue a journey, every step in which 
 brought him still nearer and nearer to the sum- 
 mit of his wishes. Accordingly, he awaked 
 Pedrillo, and after relating to him his vision with
 
 234 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 a very joyful heart, ordered him to get ready for 
 decamping. 
 
 " God bless my soul ! " cried Pedrillo ; " why, this 
 now is very droll. Only think how much our 
 dreams are alike. You have had a vision of the 
 princess, and I have had an apparition of the 
 sylphid. Methought I found her lying upon a 
 bed of roses, in the very spot where you lay yester- 
 day; but the fairy, her mistress, was not there. 
 Well, now I do repent that I did not ask her name : 
 but how should I, when we had so many other things 
 to talk of. I vow the time slid away without 
 our perceiving it. We were at least three or 
 four hours together, and the sun went to bed 
 unnoticed by either of us ; and yet methinks, it 
 seemed but a moment. I really fancied I was a 
 sylph myself. If it was for my life I cannot tell you 
 what I felt at the time ; but sure it is, I never in 
 my life felt anything like it. Now did not I always 
 say that fortune would smile one day or other ? 
 These dreams are certainly no chance work, and 
 who knows still what may happen ? Perhaps 
 Madam Rademante may make us amends all at 
 once for having neglected us so long. ' We shall 
 see,' said the blind man : ' 'tis a long lane that has 
 no turning.' However, this I can assure you 
 positively, signior, that if ever the Green Dwarf falls 
 into my hands, I'll pay him the handy cuffs he has 
 bestowed upon us to-day, and with interest too. 
 This I'm determined, without fail ; so let him look 
 to it if he wishes to save his bones."
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 235 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 PEDRILLO'S PREDICTIONS BEGIN TO BE 
 ACCOMPLISHED 
 
 WHILE Pedrillo thus gave free scope to his talkative 
 faculties, our adventurers pursued their walk close 
 beside a forest of chesnut-trees, which, the farther 
 they went, had more and more the appearance of a 
 park. Here and there they perceived large alcoves 
 of evergreens, with fountains, grottos, and old 
 ruins that seemed to make their way through 
 thickets of roses, jasmines, and honeysuckles; at 
 length, after about half an hour's march, they found 
 themselves in a kind of labyrinth composed of rose- 
 bushes and myrtles, the alleys of which were so 
 artificially interwoven one within another, that they 
 had much ado to get out of it. 
 
 These appearances left our travellers no room to 
 doubt of their being pretty near some fairy castle, 
 and they fancied themselves already entering upon 
 a great adventure. 
 
 Pedrillo, for his part, instantly exclaimed, "There, 
 did not I tell you that the fairy Rademante would 
 soon set us to rights ? You see now, signior, 
 whether we should have done well to throw ourselves 
 into the river, and all for the sake of that cursed 
 tribe of enchanters, as you certainly would have 
 done, had not I prevented you. The best that could 
 have happened to us beneath the stream might 
 have been for some nymph or siren to have changed 
 us into hydras or dolphins ; whereas now we may 
 hope to pass the night in a castle of crystal or
 
 236 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 diamonds ; to lie down upon silken mattresses, and 
 to be waited upon by beautiful sylphids, the least 
 of them loaded with pearls and jewels that would 
 buy a little kingdom. 
 
 As Pedrillo said this, they came forward into a 
 large walk of orange-trees, at the end of which they 
 perceived a superb pavilion, whose folding doors, 
 standing half open, presented to their view a grand 
 hall, wherein they could see the windows, gilding, 
 and rich furniture sparkling so brilliantly on all 
 sides, that by the help of the setting sun which 
 shone full against them, they already from far 
 dazzled the eyes of Pedrillo. 
 
 Highly transported as he was at this sight, he 
 could not however help being a little startled at the 
 idea of approaching a place, where all seemed the 
 work of enchantment. The nearer he came to the 
 pavilion, the more his heart beat within him. Don 
 Sylvio himself, who in other respects was not timid, 
 appeared for some time irresolute what to do ; for 
 he had already so many proofs of the malice and 
 indefatigable wickedness of his enemies, as rendered 
 him uncertain, whether, under these gay appearances, 
 there might not be some new trap laid to ensnare 
 him. However, the comfortable assurances which 
 his dear princess had lately given him, soon banished 
 all his fears ; and though he could discern no living 
 soul, except a few parrots flying about the gilt 
 balustrade that surrounded the hall, yet that did 
 not hinder him from entering to see what this 
 adventure would lead to. 
 
 But what was his astonishment, when, on coming 
 into the hall, whose beauty and furniture seemed 
 worthy of a fairy, he perceived a quantity of cats of 
 different colours, who by their gesture seemed to 
 proclaim that they were the sole inhabitants of this 
 superb palace. Some were lying upon rich brocaded 
 cushions, others were composedly walking amongst 
 the flower-pots and Chinese pagodas that decorated
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 237 
 
 the chimney ; and others seemed to be employed in 
 paying their court to a charming little white cat, 
 adorned with a pearl collar, and stretched negligently 
 along upon a pink-coloured sofa embroidered with 
 silver. 
 
 At a sight like this, a man more of a sage than 
 Don Sylvio would have called to mind the palace of 
 Felisalba, or the White Cat, one of the finest fairy 
 tales we have. But when the cats, thus reclined on 
 their cushions, regaled him on his entering the hall 
 with a symphony in their own style, he had no 
 longer a doubt, agreeably to his mode of reasoning, 
 but that he was now in that very palace where a 
 certain prince, whom the story gives no name to, 
 spent three years (which to him seemed to be no 
 more than three single days) in company with a 
 very lively, virtuous, and tender white cat, which 
 at last turned out to be a most beautiful 
 princess. 
 
 Exceedingly great was Don Sylvio's joy at so 
 fortunate an accident ; for, not to mention the 
 obliging reception he was to expect in this noble 
 mansion, the white cat's goodness of heart and 
 generosity of temper were too well known, to leave 
 him a moment's doubt, but she would grant him 
 every assistance that lay in her power, in order to 
 bring his various enterprises to an happy issue. 
 
 Full of these sentiments, our hero approached 
 the sofa on which the delicate little white cat lay, 
 and was just upon the point of addressing her with 
 all the respect due to a cat of such high birth and 
 singular qualities, when all at once a door opened, 
 through which, to the great amazement of Pedrillo, 
 the little sylphid, whom he had seen in the forest 
 the day before, put forward her head. If so un- 
 expected an apparition confounded Pedrillo, it had 
 no less effect upon the sylphid. No sooner did she 
 perceive our adventurers, than setting up a loud 
 shriek, she drew back her head, shut to the door
 
 238 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 after her, and fled away with as much precipitation 
 as if she had seen a spectre. 
 
 Don Sylvio knew not what to think of this mode 
 of appearing and disappearing ; but Pedrillo presently 
 relieved him from his perplexity. "Well, look'ye 
 there now, signior," he cried ; " be of good cheer, our 
 dreams are made out. Give yourself no more trouble 
 about any thing ; she will not be long before she 
 comes back, and she ran away so fast only to 
 acquaint the fairy with our arrival." 
 
 "Who art thou speaking of?" demanded Don 
 Sylvio, taking him aside, and whispering very 
 softly. 
 
 "Deuce take it! who would you have me be 
 speaking of, but of that sylphid who peeped at us 
 but a moment ago through the door ; and who, I'll 
 give you my oath, is the very same sylphid that I 
 saw yesterday standing beside you near the rose 
 bushes : nay, and what's more, 'tis the very she 
 that appeared to me to-day in my dream." 
 
 " Pedrillo," said Don Sylvio, " I am greatly de- 
 ceived, or we are now in the palace of the white cat, 
 who is a great princess and a fairy at the same time. 
 Now if this sylphid whom thou art acquainted 
 with, belongs to this palace, very probably the fairy 
 thou sawest yesterday is the white cat herself." 
 
 " I can't tell what you mean by your white cat," 
 answered Pedrillo ; " but I hope you won't suppose 
 that the little pussy upon the sofa there, making 
 
 wry faces, is a fairy 
 
 Don't speak so loud," interrupted Don Sylvio, 
 " and know, once for all, that in such places as that 
 where we now are, one cannot be too circumspect or 
 too cautious." 
 
 Don Sylvio had hardly done speaking the last 
 words, when Pedrillo began to cry aloud, jump- 
 ing and capering about like a mad thing. The 
 cause of this phenomenon, it seems, was one of the 
 villainous parrots, that kept the cats company in
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 239 
 
 these apartments ; for this same parrot, whether it 
 did not greatly like Pedrillo's physiognomy, or for 
 other reasons, which for aught we know were never 
 yet discovered, thought proper to give him a slight 
 scratch with her claw as she came by him ; accord- 
 ingly, Pedrillo, who did not immediately observe 
 the author of this piece of gallantry, solemnly 
 protested that the stroke must have come from 
 some hobgoblin or invisible dwarf. 
 
 " Take it then," said Don Sylvio, " as the wages of 
 thy late impertinent chatter. It is but a slight 
 correction given thee by one of those invisible hands 
 which minister to the visitants of this palace." 
 
 " Pox take it," cried Pedrillo, " but this is a scurvy 
 fashion of ministering to honest people. If this was 
 a hand, I am sure its nails have not been cut these 
 seven years. I can assure your honour, the grip of 
 a young satyr's claws could not go deeper into one's 
 flesh. The deuce is in it, if one is to meet with 
 such rough salutes for every word that is not well- 
 weighed beforehand, I must e'en be forced to sew 
 up my mouth, or these malicious hobgoblins will 
 have forced out all the letters of the alphabet upon 
 my face before the day is over." 
 
 "In truth," said Don Sylvio, "thou canst do 
 nothing better here, than to act the part of a mute ; for 
 in the way thou goest on, I'll not answer for it but 
 that worse accidents may bef all thee ; not to mention 
 the little share of honour thou wilt do me by thy 
 impertinent prate, as well as by thy low expressions, 
 and thy continual swearing at every sentence." 
 
 " Very well," said Pedrillo, " a word to the wise is 
 enough ; and since you think it right, I'll be as mute 
 as a fish ; I'll play my part well, I warrant you. 
 But, hist ! I hear somebody coming. Ha ! did not I 
 tell you so ? There hist 'tis the fairy her own 
 self."
 
 240 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 APPARITION OF THE FAIRY. 'TIS A VERY DANGEROUS 
 THING TO MEET WITH A WOMAN TOO MUCH LIKE 
 ONE'S MISTRESS. 
 
 IT is now exactly two and forty minutes, eighteen 
 seconds, by the English clock set up at Geneva, that 
 we have sat puzzling to find out half a dozen fine 
 new comparisons, by the help of which, if need were, 
 a poet might endeavour to paint the highest degree 
 of astonishment and surprise. But we have not 
 been lucky enough to find a single one, but what, 
 by having passed through so many hands from the 
 days of old Homer to our own times, is so worn out 
 as to be really good for nothing. 
 
 For this once therefore, all we do in the matter 
 must be to avail ourselves of a certain figure in 
 rhetoric, which we borrow from one of the best 
 writers of dedicatory epistles, and shall accordingly 
 say as follows : Neither the affright of an imprudent 
 boy, who, having, put his hand into a hole unex- 
 pectedly, lays hold of a serpent ; nor the terror of a 
 young husband, who, the morning after his nuptials, 
 instead of that amiable and beautiful girl of whom 
 he was enamoured, found her ugly sister lying by his 
 side ; nor the confusion of a judge, at the sight of a 
 silver cup filled with bright Hungarian ducats, by 
 which his client, who understands life perfectly well, 
 enables him to comprehend the justice of his own 
 cause; not these, nor all of these, are sufficient to 
 express a tenth part of the perturbation which Don 
 Sylvio felt on beholding, in the person of the fairy
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 241 
 
 of this enchanted castle, the original of his mistress's 
 portrait. But stop, methinks this were saying too 
 much ; for Don Sylvio, having now fully persuaded 
 himself from his late dream, that his mistress was 
 still a butterfly, his confusion arose merely from 
 seeing how striking a resemblance there was between 
 her and this same fairy. 
 
 Donna Felicia (for we neither choose, nor can we 
 any longer conceal that we are now at Lirias), had 
 taken care to present herself to our hero in a dress 
 which, while it discovered her charms to the greatest 
 advantage, gave her at the same time so singular an 
 air, that she wanted nothing more than a little ebony 
 wand to represent the fairy Luminosa in the exactest 
 manner imaginable. 
 
 She was just got to her toilet to dress herself, 
 expecting the arrival of her brother with an un- 
 expected party, when Laura brought her the surpris- 
 ing news, that Don Sylvio, nobody knew how, had 
 made his appearance in the hall. 
 
 That happy instinct, which in the heart of ladies 
 makes up for long reflections, presently suggested to 
 her, that if she hoped to increase the impression 
 which she wished to make upon our hero, the more 
 she appeared like a fairy so much the better. 
 
 Accordingly, she paid him her compliments with 
 that noble and gracious air suitable to her character, 
 though it required no little self-violence to conceal 
 the flutter that agitated her heart. She professed 
 herself much indebted to the good fortune which had 
 led to her country-seat a young gentleman whose 
 mien sufficiently proclaimed him to have no common 
 share of merit ; at the same time assuring him that 
 her brother, whose arrival she every minute expected, 
 would be extremely happy in making so agreeable 
 an acquaintance. 
 
 Had Don Sylvio met with nothing more to combat 
 than the surprise of finding so perfect a resemblance 
 between his picture and the fairy before him, it 
 R
 
 242 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 might not have been so difficult for him to keep his 
 countenance. But nature, who never gives up her 
 prerogatives, and at the long run always gains the 
 victory over imagination, played him such a trick in 
 this critical minute, as was totally beyond his power 
 to obviate or elude. 
 
 Poor Don Sylvio had taken the impression which 
 his pretended princess's portrait had made upon him, 
 as well as the desires it had excited in his heart, for 
 love. But in this he was deceived ; it was no more 
 than a weak anticipation, a mere vain shadow of 
 that love with which the original alone could inspire 
 him. 
 
 The first glance of Donna Felicia's eye that met 
 Don Sylvio's seemed, as it were, to throw both their 
 souls into a confusion. The mighty force of that 
 inexpressible ecstasy wherewith a sympathetic love, 
 especially at first sight of the beloved object, knows 
 how to intoxicate a feeling soul a soul disposed 
 for this kind of happy enthusiasm instantly 
 penetrated, filled up, and took possession of his 
 whole being. All his former ideas seemed utterly 
 effaced; new senses suddenly developed themselves 
 as it were in the very bottom of his soul, and 
 greedily grasped at all those countless charms which 
 shone with full radiance upon him. In a word, he 
 was transported to that degree as to be able to 
 make no other reply to the pretended fairy's obliging 
 apostrophe, than by stammering out a few broken 
 and incoherent syllables. 
 
 In all probability Donna Felicia might not have 
 been so well satisfied with the finest- turned com- 
 pliment as she was with that infinitely more 
 eloquent confusion which she discovered in our 
 hero. What passed in her own heart very 
 abundantly supplied all that was defective and 
 unintelligible in his discourse ; but, as she had 
 more command of herself (or, to speak more 
 clearly, as she was a woman), she not only knew
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 243 
 
 how to conceal her perturbation, but had even 
 the politeness to give him time to come to his 
 senses. So, seating herself first upon a sofa, and 
 begging him to take his place beside her in a large 
 elbow chair, she took the little white cat up into her 
 lap, and began to divert him by talking of the ideas 
 which must have arisen in his mind on entering the 
 hall. " Pray tell me, Don Sylvio," said she, " did not 
 you find it rather difficult to divest yourself of the 
 thought that you were in the palace of the white 
 cat, the moment you saw so considerable an assem- 
 bly of the species all paying their court to my little 
 favourite ? " 
 
 " Beautiful fairy ! " replied Don Sylvio, " nobody 
 can have been more agreeably undeceived than I 
 now am ; and since you can equally well discern 
 more, as you have already divined my first thoughts, 
 be pleased to look into my inmost soul, and con- 
 descend to read there, what I have neither the 
 presumption nor the power to name." 
 
 Instead of making a reply to this respectful 
 declaration of love, Donna Felicia thought proper to 
 give him the history of the little white cat, and 
 entertain him with its extraordinary good qualities. 
 This subject, trite and common as it might seem in 
 itself, became very important, especially to so com- 
 plaisant a hearer as Don Sylvio, when treated by 
 the pretty mouth of Donna Felicia, who diffused an 
 inexpressible charm over all she said or did. Don 
 Sylvio learned but too much ; every look, every word 
 she said, the least motion of her's, served only to 
 increase that ecstasy of soul, in which he seemed, as 
 it were, annihilated. His imagination, unable to 
 conceive anything more perfect than the object he 
 saw before him, was deprived of all its former 
 powers, and served but to render the triumph of 
 his sensibility more absolute. All those beautiful 
 phantoms with which his fancy had been filled pre- 
 sently disappeared, as the light vapours of a spring
 
 244 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 morning disappear before the splendours of the 
 dawning day. He remembered his past state only 
 as a mere dream, or, to speak more accurately, he 
 as much forgot all that he had loved or thought of, 
 or hoped or feared before, as if he had been drinking 
 the largest draughts of the Lethean flood and this 
 oblivion lasted all the while he beheld Donna Felicia 
 before him. 
 
 A situation like this might be agreeable enough to 
 Don Sylvio, but it is not quite so easy to answer for 
 Donna Felicia's sensations. After having therefore 
 exhausted all that could be said on the subject of 
 her cats, the conversation might possibly have 
 become languid, had not the parrots, who love 
 prattling and were then in the right humour, 
 dropped in from time to time, and furnished their 
 part in the dialogue.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 245 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 AN UNTHOUGHT-OF INTERVIEW 
 
 DONNA FELICIA expressed some uneasiness at her 
 brother's absence, who, she observed, had given her 
 room to hope he would bring a select company 
 home with him. Just as she was speaking, the 
 inner door of the saloon flew open, and Don Eugenio 
 de Lirias, the beautiful Jacintha, and Don Gabriel, 
 the friend of Don Eugenio, appeared before our 
 hero, who beheld in this unknown the person 
 whose life he had saved, or at least his mistress's, 
 and whom he found to be the brother of his ador- 
 able fairy. 
 
 It was undoubtedly an agreeable surprise to both, 
 but the astonishment of the brother and the sister 
 was not inferior to that surprise. However, this 
 was not a time to show the latter emotion : accord- 
 ingly, after having presented the fair Jacintha to 
 his sister, and recommended her to her care, Don 
 Eugenio contented himself with assuring our hero 
 of his joy in finding him again so unexpectedly at 
 his own house, after that sudden departure from 
 the inn, which seemed to him a little unaccountable. 
 " Perhaps," said he to Donna Felicia, " you don't 
 know how much we are indebted to Don Sylvio ; you 
 shall soon be circumstantially acquainted with a 
 story, my dear sister, that ought not to be kept as 
 a mystery from you any longer. All I can tell you at 
 present is, that in the person of this amiable stranger, 
 you see the gentleman, who at the generous hazard 
 of his own life, has saved that of your brother,
 
 246 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 and preserved to you the blessings of so dear a 
 relation." 
 
 " Sir," replied our hero, " you exaggerate the merit 
 of an assistance, which your own and your friend's 
 valour rendered superfluous, and which is solely 
 owing to the sentiments with which the first sight of 
 you inspired me. If I had known then, what this 
 fortunate hour has taught me, I would have sacri- 
 ficed the last drop of my blood to preserve a life so 
 precious." 
 
 Don Eugenio would certainly have been struck 
 with this compliment, though a little hyperbolical 
 in its way, had not the attention with which he 
 strove to observe the impressions that the beauti- 
 ful Jacintha made upon his sister, prevented his 
 attending to anything else. 
 
 Donna Felicia had been greatly embarrassed how 
 to conceal, or to render agreeable to her brother, the 
 inclination she had for our hero, as well as the plan 
 she had been laying in her mind for the last half- 
 hour, and which she had projected with a prompti- 
 tude peculiar only to the effects of love. It will 
 not therefore be wondered at, that she could hardly 
 contain herself for joy on hearing how deeply Don 
 Eugenio thought himself obliged to Don Sylvio. 
 This happy circumstance not only justified the 
 extraordinary respect which she entertained for the 
 person who had saved the life of a brother she so 
 tenderly loved, but it also induced her to hope it might 
 lead her to a clearer discovery of that secret history, 
 in which, laying other circumstances into the scale, 
 she could easily suppose Donna Jacintha would 
 appear to be none of the least important characters. 
 
 She was therefore in great hopes of seeing her 
 lover approved by a brother, who, as the case now 
 stood, had so much need of her concurrence and 
 approbation. This idea made her redouble her 
 civilities to the young Jacintha, and possibly she 
 might also feel herself naturally inclined to love the
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 247 
 
 engaging object, on whom Don Eugenic doted to 
 such distraction, that though he used every imagin- 
 able appearance of reserve, he could not conceal it 
 from his sister. Placing therefore all his sister's 
 caresses of Donna Jacintha to the account of merit 
 in the latter, his joy was so great as to make him 
 heartily wish for a proper moment to pour forth his 
 enraptured soul into the bosom of so dear a friend. 
 
 Perhaps there never was an instance when so 
 much sympathy, and such a variety of tender and 
 latent emotions ran through a whole company, (and 
 most of them hardly known to each other), as in 
 this before us. Persons so amiable as those here 
 assembled together, cannot, in the course of nature, 
 be indifferent to each other : but that secret relation 
 which subsisted between them, though not yet 
 developed, rendered the subject infinitely more 
 interesting to them ; and love and nature, which 
 here acted as it were under cover, produced such a 
 cordiality, such a harmony between these persons 
 in a few minutes, as it might have required as 
 many weeks to bring forth, upon any other footing. 
 
 Don Gabriel was the only one, who, without being 
 particularly interested, shared in the general satis- 
 faction. The tranquillity of his own heart allowed 
 him to make observations upon the other parties 
 with the penetration of a sage, and the philan- 
 thropy of a sincere friend : and though part of 
 what he fancied he saw seemed an enigma to him, 
 he could sufficiently discern that something curiously 
 mysterious was soon to be unravelled. 
 
 And now came in two little negroes superbly 
 dressed, who presented the company with refresh- 
 ments, while Don Gabriel complaisantly used his 
 best endeavours, by the vivacity of his discourse, to 
 prevent the conversation from degenerating, every 
 now and then, into a double, silent Ute-a-Ute. 
 
 Notwithstanding a certain whimsical turn which 
 Don Sylvio gave to all he said or did, Don Eugenic
 
 248 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 felt a growing friendship rise upon him every 
 moment ; and, sensible of the great obligations he 
 owed our hero, he thought he could do no less than 
 invite him to give him the honour of staying some 
 time at Lirias, in order to cultivate an acquaintance 
 which had so extraordinarily begun, and thus form 
 it into that perfect friendship, of which he hoped to 
 render himself not unworthy. 
 
 Don Sylvio accepted this obliging invitation with 
 great pleasure, and without using more ceremony 
 than princes in fairy tales commonly do, when 
 apartments are offered them in an enchanted castle. 
 
 Soon after Donna Felicia retired with the fair 
 Jacintha ; while her brother conducted Don Sylvio 
 to a superb room, which he begged him to consider as 
 his own during his stay at Lirias ; and then, leaving 
 him till supper-time, waited impatiently the moment 
 of Laura's coming to acquaint him that his sister 
 was alone in her dressing-room.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 249 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 RECIPROCAL COMPLAISANCE 
 
 IT was long since remarked, that the saying of 
 Terence, Tu si hie esses, aliter sentias* if properly 
 attended to, would be an infallible means to obviate 
 all those contradictions, altercations, and dis- 
 sensions, which commonly spring from the variety 
 of men's opinions, the diversity of their passions, 
 and that continual clashing which results between 
 them. 
 
 To a man who should be a simple spectator of 
 other men's follies if it be possible for such a being 
 to exist nothing can be conceived more laughable 
 than to see a whole society of moral egotists, where 
 every one was mutually disputing for his own 
 personality, and apparently assuming to himself no 
 less, than for every body else, at all times, and in all 
 circumstances, to think, feel, judge, believe, love, 
 hate, act, and so on, just like himself : which, in 
 other words, could only be saying, that such persons 
 are not substantive beings, but mere simple accidents 
 and contingents of himself. 
 
 Indeed, of all such egotists, there is none so 
 impudent as to require this in plain terms ; and yet, 
 by pronouncing all the opinions, judgments, and 
 inclinations of other men, foolish, erroneous, and 
 extravagant, the moment they in any respect con- 
 tradict our own, what do we else, but give it as it 
 were under our hands, that they are fools for having 
 eyes, brains, and heads as well as we ? 
 
 * i. e., "Were you in my place, you would be of another mind."
 
 250 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 " Pray, sir, why does that please you ? " 
 
 " I can give you no other reason for it, but that 
 it does please me." 
 
 " But I cannot conceive what you see in it, that 
 can please you to such a degree ? /, for my 
 part- 
 
 "Very well, sir, this proves nothing more than 
 the bare possibility that something may please me, 
 which displeases you ? " 
 
 "I won't positively say that this absolutely 
 displeases me ; but then neither can I say that I 
 find it so excellent, or so extraordinary as you do." 
 
 "But granting now that it really seemed so to 
 me ? " 
 
 ' Then you'd be wrong." 
 
 ' And why so, sir ? " 
 
 ' Because the thing is not so." 
 
 ' And why should it not be so ? " 
 
 ' That's an odd question, begging your pardon. 
 Have not I as good eyes as you ? Is not my taste 
 as accurate as yours ? Cannot I judge as com- 
 petently of the value of a thing as you ? If this 
 was so excellent as you imagine it, I must necessarily 
 find it so as well as yourself." 
 
 " I can say all this with the same right as you. 
 If the eye, the understanding, or the imagination in 
 this case are to decide, why must I trust to your 
 eyes, to your understanding, and to your imagina- 
 tion, rather than my own ? I should be glad to 
 know that ? " 
 
 " I'll tell you in one word. I consider the thing 
 just as it is, and you, on the contrary, are blinded 
 by passion." 
 
 " Very well, sir ; 'tis just what I expected. If 
 sometimes passion blinds, (and it does so only when 
 it exceeds the bounds, which can hardly last long), 
 yet, on the other hand, it commonly makes people see 
 clearer. How can you expect that a fugitive, 
 fortuitous, negligent look, cast upon an object with
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 251 
 
 indifference, should be al/.e to discover in that 
 object so much, or to remark the degrees of its true 
 value so justly, as passion does ; which, considering 
 it with the minutest attention, examines it on aU 
 sides, and observes it in every point of view ? " 
 
 " But the imagination, which insensibly intrudes 
 into all one's observations " 
 
 " Pray, sir, be kind enough to consider, none but 
 fools or madmen take their imaginations for real 
 sentiments ; why are you much fonder of persisting 
 to prove a supposition, which would render the 
 soundness of my brain dubious, than of owning that 
 there may be a something, which I may know better 
 than yourself, or which, for good reasons, may 
 appear very differently to me, than to you ? " 
 
 " Pray, gentlemen, don't be warm," cries a third 
 person, who had overheard this dispute between I 
 and thou : " you might go on at this rate for a 
 whole day together without changing each other's 
 opinion ; and why so ? The reason is very plain 
 because you are both of you in the right. Tu si hie 
 esses, said Terence : you judge like a lover, and 
 as such you are right ; and you, sir, judge like an 
 indifferent man, and as such you are right too." 
 
 " But, Mr. Umpire, the question here is, whether 
 he can be in the right to love anything, which in 
 fact " 
 
 " Is indifferent to you, you mean to say ? " 
 
 " No, sir but which does not merit that degree 
 of love, which he " 
 
 " Why there now, that's the very question, sir, 
 which cannot be decided. At this rate we always 
 run round and round in the same circle, and may do 
 so eternally without ever seeing an end. Your 
 dispute is of such a nature as can only terminate in 
 the amiable. Do but freely confess to each other, 
 that 7 is well authorised not to be thou; then 
 each of you put himself in the other's place; and 
 I'd lose my head if you did not think as he does ?
 
 252 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 provided you were 1 c, or found yourself in his 
 situation : and so the quarrel is ended." 
 
 There is not a more vexatious situation in this 
 world, as Aristotle probably may have remarked 
 before us, than that of a lover, who is to give an 
 account of his inclinations to a third person, 
 especially if that third person is at all insensible. 
 Donna Felicia and her brother now found themselves 
 in this critical situation, and had it not been for the 
 present disposition of affairs, each of them might pro- 
 bably have met with many difficulties to surmount, 
 previously to the obtaining each other's approbation. 
 Donna Felicia and Don Eugenio might mutually and 
 in vain have recriminated upon the Tu si hie esses ; 
 never could they have made half the way they 
 actually did, but that they found themselves in each 
 other's situation. Such is the difference of that 
 effect which a superficial abstraction, or a real 
 sentiment has upon us ! Indeed, had they been 
 inclined to baffle and perplex each other, or had 
 they been of that unblushing sort of people, who are 
 determined to have the sole right of wearing the 
 fool's cap, there was matter enough before them 
 for mutual aggravation to work upon. But now 
 both of them having a good share of reason, and a 
 fund of complaisance, the only question was how to 
 remove that obstacle which the indifference of one 
 party might naturally throw in the other's way. 
 Put the case that Donna Felicia had been in no 
 want of her brother's indulgence in her own favour, 
 what objections might she not have raised against 
 his love for a girl without name, fortune, or even 
 shining qualities ? for a person, who, possibly, might 
 have reason to blush at her own birth, and with 
 whom his acquaintance commenced upon a stage ? 
 " I grant all this," Don Eugenio might have replied, 
 " all these objections, and all that you, or my 
 friends, or the world could say, my own reason has 
 told me a thousand times over; and, however
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 253 
 
 foolish I may appear to you, yet am I not so far 
 infatuated, as not to see clearly that you and my 
 reason have the advantage. But what can all this 
 avail against the dictates of my heart ? against an 
 irresistible attraction, which I neither can nor desire 
 to subdue. Half of the circumstances already urged 
 might have been more than sufficient to damp an 
 ordinary passion : but the force of sympathy, my 
 dear sister ! In short, it must be experienced, 
 before any one can know how far it is impossible to 
 resist it even from the first moment of the attack." 
 Donna Felicia might have thought this a very 
 weak argument, had she not herself known that 
 same sympathy, by which Don Eugenio sought to 
 justify his folly, his weakness, or whatever those 
 sage ones who are got above all such extravagances 
 shall please to call it; if she had not known it, I 
 say, by her own experience. And, indeed, how could 
 she help thinking it absurd, that a sentiment so 
 delusive, uncertain, and inexplicable that this, I 
 know not what, which perhaps is but a mere 
 phantom of the imagination, should be thought 
 sufficient to get the better of the voice of reason, 
 of prudence, and of honour. But, luckily for their 
 twofold passion, they were now both of them, if not 
 in the same, at least in a very similiar situation. 
 What Donna Felicia felt for Don Sylvio, perfectly 
 well explained to her what Don Eugenio called his 
 sympathy for the fair Jacintha; and Don Eugenio 
 could not be so unjust as to require his sister to 
 stifle an inclination which himself had pronounced 
 irresistible. Accordingly, they did each other the 
 favour of starting such objections as their own 
 reason could readily furnish them with, to combat 
 the feelings of their hearts ; and then they mutually 
 endeavoured, by means as ready and more agreeable, 
 to remove the obstacles which opposed their warmest 
 wishes. The complacency with which Donna 
 Felicia entertained her brother's passion, merited all
 
 254 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 imaginable gratitude on his part ; and as nothing, 
 in fact, but the extravagant turn of our hero's fancy 
 could render him unworthy of Donna Felicia's love, 
 everything now seemed to depend upon the methods 
 to be used for restoring his brain to its natural seat. 
 The barber's hints were laid down as their founda- 
 tion, and Don Eugenic prudently judged that no 
 great pains would be requisite to set right a young 
 man, whose folly consisted merely in a species of 
 fanaticism, which had taken so singular a turn from 
 accidental causes. " I can clearly perceive," said he 
 to his sister, " that you are not indifferent to him. 
 Indeed you have a rival ; but as that is only a butter- 
 fly, still unchanged into an imaginary princess, she 
 will not long dispute the victory with you. In the 
 mean time, let us show his folly so much indulgence 
 as may be necessary to gain his confidence, and 
 nature and love will then do the rest. This fanati- 
 cism will by degrees give place to sentiment ; and 
 when once the latter has got the ascendant, nothing 
 will be easier than to remove from his mind those 
 prejudices and wrong notions, which will no longer 
 meet with any authority in his heart to counten- 
 ance or support them." 
 
 To see her own ideas thus justified by her brother, 
 highly delighted Donna Felicia. She did not fail to 
 testify her gratitude for his kindness, by saying 
 everything obliging and civil of his dear Jacintha 
 that his heart could wish. She even assured him 
 that she found something in her person and mode of 
 thinking too noble, not to be persuaded that the 
 mystery of her birth would one day unfold itself 
 greatly to her advantage ; while Don Eugenio, with 
 whom this idea was very familiar, had always found 
 it too favourable to the true feelings of his heart, to 
 wish his understanding so bad an employment as 
 that of raising objections to what he heard. 
 
 After having therefore settled their minds re- 
 specting the measures to be taken for obtaining
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 255 
 
 X 
 
 their end, which was to cure Don Sylvio of his 
 follies; they judged it proper to communicate part 
 of the secret to the fair Jacintha and Don Gabriel. 
 And now, matters being so well adjusted, they parted 
 as highly satisfied as they had ever been in their 
 lives, and retired to the hall to join their guests till 
 supper time.
 
 256 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 A COMBAT BETWEEN LOVE FOR THE PICTURE 
 AND LOVE FOR THE ORIGINAL 
 
 THE brilliant splendour of the hall they were in, the 
 number of wax candles that enlightened it, the 
 magnificence of the plate, the delicacy of the dishes, 
 and a variety of the most exquisite wines ; all this, 
 even in other circumstances, would not at all have 
 surprised our hero, though it was the first time in his 
 life he had ever seen so sumptuous an appearance, 
 or known anything of it more than in idea. It 
 satisfied him, to imagine himself really present in 
 some fairy palace. But had he been only in a 
 cottage, it would have been pretty easy to persuade 
 him that he was in the palace of the fairy Luminosa ; 
 so entirely had Donna Felicia engrossed his thoughts 
 and attention. 
 
 The beautiful Felicia could not be the last to 
 perceive the impression she had made upon him ; 
 and, imagining she could not make herself too sure 
 of her conquest, she soon determined to employ all 
 her charms to keep his heart awake. An agreeable 
 symphony which was heard during the repast, 
 though there was no seeing whence it came, (and of 
 which, therefore, Don Sylvio presently gave the 
 whole merit to the sylphs, those usual servitors in 
 fairy courts), furnished Donna Felicia with an 
 opportunity of displaying her musical talents, which 
 she did as soon as supper was ended. Young 
 Jacintha thought herself excelled, nor had a single 
 wish to dispute with Donna Felicia the high and
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 257 
 
 extravagant applause which the enchanted Don 
 Sylvio poured largely upon her. Don Eugenio, 
 however, was too jealous of his young friend's 
 favourite accomplishments to leave his sister in the 
 quiet possession of such great and universal praise ; 
 and therefore every now and then pressed her to 
 enter the lists with the fair Felicia, which could not 
 fail to give a general pleasure to the whole company. 
 The two ladies, contrary to the usual mode with 
 persons of their sex, seemed so mutually and so 
 cordially to give each other the preference, that it 
 was rather difficult to doubt the sincerity of their 
 obliging efforts. Don Gabriel fancied it must have 
 been easier for Paris to adjudge the golden apple to 
 one of the three goddesses on Mount Ida, than to 
 say which of these two lovely Muses excelled the 
 other, whether in beauty of voice or elegance of 
 song, in the dexterity of finger, or in the skill of 
 applying all those enchanting powers of harmony 
 which they had so much at their command. The 
 lovers themselves, fully determined as the point was 
 in every other view, confessed, however, that if it 
 was possible for one of them to be surpassed, Donna 
 Felicia could be so only by Jacintha, and the 
 beauteous Jacintha only by Felicia. 
 
 Our little society were so far from being tired of 
 this pastime, and the ladies carried their complais- 
 ance in this respect to such a degree, that day-dawn 
 at length broke in, to inform them that it was high 
 time for repose. 
 
 Excepting Don Gabriel who at the age of forty, 
 was now elevated above that stormy region of the 
 passions, to the calm and serene summit of an 
 almost stoical tranquillity of soul excepting him, it 
 is hard to say whether any of the rest of the com- 
 pany had the least wish or inclination for sleeping. 
 This we certainly know, that Don Sylvio never found 
 himself in a situation so little favourable to that 
 indulgence. Nay, in his present ecstasy, he did not 
 s
 
 258 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 even take notice, that instead of his honest Pedrillo, 
 whom he saw nothing of, and whose absence he had 
 not once perceived, there were two young pages 
 waiting in his antechamber, who solicited the 
 honour to undress him, and in fact they did so 
 before he thought of preventing it. Having then 
 first dismissed these pages, whom, according to his 
 laudable custom, he had elevated to the rank of 
 sylphs, he put on his clothes again ; threw himself 
 into an arm-chair with his face turned toward the 
 rising sun, and presently fell into a deep reverie, 
 with that pleasure of which few people are capable 
 of enjoying an idea, respecting the charming object 
 ever present to his enchanted mind. Thus he 
 continued for a considerable tune, and at length, 
 arousing from his cogitations, and collecting his 
 scattered wits about him, he began to ask himself 
 what he was to think of all that had happened to 
 him in this palace. He thought he could perfectly 
 remember that it was neither a dream nor an 
 apparition, like what he had met with before. But 
 to say what the mistress of this palace could be 
 whether she was a fairy, a mortal, or a goddess, or 
 even perhaps his princess, as the resemblance she 
 bore to his lost portrait seemed to persuade him 
 this was a point he could by no means settle within 
 himself. Indeed the latter supposition was so suited 
 to his wishes, that he strove for a long time to find 
 it probable; but, after a maturer inquiry, this 
 hypothesis appeared so full of difficulties, that he 
 even gave it up. " Possibly," said he, " she may be 
 a relation of my princess ; or possibly she is a person 
 born under the same constellation, or under the 
 influence of the same stars. Or perhaps she may 
 have assumed this resemblance for other private 
 reasons ; or perhaps all this is but a soft error of my 
 heart, seduced by some similar feature, that makes 
 it fancy it sees everywhere, what everywhere it 
 desires to see." After various reflections of this
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 259 
 
 kind, the last seemed to him the most likely, as it 
 seemed best to coincide with his sworn fidelity to his 
 mistress. In this manner then he persisted to 
 admire his princess in the person of Donna Felicia ; 
 concluding very judiciously how charming, how 
 enchanting, supernatural, divine, and if possible, 
 more than divine, must his princess's perfections be, 
 when a bare resemblance only could render the 
 fairy so delectable in his eyes ! 
 
 In order to give more force to this argument, his 
 imagination exerted its utmost efforts to represent 
 the pretended princess as still more charming, more 
 lovely, and more complete than Donna Felicia ; but, 
 whether his imagination was incapable of producing 
 anything more perfect than nature, or whether love 
 in this case played him one of its usual tricks ; 
 certain it is, that the image of the beautiful Felicia 
 constantly appeared, instead of the princess's ; and 
 all his endeavours to represent her to himself under 
 any other form or features, were vain and fruitless. 
 
 This circumstance extremely embarrassed him. 
 Without distrusting his own heart, he began shrewdly 
 to suspect that enchantment which Donna Felicia 
 seemed to exercise over it. Many an odd idea 
 crowded into his brain, which he rejected or retained 
 by turns, as he thought them plausible or otherwise : 
 and the result of his deliberations was, that his best 
 plan would be to get away from this dangerous 
 mansion as soon as possible, or at least, as soon as 
 ever he found reason to suppose that his suspicions 
 were well grounded.
 
 260 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 WHAT A DANGEROUS SORT OF MEN ARE 
 PHILOSOPHERS ! 
 
 WHILE Don Sylvio was pursuing these abstract 
 reflections, the sun arose. To meditate more coolly 
 therefore, he went into the garden ; and Heaven 
 knows whither his thoughts might at length have 
 carried him, had not Don Gabriel, who commonly 
 amused himself there in a morning with a book in 
 his hand, met him in one of the alleys which formed 
 the labyrinth before-mentioned. 
 
 The book which Don Gabriel held, as luck would 
 have it, was a volume of natural philosophy. This 
 led them insensibly into a discourse upon nature, in 
 which Don Sylvio maintained his cabalistical notions 
 and principles with so much sagacity and eloquence 
 that Don Gabriel could no less help wondering at 
 the beauty of his genius, and the general falseness of 
 his ideas. 
 
 None but such a philosopher as Don Gabriel 
 could have helped utterly despairing to subdue so 
 rooted a fanaticism. Out of complaisance, however, 
 to our hero's prepossessions, he rationally hoped 
 that, without directly encountering his principles, he 
 might lead Don Sylvio insensibly on to such a length, 
 as should in the end incline him to doubt the truth 
 of his favourite system. 
 
 Our readers of both sexes, (for notwithstanding 
 Mr Rousseau's strict prohibition, we shall not over- 
 look them) amongst whom there may not probably 
 be one that needs to be cured of the errors of a
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 261 
 
 Zoroaster, a Plotinus, a Paracelsus, the Cabalists, 
 and Rosicrusians might, perhaps, think themselves 
 not much obliged to us, were we to communicate to 
 them this profoundly metaphysical conversation, 
 which lasted from six in the morning till the com- 
 pany were assembled to breakfast in a little saloon 
 down the garden. We shall content ourselves with 
 informing them that Don Gabriel in spite of all that 
 imaginable respect which he pretended to have for 
 all those sages who make nature, both in the whole, 
 and in every part of it, move by the agency of 
 spirits urged such strong objections against this 
 marvellous species of natural philosophy, that Don 
 Sylvio, if not fully convinced, was at least consider- 
 ably staggered in sentiment ; and, notwithstanding 
 Don Gabriel's great precaution not to offend the 
 fairies, began to fear for all his fairy tales, and even 
 for his own adventures ; supposing that the 
 principles of Don Gabriel, which however, were 
 advanced only as mere hypotheses, should be found 
 true in facto. 
 
 Tis certain Don Sylvio endeavoured to extricate 
 himself by that usual argument of fanatics, when 
 sound reasons reduce them to extremities, viz., 
 that he appealed to his own experience ; concluding, 
 that principles contradictory to his sense must 
 absolutely be false. But there was an inexpressible 
 something in his head, that hindered him from being 
 so composed as we usually are, when a truth is 
 proved to us by a geometrical demonstration ; not 
 to say that he felt a secret relish for this kind of 
 speculation. 'Twas agreed therefore, and he with 
 pleasure consented to it, that the conversation should 
 be resumed some other day when they had more 
 leisure. Accordingly Don Eugenie's library was 
 fixed upon as their rendezvous for that purpose.
 
 262 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 CONCERNING THE FORCE OF RESOLUTIONS MADE 
 AGAINST LOVE 
 
 AMONGST other impressions, Don Sylvio had deter- 
 mined with a manly force to resist those, which the 
 resemblance between Donna Felicia and his princess, 
 whereof he greatly wished to persuade himself, had 
 made upon his heart. This heroical resolution, 
 instantly on his entering the saloon with Don 
 Gabriel, gave him a more stiff and borrowed air 
 than any intermediate being between a boy and a 
 young man that had just left college, and found 
 himself for the first time in good company, ever yet 
 put on. Donna Felicia perceived it, but took no 
 notice ; guessing at the cause with that extraordi- 
 nary sagacity which love commonly imparts to his 
 votaries, and not without reason, indulging a hope 
 that her presence would soon decide this struggle 
 betwixt the heart and the imagination. 
 
 The moralists have often told us, and will often 
 tell us again, that there is but one certain remedy 
 against love. This, say they, is to fly as fast as 
 possible, the moment you feel its infection seize you. 
 This remedy is undoubtedly excellent ; and yet we 
 cannot help regretting that these wise teachers have 
 not carried their complaisance so far as to point out 
 to us the method in which this remedy is to be 
 applied to the disease. For, as some pretend, 'tis 
 observable that a lover is naturally as incapable 
 of flying from the object that excited his passion, as 
 if he were tied hand and foot, or had entirely lost
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 263 
 
 the use of all his limbs. Nay, some have even 
 insisted, after a variety of experiments made upon 
 the subject, that in such circumstances, it is not 
 possible for us to wish for the power of flight, 
 though it were otherwise attainable. 
 
 'Tis true, Don Sylvio had taken a sort of 
 resolution to fly as soon as he should find it 
 necessary ; but, as we have seen, this resolution was 
 only conditional, and love had always the right of 
 deciding whether it was necessary to fly or no ; and 
 what is more, this resolution was taken when the 
 beautiful Felicia was not present. 
 
 The presence of the beloved object diffuses around 
 it a sort of magical force, or rather, (to avail our- 
 selves of a term equally unintelligible, but more 
 worthy of our philosophic age) a sort of magnetical 
 effluence. The lover no sooner comes within this 
 magnetical vortex, than he feels himself whirled on 
 by an irresistible impulse, causing the brain to turn 
 round and round in a kind of spiral line, so briskly, 
 that at length we leave it to our readers' sagacity 
 to run the allegory as far as he pleases, or as far as 
 it can go, and shall only offer this remark, that the 
 attractive virtue of a person one loves hath this 
 peculiar quality without reckoning those which it 
 possesses in common with natural and artificial 
 magnets namely, to efface instantaneously, in the 
 soul of the attracted body, every thought, imagina- 
 tion, remembrance or resolution, that could possibly 
 weaken its effect. 
 
 Don Sylvio will soon serve as a proof of this 
 physical observation. He had proposed to himself 
 not to look at, or at all regard Donna Felicia ; and 
 yet he could not for the soul of him help, at least 
 obliquely, casting a glance that way. Soon after he 
 ventured to look full at her, but with so timid an 
 air, as if he feared she had basilisk's eyes. This 
 trial succeeded so well that he became bolder ; and 
 at length he tried so long, as to be incapable of
 
 264 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 taking, or wishing to take off his eyes from this 
 enchanting object. In short, the magnetical virtue 
 above-mentioned wrought so effectually, that he 
 gave himself up as perfectly, as composedly, and 
 with as much ecstasy, to the pleasure of beholding 
 his fair goddess, as if neither a Radiante, nor a blue 
 butterfly, nor an enchanted princess, had ever 
 existed in the microcosm of his brain. 
 
 With respect to her own heart, the amiable Felicia 
 found herself pretty nearly in the same situation. 
 Don Sylvio had at least as magnetical an influence 
 over her, as she had exercised upon him ; nay, if we 
 will believe Albertus Magnus, and some other 
 investigators of nature (not to mention good old 
 blind Tiresias, who, as having been sometime man, 
 sometime woman, could speak experimentally), if, 
 I say, we may credit these sages, the attraction 
 which she felt must have been by much the most 
 powerful, however able she might be to weaken its 
 effect, as need and circumstances required, by means 
 of that property called vis inertia, wherewith nature 
 or education have endued the sex. This reciprocal 
 attraction naturally accelerated that wonderful 
 concentration, which is the usual consequence of it ; 
 and while both of them, unconscious and unawares, 
 stood mutually attracting and attracted, they found 
 their souls already in perfect contact at all points, 
 so perfect, that to think of disuniting the one from 
 the other, must have been just as easy as to separate 
 two dewdrops blended together in the bosom of a 
 new-blown rose. 
 
 The conversation, in a company so sympathising 
 as this, could not long remain indifferent. Their 
 discourse turned insensibly upon that singular 
 chance which had brought our hero acquainted with 
 Don Eugenic, and the part which the fair Jacintha 
 bore in that adventure, excited in those who were 
 not yet fully informed of her history, a curiosity so 
 much the more reasonable, as the young lady's
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 265 
 
 amiable qualities had already prepossessed all their 
 hearts in her favour; for Don Sylvio himself, 
 insensible as his passion for the beautiful Felicia 
 must have rendered him to every other, felt, in spite 
 of him, a kind of inclination towards her ; an 
 inclination which mightily puzzled him how to 
 explain to himself, and which, without having any 
 of its ardent inclinations and glowing desires, seemed 
 to have all the tenderness of love. 
 
 The fair Jacintha had no reason to make a 
 mystery of her story to any one of the company 
 present ; on the contrary, she had many things of 
 importance to reveal. Don Eugenie's passion 
 what he had already done for her his intentions 
 towards her, and perhaps too the most considerable 
 events of her life, were in a great measure known 
 before ; and however great the respect which Donna 
 Felicia showed her, there might possibly, she feared, 
 be some prejudices taken against her which she the 
 rather wished to remove, as she had formed a 
 resolution, (as firm a one as a person in love can be 
 supposed to form), of putting an end to her 
 acquaintance with Don Eugenic. She made no 
 difficulty therefore of gratifying her lover's request, 
 seconded by that of Don Sylvio and the beautiful 
 Felicia; and accordingly began to relate her 
 adventures, which our hero listened to with great 
 avidity, as not doubting but the fairies would be 
 found to have a pretty considerable share in them.
 
 266 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 HISTORY OF THE FAIR JACINTHA 
 
 "IF it be true, as I am strongly inclined to think," 
 said Jacintha, beginning her narration, " that a 
 woman is so much the more to be esteemed, as she 
 excites less talk about her : if this is true, I am very 
 unfortunate to be reduced to give a relation of my 
 adventures, at an age when most persons of our 
 sex only begin, with great timidity, to quit their 
 tender mother's wing ; and indeed, if the fault were 
 my own, this consideration would render me very 
 uneasy to myself. 
 
 " All I can tell you of my origin is, that I know 
 nothing at all about it. I remember indeed, but 
 very confusedly, the time that I fell into the hands 
 of an old gipsy woman by whom I was brought 
 up : and I have some transient idea of having been 
 before that time in a large house, where there were 
 several women, and a little brother whom I tenderly 
 loved. But this slight remembrance is so weak, and 
 so much effaced from my mind, that I could not 
 positively assure you that the fact is really so. 
 
 "The gipsy, who passed herself for my grand- 
 mother, though my heart constantly disavowed the 
 relation, bestowed a good deal of pains to give me 
 an education suitable to her views respecting me. 
 I was hardly seven years old, when the gracefulness 
 with which I danced to the sound of the tabor, the 
 ready answers I gave, and a thousand little turns of 
 address which I was mistress of, so gained me, 
 wherever we went, the affection of the people, that
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 267 
 
 it drew upon us showers of reals and maravedis. 
 This success animated the old woman to neglect 
 nothing which might help to display the talents 
 which she fancied I possessed. At the age of twelve 
 I played upon the guitar and theorbo ; I sang a vast 
 number of romances and little songs; I could tell 
 fortunes, and was as clever a chiromancer * as any 
 gipsy whatever. 
 
 "The attention I paid to everything I saw and 
 heard, though it might not have been credited from 
 my giddy appearance, led me to remark one festival 
 day, while we were at Toledo, that among the 
 multitude of spectators brought together by the 
 dancing and ballads, in which I and some other 
 young girls were obliged to figure for the benefit of 
 our old governess, there were two men of a grave 
 appearance, who seemed to look at me with com- 
 passion. 'What a pity,' cried one, 'that she is a 
 gipsy ! Ah, how soon will that beauty, now 
 unknown to herself, become the prey to seduction ! ' 
 ' Nay, trust me,' said the other, ' she seems much 
 more likely to seduce others than to be seduced 
 herself, if we may credit her looks.' ' So much the 
 worse for her,' replied the former : ' that virtue, which 
 in every other condition is a merit, is such a defect 
 in this, as can only render her so much the more 
 unhappy.' This discourse, which I caught up 
 without their perceiving it, made a very strong 
 impression upon me, and the less I could reach its 
 meaning, the more earnestly did I strive and wish 
 to find it out. 
 
 "The old gipsy, who really thought of nothing 
 but how to render me seducing, had given herself 
 very little trouble to make me understand what 
 virtue was ; and indeed, how should she do it, who 
 neither knew the sensation herself, nor had a single 
 idea concerning it ? I was not, however, utterly 
 
 * One who pretends to read the destiny of people by inspecting the 
 lines in their hands.
 
 268 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 destitute of principles. A certain instinct, which 
 gradually unfolded itself in my mind from the 
 attention I bestowed upon the actions of our little 
 society, joined to the emotions of my own heart, 
 told me that one thing was good, and that another 
 was not so, though I was still incapable of giving 
 any other reason for it, than my own opinion. The 
 romances and fairy tales, of which I knew a 
 prodigious quantity by heart, were another source 
 from whence I derived to myself a species of 
 morality; which, though perhaps it was by no 
 means exact, was at least far better than to have 
 none at all. This instinct, these confused ideas 
 which I had of moral beauties, and the discourse of 
 the two Toledans, which I could not forget, at length 
 inspired me with a sensible abhorrence of my con- 
 dition, and of the kind of life we led, innocent as it 
 was in some respects. * Surely,' thought I to myself, 
 ' I must be in a miserable situation indeed, when 
 strangers think me so worthy of their pity ; and is 
 it not so in fact ? obliged as I am to exhibit myself 
 everywhere as a show, and all for a mean and con- 
 temptible reward ; to suffer the leer of every 
 thoughtless, silly spectator, and to be made a 
 laughing-stock to people totally unknown to me.' 
 This idea made me by degrees so despicable to 
 myself, that I soon lost all taste for those trifling 
 diversions which hitherto had taken up a chief part 
 of my life. 
 
 " I was in such a situation of mind as this, when 
 one day the old woman conducted us to a large 
 handsome house, where she hoped to pick up a few 
 ducats by means of the talents of her pretended 
 daughters, (for there were five or six of us, the 
 oldest scarce fourteen years of age). The lady of the 
 house was a widow of thirty, whose chief employ- 
 ment consisted in well educating her only daughter, 
 a very genteel young creature, nearly about my own 
 age. This lady seemed touched with my innocence,
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 269 
 
 and that secret chargin which appeared in my 
 countenance. She took me aside, put many 
 questions to me, and seemed satisfied with my 
 replies. At length she asked me whether I should 
 not like to live with her. I was so enchanted with 
 her noble air, and her great affability, that she 
 might read my answer in my face, before I could 
 find words to express the joy I felt at her proposal. 
 She repeated her offer to the old gipsy, and forgot 
 nothing that she thought necessary to assure her, 
 that she would take good care of me. The old 
 woman, however, who had other designs upon me, 
 was inexorable ; and at length declared, I was too 
 useful to her, to think of giving me up without 
 being amply recompensed for the loss of me. Un- 
 fortunately for me, this generous lady who had so 
 captivated my heart, did not think herself rich 
 enough to gratify the old Beldam's exorbitant 
 demands; who no sooner perceived that, than she 
 made haste to quit the house. My tears so power- 
 fully affected the good lady, that she could hardly 
 persuade herself not to employ some force to detain 
 me : but the old woman so strenuously urged her 
 maternal claims upon me, that I could not stand the 
 contest with her, though my heart murmured at the 
 compliance. In short, we were forced asunder, and 
 the fear of being pursued made the old creature so 
 circumspect, that she led us back all the way through 
 forests, lanes and byroads, till at length we came to 
 Seville. I was inconsolable, and the old woman 
 found it necessary to give scope to my grief before 
 she undertook to make me consider my lot in a 
 more smiling point of view. I was too young and 
 too much inclined to gaiety, to let the sadness I had 
 hitherto indulged be of any long duration. Our 
 arrival at Seville made a great change in our mode 
 of living. The old woman hired a very spacious 
 house, gave me a room to myself, and grew doubly 
 complaisant and civil to me ; she procured me
 
 270 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 masters to perfect me in music, and every day 
 made me some present of ribands and other pretty 
 gewgaws. 
 
 "At length, one day when she saw me more 
 cheerful than ordinary, she entered into a long 
 conversation with me, accompanied with such 
 caresses and flattering speeches as she thought might 
 best open the way to my heart. Then she told me, 
 that now the time drew nigh in which she hoped to 
 reap the fruit of all those cares she had bestowed 
 upon me. She praised my charms very highly, 
 assuring me that the felicity of my life would 
 entirely depend upon the use I should learn to make 
 of them. ' Thou see'st by my example, my dear 
 child,' said she, that old age creeps upon us every 
 day. Our harvest time is in youth's May morning, 
 and if we let that slip, the loss is irreparable. I 
 cannot leave thee riches ; thy figure and talents are 
 all thy fortune : but never fear, if thou dost but 
 manage them well, 'twill produce thee a shower of 
 gold.' After this flattering preamble she began to 
 talk of love ; and here she thought herself sure of 
 making me believe every thing she wished, on 
 account of my inexperience. She exhausted her own 
 imagination to warm and elevate mine ; but the 
 cool indifference with which I heard her, declared 
 that the picture she took such pains to exhibit had 
 not made the least impression upon me. She 
 imagined, probably, that this coolness proceeded 
 rather from that total ignorance of gallantry in 
 which I lived, than from an absolute insensibility ; 
 and might therefore suppose that a handsome young 
 instructor would be more capable than her, of giving 
 me a taste for that new art in which she wished me 
 to be initiated. Accordingly, soon after this she 
 brought a young gentleman of Seville into my 
 chamber, who, she told me, was very desirous of the 
 pleasure of my acquaintance ; and then, under a 
 pretence of I know not what business, left us
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 271 
 
 together alone. The young gentleman introduced 
 the conversation with a few compliments picked up, 
 as it should seem, from some old books of knight 
 errantry, and which, in all probability, he had got 
 by rote. These were followed by a very sprightly 
 declaration of love ; and apprehending, perhaps, that 
 I had not sufficiently understood it, he concluded 
 with an attempt to take liberties with me. I was a 
 good deal alarmed, and repulsed him not in the 
 politest manner. But a moment's reflection, or 
 rather the instinct before-mentioned, and which, at 
 least to me, supplied the want of reflection for I 
 would not be thought to judge of all our sex by the 
 observations I have made upon my own person 
 this presently suggested to me that indignation and 
 rigorous measures would avail me nothing here. I 
 therefore addressed him with an affected gaiety : 
 * Pray, sir, is this your usual way ? I will suppose you 
 may like me ; it may be so ; but you must own, how- 
 ever, there is a previous question still unresolved, and 
 that is, whether or no I like you ; nay more, whether 
 I could like you if I would, for that does not always 
 depend upon our will. You fall in love, it seems, 
 very easily : that's your way. I proceed a little 
 more slowly ; that's mine. My favours are insep- 
 arable from my heart, and that is not so easy to 
 gain as perhaps you may imagine : my heart, 
 begging your pardon, does not like to yield 
 immediately at the first summons. But if you love 
 me so much as you would wish me to believe, a little 
 complacency, and the waiting calmly for what my 
 capricious heart shall at length determine, will not 
 give you a great deal of trouble. Come, sir,' con- 
 tinued I, 'to relieve your pain I will sing you a 
 romance, which you will own to be the best you 
 ever heard in your life.' So saying, without giving 
 him time to reply, I flew to my theorbo, gently 
 flourished with my voice while I tuned the instru- 
 ment, and then sung him one of those old ballads
 
 272 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 above a hundred and fifty couplets long, whose 
 melody was so soporiferous, that the vivacity of a 
 Frenchman could hardly have been sufficient to 
 cope with it. My young gentleman sat very quiet, 
 eyed me with a sort of silly admiration, and every 
 now and then, with a gape, cried out, 'All, how 
 sweet, how pathetic is that ! Oh, incomparably 
 fine ! ' At length he grew heartily tired, and 
 perceiving that the romance was not likely to have 
 an end, took up his hat, made me a very low bow, 
 and disappeared, after giving me the flattering hope 
 of seeing him soon again. 
 
 " Perhaps, you will say, that on this occasion I 
 showed too much of a disposition to coquetry ; but 
 my only purpose is to relate the truth, whether 
 advantageous to me or otherwise; and so it was, 
 and I cannot help it. 
 
 " Soon after this the old woman came to see for 
 me, and I thought I could discern from her discourse, 
 that the young gentleman was gone away very little 
 pleased with me. She was equally, or less so than 
 he, when I told her how I had managed to moderate 
 his little vivacities. However, she commended me 
 for so doing, hoping to derive great advantages from 
 the dispositions which she fancied she saw in me. 
 'There's no absolute necessity,' said she, 'that we 
 should love every one that loves us ; on the contrary, 
 there is nothing in the world which a young person 
 who wishes to make her own fortune, ought more 
 carefully to avoid, than a serious passion. Com- 
 plaisance, my child, that's all that can be wished 
 for. In the meantime, you do well to set a proper 
 value upon the least favours you grant : a maid is 
 worth only just so much as she knows how to rate 
 herself at. Now, now is thy time, my child, we are 
 not fifteen every day.' And thus the old creature 
 ran on for a long while. 
 
 "At length, 'From your discourse,' said I, inter- 
 rupting her, * I judge it is your intention to bring this
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 273 
 
 young man here again.' ' Why not ? ' replied the 
 old woman ; ' ay, and twenty more too, who shall 
 please thee far better perhaps than he. We'll see 
 everybody, and refuse nobody ; we'll choose one, and 
 in the meantime amuse the rest till it comes to their 
 turn.' Instead of answering her, I burst into a 
 flood of tears, and then told her, I had not the least 
 inclination for such a kind of life, bitterly reproaching 
 her for not having left me with the good lady who 
 would have been so glad to take me under her 
 
 protection. ' If I am chargeable to you ' said I 
 
 'Oh, that thou shalt never be,' interrupted the old 
 woman ; ' thou shalt be useful both to me and to 
 thyself at the same time.' ' But how can that be ? ' 
 cried I ; ' we have now done with singing and dancing 
 in private houses, or public places, or upon festival 
 days ; and if I may speak sincerely, I would sooner 
 suffer death than continue rambling about the 
 country to divert people with my gambols, and pick 
 up money here and there as if I was a young ape ; 
 I should die with shame, and I declare to you, I 
 
 would rather do anything in the world than ' 
 
 ' Make thyself easy,' said the old woman, ' thou shalt 
 never do so again. When thou wast but a child, 
 all that was very well, but now that thou art a 
 grown-up girl, and beginnest to unfold like a rose- 
 bud, other employments will better suit thy con- 
 dition. What is a rose worth till it be gathered ? 
 and roses like thee have this peculiar faculty, that 
 when they are gathered they flourish so much the 
 better. When thou wast only a child, it became 
 thee very well to divert people with thy little play- 
 ful tricks; now it is time to think of some other 
 kind of amusement. Thy youth, figure, and talents, 
 will procure thee lovers, as many as thou shalt wish 
 for.' ' But I tell you, I will not have any lovers,' 
 replied I ; ' and if I must, I will repeat it a hundred 
 thousand times over.' 'Thou wilt not have any 
 lovers ! ' cried the old woman, bursting into a loud 
 T
 
 274 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 laugh, ' poor fool that thou art ! Thou wilt not ? 
 we shall soon see that. I know thee better than 
 thou knowest thyself ; we shall talk more about it 
 in a week's time. Thou imaginest that, because the 
 first visitor thou hast seen was indifferent to thee. 
 But, as I said before, if thou dost not meet with 
 a lover in less than a week, whom thou shalt be as 
 fond of as any little puss upon earth, I renounce 
 my profession.' So saying, she went out without 
 looking at me, while I stood blushing for shame and 
 indignation. I was really beside myself; I threw 
 me into an arm-chair, then got up, cried, sighed, 
 sobbed, lifted up my hands to heaven ; and amidst 
 that confusion of ideas, when one is hardly capable 
 of thinking, I began to cast about for the means of 
 ridding myself from the clutches of this vile old 
 wretch. In these sad moments I bethought me of 
 that amiable lady before-mentioned. ' Surely,' said 
 I to myself, ' she would receive me, could I but find 
 any way to secure my escape.' But, to my great 
 vexation, I neither knew her name nor place of 
 abode, for the old gipsy had never given me the 
 least intimation of them. I could recollect, however, 
 that her seat was but a few miles distant from 
 Calatrava, and I had no doubt of being able to find 
 it out, could I but get to that village. These 
 considerations served to administer some little 
 consolation, as I determined to make my escape, 
 and put my plan in execution at the first favourable 
 opportunity which should offer itself for that 
 purpose."
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 275 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 CONTINUATION OF THE BEAUTIFUL JACINTHA'S 
 HISTORY 
 
 " MY companions, whom I had seen but very seldom 
 for some time past, had, as I afterwards found, 
 shown more docility in subservience to the old 
 woman's designs. Great pains had been hitherto 
 taken to conceal from me everything that passed in 
 the house : but now the old wretch fancied it was 
 time to undraw the curtain. These poor young 
 creatures, who saw only the agreeable aspect of 
 their new mode of life, seemed quite enchanted with 
 it : they could not find words sufficient to point out 
 to me their felicity ; and the eldest of them was 
 now become expert enough to be able to laugh 
 pretty smartly at my prudishness, as she called it. 
 In short, I played a very silly part amongst these 
 girls : but my confusion was considerably augmented 
 when I saw a group of young fellows appear, who, 
 coming in one after another to the private apart- 
 ment where we were, affected an air of acquaintance 
 and familiarity, as if they belonged to the family. 
 My physiognomy being unknown to them, the whole 
 train presently came about me, and seemed to give 
 each other the signal to embarrass me, if they could, 
 by the excessive praises they lavished upon me. 
 The old woman, perceiving my distress, took me 
 aside, and told me that these were persons of quality 
 who did her the honour of sometimes spending an 
 evening with her; assuring me at the same time, 
 that they were very polite young gentlemen, who
 
 276 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 had no other view than that of innocent mirth and 
 diversion ; that all they wanted was cheerful con- 
 versation, some music, a collation, and now and 
 then a ball ; that they paid like princes, and that as 
 hers was a coffee-house, nobody in the world could 
 find anything to object against her seeing such good 
 company. For my own part, I could only appear 
 satisfied with these reasons, and indeed the gentle- 
 men conducted themselves so well till supper-time, 
 that the fear they had put me into gave place by 
 degrees to the natural vivacity of my temper. I 
 did not long object against singing them songs and 
 romances, as many as they desired ; and I must 
 own my little vanity was not quite insensible to the 
 flattering things they were pleased to say of me. 
 Supper, however, soon changed the scene: for no 
 sooner had the wine got into their heads, than they 
 began to make themselves amends for that restraint 
 which hitherto had appeared to be not at all 
 involuntary. The indiscreet levity of my com- 
 panions seemed to invite them to the liberties 
 which they took ; the discourse, the eyes, the hands, 
 all became more unbridled, and before it could well 
 be perceived, the former decent and allowed gaiety 
 was changed into a frightful excess of drunkenness 
 and libertinism. In short, they were downright 
 Bacchanals. 'Twould be in vain for me to attempt 
 to give you a description of the situation I found 
 myself in, at the sight and hearing of such horrors. 
 My perturbation and confusion was made the object 
 of their mad mirth. Two young sots of this noble 
 fraternity, undertook, as they told me, to make me 
 more tractable ; and their nymphs, who certainly 
 could not be taxed with prudery, encouraged them 
 in it. I attempted to get away, but the two 
 before-mentioned cut off my retreat to the door ; I 
 then ran up to the old woman and threw myself at 
 her feet, conjuring her to protect and save me ; but 
 all she did was to deride and laugh at my distress.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 277 
 
 ' What ! ' said she, ' dost thou think we want to kill 
 thee ? Fie upon thee for a stupid thing ! nobody 
 shall do thee harm. These young gentlemen do 
 thee a great deal of honour to amuse themselves 
 with thee, and thou, truly, must play the fool, and 
 cry and make a noise as if thou wert mad ! Come, 
 come, Don Ferdinand, comfort the poor child for 
 me.' This language completed my despair; I 
 started up, flew to the table like a frantic creature, 
 and snatching up a knife, vowed to kill myself on 
 the spot if any one dared to lay hands upon me. 
 ' Adzounds ! ' cried one of the sots, ' this begins to be 
 a tragical kind of affair. Did you ever see the 
 like ? Why, this outdoes Lucretia ! for she, before 
 she determined to make away with herself, chose at 
 least to try whether the fact was worth the punish- 
 ment.' This pretended sally was followed with a 
 great many others, in which the gentlemen strove 
 who should outdo the rest. At last, there arose a 
 great dispute between them, which of the company 
 should attempt, as they said, to tame this little 
 dragon; when one of them made a proposition to 
 decide it, by drawing lots for me. A treatment of 
 such indignity so overwhelmed my spirits, that I 
 sank down into an arm-chair, I scarcely can tell 
 how, more dead than alive. I know not what 
 might have ensued, or what would have become of 
 me in the present situation, had not one of the 
 company, for whom the others seemed to have some 
 respect, and who had been looking at me the whole 
 evening very attentively, all of a sudden taken up 
 my defence. He told the others, in a tone of voice 
 which had its effect, that I did not deserve such 
 treatment ; at the same time making signs to the old 
 woman to lead me out of the room. Accordingly, 
 she conducted me into a little apartment, where I 
 threw myself upon a couch, and relieved my heart 
 by a flood of tears. The old woman left me alone 
 to myself for above an hour. At length, having
 
 278 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 recovered my spirits, I again ruminated in my brain 
 the project of my escape. Whatever had formerly 
 appeared as insurmountable obstacles, now seemed 
 as nothing in my esteem : all my thoughts now were 
 only how to get out of the house, and which way 
 to extricate myself from the difficulties surrounding 
 me, destitute as I was of money, and having no 
 acquaintance. ' But, however,' said I to myself, ' if 
 I could but once make my retreat from under this 
 hateful roof, Heaven will take care of the rest.' My 
 impatience increased to such a degree, that I would 
 not a moment defer the execution of my scheme, 
 whatever ill-consequence might ensue from it. But 
 how great was my distress when I found the door 
 shut against me ! I ran to the windows that stood 
 over the market-place, but they were too high for 
 me to get at them, and fortified with a strong iron 
 grating. I then called out as loud as I was able, to 
 make myself heard in the street : but, to complete 
 my ill-fortune, the room was too far distant for any 
 one to distinguish my voice : then I returned to the 
 couch, tore my hair, and cried and lamented myself 
 like a person mad ; taxing Heaven for having given 
 me a gipsy's birth, with a heart like mine, too 
 noble and exalted for my mean condition ; or, if I 
 were not thus born, for having exposed me to 
 affronts so insupportably injurious. 'Oh, surely,' 
 I cried, ' I never could have been born for so vile a 
 station ! If my figure and complexion had not told 
 me so, still would my soul protest that I cannot be 
 the grandchild of this detestable old creature, into 
 whose power I have thus fallen, God knows how. 
 Alas ! possibly I may have derived my being from 
 noble parents, and that tender mother who brought 
 me into the world, at this very hour, perhaps, may 
 still be weeping the loss of a daughter, whom once 
 it was her highest hope to render amiable and 
 happy ! ' 
 
 " My heated imagination pursued for a good while
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 279 
 
 these ideas, which had more than once heretofore 
 made my situation intolerable, and which never 
 failed to inspire me with a sort of courage to raise 
 myself, at least in sentiment, above my abject cir- 
 cumstances. I strove, far as I was able, to trace back 
 in my mind the earliest years of my infancy, to find, 
 if possible, some confirmation of what I wished to 
 know, in the feeble traces of an almost obliterated 
 memory. 'Twas all presumption indeed, and yet 
 this presumption, vain and all uncertain as it might 
 seem, flattered my eager desires, and served to 
 strengthen within me the resolution I had taken, to 
 watch as carefully over my honour, whatever my 
 real condition might be, as if the noblest Castilian 
 blood ran through my veins. I was totally absorbed 
 by these reflections when the old woman again 
 made her appearance, and with all imaginable mild- 
 ness, told me I must get myself ready to follow her 
 to another place of abode, since her own, as it 
 seemed, so much displeased me : and then, to give 
 me the highest idea in her power of the happiness 
 that awaited me, she added, that every thing where 
 I was going would depend upon me and my orders, 
 while myself should be independent of any body. 
 She next endeavoured to persuade me to believe, 
 that her design in the evening had been only to 
 make a trial of my virtue ; accordingly, she failed 
 not to applaud my conduct, assuring me, that to it 
 I owed that happy change of situation in which I 
 should find myself before the night was over. On 
 hearing this, I immediately thought of that young 
 gentleman who had taken upon him my defence. 
 I put the question to the old woman, but could only 
 get vague and doubtful answers from her. My 
 desire of getting away from a house so abominable, 
 too much lessened in my eyes the fresh dangers into 
 which I was about to run, to suffer an uncertain fear 
 to overbalance the horrid fate, which here, where I 
 now was, seemed so unavoidable; for what would
 
 2 8o THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 all my resistance have availed me, if once she had 
 exercised her power against me ? I consented 
 therefore to her proposal, adjusted myself as well as 
 I could in a hurry, and putting on my veil, followed 
 her out of the house. It was now midnight, and 
 the moon shone out through a light cloud. After 
 going down a few streets and narrow lanes, we came 
 to a coach that was waiting, it seems, for us. We 
 got into it, and to my great surprise I observed one 
 of my companions follow, and seat herself beside us ; 
 who, as the old woman informed me, was to be my 
 attendant till I had time to procure another. It 
 gave me not a little pleasure, however, to find she 
 had taken care to assign me one whom I had always 
 the best liking to, and who, excepting a certain 
 weakness of understanding, was a very good kind of 
 girl. For some time we were carried from one street 
 to another, till at last our coach stopped at a small 
 house which had not the most striking appearance. 
 The door opened, we went in, and were received by 
 an elderly woman, who lighted us forward with wax 
 candles in her hand. She was clad in a coarse grey 
 stuff gown ; she had a pair of spectacles upon her 
 nose of an enormous size, and at her girdle there 
 hung a rosary which descended to her feet. This 
 dress, with a round ruddy face that peeped through 
 a very antique kind of a cap made like a veil, and 
 two little eyes which she rolled about with an air 
 of singular sanctity, gave her altogether so perfectly 
 the look of a bigoted devotee, that I almost fancied 
 myself to be entering a convent. That idea how- 
 ever soon vanished, when this curious conductress 
 led me into an apartment consisting of four rooms 
 on a floor, which, as she told me, was to be my place 
 of residence for the future. 
 
 "These rooms surpassed each other in magnifi- 
 cence. The tapestry, glasses, china, pictures, splendid 
 ceilings and gilded ornaments on every side, were 
 all so unexpectedly elegant, that I stood dazzled at
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 281 
 
 the sight for a few moments. The old woman, my 
 late governess, who had followed me thus far, waited 
 only till I had recovered myself from the first 
 surprise, in which, to say the truth, both fear and 
 pleasure had an equal share. ' Now,' said she, ' my 
 dear Jacintha,' taking me aside, 'here I leave thee 
 to thyself. Thou art a lovely girl, and thou hast 
 taken it into thy head to be a virtuous one. 'Tis 
 a good notion, and if thou dost but know how to 
 make a proper use of it, Virtue will be worth a 
 hundred times more to thee, than thy youth and 
 beauty could have been to me.' At these words 
 she left me, without staying for a reply, and the 
 venerable duenna followed her, after giving me a 
 profound curtsey and wishing me a good night. 
 The moment I was alone I began to reflect upon 
 so singular an adventure. I asked little Stella, 
 whom they left with me, what all this meant, but 
 she was full as much in the dark as myself : only 
 this she could tell me, she recollected that the 
 Marquis of Villa Hermosa the same who had stood 
 up that evening in my defence retired with the old 
 woman soon after I had quitted the room, and was 
 out above an hour before he returned. All this 
 seemed more than sufficient to confirm me in the 
 opinion that I had been sold to this young nobleman 
 by that infernal grey-headed old wretch. I cast 
 myself upon a sofa, and passed the remainder of 
 the night in a state of inexpressible uneasiness and 
 perturbation, amidst such a confusion of ideas as 
 utterly prevented my taking the least repose. I 
 turned it in my thoughts how I ought to receive the 
 marquis if he came. My imagination presented to 
 me a number of adventures which I had met with 
 in old romances, and my little vanity found itself 
 flattered by the idea that, possibly, I too might 
 become a heroine in romance. ' Undoubtedly,' 
 said I to myself, ' the marquis is in love with me ; 
 and if he loves me, I am sure, at least, he will treat
 
 282 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 me with suitable decorum. Perhaps he may think 
 to gain me over by presents, or jewels, rich habits, 
 or the allurements of a life of pleasure ; but if so, he 
 is mistaken. The very idea that Jacintha could be 
 capable of giving herself a victim for any price, to 
 any person whatever, is too shocking to be indulged. 
 I have nothing to fear on that hand. But what if he 
 is amiable ? What if my own heart should insensibly 
 seduce me, or what if it be true that love is not 
 always in our own power ? At least it is in my 
 power to conceal it from him and even should he 
 at length discover it, I will not avow it to him, nor 
 listen to his proposals, till I have discovered to whom 
 I owe my existence. Oh ye,' I cried, ' whose blood 
 animates my heart, whoever ye are ; that heart tells 
 me you are worthy of a daughter, whom one day 
 you may acknowledge as such, without blushing at 
 the event.' 
 
 " This, amidst that multitude of ideas which now 
 crowded into my brain, was undoubtedly the best. 
 It had its source in my heart ; I found an inex- 
 pressible pleasure in pursuing it, and I could feel it 
 gave me a certain strength of mind, which elevated 
 me above my age and the meanness of my con- 
 dition. 
 
 " The marquis on his first visit found me in this 
 disposition, and discovered to me his views. I 
 had not taken much notice of him the evening 
 before ; and indeed I could only look at him then 
 with an eye of confusion, being in such an extreme 
 flurry and uneasiness, as rendered me incapable 
 of the least attention. Now that I examined 
 his person at more leisure, and was more composed, 
 I found him perfectly handsome ; my heart however 
 remained unmoved, and spoke not the least word 
 to me in his favour. He, for his part, seemed so 
 prepossessed with his own figure, as not to suppose 
 it possible to be resisted. This palpable pride 
 shocked my vanity, a vanity, undoubtedly, which the
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 283 
 
 marquis had no reason to look for in the heart of a 
 young gipsy girl. I shall not abuse your patience 
 by giving you a circumstantial detail of the declara- 
 tions he made, or of the answers I returned him. 
 The simplicity with which I expressed my indifference 
 to his charms, and the haughty modesty wherewith 
 I refused a beautiful set of diamonds, which, as he 
 very gallantly told me, could serve only to be effaced 
 by the lustre of my fine eyes seemed entirely to 
 disconcert him. I then told him there was nothing 
 in the world by which he could oblige me more than 
 by recommending me to the service of some lady 
 amongst his family or friends. He knew not how to 
 reconcile so modest a request with that haughtiness 
 he had in other respects observed in my sentiments. 
 So at length, after taking a good deal of useless 
 pains to incline me to a change of mind, he left me ; 
 hoping, as he said, that the aversion with which his 
 figure had unfortunately inspired me would not be 
 invincible. He was mistaken, however, in his hopes, 
 and found out after a few more visits, that I had 
 absolutely no soul at all. I, in return, insisted upon 
 it that he ought to restore me to liberty. 'And 
 what wouldst thou do then, little fool ? ' said he. 
 ' My lord,' I replied, ' it is impossible for me to flatter 
 you with an hope which my heart would disavow : 
 I am well persuaded that I shall like you no more in 
 a week, nor in a dozen weeks, than I do now. This 
 you may rest assured of, and hence you may learn 
 what to expect on my part.' ' Is that all ? ' cried 
 the marquis with a sneer. 'Thou art very frank, 
 Jacintha, it must be owned ; 'tis certain thou hast 
 given me no room to complain of being long left 
 to languish in a state of uncertainty. Another in 
 thy place would at least have endeavoured to make 
 me believe she loved me, whether she really did so 
 or not.' 
 
 " ' I know not what another might do,' said I, ' but 
 I know very well that I am not in my right place
 
 284 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 here ; nor can I rightly comprehend what you would 
 have of me, after I have thus told you that I shall 
 never love you.' ' Hark'ye, Jacintha,' replied the 
 marquis, ' 'tis but fair I should return thee one 
 ingenuity for another. I found thee in a house 
 where people don't usually look for prudes, and 
 where thou couldst have had nothing to say against 
 it, if I had treated thee as those young fellows did, 
 from whose impertinence I have delivered thee. 
 But I saw it would be wrong to rank thee in the 
 same class with thy other exceedingly-civil com- 
 panions. I found thee agreeable to my fancy ; thy 
 innocence prejudiced me in thy favour; in short, I 
 found thee amiable, and I instantly resolved to 
 deliver thee, by rescuing thee from an house where 
 thou appearedst infinitely more out of thy sphere 
 than where thou art now. I have purchased thee of 
 thy mother.' ' What did you say, my lord ? ' ex- 
 claimed I. ' Have you bought me ? ' Yes,' replied 
 he, 'and far too dearly for you to pretend that I 
 have bestowed my money for nothing.' 'But,' 
 said I, 'I would have you to know that this old 
 woman, who assumes to be my grandmother, is no 
 such thing.' ' And who then are thy parents ? ' 
 said the marquis. ' I know not that,' answered I. 
 ' Possibly they may be persons of genteel extraction, 
 and possibly, it may be better for me to be utterly 
 ignorant who they are. But this I must tell you, 
 that in my present state of uncertainty on that 
 head, I am rather inclined to imagine myself sprung 
 from no ignoble house ; and however ridiculous this 
 imagination may appear to you, yet so great a power 
 and influence has it upon my mind, that neither the 
 most dazzling promises nor the cruellest menaces 
 can ever make me capable of forgetting my duty. 
 I will remain virtuous, as I have hitherto been, spite 
 of whatever prejudice my present situation may 
 authorise the world to entertain against me. The 
 old woman had no right to sell me to you, and it is
 
 DON SYLVICVDE ROSALVA 285 
 
 in your power to oblige her to give you back the 
 sum she has so unjustly received.' 
 
 " 'Thou thinkest so ? ' said the marquis, sneering. 
 ' But let me tell thee that I have not the least desire 
 for it, and that thou shalt be mine in spite of thee, 
 or all the fine imaginations thou hast taken into thy 
 head. Look'ye, Jacintha, I have no faith in the 
 virtue of a girl of fifteen, and thou wouldst not be 
 the first inexorable fair one I have met with among 
 a variety of others. Believe me, many others 
 superior to thyself, have not made so much ado 
 about the matter; but I see we must have more 
 still.' I replied to this only by a flood of tears, and 
 the marquis seemed embarrassed what course to 
 take with me. I fell down at his feet, conjuring 
 him to set me at liberty and abandon me to my 
 fate. My prayers had quite a contrary effect. He 
 lifted me up with an extraordinary emotion, threw 
 himself on his knees before me, and said everything 
 that the most lively passion can inspire. I do 
 believe there is a something epidemical in these 
 vehement agitations of mind ; and indeed it seems 
 evident from that daily experience which must 
 strike spectators, on seeing a lively and real passion 
 represented. I had no love for the marquis, but I 
 could not help being uneasy at the vehemence of 
 his emotion. He seized my hands, and might 
 probably not only feel my pulse beat quicker than 
 ordinary, but likewise observe me to have much 
 more than my usual colour : and hence, the senses 
 having a greater share in his love for me than the 
 heart, he fancied this a favourable moment to take 
 me by surprise. It would be ridiculous in me to 
 attempt to persuade you that I am incapable of any 
 weakness. In my opinion virtue, under certain 
 circumstances, does not so much consist in a total 
 insensibility, (which never can be a merit), as in the 
 victory which a more powerful sentiment, or a 
 stronger passion obtains over the impulses of nature.
 
 286 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 But be this as it may, I am rejoiced in being able 
 to tell you, that the marquis's first attempt to take 
 advantage of my confusion, restored me on a sudden 
 to my former strength. I tore myself from his 
 arms, telling him that I would hear no more of an 
 amour which I had not the least intention to en- 
 courage; and concluded with adding so much to 
 persuade him fully of my mind in that respect, that 
 he presently lost all patience. He flew into a 
 violent rage against me and loaded me with re- 
 proaches ; alleging that my prudery was nothing 
 but an artifice by which I fancied to wind him up 
 to the madness of sacrificing his honour to me ; and 
 swearing, that in spite of all my ancestors, were I 
 even descended in a direct line from the Egyptian 
 king Misphragmutosis, he would bring me to better 
 terms with him. His choler and his threatenings 
 terrified me to such a degree, that I made use of 
 every method to soften him by good words ; and 
 indeed, availed myself of some which he might 
 readily interpret as giving him room to hope for 
 more favourable sentiments from me in future. By 
 degrees he seemed to be somewhat appeased, and at 
 length left me, with a promise, that if after three 
 days' reflection which he assigned me, I persisted in 
 my refusal of his offers, he would no longer object to 
 my dismission. This he uttered with so ingenuous 
 an air, that I believed him upon his word. I then 
 passed the remainder of the evening with great 
 composure, well satisfied with the victory which I 
 flattered myself I had gained over him. I took up 
 my theorbo, sung and chatted with little Stella, then 
 took my supper and went quietly to bed. I was not 
 got quite asleep, nor the taper yet burnt out, when 
 all on a sudden I heard the door of my chamber 
 open. I might very possibly have been frightened 
 at the sight of a spectre, but the appearance of the 
 marquis there terrified me infinitely more. He had 
 something in his looks and manner so ferocious, that
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 287 
 
 I started up on observing him advance towards me. 
 I endeavoured instantly to jump out of bed for 
 I never undressed myself entirely but he caught 
 hold of me and held me down, swearing I should 
 absolutely surrender myself that moment. I cried 
 out with all my might, and though he strove to stop 
 my mouth with a pillow, I defended myself with 
 such fury, that he found himself obliged to take 
 breath a little, while I continued my outcries so 
 loudly, that Stella, who slept in a distant room from 
 mine, waked, and came in half-naked to my assist- 
 ance. The sight of her redoubled my courage, weak 
 as the assistance might seem which I had reason to 
 expect from such a girl : accordingly, I repulsed the 
 marquis with such violence, that he overthrew young 
 Stella, and fell with her upon the floor. This cir- 
 cumstance, indifferent as it may appear in itself at 
 first sight, saved me however from the impending 
 danger. 
 
 " This honest girl had not one of those faces which 
 are reckoned pretty in Spain, though amongst the 
 negroes it would have wanted nothing but the com- 
 plexion of the country to render its mistress a grace. 
 But in return, the disorder into which her fail had 
 put her dress, which was rather more than negligent, 
 discovered to the marquis other imaginary perfec- 
 tions, by which nature seemed to have made her 
 amends for the deficiencies of her face. He was 
 so struck with them, that he determined to make 
 them the instrument of avenging himself for my 
 coldness. He told her, on raising her from the 
 ground, what impression her charms had made upon 
 him ; and that in a style so figurative, and accom- 
 panied with such glowing expressions, as left her no 
 time to treat it as trifling. She therefore fled away 
 like Daphne, and he with greater speed pursued her 
 like Apollo. In short, he shut himself up with her in 
 her room, and in all likelihood soon thought no more 
 of any Jacintha in the world. This unexpected
 
 288 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 change of scene sprung an idea in my mind, which I 
 instantly attempted to realise. I dressed myself with 
 all expedition, and after waiting a little while, 
 slipped gently toward Stella's room door, to learn 
 whether I might believe myself secure. I did not 
 dare hope for such another favourable moment. The 
 old creature before-mentioned was gone to rest very 
 quietly, as knowing that the marquis was himself in 
 the house. I stole downstairs therefore unmolested, 
 though in such fears that I hardly dared to breathe ; 
 and after groping about a good while, (for it was 
 very dark, and I every moment afraid of hitting 
 against something or other that might occasion a 
 noise) at length I reached the door, but found it fast 
 under lock and key. However, I crept about from 
 side to side, till at last I found a kind of closet un- 
 locked, which, instead of windows, had an opening 
 in the wall next the street, grated with iron bars, and 
 these I found placed so wide from each other, that 
 without more hesitation, I made the utmost efforts 
 to drag myself through them. The expedient suc- 
 ceeded, and not without great difficulty, and greater 
 pains and bruises, I saw myself soon on the safe side 
 of danger. 
 
 " You can scarely conceive the joy I felt on finding 
 myself in the street. I ran with all my strength, 
 without knowing whither; and the house I had just 
 escaped from being in the suburbs of the town, I 
 presently discovered I was got into the adjacent 
 fields. Never did the heavens appear so beautifully 
 covered with stars as now, while they favoured my 
 flight. I commended me to the invisible protectors 
 of innocence, and the moment I perceived myself in 
 the high-road, set off again, running as fast as if I 
 had wings instead of feet ; so that by the time of 
 sun-rising, I was about three leagues distant from 
 Seville. I then exchanged my clothes for those of a 
 young country girl about my own size, whom I met 
 by the way ; and after providing myself in the
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 289 
 
 village with a loaf and a bottle of milk, pursued my 
 journey. In the day-time I rested me in the 
 thickest shady spots I could find in the woods, and 
 when the evening came on set forward, till I could 
 meet with an inn where I might pass the night. I 
 directed my course towards Calatrava, where I 
 flattered myself I might find out the good lady upon 
 whose kindness all my hopes were founded. But 
 being obliged to travel afoot, (for out of a scrupu- 
 lousness, carried perhaps too far, I had brought 
 nothing from the old gipsy's house but the little 
 money I had then about me, and that hardly enough 
 to defray the expenses of my journey), my progress 
 was very slow. I had leisure both to reflect upon 
 my past adventures and think upon those to come : 
 and unpropitious as the present might seem, it did 
 not at all discourage me. The idea of having saved 
 my innocence by so critical an expedient, rendered 
 me alert and gay ; and of all I had left behind me 
 at the marquis's house, where everything was at 
 my own disposal, I regretted nothing but the loss of 
 my pretty ebony theorbo, which might have amused 
 me as I walked along. However, I went on singing 
 all day, and diverting myself with imitating the 
 larks ; in which I succeeded so well, that I won't 
 say but the larks themselves might be jealous of my 
 notes. 
 
 " In this manner, without meeting any other re- 
 markable event, I at length arrived safely at the 
 lady's seat I looked for. J3ut guess at my astonish- 
 ment, when they told me that the young lady, her 
 only daughter, had been some months dead of the 
 small-pox ; and that her disconsolate mother, equally 
 dead to all that had before given her delight, had 
 soon after buried herself in a convent near Toledo ! 
 This sunk my spirits to that degree, that I fell sick, 
 and continued so for some days. No situation could 
 be more critical than mine. I was in want of money, 
 not a soul in the place knew me, and the wretched 
 U
 
 290 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 equipage I appeared in made me so much more 
 liable to many inconveniences, as it might easily be 
 perceived that I travelled in disguise. Nor could I 
 think of any other expedient to extricate me from 
 my troubles, except that of entering into the service 
 of some lady ; but how to meet with any body to 
 give me a recommendation, was an obstacle which I 
 could not get over. 
 
 " While I was in this perplexing state of anxiety, a 
 little company of comedians came to the inn where 
 I lodged. The manager's wife was a person of a 
 genteel appearance, and her deportment so engaging 
 that we soon became acquainted. We were pleased 
 with each other at first sight, and she so won my 
 confidence, that I ventured to inform her of my 
 history, and the present situation of my affairs. She 
 was in want of a young woman at that juncture to 
 supply the place of her best actress, whom the 
 Count de L had lately taken from her, to the great 
 disadvantage of the whole company. Accordingly, 
 she put it to me whether I could not be persuaded 
 to devote myself to the theatre ; and to persuade 
 me to it, she spared neither arguments nor entreaties. 
 To a girl like me, who had hitherto acted in no other 
 character than that of a strolling gipsy, the honour 
 of becoming a heroine on the stage could not fail to 
 be a very flattering idea. But notwithstanding my 
 youth, I knew at the same time that the difference, 
 in the public estimation, between a comedian and a 
 gipsy is not so great as those theatrical princesses 
 may imagine ; so that the lady Arsenia had no 
 little difficulty to overcome all my scruples. She 
 seemed enchanted with my sentiments, and re- 
 doubled her caresses and persuasions to induce me 
 to embrace a kind of life, which, in her idea, had 
 nothing in it despicable or ignoble ; and which could 
 only be decried by the corrupt manners of the 
 generality of its professors. In proof of her asser- 
 tion, she told me some things which seemed to have
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 291 
 
 an air of truth ; and though she could not deny but 
 that a young actress was infinitely more exposed to 
 the artifices of men than other females, yet she 
 insisted upon it that courage and a firm resolution 
 to be really virtuous in that state, would the more 
 redound to her honour, as there were so many things 
 in it to be put up with. In short, Arsenia's remon- 
 strances, civilities, and warm wishes, the friendship 
 she promised me, and my present situation, which 
 left me no choice, at length surmounted my scruples, 
 though they could not remove them ; and I declared 
 myself in favour of a profession for which Arsenia 
 was pleased to tell me I had evidently great talents. 
 I was accordingly received with the general approba- 
 tion of the whole company, and after Arsenia had 
 instructed me in the mysteries of their art, Corduba 
 was fixed upon as the scene in which I was to make 
 my first essay before the public. The spectators 
 decided as favourably of me as they did of Arsenia, 
 and I must confess to you, that the clapping of 
 hands, and that lively expression of an universal 
 satisfaction with which a young actress, who pleases 
 as soon as she appears, is applauded from every 
 quarter, makes a very agreeable impression all 
 together ; though by the way, a very dangerous one 
 for the vanity of a young girl. 
 
 " And yet this sensibility for the applause I enjoyed 
 during the whole representation, and for which I 
 was perhaps principally indebted to the novelty of 
 my figure, could not totally hinder certain humiliat- 
 ing self-reproaches from rising in my mind the 
 moment I ceased to be Arpasia or Roxellana. I 
 blushed to think I had been so destitute of shame 
 as to abandon myself, as it were, to the public view, 
 and under a borrowed character to excite passions 
 which in some measure seemed to countenance un- 
 bridled youth to expect from me that I should 
 favour their passions in private, and in my own 
 proper person. These considerations, while they
 
 2 9 2 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 embittered everything that seemed agreeable in my 
 situation, served to make me the more circumspect 
 in my conduct. My heart, which had never indulged 
 vicious inclinations, was thereby more easily on its 
 guard against seduction. But the great difficulty 
 was how even to save appearances in so slippery a 
 sphere of life ; how to hinder calumny itself from 
 laying hold of anything in my conduct to reproach 
 me with, and to silence its clamours respecting me. 
 I know not whether I have entirely succeeded in my 
 purpose ; but it would be ungrateful in me should I 
 forget to assure you that Arsenia, whom I every 
 day found more worthy my friendship and esteem, 
 was of the greatest utility to me in the arduous task ; 
 supplying to me the place of a mother, and in every 
 respect seconding my best intentions. She never 
 left me out of her sight ; I ate and lodged with her ; 
 her conversation and her example at once realised 
 and confirmed my own sentiments, and her character, 
 to which none could help doing justice, screened me 
 from the malevolence of such as lay it down for a 
 maxim, that a female who appears virtuous, is in 
 fact no more than wary and cautious. In a few 
 weeks we left Corduba and repaired to Granada, 
 where we stayed almost a year performing with a 
 constant run of approbation. Here it was that I 
 had the good fortune to commence an acquaintance 
 with Don Eugenio. The high reputation he was 
 held in, both on account of his merit and his polite- 
 ness, too much distinguished him from the crowd of 
 young gentlemen for Arsenia to hesitate at receiving 
 his visits, and those of a few of his intimate friends ; 
 visits, which instead of bringing censure upon us, 
 were rather considered as a proof that we were in 
 higher esteem than our condition in life might seem 
 to announce. In a society like this in which I have 
 now the honour to speak, it would ill become me to 
 make a mystery of Don Eugenio's too obliging 
 partiality for me; and it will be allowed me to
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 293 
 
 declare, that unless I had been stupid even to 
 insensibility, I could not but have been touched 
 with his sentiments : nor do I blush to own, that 
 from the beginning of our acquaintance I felt for 
 him such an esteem as I had never before or since 
 felt for any person, nor perhaps ever shall feel for 
 any other. If ever I have had reason to be proud, 
 it is of the friendship with which he hath always 
 honoured me. The world, which generally deter- 
 mines without understanding the cause, or will not 
 give itself the trouble to examine matters with 
 attention, has supposed an artifice and cunning in 
 my conduct, of which the sincerity of my heart was 
 ever incapable. But the idea that Don Eugenic 
 knew me better, has always made my mind quiet on 
 that head ; and the execution of a plan which I 
 have long laid down for myself will, I hope, per- 
 fectly justify that friendship whereof he has not 
 found me hitherto unworthy."
 
 294 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 DON EUGENIC CONTINUES THE BEAUTIFUL JACINTHA's 
 NARRATION 
 
 ON speaking as above, the amiable Jacintha ap- 
 peared to be so much affected, that she found 
 herself obliged to stop a moment, in spite of the 
 efforts she made to conceal her emotion. " Permit 
 me, dear Jacintha," said Don Eugenio, without 
 seeming to have taken notice of her confusion, 
 " permit me to go on with your relation, since the 
 part of your history which you are now entering 
 upon, is where my own adventures begin to be 
 blended with yours." 
 
 Accordingly, he thus proceeded : "It was now 
 almost a twelvemonth since I set out with Don 
 Gabriel for Granada, where I had several affairs to 
 settle. I went one evening to the play, and there I 
 saw Jacintha. She pleased me, and she affected 
 me : the former was a natural consequence of her 
 personal attractions for whom, indeed, would she 
 not please ? the latter was as natural an effect of 
 the character she then represented. The universal 
 applause she possessed, and which seemed to me to 
 confound her own person with that she was to 
 represent, did not dazzle me. I observed that she 
 was no more than a very moderate actress. In some 
 places indeed, where she was to point out noble, 
 natural, and inartificial sentiments, she appeared 
 incomparable ; but the poet had taken care to give 
 her that opportunity but very seldom. In all the 
 rest I thought I could observe she did herself a
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 295 
 
 violence, in affecting sentiments and passions that 
 were foreign to her. This remark, in my opinion, 
 was greatly to her advantage : nor do I really think 
 that during the whole evening she ever pleased me 
 more than when, considered as an actress, she should 
 have pleased me least. I left the play-house not a 
 little uneasy to find that the image of this young 
 girl pursued me wherever I went ; I thought I saw 
 her before my eyes the whole evening : the affecting 
 tone of her voice was continually sounding in my 
 ears ; and nothing I could meet with in the company 
 where I spent the rest of the day, was capable of 
 diverting my thoughts, or in the least abating the 
 emphasis and vivacity of these first impressions. 
 For some time I paid no regard to it ; at length I 
 strove to dissipate these ideas, but still they re- 
 turned incessantly to the charge, and it took me 
 up several days before I could make these trouble- 
 some guests give place to others which demanded 
 my immediate attention. 
 
 " A few days after this I visited the theatre again, 
 and waited in fruitless expectation the appearance 
 of Jacintha. Her place that evening was supplied 
 by another, who had the talent of transforming 
 herself into every character imaginable ; a qualifica- 
 tion which properly constitutes the good actor, and 
 which this person possessed in a degree of perfection 
 infinitely superior to Jacintha. But still she dis- 
 pleased me, and yet I could give no other reason, 
 but because she was not Jacintha. Never did I 
 wait for the last act of a play with so much im- 
 patience. I gained some account of Jacintha from 
 one of my friends : next I learnt Arsenia's character, 
 who passed for her aunt, and was also informed of 
 the retired life which they both led. This intelligence 
 only served to increase my curiosity, and I resolved 
 to become acquainted with them. Accordingly, I 
 paid them a visit, and found that my friend had 
 said nothing too much of Arsenia. It is so rare a
 
 296 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 thing to meet with virtue, generous principles, and 
 elevated sentiments in an actress, that the world is 
 not to be blamed, if, when it finds all these qualities 
 in such a subject, it looks upon them to be just as 
 much the effect of art, as those other characters are 
 which the poets give them to represent. I made my 
 observations upon Arsenia for a good while, with 
 that degree of distrust which her situation in life 
 inspired ; but I found her gain upon me just as 
 much as another, that had made a great ostentation 
 of her virtue, would have lost by such a scrutiny. 
 You may judge whether I was less attentive to the 
 examination of Jacintha. 'Tis true, her tender age 
 seemed to absolve her from every apprehension of 
 artifice and dissimulation. The innocence which 
 accompanied all her actions effectually screened her 
 from all suspicions of this nature : but the pleasure 
 of seeing that idea, which I had conceived of her 
 from the first, now more and more confirmed, made 
 me examine her with the minutest exactness in my 
 power. That same sincerity, and amiable simplicity 
 of heart, which rendered her incapable of those little 
 artful tricks by which the fair sex, whether from 
 vanity or whatever other cause, often lay snares for 
 our hearts; these at the same time hindered her 
 from perceiving that she was critically observed. 
 Hence, she had as little intention to conceal as to 
 display herself. She pleased without designing to 
 please ; and that nameless charm which made her 
 slightest motion interesting, sat upon her as naturally 
 and as easily as the fine glow of health that animated 
 her cheek. Her actions appeared to have but one 
 end, and that the only one which they naturally 
 ought to have. She seemed unconscious that her 
 eyes, all animated as they were, could be of any 
 other use to her than to see with. If she laughed 
 or smiled it was not to show her fine teeth ; and 
 hence she would let twenty opportunities slip by 
 her within an hour of displaying to the company
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 297 
 
 the beauty of a fine arm, or the seducing delicacy of 
 a charming little foot ; opportunities of which many 
 another female might have availed herself with 
 pleasure. Your presence, fair Jacintha, excuses me 
 from continuing the picture, which I should neither 
 be happy enough, nor sufficiently skilful to finish. 
 Innocence has a thousand native charms which 
 cannot well be painted, and which it is equally 
 impossible for art to imitate : charms, whose im- 
 pression is the more dangerous, as they appear 
 mild and innocent like itself. My heart was already 
 entirely hers, before I had considered whither those 
 sentiments might tend, with which, though un- 
 wittingly, she had inspired me. I accustomed 
 myself, insensibly, to see her every day, and as in- 
 sensibly, all that had formerly amused my imagina- 
 tion lost its charms with me. Her presence alone 
 delighted me, and I felt nothing but languor when 
 deprived of its relief. I withdrew myself by degrees 
 from all other societies, pleasures, and diversions, to 
 enjoy unmolested the only pleasure which my heart 
 was capable of tasting. Every minute that by 
 chance detained me from seeing her so soon as usual, 
 seemed an insupportable space of time, and every 
 evening I spent in her and Arsenia's company (for 
 I never saw her by herself alone) appeared but as a 
 transient moment. 
 
 " The reproaches of my friends at length obliged 
 me to give them some account of that tender in- 
 clination which seemed to have extinguished in my 
 heart all others ; and the outcry raised against me 
 on that account, soon discovered to my mind that 
 this inclination, instead of being a volatile amuse- 
 ment or an airy fancy, as some thought they had a 
 right to suppose it, was in fact a passion that must 
 decide the happiness or the infelicity of my life. I 
 shall not tire you with a circumstantial detail of 
 all that passed in my heart in consequence of 
 this discovery. They who fancy that love can be
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 combated with success, mean nothing more than 
 a fantastic chimera, which they very improperly call 
 by that appellation. Those rapid ardours which 
 beauty only, or a mere reciprocal impulse of 
 imagination have kindled, and which are kept alive 
 by animal desire ; those arbitrary ties in which the 
 heart had no share, formed perhaps by vanity, 
 vexation, curiosity, caprice, or custom ; given up 
 on the same principles, when and how you please ; 
 and which, merely to give them more dignity, are 
 often called love, though they have not the least 
 connection or correspondence with it all this, I 
 say, may easily, and without much pains, be com- 
 bated. But no one ever gained the victory over a 
 real love, founded upon a secret correspondence of 
 hearts, and built on a reciprocal esteem : nay, the 
 very obstacles opposed to it, serve only to render 
 the victory more complete and decisive on the side 
 of love. I urged every imaginable objection against 
 myself ; I felt the whole force of those objections, 
 and was but too well informed, that people seldom 
 despise with impunity those precedents on record 
 which declare against such amours. But what 
 could all these considerations avail against an in- 
 clination, the source of an internal, heartfelt felicity, 
 and to which I was ready at any time to sacrifice 
 every other satisfaction ? a sacrifice indeed, for 
 which he who truly loves thinks himself amply 
 recompensed by a single look, or a single starting 
 tear from the object of his tender passion. But 
 why should I wish to urge excuses before this little 
 society of friends who require no such at my hands ; 
 indeed, were any one here present incapable of the 
 sensation I am speaking of, from such an one I 
 could expect no excuse at all. 
 
 " I resolved then, with all possible intrepidity, to 
 pass for a madman in the estimate of this last- 
 mentioned species, and accordingly used every 
 means in my power to secure a sole interest in that
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 299 
 
 love which constituted my only happiness. I had 
 now been acquainted with Jacintha some months, 
 and had taken my measures in consequence before 
 she herself could perceive that I was her admirer ; 
 my conduct towards her was so much upon the 
 reserve, and the tenderness I had shown for her had 
 so much more the air of a brother's friendship for 
 a sister, than that of love. Arsenia, however, began 
 to suspect something of my designs. She guessed, 
 indeed, that I was wishing for the pleasure of seeing 
 that sympathy which seemed to exist between our 
 hearts, unfold itself gradually in Jacintha' s, and yet 
 sometimes she could not help doubting, whether the 
 use I purposed one day to make of that circumstance 
 might be so innocent as she could wish, on her dear 
 Jacintha' s account. Though she might not suppose 
 there was any room to distrust my manner of 
 thinking or my principles, yet, on the other hand, 
 she was fearful lest the prejudices of the world, or 
 perhaps the consideration of my own fortune, might 
 set us at too great a distance from each other, and 
 the rather, as she could hardly suppose me to have 
 courage or love sufficient to overcome those ob- 
 stacles. She knew that the world would much 
 more easily pardon me an engagement by which 
 I should only sacrifice Jacintha to my desires than 
 excuse another engagement by which (according to 
 the corrupt maxims of a licentious public) my honour 
 might receive a stain. And as to my manner of 
 thinking, she understood mankind too well to take 
 the principles of a young man as sufficient vouchers 
 against his passions. These considerations, as she 
 herself afterwards told me, did not indeed seem 
 urgent enough for her to think of repressing, by 
 premature apprehensions, an innocent inclination, 
 which by almost imperceptible degrees unfolded 
 itself in the heart of her young friend. However, 
 she thought it but right to keep a more attentive 
 eye upon me, and in a delicate manner to give
 
 300 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 me a seasonable opportunity of explaining what she 
 supposed to be the real sentiments of my heart. 
 
 "Among the number of young persons who had 
 declared themselves admirers of the amiable Jacintha, 
 and as such had exercised their pretended right to 
 tease her by those poor impertinences and shallow 
 conceits which they vented behind the scenes, 
 there were some who would gladly have carried 
 their designs upon her to a greater length, but from 
 their doubts of success while, as they were pleased 
 to observfc, I stood in their way ; though I had no 
 reason to fear that any of this stamp could ever 
 be formidable to Jacintha's heart, it was, notwith- 
 standing, a very disagreeable circumstance to be 
 unable to release her from such a swarm of im- 
 portunate triflers ; and yet still, thought I, 'tis a 
 very natural inconvenience for a rose to suffer, that 
 the moment it blooms forth, all sorts of insects 
 should hover and buzz around it. Jacintha's conduct, 
 however, had something in it that constantly inspired 
 the coxcombs with such a kind of deference and 
 respect as at once surprised herself, and made me 
 just as easy on that head as if no such intruders 
 had existed, or I had been wholly indifferent to the 
 general object of their pursuit. But about that 
 season Don Ferdinand de Zamora came to Granada, 
 and the first time he saw Jacintha on the stage 
 conceived such a violent passion for her, in his way, 
 as did not long leave me to enjoy this calm tran- 
 quillity. A rival, who to the beauty of a Narcissus 
 joined the unbridled licentiousness of a Satyr, who 
 had accustomed himself to give free scope to all his 
 passions, and whenever it served to accommodate his 
 brutality, made no scruple of dissipating without 
 bounds the vast fortunes which came to him by 
 the death of his parents. Such a rival as this, little 
 as I feared him with respect to Jacintha's heart, 
 was formidable indeed on many other accounts. 
 He made his first declaration of love by presents,
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 301 
 
 which possibly many a prude might have been 
 unable to resist. Jacintha sent them back to him, 
 without once supposing that she made a great 
 sacrifice in so doing, either to her own innocence, or 
 to my love ; which latter, though it seemed constantly 
 confined within the pale of friendship, could not be 
 a mystery to Don Ferdinand. She could not, how- 
 ever, consistently with decorum, refuse to receive 
 his visits, or to partake of those extravagantly- 
 superb entertainments, which, to gratify his ample 
 vanity, he gave her, Arsenia, and others belonging 
 to the theatre. My heart paid dear for it, but 
 still I thought it best in this dangerous circumstance, 
 if it were so, to leave Jacintha to the motions of 
 her own mind. 
 
 "The whole city of Granada could testify that I 
 had never seen Jacintha, except in the company of 
 Arsenia or other persons; so that Don Ferdinand 
 might be the less inclined to believe I could be his 
 rival, as, after a strict inquiry into my conduct, he 
 was unable to discover the least circumstance that 
 could render me suspected. And even if he had 
 entertained suspicions on that head, it might have 
 served only to stimulate him to redouble his 
 assiduities towards Jacintha. But neither his 
 beauty nor his brilliant equipage, neither his 
 presents nor his feasts, nor that prodigious quantity 
 of odes and elegies, in which he complained of the 
 hardness of her adamantine heart, or stood astonished 
 how the snow of her fair bosom could be so cold : 
 neither these, nor all of these, were capable of 
 striking a single spark of compassion from that 
 little flinty heart though the whole corps of Granadian 
 poets attacked it most unmercifully with the name 
 of Don Ferdinand de Zamora. At length the latter 
 thought proper to offer his heart, his presents, and 
 his elegies to another actress, who, excepting prudish- 
 ness as she called it was in every respect 
 Jacintha's competitor. The more reason I had to
 
 302 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 be satisfied with the issue of this adventure, the 
 more impatient I grew to rescue Jacintha from 
 those inconveniences of a theatrical life, to which 
 such events exposed her. I now thought myself so 
 well assured both of the character and dispositions 
 of Jacintha, that it seemed needless to make further 
 scrutiny upon the subject, and accordingly determined 
 to explain myself ingenuously to Arsenia, and 
 concert measures with her for the execution of my 
 plan ; when all on a sudden she was attacked with 
 a consumptive disorder, the progress of which was 
 so rapid, as soon to put her out of all hopes of a 
 cure. This therefore induced her to anticipate me 
 upon the subject. Accordingly, she requested a 
 private conference with me; the sole object of 
 which, excepting a short enumeration of her own 
 adventures, was Jacintha. ' I love her,' said this 
 valuable woman, ' as if she was my own daughter, 
 and the circumstances in which I must leave her 
 are the only things that could make me wish for the 
 prolongation of a life, which, through a series of 
 misfortunes, and a state of anxiety which can end 
 only in my death, hath long since been burdensome 
 to me. My love for Jacintha is the more impartial, 
 as it is by no means the effect of a mechanical 
 instinct, but rather solely founded on the qualities 
 of her heart. Oh, how highly doth she merit a 
 better lot ! Yet what hopes can I conceive that her 
 fortune should ever be answerable to that merit ? 
 Situated as she is, there is no course of life she can 
 choose, but must be attended with dangers. Youth 
 and innocence, accompanied with so many charms, 
 are a very dangerous endowment for persons of our 
 sex, unless they are likewise accompanied with the 
 advantages of birth and fortune. The same 
 innocence, and the same charms, which would 
 inspire a respectful love, or at least honourable views 
 towards a young lady of quality or a rich heiress, 
 inspire none but unbridled passions towards a girl
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 303 
 
 destitute of all such advantages, and tend only to 
 excite such desires as pave the path of her ruin; 
 and the man who might have thought it no shame 
 to cast himself at the feet of such an one, and, in a 
 rapid enthusiasm to tell her how much he adores 
 her person, and that she is the divinity of his heart, 
 would be offended at the bare suspicion that he 
 could have the least idea of a matrimonial con- 
 nection. Judge then, Don Eugenio, whether I can 
 be easy respecting the fate of Jacintha. She is not 
 formed for the condition to which her ill-fortune 
 condemns her; and her innocence and softness of 
 temper seem only to render her sensibility more 
 exquisitely tender. I have not the least ap- 
 prehension for her with respect to all those brilliant 
 fops that hover about her, and are as incapable of 
 inspiring love, as they are of conceiving it. These 
 are not the people that I fear. But should she 
 meet with a man who is capable of gaining her 
 esteem by the qualities of a noble heart, by virtuous 
 sentiments, and a respectful tenderness a man 
 who could conceal his desires under the appearance 
 of great disinterestedness, and insensibly introduce 
 the love in her heart under the name of friendship 
 a man who should have sufficient patience to wait 
 for the moment in which (disarmed by that con- 
 fidence which she imagines herself to owe him, 
 disarmed by the innocence of her own sentiments, 
 or by the fascinating charm of sympathy, or by 
 certain secret instincts which, in the simplicity of 
 her inexperienced heart, she might confound with 
 the tender emotions of that heart) she may yield 
 herself to his desires as a voluntary sacrifice, without 
 distrust, and without reserve. Ah ! Don Eugenio ! 
 how am I apprehensive that she may already 
 have met with this man ! Pardon me, generous 
 friend ! my present situation authorises me to speak 
 to you without disguise. A person, who in a little 
 while will have nothing more to fear or to hope for
 
 3 o 4 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 from men, can pierce through that veil of delusion 
 which so commonly imposes upon, staggers, or 
 restrains the judgment, while we are busily occupied 
 in the affairs of this lower world. You will not 
 doubt me, signior, when I inform you, that I have 
 long since been apprised of your love for Jacintha, 
 and you know better than I, that you have but too 
 well succeeded in the plans you have concerted 
 respecting the best and tenderest of hearts. I 
 esteem you, Don Eugenio, and but a few days since 
 should have thought I had offended you, had I 
 expressed the least shadow of distrust or diffidence. 
 But now, signior ; now that every other care gives 
 place to that of Jacintha's safety, what sentiments 
 would you have me to entertain of your inclination 
 towards her ? ' 
 
 " Here this good creature proceeded to unfold to 
 me her apprehensions, and at length closed her 
 discourse by conjuring me, with tears in her eyes, to 
 show every proper respect to the innocence of her 
 young friend. She saw me so sensibly affected, 
 that it was impossible for her to doubt my sincerity 
 in the declarations I uttered on the subject. I 
 related to her, in the amplest manner, all that had 
 passed in my heart from the first moment I had 
 seen Jacintha ; how far the desire of seeing her 
 happy had ever prevailed over the consideration of 
 my own views or interests, and that I was firmly 
 resolved henceforward, to sacrifice every other con- 
 sideration, however important they might be in 
 themselves, to our mutual felicity. I begged of her 
 to prepare her friend accordingly, and permit me to 
 make my declaration to Jacintha in her own pre- 
 sence. This was done, and the amiable Jacintha 
 made no hesitation to testify how much she was 
 affected with my conduct. ' These tears,' said she, 
 looking at me with overflowing eyes ; ' these true 
 witnesses of that perfect confidence I place in your 
 integrity, and which I wish not to conceal I owe
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 305 
 
 them to your generous sentiments. But alas ! these 
 are all that the unfortunate Jacintha can command 
 or do to evidence her gratitude ! ' So saying, she 
 related to me the whole story of her life, with an 
 ingenuity that rendered her a thousand times more 
 amiable in my eyes. 
 
 " ' And now, judge for yourself, Don Eugenio,' con- 
 tinued she, after finishing her narrative, 'judge 
 whether I should not merit the most odious of titles 
 could I wish to abuse your exceeding kindness 
 before I have obtained an absolute certainty re- 
 specting what may, indeed, be only a self-delusion, 
 the creature of my vanity ; though still I cannot 
 help flattering myself, that possibly I may have less 
 cause to blush at my origin than the gipsy woman, 
 who brought me up, would have had me believe.' 
 In vain did Arsenia unite with me to persuade her 
 that she carried her scruples too far ; she continued 
 firm in the resolution of retiring to a convent when- 
 ever she should lose Arsenia. All I could at last 
 obtain from her was, that she would leave the choice 
 of the place to me, with a solemn promise not to 
 engage herself by any vows, without my previous 
 consent. I wrote immediately to a friend at Seville, 
 desiring him to get and send me the necessary 
 intelligence respecting the old gipsy woman : but 1 
 received for answer, that the corregidor's strict 
 watch kept over the house, had a little while before 
 obliged her to consult her safety by a speedy flight. 
 Disagreeable as this circumstance was to me, I did 
 not give up the hopes of meeting with the old 
 woman one day or other. Accordingly, I took my 
 measures for that purpose, flattering myself I should 
 be able to extort from her an account of the manner 
 in which Jacintha fell into her hands ; but in case 
 she escaped my search, I determined not to despair 
 of bringing Jacintha, by my constancy, at length to 
 change her mind. My sister's affairs, which in- 
 dispensably required my presence, obliged me in the 
 x
 
 306 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 meantime to quit Grenada, leaving the object of 
 my tenderest affections with her worthy friend, 
 from whom nothing but death could part her, and 
 whose daily declining health left me little hopes of 
 ever seeing her again."
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 307 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 JACINTHA'S HISTORY CONCLUDED. DON SYLVIO'S 
 CONJECTURES UPON THE SUBJECT, WITH PRE- 
 PARATIONS FOR AN EPISODICAL INTERLUDE, 
 WHICH FEW OF OUR READERS WILL THINK 
 
 TEDIOUS 
 
 INTERESTING as the above history of the amours 
 of Don Eugenic and the beautiful Jacintha might 
 have been to themselves, and possibly to their 
 immediate hearers, we are not at all disposed to 
 blame our readers, if they secretly wish to see an 
 end of them. To a certain good sort of people 
 indeed, calm and cool in sentiment, and who have 
 either forgotten "the heyday of the blood," or 
 never felt its impulse, to such there certainly 
 cannot be a more tiresome creature in the world 
 than a lover relating the history of his own heart. 
 We shall content ourselves then with observing 
 that Jacintha resumed the discourse, and continued 
 the account of her adventures from the death of 
 her friend, till the lucky moment in which Don 
 Eugenio and Don Gabriel, supported by our hero, 
 rescued her from the hands of Don Ferdinand de 
 Zamora. These adventures, elucidated by the 
 confession which the faithful Teresilla had been 
 obliged to make to her mistress of her secret corres- 
 pondence with Don Ferdinand, and the several 
 petit-treasons she had committed for a considerable 
 time past, supplied all that had hitherto been 
 incomprehensible to the lady herself. For un- 
 fortunately for this worthy waiting-woman, one of
 
 3 o8 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 Don Ferdinand's letters, which, instead of burning, 
 she fancied she had safe about her, had somehow 
 (though nobody knows how) dropped out of her 
 pocket in Pedrillo's bed-chamber ; and as every- 
 thing, in a manner, necessarily conspires, when a 
 gross fraud approaches to its discovery, this same 
 letter fell into the hands of Don Eugenic, on his 
 entering that chamber by chance the very morning 
 after our hero's sudden departure from the inn. 
 
 Jacintha accordingly informed them in what 
 manner Don Ferdinand de Zamora, instead of giving 
 up his designs as he pretended to do, had found 
 means to gain over her attendant ; what schemes 
 he had laid, in concert with Teresilla, for carrying 
 her off on her way to Valencia, a journey for which 
 she had been preparing herself from the death of 
 Arsenia; how he had executed his design; what 
 pains he had taken to soften her, endeavouring by a 
 more respectful carriage to inculcate a better opinion 
 of his views concerning her ; and lastly, the 
 fortunate event that Don Eugenic, instead of being, 
 as she herself thought him, at Valencia, was at 
 Lirias, where, through a still more lucky chance, he 
 had effected her deliverance, by lighting upon them 
 in his ride between Lirias and Julifia. 
 
 The fair Jacintha upon this occasion forgot not to 
 return our hero her repeated thanks for the gener- 
 osity with which he had exposed himself for her and 
 Don Eugenio's account. To these civilities Don 
 Sylvio replied in the gallant style of the Knights of 
 Graal, or the Round Table. He told her how much 
 he esteemed himself obliged to her for being thus 
 permitted to hear her history from her own mouth ; 
 assuring her, that it needed only to see and to hear 
 her, to be persuaded she was of an original as 
 illustrious as her personal merit, although her birth 
 was still concealed under a mysterious obscurity. 
 He could not, however, help intimating his astonish- 
 ment, that in a history which had struck him as
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 309 
 
 very extraordinary, there was not the least notice 
 taken of any fairy's interposition ; accordingly, he 
 asked her very gravely, how it happened that she 
 had observed so great a silence on that head, it not 
 being at all comprehensible that the fairies and 
 enchanters should have had no concern in the 
 adventures of a young lady so perfect in character 
 and of such excellent endowments ? The counten- 
 ance with which he put this question was so 
 serious, that the two ladies could not forbear laugh- 
 ing, though they had previously agreed to pay all 
 imaginable respect to his folly. 
 
 " If you wished me," said Jacintha, " to make a 
 fairy-tale of my history, why did you not tell me so 
 beforehand ? If I had thought it would have been 
 more agreeable on that account, it might have 
 been very easy for me to have made a Carabossa of 
 the old gipsy woman, to have turned the good lady 
 of Calatrava into a Luminosa, and to have trans- 
 formed Don Ferdinand de Zamora, at least, into a 
 sylph or a salamander, if not into a malicious dwarf." 
 
 "Pardon me," said Donna Felicia, " if in my opinion 
 your narrative would have gained no inconsiderable 
 addition by so doing. For do but conceive how 
 frigid the poet must appear, who should content 
 himself with telling us, 'Daphnis or Coridon 
 rested himself, and took the air in the shade ; ' or, 
 ' He quenched his thirst at a fountain.' But when 
 he informs us, 'That, at the wishes of Flora, the 
 flowers spontaneously sprung from the earth, and 
 formed the softest couch for beautiful Celadon's 
 repose; that the wanton zephyrs gave him to 
 breathe a fresher balmy air, wafting ambrosial 
 odours, borne lightly to him on their roseate wings, 
 and that a nymph, charming as young Hebe herself, 
 with gracious smiles presented him the purest water 
 in a cup of pearls,' then it is, and then only, we 
 suppose the poet to have done his duty, by repre- 
 senting nature as he ought to do."
 
 3 io THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 "But possibly" ,said Don Gabriel, who observed 
 our hero a little at a loss, as not knowing how to 
 take these sallies from the two ladies, "possibly the 
 fair Jacintha designed nothing more than to give us 
 a summary idea of her adventures. For after all, 
 the fairies undoubtedly may have been the secret 
 springs and chief agents in all these wonderful 
 events. And now I think of it " 
 
 "Nay, pardon me, Don Gabriel," interrupted 
 Jacintha, " I protest to you with the greatest serious- 
 ness in the world, that to my knowledge I have not 
 given the fairies the least trouble on my account. 
 Nor can I believe you would wish to persuade me 
 that those chimerical beings, who make such a deal 
 to do in tales of the fairies, ever existed elsewhere." 
 
 " But is it possible to doubt of it ? " cried Don 
 Sylvio. " Don't you see, then, that we must reject all 
 historical credibility." 
 
 " Don't be warm, my dear Don Sylvio," replied 
 Don Gabriel, smiling ; " you see Jacintha is only dis- 
 posed to be merry ; but indeed, if she was speaking 
 seriously, we shall soon make her change her 
 opinion. Possibly she may be unacquainted with 
 any other tales than those of Blue-beard, Red- 
 bonnet, or the Good Little Mouse. She would talk 
 very differently were she to hear, for instance, the 
 story of Prince Biribinquer, a story of indisputable 
 notoriety, being taken from the sixth book of the 
 famous Patephatus's incredible history." 
 
 "I must confess," said Don Sylvio, "the prince 
 you mention is utterly unknown to me, and I should 
 be very glad " 
 
 "You would be still more so," interrupted Don 
 Gabriel, "if it were possible for you to represent to 
 yourself beforehand the extraordinary and inter- 
 esting nature of his adventures. I don't think it 
 would be saying too much, were I to assure you that 
 they exceed all that has ever been seen or met with 
 hitherto in any fairy tales whatsoever."
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 311 
 
 " You excite my curiosity," said Don Eugenic. 
 "The incredible histories of a writer who disputes 
 antiquity with Homer himself, are undoubtedly such 
 vouchers as no one will ever think of contesting; 
 and though the sixth book has been long since lost to 
 the public, it does not follow but that Don Gabriel, 
 whose profound erudition in occult philosophy is 
 generally allowed, may know much more of it than 
 many others." 
 
 " I am of your mind," said Donna Felicia, " and 
 could venture any wager that even though this sixth 
 book should never have been written at all, Don 
 Gabriel's extensive science would be more than 
 sufficient to relate us the history of Prince Biri- 
 binquer word for word, just as it would have 
 appeared in that sixth book, if it ever was written." 
 
 "You are pleased to be merry, Donna Felicia," very 
 gravely replied Don Gabriel. " I grant you the 
 history of Prince Biribinquer has lain hitherto un- 
 known, but this does not at all affect its veracity ; 
 and with your leave, madam, I should choose in this 
 matter to appeal to Don Sylvio. He will see whether 
 there be anything in it that can render the fidelity 
 of the historian suspicious." 
 
 "Ay, and we shall see too," answered Donna 
 Felicia, "for I hope you will be kind enough to 
 permit the rest of us to be hearers at least, 
 though we must not presume to be judges." 
 
 Upon this every one present expressing a desire to 
 hear a story, of which the bare name of Biribinquer 
 seemed already to promise such remarkable things, 
 it was agreed, that they should meet again for that 
 purpose in the little Myrtle Grove, after their siesta, 
 or afternoon's nap, was over. And now the sun 
 beginning to be troublesome, the company took 
 their walk homeward through a green shady arbour 
 that led up to the house. 
 
 While Jacintha was relating her history, an idea, 
 it seems, struck into our hero's mind, which he
 
 3 i2 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 discovered to Don Eugenic the moment they were 
 alone together. 
 
 "What would you say to it, Don Eugenio," said 
 he, "if Jacintha should be my sister?" 
 
 "Your sister!" exclaimed Don Eugenio; "what 
 then, have you ever lost one ? " 
 
 " I had one," replied Don Sylvio, " who was 
 lost at about three years old, without anybody's 
 being able to learn what became of her." 
 
 "Heavens!" cried Don Eugenio, "how happy 
 should I be if your conjectures were well founded ; 
 and to say the truth, I am astonished to think 
 that certain features of both your faces, which are 
 very like, should not have struck my attention 
 sooner. But cannot you recollect any circumstance 
 may not there be some kind of index that might 
 turn our doubts into certainty ? " 
 
 " If there were any trusting to instinct," replied 
 Don Sylvio, " I should be strongly tempted to take 
 the first emotion I felt on seeing her face for the 
 voice of blood but I am afraid I flattered myself 
 with a vain hope." 
 
 " And why so ? " demanded Don Eugenio, with 
 great impatience. 
 
 "Because," replied the other, "I find a circum- 
 stance in Jacintha's story which embarrasses me." 
 
 " Oh ! I beg of you explain yourself," interrupted 
 Don Eugenio ; " I am on the rack every moment 
 you keep me in this uncertainty." 
 
 " Jacintha was brought up by a gipsy, and, as she 
 supposes, was torn from her parents," said Don Sylvio. 
 "The time and her age agree exactly together, for 
 my sister was pretty near three years old when she 
 disappeared. She might have been now about the 
 same age as Jacintha. The difference of names, 
 indeed, (for my sister's was Seraphina) is no great 
 matter, for she may have been made to change her 
 name : but that circumstance of the gipsy spoils 
 all. It was supposed, indeed, in my father's family,
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 313 
 
 that an old gipsy had carried off my sister ; but it 
 was supposed upon very slight grounds. For my 
 own part, I have strong reasons to be persuaded 
 that the pretended gipsy was a fairy " 
 
 At these words Don Eugenic was ready to lose 
 all patience, and found the greatest difficulty in the 
 world to repress the sudden emotions of his mind. 
 " If you have no other scruples," at length he cried, 
 after some little recollection, " we have nothing more 
 to make us uneasy. What should hinder us from 
 allowing that the gipsy, who stole away your sister, 
 might be the fairy who rendered her invisible ? 
 As to the name, it is no matter ; and trust me, all 
 your Carabossas, Fanfreluches, Cucumbras, and 
 Magotines, were neither more nor less fairies than 
 this gipsy woman. Who knows, at the long run, 
 whether we may not find that this fairy influence 
 has had more to do in Jacintha's history than she 
 herself may imagine ? " 
 
 Don Sylvio thought this an admirable idea ; ac- 
 cordingly, both of them employed all their ingenuity 
 to fortify their minds in the imagination which so 
 highly flattered their inclinations. Our hero had no 
 doubt but the mystery would be soon cleared up, 
 and perhaps before it was expected, by the fairy's 
 sudden appearance; while Don Eugenio concerted 
 new measures for finding out and securing the gipsy, 
 as flattering himself that he should be able to obtain 
 better intelligence from her respecting his dear 
 Jacintha's genealogy, than he could get for love or 
 money from all the fairies in the world. 
 
 During this conference Donna Felicia had retired 
 to her closet, where, while Laura was dressing 
 Jacintha, she enjoyed the satisfaction of giving a 
 loose to those pleasing reveries which incessantly 
 occupied her mind. She had reason indeed to be 
 satisfied with the advances she had already made 
 upon Don Sylvio's heart, but she might possibly 
 have been much more so if her own heart had had
 
 3 i4 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 a less share in her views than her vanity. Love, 
 however, is so timid a creature, as often to fancy 
 itself at the greatest distance from its happiness, 
 when it is really nearest to it. Donna Felicia for 
 once found herself in this situation, and the extra- 
 vagant idea she formed to herself of the difficulty 
 there was in chasing from Don Sylvio's heart the 
 blue butterfly, made her apprehend it indispensably 
 necessary to combat him with more powerful 
 weapons than all she had hitherto employed for 
 that purpose ; nor could she help thinking it might 
 be greatly to her disadvantage, if she left him time 
 to put himself into a state of defence. According 
 to her opinion, the heart of this young man could 
 only be carried by storm, and every minute in which 
 her eyes did not dart their looks at him, seemed, as 
 t were, to repair the breaches which might other- 
 wise have been made in the citadel of his breast. 
 In the midst of these reflections, she took it into 
 her head to send for him to her toilette ; and after 
 having, in less than a quarter of an hour, sometimes 
 approved and sometimes rejected this idea, at length 
 it gained the ascendant, and notice was forthwith 
 sent by Laura, under the token of an idea which 
 Laura understood, to inform our hero that her lady 
 was visitable. 
 
 Here would be a fine opportunity for us to display 
 our talents in the exhibition of pictures, which re- 
 quire a certain delicacy of pencil ; as, for instance, 
 by analysing the sentiments, and uncovering the 
 most latent springs that actuate the human heart; 
 if we wished to enter upon a detail of all that 
 passed in this interview at which Jacintha and 
 Laura were both present. But, as our vanity is 
 amply gratified by the samples which we fancy have 
 already been given our readers, they will permit us, 
 without sacrificing our convenience to their pleasure, 
 to content ourselves this once with telling them, that 
 the beautiful Felicia perfectly succeeded in her
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 315 
 
 designs ; or, if this may seem too vague, we will 
 inform them, that all those fantastical raptures into 
 which fairies and the love of a chimerical object had 
 from time to time thrown our hero, were no more, 
 in comparison with those he now experienced, than 
 a blue butterfly in competition with a charming 
 young widow of eighteen. 
 
 If Donna Felicia had an opportunity at her 
 toilette to show our hero her material beauties in 
 the most variegated and advantageous manner ; 
 she did not fail during their repast to augment the 
 enchantment produced by those intellectual charms 
 of her mind, which are ever so seducing under the 
 veil of visible beauty. The heat of the afternoon 
 was that day so supportable, that the pleasure of an 
 animated conversation made all parties forget their 
 siesta. Don Sylvio, who neither saw, nor heard, 
 nor lived but for his goddess, might even have 
 forgot the tale with which Don Gabriel had pro- 
 mised to regale the company, had not Jacintha, as 
 they walked in the evening through a little grove of 
 myrtles, put him in mind of it. Don Gabriel, 
 having no other design in the narrative than to see 
 how far our hero would carry his prejudices of 
 imagination, had already prepared the rest of the 
 company to expect the relation of a tale, the most 
 extravagant and ridiculous that could be conceived. 
 This however only served to excite their curiosity 
 the more, and made them eagerly wish to know how 
 he would come off in this trial of the fancy. No 
 sooner therefore had Jacintha mentioned the name 
 of Prince Biribinquer, than the whole company 
 united with her in requesting Don Gabriel to gratify 
 their impatience, by relating the promised history. 
 Don Sylvio himself, the moment he heard a fairy- 
 tale brought upon the carpet, emerged from those 
 pleasing reveries in which the idea of his beauteous 
 Felicia long held him, as it were, buried in sweet 
 oblivion. Such is the force of custom ; and thus it
 
 316 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 is that an object, however comparatively vain and 
 insignificant, when once it gets possession, and 
 sufficient scope to exercise a certain empire over our 
 imagination and senses, can, at its first summons, 
 hinder the most perfect object from remaining 
 master of our attention. After having seated them- 
 selves therefore in a bower composed of jasmines, 
 Don Gabriel first began with a short preamble to 
 the honour and glory of his faithful historian 
 Palaephatus; and then entered upon that relation 
 with which we purpose to entertain our readers in 
 the following book.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 317 
 
 BOOK VI 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 HISTORY OF PRINCE BIRIBINQUER 
 
 IN a country, of which no mention is made either in 
 Strabo or Martiniere, there formerly lived a king, 
 who, as having employed no historians himself, was 
 of so little service to their lucrative interests, that, 
 inflamed with a desire of vengeance, they mutually 
 united to render even his very existence doubtful to 
 posterity. All their malice, however, could not pre- 
 vent a few authentic documents being preserved, in 
 which is to be found almost everything that could be 
 said about him. According to these documents he 
 was a very honest, good sort of a king ; made his four 
 meals a day, slept very well, and was moreover such 
 a lover of peace and quietness, that it was iorbidden, 
 under great pains and penalties, even to pronounce 
 in his presence the name of sword, musket, cannon, 
 etc. etc. What was most remarkable in his person, 
 say these same documents, was a fair round belly, of 
 so majestic a periphery, that the biggest monarchs 
 of his time were all forced to yield to him in point of 
 corporature. We cannot positively assert whether 
 the surname of Great, which was given to him, and 
 which he through life enjoyed, was assigned him on 
 account of this circumstance, or for any other 
 private reasons ; but it is very certain, that through- 
 out the whole extent of his kingdom, there had never 
 been a creature whom this surname of his had cost 
 a single drop of blood a consideration, by the way,
 
 318 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 of no little moment to some great folks, if they knew 
 how to make a proper use of it. 
 
 When it was thought necessary that his majesty 
 should marry, as well out of friendship to his people 
 as to preserve in his family a successor to the crown , 
 the academy of sciences was not a little puzzled how 
 to determine, according to the allowed grandeur of 
 the royal corpulency and other proportions, the 
 suitable figure of such a princess as might be deemed 
 worthy to answer the national expectations. After 
 a variety of academical sittings, they at length hit 
 upon the desired figure, and at length, by sending 
 ambassadors into all the courts of Asia, met with a 
 princess who perfectly answered to the model pre- 
 scribed. The joy occasioned by her arrival was 
 extraordinary, and the nuptials were celebrated with 
 so much pomp, that at least fifty thousand couples 
 of his majesty's subjects were obliged to determine 
 in favour of celibacy, to answer the regal expenses 
 on this memorable event. The president of the 
 Academy, who, though the worst geometrician of his 
 time, knew how to arrogate to himself all the merit 
 of the above-mentioned invention, now reasonably 
 concluded that his reputation depended upon the 
 queen's fecundity, and being infinitely better skilled 
 in the experimental department of natural philo- 
 sophy than in geometry, found out I know not what 
 method of verifying the academy's calculations. In 
 short, the queen was brought to bed of the hand- 
 somest young prince that ever eyes beheld ; and so 
 great was the king's joy at the event, that he 
 instantly nominated the president his prime vizier. 
 
 As soon as the prince was born, twenty thousand 
 young girls of singular beauty assembled, who had 
 been previously convoked from every corner of the 
 empire, in order to make choice amongst them of a 
 nurse for his royal highness. It must be confessed, 
 that among the whole twenty thousand there was 
 not a single maiden to be found. But, however,
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 319 
 
 they were judged so much the properer to fulfil the 
 honourable charge in question for which, by the 
 way, every one thought herself the most worthy, 
 because the king's first physician had expressly en- 
 joined that the choice should fall upon the fairest. 
 The commission to choose the fairest from among 
 twenty thousand fine girls is not so easy a matter as 
 some might possibly imagine ; accordingly, the first 
 physician, though he had a pair of excellent spec- 
 tacles upon his nose, met with no small difficulty to 
 find out a sufficient reason why he should give one 
 the preference to another ; hence the third day had 
 almost elapsed before he was able to reduce the pro- 
 bationers from twenty thousand to a select number of 
 twenty-four. But as it became necessary to make a 
 decision, he was just upon the point of choosing from 
 among these twenty-four girls a large brunetta in 
 preference to the rest by reason that above all 
 others she had the smallest mouth and finest neck 
 and bosom ; qualities which, as he asserted, Galen 
 and Avicenna absolutely require to constitute a good 
 nurse when lo ! all on a sudden, and beyond all 
 expectation, they beheld a bee approach, of a pro- 
 digious size, and with her a black she-goat, who both 
 of them demanded admission to, and an audience of 
 the queen. 
 
 " Beautiful queen," said the bee, " I am informed 
 you are in want of a nurse for the handsome prince 
 your son. If you have sufficient confidence in me to 
 give me the preference to these two-footed creatures, 
 you shall not repent it. I shall suckle the prince 
 with none but milk of orange flowers, and to your 
 heart's full content you shah 1 see how he will thrive 
 upon it, and grow into good plight and beauty. His 
 breath shall smell as deliciously as the jasmine, his 
 saliva shall be sweeter than canary-wine, and his 
 
 clouts and blankets " 
 
 " Great queen," interrupted the she-goat, " as a 
 friend I advise you to be especially on your guard
 
 320 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 against this bee. 'Tis true, if you are particularly 
 solicitous to have your young prince become a sweet, 
 spruce little creature, she will be the properest person 
 you can pitch upon for the purpose : but observe, 
 what a snake lurks concealed under the flowers ; she 
 will endow him with such a sting as shall draw upon 
 him infinite evils. I am only a poor mean she-goat, 
 but, by my beard I swear, that my milk shall do him 
 more good than any that the bee can give him ; and 
 though he will neither produce nectar nor ambrosia, 
 I promise you in return that he will be the most 
 valiant, wise, and happy prince that ever sucked 
 goat's milk, be the next whom he will." 
 
 All the standers-by were astonished to hear the 
 goat, and the fat bee her rival, talk in this manner. 
 But the queen instantly perceived that these must 
 be two fairies, and this persuasion rendered her for 
 some time uncertain how she ought to proceed. At 
 length she declared in favour of the bee, for, being 
 a little inclined to coveteousness, she reasoned in this 
 manner : " If the bee keeps her word, the prince 
 will yield such a profusion of sweets as will certainly 
 save the expenses of a dessert." The she-goat 
 seemed much displeased at being thus dismissed ; 
 thrice she murmured out something which nobody 
 could understand, and instantly a chariot superbly 
 gilt and varnished, and drawn by eight phenixes, 
 made its appearance. The black she-goat as in- 
 stantly disappeared, and in her stead there was 
 beheld sitting in the chariot a little old woman, who 
 presently rose into the air, uttering loud menaces 
 against the queen and the young prince. The chief 
 physician was not at all satisfied with a choice so 
 extraordinary as the queen had made, and there- 
 fore determined to propose it to the fair-bosomed 
 brunetta, whether she would like to accept the office 
 of being his housekeeper ; unfortunately, however, 
 he applied too late, and was forced to take up 
 with one among the other nineteen thousand nine
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 321 
 
 Hundred and seventy-six young women, for the 
 select twenty-four were all of them already engaged. 
 
 The black goat's menaces put the king into such a 
 terror that he summoned his council of state that 
 very evening, to deliberate upon what was to be 
 done in so critical a circumstance ; for it being his 
 usual custom never to sleep without having fairy 
 tales read to him, he very well knew that when 
 fairies vented such threatenings, it was no laughing 
 matter. These grave counsellors having accordingly 
 assembled, after every one had given his sentiments 
 on the subject, it appeared, that among six and 
 thirty profound statesmen with large full-bottomed 
 perukes, there were no less than six and thirty 
 different opinions, of which each opinion was at least 
 attended with as many difficulties. Thus they went 
 on for some dozen sittings together, disputing with 
 great spirit and sagacity, and in all probability the 
 prince might has reached his age of manhood before 
 they could have agreed what expedient it was best to 
 adopt, had not his majesty's favourite jester struck 
 out a proposal to send an embassy to Caramussal, 
 the great magician who dwelt on the summit of 
 Mount Atlas, and was consulted from all parts as an 
 oracle of wisdom. The jester having the king's ear, 
 and being moreover reputed to have the best head of 
 the whole court, every one subscribed to his proposi- 
 tion. Accordingly, in a few days ambassadors were 
 deputed, who, the better to mitigate their expenses, 
 used such diligence, that within three months they 
 arrived at the top of the mountain in question, 
 though it was almost two hundred leagues distant 
 from their capital. 
 
 They were immediately admitted to an audience 
 of the great Caramussal, who, seated in a superb 
 saloon upon a throne of ebony, had been employed 
 the whole day in answering impertinent questions 
 sent him from all quarters of the globe. The 
 chief of the ambassadors, after having twisted his 
 Y
 
 322 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 moustachios and spit three times successively, opened 
 in solemn order his capacious mouth, and was pro- 
 ceeding to repeat an excellent harangue which his 
 secretary had composed for the purpose, when Cara- 
 mussal interrupted him with the following address : 
 " Mr Ambassador," said he, " I thank you for your 
 speech, and from your physiognomy, I can readily 
 conceive it to be a very fine one. I have so much to 
 say myself all day long that little time is left me to 
 listen to others. But over and beside all this, I 
 already know beforehand what you mean to tell me. 
 Inform the king your master that he has made himself 
 a powerful enemy in the person of the fairy Capro- 
 sina ; that it is not however impossible to avert the 
 evils wherewith she hath menaced the prince, pro- 
 vided a necessary precaution be taken not to let him 
 see a milkmaid until he is eighteen years of age. 
 But since, notwithstanding every precaution in the 
 world, it is very difficult, not to say impossible, to 
 avoid his destiny, I am of opinion that, in order to 
 arm him against all events, the prince should have 
 the name of Biribinquer given him ; a name, whose 
 mystical virtues are alone sufficient to extricate him 
 happily from every danger that might else befall 
 him." Having vouchsafed them this solution, 
 Caramussal dismissed the ambassadors, who at the 
 end of three months more reached the capital of 
 their country amidst the general acclamations of the 
 people. 
 
 This answer of the great Caramussal seemed to the 
 king so trifling that he had the greatest inclination 
 in the world to take umbrage at it. " By my belly," 
 cried he (for that was his usual oath), " I can't help 
 thinking that the great Caramussal laughs at us 
 Biribinquer ! what a confounded name ! Who ever 
 heard of a prince that bore such an appellation ? I 
 would fain know what secret virtue can lie concealed 
 in a name so ridiculous at first sight ? Nor, to say 
 the truth, does the prohibition, to let him see no
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 323 
 
 milkmaid till he is eighteen, seem at all more con- 
 sistent with reason or common-sense. Why so posi- 
 tively no milkmaid ? How long have milkmaids 
 been so much more dangerous than other wenches ? 
 Indeed, if he had said no dancing girl, or none of the 
 queen's maids of honour, that might have been some- 
 thing ; for (under secrecy be it said) I myself would 
 not swear not to be sometimes tempted by such as 
 these. However, since the great Caramussal will have 
 it so, let the prince be immediately called Biribinquer. 
 He will at least be the first of that name, and that is 
 always enough to give us some little distinction in 
 history. And as to the milkmaid, I will order such 
 measures to be taken, that there shall neither be a 
 cow, she-goat, nor milkmaid to be found within fifty 
 leagues round my place of residence." 
 
 And now, without ever reflecting beforehand on 
 the consequences that might follow from his resolu- 
 tions, the king was just about to publish a royal edict 
 upon the subject, when his parliament represented 
 to him by a numerous deputation, how very hard, 
 not to say tyrannical, it would be, should his 
 majesty's faithful subjects be compelled from hence- 
 forward to drink no milk with their coffee ; and the 
 previous rumour of the purposed edict having more- 
 over already caused a great tumult and uproar 
 among the people, his majesty at length found him- 
 self obliged, after the example of many other kings 
 hi the fairy tales, to send away the prince royal to 
 some great distance, under the care of his nurse the 
 bee ; and leave it to her discretion how best to pre- 
 serve him from the snares of milkmaids, or the 
 machinations of the fairy Caprosina. 
 
 In consequence of this determination, the bee con- 
 veyed her young charge into the midst of a large 
 forest, which was at least two hundred leagues in 
 circumference, and so totally uninhabited, that there 
 was not even a mole to be found all through it. 
 There, by her art, she constructed an immense
 
 324 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 bee-hive of a reddish-coloured marble, and planted it 
 round with an orange grove which extended above 
 five and twenty leagues every way. A swarm of a 
 hundred thousand bees, of whom she was queen, 
 were set at work to make honey for the prince and 
 for the use of the queen's seraglio ; and that every- 
 thing might conduce to the prince's perfect security, 
 swarms of wasps were garrisoned round the forest at 
 the distance of about five hundred paces from each 
 other, with strict orders to guard the frontiers. 
 
 Meantime the prince grew up, and in beauty and 
 rare qualities surpassed anything that had ever been 
 seen before him. If he spit, it was nothing but syrup 
 of roses ; if he made water, it was the quintessence of 
 orange flowers ; and his humblest swaddling neces- 
 saries, blankets, and so forth, contained things so 
 delicious, that they were sent from time to time 
 to the queen, to complete her desserts on high days 
 and holidays. The moment he began to lisp, the 
 first things he uttered were all epigrams and in- 
 genious conceits of fancy ; and his wit became 
 gradually so keen and exquisite, that not a bee 
 amongst them could hold up his head against him, 
 though the dullest in the whole hive had at least as 
 much wit at will as any of the forty members in the 
 French Academy. 
 
 At length, however, having attained his seven- 
 teenth year, he found a secret instinct springing 
 within him which told him that he was not made to 
 spend all his days in a bee-hive. Indeed, the fairy 
 Melisotta, for that was his nurse's name, used her 
 utmost endeavours to divert and amuse his mind. 
 She procured for him a number of very ingenious 
 cats, which used every evening to miaule him a 
 French concerto or one of Lulli's operas ; he had also 
 a dog that was a rope-dancer, and some dozens of 
 parrots and magpies, which had nothing else to do 
 but to tell him stories and entertain him with their 
 witty sallies. But all this was of little or no avail
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 325 
 
 Biribinquer thought of nothing else night or day but 
 how to procure his liberty. The greatest difficulty 
 he found in his way was those plaguy wasps that 
 guarded the forest, who were in fact such a kind of 
 pretty little animals as might have startled a very 
 Hercules, for they were about the bulk of a young 
 elephant, and their stings in shape and size were 
 pretty nearly like those partisans or halberts, armed 
 with which the ancient Helvetians maintained so 
 successful a struggle in support of their endangered 
 liberty. But one day, as Biribinquer lay reposing 
 himself under a tree, with a heart full of despair at 
 seeing himself thus kept a prisoner, a bee approached 
 him, which, like all the rest of the male inhabitants of 
 the fairy hive, was nearly the size of a half-grown bear. 
 
 " Prince Biribinquer," said the bee, "whether you 
 may be tired or not, I assure you I am heartily so. 
 The fairy Melisotta, our queen, has done me for some 
 weeks past the honour of choosing me for her 
 favourite ; but I confess to you I sink under the 
 burden of my employment. Between you and me she 
 has above five thousand bees in her seraglio, who, 
 trust me, are not suffered to lie idle. I should not 
 wish to complain of being treated upon an equality 
 with my other comrades ; but, pox take it ! the 
 preference she bestows upon me begins to be rather 
 inconvenient, and I declare to you I can hold it out 
 no longer. Now, sir prince, if you chose it, nothing 
 could be easier for you than to procure both your 
 own liberty and mine too." 
 
 " But how so ? " demanded the prince. 
 
 " I have not always been a bee," replied the dis- 
 contented favourite, " and it is solely in your power to 
 restore me to my pristine shape. Only get upon my 
 back ; it grows late, and the queen is busied in her 
 cell about matters which leave her no leisure to think 
 of anything else ; I will fly away with you : but you 
 must first promise me that you will do what I 
 require of you."
 
 326 THE ADVENTURES OF' 
 
 The prince gave him his promise, got upon his back 
 without hesitation, and the bee took flight with him 
 so rapidly, that in less than seven minutes they were 
 out of the forest. 
 
 " Now," said the bee to him, " you are at liberty. 
 The power of the old enchanter Padmanaba, who 
 reduced me to this situation, does not allow me to 
 accompany you farther ; but mind what I am going 
 to tell you. If you go on and keep to this road upon 
 the left hand, you will at length come to a wide open 
 plain where you will see a flock of blue goats feeding 
 round about a little thatched cottage. Take good 
 heed not to enter there, for if you do, you are undone. 
 Mind and keep the left-hand road, and so get on till 
 you arrive at an old ruinated place, whose magnifi- 
 cent remains will serve to show you what it has been 
 heretofore. On going through a few courts you will 
 come to a large staircase of white marble ; that will 
 lead you forward to a long gallery, in which you will 
 find on each hand a number of magnificent and well- 
 lighted apartments. Enter into none of these, for if 
 you should, the door will instanly close upon you of 
 itself, and then no power upon earth can extricate 
 you. At length you will meet with one of the apart- 
 ments shut, which will open of itself the moment you 
 pronounce the name ' Biribinquer.' In this apartment 
 you will pass the night and this is all I require of 
 you. A good journey to you, signior, and if you find 
 my counsels good and useful to you, don't forget that 
 one good turn deserves another." 
 
 At these words the bee took its flight, leaving the 
 prince in the highest astonishment at all which it had 
 told him. Full of impatience to see those marvellous 
 adventures realised which he was encouraged to ex- 
 pect, he marched all night long, for it was now the 
 middle of summer, and the moon shone clear. The 
 next morning he perceived the predicted meadow, 
 the thatched cottage, and the blue goats grazing 
 round it. He well remembered the bee's express
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 327 
 
 prohibition respecting them ; but at sight of the 
 goats and cottage he felt a sort of attraction which it 
 was impossible for him to account for or resist. 
 Accordingly, he entered the cottage, and found 
 nobody there but a young milkmaid in a jacket and 
 petticoat as white as the driven snow. She was just 
 going to milk some goats which were tied up to a crib 
 set round with diamonds. The milk-pail she carried 
 in her beautiful hand was made of a single ruby, and, 
 instead of straw, the whole floor of the outhouse 
 was strewed with jasmines and orange-flowers. All 
 this indeed was enough to strike admiration : but 
 the prince himself could scarce at all attend to it, 
 having no eyes but for the beauty of the young girl. 
 To say the truth, Venus, at that moment when she 
 was carried by the zephyrs through the Paphian 
 coasts, or young Hebe, while with half-tucked gar- 
 ment she poured forth nectar for the gods, was not 
 more beautiful nor more charming than this milk- 
 maid. Roses of the freshest hue sat mingled on her 
 cheeks, while the rows of pearls, which she wore 
 upon her arms and round her delicate feet, seemed 
 only to augment her own dazzling whiteness : 
 nothing could be more elegant than the features of 
 her face, or more ravishing than her smiles. There 
 was a peculiar expression of tenderness and inno- 
 cence diffused over her whole form, and her slightest 
 motion had a certain nameless grace which cap- 
 tivates all hearts at first sight. This charming young 
 creature seemed agreeably surprised at this inter- 
 view with Prince Biribinquer, and quite undeter- 
 mined whether she ought to stay or fly ; she stood still 
 and contemplated him with an intermingled look of 
 bashfulness, timidity, and pleasure ; at length, just 
 as the prince had thrown himself upon his knees 
 before her, " Yes, yes," she exclaimed, " it is he, it 
 is he ! " 
 
 " How ? " cried the prince in the height of trans- 
 port, gathering from her words that she already
 
 328 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 knew him and was not indifferent to his addresses ; 
 " and is then the too, too happy Biribinquer 
 
 " Ye gods ! " cried the milkmaid, starting back all 
 trembling and confounded, " what odious name 
 is this I hear ! How have my too credulous eyes 
 and heart deceived me ! Fly, fly, O unhappy 
 Galactina ! " 
 
 So saying she fled out of the hovel with a swiftness 
 that outstripped the wind. The prince, quite stupe- 
 fied, and unable to comprehend this aversion she had 
 conceived against his name, ran after her as nimbly 
 as possible, but the milkmaid seemed to fly in such a 
 manner that her feet scarce touched the unbending 
 grass. In vain did the beauties of which her flowing 
 dress every moment discovered, add wings to the 
 desires and feet of the pursuing prince. He pre- 
 sently lost sight of her in a thick wood, where he 
 continued all day long his vague and rambling search, 
 listening around him every step he went, and follow- 
 ing every little noise that rustled among the leaves, 
 but without being able to find the least trace of the 
 desired object. 
 
 The sun was now set, and the prince at length 
 found himself at the gate of an old half-ruinous 
 mansion ; on all sides from amidst clumps of shrubs, 
 old fragments of marble, and broken pieces of 
 columns of the finest adamant, reared their heads ; so 
 that every moment the prince stumbled against some 
 ruin or other, the least of which was well worth an 
 island of terra firma. From these circumstances he 
 collected that he was now arrived at the palace which 
 his friend the bee had told him of ; flattering him- 
 self, as people in love and full of sanguine expecta- 
 tions commonly do), that in this mansion possibly he 
 might again meet with his lovely milkmaid. With 
 some pains and difficulty he made his way through 
 two or three outward courts, and at last came to the 
 staircase of white marble. It had at least sixty 
 steps, and upon each step on both sides there stood
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 329 
 
 a winged lion, which, every time it breathed, cast out 
 so much fire from its nostrils that it rendered the 
 night brighter than noonday. So far, however, was 
 the prince from being burned by it, that no sooner 
 did the lions perceive him, than they stretched forth 
 their wings and fled off with terrible roarings. 
 
 Prince Biribinquer then mounted the staircase, and 
 soon came to a large gallery, wherein he found the 
 several open rooms against which the bee had told 
 him to be upon his guard. Each of these apart- 
 ments led to two or three others, whose magnificence 
 of arrangement and furniture surpassed everything 
 that his imagination could conceive, although fairy 
 matters were nothing new to him. For this once, 
 nevertheless, he took good heed not to yield to the 
 emotions of his curiosity, but stfll kept on his way, 
 till he arrived at a door made of ebony, which was 
 close shut to, and in the lock of which he perceived 
 a golden key. All his efforts to turn this key were 
 vain : but the moment he pronounced the name 
 " Biribinquer," the door opened of its own accord, and 
 he found himself in a grand saloon, the walls of which 
 were covered over with looking-glass composed of 
 crystal. A large chandelier of diamonds, consisting 
 of above five hundred branches, and burning with 
 oil of cinnamon, illuminated the room. In the 
 middle of the saloon stood an ivory table of an oval 
 form, and its feet were made of emeralds. Upon 
 this table there lay two covers, and close by it stood 
 two sideboards of azure full of plates and dishes of 
 beaten gold, with goblets, cups, and other vessels 
 and utensils of the same metal. After having con- 
 sidered for some time, and in great admiration every- 
 thing that offered itself to his view in this saloon, he 
 perceived a door, through which he entered into 
 divers other apartments, each surpassing the other 
 in magnificence. He stood a while contemplating 
 every object distinctly, and knew not what to think 
 of such a profusion of splendours. The avenues to
 
 330 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 the mansion had promised him a ruinated building ; 
 the inside left him no room to doubt but that it 
 must be inhabited, and yet he could neither see nor 
 hear a living creature. He once more, therefore, ran 
 through all these rooms, searched and ransacked 
 every corner, and at last discovered in the last room 
 of all, a little side-door made in the tapestry. He 
 opened it, and presently found himself in a cabinet 
 where even fairy skill seemed to have excelled itself. 
 An agreeable mixture of light and shade illuminated 
 the room, though there was no distinguishing from 
 whence this magical twilight proceeded. The walls 
 were of granite, black and polished ; all like so 
 many mirrors represented different scenes in the 
 history of Venus and the beautiful Adonis, all 
 wrought in so lively a manner that one would have 
 supposed it to be nature itself, without a possibility 
 of divining by what art these vivid portraits had 
 incorporated themselves into the marble. Delicious 
 odours, like those wafted to us by the zephyrs from 
 fresh-blown parterres of flowers, filled all the apart- 
 ment, yet whence they came could neither be dis- 
 cerned nor conceived ; while a soft harmony, as of a 
 concert heard at a great distance, resounded, as it 
 were, insensibly through the enchanted ear, and 
 melted the heart into a gentle languor. A superb 
 and voluptuous couch, whose flowing curtains were 
 half undrawn by a little god of love wrought in 
 marble, that seemed, as it were, to breathe, was the 
 only piece of furniture in this charming apartment. 
 It excited in the heart of our prince a mysterious 
 desire after certain objects, of which, novice as he 
 yet was, he had only confused ideas, though the 
 linings of the room, which he considered very atten- 
 tively, and not without some gentle inquietude, gave 
 him a degree of insight into the subject. At this 
 juncture the image of the beautiful milkmaid pre- 
 sented itself before him with new vivacity, and 
 raised in his bosom a sigh at seeing himself deprived
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 331 
 
 of the reality. This sacrifice offered to her charms, 
 he again took a turn through the rooms to make a 
 more accurate search about him, but with no better 
 success than before. Tired at length, and unable to 
 satisfy his curiosity, he retired to the cabinet, sat 
 him down on the couch, undressed himself, and was 
 just about to take his repose, when one of those in- 
 dispensable necessities of human nature obliged him 
 to look under the couch ; there he found a crystal 
 vase which still carried the marks of the use it had 
 formerly been put to. The prince accordingly be- 
 gan to sprinkle it with orange-flower water, when 
 oh wonderful to relate ! the crystal vase disap- 
 appeared, and instead thereof he beheld a young 
 nymph before him, so beautiful that it seemed 
 impossible for her to have put the prince into such 
 fear and trembling as in fact she did. She im- 
 mediately smiled upon him, as if they had been 
 already long acquainted ; and before he could 
 recover from his perturbation, said to him " Wel- 
 come, Prince Biribinquer ! Do not regret the having 
 done a kindness to a young fairy, whom a jealous 
 barbarian has so grossly abused as to have made 
 her serve, for two long centuries, as an instrument 
 to the meanest uses. Tell me sincerely, prince, do 
 not you think me designed by nature for infinitely 
 nobler purposes ? " 
 
 Saying this, she fixed her eyes upon him with such 
 a look, that it fell in a direct line immediately upon 
 the discreet Biribinquer, and put him into no small 
 confusion. Biribinquer, as we have before observed, 
 possessed as much wit and understanding as any 
 one ; but withal, we must add as much heedlessness 
 and inattention. He found it necessary to say 
 something civil to the fairy, but being used to give 
 everything he said a singular turn, all his wit could 
 not prevent him, this once, from uttering a very silly 
 speech. 
 
 " 'Tis very fortunate for you, beautiful nymph,"
 
 332 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 said he, "since I could have no intention to render you 
 this singular piece of service ; 'twas very ignorantly 
 done on my part, believe me ; for be assured I am too 
 well acquainted with what decency and good breed- 
 ing require to " 
 
 " Oh, not so much formality, I beseech you," re- 
 plied the fairy, " 'tis quite out of season, under the 
 circumstances with which we have so lately com- 
 menced our acquaintance. The least I owe you in 
 return is myself ; and as we have only this night to 
 be together, I should have reason to reproach myself, 
 were I to occasion you to lose your time in cere- 
 monies. I know you want repose ; you are already 
 undressed ; get into bed then ; there is only this one 
 indeed in the room, but there is a sofa in the 
 great saloon, upon which I can pass the night very 
 quietly." 
 
 " Madam," said the prince, hardly knowing what 
 he was going to utter, " I should be at this instant 
 the happiest of mortals, if I was not the most 
 unhappy. I must confess I have found what I did 
 not look for, in looking for what I had lost ; and if 
 the pain of having found you, could equal the joy 
 
 of what I have lost No, no, I would say, if the 
 
 joy of having found you, could but 
 
 " O' my conscience," interrupted the fairy, " I 
 believe you are raving ! What is it you mean by all 
 this string of incoherencies ? Come, come, Prince 
 Biribinquer, confess to me in plain prose that you 
 are in love with a milkmaid." 
 
 " You guess so exactly," replied the prince, " that 
 I must confess the truth." 
 
 " Oh, pray, don't let that give you any uneasiness," 
 continued the fairy. " You are enamoured of a 
 young milkmaid whom you met with this morn- 
 ing in a little thatched house, or more properly 
 speaking, in a hovel." 
 
 " But now, I beg of you, from whence is it how 
 could you possibly "
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 333 
 
 " And who was just then going to milk a blue goat 
 that was foddered with orange-flowers, and the pail 
 she received the milk in was all studded with rubies. 
 Is it not so ? " 
 
 " Surely," exclaimed the prince, " for a person, 
 who not a quarter of an hour ago, pardon me, was 
 but a I will not say what why, you know a great 
 deal. Sure, 'tis a most surprising " 
 
 " And the lady fled away the moment she heard 
 the name of Biribinquer " 
 
 " But I beg of you, madam, from whence could 
 you learn all this ? being, as you said, for above two 
 hundred years kept in that singular state in which 
 I had so very unexpectedly the honour to become 
 acquainted with you." 
 
 " Not so unexpectedly on my part, as you may 
 imagine," replied the fairy ; " but defer your curi- 
 osity for a few moments. You are fatigued, and 
 have eaten nothing all day; follow me into the 
 saloon ; my people are already preparing for us, and 
 I hope your fidelity to the fair milkmaid will at least 
 permit you to partake of the repast with me." 
 
 Biribinquer sensibly felt the secret reproach 
 couched in this brief remonstrance, but waived taking 
 further notice of it at present, contenting himself 
 with slipping on his clothes, making the lady a pro- 
 found obeisance, and following her into the saloon. 
 
 As soon as they had entered the saloon the beauti- 
 ful Crystallina, (for that was the fairy's name), went 
 up to the chimney-place and took out a little ebony 
 wand, at each end of which hung a talisman com- 
 posed of diamonds. 
 
 " Now," said the fairy, " I have nothing more to 
 fear. Sit you down, Prince Biribinquer ; I am now 
 the mistress of this palace, and of forty thousand 
 elementary spirits, whom the great enchanter who 
 constructed the edifice five hundred years ago 
 destined to wait upon me on all occasions." 
 
 So saying, she struck thrice upon the table, and in
 
 334 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 as many seconds of time, to his great astonishment, 
 Biribinquer beheld the table covered with dishes of 
 the most delicious kinds, and the sideboards as it 
 were spontaneously loaded with full goblets of wine. 
 
 " I know, prince," said the fairy, " that you eat 
 nothing but honey. Taste this, if you please, and 
 tell me if you ever ate any like it." 
 
 The prince ate of it, and solemnly protested it 
 could be nothing else but the ambrosia of the gods. 
 
 " 'Tis prepared," said she, " from the purest 
 exhalations of flowers which never fade, and which 
 blow in the gardens of the sylphs. But what say 
 you to this wine," continued she, offering him a 
 sparkling cup. 
 
 " I swear to you," cried the prince, all transported, 
 " that the bright Ariadne never poured forth better 
 for young Bacchus." 
 
 " 'Tis pressed," replied she, " from grapes that 
 grow in the sylphian vineyards, and those beautiful 
 spirits owe all their youth and that immortal gaiety 
 which flows through their veins to the constant use 
 of this grateful fluid." 
 
 The fairy concealed one of the qualities of this 
 nectar, but the prince soon became sensible of its 
 efficacy. The more he drank of it, the more charm- 
 ing he found his fair companion. At the first glance 
 he perceived she had a beautiful flaxen head of hair ; 
 the next struck him with the exquisite delicacy of 
 her arm ; the third discovered to him a dimple in 
 her left cheek ; and on a fourth survey he was en- 
 chanted with the whiteness and elegant periphery 
 of a neck and bosom, which, though a little shaded 
 by the intervention of a thin gauze, made a powerful 
 attack upon his eyes. An object so engaging, with 
 a goblet that replenished itself as fast as it was 
 exhausted, were more than sufficient to bury his 
 senses in a soft oblivion of all the milkmaids in the 
 universe. What shall we say ? Biribinquer was 
 too polite to let so beautiful a fairy sleep alone upon
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 335 
 
 the sofa ; and the beautiful fairy had too much 
 gratitude to refuse him her company in a house 
 where forty thousand spirits walked day and night. 
 In a word, the politeness of the one, and the grati- 
 tude of the other, were carried as far as possible, 
 and Biribinquer showed himself perfectly worthy of 
 the good opinion which Crystallina had conceived of 
 him from the first moment she saw him. 
 
 The fairy, says our history, waked first in the 
 morning, and could not support the indecorum of 
 seeing so extraordinary a prince lie sleeping in such 
 good company. 
 
 " Prince Biribinquer," said she, after having 
 waked him, nobody knows how, " I am under many 
 obligations to you. You have delivered me from an 
 enchantment of the utmost indignity that ever 
 female suffered ; you have avenged me of my jealous 
 foe ; and now there is only one thing left to do, 
 after which you may depend upon the most perfect 
 gratitude in the power of the fairy Crystallina." 
 
 " And what then remains to be done ? " de- 
 manded the prince, rubbing his eyes and yawning. 
 
 " Hear me," replied the fairy. " This palace, as I 
 before informed you, originally belonged to an en- 
 chanter, whose science gave him an almost unlimited 
 power over all the elements ; but his power over 
 hearts was limited on the contrary in an equal pro- 
 portion. Unfortunately for him, in spite of his great 
 age, and his white beard, which hung down to his 
 girdle, he had one of the most amorous constitutions 
 that ever existed. He fell in love with me, and 
 though he had not the gift of making himself loved, 
 he had sufficient power, however, to make himself 
 feared. Do but think of the whimsicalness of fate ! 
 I refused him my heart, which he strove to gain, and 
 I yielded to him my person, which to him could be of 
 no possible use or avail. At length, out of mere vexa- 
 tion, he became jealous ; so jealous, I assure you, 
 that it was insupportable. He had sylphs at his
 
 336 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 command of exceeding beauty ; but at the same 
 time he was kind enough to insist upon it I should 
 neither look at these sylphs nor take any little inno- 
 cent freedoms with them. If he ever found one of 
 them in my chamber or upon my sofa, I was sure 
 never to see the sylph again. I desired him to place 
 some confidence in my virtue ; but that did not seem 
 to this infidel a sufficient security against a destiny 
 which he was conscious he had but too well deserved. 
 In short, he despatched all the sylphs, and took into 
 his service none but gnomes, little deformed dwarfs, 
 the sight of whom alone was enough to throw one into 
 a swoon. However, as custom at length makes all 
 things tolerable, this same custom reconciled me by 
 degrees to the figure of these gnomes, insomuch, that 
 in time I found that droll and comical, which at first 
 had appeared to me hideous. There was not an 
 individual among them but was a perfect caricature. 
 One was dignified with a camel's bunch, another had 
 a nose that hung down below his chin ; a third had 
 satyr's ears, and a mouth which cleft his head into 
 two hemispheres ; a fourth had an enormous 
 prominent belly. In a word, a Chinese imagination 
 could have invented nothing more extravagant than 
 the visages and shapes of these dwarfs. 
 
 " Old Padmanaba, however, did not perceive that 
 among his domestics there was one, who, in a cer- 
 tain sense, was more dangerous than the handsomest 
 sylph in the world ; not that he was less ugly than 
 the rest, but through a very singular frolic of nature, 
 that in him seemed a merit which in the others 
 served only to offend the sight. I don't know 
 whether you comprehend me, Prince Biribinquer ? " 
 
 " Not entirely," replied the prince. " But, pray, 
 be kind enough to proceed ; perhaps you will be more 
 intelligible as you go on." 
 
 " In a little while," continued the beautiful 
 Crystallina, " Grigi, for so the gnome was called, 
 had reason to believe that he was less disagreeable
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 337 
 
 to me than his companions. What shall we say for 
 it ? People have strange ideas when they are 
 teased and harassed, and Grigi had a singular talent 
 at amusing discontented ladies. In short, he so well 
 knew how to fill up my leisure hours and many 
 such I had that hung upon my hands that no 
 creature upon earth could be more satisfied than I 
 was with him. Padmanaba at length perceived the 
 extraordinary cheerfulness that shone in my face and 
 animated my whole frame, but he could not so soon 
 discover the true source of it, and the idea of its pro- 
 ceeding merely from the pleasure of his society was 
 too ridiculous for any but himself to conceive. But 
 unfortunately, he was a great master in the art of 
 forming those arguments which are termed Sorites ; * 
 at last, therefore, by a series of syllogisms, he hit upon 
 a supposition which seemed to him to develop the 
 whole mystery. He accordingly resolved to observe 
 us, and chose his time so well for the purpose, that 
 in this very cabinet he surprised us at our amuse- 
 ments, which little Grigi' s cleverness very well knew 
 how to render extremely interesting. Could you 
 think it possible, my prince, for any one to have a 
 heart so maliciously wicked as the old enchanter 
 exhibited upon this occasion ? Instead of gener- 
 ously taking part in my pleasures, he grew enraged 
 at them ; pitiful wretch that he was ! nobody 
 hindered his being in a pet with himself for not 
 being Grigi ; but was ever anything more unjust 
 than to punish us both for that reason ? " 
 
 " No, truly," cried Biribinquer, " nothing could be 
 more so. For he had nothing more to do than to be 
 Grigi in one single respect, and I am sure, in spite 
 
 * A vague, imperfect kind of syllogism, consisting of several un- 
 connected propositions heaped together, in which the last predicate or 
 property is attributed to the first subject. Such was the merry 
 argument urged by Themistocles, to prove that his little son, under 
 ten years of age, governed the whole world. "My son governs his 
 mother, his mother me ; I the Athenians ; the Athenians the rest of 
 Greece ; Greece commands Europe ; Europe the whole world. 
 Therefore my son governs the whole world." 
 Z
 
 338 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 of his long white beard, you must have given him the 
 preference to an ill-looking little dwarf." 
 
 " Why do you tell me of an ill-looking dwarf ? " 
 interrupted Crystallina. " I assure you at the junc- 
 ture we are speaking of Grigi was an Adonis in my 
 eyes. But have patience and you shah 1 know the 
 result. After the old creature had been for some 
 time an invisible spectator of what passed, he at 
 length appeared to us, and put us into a terror more 
 easily to be imagined than described. He immedi- 
 ately vented against us all the rage which a scene 
 like this, that seemed a reproach upon him for 
 his impotence, naturally tended to produce. I am 
 ashamed to repeat before you the compliments he 
 made me upon the occasion. In fine, for time is 
 precious, he changed me you well know how and 
 turned poor Grigi into a bee." 
 
 " Into a bee ! " exclaimed Biribinquer : " well, 
 that is very singular. Why, at this rate, Signior 
 Grigi may possibly be one of my acquaintance 
 
 " Upon this condition," continued Crystallina, 
 " that I should not recover my former shape, till after 
 having served the Prince Biribinquer pardon my 
 bashfulness, if I do not mention the circumstance 
 under which I had the pleasure of becoming ac- 
 quainted with you ; and in which, indeed, not to 
 flatter you, you appeared to such advantage, that in 
 my first confusion, I was just ready to take you for 
 poor Grigi himself." 
 
 " Oh, madam, you do me too much honour," re- 
 plied Biribinquer, " and had I but known that your 
 heart was already captivated by so worthy an 
 object " 
 
 " I beseech you," said the fairy, " throw aside that 
 awkward custom of making so much ceremony, and 
 so very ill-timed into the bargain. You cannot con- 
 ceive what a silly air it gives you. I tell you I have 
 the best opinion that can be of your discretion ; and, 
 I hope, have given you a pretty convincing proof of
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 339 
 
 it, by thinking myself perfectly safe in being so 
 intimate with you. I don't very well remember, 
 indeed, how it happened that we should be so familiar, 
 for I confess to you, the pleasure of an interview so 
 long desired made me drink a few glasses more than 
 I usually do. But I flatter myself you will not have 
 exceeded the bounds " 
 
 " In truth, beautiful Crystallina," interrupted the 
 prince, " I find your memory is as extraordinary as 
 the virtue upon which you required old Padmanaba 
 to repose his confidence : but, tell me now, whether 
 you have not forgot what became of the bee ? " 
 
 " Ay, indeed, that's well remembered," replied the 
 fairy ; " poor Grigi ! I had really forgot him ; I 
 was very sorry for his fate. But the cruel Pad- 
 manaba set his deliverance at so impertinent a price, 
 that I know not how I shall be able to tell you " 
 
 " But what was the price then ? " demanded Biri- 
 binquer. 
 
 " I cannot comprehend," replied Crystallina, 
 " what you can have done to this old enchanter, or 
 why he should bring you in for a share in all his 
 devilish tricks ; for it is certain, your great grand- 
 father himself was not born when these transactions 
 happened. In short, Grigi can never be restored to 
 his pristine shape till you have But no ; the deli- 
 cacy of my sentiments does not permit to tell it you ; 
 nor can I conceive how I shall be able to suggest it. 
 I hope, however, you may already have formed an 
 idea of what it is ; for my own part, I cannot ex- 
 plain myself more clearly to you ; indeed, I should 
 die with shame to think of it " 
 
 " May I be instantly turned into a bee thrice over," 
 exclaimed Biribinquer, " if I can possibly guess what 
 you would be at. Don't make so many preambles, 
 I beg of you ; the day draws on apace, and I cannot 
 stay " 
 
 " How ! " said the fairy, " does the time you are 
 spending with me seem so long ? and cannot I make
 
 340 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 you forget a milk-girl even for a few hours ? Your 
 interest, at least, requires you should pay some little 
 court to me ; for know, it is in my power to con- 
 tribute much more to your happiness than you are 
 aware of." 
 
 " Tell me quickly, then," replied Biribinquer, 
 "what I am to do."' 
 
 " How vastly impatient you are ! " cried the 
 fairy. " Know then, that poor Grigi, till Prince 
 Biribinquer shall have well, now, cannot you 
 guess ? But of this I can certainly assure you, that 
 nothing but a concern for the deliverance of an old 
 friend could make me resolve to become the sacri- 
 fice of that vengeance, which by your interposition 
 Padmanaba is determined to take upon poor Grigi." 
 
 " Why, he would not wish me to take away your 
 life, I hope ? " replied the prince. 
 
 " Indeed and indeed," said Crystallina, " you are 
 very dull of conception to-day. Don't you think, 
 then, that a lover, really captivated by his mistress, 
 would sooner choose to die than see her in the arms 
 of another." 
 
 " Oho ! now I comprehend you at last, madam," 
 said Biribinquer, with an air of cool reserve. " Upon 
 my word, your modesty need not have made so 
 many scruples against speaking the business out 
 boldly. But, give me leave, if you please, to help 
 your memory a little, and just to remind you, that if 
 the matter only rested here, Grigi must have been 
 disenchanted a long while ago. You must certainly 
 recollect that it is not three hours ago since 
 
 " I verily think your brain is turned," interrupted 
 the fairy. " Why, then, you must know that Pad- 
 manaba is extremely rigid in his adherence to the 
 law of retaliation, and that of consequence Grigi 
 never will recover his former shape, till you have 
 retaliated upon him all those offences, which the en- 
 chanter imagines himself to have received from him." 
 
 " Oh, madam," cried Prince Biribinquer, leaping
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 341 
 
 out of bed, " I am Signior Padmanaba's very humble 
 servant. But since nothing more than this trifling 
 circumstance is requisite, you have only to look out 
 among the ten thousand gnomes retained in your 
 service, for a new Grigi to avenge your old grey- 
 headed fool upon his wonderful rival ; and pro- 
 bably this may be of more importance than to 
 restore your old acquaintance, the little dwarf, to his 
 original beauty. For my own part, I imagine you 
 have reason to be satisfied with my having restored 
 you to your pristine form. I don't mention this as if 
 I thought myself not amply recompensed for a piece 
 of service which has cost me so little, by the singular 
 civilities you have bestowed upon me. I only mean 
 to remind you of the main point which must ever 
 claim your consideration ; namely, that instead of 
 being a crystal vase of low degree, you are now 
 again become the fairy Crystallina, and that the 
 power with which old Padmanaba's wand invests 
 you, ought very amply and easily to console you for 
 the loss of a single individual." 
 
 " I hope, however," replied Crystallina, " that you 
 will not attribute my solicitude for poor Grigi to 
 interested views. You must be greatly mistaken 
 indeed, as to the delicacy of my sentiments, as well 
 as the duties of friendship, if you cannot allow that a 
 person may express zeal for a friend without having 
 any other motive than that friend's welfare ; and I 
 should be sorry " 
 
 " Oh, madam," replied Biribinquer, who had been 
 dressing himself all this while, " I am perfectly well 
 persuaded of that quintessence of delicacy which 
 pervades your sentiments : but you see how fine a 
 morning it is for the continuation of my journey. Be 
 so kind then, you, whose heart is capable of so dis- 
 interested a friendship, as to inform me which road 
 I shall take to find my beloved Galactina again. 
 Do this, and I will then maintain against all and every 
 gainsayer upon earth, that you are at once the
 
 342 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 most generous, the most disinterested, and even, if 
 you please, the coyest, chastest fairy, of all that 
 inhabit the universal globe." 
 
 " You shall be satisfied," said Crystallina. " Go 
 seek your milkmaid, since your destiny will have it 
 so. I might find reasons not to be entirely pleased 
 with your deportment ; but I see you are one of 
 those that must not be scrutinised too closely. Go, 
 prince, in the courtyard you will find a mule which 
 will never slacken its pace till it has brought you to 
 your Galactina ; and, should any mischance un- 
 expectedly befall you, in these pea-shells you will 
 find a universal and an infallible remedy." 
 
 " Well ! " said Don Eugenio, interrupting his 
 friend's narration, "how glad am I that you have 
 brought your Biribinquer at last out of that cursed 
 palace. I protest to you I am above half -tired of 
 this Crystallina. What an insipid creature ! " 
 
 " You need only say she is a fairy," replied Don 
 Gabriel, " and then you have said everything." 
 
 " You certainly don't mean by that, to make us 
 understand that there are no worthy and respectable 
 fairies," said Don Sylvio, with a very serious coun- 
 tenance ; " for it is evident beyond a doubt that 
 there are such. It cannot however be denied, that 
 there is a something very singular and absurd, 
 which distinguishes them from mortals, at least it 
 appears so to us ; but it may be we are not com- 
 petent judges respecting them, and may err in 
 judging of them by rules to which beings of a 
 different class from our own are by no means 
 confined." 
 
 " But what say you to her pompous pretensions, 
 and the virtue she so much boasts of ? " 
 
 " This sitting in judgment upon fairies," replied 
 Don Sylvio, " is a string so difficult to touch, that I 
 should rather choose to say nothing at all concerning 
 it, and especially on the present occasion ; the history
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 343 
 
 of Prince Biribinquer being in all respects the most 
 extraordinary tale that I ever yet heard of." 
 
 " As to the fairy Crystallina's character," said Don 
 Gabriel, "the historian only gives it just as it really 
 was ; and, without violating that veneration which is 
 so justly due to the fairies, I apprehend we may freely 
 pronounce that character blamable : and as to the 
 rest, you will grant me, Don Eugenio, that were you 
 to put yourself in the prince's place, the fairy's 
 vaunting and parade might not seem near so tire- 
 some to you, as it may possibly have appeared from 
 hearing me repeat it. We are always fond of hearing 
 a fair female speak, especially if we can see her at the 
 same time, and she has an agreeable tone of voice. 
 Then you are at once persuaded and affected with- 
 out paying any minute attention to what she says ; 
 and if you did, generally speaking, perhaps you might 
 not be much the gainer by so doing." 
 
 " Oh, prithee now, if you have nothing more civil 
 to say of our sex," said Donna Felicia, " you had 
 better go on with your history, however tiresome it 
 may be, or seem to be." 
 
 Don Gabriel promised his best endeavours to 
 render it more amusing, and continued as follows : 
 
 " Prince Biribinquer put the pea-shells into his 
 pocket, thanked the fairy Crystallina for all her civili- 
 ties, and accompanied her down to the courtyard. 
 
 " ' There now,' said she, ' observe that mule, 
 there is not perhaps her equal. She is descended in 
 a right line from the famous Trojan horse, and the 
 ass of old Silenus. On the paternal side she has the 
 quality of being wood, and stands in no need either 
 of provender, litter, or the curry-comb ; on the 
 mother's side she derives the advantage of travelling 
 very commodiously, and is as mild and gentle as a 
 lamb. Mount her, and let her go with you wherever 
 she will, she will carry you to your milkmaid, and if 
 you are not as happy at the long run as you desire to 
 be, the fault will be entirely your own.'
 
 344 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 " The prince examined this extraordinary beast 
 on all sides, and it required all the wondrous things 
 he had seen in the mansion to make him put as much 
 confidence in the animal as the fairy would have 
 him. However, while he was mounting, Crystallina 
 determined to give him a convincing proof that she 
 had advanced nothing too much respecting her own 
 power. She cleft the air thrice with her ebon staff, 
 and in a moment, behold all the ten thousand sylphs, 
 whom Padmanaba's wand had now subjected to her 
 authority, made their appearance ! The court, the 
 staircase, the gallery, the roofs, and the very air 
 itself, all swarmed with winged youths, every one of 
 whom surpassed the Vatican Apollo. ' Oh ! by all 
 the fairies,' exclaimed Biribinquer, in an ecstasy at the 
 sight, ' what a brilliant court is this of yours, madam! 
 Leave little Grigri in his bee-state as long as he 
 pleases, here's sufficient to make you amends for his 
 absence. 'Twould be a bad affair indeed, if among 
 all these deities of love none could be found capable 
 of filling up the place of a gnome, who, by your 
 own account, had no other preference over his other 
 deformed companions, but that of being monstrous 
 in a more agreeable manner than the rest.' 
 
 " ' You see, at least,' replied Crystallina, ' that 
 I am in no want of company to console me for 
 your infidelity, in case I should ever wish for that 
 consolation.' 
 
 " Having said this, she wished him a good journey, 
 and Biribinquer trotted away upon his wooden mule 
 with all expedition, and full of reflection on the 
 many wonderful events that had befallen him in the 
 fairy's palace."
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 345 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 CONTINUATION OF PRINCE BIRIBINQUER'S HISTORY 
 
 " I SHALL waive giving you the various private re- 
 flections which occurred to Biribinquer, and proceed 
 to inform you that about noon, when the heat began 
 to be insupportable, he alighted at the entrance of a 
 forest, and sat himself down upon the bank of a 
 rivulet which ran down under the shadow of some 
 thick spreading trees. Soon after he perceived a 
 shepherdess driving a little herd of pink-coloured 
 goats before to water in the rivulet, just by the spot 
 where Biribinquer was laid down in the shade. 
 
 " Imagine to yourself, Don Sylvio, how great 
 must be his rapture, on recollecting in this young 
 shepherdess his well beloved milkmaid. She now 
 appeared to him a hundred tunes more lovely than 
 when he first beheld her : but what rejoiced him 
 most was, that instead of flying from him, she ap- 
 proached nearer and nearer to him. At length she 
 seated herself upon the grass close beside him, seem- 
 ingly as if she had taken no notice of his being there. 
 The prince had not courage to speak to her, but 
 threw at her such ardent glances as might almost 
 have vitrified the flint stones at the bottom of the 
 stream before him. The fair shepherdess, who must 
 have been of a very cold constitution not to have 
 been broiled by such powerful glances, was tying 
 up, in the most composed manner imaginable, a 
 garland of flowers, but could not help every now 
 and then giving him a sidelong look, as it were 
 by stealth. The prince thought there seemed to be
 
 346 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 no indignation in her countenance ; and this rendered 
 him so bold that he stole nearer to her unperceived, 
 just as she was caressing a little she-goat, which 
 instead of hair wore nothing but fine silver threads, 
 and was all over bedecked with garlands and rose- 
 coloured ribands. Biribinquer's looks glancing 
 from this new-fixed point, said full as many clever 
 things now as they had done before ; while hers 
 corresponded with them from time to time so politely 
 that at length he could not help throwing himself at 
 her feet, and, according to his custom, repeating to 
 her in very poetical figures, what he had before told 
 her in language much more intelligible and per- 
 suasive. Having finished his tender elegy, the 
 beautiful shepherdess answered him with a look, 
 the beginning of which was more cool than the close 
 of it. 
 
 " * I know not ' said she, ' whether I have perfectly 
 understood you : but did not you mean to tell me all 
 this while, that you love me ? ' 
 
 " * That I love you ! ' cried Biribinquer, all trans- 
 ported, ' Heavens ! say rather that I adore you, and 
 could wish to yield up my soul thus languishing at 
 your feet.' 
 
 " ' Well, lookye,' replied the shepherdess, ' I am 
 but a very simple girl : I neither wish you to adore 
 me, nor that you should yield up your soul, for I do 
 not imagine you to have too much of it. I shall be 
 satisfied if you do but love me. But I must tell you, 
 it will be a more difficult matter to persuade me, 
 than the fairy with whom you spent the evening 
 yesterday.' 
 
 " ' Gods ! ' exclaimed the prince, in the deepest 
 confusion, ' what's this I hear ! How is it possible 
 who can have given you from whence could you 
 learn I know not what I say oh ! wretched Biri- 
 binquer ! ' 
 
 " Scarce had he uttered this fatal name, when the 
 beautiful shepherdess set up a loud shriek.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 347 
 
 " ' Yes, wretched Biribinquer, indeed,' she cried, 
 starting up with great precipitation, ' and must you 
 again offend my ears with that detestable, unworthy 
 name ? You force me at once to hate and to fly 
 from you, just when I ' 
 
 " Here the enraged Galactina was suddenly inter- 
 rupted by a spectacle which equally prevented her 
 and the prince from thinking of anything else but 
 the object before their eyes. Advancing towards 
 them they beheld a giant, whose forehead was en- 
 circled with a couple of young oaks twisted together 
 instead of a diadem. The monster stalked forward, 
 picking his teeth with a large pointed stake, and 
 coming up to the shepherdess, spoke to her in so 
 terrible and thundering a voice, that upwards of two 
 hundred crows which had built their nests in his huge 
 bushy beard, issued forth on all sides in the greatest 
 hurry and confusion. 
 
 ' What art thou about there, girl ? ' he cried. 
 ' What be'st doing with that little dwarf ? Follow 
 me this instant, or I will hack thee as small as mince- 
 meat. And as for thee,' said he, turning to the 
 prince, and pushing him to a large sack which he had 
 brought upon his shoulders, ' get thee into my bag 
 here; get thee in, I tell thee.' After which very 
 laconic compliment, he tied up the sack, took the 
 shepherdess in his arm, and walked away. 
 
 " Poor Biribinquer fancied himself plunged into an 
 unfathomable world, and for a good while kept tumb- 
 ling from side to side without being able to reach 
 the bottom ; at length, however, he stopped there, 
 but so hurt with a blow on the head by falling against 
 a knot which stood out on the sack's seam, that for 
 some minutes he lay quite stunned, and imagined he 
 had broken his skull. But coming to himself by 
 degrees, he luckily recollected the pea-shells which 
 Crystallina had given him : accordingly, he broke 
 them open, but found nothing there but a little 
 diamond knife, with a haft made out of a griffin's
 
 348 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 claw, and so small that he could hardly hold it in his 
 three fingers. 
 
 " ' And is this all that the fairy Crystallina has 
 done for me ? ' said he to himself. ' What would 
 she have me do with this trifling toy ? 'tis hardly big 
 enough to cut my throat with, if I wished to do it ; 
 and possibly that might be her view in bestowing the 
 gift upon me. But no, everything must be tried 
 before throat-cutting. Who knows but I may make 
 a hole in the sack with this idea of a knife, though it 
 will cost me no little pains to manage it, and I may 
 be obliged to hazard a dangerous leap into the 
 bargain. But I had rather run any hazard than 
 risk this cursed monster's making sausages of my 
 body to feed his brats with.' 
 
 " Full of this noble ardour, Biribinquer, or rather 
 the little knife, upon which a talisman was engraven, 
 went to work so effectually, that in a little while it 
 made a pretty moderate hole in the sack, though the 
 threads of which it was composed were as thick as a 
 cable. He presently observed that they were going 
 through a forest, and was in great hopes of suiting 
 matters so, as that in jumping through the orifice of 
 the sack, he might somehow catch hold of one of the 
 tallest trees. This scheme was immediately put in 
 execution without the giant's perceiving anything 
 of it ; but the branch he wanted to hold by broke, 
 and poor Biribinquer tumbled headlong in a marble 
 basin very deep and full of water, that lay luckily 
 beneath the tree ; for what he had taken for a forest, 
 proved to be a very fine park belonging to an ad- 
 jacent noble mansion. He thought himself at least 
 fallen into the Caspian Gulf, or more properly speak- 
 ing, he could think of nothing at all ; the fright he 
 was in having so stunned his brain that he lay 
 motionless awhile, and probably might never have 
 seen the continent again, had not a nymph who 
 luckily happened to be bathing herself in the basin 
 that instant come to his assistance. The danger in
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 349 
 
 which she beheld so handsome a young man, made 
 her forget her own present condition ; and indeed the 
 young man might have been drowned out and out, 
 before she could have dressed her fair frame. Biri- 
 binquer, on recovering his spirits, found his face 
 lying against one of the most beautiful bosoms that 
 ever stood exposed to view, and the moment he 
 opened his eyes, saw himself stretched out on the 
 verge of an extensive piece of water in the arms of a 
 nymph, who, in the negligent deshabille under which 
 he beheld her, restored him almost instantaneously 
 to an equal, if not greater degree of vivacity, than he 
 had ever enjoyed before. 
 
 " This adventure put him into so agreeable a sur- 
 prise, that it hindered him from uttering a single 
 word. But no sooner did the nymph perceive him 
 beginning to revive, than she disengaged herself from 
 him, and leaped into the water. Biribinquer, who 
 imagined she was about to fly, instantly began to 
 lament in a plaintive voice, like a young child when 
 his favourite doll is attempted to be torn from him. 
 The beautiful nymph, it seems, was in reality very 
 far from harbouring so cruel a design ; for in a few 
 minutes he saw her back reappear upon the sur- 
 face, surpassing the lily in whiteness. She lifted up 
 her head a little, but the moment she perceived the 
 prince, plunged again into the water and swam 
 under the wave till she got to the opposite side where 
 her garments lay. But, observing the prince was 
 coming round towards her, she raised herself to 
 the waist above the water, encircled with her long 
 fair tresses, which partly hung floating round her 
 on the stream, and partly descended to her feet, 
 concealing from the prince's view beauties which 
 might have restored a Tithonus to fresh youth and 
 vigour. 
 
 " ' 'Tis very indiscreet in you, Prince Biribinquer,' 
 said she, ' to embarrass people by your presence at a 
 time when they would choose to be alone.'
 
 350 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 " ' Pardon me, beauteous nymph,' replied the 
 prince, ' if I conceive your scruples to be a little out 
 of season. After the service you have so generously 
 
 rendered me, I should apprehend ' 
 
 I " ' Why, look now, what insolent creatures are 
 these men ! There is no showing them the least 
 civility, but they will instantly criticise and find 
 fault ; and what is merely the effect of generosity or 
 pity, is, in their fancy, a sufficient authority to take 
 freedoms. What ! because I have been kind enough 
 to save your life, I suppose now you think 
 
 "'Oh, how cruel you are ! ' interrupted the prince, 
 
 * to attribute that to insolence, which is really nothing 
 but the effect of that enchantment necessarily com- 
 municated by a sight of your charms. If you wish 
 to take from me the life which you have so lately 
 saved, (for who could behold you, and at the same 
 time endure the deprivation of a sight so ravishing ! ) 
 kill me at least in a generous manner ; let me stand 
 a monument of your triumphant beauty, and while I 
 thus contemplate you, convert me, if you please, 
 into a lifeless form of marble.' 
 
 " ' You have read the poets, I see,' said the nymph, 
 
 * and pretty attentively too ; prithee, whence did 
 you take that allusion ? Was not there once upon 
 a time a certain Medusa O' my conscience, you 
 have thumbed your Ovid to some purpose, and it 
 must be owned you have done credit to your school- 
 master.' 
 
 " ' Cruel ! ' exclaimed Biribinquer, with great im- 
 patience, ' whatpleasure can you find in confounding 
 the language of my heart, which can meet with no 
 other expressions strong enough to describe what it 
 feels ; to confound, I say, this language with the 
 rhetorical figures and flourishes of a young school- 
 boy ?' 
 
 " ' You time it very ill for disputing,' interrupted 
 the nymph ; ' don't you see then, that in the element 
 where I am, I have greatly the advantage over you ?
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 351 
 
 But I prithee now, just step behind those myrtle 
 hedges, and give me leave, if you please, to slip on 
 my clothes.' 
 
 ' But would it not be more agreeable to you, if I 
 might be permitted to help dress you ? ' 
 
 " ' What an idea ! ' replied the nymph. ' I am 
 extremely obliged to you for your politeness, but I 
 should not choose to put you to so much trouble ; 
 besides, as you may soon see, I am in no want 
 of people more capable, and better adapted to the 
 business than you are.' 
 
 " So saying, she sounded a little conch which 
 hung about her neck, fastened to a collar of the 
 largest and finest pearls. In an instant the whole 
 basin was filled with young nymphs, who sprang 
 from the water and formed a circle round their mis- 
 tress. At such a sight, Biribinquer could still less 
 find it in his heart to retire ; but no sooner did the 
 nymphs perceive this, than they dashed in his face 
 so large a quantity of water, that out of fear of 
 becoming another Acteon, he fled away as rapidly 
 as if he had already the feet of a stag. Every moment 
 he kept feeling his forehead, but finding no horns 
 sprouted there, and hence recovering spirits, he slipped 
 behind the myrtle-hedges in order to contemplate 
 his beautiful nymph while she was dressing. But 
 now it was too late. The attendant nymphs were 
 all disappeared, and on his advancing from behind 
 the hedges, he was within an ace of hitting his 
 head against that of his fair deliverer, who was 
 come thither in search of him. Full of astonishment 
 to behold her thus instantaneously as it were, 
 ' How, madam,' he cried, ' do you call this dressing 
 yourself ? ' 
 
 " ' Why not ? ' replied the nymph. ' Don't you 
 see I am wrapped round with seven veils, one over 
 the other ? ' 
 
 " ' Odso ! madam, I see,' said the prince ; ' but if 
 this be drapery, I should be mighty curious to know
 
 
 
 352 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 the person that wove it. Why, the finest cobweb is 
 mere packing-cloth in comparison to this. I could 
 have sworn it was nothing but the pure air.' 
 
 " ' It is made of the finest sort of fluid,' replied 
 she ; ' a species of water without moisture ; spun, 
 or rather wire-drawn by the polypuses, and woven 
 by our young girls. 'Tis the common wear of us 
 undinae, and what other could you wish us to have? 
 For we are in no need of anything to defend us 
 either from heat or cold ' 
 
 " * Heaven forbid that I should wish you any 
 other,' said Biribinquer ; ' but don't take it amiss, if 
 I protest to you, that in my mind you might very 
 well have excused putting yourself to so much 
 trouble and punctilio, when you wanted to come out 
 of the basin.' 
 
 * " ' Hear me, Monsieur Honey,' said the nymph, 
 with one of the most gracious, half -sneering, half- 
 smiling looks in the world, ' if I was to give you any 
 counsel, it should be to get rid of that ill habit you 
 have acquired of continually attempting to moralise ; 
 for to tell you the truth, you have no skill at it, and 
 it sits but very awkwardly upon you ; not to say 
 that it's a custom which flies directly in the face of 
 what we call good breeding. 'Tis very easy to 
 discern you have seen nothing of the world, unless it 
 were through the chinks of a bee-hive, and therefore 
 it would be highly proper in you to follow the sage 
 Avicenna's advice, and never to judge of anything at 
 first sight. But let us call another subject. You 
 have not yet dined, I apprehend, and however 
 enamoured you may be of your milkmaid, under 
 certain limitations, yet I know you are not used to 
 live upon sighs.' 
 
 " This said, she sounded her conch again, and 
 instantly three nymphs issued from the basin. The 
 first brought a little table made of amber, and sup- 
 ported by three Graces cut out of one single amethyst. 
 The second covered this table with a mat of the
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 353 
 
 finest chipped rushes. The third brought upon her 
 head a basket, from whence she took out several 
 covered shells, and set them on the table. 
 
 " ' I am told,' said the nymph to Prince Biribin- 
 quer, ' that you eat nothing but honey. I can give 
 you a taste of some that is not of the worst sort, 
 though it's extracted entirely from sea-plants.' 
 
 " The prince accordingly tasted, and found it so 
 good that he could have almost devoured the very 
 shell in which it was served up. After the repast 
 two other naiads appeared, bearing a little sideboard 
 of sapphire, garnished with drinking vessels. They 
 were all made out of compacted water, hard as 
 adamant, transparent as crystal ; and, as it seemed 
 to the prince, were full of clear fountain water. But 
 the moment it touched Biribinquer's lips, he found 
 that the best wines of Persia were but phlegm in 
 comparison with what he tasted. 
 
 " * Now,' said the undina, ' you will allow yourself 
 to be not much worse off here than at the fairy 
 Crystallina's, with whom you spent last night in so 
 sociable a tti&k-itU? 
 
 " ' Beautiful undina,' replied the prince, ' you are 
 too modest thus to think of comparing yourself with a 
 fairy, who is in every respect so greatly your inferior.' 
 
 " ' Why, there now, this is bad reasoning again,' 
 said the nymph : ' I did not say it out of modesty, but 
 merel^ to know what you would say to me in reply.' 
 
 " ' x ut tell me then, my goddess,' said the prince, 
 ' how could you come by all this good news respect- 
 ing me ? The moment you saw me, you called me 
 by my name ' 
 
 " ' By which,' replied the nymph, ' you may dis- 
 cern that I am as good a connoisseur as the fairy 
 Crystallina herself.' 
 
 " ' And you likewise know that I was brought up in 
 a bee-hive.' 
 
 " ' That is easily seen with halt an eye,' said the 
 nymph. 
 2 A
 
 354 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 " ' And that I am in love with a milkmaid.' 
 
 " ' Oh yes, and as deeply as ever being was ; nay, 
 you are more so still since she became a shepherdess ; 
 and who knows how far you might have pursued your 
 fortune, had not the giant Caraculiamborix But 
 you need give yourself no trouble about that matter. 
 You shall see her again, and be as happy too as ever 
 creature can be in the possession of a shepherdess or 
 milkmaid.' 
 
 " ' Oh,' cried Biribinquer, who now began power- 
 fully to experience the effects of that liquor with 
 which the undina had been treating him, ' who can 
 wish to see or possess any other object, after having 
 once beheld you, divine undina ! In truth, I scarce 
 even remember to have had eyes hitherto. The first 
 moment in which I looked at you was the com- 
 mencement of my existence : and I neither know nor 
 desire any other felicity, than to be consumed at 
 your feet by that ardent flame which your first 
 glances enkindled in my heart.' 
 
 " ' Prince Biribinquer,' said the undina, ' you 
 have had but a poor master in rhetoric. I should 
 have thought the fairy Crystallina might have cured 
 you of the ridiculous opinion, that to evidence the 
 force of one's passion, one must be absolutely obliged 
 to talk in an extravagant style. I would venture to 
 lay any wager you will, that you do not talk seriously 
 when you tell me you wish to be consumed at my feet. 
 Believe me, I know your desires much better, and 
 you would gain more by talking to me in the natural 
 way. This stiff bombast language to which you 
 have accustomed yourself, may be of the right stamp 
 possibly to touch the heart of a milkmaid : but let 
 me tell you once for all you must not treat every one 
 you meet in the same way. A female, who like me 
 has studied her AverroSs,* does not suffer herself to 
 
 * One of the most subtle philosophers among the Arabians in the 
 1 2th century; and a man of very doubtful character, in point of 
 religion and morals.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 355 
 
 be caught by poetical flourishes. You must know 
 how to convince us, if you would make us feel ; and 
 it is the force of truth alone which can bring us to a 
 voluntary self-surrender.' 
 
 " Biribinquer was too well inured to the repri- 
 mands of those ladies into whose hands he fell, to 
 lose courage on receiving such a reproach, as at the 
 same time pointed out to him by what means he 
 might hope to make his party good among the female 
 disciples of Averroes. In fact, he discerned that he 
 should have much less difficulty to subdue the fair 
 nymph by the energy of truth, than by artificial and 
 high-flown declarations of love. The charms of the 
 undinae, according to the authentic testimony of the 
 Count de Gabalis, exceed everything that can be 
 desired in the possession of the fairest among mortal 
 beauties. In a word, to the wishes of this bright 
 undina Biribinquer by degrees became more natural 
 and more convincing ; and though the lady herself 
 very exactly observed what we call the gradations, 
 she knew so well how to regulate her time, that just 
 as the sable veil of night involved the hemisphere 
 just then had our prince carried conviction to that 
 point of evidence, which no longer admits of doubt . 
 The history says nothing more of what passed 
 between them, excepting that Biribinquer, when he 
 awaked the next morning, found himself, to his 
 great astonishment, upon the same couch, in the same 
 apartment, under the same palace-roof, and in the 
 same situation in which he had been the day preceding, 
 at the same hour ! 
 
 "The beautiful undina nobody knows how or 
 wherefore was at no great distance from him ; and 
 no sooner perceived him to be awake, than with that 
 enchanting gracefulness which had so captivated 
 him but a few hours before but which at this 
 moment seemed a matter of perfect indifference to 
 his philosophic soul she apostrophised him in the 
 following manner :
 
 356 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 " ' Fate, my dear Biribinquer, has singled you out 
 to oblige unfortunate fairies. Having the pleasure 
 to be one of them, it is but just I should inform you 
 who I am, and what obligations I owe to you. Know 
 then that I am one of those fairies who are called 
 undinae, on account of their inhabiting the element 
 of water, from the subtilest atoms of which their 
 frame and being is composed. My name is Mirabella, 
 and the fairy state, joined to that rank which my 
 birth gives me among the undinae, might have ren- 
 dered me completely happy, had there been any- 
 thing in the world capable of guarding us against 
 the influences of our evil stars. Mine condemned me 
 to be beloved by an old enchanter, whose profound 
 science gave him an unlimited power over the ele- 
 mentary spirits : but withal, he was the most dis- 
 agreeable creature in the world ; and but for the 
 friendship of a salamander, who was one of the 
 favourites of the old Padmanaba ' 
 
 " ' How ! ' exclaimed the prince, ' Padmanaba, 
 did you say ? That man with a beard two yards 
 long, and as white as snow, who transforms poor 
 languishing lasses into chamber-pots, and little 
 merry gnomes into bees ? ' 
 
 " * Yes, 'twas really he,' replied the undina, ' who 
 arrogated over my person the prerogatives of a hus- 
 band, without the least capability of fulfilling the 
 duties of that relation. A female who had preceded 
 me, and whom he one day surprised in the arms of a 
 gnome, had made him so mistrustful, that he grew 
 jealous even of his own shadow. He had dismissed 
 all the gnomes, and taken into their place none but 
 salamanders, whose fiery nature he judged was 
 rather calculated to inspire terror than love. You 
 must certainly remember in your Ovid the story of 
 the fair Semele, who was reduced to ashes for her 
 presumption in daring to embrace a salamander.* 
 The old man, however, with all his foresight, forgot 
 
 * The poet calls him Jupiter. See Metam. lib. 3.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 357 
 
 that the aqueous nature of the undinae renders them 
 perfectly safe against all such danger. On the con- 
 trary, this same aqueous nature so completely tem- 
 perates the fire of a salamander into a gentle heat, 
 as to render it very favourable to love. Padmanaba 
 placed so entire a confidence in the fidelity of his 
 favourite, that he left us all the liberty we could 
 desire. You may imagine, perhaps, Prince Biri- 
 binquer, that we availed ourselves of these moments 
 like material lovers ; but if so, you are mistaken. 
 Flox, which is the name of my friend the salamander, 
 was at the same time the tenderest and the spright- 
 liest lover in the world. He soon perceived that my 
 heart could only be gained by good sense and under- 
 standing. He even carried his complaisance to my 
 delicacy so far, that he did not once seem to observe 
 that I had, as you see, a tolerably fine skin, a shape 
 not at all despisable, and a pair of those pretty little 
 delicate feet, which might just as emphatically have 
 interpreted for me, as eyes could do for other per- 
 sons. In a word, he lived with me as if I had con- 
 sisted solely of spirit. Instead of toying and trifling 
 with me as other lovers do, he analysed to me the 
 mysterious writings of Averroes ; we sat and talked 
 sentimentally for whole days together ; and though 
 in the main it was all upon the same things, we con- 
 trived, however, to give the subject so many different 
 turns, that it seemed as if we were continually 
 treating of something new, when really it was no 
 more than repetition upon repetition of the same 
 sentiments. You see, my prince, nothing could be 
 more innocent than our friendship, or, if you will, our 
 love. And yet, in spite of all this, neither the purity 
 of our intentions, nor the precaution of a young 
 gnomide, or female gnome, who waited upon me, and 
 was one of the cunningest little creatures that ever 
 eyes beheld, could defend us against the malicious 
 observations of those many envious eyes which were 
 continually upon us. Several salamanders, offended
 
 358 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 at the preference which I gave to my friend above 
 them, grew so bold as to make certain remarks upon 
 our conduct, which, as they pretended, must have 
 arisen from certain familiarities, which they hinted 
 they had observed between us. One pretended to 
 discern that I was unusually gay and alert, and that 
 a certain fire sparkled in my eyes, which had hitherto 
 been extinguished for a considerable length of time. 
 Another could not comprehend how my attachment 
 to philosophy could be so great, as to make me fit to 
 receive lessons in it, even in my bedroom, nay, and 
 in bed too. A third would have it he had dis- 
 covered a certain sympathy between our knees and 
 elbows ; and in short, a fourth persuaded himself of 
 some unaccountable secret intelligence between our 
 feet. You see, my prince, that even if amidst those 
 distractions of thought to which metaphysical souls 
 are the most frequently liable, anything of this kind 
 had passed, it must have required all the malice, and 
 the material mode of thinking of our worst enemies, 
 to have interpreted trifles like these to the disadvan- 
 tage of such virtue as had always maintained itself 
 in a well-founded reputation, by the most rigid 
 rules of morality. 
 
 " ' However, our enemies continued to murmur so 
 loudly, that at length it came to the ears of old 
 Padmanaba, who was but too naturally inclined to 
 listen with attention to all such insinuations. He 
 was the more shocked and disturbed at this intelli- 
 gence, on account of that high opinion he had hither- 
 to entertained of my virtue, or at least of the coldness 
 of my blood. Means were accordingly concerted to 
 surprise us ; and at last our enemies succeeded, 
 taking us unawares in one of those above-mentioned 
 distractions of mind, which for some moments was 
 very unluckily too profound to leave us the free 
 use and management of our senses. The thun- 
 dering voice of the formidable Padmanaba at length 
 aroused me from that kind of esctasy, in which an
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 359 
 
 interruption is extremely disagreeable. Judge you, 
 how astonished and confounded I must be, on seeing 
 myself exposed to the view of so many spectators, 
 and in so critical a situation ! All presence of mind, 
 however, did not entirely leave me. I entreated my 
 old husband not to condemn me before he had heard 
 my justification ; and was just going to prove to 
 him by the seventh chapter of the metaphysics of 
 Averroes, how deceitful and fallacious are the senses, 
 when he cut me short with these words : "I have 
 loved thee too much, thou ungrateful creature ! to 
 be capable of taking that vengeance upon thee which 
 my offended honour demands. Thy punishment 
 shall consist simply in a trial of that virtue to which 
 thou still darest to pretend. I banish thee," con- 
 tinued he, touching me with his wand, " to the 
 inclosure of the park which surrounds this mansion. 
 Retain thy shape and the prerogatives of thy fairy 
 condition ; but lose them both, and be transformed 
 into a hideous crocodile, so often as ever thou shalt 
 lapse again, with whomsoever it may be, into a dis- 
 traction of thought like that in which I have just 
 now caught thee. It irks me that I have not power 
 to render this enchantment indissoluble. But 
 greatly am I apprehensive that future times will pro- 
 duce a prince, whose wondrous star shall defy every 
 influence of my magic skill. All that I can do is to 
 tie down the conditions of thy disenchantment to the 
 talismanic virtue of a name so extraordinary, that, 
 peradventure, millions of years may elapse before it 
 shall ever be pronounced or heard in any language of 
 the world." 
 
 " 'The moment Padmanaba uttered these myste- 
 rious words, I was transported by an invisible power 
 intothatgreat basin of water, in which you first beheld 
 me, and shortly after, I learned that the old man, 
 deeply chagrined at my pretended infidelity, had 
 left the palace without any one's knowing what 
 became of him, or of my beloved salamander, I was
 
 360 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 inconsolable for the loss of the latter, which for some 
 days put me into such an ill-humour with my nymphs, 
 and made me give them such terrible looks, that 
 some of them became paralytic at the sight of me, and 
 others, half dead with the fright, fell in labour, and 
 were brought to bed before their times. But as great 
 grief seldom lasts long, mine ceased the moment 
 I called to mind that Padmanaba had at least left 
 me one way to save my honour and secure my 
 virtue. What shall we say to it, Prince Biribinquer ? 
 More than fifty thousand princes and cavaliers have 
 for upwards of a century past, attempted in vain 
 that adventure, which you alone were capable of 
 achieving. What complaints, what maledictions 
 have resounded through the forest, when those un- 
 fortunates, instead of a charming nymph whom they 
 fancied they were embracing, suddenly beheld a 
 hideous crocodile. The horror which so humiliating 
 a recollection excites in my soul, hinders me from 
 proceeding. 'Tis true, this horrible metamorphosis 
 presently ceased ; but every fresh attempt they 
 made to disenchant me, only served continually to 
 produce the same effect. The basin before-men- 
 tioned, which formerly was of an ordinary size, is 
 now become so deep by the addition of their tears, 
 that, as you saw, it looks rather like a little lake, 
 where several of them, who in despair plunged 
 themselves headlong, would have found death in the 
 watery element, had not my nymphs dragged them 
 out and reconciled them to life. You alone, thrice 
 happy Biribinquer ! you alone were fortunate enough 
 to annihilate an enchantment, which hitherto had 
 reduced me to the melancholy necessity of having so 
 many millions of spectators to witness my wretched- 
 
 " * But stay now,' said the prince, ' this is the very 
 circumstance I cannot see through. What occasion 
 had you for all these witnesses ? Methinks the 
 honour and reputation of your virtue, as you are
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 361 
 
 pleased to call it, would have been better justified if 
 you had never reduced yourself to the hazard of 
 becoming a crocodile at all.' 
 
 " ' Why there ! ' replied Mirabella, ' this is the way 
 in which you and such as you reason. But pray 
 tell me, if you please, what glory can result from a 
 constrained virtue ? What female is there who may 
 not restrain her desires, while she beholds at the same 
 time the impossibility of gratifying them, and the 
 opprobrium of that punishment which must attend 
 the gratification ? But to sacrifice the fear of shame, 
 and, in a certain sense, virtue itself, to the love of 
 virtue ; this is a degree of moral heroism, of which 
 none are capable but the most exalted souls.' 
 
 " ' Well, but prithee now,' said Biribinquer, ' ex- 
 plain this matter to me a little more clearly. I am 
 not quite stupid in other respects ; but may I be 
 hanged if I have comprehended a syllable of what 
 you have been saying.' 
 
 " ' Our virtue,' replied the fairy, ' is then only a 
 merit when it depends upon ourselves, whether to 
 sacrifice or to preserve it. Lucretia would never 
 have been held forth as a pattern of chastity, had 
 she reduced young Tarquin to an impossibility of 
 attempting her honour. An ordinary virtue might 
 have bolted her chamber door against intruders ; 
 the sublime Lucretia left her's open. She did more, 
 for she even surrendered herself, to have an oppor- 
 tunity of testifying to all the world, by the great 
 sacrifice which she made to virtue, that the slightest 
 stain which obscured its native lustre, deserved to be 
 obliterated with her blood. 
 
 " ' You see by this instance, my prince, how 
 1 c ghly the refined mode of thinking in great souls is 
 elevated beyond the ideas of those persons whom we 
 might morally call " little folks." To destroy an 
 enchantment which bereft my virtue of its highest 
 value the liberty and the pleasure of triumphing 
 over difficulties it was necessary for me to put
 
 362 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 myself so frequently in a condition of offending that 
 virtue, until I should have met with the person 
 who could deliver me from a burden, the bare idea 
 of which is insupportable to my exalted way of 
 thinking. I hope you understand me now ? ' 
 
 " ' Oh yes, wonderfully well,' cried Biribinquer ; 
 ' you always explain yourself most intelligibly. 
 But, begging your pardon, I must confess I think 
 you the most singularly finical, delicate, nice lady 
 that ever eyes beheld.' 
 
 " ' What do you say ? ' answered the beautiful 
 undina with great vivacity ; ' what ! finical ? Me 
 finical, did you say ? O' my conscience, you must 
 either know me very ill, or else you have never seen a 
 finical lady since the hour you were born. What is 
 it you can find stiff or affectedly formal in my person, 
 manners, dress, or mode of speaking ? what awk- 
 wardness or constraint. In one word, do you wish 
 me to give you proofs that I am the farthest upon 
 earth from being that fantastic thing you talk of ? ' 
 
 " Biribinquer was equally startled at this un- 
 expected proposition, as at the manner of her de- 
 monstrating the seriousness with which she spoke. 
 ' Oh, dear madam,' replied he, ' I shall believe any- 
 thing you'd have me. There's no occasion for 
 further proofs ; nor can I for the life of me conceive 
 how your virtue ' 
 
 " ' Ha ! my virtue,' exclaimed the fairy. ' Why, 
 'tis that very virtue which requires that I should con- 
 vince you I am not finical, nor formal, nor affected.' 
 
 " ' Well then,' retorted Biribinquer, ' if you are not 
 so, I swear to you I am no salamander, nor am I of so 
 
 fiery a nature ' 
 
 ' Fie ! ' cried the undina ; ' are you not 
 ashamed to talk so indecently before a woman ? 
 What can have possessed your brain ? Who asks 
 you anything respecting your nature, or what is it to 
 me whether it be full of fire or cold as frost ? This I 
 can assure you, you are a young man void of delicacy,
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 363 
 
 and know not how to address the ears or the cheeks 
 of a lady. Are you not sensible that it is a crime to 
 make a woman blush for nothing ? Our virtue ' 
 
 " ' Oh, madam ! ' interrupted Biribinquer, ' I beg 
 of you, mention that word no more : if you did but 
 know how it distorts that pretty mouth of yours 
 and permit me to tell you, with the utmost delicacy 
 in my power, I apprehend I have done everything 
 that can be expected from a gentleman, having 
 achieved a business which has put the valour and 
 patience of fifty thousand heroes to the proof. What- 
 ever then is left still to do, I give up to the 
 salamanders, sylphs, gnomes, fauns, and tritons of 
 your acquaintance, who are now at full liberty to 
 experience and to exercise your virtue without 
 any intermission or molestation whatsoever. All I 
 have to request of you, is your protection and my 
 dismission.' 
 
 " ' As to your dismission,' replied the charming 
 Mirabella, ' you are entirely at your own disposal ; 
 for you know I never sent for you or desired your 
 coming. But since you demand my protection, I 
 must not conceal it from you, that your happiness 
 depends upon your own conduct. If you go on at 
 this rate, the protection of all the fairies in the 
 universe will avail you nothing. Who ever saw a 
 lover like you ? You ramble about all day long in 
 search of your beloved mistress, and then spend your 
 nights in the arms of another. The next morning 
 your love begins its pursuit again, and the next 
 evening your infidelity again returns. What can be 
 the issue of such a conduct ? Surely your shepherdess 
 must be a paragon of patience to be satisfied with 
 this new vogue of making love.' 
 
 " ' Upon my word,' cried the prince, ' it's mighty 
 pretty for you, madam, to reproach me in this 
 manner. I shall say no more, madam, but trust me, 
 this eternal morality of yours, though you are very 
 clever at it, begins to be somewhat tiresome. You
 
 364 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 had better tell me how I may deliver my best-loved 
 Galactina from the hands of that cursed giant, who 
 yesterday brought her ' 
 
 " ' Oh, give yourself no uneasiness about the giant,' 
 said the undina. ' A rival that picks his teeth wi '.i a 
 hedge stake, is not by any means so formidable as you 
 may imagine ; and I know a certain gnome, who, 
 little as he seems, might do you more injury than 
 this Caraculiamborix, was he two hundred yards 
 higher than he is. In short, give yourself no concern 
 about anything, but how to soften your shepherdess. 
 The rest will follow of course ; and if you should 
 chance to have any need of my assistance, you have 
 only to break this ostrich's egg which I now give to 
 you, and take my word for it, it will do you full as 
 good service as the fairy Crystallina's pea-shells.' 
 
 " No sooner had Mirabella uttered these last words 
 than she disappeared, self, closet, palace and all : as 
 for poor Biribinquer, he found himself, without know- 
 ing how, in the very spot where the giant Caraculiam- 
 borix had surprised him the day before with his fair 
 shepherdess. No creature could be more astonished 
 than he at the extraordinary things which had be- 
 fallen him since his flight from the great bee-hive. 
 He rubbed his eyes, pinched his arms, pulled himself 
 by the nose, and would have been glad to inquire of 
 any one, if any one could have told him, whether he 
 was really Biribinquer, or whether it was some other 
 wrapped up in his skin. The more he reflected upon 
 the subject, the more likely it seemed to him that 
 the whole was nothing but a dream ; thus for a while 
 he stood fixing himself in this opinion, when suddenly 
 he beheld issuing from amidst the bushes a huntress, 
 who, to judge by her shape and gait, seemed no other 
 than Diana herself. Her robe of green, all over 
 wrought with golden bees, was tucked up to her knees 
 and fastened above her bosom by a clasp of diamonds. 
 Her fair locks were partly tied up with a string of 
 pearls, and partly flowed in wanton ringlets upon her
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 365 
 
 ivory shoulders. She carried a javelin in her hands 
 and a quiver of gold hung at her back. ' For once, 
 however,' said Biribinquer to himself, ' I am now 
 sure that this is no dream ; ' and thus still musing 
 and wondering at this bright huntress, he insensibly 
 drew so near her as presently to discern it was his 
 dear Galactina. Never had she appeared to him so 
 ravishingly beauteous as in this striking dress, which 
 gave her the air of a goddess. He instantly forgot 
 all the Crystallinas and Mirabellas that had ever 
 enchanted him before ; he threw himself at her feet, 
 and testified to her in the most lively terms his trans- 
 port at having found her once again. The beautiful 
 Galactina, however, was more a mistress of his 
 adventures than he could have imagined. 
 
 " ' How ! ' said she, turning away her charming 
 face with a kind of indignation that did but the more 
 to heighten her charms, ' and darest thou again 
 appear before my eyes, after having rendered thyself, 
 by repeated injuries, so unworthy the pardon I had 
 already once granted thee ? ' 
 
 " ' Divine Galactina,' replied Biribinquer, ' let me 
 not be the object of your anger, nor turn from me 
 those eyes, unless you wish me to fall a lifeless victim 
 at your feet.' 
 
 " ' Leave me, and silence thy romantic follies,' 
 said the fair huntress ; ' follies which thou art but 
 too well accustomed to lavish upon every new comer. 
 Thou hast never loved me, inconstant creature that 
 thou art ! He who loves all, loves none.' 
 
 " ' Never,' cried Biribinquer, with tears in his 
 eyes, ' never have I loved any other than you. This 
 is a declaration so true, that I could swear everything 
 which happened to me in a certain palace, was but 
 a shadow or a dream. At least, I can positively 
 assure you that those heedlessnesses, upon which you 
 pass so harsh a construction, were only wanderings 
 of the senses in which my heart had not the least 
 share.'
 
 366 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 " * A fine distinction truly,' replied the huntress ; 
 * and do you call these heedlessnesses ? But take 
 my word for it, I will have no concern with any lover 
 that is subject to such heedlessnesses. I have never 
 studied the philosophy of Averroes ; on the contrary, 
 I am a creature of so material and dull a species, that 
 I cannot comprehend how the heart of my lover can 
 be innocent, when his senses are unfaithful to me.' 
 
 " ' Pardon me only this once, madam,' said Biri- 
 binquer, sobbing. 
 
 " ' Me ! I pardon you ! ' interrupted the fair 
 Galactina, ' and prithee why should I pardon you ? 
 Look at me then ; is it likely that one with a face like 
 mine can think herself obliged to pardon ? or can 
 you think that, to gain lovers if I wanted any, I must 
 be as tame and patient as you would have me ? No, 
 trust me, I can choose whenever I please from 
 amongst twenty others, who know far better how to 
 value a heart which you thus coolly and deliberately 
 neglect.' 
 
 " These words, though accompanied with a look 
 that at least diminshed more than half the severity 
 of them, reduced poor Biribinquer to downright 
 despair. ' What is it I hear,' said he, ' O cruel fair 
 one ; and would you then urge my death ? Cannot 
 my tears avail to move your pity ? No, by all the 
 divinities I swear, never will I endure that any other 
 than Biribinquer ' 
 
 " ' Oh, most odious of all monsters ! ' exclaimed 
 Galactina in the height of fury ; ' and dost thou still 
 harrow up my ears with that detested name, which 
 twice already hath transfixed my very soul ? Fly, 
 fly for ever from my sight ! or look to endure the 
 most terrible effects of that perpetual hatred which 
 I have sworn to thee, and thy accursed name ! ' 
 i " Biribinquer trembled to behold his fair one thus 
 suddenly brought up to the extremity of rage. In 
 the height of his distress, how did he curse the name 
 of Biribinquer, and execrate those who had bestowed
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 367 
 
 it on him ! In all probability, for he would not 
 positively assert it, he might have dashed his brains 
 against the next oak he came to, if, lo ! at the same 
 instant he had not perceived six hogras,* which 
 issued from the wood, running towards them, and 
 seized the beauteous huntress before his eyes. These 
 hogras were of a size more than human. Round 
 their heads and waists they wore great branches of 
 oak in the form of garlands, and upon their left 
 shoulder they carried a massive club of steel. Thus 
 equipped, Biribinquer found them so formidable, 
 that in spite of all his native valour, he despaired of 
 being able to extricate his beloved mistress from their 
 clutches. In this urgent necessity, he called to mind 
 the ostrich's egg which the fairy Mirabella had given 
 him. He broke it trembling, and, as may easily be 
 conceived, was now more than ever astonished to 
 behold the appearance of an infinite number of 
 nymphs, tritons, dolphins, and so forth, which in the 
 
 * Authors, who know no better, have presumptuously ventured to 
 assert, that the hogra, ogre or oger, is a species of imaginary 
 monster. We, for a good while, were simple enough to be of the 
 same opinion ; and accordingly, at the beginning of book the fifth, 
 have translated the word, hyena or chimera. But, on dipping into 
 the elaborate writings of Madame d'Anois, that faithful historian of 
 the fairies, how greatly were we surprised and delighted to find the 
 truth burst upon us in the following description, which we cannot 
 withhold from our less intelligent readers : "The ogres," says she, 
 " eat up every body that comes in their way, and are the most terrible 
 race of beings in the world. When they have once fed upon fresh 
 meat (for so they call man's flesh) they can eat nothing else. They 
 are half-fairies, very greedy, and never can more hideous figures 
 terrify mankind with a resemblance of human creatures ; for they are 
 full as tall as giants. Each has a saucer-eye in the middle of the 
 forehead. Their noses are flat and broad. Their ears are like those 
 of an ass. They go clothed over with snakes of all colours, shocking 
 to behold ! Their hair is like hog's bristles. They have paws instead 
 of hands, in which they carry great iron clubs. Their skin is pistol 
 proof. They have a large bunch on their body, both before and behind, 
 and they dwell in a very desolate country, thinly inhabited." And 
 we may add, which neither the travelling Jew, nor Jason, nor Hercules, 
 nor Cadmus, nor Columbus ; nor yet Rogers, nor Anson, nor Bankes, 
 nor Solander, nor any but Madame d'Anois, and our Author, ever yet 
 saw and survived.
 
 368 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 twinkling of an eye, grew larger and larger ; and some 
 from their urns, and the rest through their nostrils, 
 poured forth so prodigious a quantity of water, that 
 in less than a minute it had formed itself into a lake 
 bounded only by the horizon. He found himself 
 seated on the back of a dolphin, which swam along 
 with him so very gently that the prince hardly per- 
 ceived himself to move, while the nymphs and 
 tritons that dived and tumbled around him, used all 
 their endeavours to divert him with their music, and 
 a thousand whimsical and sportive gambols. Biri- 
 binquer, however, could only keep looking towards 
 the spot where he had been so recently compelled to 
 abandon to the hogras his best beloved Galactina. 
 At length, no longer able to distinguish any objects 
 whithersoever he turned, nor any thing about him 
 but the liquid element, his affliction became so great, 
 that he was often tempted to plunge himself into the 
 foaming flood : indeed, nothing, in all likelihood, 
 could have prevented him, but his fear of falling into 
 the arms of one of those nymphs who swam around 
 his dolphin ; which, as he very wisely judged, might 
 easily have tempted him to infringe that eternal 
 fidelity which he had just before sworn to his fair 
 mistress. Nay, so far did he carry his scruples for 
 this once, that he tied up his eyes with a silk hand- 
 kerchief, for fear of being too much affected by those 
 encircling beauties, who by a thousand seducing 
 motions might lay snares for his constancy. 
 
 " He had now been swimming two hours in this 
 manner without meeting with the least accident, when 
 by chance moving the handkerchief a little to see 
 where he was, he found, to his great satisfaction, 
 that the nymphs had disappeared ; but in return, he 
 discovered something at a great distance issuing 
 from the waves, which seemed to him as it were an 
 huge mountain. He also perceived that the lake 
 became very tempestuous, and soon after a furious 
 hurricane arose, accompained with showers of rain so
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 369 
 
 violent, that it appeared as if another ocean was 
 tumbling from the clouds. 
 
 " The cause of this tumult and confusion was a 
 whale, but such a whale as is not to be seen or met 
 with every day : for those which are commonly 
 fished for upon the coasts of Greenland, are no more 
 in comparison of this we are speaking of than one of 
 those animalculae which, by the help of a microscope, 
 are seen floating by thousands in a single drop of 
 water. Every time he breathed, which was once 
 within four hours, he stirred up a tempest, and the 
 floods which spouted from his nostrils occasioned 
 such heavy rains, that all the adjacent countries were 
 overflowed with them for fifty leagues round. The 
 motion of the lake was so violent that Biribinquer 
 could no longer keep his seat upon the dolphin ; 
 accordingly he abandoned himself to the waves, and 
 lay as their sport for some time, till at length he was 
 drawn forward by the air inhaled by this prodigious 
 fish, and in this manner was at last sucked into the 
 body of the monster through one of his wide nostrils. 
 There he kept falling downward for some hours in- 
 cessantly, without knowing what was to become of 
 him, so great was his giddiness and astonishment of 
 soul ! At length, however, he perceived himself to 
 be fallen into a great mass of waters that filled up 
 one of the cavities of the whale's belly. It was but 
 a small lake indeed, yet it covered a circumference of 
 between ten and a dozen leagues ; and here in all 
 probability must Biribinquer have found the end of 
 all his adventures, had he not, by great good luck, 
 dropped so near the shore of an island, that he had 
 but about two hundred paces to swim before he could 
 reach firm ground. 
 
 " Necessity, the mother of all arts, taught him to 
 swim this once, and the only time he had ever swam 
 since the hour he was born. Luckily for him, he 
 reached land, and after having seated himself for a 
 little while upon a rock, which like all other rocks 
 2 B
 
 370 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 was of stone, but at the same time as soft as a pillow, 
 he amused himself while his clothes lay drying in the 
 sun, with breathing a delicious odour conveyed to 
 him over the adjacent country from a little forest 
 of cinnamon trees that extended itself towards the 
 coast. His clothes dried, and being curious to see 
 the country, and inform himself whether it was in- 
 habited, and by whom, he descended from the rock 
 the moment he found his spirits a little recruited, 
 and travelled for about half an hour through the 
 forest. At length he arrived at a large garden, in 
 which every species of tree, shrub, plant, flower and 
 herb in the known world, grew and blossomed around 
 him in charming confusion and disorder. Art lay 
 so concealed in the arrangement of this garden, that 
 the whole appeared only as a sport and pastime 
 of wanton nature. Here and there he discerned 
 nymphs of dazzling beauty, lying under the shade of 
 fragrant thickets, or reclined in cool grottoes, pour- 
 ing through their urns little rivulets that ran 
 meandering through the wondrous scene, and while 
 in some places they spurted forth in fountains, in 
 others they fell dashing in cascades, or met together 
 in basins surrounded with marble of every sort and 
 colour. These basins swarmed as it were with all 
 kinds of fishes, which, contrary to the custom of 
 creatures of their species, sung so melodiously, that 
 Biribinquer stood quite enraptured at the sound. 
 In particular, he admired a carp, which chanted the 
 finest treble in the world, trilling forth such ecstatic 
 quavers as might have done honour to the first 
 castrati in Italy.* The prince listened to him a long 
 time with great pleasure, but all these wonders served 
 only to excite his curiosity the more. He deter- 
 mined to know who this enchanted island belonged 
 to, and whether, as he supposed, he was really in a 
 subterraneous world or no. To this end he put 
 
 * Fuimus Romani ; et nunc. See the Roman History, and The 
 Present State of Italy.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 37 1 
 
 several questions to these fishes : ' For,' said he to 
 himself, ' as they sing so well, in all probability they 
 can talk better still.' The fishes, however, kept on 
 their singing, without giving him any answer, or 
 seeming to pay the least attention to anything he said. 
 
 " Accordingly he gave it up, and pursued his jour- 
 ney, till at length he came to a large kitchen-garden. 
 Here every plant and vegetable seemed to grow 
 abundantly, and in the greatest perfection, without 
 the least culture. While he was endeavouring to 
 strike out a path in this kind of wilderness as well as 
 he could, he chanced to hit his right foot against a 
 large pompion, that nearly in size resembled the 
 prominent belly of a Chinese mandarin, and which 
 he had not taken notice of before, as it lay blended 
 with its broad leaves. 
 
 " ' Signior Biribinquer ! ' said the pompion, ' an- 
 other time, pray, be kind enough to look a little 
 before you, and take care how you stumble over the 
 paunch of an honest pompion.' 
 
 " ' I humbly beg your pardon, my friend pompion,' 
 replied Biribinquer ; ' upon my word, it was not done 
 designedly, and I certainly should have been more 
 cautious, could I have supposed that the pompions 
 of this island had been personages of that importance 
 which I now see they are. I am rejoiced, however, 
 that this little accident introduces me to the pleasure 
 of your acquaintance ; for now I hope you will be so 
 obliging as to inform me where I am, and what I am 
 to think of all that I see and hear in this new scene 
 of abode ? " 
 
 ' Prince Biribinquer,' replied the pompion, ' your 
 presence is too agreeable to my wishes, to suffer me 
 to neglect so favourable an opportunity of rendering 
 you, with the greatest pleasure, every little service in 
 my power. Know then, that you are now in the 
 
 belly of a whale, and this island ' 
 
 ' In the belly of a whale ? ' exclaimed Biribin- 
 quer. ' This exceeds everything that has happened
 
 372 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 to me yet. Look ye, pompion, I swear to you, from 
 this moment, nothing in the world shall ever sur- 
 prise me again. Egad ! if one may find air, and 
 water, and islands, and gardens, and as it seems to 
 me, even a sun, moon and stars in a whale's belly ; 
 if the rocks are as soft as cushions ; if the fishes sing 
 like nightingales, and even pompions can talk 
 
 " ' Oh, but stop,' cried the pompion in his turn, 
 * as to this last matter, you'll please to observe, I am 
 peculiarly distinguished from all other pompions, 
 cucumbers, and melons in the whole garden ; and 
 you might safely walk over or tread upon a hundred 
 of them without squeezing out a single syllable.' 
 
 ** * Well then, I beg your pardon again,' said the 
 prince. 
 
 " * There's no need of that,' replied pompion ; ' I 
 assure you, I should have been very sorry if this 
 accident had not happened to me. I have long since 
 my being here expected your coming, and was 
 beginning to despair of ever seeing this fortunate 
 event ; for believe me, to any one not born to be a 
 pompion, tis a very tedious circumstance to lie 
 so for two hundred years together as I have done, 
 especially when one is fond of conversation, and has 
 been used to good company. At last, however, the 
 time is come for you to avenge me of that cursed 
 Padmanaba.' 
 
 " ' What do you say about Padmanaba ? ' said 
 Biribinquer ; ' are you speaking of that enchanter 
 who turned the beautiful CrystaUina into a chamber- 
 pot, and condemned the more beautiful Mirabella to 
 become a crocodile every time she endeavoured to 
 put her virtue to the proof ? ' 
 
 " * This question of yours,' replied the pompion, 
 ' assures me I was not deceived in taking you for the 
 Prince Biribinquer ; I can see from thence, that 
 more than half of this old wretch's enchantments are 
 already dissolved, and that the moment of my 
 deliverance is come.'
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 373 
 
 " ' What then,' demanded Biribinquer, ' have you 
 any complaint to lay against him ? ' 
 
 " * I ask your pardon,' replied pompion, ' if this 
 question makes me laugh ; ' and laugh indeed did he 
 most heartily, so long and so loud, that by reason of 
 his short breath, a consequence of his big belly, he 
 fell into a violent fit of coughing for a great while 
 before he could recover his voice. ' Why, don't you 
 observe then,' continued he, ' that I must certainly 
 be a something better than I appear to be ? Did not 
 Mirabella tell you anything of a certain salamander, 
 who had the honour of being surprised by old 
 Padmanaba under certain circumstances ? ' 
 
 " ' Yes, yes,' said Biribinquer, ' she did. I re- 
 member she told me of a certain sprightly lover who 
 entertained and engrossed her mind with the sublime 
 mysteries and philosophy of Averroes, in such a 
 manner that she paid no attention to certain little 
 experiments ; and that just in the interim ' 
 
 " ' Softly, softly,' cried the pompion, ' I see you 
 know more of the matter than you needed to have 
 known. I am that salamander, that Flox, who, as 
 I told you, and as you knew before, was fortunate 
 enough to make the charming Mirabella some amends 
 for those tedious nights she was obliged to spend 
 with the old enchanter. The above-mentioned scene, 
 at which he had the stupidity to be present as a spec- 
 tator, without being invited, threw him into a kind 
 of despair, yet was not sufficient to cure him of his 
 ridiculous and ill-placed passion. His palace, and 
 every other place of abode, of which he had his choice 
 in whatever element he pleased, now became odious 
 to him. He no longer put any confidence either in 
 mortals or immortals. Gnomes, sylphs, tritons, sala- 
 manders, all alike became objects of mistrust and 
 suspicion ; nor could he think himself any where 
 secure, but in some solitude utterly inaccessible. 
 After having formed many projects, which he almost 
 as instantly rejected, at length he took it into his
 
 374 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 head to retire into the belly of this whale, where, as 
 he supposed, no creature would come to seek after 
 him. Here, by the help of the salamanders, he built 
 him a palace, and then, to prevent their betraying 
 him, he changed them, as well as myself, into so 
 many pompions, on condition so to remain, until 
 Prince Biribinquer should come in person, and 
 restore us to our former shape. I was the only one to 
 whom he indulged the use of reason and speech ; 
 the former of which, he supposed, would only serve 
 to torment me with the remembrance of my lost 
 felicity ; and the latter to enable me to utter many 
 a vain ' oh,' or ' alas ! ' and waste my spirits in mourn- 
 ful soliloquies. However, for once this sagacious 
 villain is caught out with a vengeance, for un- 
 favourable as the figure and organism of a pompion 
 may seem for making observations, 'tis by no means 
 ill-adapted for reasonings and arguments a priori ; 
 and besides, in the course of a hundred years, one 
 gets at many things by degrees that tend either to 
 confirm our hypotheses preconceived, or lead us 
 onward to new discoveries. In short, I am not so 
 ignorant of the slightest motions of Signior Pad- 
 manaba, as perhaps he may imagine me to be ; and 
 I flatter myself I can give you such hints as may 
 enable you to render all his precautions vain and 
 fruitless.' 
 
 " ' I shall esteem myself infinitely obliged to you,' 
 replied the prince ; ' for I feel within me a singular 
 propensity to play old Padmanaba some shrewd 
 turn. Tis certainly the influence of my stars that 
 inclines me so, for I cannot say that in my life he 
 ever personally offended me.' 
 
 " ' What ! ' said the pompion, ' is it not a sufficient 
 offence, to have been the sole cause why the great 
 Caramussal, who dwells on the summit of Mount 
 Atlas, should have given you the name of Biribin- 
 quer ? a name which already hath been so fatal 
 to your interest with your beauteous milkmaid ? '
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 375 
 
 " ' And is old Padmanaba then the cause of my 
 being called Biribinquer ? ' cried the prince, full of 
 astonishment. ' I beseech you, explain to me a 
 little the connection of all this business ; for I protest 
 to you, I have often puzzled my brain to no end, in 
 order to learn, if possible, the mystery of a name, to 
 which, as it hitherto seems, I am indebted for all 
 my extraordinary adventures. But in particular I 
 should be glad to know whence it comes to pass, that 
 wherever I am, or whoever I meet, even the very 
 pompions all know my name ; and every body, the 
 moment I appear, is as well acquainted with all the 
 circumstances of my history, as if it were written 
 upon my forehead.' 
 
 ' I am not yet permitted,' replied the pompion, 
 * to satisfy your curiosity on this head. Let it suffice 
 to say, that it entirely depends upon you, to inform 
 yourself further, after what I shall tell you. The 
 greatest difficulty of all is now surmounted. Pad- 
 manaba certainly never imagined you would find 
 him out in his whale's belly.' 
 
 ' And I must sincerely confess to you,' inter- 
 rupted Biribinquer, ' I had it still less in my idea 
 than he ; and you will allow he has at least done all 
 he could to avoid his destiny. But you just now 
 mentioned something of a palace that this old man 
 had built in this island by the assistance of the sala- 
 manders. We are now, I suppose, in the gardens 
 belonging to that palace ; but how is it, I can see 
 nothing of the edifice ? ' 
 
 " ' The reason,' answered pompion, ' is a very 
 simple one. You would infallibly see it, if it was 
 not invisible.' 
 
 " ' Invisible ! ' cried Biribinquer. ' But I hope, at 
 least, it is not impalpable too ? ' 
 
 " ' No,' replied Flox ; ' but, as it is built of com- 
 pacted flames ' 
 
 " ' How ! ' interrupted Biribinquer ; ' this is a 
 mighty odd kind of palace : but pray now,
 
 376 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 granting it to be built of flames, how can it be 
 invisible ? ' 
 
 " ' That,' said the pompion, ' is the very point in 
 which the wonder consists. In short, whether it be 
 possible or not, the circumstance is no less true. 
 You will never be able to see the palace, at least in 
 your present condition ; but all you have to do is to 
 walk on for about two hundred paces, and then the 
 heat you will feel will soon convince you of the 
 truth of what I have told you.' 
 
 " The extraordinary things Biribinquer had already 
 seen in the whale's belly, and who indeed would ex- 
 pect anything less than extraordinary in the belly 
 of a whale ? might naturally be supposed to make 
 him the more readily give credit to all he had heard. 
 For this once, however, he was so headstrong, that 
 he would trust nobody but his own self, and his own 
 senses. Accordingly he advanced towards the in- 
 visible palace ; but no sooner had he got about two 
 hundred paces on his way, than he felt a prodigious 
 heat increasing at every step. The farther he pro- 
 ceeded, the more did the heat and a certain invisible 
 radiance rise upon him. He therefore thought it 
 best to return, and look for his friend the pom- 
 pion ; who, the moment he heard his footsteps, cried 
 out, ' Well, Prince Biribinquer, will you trust my 
 word for the future ? I hope you are now fully 
 satisfied that nothing in nature can be more con- 
 sistent than for a palace of flames to be inaccessible 
 and invisible, merely from the force of its radiance 
 and splendour.' 
 
 " ' In truth,' replied Biribinquer, ' I can more 
 easily conceive this, than how I shall be able to get 
 into that same palace. But I must tell thee, I feel 
 within myself an irresistible desire to enter it ; and 
 was it to cost me my life, I could readily 
 
 *' * It will not cost you so much,' interrupted the 
 pompion. ' If you will but follow my directions, the 
 palace will become visible to you, and you shall enter
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 377 
 
 it with as much safety as if it were a cottage of 
 thatch. The method of doing so is very simple, and 
 will cost you no more than a single leap ' 
 
 ' Don't keep me so long with your enigmas, 
 pompion,' cried Biribinquer ; ' tell me in one word 
 what I am to do. Let the enterprise be difficult or 
 not, you see me here ready to hazard everything in 
 the world to get within side a palace invisible from 
 its very lustre.' 
 
 ' Within sixty paces of this spot,' replied the 
 pompion, ' just behind those pomegranate trees, in a 
 little labyrinth composed of jasmines and rose- 
 bushes, you will find a basin distinguished from the 
 rest that lie round it, only by its being filled with 
 fire, whereas the others are full of water. Go, 
 prince, and plunge yourself into that basin ; and 
 then, in a quarter of an hour, return and tell me the 
 effect which your bathing has upon you.' 
 
 ' Nothing but this ! ' exclaimed the prince, 
 with a voice and air that expressed rather more 
 vexation than contempt ; ' why, pompion, methinks 
 thou art only trifling with me. And so then I am 
 to bathe myself first in a flood of fire, and after a 
 quarter of an hour's stay there, am to return and 
 tell thee what effect I feel from it ? Prithee now, 
 who ever heard of a scheme so extravagant as this ? ' 
 " ' Don't be angry, prince,' said pompion, ' it is at 
 your own option whether you choose to enter the 
 invisible palace or no ; and had you not seemed so 
 determined upon the subject, I should never have 
 thought of making you such a proposal.' 
 
 ' Monsieur Pompion,' replied Biribinquer, ' I 
 perceive you are inclined to divert yourself at my 
 expense : but let me tell you, I am not at present in 
 a humour to be made your laughing-stock. I have 
 no desire to enter the palace in the character of a 
 departed spirit.' 
 
 ' Nor do I wish you,' said the pompion, briskly. 
 * This bath of fire which I propose to you, Prince
 
 378 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 Biribinquer, is not so dangerous as you may imagine. 
 Padmanaba himself makes use of it every third day, 
 and without iWhe would be as little capable of in- 
 habiting a fiery palace as yourself. For though, 
 excepting the great Caramussal who dwells on the 
 summit of Mount Atlas, he is the greatest and most 
 powerful enchanter upon earth ; yet is he of a nature 
 and origin as terrestrial as your own. Were it not for 
 the use of this bath, which is one of the profoundest 
 secrets of his art, he would be incapable of enjoying 
 that small particle of happiness which he at present 
 enjoys, or at least seems so to do, in the company of 
 that fair and beautiful salamander whom he keeps 
 locked up in his palace. And you may guess for 
 yourself, whether the possession which a Tithonus is 
 capable of sharing with his Aurora, deserves to be 
 called an enjoyment.' 
 
 " ' What then,' said Biribinquer, ' has he a sala- 
 mander with him ? ' 
 
 " ' Why not ? ' replied pompion ; ' do you sup- 
 pose he would shut himself up in a whale's belly for 
 nothing ? ' 
 
 " * But is she very beautiful ? ' continued Biri- 
 binquer. 
 
 *' ' Why, surely,' replied the pompion, * if you are 
 capable of asking such a question, you can never have 
 seen a female salamander. Need you be told that 
 the most beautiful of mortals is but a mere dowdy in 
 comparison of our belles ? Though indeed I know 
 an undina, that in point of beauty may well enter 
 the lists with the fairest salamander of them all. 
 But then, you are to observe, there is but one Mira- 
 bella amongst the whole race of undinae.' 
 
 " ' Well then," cried the prince, ' if that is all, and 
 if old Padmanaba's salamandra is not fairer than 
 Mirabella, you might have excused yourself the 
 trouble of depreciating the mortal beauties. I own 
 to you that she has charms ; but I know a certain 
 milkmaid '
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 379 
 
 " ' Of whom,' said the pompion with a sneer, * you 
 are so enamoured, that you presently swore to Mira- 
 bella, you had never seen her.* The cause is best 
 known by its effects, and if one was inclined to judge 
 of your passion upon this principle ' 
 
 " ' Why, upon my soul ! ' exclaimed Biribinquer, 
 full of impatience, ' surely you think I am come 
 hither for nothing less but to learn philosophy from 
 a pompion ! Tell me rather how I may get into 
 that invisible palace ; which, unless I do, I shall die 
 with vexation. But prithee now, is there no other 
 method but you must want to see me broiled like a 
 rasher in that cursed bath of fire ? ' 
 
 " * What an odd creature you are ! ' cried the 
 pompion. ' I have already told you once, how 
 highly it concerned my own interests that you should 
 enter the invisible palace ; where, to judge from cir- 
 cumstances, one of the most extraordinary adven- 
 tures in the world awaits you. Can you suppose 
 then, that I am a pompion here for my own amuse- 
 ment, and that I do not wish as soon as possible to be 
 set free from this devilish clumsy belly that sits so 
 ill upon a spirit of my lively and speculative turn ? 
 I repeat it to you, that unless you choose to perish in 
 the flames, you have no other way of getting into the 
 palace, but through the fiery bath I have proposed to 
 you. Sooner than die with impatience, as you talked 
 of, you ought at least to try, were it only for a few 
 minutes. Were you even to perish though I can 
 warrant you to the contrary it is but meeting with 
 one kind of death instead of another, which, by the 
 way, will come when it will come.' 
 
 ' Well, well,' said Biribinquer, 'we shall see what's 
 to be done. Perhaps I ought not to repose so much 
 confidence in you as I now do ; but my fate is 
 stronger than my reason. I go then ; and if in a 
 quarter of an hour you hear nothing of me, even 
 resign yourself patiently to remain a pompion, till 
 
 * See page 354.
 
 380 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 old Padmanaba shall cease of his own accord to be 
 plagued with love, or stung by jealousy.' 
 
 So saying, the prince made Pompion a very low 
 bow, and advanced towards the labyrinth, in which 
 he was to look for his fiery bath. There he found a 
 large circular basin, the borders of which were edged 
 with large square stones of solid diamond. In the 
 basin was a vast quantity of fire, which, without 
 being fed by any visible matter, mounted up in 
 serpentine columns, resembling flashes of lightning, 
 and continually touched without burning them, the 
 rose-bushes that formed a kind of arbour round 
 about the basin. In these wondrous flames were 
 beheld innumerable colours, which varied every 
 moment ; and instead of smoke, a tepid, invisible 
 exhalation, replete with the most delicious odours, 
 diffused itself on every side. Biribinquer stood for 
 some time considering this prodigy, in a state of 
 irresolution, that redounded but little honour to a 
 hero of the fairies, and in all probability still might 
 he have stood on the edge of the basin, had not some 
 power unseen plunged him quite unexpectedly into 
 the midst of the flames. So great was his terror at 
 the event, that it hindered him from crying out ; 
 but the moment he perceived that the fire he was in 
 did not even burn a single hair of his head, and 
 instead of putting him to any pain, rather pervaded 
 his whole frame with a delightful sensation of glow- 
 ing warmth, he soon recovered from his fright, and 
 became so pleased with his situation, that he lay 
 beating the flaming waves with his hands and feet, 
 like a fish in common water. Nor is it at all unlikely 
 but he might have exceeded the time prescribed in 
 so delicious a bath, had not the heat, which every 
 moment increased upon him, obliged him to retire. 
 He accordingly made the best of his way out ; but 
 what was his astonishment, on finding himself so 
 light and so immaterial, that, like a zephyr, he scarce 
 touched the earth ! and what completed his joy,
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 381 
 
 was to discover in the twinking of an eye, as it were, 
 the palace in question, whose lustre and beauty sur- 
 passed all that the human eye had hitherto ever 
 been able to behold. He stood for some time in a 
 manner beside himself, and the first clear idea that 
 struck his mind, when he recovered the power of 
 thinking, was to represent to himself those splen- 
 dours and that beauty which a palace so magnificent 
 must contain. For diamonds and rubies seemed no 
 more than the commonest street pebbles, if com- 
 pared with the materials of which this brilliant 
 mansion was composed ; nor did he doubt but the 
 fair salamandra, in comparison with all the other 
 beauties he had ever yet known, would appear just 
 as this structure now appeared in comparison with 
 the other ordinary palaces of the fairies, which are 
 thought to be built very sumptuously, when their 
 walls are made of diamonds and emeralds, the ceiling 
 of rubies, and the floors of pearl, and so forth : and 
 yet all this could only have furnished out a mean 
 hovel or cottage, compared with this palace of 
 flaming fire. 
 
 " With his head full of these ideas, Biribinquer in- 
 sensibly approached the palace, and had already 
 crossed the first court, whose resplendent gate 
 instantly opened to him of its own accord ; when 
 suddenly he recollected that the pompion had ex- 
 pressly told him he must come back and find him out 
 again, after having bathed himself in the fiery basin. 
 ' Probably,' said he to himself, ' he may have some 
 instructions to give me, without which it might be 
 dangerous to venture my person in such a building ; 
 and since I have hitherto met with so good success 
 from his instructions, it would neither be prudent, 
 nor grateful, were I to think of having no further 
 need of his assistance. Who will say, after this, that 
 he shall never be in such a condition as to want the 
 good counsel of a pompion, when even a prince may 
 find himself in a situation to require it ? '
 
 382 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 " Accordingly, Biribinquer retired very softly, and 
 not without fear of being discovered, to seek his 
 friend the pompion. 
 
 " * So, so ! ' cried pompion as he drew nigh, ' I see 
 the bath has had a wonderful effect upon you. O' 
 my conscience, you look charmingly ; I swear by the 
 virtue of my dearest Mirabella, that in the condition 
 you now appear, no salamandra in the world could 
 resist you a single minute. But what is to become 
 of your fidelity to the milkmaid ? ' 
 
 " ' My dear pompion,' said Biribinquer, ' notwith- 
 standing the great regard I have for thee in other 
 respects, I must tell thee, that in my present mood, 
 fresh from the bath as thou seest me, thou wouldst 
 do better to be more sparing of such impertinent 
 remonstrances ' 
 
 " ' Oh ! I beg your pardon,' replied pompion, ' I 
 only meant to say ' 
 
 * * Very well,' interrupted the prince ; ' I know 
 what you meant to say, and I tell you in answer, 
 that without your exhortations, which imply an 
 offensive diffidence of my firmness, I think myself 
 as secure against the united charms of your fiery 
 beauties, as I could be in the midst of the most ugly 
 she-gnomes ; and that merely from the recollection 
 of my divine milkmaid.' 
 
 ' We shall see,' said the pompion, ' whether you 
 will keep up to these generous sentiments ; I have as 
 good an opinion of you as can possibly be after all 
 that befell you lately in a certain palace ; but at the 
 same time I cannot conceal it from you, that I per- 
 ceive your fidelity to be in a very great jeopardy, if 
 you enter into the luminous mansion before you. It 
 still depends upon yourself, whether you will run the 
 hazard of it or no. Think well of the matter, or 
 else ' 
 
 " ' Friend pompion,' cried Biribinquer in a pet, ' I 
 see thou hast the same strange propensity to reason- 
 ing, as the virtuous and affected lady, thy beloved
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 383 
 
 Mirabella, is plagued with. Prithee, why wouldst 
 thou have me bathe myself as I have done, if I must 
 not go into the palace ? But once for all, my friend, 
 put yourself into no concern about my fidelity ; 
 rather instruct me what I have to do when I get 
 there.' 
 
 " ' That requires very little instruction,' replied the 
 pompion, ' for you will meet with no sort of resist- 
 ance : every door will spontaneously open itself 
 before you, and should you chance to have anything 
 to fear, it can only arise from your own heart, as I 
 told you before though you are not very fond of 
 hearing it.' 
 
 " ' But with what kind of countenance dost thou 
 think old Padmanaba will receive me ? ' demanded 
 the prince. 
 
 " ' Why,' replied the pompion, ' if we may give a 
 guess from the motion of the stars, it is now mid- 
 night, a time at which the old fellow is generally in a 
 sound sleep. But supposing he should wake, still 
 you have nothing to fear from his anger. 'Tis not 
 all his power can cope against the magical virtues of 
 your name ; and if one may judge by the advan- 
 tages you have already gained over him, you may 
 undoubtedly hope to be equally successful on the 
 present occasion." 
 
 " ' Let come what will,' cried Biribinquer, ' I am 
 resolved to try the adventure of this invisible castle ; 
 for certainly it could not be without some good reason 
 that I am thus strangely cooped up in a whale's 
 belly. Well, pompion, good-night to you till I see 
 you again.' 
 
 " ' Much good luck be with thee, valiant and 
 lovely Biribinquer ! ' cried the loquacious pompion. 
 ' May prosperity still attend thy steps, thou flower 
 and ornament of all fairy knights ! and may the great 
 adventure on which thou art marching with so much 
 intrepidity and courage, meet with such an issue as 
 never tale recorded since the first existence of fairies
 
 384 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 and nurses in the whole universal world. Go, wise 
 son of a king, whither fhy destiny impels thee ; but 
 take heed of neglecting the advice of a pompion, who 
 is not only thy friend, but perhaps penetrates into 
 futurity with far more sagacity than any almanac- 
 maker in all Christendom.' 
 
 " Pompion was so taken up with this fine parting 
 harangue, that he did not perceive the prince had 
 got through the first court of the palace before he had 
 done speaking. Biribinquer, for his part, had at 
 present no other concern or attention, but for the 
 adventure which awaited him ; and his imagination, 
 which had been already exalted by the use of the 
 fiery bath, represented the beautiful salamandra 
 whom he hoped to see, as arrayed in such irresistible 
 charms, that he could not help wishing, for this once 
 only, that he might have a dispensation for being un- 
 faithful to his dear milkmaid. While he went on 
 thinking in this manner, he advanced through the 
 second court, and came to a vestibule or large entry, 
 in which his ears were instantly attacked with a 
 prodigious noise and clatter. He stopped awhile to 
 listen : at length he distinguished the shrill voices of 
 females, who seemed to be in high dispute and con- 
 tention ; and, being naturally very curious, he could 
 nor resist a desire of seeing who these agreeable 
 voices belonged to. He opened the door of a large 
 and superb hall ; but what was his amazement on 
 beholding the room filled with a group of at 
 least fifty of the ugliest little she-dwarfs that ever 
 could have been caricatured even by the burlesque 
 imagination of a Hogarth or a Calot. 
 
 " Poor Biribinquer, at the first sight, thought all 
 witches' Bedlam was broke loose upon him, and 
 into a fit he certainly must have fell, had not these 
 strange whimsical figures at the same time made 
 him burst into an immoderate horse laugh. These 
 charming nymphs, who were neither more nor less 
 than gnomides, and the youngest of them at least
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 385 
 
 about eighty years old, no sooner perceived him than 
 they all ran up towards him as fast as their crooked 
 legs could carry them. 
 
 " ' Ha ! Prince Biribinquer,' cried one of the 
 ugliest, ' you are just come in right time to decide a 
 dispute which had almost set us to pulling off caps.' 
 
 " ' I hope,' said Biribinquer, ' you are not quarrel- 
 ling which is the prettiest of the company.' 
 
 " ' Why not ? ' replied the gnomide, ' you have 
 nicked the question to a needle's point. But only 
 think of it, my handsome prince ; after having got 
 all the rest of them to give me the preference of the 
 whole company, in point of beauty, this ill-favoured 
 thing here, this puny pagoda, has the face to dispute 
 the golden apple with me.' 
 
 " ' Oh, agreeable young prince ! ' cried the lady 
 accused, pinching him by the calves of his legs, which 
 it seems, was one of her methods of caressing, ' I 
 boldly venture to refer the decision of the matter to 
 you. Look well at us both, consider us feature for 
 feature, and then pronounce according to your con- 
 science ; perhaps I should flatter myself too much, 
 were I to add, according to the emotions of your 
 heart.' 
 
 " ' Prince Biribinquer,' said the first female orator, 
 ' is it easily to be conceived how impudence can be 
 carried to such a height ? In the first place, she is 
 but a whole inch indeed shorter than I, and you will 
 agree with me perhaps that this is not an object. As 
 to her hump, I hope mine will never be ashamed to 
 appear in the same list with hers and my feet, as 
 you see, are full as broad, and at least two good 
 inches longer than hers are. I know indeed she 
 makes a great ado and parade about the width and 
 blackness of her neck and bosom ; but yet,' con- 
 tinued she, turning aside her handkerchief, ' you will 
 allow that mine, though not quite of the same cir- 
 cumference, is at least infinitely darker than hers.' 
 
 " ' Granted,' cried the other ; ' I give up to you 
 2 c
 
 386 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 so frivolous an advantage, while convinced as I 
 am, of having the superiority in every other point 
 whatever.' 
 
 " ' You laugh, my dear Prince Biribinquer, and 
 indeed, nothing can be more laughable than this 
 homely puss's vanity. I am ashamed of being 
 obliged to praise myself ; but only look and see how 
 much crookeder, and more distorted my legs are 
 than any she can boast of. I shall say nothing to 
 you of other respects. He must be blind with a 
 vengeance who cannot see at the first look that my 
 eyes are much smaller, and more sunk by half than 
 hers ; that my cheeks too are above twice as much 
 puffed out, and my lower lip is thicker, and hangs 
 down much lower than her skinny dewlap ; not to 
 mention the preferable length of my ears, and that I 
 have at least five or six more warts and wens in my 
 face, with longer hairs sticking out of them, than she. 
 But setting all this aside for a moment, let us now 
 speak of the nose only. 'Tis true, hers is one of the 
 largest that ever eyes beheld, and might indeed be 
 thought the handsomest that ever sneezed, by any- 
 body that had not seen mine : but all we have to do is 
 to measure them, and then see whether my nose is not 
 at least five or six inches longer, and does not hang 
 much lower beneath my mouth than hers. Modesty 
 does not permit me,' added she, with a horribly 
 tender ogle, ' to talk to you respecting other beauties 
 which none but a happy lover ought to see. How- 
 ever, I hope ' 
 
 " ' Madam,' cried Biribinquer, the moment his 
 loud bursts of laughter would suffer him to speak, 
 ' I should not choose absolutely to set myself up for 
 a connoisseur ; but really, your friend is only trifling 
 with us, if she thinks of disputing with you the 
 superiority in point of beauty. The advantage 
 which you have over her is palpable, and it is im- 
 possible for the good sense of messieurs the gnomes, 
 not to do you all imaginable justice on that head.'
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 387 
 
 "At hearing this decision, the former gnomide 
 seemed a good deal chagrined and angry. However, 
 as Biribinquer now burned with impatience to see 
 the beautiful salamandra, he gave himself very little 
 concern what she muttered from betwixt her long 
 teeth ; but, wishing the whole charming assembly a 
 good evening, took his leave of them. Instead of 
 any reply, they were heard bursting out into loud fits 
 of laughter a matter, indeed, perfectly indifferent to 
 the prince, who now beheld before him the palace, 
 whose incomparable beauties drew all his attention. 
 After having considered and admired it for some 
 time, he perceived the two folding-doors in the front 
 fly open ; a circumstance which he naturally took for 
 a sign that his enterprise would be crowned with all 
 imaginable success. Accordingly, full of courage 
 and high in hope, he entered, and after ascending a 
 staircase, found himself in a large antechamber, 
 which led him on to a long suite of apartments, 
 whose splendour dazzled, and almost dimmed his 
 sight, notwithstanding the change which the fiery 
 bath had operated in his constitution. 
 
 " But, diversified and extraordinary as were those 
 fine things which shone on all sides around him all 
 were forgotten, and his whole mind absorbed by 
 certain pictures, which in every one of the rooms 
 were hung up to represent a young female salamander 
 of incomparable beauty. He had not a moment's 
 doubt but that this was old Padmanaba's beloved 
 mistress ; and the copies before him, which exhibited 
 her in every attitude imaginable, under every mode 
 of dress, and in every possible point of view some- 
 times awake, sometimes asleep ; now like Diana, and 
 now like Venus, Hebe, Flora, or some other goddess 
 all this gave him so great an idea of the original, 
 that even in the bare expectation of his happiness to 
 come, he felt an ecstasy of rapture. But especially 
 was he caught, and scarcely could he enough feast 
 his eyes with contemplating one large picture, in
 
 3 88 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 which she was represented sitting in a bath of flames, 
 and served by little gods of love, who at sight of her 
 supernatural beauty seemed as it were beside them- 
 selves. Biribinquer was at a loss which he should 
 most admire whether the beauty of the object, or 
 the great skill of the painter. At length he acknow- 
 ledged, that in point of colouring, Titian and Rem- 
 brandt were no more than mere daubers, compared 
 with the salamandrian painters. The impression 
 which this picture niade upon him was so strong, 
 that he now wished with more impatience than ever 
 to behold the object, whose inanimate copy alone 
 was thus capable of inspiring him with such irre- 
 sistible desires. He ran therefore through an 
 infinite number of rooms, but without meeting a 
 single creature. He hunted and ransacked the 
 whole palace above and below, and several times 
 over ; but all still in vain not a soul could he find. 
 At length, however, he espied a door standing half- 
 open, which led him out to one of the most extra- 
 ordinary gardens that ever was seen. All the trees, 
 plants, flowers, arbours, and fountains in this garden 
 were of fire ; every vegetable in it burned in natural 
 colours, and with a lustre so agreeable and so vivid, 
 that really the effect of the whole together surpassed 
 in magnificence everything that imagination can form 
 or mind conceive. 
 
 " Biribinquer cast but a cursory transient look 
 upon this majestic spectacle, perceiving a pavilion 
 at the bottom of the garden, in which he hoped to 
 find his beautiful salamandra. He flew thither, and 
 the door opened to him of its own accord, giving the 
 prince a free passage through a large saloon into a 
 cabinet at the farther end, in which he saw nobody 
 but an old man of a majestic appearance, with a long 
 beard white as snow, who was lying in a deep sleep 
 upon a superb sofa. The prince had no doubt but 
 this must be old Padmanaba himself ; and though 
 he was sure he had no violence to fear on his part,
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 389 
 
 yet could he not help trembling a little on finding 
 himself in such a state of mind, and with such in- 
 tentions too as he now had, so near the enchanter, 
 and in a place entirely at the old man's disposal. 
 However, the idea, that fate had made choice of him 
 to destroy Padmanaba's enchantments, and a desire 
 of seeing the beauteous salamandra, made him pluck 
 up his courage and dare all events. He was just 
 about to approach the sofa, in order to make himself 
 master of a sabre that lay upon the pillow by the old 
 man's side, when something which he had not hither- 
 to perceived, seemed to hit against his foot. He 
 stopped a moment, and feeling about with his hands, 
 discovered one of the most charming little feet in the 
 world, that lay stretched along upon another pillow. 
 So unexpected an event made him curious to know 
 the leg to which this delicate foot belonged : for in 
 this case, Biribinquer reasoned as Thomas Aquinas 
 himself would have done, viz., ' Where there is a 
 foot, there, according to the common course of 
 natura, we may rationally expect to find a leg.' He 
 accordingly pursued his investigations, and at 
 length, passing from beauty to beauty, discovered in 
 the invisible figure before him a young lady, who 
 seemed buried in a profound slumber, and, judging 
 by the only sense that indicated to him the presence 
 of this person, must be of such perfect beauty, that 
 she could be no other than Venus herself, or at least 
 the charming salamandra. At the very instant of 
 his making this discovery, a lively symphony, com- 
 posed of all kinds of musical instruments, was heard 
 around him, though there was no seeing either 
 the musicians or instruments from whence such 
 ravishing harmony could proceed. 
 
 " Biribinquer was struck with terror, and retired 
 trembling to some distance from the fair invisible ; 
 for his first idea was, that this noise would cer- 
 tainly wake the enchanter. We may easily judge 
 then, how much greater his consternation must be,
 
 390 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 when on looking up he beheld that Padmanaba was 
 vanished and gone ! 
 
 " The enchanter, it seems, was old enough to be 
 prudent. He had now for a good while known how 
 formidable to him Biribinquer would one day be ; 
 and his fear of a prince, who seemed born on purpose 
 to break his enchantments, had been his most power- 
 ful motive for fixing his place of abode in the belly of 
 a whale. But still, even in this asylum, he did not 
 think that himself and his fair salamandra, who now 
 constituted the sole object of his cares, were suffi- 
 ciently secure. And as a certain foresight, or as 
 some would say, second sight, had told him that Biri- 
 binquer might possibly follow his steps even into the 
 whale's belly, he thought he could not use too much 
 precaution for avoiding those evils with which the 
 sudden appearance of so dangerous an adversary 
 threatened him. In this view he had armed his 
 beloved mistress with a mystical species of talisman, 
 which had the twofold quality of rendering her in- 
 visible to all eyes but his own, and of producing a 
 magical composition of music the moment it should be 
 touched. For old Padmanaba reasoned with himself 
 in this manner : ' If Biribinquer, notwithstanding 
 every difficulty, should come into the belly of the 
 whale, and even into this palace, yet still would the 
 beautiful salamandra be invisible to him. And if, 
 in spite of her very invisibility, he should find her out 
 this musical 'larum, at the instant he touches the 
 talisman, will certainly betray his presence, and give 
 Padmanaba sufficient time to prevent his dreaded 
 catastrophe.' 
 
 " This precaution was the more necessary as the 
 poor honest old fellow had for several years past been 
 subject to a kind of lethargy, which obliged him to 
 sleep and doze at least sixteen hours every day. The 
 ill opinion he had of the fair sex, after the various 
 tricks his former mistresses had played him, induced 
 him every time he went to sleep, to bury the fair
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 391 
 
 salamandra in an enchanted slumber, from which 
 none but himself could awaken her. Biribinquer 
 alone might otherwise, upon certain conditions, and 
 in certain circumstances, have had the same power, 
 and Padmanaba such was the will of fate would 
 at the same moment have lost all his power at least 
 over the beauteous salamandra. As all this then 
 might easily have happened while the old man was 
 taking his nap, he had applied the talisman which 
 was to waken him with so much judgment, that 
 Biribinquer, even if we suppose him to have had 
 but a very moderate share of curiosity, could not 
 absolutely fail of finding it." 
 
 Here Don Sylvio could not help interrupting the 
 thread of Don Gabriel's narration, by begging of him 
 to explain himself a little more clearly respecting 
 the talisman. 
 
 " Methinks," said he, " contrary to your usual 
 custom, you have been a little mysterious for some 
 time, and I must confess to you, I have not under- 
 stood half of what you have been saying with regard 
 to this waking of old Padmanaba." 
 
 The whole company, not excepting even the fair 
 Jacintha, smiled to hear a remark like this urged by 
 Don Sylvio so very gravely ; and Don Gabriel knew 
 no other way how to extricate himself, than by 
 observing to Don Sylvio that the whole mystery, of 
 which he complained, was in the matter itself ; and 
 that, generally speaking, there were but few fairy 
 tales so clear and intelligible from one end to the 
 other, as a body might wish them to be. Don Sylvio 
 seemed satisfied with this reply, and Don Gabriel 
 resumed his history in the following manner : 
 
 " The moment after, Biribinquer had discovered 
 that the beautiful foot which occasioned this ad- 
 venture belonged to so fair a lady, and instantly, 
 upon his touching the fatal talisman, the music we 
 have already spoken of began to strike up, and old
 
 392 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 Padmanaba started from his sleep. He did not, as 
 may easily be imagined, look upon the prince with 
 the most favourable eye ; but, as open force could 
 avail him nothing against such an opponent, no 
 other way was left him than to render himself 
 immediately invisible, and to use all possible 
 diligence to prevent the design which he might very 
 well suppose the prince to have in view against him. 
 " The prince, who in proper time and place was 
 not deficient in courage, had during this interval 
 recovered from the first confusion into which the 
 invisible concert and Padmanaba's sudden dis- 
 appearance had thrown him : and dangerous as it 
 might seem to be over-curious in such a place, he 
 determined however to know what was become of 
 the old sorcerer. He accordingly went in search of 
 him through all the rooms, and pried into every hole 
 and corner of the palace, first taking the precaution 
 of furnishing himself with the sabre which Pad- 
 manaba had left behind him, and upon both sides 
 of which he found so many talismanic figures en- 
 graved, that thus armed, he would not have been 
 afraid even of the enchanter Martin himself. At 
 last, however, being unable to trace out the old man, 
 or whoever it was, he no longer doubted but that 
 Padmanaba had decamped, abandoning both the 
 palace and his fair one to his royal highness's dis- 
 cretion. Full of this idea, Biribinquer returned in 
 triumph, threw the sabre upon the sofa, and himself 
 at the feet of the lovely invisible ; whom, to his 
 great satisfaction, he found still asleep, though the 
 music, resulting from the talisman he had touched, 
 kept continually playing on, sometimes a fine allegro, 
 and at others an affecting andante ; pieces that in 
 fact could not have been more exquisite, had they 
 even been composed by Jomelli himself. We cannot 
 pretend to specify whether it was owing to the in- 
 fluence of one of these andantes, or whether, as is 
 often the case, it proceeded from any doubt that
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 393 
 
 arose in his mind, as to the sufficiency of testimony 
 that might result from the only sense left him in this 
 circumstance, or as to the certainty of that incom- 
 parable beauty lying on the sofa's being anything 
 more than a mere illusion a matter nothing extra- 
 ordinary in an enchanted palace I say, we cannot 
 pretend to assert, whether we are to attribute, to one 
 or other of these causes, the pains which Biribinquer 
 took to assure himself of the truth of so unusual a 
 phenomenon, by renewing his late investigation. 
 However, so it was ; and soon after, new and fresh 
 experiments were superadded ; and all these, as 
 well as the most violent concomitant symptoms of a 
 passion which presently rose to the highest pitch 
 of enthusiasm and intoxication of the senses, no 
 longer allowed him to doubt but that he had the 
 beauteous salamandra within his arms ; that very 
 identical She, whose visible form, found in the apart- 
 ments of the palace, had so transported him. This 
 idea, and the enchanting glow of colours with which 
 his memory supplied the imperfection of the fifth 
 sense the only one now at his command put him 
 too far beside himself to allow him at this juncture 
 any recollection of his beloved milkmaid, his quon- 
 dam firm resolutions, or all the pompion's grave ex- 
 hortations. In a word, he became more and more 
 enterprising ; and the obscurity of the room, which 
 gradually increased, and which he took for an en- 
 couragement to his enterprise, joined to the music 
 of the talisman, which grew more and more tender 
 and pathetic ; all this can hardly be thought very 
 well calculated to moderate his transports. [Here 
 we find a small hiatus or chasm in the original of 
 this memorable history, which therefore we must 
 leave to the scribleruses and Bentleys of the age to 
 fill up, not caring to hazard a single conjecture of our 
 own upon what its contents might be.] 
 
 " Biribinquer, continues the historian, was just 
 emerging from one of those ecstasies, which, to some
 
 394 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 of the Indian philosophers, appear so delectable and 
 charming, that in the continual duration of such 
 raptures they have inclined to place the highest 
 degree of felicity when lo ! he perceived that the 
 fair invisible answered his caresses with becoming 
 sensibility. He judged from thence she must now 
 be awake, and therefore failed not to tell her, in that 
 sublime language to which he had been used in the 
 fairy Melisotta's beehive, the same sweet things 
 which Crystallina and Mirabella had heard from him 
 before on a like occasion. The invisible fair one 
 answered to all these fine declamations, eulogiums, 
 exclamations, protestations, and so forth, only by 
 sighs ; she modestly depreciated her own charms, 
 and seemed to doubt of the prince's constancy, but 
 in such a manner, that a lover less enthusiastic than 
 Biribinquer might have thought the declaration 
 misplaced in the mouth of so lovely a person. The 
 prince, however, who was not then in a mood for 
 verbal argumentation, contented himself with simply 
 redoubling his caresses, the common method of 
 removing these sorts of doubts. She paid all possible 
 attention to his reasonings, without seeming a whit 
 more convinced than before. 
 
 " ' Have you not loved Mirabella and Crystallina 
 as much as me ? ' said she. ' Did not you tell both 
 of them the same passionate and tender things ? 
 Did not you make them as many protestations, 
 and did you not give them the same proofs ? yet 
 neither of them, charming as they appeared to you 
 in the first intoxication of your senses, was capable 
 of stealing you a single day from the milkmaid, 
 whom you had taken it into your head to run after ? 
 Ah ! Biribinquer, the fate of these my predecessors 
 does but too plainly tell me what mine will be, and 
 how think you then that I can rest easy or satisfied, 
 under the irksome uncertainty of losing you, like 
 them, in a few short hours ? ' 
 
 " Biribinquer replied, by giving her the strongest
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 395 
 
 and most solemn assurances of a lasting and un- 
 bounded love. He insisted upon it, that she debased 
 her own figure and accomplishments, by comparing 
 herself with two fairies, who, as he observed, were 
 not sufficiently lovely to inspire him with more than 
 a transient liking ; and by all the cupids he swore 
 to her, that from the first moment of his being so 
 lucky as to behold her portrait in the great saloon, 
 the milkmaid who gave her so much uneasiness, had 
 retained no more empire over him than any other 
 milkmaid in the world. This assurance did but 
 weakly soothe the apprehensions of the fair invis- 
 ible, and Biribinquer found himself obliged to exhaust 
 all his rhetoric in order to overcome her obstinate 
 incredulity. 
 
 " ' O beautiful invisible,' he cried, ' why cannot I 
 call the whole earth and all the elements with their 
 inhabitants to witness, when I swear to you the most 
 inviolable fidelity.' 
 
 " ' We are all of us witnesses,' exclaimed a vast 
 number of voices, male and female, that came from 
 persons on all sides round him. 
 
 " Biribinquer, who, to say the truth, could never 
 have thought of being thus taken at his word, rose 
 up with some confusion, to see from whence these 
 voices proceeded. But, O Heavens ! what tongue is 
 sufficiently eloquent to express the trouble and horror 
 he felt at seeing the whole apartment all on a sudden 
 blazing with light around him ? In the very 
 cabinet which had borne witness to his inconstancy 
 and infidelity, he beheld O wonderful, terrible 
 sight ! instead of the beautiful salamandra, he 
 beheld himself locked in the arms of that very de- 
 formed gnomida to whom he had so lately adjudged 
 the prize of beauty. But what above all completed 
 his confusion and distress, was to see himself sur- 
 rounded on every side by he's and she's, whom of all 
 living he would last have chosen to be spectators of 
 his present state. These persons were cruel enough
 
 396 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 to burst out into immoderate fits of laughing, at 
 the very moment he was disengaging himself from 
 his monstrous fair one. He was ready to sink into 
 the earth, what with shame on one hand, and aver- 
 sion on the other, while the whole palace rung with 
 unbounded laughter from every busy spectator. 
 On the right side of the sofa he saw oh, how at 
 that instant could he have wished for blindness and 
 invisibility ! he saw the fairy Crystallina, holding in 
 her hand little Grigri ; on the left side appeared the 
 charming Mirabella with her dear Flox, who now cut 
 a far better figure as salamander than in his late 
 condition of a big-bellied pompion. But what above 
 all added torture in extreme to the unhappy Biri- 
 binquer, was to behold the fairy Caprosina, with his 
 beautiful milkmaid, and close beside them, old Pad- 
 manaba, holding the fair salamandra in his hand, 
 both seated upon a cloud intermixed with azure and 
 gold, borne by young sylphs, and casting disdainful 
 looks at him ! 
 
 " ' Oh, mighty well ! Prince Biribinquer,* cried 
 the fairy Crystallina ; ' upon my word, prince, I 
 pardon you now for the impatience you showed to 
 get rid of me. He who goes in pursuit of such a 
 conquest, certainly cannot exercise too much diligence 
 to obtain it.' 
 
 " * And, Prince Biribinquer,' cried Grigri, taking 
 up the conversation, ' I suppose you may now 
 recollect, that I am not under any particular obliga- 
 tion to suppose myself greatly indebted to your care : 
 for had it only depended upon you, I fancy I might 
 have continued a bee as I was for ever ; but in your 
 present situation it would really be cruel to laugh at 
 you. Only then look upon what has befallen you as 
 a punishment you have well deserved for more reasons 
 than one ; and so good-bye to you ! ' 
 
 " ' If the fair one with whom you have so unex- 
 pectedly been surprised,' said Mirabella with a 
 malicious air, ' were not in all respects worthy of your
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 397 
 
 attention, you have at least the satisfaction of finding 
 her neither prudish nor formal.' 
 
 " ' As to myself/ cried he that had been the pom- 
 pion, ' I ought indeed to be mortified for having 
 recovered, at the expense of your happiness, my 
 natural shape, and the possession of my dear Mira- 
 bella ; but having so generously warned you before- 
 hand of the consequences of a fresh infidelity, while I 
 was but a poor pompion, you will not blame me if 
 I rejoice as a salamander to see you punished for the 
 contempt of my precautions.' 
 
 " * See now, unhappy, but justly punished Biri- 
 binquer,' exclaimed the fairy Caprosina, with a 
 hoarse dissonant eagerness of voice, ' see how Cara- 
 mussal has guarded thee against my anger and re- 
 sentments ! Look here, and behold the amiable 
 Galactina, whom thou lovedst as a milkmaid, and 
 of whom, in spite of my hatred towards thee, a too 
 favourable fate had destined thee the sole possession, 
 had not thy own thrice perpetrated infidelity rendered 
 thee unworthy of her.' 
 
 " ' Little as thou hast merited it at my hands, 
 poor prince ! ' said the beauteous milkmaid, ' if my 
 compassion could avail thee anything, thou shouldst 
 be less unhappy : for full well I see, the punishment 
 thou hast been made to suffer is greater even than 
 thy crime ; nay, I verily believe that the fairies and 
 enchanters have at least had as great a share in thy 
 disaster as any to which thy own faultiness hath 
 contributed.' 
 
 " At these words Biribinquer lifted up his eyes, and 
 darted a look full of inexpressible sensibilities at his 
 best-beloved milkmaid : then, sinking to the ground, 
 he heaved a great sigh that seemed as if life and soul 
 fled with it, and lay prostrate without power to utter 
 a single word. 
 
 " ' Learn, admirable Biribinquer,' cried old Pad- 
 manaba, standing on the other side of him ; ' learn, 
 thou rare pattern of wisdom and constancy, and
 
 398 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 from hence be convinced that Padmanaba is not yet 
 so old as to let thy temerity escape unpunished. Let 
 thy history, through successive and uncounted ages, 
 be transmitted to the latest posterity, from gossip to 
 gossip, from one old wife to another ; that so they 
 may learn how equally dangerous it is for any one 
 to consult the great Caramussal about fates or 
 fortunes, or to look upon a milkmaid before the 
 expiration of his eighteenth year.' 
 
 " Padmanaba had scarce done speaking, when all 
 on a sudden were heard terrible claps of thunder, 
 accompanied with streams of lightning, and such a 
 furious tempest, that the whole palace shook with 
 its violent concussions, just as if an earthquake were 
 rooting up the very foundations. Every one present, 
 excepting only the despairing Biribinquer, was struck 
 with fear and horror ; and even old Padmanaba 
 himself perceived that the storm proceeded from a 
 power superior to his own. In an instant the roofs 
 of the palace, with the ceiling of the room above 
 them, were all torn off, while, amidst the thunders 
 and lightnings, they beheld the great Caramussal 
 mounted on a hippogriff, and descending from the 
 clouds. He alighted, and took his place betwixt old 
 Padmanaba and the fairy Caprosina. 
 
 " ' The Prince Biribinquer,' cried Caramussal with 
 a majestic voice, * is sufficiently punished. Fate is 
 satisfied, and I take him under my protection. 
 Vanish, unworthy strumpet ! ' continued he, touch- 
 ing the gnomida with his wand ; ' and now, Prince 
 Biribinquer, choose you out from amongst these four 
 fair females the salamandra, the sylphid, the 
 undina, or the mortal whichever you best approve. 
 She whom your own heart shall fix upon, shall be 
 your wife, and cure you of that inconstancy, which 
 hitherto, it must be owned, has been your fault.' 
 
 " Had Padmanaba had any, he could have gnashed 
 his teeth for spite, at seeing the whole plot of the 
 drama so unexpectedly unravelled. As to the fair
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 399 
 
 ones, they all together kept their eyes fixed upon the 
 prince ; and you might particularly read in those of 
 the young salamandra, who hitherto had not uttered 
 a single word, that rather than old Padmanaba 
 should have substituted the ugly gnomida in her 
 stead, she could have gladly been permitted to 
 represent her own self in proprid persona. But Biri- 
 binquer, who in a moment passed from one extreme 
 to another that is to say, from the greatest grief and 
 deepest despair, to the highest festivity and joy, did 
 not hesitate a minute where to choose ; though the 
 elementary ladies infinitely surpassed his milkmaid 
 in beauty, all their charms could not, however, 
 obtain from him more than a transient regard when 
 he considered his dearest Galactina. He threw him- 
 self at the feet of that charming young creature, and 
 implored her pardon for all his faults, in terms full of 
 a sincere penitence, and a love so violent, that, un- 
 able to call up cruelty enough not to flatter him at 
 least with hope, she at length suffered herself to be 
 moved by his entreaties. Caramussal, at whose 
 feet also in like manner he laid himself prostrate, 
 raised him from the ground, took him by the hand, 
 and led him towards the princess Galactina. 
 
 " ' Receive,' said he, ' from my hands, the Prince 
 Cacamiello, for since the views, with which I had the 
 other appellation bestowed upon him, are fulfilled, 
 this is his present name. Biribinquer and the milk- 
 maid now no longer exist. Both of them therefore 
 having satisfied the caprice of their stars, and paid 
 their tribute to the fairy science, nothing more re- 
 mains to do, than to restore Prince Cacamiello to his 
 royal parents, and bind him by an indissoluble tie to 
 the Princess Galactina. You, bright fairies ! ' con- 
 tinued he, turning toward Crystallina and Mirabella, 
 ' you, I hope, have reason to be content with my pro- 
 ceedings ; having your former shape, together with 
 your lovers, restored to you by my care. But, as it 
 would be unjust that I should be the only one to
 
 400 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 return back empty-handed, I here dispense old Pad- 
 manaba from every care whatever, and shall keep for 
 myself the beautiful salamandra, whose residence 
 with him could leave her no other employment than 
 to sleep, and to be invisible.' 
 
 " So saying, the great Caramussal smote the air 
 thrice with his wand, and instantly found himself 
 with the prince and princess in the king's cabinet ; 
 who, as may well be imagined, was full of joy to 
 behold once more his son and heir, accompanied 
 with so beautiful a princess, and with so fine a name. 
 Soon after, the nuptials were celebrated with great 
 pomp and ceremony. The new - married couple 
 loved each other as long as they could, enriching the 
 world with sons and daughters, and at length, on the 
 old king's departure for the nineteenth world, King 
 Cacamiello governed so wisely in his stead, that the 
 subjects under his sway found little or no difference 
 betwixt the father and son. In reward for the good 
 services which his friend Flox, while a pompion, had 
 rendered him, he made him his prime vizier, nor did 
 the fairy Crystallina or M Arabella ever fail of appear- 
 ing at court as often as the queen lay in. Crystallina 
 always brought with her the little Grigri, who, in 
 spite of his ugliness, met with the approbation of 
 most of the maids of honour ; a circumstance by no 
 means palatable to their respective admirers. ' It 
 must be owned,' said all the ladies with a unanimous 
 voice, ' that Grigri, in spite of his ugliness, is the 
 most diverting companion in the world ! ' 
 
 " Here then, at length," said Don Gabriel, " con- 
 cludes the history of Prince Biribinquer, which is 
 equally as true as it is instructive. Happy shall I 
 esteem myself, if I have succeeded in my under- 
 taking, which was at once to amuse you, and to cure 
 the fair Jacintha of her prejudices against the fairies 
 and fairy science."
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 401 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 REMARKS ON THE FOREGOING HISTORY 
 
 " IF you had no other design but that, Don 
 Gabriel," said Jacintha, " I am only sorry to find 
 you have so ill succeeded. To tell you the truth, I 
 believe it is impossible to push the matter of imper- 
 tinence and extravagant folly further in a tale than 
 you have done : and certainly Don Sylvio must have 
 been very credulous and honest-hearted if he has 
 not perceived that your sole view was to put the 
 fairies out of all credit or countenance with him." 
 
 " You judge very rigorously, madam," replied 
 Don Eugenio : " 'tis true, all nature is turned topsy- 
 turvy in this history from one end to the other : 
 'tis equally true, that the characters which it exhibits 
 are as impertinent as the adventures it relates are 
 incredible ; and that if we were to judge of either 
 according to the principles of reason, probability, and 
 morality, nothing could be invented more out-of-the 
 way, or more absurd. But then, in so doing, we 
 might exercise as little justice, as if we should choose 
 to determine the climate of Siberia from that of 
 Valencia, or our country politeness from that of the 
 Chinese. The land of the fairies is situated beyond 
 the confines of nature ; it is governed by its own 
 laws, or, to speak more accurately, like certain 
 republics which I don't choose to name, it is governed 
 by no laws at all. There, is no judging of one fairy 
 tale but by another fairy tale ; and considered in 
 this point of view, Biribinquer is not only as prob- 
 able and as instructive, but in all respects more 
 2 D
 
 402 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 interesting than any other tale in the world, except- 
 ing the history of the four Facardins." 
 
 " But pray now," demanded Jacintha, " I could 
 be glad to know what you find so instructive in this 
 tale." 
 
 " Moralists by profession," replied Don Eugenio, 
 " persons who are capable of extracting a whole 
 system of morality from one of Tibullus's elegies, 
 would undoubtedly give you a better answer to this 
 question than I. However, not entirely to give my 
 position, do tell me, are not irregularity and a vicious 
 conduct constantly and uniformly punished in this 
 history ? Is not virtue at length rewarded in the 
 person of the fair milkmaid, and does not the whole 
 tale very convincingly make good the moral maxim, 
 'That the foolish curiosity of wishing to pry into 
 futurity, with a purpose of extricating ourselves 
 from the lot assigned us, is equally imprudent and 
 dangerous ? ' If the big-bellied king had not con- 
 sulted the great Caramussal, we should never have 
 known it was dangerous for the prince to look at a 
 milkmaid till he was eighteen years of age ; and, by 
 the same rule, he could never have received the name 
 of Biribinquer. He might have been brought up in 
 his father's court as other princes are, and when it had 
 been time for him to marry, his parents might have 
 demanded by their ambassadors the Princess Galac- 
 tina ; and thus everything would have come about 
 in the natural course of things. Now the curiosity 
 of the king, and the fatal oracle of the great Cara- 
 mussal, were the alone cause of all his disasters. 
 The means made use of to hinder the prince from 
 seeing any milkmaid, were precisely what facilitated 
 their union ; not to say that the name Biribinquer, 
 which in fact constantly extricated him out of every 
 difficulty, could have been of no use or avail, because 
 the prince would never have engaged in such ad- 
 ventures as he did, had he never been so called." 
 " You are perfectly in the right," said Donna
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 403 
 
 Felicia ; " but herein you observe, consists the 
 greatest beauty of the narrative ; or to speak more 
 properly, if this single circumstance had been taken 
 away, the whole history of Prince Biribinquer, 
 instead of being one of the drollest fairy tales in the 
 world, would have become merely one of those dull 
 common stories, which at best are only fit to make 
 a newspaper paragraph, or a 'history of my own 
 tunes ; ' and that would have been a great pity. In 
 short, whether it be trifling or impertinent, or not, I 
 take the Prince Biribinquer under my protection ; 
 and had I but the honour of wearing a hat and sword, 
 I would maintain it against all opponents, that the 
 love of Prince Biribinquer, the virtue of the lady 
 Crystallina, the delicacy of Mirabella, her habits of 
 dry water, and distractions of mind ; that the giant 
 Caraculiamborix, the ostrich's egg, and pea-shells ; 
 the whale with the lakes, isles, and enchanted struc- 
 tures it contains within its belly ; the palace of com- 
 pacted fire, the pompion that talks so fluently, and 
 knows the course of the stars so well, together with 
 all the other marvellous and unexpected circum- 
 stances that swarm in this tale, do make it the 
 most comical story of all stories that ever I heard in 
 my days." 
 
 "You have forgot," said Jacintha, "the carp 
 which sung such fine operas airs, the rope-dancing 
 dog, and those fiery glances of Biribinquer's eye that 
 melted the pebbles of the rivulet into glass." 
 
 " Permit me moreover to add," said Don Gabriel, 
 " you will hardly meet with any tale more abund- 
 antly rich in materials of the most precious and costly 
 kinds. For certain I am, that in no cabinet of 
 curiosities throughout Europe will you meet with a 
 milk-pail composed of rubies ; nor do I know of any 
 enchanted garden, where the fountains and water 
 basins are set round with large cut diamonds." 
 
 Hitherto Don Sylvio had listened with great atten- 
 tion to all that had been said ; but observing that
 
 404 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 each of the company had delivered his or her senti- 
 ment, and that they were waiting for his own 
 opinion, he addressed them very gravely thus : 
 f-' " I must own to you I could either have wished 
 Prince Biribinquer had been more faithful to his 
 milkmaid, who really must have been a very amiable 
 young creature, or else I could have been glad to 
 have seen him more severely chastised for his 
 irregular conduct. But, excepting this single cir- 
 cumstance, together with the characters and deport- 
 ment of some other personages in the history, which 
 never can be approved of I do not see what there is 
 in the whole history of this prince, either imperti- 
 nent, impossible, or contrary to nature." 
 
 " How ! Don Sylvio," said Jacintha ; " and do 
 you suppose all those marvellous things about the 
 giant's picking his teeth with a great hedge-stake, 
 the whale's throwing from his nostrils deluges of 
 water for fifty leagues round, the soft rocks, the 
 singing fishes, and talking pompions ; pray do you 
 suppose all this natural and possible ? " 
 
 " Undoubtedly, beautiful Jacintha ! " replied 
 Don Sylvio ; " unless we choose to measure what is 
 possible to nature by that infinitely small portion of 
 nature that lies before our immediate sight, or by 
 what we see happen every day we live. 'Tis true, 
 Caraculiamborix is a monster in comparison with 
 common men ; but he becomes a pigrny compared 
 with an inhabitant of Saturn, whose size, as a great 
 astronomer informs us, we are to measure and 
 reckon by leagues. And why might there not be a 
 whale large enough to contain lakes and islands 
 within its belly, since there are little insects in 
 water, compared with which, a common-sized Green- 
 land whale is at least as huge and bulky, as the whale 
 in question is in comparison with a Greenland whale." 
 
 " Oh, as to the whale," interrupted Don Gabriel, 
 " its possibility cannot be disputed, since in all like- 
 lihood it is the same with that which Lucian so
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 405 
 
 circumstantially describes in his authentic histories, 
 and in which he discovered a wide country, that was 
 then inhabited by five or six different nations, who 
 were continually at war with each other. So that 
 probably at the time when Padmanaba erected his 
 palace in the whale's belly, these hostile nations 
 might have utterly extirpated one another. The 
 only thing that can render this affair incredible, 
 seems to be that Biribinquer is said to have seen 
 there a sun, moon, and stars." 
 
 " As to that," said Don Sylvio, " I do not appre- 
 hend it means that a sun, or moon, or stars really 
 held their course in the whale's belly, but only that it 
 seemed so to the prince ; and such an illusion Pad- 
 manaba by his art might very easily have effected. 
 Thatjsun and those stars, for instance, might be so 
 many salamanders stationed by Padmanaba to shine 
 at certain distances, to form a kind of sphere, and 
 observe a regular course of rotation, and indeed there 
 are certain circumstances which make me incline to 
 think that the thing was so." 
 
 " I should be mighty glad," said Jacintha, " to 
 know what Don Sylvio calls impossible ! for at his 
 rate of extending the bounds of possibility, I suppose 
 everything a person could imagine in the delirium 
 of^a]|raging fever might be possible. If there be 
 such things as compacted fire and dry water, there 
 must equally be supposed golden lead, or a square 
 circle." 
 
 " Pardon me, fair Jacintha," replied Don Sylvio, 
 " this agument is not so substantial as you may think 
 it. Rotundity or roundness makes the essence of a 
 circle, and therefore it is impossible to conceive a 
 square circle. But how could you prove fluidity to 
 be an essential quality of water and fire ? Don't we 
 every winter see ice, which is nothing more than solid 
 compacted water : then why might not the power 
 or art of elementary genii produce dry water or com- 
 pacted fire ? I apprehend," continued he, " that
 
 406 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 the true source of those erroneous judgments which 
 are commonly passed upon every wonderful event, 
 springs from this false presumption, that whatever 
 cannot be explained by causes corporeal and palpable 
 to the senses, is impossible ; as if the powers of 
 spirits, to which corporeal things are but the merely 
 gross unanimated tools and instruments, must not 
 necessarily and infinitely surpass the mechanical and 
 borrowed powers of those same instruments. Upon 
 this footing, I am firmly persuaded that many things 
 are held impossible, only because they are incompre- 
 hensible to our ignorance; and is not this being 
 pretty nearly as rash as the savage would be, who 
 should fancy the enchanted modulation of sounds 
 drawn by a virtuoso through the stops of his German 
 flute, to be impossible, merely because he himself can 
 get nothing out of his calumet, or pipe of straw but 
 hoarse, dissonant, and inharmonious tones ? Upon 
 the whole then, I find nothing impossible in the 
 history of Prince Biribinquer, and, taking for granted 
 the historian's authenticity, I do not see why it 
 might not be as real, as genuine, and as worthy of 
 credit as any other history whatever." 
 
 " Ay, now you are come to the very point," said 
 Don Gabriel. "Everything depends upon the au- 
 thenticity of witnesses ; for, though we might grant 
 a conditional possibility to all those wonderful things 
 with which historians and poets have filled the 
 world, or at least to the major part of what they have 
 said ; yet are all these things, notwithstanding, only 
 mere chimeras, till our reason can have proof incon- 
 testable laid before it, that they do exist, or that they 
 really have existed : but till then, I must confess to 
 you, the cause of historical truth, as it respects fairy 
 tales and stories about spirits, is in no small danger, 
 unless you can produce better vouchers for their 
 veracity than the Prince Biribinquer." 
 
 " But pray, why so ? " demanded Don Sylvio 
 hastily.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 407 
 
 " Because," replied Don Gabriel, " this whole 
 history is of my own invention." 
 
 " Of your invention ! " cried the other, not a little 
 thunderstruck. " Ah ! Don Gabriel, I could not have 
 expected such an artificial trick from you. But, 
 prithee now, did not you mention the name of a 
 historian from whom you told us you had taken the 
 whole ? " 
 
 " Pardon me, Don Sylvio," said Don Gabriel, " the 
 matter is such as I have informed you. I wanted 
 to see how far you would carry your prepossessions 
 in favour of fairy science, and therefore used my 
 utmost endeavours, saving your presence, to invent 
 a story so extravagantly out of the way, so marvel- 
 lously impertinent, and so contradictory, as that you 
 have just been hearing : and this is the sole origin of 
 Prince Biribinquer. But at the same time I must as 
 freely confess to you, that it was not possible for 
 me to invent anything so absurd, but what the like 
 has already been said in other fairy tales, and I might 
 easily have foreseen that this analogy would delude 
 you. Believe me, Don Sylvio, the authors of fairy 
 tales and most of such marvellous stories, had as 
 little intention to impose them upon people of sense, as 
 I myself have had. They had nothing more in view 
 than to amuse the imagination ; and for my own 
 part, I must own to you, I am fonder of such tales 
 than of any systems of metaphysics. I know that 
 both among the ancients and moderns, there are 
 persons of great merit who have diverted them- 
 selves at their leisure hours in writing tales and 
 many people far superior to myself persons who 
 supported the gravity of their character better than 
 ever I shall do, have preferred these toys of fancy to 
 any other works of genius. Who, for instance, does 
 not like Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, which yet in fact 
 is but a long string of fairy tales ? I could say much 
 more in their favour, if I were now professedly called 
 upon to draw up an apology for them. But, however,
 
 408 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 all this does not prevent tales from being only 
 tales, and though the salamanders, sylphids, fairies, 
 and cabalists afford us a deal of pleasure, when the 
 materials are worked up by the hand of an ingenious 
 poet, yet certain it is, they are at best but merely 
 chimerical beings, for whose reality no better reason 
 or argument can be urged, than I should be capable 
 of urging in behalf of Prince Biribinquer." 
 
 " Sir," said Don Sylvio, " you seem not to con- 
 sider that there is no denying the existence of fairies 
 and elementary spirits ; of the cabala, or that occult 
 philosophy, which gives to sages the power of sub- 
 jecting those spirits to their control, without over- 
 turning the basis of all historical faith. For, is not 
 all history in general unanimously in their favour ? " 
 
 " Possibly," replied Don Gabriel, " you may have 
 read the history of the Count de Gabalis, in which 
 this argument is pushed to the highest degree of 
 probability of which it is capable. But all that can 
 possibly arise in proof from thence would be, that 
 history is mixed up with fables and falsehoods ; and 
 this is an evil which we ought entirely to impute to 
 the feeble understanding, the sinister views, or at 
 least the vanity of historians ; which, in my mind, is 
 the true source of those many pernicious errors with 
 which we see whole societies contaminated. Do you 
 suppose that Biribinquer's history, for example, 
 would be a halfpenny worth more credible, if it were 
 related word for word by the historian Palaephatus ? 
 How should we be able to know, whether an author, 
 who existed three thousand years ago, and whose 
 history no less than his character is equally un- 
 known to us, had even a wish or desire to tell us the 
 truth ? and supposing he had, might he not be a 
 very credulous creature himself ? Might he not 
 have set himself to work upon very vile materials ? 
 and might he not have been egregiously deceived 
 either by his own prejudices, or by false intelligence ? 
 Or, even supposing him personally clear from all
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 409^ 
 
 this, yet may not his history, written two or three 
 thousand years ago what by lapse of time, or the 
 negligence of transcribers have been altered, inter- 
 polated, or enlarged by suppositions emendations ? 
 So long then as we are not capable of proving that in 
 every adventure of Biribinquer, and, as it were, in 
 every page, any one of these possible cases might 
 happen, even Herodotus himself could not be a suffi- 
 cient voucher for the truth of this pretended history. 
 I own to you, the testimony of a Tacitus or a Hume * 
 might be of great authority for the existence of 
 elementary spirits, or for anything else not to be met 
 within the known beaten circle of human science. 
 But unhappily for the marvellous, they cannot boast 
 themselves of so respectable and weighty a testi- 
 mony : and put the case, that amongst the infinite 
 number of wonders of this sort, which from the 
 creation of the world have reached by tradition all 
 nations of the earth from generation to generation, 
 and been partly believed by them ; I say, putting the 
 case that any one amongst all these should be found 
 to have incontestable authority on its side ; these, 
 notwithstanding, could render the rest not a whit 
 more credible, nor weaken the force of this general 
 principle. So that whatever is not analogous to the 
 ordinary course of nature, according to the concep- 
 tion which our senses are capacitated to form of it, 
 nor analogous to the daily experience of the gener- 
 ality of mankind, has for this reason a very strong 
 and almost invincible presumption of falsehood 
 against it. This is one of those principles which the 
 universal sentiment of mankind fully justifies 
 though, by the way, it absolutely annihilates the 
 existence of fairies and all that belongs to them." 
 
 * The reader will observe a pretty sizeable anachronism in this place ; 
 which, unfortunately, is not the only one in the course of the work, and 
 which possibly might excite doubts respecting the authenticity of this 
 whole history. We therefore leave it with the critics either to remove 
 the stumbling-block, or to trim and idealise it just as they please.
 
 410 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 The ladies had retired the moment they observed 
 that the conversation was taking a scientific turn. 
 Don Sylvio did not come to so easily as his adver- 
 sary at first imagined he would. He availed himself 
 of every advantage that the apparent connection 
 between this matter and others on which Don 
 Gabriel, after the manner of the hussars, could only 
 fight him flying seemed to lay in his way. But 
 after seeing himself forced into his last entrench- 
 ments, by the skill of his antagonist, all that he had 
 left him to do was to appeal in his turn to those self- 
 experiences by which the other had thought to con- 
 vince him. Don Sylvio, however, soon found he 
 should gain but little by fighting with such a philoso- 
 pher as Don Gabriel, at his own weapons ; who 
 proved to him, that particular and extraordinary 
 experiences, whenever they contradict the general 
 experience, are always to be suspected ; and that in 
 order to constitute such an evidence as should oblige 
 reason to yield, it required arguments so cogent, that 
 amidst a thousand such private and extraordinary 
 experiences, there is hardly one to be found, which, 
 upon a close examination, can keep even so much 
 appearance of probability as was necessary to ground 
 a strong presumption. The better to explain his 
 axioms, he took for an example the visions of sister 
 Mary d'Agreda, and insensibly sheathed himself so 
 deep in speculations, that the translator really 
 thought them too profound for most readers of this 
 present writing. He has therefore retrenched them 
 here, and the more willingly from seeing by the 
 preface at the head of the Spanish manuscript, that 
 the Reverend Father Dominican, to whose criticism 
 the book was committed, took occasion from this 
 innocent discourse to interdict the printing of the 
 whole work. Be that as it may, Don Eugenic himself 
 thought good to put a stop to these metaphysical 
 researches. 
 
 " Upon my word," said he, ; ' I am almost inclined
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 411 
 
 to think, that if you wish to prove how far in these 
 cases prepossession, or a too active imagination, may 
 deceive us, you have nothing more to do than refer 
 us to Don Sylvio's own personal experience. Now I 
 will venture any wager you please, Don Sylvio, that 
 upon entering these gardens, and on seeing these 
 pavilions, you thought you had got into some abode 
 or other belonging to the fairies ; and yet most 
 certain it is, that you are in no other individual spot 
 than the village of Lirias, for which my grandfather, 
 Gil Bias de Santillane, is indebted to the grateful 
 generosity of Don Alphonso de Leyva ; and the en- 
 largements and decorations that have been made in 
 it, are partly his, and partly my father's, Don Felix 
 de Lirias. You seem, my dear Don Sylvio, to have 
 seen so little of the real world, that the resemblance 
 betwixt the gardens and buildings of Lirias, and 
 those which your imagination has picked up an 
 acquaintance with in fairy tales, might easily induce 
 you to take that for a production of genii and fairies, 
 which is no other than the workmanship of very 
 common and ordinary men. Do now, tell me in- 
 genuously, Don Sylvio, did not you, on seeing my 
 sister, hesitate a moment about taking her for a 
 fairy ? and yet my chaplain shall prove to you by 
 his register of baptisms, that she is no more than a 
 mortal descended from good old Christians, who 
 were never in their lifetimes suspected of magic or 
 sorcery. He shall also prove to you, that she is 
 really the grand-daughter of the lovely Dorothea de 
 Jutella, destined to supply the place of my grand- 
 father's dear Antonia, whom he had lost ; and 
 between which said Dorothea and my said sister, 
 there is so striking a resemblance that the portrait 
 of the one might easily be taken for the portrait 
 of the other." 
 
 This induction of particulars alone had more effect 
 than all Don Gabriel's arguments. Don Sylvio, ex- 
 cepting a small compliment he paid upon the occasion
 
 412 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 to Donna Felicia's charms, found so little room for 
 a reply, that by degrees he became very silent ; 
 but it was only because he was sunk into a profound 
 reverie, which rendered him totally giddy, stupid, 
 and insensible to everything about him. Luckily it 
 was now time to go to a comedy which Don Eugenio 
 had ordered a small company of strolling players to 
 represent, whom he had retained at his house for 
 some few weeks past. This agreeable diversion of 
 thought, and the presence of Donna Felicia, which 
 he enjoyed the whole evening, restored our hero by 
 degrees to his usual good-temper : the politeness of 
 so fair a young creature, or, to speak more properly, 
 the tenderness which reigned in all her actions, 
 presently animated Don Sylvio's spirits into vivacity, 
 gave him eloquence, and led him to exert his utmost 
 endeavours to please and to be pleased. In a word, 
 that tone of gaiety, sprightliness, and great good- 
 humour which Donna Felicia very assiduously im- 
 parted to the whole company, particularly at supper 
 time, operated so powerfully upon our hero, that he 
 insensibly forgot the character he had undertaken 
 to represent ; laughed as heartily at Prince Biri- 
 binquer, and as perfectly despised all the fairies as if 
 he had never believed in their existence, nor had 
 ever been in love with a blue butterfly.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 413 
 
 BOOK VII 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A REMARKABLE DISCOVERY. SINGULAR DISCRETION 
 OF PEDRILLO 
 
 OUR Spanish author begins this book with a sort of 
 apology, which he addresses to such of his readers as 
 may possibly have been dissatisfied with his conduct ; 
 because truly, from the moment of Donna Felicia's 
 and Don Sylvio's so unexpectedly meeting in one of 
 the pavilions at Lirias, honest Pedrillo has been so 
 totally neglected, and not suffered once to make his 
 appearance, and divert both the company and reader 
 with his laughable sallies. 
 
 " We apprehend," says the author, " that it is a 
 great defect in a dramatical piece, when the poet 
 who hath undertaken to conduct the characters, 
 passions, virtues or follies of his personages through 
 a labyrinth of complicated incidents to the end pro- 
 posed, instead of giving his whole attention to those 
 personages, is every moment turning to the spectators 
 for whom he writes, and putting them in mind of 
 what is doing. This is sometimes carried so far, that 
 the writer is often obliged to make up for the lame 
 disposition of his plan, and poor contrivance of the 
 catastrophe, by throwing in an ad spectatores ad- 
 dressed to the audience by one or other of the per- 
 formers. Now such a history as ours seems to be 
 pretty much under the same predicament. Indeed, 
 if Pedrillo, like Punchinello in certain comedies, was 
 placed there only to make the readers laugh, it might
 
 4T4 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 with justice be laid to our charge that we have let 
 slip more occasions than one, in which he might have 
 answered his destination, by amusing his partisans. 
 But Pedrillo, as the reader must long since have ob- 
 served, has a part much more important to perform ; 
 and even if, by making him appear in this history, 
 our design had been partly to amuse our readers with 
 his drollery, yet certainly, this could only have been 
 as an underplot, or, to express ourselves more 
 learnedly, a finis secundarius ; which, as every one 
 knows, ought always to give place to the principal 
 end in view, where there is not room sufficient left 
 for both together. Hence it is, that Pedrillo comes or 
 goes, chatters away or holds his tongue, is busied or 
 idle, or even invisible if need be, according to the 
 nature of the service he can do, or as the relation 
 between him and his master requires. While accom- 
 panying the latter on his wonderful expedition, he 
 was in the right to talk away when and how he 
 pleased, Don Sylvio having no better company to 
 amuse him : but the moment his master meets with 
 more respectable society, he retires either to the foot- 
 men's hall, or the fair Laura's apartment. It is true, 
 some might object to us the example of Sancho 
 Panca, who, in the castle where his master, in spite of 
 his enemies the enchanters and Moors, was so well 
 received, continually made one of the company, had 
 free passage everywhere, and even enjoyed more than 
 once the honour of talking with my lady duchess face 
 to face. But the reader will be kind enough to re- 
 member, that the business there was to make the 
 ceremonious folly of the knight, and the shrewd 
 simplicity of the squire, serve equally as matter of 
 diversion. Here, on the contrary, in the seat at 
 Lirias, the main point is how to cure our hero as 
 soon as possible of this enchantment of his brain, 
 without giving ourselves any great concern to inquire 
 whether our dear readers, who perhaps might rather 
 choose to see him in his state of madness, are
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 415 
 
 gainers or losers by so important a change in his 
 intellects. 
 
 However, that we may not be reproached with 
 having ungratefully rejected honest Pedrillo when 
 we had no longer any need of him, we have appro- 
 priated a portion of this chapter, on purpose to in- 
 form his admirers, in few words, how this gallant 
 youth passed his spare time after his arrival at Lirias. 
 
 The reader probably will remember, that the first 
 time the agreeable Laura appeared to Pedrillo in the 
 form of a sylphid, she had carried off his heart, 
 though the poor young fellow hardly knew how. It 
 must be confessed that for a lover who found him- 
 self seized with the first fervours of a growing passion, 
 the distraction of mind into which Mrs Teresilla 
 threw him the same evening, was pretty violent. 
 But in this respect Pedrillo was a second Biribinquer. 
 He was never once unfaithful to his mistress but 
 when opportunity offered. Every fresh infidelity 
 served only to rekindle his love so much the more 
 ardently towards her, and he had nothing more to do 
 than to see the real sovereign mistress of his heart 
 and presently he forgot every other that had before 
 been capable of pleasing him. Such being the state 
 of things, nobody will wonder to hear that it re- 
 quired but little trouble to keep this faithful valet at 
 a distance from his master for two or three days. 
 Laura, who had her mistress's orders for that pur- 
 pose, found the execution of those orders easier, as 
 Pedrillo was so intoxicated with the pleasure of seeing 
 and toying with her, that perhaps he would not have 
 thought of Don Sylvio during a longer space of time, 
 had not the sylphid herself first put him in mind of it. 
 
 The tender passion, with which Pedrillo had been 
 so happy as to inspire this young nymph, induced 
 her to avoid no opportunities of being alone with him, 
 whenever it could be done without noise, or her 
 absence being perceived. Accordingly it so hap- 
 pened, that the next morning after his arrival they
 
 416 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 met in a very shady thicket, which lay at the lower 
 end of the labyrinth, precisely at the same time when 
 the ladies and gentlemen were in conversation 
 together in one of the pavilions belonging to the 
 garden. The rest of the domestics were now taking 
 their afternoon's nap. The gentle couple, as I said, 
 met there, without any mutual previous appoint- 
 ment ; whether it was by chance only, or through 
 the effect of that magnetic power and virtue already 
 mentioned elsewhere. The intention of both was to 
 take their siesta ; but meeting here, as unexpectedly 
 as Dido and the Trojan hero met in a cave in times of 
 old, nothing could be more natural than to sit down 
 and chatter away instead of wasting the hours in 
 sleep. Heat does not produce the same effect upon 
 all men : for, though the naturalists] inform us that 
 any great degree of it dissipates the vital spirits, and 
 relaxes the fibres, Pedrillo, for his part, never found 
 himself in a disposition more calculated to form a 
 dangerous lover than on the present occasion. 
 Laura soon perceived it ; and as, contrary to the 
 custom of Spanish chamber-maids, she was neither 
 wanton nor a prude, she found herself obliged to give 
 him to understand, that if a lover wished to con- 
 vince her of his passion for her, it must be by great 
 discretion and much decorum. In consequence of 
 this rebuff, Pedrillo's fear of having offended her 
 presently effected what the heat might otherwise 
 have done according to the system of the naturalists. 
 He became as timid and as submissive as the 
 humblest adorer of the Queen of the Crystal Islands, 
 promising her that if she would not banish him from 
 her presence, he would be as gentle and innocent as a 
 lamb. Upon these conditions Laura consented to 
 keep her seat beside him, but at the same time wanted 
 to divert him from that great attention which he 
 continually paid to her charms. She accordingly 
 turned the discourse so variously, and plied him with 
 so many questions, that at length she got him to
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 417 
 
 relate very circumstantially, everything he knew 
 himself of his young master's history. Consequently, 
 she learned from him the story of the enchanted 
 princess's portrait ; and from the description he 
 gave of it, presently discerned that it was the very 
 trinket which her mistress had lost but a few days 
 before, in walking to her little arcadia before-men- 
 tioned. She imparted her thoughts to Pedrillo, and 
 from the account he gave her of the manner in which 
 it had been taken from Don Sylvio, determined to set 
 off immediately with her new friend to see if they 
 could not recover it. They had no doubt of finding 
 the trinket in the custody of one of the peasant girls 
 that worked in the neighbourhood near the seat ; 
 and by great good luck, their supposition proved just. 
 The trinket was restored, in exchange for a few mara- 
 vedis, and delivered the same evening into the hands 
 of Donna Felicia ; to whom though it was of great 
 value the hints and counsel which Laura communi- 
 cated with it, as she had drawn them from Pedrillo's 
 mouth, gave far more pleasure than the recovery of 
 the toy itself. For now she thought she had such a 
 talisman in her own power, as might well effect the 
 disenchantment of her dear Don Sylvio de Rosalva 
 an event which she determined not to defer longer 
 than till the next morning. 
 
 In the meantime, Laura, the sovereign mistress of 
 Pedrillo's heart, very strictly forbade him to reveal 
 anything of the matter to his master. This pro- 
 hibition, however, only served to make honest 
 Pedrillo so very impatient, that he had the utmost 
 difficulty in the world to wait for an opportunity of 
 justifying the old remark, " That there cannot be a 
 surer means of making people say indiscreet things, 
 than to forbid them to talk." The opportunity 
 offered itself next morning : both master and man 
 were too much in love to allow any great portion of 
 time for sleeping. Pedrillo perceived Don Sylvio 
 at daybreak walking in the garden, and buried in 
 
 2 E
 
 418 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 profound cogitations. He therefore slipped softly out 
 of his chamber, and unobserved by the fair Laura, 
 went to meet his master. 
 
 Don Sylvio had spent a good part of the night in a 
 train of reflections not very favourable to the fairies. 
 To say the truth, ever since the little trick which Don 
 Gabriel had played him with the tale of Prince Biri- 
 binquer, the faith he had hitherto reposed in those 
 ladies and their historians had suffered a consider- 
 able alteration. The history of Biribinquer really 
 seemed to him so silly and so vapid, that he could 
 not conceive how it was possible for him not to have 
 instantly discerned the cheat. At last he found 
 there could be no other reason for it than the re- 
 semblance between this and other tales of the sort, 
 joined to the favourable prepossession which he had 
 always indulged of the truth of such narrations : nor 
 could he conceal it from himself, that if inconsistency 
 and folly were carried further in the tale of Biribin- 
 quer, than in other fairy tales, yet the analogy 
 between this and the rest was still sufficiently great, 
 in his opinion, to render all other tales of the fairies 
 without exception doubtful ; especially too, when he 
 reflected upon all that Don Gabriel and Don Eugenio 
 had urged against them. 
 
 In the midst of these reflections he at length fell 
 asleep ; and after having slept about three hours, 
 during which he had dreamt of nothing but Donna 
 Felicia, he arose, to pursue with greater success his 
 reflections on an affair of such importance ; to 
 which the freshness of the morning and the charms 
 of a solitary walk powerfully invited him. 
 
 Pedrillo looked about a good while before he could 
 find his master ; for while he dressed himself and 
 was coming down, Don Sylvio had got into the 
 winding allies of the labyrinth, which was one of the 
 most agreeable spots in the world, both on account 
 of its large extent, and the variety of walks, thickets, 
 groves, cascades, Grecian temples, pagodas, statues,
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 419 
 
 and so forth, which were all well adapted to give it 
 the air of one of those enchanted gardens described 
 in romances. Our hero, who could no longer doubt 
 but that all this, though strongly resembling an en- 
 chanted country, was yet only a work of art, which, 
 conducted by a poetical imagination, skilfully 
 uniting the various elegancies of nature with the arts 
 which imitated nature, had produced so pleasing an 
 assemblage of beauties ; our hero I say, on entering 
 this agreeably sylvan scene, could not help reflecting 
 that possibly imagination was the only and real 
 mother of that marvellous, which hitherto, from a 
 want of experience, he had taken for a part of nature 
 itself. He had now for some time pursued this idea 
 with that pleasure which minds of a lively turn 
 naturally feel on tracing out a new discovery ; when 
 on a sudden he perceived Pedrillo, who, starting from 
 behind some bushes of wild laurel that surrounded 
 the ruins of an antique temple, came running up to 
 him with great joy. 
 
 " Ha ! good-day t'ye, Signior Don Sylvio," cried 
 he at a distance, the instant he discovered him. 
 " What, are you still alive ! Peascods take it, signior, 
 one can't get the sight of you a moment in the whole 
 day. If I had not picked up from Mrs Laura that 
 you were still here, I should have supposed, God for- 
 give me, that the fairies had made a set-off with you 
 through the air." 
 
 " Well, but methinks I have most reason of the two 
 to complain," replied Don Sylvio, smiling ; " surely 
 thou must have been vastly enchanted with the 
 sylphid, for I have not once set eyes upon thee since 
 the moment of thy quitting the hall, on perceiving 
 Donna Felicia enter it." 
 
 " Signior," said Pedrillo, " I believe you guess it 
 pretty right, when you believe me to be enchanted. 
 Some folks tell us that people enchanted neither eat 
 nor drink, without getting half an ounce the leaner for 
 it ; and may I be hanged but round my mistress's
 
 420 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 neck only, understood if I have ate a crumb 
 more since the day before yesterday, than what a 
 fly could carry away upon its wings. Now do but 
 mind ; when we come to table, I am always seated 
 directly over against Mrs Laura ; and there I some- 
 how can't help looking at her continually ; some- 
 times this way, so ; and then again so ; and then I 
 see how pretty she eats, and look in her little mouth ; 
 for she has such a row of teeth, that it is quite a 
 charm to see how white and how well set they be, 
 just like a string of pearls. And then but what 
 was it I was saying ? Oh, so then she keeps teasing 
 of me every minute almost, and makes signs, and 
 winks and nods at me, or treads upon my toe, or else 
 puts her handkerchief to rights ; so that what with 
 one thing, and what with another, i' faith, I should 
 forget to eat or drink either, if she herself did not 
 now and then put some little tid-bit or other to my 
 mouth. And yet, as you see, signior, I am as gay 
 and as brisk as if great Bel of Babylon and I had 
 been at a feast together, and tried who should hold 
 it out longest.* Well ! this is to keep good com- 
 pany ! But, deuce is in't, signior, you don't seem to 
 want anything any more than myself : you are as 
 fresh, and you have so fine a colour, that one might 
 take you for a bridegroom : and yet I could lay a 
 small wager, you slept but a very little last night ? " 
 
 " True," answered Don Sylvio, " 'tis as thou sayest, 
 all the effect of good company. But how dost thou 
 amuse thyself in this fine house, Pedrillo ? Must not 
 we think of setting off soon ? " 
 
 " Setting off ? " exclaimed Pedrillo, skipping 
 back like a frighted squirrel, and looking at his master 
 with an arch leer ; " pox take it ! let us first become 
 
 * " For the Babylonians had an idol called Bel, and there was spent 
 upon him every day, twelve great measures of fine flour, and forty 
 sheep, and six vessels of wine ; yet was it but clay within, and brass 
 without, neither did it eat nor drink anything." History of Bel, in 
 Apocrypha, v. 3, 7.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 421 
 
 as well as we can, before we think of going. Why, 
 signior, there's no such mighty hurry ; people don't 
 meet with such lodgings as these upon every high- 
 road ; and as to the fairies, if you please not to take 
 it ill of me, signior, let them say what they like about 
 it. I am of the fancy, look ye, that it is always much 
 better to live among Christian people, than in the 
 midst of that tribe of enchanters, hobgoblins, and 
 spirits, where one never knows who and who's to- 
 gether. The fair Laura made a conquest of me from 
 the first moment I saw her, though, by the way, I 
 took her for a sylphid ; but now that we know her to 
 be Mrs. Laura, made of flesh and blood like the rest 
 of us honest folk, and that she is a good Christian, 
 and that she is neither a sylphid nor a gnomide, 
 but on the contrary, that she is Mrs Laura, waiting- 
 woman to our very gracious lady Donna Felicia de 
 Cardena, I love her ten times more and more for it. 
 In short, Signior Don Sylvio, I hope you were only 
 laughing when you talked about leaving this charm- 
 ing seat, where I am sure we are so well off, that I 
 cannot think what people could wish for more. 
 Though the house itself is neither built of sapphires 
 nor diamonds, yet still, as Laura tells me, it is one of 
 the finest in the whole province ; and were I you, sir, 
 I do think, I should never wish for a better as long as 
 I lived. I know very well what I know, though I 
 don't blow a trumpet, and tell everybody. But 
 sometimes people find more than they looked for ; 
 I am sure a lark is quite a kite at any time, and who 
 minds losing a gudgeon to catch a salmon ? For my 
 own part, I shan't say a word : but look ye here, 
 signior, we shall not budge out of this house without 
 setting two or three weddings upon the church steeple 
 first and foremost. I only beg of you, signior, to 
 remember this in proper time and place, and that 
 'twas I that told you so beforehand." 
 
 " I should be glad to know," said Don Sylvio, " what 
 kind of secret thou hast got in thy stomach, which
 
 422 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 so pesters thee ; for I perceive that thou canst 
 hardly wait the moment of discharging thyself of 
 it." 
 
 " So then, you take me for a blab, I suppose ? " 
 replied Pedrillo. " Upon my word, though, you 
 deserve to find me as stiff and obstinate in my turn 
 as the dumb man that would not answer a syllable. 
 You may think I can't keep a secret, just as you 
 please. But no, no ! I have my own reasons, and I 
 fancy Laura has hers too, or she would not have so 
 strictly charged me to say nothing to you about the 
 
 princess's Pox take it ! I had like to have blown 
 
 the whole mystery ; but, however, I caught myself 
 up in good time. Well ! only have a little patience, 
 signior, when the pears are ripe they fall of them- 
 selves : we shall soon see extraordinary things come 
 about. But it must be owned, signior, you are born 
 under a lucky star. Huzza. ! long live the fairies and 
 enchanted butterflies ; for certainly, had we never 
 been such fools as to run hunting after the blue 
 
 butterfly But I say no more ! I know what I 
 
 know, and that's enough ; and what is more, signior, 
 you see how I can hold my tongue, and I can keep 
 secrets. Were I a prating fellow, as your worship is 
 so often pleased to throw in my teeth, how should 
 I have been so silent after finding both picture and 
 princess and all together ? " 
 
 " Ha ! what saidst thou ? " hastily cried Don 
 Sylvio ; " hast found my princess's portrait ? Where 
 is it or what hast thou done with it ? " 
 
 " Oh ho ! I beg your pardon, signior," replied 
 Pedrillo, with all the calmness in the world. " I have 
 no portrait, believe me ; no, nor did I say I had 
 found your princess's picture ; for in truth, I must 
 have told a grievous lie if I had said 
 
 " Fool ! what art thou chattering then about find- 
 ing a portrait and a princess ? " demanded Don 
 Sylvio. 
 
 " Signior," said Pedrillo, " you did not take me
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 423 
 
 right. I did not say so, really now : for look ye, 
 that is exactly the whole mystery of the matter ; 
 and, having once promised to say nothing about it, 
 though you were to promise me mountains and 
 wonders, not a syllable of it shall jump out of my 
 lips. I beg and beseech you, signior, ask me no 
 questions. The devil is full of his tricks ; and if I 
 were not to take great care, some little word or other 
 might slip me unawares. In short, Signior Don 
 Sylvio, I shall say no more than this ; and that is, 
 that if we had known what I know at this moment, 
 the fairy Rademante might have saved you the 
 trouble of pursuing the blue butterfly over hill and 
 dale, as well as those knocks with the club-stick that 
 we received for its sake ; and might just as well have 
 
 left us at home But no, what a fool am I ! for 
 
 then we should never have met the princess ; though, 
 by the bye, she is no other than ay, true ! yes, 'tis 
 so. Well, let them say what they will. But softly ; 
 o' my conscience, the whole mystery was just going 
 to burst from my lips." 
 
 " Why, what the devil is come to thee, stupid 
 beast ? " cried Don Sylvio, half mad with im- 
 patience. " Rascal ! mind me ; either speak so as 
 one may comprehend thee, or hold thy babbling 
 tongue." 
 
 " Why, then, call me an ass, signior, if I compre- 
 hend anything more of it than yourself, though I 
 say it," answered Pedrillo. "If we consider the 
 matter one way, one should suppose the fairy has 
 been laughing at you : and yet, certain it is, she 
 has kept her word with you. The picture is found 
 again, that is very sure ; and the princess too, 
 though to speak strictly, she is neither a blue butter- 
 fly, nor as if one should say, a princess ? The devil 
 himself I think could not cleverly make out this 
 affair, that has neither head nor tail to it ; and yet, 
 to be sure, a person must be something or other ; 
 and if the picture But really now, I don't know
 
 424 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 myself what I would say. My head quite turns 
 round with thinking about our adventures. Nobody 
 shall ever beat it out of my brains, but there must be 
 such things as fairies and fairy doings ; for i' faith, it 
 is a very clear case, that all this could never have 
 come about so queerly, and all by mere chance. But, 
 if I am not mistaken ay, there comes the princess 
 herself Donna Felicia, I would say. I' fackins ! she 
 drops in just at the nick of time. One minute later, 
 and my whole secret would have blown up, unless I 
 could have ceased talking." 
 
 At these words he withdrew to a distance from 
 Don Sylvio, who, the moment his fair one appeared, 
 instantly forgot the curiosity with which the mys- 
 terious Pedrillo had inspired him. Accordingly, 
 advancing with long steps, he struck into another 
 walk of the labyrinth, where soon he hoped to meet 
 with the object of his warmest wishes.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 425 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 IN WHICH THE PLOT BEGINS TO UNRAVEL 
 
 WHEN two lovers avoid each other, the one does it 
 commonly to be sought for with more eagerness, and 
 found with more ease by the other. Donna Felicia 
 no sooner perceived our hero, than he took a path 
 directly contrary to that where he was, but not 
 without turning her head round more than once as 
 she went. The moment she saw he was in search of 
 her, she stole insensibly into an alley where he was 
 sure of meeting her. Both seemed astonished at 
 finding each other in the garden at so early an hour, 
 but Donna Felicia was not quite so sincere as Don 
 Sylvio to acknowledge the true reason. She pre- 
 tended the fineness of the morning, whereas Don 
 Sylvio ingenuously confessed he was come into the 
 garden to enjoy his reflections more coolly and more 
 to his mind. A very significant look which he 
 glanced at Donna Felicia at the same time, and a sigh 
 that stole from him unawares, supplied everything 
 that might seem obscure in his discourse, and 
 stamped its genuine value. Donna Felicia, how- 
 ever, who clearly understood their meaning, seemed 
 not to have observed them ; but, turning the con- 
 versation to the fairies, asked him, whether the last 
 night's history had not seemed to him like a dream. 
 " For my own part," continued she, " I must con- 
 fess to you, I have been all night long travelling in 
 the whale's belly ; and if you have any curiosity to 
 know more, I could perhaps give you some news that 
 may not be indifferent to you."
 
 426 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 Upon this, with all the gravity of a lover of seven- 
 teen, Don Sylvio replied, that for his part, as he 
 had thought of nothing but her, waking, since he 
 first beheld her, it was impossible for his soul to 
 employ itself on any other object in his dreams. At 
 the same time he owned, that from what had passed 
 within him ever since he had the honour of becoming 
 acquainted with her, he was almost persuaded there 
 could be no other enchantment in the world than 
 love. " Ah ! why is it," he cried, " that I cannot 
 find words to paint to you my situation ? You have 
 given me a new existence. Your presence diffuses a 
 brightness round me, that embellishes all nature, 
 and renders it more affectingly beautiful in my eyes. 
 I fancy myself in another world. Everything I see 
 seems but as a reverberation of your charms ; 
 things the most inanimate, appear animated, and 
 breathe as it were only love. Even in your absence, 
 at every place where I before have seen you, you 
 leave the traces of some magic charm ; and, though 
 invisible, methinks I feel you constantly and always 
 present." 
 
 " Don Sylvio ! " interrupted Donna Felicia, giving 
 him a tender look, which she strove to conceal under 
 an airy smile, " do not oblige me to tell you that you 
 are as well versed in the poets as the Prince 
 
 " Oh, name him not, Donna Felicia," cried our 
 hero, whom her words, very innocently as they were 
 uttered, had so moved that the tears stood in his 
 eyes ; "do not hurt the sincerity of my soul by a 
 comparison which I so little deserve. I tell you 
 what I feel, and would I could tell it you in such a 
 language as might better express my real sentiments 
 than all languages in the world. What I have felt 
 since I saw you, differs infinitely from the effects 
 of a heated imagination. Your first look extin- 
 guished all that fire. I remember my past life but 
 as a vain airy dream ; 'twas from that fortunate 
 moment alone in which I first beheld you, that I can
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 427 
 
 reckon myself to have truly existed. And oh, how 
 how " 
 
 Here our young, too-timid hero stopped short, 
 explaining the residue of what he had not courage to 
 pronounce, by a look that pierced the beautiful 
 Felicia to the inmost soul. 
 
 " Perhaps," replied she, " I might accuse you 
 with too much reason of not being so sincere towards 
 me as you would wish me to believe. But I will not 
 reproach you, nor have I any authority to do so. 
 You have done me the honour, Don Sylvio, to take 
 me for a fairy ; and now permit me to prove to you, 
 that at least, in one respect, I resemble your Radiante. 
 Observe here, this is the portrait of your mistress 
 which you lost ; I restore it to you just as you 
 received if from her hands." 
 
 So saying, she gave him the picture, inwardly 
 diverting himself at the perplexity into which so 
 unexpected a present threw him. He accepted it 
 with a trembling hand, contemplated it for some 
 time, then steadfastly looked at Donna Felicia, and 
 again returned to the portrait. At length he cried 
 
 " Wheresoever this portrait comes from, or who- 
 ever it is intended to represent, my eyes, madam, tell 
 me that it is yours ; and my heart avouches, that all 
 the power this picture has usurped over me, ab- 
 solutely proceeds, beautiful Felicia, from the won- 
 derful resemblance it bears to you. I did not 
 receive it from a fairy's hands, as you mentioned 
 just now : I found it in the wood adjoining to the 
 park at Rosalva. This circumstance, added to that 
 of its having been seized from me, and now restored 
 to you, seems to imply something mysterious. Do 
 explain it to me, fair Felicia. Certainly it is your 
 own portrait ; the moment I saw it, it took an entire 
 possession of my soul. I perceived it by that in- 
 expressible love wherewith it inspired me. I saw it 
 must resemble her who alone was capable of render- 
 ing me happy : my heart avowed in those lively
 
 428 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 colours the object of all its wishes. But oh, how 
 infinitely more exquisite was that sensation when I 
 beheld the original ! " 
 
 " Take care," said Donna Felicia, smiling ; " your 
 heart had like to have played you a little shrewd 
 turn ; for I assure you, this portrait is not mine, not- 
 withstanding the resemblance which you think you 
 find in it." 
 
 During their conversation they had pursued their 
 walk, and now, just as Donna Felicia uttered the last 
 words, they came up to the pavilion. She per- 
 ceived the embarrassment into which her explanation 
 had put Don Sylvio, though he inwardly persisted, 
 that in loving that portrait, he had never loved any 
 but her, let it represent whom it would. He attri- 
 buted it to the effect of a secret presentiment, or 
 foresight, though he could not help owning that the 
 circumstance in which he had received the picture 
 back seemed a riddle to him. Donna Felicia could 
 not be so cruel as to leave him long in a state of per- 
 plexity, which, at best, could only serve to gratify 
 her vanity. She therefore led him through the hall 
 of the pavilion into a cabinet ; on entering which he 
 immediately perceived two portraits of the natural 
 size, placed on the opposite sides of the room, and 
 which so perfectly resembled each other, that there 
 was no distinguishing between them any otherwise 
 than by a slight difference in the colouring, which 
 none but an able connoisseur could have observed. 
 
 " Now one of these portraits," said she, " is mine ; 
 guess, Don Sylvio, which of the two it is." 
 
 " Both are yours," cried our hero ; " for the one 
 seems evidently a copy of the other." 
 
 " Ho, Don Sylvio, you are mistaken," replied 
 Felicia. " That yonder, which you take for mine, 
 is at least sixty years older than this other ; for it 
 represents my grandmother, Donna Dorothea de 
 Jutella, just as she was at sixteen years of age : and 
 here," continued she, pointing to a little miniature
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 429 
 
 portrait which hung below the large one, " here you 
 see another picture of her, which was done nearly 
 about the same time. It perfectly resembles the 
 large one, and from this was taken that very copy 
 which gave birth to the singular intrigue we have 
 been speaking of. Upon finding so strong a likeness 
 between Donna Dorothea and myself, my father was 
 induced to have my picture taken in my sixteenth 
 year, in the same dress and attitude as hers ; and 
 everybody that saw this portrait declared it equally 
 resembled my grandmother and myself. My grand- 
 father, who was extremely fond of his lady, got the 
 little portrait painted which fell into your hands, 
 and wore it about him, as was the custom of that 
 time, fastened to a golden chain. He left it to my 
 mother ; from her it at length came to me, and I 
 fixed to it that string of pearls, and constantly wore 
 it as a collar, till the day I lost it in that very forest 
 where you must have found it soon after. Thus you 
 have the whole history of this matter : and now," 
 added she, smiling, " since both have an equal claim 
 upon your inclinations, 'tis with you to decide in 
 favour either of the grandmother, or of her grand- 
 daughter." 
 
 Don Sylvio was quite beside himself on hearing a 
 deduction and elucidation of particulars so exactly 
 conformable to the wishes of his heart. He threw 
 himself at Donna Felicia's feet, and told her, in that 
 pathetic disorder of spirits which constitutes the 
 true eloquence of love, such things as might seem no 
 less insipid to our readers than they were naturally 
 pleasing to Donna Felicia, who was sensibly affected 
 by them. In the situation wherein she found her own 
 heart, she took such pleasure in listening to a lover 
 like Don Sylvio, that a considerable time elapsed 
 before she once thought of restraining the young 
 gentleman's enthusiasm. At length she desired him 
 to rise and follow her into the saloon, where they 
 might more commodiously pursue their conversation.
 
 430 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 There Don Sylvio ingenuously related to her all 
 his fairy tale, the history of the butterfly, and the 
 apparition of the fairy Radiante. He acknowledged 
 that this supposed vision was partly owing to the 
 having his imagination filled with marvellous anec- 
 dotes of the fairy generation ; and the more willingly 
 did he make this confession, because Donna Felicia 
 allowed him uninterruptedly so to do ; not without 
 feeling a singular pleasure in placing the other part 
 of this very particular phenomenon to the account 
 of some secret divination, or kind of prescience of 
 the soul, which anticipated, as it were, that he 
 should soon behold the original of this darling copy. 
 " Though the fairies," continued he, " are but 
 imaginary beings, I shall ever consider them as my 
 best benefactresses, since but for them I might have 
 languished out my days in solitude at Rosalva ; and, 
 perhaps, might forever have missed the happiness of 
 finding her, whom my heart, full of those desires 
 which it has ever since felt, seemed so ardently to 
 think of and pursue." 
 
 He went on painting his sentiments to the beauti- 
 ful Felicia for a good while, with the perfect en- 
 thusiasm of a lover truly smitten. The young lady 
 herself became imperceptibly affected to such a 
 degree, that, forgetting all her former resolutions, 
 she could not help relating to him how she had found 
 him sleeping under the rose-bushes, and that from 
 the moment she saw him, it had been out of her 
 power to be uninterested in favour of the unknown 
 sleeper ; and still more so now, as the sentiments with 
 which she had evidently seemed to inspire him, must 
 render him dearer to her. This animating confession 
 threw our hero into so perfect an ecstasy, that all he 
 could do was again to cast himself at his fair one's 
 feet, and kiss her hands a thousand and a thousand 
 times over, till sight and breath almost forsook him 
 together. There cannot perhaps be anything more 
 dangerous for a fair lady of Donna Felicia's age, than
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 431 
 
 a view of that felicity with which her first favours 
 inebriate her lover, and whenever that lover is young, 
 handsome, well made, and has as much natural 
 vivacity as Don Sylvio, I should apprehend the 
 danger to be not much less on his side. 
 
 On this account we hope the amiable Felicia will 
 stand excused, for having, perhaps, shown her en- 
 raptured adorer too much indulgence. Under that 
 soft intoxication of soul in which she appears, dis- 
 solving as it were in love and its delights, and where 
 the liveliest expression of those sentiments appears 
 all too feeble, we cannot in justice expect her to 
 have the power of preserving that equanimity which 
 the wisdom of moral philosophers is so fond to pre- 
 scribe. These sublime geniuses demand, and indeed 
 with reason, that we should never go too far. But 
 the point is to know what may or may not be too far, 
 in cases like those we speak of ; and by what means, 
 hitherto unknown, it is possible to make love and 
 wisdom walk straight forward in parallel lines, so 
 that the one may never stray from the other. 
 
 To an amorous young couple like Don Sylvio and 
 the beautiful Felicia, time is not a series of moments, 
 but one continual immovable moment, that would 
 insensibly swallow up whole years, were it not drawn 
 out of this enchanting ecstasy by external causes, 
 or a dissipation of the animal spirits. The parties 
 in question so little found themselves under the 
 latter predicament, that they were equally surprised 
 to learn from Laura that breakfast waited for them. 
 In consequence of this information, it was thought 
 proper for Don Sylvio to withdraw a few minutes ; 
 minutes, which, however, appeared not a little tedious, 
 for during four hours successively last past, he had 
 found himself so little tired with looking at his dear 
 Felicia, that it seemed almost impossible to detach 
 himself from her for a single moment. 
 
 Presently, after the whole little society assembled 
 in Donna Felicia's apartment to drink tea, Don
 
 432 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 Eugenic and Don Gabriel were greatly astonished at 
 the visible metamorphosis which had taken place in 
 our hero. The latter had got himself ready armed 
 with a variety of arguments, in order to force the 
 fairies to their last entrenchments in Don Sylvio's 
 brain. But he soon perceived the whole business 
 done without him, and found himself obliged to allow 
 that two fine eyes know better how to persuade, and 
 can work a more sudden conversion in a few minutes, 
 than the Academy, the Lyceum, or the Stoa * might, 
 with all their united forces, have been able to do in 
 the course of as many years. 
 
 * The famous schools in which Plato, Aristotle, and Zeno taught 
 the Athenians philosophy.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 433 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 NEW DISCOVERIES 
 
 BREAKFAST being over, the company retired into 
 Don Eugenie's library, where Don Gabriel employed 
 himself in showing his young friend and the ladies 
 various experiments in natural philosophy ; when, 
 all on a sudden, a noise like that of some kind of 
 carriage was heard in the courtyard before the house, 
 which presently interrupted the attention of his 
 disciples. Let any one imagine the agreeable con- 
 fusion of Don Sylvio, when, a minute or two after, he 
 beheld his dear aunt, Donna Menzia, enter the room. 
 In order to save any future critic, who may possibly 
 be inclined to give himself the trouble of defending 
 this work against the biting tooth of a Zoilus, or any 
 of his brethren that is to say, against all and every 
 one who, to the very great mortification of our 
 just paternal love for this procreation of our intel- 
 lects, should maliciously dare to attempt to wish 
 or to discover its faults and imperfections, to save, 
 I say, this excellent and learned personage (to whom, 
 thus publicly and beforehand we pay our best 
 thanks for the labours he shall undertake, for he 
 will find enough to do) the pains of defending us 
 from the reproach of having, against all probability, 
 brought the sage and venerable Donna Menzia, quasi 
 Deum ex machtnd, to the feast of Don Eugenio, 
 riding in a calash drawn by two poor worn-out tits, 
 without assigning any other good reason for so doing 
 but truly because we have occasion for her. For 
 these reasons we think it incumbent upon us first and 
 
 2 F
 
 434 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 foremost to observe that this unlooked-for appari- 
 tion did not happen by our means, but through the 
 care and discretion of that famous barber, or barber- 
 surgeon, or surgeon-barber, who hath already more 
 than once in the course of this performance, appeared 
 and figured upon the stage. This gentleman, in a 
 tour he had made the evening or two before to Lirias 
 to dress the wounded person, had heard of Don 
 Sylvio's arrival, and through the imprudent loquacity 
 of the discreet Pedrillo, had picked up certain other 
 little particulars, which made him suspect there was 
 some mystery in the matter. Fraught with this 
 intelligence, Master Bias immediately hied him away 
 to Rosalva, where every method had already been 
 used to discover our hero in all the adjacent places. 
 Donna Menzia was very greatly alarmed at these 
 tidings ; for as her nephew's marriage with the 
 beautiful Mergelina was one of the conditions without 
 which her own nuptials with Signior Rodrigo 
 Sanchez could not absolutely take place, it was im- 
 possible for her to be unconcerned at the news which 
 Master Bias, with a very mysterious air, poured into 
 her ear in a whisper ; and which, if they meant any- 
 thing, imported that to judge from appearances, 
 Don Sylvio was not at Lirias for nothing. In a word, 
 she thought the affair sufficiently important to 
 demand her personal attendance to bring him back 
 to Rosalva. She accordingly arrived in these dis- 
 positions, which, joined to the profound contempt 
 with which the high antiquity of her house inspired 
 her for the nobility of a fresh date, gave her on 
 her arrival at Lirias one of those gracious casts of 
 feature which it is easier to imagine than describe. 
 And, moreover, to complete her misfortunes, seeing 
 her nephew in such dangerous company as that 
 of Donna Felicia and Jacintha dangerous to the 
 last degree, according to her principles her ill- 
 humour rose to such a pitch, that her countenance, 
 which, without these additional charms, was better
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 435 
 
 calculated to express the severity of virtue than its 
 graces, took the air of a fury so perfectly that her 
 meagre form wanted nothing more than a few ser- 
 pents hung round her head, and a torch in her hand, 
 to represent one of the graces of the infernal regions. 
 However, notwithstanding all these charms, as being 
 Don Sylvio's aunt, she was received in a manner so 
 respectful and so engaging as to find herself obliged 
 a little to unwrinkle her terrible and menacing brow. 
 The beauty and noble mien of Don Eugenio like- 
 wise contributed their part to reclaim her ; and these 
 succeeded so well, that the two ladies, who, upon the 
 first look with which she honoured them, had retired 
 to the farther end of the room, at length resumed 
 courage to advance towards the sofa, where Donna 
 Menzia had seated herself at Don Eugenio's request. 
 They did it, however, with such precaution, as to 
 place themselves near enough the door to get clear 
 off in case of accidents. Donna Menzia, after a short 
 preamble, explained the reason of her coming ; ex- 
 pressing no small astonishment at what could possibly 
 have occasioned her nephew's being at Lirias. Don 
 Eugenio informed her it was entirely owing to 
 chance, and put it to the account of certain adven- 
 tures which had happened to himself ; mentioning 
 the valiant assistance Don Sylvio had afforded him, 
 without which he should have run a great risk of being 
 overpowered. But he took care to suppress a few 
 circumstances relative to the history in question. 
 Donna Menzia expressed so much satisfaction at her 
 nephew's good conduct, as it rendered him not 
 unworthy the noble blood which flowed in his veins, 
 that the amiable Jacintha could not help venturing 
 a few words likewise in praise of our young hero's 
 prowess. 
 
 'Twas then for the first time that Donna Menzia 
 condescended so far as to cast a disdainful look upon 
 these little female beings. We have already ob- 
 served somewhere, that Jacintha was neither tall,
 
 436 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 nor had she that exact symmetry of feature or ex- 
 quisite delicacy of complexion which we expect in a 
 consummately fine woman. 'Twas that certain 
 inexpressible charm which discovers itself some- 
 times in the physiognomy, and diffuses itself over 
 the whole form, and that alone, which rendered her 
 unaccountably engaging at the first sight. This it 
 was which made her find favour in the eyes of Donna 
 Menzia, who was perfectly well satisfied with her 
 own charms, and what she herself imagined to be a 
 majestic shape and size. Nay, by little and little, 
 she even went so far as to honour the young creature 
 with some degree of her attention ; when, just as 
 she was about telling Jacintha that she had never 
 seen any person in her life that so much put her in 
 mind of her deceased sister-in-law, Donna Isidora, 
 as she did in stepped Don Sylvio, after no small 
 hesitation to appear before her, attended by Don 
 Gabriel. 
 
 The panegyrics which had already been bestowed 
 upon him, the politeness of address with which he 
 saluted his aunt, and, perhaps also the figure of the 
 gentleman who accompanied him one of those 
 lucky figures calculated to conciliate esteem the 
 moment they appear these, altogether, had so 
 good an effect, that Don Sylvio met with a much 
 more gracious reception than he had dared to hope 
 for. Don Gabriel, it seems, had been a good while 
 acquainted with the old lady's character ; accord- 
 ingly, he was mischievous enough to tell her some of 
 the finest things in the world, in the court style used 
 at the time of Charles, the second of that name in 
 Spain : so that presently, to the great diversion of 
 the company, he saw himself honoured with the 
 laughable character of a declared adorer and favour- 
 ite of this dowager beauty. Every one exerted him- 
 self and herself to entertain the lady in the very best 
 manner, heaping eulogiums and compliments upon 
 her in the bombast style and taste of Amadis de Gaul.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 437 
 
 The gentlemen had eyes only for her ladyship ; and 
 the young ladies affected so timid and so infantine 
 a look in her presence, that she could not help verily 
 fancying herself at least twenty years younger. In 
 short, she became by degrees so gay, so facetious, 
 and so cheery, that it was really a pity ! 
 
 This comedy went on for some time. The re- 
 peated observation which Donna Menzia had made 
 upon the resemblance betwixt Jacintha and Donna 
 Isidora de Rosalva, had led her into a very circum- 
 stantial detail of the adventures of her own youth, 
 with which she tired the audience for about half an 
 hour ; when instantly loud shouts were heard, the 
 noise of which seemed to come from the staircase. 
 Pedrillo's voice soon distinguished itself, and the 
 next moment he appeared in person, or rather, 
 tumbled himself head and shoulders into the room, 
 without any regard to his master or the rest of the 
 company, crying out with all his might 
 
 " Huzzah ! joy to great Caesar ! There, signior, 
 Pimpimp is found again ; we have got little Pimpimp 
 again ! Ah, i' faith, I knew the cursed old Carabossa 
 at fifty paces distance. But truly, she would not 
 give him up, not she. So she vowed and protested 
 she did not steal him away ; and then she did set 
 upon me, and did so clapper-claw and abuse me with 
 her billingsgate language, that for the life of me I 
 would not dare to repeat it before such good company. 
 But upon my soul, she did not throw away her 
 civilities into the Dead Sea : I gave her flash for flash, 
 and combed her head for her a little in her own way. 
 Oh, what an old carrion it is ! and then, look ye, she 
 had not stole him, forsooth ! No, nor positively she 
 would not give him into anybody else's hands but 
 your own, signior ; ay, and Don Eugenio she would 
 speak to, in spite of us ah 1 , that she would, though the 
 devil himself stood over her with a horse- whip. So 
 I told her as how there was company ; ' and,' said I, 
 ' there's time enough to hear thee tell fortunes some
 
 438 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 time else : and all that we wanted to know is known 
 already,' said I ; ' and so,' said I, 'thou hast nothing 
 - more to do than give us little Pimpimp, and then, 
 prithee, madam, troop off as soon as thou wilt, or, 
 by Saint Jago ! I shall pay thee back a hundredfold 
 all the buffets, cuffs, and kicks of the breech, and so 
 forth, that I received the day before yesterday by 
 thy contrivance, or that of thy brimstone com- 
 panion's,' said I, ' old Fanfreluche ! ' But all this, 
 however, would have been talking to no purpose in 
 she would come in spite of my teeth, had not I, at 
 last, e'en took hold of her by main force and pushed 
 her downstairs." 
 
 " Well, but what art thou talking about, my 
 friend ? " demanded Don Eugenio. " Who is this old 
 woman ? Did not she tell thee what she wanted ? " 
 
 " Signior," replied Pedrillo, " she herself can best 
 tell you who she is. My master there, Signior Don 
 Sylvio, did insist upon it against wind and tide, that 
 she is the fairy Carabossa. But if I must speak my 
 mind, I think, saving your honour's presence, she is 
 only an old gipsy " 
 
 No sooner had Don Eugenio caught the sound 
 of these last words, than he rose precipitately from 
 his seat, and went out with all possible expedition. 
 " Perchance," thought he, " this may be the very 
 gipsy I am in search of ? " And happily for him, 
 for this once his hopes were not deceived. 
 
 The supposed Carabossa, whom our hero had met 
 with in the woods the morning after his flight from 
 Rosalva, was no other than that very gipsy, who, as 
 we have before observed, acted so principal a part in 
 Jacintha's history. The reader possibly may recol- 
 lect that the indiscreet curiosity of the corregidor at 
 Seville had obliged this worthy matron to retire from 
 that capital. Unluckily for her, her name, person, 
 and merit were so celebrated through all the provinces 
 of Spain, that she knew not which side to turn her- 
 self to keep from falling into those very toils which
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 439 
 
 she wished to avoid. In this dilemma she thought of 
 Jacintha, who, as she had learned from one of her old 
 acquaintance, was acting with universal applause 
 upon the stage in Granada. She accordingly bent her 
 course thither as much disguised as possible, and 
 arrived at Granada the same day that Jacintha had 
 left it. She gained full intelligence of everything 
 concerning her from an actress, who failed not to 
 enlarge upon what people heard and imagined with 
 regard to Don Eugenie's inclinations and views 
 respecting Jacintha. This information presently 
 suggested to her a means of procuring herself a pro- 
 tector in the person of the young gentleman, who 
 might amply reward her, by affording her a secure 
 retreat within his own territories, for the service she 
 could render him. Upon this she used the utmost 
 diligence to get to Valencia before Jacintha, and it 
 was just at this juncture that she had met with our 
 adventuress upon the road, in her way through the 
 wood. A few leagues from Xelva, by a like chance, 
 she met with one of Don Eugenie's stewards at the 
 inn where she passed the night, who was come from 
 an estate of his lord's in the neighbourhood of 
 Valencia, and intended going next day to Lirias. 
 This man informed her that if she wanted to speak 
 with his master, she had only to go back the way she 
 came ; and as she pretended to have things of the 
 utmost consequence to communicate to him, the 
 steward had politeness enough to accompany her. 
 They accordingly reached Lirias just at the nick of 
 time when the truth of the discovery she wanted to 
 make might be put past doubt by the presence of 
 Donna Menzia. 
 
 A minute or two after Don Eugenio's quitting the 
 saloon, he returned, leading in the old gipsy by the 
 hand. 
 
 " Donna Menzia," said he, "I bring you here a 
 woman who boasts of being able to restore to you a 
 lost niece."
 
 440 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 The amiable Jacintha, the instant she perceived 
 her foster-mother, shrieked out in the greatest con- 
 sternation and terror ; while the old woman, im- 
 mediately on seeing Donna Menzia, threw herself at 
 her feet, and begged pardon of her for a crime, of 
 which she confessed herself guilty towards her. This 
 done, she gave her a very circumstantial account of 
 the place and time in which she had artfully carried 
 off her niece, Donna Seraphina, then about five years 
 of age ; adding, that that young lady, pointing to 
 Jacintha, was the same Seraphina, whom she was 
 rejoiced thus to find again ; and as a certain proof 
 that what she said was true, she produced a little 
 chain of gold with a crucifix, which Seraphina wore as 
 a necklace at the time of her being carried off. 
 
 It would be easier to imagine than describe the 
 agreeable surprise which so fortunate a discovery 
 must occasion in our little society. Don Eugenio, 
 who could not contain himself for joy, would readily 
 have excused the gipsy from urging any other proof 
 whatever : but Donna Menzia was not quite so open 
 to conviction, or so easy to be persuaded. She 
 examined the old gipsy with the utmost strictness 
 respecting the minutest circumstances of this female 
 rape ; and at length, perfectly satisfied with the old 
 woman's answers, she began to consider attentively 
 the gold necklace, which she recollected to be the 
 very same that she had given her little niece when 
 Don Pedro, the father, committed his children to her 
 care. In a word, after an examination and scrutiny 
 that lasted near an hour, Jacintha was acknowledged 
 as Donna Seraphina de Rosalva, and cordially 
 embraced in that character by the whole com- 
 pany, particularly by our hero and his aunt. This 
 unlooked-for discovery diffused inexpressible joy 
 through the whole house ; and Don Eugenio, who 
 wished to diffuse his own happy feelings through all 
 nature, gave immediate orders for celebrating the 
 day with every expression of festivity.
 
 DON SYLVIO DE ROSALVA 441 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 CONCLUSION OF THIS HISTORY 
 
 AT length we have conducted the history of our hero 
 to a period at which it ceases to be marvellous, or, 
 what amounts to the same thing, at which it begins 
 to take the common turn of all human events ; 
 ceasing, of course, to be adapted to the views which 
 we proposed to ourselves in the composition of this 
 work. Don Sylvio, who from this hour acknow- 
 ledges no other fairy than his adorable Felicia, and 
 no other enchantment than that which darts from 
 her fine eyes, is upon the point of being happy, 
 worthy of his happiness, and if, as we hope, he shall 
 live long enough, even of becoming wise in due time. 
 In his present agreeable situation, therefore, we 
 might now leave him to his love and the care of his 
 propitious stars, had we not in all probability some 
 readers too indolent to imagine for themselves the 
 natural issue and result of this wonderful story ; 
 though certainly nothing can be more easily guessed 
 out, without any need of our interposition. Hereby 
 then we inform all such readers, that Don Sylvio, the 
 same day, gave his aunt a full account of Don 
 Eugenie's proceeding, and how highly worthy he 
 had evinced himself of this newly-found sister. He 
 then acquainted her with their mutual inclination for 
 each other, as well as with the singular commence- 
 ment and successful progress of his own passion for 
 the beautiful Felicia de Cardena. Don Sylvio met 
 with little difficulty in obtaining the old lady's 
 consent to this twofold alliance, proposed to her by 
 
 2 F*
 
 442 THE ADVENTURES OF 
 
 Don Eugenic and her nephew. She now blushed to 
 think that a hundred thousand ducats should have 
 rendered her capable of deeming a pettifogging 
 attorney of Xelva, and his monster of a niece, worthy 
 to be allied with her family; not to say, that being 
 somewhat of a calculator, she was clearly of opinion 
 that with a fortune of forty thousand ducats per 
 annum, which Donna Felicia would bring her dear Don 
 Sylvio on their marriage, the ancient splendour of her 
 house was likely to be much better re-established. 
 One of the marriage articles on her nephew's part, by 
 which he assigned her an annual pension of six thou- 
 sand ducats for life, did not a little further contribute 
 to convince her ladyship of the propriety of the con- 
 nection. So snug an income sufficiently enabled her 
 to make shift without Signior Rodrigo Sanchez ; and 
 let matters turn out how they would, she could 
 easily make herself amends for the loss of him by the 
 help of so comfortable a pittance. 
 
 Though there are very good reasons to believe 
 that our hero was now entirely recovered of any 
 pernicious effects which the fairies had produced in 
 his brain, it was nevertheless judged proper to fill 
 up with realities that vacuum which the banish- 
 ment of the fairies had left there. It was accord- 
 ingly settled that he should make the tour of Europe, 
 the better to render himself worthy the possession of 
 his fair Felicia. Don Eugenio very affectionately 
 and cheerfully determined to accompany him. Don 
 Gabriel carried his friendship so far as to insist on 
 serving him as the mentor of his travels ; and our 
 fair ones were generous enough to give their assent 
 to so eligible an expedition, though likely to be 
 attended with a separation of two whole years. In 
 the meantime, the ladies concluded to retire to a 
 convent in Valencia, and there wait for the return of 
 their admirers a period not a little enlivened by 
 the frequent letters which they regularly received 
 from them. The two years being elapsed, Don
 
 DON SYLVTO DE ROSALVA 443 
 
 Eugenic and Don Gabriel brought back their young 
 friend so accomplished, that it was scarce possible 
 for any but Donna Felicia to recollect him. She, 
 however, was by no means surprised to see that an 
 intercourse with the great world, and the various 
 opportunities it offers of informing and cultivating 
 the mind, should thus have developed those happy 
 dispositions which she knew he possessed ; and 
 which from their first acquaintance had rendered 
 him so amiable and estimable in her eyes. 
 
 At length, this lovely young widow and her 
 worthy friend, Donna Seraphina, whom the con- 
 versation of Donna Felicia, and others of similar 
 rank and merit, had rendered one of the most 
 amiable creatures living, consented with pleasure to 
 make their ardent lovers happy. Honest Pedrillo 
 who had accompanied his master and returned as 
 alert and as talkative, but much more polished and 
 genteel than heretofore in reward of the sufferings 
 he had formerly endured in the toilsome perilous 
 pursuit of the blue butterfly, and as a return for the 
 services he had rendered his master during their late 
 tour ; honest, faithful Pedrillo obtained the fair, 
 prudent Laura ; together with the post of steward 
 of the household, of which, very probably, he remains 
 possessed to the present hour, in the most amiable 
 and the happiest family throughout Spain. 
 
 THE END 
 
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