An Adventurer in Spain

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17447, 6 July 1928, Page 10

An Adventurer in Spain

- i Speaking of Spain as a field for travel, Spanish Ambassador is reported to .havo said’not long ago, that, outside the mythical pages of “Gil Bias de Santillane, bandits were unknown. dourists .apart, Spain has always attracted the literary .wanderer. Round about the year 1/05 (the chroniclers disagree os to the date of his birth), Alain Reno le Sage, a French "man, mado a pilgrimage thither to study ’the language, literature, and manners of the Spanish People. Tho outcome of that visit was the famous “Adventures of tho Gil Bias de Santillane,” which has been ..translated into every European language and “been received in all nations as a faithful portrait ot human nature.” It ia-,jn effect the story of a Spanish youth oThumblo birth who attains, after many vicissitudes, to the position of confiden-tial-secretary to the Duke of Lerma, Prime Minister of the Spanish Crown (says an English writer).

Le Sage and His Masterpiece, “G

The Bandit and the Lady,

Gil Bias sets out at the age of seventeen to push his fortunes at Salamanca. Having lost his mule to one rogue and most of his cash to another, he falls in with Captain Rolando, chief of a band of desperadoes who haye long evaded capture by living in cunningly-concealed quarters underground. Here, having been rescued by Captain Rolando from an imaginary pursuer, Gil Bias finds himself trapped one evening. After one frustrate effort at escape he realises the wisdom of affecting resignation and plays his part so well that after a time he is admitted io the fellowship of the band and participation in their adventures.

Their first prize is a nobleman’s coach drawn by four mules and escorted by three armed men. Nine to four, the bandits are easy winners, and having killed tho defenders'they carry off “tho lady, the mules and the horses.”

il Bias ”

Donna Mencia, however, proves tho salvation of Gil Bias. In his own words :

For my own part as soon as I had got into bed, instead of resigning myself to sleep, I did nothing but think of this lady’s misfortune. i At last, having bewailed lier hard fate, I began to revolve the means of rescuing her honour from the danger in which it was, and delivering her at the same time from the subterranean abode.” Kindly Satire. Ho affects colic, and the brigands, having business at come distance, leave him behind. No sooner is the coast clear than he ties up the ostler, gags the cook, arid having made ample provision for the future from the bandits’ stores of gold and silver, he emerges with the Donna Mencia of Mosquera into the light of day. The lady is naturally grateful, and in token thereof proceeds to relate the story of her life. More practically, she gives him a hundred ducats “to buy clothes,” adding that she does not intend to confine her gratitude within such narrow bounds Fine clothes and women played no small part in Gil Bias’s subsequent career. His many amatory adventures are related in tho simple fashion, of the day when plain facts were valued more than descriptive detail. The real entertainment of these pages is derived from Le Sage’s gift of satire, and his kindly ridicule of human foibles. Many Inventions. Take, for instance, his portraits of Dr Samgrado, the hydropathist, the Archbishop who would be an author, and Arsenia, the spoiled stage favourite. To each of theso in turn Gil Bias goes as servant, and becomes something of a friend. Tho Sangrado episodo is typical—“Haxkee, my child,” Sangi'ado says to him on short acquaintance, “I am not ono of those harsh and ungrateful masters who let their servants grew grey in their service before they recompense them. I am well pleased with thy behaviour, and without further delay will make thy fortune. I will immediately disclose to thee the whole extent of that salutary art which I have professed for so many years. Other physicians make this consist in the knowledge of a thousand difficult sciences ; but I intend to go a shorter way to work, and spare theo the troublo of studying pharmacy, anatomy, botany, and physic: know, my friend, all that is required is to bleed the patients and make them drink warm water.

Gil Bias accordingly became a fervent advocate of tho water-cure, reserving to himself, unknown to his master, the privilege of going to tho tavern overy day. On one occasion, having soundly beaten a rival practitioner, who twits his master with the number of honest people who have died of his water-cure, lie lingers too long over his wino and returns homo somewhat drunk. Tho doctor, seeing his assistant at last relishing copious diaughls of water, remarks :—• “I see, Gil Bias, thou hast no longer an aversion to water. Heaven be praised. Thou drinkest it like nectar; a cliango that does not surprise mo nt all my friend, for I knew that it would soon grow familiar to thy taste.” Le Sage’s Epitaph. But it is impossible to give in short space an adequate idea of tho long and plotless tale. The reader must go to tho book itself for a proper understanding of Lhe charm, vigour, and wisdom of a masterpiece of episodal fiction. There is a certain irony in tho fact that when Le Sage died on November 17th, 1747, at Boulogne, the creator of one of tho most rascally adventurers in fiction found an admirer to inscribe on his tomb :

Sous co tombeau git Le Sage, abattii Par le ciscau de le Parque importune, S’il no fut pas amide la Fortune, II fut toujours amide la Vcrtu. “Here lies Le Sage, struck down by the weapon of an unfriendly Fate. If he was not the friend of Fortune, he was always the friend of Virtue.”