Saragossa: A Story of Spanish Valor

by Benito Pérez Galdós

"Mariquilla of my heart," said Augustine, "let us hope that the siege will soon be finished by some means or other. I hope that God will let us both die, if living we may not be happy. I do not know why, among so many misfortunes, my heart is full of hope; I do not know why I have such happy thoughts, and think constantly of a cheerful future. Why not? Must everything be dreadful and unfortunate? The troubles of my family have been very great. My mother neither receives nor desires to receive any consolation. Nobody is able to get her away from the place where the bodies of my brother and my nephew are; and when by force we take her to ever so great a distance, she immediately begins to drag herself along over the stones of the street to try and return. She and my sister and my sister-in-law are pitiable to see, refusing to take food, and in their prayers deliriously confusing the names of all the saints. This afternoon we have at last contrived to carry them to a sheltered spot where we obliged them to get a little repose, and to take a little food. Mariquilla, how sadly God has dealt with my people! Have I not reason to hope that at last He will pity us?"

"Yes," said Mariquilla; "my heart tells me that we have passed the hard part of our life, and that now we shall have peaceful days. The siege will soon be finished; because, according to what my father says, this holding out can be only a matter of days. This morning I went to the Pilar; when I knelt before the Virgin, it seemed to me that our holy Lady looked at me and smiled. Then I came out of the church, my heart was beating with a keen delight. I looked at the sky, and the bombs seemed to me like toys; I looked at the wounded, and it seemed to me that they were all healed; I looked at the people, and could almost believe that they all felt the same happiness which was overflowing my bosom. I do not know how it is with me to-day, I am so happy. God and the Virgin have surely taken pity on us; and this beating of my heart, this joyous restlessness, without care for what may happen, must mean good fortune after so many tears!"

"All that you say is true," said Augustine, holding Mariquilla lovingly to him. "Your presentiments are laws; your heart, one with the divine, cannot be deceived. Listening to you, it seems to me as if the troubles that crush us melt away in the air, and I breathe with delight the breath of happiness. I hope that your father will not oppose your marrying me."

"My father is good," said Mariquilla. "I believe that if his neighbors in the city had not worried him so much that he would have been kinder. But they cannot bear the sight of him. This afternoon he was badly maltreated again in the cloister of San Francisco, and when he joined me in the Coso he was furious, and swore that he would be revenged. I tried to quiet him, but all in vain. They drive us away from everywhere. He doubled up his fists, and angrily threatened those who were there near us. Afterwards, he ran away and came here. I thought he was coming to see if they had destroyed this house, which is ours. I followed him. He turned towards me as if frightened at hearing my footsteps, and said to me, 'Stupid meddler, who told you to follow me?' I answered nothing; but seeing that he advanced to the French lines, as if he meant to cross over, I tried to detain him, and said to him, 'Father, where are you going?' Then he answered, 'Do you know that my friend who served last year in Saragossa, the Swiss Captain Don Carlos Lindener, is in the French army? I am going to see him. I remember that he owes me a certain amount.' He made me stay here, and went on. I am afraid that if his enemies know that he crossed over into the French lines, they will call him a traitor. I do not know whether it is the great affection that I have for him, but he seems to me incapable of such action. I am afraid though that there is something wrong, and for this reason I long for the end of the siege. Is it not true that it will soon be finished, Augustine?"

"Yes, Mariquilla, it will soon be finished, and we will be married. My father wishes me to marry."

"Who is your father? What is his name? Is it not time yet to tell me that?"

"You shall know it another time. My father is one of the principal personages in Saragossa, and much beloved. Why wish to know more?"

"Yesterday I tried to inquire. I was curious. I asked several people I know that I met in the Coso, 'Do you know what gentleman it is who has lost his eldest son?' But so many are like that, that they only laughed at me."

"I will reveal it to you in good time, and when in telling it to you I can give you good news with it."