This officious agent at length retired, after she had carefully instructed me concerning the place where I was to meet her that night, and the hour of rendezvous when I was to be introduced to Fabia; and my master and I were left alone. We passed the whole afternoon in conversation on this intrigue, he relating to me how he first obtained a sight of the lady, and I congratulating him on his having made so agreeable an acquaintance.
At the appointed hour I hastened to the rendezvous, at the place fixed upon by Nicoleta, who came at last to inform me that her mistress could not see me that night, and this disappointment happened for three or four nights following. My patron and I did not augur very favorably from this beginning; nevertheless we did not totally despair; and, at last, one night the confidante informed me, through a small window on the ground-floor, that in a few minutes she could introduce me to her mistress.
You must know that the passage in which I stood was extremely muddy, and it poured with rain so as to wet me to the skin. I bore all this for two hours with a patience which nothing but my extreme zeal and attachment for my master could have inspired. At length I heard Nicoleta call me. I obeyed her summons instantly, and was led by her through a little door, which was shut to again as softly as it was opened. “Guzman,” said she, “I will just run and let Fabia know that you are here, and she will be with you in an instant.” The voice of my charmer soon made me forget my late wetting, and I thought of nothing but the happy moment in which I should behold the lady who had so captivated my master, and the extreme joy with which I should acquaint him that I had been so happy as to obtain an interview. It was not long before Fabia really came with her maid. “Nicoleta,” said she, “while I am conversing with Signor Guzman, do you watch my husband’s chamber, and should he perchance ask for me, lose no time in letting me know.”
It is impossible for me to tell you whether Fabia was in reality beautiful or ugly, for she had thought proper to receive me in the dark, so that I could not even see her face. In a low voice she began by inquiring anxiously after my health. I followed her example, and added the finest compliment I could think of in behalf of my master, whom I represented as dying for love of her; notwithstanding which, it appeared to me that she paid but little attention to what I was saying, for she constantly interrupted me in the most pathetic parts of my speech. At length she said, “Signor Guzman, I trust you will excuse me if I do not listen to you in the manner you deserve; but I am extremely alarmed lest some of my husband’s spies should overhear our conversation. Walk on a little way,” continued she, “and you will enter a parlour, where I entreat you will wait for me; meantime, I will just see that all is right in the house, and shall soon be with you again. Be sure you make no noise.”
I was weak enough to believe what she said, and groped my way forward, as if I had been playing at blindman’s buff. But instead of reaching a parlour, I found myself in a back yard, the pavement of which was so dirty and slippery, that after a few steps I rolled into a heap of mud, and, in rising again, struck my head with such violence against a wall hard by, that I lay for some time without sense or motion. Having, however, somewhat recovered of this shock, I groped very carefully along the wall in search of the parlour I had been directed to, and at last entered at a little door which I found open, confident that I must then be right. Again I was mistaken, and had the consolation to find myself in a narrow passage, which was not six feet in length, on each side of which were two drains from the house-top, and as it still continued pouring with rain, they had so inundated this spot, that I found myself on a sudden up to my knees in water. I ran back instantly, in the hope of retreating as I had entered, but the door was no longer open. Either the wind had blown it to, or some one, who had followed me close behind all the while, which indeed is more probable, had served me this trick. Be that as it may, I found myself obliged to make up my mind to pass the night in this swamp, where, as soon as I ran from one drain which was pouring upon my head, I found myself saluted by the other. “Out of the frying-pan into the fire,” muttered I to myself. “Oh, night, almost as dreadful as that in which I was confined under a tub, or tossed by devils in a blanket!”
Disagreeable, however, as my present reflections were, they were nothing in comparison with those with which I awaited the morning. “Wretched Guzman,” said I, “thou art at last then fairly entrapped! Fabia’s husband will doubtless inquire your business here the first thing in the morning. And what answer can you make? If you should tell the truth, for the first time in your life, you will make your master and yourself the common talk of Rome. What answer can you make then, but that Nicoleta had invited you, and that you were under a promise to marry her? And even should they oblige you to keep your word, this misfortune would be preferable to having all your bones broken to make you confess the truth. But who knows that they will even ask me a single question? Perhaps murder and bury me on the spot. Nothing can be too bad to fear from a jealous Italian husband.”
With these frightful thoughts was I haunted until break of day, when I fancied, all of a sudden, that I heard the yard-door being softly opened, and I flattered myself, at first, that it must be either the waiting-woman or her mistress come out of compassion to deliver me from my confinement; but nothing was less in their thoughts. The door, however, was certainly open, though I could see nobody who could possibly have opened it. I soon found myself again in the yard which I had passed through overnight, and having pushed open another door which was only on the latch, I reached the spot where the confidante had conversed with me, and looking up at the window through which she had spoken to me, I thanked Heaven that I had escaped so easily. I returned quickly to my master’s house, and threw myself upon my bed, wrapped up warmly in the bed-clothes, not without serious apprehensions of a most violent cold.
CHAP. XXXI.
Guzman’s adventure with a large Hog, and its consequences.
My mind being too much agitated to allow me to sleep, I could not close my eyes; all my thoughts were engrossed by the adventure which had just happened to me. I attributed every thing to the vengeance of Fabia, whom I concluded to be a miracle of chastity, and judged that in order to undeceive the Ambassador, she had given his envoy this gallant reception. But I knew that this affair would raise a laugh with every body at my expense, and this vexed me more than all the rest. I was also at a loss to know in what way I should inform my master of the story, which sooner or later I was sure must come to his knowledge.