If a minister looked favourably on him, the very next day he would send him some rich present to no purpose whatever. He always had his head filled with chimerical projects which he would put in execution, and if I happened to shew him the folly of them, he laughed at me, and treated me with contempt, as a man who had not common sense, and was quite a novice in the business of the great world.
However, with all his experience, our best substance was soon spent, our stock grew low, and we were reduced to make use of every means to renew and uphold our credit. What engines did we not set to work for that purpose? we bought and sold any thing; we received pawns; we lent money at usurious interest; in short there was no sort of commerce which we were not engaged in; besides what I knew already, my industry, improved by exercising it, helped me to new expedients for the good of our society. However, I must own that I was but a mere beginner compared to my father-in-law. Our gains were great, and would have been sufficient to have maintained us agreeably; and if we had understood how to live with economy, we should not have been obliged to make use of some sorry shifts, which in spite of all our skill we were sometimes compelled to resort to. In addition to this, our domestic expenses were most profuse. If Don Andrea was fond of luxury and good living, his daughter was not behind hand with him; there was nothing too rich or too fine for her; we kept as magnificent a table as any nobleman, more servants than we conveniently wanted, and our house was continually full of relations and friends whom we entertained and treated with the greatest profusion.
This bustle did not less please my humour than that of my wife, and while our affairs went on well, I did not in the least oppose it. I got tired, however, in two or three years after my marriage, when I perceived that through bad management, and some unforeseen accidents, our fortune began to diminish apace. Frightened at the prospect of distress, I ventured to remonstrate gently with Eugenia; God knows how I was treated by her! I complained to Don Andrea, who reproved her; and the whole family blamed her for her behaviour; but even my softest words, the reproaches of her father, and the entreaties of her friends, did but exasperate her the more against me: in a word, she declared to me that she did not mean to have the least reform in her family. After this decree, which the temper of my wife made quite absolute, I wisely resolved not to contradict her any more, but endeavour to fortify myself with more patience for the future.
It was, however, with extreme grief, that I saw melting away, like snow, all the money I had brought with me from Italy; and I could not think of the consequences of my marriage without sighing bitterly for having been so deprived of sense as to marry at all. Sometimes, to excuse myself for having acted so foolishly, I recalled to mind the rich figure that Don Andrea made when I became his son-in-law; and who could have imagined that I should find my ruin in an establishment that appeared to possess the means of the most solid fortune? When I observed that there was no longer any hope of being able to live on the same footing, I applied to my father-in-law for advice in my embarrassment.
It was on this occasion that he showed me how skilful he was in all the tricks of business. “The truth is,” said he, “you must do here, what I have done myself in similar cases; which is to save the little that remains to you at the cost of others:” then without the least delay, he counterfeited letters of transfer, and false contracts, and I do not know how many similar deeds, all equally worthy of a public reward, if proper justice could always be administered to all honest folks that make use of them. He did not stop here; for in order to establish my credit, which was now become necessary to him, he made me purchase an estate of five hundred ducats a year, which his brother possessed; when I say purchase, I mean only in appearance, for we were not able, both together, to muster a sufficient sum to shew the Notary, that he might witness the payment of the purchase-money. It cost me, however, but fifty crowns to borrow this sum for one day, and thus the sale was apparently completed. At the same time I gave the seller a deed, by which I formally declared that the said estate did not belong to me, but was as much his as ever, to whom I abandoned the enjoyment of it, having no manner of claim. I was well pleased with these shuffling tricks, because they were advantageous to me. Besides, I knew that they were commonly practised in all trading cities.
Thanks to my father-in-law, I had now secured something to myself, let fortune be as contrary as it pleased; and being able to trade again upon the faith of this new estate, I went on in my usual courses. Unfortunately this state of things could not last long. People who have been cheated are sure to be undeceived at last: besides, my wife’s always spending more than I gained, was sufficient of itself to ruin me, and I could not hold out against it any longer. Don Andrea was still lucky enough to get himself out of the scrape. As for me, I could no longer keep out of the clutches of a cursed Alguazil, who arrested me on the part of my creditors, and led me to prison; but they found themselves overreached when they set about seizing my effects, and learned that they were secretly made over. I was not so unconscionable as to wish them to lose all; so I paid each a tenth part of what was due, promising to liquidate the remainder in ten years. I was set at liberty again on these terms.
The proud Eugenia was so extremely mortified at my imprisonment and bankruptcy, the shame of which she thought would fall on her only, that she could not be consoled, and died very shortly after; and as she left no child, I found myself under the obligation of refunding her dowry, which under my present circumstances, could not fail to destroy my every project. To tell the truth, therefore, the tears I shed at her death were not the effect of the loss of my wife, but of regret for my money which she had so foolishly squandered, and for her’s which I had to return to her father. Notwithstanding which I did not fail to act the good husband, and ordered her funeral so superb, that my creditors murmured at it. Though I had now become a widower, I did not cease to live on good terms with Don Andrea. Besides that I could not have gained any thing by tricking him, he was the only man who was in possession of all my secrets, and I had still occasion for his assistance. I submitted, therefore, very patiently to all he required of me, and he was so much pleased with my conduct towards him, that he behaved in an equally handsome manner towards me.
CHAP. XLIX.
Guzman, after the death of his Wife, wishes to embrace the Ecclesiastical life, and with that view repairs to Alcala de Henarés to study. The fruits of his studies.