In furthest Ind : $b The narrative of Mr Edward Carlyon of the honourable East India Company's serviceGrier, Sydney C.
General
In furthest Ind : $b The narrative of Mr Edward Carlyon of the honourable East India Company's service
Grier, Sydney C.
British -- India -- Fiction; East India Company -- Fiction; India -- Fiction
“That,” says he, “is my lord Marquis of Tourvel, his most Christian
majesty’s viceroy in the Indies.”[86]
“The King of France’s viceroy?” said I, in great astonishment.
“Even so,” says he.
“And the gentlewomen with him are his lady and his daughter, as I
suppose?” said I, trying to digest that which he told me.
“Nay,” said he, “Mad. de Tourvel is dead these many years. The younger
lady is my lord’s daughter, Mademoiselle de Tourvel, and the other is
Mad. de Chesnac, her cousin, who is her governess,
waiting-gentlewoman, what you will.”
“And hath his lordship any other children here?” asked I.
“Nay, he han’t none else at all. Mademoiselle Heliodore is the only
one, and she hath abode so long unmarried that ’tis said she intends
to devote herself altogether to my lord her father. But that----”
Here the Gentue servant entered the chamber, and brought in with him a
young black page-boy, bearing a packet in his hand, the which he did
deliver to me. In the packet was there a purse of cut velvet, very
handsome, with twenty _louis d’or_ therein, and with it a billet wrote
in French very elegantly, saying that I had doubtless found myself
incommoded by the loss of all my clothes and other necessaries, and
that ’twould afford an infinite pleasure to Mademoiselle de Tourvel if
I would permit her to supply my most pressing needs. Mr Marigny,
seeing the purse and knowing the lad that brought it, made a sign to
me to accept that which was sent me, and was good enough to furnish me
with paper and ink, wherewith I writ that I did most gratefully accept
the kindness of Mademoiselle de Tourvel, and looked forward with
impatience to doing myself the honour of signifying my thanks in
person to her ladyship that evening. And this letter wrote, and the
servant and the page departed, Mr Marigny looked jestingly at me.
“O happy youth!” says he, “have you already won the favour of the
peerless Heliodore, when no other can gain from her anything but
coldness?”
“Methinks, sir,” says I, “you are unjust to the lady that has just
dealt so kindly by me, to suspect her of such designs.”
“Sir,” says Mr Marigny, quickly, “I spake but in jest. I pray you to
believe that I an’t altogether a fool. I honour and esteem
Mademoiselle de Tourvel as if she were my own sister, and so do all
here, but we know better than to expect her to look kindly on any of
us.”
He seemed as if he might have said more, but stayed himself suddenly,
and asked me whether I would choose to see the town. This set me
a-laughing.
“’Tis prodigious strange,” says I, “but here have I been for a night
and a day in this place without so much as knowing the name on’t.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account