The game is done, I’ve won, I’ve won,
Quoth she, and whistled thrice.
COLERIDGE--_Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner_.
The Tale of Guzman’s Family.
“Of what I am about to read to you,” said the stranger, “I have
witnessed part myself, and the remainder is established on a basis as
strong as human evidence can make it.
“In the city of Seville, where I lived many years, I knew a wealthy
merchant, far advanced in years, who was known by the name of Guzman the
rich. He was of obscure birth,--and those who honoured his wealth
sufficiently to borrow from him frequently, never honoured his name so
far as to prefix Don to it, or to add his surname, of which, indeed,
most were ignorant, and among the number, it is said, the wealthy
merchant himself. He was well respected, however; and when Guzman was
seen, as regularly as the bell tolled for vespers, to issue from the
narrow door of his house,--lock it carefully,--view it twice or thrice
with a wistful eye,--then deposit the key in his bosom, and move slowly
to church, feeling for the key in his vest the whole way,--the proudest
heads in Seville were uncovered as he passed,--and the children who were
playing in the streets, desisted from their sports till he had halted by
them.
“Guzman had neither wife or child,--relative or friend. An old female
domestic constituted his whole household, and his personal expences were
calculated on a scale of the most pinching frugality; it was therefore
matter of anxious conjecture to many, how his enormous wealth would be
bestowed after his death. This anxiety gave rise to inquiries about the
possibility of Guzman having relatives, though in remoteness and
obscurity; and the diligence of inquiry, when stimulated at once by
avarice and curiosity, is indefatigable. Thus it was at length
discovered that Guzman had formerly a sister, many years younger than
himself, who, at a very early age, had married a German musician, a
Protestant, and had shortly after quitted Spain. It was remembered, or
reported, that she had made many efforts to soften the heart and open
the hand of her brother, who was even then very wealthy, and to induce
him to be reconciled to their union, and to enable her and her husband
to remain in Spain. Guzman was inflexible. Wealthy, and proud of his
wealth as he was, he might have digested the unpalatable morsel of her
union with a poor man, whom he could have made rich; but he could not
even swallow the intelligence that she had married a Protestant. Ines,
for that was her name, and her husband, went to Germany, partly in
dependence on his musical talents, which were highly appreciated in that
country,--partly in the vague hope of emigrants, that change of place
will be attended with change of circumstances,--and partly, also, from
the feeling, that misfortune is better tolerated any where than in the
presence of those who inflict it. Such was the tale told by the old, who
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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