The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, Volume 1 (of 3)Le Sage, Alain René
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The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, Volume 1 (of 3)
Le Sage, Alain René
Adventure and adventurers -- Fiction; Blas, Gil (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
The trouble I had got into at the grocer's did not discourage me from
phlebotomizing and prescribing warm water in the usual course.
Coming out of a house where I had been visiting a poet in a frenzy, I
was accosted in the street by an old woman, who came up and asked me
if I was a physician. I said yes. As that is the case, I entreat
you with all humility to go along with me. My niece has been ill
since yesterday, and I cannot conceive what is the matter with her.
I followed the old lady to her house, where I was shown into a very
decent room, occupied by a female who kept her bed. I went near, to
consider her case. Her features struck me from the first; and I
discovered beyond the possibility of a mistake, after having looked
at her some little time, the she-adventurer, who had played the part
of Camilla so adroitly. For her part she did not seem to recollect
me at all, whether from the oppression of her disorder, or from my
dress as a physician rendering me not easy to be known again. I took
her by the hand, to feel her pulse; and saw my ring upon her finger.
I was all in a twitter at the discovery of a valuable, on which I had
a claim both in law and equity. Great was my longing to make a
snatch at it; but considering that these fair ones would set up a
great scream, and that Don Raphael or some other defender of injured
innocence might rush in to their rescue, I laid an embargo on my
privateering. I thought it best to come by my own in an honest way,
and to consult Fabricio about the means. To this last course I
stuck. In the mean time the old woman urged me to inform her with
what disease her niece was troubled. I was not fool enough to own my
ignorance; on the contrary, I took upon myself as a man of science,
and after my master's example, pronounced solemnly that the disorder
accrued to the patient from the defect of natural perspiration; that
consequently she must lose blood as soon as possible, because if we
could not open one pore, we always open another: and I finished my
prescription with warm water, to do the thing methodically.
I shortened my visit as much as possible, and ran to the son of
Nunez, whom I met just as he was going out on an errand for his
master. I told him my new adventure, and asked his advice about
laying an information against Camilla. Pooh! Nonsense! replied he;
that would not be the way to get your ring again. Those gentry think
restitution double trouble. Call to mind your imprisonment at
Astorga; your horse, your money, your very clothes, did not they all
centre in the hands of justice? We must rather set our wits to work
for the recovery of your diamond. I take on myself the charge of
inventing some stratagem for that purpose. I will deliberate on it
in my way to the hospital, where I have to say but two words from my
master to the purveyor. Do you wait for me at our house of call, and
do not be on the fret: I will be with you shortly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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