The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, Volume 2 (of 3)Le Sage, Alain René
General
The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, Volume 2 (of 3)
Le Sage, Alain René
Adventure and adventurers -- Fiction; Blas, Gil (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
At the expiration of the before-mentioned time, the repose of the
family was marvellously troubled by an accident, which will appear
but a trifle to the reader, and yet it was a very serious matter to
the household, especially to me. Cupid, the monkey of whom I was
speaking, that animal so much the idol of our lord and master,
attempting to leap from one window to another, performed so ill as to
fall into the court and put his leg out of joint. No sooner were the
fatal tidings carried to the count, than he sung a dirge which pealed
through all the neighborhood. In the extremity of his sufferings,
every inmate without exception was taken to task, and we were all
within an inch of being packed off about our business. But the storm
only rumbled, without falling; he gave us and our negligence to the
devil, without being by any means select in the terms of the bequest.
The most notorious of the faculty in the line of fractures and
dislocations were sent for. They examined the poor dear leg, set,
and bound it up. But though they all gave it as their opinion that
there was no danger, my master could not be satisfied without
retaining the most eminent about the person of the animal, till he
could be pronounced to be in a state of convalescence.
It would be a manifest injustice to the family affections of his
Sicilian lordship, not to commemorate all the agonizing sensations of
his soul during this period of painful suspense. Would it be thought
possible that this tender nurse did not stir from his darling Cupid's
bedside all the livelong day? The bandages were never altered or
adjusted but in his presence, and he got up two or three times in the
night to enquire after his patient. The most provoking part of the
business was, that all the servants, and myself in particular, were
required to be eternally on the alert, to anticipate the slightest
wishes of this ridiculous baboon. In short, there was no peace in
the house, till the cursed beast, having recovered from the effects
of its fall, got back again to his old tricks and whirligigs. After
this, shall we be mealy-mouthed about believing Suetonius, when he
tells us that Caligula cared more for his horse than for all the
world besides, that he gave him more than the establishment and
attendance of a senator, and that he even wanted to make him consul?
Our wise master stopped little short of the emperor in his partiality
to the monkey, and had serious thoughts of purchasing for him the
place of corregidor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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