The Exemplary Novels of CervantesCervantes Saavedra, Miguel de
General
The Exemplary Novels of Cervantes
Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de
Spanish fiction -- Translations into English
"Leonisa was ashore, but not where I could see her, until just as we
were embarking we met at the water side. Her new master and newer lover
led her by the hand, and as she set foot on the ladder that reached from
the shore to the galley, she turned her eyes upon me. Mine were fixed on
her, and such a pang of mingled tenderness and grief came over me that a
mist overspread my eyes, and I fell senseless on the ground. I was told
afterwards that Leonisa was affected in the same way, for she fell off
the ladder into the sea, into which Yusuf plunged after her and brought
her out in his arms. This was told me in my master's galley into which I
had been carried insensible. When I came to my senses, and found myself
there, and saw the other galley steering a different course and carrying
off the half of my soul or rather the whole of it, my heart sank within
me again; again I cursed my unhappy fate, and clamorously invoked!
death, till my master, annoyed by my loud lamentations, threatened me
with a great stick if I did not hold my tongue. I restrained my tears
and groans, believing that the force with which I compressed them would
make them burst a passage for my soul, which so longed to quit this
miserable body. But my misfortune did not end here. The storm which had
been foreseen suddenly burst upon us. The wind veered round to the south
and blew in our teeth with such violence that we were forced to quit our
course and run before it.
"It was the captain's intention to make for the island and take shelter
under its northern shore, but in this he was disappointed; for such was
the fury of the storm that although before it we had been making way
continually for two days and nights, yet in little more than fourteen
hours we saw ourselves again within six or seven miles of the island,
and driving helplessly against it, not where the shore was low, but just
where the rocks were highest and threatened us with inevitable death. We
saw near us the other galley, on board of which was Leonisa, and all its
Turk and captive rowers straining every nerve to keep themselves off the
rocks. Ours did the same, but with more success than the crew of our
consort, who, spent with toil, and vanquished in the desperate struggle
with the elements, let fall their oars, and suffered themselves to drift
ashore, where the galley struck with such violence that it was dashed to
pieces before our eyes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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