Voltaire's Romances, Complete in One VolumeVoltaire
Philosophy
Voltaire's Romances, Complete in One Volume
Voltaire
French fiction -- Translations into English
Donna Boca Vermeja, who had the honor to be the reverend inquisitor's
favorite, was very desirous to see what the English animal and heretic
was like. She was my intimate friend. I shared her curiosity. We were
oblished to wait till his wound was cured; and this did not take very
long.
[Illustration: Don Jeronimo Bueno Caracucarador.]
Soon after, we learned that he was in the habit of visiting daily at the
residence of Elbob, my cousin german, who, as every one knows, is the
best surgeon in the town. My friend Boca Vermeja's impatience to see
this singular monster increased two-fold. We had no rest ourselves, and
gave none to our cousin, the surgeon, till he allowed us to conceal
ourselves in a small closet, which we entered on tiptoe without saying a
word and scarcely venturing to breathe, just as the Englishman arrived.
His face was not turned toward us. He took off a small cap which
enclosed his light hair, which then fell in thick curls down the finest
neck I ever beheld. His form presented a plumpness, a finish, an
elegance, approaching, in my opinion, the Apollo Belvidere at Rome--a
copy of which my uncle the sculptor possesses.
Donna Boca Vermeja was transported with surprise, and delighted. I
shared her ecstacy, and could not forbear exclaiming: "O che hermoso
Muchacho!"
These words made the young man turn round. We then saw the face of an
Adonis on the body of a young Hercules. Donna Boca Vermeja nearly fell
backwards at the sight:
"St. James!" she exclaimed, "Holy Virgin! is it possible heretics are
such fine men? How we have been deceived about them."
Donna Boca was soon violently in love with the heretical monster. She is
handsomer than I am, I must confess; and I must also confess that I
became doubly jealous of her on that account. I took care to show her
that to forsake the reverend father inquisitor, Don Jeronimo Bueno
Caracucarador, for an Englishman, would be a crime falling nothing short
of damnation.
"Ah! my dear Las Nalgas," she said, (Las Nalgas is my name) "I would
forsake Melchizedek himself for so fine a young man."
One of the inquisitors who attended four masses daily, to obtain from
Our Lady of Manreze the destruction of the English, heard of our
admiration. The Reverend Father Don Caracucarador whipped us both, and
had our dear Englishman arrested by twenty-four Alguazils of St.
Hermandad. Johnny killed four; and was at length captured by the
remaining twenty. He was confined in a very damp cellar, and sentenced
to be burnt the following Sunday, in full ceremony, clothed in a
San-bénito, wearing a sugar-loaf cap, in honor of our Savior and the
Virgin Mary, his mother. Don Caracucarador prepared a fine sermon, but
had no occasion for it, as the town was taken at four o'clock on the
Sunday morning.
Here Donna Las Nalgas's tale terminates. This lady was not without a
description of wit, which in Spain we call agudéza.
CHAPTER II.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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