Books: John Bull on the Guadalquivir from Tales from all Countries
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Anthony Trollope >> John Bull on the Guadalquivir from Tales from all Countries
I know all about it now, and am, as I said, content. Beneath those
deep black eyes there lay a well of love, good, honest, homely love,
love of father and husband and children that were to come--of that
love which loves to see the loved ones prospering in honesty. That
noble brow--for it is noble; I am unchanged in that opinion, and will
go unchanged to my grave--covers thoughts as to the welfare of many,
and an intellect fitted to the management of a household, of
servants, namely, and children, and perchance a husband. That mouth
can speak words of wisdom, of very useful wisdom--though of poetry it
has latterly uttered little that was original. Poetry and romance!
They are splendid mountain views seen in the distance. So let men be
content to see them, and not attempt to tread upon the fallacious
heather of the mystic hills.
In the first week of my sojourn in Seville I spoke no word of overt
love to Maria, thinking, as I confess, to induce her thereby to alter
her mode of conduct to myself. "She knows that I have come here to
make love to her--to repeat my offer; and she will at any rate be
chagrined if I am slow to do so." But it had no effect. At home my
mother was rather particular about her table, and Maria's greatest
efforts seemed to be used in giving me as nice dinners as we gave
her. In those days I did not care a straw about my dinner, and so I
took an opportunity of telling her. "Dear me," said she, looking at
me almost with grief, "do you not? What a pity! And do you not like
music either." "Oh, yes, I adore it," I replied. I felt sure at the
time that had I been born in her own sunny clime, she would never
have talked to me about eating. But that was my mistake.
I used to walk out with her about the city, seeing all that is there
of beauty and magnificence. And in what city is there more that is
worth the seeing? At first this was very delightful to me, for I
felt that I was blessed with a privilege that would not be granted to
any other man. But its value soon fell in my eyes, for others would
accost her, and walk on the other side, talking to her in Spanish, as
though I hardly existed, or were a servant there for her protection.
And I was not allowed to take her arm, and thus to appropriate her,
as I should have done in England. "No, John," she said, with the
sweetest, prettiest smile, "we don't do that here; only when people
are married." And she made this allusion to married life out,
openly, with no slightest tremor on her tongue.
"Oh, I beg pardon," said I, drawing back my hand, and feeling angry
with myself for not being fully acquainted with all the customs of a
foreign country.
"You need not beg pardon," said she; "when we were in England we
always walked so. It is just a custom, you know." And then I saw
her drop her large dark eyes to the ground, and bow gracefully in
answer to some salute.
I looked round, and saw that we had been joined by a young cavalier,-
-a Spanish nobleman, as I saw at once; a man with jet black hair, and
a straight nose, and a black moustache, and patent leather boots,
very slim and very tall, and--though I would not confess it then--
uncommonly handsome. I myself am inclined to be stout, my hair is
light, my nose broad, I have no hair on my upper lip, and my whiskers
are rough and uneven. "I could punch your head though, my fine
fellow," said I to myself, when I saw that he placed himself at
Maria's side, "and think very little of the achievement."
The wretch went on with us round the plaza for some quarter of an
hour talking Spanish with the greatest fluency, and she was every
whit as fluent. Of course I could not understand a word that they
said. Of all positions that a man can occupy, I think that that is
about the most uncomfortable; and I cannot say that, even up to this
day, I have quite forgiven her for that quarter of an hour.
"I shall go in," said I, unable to bear my feelings, and preparing to
leave her. "The heat is unendurable."
"Oh dear, John, why did you not speak before?" she answered. "You
cannot leave me here, you know, as I am in your charge; but I will go
with you almost directly." And then she finished her conversation
with the Spaniard, speaking with an animation she had never displayed
in her conversations with me.
It had been agreed between us for two or three days before this, that
we were to rise early on the following morning for the sake of
ascending the tower of the cathedral, and visiting the Giralda, as
the iron figure is called, which turns upon a pivot on the extreme
summit. We had often wandered together up and down the long dark
gloomy aisle of the stupendous building, and had, together, seen its
treasury of art; but as yet we had not performed the task which has
to be achieved by all visitors to Seville; and in order that we might
have a clear view over the surrounding country, and not be tormented
by the heat of an advanced sun, we had settled that we would ascend
the Giralda before breakfast.
And now, as I walked away from the plaza towards Mr. Daguilar's
house, with Maria by my side, I made up my mind that I would settle
my business during this visit to the cathedral. Yes, and I would so
manage the settlement that there should be no doubt left as to my
intentions and my own ideas. I would not be guilty of shilly-shally
conduct; I would tell her frankly what I felt and what I thought, and
would make her understand that I did not desire her hand if I could
not have her heart. I did not value the kindness of her manner,
seeing that that kindness sprung from indifference rather than
passion; and so I would declare to her. And I would ask her, also,
who was this young man with whom she was intimate--for whom all her
volubility and energy of tone seemed to be employed? She had told me
once that it behoved her to consult a friend in Seville as to the
expediency of her marriage with me. Was this the friend whom she had
wished to consult? If so, she need not trouble herself. Under such
circumstances I should decline the connection! And I resolved that I
would find out how this might be. A man who proposes to take a woman
to his bosom as his wife, has a right to ask for information--ay, and
to receive it too. It flashed upon my mind at this moment that Donna
Maria was well enough inclined to come to me as my wife, but --. I
could hardly define the "buts" to myself, for there were three or
four of them. Why did she always speak to me in a tone of childish
affection, as though I were a schoolboy home for the holidays? I
would have all this out with her on the tower on the following
morning, standing under the Giralda.
On that morning we met together in the patio, soon after five
o'clock, and started for the cathedral. She looked beautiful, with
her black mantilla over her head, and with black gloves on, and her
black morning silk dress--beautiful, composed, and at her ease, as
though she were well satisfied to undertake this early morning walk
from feelings of good nature--sustained, probably, by some under-
current of a deeper sentiment. Well; I would know all about it
before I returned to her father's house.
There hardly stands, as I think, on the earth, a building more
remarkable than the cathedral of Seville, and hardly one more grand.
Its enormous size; its gloom and darkness; the richness of
ornamentation in the details, contrasted with the severe simplicity
of the larger outlines; the variety of its architecture; the glory of
its paintings; and the wondrous splendour of its metallic decoration,
its altar-friezes, screens, rails, gates, and the like, render it, to
my mind, the first in interest among churches. It has not the
coloured glass of Chartres, or the marble glory of Milan, or such a
forest of aisles as Antwerp, or so perfect a hue in stone as
Westminster, nor in mixed beauty of form and colour does it possess
anything equal to the choir of Cologne; but, for combined
magnificence and awe-compelling grandeur, I regard it as superior to
all other ecclesiastical edifices.
It is its deep gloom with which the stranger is so greatly struck on
his first entrance. In a region so hot as the south of Spain, a cool
interior is a main object with the architect, and this it has been
necessary to effect by the exclusion of light; consequently the
church is dark, mysterious, and almost cold. On the morning in
question, as we entered, it seemed to be filled with gloom, and the
distant sound of a slow footstep here and there beyond the transept
inspired one almost with awe. Maria, when she first met me, had
begun to talk with her usual smile, offering me coffee and a biscuit
before I started. "I never eat biscuit," I said, with almost a
severe tone, as I turned from her. That dark, horrid man of the
plaza--would she have offered him a cake had she been going to walk
with him in the gloom of the morning? After that little had been
spoken between us. She walked by my side with her accustomed smile;
but she had, as I flattered myself, begun to learn that I was not to
he won by a meaningless good nature. "We are lucky in our morning
for the view!" that was all she said, speaking with that peculiarly
clear, but slow pronunciation which she had assumed in learning our
language.
We entered the cathedral, and, walking the whole length of the aisle,
left it again at the porter's porch at the farther end. Here we
passed through a low door on to the stone flight of steps, and at
once began to ascend. "There are a party of your countrymen up
before us," said Maria; "the porter says that they went through the
lodge half an hour since." "I hope they will return before we are on
the top," said I, bethinking myself of the task that was before me.
And indeed my heart was hardly at ease within me, for that which I
had to say would require all the spirit of which I was master.
The ascent to the Giralda is very long and very fatiguing; and we had
to pause on the various landings and in the singular belfry in order
that Miss Daguilar might recruit her strength and breath. As we
rested on one of these occasions, in a gallery which runs round the
tower below the belfry, we heard a great noise of shouting, and a
clattering of sticks among the bells. "It is the party of your
countrymen who went up before us," said she. "What a pity that
Englishmen should always make so much noise!" And then she spoke in
Spanish to the custodian of the bells, who is usually to be found in
a little cabin up there within the tower. "He says that they went up
shouting like demons," continued Maria; and it seemed to me that she
looked as though I ought to be ashamed of the name of an Englishman.
"They may not be so solemn in their demeanour as Spaniards," I
answered; "but, for all that, there may be quite as much in them."
We then again began to mount, and before we had ascended much farther
we passed my three countrymen. They were young men, with gray coats
and gray trousers, with slouched hats, and without gloves. They had
fair faces and fair hair, and swung big sticks in their hands, with
crooked handles. They laughed and talked loud, and, when we met
them, seemed to be racing with each other; but nevertheless they were
gentlemen. No one who knows by sight what an English gentleman is,
could have doubted that; but I did acknowledge to myself that they
should have remembered that the edifice they were treading was a
church, and that the silence they were invading was the cherished
property of a courteous people.
"They are all just the same as big boys," said Maria. The colour
instantly flew into my face, and I felt that it was my duty to speak
up for my own countrymen. The word "boys" especially wounded my
ears. It was as a boy that she treated me; but, on looking at that
befringed young Spanish Don--who was not, apparently, my elder in
age--she had recognised a man. However, I said nothing further till
I reached the summit. One cannot speak with manly dignity while one
is out of breath on a staircase.
"There, John," she said, stretching her hands away over the fair
plain of the Guadalquivir, as soon as we stood against the parapet;
"is not that lovely?"
I would not deign to notice this. "Maria," I said, "I think that you
are too hard upon my countrymen?"
"Too hard! no; for I love them. They are so good and industrious;
and come home to their wives, and take care of their children. But
why do they make themselves so--so--what the French call gauche?"
"Good and industrious, and come home to their wives!" thought I. "I
believe you hardly understand us as yet," I answered. "Our domestic
virtues are not always so very prominent; but, I believe, we know how
to conduct ourselves as gentlemen: at any rate, as well as
Spaniards." I was very angry--not at the faults, but at the good
qualities imputed to us.
"In affairs of business, yes," said Maria, with a look of firm
confidence in her own opinion--that look of confidence which she has
never lost, and I pray that she may never lose it while I remain with
her--"but in the little intercourses of the world, no! A Spaniard
never forgets what is personally due either to himself or his
neighbours. If he is eating an onion, he eats it as an onion should
be eaten."
"In such matters as that he is very grand, no doubt," said I,
angrily.
"And why should you not eat an onion properly, John? Now, I heard a
story yesterday from Don--about two Englishmen, which annoyed me very
much." I did not exactly catch the name of the Don in question but I
felt through every nerve in my body that it was the man who had been
talking to her on the plaza.
"And what have they done?" said I. "But it is the same everywhere.
We are always abused; but, nevertheless, no people are so welcome.
At any rate, we pay for the mischief we do." I was angry with myself
the moment the words were out of my mouth, for, after all, there is
no feeling more mean than that pocket-confidence with which an
Englishman sometimes swaggers.
"There was no mischief done in this case," she answered. "It was
simply that two men have made themselves ridiculous for ever. The
story is all about Seville, and, of course, it annoys me that they
should be Englishmen."
"And what did they do?"
"The Marquis D'Almavivas was coming up to Seville in the boat, and
they behaved to him in the most outrageous manner. He is here now
and is going to give a series of fetes. Of course he will not ask a
single Englishman."
"We shall manage to live even though the Marquis D'Almavivas may
frown upon us," said I, proudly.
"He is the richest, and also the best of our noblemen," continued
Maria; "and I never heard of anything so absurd as what they did to
him. It made me blush when Don -- told me." Don Tomas, I thought
she said.
"If he be the best of your noblemen, how comes it that he is angry
because he has met two vulgar men? It is not to be supposed that
every Englishman is a gentleman."
"Angry! Oh, no! he was not angry; he enjoyed the joke too much for
that. He got completely the best of them, though they did not know
it; poor fools! How would your Lord John Russell behave if two
Spaniards in an English railway carriage were to pull him about and
tear his clothes?"
"He would give them in charge to a policeman, of course," said I,
speaking of such a matter with the contempt it deserved.
"If that were done here your ambassador would be demanding national
explanations. But Almavivas did much better;--he laughed at them
without letting them know it."
"But do you mean that they took hold of him violently, without any
provocation? They must have been drunk."
"Oh, no, they were sober enough. I did not see it, so I do not quite
know exactly how it was, but I understand that they committed
themselves most absurdly, absolutely took hold of his coat and tore
it, and--; but they did such ridiculous things that I cannot tell
you." And yet Don Tomas, if that was the man's name, had been able
to tell her, and she had been able to listen to him.
"'What made them take hold of the marquis?" said I.
"Curiosity, I suppose," she answered. "He dresses somewhat
fancifully, and they could not understand that any one should wear
garments different from their own." But even then the blow did not
strike home upon me.
"Is it not pretty to look down upon the quiet town?" she said, coming
close up to me, so that the skirt of her dress pressed me, and her
elbow touched my arm. Now was the moment I should have asked her how
her heart stood towards me; but I was sore and uncomfortable, and my
destiny was before me. She was willing enough to let these English
faults pass without further notice, but I would not allow the subject
I drop.
"I will find out who these men were," said I, "and learn the truth of
it. When did it occur?"
"Last Thursday, I think he said."
"Why, that was the day we came up in the boat, Johnson and myself.
There was no marquis there then, and we were the only Englishmen on
board."
"It was on Thursday, certainly, because it was well known in Seville
that he arrived on that day. You must have remarked him because he
talks English perfectly--though by-the-bye, these men would go on
chattering before him about himself as though it were impossible that
a Spaniard should know their language. They are ignorant of Spanish,
and they cannot bring themselves to believe that any one should be
better educated than themselves."
Now the blow had fallen, and I straightway appreciated the necessity
of returning immediately to Clapham where my family resided, and
giving up for ever all idea of Spanish connections. I had resolved
to assert the full strength of my manhood on that tower, and now
words had been spoken which left me weak as a child. I felt that I
was shivering, and did not dare to pronounce the truth which must be
made known. As to speaking of love, and signifying my pleasure that
Don Tomas should for the future be kept at a distance, any such
effort was quite beyond me. Had Don Tomas been there, he might have
walked off with her from before my face without a struggle on my
part. "Now I remember about it," she continued, "I think he must
have been in the boat on Thursday."
"And now that I remember," I replied, turning away to hide my
embarrassment, "he was there. Your friend down below in the plaza
seems to have made out a grand story. No doubt he is not fond of the
English. There was such a man there, and I did take hold--"
"Oh, John, was it you?"
"Yes, Donna Maria, it was I; and if Lord John Russell were to dress
himself in the same way--" But I had no time to complete my
description of what might occur under so extravagantly impossible a
combination of circumstances, for as I was yet speaking, the little
door leading out on to the leads of the tower was opened and my
friend, the mayo of the boat, still bearing gewgaws on his back,
stepped up on to the platform. My eye instantly perceived that the
one pendule was still missing from his jacket. He did not come
alone, but three other gentlemen followed him, who, however, had no
peculiarities in their dress. He saw me at once and bowed and
smiled; and then observing Donna Maria, he lifted his cap from his
head, and addressing himself to her in Spanish, began to converse
with her as though she were an old friend.
"Senor," said Maria, after the first words of greeting had been
spoken between them; "you must permit me to present to you my
father's most particular friend, and my own,--Mr. Pomfret; John, this
is the Marquis D'Almavivas."
I cannot now describe the grace with which this introduction was
effected, or the beauty of her face as she uttered the word. There
was a boldness about her as though she had said, "I know it all--the
whole story. But, in spite of that you must take him on my
representation, and be gracious to him in spite of what he has done.
You must be content to do that; or in quarrelling with him you must
quarrel with me also." And it was done at the spur of the moment--
without delay. She, who not five minutes since had been loudly
condemning the unknown Englishman for his rudeness, had already
pardoned him, now that he was known to be her friend; and had
determined that he should be pardoned by others also or that she
would share his disgrace. I recognised the nobleness of this at the
moment; but, nevertheless, I was so sore that I would almost have
preferred that she should have disowned me.
The marquis immediately lifted his cap with his left hand while he
gave me his right. "I have already had the pleasure of meeting this
gentleman," he said; "we had some conversation in the boat together."
"Yes," said I, pointing to his rent, "and you still bear the marks of
our encounter."
"Was it not delightful, Donna Maria," he continued, turning to her;
"your friend's friend took me for a torero?"
"And it served you properly, senor," said Donna Maria, laughing, "you
have no right to go about with all those rich ornaments upon you."
"Oh! quite properly; indeed, I make no complaint; and I must beg your
friend to understand, and his friend also, how grateful I am for
their solicitude as to my pecuniary welfare. They were inclined to
be severe on me for being so extravagant in such trifles. I was
obliged to explain that I had no wife at home kept without her proper
allowance of dresses, in order that I might be gay."
"They are foreigners, and you should forgive their error," said she.
"And in token that I do so," said the marquis, "I shall beg your
friend to accept the little ornament which attracted his attention."
And so saying, he pulled the identical button out of his pocket, and
gracefully proffered it to me.
"I shall carry it about with me always," said I, accepting it, "as a
memento of humiliation. When I look at it, I shall ever remember the
folly of an Englishman and the courtesy of a Spaniard;" and as I made
the speech I could not but reflect whether it might, under any
circumstances, be possible that Lord John Russell should be induced
to give a button off his coat to a Spaniard.
There were other civil speeches made, and before we left the tower
the marquis had asked me to his parties, and exacted from me an
unwilling promise that I would attend them. "The senora," he said,
bowing again to Maria, "would, he was sure, grace them. She had done
so on the previous year; and as I had accepted his little present I
was bound to acknowledge him as my friend." All this was very
pretty, and of course I said that I would go, but I had not at that
time the slightest intention of doing so. Maria had behaved
admirably; she had covered my confusion, and shown herself not
ashamed to own me, delinquent as I was; but, not the less, had she
expressed her opinion, in language terribly strong, of the
awkwardness of which I had been guilty, and had shown almost an
aversion to my English character. I should leave Seville as quickly
as I could, and should certainly not again put myself in the way of
the Marquis D'Almavivas. Indeed, I dreaded the moment that I should
be first alone with her, and should find myself forced to say
something indicative of my feelings--to hear something also
indicative of her feelings. I had come out this morning resolved to
demand my rights and to exercise them--and now my only wish was to
man away. I hated the marquis, and longed to be alone that I might
cast his button from me. To think that a man should be so ruined by
such a trifle!
We descended that prodigious flight without a word upon the subject,
and almost without a word at all. She had carried herself well in
the presence of Almavivas, and had been too proud to seem ashamed of
her companion; but now, as I could well see, her feelings of disgust
and contempt had returned. When I begged her not to hurry herself,
she would hardly answer me; and when she did speak, her voice was
constrained and unlike herself. And yet how beautiful she was!
Well, my dream of Spanish love must be over. But I was sure of this;
that having known her, and given her my heart, I could never
afterwards share it with another.
We came out at last on the dark, gloomy aisle of the cathedral, and
walked together without a word up along the side of the choir, till
we came to the transept. There was not a soul near us, and not a
sound was to be heard but the distant, low pattering of a mass, then
in course of celebration at some far-off chapel in the cathedral.
When we got to the transept Maria turned a little, as though she was
going to the transept door, and then stopped herself. She stood
still; and when I stood also, she made two steps towards me, and put
her hand on my arm. "Oh, John!" she said.
"'Well," said I; "after all it does not signify. You can make a joke
of it when my back is turned."
"Dearest John!"--she had never spoken to me in that way before--"you
must not be angry with me. It is better that we should explain to
each other, is it not?"