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Capítulo II
Nueva aventura de la heroína
Mortificado Glanville de haber oído ridiculizar a Arabela, resolvió apoderarse de las conversaciones y elegir solo asuntos sobre los que pudiese su prima lucir, sin absurdo, su talento; este proyecto le salió bien y se pasó divertidamente una parte del día.
Propuso el caballero Jorge salir a caza por la tarde. Arabela, como acostumbrada a este ejercicio, aceptó la proposición, después de haber mostrado a Carlota la repugnancia con que la dejaba sola. Muchos amigos de Jorge se encontraron al tiempo de salir a la puerta de la quinta, de manera que se formó un lucido escuadrón. El vestido que llevaba nuestra heroína la sentaba muy bien: mostrábase su talle de un modo que la favorecía, un sombrerillo con plumas blancas acompañaba su ondulante melena y realzaba tanto sus gracias que Glanville estaba como embobado. El caballero Jorge, animado de una pasión más poderosa en él que la del amor, se puso al frente de los cazadores y dejó partir a Glanville con su prima. Corrieron juntos algún tiempo en silencio y Arabela, satisfecha de su discreción, creyó, por su delicadeza en el proceder, que debía proporcionar a su amante la ocasión de que la hablara de su cariño; para esto pretextó algún cansancio y dijo que sería bueno reposar a la sombra de algún ramaje espeso (porque era puntual en la observancia de las costumbres heroicas). Gozoso, Glanville se desmontó; ayudó a su prima a que lo hiciese y se sentó a su lado sobre unos menudísimos céspedes: las rosas de la modestia colorearon el rostro de Arabela; Glanville lo advirtió y dijo cosas muy altisonantes que tuvieron buen efecto. La heroína se humanizó en aquel diálogo hasta tanto como declarar a Glanville que no lo aborrecía, cosa que, en el estilo sublime, es un insigne favor. Habría un cuarto de hora que estaban en conversación cuando Arabela dio un grito de espanto, se levantó atropelladamente y corrió a su caballo.
—¿Cuál es la causa de ese terror, prima mía?
—¿No veis aquel caballero que viene hacia nosotros?
—¿Qué hay, pues, en ese hombre de extraordinario?
—Es el mismo, lo conozco, que intentó robarme algunos meses ha.
—Y cuando quisiera hacerlo ahora, yo basto para defenderos.
—Sí, no lo dudo de vuestra buena voluntad, pero él habrá tomado, sin duda, sus medidas para lograr su empresa... Dejadme huir.
No quiso Glanville perder tiempo en razones, la ayudó a montar y la siguió. p. 125
—Vuestro antagonista –le dijo Arabela– está a pie... yo estimo mucho vuestra vida, pero no puedo dispensarme de representaros que es contra las leyes de la caballería el no pelear con armas iguales; os prohíbo, pues, olvidar (aun para mi seguridad propia) lo que debéis a vuestra gloria.
Aunque sofocado Glanville con la extravagancia de su prima, la suplicó sumisamente que no se inquietase por cosas tan poco verisímiles.
—Dejemos llegar a ese viajero: si trae mala intención (como os lo persuadís), confiad en que os defenderé hasta derramar la última gota de mi sangre. Y ahora, para tranquilizaros, pongámonos en marcha sin afectación y vamos a reunirnos con los cazadores, a quienes, acaso, tenemos con cuidado.
Arabela miró a Glanville con sumo enojo, guardó silencio algún tiempo y después le dijo:
—¿Será dable que me haya engañado en el concepto que he formado de vos? ¿No os sentiríais, Glanville, con bastante ánimo para pelear con mi robador?
—¡Ah, cielos! ¡Qué decís! No hagáis conmigo tales experiencias... ¡Yo falto de ánimo!... ¡Por vida de!... ¿Habéis, en efecto, jurado trastornarme el juicio? ¿Quién es, por Dios, el que quiere robaros, ya que esa es vuestra quimera?
—Ese que viene ahí –replicó sosegadamente Arabela, señalando con el dedo hacia el caminante–… Sabe, pues, frío e insensible amante, que ese caballero es tu competidor… y, acaso, más digno que tú de mi aprecio, pues, amándome lo suficiente para formar el proyecto de robarme, tendría ciertamente valor para defenderme, si estuviera en su poder. Más perdonable es su violencia que el oprobio con que, a mis ojos, os cubrís...
Dicho esto, picó a su caballo y dejó al pobre Glanville en la postura de un hombre petrificado. No se atrevió a seguirla; receloso de pasar por cobarde deploró su suerte y exhaló su cólera con mil imprecaciones contra las malditas novelas heroicas.
Hervey (a quien un asunto de importancia había traído por aquel país) había oído las lamentaciones de Glanville y creído que acababa de ser tratado como él. Acercósele, riendo a carcajadas, y le dijo:
—Caballero, no tengo el honor de que me conozcáis, pero permitidme que os pregunte si conocéis a la dama que os ha dejado con tanto despego. Es la criatura más extravagante que hay bajo la bóveda del cielo.
Glanville, aunque de malísimo humor, amaba a su prima y no sufría que se la ultrajara; arrugó, pues, el ceño, se encasquetó el sombrero y respondió a Hervey que era una insolencia tratar de aquel modo a una dama del mayor mérito, del nacimiento más distinguido y, además, parienta suya.
—Os debo disculpas, caballero –repuso Hervey con tono burlón–, supuesto que sois el campeón de esa dama; pero, si pretendéis reñir contra cuantos se burlan de ella, os declaro que tendréis muchísimos desafíos. p. 126
Glanville, transportado de furor, hizo un gesto injurioso; Hervey desnudó la espada y se arrojó intrépido a Glanville, quien por algunos instantes solo pudo parar los golpes con el mango del látigo, pero pudo sacar su cuchillo de caza y la pelea fue reñidísima. Arabela, escondida detrás de un árbol, vio, con gozo, que su amante era valiente. Dejose sentir en su corazón un movimiento de ternura y se disponía ya a interponer su autoridad para separarlos cuando divisó a muchos hombres que corrían hacia los dos combatientes: eran unos segadores, bautizados por ella con el nombre de satélites del robador. Asustada de aquel refuerzo, corrió, a toda brida, a advertir a los cazadores del peligro en que se hallaba Glanville y se desmayó al llegar. No viendo el barón a su hijo, entró en gran cuidado y se aprovechó del momento en que Arabela abrió los ojos, para preguntarla por él.
—Vuestro hijo queda peleando contra una multitud de gente armada con un valor igual al de Cleomedón. No perdáis tiempo que, aunque es valiente, el gran número puede oprimirlo.
—¡Dónde está, en el nombre de Dios!
—Id por este lado y seguid el rastro de la sangre de los enemigos que ha vencido...
El padre de Glanville, sin responder cosa alguna, partió al galope y con él todos los demás. El caballero Jorge, continuando su chanza y viendo a Arabela, que se disponía a montar también a caballo, se ofreció a quedarse con ella para defenderla si algún raptor se presentaba. Procuró darla a entender que los horrores de una batalla no eran para ojos como los suyos, pero, no pudiendo persuadirla, se vio obligado a volar con ella al socorro de Glanville.
Chapter IV
In which our heroine is engaged in a new adventure.
As Mr. Glanville took a great deal of pains to turn the discourse upon subjects on which the charming Arabella could expatiate, [235] without any mixture of that absurdity which mingled itself in a great many others, the rest of that day, and several others, were passed very agreeably, at the end of which, Mr. Glanville being perfectly recovered, and able to go abroad, the baronet proposed to take the diversion of hunting, which Arabella, who was used to it, consented to partake of; but being informed that Miss Glanville could not ride, and chose to stay at home, she would have kept her company, had not Sir Charles insisted upon the contrary.
As Sir George, and some other gentlemen, had invited themselves to be of the party, Arabella, on her coming down to mount her horse, found a great many young gallants ready to offer her their assistance upon this occasion. Accepting therefore, with great politeness, this help from a stranger, who was nearest her, she mounted her horse, giving occasion to everyone that was present to admire the grace with which she sat and managed him. Her shape being as perfect as any shape could possibly be, her riding habit discovered all its beauties: her hat, and the white feather waving over part of her fine black hair gave a peculiar charm to her lovely face; and she appeared with so many advantages in this dress and posture that Mr. Glanville, forgetting all her absurdities, was wholly lost in the contemplation of so many charms, as her whole person was adorned with.
Sir George, though he really admired Arabella, was not so passionately in love as Mr. Glanville; and, being a keen sportsman, eagerly pursued [236] the game, with the rest of the hunters; but Mr. Glanville minded nothing but his cousin, and kept close by her.
After having rode a long time, Arabella, conceiving it a piece of cruelty not to give her lover an opportunity of talking to her, as, by his extreme solicitude, he seemed ardently to desire, coming to a delightful valley, she stopped; and told Mr. Glanville that being weary of the chase, she should alight, and repose herself a little under the shade of those trees.
Mr. Glanville, extremely pleased at this proposition, dismounted; and, having helped her to alight, seated himself by her on the grass.p. 159
Arabella, expecting he would begin to talk to her of his passion, could not help blushing at the thoughts of having given him such an opportunity; and Mr. Glanville, endeavouring to accommodate himself to her ideas of a lover, expressed himself in terms extravagant enough to have made a reasonable woman think he was making a jest of her, all which, however, Arabella was extremely pleased with; and she observed such a just decorum in her answers that, as the writers of romance phrase it, if she did not give him any absolute hopes of being beloved, yet she said enough to make him conclude she did not hate him.
They had conversed in this manner near a quarter of an hour, when Arabella, perceiving a man at a little distance, walking very composedly, shrieked out aloud; and, rising with the utmost precipitation, flew from Mr. Glanville, and went to untie her horse, while his astonishment [237] being so great at her behaviour that he could not, for a moment or two, ask her the cause of her fear.
“Do you not see,” said she, out of breath with the violence of her apprehensions, “the person who is coming towards us? It is the same, who, some months ago, attempted to carry me away, when I was riding out with only two attendants. I escaped for that time the danger that threatened me; but, questionless, he comes now to renew his attempts, therefore can you wonder at my fear?”
“If it should be as you say, madam,” interrupted Glanville, “what reason have you to fear? Do you not think I am able to defend you?”
“Ah! Without doubt, you are able to defend me,” answered she. “And though, if you offer to resist the violence he comes to use against me, he will, haply, call two or three dozen armed men to his assistance, who are, I suppose, concealed hereabouts, yet I am not apprehensive that you will be worsted by them. But as it happened to the brave Juba and Cleomedon, while they were fighting with some hundred men, who wanted to carry away their princesses before their faces, and were giving death at every blow, in order to preserve them, the commander of these ravishers, seeing the two princesses sitting, as I was, under a tree, ordered them to be seized by two of his men, and carried away, while the two princes were losing best part of their blood in their defence. Therefore, to prevent such an accident happening, while [238] you are fighting for my rescue, I think it will be the safest way for me to get on horseback that I may be in a condition to escape; and that you may not employ your valour to no purpose.”
Saying this, having, with Mr. Glanville’s assistance, loosed her horse from the tree, he helped her to mount, and then remounted his own.
“Your antagonist,” said Arabella, “is on foot; and therefore, though I prize your life extremely, yet I cannot dispense with myself from telling you that it is against the laws of knighthood to take any advantage of that kind over your enemy; nor will I permit your concern for my safety to make you forget what you owe to your own reputation.”
Mr. Glanville, fretting excessively at her folly, begged her not to make herself uneasy about things that were never likely to happen.p. 160
“The gentleman yonder,” added he, “seems to have no designs to make any attempt against you. If he should, I shall know how to deal with him; but, since he neither offers to assault me nor affront you, I think we ought not to give him any reason to imagine we suspect him, by gazing on him thus, and letting him understand by your manner that he is the subject of our conversation. If you please, madam, we will endeavour to join our company.”
Arabella, while he was speaking, kept her eyes fixed upon his face, with looks which expressed her thoughts were labouring upon some very important point; and, after a pause [239] of some moments:
“Is it possible,” said she, with a tone of extreme surprise, “that I should be so mistaken in you? Do you really want courage enough to defend me against that ravisher?”
“Oh heavens! Madam,” interrupted Glanville, “try not my temper thus. Courage enough to defend you! ‘Sdeath!* You will make me mad! Who, in the name of wonder, is going to molest you?”
“He whom you see there,” replied Arabella, pointing to him with her finger. “For know, cold and insensible as thou art to the danger which threatens me, yonder knight is thy rival, and a rival, haply, who deserves my esteem better than thou dost. Since if he has courage enough to get me by violence into his power that same courage would make him defend me against any injuries, I might be offered from another. And since nothing is so contemptible in the eyes of a woman as a lover who wants spirit to die in her defence, know, I can sooner pardon him, whom thou would cowardly fly from, for the violence which he meditates against me than thyself for the pusillanimity thou hast betrayed in my sight.”
With these words she galloped away from her astonished lover, who, not daring to follow her, for fear of increasing her suspicions of his cowardice, flung himself off his horse in a violent rage; and, forgetting that the stranger was observing, and now within hearing, he fell a-cursing* and exclaiming against the books that had turned his cousin’s brain; and railing at his own ill fate that condemned him to the [240] punishment of loving her. Mr. Hervey* (for it really was he, whom an affair of consequence had brought again into the country) hearing some of Mr. Glanville’s last words, and observing the gestures he used, concluded he had been treated like himself by Arabella, whom he knew again at a distance; therefore coming up to Mr. Glanville, laughing:
“Though I have not the honour of knowing you, sir,” said he, “I must beg the favour you will inform me if you are not disturbed at the ridiculous folly of the lady I saw with you just now. She is the must fantastical creature that ever lived, and, in my opinion, fit for a mad house. Pray, are you acquainted with her?”
Mr. Glanville, being in a very ill humour, could not brook the freedom of this language against his cousin, whose follies he could not bear anyone should rail at but himself; and being provoked at his sneers, and the interruption he had given to their conversation, he looked upon him with a disdainful frown, and told him in a haughty tone that he was very impertinent to speak of a lady of her quality and merit so rudely.p. 161
“Oh! Sir, I beg your pardon,” replied Mr. Hervey, laughing more than before. “What, I suppose you are the champion of this fair lady! But, I assure myself, if you intend to quarrel with everyone that will laugh at her, you will have more business upon your hands than you can well manage.”
Mr. Glanville, transported with rage at this insolence, hit him such a blow with the butt end [241] of his whip that it stunned him for a moment; but recovering himself, he drew his sword, and, mad with the affront he had received, made a push at Glanville, who, avoiding it with great dexterity, had recourse to his hanger for his defence.
Arabella, in the meantime, who had not rid far, concealing herself behind some trees, saw all the actions of her lover, and intended ravisher; and being possessed with an opinion of her cousin’s cowardice, was extremely rejoiced to see him fall upon his enemy first, and that with so much fury that she had no longer any reason to doubt his courage. Her suspicions therefore being removed, her tenderness for him returned; and when she saw them engaged with their swords (for, at that distance, she did not plainly perceive the difference of their weapons), her apprehensions for her cousin were so strong that though she did not doubt his valour, she could not bear to see him expose his life for her; and without making any reflections upon the singularity of her design, she was going to ride up to them, and endeavour to part them, when she saw several men come towards them, whom she took to be the assistants of her ravisher, though they were, in reality, haymakers, who, at a distance, having seen the beginning of their quarrel, had hastened to part them.
Terrified, therefore, at this reinforcement, which she thought would expose her cousin to great danger, she galloped with all speed after the hunters, being directed by the sound of the horn. Her anxiety for her cousin made [242] her regardless of her own danger, so that she rode with a surprising swiftness; and, overtaking the company, she would have spoken to tell them of her cousin’s situation, when her spirits failing her, she could only make a sign with her hand, and sunk down in a swoon, in the arms of Sir George, who eagerly galloped up to her; and, supporting her as well as he was able till some others came to her relief, they took her off her horse, and placed her upon the ground, when, by the help of some water they brought from a spring near them, in a little time she came to herself.
Sir Charles, who, seeing her come up to them without his son, and by her fainting, concluded some misfortune had happened to him, the moment she opened her eyes, asked her eagerly where he was.
“Your son,” said Arabella, sighing, “with a valour equal to that of the brave Cleomedon, is* this moment fighting in my defence against a crowd of enemies; and is, haply, shedding the last drop of his blood in my quarrel.”
“Shedding the last drop of his blood, haply!” repeated* Sir Charles, excessively grieved; and not a little enraged at Arabella, supposing she had introduced him into some quarrel. “It may be happy for you, madam; but I am sure it will make me very miserable if my son comes to any harm.”p. 162
“If it be the will of heaven he should fall in this combat,” resumed Arabella, “he can never have a more glorious destiny; and as that consideration will, doubtless, sweeten his last moments, so it ought to be your consolation. [243] However, I beg you’ll lose no time, but haste to his assistance; for since he has a considerable number of enemies to deal with, it is not improbable but he may be overpowered at last.”
“Where did you leave my son, madam?” cried Sir Charles, eagerly.
“He is not far off,” replied Arabella, “and you will doubtless be directed to the place, by the sight of the blood of his enemies which he has spilt. Go that way,” pursued she, pointing with her finger towards the place where she had left her cousin. “There you will meet with him, amidst a crowd of foes, whom he is sacrificing to my safety and his just resentment.”
Sir Charles, not knowing what to think, galloped away, followed by most part of the company, Sir George telling Lady Bella that he would stay to defend her against any attempts that might be made on her liberty, by any of her ravisher’s servants, who were, probably, straggling about. Arabella, however, being perfectly recovered, insisted upon following her uncle.
“There is no question,” said she, “but Mr. Glanville is victorious. I am only apprehensive for the dangerous wounds he may have received in the combat, which will require all our care and assistance.”
Sir George, who wanted to engross her company a little to himself, in vain represented to her that, amidst the horrors of a fight so bloody as that must certainly be, in which Mr. Glanville and his friends would be now engaged, it would be dangerous for her to venture her person, yet she would not be persuaded; [244] but, having mounted her horse, with his assistance, she rode as fast as she was able after the rest of the company.