Traducción
Original
Capítulo XV
Aventura al estilo novelesco
—Acordándome de lo sucedido, me admiré mucho de verme tratado con tanta benignidad: mis heridas estaban curadas y vendadas, y yo nada notaba de siniestro en las fisonomías de los que me guardaban. Supliqué a uno de ellos que me nombrase la persona a quien yo debía tales demostraciones de benevolencia. Respondiome, con la mayor honradez, que los cirujanos habían ordenado que no hablase y que él me pedía que no retardase mi curación con inquietudes. Reiteré mis súplicas, pero mi guarda, en vez de responderme, se apartó al otro extremo del cuarto y se mantuvo sordo a todas mis preguntas; sospeché misterio en el cuidado con que se me trataba y aguardé con paciencia el desenlace. Bastaron tres semanas para curar todas mis heridas. Al cabo de este tiempo, vi entrar en mi habitación a una mujer de mediana edad; acercose a mi cama y me preguntó cómo estaba, y, después de haber hecho una seña a mis enfermeros para que la dejaran sola, me habló así: «Sin duda os habrá producido admiración la asistencia que habéis experimentado y, acaso, más la puntualidad observada en ocultaros el paraje en que estáis: no os producirá menos el saber que habitáis en el castillo de ***, del mismo príncipe Marcomiro, cuyo ejército habéis derrotado y a quien también habéis herido». «¿Qué decís, señora? ¿Estoy en casa de un príncipe a quien quise quitar la vida? ¿Es dable que sea mi bienhechor quien tan indignamente peleó conmigo?». «No, no es él», replicó la dama; «escuchadme: el príncipe Marcomiro, perdida la batalla, venía a este pueblo, a donde se habían refugiado su hermana y otras muchas damas de la corte: no estaba lejos de él cuando vuestro indiscreto valor os indujo a emprender aquella desigual pelea que…».
—Dejadme hacer, Belmur –dijo Arabela–, una corta observación: merecéis alabanzas, pero yo no pienso como esa señora en cuanto a que una batalla de quinientos hombres contra uno solo sea la más desigual que se haya visto: el valiente príncipe de Mauritania sostuvo el esfuerzo de mil guerreros armados; el príncipe de Egipto… p. 160
—Ruégoos, señora, que reparéis en que cuento mi historia y por modestia disminuyo, en vez de aumentar, mis hazañas; además de que la dicha dama sin duda no tenía conocimiento exacto de los héroes y quizá lo dijo con intención de adularme. «La noticia de que el príncipe estaba peligrosamente herido», continuó la del castillo, «y de que lo traían juntamente con el causador del daño se esparció por todo el pueblo, su hermana Sidimiris le salió al encuentro; examináronse las heridas y se graduaron por de mucho riesgo. Mandó Sidimiris que se os custodiara con la mayor vigilancia y prometió (si su hermano moría) sacrificaros sobre su mismo sepulcro. Salió del cuarto de Marcomiro embebida en aquella idea e iba a entrar en el suyo, a tiempo que os pasaron por delante de ella algunos soldados que os traían sin sentido; os habían quitado el morrión para que os diese el aire99, teníais cerrados los ojos, entreabierta la boca, la palidez de la muerte en el rostro y un cierto ademán atractivo que desarmó a Sidimiris. “¿Es ese quien hirió a mi hermano?”, preguntó a los soldados. “No lo podemos dudar”, dijo uno de ellos, “porque ha reñido contra quinientos hombres, ha muerto cinco o seis docenas de ellos y, si no se le ha roto la espada, no deja uno a vida”. “Llevadlo”, dijo Sidimiris. “Curadle las heridas y tenedle siempre con centinela de vista”. Os volvió a mirar con atención y luego se entró en su cuarto y se tiró sobre una silla, sobremanera agitada. Creí que su pena la causaba el peligro del príncipe y empleé para consolarla las expresiones que me parecieron más oportunas: “¡Ay, amada Zamira!”, me dijo. “Estoy más culpada de lo que imaginas… No basta la situación de mi hermano para desterrar de mí la compasión que tengo a su enemigo… Sí”, prosiguió diciéndome con señas de ruborizarse, “desde que lo vi me pareció menos delincuente, admiro su valor y me siento dispuesta a condenar en Marcomiro la acción de haber peleado tan cruelmente con un guerrero de tal valor…”. Yo», dijo Zamira hablando por sí, «amo a los héroes, logro algún ascendiente sobre el ánimo de Sidimiris, porque la he educado y no he perdido ocasión de mantenerla en el favorable concepto que había formado de vos. Por esto no se descuidó Sidimiris en poneros dos asistentes de su confianza a quienes encargó que os trataran con cuantos miramientos fuese posible y les prohibió expresamente deciros dónde os hallábais. Quitaron los cirujanos el vendaje a las heridas de Marcomiro y declararon que ninguna era de peligro. Llamó a su hermana, diola gracias del pensamiento de vengarlo y profirió mil imprecaciones contra vos. Disimuló su pena Sidimiris, pero cuando estuvimos solas me dijo con desfallecida voz: “¡Ah, querida Zamira! ¡Cuán arrepentida estoy de mis furores contra ese desgraciado! Mi hermano quiere que muera, y yo me he constituido cómplice suya con una indiscretísima promesa”. Yo la aconsejé que contradijese al príncipe y que emplease arte y astucia para ganar tiempo. Algunos días después advirtió Sidimiris que Marcomiro daba órdenes para verificar vuestro suplicio y se determinó a aventurarlo todo por salvaros. Hemos corrompido a la guardia y esta misma noche seréis puesto en libertad. Sidimiris me ha mandado que no os dé a conocer a vuestra bienhechora, pero yo (que no he querido que sea comprendida en el odio100, que sin duda conserváis a la sangre de Marcomiro) he resuelto ahorrar a vuestra grande alma una equivocación, que obscurecería el mérito de Sidimiris».
Chapter III
A love adventure, after the romantic taste.
“Recollecting in a few moments all that happened to me, I could not choose but be surprised at finding myself treated with so little severity, considering I was prisoner to persons who had been witnesses of the great quantity of blood I had shed in my own defence. My wounds had been dressed while I continued in my swoon, and the faces of those persons who were about me expressed nothing of unkindness.
[70] “After reflecting some time longer on my situation, I called to a young man who sat near my bedside, and entreated him to inform me where I was, and to whom I was a prisoner; but could get no other answer to those questions than a most civil entreaty to compose myself, and not protract the cure of my wounds by talking, which the surgeons had declared would be of a bad consequence, and had therefore ordered me to be as little disturbed as possible.
“Notwithstanding this remonstrance, I repeated my request, promising to be entirely governed by them for the future in what regarded my health, provided they would satisfy me in those particulars. But my attendant did not so much as reply to those importunities; but to prevent the continuance of them, rose from his seat, and retired to the other end of the chamber.
“I passed that day, and several others, without being able to learn the truth of my condition. All this time I was diligently waited on by the two persons I had first seen, neither of whom I could prevail upon to inform me of what I desired to know; and judging by this obstinate reserve, and the manner of my treatment, that there was some mystery in the case, I forbore to ask them any more questions, conceiving they had particular orders not to answer them.
“The care that was taken to forward my cure, in three weeks entirely restored me to health. I longed impatiently to know what was to be my destiny; and busied myself [71] in conjecturing it in vain, when one morning, an elderly lady entered my chamber, at whose appearance my two attendants retired.
“After she had saluted me very civilly, and enquired after my health, she seated herself in a chair near my bedside, and spoke to me in this manner:
“‘I make no question, sir, but you are surprised at the manner in which you have been treated, and the care there has been taken to prevent discovering to you the place where you now are; but you will doubtless be more surprised to hear you are in the fortress of …, and in the house of Prince Marcomire, whose party you fought against alone, and whom you so dangerously wounded, before you were taken prisoner by his men.’
“‘Is it possible, madam,’ said I, who from the first moment of her appearance had been in a strange perplexity, ‘is it possible I am in the house of a man whose life I endeavoured so eagerly to destroy? And is it to him, who oppressed me so basely with numbers, that I am obliged for the succour I have received?’
“‘It is not to him,’ replied the lady, ‘that you are obliged for the favourable treatment you have had; but listen to me patiently, and I will disclose the truth of your adventure. Prince Marcomire, who was the person that headed that party against which you so valiantly defended yourself, after the loss of the battle, was hastening to throw himself into this place, where his sister and many ladies of quality had come for security. Your indiscreet [72] pursuit engaged you in the most unequal combat that ever was fought; and—’”p. 211
“Nay, sir,” interrupted Arabella, “though I do not refuse to give you all the praises your gallant defence of yourself against five hundred men deserves, yet I cannot agree with that lady, in saying, it was the most unequal combat that ever was fought. For, do but reflect, I beseech you, upon that which the brave prince of Mauritania sustained against twice that number of men, with no other arms than his sword; and, you having been in battle that day, was, as I conceive, completely armed. The young prince of Egypt, accompanied only by the valiant, but indiscreet, Cepio his friend, engaged all the king of Armenia’s guards, and put them all to flight. The courageous Ariobarsanes scorned to turn his back upon a whole army; not to mention the invincible Artaban, whom a thousand armies together could not have made to turn.”
“Be pleased to observe, madam,” said Sir George, “that to the end I may faithfully recount my history, I am under the necessity of repeating things which, haply, may seem too advantageous for a man to say of himself. Therefore, I indeed greatly approve of the custom, which, no doubt, this inconvenience introduced, of a squire, who is thoroughly instructed with the secrets of his master’s heart, relating his adventures, and giving a proper eulogium of his rare valour, without being in danger of offending the modesty of the renowned knight, who, as you know, madam, upon those occasions, commodiously slips away.
[73] “It being, however, this lady’s opinion that no man ever undertook a more hazardous combat, or with greater odds against him, she did not fail to express her admiration of it in very high terms.
“‘The noise of this accident,’ pursued she, ‘was soon spread over the whole town; and the beautiful Sydimiris, Marcomire’s sister, hearing that her brother was wounded, as it was thought, to death, and that the person who killed him was taken prisoner, she flew out to meet her wounded brother, distracted with grief, and vowing to have the severest tortures executed on him who had thus barbarously murdered her brother. Those who bore that unhappy prince, having brought him into the house, his wounds were searched; and the surgeons declared they were very dangerous. Sydimiris, hearing this, redoubled her complaints and vows of vengeance against you. Her brother having then the chief authority in the place, she commanded, in his name, to have you brought hither, and to be most strictly guarded; determined if her brother died, to sacrifice you to his ghost. Full of these sanguinary resolutions, she left his chamber, having seen him laid in bed, and his wounds dressed;* but passing along a gallery to her own apartment, she met the persons who were bringing you to the room that was to be your prison. You were not,’ pursued the lady, ‘yet recovered from your swoon, so that they carried you like one that was dead. They had taken off your helmet to give you [74] air; by which means your face being quite uncovered, pale, languishing, and your eyes closed, as if in death, presented the most moving, and, at the same time, most pleasing object in the world. Sydimiris, who stopped, and for a moment eagerly gazed upon you, lost all of a sudden the fierceness which before had animated her against you; and lifting up her eyes to view those men that carried you: ‘Are you sure,’ said she to them, ‘that this is the person who wounded my brother?’ ‘Yes, madam,’ replied one of them, ‘this must be he, since there was no other in his company, and he alone sustained the attack of five hundred men; and would probably not have left one of them alive, had not his sword, by breaking, put it into our power to take him prisoner.’ ‘Carry him away,’ said Sydimiris, ‘but let his wounds be dressed, and let him be carefully looked to, that if my brother dies, he may be punished as he deserves.’ Pronouncing these words in a low and faltering voice, she turned her eyes a second time upon you; then, hastily averting her looks, she hurried to her own chamber, and threw herself into a chair, with all the marks of a very great disturbance. The affection I have for her, being the person who had brought her up, and most favoured with her confidence, made me behold her in this condition with great concern; and supposing it was her brother that disquieted her, I besought her not to give way to the violence [75] of her grief, but to hope that heaven would restore him to her prayers. ‘Alas! My dear Urinoe,’ said she, ‘I am more culpable than you can imagine; and I grieve less for the condition to which I see Marcomire reduced than for that moderation wherewith I am constrained, spite of myself, to behold his enemy. Yes, dear Urinoe,’ pursued she, blushing, and casting down her eyes, ‘the actions of this unknown appear to me in quite another light since I have seen him; and, instead of looking upon him as the murderer of my brother, I cannot help admiring that rare valour with which he defended himself against so great a number of enemies; and am even ready to condemn the furious Marcomire for oppressing so brave a man.’ As I had never approved of those violent transports of grief and rage which she had expressed upon the first news of her brother’s misfortune; and as I looked upon your glorious defence with the utmost admiration; so far from condemning the change of her thoughts, I confirmed her in the favourable opinion she began to entertain of you; and, continuing to make remarks upon all the particulars of the combat, which had come to our knowledge, we found nothing in your behaviour, but what increased our admiration. Sydimiris therefore, following the dictates of her own generosity, as well as my advice, placed two persons about you, whose fidelity we could rely on; and gave them orders to treat you with all imaginable care and respect, [76] but not to inform you of the place in which you were, or to whom you were prisoner. In the meantime, Marcomire, whose wounds had been again examined, was declared out of danger by the surgeons; and he having understood the excess of his sister’s grief and the revenge she had vowed against you gave her thanks for those expressions of her tenderness; and also uttered some threats, which intimated* a violent hatred against you; and a design of prosecuting his revenge upon you as soon as he was in a condition to leave his chamber. Sydimiris, who heard him, could with difficulty dissemble her concern. ‘Ah! Urinoe,’ said she to me, when we were alone, ‘it is now that I more than ever repent of that excess of rage which transported me against the brave unknown. I have thereby put him entirely into my brother’s power, and shall be haply accessary to that death he is meditating for him, or else a perpetual imprisonment.’ This reflection gave her so much pain that I could not choose but pity her; and considering that the only way to preserve you was for her to dissemble a rage equal to Marcomire’s against you, in order to prevent being suspected of any design in your favour, I persuaded her to join with him in everything he said; while, in the meantime, we would endeavour to get you cured of your wounds that you might at least be in a condition once more [77] to defend yourself with that miraculous valour heaven has bestowed on you. Sydimiris perceiving her brother would soon be in a condition to execute his threats, resolved to hazard every thing rather than to expose you to his rage. She therefore communicated to me her design of giving you liberty, and, by presenting a sufficient reward to your guard, inducing them to favour your escape. I undertook to manage this business in her name, and have done it so effectually that you will this night be at liberty, and may depart the town immediately, in which it will be dangerous to stay any time, for fear of being discovered. Sydimiris forbade me to let you know the person to whom you would be obliged for your freedom; but I could not endure that you should unjustly involve the sister of Marcomire in that resentment you will questionless always preserve against him; and to keep you from being innocently guilty of ingratitude, I resolved to acquaint you with the nature of those obligations you owe to her.’”