The Prime Minister Part 21

"Your Majesty's pleasure is my law," said the fidalgo, bowing and moving on, fearful of trusting his tongue with further words.

Scarcely a person of any rank or note pa.s.sed, to whom the King did not address some words; and nearly all had pa.s.sed by, when a handsome cavalier approached, and, gracefully kneeling, kissed his hand.

"We do not remember to have seen your countenance before, young sir,"

said the King, pleased with his appearance; "though we shall have much pleasure in seeing it in future. We did not catch your name."

"Luis d'Almeida," answered the young fidalgo. "I have but a short time ago returned from abroad, or I should earlier have paid my respects to your Majesty."

"We are happy to see you, Don Luis," answered the King. "Your father we have not seen for some time; we trust he is in health."

"It is the want of it alone which prevents his paying his respects to your Majesty. Weighed down by years and heavy misfortunes, he scarcely hopes again to visit Lisbon."

"He sends a worthy representative in his son," answered the King, graciously; "and if you feel inclined to remain, we may give you some office in our Court."

"Your Majesty's kindness overpowers me; but my father's state of health claims all my attention, nor could I be long absent from him; therefore, if your Majesty will permit me, I must decline your goodness with the deepest respect," said Don Luis.

"In that please yourself, and give our regards to your father, when you return," said the King, as Don Luis moved on to give place to those who were following him.

At length the tedious ceremony, one of the many penalties royalty is obliged to pay in return for the obeisance of the crowd, was over, and the courtiers, except those in immediate attendance on the sovereigns, were at liberty to go whither they willed. Don Luis, although amid a glittering crowd of the young and gay, felt sad and dispirited; and he had already reached one of the outer rooms on his way to quit the palace, when a page overtook him, and informed him, that Senhor Carvalho requested to see him; and begging him to follow, led the way through various rooms, to a small closet, next to the King's private council chamber. Here he found the Minister, pacing up and down, with a bundle of papers in his hand, prepared to attend when the King should summon him: he stopped in his walk, as he saw Don Luis, and held out his hand kindly to him--

"Ah, my young friend," he said, "I am glad to find that you followed my advice, and returned to Court as soon as you were able to leave your father; and now I hope it is from no want of affection to our sovereign, that you rejected his proffered kindness, as I spoke to him in your favour some time ago, and he promised to befriend you; for I would always distinguish those who have enlightened their understanding by foreign travel, from the ignorant and profligate young fidalgos, who are alike useless to themselves, and dangerous to a state."

"Your Excellency is flattering me at the expense of the Fidalguia of Portugal," answered Luis, his sense of the respect due to his cla.s.s hurt by the Ministers expressions.

"I speak but the truth of them, young sir," answered the Minister, "and am right in making you an exception; but in truth, I would, for another reason, be of service to any of your family, and regretted much, when the King made his gracious offer, that you did not accept it."

"I have again to thank your Excellency for the interest you take in my welfare; but I should not even have returned to Lisbon so soon, were I not obliged to attend the marriage of my cousin, Donna Theresa d'Alorna, with the young Marquis of Tavora."

"I forgot your connexion with that family; but beware of the Tavoras.

They are haughty, ambitious, and proud; and though I fear them not myself, I would not trust those I regard with their friends.h.i.+p."

A page now came to inform the Minister that the King was in readiness to receive him.

"Farewell, Don Luis, and remember my offers and advice," he said, as he turned to follow the page to the presence of the King.

As Luis was leaving the palace, he felt his arm seized in no gentle grasp, and turning round, to his great satisfaction he found his friend Captain Pinto by his side.

"Ah, what! Don Luis turned courtier!" exclaimed the latter. "Well, it is one of the characters of life a gentleman ought to play, though I cannot say it is much to my taste. I cannot stand all the buckram and bowing a man has to go through, though I played my part pretty well to-day, and received all sorts of compliments for sinking the Rover; besides which, I expect to get something about as substantial, in the shape of a cross of some order or other, which, the chances are, I see the next day worn by the escudeiro of my Lord Marquis of Marialva or Tavora. But no matter! it will be intended as an honour, and I may boast how I won it, which few others can do: however, here have I been running on about my own affairs, and quite forgetting to ask you about yours. Tell me first, when did you come to Lisbon, for I have been inquiring for you, and heard that you were not even expected."

"I arrived only yesterday, and remain but till my cousin Theresa's marriage takes place."

"Ah! a sore subject that, I fear; but if you are the man I take you for, you will soon recover from that trifling wound; but I will not talk about it. I was wis.h.i.+ng to see you, to deliver a message from Senhor Mendez, who desires to have some conversation with you. He has not yet recovered from his injuries, and begs you will visit him."

"I will gladly do so, if you tell me where I may find him," said Luis.

"I will take you with me to-night, for I do not venture to visit him by day, for reasons I will explain some time to you," answered Captain Pinto.

"I cannot go till late; for I have a visit to pay at the palace of the Marchioness of Corcunda, to deliver some jewels I recovered from some robbers in an extraordinary way to a young lady, who will be anxious to hear of their safety," said Don Luis.

"What! another young lady in the case? I thought you had foresworn womankind for ever," said Captain Pinto, laughing.

"I have seen Donna Clara but once, and am only performing an act of common courtesy," said Don Luis.

"Is she very lovely?" asked his friend. "She is perfection," answered Don Luis. "That fully accounts for it," said the Captain. "I thought it would be so. Eternal wretchedness--no comfort but in the grave! Ha!

ha!"

Volume 2, Chapter IV.

When Don Luis reached the palace of the Marchioness of Corcunda, where he had learned that Donna Clara and her father were residing, he saw light streaming from all the windows, and sounds of revelry met his ear.

He paused for a moment, doubtful whether he should enter the scene of festivity; but, being still habited in his full dress of the morning, he felt that he was in a proper costume, having also a modest consciousness that he should not be unwelcome to the lady of the mansion, nor, he trusted, to Donna Clara. He therefore boldly approached the door, working his way through a crowd of lackeys, chairmen, and linkboys, and ascended a flight of steps leading to the habitable part of the mansion, following a gay and laughing party of the young and happy. The anterooms were already crowded with company, and in one of them a servant pointed out the marchioness standing ready to receive her guests. As he advanced towards her, people stared at him as one whom their eyes were not accustomed to meet; but none of the fair or young frowned, or seemed displeased at his appearance. Bowing gracefully, he mentioned his name, and expressed his anxiety to pay his respects to Goncalo Christovao and his daughter.

"Oh, I have heard of your exploit and gallantry, Senhor Don Luis,--and I know that Goncalo Christovao will be equally anxious again to thank you for the service you rendered his daughter. You will find him on the way to the ball-room," said the old Marchioness, coldly.

"And Donna Clara?" said Luis, hesitating.

"Her father will inform you," answered the Marchioness, in the same tone as before.

What these words could mean Luis could not tell, though they seemed to forebode that he would not be as welcome as he hoped; but he could not inquire further, as he had received a strong hint to proceed; bowing, therefore, to the old lady, he looked eagerly among the crowd for Goncalo Christovao, to have his doubts removed, but he could nowhere perceive him.

While stopped in his progress by the crowd, a voice, which had once sounded like the sweetest melody to his ear, arrested his attention, and sent a strange thrill, more of pain than pleasure, through his frame; when he beheld before him his cousin Theresa, leaning on the arm of a youth, whose eyes were bent on her as if enchanted with her beauty. He at once recognised the young Marquis of Tavora, whom he recollected in his boyhood; and though, at first, a pang of angry jealousy shot across his bosom, he at once banished the feeling as unworthy of himself, knowing that though, during his absence, the marquis had proved his successful rival, it was owing more to Donna Theresa's ambition and vanity than to any unfair advantage he had taken. Notwithstanding all the affectionate attentions of her betrothed husband, Donna Theresa's manner seemed cold and indifferent, and she returned but short replies to his observations; and when she smiled, to Don Luis her smile appeared forced and unnatural. He gazed at the young pair with grief at his heart.

"Alas!" he thought, "that I should have wasted my best feelings on one so incapable of those tender affections which form the chief jewels of the s.e.x. Oh! woman, woman! lovely and angelic as thou appearest, if thy heart has become cold and callous by contact with the world, how valueless, how empty thou art! Unhappy youth!--she loves him not;--I see it in that forced smile, that cold eye,--and yet he seems not to have discovered it--I pity him!"

Such thoughts, very natural to a rejected lover, and very soothing to his vanity, pa.s.sing through his mind, he was unwilling to address her, and would have pa.s.sed unnoticed, when her eye caught his regarding her.

For a single moment a blush pa.s.sed across her features, but the next, holding out her hand, with a smile, she led the young marquis towards him; and, to avoid being guilty of marked rudeness, he was obliged to kiss the fair hand she offered.

"What! you seemed to have forgotten me, my good cousin," she said, in a gay tone, "though I hear you intend honouring me by your presence at my marriage. Ah, you do not remember Don Luis of Tavora. Permit me to introduce my most loving cousin, who has travelled all over the world, I believe; or, at least, to England, and other barbarous countries, where the sun s.h.i.+nes only once in the year, and then half the day is obscured by a thick fog, while for six months the ground is covered with snow.

Oh, dreadful! I would get rid of such a country altogether: it makes me s.h.i.+ver to think of it, even in this warm room. You have no idea, senhor marquis, how my cousin blinked his eyes when he first came back to clear skies and suns.h.i.+ne, so accustomed had he been to live in the dark."

While Donna Theresa was thus speaking, the gentlemen exchanged the usual compliments.

"Ah, I am glad to see he has not forgotten how to bow properly, or, I rather suspect, he has picked up the art since his return. I protest that, the first day he came back, he had no notion of bending his body, like the English, who, I hear, are either born with one joint only, and that is in their necks, or else they become stiffened from their forgetting to use them. Now, you are going to defend your friends, but don't attempt it; I hate them, with their stiff pride and supercilious airs, thinking every people their inferiors who do not possess such good roads and fine horses as themselves. There was one man who came here, an English lord, I forget his dreadful name, but it pained my mouth to attempt to p.r.o.nounce it, who compared everything he saw with his own country; and, because our habits and manners differed from those to which he was accustomed, he must needs consider ours far less civilised, and took no trouble to conceal his opinion."

"Though at first rather distant in manner, I was received by many with great cordiality and kindness, and saw much to admire in their manners and inst.i.tutions," answered Luis, wis.h.i.+ng to protect the character of his friends.

"I know nothing about their inst.i.tutions," exclaimed Donna Theresa, in a pettish tone, "but I know their impertinent superciliousness will make them enemies wherever they go--so talk no more about them. By-the-bye, I hear you have been vying in your exploits with that renowned hero Don Quixote, and rescuing distressed damsels from the power of brigands by the strength of your single arm, and with the aid of your faithful squire Pedro. Everybody in Lisbon is prepared to look upon you as a complete Knight Errant. I heard all about it from Donna Clara herself, who speaks warmly in praise of your gallantry, I a.s.sure you; and if she does not think you are perfection itself, she thinks you very near it.

I believe if anything could make her angry, it would have been my abusing you to her, but, instead of that, it almost made her cry."

"Where is Donna Clara?" exclaimed Luis, interrupting her eagerly: "I have a packet to deliver to her."

"You will find her in the ball-room, the admired of all beholders, and of none more so than of the Conde San Vincente, of whose lynx-eyed jealousy beware; and now, as I see that you are anxious to deliver your message, I will not detain you. Farewell, Luis!" she spoke in a softer tone.

"I wronged her," muttered Luis, as he hastened to the ball-room. "Her heart is not turned to stone. Such dwells not in the female breast."

As his eye distinguished Donna Clara at the further end of the room, he endeavoured to regulate his pace as etiquette required; but his eagerness impelled him on till he had arrived close to her, when it occurred to him that in his hurry he had not considered how he should address her. She had, however, perceived him, when a richer hue mounted to her cheeks, and her eyes beamed with a brighter light, as she timidly held out her hand. Their eyes met, it was but for a moment; but they there read more than Plato, Aristotle, or all the ancient philosophers ever wrote--at all events what they prized far more. He took that delicate hand, and pressed it with ardour to his lips, and it seemed to inspire him with abundance to say, but yet she was the first to speak.

"Oh! Don Luis, I have been wis.h.i.+ng to meet you, to thank you again for your bravery and goodness in rescuing my father and me from the robbers, and for protecting us on our way back. I have often thought of it since--" When Clara had got thus far, she stopped, and wished she had expressed herself differently; besides, she did not know to what it might lead.