Languages & literature > Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane > Volume 4

OF GIL BLAS. 3J^
with a bed a ad elbow-chairs of the fame fluff, adorn¬
ed with fringes of blue filk. All thefe effedts,
which would have been little valued in an inven¬
tory, appeared there very confiderable. After hav¬
ing thoroughly examined every thing, my fecretary
and 1 returned to the hall, where the cloth was laid
with two covers. We fat down at table, and in a
moment was brought in an olla podrida, fo delicious,
that we pitied the Archbifliop of Valencia for having
IqII the cook that compofed it. At every morfel we
ate, my new lacqueys prefented to us large glaffe*
filled to the brims with wine of a molt eiqu'vfue re-
lifli. Scipio, not daring to fliew before them the
inward fatisfa&ion that he felt, expreffed himfelf to
me by eloquent looks; and I gave him to under-
fland, by the fame language, that I was as well fa-
tisficd as he, A difli of roafl meat, compofed of two
fat quails, which.flanked a leveret of an admirable
fumet, made us quit the olio, and finiflr our repafl.
When we had eaten like two gormandizers, and
drank in proportion, we got up from table, and walk¬
ed into the garden, to enjoy a voluptuous fiefia *, in
fome cool agreeable place.
If my fecretary feemed hitherto fatisfied with
what he had feen, he was ftill more fo, when he be¬
held the garden, which he thought comparable even
to that of the Efcqrial. It is true, Don Caefar, who
came frequently to l.irias, took pleafure in having
it cultivated and embellifhed: the walks well gra¬
velled and bordered with orange-trees, a great bafon
-of white marble, in the middle of which a brazen
* Sictla literally iignifies the heat of the day, from noon
forwards ; bat is here uf.-d to txprefs the afternoon’s nap,
enjoyed every day by the inhabitants of hot climates.