Languages & literature > Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane > Volume 1

54 the adventures of
my apartment in great emotion, faying, “ MaJt;
dam, your fufpicion is but too juft! it is Donii;:
Alvaro himfelf whom you have feen! he hair
difcovered himfelf, and demands a fecret inteA
view.”
As I had, at that very time, an opportunity oft
receiving Don Alvaro, the marquis being at;
Burgos, I ordered my maid to bring him into mjfj;
clofet, by a private ftair-cafe. You may welfflr
think that I was in a terrible agitation, and alM;
together unable to fupport the prefence of a mam
w ho had a right to load me with reproaches. Am v
foon as he appeared, I fainted away. Inez andj !
he flew to my affiftance, and udien they had] i
brought me out of my fwoon, Don Alvaro faidj )[
“ Madam, for heaven’s fake, compofe yourfelfj g
let not my prefence be a punifhvnent to you; I ?
have no intention to give you the leaft pain; I
come not as a furious hufoand to call you to ah r
account of your plighted troth, and upbraid yod |t
with the fecond engagement you have contracted | let
I know very well, that it was the work of your i
relations: 1 am acquainted with all the perfecu-j hi
tions you have fuft'ered on that fcore: Beliuesi [t,,
the report of my death was fpread all over Valla-]
dolid ; and you had the more reafon to be]leva $
it true, as no letter from me afiuved you of the \
contrary : In fhort, I know in what manner youli
have lived fince our cruel feparation, and that v
neceftrty, rather than love, has thrown yon into; ;
the arms of .” “ Ah, Sir! (cried I, inter- t
rupting him) why will you excufe your unliapl f
py wife ! lire is criminal fmee you live! wdy ami ^
I not ftill in that miferable fituation in which I
lived before I gave my hand to Don Ambrofto 4 L
Fatal nuptials! I fliould then, at lead, have had ^
the; y