Languages & literature > Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane > Volume 3

longer fuftain the weight of my miferyj and at lengthH
determined to difclofe it, with addrefs, to the dukeij
of Lerma, as foon as an opportunity fhould offer. H1
Happily for me, 1 found an occaiion at the Efcu4|
rial *, whither the king and prince repaired, fometl
days after I had come to this refolution.
of bis nec ff.ty, and that minijief’s behaviour on tbt^
tccafon.
H1LE the king was at the Efcurial, he de¬
frayed the expence of every body ; fo that,
ther^ I did not feel where the fhoe pinched : I lay;
in a wardrobe, juft by the bed-chamber of the duke p
who one morning, riling as ufual at break of day,,
made me take fome papers and a ftandifh, and fol¬
low him into the palace-garden. We went and fat
down under a tuft of trees, where I put myfelf, by
his order, into the pofture of ^ man writing on the;
crown of his hat; while he held in his hand a paper,,
which he pretended to read ; fd that, at a diftance,
we feemed bufy in very ferious affairs, though all
the while we talked of nothing but trifles.
For the fpace of an hour, I had diverted his ex¬
cellency With all the fallies that my good humour ’
could afford, when two magpies perching on the
trees under which we fat, began to chatter irt :
•Efcurial, a royal palace about 6 leagues from Madrid,
built by Philip the fecond of Spain; who in his life time
expended no lefs than 5,270,000 ducats, in finilhing and
adorning this magnificent work. Here too is a chapel in
which are the tombs of all the Spanifh measrchs, from
Cjsafles V. to the prefcat time.
CHAP. VI.
’The manner in •wlicb Gil Bias informs the duke of Lerma