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diff --git a/old/carmn10.txt b/old/carmn10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a188796 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/carmn10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2776 @@ +***The Project Gutenberg Etext of Carmen, by Prosper Merimee*** +This is the basis for the opera Carmen. + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com +and John Bickers, jbickers@ihug.co.nz + + + + + +Translated by Lady Mary Loyd + + + + +CARMEN + +by PROSPER MERIMEE + + + + +CARMEN + + + +CHAPTER I + +I had always suspected the geographical authorities did not know what +they were talking about when they located the battlefield of Munda in +the county of the Bastuli-Poeni, close to the modern Monda, some two +leagues north of Marbella. + +According to my own surmise, founded on the text of the anonymous +author of the /Bellum Hispaniense/, and on certain information culled +from the excellent library owned by the Duke of Ossuna, I believed the +site of the memorable struggle in which Caesar played double or quits, +once and for all, with the champions of the Republic, should be sought +in the neighbourhood of Montilla. + +Happening to be in Andalusia during the autumn of 1830, I made a +somewhat lengthy excursion, with the object of clearing up certain +doubts which still oppressed me. A paper which I shall shortly publish +will, I trust, remove any hesitation that may still exist in the minds +of all honest archaeologists. But before that dissertation of mine +finally settles the geographical problem on the solution of which the +whole of learned Europe hangs, I desire to relate a little tale. It +will do no prejudice to the interesting question of the correct +locality of Monda. + +I had hired a guide and a couple of horses at Cordova, and had started +on my way with no luggage save a few shirts, and Caesar's +/Commentaries/. As I wandered, one day, across the higher lands of the +Cachena plain, worn with fatigue, parched with thirst, scorched by a +burning sun, cursing Caesar and Pompey's sons alike, most heartily, my +eye lighted, at some distance from the path I was following, on a +little stretch of green sward dotted with reeds and rushes. That +betokened the neighbourhood of some spring, and, indeed, as I drew +nearer I perceived that what had looked like sward was a marsh, into +which a stream, which seemed to issue from a narrow gorge between two +high spurs of the Sierra di Cabra, ran and disappeared. + +If I rode up that stream, I argued, I was likely to find cooler water, +fewer leeches and frogs, and mayhap a little shade among the rocks. + +At the mouth of the gorge, my horse neighed, and another horse, +invisible to me, neighed back. Before I had advanced a hundred paces, +the gorge suddenly widened, and I beheld a sort of natural +amphitheatre, thoroughly shaded by the steep cliffs that lay all +around it. It was impossible to imagine any more delightful halting +place for a traveller. At the foot of the precipitous rocks, the +stream bubbled upward and fell into a little basin, lined with sand +that was as white as snow. Five or six splendid evergreen oaks, +sheltered from the wind, and cooled by the spring, grew beside the +pool, and shaded it with their thick foliage. And round about it a +close and glossy turf offered the wanderer a better bed than he could +have found in any hostelry for ten leagues round. + +The honour of discovering this fair spot did not belong to me. A man +was resting there already--sleeping, no doubt--before I reached it. +Roused by the neighing of the horses, he had risen to his feet and had +moved over to his mount, which had been taking advantage of its +master's slumbers to make a hearty feed on the grass that grew around. +He was an active young fellow, of middle height, but powerful in +build, and proud and sullen-looking in expression. His complexion, +which may once have been fine, had been tanned by the sun till it was +darker than his hair. One of his hands grasped his horse's halter. In +the other he held a brass blunderbuss. + +At the first blush, I confess, the blunderbuss, and the savage looks +of the man who bore it, somewhat took me aback. But I had heard so +much about robbers, that, never seeing any, I had ceased to believe in +their existence. And further, I had seen so many honest farmers arm +themselves to the teeth before they went out to market, that the sight +of firearms gave me no warrant for doubting the character of any +stranger. "And then," quoth I to myself, "what could he do with my +shirts and my Elzevir edition of Caesar's /Commentaries/?" So I +bestowed a friendly nod on the man with the blunderbuss, and inquired, +with a smile, whether I had disturbed his nap. Without any answer, he +looked me over from head to foot. Then, as if the scrutiny had +satisfied him, he looked as closely at my guide, who was just coming +up. I saw the guide turn pale, and pull up with an air of evident +alarm. "An unlucky meeting!" thought I to myself. But prudence +instantly counselled me not to let any symptom of anxiety escape me. +So I dismounted. I told the guide to take off the horses' bridles, and +kneeling down beside the spring, I laved my head and hands and then +drank a long draught, lying flat on my belly, like Gideon's soldiers. + +Meanwhile, I watched the stranger, and my own guide. This last seemed +to come forward unwillingly. But the other did not appear to have any +evil designs upon us. For he had turned his horse loose, and the +blunderbuss, which he had been holding horizontally, was now dropped +earthward. + +Not thinking it necessary to take offence at the scant attention paid +me, I stretched myself full length upon the grass, and calmly asked +the owner of the blunderbuss whether he had a light about him. At the +same time I pulled out my cigar-case. The stranger, still without +opening his lips, took out his flint, and lost no time in getting me a +light. He was evidently growing tamer, for he sat down opposite to me, +though he still grasped his weapon. When I had lighted my cigar, I +chose out the best I had left, and asked him whether he smoked. + +"Yes, senor," he replied. These were the first words I had heard him +speak, and I noticed that he did not pronounce the letter /s/* in the +Andalusian fashion, whence I concluded he was a traveller, like +myself, though, maybe, somewhat less of an archaeologist. + +* The Andalusians aspirate the /s/, and pronounce it like the soft + /c/ and the /z/, which Spaniards pronounce like the English /th/. + An Andalusian may always be recognised by the way in which he says + /senor/. + +"You'll find this a fairly good one," said I, holding out a real +Havana regalia. + +He bowed his head slightly, lighted his cigar at mine, thanked me with +another nod, and began to smoke with a most lively appearance of +enjoyment. + +"Ah!" he exclaimed, as he blew his first puff of smoke slowly out of +his ears and nostrils. "What a time it is since I've had a smoke!" + +In Spain the giving and accepting of a cigar establishes bonds of +hospitality similar to those founded in Eastern countries on the +partaking of bread and salt. My friend turned out more talkative than +I had hoped. However, though he claimed to belong to the /partido/ of +Montilla, he seemed very ill-informed about the country. He did not +know the name of the delightful valley in which we were sitting, he +could not tell me the names of any of the neighbouring villages, and +when I inquired whether he had not noticed any broken-down walls, +broad-rimmed tiles, or carved stones in the vicinity, he confessed he +had never paid any heed to such matters. On the other hand, he showed +himself an expert in horseflesh, found fault with my mount--not a +difficult affair--and gave me a pedigree of his own, which had come +from the famous stud at Cordova. It was a splendid creature, indeed, +so tough, according to its owner's claim, that it had once covered +thirty leagues in one day, either at the gallop or at full trot the +whole time. In the midst of his story the stranger pulled up short, as +if startled and sorry he had said so much. "The fact is I was in a +great hurry to get to Cordova," he went on, somewhat embarrassed. "I +had to petition the judges about a lawsuit." As he spoke, he looked at +my guide Antonio, who had dropped his eyes. + +The spring and the cool shade were so delightful that I bethought me +of certain slices of an excellent ham, which my friends at Montilla +had packed into my guide's wallet. I bade him produce them, and +invited the stranger to share our impromptu lunch. If he had not +smoked for a long time, he certainly struck me as having fasted for +eight-and-forty hours at the very least. He ate like a starving wolf, +and I thought to myself that my appearance must really have been quite +providential for the poor fellow. Meanwhile my guide ate but little, +drank still less, and spoke never a word, although in the earlier part +of our journey he had proved himself a most unrivalled chatterer. He +seemed ill at ease in the presence of our guest, and a sort of mutual +distrust, the cause of which I could not exactly fathom, seemed to be +between them. + +The last crumbs of bread and scraps of ham had disappeared. We had +each smoked our second cigar; I told the guide to bridle the horses, +and was just about to take leave of my new friend, when he inquired +where I was going to spend the night. + +Before I had time to notice a sign my guide was making to me I had +replied that I was going to the Venta del Cuervo. + +"That's a bad lodging for a gentleman like you, sir! I'm bound there +myself, and if you'll allow me to ride with you, we'll go together." + +"With pleasure!" I replied, mounting my horse. The guide, who was +holding my stirrup, looked at me meaningly again. I answered by +shrugging my shoulders, as though to assure him I was perfectly easy +in my mind, and we started on our way. + +Antonio's mysterious signals, his evident anxiety, a few words dropped +by the stranger, above all, his ride of thirty leagues, and the far +from plausible explanation he had given us of it, had already enabled +me to form an opinion as to the identity of my fellow-traveller. I had +no doubt at all I was in the company of a smuggler, and possibly of a +brigand. What cared I? I knew enough of the Spanish character to be +very certain I had nothing to fear from a man who had eaten and smoked +with me. His very presence would protect me in case of any undesirable +meeting. And besides, I was very glad to know what a brigand was +really like. One doesn't come across such gentry every day. And there +is a certain charm about finding one's self in close proximity to a +dangerous being, especially when one feels the being in question to be +gentle and tame. + +I was hoping the stranger might gradually fall into a confidential +mood, and in spite of my guide's winks, I turned the conversation to +the subject of highwaymen. I need scarcely say that I spoke of them +with great respect. At that time there was a famous brigand in +Andalusia, of the name of Jose-Maria, whose exploits were on every +lip. "Supposing I should be riding along with Jose-Maria!" said I to +myself. I told all the stories I knew about the hero--they were all to +his credit, indeed, and loudly expressed my admiration of his +generosity and his valour. + +"Jose-Maria is nothing but a blackguard," said the stranger gravely. + +"Is he just to himself, or is this an excess of modesty?" I queried, +mentally, for by dint of scrutinizing my companion, I had ended by +reconciling his appearance with the description of Jose-Maria which I +read posted up on the gates of various Andalusian towns. "Yes, this +must be he--fair hair, blue eyes, large mouth, good teeth, small +hands, fine shirt, a velvet jacket with silver buttons on it, white +leather gaiters, and a bay horse. Not a doubt about it. But his +/incognito/ shall be respected!" We reached the /venta/. It was just +what he had described to me. In other words, the most wretched hole of +its kind I had as yet beheld. One large apartment served as kitchen, +dining-room, and sleeping chamber. A fire was burning on a flat stone +in the middle of the room, and the smoke escaped through a hole in the +roof, or rather hung in a cloud some feet above the soil. Along the +walls five or six mule rugs were spread on the floor. These were the +travellers' beds. Twenty paces from the house, or rather from the +solitary apartment which I have just described, stood a sort of shed, +that served for a stable. + +The only inhabitants of this delightful dwelling visible at the +moment, at all events, were an old woman, and a little girl of ten or +twelve years old, both of them as black as soot, and dressed in +loathsome rags. "Here's the sole remnant of the ancient populations of +Munda Boetica," said I to myself. "O Caesar! O Sextus Pompeius, if you +were to revisit this earth how astounded you would be!" + +When the old woman saw my travelling companion an exclamation of +surprise escaped her. "Ah! Senor Don Jose!" she cried. + +Don Jose frowned and lifted his hand with a gesture of authority that +forthwith silenced the old dame. + +I turned to my guide and gave him to understand, by a sign that no one +else perceived, that I knew all about the man in whose company I was +about to spend the night. Our supper was better than I expected. On a +little table, only a foot high, we were served with an old rooster, +fricasseed with rice and numerous peppers, then more peppers in oil, +and finally a /gaspacho/--a sort of salad made of peppers. These three +highly spiced dishes involved our frequent recourse to a goatskin +filled with Montella wine, which struck us as being delicious. + +After our meal was over, I caught sight of a mandolin hanging up +against the wall--in Spain you see mandolins in every corner--and I +asked the little girl, who had been waiting on us, if she knew how to +play it. + +"No," she replied. "But Don Jose does play well!" + +"Do me the kindness to sing me something," I said to him, "I'm +passionately fond of your national music." + +"I can't refuse to do anything for such a charming gentleman, who +gives me such excellent cigars," responded Don Jose gaily, and having +made the child give him the mandolin, he sang to his own +accompaniment. His voice, though rough, was pleasing, the air he sang +was strange and sad. As to the words, I could not understand a single +one of them. + +"If I am not mistaken," said I, "that's not a Spanish air you have +just been singing. It's like the /zorzicos/ I've heard in the +Provinces,* and the words must be in the Basque language." + +* The /privileged Provinces/, Alava, Biscay, Guipuzcoa, and a part + of Navarre, which all enjoy special /fueros/. The Basque language + is spoken in these countries. + +"Yes," said Don Jose, with a gloomy look. He laid the mandolin down on +the ground, and began staring with a peculiarly sad expression at the +dying fire. His face, at once fierce and noble-looking, reminded me, +as the firelight fell on it, of Milton's Satan. Like him, perchance, +my comrade was musing over the home he had forfeited, the exile he had +earned, by some misdeed. I tried to revive the conversation, but so +absorbed was he in melancholy thought, that he gave me no answer. + +The old woman had already gone to rest in a corner of the room, behind +a ragged rug hung on a rope. The little girl had followed her into +this retreat, sacred to the fair sex. Then my guide rose, and +suggested that I should go with him to the stable. But at the word Don +Jose, waking, as it were, with a start, inquired sharply whither he +was going. + +"To the stable," answered the guide. + +"What for? The horses have been fed! You can sleep here. The senor +will give you leave." + +"I'm afraid the senor's horse is sick. I'd like the senor to see it. +Perhaps he'd know what should be done for it." + +It was quite clear to me that Antonio wanted to speak to me apart. + +But I did not care to rouse Don Jose's suspicions, and being as we +were, I thought far the wisest course for me was to appear absolutely +confident. + +I therefore told Antonio that I knew nothing on earth about horses, +and that I was desperately sleepy. Don Jose followed him to the +stable, and soon returned alone. He told me there was nothing the +matter with the horse, but that my guide considered the animal such a +treasure that he was scrubbing it with his jacket to make it sweat, +and expected to spend the night in that pleasing occupation. Meanwhile +I had stretched myself out on the mule rugs, having carefully wrapped +myself up in my own cloak, so as to avoid touching them. Don Jose, +having begged me to excuse the liberty he took in placing himself so +near me, lay down across the door, but not until he had primed his +blunderbuss afresh and carefully laid it under the wallet, which +served him as a pillow. + +I had thought I was so tired that I should be able to sleep even in +such a lodging. But within an hour a most unpleasant itching sensation +roused me from my first nap. As soon as I realized its nature, I rose +to my feet, feeling convinced I should do far better to spend the rest +of the night in the open air than beneath that inhospitable roof. +Walking tiptoe I reached the door, stepped over Don Jose, who was +sleeping the sleep of the just, and managed so well that I got outside +the building without waking him. Just beside the door there was a wide +wooden bench. I lay down upon it, and settled myself, as best I could, +for the remainder of the night. I was just closing my eyes for a +second time when I fancied I saw the shadow of a man and then the +shadow of a horse moving absolutely noiselessly, one behind the other. +I sat upright, and then I thought I recognised Antonio. Surprised to +see him outside the stable at such an hour, I got up and went toward +him. He had seen me first, and had stopped to wait for me. + +"Where is he?" Antonio inquired in a low tone. + +"In the /venta/. He's asleep. The bugs don't trouble him. But what are +you going to do with that horse?" I then noticed that, to stifle all +noise as he moved out of the shed, Antonio had carefully muffled the +horse's feet in the rags of an old blanket. + +"Speak lower, for God's sake," said Antonio. "You don't know who that +man is. He's Jose Navarro, the most noted bandit in Andalusia. I've +been making signs to you all day long, and you wouldn't understand." + +"What do I care whether he's a brigand or not," I replied. "He hasn't +robbed us, and I'll wager he doesn't want to." + +"That may be. But there are two hundred ducats on his head. Some +lancers are stationed in a place I know, a league and a half from +here, and before daybreak I'll bring a few brawny fellows back with +me. I'd have taken his horse away, but the brute's so savage that +nobody but Navarro can go near it." + +"Devil take you!" I cried. "What harm has the poor fellow done you +that you should want to inform against him? And besides, are you +certain he is the brigand you take him for?" + +"Perfectly certain! He came after me into the stable just now, and +said, 'You seem to know me. If you tell that good gentleman who I am, +I'll blow your brains out!' You stay here, sir, keep close to him. +You've nothing to fear. As long as he knows you are there, he won't +suspect anything." + +As we talked, we had moved so far from the /venta/ that the noise of +the horse's hoofs could not be heard there. In a twinkling Antonio +snatched off the rags he had wrapped around the creature's feet, and +was just about to climb on its back. In vain did I attempt with +prayers and threats to restrain him. + +"I'm only a poor man, senor," quoth he, "I can't afford to lose two +hundred ducats--especially when I shall earn them by ridding the +country of such vermin. But mind what you're about! If Navarro wakes +up, he'll snatch at his blunderbuss, and then look out for yourself! +I've gone too far now to turn back. Do the best you can for yourself!" + +The villain was in his saddle already, he spurred his horse smartly, +and I soon lost sight of them both in the darkness. + +I was very angry with my guide, and terribly alarmed as well. After a +moment's reflection, I made up my mind, and went back to the /venta/. +Don Jose was still sound asleep, making up, no doubt, for the fatigue +and sleeplessness of several days of adventure. I had to shake him +roughly before I could wake him up. Never shall I forget his fierce +look, and the spring he made to get hold of his blunderbuss, which, as +a precautionary measure, I had removed to some distance from his +couch. + +"Senor," I said, "I beg your pardon for disturbing you. But I have a +silly question to ask you. Would you be glad to see half a dozen +lancers walk in here?" + +He bounded to his feet, and in an awful voice he demanded: + +"Who told you?" + +"It's little matter whence the warning comes, so long as it be good." + +"Your guide has betrayed me--but he shall pay for it! Where is he?" + +"I don't know. In the stable, I fancy. But somebody told me--" + +"Who told you? It can't be the old hag--" + +"Some one I don't know. Without more parleying, tell me, yes or no, +have you any reason for not waiting till the soldiers come? If you +have any, lose no time! If not, good-night to you, and forgive me for +having disturbed your slumbers!" + +"Ah, your guide! Your guide! I had my doubts of him at first--but-- +I'll settle with him! Farewell, senor. May God reward you for the +service I owe you! I am not quite so wicked as you think me. Yes, I +still have something in me that an honest man may pity. Farewell, +senor! I have only one regret--that I can not pay my debt to you!" + +"As a reward for the service I have done you, Don Jose, promise me +you'll suspect nobody--nor seek for vengeance. Here are some cigars +for your journey. Good luck to you." And I held out my hand to him. + +He squeezed it, without a word, took up his wallet and blunderbuss, +and after saying a few words to the old woman in a lingo that I could +not understand, he ran out to the shed. A few minutes later, I heard +him galloping out into the country. + +As for me, I lay down again on my bench, but I did not go to sleep +again. I queried in my own mind whether I had done right to save a +robber, and possibly a murderer, from the gallows, simply and solely +because I had eaten ham and rice in his company. Had I not betrayed my +guide, who was supporting the cause of law and order? Had I not +exposed him to a ruffian's vengeance? But then, what about the laws of +hospitality? + +"A mere savage prejudice," said I to myself. "I shall have to answer +for all the crimes this brigand may commit in future." Yet is that +instinct of the conscience which resists every argument really a +prejudice? It may be I could not have escaped from the delicate +position in which I found myself without remorse of some kind. I was +still tossed to and fro, in the greatest uncertainty as to the +morality of my behaviour, when I saw half a dozen horsemen ride up, +with Antonio prudently lagging behind them. I went to meet them, and +told them the brigand had fled over two hours previously. The old +woman, when she was questioned by the sergeant, admitted that she knew +Navarro, but said that living alone, as she did, she would never have +dared to risk her life by informing against him. She added that when +he came to her house, he habitually went away in the middle of the +night. I, for my part, was made to ride to a place some leagues away, +where I showed my passport, and signed a declaration before the +/Alcalde/. This done, I was allowed to recommence my archaeological +investigations. Antonio was sulky with me; suspecting it was I who had +prevented his earning those two hundred ducats. Nevertheless, we +parted good friends at Cordova, where I gave him as large a gratuity +as the state of my finances would permit. + + + +CHAPTER II + +I spent several days at Cordova. I had been told of a certain +manuscript in the library of the Dominican convent which was likely to +furnish me with very interesting details about the ancient Munda. The +good fathers gave me the most kindly welcome. I spent the daylight +hours within their convent, and at night I walked about the town. At +Cordova a great many idlers collect, toward sunset, in the quay that +runs along the right bank of the Guadalquivir. Promenaders on the spot +have to breathe the odour of a tan yard which still keeps up the +ancient fame of the country in connection with the curing of leather. +But to atone for this, they enjoy a sight which has a charm of its +own. A few minutes before the Angelus bell rings, a great company of +women gathers beside the river, just below the quay, which is rather a +high one. Not a man would dare to join its ranks. The moment the +Angelus rings, darkness is supposed to have fallen. As the last stroke +sounds, all the women disrobe and step into the water. Then there is +laughing and screaming and a wonderful clatter. The men on the upper +quay watch the bathers, straining their eyes, and seeing very little. +Yet the white uncertain outlines perceptible against the dark-blue +waters of the stream stir the poetic mind, and the possessor of a +little fancy finds it not difficult to imagine that Diana and her +nymphs are bathing below, while he himself runs no risk of ending like +Acteon. + +I have been told that one day a party of good-for-nothing fellows +banded themselves together, and bribed the bell-ringer at the +cathedral to ring the Angelus some twenty minutes before the proper +hour. Though it was still broad daylight, the nymphs of the +Guadalquivir never hesitated, and putting far more trust in the +Angelus bell than in the sun, they proceeded to their bathing +toilette--always of the simplest-- with an easy conscience. I was not +present on that occasion. In my day, the bell-ringer was +incorruptible, the twilight was very dim, and nobody but a cat could +have distinguished the difference between the oldest orange woman, and +the prettiest shop-girl, in Cordova. + +One evening, after it had grown quite dusk, I was leaning over the +parapet of the quay, smoking, when a woman came up the steps leading +from the river, and sat down near me. In her hair she wore a great +bunch of jasmine--a flower which, at night, exhales a most +intoxicating perfume. She was dressed simply, almost poorly, in black, +as most work-girls are dressed in the evening. Women of the richer +class only wear black in the daytime, at night they dress /a la +francesa/. When she drew near me, the woman let the mantilla which had +covered her head drop on her shoulders, and "by the dim light falling +from the stars" I perceived her to be young, short in stature, well- +proportioned, and with very large eyes. I threw my cigar away at once. +She appreciated this mark of courtesy, essentially French, and +hastened to inform me that she was very fond of the smell of tobacco, +and that she even smoked herself, when she could get very mild +/papelitos/. I fortunately happened to have some such in my case, and +at once offered them to her. She condescended to take one, and lighted +it at a burning string which a child brought us, receiving a copper +for its pains. We mingled our smoke, and talked so long, the fair lady +and I, that we ended by being almost alone on the quay. I thought I +might venture, without impropriety, to suggest our going to eat an ice +at the /neveria/.* After a moment of modest demur, she agreed. But +before finally accepting, she desired to know what o'clock it was. I +struck my repeater, and this seemed to astound her greatly. + +* A /café/ to which a depot of ice, or rather of snow, is attached. + There is hardly a village in Spain without its /neveria/. + +"What clever inventions you foreigners do have! What country do you +belong to, sir? You're an Englishman, no doubt!"* + +* Every traveller in Spain who does not carry about samples of + calicoes and silks is taken for an Englishman (/inglesito/). It is + the same thing in the East. + +"I'm a Frenchman, and your devoted servant. And you, senora, or +senorita, you probably belong to Cordova?" + +"No." + +"At all events, you are an Andalusian? Your soft way of speaking makes +me think so." + +"If you notice people's accent so closely, you must be able to guess +what I am." + +"I think you are from the country of Jesus, two paces out of +Paradise." + +I had learned the metaphor, which stands for Andalusia, from my friend +Francisco Sevilla, a well-known /picador/. + +"Pshaw! The people here say there is no place in Paradise for us!" + +"Then perhaps you are of Moorish blood--or----" I stopped, not +venturing to add "a Jewess." + +"Oh come! You must see I'm a gipsy! Wouldn't you like me to tell you +/la baji/?* Did you never hear tell of Carmencita? That's who I am!" + +* Your fortune. + +I was such a miscreant in those days--now fifteen years ago--that the +close proximity of a sorceress did not make me recoil in horror. "So +be it!" I thought. "Last week I ate my supper with a highway robber. +To-day I'll go and eat ices with a servant of the devil. A traveller +should see everything." I had yet another motive for prosecuting her +acquaintance. When I left college--I acknowledge it with shame--I had +wasted a certain amount of time in studying occult science, and had +even attempted, more than once, to exorcise the powers of darkness. +Though I had been cured, long since, of my passion for such +investigations, I still felt a certain attraction and curiosity with +regard to all superstitions, and I was delighted to have this +opportunity of discovering how far the magic art had developed among +the gipsies. + +Talking as we went, we had reached the /neveria/, and seated ourselves +at a little table, lighted by a taper protected by a glass globe. I +then had time to take a leisurely view of my /gitana/, while several +worthy individuals, who were eating their ices, stared open-mouthed at +beholding me in such gay company. + +I very much doubt whether Senorita Carmen was a pure-blooded gipsy. At +all events, she was infinitely prettier than any other woman of her +race I have ever seen. For a women to be beautiful, they say in Spain, +she must fulfil thirty /ifs/, or, if it please you better, you must be +able to define her appearance by ten adjectives, applicable to three +portions of her person. + +For instance, three things about her must be black, her eyes, her +eyelashes, and her eyebrows. Three must be dainty, her fingers, her +lips, her hair, and so forth. For the rest of this inventory, see +Brantome. My gipsy girl could lay no claim to so many perfections. Her +skin, though perfectly smooth, was almost of a copper hue. Her eyes +were set obliquely in her head, but they were magnificent and large. +Her lips, a little full, but beautifully shaped, revealed a set of +teeth as white as newly skinned almonds. Her hair--a trifle coarse, +perhaps--was black, with blue lights on it like a raven's wing, long +and glossy. Not to weary my readers with too prolix a description, I +will merely add, that to every blemish she united some advantage, +which was perhaps all the more evident by contrast. There was +something strange and wild about her beauty. Her face astonished you, +at first sight, but nobody could forget it. Her eyes, especially, had +an expression of mingled sensuality and fierceness which I had never +seen in any other human glance. "Gipsy's eye, wolf's eye!" is a +Spanish saying which denotes close observation. If my readers have no +time to go to the "Jardin des Plantes" to study the wolf's expression, +they will do well to watch the ordinary cat when it is lying in wait +for a sparrow. + +It will be understood that I should have looked ridiculous if I had +proposed to have my fortune told in a /café/. I therefore begged the +pretty witch's leave to go home with her. She made no difficulties +about consenting, but she wanted to know what o'clock it was again, +and requested me to make my repeater strike once more. + +"Is it really gold?" she said, gazing at it with rapt attention. + +When we started off again, it was quite dark. Most of the shops were +shut, and the streets were almost empty. We crossed the bridge over +the Guadalquivir, and at the far end of the suburb we stopped in front +of a house of anything but palatial appearance. The door was opened by +a child, to whom the gipsy spoke a few words in a language unknown to +me, which I afterward understood to be /Romany/, or /chipe calli/--the +gipsy idiom. The child instantly disappeared, leaving us in sole +possession of a tolerably spacious room, furnished with a small table, +two stools, and a chest. I must not forget to mention a jar of water, +a pile of oranges, and a bunch of onions. + +As soon as we were left alone, the gipsy produced, out of her chest, a +pack of cards, bearing signs of constant usage, a magnet, a dried +chameleon, and a few other indispensable adjuncts of her art. Then she +bade me cross my left hand with a silver coin, and the magic +ceremonies duly began. It is unnecessary to chronicle her predictions, +and as for the style of her performance, it proved her to be no mean +sorceress. + +Unluckily we were soon disturbed. The door was suddenly burst open, +and a man, shrouded to the eyes in a brown cloak, entered the room, +apostrophizing the gipsy in anything but gentle terms. What he said I +could not catch, but the tone of his voice revealed the fact that he +was in a very evil temper. The gipsy betrayed neither surprise nor +anger at his advent, but she ran to meet him, and with a most striking +volubility, she poured out several sentences in the mysterious +language she had already used in my presence. The word /payllo/, +frequently reiterated, was the only one I understood. I knew that the +gipsies use it to describe all men not of their own race. Concluding +myself to be the subject of this discourse, I was prepared for a +somewhat delicate explanation. I had already laid my hand on the leg +of one of the stools, and was studying within myself to discover the +exact moment at which I had better throw it at his head, when, roughly +pushing the gipsy to one side, the man advanced toward me. Then with a +step backward he cried: + +"What, sir! Is it you?" + +I looked at him in my turn and recognised my friend Don Jose. At that +moment I did feel rather sorry I had saved him from the gallows. + +"What, is it you, my good fellow?" I exclaimed, with as easy a smile +as I could muster. "You have interrupted this young lady just when she +was foretelling me most interesting things!" + +"The same as ever. There shall be an end to it!" he hissed between his +teeth, with a savage glance at her. + +Meanwhile the /gitana/ was still talking to him in her own tongue. She +became more and more excited. Her eyes grew fierce and bloodshot, her +features contracted, she stamped her foot. She seemed to me to be +earnestly pressing him to do something he was unwilling to do. What +this was I fancied I understood only too well, by the fashion in which +she kept drawing her little hand backward and forward under her chin. +I was inclined to think she wanted to have somebody's throat cut, and +I had a fair suspicion the throat in question was my own. To all her +torrent of eloquence Don Jose's only reply was two or three shortly +spoken words. At this the gipsy cast a glance of the most utter scorn +at him, then, seating herself Turkish-fashion in a corner of the room, +she picked out an orange, tore off the skin, and began to eat it. + +Don Jose took hold of my arm, opened the door, and led me into the +street. We walked some two hundred paces in the deepest silence. Then +he stretched out his hand. + +"Go straight on," he said, "and you'll come to the bridge." + +That instant he turned his back on me and departed at a great pace. I +took my way back to my inn, rather crestfallen, and considerably out +of temper. The worst of all was that, when I undressed, I discovered +my watch was missing. + +Various considerations prevented me from going to claim it next day, +or requesting the /Corregidor/ to be good enough to have a search made +for it. I finished my work on the Dominican manuscript, and went on to +Seville. After several months spent wandering hither and thither in +Andalusia, I wanted to get back to Madrid, and with that object I had +to pass through Cordova. I had no intention of making any stay there, +for I had taken a dislike to that fair city, and to the ladies who +bathed in the Guadalquivir. Nevertheless, I had some visits to pay, +and certain errands to do, which must detain me several days in the +old capital of the Mussulman princes. + +The moment I made my appearance in the Dominican convent, one of the +monks, who had always shown the most lively interest in my inquiries +as to the site of the battlefield of Munda, welcomed me with open +arms, exclaiming: + +"Praised be God! You are welcome! My dear friend. We all thought you +were dead, and I myself have said many a /pater/ and ave/ (not that I +regret them!) for your soul. Then you weren't murdered, after all? +That you were robbed, we know!" + +"What do you mean?" I asked, rather astonished. + +"Oh, you know! That splendid repeater you used to strike in the +library whenever we said it was time for us to go into church. Well, +it has been found, and you'll get it back." + +"Why," I broke in, rather put out of countenance, "I lost it--" + +"The rascal's under lock and key, and as he was known to be a man who +would shoot any Christian for the sake of a /peseta/, we were most +dreadfully afraid he had killed you. I'll go with you to the +/Corregidor/, and he'll give you back your fine watch. And after that, +you won't dare to say the law doesn't do its work properly in Spain." + +"I assure you," said I, "I'd far rather lose my watch than have to +give evidence in court to hang a poor unlucky devil, and especially +because--because----" + +"Oh, you needn't be alarmed! He's thoroughly done for; they might hang +him twice over. But when I say hang, I say wrong. Your thief is an +/Hidalgo/. So he's to be garrotted the day after to-morrow, without +fail.* So you see one theft more or less won't affect his position. +Would to God he had done nothing but steal! But he has committed +several murders, one more hideous than the other." + +* In 1830, the noble class still enjoyed this privilege. Nowadays, + under the constitutional /regime/, commoners have attained the + same dignity. + +"What's his name?" + +"In this country he is only known as Jose Navarro, but he has another +Basque name, which neither your nor I will ever be able to pronounce. +By the way, the man is worth seeing, and you, who like to study the +peculiar features of each country, shouldn't lose this chance of +noting how a rascal bids farewell to this world in Spain. He is in +jail, and Father Martinez will take you to him." + +So bent was my Dominican friend on my seeing the preparations for this +"neat little hanging job" that I was fain to agree. I went to see the +prisoner, having provided myself with a bundle of cigars, which I +hoped might induce him to forgive my intrusion. + +I was ushered into Don Jose's presence just as he was sitting at +table. He greeted me with a rather distant nod, and thanked me civilly +for the present I had brought him. Having counted the cigars in the +bundle I had placed in his hand, he took out a certain number and +returned me the rest, remarking that he would not need any more of +them. + +I inquired whether by laying out a little money, or by applying to my +friends, I might not be able to do something to soften his lot. He +shrugged his shoulders, to begin with, smiling sadly. Soon, as by an +after-thought, he asked me to have a mass said for the repose of his +soul. + +Then he added nervously: "Would you--would you have another said for a +person who did you a wrong?" + +"Assuredly I will, my dear fellow," I answered. "But no one in this +country has wronged me so far as I know." + +He took my hand and squeezed it, looking very grave. After a moment's +silence, he spoke again. + +"Might I dare to ask another service of you? When you go back to your +own country perhaps you will pass through Navarre. At all events +you'll go by Vittoria, which isn't very far off." + +"Yes," said I, "I shall certainly pass through Vittoria. But I may +very possibly go round by Pampeluna, and for your sake, I believe I +should be very glad to do it." + +"Well, if you do go to Pampeluna, you'll see more than one thing that +will interest you. It's a fine town. I'll give you this medal," he +showed me a little silver medal that he wore hung around his neck. +"You'll wrap it up in paper"--he paused a moment to master his emotion +--"and you'll take it, or send it, to an old lady whose address I'll +give you. Tell her I am dead--but don't tell her how I died." + +I promised to perform his commission. I saw him the next day, and +spent part of it in his company. From his lips I learned the sad +incidents that follow. + + + +CHAPTER III + +"I was born," he said, "at Elizondo, in the valley of Baztan. My name +is Don Jose Lizzarrabengoa, and you know enough of Spain, sir, to know +at once, by my name, that I come of an old Christian and Basque stock. +I call myself Don, because I have a right to it, and if I were at +Elizondo I could show you my parchment genealogy. My family wanted me +to go into the church, and made me study for it, but I did not like +work. I was too fond of playing tennis, and that was my ruin. When we +Navarrese begin to play tennis, we forget everything else. One day, +when I had won the game, a young fellow from Alava picked a quarrel +with me. We took to our /maquilas/,* and I won again. But I had to +leave the neighbourhood. I fell in with some dragoons, and enlisted in +the Almanza Cavalry Regiment. Mountain folks like us soon learn to be +soldiers. Before long I was a corporal, and I had been told I should +soon be made a sergeant, when, to my misfortune, I was put on guard at +the Seville Tobacco Factory. If you have been to Seville you have seen +the great building, just outside the ramparts, close to the +Guadalquivir; I can fancy I see the entrance, and the guard room just +beside it, even now. When Spanish soldiers are on duty, they either +play cards or go to sleep. I, like an honest Navarrese, always tried +to keep myself busy. I was making a chain to hold my priming-pin, out +of a bit of wire: all at once, my comrades said, 'there's the bell +ringing, the girls are coming back to work.' You must know, sir, that +there are quite four or five hundred women employed in the factory. +They roll the cigars in a great room into which no man can go without +a permit from the /Veintiquatro/,** because when the weather is hot +they make themselves at home, especially the young ones. When the +work-girls come back after their dinner, numbers of young men go down +to see them pass by, and talk all sorts of nonsense to them. Very few +of those young ladies will refuse a silk mantilla, and men who care +for that sort of sport have nothing to do but bend down and pick their +fish up. While the others watched the girls go by, I stayed on my +bench near the door. I was a young fellow then--my heart was still in +my own country, and I didn't believe in any pretty girls who hadn't +blue skirts and long plaits of hair falling on their shoulders.*** And +besides, I was rather afraid of the Andalusian women. I had not got +used to their ways yet; they were always jeering one--never spoke a +single word of sense. So I was sitting with my nose down upon my +chain, when I heard some bystanders say, 'Here comes the /gitanella/!' +Then I lifted up my eyes, and I saw her! It was that very Carmen you +know, and in whose rooms I met you a few months ago. + +* Iron-shod sticks used by the Basques. + +** Magistrate in charge of the municipal police arrangements, and + local government regulations. + +*** The costume usually worn by peasant women in Navarre and the + Basque Provinces. + +"She was wearing a very short skirt, below which her white silk +stockings--with more than one hole in them--and her dainty red morocco +shoes, fastened with flame-coloured ribbons, were clearly seen. She +had thrown her mantilla back, to show her shoulders, and a great bunch +of acacia that was thrust into her chemise. She had another acacia +blossom in the corner of her mouth, and she walked along, swaying her +hips, like a filly from the Cordova stud farm. In my country anybody +who had seen a woman dressed in that fashion would have crossed +himself. At Seville every man paid her some bold compliment on her +appearance. She had an answer for each and all, with her hand on her +hip, as bold as the thorough gipsy she was. At first I didn't like her +looks, and I fell to my work again. But she, like all women and cats, +who won't come if you call them, and do come if you don't call them, +stopped short in front of me, and spoke to me. + +" '/Compadre/,' said she, in the Andalusian fashion, 'won't you give +me your chain for the keys of my strong box?' + +" 'It's for my priming-pin,' said I. + +" 'Your priming-pin!' she cried, with a laugh. 'Oho! I suppose the +gentleman makes lace, as he wants pins!' + +"Everybody began to laugh, and I felt myself getting red in the face, +and couldn't hit on anything in answer. + +" 'Come, my love!' she began again, 'make me seven ells of lace for my +mantilla, my pet pin-maker!' + +"And taking the acacia blossom out of her mouth she flipped it at me +with her thumb so that it hit me just between the eyes. I tell you, +sir, I felt as if a bullet had struck me. I didn't know which way to +look. I sat stock-still, like a wooden board. When she had gone into +the factory, I saw the acacia blossom, which had fallen on the ground +between my feet. I don't know what made me do it, but I picked it up, +unseen by any of my comrades, and put it carefully inside my jacket. +That was my first folly. + +"Two or three hours later I was still thinking about her, when a +panting, terrified-looking porter rushed into the guard-room. He told +us a woman had been stabbed in the great cigar-room, and that the +guard must be sent in at once. The sergeant told me to take two men, +and go and see to it. I took my two men and went upstairs. Imagine, +sir, that when I got into the room, I found, to begin with, some three +hundred women, stripped to their shifts, or very near it, all of them +screaming and yelling and gesticulating, and making such a row that +you couldn't have heard God's own thunder. On one side of the room one +of the women was lying on the broad of her back, streaming with blood, +with an X newly cut on her face by two strokes of a knife. Opposite +the wounded woman, whom the best-natured of the band were attending, I +saw Carmen, held by five or six of her comrades. The wounded woman was +crying out, 'A confessor, a confessor! I'm killed!' Carmen said +nothing at all. She clinched her teeth and rolled her eyes like a +chameleon. 'What's this?' I asked. I had hard work to find out what +had happened, for all the work-girls talked at once. It appeared that +the injured girl had boasted she had money enough in her pocket to buy +a donkey at the Triana Market. 'Why,' said Carmen, who had a tongue of +her own, 'can't you do with a broom?' Stung by this taunt, it may be +because she felt herself rather unsound in that particular, the other +girl replied that she knew nothing about brooms, seeing she had not +the honour of being either a gipsy or one of the devil's godchildren, +but that the Senorita Carmen would shortly make acquaintance with her +donkey, when the /Corregidor/ took her out riding with two lackeys +behind her to keep the flies off. 'Well,' retorted Carmen, 'I'll make +troughs for the flies to drink out of on your cheeks, and I'll paint a +draught-board on them!'* And thereupon, slap, bank! She began making +St. Andrew's crosses on the girl's face with a knife she had been +using for cutting off the ends of the cigars. + +* /Pintar un javeque/, "paint a xebec," a particular type of ship. + Most Spanish vessels of this description have a checkered red and + white stripe painted around them. + +"The case was quite clear. I took hold of Carmen's arm. 'Sister mine,' +I said civilly, 'you must come with me.' She shot a glance of +recognition at me, but she said, with a resigned look: 'Let's be off. +Where is my mantilla?' She put it over her head so that only one of +her great eyes was to be seen, and followed my two men, as quiet as a +lamb. When we got to the guardroom the sergeant said it was a serious +job, and he must send her to prison. I was told off again to take her +there. I put her between two dragoons, as a corporal does on such +occasions. We started off for the town. The gipsy had begun by holding +her tongue. But when we got to the /Calle de la Serpiente/--you know +it, and that it earns its name by its many windings--she began by +dropping her mantilla on to her shoulders, so as to show me her +coaxing little face, and turning round to me as well as she could, she +said: + +" '/Oficial mio/, where are you taking me to?' + +" 'To prison, my poor child,' I replied, as gently as I could, just as +any kind-hearted soldier is bound to speak to a prisoner, and +especially to a woman. + +" 'Alack! What will become of me! Senor Oficial, have pity on me! You +are so young, so good-looking.' Then, in a lower tone, she said, 'Let +me get away, and I'll give you a bit of the /bar lachi/, that will +make every woman fall in love with you!' + +"The /bar lachi/, sir, is the loadstone, with which the gipsies +declare one who knows how to use it can cast any number of spells. If +you can make a woman drink a little scrap of it, powdered, in a glass +of white wine, she'll never be able to resist you. I answered, as +gravely as I could: + +" 'We are not here to talk nonsense. You'll have to go to prison. +Those are my orders, and there's no help for it!' + +"We men from the Basque country have an accent which all Spaniards +easily recognise; on the other hand, not one of them can ever learn to +say /Bai, jaona/!* + +* Yes, sir. + +"So Carmen easily guessed I was from the Provinces. You know, sir, +that the gipsies, who belong to no particular country, and are always +moving about, speak every language, and most of them are quite at home +in Portugal, in France, in our Provinces, in Catalonia, or anywhere +else. They can even make themselves understood by Moors and English +people. Carmen knew Basque tolerably well. + +" '/Laguna ene bihotsarena/, comrade of my heart,' said she suddenly. +'Do you belong to our country?' + +"Our language is so beautiful, sir, that when we hear it in a foreign +country it makes us quiver. I wish," added the bandit in a lower tone, +"I could have a confessor from my own country." + +After a silence, he began again. + +" 'I belong to Elizondo,' I answered in Basque, very much affected by +the sound of my own language. + +" 'I come from Etchalar,' said she (that's a district about four +hours' journey from my home). 'I was carried off to Seville by the +gipsies. I was working in the factory to earn enough money to take me +back to Navarre, to my poor old mother, who has no support in the +world but me, besides her little /barratcea/* with twenty cider-apple +trees in it. Ah! if I were only back in my own country, looking up at +the white mountains! I have been insulted here, because I don't belong +to this land of rogues and sellers of rotten oranges; and those +hussies are all banded together against me, because I told them that +not all their Seville /jacques/,** and all their knives, would +frighten an honest lad from our country, with his blue cap and his +/maquila/! Good comrade, won't you do anything to help your own +countrywoman?' + +* Field, garden. + +** Bravos, boasters. + +"She was lying then, sir, as she has always lied. I don't know that +that girl ever spoke a word of truth in her life, but when she did +speak, I believed her--I couldn't help myself. She mangled her Basque +words, and I believed she came from Navarre. But her eyes and her +mouth and her skin were enough to prove she was a gipsy. I was mad, I +paid no more attention to anything, I thought to myself that if the +Spaniards had dared to speak evil of my country, I would have slashed +their faces just as she had slashed her comrade's. In short, I was +like a drunken man, I was beginning to say foolish things, and I was +very near doing them. + +" 'If I were to give you a push and you tumbled down, good fellow- +countryman,' she began again in Basque, 'those two Castilian recruits +wouldn't be able to keep me back.' + +"Faith, I forgot my orders, I forgot everything, and I said to her, +'Well, then, my friend, girl of my country, try it, and may our Lady +of the Mountain help you through.' + +"Just at that moment we were passing one of the many narrow lanes one +sees in Seville. All at once Carmen turned and struck me in the chest +with her fist. I tumbled backward, purposely. With a bound she sprang +over me, and ran off, showing us a pair of legs! People talk about a +pair of Basque legs! but hers were far better--as fleet as they were +well-turned. As for me, I picked myself up at once, but I stuck out my +lance* crossways and barred the street, so that my comrades were +checked at the very first moment of pursuit. Then I started to run +myself, and they after me--but how were we to catch her? There was no +fear of that, what with our spurs, our swords, and our lances. + +* All Spanish cavalry soldiers carry lances. + +"In less time than I have taken to tell you the story the prisoner had +disappeared. And besides, every gossip in the quarter covered her +flight, poked scorn at us, and pointed us in the wrong direction. +After a good deal of marching and countermarching, we had to go back +to the guard-room without a receipt from the governor of the jail. + +"To avoid punishment, my men made known that Carmen had spoken to me +in Basque; and to tell the truth, it did not seem very natural that a +blow from such a little creature should have so easily overthrown a +strong fellow like me. The whole thing looked suspicious, or, at all +events, not over-clear. When I came off guard I lost my corporal's +stripes, and was condemned to a month's imprisonment. It was the first +time I had been punished since I had been in the service. Farewell, +now, to the sergeant's stripes, on which I had reckoned so surely! + +"The first days in prison were very dreary. When I enlisted I had +fancied I was sure to become an officer, at all events. Two of my +compatriots, Longa and Mina, are captains-general, after all. +Chapalangarra was a colonel, and I have played tennis a score of times +with his brother, who was just a needy fellow like myself. 'Now,' I +kept crying to myself, 'all the time you served without being punished +has been lost. Now you have a bad mark against your name, and to get +yourself back into the officers' good graces you'll have to work ten +times as hard as when you joined as a recruit.' And why have I got +myself punished? For the sake of a gipsy hussy, who made game of me, +and who at this moment is busy thieving in some corner of the town. +Yet I couldn't help thinking about her. Will you believe it, sir, +those silk stockings of hers with the holes in them, of which she had +given me such a full view as she took to her heels, were always before +my eyes? I used to look through the barred windows of the jail into +the street, and among all the women who passed I never could see one +to compare with that minx of a girl--and then, in spite of myself, I +used to smell the acacia blossom she had thrown at me, and which, dry +as it was, still kept its sweet scent. If there are such things as +witches, that girl certainly was one. + +"One day the jailer came in, and gave me an Alcala roll.* + +* /Alcala de los Panaderos/, a village two leagues from Seville, + where the most delicious rolls are made. They are said to owe + their quality to the water of the place, and great quantities of + them are brought to Seville every day. + +" 'Look here,' said he, 'this is what your cousin has sent you.' + +"I took the loaf, very much astonished, for I had no cousin in +Seville. It may be a mistake, thought I, as I looked at the roll, but +it was so appetizing and smelt so good, that I made up my mind to eat +it, without troubling my head as to whence it came, or for whom it was +really intended. + +"When I tried to cut it, my knife struck on something hard. I looked, +and found a little English file, which had been slipped into the dough +before the roll had been baked. The roll also contained a gold piece +of two piastres. Then I had no further doubt--it was a present from +Carmen. To people of her blood, liberty is everything, and they would +set a town on fire to save themselves one day in prison. The girl was +artful, indeed, and armed with that roll, I might have snapped my +fingers at the jailers. In one hour, with that little file, I could +have sawn through the thickest bar, and with the gold coin I could +have exchanged my soldier's cloak for civilian garb at the nearest +shop. You may fancy that a man who has often taken the eaglets out of +their nests in our cliff would have found no difficulty in getting +down to the street out of a window less than thirty feet above it. But +I didn't choose to escape. I still had a soldier's code of honour, and +desertion appeared to me in the light of a heinous crime. Yet this +proof of remembrance touched me. When a man is in prison he likes to +think he has a friend outside who takes an interest in him. The gold +coin did rather offend me; I should have very much liked to return it; +but where was I to find my creditor? That did not seem a very easy +task. + +"After the ceremony of my degradation I had fancied my sufferings were +over, but I had another humiliation before me. That came when I left +prison, and was told off for duty, and put on sentry, as a private +soldier. You can not conceive what a proud man endures at such a +moment. I believe I would have just as soon been shot dead--then I +should have marched alone at the head of my platoon, at all events; I +should have felt I was somebody, with the eyes of others fixed upon +me. + +"I was posted as sentry on the door of the colonel's house. The +colonel was a young man, rich, good-natured, fond of amusing himself. +All the young officers were there, and many civilians as well, besides +ladies--actresses, as it was said. For my part, it seemed to me as if +the whole town had agreed to meet at that door, in order to stare at +me. Then up drove the colonel's carriage, with his valet on the box. +And who should I see get out of it, but the gipsy girl! She was +dressed up, this time, to the eyes, togged out in golden ribbons--a +spangled gown, blue shoes, all spangled too, flowers and gold lace all +over her. In her hand she carried a tambourine. With her there were +two other gipsy women, one young and one old. They always have one old +woman who goes with them, and then an old man with a guitar, a gipsy +too, to play alone, and also for their dances. You must know these +gipsy girls are often sent for to private houses, to dance their +special dance, the /Romalis/, and often, too, for quite other +purposes. + +"Carmen recognised me, and we exchanged glances. I don't know why, but +at that moment I should have liked to have been a hundred feet beneath +the ground. + +" '/Agur laguna/,'* said she. 'Oficial mio! You keep guard like a +recruit,' and before I could find a word in answer, she was inside the +house. + +* Good-day, comrade! + +"The whole party was assembled in the /patio/, and in spite of the +crowd I could see nearly everything that went on through the lattice.* +I could hear the castanets and the tambourine, the laughter and +applause. Sometimes I caught a glimpse of her head as she bounded +upward with her tambourine. Then I could hear the officers saying many +things to her which brought the blood to my face. As to her answers, I +knew nothing of them. It was on that day, I think, that I began to +love her in earnest--for three or four times I was tempted to rush +into the /patio/, and drive my sword into the bodies of all the +coxcombs who were making love to her. My torture lasted a full hour; +then the gipsies came out, and the carriage took them away. As she +passed me by, Carmen looked at me with those eyes you know, and said +to me very low, 'Comrade, people who are fond of good /fritata/ come +to eat it at Lillas Pastia's at Triana!' + +* In most of the houses in Seville there is an inner court + surrounded by an arched portico. This is used as a sitting-room in + summer. Over the court is stretched a piece of tent cloth, which + is watered during the day and removed at night. The street door is + almost always left open, and the passage leading to the court + (/zaguan/) is closed by an iron lattice of very elegant + workmanship. + +"Then, light as a kid, she stepped into the carriage, the coachman +whipped up his mules, and the whole merry party departed, whither I +know not. + +"You may fancy that the moment I was off guard I went to Triana; but +first of all I got myself shaved and brushed myself up as if I had +been going on parade. She was living with Lillas Pastia, an old fried- +fish seller, a gipsy, as black as a Moor, to whose house a great many +civilians resorted to eat /fritata/, especially, I think, because +Carmen had taken up her quarters there. + +" 'Lillas,' she said, as soon as she saw me. 'I'm not going to work +any more to-day. To-morrow will be a day, too.* Come, fellow- +countryman, let us go for a walk!' + +* /Manana sera otro dia./--A Spanish proverb. + +"She pulled her mantilla across her nose, and there we were in the +street, without my knowing in the least whither I was bound. + +" 'Senorita,' said I, 'I think I have to thank you for a present I had +while I was in prison. I've eaten the bread; the file will do for +sharpening my lance, and I keep it in remembrance of you. But as for +the money, here it is.' + +" 'Why, he's kept the money!' she exclaimed, bursting out laughing. +'But, after all, that's all the better--for I'm decidedly hard up! +What matter! The dog that runs never starves!* Come, let's spend it +all! You shall treat.' + +* /Chuquel sos pirela, cocal terela. "The dog that runs finds a + bone."--Gipsy proverb. + +"We had turned back toward Seville. At the entrance of the /Calle de +la Serpiente/ she bought a dozen oranges, which she made me put into +my handkerchief. A little farther on she bought a roll, a sausage, and +a bottle of manzanilla. Then, last of all, she turned into a +confectioner's shop. There she threw the gold coin I had returned to +her on the counter, with another she had in her pocket, and some small +silver, and then she asked me for all the money I had. All I possessed +was one peseta and a few cuartos, which I handed over to her, very +much ashamed of not having more. I thought she would have carried away +the whole shop. She took everything that was best and dearest, +/yemas/,* /turon/,** preserved fruits--as long as the money lasted. +And all these, too, I had to carry in paper bags. Perhaps you know the +/Calle del Candilejo/, where there is a head of Don Pedro the +Avenger.*** That head ought to have given me pause. We stopped at an +old house in that street. She passed into the entry, and knocked at a +door on the ground floor. It was opened by a gipsy, a thorough-paced +servant of the devil. Carmen said a few words to her in Romany. At +first the old hag grumbled. To smooth her down Carmen gave her a +couple of oranges and a handful of sugar-plums, and let her have a +taste of wine. Then she hung her cloak on her back, and led her to the +door, which she fastened with a wooden bar. As soon as we were alone +she began to laugh and caper like a lunatic, singing out, 'You are my +/rom/, I'm your /romi/.'**** + +* Sugared yolks of eggs. + +** A sort of nougat. + +*** This king, Don Pedro, whom we call "the Cruel," and whom Queen + Isabella, the Catholic, never called anything but "the Avenger," + was fond of walking about the streets of Seville at night in + search of adventures, like the Caliph Haroun al Raschid. One + night, in a lonely street, he quarrelled with a man who was + singing a serenade. There was a fight, and the king killed the + amorous /caballero/. At the clashing of their swords, an old woman + put her head out of the window and lighted up the scene with a + tiny lamp (candilejo) which she held in her hand. My readers must + be informed that King Don Pedro, though nimble and muscular, + suffered from one strange fault in his physical conformation. + Whenever he walked his knees cracked loudly. By this cracking the + old woman easily recognised him. The next day the /veintiquatro/ + in charge came to make his report to the king. "Sir, a duel was + fought last night in such a street--one of the combatants is + dead." "Have you found the murderer?" "Yes, sir." "Why has he not + been punished already?" "Sir, I await your orders!" "Carry out the + law." Now the king had just published a decree that every duellist + was to have his head cut off, and that head was to be set up on + the scene of the fight. The /veintiquatro/ got out of the + difficulty like a clever man. He had the head sawed off a statue + of the king, and set that up in a niche in the middle of the + street in which the murder had taken place. The king and all the + Sevillians thought this a very good joke. The street took its name + from the lamp held by the old woman, the only witness of the + incident. The above is the popular tradition. Zuniga tells the + story somewhat differently. However that may be, a street called + /Calle del Candilejo/ still exists in Seville, and in that street + there is a bust which is said to be a portrait of Don Pedro. This + bust, unfortunately, is a modern production. During the + seventeenth century the old one had become very much defaced, and + the municipality had it replaced by that now to be seen. + +**** /Rom/, husband. /Romi/, wife. + +"There I stood in the middle of the room, laden with all her +purchases, and not knowing where I was to put them down. She tumbled +them all onto the floor, and threw her arms round my neck, saying: + +" 'I pay my debts, I pay my debts! That's the law of the /Cales/.'* + +* /Calo/, feminine /calli/, plural /cales/. Literally "black," the + name the gipsies apply to themselves in their own language. + +"Ah, sir, that day! that day! When I think of it I forget what +to-morrow must bring me!" + +For a moment the bandit held his peace, then, when he had relighted +his cigar, he began afresh. + +"We spent the whole day together, eating, drinking, and so forth. When +she had stuffed herself with sugar-plums, like any child of six years +old, she thrust them by handfuls into the old woman's water-jar. +'That'll make sherbet for her,' she said. She smashed the /yemas/ by +throwing them against the walls. 'They'll keep the flies from +bothering us.' There was no prank or wild frolic she didn't indulge +in. I told her I should have liked to see her dance, only there were +no castanets to be had. Instantly she seized the old woman's only +earthenware plate, smashed it up, and there she was dancing the +/Romalis/, and making the bits of broken crockery rattle as well as if +they had been ebony and ivory castanets. That girl was good company, I +can tell you! Evening fell, and I heard the drums beating tattoo. + +" 'I must get back to quarters for roll-call,' I said. + +" 'To quarters!' she answered, with a look of scorn. 'Are you a negro +slave, to let yourself be driven with a ramrod like that! You are as +silly as a canary bird. Your dress suits your nature.* Pshaw! you've +no more heart than a chicken.' + +* Spanish dragoons wear a yellow uniform. + +"I stayed on, making up my mind to the inevitable guard-room. The next +morning the first suggestion of parting came from her. + +" 'Hark ye, Joseito,' she said. 'Have I paid you? By our law, I owed +you nothing, because you're a /payllo/. But you're a good-looking +fellow, and I took a fancy to you. Now we're quits. Good-day!' + +"I asked her when I should see her again. + +" 'When you're less of a simpleton,' she retorted, with a laugh. Then, +in a more serious tone, 'Do you know, my son, I really believe I love +you a little; but that can't last! The dog and the wolf can't agree +for long. Perhaps if you turned gipsy, I might care to be your /romi/. +But that's all nonsense, such things aren't possible. Pshaw! my boy. +Believe me, you're well out of it. You've come across the devil--he +isn't always black--and you've not had your neck wrung. I wear a +woollen suit, but I'm no sheep.* Go and burn a candle to your +/majari/,** she deserves it well. Come, good-by once more. Don't think +any more about /La Carmencita/, or she'll end by making you marry a +widow with wooden legs.'*** + +* /Me dicas vriarda de jorpoy, bus ne sino braco/.--A gipsy proverb. + +** The Saint, the Holy Virgin. + +*** The gallows, which is the widow of the last man hanged upon it. + +"As she spoke, she drew back the bar that closed the door, and once we +were out in the street she wrapped her mantilla about her, and turned +on her heel. + +"She spoke the truth. I should have done far better never to think of +her again. But after that day in the /Calle del Candilejo/ I couldn't +think of anything else. All day long I used to walk about, hoping I +might meet her. I sought news of her from the old hag, and from the +fried-fish seller. They both told me she had gone away to /Laloro/, +which is their name for Portugal. They probably said it by Carmen's +orders, but I soon found out they were lying. Some weeks after my day +in the /Calle del Candilejo/ I was on duty at one of the town gates. A +little way from the gate there was a breach in the wall. The masons +were working at it in the daytime, and at night a sentinel was posted +on it, to prevent smugglers from getting in. All through one day I saw +Lillas Pastia going backward and forward near the guard-room, and +talking to some of my comrades. They all knew him well, and his fried- +fish and fritters even better. He came up to me, and asked if I had +any news of Carmen. + +" 'No,' said I. + +" 'Well,' said he, 'you'll soon hear of her, old fellow.' + +"He was not mistaken. That night I was posted to guard the breach in +the wall. As soon as the sergeant had disappeared I saw a woman coming +toward me. My heart told me it was Carmen. Still I shouted: + +" 'Keep off! Nobody can pass here!' + +" 'Now, don't be spiteful,' she said, making herself known to me. + +" 'What! you here, Carmen?' + +" 'Yes, /mi payllo/. Let us say few words, but wise ones. Would you +like to earn a douro? Some people will be coming with bundles. Let +them alone.' + +" 'No,' said I, 'I must not allow them through. These are my orders.' + +" 'Orders! orders! You didn't think about orders in the /Calle del +Candilejo/!' + +" 'Ah!' I cried, quite maddened by the very thought of that night. 'It +was well worth while to forget my orders for that! But I won't have +any smuggler's money!' + +" 'Well, if you won't have money, shall we go and dine together at old +Dorotea's?' + +" 'No,' said I, half choked by the effort it cost me. 'No, I can't.' + +" 'Very good! If you make so many difficulties, I know to whom I can +go. I'll ask your officer if he'll come with me to Dorotea's. He looks +good-natured, and he'll post a sentry who'll only see what he had +better see. Good-bye, canary-bird! I shall have a good laugh the day +the order comes out to hang you!' + +"I was weak enough to call her back, and I promised to let the whole +of gipsydom pass in, if that were necessary, so that I secured the +only reward I longed for. She instantly swore she would keep her word +faithfully the very next day, and ran off to summon her friends, who +were close by. There were five of them, of whom Pastia was one, all +well loaded with English goods. Carmen kept watch for them. She was to +warn them with her castanets the instant she caught sight of the +patrol. But there was no necessity for that. The smugglers finished +their job in a moment. + +"The next day I went to the /Calle del Candilejo/. Carmen kept me +waiting, and when she came, she was in rather a bad temper. + +" 'I don't like people who have to be pressed,' she said. 'You did me +a much greater service the first time, without knowing you'd gain +anything by it. Yesterday you bargained with me. I don't know why I've +come, for I don't care for you any more. Here, be off with you. Here's +a douro for your trouble.' + +"I very nearly threw the coin at her head, and I had to make a violent +effort to prevent myself from actually beating her. After we had +wrangled for an hour I went off in a fury. For some time I wandered +about the town, walking hither and thither like a madman. At last I +went into a church, and getting into the darkest corner I could find, +I cried hot tears. All at once I heard a voice. + +" 'A dragoon in tears. I'll make a philter of them!' + +"I looked up. There was Carmen in front of me. + +" 'Well, /mi payllo/, are you still angry with me?' she said. 'I must +care for you in spite of myself, for since you left me I don't know +what has been the matter with me. Look you, it is I who ask you to +come to the /Calle del Candilejo/, now!' + +"So we made it up: but Carmen's temper was like the weather in our +country. The storm is never so close, in our mountains, as when the +sun is at its brightest. She had promised to meet me again at +Dorotea's, but she didn't come. + +"And Dorotea began telling me again that she had gone off to Portugal +about some gipsy business. + +"As experience had already taught me how much of that I was to +believe, I went about looking for Carmen wherever I thought she might +be, and twenty times in every day I walked through the /Calle del +Candilejo/. One evening I was with Dorotea, whom I had almost tamed by +giving her a glass of anisette now and then, when Carmen walked in, +followed by a young man, a lieutenant in our regiment. + +" 'Get away at once,' she said to me in Basque. I stood there, +dumfounded, my heart full of rage. + +" 'What are you doing here?' said the lieutenant to me. 'Take yourself +off--get out of this.' + +"I couldn't move a step. I felt paralyzed. The officer grew angry, and +seeing I did not go out, and had not even taken off my forage cap, he +caught me by the collar and shook me roughly. I don't know what I said +to him. He drew his sword, and I unsheathed mine. The old woman caught +hold of my arm, and the lieutenant gave me a wound on the forehead, of +which I still bear the scar. I made a step backward, and with one jerk +of my elbow I threw old Dorotea down. Then, as the lieutenant still +pressed me, I turned the point of my sword against his body and he ran +upon it. Then Carmen put out the lamp and told Dorotea, in her own +language, to take to flight. I fled into the street myself, and began +running along, I knew not whither. It seemed to me that some one was +following me. When I came to myself I discovered that Carmen had never +left me. + +" 'Great stupid of a canary-bird!' she said, 'you never make anything +but blunders. And, indeed, you know I told you I should bring you bad +luck. But come, there's a cure for everything when you have a Fleming +from Rome* for your love. Begin by rolling this handkerchief round +your head, and throw me over that belt of yours. Wait for me in this +alley--I'll be back in two minutes. + +* /Flamenco de Roma/, a slang term for the gipsies. Roma does not + stand for the Eternal City, but for the nation of the /romi/, or + the married folk--a name applied by the gipsies to themselves. The + first gipsies seen in Spain probably came from the Low Countries, + hence their name of /Flemings/. + +"She disappeared, and soon came back bringing me a striped cloak which +she had gone to fetch, I knew not whence. She made me take off my +uniform, and put on the cloak over my shirt. Thus dressed, and with +the wound on my head bound round with the handkerchief, I was +tolerably like a Valencian peasant, many of whom come to Seville to +sell a drink they make out of '/chufas/.'* Then she took me to a house +very much like Dorotea's, at the bottom of a little lane. Here she and +another gipsy woman washed and dressed my wounds, better than any army +surgeon could have done, gave me something, I know not what, to drink, +and finally made me lie down on a mattress, on which I went to sleep. + +* A bulbous root, out of which rather a pleasant beverage is + manufactured. + +"Probably the woman had mixed one of the soporific drugs of which they +know the secret in my drink, for I did not wake up till very late the +next day. I was rather feverish, and had a violent headache. It was +some time before the memory of the terrible scene in which I had taken +part on the previous night came back to me. After having dressed my +wound, Carmen and her friend, squatting on their heels beside my +mattress, exchanged a few words of '/chipe calli/,' which appeared to +me to be something in the nature of a medical consultation. Then they +both of them assured me that I should soon be cured, but that I must +get out of Seville at the earliest possible moment, for that, if I was +caught there, I should most undoubtedly be shot. + +" 'My boy,' said Carmen to me, 'you'll have to do something. Now that +the king won't give you either rice or haddock* you'll have to think +of earning your livelihood. You're too stupid for stealing /a +pastesas/.** But you are brave and active. If you have the pluck, take +yourself off to the coast and turn smuggler. Haven't I promised to get +you hanged? That's better than being shot, and besides, if you set +about it properly, you'll live like a prince as long as the +/minons/*** and the coast-guard don't lay their hands on your collar.' + +* The ordinary food of a Spanish soldier. + +** /Ustilar a pastesas/, to steal cleverly, to purloin without + violence. + +*** A sort of volunteer corps. + +"In this attractive guise did this fiend of a girl describe the new +career she was suggesting to me,--the only one, indeed, remaining, now +I had incurred the penalty of death. Shall I confess it, sir? She +persuaded me without much difficulty. This wild and dangerous life, it +seemed to me, would bind her and me more closely together. In future, +I thought, I should be able to make sure of her love. + +"I had often heard talk of certain smugglers who travelled about +Andalusia, each riding a good horse, with his mistress behind him and +his blunderbuss in his fist. Already I saw myself trotting up and down +the world, with a pretty gipsy behind me. When I mentioned that notion +to her, she laughed till she had to hold her sides, and vowed there +was nothing in the world so delightful as a night spent camping in the +open air, when each /rom/ retired with his /romi/ beneath their little +tent, made of three hoops with a blanket thrown across them. + +" 'If I take to the mountains,' said I to her, 'I shall be sure of +you. There'll be no lieutenant there to go shares with me.' + +" 'Ha! ha! you're jealous!' she retorted, 'so much the worse for you. +How can you be such a fool as that? Don't you see I must love you, +because I have never asked you for money?' + +"When she said that sort to thing I could have strangled her. + +"To shorten the story, sir, Carmen procured me civilian clothes, +disguised in which I got out of Seville without being recognised. I +went to Jerez, with a letter from Pastia to a dealer in anisette whose +house was the smugglers' meeting-place. I was introduced to them, and +their leader, surnamed /El Dancaire/, enrolled me in his gang. We +started for Gaucin, where I found Carmen, who had told me she would +meet me there. In all these expeditions she acted as spy for our gang, +and she was the best that ever was seen. She had now just returned +from Gibraltar, and had already arranged with the captain of a ship +for a cargo of English goods which we were to receive on the coast. We +went to meet it near Estepona. We hid part in the mountains, and laden +with the rest, we proceeded to Ronda. Carmen had gone there before us. +It was she again who warned us when we had better enter the town. This +first journey, and several subsequent ones, turned out well. I found +the smuggler's life pleasanter than a soldier's: I could give presents +to Carmen, I had money, and I had a mistress. I felt little or no +remorse, for, as the gipsies say, 'The happy man never longs to +scratch his itch.' We were made welcome everywhere, my comrades +treated me well, and even showed me a certain respect. The reason of +this was that I had killed my man, and that some of them had no +exploit of that description on their conscience. But what I valued +most in my new life was that I often saw Carmen. She showed me more +affection than ever; nevertheless, she would never admit, before my +comrades, that she was my mistress, and she had even made me swear all +sorts of oaths that I would not say anything about her to them. I was +so weak in that creature's hands, that I obeyed all her whims. And +besides, this was the first time she had revealed herself as +possessing any of the reserve of a well-conducted woman, and I was +simple enough to believe she had really cast off her former habits. + +"Our gang, which consisted of eight or ten men, was hardly ever +together except at decisive moments, and we were usually scattered by +twos and threes about the towns and villages. Each one of us pretended +to have some trade. One was a tinker, another was a groom; I was +supposed to peddle haberdashery, but I hardly ever showed myself in +large places, on account of my unlucky business at Seville. One day, +or rather one night, we were to meet below Veger. /El Dancaire/ and I +got there before the others. + +" 'We shall soon have a new comrade,' said he. 'Carmen has just +managed one of her best tricks. She has contrived the escape of her +/rom/, who was in the /presidio/ at Tarifa.' + +"I was already beginning to understand the gipsy language, which +nearly all my comrades spoke, and this word /rom/ startled me. + +"What! her husband? Is she married, then?' said I to the captain. + +" 'Yes!' he replied, 'married to Garcia /el Tuerto/*--as cunning a +gipsy as she is herself. The poor fellow has been at the galleys. +Carmen has wheedled the surgeon of the /presidio/ to such good purpose +that she has managed to get her /rom/ out of prison. Faith! that +girl's worth her weight in gold. For two years she has been trying to +contrive his escape, but she could do nothing until the authorities +took it into their heads to change the surgeon. She soon managed to +come to an understanding with this new one.' + +* One-eyed man. + +"You may imagine how pleasant this news was for me. I soon saw Garcia +/el Tuerto/. He was the very ugliest brute that was ever nursed in +gipsydom. His skin was black, his soul was blacker, and he was +altogether the most thorough-paced ruffian I ever came across in my +life. Carmen arrived with him, and when she called him her /rom/ in my +presence, you should have seen the eyes she made at me, and the faces +she pulled whenever Garcia turned his head away. + +"I was disgusted, and never spoke a word to her all night. The next +morning we had made up our packs, and had already started, when we +became aware that we had a dozen horsemen on our heels. The braggart +Andalusians, who had been boasting they would murder every one who +came near them, cut a pitiful figure at once. There was a general +rout. /El Dancaire/, Garcia, a good-looking fellow from Ecija, who was +called /El Remendado/, and Carmen herself, kept their wits about them. +The rest forsook the mules and took to the gorges, where the horses +could not follow them. There was no hope of saving the mules, so we +hastily unstrapped the best part of our booty, and taking it on our +shoulders, we tried to escape through the rocks down the steepest of +the slopes. We threw our packs down in front of us and followed them +as best we could, slipping along on our heels. Meanwhile the enemy +fired at us. It was the first time I had ever heard bullets whistling +around me and I didn't mind it very much. When there's a woman looking +on, there's no particular merit in snapping one's fingers at death. We +all escaped except the poor /Remendado/, who received a bullet wound +in the loins. I threw away my pack and tried to lift him up. + +" 'Idiot!' shouted Garcia, 'what do we want with offal! Finish him +off, and don't lose the cotton stockings!' + +" 'Drop him!' cried Carmen. + +"I was so exhausted that I was obliged to lay him down for a moment +under a rock. Garcia came up, and fired his blunderbuss full into his +face. 'He'd be a clever fellow who recognised him now!' said he, as he +looked at the face, cut to pieces by a dozen slugs. + +"There, sir; that's the delightful sort of life I've led! That night +we found ourselves in a thicket, worn out with fatigue, with nothing +to eat, and ruined by the loss of our mules. What do you think that +devil Garcia did? He pulled a pack of cards out of his pocket and +began playing games with /El Dancaire/ by the light of a fire they +kindled. Meanwhile I was lying down, staring at the stars, thinking of +/El Remendado/, and telling myself I would just as lief be in his +place. Carmen was squatting down near me, and every now and then she +would rattle her castanets and hum a tune. Then, drawing close to me, +as if she would have whispered in my ear, she kissed me two or three +times over almost against my will. + +" 'You are a devil,' said I to her. + +" 'Yes,' she replied. + +"After a few hours' rest, she departed to Gaucin, and the next morning +a little goatherd brought us some food. We stayed there all that day, +and in the evening we moved close to Gaucin. We were expecting news +from Carmen, but none came. After daylight broke we saw a muleteer +attending a well-dressed woman with a parasol, and a little girl who +seemed to be her servant. Said Garcia, 'There go two mules and two +women whom St. Nicholas has sent us. I would rather have had four +mules, but no matter. I'll do the best I can with these.' + +"He took his blunderbuss, and went down the pathway, hiding himself +among the brushwood. + +"We followed him, /El Dancaire/ and I keeping a little way behind. As +soon as the woman saw us, instead of being frightened--and our dress +would have been enough to frighten any one--she burst into a fit of +loud laughter. 'Ah! the /lillipendi/! They take me for an /erani/!'* + +* "The idiots, they take me for a smart lady!" + +"It was Carmen, but so well disguised that if she had spoken any other +language I should never have recognised her. She sprang off her mule, +and talked some time in an undertone with /El Dancaire/ and Garcia. +Then she said to me: + +" 'Canary-bird, we shall meet again before you're hanged. I'm off to +Gibraltar on gipsy business--you'll soon have news of me.' + +"We parted, after she had told us of a place where we should find +shelter for some days. That girl was the providence of our gang. We +soon received some money sent by her, and a piece of news which was +still more useful to us--to the effect that on a certain day two +English lords would travel from Gibraltar to Granada by a road she +mentioned. This was a word to the wise. They had plenty of good +guineas. Garcia would have killed them, but /El Dancaire/ and I +objected. All we took from them, besides their shirts, which we +greatly needed, was their money and their watches. + +"Sir, a man may turn rogue in sheer thoughtlessness. You lose your +head over a pretty girl, you fight another man about her, there is a +catastrophe, you have to take to the mountains, and you turn from a +smuggler into a robber before you have time to think about it. After +this matter of the English lords, we concluded that the neighbourhood +of Gibraltar would not be healthy for us, and we plunged into the +/Sierra de Ronda/. You once mentioned Jose-Maria to me. Well, it was +there I made acquaintance with him. He always took his mistress with +him on his expeditions. She was a pretty girl, quiet, modest, well- +mannered, you never heard a vulgar word from her, and she was quite +devoted to him. He, on his side, led her a very unhappy life. He was +always running after other women, he ill-treated her, and then +sometimes he would take it into his head to be jealous. One day he +slashed her with a knife. Well, she only doted on him the more! That's +the way with women, and especially with Andalusians. This girl was +proud of the scar on her arm, and would display it as though it were +the most beautiful thing in the world. And then Jose-Maria was the +worst of comrades in the bargain. In one expedition we made with him, +he managed so that he kept all the profits, and we had all the trouble +and the blows. But I must go back to my story. We had no sign at all +from Carmen. /El Dancaire/ said: 'One of us will have to go to +Gibraltar to get news of her. She must have planned some business. I'd +go at once, only I'm too well known at Gibraltar.' /El Tuerto/ said: + +" 'I'm well known there too. I've played so many tricks on the +crayfish*--and as I've only one eye, it is not overeasy for me to +disguise myself.' + +* Name applied by the Spanish populace to the British soldiers, on + account of the colour of their uniform. + +" 'Then I suppose I must go,' said I, delighted at the very idea of +seeing Carmen again. 'Well, how am I to set about it?' + +"The others answered: + +" 'You must either go by sea, or you must get through by San Rocco, +whichever you like the best; once you are in Gibraltar, inquire in the +port where a chocolate-seller called /La Rollona/ lives. When you've +found her, she'll tell you everything that's happening.' + +"It was settled that we were all to start for the Sierra, that I was +to leave my two companions there, and take my way to Gibraltar, in the +character of a fruit-seller. At Ronda one of our men procured me a +passport; at Gaucin I was provided with a donkey. I loaded it with +oranges and melons, and started forth. When I reached Gibraltar I +found that many people knew /La Rollona/, but that she was either dead +or had gone /ad finibus terroe/,* and, to my mind, her disappearance +explained the failure of our correspondence with Carmen. I stabled my +donkey, and began to move about the town, carrying my oranges as +though to sell them, but in reality looking to see whether I could not +come across any face I knew. The place is full of ragamuffins from +every country in the world, and it really is like the Tower of Babel, +for you can't go ten paces along a street without hearing as many +languages. I did see some gipsies, but I hardly dared confide in them. +I was taking stock of them, and they were taking stock of me. We had +mutually guessed each other to be rogues, but the important thing for +us was to know whether we belonged to the same gang. After having +spent two days in fruitless wanderings, and having found out nothing +either as to /La Rollona/ or as to Carmen, I was thinking I would go +back to my comrades as soon as I had made a few purchases, when, +toward sunset, as I was walking along a street, I heard a woman's +voice from a window say, 'Orange-seller!' + +* To the galleys, or else to all the devils in hell. + +"I looked up, and on a balcony I saw Carmen looking out, beside a +scarlet-coated officer with gold epaulettes, curly hair, and all the +appearance of a rich /milord/. As for her, she was magnificently +dressed, a shawl hung on her shoulders, she'd a gold comb in her hair, +everything she wore was of silk; and the cunning little wretch, not a +bit altered, was laughing till she held her sides. + +"The Englishman shouted to me in mangled Spanish to come upstairs, as +the lady wanted some oranges, and Carmen said to me in Basque: + +" 'Come up, and don't look astonished at anything!' + +"Indeed, nothing that she did ought ever to have astonished me. I +don't know whether I was most happy or wretched at seeing her again. +At the door of the house there was a tall English servant with a +powdered head, who ushered me into a splendid drawing-room. Instantly +Carmen said to me in Basque, 'You don't know one word of Spanish, and +you don't know me.' Then turning to the Englishman, she added: + +" 'I told you so. I saw at once he was a Basque. Now you'll hear what +a queer language he speaks. Doesn't he look silly? He's like a cat +that's been caught in the larder!' + +" 'And you,' said I to her in my own language, 'you look like an +impudent jade--and I've a good mind to scar your face here and now, +before your spark.' + +" 'My spark!' said she. 'Why, you've guessed that all alone! Are you +jealous of this idiot? You're even sillier than you were before our +evening in the /Calle del Candilejo/! Don't you see, fool, that at +this moment I'm doing gipsy business, and doing it in the most +brilliant manner? This house belongs to me--the guineas of that +crayfish will belong to me! I lead him by the nose, and I'll lead him +to a place that he'll never get out of!' + +" 'And if I catch you doing any gipsy business in this style again, +I'll see to it that you never do any again!' said I. + +" 'Ah! upon my word! Are you my /rom/, pray that you give me orders? +If /El Tuerto/ is pleased, what have you to do with it? Oughtn't you +to be very happy that you are the only man who can call himself my +/minchorro/?'* + +* My "lover," or rather my "fancy." + +" 'What does he say?' inquired the Englishman. + +" 'He says he's thirsty, and would like a drink,' answered Carmen, and +she threw herself back upon a sofa, screaming with laughter at her own +translation. + +"When that girl begins to laugh, sir, it was hopeless for anybody to +try and talk sense. Everybody laughed with her. The big Englishman +began to laugh too, like the idiot he was, and ordered the servant to +bring me something to drink. + +"While I was drinking she said to me: + +" 'Do you see that ring he has on his finger? If you like I'll give it +to you.' + +"And I answered: + +" 'I would give one of my fingers to have your /milord/ out on the +mountains, and each of us with a /maquila/ in his fist.' + +" '/Maquila/, what does that mean?' asked the Englishman. + +" 'Maquila,' said Carmen, still laughing, 'means an orange. Isn't it a +queer word for an orange? He says he'd like you to eat /maquila/.' + +" 'Does he?' said the Englishman. 'Very well, bring more /maquila/ +to-morrow.' + +"While we were talking a servant came in and said dinner was ready. +Then the Englishman stood up, gave me a piastre, and offered his arm +to Carmen, as if she couldn't have walked alone. Carmen, who was still +laughing, said to me: + +" 'My boy, I can't ask you to dinner. But to-morrow, as soon as you +hear the drums beat for parade, come here with your oranges. You'll +find a better furnished room than the one in the /Calle del +Candilejo/, and you'll see whether I am still your /Carmencita/. Then +afterwards we'll talk about gipsy business.' + +"I gave her no answer--even when I was in the street I could hear the +Englishman shouting, 'Bring more /maquila/ to-morrow,' and Carmen's +peals of laughter. + +"I went out, not knowing what I should do; I hardly slept, and next +morning I was so enraged with the treacherous creature that I made up +my mind to leave Gibraltar without seeing her again. But the moment +the drums began to roll, my courage failed me. I took up my net full +of oranges, and hurried off to Carmen's house. Her window-shutters had +been pulled apart a little, and I saw her great dark eyes watching for +me. The powdered servant showed me in at once. Carmen sent him out +with a message, and as soon as we were alone she burst into one of her +fits of crocodile laughter and threw her arms around my neck. Never +had I seen her look so beautiful. She was dressed out like a queen, +and scented; she had silken furniture, embroidered curtains--and I +togged out like the thief I was! + +" '/Minchorro/,' said Carmen, 'I've a good mind to smash up everything +here, set fire to the house, and take myself off to the mountains.' +And then she would fondle me, and then she would laugh, and she danced +about and tore up her fripperies. Never did monkey gambol nor make +such faces, nor play such wild tricks, as she did that day. When she +had recovered her gravity-- + +" 'Hark!' she said, 'this is gipsy business. I mean him to take me to +Ronda, where I have a sister who is a nun' (here she shrieked with +laughter again). 'We shall pass by a particular spot which I shall +make known to you. Then you must fall upon him and strip him to the +skin. Your best plan would be to do for him, but,' she added, with a +certain fiendish smile of hers, which no one who saw it ever had any +desire to imitate, 'do you know what you had better do? Let /El +Tuerto/ come up in front of you. You keep a little behind. The +crayfish is brave, and skilful too, and he has good pistols. Do you +understand?' + +"And she broke off with another fit of laughter that made me shiver. + +" 'No,' said I, 'I hate Garcia, but he's my comrade. Some day, maybe, +I'll rid you of him, but we'll settle our account after the fashion of +my country. It's only chance that has made me a gipsy, and in certain +things I shall always be a thorough Navarrese,* as the proverb says. + +* /Navarro fino/. + +" 'You're a fool,' she rejoined, 'a simpleton, a regular /payllo/. +You're just like the dwarf who thinks himself tall because he can spit +a long way.* You don't love me! Be off with you!' + +* /Or esorjle de or marsichisle, sin chisnar lachinguel/. "The + promise of a dwarf is that he will spit a long way."--A gipsy + proverb. + +"Whenever she said to me 'Be off with you," I couldn't go away. I +promised I would start back to my comrades and wait the arrival of the +Englishman. She, on her side, promised she would be ill until she left +Gibraltar for Ronda. + +"I remained at Gibraltar two days longer. She had the boldness to +disguise herself and come and see me at the inn. I departed, I had a +plan of my own. I went back to our meeting-place with the information +as to the spot and the hour at which the Englishman and Carmen were to +pass by. I found /El Dancaire/ and Garcia waiting for me. We spent the +night in a wood, beside a fire made of pine-cones that blazed +splendidly. I suggested to Garcia that we should play cards, and he +agreed. In the second game I told him he was cheating; he began to +laugh; I threw the cards in his face. He tried to get at his +blunderbuss. I set my foot on it, and said, 'They say you can use a +knife as well as the best ruffian in Malaga; will you try it with me?' +/El Dancaire/ tried to part us. I had given Garcia one or two cuffs, +his rage had given him courage, he drew his knife, and I drew mine. We +both of us told /El Dancaire/ he must leave us alone, and let us fight +it out. He saw there was no means of stopping us, so he stood on one +side. Garcia was already bent double, like a cat ready to spring upon +a mouse. He held his hat in his left hand to parry with, and his knife +in front of him--that's their Andalusian guard. I stood up in the +Navarrese fashion, with my left arm raised, my left leg forward, and +my knife held straight along my right thigh. I felt I was stronger +than any giant. He flew at me like an arrow. I turned round on my left +foot, so that he found nothing in front of him. But I thrust him in +the throat, and the knife went in so far that my hand was under his +chin. I gave the blade such a twist that it broke. That was the end. +The blade was carried out of the wound by a gush of blood as thick as +my arm, and he fell full length on his face. + +" 'What have you done?' said /El Dancaire/ to me. + +" 'Hark ye,' said I, 'we couldn't live on together. I love Carmen and +I mean to be the only one. And besides, Garcia was a villain. I +remember what he did to that poor /Remendado/. There are only two of +us left now, but we are both good fellows. Come, will you have me for +your friend, for life or death?' + +"/El Dancaire/ stretched out his hand. He was a man of fifty. + +" 'Devil take these love stories!' he cried. 'If you'd asked him for +Carmen he'd have sold her to you for a piastre! There are only two of +us now--how shall we manage for to-morrow?' + +" 'I'll manage it all alone,' I answered. 'I can snap my fingers at +the whole world now.' + +"We buried Garcia, and we moved our camp two hundred paces farther on. +The next morning Carmen and her Englishman came along with two +muleteers and a servant. I said to /El Dancaire/: + +" 'I'll look after the Englishman, you frighten the others--they're +not armed!' + +"The Englishman was a plucky fellow. He'd have killed me if Carmen +hadn't jogged his elbow. + +"To put it shortly, I won Carmen back that day, and my first words +were to tell her she was a widow. + +"When she knew how it had all happened-- + +" 'You'll always be a /lillipendi/,' she said. 'Garcia ought to have +killed you. Your Navarrese guard is a pack of nonsense, and he has +sent far more skilful men than you into the darkness. It was just that +his time had come--and yours will come too.' + +" 'Ay, and yours too!--if you're not a faithful /romi/ to me.' + +" 'So be it,' said she. 'I've read in the coffee grounds, more than +once, that you and I were to end our lives together. Pshaw! what must +be, will be!' and she rattled her castanets, as was her way when she +wanted to drive away some worrying thought. + +"One runs on when one is talking about one's self. I dare say all +these details bore you, but I shall soon be at the end of my story. +Our new life lasted for some considerable time. /El Dancaire/ and I +gathered a few comrades about us, who were more trustworthy than our +earlier ones, and we turned our attention to smuggling. Occasionally, +indeed, I must confess we stopped travellers on the highways, but +never unless we were at the last extremity, and could not avoid doing +so; and besides, we never ill-treated the travellers, and confined +ourselves to taking their money from them. + +"For some months I was very well satisfied with Carmen. She still +served us in our smuggling operations, by giving us notice of any +opportunity of making a good haul. She remained either at Malaga, at +Cordova, or at Granada, but at a word from me she would leave +everything, and come to meet me at some /venta/ or even in our lonely +camp. Only once--it was at Malaga--she caused me some uneasiness. I +heard she had fixed her fancy upon a very rich merchant, with whom she +probably proposed to play her Gibraltar trick over again. In spite of +everything /El Dancaire/ said to stop me, I started off, walked into +Malaga in broad daylight, sought for Carmen and carried her off +instantly. We had a sharp altercation. + +" 'Do you know,' said she, 'now that you're my /rom/ for good and all, +I don't care for you so much as when you were my /minchorro/! I won't +be worried, and above all, I won't be ordered about. I choose to be +free to do as I like. Take care you don't drive me too far; if you +tire me out, I'll find some good fellow who'll serve you just as you +served /El Tuerto/.' + +"/El Dancaire/ patched it up between us; but we had said things to +each other that rankled in our hearts, and we were not as we had been +before. Shortly after that we had a misfortune: the soldiers caught +us, /El Dancaire/ and two of my comrades were killed; two others were +taken. I was sorely wounded, and, but for my good horse, I should have +fallen into the soldiers' hands. Half dead with fatigue, and with a +bullet in my body, I sought shelter in a wood, with my only remaining +comrade. When I got off my horse I fainted away, and I thought I was +going to die there in the brushwood, like a shot hare. My comrade +carried me to a cave he knew of, and then he sent to fetch Carmen. + +"She was at Granada, and she hurried to me at once. For a whole +fortnight she never left me for a single instant. She never closed her +eyes; she nursed me with a skill and care such as no woman ever showed +to the man she loved most tenderly. As soon as I could stand on my +feet, she conveyed me with the utmost secrecy to Granada. These gipsy +women find safe shelter everywhere, and I spent more than six weeks in +a house only two doors from that of the /Corregidor/ who was trying to +arrest me. More than once I saw him pass by, from behind the shutter. +At last I recovered, but I had thought a great deal, on my bed of +pain, and I had planned to change my way of life. I suggested to +Carmen that we should leave Spain, and seek an honest livelihood in +the New World. She laughed in my face. + +" 'We were not born to plant cabbages,' she cried. 'Our fate is to +live /payllos/! Listen: I've arranged a business with Nathan Ben- +Joseph at Gibraltar. He has cotton stuffs that he can not get through +till you come to fetch them. He knows you're alive, and reckons upon +you. What would our Gibraltar correspondents say if you failed them?' + +"I let myself by persuaded, and took up my vile trade once more. + +"While I was hiding at Granada there were bull-fights there, to which +Carmen went. When she came back she talked a great deal about a +skilful /picador/ of the name of Lucas. She knew the name of his +horse, and how much his embroidered jacket had cost him. I paid no +attention to this; but a few days later, Juanito, the only one of my +comrades who was left, told me he had seen Carmen with Lucas in a shop +in the Zacatin. Then I began to feel alarmed. I asked Carmen how and +why she had made the /picador's/ acquaintance. + +" 'He's a man out of whom we may be able to get something,' said she. +'A noisy stream has either water in it or pebbles. He has earned +twelve hundred reals at the bull-fights. It must be one of two things: +we must either have his money, or else, as he is a good rider and a +plucky fellow, we can enroll him in our gang. We have lost such an one +an such an one; you'll have to replace them. Take this man with you!' + +" 'I want neither his money nor himself,' I replied, 'and I forbid you +to speak to him.' + +" 'Beware!' she retorted. 'If any one defies me to do a thing, it's +very quickly done.' + +"Luckily the /picador/ departed to Malaga, and I set about passing in +the Jew's cotton stuffs. This expedition gave me a great deal to do, +and Carmen as well. I forgot Lucas, and perhaps she forgot him too-- +for the moment, at all events. It was just about that time, sir, that +I met you, first at Montilla, and then afterward at Cordova. I won't +talk about that last interview. You know more about it, perhaps, than +I do. Carmen stole your watch from you, she wanted to have your money +besides, and especially that ring I see on your finger, and which she +declared to be a magic ring, the possession of which was very +important to her. We had a violent quarrel, and I struck her. She +turned pale and began to cry. It was the first time I had ever seen +her cry, and it affected me in the most painful manner. I begged her +to forgive me, but she sulked with me for a whole day, and when I +started back to Montilla she wouldn't kiss me. My heart was still very +sore, when, three days later, she joined me with a smiling face and as +merry as a lark. Everything was forgotten, and we were like a pair of +honeymoon lovers. Just as we were parting she said, 'There's a /fete/ +at Cordova; I shall go and see it, and then I shall know what people +will be coming away with money, and I can warn you.' + +"I let her go. When I was alone I thought about the /fete/, and about +the change in Carmen's temper. 'She must have avenged herself +already,' said I to myself, 'since she was the first to make our +quarrel up.' A peasant told me there was to be bull-fighting at +Cordova. Then my blood began to boil, and I went off like a madman +straight to the bull-ring. I had Lucas pointed out to me, and on the +bench, just beside the barrier, I recognised Carmen. One glance at her +was enough to turn my suspicion into certainty. When the first bull +appeared Lucas began, as I had expected to play the agreeable; he +snatched the cockade off the bull and presented it to Carmen, who put +it in her hair at once.* + +* /La divisa/. A knot of ribbon, the colour of which indicates the + pasturage from which each bull comes. This knot of ribbon is + fastened into the bull's hide with a sort of hook, and it is + considered the very height of gallantry to snatch it off the + living beast and present it to a woman. + +"The bull avenged me. Lucas was knocked down, with his horse on his +chest, and the bull on top of both of them. I looked for Carmen, she +had disappeared from her place already. I couldn't get out of mine, +and I was obliged to wait until the bull-fight was over. Then I went +off to that house you already know, and waited there quietly all that +evening and part of the night. Toward two o'clock in the morning +Carmen came back, and was rather surprised to see me. + +" 'Come with me,' said I. + +" 'Very well,' said she, 'let's be off.' + +"I went and got my horse, and took her up behind me, and we travelled +all the rest of the night without saying a word to each other. When +daylight came we stopped at a lonely inn, not far from a hermitage. +There I said to Carmen: + +" 'Listen--I forget everything, I won't mention anything to you. But +swear one thing to me--that you'll come with me to America, and live +there quietly!' + +" 'No,' said she, in a sulky voice, 'I won't go to America--I am very +well here.' + +" 'That's because you're near Lucas. But be very sure that even if he +gets well now, he won't make old bones. And, indeed, why should I +quarrel with him? I'm tired of killing all your lovers; I'll kill you +this time.' + +"She looked at me steadily with her wild eyes, and then she said: + +" 'I've always thought you would kill me. The very first time I saw +you I had just met a priest at the door of my house. And to-night, as +we were going out of Cordova, didn't you see anything? A hare ran +across the road between your horse's feet. It is fate.' + +" 'Carmencita,' I asked, 'don't you love me any more?' + +"She gave me no answer, she was sitting cross-legged on a mat, making +marks on the ground with her finger. + +" 'Let us change our life, Carmen,' said I imploringly. 'Let us go +away and live somewhere we shall never be parted. You know we have a +hundred and twenty gold ounces buried under an oak not far from here, +and then we have more money with Ben-Joseph the Jew.' + +"She began to smile, and then she said, 'Me first, and then you. I +know it will happen like that.' + +" 'Think about it,' said I. 'I've come to the end of my patience and +my courage. Make up your mind--or else I must make up mine.' + +"I left her alone and walked toward the hermitage. I found the hermit +praying. I waited till his prayer was finished. I longed to pray +myself, but I couldn't. When he rose up from his knees I went to him. + +" 'Father,' I said, 'will you pray for some one who is in great +danger?' + +" 'I pray for every one who is afflicted,' he replied. + +" 'Can you say a mass for a soul which is perhaps about to go into the +presence of its Maker?' + +" 'Yes,' he answered, looking hard at me. + +"And as there was something strange about me, he tried to make me +talk. + +" 'It seems to me that I have seen you somewhere,' said he. + +"I laid a piastre on his bench. + +" 'When shall you say the mass?' said I. + +" 'In half an hour. The son of the innkeeper yonder is coming to serve +it. Tell me, young man, haven't you something on your conscience that +is tormenting you? Will you listen to a Christian's counsel?' + +"I could hardly restrain my tears. I told him I would come back, and +hurried away. I went and lay down on the grass until I heard the bell. +Then I went back to the chapel, but I stayed outside it. When he had +said the mass, I went back to the /venta/. I was hoping Carmen would +have fled. She could have taken my horse and ridden away. But I found +her there still. She did not choose that any one should say I had +frightened her. While I had been away she had unfastened the hem of +her gown and taken out the lead that weighted it; and now she was +sitting before a table, looking into a bowl of water into which she +had just thrown the lead she had melted. She was so busy with her +spells that at first she didn't notice my return. Sometimes she would +take out a bit of lead and turn it round every way with a melancholy +look. Sometimes she would sing one of those magic songs, which invoke +the help of Maria Padella, Don Pedro's mistress, who is said to have +been the /Bari Crallisa/--the great gipsy queen.* + +* Maria Padella was accused of having bewitched Don Pedro. According + to one popular tradition she presented Queen Blanche of Bourbon + with a golden girdle which, in the eyes of the bewitched king, + took on the appearance of a living snake. Hence the repugnance he + always showed toward the unhappy princess. + +" 'Carmen,' I said to her, 'will you come with me?' She rose, threw +away her wooden bowl, and put her mantilla over her head ready to +start. My horse was led up, she mounted behind me, and we rode away. + +"After we had gone a little distance I said to her, 'So, my Carmen, +you are quite ready to follow me, isn't that so?' + +"She answered, 'Yes, I'll follow you, even to death--but I won't live +with you any more.' + +"We had reached a lonely gorge. I stopped my horse. + +" 'Is this the place?' she said. + +"And with a spring she reached the ground. She took off her mantilla +and threw it at her feet, and stood motionless, with one hand on her +hip, looking at me steadily. + +" 'You mean to kill me, I see that well,' said she. 'It is fate. But +you'll never make me give in.' + +"I said to her: 'Be rational, I implore you; listen to me. All the +past is forgotten. Yet you know it is you who have been my ruin--it is +because of you that I am a robber and a murderer. Carmen, my Carmen, +let me save you, and save myself with you.' + +" 'Jose,' she answered, 'what you ask is impossible. I don't love you +any more. You love me still, and that is why you want to kill me. If I +liked, I might tell you some other lie, but I don't choose to give +myself the trouble. Everything is over between us two. You are my +/rom/, and you have the right to kill your /romi/, but Carmen will +always be free. A /calli/ she was born, and a /calli/ she'll die.' + +" 'Then, you love Lucas?' I asked. + +" 'Yes, I have loved him--as I loved you--for an instant--less than I +loved you, perhaps. But now I don't love anything, and I hate myself +for ever having loved you.' + +"I cast myself at her feet, I seized her hands, I watered them with my +tears, I reminded her of all the happy moments we had spent together, +I offered to continue my brigand's life, if that would please her. +Everything, sir, everything--I offered her everything if she would +only love me again. + +"She said: + +" 'Love you again? That's not possible! Live with you? I will not do +it!' + +"I was wild with fury. I drew my knife, I would have had her look +frightened, and sue for mercy--but that woman was a demon. + +"I cried, 'For the last time I ask you. Will you stay with me?' + +" 'No! no! no!' she said, and she stamped her foot. + +"Then she pulled a ring I had given her off her finger, and cast it +into the brushwood. + +"I struck her twice over--I had taken Garcia's knife, because I had +broken my own. At the second thrust she fell without a sound. It seems +to me that I can still see her great black eyes staring at me. Then +they grew dim and the lids closed. + +"For a good hour I lay there prostrate beside her corpse. Then I +recollected that Carmen had often told me that she would like to lie +buried in a wood. I dug a grave for her with my knife and laid her in +it. I hunted about a long time for her ring, and I found it at last. I +put it into the grave beside her, with a little cross--perhaps I did +wrong. Then I got upon my horse, galloped to Cordova, and gave myself +up at the nearest guard-room. I told them I had killed Carmen, but I +would not tell them where her body was. That hermit was a holy man! He +prayed for her--he said a mass for her soul. Poor child! It's the +/calle/ who are to blame for having brought her up as they did." + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Spain is one of the countries in which those nomads, scattered all +over Europe, and known as Bohemians, Gitanas, Gipsies, Ziegeuner, and +so forth, are now to be found in the greatest numbers. Most of these +people live, or rather wander hither and thither, in the southern and +eastern provinces of Spain, in Andalusia, and Estramadura, in the +kingdom of Murcia. There are a great many of them in Catalonia. These +last frequently cross over into France and are to be seen at all our +southern fairs. The men generally call themselves grooms, horse +doctors, mule-clippers; to these trades they add the mending of +saucepans and brass utensils, not to mention smuggling and other +illicit practices. The women tell fortunes, beg, and sell all sorts of +drugs, some of which are innocent, while some are not. The physical +characteristics of the gipsies are more easily distinguished then +described, and when you have known one, you should be able to +recognise a member of the race among a thousand other men. It is by +their physiognomy and expression, especially, that they differ from +the other inhabitants of the same country. Their complexion is +exceedingly swarthy, always darker than that of the race among whom +they live. Hence the name of /cale/ (blacks) which they frequently +apply to themselves.* Their eyes, set with a decided slant, are large, +very black, and shaded by long and heavy lashes. Their glance can only +be compared to that of a wild creature. It is full at once of boldness +and shyness, and in this respect their eyes are a fair indication of +their national character, which is cunning, bold, but with "the +natural fear of blows," like Panurge. Most of the men are strapping +fellows, slight and active. I don't think I ever saw a gipsy who had +grown fat. In Germany the gipsy women are often very pretty; but +beauty is very uncommon among the Spanish gitanas. When very young, +they may pass as being attractive in their ugliness, but once they +have reached motherhood, they become absolutely repulsive. The +filthiness of both sexes is incredible, and no one who has not seen a +gipsy matron's hair can form any conception of what it is, not even if +he conjures up the roughest, the greasiest, and the dustiest heads +imaginable. In some of the large Andalusian towns certain of the gipsy +girls, somewhat better looking than their fellows, will take more care +of their personal appearance. These go out and earn money by +performing dances strongly resembling those forbidden at our public +balls in carnival time. An English missionary, Mr. Borrow, the author +of two very interesting works on the Spanish gipsies, whom he +undertook to convert on behalf of the Bible Society, declares there is +no instance of any gitana showing the smallest weakness for a man not +belonging to her own race. The praise he bestows upon their chastity +strikes me as being exceedingly exaggerated. In the first place, the +great majority are in the position of the ugly woman described by +Ovid, "/Casta quam nemo rogavit/." As for the pretty ones, they are, +like all Spanish women, very fastidious in choosing their lovers. +Their fancy must be taken, and their favour must be earned. Mr. Borrow +quotes, in proof of their virtue, one trait which does honour to his +own, and especially to his simplicity: he declares that an immoral man +of his acquaintance offered several gold ounces to a pretty gitana, +and offered them in vain. An Andalusian, to whom I retailed this +anecdote, asserted that the immoral man in question would have been +far more successful if he had shown the girl two or three piastres, +and that to offer gold ounces to a gipsy was as poor a method of +persuasion as to promise a couple of millions to a tavern wench. +However that may be, it is certain that the gitana shows the most +extraordinary devotion to her husband. There is no danger and no +suffering she will not brave, to help him in his need. One of the +names which the gipsies apply to themselves, /Rome/, or "the married +couple," seems to me a proof of their racial respect for the married +state. Speaking generally, it may be asserted that their chief virtue +is their patriotism--if we may thus describe the fidelity they observe +in all their relations with persons of the same origin as their own, +their readiness to help one another, and the inviolable secrecy which +they keep for each other's benefit, in all compromising matters. And +indeed something of the same sort may be noticed in all mysterious +associations which are beyond the pale of the law. + +* It has struck me that the German gipsies, though they thoroughly + understand the word /cale/, do not care to be called by that name. + Among themselves they always use the designation /Romane tchave/. + +Some months ago, I paid a visit to a gipsy tribe in the Vosges +country. In the hut of an old woman, the oldest member of the tribe, I +found a gipsy, in no way related to the family, who was sick of a +mortal disease. The man had left a hospital, where he was well cared +for, so that he might die among his own people. For thirteen weeks he +had been lying in bed in their encampment, and receiving far better +treatment than any of the sons and sons-in-law who shared his shelter. +He had a good bed made of straw and moss, and sheets that were +tolerably white, whereas all the rest of the family, which numbered +eleven persons, slept on planks three feet long. So much for their +hospitality. This very same woman, humane as was her treatment of her +guest said to me constantly before the sick man: "/Singo, singo, homte +hi mulo/." "Soon, soon he must die!" After all, these people live such +miserable lives, that a reference to the approach of death can have no +terrors for them. + +One remarkable feature in the gipsy character is their indifference +about religion. Not that they are strong-minded or sceptical. They +have never made any profession of atheism. Far from that, indeed, the +religion of the country which they inhabit is always theirs; but they +change their religion when they change the country of their residence. +They are equally free from the superstitions which replace religious +feeling in the minds of the vulgar. How, indeed, can superstition +exist among a race which, as a rule, makes its livelihood out of the +credulity of others? Nevertheless, I have remarked a particular horror +of touching a corpse among the Spanish gipsies. Very few of these +could be induced to carry a dead man to his grave, even if they were +paid for it. + +I have said that most gipsy women undertake to tell fortunes. They do +this very successfully. But they find a much greater source of profit +in the sale of charms and love-philters. Not only do they supply +toads' claws to hold fickle hearts, and powdered loadstone to kindle +love in cold ones, but if necessity arises, they can use mighty +incantations, which force the devil to lend them his aid. Last year +the following story was related to me by a Spanish lady. She was +walking one day along the /Calle d'Alcala/, feeling very sad and +anxious. A gipsy woman who was squatting on the pavement called out to +her, "My pretty lady, your lover has played you false!" (It was quite +true.) "Shall I get him back for you?" My readers will imagine with +what joy the proposal was accepted, and how complete was the +confidence inspired by a person who could thus guess the inmost +secrets of the heart. As it would have been impossible to proceed to +perform the operations of magic in the most crowded street in Madrid, +a meeting was arranged for the next day. "Nothing will be easier than +to bring back the faithless one to your feet!" said the gitana. "Do +you happen to have a handkerchief, a scarf, or a mantilla, that he +gave you?" A silken scarf was handed her. "Now sew a piastre into one +corner of the scarf with crimson silk--sew half a piastre into another +corner--sew a peseta here--and a two-real piece there; then, in the +middle you must sew a gold coin--a doubloon would be best." The +doubloon and all the other coins were duly sewn in. "Now give me the +scarf, and I'll take it to the Campo Santo when midnight strikes. You +come along with me, if you want to see a fine piece of witchcraft. I +promise you shall see the man you love to-morrow!" The gipsy departed +alone for the Campo Santo, since my Spanish friend was too much afraid +of witchcraft to go there with her. I leave my readers to guess +whether my poor forsaken lady ever saw her lover, or her scarf, again. + +In spite of their poverty and the sort of aversion they inspire, the +gipsies are treated with a certain amount of consideration by the more +ignorant folk, and they are very proud of it. They feel themselves to +be a superior race as regards intelligence, and they heartily despise +the people whose hospitality they enjoy. "These Gentiles are so +stupid," said one of the Vosges gipsies to me, "that there is no +credit in taking them in. The other day a peasant woman called out to +me in the street. I went into her house. Her stove smoked and she +asked me to give her a charm to cure it. First of all I made her give +me a good bit of bacon, and then I began to mumble a few words in +/Romany/. 'You're a fool,' I said, 'you were born a fool, and you'll +die a fool!' When I had got near the door I said to her, in good +German, 'The most certain way of keeping your stove from smoking is +not to light any fire in it!' and then I took to my heels." + +The history of the gipsies is still a problem. We know, indeed, that +their first bands, which were few and far between, appeared in Eastern +Europe towards the beginning of the fifteenth century. But nobody can +tell whence they started, or why they came to Europe, and, what is +still more extraordinary, no one knows how they multiplied, within a +short time, and in so prodigious a fashion, and in several countries, +all very remote from each other. The gipsies themselves have preserved +no tradition whatsoever as to their origin, and though most of them do +speak of Egypt as their original fatherland, that is only because they +have adopted a very ancient fable respecting their race. + +Most of the Orientalists who have studied the gipsy language believe +that the cradle of the race was in India. It appears, in fact, that +many of the roots and grammatical forms of the /Romany/ tongue are to +be found in idioms derived from the Sanskrit. As may be imagined, the +gipsies, during their long wanderings, have adopted many foreign +words. In every /Romany/ dialect a number of Greek words appear. + +At the present day the gipsies have almost as many dialects as there +are separate hordes of their race. Everywhere, they speak the language +of the country they inhabit more easily than their own idiom, which +they seldom use, except with the object of conversing freely before +strangers. A comparison of the dialect of the German gipsies with that +used by the Spanish gipsies, who have held no communication with each +other for several centuries, reveals the existence of a great number +of words common to both. But everywhere the original language is +notably affected, though in different degrees, by its contact with the +more cultivated languages into the use of which the nomads have been +forced. German in one case and Spanish in the other have so modified +the /Romany/ groundwork that it would not be possible for a gipsy from +the Black Forest to converse with one of his Andalusian brothers, +although a few sentences on each side would suffice to convince them +that each was speaking a dialect of the same language. Certain words +in very frequent use are, I believe, common to every dialect. Thus, in +every vocabulary which I have been able to consult, /pani/ means +water, /manro/ means bread, /mas/ stands for meat, and /lon/ for salt. + +The nouns of number are almost the same in every case. The German +dialect seems to me much purer than the Spanish, for it has preserved +numbers of the primitive grammatical forms, whereas the Gitanos have +adopted those of the Castilian tongue. Nevertheless, some words are an +exception, as though to prove that the language was originally common +to all. The preterite of the German dialect is formed by adding /ium/ +to the imperative, which is always the root of the verb. In the +Spanish /Romany/ the verbs are all conjugated on the model of the +first conjugation of the Castilian verbs. From /jamar/, the infinitive +of "to eat," the regular conjugation should be /jame/, "I have eaten." +From /lillar/, "to take," /lille/, "I have taken." Yet, some old +gipsies say, as an exception, /jayon/ and /lillon/. I am not +acquainted with any other verbs which have preserved this ancient +form. + +While I am thus showing off my small acquaintance with the /Romany/ +language, I must notice a few words of French slang which our thieves +have borrowed from the gipsies. From /Les Mysteres de Paris/ honest +folk have learned that the word /chourin/ means "a knife." This is +pure /Romany/--/tchouri/ is one of the words which is common to every +dialect. Monsieur Vidocq calls a horse /gres/--this again is a gipsy +word--/gras/, /gre/, /graste/, and /gris/. Add to this the word +/romanichel/, by which the gipsies are described in Parisian slang. +This is a corruption of /romane tchave/--"gipsy lads." But a piece of +etymology of which I am really proud is that of the word /frimousse/, +"face," "countenance"--a word which every schoolboy uses, or did use, +in my time. Note, in the first place, the Oudin, in his curious +dictionary, published in 1640, wrote the word /firlimouse/. Now in +/Romany/, /firla/, or /fila/, stands for "face," and has the same +meaning--it is exactly the /os/ of the Latins. The combination of +/firlamui/ was instantly understood by a genuine gipsy, and I believe +it to be true to the spirit of the gipsy language. + +I have surely said enough to give the readers of Carmen a favourable +idea of my /Romany/ studies. I will conclude with the following +proverb, which comes in very appropriately: /En retudi panda nasti +abela macha/. "Between closed lips no fly can pass." + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Carmen, by Prosper Merimee + |