Confessions Of Con Cregan, the Irish Gil Blas

“In both.”

“With what grade?”

“Nothing very distinguished.”

“Have you ever held the command of an expedition?”

“I have.”

“With what object, and where?”

“In the prairies of South America, to shoot red-deer.”

“Remember, sir,” said the General, “this is no occasion for untimely jest; these sallies may cost you more dearly than you think for.”

“If I am to speak the truth,” said I, boldly, “I must answer as I have done. If you want fiction, I ‘m ready for you at a moment’s notice.”

“Make a note of that, José! – ’ says that he is perfectly indifferent whether he tells truth or falsehood.’”

“And add, by way of parenthesis,” said I, “that the General is precisely of my own way of thinking.”

“Write down,’ insults the commission,’” said the General, boiling with rage.

The paragraph seemed a full one, for the interrogating was not resumed for some minutes.

“Now, sir,” resumed the General, “state your object in coming to the country.”

“To get out of it as fast as I could.”

“For whose use were the arms provided, – the horses and horse equipage with which you embarked?”

“My own.”

“Name the agent or agents of Don Carlos with whom you have held correspondence?”

“None. I never knew any.”

“By whose hands were the large sums of money in your possession intrusted to you?”

“I found them.”

“How, and where?”

“In a hole.”

The General’s face grew purple; and more than once I could see the struggle it cost him to repress his bursting indignation. And in the mutterings he let fall to his secretary, it was easy to mark that his comments on the evidence were not too favorable.

“Were you acquainted with Brigadier Hermose Gonzillos?”

“No.”

“Nor with his brother, the Canon Gonzillos?”

“No.”

“When did you first meet Señhor Ruy Peres Y’ Hacho?”

“Never saw him in my life.”

“Nor held intercourse with him?”

“Never.”

“Were not much in his company, nor intrusted to him the secret details of the expedition?”

“I know nothing of what you’re talking about.”

“Produce Ruy Peres,” said the General; and the door opened, and the Chevalier, dressed in a military uniform and with several decorations of foreign orders, entered.

“Do you know this gentleman?” said the General, dryly.

“I know him for a Pole whose name is Alexis Radchoffsky – at least, under such a name he once lived in London, and is well known to the police there.”

“Go on,” said the General to the secretary. “On being confronted with the Señhor Ruy Peres, the prisoner became suddenly abashed, and at once confessed that he had known him intimately several years before in London.”

“Is that man a witness against me?” asked I, eagerly.

“Attend to me, sir,” said the General, while he made a sign to the Chevalier to retire. “Neither subterfuge nor insolence will avail you here. You are perfectly well known to us, – your early history, your late intrigues, your present intentions.”

“With such intimate knowledge of all about me, General,” said I, coolly, “have n’t we been wasting a great deal of valuable time in this interrogatory?”

“And, notwithstanding repeated admonitions, persisted in using the most indecorous language to the commission.” These words the General dictated in a loud voice, and they were immediately taken down by his secretary.

“Señhor Concregan,” said he, addressing me, “you stand now committed, by virtue of a royal warrant, a copy of which, and of the charges laid against you, will be duly transmitted to you. Whenever the authorities have decided whether your offence should be submitted to a civil or military tribunal, you will be brought up for trial.”

“I am an English subject, sir,” said I; “I belong to a nation that never permits its meanest member to be trampled on by foreign tyranny, far less will it suffer his liberty or life to be sacrificed to a false and infamous calumny. I claim the protection of my ambassador, or at least of such a representative of my country as your petty locality may possess. I desire – ” What I was about to demand as my birthright was not destined to be made public on this occasion, since at a signal from the General the door opened, and two soldiers, advancing, adjusted handcuffs on my wrists, and led me away even before I had recovered from the surprise the whole proceeding occasioned me.

Whether it was that I enjoyed the prerogative of a State prisoner, or that the authorities were not quite clear that they were justified in what they were doing, I cannot say; but my prison discipline was of the very mildest order. I had a most comfortable room, with a window looking seaward over the beautiful bay of Malaga, taking a wide range along shore, where gardens and villas and orange-groves extended for miles. The furniture was neat, and with some pretensions to luxury; and the fare, I am bound to own, was excellent. Books, and even newspapers, were freely supplied to me, and, save that at certain intervals the clank of a musket, and the shuffling of feet in the corridor without, told that the sentry of my guard was being relieved, I could have fancied myself in some homely inn, without a restriction upon my liberty. My handcuffs had been removed the moment I had entered my chamber, and now the iron stanchions of my window were the only reminders of a jail around me.

CHAPTER XXX. CONSOLATIONS OF DIPLOMACY

The first revulsion of feeling over, the terrible shock of that fall from the pinnacle of wealth and greatness to the lowly condition of a prisoner unfriended and destitute, – I actually began to enjoy my life, and feel something wonderfully like happiness. I do not pretend to say that my disappointment was not most acute and painful, or that I suffered little from the contemplation of my ruined hopes. No, far from it; but my grief, like the course of a mountain torrent, soon ran off, and left the stream of my life clear and untroubled as ever. It is true, thought I, this is a terrible contrast to what I was a week ago; but still, is it not a long way in advance of what my original condition promised? I am a prisoner in a Spanish fortress: is not even that better than a peasant in an Irish hovel? The very cares with which I am surrounded bespeak a certain consequence pertaining to me; I am one whom ministers of State think and speak about, whose name is often on their lips, whose memory haunts them in their half-waking moments. Is not this something? Is it not a great deal to one whose whole ideal was to avoid the bypaths of life, and take his course in its very widest and busiest thoroughfares?

The occupations in which I passed my days greatly contributed to sustain this pleasant illusion. I was eternally writing letters, memorials, statements of facts, and what not, of interminable narratives, to all our ministers and consuls, invoking their aid, and protesting in the name of the British nation against the unwarrantable tyranny of my imprisonment. It is quite true that these lengthy documents of mine seemed to meet but sorry acceptance. For a length of time no acknowledgment of their reception ever reached me; but at last the following dry epistle informed me that my memorials had reached their destination: —

“Sir, – I am directed by the Secretary of State forForeign Affairs to acknowledge the receipt of your memorialsdated the 9th, 12th, 18th, 23rd, and 25th of last month, together with various letters bearing on the same subjectssince that time, and to state, in reply, that the matter ofyour complaint is at present under investigation with theauthorities of the Spanish Government.

“His Lordship the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairsdesires me to add his regrets that even in the event of yourliberation he can hold out no prospect whatever that anycompensation will be made to you for the loss of propertyyou allege to have suffered, and which, of course, wasincurred as one of the many risks natural to the course ofsuch an expedition as you were engaged in.