Free Carmen by Prosper Mérimée Page B

reminded her of all the blissful moments we had passed together. I offered to remain a brigand to please her. Everything, señor, everything; I offered her everything, if only she would love me again.
    “She said to me:
    “ ‘To love you again is impossible. I will not live with you.’
    “Frenzy took possession of me. I drew my knife. I would have liked her to show some fear and to beg for mercy, but that woman was a demon.
    “ ‘For the last time,’ I cried, ‘will you stay with me?’
    “ ‘No! no! no!’ she replied, stamping the ground with her foot.
    “And she took from her finger a ring I had given her and threw it into the underbrush.
    “I struck her twice. It was the One-Eyed’s knife, whichI had taken, having broken my own. She fell at the second stroke, without a sound. I fancy that I still see her great black eye gazing at me; then it grew dim and closed. I remained utterly crushed beside that corpse for a long hour. Then I remembered that Carmen had often told me that she would like to be buried in a wood. I dug a grave with my knife and laid her in it. I hunted a long while for her ring and found it at last. I placed it in the grave with her, also a small crucifix. Perhaps I did wrong. Then I mounted my horse, galloped to Cordova, and gave myself up at the first guard-house. I said that I had killed Carmen, but I have refused to tell where her body is. The hermit was a holy man. He prayed for her! He said a mass for her soul. Poor child! The
Cales
are guilty, for bringing her up so.”
    * Ironshod staves carried by the Basques.
    † The magistrate at the head of the police and municipal administration.
    ‡ The ordinary costume of the peasant women of Navarre and the Basque provinces.
    § Yes, sir.
    ‖ Enclosure, garden.
    a Bravoes, bullies.
    b All the Spanish cavalry are armed with lances.
    c Alcala de los Panaderos, a hamlet two leagues from Seville, where they make delicious small loaves. It is claimed that their excellence is due to the water of Alcala, and great quantities of them are taken to Seville daily.
    d Good-day, comrade.
    e Most of the houses in Seville have an interior courtyard surrounded by porticos. The inhabitants live there in summer. The courtyard is covered with canvas, which is kept wet during the day and removed at night. The gate into the street is almost always open, and the passage leading into the courtyard is closed by an iron gate of elaborate workmanship.
    f
Mañana sera otro dia
.—A Spanish proverb.
    g A gypsy proverb.
    h Sugared yolks of eggs.
    i A kind of nougat.
    j King Don Pedro, whom we call the
Cruel
, but whom Isabella the Catholic always called the
Justiciary
, loved to walk the streets of Seville at night in search of adventures, like the Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid. On a certain night he had a quarrel in an out-of-the-way street with a man who was giving a serenade. They fought and the king slew the love-lorn knight. Hearing the clash of swords, an old woman put her head out of a window and lighted up the scene with a small lamp (
candilejo
) which she held in her hand. You must know that King Don Pedro, who was very active and powerful, had one physical peculiarity: his knees cracked loudly when he walked. The old woman had no difficulty in recognizing him by means of that cracking. The next day the Twenty-four who was on duty came to the king to make his report. “Sire, there was a duel last night on such a street. One of the combatants was killed.” “Have you discovered the murderer?” “Yes, sire.” “Why is he not punished before now?” “I await your orders, sire.” “Carry out the law.” Now the king had recently issued a decree providing that every duellist should be beheaded, and that his head should be exposed on the battle-field. The Twenty-four extricated himself from the dilemma like a man of wit. He caused the head of a statute of the king to be sawed off, and exposed it in a recess in the middle of the street where the murder