Free The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki

itself to contain all the virtues.
    I was ruminating on these matters when a horseman suddenly shot out from behind a rock, cut me off and said, ‘Is your name Alphonse van Worden?’
    I replied that it was.
    â€˜In that case,’ said the horseman, ‘I arrest you in the name of the king and the Holy Inquisition. Give me your sword.’
    I obeyed without a word. Then the horseman whistled and I saw armed men bearing down on me from all sides. They tied my handsbehind my back and we set off into the mountains up a side track which led after about an hour to a heavily fortified castle. The drawbridge was lowered and we went in. While we were still under the shadow of the keep, a little side door was opened and I was thrown into a cell, without anyone bothering to untie me.
    It was pitch-black in the cell and, not having my hands free to feel my way forward, I would have found it difficult to walk about without banging my nose on the walls. So I sat down where I was and, as one may well imagine, began to wonder what could have caused me to be imprisoned. My first and only thought was that the Inquisition had captured my beautiful cousins and that their black servants had reported everything that had happened at the Venta Quemada. Supposing that I was going to be interrogated about the two African girls, I was faced with the alternative of either betraying them and thus breaking my solemn word of honour, or of denying that I knew them, which would embark me on a series of shameful lies. After some thought as to how I should behave, I decided to maintain absolute silence and I firmly resolved to say nothing in reply to any interrogation.
    Once I had settled these doubts in my mind I began to ponder the events of the previous two days. I did not doubt that my cousins were creatures of flesh and blood. I was convinced of this by an intuition stronger than all that I have been told about the powers of demons, and, as for the trick of transporting me to lie under the gallows, I was extremely indignant about it.
    Meanwhile the hours passed by. I began to feel hungry, and as I had heard that cells are sometimes supplied with bread and a jug of water I set about looking for something of the sort by feeling about with my legs and feet. And indeed I soon felt an object of some kind, which turned out to be a loaf. My problem was how to raise it to my mouth. I lay down beside the loaf and tried to seize it between my teeth, but it slipped away from me since there was nothing there to push against. I pushed it so far in the end that it came up against the wall. I was then able to eat it as the loaf was cut down the middle. If it had been whole I would not have been able to bite into it. I found the jug of water too but was not able to drink from it. No sooner had I sipped a little than the jug tipped over and the water ran away.I explored further and found some straw in a corner on which I could lie down. My hands were tied together in a very clever way, that is, tightly but not painfully, so that I had no difficulty in falling asleep.

The Fourth Day

    When I was woken up it seemed to me that I had slept for several hours. I saw a Dominican monk enter my cell, followed by several men of evil countenance. Some carried torches, others objects which I had never seen before but which I imagined were instruments of torture. I reminded myself of my resolutions and bound myself again to keep them. I thought of my father. He had never suffered torture, but had he not suffered many painful operations at the hands of surgeons? I knew that he had borne them without a single cry of pain. I decided to follow his example and neither to utter a single word nor to let out a single groan.
    The inquisitor had a chair brought for him, sat down beside me and in a gentle and wheedling tone spoke to me in more or less these words:
    â€˜My dear child, my sweet child, thank heaven for having brought you to this dungeon. But tell me, why are you