The King's Gold (21 page)

FROM THE SAME

Advice Addressed to Captain Diego Alatriste

SONNET

If what I have I do not fear to lose,

Nor yet desire to have what I do not,

I’m safe from Fortune’s wheel whate’er I choose,

Let plaintiff or defendant be my lot.

For if I joy not in another’s pain

And worldly wealth brings me no hint of pleasure,

Grim death may come and take me without strain;

I’ll not resist or ask for lesser measure.

And you, who even now know not the chains

With which this age imprisons a heart,

Diego—free from pleasures and from pains—

Keep, thus, far hence the prick of passion’s dart;

So to the last, dear Alatriste, keep

Alone, alone, until the final sleep.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Arturo Pérez-Reverte lives near Madrid. Originally a war journalist, he now writes fiction full-time. His novels
The Flanders Panel, The Club Dumas, The Fencing Master, The Seville Communion, The Nautical Chart,
and
The Queen of the South
have been translated into twenty-nine languages and published in more than fifty countries. In 2003, Pérez-Reverte was elected to the Spanish Royal Academy. Visit his website at
www.perez-reverte.com
.