The Manuscript Found in Saragossa (41 page)

‘With pleasure,' said Velásquez, ‘for my system was no sooner finished when an unexpected occurrence produced a change in my fortune that will not only make it difficult for me to build a system, but may also, alas, not allow me to devote ten to twelve hours a day to my calculations. For, Señores, heaven has decreed that I be Duque de Velásquez, grandee of Spain and master of a considerable fortune.'

‘What? Señor Duque,' said Rebecca, ‘you tell us this as though it were an incidental detail in your story? I believe that in your place most people would have begun with it.'

‘I admit,' said Velásquez, ‘that such a coefficient multiplies an individual value, but I did not think I had to state it before its due place in the order of events. This is what it remains for me to tell you:

My father came down to the harbour with me. He placed both his hands on my head to bless me and said, ‘My son, you will see Blanca. She is now not the striking beauty who once was destined to be the glory and happiness of your father. You will see her features consumed by age and worn away by penitence. Why did she continue so long to weep for a sin for which her father had forgiven her? As for me, I
have never felt anger towards her. If I have not gloriously served my king in high office, I have for forty years at least been of service to a few good people on this rock. Such service is due to Blanca. People here have heard of her virtues and all bless her.'

My father was unable to say more. He felt sobs choking him. All of Ceuta's inhabitants were present to see me go. In their eyes could be seen the sorrow of losing me, mingled with the joy of my change in fortune.

I set sail and reached the port of Algeciras the next day. From there I went first to Córdoba and then to Andújar, where I spent the night. The innkeeper at Andújar told me some story or other about ghosts, of which I didn't understand a word. I slept at his inn and left early the next morning. I had two servants with me, one who went ahead of me and one who followed. The idea struck me that in Madrid I would not have the time to work so I got out my tablets and did some calculations which were incidental to my system. The mule on which I was riding walked at a regular pace, which favoured this sort of work. I don't know how long I was thus occupied. But suddenly my mule stopped. I found myself at the base of a gallows on which there were two hanged men whose faces seemed set in grimaces, which caused me to shudder in horror. I looked all around me but did not catch sight of my servants. I shouted for them but they did not come, so I decided to follow the path ahead of me. At nightfall I came to a vast, well-built inn, which was abandoned and empty.

I put the mule in the stable and went up to a room in which I found the remains of a supper: a partridge pâté, bread and a bottle of Alicante wine. I had not eaten since Andújar and thought that my need for food gave me the right to the pâté, which in any case had no owner. My throat was also very dry so I slaked my thirst, perhaps too fast, for the Alicante wine went to my head, as I discovered only too late.

There was a reasonably clean bed in the room. I undressed, lay down and fell asleep. Then something woke me with a start. I heard a bell strike midnight. I thought that there must be a monastery nearby and decided to go there the next day.

Soon after, I heard a noise in the courtyard. I thought that my servants had arrived. But you can imagine my surprise when I saw
my aunt Antonia and Marita, her maid, come in. The maid carried a lantern with two candles and my aunt had a notebook in her hand.

‘My dear nephew,' she said, ‘your father has sent us to give you this document, which he says is important.'

I took the notebook and read on the cover,
Proof of how to square the circle
. I knew that my father had never bothered himself with this idle problem. Astonished, I opened the notebook, but soon saw with indignation that the so-called solution was no more than the well-known theory of Dinostrates, accompanied by a proof which I recognized to be in my father's handwriting but not to be the product of his mind. And indeed I demonstrated that the proofs on offer were no more than poor paralogisms.

Meanwhile my aunt pointed out to me that as I had taken possession of the only bed in the inn I was duty bound to give up half of it to her. The idea that my father could have committed such mathematical errors bothered me so much that I scarcely heard what she said. I automatically made room for her, and Marita lay down at my feet and rested her head on my knees.

I went back to the proof. I don't know whether the Alicante wine had gone to my head or whether my eyes had been bewitched, but in some way or other I lost sight of the error I thought I had detected at first, and having reread the proof a third time I was convinced that it was right.

I turned to the third page. I found a highly ingenious set of corollaries which had the effect of squaring and rectifying all curves; in other words, the solution to the problem of isochrones, using elementary rules of geometry. Delighted, amazed and stupefied, I believe, by the effects of Alicante wine, I cried out, ‘Yes, my father has made the greatest of discoveries!'

‘Well, then,' said my aunt, ‘give me a kiss for the trouble I have taken in crossing the sea to bring you this scribbling.'

I kissed her.

‘I crossed the sea, too,' said Marita.

So I had to kiss her as well.

I wanted to return to the problem but my two bedfellows hugged me so tightly in their arms that I could not release myself from them. Indeed, I no longer wanted to. I felt the stirrings of indescribable
sensations in my person. Over the whole surface of my body a new feeling was growing, especially where it was in contact with the two women. I was reminded of some of the properties of osculating curves. I wanted to analyse what I was feeling but my brain could no longer follow through any line of reasoning. Eventually my feelings developed into a series ascending to infinity, which was succeeded by sleep and a very unpleasant awakening under the gallows on which I had seen the two hanged men smiling horribly.

And that is the whole story of my life. All that is missing from it is the theory of my system, that is to say, the application of mathematics to the general order of the universe. I hope however one day to be able to acquaint you with it, especially this fair lady who seems to have a taste for the exact sciences rarely to be found in her sex.

‘I don't know where they have got to,' said the geometer. ‘I didn't find them among the papers which the gypsies fetched for me, which I much regret, because in looking again at the so-called proof I am sure that I would have immediately spotted the error. As I told you, my blood was overheated that night. The Alicante wine, the two women, the irresistible sleep — all of this caused me to fail. But what surprises me still is that the handwriting was my father's. The way of writing symbols was unique to him.'

I was struck by Velásquez's words, above all his remark that he was unable to stop himself falling asleep. I guessed that he had been given a similar wine to that which my two cousins had served me at our first meeting in November, or a potion similar to the poison I had been ordered to drink in the underground cave, which was actually only a sleeping draught.

The company split up. As I was on the point of falling asleep, several thoughts came to me which might, it seemed, have explained my adventures by natural means. In the course of these reflections I fell asleep.

We found ourselves on a fine grass meadow shaded by tall chestnut trees. We partook of a somewhat more varied breakfast than usual, and then Rebecca said to the gypsy chief that as he was less busy than usual she would take the liberty of asking him to tell us more of his adventures. Pandesowna needed no persuasion and began as follows: