The Manuscript Found in Saragossa (7 page)

My new stepmother lived up to her bad reputation in every way and began by trying to make me fall in love with her, in which she did not succeed. But I did fall in love, not with her but with her sister Inesilla. Soon my passion grew so strong that I went to see my father, threw myself at his feet and asked for the hand of his sister-in-law in marriage.

My father gently raised me to my feet and said, ‘My son, I forbid you to think of such a match, for three reasons. First, it would be undignified for you to become in a sort of way the brother-in-law of your father. Second, the sacred canons of the Church do not give their blessing to such unions. Third, I do not wish you to marry Inesilla.'

Having informed me of these three reasons, my father turned his back on me and went away.

I retired to my bedchamber, where I succumbed to despair. My father had at once told my stepmother what had happened. She came to see me and told me that I was wrong to be so upset; if I could not become the husband of Inesilla then at least I could become her
cortejo
, that is, her lover, and that she would arrange this for me. But at the same time she declared her own love for me and stressed the sacrifice she was making in surrendering me to her sister. I was only too ready to listen to what she said, for it flattered my own desires. But Inesilla was so modest that it seemed to me impossible to bring her ever to return my love.

At about that time my father decided to travel to Madrid to solicit the position of
corregidor
³
of Córdoba, and took his wife and sister-in-law with him. His absence was only to last two months but the time seemed interminable to me, because I was separated from Inesilla.

After about two months I received a letter from my father, telling me to come to meet him and to wait for him at the Venta Quemada in the foothills of the Sierra Morena. Some weeks before I would not readily have taken the decision to travel through the Sierra Morena, but Zoto's two brothers had just been hanged. His band had been dispersed and the roads were said to be reasonably safe.

So I set out from Córdoba just before ten in the morning and reached Andújar, where I stayed the night with one of the most talkative innkeepers in Andalusia. I ordered a large supper at his inn, of which I ate part and kept what remained for the rest of the journey.

The next day I had a midday meal at Los Alcornoques, consisting
of what I had kept from the night before, and arrived that same evening at the Venta Quemada. I did not find my father there, but as he had told me in his letter to wait for him, I decided to do so, all the more willingly because I found myself in a spacious and comfortable hostelry. The innkeeper at that time was a certain Gonzalez de Murcia, a decent sort of fellow even if given to boasting. He duly promised me a supper worthy of a Spanish grandee. As he set about preparing it I went for a walk along the banks of the Guadalquivir, and on returning to the hostelry I found the supper laid out. And indeed it was not at all bad.

After eating I told Gonzalez to make up my bed. I saw at once that I had upset him. What he said to me in reply did not make much sense. In the end he confessed to me that the inn was haunted by ghosts and that he and his family slept in a little farmhouse on the banks of the river, adding that if I should care to sleep there also he would make up a bed for me next to his own.

What he proposed seemed unsuitable to me and I told him that he could go and sleep where he wished, but that he should send my servants to me. Gonzalez obeyed me and went off shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders.

My servants arrived a moment later. They had also heard talk of ghosts and tried to persuade me to spend the night at the farmhouse. I dismissed their advice somewhat curtly and ordered them to make up my bed in the same room in which I had eaten my supper. They obeyed me, albeit unwillingly, and when the bed had been made up pleaded with me again with tears in their eyes to come with them to sleep at the farmhouse. On this occasion their remonstrations made me really impatient and I allowed myself to show it in a way which made them all flee. As it was not a habit of mine to be undressed by my servants, I was able easily to do without them and to get ready for bed. They for their part had been more attentive to my needs than my treatment of them deserved, and had left next to my bed a lighted candle with another in reserve, a pair of pistols and some books to keep me awake. But the truth of the matter was that I lost all desire for sleep.

I spent two hours reading, tossing and turning in my bed. Eventually I heard the sound of a bell or a clock strike midnight. This
surprised me for I had not heard it strike the other hours. Soon after, the door opened and, as I watched, my stepmother came in, wearing night garments and bearing a candlestick. She tiptoed up to me, a finger on her lips as if to ensure that I remained silent. Placing the candlestick on my bedside table, she sat down on my bed, took one of my hands in her own and spoke to me as follows:

‘Dear Pacheco, the moment has come when I can give you the pleasures which I promised you. We reached the inn an hour ago. Your father has gone to sleep at the farm, but on learning that you were here I have obtained his permission to sleep here with my sister Inesilla. She is waiting for you and is disposed to refuse you nothing, but you must first know the conditions I have placed on your happiness. You love Insilla and I love you. Of the three of us, two must not be happy at the expense of the third. I intend therefore that we should all share one bed tonight. Come.'

My stepmother did not give me time to reply. She took me by the hand and led me through one corridor after another, until we at last arrived at a door where she bent down to look through the keyhole.

Having looked for long enough she said, ‘All is well, see for yourself.'

I took her place at the keyhole, and indeed I saw the charming Insilla in her bed. But she was far from the modest girl I had known. Everything – the expression in her eyes, her heaving bosom, her heightened complexion, her posture – indicated to me that she was expecting a lover.

Having let me watch for some time, Camilla said to me, ‘Pacheco, stay here at this door. When it is time for you to come in I shall come and get you.'

After she had entered I put my eye to the keyhole again and saw many things which I find it difficult here to relate. First Camilla undressed in more or less the usual way and, getting into bed with her sister, she said to her:

‘My poor Insilla, do you really want a lover? My poor child, you have no idea of the pain that he will cause you. He will first throw you down, then press himself upon you, and crush you, and tear you apart.'

When Camilla thought that her pupil had received enough instruction,
she opened the door to me and led me to the bed where her sister was lying, and lay down beside us.

What can I tell you about that fateful night? I drank the cup of criminal passion to the last drop. I long fought against my natural desire for sleep in order to prolong my sinful pleasures. I fell asleep at last and awoke the next day under the gallows of Zoto's brothers, lying between their foul corpses.

I replied: ‘You have offended me, Father. A gentleman must never feel fear, let alone a gentleman who has the honour of being a captain in the Walloon Guards.'

‘But have you ever heard, my son, of a similar adventure befalling anyone?' continued the hermit.

I hesitated a moment before replying. ‘If this adventure befell Señor Pacheco, father, it could have befallen others. I will be better placed to pass judgement if you would kindly command him to carry on with his story.'

The hermit turned to the possessed man and said to him, ‘Pacheco, Pacheco, in the name of your Redeemer, I command you to continue your story.'

Pacheco uttered a ghastly howl and continued as follows:

I was unable to bring myself to stay longer at the
venta
and took the road back to Andújar, where I arrived after sunset. The inn was full, so a bed was made up for me in the kitchen, where I lay down; but I was unable to sleep for I could not banish from my mind the horrors of the previous night.

I had left the candle lit in the chimney of the kitchen. Suddenly it
went out and I felt immediately something like a mortal shiver, which froze my blood.

There was a tug at my blanket and I heard a little voice say, ‘I am Camilla, your stepmother. I am cold, dear heart. Let me join you under your blanket.'

Then another little voice said, ‘I am Insilla. Let me come into your bed, for I am cold, so cold.'

Then I felt an icy hand grasp me under the chin. I drew together all of my strength and said aloud, ‘Get thee behind me, Satan.'

Then the little voices said, ‘Why are you driving us away? Are you not our dear little husband? We are cold and we are going to light a little fire.'

And indeed a moment later I saw a flame appear in the kitchen hearth. It gradually grew brighter and I was able to make out not Insilla and Camilla but Zoto's two brothers hanging in the fireplace.

These apparitions drove me out of my mind. I sprang from my bed, jumped through the window and began to rush about in the open country. For a moment I flattered myself with the hope that I had outrun all these horrors, but then I turned round, only to see that the two hanged men were pursuing me. I broke into a run again and soon saw that I had left Zoto's brothers behind. But my joy was short-lived. Those foul creatures began to cartwheel towards me and were on me in a flash. I went on running, but in the end all my strength deserted me.

Then I felt one of the hanged men seize my left ankle. I tried to shake myself free but the other one cut off my escape. He loomed up in front of me, staring at me with terrible eyes and poking out his tongue, which was as red as iron straight from the furnace. I pleaded for mercy but in vain. With one hand he grasped me by the throat, and with the other he tore out my eye, the one that I am now missing. He darted his burning tongue into my eye-socket and licked my brains, which made me bellow with pain.

Then the other one, who had grasped my left leg, decided to use his claws. First he tickled the sole of the foot he was holding, then that monster tore off my skin, separated out all the sinews, laid them bare and tried to play a tune on them as though on a musical instrument. But as my sinews did not give out a sound which pleased
him, he stuck his claw into my calf, pinched the tendons and began to twist them round as one does in order to tune a harp. Eventually he began to play on my leg, which he had turned into a sort of psaltery. I could hear his diabolical laughter. As the pain made me groan horribly the screams of hell chanted in chorus. And as I listened to the wails of the damned it seemed to me that every fibre in my body was being crushed in their teeth. Eventually I lost consciousness.

The next day a herdsman found me in open countryside and brought me to this hermitage, where I confessed my sins and where I have found some relief from my suffering at the foot of the cross.