Carmen — Chapter III, Part 3
“When she said that sort to thing I could have strangled her.
“To shorten the story, sir, Carmen procured me civilian clothes, disguised in which I got out of Seville without being recognised.
I went to Jerez, with a letter from Pastia to a dealer in anisette whose house was the smugglers’ meeting-place.
I was introduced to them, and their leader, surnamed _El Dancaire_, enrolled me in his gang.
We started for Gaucin, where I found Carmen, who had told me she would meet me there.
In all these expeditions she acted as spy for our gang, and she was the best that ever was seen.
She had now just returned from Gibraltar, and had already arranged with the captain of a ship for a cargo of English goods which we were to receive on the coast.
We went to meet it near Estepona.
We hid part in the mountains, and laden with the rest, we proceeded to Ronda.
Carmen had gone there before us.
It was she again who warned us when we had better enter the town.
This first journey, and several subsequent ones, turned out well.
I found the smuggler’s life pleasanter than a soldier’s: I could give presents to Carmen, I had money, and I had a mistress.
I felt little or no remorse, for, as the gipsies say, ‘The happy man never longs to scratch his itch.
’ We were made welcome everywhere, my comrades treated me well, and even showed me a certain respect.
The reason of this was that I had killed my man, and that some of them had no exploit of that description on their conscience.
But what I valued most in my new life was that I often saw Carmen.
She showed me more affection than ever; nevertheless, she would never admit, before my comrades, that she was my mistress, and she had even made me swear all sorts of oaths that I would not say anything about her to them.
I was so weak in that creature’s hands, that I obeyed all her whims.
And besides, this was the first time she had revealed herself as possessing any of the reserve of a well-conducted woman, and I was simple enough to believe she had really cast off her former habits.
“Our gang, which consisted of eight or ten men, was hardly ever together except at decisive moments, and we were usually scattered by twos and threes about the towns and villages.
Each one of us pretended to have some trade.
One was a tinker, another was a groom; I was supposed to peddle haberdashery, but I hardly ever showed myself in large places, on account of my unlucky business at Seville.
One day, or rather one night, we were to meet below Veger.
_El Dancaire_ and I got there before the others.
“‘We shall soon have a new comrade,’ said he.
‘Carmen has just managed one of her best tricks.
She has contrived the escape of her _rom_, who was in the _presidio_ at Tarifa.
’ “I was already beginning to understand the gipsy language, which nearly all my comrades spoke, and this word _rom_ startled me.
“What!
her husband?
Is she married, then?
’ said I to the captain.
“‘Yes!
’ he replied, ‘married to Garcia _el Tuerto_*--as cunning a gipsy as she is herself.
The poor fellow has been at the galleys.
Carmen has wheedled the surgeon of the _presidio_ to such good purpose that she has managed to get her _rom_ out of prison.
Faith!
that girl’s worth her weight in gold.
For two years she has been trying to contrive his escape, but she could do nothing until the authorities took it into their heads to change the surgeon.
She soon managed to come to an understanding with this new one.
’ * One-eyed man.
“You may imagine how pleasant this news was for me.
I soon saw Garcia _el Tuerto_.
He was the very ugliest brute that was ever nursed in gipsydom.
His skin was black, his soul was blacker, and he was altogether the most thorough-paced ruffian I ever came across in my life.
Carmen arrived with him, and when she called him her _rom_ in my presence, you should have seen the eyes she made at me, and the faces she pulled whenever Garcia turned his head away.
“I was disgusted, and never spoke a word to her all night.
The next morning we had made up our packs, and had already started, when we became aware that we had a dozen horsemen on our heels.
The braggart Andalusians, who had been boasting they would murder every one who came near them, cut a pitiful figure at once.
There was a general rout.
_El Dancaire_, Garcia, a good-looking fellow from Ecija, who was called _El Remendado_, and Carmen herself, kept their wits about them.
The rest forsook the mules and took to the gorges, where the horses could not follow them.
There was no hope of saving the mules, so we hastily unstrapped the best part of our booty, and taking it on our shoulders, we tried to escape through the rocks down the steepest of the slopes.
We threw our packs down in front of us and followed them as best we could, slipping along on our heels.
Meanwhile the enemy fired at us.
It was the first time I had ever heard bullets whistling around me and I didn’t mind it very much.
When there’s a woman looking on, there’s no particular merit in snapping one’s fingers at death.
We all escaped except the poor _Remendado_, who received a bullet wound in the loins.
I
threw away my pack and tried to lift him up.
“‘Idiot!
’ shouted Garcia, ‘what do we want with offal!
Finish him off, and don’t lose the cotton stockings!
’ “‘Drop him!
’ cried Carmen.
“I was so exhausted that I was obliged to lay him down for a moment under a rock.
Garcia came up, and fired his blunderbuss full into his face.
‘He’d be a clever fellow who recognised him now!
’ said he, as he looked at the face, cut to pieces by a dozen slugs.
“There, sir; that’s the delightful sort of life I’ve led!
That night we found ourselves in a thicket, worn out with fatigue, with nothing to eat, and ruined by the loss of our mules.
What do you think that devil Garcia did?
He pulled a pack of cards out of his pocket and began playing games with _El Dancaire_ by the light of a fire they kindled.
Meanwhile I was lying down, staring at the stars, thinking of _El Remendado_, and telling myself I would just as lief be in his place.
Carmen was squatting down near me, and every now and then she would rattle her castanets and hum a tune.
Then, drawing close to me, as if she would have whispered in my ear, she kissed me two or three times over almost against my will.
“‘You are a devil,’ said I to her.
“‘Yes,’ she replied.
“After a few hours’ rest, she departed to Gaucin, and the next morning a little goatherd brought us some food.
We stayed there all that day, and in the evening we moved close to Gaucin.
We were expecting news from Carmen, but none came.
After daylight broke we saw a muleteer attending a well-dressed woman with a parasol, and a little girl who seemed to be her servant.
Said Garcia, ‘There go two mules and two women whom St. Nicholas has sent us.
I would rather have had four mules, but no matter.
I’ll do the best I can with these.
’ “He took his blunderbuss, and went down the pathway, hiding himself among the brushwood.
“We followed him, _El Dancaire_ and I keeping a little way behind.
As soon as the woman saw us, instead of being frightened--and our dress would have been enough to frighten any one--she burst into a fit of loud laughter.
‘Ah!
the _lillipendi_!
They take me for an _erani_!
’ * * “The idiots, they take me for a smart lady!
” “It was Carmen, but so well disguised that if she had spoken any other language I should never have recognised her.
She sprang off her mule, and talked some time in an undertone with _El Dancaire_ and Garcia.
Then she said to me:
