Ventura

“ Venturita, with her singular beauty, the languid, voluptuous expression of her eyes, and her invincible tendency to recline, was a perfect odalisque. But unlike one in being merely a beautiful animal, she was full of a mischievous spirit that bubbled forth at every moment in rather equivocal jokes and meaning puns, so that Gonzalo was always roaring with merriment, in ignorance of the danger of that mood between husband and wife. The life they led was very sedentary, for Ventura did not like going out; the sun gave her headache and the cold hurt her throat. ”

“ At sight of them, but still more on noticing the joy and satisfaction which shone in Pedro's face, Anna's vague but distressing fears were tranquillized, and, more than all, Ventura's manner filled her with hope, for she saw that he approached Elvira and talked to her with interest and tenderness, while Pedro said, with a mysterious air and winking toward Ventura, "That young fellow is in a hurry to be married. You mustn't take so long to prepare the wedding things, neighbor; young people are not so sluggish as we old ones." ”

“ Ventura says, "I have some strength left; calm yourself and help me get to the hacienda; it is not far and let them send for a confessor, for I wish to die like a Christian."
The God of pity gives strength to the poor old man. He raises his son, who, leaning upon his shoulder walks a few steps, repressing the groans which anguish wrings from his breast.
At the hacienda, they hear a pitiful voice calling for succor; all run out and see, coming along the path, the unfortunate father supporting upon his shoulder his dying son. They meet and surround them.
"A priest! a priest!" ”

“ He was certain that the bad state of his blood, which had brought on the sudden attack of erysipelas, was due to the life he had led at Madrid and subsequently in Sarrio. This was quite evident, for he required a life of activity and work, an outdoor life with shooting and riding; his plethoric temperament required exercise, and the sedentary life which suited Ventura, with the eternal theatre and visits, and long evenings without food, were death to him, and his blood became as thick as oil. But what did all that signify to her? All she cared about was to please herself once and for all. ”

“ I don't know what it says in this paper that you have given Venturita, but it must be something very repulsive and objectionable."
"The greatest insult that a man can have!" returned Gonzalo in a stifled tone.
"How infamous! Insult you, who have never hurt them! You are right. It is Ventura's fault: her frivolity and the silly ideas that she gets into her head have caused this trouble, as they have caused other slighter ones that you have had. But do not imagine for an instant that there is anything bad about Ventura. She is a giddy creature, a little flirt, but she is not bad at heart ”

“ Ventura draws attention to her extraordinary activity and bodily endurance, her long fasts and severe abnegation. He says that she was a phenomenon, but that, although her rare combination of qualities seemed almost a miracle in any single human being, yet such qualities are quite reconcilable in perfect womanhood. He says she was “brave as a warrior, and tender as a mother; wise as an old man, learned as a doctor, and simple as a child; pure as an angel, and redoubtable as a great conqueror.” ”

“ The wedding day of Ventura and Elvira had arrived, and the sun, like a friend that hastened to be the first to give them joy, rose radiant. They were ready to set out for the church. Anna pressed to her heart the child of her love, the gentle Elvira, so humble and thoughtful in her gladness that she stood with drooping head and eyes cast down, as if oppressed and dazzled by so much joy. Uncle Pedro, who had never been so glad in all his life, exceeded even himself in jokes, hints, and facetious sayings. ”

“ Even Doña Paula, who had been somewhat cool to her during the first months of her married life, succumbed to the sway.
Ventura did not abuse her power as long as everything went as she wished, and she took care that it always did. So nobody but herself knew when they would return to Sarrio; the cook never arranged a meal without consulting her; the coachman came up every day to ask her at what time the carriage was wanted, and the gardener never moved a plant without her sanction. ”

“ Fortunately, Pablito now approached with Venturita, and our young friend greeted the former affectionately and gave a ceremonious bow to the latter.
Pablo smiled.
"Don't you know her? She is my sister, Venturita."
"Oh! How could I know her? She is a woman. How do you do, Ventura?"
The girl gave him her hand with a mocking, roguish expression that quite confused him.
They then all turned toward home. Venturita ran in front, dragging her brother with her. Doña Paula, Cecilia, and Gonzalo walked behind. Don Rosendo closed the procession with his old friend, Don Pedro Miranda. ”

“ What can escape the eyes of one who loves? Is it not known that there are things, which, like the wind of Guadarrama, though scarce a breath, yet kill. Before either Rita or Ventura had acknowledged even to their own consciousness, the mutual attraction which they exercised upon each other, Elvira was offering to God, for the second time, the pangs of her lost love. ”

“ Gregory of Nyssa, went to visit their sister, and open his heart to her concerning their common sorrow, he found her dying, it is true, but so vigorous in mind that her discourse on the providence of God and the state of the soul after death was no less striking than comforting. He could hardly believe, says Ventura, that it was not a doctor of the church, a learned theologian, who was speaking to him; and so much did he treasure his sister’s words that he compiled his admirable Treatise of the Soul and The Resurrection chiefly from the matter furnished by her discourse. ”

“ Why, he would burn me alive if I so much as whispered that our old capitan, Don Serapo Barana, was his prisoner. No, no, ’nor Ventura, that is a secret—a secret, do you hear? And although you may be a true man, I won’t share it with you,” rambled Andrez, with a drunken leer.
“True, I was wrong, as you say,” suppressing the exultant smile that shot over his features. “But come, we will go to the cell, and then, after we have drank the wine, will throw the bottle inside, so the padre will find it there to-morrow, and then he will not suspect us.” ”

“ Tomas Ventura recovered from his wound, and lived to play with the children of his children, as he called Felipe and Carlita, dying at a “green old age,” outliving Tadeo Campos, who, however, taught Felipe junior how to ride and swim.
Augustin Canelo entered a monastery, but did not live long after renouncing the world, his constitution being undermined by the tortures he had endured at the hands of the fiendish padre Gayferos. ”

“ Arriving at the end of the mole he threw himself down on the mole and fixed his melancholy gaze on the waves coming in.
It was the same spot where, a few years previously, he had had the conversation with his uncle about breaking off his engagement with Cecilia and marrying Ventura.
The stern, severe words of the old man seemed now to reecho in his ears:
"God can not help the man who breaks his word. The journey is long, the sea wide and powerful, and what is merely pretty is soon submerged in the swell." ”

“ The pilot cried out as if he had been hurt. We felt the boat lurch under us heavily, and then, torn from the rude embrace of the branches, drift rapidly down the stream. When I opened my eyes, for we had been both blinded by the spray, Ventura had disappeared. I called aloud several times. There was no reply.
"Tis all over with him!" cried Calros. "He is at the bottom of the river. We must see to ourselves now."
A speedy retreat was the only chance of safety left us. The Jarocho seized the oars and began rowing vigorously. ”

“ We advanced by chance, and the darkness was so intense that we did not know but what every pull would send us up against the wall of rock on either side.
"One would need to have the eyes of a tiger-cat to see in this place," cried the pilot.
"Have we far to go now?" asked Calros.
"A few vigorous strokes will send us there," answered Ventura; "but the most embarrassing thing is to discover the entrance to the narrow reach that runs up from this basin. This reach is as narrow as the one we have just left."
"Put out the boat-hook to feel if we are not running against the rocks." ”

“ We read, in the history of the Church, that in the same century there were in Oxyrinchus, a town of Lower Thebais, as many as twenty thousand virgins. [8] In the middle ages, writes Father Ventura, every family deemed itself honored and happy to give a spouse to Christ. ”

“ What Don Rosendo had feared from the letters from Ocaña at last happened.
The Superior of the Convent informed him one day that Ventura had escaped from the retreat, and, according to all reports, it was with the Duke of Tornos.
"The great humanitarian" (as he was termed by "The Light," on a certain occasion) received the news with stoical fortitude. In fact, what did any purely individual sorrow signify in comparison with universal sorrow in the slow and sure march of humanity to its destiny? ”

“ Let us return to the jacale,” soothingly replied Sayosa, as he took the old man’s arm, thinking that the tale of Carlita’s peril had shocked his brain; for the neighbors all called him “crazy Ventura,” and the youth partially shared their belief that the old man was of unsound mind.
“No, no, Marcos, my son, you are wrong,” said Ventura. “I am not wandering; my brain is not crazed. Although the blessed Virgin knows that I have endured enough to make me so. I am speaking the truth when I say that if you marry Carlita, after I am gone, you will be wealthy ”

“ The men followed her example, and assembled in concert to found communities of their own. Rome vied with the Thebaïd for sanctity and learning, and this was the work of a woman. When, in the seventh century, St. Benedict, the reformer and patriarch of all religious orders in Europe, reduced monasticism in the West to the state in which we know it in our own days, he was only, says Ventura (Donna Cattolica, vol. i. p. 488) , walking in the path which the heroic women of Christendom had hewn out before him in imitation of the hermits and anchorites of the East. ”

“ VENTURA DE LA VEGA. Dramatist and poet; born in the Argentine Republic, he was trained in Spain, where he passed the greater part of his life, becoming private secretary to Isabel II. His imitations of the Hebrew poetry of the Bible are praiseworthy. In most of his verse he displays an eclectic tendency, a desire to combine the best in romanticism with the best in classicism. ”

“ Then there will be no treachery. The injury I have done Cecilia will soon be forgotten. She will find a more worthy husband than I, and when I return at the expiration of a few years I shall probably find her happy, and surrounded with children. But—but to leave Ventura! to leave that being, radiant with happiness! No more to hear that voice that fills my soul with delight! nor to feel the sweet touch of her hand, fresh and soft as a rosebud! To leave her shining eyes and magnetic smile!—oh, no!"
Drops of perspiration stood upon his forehead. ”

“ My Carlita is beautiful and good—even a father may say that—and she loves you, better far than life itself. And you—can you, do you love her?” anxiously asked Ventura.
“Yes; I do, I will love her, best of all!” exclaimed Marcos, but there was a remonstrance at his heart; the bright, beautiful face of Luisa Canelo was there, and seemed to reproach him for the words.
“I hoped so—I knew so; and I am glad. I am an old man, Marcos, and, as you know, very poor. But you saved my daughter; she who looks at me with her mother’s eyes, and I shall not forget it. Listen. I can not live much longer ”

“ It was said that Ventura was very quiet, and showed little sorrow for her conduct, for she had dined and joked and laughed with the wife of the cider manufacturer. It was thought that the eager curiosity shown in this quarter would have distracted attention from Don Rudesindo's expedition to Nieva with Peña. But the object of the journey was suspected, and the news ran through the town like wildfire, that Gonzalo was to have a duel with the duke, no one knew where.
Don Melchor de las Cuevas lived alone with a man and a woman-servant. ”

“ But ants also own slaves. All the masters, and the horses also, appeared to believe that they themselves, and nothing else, constituted the world; and their schemes, their desires, their loves, their restaurants, and their daily allowance of oats, the only and highest ends of creation.
But there among the pedestrians he saw a pale face adorned with a long white beard, with melancholy, dreamy eyes likewise fastened on the skies. As he passed, this face smiled affectionately. Miguel replied, saying, "Good afternoon, Don Ventura." ”

“ But when 54 he grew older and began to ask about his parents, Tomas Ventura told him that he was not a nephew, or, indeed, any relation whatever. That a man and woman had come to his house, asking shelter, where he had been born. The father was badly wounded in the conflict with banditti in which they had lost their all, excepting the clothes they wore, and had managed to escape and wander to his hut. The man died of his wounds, and after Marcos’ birth his mother sunk rapidly from grief for her husband, and on the third day she also died. ”

“ When the emperor returned, he found everything in perfect order. The empress relinquished the functions of regent only to resume her former place of intercessor for the unfortunate, protectress of prisoners, and wise auxiliary to justice.” Adelaide, Princess of Burgundy, renewed in the following century the glories of Mathilda’s reign. She was married to the son of the latter, after having been for a short time the Queen of Lothair, King of the Lombards in Italy. Ventura says that her zeal for the public good and her love of the people gained her the appellation of the “mother of her kingdom.” ”