r: nous allons souper ici
tous deux. C'est ce reduit que je vous ai destine pour logement.
Vous y serez mieux que dans votre cachot; vous verrez de votre
fenetre les bords fleuris de l'Erema, et la vallee delicieuse qui,
du pied des montagnes qui separent les deux Castilles, s'etend
jusqu'a Coca. Je suis bien que vous serez d'abord peu sensible a
une si belle vue, mais quand le temps aura fait succeder une douce
melancolie a la vivacite de votre douleur, vous prendrez plaisir a
promener vos regards sur des objets si agreables."

These notices of reference, taken at random, are all adapted to the
places at which they are found--the narrative leads to them by regular
approximation, or they are suggested by the subject and occasion which
it draws forth. To introduce a given story into the body of a writing
without abruptness, or marks of unnatural transition,

"Ut per laeve moventes,
Effundat junctura ungues."

is, as Paley observes, one of the most difficult artifices of
composition; and here are upwards of a hundred Spanish names,
circumstances, and allusions, incorporated with the story written, as M.
Neufchateau assures us, by a Frenchman concerning the court of Louis
XIV. A line touching on truth in so many points, could never have been
drawn accidentally; it is the pencil thrown luckily full upon the
horse's mouth, and expressing the foam which the painter, with all his
skill, could not represent without it. Let the reader observe how
difficult Le Sage has found the task of connecting the anecdotes taken
from Marcos de Obregon, and put into the mouth of Diego, with the main
story. How awkward is this transition? "Le _seigneur_ Diego de La Fuente
me raconta d'autres aventures encore, qui lui etoient arrivees depuis;
mais elles me semblent si peu dignes d'etre rapportees, que je les
passerai sous silence."

The next branch of the argument which we are called upon to consider,
relates to the Spanish words in _Gil Blas_, which imply the existence of
a Spanish manuscript. The names Juan, Pedro, often occur in Le Sage's
work, and Pierre, Jean, are sometimes used in their stead. The word
_Don_ is prefixed by the Spaniards to the Christian, and never to the
surname, as Don Juan, Don Antonio, not Don Mariana, Don Cervantes. In
France, _Dom_, its synonyme, is, on the contrary, prefixed to the
surname--as Dom Mabillon, Don Calmet. Le Sage always adheres to the
Spanish cus