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Vienna, May 17, 1875
Dear Berganza,
How can it be, Señor Don Berganza, that for nearly a month you have not written to me nor replied to my previous letter—supposing
you are alive, in good health and have become neither a Christian nor a socialist, in which case, as with every conversion, you would be expected to consign your old friends and acquaintances to hell with a spate of curses? But in your case one may hope that you would never agree to such conditions.
I was very concerned about your well-being, imagining that you might have been killed in a duel or the like, until I heard from your brother Carlos a few days ago that nothing is wrong with you and that you write regularly to your parents. So I beg you “to break your silence forthwith,” as they say in novels, and give me news of yourself, your intentions, your doings and adventures, as well as of the whither and the quibus auxiliis1 of your holidays, and you will find me, I assure you,
entirely yours
Don Cipion
member of the Spanish Academy
In Spanish
Viena, el 17 d[e] Mayo 1875
¡Querido Berganza!
¿Como puede ser, Señor Don Berganza, que ya desde casi un mes no me habeis escrito nada, ni respondido á mi carta anterior, puesto que estais vivo, en buena salud y aun no os habeis hecho ni cristiano, ni socialista, en qué casos, como en cada convertimiento, fuera menester, dar al infierno con las mayores maldicciones á vuestros viejos amigos y conocidos? Pero de vosotros se puede esperar, que á tales condicciones nunca jamas consentiréis.