It was early autumn of 1830. One scientist, no doubt, curious and enthusiastic, goes to the site of the last battle of the great Julius Caesar in order to find the ancient Mundu. Along the way, he, along with his guide, is forced to stop, the reason for which was the midday heat, which makes us escape in the shade. They turn to one gorge, but a comfortable place for rest, located near the stream, is already occupied by someone: a fair-haired person rises to the meeting. Not only strength was guessed in his walk, but also undoubted dexterity. and the person on whom it is possible to note piercing eyes, looking proudly and confidently, betrayed alertness. Despite the apparent ill will of a stranger, the offer of the guests to share a meal with them, and after a good cigar, relieves the tension of the meeting.
After rest, our scientist continues his journey with his new acquaintance, while he does not pay any attention to the signs of the conductor giving him. When evening comes,
travelers decide to stop for the night, choosing a place in a remote venta. Having supped, a new friend, putting beside him a musketon, immediately begins to snore, and a scientist, tormented by insomnia, goes out into the street. In the darkness of the night, he suddenly notices how his conductor quietly steals, and after asking what the matter is, the scientist learns that he decided to warn the lancers post that in the venta a certain Jose Navarro, a robber, had lodged in the night, for whose help in the arrest he was promised a reward in two hundred ducats. The scientist does not want his new acquaintance to be evil and warns him that he is in danger, why he gets to the hero with a feeling of true friendship. Some time passes and our scientist continues his research in one of the libraries of the monastery located in Cordoba. In the evenings, he walks and watches the sunset on the banks of Guadalquivir. During one of these walks, a woman turns to him, who was dressed in a grisette, short, young, with a charming figure and looking with piercing slanting eyes. Her beauty – wild and unnatural, struck our scientist.
He treats her with a cigarette and the girl is provided. Her name was Carmen, she is a gypsy and knows how to guess. The scientist asks to let him lead the girl, and at the same time, look at her unusual art. However, Carmen’s stories about the future were unexpectedly interrupted by a man wrapped in a cloak, who, cursing, bursts into the house, where the new scientist recently brought his new acquaintance. This man is a traveler, saved by a scientist in recent times. After his conversation with Carmen, from which the scientist could not understand anything, as he passed, albeit emotionally, but in an unfamiliar language, Jose takes the hero out into the street and points him towards the hotel. Only here, our scientist suddenly discovers that he lost the gold watch, which the girl liked very much. Grieved, he leaves the city in the coming days. Several months passed. The scientist again comes to Kordov, where he accidentally learns that Jose is already in prison and awaits execution. The hero decides to go to his friend and listen to his story about life. Arriving in the dungeon to the robber, the scientist learned from Jose that he himself was a Basque and was born into a family belonging to a noble family, ancient and respectable. His hometown was Elisondo, from where he escaped after a fight. Jose enters the service in the dragoon regiment. In the army, he showed zeal and was soon able to reach the foreman. One day he was appointed guard, who guarded the tobacco factory in Seville. It was here that he met Carmen, whom he loved the moment he first saw a girl going to work. It takes two hours and Jose is called to the factory, where he was to arrest Carmen, who had sunk in his heart, because she had severely slashed one face with a knife. When Jose was leading her, she told him that she was also from the Basques, and in that city she felt very, very lonely, they all persecuted her because they considered someone else, that’s why she grabbed a knife in order to protect herself and her dignity. Of course, she lied, but he believed her and let her go. For this truth he was put in for a month and demoted, but he did not regret what he had done. In prison, he receives a gift from Carmen – bread, in which was hidden a file, a gold coin and two piastres. However, the sense of military duty and honor do not allow you to decide to escape, and he returns to the rank of private. One day he stood in guard at the house of his colonel. In the evening the crew arrived on the gate, on which the gypsies summoned arrived-there was a holiday in the house. Among the gypsies, José suddenly notices his acquaintance, who appoints him a date and it was their happiest night. When they said goodbye, Carmen said that they are in the calculation, but admitted that she fell in love with him, but, as she noticed, the wolf and the sheep can not get along side by side. After that he tried to find the missing girl for a long time, but his search was not crowned with success. When he was guarding the passage in the city wall, she again appears with a request to help smugglers. Carmen gives the floor to give Jose the night, and he violates this oath. After that, Jose was long happy, Carmen was affectionate with him, but suddenly in the detachment of smugglers appears a certain Garcia Krivoi, so nicknamed for exceptional ugliness. He was the husband of Carmen and she had long been trying to get him out of prison. Jose began to smuggle and sometimes rob and kill travelers. One day, Carmen tells Jose that the next time they are doing their next thing, he could have substituted her husband for bullets, but he does not agree and kills his opponent in a fair fight, summoning him to a fight, after which he officially becomes her husband. Only Carmen herself becomes increasingly tired of this love and of Jose. One day Jose invited his beloved to change their lives and go to the New World, but she only laughed at him in return. A little more time passes and Jose learns that his Carmen had some sort of affair with the matador Lucas. Jose is very jealous and once again calls Carmen to America, but she refuses and declares that they still do not get to live together, and she and in Spain are living very well. The furious man takes his beloved to one remote gorge and again asks if she agrees to leave. However, the stubborn Carmen says that he does not want to live with him, and he will not love again either. Jose is furious, he in a fit of anger kills Carmen with a knife, after which he bury his beloved in the woods, putting a small cross and ring in the grave. The story of the unhappy Jose ends here, and we can observe how the author describes the customs and the language of the Roma in the subsequent part of the novel. Jose is very jealous and once again calls Carmen to America, but she refuses and declares that they still do not get to live together, and she and in Spain are living very well. The furious man takes his beloved to one remote gorge and again asks if she agrees to leave. However, the stubborn Carmen says that he does not want to live with him, and he will not love again either. Jose is furious, he in a fit of anger kills Carmen with a knife, after which he bury his beloved in the woods, putting a small cross and ring in the grave. The story of the unhappy Jose ends here, and we can observe how the author describes the customs and the language of the Roma in the subsequent part of the novel. Jose is very jealous and once again calls Carmen to America, but she refuses and declares that they still do not get to live together, and she and in Spain are living very well. The furious man takes his beloved to one remote gorge and again asks if she agrees to leave. However, the stubborn Carmen says that he does not want to live with him, and he will not love again either. Jose is furious, he in a fit of anger kills Carmen with a knife, after which he bury his beloved in the woods, putting a small cross and ring in the grave. The story of the unhappy Jose ends here, and we can observe how the author describes the customs and the language of the Roma in the subsequent part of the novel. The furious man takes his beloved to one remote gorge and again asks if she agrees to leave. However, the stubborn Carmen says that he does not want to live with him, and he will not love again either. Jose is furious, he in a fit of anger kills Carmen with a knife, after which he bury his beloved in the woods, putting a small cross and ring in the grave. The story of the unhappy Jose ends here, and we can observe how the author describes the customs and the language of the Roma in the subsequent part of the novel. The furious man takes his beloved to one remote gorge and again asks if she agrees to leave. However, the stubborn Carmen says that he does not want to live with him, and he will not love again either. Jose is furious, he in a fit of anger kills Carmen with a knife, after which he bury his beloved in the woods, putting a small cross and ring in the grave. The story of the unhappy Jose ends here, and we can observe how the author describes the customs and the language of the Roma in the subsequent part of the novel.
