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with the greater part of the soldiers, and suspicion could not point against
him. Everything agreed in distinguishing Dacosta as the true and only author
of the crime.
Ribeiro defended him with great warmth and with all his powers, but he could
not succeed in saving him. The verdict of the jury was affirmative on all the
questions. Joam Dacosta, convicted of aggravated and premeditated murder, did
not even obtain the benefit of extenuating circumstances, and heard himself
condemned to death.
There was no hope left for the accused. No commutation of the sentence was
possible, for the crime was committed in the diamond arrayal. The condemned
man was lost. But during the night which preceded his execution, and when the
gallows was already erected, Joam Dacosta managed to escape from the prison at
Villa Rica. We know the rest.
Twenty years later Ribeiro the advocate became the chief justice of Manaos. In
the depths of his retreat the fazender of Iquitos heard of the change, and in
it saw a favorable opportunity for bringing forward the revision of the former
proceedings against him with some chance of success. He knew that the old
convictions of the advocate would be still unshaken in the mind of the judge.
He therefore resolved to try and rehabilitate himself. Had it not been for
Ribeiro's nomination to the chief justiceship in the province of
Amazones, he might perhaps have hesitated, for he had no new material proof of
his innocence to bring forward. Although the honest man suffered acutely, he
might still have remained hidden in exile at Iquitos, and still have asked for
time to smother the remembrances of the horrible occurrence, but something was
urging him to act in the matter without delay.
In fact, before Yaquita had spoken to him, Joam Dacosta had noticed that
Manoel was in love with his daughter.
The union of the young army doctor and his daughter was in every respect a
suitable one. It was evident to
Joam that some day or other he would be asked for her hand in marriage, and he
did not wish to be obliged to refuse.
But then the thought that his daughter would have to marry under a name which
did not belong to her, that
Manoel Valdez, thinking he was entering the family of Garral, would enter that
of Dacosta, the head of which was under sentence of death, was intolerable to
him. No! The wedding should not take place unless under proper conditions!
Never!
Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon
CHAPTER III. RETROSPECTIVE
103
Let us recall what had happened up to this time. Four years after the young
clerk, who eventually became the partner of Magalhaës, had arrived at Iquitos,
the old Portuguese had been taken back to the farm mortally injured. A few
days only were left for him to live. He was alarmed at the thought that his
daughter would be left alone and unprotected; but knowing that Joam and
Yaquita were in love with each other, he desired their union without delay.
Joam at first refused. He offered to remain the protector or the servant of
Yaquita without becoming her husband. The wish of the dying Magalhaës was so
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urgent that resistance became impossible. Yaquita put her hand into the hand
of Joam, and Joam did not withdraw it.
Yes! It was a serious matter! Joam Dacosta ought to have confessed all, or to
have fled forever from the house in which he had been so hospitably received,
from the establishment of which he had built up the prosperity! Yes! To
confess everything rather than to give to the daughter of his benefactor a
name which was not his, instead of the name of a felon condemned to death for
murder, innocent though he might be!
But the case was pressing, the old fazender was on the point of death, his
hands were stretched out toward the young people! Joam was silent, the
marriage took place, and the remainder of his life was devoted to the
happiness of the girl he had made his wife.
"The day when I confess everything," Joam repeated, "Yaquita will pardon
everything! She will not doubt me for an instant! But if I ought not to have
deceived her, I certainly will not deceive the honest fellow who wishes to
enter our family by marrying Mina! No! I would rather give myself up and have
done with this life!"
Many times had Joam thought of telling his wife about his past life. Yes! the
avowal was on his lips whenever she asked him to take her into Brazil, and
with her and her daughter descend the beautiful Amazon river. He knew
sufficient of Yaquita to be sure that her affection for him would not thereby
be diminished in the least. But courage failed him!
And this is easily intelligible in the face of the happiness of the family,
which increased on every side. This happiness was his work, and it might be
destroyed forever by his return.
Such had been his life for those long years; such had been the continuous
source of his sufferings, of which he had kept the secret so well; such had
been the existence of this man, who had no action to be ashamed of, and whom a
great injustice compelled to hide away from himself!
But at length the day arrived when there could no longer remain a doubt as to
the affection which Manoel bore to Minha, when he could see that a year would
not go by before he was asked to give his consent to her marriage, and after a
short delay he no longer hesitated to proceed in the matter.
A letter from him, addressed to Judge Ribeiro, acquainted the chief justice
with the secret of the existence of
Joam Dacosta, with the name under which he was concealed, with the place where
he lived with his family, and at the same time with his formal intention of
delivering himself up to justice, and taking steps to procure the revision of
the proceedings, which would either result in his rehabilitation or in the
execution of the iniquitous judgment delivered at Villa Rica.
What were the feelings which agitated the heart of the worthy magistrate? We
can easily divine them. It was no longer to the advocate that the accused
applied; it was to the chief justice of the province that the convict
appealed. Joam Dacosta gave himself over to him entirely, and did not even ask
him to keep the secret.
Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon
CHAPTER III. RETROSPECTIVE
104
Judge Ribeiro was at first troubled about this unexpected revelation, but he
soon recovered himself, and scrupulously considered the duties which the
position imposed on him. It was his place to pursue criminals, and here was [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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