Part 22

At that same moment Alvaro's coachman entered the room and announced to him that new people were looking for him.

"Oh, my God!... what will this be today!... will it be those cursed bailiffs again?..." Alvaro reflected, and then addressing Isaura:

"It is prudent that you withdraw, my friend," he said to her; "no one knows what it will be, and it is not fitting that they see you."

"Ah! that I serve only to disturb your peace!" murmured Isaura, withdrawing.

A moment later Alvaro saw entering the room an elegant and handsome young man, dressed with all refinement, and affecting the most polished and aristocratic manners; but despite his beauty, he had in his physiognomy, like Lucifer, an indefinable something of the sullen and sinister, and a somber gaze that inspired dread and repulsion.

"This one certainly is not a bailiff," thought Alvaro, and indicating a chair to the newcomer: "Please sit down," he said to him, "and have the kindness to say what you want of this your servant."

"Excuse me," replied the gentleman, casting a scrutinizing glance around the room; "it is not to Your Lordship that I wished to speak, but rather to the resident of this house or to his daughter."

Alvaro shuddered. It was clear that this young man, although he had no appearance of a bailiff, was on the trail of Isaura. Nevertheless, with the aim of verifying whether his apprehension was founded, before calling the owners of the house, he wished to sound out the visitor's intentions.

"Nevertheless," he replied, "since I am authorized by the owners of the house to deal with all their business, Your Lordship may address me, and say what you want of them."

"Yes, sir; I have not the least doubt, for what I want is no mystery. Having learned with certainty that a runaway slave by the name of Isaura is sheltered here, I come to apprehend her...."

"In that case you must deal with me, for I am the depositary of that slave."

"Ah!... from what I see, Your Lordship is Senhor Alvaro!..."

"Your Lordship's servant."

"Good; I am very glad to find you here; for know also that I am Leôncio, the legitimate owner of that slave."

Leôncio!... Isaura's master!... Alvaro was as if crushed under the weight of this fulminating and tremendous revelation. Mute and astonished, he contemplated for some moments that man of somber countenance, who presented himself before his eyes, implacable and sinister as Lucifer, about to seize the victim whom he wished to drag to hell. Cold sweat poured from his brow, and the most poignant anguish gripped his heart.

"It is he!... it is the executioner himself!... ah, poor Isaura!..." was the lugubrious echo that murmured within his soul, frozen by despondency.

Chapter XVIII.

The reader probably will not have been less astonished than Alvaro was at the unforeseen appearance of Leôncio in Recife, and going to strike precisely at the house in which his slave was taking refuge.

It is necessary therefore to explain to him how this happened, so that he does not think it was by some miracle.

Leôncio, after having written and delivered at the post office the two letters that we know, one addressed to Alvaro, the other to Martinho, was not for that reason any calmer. A mortal inquietude, a desperate jealousy, devoured his soul. The news that Isaura was in the power of a handsome and rich young man who loved her madly was for him an insupportable torture, a cancer that corroded his entrails and made him writhe in agonies of despair, kindling each time more the furious passion that he had conceived for his slave. He was at the court, to which, as soon as he had news of Isaura, he immediately directed himself, in order to be in a center from which he could take prompt and energetic measures for the capture of the same. Having written and delivered the letters on the eve of the steamship's morning departure, he spent the rest of the day brooding. The terrible anxiety in which he found himself did not permit him to wait for the response and the result of those letters, the voyages of the packets being much more slow and spaced than today at that epoch, in which steam navigation along the coasts of Brazil had only just been inaugurated. Moreover, the popular saying frequently occurred to his mind—who wants goes, who does not want sends.—He could not trust in the diligence and good will of unknown persons, who perhaps might not be able to struggle advantageously against the influence of Alvaro, who, according to how they painted him, was a potentate in his land. Jealousy and vengeance do not like to entrust to others' eyes and hands the execution of their designs.

"It is indispensable that I go myself," thought Leôncio, and firm in this resolution he went to the minister of justice, with whom he cultivated relations of friendship, and asked him for a letter of recommendation,—which is equivalent to an order,—to the chief of police of Pernambuco, so that he might efficaciously aid him in the discovery and capture of a slave. Beforehand Leôncio had also provided himself with a requisitory letter and arrest warrant against Miguel, whom he had had prosecuted and indicted as a thief and shelterer of his slave. The ferocious pasha forgot nothing to make his vengeance complete.

The next day Leôncio set off for the north on the same steamship that carried his letters.

These, however, arrived at their destination some hours before their author disembarked in Recife.

Leôncio had scarcely set foot on land when he directed himself to the chief of police, and handing him the minister's letter, informed him of his claim.

"I have to inform you, Senhor Leôncio," replied the chief, "that perhaps little more than two hours ago a person authorized by Your Lordship left here for the same purpose of apprehending that slave, and only a short while ago arrived back here declaring that he had been mistaken, and that he had just recognized that the person whom he suspected is not and cannot be the slave who fled from Your Lordship."

"A certain Martinho, no, Senhor Doctor?...—"

"Precisely."

"Indeed!... what are you telling me, Senhor Doctor?...—"

"The truth; the officer of justice and the guards who accompanied him are still there at the door."

"So that I will have lost my time and my voyage!... oh! no, no; that is not possible. Believe me, Senhor Doctor, there is trickery here ... that certain Senhor Alvaro, they say, is very rich..."

"And that certain Martinho a scoundrel capable of every infamy. Anything is possible; but it is up to Your Lordship, as the interested party, to investigate these things."

"And that is what I come disposed to do. I will go there myself to verify the business with my own eyes, and right now, if possible."

"Whenever you wish. There are the officer of justice and the guards, who have just come from there, and no one better than they can guide Your Lordship and effect the capture, should you recognize her as your own slave."

"I also need Your Lordship to put the—let it be executed—on this requisitory letter," said Leôncio, presenting the requisitory letter against Miguel—"it is necessary to punish the scoundrel who had the audacity to lead astray and steal my slave."

The chief satisfied without hesitation Leôncio's request, who, accompanied by the small escort, which he made get into his carriage, at that same moment directed himself to Isaura's house, where we left him face to face with Alvaro.

The latter's situation was not only critical; it was desperate. His antagonist was there armed with his incontestable right to humiliate him, to crush him, and what is more, to shatter his soul, robbing him of his adored lover, the idol of his heart, who was about to be torn from his arms to be prostituted to the brutal love of a debauched master, if not sacrificed to his fury. There was no remedy but to bow without murmuring to the blow of destiny, and to see with crossed arms the noble and angelic creature, who alone among so many beauties had made his heart palpitate with emotions of the most tender and pure love, put in irons and delivered to the executioner's whip.

Deplorable contingency, to which we are dragged as a consequence of an absurd and inhuman institution!

The debauchee, the libertine, the executioner, presents himself haughty and arrogant, having on his side the law and the authority, the right and the force, launches his claw upon the prey that is the object of his covetousness or of his hatred, and can enjoy her or crush her at his whim, while the man of noble heart, of generous impulses, unarmed before the law, remains there supplanted, hindered, manacled without being able to extend his arm in succor of the innocent and noble victim whom he wishes to protect. Thus, by a strange aberration, we see the law arming vice and cutting off the arms of virtue.

Alvaro was therefore in the presence of Leôncio as the condemned man in the presence of the executioner. The hand of fatality pressed him down with all its crushing weight, without leaving him free the least movement.

Leôncio came burning with furies of rage and jealousy, and availing himself of his advantageous position, he took the occasion to avenge himself on his rival, not with the nobility of a gentleman, but seeking to humiliate him by dint of insults.

"I know that for a long time," said Leôncio, continuing the dialogue that we left interrupted in the preceding chapter, "Your Lordship has retained that slave in your power against all justice, deluding the authorities with false allegations that you will never be able to prove. But now I come myself to reclaim her and to thwart your plans and artifices."

"Artifices, no, sir. I protected and I protect frankly a slave against the violences of a master who wants to become her executioner; that is all."

"Ah!... now it is that I know that anyone there can subtract a slave from the dominion of her master on the pretext of protecting her, and that each one has the right to watch over the manner in which others' slaves are treated."

"Your Lordship is in a disposition to mock, and I declare to you that I have no wish to mock, nor to be mocked. I confess to you that I desire very much the freedom of that slave, as much as I desire my happiness, and I am disposed to make all possible sacrifices to obtain it. I have already offered you money, and I still offer. I give you whatever you ask ... I give you a fortune for that slave. Name a price..."

"There is no money that can pay for her; nor all the gold in the world, because I do not want to sell her."

"But that is a barbarous caprice, a perversity..."

--Let it be a whim of whatever quality you please; perhaps I cannot have my own whims, as long as I offend no one's rights?... perhaps you too do not have your own whim of wanting her for yourself?... but your whim offends my rights, and that is what I cannot tolerate.

--But my whim is noble and beneficent, and yours is a tyranny, not to say a villainy. You stain your life with an indelible blot by keeping that woman in slavery; you spit disrespect and insult upon the tomb of your saintly mother, who raised with such delicacy, educated with such care that slave, to make her worthy of the freedom she intended to give her, and not to satisfy your whims. She certainly, there from heaven, where she is, will curse you, and the whole world will join her in the curse upon the man who holds in the most infamous captivity a creature full of virtues, gifts and beauty...

--Enough, sir!... now I also learn that a slave, merely by the fact of being pretty and gifted, has rights to freedom. Let you also know, that if my mother did not raise that girl to satisfy my whims, much less to satisfy yours, whom she never knew in this life. Sir Alvaro, if you wish to have some lovely slave for your mistress, look for another, buy her, for as for this one, you may lose all hope.

--Sir Leoncio, you certainly forget the place where you are, and the person with whom you speak, and you think you are on your plantation speaking to your overseers or to your slaves. I warn you, so that you change your language.

--Enough, sir; let us leave vain disputes, and I did not come here to be catechized by you either. What I want is the delivery of the slave and nothing more. Do not oblige me to use my right by taking her by force.

Alvaro, crazed by such coarse and ferocious provocations, lost all prudence and coolness.