Isaura, the SlavePart 3
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Part 3
A few days after the marriage of Leoncio, the commander, with the whole family, including the two newlyweds, moved again to his estate in Campos. It was then that the commander handed over to his son the entire administration and usufruct of that property, with all the slaves and other accessories existing on it, declaring to him that since he was already quite old, ailing and tired, he wished to spend the rest of his days in tranquility, free from affairs and worries, for which the income he reserved for himself was more than enough.
Having made this magnificent endowment to his son during his lifetime, he retired to the court. His wife, however, preferred to stay in the company of her son, which was very much to the liking and approval of her husband.
Malvina, who despite her aristocratic vanity had a candid and good soul, and a well-formed heart, could not help but conceive from the very beginning the most vivid interest and tender affection for the captive Isaura. She was indeed of such a kind and gentle nature, so docile, modest and submissive, that despite her great beauty and incontestable gifts of spirit, she won the benevolence of all at the first encounter.
Isaura immediately became, I will not say the favorite maid, but the faithful companion, the friend of Malvina, who, accustomed to the pleasures and pastimes of the court, was very glad to find such good and lovely company in the solitude she was going to inhabit.
"Why don't they free this girl?" she said one day to her mother-in-law. "Such a good and interesting creature was not born to be a slave."
"You are right, my daughter," the old woman replied kindly; "but what can you do?... I do not have the heart to release this little bird, which heaven gave me to console me and make the heavy and long hours of old age more bearable.
And also, free her for what? Here she is free, freer than I myself, poor me, who no longer have pleasures in life nor strength to enjoy freedom. Do you want me to release my little bird? And if she wanders off out there, and never again finds the door of the cage?... No, no, my daughter; as long as I live, I want to have her always very close to me, I want her to be mine, and mine alone. You must be saying to yourself—great selfishness of an old woman!—but I too have only a few days of life left; the sacrifice will not be great. Upon my death she will be free, and I will take care to leave her a good legacy.
In fact the good old woman tried several times to write her will in order to guarantee the future of her little slave, of her dear pupil; but the commander, aided by his son with delays and futile pretexts, always managed to keep postponing the satisfaction of the praiseworthy and holy desire of his wife, until the day when, struck down by an attack of general paralysis, she succumbed within a few hours without having had a single moment of lucidity and revival to express her last wish.
Malvina swore over the corpse of her mother-in-law to continue toward the unfortunate slave the same protection and solicitude that the deceased had lavished upon her. Isaura mourned for a long time the death of her who had been for her a watchful and affectionate mother; and she continued to be a slave, no longer of a good and virtuous lady, but of capricious, debauched and cruel masters.
Chapter III.
We still need to know more closely Henrique, Leoncio's brother-in-law. He was an elegant and handsome young man of twenty years, frivolous, reckless and vain, as are almost all young men, especially when they have had the good fortune to be born of a rich father. Notwithstanding these slight flaws, he had a good heart and quite a bit of dignity and nobility of soul. He was a medical student, and since it was vacation, Leoncio had invited him to come visit his sister and spend a few days at his estate.
The two young men were arriving from Campos, where Leoncio had gone the day before to meet his brother-in-law.
Only after Leoncio was married, who before that had made few and brief stays in his parents' house, did he begin to pay attention to the extreme beauty and incomparable graces of Isaura. Although he had been allotted a beautiful and excellent wife, he had not married for love, a sentiment to which his heart until then seemed absolutely foreign. He had married for speculation, and since his wife was young and pretty, he felt for her only that passion which feeds on the enjoyment of sensual pleasures, and with them is extinguished. It was reserved for the unfortunate Isaura to make vibrate deeply and violently in that libertine heart the fibers that were not yet entirely ruined by the friction of debauchery. He conceived for her the most blind and violent love, which was growing day by day in direct proportion to the serious and powerful obstacles he encountered, obstacles to which he was not accustomed, and which he strove in vain to overcome. But he did not for that reason give up his mad enterprise, because after all—he thought—Isaura was his property, and when no other means were effective, he still had the use of violence. Leoncio was a worthy heir to all the bad instincts and brutal debauchery of the commander.
Along the way, as his mind was always full of the image of Isaura, Leoncio had conversed at length with his brother-in-law about her, extolling her beauty, and letting shine through with revolting cynicism the lascivious intentions he harbored in his heart. This conversation did not please Henrique much, who at times blushed with shame and indignation for his sister, but it did not fail to excite in him a vivid curiosity to know a slave of such extraordinary beauty.
On the day following the arrival of the young men, at eight o'clock in the morning, Isaura, who had just dusted the furniture and tidied the parlor, was sitting by a window and amusing herself with embroidery while waiting for her masters to rise so she could serve them coffee. Leoncio and Henrique did not take long to appear, and stopping at the door of the parlor they began to contemplate Isaura, who without noticing their presence continued to embroider distractedly.
"So, what do you think?" Leoncio whispered to his brother-in-law. "Is a slave of this order not an inestimable treasure? Who would not say she is an Andalusian from Cadiz, or a Neapolitan?..."
"She is nothing of the sort; but she is something better," replied Henrique marveling; "she is a perfect Brazilian."
"What Brazilian! She is superior to everything that exists. Those charms and those seventeen springs in a free girl would have turned the heads of many good people. Your sister insists with urgency that I free her, alleging that this was the will of my deceased mother; but I am not so foolish as to dispose thus without more or less of such a precious jewel. If my mother had the caprice to raise her with all care and give her a superb education, it was certainly not to abandon her to the world, don't you think?... My father too, it seems, yielded to the urgings of her father, who is a poor Galician who wanders about here, and who intends to free her; but the old man asks such an exorbitant sum for her that I think there is nothing to fear on that side. See there, Henrique, is there anything that can pay for a slave like this?..."
"She is indeed enchanting," replied the young man; "if she were in the sultan's seraglio, she would be his favorite odalisque. But I must note to you, Leoncio," he continued, fixing on his brother-in-law a look full of malicious penetration, "as your friend and as the brother of your wife, that having in your parlor and at the side of my sister a slave so pretty and so well treated is not without inconvenience and perhaps dangerous for domestic tranquility..."
"Bravo!" interrupted Leoncio jesting, "for the age you are, you are already a full-fledged moralist!... but do not worry about that, my boy; your sister has no such whims, and it is she herself who most likes Isaura to be seen and admired by all. And she is right; Isaura is like a luxury item, which must always be on display in the parlor. Would you have me send my Venetian mirrors to the kitchen?..."
Malvina, who was coming from the interior of the house, smiling, fresh and cheerful as an April morning, came to interrupt their conversation.
"Good morning, lazy gentlemen!" she said with a voice silvery and festive as the trill of the swallow. "So at last you have risen!"
"You are very cheerful today, my dear," her husband retorted smiling; "did you see some little green bird with a golden beak?..."
"I did not see one, but I shall; I am cheerful indeed, and I want today here in this house to be a day of celebration for everyone. That depends on you, Leoncio, and I was anxious to see you on your feet; I want to tell you something; I should have told you yesterday, but the pleasure of seeing this ingrate of a brother, whom I have not seen for so long, made me forget..."
"But what is it?... speak, Malvina."
"Don't you remember a promise that you always make me, a sacred promise, which should have been fulfilled long ago?... today I absolutely want, I demand, its fulfillment."
"Truly!?... but what promise?... I don't remember."
"Ah! how you pretend to forget!... don't you remember that you promised me to give freedom to...."
"Ah! I know, I know;" interrupted Leoncio with impatience. "But deal with that here now? in her presence?... what need is there for her to hear us?"
"And what harm does that do? but let it be as you wish," replied the girl taking Leoncio's hand and leading him to the interior of the house; "let us go inside. Henrique, wait there a moment, while I go order our coffee prepared."
Only after Malvina's arrival did Isaura notice the presence of the two young men, who at a certain distance were contemplating her whispering about her. She also heard little and understood nothing of the rapid dialogue that had taken place between Malvina and her husband. As soon as they withdrew, she too rose and was about to leave, but Henrique, who had remained alone, detained her with a gesture.
"What do you want of me, sir?" she said lowering her eyes with humility.
"Wait there, girl; I have something to say to you," replied the young man, and without saying anything more he placed himself before her, devouring her with his eyes, and as if ecstatic contemplating her marvelous beauty. Henrique felt embarrassed before that noble figure radiant with beauty and angelic serenity. For her part Isaura also looked at the young man, astonished and paralyzed, waiting in vain for him to tell her what he wanted. At last Henrique, bold and reckless as he was, remembering that Isaura, despite all her loveliness, was nothing but a slave, understood that he was playing a ridiculous role, letting himself remain there before her in mute and static contemplation, and approaching her with all ease and petulance he seized her hand, and.
"Mulatto girl," he said, "you have no idea how bewitching you are. My sister is right; it is a pity that a girl so beautiful is nothing more than a slave. If you had been born free, you would unquestionably be the queen of the salons."
"Very well, sir, very well!" replied Isaura, freeing herself from Henrique's hand; "if that is all you had to say to me, let me go away."
"Wait a little longer; do not be so cruel; I do not want to do you any harm. Oh! how much I would give to obtain your freedom, if with it I could also obtain your love!... You are too dainty and too beautiful to remain in captivity for very long; someone will inevitably come to snatch you from it, and if you are to fall into the hands of some stranger, who will not know how to give you your due worth, let it be I, my Isaura, let it be the brother of your mistress, who must make of you a princess instead of a slave..."
"Ah! sir Henrique!" retorted the girl with annoyance; "are you not ashamed to direct those gallantries at a slave of your sister? that does not become you; there are so many pretty girls around, to whom you can pay court..."
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