THE MARTYRDOM
Scarcely had the door been shut behind the baron when Amalia had the
child brought into her presence.
"Come here, senorita, come here! We have not seen each other for some
time! How have you spent it? Have you got on well? The baron is very
gallant with ladies, is he not?"
The child uttered a sharp cry.
"Oh! my ear!"
"Go on your knees, you grub! Ah! Then does all I have done for you count
for nothing? Are you going to show your teeth before you have finished
sucking? On your knees, you little rogue! You bad girl!"
Josefina fell in a heap in a corner of the room. Amalia kept her burning
gaze fixed upon her for some time. At last, removing her eyes from her,
she asked Concha and Paula, who had brought the child in, how she came
to escape. The coachman was to blame. Then ensued strong language
against the coachman, who was said to be drunk, and with threats of his
dismissal if such an act of carelessness occurred again. Then followed
many remarks upon the baron's appearance. What was that brute doing at
such an hour in the Sarrio road? Who was the cleric who was with him?
After these came a very sad survey of the ingratitude and naughtiness of
the child who fled from the house which had given her shelter and made
her protectors a laughing-stock. The servants agreed that she deserved a
very sharp punishment. The lady then dismissed them, and stopped them
with an imperious gesture when they were going to take the child. Once
alone, Amalia took a book and began to read quietly by the light of a
lamp, whilst the child, on its knees in the darkest corner, sobbed
bitterly. Three or four times she raised her head and darted an angry
glance at the dark corner, expecting a louder groan from the child so
that she could spring upon her. An hour went by--an hour and a half. At
last she shut the book, went out, and returned in a few minutes. She
began slowly to undress. When half undressed she took the lamp, and
approaching the child, obliged her to get up, when she conducted her to
the bed, and showing her the floor, she said:
"This is your bed. You will sleep here in your clothes."
When she had finished undressing, the child said in a weak voice:
"Forgive me, godmother, I won't do it again."
But these words fell on deaf ears, and she got into bed and put out the
light.
Her eyes remained open in the darkness. The hours chiming their quarters
and their halves in a melancholy tone from the clock of the neighbouring
cathedral did not close them. They were like two mysterious lamps, only
giving light within as they illuminated a thousand sinister and
tormenting ideas. Dark thoughts and fierce desires crowded and pressed
under that low forehead. She considered the marriage of Luis an
abominable treachery. Without recollecting her own want of honour
towards the poor old paralysed man God had given her for a husband, nor
thinking how her sin had spoilt the life of the count, threatened to die
in solitude, without family ties to cheer his latter days, she made him
entirely accountable for the wrong, and for all the bitterness she was
now feeling in losing the only pleasure that had brightened her gloomy,
monotonous existence. The only pleasure. Her love did not deserve any
other name. In that ardent, despotic, restless spirit there had never
been a question of tenderness. She was completely ignorant of the
delicious, poetic thoughts that ennoble a passion and make it
pardonable. Her life had been passed in insane excitement, tormented by
the idea of being happy at all costs. She had lived for the last seven
years under the sway of her licentious, insatiable passion. Never did a
melancholy thought of remorse bear witness in that depravity to a single
moral sentiment. Her thirst for pleasure drove her into a thousand
extravagant and dangerous courses. She was not contented with gathering
under her roof all the youth of Lancia and dancing occasionally as a
condescension, but she required for her enjoyment company every day,
picnics, masquerades, &c., and she liked to dance until she nearly fell
with exhaustion, like a country lass of fifteen summers. She found it
necessary to contrive secret interviews with her lover at most
extraordinary hours, and on most unheard of occasions. Her ungovernable
passion led her to defy public opinion, and delight in making light of
precaution. If the count gave her a word of warning, she flew into a
rage. She lost more than he did. Slander never hurts the man, but only
the woman, who has to bear all the disgrace. But she went into fits of
laughter at the thoughts of slander or disgrace. If she were at all put
out, she was quite capable of proclaiming her sin in Altavilla when
there was a gathering of people. The count got more and more alienated
from this woman, who upset all his moral, theological, and social ideas,
and finally inspired him with dread. This turned to terror and
insufferable foreboding, that made him long for his liberty, especially
after Amalia smilingly made a certain revelation to him.
"Do you know, dear," she said, "I nearly did such a mad thing this
morning. Quinones sent me to pour out his drops of arsenic that he has
taken for some time. I took up the bottle quickly and, as if pushed by
the elbow by an invisible hand, I poured half of the contents into the
glass. Don't tremble, coward, for there was no motive in the matter. I
never felt anything like it. I swear to you that my will was not party
to it. I was controlled by a superior will which strove to overpower
mine. I put the glass upon the table, looked at it for an instant, and
held it up to the light. There was nothing, not the slightest sign to
denote that it was an instrument of death. I put it on the tray and
walked with it towards the library without considering what I was doing.
But suddenly in the passage I came to myself like awakening from a
nightmare. I suddenly saw the blunder I was going to make, and I let the
glass fall on the ground."
"It was not a blunder, it was a horrible crime you were about to
commit," said the count angrily, as a sweat of horror came over him.
"Very well, crime or blunder, or whatever it was, it was stupid in every
way, you know, for one would see by the symptoms that it was a question
of poison."
Those words, uttered in a tone of assumed levity, made more impression
on the count than any former ones, and henceforth he could not go near
her without experiencing a strange feeling of repugnance.
Her youth passed, but she paid no attention to the fact until the
arrival of Fernanda. Having no rivals in Lancia, her carelessness of her
personal appearance daily increased, and she completely lost the subtle
coquetry by which women perpetuate the charm of their person. It was
only the sight of the splendid beauty of the daughter of Estrada-Rosa
that made her give a thought to herself. She then began to think about
the adornment of herself. She procured all kinds of cosmetics, she sent
for dresses to Madrid, and availed herself of all the arts of elegance.
It was late. That miserable, neglected body, worn out by years and
ill-health, could not regain its freshness and grace.
This _idee fixe_ corroded her brain during her long, wretched vigil. No
longer to inspire love! To be old, and an object of repugnance! Her mind
was torn with a thousand fears. Luis was marrying. Why? Had she not
sacrificed to him her youth, honour, and salvation, if there was
anything after this life but the infernal regions?
What was the good of it? At the first sign of decay in her face all his
promises had vanished like a dream; the seven years of love had
disappeared in the abyss of time without leaving the most insignificant
sign. But she had not wrinkles yet; she was not so old--five-and-thirty,
not more. She suddenly put her hand on the table by her side, lighted
the candle, and jumped out of bed. She went to the looking-glass and
looked at herself for some time, passing her fingers over the surface of
her face to ascertain that the much-feared wrinkles were not there.
A groan from behind made her turn her head. She raised the candle and
fixed an angry glance upon the child, stretched upon the ground,
trembling with fear. The child could not sleep. Her feverish eyes looked
at her anxiously, her lips again murmured: "Pardon."
Without paying her any attention, the wife of Don Pedro went back to bed
and put out the light. The rays of the morning sun, as they penetrated
the room, fell upon the two sleepless beings. With God's daylight
commenced the barbarous torture of an innocent creature.
Her fertile, diabolical imagination set to inventing torments with which
to feed the hate which consumed her. The sight of suffering was a
necessity to her. Josefina was sent down barefooted with a pencilled
note to Concha. The missive said: "Concha, I send you this little rogue.
Punish her as you think fit."
Amalia knew what an executioner the maid would be, and, in fact, she
expressed satisfaction at receiving this note, which flattered her
vanity and her instincts.
"Do you know what this paper says?" she asked, in an aggressive tone.
Josefina made a negative sign. She read writing badly, especially when
written as carelessly as that of the senora. The sempstress, however,
made her spell out the words until she quite understood them.
"There, you see, you are sent for me to punish you for what you did
yesterday."
On saying this she smiled sweetly, as if she were saying that she had
something nice to give her.
The child looked at her in surprise.
"Punish me? Godmother has already made me sleep on the floor."
"It does not matter, that is very little for such naughtiness as running
away from home. You will have to have a whipping. I am sorry, my child,
because you have never had this punishment, and it will hurt you very
much. Young ladies have delicate flesh; they are not like us who are
accustomed as babies to intemperance and blows. Come along!"
At the same time she drew from her stays one of the formidable
whalebones then in vogue.
The child drew back in alarm, but the needlewoman caught her by the arm.
"Don't think of escaping, for then you will come in for a double share."
Josefina seized her hand, weeping bitterly.
"Don't beat me, for God's sake, Concha! You know my godmother beat me
yesterday. Look, look at my hands. My head also hurts me. The ground was
so hard. I love you very much. I have never blamed you to godmother."
"Silence! silence!" returned the sempstress, trying to disengage herself
gently from the little hands. "There is nothing to be done but
obedience. The senora gives the order."
"No, por Dios! Concha, no, por Dios!" replied the little creature
between her sobs. "I love you very much, and godmother too. If you don't
beat me I will give you my box of sheep."
"Really?" said Concha, mollified.
"Yes; now, directly, if you like."
"And your housewife?"
"That too."
"And the little cupboard with the mirror?"
"Yes, the little cupboard too."
Concha gave signs of giving in. The child looked at her with anxious
eyes.
"And you promise always to be good?"
"Yes, I promise always to be good."
"Never to run away again."
"Never."
"Very well," she said, in an affectionate, condescending tone; "then if
you promise to be good, and you don't tell the senora, and you give me
all that you say, then--then--go on child!"
And in one instant she pulled her clothes off and began to beat her
unmercifully, laughing like a mad woman with delight.
The screams of the child reached the second floor. The wife of the
Grandee was standing before the glass arranging her hair. She stopped. A
singular shiver ran through her, a certain indefinable, vague emotion
like a tickling sensation that one can't with certainty term pleasant or
unpleasant. Anyhow it was something that modified that insufferable
fever that the frenzy of rage had raised in her heart. She stood
motionless until the cries had ceased. Her eyes shone, her pulse beat
higher.
It is thus they say that the heart of a wild beast beats at the sight of
its victim. It was the commencement of the child's martyrdom. Under the
weakest pretexts she inflicted the cruellest punishments, giving
evidence of an imagination so fertile that it would have delighted the
executioners of the Holy office. Not only did she strike her for the
most innocent offences and pinch her and bite her, but she delighted in
keeping her in continual dread of dreadful punishments, and so making
her suffer day and night. She made her go barefooted into the garden on
the coldest mornings to fetch her a flower, or she kept her whole hours
with her head in the sun to keep the birds from picking at a currant
bush. She made her sleep on the ground by the side of her bed, when she
sent her several times down into the kitchen for water. She reduced her
to eating food she knew she did not like, and deprived her of what she
knew she liked.
As the days went by her madness and cruelty increased. At first she made
a pretext of some act of carelessness on the part of the child to
torment her. Afterwards she did not stop there, but she did it when it
came into her mind, or when her physical state impelled her to do so.
One torture of her own invention was that of pricking her hands with a
needle, and she delighted in seeing them covered with indentures in a
few days, when there was scarcely room to put another stab. She deputed
this task to Concha, the executioner of her orders, who fulfilled it
most conscientiously. She made her learn by heart long pieces of
catechism much beyond her power. And if she stumbled three times, she
said: "Go and ask Concha for a kiss."
This was the phase she had invented in derision for the little creature
to get a stab with the needle. She was never allowed to change her
underclothing, so the delicate skin of the child soon became chafed, and
she could not help scratching herself. Whereupon Concha flew into a
rage, accused her of having the itch, and pushed her from the room. It
got worse and worse. The microscopic maid, at the instigation of her
mistress, insisted on her wearing boots too small for her which made bad
places on her feet and caused her dreadful pain.
One of the most terrible tortures the child suffered was when Amalia
took it into her head she was not to cry. Sometimes she let her sob and
moan under the blows, and she seemed to revel in the tears of the little
creature, and in hearing her piteous entreaties between the sobs; but
occasionally she insisted on her suffering in silence. As this was
impossible she became like a ravenous wild beast.
"Be silent!"
The child could not, and a groan escaped.
"Silence!" she repeated, accompanying the command with several blows.
So Josefina tried to be silent, and made desperate efforts in the
attempt, but in spite of herself the difficult respiration took the form
of a groan. More blows.
"Silence, or I will kill you."
The little creature shut her mouth with all her might; she turned livid,
and sometimes she fell down senseless. That tender heart was breaking
from distress of mind.
At such moments Amalia experienced a diabolical sensation of mingled
pleasure and pain similar to that which is felt in scratching a boil.
Her boil was that violent passion--a mixture of love, licentiousness and
arrogance. Not being able to vent upon her former lover the
mortification which tore her heart, she wreaked her vengeance on the
fruit of their love. When the child was bleeding and trembling at her
feet, her looks of anguish, her gestures, and the tone of her voice
seemed to her those of her lover, humiliated and supplicating, and then
she experienced an awful pleasure which made her eyes shine and her
nostrils dilate.
Josefina was a miniature likeness of Luis. When she had been happy, her
face mobile and smiling, and her eyes shining with cheerfulness, it had
not been so apparent; but now misery and pain had given to her look a
profound melancholy, and to the lines of her face a certain expression
of fatigue that were the two things which characterised her likeness to
the Conde de Onis. When those beautiful blue eyes turned towards her in
sweet resignation, when those red lips trembled in asking pardon, the
Valencian felt a voluptuous feeling pervade her worn-out body, so that
she was reminded of the pleasures she had experienced in the indulgence
of her unlawful passion.
After all, she thought, she had not aged at all, in nothing but the
fading of that face of hers and her head producing white hairs with such
horrible rapidity. Her body, her breast, her arms, her neck retained the
same alabaster hue, the same adorable brilliancy, the mark of a fine and
beautiful race. She touched herself in search of consolation with
feverish hands, and encountered the same softness and freshness. That
body had not worn out. She still felt her own youth, the ardent
circulation of her blood, the thirst for enjoyment, and the yearning for
the rapture of love.
And yet all those delights were gone for ever; the novel of her life
that had embellished her dark existence of latter years had come to the
last chapter. She was an old woman! It was a settled fact. At this
thought that branded itself on her brain as with a hot iron she felt
overwhelmed by an animal necessity to cry, roar, or tear. It was at such
times that the child underwent the cruellest punishments, and her
fragile existence incurred real danger. Terror was another of the
sufferings she frequently inflicted on her. In the late hours of the
night she made her get up, and sent her to the most remote rooms of the
house in search of something. The child returned pale, trembling, and
overwhelmed with fear. Sometimes her terror was so great that she let
the candlestick fall, and returned running and screaming with fright.
Then Amalia, enraged, pinched her and struck her, and pretended she must
go again to the place named. Then the little creature let herself be
tortured rather than expose herself afresh to the same fright. On one of
these occasions Amalia smiling fiercely, said:
"Ah! So the senorita is so cowardly? Very well, I must undertake to cure
you of this weakness."
She recollected the extraordinary impressionability to nocturnal terrors
that Luis had confessed with shame in moments of expansion. So she
prepared dreadful alarms for her. Sometimes she hid behind a door, and
when she was passing gave a loud cry as she seized her by the neck. At
other times she took a knife and said her death had come, and told her
to turn down her nightgown so that she could cut her throat easier. But
this last did not produce as much effect as she expected. Josefina
unconsciously longed for death which would release her from such a
martyrdom. For a more efficacious cure of fear, Concha and she invented
a fearful practical joke which would have been enough to terrify a brave
man, much less a child six years old. They both dressed themselves up in
sheets, left the room partially lighted whilst the child slept, put on
masks like skulls, and at midnight they came in uttering fearful cries
like souls from another world. When the little creature awoke and saw
those apparitions, she was paralysed with terror, then she clapped her
hands to her eyes and her whole body was bathed in a cold perspiration.
Her heart beat so violently that it could be heard at a distance, she
gave vent to a few hoarse, terrified cries, and finally, putting her
hands to her breast, she fell senseless to the ground, a prey to fearful
convulsions.
Her timidity was incurable; and, moreover, she was henceforth subject to
faintings and to nocturnal frights. She would wake up with signs of
great fear, look fixedly at one point in the room as if some apparition
were there, her heart beat violently, and her brow was bathed in sweat.
In such moments she completely lost consciousness. Amalia called her in
vain. It was only when she put her hands upon her that she uttered a cry
of fear and sunk her head in terror.
Serious disputes arose between Concha and Maria the ironer on account
of these tortures. Maria was naturally compassionate, and she was sorry
to see the martyrdom of the child, although she did not know all, for
Amalia took care to keep it from the servants with the exception of
Concha. Although Maria was not ill-tongued she could not abstain from
blaming her mistress's conduct in the kitchen.
"My dear, it is worse than the Inquisition. It does not seem that we are
Christians, but Jewish dogs. At one time so indulged that she was
spoiled, and now suddenly the little angel is treated worse than an
animal. I say the matter has gone beyond bounds! I cannot see such
wickedness."
"Silence, little fool and meddler," interposed Concha, "who made you
boss of the show? If the senora wishes to teach the child what is right,
is she to consult you how to do it? Do you know what it is to bring up
children? If she has to be punished it is right it should be done by a
hardworking, honourable woman. Some day she will give her thanks for
it."
"Yes, thanks, indeed! She will give them from the cemetery. A month
hence she will be gone."
"Very well, and what is that to do with you? Are you her mother?"
They quarrelled three or four times like this, and the dwarfish
sempstress's shamelessness and evil-mindedness always showed themselves.
At last being unable to endure such a spectacle with patience, Maria
determined to go away. One day she went to the senora, and with the
excuse that ironing was bad for her, she asked for her wages. Amalia was
quite aware of the real reason, as she knew of her having complained of
her cruelty, but she dissimulated as usual:
"Yes, girl, I understand that ironing is tiring for you. You don't enjoy
much health. I also have not been well for some days. To contend all
one's life with sickness, and now at the end to have this child, on
whom all my hopes were founded, turn out so ungrateful and perverse! I
don't know how I have patience."
Maria hesitated for an instant.
"Well, you see, senora--children will be children."
The wife of the Grandee saw that if she pursued the subject the ironer
would say something disagreeable, so she cut short the remark, paid her
her wages, and dismissed her affably.
This did not prevent the servant telling in confidence at a certain
house where she went in service what was going on at the Quinones. The
news spread in the same confidence from one to another, and in a short
time there was a considerable number of persons acquainted with the
cruelties perpetrated on the child.
The Conde de Onis, to avoid the curiosity of the public, which worried
him above all things, and also to be free of Amalia, to whom he had told
nothing, had removed about a month ago to the Grange. He had not written
to his old love, although he thought of doing so every day to tell her
of his determination to marry. But so great was the terror with which
the Valencian inspired him, that the pen fell from his hands every time
he took it up to acquaint her with the fact. He thus let the days go by
in this continual state of indecision, thinking with anxiety how enraged
she would be, and like all weak natures, hoping that some unforeseen
event would arrange a compromise. That way of breaking the connection
without any quarrel or explanation whatsoever was quite in accordance
with his character. He knew nothing of his child's tortures,
nevertheless he felt such sudden anxiety when he thought of her that his
nerves were quite shaken, and he walked up and down the room in visible
agitation. The passionate love with which Fernanda had inspired him had
made him forget Josefina a little. He occasionally thought of her with
bitterness; he thought that even if he married Fernanda, he would not
attain happiness if he could not see his child every day; although he
quite understood that that would be impossible whilst she remained in
Amalia's power. Then he thought of taking her away with him, and it gave
him pleasure to imagine wild projects of getting hold of her, and flying
with her and Fernanda to some remote and tranquil spot in the world.
The count was going through one of these days of vacillation when
Micaela, the most excitable and violent of the Pensioner's four undines,
appeared at the Quinones' house. She came for the purpose of asking
Amalia's advice about a dress that she was planning for the next ball at
the Casino. In spite of her thirty years and more, she still laid siege
to the masculine sex. Visitors at this hour were rare, but as the noble
family of the Pensioner was so intimate with the senora, the servant did
not hesitate to show her up to the boudoir where she was.
"How tiresome of me, is it not? But, dear, it is the only time that I
thought I should find you alone," she said, with the gracious volubility
that characterised the Mateo's daughters.
Amalia received her cordially, albeit with a certain surprise and
uneasiness that escaped Micaela. They entered on the matter in hand, and
the question of dress soon completely absorbed them. Amalia took her
friend towards the window. But they had not said many words, when
Micaela thought she heard a feeble groan in the room. Turning her head,
she saw in a corner Josefina on her knees, tied by the elbows to the
dressing-table so that she could not get up without raising the heavy
piece of furniture, which was far beyond her strength. Amalia hastened
to give an explanation:
"This child is getting so naughty that I am obliged to tie her to keep
her quiet. Yesterday she bit the sewing-maid's finger, now she has just
broken a looking glass. One has not patience to bear it!"
Micaela, who was shocked at the punishment, was silent. The wife of
Quinones went on talking with assumed indifference about the dress; but
in spite of its being a theme that ought to have interested her, the
girl was absent-minded, and cast frequent glances at the child. Josefina
let another groan escape, whereupon her godmother turned round with
ill-repressed anger.
"Will you be quiet? will you be quiet?" And she looked at her for some
time with extraordinary severity.
She returned to the conversation, but a slight change was noticeable in
her voice. Micaela paid less and less attention. Indignation had risen
to her throat, and she would have ended by making some unpleasant remark
to her friend, if the child had not moaned again.
"Come, I see she is not going to leave us in peace," said the lady,
making an effort to smile, "I shall have to set her free."
Then she went and untied her, taking some time to do it, for the cord
was tied as many times round her little body as if she were a heavy box.
But when the time came for the child to get up she could not. No doubt
the muscles had become strained during the hours she had been in that
painful position.
"Up, longshanks!" she said jokingly, as she helped her to rise.
Micaela watched the scene in stupefaction, whilst her eyes blazed with
fury.
"You did not like the position, eh? Then, my child, if you don't want to
return to it, you must be good and obedient. Is it not so, Micaela?"
But Micaela did not open her lips, feeling each moment more brow-beaten
in spite of the honeyed smile on the Valencian's face.
"Very well," she continued, caressing the red face of the child, "you
are forgiven now, but take care about being naughty. Go down and ask
Concha for a kiss."
On hearing these words, the child grew deadly pale, remained motionless
for some moments, and finally went to the door with an uncertain step.
Before arriving there, Micaela, who observed her attentively, noticed
that she raised her eyes full of tears, but Amalia merely pursued the
conversation on toilettes. Before three minutes had elapsed low, distant
cries of the child reached the boudoir. Micaela was thunderstruck, and
she bent her head towards the door so as to hear better. But Amalia
quickly rose from her seat and went to shut it. The cries were still
audible, but the nervous girl had meanwhile to listen to Amalia's
remarks. She was seized with great uneasiness, her face became flushed,
and she was a prey to the burning desire of shaming the wicked woman,
and overwhelming her with such opprobriums as Jew, scoundrel, infamous
one. She suddenly became aware of all that went on in that house. First
the jealousy, then the news of the marriage of Luis falling like a
bombshell, then the miserable revenge wreaked on the child for the
forsaking of the father. She well knew the spiteful nature of the
Valencian. But what good would it do to insult her at that moment? It
would only make a great scene, and she would be sent from the house. In
spite of her violent temper, Micaela had a kind heart. What she was most
intent upon, was doing something to help the unhappy little creature.
And she had sufficient self-control to dissimulate a little, and to
consider that the best course was to tell everything immediately to the
count, who must be ignorant of such cruel revenge. She finished the
interview as soon as possible, and took her leave without being able
entirely to hide her distress. Once in the street, she felt the
necessity of unburdening her heart. She thought of Maria Josefa who
lived in the neighbourhood, and who professed such tender affection for
the foundling.
She entered her house agitated and trembling, and before uttering a
single word, she fell on the sofa and fanned herself with the end of her
mantilla.
"Uf! I am suffocated. I don't know what has come to me. She is an
infamous creature--a wicked woman who ought to burn in hell! I have
always said so, only my fools of sisters would not believe me. This
choking is very tiresome.... She has a heart of stone!"
"But what is it?" asked the wise old maid with terror, and dying of
curiosity.
Then the nervous daughter of the Pensioner, stuttering with rage, told
her how she had found Josefina, the pallor of the child at the curious
suggestion of the godmother, and then the cries she had heard as if she
were being tormented. Maria Josefa immediately united her imprecations
with those of the girl. Then they went over all the instances of cruelty
that they knew of the wife of the Grandee, and they made up their minds
to acquaint the count with what had happened after ascertaining a few
more details. For this purpose they had that same afternoon a talk with
Maria, the laundry-maid, who had left the Quinones house some days ago.
At first she was cautious for fear of the consequences, but she
concluded by letting her tongue loose and recounting the thousand
iniquities perpetrated on the foundling by the Senora de Quinones. They
were horrorstruck. They thought of telling the judge; but besides making
an enemy of the fiery Valencian (which be it said to their credit they
did not much mind for such a cause) they knew that it would be a
fruitless effort. The Quinones were the most important people of the
place. Don Pedro being the head of the Government Party in the province,
all the authorities were quite under his influence. Everything would be
covered up and remain as it was before. The best thing was to appeal to
the count; but he was at the Grange just then. Besides, although
everybody, or nearly everybody, knew the secret of the child's birth,
it was impossible to take it as a matter of course. After some debates
they decided to write him the following letter, signed by Maria Josefa:
"Senor Conde de Onis,--My esteemed friend, I beg, with due reserve,
to tell you that the child that was adopted by our friends the
Quinones, in whom we are all so much interested, is an object of
cruel tortures in that house; and I believe that it is our duty to
intervene to stop it. You will tell me what ought to be done, which
I as a woman would not think of. If you would like to hear
particulars of the martyrdom of the little creature you can refer
to Maria, who left service in Don Pedro's house some days ago.
Your affectionate friend,
MARIA JOSEFA HEVIA."
Luis crumpled up the letter in his clenched hands, and all the blood
rushed to his face. Without thinking of what he was doing he left the
house, and almost unwittingly took the road to Lancia, where he arrived
in a few minutes. The vague and terrible presentiment that had oppressed
him was finally realised--Amalia was revenging herself cruelly. The
underlying drift of the letter was evidently an appeal to him, as the
father of Josefina, and the cause of her misery. Not knowing what course
to take, he went to think it over at his house, where he only had an old
woman in charge. From her he ascertained the whereabouts of Maria, and
finally sent her a message to come and see him. The laundry-maid was
quite aware of the object of the summons. She went to the town as
quickly as possible, and after making him promise not to make use of her
name, she gave him a circumstantial account of what the innocent child
was exposed to. He listened, pale and horrorstruck, unable to repress
the violent, quick beating of his heart. When she came to certain
hateful and terrible details, the count began to pace up and down the
room like a caged wild beast, as he tore his hair, struck his brow, and
uttered cries of rage. Once more alone, a thousand wild ideas passed
through his mind. He thought of going to the Quinones' house and taking
away the child by force; he wanted to wring the neck of the vile woman;
he wanted to tell Don Pedro the whole story; he wanted to inform the
judge, and have the infamous creature imprisoned.
Fortunately, these fits of rage were as short as they were violent, and
then ensued prostration and tears. He went to the house of his _fiancee_
and told her with sobs what had happened, thus making his confession for
the first time. The good Fernanda mingled her tears with his, distressed
at the fate of the unhappy little creature, and at the misery of her
lover. They spent some time talking over the terrible events, and
seeking means of thwarting that direful revenge. Fernanda at last
persuaded him to try gentle means. To think of compassing anything by
force was absurd, for the count, not having yet acknowledged his sin, he
had no legal right over the child. To provoke a scandal was useless. No
servant would dare witness against his mistress, and things would be
worse than they were before. Finally, the count decided to write a
letter to his old love.
"I have just heard that our Josefina, our adored Josefina, is undergoing
incredible tortures at your hands. I believe it is a vile calumny. I
know your character is quick and fiery, but it is noble, and I cannot
attribute such cowardice to you. I only write to you to ascertain that
the angelic little creature continues to be the delight of your life. If
it should not be so, tell me, and we will find some means of
transferring her to my care. I suppose you are aware of the step I am
about to take. I have nothing to say to you on the subject. The step was
inevitable, sooner or later. At all events, you can be sure that my
remorse is softened by the sweet recollection of the years that I have
loved you. Farewell! Write me some kind word."